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Animatronics weren’t supposed to have feelings.
Freddy did.
Animatronics didn’t break the rules for one child.
Freddy did.
Animatronics weren’t sentient .
Freddy was.
If Gregory hadn’t known about that word (and he was proud he knew about it, for he was only nine years old), he would have taken to describing Freddy as almost human . The bear trotted after him, gently prodding him in the directions that would lead him to the exit - even if they hadn’t worked so far, the fact that he was trying was more than what many others had done for him. His nagging kept giving him strange feelings twisting and pulling in his stomach. It felt like he was being cared for, which was what he longed for more than anything.
But Freddy was metal. A robot. He was only doing it because his programming said to protect kids.
Gregory pressed his head against the side of the small compartment he was hiding in, careful not to jostle any of Freddy’s wires. He still had so many hours to go, but the bear was so warm and kind to him, as tempting as it was to run away as it was to stay with the one who had taken care of him most.
He couldn’t.
He wanted to.
But he couldn’t.
He inhaled, trying to deepen his breaths from the quick, sharp puffs of air he had been taking. He was really starting to get tired of bolting from the fastest animatronic in the complex.
“Gregory?” the animatronic’s voice startled him, causing him to lift his head and try his hardest to avoid jostling from flinching. He didn’t realize he had started sweating. He couldn’t help it, though - his voice was loud . It was echoing in the emptiness of the atrium!
“Not so loud, will you?” He hissed. “What’s up?”
“I apologize.” Freddy lowered his voice. “We need Level 7 security clearance in order to get through this door. I am attempting to locate one, but the only one I can detect is through an access gate found only in the Daycare. There may be others in different locations, but I do not know where.”
The Daycare. With the creepy animatronic that crawled on walls and cried when something was knocked over and had the most menacing smile. Gregory didn’t want to go back there ever again.
“Oh,” he mumbled. “The Daycare. Where you can’t go.”
The smooth up and down movement of Freddy walking paused. He could hear the clicking of joints as the bear closed a door. With a soft hiss, the chest cavity opened, and he crawled out of it. Confused, he turned around and glanced up to meet soft golden eyes. The expression on his face almost looked guilty. Maybe it was a trick of the light.
“I will attempt to find a different location,” he promised, crouching down to better meet Gregory’s eyes. “I also am not comfortable leaving you in places I cannot go. It would be better for us to stick together. My friends are…not themselves. It is an unwise decision to leave you to the daycare attendant yet again.”
He blinked up at his friend. Freddy cared enough about Gregory to stay with him when all of his friends were trying to take him away. That set off more funny feelings in his stomach - warmth fluttered and spread all through it. He straightened. “No, that’s okay. I can handle it. You said it was an access gate, right?” He said confidently, though trepidation shook his body. From the way Freddy’s eyes flickered, he had noticed.
“Are you certain?” From the corner of his eye, he saw the bear’s paw twitch. “I could…perhaps try to sneak around,” he offered, though from the way his ears were drooping he didn’t believe it would work. Gregory put on a smile, though he was far from pleased about the current situation. Internally, he was thrilled he was so worried for his safety.
“No, Freddy. You can talk to me on the Fazwatch, right? I’ll be fine. See if you can find a way out of the access gate that isn’t the daycare. I don’t know how long I'll be able to run from them.”
Freddy watched him for a moment, before making noise that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. Did animatronics even breathe? “I will trust your judgement. However, as soon as there is the slightest chance of you getting caught, you must come find me immediately. Please, Gregory,” he added, voice tinged with something the boy couldn’t figure out. Whatever the case, he nodded furiously, giving the animatronic a thumbs up.
“I got this!”
He didn’t have this.
The closer his steps led him to the ominous gates where the creepy animatronic had thrown him out, the slower they became, until he was standing just in front of the doors. He had ushered Freddy away just minutes before, encouraging the hesitant bear to start searching for an exit. If he wasn’t pulling the information out immediately from his memory, that meant that he didn’t have it at all. Not that he would have needed it before Gregory - why would he? He was supposed to perform and entertain children, not look for emergency exits in case a nine year old boy was being chased by crazy robots trying to kill him. It was not a comforting thought.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, the boy’s eyes scanned the wall, searching for another way in besides the obvious door. He moved his wrist until his Fazwatch was within sight, peering down at it and hoping he wouldn’t be heard. He whispered, “Freddy, are you there?”
“I am here, Gregory.” His voice wasn’t as cheery as it usually was. It sounded cautious. “I am currently locating the access gate. You will be looking for a vent on the northernmost wall past the playground area. The daycare attendant appears to be close to the ball pit. Please be careful.”
