Author's Notes:
So we just want to address something that's cropped up recently. We don't really feel comfortable with the recent shipping of Hedy and Ruby and we're asking you all to please stop commenting on it. Ruby is 16. She's a minor. Hedy is 21 and an adult. At the same time, we've set them up as being like siblings. Please stop commenting your support for a pairing between a minor and an adult as it's made us very uncomfortable when reading those reviews. I know Corona Pax has already addressed a couple in personal messages but I just wanted to say something here.
Other than that, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 126
Talk to Them
"Did you seriously just shoot me in the back," Hedy growled several hours later, mashing her buttons without taking her eyes off the screen.
"Payback for throwing my guy off the building," Ruby retorted. "Ooh! Rocket launcher!"
"Hey!" Hedy said as she hurried to get her character out of the way. The car beside her exploded and she glared as she lost health. She and Ruby were tied currently and both were at low health.
It was Hedy's strategy against Ruby's ruthlessness and they went back and forth with each round.
Both their characters were currently circling around an abandoned building, trying to shoot the other through the windows.
Hedy knew Ruby wasn't patient enough to keep chasing her so she had a grenade ready to toss inside the second Ruby took the bait. Meanwhile, Ruby was waiting for Hedy to slip up, just once and she could charge her before the mechanic had time to react.
"Ah. There you two are," Foxy's voice startled both of them.
Ruby jolted, so caught up in her focus. Her thumb slipped and jerked her character forward, accidentally stepping into the room. She saw Hedy and tried to shoot but had forgotten to reload.
In her distraction, Hedy thought Ruby was coming around the outside of the building and ducked inside to avoid the spray of bullets when she heard Ruby's gun cock. A moment later she realized Ruby was in the room too and threw the grenade on instinct.
They froze as they realized their mistakes, and the grenade detonated, taking both of them out.
Both girls stared at the screen for a second.
"Aw come on!" Ruby whined and fell backwards on the couch, throwing a mild glare at Foxy who just looked amused. Timmy was snickering at them. "I almost had her!"
"I'm not sure if I should be concerned about this." Foxy snickered at Ruby's put out expression.
"How's your face?" Hedy asked. Foxy looked flat out freaky without his bottom jaw. It was scary seeing just the top of his face and his endo.
"Hurts. Not too bad. Just a bit sore," Foxy said honestly with a grumble, glancing away as he rubbed his bottom endo jaw a bit. It did more harm than good lying to Hedy about something she needed to fix.
"Well it's killing me," Hedy joked, cracking a smile. "Is everyone else awake too?"
"How annoyed would you be if I made a 'jaw dropped' joke?" Ruby asked, causing Foxy to shoot a glare at her. She just smiled impishly back. He was pretty relieved to hear her sounding so much like herself again though. She looked like death warmed over and a week stressing over her had him glad to hear her questionable sense of humour again.
"The Toys were just starting to wake up when I left. Everyone else was already up," he told Hedy.
"Aw. My sleepy babies," Hedy cooed with a slightly hysterical snicker. She set her controller down and pulled her chair over. "Now that everyone's up, I should get your face reattached. What about the day shift?"
Ruby stood up and carefully stretched, feeling those phantom pains again. She squashed the urge to flinch though so she didn't worry Foxy.
"Puppet kicked them out when the place was clean apparently. You should start with Bonnie." Foxy said stubbornly despite the fact that he and Bonnie were equally damaged. Benji got just as cruel as Felix did this time around, but the motivation wasn't as clear.
Hedy gave him a warning look as she passed him out the door. "Yeah, but you look freakier," she said with an edge of sarcasm. She sighed when she caught sight of his stubborn expression, "Fine, but I am getting to you tonight, Foxy. Even if I have to take a break from Bonnie. I barely just got you standing yesterday."
Where Ruby would slip into big sister mode, Hedy was more an exasperated mom. Or maybe just a very personal, no-nonsense doctor with a lacking bedside manner who cared so much for your well-being damn it!
(Hedy would not admit to comparing herself to a mom to anyone.)
She scoffed and kept talking. "Had a weird dream about your mouth jumping around by itself and yelling 'Arrr!' on repeat. It was upside down and had googly eyes."
Ruby fell over she was laughing so hard and Foxy stared at Hedy with a mix of exasperation and disbelief.
"What the heck goes on in your head mechanic?" he wondered out loud.
"I don't know. I really don't," Hedy said, equally exasperated. "All I know was the visual was so insanely weird it actually scared me. I want that mouth fixed. Ruby, come on, it's not that funny."
Ruby just kept rolling around on the floor, clutching her stomach.
"Arrr!" was her only response before she dissolved into giggles again.
