/ A/N some gore in the begging of this chapter. Be aware!
William lunged forward, shambling towards her with rage burning in his eyes. Vanessa had never been more scared in her life, but she stood fast. They couldn't afford to bungle this. He lifted his arm up and attempted to grab her, not even noticing the rope on the floor. It only took another moment for William to trigger the snare trap Lux had set.
While he swung from the roof, Lux wasted no time. Ve ran from behind and hit his head with the shovel ve held.
It didn't do anything. He spun a bit and angrily swiped at vir. Lux swung again, and again, and again, until his head flew off into a corner with a sickening crack.
"… Holy shit." The body animatronic was still. "Is it... is he dead? Or just stunned?" Lux asked, vir voice trembling a bit.
"Not sure, let's go fast." Vanessa grabbed a hammer from the toolbox they had brought and started hitting the joint connecting his right leg to his torso.
"Right." Lux ran to get a tool as well.
The metal might have once been strong, but it had been all but reduced to rust. The joints barely took a dozen hits before they snapped, permanently separating from the torso.
Like a flash, Lux dragged the leg to a corner, far away from the rest of the limbs. It only took a few more minutes before the rest of the limbs were separated and dragged to their own parts of the room.
"Okay! I'll go grab some of the boxes. Do you want to start on the body?" Lux asked.
"Yeah, yeah." Vanessa said. "I'll get on that." She grabbed the hammer and started attacking the torso.
A sickening snap filled the room as she broke through the metal and a horrible stench came spilling out. She had broken through it's rib cage. There had been some remnants of bone, and Vanessa didn't want to know what else on the limbs, but she had largely ignored that, desperately trying to not think about the implications of it.
But there was a pool of it in the torso. A dark, slimy pool with several broken ribs inside it now.
Vanessa had to take a step back.
"Eugh, what smells—Vanessa?" Lux had come back in, boxes in hand. "What's wrong?"
"God, oh god. I broke the rib cage."
"You—Oh gross. I can take over the torso if you—"
"No, no. I'm good. I'm good. I just need a minute." She was so glad they had brought a gallon of hand sanitizer. Grabbing the hammer, Vanessa started again.
Lux laid the boxes out and threw a limb into each of them before closing them tight and wrapping them with duct tape. Nothing had moved yet, but they weren't taking any chances. The last thing they needed was William reassembling himself somehow. The boxes were all stacked inside the charging tube for safe keeping. Vanessa finished destroying most of the torso and neck, so they got to go into two boxes as well.
When the last box was put inside, Vanessa closed and locked the door before slumping against the door and sliding to the ground, right alongside Lux.
"Holy shit." She said, "We just did that."
"Holy shit." Ve echoed, a giant smile on vir face. They looked at each other in silence for a moment before bursting into relieved, almost hysterical laughter.
Freddy watched Chica round a corner of the track, Roxy hot on her heels. It had been a while since he had heard from Vanessa. That didn't mean anything had gone wrong, but it was quickly approaching the two-hour mark. He couldn't afford to make the wrong call and keep Gregory in the building for too long, but he also didn't want to make everyone worried if he didn't have to.
"What's wrong?" Moon said, sitting down next to Freddy. It still held the checkered flag, but had given up on waving it awhile ago. The race had turned into a total free for all.
"Ah, nothing. Everything is perfectly fine."
"It doesn't look fine. You look scared." Moon could be terribly perceptive when they wanted to be.
"I am fine, Moon. Do not be concerned."
"Freddy—"
"Truly, Moon, it is all okay. I am just concerned for Vanessa."
"Why? What's going on." Moon leaned closer to Freddy.
"She was supposed to call me around this time, but I have yet to hear anything." Freddy found himself staring at the race track again. Gregory was smiling and laughing, like when he had been with Alan. "I am sure she is just busy, but it still concerns me."
Vanessa took a deep breath, savoring the last of the euphoria.
"Oh god, I haven't felt this relieved in years."
"You and me both." Lux said. Ve stood up and cracked vir back. "Well, I'm heading out. You sticking around for the end of your shift?" Ve held out a hand.
Vanessa grabbed Lux's hand and pulled herself up. "Fuck no, I'm taking the write up for leaving early. You want to go get a drink?"
"Living on the edge, are we? Hell yeah, let's go get some drinks. Fuck write ups!"
