Chapter 2
Victoria was a bit unsettled by the new animatronics. Fredbear's Family Diner, where she had gone as a kid, looked almost identical to this place. She missed the old animatronics especially; they had been her favorite part of going to Fredbear's. She wondered if they were even still around, or if they were in the dumpster, too broken for usage. The new animatronics apparently had facial recognition or something, looked much too gleeful, and they scared her, especially after what had happened to Jeremy.
When Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie finished their first song, Victoria walked over to where Jeremy stood in front of the stage. She waved him over with a hand, and grumbling, he reluctantly left his post to talk to her.
"Victoria, I don't want to be curt with you, but the next song starts in five minutes! And I've got to make sure they-" Jeremy gestured to Bonnie, Chica, Freddy, and Mangle. "don't hurt anyone!"
"I'll be quick, Jeremy." He rolled his eyes, but continued to listen. "So, do you know where the old animatronics are? The ones from the last restaurant? Are they still here?" She twirled her hair expectantly.
Jeremy froze. "I-I don't th-think I saw them anywhere," he mumbled. "They're probably at the dump."
Seriously, his poker face needs some serious work, Victoria thought.
"I don't want to be a bitch, but it's blatantly obvious you're hiding something," she stated. "What is it, Jeremy? You can tell me, you know."
Jeremy took a second to think before he frowned and said, "Alright, whatever. They tried to kill me too. Them, these new animatronics, the kid with the balloons in the Game Area, and that fucking golden bear. There was some music box in the Prize Corner, too, but I don't know what its use was."
"The old, broken down animatronics tried to kill you, too?" Victoria exclaimed, immediately losing all trust for her old friends from her childhood. "I thought it was just those four after you!"
"There were 10 of them," Jeremy sighed. "10 animatronics I needed to fend off."
"This is outrageous, Jeremy," Victoria said. "Why on Earth won't you tell the manager what happened? Those things are cursed, I bet!"
"They wouldn't believe me," Jeremy said stubbonly. "I'd probably be put in a padded cell if I told them."
"You make a good point," Victoria said. "But we can't just sit around!"
"You won't stop until you get your wish, won't you?" Jeremy asked. Victoria shook her head defiantly. "I've got another offer, though. How about we go down to Parts/Services and I'll show you the old animatronics?"
"I'm not sure," Victoria muttered. She wanted to see them again after so long, but she was terrified of their apparent hostility towards humans. "What if they try to kill me? They clearly don't have a problem with murdering people."
"Can you stop being so negative, Victoria?" Jeremy twisted his wisp of chin hair mournfully. "I understand you're scared, but they're inactive right now."
Victoria pondered this. Jeremy was right, the old animatronics were inactive and couldn't hurt her, at least right now.
"Wait, don't you have that show soon?" Victoria remembered. Jeremy looked surprised, as if he had forgotten.
"Oh, yeah. I can just bring you there and come back to the stage."
"Sounds like a plan." Victoria stared off into space, until she thought of something. "Am I even allowed back there?" she asked.
"You're not, but I am," Jeremy said. "We just need to be sneaky, come on."
Jeremy led Victoria the left exit of the Show Stage room, where the main hall was. Restrooms lined the left of the hall, and kids' drawings plastered the walls wherever Victoria looked. At the end of the hall, there was a simple metal door with a sign that read, "Parts/Services".
"It's unlocked, Victoria," Jeremy explained. "The show starts in about a minute, so I need to go. Don't be afraid!"
With that, Jeremy walked away, whistling a tune. Victoria watched him go, and stared back at the door in fright. Did she really want to venture in there? Into a room alone with four bloodthirsty robotic animals, too far away to get help if she needed it. Victoria mustered up a bit of courage and shaking, she twisted the knob ever so slowly.
The Parts/Services room was dusty as a desert. As soon as Victoria entered, a huge cloud of dust and grime billowed up in her face, and the stench of rats filled her nostrils. The place looked as different as could be from the rest of the pizzeria, which was all cleaned and bright and vibrant. Parts/Services was dark, vile, and laden with cobwebs.
The four animatronics lay on the floor haphazardly, their limbs twisted at odd angles and their mouths agape. They all had rips and tears lining their robotic bodies, exposing their endoskeletons. Every animatronic was in a state of severe disrepair, and she was astonished by how they had even managed to get up to attack Jeremy.
Chica, who had always been her favorite, had her arms outstretched, various rips along her legs and arms, and had her beak extended far with a second set of teeth showing. Freddy looked by far the most preserved, having much fewer holes in his body. Each hole had copious wires sticking out, and each individual tear was much larger than any of Chica's. Foxy had more endoskeleton showing than he did actual robotic body, and his hook was slightly unscrewed and covered in oil. He looked the worst in Victoria's opinion. Bonnie had his face completely ripped off, and his left arm was missing, with wires hanging out.
"Yeesh," Victoria muttered. "They look pretty bad." She almost felt sympathetic for them, even though they were robots, and killer robots at that. Victoria was turning to leave, when suddenly, metal clanked loudly behind her. She turned around warily, and fell on the ground in shock.
"What the hell?" Victoria exclaimed.
Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica all were standing up, staring directly at Victoria. Blue, yellow, red, and purple irises bore into her, sending her back to the door.
"I'll just leave," Victoria mumbled. She put a hand on the knob, and turned it slightly before a gruff, male voice stopped her.
"Don't leave."
Victoria slowly removed her hand from the knob and stared up at the decommissioned animatronics. "Don't leave," Freddy commanded.
"Are you going to... kill... me?" Victoria asked. She was trembling uncontrollably, and she was dead scared that the animatronics would reply yes.
