Foxy opened his eyes to see the all too familiar void; silence and darkness surrounded him as he sat up looking around. "Why am I here," he thought as he sat in silence, until he felt something wrap around his foot. He looked down seeing a tendril coming from the hole that led to the flooded abyss.
"Shit, shit, shit," He shouted as he switched to his blade and tried to slice it in vain.
He fell into the abyss once again, feeling the water surround him as he was pulled down by the tendril. He struggled a bit seeing nothing around him except a faint light from below. He looked up seeing that he wasn't anywhere near the top anymore and he didn't want to look out into the abyss, anything could be out there and it would do him better to not know of a giant monster. He accepted his fate as he went deeper into the depths, the once faint light now shining brightly at him. He dropped out of the water and fell about 10 feet onto the ground in a hallway, coughing up water as he got to his hands and knees. The red vulpine grunted as he stood, using a small table for balance as he looked around the area he was confined in. It was a hallway made out of what seemed like cobblestone with marble floors. Candles lit up the dim room with various items like tables lining the walls. Swords were hung up as art with suits of armor as well.
"Did I drop into the fucking 1300s," He mumbled to himself beginning to walk down the hall towards an open room.
The fortress gave off an eerie feeling to Foxy as he experienced in the pizzeria earlier, as he strolled down the deathly quiet corridor. He exited the hall to an open room that seemed like a dining room for a king. Stained glass was paned on the far end of the room. It stretched from one side of the large room to the other spanning probably fifty feet in width, the ceiling was tall; almost unbelievable in height. The red vulpine felt like a dwarf in the room and considering he was 6'4" that astounded him. He looked at the stained glass art, it showed what seemed like a king and queen with two children.
"They're all dead," A voice yelled from above him causing him to look up behind him.
Walkways were bordering the walls going up about three floors to where he saw a man on the second staring at him. He was in plated armor, a blackened mist seemingly leaked from the under the helmet and slivers in the armor that allowed him to remove the armor and move in it. A dark cloth covered his face as he stood above Foxy.
"And who are you," Foxy asked surprised he wasn't the only person there.
Tendrils went over the stone railing and pulled the man over onto the ground safely and he walked towards Foxy.
"Lord Synn, once a great leader of the kingdom here. I held holy crusades against the chaos and destruction brought by 'it'…" The man said with pride as Foxy looked at him.
"I'm-" He went to say before he was cut off.
"I know who you are, Jason. You're nothing more than a man's soul in a metal body, something familiar between the two of us," Synn said as he raised the cloth showing nothing but a blackened shadow of a figure under the helmet, Foxy jumped back a foot or two in shock seeing the man. "You killed my children, the last family I had left. All to save your family. I respect that… However, I am sorry to say that I will be forced to kill you. Hopefully, you can take solace in the fact I will make it quick."
He heard the sound of armor clanking from behind him causing him to turn around and see four men with the same dark mist leaking from the holes in the suits as they stood, wielding longswords. He turned around seeing the man retreat up to the walkway using his tendrils, and then looked to the wall seeing a shortsword mounted on display. He yanked it from its mount and spun around, wielding it in his left hand as he switched to the blade with his right. He stood straight, ready to fight with them as they simply stared at attention. He saw the shadow of an arm flying down from above him and they held their swords out ready to fight. They moved slowly at him in unison, perfectly in pace with each other seeming like a single entity. One of them swung at him as he blocked it with his blade and hacked at their arm with the shortsword, gashing the armor as he shoved the knight back with his shoulder. He rolled to the side as another swung down at him and he stood up seeing them continuing to walk towards him. He ran at the one to the far right and dived into him sending him to the ground as he stabbed with the shortsword into his shoulder piercing both the armor and body inside it as he stabbed into his chest with the blade. He pulled the blades out and the knight pushed him off, Foxy got to his feet quickly as he saw the mist leak out of the hole he made with his blade and the gash in his armor on his right shoulder. They closed in on him and he blocked one sword with his blade and another with his shortsword, a third knight stepped in front of him and began walking towards him. He swept the knight's feet to his right and stabbed the one to his left with his blade making him stop pushing down on his shortsword and allowed him to hack at his side with the sword leaving the knight wounded. He narrowly parried the third knight's attack and he stabbed at his stomach piercing through the plate that was between his blade and his lower torso and leaving the knight heavily injured. He kicked him back and then hacked down at the one he swept in the chest leaving a giant gash from the knight's right shoulder to just below the left side of his chest. He stepped back from the knights that were on the ground as the fourth finally walked up, it was the one he originally hacked in the arm with the dark mist leaking out the small crack. The knight walked beside his fallen comrades and embedded the blade of his sword into the tiled floor before he kneeled just in front of them lowering his head against the hilt of the sword. He mumbled something under his breath as the mist from the fallen knights leaked out and flew into the open orifices in the last knight's armor. He threw the shortsword to the floor as he grabbed a more hefty blade from another mount on the wall, it was a longsword like the knights, except it featured more detail along the blade with patterns engraved on the hilt. He switched to his hand as he gripped onto the blade holding it in front of him.
