Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

How did he get here? 

Standing in the bathroom of a new Freddy’s location, prepping himself for a job interview? Looking at the mirror, into a face both so like his own and unlike his own? It didn't feel real. He must've been dreaming.

As he gripped the edges of the sink, he knew it was very much real though. Was this how Jack felt? Stumbling around in an only somewhat familiar body, kept moving only by a sense of purpose? He wasn't sure he wanted to know anymore. He wasn't in the mood for talking to Jack and he didn't think he would be ever again. 'Wait, no '. A voice inside his head reminded him. 'You have to talk to him, remember? The job interview.' 

Oh God. Yeah. That. 

Once again, he had to ask...

How did he get here?

Chapter Text

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

HOLY SH-

Dave sat, violently shaking, completely alone and isolated in the quiet depths of the Flipside. The adrenaline and anger from when he and Dee had fought Sportsy moments ago had dissipated, leaving him in a broken state. He couldn’t think right. The only thing inside his brain at that moment in time were a multitude of shocked phrases, all including swear words, spinning around in his head. He couldn’t believe it! Sportsy wouldn’t do such a thing, right? Not his Sportsy. But that...that thing hadn’t been Sportsy, had it? Sportsy was a killer, but he wouldn’t have killed his own sister, surely. Dave risked a small, pained glance to where her lifeless form lay and then had to turn away again. It hurt to see her like that, drained of both colour and spirit. He'd been vaguely aware that a soul could be destroyed in the Flipside, but he'd never actually seen it happen. But it sure as hell had. The moment replayed over and over in his head. Jack returning to the Flipside after killing an innocent kid. His talk to Dee and Dave, having the audacity to act like they didn't know what he was doing. And of course, the fight. He'd destroyed Dee's soul completely. There was no coming back from that. Dave was lucky he hadn't gone down with her.

He looked at her still slowly fading form. That poor, poor kid. And she was just a kid, really. She'd never actually gotten to grow up. Because of him. God, did everything hurt to think about in that moment in time. ...What was he gonna do? He lay down on his back then looked up at the dimly lit ceiling. He’d threatened to haunt the fuck out of Sportsy in his dreams after he’d killed Dee but that wasn’t exactly a full time gig, was it? Come on Dave, think harder. Think further back, there's gotta be something- 

"Oh!" Dave exclaimed out loud. His body bolted right back up into a sitting position and for good reason - He'd just had an idea. Whilst Jack had been gone killing kids with Dave’s rotting remains back in reality, Dave and Dee had worked to figure out what other souls were still here in the Flipside with them. And they’d found one. One layer below them. Or...well, it was just him now, wasn’t it? Dave tried not to think about that. Returning to his initial line of thought, he recalled who that soul was. A Phone Guy, one of Dave’s old bosses. He remembered this one well. He'd been uptight and easily ticked off. A real bastard of a boss. Dave wondered who the guy used to be, before he'd been sent to the Factory. Most of his old Boss' personality had been the standard for Phoneys, especially the early ones. He tried to think of any traits about this guy that might make him stick out against the others. 'He didn't give two shits a lot of the time…' Dave recalled. Especially about having literal cryptids like me n' Sportsy. Never complained about us lookin' weird as hell 'cause it's 'scaring the customers' like a lotta other Phoneys.' That still wasn't a lot to work with, was it? 

Was this even worth it? Dave had to wonder. He was tired. Burned out from his fight. He lay back down again, weary and too tired to think of much. Maybe he'd just go to sleep...His eyelids were growing heavy. Yeah, sleep. Sleep sounded nice. Two dark purple eyelids closed as Dave drifted off into a fleeting, uneasy sleep. 

He didn't dream at all and he was thankful for that. Nightmares were the last thing Dave needed right now. After what might've been a few hours of rough sleep, the aubergine man woke once more, standing up this time.  Fuck, was he really gonna risk getting stuck on a deeper layer of purgatory just to save some stiff asshole that willing framed a guy for murder to save his own skin? His newly awoken brain was valiantly insisting that this was a bad idea. He considered backing down from this stupid fucking mission, he really did, but then he caught sigh of something on the ground. It was Dee's red scarf; Unlike the rest of her body, it hadn't faded away. Even if Jack was manipulating them, she'd truly believed in saving every soul. 

Spurred on by a burst of anger and motivation, Dave picked up the red scarf, wrapped it around his neck, created a Flipside portal and dropped down into the next layer of the Flipside. After the blinding light from the portal had dissipated, Dave took a look at his surroundings. It looked like a Freddy’s location, just like the layer he'd just been on, only older this time. More late 70's than 80's, Dave decided. 

"Phone-face?" Dave called. He didn't know what to call the guy. "...Scott?" He knew that wouldn't have been the guy's actual name, but last time he'd seen his old boss he'd still been convinced that was his name, so maybe it'd still work. It would have to, for now. Calling him ‘Phoney’ or ‘Phone-face’ probably wasn’t the most helpful thing to be doing at this point in time. It probably wouldn’t have mattered what Dave called him anyway, because currently the guy was nowhere to be found.

A little ominous, but not too surprising. Dave hadn’t exactly been aiming to teleport in right next to the guy. He cautiously edged through the Flipside’s third layer, feeling lost. Why’d this place have to be structurally unstable? All these winding corridors that led to nonsensical places were the bane of his existence. It was no wonder the guy who’d been stuck down here was lost too, anyone would be. After a while of blindly stumbling around, Dave did find him. The man was crouched in what appeared to be a dining room area, kneeling over a very broken looking Foxy. The animatronic was barely recognisable, missing an arm, only bearing half a leg on its left side and covered in scrappy, ragged fur. The guy must’ve just finished fending it off, Dave decided. Hostile animatronics were everywhere down here so it made sense that his old boss would’ve had to have learnt how to give the robots a good beating. He didn’t notice Dave at first, so the cryptid decided to speak up. “Hey, Scott?” 

It took him a second or two to react, as if he’d forgotten that that was indeed his name and he was being called, as was the case with most Phone Guys. Having adopted numerous fake identities before finally landing comfortably on Dave Miller, Dave knew the feeling well. More evidence that this guy’s name was definitely someone else. Dave stopped to wonder for a moment if there had ever been any Phone Guy who’s name was actually Scott, before mentally facepalming. Of course there had been, that was why they were all given that name when they got sent to the Factory in the first pla-

“Da-Dave?” a staticy voice interrupted Dave’s off topic thoughts. “Oh, Oh, Oh dear…” He seemed panicked, hands shaking uneasily as he turned to face the aubergine man. “You’ve come to...Oh fu-u-u-...” He paused as his censors kicked in. “Frick...Oh-Oh…”

“Scott, I’ve come to-”

“You’ve come to get revenge, haven’t you?” 

“Revenge?” Dave asked. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting but...well, it certainly wasn’t that. "Revenge for-"

"-For getting the police involved, right? Nearly getting you caught and framing your partner in crime…. And for being a ho-horrible boss." The Phone Guys stuttered. "Oh...Oh, I won't let you...I'll…" He glanced down at the robot below him. "...This'll have to do…" 

“What’re you talkin’ abou- WOAH!” Dave had no idea what the Phone Guy was going on about, but he didn’t have any time to think it through because the broken robot under the guy's feet had sprung to life. The phone-headed man dashed off into another room further back into the pizzeria, leaving Dave alone with the manic machine. The broken Foxy swung a rusted hook at Dave, snarling mechanically. Dave managed to jump back in time to avoid any damage to his body, but the hook snagged in Dee’s scarf, catching Dave and stopping him from fully escaping to run after the Phone Guy. The more rational side of him simply told him to remove the scarf and be on his way but he didn’t want that. He yanked the scarf away from the fox’s hook, tearing it a little but freeing himself. 

“Stupid robot…” Dave muttered through gritted teeth. So that phone-face knew how to reprogram animatronics, huh? Guess he wasn’t as dumb as he looked. Maybe he’d been a technician before he’d died....Think Dave, that must’ve narrowed down the options of who he could’ve been before the Factory, surely. It probably would’ve done, if his thinking hadn’t been rudely interrupted by the deranged animatronic taking another run at him. Fuck, fuck, fuck. ‘ Take this one thing at a time, Dave! Focus on the robot first, then phoney!’ Dave’s brain snapped at him. Right. It was just a dumbass robot, afterall. He knew how to deal with these fuckers, there’d been plenty of them lurking around on the two layers of the Flipside he’d already been on and he’d dealt with them fine. He just needed to do what aubergine coloured cryptids do best - Tamper with shit. 

Now it was Dave’s turn to leap at the robot, brandishing a screwdriver from his back pocket as he did so. He tackled the animatronic to the ground, holding it there in spite of how much the damn thing was struggling to free itself. ‘First, you remove the shoulder pad.’ The same instructions Dave had had drilled into his mind ever since he’d started working on the newer robots started to play in his head. He ripped the covering of the fox’s shoulder off, revealing a naked endo-skeleton. ‘Then, you disconnect the arm. There are screws located at the base of the shoulder piece that connect the arm to the body.’ Dave pushed the bare shoulder-joint to the ground with one hand and undid the screws with the other. The fox’s arm fell to the floor with a loud clatter and stiffened up. “-’And that’s how you stop a Foxy from accidentally killing a customer with its totally safe and practical metal hook!’” Dave quoted. “Fuck, if only Phoney hadn’t run off. He’d be so proud that I remember the training tapes!” 

The robot seemed to disagree with Dave. Whilst Dave stood up triumphantly, picking up the disconnected limb and waving it around smugly, the now even more broken robot sprung to its feet and charged wildly at the purple man. 

“What’re you gonna do now, you damn fax?” Dave taunted. “In case you haven't noticed you’re arm-less now.”

Whilst Dave chuckled at his awful pun, the fox shaped robot answered his question by biting down on his arm, hard. “Ah, FUCK!” Dave cried out. “You sure don’t give up easy, do ya?” The Foxy only snarled and bit down harder in response. Dave winced in pain. Who the hell thought giving this thing actual fangs was a good idea? He kicked the animatronic backwards with enough force to make it dislodge itself from his arm. “You wanna get fuckin’ dismantled? Fine! I’ll take you to pieces!” He pushed the irritating thing to the ground once again. ‘In the rare event that an animatronic character should need shutting down entirely it is important to know that there is a mechanism stored inside its chest that will allow you to do so…’ Dave recalled. ‘ There are two small buttons located on either side of the characters’ necks. By pressing these in sync you will gain access to the inside of the animatronic.’ Dave followed his perfectly remembered instructions with a practiced precision. The fox’s torso sprang open, revealing a complicated mess of mechanical insides. ‘Because the insides of these robots make no damn sense, they have been designed with a convenient big red button for you to press. Once you have pressed it, all movement should cease. If not? Well...Good luck with that one, employee.’ That big red button had seemed like a stupid detail at the time but Dave was thankful for it now. It sure made his life a lot easier. He slammed down hard on the thing with both hands. The fox stopped struggling and went stiff. 

“Alright, Phoney! I got rid of your robot! Can we talk now?” Dave called through cupped hands. No response. It was silent once more. Dave sighed and begrudgingly began to walk off in the direction he’d seen the phone man make his getaway. He was in far too deep to back out of this now. Thankfully the Phone Guy hadn’t gone too far. Dave found him within the next room or two. “Come on, Scott, I’m trying to do something for your own good here!” 

“N-No! He-Heck off!” The Phone Guy shouted, before running deeper into the Flipside. Dave groaned and ran after him. Shit, this guy was fast. Anyone would think he was running for his life. He sprinted ahead of Dave, pulling ahead due to his advantage of knowing his way around this layer of the Flipside. “You can’t run forever, phone-face!” Dave cried after him. “I’ll catch up with you eventually!” 

“No!” The guy shouted back. “I do-don’t care if I deserve it, I’m not ready yet!”

‘He thinks I wanna kill him…’ Dave realised. Knowing that hurt him a little, but he guessed he couldn’t exactly blame the guy. He had murdered before, after all. The pair kept up the chase until Dave got too close for the guy’s liking. He took a sharp turn off into a random direction without looking where he was going. It was only when he nearly ran head-first into a wall that he realised he’d just pushed himself into a dead-end. 

“How...H-How did you even get past my Foxy, anyway!?” He stammered, apparently trying to stall for time. “He was made of pure metal, there was nothing for you to ac-actually kill!”

“You’re forgettin’ that you left specific tapes on how to dismantle those bloody things, Phoney.” Dave replied. 

“Wa-Wait...You actually listened to those?”

“Of course I did! I was a murderer, not an idiot!”

“Ri-Right, yeah…” The guy pressed himself further against the wall behind him until he was physically unable to move any further back. Running away from your problems only worked if you had somewhere to run to, Dave realised. Phone-face had nowhere else to go. He had to listen to Dave now, whether he liked it or not. 

“Listen, Scott-” 

“No!” The guy refused to let Dave get a single word in. “You can’t- I- I’m not going to go down easily! I-I-I’ve got nowhere to run, so I’m...I-I’ll…”

In an unexpected move, the guy kicked Dave, hard. Dave gasped in a mixture of pain and fury and recoiled away from the guy. “Ye-Yeah! Stay back! I won’t let you take me, like whatever poor soul you took that scarf from!” 

“I didn’t kill her!” Dave shouted on impulse, before hesitating. He had killed her, really. Sure, it was Jack who’d destroyed her soul on the Flipside but if it hadn’t been for him Dee’s soul wouldn’t have been on the- “Argh, stop it, asshole!” Dave was snapped out of his thoughts by a punch to the face that he recived whilst he was distracted. “If you really wanna fight, I’ll give you one!” Dave warned, finding his screwdriver again. A knife would’ve been preferable, but he had yet to find one down here. “Don’t make me do it, phone-head! I’ve dismantled phoneys before and I’m not afraid to do it again!” 

It was a lie, but an effective one. The guy stopped for a second, looking fearful. Dave couldn’t exactly blame him. ‘Dismantling’ referred to a process used at the Factory where a Phone Guy’s head would be forcibly taken apart, piece by piece until said Guy either died or submitted to the Factory and allowed them to completely rewrite their entire being. Well, if they were still in any fit state to be put back together by the time they caved in. So, in other words, it was torture. Dave had been lucky enough to have never been at the Factory when it was going on but he’d overheard some rather nasty horror stories from his co-workers about the process. 

“Now!” Dave pointed the tip of the screwdriver at the Phone Guy, wielding it like a knife. “Please, can ya stop tryna fight me and just listen!?” 

“Listen to what!? Wh-What could you possibly want m-me to listen to? If i-it’s a bad joke about my head, I’d rather you just got on with the dismantling!” the guy shouted, clearly trying to want to retain some kind of power in this fight. 

“I’m not gonna dismantle you, ok!?” Dave snapped. He sighed, then spoke more calmly. “I just wanted you to stop fightin’ me, so you’d hear me out.”

“He-Hear you out on what, Dave?”

“I want to save your soul, Scott.” 

“Y-You what…” The guy stuttered uncertainly. 

“Ya heard me, phoney. Dave reiterated. “I wanna save your soul.” 

“Why…?” the phone-headed man stared at Dave with his perpetually blank face. “All I’ve ever done is screw you over.”

“I’m on a mission, see.” Dave explained. How had Dee always put it? “A mission to save every soul.”

The guy let out an almost exasperated laughing sound. “Ok, let’s say that that’s true, just for the sake of an argument.” He stopped looking at Dave and instead looked down, defeated. “N-Not me. I’m de-defective...broken....irrede-deemable…I failed the company and I failed everyone who worked for me.” 

“You’re more than just a boss though, aren’t ya?” Dave asked. “I’m not stupid. I know your name isn’t really Scott and I know you must’ve been someone else before you died.” 

“...I don’t know, Dave. I know some of the others remember weird stuff that doesn’t line up with what they already know, but not me. I’ve never had that.”

“I’ve been to the Factory, phoney. I know where you Phone Guys come from. All of you.” 

The Phone Guy shook his head in meek denial. Dave snorted stubbornly. Why was this man so determined to live in ignorance?

“Fuck, man, come on!” Dave urged. “I know ya can remember if you just try a little!” 

No response.

Dave folded his arms and glared at the man before him. Maybe a change of pace was in order to get him thinking. “What’s yer number?”

“Uhhhh...Zero, four, thre-”

“Your Phone Guy number! Location, underscore, number of phoneys from that place!” Dave corrected. 

“Oh, that. Fo-Fourteen zero two.” 

14_02. Location 14, second person to die there. Dave wracked his brain. Come on, he should know this, both him and Henry worked at that location for quite some time. No, it wasn’t that Harry guy, he’d been the first to die in location 14. Who came after Harry...?

“Steven?” Dave asked. “Steven, that tech guy who liked Foxy a lot?” Well, that would certainly explain the reprogrammed Foxy, wouldn’t it? And the guy looked like an old enough model to fit with when Steven died. 

“I-I-I-...” Once again, all the guy could do was stutter. 

“Your name was Steven, right?” 

Two nervous hands clenched together tightly. Dave took the Phone Guy’s discomfort as a sign that what he was doing was working. He kept pressing. 

“Ya went to the saferoom after work, one evening, yeah? It was your turn to close everything up for the night, right?” Dave kept asking Steven questions. “Ya heard a noise, I guess. A kid or somethin’. Now, that’s a cause for concern, eh? There shouldn’t have been anyone else in the building aside from you. Ya went to investigate, see what the hell it was. And who was there?”

“He-Henry…..” The poor man could barely stop himself from shaking. “How di-did I-”

“Henry, right. That pink bastard.” Bitterness seeped into Dave’s voice. ‘Don’t think about Henry.’ He thought sternly. ‘Don’t think about Henry, don’t think about Sportsy. Just focus on Steven.’ “And he’s killin’ kids, of course. And yer brave. A brave guy, though some would say you were more stupid than anything else. So whaddya do? Try and stop him, ‘course! But oh no! You’re too late, aren’t you?” 

“Stop it…” The Phone Guy begged. “Please, this isn’t right, this can’t be righ-” 

Dave did pause for a tiny moment, hearing how scared the guy was. ‘He can’t be saved if he’s in denial over the fact that he was even alive to begin with.’ Dave didn’t let up with his story. “You couldn’t win against Henry. He’s got you good, and now you're trapped inside a springlock suit on stage. You’d never been inside one before, you’d only been trained on what to do in case the company needed ya to cover for someone else. Henry-”

“Stop!” Steven cried out, unable to listen to Dave any longer. “I-I...I was in that suit a-all night...Th-The insides of those models of suits...They were so blunt. Pe-People thought it’d stop deaths, b-but it didn’t. I bled out slowly, all night long, trapped on stage...Th-They found me the next morning. They thought I was dead b-but...but I wasn’t. I was ge-getting there, I was go-going to die, I couldn’t move or sp-speak at all, but I wasn’t quite dead. I remember my old boss...He said they were going to make me useful again...They were going to make me like him…” 

Steven was now no longer even attempting to restrain himself from shaking. He shook violently with his head in his hands, clutching it tightly as though it might offer him some stability. “I was h-happy about it Dave! I was s-so glad that they’d shared ‘the joy of creation’ with me...So happy that I spread it onto o-other people...Oh..Oh...Peter...Oh no…Th-That poor man...Oh d-d-darn...”

“Oh jeeze, Steven…” Dave hated to admit it, but he wasn’t entirely sure what to do to console the distraught man. “I’m...Sorry. Was that err...Was that a bit harsh? Should I have been gentler?” 

Steven didn’t give a reply. He stayed exactly where he was, still shaking. He probably would’ve been crying, if he’d been able to. Dave could hardly believe he was feeling bad for a Phone Guy, Fredbear knows that was a rare occurrence, but he couldn’t help it. ‘You know why you do.’ A voice in his head reminded him. ‘Now get over there and help him. His soul can hardly be saved in this state.’ 

“Ah, hey, Steven?” Dave approached Steven as gently as he could, which wasn’t that gently but hey, he was giving it his best shot dammit. “You uhh...Need something? Anything I can do for ya?” Steven wordless fell right into Dave and warped his arms around the purple man as though he was in danger of sinking into the floor and Dave was the only one keeping him afloat. “O-Oh. Ok.” Dave near choked as the shorter of the pair flung his arms around his shoulders and clutched tightly. 

The two remained like that for numerous minutes before Steven eventually said, “I can’t believe I’m hugging Dave Miller right now. The Dave Miller. The he-hecking Kiddie Strangler.” 

“Aww, come on, I’m not that bad, am I?” Dave said, trying to lighten the mood a little.

“You’re a child murderer…” Steven mumbled, his voice muffled. “...And probably a stalker too. How’d you know all that stuff about me…?” 

“I thought ya remembered everything now?” Dave replied in genuine confusion. 

“Everything?” Steven nearly laughed. “Da-Dave, I can’t even remember my last name. All I’ve remembered is that night on stage, that’s it.”

“Ah. Right.” Dave tried to keep any emotions out of his voice for fear of hurting the guy. “...Your last name is Stevenson, by the way.” 

Steven released Dave’s shoulders and pulled backwards. “You’re pulling my leg…”

“I’m not!”

“‘Steven Stevenson’? Really?” Steven folded his arms.

“You know it's true!” Dave taunted. “You do, don’t you!” 

“I...Why? Just...Why?” Steven shook his head in disbelief, though Dave was right. The name clicked in his mind, feeling way more ‘right’ than the one he’d been assigned by the Factory.

“Bring it up with your parents, not me!” Dave laughed. Steven let out one of his odd little ringing laughs too. Dave relaxed, feeling good now that Steven was calmer.

“Wh-What...Oh Foxy, what now?” Steven realised. “You’re really on a mission to save every soul, aren’t you?” 

“I sure am!” Dave readjusted Dee’s red scarf affectionately. “I think it’s the least I can do…” 

“Then...I mean, you’ll have to leave me, won’t you?” 

“What? Why?”

“I’m irredeemable , Dave.” Steven said. “I’ve screwed everyone over, and who was it all for? Myself. My stupid, stupid self.”

“Well, I dunno about that …” Dave objected gently. “I mean, I’m far from a perfect person either, am I?” 

“...Ye-Yeah, but you’re trying to right your wrongs, right? I don’t know what I can do to fix mine.”

“I think I do, though!” Dave assured. “Ya mentioned a ‘Peter’ earlier. That wouldn't have been Peter Kennedy, would it?” 

“Yeah...Yeah, that was his name...How’d you know?”

“His sister reckoned he’s here, one layer below us!” Dave explained. “We can go find him together! You can give him a formal apology ‘n shit!”

“You really think he’s down there?” Dave nodded in reply. “C-Crap. That must be my fault too, I’m sure…”

“Doesn’t matter!” Dave protested. “What matters now is that you get a chance to make it up to him, don’t you?”

“I guess…” Steven paused, seeming to weigh his options out in his head. “I mean, that’s probably the best thing I can be doing right now, isn’t it?”

“Sure is!” 

“Alright then Dave…” Steven braced himself for whatever was about to come. “I assume you know how, so when you’re ready, take us down.”

Dave grinned and summoned a Flipside portal. 

“Phone-faces first!” 

Chapter Text

The next layer of the Flipside threw both Dave and Steven off. They'd been expecting a restaurant, like the rest of this forsaken place but that wasn't what they got at all. Instead, the pair found themselves in a dimly lit house which neither of them recognised. 

"Uhhh...Are you sure this is the right place, Dave?" Steven surveyed the room cautiously. "I feel like I'm trespassing right now." 

"Well it's gotta be some part of the Flipside, 'cause I don't have the power to get us out of it." Dave assured. "How about we take a look around, find some context clues?" 

"...This still feels wrong. Intruding in someone's house." 

"You do want to save Peter, don't you?" 

"Of course, I-"

"Well then help me look!" Dave instructed before setting off to take a look around the room they'd arrived in. The purple man immediately resorted to poking around in hidden places - under the sofa, inside drawers, behind cupboards. Steven took a more direct approach and simply strolled over to one of the walls, where a few pictures hung. The biggest one was of three people - a little girl, an older boy who was probably verging on 18 and a young man. There was another, smaller picture close by - The little girl again, this time holding a dog. Cute, but unhelpful. Steven didn’t recognise the girl or the dog. He walked over to another section of wall, where a third picture hung. Suddenly everything clicked. The picture showed the same man from the other picture, but older and standing with another woman. And now that he saw the man like this, he knew exactly who he was looking at. His old employee, Peter. 

“Dave!” Steven called. 

Dave stopped trying to see if anything was hidden under the sofa and jumped up quickly. “Yeah!?”

“I think I know whose house this is!” 

Dave came to where Steven stood and examined the picture alongside him. “Who the fuck is that?” 

“It’s Peter. This is Peter’s house.” 

“Well, that’s good then!” 

“Good? How is that good?” Steven asked. 

“That means that he’s definitely here, doesn’t it?” Dave explained. “Plus, we’re not trespassing on anyone’s property! You know the guy!” 

“Barely!” 

“Ah, whatever, you still know ‘im.” Dave shook Steven’s response off. “Now, let’s go find ourselves a phone-face!” 

Dave boldly set off in the direction of the nearest door with long, confident strides. If what he’d been through with Jack was getting to him, he definitely wasn’t letting it show. Steven rushed to keep up with Dave, his receiver rattling around as he ran to avoid getting left behind. Dave yanked the door open then paused. He lingered in the doorframe, frowning at the scene before him. 

“Wha-What’s the hold up?” Steven asked, his voice box shaken up from the quick dash across the room. 

“Look for yourself.”

Dave stepped to the side to allow Steven to get a proper look at what lay beyond the door frame. Looking directly ahead, it looked like nothing more than a black void. However, once Steven looked down he realised that the next part of the floor was just much lower than the one he and Dave were already standing on. It was dark down there, practically invisible at a mere glance. 

“Oh da-da-darn.” Steven said as he looked down into the abyss. “Maybe we could find something to help us down in here… I mean it’s a house, right? Guess there could be a rope or a ladder somewhere? Maybe if we tried the stairs?”

Dave knelt down and stuck his long neck over the edge of the drop and squinted into the void with two glowing white eyes. “Actually, Phoney, I think we can just jump down.”

“Are you sure-” 

Before Steven could finish his question, Dave swung himself over the ledge and into the drop below, shouting “We’ve got nothing to lose, we’re already dead!” 

“Dave!” Steven shouted as the purple man plummeted downwards. “What the he-he-he-heck!?” 

After a small thud, Dave’s voice echoed up from down below. “It’s good to jump!” 

“Foxy help me….” Steven muttered before swinging himself over the ledge after Dave. The drop was much deeper than he’d been expecting. How on earth had Dave survived this? He ‘closed his eyes’ (Phone Guys had the ability to simply stop seeing when they wanted to, just as a normal human would close their eyes) and did his best to convince himself that Dave was right. He was already dead, what was he going to do? Die again? Oh God, wait, that was actually possible, wasn’t- 

Steven’s fall came to a stop, but he hadn’t landed on his feet. Regaining his vision he very quickly realised what had happened. Dave had caught him. A very smug, purple face grinned at him from above. “Put me down.” Steven demanded.

“Ok!” Dave unceremoniously dropped Steven onto the floor with a loud crash. “Next time, I’ll just let you crash onto the floor instead of being a good friend and catchin’ you, shall I?” 

“Ugh….” Steven groaned and picked his body off of the floor. “How did you land on your feet, anyway?”

“I always land on my feet. It’s one of my many talents!” Dave laughed. “It’s one of those things you’ll learn if you’re always on the run. Maybe I’ll teach you sometime.” 

As Steven recovered from his fall, he took a look around his surroundings. “Wait...This...This...Uhhh...Thi-This is a Freddy’s location....” 

Steven was right, Dave realised. What he’d once thought was a hallway now looked much more like a corridor. There was no mistaking those walls or that signature tiled floor. Weird but not unexpected. The pair made their way down the corridor in silence for a bit. Dave couldn’t help but feel hurt unfortunately. Being with Dee for a short period of time had made him realise just how much he missed having company. And ever since his time in Fredbear’s he had known that he was more of a people person. After all, what was a performer without an audience? He wanted to talk to Steven but he felt like he didn’t know how anymore. He was only now realising how unfamiliar he was with the Phone Guy, having only interacted with him as a boss before. “Hey, uhhh...Steven?”

Steven looked to the side. “Wh-What?”

“I noticed that your voice box is a bit shaken up from the drop. I could….Well, I could fix that, if you’d like?” He tapped his back pocket, reminding Steven that he was holding tools back there. 

“I’ll be fine.” Steven replied with a headshake. “All of our voices do-do-do this sometimes. It sorts its-itself out after a while.” 

“Just tryna be helpful, Phoney.” Dave sighed. 

Steven didn’t respond directly, instead seeming to reflect for a second before saying, “I don’t get why you’re being so nice to me all of a sudden.” 

“All I wanna do is make up for my past mistakes. Nothing wrong with that.” Dave shrugged. “Isn’t that exactly what you want to do with Peter?” 

“...No comment.” 

Dave sighed. Talking to Steven was harder work now than it had been before. He couldn’t exactly blame him though. Suddenly remembering dying in a brutal way was more than enough to put a man in an unpredictable mood. Dave found himself wanting to do something more to help though but he didn’t have anything he felt he could do. Henry always told him he was ‘more detrimental than helpful’ when people were feeling upset anyway. He didn’t know how much he trusted Henry anymore but that couldn’t change the fact that the old man’s words were burned into his mind, much like Steven’s company training tapes. 

The pair kept walking until they met another door. Not the kind of door that suited a pizzeria though. A wooden door with a well-worn handle. The kind of door that would look much more fitting in a house. “This looks promising!” Dave exclaimed. “Afterall, if you had the choice of hanging out in Freddy’s or your own home, you’d want to be in your home, wouldn’t you?” 

“I don’t remember my home.” Steven replied bluntly. 

“Ah, whatever.” Dave ignored Steven and strolled towards the door. “You’d agree with me if you did, I’m sure.” He tried the door. It didn’t open. Odd, but maybe it was just a bit stiff. He tried again, firmer and harder this time. Still no result. “It’s locked.” 

“Should we try and find another way?” 

“No good. The only way we can go is back the way we came and there’s no way in hell we can climb back up that ledge.”

“So what do you propose?”

Dave stood back and examined the door’s hinges. “This door doesn’t look that sturdy. I think I could break it down if I tried.” 

“Ha-Have you ever considered that maybe Peter doesn’t want to be found?” 

“What do we do then, huh? Wander this one boring-ass corridor for the rest of eternity?” Dave protested. He walked a little further backwards, then took a running start at the door. He slammed his entire body at the door at full speed. The door handle rattled loudly but the door itself remained unmoving. “Huh. Tougher than it looks.”

“Y’know, I would’ve thought you’d have known how to pick locks, given how many ‘pranks’ of yours ended up in my office.” Steven deadpanned. 

“I do know how to pick locks, smart-ass!” Dave snapped. “But come look at this handle. This door doesn’t have a lock. It’s like the Flipside’s keeping it locked.”

“O-Ok.” Steven’s voice switched to sounding more panicked. “Peter definitely doesn’t want to be found. Maybe we should just leave it.”

“How many more times do I have to tell you, Phoney!?” Dave stood back, ready to take another running start at the door. “We can’t go back. We have to keep moving forwards!” He rammed himself into the door once again. His second run succeeded in rattling the entire door thoroughly, but not breaking it. 

He didn’t need to do anything more though because Dave’s antics had alerted whoever was inside that there was someone behind the door. “...Jack?” No mistaking that voice. Definitely a Phone Guy. “Oh, oh, Blackjack, sorry. Is that you?” 

“Yes!” said Dave.

“No?” said Steven. 

The two exchanged equally critical looks.

“What are you doing!?” Steven asked as quietly as possible. 

“He’s more likely to open the door if he thinks it’s his brother and not us!” Dave hissed. “Now shh, before he realises we’re not Jack!” 

The two waited silently, Steven trembling with anxiety and Dave looking almost excited. The door handle rattled, then the whole door opened. There was no mistaking the man who opened it. Pale blue button up shirt and a bright red rotary phone for a head. Steven’s former employee, Dave’s old boss - Peter Kennedy. 

“Oh. Oh, oh, oh. No. No! ”

“Nice to see you too!” Dave greeted cheerfully. “I’ve been told your name’s Peter.” 

“Why? Why you two, of all people? It could’ve been anyone else. My brother, my sister, maybe Jimbo, even Matt. But no. No. It’s my old boss who had me brought back to life to work for Freddy’s against my will and the man who made that job hell and murdered my sister.” 

“Well done! Now that you’ve clarified that you know exactly who we are, do you want to let us in?” 

Peter tiredly put a hand to his head. “What do you want?” 

“We’re here to save souls!” Dave explained. “...It was your sister’s idea, actually.”

“You’ve seen Dee!?” Peter’s attention was immediately caught. “Spoken to her!? Where is she!?”

“Wait, who’s De-”

“Let us in, and we can explain everything!” Dave offered, refusing to let Steven finish his question. It was a manipulative offer and he knew it, but he couldn’t see Peter letting him and Steven if he just said ‘your brother killed your sister. Sorry’. Peter seemed to be looking at the red scarf around Dave’s neck. Shit, shit, shit. Could he see through him? No, surely not. After all, it was in Dee’s nature to lend a scarf to someone, right? 

“...Alright. But…” Peter sounded like he was about to make demands but none ever came. Apparently he couldn’t come up with any. “Alright just...Just come in. Don’t try anything funny, I swear to...I swear.” 

Dave nodded over-enthusiastically, “Ya won’t even know we’re here!” 

“Is-Isn’t that a bit counterproductive if we’re here to talk to him?” Steven asked but no one answered his query so he just made an annoyed sounding noise and followed Dave into the room. The room Peter had been staying in appeared to be a bedroom. His bedroom, most likely. Though judging by some context clues, it looked like it might once have been shared. There was no obvious place to sit, so the three simply stood awkwardly on the left side of the room. 

“What happened to Dee?” Peter asked firmly. Steven had never seen him like this. So...demanding, all because of care for his family. Which Steven would’ve ripped away from him when he sent him off to the Factory, no doubt. 

“It was Jack. Or, what’s left of his body, I guess. That thing isn’t really your brother anymore. Stupidly, me and her thought we could fight ‘im. I narrowly escaped, and Dee…” Dave trailed off awkwardly. “He destroyed her soul. She’s gone.”

“Really!?” Peter snapped unexpectedly. Dave shot backwards in surprise. “You think I’ll fall for that again !?”

“Again!?” Dave retorted. “The fuck do you mean, ‘again’?” 

“I made the mistake of pinning her death on Jack when it was you to blame the first time!” Peter explained, sounding hurt. “I won’t make the same mistake twice. I lived with Jack in his current state for years. He wouldn’t have done that. Why do you expect me to believe that my brother would murder his own sister when there’s a known child murderer right in front of me?”

“He’s a good actor, ok?” Dave was starting to sound like he was at his wit’s end too. “He fooled her and he fooled me. That’s what he does! He acts, then he waits to strike! To hurt you, to kill you, whatever he wants to do!” 

"Just like you then?" Peter retorted. 

"No, actually, my methods were-"

"ENOUGH." A fourth voice entered the conversation, seemingly coming from nowhere, loud and commanding. The speaker made themself clear a moment later - A purple and white dog, appearing almost like an inverted photo, hopped up onto the bed from somewhere behind it. It wore a yellow hat and bow tie to match but in spite of that goofiness the dog was weirdly intimidating. "STAND DOWN, PETER. I HAVE BEEN WATCHING JACK CLOSELY. DAVE DOES NOT LIE." 

"But-But-But he-" 

"HE DOES NOT LIE." The dog firmly reiterated. 

Peter went silent. Dave studied the dog clearly. Who the fuck was this, then? He didn’t recognise the dog, though its voice held a trace of something familiar. Peter seemed to trust the dog a whole lot too. “So, who’s the doggo?” 

“I AM WHAT YOU ARE TO DAVETRAP.” 

“Come again?” Dave frowned. He seemed unsettled by mentions of his reality self. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“YOU ARE HIS SOUL. HIS TRUE SELF. THE ONE THAT ISN’T A ROTTING CORPSE” Blackjack stated. “I AM MUCH THE SAME. YOU MUST’VE BEEN AWARE THAT THE JACK ON EARTH WAS SOULLESS, RIGHT? DID YOU NOT THINK HIS SOUL WOULD BE HERE?”

“Shit, you’re Jack’s soul?” Dave looked at the dog in disbelief. “...You’re kinda a dick.” 

“I HAVE GOOD REASON WHEN IT COMES TO YOU TWO. YOU HAVE BOTH MADE MY BROTHER AND SISTER’S LIVES HELL.” Blackjack paused. “BUT I CAN SEE THAT YOU ARE TRYING. I FIND THIS...FASCINATING. TELL ME MORE. TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE SEEKING.”

“Uhh..Uhhh...Redemption, mostly…” Steven said quietly, as though he was afraid of being heard. He was heard though, by both Peter and Blackjack. Blackjack nodded approvingly. Peter looked away. 

“Savin’ souls, ‘cause it’s the least I can do.” Dave explained, calmer now. “That month I spent with Dee, I talked to her about it. Don’t think she ever really liked me but still, she told me what she thought. That if I truly was the part of Dave that didn’t just run around killing kids then I should make amends, or something." 

"WONDERFUL." Blackjack seemed to agree with Dave. "TELL ME THOUGH, HOW FAR ARE YOU WILLING TO GO TO SAVE EVERYONE ?" 

"Well...I mean damn, doggo, that's kind of a loaded question…" Dave said. In all honesty, he hadn't exactly been thinking about that particularly hard. 

"I HAVE A JOB FOR YOU. FOR ALL THREE OF YOU, IF YOU ARE WILLING TO LISTEN." 

"And...And what might that be?" Steven asked, his nerves clearly showing as he did so.

"JACK HAS PLANS. THE FIRST LOCATION HE OPENED WAS MERELY A TEST. HE HAS STARTED SOMETHING MUCH, MUCH BIGGER." 

"So he's makin' a bigger Freddy's. What's the worst that could come of that?" Dave said with a shrug.

"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. THINGS WERE NEARLY AT EASE. THIS WILL KICK EVERYTHING BACK OFF. MORE LIVES WILL BE TAKEN. THE FACTORY WILL RESTART ITS PRODUCTION. FRESH EMPLOYEES WILL BE BOUND TO THE COMPANY WITH CONTRACTS." Blackjack snarled bitterly. "IF YOU ARE TRULY TAKING UP THE TASK OF SAVING EVERY SOUL THEN YOU WILL BE STUCK HERE A VERY LONG TIME, IF WE DO NOT DO SOMETHING." 

"How long?" 

