Chapter Text
LOOP 35. (Cont.)
“So, where do you believe the second arcade machine is again?”
Gregory, hunkered down in Freddy’s chest compartment as they made their way out of the raceway, rapped his knuckles lightly on the inside of his chest. The sound made the metal inside vibrate lightly, and it was comforting. “West arcade. It’s in one of the back tunnels, I remember seeing it there when the DJ was chasing me.”
Ugh, the DJ. Gregory was kinda unsure if he was actually infected with the virus as well, or was just so early in the prototype that he perceived Gregory as a threat just because he was here after hours. He also didn’t know if he was — well, like Freddy was. Or how the other animatronic seemed. So … alive.
Gregory did know, however, that he hated him either way. He was creepy with his stupid soulless eyes and too many legs and big teeth and the way he actually, literally, crawled through the goddamn walls. It was why Gregory avoided going to the west arcade as much as he could, and why he hadn’t visited ever since Freddy started remembering.
“Ah, yes, the DJ. He is quite a nice fellow, when you get chatting with him, even if he has not been around as long as the rest of us.” Freddy replied to his earlier comment, before he needed to actually process Gregory’s words. “Wait, when have you —”
Freddy’s was interrupted, however, by his own battery beeping loudly enough they both jumped at the noise. On his watch, it was flashing red.
“Ugh.” Gregory pushed his way out of the compartment before Freddy could ask, jumping down to his feet. The sound echoed in the empty cavern that was the back hallway. “That always comes at the worst times. Is there a recharge station nearby at all?”
Freddy’s eyes went distant for a moment, before focusing on him again. “There is one about eight minutes from here, going off my low-power walking speed. Come on, I cannot carry you there without running out of battery, but we can head there together.”
Gregory nodded and pattered beside Freddy as he started walking, now on edge as he looked around every which way. Freddy seemed to be leading them towards the main area of the Pizzaplex — probably just as a shortcut, most recharge stations were in back areas, after all — and Gregory always felt more on edge around there. Mostly because there were so many goddamned Staff Bots he had to look out for, but also less places to hide if the other animatronics spotted him.
Though, with Freddy walking beside him, he still didn’t feel that nervous.
“Ah, I never managed to ask you my earlier question.” Freddy suddenly piped up with after a few minutes, looking down at him as Gregory glanced over. “When have you met the DJ? I do not recall you ever interacting him.”
“Oh, it was awhile ago.” Gregory waved him off. “Before you started remembering, actually. I needed to fix a driving assist bot head from the raceway, and the only repair station was in the arcade. But then doing so put the entire area into some sort of lockdown mode, and, uh, the DJ came after me. But he never killed me, though!”
He shot Freddy a reassuring grin, but animatronic had grown silent. Gregory frowned at him and was about to stop walking to check in, but Freddy must have noticed the expression on his face because he shook his head and perked back up again, relieving Gregory of some of his nerves. Not all of them, though, when he noticed Freddy’s ears stayed downturned.
“Gregory? I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer truthfully.” Freddy finally said, and Gregory hummed in acknowledgment, letting him know he could continue. “How many … loops exactly have you gone through, before I joined you?”
Gregory froze, glancing over at Freddy. He had … honestly kinda last track of what loop he was on, at this point — somewhere in the thirties, he was pretty sure — but he did remember the first loop Freddy remembered him was loop number eighteen. Man, that felt like so long ago now. Even the very first loop felt like it was thousands of years away — back when he thought he could get out, when he could escape this place …
But he couldn’t tell Freddy that. As much as he wanted to be truthful, if he told Freddy the exact number, he would freak out and be all the more protective and work himself into a frizzy. Gregory didn’t want him to do that. Not on his account.
“Well, you’ve been helping me since the first one, even before you remembered.” He finally settled on saying. Hopefully that would deflect Freddy enough, make him forget about the real answer. “You’ve always helped me.”