"So, round 2, eh," He chuckled as he turned around to see the mist leaking out in greater quantities out of the armor, the knight remaining silent as he stared at the red vulpine.
After a few seconds the mist wrapped around the knight's body producing an even thicker armor, the mist lined itself along the sharpened blade of the sword, producing possibly one of the sharpest blades ever. The knight stepped toward him and sliced at him, Foxy blocked his attack with his longsword and pulled it back up swinging at the knight's side, the knight effectively blocking him also. The man kicked the red vulpine back and then slashed down at his face, nicking the side of his face cutting the band that held the eye patch on his face, soon dropping to the floor. The crimson eye shimmered onto the ground in his sight, the tiles cracked and worn through his left eye. He looked up at the knight with it and soon sliced at his side, the man blocking it once again but this time Foxy punched him in the face with his right hand knocking the knight back and leaving the faceplate of the helmet dented. The knight spun around using the force of his punch as momentum as he sliced the fox across the chest making him grunt.
"That's it," He heard the hell-fox say in his head as the vision in his left eye grew red entirely, his left eye glowing even brighter than before turning into a neon-like color.
He turned around and threw the sword to the side as the knight swung at him again, Foxy instinctively ducked below it and grabbed the hilt yanking the sword out the knight's hand with his right hand and went to punch him again with his left. The knight managed to grab his left fist and he changed his hand to a blade and swung forward with it in a stabbing motion tricking the knight into grabbing it also, the blade stabbing through his hand. He did something causing the blade to shoot out of his wrist lodging itself in the knight's left eye through the plate making the knight falter stepping back a bit. Foxy pulled his left hand back and punched through the man's armor and chest. Something surged through him in a split second showing him memories of men in armor rushing a monster covered in the mist like the knight was. It slaughtered them, ripping them to pieces with giblets being thrown onto the men as they ran up. The monster itself looked humanoid but was larger than any man he had seen. It wielded a large axe, filleting the men as they closed in, at times it would grab one and crush him. He shot back to reality seeing the knight had pulled the blade out and lifted the visor staring at Foxy. His face was covered in blood and scruff, a scar was visible through it also.
"S-save them from their suffering," The man struggled to say as he held Foxy's shirt. "Save them from the chaos of destruction."
He looked down seeing a blackened blood leak from his chest. He realized that none of them were animatronics as he thought, they were people. Their blood seemed corrupted or something like it. As he thought about it, maybe the others could shapeshift, maybe he was too fueled by anger to realize he was ripping their ribs and skulls apart. Suddenly, he felt saddened. Not by the fact they were people, but by the fact he robbed the man of any family he had left. He became what he hated for his own family. His reddened eye was no longer shining as brightly as it was before, he dropped the man to the floor. He looked around seeing the men, they were forced against their will to fight him. He felt the man speak with him once again.
"Lord Synn was a noble man, he tried to purge the darkness that subsided around us. During that battle you saw, we all became corrupted, none of us survived unscathed from its brutality. His wife was already corrupted and he never realized until it was too late. Nothing can save him from the torment other than death, he fought with everything he had to stop the darkness from spreading. Even though he is cursing you in reality, he'll be smiling as you sink your blade through his heart," The knight said to him.
He looked down at the knight's body seeing that it wasn't moving when it was speaking, he had no idea how the man told him that, though, he felt comfort as he heard his words. He looked up at the man who had walked off, he looked around wanting to know where he left before he suddenly woke up to the sound of Kimber crying in Vixey's arms as they laid there, the arctic fox sitting up.
"Shh," She cooed to the child trying to calm her down.
"Is everything alright," He asked looking up to her.
"Yeah, she just woke up," She replied.
"Want me to hold her for a bit," He asked sitting up beside her.
"Sure," She said as she carefully handed her over to him.