"JACK IS IMMORTAL. POTENTIALLY, IT COULD BE FOR ETERNITY." 

"That's no good then." Dave decided. "I've got shit I wanna do. I can't get anything done if I'm busy for the rest of time." 

"That is how eternity works, yes." Peter said sarcastically. "Well done, Dave."

"Well, I fo-for one know that I wouldn't like to see the Factory reopen, or any more workers come to harm." Steven piped up. He'd been quiet the entire time but now, finally, he managed to get some words in. Peter glanced at him from where he stood. The Phone Guy was hard to read, but if Steven had to guess, he'd have said that Peter was either giving him a funny look or perhaps a judgmental glare. He stepped back a bit, not liking that look, whatever it may have been.

"GOOD." Blackjack approved. "AND YOU TWO?" 

"I mean...I've dealt with the effects of child murder before and...Well, I'm sure we all know it's not pretty. I...I...If there's something you need me to do, I'd be willing…" Peter agreed. 

"Sounds better than being stuck down here until the end of days!" Dave exclaimed, far more upbeat than the other two. "If you can make me useful, then I'll do it! I can be useful, I swear."

"GOOD AND GOOD." Blackjack nodded at Peter and Dave's statements. "MY PLAN IS SIMPLE. I WILL GIVE YOU A VESSEL. YOU WILL GO TO JACK'S NEW LOCATION. GET A JOB. GAIN HIS TRUST, LAY LOW FOR A WHILE. AND WHEN THE TIME COMES, YOU PUT A STOP TO ALL OF THIS." 

“A vessel?” Steven asked. “You mean...We’d be alive again?” 

“ALIVE AND HUMAN AGAIN, YES.” Blackjack confirmed. “THOUGH THERE IS A...HITCH. I ONLY HAVE THE POWER TO PROVIDE ONE VESSEL.” 

“Couldn’t ya get Fredbear to help out? I assume all you God-like entities are friends or something.” Dave questioned. 

“FREDBEAR PROBABLY COULD’VE. BUT HE IS NOT HERE. NO ONE KNOWS WHERE HE HAS GONE.” 

“Well shit!” Dave cursed. “Which one of us are you sending then? ....It’s not me, is it? I’m probably not trusted enough, right?” 

“I HAVE BEEN DELIBERATING THIS FOR SOME TIME NOW.” Blackjack admitted. “AND HAVE REACHED AN... INTERESTING CONCLUSION. NONE OF YOU COULD HANDLE THIS ALONE. BUT TOGETHER...YOU COULD STAND A CHANCE.” 

“What the fuck are you proposing?” Dave asked uncertainly. 

“I AM SAYING THAT THE VESSEL COULD HOLD MORE THAN ONE MIND.” Blackjack explained. “PUTTING YOUR COMBINED KNOWLEDGE AND STRENGTHS TOGETHER WOULD SERVE YOU WELL, I FEEL.” 

“Yeah, there is just one tiny problem with that though, Jack.” Peter stated. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everyone here kind of hates everyone else’s guts.” 

“I AM AWARE OF THESE TENSIONS, TRUST ME. I KNOW HOW DEEP THEY RUN AND I KNOW THAT SOME OF YOU ARE WITHHOLDING THINGS FROM THE OTHERS.” Blackjack acknowledged. “BUT YOU ARE HARDLY GOING TO GET RID OF THEM BY AVOIDING EACH OTHER, ARE YOU?”

None of the three said anything. Blackjack felt less like Jack’s soul, simply down here with them, and more like some kind of higher, more knowledgeable figure. They each thought long and hard, weighing their options.

“I KNOW THIS IS A LOT TO ASK.” Blackjack growled more gently now. “I AM ASKING YOU TO TURN AWAY FROM JACK. YOUR BROTHER, YOUR PARTNER. I AM ASKING YOU TO RECONCILE WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE HURT YOU. PEOPLE YOU HAVE HURT. BUT PLEASE. I WISH TO END THIS AGONY ONCE AND FOR ALL. I CANNOT DO IT ALONE.”

“I...Ya know what? I’ve got nothing better to do. Absolutely nothing!” Dave laughed, sounding almost delirious. “That fucker killed me! I know he did, somehow? Time doesn’t fuckin’ work down here but...Yeah! I’m sure! He killed me first, now I’ll return the favor!”

“CORRECT. HE KILLED ‘DAVETRAP’ AS IT CALLED ITSELF.” Blackjack confirmed. “THE FLIPSIDE EXISTS OUTSIDE OF TIME. IT IS HARD TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING IN REALITY, UNLESS YOU HAVE A CONNECTION, LIKE YOU HAD. LIKE I STILL HAD.” The dog sighed. “YOU WILL NOT BE ALONE. I WILL GUIDE YOU. I CAN SEE WHAT JACK IS DOING. I WILL KEEP YOU AS SAFE AS I CAN.” 

“You know me, right?” Steven spoke up. “The guy who just runs from everything. I really don’t want to do this, but...I can’t explain it. If I do what I always do, run and hide, it’s...I’m just going to feel bad. I’d just be sat here, feeling like shi-shi-shi-i-i-i- You get the point. So...Ma-Maybe it's time to try a new approach for once. Maybe that'll make me feel less awful, I don't know.” 

“I kind of feel the same, surprisingly.” Peter added. “This sounds awful, in just about every way possible but if I sit by whilst the Factory operates...Whilst they create more people just like me, ruin more lives...I couldn’t feel right about it. I didn’t when I went home all those years ago and I don’t think I will if I stay here now.”

“SO, YOU ARE ALL IN AGREEMENT THEN?” Blackjack asked for confirmation. 

“...Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“Sure!”

“ALRIGHT.” Blackjack gave his best lopsided smile. “THE INITIAL PROCESS MAY BE PAINFUL. THE JOURNEY WILL BE LONG. BUT I DID NOT LIE. I WILL BE WITH YOU THE WHOLE WAY.” 

“Yeah, ummm...How are you going to do that?” Steven asked, his nerves now more on show again. “I’m uhhh...I’m pretty sure do-dogs aren’t allowed in Freddy’s? How will you get in?”

Blackjack looked amused, which also seemed to calm Steven a little. “THIS, I AM AWARE OF. HOWEVER, I CANNOT TAKE A PHYSICAL FORM. I SIMPLY MANIFEST LIKE A GHOST. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A VERY LONG TIME, YOU KNOW? EVEN IN YOUR RESTAURANT.”

“Oh! I uhh...I actually never saw you, sorry.” 

“IT IS EASY TO MISS SOMETHING YOU ARE NOT LOOKING FOR.” Blackjack said. “I DO NOT BLAME YOU. NOW, ARE YOU READY?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Peter sighed. “Which isn’t very ready at all, so let’s just get to it.”

“ALRIGHT. PREPARE YOURSELF. EXITING THE FLIPSIDE IS NOT PLEASANT.” Blackjack warned. “AND I HAVE ONLY DONE IT AS A SOUL. I CANNOT IMAGINE WHAT IT IS LIKE TO EXIT INTO A BODY.”

“Oh, fun.” Peter said. "Leaping blindly into immense amounts of pain."

“I thought ya were supposed to be the nicer boss.” Dave grumbled. 

“I am. ” Peter clarified. “Just not to people cover up the slaughter of toddlers, thank you very much.” 

“WE ARE READY TO LEAVE NOW.”

“Ok, so do we-” Dave never got to finish whatever he was going to ask. The floor beneath him and the others started to crack. And through the cracks seeped light, bright and almost blue in colour. The four all instinctively looked away from the light, having been used to the dim atmosphere of the Flipside. More and more of the room was swallowed up by the light, which had started to look more like the sky than light. 

The four plummeted, going down, down, down, making everyone’s stomach’s feel sick. The sky around them seemed like it was getting brighter until it no longer resembled the sky. The thing was so bright that no one could see shit, not even the others. Everything faded into a pure white mess, meaningless and painful to look at. 

And when it ended, a brand new pair of eyes snapped open. They searched around frantically, until they found the first words they’d ever read - ‘Welcome to the Pizza Plex.’ 

“The fuck do you mean it’s a goddamn ‘Pizza Plex’!?” a voice explained, loud and unused to speaking. It held some traces of an accent, though diluted. “Why the fuck does Jack have this, and more importantly how ?” 

Chapter Text

It was Henry's establishment, really. Henry's ideas, Henry's designs, Henry's legacy. Jack's first restaurant had been a hit, but it was not big enough. He needed more. More test subjects, more bodies, more souls. So he did what he did best - Bide his time and wait. Scheme from the shadows. Whilst Jack's mind slept, Henry took over, drawing up plans and schemes for the future. And then he waited. Oh, how he waited. What a long and tedious waste of time, he often found himself thinking. The wait was not without payoff though. Fast-foward to present day and he had the biggest location the company had ever known fully under his control. 

Jack was just a vessel, really. From time to time he might’ve put up a little struggle but that was all. His lack of a soul made him far less pesky to use than others of the past. The most trouble he ever gave Henry was his insistent need to ask questions and even then he was easily satisfied. However, as Henry had soon learned, Jack being his primary vessel, and therefore at the head of the business side of things in this new location meant that he couldn’t do all the dirty work. Henry had originally planned to use Jack to murder test subjects, then experiment on them until he found a way to make a body for himself meaning that he could leave Jack to deal with the consequences whilst he escaped a free man. But the experiments weren’t working and Jack was running a bigger business now. He needed someone else. Another person entirely, who could be easily disposed of without any threat to his plans. 

During various job interviews Henry had paid attention, carefully noting down every worker’s traits and personality, looking for the best possible candidates. Among them he had initially found two who he thought could’ve been good fits. The first one was a girl named Abby - She thought highly of herself and was easily flattered. Seemed to enjoy feeling in control of the conversation. A good puppet candidate, Henry had thought. It would be all too easy to let her feel as though she held all the power in the world whilst pulling her strings the entire time. But then along came Ness - Lilac skin, black eyes, white pupils, tall and slender. Younger than Abby. Almost a mirror image of Dave, minus her not being entirely bald. Whilst one side of her head bore no hair like him, the other had a crop of spiky, shoulder-length hair. A deep purple, but lovingly decorated with a rainbow streak. What a curious thing she was, Henry thought. Full of energy and a will to succeed too. In the end, both girls were hired and taken under his (and by proxy, Jack’s) wing.

This had caused some...tension. Right from the start it was clear that the two weren’t going to get along. Put a spiteful person and someone they enjoyed ticking off in a room together for a month or two and sooner or later you were going to see the worst of both of them. Whilst Jack reluctantly struggled to keep them under control, Henry simply continued to observe. He told Jack to interfere as little as possible with the two’s fighting. ‘Let them.’ He had said. ‘Let us see what they are like at their limits. I want to see who will break first.’ He sowed the seeds of cruel ideas into their heads sometimes, to see where that would lead them. At first it seemed as if it was only affecting Abby, who grew nasiter and nasiter towards Ness, but finally, when Ness came into work one morning with Abby mysteriously missing, Henry knew he had the perfect puppet.

Oh, she denied it valiantly, Ness did. She swore many, many times that she had not killed Abby. The poor thing near stuttered her way through every question Jack asked, just repeating the fact that she hadn’t killed Abby over and over and over. Of course she had though. What else could’ve happened, when you left the two alone to close up for the night and only one came out alive? A nervous puppet, Henry found her to be but clearly not a useless one. A reluctant follower. 

He found it an interesting twist of fate, really. History was repeating itself. He half wanted to ask her if she knew what exactly she was before realising that he really didn't care that much and it didn’t matter to his research anyway. A puppet was a puppet, regardless of design. There was one problem about her...striking appearance though. You could recognise Ness from a mile away. As it turned out though, she already had that covered. Whilst Henry’s original idea had been to stick her in one of the springlock suits that were brought out for performances from time to time, Ness had been violently opposed to the idea and came in the next day with something she’d apparently been making for a while. A suit of her own character, named ‘Vanny’. A white rabbit with a big indigo bow tied around her neck. What a fascinatingly convenient development. 

She carried it carefully in her bag as she headed into her boss’ office this morning, making sure not to damage it. She’d poured her heart and soul into that suit and Vanny was incredibly dear to her. 

“Morning, Jack!” Ness greeted her boss cheerfully, as per usual. She sat in the chair she always took, opposite his desk. Unlike the rest of the Pizza Plex with its neon lights and shining floors, Jack’s office was quite boring. A dull greys and browns as far as the eye could see. Jack himself sat opposite her in his usual black suit, bearing his usual gap filled grin.

“Good morning, Ness. How’s things?”

“About the same as usual. There was some crazy guy standing outside the restaurant yelling though.”

“Damn conspiracy theorists again, I’m sure…” Jack drawled. “You know the truth though, right? That we strive to better lives here, not ruin them?”

“Of course!” Ness nodded. “But uhh...Well, there was something kinda weird about this guy? He seemed to know you, is all. He was like...Calling you by name and asking how you’d managed to get this place?”

“...Odd.” Jack seemed to stare off into nothingness before speaking again. Ness waited patiently. He did that a lot. “Well, I suppose that’s what I get for taking over an infamous company, isn’t it? People want a name and face to blame for all those scandals decades ago that I had nothing to do with.” 

“Sure, sure, that makes sense, I guess.” Ness agreed. Truth be told, her mind had wandered off whilst Jack had been speaking but she didn’t want to disappoint, so she just pretended she’d heard. “So, moving on from crazy conspiracies...Do you have any jobs for me today?”

“No.” Jack said bluntly. “Go to work as normal.”

“...I thought this was supposed to be a partnership. I can’t do anything for you if you don’t give me jobs!” 

“You know why I’m not giving you anything right now.” 

“...” Ness shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“Because you, quote-unquote ‘Don’t think you’re ready to start helping me harvest souls for research.’” Jack lazily glanced down at some boring business papers. “So, until you feel you are ready, you can’t have any more jobs. We can’t advance our research without you making this next step so until you do I’ll just sit here getting increasingly more bored and restless.” 

“Couldn’t we just...I don’t know...Wait until someone dies naturally in a springlock suit and use them for our research?” 

“We need far more than one, Ness. And you know what we do with people who die in springlock failures.”

“I know, I know, they go to the Factory.” Ness recalled. “But I just...I don’t know if I can end innocent lives, even if it is for the greater good. I mean, I love the whole ‘abolish death’ thing we’ve got going on but...Still…”

“Don’t think of it as ending lives.” Jack explained calmly. “Think of it as more...putting them on hold. Pausing them! Once we’ve finally achieved our goal, they’ll be among the first to come back.”

“...When you put it like that…” 

“Look at me, Ness!” Jack exclaimed. “Dead as a doornail, yet head of a business! I’m proof. Proof what we’re striving for is possible! We’re so close now, we just need to perfect it! And when we do, everyone will thank you! We’ll all be so proud. You’d be hailed as a queen among humanity. Your life would be a perfect sob story too! Coming from where you did to bringing about monumental change!”

“You’ve said this all before…” Ness mumbled to herself.

“What was that?” Jack asked.

“Nothing! I’ll...Think on what you said, ok boss?” Ness said. She got up from her chair and headed off for a day of work.

‘Reluctant…’ Henry observed. ‘Like William was in the early days.’ 

“What do you want to do about it then?”

“Like William, all she requires is some tampering with her mind. In this non-literal form, this will be much easier than it was with him.’

"Well, you're the one who knows what's best, you crazy old man." Jack sighed. "You go do whatever it is you want to do to her." 

'You don't sound particularly invested in the idea."

"I don't really care about what you do anymore, Henry." 

This was something Henry had observed early on about Jack in his current state. After what he did to Davetrap, he'd calmed down the point of apathy during day to day life. Like he had just completely given up and couldn't care less what happened to him anymore. 

'She will do well. I shall make sure of it.' 

"You're pretty cocky given our current situation with her." Was all that Jack replied. 

'Hush.' Henry shushed. 'Do not doubt me, remember? William started out like this too. They always come around eventually.'

"...Well, whilst you're doing that I've got a wonderful…" Jack squinted at the papers on his desk. "Job interview with someone who didn't write their name down?"

'I could've sworn that was not there yesterday.' 

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Jack agreed. "Guess someone just figured because I'm not busy that they'd just push it forwards to today." 

‘...Irregular. No name with a spontaneous date. Stay on your toes.’ 

“It’s just some idiot who probably prepared this thing in a hurry. They’ll just wander in, completely out of their mind, fuck it up and then they’ll be gone.” 

‘You need to be more alert.’ 

“I can handle it.”

‘ Listen to me.’ Henry hissed. ‘I will not have you fucking this up for me. You will not just ‘handle it’. You will make sure nothing goes wrong to begin with. Now, let me tend to Ness.’ 

Jack muttered something incomprehensible and then Henry was gone. Off to go influence Ness, or something like that. He pushed away the papers on his desk and stared blankly at the wall, waiting. The rhythm of the ticking clock behind him droned on endlessly. Nothing much for him to do now. Slowly, Jack found himself starting to nod off. His eyelids grew heavy and started to droop down over his empty, black eyes, until-

“Mr. Kennedy!?” A knock at the door. Jack bolted upright.

“Come in.”

“There’s a guy here to see you. Job interview, I think?” 

Chapter Text

The first fucking thing that Steven, Peter and Dave did was stumble into the nearest location away from the general public, which ended up being the bathroom. Their vessel’s hands clenched down on the side of the sink as the three tried to find some stability. Deep breaths echoed through the empty room. In and out, in and out, in and out. 

“Dave...Scott…?” Peter asked. The vessel’s voice still sounded rough, as though it had a dry throat. 

‘...I should've told him that I'm Steven…’ A voice rang through the vessel’s head. It jumped in surprise. Who the fuck was that? 

'I mean, 's not like there was any time, was there?' A second voice, this time unmistakable. That was Dave, it had to be.

‘Oh God, are we in some kind of...I dunno...Hivemind?’ Peter thought, regretting letting Blackjack rope him into this more and more as the minutes went by. 

‘Sure seems like it!’ Dave added, confirming that he could indeed hear Peter. ‘Honestly, I don’t know what you were expecting.’

‘Neither do I...But I don’t think it was this…’ 

The three cast their eyes back into the bathroom mirror, taking in the vessel’s appearance. It was surreal, no doubt about that. Peter could recognise traits of himself before his accident, but they weren’t quite right. As if someone had drawn a portrait of him from memory but filled in all the things that they couldn’t remember with vague guesses. Steven was transfixed, something stirring in the back of his mind as he looked in the mirror. It was weird, seeing a reflection with a fleshy head for once. He knew he’d looked like that at one point in his life but seeing it was something else. Dave recognised the least of himself in their vessel, though he’d worked his way in on closer inspection. They were tall and their neck was maybe a tad long. Not noticeably weird, like Dave’s had been, but you could see it if you knew what you were looking for. A few scars littered various parts of their forearms and presumably other parts of their body, eerily similar to old springlock wounds. Far from a complete set but distinct to those who knew those patterns all too well. Though, Dave reminded himself, those could just as easily have been from Steven or Peter. 

One hand cautiously reached up and touched their hair, feeling it gently with curiosity. “We...We’ve got hair…and a face. And a face!” A smile stretched across their face, their voice sounding less rough than before.

“SENDING YOU HERE WITH A PHONE FOR A HEAD WOULD NOT HAVE WORKED AT ALL. THE FACTORY WOULD’VE FIGURED OUT THERE WAS SOMETHING WEIRD OCCURING IN A MATTER OF HOURS. PLUS, THAT WOULD’VE BEEN CRUEL. BETTER TO MAKE YOU ALL LOOK MORE LIKE YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE ACTUALLY ALIVE FOR BOTH YOU AND THE MISSION.”

“Oh shit, hi, Doggo!” The vessel whipped around, seeing Blackjack’s ghostly form hovering behind them. 

“HELLO, FRIENDS.” The dog greeted politely. “GOOD TO SEE THAT YOU CAME OUT ALRIGHT.”

“Wait- What do you- What’s that supposed to mean?”

“PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM STRETCHING MY CAPABILITIES TO THEIR ABSOLUTE LIMITS RIGHT NOW. I HAVE GIVEN YOU A LIVING, BREATHING BODY AND JUMPED US INTO A VERY SPECIFIC TIME FROM A PLACE THAT EXISTS OUTSIDE OF IT. THERE ARE A MULTITUDE OF THINGS THAT COULD’VE GONE VERY WRONG.” The dog sighed. “IN AN IDEAL WORLD, I WOULD’VE MADE IT SO THAT YOU ALREADY HAD A JOB HERE AND WE COULD SKIP OVER THE INTERVIEW, BUT THAT IS BEYOND MY ABILITIES. YOU ARE FULLY SIGNED UP FOR ONE THOUGH. THAT, I COULD DO.”

“Yeah, uhhh...About that. When exactly- When is that?” 

“SOON, AS I PLANNED FOR IT TO BE THE FIRST THING YOU DID UPON ARRIVING.” Blackjack cocked his head. “THAT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN A GOOD IDEA. ARE YOU HAVING TROUBLE SPEAKING?”

“Is it- Can you tell?”

“WELL...YOU SOUND LIKE A NERVOUS MAN WITH A BIT OF A STUTTER.” 

“That’s just how Steven talks normally. I mean- I think it’ll be fine.” 

Blackjack shook his head disapprovingly but remained silent. The three stood awkwardly for a minute before seeming to compose themselves. “Right. The job interview. That’s a thing that we need to do!” 

“COME ON.” Blackjack walked right through the closed bathroom door. “DO NOT WORRY. ONLY YOU CAN SEE ME.” 

The vessel nodded, then opened the door and followed the shadowy dog. They stepped back out into the location’s big entrance hallway, suddenly feeling very small in such a big space. The whole place was dizzyingly big and they couldn’t help but feel lost. 

‘Find someone to talk to.’ Peter urged mentally. ‘Someone who works here, they’ll know.’ 

Sharp eyes looked around for the nearest friendly face. It took a little but they eventually found someone, standing guard on the other side of the hallway. They strolled over, a little shaky and unsure on their feet, but managing. It was weird - to each of them it almost felt normal. Every sense was intact and working properly but there was also a weird, uneasy feeling, knowing that whatever they did was also simultaneously experienced by two others. No, don’t think about that. Just stay in the moment- focus! The guard’s staring- Talk to her! 

“Umm, Sir?” The guard frowned at the vessel, frozen in place by their thoughts. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah. Yeah! I’m here for a job interview?”

“That’ll be up in Mr. Kennedy’s office.”

“I don’t...know where that is.”

The guard checked the time, then looked back at the three. “Want me to show you the way? I’d say we’ve got about an hour before the people start rolling in.” 

“That’d be good, thanks.” They risked a glance at Blackjack, who nodded approvingly. They followed the blonde-haired guard as she set off further into the location, taking in the scope of the place. Eventually though, the silence started to swallow them and they pushed to start a conversation. 

“So uhh...Who are you?” Awful question, but it got the ball rolling.

“Vanessa Wilson. Day guard for this place!” She stated, sounding proud of her work. “And you?”

….Oh shit. A name. They needed a name. Three minds scrambled to figure out what to say. One took too long trying to think of a completely new name, whilst the other two blurted out whatever came to mind. The end result came out as something close to “Will Stevenson.” 

“Will?” Vanessa asked, making sure she heard him right.

“Ye-Yeah! Yeah, that’s right! I’m here for a job.” He paused. “You already knew that, sorry.” 

“It’s cool!” Vanessa laughed it off lightly. “So, what’re you looking to get?”

‘...That’s a good question, what are we doing?’ Peter asked. ‘In terms of a job, I mean, not in general. Though that probably needs asking as well.’

‘I dunno? I mean, me and Steven are both pretty good at tamperin’ with robots and stuff?’ 

‘ And we could avoid getting springlocked like that. You don’t have to get in the robots to check them, that’ll be someone else’s job.’ Steven added.

‘How’d you wind up dead then?’ Peter asked, baffled by Steven’s previous comment.

‘Henry.’ Dave jumped in before Steven could give his own reply. 

“Robots! And stuff!” It came out as an odd outburst because they noticed Vanessa was staring, but it worked.

“Nervous?” 

“I guess you could say that, yeah.” 

 Vanessa smiled. “I’ll be blunt. Mr. Kennedy? He’s kind of a dick. But he’s a dick trying to run a new location and he needs people. Especially people who’re willing to work on his large collection of multi-coloured deathtraps.” 

“Deathtraps?” That wasn’t a good sign. “Did somebody- Have people died here already?” 

Vanessa looked behind her, seeming to check that no one else was around. “Two ‘disappearances’, so far.” She stopped speaking for a second, reconsidering what she’d said. “I shouldn’t have mentioned that...Actually, Forget about it, Will. There’s no actual evidence that those two are anything more than missing. Just...watch your step, ok?”

“Will do. Thanks!” They nodded. Then, reflecting on their own experiences without thinking of the implications of doing so they asked, “They didn’t get sent to the Factory, did they?”

Vanessa stiffened suddenly. “How do you know about that?” 

“A- A friend of mine. He’d heard some rumors! About this company’s infamous history and- and all that. He was telling me all about it a few nights back.” A quick save. Had it worked? 

“Well between you and me, that friend of yours was probably onto something.” Vanessa said. “But I doubt that’s where they got to. See, no one really wants to work in a place like that so why force them when you’ve got the tech to do it so much easier nowadays? Bots around here are programmed to pick up springlocked employees and dump them somewhere where they’ll be sent off to the Factory. One of the missing people was a kid, and the other was known for refusing to wear suits, so why they’d have been in suits in the first place is a bit of an issue. Oh and obviously, we’d have seen them again by now if they’d been sent there. That too.”

‘Weird…’ Peter thought. ‘The Factory would’ve made the most sense if they were just ‘missing’...I know I was a ‘missing person’ for a long time.’ 

‘Definitely Jack’s doing then.’ Dave decided.

“You seem to know a lot about this stuff.” Steven jumped in with his own question as the other two thought. 

Now that they were moving onto a different topic, Vanessa relaxed again. “Let's just say that I know a guy or two who knows a lot more than that friend of yours.” 

‘Wonder who that is...’ Steven pondered, but he didn’t have much time to dwell on that thought because they’d arrived at a door labeled ‘Management’. A quite plain and dull looking door compared to the colourful location they’d seen so far. Vanessa walked up to it and knocked. A ‘come in’ was heard from behind the door.

“Mr. Kennedy? There’s a guy here to see you. Job interview, I think?”

“Hey!” Will waved uncertainly. Bored, dead eyes met their own. Did Jack recognise them? No, how could he, you’re just being paranoid, there’s no way-

“Are you the guy who didn’t write his name down?” Jack asked. No sign of suspecting anything out of the ordinary, which eased the tense mood. 

“Depends. Do you have a ‘Will Stevenson’ written down?” Dave spoke before the other two could get a word in edgeways. He was starting to ease into this act - After adopting numerous fake names from being on the run, playing the part was coming naturally to him. 

“No.” Jack lazily glanced at some papers, pretending to check but knowing that the name wouldn’t be there. “Quite the sloppy move, really. Take a seat.” 

As Will took a seat Vanessa left the room, leaving the two to do their thing and returning to her own job. Will shifted a little in the seat to get comfortable before looking straight at Jack.

“Sorry about the name thing. I was- Well, y’see, I was in a bit of a hurry. Crunched for time and all that.” He laid back, now looking more relaxed. “I’ve got no idea how that even got through, to be honest. That really shouldn’t have happened-” Peter started adding into the conversation, but it wasn’t quite as choppy this time. There was a kind of rhythm to this whole thing and once they picked up on it things started to get easier.

“Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, this is a new location! We’re unfortunately struggling for staff right now, so any application, even a botched one, is worth looking at.” Jack rolled his eyes in an over exaggerated manner. “Honestly...People hear about some accidents that happened in the 80’s and immediately assume that we’re running some kind of operation. I hope you know better than that, Will. All we want to do here is provide some good, fun family entertainment.” 

‘Oh yeah. ‘Accidents!’ Sure!’ Peter thought sarcastically. ‘Because owning a robotics factory for replacing people’s heads is something you can do accidentally!’ 

‘Easy, Phoney. Don’t blow this.’ 

“Of course.” Will nodded. “I know you guys have had a spotty past, but, well, look at this place! That’s a lot of effort and money just to hide some shady business, don’t you think?” Dave added the last part, getting daring now. Almost challenging Jack, putting him on the spot to see what he’d say. 

“Yup.” Jack agreed. “Some people in this world are just crazy, unfortunately. Seems like you’ve got a little more common sense though.” 

“You’re right about that, sir.” 

“Now then.” Jack shuffled his papers again. A bored notion. “Enough about this place. Let’s talk about you.” 

“Right!” They agreed, externally calm, internally full of nerves. “So. This place is full of animatronics, right? Of course it is. Why did I say that, you run the place of course you would-” The nerves were making them slip again, no, no focus- “Sorry, sorry. Tangent. But anyway, robotics. See, I’ve actually worked in a place kind of similar to this before.”

“And that would be?” Jack raised an intrigued eyebrow.

“An old Candy’s joint.” He answered, hoping that would be a feasible lie.

“What made you decide to move to Freddy’s then?” 

“Look at this location. Need I say more?” 

“So, you decided to jump ship to save your own skin from a sinking business?” Jack asked with an amused grin. 

“Essentially, yes.” 

“I can appreciate a little backstabbing,” Jack laughed, before seeing that Will was now looking tense. “Lighten up, I’m just joking! There’s nothing wrong with ditching a failing business so that you’re better off.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Will agreed. “It was a good job, but the...the pay.” 

“Can’t expect much from a company that’s doomed to go under, can you?” Jack said. “You made a smart choice, Will.” 

“...Thanks?” 

“So, I’ll assume that if you worked there, you’re more than qualified to perform checks and maintenance on animatronics?” Jack asked.

“Correct!”

“Know anything about busted arcade games?” 

“I’ve tried my hand at fixing them, yeah.” 

“Changing lights and other faulty electronics?” 

“Well now you’re just making this easy. Of course I do!”

“Ever heard of springlocks?”

‘Play dumb.’ Peter urged. 

“You uhh...I think you might want to call a locksmith for that one?” 

‘ Steven, what the fuck was that-’

‘Shut it! Jack’s staring.’ Dave realised, and indeed he was. The orange zombie’s dead eyes were very much focused on the scars on their forearms. 

“Really?” Jack questioned. 

He was testing them, they realised. They moved one arm to their chin to rest it on the table, showing that their scars lacked the perfect symmetry of a usual set of scars, due to being incomplete. “Nope. I’m going to assume those have got to do with your robots if they’re not some kind of mechanism inside a door?” 

“In this location, just like many of our past ones, we have more than one type of animatronic. We have our main ones of course, the tall ones that are your run of the mill robots but we have others too. They’re smaller, more human sized and that’s for a good reason. Whilst they’re usually just downsized animatronics that we use on a side stage, they can be worn suits too, if you crank back the robotic parts.” 

“That sounds a bit risky, doesn’t it?” 

“Not if you do your job right. Which you will do, I’m sure. They’re not dissimilar to the standard animatronics and we’ve got plenty of manuals if you’re feeling stuck. Plus archived recordings of old workers from the 70’s and 80’s, if you get super stuck.” 

‘What do you want to bet that they’ve cherry picked tapes to make this place look better?’ Peter asked.

‘Oh, you know they have, Phoney.’ Dave agreed. 

‘I wonder if any of mine are in there...That’d be weird.’ Steven wondered. 

“...I’ll bear that in mind, thanks.” They confirmed. 

“Well...it sure looks like you’re all set.” Jack decided. “Willing to take this job, got experience in all the right areas...Provided you’re not lying to me or anything.”

Bright white eyes shot right through them. It was a test, surely. Jack was just being cautious around his new employee, there was no way in hell he could know anything. Impossible. 

“Why would I need to lie to you, Mr. Kennedy?” Will almost sounded calm, but there was a hoarse element to his voice. Fuck, fuck, could Jack hear it?

“I’m not saying you would, relax.” Jack eased. “It’s just that we’ve gotten some complete and utter weirdos in here before, and that’s coming from the orange guy.” 

“Right! Sorry, sir.”

“Speaking of me being orange, you’re surprisingly chill, Will.” Jack remarked. “Most people have some kind of weird reaction. Not that I blame them, of course.”

Oh good, more interrogation! Will thought fast once more. “The news! I saw a report on- You were there!” 

“The news? I haven’t done any press with this place…”

Oh.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit- 

“Ah wait...From my old location, right? That made the news a few times.”

“Yeah! I’ve got a really good memory, would you believe it?” Fuck, what a terrible save. “It was actually remembering those news reports that made me think about coming here, you know?” 

“News reports about an active cult potentially existing in an old location of mine drew you here? You’re a strange man, Will. I can appreciate that.” Surprisingly, Jack actually seemed to buy into what they’d been saying. “You’ll start tomorrow, if you’re feeling up to it. Come here in the morning, I’ll give you your lanyard, keys and all the other stuff you’ll need. Dress appropriately for your job, yada yada, I’m sure you know the shtick.”

“Right!” Will nodded vigorously, genuinely excited from the thrill of successfully getting through the interview. “Just one question. What do I do today?” 

“...Go home, I guess? Go to town, get lunch or something? It’s not my business.” 

“Ah...It’s just that I- Well I...I got here by train and the- the wait times are killer… ”

Jack rolled his eyes in a bemused fashion. “It probably wouldn’t hurt for you to familiarise yourself with this place, I suppose. Just don’t go poking around anywhere you’re not supposed to be yet.” 

“Cool.” Will got up from the chair and made for the door. “Thanks, Mr. Kennedy.” 

“Don’t worry about it, employee.” 

Will shut the door and immediately got as far away from it as possible. They ended up at the end of a corridor, where only a cupboard of cleaning supplies stood. He sighed deeply, finally able to let out some cooped up emotions. “That.. . ” Peter muttered aloud, “That was fucking awful.”

‘Woah, Phoney, language!’ Dave mentally mocked. 

‘I’m not really a ‘Phoney’ anymore, am I?’ Peter responded. ‘I can swear all I like.’ 

‘You’ll always be Phoney to me.’ 

‘What’s that supposed to mean-’ 

“I TRUST ALL WENT WELL THEN.” Blackjack manifested before them, same as ever. 

“It did, yeah.” Will answered. “No thanks to you. Where were you?”

“I AM NOT SURE HOW DEEP MY CONNECTION TO MY BODY STILL RUNS. I AM SURE JACK HAS SEEN ME AT TIMES WHEN I WAS HIDING.” The dog’s ears drooped. “I WOULD’VE PUT YOU AT RISK.” 

The response gave the three an odd feeling, Peter especially. Blackjack always seemed like an all-knowing giver of information. It seemed unlike him to act like he might’ve been hiding something. Those guilty, puppy-dog eyes were familiar though. Somehow, even though he was taking the form of a ghostly dog, Peter recognised that face. The ‘there’s something I should tell you, that I know I should tell you, but don’t want to tell you’ face. 

“I KNOW I SAID I WOULD GUIDE YOU, BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I CANNOT BE THERE ALL THE TIME.”

“That’s fine, doggo, but you do have to tell us what your plans are.” They said. “Like something that Jack just brought up. Where are we gonna live ?”

“I ALREADY HAVE THAT COVERED. THERE IS AN APARTMENT NOT TOO FAR FROM-”

“A whole apartment? ” Blackjack was cut off. “How the fuck did you do that?”

“IT IS NOT AS COMPLEX AS YOU MAY THINK. CONVINCING PEOPLE THAT A ONCE EMPTY APARTMENT HAS ACTUALLY BEEN OCCUPIED FOR A WHILE IS ABOUT AS EASY AS GIVING JACK ANOTHER JOB INTERVIEW TODAY.” 

“That’s crazy…” Will sighed in disbelief. “Honestly, I have no idea how you do it”

“YOU’RE ONLY MORTAL.”

“Well, yeah but- I mean- We were all lost souls at one point and none of us ever gained literal god powers.” Will reminded. 

Blackjack ignored this comment and moved back towards the heart of the location at an abnormally brisk pace. “COME. I WISH TO SEE WHAT JACK HAS BUILT. WHAT MY BODY HAS BEEN DOING WITHOUT ME.” 

Will nodded and set off after the dog, unable to shake that weird feeling towards him. Steven and Dave were saying it was nothing, but Peter knew his brother all too well. Something was wrong. Nevertheless, he didn’t protest as he started to wander into the neon lights that the location bathed in. Maybe he was just overprotective. Maybe it was nothing.

Chapter Text

Vanessa checked her watch again. About 55 minutes until people started rolling into the location. Not many of course, the locations busiest hours wouldn’t arrive until the afternoon and early evening, but a few. Quieter kids, or those who didn’t like all the hustle and bustle of peak business hours. She smiled to herself - plenty of time to do a quick run down to check everything was in order before things got chaotic. 

Vanessa Wilson quite liked to think of herself as the protector of this place. After all, no one else seemed extremely concerned by the safety procedures. ‘We’ve got guidelines and failsafes in place’, the rest of the staff chattered. ‘Nothing can go wrong, we’ll be fine!’ they said, casual and uncaring.

‘Maybe you’re just paranoid.’ 

But Vanessa wasn’t paranoid and she knew it. She’d seen first hand what these restaurants could do. Her first exposure had come at just the age of seven, one blustery evening when her grandfather had returned home missing his head and covered from head to toe in scars. Jake was his name, or so he thought, because as Vanessa quickly learned, his memories were a little all over the place. In the months that followed him coming home she’d met more of his friends - Harry and Roger and Rebecca and Walt, all like him. And as she grew up, she started to grasp the real horrors of what happened to these people. That they’d been treated like machines, not people and that the cooperation behind their deaths was nothing but scum and lies. 

So that was what she was here for. To protect. To prevent something like that from ever happening to anyone again. Her grandfather and his friends had all warned her against it, her own parents had some strong doubts but she hadn’t cared. Her heart was dead set on the job and she’d taken it with ease. 

The guard half smiled to herself as she checked a small ride over, proud of herself for persisting. A procedural check of the location was such a small thing, but it could do so much. She continued through the rooms before getting ready to finish up with the employees only section. Ah. The dreaded saferoom. Home of the most infamous pieces of equipment that were still in use, the springlock suits. The door swung open cleanly as Vanessa opened it. Her hand instinctively fumbled along the side of the wall for a lightswitch, though as it turned out she didn’t need to use it. There was someone else here.

“-It’s weird, y’know? Ever since you started talking to me about it, I haven’t felt so bad, which is weird considering you’re just saying the same shit Jack-”

“Ness?” Vanessa looked across the room to see Ness sat on a bench at the other end, twisted sideways as though she was talking to someone, though there was noone there. “Are you talking to yourself, or….?”