That was true, there had never been a loop so far in which Freddy hadn’t helped him. Though, it seemed like Freddy wouldn’t take that as an answer. “I meant, how many loops have you —“
Luckily for both of them, their conversation was interrupted by the too-close cry of Roxanne Wolf shouting, “Where the heck is that brat?!” and the sound of animatronic footsteps approaching faintly from a hallway over.
Gregory jumped, as did Freddy, but he more turned towards the sound of Roxanne and stepped closer to Gregory, as if to block him from view. Gregory, in turn, stepped closer to him and reached up to grab at his arm band, looping his fingers around it. He was a bit annoyed he hadn’t heard her sooner, but that would teach them for trying to stop and talk in the middle of an open area, he guessed.
“Here, Gregory.” Freddy stepped away from him and opened his stomach hatch, keeping his gaze trained towards where Roxanne’s footsteps were getting loud enough to the shake the walls. “Quickly.”
“No, you can’t carry me on low battery all the way to the station!” Gregory exclaimed. He didn’t know exactly what would happen, if he was inside of Freddy’s stomach hatch when he ran out of battery, but he really didn’t want to find out.
Freddy relented and closed his hatch, but still reached out towards him. “Then we must —“
“It’s too long.” Too long to get to the recharge station just walking, Roxanne would reach them before they got there, even if he ran — she was the fastest, and he would run out of breath. He could already hear her, almost to them. “You just keep going.”
“Gregory —“
He grabbed his Fazer Blaster from his waist and took off before Freddy could protest more. “See you later!”
Roxanne might be the fastest and could easily catch him if she decided to chase him, but if he managed to to find a hiding spot fast enough, she would just wander on by and he could head back to Freddy, who — if he actually went to the recharge station and didn’t just stand around fretting — would be fully charged and they could continue on their merry way to the arcade machine. And if he didn’t, well — they just restart anyways.
Though, it seemed like that was going to be the more likely option, because he didn’t manage to get very far.
Skidding onto the balcony overlooking the main area of the Pizzaplex, Gregory — in his haste to get away — completely forgot about the most annoying part of the Pizzaplex. The goddamned Staff Bots.
Almost as soon as he entered the landing, he yelped when he heard the ear-screeching alarm of a Staff Bot who had caught him in it’s sight, and flinched away quickly. Not quick enough, however, to evade the stupid Bot who rushed forward, grabbed both his wrists, and squeezed tightly. It’s stupid creepy dead eyes bored into his skull as he gasped and tried to pull himself free, small pinpricks of pain erupting from where it pinched his skin in it’s hold.
“Hey, let me go!” He yelled, flashing back to all the times he could remember when those stupid blocky hands had been covered in oil or bits of Freddy or red red red , and he started thrashing more. His hands opened on their own accord — from either his own shock or the Staff Bot’s grip — and Fazer Blaster clattered to the ground. Then, in his blind haste to wrench himself free, accidentally kicked it and sent it skidding across the floor all the way towards the railing overlooking the main atrium.
“No!” He exclaimed, the shot of adrenaline giving him enough strength to pull himself out of the Staff Bot’s grip and go racing towards his blaster. It had managed to get stuck on one of the railing posts and not go tumbling over the edge, thank god, but he still needed to get it again. “Oh, goddamnit!”
Unfortunately for him, the momentary distraction was enough, and Roxanne increased her speed and reached him just as he dove to the floor to brush his fingers against his blaster. She grabbed onto his ankle, yanked him closer, and he just bit his tongue and closed his eyes and accepted it.
Ugh, did it always have to end this way?
LOOP 36.
“Gregory, are you okay!? It appears you were not successful in evading Roxy. I am sorry. I tried to distract her, but once she saw you —“
With a snort, Gregory pushed himself out of Freddy’s stomach hatch before Freddy could reach in and grab him — which he had demonstrated he would do, many times before — and stood in front of the animatronic on the floor, arms crossed. Only Freddy would be apologizing for something like this. “Yeah, yeah, it’s fine, I’m fine. Can we get going now?”