"Well, I haven't gotten a write-up since I got this job, so I don't think they'll fire me over it."
"Jesus." Lux laughed, "Management loves to write people up. You must be a saint."
They walked back to where they had left all their stuff, chatting the entire way. When they got there, Vanessa pulled out the Fazwatch.
"Freddy, you there?" There was a moment of static silence before the line buzzed to life.
"Vanessa! Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine, we got him. And all the parts are locked up in the charging tube again. It's safe."
"That is fantastic news. We are up in Roxy Raceway, so you are all good to leave."
"Perfect. See you tomorrow." Vanessa hung up and let out a long sigh. If she could sleep for a month, she could. For once, everything was going well.
So, of course, that's when her phone rang.
It was muffled from being inside her bag, but she would recognize that song anywhere, it was Sammy's ringtone. The ringing stopped before she got there, so she unlocked her phone to call them back. The notification bubble on the phone app was in the double digits. Thirty-four, to be exact. Vanessa opened the app in a panic. All the calls were from Sammy.
"Lux, I've gotta take this call."
The call didn't go through until they got out of the basement, because of course it didn't. All of Vanessa's good luck for the day had been used up.
The phone hadn't even rung once before Sammy picked up.
"Ness, oh my god, Ness. I'm so glad you're okay, oh my god." Sammy's voice came through the receiver, and Vanessa couldn't tell if she had been sobbing or if it was just bad audio.
"Sammy, what's wrong? What happened?"
"You— You called and left a message and it sounded like something bad was about to happen or you were going to do something and I got scared and—" A choked sob came through the speaker. Definitely crying.
"I'm so sorry for scaring you, Sammy, I'm completely fine. I'll come over right now if you want to see me." Vanessa met Lux's eyes and mouthed "I'm sorry."
"I'm actually, uh, not at home right now." More sniffles. "I was so scared that I drove over to the Pizzaplex. I'm outside in my car."
"Come to the entrance, I'm inside." Vanessa started walking to the front.
"Won't you—"
"Forget getting in trouble. You're more important than that."
"Okay, okay. Can you stay on the line until then? I'm just—"
"Absolutely, don't worry, I'll stay on the call until I see you." Vanessa felt Lux nudge her arm a little. Ve was still there. "Just a heads up, Lux is here right now."
"Lux the Technician?"
"Yeah, vir. Ve was helping me with a project."
Lux and Vanessa got to the door a few minutes later. Outside was Sammy, still in her pajamas with blotchy red eyes. Vanessa hung up the phone and buzzed the doors open. Sammy came running in and wrapped her up tightly in a hug.
"Don't you ever do that again, Vanessa Marie Abernathey, or I swear to god I will hunt you down myself." It was angry yet soft. Almost drowned in Vanessa's shoulder, like Sammy didn't have the energy to yell it.
"I won't." Vanessa said, kissing the top of their head. "I'm sorry."
Eventually, they settled down in the atrium, near the stage. Sammy had wanted to know what had happened, and it was high time Vanessa had told them.
"So let me get this straight. The founder of Fazbear Entertainment really was a serial killer. He figured out the secret to immortality, escaped hell, and then brainwashed you years ago to try and bring him back to life, which culminated in the disaster that happened a few weeks ago?" Sammy said.
"That's what I think happened at least. It all kind of fuzzy." (Okay, so Vanessa hadn't told Sammy about what really happened to the kids yet. Sue her. That was one secret she was taking to the grave if at all possible.)
"At least that explains why you've felt so off since that game testing. I was worried something had happened."
"Well then," Lux clasped vir hands together and leaned on them. "Now that that's all settled, where do we go from here?" Before anyone could offer a suggestion, a crowd of voices carried over.
Shit. Was all Vanessa could think. Because if the animatronics were close, then so was Gregory, and she hadn't told anyone that Gregory was here.
"Let's get going, I don't want you two to get locked in here once it hits midnight." Vanessa stood up and started trying to herd the others out as well.
"Wait a minute," Sammy said. "That sounds like a kid…" She turned around and ran in the direction of the voices.
"Wait! Sammy—" Vanessa ran after them with Lux hot on her heels.
They stopped behind Sammy, who was staring at the child sitting on Freddy's shoulder.
Shit.
/ A/N
I don't know how accurate this is so if I made any mistakes on how metal works shhhh not I didn't