“Oh!” Two bright eyes darted to the left to look at Vanessa. “I mean, well I, uhhhh...It’s just a warm up! For like, talking to customers and stuff. I’m just...Well, y’see, I’m just imagining that there’s someone here I’m interacting with…” She paused for a second or two before continuing to blab. “So uhh...Yeah, I guess that would mean I’m talking to myself and not some non-physical entity, wouldn’t it?” 

“Right.” Vanessa agreed, though Ness was talking so fast that she barely knew what she was agreeing to. “Well, you do that then. I’m going to check that the springlock suits are good to be worn today.” 

“Again?” Ness frowned as Vanessa made her way over to the cartoonish figures to begin her checks. “Didn’t you do that like...I dunno, yesterday?” 

“I did, yeah.” Vanessa got down on her knees to get a better look. “And I’m doing it again today.” 

“Over precautious much?” 

“Of course not!” Vanessa protested. “Besides, you clearly know how dangerous these things are. That’s why you made your own, isn’t it?”

“What? No! I’d happily wear one of those any time. It’s just that Vanny here-” Ness gently pulled the head of her rabbit character out from her bag. “-Is kind of special to me. I made her years ago, and I’ve had so much practice with moving in the suit and playing her character. Put me in one of those other things and I’d be clumsy as hell.” 

“...You could learn how, you know? Like everyone else who works here?”

“Don’t get your ponytail in a twist, sunflower, I’m only trying to do my job as best I can, like you.”

“Sunflower?” Vanessa repeated. “...Is that you trying to be cute?”

“I mean...Maybe? I’m just trying to be friendly.” Ness said with a shrug. “You’ve got the yellow hair and the green eyes for it.”

“All right then, lavender.” The corners of Vanessa’s mouth twisted up into a faint smile. “I’ll take it as a compliment.” 

“Good. That was the plan.”

Vanessa gave the springlock suit one final hard jiggle. After no snapping sounds were heard, she stood back, deeming it fit for use once more.

“These things are well built, I’ll give ‘em that.” Vanessa admitted as she admired the suit from afar. “You’d have to be actively trying to set these things off to make them snap. And who’d be stupid enough to do that?” 

“No one! Absolutely no one!” Ness agreed. “Dying on the job is against the rules.” 

“Which is weird, because no one ever gets fired for it.” 

“They don’t?” Ness frowned. “Oh right, because they’re dead and stuff…”

“No, they get ‘recycled’. Forced to work again. Remember?”

“Ah shit, yeah. The Factory!” Ness chuckled bashfully. “I uhhh...I forgot about that. Horrible place, right? But at least we haven’t had to use it yet.” 

“And hopefully, we never will. Not while I’m around anyway.” 

“You’re really serious about this job, huh?”

“Someone has to be.” Vanessa sighed. “Or we’re just gonna end up with a repeat of the eighties.” 

“Isn’t this whole place built on nostalgia though?” Ness teased. “If we wanna be accurate, things need spicing up, don’t they?”

“You know what I meant.” Vanessa said. “And don’t even joke about that kind of stuff. We’ve got two missing already. Not dead, of course, but...Yeah, murders and child abduction are the last things we need right now, thank you very much.” 

“Oh...Yeah, I heard about those!” Ness exclaimed. “Got any juicy details, since you’re security and all that?” 

“One of them was a child, about 11 or 12. He was here with a party, they were all having a good time, then boom. He vanished. None of the other kids knew where he went, though they were understandably distraught.” Vanessa recounted. “Then there’s Abby. If anything I should be asking you about her, not the other way around.”

“Now, woah woah, slow down there!” Ness objected. “Look, I’m well aware that it’s suspicious that I was the only other person still left in the building when she vanished, but I swear on my life I had nothing to do with it. Last I saw her, she was alive.” 

“Alright, but what do you think happened to her then?”

“Awww, jeez come on. I’m no investigator, how the hell am I supposed to know?” Ness complained. “Why don’t you tell me what you think happened to that missing kid?” 

Vanessa tensed up a little, thrown off by the question. "I don't know. I wasn't there." She tried to calm herself, to think logically about what they knew. "One of the other kids said that he didn't get along too well with some of the others when we asked them about it. It could just be that he wandered off, wanting some alone time." 

"Yeah but if that's the case, shouldn't he have like...wandered home by now?" Ness objected. "You said he was 11 or something, right? That's probably old enough to know how to get home, or at least how to get help if he's lost." 

"Well...Maybe something happened to him on the way home. It's horrible, sure. But that's...That's out of our hands. All I know is that he's not here." Vanessa sighed. "In checked this place top to bottom and I wasn't stupid about it either. I checked the off limits areas, I checked inside the robots. Not a body to be found." 

"See, you haven't got a clue, have you?" Ness said. "And that's how I feel about Abby. I don't know what happened to her that night. I couldn't. I wasn't there. " Two sharp white eyes locked onto Vanessa's, gleaming with frustration. "Here's a pretty little detail that all of you security type folk just love to skip over. I actually left the building early that night. Later than everyone else, sure, but early for someone in charge of closing up. Meaning whatever happened to Abby could easily have happened after I left. Check your precious camera footage if you don't believe me." 

"...You're right."

"I am?"

"Yeah. We really don't have much proof that you did anything. But please understand that we don't have much to work with aside from, 'you and her were alone in the building together'." 

"I get it." Ness assured. "I fucking get it. I know it's suspicious as fuck that you've got two people in a building and one walks out, whilst the other doesn't. But I'm also really sick of getting death glares from the other people that work around here because of it." 

"...I'm sorry, Ness." Vanessa confessed awkwardly. "If it's any help, I'm believing what you're saying right now. It's almost certain that whatever got Abby also got that kid and if that's the case, then I've probably got about as much reason to suspect you as anyone else here." 

"Maybe you should lay off the whole 'investigations' thing for a while." Ness suggested. "It's hardly your job after all."

"Yes but the police aren't helping. " Vanessa groaned in frustration, recalling numerous stressful phone calls. "They just said that they'll 'keep an eye out' and that there's nothing more they can do to help." 

"Ok, that's shit, sure, but you're still overworking yourself." 

"....You think?" 

"I mean, you're single-handedly taking on a job that a team of trained professionals usually does, aren't you?" Ness asked. "I'd call that overworking, don't know about you." 

The guard shuffled her feet, not liking Ness' call out. She wasn't wrong, Vanessa just didn't like to hear it. It made her feel...futile, hearing what she was doing spoken back to her. All her hard efforts sounded so small when put into words. 

Not wanting to dwell on that feeling for any longer, Vanessa checked her watch again. "We've got about...15 minutes before the doors open...I need to go get ready. You should do that too." 

"Will do! Have a good day, sunflower!" 

Vanessa smirked pleasantly at the nickname as she left Ness to get ready for the day. She'd been being too hard on her fellow co-worker. Ness was a little strange, sure, but she seemed to be a kind enough soul. But then, if Ness was off the hook, then who or what was behind those disappearances? Could it be that there was someone on the inside, actively working against them? Vanessa anxiously checked behind her as a name popped into her head. Dr. Henry Miller. A name she had heard from fragmented conversations between her family and their friends time and time again. No one had ever dared explicitly tell her who he was, but she'd heard enough. A murder. A manipulator. A madman who lurked at Freddy's. 'I heard he killed Steven.' Vanessa had overheard as she walked past the dining room one late night. 'I heard he experimented on Dave.' She'd caught as she was helping wash dishes. 'I heard he made Peter's suit go off.' She'd heard from a phone call. 

Henry was dead, she knew that, but she knew he’d published all his insane works in various books and papers. Was it possible that he had some kind of follower? A prodigy or an admirer, looking to continue his legacy? Oh Lord, what if he had a whole cult? How could she ever-

“Woah! Watch where you’re- I’m sorry, I didn’t- Are you alright?” 

Vanessa was snapped out of her head as she looked up from the ground to see that she had nearly walked right into Will. 

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry!” Vanessa exclaimed. “I should’ve been looking where I was going-”

“No no, you’re good, I really should’ve too, but I- Yeah, as I asked, are you alright?” Will asked. “You’re kinda shuffling around like a zombie.” 

“Me? I’m fine, I was just thinking, that’s all.” 

“Me too, actually.” Will laughed, though he sounded a little strained. “I swear, my head drives me crazy. ”

“Hey guys!” 

Before Vanessa could think of anything to respond to that with, a third voice sounded from behind them. The two looked around to see Ness bounding over to join them, now fully in costume. Vanessa stopped walking to let the performer catch up with them and Will followed suit. 

“Woah, who’s this?” Ness frowned at Will. “New guy, huh?” 

“Yep.” He offered his hand to shake hers. “I’m- My name’s- Will, nice to meet you.” 

Ness energetically accepted Will’s handshake, shaking his hand up and down in an exaggerated manner. “My name’s Vanny! Nice to meet you too, Will!” She exclaimed in a high pitched, cartoonish voice. After Will seemed a little shaken, she shook his hand properly and returned to her usual voice. “No, but seriously. My name’s Ness. It’s good to meet you too.” She hesitated for a second, taking in his appearance. “Hey, aren’t you that guy that was screaming outside?” 

“You were doing what now?” Vanessa shot a questioning look at Will.

“Yeah...Yeah, I guess you could say I was a little taken aback by how big this place is, y’know?” Will explained. 

“Do you know Jack?” Ness inquired. “The shit you were screaming...I don’t know, it seemed kind of personal.”

“What? No, no- Of course not!” Will protested quickly. “No, no, no, I just thought it was crazy how he’d gone from that one small location to this one.”

“He didn’t though...He built up a chain of modern locations, didn’t he Ness?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Oh no, I knew that!” Will hastily corrected. “No, I just- What I meant was that this place is a big jump up from those locations. Just bad phrasing, that’s all. It was my fault, sorry.” 

“Hey, easy, Will.” Vanessa eased. “It was just a mistake, we got it.”

“Oh yeah. Yeah, ok.” Will nodded. “I’m sorry. I’m just- Well, the first day is never easy is it? I’m sure I’ll get better at this.” 

“I think you’ll be fine.” Ness laughed. “None of us bite, even Jack! He might look like a zombie, but he’s a cool dude, promise!” 

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call him a ‘cool dude’, I think he’s a bit dull for that, but he does know what he’s doing with business. This place runs incredibly smoothly.” Vanessa agreed. 

“But that only works if you’re all working, not standing around yapping.” A fourth voice entered the conversation from behind them. Well, shit. There was Jack in all of his decomposing, tangerine coloured glory. “Come on you lot, get to it.”

“Sorry Jack!” Ness apologised. “I was just getting to know our new guy, that’s all. Did you know he’s the same lunatic I saw screaming outside?” 

“Oh, is he now?” Jack stroked his chin. “That’s curious. Ness gave me the impression that you weren’t too fond of me.” 

“I wouldn’t say that, sir!” Will assured. “I was just in awe of everything you’ve achieved since I saw you on TV. This place sure is a big step up, isn’t it?” 

“I suppose it is...Very different to what you’re used to at any rate.” agreed Jack.

“Wait. What?” 

“You told me you used to work at Candy’s, right?” Jack continued.

“Oh, yeah, that!” said Will. “Sorry, sir, I thought you were implying I’d worked at a Freddy’s before! Which, y’know. I haven’t.” 

“Of course. Sorry for the confusion, Will.” Jack clarified. “Now, if you’d all kindly get to work…”

“Will do, Mr. Kennedy.” Vanessa fixed her uniform slightly and started to walk again. “Sorry for the hold up.” 

“It’s not really me you should be apologising to, is it?” Jack taunted. “After all, if something goes wrong, I’m not going to be one of the ones getting hurt.”

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.

Chapter Text

Ugh. God, he felt groggy. 

Eyes…Yeah, eyes (He had eyes. Was that out of the ordinary?) slit themselves open, braced against a harsh morning sun. The room wasn’t immediately recognisable - A very plain room, bearing minimal furniture, the curtains wide open. Where was this place? He looked around some more, puzzled. White-cream walls. Clean, fresh feeling bed sheets. An average wooden table. It wasn’t until he caught sight of the pile of discarded clothes on the floor that everything came back to him. 

‘Geeze….What the fuck?’ Yep. There was Dave, echoing through their head. 

‘What’s wrong now?’ And that was Peter, always quick to question Dave.

‘Well, I’m no expert, but I get the impression that when this thing wakes up, we all wake up.’ Theorised Dave. ‘So, in other words - which one of you motherfuckers got us up at this hour?’ 

‘Not me….’ And finally, Steven. ‘I got cut off mid-dream. Uhhh….Dave, by the way, I need to ask you if you ever murdered-’ 

“AH. FINALLY. YOU’RE AWAKE.” 

“What do you mean, ‘finally’? 

“YOU HAVE A JOB, REMEMBER? A DAYSHIFT?” 

“Aww... Piss …” Dave groaned. Internally, Peter and Steven shared his sentiment. “Couldn’t we just kill ‘im today and be done with it?” 

“JACK IS CLEARLY DISTRUSTFUL OF YOU.” Said Blackjack. “NOT TO MENTION BASICALLY IMMORTAL, WHICH LIMITS THE AMOUNT OF WAYS WE CAN KILL HIM. SO NO, UNLESS YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH, I DON’T THINK YOU CAN.” 

“...What even happens if we die?”

Blackjack flicked an ear in annoyance at such a trivial question. “I DON’T KNOW. DO YOU WANT TO FIND OUT?” 

“Not particularly.” 

“WELL THEN.” 

With a reluctant sigh, the three admitted defeat. They sat, unsure of what to do until they caught sight of the pile of clothes on the floor. Getting dressed would be a good idea, wouldn’t it. They had no clean clothes, so they pulled on yesterdays. They weren’t that bad.

At some point they’d have to go and buy some stuff for themselves (where they were getting the money, they had no idea. Presumably Blackjack knew.) but for now these clothes were quite literally all they had. That being said, they checked the slightly dented bathroom mirror before they left. Might as well try to look at least half presentable, right? 

Curious fingers touched the cheek of an unfamiliar face, still unused to seeing it. Said fingers slowly moved up their face and into their hair again. The motion was evoking weird feelings. Unfamiliar yet somehow also deeply nostalgic. Their head felt weirdly foggy. The image in the mirror was swimming in and out of view. It was starting to look like someone else now, a different man, a man who he recognised all too well, even now, even after-

The three jolted backwards, stumbling in the wall behind them and they fought to get away from the mirror. The blurry world around them came right back into view, with their own reflection back in the mirror. 

"That...What was that…?' asked Steven. 

"One of you two recognised that guy." Peter added. "Who the hell was it?" 

"Looked like how I remember Steven, from when we worked in Location 14." said Dave. "Best guess is that without the Phoney programming, his memories are trying to force themselves back out. Something like that anyway." 

"As hallucinations?" Peter questioned.

"You got any better ideas?"  

“No, not really.”

With a confused grimace, the three dragged themselves away from the bathroom. ‘No use dwelling on the past right now’ was Dave’s main takeaway from the whole thing. Peter’s was one that held more anxieties - The process of having memories come back to you was never an easy thing, from what he recalled, and he’d heard one too many stories about fellow Phone Guys losing their minds over the process. Steven seemed to have zoned out.

“YOU SHOULD PROBABLY TRY AND EAT SOMETHING THIS MORNING, SHOULDN’T YOU?” Blackjack’s head popped through the wall behind them. The three nearly jumped out of their skin at the sudden voice from behind them. 

“I mean, ‘s not like we’ve exactly got anything, is it?” Dave replied,being the quickest of the trio to recover from the shock. 

“I TOLD YOU TO GET SOME LAST NIGHT AND YOU IGNORED ME.” Reminded Blackjack. “DO NOT PIN THIS ON ME.” 

“Well, what do you want us to do about it? As you’ve been saying, we’ve kind of got a job to get t- Alright, Dave, that’s enough.” Peter cut him off mid-sentence. “Do you think we have time to get something this morning, Jack?” He addressed Blackjack directly,still simply referring to him as Jack.

Blackjack looked away from Will. That oh-so-familiar gaze from his brother was once again digging into him.  “OF COURSE.”

“Great stuff! You’d uhh...Well, I guess you’d better lead the way, huh?” Said Peter. “I assume you know this area better than us, right?” 

“RIGHT. I’VE BEEN OBSERVING THIS AREA FOR A WHILE NOW. I CAN LEAD YOU.” 

‘He’s been planning this...’ thought Peter. A weird thought crossed his mind. If Steven and Dave hadn’t shown up, would Blackjack have sent him alone? Was that the only reason he’d been keeping him around, to hold him in place for this plan? He hoped not, but the thought kept chewing away at the back of his mind. 

Just ignore it.

There were bigger things at hand. 

Smaller things too though, apparently, as without even realising it, Peter found himself already outside the building and walking down the street. He made a mental note to try not to zone out. Spending even a second out of the loop right now could lead to him having no idea where he was or what they were supposed to be talking about. It was a scary thought, the idea of being on what was essentially autopilot. And his lack of faith in Steven and Dave wasn’t helping. 

Whilst Peter doubted they would try anything that Blackjack couldn’t handle, he still wasn’t exactly eased by their presence. There was some odd part of him that wondered if he was being too harsh on them, but every time that side popped up the grief and frustration he held about the mess that’d been his life shut it right back down. Why should he go easy on the man who killed his sister? Why should he leave the guy who had gotten him sent to The Factory alone? Blackjack may have seemed to forgive them but the older of the two Kennedy siblings just couldn’t see why. Was there something Peter was missing, or had Blackjack become so disconnected from his old life that he’d stopped caring? Peter wasn’t sure which was better. 

He tried to treat Blackjack the same way he would’ve treated Jack. He wasn’t sure if that was working though. Sometimes it felt as though Jack was just as dead as Dee, despite his soul still being perfectly intact and with him at nearly all times. But then again, he supposed that that must’ve been exactly how Jack saw him when he’d been fully under Factory control. It probably wasn’t fair of him to claim that he saw no traces of the ‘real’ Jack, when his own true self had been buried for 15 years. ...15 years. It always shocked him, that number. The endless routine had caused all those days to blur and melt together so that it always startled him when he consciously remembered it. His mind began to wonder how long Steven would’ve been at his location for. The other former location manager had been one of the earliest to die, so he’d heard, so trying to imagine how long he’d been completely ignorant to the truth of his nature....Oh Lord. Maybe he did feel a little sympathy for the man after all. Maybe...Ah, wait, shit! 

He’d zoned out again. He had absolutely no idea where they were. 

A quick assessment of their surroundings revealed a small shop, with money being slid across a counter to pay for an apple and some sandwiches. Was this...Was this really all they were getting to eat all day?

‘We’ll buy some stuff to live off of later. After work, I mean.’ Explained Steven, seeming to register Peter’s confusion. ‘This is just to tide us over until then.’

‘Ok.’ Peter vaguely registered that comment, but what really got him was where he realised they were after stepping out of the shop. It only took a brief examination of the place for him to realise that they were in a train station, big and bustling with people. ‘Ok, so wait. Which train are we getting on?’ 

‘We just got off one, actually!’ Dave corrected.

‘Wait...No. Did I really zone out through an entire train journey?’ Ok, yeah. That was scary. Definitely time to start making sure he was paying attention as much as possible. ‘Shit, you guys didn’t hear any of-’

‘We did our best to pay no mind to you, Phoney, don’t worry.’

‘It’s not that hard, y'know?’ Steven added. ‘You...uhh...you know when there’s a toddler screaming in another room and as much as you want to kick it out of your restaurant, you can’t, so you just have to pretend you can’t hear it? It’s kind of like that.’ 

‘Wow, Steven, you really know how to flatter a man don't you?’ 

The walk to the Pizza Plex passed quietly after that, as the three were distracted by eating. Peter hadn’t eaten whole food properly in so long - It was kind of sad to him how something as simple as eating an apple was making him so euphoric. Steven, on the other hand, was intensely curious. He was causing the vessel to take large bites, devouring the thing like they hadn’t eaten for eons. Like Peter, it was evoking some pleasant feelings that were similarly washed up with an odd sadness. He’d completely forgotten what using a mouth even felt like. 

They were finishing off the sandwiches by the time they arrived, where they were greeted by an amused Vanessa. 

“Anyone one’d think you haven’t eaten for years, you know?” 

“Sure feels like that too.” Dave responded through a mouthful of food. He felt weird - He didn’t consciously share the same experience of having not eaten properly as the other two, yet he was overwhelmed by their shared feelings, unable not to get caught up in the simple joy with them. 

“Yeah, I noticed you didn’t eat anything yesterday too.” Vanessa continued. “I mean like...You’re not really supposed to use the vending machines on site, but, I suppose, if you do I’m sure as hell not gonna tell.” 

"Oh, no. No, it's fine." Steven declined. "I wouldn't want to cost you a job over something so trivial." 

"Nah, you won't cost me a job." Vanessa reassured. "It's hard to find suitable people who are willing to work here. Mr. Kennedy  won't get rid of me unless he's got someone to replace me with, and well...Yeah, not everyone wants to work security in a place like this. Won't get rid of you, either. He was actually doing the maintenance himself before you rocked up." 

"Oh, wow." Incredible to think that Jack had held onto his vague knowledge of mechanics after all this time. Peter had been convinced that he'd straight up forgotten, but hey. Stranger things had happened around here than Jack spontaneously gaining knowledge about robots. "He must really trust me with this job then." 

The last part was sarcasm, of course, given Jack's less-than-trustful attitude towards them, but Vanessa seemed to miss it. "I'll bet. We've had a few apply for that job before. Jack described them as 'drunken idiots'. You're the first he's even considered. How'd you manage that?"

'...He knows something's up.' Fretted Steven. Dave brushed him off, and took a chance to reply. "By not being drunk, judging by what I've heard from you." 

Vanessa laughed, but midway through she appeared to remember something. “Oh, Will, by the way, I’ve been meaning to warn you. This place seems to have some kind of….uhhh...Infestation?” 

“Infestation?” 

“Yeah. Little scraps of food keep going missing and we have no idea why.” 

“Have you talked to Jack?”

“I did.” Vanessa sighed in annoyance, “But his only reply was ‘if those damn isopods have found me again then so be it. They always turn up eventually.’”

“Not surprised that they follow him with the way he’s rotting…” Peter muttered, remembering some of the less than pleasant conditions that came with letting a corpse live with you.

“What was that?” Vanessa asked. “Rotting?” 

Was that not common knowledge? Or maybe they weren’t expected to have figured that out yet. “I mean, he doesn’t half look like he’s decomposing, that’s all.” 

“You’re a smart guy. But yeah, keep your wits about you. There’s strange shit happening around here, I’m sure of it.” 

“You know I will.” 

As the two parted ways, some part of Will thought they caught a faint pitter-patter. A quiet scampering noise, coming down from some far corridor. Sounded like rapid footsteps to them, but you never could tell around here. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe their mind was playing tricks on them after Vanessa’s warning. Regardless, the noise was gone now, so it wasn’t really their problem anymore, was it? 

‘So what now?’ asked Peter. ‘You two would know more about this job than me.’ The thought made him feel uneasy for some reason. Yet again, he was forced to give control to these two. 

‘...I...I don’t consciously remember much of it. When I was in the Flipside I just sort of...Knew what felt right, y’know?’ 

‘Morning checks, I imagine. Make sure they’re all good for customers.’ Explained Dave. ‘But we should check what Jack wants from us first. Wouldn’t want to look too confident, would we?’ 

Which was a good idea, of course, but every interaction with Jack felt like playing with fire. 

Regardless, they made their way up to his office, to check what he wanted from them. Dave’s suspicions were proved mostly correct - Check the animatronics in the morning, make sure nothing went wrong during performances, insure that the springlock suits were safe for use (a job he said Vanessa would be glad to have out of her hands - ‘The poor girl already does so much around here. Give her a hand, won’t you?’) and make repairs along the way in any places that were necessary. He also told them to be on standby to fix anything else that might need it, or just to be given other small jobs, like mopping up unspecified off putting substances or helping lost children back to where they needed to be if they approached them. When they asked about the location’s other robots, the ones that acted as staff in places, Jack told them to leave those alone unless there was something seriously wrong. 

‘He didn’t get suspicious once during that whole briefing…’ Peter noted. It wasn’t really a comforting though. Jack could just as easily be lulling them into a false sense of security as he could’ve been starting to trust them more. 

When they got to the backstage storage room for the morning checks, the three ran into their first problem. “There’s supposed to be four, right?” Dave said aloud. There were. But here, standing before them, were only three animatronics. A wolf, a gator and a bird. “Where’s the fuckin’ bear? There’s always a fuckin’ bear. Gotta be.” 

There wasn’t a bear though. They checked every corner, every crevice and every storage cupboard nearby. No fucking bear. 

It wasn’t until they heard some loud, heavy noises out on the stage that they thought to go check out there. Sure enough, the restaurant's mascot was out there, already stood on stage. Odd, but not too odd, they supposed. ‘Someone probably just forgot to take it backstage yesterday.’ Dave decided. 

‘We should check it well though.’ insisted Steven. ‘Make sure it can move properly and wasn’t just left out here because it can’t walk.’ 

‘Yeah, Yeah, you’re right.’ Dave responded. ‘...You’re a lot more ‘on it’ today, I see.’ 

After a careful inspection, Steven and Dave were sure. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the robotic bear. Everything was in perfect working order. The thing could move just fine and every part of it was in the right place, from what they could tell at least. These newer models were naturally more complex than what they were used to, but the basics of them hasn’t changed that much from the later 80’s models. The thing was in perfect working order.

‘Some asshole must’ve just left it out then.’ Dave concluded. 

‘I thought they were supposed to just stay on stage during the night anyway?’ said Steven.

‘We changed that.’ replied Peter. ‘ I guess you must’ve been gone by then, but we got sick of them causing problems during the night and decided to just stick them in the saferoom so they’d stop mauling the people on night shifts to death. I guess this is just an extension of that.’ 

‘It makes sense.’ Steven agreed. ‘Honestly I don’t know why we didn’t just do this sooner.’

The inner workings of this company are a mystery.’ said Dave. ‘Probably wanted people to die so they could stick ‘em in the Factory.’ 

The Factory didn’t take people who died at night. The bodies would’ve rotted too much by the time we found them.’ clarified Steven.

‘ Well, fuck me then.’ Despite only being a voice in their head, Dave sounded exasperated. ‘I hate it here sometimes.’ 

Taking one last gander at Freddy, the trio decided to move onto the saferoom. The sight of the suits alone made the three marginally sick as they approached them. Despite their deaths being decades ago and the suits not being any kind of threat if you weren’t actually wearing one it wasn’t every day you had to go sticking your hands into the very same object that caused your first death. 

With one instinctive glance over their shoulder to make sure there weren’t any ominous magenta figures lurking in the doorframe, Will kneeled down and began the inspection. The suits were easier to inspect than the animatronics. Their robotic parts were so rarely used that all you really needed to do was give them a firm shake to make sure the metallic insides weren’t going to lash out at an unsuspecting performer, and watch your fingers whilst you were at it. 

No hazards came from any of their vigorous shaking so the three deemed it safe to leave. Just before they could, a large box caught their eye. A large, battered cardboard box marked ‘FOR MAINTENANCE AND EDUCATION PURPOSES ONLY’. 

‘Oh, those’ll just be-’  Peter began. He stopped as he felt them lurch forwards and realised that there was no point telling the others that he wasn’t interested in the old junk. They were going anyway. 

“The old training recordings,” Dave gasped. “So this is what Jack was talking about!” 

They looked awful. They’d been carelessly thrown into the box rather than stacked. Many were cracked. All showed their age. 

“Oh, man, what a goldmine we’ve stumbled on here, friends!” Dave exclaimed, pulling a cassette from the top of the pile. “These’ll be a right old listen.” 

“Not now though.” Peter objected. 

“You’re no fun.”

“If Jack catches us bunking off work because we’ve taken an interest in recordings from decades ago about things we clearly already know, we are so fucked.” 

“AS INTERESTING AS THEY’D BE, I’LL HAVE TO AGREE WITH...WHOEVER SAID YOU SHOULDN’T. AT SOME POINT, YES. RIGHT NOW? NO.” 

Blackjack appeared faintly beside them, curiously poking into the tape box. 

“Where’ve you been?” 

“I’VE BEEN NEARBY THE WHOLE TIME. BUT I ASSUME YOU DON’T WANT TO BE CAUGHT TALKING TO A GHOST, DO YOU?” 

“We’ve been alone this whole time.” 

“YOU DON’T KNOW THAT. SOMEONE COULD’VE WALKED IN.” 

Will sighed but didn’t argue. Blackjack wasn’t wrong.

There wasn’t much to do now, until people arrived and shows started. Dave looked at the tape in his hands longingly again. It’d be nice, wouldn’t it? A funny little nostalgia trip? But someone else had already put the tape back in the box and they were moving away from it now. 

Some day. Some day. 

Where to now? They wandered slowly back to the more central parts of the location, where people would no doubt soon start trickling through the doors. There was a corridor that ran above the main entrance, a floor or two above it. In the middle of said corridor was a strip that lacked walls, instead bearing glass panels and railing for people to stand and observe the main entrance. Not wanting to get caught up in the crowds, Will stood up there, resting their arms on the railing. Their eyes began to grow heavy as they stood there. The longer they stood there, the more their eyes closed. The faint babble of a small crowd from below them wafted up. Customers… The world below was starting to look less like a large hallway and more like a dining area. They weren’t leaning on a rail, no! This was clearly a table that he’d just stopped to rest on. He needed to take all the rest he could. After all, it wouldn't be long before some overexcited toddler tore poor Foxy’s tail off again. He sighed. One of these days he might as well give up with reattaching the damn thing, as much as he liked the animatronic’s desi-

Eyes blinked rapidly. They were up high looking over a hallway and they were leaning on a rail. ...Foxy? Foxy wasn’t here. 

‘Oh...Oh heck-’ Steven shuddered. 

‘That was yours, wasn’t it Phoney? Your memory?’ 

‘I...I think so, yeah.’ he confirmed. Those weird flashes of another location had resonated with him in an inexplicable way.

‘So memories are coming back to you in weird flashes that we all keep experiencing?’ Peter asked for clarification.

‘Uhh...yeah. Seems that way, doesn’t it?’ 

‘Ah...Geeze.’ Peter considered a sarcastic response. But it never came. If his own experiences were anything to go by, this couldn’t be easy for his fellow former Phone Guy. ‘Hey, well at least you’ve got us around. You’ll like...You’ll know what’s going on, and we’ll snap you back to reality, eh?’ 

‘Yeah...Thanks.’

‘Anytime.’   

Chapter Text

Ness was nowhere to be found. 

Usually, this wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Vanessa wanted to talk to her. So today, it was. 

The security guard had scoured the entire building from top to bottom (with the exception of Jack’s office - Her boss had claimed to be in an ‘important business meeting’) and her lavender co-worker was nowhere to be found. 

It was ridiculous, really. The building was big, sure, but an entire member of staff couldn’t just disappear. Maybe she was ill, Vanessa concluded. It was unlike Ness to miss a day, for she was never far from Jack but who knows. Perhaps she’d been so sick that her boss had caved and told her not to come in for once. There’d been a few times that Vanessa had told an under-the-weather sounding Ness to go home with no avail, but of course, if Jack had been the one to tell her- No. It wasn’t her place to speculate on what the two’s relationship was. Whatever it was, Vanessa didn’t wish to pry. It didn’t matter to her anyway. 

Safety checks, safety checks, safety checks. Get back on track and don’t think about Ness. She picked up her pace as she turned a corridor, heading along the balcony only to find Will leaning over the railing. Oh! Good! She could probably talk to him about what was bothering her. In fact, given his job, he might've even been the better person to bring it up with. But uhh- Was he ok? He was completely still, eyes glassy. Almost as if he wasn’t there at all. “Will?” 

“Huh!? What!? No- I wasn’t- I mean I was slacking but there was a good- It’s fine!”

“Hey! Easy!” Vanessa said, startled by Will’s sudden outburst. “I just wanted to ask if you’re alright? You seemed a bit out of it.” 

“Me? Oh, I’m fine. Please, pay me no mind.” 

“Right…Well, since we’re both here, there is actually something I wanted to ask you about.” 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I just- Does Freddy ever...End up in places he's not supposed to?  Look, I know you’ve only been here a few days but Jack keeps blatantly ignoring it and no one else has seen it and I really need someone to tell me I'm not going crazy over this-"

"We- I found him in a pretty weird place yesterday morning, yeah." Will explained. "He was standing out on stage, when none of the others were. Is that- Common? Frequent?" 

"Kind of, yeah. It's...I mean it's almost like that thing's got a mind of its own. A proper mind, I mean. I know the animatronics can wander around, but there's set areas and times for that, they can't just free roam."

"So...You think something's up wi- Something's gone wrong with the AI? Because uhhh...I can probably take a look, if you want?" 

"Yes, Please." 

"Uhh...Well, alright then! AI fixing! Cool!" There was Al degree of awkwardness as he sauntered off, something weird about the way Will had responded. Vanessa followed closely behind, having noticed this. They made their way towards backstage, where the animatronics were kept.

Freddy wasn't there.

And he wasn't on stage like last time either, they checked for that, of course.

"Fuck." Vanessa folded her arms to her chest. This was getting beyond a weird, small bother now. This was a problem. She paced around a little, knowing it was futile but not caring a whole lot. It was more to get stress out than to actually look. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. We need these robots on stage soon, and ones gone for a wander. Of course. Why would anything go right around here for onc-"

"Hey! Vanessa?!" Will's voice called out. She turned to see him standing on the stage, shouting down at her. "What's that door in the back of backstage?"

"That leads to the underground storage tunnels...Why?"

"Well- Y'see- It's open!" 

"What?" Open? That couldn't be right. No one had been backstage since last night to open it. Maybe it was possible someone had left it unlocked, she supposed, but still. Weird. Once she found the door, well, the state that it was in just left her even more confused. The door wasn't just unlocked, it was wide open, almost pushed back as far as it would go.

"I...Uhhh...I didn't do that, by the way." Will gestured to the door. "It was already open like that." 

"Well, shit-" Vanessa peered into the darkness of the tunnels in the back. It was wholly possible Freddy had gone walking off down there, if someone had left the door open. Those tunnels were like a labyrinth, how the hell were they gonna find one rogue robot down there of all places? There wasn't really time to go get a whole search party if they wanted to find the bear before showtime. Though, two pairs of eyes were at least better than one, she guessed.

"Have you actually been back here before?" She asked Will, who in turn said that he hadn't. That might make things a little...interesting. "Just stick with me, and keep your eyes peeled."

"Can do!" 

The two headed down into the cold, grey tunnels. There was no life here, no colour or noise like the rest of the restaurant. Their footsteps echoed, and  their shoes picked up grime from the dusty floor. Dim fluorescent lights did their best to illuminate the dark space, but they weren't the best. Vanessa got her torch out to help them see better. Cheery posters about safety caught in their light. Each picture of the restaurant's mascot sparked a little false glimmer of hope. 

"Do you think we'd hear him if we were close?" asked Vanessa.

"These animatronics are good, but I don't think they're 'last all night down here' good, no. I think he'll be out of power somewhere."

"Oh, great." Heavy metal footsteps would've been a dead giveaway. But of course, it wasn't that easy. It was never that easy. 

Turning the corner initially led to no avail, just more concrete and resources in storage, but Will seemed to spot something out of the corner of his eye. Down in the tunnels were several little first-aid stations - There had to be, with a tunnel system so big and rough. And this one looked...In use. The curtains of the little red tent they'd set up were pulled back, which probably shouldn't have been the case. This was an area that was meant to stay sanitary. There was no one inside upon investigation though it looked like the curtains had been ripped back, torn at the edges. Will knelt down, apparently having spotted an item of interest on the floor.

"That looks like it's from a- No… No, I don't think-" 

"What? What is it?"

Will turned around, holding a small mechanical part up to the torchlight. 

"I think Freddy might've been here." 

"Why would Freddy, a robot, come here?" 

"I don't know. But there's clawed back curtains and machine bits here. I don't know who else that would've been."

"He's nowhere to be seen though…" She did one final sweep of the area with her torch to make sure she hadn't missed anything else. "I guess we just press onwards? I mean, he must've come this way, so we're at least headed in the right direction, right?" 

"Right!" Will gave her a thumbs-up and then the two were off. She appreciated the enthusiasm from Will, because she herself was beginning to panic a little. A missing robot, that was also damaged? Not really the most ideal situation in the world. The following corridors yielded nothing. Just dust and concrete and boxes, as far as the eye could see. It was starting to feel like a labyrinth, with every stretch blending into the previous one. How long had they been here, how many corners had they turned? Impossible to say. 

Finally though, after what felt like hours, their persistence payed off. Will saw it first. Vanessa had been nodding off but as soon as she heard his sharp gasp she was alert again. There, slumped over against a wall, was Freddy. He looked...fine. A little dirty but otherwise in perfect condition. Will knelt down next to the animatronic, presumably to asses its condition. Something else was bothering Vanessa though. Right next to the bear, a storage room sat, door slightly ajar. How many careless people were going to leave doors open around here? 

She went to go and close it, but- 

Oh. Oh fuck.

The inside of the room definitely wasn't in the state it was supposed to be in. Instead of an orderly storage room, what she saw was much more akin to a child's messy bedroom. Random shit just seemed to have been thrown everywhere - Clothes from the gift shop, Freddy plushies, a lazer gun, half eaten jars of stuff that could only have come from the kitchen and discarded paper cups. In one corner, a stack of blankets and pillows - all once again from the gift shop - made what looked to be a makeshift bed. Will was mumbling to himself behind her. He hadn't seen it yet, God, what was distracting him so much? She almost thought she saw a flash of something purple and gold when she looked over at him, but no. Trick of the light? Man, he could be oblivious.

"Will...Will, I think- I think someone might be living here."

"What?" He got up to take a look, craning his neck and peering over Vanessa’s shoulder to get a good look at the room.  "What the fuck…." 

"I- This wasn't something I was expecting, I-" Vanessa was honestly at a loss for words. "Who? Who'd stay here ?" 

"I di- I dunno, but there's something I wanted to tell you too."

"Oh?"

"Well, Freddy here, he's...just fine. Nothing broken or what, he's just out of power." 

"Which is good, right?"

"Well, yeah it is, but-" he scratched the back of his head, looking a little sheepish. "We found a broken off part or two where he'd been earlier." 

"Oh, fuck." Yeah, that was puzzling. "Do you think he's been here before?"

"Maybe, yeah, I guess- But- I, well-" He fidgeted in place. "Call me mad, but uhh...Stopping off at first-aid stations and now parking himself here? It kind of seems like he was trying to look after someone, y'know?" 