“Hold on just one minute, superstar.” Freddy said, and Gregory huffed. “I just need to scan you for any possible injuries.”
Gregory huffed again, though quieter this time, and turned to face Freddy facing him with his arms spread out. No matter what, Freddy always had to scan him before they could keep going, even if it was obvious he hadn’t retained any injuries from previous loops. At least Freddy had gotten used to the whole dying-and-coming-back-from-it thing. At first, he would barley let Gregory out of his sight, so now at least he had a bit more freedom from the overbearing mother hen that was Freddy.
He blinked a bit when the glowing blue light washed over him, but it was over as quickly as it usually was, and Freddy’s eyes went distant as he processed the information. “Ah, I see you have no new wounds since your arrival here.”
“I mean, obviously.” Gregory rolled his eyes a bit, but it was more in exasperation than actual annoyance. He itched at his cheek, wanting to get moving. “So are we good? We still need to go find the second arcade machine.”
Freddy stared at him for a long moment, enough Gregory let his hand drop awkwardly to his side to stare back with a questioning gaze, until Freddy wiggled his ears a bit. “I — I do have a question, superstar.”
For a moment he thought Freddy was going to ask about the loops again, and he shuffled his feet. He really, really didn’t want to answer that, but … he didn’t want to be rude to Freddy, either. “Er, about what?”
“I am just … curious, about something.” Freddy leaned down slightly to rap his cheek, the one he had been itching at, right on top of the bandaid he had placed there. “This bandaid. I do not detect any signs of injury on your face around it, unlike the other bandaids you have. Is there any particular reason for it?”
Oh. Oh, it was about … that.
Lifting a hand up to cover it, he shuffled his feet, pressing his lips together in thought. Freddy was right in that the bandaid wasn’t covering a wound or anything, but nobody … nobody had ever really noticed it before. They more noticed it when he wasn’t wearing something to cover it. Then they usually said something weird, or stupid, but …
Freddy would never do that to him. So …
“I just have a … little scar there.” He told him, removing his hand to instead peel the bandaid down slightly. “I’ve had it since I was, like, really little. I don’t even know where I got it from.”
It was just a tiny thing, right along his chin to his cheek, but it stood out against his skin which was why he covered it up. He had asked some of his old foster parents about it, and they said they didn’t know either, but he just always assumed it had come from before he was in the system all together. Back when he was with his parents. He still didn’t really know, though.
In front of him, Freddy crouched down slightly to get a better look. He looked like he wanted to reach out and touch it, like he had before, but restrained himself. That was nice of him, Gregory didn’t really liked when people touched it. Or noticed it all — some of the other foster kids he had stayed with used to make comments about it. Not mean comments, but not nice ones, either, and it always made him want to shift in his skin. That’s why he started wearing the bandaid in the first place.
After a moment of staring, however, Freddy finally stood up and reached over to ruffle his hair lightly, smile evident in his voice. “Thank you for sharing that with me, superstar. I am honoured.”
Honoured? He pressed the bandaid back to his cheek, feeling bashful. “It’s fine. You asked.”
Nevermind the fact he had never shown anybody it before, but …
“Now come on, we gotta go find the second game.” Gregory said suddenly, moving towards the door to leave, wanting to dissipate some of the tension in the room. Freddy followed automatically. “Hopefully before anybody finds us again, because I really don’t want to reset back here again —“
He cut himself off, though, when he realized something. Something, something so —
“Oh, goddamnit!” He exclaimed, banging his fist on Freddy’s leg so hard to the metal echoed and Freddy jumped. “I’m going to have to play the first one again!”
•
•
•
Except, when they got back to the raceway to machine number one, after lots of grumbling and stomping …
“Why isn’t it turning on?” Gregory said, rhetorically. He smacked the side of the machine again, scowling. “It worked fine last time!”
