Chapter Text
Thursday, 8 P.M., The Atrium,
The show had wrapped up almost two hours ago, directly after that were the “Meet N’ Greet”' s animatronics held in their rooms. The lines were usually fairly long, but they managed to get to the end lines in under an hour. To be fair, it was Thursday, a weekday; Anyone with a birthday on a Thursday would usually have it put off to Friday or a weekend, it’s more convenient for the invited and the hosts.
After Freddy’s Meet N’ Greet had wrapped up, he immediately left his room. He didn’t want to be in his room without Gregory right now.
Gregory had been injured when running around the Pizzaplex during the day. He ran into a table and stumbled off the second floor a few days prior, breaking his leg. The small boy said that he was being chased by someone again and forgot to look where he was going, but that was all he said before being carried out of the building.
The guard on duty that day had been so kind to Freddy and Gregory. In fact, this guard was the only human in the pizzaplex, besides Gregory of course, that knew about the kid staying after hours. They had caught them a week before the incident and Freddy explained everything, from Gregory having no parents, being homeless, and to Freddy and the gang raising the child until they can figure out a proper plan. The guard agreed that they would keep the secret, and even helped to keep Gregory out of sight, providing him with numerous security passes and secret rooms he should only go to in case of emergency.
The day Gregory broke his leg, the guard volunteered to take him to the hospital and watch over him until he recovered. Freddy was forever thankful and promised to make it upto them for their favor.
“Yeah, well, just don’t report me,” The guard had said before leaving with Gregory.
Now, Freddy wandered the Atrium. He watched scattered families all over the room, on the next floor, and sitting at tables enjoying their meals or talking. Not very many people were left, only a few hours ago had the atrium been filled with screaming fans and rambunctious children. Everything around felt empty and quiet, even though a pair of siblings were screaming and playing tag a few feet away from him.
The two kids abruptly stopped playing their game when they grew close to the star of the show. Their jaws dropped in awe as they looked at him, and then each other. They screamed and hugged him a moment after, earning a worried look from their parents, who were sitting at a table nearby.
Freddy smiled at the kids and waved at the parents calmly. He was used to this kind of attention from kids, and he loved it. In his programming or not, he loved to entertain children.
The two kids hugging his legs looked the same age, perhaps twins. A boy and a girl, both with dark brown hair, freckles, and big brown eyes. Freddy smiled and opened his chest cavity, reaching inside for candy. The parents shared a look before deciding that it was okay for a six foot tall, robotic animal to open his stomach and give their children complimentary candy.
As the children happily took their candy and unwrapped it, an odd movement caught Freddy’s optics. He looked up from his occupation to a dark “Employees Only” door.
The door was slightly opened and a blonde haired woman poked her head outside it, quickly moving her head to a particular corner of the room. She smiled softly and held out a lollipop in her hand, holding it ever so gently in a certain direction.
Freddy frowned, Vanessa? What is she doing? Security Guards were not typically allowed to give out candy to customers. He followed her gaze to the corner of the atrium, completely forgetting about the twins at his feet.
A small boy was wandering around aimlessly near the right side of the main stage. He looked all around the room for something. Or someone, Freddy thought, Perhaps his parents.
Vanessa waved the lollipop at the boy, which caught his attention immediately, he walked right over to her. She smiled at him, and said a few words Freddy could not hear, the boy nodded and reached for the lollipop. The security guard happily handed it to him.
Freddy watched the whole interaction very carefully.
Security guards are not allowed to hand customers candy, unless authorized by management,
Vanessa was standing in the doorway of an employees only room, to which she seemed to be inviting the child into.
The bear narrowed his eyes, Vanessa was certainly an interesting woman, kind even, but she didn’t suddenly have candy on her everytime she would wander around the pizzaplex. She never deliberately peaked into rooms to search out children.
The employee said one last thing to the child before gesturing to the door she was standing behind. The child nodded aggressively and followed Vanessa inside.
Freddy’s jaw dropped, That is not allowed! No customer should go behind those doors,
The twins, who Freddy has nearly forgotten, tapped on his stomach, “Freddy..?” Asked the boy, “..Is something wrong?” Finished the girl.
Freddy looked frantically between the kids and the door, then at the kids' parents, who were no longer staring at him. The bear stimulated a deep breath and shouted as loud as his voice box could let him.
“Hey!”
His voice made everyone in the atrium flinch, and it made Vanessa look up in surprise. Her jaw dropped and she quickly ushered the child behind the door, closing it. All other guests in the room looked at him and where he was staring.
The star of the pizzaplex frowned, gently pushed the twins aside, and darted to the employees only door.
People in the atrium started murmuring and expressing their shock and complaints. Freddy was not supposed to suddenly run after something when entertaining children, nor was he to yell so loudly in customer presence. The parents of the twins stood up in surprise to yell at the bear as he passed, but he did not slow down for them. He lept over a table to reach the door that Vanessa and the child disappeared too.
Freddy reached the door and whipped it open, slamming against the wall. He charged in where the small boy was sitting on the floor, looking up to the bear with wide eyes and shaky hands.
The room was small, surrounded by shelves and boxes. It almost looked like a storage room, and it might’ve been if not for the small stairway on the right side.
Vanessa was nowhere to be seen, only Freddy and the boy sat in the middle of the floor. The bear knelt down to the boy's level, still shaking and now near tears.
“Are you alright?” Freddy asked, the boy nodded in response, “Do you know who that is?”
The boy shook his head, “N..no…” He whispered,
This pizzeria has a history of children going missing without supervision, you would’ve thought that your parents told you to stay close, Freddy thought
He wanted to say it outloud, but he couldn’t scare the child like that. “What is your name?” He asked,
“..Jason,”
“Where are your parents, Jason?”
