Chapter Text
They had been running for hours, avoiding death at every turn, the hours felt like days as time came to a crawling pace but finally Glamrock Freddy was alerted to the time being 6 AM and he notified Gregory that he could leave now, so they both rushed towards the entrance of the building, seeing the doors were indeed open.
“Freddy! It’s open!” Glamrock Freddy heard actual joy in his voice compared to previously hearing fear and confusion over the last few hours. Gregory turned back to him then looked back at the door, pointing forward, “Let’s go!”
Glamrock Freddy looked outside, seeing the car park, seeing the world where he didn’t belong, “No. I can not exit this facility,” he responded, Gregory turned to face him, confusion on his face.
“Of course you can! Come on! We can hide you somewhere.”
For Glamrock Freddy that wasn’t the only problem, Gregory was too young to see the actual problem at hand. “Without a recharge station, my systems would shut down within an hour. It is a safety precaution… It is my design…” He looked down, knowing the need to recharge every hour was a huge problem already as he had to in some cases run to a recharge station which he knew delayed their progress and in the outside world he couldn’t manage it, at least here he could recharge his battery but he knew his power would die within an hour without recharge so realistically, Glamrock Freddy knew he wouldn’t survive in the real world.
“This is where I must stay. Do not return,” He saw Gregory’s face turn to visible sadness as spoke, but he continued talking, knowing he had to be truthful to the child. “It will never be safe. I will miss you…” Glamrock Freddy reached out and placed his hand on his head, ruffling his hair.
Gregory closed his eyes, squeezing them shut like he was trying to blink away tears, he then said something; “Freddy, if I leave now, nothing will change, will it? There will be more disappearances…”
“Yes. I am afraid that is correct…” Glamrock Freddy looked down again, he knew nothing would change regardless and as much as he wanted to lie to Gregory and say that everything would be okay now that he knew about Vanny and he could apprehend her himself, he couldn’t lie to him. He knew realistically that he likely would never be able to catch Vanny and no one could do anything to stop her, he knew this had happened before so many times and he didn’t want Gregory to be the next victim, he knew that if Gregory stayed here, there was a high chance that something would get him.
“Gregory, you have a choice to make. The door is open and you can go. Or you can continue to investigate the secrets of the Pizzaplex. I feel there is something else going on besides Vanny.”
Gregory avoided eye contact, looking down at his feet, Glamrock Freddy did feel bad that he was putting on this on a child but he knew Gregory was smart and he had to be honest with the kid, whatever decision Gregory made would be based on what he wanted and Glamrock Freddy should not be influencing his decision.
“If you stay here, your life will be in danger, Vanny will not stop hunting you, Roxanne, Chica and Monty will continue to look for you, and I will be honest in saying I may not be able to protect you always, as much as I want to, that just isn’t possible given this situation… Gregory, you can go home to your family.”
Gregory sniffled, Glamrock Freddy watched a tear run down his face and he immediately wanted to hug Gregory and soothe him, telling him that it would be okay if he decided to leave, but he didn’t want to interfere in Gregory’s decision, he knew this kid had a real family in the outside world and his parents were probably missing him.
“I will not be angry if you decide to leave Gregory, I understand if you do not want to stay here… It’s dangerous… and you staying would be your choice, I will not force you to make a decision,” Glamrock Freddy said, trying to reassure him.
Gregory shook his head, wiping his tears away and looking up at Glamrock Freddy, despite the tears, Glamrock Freddy saw anger burning in his eyes, “... If you wanted me gone so badly you should have just said so instead of trying to spare my feelings.”
Glamrock Freddy was horrified by what the boy had just said. “Gregory, no that’s not what I meant—” He shook his head, wanting to explain himself, he wanted Gregory to stay but he knew that the risk of death was ever present and he couldn’t protect him constantly.
“Get away from me,” Gregory cut him off, his voice sounding cold. “I’ll never come back if that’s what you want,” Gregory immediately backed away from him looking angry with tears running down his face, Glamrock Freddy immediately regretted what he had said now seeing he had made Gregory upset.
Gregory yanked off his FazWatch, “And take your watch too! You don’t care so don’t come looking for me!” He threw it against the tiled floor and Glamrock Freddy heard the unmistakable sound of the glass screen smashing on impact.
“Gregory, no!” Glamrock Freddy slowly approached him but Gregory backed further away, “I do care!”
Gregory shook his head before abruptly turning around and pushing open the doors, running outside.
“Gregory!” Glamrock Freddy called, following him, running after him, his system immediately flashed with a warning that he was exiting the Pizzaplex without authorization and it completely blocked his vision, he managed to override it and make it disappear, blinking it away then looking outside, pushing the door open, he looked around, seeing nothing besides the street lights outside, he felt his panic rise, so he took a few steps outside, looking left and right, scanning around for Gregory but seeing no results.
“Gregory!!” He yelled out, hoping that Gregory would come back, “I do care!! I just don’t want anything to hurt you!!”
He still didn’t see him.
Glamrock Freddy looked down, “... What have I done…?” He asked himself, slowly turning around, walking back inside, seeing the broken FazWatch on the floor, he grabbed the strap and lifted it up, seeing the entire screen was covered by large cracks, he pressed his finger against the button on the side trying to get it to turn it on, the screen came on, washed with static.