“Perhaps we must put a coin in?” Freddy asked, though he sounded unsure as well. Gregory huffed again.
“That makes no sense! We didn’t have to do that last time, and it’s not like it’s even asking for a coin!” He exclaimed. “It’s just — blank. Dead.”
He crouched down to examine where the game was plugged into the wall, having to push away some boxes of hair dye, then reached his arm through to check if the cord was in outlet. It seemed fine, secured to the wall, and he stood up again to jiggle the joystick around and mash the buttons. Still, nothing.
From behind him, Freddy hummed in thought, and Gregory turned to tilt his head questioningly at him. “What? Do you have any ideas?”
“Well …” Freddy stepped closer to him, peering at the arcade machine with intent, before leaning back a bit and refocusing his gaze back on Gregory. “It was much like this the first time you completed it, yes?”
Gregory got what he was implying immediately, and his eyes widened as he turned back to look at the screen. “Wait, do you think it, like … saved my progress?”
That … that would make sense, actually. So far, everything between the loops had been the same, except for Freddy — after Gregory removed the virus from him — and now the arcade machines, which wasn’t working after Gregory completed it. And it had been infected with the virus too, absolutely, so it seemed that getting rid of the virus allowed things to … unstick, so to speak. No longer getting reset in time over and over again.
Gregory had never been infected, so he had always remembered.
“Holy shit.” He mumbled to himself, stepping back from the arcade machine with a slowly-growing grin on his face. “Freddy, oh my god!”
“Language.” Freddy placed a hand on his shoulder, looking concerned. “But, yes? What is it, superstar?”
“I — I think you’re right!” He exclaimed, whirling around to face the animatronic as he bounced up-and-down on his toes, waving his hands around as he spoke. “The — the virus in you, as soon as I removed it, you started remembering! And — and the game, I beat it, got rid of the virus, somehow, which makes no sense still but — but now it saved! It ‘ remembered ’ too!”
Understanding dawned in Freddy’s eyes, as he came to the same conclusion Gregory had. “And you have always remembered …”
“Because I’ve never been infected!” He was human, so it wasn’t like he could be. So far the virus really only seemed to affect the animatronics and arcade machines — a computer virus, not one made of germs. “I’m human, so I can’t be!”
Crouching down to his level, Freddy wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, and Gregory allowed himself to be squeezed gently, feeling the tip of Freddy’s earring brush against his hair as Freddy tilted his head towards him. “That is a good line of thinking, superstar! The virus must be the reason that the other animatronics have not recalled anything as well.”
Gregory nodded, knocking his head against Freddy’s lightly. “Yeah, I think so.”
The animatronics hadn’t ever remembered him, because even with their processors all scrambled he felt like they would have said something if the kid they killed ended up coming back to life as soon as they got him. Chica, Monty, Roxanne, the Attendant, and, even if she wasn’t an animatronic — Vanny. She didn’t …
He paused.
Vanny … Vanny didn’t remember, right? At least, he was pretty sure she didn’t. If she did, she hadn’t given an indication of it, and from having to deal with her for so many loops Gregory felt like he had a good read on her personality. She seemed like the type, that if she was caught in a time loop, she would either rage like a toddler or use it to her advantage. So far, she had done neither. Instead, she used the same plan as she always did — just follow them around, get them cornered, then try and stab him. Or Freddy. Or both of them.
He pressed his lips together, thinking about it, before Freddy stood up and ruffled his hair and snapped him from his thoughts. “Well, then we must go and find this second machine! If we eliminated the virus from that one as well, perhaps it will help eradicate it. And even if not, these machines are obviously very special, since they were infected with the virus in the first place.”
Nodding, Gregory allowed for Freddy to pull him up into his stomach hatch as they made their way to the arcade, with Gregory still thinking about it.
•
•
•
Finding the machine in the west arcade, however, proved to be a bit of a challenge.