"I- Come on, you're the tech guy. You know they can't do that, right?" 

"'Course I do! It's just weird, that's all I'm saying." 

"Ugh...I...Yeah, you're right...Fuck, man. What're we gonna do?"

"Well, I guess we'll tell people Freddy’s down here for starters. We're not getting that massive hunk of metal out of here ourselves." 

“Right. Yeah. Good idea.” She nodded, her head starting to clear a little. “We’ve got to get out of here. God knows what people think we’re up to right now.” 

“Ah, it’s not like you to bunk off, I’m sure. You’ll be alright.” 

They walked in silence on the way out, until they didn’t. There needed to be sound. The quiet was louder than their voices could ever be. Vanessa couldn’t stand it.

“So uhh…Where are you from? With an accent like that and all?”

“Me? Well. I uhh…” Will stuttered. “I lived in New York for a bit. When I was little. Moved out of there years back. It faded over time, y’know? The accent?” 

“Huh. Yeah, I guess that-”

Footsteps. Not hers or Will’s. Other footsteps, from someone quick and light on their feet. Running. Someone was running. 

She was on it in an instant, quickening her pace to follow the noise. She ignored Will’s calls. What was he saying? She didn’t know. This wasn’t a safe place for someone to be staying, they’d already had two missing people, this place wasn’t- 

“Vanessa! Wait up!” Ok, finally, there was Will. “Please, I just- Blac- I have a theory- -ld me- about something!” He was struggling to get words out. Was he…Out of breath? Was that it? He was acting weird. “Listen I just think- We need to be careful about this. I don’t think it’s what we think- I-”

Another noise. A small noise. A whimper. Vanessa stopped to think for a second, now that her impulse had worn off. A tall woman in uniform, rapidly approaching you? That must’ve been terrifying. 

“Hello?” Will called. “Hello, hello?” 

“Hel-He— H–HHH– Gah!” A small series of stifled noises sounded out from behind a stack of crates.

“Over there.” He pointed.

The two edged over to the crates, trying not to be too loud. There was a pit in Vanessa’s stomach, an inkling of an idea that she desperately didn’t want to be true dancing in the back of her mind. And- Oh, Oh God. Her stomach turned over. There it was. That thing she so desperately didn’t want to be true. 

Hunched up, in amongst the crates was a child. They couldn’t have been older than 13, Vanessa guessed 12. They were holding their hands over their head in an effort to conceal it, but it was useless. It was very clear to see what was wrong with it. In place of the child’s head was a dark, navy phone. It looked old. It didn’t suit him, she thought. Everyone with an old phone-head she knew was just as old as the damn thing. This kid wasn’t.

“That’s- They’re-”

“A child, yeah. A child got made into a Phone Guy.” There was something odd about Will as he spoke, something different. He seemed more present, more in the moment. “Sick fucks.” 

He got down to the child’s level, trying not to seem so imposing. “Hey there.” The child said nothing. “..I’m sorry I played that trick on you earlier. That was mean, I know. But I needed to know where you were.” 

“G-G-GGG–ooo– G-Go away. I do-don’t wanna ta-ta-talk to you.” 

“That’s not a good voice for you.” Something in Will’s expression softened. “That’s the default voice for Phone Guys. And that’s the voice of an old man.” He shook his head. “Hey, Hey, look at me. I can help you get rid of that, don’t worry. Your old voice is still in there.” And now it was the kid’s turn to shake his head, doubting Will. “No, it is, I promise. I’ve….I’ve met people like you before. You’ve got a voice box in there somewhere, but it can be turned off. You just have to- Ugh…I don’t know how to explain it. You have to use your mind…You can’t physically turn it off.”

He looked pained as he spoke, seeming to realise the vagueness of what he was saying and how hard it must’ve been to follow. The kid sat, trembling and quiet, head still buried in his hands. Everything seemed still for a moment, and then-

“Uh-Uh- I- Hi?”

“That’s it! There it is!” Will congratulated. “That’s your voice, right?”

“Yeah…Yeah.”

“Are you gonna talk to me now? Or are you still not ready?”

“No, I- I’ll talk-” 

“Ok, that’s good. What’s your name, kid?”

“Gregory. Gregory uhh…Kennedy.”

“You’re the kid who went missing…” Vanessa said, having a realisation. She felt…stupid, now knowing one of the people who had gone missing had been right under her nose the whole time. It wasn’t her fault, was it? How could she possibly have expected this? 

“Kennedy, huh?” There was something unreadable going on behind Will’s eyes. “And you- Do you remember where you live? How to get home?”

“Yes…” 

“And are you safe to stay in that room of yours until the end of the day?”

“Yeah. No one ever comes down here.” 

“And if we took you home at the end of the day, you would be able to show us the way?”

“Yeah, I would, I- Yes, please. But– Can- Can I leave? I- Will that work, is that allowed, can that happen?”

“Of course. Now, let's get you back to your room for now, ok?”

“M’kay.” The kid, Gregory, slowly got up on his feet. Now that he wasn’t covering his head, Vanessa noticed it had a crack, which had been crudely covered by a plaster. She could see the scars too, those horrible symmetrical marks she knew all too well, running up and down the scrawny kid’s body. Standing next to Will- There was a similarity in their scars, she realised. They weren’t the same, they were just reminiscent. There was something weird about the guy. Absent minded, yet somehow having also already planned what to do with this lost kid. And all that stuff Will had known about Phone Guys-

“Hey, Will?” She asked as they walked. “Where’d you learn all that stuff?”

“Well, I- Uh…” Panicking. But why? “There was a really old Phone Guy- Name was Steven Stevenson. And uhh- That was my dad. Met him later on in life when he…escaped. Until then I lived with my mother- But she died- And I raised my siblings- Lonely- But then we met again!”

“Huh.” Steven…That was a name she’d heard off of her grandad once or twice, in passing. Harry’s old co-worker. But then- Will had grown up in New York, hadn’t he said? Far from any Freddy’s- So how- Oh, screw it. Personal family history wasn’t her business, was it? But there was definitely something missing from his story.

“Freddy!” Gregory’s cry broke her line of thought. “What happened to him?”

“We found him outside your room, kiddo- Out of power. Did you bring him down here?” asked Will.

“He was helping me- Once one of the auto-bots dropped me back in the Pizza Plex I didn’t know what the he-heck I was supposed to be doing- And he found me! He’s been taking stuff from the giftshop at night for me, so I can, y’know, not like– Sleep on concrete.”

Vanessa and Will exchanged silent glances that both boiled down to ‘what the fuck?’ but said nothing. “Ok, well, people are gonna come down here to get him in a bit so- Uhhh- You make sure to stay hidden, alright?” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I got this.” He pulled something out of his back pocket.

“Hey- Those are the spare keys!” Vanessa exclaimed. “I thought I lost those.”

“I’ve been locking and unlocking doors- No one seems to mind.” Gregory explained. “I’ll just lock myself in. It’ll be ok!” 

“Sneaky- But yeah, stay sharp! We’ll be back at the end of the day!”

“I’m Vanessa, by the way.” The security guard added. “And the one with the mouth who skipped over introductions is Will.” 

“Oh, yeah, right! Yeah, Will, that’s me-” He reiterated. “And don’t worry…”

“We’ll be back.”

Chapter Text

“Ok! I’ll get right to it, Jack! See you later!” 

“See you later, Ness.” 

Jack said goodbye to his employee and returned to the ever growing stack of paperwork that sat before him. His pen tapped on the table. The clock behind him ticked. The whole room was buzzing with rhythm. Paper. Pen. Clock. 9 to 5. 7 days a week. It was this endless loop that kept him in check, kept him from insanity. He knew his place, and that place was here now. Henry would do the rest, operating in his ghostly form, jumping from mind to mind. He couldn’t feel the parasitic man right now. Clearly, he was latched onto someone else’s mind. Jack was alone. It was alright. He didn’t care for noise. 

Paper. Pen. Clock. A knock on the door.

Ah. Now that was something different. A disruption. 

“Come in!” 

Oh. It was Vanessa. 

…She looked furious. 

“Sir.” The security guard struggled to stay composed. “We need a talk. Immediately. Right now.” 

“Take a seat then.” 

She opened her mouth like she was about to protest, but didn't. She just pulled the chair in front of her out as quickly as possible and sat down. Once on the chair, however, she wasted no time and immediately got to her point.

“So. The missing people, right? Yeah? The two missing people. I found one of them. Will and I found the kid.” Vanessa gripped the sides of the chair tightly. “Sir. We need to talk about that automatic system where bots pick up springlocked workers- I- I mean it's bad enough that we have one of those to begin with, but- I don’t know what the hell happened, but it’s picked up a kid. There’s a kid, and he got sent to the Factory, he got springlocked, he's had his head replaced-” 

“Oh. Early days, I suppose.”

“Sir-” Vanessa was doing her best not to scream and Jack could hear it. “The fact that that’s happened to a fu- To a child aside, isn’t said child also related to you? Don't you know, and look after that child? Gregory Kennedy? Isn't that what you told me when we first thought he'd gone missing? Don’t you care, at least a little ?”

“Right. My brother’s kid’s son.” Jack paused. “Like grandfather, like son, I suppose. Huh. Peter would’ve stabbed a man over this, if he was around.” 

“How can you sit here and be so apathetic over this!?” Oh, God, she was fuming. “Do you know what that kid’s been through!? Do you know what that kid’s going to go through?” 

“...Wilson…” Jack recalled, pushing the woman’s questions aside. “Vanessa Wilson. I knew a Jake Wilson, once. Any relation?” 

“My grandfather. He said you were awful.” 

"And he was a phoney."

"Yes." 

"I see." 

The clock ticks seemed to grow louder. The tension in the room was palpable. 

"That's it? You 'see'? Is that all you've got to say!?" she demanded. "Why do we even still have a Factory? What do we need Phone Guys for?" 

"They're useful." 

"They'd be just as useful if they were still alive." 

“You wouldn’t get it. It’s alright.” 

Another bout of silence. Sharp green eyes met lifeless, empty sockets. The dead man didn’t care. Couldn’t care. His soul was long gone and any capacity he might’ve held for emotion was long washed away by a string of murders. Apathy was the only real option when you got to this many bodies. 

“You have to take him out of here, Jack. He can’t stay.” 

“He’s, what, 12? He can get himself out.”

“You- No. Fine. I’ll do it.” 

“Ok.” Jack really didn’t care. “A fucked up kid really isn’t useful to me. Do what you like with him.” 

“I-” Vanessa got up from her chair. “Good day, Sir.”

She slammed the door behind her. Honestly. The nerve of some people. 

‘You haven’t been checking the Factory?’ Oh, and there was Henry, right in his head again. Just what he needed.

“I hadn’t seen any phoneys. How was I supposed to know it’d been used?”

‘Idiot.’ There was a pause, a quick second of silence. ‘I need to check something.’

At the same time as all this, Will was sat backstage, waiting for Freddy to be brought up from the underground. As per usual, a whole torrent of inner turmoil was happening behind a blank looking stare. Peter was fucking furious. 

‘My family’s cursed, my family’s so cursed, we’re all fucked, I swear to God. I thought I’d be the last freak, I thought once I died it’d all be fine, we’d be rid of this stupid fucking place once and for all-’

‘Easy there, phon-’

‘Once we’re done here, I’m gonna set this place on fire. I’m gonna do it, it’ll happen.’ He seemed near inconsolable, continuously ranting in their head about this place. He’d wanted to keep everyone close to him as far away from here as he could, so why- Why, now, after his death, had this happened? It was all so-

‘Please, come on. Peter, you’re not thinking right-’ Steven said, making yet another effort to calm the other man.

‘What do you mean, ‘not thinking right’, I-’

‘Well, for starters, I think you indirectly called your own grandson a ‘freak’, and uhh- Remember what Blackjack said? We can’t lose our heads over this, I mean- Oh, we’re lucky Vanessa doesn’t seem too suspicious of us as it is. What happens if she, I don’t know, tells Jack that there’s a weird guy who knows a whole hell of a lot about Phone Guys claiming to be well- Err- My son?’

‘Right. She doesn’t know you were dismantled back in the 80s but I’ll betcha Jack sure as hell would.’ Dave added. ‘It was kind of his fault, after all.’

‘Yeah. Yeah, alright, fine. Nothing rash for now.’ His voice grew weary, the anger slowly burning out. ‘That probably wouldn’t turn out well, would it?’ 

“Hey! Hello?”

Oh. Someone was calling for them. 

“Ah- Sorry! Kind of fell asleep there.” The person who had been trying to get their attention was one of the people who’d been sent to retrieve Freddy, if they recalled correctly. Oh. So they’d probably gotten the bear out of the underground, huh? 

“No worries.” Their fellow employee said. “Do you uhh…Need a hand with anything?”

“No, I should be alright, I mean- I already checked him over a bit, and everything seemed fine. I’ve got this.” 

“Ok. Call someone if you change your mind!” 

And then they were alone. Thank fuck, they were finally alone. Keeping up the act was exhausting.

“Blackjack?”

“HERE. AS ALWAYS.” The dog announced, making his presence known as he appeared. “COME, SEE THE BEAR. THEY LEFT HIM IN THE RECHARGE STATION.”

Will followed Blackjack over to where they’d left the animatronic. Sure enough, there he was, propped up in a weird cylinder shaped pod, wires and cables trailing from open panels. “Never had anything like this back in Colorado…” 

“YOU’VE ALL BEEN DEAD FOR A VERY LONG TIME.” 

“I guess…” A small pause as some internal deliberation took place. “So what do you think, Jack? Possessed or not?” 

“I DON’T KNOW. HOW ABOUT WE TALK TO HIM?”

“Right, yeah. Talking. Talking’s good.” Will nodded. “Just one quick question - How the fuck-”

“Do I know you?”

“Oh, Jesus Christ!” The sudden speech earned an instant recoil from Steven, which in turn threw the other two off balance. They stumbled backwards, near falling over. “Wow, Ok. Hi? Hello?”

“You are…familiar to me. This is most unusual for someone new.” 

“Uhhh…Jack…? I didn’t really plan for ghosts- Who the fu- -at somehow know me-” 

“NO…HUSH.” Blackjack ignored Will, focused on the robot in front of him. He looked unusually cautious. “WHO ARE YOU? ” 

“I don’t understand.” The bear cocked his head slightly, confused.

“YOU- ARE YOU NOT SOME KIND OF PERSON? A SOUL?” 

“I really do not understand.”

“NO…” Will felt uneasy. It wasn’t like Blackjack to seem so lost. He always seemed so knowing, so wise. “PLEASE, WORK WITH ME.” 

“Jack? What’s wrong?”

“I- YOU WOULD ALL AGREE THAT THIS IS UNUSUAL BEHAVIOUR, RIGHT? YOU ALL AGREE WITH ME ON THAT?”

“Mmmm…Yeah, I guess.” Dave looked at the robot with a frown. “But, could it be, like, I don’t know? Really advanced A.I or something? It is the future, yeah?”

“WELL, YES BUT- IT’S WEIRD, IS IT NOT?”

“I don’t know, but-”

“Where’s Gregory?” 

“Gregory’s fine. He’s underground, hiding, nice and safe.” Peter assured. “We’re gonna take him home when the work day ends.” 

“And he agreed to that?”

“Uhhh, yeah. Why wouldn’t he?” 

“He told me that he was afraid. Of if he could ever see his friends again. Of what his father might think.” 

Oh, that poor kid. Peter remembered feeling similar when he had stumbled out of Freddy’s back into his old home all those years ago. Afraid of what his wife might think, what his son might think.

“Believe it or not, I’ve actually met Gregory’s father. He’s a fine man.” said Peter. “The kid will be fine. I promise you.”

“That’s…Good.”

“YOU DON’T SOUND CONVINCED.”

“...I will miss him.” The robot slumped a little. “But this is what’s best for him. I recognise that.” 

“I’m glad.” They paused. They could all see Blackjack itching to talk about this more away from the robot. “If you’re all in working order, I probably need to get going for now thou- I’ll be back, don’t worry. Don’t know if you heard, but I’m kiiiind of the tech guy around here now, I guess.”

“At last! Jack must’ve trusted you a lot to give you a job like that!”

“Yeah- Yeah I, I guess you could say that?” They got up, struggling for balance for a second before feeling steady enough to walk. “Look, I really do need to be on my way now, I said you looked to be working just fine. But I’ll come by again tomorrow, I guess? Yeah, tomorrow.”

“Will you tell me how it goes with Gregory, Please?”

“Of course. I’ll see you then, alright?”

The door swung shut behind them as they left. It was weird. Real weird. Non-possesed robots didn’t do nice things like helping troubled children. Possessed robots didn’t have no idea of their current situation.

“BOYS.” Blackjack sighed. “I THINK WE MAY BE HERE A LITTLE LONGER THAN WE ANTICIPATED.”

Chapter Text

Dark. God, it was ever so dark. She couldn’t see. She’d stumbled around blindly for what felt like an eternity, but found only dry, concrete walls. She couldn’t say how much time had passed, only that the sticky, wet stuff on her clothes had dried out and made them feel stiff. Her body felt wrong. Her skin was rough and her head was numb. What had happened before this? She didn’t know. 

A click. 

A click, there it was, that was a click, that was something new! Was someone here, had someone finally come? She lurched forwards towards the source of the noise and found something. She didn’t know what it was, but it was something. A cold, hard, metallic something. And it was moving.

They pushed her off and she fell backwards. Of course! It’d been so long since she’d seen another that she’d borderline forgotten about personal space.

“Oh, you poor thing…” An automated voice filled the room. Oh! This was one of the staff robots! “Look at this…”

She tried to speak. Couldn’t. Her mouth wouldn’t move. 

“Trust a load of A.I to do such a delicate act of creation and…Oh, who would’ve guessed. It goes wrong.” 

She didn’t know what they were talking about, but it sounded like whoever this was was on her side. That was good. 

“I mean, sure, they’ll learn, but that’s not fair, is it?” A question. She couldn’t answer. “For that to happen, there has to be a few fuck-ups first. It can’t be right straight away.”

She still didn’t fully grasp what this person meant. She was starting to agree though. Yeah, it was unfair that she was here! …Wherever ‘here’ was.

“It’s ok though.”

A hand reached out, a grabby, mechanical hand. It searched her all over, before pulling something from one of her back pockets.

“I think I have an idea or two about what to do with you.”

Chapter Text

“So, how do you propose we get him out?” Vanessa asked. Her and Will were making their way down to Gregory’s room, having now both finished their shifts. Her question might’ve been a tricky one for some but Peter had years of practice.

“Do you think you could find a really big coat for him?”

“I mean, yeah? My own would probably be pretty big on a kid like him. Why?”

“Because if the hood’s not big enough it’ll be a funny shape when he hides his head in it.” 

“Right, yeah. That checks out.” Vanessa agreed.

Dave and Steven be damned, Peter didn’t really care about their ‘cover’ if talking about this stuff was going to help Gregory. Who in their right mind was going to suspect them of being three dead people in a magically conjured up body anyway? That seemed like something that would only be possible in some absurd work of fiction. Their cover story was miles more believable than the truth, they’d be fine. 

Arriving at the same room from earlier, the two found it locked. "Gregory!" Will called. "It's us, from earlier! We're coming to take you home!" A few clicks were heard from the other side of the door and out came the kid. In one hand, dangled a Freddy plush which he clutched fiercely. He held an air of nervous determination about him, something which Peter once again knew well. 

"Ok...I'm ready." 

“Cool! Do you know how far you live? Like uhh- How long’s this gonna take us?” Steven asked. He wasn’t against helping Gregory, quite the opposite, but he was also consciously aware that they couldn’t get away with wearing yesterday’s clothes or having no food for much longer. Ideally, he thought they should loop back to a shop or two on the way back. 

“I think it took us about half an hour to walk here. Maybe more? I’m not really sure.” Was he struggling with remembering things? That needed an eye kept on. Dave had heard rumours of Gen 3 phoneys, who could remember every detail of their past lives, but that was back in the 90’s. There was no way of knowing what on earth had been done to this kid’s head, or where his mind was at. 

“Wait- I-” Vanessa stuttered. Something seemed wrong, but none of the guys could figure it out. “Who do you live with?”

“My dad.” Gregory replied. Vanessa glanced at Will with a kind of ‘we need to talk about something, but not in front of this child’ look. Clearly, something was up. Their vessel didn’t return said look, however, because Peter had just begun to grapple with the daunting prospect of seeing his son again. He’d be all grown up now, and Peter wouldn’t be able to say a thing, for fear of blowing cover. Shit. 

“Just your dad? No one else?” asked Vanessa.

“Well, my grandma used to live with us too, but she’s…She’s not around anymore.” 

Ok. Ok. Fuck, keep it together, Peter. It wasn’t too unexpected, right? He’d been dead for ages, it wasn’t that surprising, he supposed. But still, it hurt. Given his knowledge that there was at least some kind of afterlife, he wondered where Caroline was now. Not the Flipside, he hoped. Vanessa still had a whole concoction of different emotions brewing behind a steely gaze too, though what that was over was still anyone’s guess. Someone would ask later. 

“And you’re sure your dad will be at home when we get there?” A nod. “Right. Ok. We can take you home to your dad…Uh… I’m just going to go get my coat, then we’ll get walking, ok? Will, how about you take him to the door?” 

“Can do!” Dave forced some optimism through Peter’s greif. “Come on then, kid. And don’t you worry about funny looks. Basically everyone else has left already.” The three set off, emerging from the musty underground through the door into the backstage. Gregory turned his head in Freddy’s direction but said nothing. The robot was motionless, powered down for the night. There was nothing to see there but metal. They kept walking. 

The pair hung around by the door for a little bit, waiting for Vanessa. She sure was taking her sweet time getting that coat of hers, wasn’t she? There wasn’t a whole lot to talk about, so they simply didn’t. A couple of workers left the building. They were too busy trying to get home to pay Gregory any mind. 

“Ok, sorry that took so long!” Ah, there she was. Vanessa jogged towards them, a purple raincoat slung under one arm. “Honestly, it’s a real mess back there. Took me forever to find this.” It wasn’t a mess, and it probably hadn’t taken her forever to find that coat. Peter, Steven and Dave all agreed on that. But this wasn’t a conversation for now. 

“It’s not even raining…” Gregory glanced outside, then back to Vanessa.

“No, that’s true, but you didn’t want any attention, did you?” She handed him the coat. “Put the hood up.”

“And keep your head down a little,” Peter added. He was well practised with this kind of thing, he knew exactly how to get around.

“Oh…Yeah, ok, I see.” The kid nodded and pulled on the coat. It was pretty big, even on his lanky frame and the hood dropped down, covering nearly his entire head. “Like this, right?” 

“Yeah, like that!” said Peter. “It’s good practice to use a raincoat instead of like…uh, a hoodie or something too, You’re not exactly waterproof up there.” 

“Alright. I’ll try to remember that!” Gregory was trying to put on a brave face, but Peter caught those wavers in his voice. He couldn’t blame him. The thought of having to live the rest of your life like this was a daunting one. 

“You lead the way then, Gregory!” Said Dave. “Because none of us have a clue where we’re going.”

“Ok!” The group set off at a brisk pace. The weather outside was…average, to say the least. Not very sunny, not gloomy, just a bit cloudy and a tad windy. People on the streets didn’t give them a second look as they went by. Steven knew why, because to anyone unsuspecting they looked like some of the most normal people you’d see. But still. That anxiety was tearing him up inside. Keep going, keep walking. Don’t think about other people, don’t think about yourself of trying to act ‘normal’, when you try to do that you just end up making yourself look weirder! Just- Just uhh- Just- 

‘Hey.” said Peter. “I’ve done this lots of times. It’ll be ok.’ Simple as that was, it was unexpectedly reassuring. Maybe it had something to do with the kind of…knowing that they had in here. Steven couldn’t really explain it. He just knew that there were intangible experiences, ever so slightly out of his reach behind those words. 

Their journey led them down through a variety of streets, but the kid hadn’t lied. It was only about 30 minutes of walking. That was a good sign - Perhaps his memory wasn’t slipping. Perhaps he really was like those Gen 3s, able to recall everything with no issue. Gregory pulled yet another key from his shorts pockets, a single one this time. A backup key, for emergencies, he said. Just in case he got lost. Now seemed like a good time to use it. 

The house seemed…still. Unnaturally undisturbed. Like nothing had been touched for a while. It was enough to put all three of Will’s souls on edge. Sure, there was nothing immediately wrong but…There was just an uncomfortable feeling lodged somewhere deep in their gut. Something felt wrong. 

“Dad?” Gregory called, running off deeper into the house to go and look. His voice told Will they weren’t alone in thinking something felt off. 

“...That’s not great…” Vanessa ran her finger over a nearby surface. A thick layer of dust came off. 

“Mind telling me what’s been on your mind then?” Peter asked, now Gregory was gone.

“Jack told me Gregory lived with him.” sighed Vanessa. “When he first went missing. Y’know, obviously when he first went missing, it was one of his friends that told me. And naturally I was like ‘well that's weird, what about his parents?’. And I was talking to Jack about it and he went ‘Oh, Gregory Kennedy? Yeah, he lives with me. I’m sure you’ve noticed I’ve been stressed the past few days’, blah, blah, blah. Showed me a family photo and everything.” 

“And you didn’t think to say? Before we left?” 

“Well, I just- I don’t really trust Jack all too much. He’s a fucking weirdo. And, I guess, I didn’t want it to be true either. That asshole should not be caring for children.” She sighed. “But maybe it is true. I mean, the dude’s clearly not just out right now. This place doesn’t look like it's been lived in for some time.” 

Dave had an idea. It was a stupid idea, but it sure as hell was one. He walked through the hall and into the kitchen. It stank of something rancid. He tried his best to avoid that. Instead, he headed for the fridge and brought out a carton of milk. Already open, nearly on its last drop. He checked the date.

“Hey, Vanessa?” He asked. “How long ago did Gregory go missing?”

“...I guess maybe…Two weeks ago? A little bit more?”

“Interesting.” He found some eggs. Checked the date on those too. 

“What’re you doing?”

“Checking the dates on the food.”

“Yeah, I can see that. Why?”

“Because,” They set the eggs down. “Looking at some of this stuff, it kind of seems like someone was living here up until maybe…two or three weeks ago.” 

“...” Her jaw dropped a little. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not! I mean, ok, it is kind of a wild guess, but look at these dates-” Dave pointed to the eggs. “Until recently, someone was buying food. And usually people do that when they’re living somewhere.” 

“Ok. Yeah.” She ran her eyes over the labels of some of the food Will had brought out. “But then, what do you think happened to the guy? I didn’t have a third missing person on my ra- Oh fuck-”

“What?”

“Well…I mean- Ok. Jack was so clearly involved with this, right? So– I only knew Gregory was missing because of one of his friends. Jack…I’ll bet Jack was hiding this from me. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but- Come on.” 

“That sleazy bastard-” The words slipped out before Dave could keep them in. Because of course, of course this all would’ve been Jack. Typical Jack, typical scummy Jack. 

“He’s not here.” Gregory’s voice interrupted them.

“No, he’s not.” sighed Vanessa. “And he hasn’t been for a very long time, we don’t think.”

Gregory nodded. “He wouldn’t have let the house get like this. I know he wouldn’t.” Christ, you had to feel for the poor boy. He was trembling from head to toe, clutching the plushie in his hand like his life depended upon it. And yet, still , he was trying to look brave. “I don’t know where he is.” 

“Will and I don’t either.” Vanessa sighed. “But listen, I planned for this. I called my granddad earlier. He said you can stay with him for as long as you need to, alright? We won’t leave you alone here.” 

“...Ok.” He sounded close to tears. He wasn’t, of course, he couldn’t be, but he didn’t half sound like it. “....Can’t I just go back to where I was…?” 

“It’s not safe there.” Vanessa said, firm this time. “I don’t want anything else to happen to you. You’ll be safe with these people. They can help you.” 

“And we’re gonna do what we can to find your dad, ok?” Peter added. “We’re gonna get to the bottom of what happened to him.” 

“Can I go get some stuff before we go?” Vanessa told him he could and the kid ran off to gather some things together. He came back downstairs about 10 minutes later holding a rucksack and dressed in some clean clothes.

Gregory nodded weakly. His body still hadn’t stopped shaking. Peter had an idea. “Hey, why don’t you come here for a sec?” Gregory got closer, but still looked unsure. Making sure to be gentle, Peter picked the hoisted the kid up and sat him up on their shoulders. “Is that good?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He felt the child’s shaking slowly die down as he held on. Then, he turned his head to talk to Vanessa. “Does your grandpa live far?”

“Well, it’s about 45 minutes in the other direction from work so-” She seemed to realise what she was setting them up for mid sentence. “...Let’s get back to the Plex and I’ll see if he can pick us up from there. I’ll call him again on the way.” 

“Good idea,” Will agreed, and then they were off. He wasn’t sure exactly what the date was, but it must’ve been some time close to summer because the sun was still peeking out from behind the clouds as they walked back. A slight breeze drifted over them, sending slight chills through the group. They didn’t talk to each other a whole hell of a lot - Vanessa was on the phone and Gregory was starting to fall asleep on Will’s back. He kept letting out funny old sounds - weird, crackling noises, which Will recognised as phoney ‘yawns’. Any kind of sound that wasn’t just talking never came out right. 

There was already a car parked outside once they arrived. A man with a black rotary phone for a head stood next to it. ‘Harry’s still kicking? Jeeze!’ said Dave, thankfully having the restraint to do so internally. Steven hoped that Dave’s shock hadn’t shown externally. 

“Harry!” Vanessa greeted the man, surprisingly brightly all things considered. 

“Vanessa! I’m uhh- I’m sorry Jake couldn’t be here. There was a- Oh, well you’ll see when we get there. Bit of an accident in the kitchen. Blender decided to explode.” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, it’s all good.” She pointed to the two others, standing behind her. “Room for 3?”

“Of course! So that’s the kid and uhh…?” Harry trailed off, fumbling for a name.

“I’m Will. I work with Vanessa. The kid’s Gregory.” They gently pulled the child off of their shoulders and into their arms, struggling to hold him for a second. He was a pretty spindly kid but even then, he wasn’t the easiest to lift. “I’m pretty sure he’s fallen asleep.” 

“Yeah, looks like it.” Harry said, taking a look at Gregory. “Still, won’t do him much harm. He probably needs it.” 

Will agreed, and they all attempted to get Gregory into the car with as little noise as possible. It wasn’t exactly perfect, but hey, they did manage to get him in after some time with him still sound asleep. Clearly, this was a much needed rest. Peter wondered how much sleep he’d had prior to this. It couldn’t have been a lot. Will got in the car with the others too, sat in the back next to Gregory. It was probably just Peter talking, but he really did want to see this through. It was the least he could do. 

The drive wasn’t an extremely long one, but just long enough for Peter’s mind to creep to horrible places. God, how much had happened since he’d died. None of it was his fault and Steven and Dave were desperately trying to get that through to him but that didn’t change the fact that he felt like shit over it. If only he’d been there, maybe he could’ve….Done something! Something, anything to make sure it didn’t end like this, dammit. ‘Inconsolable’ was not a word to be used lightly, but right now? Dave sure was tempted.

A little bit longer, and the car had been pulled into a drive. Will tapped Gregory’s shoulder gently, thinking he should at least be awake to meet the people he’d be staying with. “Hey. Hey, Gregory.”

“....Huh…?”

“We’re here.”

Gregory stretched, groaned, and then let himself out of the car. It was only then that he finally noticed Harry, or rather his head. His demeanour changed a little. Will got the impression he now understood why Vanessa had said he should come here.

“Are you two coming in too?” asked Harry. 

“Might as well.” said Will, and Vanessa agreed to come in too, to say Hi and see how everyone was doing. Clearly, these were people she’d grown up with. 

As Harry had said, the aftermath of some kind of pandemonium seemed to be occurring in the kitchen but there was one phoney who apparently wasn’t putting up with all that, sat in the main room. A Phone Gal, in fact. Surprisingly rare. 

“Oh! Hello!” She turned around. “Jake told us you’d be coming. Don’t mind the noise coming from the kitchen. ….It’s not usually like this. Usually. ”

“Everyone here- Is everyone here-” Gregory stopped himself from speaking.

“You don’t have to be afraid to say it, don’t worry. ‘S not rude or anything.” The woman said gently. “Everyone here’s like you, it’s true. There’s not a lot of us left, see. The last of us decided we’d all stick together.” 

“Right!” Vanessa added. “They’ll take good care of you, promise!”

“Of course we will.” The woman agreed. “So, first things first. Names. What’s yours?”

“I’m Gregory.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Gregory! My name’s Rebecca.” She turned to the door behind her. After still hearing a little bit of carnage behind that door, she turned back. “The guy who drove you here is Harry, the purple one is Jake, the orange one is Roger and the green one is Max. It’s alright if you don’t remember all those though. You’ll catch up in time, I’m sure.” 

“Yeah…Ummm…Do you have anywhere I could put my stuff?” Gregory asked. “It’s starting to get a bit heavy.”

“Of course! We were actually in the middle of clearing out one of the upstairs rooms for you. Come on, I’ll show you.” She turned to Vanessa and Will. “Will you two be staying much longer? Not that we mind, of course, but if you are, please, don’t just stand there.”

“Actually…Umm. No offence, but I’ve had quite a day at work.” Dave cut the other two off before they could say anything. A whole concoction of emotions was building up inside and if they weren’t careful something was going to come out around people who would definitely be able to call their bluff. “It was nice meeting all of you though.”

“Oh, no, that’s understandable!” assured Harry. “Nice to meet you too…uhh…Will, was it?” 

“Yeah. That’s me.”

“It was nice meeting you, Will.”

Chapter Text

“You’re in deep trouble now.” Henry hissed in Jack’s head. “That woman is very much onto you. She’s not stupid. She’s going to figure out that the child's father is missing within a matter of minutes.”

“Yes.” Jack shuffled that ever-growing pile of papers that rested on his desk. “Tell me something I don’t know.” A deep rooted feeling of dread had been festering in the room for some time now. Him and Henry hadn’t been speaking all that much, just silently contemplating their options. “The police won’t be a problem…” Jack added out loud, speaking his mind. “She can’t go there. We’ve got the money and fake smiles to keep them out of here. As far as anyone over there is concerned we’ve just had a few ‘little accidents’.” 

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“What’s the problem then?” Jack rolled his eyes. “Spell it out for your brain dead cohort, won’t you?” 

“What I am worried about,” Henry huffed, “Is her attempting to sabotage us from the inside. She’s bound to go nosing around, you know? What’s your plan if she finds the centre of operations, huh?” 

“Add her to them.” Jack said with a shrug. “Lay some kind of trap. A test subject is a test subject, right?” 

“Right.”

“I mean, if you’re that pressed about getting rid of her, I’ll just stick Ness on her tomorrow.”

“....No. I do not fully trust the girl to do that.” 

“Thought you said you had her, and I quote, ‘head quite positively spinning’ over the whole killing thing now,” said Jack. He was well aware that Henry had been leaving his own head more and more as the days went on to dwell inside Ness’ mind. He didn’t mind. The constant ramblings of an old man tended to get annoying. 

“I do believe I need another talk with her. You remember we both thought she killed that phone child, correct?”

“Uhh…Yeah.”

“I’m not so sure she did. That hardly seems her…‘style’ so to speak. And it’s counterproductive to what we’ve told her about the phones.”

Jack pondered that for a moment. “But then what did happen to that kid?”

“I don’t know.” Then, with more malice. “You shouldn’t have let him leave. We could’ve asked.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. We needed him out the way, regardless. Couldn’t have left him alive after getting rid of his father.” 

“Jack!” The door opened at a frightening speed, banging against the wall at a high force. The wall shook. The clock missed a tick. In the doorway stood Ness, speak of the devil, looking near out of breath. “Jack, fuck, I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve got to see it!” 

“What? What the hell is it?” 

“One of the robots,” Ness panted. “Bonnie, it was Bonnie. Bonnie went mad.” 

Well. That was an interesting development. Jack was no stranger to the subject, of course, ghostly appropriations of mechanical creatures plagued many irritating dreams of his, but he hadn’t thought he’d have to deal with another so soon. After all, who was actually around to haunt one of the damn things at the moment? And who was around, ‘giving life’? It sure wasn’t his sister anymore. 

“Did that weird tech guy leave already?” 

“What, err..Will? Yeah, I think he’s gone already.” said Ness. “Pretty sure it’s just us now.”  

A shame. Jack would’ve liked someone disposable to check it out first. Those stupid things could bite . He didn’t particularly like the idea of having to stitch his body back together again. Ah well. Needs must, sometimes. The worst those things had done to him in the past was slice his torso open. His skin prickled as he remembered the awkward, lumpy seam that run over his stomach now. The pains weren’t real though, just a tiny human reaction that still scratched the back of his brain every now and again. He’d be fine. 

“Come on then.” Jack got up from his desk. “Take me to it.”

“Yeah! Yeah, yeah, ok! Right this way then.” Ness was raring to go, but Jack paid it no mind. He got up from his desk with that same old, slow walk. That pattern repeated as they made their ways down towards the main stage - Ness constantly seemed like she was restraining herself from dashing forwards yet never actually went for it. 

The main stage had been left alone for the night, no people left in the building to view it. The show lights were off, leaving only what was needed to see on. It gave the room a dim, uncanny quality. You weren’t supposed to see it like this. This was a night guard's job, really. That wasn’t an option though. The last thing Jack needed was an already suspicious person finding something like this. He’d just have to sort the problem by himself. The sound of thumping echoed around the space, coming from a back corner somewhere. He squinted. His dead eyes hadn’t been doing too well these past 20 years. Ah yes, there it was. Small, yet unmissable once you saw it. A bright red charging station, swinging back and forwards in the distance. Or, as Jack saw it, a blurry red rectangle, darting around furiously. He was glad for all the bright colours around the building, making things easier to make sense of. 

Once he was close enough, the window of the pod revealed a blue-ish/purple face staring back at him. Drat. A rabbit. And one with a face, at that. This didn’t bode well. …What to do…

“Ness,” Instructed Jack. “Go do me a favour and grab something we can use to smash this thing up with, if that's what we end up needing to do.”

“You got it, Sir!” Ness scampered off to go find something, as Jack had instructed. She seemed glad to be getting away from the robot. Jack focused in on its face. He gritted his teeth. He knew those eyes. They weren’t the dull, scrolling eyes of a thoughtless machine. They followed his every move with a frightening precision. That there was thought. Intention. A mind. But whose mind? Lost spirits couldn’t put themselves into bodies. They needed help. A guide. And with his sister long gone…. Jack’s mind went to unsettling places. But it couldn’t be, right? It couldn’t be….