He held her close to him loosely and leaned back letting her lay on his chest as he petted her small back, following the red stripe. After a while he managed to get her to stop crying as he rubbed his fingers along her back, smiling at her in the process.
"She was always a daddy's girl," Vixey giggled as she laid down and rolled over facing Foxy.
"I'm not so sure about that," He chuckled as he turned his head over towards her.
"Really," She asked sounding shocked.
"Yes, 'really.' Especially considering all those times she'd run up to you first," He told her with a slight chuckle.
"Fair enough," Vixey sighed as she wrapped around his arm and laid her head on his shoulder.
He continued looking at her as she laid there with her eyes closed, nestled up against his shoulder as he laid silent. He turned over to the clock seeing that it was three AM. The fox sighed as he turned his head toward the roof staring off in thought as he held the small kit in his arms. "I wonder if the Marionette knows anything about that guy or those men" he thought as he laid there silent. He began thinking about how he shot the blade from his wrist out of nowhere making him curious.
"Vixey, would you mind if I laid her here with you for a second. I need to use the bathroom," He told her as he unraveled her arms from his and sat up laying the kit in his spot.
He walked out the bedroom silently, entering the cove seeing that it was still relatively dim in the room. He walked to the corner of the room and picked up one of the boxes carrying it into the main room setting it onto one of the tables beside the stage as he walked into the middle of the room. He switched to the blade and aimed it at the box and tried several things to get it to shoot the blade.
"Come on you rugged piece of-" He started to say before the light blue rabbit walked out the backstage area in only his pants, he jumped a bit and the blade shot itself into the back wall of the stage lodging itself.
"Holy shit," Toy Bonnie shouted as the red vulpine looked at him.
"What the hell are you doing," He said, "I thought you were asleep."
"I'm going to take a piss," He replied, Foxy once again cursing whoever made them so damn real, "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Uhm, I'm practicing," He admitted as he stood there with his arm still held out.
"Where's your hook," He asked as he leaned out the backroom and looked over to the side seeing the blade poking out the wall. "Damn. Where did you learn to do that?"
"I had a dream where I thought about it," The fox told him as he lowered his arm and looked into the hole that was left.
In the hole there was a relatively thick sheet of foil that was pierced by something, it was like a CO2 cartridge. He pressed down on the little tab and the cylinder that was originally attached to the blade dropped out his wrist to the floor.
"I guess it's a one-use thing," He said to himself as he picked it up and examined it, there was a piece of plastic that could be pulled off attached to the side which most likely gave access to the cartridge for him to replace it. A notch ran down the side which marked the way to insert it, there was a small gap in it which showed a singular piece that looked like it would pierce the sheet. "Now, to figure out how I did that."
He began trying different things as the rabbit walked past him heading towards the hallway, he soon found out that when he tried to move one of his fingers it would lift the little piece in the cylinder by the use of a small lever. He reached into his pocket for another blade and inserted it into his wrist soon aiming at the box once again. This time he shot the blade on his command hitting it on the corner of the box knocking it over.
"Nice," He said to himself as he walked over to grab it out and recover the one lodged in the wall.
He yanked the blade out the box and attached it back onto the handle, soon climbing on the stage and walking towards the wall. He grabbed it by the base and pushed it up trying to pry it out the wall as he heard the door open once again.
"Your boyfriend went to the bathroom," He said as he yanked the knife out the wall and turned over to see the black coyote. "Oh, you're up?"
She didn't respond and simply stared at him as he pulled the handle out his pocket and reattached the blade. He looked up seeing her still staring at him.
"Can you speak," He asked her which she nodded no too as he dropped the knife into his pocket. "Is there something wrong that makes it where you can't speak?" She nodded her head yes as she brought her hand up to her throat and pointed towards the box. "Your throat is in the box? What," He asked a bit shocked, prompting her to nod no to him once again.
She pointed at her throat and seemingly tried to speak as her mouth moved but nothing was heard.
"I still don't understand what you're getting at," He replied as she threw her hands up seemingly upset as she looked down at the red marker.
The coyote picked up the red marker and walked over to the box throwing it face up as she wrote on it for a minute. He stood patiently as she did, fiddling around with the knife. She handed the box to him and gave him a second to read it.
"I don't have a voice box," He said aloud as he lowered the box looking at her as she sighed. "That explains a lot… I'm guessing that Toy Bonnie yelling woke you up."