He knew it was in one of the back room areas, near the tunnels at the DJ climbed out of, but trying to find it among all the clutter and dim lights was not doing his eyes any favours. It had finally ended up being Freddy who spotted it — night vision or something, probably, why would an animatronic who never went outside need night vision? — and, as soon as they got close enough to it, he let Gregory out of his stomach hatch to wander on over towards it.
Just like the first game, it lit up as soon as he got near. Right on the title screen with no coin needed at all.
“It didn’t do that for me before.” He commented, glancing back at Freddy who had followed him closer to the machine. “I mean, when I was in here with the DJ, getting the generator? It just … stayed blank.”
Freddy hummed. “Perhaps it was … waiting for you.”
Well, that wasn’t ominous or creepy at all. “Well, I was kinda being chased by the DJ then, so how considerate of it.”
Reminded of the big animatronic, he glanced over at the tunnel at the end of the passage, sticking out from the wall. He couldn’t see into it at all, only the inky darkness, and it made him uneasy. Even if he knew the DJ was in ‘rest mode’ or whatever — he had seen a glimpse of it when they first entered the west arcade, napping on it’s stage — and that there shouldn’t be any chance of it coming to life to chase him since he wasn’t messing with the Staff Bot head, but … still. That was creepy, too.
However, Freddy seemed to notice his slight distress, and took a step forward. “Is everything alright, Gregory?”
Yeah, he was fine, but it was just — the stupid tunnel. It reminded him too much of the past loops, where he still didn’t know exactly was going on, where he didn’t realize he could escape, when Freddy didn’t remember him, when he was all on his own —
No. No, he needed to stop thinking about that. He was fine. He was fine, and Freddy was here now. He wasn’t alone.
He wasn’t alone …
“Can you … stay here this time? With me?” He asked Freddy quietly, glancing over at the large tunnel that loomed above him, before his gaze darted back to the floor. He reached forward to drum his fingers on the arcade console, trying to distract himself. “If that’s okay. You don’t have to —“
“Of course, superstar.” Freddy cut him off, but not unkindly, moving closer to stand on his left side, blocking his view of the tunnel. His shoulders went down immediately, releasing a quick breathe as well. He didn’t know if Freddy noticed, but he probably did, knowing him. “Now, I can watch you play as well!”
He snorted, unease dissipating already, then shook his head fondly. “Yeah, let’s just hope I don’t flub it up.”
Freddy reached over to gently tap his temple, almost like he was playfully flicking him — if Freddy would ever do that. “Do not fret, superstar. I am sure you will complete this game just as well as you did for the first one!”
He shuffled on his feet, feeling a bit bashful, and ducked his head. It wasn’t like Gregory was a pro at the video games or anything — it had never been his thing before he ran away, and it wasn’t like he had much access to any games while living on the streets — but Freddy always seemed to … to think that of him. That he could do anything, if he tried.
He swallowed. Nobody had ever really thought that of him before.
“Here’s hoping.” He replied, before hitting the button on the console and booting up the game.
The first thing he noticed, when the game suddenly flashed to life was that he was still playing as the Princess, and she seemed … okay. There was nothing noticeably different about her from last time, except maybe her starting position. Instead of inside a castle, she was now in a blue-tinged courtyard. But this time, she wasn’t alone.
You are alive. That is good. Said the textbox at the bottom of the screen, belonging to an old man looking-sprite who was red in colour with a long beard and staff. Take the sword of light and go.
A sword suddenly appeared in his inventory, and Gregory’s eyes widened as he pressed the console to swipe it around. “Oh, awesome! I can fight things now!”
However, Freddy didn’t seem as focused on this as Gregory did, instead pointing at the old man on the screen with eyes narrowed in thought. “Who is that elderly man?”
“Dunno.” Gregory shrugged. “Probably just an NPC or something. It’s not important.”