Even Timmy was laughing softly.
"You're impossible," Hedy said, rolling her eyes. "Since you think that's so funny, I had another dream where everyone switched bodies because I switched the hard drives around, for some reason. Puppet and Balloon Boy were switched. That's the only one I remember. Oh, that and Foxy and Mangle, but that wasn't as weird. That dream was a little too real."
"Mangle's a girl!" Foxy snapped, looking pretty disturbed at the idea.
Funny enough, Ruby also looked disturbed. "That's so wrong..." she muttered.
Hedy chuckled. "You were upset. Mangle thought it was funny. And you think that's weirder than Puppet's body streaking across a room screaming 'Batteries' at the top of his voice box? Or BB glaring like he wants to strangle everyone?"
"If BB glared I might have a heart attack." Ruby deadpanned, still very pissed about what Michael did to the small bot. "And the Clown would get a Betty to the face because that's a traumatising scene you just described." she shuddered before falling into a thoughtful silence. That didn't happen often so Foxy watched her warily in case she was plotting something.
"He broke his music box didn't he?" she asked, surprising them. "He was out of his box when I arrived and I don't see Michael letting that happen. He's the type to keep the music box wound to irritate Puppet."
Hedy paused, her amusement dampened. "Mari broke it himself. Or he tried to. Teddy told me he slammed Betty into it several times the first night when Mike was here alone, but it wouldn't stop playing even when broken. It sounded horrible. I would have gone insane listening to that all night. I had to silence it just so he could get out. " She was quiet for a moment. "He didn't say, of course, but I think he's...hurt."
Timmy looked horrified at the news but he didn't say anything.
Foxy looked away from them. He also knew why it was important to Puppet but...he just couldn't bring himself to talk about him, which is where that would lead if they ever tried to bring up Charlotte.
They stood in silence for a moment before Ruby sighed. They couldn't read the expression on her face. "Get me the thing and I'll fix it. You'll have your hands full with all the others and it's not like he'll give it to me if I ask."
"Lass?" Foxy stared at her in surprise and she shifted awkwardly.
"I've fixed them before. Built one for a kid who had night terrors too."
Hedy made a soft noise and nodded, not outwardly questioning why Ruby would do that for Puppet. Not yet anyway. "...Ok. Sure. I'll ask him for it. You can use my tools if you need them."
Ruby nodded, glad she hadn't asked her why. Foxy didn't either but that's because he knew Ruby. She might not get along with Puppet but she'd respect the fact that he helped them. He made the right decision while the kids made the wrong one.
He flinched slightly. He really didn't want to be those kids when Ruby finally lost it with them...
They got back to the main room and the first thing Hedy noticed was that Mangle was still sitting down and didn't get up to greet her like she usually would. Hopefully, the fox was just still tired and hadn't actually been faking how much pain she was in from the previous night. If so, it was catching up with her and Hedy had a few choice words regarding her fox's stubbornness.
She knew Teddy had also lied to Ruby about not being damaged, but it was minor compared to the Originals. All the Toys had agreed the Originals needed to be fixed first before Hedy handled any little pain they were in.
Hedy had wanted to argue, but she couldn't despite how it made her feel. Seeing Chi hiding a limp was an awful feeling. Unfortunately, they were right. Part of her was proud they made that entirely selfless decision.
And she knew Ruby knew. She was too good at spotting when the Originals were damaged and she picked up on lies too easily to have been fooled. She didn't call them out on it though, and there might have been a grateful glint in her eyes when she looked at the Toys.
BB immediately ran up and clung to the teen's leg. He'd missed Ruby almost as much as the Originals did. Despite their rocky start the little bot adored the night guard. Ruby patted his head gently, automatically adjusting to the weight on her leg. It was too familiar to throw her off now. Her eyes scanned the Originals first to check that nothing new was going wrong before running them over the Toys. Everyone was roughed up but no one was worse after their extended nap.
The bots were just so relieved to see the teen back at the pizzeria, even if she still looked like death warmed over.
It was pretty late into the night but since they were closed Hedy could stay to work through the morning.
Hedy and Bonnie caught each other's eyes as she came in, and Bonnie's ear (the less broken one) drooped a bit in apprehension.
She shot him a reassuring but apologetical look.
Bonnie suddenly managed a grin that startled her a bit. "What's up Doc?"
Hedy immediately glared at him. "NO! Stop! It's only been a week. Mike's jokes can't corrupt you already." Personally, she found Mike's ill-timed sense of humor funny-when they weren't about to die. She hoped he was finally getting some sleep, poor guy.
Jeremy was probably passed out on her couch at home still.
Ruby was briefly startled. And then she started laughing, holding onto her still sore sides.
