Archive of Our Own ^beta

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?!

Chapter Text

LOOP 02. (Cont.)

This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t —

Freddy didn’t — Freddy didn’t remember —

Him. Gregory. Freddy didn’t know him, Monty had —

(Monty killed him. Monty killed him. Monty killed him. )

The lights were burning his eyes, everything felt simultaneously too hot and too cold, his entire body hurt and he was shaking but he couldn’t focus on anything other than the memories of Monty grabbing him, of Freddy still staring at him, no recognition in his eyes, and Gregory couldn’t —

He couldn’t —

He couldn’t —

“Superstar, can you look at me?”

Through the frantic thoughts overlapping eachother in his brain, Gregory heard Freddy’s voice came through, but still didn’t fully register it until there was the creak of metal and Freddy’s face was now in his sightline. It was blurry and out of focus, blobs of orange and blue melding together, and Gregory shook his head while pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this. He just wanted to — to get out, and now …

“It is alright, superstar, it is alright.” Freddy kept saying, stupidly gentle and warm and managing to cut through the cold dark thoughts racing through his mind. “Can you please look at me?”

He could. He could … he could do that. He wasn’t a baby, he could do that.

Slowly, Gregory let his hands fall away and looked at Freddy, startled to find him so close and flinching back a bit. However, the animatronic didn’t seemed phased, only wiggling his ears a bit and saying in a proud voice, “That is it. See, it is okay. Now, can you mimic my breathing?”

His lungs and throat were burning. Every breath hurt. Gregory didn’t want to do that, it would hurt, he didn’t want to he didn’t want to he didn’t want to die —

“No, no, focus on my voice, superstar. Just mimic my breathing, in and out, like this, see?”

Freddy couldn’t breathe. He wasn’t alive. But Gregory could hear the sound of robotic-tinged breathing, and saw the animatronic’s shoulders going up and down in simulated breathes. Gregory could admit it helped a bit, hearing the rhythmic noises and Freddy’s soft mummering encouraging him to follow. It reminded him he wasn’t dead. He was still alive, breathing, standing with Freddy in his greenroom. Breathing meant not-dead. Breathing meant alive.

Gregory was alive. He had to remind himself of that.

Slowly, he managed to follow Freddy’s instructions and take big, gulping breaths until his chest evened out and it didn’t feel like his heart was trying to escape his ribcage anymore. Sure, he was still tense and his head hurt, but that was just his default state, even when not trapped in a mall with murderous animatronics.

That reminder shocked him back into himself, though, and Gregory immediately felt all his nerves return tenfold even as Freddy praised him Well done, superstar! distantly in the background. He was … he was back in the mall. Freddy’s greenroom. He had done this before, a few hours ago, but he was here again. He woke up as if he had just been sleeping, but he knew, he knew deep down in his heart that Monty had … Monty had gotten him. Monty had gotten him and Gregory had —

He didn’t want to say it. Because saying it made it real, and there was no way this was real.

Gregory had never had memory problems, and was actually said to be exceptionally smart for his age (back when he actually went to school and things like that mattered), so that only left a few possible options.

One, he died and now was just reliving his memories with the knowledge of his demise. Two, he was hallucinating from all the times he banged his head and the amount of pizza grease he inhaled in this stupid place. Three, he was dreaming. Or having a nightmare. Same difference.

None of those made much sense, though. If he was reliving his memories, he would be reliving his entire life, not just meeting Freddy. Hallucinations didn’t work like this. And if he was dreaming, he would have woken up already, especially now that he could feel the stinging in his hand where he had bitten it.

That only left the fourth option. Gregory didn’t like the fourth option.

This was insane. Impossible. There was no way he was actually here again, or that he was in what he thought he was in. It couldn’t be happening, and yet … here he was. Right as rain, with only his memories to show that this wasn’t the first time he had met Freddy, or been through this already. It made him want to scream, or hit something, or break down crying, but instead he did none of those things and just kept blinking stupidly.

Gregory had never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Sure, there was a good chance he had gone completely mental or something like that, but it was a clear as day as he reflected on it. Monty had gotten him and he woke up. Monty had gotten him and it didn’t last. Monty had gotten him and here Gregory was, fine and dandy, with another chance to get to six am and walk out those doors.

He had a second shot at this. And he wasn’t going to lose it.

“How are you feeling, superstar?”

Gregory blinked up at Freddy, who was still kneeling in front of him, the nickname reminding him of everything he was trying to forget. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Alright, if you say so.” Freddy didn’t seem to believe him, tilting his head slightly, but luckily let the subject drop. Gregory was thankful — he didn’t really want to go into an explanation for his freak out right now, especially since he didn’t even know fully himself. “Now, can you tell me your name?”

Right. Freddy wouldn’t know that. “I’m … Gregory.”

“Gregory! Wonderful name.” Freddy said, like he won some grand prize or something. “Now, Gregory, I must ask — what are you doing back here after hours? And why do you not have a guest profile?”

Gregory worried at his bottom lip, scuffing his shoe on the carpet (he was wearing his old beat-up sneakers again, he noticed, not the ones he nicked from the gift shop early on during the night) while trying to figure out how to explain himself. In his … first talk with Freddy, he managed to avoid the subject because the animatronic never fully asked outright, but now …

“I didn’t mean too.” He finally settled on saying. Which was a truth — he never wanted to stay this long in the first place. “But, she was chasing me, and I needed to hide, and you were just sitting there by yourself so I opened your stomach hatch and hid inside.”

Again, that was technically the truth, and it seemed to work as Freddy’s demeanour shifted immediately. He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer, ears moving to the top of his head. “Who? Who was chasing you?”

“The … the security guard. And I wasn’t even doing anything, just eating!” Sure, the pizza hadn’t technically been his, but still — chasing him through the entire Atrium because of one swiped slice was a bit overkill. “And she started chasing me through the entire Atrium and I know she was trying to kill me!”

“Kill you?!” Freddy exclaimed, eyes widening. “Gregory, I assure you the security guard was not trying to kill you. She was most likely just trying to help!”

“No, no, no —“ Gregory shook his head and took a few steps back, just to put some distance between them before Freddy could grab his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him or anything. “I know she was. Cause there’s also …”

The weird rabbit lady. He … he knew her name, didn’t he? He had seen up in Fazer Blast, and commented on its similarity to the security guard’s. Vanny and Vanessa. Gregory hadn’t really thought about it at the time, mostly because he didn’t care about the stupid bunny lady unless she was chasing him, but now that he thought about it … given everything else going, it was way too similar to be a coincidence.

But he couldn’t explain that to Freddy, and just thinking about it reminded Gregory of everything else that had happened, so he just ended up trialing off awkwardly and biting his lip again.

“There’s also … what?” Freddy tried to prompt him to continue, but Gregory just shook his head again.

“Nothing.” He stepped away from Freddy more, and the animatronic took his cue to stand up as well, even as Gregory tried to hide his shaky hands. “Can … can you just forget I was ever here? I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again, promise.”

He could get to the front doors without Freddy’s help, right? It might even be better — no unnecessary stops for first aid along the way. However, Freddy obviously didn’t see it that way, because he wiggled his ears a bit and said with a smile in his voice, “That is okay, superstar! I will help you get to the front doors, before we close in a few minutes.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need —“

“I insist.” Freddy said in a tone Gregory recognized most adults used when they knew their words were law, so he just huffed. He could do this fine without Freddy, he didn’t need his help, but if he was offering then Gregory guessed he could use it. As long as he didn’t do any pit stops for first aid.

“Fine. But don’t tell the security guard.” Gregory told him. Speaking of, she should be around here somewhere, if things were exactly the same as … last time. Hopefully they didn’t run into her again. “I don’t trust her.”

“Understood.” Freddy said, before turning to grab something from his vanity. Gregory knew what it was before he even presented the gift box. “Now, here; take this novelty Fazwatch. It will allow for us to communicate across great distance!”

Gregory took the present and didn’t bother with winding it this time, instead just ripping open the lid to slide the watch back onto his wrist. With the familiar weight against his skin, he felt slightly better about all this, even as Freddy started going in about how he needed to exit the room and go into the vents to let him out of his room. Gregory did it all just as he had done previously, mind slipping back in the tense survival mode it had been in the last time he done all this, as he pushed thoughts of ‘last time’ from his brain and focused on the now. Pushing buttons and stacking boxes and pulling off grates.

Even as Gregory started crawling through the vents, though, and heard the distance crows of Roxanne complimenting herself in her mirror, he had a suspicious feeling that he wasn’t going to make it to the front doors in time. Again.

•

•

•

Gregory didn’t make it.

Surprise surprise, the bad feeling he had ended up being true! Though, he did get close enough his hand brushed against the metal doors as they shut, and he had been fully prepared to slide under the door if it wouldn’t had risked getting his ankle crushed or something. It was still a rip-off, Gregory decided. They hadn’t even stopped for first-aid this time! Gregory had made sure not to cut his arm inside the vent but still, he hadn’t made it in time!

It was infuriating. Gregory was very close to snapping and just destroying some kiosks in anger, and the only reason he wasn’t was because Freddy was still watching him.

Yes, the bear insisted on continuing to help him. Yes, Gregory had repeatedly told him he didn’t need too, but he kept saying it was his duty as a performer to help Gregory escape the Plex, even if he didn’t see it as ‘escaping’. Freddy … kinda knew that his friends weren’t acting right, after the incident outside of the Daycare where they had all mindlessly converged on his location as soon as Sun sounded the alarm.

That was another thing; the lights still shut off. And Gregory even tried being cautious this time, and still —

(Just grab the badge. Gregory kept telling himself. Just grab the badge and you can get out of here.

He just needed to make sure not to turn the lights off when he did so. He had no idea why taking the badge the first time had triggered the lights, but given how everything else worked around here, it wasn’t that surprising something as small as an inanimate object had tried to screw him over.

With the sun guy distracted by some knocked over bins, Gregory dashed behind the counter and grabbed the flashlight, already fully charged, and moved onto the badge. He opened the weird Freddy head, seeing the shiny plastic reflecting his tired face, before examining all around it. There were no switches or buttons that he could see, or any wires he could have accidentally triggered, so … maybe it wasn’t taking the badge that triggered the lights? Maybe he had tripped over a wire or something, or there were motion detectors somewhere.

That was the only explanation he could think of, so as he heard the twinkling of the Attendants bells drawing near, he slowly grabbed the badge and held his breathe when nothing happened.

Then the generators whined, and everything went dark.

Crap! )

— it did nothing. It was truly like he was reliving everything exactly as it was last time, barring his first meeting with Freddy. Who, just like last time, was stupidly kind and helpful but somehow still naïve to the true nature of what was going on. And yeah, Gregory still didn’t know why the animatronics were hunting him or why he was reliving the same few hours or even the deal with the bunny lady yet (who, might he add, he hadn’t seen again outside of their confrontation in the office and watching her skip outside the recharge station), but at least he wasn’t dumb enough to think that everything here was friendly.

Only Freddy was. And … well, Gregory could admit he was a bit happy that the bear was helping him, even with his freakout earlier. Just like he had last time.

( Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. Don’t — )

“Gregory, do you see the party pass on Chica’s vanity?”

Freddy’s voice came through his watch when Gregory landed on the floor, after pushing his way through the vents (he hated that stupid Music Man thing in the vents, almost as much as he hated everything else here). He looked around Chica’s room for the pass, before padding over to the vanity and pushing aside tins of fake makeup and food crumbs. He didn’t find a pass, but he did spy the gift box in the corner. Seemed like everything in this stupid place had to be a show or something.

“Yeah, I got it.” He replied into his watch, winding the box up and flinching a bit at the confetti and music that started when it popped open, before grabbing the party pass inside. “Here it is.”

“Great job!” Freddy praised. Gregory slipped the party pass into his pocket, once again grateful for the amount of pockets his shorts had. “Now Gregory, that party pass is very special. It will let you into Fazer Blast, where you may get a Fazer Blaster, or Monty Golf, where you may get a Fazcam. However, it can only be used once. Which one would you like to visit?”

Gregory hummed to himself, thinking. He loved his Fazer Blaster and it would be great to get a new one, but that was what he had done last time and he knew how it had worked out for him. He had chosen Fazer Blast, because it was cooler, but since golf was Monty’s area … well, maybe he run into him again there. He recalled finding an employee notice about the catwalks, and Gregory was itching to just confront the stupid gator again. Even if it made his hands shake a bit.

It was fine. Everything was fine, wasn’t it? He was alive. That was all that mattered.

… well, and rubbing it in Monty’s stupid face that he was alive and his little murder attempt had done nothing.

“Monty Golf.” He decided aloud, before more definitely stating to Freddy, “Monty Golf. A camera would be useful, then I can flash multiple things at once.”

“Good choice, superstar!” Freddy praised. “I will meet you there!”

The comm system shut off with a beep, and Gregory sighed. This place was a nightmare, but if he was able to get a way to fight back against the animatronics in his hands again — well, that would be a plus for him.

He still couldn’t help but sigh again, though, feeling exhausted. Everything was a goddamn ordeal in this freakin’ place.

•

•

•

Gregory got the camera with minimal issues, and was feeling a little better about all this.

As he pattered his way back towards Freddy, he felt almost like skipping in joy, but that was too similar to Vanny for his taste so he decided not too. He was excited, though. With his new camera, he was able to defend himself against the animatronics and deal with the stupid Staff Bots and Endoskeletons (if he ran into them again), but what he was really happy about was his confrontation with Monty. As he assumed, he had been up on the catwalks the same he had arrived, and Gregory had managed to overturn a bucket onto him after a lot of running and shooting. Now that stupid gator had no legs, couldn’t chase after him anymore, and Freddy would get his claws. No more locked gates for the two of them!

(The last ball hit the target, and Gregory turned to see Monty still charging at him. However, with a loud, ominous-sounding creak, the bucket right above them began to tip over. Gregory felt his stomach swoop as it tipped and tipped and tipped, and Monty looked over as well, drawn by the noise just as the bucket finally fell over completely, spilling colourful balls everywhere, right on top of him.

But instead of being crushed, Monty —

Monty caught it. Grabbed it in his sharp claws and lugged it above his shoulders, and Gregory felt his heart stop in his chest. Backing away slowly, his hands were shaking and he glanced around for an exit. He could run, while Monty was distracted. He couldn’t hold it forever, but it would give enough time for Gregory to escape, and — and —

There was another creak. More balls fell. But then, everything, just like the bucket … tipped.

Gregory cried out when the catwalk he was standing on pitched forward, and he scrambled to get a good hold onto the handrail. Monty wasn’t so lucky, though, because due to the combined weight of the bucket tipping over and the catwalk buckling beneath the combine weight, Monty fell — fell, right through the air, spiralling towards the ground letting out a sound close to a real alligator.

And Gregory — well, he could only laugh.

“Take that, asshole!” He yelled out, an emotion he couldn’t explain bubbling in his chest, as Monty yelled. “That’s for biting my head off!”

Monty didn’t reply. The was only the sound of bouncing balls, and Gregory tried to ignore the ugly feeling that settled around him when the silence came.)

But even with the camera and claws, Gregory still couldn’t help feel a bit uneasy about all this, feeling constantly on edge as he ducked between hiding spots and dashed from room to room. He couldn’t not be that way, with how familiar this all seemed. He tried to ignore those thoughts though, knowing it would get him nowhere. He didn’t have time to focus on it, because all time he didn’t spend focused on his survival would just get him killed. Again. And he couldn’t risk it.

That was why, as soon as he heard the sound of an animatronic drawing close to him, he let out a small gasp and quickly jumped into an empty laundry bin.

Well, he thought it was a laundry bin, but the important thing was that it was big and he could crouch down inside to hide himself from view from whatever animatronic had just found him in the back hallway. He waited with bated breath as he heard their approach, and stayed as still as possible, hoping his shaky breathes didn’t give him way. It couldn’t be Monty, who was still decommissioned (and couldn’t have gotten him inside the bin, anyways, with no lower body), and he didn’t think it was Chica. He had seen the chicken lurking around, but the footsteps were different. Heavy. More predatory.

That meant it was Roxanne.

Gregory hunkered down as the wolf drew closer, hearing her thundering footsteps and mumbled threats against, “ That brat that’s been escaping us all night. ” In his mind, he weighed his options — there was only one exit to hallway, which headed back through the main Atrium, but he luckily had his camera now, so if she got close enough …

She sniffed the air, then headed in his direction.

Gregory bit his cheek to stop any sound from escaping, so hard he tasted blood, as Roxy changed her direction and started heading right towards the bin he was hiding in. Quickly, Gregory raised his camera into position —

“Gotcha, brat!”

— and as soon as she peaked over the edge of the bin, clicked his camera. Everything was then bathed in a bright white flash for a few seconds that made him blink a few times to clear the spots in his vision.

However, for Roxanne who got the full blast, the consequences were much more severe. She screamed and staggered back, clutching at her eyes, and Gregory whooped before launching himself out of the bin and breaking into a run, zooming right past the blinded wolf. Man, it felt so good to be able to stun them again. Now he wasn’t completely helpless!

However, what hadn’t expected was for there to already be someone else waiting for him.

Gregory skidded to a stop when he exited the back hall, only to come face-to-face with Chica about twenty feet away. The commotion must have drawn her closer, and the screech of Gregory coming to a halt so nearby to her only caught her attention more. Gregory sucked in a breath when she turned to look at him, looking around blankly, and their eyes met.

They stared at each other.

Gregory blinked. Chica blinked as well, but then let out a loud cry of, “ Lost boy over here! ” before breaking into chase.

With a yelp, he went to click his camera, but as he slammed the button — nothing happened. Crap, crap! It was still recharging! Oh, goddamnit, why did these things always find him when he wasn’t able to do anything?!

Rushing away as Chica continued to advance, Gregory pressed the ‘call’ button on his watch, trying not to remind himself of what had happened the last time he was in this situation. How he had been caught. How Monty had caught him. How he had — no, no, don’t focus on that. Couldn’t focus on that. He just needed to run run run, and get away from Chica, lose her in maze of hallways and attractions. She wasn’t the fastest, or the strongest, so he could outrun her.

Monty hadn’t been the fastest either.

( Don’t think about it don’t think about it — )

Gregory took a sharp corner towards the main Atrium, but as he did his foot caught on the railing and he went sprawling to the floor. Still holding his camera, he heard a heart-stopping crack when it ended up pinned under his body, but with his chest still heaving he pushed himself to his feet again and kept running. Chica was still chasing him, still letting out calls so sweet it made him want to throw up. He did feel like throwing up, with how ragged his throat felt with every breath he gulped and how his stomach was swirling in terror.

( Don’t think about it don’t —)

“Little boy, please stop running! Do you want some candy? Just come closer!”

Absolutely not, absolutely not, absolutely not — Gregory took another corner, gripping his camera tight in his hand. It was probably charged by now, and he tried to get a good grip on it with his sweaty hands. It nearly fell out of his grasp as he turned around to aim at Chica, not stopping running and catching his shoulder on a nearby photo booth and sending him careening through the curtain and against the inner wall, but just before he fell in — he clicked the button.

Nothing happened. No flash, no bright light, no —

( Don’t think about — )

The screen was cracked. As was the lens, spiderweb threads across the glass, and as Gregory stumbled back against the wall of the inside of the photo booth, he realized what the crack had been when he fell. He had crushed it underneath him, and now it was broken and he couldn’t do anything!

“We’re just trying to help!” Chica’s pounding footsteps reached the outside of the booth, and Gregory could see her glowing purple eyes as she peered through the gap of the curtains. He was trapped, he was trapped and it was just like last time, he couldn’t escape he couldn’t escape and —

( Don’t — )

He was going to die, again!

“There you are!” Chica crowed, pulling the curtain open to reveal his hiding spot, eyes dull and emotionless despite the glow. “What are you doing hiding over here?”

Gregory screamed as she reached in, and grabbed the collar of his shirt to drag him out and holding him at eye-level. He kicked and kicked and tried to pull her hand off him, but nothing he did worked. She didn’t feel his shoes connect with her stomach, didn’t notice his nails digging into the cracks between her plating. She just kept staring, eyes glowing with something he could almost call malice if it wasn’t so emotionless, but Gregory was torn away from her by the floor suddenly shaking around them, and a familiar booming voice called out;

“Chica! What are you doing? Let him go, now!”

Freddy. It was Freddy, he was here, Freddy could save him, but — Chica didn’t seem to register her friends voice, just pulling him closer while giggling manically, and Gregory could only scream.

He had fixed his mistake, he had changed the order of things, he couldn’t die now that he had this second chance, no no no no not again not again not —

LOOP 03.

“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”

Gregory exhaled. Stomach hatch. Chica, eyes staring unblinking, everything going black. No camera. No watch. And Freddy — hadn’t made it in time.

It was familiar. It was way too familiar.

Well, shit.

Chapter Text

LOOP 03. (Cont.)

So. Gregory was definitely stuck in a time loop.

Which was … bad. Obviously.

To start with, he didn’t know much about time loops. Or that they were even real . Though, to be honest, if it was going to happen anywhere — the place the was already completely bonkers was a good bet. Though, it wasn’t like that made it any better. Stuck repeating the same few hours where he was constantly running for his life over and over again? Yeah, not the first time he would have picked to be stuck in. Besides — he had only heard about time loops from tv, and in those types of movies and shows usually the character needed to learn some lesson or accomplish a certain goal to break free.

And Gregory had absolutely no freakin’ clue in where to start with that.

It was … he probably just had to escape the Pizzaplex, right? That would make sense. He had failed the last two times, so he had just been reset to the beginning to try again. That was nice, he guessed, since he would very much like to keep living and get out of here and not die to the claws (or teeth) of some colourful robot animals. That was not something anybody in their right mind would ever want to do. But, that also meant that Gregory needed to actually get out , and he had already wrecked it twice at that. And there was always the chance that maybe the goal here wasn’t to escape and Gregory was just trapped here for eternity, cursed to die over and over and over again —

He pushed that thought aside. No, he was going with the ‘he-had-to-escape’ theory. Because if he didn’t, if that wasn’t what he was suppose to do … well, he was in for a buttload of more trouble. However, it was nice to know he has unlimited chances at this thing. Or, he assumed it was unlimited. He hoped it was, because at this point, it looked impossible to get through this place without dying at least a few time.

At least Freddy was still helping him. That was a positive.

This time, instead of freaking out like an idiot, Gregory … kept his calm. Politely knocked on the inside of Freddy’s chest plate, got out, and explained that he yes, he had been hiding in there since Freddy collapsed, yes, he was very sorry for it and all that jazz, and yes, he was leaving now, no need to worry. Freddy didn’t need to help him, Gregory could do it on his own — after all, he was basically a pro at this already.

But the stupid bear kept insisting on helping and Gregory couldn’t — well, nothing he said persuaded him differently. He still stopped for first aid when Gregory cut his arm in the vent (he wasn’t as careful as he had been last time, but since even when they didn’t stop at first aid he still couldn’t make it time, he didn’t think it mattered too much), cleaned the blood off and applied the star-shaped bandaid with care. He still let Gregory crawl inside his stomach hatch, still advised him on where to go and how to get security badges and was still there when he needed to hide from the others. As much as Gregory hated the bear’s dumb positivity and general mothering, it was good to know he still had an ally in this.

Each time, without fail, Freddy helped him. Three times over, and never once had the bear showed any inkling of deception, or animosity, or been anything less than stupidly kind and warm and helpful. Gregory didn’t get how he could be so — so like that , all the time. Things like that got you hurt, or beaten, or killed, but Freddy never dropped the act or appeared like it was a ruse. He even had sympathy for his friends, actively trying to murder him, and believed they were still good. It was baffling to him.

Though, Freddy was also … well, reliable. The one thing Gregory could really count on, in this insane place where he kept reliving the same horrible hours over and over. Out of the entire mall, Freddy was probably the only good thing to come out of it.

But Gregory wouldn’t ever say that aloud, especially to the bear. He could barely say it to himself.

Speaking of, Gregory really needed to get back to him. He and the animatronic had separated awhile ago, when Freddy needed to charge and Gregory went to go get a security badge upgrade in one of the security offices. He would definitely be done charging by now, and would probably start trying to contact him on his Fazwatch soon. Given his luck, it would probably be just as Gregory was hiding from something. Because of course it would be.

Hurrying up with a cautious glance every which way, Gregory ducked into an ‘Employee Only’ door and headed down to the utility tunnels. It would be way quicker to get to Freddy that way, and he wouldn’t have to deal with (as many) annoying Staff Bots. Sure, the tunnels did creep him out a bit — especially when the red-light-green-light Endo things down there — but those weren’t in these parts of the tunnels. Hopefully. He still slowed his pace down a bit, though, and looked around carefully when he entered. The chill down here made him shiver a bit, but it otherwise looked free of any forces looking like they wanted to murder him, so he was in the clear and started walking.

However, after a few minutes of travelling, Gregory realized he wasn’t alone as he thought.

As he slowly crept through the tunnels, carefully looking out for Endos or rogue animatronics, he heard the sound of loud voices and things crashing against eachother, and froze. Hurriedly, he jumped behind a bunch of shelves, though the noise didn’t come down the tunnel towards him like he assumed it would. No, it just … kept going.

As he strained his ears to listen, he realized that it didn’t sound like an animatronic. The animatronics, while loud and prone to accidentally causing messes (especially when chasing him), didn’t typically make sounds like that. The Endos were quiet, Freddy was waiting for him in a charging pod upstairs, which meant the only thing it could be —

The security guard. The security guard was down here too.

Gregory sucked in a breath, and tensed up a bit. He didn’t like the security guard, Vanessa, almost as much as he hated the animatronics. He hadn’t even ever directly encountered her directly outside of when she caught him and locked him up in one of the security offices. At least, during the night. He had had a run-in with her before, back before he was caught up in all this mess, and was basically the reason he had ended up in it in the first place.

(This mall place had been busy when Gregory first arrived, given it was Friday afternoon, but it seemed like in the past few minutes the Atrium had gotten way more crowded like there was some sort of half-off-everything-in-store type of deal going on.

Throngs of people were rushing every which way, trying to enjoy their meal or find a good spot to rest or attempt to flag down a Staff Bot to complain about some inane thing. It made his swiping all the more harder, with more eyes to potentially spot him, but he still couldn’t bring himself to stop. This place was a goldmine of prepackaged snacks and warm food, and if this was any other places, he would probably have called it quits by now.

And he would quit, soon. He was still smart enough to know he was pushing his luck here, since it had been quite a few hours since he first snuck in and people were no doubt gonna start noticing the dirty, unkept kid unaccompanied by any adults or friends and glaring distrustfully at everyone who came near.

He would just stay for a bit longer. Grab one last slice of pizza to tie him over for a few days, see if he could jiggle the vending machines to make the snacks fall, and then Gregory would be out of here before anybody was wiser. He just needed to find some poor scum he could grab something from, and — ah, over there. Perfect.

He zeroed on a table of loudly chattering kids, laughing about some dumb thing he didn’t care about. But, that meant they were throughly distracted, so Gregory quickly ducked between the people now just standing around weirdly, barely moving anymore. He huffed, and managed to push through and got within a few feet of the table, where he slowed his pace down to a normal kid-in-awe-at-the-shiny-things-around-them speed, falling back into his usual routine.

The kids at the table were distracted, no adults were looking, and as Gregory walked by — making sure to keep his head tilted upwards as if he was admiring the evening sky through glass ceiling above — he shot his hand out and swiped a piece of pizza from the plate on the edge of the table.

As soon as he got his prize, Gregory sped up again and disappeared into the crowd, before grinning to himself. The slice was still warm, and when he took a bite of it, it was just classic pepperoni. Sure, it was still tasted like cardboard, but it was better then eating literal cardboard. Which Gregory had … tried, a few times. Just out of curiosity. It tasted bad, in case anyone was wondering. Really bad.

Hmm. Didn’t matter. He had perfectly good slice of pizza right here for himself, and he’d be full for days afterwards. This place was the best .

“Hey, excuse me! That’s not yours! Go give it back!”

Gregory immediately froze at the sound of someone yelling behind him, and turned towards the commotion and sucked in a breath through his nose with his cheeks still full of food. There was a blonde lady in a security guard uniform — he had been avoiding the guards all day and, while generally incompetent, were a huge pain in the ass — pushing through the crowds of people, and staring directly at him with a look Gregory recognized well.

Hostility. Coldness. Hatred. And, deeper still, something darker. Something violent, murderous, directed right towards him.

Nothing good ever came out of a look like that.

So, before Gregory had even processed what was going on, he dropped his slice of pizza, not even caring about the wasted food, and started running. The security guard gave chase immediately with a shout, because of course she did, but it just then the voice over the intercom started droning on about something or other, before all the lights dimmed. Spotlights came to life, fog rolled off of the stage, people started cheering, and —

Well, Gregory didn’t pay attention to any of that. He just kept running.

He was starting to regret all the nice things he said about this place.)

So, on a principle, Gregory didn’t like her. Not even counting the weird thing going on with the bunny lady. Vanessa and Vanny? Yeah, definitely connected, but Gregory didn’t really have time to dwell on it. He had to keep moving.

Gotta keep moving, or he’d die.

That was why, with a quick glance around the tunnel, he stepped out from his hiding spot and kept moving forward towards where the noise was coming from. Probably not the smartest thing to do in this situation, but there were tons of hiding spots he could duck into closer to where the security guard was mucking around. Besides, he wanted to see what was up with her.

He reached the small alcove where the sound was coming from, and made sure to go as quietly as humanly possible as he got near enough to make out the words coming from inside. Creeping forward, Gregory crouched behind a stack of cardboard boxes and wooden shipping crates, then peaked through the cracks in between at the sight in front of him. It was in fact Vanessa, who was … well, doing something. He couldn’t really tell, but she was mostly just pacing around and mumbling to herself, before cutting off her ramblings with an annoyed grunt and rubbing at her forehead.

“Okay, Vanessa, you can do this — just gotta find the kid, yeah? Just gotta find him, then you can deal with the rest of … this . Later.” Her voice drifted towards Gregory, and he held his breathe as she began pacing again, sounding angrier this time. “Ugh, stupid kid. Stupid mall. Stupid - stupid everything, ARGH! ”

She kicked a bunch of bins and sent them tumbling to the floor with a loud crash that echoed through the tunnels. Gregory suppressed a flinch, and pressed a hand against his mouth to capture any noise that escaped. Luckily, she still didn’t notice him, as after her display of annoyance she marched away down the hallway, still mumbling profanities and threats Gregory thought an employee working at a children entertainment centre really shouldn’t use if they didn’t want to be fired. Though, given that she seemed like a jerk anyway (and possibly a weird child-murdering bunny), he shouldn’t be too surprised.

It did confuse him, though, as he slowly padded out from his hiding spot and kept walking in the way he had been going before. Gregory hadn’t ever seen her down here before, but then again, this was probably just her normal routine, and he had just never run into her before since he was off doing other stuff. Now he had the chance to. Though, she sounded really upset over something. Over him . He had to have been the ‘kid’ she was talking about, unless there were other children hiding in here somewhere — unlikely. He would have run into them by now.

Though, Gregory didn’t care enough to dwell on the subject to much. If the guard was really who he thought she was, he didn’t give a shit if she was annoyed or angry with him or something else. She probably deserved it anyways.

Still, Gregory called her a bunch of not nice names as he walked away, that would probably get  him fired  from a children entertainments centre. Only in his head, though. He didn’t want to risk Freddy hearing him through the watch, or something.

•

•

•

“Hey, Freddy, this time, can you … come with me? To wherever I go?”

The animatronic blinked down at him, tilting his head curiously. “Of course I can. Where to, superstar?”

Gregory shrugged, humming vaguely before he decided. In fact, he didn’t know exactly where to go, but he knew that soon enough Freddy would suggest to him to go and collect some sort of weapon. Might as well just skip the pleasantries. “The greenrooms. I want to go to one of the attractions, and there’ll probably be party passes in one of them somewhere.”

Freddy tilted forward slightly, sounding proud when he spoke, “That is a great idea, superstar! There should be one in Chica’s greenroom. I might need to pause to charge momentarily, but I can accompany you there.”

“Great.” Gregory stepped forward as Freddy opened his stomach hatch, and he climbed inside and settled in. After so many times of climbing in and out, he was seamless at getting into position. It was even starting to become a little bit less uncomfortable. “Let’s go.”

When the hatch closed, Freddy chuckled, and patted the outside of his stomach before he started walking.

While inside the cramped space, Gregory checked his watch just to get a gauge on how he was doing compared to previously. Hmm. It was about quarter to four. They didn’t have long till the hour changed and the horrible moon thing came out — they needed to get the greenrooms before that, so that they were near a recharge station. So far, Gregory had never died to the Attendant, and he didn’t want to break that streak now.

Reaching the greenrooms after a few minutes of walking, Freddy paused outside the small waiting alcove outside Chica’s greenroom. Gregory exited his stomach hatch when he saw the coast was clear, and was about to walk inside when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

“Gregory, there should be party pass on Chica’s vanity somewhere, or in one of her drawers.” The bear explained, in his usual excitable tone. “We all keep small collectables and trinkets in our greenrooms to gift to visiting children, so you just need to search for one!”

Gregory wanted to explain he knew that already, that Freddy had told him that before, but bit his tongue and instead just said, “Okay, on her vanity. Got it.”

“Alright, superstar. I’ll wait out here for you.” Freddy’s said, his ears wiggling a bit. Gregory huffed, his brief annoyance disappearing as Freddy stared at him. Something about the bear made it hard to stay annoyed at him.

Turning away from him and heading into the greenroom, Gregory made a beeline for Chica’s vanity and located the party pass without any trouble. As he slipped it into his pocket, though, he recalled what Freddy had said a few moments prior and grinned to himself. He had no care for ‘collectables and trinkets’, they weren’t really useful in most circumstances (scrambling ATM machines not withstanding, though he would have to remember that one for later), but there could be something else useful in here. It was absolutely littered in crap, he could probably find something to nab, right?

Beginning to search, Gregory went from corner to corner of the room, looking for anything to pillage. Maybe a few snack bars or new clothes or something, perhaps some loose change if he was lucky. Except, it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t anything good in here.

The arcade machine was broken, and banging the side didn’t let out any loose quarters. Moving the balloons and plushies around revealed nothing. All the drawers in the vanity were locked, though he doubted they would have anything good in them anyway. All in all, it was a waste of time, though he decided to check under the couch at least, just to cover all his bases.

When he dropped to his knees in front of the couch and peer underneath, however, Gregory let out a gasp.

Underneath the couch was absolutely littered with trash.

“What the hell?” He muttered, wrinkling his nose. “Who keeps their room this messy? ”

The smell was worse with his face so close, so he plugged his nose before he could puke and grabbed his flashlight to illuminate the space underneath. It didn’t reveal anything the smell hadn’t, though it did reenforce Chica’s obvious love for pizza. There were rotten pizza slices he was pretty sure were holding enough bacteria to be considered a society, some empty boxes that looked like they had been chewed on , plus a whole bunch of clear plastic wrappings and scraps of black plastic that looked like it belonged to a garbage bag.

Sitting up, Gregory clicked his flashlight off and put it back to his pocket, before getting to his feet with a huff. He knew Chica had a … hunger, for lack of a better word, for garbage like it was regular food — ignoring the fact she couldn’t eat ‘regular food’ in the first place. It was how he had lured her into the trash compacter in the first loop after all, so he could get her beak and upgrade Freddy. But this was … well, extreme. And gross. Really gross.

Plus, obviously, not regular animatronic behaviour. And Gregory had a feeling it was connected to the other not-regular-animatronic behaviour she and the others had been experiencing.

Padding out the door to where Freddy was still waiting, thinking hard, Gregory was startled from his thoughts by the bear exclaiming in greeting, “Hello, superstar! Did you find a party pass?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I got it.” Once his thoughts caught up to him, Gregory pulled it out of his pocket to show it in proof, before deciding to just voice the thoughts that were bugging him so much. “I was … wondering, though. Chica’s greenroom was really dirty, like — it was covered in garbage and stuff. What’s up with that?”

He decided not to reveal the fact he knew about her hunger for garbage, though as Freddy hummed thoughtfully, he felt a bit guilty for keeping it from him. He pushed that feeling away as soon as he felt it, though. It was stupid. He shouldn’t feel guilty about keeping it from Freddy, because it was the smart thing to do. He couldn’t let him know he knew about stuff he shouldn’t. Couldn’t let him learn what Gregory had done to his friends before. Couldn’t tell him about what had happened, how many times he had —

( Don’t think about it. Focus. )

“I … do not know.” Freddy finally said, sounding a bit concerned. “Chica has always been the face of fitness here at the ‘Plex, so she encourages the guest to stay fit and healthy through food and exercise. She can even store food within her own stomach compartment, so she can ‘eat’ with guests and children at birthday parties.”

“That doesn’t explain the garbage thing, though.” Gregory pointed out, frowning.

“Yes, it does not. She usually does not have any problems with that part of her function, since she gets her compartment cleaned out at the end of each day, but …”Freddy trailed off, then made a sound akin to a sigh. “Lately, it seems she has gained an appetite for … garbage. None of us, nor the employees, know how to fix it, and Chica herself doesn’t see any issue it despite the effect it has been having on her internal components.”

Well, that made sense. He had found employee notices and maintenance logs about it sometime ago, and it seemed like the problem with Chica was that her ‘stomach compartment’ was only meant to hold a certain amount of a certain type of food (pizza, mostly) and that her eating an abundance of garbage exceeded all those limits. But what he still didn’t get …

“ Why? Why would she do that?” He asked, his frown deepening and throwing his hands up into the air. “She’s just hurting herself by doing it!”

“I do not know, superstar.” Freddy made that sighing noise again. “It has been going on for months, and I have a feeling that it’s …”

He did that stupid trialing off thing again, and Gregory gave him an annoyed look. “What?”

“That it’s connected to her … odd behaviour tonight.” Freddy explained, voice going a tone lower than it usually did. “All my friends have been behaving … erratically these past few months. Chica has had her odd eating habits, Roxanne has been more self-conscious, Monty more aggressive, and nothing I can do makes it better … but it worries me. If it is in fact connected to their behaviour towards you tonight, does that mean whatever is making act this way has already been in their system for months ?”

Gregory blinked at how Freddy seemed to suddenly retreat into his own thoughts like he often did himself, lost in his mind and working himself into a panic. His ears were low, eyes staring far-off, and Gregory didn’t like it when he looked like that. All … worried and upset. It was bad, and not a good look at him, and he needed to stop looking like that immediately because it was making Gregory not feel good and he hated it.

“Freddy?” He asked quietly, stepping closer to the bear and reaching out to brush his fingers against his forearm. The metal was warm to the touch. “Freddy, are you okay?”

What he really wanted to say was stop worrying me , but the words got caught in his throat and he ended up just swallowing them down to the spot where everything else he needed to ignored laid in his chest.

Luckily, his soft words seemed to work, as Freddy shook himself out of his odd stupor and blinked down at him. “Yes, I am fine, superstar. I am sorry for … what just came over me. But now that you have a party pass, which attraction would you like to go to — Fazer Blaster or Monty Golf?”

He was cheerful again, tone matching his peppy body language, and Gregory let his hand fall back to his side. He felt a bit like pressing the issue, but Gregory decided that Freddy acting like this was infinitely better than however he had been acting before, so he decided it was better to just drop. Besides, the reason behind the others weird behaviour didn’t really matter to him, as long as he could just avoid them and get out of here.

So, he just plastered a grin he didn’t feel on his face, and replied, “I’m thinking probably Fazer Blast. Monty Golf is boring. I want a gun.”

Now that he had had both weapons, he decided the Fazer Blaster was definitely better, even if it was simply because it wasn’t associated with Monty. Plus, it always felt nice to pretend-shoot at the animatronics, even if it only blinded them.

Freddy, however, seemed to take his answer well.

