Chapter Text
Three years.
Three years since her escape.
Chie had narrowly escaped the clutches of a murderous virus then- even now it affected her. Foreign devices- practically anything that wasn’t her trusty hand-built PC, could possibly hold all sorts of dangers- as illogical as it sounded even to her, having a ghost made of weird code take over your head for a while tends to make you paranoid.
So her being here now was a very strange thing indeed. The most high-tech of fazbear locations to date was not the place for someone with a fear of computers.
But she knew something these IT folk didn’t- the glitch they’d been struggling with for months now wasn’t anything normal, and it certainly couldn’t be fixed through normal means. So Chie, as someone with experience with the thing, took it upon herself to pull some strings and get a job there, to hopefully stop the glitch once and for all.
She sighed, drumming her fingers on her leg as the bus came to a stop. The Pizzaplex was even stranger in person- it was huge, first of all. Basically a freddy-themed mall! And the energy that must be used to run such a thing, it must be incredibly expensive, she thought. Walking into the building was like stumbling into a giant arcade, and she hardly noticed anyone else was there until she bumped into who she could only assume to be the security guard.
“Oh- sorry.”
“T’s all good, no worries.” A mellow voice said, followed with a chuckle.
Looking up Chie was met with a pair of ultraviolet eyes, belonging to a handsome blonde- and, as Chie assumed, she had a baseball cap reading SECURITY, her long hair pulled through it into a ponytail. Her nametag read NESS.
“…you’re, ah, the new one in the IT position, right?” ‘Ness’ asked.
“That’s right, yes.” She nodded. “It’s Chie. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. I’m Vanessa. Er, ness’s fine. Call me whatever” she shrugged. Then, with a wry smile- “…ah, I was told to give you a tour of the place? If you don’t mind.”
Frankly, Chie had no other obvious way of navigating this place, so despite Vanessa’s eyes giving her a bad feeling, she agreed, nodding with a small smile.
“Better than getting lost. Thank you.”
“Hey, don’t thank me yet, yeah? Never said it’d be a good tour.”
And with that, she started walking away, jerking her head to gesture for Chie to follow, which she did. The pretty guard lead her through rockstar row- where she got an interesting view of the various animatronics, though not the cat-eater she remembered hearing about- as well as a lot of old junk she assumed must be from older locations. Vanessa was talking about the animatronics, she assumed- ‘Montgomery Gator’ didn’t sound like a coworker as far as she was concerned. She zoned back in when Vanessa stopped walking.
“…huh?”
“Falling asleep already, newbie? I asked why they stuck you here on nightshift to begin with.” Her voice kept the good humor one would expect, but the interrogative nature of the question struck Chie as odd. That and the purple eyes…
“…hm, something about some weird malware they wanted me to check out. Didn’t want me poking around too much during the day I guess?” She shrugged. “I’m not used to being in such big buildings but I’m fairly good at what I do.”
The guard smiled again, in a knowing sort of way that raised the hairs on the back of Chie’s neck.
“…good. Where did you say you used to work, friend?”
Her demeanor seemed far less friendly than it had just a bit ago. The darkness didn’t help- the shadows cast over Vanessa’s face only brought out those glowering eyes of hers. She wore some unreadable expression, though Chie felt as if she was being studied. She had to answer carefully.
“…hm. Mostly freelance work, admittedly. I make websites, sometimes games. Depending on what I’m hired for.”
“Games?”
“…nothing fancy.”
She nodded, seeming satisfied for now. The two continued onward, up an escalator, to a gift shop-looking area. They breezed through, and popped out somewhere somehow even more neon than the rest of the building, with music blaring loud enough to thrum in her chest.
“Fazcade..!” Vanessa explained with sarcastic jazz hands. “AKA, huge sensory overload. Ask the guy who works the prize counter if you ever have to fix things around here, the guy’s got weird knowledge on each machine. Talks about them like you would horses or something.”
“Hm. I’ll keep it in mind.”
The guard just chuckled again, strolling through the arcade. Once or twice she’d tap on the screen of a game with a little smile- upon further notice the top scorer for all of these seemed to be the same. ‘GGY’ whoever that was. Maybe it was her? The scores certainly seemed too high for a regular customer… The more time she spent with the violet-eyed stranger the less she seemed to make sense.
Eventually they left the fazcade- about time, Chie could feel a migraine coming on just standing in there. But rather than lead her somewhere else bright and fun, Vanessa was headed towards a small, darker hallway.
“Where are we going now?”
“My office. Thought you might want to see stuff that applies to your job, yeah?”
“Makes sense.”
Something felt wrong, but perhaps seeing the worst of this place on the first night would be for the better. That way she could work on solving the issues quicker.
Once they reached the security office, the flashlight Vanessa had been carrying flickered out.
“Damn,” she muttered, smacking it against the palm of her hand.
“Ah… battery’s dead. Mind waiting here while I go recharge?” Vanessa asked, smiling apologetically.
“‘Course,” Chie replied, watching as the guard swiftly left the room
Leaving Chie alone with her computer.
As rude as snooping was, she had a bad feeling about this woman. She had a very particular hunch, in fact, one that she’d like to prove. The computer was already logged in- though not to Vanessa’s account evidentially.
Was this not truly her office?
Well, she could work with it. The computer was still logged in. She did a quick search- simply the word ‘glitch’. A lot came up about the animatronics specifically, odd behavior. Garbage eating, increased hostility, ego issues… they were even finding what looked like child’s belongings in the one’s stomach.
Not the work of a regular glitch, but rather the one she was looking for.
There was more, too. Children going missing. Sudden layoffs. There was even something about Vanessa’s hiring process.
But before she could read into that, she heard footsteps.
