Chapter Text
LOOP 01.
Gregory decided that the Pizzaplex was the worst place in the entire damn world.
To be completely fair, anybody who was in his position would think so. He had just wanted a warm place to sleep and maybe some still-hot, not-scavenged-from-a-dumpster food or something, not to be hunted down by murderous animatronics and some freak in some weird, horrible rabbit suit. It didn’t even look that well-made, like someone had stitched it together themself (though it wasn’t like Gregory had been looking closely at it.)
No, what was suppose to have been a quick get-in, get-out trip to a mall where nobody would notice a dirty homeless kid scourging for leftovers had gone south very quickly. First, that sharp-eyed security guard had spotted him swiping some discarded pizza slices off a table and chased him through the entire atrium just as the animatronic show started and the crowds got thicker. He had luckily been able to escape then, by jumping the barrier and hiding inside the Freddy animatronic’s oddly-large stomach cavity when everybody was distracted, but then night fell and the Pizzaplex closed, and the stupid security guard was still in the building and all the other animatronics chased him through the halls then the dumb doors closed right before he could get out —
Gregory gritted his teeth just remembering it. He had been close. So close. If only Freddy hadn’t noticed he was bleeding and taken him to that first aid station, then he would have been out of this place by now. He was pretty sure there was something seriously wrong here. Last he heard, whenever robots eyes turned red and chased after you whenever you got in their sight, that was a bad thing. People dressed up as rabbits skipping everywhere and holding knives, unable to seen but the only not murderous robot? Even worse.
And now, because of all that, here he was — hiding in the chest cavity of an animatronic bear, and trying to keep as still as possible ‘less he get impaled by the metal endoskeleton. That would be the absolutely worst way to die. Even worse then having an animatronic bite his head off or claw his chest to nothing, he thought.
God, Gregory hated this place so much.
The only solace he had was that he had at least one person in this place that wasn’t trying to kill him. Or, well, animatronic technically. Freddy had been helping him all night, getting him out of tight spots and keeping him hidden. Without Freddy, he probably would have been dead thrice over by now. And now that he knew that, with the right amount of force, the other animatronics could be destroyed … well, things were starting to look up for him.
However, a loud beeping sound suddenly interrupted his thoughts, making him jump slightly and bang his head on the top of the compartment. “Ah!”
“I apologize.” Freddy replied immediately — for Gregory banging his head or for what he was going to say next, he didn’t know, Freddy had a habit of just apologizing for loads of things. “It appears I must recharge. We will have to wait before continuing on to the West Arcade.”
Gregory sighed through his nose. It seemed like this place was designed just to piss him off — Freddy’s recharge, all the party passes and security badges he needed to collect, and now the stupid Staff Bot head. It made literally no sense why the repair ward was all the way in an arcade as opposed to, oh, the raceaway where the actual bots were? If he was a real customer here, he’d definitely file a complaint or something.
“It’s okay.” Gregory replied to the bear. “I can keep going on my own.”
“Are you sure?” Freddy opened up his hatch anyways, and let Gregory climb out. Since he had been carrying the Driver Assist Bot head with him in his lap while inside, it had been way more cramped than usual, and he was glad to be out. “I can see on the cameras that both Monty and Roxanne are nearby. You can wait for me to finish recharging, and I can accompany you to the arcade. I will not be able to go inside, but I can at least keep an eye on the entrance for you and alert you if any of the other animatronics come near.”
As he landed steadily on his feet and turned to look up at Freddy, he tilted his head in confusion. “Wait, why can’t you go inside the arcade?”
“When I … step onto the West Arcade dance floor, I cannot stop myself. It is a programming bug.”
Okay, fine. That was normal. Apparently.
“Whatever. I can get there on my own, it isn’t that far.” The map on his Fazwatch was absolute crap, but he had gotten the layout of the mall down in his head pretty well, so he should be to get there by himself as long as he wasn’t forced to take any detours. “You stay here and recharge, ‘kay? I’ll call you if I need you.”
