Chapter Text
“The sun… it’s so… bright!”
“Well, you better get used to it,” Vanessa sighed.
“What do you mean? Did something happen to it that I was not online for?” Freddy asked.
“Well, I can’t really keep working there while trying to keep a strange kid—”
Gregory scowled at the comment.
“—And the head of an expensive robotic bear.”
“So… we aren’t going to see my friends?” Freddy asked sadly.
“They were trying to hurt me, Freddy!” Gregory exclaimed.
“But… couldn’t we—”
“They got what they deserved,” Gregory muttered.
“Wasn’t the security guard trying to hurt you as well, Gregory?” Freddy asked. “You fixed her.”
“Yes, but… but that was an accident!”
“The less said about whatever that was, the better…” Vanessa sighed. “I hate to say it, but Gregory is right. I don’t know where that thing— where Glitchtrap went after he…” she cut herself off. “I just don’t know what might happen with the other animatronics…”
“But… he fixed us, Vanessa. What about them?”
“I— They… they…” Gregory stammered.
“Superstar, would you at least… try?”
“They hurt me,” Gregory muttered.
“I helped you… Didn’t I?”
“…Yes, but—”
“You are my friend, Gregory. But they are my friends too.”
‘Are.’ That robot just couldn’t give up, could he? A dark part of Vanessa just wanted to crush Freddy’s head with her boot — be done with all the horror that had happened due to machines just like him.
But besides the fact that she knew just how hard the endoskeleton underneath was, it wasn’t fair to just run away from all that had happened with Fazbear Entertainment. Those dark thoughts were just her trying to forget what had happened — ignore what had happened. The beta-testing — Glitchtrap — what she’d done— no, what she’d tried to do — at the Pizzaplex.
That wouldn’t be fair. The animatronics there were… different . And if she had been given a chance, then she owed the same to the animatronics she had helped Glitchtrap infect. She knew what she had to do.
“Gregory… If I help… Can we just… try?” she ventured.
“Not you too!”
“Fine, then I’ll try.”
“You? There’s no way!”
“You don’t think I can do it?”
Gregory muttered something under his breath before answering. “Ugh… Fine. But I’m not taking a nap!”
Vanessa chuckled at the request. “Deal.”
“I can’t believe I’m trying to get back in here,” Gregory muttered. “Okay, maybe if we stick something in that crack and then pull—”
“Scanning…. Scanning… Identification found. Name: Vanessa A. Position: Night Guard.”
“O-oh… right. You work here…”
The trio slipped in quietly, with Vanessa leading Gregory to her office, Freddy’s head hidden in a duffel bag.
After letting out a sigh of relief after not encountering any of the animatronics, Vanessa carefully lifted Freddy’s head out of the bag before setting it on a table and plugging him into a portable power station. He scanned the room for a moment after booting before speaking.
“We made it inside! Great work, Superstars!”
“I wish I could share your enthusiasm.” Vanessa frowned. “We’ve still got a lot to do. Where do we even start ?”
“Not the crocodile,” Gregory said firmly. “Not until we fix Freddy.”
“Not going to disagree there. We’ll definitely need Freddy’s help before dealing with him,” Vanessa agreed.
Freddy hummed thoughtfully before speaking. “Well, Roxy seemed… upset before we left. She has for quite some time…”
“Her?” Gregory asked incredulously.
“I promise you that she would be a great help in turn!” Freddy answered excitedly.
“Only if we fix you first,” Gregory demanded.
“Superstar… Fixing my body will take more than just the simple servicing you performed on me.”
“So? We’ve got her now,” he said, pointing at Vanessa. “I bet she can help us get what we need.”
“Gregory…”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to leave Roxy alone that long.”
Gregory, along with Vanessa, had both decided to try to find Roxy, then shut her down so they could find a way to get rid of the virus. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done with how Glitchtrap had spread over the system after losing Vanessa. She said it didn’t have as much control as before because it was trying to do so much at one time, but Gregory had watched her slam down the keyboard with a glare that he was glad wasn’t directed at him for once.
“Ugh, I think we’re just going to have to find her the old-fashioned way,” she said after turning away from the computer screen. “She could be anywhere!”
“Why don’t we use the cameras?” Gregory asked.
“I can’t access them — the computer’s antivirus cut it off sometime after Glitchtrap took over the network,” Vanessa answered with a growl. “I only knew how to use the system — not protect it from some crazy virus!”
“But my Fazwatch says I can use them.”
“It. What? ”
“It says—”
“Please let me look.”