She nodded yes to him as she looked around, he walked off the stage letting her wander as she didn't seem to be a threat to anyone. He pulled the dispensed blade out and pulled the blade back off as he set the box up once again. The vulpine walked to the middle of the room again and turned around switching to his hand and readying himself to throw the blade into the box, he swung his right arm down letting go the of the blade, it flew across the room lodging itself into the box.
"That shockingly worked, I'd have expected it to not throw good," He exclaimed with a chuckle as he walked back up to the stage and yanked it out.
He turned around and repeated it several times as he tried to tire himself out. He threw the blade once again and walked up, yanking the blade out of the torn box once again. He turned to see the woman looking at him as she sat on a table.
"You want to learn to throw a knife or something," He asked with a chuckle as he walked to the center of the room once again.
She nodded her head no as she stood up and walked towards him. She grabbed his wrist and held it up with her left and bringing her right arm up as well. She switched her wrist to a blade shocking him. She held his arm out, posing it like he did when he shot the blade.
"Do you want me to teach you how to shoot it," He asked feeling taken a bit off guard by her suddenly pulling out a blade, she nodded her head yes to him. "Do you have any spare blades? I'm saving the few I have for a bad day," He chuckled as she pulled some out from her belt which he didn't notice. "I guess you do…"
He pulled the blade out his wrist and put it into his pocket as he grabbed some from her and loaded a new one.
"Okay, hold your arm out like I am," He said as he aimed at the box with his wrist letting her take a second to assume the position. "Try to ball up your fist as you would usually and squeeze tightly," He told her as he chuckled to himself realizing that she was possibly just trying to kill him, and he was now teaching her how to become even more lethal.
He shot his blade at the box hitting it into the bottom left side of the center of the box, she shot hers into it also, hitting the far right side of the box.
"Considering that you've probably never shot one, not that I can say much about that, you did pretty well," He chuckled as he patted her on the shoulder.
He walked up to the stage and yanked the blades out the box and handed her the blade she shot as he dropped the handle into his left hand and placed the blade back into the handle and reloaded a new knife, placing the spent on in his pocket. He walked back to the center of the room with her following him.
"Go ahead and go again," He said as he leaned against the table and looked over at the box.
After a few seconds she shot hitting the box again; going a bit up this time, but making it close horizontally. He let her keep going for a bit as she kept getting closer to the center.
"Good job," He said slowly clapping as he noticed Toy Bonnie walking back from the bathroom. "Damn, did you fall in?"
"Harr, harr… Wait, when did she wake up," He asked visibly confused as he stood there.
"You woke her up with your girly ass scream," Foxy chuckled as he leaned forward and walked over to the box.
"Go fuck yourself, Foxy," Toy Bonnie replied in a joking manner causing the red vulpine to laugh as he grabbed the box and began walking back.
"Here, take this," He said handing the box to the coyote as he walked towards the blue rabbit. "I'm sure you get enough," He laughed patting the rabbit's shoulder as he looked at the fox shocked.
"How do you know what I'm doing," Toy Bonnie asked.
"Toy Chica told me she's been sleeping in your room with you. There's no way you two aren't up to anything," He replied.
"Speak for yourself," The blue rabbit responded.
"Fair," Foxy said as he turned around seeing the coyote reattaching the blades. "Well, I'll leave you two here. I'm tired… Uh, you," He said pointing to the woman. "I'll ask Goldy if he can fix up your issue there," The red vulpine replied as he grabbed at his throat with his left hand jokingly as he walked towards the cove backwards, "He's good at stuff like that." He walked into the doorway as he turned around again. "Also, throw that box back into the corner over here when you finish. It's supposed to be thrown out soon."
She raised a thumbs-up to him as he walked into the cove seeing the familiar room. Something about the cove grew on him as he lived there, it was calming. Grant it he hasn't been there long, he's gotten good memories out of it. He walked over to the door and opened it seeing Vixey holding the kit on her chest as they slept. He smiled at the sight and walked in, closing the door behind him, and moved to the side of the bed laying down on his side facing her. He grabbed her upper arm and squeezed it lightly feeling a gel-like pad in her arm squish under his grasp. She opened her eyes facing him as he did.
"Why are you squeezing my arm," She asked him quietly as he looked up seeing her partially awake.
"I'm just doing random stuff," He replied as he looked at her.
She sighed before speaking again, "You were always the tinker-ish type." She closed her eyes as he continued looking at her.
He pulled himself up to her and kissed her for a few seconds before he laid he head down beside hers again and closed his eyes. "Hopefully, I'm not having any more dreams tonight" he thought as he went back to sleep.