Freddy glanced around, eyes flickering between him and the recharge station a few metres away, before he nodded. “Alright, superstar. Once I am finished I will wait for you outside the arcade. Stay safe.”
If animatronics could smile, Freddy would be beaming at him, and Gregory just huffed and mumbled, “Okay, see ya’ soon.” before rushing off. He heard Freddy stomp into the recharge station behind him, and once the door clicked shut he stopped moving and sighed.
Freddy was weird. And not weird in the ‘murderous animatronic and-slash-or rabbit way’, but in that … well, he was helping him. That made him an outlier from everybody else already. Gregory had always been on his own, ever since he was young, and Freddy was the first person (or … thing. Was it rude to call him a thing?) he could recall who helped him out without any ulterior motive or hidden agenda. He didn’t even get upset or annoyed or mad at him, even when Gregory had been snappy with him or replaced his voicebox with Chica’s. Sure, it could just be chocked up to his programming or something, to help out lost kids and always be warm and joyful, but it was still nice none the less. Made him feel a way he didn’t know he had ever felt before — all … soft inside.
Gregory scowled, and started marching again. He couldn’t dwell on these things. He didn’t have the time.
Besides, once he got out of here, it wasn’t like he would ever see Freddy again. He would never be coming back to the Pizzaplex again after this, even with the inciting offer of leftover food and a place to hide from the cold. Even if it housed the first person who was ever truly nice to him.
He gripped the Driver Assist Bot head close to his chest and felt his scowl deepen. Stupid animatronics. Stupid rabbit ladies. Stupid Pizzaplexs. It was hell on earth, he decided.
•
•
•
Getting to the West Arcade proved to be challenging.
It seemed like every single freakin’ Staff Bot in the building had decided to patrol the small bit of ground Gregory needed to cover, causing him to have to duck into strollers and bins as they passed by in droves. After that he needed to hunker down for a good five minutes when Roxanne walked by, going on her usual spiel of I bet you don’t even have any friends! and What a loser! and Come out come out wherever you are! like some sort of self-conscious Big Bad Wolf going threw a midlife crisis. When she had finally wandered off, Gregory waited a few more minutes in tense silence before exiting the photo booth and continuing on his way, holding the Driver Assist Bot head so tightly his fingertips started to go white.
He hated this place. He hated this stupid place so much.
At least he didn’t have to worry about Chica so much now. Sure, she was functional, even after being smashed in a trash compactor and having her voicebox ripped from her throat (which, he might add, wasn’t normal — she definitely should have shut off or gone into recharge mode or something after being so heavily damaged), but now the garbling static noise she made with her lack of voicebox was a great warning every time she got near. And now Freddy could even break down gates and stun the others! Sure, they hadn’t used that ability yet, but the opportunity for it was still there.
… but, he didn’t know if Freddy even wanted to use it.
The bear had been very … well, opposed to taking the others parts. With right reason, of course. They were … friends, or something. That was what Freddy kept calling them. Gregory wasn’t sure how animatronics could feel strongly enough to deem eachother friends, and yeah, Freddy had seemed upset about the whole ‘decommissioning Chica’ thing and swapping out their voiceboxes, but Gregory wasn’t going to question it that much. Probably just some preprogrammed thing to encourage kids not to attack people, he assumed. When you were stuck in a mall with murderous robots and bunny ladies and security guards chasing after you, you learned not to question these things.
Besides, it wasn’t like Freddy couldn’t just be fixed again. In the morning, when Gregory got out of here, Freddy could go down to Parts and Services and get his original voicebox put in. Chica could be fixed up as right as rain too, and Freddy wouldn’t have to worry about her or feel guilty anymore. Again, Gregory had to question how Freddy could feel so strongly all the time, but … well, whatever. Reflection got him nowhere, at a time like this. In a place like this.
He sighed. Everything here was insane.
After a few more minutes of walking and running and hiding, Gregory managed to get to the West Arcade entrance, and he grinned to himself. Finally. He just needed to find the repair station, fix this stupid Staff Bot head, and then he could go riding on the Raceway. He might as well do one fun thing while he was here, and besides — the noise would definitely attract someone, and when that happened … being in a heavily powered bumper car facing off against a, while big, easily-destroyed-by-large-force animatronic definitely spelled better results for Gregory.
