Chapter Text
The fall hurt more than anything Cassie could've ever imagined any kind of pain to be like.
She had thought she was safe, after everything she'd been through trying to do the right thing, only to be tricked and nearly mauled by a... by a... what even was that thing?
Monster...
Murder machine...
Horror...
Impersonator...
Mimic...
Cassie could describe, on a surface level, that horrible robotic shambling mess that fooled her into freeing it, but she still had no idea what she had really unleashed. Its glowing eyes haunted her, still shining against her eyelids when she tried to close her eyes and escape this nightmarish reality. It terrified her in every way, and Cassie felt a gut-wrenching blend of guilt and anger writhe in her stomach after the fall. How could she have been dumb enough to fall for its stupid tricks!
Well, she had other things to be angry about now.
First of all, and most importantly, her best friend, the only kid who ever actually cared about her, just dropped her in a demolished elevator to die, after everything she'd done trying to help him! Even if it wasn't really him, she would never expect Gregory, her friend, to do this. She felt like she was dying, with her heart skyrocketing in her chest and bashing against her ribs as she plummeted down the abandoned shaft. Cassie couldn't even cry, or even scream, as the fall sucked all the air out of her lungs and left her to fall helplessly to the ground. Untethered to anything, she gasped and flailed and fell.
Both Cassie's back and elbow hit something hard and uneven, which sent dull, throbbing whirrs of pain through the young girl's body. She tumbled to the side, landing on her stomach. With another gasp for breath, Cassie shut her eyes and coughed, every part of her captured by burning pain. Her heart felt especially sore. Gregory was her friend, right? Why, why would he do this? He really betrayed Cassie, after everything the two of them had been through together? Gregory could've helped her out of that cavern and just resealed that horrible mechanical monster! Why would he do this to her? To a supposed friend? WHY!?
Cassie choked, feeling her lungs grow desperate but faint. With the pitiful strength she could muster, the girl rolled onto her back once more, trying to breathe. Her arms splayed themselves out at her sides, twitching as sharp pains fired through them. She looked up at the top of the shaft, which seemed infinitely far away as she lay on the unforgiving earth. Cassie's vision became blurry and unfocused. Be it from tears or panic, everything seemed to spin before Cassie's terrified eyes. A big dark blob --- just as fuzzy as everything else before her --- blocked the girl's view directly above and behind her, and before she could tell what it was, it grew bigger, and bigger. Cassie couldn't bring herself to move anymore, half-shutting her eyes with a wince of pain. Whatever the dark mass was crashed upon Cassie's left arm, sending enough agony though her, like a lightning bolt, to unleash a guttural scream from Cassie's exhausted core. As her voice died out, Cassie let her eyes shut with silent choked cries.
Was this what dying felt like?
"Cassie?"
"H-Huh?" Cassie muttered, peeling her eyes open and coughing viscerally. She gasped for air again, this time succeeding to fill her lungs. She swallowed ragged breaths, feeling wet tears form in the corners of her eyes. Still laying on her back, she rubbed forcefully at her mouth, feeling a trail of dirt come off onto her right hand.
"Easy now," a low voice cooed, "Don't move too fast, Cassie."
A robotic hand crept along Cassie's side, guiding her upwards to a sitting position. Cassie took another deep breath, trying to move slowly, as told. She rubbed her eyes with the palm of her hand.
"R-Roxy?" she mumbled. Her voice became nearly unrecognizable in her ears, so raspy and faint. Talking felt terrible. Actually, correction: everything felt terrible and sore and-- "Ow, oww!" Cassie winced. She bit down on her lip and instinctively gripped at her left elbow, which felt like it was submerged in magma.
"It's me, I'm here. Deep breaths, okay, kid?" Roxy encouraged.
Cassie's hand briefly rubbed against something metal, the stark temperature drop feeling jarring against her warm skin. Weird, Cassie wasn't wearing anything metallic there? She expected to feel the soft red fabric of her favorite cardigan, even if it would probably be torn and dirt-covered. Before Cassie could turn to look at it, two of Roxy's clawed steel fingers reached forward and gently guided Cassie's face back up.
There was a slight shake in Roxy's voice when she spoke again. "Focus on me, please. How do you feel?" Cassie looked towards Roxy, who knelt before her. The animatronic wolf was still just as battered and scratched-up as before, if not more so.
Cassie tried to laugh, only choking again, feeling the grainy rub of gravel against the back of her throat. "Bad. Everything hurts," she spat. She didn't mean to sound angry, especially not at Roxy. Cassie took in a sharp inhale through her nose, and tears began to streak her face. "Is everything gonna be okay?"
Please, please say yes, Cassie internally begged. Even if it's not true, just tell me I'll be okay. I don't care anymore if someone else lies to me today. This can't get any worse, right? Please. I don't want to die.
Roxy's ears --- well, whatever was left of them --- drooped slightly, making a mechanical twitching sound. The animatronic pulled her hand down. "Yeah. I'll make sure you're okay."
Cassie let a broken smile come to her face as even more tears streamed down her reddened cheeks. She could finally cry, letting her body curl up in front of her as she pressed her forehead to her trembling knees. Cassie sobbed, her harsh wails echoing on the dismal walls. Roxy reached forward again to gently rub the top of Cassie's head, letting the girl scream as loudly as she needed to.