“Um…” He started, “I..don’t know….” Tears began to stream from his face as he spoke,
Freddy nodded, “I can help you find your parents,” He started, “But I will need to know what that woman said to you before then,”
Jason nodded again, Freddy held out his hand for him to hold, he took two shaky breaths before speaking again,
“She told me that she had a gift for me, and that I could find my parents if I followed her,” He sniffled, “She had candy for me too,”
Freddy blinked, What the hell is she doing?
Instead, the bear nodded, “Do not go near her again,” He instructed, “Even if she says she has a surprise for you, I do not think you should listen to her.”
So many thoughts were rushing to Freddy’s head, Did she have permission to give out candy? He should check as soon as the boy is safe.
Jason nodded again, Freddy opened his stomach hatch and pulled out a small Chica plushie, handing it to the boy.
“Here, take this, and go back into the atrium, I will look for your parents.”
Nodding one last time, the boy ran past Freddy and out into the Atrium. The bear stood up as he left and began searching the database for Jason’s parents and to figure out why Vanessa was acting this way.
The band’s singer quickly found a profile on Jason, he then traced him back to his parents profile. They were still in the building so he sent out a message letting them know that their son was in the atrium and required attention.
With the boy out of the way, Freddy took a deep breath and looked into whether or not Vanessa should be handing out candy to small children. He did not discover any sort of authorization, in fact he discovered the opposite.
“Management report: Handing out merchandise to customers.
It has been made quite clear that only Animatronic and gift shop personnel should be giving merchandise to customers- with proper payment of course.
Management has been receiving reports that security and other unauthorized personnel have been giving off brand candy to the customers. Not only is the candy from outside of the building, but the candy is being handed out to innocent children.
The company has their eyes on a certain security guard and has many suspicions about them, but will not move until they have been caught in the act.”
Freddy frowned and looked at who the file was under.
Of course it had to be Vanessa. Who else would it be?
He searched a little further into her files and discovered reports of missing children with numerous suspicions of her having some sort of involvement.
The bear began putting puzzle pieces together before roaring and taking off down the hall. Vanessa didn’t only have an involvement, she was behind these cases.
“VANESSA”
He raced up the stairs, hoping to find her somewhere in the hall.
Thoughts raced as he ran. How did he not know of the missing children's reports? Why hadn’t he been notified that Vanessa was under surveillance due to this information? What else had she been responsible for?
He came to the end of the winding hallway, he threw his hands onto the door, bursting it open with a loud bang.
A few of the remaining customers who were hanging around in Rockstar row froze in shock, then began screaming and running away.
Freddy looked at them all scrambling to get out of the building or at least away from the bear. His eyes widened in shock momentarily before shaking his head dismissively.
Focus! You need to find that bitch.
Monty’s door slid open and the gator walked out, trying to figure out all the commotion. His eyes landed on Freddy, then back to the running people, then back to him. He stumbled over to him.
“Fred? What’s going on?”
“Where’s Vanessa.” He demanded, ignoring the gator’s question.
Monty flinched back, “Uh, I don’t know,” He admitted, “Are you okay?” He looked him up and down, “You seem…off,”
Freddy shook his head, “I need to find Vanessa right now.” He started stomping backstage
Monty was silent for a moment, in thought, before speaking again “Vanessa doesn’t have a shift today.”
Freddy stopped mid walk, in front of his room, he slowly turned to the gator, “What.”
The bassist cringed, “She..she had a shift last night, she should be at home right now,” He explained, “Dude what happened? What’s going on? I’ve never seen you this angry before,” Monty put his hand on his back,
His shoulders tensed and he curled his hands into fists. Is that even Vanessa he saw out there? If she had a shift last night, surely she shouldn’t be here until later. Or did she even leave the building?
The singer's face turned into a snarl before turning to the large glass window in front of his room. He brought up his fists and rammed them down against the glass in frustration, shattering it with one blow.
Monty clasped his hands around his jaws and his eyes widened. He couldn’t break the glass no matter how hard he tried. It was bulletproof for fuck’s sake!
Freddy dropped his hands to his sides, “I’m going to kill her!” He roared before storming off towards the backstage entrance.
The gator stood stunned, staring at the broken window. Shards were still falling off the frame. Most of the window was gone now, with half of it was solely from what Freddy had punched out.
Roxanne stormed out of her room towards Monty. “What the fuck was that giant crash?” She growled at him “If you did something stupid I swear to-” She cut herself off as soon as she saw the window, well, what had remained.
She slowly stepped in beside Monty, who still had his hands over his mouth, her eyes didn’t depart from the sight. “What did you do?” She demanded,
Monty’s eyes began to water underneath his shades, “I didn’t… I….” He slowly pulled his hands down, “Freddy did,”
Roxy whipped her head to him, “Freddy?” She repeated, “Freddy did this? Freddy, the sunshine rainbow himbo who would probably cry over how cute kittens are, destroyed the bulletproof glass?”
“He..he was really mad. He was after Vanessa, he said-” He gulped, eyes watering, “He said he wanted her dead, then he turned and broke the glass,” He looked to the wolf,
Her face fell, “Oh fuck you’re serious,” She whispered, “Okay, okay, um, come here,” She held her arms out for the gator to take. He practically fell and hugged her.
“I’ve never seen him like that, he growled and shouted and scared customers out of Rockstar row,” He took off his shades and cleaned them quickly, “He was really mad, Rox, really mad….”
The wolf nodded, “Did he say why he was mad?” She asked,
“No, he only said he wanted to kill Vanessa,”
Roxy drew back, “Okay, but that’s a start, Vanessa did something really bad, and now Freddy is after her,” Monty nodded, “So we just need to find out what that bitch did and solve the situation,” The gator nodded again. “Cool?”
“Cool.”