"First Foxy's jaw hopping around on it's own and now this? When did the humour in this place get so weird?" she snickered, looking at Hedy with a mildly evil look in her eyes. When did Hedy start being able to gauge the amount of evil the teen was considering? "I'm bringing Looney Toons tomorrow."
"Don't you dare," Hedy warned. She grunted. "Blame Mike. That guy took self-deprecating jokes and deflecting problems with humor to another level. I'm convinced he told so many puns just to be distracting."
"You know how many times he actually said 'un-bear-able'?" Freddy grumbled. "I don't care. Once was too many."
"I almost wanted to strangle him," Teddy muttered, stifling a wince.
Chica snickered and Mangle laughed followed by a stifled groan while Toby just rolled his eyes.
"Now that really would be unbearable." A voice suddenly piped up and everyone looked over to see Mike poking his head through the door with an expression that seemed a strange mix of mildly nervous and extremely pleased with himself.
"NO." Ruby snapped before turning to face Mike with an intense gaze. They still hadn't actually had much time to talk with everything that had happened so she didn't really know anything about him.
As for Mike, a teen should not be able to be so intimidating with just a stare.
Still unsure about Ruby, he looked to Hedy worriedly. "Am I like...not allowed back or something?"
Hedy rolled her eyes. "Get in here. It's like... four. Didn't think you would show up. You're the head electrician, remember?"
Mike shrugged hesitantly, eyeing Ruby as he came in. "I know, just checking. And I overslept"
He shrugged again, this time sheepishly and apologetic. At least he looked better, clearly having taken a shower and changed into clean clothes, not to mention combed his hair.
"I don't bite," Ruby suddenly spoke up before grinning wickedly. "Well, not recently anyway."
Foxy snorted. "Lass, when you met Freddy you bit him," he deadpanned, making the Toys do a double-take. They couldn't have heard that right.
"I was three. I was testing out my teeth," she defended herself.
"You bit kids you didn't like up to when you were nine," Bonnie pointed out.
"You bit the guy who tried to help you when you broke your arm," Chica added.
"And you also told us you bit practically every adult that mentioned adopting you," Foxy finished.
"Fine. I haven't bitten anyone in a couple months. Happy?" Ruby crossed her arms and pouted.
"For the record," Mike cleared his throat as he stepped a bit behind Hedy. "None of that is comforting. At all."
Hedy smirked at Mike, weirded out by Ruby but no longer really surprised by anything. "How's your shoulder?"
"I'm fine."
"You should be in a sling," Hedy retorted.
"It really wasn't that bad," Mike said, shrugging again, this time in a ridiculously dramatic manner to show his shoulder didn't hurt. That kind of backfired on him as he immediately sucked in a wince. "Ow," he muttered, holding his arm.
"I see," Hedy said sarcastically but there was a surprisingly worried look in her eye. If he was Jeremy she might have even poked him for being dumb.
"What happened to your shoulder?" Ruby asked, sauntering over to stand by the Original's stage with BB still clinging to her leg. He didn't look like he was letting go any time soon but who could blame him?
Poor bot had been more traumatised than the others.
The Originals relaxed ever so slightly, an unconscious reaction, as Ruby patted undamaged arms or legs in greeting.
"I kinda...got thrown against a wall..." Mike said like it was no big deal, almost shrugging again but he stopped with a grimace. He didn't look at any bot so as not to give away which of the ghosts did it. The ghosts all did something to him that week anyway; he just didn't want the bots feeling guilty.
Ruby just nodded, not pushing. She'd dealt with the Originals' guilt over hurting her during Night six so she knew not to dig into it.
"You better not have messed up my office or I'm shoving you into a toilet," she deadpanned, startling some laughs out of some of the bots.
It was good to hear her threats again.
Mike suddenly looked panicked and glanced at Hedy in alarm.
Hedy chuckled. "Sorry, Ruby. We kind of flooded the office with the rest of your glitter glue. Caught Felix and Cheryl for three hours though if that makes you feel better."
"Oh, that's where that was from," Chica deadpanned, glancing at a place where the fluff of her suit stuck up like it was hair-gelled, bits of glitter still found stuck all over her.
Ruby seemed to think for a moment. "Eh for a good cause," she decided and shrugged. "You owe me glitter glue though. I was going to use that on the manager."
She got that 'daydreaming about a prank' look for a moment before shaking her head.
"Why do I get covered in more glitter when you're involved?" Foxy asked Hedy, annoyed. "Rarely happens with Ruby."
"Favouritism," the other Originals muttered in good humour. Foxy didn't deny it. Neither did Ruby.