“Great choice, superstar! Now, come. You may even get your very own Fazer Blaster — if you win, of course.” Freddy seemed to be positively bursting with sudden energy, and placed his hand on Gregory’s shoulder while wiggling his ears. Figured. Freddy always seemed happier when he choose Fazer Blast over Monty Golf, but anything was better than how he had been acting before. “Though, I’m sure you will. You have proven yourself quite capable in the face of adversity!”

Gregory huffed a bit, feeling his face warm up, and he shook Freddy’s hand off his shoulder. Though, the animatronic didn’t seem to be offended by it, only drawing his arm back to his side. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can we go now?”

“Lead the way.” Freddy said, amusement in his voice, and Gregory just glared lightly at him before continuing on their way.

He lead him away from the greenrooms and towards the main area of the mall, though Gregory’s eye still caught on the display cases all around them as they passed by, showcasing the multiple different versions of microphones and guitars and even a weird cupcake with buck teeth and eyeballs. He could only guess that all this stuff came from previous locations. He knew Fazbear Entertainment, the company that ran the mall (or, at least he thought they did), had been around since the ‘80s, and that the Pizzaplex had been some sort of grand opening for their whatever-year anniversary, but other than that … well, Gregory didn’t know much about them. Or, at least, positive things about them.

Of course he knew about the rumours, about things that happened in their early history, of things like missing children and animatronics not acting right. Everybody in town knew, since he was pretty sure the first restaurant had been actually in their town or at least close by, though the rumours had seemed to settle with that weird VR thing that came out a few years back. Or maybe with those other games, the 8-bit ones? Yeah, Gregory had no clue. Those things had came out when he was a baby, and it wasn’t like he was ever going to be able to own them. Even before he ended up living on the streets and things like video games fell to the lowest section of his priorities.

The Pizzaplex, though. He knew about that. A lot.

When it had first opened, about two years ago at this point, opinions had been … mixed. He remembered hearing people talk about at the library and the chain restaurants he frequented (if he had enough loose change he could buy something small and then he was allowed to sit inside all day and enjoy the warmth), or even just seeing the newspapers and billboards all around advertising it. The adults said it was Fazbear Entertainments latest attempt at stealing peoples money with shiny robots and flashy garbage while covering up their multiple lawsuits. The children were ecstatic and wanted their parents to bring them to see the shiny robots and flashy garbage. Gregory hadn’t cared, because at that point he was just trying to survive until the next day and didn’t even know what a ‘Fazbear’ even was .

That was, until he saw it for the first time. The Pizzaplex was on the outskirts of town, surrounded by trees just before you hit the rural farmland, so it was a bit of a hike for Gregory to get there. However, when he started seeing more and more people walking around with merch from the place, or pizza boxes left in dumpsters, he decided to check it out. Winter was hitting soon and any place he could get free food and a warm place to sleep was worth investigating.

But then, when he finally bit the bullet and walked the mile it took to get there (he luckily already haunted the edge of town, so it wasn’t like he trekked across the entire city to get there), he had been greeted with what he thought had been the jackpot. A place filled with warmth and food and clothing without holes in it, with security too dumb to notice one extra kid slip in with a family of ten? Yeah, it was the best. Or had been, up until the security guard —

( Stop. Focus. )

Yeah, this place could go suck a pinecone. He hated it.

Shaking himself free of his thoughts, Gregory huffed and had the distant thought to check his watch, as they reached the end of the hallway — Rockstar Row, he was pretty sure it was called. Doing so, he went to look at the cameras, to check if there were any animatronics around that he needed to look out for, but felt his heart skip a beat when his eyes drifted to the blinking white clock on the corner of the screen.

3:59 am.

He stopped walking, right there in the middle of the hallway, and exclaimed, “Oh, crap!”

“Gregory, what is it?” Freddy asked, stopping as well and looking worried. “Is something wrong?”

He turned to look at animatronic, feeling his eyes widen. “It’s almost —“

But before he could even get the words out, the lights turned off.

“Shit!” He swore, looking around at the now dark hallway. Even the lights in the casings were dimmed, so the only source of light around them now was red-tinted emergency lights way up on the ceiling, and Freddy’s glowing blue eyes blinking down at him in abject horror. “That stupid moon is out again! We have to hide!”

“Gregory, mind your language!” The bear scolded, sounding so offended at the use of curse word Gregory almost felt like apologizing but didn’t simply because it was stupid. “But I agree, we must get to a recharge station. Quickly.”

Gregory didn’t need to be told twice, rushing past Freddy towards the recharge station he knew was hiding in the back hallway behind the greenrooms. Freddy called out his name behind him and quickened his pace to catch up, but Gregory was already slipping between display casings and abandoned strollers and garbage bins. He would never admit aloud, but the moon side of the Daycare Attendant did freak him out a bit — it was mostly its uncanny ability to always be able to find him, no matter where he was in the mall.

“ Naughty boy, naughty rule breaker, where are you. ~ ”

Goddamnit. He really needed to stop pushing his luck with these things.

“ Freddy! ” He said in a hushed whisper, looking around for the bear as his footsteps suddenly stopped. Somewhere above him, he could hear a creaking noise, but he ignored it as he looked around for the animatronic. “Freddy, where —“

“Gregory, over here!” The familiar voice called out, and Gregory turned to see the bear had gone the opposite direction as him, towards a recharge station on the other side of the hallway. “Come, quickly!”

Oh. Man, that was a lot more closer than trying to go through the greenrooms. Gregory wanted to smack himself for missing it, for being so stupid , but the dim lights reminded him of just what they were trying to escape and he decided berating himself could wait for later. Right now, he just needed to get to Freddy, and they could huddle in the charging station until it was safe. Until the lights turned back on, and then he would only have to deal with all the thousands of other things that wanted to kill him.

Just as he went to step forward, though, there was dark movement in the corner of his eye and rustling presence above him, and Gregory could feel his heart sink. It was a feeling he was familiar with now, after experiencing it two times over. The dawning moment of realization when he knew that he had hit the point of no return, where there was no redoing the mistake he had made.

Yeah, he wasn’t getting out of this one.

Before he could even blink, something suddenly grabbed the back of his shirt, and Gregory was yanked off the ground. Freddy screamed his name and Gregory screamed his, because even though he knew it was coming he was unprepared for the feeling of his stomach swooping dangerously low and cold metal brushing the back of his neck, and he squeezed his eyes shut on instinct to avoid having to look down below him. Or at the ever-grinning face now inches away from his own.

“ Naughty boy. Very, very naughty boy. ” Moon growled low from above him, spindly fingers wrapping around his mouth to stop his screaming. Gregory still didn’t open his eyes. He couldn’t, he couldn’t, he couldn’t — “ Nighty night, naughty boy. ”

And then, Gregory felt nothing.

LOOP 04.

“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”

Solid. Here. Real real real , a surface beneath him and around him and he was —

He was fine. Just like before. Just like always.

( Don’t think about it — )

Ugh. This was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

LOOP 05.

Freddy, Gregory quickly learned, was very adept at figuring out when something was wrong.

It was bullshit. He couldn’t figure out that all his friends had turned into homicidal maniacs or that there was still a bunny in the Pizzaplex, but somehow he could tell when Gregory was hungry, or injured, or just plain tired . And, it would’ve started to get on his nerves if the bear didn’t immediately rectify the issue that was bothering him immediately after noticing it. It made Gregory feel — he didn’t know what, but it was weird. Warm inside, almost like he was burning but not quite, a safer kind of heat. He hated it.

“Gregory?” There he went again, about to point something out Gregory had been trying to ignore because focusing on anything other than his survival resulted in his death and Freddy hadn’t realized that yet . “Have you eaten anything today?”

Yep, of course.

“I had some pizza before I … before your show started.” He replied, keeping his flashlight trained ahead of him. They were heading towards the area with the smaller restaurant, like the Mexican place (El Chip’s?) to hopefully loop back around to the main Atrium and avoid the animatronics prowling around. “Why do you care?”

It came out more snappish then he intended it to, though Freddy didn’t falter at his tone. “I am simply curious, superstar, since you have been doing lots of physical exercise these past few hours. Children of your age and gender need around 1200 calories per meal, even more if they have been running around as you have.”

Gregory could hear the unspoken request in his voice, and grumbled to himself, grateful Freddy was currently trailing behind him and thus couldn’t see his expression. “I’m fine, I’m not hungry. How do you even know how old I am, anyways?”

“The initial scan I took of you determined that you are between the age of seven to nine years old, based on your height, weight and general physique.” Freddy replied, with only a hint of teacher-tone.

Gregory snorted. “Well, your scan was wrong. I’m eleven.”

Freddy stopped walking, and Gregory sighed through his nose and stopped as well to see what had gotten the animatronic attention. To his surprise, his gaze was focused on him , unreadable except for his eyes wide with shock. He shifted in place, uncomfortable with the suddenly weird intense look was being given, and shuffled back a bit.

“Everything … okay?” He asked slowly, trying to remember if Freddy had ever looked so stun before but coming up blank.

Freddy blinked, before stating plainly, “You are … quite small for your age.”

“Well, yeah …?” Gregory didn’t really know what to say that. He had always been on the shorter side, a fact that got him teased by a lot of the other kids back at school, but his time on the streets did him no favours. He didn’t want to tell Freddy that, though. The bear would probably flip out.

When he trailed off, Freddy didn’t say anything, appearing to be thinking to himself. However, it did leave an awkward silence stretching out between them, one that had Gregory debating on whether or not to keep walking and leave Freddy behind just to escape it. He hated silences like this, when the adults were thinking over what he said and debating what to do with him. They always decided on something bad, and Gregory could tell, could feel the tension in the air hanging heavy between them. And sure, Freddy wasn’t human so he couldn’t really be an ‘adult’ — but the basis was the same.

Luckily, he didn’t have to come to a conclusion, because Freddy only blinked again and announced, “Well, that is all the more reason to grab some food now . You may spur on a growth spurt that way! Come, El Chip’s is just nearby. We can get some food for you there.”

Gregory frowned at him, especially his peppy tone. “I told you I’m not hungry.”

“And I do not believe you.” Freddy replied. Those words would have been worrying to him if not for how he sounded like he was teasing. “I deal with children every day, superstar. I can tell when they’re lying.”

He still sounded like he was teasing, gentle and familiar, and there it was again — that odd feeling, deep in his chest, that made Gregory feel all warm inside in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time, as long as he could remember. It made him want to sit down, to relax, to just ignore everything else for a bit and just exist here. No murderous animatronics, no crazy bunnies, no time loop or anything else.

Except, he couldn’t. If he did, he’d die.

But …

He could get some food. After all, there was more than enough of it to go around, and it would do no good if he passed out from an empty stomach while running away from someone, or whatever. Besides, Freddy could protect him and keep watch. And he might as well enjoy something from here in one of the loops.

During his inner thought process, however, Freddy had started walking towards the restaurant, but paused when he realized Gregory wasn’t following. His ears were perked and eyes friendly, nothing like the burning red gazes that pinned Gregory in place and made him fear for his life. However, Gregory could see the question he was about to ask before he even asked it. He could already guess Freddy wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer about this whole thing.

Whatever. He could deal with it, and the weird feeling in his chest he was trying to ignore.

“Gregory?” Freddy asked, quiet and calling. “Are you coming?”

He shook his head, then started following him, ignoring the way Freddy seemed to perk up. “Yeah. Yeah, just thinking.”

Gregory hated this. He hated this so much.

LOOP 07.

“Hey, Freddy, why does the Daycare have generators in the playpen in the first place? That seems like poor planning when there’s gonna be toddlers running around inside.”

Outside, Freddy hummed thoughtfully, and Gregory could feel it reverberate around him from where he was tucked away inside his stomach hatch. “Well, I believe it’s in case the lights shut down outside of the regulated nap times — the children in the Superstar Daycare can turn the lights back should employees not be able too manually.”

“But that makes no sense .” Gregory would have thrown his hands up in the air if he wasn’t inside Freddy right now, so he settled for just huffing. “They’re toddlers . It’s not like they’re gonna be able to do much.”

“Actually, the Superstar Daycare will serve children from ages five to eleven —“

“Whatever, my point still stands.” He interrupted, snorting at Freddy’s usual habit to constantly tot for the stupid mall. “Besides, why is turning the lights off so bad anyways? Does the Moon guy attack other kids too?”

Freddy was quiet for a moment, the silence punctuated only by his footsteps and Gregory’s shallow breathing, which did nothing good for his heart rate. “I’m afraid us in the main band do not know much about how the Daycare Attendant has been fairing lately.”

Like that wasn’t completely ominous, but okay.

“What is that suppose to mean?” Gregory called him out for it, because he hated when people said stupid unclear things like that to dodge a subject.

“Well …” Freddy paused again, and Gregory waited patiently this time despite the fact that he wanted to speak up again and drill him for answers. When the bear finally spoke up, however, his voice was low and almost wistful sounding. “When the Superstar Daycare was first implemented into the Pizzaplex, the Daycare Attendant was allowed to freely roam around the rest of the Pizzaplex and interact with the rest of us. However, a few months ago, the Attendant … well, for reasons unknown to us, they were confined to the Daycare at all times except for Moon’s hourly patrol. There has also been more complaints from guests, I’ve heard, about both their behaviours … around the same time my friends started behaving erratically as well …”

Oh, no. He was starting to sound like he had a few loops ago, when talking about his friends oddities in the past few months, and Gregory didn’t want to deal with that again. Couldn’t deal with that again, not when they were still wandering away from the Daycare, not when Gregory was still trying to grapple with his own issues, not when he was still stuck in a twisted loop which always ended with him dying over and over again, constantly alone .

(“Hey, er, uh … Sun?”

The animatronic currently dancing back and forth in front of him, blocking his path, stopped at the mention of their name and immediately went at attention. Standing up straighter, they leaned over towards him, slightly intimidating and not noticing when Gregory pulled back accordingly. “Yes, new friend? Do you need something?! We have anything you could need here! Juice boxes, craft supplies, Fazbear Entertainment patented Sundrop and Moondrop candy —“

“No!” Gregory exclaimed, before the Attendant could get another word in. “No, I don’t need anything! I want to ask you something!

However, his outburst just caused more problems, because they just zeroed in on him like a bloodhound. Despite having no way to move their face, he was sure they were glaring at him. “No yelling in the Daycare, new friend! It’s very, very rude and we won’t tolerate that behaviour!”

“Okay, okay, sorry.” He replied, not sounding very sorry at all but too annoyed to try and fake it. “I just want to ask you something.”

Sun leaned back, bouncing on their heels, once again seeming their usual cheerful-borderline-manic self. “Of course, of course, you can! What do you want to ask, new friend?”

They suddenly focused on him again, scarily intense as they moved back-and-forth, and Gregory swallowed thickly. It was fine, he told himself. This was fine, it was all fine . Just get this over with.

“I, uh — look, I’m not suppose to be here. The mall’s closed and I’m stuck, so I need to get out.” He explained, deciding that the plainest version of the truth was the best course in this situation. “I need the security badge from over there to do that. So, can I just … go grab it? Then I’ll be out of your hair and you can go back to … whatever you were doing before I got here. I’m sure you need some downtime from dealing with toddlers all day, yeah?”

It would cut him down on some time, after all. He wouldn’t have to deal with Moon that way, would he?

Nervously, he gave them a grin and pointed towards the desk which was only about twenty feet away, but as soon as the words left his mouth and the animatronic followed his finger to where he was pointing, the spikes on their head emulating sun rays began to move up and down into their head, and if they had eyelids he was sure they would be blinking owlishly at him right now. But, after a moment, their head started spinning and they turned … well, the only way he could describe it was darker. Something in their stance, their mannerisms, it changed as they pinned him with their blank eyes and Gregory froze.

For a second he was afraid they were going to change into Moon, despite that being irrational — the lights were still bright and buzzing, fluorescent bulbs burning into his skull — but he still found that he couldn’t move as they stared at him. It was a like a deer trapped in headlights, caught so off guard by the switch in behaviour that he could only stare and blink and keep his hands from shaking.

“We’re not allowed back there, new friend, and neither are you . Only naughty children do that, and you don’t want to be a naughty child, do you?” Sun said lowly, almost like a threat. For a moment afterwards, they just stared at him in silence, before popping back to their earlier cheerfulness. “And don’t worry about bugging me, friend! I’m sure that hanging out with you is much more fun than anything else I could be doing!”

They laughed, squeaky and high-pitched, but it was still close enough to Moon’s that Gregory broke free from his stupor and was immediately shocked back into himself. He was still standing in the Daycare, no badge and only trembling hands for his troubles, and it was annoying and stupid and he hated this stupid place so much!

“Screw this.” He mumbled to himself, before rushing towards the stack of cans nearby. Sun let out an angered exclamation and started after him, but Gregory had already kicked the stack down with a satisfying clatter. The Attendant immediately started cleaning it up, like they always did, and Gregory made a beeline for the security desk a little ways away.

Ugh, this place was the worst. He here was, attempting to be reasonable and bargain with the only semi-friendly animatronic — outside of Freddy, of course — to just, y’know, make this a little bit easier  him, but noooooo . They had to make this as difficult as possible for him. Goddamn.

Well, you know — at least he could say he tried.)

“Freddy?” He asked, knocking on the inside of his chest plate and feeling a bit claustrophobic even though he was use to hiding in cramped spaces by now. “ Freddy ?”

Freddy quit walking and opened it up, but Gregory didn’t get out — no, he twisted himself around so his feet were planted firmly inside Freddy’s stomach, and then leaned out of it so he was facing Freddy at eye-level. He grabbed onto his shoulder pads for support, and they ended up nose-to-nose in a really awkward position, but it didn’t really matter. Freddy was blinking in surprise at him, and Gregory couldn’t help but grin a bit at the baffled look on his face. After preforming for so long, Frdddy really should be used to kids manoeuvring around and on him.

“I’m sure whatever is happening to everyone else is just some weird glitch in their system, yeah?” He said, letting his grin fade into something he hoped was comforting. “Prolly just think I’m some sort of weird intruder or something. You don’t need to worry about it too much.”

He knew his words probably meant nothing to Freddy, seemed flimsy and without meaning since Gregory didn’t really know what he was saying or even doing . He just knew he just had to do something , so Freddy didn’t end up being all upset and worried and stupid like he had before. It was dumb and Gregory hated it, but — it seemed to work, because Freddy blinked at him and seemed to go through a whole array of different emotions Gregory had no idea how he managed to convey with only blinking and some ear wiggles.

“You are a very remarkable young boy, Gregory.” Freddy finally said after a moment of staring at him, voice sounding like he was smiling back, warm and with a undercurrent of something that Gregory couldn’t identify. “Do you know that?”

Feeling heat rush to his cheeks, Gregory avoided his gaze and just slid back into the chest compartment before Freddy could say something stupid like that again, something that made his stomach turn into knots and chest glow like he had just scrounged up a good find in a dumpster but better . It was weird and stupid and he didn’t like it, not at all, as he hunched back down and let the hatch close behind him, once again bathing him in darkness and making a bit of the tension ease out of his shoulders.

“Gregory?”

“Whatever.” Gregory mumbled to himself, curling up tighter in Freddy’s stomach hatch, as the bear started walking again with a pat to the outside of the compartment. “Doesn’t matter.”

Honestly, who even gave a shit.

( Don’t think about it. Please. )

LOOP 09.

Gregory was tired. So, so tired.

Exhaustion was settling deep into his bones, threatening to drag him down with every step he took, and yet he pushed through. He couldn’t stop, or he’d die. He couldn’t ever stop or something would get him, would claw his face off or tear his neck out with their teeth or something far, far worse. He couldn’t stop, he couldn’t , everything here wanted to kill him, everything here didn’t want him to escape —

“Superstar, how is your leg feeling? Is it hurting at all? You seem to be slowing down.”

Everyone except for Freddy, who was — well, being his regular stupidly kind self.

“I’m fine.” He replied immediately, even though his leg was throbbing a bit in time to the burning feeling in his head. Down the back of his calf were four angry red lines, probably bleeding again due to how wet his skin felt under the bandages. It had been close call from Roxanne, and the last time he had seen her, her painted nails had still been tinted with his blood. “It barely hurts anymore.”

That was a lie. But what Freddy didn’t know didn’t hurt him.

“Alright.” Freddy said after a moment of silence, and Gregory could tell the animatronic was staring intensely at him, but he refused to turn around and confirm that theory. “But tell me if it hurts or you feel that you need rest, okay? We might need to change the bandages soon.”

Gregory just hummed noncommittally, and kept leading the way through the utility tunnels. They were nearing the area populated by the Endos again, and he wanted Freddy around this time so he didn’t have to go through it alone. The Endos sucked , and were super annoying — always moving when he couldn’t see them, have to aim his flashlight just right to catch as many as he could in an impossible almost- game . It was just …

He stopped walking, and felt his exhaustion increase tenfold. He didn’t want to go through it again. He didn’t want to deal with the feeling of burning red eyes staring into him, the sound of creaking metal whenever he turned his back, the prickling feeling of hair standing up on the back of his neck and not being able to even turn his back without the fear of being grabbed —

“Superstar?”

He was … he could just take a minute, right? He was alone right now, and had Freddy to hide in in case something approached. He could just take a minute to catch his breath and get his stupid spiralling thoughts under control before going to face the Endos. That way he’d have a clear head, and more alert body, and hopefully he’d feel less exhausted. Though — he knew they didn’t have time to do this, time to relax, but he still wanted it anyways.

Was still a big enough baby that he couldn’t ignore it anymore.

“… Gregory?”

“Can we just … sit here for a moment?” He finally spoke up softly when Freddy said his name, guilty of his own words as soon as they left his mouth but unable to take them back. “I’m really tired.”

Freddy’s ears wiggled for a moment, robotic eyes someone softening, before he nodded. “Of course, Gregory. None of the others are nearby. We should be safe.”

Gregory nodded back, before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor with an awfully loud squeak that had him flinching. Freddy, unfortunately, noticed and looked like he wanted to say something, but graciously didn’t and instead just lumbered over with a clank of metal. Gregory eyed him as he moved closer, still tense and on edge despite the fact he was trying to not feel that way for just a minute, but was surprised when Freddy — sat down next to him?

It was a bit awkward, given the crowded space and the fact Freddy was definitely not built with dexterity in mind, but the animatronic managed to sit down next to him, mimicking his position with his legs drawn to his chest and staring at him. His eyes were glowing in the dimness, boring holes into his skull like he could somehow see what was hiding underneath, and Gregory decidedly curled up tighter and looked in front of him, instead of at the animatronic.

But then, Freddy cleared his throat — or made a sound similar to it, given he didn’t actually have vocal chords — and asked, “Gregory, are you alright?”

Immediately, Gregory turned to glare at him, a retort on the tip of his tongue — of course I’m not alright, everything here wants me dead and they’ve already gotten their wish eight times before and nothing here is in the realm of okay — but as soon as he turned to look at him, Freddy blinked and wiggled his ears, as if he was smiling comfortingly down at him.

Gregory felt his momentary annoyance melt away at the simple action, wondering not for the first time how Freddy managed to be so expressive without being able to move his eyebrows or even his mouth, to intimate a smile or scowl or glare. He recalled the rumours he had heard of Fazbear Entertainment, how people noted that their eyes seemed to follow them as they passed by, how their bodies seemed to stiffen or ease around certain things, how their animatronics in general often seemed too human for the masses to be comfortable with them. But Freddy —

Well, Freddy seemed to be living (if you could count him as that) proof that those rumours were true, given how his positive attitude always seem genuine, how his worry was always sincere. It should freak him out, Gregory logically knew, because standing right in front of him was proof those ghost stories were real.

But he didn’t care. In the grand scheme of everything that had happened to him lately surrounding this place, it didn’t really matter.

And besides, Freddy was the only not one trying to kill him. The only one here who was actually good. That proved the rumours wrong automatically, right?

( Just let this be over please please please — )

“I’m fine.” He finally settled on saying, because Freddy was still waiting for an answer and Gregory couldn’t deal with him staring at him anymore. “Just tired.”

Freddy looked down at the ground, leaning forward slightly as if he was curling around Gregory, but just not touching him. “That is good. Still, I am sorry I cannot do more for you than just offer a momentary period of rest.”

“That’s okay.” Gregory replied, honestly, before he could stop himself. “You’re already helping me survive. That’s more than enough.”

“Of course. I promised I would get you out, did I not?” Freddy said, with a slight grin in his voice. “And I am not one to back out on my promises.”

Instead of replying, Gregory just curled up tighter and blinked back the odd itchy feeling in his eyes. You don’t know how many times you’ve said that.

LOOP 10.

He did it.

He actually did it!

Gregory was practically vibrating, and he was sure Freddy could feel it given how he was in his usual spot curled up inside his hatch, but luckily the bear decided not to say anything. Instead, he just kept walking towards the front door, humming some mindless tune to himself and Gregory keeping his eyes trained on his watch, watching as the minutes ticked up with every step closer to the door.

Just a few more minutes. A few more minutes, and they’d get to the doors, and Gregory would be free.

He honestly was having a hard time believing it, resisting the urge to flick through the cameras to search for the other animatronics around even though he knew they weren’t anywhere near. Chica was wandering around in the kitchens last time he saw her, missing her beak but not as dirty as some of the times she had been before, Roxanne making fake-sobbing noises with her eyeless face somewhere by Rockstar Row, and Monty still laying crumbled near the golf bucket in Gator Golf. They were still missing their parts, though — even though Gregory had taken them from them, he hadn’t upgraded Freddy this time. Saw no point in it, given how he has already explored most of the off-limits areas before with the upgrades.

They hid from the Attendant when the hour changed, and when the cackling moon figure had slunk away, Gregory checked his watch and felt like crying. The numbers had been blinking up at him, six-zero-zero, alerting him of what he accomplished.

He made it through the Daycare. Through the Arcade against the DJ, through the basement with the Endos, destroyed all the others and evaded Staff Bots and Vanny and the security guard and Gregory had done it, he had actually —

Done it. He had done it.

Sure, it took a few tries, and sure, it was … shocking, every time he died and the loop reset, but …

Well, without he wouldn’t have made it in the first place. Even though he hated it and wished, just a tiny bit, that he hadn’t been stuck in it in the first place — whatever ‘it’ was, endless time loop or his own personal hell or whatever — it had allowed him to live. In fact, he even started thinking of it almost like a … superpower. Yeah, a superpower. Since it was , technically!

He could come back from the dead! Anything this stupid Pizzaplex threw at him he made it through! He was unkillable, and with every loop he only got more and more knowledge about how to defend himself which made him all the more powerful! How wasn’t that a superpower?

( Loop four, Chica in the sewers. Loop five, Monty in the arcade. Loop six, Monty again, main stage this time. Loop seven, Moon once more, dragging him up towards the ceiling at the start of the hour. Eight, nine; both Roxy, clawing his face or biting his head — )

( Don’t think about it. You’re so close. )

Yeah, it was best to just think of it as a superpower. If he actually stopped to think about the logistics of it, he knew he would probably shut down or have a panic attack or something, which was definitely something  he did not need right now.

He could freak out later. When he was safe. When he was out of this hellhole.

Gregory shook his head, clearing his fuzzy head of his dark thoughts, and focused on the steady lumbering of Freddys footsteps as they headed through the main lobby towards the front doors. He could have walked himself, since it wasn’t that far away, but he was so close to getting out and he hadn’t wanted to take any chances. Besides, since they had hid in a charging pod when Moon came out, Freddy was at full battery and there was no chance of the animatronic attacking him like all the others. That hadn’t ever happened before, but Freddy always warned him about what would happen if he messed up on a upgrade or was still hiding in his stomach hatch when his battery ran out. From the dark tone he used when describing it, Gregory could guess it wasn’t pretty.

He was just glad that hadn’t been one of his many deaths yet.

Looking out through Freddy’s eyes on his watch, he saw that they rounded the main corner and went through the front gates, revealing the main doors. Gregory let out a breath of relief when he saw that they were, in fact, open. The security shutters had slid up to reveal the perfectly trimmed trees and wide road outside, now more visible in the slowly rising sun. Outside, he heard Freddy make a similar noise, almost a sigh — if animatronics could do that sort of thing. But after all these loops, he learned these animatronics could do lots of things they shouldn’t be able too.

“Ah, good. The doors are open.” Freddy crossed the short distance from the gates to the doors, and automatically opened his stomach hatch so Gregory could stumble out. He did so in a hurry, hands shaking slightly as the faint light from outside hit his eyes. He was close. So close. “Careful there, Gregory. Do not trip.”

“I’m fine.” Gregory replied, steadying himself on his feet and brushing the wrinkles out of his shirt. It was a lost cause, his clothing would always be dirty and wrinkled, but it was the principle of thing, really. “Come on, it’s open. Let’s get out of here.”

Not wanting to spend another minute in this insane place, Gregory took a step forward to walk out the glass doors, but was stopped by a sudden paw on his shoulder. He jumped and turned around to see Freddy, dirty and cracked in places (because somehow, he always ended up covered in grime, just like Gregory himself always was), kneeling down to be at his height with a somehow … sad expression in his eyes. He had long since moved on from wondering how an animatronic face got so expressive, but seeing the sadness in Freddys eyes made his heart hammer in his chest.

“Freddy …?” He asked slowly, not liking any of it. The way he was acting. Why he stopped Gregory from leaving. This stupid mall in the first place.

Freddy blinked a few times, then his eyes drifted downwards. Gregory swallowed thickly, already guessing what he was going to say, but hating it either way.

“I — I am sorry, Gregory, but I am not able to leave the Pizzaplex with you.”

Gregory pushed down the lump in his throat and ignored the odd feeling of sadness that rose up in his chest at the words. He shouldn’t feel like that, it was just common sense. Besides, had he really expected  Freddy to leave the Pizzaplex with him? Sure, it was engrained in him at this point that Freddy would just follow him anywhere he asked with no complaining and only minimal fussing, but leaving the mall was a line he couldn’t cross. Even with all the animatronics going haywire and creepy bunny ladies, this was Freddy’s home . He couldn’t just expect him to abandon it all for some random kid he just met a few hours ago.

Even if for Gregory, it had been way more than just a few hours.

“Without a recharge station, I would shut down within an hour.” Freddy continued explaining, sounding apologetic. “It is a safety precaution. It is … my design. So this is where I must stay.”

Gregory pursed his lips. Yeah. Obviously. Even if Freddy could leave, how would they even survive? Sure, Freddy didn’t need to eat, but like he said, he would need to charge — and it wasn’t like Gregory could get a permanent source of energy for him. Besides, trying to hide a huge animatronic bear would be near impossible. It was completely unreasonable. It was insane.

But for some reason, the mere thought of leaving Freddy, alone here, made him want to say screw it and try anyways.

Maybe it was because Gregory had spent every loop so far with Freddy, trying to get out. Maybe it was because Gregory had been alone for so long that he latched on to the first vaguely adult figure that wasn’t a huge jerkass to him. Maybe it was because Gregory was just tired and stressed and wanted to curl up into a little ball and not wake up because of the hell he had gone through ten times already.

Whatever the reason, he felt like slapping himself, but didn’t, simply because Freddy was still staring at him with his hand on his shoulder. He ducked to avoid the bears gaze, not able to stand looking at those eyes too life-like to be fully automated, and tried to get the weird feeling in his chest under control.

“Do not return.” Freddy kept talking, voice low to show his seriousness. Duh, Gregory knew that already, but he still didn’t say anything over the lump in his throat. “It will never be safe here at the Pizzaplex.”

For some reason, Gregory wanted to protest, but in his heart he knew it was the right thing. He needed to leave. He needed to escape. If he stayed here, one the murderous animatronics might kill him again, or Vanny would reappear and try as well, or a thousands of other unknowns — and the loop would just keep repeating. And he would never be free.

Gregory knew he had to leave. But … but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be selfish for just a few more moments.

Before he had even processed what he was doing, Gregory jumped forward to wrap his arms around Freddy’s neck, pulling himself tight against the bear. Before he could pull away, however, and try to apologize, Freddy had already moved to hug him back, a large paw settling on his shoulders and the other cradling his lower back. Despite the odd feeling of warmth Gregory got from it, he only let it last a few seconds before pulling away and trying not to let his face go all red.

He didn’t know if it was just his imagination that Freddy hesitated before letting him go as well.

“Goodbye, superstar.” Freddy said, voice intimating a smile and blinking slowly. “I will miss you.”

Gregory didn’t say anything back, afraid if he did he would say something stupid, so he just nodded faintly, and turned and walked out the doors.

He made sure not to look back, even when he could still feel the animatronic’s gaze on his back as he went through the double doors and stepped out into the sunlight, because he was sure if he did he wouldn’t be able to keep going. Instead, Gregory kept his eyes trained on the path ahead, ducking across the road and onto the lawn so he was hidden in the shade of the trees. The sun was beginning to fully peak over the horizon, bathing everything in pink and gold, and Gregory paused for a moment to breath in fresh air not permanently smelling like grease before he kept walking. He needed to put as much distance between himself and the building as possible, before other people started arriving.

Gregory got to end of the property — helpfully advertised by the big toll booth to pay for parking, because he guessed paying for a pass inside was not enough for the Pizzaplex — and paused for a moment, looking up and down the road. One end lead towards town, where he had came from, and the other direction he had no idea. Farmland, probably. The country. Another town or city.

With barely any hesitation, Gregory turned to start walking towards town again. He knew that area, less unknowns. He would be safer there.

However, as soon as he stepped out onto the sidewalk, he stumbled a bit, but managed to catch himself with a small ‘woah!’. His vision blackened for a second, like he had stood up or moved too fast, and he shook his head to clear it but it only made it worse. Ugh. The last full meal he had that wasn’t snack food stolen from restaurant kitchens or vending machines was before all this shit started, so maybe that was why he suddenly felt all woozy and lightheaded.

He took a shaky breath through his nose as this vision worsened, and he crouched to the ground to keep his head from spinning. For a brief moment, though, he wondered if it was his ‘superpower’ leaving him.

God, Gregory hoped it was that, and not something like —

LOOP 11.

“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”

Goddamnit!

Chapter Text

LOOP 11. (Cont.)

He got out. He got out he got out he got out why was he still here why was he still trapped —

“Let me out!” He screamed, heart hammering in his chest as the mantra repeated in his head. He banged his fists against the inside of Freddy’s chest plate, the usually safe and comforting space now feeling all too restricting. “Let me OUT! ”

Luckily, the hatch opened and Gregory went tumbling out, nearly falling to the floor before he was steadied by large orange paws. Freddy was staring at him, mouth agape and eyes blinking in concern, but Gregory shoved off his helpful hand. Everything was flashing in his vision, colours pulsating and blurring together, while every breathe burned in his lungs and his head throbbed , screaming at him to run run run — because he got out. He got out, so he shouldn’t be here anymore, he got out so he should be free —

“LET ME GO!” He yelled, despite the fact that Freddy wasn’t holding him anymore, just staring blankly at him. “ LET ME GO! ”

“Excuse me, young boy —“ Freddy started, reaching for him, but by then Gregory had already turned and bolted from the room.

He ran through to the back hallway, to where he would usually climb up the vent to get out into Rockstar Row, but there was no way in hell he was doing that again. Instead, his vision narrowed on a fire extinguisher and he quickly rushed over to rip it from the wall and run back to Freddy’s room. The animatronic was still standing there, gaping at him and sputtering out things like excuse me! and young boy, who are you? and what in the world do you think you’re doing?! , but Gregory ignored him to instead grip the fire extinguisher tightly round the middle, glare at the glowing red lock beside the door leading to Rockstar Row, and smashed it with all his might.

His first swing didn’t do anything except crack the plastic case on it and make Freddy let out an exclamation of surprise and immediately move closer to him, probably to try and stop him. Gregory couldn’t let him do that. He was getting out of here, no matter how much this stupid place tried to screw him over.

His second swing cracked the button in half. The door slid open, and Gregory started running again.

He was getting out. He was getting out of this goddamn place from hell, no matter what this freakin’ time loop or anybody else had to say about it!

Racing down Rockstar Row while ignoring Freddy calling after him, Gregory followed the path he already knew well and started to run to the ‘Employee Only’ entrance which lead to the utility tunnels. From there it was a straight shot, and he could evade Freddy and the security guard and anybody trying to hunt him down, and he would get out of this place if it killed him again and again and again  —

He reached the ‘Employee Only’ door, praying that nobody would be down there at this time yet, but gasped when it was suddenly opened from the other side before he could even grab the handle.

Vanessa was there, standing on the other side, looking just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. Her mouth fell open but no sound came out, green eyes wide, and Gregory was sure that own expression was mirrored on his face. He had forgotten all about her. She was always around here at this time. How could he have —?

He took a cautious step backward, wanting to flee but finding himself frozen in place as Vanessa’s gaze suddenly narrowed. However, her eyes were still filled with — he couldn’t tell, exactly. Shock. Confusion, maybe. But also —

Fear. Gregory knew what fear looked like, and she was fearful. Why was she afraid?

However, before he could figure it out, the guard jumped forward and grabbed his wrist tightly. It was so tight it hurt, and Gregory immediately yelled and tried to scramble back, but found he couldn’t wiggle out of it. Behind him, Freddy was still approaching and saying things that didn’t reach him over the pounding in his ears, and Vanessa just kept looking scared.

“What the hell are you doing?!” She suddenly exclaimed, her grip on his wrist tightening to pull him closer. “You’re not suppose to be here! ”

He bared his teeth at her and strained against her grip, ignoring her purple-painted nails digging into his skin. “Yeah, I was just leaving.”

Then he kicked her in the knee with all the strength he possessed in his body.

With a pained yell, Vanessa buckled and her grip on his wrist loosened enough that he could pull out and turn heel to start running again. He heard her behind him, still sounding pained, calling out, “ Hey, wait —! “ but he didn’t stop to listen. Especially when he heard the thunderous footsteps of Freddy get closer just as Gregory went to slide underneath one of the half-open doors by the desk he usually got the party pass from.

However, that was before he, promptly, got a wave of dizziness so strong he ended up just tripping over his own feet and landing hard on the ground. Pain laced up his elbow where he banged it and he was pretty sure he skinned his knees and everything in his vision started to wobble precariously. He couldn’t focus on anything, not the noise melding into one in his ears or the neon colours blurring together.

Gingerly, Gregory pushed himself up — still half laying on the floor, catching his breath and ignoring how his entire body throbbed — he found everything was spinning. Behind him, he heard Vanessa tried to get closer, and stutter out a, “ Kid, please, listen — “ that he couldn’t really focus on. She sounded woozy, though, or maybe that was just Gregory projecting, because his stomach lurched and he felt like he was going to throw up.

Distantly, he heard Freddy move closer to help her, saying something frantically, while Vanessa said something back that could have been her yelling or could have been her not saying anything at all, and Gregory —

Gregory’s vision went dark. Everybody else did too.

LOOP 12.

“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”

Gregory blinked a few times before he realized where he was, then had to swallow back tears.

He got out. He had gotten out, but — but he still hadn’t made it.

Even though he was still in Freddy’s stomach hatch, a place usually comforting with it’s dimly glowing lights and faint humming, he still felt like crying. He still didn’t let himself, blinking back the uncomfortable feeling in his eyes as he tried desperately not to think about that had happened. It didn’t work.

He had gotten out. He had gotten out but he still hadn’t —

He swallowed back a sob.

Why couldn’t he — why could he never —

Gregory bit his cheek so hard he tasted blood, and ran his fingers over his wrist. There were no marks from where Vanessa’s fingernails had been digging in, and moving up further to his elbow he could feel no bruising from his fall. He was just how he was when he first climbed into Freddy’s stomach hatch, with no physical evidence to match with his memories. If he wasn’t so sure in his own mental state, he would probably think he was going insane.

But he wasn’t. He wasn’t . Time kept repeating and he couldn’t get out no matter what he tried, he knew that was true. He couldn’t accept any possibility where it wasn’t. But still, that meant he was trapped here in this stupid freaking mall, doomed to keep dying over and over again for however long the universe decided it wanted.

It was — it made feel an emotion he had never felt before. Despair .