“........ Fredbear?”

Now there was a thought that got a visceral reaction. In all his rotten, immortal years, the thought of the god-like entity that had given him that to begin with catching up to him wasn’t one that he’d ever stopped to ponder. Maybe out of fear, maybe out of ignorance. Perhaps both. Either way, it wasn’t a great thought. It was all fun and games, believing you were untouchable, until you were faced with the prospect of losing it all. 

“Jack!?” Ness? Ness. Ness, running towards him with a sledgehammer. “Jack, will this do?”

“Where did you get that?”

“Never mind that!” 

“She has a secret stash of ‘weapons’. Stolen from the bits of the building that were under construction.’ Muttered Henry. 

“Yes, that’ll do.” Said Jack. “Stand clear. I’m going to open the door.” His hand shook ever so slightly as he reached for the handle. Weird, weird, weird. He didn’t shake. ‘You have to be stronger.’ Henry hissed. ‘It can probably smell your fear.’ Right, of course. Besides, what did he have left to lose? Henry didn’t need him. He had no soul to carry on to the afterlife. His business with Dave was finished. There was nothing left here for him. If he lost it all, well, why should he care? Stupid bear. This was all his doing. He didn’t even know if it was the bear. Why would it be the bear? 

The door swung open with a violent force. Get it over and done with, Jack.

In an instant, the machine was upon them. Or….Oh. Not ‘them’, actually. Ness, just Ness. Quite peculiar. Why spring on Ness when Jack (who was objectively far more of a bastard) was right there? ‘Do you want the girl to die?’ Shit, right. “Feel free to strike at it, Ness!” Jack called. 

“Already on it, Jack!” The zombie’s effort had been in vain - Ness was already hitting the metal casing of the robot. Her repeated knocks rang through the auditorium, each strike getting louder and louder. Metal clashed with Metal. Strong wills collided. Will didn’t really matter though. Ness was quicker, more agile, precise. She aimed for the knee joints first, smashing them to tiny shards. And once that was done, it was really only a matter of time. Take away the legs and this thing’s movement became painfully limited. Logically, that alone would’ve been enough, but Ness kept at it. Pumped with adrenaline, she took aim at the rabbit’s right arm, then smashed. She kept smashing and smashing until the thing was pulverised. 

“Alright, alright.” Said Jack. “Break it up. That’s enough.”

He pushed past Ness to take a look at the now defunct animatronic. Oh dear. What a sorry state the thing was in now. All mangled and broken, lying in a heap on the floor.

“Jack…..Ke-Kennedy…” The thing spluttered. A name. Oh, that was a name, alright. It knew. “You…Broke your promise…”

“Yes.” was the only response he gave. His mind was free of doubt now. He knew exactly who he was looking at. “It’s been a long time, Fredbear.”

“I hope you know….That I ha-have been watching for a while. Plotting….Against you.” Oh. Oh, he knew. He’d suspected that for ages.

“It doesn’t look like it’s been working,” said Jack. “What’s with the metal case? What’re you doing in there anyway?”

“I might’ve hoped….To take you down….Fro-From the inside.” 

“Oh, of course.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Why the rabbit? We do have a bear, y’know?

“I like to think you wo-wouldn’t have seen it coming….Freddy wa-was too obvious.” the robot seemed to smile to itself. “I would’ve got you by su-surprise….And we would’ve burned together, releasing myself from this shell and finally ridding the world of you. A fitting end, I think.” 

“....” This was weird. Wrong, even. For such a crushing defeat, Fredbear was unnaturally content. There had to be something more, something bigger. This couldn’t be it. “You’re awfully calm.”

“Oh, no.” he shook his head. “I’m rather torn up over this, trust me. WIthout fire, I am stuck here. But this isn’t over yet. Like it or not, your end is coming, Jack.” 

Fire…Right, the fire. Always the go to for killing the unkillable around here. He knew it could be used for releasing souls but…for himself? Jack wasn’t sure. Maybe he’d just fry to a crisp. God, that was a thought. Being charred and immobile, but still conscious. Death was starting to seem like a preferable option. ‘Don’t even think about it.’ said Henry. ‘Do you know what kind of mess this place burning down would leave me in?’ 

Right. Yeah, ok. Stay focused. The Real Fredbear.

“I’m not so sure. I mean, if you’re here, broken down and stuck, who else is coming? No one else even knows you exist.”

No reply. Just a weird look. Jack felt a tiny shiver race though him. Did this fucker think he was a few steps ahead or something? 

“Ness? Get ready to take this thing downstairs.” Instructed Jack. Ness almost looked like she was going to object, but decided against it. She walked off in the direction of the nearest entrance to the underground.

“I pi-pity her, you know?” The animatronic mused. “I only ever meant to scare her….After all, I’m sure it was you who put her up to trying to lure kids, right?”

“She acts of her own will. If she didn’t want to be here, she would leave.”

“Just like you then, I’m sure.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” 

“You could’ve been something so good….” Said Fredbear. “But something changed. Someone turned you around, led you in the wrong direction.” 

It stung. Why did that sting? Such a small, insignificant comment. “I’m going.” said Jack. “You’re not going anywhere. Ness is gonna come back and lock you up, deep, deep down below. And then you’ll be gone, and I’ll never see you again.” 

He strutted off, back in the direction of his office. He felt Henry’s presence slip away as he did so, presumably gone to go help Ness. Fine. Let him. Jack never really liked having the old man’s voice rattling around inside his skull anyway. 

He considered what Henry said as he walked back. How one fire could be a disaster for him. Secretly, he kind of enjoyed the idea. That he had a little, just a little bit of power over Henry. That, if he so desired, Jack could have the last laugh. That he could just burn everything down and fuck off into eternal nothingness. 

The office door opened. The clock ticked. His chair sat there, lightly creased from where he sat, day in, day out. What had he been thinking? This was where he belonged, obviously. He never left this room. His room, his office. His very own place in the world, meticulously crafted from Henry’s thoughts. His head spun as he sat back down. The clock ticks drilled into his brain, the only sound around. Paper and pens lay in front of him. The repetition was entrancing. 

Paper. Pens. Clock. The rhythm kept him sane.

Chapter Text

“Hey…Gregory? Are you awake?”

Gregory fidgeted under his bedsheets. He was awake, but he wasn’t exactly sure if he was ready to face the waking world yet. His whole world had been violently turned upside down the past week or so and he still didn’t feel ready to confront it. But….He did wonder who had come into the room. He risked a glance above the blankets and saw the phone-man with the purple head. Jake, right? The granddad of the security lady, he thought. 

He half wanted to tell the man to go away, and go back to sleep, and half wanted to learn more. Until yesterday it hadn’t even crossed his mind that there might be more people like him. Why would there have been? Who’s idea was replacing people’s heads with antique telephones? It was stupid. He couldn’t grasp the point. 

“Yeah…Yeah, ‘m awake…” He stretched and sat up. Something felt….weird. Missing. Lost. Like he’d put his phone down somewhere and forgot where it was. The boy looked around wildly, trying to figure out what was wrong. What had he misplaced. Jake seemed slightly amused. The older man walked in, pulled up a chair from the corner, and tapped on the top part of his head. The…What was that? The bit you speak into. It’s attached to a wire and comes off. The receiver? Maybe. Whatever it was, Gregory realised that it wasn’t on his head, rather it was still lying on the pillow next to him. He plonked it back into place. 

“What…What time is it?” Sunlight was streaming right in through the gaps in the curtains. It didn’t seem like morning.

“It’s the aftern-noon.” explained Jake. “We-We thought we’d let you sle-sleep. You looked like you needed it.”

His voice jittered and glitched, like an old recording. Weird… “Are you uh…Is your head broken?” Gregory didn’t know how to ask without being rude.

“Not my who-whole head, no.” Jake shook it. “Ju-Just the vo-voice box. Always been like this. Faulty when It was gi-given to me. I can use my re-real voice, like you’re doing now but it- It stra-strains me, I guess. It hurts. I only use it whe-when I feel like I should.” 

“That must suck.”

“Oh, it co-could be a lot worse.” the phone-man assured. “I’m just tha-thankful it’s my voice and not something else that went wrong. I would not want to end up like Ma-Max. Heaven only knows what’s wrong with him, poor guy.”

“I…” Gregory recognised the name, ‘Max’, that was…the green one. But he really couldn’t make head nor tail of all the other stuff Jake was telling him. “I don’t really understand.”

“Right, right, of course, sorry.” Jake facepalmed gently. “You were completely alone before this, right? Oh my days, you must be so confused right now.”

“Umm…Well…Yeah.” Yeah, it was true. He was. “I really don’t understand any of this. What happened to you? Why’s your head like that? Is it the same thing that happened to me? Why? What’s the point? Who’s doing this to people? What does it mean?”

“Oh, jeeze. Ok, uhh…That’s a lot. Ok, alright. Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll tell you everything I can about us phone guys and then, if you can, no pressure, you could try and tell me what you remember happening to you? And we’ll work it all out from there. Does that sound good?” 

“Yeah…Yeah, that sounds fine.”

Jake took a deep breath and explained everything he could. He spoke about Scott and the company’s desperate attempt to revive their beloved founder once he kicked the bucket prematurely. He talked about Abel, the bastard of a man who seemed to use his friends as lab rats and met his comeuppance. He talked about the suits, how deadly they were. He talked about the gen 1s, the gen 2s, the gen 3s. He talked about their supposed ‘purpose’, what they were made to do. And how many of them strayed away from that path. His own personal endeavour. Finding his family. Sticking close by, with his friend in this house. Just…the whole lot, really. He spoke until he couldn’t think of much more to say. Gregory listened intently, taking in every little detail. It made knots in his stomach, thinking about some of that stuff. The thought of forgetting everything you knew and loved….intense crap. 

He thought of his grandfather too. He’d never really known the guy - They’d met, but Gregory had been far too young to remember him. His only true memories of him were of the poor man on his deathbed, robotic insides weathering and rusting from years of neglect. The clash between his breaking robotic parts and struggling organic ones had finished him off. Not a great thought. Dad always spoke of him fondly though. “What you’ve got to understand…” he remembered his dad telling him. “Is that me and grandpa aren’t as close as you and I. And that’s alright. It’s true, he missed me growing up a lot, and when I was a silly, grumpy teen, I held that against him. But he’s a good man. A very good man. He didn’t deserve any of this.” Gregory wondered what Dad would think of him now, now that he was like his late grandad. He supposed he’d never find out. Ouch.

“A lot to ta-take in, isn’t it?” said Jake. “So-Sorry if that fried your brain a bit.”

“No, it’s alright.” replied Gregory. “I’m just thinking.” A lot. So many thoughts, my word. “I think- I think I kind of understand what happened to me? Maybe?”

“Why don’t you tell me, and we can try and work it out together, then?”

“Alright…” Gregory began to recall everything he could remember about that day. It had been a warm afternoon and Dad was going to go inquire about a job at some place. ‘The New Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaplex (because we finally realised the problem with ‘Fazbender’s’!)’ It sounded exciting and he’d asked to come too, which his Dad had said yes to! Cool! A fun day in a crazy new place. Always exciting. When they got there though, his Dad was called to be interviewed right away. Well…That was no good. Gregory wandered around the building for what felt like hours, seeing all the sights, because all the attractions needed a little extra money he didn’t have. The sights were incredible, of course. He was fascinated by this neon dappled world, absolutely absorbed by all the false nostalgia dripping from its gleaming walls. But there was only so much wandering around a 12 year old boy can do before he starts to ache for something more to do. Hoping he could just wait the rest of the time out, he sat alone on a bench, waiting for his Dad. And that was when he was approached. A whole horde of pre-teens, reeking of mischief, came by. There was a mischievous glint in each and every eye Gregory made contact with. “Heya, buddy!” said one of the tallest boys. Oh, man, this guy was old. Probably about 14. Now that, that was really exciting. Everyone knew that proper teenagers got up to all the maddest stuff. “ We noticed you look kind of lonely, huh?” And of course he said yes. Yes, he was bored. “Well…We’ve been getting pretty bored too, but you know what we found out? Someone left one of the doors to a staff only area open. And there’s like, an actual, proper mascot suit in there! We were thinking we could play some tricks on all the snotty little 7 year olds with it! But…We need a few more pairs of eyes and hands. You wanna?” And…Yeah, kinda! That did sound a bit fun. He agreed to go eagerly. The room they came upon was pretty small and dark. Shelves of mechanical parts and boxes of old tapes were really all that was in there. Oh, and the yellow and purple bear suit. That too. The teen told the younger kids to stand guard outside, but Gregory slipped inside behind him. He was nearly 13, he could handle this kind of crap! “Woah….” The boy had breathed. “It’s…kind of bigger than I remember…” 

“Well, I uhh….” Gregory trembled with excitement. Oh my God, he thought, this was going to be so much fun. “I’m pretty tall. I think I could fit!” The teen turned around, surprised that Gregory had snuck into the room with him but not against the idea. Because it was true, in spite of being younger, Gregory was just that little bit taller. The guy agreed and helped Gregory into the suit. He stood up and then….

Crunch.

He didn’t really know what happened next, the poor child explained. He remembered a few things. Red. Screaming. Panic. Falling. Silence. An automated voice. Extraction. Discomfort. Nothing. The fade to black. 

Everything for a while after that was a blur, which Jake said was normal. The next thing Gregory could remember was being in a small, concrete room. There was a suit clearly made for an adult hung up on the wall next to him and a TV on one wall spouting some nonsense about ‘his new job’. He didn’t pay it any mind. Funnily enough, at that time, he was trying to figure out where the hell he was and why his head felt so fuzzy. Not recognising the room, he stumbled out into….Oh, Oh… shit. Where was he? He was in some kind of tunnel, big and industrial. The next moments were incredibly vivid, completely burned into his mind - He’d cried out for help and…His mouth hadn’t moved? What’s more, that clearly wasn’t him speaking. That was an adult. Familiar, too. Must’ve been a mistake. He called again, maybe hoping to grab the attention of the man he’d heard but the same thing happened again. And again. And again. He remembered feeling sick. And that was when he felt it. Not skin, but plastic. Plastic, where his head should’ve been. The voice clicked in his head. The same voice as his grandad. No. No, this had to be a dream right? Some kind of nightmare the nasty part of his brain had cooked up. 

He wandered in the dark for ages, looking for people. Luck hit after maybe…20 minutes? He wasn’t sure. Two dudes, in a big room marked ‘PARTS AND SERVICE’. ‘Now, I’m no tech guy, but I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be doing that.’ One had said. Gregory peeked further inside. Freddy! He’d seen Freddy inside that room! He wanted to run up to the guys and then…. Something stopped him. Memories of his family, always looking over their shoulders for ‘people from The Factory’. How could he know to trust these men? Torn up with all sorts of emotions, he resorted to running a little way away and hiding. Curling up in a ball and just wishing all this would go away. That he would wake up at home, warm, alive and human. He didn’t. The men did leave, though. And that was when he met Freddy. Tall, kind, lovely Freddy. He’d seemed a bit confused, but so was Gregory. Confused together! And then Freddy had-

“Wait.”

Jake cut Gregory off.

“Freddy was…Tal-Talking to you? Like, ‘having a pro-proper conversation’ talking?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Gregory, that’s….That’s bad …” Jake looked terrified. But why? Freddy was nice. “Whe-When the robots in a place like that sta-start making sense it’s usually be-because they’ve got a dead person in them. It’s one of the company’s worst kept secrets.”

“No, I went in his stomach.” said Gregory. “No corpses.”

“No! No, no, I me-mean like. Like ghosts….Lost souls.”

“Oh.” 

“And of course, if there’s a lost soul then that means someone’s die-”

“I don’t think anyone’s died.” Gregory interrupted. “That would’ve been on the news and stuff.”

“We-Well, you never know. Freddy’s are slippery…They could be covering something up.” Said Jake, before stopping himself from going any further. “I’m…Sorry. This probably isn’t what you need right now.” He shook his head. “Let’s not worry about Freddy. How are you ?”

“I’m…” Gregory struggled to find the right word. “I feel weird. It’s all so weird. It’s still so hard to believe this is all real…But…” Hands met a plastic shell. Fingers traced the edges of a dial. “...I think it is.”

“A-And physically?” asked Jake. “You’re not missing a le-left lung or anything crazy, are you? How’s your head, is the crack alright?”

“Oh, this?” He ran a finger over the rough surface of the plaster. “Yeah, it’s alright. I just fell over real hard. A few tiny metal things fell out, but that was it.”

“And how about being here? Ho-How’s that? Are you comfortable?” Jake looked around the room for a second. “We’ll finish clearing this out soon. We al-always just kept it ready in case we ever fo-found another phone guy but…Ah, we never got around to it.”

“It’s fine.” Wait, no, that seemed rude. “I like the room, and I like you guys and I like knowing I’m not completely alone here but…I miss Freddy. And I miss my dad.”

He felt like he was going to cry. All the right feelings were there, even the imagined feeling of tears in his eyes. Nothing came. He simply sat, shaking. Consumed by a rush of emotions, he latched onto the closest thing to him, which just so happened to be Jake. He didn’t really know what he was doing, he just…hugged. Held on for dear life. After getting over having initially been thrown off, Jake gently let the child hug him, doing his best to soothe the poor kid. His efforts were good, but that just reminded Gregory of his dad even more. His missing father, who he might not ever see again. 

“Gregory?” Jake said softly after a while. There was something different about the way he spoke. His actual voice, maybe. 

“Sorry, Jake…”

“Woah, hey! Easy….It’s alright.” said Jake quietly. No stutters. Definitely his human voice. “You’ve got nothing to apologise for. It’s not your fault. You’re just a kid, you didn’t know any better.”

“I should’ve known about the suit…” Gregory sobbed. “I’d heard about them before…I wasn’t thinking, I was just bored, and I wanted to have fun, and I-”

“I know. I know and…And it’s going to be alright.”

“What’s gonna happen to me…?”

“I don’t know.” Jake answered truthfully. “But, we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s nothing bad.”

Chapter Text

They got up early the next morning. Peter decided they needed a shower and the other two were inclined to agree. It was important to remember that this vessel, this body , needed treating well. Temporary though it may be, it was still a human body - a perfectly designed machine that needed all the right decisions to keep ticking. Or, at least, that was Peter’s view. Dave thought the ‘perfect machine’ shtick was a bit dramatic. But then again, as he constantly reminded himself, he wasn’t exactly human himself. 

They were getting there with buying things they needed. They’d grabbed a few basic things on the way back home from Jake’s - a change of clothes, some food. Not much. They weren’t exactly sure about the money situation and weren’t prepared to have a conversation with Blackjack in the middle of a public place. So, whilst they had a few things, there was still no soap or anything, for example. Steven made a mental note that they should try and sort these things after today’s shift.

The reflection in the bathroom mirror was wrong - Steven again - but they did their best to ignore it this time. What they couldn’t ignore, however, was a funny mark on their torso that they hadn’t noticed before. It was wide, and purple, like a large bruise. It didn’t feel like a bruise though, it wasn’t sore or anything. Just a weird spot. ‘Has that always been there?’ asked Steven. 

‘Could’ve been.’ Dave said. ‘I guess a little bit of me got in after all.’

Which was fine by him. Made him feel a little more at home in a body that was clearly not his own. The phonies thought grappling with the flesh head was weird? Try having all your proportions completely changed. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. The vessel was too short, its neck not nearly long enough. Too soft and warm. Too many vital organs still in place. Too human. Too alive. Having made peace with being some completely unidentified cryptid some years ago, this was strange. 

‘Do you ever think about that girl?’ Steven asked.

‘Eh? Which girl, what girl?’

‘The one that works with us that looks like you.’

Oh right. That girl. Well, yeah. Yeah, he did. He was deeply curious about who she was, where she’d come from. As far as Dave had known, there weren’t any others out there that looked like he did. But nope! There was Ness, all too similar.

‘’Course I have. But how would I ask?’ 

The shower stopped abruptly. They dried quickly, put on some clean clothes, and raced for the train station. Given that they seemed to be on pretty thin ice with Jack, being late wasn’t the best idea. 

First things first, they went straight to Freddy. How could they not? His weird behaviour had been firmly sitting at the back of all three minds ever since yesterday’s weird discoveries. Frustratingly, talking got them absolutely nowhere. They talked for hours and hours, but to no avail. It was weird; none of the responses seemed automated per say, but they didn’t seem like anything any human would ever say either. Phrases like ‘my programming’ and ‘my protocols’ came up far too often. Maybe it really was just that good of an A.I, wondered Peter. But why, came the argument from the other two, was the Factory still a thing? If they could make lifelike A.I, why were they still making phonies out of people? After a prolonged mental tussle with some extremely unhelpful comments from both Blackjack and Freddy, the three resigned to go take a look at an arcade cabinet Jack had told them was busted. 

It was their first time on the job actually fixing something, and for what it was worth, it was oddly fulfilling. There was a nack to the whole process, a puzzle for Dave’s bored brain and Steven’s freshly reawakened mind. It started to remind him of the good times, those long weekday afternoons in Location 14 where he did his best to find something, anything to work on. It was beginning to feel like he was back there now, dim lights overhead, sticky carpet under his feet, the sound of Dave begging him to come do something more fun coming from the other ro- ‘Easy, Steven.’ Ok, wait, no, that voice was in the present. That was Dave in the here and now. ‘Last thing we need right now is for you to start thinking we’re back in the 70’s again.’

‘Right, Ok. Sorry.’ Steven apologised. 

They got a break at round about 2 in the afternoon and used it as an opportunity to talk to Vanessa. 

“You heard how the kid’s doing?”

“Just got off the phone with my grandpa,” she answered. “Gregory’s…Shocked, still, but he’ll live. His….death was apparently a total freak accident. Some kids roped him into a prank, I think?” She looked down at her feet in dismay. Guilt was piling on. “Saferoom was left unlocked, apparently. The kids got in and started messing around with the suits…Oh..God…”

“You seem distressed.” Wow. Fucking impecccable deduction there, Steven. 

“I just…Ok, I know it’s stupid, but…What if that was my fault, y’know? What if I was the one to leave that door unlocked?” Sighed Vanessa. “Goddamnit, I just…I need to be better, I need to check these things more, I-”

“Hey.” Interrupted Peter. “I wouldn’t worry about it. Loads of people go in and out of there, all the time. It could’ve been any one of us.”

“Yeah, right, ok.” Vanessa said with a shrug. “What about Freddy? Get anything out of that giant heap of metal?”

“Not a thing…Just useless robot spiel, really.”

“Dead end, huh? Me too. I can’t find a single thing about what happened to that child’s father. Whoever was involved covered the whole thing up really well.” 

So, here they were. Caught at a roadblock. No clues, no leads and not any closer to Jack. How much longer was this going to go on? How much longer were they gonna be stuck together? They sat at the table, a creeping sense of dread starting to set in. The first few days had been so full on, but now, with nothing to do? Reality was beginning to set in. This might take a while. 

God, how Peter despised this shared brain of theirs. Their consciousnesses were always in flux, constantly merging into one another before violently pulling apart. Little flashes of Steven’s memories, Dave’s random thoughts. They scared him. In a weird way, it felt like being back under the control of his programming again. The constant clash of memories, his thoughts never quite adding up. He wanted to get out of here so badly, yet also couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing this through until the end. God, why couldn’t he have just moved on peacefully? Why did he have to get stuck with that stupid, godawful phone for a he-

‘We have to get going, Peter.’ Oh, and there was Dave. ‘Break’s over.’

‘Of course. Right. I’m sorry.’ 

‘Sorry for what?’ asked Dave.

‘Being stupid and mopey again.’ said Peter. If the other’s moods affected him, he was sure his would affect theirs too. He was probably bringing the group down. His apology seemed to fall on deaf ears - They were already on the move. Dave and Steven were preoccupied thinking about nerdy tech stuff, or something. The kind of mechanical jargon that Peter did his best to tune out. Steven was listening to Dave intently, making sure to pick up every little scrap of info. It was all really coming together for him now, that long forgotten knowledge flowing right back. It was filling a hole in himself that he didn’t even know he had and that was deeply satisfying, if a bit scary. Every time he learned something more, the more he started to despise what had happened to him. And the more that happened, the more he started to think about just how many others he must’ve subjected to it in his time. Thinking really did hurt. 

The rest of their day was completely uneventful. Just one long stretch of desperately trying to fill time until the end. Even Blackjack seemed irritable, completely unable to stay still. 

‘If Jack doesn’t have anything useful for us to do, why’re we even here?’ Peter couldn’t help but wonder. 

‘Dunno.’ agreed Dave. ‘’Specially since Bonnie’s apparently being scrapped. Sure we coulda done something with that but whatever, I guess.’

‘Oh, God, oh he so knows, oh he’s so suspicious-’ Steven fretted.

‘Well, that, or he’s hiding something and he doesn’t want his employees to know-’ Dave wasn’t so sure. They hadn’t done anything to warrant suspicion. Jack could be a shady bastard, that was all. At least, he hoped.

The rest of the afternoon went by without a hitch, unless you counted ‘completely devoid of anything to do’ as a problem. They were at a standstill with getting to the bottom of the strange occurrences around the site and sure as hell weren’t getting any closer to Jack any time soon.

“THIS COULD HELP YOU,” Blackjack suggested at one point, noticing their misery. “A DAY OF NOTHING IS GOOD FOR EASING JACK’S SUSPICION.” But Blackjack wasn’t the one awkwardly crammed into one, barely functional body. If one more person waved their hand in front of Will’s eyes and went ‘hello?’ they were going to snap then and there. 

And then? After the day was over? More stuff to get. Every second spent outside with no real distractions was hell. It felt like every set of eyes was directly on them, as if everyone around them could somehow sense that something was wrong. It was utter nonsense, they knew that well, but that didn’t do much to stop that subconscious thought. 

That tiny, barren apartment seemed like a haven sometimes. The one place, the only place away from the rest of the world. Ugh. God, this was depressing. I mean, what did they even do in this supposed ‘happy place’? Lie there and wallow in pity and regret? Wow. Real fun, happy stuff they had going on there. 

“GUYS?” Blackjack pulled on their trouser leg, trying to garner some attention. “I HAVE AN IDEA.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“AROUND THE VENUE. HAVE YOU SEEN THOSE MAP-BOTS?” 

“Uhhh…Yeah?”

“WE SHOULD GET ONE. JACK MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF ‘BASE OF OPERATIONS’, RIGHT?” The doggo suggested. “WE COULD LOOK. SURE, IT WOULD NOT BE DETAILED BUT…WELL, I THINK WE COULD USE IT. ALL THE ATTRACTION ROOMS WOULD BE LISTED. THAT NARROWS DOWN WHERE WE NEED TO SEARCH BY A LOT, DOES IT NOT?”

“I dunno…” said Dave. “Jack’s fuckin’ crafty. I wouldn’t put hiding his main base in one of those big-ass fun rooms past him.”

“I-” Blackjack sighed, then resigned from the conversation. It was only now that Peter started to see just how miserable his brother was looking. Of course…they were stuck in the same boat, afterall. Maybe not as literally as him, Dave and Steven, but still. At the end of the day, they were all lost souls trying to find the peace they needed to be laid to rest.

The dog hopped up on the sofa that Will had chosen to rest on and burrowed into a dent near their leg. Huh. Dave had always figured that the ghostly doggo would be cold to the touch but surprisingly, no. A little pocket of warmth now sat near their leg. He wondered what to do. Blackjack was…a dog, right? At least in form. So…Pet the doggy? Sure. Why not. Blackjack flinched for a second but after that he really didn’t seem to mind. Peter wondered if this was soothing for him. Blackjack looked far less tense. A bit on the sleepy side too. 

This was nice, Steven decided. Maybe the first time they’d felt actually relaxed since arriving. Maybe the first time since- Oh God, when was the last time he’d felt content? Even his earliest memories were full of stress and grief. Freddy’s was a brutal and unforgiving environment. There were always problems, issues, ‘technical difficulties’. Maybe today’s quiet wasn’t so bad. It’d been boring and tedious, sure, but not bad. He could probably see himself enjoying himself on a day like that in another life. One where he didn’t have a whole backlog of issues to solve hanging over his head. He was vaguely aware of the fact the vessel’s eyes were starting to droop, yet he didn’t fight it. This seemed like a good place to drift off into an empty, dreamless, sleep.

Oh, if only.

Peter was dreaming, though not to his surprise. Dreaming wasn't all that uncommon for him. It was what had caused him to start questioning his reality to begin with. Little parts of old memories always had a habit of slipping throught the cracks.This, though? This was...different. This wasn’t him and Caroline, nor was it hin with his siblings. He was back at Freddy's in Colorado (Colorado?) , in the office.

The office?

Why was he in the office? Darn, did he fall asleep in there again? Not good enough. He had to do better.

Groggy, he felt his way to his head. Plastic. His head was a phone again. Again? He suddenly felt dizzy. It had always been this way, hadn't it? Yeah? Yeah, it had. Wait. Wait, crap…

What was his name?

He couldn't believe it. How had he forgotten?

His vision landed on a handy post-it note, presumably one he left for himself, 'Your name is Scott.' 

Scott? Scott, of course. That sounded...maybe not right, but familiar at least. It'd do. He stepped out into the bright world of his location. Was it just him, or did things not look right today? He felt drunk. Something seemed off about his body. It was heavy and stiff. He was mootling around the location with the grace and speed of a rusted machine. He’d have to go back to the Factory soon, he guessed. He hoped these were small fixes. The thought of being turned into a heap of flesh and scrap metal terrified him. 

“Sir!” Oh, a voice. He was needed. Look sharp, Scott. Forget about your dysfunctional insides for now. “Sir, there’s…There’s been- Been an accident!”

“What kind of an accident?”

“One of the- the suits, it- the insides-”

A springlock failure. Oh. Oh dear. He’d heard about these, but never actually seen one. It wasn’t his fault though, right? The Factory wouldn’t, no- Couldn’t punish him for this, could- Ok. Ok, no. Just calm down. He knew the protocols here. He knew what he had to do. 

“Take me to them.” 

His nervous employee nodded and set off at a brisk pace. Oh, yikes. The scene of the accident sure wasn’t pretty. A blood trail painted the hallway, with a single, yellow figure hunched over at the end. Oh, he knew what that was alright. One of their mascot suits. The way it had collapsed, lain over on its side, arms outstretched…Had the person inside been crawling somewhere? Trying to get to the saferoom, maybe? He felt like he’d been briefed on what springlocked employees should do in these kinds of situations but…If he had, he seemed to have forgotten.

He knelt down next to the suit and gently tugged at the head until it popped off. The stench of sweat and blood hit the air, strong and abrasive. The guy inside the suit was in a horrible state; any and all distinguishable features were either doused in blood or completely destroyed. Eyes smashed to a pulp. Nose smashed to a pulp. Hair matted with blood. And yet, there was something so very, very familiar about it. How? None of this made sense. He turned his attention to the rest of the body, removing what parts of the suit that he could. What he found was an average set of springlock marks along with some deeper gashes, presumably from all the movement the guy had been doing in the suit. Still, with some stitching and metallic parts, that could be fixed. He felt a little glow of joy. It wasn’t over for this guy! He could be recycled, reused, revitalised. Perfect.

A pool of blood was gathering near his feet. He pensively watched it touch the edges of his shoes. The light from the ceiling was beginning to reflect off it, right back into his…whatever he used to see. It glared at him. He felt disoriented. The lights were dim but their reflections were bright. That wasn’t right. Wasn’t possible . Scott…No. Peter was starting to see dark shadows in the bright red liquor. That head. That wasn’t the same phone he’d eventually grown used to seeing in his reflection. That was someone else’s. The shape was wrong. And his outfit…He’d never been one for suits and ties. This wasn’t him. 

The face in the suit stared back at him. Crawling towards the saferoom…This hallway…That tattered blue shirt. He felt sick. The sight of the bloodied body was really starting to set in. He wasn’t under the spell of programming anymore. This was madness, how could he have felt joyous about seeing this? Pressure was building in his head. He didn’t want to be scrapped, he didn’t want them to- No! What? He had to get out of here. Tried to move his feet. Couldn’t. They were stuck to the floor. He didn’t want to die. He had to do this, had to be perfect, had to-

“Shit!”

The vessel awoke with a violent jolt. Quick, shallow breaths filled the air. Oh, great. They’d fallen asleep on the sofa. Clothes on, bones crunched into horribly painful positions. 

“...Steven?” A dry throated whisper from Peter escaped Will’s throat. “I- Are you there?”

‘Mmmrghhh…..Just about…’ Oh, man, he sounded tired. Dammit.

“When you sent me to the Factory…What was that like?”

‘Oh. God, well jeez- I’m- It’s embarrassing in hindsight. No, not even that. Not embarrassing, just straight up bad . I can’t- Well, I can’t really justify this, but I don’t think you think that highly of me anyway? So, uh, here goes nothing? I felt…like it was a ‘win win’, I guess. I wasn’t going to get dismantled piece by piece for having a death in my location and you were going to get another shot at life. Stupid, stupid, I know. I know I really can’t just say ‘oh, sorry, that was my programming’ but, y’know- Having broken out of it a bit more now…Yikes. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say sorry enough.’

And that lined up. Peter’s nightmare? More likely another fleeting memory. And looking at it like that? Feeling Steven’s panic, his pressure to be perfect? He guessed he was starting to understand that incident. 

“I don’t think that was you.”

‘What?’

“I don’t know. I just- I’ve been under that programming too. And, looking back, I wasn’t really myself. I did things I don’t think I would’ve done. I was compliant with Jack getting pizza ingredients out of the fucking bins, for God’s sake.

‘Oh. Was there…Any reason you’ve realised that?’

There was a certain hesitation in Steven’s voice that made Peter wonder if he knew something about it, but Peter didn’t dare admit to the weird merging memories anyway. Having just felt like he’d started to mend a bond, he really didn’t fancy undoing all that by admitting to having what could be considered quite an intrusive experience.

“I guess I’m just feeling a bit freer myself. Looking back and all that.”

‘Would you two kindly pack it in?’ Finally, Dave. Peter had been wondering when he’d chime in. ‘It’s probably like 3 in the fucking morning.’

‘Ok, sure but we should probably get to bed.’ suggested Steven.

‘Nah, fuck it. I’m too tired.’

“Oh my God.” Peter sighed. “We are so going to regret this.”

Chapter Text

Ok, no. What the fuck was that ?

Will was a confusing guy. Vanessa knew this well and had mainly come to accept that fact. He spoke in disjointed sentences. He knew weird stuff. He was covered in asymmetrical scars. The strange object that looked like it had been crafted out of scrap metal was new. 

“Hey, Will!” she called. The man jumped and fumbled with his contraption, nearly dropping it before just clumsily hiding it behind his back. “What’s that?”

He gave her the fakest grin and asked, “What’s what?” 

“Your weird gadget. The one behind your back. What is it?”

“Oh, Well, I- Y’know-” He brought the device out from behind his back. Now she got a closer look, she could see some of the objects it was composed from - A thermometer, a whole load of misplaced bits of scrap from various objects, screws, glue, rubber bands, a bell and a screwdriver sticking firmly out of the front. “It’s a thing I made! Not very important at all, y’know!? Just a thing that’s gonna go ‘ding!’ when it detects..something.”

“You know that I can’t let you go walking around here with an unnamed object that you made out of scrap metal.” sighed Vanessa. “When did you even make that?”

“Well, I couldn’t sleep last night and I knew I had to do something to solve-” his hand reached up and firmly clasped itself over his mouth. A muffled screech of annoyance that sounded a bit like ‘get off me’ came from behind his tightly gripping hand. Vanessa took a tiny step back. Even for him, this was odd.

Taking the device under his other arm and using that hand, Will pried the first one away from his mouth. “Look, I’m really, really sorry ma’am, but could you please leave u- me to this? It’s important, I swear, I’m working-”

“Working on what ?” She looked at his contraption again. God, what the fuck was that even for? What was it gonna do? It didn’t look like a functional anything. “Because the way I see it, I think you’ve gone a bit mad.”

“Oh, well now that’s just plain rude.” Will huffed. “Listen, I know it’ll be hard for you but trust me when I say I’m trying to help you.”

“I-” She paused to reconsider her next words. Because it would be a lie to say she didn’t trust Will, he was the only other person around here who seemed to have the common sense to have realised how messed up all of this was, it was just that he was so strange, so secretive. She liked him, but she didn’t feel as if she actually knew him. “I’m sure you are. But, I think we want the same things, right? And it’s not gonna help us to be hiding secrets from each other.”

“Alright, alright.” He handed her the device. “It’s a soul detector. Ya’ ever read ‘The Joy of Creation’? No? Ok, well the theory goes that metal has and can attract a life force. So, if you point the screwdriver towards yourself-” she turned it as instructed, careful not to poke herself with the screwdriver. “The temperature on the thermometer goes up! It’s seeing a soul in there!” So it did. Wow. The little bell rang too. “Not bad for half a night with someone making sure I didn’t down an inhumane amount of caffeine, eh? Not as good as the one I made last time though.”

“It gets warmer when I point it at you.” She handed it back to him for him to see. The temperature had shot up significantly when she’d directed it at him. 

“Oh- No idea what that could be…” he was quick to turn the device away from himself. “Ah well! You can’t expect perfection from a device I made in half a night, can you?” Now that it was away from him, it went back down. “All that really matters is that it works, I think. It’s cold when it’s nowhere near one and it’s hot when it is. That’s all we need.”

“Need for what?”

“Oh, yeah, right, that!” he exclaimed. “Ok, so I’m sure you’ve heard the rumours about how the old locations were full of ghosts and the like, right? And they made the machines come to life?”

“Of course.”

“And you know that we’ve got one doing that here?”

“Yeah…” She wasn’t so sure she liked where this was going. “You wanna see if we’ve got a possessed animatronic. With a thermometer and a screwdriver.”

“Crazy, isn’t it? Hey, chin up! We might be fine.” Will shrugged. “But me and…well, also me, I guess, were having a pretty intense internal debate over ‘is it possessed or is it just really good A.I’, y’know?”

“Yeah. That thing does act pretty strange, doesn’t it?” As she thought, Will started walking off. Rude. She jogged to catch up with him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To go check on- You wanna come too?”

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re in this together. Why run around trying to get answers separately when we could work together on it? Plus you’ve gotta get pretty lonely doing all this by yourself, right?”

Will chuckled. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”

And then he didn’t elaborate. The journey down towards the main stage was quiet as could be. Whilst Will walked with his head held high, holding his device right in front of him for all to see, Vanessa just stuffed her hands in her pockets and looked away. She really wished she’d hide the damn thing again now. Sooner or later someone was going to start asking some very justifiable questions.