Hedy shook her head and rolled her eyes. "If Felix was dumb enough to fall for it twice, I don't discriminate. Bonnie, lay down on the stage, please. You're first since Foxy was a big baby about his face. Or lack thereof."
"Sorry..." Mike mumbled.
Foxy blinked at him, distracted from arguing Hedy's playful insult. "The roof of my mouth is dented. You did this?"
"Felix tried to bite down on Betty...sort of. I think he forgot the bottom was missing," Mike said with a wince.
"Your face didn't like it," Hedy added.
"Is Betty okay?!" Ruby demanded, making the others roll their eyes.
Strangely enough, the bat had been bitten, thrown and taken all manner of abuse. When they checked it now though it still looked the same as always, the only scratches ones that Ruby caused or had always been there.
They watched Ruby coo over the bat for a few minutes, happy for the weirdness but still, Ruby was REALLY weird sometimes.
"Is she okay?" Freddy asked Hedy while Ruby was distracted. "With the coma and all...has she recovered?"
They all looked at Hedy in worry, knowing that Ruby wouldn't give them a straight answer. They still didn't really understand how a coma worked either, biologically.
"No. Not yet. Not really," Hedy said. "She told me what happened. Some very bad things. I told her she really needs to talk to you about it but she's worried you'll think differently of her." She didn't really lower her voice. Maybe it was cruel to call Ruby out so bluntly like that, but she'd take Ruby being mad at her for a bit to give her a push. "People don't fall into comas normally. There was nothing about this that was normal."
Mike shifted, confused, and sensing he was about to be intruding on something.
Ruby stiffened up when she heard Hedy and the glare she shot the older girl made Mike squeak and briefly fear for his life even though the look wasn't directed at him. Hedy was too used to those looks to be affected much, even if they did give her chills on occasion.
Toby automatically reacted to the glare by stepping behind Teddy. Habit apparently.
"Hedy..." the teen growled while the Originals exchanged confused glances.
"Lass, what's she mean?" Foxy decided to ask. Ruby's glance towards him was quick before she looked away. Her jaw clenched and none of the bots could read her expression. Hedy recognised the mix of guilt, shame and anger from the talk earlier though.
Mike swallowed. He shouldn't be there. This sounded personal, and Ruby just met him.
"Hedy...could I talk to you...outside?" he asked, unsure if he was excusing himself properly.
Hedy glanced at him, surprised she didn't need to ask him to leave.
She glanced at Ruby, willing to stay if Ruby wanted her to. She figured Mike wouldn't mind being excused by himself if they wanted.
Ruby met Hedy's questioning gaze with a glare. Okay, still mad then. Probably safer to leave for the moment.
The Originals were all looking concerned, staring at Ruby. They were also confused by Hedy's statement. Why would they ever think differently of her?
Hedy and Mike left quickly, leaving a tense silence.
Toby's ears were back a bit in worry as Hedy didn't give them a prompt on what to do.
Mangle fidgeted but didn't feel like getting up if she absolutely didn't have to, unsure if they were supposed to hear what Ruby needed to tell them or leave as well. She looked to Teddy but he didn't know either so she was staying put unless someone told her to leave. It hurt too much to move otherwise.
Ruby let out an explosive sigh when she saw the worried expressions on the Originals' faces. BB was also looking up at her with big puppy dog eyes. Not fair...
She pulled herself up on the stage, BB holding onto her foot now, and rubbed her face while she tried to think of what to say. Stupid mechanic, couldn't keep quiet... The Originals stayed silent, knowing Ruby well enough that she needed to work through whatever it was in her head first before she'd explain.
"I'm stubborn," she randomly blurted out.
Everyone gave her a variation of the 'no kidding' look but no one said anything.
"That backfired," she turned her gaze to the ceiling as she thought over her words. There was no getting out of this now. And besides...she really didn't want a repeat of this week... "I've been...denying something to myself for a while. The weird spooky supernatural-ness of this place gave it, well, gave it form I guess?"
They didn't say anything, not even Puppet, who sat outside his slightly ratty and damp box on a chair nearest to Spring, one leg crossed over the other in an uncannily human way as he listened with an unreadable expression.
Spring looked worried, unsure where this was coming from or where it was going. Why did Hedy have to leave...Her absence was making him more nervous.
Teddy slowly sat down and Bonnie sat up to listen, swinging his legs around until he was properly sitting next to Ruby on stage, looking down at her with rapt attention.
"What do you mean?" he asked, gently nudging her elbow.
The silence dragged for a moment before she spoke again.
"Nightmare."
They'd never heard her say one word with such a mix of emotions. Anger, irritation...fear? Her tone implied more than a simple bad dream.
"He was a right bastard," she seemed to be trying to glare a hole into the roof now.