He was trapped. He was trapped here for the rest of his days, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

After so long of fighting, of trying to survive, of sleeping in boxes and scrounging in dumpsters and doing everything he could to try to keep living until the next day, all of it was rendered void. Gone to the wind, because Gregory was stupid enough to be enchanted by the invitation of warm food and a roof over his head, when he should have just gotten has far away as possible from this place. All this happened because Gregory was so stupid , so he didn’t even have anyone but himself to blame.

There was nothing else he could do here except blame himself.

So, Gregory just squeezed his eyes closed, and wished he wasn’t here anymore.

However, the universe decided not to even let him have that, apparently, since the usual friendly voice that now only made him want to sink further into the darkness hummed thoughtfully from outside. It made the entire inside of the hatch vibrate, and shocked Gregory out of himself enough to take notice of what was being said.

“Odd, I feel that my stomach hatch is full. Do I have a leftover birthday cake in there?”

Distantly, Gregory had to laugh at the fact that Freddy narrated what he was doing or feeling even when by himself, but then he was startled by the hatch suddenly opening and being pulled out into the light.

He noticed himself squeaking a bit, but didn’t really register anything else. The lights of Freddy’s greenroom were burning into his eyes, but everything felt like it was underwater, or that he was watching it through a window but not actually experiencing it. So even when Freddy let out a sound akin to gasp as if he had lungs as soon as he lifted Gregory out of his stomach hatch, Gregory could only blink and twitch at bit at being held above the ground in such an uncomfortable position.

“Oh my goodness, what were you doing in there?!” Freddy exclaimed, placing him on the ground. His knees buckled but he didn’t fall, instead just standing there, swaying slightly even as his legs shook. “Excuse me, young boy? How did you get into my stomach hatch? It is not a safe play area — it is meant for birthday cakes and presents! I do not recall you ever — oh!”

With only a blink of an eye, Gregory’s legs decided they didn’t want to work anymore, and he fell very ungracefully to the floor. However, he didn’t even feel the pain in his tailbone from the odd fall, and instead just curled up into a tight ball with his legs wrapped around his legs and head resting on his knees. He still felt like none of this was real, like he was standing behind a closed door with everybody else on the other side, and he couldn’t even bring himself to hate it.

What was the point, when he couldn’t escape? What was the point in doing anything —

“Listen to my voice, superstar. That is it. You are okay.”

— Freddy. Freddy was talking to him, wasn’t he?

“Yes, that’s right. Listen to my voice. There you go, you’re okay. You’re alright. Now, can you do something for me? I need you to list five things you can see for me. I promise, it’ll help, but you must work with me. Come on, superstar. I know you can do it.”

At the pleading tone in Freddy’s voice, Gregory managed to pull his head up enough to look around. He knew what the animatronic was trying to do, trying to ground him when Gregory just felt like floating away, but he didn’t think he could. Except, well — Freddy was still staring at him, all expectedly, and Gregory didn’t want to leave him hanging. That was the one thing he could feel, the urge not to disappoint him, and it cut through the blankness enough that he could move his eyes around and get his mouth to work enough to do what he was asked.

“You. The balloons. The curtains. Lights. Plushie.” He said, voice sounding dull to even his own ears.

“Very good, superstar.” Freddy praised, wiggling his ears. He was crouched in front of Gregory, far enough for it to not be stifling but close enough Gregory could reach out and touch him, if he wanted. “Now, how about four things you can hear?”

That took a bit more, since everything was muted to him, but he managed to pick our certain sounds if he strained his ears. The fluorescent light above were buzzing, as was Freddy — his internal systems humming smoothly, never faltering — and the slight buzz from the button by the door. The one now not-cracked, with no evidence of Gregory’s early freakout. Oh, yeah. That had happened. He had almost forgotten.

“Four things you can hear, superstar?”

Right. Freddy. “The lights. The door. My breathing. You.”

Freddy nodded. “Perfect. You’re doing so well, superstar. Now give my three things you can feel .”

He couldn’t feel anything. Not internally, anyways, but since Freddy asked — he rubbed his thumbs across his knees, running his fingertip over the small scabs and bumps and the scattered bandaids he had stolen from gas stations to cover up his bigger wounds. His skin was sweaty and his hair stuck to the back of his neck, and his clothing hung itchy in places, but — but he could feel it. And that was enough.

“Bandaid. My hair. My shirt.”

“Wonderful.” Freddy praised. “Two things you can smell?“

“Pizza grease.” It never smelled like anything but. “And carpet.”

Freddy chuckled a bit, and glanced down at said carpet — it was patterned with his face on it, which Gregory thought was kinda weird, but on-brand with everything else he’d seen. “You’re doing so good, you’re almost done. Now, what is one thing you can taste?”

He bit his cheek earlier, hadn’t he? There was still blood clinging to his teeth.

“Blood.”

Freddy blinked a few times, but decided it was best to just not focus on that and move on. “There you go, superstar. You did so well. Are you feeling better now?”

Not really. Sure, he felt a bit more — present , now, but still … emotionally distant. The worst part was that he couldn’t even bring himself to care, which he guessed made sense, but still. Worrying, to an outsider. He nodded anyways, though, just because he still didn’t have the energy to explain that to Freddy. He didn’t really have enough energy for anything.

“That’s good. Now, may I ask for your name, superstar?” Freddy asked, and Gregory wanted to laugh — how many times had he had to reintroduce himself at this point? — but instead just snorted slightly through his nose.

“Gregory.” He mumbled, every syllable feeling like he had to pull it out of himself.

“Gregory, what a wonderful name!” Freddy said, ears wiggling. “Now, might I ask — what were you doing hiding in my stomach hatch?”

He didn’t know how to answer that. He didn’t want to answer that. Because to do so would involve explaining everything else, which involved way more energy and mental power than Gregory had right now. But he still had to give him an answer, even if it took everything he had.

“I was trying to get out.” He ended up mumbling, wanting nothing more to fall asleep and never wake up. “But I —“

He couldn’t say it. Because saying it made it real, and this wasn’t real.

( Haven’t you said that before? )

“That is alright.” Freddy said, voice low and soothing, but it only served to make Gregory curl in on himself more. When the animatronic noticed, however, he made a gentle shushing noise, like he was trying to tame a wild animal. “Hey, it is alright, superstar. It is okay. You are not stuck here. We can get you to the front doors. If you give me a moment to contact security —“

“No!” Gregory exclaimed, his apathy been replaced with fear for a split-second, before it settled and he added, quieter, “No, you can’t get security. They’ll only lock me up.”

“Lock you up?” Freddy repeated, eyelids falling in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“They’ll, uh, the guard will — lock me up. In a security office, ‘till my … parents get here.” He hated saying the p-word, spitting it out almost like a curse, before moving on quickly before Freddy could dwell on it. “I don’t want to do that.”

Mostly, he just didn’t want to deal with stupid Vanessa again. He remembered the fear in her eyes, the way she hung onto his wrist and reached for him when he tried to run. He remembered her rage in the utility tunnels, yelling at herself and kicking boxes. He didn’t trust her, not in the slightest, and any time spent far apart from here was a good one.

Luckily, like always , Freddy just nodded and accepted his words with only a blink. “That is okay, superstar. We do not need to … tell security about your visit here. We can get out well enough on our own, hmm?”

The animatronic then stood, and offered a paw to him. Gregory stayed curled up in a ball on the floor, but turned his head to blink up at the bear currently staring down at him. He was sure that if Freddy could smile, he would be, with the way his ears wiggled and his fingers tapped the air, drawing his gaze to his outstretched paw. It was an offer, he knew, of companionship and protection. Despite his general apathy, though, he still felt a small sliver of hope at the offer. With Freddy by his side, it made him feel like he could accomplish anything — even the impossible.

Even things that weren’t real, just because he couldn’t say them aloud.

( You know this is real. Stop lying. )

“No matter what happens, Gregory, I will help you escape the Pizzaplex.” Freddy swore, placing his other hand on the spot in his chest where a heart would sit, if he had one. “Bear’s honour.”

Gregory sighed through his nose, knowing he couldn’t get out of this no matter how much he just wanted to melt into the floor and never return. Freddy wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, he knew, so Gregory just decided to submit himself too this again. It wasn’t like he had anything better do, given how he had already spent so much time in this stupid place.

“Yeah, yeah, okay.” He mumbled, taking his hand and pulling himself up while ignoring everything else around him. “We’ll try.”

It wouldn’t work. It was never going to work in the first place, though, wasn’t it?

•

•

•

There wasn’t really a point in doing this anymore, he thought.

Why would there be, after so many loops spent trying to get it out only to have all his progress reset anyways the moment he escaped? If he couldn’t get out, that meant he was stuck here, most likely with time just repeating for all eternity. There was nothing stopping him from just running right towards the animatronics and letting them grab him, or jumping off one of the balconies just to see if he would wake up again if didn’t die to murderous robots. Nothing stopping him from giving up.

Man , he wanted to give up. Just sit down and sink into the floor, never to rise again. He was very close to just doing it right now, no hesitation, but the only thing that was actually stopping him was —

“Come on, Gregory. I know you are tired, but once we get the security badge from the Superstar Daycare, I promise we can take a break.”

— that.

“I’m fine, Freddy.” He mumbled, just to ease the poor bear’s worry. “Don’t worry about me.”

At his side, Freddy placed a paw on his shoulder, and Gregory didn’t have the energy to shake him off. “It is alright, superstar. I can tell you are lethargic — you have been moving quite slowly for the past fifteen minutes, and have not spoken a word since the front doors closed.”

He didn’t have an argument for that, so he just shrugged. Moving slowly had been a bit of conscious decision, simply because he didn’t want to deal with the Daycare again. In all the loops, he had to deal with that section of the mall the most, simply because he always had to go to it near the beginning of the night.

Nighty night, naughty boy …  

No, no — he wasn’t — no, he was fine. He was fine. He just wanted to escape. That was all he wanted, honest, he just wanted to get out. Nothing more, and he wasn’t even allowed that . Honestly, though, as he thought about it — it made sense. He didn’t deserve to get out. Gregory was bad kid, wasn’t he? Everyone knew it. What he deserved was to stay here forever, cursed to die over and over again, to red-eyed animatronics or creepy bunny ladies, haunted by the neon lights and cheery cut-outs of friendly animals for the rest of his days.

He deserved this, didn’t he?

“Gregory?”

Freddy’s voice snapped him back to the present, and he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, not able to deal with the bear right now. “Sorry, sorry.”

“Gregory, is everything alright?” He heard Freddy stop walking, and Gregory realized he was frozen too, standing in the middle of the foray right before the Superstar Daycare drop-off. The cheerful painting of the Attendant stared at him, mocking.

He really should find cover, but — well, if he deserved this, there wasn’t really a point, was there? There was no point in any of this.

“Pardon me, superstar?”

Oh, shit. Had he said that aloud.

“God, sorry —“ He said, still keeping his eyes shut so he didn’t have to deal with Freddy peering down at him. “But, I mean, is there?”

“Is there what?”

“A point in all this? In escaping?” He scoffed, feeling the bitterness from before rise up before it was quickly squashed by apathy. “I mean, it’s not like I’m at the advantage here. I’m going to die either way. There’s no escape.”

He would die before he reached six am, or he’d escape and pass out, which was basically the same in the end since it both resulted in him just restarting. In Freddy forgetting him. In him having to go through this hell again.

At his side, Freddy paused for moment, before there was the shifting of plastic and metal and the bear kneeled down. Gregory refused to meet his eyes, even if they were closer to the same height now, but still didn’t shake off the paw Freddy put in his shoulder to make him turn to face him. He focused instead on his bowtie, black in colour but shining rainbow with all the bright lights around, and ignored the shining blue gaze that seemed to be piercing into his soul.

“Gregory.” Freddy said, voice low but warm, calming to his suddenly racing heart. “I do not know what inspired this thought process of yours, but I do know this; you are going to get out of here alive. I can already tell you are resourceful, clever boy. You have already managed to climb through the vent and free me from my room, evade Chica in the gift shop, and scramble the ATM machine. That proved to me that you are capable of getting out of here.

“I am also here to help you, Gregory. I want you to get out of here alive as well, and I like I said before — I will do everything I can to help you. Everything , superstar. Between your wit and my knowledge of the Pizzaplex to guide you, you will make it out of here alive. I promise you.”

Gregory pressed his lips into a thin line, blinking back the itchy feeling in his eyes. He didn’t know why he felt like this. It was all a load of bullcrap. He had already died so many times, and the one time he managed not too, his chance at freedom was stolen from him anyway. Freddy didn’t know anything about what was going on here, not like Gregory did.

But …

But, he was still alive.

He was still alive . He got out of here, and just woke up again, but was still alive . He had thought his goal had been to escape the Pizzaplex, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he had a different goal, something else he needed to accomplish. He could try anything, after all. He did have unlimited chances at his, his very own superpower, with Freddy at his side like always. With that at his disposal, he could do this.

“Okay. Okay, yeah.” He nodded, and felt the corner of his lips twitch up when Freddy wiggled his ears. “Yeah. I will.”

He was still alive, and as long as he was, he had a chance at this. Besides — Gregory was good at escaping bad situations. He had done it before.

(“Hey, boy , what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Gregory immediately dropped the cereal box and scrambled away from the counter, but he knew the damage at already been done. Shrinking back as his foster father — Jason — stormed into the kitchen, he tried to hide his shaking hands by shoving them behind his back, but when the man’s malicious gaze focused on him he still couldn’t help but gulp.

He had just been hungry. That was all. He hadn’t ate since lunch at school yesterday, and now on Saturday evening his stomach was rumbling so much it was painful. He didn’t think anybody would notice the little bit of cereal skimmed off the top of the box, or that anybody would even be up at this time of night. That was all. He was just hungry.

“What were you doing, huh? Trying to sneak food? You know the rules about that in this house, so what were you thinking?” Jason snatched the cereal box and shook it violently, causing some of the oh-so-precious food he went on and on about ‘conserving’ to fall out to the floor. When Gregory stayed silent, his eyebrows got even more pinched. “ Answer me! ”

Gregory swallowed thickly, and clasped his hands together tightly behind his back to hide their shakiness. Couldn’t show him he was afraid, because he wasn’t. Jason was just loud and big and thought that meant he deserved respect. Gregory wasn’t scared of him. “I was just hungry. I haven’t ate since lunch yesterday. I was just going to take a few bites. I’m sorry.”

He wasn’t. His foster parents — Jason and Rebecca, a married couple — didn’t have regular meals. Or, at least, they did. Despite the amount of food in the house (which sure, wasn’t as much as some of the other homes he stayed out, but was still enough to feed a decent-sized family), they didn’t like to let Gregory have any. He could eat in the mornings, only granola bars and some oatmeal if he was lucky, and at dinner — leftovers of what they ate, which was always not a lot. He got lunch at school, they argued, and he was living here for free — if he wanted more food, he could get his own.

Ignoring the fact he had only just turned ten and had no way of actually getting his own food, but whatever.

“What do you mean you haven’t ate since yesterday’s lunch?” Jason snapped, and from anybody else it would have been asked out of curiosity or shock, but Jason just seemed mad. “You got dinner last night and breakfast this morning, did you not? I know you did.”

There hadn’t been anything left for him for dinner, and the only granola bar left for him had mold on it due to a tear in the packer and a water leak, so … yeah. He hadn’t ate.

Gregory wanted to call him a very not-nice word, like he heard Rebecca call him before, but just bit his tongue. It would do no good. Better to just stay quiet and mind himself. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He was lying through his teeth, and hated doing it when everything else in his body was just screaming at him to call his foster parents out, but — well, he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He always had to lie. Usually with Jason, but sometimes with Rebecca as well — she was just as bad as her husband, except she did it all with a sickeningly sweet smile and voice made of sugar — or else they would get mad. He hated when they got mad, because sometimes they took away the little bit of food he already got and then he got really hungry. That was the worst.

So, he just had to lie. Bite his tongue, swallow down his words, and just wait until the day he could freakin’ do something about it.

However, instead of doing what he usually did in this little game of theirs — yell at him and threaten him and then yell some more — Jason simply put the cereal box down with forced calmness, and looked down at him.

“Maybe one day you’ll learn to listen to the adults.” He told him.

Then he raised his hand and slapped him.

It — it hadn’t been hard, Gregory had seen Jason hit things before and it definitely wasn’t as hard as that — but it still caused blinding pain to shoot up his face and sent him stumbling back. Letting out a cry, he clutched at the spot now no doubt a blinding red and felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes, though he swallowed them back down as Jason continued to just sneer at him. He felt like crying and screaming and his whole chest was tight, lungs burning and heart pounding and his face still hurt and he wanted — he wanted it to stop —

“Don’t be a crybaby, you big brat.” Jason growled, and Gregory glanced up to find him glaring at him, like he was the one that just got slapped, and it made his earlier panic dissipate into one emotion. Anger. “And don’t touch my shit again.”

With those parting words, his foster father grabbed the cereal box and headed downstairs to the basement. He had a ‘man cave’ down there, with a tv he kept at a volume so high Gregory thought it would burst his eardrums even when he was all the way upstairs. Even after he heard the noise drift up from downstairs, however, he just kept standing there in the kitchen, sending a withering glare at the spot his foster father had just disappeared to.

What - what an asshole!

Gregory hadn’t done anything wrong! He admitted Jason had been right! He hadn’t argued! He even apologized and that - that stupid idiot had the balls to slap him for it?

Gregory hated him. He hated everything, Jason and Rebecca and this stupid house and the people who put him here and — and he just wanted to leave .

Hunger now vanished, Gregory slowly sat down on the tiled floor of the kitchen and cursed everything. His foster parents, who thought they were so high and mighty that they deserved food while he didn’t. The stupid social workers who put him here, who put him in house after house before as well, who could never seem to decide what to do with him. This damn house itself, which seemed to keep him trapped here forever with no escape. If he could, he would just walk out the front door right now, jump through a window to escape this horrible place.

Wait, window?

A window. The window, in his room — it was upstairs, but there wasn’t a screen and had patio tent right outside that he could drop onto. From there, he could jump to the shed roof and shimmy down to the ground. The gate was locked, but he could jump the fence. Jason was still downstairs and couldn’t hear him over the tv. Rebecca was sleeping and she was a deep sleeper, she wouldn’t wake up unless someone was pounding at her bedroom door, and even that was debatable. He had a backpack with lots of space. He knew his way around this part of town like the back of his hand.

He blinked, coming back to himself. He couldn’t — he couldn’t actually be thinking about doing this, right? It was insane. Stupid. Somebody would find him, be it Jason or Rebecca or somebody working in the system who at this point didn’t know what to do with him anymore. They’d find him and bring him back, or he would die before they could. It was, absolutely, one at the dumbest ideas he had ever had.

His hand drifted to his cheek, prodding at the forming bruise, and he glared at nothing.

No. No, he could do it. He could totally do it. He was tough, resourceful. A bright mind, that was what all his teacher used to say. He had dealt with terrible people for so long, being on his own would be a welcome walk in the part, and besides — he wasn’t staying here any longer. It wasn’t an option. He wasn’t staying in this freakin’ hell hole of a place any longer , and if his foster parents had anything to say about it they go could go to hell too.

He was getting out of here. No matter what.)

Something here, in the Pizzaplex, just didn’t want him to leave, but — Gregory could take anything this stupid place threw at him, so he decided to just say ‘screw it’ and try to beat it anyways.

“Hey, uh, you said — isn’t there two ways to get out?” He asked Freddy, quickly correcting himself before he slipped up. “There’s the front doors, yeah, but there should also be a emergency exit somewhere! Right?”

“Well … yes, there is.” Freddy replied after a moment, eyes doing that weird far-off thing which meant he was doing something inside his head. He kept kneeling, but removed his hand from his shoulder to rest it on his knees. “There is also a third way to get out, through the roof top door, but there is no way to get down afterwards. However, you are correct in that there is a emergency exit in the building. There is one located in the VIP lounge, which we could most likely access. However, there is also another possible exit through the loading dock doors, but that will not be open until six am as well.” 

Gregory blinked, processing the words before he managed to get the underlying message. “There is … only one emergency exit?”

“Yes.”

“That … can’t be allowed.” Gregory said, mostly to himself rather than Freddy. That seemed illegal. But, honestly, with everything else Gregory had seen here — it didn’t seem that impossible for this place.

Freddy just hummed, which wasn’t an answer, but Gregory would take it over him shilling for this stupid place any day. Besides, with conformation that there was at least one other exit besides the front doors, he got a sudden burst of energy and odd light feeling in his chest. He didn’t have to try the front door again — there was another way. Sure, it might just end with the loop resetting again, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

“We should try going that way!” He told Freddy, excitedly jumping forward to grab onto the bear’s shoulders, as he was still kneeling in front of him. “It would be quieter, and then I can just sneak away afterwards without running into anyone!”

Freddy wiggled his ears, and didn’t dislodge Gregory’s grip on his body, still just staring at him. “That is a good idea, superstar. If we are lucky, we might even be able to unlock the door before six am!”

Gregory grinned. Finally, he had a plan again, a goal in mind — and now he could focus on that, and not everything that wanted him dead.

Back entrance, here they come!

Chapter Text

LOOP 15.

Gregory got to the loading dock through trial and error.

It had taken him ten loops to get to the front doors, so after his tiny mental breakdown (which he was routinely ignoring right now), he was trying his best to repeat the process and hopefully not have to waste a whole bunch of time like he had before, like an idiot . However, it turned out the emergency exit was a bust — it was locked to ‘VIP only’, what the hell was wrong with this place? — so Freddy instructed him to get to the loading dock instead. Eventually, he gave up on trying the emergency exits at all, and just always tried to head straight for the loading dock.

Predictably, it was not easy for him. Because nothing here ever was.

The loading dock doors, which led to a large garage then a parking lot, were locked every night to ward of thievery, and any employees trying to come back afterhours. Luckily, they worked on the same schedule as the front doors, and would open at six am. So, Gregory just needed to get six am. Again.

Luckily, it was easier for him to get to the loading docks then the front doors, oddly enough. He thought it was maybe because everyone thought he would try to get out the front doors instead, or maybe because getting to six am again after already getting it once was way easier.

Either way, he got to the loading docks, and was faced with a pretty awesome dilemma.

That being — the vehicles.

When the loading dock doors opened and he wandered in the garage with Freddy trialing behind him, he realized a bit late that, Oh, yeah, there’s cars in here. It’s a garage, why wouldn’t there be cars in here?

Well, there weren’t any actual cars. Mostly just trucks and vans, a few looking pretty normal except for the logo printed on the side — it was simply a circle with a weird-looking Freddy head inside it, with the words Fazbear Entertainment around the edge. Most of them however were brightly-coloured, with painted pictures of the animatronics on the sides displaying all warm smiles and friendly eyes.

“Oh my god.” He mumbled, eyes wide as he took it all in. There had to be at least a dozen of them, all parked side-by-side. “Oh my god, why does a mall need this many cars?”

“Well, most of these vehicles are to deliver birthday gifts and souvenirs to those who order them.” Freddy explained, though Gregory had been asking it rhetorically. “And a few are actually to transport us! Back in the day, before the Pizzaplex got as popular as it is now, me and my bandmates would occasionally preform at out-of-mall locations, and would be transported in one of these vehicles! Though, we are always put into rest mode when this happens, so I do not remember the journeys very well.”

Gregory just nodded, not really caring for the explanation, and just muttered, “I’m gonna drive one of ‘em.”

He absolutely was. He probably wouldn’t get far, but after all that this stupid mall had made him go through, a little bit of automobile theft was not even close to the amount of compensation he needed.

Behind him, Freddy chuckled, most likely thinking he was joking. Gregory huffed. He was not joking. “Maybe wait until your a bit older, superstar.”

“Well, how else am I gonna get out?” He shot back, giving the bear a light-hearted glare before padding deeper in the garage. He could walk, but looping all the way back around the mall to get to the main road (where he knew the route back to his … well, the area he frequented a lot) would be tiring. Besides, with this option right in front of him, how could he say no?

Freddy blinked at him a few times, before following him with a slight laugh. “Well, however you choose to leave, superstar, you are close to getting out of here!”

Gregory only gave a hum of acknowledgment, pausing in the middle of the garage, much less happy than he was the first time he faced the prospect of getting out of here. He knew exactly why, though. There was a chance he wouldn’t get out anyways, just like last time, but there was also …

He glanced at Freddy, who had came to a stop behind him, and was now watching him with a tilted head. When he saw the bear was looking down at him with the same expression he had been wearing when Gregory first made it out the front doors, he felt the question he was desperately wanted to ask rise up in his throat, but it just wouldn’t make it past his lips.

“I am sorry, Gregory. This is where we must part ways.” Freddy said solemnly, crouching down so they were at eye-level and putting a paw on his shoulder. “You must head home, to your family, and I must stay —“

No. No, he wasn’t letting this happen again. He could put up with a lot of things, but not this speech all over again.

“No you don’t.” Gregory interrupted, making Freddy blink in surprise at him. “You don’t have to stay here. You can … come with me.”

And there it was. The question he wanted to ask. The one that had been haunting him, ever since he made it to the front door the first time — or maybe even before, since the first moment Freddy choose to help him. For him, it was a few hours ago. For Gregory it had been longer, and had happened over and over and over again. No matter what, Freddy helped him, and Gregory — didn’t really want to give that up. Maybe it was selfish, to want Freddy to stay with him, but it wasn’t like Gregory just liked him because he was useful or anything. He was …

Good.

Nobody had even been good to Gregory before.

“Stay with me. If you want?” That was the final nail on the coffin, and he hated how his voice shook — like he was weak, like he was desperate — but he didn’t care how he sounded. He just wanted Freddy to come with him this time. “Please?”

His voice was barely more than a whisper, and he still couldn’t look Freddy in the eye, but when the animatronic squeezed his shoulder he looked up to see that there was somehow pain reflected back at him. He swallowed thickly.

“Gregory, I —“ Freddy paused, unusual for him, and restarted. “I physically cannot last more than a few hours without a charging station, even when I am off reduced power. It is … my design. I am sorry.”

Right. There was that. What was he thinking, anyways?

Glancing away from Freddy, but still unable to step away, Gregory looked around the garage and realized something, and he suddenly felt a bit lighter.

“Well, we can just power you with the car!” He exclaimed, suddenly pulling out of Freddy’s grip to bounce a bit towards one of the many vans. He didn’t know exactly how it worked, but he was pretty good with mechanics — he could probably figure it out. “I’m sure we can power you with the battery until we can find something permanent.”

Freddy seemed to debate this, standing to his full height and clasping his hands together as he surveyed the vehicles parked around them, before saying slowly, “That … could work.”

“Yeah, all we would need were some jumper cables and maybe an adapter or something, to plug into you.” Gregory noted, mind racing as he tried to figure it out. “I’m sure those are around here somewhere … or just in one of the cars.”

“Well, all we would need are jumper cables, and every Pizzaplex vehicle should have a pair in storage.” Freddy said. “I am designed to absorb power through my ears, so we would not need an adapter.”

Gregory grinned. “Oh, good!”

But —

Wait, Freddy said — was he was implying —

“Does … this mean you want to come with me?” He asked slowly, pausing in his excited bouncing and racing thoughts to blink dumbly at the animatronic. Hopefully he was misinterpreting his words, but he did seem to be implying he wanted to …

Still standing straight as a rod, Freddy looked around the garage, then back at the main Pizzaplex building. He had something akin to wistfulness in his eyes, and he let out a sound very similar to a sigh, before he mused, “The Pizzaplex is … not the same as it once was. My friends are not themselves, and there are other strange things happening. I do not believe it’s safe anymore.”

It sounded like he wanted to say more, but he didn’t, and Gregory didn’t know what else to do except keep pushing, “So you can’t stay here, then.”

Freddy shook himself out and turned to look at him, ears down. “Superstar —“

“You can’t .” Gregory stressed, taking a step closer to grab onto Freddy’s hand. He wrapped his fingers around two of Freddy’s larger ones, feeling the warm metal against his calloused palm. “You said it wasn’t safe. If it’s not safe you can’t stay here anymore.”

Sure, the animatronics didn’t attack Freddy, and the bunny lady didn’t seem too worried about him — but how long would that stay true? How long until whatever was causing the others to act like that got Freddy too, and he turned just as monstrous as the rest of them? How long until they realized he wasn’t like them, and decided to just kill him and get it over with? How long until Freddy wasn’t safe anymore ?

Freddy looked at him, then down at where Gregory was grasping his hand. He wanted to pull away, but then the animatronics eyes softened somehow, and he said, “Okay.”

Gregory opened his mouth to reply, but no sound came out, and he ended up just blinking dumbly instead until he got his voice under control and softly asked, “What?”

“I will come with you, superstar.” Freddy elaborated, and Gregory didn’t — this wasn’t real. This couldn’t be real, could it?

“Really?”

“Really.”

The odd burning feeling was back stronger then ever, lighting him up from the inside and out and making him want to — do anything. Jump around until he passed out. Run a marathon. Scream until his throat didn’t work anymore. Except, he ended up just grinning so hard his cheeks were hurting, but he couldn’t help it because Freddy was getting out of here with him!

Freddy chuckled at him, but pulled his gaze away from Gregory to look up around them and ask, “Now, superstar, since we are going to need a car battery to charge me, the best option would be to drive out of here — so, which vehicle do you think we should take?”

“Uhhh …” Gregory trailed off, looking around at the different assortment of delivery trucks and vans parked around, before he let go of Freddy’s hand and decided to just point at the one closest to the entrance. “That one?”

Freddy looked at the one he picked, and hummed, “Ah, good choice! That is a Mega Pizzaplex Delivery Van , which means it should be in top working order. The keys should be somewhere in the employee office. Why don’t I go get them, and you can —“

“Yes!” Gregory exclaimed, pumping his fists in the air and jumping back and forth on his feet. “I’m driving!”

As he turned to race towards the van, all he heard was Freddy exclaiming, “ Gregory, no! ” behind him.

Just as he reached the driver side door and put his hand on the handle to yank it opens he squawked when two big arms suddenly picked him up and yanked him off the ground. For a brief moment of panic he thought one of the other animatronics has reached them and managed to grab him, so he kicked his legs out widely — but, no. It was just Freddy, holding him around his middle, and moving him away from the car.

“Gregory, you are not even close to appropriate age needed to operate a motor vehicle.” The bear explained, making Gregory huff. He could imagine the disapproving look on Freddy’s face, even if he was still facing the car and thus couldn’t see it. “And even if you were, you would need a valid license and a preferred minimum of forty-five hours of driving experience!”

“Well, do you see anybody else around here with all of that?” He asked, kicking his legs back and forth while still swinging in the air. Taking the hint, Freddy set him down, and he brushed out the wrinkles in his shirt. There would always be wrinkles, but he still wanted to make a point.

“No, I do not.” Freddy admitted, once Gregory was safely on the ground. “But, since I would be able to download an employee driving manual from the Pizzaplex server —“

“No, no, no, you’re not driving.” Gregory interrupted, wrinkling his nose. “You wouldn’t even fit in the driver’s seat!”

They both looked over at said driver seat (Gregory, annoyingly, having to stand on his tiptoes to peer into the van window), and he found his assessment was right — even moving the seat as far back as possible, Freddy wouldn’t be able to fit with the steering wheel in front of him and the pedals at his feet. Even the passenger seat, without all that extra crap, would be a tight squeeze.

Freddy, peering over his head, hummed. “Well, if I adjusted —“

“You wouldn’t.” Gregory said. He knew he was being a bit rude, but — well, he really wanted to drive. Like, really badly.

Freddy hummed again, then seemed to concede, though he sounded pained to say it, “Fine. You may drive. But —“

“Yes!” Gregory exclaimed again, but before he could get into the car, he was stopped again by Freddy putting a hand on his shoulder. He bit back a sigh, and looked up at the animatronic blinking down worriedly at him.

“ But. ” Freddy repeated sternly, and Gregory tried not to roll his eyes. “I will still download the employee driving manual from the office computer, and will instruct you on how to properly operate the vehicle from the passenger seat.”

He sighed. So he was going to be a backseat driver? Yeah, great. “ Yes , Freddy. I got it.”

He actually did roll his eyes this time, but Freddy gave a self-satisfied hum and let go of him to walk back towards the mall to go get the keys, so Gregory didn’t think he minded too much. Honestly, he really should just expect Freddy to be like this at this point — protective and helpful and a bit of a bastard, when he was wanting to be.

Wouldn’t even let him freakin’ drive on his own. What was he, a baby?

•

•

•

Getting out of the garage, much like getting to it, involved trial and error.

Freddy, true to his word, made them wait a few extra minutes so he could download the employee driver’s manual from the computer in the employee office where he got the keys and instruct Gregory on how to properly back out of the garage and into the parking lot, then onto the main road. Ignoring the fact he could barely see over the steering wheel and nearly crashed into the other parked cars while trying to back out, Gregory thought he was doing great — even with Freddy’s constant badgering in his ear.

“Alright, Gregory, you need to turn left here, and — ah, hit the brakes! That is much too fast!”

When the van straightened after the wild turn, Gregory hid his grin under the guise of wiping at his mouth, glancing at Freddy who was clutching at the grab handle with one paw and the dashboard with another. If he could, Gregory was sure the bear would be shaking in fear right now. “Sorry.”

“It’s alright, superstar.” Freddy said, slowly loosening his grip on the upper handle and returning his paws to his lap, like nothing ever happened. “Just remember to brake before you go into a turn, okay?”

Gregory would never remember, but he still nodded anyways and refocused back on the road in front of him.

The Pizzaplex back area was much bigger than the front, filled with weird turns and roads Gregory had to navigate to get to the main road. He assumed it was so big due to the amount of deliveries and shipments a place like this must get in a day, but it was still frustrating to navigate. Gregory wanted to find whoever designed it (also, whoever designed the inside of the mall as well) and punch them in the nose.

“Where now?” He asked, glancing at Freddy again. In addition to correcting his driving, the bear was also instructing him on where to go, because — well, again. This place was a mess.

“Keep going straight, and then you will turn right onto the main road.” Freddy said, voice a bit distant to match the look in his eyes as he checked his internal map or something. “I’m afraid I will not have access to the Pizzaplex servers once we leave the Pizzaplex grounds. Do you know how to navigate your way home, Gregory?”

Gregory stiffened, and looked away from him. Oh, right. How was he going to explain that to him?

Freddy would flip his lid if — when , it seemed like now — he found out about Gregory’s living conditions. The poor bear had nearly had a heart attack whenever Gregory got hurt already, so learning he didn’t have a home to go back to would probably cause him to blow a circuit. Except, Gregory had no choice in sparing him the details. It was too late to turn back now. He had dragged Freddy away from his home, and now was going to curse him with a life on the streets, all because Gregory was weak enough to break down and beg him to come with him —

“Gregory?” Freddy asked softly, the leather of the seats crunching as the bear leaned closer to him. “Are you alright? If you can’t remember the way to your home, superstar, it is okay. I am sure we can find a map somewhere here —“

Gregory hit the brakes so hard the tires screeched, and Freddy let out a startled ‘ woah! ’ while grabbing for the handle again. Gregory, however, barely even noticed the lurch and kept staring at the road unblinking ahead.

In front of him was … well, he hoped it was freedom. A way out of this hell he was trapped in. Except, was there really anything waiting for him out there?

He didn’t have a home. He had no family, no friends, not even anyone who was semi-friendly to him outside of a few night shift waitresses at restaurants who would sometimes give him leftovers if he hung around their place for too long, or some gas station employees who would turn a blind eye to his shoplifting simply because they hated their bosses so much. He was just going back to his cold lonely box, where he would fight rats for dumpster scraps and cover himself in newspaper for any semblance of warmth he could find.

“Gregory?”

But …

Freddy was with him now, yeah? If this loop worked out — if he got out — he’d have Freddy with him. And that would make it better.

Except he still needed to explain that to him.

Gregory shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Taking a shaky breath then slowly blowing it out again, he gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned white, and prepared for the shitstorm that was about to come.

“I don’t have a home, Freddy.” He said lowly, unable to speak louder and break the silence now settling over the van. “I don’t — have anyone, either. I never have.”

Freddy blinked at him a few times, opening and closing his mouth like a fish bubbling in a tank, before starting to say, “Gregory —”

“I ran away to live on the streets because all my foster family sucked and hated me, and I can’t even remember my real parents because last time I saw them I was, like, a baby.” Gregory said in a rush before swallowing thickly, hands shaking on the steering well. “I don’t have a guest profile because nobody took me to the Pizzaplex, I slipped in with a big group so I could steal food. That was why Vanessa wanted me so badly, cus’ she saw me take some off some kids table.”

“Gregory —“ Freddy tried again, voice louder this time.

Though, Gregory barely heard him. It seemed like he was on a roll now, and the words couldn’t stop tumbling out of his mouth. “And — and I’m sorry for forcing you come with me, and if you want to go back to the mall I’d understand because it’s your home and I don’t even have one —“

“Gregory.” Freddy said firmly, firm enough to stop his ramblings but not harsh enough to make him worry. “Gregory, it’s alright.”

He blinked a few times, eyes feeling oddly itchy, and rubbed at them with the back of his hand. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be, superstar.” Freddy said, reaching over to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He was sure if their positions allowed it, Freddy would ask if he wanted a hug, and Gregory didn’t really know what he would say. Despite dwarfing him in size, Gregory never really intimidated by Freddy, even when he was leaning over him like this. “It is not your fault. And you do not need to worry about me coming with you. I made the choice to join out of my own free will. I would not be here if I didn’t want to be — and I do want to come with you, Gregory. I said I would protect you, yes? Until I know you are truly safe, I will keep that promise. No matter the circumstances.”

Gregory blinked a few times as he processed the words, but once he did, he ducked his gaze and took his hands off the steering wheel to wring them together in his lap, unable to look Freddy in eye as he kept staring at him. “Do you … really mean that?”

It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t be. People — or, people-adjacent — like Freddy couldn’t exist, right? And if they did, they’d never choose to help Gregory . That just wasn’t how the world work.

However, Freddy seemed to sense his thought process, because he squeezed his shoulder tightly and said, “Of course I do, superstar. I would never lie.”

Freddy was so comically serious Gregory couldn’t help but laugh, at him or the entire situation in general or in disbelief that this was real. The sound came out wet, bubbly, but he still managed to crack a smile and wipe at his nose. He was sure it was a gross sight to see from Freddy’s end, but surprisingly, the bear only removed his hand from his shoulder and gave Gregory a look that could only be interpreted as a smile .

“Okay. Okay, I believe you.” Gregory said, still smiling softly. He wanted to kick his feet back-and-forth, but couldn’t because he was still holding the brakes down. “I — I don’t get why, but I believe you.”

Freddy reeled back a bit, clearly caught off guard by the admission, before suddenly reaching forward to — ruffle at his hair.

Gregory squeaked a bit when the large paw tussled his spiky hair, before it disappeared as quickly as it came. He glared at the animatronic, who only chuckled lightly in response, and said, “Well, we can talk more about it later. For now, we should just get out of this parking lot and somewhere safe, yes?”

Gregory nodded, before reaching up to fix his hair now laying even more messy then before. He heard Freddy chuckle again and, now even more disgruntled, he decidedly did not look at the bear and focused back on the road. He had stopped right before the last turn to get onto the main road, and felt his early nerves return again.

He — they were close. So close.

And he hoped now, with Freddy by his side and clear air between them — this was the one that stuck.

“Okay. Let’s go.” He said.

He took his foot off the brake, and turned onto the road.

When he got into the correct lane (he could never remember which was which) under Freddy’s careful guidance, he went slower than what Freddy instructed, and waited for what had happened last time — a wave of nausea, his vision to falter, everything in his body to feel numb and floaty —

But it didn’t come.

It didn’t come!

“ WOOOOOO! ” He exclaimed, raising his hands into the air and accidentally increasing the speed, before going, “Oh, shit!” at the same time Freddy yelped and quickly rushing to course correct before he drove them off the side of the road into a ditch.

When the car was straight again, Freddy turned to give him a stern but disappointed look, and Gregory chuckled sheepishly.

“What was that all about, superstar?” Freddy asked, a mix between confused and curious and what Gregory thought was amusement, underneath it all.