Arriving at the mainstage and, oh, wouldn’t you know it? The bear was gone again. Typical. Vanessa checked a nearby screen for the performance schedule - It was a Tuesday afternoon, so the only real customers they had were sleepy toddlers, too young to have started school, and their parents. A quiet day, for sure. There had been a total of two performances, both been and gone. Trying to think of the staff schedule, she vaguely remembered that Tuesday afternoon had a quiet period where checks and any necessary maintenance were supposed to be performed. Except Will wasn’t doing that, he was here, with his thermometer. He seemed to have known he wouldn’t find his target on stage though, as he headed directly for the storage tunnel entrance he and Vanessa had been down before when they found Gregory.

“Why down there?” She asked after she’d run to catch up.

“Because I’ve checked everywhere else. What did you think I was wandering around for?” He slammed the door shut behind them. “Could you- Can you lock that for me? I really don’t trust Jack.”

“Me neither.” She agreed, before putting her keys in the lock. “I’m worried about the fact that it was already open though.”

“Gregory didn’t give you the spare keys back, did he? And I don’t think he took them with him when he left.”

“So he gave them to Freddy?”

“Got any better ideas?”

Their first thought was to check Gregory’s former hiding place. That was where they’d found him before. Sure, the kid wasn’t there anymore, but it was a starting point. But, of course, it was to no avail. That small storage room was locked and upon unlocking it, they found no one inside. It looked to have been locked since it’s sole occupant had left.

What was interesting though were the faint scratch marks that littered the concrete below them. Vanessa hadn’t noticed those before, I mean, why would she have, but nope. There they were. It made sense, she guessed. Most of the animatronics that had any kind of ‘claws’ were banned from going on any carpeted areas. And why was that? Because they left marks. And just like that, those same marks were now appearing in the thin layers of dust that settled down here.

“Will!” She alerted her companion, excited to give him the news. “It’s left some marks in the floor! We can follow those.”

“Huh?” Will knelt down to examine the slight marks. “Who made him like that? That’s so shit. Honestly, didn’t anyone learn anything from all the hooks and sharp teeth before?”

“Guess not.”

The marks led them far, far down into the tunnels - further than either of them had been before. The more and more they delved in, the more it became apparent what they were getting themselves into. This place had been built like a maze and that was no mistake. At one point, the pair found themselves walking in a circle around a massive blocked off space that revealed itself to be The Factory, once they found an entrance.

The two lingered in the door frame for a matter of minutes, just staring at the machinery. The place was dormant, thank God, but it was unnerving nonetheless.The mere thought of what happened in this place alone was enough to inspire horror. Helper-bots milled around the place aimlessly, waiting for when a body would be given to them and they could do their job at last.

“You know, I heard that back in the old days, when people had to work in The Factory, it was really common for people to just pass out or start having panic attacks mid-way through working.” Recalled Vanessa. “I guess that’s why Jack went for bots. Saves him the trouble.”

“We should destroy it.” Will dug his fingernails into his palm as he spoke, hands scrunched up tightly. In fact, his whole body looked ridgid. 

“We don’t have anything to do that with right now.”

“We should still destroy it though.” Will insisted. “Soon.”

“Of course.” She wasn’t disagreeing with him, she was just worried about the practical side of things. Tearing it down was definitely going to get some wrath out of Jack. Though maybe that was a good thing. Maybe then, he’d start listening. Or maybe he’d just fire the two on the spot. The latter seemed much more likely. “If we just focus on keeping everyone alive for now, we can get rid of it later.”

He agreed unenthusiastically and the two moved on, still following the confused lines of small marks on the floor. She could tell he wasn’t happy with leaving The Factory intact but what else could they do? The only things they had on them right now were a set of keys and a machine that went ding when it was pointed towards something with a soul. There was no way they could do anything about it for the time being. Once they were out of here they could talk it through, make a plan. 

After a while, the marks led them to a bigger storage room - one full of what looked like old props and memorabilia collected from prior locations. Boxes pilled halfway up the walls and what could be seen from behind those tall stacks was slathered in posters. Various machine parts - arms, legs, empty heads, torsos, endos - all lay in various positions. But the most impressive thing from all the haul was sanding in the corner. An old, complete fox mascot. Vanessa didn’t recognise the design - she knew there had been a fox character, but this one was a bit different. More decorated. It had a long teal coat and an almost comically oversized pirate hat. And a tail. Will’s eyes lit up on the spot and he rushed over to go take a look at the thing.

Whilst Will busied himself checking that out, Vanessa’s eye was drawn to something slightly different. Not all the stuff stashed away back here had been old merchandise. Atop one of the boxes sat a dusty picture frame. She wiped it clean with her sleeve and took a peek at its occupants. It looked like a family of sorts - A small girl, a boy who looked about mid-way through his teens and a tired looking young man, all smiling into the camera. Now that there was no frame obscuring it, she could see that the words ‘ PHOTOS: 1960 - 1980 ’ had been scrawled on top. Curious, she set the frame aside and checked out the contents of the box. Now that the one family picture was out of the way, she could see why these had been stored down here. Most of these pictures were of employees or founders in or around the locations. Photos of the original founders and the first phoneys revealed themselves to her as she brought them closer to her eyes for inspection. She was half tempted to steal them, take them back to Jake and Harry, but she had no way of easily carrying them out with her. Some of the others that caught her eye featured a man she’d heard of but never seen - Dave. His appearance had been a curiosity of hers ever since she’d first heard him described. It was hard to believe a man with a neck that long could actually exist, but no. There he was. 

The picture in question that she was holding showed him talking to another man, some scruffy looking guy in an oil stained shirt. Someone had scrawled the word ‘Oops!’ on the bottom, presumably indicating that this took place in the aftermath of some accident. In spite of that, it wasn’t an unhappy scene - Both the man she thought was Dave and the other guy looked to be laughing about whatever had gone down. 

“So. What do you think?” Will’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned around to see that he’d taken the animatronic’s big coat for himself and was posing dramatically. 

“No.” She tried not to laugh and failed. “Absolutely not. No way.”

“Come on, I’m cold.” Will took the soul detector and put it in one of the coat’s big pockets. “That, and it’s really useful to be able to keep this thing somewhere.” Not taking ‘no’ for an answer, he ignored any further input and came over to look at what Vanessa had found. “Oh, wow.”

“There’s a whole box of pictures like this. Old ones, from back when things were just getting started.” 

“Yeah, cool..” He said, but he was really only interested in the one Vanessa had been looking at, the one with ‘Oops!’ scribbled on it. He smirked a little, then set it down. “Ok so like..You’re thinking what I’m thinking, right? Why the hell would he have come in here?”

“Right. Makes no sense. So what’s your plan?”

“Plan? Oh- Oh no, I wasn’t actually going anywhere with that. I just think it’s weird, y’know? Why would he have had an interest in this place?”

“Beats me. Maybe he just walked in, realised he wasn’t where he wanted to be and walked out again?”

So they walked out too. Walked out and wandered around for a bit, until they found another set of marks to follow even further into this stupid labyrinth. How much time had passed? Vanessa checked her phone. A while. Will shot her a downright bizarre look, staring at the device with what read as confusion. A fair reaction, she supposed. He probably hadn’t been intending to spend so much time on this or…something. Wasn’t this his idea to begin with? Oh, whatever. All the baseless suspicions she kept having about him were filling her with guilt. So he had a few weird scars and mannerisms. It didn’t matter, did it? She was just being overprotective again. Paranoid.

“Think this might be it?” Will cut through her introspection by pointing out an abnormally heavy door that was hanging ajar. “Well, if not ‘it’ then something, I mean, this thing looks better secured than The Factory,  so I guess it’s important.”

“The marks do look like they lead that way…” Agreed Vanessa. “In we go then..”

Will nodded and heaved open the door. The contents on the other side? Well, that might as well have been an entirely different establishment. The whole place gave a sort of clinical feel and the two had to squint against the sudden change in light and brighter surroundings. The place looked strikingly similar to an operating theatre, Vanessa decided. Not that she was particularly happy about that fact. Why the fuck did they have this.

“It fucking reeks of the dead in here..” Will murmured. 

The two turned in circles, attempting to take in the room’s details. Invariably though, they both ended up looking at the same thing. It was kind of hard to ignore once you’d seen it. Tucked away in a corner next to the door, something…some one was slumped over in a chair. A body in a ripped up uniform, a number of cords and wires penetrating its skin and trailing off into various sockets in the wall behind. The thing was headless, instead having what looked to be a relatively modern phone stuck in its place. The thing’s screen was blank, and appeared to be charging.

“Well now that’s just stupid..You can’t fit a skull in one of that thing, no matter how smashed up. Way worse than Abel.” Will was joking, but he had a point. There was no way this phoney (?) had been made in the same way as those that came before them.

“...Another one.” Vanessa breathed. She reached for what looked like a nametag on the crumpled up shirt and quickly had her hand grabbed. The phoney held tight, sharp nails digging into her skin. “Oh my God, ok!” She yanked her hand out of their grip. “I’m sorry! I didn’t realise you were awake.” 

“I never sleep.” They spoke with a synthesised voice, though it wasn’t the default one. If anything it sounded more like it belonged to some kind of app on said phone. 

“Oh, well, I’m uhh… sorry to hear that. I hope you don’t mind me asking but who are you?” 

They tilted their head to the side slightly. “Who am I?” They paused to consider the question for a second. “I watch all the cameras around the building for Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Miller. I call and tell them when I see something odd.”

“That’s not what I meant by-”

“I’m sorry,” Will cut her off. “Did you just say you watch the entire location’s cameras for ‘Mr. Miller’ ?”

“And Mr. Kennedy.” They replied. “In fact, they want to see you both very soon.”

“Oh, good! Tell him we’ll be coming right up there! I’d love to have a few kind words with this mysterious ‘Mr. Miller.’” A passive aggressive sarcasm took over Will’s voice as he spoke. “If fact, I’m so excited, I might even run!”

“No. He wants to see you down here.”

“Oh, as if he can-” Will fell silent as he realised that a pair of the helper bots had wheeled up behind them as they had been speaking. “Ah, shit.”

Rough metallic clamps took a hold of the pair of them and, in spite of any struggles they may have tried to make, the pair were dragged backwards into some kind of room at the back of the room. On first inspection it looked like a storage cupboard. Now that they were inside, it felt more like some kind of vault or containment chamber. The two were flug inside and stayed in a discarded heap for a solid minute, just trying to process what had happened. The two breathed loudly, Will in and out incredibly sharply, Vanessa doing her best to steady them and take oxygen in at a decent rate. A faint ringing filled the room. Three chimes, then a pause, over and over.

Eventually Will picked himself up, dusted himself off, and punched the wall. “Asshole!” he cried. “What did you do that for!?” He pulled the hand back and rubbed the sore part, trying to ease the pain. “That was really stupid. You do realise that you just picked a fight with Henry, right? There’s no way that bitch isn’t going to tell him what you said.” He sighed and rested against the wall, still cradling his sore hand. “So much for ‘undercover’.”

“…What?” It was the only response Vanessa could even try to muster. “Will, I- What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Stuff- Don’t worry- It’s just- I-” He struggled to get words out. “What is that hecking ringing-”

“Looks like your soul detector thingy.” It’d fallen on the floor beside Vanessa when they’d been tossed down. The reading was red hot and the bell was still chiming in that same, consistent rhythm. Three chimes, then a pause. “...It’s pointing at you.”

“It is- That’s- It must be broken.”

Vanessa turned it away and the reading turned cold. A single chime, then a pause came out when it was pointed towards herself. “No, I don’t think it is..” She got to her feet unsteadily. Even once she was up, Will still towered over her. Those usually blank eyes held no traces of that look anymore. They were attentive, focused. His scarred hand quivered. Those precise, asymmetrical marks jumped out at her once more. It wasn’t a full set of springlock scars but no human could ever leave lines as straight and precise as that. She turned the device back towards him and there it was again. Those same three chimes. Even his face wasn’t the same as it first appeared. He wasn’t the youngest guy to begin with but even then it carried something else. A weariness far beyond his years. “Who- Who are you?”

“Now? You wanna do this now?” Will almost laughed. “You wouldn’t believe it. You’d probably just call me mad or something.”

“Try me.”

Will’s wary eyes looked around the room quickly, then to the door behind him. “You don’t think the phoney outside can hear us in here, do you?” Vanessa nearly gave her own response, but Will answered his own question. “Not as long as we’re quiet.” He paused. “So, how do we wanna do this? Should I just rip the bandaid off? Might as well.” He turned to face her, looked her dead in the eyes and said, “I’m three dead employees sharing one body, created by a ghost dog, who’re here to try and put Jack in the ground for good.”

“You’re what -”

“See? I told you? What did I say? Now you just think we’re fucking mad!” He buried his head in his hands. “If only a certain ghost dog was here now, argh, he’d do such a better job of explaining, it’d all be so easy, but I sent him to go look for Freddy and now Jack’s gonna come and he’s gonna cut me open and-”

“Will!” Vanessa shouted over his rambling. “Please, I just- Tell me more! You can’t just say that and not expand on it.”

“You what? You mean you- Oh, Ok then.” He took a deep breath and composed himself a little. “This body isn’t real. ‘Will’ doesn’t really exist, that’s why the job application was a little skewed up. It was all made up by Blackjack- That’s the ghost dog- Jack’s real soul- and enacted by us. He figured Jack would sniff him out, I think. He sent all of us because he didn’t really trust any of us to go alone which I’m still a bit pissed off about but-” another deep breath. “It’s done now. So, anyway, did you get all that?”

“I…think so?” She looked at the device again. “Three chimes for three souls. You really know your stuff.”

“You’re taking this surprisingly well.”

“Well, I mean, my whole life I’ve been surrounded by stuff about phones, and purple people, and zombies and ghosts. I’ve long since accepted the undead as a pretty regular occurrence.” She chose not to let him know that her head was spinning with rather perspective shifting thoughts. That didn’t seem like it’d be particularly helpful right now and besides she had yet to properly make her mind up about the whole ordeal. She was still in shock from the discovery of the lab, her mind could only handle so much of this stuff at once. “Right now we just need to get out of here.”

“Ok, yeah, good idea! Hey, that thingy you had earlier, that’s a phone, right? Can you call anyone?”

“No reception.”

“No- Oh, nevermind.” He tapped his foot against the ground impatiently. Vanessa started to pace back and forth, drawn in by the nervous energy in the room. There had to be something they could do. Fuck everything else, fuck tomorrow, fuck whatever was up with Will. All that mattered right now was that They got out of here. She did not like the look of that operating table. 

“It locks on the outside.” Will observed. “So trying to open the door’s gonna be one hell of a pain. Probably impossible, if I had to guess. I don’t know, you’re the smart one.”

“I-”

“Oh, no, sorry. Don’t worry about it.” He leant back against the wall, arms folded tightly. “I don’t wanna die…” He murmured. “I know…I don’t know what happens this time. Back to the Flipside, I guess…Except maybe stuck together, I guess. That’d be- Well, maybe not too bad. I don’t wanna be alone for like 40 years again.”

Which was all very touching, Vanessa was sure, but she was rather distracted by the angry purple dog face phasing through the wall. 

“WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME?”

“Oh my God-” Will nearly jumped clean out of his skin. “Don’t- I’ve told you not to- What the fuck, Doggo?”

“THAT DOESN’T ANSWER MY QUESTION.”

“Listen, something just caught us off guard- But that’s not important- We reaaaaaally need to get out of here. As in, right now.”

“That’s the dog..” Interrupted Vanessa. “That’s the ghost dog you were talking about..”

“SHE KNOWS?”

“Look, she just put us on the spot, ok? Care to get us out of here before your unhinged corpse comes down here to dissect us?”

“YOU’RE IN LUCK. JUST STAY THERE.”

And then he was gone again. Will muttered something about Blackjack being a dick but other than that the two were left to sit in silence. There wasn’t a lot to talk about but there was a whole hell of a lot to think about. Vanessa was still trying to process everything that she’d found out today because, God, it was a lot. The fact that finding a factory under here was one of the least of her worries right now was probably a strong indicator. Just…What a hell of a day. 

She didn’t have too much time to think it all over though as only about a minute or two after Blackjack had left there came a noise. Loud thuds, coming from outside and getting steadily closer. Will backed away from the door, an air of apprehension about him. Vanessa felt it too - they had no way to tell if they were being approached by friend or foe. There was an amount of thudding, thumping and clanking outside before finally, they saw the light. Light dappled with various shades of orange and blue, that was. There was their missing bear.

“Oh, come on!” said Will, utterly exasperated. “You found him before we did. This whole thing was for nothing.”

“YES, WELL, IF YOU WILL INSIST ON WALKING IN CIRCLES I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU EXPECT.”

“Is this them? Shall we go?”

“YES.” Blackjack bounded off, Freddy at his heels. “WASTE NO TIME. JACK IS STILL ON HIS WAY.”

Vanessa looked up and Will, who nodded and the two ran off after the others who had gotten ahead of them. What ensued after all that was a frantic dash back through the endless mess of tunnels, doing their best to avoid any bots they saw along the way. Who knows, maybe Jack could see out of their eyes too. It would hardly be surprising. Up and up through the deep corridors they ran, running for so long that their limbs didn’t seem like limbs anymore and the ground barely seemed real. It was almost ludicrous, Vanessa thought, that they were running from such a frail husk of a man, but then again, did any of them really know what Jack was capable of? Sure, he was held together by dust and cobwebs but that didn’t stop him from having a number of tricks up his sleeves. Vanessa vaguely remembered she hadn’t seen Ness at all either. She picked up the pace a little. 

They decided to not take the exit that they had come in from, but rather the one closest to the exit. They couldn’t risk panicking any customers who might’ve been in or, even worse, draw any malicious robots that may or may not have been after them out there. Terrible idea. 

Of course, they were only shooting for a rough approximation of where that exit was, but they managed to get it surprisingly close. One or two doors out, maybe. 

“Oh- Oh my God-'' Will panted once they were out. “Oh fuck- Note to self - tripple the minds does NOT mean triple the stamina.”

Blackjack snorted at such a comment and then said “DO NOT STOP NOW. YOU HAVE TO KEEP MOVING, OR YOU’RE GOING TO CRASH AND COLLAPSE.”

“Right- Right.” Will nodded. The group set off at a speedy walking pace for the main doors. There really weren’t many people today and the few that did really didn’t pay them any mind. Blackjack had seemingly gone invisible again, and Freddy had wandered back into the building somewhere. So really, all anyone saw was just two tired looking employees. Nothing special, really. 

Even once they were outside, they kept moving for a fair while until they finally felt safe to stop. It was on a fairly long road, one which cars and people passed by often enough for Jack to not want to show his face but not often enough for them to feel overcrowded or watched. Vanessa parked herself firmly on the edge of a bench whilst Will simply doubled over and leant on his knees. 

“What the fuck-” Will huffed. “What the fuck was up with Freddy!? He said like 2 things then left? I didn’t even get a chance to poke with my expertly made soul detector!

“IF YOU GAVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN YOU WOULD KNOW THAT I HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS FOR YOU.”

“Go on then.”

“ARE YOU MAD? NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STREET.”

“On the train then?”

“WHEN WE ARE HOME.” Blackjack put his foot down. “AND ONLY THEN.”

“You’re leaving?” asked Vanessa. Not that she was really surprised just that it hadn’t yet dawned on her what the two of them were doing next.

“Uhhh…Yeah.” Will glanced at Blackjack. “Off to discuss what we’ve learned about the situation, I guess. You know, being head of security or whatever you could probably like- Help or something? You know stuff, right?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“And Jack’s probably after you too.”

“Yeah.”

“So, how about it? Wanna help me put some red string and post-it notes in a cork board? We could probably use an extra pair of hands.”

“Sure. Let’s try and make sense of all of this.”

Chapter Text

They had to walk back to Will’s place. Both of them had left all their possessions - money and Will’s train ticket included - back at the mall and they were in no rush to get those things back anytime soon. It wasn’t a bad walk though; the sun was out, the path was quiet and the day was warm. Will removed his stolen coat and carried it under one arm, laughing to himself.

“How pissed do you think Jack’s gonna be? Oh, very, but I’m not sure it’ll be about a stolen coat-” 

He switched between tones in an instant, with a natural effortlessness that some actors would probably envy. The previous hours revelations started to properly dawn on Vanessa. Catching snippets of what he was saying, she started to pick out things she hadn’t really noticed before. A noticeable New York accent, yes, but there were traces of other voices in there too. People who had grown up elsewhere. What’s more, the fluctuation of the accents matched perfectly with the tone switches. Three people. Huh. It was a bit uncanny when she started to think about it.

Will leant back and folded his arms behind his head comfortably. “I’ll tell you what, it is so good to not have to keep the pretending up as much anymore.” He sighed, seeming properly relaxed for the first time in Vanessa’s memories. She felt guilty for holding that uncanny pit in her stomach - He..They?- Seemed far happier now. It was just a lot to wrap her head around. 

“That’s good.” Vanessa nodded. She pondered over her next words. Was this going to be too forward? Worth a shot, she supposed. “So, like. If you’re actually uhh…Three other people, then I guess my question is who ?”

“Ah.” He paused, eyes taking on their usual blank expression that Vanessa now realised was not from a lack of thought, but from the exact opposite. An intense internal conversation must’ve been taking place but all she could hear was the occasional ‘hmmm’. “Well, I’m Steven, and uh…I don’t really have a lot to say because I was a Gen 1 Phone Guy, you know Gen 1s, right? I’m sure someone you know will have told you, what with that house and all- But, yeah, no memories, and I’m sure they weren’t all that interesting anyway-” One hand reached out and scratched the other, causing Will to gasp and stop the nervous outburst, “My god, that was probably terrifying.” A different voice overtook him as he spoke. “Hi. Peter Kennedy. Good to meet you!”

“As in, related to Jack?”

“I’m his older brother, yeah. Also making me Gregory’s grandfather, before you ask.” He gave her a weary smile. “I was busy dying from rusted insides when he was growing up. Nice to finally meet him properly.” His smile quickly dropped off to be replaced by something uncertain. He eyed her up, eyes seeming to fall directly on the badge on her uniform. “The third guy’s not important.” He stated, voice now dripping with that New York accent. Their voices were more distinct when they were taking it in turns to speak, Vanessa had realised, and she was relatively sure that that was the voice of the third. Her theory seemed to prove itself right as Will had retreated back into that internal debate kind of state. “Fine, fine.” The third voice sighed. “I’m Dave. Yes, that Dave. No need to tear my spine out or what have you, I’m not here for kiddin’ killing.” 

“Dave Miller ?” She felt something uncomfortable bubbling within her and fought to keep the feeling down.

“Yeah, sure that’ll do.” He sighed, looking deflated. “I think I’m kind of over the ‘Miller’ shtick though. Maybe the Dave part too. We’ll see.”

“Meaning?” 

“Well, it’s just that- I dunno…’Miller’ isn’t exactly my name, and neither’s Dave. Those were just things I took from Henry.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, growing less relaxed. “I’m not really a fan of that man anymore. It’s actually William, if you were wondering.” 

“So, what, you’ve..changed?” Vanessa asked. She could hardly believe this was the man she’d heard so much about - He’d always been described to her as a whirlwind, chaos and carnage in its purest form. And sure, maybe that explained some of Will’s more eccentric tendencies, but still. The one known as Jack’s closest companion, now working to take him down?

“Not yet. I’m trying to.” He took a hand back out of his pockets and waved it around aimlessly, looking restless. “It’s been a confusing lotta time for me. Realisin’ all the hurt that I was putting into the world. Talking to that little kid for a month, finally grasping what I took.”

“You didn’t know?”

“Imagine you’ve sat in a dark room your entire life, and then a man walks in and he turns on the light. He must look like the best, most amazing guy ever. And he takes you outta the room, and you follow him ‘cause you’ve never been anywhere else. Except you realise that by turning on the light he released an electric current that killed a ton of people but you’ve never seen a body before, ‘cause you were stuck in the dark so you don’t know it’s wrong and- Argh, fuck this is stupid. I hate analogies.” He fidgeted some more. “I don’t really know how to explain it and have it make sense. Thinking’s hard. Henry took some bits of my brain out.”

“I’m sorry, Henry did what ?” She vaguely recalled that there had been rumours of Henry experimenting on Dave, but not like that, God. 

“He looked at a lot of my organs! Wanted to try and figure out what the hell I was. Never managed it though.” 

“Why did you stay with him?” She couldn’t really believe it.

“Like I said, I thought he was the best person ever. Thought he was leading me down the right path. Thought he cared for me.” 

Vanessa stayed quiet for a few moments. She still trusted the outlook on Henry that she knew of and based on that, this didn’t seem all that out of place. She thought of the operating theatre in the basement of the mall, and then of Ness, sharing that same odd complexion as Dave had been known to have. What if she was down there, right now, being cut right open? Though still unsure on what to think of her, she didn’t wish that fate on her.

“Something wrong?” Will noticed her silence. “I mean obviously, that must’ve been a lot but-”

“Ness.” Vanessa said. “Do you think he’s operated on her?”

“He better not have.” Will shook his head. “Or that’s another thing I’ll make him pay for. I mean I’ve never really spoken to her, but she seems nice enough. And I sure as hell don’t wanna see her dissected.”

“She’s…I really don’t know. I’ve had her on my radar for ages, I’m sure she’s mixed up in all of this, but I don't know how.”

“Hmm.” No reply. They were thinking again. Thinking so hard, in fact, that the subject got completely dropped. Will went completely blank and no amount of calling was snapping him out of it this time. They were on complete auto-pilot. The ghost dog, Blackjack, gave her a sympathetic kind of look before disappearing from her sight once more. Feeling lost, she trailed slightly behind, just hoping that Will knew where he was going in this state. 

He apparently did, as they ended up in what she presumed was where they resided. A pretty sparse little apartment, lacking any real possessions aside from some essentials. All in line for a guy who had only existed for a few weeks. “Make yourself at home!” Will finally spoke. “God knows I won’t! What? Sorry, that made no sense. Continue as normal.”

He flung the coat on the floor and began rummaging around through nearly empty drawers. “You can sit down if you want, the couch doesn’t bite.” 

“Right.” Vanessa perched on the edge of the thing, not feeling ready to relax yet. “What’re you looking for?”

“Paper. I’m sure I had a- Aha!” He produced a clipboard with several branded pieces of paper on along with a pair of pens. “We can write on the back of our to-do list!”

He threw it down on the table and fell down directly next to her with an almighty thud. “Why is the top job ‘dispose of Bonnie’s remains’?”

“Oh, didn’t you hear? He got torn to shreds or something. Went off course and walked into a construction zone, apparently. Super suspicious if you ask me.” He removed the top of one of the pens with his teeth and flipped one of the pieces of paper over. “What’s the best way to do this…How about we just take it from the top? What do we know already, that’s a good starter..”

“Alright. When I met you, I was informed of two disappearances on premises. Gregory Kennedy and Abby Andrews. And we later learned Gregory’s dad isn’t around either. So that’s three people gone. We’ve found one, no leads on the others.”

“Right.” Will jotted their names down, adding a tick next to Gregory’s name. “And there’s that Phoney down in Jack’s basement. Did you manage to get a good look at the nametag?”

“Nope. Nothing really stood out to me, except for the fact that they had some really sharp nails.” She rubbed her wrist a little, thinking carefully. “Abby had some pretty long nails, I think. Well, I say ‘I think’, you couldn’t miss them. Hot pink. But that’s not really an identifier or someone, is it?”

“It’s a start.” Will made a note of ‘possible connection to unnamed phoney’ next to Abby’s name then continued. “And of course there’s Freddy.”

“AND IF YOU WOULD LET ME SPEAK, YOU COULD FIND OUT ABOUT HIM.” Blackjack materialised in front of the pair, hovering right above the table.

“No one was stopping you. Open discussion. Go for it.” said Will.

“I DID INDEED SPEAK TO HIM WHILE YOU TWO WERE TRAPPED. HE WAS SEARCHING, THOUGH HE DID NOT KNOW WHAT FOR. WHEN IN CONVERSATION, HE TOLD ME THAT HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND MANY OF HIS ACTIONS. THAT HE FEELS LIKE HE HAS SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO DO BUT DOES NOT KNOW WHAT AND SO ON.” Blackjack explained. Will noted down furiously as the dog told his tale. “I SENSE A SOUL WITHIN HIM, BUT HE SEEMS UNAWARE. THERE IS A STRUGGLE BETWEEN THAT LIVING MIND AND THE COMPLEX A.I THAT ALREADY SAT THERE, IS WHAT I THINK. OR PERHAPS HIS MIND HAS SUBCONCIOULSY REPRESSED HIS MEMORIES FOR HIS OWN SAFETY. EITHER WAY, IT IS AN INTERESTING CASE.” 

“So then it’s easy, right?” Will looked the notes up and down. “Two missing, two found. One’s a ghost and the other’s a phone.” 

“WELL, TECHNICALLY YES, BUT LET’S NOT GET HASTY. THIS PROBLEM’S FAR FROM SOLVED.” Blackjack scolded. “THINK ABOUT IT! LIFE HAS BEEN GIVEN. FREDBEAR MUST BE NEAR! THERE’S NO ONE ELSE WHO COULD! BUT WHERE, THAT IS THE QUESTION. WHY HAS HE NOT REVEALED HIMSELF?”

“Huh. Well now that is a puzzle.” Will agreed. He leaned back and folded his arms, thinking once more. “He can’t have seen us, ‘cause he probably would’ve tried to help. But how could he not know? Isn’t he supposed to be omnipresent or something?”

“I’m sorry-” Vanessa cut the two’s conversation short. “Fredbear? Like the character?”

“NO. A FRIEND. OUR BEST HOPE.” said Blackjack. 

“He’s kind of annoying.” Will huffed. “Kicked me in the balls once.” 

“HE DID NOT.” Blackjack rolled his eyes. “AND YOU PROBABLY WOULD’VE DESERVED IT ANYWAY.”

Will grumbled something to himself and returned to note making. He made red circles around a few things of importance with the other pen he had brought out before taking that sheet off the clipboard and starting to write on the other one. “Putting all that aside, I think we need a plan of action.” 

“Do you think we’re fired?” A sudden realisation dawned on Vanessa. She’d been so focused on trying not to die she hadn’t even been thinking of the consequences of what they’d done yet. Will didn’t have a clue and, lacking any better options, Vanessa decided to check her work email. “Oh God.” A notice from Jack. That was quick. Too quick.

“Don’t open it! What does it say!?” Will leaned right over, fighting to get a good look at the screen. 

“I don’t know, lemme just-” She pushed him away and opened the message up. “Ok, there.”

Leaving work early? 

To: [email protected]

Hello, Vanessa. Several members of staff have reported that earlier today you left the building early with fellow co-worker Will Stevenson. As you should know, anyone who wishes to leave prematurely must notify me or another suitable member of staff in advance. Several witnesses have informed me that you were in a hurry earlier, leading me to believe that perhaps something unexpected popped up for the two of you. For the time being, you are pardoned but if you try this again, I will have to consider consequences.

Take care of yourself, Jack Kennedy. 

“We’re…Not fired?” Will raised an eyebrow. “Huh. I mean, he probably wants to keep us close so he can monitor everything we do on his camera system that he has being watched by some poor dead soul 24/7, meaning we can’t possibly put a single toe out of line or risk being dissected if he doesn’t already have plans to kidnap again, but cool!” He took a deep breath, exhaled and spoke more calmly. “Panic attacks aside, we need a plan. What needs to be done?” He picked up his to-do list and crossed out some menial repair jobs. “We’ll still go investigate that smashed up bot, I really wanna see what that is. And we need to find out who died and how. Not sure how to go about that…” He turned to Vanessa. “Maybe you could do some snooping about? He’s probably got a stash of hidden records and deleted video footage or..something. I don’t know - See what you can find?”

Vanessa nodded to affirm - “I’ll see what I can get. Might be good if I can try and get that phoney out of the cameras too.”

“Yeah! Do what you can for them. If you can snap them out of that trance, we might be able to get something good out of them.” Will tore a slip of paper off of the to-do list and handed it to her, with a couple of his notes scrawled down. “I also think it’d be good if you could talk to Gregory about some stuff at some point too. If the kid’s up to it, that is.” He scribbled something else down. “And then there’s the fire preparations.”

“The what.”

“Oh, come on, you know. Fire to release the souls. Building goes up in flames, me and Jack are inside and we burn to death, finally freeing everyone!” He said it scarily causally, as if that wasn’t a massive thing he’d completely failed to mention before now. “Now of course, you’ll need to-”

“Evacuate people.” She stopped him in his tracks. “Make sure absolutely no one’s still inside when that happens. Get people in the surrounding area away from- God this place is a massive tourist trap, that’s so many people to get out…”

“Ah. See, I was gonna say ‘remove all the fire safety equipment’.”

“You were gonna- What? Why?”

“BECAUSE IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT JACK HAS NO MEANS OF STOPPING IT ONCE IT HAS STARTED. WE ONLY HAVE ONE SHOT AT THIS, REALLY.”

“Right…Ok, hmm.” Will retreated into their thoughts for a second. “We’d make sure it was a quieter day, probably quite early in the morning. There won’t be many people inside. And we need a way of keeping Jack from getting out…Do you have the key for his office?”

“No. It’s one of the only places I can’t get into.”

“That’s Blackjack’s job then, I think. You can steal a key, can’t you doggo?” 

“OF COURSE.”

“Then it’s all set, isn’t it!? We lock Jack in his office, Vanessa evacuates everyone else- I die a horrible death by fire for all my past sins, the Factory is destroyed- the company hits bankruptcy and no one ever dies by its hands again. Simple as that! So easy! And then everything’ll go back to…uhh…Something. No idea what happens to us after this, guess we’ll find out, huh?”

He made it sound so easy, so simple. ‘Just a few little steps and that’s all!’, that’s what he made it sound like. But it was a daunting task.  A one-shot plan, with a sizable handful of lives at risk from the whole thing. One small fuck up and this could be a disaster. She thought of all those innocent people at stake in the midst of the fire, and then of all the innocent people at stake from the inherent dangers of working in one of these places unsuspectingly. It was a lose/lose, really. People were going to be at serious risk no matter which way she thought about it. If they set the fire though, there was a chance those risks would end. It was the better option between the two and she knew it. She just hoped she could handle the pressure. 

Chapter Text

“Call the girl in.” 

That was all that Henry had said. Simple words, but with an underlying urgency so strong that Jack had not even stopped to ask what for. She arrived as soon as the message reached her, a nervous excitement following her as she came in. 

“Ness, do you know of Vanessa Wilson and Will Stevenson?” 

“Uh…Yeah! I’ve met them. Chatted with them a few times too! Why, what do you need them for?” 

“No, no, you misunderstand.” Jack paused to listen to Henry’s instructions. Wise man. If the girl was faltering on the murder side, they could put her to good use elsewhere. “They’ve discovered the operation. What I need is for you to keep an eye on them. Keep them on task, distract them if necessary. And if you see them trying to disrupt things, stop them. Full permission to kill.”

She gripped the edges of her seat and swallowed. “We could just…Explain it to them? The operation?” 

“Remember what I’ve told you.” Jack sighed. “People will not appreciate our work in its time. The public is sensitive, weak. It is only when we provide a successful subject that they’ll begin to warm up to it.”

“Right, right, of course.” She nodded vigorously. “They’ll be thanking us when it’s over. I know, I know.” Her sharp nails drummed on the table, gathering up strength and energy. “Distractions. I’m good at those! I mean, what’s entertaining the kiddins if not a fun, colourful one? I’ll do good! Cause a little carnage…Ooo! Do you think I could stage a fight with a rogue animatronic and smash it to bits? The tech dude would be cleaning that up for months!”

“Do whatever you think is necessary.” Jack reiterated. “Because whilst you’re handling that, Henry and I will be starting to gather subjects.”

“Oh, you’re gonna- Ah. That’s a shame.” Words said disappointment, tone said relief. Weak minded. 

“I know, I know, taking your job. But we agreed it would be better this way. After all, those two hardly trust me, I’d never get anywhere with trying to keep them away.” 

“Ok sir! I understand!” She got up from her seat, trembling. That nervous excitement was stronger than ever. “I won’t let you down!”

Chapter Text

The dread set in the second Will woke up. Dammit, dammit, dammit. Discovered, on the run, operating directly under their enemy’s beady eye sockets? Oh no. No, no, no, he couldn’t do this, couldn’t get caught, couldn’t go back to the-

‘Ughh…Good morning to you too,’ Peter’s malformed consciousness began to shape up as he cut through the early morning panic attack. ‘Someone’s feeling optimistic.’

The trio hauled themself out of their bed and pulled on some work clothes. Though dismissive of their initial passive attack, it was hard to deny that things were feeling a little off this morning. The revelation that they had been being surveyed at all times was a nasty one, one that inspired some uncomfortable questions about how much Jack knew. Did he know who they were? Did he know Blackjack was here? How about Vanessa, what was he planning on doing to her? Was he going to try and drag Gregory back? All this, and more, plagued their consciousness this morning. Awful. 

Every eye seemed to be on them as they stepped out into the tranquil air of a  midsummer morning sun. Oh, the streets may have been quiet, but everything around them seemed to have grown eyes. Every corner could be hiding a camera, every camera could have Jack’s attentive eyes on it. Faces in the street could’ve been informants, wild animals could’ve been robots. It was irrational, every piece of their mind knew it, but it was a feeling that was hard to push down. 

The front doors of the building seemed so much bigger when they arrived and all the lights seemed as though they’d been made brighter, just to blind them a little more. As they tried to orientate themselves, a somewhat familiar purple presence bounded into view. “Hi, Will!” 

“Uh…Hi? Can I help you?” 

“Mmm, Maybe.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Depends what you’re already doing today.”

“I was just gonna take a peek at that broken robot in the basement. Why?”

“I need a stagehand!” 

Oh. Oh, they saw what this was. Getting them distracted, getting them sidetracked. It wasn’t going to work on them. “You’re probably gonna need to ask someone else, Ness. I’ve really got to take a look at that thing. Mr. Kennedy himself told me to get it done soon as possible!”

“Did he?” Oh, they were walking in dangerous territory here. Both parties knew the last part of that was a lie, but neither could break character. “Gosh, alright then. I’ll go rope someone else into ohhh soo malicious job of entertaining children.” 

“Cool. You do that!” Will strutted off in the opposite direction. Maybe this wasn’t too bad. Just so long as they didn’t lose the facade. They could do that! Dave was a performer. Peter kept one up for years anyway. And wasn’t what they’d been doing this whole time anyway? “I’m gonna go do my job.” 