Everyone was confused.
What...who on earth was she talking about?
Goldy blinked as Timmy suddenly appeared next to Ruby, startling BB. He didn't say anything, though he looked at Goldy with a weak smile. He just sat quietly, watching Ruby out of the corner of his eye as he shyly stared at the floor.
The Originals and Toys stared at the kid for a moment. They still didn't know what to think about him being there.
Puppet looked a little bothered but didn't say anything and no one else asked, not wanting Ruby to change the subject to the boy.
Ruby sighed again, this time looking tired as she closed her eyes and kept her head tilted back.
"I was still afraid." The words left a bitter taste in her mouth. "I'm good at pretending I'm not, even to myself. But I was still afraid of...of you all."
The words hung heavy over the room.
"Those fears...turned into Nightmare. Think black, male Goldy. Just with more teeth. Waaaaay more teeth. Sharper too." She absently touched her left shoulder, remembering one of the times she got to find out exactly HOW sharp those teeth were.
Goldy looked a bit stunned and furrowed her brow in concern.
Mangle shifted guiltily as she turned Ruby's admission over in her head. This was an exact fear of hers. By the look on some of the other's faces, she bet she wasn't alone.
The teen kept her eyes closed. If she saw even a hint of a guilty expression she knew she'd stop.
Then Hedy wouldn't leave her alone...
"He couldn't do anything in the real world. Don't think you'd even be able to see him. All up here." She tapped the side of her head, an uncharacteristically serious frown on her face. "That's all he needed. He could...I don't know, create a dream world. That's why I was in a coma, I was stuck in that, playing his game. Only problem was he decided to turn me into a kid." She gave a bitter laugh. "I forgot how afraid you were as a kid..."
She took a deep breath before she continued. "He turned my childhood bedroom into the office basically. Keep everyone out." Now her tone turned self deprecating. "Couldn't even make myself leave the room...How ironic is that?"
"Not ironic. Just different," Freddy said calmly like Ruby was telling him what she did at school that day. "So there were dream versions of us?" he clarified.
Another long moment of silence.
"Nightmare versions." Her tone was carefully flat this time. "Not everyone, but most of you."
Another pause.
"Strangely enough Foxy was in the closet this time instead of Bonnie," she mused.
Mangle couldn't help the weak snort that escaped.
"Who?" Freddy asked, still like they were talking about something mundane.
Ruby bit her lip but decided that it was better that they know. Else they'd probably obsess over it for a while.
"All the Originals," she started, "Kept to the same pattern too that you described. Bonnie down the left, Chica down the right. Even a freaky cupcake that made me worry about my sugar rushes... Foxy in the closet–still makes a cute plush. Little mini...Freddles having seizures on the bed behind me. Couldn't leave them too long or big Freddy came out. Why the hell were you the 'bed monster' though?" She was rambling by now, trying not to think too closely about those memories.
Everyone just listened.
"Golden Fredbear, definitely not Goldy, had his own night. Damn teleporting..." Deep breath, eyes still closed. She didn't want to see their expressions. She couldn't handle it. "Mangle...a few too many limbs there…"
Mangle tilted her head.
"I think he tried to make BB scary but that didn't work. I just kept having the urge to fix his mouth o-or feed him batteries. Nightmare probably got over confident with his ability to scarify stuff. Only showed up once, most likely cause I still called him a bowling ball. Plushtrap...a plush sized Springtrap..." She paused. "Actually kinda cute. I probably need therapy of some kind. The Clown..." Silence for a long moment. "Damn scariest thing I've seen in my life." A shuddering breath this time and she tightened her grip on the edge of the stage.
Puppet would have frowned if he could. Ruby already didn't like his design, so how much worse could a twisted version of him be? He shared a glance with Goldy who was also thinking over Ruby's description.
She looked at him pointedly but he put his attention back on Ruby.
"These versions of us were worse the more scared you are of us in real life," Puppet said evenly, without judgment in his voice. He wasn't surprised she didn't like him, though he did admit it was terribly strange to hear her admit there was genuine "fear" besides the ridiculous clown phobia.
He wasn't sure when his opinion of her had changed a little, but it actually saddened him a bit to hear her speak. He thought perhaps it was because she was a child in the coma.
He was aware he had changed his beliefs over the last few months. He still severely distrusted adults, but things had changed so drastically since he decided not to care so long ago. Now, it didn't make sense to continually travel the exact path he had for so long. Not that he could really dwell on the thoughts at the moment.
"I think it was a mix of fear of you… and fear of your potential," Ruby murmured.
"How did you do?" he asked, probably the closest to "kind" he had ever been regarding Ruby. "You survived, obviously."