“I will,” the boy lied through his teeth, dropping his wrist and slowly leaning forward to press one of the doors open. He poked his head in. The lights were still on. He let out a breath and slid forward, glancing around before dashing forward, crouching behind a wall of paint cans. Every nerve of his body was tense, the sound of his breathing ringing loudly in his ears. He was sweating and his hands were shaking. Could he really do this?
“HEY!”
Gregory startled, snapping his head towards the direction of the shout so quickly he felt a sharp pain in his neck. Ignoring it, he clenched his teeth, holding as still as possible, legs tensed and braced to bolt if need be.
It was Sun.
I just got here , he complained mentally, frozen in fear. The animatronic’s back was turned. I didn’t think he’d be here so quick.
He couldn’t see his face, but his voice did not sound very pleased. Making himself as small as possible, he peeked over the top of the cans and watched.
“Oh, clean, clean!” He wailed, moving back and forth, jittery as he was when Gregory had last seen him. “Why won’t you clean!”
He was yelling at one of the bots with flashlights.
That clearly wasn’t a cleaning bot.
Gregory had to push down the hysterical giggle coming to his throat, gritting his teeth tighter and sinking lower. He didn’t even know why the weird daycare bot was so aggressive about the whole place being clean in the first place. Maybe they thought it would hurt children?
Well , he thought sourly, the mess saves me more than hurts . You’re the one that hurts me, stupid robot .
He was definitely grumpy.
Seeing that the robot was distracted, he slowly lifted one foot and pressed it in front of him achingly slowly. Doing it again, he crept to the other side and past the cans, behind a baby stroller. He almost made it out of sight.
Criiiiink .
Gregory froze as his foot hit what appeared to be an empty can of Fizzy Faz, causing it to fling into the air and hit the ground again with a loud metallic noise, echoing like a gunshot as it continued to roll for several more seconds.
He couldn’t help it. He cursed, high and loud and not something that should come out of a child’s mouth.
“Who’s there?!” He heard the animatronic snap and felt terror course through his body. Deciding to throw it all to the wind, he bolted.
“ Naughty children shouldn’t be in the Daycare !” Gregory ran as fast as he could, scanning the wall desperately to look for the vent Freddy said- there !
He tore off the vent cover, flinging it towards the animatronic that was scarily close. With him momentarily distracted (“Clean! Clean!”), he crawled into the vent and pressed forward, shaking, knees aching as they banged and bumped against the vent.
“Freddy,” he hissed, “I’m in the vent. The weird robot noticed me. What do I do when I get out?”
Freddy’s voice was decidedly not calm, but Gregory appreciated the effort as he heard the bear rush, “The pass will be on the right side, on a shelf as soon as you come out of the vent. The gate is straight ahead, but once you go near it, make a right through the red door. That will take you past the daycare to the atrium.”
“Got it.” The boy crawled quicker, blood running cold as he heard loud bangs coming from behind him. “I think he followed me!”
Whatever Freddy said was drowned out by a scraping noise as Gregory felt a cold grip around his ankle. Screaming, he kicked back, hearing the crunch of metal and a yelp.
“Bad child! I told you not to turn the lights off!” The robot wailed behind him, but the nine year old was already pushing himself through the vent, finally out. Trying to stand, he found the ground coming up quicker than he had expected as he tripped, landing on the hard surface again.
What -
Pain shot up his leg, causing him to cry out. Eyes blurring, he slowly crawled forward, leaning heavily on his left leg. Taking a chance to glance back, he saw the animatronic slowly straightening up from landing out of the vent, face blank. It wasn’t the panicked look from before, the smile stretched too wide as he tidied whatever he thought needed to be clean. It also wasn’t the twisted look on Moon, a mimicry of a smile as it sneered and took glee in hunting him like an animal.
The gaze of the animatronic was planted solely on his leg. It didn’t seem like he wanted to chase him anymore. In fact, he seemed…almost torn, twitching limbs as if he wanted to reach forward, but something else pushed him back. There was very little emotion visible - Gregory couldn’t even tell if he had stopped functioning. He glanced between the animatronic and his leg - it was red, yeah, but it didn’t look awful . It wasn’t much more than a scratch. He guessed it looked scary because of how invisible it was underneath the red liquid.
Or maybe that was the blood loss talking.