“Have fun with that.” She sounded so sweet, but they could hear the sulking behind all that. Whatever. If Jack thought their strings could be pulled that easily, that was his loss. Embellished with a newfound confidence, they made their way to the lower levels.

“BE SWIFT.” Blackjack urged. “SHE WILL HAVE TOLD HIM YOU ARE GOING DOWN HERE. HE MIGHT TAKE THIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO TRAP YOU.” 

Which they knew, but hearing it from the outside made them pick up the slack. There was always the lingering knowledge that one usually retained a kind of connection with what their soulless corpse might be up to, and if Blackjack so much as implied   Jack was closing in on them, then they were taking no risks. Pace now upped, they navigated their way to a part of the complex that most would offhandedly refer to as ‘The Scrapyard’. Its title was far too foreboding for what actually lay there - Mere handfuls of broken robot parts or the odd three-legged table were thrown at walls and left unorganised, just waiting to be thrown out. It was odd to see something so obviously complete lying amongst the unusable junk - Jack very easily could’ve just asked for repairs for this thing. He hadn’t. He’d asked for it’s disposal, and he’d put overseeing it on the top of their to-do list. 

Weird.

Stay alert.

“What is it then?” Dave cupped their hands over their mouth and shouted up at the ceiling. The dingy, cramped room was all too familiar, he’d been here before. That buried bunker where Jack had disposed of his corpse. “Is that thing gonna explode? Do the doors like, lock automatically or something? I dunno, it’s the future, you’ve got money, I’m sure you could work something like that out!” 

“It’s nothing like that.” 

Their attention was caught immediately. Never mind their imaginary enemy in the ceiling anymore, the bot just spoke in direct response to their rambles. And those things, around here, talking? Looong established as a red flag, that was a point drilled into their brain. They knelt down next to the dishevelled rabbit, watching as it’s bulging plastic eyes carefully followed their own. “And who might you be?”

“You first. Who might you be?” That concentrated look continued, digging through Will’s skull. Steven swore, it felt like those goofy pupils were staring right into their souls. He preferred the lifeless bug-eyes these things were supposed to have in all honesty. 

“I’m Will Stevenson.” 

“Could you not have picked a little better?” It rolled its eyes, amused. “That’s one interruption away from ‘William Afton’.”

“Well, fuck you too.” Will instinctively moved back from the thing, Dave in particular deciding he didn’t like its attitude. “Who do you think you are?” 

“A very old friend.”  

“I can always leave you here if you don’t stop being unhelpful.” 

“I THINK I KNOW.” Blackjack cut past Will, getting so close to the bot that his face was almost pressed against it. Very real dog eyes met fake rabbit ones. “FREDBEAR.”

The smashed up head managed a faint nod of acknowledgement. “Blackjack.”

“Oh…Piss off-” Dave felt an instinctual panic settle somewhere deep inside. He could feel himself burning up with shame as he sat before the old mythical-space-bear-weirdo. Sensing this, Steven cut across the burning awkwardness with, “Why not the bear then?”

“Too obvious. But that is not important right now. What is important is that I check things with you. Make sure everything is in order with your plan and what-not.” 

“WELL, FREDBEAR, IF I MAY-” Blackjack shuffled his paws awkwardly. “NOW THAT I HAVE FOUND YOU, IT MIGHT BE WISE TO…REVISE OUR IDEAS A LITTLE! WE COULD USE SOME MORE HELP, I THINK. A DIFFERENT OUTLOOK, ANOTHER PAIR OF HANDS. SOMEONE WITH…MORE POWER THAN MYSELF.” 

“I am sorry to say that I don’t exactly think I am in any fit state to give you any extra hands or power, unless you mean to tear one from this body and use it as a weapon.” He joked. “I trust your plan to be good.”

“ME AND THE OTHERS ARE WORKING ON A FINALISED ITERATION OF OUR PLAN TO BURN THIS PLACE.” Explained Blackjack. “WE INTENT TO EXTRACT DATA BEFOREHAND, TO UNCOVER-” He stopped dead in his tracks. “...YOU WOULD’VE BEEN THE ONE TO GIVE LIFE TO FREDDY.”

“Yes…” Fredbear mused. “Perhaps regrettably. I once said I was done with all that…But he has done well. He has acted how I had hoped. Helpfully.”

“HIS MEMORY THOUGH…HE IS CONFUSED. DID YOU MESS SOMETHING UP? SHOULD I FIX IT?”

“I am keeping those suppressed.” 

“You’re what?” Peter started an outburst, but Blackjack spoke over him.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND. WHY?”

“Jack. The Kids.” he responded. “Look at Jack. He has become a horrible, wretched thing. The kids that were gifted life, they were miserable. They lashed out at innocents. The curse of life beyond death…There are few that can handle it, that is what I’ve learned. If I had to place it one more time, I wanted it to be free of suffering.” 

“No. No! Stopping you right there!” Peter put his foot down, he was sick of this talk. “This…Whatever you’re talking about, this is just- This is what they did to me! They took my corpse, made it robotic and they wiped my brain so they could feel happy about it! So that in their mind they could go ‘Oh, he doesn’t know, he’s fine! We’re making him useful again’! Aren’t you all powerful or whatever, couldn’t you have just sorted all this without him?”

“I am not ‘all powerful’. I didn’t know where you were and I couldn’t just wait for help to come. People were already dying, I had to act and I had to act fast. Desperate times, desperate measures…Those I do regret. It matters not though. You still came, for that I am grateful! I do have to ask what was keeping you though.”

“...I WAS WAITING FOR YOU.” 

The room stood still and quiet. No one knew where to take it from here, where the hell could they take it? What should’ve been a meeting with an ally had hit an impasse. Peter stared down at the busted up bot and then at his brother, also starting to distance himself from Fredbear.

“If we burn this place down, you’ll be released from that thing, right?” asked Peter. “And you’ll go back to whatever it was you do.”

“Yes.” 

They looked the busted animatronic over one final time. God, it looked sad, dented and lying in a useless heap on the floor. A battered head full of conflicting ideas with a broken body. What a message that sent. 

Help was not coming. 

“Come on, Jack.” Will turned heel and made for the door. “Before your corpse gets here.” 

The ghostly dog in question was currently distracted though. Paws slipping all over the place, he clumsily sifted through the piles of scrap. Will turned back around and joined Blackjack on the floor, able to sort through the junk much faster with human hands. They quickly found what Blackjack had seen. The faintest glimmer, reflecting light off of a camera lens. Oh, please. Please, let that be a broken one. A false alarm, it had to just be a false alarm. And yet…

“OH. Oh, oh fuck you, Jack Kennedy.” They dropped the camera on the floor with a loud clatter. “How many cameras does a man need?” That was the final blow to their previously alright mood. With an exhausted sigh, they went back to the exit. The lights flickered in the dingy stairways and every wall felt like it had eyes again. Overcome by the horrible mood, Will turned to their distraught doggy companion. 

“A COMMUNICATION ERROR…” Blackjack fretted. “WE WERE NOT CLEAR ABOUT WHERE EACH OF US WOULD BE RESIDING…THE OUTSIDE OF TIME IS SO VAST AND I…” Sad puppy-dog eyes met Will’s. “I HAVE DONE THIS TO YOU OVER A COMMUNICATION ERROR.” He bounded up the stairs, getting ahead of Will, who stumbled to catch up. “IF WE BOTH HADN’T BEEN SO BRASH, WE COULD’VE PUT MORE TIME INTO FINDING EACH OTHER. WE COULD’VE WORKED TOGETHER, GETTING NO OTHERS INVOLVED…”

“Ok, but who’s plan is going better? Because I think it’s objectively yours, no questions.” Dave assured. “Told ya, we’re better off without him.” 

“HE’S NOT BAD. HE’S SIMPLY GROWN DESPERATE. I CAN SEE IT. WE WERE SO CLOSE TO GETTING RID OF ALL THIS, AND NOW IT’S BACK AND BIGGER THAN EVER.” Blackjack shook his head. “HE’S GROWN RECKLESS. HE’S TIRED, HE JUST WANTS IT ALL TO END.” 

“What’s the deal with you and him anyway?” Asked Peter. “You’ve never explained.”

“I SUPPOSE YOU WOULD CALL HIM MY…MENTOR?” Blackjack struggled for the right words. “BECAUSE OF THE FACTORY, I WAS THE FIRST ADULT SOUL HE ENCOUNTERED. JUST AS HE DID WITH JACK, HE SAW ME FIT TO HELP HIM. AND WHY WOULD I REFUSE? I SAW CHILDREN SUFFERING, CHILDREN JUST LIKE MY VERY OWN SISTER. HE SHOWED ME ALL THE WAY AROUND REALITY AND EVERYTHING THAT WILL EVER LIE BEYOND. I COULD NAVIGATE THE FLIPSIDE LIKE THE BACK OF MY HAND.”

“Ok, but if you’re such good buds, why did he abandon you?”

“I COULDN’T STAND WHAT JACK WAS DOING. I STARTED APPEARING TO HIM. TRYING TO DABBLE IN REALITY, YOU KNOW HOW IT GOES. YOU ALL SAW ME AT ONE POINT OR ANOTHER.” He leapt up the stairs, getting ahead again. “WE WERE DOING DIFFERENT THINGS, CONTACT JUST BECAME LESS FREQUENT. WE DIDN’T ABANDON EACH OTHER. I NEVER MEANT TO-”

“Never meant to what?”

“WE’RE ALMOST OUT IN THE OPEN AGAIN. WE SHOULD PROBABLY STOP.”

“Right. Ok.” He was right, of course, but that sure didn’t mean they had to feel good about it. In many ways, they wished they’d just left this encounter alone. Sure would’ve made things less of a mess. God only knows what Jack was going to make of that camera footage if he got a look at it. But that wouldn’t have been a particularly useful situation either - the group would’ve wasted time waiting for an ally that couldn’t come, stewing over mysteries that were already done and dusted. In the end, maybe it was a lose/lose kind of deal. 

Chapter Text

“I need a hand! Come on, you’ll help me out, right?” 

“Ness, Please, I’m busy today.” Vanessa said, because she recognised what was happening here. It was no secret that there was something up with Ness and Jack at this point - All those secretive office meetings couldn’t just be about character performance and the murder connections? The weak, but still very real at this point murder connections? No. There was no way for her to feel assured of Ness’ innocence right now. She couldn’t let her guard down, much as she kind of wanted to.

“Busy with what? Watching people? You can do that and help me - You know I’m always in the centre of the crowds.” Ness put her foot down. “You’ve got no reason not to, really. Unless you and your weirdo friend are gonna go bunk off again.” She leaned in closer. “What do you two even do, huh? Because if you two are smooching back there-”

“Oh, God, no!” Vanessa waved Ness out of her face. Eugh. She supposed it wasn’t the most outlandish implication to make, but still. Ew. “Nothing like that.”

“Oh, that’s good,” said Ness. “Because, y’know, he’s what? 20 years older than you or something?”

“...Sure.” Because wondering how old Will actually was was going to give her an existential crisis. “No, I was just lending him a hand with some job stuff. He’s new, so he doesn’t really know his way around the building and, well, I’ve got most of the keys, so it seemed right that I give him a hand.” 

“So you’ll give the bug-eyed newbie a hand but not me? That’s just rude.” 

The situation was a double edged sword, Vanessa was starting to realise. Help Ness, and she got off task. Not help Ness and she aroused reasonable suspicion. Was this what she wanted? What if she went and Ness or Jack caused an incident whilst she had her back turned? Oh, God, the infinite possibilities. Maybe she should stay with Ness, keep an eye on her. That was supposed to be her job after all. And…And maybe she could be smart about it! Maybe she could get her to leak some useful information. Yeah, yeah, Ok. This worked. 

“Alright, alright, fine,” she agreed. “You’re right, I’ve got no reason not to help you. But you’ve gotta tell me exactly what it is you need me to do.”

“Oh, you’re actually gonna- Oh, cool!” Ness bounced up and down on her heels, practically vibrating with excitement. “Ok, so basically, I’m gonna rollerskate in costume-”

“You’re gonna what- ”

“And you’re going to give me more and more items to juggle!” 

“What- But- I-” Vanessa stuttered, struggling to imagine a version of events where this didn’t end in carnage. “How does that work? You can’t be able to move well enough in a suit for that.” 

“No, see, Vanny’s gonna be in costume today!” Explained Ness. “Or, in other words, I’m gonna wear a usual outfit, plus the head. Sight’s gonna be off though. That’s part of where you come in. Gonna need a sectioned off bit, I think. Wouldn’t want to crash into any kiddos, would I?”

“Why can’t you just do what you normally do?” 

“Because that’s boooring! Now, come on!”

Now less assured that this was going to go well than ever, Vanessa followed Ness on her way. This had to be part of the plan, right? Cause as much chaos as possible to keep her busy. Or maybe it wasn’t, maybe she was second guessing the whole thing. The past week or so had been such an off the rails rollercoaster that she couldn’t make sense of much anymore. Was Ness friend or foe? She couldn’t tell, but she equally couldn’t risk underestimating her. Her mind flitted back and forth between a web of possibilities, never able to stick to just one idea. Maybe it was good that she was doing this so she could finally properly assess her thoughts on Ness? ‘Jesus Christ.’ she thought. ‘You’re barely even thinking of her like a person anymore. Just an…element in all this.’ She turned her attention to Ness, far ahead of her, bounding up an escalator with impressive enthusiasm. ‘I mean, yeah, tread carefully, of course, but don’t be harsh..’ 

“Soooo…How’s it been going recently?” Ness called down from the top of the escalator as Vanessa made her way up at a far less reckless pace. “Because I kind of heard that you’d been stressing out a bit! Rushed out in a bit of a panic yesterday, what was that all about?”

Oh, that rascal. Oh, she bet she knew. “I just had some family business to attend to, you know how it is. Sudden things popping up and all that.”

“Mmm, kinda. I’m sure you would’ve had no trouble just…Calling them?” 

“It wasn’t like that- It was just…” She tripped over her words, trying to figure something out. No? No excuses right now? Alright, change of pace. “Anyway, where were you yesterday, I didn’t see you at all! Can’t accuse me of bunking off then vanish yourself.”

“Who, little old me?” Ness pointed at herself. “Oh, I was just moving some broken junk downstairs. Nothing very exciting.” She shrugged as she walked off, heading for the saferoom. “It wasn’t very busy yesterday. I asked Mr.Kennedy if he had any chores that needed doing.”

Vanessa stumbled as she caught up, particularly hung up on the last part. “Do you do those a lot? Chores for Jack?” 

“Yeah, I get shit done for him in between performances. I get bored, sometimes. What’s it to you?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing. I just didn’t know, y’know?”

Ness borderline ignored that comment, growing very quiet very quickly. Had she said something she hadn’t meant to? Could’ve been, but it wasn’t a lot she’d given away. Regardless, she said nothing more on the topic then disappeared into the saferoom for changing. Vanessa waited outside, pacing awkwardly, wondering what to do whilst she waited. She could’ve checked in with Will, except she had no way of doing so. She was about 90% sure he barely even knew what a modern phone was, let alone had one of his own. No, she supposed all she could do was wait. Fine by her. The building was quiet, with the only sounds being faint backing music over the speakers as people warmed the systems up for the day. Right now, at this very moment, there was nothing to worry about. 

Her pondering was eventually broken by Ness bursting out of the door in a bright blue, star-patterned vest, hot pink bowtie and sparkly black jeans, carrying a pair of rainbow-striped skates under one arm, and the top-hat adorned head of her suit in the other. “So. What do you think, sunflower-girl?” She dramatically inquired. 

“Oh, my God.” How were you even supposed to react to something like that? “It sure is something, yep.” 

“Oh, come on, give me something a little more exciting to work with!” Ness laughed. “No ‘if looks could kill…’ or anything?”

“If looks could make you go blind, maybe?” Vanessa examined the outfit again, taking in every little shimmer. “Well, you’re committed to the aesthetic, that’s for sure.” She then stepped back a little, looking at Ness against the colourful wall, just catching those dazzling neon lights that they were just starting to switch on downstairs. “It’s good!”

“That’s more like it!” She grinned. “Oh! I almost forgot!” She set the skates down on the floor and reached into her back pocket, pulling out a somewhat-neatly-folded up tie. Purple, with a star pattern matching her own vest. “For my glamorous assistant!” 

“...” How much planning had Ness been doing for this? “Is this for me?”

“Well, it was for whoever agreed to help me today, so yep! That makes it for you! Just between you and me, I think you can pull it off the best. I asked the newbie before you. Imagine him, in a sparkly tie!” 

‘You should’ve seen him yesterday…’ thought Vanessa, remembering the stupid coat he’d donned. “I’m imagining it. He’s already gotten it covered in dirt and oil stains.” She hung the tie around her own neck, doing her best to smooth out the creases from where it had been in Ness’ pocket. She hated that she was actually being roped into committing so hard to the bit but hey. Needs must, she guessed. Between this and yesterday’s shitshow, she’d take this anyday. 

The pair headed downstairs, searching for a suitable location. It wasn’t all that hard - process of elimination did a lot of the work. They didn’t want it to be one of the smaller stages, because even though they probably could’ve found one to use, they decided that was too far to fall if something went wrong. And it couldn’t be a carpeted area. So they eventually decided on Rockstar Row, with its sleek, shiny floors. In the first few weeks of her job, Vanessa might’ve asked if this was a good idea - an unplanned pop-up show, in a random place? How would that work? But she knew this place by now - Jack had long since given Ness ‘creative freedom’ and her spontaneous shows all around the place were a well known factor by now. 

Hell, a couple of recurring visitors even made a game of guessing where she’d pop up next. Her character and performances were eccentric and spontaneous; She made appearing somewhere new every 3 days work, somehow. So, this small stretch of the grand hall? Sure. Why not? It’d grab people’s attention. Big crowd, Vanessa watching. What could go wrong?

“So, here’s how it goes,” explained Ness. “I’m gonna go on a little circuit, and every time I pass you, you throw me another ball. It’s cool! Crowd goes wild!” 

“You are never going to pull this off.” 

“Try me.”

“With the bunny mask on?”

“Try me.” 

“Alright then.” Vanessa sighed as Ness prepared herself to get going. She took a deep breath, then set off, moving faster and faster. She flew round the hall and when the time came where the two were briefly within range of each other, Vanessa tossed the ball, fully expecting it to shoot right past Ness. Instead, a swift lavender hand dashed out and grabbed it as its owner whizzed past. Ness began throwing the ball up and down in the hand she caught it in, now moving slower, but still very much moving. Vanessa couldn’t believe it. She just- How- How did Ness-

She was so flabbergasted that she didn’t even throw the next ball on Ness’ second round, her focus absolutely lost. The cryptid came to a halt behind her on the third go-around, pulling off the costume head. Man, she looked proud of herself. And she had every right to be, what she had just done was no easy feat, but there was a bit of a sinking feeling growing in Vanessa’s stomach ruining the moment. Just who was she putting herself up against? 

“Where the hell did you learn to do that?” was all the stunned guard could manage to ask.

“Oh, I was in showbiz!” Ness panted. “Ok, well, maybe not showbiz exactly, God knows this place is far more glamorous, but still! This isn’t my first gig.” 

“Still…That’s a lot of skill. Borderline impossible, even!”

“Impossible girl, that’s me! I mean, does any of-” She gestured to her own body. “-This look possible to you?”

She wished she could say ‘yes’. She’d heard the stories, and in a way, she’d met another person just like that. She wasn’t one to think of things as ‘impossible’. But in her frantic mind, even alluding to Dave might be something that could give Will away. “I guess not, no.” 

“But I’m right here! There’s a lot of ‘impossible’ things in the world, I find. I mean look at Mr.Kennedy. Alive, even after death! That can’t be right, can it? But he’s here too. Like I said, impossible things.” 

“Impossible things…” echoed Vanessa, thinking of all those ‘impossible things’ in her own life. The world was a weird place, it was true.

The two did a couple more practices as the opening time grew closer and closer, making sure they had it in the bag. It sure seemed like they did, barring the odd, infrequent mishap here and there. It was almost relaxing, once they got into the rhythm of it. Fun, even. When was the last time she’d had that around here? Indeed, it seemed as though all those prior stresses about Ness were momentarily disappearing. 

At some point, they became aware that people were starting to crowd around them, gathering to watch this new spectacle, but by that point they were in such an established rhythm that Ness simply sent all the balls flying at her, Vanessa scrambled to pick them all up and then they started the ongoing cycle again. The kids were going wild for the sight and even a lot of the jaded adults and tired teens were able to appreciate the madness of it all. By all rights, it should’ve been pure chaos, but they had it under complete control. They took breaks at regular intervals throughout the day, chugging bottles of water and sitting down to rest their tired legs. At the end of every stint, Ness would bow for her exit, ever so graceful. Vanesa had no idea what to do, she wasn’t used to the spotlight. She gave her best smiles as people wondered off, unable to figure out what else she should’ve been doing.

At the end of what they had agreed would be the final go around for the day, Ness called her forwards. She told the crowd to give a big cheer for her amazing assistant and took Vanessa’s hand in her own, lifted it up, and pulled them both into one final bow. Vanessa stood there, heart hammering in her chest, wondering when she was supposed to move again. 

It wasn’t until a few moments later, when Ness’ hand left her own, that she deemed it ok to do so. The crowd were clearing off and she became vaguely aware of a voice over the speakers telling guests they would be closing shortly. Goddamn, was that a whole day? Hardly felt like one. 

“Oh, that was so cool! You have no idea how long I’ve had that one on the cards! Honestly, I thought I was gonna have to abandon it.” Ness blabbed, gushing with excitement. 

“When did you plan this? Seems like you had it pretty well planned out.”

“Oh, ages ago! When me and Abby were working together, Mr.Kennedy suggested we do some kind of…duo acts, sometimes. And we planned some cool stuff together, but then she got really bitchy and- Yeah.” She cut herself off quickly. “Hey, I’ve still got all those old plans, I don’t see why we couldn’t do more!”

“Well, but- I- I have to-”

“Yeah, yeah, job, I know. But don’t you think you work too hard? You could totally, y’know, not every now and again!”

“...” Stumped on how to respond again. That was becoming an awfully common theme with her and Ness. It was…It was a good thing to want to say yes, right? Yeah, sure! Info from computers some days, info from an actual person on the inside on the others. Shake it up a bit, get some human interaction with someone other than Will. That all sounded pretty doable. “Can we talk about it sometime?”

“Sure! Ooo, we could talk about it tomorrow morning, if you’d like. We could get breakfast, I know this great place, The Five-”

“Aren’t we working again tomorrow?” 

“I mean, yeah, we are but we don’t really do our jobs until what? Midday? No one will mind if you rock up late, especially not if it’s with me.” Ness said with a wink. 

Breakfast with Ness. Tomorrow morning. To talk about her plans. There was something particularly appealing about that, yes. Oh, what the hell. Time to take some more risks. She said yes.

Ness walked out with her in fits of delight that evening, repeatedly establishing the date and time, making sure neither of them could possibly forget. Nervous excitement overcame Vanessa too, looking forwards to the event but unable to fully free her mind of those itching worries. And she was worried about what Will would think of all this too - He’d turned down Ness’ help request, so clearly he had no time for her. As they left the building, Ness called off the place and time one final time. Vanessa made to leave, and then stopped, hearing a voice or two.

“Looks like you’ve got a date then?”

It was Will. Oh, of course, he was probably waiting inside for her, wanting all that juicy computer info. And what did she have to show for today? Nothing much, that was for sure.

“God, I’m sorry, I just-”

“What? No, No it’s fine. You’re an adult, we’re not here to police what you do. Just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Oh. Oh, you’re not-” She hung her embarrassed head a little, trying to hide it. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m doing good. You?”

“Me? Us? Oh, fine. Fine, fine, fine, totally fine! You worry too much.”

Which was extremely unconvincing, but she sensed they didn’t want to talk about it right now. Still, it was weird that they were…ok? With what she was doing? She guessed it made sense, she wasn’t not helping, she was just using a different method to the one they discussed, right? That was fine. She said her awkward goodbye, and then made to be on her way.

“Oh, and Vanessa?” Will called from behind her.

“Hmm?”

“Watch your back. Be kind to her. Good luck.”

Chapter Text

Man, what was she doing? Standing outside a cafe, basking in the gentle air of an early summer morning, on a work day ? Vanessa mindlessly pulled out her phone to check the time, though she knew what it was going to be. She’d checked two minutes before now. And three before that. And another two before-

Ok, stop. Breathe.This wasn’t going to go anywhere if she kept this panicked behaviour up, was it? She just needed to keep her cool, let herself relax. This was an authorised break anyway, if Ness was as good at getting her way with Jack as she claimed to be. Or if this was Ness’ attempt to get information out of her, like she suspected. She had to keep reminding herself of that - No matter how many sparkly eyed winks or shrap grins she got, it was entirely possible that Ness was just trying to leech information off of her. What a bizarre relationship they had, one where they quite literally danced around each other, unsure of what the other knew or if they were even trustworthy. She wasn’t sure if she liked it , per say, but it certainly had a kind of thrill to it. That must’ve been what kept dragging her into these kinds of situations.

“Hiya!” Vanessa looked up to find Ness jogging towards her. “You look nice!” Which was an odd compliment - All she was wearing was an old band t-shirt with an unbuttoned yellow shirt over the top but hey. It made her face heat up regardless, so clearly Ness was doing something right. “I think I know those guys…They do like..Scream-y stuff, right?” 

“I mean, it isn’t all screaming, they also-” She flushed up as she realised what she was saying. “...You look nice too.” 

“Thanks!” Ness took her compliment waaay better. And it was true, too, she did look nice today. Her outfit wasn’t nearly as elaborate as her show ones, but it was still very clearly…her. “Shall we go in?” She gestured for the door and in they went. It was a cosy little place, warmly lit by an early morning sun that promised a sweltering day later on. Bearable for now though. There were only a few other people in there, mostly older folks, lazily milling about without a care in the world. The pair took out menus and placed orders. Vanessa thought that a nice start to the day would consist of eggs, toast and coffee. Ness ordered pancakes and pulled out a sickly sweet looking energy drink once the waiter left.

“How can you work on that?” Vanessa asked. “I gave those up all the way in high school. Could never focus on anything.”

“That’s the difference between you and me, though,” Said Ness as she took an alarmingly fast guzzle of the stuff. “You like to be focused for what you do. I like to have fun! Such a shame…”

“I think I’d be a bit concerned if I wasn’t focused,” Vanessa corrected. “I mean, how would you feel if you knew that one of the people on the security team was mucking about on a caffeine high?” 

“Sounds exciting!” said Ness, before adding on with a little fake cough, “And, y’know, totally unreasonable and irresponsible and all that junk.” 

Vanessa rolled her eyes at the idea, sure, but a part of her brain was nagging her that she had been mucking about all of yesterday. Whatever. She did her best to shut that irritating part of her brain down. This was all part of her job. Finding out if there were hidden dangers lurking closer than she had thought was no laughing matter! She tried not to think of the humoured remarks her snide co-workers might make about this situation. After all, they were the same kinds of people who’d easily turn their noses up at the ideas of ghosts and phonies and Vanessa knew damn well those existed. 

The waiter came back with their food and received two polite ‘thank you’s. Vanessa knew she’d only put in a simple order but it did look to be some good food. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little envious of Ness’ pancakes, those looked fucking delicous. Maybe she’d come back here some time, keeping that in mind. Treat herself a little and what-not. She could probably use a treat after this was all over. For a brief moment she wondered if Ness could come too, before remembering that she had absolutely no idea where Ness would be after all this. Hopefully not reduced to a pile of charred remains. 

“So, I was thinking,” Ness said through a mouthful of strawberries and syrup, “About yesterday. ‘Cause like, you were amazing. Really, I mean it, I’ve never had that much fun doing my thing. Really crazy how much having a hand or two helps.”

“...You had Abby.” Vanessa said, well aware that she was treading on thin ice. “Before- You know-”

“Mmmhmm.” Ness hummed as she wolfed down her food. “She was a bit of a bitch though. Drama kid, you know the type.” She paused to take a sip of her drink. “I mean obviously, it’s horrible, what happened to her. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! But, like, if you were both here and alive, I think I’d pick you…I don’t know.” 

“Are you sure there’s no one else? No one else in the entire Plex?” 

“Everyone else is a real stick in the mud,” Ness laughed. “I mean seriously, it’s not like they’re being forced to work there or anything. No one’s even been beheaded yet, I think. They could afford to get their spirits up a bit.” She popped a single, dripping blueberry into her mouth. “Like, I get it, the place has got a real stigma and all that, but it isn’t even half as bad as it used to be. It’s just a fun place! A fun place for kiddos to hang out. And some people act like it’s got a nuclear bomb planted inside or something. It doesn’t!” She sighed, smoothing out her nerves with another sip of her drink. “Sorry for all that. I just…Yeah.”

“You feel strongly about your job,” Observed Vanessa. “Yeah. Me too.” She swallowed a quick gulp of coffee. “Because, you know, everyone’s right! This company has a long history of really bad safety. And if Jack doesn’t give a single fuck, then someone has to! Someone has to care about all the crazy stuff that’s happened- All the crazy stuff that’s been happening, God.”

Ness seemed to reflect on this, idly swirling a berry around a little pool of syrup on her fork as she stared off into nothingness. Eventually, she said, “Will cares.”

Vanessa nearly spat out the sharp coffee dregs in her mouth, “What?”

“Will. You know, that guy you keep hanging out with. He seems pretty passionate.” Ness shrugged. “He’s very..uhh…Thorough. Like you!” Ness paused. “You guys both like poking around, y’know? Getting into the nitty gritty of things.”

The remains of the hot liquid felt like they were burning down her throat - Jack was aware they were working together at this point, of course, he had to be, but still. Was that a calculated comment, placed to ward them off from investigating any further? Or was the caffeine just making her paranoid faster? She fought the urge to cry out in frustration, to just ask Ness everything. What she wouldn’t give to just be able to work it all out, rationalise the existence of this impossible girl. 

“Uhh…Not that there’s anything wrong with being dedicated, of course! I mean, we were just talking about how dedicated I am, it’d be hypocritical of me to say otherwise. I just think that maybe- Are you good?” A pair of inquisitive yellow eyes bore right into her. “Did I say something wrong?” 

“No, no. Sorry!” Vanessa said. “I just drifted off for a second. What were you saying?”

“Oh, I was just-” Ness paused, then said “Ah, forget it. It’s not important. But like…Let’s say you did find something…Weird…Something you maybe didn’t understand. You would be careful, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t run in, guns blazing and just destroy it all?” Which came completely out of left field and left Vanessa very short on words. Ness continued, “You would go and find someone, wouldn’t you? ‘Cause, you know, there could be someone who could…explain, maybe? I- I don’t know-”

“I trust Jack about as far as I can throw him.” Vanessa stated. 

“Ok, yeah, but maybe it wouldn’t be him.” Ness’ eyes wandered off, apparently finding the empty table next to theirs very interesting all of a sudden. She looked as though she might’ve been about to back down, but her lips kept moving. “Jack’s a bit…intense sometimes, I’ll admit. But, what if it was someone you knew? And they explained it…normally? What would you think about that?”

Nothing, apparently, for Vanessa was still at a loss for words. She couldn’t quite grasp what Ness was trying to get at. Was she proposing that, somehow, there was a reasonable explanation for all the places she and Will had found underneath their workplace? That there was a justifiable purpose to all its odd contraptions and the half rotten body they found down there? 

“I don’t think I know anyone who would be able to explain that stuff normally.” And yet, as she said it, her mind did briefly flit to Dave, who had supposedly once felt completely justified in his actions. It was too late now though, she could see that the damage had been done. Ness’ shoulders slumped dejectedly, as Vanessa helplessly realised she had just openly fessed up to knowing more than she should out loud. 

Silence fell over the pair for far longer than they should’ve allowed it. Caught up in the tangled web of thoughts she’d weaved, Vanessa was happy to let the din of the people around them consume her. ‘Why was she here?’, a question she was unable to resist asking herself again, for she truly didn’t know anymore. She had learned nothing of Ness, like she had been telling herself she must. All she had to take away from this right now was a sinking feeling of disappointment in what she had just heard. No, that wasn’t good enough.

“But,” she said, ever so slowly, “I suppose they’d want to try anyway.” 

Ness tipped her head way back, fighting the can for the last drops of the sickly sweet juices inside. It dropped onto the table before them with a hollow clang, its contents now done with. “It’s- It’s a matter of the greater good…” Ness began. “It’s- It’s all for something else. It’s nasty, on the small scale, I know that! But it’s a- A-” She gulped. “It’s a necessary evil. There, I said it, it’s evil! But it won’t last, we’re gonna fix it! We’re gonna fix all of it, and more, we’re gonna fix everything! We’ll- It’ll-” Ness’ energy seemed to desert her at that point, leaving her sighing and uselessly pawing the corner of the table for a bit, before she picked up with, “It’s a good thing. It’s a good- It’s a good thing. That we’re doing.” 

“Killing people.” Vanessa said, because it wasn’t a question at this stage. “Playing with the dead.”

“We’ll fix it. We’re gonna- We’ll fix it.” replied Ness. “It’ll be alright.”

“It won’t! You can’t fix death!” Vanessa refrained from raising her voice any more than she already had. “I’ve seen it! You can’t fix death! When they’re back…It won’t be how you imagine, it won’t just all be fixed.”

“I know that!” Ness hissed, also sounding as though she was doing her best to hold back shouts. “But it doesn’t need to be perfect. You got them back, your family got him back, they got to say all the things they needed to say and ask all the things they needed to ask!”

“Ness-” Vanessa said, suddenly unable to find her harsh tone. 

“Do you know how many people around the world would kill for something like that? Do you honestly believe it would’ve been better if he’d just vanished without a trace and nothing was ever heard from him again? Is that what you and your family would’ve wanted? Is that what he would’ve wanted? Would he have been ok with you wondering if he’d just upped and left you for the longest time-” 

“My granddad wouldn’t have died in the first place, if things were-” No, come off it. Continuing to argue wasn’t going to help anyone. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to kill for him. And I’m sure there’s never been anyone who would’ve wanted you to murder for them either.”

“Science requires sacrifice,” Ness murmured quietly, but there wasn’t a whole lot of power behind those words. “There’s just- There’s so many things- So many people would-” She sighed and buried her head in her hands. “I’m not crazy, this isn’t hard to explain- I just- I’m not explaining it right, if Jack was here he could use all those lovely words, but I- I’m not good at that- I can’t-” From somewhere under her arm came a tiny sniffle. “You can believe me. I’m your friend.” 

How, how, oh how, was she supposed to respond to that? Every set of words Vanessa managed to string together got caught in her throat like spikes that could leap out at any second and add even more damage to the blow. 

“I paid- Yeah, I paid…Ok, that’s fine,” Ness murmured to herself. She stood up shakily. “I have to go- You have to go too, probably, actually, but- Ah, jeeze.”

“Wait!” Vanessa called, internally screaming at herself for only now finding her voice. “You can’t- Don’t go to Jack!” What would the man do if he saw Ness in this state? - Addled with emotions, talking in circles about their plans to someone he surely knew was against him - Will’s words stuck in her head again. She feared the worst. “Talk to me! Talk to Will! Come find us!”

Ness froze in her tracks for a good second or two, fidgeting with her hands as she did so. She opened her mouth a smidge, but not a peep escaped it. Vanessa looked on helplessly as Ness hastily excused herself and slipped out. Vanessa quickly gathered up her things and dashed out after her, but at that point Ness was nowhere to be seen. Habitually, she pulled out her phone, before quickly realising that she didn’t have Ness’ number, damnit. She didn’t have one for Will either (and she was pretty sure he didn’t have one to give her), which was a shame because she could really do with a chat with him right about now. 

She allowed herself an absolutely exasperated sigh, finally letting all of her pent up thoughts out into the quiet of the morning. Time to head off, she supposed.

If Jack didn’t skewer her alive for this morning it’d be a miracle and a half.

Chapter Text

"Stevenson!" 

The man in question froze in place. That ragged whisper was the last thing any of them wanted to hear. But they had a facade to maintain, so they were forced to address it anyway. “Hello, Mr Kennedy. What can I do for you?”

“It’s Bonnie.” Jack said. “We need to take a look at Bonnie. I want your help and your professional opinion.”

“Thought we were scrapping him?”

“Well.” Jack continued, “That’s for you to decide. I may have been a mechanic back in the day, but it’s been a long while since then. So here’s what’s going to happen. You are going to come with me to the workshop, just me and you, it’s no big deal. We’re gonna get that thing on the table, and if we find it’s unsafe, you’re going to take it apart, piece by piece and find every single part we can recycle.” He faked a yawn. “I’m sure you know that we’re very money savvy here, Mr. Stevenson. Scrapping Bonnie was a mistake, and I’m taking it back. I’m not above admitting when I’m wrong, you know.” 

“Oh, I’m sure, Sir,” Will said. They could hear Blackjack growling, clawing the ground with ghostly claws from the safety of behind Will’s legs. They couldn’t let their eyes dart down though. Even if saving face might very well have been a pointless exercise at this point.

“HE’S NOT ALONE,” came Blackjack’s ominous growl. 

Dave would’ve loved to have cursed the doggo out right then and there for such an ambiguous statement. But, no, that wouldn’t help any of them. So he didn’t. Instead, Peter opted for an extremely diplomatic, “I think I know my stuff, Sir. You’re free to have a good morning. You could even take it off, if you had your heart set on this!” 

“No can do.” He tapped the clipboard he was carrying. “I’ve got to take inventory, if you start recycling. I’m sure you understand.” He inched closer. “Plus, I only asked for your opinion on the matter. I’m still the one making the final call on what we decide to do with it.” 

‘So we only get the illusion of choice,’ Peter mused. ‘How familiar.’ He wondered if this would be the death of them. It certainly seemed like an invitation to a grave. They had to play Jack’s game though, Dave insisted. Right now, they didn’t stand a chance trying to take him on their own terms. ‘We just have to flip this on him!’ Dave explained. ‘Pressure him. Get him to tell us something. Break him!’ 

Steven didn’t think the rotten form before them was capable of breaking down any more. 

“Right this way, then,” Jack said. Will followed in silence. None of them had anything to say to Jack right now. ‘It’s Fredbear’, fretted Steven. ‘He’s going to make us kill him.’  Dave was trying to convince himself that he couldn’t care less. What had that stupid ghost ever done for him, anyway? He’d already made it clear that they were alone in all of this. The others’ thoughts were bothering him, though. There was no escaping the word that was rattling around their brain. ‘Dismantling’. They were going to dismantle him. 