“You better be careful with it…”
“I promise.”
“Okay…” Gregory said slowly before undoing the strap and carefully handing over the scratched Fazwatch. “You better not wreck it!” he warned as he took it from him.
“Look, you’ve got my word. I need this working to use it.”
Gregory reluctantly slunk off to one corner of the room while Vanessa started scanning the cameras. She wondered idly if the Fazwatch was too simple for Glitchtrap to infect. Whatever the reason, it meant she could now find Roxy.
Suddenly Gregory went still, before speaking in a subdued tone that Vanessa hadn’t heard from the strange boy. Gone was his confident, somewhat bratty attitude, replaced with a quiet whisper.
“What time is it?”
“Uh, 12:58, why?”
Gregory’s gaze quickly darted around the mostly empty room before bolting toward the door.
“Wait, come back here!” Vanessa exclaimed, reaching the door just as Gregory slammed it shut. She grabbed the handle only to find it locked. Great . She cursed under her breath as she tried to find the release mechanism, her ID card useless due to the lack of a scanner.
By the time she got the door open, Gregory was long gone. She cursed again before rushing out to find him.
Moon stood up from the ball pit as his system alerted him to the time. He hadn’t seen any sign of that naughty boy for several hours, but there had been no check-outs — he must still be hiding!”
“Naughty boys should be sleeping,” he murmured before jumping out of the ball pit and leaving the daycare. “Why won’t you sleep?”
Just then he received an alert for… the security guard’s door opening? He wasn't sure why he was pinged for that, but— wait, what if it was that boy… Naughty, naughty… That wasn’t a place for children.
Vanessa met a fork in the path and after a moment of hesitation, turned right. As she did her best to avoid attracting attention, she wondered why Gregory had done what he did — had he never intended to help — taking advantage of the moment to break away and lose her?
She quickly discarded that idea. If he was trying to distract her, asking the time seemed one of the worst ways to do so, not to mention the shift in his demeanor when he asked.
Crap. The time. Moon.
Wait, how did he avoid Moon in the first place? There weren’t many places you could avoid his detection. She only knew two off the top of her head — the service room and the charging stations. But she’d been in the security office at times when the hour had changed, so that left…
No. There had to be another explanation. A kid in the charging stations? That would be… bad. Really bad.
“Naughty boys should be sleeeping…”
Vanessa whipped her head around at the sudden comment. She cursed silently as she realized how close she was to the main atrium. She was lucky that only Moon seemed to be roaming around. As unsettingly as he was, her status as a security guard meant his goal to make sure children were sleeping wouldn’t apply to her.
Hopefully.
She let out a tired sigh, only to flinch when Moon called out again, this time louder. He was getting closer.
“Don’t hide… Naughty children should be sleeping… Sleeping…”
Vanessa slowly backed up out of the main hallway, only to suddenly stop as he hit the wall.
“Where are you? It Isn't time to hide… no hidey…”
Vanessa did her best to be as quiet and still as possible, her breaths light as she stood still as a statue.
Then she sneezed.
“Wait. I hear you.”
Vanessa’s paranoia spiked at the last comment. Either Gregory was nearby and about to be caught, or…
“Found you!”
Vanessa instinctively lashed out as Moon suddenly dropped from the ceiling, her attack missing as he leaned back so far it was a wonder he was still standing, before quickly standing straight again.
“You aren’t the boy!” Moon exclaimed after staring at Vanessa with his glowing red eyes. “Where is he?”
Vanessa finally let herself breathe as Moon made no move to attack her. The animatronic tilted his head before grinning.
“Hmm… You told me to find him,” he continued. “So you don’t know where he is, do you?”
“No, no I don’t. But he doesn’t need to sleep right now,” Vanessa said carefully, remembering Gregory’s one request.
“No sleep? Silly night guard, it’s past bedtime!”
“Not for him,” Vanessa asserted.
“But it’s late. Are you… a rule-breaker…?” Moon asked darkly, his tone switching from upbeat to dangerous instantly.
“No, I’m not,” Vanessa said quickly, not liking where this was going. “I… Look. I promise he’ll sleep soon , but he’s having a… a special slumber party right now.”
“A… slumber party?” Moon said slowly. “It’s late — very late.”
Suddenly, Vanessa had an idea that she hoped could kill two birds with one stone, if Moon would accept it, that is. “Yeah, it is,” she agreed. “But he needs to help his— some friends first. If you help me, we can find him and help those friends so he can sleep…”
Moon hummed thoughtfully for an agonizing moment before slowly nodding. "Help, then sleep? Yes, yes… Can't leave the friends alone. That would be naughty…"
Vanessa sighed with relief. "Welcome to the party, Moon."