When Cassie ran out of tears to cry and sobs to choke on, she sniffled and rubbed her eyes again with her right hand, still feeling a burning ache in her left elbow. She must have hit it harder than her other limbs when she fell, Cassie supposed.
She eyed her surroundings: the dark cavern in which the elevator plummeted and shattered, its pathetic pieces spread along the dirt. Rust along the surfaces of the mechanical parts blended in with the orangey-brown walls. She now sat further away from the elevator's landing point despite not remembering having moved so far. "Where are we?" she asked Roxy, hoping that her friend knew of a way out of this terrifying pit.
Roxy hesitated, her ears spiking upwards. She then sighed. "I honestly don't know."
Cassie felt her heart sink again. At least she was too drained to cry all over again.
Now that her vision had begun to clear properly, the girl took a better look at Roxy. Even if her face, including those beautiful golden eyes, was gone, torn off and left to rust somewhere in this massive dump, Cassie would always recognize and admire the amazing wolf who made her birthday special, no matter how few other kids showed up to spend the day with Cassie. Roxy still had the armature of her signature pointed ears and triangular head, a green segment of her once stunning hair, and-- wait a minute...
"W-When did you lose your arm?!" Cassie rasped, pointing at the missing half of Roxy's left arm. It looked like it had been ripped out at the joint.
Roxy paused, her ears dropping back down again. A grating squeak sounded out from them. She lowered her head and pulled her hand away from Cassie once more. Using her claws, Roxy prodded at her torn joint.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"H-huh? For what?" Cassie sniffled again, her voice still strained, "You saved me from that monster-thing earlier."
"I-" Roxy sighed, "Yes, but... the fall... I had to..."
"Had to... do what?" Cassie murmured. She briefly shut her eyes, and, with a deep inhale, decided to try to push through the pain in her elbow and bring both of her hands up to fix her hair poofs, which felt lopsided since the fall. She happened to notice that her left arm felt oddly heavy, not just sore. Cassie grunted and pulled her hands in front of her face, opening her eyes.
"H-Huh!? What the--!?" Cassie gasped, stumbling backwards as she gaped at her hands --- or, her normal human hand and the metal claws replacing what should've been her left hand. From her elbow to her fingertips, Cassie's left forearm had been replaced by a cold, metal endoskeleton. She flexed the steel digits of her 'hand', which moved with clinking movements. How could Cassie even move this robotic arm in the first place?
Cassie shot her gaze to Roxy. "Did you do... this?" She nearly hyperventilated as she spoke, feeling as if all the blood were draining from her body.
Roxy gestured behind Cassie, towards where the girl had landed after falling. Looking closer, Cassie spotted a large pool of blood surrounding the bottom of a massive, jagged rock, even splattering up the boulder's uneven surface. Something appeared to be lodged beneath the boulder, with the blood seeming to spill from it. Cassie looked back down at the robotic hand attached to her.
Her heart began to pound, and her head began to spin. "Is-- Roxy, is that mine!?" she cried out between ragged gasps.
"By the time I got down here, it was half-off already. I couldn't reattach it in any way, and I needed to stop the blood to keep you alive. I'm so sorry Cassie, I really am. It was the only way."
Cassie held her head in her hands, still afraid of what had become of her arm. This couldn't be real. She wished she could wake up somewhere, anywhere else. She wished she could be back with Gregory, running about a playground at sunset then going to eat ice cream on a hill, talking about where they'd go if they had the power to head anywhere. She'd do anything to go back to that, and the thought only made her heart ache more and more as she sat in the desolate cavern, hoping that whatever monster had tricked her wouldn't make its way down to her.
"Cassie, can you still hear me?" Roxy asked. Cassie managed a shaky nod. "Can I touch you?"
Even if every part of her body felt heavy and lifeless, the girl dragged her frightened head back up with a nod, letting herself fall against Roxy. The animatronic wrapped her arm (and a half) around Cassie in a careful hug. The wolf shushed Cassie gently as the small girl shook in her arms. Cassie pressed her face against Roxy despite the metal of the wolf's broken body potentially poking her. She didn't care anymore. Roxy ran her hand through Cassie's hair again, quietly humming a lullaby as Cassie let herself fall apart.
After a while, when Cassie had eventually stopped shaking and sniffling, Roxy ended her soothing lullaby. Cassie didn't immediately pull away, still letting her head rest against the animatronic who saved her life, even after Cassie made the horrible choice to deactivate her.
"We're gonna get you outta here, kid. I promise."
Cassie nodded unsteadily, ready to cling to that promise for dear life. Roxanne perked her ears up, listening for any abnormal noises from the top of the damaged elevator shaft.
"I don't think it's figured out how to get down here yet, but we should get moving before that thing gets down here to find you," she said with as warm a voice as she could muster.
Cassie forced herself to nod again, trying to rise to her feet. Her legs quaked beneath her, and her sight fuzzed up again as she tried to move. Just as Cassie felt like she was about to fall forward, Roxy offered her hand for the girl to take. Cassie stared at the outstretched robotic claws, then at her own matching ones. Somewhat shakily, she reached forward and took Roxy's hand.
Robotic hand in hand, Roxy and Cassie guided one another through the dark caverns. Cassie pointed out whatever hazards she could see, and Roxy kept her ears acutely aware of the duo's surroundings.