"Yeah..." Her tone didn't make them feel very confident suddenly. "The issue was...injuries didn't actually carry over physically, but the pain and all that did since my brain thought I'd been injured. That's why I flat-lined last night."
She was so caught up in her thoughts and trying to explain that she didn't realise the horror that hit them at those words. It was an unpleasant reminder of how close to death she got.
"First night, I panicked." There was a hint of disgust in her voice, annoyed with herself over her reaction. "I forgot...the closet near the end." She forced herself to continue despite the fact that she wanted to lie. There was a block in her throat that burned, desperate to let her lie. But she fought it down, even if it made her feel sick.
"Got a bit scratched up, never want to feel what a hook through the hand feels like again." She was sounding almost detached now, like she was commenting on something she'd watched instead of experienced. That was probably the only reason they were getting the truth. "Luckily six hit before all the Freddles were on the bed. I mostly healed up between nights, it was a weird accelerated healing thing where the injury was still there and sore but like it had already been treated." She flexed her left hand which throbbed at the memory.
Foxy swallowed, his endo teeth clicking softly, and looked at his hook with a haunted expression, touching it with his hand. He looked at Ruby's supposedly uninjured hand, noticing how she gingerly touched it without even noticing and he felt sick.
"There was this weird minigame thing between nights. Used a flashlight to stop Plushtrap on the X. I had no clue what I was doing but I won. Turns out when you win you skip two hours of the next night. Weird but whatever." She shrugged. "Night two went okay until the stupid cupcake got in the room. Damn thing bit my ankle." Her right foot twitched. "I got so distracted and I was trying to keep the closet situation under control, I kinda forgot about the bed this time." she paused. "Damn bears' bites were worse than the cupcakes. Got tossed around a bit by their big version but only cracked a couple ribs." they noticed she was purposefully not calling them by their names. "It threw me off in the mini game though so I lost that one. At least I know I still punch as a first reaction to a jumpscare."
The others didn't seem much better than Foxy but no one said anything. Not even Timmy commented.
Mangle was holding her own snout shut, a little worried what Ruby would say about her nightmare version. She hadn't even mentioned all the nights yet. That was just night 2 for Ruby? Meanwhile, they thought dealing with Michael and keeping the kids away from Mike that first night was bad.
"Nightmare got a bit annoyed that I was handling the nights okay so he changed it up on Night 3. Different fox in the closet…"
Not Mangle. Not Mags…
"Nearly had a heart attack when I realised. Also almost lost my head before I shut the closet doors. The doors and the bed were the same though. I got through most of it before I was too late to the left door. Got a broken arm for that. Managed to keep the light on the bed luckily but couldn't get back to the closet in time. Three arms and three legs plus two heads walking on the ceiling..." She trailed off and shuddered, almost talking to herself now. "Bit my side when I twisted to keep my neck out of range, I think my vitals dropped that night from blood loss but still made it. I think that pissed Nightmare off. Night 4 started with this distorted tune suddenly playing through the house." -another long pause- "Yeah...I got stabbed a few times by the long claws and I think my clown phobia got worse. Either that or I'm cured of it, not sure yet. Imagine the Puppet plus slender man and you'd get pretty close."
"Here I was thinking I already looked like slender man," Puppet mused as he tried to imagine what Ruby was describing. He frowned as he realized something disturbing.
Goldy spoke up."Ruby," she said gently, thinking the same thing as Puppet and the rest of them. She hesitated asking. "Exactly how old were you, do you think?"
Even though Ruby said she was a child in her coma, it was hard for them to see her as anything different than she looked now if they didn't have a specific age to picture, especially since she was still technically a child at sixteen to begin with.
She frowned for a moment as she thought.
"Probably...about seven?" she answered after a moment.
"Fuck," Puppet hissed.
"Puppet!"
Ruby opened one eye to look at Puppet in surprise.
"How come you can swear?" She asked, temporarily distracted from her story. She hadn't asked when Puppet scared the crap out of Henry earlier in the night.
"I don't have that programming," he said shortly, distracted and still upset by the idea of something "like" him ripping into a seven-year-old. "Our creator didn't expect me to wake up and be alive so he didn't think to add it. I had such a...penchant for it that he decided it best to add to later models."
"Oh, right that was your fault," Mangle muttered under her breath, bristling at the mention of their creator. She was hoping not to think about him today. It was just one more thing on the shit pile.
Puppet ignored her and stared at Ruby. "Continue."
Ruby stared back for a brief moment before shrugging and closing her eyes again.