"I'm invited to the slumber party?"
"Where's a— Yes!"
Gregory dashed toward the charging station and quickly got inside. It felt weird like it always did — kinda tingly. But nice. After a few minutes the lights turned back on, and he got out of the charging station. Now he just needed to find Freddy… and the security guard.
"Do you think he went this way?"
Wait, that was her! But it sounded like she was talking to someone—
“Why are we trying to find him? He was a rule-breaker — rule-breaker!”
That was the daycare assistant! Was Vanessa helping it? She'd betrayed Gregory! What could he do? He had to get Freddy! But he was still back at the office…
He'd just have to take the chance.
As the sound of footsteps got closer, he quickly hid behind the charging station.
“Moon agreed to help,” Vanessa said. “He probably didn't mean to turn off the lights.”
“Probably?!”
“Look, Sundrop—”
“Moon doesn’t get to tell me what to do! Lights on!”
Gregory tensed as they got closer. They couldn’t find him. He pulled his legs up to his chest, his knees knocking up against the back of the recharge station with a quiet thunk.
“Wait, did you hear that?” Vanessa said, a flashlight beam suddenly shining on one side of the recharge station.
Vanessa quickly shone her flashlight toward the source of the sound, only to see nothing but a recharge station. She turned it back off, only for Sun to point at the recharge station excitedly. “It came from there. I heard it. I heard it!”
Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to check, she walked up closer, only for Gregory to jump out from behind it and start running. There was just one problem.
Vanessa was faster.
It didn’t take her more than a minute to catch up to Gregory, grabbing him by the wrist.
“Let go !” he demanded, but Vanessa didn’t loosen her grip. “First, you’re going to tell me why you ran off like that — you could’ve gotten hurt!”
“Because you betrayed me!” Gregory snapped. “He was looking for me!” he added, pointing at Sun.
“Whaaat? No! No rule-breakers! It was Moon!”
Gregory scowled. “Liar! you’re the same! I saw you change!”
“Nuh-uh, I’m not Moon! He doesn’t even like Fizzy-Faz!”
“Stop lying!”
“Rule-break—”
“Quiet!” Vanessa said in a harsh whisper. “You two keep that up and the whole of the Pizza Plex is going to come over.
“Let. Me. Go!” Gregory growled, squirming in Vanessa's grasp.
“Listen to me, I was trying to find you because you ran out and locked the door on me without a word.”
Gregory stared silently at Vanessa with a dubious expression before finally relenting. “Ugh, fine. But it was because of him—”
“—Moon!”
“He’s a total creep! And he was gonna come out — I had to hide!”
“How’s out here any better than where we already were ?”
“Not telling.”
“Rule-break—”
“—Sundrop, stop that. He’s not going to turn the lights off again, right, Gregory?”
“He changes to the creepy moon guy when that happens, of course I won’t!”
“See?” Vanessa said to Sun. “He’s sorry.”
“No, I’m not.”
“See? see!” Sun exclaimed. “He should be banned!”
“Well, you could just stay here and then deal with waking up who-knows-where every time Moon comes out,” Vanessa suggested.
Sun didn’t say anything for a few minutes, scowling all the while before finally answering. “Hmph, fine , I’ll come. But only because Moon won’t listen to me about what a bad idea this is.”
“Well, I can work with that, Vanessa sighed. “C’mon, let’s go back to the office and check on Freddy.”
“Wait, why is Freddy in the office?” Sun asked.
Gregory glared at Vanessa so hard she half expected to go up in flames.
“What happened?!? Did he ex-PLODE?”
“…Not exactly…” Vanessa muttered.
“It was a simple misunderstanding,” Freddy said. “This is just a temporary situation.”
“Where’s the rest of you?!”
“Waiting for repairs,” Freddy answered calmly.
“Then let’s get to it!” Sun declared. “There will be kids tomorrow! We need you!”
“Actually, I had to call the franchise owner,” Vanessa said. “Due to some… accidents Saturday night, the band won’t be performing.”
“For how long?”
Venessa let the silence speak for itself.
“You’re all crazy!” Sun declared
“You would not be the first to think so,” Freddy said calmly as if he was talking about the weather.
“…So what are you going to do?” Sun asked.
“We’re going to help the big bad wolf,” Vanessa said dryly, connecting Gregory’s Fazwatch to one of the security monitors to show a glimpse of dust-stained white and green hair.