With that in mind, he took a step forward to dash across the walkway to the West Arcade —
And immediately ducked back again when he heard the very familiar sound of a certain murderous animatronic calling out for him.
“You can run. But you can’t run!”
Monty Gator, in the … metal and plastic, came stomping through the walkway.
Gregory snorted. Hopefully, the animatronics weren’t like that when they weren’t being murderous.
Honestly, out of all the animatronics (at least the main ones), he hated Monty the most. He wasn’t entirety sure how the gator was when he wasn’t hunting down tiny kids, but Chica’s (formerly) sickeningly sweet calls and Roxanne’s growled insults were annoying, but easily ignorable — Chica was so sweet it sounded fake and Roxanne seemed more like a middle school bully than anything threatening (along as she wasn’t actually chasing after him, of course). But Monty was just … intimidating. Sure, he was around the same size as Freddy, but somehow Freddy managed to see that much more softer than him. It made Gregory uneasy.
Luckily he was dumb as shit, though. That helped ease his nerves a little bit.
Still crouched behind the potted plant he was situated behind, Gregory risked a peak around to see Monty was pacing back and forth around the hallway, right in front of the West Arcade entrance. It was like he was just trying to piss him off, and Gregory shuffled back a bit more while gripping the Staff Bot head close to him. Glancing around, he assessed his options. It didn’t seem like Monty was leaving anytime soon (Gregory knew about the animatronics habits of pacing, standing still for a bit, before repeating in a new area. Honestly, it the worst technique when you were trying to find someone), and there were too many Staff Bots to sneak around when his back was turned.
And it wasn’t like Gregory could stay here — hiding behind the potted plant wasn’t the best cover. Monty couldn’t see him, but anybody else walking by easily could. He was a sitting duck here. But, a few feet away, there was an empty photo booth he could very easily dash too, where he’d be good to hide in until Monty left.
Ugh, I hate this place. He thought to himself, before checking one last time that Monty wasn’t looking, and shuffling out from behind the plant.
Being out in the open like this made him uneasy, but he was only a few feet away from the photo booth. If he made it there, he’d be fine. If he just crossed the short distance, he’d be fine. Then he could wait and Monty would leave and he would be fine. The photo booth was right there, he was almost —
CRUNCH.
Gregory sucked in a breath when a loud crackling sound came from underneath his shoe, and he nervously glanced down to see a plastic wrapper for some weird processed food was caught underneath his foot. It must have escaped the notice of the Cleaning Bots ire, and Gregory had been so focused on getting to the photo booth he hadn’t even noticed it. But now, he made noise and making noise meant attention and attention meant —
“Hey, little guy! There you are!”
— that.
“Crap!” He swore, quickly grabbing for his Fazer Blaster attached to his waistband (he managed to hang it into one of his unused belt loops, so he didn’t have to deal with shoving it into his pocket). He was so glad he had managed to grab it, because when you had an angry animatronic that had just noticed you and was now barrelling right towards you, it was best to have something to defend yourself with.
Shifting the Driver Assist Bot head to under one arm, with his other Gregory pointed his Fazer Blaster and fired at Monty, expecting the animatronic to growl like an actually gator and clutch at his eyes, allowing him to sneak right by.
It bounced off harmlessly.
Gregory blinked. Crap. Crap, the sunglasses! He forgot about the sunglasses!
With a noise that sounded more like it belonged to a startled bird than a human boy, Gregory turned tail and ran as fast as his feet could carry him.
Monty was by no means the fastest of the group, so Gregory could probably outrun him as long as he managed to find a hiding space before too long, but in his haste he dropped the Driver Assist Bot head, and it was too late to go back for it now as Monty started chasing right after him with a roar that managed to shake the walls. Gregory silently cursed and hurriedly pressed at his watch to hopefully call Freddy to his location. He couldn’t run forever, he needed to hide, and Monty wouldn’t hurt Freddy, would he? He couldn’t. Freddy was stronger than him, definitely.
