Chapter Text
The Collector didn’t know how long they’d been trapped in this horrible place full of idiots. But one day, just as a light cycle was ending, there was suddenly some kind of loud sound and the lights shorted out, instead of how they usually dimmed before going out. They had very little magic left, but they gathered some and threw it at the bubble as best they could. To their surprise and tired excitement, it shattered. They landed on the floor. Carefully, they picked themself up, and, with a deep breath, gathered as much as they could spare, and teleported as far as they could. They found themself surrounded by trees. They wanted desperately to take a nap, but they needed to get moving as far as they could.
– - –
It turned out they’d ended up in some kind of park, an area surrounded by buildings. The Collector didn’t know humans could make buildings this tall! They also didn’t know humans could trap them and-no. They needed to focus on moving, no matter how tired they were. They had so little magic left…but they pressed on.
– - –
It wasn’t long before they found a really fun-looking building. There were brightly-colored posters and a cool-looking statue out front.
– - –
They got turned away at the door.
“‘Come back with a parent and money.’” they repeated mockingly to themself as they walked around the building. Then they noticed something. A rectangular hole, high up. They flew up, nearly passing out from the effort, and squeezed inside after checking that there wasn’t anything in there. The hole opened up to some sort of tunnel that could probably fit an adult human in it. They crawled around for a bit before they heard the sound of people playing. Tentatively, they followed the sound, and eventually, they reached an end of the tunnel with a grate over the exit that looked down into some kind of play area. They were suspicious, but…they were so tired…they felt their eyes drift closed.
– - –
They awoke to a sound. They shot up suddenly, fear coursing through them. The grate covering the exit was removed revealing…The Collector couldn’t tell what they were, but it didn’t matter. They scrambled backward.
“Wait!” the whatever-they-were said. “What are you doing in the vent?” The being had a face with what looked to be a crescent moon, and they were wearing a hat. The Collector paused. None of their previous captors had spoken to them.
“Don’t tell anyone I was here!” They exclaimed. They felt better now that they should be out of arms reach.
“I won’t if you don’t want me to. Listen. Let’s start over. My name is Moon and I use they/them pronouns.” they hesitated…but they were pretty sure none of their captors knew their name.
“...I’m the Collector. They/them.”
“Thank you for telling me. Now-” but they were cut off by the lights suddenly turning on. The Collector flinched hard. The lights coming on always meant pain.
“Sun? Moon? What’re you doing up there?” a voice called from below. The Collector refocused and found themself surprised when they realized Moon had changed. They now had a yellow face with similarly yellow triangles coming out of their head. Moon whispered to them.
“Listen, I’ll explain later, but I’m Sun, he/him. I’ll be right back.” He dropped down, revealing the wire that had been holding him up. “Hello gentlemen! What can I do for you this fine day?”
“What was Moon doing up there?” The Collector tensed.
“The cameras glitched out a little so they were just making sure there wasn’t anything there. And there wasn’t! The vent was completely empty!”
“Alright, alright. Fine. Just making sure all the kids were out for the day.”
“They are!”
“Great.” Soon the lights flickered off and the Collector released a breath they didn’t know they were holding. Moon came back up.
“Hello again. Apologies for the interruption.”
“What was that?” they asked, curious.
“When it’s bright enough, Sun is in control of our body. When it’s dim or dark enough, I am. Do you understand?”
“I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do that.” They admitted.
“Well, we’re an animatronic. So we aren’t exactly normal.”
“What’s an animatronic?”
“Do you know what robots are?”
“No.”
“It’s when something is made of metal but can still move. Sun and I are like that, except unlike most robots, we’re sentient, which means we can think and feel like you do.”
“Do the other…an-ee-ma-tron-ics change like you?”
“Clever kid. No, they do not. We are the only one. Now, would you like to come out of that vent? It can’t be very comfortable in there. We can go to my room if you want to avoid cameras.”
“Ok.” they tentatively climbed into Moon's arms, and they carried them over to a balcony.
“In here.”
– - –
Moon was deeply concerned. For one, was the kid's actual name ‘the Collector’? That wasn’t exactly a proper name, but they had bigger things to worry about. The poor kid was clearly traumatized, but Moon didn’t know what had happened. They only had a couple of things to go off of. One was that the kid didn’t want them to tell anyone they were there, implying someone was looking for them. The other was that the kid had flinched when the lights came on. Not because of the transformation, which happened a couple of seconds later, but at the lights specifically.
“Welcome to our room.” The Collector looked around.
“...Now what?”
“What would you like to do?” The Collector looked at them for a moment.
“Mostly, I’d like to sleep,” they admitted. “I’m really really tired.”
“That’s alright. I’m expected to be patrolling around this time if you’d like to be alone.”
“...I would. For now.”
“Of course.” Moon walked over to the balcony, and flew off using the wire.
‘Moon?’
‘Yeah, I’m worried too. What happened to that kid?’
‘I don’t know, but it couldn’t of been pleasant.’
‘Yeah. I don’t know if you noticed, but they flinched when the lights came on. Not at us switching, but the lights.’
‘And who’s after them? Why are they so worried about us telling people?’
‘I don’t know. With any luck, they’ll open up to us soon.’
– - –
[Time skip! Sorry to anyone who wanted to see everything in between now, I do hope to write that eventually (no promises tho) but I do not control the motivation, so I just wrote whatever came to me.]