“... I should have escorted him back home…” He looked outside, even though it was 6 AM, it was still dark outside and he was sure that was a bad idea to let Gregory wander the streets alone without his parents or an adult he could trust, considering the suspicion they had about Vanessa’s real intentions.
Glamrock Freddy turned, looking back inside the Pizzaplex, he let out a heavy sigh and walked back inside, holding the watch in his hands and pressing it against his chest.
It was still dark outside, Gregory ran as fast as his feet would carry him, tears streaming down his face, his breathing was rapid as he remembered everything.
“Jump down!”
Gregory remembered Glamrock Freddy coming to his rescue when he was terrified that Roxanne and Monty would get him, he had jumped up grabbed the vent gate and pulled it down, he stood below, holding out his arms, Gregory looked down at him, hesitated for a minute before jumping down with Glamrock Freddy catching him in his arms.
“Freddy! You saved me!”
He hadn’t had anyone save him in a long time, he had always looked out for himself, he couldn’t trust any adults and he knew that asking for help from certain people would result in the police taking him and CPS likely returning him to his last foster family whom he had run away from fourteen months ago.
He ran down the alleyway he was use to living in, this was between two apartment buildings and rarely anyone checked behind here, which made it ideal as he knew some “do-gooder” adults would try to alert the authorities about him.
He shivered as he crawled inside the box he called “home”, pulling up the newspaper like a blanket, he hated the fact it was getting dangerously close to winter again and he had no real winter clothes, as he could only steal so much without drawing attention to himself and he already stole his sneakers from Glamrock Gifts.
He was kind of jealous of kids the same age as him who could actually be kids, kids he had seen at the Pizzaplex who had three meals a day, no problems to worry about, loving parents and no doubt a nice warm bed to sleep in, throughout his life, he never had those things.
He felt the cold wind blowing around him, even with the newspaper, his teeth still chattered, he loved how warm the Pizzaplex was and how he could actually eat more food than he could when staying outside. Food was hard to find on the streets and most of it he found that wasn’t half eaten would be out of date, meaning Gregory would either had to resort to stealing from a small store or eating something that could potentially make him sick.
He even loved the animatronic who took him under his wing, his tears came back as he thought of Glamrock Freddy and how he would rush to his aid whenever Gregory called him on the FazWatch.
He closed his eyes, wanting to sleep and forget everything, he wanted to forget the fact that for a single moment he believed he could stay there forever and Glamrock Freddy would be his new father, he wanted to forget that he actually stupidly believed he would be adopted by someone who actually cared for him and not someone who would lock him in the dark and starve him.
“Great job Superstar!”
No one had ever spoken to him so nicely before, Gregory didn’t want to keep crying, after all Glamrock Freddy never said he would take him in, he only promised to get him to the exit which he had done.
As he laid down in the cardboard box, he was unaware that from the shadows, she crept forward, her eyes fixed on him as he slept, outside of the Pizzaplex without Glamrock Freddy to protect him, he was now completely defenceless.
Glamrock Freddy continued to sadly look at the FazWatch, mere hours before Gregory had used it to call him to his location, Glamrock Freddy, immediately getting an urgent alert, ran to his location, realizing that he need to safely escort Gregory across the main atrium to avoid Roxanne and Montgomery, who he had seen acting extremely aggressive towards the child, to the point where Glamrock Freddy felt like he couldn’t trust them.
Glamrock Freddy had a deep sinking feeling that somehow this “Vanny” had gotten into their heads, he was scared if he told any of them that he was hiding Gregory that Vanny would find out and it would give away Gregory’s best hiding spot, as the robots couldn’t detect Gregory when he was hiding inside Freddy’s chest cavity and he didn’t want them to chase him around while he was hiding Gregory.
In fact Glamrock Freddy felt like he couldn’t trust anyone at this stage, he use to trust Vanessa but now he had seen a side of her that he didn’t like, she had left him in Parts and Services with his head disconnected after threatening to “scrap” him, if it wasn’t for Gregory finding him, he probably would have been stuck like that for hours, possibly even days.
Glamrock Freddy gently placed the watch down on his table, he had wanted Gregory to keep it as a gift, but it seemed like Gregory didn’t want to keep it. He sadly recalled the moment that Gregory threw it down with such rage.
He had never seen Gregory genuinely angry, he had seen him afraid, he had seen him sad, in fact Glamrock Freddy was sure he had never seen a child angry, sure he had seen children having a tantrum over not winning a game or not getting the price they want… but Gregory’s anger was different. Glamrock Freddy felt like the anger was more coming from a place of hurt and he felt sick to his stomach, realizing now that he had unintentionally chased Gregory away. As much as Glamrock Freddy wanted to protect him from Vanny and the other robots, he didn’t want to make Gregory feel like he hated him when in reality he wanted to protect him, and he saw that the only way he would be 100% safe was for him to leave the Pizzaplex and never return.
“I’m sorry…” He said aloud to no one in particular, “I care for you Gregory, if I knew for sure I could keep you safe, I never would have said what I did… I just can’t bear the thought of you… of you…” He clutched his fists tightly.
“I just can’t bear the thought of you dying.”