Whatever the case was, he was starting to get really dizzy, but he didn’t have time to sit around and wait for the robot to kill him, bracing himself, he dragged himself to his feet, half limping as he pressed forward, grabbing the security pass. He tensed as he heard muttering, accentuated by the voice changing every other word - it sounded glitchy, almost as if he had been broken.
“Bad child-but, must save-kill-no kill, not meant to, protect-protect-clean-protect- kill ,” the voice at the end suddenly went low, sinister, before there was silence. Before Gregory could move, he heard the voice get closer, feeling metal arms grip his, spinning him around until he was face to face with him. Gasping, he pulled back, only for him to grip harder. His face was indescribable. It was more clear headed than he had seen it, even though he’s only seen him once.
Gregory whimpered.
“Gregory,” the animatronic’s voice was hushed, tripping to get words out quicker than he could process them. “You must go back to Freddy. It is not safe for you in the Daycare. The virus is gone, but only for a moment . Do you understand?”
“W-wait, you have- a virus?” Terrified, he trembled, eyes wide as they peered into the serious ones of Sun. Moon?
Freddy finally was able to be heard through the Fazwatch on his wrist, speaking a little louder, likely because he hadn’t been able to hear what the bear was saying the whole time he was running. “If he has a virus, we can clear it at Parts and Services.”
“Yes. YES. Parts and services.” The animatronic released Gregory, who stumbled back and fell, landing on his hands with a whimper. It made Sun freeze, eyes once again trained on his leg. “Freddy Fazbear, you must help the child. His leg…” he looked like he was about to start wailing again, but remained calm, leaning forward. When he flinched and skittered back several paces, he froze again. “I am truly sorry, friend,” he said mournfully, hands frozen in the air where they were reaching out to him. “I am not in control. We are not meant to harm children. Something is very, very wrong.”
“Y-you won’t hurt me?” He shouldn’t trust him. They’ll betray you , his mind whispered. Just like everyone else . “I-If we can make you be nice again, we should…try it.”
“...Sun, I am unable to reach Gregory. If he is injured and cannot move, we have to act now,” the bear called into the silence, desperate. “Please, bring him to me.”
Sun was still, gazing at him for a moment longer. Whatever he was looking for, he seemed to have found it, as he met the child’s eyes. “Friend,” his voice was careful. Whatever had made his voice glitch out was seemingly gone, leaving a soft, gentle voice in its stead. It was softer, calmer than when he had first found him. “You have lost a lot of blood. I must touch you in order to take you to Freddy Fazbear. Will you allow me to carry you?”
Gregory shook, but his gaze was resolute. “W-what if you switch back? You said you only had a moment.”
“I will get you to him,” Sun said fiercely, surprising him out of his blood-induced daze. “He will be able to help you, and I will bring you if it is the last thing I do. I am sorry, friend, so sorry that I have hurt you. Please let me take you to him.”
He didn’t have time to think. He was getting dizzy again. “O-okay.”
Carefully, and without making sudden movements, Sun finally reached the boy, sliding his arms underneath his body. For being so thin, he was still a large, incredibly heavy animatronic. It was no issue picking up the small child. His stride was quick, pressing open doors with no trouble at all as he was taken through hallway after hallway.
“ Gregory !” The cry was unexpected. If he wasn’t so close to falling asleep, he would have noticed Freddy’s wide eyes, ears flat as he rushed to meet them with pounding steps. He felt his body shift as he was transferred over to him, and whimpered as it jostled his leg.
“It is alright,” Freddy sounded farther away from normal. “Oh, you have done so well, Superstar. Hang in there, alright? We will get you to safety.” The next time he spoke, his voice was even quieter, although Gregory thought he could hear his words coming out quicker, as if in a panic. “Gregory? You mustn’t fall asleep.”
But he wanted to. He was so close, if only he could just…
“He’s exhausted,” Sun’s voice broke through again, and he struggled to stay awake. The animatronic sounded so guilty . “Has he been in the facility all day and all night?”
“I am unsure,” Freddy’s voice was getting louder. He tried to focus on it. “I found him just before midnight. He had…snuck in, likely due to my malfunction on stage.” He also sounded guilty, and Gregory frowned through his daze.
“Don’t be sad,” he slurred, hearing the voices pause. “...means you helped me instead of hurting.”
“Yes.” He was pleased. Freddy sounded much better after that. “Good thinking, Superstar.”
“Very good thinking,” Sun added quietly. Gregory curled tighter into Freddy’s chest as it was quiet for awhile, and for all of their attempts to keep him awake, he felt himself drooping over as he passed out, safe in Freddy’s arms.