The workshop door opened with a harsh click. The robotic body was splayed out on the floor, given as little dignity as possible. A magenta eye caught Will’s own. ‘He’s still in there.’  

“I couldn’t manoeuvre it to a more appropriate place,” Jack said dryly. “Almost bit my damn hand off.” 

“That’s nothing that can’t be fixed.” Will got down on their knees, positioning themself carefully to Bonnie’s left. The animatronic immediately sprung up and flailed around wildly. The only exception to its sporadic movements were the eyes - Still firmly locked with Will’s. Will instinctively jumped away, minds racing. These things probably still had those ‘STOP’ buttons, right? The age old failsafes? Dave got ready to leap at the thing. Steven grasped around at the toolbench behind them, fumbling for something to get Bonnie open. Peter preemptively let out a very quiet ‘sorry’ under their breath. And then they were practically on top of him, wrestling the back panel off of his back, scrambling with their still ever-so-clumsy combined hands for that emergency stop button. There! They could feel sweat gathering on their palms as they hit it. Bonnie came to a screeching halt. 

“See the problem?” asked Jack. Will simply panted in response. Jack pushed past him, coming to examine the now inactive robot before him. “It’s a shame, really. He could’ve been something so great. Oh well.” The faintest smirk flashed over his lips. “He never was that popular.” 

“It could still be fixed,” Peter managed to push out. Jack threw them a careless glare. 

“Is it worth it though? As you- Oh, well, I suppose you wouldn’t know. We haven’t had this guy on stage for a long time.” He shrugged. “Kids thought he was creepy. Relegated him to the bowling alley. Maybe we should take this chance to make something new. Or just something better. We could make a new Foxy.” He turned to look up at Will. “Do you like Foxy? He’s got quite a dedicated band of fans, you know.” 

“Foxy’s fine,” Dave said through gritted teeth, too stubborn to move. “But I really think you ought to reconsider. Sounds to me like you’re not thinking clearly. Understandable. You’ve had quite a nasty shock.”

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s just that I haven’t been able to find a reason to. Until now.” Jack said. “Did you know we still have some of his old costume pieces in storage? It’s all in brilliant condition. Turning these parts into Foxy wouldn’t be any problem at all.” 

“Well, how long’s that gonna take?” Will asked, growing steadily frustrated. 

“I’m not sure.” Jack continued. “But I imagine it will be less of a headache than dealing with that thing. And it would probably make us more money too. Imagine… ’Introducing Foxy! What was old is new again!’ Sounds good, right?” He took a seat and expectantly pulled out his clipboard. “Yes. I think we’ll dismantle it.”

“And you’re gonna sit there the whole time?” 

Jack tutted, “I already told you, I need to take inventory. Why, do you not like being watched?” 

“Do you?” Will bit back. Panic pulsed somewhere inside them. Wrong response. “Does anyone?” Jack gave them a half-hearted shrug. They knelt down carefully beside the animatronic. Though deactivated, they felt as if they could still see a little spark of life in it. Perhaps it was the way the thing was quivering. 

Blackjack remained pinned to their leg, whining softly as Will reluctantly gathered up their tools. ‘ There’s nothing we can do’, Steven said. The cynic in him was wondering what this even changed. Fredbear had already proven himself thoroughly unhelpful. Still, to do this to him? This is cruel, Peter stated, adamant. Their hands shook as they began the process, scared of how much pressure they were confidently applying to their tools, those infernal devices. Is it taking a life if said life is an ethereal bear from beyond time? Perhaps. 

“Place the parts up here,” Jack said. He patted the workbench next to him. “You don’t have to tell me what they are.” There was a pause, before he spoke again. “I used to be in your position, you know. Does that surprise you?” 

“Should it?” Will replied through bared teeth. “We’ve all gotta start somewhere.” 

It was a kind of interrogation, Will realised, and they expressed as much to each other in frantic thoughts. Well, too bad. If Jack thought they would slip up because they were distracted then he had another thing coming. Peter (easily the most democratic of the three) wasn’t even helping with the dismantling. They would not break. 

“I suppose that’s true, but still,” Jack said. “Do you have those kinds of ambitions, Will? Dreams of grandeur? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” He went quiet, then noted down the name of a part. “Is it here? Or at some similar gig? Or…” He picked up the latest piece Will had freed and twisted it in his shrivelled hand. “...Are you after something more?”

“All I want is a peaceful life,” Will replied, twisting out some kind of cable. “I don’t know where that means I’ll end up. But as long as it’s quiet, I don’t really care.” 

“Don’t we all?” Jack laughed. “It’s the end-goal of mankind, really. A nice life, nothing but joy. No dark times, no death.” 

“I intend to die,” Will said, suddenly, sharply, as though the words were barbed. “Somewhere nice. By the coast, maybe. I’ll be looking over a cliff, watching the tide turn over and I’ll think, ‘Goddamn, am I glad I did everything I wanted to do,’ and then I’ll die of sickness, because I won’t have anything left to do in the world.” 

“That’s an interesting way to want to go,” said Jack, scribbling quietly. He seemed to hesitate, eyes flicking meticulously, before asking, “What is it that you want to do before you die, then?” 

Will shrugged, “Settle debts, make wrongs right. That kind of thing. Make sure there aren’t any loose ends before I go.” 

“Fascinating stuff,” Jack murmured, seeming absent minded. Will risked a glance over their shoulder, trying to see what was distracting him. Jack’s eyes were fixed on something behind him, though what that was, none of Will’s minds could say. From just behind them, Blackjack growled and spat at the air. After double-checking that Jack was still distracted, Will looked down at him and mouthed a silent, ‘what?’

“HE IS POSSESSED,” Blackjack hissed. “THAT WRETCH IS SHARING MY BODY.”

‘Didn’t that one girl say she reports to ‘Mr. Miller’?’ asked Dave. A creeping sense of dread began to fill them. He’s dead, though, right?, came the gut reaction, followed by an immediate realisation of, but so are we. And we’re here. Their hands grew clammy as they resumed their work. Of course Henry was involved. His shadow had been looming over the building from the second they stepped in - Everything around them could be traced back to him eventually. But knowing that he was, in some form or another, only a few yards away from them was another beast entirely.

They fought to keep their composure as they loosened screws with a shaking hand. ‘We never did anything about The Factory,’ muttered Steven. That could happen again. He could put us through that again. I could forget. Again, and-’ Dave clamped their hand down on the screwdriver with as much force as he could manage. Will released a slight gasp and Steven’s stream of thoughts were cut off. ‘We’re not going down there. He caught you two unaware last time - You know now. We gotta stay on our toes, and we’ll be fine.’ 

‘Right,’ Steven agreed. He wouldn’t, no, couldn’t fall to the same fate twice. Wasn’t this whole thing about second chances? 

“Do you have a family?” Jack asked, breaking the silence and the more poised nature of his previous questions along with it. There was no subtlety now - This was an interrogation. Will twisted a screw with vague disdain.

“‘Course I do,” they said. “Siblings, Mom, Dad, Uncle, all that. Haven’t seen ‘em in a while. I’m not from around here, in case you couldn’t tell.” Quiet seeped into the room and Will rushed to fill it. “They call, sometimes. They’re very proud of the new job, you know? This place is famous. And I get to be the sole mechanic. Lucky me!” 

“And they don’t have any concerns? Completely paranoid and unfounded ones, of course, but I am aware that our reputation precedes us.” 

“Well, it’s not the eighties anymore, is it? Health and saftey’s improved a lot, as I’m sure you’re aware. I mean, I’m aware that you’ve had a few unlucky- Err- Shall we say ‘coincidences’, recently, but that can hardly be helped, can it?” 

“No. It was all outside of our control,” Jack scratched another part down. It was so loud, Will noted. He was always so loud with his pen. The clipboard underneath must’ve been filled with violent scratches. “The legal stuff is almost through, Thank God. In a few weeks, we will officially be able to state that though they occurred near our premises, we hold no accountability, finally putting all this ghost-story nonsense to rest.” He peered at Will, “You don’t believe in ghosts, do you?” 

“Well, now, that’s a tricky question,” Will replied. There was a single heartbeat of hesitation before Dave quickly took over. “On paper, no. All nonsense, like you said. But, you know, there are people who claim that metal has a life force. Or that it could conduct one. You ever heard of that?” 

“You must mean ‘The Joy of Creation’,” Jack said smoothly. “Fascinating book, yes. Purely hypothetical though, of course. No research was ever published alongside it.”

“That’s what I meant,” Will continued. “Obviously, no ghosts exist in the traditional sense. But they could, sort of, through that theory. That’s probably why people always suspect Freddy’s. I mean, it’s perfect, right? All the robots and all the deaths? If ghosts were to exist, which they don’t, I know, then they’d probably exist here.” 

“Yes,” sighed Jack. “That is one conspiracy that we will never beat, thanks to that. But I’m glad you see sense. I’ve fired many the amarteur detective before, you know. So you can understand why I got so worried when I saw you and Vanessa seemingly snooping around the other day, right?” 

“Yes, sir,” Something pinged off and went flying inside what remained of the animatronic. Dave internally cursed and scrambled with their hands to find it whilst Steven continued, “It’s just that Freddy keeps wandering off down there. That’s all it was. I mean- I assume you want me to keep him in tact and on stage, right? Except I didn’t have and keys, and then we lost track of time, and then-”

“Your accent is slipping.”

“What?” Will looked up, expecting Jack to say more, but he’d returned to writing. Internally, Steven was kicking up a storm, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m-’ ‘It’s fine.’ Dave cut in. ‘He already suspected us. It’s not you.’ 

The trio glared up at Jack as they continued to work. His eyes remained firmly fixed on his writing. Will sighed and got back to work on the animatronic - looking less and less like a robot and more and more like a series of hollow shells and abandoned parts. “Do you have any more questions?”

“Oh, oh, no,” Jack said. “I was simply looking for a way to pass the time. And it looks like you’re almost done.” He smiled snidely, “I could put some music on, if you’d like.” 

“I’m good, thanks.” Replied Will. They winced, feeling shallow scratches sting as they clenched their hands in frustration. ‘Almost there,’ said Peter. ‘There’s barely anything left.’ True though it might’ve been, it wasn’t much of a silver lining. At the very least, the animatronic’s eyes had rolled back into its hollowed out skull, dormant. Let it never be said that any of Will’s souls weren’t grateful for small mercies. Never mind the fact that Dave knew about the fact that metal was what conducted a life force. And the fact that souls could be split. And what that could do to someone. 

Perhaps , a small, cynical voice proposed from somewhere within them, Jack’s hands are so dead that they’ll literally suck all the life out of all they touch. But that was beating around the bush and they all knew it. As always, the way to fix this would be to burn it all down. 

“WHEN YOU BURN THIS PLACE, YOU MUST MAKE SURE YOU MELT ALL HIS PIECES DOWN WITH YOU,” Blackjack urged. “I DO NOT CARE FOR YOUR OPINION ON FREDBEAR. JACK CANNOT GET THE LAST LAUGH.” Will glared, trying to silently convey the impossibility of that task, but Blackjack continued, “DID YOU NOT WANT TO SAVE EVERYONE?”

Will slammed their hand against Bonnie’s near empty shell in frustration. Maybe, if they could be in multiple places at once, then sure, they could get on that. ‘We’re just one guy, though!’ They smacked one of the final remaining components onto the workbench with little remorse. What good were 3 minds with only one body?

“Everything all right down there?” Jack cooed. Will just snorted. The jig was up; They didn’t have to dignify that with a response. That malicious silence continued, and continued, until the task was done. ‘Because you can’t just kill me this time, can you?’ Dave idly taunted, ‘Because Vanessa would know. And you can’t just kill her either, because then you’ll have a whole hoard of people to deal with. And they sure as hell have dirt on you. All you can do is talk at me.’ 

‘And we’re not listening,’ Peter agreed.

When all that was left was a hollowed out mess, Will finally allowed themself to sit back. They leant against a chest-of-drawers, hand on their stomach, feeling themself breathe. Feeling as though Jack might give him a snide comment, Dave gave Jack an exasperated middle finger. Jack just smiled absent-mindedly, “Well, if that’s how you want to play it, I say game on,” his cracked lips twisted upward, “Old Sport.” 

Chapter Text

‘Now.’ Dave said as they stormed out of the room. ‘I would never wanna worry ya-’

‘You love to worry me.’ Steven interjected. Will involuntarily sighed. ‘Not now. Anyway, here’s the deal. We’ve just gone and split up the very essence of some kinda godlike being. What’re the chances that that has some nasty side-effects?’ 

There was a pause, where no one thought anything at all, before Peter suddenly cut in with, ‘He said he was keeping Freddy suppressed.’ 

‘We’ve got so much to clean up,’ Steven thought hopelessly, as he was prone to doing.

Their body faltered, coming to a halt in the centre of the hallway. The seconds ticked by before there was an astoundingly unanimous thought.

‘We have to find Vanessa.’ 

Find her. Find her and regroup. Let her know that Jack had confirmed his suspicions, let her know about the dangerous game that they were now playing. Their head spun like a roundabout. They’d left her alone with Ness, who was so clearly one of Jack’s lackeys. Their feet pounded against the shining floor. They hadn’t agreed on anywhere specific to meet up. Usually, they just ran into each other on the job. But that wasn’t enough right now. Right now, they needed confirmation that at least one person in this tangled web of shit was going to make it out alive. 

They turned the entire Plex upside-down (Jack clearly didn’t care anymore), but there was still no sign of her. Will’s souls grew increasingly agitated. ‘We’ve searched everywhere!’ Dave cried to no one in particular. ‘I mean, there is one place-’ Steven stammered out, trailing off mid-thought. The other two urgently pressed him to continue. ‘Well, uh- No, sorry, I was being literal. Thinking of ‘The Ladies’, y’know- But- Ugh, this is pointless.’ 

Will sighed in exasperation, ‘Well, we can’t give up.’ said Peter. ‘This place is pretty big, we might’ve just missed her.’ And so the vessel set off on yet another lap around the Plex, which was swiftly ended by almost walking face-first into the woman in question. Will immediately sprung back, “Vanessa! I'm so sorry, didn’t see you there! How's- I mean- Did you- Hang on…”

The trio trailed off as they got a chance to properly study her face. Vanessa's eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks flushed, and there were dregs of smeared makeup hanging below one of her eyes. “Damn,” Will said stupidly, and then, “Are you good? We couldn't find you.”

“Fine.” She said, though it was obviously a lie. “I had to get changed into my work clothes.” 

“Right- Right- Right- Yeah,” Will agreed. They looked over their shoulder. “We fucked up.” 

“That makes two of us,” Vanessa replied. “Or four? I don't know. Go on then, hit me with it. What've we got now?” 

“Jack is so fucking onto us,” Dave's words burst out before either of the others had time to think. “Well, okay, he kinda was before but I mean-” he frantically gestured to Will, “ Us. Knows there's soul fuckery afoot! I shouldn't have threatened to haunt him, really, but-” Will let out a shuddering gasp. “Also we completely dismantled the casing of an animatronic that was housing the very essence of a powerful creature beyond human understanding, apparently!” Peter cut in. “Feels like that's worth mentioning as well.” 

Vanessa blinked a few times, “Right.” She said. Will got the distinct impression that she could collapse in on herself at any minute. Still, she continued, “I really upset Ness.” 

Will nodded slowly, starting to reel themselves back into reality,“It probably wasn't your fault.”

“She's going to do something drastic!” Vanessa said. “And I'll have spurred it on.” She clamped her hands together and squeezed. “I don't know where she went.” 

“Well, not to Jack, ‘cause he was with us. So that's a good start!” 

Vanessa didn't look convinced. Internally, Will also was not convinced. But what else were they going to say? 

“We're not screwed,” Peter said. He hoped it didn't ring hollow. “We can get out of this. It's just a matter of playing our cards right. We have to.” He put his foot down. “And you're getting out of here alive, and I'm going to be freed from limbo and get to see Caroline, and the other two are going to get their redemption and do whatever it is that they want, and we're going to burn this thing down and the wretched family curse along with it. It's doable. We can do this.” 

‘What on Earth has gotten him in this mood?’ Dave wondered. Steven responded with vague confusion. If Peter processed any of these thoughts, he said nothing. He just stood there, their body tense from his unwavering burst of passion. Vanessa looked at him with a near unreadable expression, a strange mix of befuddlement and pride that took the shape of a wobbly, lopsided smile and markedly furrowed brows. 

“You’re sure?” She asked.

“No.” Peter replied. “But I've never been very sure that anything in life - or death - was going to pan out fine. These things find a way, though. Somehow.” 

“Never say ‘impossible’,” Vanessa echoed tiredly. “All right. Well, I didn't get any leads on anything and it sounds like you didn't either. So, we’re back at square one.”

“We can’t burn anything just yet.”

“What?”

“Sorry, just thinking aloud.” Will shrugged apologetically. “It’s true though, right? It’s all well and good, cleansing everything with fire, but we can’t just go and do that. We’ve still gotta get a good look at everything.”

“WE STILL NEED TO GET INTO JACK’S OFFICE,” Blackjack growled, materialising at Will’s knees. “THIS WAS MY JOB, I KNOW. I SHOULD’VE DONE THIS WHILE HE WAS DISTRACTED. I JUST COULD NOT- I COULDN’T-” His ghostly form seemed to falter, slipping in and out of existence. “I COULD NOT LEAVE YOU IN THERE. WITH THAT WRETCHED, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING, MISERABLE-”

“Oh, yeah, that’s another thing!” Will said with a snap of his fingers. “Who’s this ‘wretch’ you were on about?”

“IT’S HENRY,” Blackjack spat. “BASTARD. KILLING MY MENTOR IN FRONT OF ME. PARADING MY BODY ABOUT, THAT WAS MINE, THAT IS MINE-” He assumed an uncharacteristically stressed and alarmingly human position, clutching his front paws to his head and squeezing tightly. “HOW CAN IT BE THAT I WOULD’VE FARED BETTER IF I HAD BEEN SENT TO THE FACTORY-” 

“The mysterious ‘Mr. Miller’,” Will nodded gravely, suddenly finding himself quite uncomfortable with the conversation at hand. “Of course, we kind of knew. It had to be him, what other Miller could there be around here? Mr. Miller, of course. Yes…”

They stood in a stunned kind of silence. Will had both feet planted firmly on the ground, but was quivering with sudden bursts of adrenaline that shot out of him each time he remembered something that was at hand. Blackjack continued to try and bury himself in his own fur, as if it could perhaps drown him and send him to a far less stressful afterlife, where he didn’t have to deal with bullshit of this calibre. And Vanessa swayed uncertainly between them, determined yet apprehensive, understanding that they would have to be getting something done soon, though what that something was, she wasn't yet sure. Eventually, she said, “...Because the thing with getting into Jack’s office is that it’s where we think he’s got all his important documents stashed, right? I mean, if we got written evidence of some of the stuff he’s been doing, we could get him done in so easily…”

“That,” said Dave, in an importunate fashion that could only be worn by someone who had been dealing with all of this for far too long. “-Is far too sensible to ever work. We’ll be called forgers, fakers, nutjobs, the whole lot. And it’ll kinda put a sock in the whole ‘cleanse it with fire’ part. Besides, that’d be international news. Can’t have the rest of the world’s lunatics finding out the kinda shit you can do with enough disregard for human life. Freak accident fire’s where it’s at, because the only people who’ll read into that are the paranoid, and no one listens to them! That being said-” Peter stepped in. “I think we still want all that stuff, right? It’d help to know exactly what he’s planning, where it happens, all that, y’know?” And then, it was Steven’s turn to step in, “This might be a stupid question, but if you’re security, can’t you get in there? Don’t you have, like, all the keys?”

“In theory,” Vanessa answered. “But you jumped in with the ghost-dog thing when we were planning, so I assumed we were on the same page of ‘I shouldn’t go to the key cabinet because that seems like a very obvious place to set a trap’.”

They exchanged a few equally idiotic blinks.

Dave cleared their throat, “Well, yeah. But, seems like it’s time for plan B, huh?”

“You’re being a distraction.” 

“Figures,” Dave laughed. “Fine by me. Sportsy and I, well. We’ve got a lot to talk about now. We can keep him going for ages! But-” Peter cut in, “We have to find a reason to take him somewhere. Because he’ll want to talk in his office.” Will’s body trembled as it was hit in rapid succession by 3 individual brainstorms. Only one managed to strike. “Freddy,” Said Steven. “We could ask about Freddy. Get him to have a look, give an opinion. We’re still kinda pretending to be doing our job, right? So…”

It was a huge risk. 

It was the exact kind of risk that Jack would find irresistible. 

There was so much for him to lose, (His frail form, which could be shredded by an angry metal bear) but so much for him to gain (Will becoming even more emotionally volatile, his enemies no longer being allied with an angry metal bear, just an inanimate one). It was exciting and stupid and vaguely reminiscent of some of their old antics and the mere thought of it made both Peter and Steven shake their heads in tired disapproval.

So they bid Vanessa the very best of luck and went on their way.

The key difference between now and some of Dave’s older escapades was the bear in question, who was staggeringly more easy to communicate with. Though it was about midday, it was also a Monday, and so the bear stood alone on the central stage with no audience in sight. He was doing his best to appear still, but two well trained eyes in the back of Will’s head noticed that he was juddering. They approached with caution.

“Morning!” Dave said brightly, praying with every inch of his being that he wouldn’t be registered as a threat. Blue eyes turned attentively.

“I’ve seen you before.”

“Yeah, I work here,” Dave continued. “We’ve talked a couple of times, you might know me. Friend of Gregory’s, all that.” He received an interested nod and took that as a sign to continue, “Anyway, I’ve got a job for you. I’m the technician, very important, so you gotta listen. I’m not particularly happy with Mr. Kennedy right now, so I’m playing a bit of a game with him. And I think it’d be great if you could just wander literally everywhere except near his office whilst we try to look for you!”

“You want me to wind Jack up.” He made a funny noise that might’ve been a grunt and might’ve been a laugh, “Have him running about like a headless chicken.” 

“Exactly!” Dave gave another enthusiastic finger snap. He found it helped him focus. “See, you got it. No need to worry about customers either, this place is dead empty. And anyone who does happen to see it will probably find it funny.” 

“And this will help.”

‘Help what?’ asked Steven. Dave dismissed the thought, “Yep! It’d be a huge favour, friend.” He found himself surveyed by an intense gaze from an equally intense form, and they suddenly all found themselves in the presence of someone unexpectedly wise. The great mechanical head kept completely level, peering down upon them from over the top of a stout snout. It would’ve been a comical sight, had they not all been aware of certain joys found in creation. They were eventually granted a grand, steely nod. Yes. Freddy would help them. 

With that business all sorted out, Will wasted no time in going to Jack’s office. They knocked, found the door unlocked and so thought it was only reasonable that they should let themselves in. Jack regarded them with bored eyes from across his desk, “Did you need something?” 

At first, Jack pretended to seem unimpressed by the scenario he was being presented with; “You’re the technician, you sort it out,” seemed like code for, “You’re going to have to try a bit harder than that if you want me to play with you.”  But Dave was an expert at this, a veteran, if you like. He didn't even try to hide his amusement as he said, “It’s looking real bad, boss. Like, supernatural levels of bad. So, y’know, in light of what we talked about earlier-”

“Supernatural?” A mouldy flap of skin above Jack’s eye socket raised. Was it just Will’s imagination, or was there some genuine curiosity concealed within that look?

“Well, sure, I mean, damn thing’s got a mind of its own. With this place’s history, that doesn’t exactly look too great for us.”

“I suppose that I should take a look then, right?” Jack slowly rose from his desk, as if he was stuck to the chair behind him. Given the dire state of the man, none of Will’s components would have been surprised if this was the case. The way his suit clung to him in spite of the fact that there was barely anything other than bones underneath it at this point was not helping his case. 

He strutted over with an impertinent kind of smile, “It’s so nice to know that you care about the state of our company, Mr. Stevenson.”

“I work here, Sir,” was Will’s reply. “I’d be a bit concerned if I didn’t.”

“Of course,” Jack said, soothingly. “I was just commending you, that’s all.” 

They were both playing an absolutely ludicrous game. The rules were unclear and how on Earth either of them scored points was even less so. But they both knew with complete certainty that neither of them could afford to lose. 

They both went quiet for a while, as Will had devoted all of their brain power into rapidly perfecting the art of walking just slow enough to be annoying, whilst still being just fast enough that Jack wouldn’t immediately pick up on the fact that he was being facetious. Why Jack wasn’t attempting to strike up any conversation would’ve been a very good question however, because Will was busy with the aforementioned task, it didn’t cross their minds to ask it. ‘Hurry up,’ Peter urged. ‘He looks grumpy.’

“It has just crossed my mind,” Jack purred, “That you’re still quite new, and this is a very big place. Are you sure you know where you’re going?” He looked up at Will, managing to squeeze a smile out of his cracked lips, “Maybe I should’ve given you a grand tour when you first arrived. Then, I could’ve really gotten to know you, Old Sport.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” Dave bit back bitterly. ‘That was my thing.’ “You’ve said it twice today. What’s up with that?”

Jack shrugged lazily, “It’s just a little quirk I picked up off of an old friend of mine. I like it. Think it suits me.”

“Who was this friend of yours? Jay Gatsby?”

“Ha! Something like that,” Jack laughed drily, “Both overambitious. And dead. Very, very dead.” He waved his hand about, “Or, at least, that’s what I’ve heard. Never found out how he died. Or read that book. I’ve just been told that it was a terrible accident.” 

‘Yeah, a really terrible accident. Such an awful accident,’ Dave’s sarcasm had gone beyond being just palpable - It felt like a great hammer, knocking their head in with its strength. Steven quickly scrambled to pick up the mantle, “I’m sorry to hear it, Sir. Freddy’s is prone to those.”

“Yes,” Jack agreed. They turned a sharp corner, growing close to the main stage. “Y’know, I’ve been thinking on something recently. It’s nothing too deep, but it’s- Well, it’s your name. Surname, I mean. I had been wondering if you knew anyone who’d had one of these terrible accidents, but on second thought? I’m not sure. Last I heard, that guy never had any meaningful relationships. Sounds mean, but it’s the truth. So, y’know- Not sure he could’ve ‘produced someone’, if you catch my-”

“Is this really relevant?” Peter cut in sharply, because he could already feel a whole torrent of emotions bursting inside of them. He was faintly aware of the fact that these feelings seemed to be coming from both of his co-conspirators, but didn’t have time to reflect upon that. “I told you earlier, my family is fine. Stop worrying about it.”

“Sorry,” Jack said with the very tiniest smirk. “I’m getting a bit senile in my old age, I think.”

“You don’t say,” Peter said, looking disapprovingly at his younger brother. As they wandered up to the main stage, they found it to be suitably empty. Now it was Will’s turn to smirk, “See? I told you. He’s just gone again! I’ve given him multiple looks over, and they’ve all come back fine. So, without wanting to sound paranoid, I’m really running out of explanations for this. Was wondering if you’d maybe think about doing a bit more of that whole ‘recycling’ thing you were on about, since whatever I’m doing is clearly not working.” 

Jack surveyed the stage with his dead sockets. The two pinpricks of light that seemed to form his pupils gleamed with excitement. He said, “We’d have to go and find him first. I want to see this for myself.”

“Sure. Not sure where he went though…” Dave said, not lying for once. In their excitement, no one had actually instructed the bear on where to go. That could make things interesting.

“Guess this is my excuse to finally give you a tour then,” Jack said. “He’s hard to miss. I’m sure we’ll run into him. Now, to start with, this is the Main Stage…”

Jack’s tour was exceedingly dull and Will knew that this was on purpose. Just as they were spitting Jack by refusing to properly answer his questions, Jack was absolutely taking the piss with his tour. He moved slowly, showing Will everything but places that they hadn’t been yet. His explanations were obvious and monotonous, as stale and lifeless as the mouth that bore them. He occasionally stopped to demonstrate the functions of various robots, which was all well and good, but there was only one robot on all of Will’s minds at the moment, and he was nowhere to be seen. Managing to lose something that shade of orange twice in one week was certainly an achievement, though it was neither one that was helpful or something to be proud of. 

“Seems like he’s playing hide and seek,” Jack muttered. “That’s not a feature of his, by the way.”

“Wouldn’t have guessed.” Peter rolled their eyes, but Dave’s mind was busy with trying to think of where on Earth the bear actually could’ve gone. The only place that was coming to mind was where they had found him previously, but- Ah, hell, it was worth a shot. “Hey, Sir, what about all the backstage bits?”

“What about them?” Jack laughed. “You don’t need a tour of all that, it’s where you’ve spent most of your time!”

“I’ve only been exploring,” Steven protested. “I- Uhh- I don’t actually know what a lot of the stuff back there does. Like uhh-” The words clung to their lips, reluctant to leave. He forced them out anyway. “That big, industrial bit. Kinda looks like a factory, what’s that all about?”

“Oh, The Factory?” Jack said, snapping out of that frustrating corporate persona. “You want me to take you to The Factory?” 

On the inside, two thirds of Will screamed a loud, resounding ‘NO!’. But they couldn’t stop here, couldn’t let Jack hold this over them. So the last voice stepped in with a deceptively confident, “Sure. And maybe some other bits back there as well.”

Jack smiled and began to walk, leading the way as easily as wading through a pool. Will staggered as they followed, battling against a whole sea of emotions. ‘I’ll kill him’ Dave affirmed as they pushed on through. ‘If he tries it, I’ll kill him on the spot, plans be damned.’ It was doing very little to help. Try as they might, neither Steven nor Peter could drown out the sheer waves of terror rocketing through their body. In their time together, Dave had found himself gradually growing more sympathetic to the nasty fate that was getting phoney’d, but as he listened in to their collective fears, the true extent of the horrors came crashing into him. To lose your name, your voice, your autonomy. To have your face erased, replaced with a blank, plastic canvas. To be reduced to the object that your brains were now crammed into. To be irreparably ripped away from everyone you knew, and for what? So some equally faceless, rich bastard could sleep easily at night, without fearing a lawsuit? 

Their insides were twisting themselves into great, tangled knots, forming endless spirals of anxiety, but they still found themselves putting one foot in front of the other, stumbling onwards. ‘It won’t happen.’ Dave repeated, though his part of their shared consciousness was beginning to fill with equally unpleasant memories. He had said that once before, hadn’t he? Laughed at it, even, laughing at the absurd notion that he’d ever see something as stupid as a man’s head replaced with a telephone. They’d both laughed at it, so young and indignant, believing they were untouchable.

They could use some of that unabashed confidence right about now. 

Jack led them down with a new-found spring in his step, as if even he had been sick of the otherwise slow game he’d been playing up until now. The journey down there was much more swift and efficient than the one they’d made with Vanessa, which really wasn’t helping their ever-growing fears. As they got closer, so too did the droning hum of machinery. Jack snapped his fingers rhythmically, keeping them in time with his feet, creating an extra layer of ticking to the already unbearable hum. He was smiling properly for once, without any of that fake garbage that he usually tried to hide behind. Will guessed that this was the highlight of his career. 

“I’m very proud of our little, in-house Factory,” Jack explained as they made their way up to the dreaded observation spot where Will had first become aware of it. “It took a lot of work, but-”

And then he stopped, because several tons of angry machinery came hurtling at him out of the darkness.

Jack was swept off his feet before Will could even process what was happening. Being a frail sack of bones, he never really stood a chance against Freddy. He was held aloft in one strong hand clasped around his neck. It was hard to say for certain, but Will was relatively sure this action would’ve killed a mortal man. Dave shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Helping!” came the short, robotic reply, quickly followed up with a more elaborate, “Giving him what he deserves.”

“That’s not gonna work!” Dave shouted. “You absolute amateur! We’ve gotta burn him!”

The massive head twisted to meet Will’s eyes, “You can still burn the body! Once I’m done with him.” His tone remained as friendly as ever, but, much as a car that’s cooled inside still burns to the touch, that couldn’t conceal the sheer rage that was radiating off of him. “Just burning’s a bit too good for him, in my opinion.”

Will stood stock still, The Factory currently forgotten. None of them knew what to do. On the one hand, they agreed. Jack was a miserable old bastard who deserved a lot more than just a sweet, if inescapable, release. On the other hand, they were all just so fucking tired. To torture Jack was to prolong everyone else’s torture, which was great if you were freshly dead and full of rage and adrenaline, but for Will?

“I just want to get this over with.”

Even their new body, not even a week old, had sunken eyes and the wrinkles of a million frowns. It was a fatigue that permeated their very souls.  

Jack was laughing again, back to the dry, hollow ones now. Freddy’s head returned to him, studying the pathetic, soggy, shell of a man with nothing but rage. He cocked his head to the side, “I found a child here. A little boy.”

“Yes,” Jack said with a grin. His arms dangled by his sides. His fingers continued to snap. “My nephew’s boy. It’s a real shame, isn’t it? I think there’s some kind of family curse. But that’s out of my hands.”

“You think this is funny.”

“I try my best,” Jack continued. “It’s pretty much the only thing that I can still feel, y’see? So I’ve got to make the most of it. So no, I’m not sad, or angry. I didn’t even know it had happened, for a day or two. But it is pretty funny. I mean, all phoneys are, right? They have this funny falt, it makes them so volatile, no idea what could cause-”

He was forcefully cut off as Freddy’s grip tightened. He rasped breathlessly and, unless Will’s imagination was playing tricks on them, exhaled dust. He composed himself and started again, “Do you see this? This is what I’ve been missing. Getting stupid looking contraptions like you and your son all fired up, just like the good old days. It’s what makes hanging on to this wretched mortal coil almost worth it. The fact that I’ll always get another shot to relive my glory days. I’ll tell ya, waiting for this part? The most dull shit I’ve ever done. But, oh boy, this is it.”

“I could crush you any minute now.”

“You won’t,” Jack said. “You won’t, because we need a clean-up outside The Factory.”

“What?”

Will shared the similarly confused sentiment, though was quicker on the uptake than Freddy. If they listened closely, they could hear another layer of whirring approaching over the already present hum of The Factory. Their heart began to race and they rapidly swung in both directions. The whirring grew louder. From each direction, a trio of helper-bots emerged. “Shit!” they cried, but there was nowhere to run. They made a pretty shoddy attempt at an escape anyway, though this naturally proved ineffective. Will was grabbed by a cluster of the robots, who were surprisingly strong despite their noodle-y arms. Jack turned his attention back to Freddy.

“I trust that you know where we are?”

“I chose this place on purpose.”

“You shouldn’t have bothered. I don’t regret anything.” Jack’s eyes rolled. “But I’m glad you know. See, you might’ve noticed that we don’t actually have any active Phone Guys at the moment. That stupid girl keeps going around issuing extra advice and doing more checks than I’ve asked for. Which is a shame, because I’d love to have one around. But I’ve been thinking-” He tilted his head in Will’s direction. “-If you catch my drift.”

Will’s breathing was becoming shallow. Try as they might, they still couldn’t thrash their way out of the many iron grips that had them constrained. This was it. They were going to go back. They were going to fail to prevent it again. 

“I can still crush you.” 

“And they'll still take him.” 

“Why do you care!?” Dave spat. “You're dead anyway! Why don't you just keel over already!” Jack rolled his eyes, as if it was painstakingly obvious, and made no further comment. Will felt like they were going to explode. “You're just a husk. You're nobody, nothing! There's not a single person alive who wants you here!”

“And what a joy that was!” Jack countered. “To no longer be someone's brother! To no longer have to be someone's employee, putting up with all the bullshit to stay alive!” He gritted his teeth, “The soul is a burden, you idiots. And it's why you'll never stop him.” A few tense beats of nothingness passed. Will felt their heart return to an almost normal rate as they were held still. 

“Alright, there it goes, I'm bored again,” said Jack. He snapped his fingers. “Let's get moving.” 

The helper bots began to pull, dragging Will across the floor. They fought with everything they had, but a severe panic was rapidly setting in, quickly locking up their limbs. They threw their head back at Freddy in a plea for help that they were unable to verbalise. He risked one look back at Jack, dropped him, then went thundering down the hallway after them. The sound of Jack's body hitting the concrete was inaudible over all the robots - Will hoped that it cracked a few bones. 

The bots had a head-start on Freddy, but that didn't matter. He swiftly caught up with effortless strides and practically ripped Will from their grip, holding them high off the ground whilst he kicked the bots aside. Will hovered, shocked and shaking, like a frightended animal. They looked back to see if Jack was still there, but the man had already turned a corner somewhere and was nowhere in view. Freddy reoriented to match the direction they were looking.

“We have to-” 

“No,” Will gasped, coming out loud and clear as a shared sentiment. “Not now- We need- Not now.” 

Freddy caught on to what they were saying and lowered them gently to the floor. Will doubled over and fought for air. To call today a drastic change of pace would be a dramatic understatement. The world swam around them, blurred by a spinning head and wet eyes. For a brief moment, they let themselves be comforted by the sight, as if they had really been transported to a world where everything was just fuzzy shapes with no meaning or hidden purposes. And then Dave brought up a hard hand and flung the tears from their eyes.

“I can't believe him.” 

There was a quiet internal agreement. Dave continued, “Was that all anything ever was to him? Just some brief sick kicks for a bit of fun? Was he ever even mad at me? Or did he just wanna make me feel bad!” 

The internal storm raged quietly before Peter struck in with, “Why do you think he helped me? I- I mean, I knew he wasn't right, but I always thought maybe there was something there, a bit of pity or something but- Hearing that-” He felt their body tense up. “Do you think he led me back to Caroline in the hope that she'd turn me down?” 

Freddy’s head turned sharply. Will turned to meet it, but got only a blank stare back. Whatever. They were too tired for that right now. 

“And where the hell is that doggo, anyway?” Dave said, which was a good point. “Doggo? Weird ghost thing? You here?” 

None of the shadows jumped out at them, so they took that as a no. Back to his mysterious ways, Peter guessed. They shoved their thoughts of Blackjack aside and turned back to Freddy.

“Thanks,” was all they could muster. He wasn’t bothered by such a short response.

“That should never happen to anyone. It's inhumane.” He insisted. “I couldn't let it.” 

“Yeah,” Will agreed, half-heartedly, distracted by the depth with which this robot understood human horrors. That suppression stuff Fredbear had going on was definitely loosening. “Look- We- I- I've got to go-” They had no idea where to, but it needed to be somewhere where that godforsaken Factory was out of sight. “You should probably get out of here too.” 

Freddy nodded stiffly. ‘I know,’ Peter muttered internally. ‘Back to work. Back to forgetting about it when you really, really can't. But we can’t help right now.’ None of that left their head, but he hoped their face conveyed something similar. 

His dejected walk away from them was enough to tear anyone's heart. Or, as Dave added in a bitter addendum, almost anyone's.