“Ah, nothing.” He said, smiling privately to himself. “Just, excited, it’s all —“

Before he could finish, however, everything in his vision suddenly blurred together, and he was hit with the feeling of his stomach trying to drop from under him.

As darkness started to creep forward from the corner of his eyes, he felt his grip on the steering wheel go slack and distantly heard Freddy call out his name, reaching over to take the steering wheel before they drove off the road again. Except, Gregory could only groan and grab at his head, trying to relieve some of the pressure pressing down against his eyes hard enough to draw tears, and whimper a bit. No, no, no. This wasn’t how it was suppose to go. This wasn’t fair. He thought they got out. He thought that they —

“Gregory?! Are you alright?! What’s happening?!” There was Freddy again, calling out for him, and Gregory wanted to answer him but found he couldn’t. He couldn’t get his mouth to work, or tongue to move. Could only blink back the dark spots in his vision and hope this wasn’t what he knew it was.

Ah, shit. Was his last coherent though, unfortunately, before he passed out, and his head pitched forward to land on the steering wheel and blast the horn.

LOOP 16.

“Showtime already?! I am experiencing a malfunction. The recharge cycle is not complete.”

Okay, so. New plan.

Well — Gregory hadn’t expected it to really work, though he still had had a bit of hope in his heart that maybe, because of his conversation with Freddy, it would have changed it enough to let them both get out this time, not just himself.

Though, it did give him some valuable information.

He couldn’t get out.

And, well — that was still a little bit defeating to realize, but Gregory swore to himself he wasn’t going to mentally crash again. No, he was going to beat this thing. Couldn’t get out? Whatever, that just meant he had to figure out a way to break this thing from the inside. To be fair, that was usually how it went in movies and stuff. To blow up the enemy base, you needed to get inside and plant a bomb. And Gregory was gonna plant one hell of a bomb in this place.

Not literally, of course. He didn’t know how to make bomb, though fire was always an option, but he would put that on the back burner for now. That could be plan … C, or something.

No, he would focus on Plan B. Figure out what the hell was going on here.

He had a feeling the murderous animatronics were connected to Vanny, who was most definitely connected to Vanessa somehow. The names were too similar to be a coincidence, and since through all the loops he had never seen the two of them around at the same time, it was possible. So, that was problem number one — figure out that shit.

Problem number two was much harder. Obviously. Problem number two was figuring out why he was trapped in a freakin’ time loop.

Gregory breathed out a silent sigh, feeling the hopelessness return again. He had no clue how to go about that, or even how to begin to formulate a plan, and he was all alone in figuring it out. He was always alone, always had been and always would be, but …

( “Superstar, are you okay?” )

… but that didn’t mean he had to be alone for this, right? Freddy had told him so. He had said so himself, and Gregory didn’t think the bear had the ability to even tell a white lie, so what he had said before … it had to be true. It had to be.

Except, Freddy didn’t remember that conversation, or his promise to Gregory about protecting him and sticking by his side. Right now, Freddy didn’t even know who he was, since Gregory was still curled up inside his stomach compartment trying to stay as still as possible to give him just a bit more planning time until Freddy realized he was carrying unexpected cargo in his ‘cake hatch’. Seriously, the thing was big. Or Gregory was just smaller. Whatever.

Point being, Freddy didn’t remember. And that honestly hurt him more than the fact he couldn’t escape this hellhole.

He didn’t remember anything they had done together. All the times he forced him to eat, or treated his wounds because Gregory would hurt himself more jumping into bins and tripping down stairs then the actual animatronics would. He didn’t remember the questions Gregory would drill him with, about the mall and preforming and all the times Freddy patiently explained, Gregory, it is not safe for you to try to slide down the escalator railings, please do not attempt it! —

He didn’t remember anything. And maybe that upsetting him more than being trapped made him a weak baby, but he found he didn’t care in this situation.

He was trapped here forever. Getting out before the gates shut was impossible. Front doors, no go. Loading docks, same diff’. No mater what he did, he couldn’t escape. No matter what he did, the loop reset, and he ended up back here.

No matter what he did, Freddy didn’t remember.

Except …

An idea dawned on him. He grinned to himself.

Since it seemed like he wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon, he was just going to have to change that fact now, wasn’t he?

Chapter Text

LOOP 18.

Gregory freakin’ hated the sewers.

They were dark, and dirty, and everything was covered in a weird vaguely-slimy grime that made even Gregory — who had dealt with numerous dubious fluids in his time in the streets — recoil with a wrinkled nose and disgusted exclamation as he wiped his hand on his shorts. It even smelled worse then the dumpsters he frequented in, which was saying something. Plus, the only time he ever went down in the sewers was when he had to get Chica’s voicebox, so it always resulted in him running around trying to turn on generators while avoiding the mangled chicken clucking static at him.

Though, all it really did was make him hate this place even more. What type of of mall had its own freakin’ sewer system? Stupid ones, that’s what.

But, he needed an excuse to go to Parts and Services and get Freddy in the cylinder, so Gregory could look at his coding and see if there was any way to get him to remember all the resets. After his decision to try and get Freddy to remember, he decided the best way was to look at his coding. There could be inhibitors on his memory banks or something similar, but either way, looking at his code would be a good place to start. He did have a feeling it had something to do with whatever was causing the others to act all murderous, though.

It made sense; the other animatronics were absolutely infected with a virus or some kinda of malware, or at least were being controlled by someone else. There was no other reason for their recent rampages otherwise, unless they decided to all randomly go Skynet on him. Except for Freddy, of course, who wasn’t affected. It was kinda weird, but maybe it had something to do with the time loop. God, this was all so confusing.

Gregory sighed, a common action it seemed, when dealing with this shit. When he had, tentatively, tried broaching the subject of a virus and checking on his coding to Freddy before they separated, but the animatronic had been a bit dodgy about answering before finally settling on, “ To inspect my coding would involve me having to be put offline, Gregory, and I do not want to leave you in a vulnerable situation like that. ”

Eh, figures that he’d make it harder for him.

Though, Gregory would still suffer through it, if it gave him even a chance to get Freddy to Parts and Services and hopefully figure out a way to make him remember all the previous loops whenever it reseted. There was no other scenario where he didn’t — he had to help Freddy. Just as sure as it was that he couldn’t get out of here, it was just as sure that Freddy would help him try anyways. So, now Gregory would help him.

Even if it meant having to put up with his overprotectiveness. Even if it meant having to destroy Chica. Even if it meant having to traverse through the stupid gross sewers.

“Gross, gross gross gross.” Gregory mumbled, accidentally brushing his bare arm against the wall of trash bags and other material he didn’t even want to know about. It left his skin feeling sticky and oddly chilled, like he just rubbed gel on himself, and he desperately wiped at the substance with his hand which only resulted in it being spread around more. “Gross!”

This place was freakin’ disgusting.

Usually, stuff like this didn’t bother him — he dealt with his fair share of garbage dumps while living on the streets — but there was something about this place that made it way more gross. And a bit stifling, in a way, with how dark and dingy and damp it was down here. Plus the added bonus of a homicidal chicken hunting him down and weird ominous pits filled with scrabbling noises that had only thin planks of wood to walk across to get to the other side.

Gregory sighed again, and checked that Chica’s voicebox was still in his pocket. It was, sitting snugly between all his security badges, with his Fazer Blaster on his hip and flashlight in his other hand. He only had one generator left to go, and he remembered the way as he traversed through the smelly tunnels of garbage. While he had stopped trying to wreck the other animatronics a few loops ago — hadn’t really been a point anymore, since half the time it ended up just making them more dangerous — he could still remembering the way through here.

Peering through the dark mist that seemed to permeate this place, he took one last turn and found the last generator. He breathed a sigh of relief. Finally.

He trotted over, and hit the switch. “There we go.”

Power hummed back to life, but Gregory didn’t waste anymore time and kept moving. He was close to the exit, but Chica could still be hanging around — distantly, he could hear her crackled and broken voice, calling out for him, but he just gritted his teeth and ignored her. He didn’t know what he preferred; her sugary-sweet encouragements of his name from before, or the horrifying static-filled thing her voice was now.

Either way, he didn’t want to stick around for when she finally made her way through the darkness to him. He just wanted to get out of the sewers, find his way to Freddy, and head to Parts and Services to hopefully convince the bear into letting him look at his code. He hadn’t even really wanted to come down here in the first place. He just needed an excuse to get Freddy to Parts and Services, and an ‘upgrade’ was just the thing.

Though, he still felt a bit nervous about the whole thing, even with his plan. When it came to animatronics, Gregory wasn’t entirely familiar with the intricate details of the coding — he was more into the practical side of it, like switching on Freddy’s parts and giving upgrades and what not — but he could probably figure out his way around Freddy’s insides.

Oh, god. That sounded wrong. Never mind.

Gregory came towards the exit of the sewer, and quickened his pace, wanting to get out as fast as possible. However, as he stepped into the last room before the staircases that would take him out of here, he sucked in a breath when he entered a room. That room.

Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, was covered in post-it notes.

He blinked. Right. He forgot about this room.

He had found it on his first run, after disabling Chica the first time, and had been so taken aback he nearly turned back into the sewers before Chica came by and he ended up just running through as quick as possible. Since then, everytime he came down here, he just steadfastly ignored it because he didn’t want to deal with it, thinking he’d be out of here soon. Then, he just stopped coming down here altogether, after he gave up on destroying the animatronics.

But now he knew he wasn’t leaving any time soon, so …

Slowly, Gregory started to pad through the room, shining his flashlight every which way to make sure there wasn’t anything hiding in the dark corners ready to jump at him. There was only post-it note after post-it note, colourful and scribbled on like some demonic child’s ramblings in a horror movie. All the candles in the room did little for illumination besides making him worry about a fire hazard, and overall, the entire place just creeped him out. Even more than everything else in this freakin’ place did.

Fun fun fun , one post-it said, handwriting so illegible that Gregory had to squint to read it properly. Another, party time. All my friends.

A bunch of smile faces. Some slices of pizza. A party hat. Happy place. Share. All for me. This is my home.

Reaching one of the large pillars in the room, Gregory noticed one post-it slightly unstuck from the rear, close to falling off completely. He stopped and peered suspiciously at it, before taking it off the pillar to look at it more closely. It seemed to be a sketch of a stick figure person, but with two unmistakable features added on — a wide-brim cap, and a flashlight.

Gregory dropped it and kept walking.

He didn’t know what to even think when it came to this place, so he was just going to ignore it until he got to the part in his plan where he figured out what the hell was happening in the Pizzaplex. But first, he needed to get Freddy with him. With him, everything would be so much simpler — well, he hoped.

If anything, at least he wouldn’t be totally alone in this anymore.

Reaching the stairs and pausing momentarily to look back at the post-it room, Gregory pressed his lips together into a firm line, and huffed before starting to head up the stairs and out of the stupid sewer and stupid Chica and stupid stupid everything .

“Screw this place.” He muttered. “Screw this place to hell and back.”

•

•

•

Gregory had always been interested in mechanics.

Ever since he was little, Gregory could recall the joy he got from making things, block towers and simple contraptions to make his toys work better. While he did eventually give up on it — didn’t really have the time for it anymore, or the resources — he still enjoyed it whenever he faced a problem that could be solved with him building or repairing something. It wasn’t just the physical aspect of it, though.

He even remembered one time, back when he still went to school and actually tried to have learn and pay attention (which was maybe back around second or third grade, if his memory served right), his teachers had brought his class down to the school library and allowed them to play around with a cheap, simple coding program that let them move a little cat around on the tablet screen. They had only had, like, five tablets though, so they were split into pretty big groups. Except, everybody in his group ended up just crowding around him in awe as he managed to make the cat do a little jump on the screen.

Well, maybe not awe, but — whatever. Point being, Gregory like mechanics and was pretty good at coding (even if he hadn’t done it for awhile), which meant that, hopefully, trying to mess around in Freddy’s memory banks and figure out a way to make him remember every loop would be a piece of cake.

If he was lucky, that is.

“Alright, so — you gotta lay on that thing for repairs, right?” Gregory pointed at the protective cylinder in the middle of parts and services, and as soon as his feet hit the ground from climbing out of Freddy, he started walking over to it. “How does it work?”

He knew how it did already, but he still had to pretend not to, or Freddy would get suspicious and not trust him anymore — which was the absolute opposite of what he wanted.

Padding up behind him, Freddy hummed and said, “Well, when we animatronics are getting repairs done, we are strapped to the table inside the protective cylinder there as the technicians work on us! And, if we’re getting our coding looked at — we are plugged into the software editor through the data port on the back of our necks, and they can edit and search our coding through a tablet outside of the cylinder.”

Freddy tapped the spot, exactly on the back of his neck, and Gregory circled around him to stretch up on his tippy toes to see it. It looked like a little USB port, but given how he had seen some cables in the cylinder with a similar port, he could probably figure out which one fit into it.

“Oh, cool.” He said, jumping back around to stand in front of Freddy again, only a few feet apart. “Does that mean I can look at your coding?”

Freddy’s ears went down, and his gaze snapped to him. Oh, he probably shouldn’t have asked that so bluntly. “I already told you, Gregory. I would have to be shut down for you to safely look at my coding, and I do not feel comfortable leaving you unprotected like that. Why do you wish to look at my code anyways?”

Gregory bit the inside of his cheek, itching at a bandaid on his arm and avoided Freddy’s curious — if slightly suspicious — eyes that now fell on him. He couldn’t go explaining his true purpose to Freddy, but he did have a secondary goal in mind for this little project. That he could tell Freddy about.

“I — I want to check that you’re okay. Your coding is, I mean.” He clarified, swallowing thickly. “Everyone else here is obviously under the influence of some sort of virus or programming bug or something, so I want to see if I can find it in your coding. If I do, then I might be able to isolate it and figure out a way to remove it, so there’s no risk of it potentially … you know. Activating.”

Freddy didn’t say anything. Gregory found that when he didn’t, he couldn’t stop talking.

“And — and I promise, I know what I’m doing. I’m good at stuff like this. But if you don’t … if you’re uncomfortable with me doing that I get it. Your code is … is like your brain, right? And I’m not professionally trained in it.” Why was he saying this? He was just making it a worse case. “But — but I really don’t want you to become like the others because then you be all — all murdery and stuff and I really really really don’t want you go all … murdery.”

He finished his ramble lamely, gulping a bit as Freddy blinked at him, taking in all his words. Honestly, Gregory had no idea why he was talking so much — something about Freddy, he guessed, that just made him want to talk. It was stupid.

In front of him, though, Freddy didn’t seem to mind. In fact, his ears wiggled a bit, and his previously suspicious expression melted into something more soft and understanding. “I understand that, superstar. I will admit, I am also worried about any potential virus activating in my system and causing me to harm you — so, I will allow you to inspect my coding for any malware or viruses.”

Gregory blinked up in surprise at him. “Wait, actually?”

Had — had something in his stupid ramblings actually worked ? That was a surprise. Most of the time he ended up word vomiting like that, people either cut him off or told him to shut up. Or just called him weird, or stupid, or other words that they didn’t mean nicely. He really shouldn’t be surprised with Freddy anymore, though. That was just how he was.

“Yes, superstar.” Freddy shook his head, seemingly fondly, before adding, “But, I ask you do not edit anything in my coding that doesn’t have to do with the virus.”

Gregory nodded vigorously. “Of course I wouldn’t. Do you — do you want any upgrades, too? That’s what we came here for.”

“No, thank you. I think the adventure into my code is enough for this trip.” Freddy said, shaking his head. Gregory just shrugged. His original plan to lure Freddy to Parts and Services was under the guise of doing an ‘upgrade’ with some spare (read; stolen) parts to hopefully give him a better chance against the animatronics or any weird bunny ladies running around. Gregory didn’t really care much either way, though. He just wanted to look at his code.

Get rid of the virus. Let him remember.

“Okay.” Gregory said, voice a bit shakier than he wanted. “Let’s — let’s get started, then?”

It sounded like a question, so Freddy answered, “Yes, of course. Here — I will help you get everything set up. It is different from a usual repair or upgrade, after all.”

Gregory just nodded and let Freddy lead him over to the cylinder, his heart a low pit in his chest.

True to his word, Freddy helped get Gregory set up, instructing him on how properly plug him into the cylinder, how he would activate the software editor was he booted it up (“ The password for the editor is 8-10-2-23-7-4-27-28-25-16. Can you repeat that back to me? ” “Uhhh … 8 …?” “Yes, that’s right. What’s next?” “… 14?” “… I am going to write it down for you.” ), and what to do to boot him up after. Once everything was settled, however, Freddy got down on the platform and Gregory plugged him in. Just as he was about to the start down the shut down sequence, however, Freddy hummed from his place on the platform, and Gregory paused.

“Everything okay?” He asked, blinking at the bear, who blinked back.

“Yes, of course.” He replied, before adding slowly after a moment, “Only … promise me that if anything happens, you will wake me up, alright?”

Gregory wanted to roll his eyes, but didn’t due to the seriousness in Freddy’s voice, so he only nodded instead. “Okay, pinky swear.”

“Thank you.” Freddy said sounding the utmost sincere about it as if Gregory wasn’t the one who should be thanking him. “See you in a bit, superstar.”

Gregory nodded once more, and with a confirming nod from Freddy, started the shut down sequence.

It took a moment for it to set in, but once it did, the glow in Freddy’s eyes died and his eyelids shut, with all the tension leaving his body. There was a small clack of metal-again-metal, and Gregory couldn’t help but wince a bit at the noise. With eyes closed and limp body, Gregory would almost think he was dead. Except, robots couldn’t die, could they? They could get deleted, but there were always backups. They couldn’t ever die.

Gregory huffed. He was wasting time.

Stepping out of the cylinder and locking it up as Freddy had told him to do, he headed to the tablet that had now popped out from the base of the cylinder. It had only one still flashing box on it — “ Press here to start up procedure.” — that he stared at for a moment, gripping the sides of the tablet. Despite feeling confident in his abilities, there was still the little bit of worry present, that he was going to mess something up and cause irreversible damage to Freddy’s code.

But, again, backups, right? Robots couldn’t die. Freddy couldn’t die.

“Okay, let’s just —“ He took a deep breath, preparing himself, and pressed the ‘start up’ button. “— take this slowly.”

Of course, as soon as he said that, music started blaring from the screen.

“Shit!” He flinched back, before looking around to check if the sudden sound and his expletive hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention. When he was in the clear, he turned back to the screen and looked for a volume button. There wasn’t one. Figured.

“ Welcome, technician, to the Freddy Fazbear Mega Pizzaplex Internal Software Editor !” Said the same, customer-service type voice that Gregory had been hearing everywhere so far — in the cylinder, the front lobby, the freakin’ elevator of all places. “ Please type in the password to activate the program. ”

A keypad appeared, and Gregory typed in the password Freddy had given him, written in sharpie on the inside of his arm (they couldn’t find any paper). Once he pressed ‘Enter’, the music started blaring once more, and he grimaced as a cartoon man wearing a bear mask, in an artstyle similar to the pictures he had seen on the doors where the Endos were, appeared on screen as visuals flashed in time to what the voice said.

“ Good job . You have now unlocked the software editing program. Using our patented, state-of-the-art technology, you should now be able to access the internal coding of whichever animatronic is currently plugged into the cylinder. ” The tablet said, and Gregory glanced up at Freddy — still powered down, almost lifeless — before back at the tablet. “ You are currently working on Freddy Fazbear, Glamrock Line; Version 4.3 . Is this the animatronic you wish to work on? ”

A little pop-up, displaying ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, appeared onscreen. Gregory snorted, and pressed ‘Yes’. This was … well, easier then he thought. At least, so far. All the noise still made him anxious, though.

“ Great. What do you wish to do today? ”

Then, a whole lot of pop-ups appeared. Oh boy.

There were quite a few — install upgrades, add new processes, the works. It was a bit daunting, and Gregory scrolled through the options, trying to figure out what to do. However, he ended up just deciding to start at the beginning, and found the ‘Run Diagnosis ’ button. Then, he took a deep breath, and clicked it.

The tablet stalled for a moment, loading the new screen, before more little white text appeared. Gregory hummed and leaned forward, squinting a bit to see it all, and found it to be mostly what he was expecting.

Freddy Fazbear, Glamrock Line; Version 4.3

Status: Offline

System: Safe Mode

Power: 87%

Connectivity: Offline

Secondary Connectivity: Offline

Performance Reliability: Null; Offline

Gregory frowned. Nothing seemed wrong, but he didn’t really trust it. Though the system still being in ‘safe mode’ did ease his tension a bit — not by much to not still be suspicious, though. If the others were infected, Freddy probably was too. Gregory wasn’t naïve enough to think that they wouldn’t try to infect the main star of the ‘Plex with their stupid virus.

If Vanessa-slash-Vanny-slash-whoever was really the one responsible for the virus, though, that meant … Gregory had to think like her.

So, if he was a probably bitter and stupid Pizzaplex employee trying to infect all the animatronics with malicious coding, how would he go about it?

He though about it for a moment, before grinning to himself.

He would disguise it as an update, that’s how.

It would make the most sense. Freddy had said they downloaded all their programming updates virtually from the main system, so anybody trying to infect them would just need to disguise the virus as an update and the animatronics would install it without another thought. There, it could lie dormant — occasionally sneaking through through odd behaviour and bugs — until they tried to activate it. Except, where all the others had fallen victim to it, Freddy must have sensed it somehow and his system switched into ‘safe mode’ before it could activate.

Which meant the virus was still in him somewhere, ready to come to life as soon as he came off safe mode.

So now, Gregory just needed to find a way to extract it.

He groaned. He was going to need a manual for this, or something.

•

•

•

There was, in fact, a manual.

It was hiding underneath a bunch of boxes on one of the shelves, but Gregory found it, and flipped through the pages until he found one that gave a basic breakdown of how updates and safe mode worked and all that. He was right in that the animatronics did updates manually from the main server, but he learned that ‘safe mode’ was a special type of system status that activated whenever it detected malware. When it activated, it was suppose to put up special firewalls that stopped any new programming from being added, and halted any non-pre-existing coding from running. That way, even if the malware got into the animatronics system, it would hopefully not be able to duplicate or cause much damage.

“Okay, okay.” Gregory mumbled to himself, flipping back to the index. “That’s great, but how do I get rid of the malware afterwards ?”

There was nothing in that. Figured.

Gregory was just going to have to figure this one out on his own.

He managed to find his way to just the general stream of Freddy’s coding, and carefully started peering through all the different loops and modules and processes that made up, effectively, Freddy’s brain. He was a little impressed, though. For a company that seemed to want to cut corners at every given opportunity, the animatronic’s coding was a technical marvel. Though, he guessed they wanted to avoid more rumours about their dangerous animatronic’s from flying around.

Still, just looking at the code he could tell this was advanced. The animatronics — or, at least, Freddy — all had what seemed like hundreds of processes and subprocess all working in tangent with eachother. There were some processes designed to store away data from guests, such as their favourite food and songs, to be used again if they ever came back. There were some meant to mimic human behaviour and make their own connections from that data to expand those processes. There were some meant to assess situations for any potential hazards or dangerous persons and act accordingly in the best interest of the children around —

Wait.

Gregory stopped his scrolling, and leaned in close to the screen. Something here was … wrong. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but when he narrowed his eyes and got close enough to the screen his nose brushed against the glass, he finally noticed what it was.

The coding was glitching.

Like, literally, actually glitching . All the letters merged together, tinged with purple and black, with odd squares flickering on and off from it like an old 8-bit video game, before it settled back into the regular white text. Gregory only blinked at the screen.

Okay. That was weird — that was not suppose to happen.

Glitched code didn’t actually look like that, all purple and buzzing, and it immediately drew his attention towards it. That … that had to be the infected code, right? That had to be the virus. Well, at least that made it easier for him to identify it — if the infected coding literally glitched out like a bad movie filter, he would just search for any coding like it and didn’t have to worry about accidentally deleting any actual good coding.

“Ha, gotcha.” Gregory mummered to himself, before grinning.

Okay, Glitchy Virus? Prepare for trouble that was his beginner-level coding experience!

So slowly, piece-by-piece, Gregory began identifying the infected code and removing it carefully, double-checking everytime before he edited something. Luckily, he didn’t run into any trouble when trying to edit while Freddy was in safe mode — since he was doing this manually, through Parts and Services, he guessed the system realized he was a friend and didn’t try to boot him out or anything. The annoying voice tried to talk to him sometimes, but Gregory was too absorbed in his work to really pay attention. He was really only focused on the code in front of him, and the general surroundings (luckily, nobody had come to check on Parts and Services yet — he did watch the time, though. Didn’t want to get trapped outside while Moon was roaming around).

Eventually, Gregory managed to find where most of the code was located, and it was pretty smooth sailing from there. It seemed like the virus was mostly focused around the animatronics processes involving their ‘security mode’ — a mode that activated whenever an intruder or criminal was detected, or they were in a potentially harmful situation. The mode was suppose to remove the usual safety features that stopped the animatronics from accidentally hugging a kid too hard or scratching them with their nails or something, except aimed towards the ‘intruder’. It also had the secondary function of getting any children currently in the Pizzaplex out of the dangerous situation, or just away from the ‘intruder’.

The primary function of the security mode, however, was to eliminate the intruder before it could cause any harm.

Except, the virus made everybody an intruder.

Or, at least, it seemed like everybody who wasn’t a Fazbear Employee. That explained why they didn’t attack Vanessa, and were hyper focused on trying to find Gregory. It also completely eradicated the secondary process of keeping kids safe, and instead merged the two processes together to create a mishmash of coding and processes that almost seemed to be designed to hunt down intruders instead of just eliminating them.

The functions designed to help find kids that could be potentially hiding in fear were instead reworked with the ‘eliminate the intruder’ process to create one that seemed to be drawing kids towards their murderer instead of away. The functions designed to safely remove kids from a dangerous situation, carrying them to safety, was now twisted into attacking them. The entire mode had gone from ‘security’ to ‘attack’ and Gregory was the unlucky enough to be the only one around when it was activated.

He just huffed bitterly as he went about deleting the infected code and editing it back to how it originally was suppose to be (there was luckily a backup copy of the original code before the ‘update’ was installed, which while Gregory couldn’t recover , could work off of as a reference).

Distantly, he wondered if it should be this easy to remove it all — but, he wasn’t going to count his blessings.

By the time Gregory was finished, his vision was blurring together, and it was quickly reaching the end of the hour. He hadn’t gotten done what he really wanted to look at — Freddy’s memory banks, to see if there were any inhibitors on it — but soon, the hour would change and Moon would come out, and Gregory didn’t want to be in the middle of editing Freddy’s code when that happened. Sure, he would just come back from it, but it would be a pain to redo all his work if he died before he could finish it at all.

Besides, who knows. Maybe deleting the virus would allow for Freddy to remember the loops. He had a feeling the time loop and the virus were connected, after all. They couldn’t not be. Oh, sure, it’s just a coincidence that the animatronics go all corrupted the night time decides to stop adhering to its own laws. Totally and completely a coincidence, yep yep.

Clicking the ‘Save and Install’ option on the fixed code, Gregory rubbed at his eyes as he went through the process of logging off and shutting the internal software editor down, before moving to reboot Freddy. His eyes felt dry and vision was blurry, so he kept blinking to clear them up as he hit the ‘Power On’ button on the tablet and stepped back in front of the protective cylinder to watch as Freddy came back to life once more.

After a few moments holding his breath, Freddy slowly opened his eyes, the blueness glowing brightly before settling down into a dimmer light. He blinked a few times, seemingly coming back into himself as he looked around, before his gaze focused on Gregory through the glass of the cylinder. Gregory only stared back, biting the inside of his cheek enough to sting, as he waited for a reaction.

He could have done something wrong. He could have messed with the coding too much, deleted something important, and now Freddy wouldn’t be himself anymore. He could have accidentally made the virus worse, and now Freddy wanted to kill him. Or, worse yet, he did something to his memories and now he didn’t remember him, even for this loop.

Gregory didn’t like this feeling. This … worry.

Except, only a moment later, it was abolished with only two simple words.

“Hello, superstar.”

A grin slowly spreading across his face, though he didn’t know why, Gregory hit the button to open the cylinder and allow Freddy to move. “Hey, Freddy. How’re you feeling?”

When the door slid open, he headed inside, as Freddy got off the table and blinked down at him as he came over. The animatronic looked distant for a moment, and Gregory waited patiently for him to finish whatever he was doing, before his ears wiggled and he looked down at him again. Gregory grinned at him. Freddy, if he could, seemed like he wanted to grin back.

“I am feeling … good.” The bear answered, in response to his earlier question. “I ran a diagnosis and I can see that some of my code was edited, but I cannot tell what.”

Gregory hummed, and glanced away from his focused gaze, feeling a bit awkward. “Yeah, uh … turns out you were infected with the virus. Luckily, it was never activated like the others because your system sensed it and turned on safe mode before it could, but it was still there, and would probably have set in as soon as you turned off safe mode. So I, uh, kinda … gotridofitforyou?”

Freddy blinked at him, and he rushed to keep going before the bear could say anything. “I promise I didn’t do anything else! I just got rid of the virus for you. It had disguised itself as a regular update for you guys and was lying dormant until it was activated, where it, like, forced you guys into security mode but made it seemed like everybody was dangerous so you would attack them. I’m sorry.”

He chewed at his bottom lip, still unable to look at Freddy in fear of any anger he would find there, but then the animatronic crouched down in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder, making him look back at him as he asked, “Why are you apologizing, superstar? I’m not angry.”

“I don’t know.” Gregory frowned. “I messed with your coding even when you said you just wanted me to look at it? That might make you upset.”

Freddy just chuckled. “Well, I am not upset with you either. In fact, I am quite the opposite. You got rid of the virus and stopped me from potentially harming you or anybody else. I am very grateful for that, and I am also proud of you for it.”

That made Gregory snap up to look at him, searching his face for any hint of malice or deceit, but like always, he found nothing. “Really?”

“Of course.” Freddy assured, ears wiggling. “There are not many children who can say they could edit an animatronic’s coding and get rid of a virus in it!”

Gregory felt his face heating up, and stepped away to rub at his cheeks, causing Freddy to retract his arm back to his side as he muttered, “Yeah, well, I don’t know if I got all of it. Just stay in safe mode, just in case.” He checked his watch. “Speaking of, we need to find a recharge station. It’s almost the end of the hour, and unlike you the creepy moon guy still has a virus in their system.”

Freddy chuckled again, though Gregory didn’t know if it was supposed to be a joke or not, and he was the one who said it. “Right away, superstar. Let’s get going.”

Freddy opened his chest plate for him, and Gregory was climbing inside before the bear even had to tell him to. When he was settled, Freddy stood up and started walking towards a recharge station, and Gregory just nestled deeper inside the stomach compartment, and prayed that this hour squinting at code and flipping through dusty manuals wasn’t in vain.

(Please, please let this work.)

But, if it didn’t … well, he would just try again next time.

He’d try as many times as it would need to help Freddy remember.

Chapter Text

LOOP 18. (Cont.)

After leaving Parts and Services, Gregory decided he wanted to wander for a bit.

There wasn’t really any point in trying to destroy Roxanne or Monty right now, given how he knew he couldn’t escape anyways, so he could just take some time to explore a bit. Well, not explore — he knew this place like the back of his hand by now, already having memorized all the endless corners and dead-end hallways and thousands of doors that made up this place. Though, he mostly just wanted to go back to the gift shop. Even if he couldn’t get out, he still wanted to steal something from it. For his own satisfaction, if nothing else.

“Hey, Freddy?” He asked, knocking on the inside of his chest plate. “Do you think we can swing around to Glam Gifts again? I … kinda want something from there.”

The shoes, more specifically. He had grabbed a pair of running shoes from there on his first run, to replace the beat-up ones he was currently wearing, but hadn’t any other runs because he either forgot, didn’t have time, or just gave up on trying to deface this place in any meaningful way.

But, well. He was feeling good this loop. And if there was anything that could outlast this time loop, it was Gregory’s spite.

“Of course, superstar. What do you want from there?” Freddy asked, voice as warm and joyful as usually, despite the circumstances.

“I saw some cool sneakers.” He replied. “Mine are … kinda beat-up.”

That was complimenting it. These things were falling apart at the seams, it was a miracle they were both still in tact and hadn’t fallen to shreds as he had been running.

“Ah, well, usually I would not condone stealing from the ‘Plex, but …” His tone had an air of mischievousness to it, like an adult giving candy to a kid after their parents told them they weren’t allowed to have any, and despite the cheesiness of it Gregory still smiled a little to himself. “This is a special case.”

“Just think about it like … borrowing resources to better equip yourself for survival.” Gregory said, chuckling a bit. “Not as bad, right?”

Freddy shifted a bit, and patted the outside of his stomach hatch. “No, not as bad.”

They lapsed into comfortable silence as Freddy continued walking, now heading towards the giftshop, which luckily only took a few minutes. As soon as they reached the base of the stairs leading up towards it, however, Gregory heard the telltale beep of Freddy’s low power warning, and climbed out of the hatch as Freddy let out a robotic sigh.

“I must go charge.” He said, as if Gregory hadn’t heard the beeping himself. “I shall meet you back here in a few minutes, alright? You can still go and get your shoes.”

“Yeah, I got it.” Gregory said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, even if it wasn’t really in annoyance. “Be back quick, okay?”

“Quick as I can.” Freddy said, ears wiggling. “Stay safe, superstar.”

Gregory grinned back up at him. “Always am. See you soon.”

With one last ear flick, Freddy turned and started making his way back towards the way they came. Once he was out of sight, Gregory turned made his up the stairs to Glam Gifts, and slipped inside the brightly-lit store.

His eyes immediately passed over all the plushies and magnets and other useless crap, and focused on the clothing section. Right there, on one of the lower shelves that he slowly padded over to, was the one of the only good things in this stupid giftshop. The shoes. They were in the same orange colour as Freddy’s plating, with velcro straps and little lightning bolts on the side — some with lightning bolts that lit up if you stomped too hard, and others that were just stitched on. Gregory choose the latter. Light-ups were cool, but if you were gonna be sneaking around, you should probably choose the more stealthy pair.

Just as he was about to tug off his old shoes and replace them with the new ones, however, Gregory startled when he heard a ‘beep’ from somewhere nearby. It took him an embarrassingly long time to realize that it came from his watch, and he shook his head a bit to look down at the new notification. It was from Freddy, of course. Wasn’t like anybody else would be trying to contact him.

Gregory, I have finished charging and am making my way towards you now. See you in five minutes! :) - Freddy

Gregory snorted and dismissed the notification. Who had taught Freddy how to use emoticons? Scratch that, why did Freddy even use emoticons in the first place?

He really should just stop questioning the deal with Freddy, though. Even though he had taken a good look at his coding, Gregory didn’t really know why the bear was so … well, himself all the time. It could be something with his ‘mimic protocols’, learning modules put in place to observe and copy human behaviour in an attempt to appear more friendly, but that didn’t seem right. Being able to mimic human habits didn’t equate to sentience.

Because Freddy was sentient, wasn’t he? He had to be. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be helping Gregory. He wouldn’t have said all those things to him in all the other loops, the stuff about protecting him and staying by his side. He wouldn’t have done anything at all. He should have just delivered Gregory to security as soon as he found him, but instead Freddy decided to help him. Out of his own free will. That was what sentience was, right?

Gregory swallowed. That was a bit weird to think about. A sentient robot whose sole decision was simply to help you? Bit odd. Bit uncomfortable, actually.

Mostly because … mostly because nobody wanted to help Gregory before. And the few that tried, who had their hearts in the right places or just weren’t major jerkasses, never ended up well afterwards.

(“Hey, kid, are you gonna order something or what?”

Gregory looked up from where he was making pyramids out of coffee creamers and sugar packets, seeing that there was a haggard-looking waitress standing next to his table with her order book out. He glanced away from her, around the diner he was currently hiding from the rain in, and saw that behind the counters all the other waiters and even a manager-looking person were all watching them. They glanced away as soon as Gregory looked over at them, though, and he swallowed.

He hadn’t even been here for very long. He ducked inside when the storm started to get bad, streaks of crackling lightning flashing way off, and just sat down in a corner booth farthest away from any of the actual customers. The same waitress had come to him before, when he first sat down, and asked what he wanted. And yeah, Gregory had wanted to order something. The menu was huge here, and everything look appetizing to him.

There was one small problem with this, of course.

That being the fact he was a homeless street rat with no money and was currently making an entire new lake in the booth he was sitting in, with how much rainwater was dripping off him.

“I, um …” He looked around, and awkwardly reached for the menu sitting discarded on the table. “I’m still looking.”

The waitress stared at him for a moment, unreadable, before sighing deeply. Gregory tried not to flinch, but his hand still twitched around the menu, and he glanced at the front doors. The waitress was standing between it and him, but if he caught her off guard, he could probably push past her before she managed to grab him. None of the other customers should realize what was happening, until he was already gone.

The waitress followed his gaze, then her eyes softened.

“Kid, you’ve been here for half-an-hour. Only customers are allowed to linger. Dumb rule, I know, but my manager is a bit of an ass and will enforce it if he doesn’t see you eating anything.” She explained, voice going an octave softer than it had been before. “Can … can you order anything ?”

Gregory pressed his lips together, and shook his head. He had had a bit of money on him earlier, when he first left his foster family’s house, but his backpack had been stolen from him one day when he was stupidly napping so now he had nothing expect what he had in his pockets — a few mints, fuzz and an old bandaid wrapper.

“I’ll leave.” He mumbled to her, already moving to get up. He’d rather leave on his own then get forced out, after all. “It’s fine.”

“No — no, you can stay.” The waitress rushed, stepping over to block him from coming out of the booth. “I was just … letting you know.”

Well, that didn’t help him because he still didn’t have any money. He gave the waitress an unimpressed look from where she was blocking him from leaving, but a bit fearful as well. If it came down to it, he could kick her. She looked old. She’d go down easily.

She seemed to realize she was blocking him, because she took a few steps backwards, and Gregory exited the booth to stand across from her as she started talking again, “Hey, how ‘bout this — we had a pick-up order for a few hours ago with pay in advance but the guy never came, and otherwise we would just throw it out … would you be interested in it? It’s just some pancakes with fruit and other shi — stuff on top, and it’s a bit cold, but it still should be good, yeah?”

That sounded … that sounded really good, but Gregory just continued to glare at her. It couldn’t be real. There was always a catch with these types of things — people being nice to him, people giving him stuff. There was always a catch.

“… I don’t have any money.” He told her. He was pretty sure he already knew, it was obvious, but he wanted to make sure she knew before she assumed he could pay. “And I don’t have anybody who can pay for me.”

The waitress just chuckled. “It’s on the house, kid.”

Oh. That meant it was free, right? And she had said the guy never came to pick it up …

He slowly slipped back into the booth. The waitress laughed again.

“Be right back.” She said, before heading back towards the kitchen. Gregory just watched her go, perplexed.

He wasn’t … he wasn’t that pathetic looking right? Sure, he was dirty and soaking wet and sitting on his own making pyramids out of coffee creamers with sugar packets as decorations, but …

He huffed, and added another creamer to the top of pyramid.

He still didn’t entirely believe that the waitress was actually getting him food, but he was so hungry he honestly didn’t care if she was just getting backup to toss him out. It’d be a mean trick to pull, but he had been treated worse in establishments like this before, and it wouldn’t be the first time. He was just so hungry that if there was even a chance that there was free food for him, he’d stick around and see if it was true.

Besides, he really didn’t want to go back to the rain anytime soon.

Glancing out the window to outside, where he could just distantly see the glow of a streetlamp through torrential downpour, Gregory sighed again and placed the last sugar packet on top of the last coffee creamer. He didn’t have anything to distract him after that, so he just rested his chin on the table over his crossed arms and kicked his feet back and forth. The low din of the patrons settled into white noise as he waited to see if the waitress actually came through, or if he was going to have to go find somewhere else to haunt.

However, just as he was settling into a comfortable daze, the sound of harsh voices snapped him out of it.