Freddy seemed like he wanted to say more, but Gregory had already moved on to the first open door towards the left of the screen. Inside was an oddly lit room with some of the floating head enemies, which he was able to cut down with his sword. He grinned to himself. Man, that felt good to do — after having to constantly just avoid and run away from the other enemies in the first game, it felt good to be able to fight them now. Besides, in the room was also a chest with a heart in it, so that was also bonus.
“Those … hearts.” Freddy started, humming. “Are those your health?”
“Yeah.” Gregory replied. “They go down whenever an enemy hits you. Like these floating ones here, or those other ones. They were like … weird inky zombie things. They kinda looked like bunnies, a bit. It was weird.”
“Ah. So they are not friendly, then.” Freddy commented. Gregory didn’t know what Freddy was focusing on in that sentence — the thing about the hearts or the bunnies, but he just nodded either way.
“Yep, so I have to avoid them.” He pushed the Princess through the courtyard to another unlocked door, and over the twisting cave-like paths. “But I have the sword now, so I can fight back.”
“That you can.” Freddy muttered, before he fell silent to let Gregory focus.
This game was pretty similar to the first one, navigating all the maps and lighting lanterns, but it was a bit easier now since he had the sword — even with those stupid new enemies that shot the glowing balls at him, that was annoying as shit. He got the key for the next area, solved the weird shadow puzzle and moved on, even as Freddy started commenting on it as he went along (“ Oh, a key, I wonder what that unlocks! Oh, there’s double of them now — and that lantern is purple, perhaps they are connected?” ) — which was … okay, actually. It provided good background noise, and just having Freddy as a visual block between him and the tunnel let him calm down a bit.
When Gregory finally managed to loop back around to the starting courtyard, though, the old man was gone — replaced with another shadow puzzle. That one took a bit longer to figure out, though he got it after a few minutes, and moved on to —
To the … starting level? From the first game?
Congratulations! Your quest is done. Said the old man, standing in the middle of the room. Time to rest.
“That is odd.” Freddy said, leaning closer against so he was hunched right over Gregory’s head. “Why has he moved? What does he mean it is ‘time to sleep’?”
“Dunno.” Gregory shrugged again. “NPC. They just do that. Let’s go.”
He moved the Princess across the room, through the other door that was glitching purple just like the monster in the shadows, the virus hiding in the code. His hands shook a bit, so he tightened his grip on the joystick, and got ready for whatever was on the other side of the door —
And they — ended up in an office?
“A security office?” Freddy asked. He was right, it looked like, a security office, specifically; especially with the heavy-metal door and tiled floor, a large monitor on the desk and lockers behind it. “That does not seem —“
Gregory startled back when the game suddenly crashed with a loud, staticky noise. He banged right into Freddy, who immediately reached down to grab onto both his shoulders to steady him. It — it wasn’t like last time, with a monster and creepy noise, but it still — Gregory still didn’t like it. It was weird, especially since the screen was dead-dark again, not asking to retry or to put in another coin. It just crashed, just like last time, and it — it —
“Something’s really wrong with with these machines.” He said simply.
Freddy nodded in agreement, but didn’t say anything, seeming to be mulling something over. This left Gregory to his own thoughts as well, which were going a mile a minute as he stared at the dark arcade machine. It was just — it was just so weird.
These seemingly normal, random series of games were infected with a virus originally meant to make the animatronics turn violent and kill kids for a pair of child-murderers, but instead of doing anything, like, normal — they just messed with the games, made them playable without coins, and then crashed the entire system when it was over. And also made everything just … super purple and glitchy and added a weird bunny monster at the end that seemed to break the entire game. Or a seemingly random, old-fashioned security office.
None of this made any sense.
But, to be honest — did anything else? This entire mall was stuck in a time loop, there was an animatronic bear who had taken it upon himself to be his guardian, a bunny-themed child murderer posing as a security guard, or a security guard posing as a bunny-themed child murderer —
Wait. Bunnies?