Something was off though- they weren’t the sound Vanessa’s shoes had made only a few minutes ago. It sounded more like someone was walking around in slippers.
Chie turned around just in time to see bright red eyes of a rabbit mascot costume glowering outside the office door.
Damn it.
She broke into a sprint, escaping the office just as the rabbit lunged at the space she was just standing seconds ago. Not caring to look behind her, Chie made a mad dash through the hallway and into the arcade, though when she inevitably had to stop and catch her breath, she couldn’t hear footsteps behind her. A cautious glance back at where she came from revealed no rabbit.
Had she imagined it? Was it some sort of affect from the anomaly?
She did not know. Vanessa wandered in through the entrance to the fazcade, looking at Chie with a puzzled-perhaps also amused?-expression.
“What, did I take too long?” The guard asked, humorous as always.
The coincidence of the guard and the rabbit showing up in each other’s absences didn’t escape Chie, but pointing that out would do no good.
“No, just thought i saw something is all. What were you going to show me again?”
As it turned out, vanessa wanted to show her some odd behaviors with the daycare bot. Nothing exciting- it was just intense. But that could escalate if left to fester, Chie reasoned.
“Any bright ideas, there?”
Vanessa’s voice sounded almost taunting there.
“Well, I’d need access to it’s code, but it sounds like some employee might’ve been tampering with it.”
“Could be… wanna take a look?”
“Wouldn’t that get us both in trouble?”
”No way, I’m head of security- besides, you’re just doing your job without payment. The big bear won’t have anything negative to say about that.”
Vanessa seemed to glide out of the room, and Chie followed from behind. They took the elevator down to the atrium, heading back through the long way to the daycare.
“There’s a security desk in between the indoor playgrounds.”
“…aren’t you tagging along?”
“I have to check the party rooms for stowaways.” The blonde replied with a shrug.
“I’ll be right here, though. Just holler if you need anything.”
Vanessa gave one of her joyless smiles.
Chie nodded, and walked across the hall and down the stairs to the daycare area. She took care to watch over her shoulder- just in case that white rabbit showed up again. That had happened last time the guard left her alone. There was undoubtedly a connection… not only between them, but also to the anomaly. However, all she saw was the somewhat comforting constant bobbing of Vanessa’s flashlight. And yet the thought that the nightguard was always watching raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
…one problem at a time.
she got to the security desk in the daycare with ease, and once again the computer was unlocked. Creepy… it was as if everyone simply disappeared before they could log out.
Unfortunately, it looked like she’d need clearance to get a look into how the daycare attendant functioned. Looking around the room, she actually didn’t see any such bot anywhere.
“Hello?” She called out. “Anyone there?”
The daycare was dark, being closed for the night. Perhaps the attendant was shut down somewhere? If so it had to be stored-
A crackly giggle from somewhere above Chie cut through her thoughts.
Looking up, a moon-faced, red eyed bot dangled from strings just over her head. Suddenly, the robot grabbed her arms and yanked her skyward.
…
Chie jolted awake only to find herself tied down in a chair. She was in a musty, dimly-lit room. She took a minute to catch her breath- and when she finally noticed who was standing in front of her, her blood ran cold.
“The second beta-tester, then,” the white rabbit mused. “Welcome back, Tape girl.”
The crackly nature of her voice suggested some sort of voice-altering device, which made sense. Not like the cute appearance could hide who this really was, though.
“Malhare.” Chie growled.
The rabbit giggled.
“Ehe, that’s what Jeremy called me. I’m surprised you’re not calling me ‘Anomaly’ still.”
the nerve, bringing him up like that.
“Looks like you’ve had an upgrade anyways.” She reasoned, trying to free her hands. Looked like that was a no-go though- the only thing that did was dig the zip ties further into her skin.
“Who’s under the mask, anyways?”
“Who do you think it is?”
Before she could reply, Malhare reached up and removed the white rabbit’s head, revealing…
The nightguard’s smiling face. Of course. There would be no savior for her.
Malhare giggled again.
“I’m surprised she didn’t recognize your voice, you know. Sure she never saw you- not even in my memories- but after listening to your little cassettes so religiously, you’d expect her to catch on faster.”
“…what?”
“Hehe. Didn’t you know?”
Malhare took a step closer.
“Your little failure didn’t just backfire on you, Chie. I got out through someone else- someone better.”
So the beta tester that came after her…
Oh, this wasn’t good. Jeremy had died because of his rebellion. Did he find a willing host in this woman..?
“Oh, you and your horrified faces~ didn’t you think I’d just repeat the process? How else could I be here? Don’t you know you’re not the only one who can bounce back?”
Gloating. That’s all this was. Did he really just bring her here to rub it in her face?
“…what’s the point? I get you’re on the loose, but how’s this productive?”
Malhare burst into laughter, going as far as to over-dramatically wipe a tear out of one eye.
“Ohh, you just don’t get it, do you? You walked right into our trap, Chi! You’re stuck now!”
Still giggling, he strolled around the chair to the back of the room. Chie had to crane her neck to watch as the glitch she’d hunted happily pulled a virtual reality headset off of a table and trotted back around to face her head on.
“Y-you’re gonna-“
“You’re going to be a part of my family again, chi. So rest easy, okay?”
The headset was forced on, covering her ears and filling her vision with chromatic aberration and a cheerfully grinning golden rabbit mascot. Back here again- it was ironic. Chie would have laughed if not for the freezing terror mixed with dread that filled her lungs like black water.
And then, the spirit before her reached out a hand- she could feel the soft fabric against her forehead, feel the weight of his grip- before her body went slack and darkness filled her vision.
Despite having come here to stop it, she was back in that same cage.