Sitting up, he looked over to where the sound was coming from, and found it was drifting over from the kitchen — the door was slightly ajar, and he could see a the manager of the diner yelling at something. Well, he assumed it was the manager. If it wasn’t, he was still definitely higher up given he wasn’t wearing the same uniform as the rest of them. It didn’t matter who he was, though, because whoever he was he was currently chewing out the waitress now holding a box of takeout.

He could see their lips moving. The slightly-ashen faces of the other workers. Snippets of words — that kid, faking, no handouts — and the indignant but upset expression on the waitress’s face. She was holding the takeout box so hard her knuckles turned white.

Gregory was out of the diner and running out the front door before anybody could notice.

He was soaked again in a matter of seconds, but he just kept running away from the diner, torn sneakers splashing in puddles and feeling cold inside not just because of the rain. The waitress, yelled at by her boss, kept flashing in his mind. She was nice. She didn’t deserve it, and it was all his fault.

He just hoped she didn’t get into too much trouble because of him. He didn’t think he could deal with it if she did.)

Gregory huffed, and shook his head to clear his thoughts. No, he couldn’t think about that. Freddy was helping him, and Freddy would be okay. He was strong and smart even if he was a bit oblivious at times, and even if something happened to Gregory, Freddy would be okay.

He had to be.

Realizing that he was still standing in the middle of the gift shop aisle, he moved again to put on his new (stolen) running shoes, though once again paused halfway. But instead of it being because of a watch notification, this time it was a lot worse. A lot, lot, worse.

“Hey, little dude! There you are!”

Gregory dropped the running shoes and whipped around to hear Monty thundering up the stairs just outside the giftshop, and panicked. He must have — he must have heard the watch notification, or Gregory had been too caught up in his own head to realize he was approaching. Shit!

Turning heel just as Monty reached the platform outside the Giftshop with a joyous roar, Gregory ran towards the employee only door and burst through. There was a second staircase leading down, and he rushed down it two stairs at time, before hitting the ground floor. After a moment of hesitation, he turned and started running towards the escalators, blocked by the stupid metal gates. That was where Freddy should be coming from, and if he got to him — he’d be fine. He’d be fine. He would always be fine.

Up above in the Giftshop, Monty decided to be smart for once and backtrack to run down the main stairs to get to him just as Gregory rushed by on the way towards the escalator. Gregory only ducked, and yelped loudly as he just narrowly avoided getting his eyes scratched out when the gator leaned over the railing to take a swipe at him.

“Piss off!” He yelled, before taking off again.

Monty didn’t say anything back, only roaring, but Gregory was pretty sure that was supposed to be rude insult back at him.

He quickened his pace as he reached the metal gate separating him from the rest of the mall, and went to jump over it, but —  his ankle twisted at the last second and he ended up slamming his head against the bars anyway.

Letting out a cry of pain when his head connected with the bars, everything vibrated, echoing through his head and making teeth clack against and it was the worst feeling ever . He must have bit his tongue too as he could taste blood his mouth, but he didn’t have time to focus on it because the floor was still shaking as Monty rushed at him, and he needed to go .

Groaning, he tried to get to his feet again by pulling himself up with the bars, but it was too late to try and jump them so he took off running in parallel. He could tell he wasn’t gonna be able to escape, though. His head was still ringing like a son of a bitch, twisted ankle sending shocks of pain everytime his sneakers hit the ground, and Monty was still in his prime, not even half dirty yet. So yeah, Gregory knew he wasn’t gonna get out of this one this time.

Somewhere, distantly, he thought he heard someone yelling for him. He kinda wished Freddy was here, but shook that thought away. He’d be too late to actually do anything. It was okay. Gregory would just see him next time, like he always did.

“Got you, little guy!”

With a joyous exclamation, Monty finally reached him and snagged his ankle. Gregory screamed as he went falling towards the ground, banging his chin on the tiles and making his mouth all the more bloody. Some of it dribbled down his chin as Monty twisted him around to face him, and he squirmed and kicked and punched but the animatronics teeth were snapping in his face, star-shaped glasses shining mockingly in the neon lights —

The floor was shaking beneath him. Was someone coming closer?

It didn’t matter, though. Too late. Always too late.

( But you’ll be fine. You’ll always be fine. )

The last thing he heard before those plastic teeth crunched over his skull was Freddy screaming his name.

LOOP 19.

Gregory didn’t wake up to Freddy’s voice, this time.

No, instead of hearing Freddy repeat the same line he could recite in his sleep by now, he barely had enough time to blink before he was being pulled out of Freddy’s hatch and held up by his armpits like a naughty cat.

“Hey, Freddy, what —“ He started to say, before Freddy scanned him like he usually did, though this time Gregory did squirm in his grip. The angle was awkward with the way Freddy had dragged him out, with his one foot still caught inside his stomach, and when the scan was complete Freddy just blinked and did it again. “Freddy, what are you doing?“

After all, Freddy usually didn’t go right to scanning him. They would talk first, let Gregory climb out on his own (or be dragged out, if he tried to stay inside) and he never usually held him for this long. It was getting uncomfortable, especially as Gregory twisted his leg around to get his foot free. This was weird . Weird outside the … well, everything here. Freddy was, typically, the one thing that stayed consistent throughout all the loops, and him acting differently was very unnerving.

But —

It was different. A change in routine. That … that had never happened before, and it could really only mean one thing, and thing he had been hoping for; loop over loop, reset after reset, and everytime Freddy started off the same. Same line, same reaction, same … same amnesia.

If he was acting different now, that meant something had changed.

He wished it was something good. What he had done, getting rid of the virus.

But Gregory didn’t want to get his hopes up.

He really, really hoped it worked.

“Er, Freddy?” He spoke up quietly, swallowing and kicking his feet back and forth in the air, trying to wiggle free of the animatronic’s grip. “Can you put me down?”

Freddy, after a few seconds filled with nothing but blank stares and blinking, finally put him back down on the patterned carpet. He stumbled a bit when he landed, body feeling a bit wobbly from his unceremonial eviction from Freddy’s hatch, and he grabbed onto Freddy’s arm to steady himself. The bear, despite his odd behaviour, still reached out to help support him, allowing Gregory to latch onto his arm and steadying himself with his other paw on his shoulder. Still stupidly helpful. At least that hadn’t changed.

“Careful, Gregory.” Freddy said after a moment, robotic voice oddly … wobbly. Like he was speaking under water. That was the only way he could describe it. “Don’t - don’t —“

Gregory blinked up at the animatronic as he cut himself off, before he kneeled down so they were at eye-level. After another few moments of staring at him Freddy … reached out?

Gently and at a pace to rival a snail’s, Freddy brushed the tip of his claws over Gregory’s forehead, then began to push back strands of hair to better inspect his skin. He went gently, claws cold but not painful, and was going so softly Gregory held his breath, afraid that if he let out a sound louder than a puff it would startle him. Even though it did make him tense up a bit, recalling how many times the others claws had been that close to his skin, Gregory said nothing as Freddy … did whatever he was doing. It was weird. Nobody have ever been this … this gentle with him, before.

Finally, after about ten seconds of having his head felt up like a bowling ball, Freddy let his arms fall to his sides and said, “I do not understand.”

“Freddy …” Gregory trailed off, unsure of how to phrase his question. Oh, hey, does all of this feel super familiar to you? Cus’ I’ve been reliving like twenty times now! “Do you … remember?”

Please, please remember. He thought, heart pounding against his ribcage, threatening to break free. I don’t want to be the only one who remembers.

Freddy blinked a few times, processing the question, before to Gregory’s utter relief — he nodded.

“I … I believe I do.” The animatronic told him. “If you are talking about me recalling your … your death by  Monty’s teeth, I do.”

Oh.

Gregory’s mouth twisted into a thin line and he looked at the floor, scuffing his still-wrecked shoes and leaving specks of dirt on the pattern carpet. That — well, it must have been violent. He was glad he could only really remember bits and pieces of all his deaths, because he was sure there had been a lot of blood everywhere. For being an animatronic meant to entertain children, Monty sure had sharp teeth. Him and Roxanne both.

He hoped Freddy hadn’t been … too upset when he saw it. Even if he was an animatronic who could probably just wipe his memories when he didn’t want to remember something (Gregory could recall there had been the option to do that, back in Parts and Services, when Freddy had been hooked up to the software editor), it still wouldn’t have been pleasant to watch.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant.” He said after a moment, when it became apparent Freddy wanted a response from him. “I … I’m sorry you had to see it.”

Surprisingly, Freddy just shook his head, and placed both of his paws on Gregory’s shoulders, effectively locking him in place as he looked at him. “No, superstar, do not apologize. If anything, I should be apologizing to you. I was … not able to reach you in time. For that, I am sorry.”

The bear seemed so genuinely guilty that Gregory felt an odd lump in his throat for being the one to cause it, even indirectly. “It’s okay, Freddy. It’s not like it’s the first time, yeah?”

Gregory realized that was, apparently, the wrong thing to say, because Freddy’s grip on his shoulders tightened, and his eyes widened in akin to shock. “What do you mean by that, Gregory?”

He pressed his lips together and stayed silent, pressure building behind his eyes, so he squeezed them shut to avoid looking at the animatronic in front of him. Freddy let out a noise close to a sigh, and loosened his grip on his shoulders, though it seemed to take great effort out of him. “Gregory. I am … quite befuddled, by all of this. Please , explain to me what is going on.”

He couldn’t. He couldn’t , there was no way. He had been entirely alone, for all these loops, all these deaths, and now Freddy remembered. He remembered he remembered and now —

“Gregory?”

He sniffled once, and that was the only warning Freddy got before he burst into tears.

Burying his face in his hands to hide his tears, he let out a sob that sounded pitiful even to his own ears and swallowed back any other noises that tried to escape. He hadn’t cried in months — years, even, not since the first day on streets after running away. He had cut up his palms while climbing a fence and it had been raining and he was cold and hungry and in pain, before he decided he didn’t have the time or energy to cry at every little thing. Even when he died, even when he got stuck in this stupid time loop, he didn’t cry. Not even once.

But he was just so tired . Loop after loop, death after death, and now Freddy remembered and was worried about him and nobody had even done that for him since he was young. He had always been on his own, nobody to care for him and nobody to protect him.

Gregory just didn’t want to be alone anymore. And he wasn’t.

“Oh, superstar.” Freddy said quietly, starting to gently rub at his shoulders. Gregory could admit it felt nice, even if he was unused to feeling of other people touching him. “It’s okay. Just let it out.”

Gregory sniffled, hating the sound of it, and rubbed at his eyes even as tears still continued to fall. “S - sorry, I - I don’t —“

“It’s alright.” Freddy interrupted, voice decidedly calm as opposed to shocked and confused like it was earlier. “Would you like a tissue? Some water? A hug, perhaps?”

Gregory nodded, unsure of what he wanted but knowing that he didn’t care as long as Freddy was there, and was immediately scooped up into Freddys arm. It was a bit disorienting at first, especially since his eyes were still blurry with tears, but when he rested his head under the crook of Freddys chin and felt strong, surprisingly gentle hands rub at his shoulders, he decided to just go limp and let himself cry. After all the shit he had been through in the past few … hours, he could just take a small break and let himself be held for a moment, right? Even a street rat like him could have that.

“It’s okay, superstar. It’s okay.” Freddy kept repeating, a mantra as Gregory sniffled and wiggled closer to him. “Take all the time you need. I am here for you.”

The bear started humming then, a low sounding tune that Gregory could hear vibrating through his chest plate. It had the intended effect on him, because after a few minutes of Freddy holding him and humming softly, he felt his tears begin to dry and heartbeat starting to calm. It left him feeling even more tired than he had been previously, and he scrubbed at his cheeks to get rid of the feeling of tear stains and sniffled once more before forcing his pain and exhaustion deep down inside of him, locked up tight where it couldn’t be found. He had had his moment of crying, of weakness, and it was time to start working again.

Hopefully things would go better this time, now that Freddy remembered.

“Are you feeling better, superstar?” Freddy asked softly, and Gregory nodded. “I’m going to put you down now. Is that okay?”

Gregory nodded again, and was carefully set down on his feet. He wobbled a bit but stayed standing, though Freddy’s paws still lingered on his arms before he pulled away. He felt a bit less warm now that he wasn’t in his arms, but quickly shook that feeling away. He needed to focus now.

“Sorry for … crying all over you.” He mumbled, wanting to get that out of the way first. His cheeks burned a bit in embarrassment, but Freddy was probably used to kids getting all sorts of gross fluids all over him, so he didn’t feel too bad. “I don’t know what came over me.”

“It is okay, Gregory.” Freddy replied, doing that stupid sincerity thing again. “It is heathy to let out your emotions, especially when you are overwhelmed! And it … it appears you have gone through a lot lately, if I am not mistaken?”

With a slight huff, Gregory turned and climbed up the chair in front of Freddys vanity, to avoid talking about it for a moment longer. The chair was way too heavy for him to properly move, and his feet didn’t reach the floor, but he was still able to spin himself a bit. Freddy didn’t say anything while he did so, waiting patiently as he collected his thoughts. Finally, he decided to just mumble, “You can say that again.”

Freddy tilted his head. “If it is … not upsetting to you, would you mind explaining what is happening? I am very confused on how you are …”

The animatronic trailed off, and Gregory stared at his shoes as he spun around in the chair, trying to distract himself. He needed to explain everything to Freddy, he couldn’t be left in the dark, but … it was still uncomfortable to remember all the times he died, or the few times he thought he gotten free only for it to be snatched away again.

“It … started after I died for the first time.” He started talking, picking at a scab on his knee just so that the slight pain kept him present. “It was Monty — he chased me and I forgot my Fazer Blaster didn’t work on him and he … got me. But then, when everything went black, I just … woke up in your chest cavity again. At first I didn’t know what was happening, but then everytime I got caught and died I just kept waking up back here . Even in the few times I managed to get to six am, I just passed out as soon as I got off the Pizzaplex property.”

He sighed, still peeved whenever he thought about that. Freddy, still standing in front of him, lifted a hand to his stomach hatch and just stared at him. When he didn’t say anything, Gregory took it as a cue to continue. “I don’t know why it keeps happening, but I’m … grateful. I would have been dead so many times if it hadn’t.”

He chuckled a bit, bitterly, and Freddy blinked a few times before shaking his head and kneeling down in front of him again. Since he was still sitting in the chair, Freddy was now a few centimetres below him, though Gregory still refused to look at him. Especially when he softly said, “I am sorry that you have had to go through that, Gregory. Truly.”

“Don’t apologize, it’s not your fault.” Gregory said. If Freddy had the power to control time, then they would have been having a way different conversation.

“Still, the Pizzaplex is suppose to be a place of fun and excitement, for all children who walk through it’s doors.” Freddy replied. “I do not know why or how you are stuck in this … loop , with my friends infected and hunting you down, but I am still sorry that you have found yourself dealing with it.”

Gregory swallowed and shivered a bit, thinking of how many times Freddy had said similar words to him before, about how ‘odd’ the other animatronics were acting — it was virus, obviously, but … with Freddy now in the know, maybe now they could finally break the loop and escape . Hopefully, together.

“It’s fine.” Hopping off of the chair and beginning to pace, just to have something to do (and so that Freddy would stop staring at him all — all sympathetic ), Gregory felt the familiar burst of energy surge through him as he started to plan in his head. “But now you remember, so we can work together to get out!”

Freddy couldn’t smile, since his entire face was just made of metal and plastic, but Gregory could see it in his eyes as he stepped forward towards him. “And we will, superstar. I promise — I will do everything I can to help you get out. Of the Pizzaplex, and this loop.”

Gregory paused in his pacing to blink up at the bear, and couldn’t help himself but grin. At least, whatever happened next, in any of the loops — he had Freddy by his side. Truly, this time.

( He wasn't alone anymore. )

Chapter Text

LOOP 19. (Cont.)

Him and Freddy made a plan.

It was … not that different from what Gregory had already been doing, trying to change the sequence of events as much as possible to see what differed, but Gregory still felt more confident now that he knew Freddy was, well, ‘in the loop’ so to speak. With him now aware as well, maybe they could really start changing things. At least he hoped so. He really wanted to just break this stupid thing and be done with it.

This place was a goddamn hellhole. He hated it so much.

Though, he still needed to climb through the vent to unlock the greenroom door, which ended up being … an experience. Not because Gregory had any problems with it. No, that part was fine, since he had done it so many times now. No, the problem was that it seemed Freddy, now that he knew how many times Gregory had died, was very adamant about not letting it happen again. Even when it was completely inconvenient and illogical and dumb and also stupid, had he mentioned that? It was stupid.

Freddy spent a good five minutes trying to figure out another way to unlock his door so Gregory didn’t need to go through the vent on his own, and kept insisting to Gregory that he should ride in his stomach hatch or stay close by, in case of any surprise attacks from the other animatronics or Vanny. Gregory typically denied, citing he still needed to save his battery, but it didn’t stop the bear from trailing him at his heels like a lost puppy dog, so close he nearly took his shoes off a couple times. Seriously, he was acting more like a mother hen than a bear, and it was getting annoying. Gregory could take care of himself, thank-you-very-much, Freddy.

Sure, he had been sobbing in Freddy’s arms like half-an-hour ago, but that was just … a fluke. He was fine now. Had all his stupid, fuzzy feelings pushed deep down inside of him so he could focus on survival. He hadn’t had time for any of that stuff before, and he definitely didn’t now. Though, Freddy’s general protectiveness was largely ignorable, despite his thundering steps and worried comments as Gregory ran around and jumped over barriers and ducked behind boxes.

Well, up until the Daycare, that was.

“Superstar, where are we going?”

Gregory gave the bear, who had stopped walking, a confused look — he was so close he didn’t even need to turn around, if Gregory took a sudden stop he was going to get bodied, Jesus — and said plainly, “Uh, the Daycare? I need the security badge from in there.”

He really should have expected it by now, but apparently that was not agreeable with Freddy. The animatronic practically deflated like a popped balloon, which despite not having any moveable facial features somehow managed to look like the idea was the worst thing in the world. And, out of everything that Gregory had been dealing with, pushing over cans to distract the hyperactive Attendant and climbing through playpens to turn the lights back on was nowhere near the most scary thing he had to deal with. If anything, it was kinda fun, once he got to the point where he had memorized where all the generators were and could get it all done within, like, twenty minutes. Fifteen if he rushed.

Freddy, very obviously, did not have the same thought process.

“I am sure we can find another security badge elsewhere in the building.” Freddy told him, very unhelpfully. Gregory just rolled his eyes.

“This is the closest one.” He replied. “Besides, dealing with the Daycare Attendant’s super easy. It hasn’t ever even gotten me in there.”

Freddy’s eyes widen, but Gregory realized his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. Oh, shit.

“What do you mean by that, Gregory?” Freddy asked, his tone a mix between the soft-gentle tone he had used when Gregory had been crying, and the one that sounded like Freddy really, really wanted to snap something in half. “Has the … Daycare Attendant tried to harm you as well?”

“Well, the moon one has.” Gregory said with a note of bitterness. He hated that stupid moon thing, with its croaky voice and glowing red eyes and spindly fingers. He didn’t know how children didn’t burst into tears at the sight of it. “Whenever it comes out when the hour changes.”

“And … the sun?” Freddy question more, sounding very very hesitant about the whole thing.

This time Gregory just shrugged. Sun (he thought that was their name, but he didn’t really know) didn’t bother him as much as the Moon, but he was sure that while it’s general hyperness was appealing to toddlers, it got on Gregory’s nerves. A lot. “Usually they just throw me out of daycare. Uh … whenever I take the security badge, the lights turn off, and the Moon guy comes out. Then I gotta turn the generators in the playpen on, but when Sun comes back they just throw me out and ban me from the Daycare. Then usually alert all the others to where I am.”

He huffed. Yeah, that was never fun. And no matter what he did, it worked out the same every time — if he tried asking Sun for the badge he was denied. If he tried to find a way to keep the lights on when he took it, they shut off anyways. Trying to explain to Sun what happened afterwards never worked, and as far as he could tell, there were no accessible security badges of that particular level anywhere else in the building — well, not including rooms with a higher level than the badge in the Daycare which he couldn’t access because he didn’t have the damn  lower level security badge.

This place was a poorly-designed, minimum-wage employees nightmare.

Still standing close enough Gregory could feel the warmth of his internal mechanics radiating off him, Freddy hummed in thought, then glanced down at him. “Well, that is all the more reason to find a different security badge, hmm?”

Freddy seemed awfully pleased with this plan, but little did he knew that Gregory was full of rage and spite and would do something just because people told him not too. So, he was not budging on this and Freddy would have to suck it up.

“The one in the Daycare is closest.” He repeated, with as much stubbornness as he could muster. “And we’d waste time searching this entire building for another security pass. Besides, there’s a flashlight in there too I can grab, and I really need one of those things if I’m gonna survive the rest of the night.”

Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to deal with the Endos without a flashlight.

Freddy finally seemed to relent, but he didn’t seem happy about it. His ears went down and he glanced around, at the floor then the walls then the ceiling, before looking back at him. His eyes glowed slightly in the darkness, a faint blue rim illuminating his face, and Gregory watched as he debated within himself before he somehow looked very more distressed than he had been previously. Gregory didn’t even know how he managed to look so distressed in the first place.

“… I cannot accompany you into the Daycare.” Freddy said slowly, each word projected and careful.

Gregory frowned. “I know.”

“I will not be able to protect you from the Attendant.”

“Freddy, I know.” He sighed, a bit annoyed that they were having this conversation and losing valuable time. “I’ll be fine, okay? I’ve done this loads of times before. I’ll be like, twenty minutes, tops.”

He didn’t add that even with Freddy, hiding inside his chest cavity, Moon could still find him. And if they did find him, would rip Gregory out of it to kill him anyways. Freddy didn’t need to know that. It would just make him worse.

“Just … just wait for me outside, yeah?” He said, hoping he sounded reassuring. “I’ll be fine. And if I’m not, we’ll just reconvene back in your room.”

He had to smile a bit at his half-joke, though Freddy obviously didn’t find it that funny, because he simply shook his head and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I simply do not wish for you to … restart this loop unnecessarily. Even if you come back afterwards, we should try to avoid it if we can.”

Gregory wanted to lean into the contact, but instead shook himself off and pulled away slightly. Freddy got the message and let him go, and Gregory sent him a smile that hopefully didn’t look as shaky as he felt. “I’ll be fine. And when I come out of the Daycare and you see I’m fine, you can fuss all you want.”

That finally got a laugh out of Freddy, a soft snort that must have been preprogrammed in but still sounded so alive somehow. “Alright, alright, superstar. I get it.” A pause. “I will still accompany you to the Daycare entrance, however.”

Gregory snorted. He expected nothing less, at this point.

Freddy followed him all the way to the large metal doors, passing the brightly pained brick wall helpfully pointing them towards The Superstar Daycare Pick-up! along the way. It did make Gregory wonder a bit, about Freddy’s nickname that he used all the time, though it did make sense upon further reflection — Freddy was probably programmed to praise kids all the time, it was just second nature to him. Though, how much was actually ‘programming’ was up to debate.

He shook his head. If Gregory didn’t have to focus on the weird feelings in his chest, he definitely didn’t have time to ponder robotic sentience. He had seen the inside of his coding, anyways, and that was good enough.

They reached the entrance to the Daycare, and Gregory was just about to open the door and slip in underneath, but was stopped by a heavy hand on his shoulder. Holding back a sigh, Gregory turned to look at the animatronic that had stopped him, and was now kneeling next to him again.

Freddy seemed like he wanted to say something, eyes flickering all over his face, and Gregory waited expectedly before the bear just shook his head lightly and finally said, “Be safe, superstar. I will be waiting for you by the entrance.”

He huffed. “I’ll be fine. Back before you know it.”

With a somewhat-confident smile, he slipped out of Freddy’s grip, and the animatronic stood up as well to watch as the door opened for him. Feeling Freddy’s glowing eyes on his back, Gregory crouched under the door and headed into Daycare, for some reason feeling oddly guilty over the whole thing.

He passed by the statue and desk without paying it any mind, and headed straight for the slide. He actually liked this part of the Daycare — if he could distract Sun for long enough, he could easily manage to climb through the play area for awhile, and even though the Attendant always caught him and dragged him back in the end, it was fun while it lasted.

With a loud plastic ‘ splash’,  Gregory landed in the ball pit at the bottom of the slide, and decided just to get started right away instead of waiting for Sun to do their whole circus-performer thing up on the ledge. He could already hear their laughter from above, and a headache was growing.

Just get the badge and the flashlight. He repeated to himself, as he climbed out of the ball pit and heard the familiar crash of Sun landing right behind him. Badge and flashlight. Badge and flashlight. Shut the lights down and turn the generators on, then you’ll be back with Freddy and all his fussing. Badge and flashlight. Badge and flashlight.

He, of course, didn’t get that far.

“ HELLOOOO,  new friend! You're sure up late!” Sun was suddenly all out his face, picking him up by the shoulders and herding him away from the desk, and while Gregory flinched a bit he still ended up just glaring at the hyperactive animatronic. “Are we having a slumber party? Where are all of your friends?”

Gregory didn’t bother with a response, and wrenched himself out of Sun’s grip to kick over a nearby stack of cans. As it toppled to the floor, he heard Sun cry out in alarm behind him, but Gregory ignored him. The stupid attendant was always getting in the way. Freddy was waiting for him. Freddy was waiting for him, just outside the doors, and he just needed to get through this as quickly as possible. Freddy was waiting for him, so they could get out together, and they’d be fine.

So, just as Sun finished stacking the cans and turned to come after him again, Gregory reached the security desk, snatched the flashlight, and grabbed the badge before the animatronic could even figure out what was happening.

There was the usual spiel, Sun screeching and groaning and grabbing at their face like they could physical stop Moon from appearing, but Gregory was already rushing back to the play area (after charging the flashlight, just in case) to start getting the generators going. He knew where each one was located already, so much so he didn’t even need to look at the wires, and even as he heard Moon whisper and growl and search for him through the slides and tubing, Gregory just stayed as silent as possible and got each generator going one-by-one. Dying in the Daycare was one of the only deaths he hadn’t experienced it yet. Moon was never able to get him here.

The only slight bump in the plan was when Gregory had been crossing the rope bridge, trying to get to where the last generator was in a playpen. However, as he had been quickly rushing across the bridge — a dumb mistake, with how much noise it made — he heard the telltale cackling of Moon and looked up to see the red eyes in the darkness above him, just about swoop down towards him like an owl hunting it’s prey.

He seriously did not know whose idea it was to give Moon the ability to fly (because seriously, what the hell) but whoever it was should be fired and also, probably, in jail. Gregory cursed whoever that stupid idiot was, as well as Moon and Vanny and the Pizzaplex itself, and jumped off the rope bridge to just narrowly avoid having to repeat the one loop where Moon dragged him up to the ceiling.

With a grunt, he landed on the floor below, landing on his feet before tripping slightly and ending up on his hands and knees on the ground. While the soft padding did cushion his fall and the bridge wasn’t very high to begin with, the awkward landing still caused pain to lace up his knees and palms, and he was sure that the skin there was now raw and needing of bandaids.

But he just grit his teeth, got up, and kept going before Moon could find him again.

Luckily, he got to the last generator easily enough, and once he flicked it on and climbed out of the playpen — knees and palms still stinging, red and itchy — he blinked at the bright lights of the Daycare now burning into his eyes. Breathing out a sigh of relief, he started moving towards the pick-up doors which should be unlocked now (they locked automatically when the lights were off, as Gregory had discovered a few loops prior, when he attempted to just forgo the whole generator thing and push them open manually), before he saw Sun out of the corner of his eye, clutching at their head and now clothed in their usual red and orange outfit.

The animatronic looked up at the same time Gregory looked at them, however, and their eyes met at the exact same time. Gregory froze. Sun froze.

Then, Sun broke the stalemate with a cry of, “ RULEBREAKER !” and immediately running full-speed towards him.

“Shit!” Gregory swore, turning to try and rush away before Sun could reach him, but was too slow for the Attendant going full speed towards him.

Sun scooped him up under his armpits, ignoring his yelp, and immediately turned Gregory around so they were face-to-face and they could deliver their scolding closer together.

“Rulebreaker, rulebreaker!” Sun was saying, as they carried Gregory towards the Daycare doors. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, having heard it all before. “You are banned from the daycare! Naughty, naughty boy!”

Gregory actually did roll his eyes now. He wasn’t a toddler, even if he wiggled and huffed in Sun’s grip, and didn’t need to be treated as such. For example, a toddler wouldn’t be thinking of kicking Sun in the face right now as the familiar crow of the blasting the sirens grated on his ears. Gregory really wanted to kick them in the face. He didn’t want to be thrown on the floor again.

“SECURITY ALERT, SECURITY ALERT, WOO — oh, hello there Mister Fazbear!”

Instead of being tossed out to the floor like usual, however, Gregory was greeted with Freddy standing an inch away from the door.

With Sun still posed to throw him out, it ended up in a very awkward situation of the Attendant just sorta shoving him towards Freddy, who also looked very surprised to see them on the other side of the door. For his credit, the bear didn’t hesitate to raise his arms and grab Gregory as soon as he was thrust towards him, and Gregory let a small, annoyed yelp as he was passed along like a football. Then when he was squished against Freddy’s chest in a move that could only be described as ‘protective’, one large paw settled over his head and the other holding him close, shielding him from view. Gregory stilled on instinct, wide-eyed, still processing what exactly had just happened.

“Hello Sun.” Freddy greeted, voice a lot lower than Gregory was used too. “I have told you before, you do not need to address me so formally.”

Sun seemed confused for a split second, fingers twitching from where they were wrapped around the door, before they titled their head in the imitation of a grin, as if they didn’t smile enough. “Oh, I’m just being polite! Now, what are you doing here at the Daycare?”

“Oh - I am —“ Freddy cut himself off, seemingly thinking about what he should say. Still pressed against his chest, unable to do anything but tremble slightly, Gregory prayed he didn’t do anything stupid that would result in Sun calling the rest of the animatronics on them like they usually did. “— I am simply looking for the child that has been running around the Pizzaplex unsupervised. And it seems I have found him!”

Sun went silent again, their fingers stopped tapping, leaving only the gentle sound of Freddy’s processors humming under his ear. Gregory blinked and tried not to shake too much, an odd tension settling in his chest. Freddy seemed to sense it too, because his grip tightened and he shifted back minutely. Sun was always moving, always bouncing — it was weird (and worrying) to see them so still.

But then, after a moment, the animatronic’s head spun, and they clapped their hands.

“Oh, goodie!” Sun said, the spikes on their head retracting up and down like a dog wagging its tail, circling. “You can deal with the rulebreaker then! He has been very naughty! Naughty naughty naughty!”

Freddy, oddly enough, looked somewhat amused. Gregory huffed. This was not funny at all. “I will make sure to properly deal with him, Sun. Do not worry.”

“Oh, good good good!” Sun exclaimed. “Naughty children must be punished accordingly, but I trust you’ll do well! Bye bye!”

With those parting words, they promptly slammed the door in their faces.

Gregory huffed again, annoyed. Sure, Moon was creepy, but Sun was just so … loud. All the time. It was exhausting. Though, Gregory did have to give them credit for being the only one in the building — besides Freddy, of course —who hadn’t tried to kill them at all. They had only ever thrown him out of the Daycare and into the waiting maws of the animatronics who did want to kill them, which while wasn’t good he could at least escape pretty easily enough.

Still didn’t mean he liked the robot, though.

Words still infused with amusement, Freddy gently set him down on his feet while keeping a steady hand on his shoulder as he regained his balance. “Are you alright, superstar?”

“Course I am.” Gregory replied, frowning up at him. “I told you I would be, yeah?”

Freddy seemed like he wanted to say something, but before he could, there was the sound of heavy footsteps that definitely did not belong to him, and on instinct Gregory climbed up into the stomach hatch that opened for him immediately. It seemed that even if Sun didn’t get out their full alarm, the other animatronics were drawn to the area due to the noise anyways. It was annoying, but Gregory settled into Freddy’s hatch with his flashlight in his pocket still smiling to himself for a job well done.

“Quick, Gregory, get — oh.” From inside his stomach hatch, Gregory could feel the slight vibrations as Freddy chuckled lightly. “Ah, you are a step ahead of me. Let us go, before the others can … question my appearance here.”

He just hummed an affirmative, and Freddy started moving just as the other animatronics arrived. They started sniffing around for him, lured by the calls of a rule breaker, and Gregory had to contain his giggles as Freddy walked right on by undetected. It was always funny to him, no matter how many times he did this.

Freddy kept walking for a few minutes, back through the main doors, with none of the others sparing them a second glance. When they were a safe distance away and it became apparent none of the other animatronics were following them, Freddy ducked down a secluded hallway and opened his chest plate automatically. Gregory climbed out, waving off the hand Freddy offered him, before starting to rustle around in his pockets.

“I didn’t have time to show you at the Daycare, but —“ He got the badge with a triumphant ‘hah!’, along with the flashlight. He was once again eternally grateful for his shorts pockets. They seemed to go on for forever. “— I got the badge! And the flashlight!”

Freddy reached over and rustled his hair, a surprisingly gentle action despite his large size. “Great job, superstar! I am proud of you!”

Gregory huffed and batted his hand away, feeling oddly warm at the comment but ignoring it (and the tiny voice in his head whispering dark thoughts) like he always did when Freddy praised him. “Well, yeah, whatever. I told you I’d be fine, didn’t I?”

To validate his claim, Freddy just hummed and leaned down enough to scan him, before letting out a startled noise when the blue light retreated. “Gregory, you are bleeding!”

“Huh?” He glanced down to where Freddy was looking, and saw that his knees were slightly scraped — there were some small fresh-wells of blood drops, not even trickling down his leg yet. He hadn’t noticed them before, but now that Freddy had pointed them before, they did sting a bit. It must had happened when he fell. “Oh, I just tripped a bit. I’m fine.”

That was an understatement — he practically launched himself off that rope bridge to get away. But what Freddy didn’t know didn’t hurt him.

(That seemed to be a common theme here, huh?)

However, the animatronic still ‘ humphed’ , and said in a tone that left no room for argument. “I still suggest we head to a first aid station and bandage it up. It will do no good to have you covered in blood.”

Yeah, that definitely wasn’t just a suggestion. Gregory wilted and succumbed to being fussed over. Oh, well. He did tell Freddy he could do it as much as he wanted when he got out of the Daycare safe and sound, didn’t he? “Fine. But I get to choose which bandages you use.”

Freddy chuckled. “We shall go to one with a wide selection, then.”

When they started walking again, Freddy still trailed him as close as he had before, and Gregory didn’t feel as annoyed with it this time.

•

•

•

Of course, it was at the first aid station where things … shifted.

Freddy had just finished applying bandaids to the scraps on his knees, after first clearing the droplets of blood away, and Gregory was just about to pop up to his feet when Freddy spoke up with, “Superstar, may I ask you something? You do not have to answer if it is uncomfortable for you.”

“Uh, sure?” Gregory said, settling back down on the small bench. Freddy didn’t usually ask for permission before asking him something, so it must be something serious. “What is it?”

Freddy put the medical supplies away, before turning to face him again, looking serious. “Do you have anyone waiting for you outside?”

Gregory blinked at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well …” Freddy sighed, shaking his head a bit and making his earring move back and forth. “You have not mentioned any sort of parent or guardian, or even a friend, that might be looking for you. And … you do not have a guest profile. Originally, I did not think much of it, especially with everything else going on, but now …”

He trailed off, but Gregory still knew what he was asking, and he didn’t want to answer it. Where are your parents? Is there anyone here with you? You need an adult with you to get in, kid, can you get one? Are you alone?

For a moment, he felt a flash of annoyance at having to explain this again to Freddy, before it settled back down when he remembered it wasn’t the bear’s fault. It was the virus that didn’t let him remember, and now that it was gone, he had a chance to do this again. Where Freddy would actually remember this time.

“I, uh … not really.” He said quietly, ducking his head towards the floor. “No. I don’t.”

Freddy stared at him for a moment, before moving from his crouched position in front of him to sit down beside him on the first aid bench. Gregory watched as he did so, strands of dirty hair falling in front of his eyes, and only moved over a tiny bit so that Freddy could fit. It was a tight squeeze, but he didn’t mind, especially since Freddy seemed to always be unnaturally warm, and being this close to him right now was like sitting next to a furnace. Gregory was cold a lot. He was always cold.

“Do your … parents or guardians not know you are here, then?” Freddy asked softly, voice echoing slightly in the first aid booth. Gregory wondered if he caught the hidden meaning his reply and was just being purposefully obtuse, or he genuinely didn’t know. Gregory would bet on the latter. Freddy seemed like he was too nice to notice things like that.

“I don’t have any.” Gregory replied, before clarifying, “Parents, I mean.“

Freddy paused. “You don’t?”

“I mean, I’m sure I did at some point, but I don’t really … remember them.” Gregory answered quietly, picking at the new bandaid on his knee. It had a lightning bolt on it, like the one on Freddy’s chest, in the same shade of blue. “I don’t know if they, uh, died or gave me up or I was taken from them, but … well, I never knew them. I had just been with foster families, mostly.”

Freddy tilted his head, ears wiggling as his eyes softened. “I am sorry to hear that, Gregory. Truly.”

Gregory just shrugged. “It’s fine. I don’t care too much.”

“You don’t?” Freddy asked, voice carefully neutral in a way Gregory could tell he was trying not to let his true feelings show, so he just shrugged again.

“Yeah, not really.” He replied, still picking at the bandaid. It was fraying now, tiny bits of fabric coming off beneath his nail. “I mean, it’s not like I knew them, right? I can’t miss them if I can’t know them.”

Sure, he did sometimes wonder about his biological parents — mostly what had happened to them, and what had led them to being separated — but since he didn’t remember that at all, really, he didn’t have much emotional attachment. They were most just … a fact he had to deal with. A statistics of sorts, something nice to know about but wouldn’t help you out at all in the real world. He interacted with his feeling towards them with more curiosity than hurt, because he didn’t have the emotional attachment towards them to spawn any hurt.

However, Freddy seemed to be thinking over something, because his eyes went a bit distant before he spoke up again. “I see. Do you … are your foster families good, at least?”

Gregory blinked a bit, catching the slip of the tongue, but deciding to just ignore it and carry on. “Some of them were okay. But I always had to leave.”

“Why?” Freddy asked, managing to put enough emphasis on the one word that is made Gregory pause for a moment, wondering why he was so intense all the sudden.

“Only about half the time it was my fault.” He said after a moment, chuckling a bit under his breath. It wasn’t really a joke, but with Freddy still looking so intense, he wanted to ease the tension a bit. “But … well, I just didn’t really fit in anywhere. Nobody liked me.”

That was true, though. Sometimes a foster family would give him up because they found him too unruly, or snappish, or antisocial. Sometimes it was because they were worried about his behaviour, how he never made friends and didn’t like to talk to adults, so they wanted him to go to a home that could better ‘care for him’. A few times it was because the families had other kids, other foster ones or biological, and they either didn’t like him or he didn’t like them. Sometimes it was actually his fault, because he got into a fight or yelled at someone he shouldn’t or wouldn’t share his things. Occasionally, very occasionally, it wasn’t his fault simply because the families weren’t good, either.

Whatever the reason, he just learned to deal with it. No home would be permanent for him, he would just move on to the next one a few months later. He didn’t need to get attached, because it wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t ever, ever last.

Freddy placed a hand on his shoulder, making Gregory turn to look up at him. The animatronic’s eyes were soft, making it impossible to look away, but Gregory still shrunk away under his gaze, moving to itch at his cheek. “You don’t need to feel sorry for me. I’m used to it.”

“But you shouldn’t be.” Freddy said. “And I am sorry you had to go through that, Gregory. I am sorry that you’ve had to go through any of this.”

Gregory frowned, playing with his fingers. “It’s not your fault.”