– - –
Luz was really excited. She’d gotten a summer job as a daycare assistant at Fazbear Entertainments Pizzaplex! She’d had everything explained to her, and now it was time for her first day. She was really excited to meet the animatronic(s) she’d be working with! She walked into work wearing a pink skirt that went just past her knees and a t-shirt that was light blue with a yellow smiley face on it. She took the slide into the daycare, because why not, and soon found herself looking around the daycare excitedly. The place looked super fun, and she kinda wished she could be one of the kids so she could play in the giant play structure better. She heard a sound and looked up to see Sun coming down from above on some kind of wire.
“Hello hello hello new friend! You must be the assistant!”
“Yep! Luz Noceda, she/her, happy to help!”
“Well, it’s wonderful to meet you! How much have you been briefed on the day-to-day of the daycare?” Luz rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.
“Not much. They mostly went over the pizzaplex rules and not much else. I do know that you’re Sun, and when the lights are off, Moon’s in control, but they didn’t tell me your pronouns. Or what I’d actually be doing.”
“Well, I use he/him, and Moon uses they/them. And your job is mostly just to help keep an eye on and play with the kids. Nothing special, I just can’t be everywhere at once!” that last part came out slightly strained, and Luz could imagine that he was rather stressed all by himself.
“Well, I’m happy to help take some of the load off. And I really enjoy being around kids! As you can probably tell, I have a lot of energy, so it’s nice to be around kids who have even more energy than me, haha. Makes me feel better.”
“Of course, of course. I always clean up and set everything up the night before, so there’s not much for you to do right now until the kids arrive.
– - –
The kids arrived after a few minutes of somewhat awkward small talk between her and Sun. Some of the kids who must come more often asked who she was, but everything was running as well as it could. At least, until she spotted them . Now, Luz didn’t really hate the Collector or anything. From King’s stories, it had quickly become clear that they were just a lonely child. An incredibly overpowered one, sure, but a lonely child nonetheless. Still, that didn’t stop her from freezing upon noticing them. But she quickly gathered herself and walked over. They looked at her, and stayed still, despite the look on their face that said they wanted to bolt.
“Hello Collector.”
“Hi!” They squeaked. “I’m really, really, REALLY sorry!” they continued. “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong! But still! I’m sorry!” Luz froze slightly. That…wasn’t what she was expecting. But she also wasn’t expecting to find them here of all places.
“I…I suppose I accept your apology. King did tell us you didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone.” Luz would admit, seeing the Collector perk up at the mention of King was cute.
“I really mean it!” a brief pause. “How’s King doing?” they asked, quieter.
“Good. He’s doing really well.” another pause.
“Can…next time you’re in the demon realm, can you tell him I’m sorry for everything? Not just the stuff I did to the Boiling Isles, but him too. I know now that I wasn’t a great friend to him.” Luz could feel herself softening. It hit her right in the heart to realize how much the Collector seemed to miss King, and how sorry they were for everything they’d done.
“I can. Can I ask what you’re doing at the Pizzaplex? How’d you even get in here?”
“I broke in. And…no. I’m not telling you.” Luz initially wanted to press, but looking closer, she could tell that they looked…scared. What they were scared of, she couldn’t say. But she could tell she shouldn’t press the issue, at least not now.
“Ok. Look, I have a job to do. I’m trusting you to not, I don’t know, cause any problems.”
“I won’t!” Luz walked off.
– - –
Eventually, the day ended, and Luz Realized she hadn’t seen the Colloctor leave. When she brought this up to Sun, he made a sound that seemed to be his version of a sigh.
“Should’ve expected that you’d catch on. I suppose we’ve only been able to get away with it because the staff care so little. So…just wait.” Luz reluctantly agreed.
– - –
Soon, all the kids were picked up, and Sun turned to the daycare.
“KIDDO! She’s a sharp one, you might as well come out.” The Collector exited what seemed to be a hidden area of the play structure.
“Oh.” they said.
“Yeah. “
“What are they doing here? They said they broke in but didn’t elaborate past that.”
“I mean, they weren’t lying, per se. They did break in. It’s just that they broke in a few months ago and haven’t left.”
“Ah. I mean, I suppose I can guess why they’re staying. They don’t exactly have anywhere to go.”
“No.” Sun said, giving a glance to the Collector that had meaning Luz couldn’t figure out. “Kid?” They didn’t respond immediately, clearly thinking.
“I guess you can tell her. From what King told me she doesn’t seem like the type to give up easily.”
“Um, if it’s something really personal, you don’t have to tell me.” But right as she said that, the Collector seemed to come to a realization.
“Sun. What if she could help?”
“Oh. Yes. Well, do you want me to tell her, or do you want to?”
“...can you do it?”
“Of course kiddo.” What followed was a truly horrific tale. Luz felt sick as Sun explained how scientists had locked the Collector up, tortured them in the process of stealing their magic to presumably use as electricity, and didn’t even acknowledge that they were sentient. And Luz realized that with only a little less luck, Vee could’ve been stuck there too.
“I-I’ll inform all my friends. I’ll see what we can do to free whoever's still stuck there.” She said, words heavy with promise. And she could see how it almost looked as if a weight had been lifted off the Collector's shoulders.