"The next mini game was with the bowling ball with teeth. I lost that round because I was laughing too hard at Nightmare's attempt to make him frightening," she admitted. "Night 5 was just Golden Fredbear. Teleporting hell." A frown slipped back over her face. "Left, next second right, suddenly closet and then a giant head on the damn bed." She shook her head when she realised her voice was rising.
The image of a seven-year-old running around in a panic, trying to keep up with that was not a pleasant image.
"I panicked again." She sighed, running a hand down her face. The silence stretched for an uncomfortably long time as she seemed to debate whether to tell them something. "Almost got my arm chewed off." She rotated her right shoulder, feeling the ache that bite left her with again. "Nightmare was annoyed that I survived so long. So night 6 he took over." For the first time since she started speaking, her voice faltered and she flinched slightly at the memories.
The bots were taking this pretty well, considering the images Ruby painted were terrifying them all on multiple levels. However, they listened, every one of them careful not to react too much until she was done. Even Chi and Toby remained quiet, listening intently. And maybe even empathetically. Would that have been possible a month ago?
Ruby spoke slowly, like every word was carefully considered.
"Nightmare...was a predator. It was his game. His rules. His playing field." Her face twisted in distaste for what she was about to say. "I didn't have a chance against him." She admitted. "He got in after an hour or so. I'd won the mini game so that left it at around three."
She stopped again and finally opened her eyes again. She looked so tired in that moment.
And haunted.
"He could have killed me near instantly. But he decided to...to 'play' until the night was almost over." She was keeping her tone carefully even now. "I don't really remember much about that hour..." Some part of her voice actually sounded thankful for that. She trailed off again, gaze on the ceiling.
They all felt sick.
Mangle wanted to scream.
Chi was quietly sobbing, hiding her face behind Chica who looked just as heartbroken.
Foxy and Bonnie both looked ill, Spring even more so, while Foxy also looked like he wanted to tear Nightmare apart.
Even Freddy was losing his composure.
Toby was shaking and Teddy was staring at the floor while BB was in Chi's boat. He gripped Ruby's pant leg and looked like he was sobbing, but he had no tears and no voiced cries.
Goldy looked horrified and heartbroken.
Puppet seemed the calmest, but even he was shaken, so incredibly livid at some creature that he couldn't even see. Maybe even murderously so. He glanced up at a slight sound.
Hedy appeared in the doorway with a sorrowful look on her face. She had sensed that she and Mike needed to come back.
The building had practically pleaded with her.
Mike hung back in the doorway as Hedy approached the group, coming alongside Ruby and a still silent Timmy. She sat there quietly in her chair next to Ruby on the stage, not looking at the rest of them, eyes just on Ruby's face.
After a minute Hedy finally reached out and gently held Ruby's hand.
"It's okay Ruby. Tell them how you won," Hedy said with the gentlest utmost sisterly love in her voice. It was a strange tone. They heard pieces of it sometimes, but not fully.
Ruby looked down and blinked at her. She looked very young now, not having the energy to keep up her usual masks.
"I got mad."
She smirked slightly, remembering just how furious Nightmare was at the sudden turn of events. "He was saying that he'd be doing me a favour. By killing me. Because I wouldn't be able to look at any of you guys the same way again. I was just so furious with him." She shook her head again, a disbelieving expression in her eyes. "The idiot actually believed that. He was in my own head, probably could hear all my thoughts, and still didn't know me at all. So I told him it didn't matter that I was scared of all of you. It didn't change anything. I still loved you regardless."
Yeah she was definitely not thinking about the fact that she'd admitted that in front of Toby and Puppet... She was so emotionally drained though they couldn't blame her.
She fell silent and suddenly Timmy spoke up.
"He lost."
Ruby blinked again, looking down at the kid.
"It wasn't even me saying I loved you that saved me. It took me a whole damn week to just admit I was scared," she muttered darkly, guilt and anger flashing across her face again.
Timmy shrugged.
"You still won."
"Yeah and then I wake up with a tube down my throat and the first thing you tell me is that the deals are suspended at the pizzeria." She growled. "You couldn't have mentioned that before when I was still in the coma?"
"You gave me a heart attack when you pulled the tube out!" Timmy shot back, not even addressing Ruby's point. "And your drip! Then you climbed out the window! Nightmare stabbed you in the stomach!" He glared at her and pointed. "If I had told you what was going on, you wouldn't have been able to focus on yourself, Ruby!"
Ruby shrugged. "No injury, I'm fine."
The ghost threw his hands up in utter frustration, his timid and calm behaviour melting away for the moment. They clearly knew each other pretty well.
Hedy winced at the 'stabbed in the stomach' part, unintentionally touching her old scar. She blinked, the moment slipping away a bit. "One," she said, her voice still very soft. She looked at Timmy a little tiredly. "You can't have a heart attack, kiddo. Two...you were in a second story room, Ruby." Her eyes hardened. "And you climbed out the window? " She was still mad about that.