“Freddy, Freddy, please —“ He said to himself, mashing his finger against the ‘call’ button and praying that Freddy was done recharging. Or that he would come for Gregory anyways. “Goddamnit!”
But when he was distracted with Freddy and Monty, Gregory forgot about the most annoying aspect of this stupid restaurant. Staff Bots.
He yelped when something suddenly grabbed onto the back of his shirt, hauling him a few feet into the air and letting out an ear-splitting alarm that made him want to scream. The Staff Bot didn’t notice his discomfort, or the very murderous animatronic currently running full-speed at the both of them, and Gregory felt terror seize his heart when he heard another cry from Monty over the Staff Bot alarm. Then the terror quickly melted into anger and he let out an annoyed yell.
“Let me go, you stupid piece of shit!” He snarled at it. Man, good thing Freddy wasn’t here now. He was sure to have some words about his vulgar vocabulary.
(He would much rather Freddy be here and risk a scolding than — )
Twisting around enough to aim his Fazer Blaster at the Staff Bots head, he fired and the beam hit dead-on. The stupid thing went limp, allowing him to break out of its grip with a slight push with his legs, and as soon as he hit the ground he started running again — but he could still hear Monty chasing after him, footsteps shaking the entire area and loud, booming voice calling out for him. With a hurried gasp, Gregory pressed the ‘call’ button on his watch again as he ran, hoping that would make Freddy hurry up to him.
“Come on come on come on!”
“Hey, kid! Slow down!”
“No, no no no no —!”
His lungs were sore, throat killing him, every breath burning to match the strained feeling in his legs. He was tired and slow and Monty was gaining on him, his watch beeping, where was Freddy, please, please hurry —
But Freddy must have been charging still, or too far away to get there in time, because he wasn’t coming. Gregory felt his body burn and he tried to speed up, he really did, but he was stumbling now, no hiding places or doors to duck through in sight. And then he took a wrong corner and ended up in a dead end, but he didn’t really have time to do anything except utter a mantra of, “No no no!” as he skidded to a stop. Everything hurt, terror pumping through his veins as he froze. Monty was still gaining on him, and there was nowhere to run, and Gregory didn’t want to die.
Unfortunately, with these things, it seemed he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
Monty reached him with crowing yell, and even as Gregory tried to stumble forward, the animatronic reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. He then yanked Gregory towards him, ripping the cloth but still pulling him close enough he could dig his other claws into his shoulder and spin him around, and Gregory couldn’t do anything as with a triumphant laughter, Monty lunged for his head —
He screamed and screamed and — he didn’t want to die, please, he didn’t —
LOOP 02.
Gregory came too as if he awoke from a nightmare.
Gasping for breath and feeling the odd urge inside his throat to scream, he instinctively clamped his teeth around his arm to stop any sound from escape as he blinked a few times and adjusted to the darkness he found himself in. He was obviously hiding somewhere, and that meant an animatronic was nearby by, and he grappled for his Fazer Blaster when that knowledge finally registered.
But it wasn’t there.
It wasn’t anywhere, but as he looked around more and felt for it, he could see the familiar blinking lights of the inside of Freddy’s stomach hatch, and feel the metal workings beneath his hand. He was in Freddy’s stomach hatch, obviously.
Though … hadn’t he gone on his own to the West Arcade, to find the Staff Bot Repair station? Freddy needed to charge, so he stayed behind, and Gregory had … what had happened?
He tried to focus, and attempting to recall the blurry memories swirling just beyond reach in his mind was like trying to grab a slippery bar of soap, but he managed to recall … Monty. The Fazer Blaster. His sunglasses. The animatronic running at him, the Staff Bot grabbing his arm when trying to escape, not able to get away in time before — before Monty had got him. Picked him up by the collar of his shirt, lunged for his head like a wild beast, and he could only scream and scream and scream —
Gregory bit down harshly, forgetting his arm was still in his mouth, now tasting blood, but he barely registered it. Because he remembered. He remembered Monty grabbing him, remembered what came after, even if he couldn’t recall the crunch of teeth going through his skull or the actual pain that came with it. He remembered, and it wasn’t like he had been having a nightmare. He was awake. So pumped up on adrenaline he probably couldn’t go to sleep even if he tried. So whatever had happened with Monty, that meant it was real. And that meant …
Gregory didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t want to know.