“Still.” Freddy let out a noise similar to a sigh, and removed his hand from his shoulder. Gregory felt oddly cold without it. “No child should have to go through what you have, Gregory.“

Swallowing, Gregory looked around their hiding spot. The first aid station was dim, lacking any of the bright, flashy lights and gifts of the rest of the Pizzaplex, and it made Gregory realize just how fast he had been moving. In the mall, yes, not able to stop for even a moment in fear of being killed — but also before he was stuck here, having to constantly to look over his shoulder on the streets, in his foster homes, never able to relax or settle down. He was tense. He had always been tense.

But, now, sitting next to Freddy — he felt … well, still tense. Still on edge. But not as much as he had been before.

It was something about Freddy, with the way he towered over Gregory but still managed to not be intimating, with his earnestness and kindness and willingness to help, even when Gregory screwed up or was short with him. When he made a mistake, Freddy didn’t send him away. When he did something wrong, Freddy didn’t send him away. He never sent him away. He stayed. He helped him. He always helped him.

Gregory didn’t have any attachment to his foster families, or his real parents, but he had an attachment to Freddy.

( He couldn’t help it, even if he knew it would just get him hurt, get him — )

Swallowing thickly at this new revelation, Gregory glanced over at the animatronic, who seem entirely unaware of his racing thoughts. He was instead looking around the room they were in as well, as if he was trying not to look at Gregory even though he really, really wanted too, especially with his declaration from earlier. It was okay. Gregory didn’t mind.

There was a gap between them, only a few inches, but Gregory could remember how he always felt around Freddy, hiding in his stomach hatch or even just being near him. Warm. Secured. Safe.

He felt safe around Freddy. That was it.

Slowly, Gregory closed the distant between them, leaning up against Freddy’s side. The metal was warm under his skin, not as uncomfortable as he expected, and Gregory pressed his cheek against Freddy’s chest and curled his knees up so he was effectively tucked against the animatronic’s side. For his credit, Freddy only stiffened momentarily, then immediately put an arm around him to pull him closer before Gregory started to worry if he did something wrong. With his arm over his torso, Gregory was kinda locked in place, but he still felt safe. Like he was blocked from the outside world, where nothing could get him.

He was safe here. He was safe here, in this tiny moment in time. He was safe here.

“Gregory?” Freddy asked, voice rumbling against the side of his head. Gregory breathed out. It felt nice. It felt comforting.

“Thank you for helping me.” Gregory mumbled after a moment, not really a response to his question but exactly what he wanted to say. What he needed to say. “You’ve always helped me. You’ve always kept me safe, so … thank you.”

Freddy didn’t say anything, so Gregory glanced up at him to see the bear was gazing fondly down at him, before he shook his head and said, “Of course, superstar. I will always try to keep you safe. You have my word, after all.”

And even after having heard those words so many times and knowing he would have to hear them again and again, Gregory just shimmed closer, and believed them this time.

Chapter Text

LOOP 19. (Cont.)

Afterwards, Gregory and Freddy complied what they knew.

Between all the things Gregory had remembered from the previous loops, and Freddy’s own knowledge of the Pizzaplex, they came to the conclusion that to find out what has caused the virus — or, who, really — they needed to figure out what was going on with Vanny and Vanessa. Between the virus being disguised as an update and Freddy mentioning that Vanessa was now the only nighttime security guard working at the Pizzaplex, it was obvious the weird glitchy virus was traced back to her in some way.

Plus, Vanny and Vanessa? Yeah, they weren’t really subtle about it.

So, they decided the best option was to go to Fazer Blast. There, Gregory could get a weapon, and they could check out Vanny’s hideout up above. He had noticed she had had a few duffel bags up there, alongside a mattress and a weird arcade machine. It was worth investigating, and maybe could shed some light on the weird rabbit lady that had been hunting him down. Or, at the very least, give them a hint on starting to unravelling the mystery.

Except, they were on their way to Fazer Blast — Gregory riding in Freddy’s chest compartment, obviously — when the camera feed suddenly cut out.

“That is odd.” Freddy mused and stopped walking, causing Gregory to look up at the top of his stomach hatch as if he could see Freddy’s confused face. “The camera system in this area has gone down.”

“What?” Gregory asked, before checking on his watch that, yep — they were all down. Every single camera in the area was just replaced with static, including Fazer Blast, meaning he couldn’t check if Vanny or one of the other animatronics were around. “Oh, great. Of course they are.”

“I am sure it is nothing to worry about.” Freddy replied, voice noticeably calm. “The camera system has been jittery, as the employees have described it, for the past few months. Especially at night. It tends to just cut out every so often and the footage is lost —“

Freddy seemed to realize what he was saying, but he cut himself off with a quiet, ‘oh’,  and Gregory, still sitting in his stomach hatch, knocked lightly from inside with his knuckles. “Yeah, oh. Do you think it’s Vanny?”

“I cannot be certain it is not.” Freddy said, tone now grave. He paused for a moment. “Ah, that is definitely not good. We should get moving.”

Oh, god. Now what? “Wait, Freddy, what? What’s not good?”

“It … seems like, in addition the camera feed being down, so has the power in the recharge stations.” Freddy answered, making Gregory’s heart sink. “The recharge stations run on a secondary power source, which — while able to connect to the main power source — is separate so that they do not interfere with the Pizzaplex at large. However, for them to be down …”

Yep. Definitely Vanny.

“Well, okay. How can we get it up and running again?” He checked Freddy’s battery and saw that it was about halfway full; it could last them, but not for the rest of the night. He was pretty sure Freddy could charge in Parts and Services if it came down to it, but he didn’t want to risk not having any way for Freddy to charge. “You'll need to charge soon, and I really don’t want to go into Fazer Blast blind. We could be walking into a trap.”

Freddy paused again, thinking, and said slowly after a moment, “A manual system reboot should do the trick — you would simply need to access a computer in a nearby security office.”

“Okay, great! Let’s head there!” Gregory said, patting the base of the compartment lightly, only to hear a thoughtful hum from Freddy. “Wait, what is it?”

“Well —“ Freddy started off, and Gregory suppressed a sigh, knowing he was about to say something protective and stupid that would just make their journey longer. “— the security office we would need to visit to reboot the system is much too small and cramped for me to go into, and I do not feel comfortable letting you go in yourself. Especially if Vanny is the one responsible for this blackout.”

Gregory rolled his eyes, glad Freddy couldn’t see him. He didn’t want to be rude, but he had also been dealing with this a lot longer than Freddy had.

Except, they were working together now. He had to compromise.

“Well, I don’t feel comfortable going into Fazer Blast without the camera system or your recharge stations working.” Gregory stated, trying to appear as professional as possible, and not whiny. “Why don’t we just, uh … I go in, and you can stand by the door? Guard it for me?”

Freddy seemed to think this over, going silent for a few moments, before he heard the sound of metal moving as if Freddy was nodding his head, even if Gregory couldn’t see him. “That could work. The office is small, and only has one entrance. If I stand guard, Vanny will not be able to sneak up on us, if she is hanging around — great idea, superstar!”

With that ending note, Freddy started moving again, and Gregory just mumbled a quiet, “ Thanks? ” and rolled his eyes again. See, he was getting good at this.

They got to the security office after only a few minutes of walking, and Freddy stopped to let Gregory step out of his compartment. The door was nondescript and heavy, but as Gregory went to head inside, Freddy put a paw on his shoulder, causing him to pause. He didn’t say anything, even when Gregory cocked his head and made a, “ Huh? ” noise, before he seemed to realize what he had done and released him, shaking his head slightly.

“I am sorry, superstar, I do not know what came over me.” He shook his head again, before huffing. “Just … be safe.”

Gregory kinda felt like laughing, but didn’t, because he knew where Freddy was coming from. He was too paranoid all the time, but to be fair — well, this was his first loop around. Gregory had been paranoid the first time too. So, instead, he just said, “Of course I will. You’re right here, yeah?”

Freddy just nodded. Gregory nodded back, and pushed the door open.

Slinking inside the office, he had to blink a few times to adjust to the lower light level, before moving to prop the door open with a small wooden wedge sitting on the ground. However, with that out of the way, he started squinting around to try and find the computer. It was like a garbage dump in here — nothing was organized.

From behind him, Freddy shuffled on his feet, metal clanking. “It should be right over there, superstar.”

Gregory glanced behind him to see Freddy was pointing deeper into the room, before turning back around to see where the computer was, in the far corner of the room crowded with wires and boxes that looked close to toppling over. With a slight huff, he started to move closer, having to step over piles of paper and miscellaneous garbage. Yeah, no wonder Freddy said he wouldn’t be able to get inside — Gregory was having trouble manoeuvring around it, and he was probably a third his size!

Luckily, he got to the computer without tripping over anything, and stood awkwardly in front of the device with one foot balanced on a small box of paper clips and the other very close to sliding off some papers. However, when he turned around to send Freddy a comforting grin, the animatronic waved back at him, so Gregory gave him a thumbs up and turned to face the computer fully.

Just gotta log in and reboot it. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Editing Freddy’s coding had barely been a challenge, this would be a piece of cake.

Except when he went to turn the computer on, nothing happened.

The screen stayed blank, reflecting his dirty and pale face, and Gregory tried again while absently itching at the bandaid on his cheek. When that still didn’t work, he tried hitting it. Still nothing.

“Is everything okay, Gregory?” Freddy called out, and Gregory grunted.

“Yeah, working on it.” He said back, before crouching down to check underneath. It was a mess of wires beneath here, but if he followed the one connected to the computer, he might be able to untangle them and try unplugging it to see if that worked —

However, when he managed to find the computer wire underneath, he sucked in a startled breath and dropped the tangled mess he had been holding.

The computer wire was completely cut through.

Sparking at the tips, showing off the insides in two different parts. This wasn’t just a ‘random glitch’ or someone messing with the computers, this was — this was bad.

Gregory stood up and took a few steps back, nearly slipping on loose paper, now fully prepared to turn heel and run back to Freddy waiting for him just outside. Except, as soon as he moved to do so, the door suddenly slammed shut with a massive ‘ bang!’ . He yelped and whirled around, but saw nothing there. The room was now bathed in darkness, making it hard to see, and the hair on the back of his neck started to stand up. Something felt wrong about this. Something felt very, very wrong about this.

“Gregory, are you okay?!” Freddy’s worried voice came from the other side. “Why did the door shut?”

Gregory cleared his throat, and started to move towards the door, calling out as he did so. “Freddy, I don’t think —“

Until a hand suddenly wrapped around his mouth, cutting off the rest of his sentence and stopping him from moving.

“Don’t speak another word.” A modulated voice from behind him whispered, as the heat of another body radiated behind him, holding him in place. “Or I’ll slit your throat.”

Gregory squeaked as something thin and sharp was suddenly pressed against his throat, and even an idiot could figure out what that was. There was a knife at his throat. Someone was holding a knife against his throat. Someone —

He glanced up. Vanny’s red eyes stared back down at him.

Vanny. She found them.

It must have been a trap. She cut the wire, to lure him in, knowing Freddy wouldn’t have been able to check on his own. Distantly, he had to wonder how she had found him, before his momentary fear was replaced with outrage. Gregory immediately started squirming and trying to call out for help, even with her clothed hand muffling his voice. She hissed and tightened her grip, trying to stop his movement, but Gregory — fuelled by hatred — grabbed the hand covering his mouth and yanked it away to scream.

“FREDDY!” He shouted, as loud as he possibly could to be heard through the shut door, ignoring Vanny pressing the knife more deeply against his skin. “ FREDDY!”

“ Shut it! ” Vanny snapped, pressing the blade deeper and making him wince while suddenly clamping her other arm around his chest to stop him from moving, but the damage had already been done.

Freddy, upon hearing Gregory’s cries and already on edge from the door shutting unexpectedly, called out, “ Gregory! Are you alright!? ” before not waiting for answer, and pounding on the door so hard he shoved it wide open.

Gregory flinched as the door banged open, bouncing against the back wall, and Vanny hissed again as soon as Freddy’s eyes landed on her. In turn, the animatronic’s ears went as low as it could go, and Gregory saw an expression on his face he had never seen before — a deep, dark glare. It was almost like the light left his eyes, as soon as he spotted Gregory’s predicament, and he even let out a low growl as soon as his eyes landed on the knife holding him in place.

Freddy was angry. Freddy was really, really angry.

“Vanny.” He said, voice lower than Gregory had ever heard it. “Let Gregory go.”

“Yeeeeah …” Vanny seemed to hum in thought, before shrugging. He could feel the movement, from where he was pressed up against her chest, and tried not to tremble. “No, sorry. This little brat here —“ She accented it was a poke to his cheek with her blade, before pressing it against his throat again so quickly he couldn't think to break free. “— has been escaping me all night, so I’m not gonna let him go now!”

Freddy did not take that well. He growled again, looking very close to just running at Vanny himself if Gregory hadn’t been in the way. “I do not know why you want Gregory, but I just ask; let him go.”

He was sure Vanny was rolling her eyes under his mask, and he gritted his teeth at her childish tone. “Already said I’m not doing that, Fazbear. Now, move.”

Freddy blinked. “Move?”

She took the knife away from his throat momentarily, and gestured for Freddy to move out of the way before putting it back against his throat. He was sure there was an angry red line there now, from where the metal was pressed against his skin. “You’re blocking the door. Move.”

Freddy glanced between her face and the knife, before slowly backing away. When Vanny decided he must have been an acceptable distance back, she kicked Gregory’s heel to get him to move. He gritted his teeth and slowly walked forward, the knife at his throat and the now death-grip she had on his shoulder with her other hand stopping him from getting too far away from her. Because of that, it was more of an awkward shuffle out of the office rather than a menacing walk or creepy skipping, but when they were finally out of the office and back under the fluorescent lights of the mall he felt a little bit better.

Who knew there would be a time where he would feel good to see this place?

When they were out from the office, Vanny stopped moving, and stood across from Freddy a few feet away with Gregory still pressed against her at knifepoint. Now out in the light, he risked a glance at the animatronic, and saw the deadly look was back. So, instead of giving into the annoyed rage he felt (because goddamn, did he hate Vanny — her stupid giggling and stupid bunny getup and stupid all of it), he willed himself to be calm. Even if Vanny killed him here, he would just wake up again, safe in Freddy’s greenroom. The bear didn’t need to worry.

“I have done what you asked.” Freddy stated, once they had stopped moving and it became clear Vanny wasn’t trying to run away. “Will you let Gregory go now?”

“Man, you’re like a broken record!” The woman said, sounding a bit annoyed like she had any right to be, being, well, herself. “Why do you care so much?”

Before Freddy could answer, however, she paused and went still behind him, not even a tremble in her hand as she held the knife against his throat. Gregory tried not to breath too hard as she suddenly asked, out of the blue, “Why are you acting like this?”

Freddy flicked his ear, playing dumb. “What do you mean?”

“Something’s different with you.” She mumbled, more to herself, gaze focused intently on Freddy. “You … you’re not infected anymore, are you?”

Gregory wondered how she could tell, just by looking at Freddy, and the bear himself seemed surprised as well. However, he decided to just drop the act, and stated plainly, “No, I am not. You cannot control me anymore, Vanny. You never could.”

Vanny growled, the sound sending chills down his spine with how robotic it came out, and pressed the knife further into his throat. Gregory squeaked at the sting, the blade not deep enough to break the skin but he knew that with just a tiny bit more pressure it could. He didn’t know if Vanny even meant to do it or not.

“It was because of this brat, wasn’t it?” She sneered, voice so poisonous it was like she was swearing at him. “What did you do?!”

The last question was obviously directed at him, and Gregory sneered right back at her. Two could play that game. “As if I’d tell you.” Then, as an afterthought and just to piss her off. “Bitch.”

Vanny growled again, and pressed the knife firmer against his throat. This time she drew blood, causing pinpricks of pain to shoot up his nerves. He gasped in pain as Freddy let out a similar noise, something between a growl and whimper like he was one being held at knifepoint. Gregory kinda just wished that he would calm down. It was weird seeing him like this — almost scary, if he didn’t know how Freddy was usually.

“Mind your language, kid.” Vanny said. “I’m the one who decides whether you live or die, now!”

As if. He’d just wake up again, back in Freddy’s stomach hatch. Though …

Did Vanny … not know that?

He assumed she reseted as well with every loop, because she never showed any differences between loops or said anything about interacting with him before, but Gregory wasn’t ever around her enough to know for sure. Plus, she wasn’t an animatronic. If — if she killed him, would he not wake up?

His heart skipped a beat, and his chest suddenly felt a lot tighter than before. He needed to wake up. This couldn’t be the last loop, not now, when Freddy remembered him. Not now, when they had a chance of getting out again.

“F-Freddy?” He called, hating how his voice shake. “Freddy!”

“It is okay, superstar. It is alright.” Freddy immediately soothed, voice going on octave softer, before he turned back to Vanny and his expression hardened again, going angry. “Let him go, Vanny. He is only a child. He has done nothing to you.”

“Maybe so, but I need him. We need him.” Her emphasis on ‘we’ would have caught Gregory’s attention if it was any other situation, but right now all he could focus on was the knife against his throat. “Nothing you can say can stop me, Fazbear. I’m taking Gregory to help him, and then we’ll infect you again so you forget little Gregory here existed in the first place. So don’t worry your big shiny head tooooo much, everything’s going to be just fine!”

To accent her point, she pressed the knife further, and Gregory couldn’t stop the whimper that came out of him. It was embarrassing, and he hated it, but he hated Vanny more. He hoped she died. He hoped the loop reset.

“That is where you are wrong, Vanny. You are never going to get Gregory, and I will never forget him.” Freddy said. It sounded like something a social worker would say, or one of his foster parents, before they abandoned him or mistreated him — so Gregory shouldn’t believe him. Shouldn’t be fooled by the kindness, the determination, Freddy’s own belief in his words.

Except he couldn’t help himself. He did. He believed it, and he knew it was true.

“You really seem to care for him, don’t you?” Vanny hummed and glanced down at him, red eyes boring into his skull, then back at Freddy. “Gregory cares for you, too. At least, I think he does.”

She giggled then, before either of them could reply. It was maniacal, high-pitched and grating on his ears and making him wince. All he wanted to do was get away from her, back to Freddy and hiding in his stomach compartment, where he knew it was safe — but Vanny was still holding tight, as her giggling got louder and louder until it was practically screeching. Gregory felt like crying. He didn’t, because he wasn’t a baby, but he still looked at Freddy and focused on him instead of the maniac holding the knife against his throat.

Suddenly, her giggling cut off abruptly, and the lack of sound was somehow even more disturbing then when it was there. Especially when she said, sugary sweet tone hiding poison underneath, “Let's test that, shall we?”

And then, Vanny took the knife away from his throat, but he only had a second to breath before she plunged it right into his stomach.

Gregory couldn’t stop the scream that tore out of him as she stabbed him, tears bubbling from his eyes as pain exploded in his stomach. If he thought he had been hurt before, it didn’t compare now, because it felt like a fire lacing from the wound to the rest of his body, burning everything in its path and making him sob. Especially when Vanny locked her arm around tighter around him, forcing him to stand up straight and aggravate the wound when all he wanted to do was collapse to the ground and stop hurting and please, make it stop, make it stop make it stop —

“Gregory!” Freddy cried, his voice a crackling with static halfway through his name, but Gregory barely registered anything except the fear in his voice.

“F-Freddy?” He might’ve been crying. He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything except the knife in his gut, Vanny behind him and the tightness in his throat. “F-Freddy, please —“

Vanny tightened his grip, cutting him off as he choked, and purred, “Oh, how adorable. You really do care — both of you do!”

Freddy growled, a low warming. If Gregory thought he was angry before, that was nothing compared to now — it seemed like a wild animal, a bomb about to explode. “Let. Him. Go!”

Vanny hummed, the sound vibrating against his back. Gregory could barley register it though, the pain in his gut and warmness of his shirt and lack of air in his throat making everything hard to focus on. What he did notice, of course, was when Vanny suddenly pulled the knife from his wound, making Gregory cry out as an even more painful burst of fire rush through him, and pressed it against his throat again. He could feel the blade against his skin, now warm and slick with his own blood, and whimpered.

Just let it reset. Just let it reset. Please, just let it reset —

“Alrighty!” Vanny exclaimed. “Here you go, then!”

She pressed and broke skin. Someone screamed.

Gregory wasn’t sure it was him.

LOOP 20.

Gregory was being dragged out of Freddy stomach hatch before he could even breathe again.

“Freddy!” He exclaimed, when he managed to remember how to breathe, only to suddenly be squished against Freddy’s chest. Gritting his teeth together, he reached up to push up at Freddy’s head, but only succeeded in making Freddy absently move his head away to dislodge it. “Freddy, put me down.”

“Gregory —“ Freddy tried to say, but his voice crackled with static halfway through, and he had to pause before starting again. “Gregory, are you —?”

Gregory blinked out at him, wondering what he was talking about, before remembering — Vanny holding him in place, the burning pain in his gut, her knife at his throat. Gulping, he placed a hand on his stomach, right where his wound used to be, and pressed down. He didn’t feel anything except for a slight pressure from his hand, even if the area still felt a bit … weird. A phantom feeling, maybe.

“I’m — I’m fine.” He said, pressing his hand against his stomach harder, just to feel the pressure against his skin and get rid of the lingering feeling. “Freddy, I’m fine.”

Freddy didn’t reply, even if his gaze flitted downwards to where Gregory was pressing his hand against his stomach. He immediately stopped, even as Freddy looked back to his head, and slowly shifted him over so he was only being held in one of his arms. Using his other one, now free, the animatronic reached up and — after seeing Gregory didn’t flinch away, because why would he, it was Freddy — he gently placed his claws right on Gregory’s throat, tracing the wound Vanny had put there originally.

Gregory just let him. He was like this last time, checking him over, searching for any signs of injury — that was fine. He got it it.

This was only his … his second reset now, after all. Gregory was paranoid too.

Except when he swallowed, Freddy suddenly pulled back like he was burned, and stated, “We must leave. Now.”

Gregory let out a loud, “ Woah!”  as Freddy moved over to the door, and he ended up not so much laying in his arm but sitting on it, hands gripping onto Freddy’s shoulder pads and shoving himself as close as possible to the animatronic, if to help make it feel like he wasn’t going to fall. He even curled his knees up close to himself so his legs weren’t hanging over, and Freddy just stretched his hand out more to accommodate him. It was a bit awkward and definitely looked weird, the main star of the Pizzaplex carrying a small, dirty little kid on one arm, but Gregory didn’t care.

It wasn’t like there was anyone around to judge them. Except for Gregory himself, of course.

Freddy marched right over to the door leading out into the hallway, staring at the button with a burning glare, and Gregory quietly spoke up, “Freddy, it’s locked —!”

Freddy, ignoring him, punched the button right off the wall.

“Oh my god!” Gregory exclaimed, scrambling a bit to avoid the shard of plastic, before tightening his grip on Freddy’s shoulder pad and making the fabric crinkle. “Freddy, what’s gotten into you? What’s going on?”

Freddy paused as the door slid open, glancing down at him with his ears pointed down as well. “I would suggest you ride in my stomach compartment at the moment, Gregory. We do not know who could be hiding outside.”

That didn’t answer his question, but Gregory did it anyways, even if he wasn’t happy about it.

From inside his stomach compartment, Gregory watched through his watch as Freddy headed out of Rockstar Row, then took a detour down the utility tunnels to a first aid station. Gregory didn’t spy Vanessa anywhere, even as they headed through the tunnels he usually ran into her in, and it made him slightly uneasy that he ended up itching at a scab on his leg so bad it started bleeding again.

When they reached the first aid station, Freddy opened his hatch and Gregory climbed out, before he was immediately scanned by Freddy, much like he had been back when Freddy kept forgetting him and had to re-meet him over and over again. He lifted a hand to cover his eyes from the bright light, and said, “Freddy, hey!”

The light shut off, and Freddy stated simply, “I am sorry, Gregory, I did not mean to cause you discomfort. Are you aware that you are bleeding?”

He glanced down at the scab which was barely dripping blood at all, and picked at the red flakes still sticking to his fingernail. “I just accidentally picked a scab. It’s fine.”

“Well, still. Allow me to tend to it.” Freddy gestured to the first aid station, and Gregory just followed his eyes and allowed Freddy to wipe the blood away with a cloth and put a bandaid on it — this one with a paw print on it, looking like a bear’s.

He had his legs slung over the animatronic’s thigh while sitting on the bench so he could have better access to his shin, and when he finished, Gregory didn’t move. Instead, Freddy wrapped an arm around his shoulder, and urged him closer. Gregory went willing, so he ended up sitting on his leg like he was a little kid talking to a Santa at the mall. Which was … kinda close, he guessed. Did the Pizzaplex have a fake Santa had Christmas? He didn’t know. He would have to ask.

This didn’t seem like a good time, though. Freddy was acting weird, and didn’t seem like he wanted to move anytime soon. So, Gregory just let him hold him close, and tried not to be too off-put with his behaviour. He knew why Freddy was acting like — but it didn’t make any sense. He died many times before, even in front of Freddy, but for some reason it seemed like this particular death was making him all the more … protective.

Well, Vanny had been a bit more … violent, than the others who killed, but his point still stood.

Glancing up at the bear, he lightly knocked on his side, the same pattern he used while inside his hatch when he wanted to be let out. Freddy’s head immediately snapped down to look at him, before he blinked a few times and asked, “Are you okay, Gregory?”

He snorted. Of course Freddy would ask him that. “I should be asking you that. You’re the one acting all weird.”

“I will admit I may be a … tiny bit distressed over this incident, but I am sorry if I worried you.” Freddy replied, as if he currently wasn’t holding Gregory in his lap after punching a wall to get them out of a room and legging it to a first aid station to check him over. “But you have not answered my question.”

“I’m fine.” Same question, same answer. However, he did add as an afterthought, trying to lighten the mood, “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve died. And honestly, that was one of the more exciting times.”

Freddy’s grip around him tightened, making him blow out a startled breath, and the bear said quite firmly, “Please do not joke about things like that, Gregory.”

“Sorry.” He mumbled, and the arm around him loosened a bit. However, a glance up the animatronic’s face revealed he still looked … dark, and Gregory swallowed. He didn’t like it when Freddy looked like that. Freddy shouldn’t ever look like that. “Are you mad at me?”

“Of course not.” Freddy’s gaze became intense, with so much conviction in his voice Gregory had to look away, before he softened again. “I simply … well, it already does not do well on my psyche to know you have died so many times, but for you to be so … nonchalant about it …”

Freddy trailed off, voice seeming to crackle a bit with every word he said, and Gregory shifted. It didn’t dislodge the paw around him now lightly rubbing his arm up-and-down, but he knew if he wanted, he could push it off him. Freddy’s touch always felt like that — not restricting, but comforting. Gregory kinda wanted to push it away, just to prove he didn’t need it, but the overwhelming majority of him wanted it to never end.

Freddy was always so nice to him.

He shouldn’t be.

“Why do you care so much?” Gregory asked quietly, hand lightly clenching and unclenching into fists, recalling Vanny’s words from earlier. Seems like you really do care! “You’re always so … so nice. So good, all the time. To me. Why?”

He could tell Freddy was caught off guard by the question, in the way his paw stilled on his shoulder, but he didn’t take the words back. He needed to know. People weren’t nice to Gregory, weren’t good to him, but here Freddy was — distressed that he fixed, distressed because he was in distress.

Freddy seemed to think about this for a few minutes, choosing his words carefully, before he said, “I do not like seeing you in pain, no matter the circumstances. I do not care if time will reset and you will end up unscathed. If you are hurt, I want to fix it.”

He gritted his teeth. That didn’t answer the question. “ Why?”

“Because …” Freddy took a deep breath, or whatever the equivalent was when you were an animatronic, and looked down at Gregory with so much kindness in his eyes Gregory could only blink back up at him, off kilter. “I am meant to protect children, I am meant to entertain them and make sure they are safe. And … I am not programmed to engage with favouritism when it comes to them. But you are … you are very special to me, Gregory.

Gregory swallowed. “Oh.”

That was stupid. That was stupid and cheesy and Gregory loved it so, so much.

Trying to hide the itchy feeling in his eyes, he squeezed them shut and pressed his forehead against Freddy’s side, hiding his face. Freddy didn’t seem to care, somehow pulling him closer, and rubbing at his arm again. With his other paw he came to lightly run his nails through his hair, pulling at knots and straightening out the locks, and Gregory couldn’t remember the last time anybody had done this for him, held him like this —

He never wanted it end, but he knew it had to.

Vanny was still out there.

At the thought of the woman who killed him, his body tensed up automatically, and he kept his hands folded at his chest to hide their shaking. She was still out out there, hunting him down in this stupid mall, corrupting animatronics to do her bidding. She said she wanted to infect Freddy again, take Gregory away somewhere to kill him. Again. He couldn’t let her do that — hurt him, or hurt Freddy. He had to stop her. They had to stop her.

“Vanny.”

Freddy kept stroking his hair, but did hum inquisitively. “Pardon me?“

“We need to stop her.” He elaborated, knowing Freddy probably couldn’t follow his train of thought. “She … she’s not like the animatronics. She’s not infected with any virus or anything. She … killed me, out of her own free will. Not controlled by anyone.”

“Yes, of course.” Back again with the angry tone, but at least it was only them right now. No one to aim it at. “Shall we get back on plan, then?”

“Well, our plan was just to figure out what was going on with her.” He pointed out. “But we need to stop her, now. Or else she’ll …”

Try to kill me again. Try to kill more kids. He thought, before something sickening landed in his gut, making his hands shake. Has she done it before?

“Freddy, has there ever been cases of missing children around the Pizzaplex?” He asked slowly, dreading the answer either way.

“I … am not entirely sure. Employees do not typically let us know about things like that, unless we are needed to help locate the children. And that has not happened for a very long time.” Freddy replied, tone curious and worrying, at the same time. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, Vanny said she … needed me for something. Someone. ‘Him’.” He could remember the way she said, putting so much emphasis on the word like it was the greatest thing ever. “She’s working with someone else, and … I have heard rumours about kids going missing around here. And I don’t really know if it was in the Pizzaplex specifically, but …”

He could remember seeing the ‘missing’ section of the newspaper growing, seeing the flyers stapled to the telephone poles all around. He had always thought they had just ran away or something, because the kids that went missing seemed to be the ones to do that sort of thing. But it would make sense, though. Two people working together could get twice as many kids for their nefarious purpose than just one.

Next to him, Freddy seemed to get what he was saying, because his gaze darkened into one Gregory had seen just a bit prior. Rage. “If she and her … partner have been … killing children …”

“Yeah.” Gregory mumbled in agreement, feeling similar. Maybe not as angry, but definitely as horrified. “We need to stop her. And … maybe by stopping them, we can get out of here.”

Freddy hummed, thinking, and Gregory settled deeper into his grip. He never wavered, never faulted, so Gregory was confident Freddy would agree. That he would help him. Because, really, there was no other option where Freddy didn’t help him.

“We are going to stop her. Stop both of them, and this time loop.” Freddy finally said, determination in his voice unmistakable, as he held Gregory closer and made his heart warm as he confirmed what he already knew. “We will make sure of it.”

Gregory grinned. Screw the time loops, screw Vanny, screw this whole mall — like Freddy said, they were going stop them.

And nothing was going to stop them.

Chapter Text

LOOP 25.

It took five loops to get Vanny in the position they wanted her in.

Gregory was just glad that every time it reset, Freddy seemed to get … chillier. Not that he still wasn’t a fretful, overprotective mother hen every time a new loop started up — because he was, and it was annoying — but at least he wasn’t trying to force Gregory to a first aid booth every time now. It wasted time doing that, even if a small break was nice in all the chaos.

But, he digressed. Five loops it took, with every one getting closer to having Vanny in place.

After their conversation a few loops back, him and Freddy … expanded, on their plan. They wouldn’t kill Vanny, obviously, even if she was a murderer herself, because that would just … well, it was morally wrong, Freddy said. It would also get Gregory in way more trouble than it was worth. So no, they weren’t going to kill her even if he kindasorta wanted to. She had killed him, after all. But noooo. They were just gonna try and capture her instead, and turn her over to the police. If they got that far, that is.

( If the loop didn’t reset. If they didn’t get out. Please, please — )

But that was the plan. Lure Vanny up to the through the fire escape to the roof, corner her up there, and then let Freddy subdue her. Gregory had wanted to be the one who did that, but Freddy said it was safer to let him do it instead — he was stronger and more durable, after all, even if Gregory was fuelled mostly by rage and spite at the moment.

Whatever. It would work either way. It had to work.

So now, him and Freddy were lurking around the area leading to the fire escape, keeping a look out for any signs for Vanny. He hadn’t seen the woman for awhile, not since she had first chased him through the atrium. But, she … well, she had been acting exactly the same as she always did. Like she didn’t remember any of the past loops, even the one where she managed to catch him — though, he hadn’t seen Vanessa around for awhile either, ever since that same loop. He wondered why she chose to go night guard sometimes, but murderous furry other times. There was only him here right now, right? It wasn’t like she was hiding from anyone anymore.

“We must find another way to lure Vanny over here.” Freddy told him, cutting through his thoughts. Gregory was tucked away in his stomach hatch currently, so he knocked on the inside of the plate let him know he heard. “Though I believe we must take more … proactive means.”

Gregory hummed. The original plan had just been to wait for Vanny to skip by and let her chase Gregory up to the fire escape (even if this took a lot of convincing on his part to allow for Freddy to allow it), but all this waiting around was pretty boring. “Okay. What are you thinking?”

“Well, I am equipped with a lighter in my index finger — to light birthday cakes, and crème brûlée. There is also an abundance of plushies in this area, which come with a flammability warning.” Freddy stated. Gregory took in that information, and came to a startling conclusion.

“Are you suggesting we … start a fire?” He asked carefully, just in case that hadn’t been what Freddy had been implying. But it had to be, right? Why else would he bring any of that up?

“Well … yes, I believe I am.” Freddy sighed (not a true sigh, since he didn’t have lungs, but it was a close enough sound). “I — if this is the loop in which we manage to escape, I do not wish for there to be the chance of any more harm to be caused using the Pizzaplex. And since we know Vanny’s partner is still out there, there is chance they can still use the Pizzaplex as their base of operations. I do not want to give them that chance.”

Gregory, of course, immediately agreed as soon as Freddy said ‘fire’, but he did have to admit it made sense. Plus, maybe physically destroying the Pizzaplex so it was nothing but ruins would make the loop stop on its own, even if they didn’t manage to get Vanny. It was also do good to lure her over here, to the actual fire escape.

So Gregory, already grinning to himself, got out of Freddy’s stomach hatch and immediately started setting up the plushies.

It took a few minutes to get everything set up in a way that would allow for the fire to spread to the entirety of the Pizzaplex, and was mostly filled with the two of them working in rapt silence — Freddy — and giddy anticipation — Gregory. Honestly, he never would expect Freddy of all people to suggest setting a building on fire, but … well, it was always the unassuming ones that surprised you, after all.

(Gregory did kinda hope the other animatronics got out too, though. It wasn’t entirely their faults that they were murder machines now, even if he still did hate them for killing him all the time. Freddy explained that the others should get out anyways, though. Their ‘fire response’ protocol should be strong enough to override the virus in them, and at least get them to safety. Gregory didn’t know how Freddy knew he was worrying about them, but he didn’t say anything in response, either.)

When all the plushies were set up, however, him and Freddy stood right next to the entrance to the fire escape. The plushies were set up in piles, flanking a small walkway that hopefully would allow for Vanny to escape up to the roof, where they would be waiting for her to capture her, then head down the fire escape to the parking lot. Perfect plan. Easy plan.

Gregory still couldn’t help feel a bit nervous, though.

“Superstar.” Freddy placed a paw on his shoulder, and Gregory jumped, once again wondering how the animatronic always seemed to know what he was thinking before he even knew himself. “How about you go wait upstairs? I can set the fire myself.”

Oh, was that was Freddy thought he was nervous about? “But I want to see you do it!”

“Well, I would prefer if you up on the roof when I started the fire.” He gave him a gentle push towards the exit, chuckling slightly. “I will be right behind you, superstar. Go.”

With a huff, Gregory did as he was told. He wasn’t in the mood to argue, with the nerves still boiling in his stomach, even if he did pause when he was about halfway up to the stairs to bend down and watch as Freddy started to set the fires. Look, he just thought it was cool, okay? Nothing weird about it.

However, after a few moments, he did stand up and start heading upstairs again. It was only a short flight of stairs, so he reached the top quickly, and pushed the door open.

He was greeted with the sight of the night sky, something he hadn’t seen for awhile, just starting to fade due to the rising sun faroff on the horizon. Slowly, he padded over to the ledge of the roof, and looked out into the distant city and farther back, the farmland and trees and rolling hills. He heard the distant roar of flames behind him, and took a deep breath of clean, fresh air. It seemed like every time he managed to get out, the more and more unused to it he became. Almost as if for every minute he spent in the Pizzaplex, the more he forgot about what was outside.

What he was fighting to do.

However, he didn’t have time to focus on it long, because with an angry growl and the sound of feet on gravel, someone suddenly grabbed him.

Gregory yelped when someone wrapped their hand around his upper arm and whirled him around, before grabbing onto his other arm and effectively pinning him place. Though, he was surprised to see the burning red gaze of Vanny staring back at him, almost nose-to-nose, with her ears blowing in the wind and whiskers twitching slightly.

“How in the hell did you get here before us?!” Gregory asked, squirming in her grip. Through her mask, Vanny’s growl was audible.

“You two weren’t subtle.” She hissed, and — yeah, fine. Maybe fire hadn’t been the best idea. Ah, who was he kidding. The fire idea was the best.

As if to prove his point, the sound of roaring flames became louder, accompanied by the frantic pounding footsteps of Freddy taking the stairs two at a time. Both him and Vanny froze, Vanny more in fear and Gregory more just because he did not look forward to seeing Freddy’s ire again, even if it was directed at Vanny. Actually, he kinda enjoyed it. She deserved it.

“Gregory, I believe we have around ten minutes before the fire makes it unsafe to —“  Freddy cut himself as soon as he saw the predicament, however, words morphing into a low growl immediately. “Vanny. How did you get up here?”

“Oh my god, you’re just like your cub.” She sounded like she was rolling her eyes, though he grip around Gregory’s arms tightened. “You weren’t very subtle with your whole little fire plan. Like, at all!”

It was almost like she was offended with how bad they were at trap making, but Gregory still had to bite down on his cheek to hide his smile. Sure, their plan had gone a little off the rails — but he could still make it work, of course. Bluffing was one of his best skills, after all.

“You think we were trying to be?” He glanced over at Freddy, who luckily seemed to get the message to play along, even if he did look a little bit confused. “We wanted you up here.”

With that, Gregory twisted around, and threw his whole weight against Vanny. It was enough to set her off-balance, loosening her grip on his arm enough, that Gregory was able to do the only thing he could; bite her.

It worked as well as it could with the awkward angle and the furry suit Vanny was wearing, as the woman shrieked in pain and immediately let him go, and Gregory fell to the ground in a heap with the awful taste of faux fur in his mouth. However, before he could get up and start trying to run again, Vanny got over the pain in her arm and went to grab at him, saying, “Oh, you little shit —“

Unfortunately for her, Freddy didn’t take too kindly to this, because he yelled, “ Stay away from him! ” and launched himself at her.

Gregory didn’t even know Freddy could move that fast, but as soon as the bear rushed over, Gregory yelled and ducked down, covering his head with his hands and plastering himself to the concrete roof. There was the sound of scuffling, Vanny screaming like a banshee and Freddy grunting, the creaking of metal, before the sound of someone stumbling and —

Screaming. Two screams, both in fear, then — a crash.

Gregory looked up, and found he was alone on the roof. That wasn’t — that wasn’t part of the plan. No, no, they were both supposed to be up here, because Freddy was strong enough to subdue her without getting hurt, this wasn’t how this plan was supposed to go!

Feeling his breathe catch in his throat, Gregory shot to his feet and ran to the edge of the building, where Vanny and Freddy had been tussling just before. His head and heart were racing in time, mumbling to himself, “No, no, no no no —“

He got to the ledge, and peered down.