"You're just not going to let that go, are you?"
"May we please go back to the previous subject for a moment?" Puppet requested with an eerily even tone, but they could hear stress bleed into his voice as he touched his face as if pinching a nose.
"And unpack all that?" Mangle murmured.
Ruby shrugged, not keen on getting another lecture about the window thing again.
"So you went through all that because you didn't want to admit you were scared of us?" Freddy asked, speaking up first. He didn't seem very upset about that but was upset Ruby had gotten hurt because of it.
"It built up and just..." Bonnie added, "Got so much that it...made a demon bot?" His ears pinned back, well aware he worded it strangely.
"That is a black, male, toothy version of me with...red eyes, apparently," Goldy said softly, sharing a glance with Hedy.
Hedy frowned at Goldy for poking into her head to look for that image. Ruby hadn't mentioned the red eyes to them at all.
Ruby kept her gaze away from them and shrugged, staying silent.
They were all suddenly hit by the fact that the sixteen year old looked like a child expecting a scolding of some kind.
"About the gist of it," she mumbled.
"Are you..expecting us to be mad at you?" Mangle asked, tilting her head. She didn't quite understand how Ruby was so worried about what they would think.
The teen let out a soft sigh.
"I promised that it didn't change anything," she said. "That things were the same as when I was a kid. I lied. To myself too." That anger and guilt was back in her tone. Along with shame. "I didn't want anything to change. I didn't want to hurt you either." She finally met Mangle's eyes and now she looked far older than her sixteen years. "You can't say that it didn't."
"No I can't..." Mangle agreed slowly, ears twitching while she also sounded older than she was, "But I'm not really hurt that you're scared of me. Heh. Hedy told me when she had a nightmare about me ripping her throat out." She said it so simply.
Hedy didn't look surprised in the slightest that Mangle revealed that.
"I know Hedy's still sometimes scared of me because of what happened. I was hurt a little at first but it's not like I was surprised. I mean, I did almost push her off a balcony, not to mention I actually bit her a few times. I'm more upset that you were in so much pain because you felt like you couldn't tell anyone."
Ruby frowned.
"Its different. The Originals weren't the ones trying to kill me. The brats were." She argued. "I'm not a kid. I shouldn't be afraid. Yet I still am." She crossed her arms, nails digging into her skin in frustration. "Its a STUPID fear. It's not caused by trauma. I know trauma. It's that stupid childish part of my mind that never stopped being afraid of the dark." There was anger directed at herself in her voice now.
The Originals had been quiet while Mangle said her thing but now Foxy chuckled weakly.
"Lass," he said gently. "We've all tried to kill ya at least once. Even if we didn't want to. It was my teeth. My hook. Logic don't always need to be in charge there." Ruby was so afraid she'd lose them over this. As if that would ever be the truth.
Chica nodded. "It's almost like a more severe version of Foxy still freaking out about Hedy working on him even though he knows she's not going to hurt him." She eyed Foxy.
"Hey."
Hedy cracked a small smile. "Now Foxy. You've got to let me know if you fall into a coma and have some twisted version of me following you around." She frowned a bit disturbed. "What would that even look like?"
Foxy made a face, best he could with what he had left.
Ruby sighed, looking suspicious of how well they were taking it. "If I'd just admitted it from the beginning this week wouldn't have even happened."
And there was the root of the guilt. She was afraid of her relationship changing with them all. And she was guilty that her stubbornness resulted in the deals being suspended.
"You couldn't have known," Freddy scolded.
"It really isn't like the building has a sign hung up saying, 'Admit your fears or they'll materialize into a demon and knock you in a coma'," Bonnie pointed out.
Ruby's mouth quirked up into a slight smile before falling back into frown.
The Originals were more familiar with Ruby's more depressed side. The Toys were still getting used to seeing it now. It made them wonder how much she hid on a daily basis.
Hedy spoke up with a heavy sigh. "Look, we can keep talking, but I need to get to work. We have some time to think about all this. Everything turned out okay in the end. We're all alive after all, and that's a win to me."
Ruby seemed to almost physically shake off her depressed mood.
"Right. Bastard is beat and the worst I've got to deal with is some new nightma– bad dreams." Ruby's eyes hardened as she turned to the Originals. "All of you need to be checked on. NOW."
Her tone of voice had any protests dying almost immediately.
"Your 'older sister' voice is scary." Timmy piped up.
"Shut up Timmy. I'm still angry with you."
The ghost stuck his tongue out at her, well aware this wasn't Ruby 'angry.'