“What’s the deal with all the bunnies?” Gregory finally asked, glancing up at Freddy, who still had his paws on his shoulders. He pulled away slightly to turn and face him, but still stayed close by. “I mean, I was just thinking … there was that monster, at the end of the first game, and it kinda looked like a bunny. All the enemies in the game look like bunnies, and Vanny has her whole … thing going on.”
Freddy hummed thoughtfully, tapping at his chin. “Well, you bring up an interesting point … I do have a theory, involving Vanny and bunnies.”
Gregory’s eyes widened, and he put his hands on his hips, bouncing on his heels. “Really? What is it?!”
Because Freddy — Freddy knew more about the ‘Plex then he did, so if he had a theory …
However, instead of telling him, Freddy just shook his head slightly, making Gregory stop his bouncing. “It is … quite a dark theory, superstar. I do not believe you would wish to —“
“Of course I want to know it!” He cut him off, knowing his displeasure was clear on his face but not caring enough to try and hide it. What did Freddy think, that he was a baby? He’d already died, like, thirty times now. He could handle a little ‘theory’. “Just tell me! Please?”
He added the ‘please’ at the end in a softer tone, and it seemed to do the trick, because Freddy’s ears went down and he sighed slightly before beginning to speak. Gregory wanted to pump his fists in the air, but instead crossed his arms over his chest, just so he didn’t give himself away.
“Well … have you heard about the rumours about Fazbear Entertainment? The company that owns the mall?” Freddy asked, and Gregory nodded.
“Yeah, a few.” He replied. He was pretty sure might’ve mentioned it to Freddy one time, loops ago, but he couldn’t remember. “But I thought they were just rumours. None of it was real.”
“I believed so, too.” Freddy said. His voice was quiet, more hushed, like he was telling him a secret. “But … looking at the situation now, I do not believe so. I have heard customers talking about something called the … ‘Missing Childrens Incident’. It was at an old location, years ago, where apparently a man dressed in a rabbit costume kidnapped five children for some nefarious purpose. The employees never allowed us to know about things such as that, so I thought it was simply rumours, as you said, but with Vanny …”
He trailed off, but Gregory got what he was saying. If those were really true, and not just bored parents trying to make their trip a bit more enjoyable for themselves while watching their kids go on sugar highs, then — a man dressed as a rabbit kidnapping and probably murdering kids? That sounded very similar to their current situation. Way too similar.
“So … so what, Vanny’s trying to copy him? The original guy?” Gregory asked to himself, frowning. That still didn’t make complete sense to him, though. Something felt … wrong. Too many unused pieces, too many things unaccounted for. “But then what about her partner, ‘him’? What do you think he’s doing here?”
“That I am unsure about as well.” Freddy replied. “Perhaps he is also some sort of … copycat, to this original killer. Of course, that is not the only rumour I have heard, but I did not believe any were worth mentioning at the time.”
Gregory uncrossed his arms, groaning, and rubbed at his eyes. “Ugh, this is all so complicated. I hate it.”
Freddy chuckled, and reached over to ruffle his hair. “It certainly is, superstar. But at least you have completed two of the three arcade machines! Now you only have one left to go.”
“Yeah, true.” He said. “But the last one is in Vanny’s hideout.”
Freddy’s face fell, and it would have been funny if the reason for it hadn’t been so serious. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Well —“ Freddy straightened up and clapped his hands together after a moment, softly so that they didn’t echo, and his ears wiggled. “— knowing where it is is half the battle! And, if we go now, I am sure we can get to her hideout before she notices we are there.”
Gregory nodded in agreement, and started to climb into Freddy’s hatch when he opened it. He was on low battery, so first they would need to charge, but then — “Well, off to her hideout we go.”
And he didn’t know exactly what he expected, when they got there and beat the last game, but Gregory knew that whatever happened … it would probably end up bad for them. That was just how it seemed to work around here, with the stupid bunny murderers and missing children rumours and all that.
Ugh. He hated it here. So much.