It was hard to see, but — down at the ground, there were the two recognizable shapes, and neither were moving.

Gasping and feeling tears prick at the corner of his eyes, maybe this time not just from the heat, Gregory could only stare. Stare down down down, at the still form of his murderer and protecter, his enemy and guardian, side-by-side but almost the same, not moving not moving not moving —

He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t —

(Gregory didn’t really know what was going on.

All he knew was that he was alone right now, even though he could hear the sound of voices on the other side of the wall, from adults who seemed to be talking a lot even if they still ignored him. That was fine. Most people ignored him anyways, though they usually didn’t talk so much around him.

It had been like that for awhile, ever since Mister Jones fell while trying to do yard work a few days ago. Mister Jones was his … foster father, that was the word. That meant he took care of Gregory because his real parents couldn’t. Missus Jones was his wife, and when Mister Jones had fallen she had bundled him and Gregory in the car, and rushed him to the hospital. Since then, Gregory had sorta just been following them around, going to school during the day and at night spending most of his time alone with Missus Jones in the house.

She cried a lot. Gregory wished she didn’t. He didn’t like it when she cried.

But how, he was here, in the weird white building he had been in before, when he was younger; before moving in with Mister and Missus Jones. He knew something must be wrong, then, for Missus Jones to bring him here. She had been crying again, the entire time she drove them here. She also said that she cared for him, very much, but that she had to deal with a few things so he would be speaking with Mister Raymond for a bit.

Gregory liked Mister Raymond. He had dark hair and a funny beard, and came in to check in him sometimes, to make sure Mister and Missus Jones were being nice to him — which they always were, of course. He had even been the one who introduced him to Mister and Missus Jones in the first place, back when he was a little. Like, really little. Gregory was way bigger now.

Speaking of, he finally spied Mister Raymond making his way towards him, down the hallway into the small sitting room Gregory was in off from the main area. He was holding something in his hand. A plastic wrapping, it looked like. Gregory straightened in his chair when he approached, returning the all-teeth smile Mister Raymond gave him with his own tiny, shy one. His teachers said he needed to smile more, but Gregory didn’t like too. He felt awkward whenever he did.

“Hello, Gregory. It’s good to see you again.” Mister Raymond greeted politely, before he offered out the thing in his hand to him. “Here, I got this from the vending machine for you. I was getting my own snack and had a bit of change to spare!”

Mister Raymond chuckled quietly to himself, and Gregory hesitantly reached out to take it the package from him. It turned out to be a cookie, wrapped in packaging with the face of a friendly-looking cartoon mouse printed on the front, and he quietly mumbled, “Thank you.” before opening it.

Missus Jones said he shouldn’t accept things from strangers, but Mister Raymond wasn’t a stranger, so he was pretty sure it was okay. Besides, when he opened the cookie and discovered it was chocolate chip, he didn’t care. Chocolate chip was his favourite.

Still standing in front of him, watching as he started to chew on his treat, Mister Raymond hummed to himself and asked, “How old are you again, sweetheart?”

Gregory paused for a moment, counting in his head, before answering, “Six. But my birthday is in a few months.”

Mister Raymond nodded to himself, before slowly sitting down in the chair next to him. Gregory watched the man carefully, as he settled in the plastic chair and breathed out slowly. He was acting kinda weird, Gregory could tell. Just like Missus Jones had been, when she dropped him off here then disappeared deeper into the building. He wondered what she was doing. Maybe she was heading off to visit Mister Jones again, or something.

“I’m sure you’ve heard about what’s going with Mister Jones right now.” Mister Raymond said, startling Gregory from his thinking.

He took a bite of his cookie, swallowed, then nodded. “Yeah. He fell while moving stuff in the shed. I saw him.”

It had been kinda scary, watching Mister Jones suddenly collapse to the ground with a clatter and sending all the tools in the toolbox he had been holding flying, and Gregory had immediately ran inside to go get Missus Jones when Mister Jones didn’t say anything to him. He was glad she had been inside cooking dinner and not at work, because then he didn’t know what he would do.

“Yes, Missus Jones said that you came and got her. That’s very good.” Mister Raymond said and Gregory wiggled in his seat a bit at the praise, but the man kept going. “But … well, there’s no easy way to put this …”

Mister Raymond seemed to be collecting his thoughts, so Gregory let him, finishing off his cookie and licking his lips. It was pretty good. Not as good as the ones Missus Jones made, but still good.

“Unfortunately, Gregory, you’re going to have to … move homes, for a bit.”

Gregory turned to give Mister Jones a confused look, tilting his head at him. “What does that mean?”

“It means …” Mister Raymond sighed again, more deeply this time. Gregory shifted in his seat. He didn’t like that sigh. “It means that you’re going to have new foster parents.”

Gregory frowned, feeling more disgruntled. That just confused him more. Why couldn’t he explain anything to him? “But I thought I already had foster parents? That’s what Mister and Missus Jones are, right? I like them. They’re nice.”

Mister and Missus Jones had been nice to him, truly. Mister Jones let him hold his hand when they walked down the sidewalk, while Missus Jones made really good food that she let him have as much as he wanted of. They did have a few rules though, like not leaving dirty laundry on the floor and making sure to always put your dishes in the dishwasher when you were done with them, but they were still nice. He didn’t really want new foster parents. The ones he had were already good.

“Unfortunately, they are not equipped to take care of you right now.” Mister Raymond explained, frowning, even though his voice was soft. “Did … did you ever notice Mister Jones walking slowly, like he was tired, or saying he was dizzy or taking a lot of medicine? Even before he fell in the shed?”

Gregory nodded. “Yeah, he said his chest hurt all the time.”

“Well, that — and the reason he fell in the shed — is because it turns out Mister Jones is sick. Really sick.” Mister Raymond explained. “But because he needs to focus on getting better, he and Missus Jones can’t focus on you anymore. And if Mister and Missus Jones are trying to balance making sure Mister Jones gets better and making sure you’re okay, then they would end up not taking care of both of you properly. Does that make sense?”

“Kinda of.” Gregory glanced down at the ground, itching at the bandaid he always had on his cheek. “Will Mister Jones get better?”

“Here’s hoping.” Mister Raymond said with a slight laugh. Gregory didn’t think it was that funny, and Mister Raymond went serious again. “Now, do you want to go meet your new foster parents?”

Gregory’s head immediately snapped up to look at him, eyes widening. “What?”

“They’re waiting for you, right now, just down the hall.” Mister Raymond said, though that wasn’t the answer to his question. “It was just like when you first met Mister and Missus Jones, remember? It’s gonna be just like that.”

Gregory didn’t really, because it had been about a year ago, and he had been very young then so he didn’t really remember it all. “… can I see Mister Jones and Missus Jones first?”

He wanted to check in them, see if they were okay — it had been awhile since he saw Mister Jones, a few days at least. Especially since he knew he was sick now. He hoped he was okay.

However, Mister Raymond just pressed his lips together, and said solemnly, “Not at the moment, honey. You can visit them after, alright? Your new foster parents are very excited to meet you, Gregory. I promise that you’ll like them”

The man stood up from his chair and started moving away, like he expected Gregory to follow him, but when he didn’t, he stopped and turned to look at him. When he spied Gregory still sitting on the chair, looking down at the ground, he gave a small sigh and crouched down, so they were eye-level. Mister Raymond ended up being a bit shorter than him because of the awkward angle, but Gregory still didn’t look at him. He didn’t want to.

“Look, Gregory, Mister and Missus Jones are very sorry they can’t take care of you anymore. They did care for you a lot, and they still do.” Mister Raymond put a hand on his shoulder, and Gregory really wanted to push him away, but didn’t because he was an adult and he wasn’t supposed to do that. “But they want you to have an adult that can care for you properly, and focus all their attention on taking care of you.”

Gregory hunkered down deeper in his chair, still tasting remnants of cookies on his tongue. They tasted a lot less sweet now, faced with this, but …

Mister Raymond had said Mister Jones needed to … get better, right? Not be sick anymore? They couldn’t do that with Gregory around, Mister Raymond said. He and Missus Jones had focus on getting him better, not on Gregory.

He pressed his lips together. He wanted Mister Jones to get better. He didn’t want to be the reason he didn’t.

“Okay.” He mumbled, ignoring the way Mister Raymond smiled at him when he said so. “Okay, fine.”

With a sinking pit in his stomach and crumbs of cookies still on his lips, Gregory got up and followed Mister Raymond down the hallway. The man reached out and offered his hand out, but Gregory just wiped his palms on his shirt and hugged himself, hunching over as he walked. Mister Raymond gave a slight sigh, but retracted his hand, and lead him away. Gregory still didn’t like this.

For some reason, he had a feeling that whatever happened after this moment, it wasn’t going to be good for him.)

With a startling gasp, Gregory pushed himself back from the ledge and looked around. He needed to get down somehow, get down to Freddy — and luckily, there was a fire escape, leading all the way down to the ground.

He went as fast as his feet would carry him, with only his ragged breathing and the crackling fire to accompany his racing mind.

•

•

•

When he got to the bottom, the first thing Gregory saw was Vanny.

He couldn’t spy Freddy, only her, lying a little ways away from him ragdolled on the ground with one of her red eyes flickering on-and-off. He froze when he saw her, worried she would suddenly spring up to attack him, before shaking the fear off. She looked unconscious, and besides, her knife was nowhere to be found. That he could see, at least. In the light of the fire at his back, Gregory could see a few strands of blonde hair, coming free from under the mask.

He paused, pressing his lips together.

He had to check. He had to.

Slowly making his way towards her, he stayed tense even when it became clear she wasn’t moving anyways. One of her legs looked broken, as did her shoulder, popped out of the socket. Even in the dark light and through the patchwork fabric, he could see stains of red, mixing with ashy grey. It made him want to recoil, a bit, but … he had to check. He had to know.

When he reached her still form, Gregory slowly crouched down and braced himself on the ground with one hand. He hesitated for a moment when he reached out to take it off, though, before tamping it down. He had to do this. He had to. He had —

He tore the mask off, and, much to his unsurprise, Vanessa’s face was revealed underneath.

It wasn’t shocking. It shouldn’t be shocking, he and Freddy had assumed it already, but it was still … well, to have his theory confirmed was startling, to say the least. The guard’s skin was grey-tinged and vines prominent, maybe from the ash or from falling off the building, because she hadn’t seemed so pale when he had been close to her before. Blonde hair was now free from it’s low ponytail, spilling across the pavement, and eyes closed, though he could see her eyes were still moving under her eyelids. There was blood pouring from her temple, dripping down the side of her face, and Gregory swallowed.

He dropped her mask, and placed a hand on her chest. She was still breathing. Barely, but it was there.

She wasn’t dead yet. He wasn’t, either.

However, knowing she was now immobile, he knew he had bigger things to worry about right now. Mainly, the weak voice calling out to him over the sound of the roaring flames, crackling with static, “ Gregory?”

“Freddy!” He immediately whipped around to see the animatronic was laying a few feet away, partially hidden by the shadows casted by the flames, and stumbled over to him and leaving Vanny-Vanessa laying on the pavement. “Freddy, are you —“

He cut himself off with a gasp, then a worried cry of, “ Freddy! ” when he saw the state of him.

The animatronic looked worse than Vanessa, with the plating on his chest and arms cracked like spiderwebs. One of his arms was torn off at the elbow, and one of his feet was barely holding on by a few wires, but what was most shocking was around his neck. It looked like Vanny had managed to get him with her knife — stuck the blade in the small gap where his head met his shoulders, dislodging his bowtie and causing sparks to fly from the destroyed wires.

“Oh, God.” Gregory fell to his knees at Freddy’s side, not even feeling the pain of his shins scraping against the pavement. “Shit, Freddy.”

“It’s al-alright, superstar.” Freddy said, though the amount of static and glitching in his voice proved otherwise. “Are you-you-you ok-kay?”

“Me?! Freddy, you just fell off a building! A burning one!” To emphasize his point, the fire behind him crackled and sent something crashing to the ground, and he flinched. “Shit, I don’t know — I don’t know if I can fix you. It’s not like Parts and Services is an option —“

He didn’t even know where to get the parts to fix Freddy, let alone try to fix him without a manual. He might be good at robotics, but not this good, when he leaned closer to get a better look at the wound Vanny inflicted. The wires were cleanly cut in half, sparking at the edges, and when Gregory reached over to gently touch one it shocked him so much he recoiled. “Shit!”

“Gregory —“

“I can — I can fix you, I can. I can try. I got the virus out, right? This is fine, this is fine —“ He was rambling, but he couldn’t stop. Not when he took in the state of Freddy, or felt the flames of the Pizzaplex behind him. Distantly, he thought he heard sirens. He wondered who was close enough to call the police, before deciding it didn’t matter. Was it even real?

“Greg-Gregory.”

He didn’t hear him. “I can fix you, please, Freddy, I can —“

“ Gregory.  You must get-get out of h-h-here.” Freddy said firmly, cutting off his babbling that was becoming more and more incoherent with the wetness he could feel behind his eyes and thickness in his throat. He tried to lift his paw towards Gregory, but only got about halfway, so Gregory wrapped two of his fingers tight in his own shaky grip, squeezing lightly. “You can-cannot be c-caught here.”

Gregory knew that was true — if the authorities found a clearly homeless child with the destroyed bodies of the mall’s main star and security guard, they’d definitely ask questions he couldn’t answer — but still, he couldn’t leave Freddy here. He — it would take ages for him to be fixed, if he was even fixable at all. Vanny had seemed to do a number on him. Maybe the Pizzaplex would just decide to scrap him and replace him with someone else. It would be easier, certainly.

Gregory couldn’t let them do that. He couldn’t let them do that to him. To Freddy, who was kind, who was warm, who was good —

Freddy seemed to realize what was going through his mind, because he gently shifted the fingers caught in Gregory’s grip, before saying, “You must-must leave me behind, G-Gregory. I will-will-will only slow you d-down.”

Indignation rose up inside him, and he spat out, “I can’t just leave you —“

“You must.” Freddy said, voice firm despite the glitches in it, before he softened. “I will be o-okay. I can be fix-x-xed. But you m-must-must-must —“

The glitches became too much to continue, and Freddy cut himself off, and Gregory kept sitting there, unable to let go and do as he was told. He knew Freddy was right, logically. Gregory couldn’t stay, but he still found he couldn’t leave Freddy either. He just — he just couldn’t. It wasn’t an option.

Freddy’s gaze went softer, almost a smile, and he tried again to speak. “Stay-stay safe, Gregory. You will a-always be —“

Before he could finish, he suddenly froze, staring up at the sky. Gregory held his breath, unable to say anything, to do anything except squeeze his hand back, and hope that — that he would pull through. He was a robot, right? Robots couldn’t die. They could get shut off, but they couldn’t — Freddy couldn’t —

His eyes went dark, and Gregory felt his heart stop.

“No, no no no no, Freddy —” Gregory felt a sob bubble out of his throat as he let go of Freddy’s hand to try and get a better hold on the bear, ending up grabbing onto his ears to lug his body closer. However, he was now practically dead weight, so Gregory just settled for leaning over his head Freddy’s, practically sitting on his chest. “Freddy, please, please please please —“

The tears he had been trying to hold back spilled over, running down his cheeks to land on the smooth plastic, and Gregory finally let out all the emotions that had been swirling around inside of him, the ones he had been ignoring due to his desperate rush to survive. In every loop, every rerun, Freddy had helped him, even if he knew about it or not — over and over, Freddy chose to help him, no matter what Gregory said or did, he chose him. But now that would never happen again, because Freddy was —

He didn’t want to say it.

Gregory pressed his forehead against Freddys chest, slightly warmed from the fire and the internal systems still cooling, and tried to bite back his tears but only succeeded in getting the taste of blood all over his tongue. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the heat of burning building behind him, and screamed.

If this was the one where he got out, he didn’t fucking want it.

LOOP 26.

It was dark.

It was dark. And warm. Gregory could see the familiar lights in the corner of his vision and feel the metal workings under his hand, and it only took him a moment to breath before he was pushing the stomach hatch open and tumbling out to the ground.

“Gregory!” Freddy immediately exclaimed, moving to catch him even as he stumbled and wobbled and tried to turn around to face the bear. “Careful, you may injure yourself getting out so quickly like that.”

Gregory didn’t have a respond to that. He was too focused on looking at Freddy, searching for any cracks or spots of dirt. The bear was as clean as he always was at the start of the night, freshly polished and painted perfectly, not a chip or scrap to be found. No evidence that he had just broken beyond repair, no evidence that he had just more-or-less died in front of him. No evidence that Gregory had nearly lost the one person who cared for him in this stupid hellscape of a place.

He oddly felt like crying again, but quickly shoved the feeling back down into a place deep inside him where it wouldn’t bother him anymore. He had done enough crying already, most of the time over Freddy, so he wouldn’t cry again over the stupid bear. Not even because he was glad he was alive or whatever.

Something must have shown on his face, though, since Freddy’s eyes immediately widened, and he took a step forward like he was going to crouch down in front of him. Gregory took a step back on instinct, still staring up at him, and swallowed thickly.

“Gregory?” Freddy asked softly. “Are you okay? Did you injure yourself getting out of my stomach compartment so quickly?”

Gregory scowled at him, suddenly overcome with a wave of anger. How was Freddy acting so normal about this? He remembered the past loops now, he should remember the one right before, where he fallen off the roof and died and - and —

He clenched his fists tight and yelled, “Don’t EVER do that AGAIN!”

He slammed a fist on Freddys chest plate, only succeeding in making the metal vibrate and his fingers ache, but he still did it again, lighter this time, for good measure before he couldn’t help himself and threw his arms around the bear. Even on his tippy toes, he still barely reached his shoulders, but that didn’t stop Gregory from squeezing him as hard as he could and desperately trying not to cry. He wasn’t a stupid crybaby, but something about Freddy kept making him think it was okay to be one.

“Please.” He muttered quietly, desperately, hoping Freddy didn’t notice the tremor in his voice but knowing he probably did. “Please, I - I don’t —“

He cut himself off with a choked noise, and turned to hide his face against Freddy’s plating, holding on as tightly as he could muster in case the animatronic tried to push him away. He didn’t, though. No, in fact, Freddy leaned down enough to place one paw on his back, and used the other one to slowly stroke his hair — the only accessible part of his head currently — in the soft, gentle care he always seemed to have with Gregory. It made him feel stupid and weak and soft and he never wanted it to end.

“I … am sorry, Gregory.” Freddy said, the thrum of his voice vibrating through his plating and making his head hum from where it also pressed against the metal, but in a good way. “I did not mean to upset you.”

Gregory pushed away then, rubbing at his face to stop more tears from falling, and glared up at Freddy. He probably didn’t look very menacing, with his red cheeks and now-tousled hair, but he hope Freddy understood his anger anyways. “Well, you did! You can’t just do things like that, Freddy! What if you - what if that was the one where we didn’t start over?!”

Freddy titled his head at him, ears sliding down as well. “But that would be a good thing, would it not? It would mean that you could escape.”

Gregory paused. That … that was true, wasn’t it?

But he knew, deep down in his heart, with all the other things he had buried deep, that the last loop — where Freddy hadn’t made it — was the first time he had hoped time would reset.

Because …

“I wouldn’t have cared.” He mumbled softly, staring at everywhere but Freddy — the one who had been protecting him for so long. “I want both of us to get out of here. Together.”

For a terrifying moment, the two of them just stared at eachother, Gregory up at Freddy and Freddy down at him, his admission echoing in the greenroom. He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, not because they weren’t true but because he knew Freddy wouldn’t have wanted to hear them, everyone balanced precariously on the edge, just short of tipping.

But than Freddy made a noise similar to a sigh, a sound that made Gregory want to curl up into a ball in defeat. “Oh, Gregory …”

He couldn’t stop himself from sniffling. Like a stupid baby.

But, much like he had when he first broken down, Freddy didn’t hesitate to scoop Gregory up into his arms at the first sign of tears. Gregory didn’t start crying this time, though he sniffled a whole bunch and had to squeeze his eyes hard to stop tears from falling, and he rested his head on Freddy’s chest to calm himself. Beneath the metal plating and plastic pieces, he could hear the gentle humming of Freddy’s systems, running just like they always had. No faults or broken pieces. No lingering scars. Just his memories as the only proof he had died and come back like nothing happened.

If Freddy didn’t remember too, Gregory would think he was going crazy.

“I cannot promise that I will not … die again. When it comes down to it, I would much rather suffer through the process than you.” Freddy said, voice low and rumbling against his ear. “But I do promise I will do everything I can to survive long enough to get out of here with you, superstar.”

Gregory could only really mumble, “Okay.” and bite back his tears as Freddy held him close, and began to hum.

Chapter Text

LOOP 29.

So whenever either of them died, the loop still reset.

This was great. This was fine. Gregory was — Gregory was totally okay. With this. With everything.

They just — they had had two interactions with Vanny now, and both ended with one of them dying, and being no closer to getting any answers on her. Or even getting close to capturing her, so that they could question her or just do anything. It was starting to get infuriating, and as Gregory curled up inside of Freddy’s stomach hatch as they made their way towards Fazer Blast, he swore that if they didn’t get answers this time — or at least got closer to getting answers — he was going to lose his mind.

If he hadn’t already, of course.

At least it seemed like Freddy was as similarly annoyed as he was. Maybe even more so. When he had revealed to the animatronic that Vanny was in fact Vanessa (after he had … calmed down, from his earlier little freak out), and that he actually knew this time, with proof, and wasn’t just acting on a hunch … well, Freddy hadn’t said anything for awhile. Then he had growled, lowered his ears, and declared that was yet another reason they needed to figure out a way to apprehend her. And hopefully get answers.

After all, security guards typically had to go through background checks, and a crazy child-murderer who skipped around wearing bunny suits would set off some red flags. Plus, why was she a bunny anyways? So many more threatening animals to choose from.

So, that was why they to Fazer Blast. Trying to capture her directly hadn’t worked, so their next best option was to head to her little hideout above the attraction, and see what they could find there.

“Freddy.” Gregory knocked on the inside of the chest plate, the sound echoing back into his ears. When the animatronic didn’t answer, he tried again, louder. “Freddy.”

“Ah. Sorry, superstar. I was lost in my thoughts there.” Freddy replied quickly, sounding slightly distant. Gregory frowned, but didn’t comment. “What is it?”

“We’re here.” The feed on his watch revealed they were right outside of Fazer Blast, and as much as he liked riding with Freddy, he would rather walk around on his own inside. It was rather cramped, after all. “Let me out.”

“Oh, of course. Apologies.”

Freddy opened the hatch, and Gregory climbed out. When he was steady, he turned and gave Freddy an intense stare, hopefully to make him squirm. He was acting weird again, like he had been for the past few loops since … since the one he died in, and Gregory didn’t like it. Not one bit.

“Okay, what’s wrong?” He asked, crossing his arms.

Freddy blinked at him. “Nothing is wrong, superstar. Why do you ask?”

“Because you’ve been acting weird!” He exclaimed, his frown deepening. The last time he was acting like this (before the dying-loop, that is) was back before he remembered the resets, whenever he tried to figure out why his friends were acting so violent and murdery. He got all … distant and sad-sounding and Gregory hated it. “You’re worrying me.”

That did the trick, because Freddy dropped all pretences and let out a noise almost like a sigh. Gregory quickly learned saying things like that got Freddy to give the truth really quickly, since Gregory was … telling him the truth, too. “I am okay, Gregory. I am simply just … pondering why Vanessa could be acting like this. She was never the friendliest guard, but I do not believe she would ever be capable of … something like this.”

He gestured around vaguely, at the mall in general, and Gregory shrugged. At first he had been indifferent to Vanny’s motives, because he didn’t believe he would be around long enough to learn about them, but now … well, he kinda got it. But unlike Freddy, he didn’t know Vanessa separately from Vanny. His only interactions with the guard was when she chased him down earlier in the day and caused him to hide in Freddy, and whenever she locked him up in a security office — which he learned how to avoid after a few loops. He didn’t care about the difference between her and Vanny. They were the same person, anyways.

“She’s probably just … crazy or something.” Gregory huffed, uncrossing his arms to instead pick at a scab on his knuckle. “Doesn’t really matter, though. Once we stop her, then we can find out.”

Freddy seemed to think this over, before he nodded, resolve strengthening. “Yes, yes. Of course. Let’s get to it, then.”

Freddy seemed a bit more like himself now, so Gregory mustered up a smile, and led him into Fazer Blast.

Once inside, it didn’t take much time to get to the main area. Freddy managed to override the game settings to let them in without having to play ( “Wait, so you could … always do that?” “Yes, I could.” “Then why did you always make me play to get my Blaster!?” “Well, that would not have been very fun, would it?” ), and they made their way towards the centre elevator. The plan when they got to the hideout was that Gregory would climb through the vents to get inside, and Freddy would use the tracking ability on his watch to find a way to the door that led inside. Though, first they had to actually get to her hideout, which was a bit of a hike.

The odd thing, though, was that as they made their way through Fazer Blaster … they were totally alone.

No Staff Bots patrolling nearby, or any of the other animatronics lurking around. It should have made Gregory feel more at ease, but instead it just made him tense up, and he stuck close to Freddy as they reached one of the mini bridges between two sections that hung over a sea of padded flooring. The cheery music he heard while playing the game earlier was still going strong, grating on his ears, but with the absence of other sounds it only served to make anxiety build up in his chest.

“I don’t want to jinx us, but … where is everyone?“ Gregory asked quietly, glancing back at Freddy.  “There should be more Bots around.”

“I do not know.” Freddy replied, so close behind him he was almost stepping on his heels. “I believe we should —“

Except, it was just then that there was the sudden creaking of wheels, and they both froze.

Craning his head around, he sucked in a breath when he saw there was a huge group of Staff Bots on the other side of the bridge, hidden behind the tall patterned walls that were flashing with red-and-green lights. None of them were moving, looking almost dead with their limbs hanging low and blank eyes that seemed to be staring right at them.  It was creepy. He knew something was wrong here.

“That’s … a lot of Staff Bots.” He said hesitantly, taking a step back so he was standing right next to Freddy. “Why aren’t they moving?”

Freddy hummed, and shifted minutely closer to him. “I … do not know.”

That was when the speaker set all around suddenly crackled to life, and Vanny’s voice rang throughout the entire attraction.

“ Oh my goodness, what do we have here? ”

Gregory yelped, and immediately jumped closer to Freddy. He didn’t know where Vanny was, so he really didn’t want to get separated right now, and — wait, oh.

She was up above them.

In a large window on the nearest wall, one way close to the ceiling that seemed to overlook the entire attraction, was Vanny. She was standing behind the glass, illuminated by the dark lighting behind her, and waved at them when she finally noticed their gazes on them. Gregory frowned, and gently tapped Freddy on the arm. The animatronic glanced at him, but still kept his gaze trained on Vanny, a low sound emitting from deep in his voicebox. Almost like a growl.

“Freddy, where is she right now?!” He asked, confused and annoyed that he had never noticed that window before — or, how to even get to it.

“It’s a spectators box. Only employees can access it, so they may monitor a match and make announcements.” Freddy answered. “But I do not know how she got up there.”

Well, she was Vanessa. “She’s a security guard. Of course she has access.”

Freddy, reminded of that fact, seemed to get very angrier. “Ah. Right.”

“ Aw, little Gregory and his big bad guardian bear. How adorable. ” Vanny giggled, in her usual faux-sweet tone. “ Wait, were you guys coming to visit me? How thoughtful of ya’! ”

Freddy growled again, deeper and more threatening this time, and Gregory glared up at her as well. “Vanny, quit playing games. Do not hide up there like a coward.”

“Unfortunately I can’t really hear ya’, papa bear, but I can guess what you’re saying.” She said, almost overlapping with the end of Freddy’s sentence. “Something something, you’re a monster, something something, don’t kill this random kid that nobody would even miss, something something, I’m an annoying goodie-two-shoes who doesn’t listen to what he’s told. Am I close?”

Freddy growled again, and wrapped his own fingers around Gregory’s tiny one, sitting in the palm of his paw. Gregory just gritted his teeth, and tried to ignore how the words stung a bit. He knew nobody would really miss him — besides Freddy, maybe — but that didn’t mean he deserved to die. She also didn’t have a right to insult Freddy’s because Freddy was better than her and stronger. He had managed to overcome the virus, even without Gregory’s help, while Vanny kept hiding herself behind her mask. She didn’t have a right to insult either of them.

“ Aw, sorry, did I strike a nerve there? ” Vanny asked, giggling between her cold words. Way above in the window, she seemed to be jeering at them. “ I’m sure ya’ cursing me out right now, but I’m just staying the truth! Nobody’s gonna miss the poor, homeless little boy and soon, we’ll figure out a way to activate the virus in your system so you’ll stop being a thorn in my side. Or maybe, we’ll just dispose of you all together. How does that sound? ”

Gregory couldn’t contain himself anymore, and even though he knew, logically, she couldn’t hear him, he stepped in front of Freddy anyways and shouted, “ Shut the hell up! ” while giving her the dirtiest glare he could muster. But all he could hear was her laughter, on the other side of the window.

“ I can’t hear you either, brat, but I’m getting verrrrry tired of you two yelling at me, so let’s wrap this up, shall we? ” Her voice lost all amusement then, but Gregory stood his ground, glaring and clenching his fists as she stared back at him through the glass. “ I’ve managed to reroute the override control setting for the Staff Bots to all link to this one button, meaning I have complete control over them with just one voice command. Come to me willing, and maybe I won’t order them to hunt you down and take Freddy here apart for scraps. It’s your choice, Gregory. ”

She lifted a button to the window, one of the usual ones shaped like Freddy’s head, and waved it around invitingly. Gregory glanced over at the still-frozen Staff Bots across the bridge from them, then back at Vanny, waiting for an answer. Behind him, Freddy let out a low rumble, and Gregory scoffed. That wasn’t much of a choice — she got what she wanted either way, and there was no way either of them would go willing.

Freddy must have had the same thought, because he shouted, “Absolutely not!”

“She can’t hear you, Freddy.” Gregory told him. They were too far away to shout, and separated by glass anyways. She couldn’t hear them, so how would she know? Oh, wait.

Huffing, he lifted up his hand, and flipped her off.

Through the still-live speaker system, he heard Vanny make an angered noise, before her voice came out in her usual sugary-sweet tone. “ Rude. Fine, then. It’s your party! ”

Then, seemingly in slow motion, she brought the button up to where her mouth would be under her mask, and pressed it. And with the speaker system still activated, the order rang loud and clear throughout the entire arena, allowing both of them to hear it.

“ Disassemble Freddy, and bring Gregory to me. Alive. ”

It was like a light switch was flicked on, because with unnatural coordination, all the Staff Bots on the other side of the bridge turned towards them with their blank eyes just staring. Him and Freddy both took a step back, Freddy putting out a hand to rest lightly on his chest, as if he was trying to block him from the Staff Bots who were now slowly wheeling towards them. It was creepy, so Gregory reached up to grab onto the studded leather band around Freddy’s forearm, but then flinched when Vanny’s voice came through the speakers once more.

“ Have fun, you two! And to Gregory — I’ll be seeing ya’ verrrry soon! I’m sure you’re going to enjoy what he has planned for you. ”

With those final parting words and a maniacal giggle that was cut off, she skipped away from the viewing window, out of his sight. However, Gregory didn’t have time to focus on that. The Staff Bots were getting closer — and they had both heard her orders.

Sure, he had wanted to defy her, but this … this wasn’t looking good for them.

“Freddy, we have to go.” He exclaimed, tugging on the animatronic’s arm band to hopefully pull him after him. The Staff Bots were coming from in front of them — though, their wheels seemed to have a bit of trouble on the surface of the bridge, clunking awkwardly — and he could hear the sound of their wheels coming from behind, even above the cheery music. “Come on, before they surround us!”

Speak of the devil, the sound of wheels got louder, announcing the arrival of more. Gregory dropped his grip on Freddy’s arm to whip around and see other Staff Bots had reached them. With a snarl, he whipped his Blaster from his belt and shot at two coming down the corridors at them, and when they froze in place he said louder, “Come on! We have to get to her!”

“Gregory, we will not make it.” Freddy told him. Gregory shot at another Staff Bot, then started smacking his Blaster in hopes it would recharge quicker. “There are too many of them. There are over a hundred Staff Bots in the building, and if Vanny had the control button for all of them, they will all be honing in on my exact location, and be able to track you through your watch. They will follow us wherever we go.”

He spared a moment to glare at Freddy over his shoulder, because it seemed like the bear was almost — almost scheming, somehow, and not telling him what. “And then what do you propose?!”

“Rid yourself of your watch.” Freddy instructed, so Gregory did so. He shot at the Staff Bots that were beginning to unfreeze, then scrambled to take his watch off. Chucking it over the side of the bridge, he looked at Freddy expectedly. He was a bit upset to be parted with it, but at this point — they would either reset and he could get another one, or they would be getting out and he wouldn’t need it anymore.

“And now what?” They didn’t have much time left. Soon there would be too many Staff Bots for his Blaster’s charge, and the Staff Bots coming from the other side were nearly on top of Freddy now, managing to get their wheels free. “Freddy?”

“I distract them.” Freddy stated simply. “And you go after Vanny.”

“What, Freddy, that’s —“

Unfortunately, Freddy did not stick around to here his complaints, because he had already jumped forward to deal with the Staff Bots in front of him.

Cursing, Gregory whipped around to try and help him with his Blaster, and was met with the sight of Freddy knocking away Staff Bots left and right, sending them tumbling over the side of the bridge. It seemed ‘safe mode’ did not account for Staff Bots, because for an animatronic that seemed so gentle and warm all the time — well, he was tearing through them like they were flies swarming around a garbage can.

Gregory was so momentarily stunned, however, he forgot about the Staff Bots behind him and was only shocked out of his stupor by one grabbing at him. With a yelp, he jumped forward just as he felt the brush of it’s spindly fingers against his neck, before turning and shooting at it. His blaster was still charging, and he didn’t have many shots left. He was running out of time.

“Freddy!” He shouted, voice nearly cracking as he turned to call out for the bear, somewhere behind him. “Stop, we have to —”

A Staff Bot grabbed onto Freddy’s arm, and tore.

With the ugly sound of screeching metal, the Bot tore the plating right off, revealing a bunch of wires and metal bones. Freddy immediately knocked it away, still holding the arm plating, but Gregory was stuck in place. Freddy couldn’t — he was strong. He couldn’t die. He couldn’t.

( But Freddy could, he knew that. He needed to stop being stupid. It wouldn’t have reset otherwise. )

“Freddy!” He shouted again, his distress leaking into his voice this time. He couldn’t leave him, not like Freddy wanted. Not like he planned. It was stupid. Stupid, stupid stupid stupid. Dramatic as well, idiotic and dumb and how dare he leave, how dare he be a stupid, sacrificial —

“Gregory, get out of here!” Freddy shouted, voice going over the din of the fighting and music. “You must stop her!”

Whatever else he wanted to say was drowned out by the sound of tearing metal, and Gregory took a deep breath, and ran.

•

•

•

Going up the stairs two at a time, Gregory kept a tight grip on his Fazer Blaster almost as if it was a real gun. When he reached the top, he peaked around the corner before heading down the corridor.

All the lights and walls were still going strong, flashing as the cheery, spacey music kept playing in the background. It was so off tone with the ugly feeling in his chest, Freddy’s parting words echoing in his ears, that he couldn’t help but scowl, gritting his teeth and tightening his grip on his Fazer Blaster.

He needed to get to her hideout — if there was anything he could find to stop her, it would be there. He probably needed to get his hands on that button thing she was using to control the Staff Bots. It would do no good to have them chasing him down the entire time.

Speaking of —

“Shit!” He scrambled back when a Staff Bot suddenly came around the corner, before shooting it in the eyes before it could even call the alarm. Biting the inside of his cheek, he looked around again, and kept going.

Seemed like Vanny was throwing everything she had at him, because he had to deal with three more Staff Bots as he made his way deeper into the maze. He turned corner after corner, ran as fast as his legs could take him, following the familiar path to Vanny’s hideout. He had seen it many times before, after all, and knew the way accordingly. Sure, this would be the first time he would go inside, but he could still find his way there.

He reached a junction in the maze, where one of the flags he would usually shoot in a normal game sat undefended, and tried to remember which way to go. After a moment, he figured it out, and was just about to rush down it when a sugary-sweet suddenly called out, echoing in the spacious room.

“Oh, Gregory~! Where aaaaare you?”

Oh, for the love of God.

“Piss off!” He shouted, turning in a circle at the junction with his blaster aimed in front of him, ready for whichever one Chica would come out of. The lights from the walls were making his head pound, so he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to clear it. “I’m not scared of you!”

There was the sound of clucking behind him, just barley noticeable over the peppy music, and he spun around and shot blindly. Chica was standing behind him, clucking and spasming as she always did when hit with a blast, and he immediately dashed down one of the other corridors. It was a different direction from where he needed to go, but he could loop back around. He had done this so many times, he could do it blind. With all the lights still beeping around him, he probably would be, by the end of this.

God, his head hurt so bad.

“Left. Left. Right, right, straight.” He mumbled to himself. It was better, to remind himself, especially with how his head was pounding. “Elevator. Vent. Room.”

“Hey, is someone over there?” Ah, shit. Roxanne. “Show yourself!”

He paused, and looked around, trying to spy where she came from. She must’ve heard him over the music; she always had the best hearing, after all. Luckily for him, she hadn’t actually spotted him yet, which gave him the chance to find her before she could find him. Just where was — ha, there she was. Gotcha.

He could just see her ears peaking up from above the wall, so he quickly took a running start and grabbed onto the top of it. Bracing his feet against the side, he pulled himself before Roxanne could even notice him, and shot at her. It took two shots to land on her eyes, but once it did, he jumped down and dashed away again. He was close, now. So close.

He turned the corner, nearly skidding into the wall, but rightening himself at the last moment and keep going. He was close, almost to the elevator, then he could get up and out of the main maze, sneak around to the vent system and into her hideout.

Except just as he reached the elevator doors, he heard them ding.

Oh, shit.

In a panic, he quickly jumped behind one of the nearby walls, slapping his hand not holding his blaster over his mouth to muffle the sound of his breathing. There was the slide of the elevator door opening, and the music seemed to grow quieter. Much quieter. So quiet, in fact, he could hear Vanny’s padded footsteps and modulated breathing as she slunk past, out of the elevator and through the corridors. She didn’t seem as … well, giggly, as she had before. Maybe because she wasn’t gloating, wasn’t putting on a mask. She was hunting. Hunting him down.

He pressed his hand harder, digging his nails into his cheek. She had already gotten Freddy. She wouldn’t get him, too.

After what seemed like a long few minutes, she moved on. Peaking through the cracks in between two panels, he could see her prowling away. In the light of all of Fazer Blast walls, her patchwork suit looked like a flashy rainbow, and even if she was facing away from him, he could only assumed her red gaze was just as menacing. Joke was on her, though. Gregory wouldn’t be intimidated by some stupid security lady in a furry suit.

Finally, Vanny left, and he waited a few extra moments to make sure she was fully gone before ducking away from the wall and hurrying up towards her hideout. He drummed his fingers on the hilt of his Fazer Blaster, bit the inside of his cheek again in the same spot. Drew blood. Swallowed it down.

He was going to stop her. He was going to stop her.

Luckily, he got into her hideout with no further difficulties, even if he had to crawl through the stupid vents again which he hated doing. Dusty and full of cobwebs, but it wasn’t that bad, when compared to Vanny’s hideout.

When he crawled out of the vent into her hideout, he stood up and took a moment to look around. There was no doubt it was hers, if the name spray painted on the wall was anything to go by. It was kinda ridiculous, honestly. If you’re trying to stay hidden, don’t advertise yourself so boldly. Though, he could admit it was a good little hiding space. The bed was on the floor, but it had a pillow and blanket, and there were empty wrappers of candy and food he recognized from the vending machine. And …

An arcade machine.