“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”
Wait, what?
Coming back to himself, Gregory recalled he was still inside Freddy, and quickly pushed open the stomach hatch and crawled out. However, he blinked when he found he was back in Freddy’s greenroom, and not outside the West Arcade like he previously thought. That was weird. Had Freddy found him and brought him back or something? But if he did, that would mean the whole thing with Monty actually happened, and he gingerly reached up to feel around his forehead for any signs of injury or blood. There was nothing, except his bleeding arm, which eased him somewhat. His let out a breath, his heart beginning to calm down, and went to turn to face Freddy.
Only to squeak when he was suddenly picked up under his armpits like a misbehaving cat.
“What were you doing in my stomach hatch!?” Freddy exclaimed, eyes widening. “That is oversized birthday cakes and piñatas! It is not a safe area for children!”
Gregory glared and kicked his feet back and forth, just to show how displeased he was with being held like this. “What are you talking about, Freddy?”
Freddy didn’t reply, but his eyes got that glazed over look Gregory had learned meant he was doing something internally, and a second later he was being scanned. It didn’t feel like anything really, though the bright light made him squint his eyes when it brushed over his face, and Freddy let out a hum. Gregory kept glaring at him, confused over his odd behaviour. It was not making him feel any better about this … entire situation.
“It seems your guest profile is unknown to me.” Freddy muttered, mostly to himself, before setting Gregory back down on his feet. “But my scan also shows you are bleeding from your left forearm. Would you like for me to check it over more throughly?”
“What? No, I’m fine.” Gregory snatched his arm close to himself, knowing if he didn’t Freddy would try to check him over anyways, and started feeling the indents his teeth left. “Why are you acting so weird? You already know I don’t have a guest profile.”
And technically, he did have a profile now, since he had an account on the Fazwatch — Freddy should know, he set it up (Fazwatches were not useable without a valid guest profile, so when Freddy first gave it to him he had set up a rudimentary one that luckily wasn’t accessible by the security guard, since it was still cut off from the main network just like Freddy was). But, as the thought came to him while feeling his arm, Gregory realized with a cold wave of shock that his watch was gone from his wrist. No, no! He couldn’t lose it! He needed that thing!
However, before he could voice these thoughts to Freddy, another bombshell was dropped on him that made the sinking feeling in his stomach plummet all the way down to the sewers.
“I was not aware of that fact. I do not even know your name!”
Gregory sucked in a breath and looked up at the bear, bewildered. “Freddy, what are you talking about? It’s me! Don’t you remember?”
“I am sorry.” Freddy said in that stupid apologetic tone he always used that was just now getting on Gregory’s nerves. “If we have met before, I do not recall our meeting. But there is always time to get to know eachother now! My name is Freddy. What’s yours?”
No. No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t —
Stumbling back a bit, Gregory felt his ribs constrict around his rapidly beating heart, lungs gasping for air as everything got tighter and smaller and closed in around him. Freddy didn’t remember him. Freddy didn’t know who he was, and he didn’t have his Fazwatch or his Fazerblaster, he was back in Freddy’s greenroom and he was talking about a malfunction and Freddy didn’t remember him —
Freddy didn’t remember him!
No. No, no, this couldn’t be — this wasn’t —!
With a gasp that sounded more like he was choking, Gregory realized .
This had happened before. He had been through this before. This exact scenario, only a few hours ago. Meeting Freddy, talking in the greenroom, getting his watch. This had all happened before, exactly the same way, and Gregory remembered it.
Except last time, it ended up with him getting his head bitten off.
He blinked.
What in the actual HELL was wrong with this place?!