"Not unless you try to hurt us," Chica said, her extra wide mouth struggling to make the words come out.
"Who hurt you before?" Victoria queried. The animatronics exchanged glances, and then Foxy spoke.
"It be one of yer kind, lassie," Foxy answered. "Those workers, thar grubby little mitts pulled us apart, they did, and replaced us."
"I'm so sorry," Victoria said, her heart beginning to soften a bit. The four didn't seem so intimidating anymore; they almost seemed human. Their suffering touched her, and she longed to help them.
"Mmmph," Bonnie tried to say. His lack of a mouth apparently prevented him from speaking.
"Looks like Bonnie needs his face back," Victoria stated. "Do you guys know where it is?"
"I think it's somewhere in here," Freddy said. "I know they used some of the parts for Toy Bonnie, but I'm certain most of it is still in here."
"Do you think we should find-" Victoria's offer was cut short by footsteps outside the door, and Foxy, Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie got down in the same positions they had assumed before, when she had first come in. Victoria dived behind a shelf of different tools and spare parts to conceal herself.
In the silence, Victoria's mind drifted to what had happened only seconds before. Why didn't the animatronics attack her when she came in? Although Chica said that if she didn't hurt the robots, they wouldn't hurt her, Victoria still had her doubts. Why, then, did they advance on Jeremy's office when he had no means to defend himself? It perplexed Victoria, and left her with a burning question she would ask Jeremy when she left the room.
The knob of Parts/Services turning and the door opening jolted Victoria back into silence, and she crouched down, hoping she wouldn't be caught in an unauthorized room. The person luckily only opened the door, peeked around, and left, allowing her to get back up.
Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy all stood up as well.
"I don't think we need to find Bonnie's face right now," Chica said. "We have something more important to tell you, Victoria."
Victoria gasped. "You... remember me? From my childhood? B-back at Fredbear's?"
"How could we not, lass?" Foxy said. "Yar were so enthusiastic about us!" He laughed heartily for a few seconds.
"Anyways, just remember, Victoria," Chica said. "If you help us, then we will help you."
"I think it's best you go now," Freddy said. "Good bye, Victoria."
Victoria smiled at the animatronics. "Bye." She left the animatronics and stepped out into the main hall, feeling rather dazed. Absentmindedly, Victoria wandered back to the stage, where Toy Freddy, Toy Bonnie, and Toy Chica stood, immobile until the next song.
"Victoria!" Jeremy practically plowed her over, and as Victoria regained her bearings, Jeremy sheepishly apologized.
"Jeremy, what is it?"
"You were taking so long, I thought you actually did get killed by the animatronics!" Jeremy exclaimed. "I came into to check on you, but you weren't there."
"That was you?" Victoria asked. "I hid because I thought it was some other guard."
"That was me," Jeremy confirmed. "But what took you so long?"
"This'll be hard to believe, but I kinda sorta talked to them."
"Really? What'd they say?" Jeremy asked excitedly.
"They told me that if I didn't hurt them, they wouldn't hurt me," Victoria intoned. She remembered her question from earlier, and asked, "Did they ever start to trust you, during your shift?"
Jeremy scratched his head in thought, before he replied with, "They did seem to tone it down a bit on the 6th night."
"Alright," Victoria said. "That's good to know."
The loud sound of children running interrupted Victoria and Jeremy's conversation, and they looked on to see Phoebe and various other children, all around 7 or 8 years old, charging towards Kids' Cove.
"Look! Foxy's all put together!" exclaimed a little boy.
All the boys in the crowd of kids were roughhousing with Mangle, breaking him apart again.
"Hey!" Phoebe screamed at them. "It's my birthday, and I WANNA SEE FOXY!" She fought her way through the group of kids towards the fox animatronic.
"Jeremy, you should be over there!" Victoria chided. "Those kids are going to hurt each other!"
"Fine, mom," Jeremy replied sarcastically. He dashed towards the horde of children, pulling all of the boys off of Mangle and Phoebe.
Jeremy returned to Victoria once they were all off, pretending to brush dirt off of his hands. "My work here is done," he said, smirking.
Still interested in the havoc at Kids' Cove, Victoria watched and saw the little girls and a couple of the gentler boys putting Mangle back together. Phoebe had his pink head in her arms, and she moved his jaw up and down to make him talk.
"You're the greatest!" she made Mangle say.
"Why thank you, FoxyOOWWWWWWWWWW!" Mangle's jaw had clamped down on Phoebe's frontal lobe, and a waterfall of blood cascaded down from the top of the little girl's head. She screamed and wailed, trying in vain to pry Mangle's head off of her.
Jeremy and Victoria rushed over and removed Mangle's head from Phoebe, who fell to ground limply. Two employees carted off the little girl, and the manager walked up to the two.
"Leave, please," he said, panting and worried. "We need to sort this out, okay?"
Victoria and Jeremy left Freddy Fazbear's in a hurry, and sat down together on a bench outside.
"That was... unexpected," Jeremy mumbled.
"How the hell did that happen?" Victoria asked. "Mangle wasn't even on."
"I have no clue, Victoria," Jeremy replied. He looked tired. "I think I'm gonna go back home. I have... duties to fulfill."
"See ya, Jeremy," Victoria said.
She got up and started to head back to her house, all the while thinking. How had the Mangle bitten Phoebe? What exactly did Jeremy have to attend to? And why were the animatronics suddenly so trustworthy of her? Victoria kicked a pebble on the sidewalk in the blind frustration of unknowingness, and trudged the rest of the way home pondering the day.