That was odd. How would she even get an arcade cabinet up here? What would she need it for? Entertainment? Could serial murderers get bored?

He frowned, stepping curiously closer to the game to inspect it further. The cabinet even looked familiar, too; there was a picture of golden figure on the side, a woman in a dress with a crown on her head and lantern in her hand. On the top, right above the screen flashing ‘Insert Coin to Play’, was the title.

Princess Quest III.

Huh. Hadn’t he seen that before somewhere?

“Oh, Gregory!” A high-pitched voice purred, causing him to freeze, just as he reached out towards the game to gently brush his hands against it. “I thought you would be up here!”

Gregory whipped around at the sound of a familiar voice, gasping. While he was distracted, Vanny had appeared in the previously-locked doorway, having must of come that way instead of through the vent. She was holding her knife, suit picture-perfect and lacking any rainbows, with a grin evident in her voice as she stepped deeper into the room. He stepped back, glaring at her. She had killed him, before. She had killed Freddy too.

A fire burned in his chest as he thought about it, his throat feeling like it was burning as well, and he resisted the urge to reach up and rub at it. “Hi Vanessa.”

She froze, and dropped all pretences. “That’s not my name.”

“Yeah, it is. I know who you are. I figured it out last time, don’t you remember?” He replied back, lifting his chin, the fire burning brighter now, hotter. He wasn’t afraid of her, no. He knew that whatever she did, he would just come back from it. And Freddy — Freddy was already gone. “And I am going to stop you.”

Vanny giggled, and drummed her fingers against the hilt of her knife. “Oh, are you, now?”

“Yeah.” He replied. “I dunno why you’re — you’re trying to kill me, or why you killed so many others. Because I know you have, me and Freddy both. But I’m going to stop you. We will. No matter how many tries it takes.”

Vanny giggled again, more high-pitched and deranged than last time, and lasting for longer, too. “Well, aren’t you a smarty-pants! Unfortunately for you, Gregory, Freddy’s already lost connection. But you know who hasn’t?”

She laughed again, so loud that he almost couldn’t hear the sound of a bunch of wheels on tiled floors. It took him a moment to realize it was from the Staff Bots, slowly coming closer and still obeying their last order. It reminded him, suddenly, of what he was supposed to be doing up here. He could see something flashing red in the corner of his eye, and blinked. The button. The button was here, when had it gotten here? The arcade must have distracted him.

“Too bad for them.” He mumbled. “It won’t stop us.”

Then he jumped for it.

Vanny seemed to realize what he wanted to do, because she screamed, but Gregory was closer and also smaller and quicker, if these loops had proven anything. He got to the button before her and scooped it up, hands shaking so much he could barley press down on the stupid plastic Freddy head that adorned it, even as Vanny roared in anger and he heard the wheels of the Staff Bots in the hallway, getting closer and closer. Though, even as he pushed the button, he had to pause.

What should he do? It — it commanded the Staff Bots, didn’t it? He needed to redirect them, at Vanny. But … what?

Stop — stop Vanny? Grab Vanny? What - what —

Disassemble. That was what she had done to Freddy, wasn’t it? It was only fair.

So, he pressed the button, and commanded, “Disassemble Vanny — or, disassemble Vanessa.”

At once, the Staff Bots who had just entered the room paused, their expressionless eyes staring unseeing as they computed the new order. Then, all at once, they slowly turned towards Vanny, who had also paused with her head swivelling between him and all the Staff Bots, now advancing towards her all at once.

“You damn brat!” She shouted, directed at Gregory, somehow managing to perfect a glare through her mask. “How dare you —“

She tried to lunge at him, but one of the Staff Bots reacted quicker and grabbed onto her shoulder, throwing her back against another Staff Bot who grabbed her around her chest, pinning her in place. She then finally seemed to realize what was happening, because she started chanting, “Wait, no, no no no, shit —“ as Gregory dropped the button and ran out of the room through the doorway she had unlocked.

He knew he probably should have kept the button with him, in case Vanny broke free and reversed the order, but when he saw more Staff Bots zip past him to enter the room, he didn’t think she was escaping any time soon.

As soon as he got out, however, Gregory had to pause to catch his breath. Leaning against the wall right next to the entrance to the room, he took a deep breath and pressed his hands against his chest, trying to stop his racing heart. Freddy was still out there, deep within the bowels of the maze, and Vanny was still right behind him, chanting of ‘no’ and ‘get back here!’ getting stronger as he waited and breathe.

Then, everything went oddly silent for a moment. He heard his own breathing, the Staff Bots wheels against the tiled floor, the rustling of cloth.

But then, Vanny started screaming.

It was bloodcurdling, piercing his ears so much he had to cover then, squeezing his eyes shut while trying to ignore it. It still broke through his barriers though, and he still had to listen. To the screams; of fear, of pain. It wasn’t — it wasn’t that bad, right? They were just - just disassembling her. It shouldn’t be too bad. It couldn’t be too bad.

That was what she had done to Freddy, wasn’t it?

But Freddy was an animatronic, with metal bits and plastic and wires that could be taken apart and put back together, so it would be different for a human, made of blood and bone —

Oh, god. Oh, god, no no no no no.

Jumping to his feet, Gregory immediately turned to go back into the room — he might hate her for killing him, for killing Freddy, for probably killing more before him, but he didn’t want — he didn’t want her to die. Not by his hand. She deserved to be locked away somewhere, and if they decided to kill her, that was on them. Not Gregory. He didn’t want to be the one to decide that.

But when he went to go back into the room, he stopped, and immediately turned around again.

Bile rose in his throat that he swallowed down, burning, much unlike how frozen and chilled his body felt right now. His hands were shaking as he pressed them against his mouth, eyes wide with horror but not seeing anything in front of him, as the brief moment he had seen of the scene kept replaying in his mind.

There was red. So much red, staining the costume, staining the walls and the bots, and something more pinkish, not red but close to it —

He swallowed again. He felt like throwing up.

The screaming kept going.

“STOP, STOP, PLEASE!” Her voice wasn’t giggly, not anymore. It sounded more like — like Vanessa’s, low and gravely, but now nothing more than a mangled mess of pain and blood. “I’M NOT HER! PLEASE, I’M NOT —“

But Gregory had already turned heel and ran.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry —“ He couldn’t stopping babbling, even as he ran from the room as fast as he could, feeling disgusted and horrified and like throwing up again. “I didn’t — I didn’t mean —“

He didn’t mean to. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t mean to he didn’t mean to he didn’t mean to —

It was all a blur getting down from the hideout, through the flashing lights of Fazer Blast. There were no Staff Bots around anymore, and he couldn’t hear any of the other animatronics either. Nothing seemed real; all the colours blurring together, sounds not reaching his ears. It wasn’t — it couldn’t be real, could it? He was losing his mind. Maybe he just hallucinated all of this. The time loop, the murderous animatronics, Freddy.

Freddy.

He was so nice, too nice. He had to be made up. Just something Gregory’s brain fabricated, just to torture him. Like this. Make him guilty, make him … make him hurt.

“G - Gregory?”

He stopped running, nearly skidding into one of the laser tag walls, at the gentle calling of his name. He looked around and backed up, trying to find the source, and noticed it was Freddy. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the animatronic was half hidden behind one of the walls. His bottom half was covered, but given the state of the rest of him — it wasn’t good.

No. No, it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be —

“G - Gregory, there y - y - you are! Are you ok - k - kay? What - t - t happened?”

This was real. It had to be, it had to be, it had to be —

But that meant — that meant he had just —

Killed someone. He just killed Vanny, he just killed her.

Oh, god. Oh, god, no no no no no —

“Gregory?”

He looked at Freddy again, mouth agape, as it registered. Dissembled. That was happened to him, he got dissembled, it would account for the lack of — well, everything. The plating on both his arms were gone, as was the bottom part of his muzzle, exposing his endoskeleton. One eye was gone, and the other completely lopsided, but it still somehow managed to focus on him when he stepped forward. Gregory gulped, gripping his wrist with one hand, and pressed his lips together.

Freddy was — was destroyed. Dying.

How was this happening again?

“Freddy.” He whisper, barley above a whisper, moving forward, before suddenly stumbling. He got a wave of nausea again, like all the contents of his empty stomach was trying to crawl it’s way up his insides, and he grabbed at his head as a headache pounded behind his eyes. “Freddy …?”

“Gregory —“ Freddy tried to reply, but his voice glitched, and Gregory fell to his knees at his side.

Blackness was encroaching on his vision, almost as if — almost as if the loop was resetting again, like it was when he died. When somebody else died, or something went wrong.

Except, he was fine. Freddy was — he wasn’t fine, but he wasn’t dead yet —

But somebody else, up above, back in the hideout stained red red red, undoubtedly was.

LOOP 30.

When Gregory woke up, he didn’t want to move.

He just wanted to stay curled up in Freddy’s stomach hatch forever, where all he could see were the comforting walls and blanketing darkness instead of the images of the Staff Bots tearing Vanny apart. But, he knew he couldn’t. He didn’t deserve it. Not after — not after what he did. He didn’t deserve to stay here. He deserved — he deserved to die, just like her —

Pushing his way out and stumbling to his feet, he wasn’t startled by Freddy reaching out to steady him like he always did when Gregory climbed out of his stomach hatch. However, he still felt like shrinking away, knowing that he didn’t deserve this either. The softness, the kindness. He didn’t deserve any of it.

“Gregory?” Freddy asked, softly. “Are you alright? You look quite shaken. Did something happen with Vanny?”

His voice became slightly crackled towards the end there. Gregory didn’t know if it was in anger or worry, but he knew either way, he didn’t deserve it. “Yeah. Kinda.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Freddy squeezed his shoulder gently. The bear seemed worry, but he shouldn’t be, even when Gregory swallowed thickly and avoided his gaze. Biting the inside of his cheek and grabbing his elbows to cross his arms, he continued to steadfastly ignore Freddy when he got to his knees and ducked his head so he could try and catch his eyes.

“Gregory, what is wrong?” He asked. “What happened? You are worrying me.”

He immediately snapped up to look at Freddy, then bowed his head again. Gregory might not deserve his worry or kindness, but Freddy didn’t deserve to be working himself into a frizzy because of him. He had to answer. He had to, he had to …

“It - it was an accident.” He stammered out, hating the way his voice sounded by unable to change it. “Please, I promise, I didn’t mean too —“

“Gregory, take a deep breath.” Freddy instructed, in his usual calm, steady way. “Just follow my movement, superstar. That’s it. There you go.”

It took a few minutes, but Gregory managed to mimic the fake movements Freddy was preforming in his chest. Much like he had before, so many loops ago. Though, even as his breathing calmed down, his head kept racing. Just replaying Vanny’s final moments, screaming and screaming and red, so much red. It seemed to be seeping into everything, behind his eyelids when he closed them, between his shaking hands.

However, Freddy noticed he still wasn’t entirely calm, because he opened his arms wide and said, “Gregory, do you wish for a hug?”

He did. He wanted to, desperately, curl up into his arms and forget everything that had just happened. But he couldn’t. He didn’t deserve it, not after what he did.

He was — he wasn’t like her. It had been accident, his own safety, but he still …

“I killed her.” He mumbled, monotone, unable to look Freddy in the eye. “I killed Vanny. Last loop.”

Freddy’s arms dropped his side, head tilted to the side. “What do you mean, superstar?”

“I mean I —“ What was there to misunderstand? That was a pretty straight-forward statement. “— I got to … to her hideout, and found the button. The one she was using to control the Staff Bots. But then she came in, and she had her knife, and I …”

He reached up to rub at his neck again, where she had inflicted the wound, loops ago. He had been killed in so many different ways, teeth at his head and claws in his chest, but that phantom feeling was the only one that hung around. Vanny did it out of her own free will, after all. Not controlled by anyone.

Just like Gregory had.

“I ordered them to disassemble her.” He said quietly, almost as if he hoped Freddy wouldn’t hear him. “I — I wasn’t thinking, it was just what she had ordered them to do to you and thought that, hey, you know, why not make it equal —“

He cut himself off when an odd sound, a mix between a sob and a whine, made its way up his throat to spill out. Freddy made a similarly pained sound, and suddenly scooped him up into his arms. He didn’t bother asking this time, but Gregory didn’t care, just settling back into the spot that was becoming as familiar as the inside of his stomach hatch was.

“She just kept — kept screaming.” He breathed out. “And I … I just ran.”

Freddy still didn’t say anything, but he wasn’t angry. He wasn’t throwing Gregory across the room, or yelling at him until his voicebox cracked. Though, Freddy probably wouldn’t do that. Still too peaceful. He would just … wait. Wait, hand him over to authorities, maybe. Or Vanny, if he was feeling cruel.

Gregory didn’t care. Freddy could do whatever, and he didn’t care.

That was what scared him most, maybe.

“She kept saying she wasn’t … ‘her’.” He mumbled, before wincing and shaking his head, still hearing her screams echoing in his ears. “I tried … I went back to reverse the order. But it was too late.”

Red. Red red red.

“Gregory.” Freddy finally said. More like rumbled, really, from deep within him. Gregory tried not to flinch back. He failed. “Gregory. It is okay.”

He frowned, feeling a bit of irrational anger. Nothing about this was okay. They were stuck in a time loop. Everyone was trying to kill him. He had just — he had just killed someone, too.

“How is it okay?” He asked, a lot less snappy than he would have liked, but not having the energy for it. “How is any of this okay?”

Freddy paused, thinking, then corrected, “Maybe this situation is not okay, but your actions … you are just trying to survive, Gregory. And let’s not forget Vanny has killed you before, alongside possibly countless others.” His grip around him tightened at these words, but loosened when Gregory let out a small wince. “You are simply doing what you need to do to survive. Both of us are.”

That was … that made sense, actually. It still didn’t make it okay, but …

Sniffling, Gregory pressed himself tighter against Freddy, and didn’t say anything. Flashes of Freddy’s broken, mangled body — warm by the fire, covered in claw marks from the Staff Bots — passed through his eyes, and he just shut them tight and willed them away. There was still red, so much of it, dancing through his brain, but …

He needed to survive. Vanny had killed him before.

Okay. I’m okay. He thought to himself, biting the inside of his cheek. Everything is okay.

It wasn’t. He was lying. But for now, it worked, and he managed to pull away from Freddy to peer up at the animatronic still holding him tight. Freddy looked down, just as curious, and tilted his head. Gregory couldn’t help but snort. Freddy was Freddy. He was alive, and so was Gregory, and now that the loop reset — so was Vanny.

Meaning she was still out there, and he had a second chance. He had as many chances as it would take.

“We should get going.” He told him, quietly. “We need to stop her.”

Freddy nodded, before slowly setting him down on his feet. However, he kept a steadying hand on his shoulder, and Gregory smiled. He still felt torn up inside — just like how Vanny had been, all stained red — but he knew that he needed to move. Needed to start over. Needed to try again.

She wouldn’t kill them again, either of them, Gregory would make sure of it. And Gregory — he wasn’t going to stoop to her level. Not again. Whatever happened, he would make sure of that.

( Don’t make promises you can’t keep. )

Chapter Text

LOOP 32.

They didn’t see Vanny for awhile afterwards.

Which, honestly, wasn’t that unusual — for all her taunting and skipping around, Gregory didn’t run into her all that often, even when she was ‘Vanessa’. Well, at least compared to the animatronics. Besides, he still didn’t if she remembered all the loops or not, since she never seemed to remember any of their earlier encounters. So, when he didn’t see her for a bit after their … stand-off, in her hideout, he wasn’t that worried.

What he was, however, was incredibly pissed off.

Mostly because they hadn’t seen Vanny for awhile, it had been two loops since she died (meaning Gregory had died, twice, once to Moon — hadn’t had them in awhile, yay! — and once to Roxanne) and they still hadn’t learned anything besides the fact she was working with a partner, the oh-so-important ‘Him’. Which even thinking about made him more pissed off — so now there were two weird child murderers running around after him? Just his luck!

Unfortunately for him even more, Freddy seemed to notice his moods as easy as reading off a menu, and had picked up on this.

“Gregory.” Freddy finally said after Gregory had just lead them in circles around the utility tunnels, trying to blow off some steam. “Gregory, I am sensing you are upset.”

He stopped in his marching, ending up in one of the smaller, side tunnels surrounded by crates, and bit back the urge to snap, yeah, no shit at Freddy. Maybe once, he would have, but now he knew Freddy honestly didn’t deserve to be the victim of his ire even if all he wanted to do was be angry with everything.

So, instead he said, “I’m just a little on edge, I’m fine.”

“Is that why you have lead us around the utility tunnels for twenty minutes after saying ‘trust me, I know where we’re going’?” His voice has a teasing lilt to it, and usually Gregory would have been offended and amused in equal regard, but now it was just annoying. Couldn’t he — couldn’t he see? Couldn’t he see that they had gotten nowhere?

“I’m just — aren’t you frustrated? Two loops since — since we last saw Vanny, and we’re nowhere near to figuring anything out!” He threw his hands up in the air, glaring at nothing. “In fact, I think we’re just more confused than before!”

“I — I am a bit perplexed, yes, but there is still hope yet, superstar. There always is.” Freddy replied, in his normally cheery tone.

Well, that was just a load of bull. He wasn’t going to say that, though, so instead he settled on a huff and saying, “I don’t know how you can believe that.”

Freddy started, stepping forward. “Gregory, it is okay —“

“Quit saying that!” He snapped, finally reaching his limit. “ Nothing about this is okay! We’re trapped in this stupid mall in a stupid time loop where I keep dying to some crazy security guard lady who dresses up in a bunny suit and there’s a second crazy murderer dude somewhere here too! I am seriously about to lose it! ARGH! ”

He kicked a nearby stack of bins, just to make it fall down, and didn’t even care about the noise he made. Instead he just paced back-and-forth, grumbling, with his fists clenched and his brain feeling like it was swirling around in his skull. It was like a flame had been lit in his chest, threatening to burn him whole, and all he wanted to do was — was — to scream, or kick something again, or just — do anything!

Freddy stayed frozen where he was, and Gregory could feel the weight of his gaze on him, but didn’t dare look over at him. After a moment, he let out a robotic sigh, and Gregory finally glanced over to see him watching him with his usual half-sad half-unreadable expression he could never figure out, even after all this time.

“Gregory, I know that none of this is okay. Even what you … went through, before removing the virus from me, was not okay.” Freddy said, and Gregory paused to watch him back. Freddy looked like he wanted to reach out and touch him, but instead kept his hands at his sides. Probably for the best. Gregory knew that if he touched anything right now it would be like his skin was exploding. “But, think about it this way. With every loop we go through, we get closer to getting out of here. To stopping Vanny.”

“Do we, though?” Gregory asked, scowling at the ground. “Half the time I just get killed a few hours in and we don’t even do anything.”

Freddy’s ears went down, like they always did whenever he was reminded of how many times Gregory had died — most of the time when he wasn’t even nearby, so he only knew about it when he passed out and woke up back in his greenroom. “That … may be true, but we still gain experience and insight that we did not have before. Such as now, we know undeniably that Vanny has a partner she is working with, and that they have a bigger plan besides just … capturing random children. Even if we do not know what that plan it, it still helps us.”

Gregory growled again, digging his nails into his palms. “Yeah, we know that, but it doesn’t really help us. If anything, it just makes things more difficult!”

Because if Vanny had one partner, and they had a ‘bigger plan’, who knows what that could entail. Maybe there were more people out there, a whole connected path of sick, twisted child kidnappers and murders. They didn’t know, but there could be, and it just made Gregory feel all the more hopeless. More angry.

“Gregory —“ Freddy started again, in the stupidly calm voice, and Gregory snarled.

“I’m allowed to be angry!” He yelled, hoping that explained enough about what we going on in his head, hoping that explained what he wanted. Then he added, softer, more nervous. “I’m allowed to be angry. I am.”

Freddy stared at him for a long moment, and Gregory had the tiniest worry that he had upset him — with his yelling, his feelings — and that he would leave him suddenly, because that’s just what people did. But instead, Freddy just shook his head and looked downwards, as his ears turned down. If he was human, Gregory was sure he would be trembling.

“I know that, superstar. I feel … much the same way, about this predicament we have found ourselves in.” Freddy said, voice quieter than Gregory had heard before. “But I am only trying to help you feel okay. That is all I want of you.”

Now it was his turn to stare at him, until Gregory eventually sighed, all his anger deflating in an instant. Trust Freddy to say something so disarming that he just couldn’t comprehend it.

Shuffling forward enough until he was close enough to lean his head against Freddy’s stomach, he did just that, letting the burning feeling in his chest sputter out into only sparks. He wanted to be angry, and he still was at the injustice of it all — but he was also tired. Just bone-weary tired, and wanting it all to stop.

Freddy, seeing how close he was again, gently placed a paw between his shoulder blades and began to slowly rub soothing circles against his spine. Gregory wondered, vaguely, where he had learned to do that, before deciding he didn’t care because it felt really nice and calming and he never wanted it to end. Against his forehead pressed against Freddy’s metal plating, he heard the animatronic hum, and the vibrations of it echoed through his body, almost calmingly.

“Do not worry, superstar.” Freddy said, softly, after a few moments of them standing there in silence. “We will figure something out, eventually. We have all the time we need.”

That — that was true, but still …

Gregory really, really hoped that something would come to him soon.

( There is something. Remember, remember, don’t you remember? )

LOOP 35.

It took a few more loops afterwards for Gregory to remember something.

He had mostly spent the time wandering and trying to figure out a game plan, or jog his memory, since they had kinda reached an impasse. Sure, they knew a but more than they did before — that being; Vanny was working with someone else and was probably the underling in the relationship, unless they were playing the long-con or something. Plus, she was undoubtedly Vanessa, even if she didn’t like to be referred to that name.

But still. Confronting her head-on hadn’t worked, trying to trap her didn’t either. Her dying didn’t break the loop either, her hideout hadn’t given them any information they hadn’t already known …

Wait.

“Freddy, I have an idea.” He leaned forward suddenly and latched onto the bear’s arm, from where he had been standing guard as Gregory sat on a counter in one of the kitchens, eating a bag of raw tortilla chips they stole from El Chip’s Buffet. “We need to get to … to …”

The thing he remembered in her hideout had been the third one, right? He had recognized it, remembered others — two more, in fact. One, he could recall, was in a back area of the arcade near one of the DJ tunnels (that one was easy, because it was right next to the generator he had to turn on and that had made the DJ chase after him, but it wasn’t like he went to the arcade much anymore). He was pretty sure that was the second one, though. He could remember being confused about where the first one was, since he hasn’t seen it in the rest of the arcade at all.

So where was the first one?

Monty’s Golf didn’t have it, he knew, because it was boring like that. Mazercise didn’t have any arcade machines, just like Fazer Blast. He would have noticed it amomg the hundreds of arcade cabinets scattered about, especially after seeing it in Vanny’s hideout.

However, thinking logically about it — the second one had been hidden away in the back of the arcade, and the third was tucked away in Vanny’s hideout. So the first one would also be hidden somewhere. Somewhere not accessible to the public, where nobody would just stumble across it accidentally.

He knew where it was.

(Well, hopefully.)

“The raceway.” He told Freddy firmly, nodding a bit to himself. “I have an idea on something we might be able to find.”

The animatronic blinked down at him, and said, “Alright, superstar. Are you finished eating?”

He shoved his hand into the chip bag and grabbed the last handful of chips and shoved them in his mouth, then nodded and went ‘mhm!’. Freddy lightly chided him for speaking with his mouth full, so he swallowed and wiped his hands on his shirt, before saying, “Now I am.”

Freddy shook his head fondly and pulled away from him, causing Gregory’s hand to fall awkwardly back to the counter where he gripped the edge tightly, but only so that Freddy could come and stand in front of him and open his chest hatch invitingly. “Well, then to the raceway we shall go.”

Gregory grinned up at him, and then climbed inside. When he was secure, they started moving, and he hoped that this was an actual lead and not just his dumb brain making connections where there weren’t any.

•

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They got to the raceway after about twenty minutes (having to pause momentarily for Freddy to charge, and Gregory just stayed hunkered down inside his stomach hatch — they learned their lesson about splitting up for charging sessions), and as soon as they stepped foot inside, Freddy was already opening his stomach so Gregory could crawl out.

He landed steadily on his feet, and grabbed his flashlight to shine around. The raceway was always a bit creepy to him, with the high-arched ceilings and caution tapes and fencing everywhere, which made it seem almost … abandoned. Compared to the rest of the ‘Plex — which didn’t seem abandoned, so much, as just empty — it gave off a very foreboding feeling.

Gregory snorted. Whatever. He had dealt with worse already.

“Now that we are here, superstar, would you mind explaining what we are looking for?” Freddy asked from behind him, voice seeming to echo in the large cavern-like room. If that had came from anyone besides Freddy, it probably would have sounded rude, but somehow Freddy managed to sound the upmost sincere when he asked. “I am quite confused about why we needed to come here …”

“Well, uh … when I was in Vanny’s hideout a bit ago, I saw this arcade machine.” Gregory replied, already moving deeper into the attraction. “It was called Princess Quest III. It was, like, the only thing in the room other than her mattress so … I mean, it’s gotta be important, right? And I remembered seeing another one of the same game, the first one, I think, in the back of the salon here. Which is also kinda weird, right? So, there has to be something going on with it.”

Freddy seemed to think it over, before he nodded. “I do not see why an arcade machine would be back here, but that is a good idea — and even if it proves futile, it is good to investigate all leads!”

Freddy punctuated that statement by reaching over to ruffle his hair, and Gregory huffed but let him mess with it. At this point, it was better to just accept it, and it wasn’t like Gregory minded it too much, anyways. It wasn’t that bad. But he couldn’t let Freddy know that, though, so he just snorted again and said, “Let’s — let’s just trying to find it first, yeah?”

Freddy seemed to be smiling when he said, “Of course, superstar.”

Luckily for them, it didn’t take long to find the actual machine, because there weren’t many places for it to be — there were a few tiny supply closets that they just had to poke their heads into check, that wouldn’t have been big enough to fit an entire arcade machine anyways, and then the salon. There was nothing in the main area, but when Gregory slipped inside the back area of the building, he saw the machine sitting right in the corner, surrounded by boxes of hair supplies and temporary dye.

He grinned to himself. The game looked pretty well maintained for being stuck in supply closet. There was a picture of a princess-looking character clad in yellow and holding a lantern printed on the side, and the name Princess Quest proudly displayed on top. On the screen, the words Insert Coin was flashing in white.

“Hey, Freddy?” He poked his head out of the room, and Freddy immediately stomped over from where he was investigating a stylist chair to follow him inside the back room, and Gregory grinned at him before padding over to the arcade machine. “It’s back over here! I was right!”

“Yes, I see that. That is … odd.” Freddy hummed, and followed him closer, taking much smaller steps due to the cramped room. “There is … no reason for this machine to be back here. All working games should be in a place accessible to customers, and any broken ones should be near the loading dock to be sent for repairs or scrapped. Perhaps this one got mixed up with some … other sort of material.”

“Or someone moved it here on purpose.” Gregory replied back. That made the most sense, to him. This one was back here, away from customers, one was in the tunnels of the west arcade, and one was up in Vanny’s hideout. Almost like someone was hiding them all away. “Maybe they wanted to hide it.”

“That is a possibility, but I do not see why …” Freddy trailed off suddenly, gaze suddenly snapping to behind him, and Gregory turned around to see what had caught his attention, before freezing himself.

Instead of Insert Coin, the game had suddenly flashed to a new screen. The title screen, Princess Quest (Working Title) with a yellow bar and the instruction Press the Button to Begin.

Gregory frowned. He hadn’t entered a coin yet — he didn’t even have a coin, he didn’t think. It shouldn’t be doing that.

Okay, well, something was obviously going on with this thing. Now he had to play.

“That is … odd.” Freddy said, stating the obvious. “It shouldn’t be doing that.”

“Yeah, duh.” Gregory replied. “I’m still gonna play it.”

Freddy hummed, and took a step closer to him. Gregory could almost feel the warmth radiating off him form his internal processors. “Are you sure that is a good idea, superstar? I … do not have the best feeling about this.”

“It’s just an arcade machine.” He replied, rolling his eyes. Sure, the game randomly starting up without him putting any coins in was a bit freaky, but not as much as anything else going on in this place. At least now he didn’t have to go scourging for coins. “I’ll be fine.”

Freddy hummed again, thoughtfully. “If you say so …”

However, Gregory was already moving closer to the machine, and he got into position right in front of it. He hadn’t played many arcade games before — or video games in general — but the controls looked simple. Joystick to move, middle button to jump, others to attack. He could figure it out.

Freddy followed him closely, and came to stand right behind his shoulder, so close he could feel him brushing up against his back. When he glanced over at him, Freddy’s gaze was focused intensely on the console screen, ignorant to Gregory’s staring. So, he huffed instead.

“Are you going to hover over my shoulder the entire time?” He asked. He tried not to sound too unkind, but it did come out harsher than he wanted. “Sorry, that was rude. But you’re kinda close.”

“Apologies, superstar.” Freddy immediately shuffled back a few steps, but still kept hovering, leaning his entire top half of his body forward to see. “I will try my best not to … hover.”

Gregory glanced between Freddy and him, seeing he had only moved back a few inches, then looked back up at Freddy. Yeah, as if. He was worse than Gregory’s old teachers who prowled the classroom during tests to make sure nobody was cheating. Look, Gregory … care for Freddy well enough, but he wouldn’t be able to focus with him looking over his shoulder the entire time. Probably also making comments while he did so. He couldn’t stand that.

Freddy seemed to realize this as well, because his ears twitched, and he said — sounding somewhat exasperated with his own self, “Would you like me to wait elsewhere while you play?”

“Uh … how ‘bout you go guard the door?” He suggested. It would make him feel a bit better if there was somebody watching his back, and give Freddy something to occupy himself with. “I don’t want anybody coming in while I’m playing.”

“Ah, yes. Good idea.” Freddy said. He finally backed up a bit more, glancing back at the game. “You know how to call me if you need anything, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Like if you see any of the other animatronics, or Vanny?”

“You’ll be guarding the door, you’ll see them first.”

“Still. Or if you get stuck at a level in the game?”

“I won’t, but okay.”

“Or if you get sucked into it, somehow?”

Okay, now he was just messing with him.

Gregory gave him his best disgruntled glare, and Freddy chuckled, before telling him, “Best of luck!” and heading out the door. When he was finally gone, Gregory rolled his eyes, but smiled softly to himself. He did feel … a bit less nervous, now, with Freddy’s teasing lifting his spirits. It made everything seem a lot less daunting.

However, when he turned back to the game, he took a deep breath and focused. Whatever was hiding in this game, whatever he found — he hoped it was something. And maybe it would just be bullshit, a regular old arcade game locked away because it was broken or got mistaken with something else, and he was just seeing things that weren’t there … but at least he could say he tried.

Taking one last deep breath, Gregory pressed the start button, and the game came to life.

After the screen glitched a few times, the actual game finally booted up, and he found himself in the middle of what looked to be an ominous castle. There was a little sprite character — the Princess, he guessed — glowing bright yellow against the dark backdrop of the game. She had a lantern, held high above her head, which illuminated the darkness around her. A light in the dark.

“This is … interesting.” He muttered to himself, as he moved around the room. There were a few chests he could open, getting more hearts for himself, but almost all the doors were locked. Except for one. “Oh, I can go through here.”

He went through the one door that was unlocked for him, and found himself in another castle-like room, this time filled with large, gaping holes and four fires; two lit, two unlit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what to do then, so he lit the two unlit ones, and kept going.

The rest of the game progressed in a very similar fashion, of him lighting lanterns, opening chests, avoiding weird holes and having to deal with the screen occasionally dissolving into purple glitches that made it impossible to do it anything for a few seconds before it cleared. However, there was also the added bonus of having to avoid weird floating heads and shambling, inky zombie-like things that … almost looked like bunnies, in a way. Go figure.

Without the ability to fight back, however, it got boring very quickly. He was mostly just wandering and trying to find keys to unlock new rooms and progress on. However, there was the weird purple door that looked like to be the main goal. It put him on edge a bit, though. Made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He didn’t like it.

He couldn’t help but be reminded of the virus that he removed in Freddy’s system, the one that glitched ominously purple like a bad video game filter.

Why did Vanny have this game in her hideout, again?

He got through the graveyard puzzle — if you could even call it that, lighting up the six graves in a certain order, it wasn’t that difficult — and got the key in the purple chest. A bridge opened over a canyon, he walked across it, before pausing in front of the purple door. He frowned, biting the inside of his cheek, before shaking his head. This was obviously the end of the game, yeah? He should get Freddy in here. He’d enjoy seeing how it ended.

“Freddy!” He called out, hoping the animatronic was still outside the door, before banishing the thought away. Of course Freddy would be out there, he wouldn’t have left him. “Freddy, I’ve almost done it! Wanna come see the ending?”

Immediately, almost like he had been listening in — and he probably had been, knowing him — Freddy opened the door and poked his head in, “What was that, superstar?”

Gregory rolled his eyes. “I’m almost done. Want to come see how it ends?”

“Of course! I was curious about how you were doing, after all.” Freddy said, stepping into the room and gently closing the door behind him. “How is the game? Are you having fun?”

He sounded like a concerned parent checking in on a kids play date, and Gregory resisted the urge to roll his eyes again. He was just being curious. It was … okay. Not actually that bad. He didn’t mind. “A bit, yeah. I mean … it’s kinda boring, since I can’t fight anything, but as long as they don’t run into any enemies it’s okay.”

“Well, sometimes the more … peaceful route is the better one.” Freddy told him. “It forces you to come up with more options besides the most direct one, and allows for less casualties on both sides. When thinking about it like that, it makes much more sense.”

Gregory thought about that. Then huffed. “I just want to hit things.”

Freddy sighed, but settled in his earlier position behind his shoulder, and he sounded fond when he said, “Well, let’s just hope you don’t run into any enemies, then.”

Gregory huffed again, but was smiling too when he turned back to the game.

He directed the Princess through the doors, and into the next section. It was a lot darker than the earlier bits, with no fires to light and only one way to go. It made him feel a bit irrationally frightful, almost as if he was playing a horror game and not some cheesy 8-bit arcade machine, but as he went even farther without anything to do — no lights, no chests, no doors — he found his hands getting more and more clammy, and feeling just a little bit more uneasy.

“This is an awfully long corridor — oh! There is a lantern!” Freddy exclaimed, pointing to the screen. Gregory has finally gotten to the end of the hallway, and to a small square-shaped room with a singular lantern on the far wall. Kinda creepy, if he was being honest, but Freddy’s enthusiasm made it seem less scary. “Are you supposed to light it?”

“Yeah, that was what I did for all the other ones.” Gregory explained. “See? Watch.”

He moved the Princess further, right next to the cinders, and lit it. Except, it didn’t go as it had before — that is, the area lighting up and Gregory moving on to the next room. No, this fire revealed something much more ominous. Something he didn’t like at all.

There was a monster in the darkness.

Just out of reach of the lantern’s light, lurking out of sight, was a large … blob, thing. That was the only way he could describe it. It was dark and big and creepy, with burning white eyes and what looked like to be mouths scattered in the mass of it. The most defining features he noticed, however, was the two distinctive bunny ears towards the top of it, and a glowing purple grin that seemed to be laughing.

However, Gregory ended up stumbling back and away from the game when the machine suddenly began shaking, and a box appeared at the bottom with unreadable purple text. The entire screen was glitching, as was the text, purple and flickering like a cheesy movie filter. Just like the virus, lurking out of sight in animatronic’s coding. Behind him, Freddy put a paw on his chest and pulled him closer, so he was tight up against his front, and moved back as well. He breath was caught in his throat. This wasn’t normal. This definitely wasn’t normal, not for a game hidden away from prying eyes. This was … it was something else.

Tendrils had appeared, blocking off the exits and slowly reaching towards the Princess. Her lantern did nothing, no light able to ward off the evil, and the entire thing seemed to be laughing at them. There was more shaking, a boom, the screen froze, and then —

Then, the game crashed, leaving him and Freddy staring at their reflections in the dark screen without any understanding of what just happened.

“What the hell was that?” He finally asked, still leaning heavily against Freddy with his paw on his chest, holding him close. “I don’t think that’s how the game’s supposed to end.”

It spoke volumes about how freaked out Freddy was that he didn’t scold him for the language, because all he said was, “I do not believe so, no.”

Because it wasn’t like he had just missed something, or gotten the bad ending — no, the game had crashed. If it was over, if he had just died, it would be — it would be asking him if he would like to play again, or telling him to insert another coin to continue. This wasn’t normal.

All the purple glitches. The bad movie filter.

“The virus.” Gregory breathed out. “The virus is in the arcade machines.”

“Pardon me?” Freddy still hadn’t moved his paw, but his grip did loosen as he leaned over slightly to see Gregory’s face. “What are you talking about, superstar?”

“The virus!” Gregory finally moved away from him, and Freddy let him go, so he spun around instead to grab onto one of Freddy’s fingers instead and pull him closer to the machine. “The virus, that I removed form your system? That Vanny uploaded into all of you guys? It was — it was like the game. It was all … purple and glitchy, like a weird movie filter. It wasn’t normal.”

Freddy nodded as Gregory let go of his hand and started pacing, staring at the arcade machine with a tilted head and downturned ears. “Ah, well … I do suppose that is possible, but I do not believe that arcade machines are usually susceptible to viruses. Especially if they were originally designed for programming such as mine.”

“Well, this isn’t a normal virus.” Gregory quit pacing, staring back at Freddy. “Normal viruses don’t glitch like — like it did in the game or in your coding. There’s something else going on here.”

But what?

There wasn’t — it had to be something weird, something uncanny. Maybe it was connected to the time loop, or maybe all the rumours about ghost stories and haunted robots from all those old locations were true. Or maybe Gregory was just losing his mind, and questioning everything he knew.

Or maybe he was right. Maybe he wasn’t.

But, one problem at a time. Rumours and ghost stories — save that shit for later. One problem at a time.

“But why an arcade machine? That’s my question.” Gregory puffed out a breath, feeling dejected again. So the virus was in the arcade machines, so what? Why these specific ones? Why were they hidden away? Had Vanny or her partner done them? What was going on? “It makes no sense.”

Freddy hummed, thoughtful, and Gregory waited patiently for him to figure out whatever he was thinking about. “Well, perhaps Vanny and her partner installed the virus in the machines as a … fail-safe.”

“A fail-safe?” He parroted.

“Yes.” Freddy nodded, before noticing Gregory’s confused expression and elaborating. “Perhaps she installed it in these arcade machines as well as myself and the animatronics here. That way, if it was removed from us or deleted at it’s source, she would always have a backup copy.”

Gregory thought about that, then shook his head. “Still, an arcade machine ? Why not, like … a flash drive or something? To carry it around?”

“I do not know. It was just an idea.” Freddy shrugged, and Gregory sighed again.

Even with this new lead, it mostly just made things way more confusing. Stupid viruses in stupid arcade machines for stupid reasons he didn’t know. More questions and no answers, just like it always was in this damn place, and they were no closer to stopping Vanny. To breaking the time loop. To getting out. It made the familiar burning feeling in his chest return, but he kept it contained for now. Especially when he recalled what Freddy said.

They were still stuck in a time loop, right? That meant they had as much time as they wanted to figure it out. Investigate all leads, all endings. They had a thousand chances at this, and every chance they got, they learned more and more. That was Freddy had said.

He just hope they wouldn’t need them all.

“Well.” Gregory put his hands on his hips, biting the inside of his cheek as he thought about it then looked up at Freddy, who was similarly watching him puzzle it out. “That only leaves us with option.”

Freddy seemed amused, like he already knew what Gregory was going to say, but he still playfully asked, “And what is that, superstar?”

Gregory grinned at him. He was feeling lighter now; like how he had been when they were making their plans against Vanny, or when Freddy had first remembered all the  loops. He had a bit of hope, again, that maybe they were on the right track. That they were one step closer to figuring this all out.

“We’ve gotta go find those other games.”

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.”