Springtrap has been introduced and if you haven't read that fic yet (I'm the Murderer), it kind of explains who the characters are and their role. I will be addressing them by the names given in the other fic so if confused, read its sister story before continuing as this is a prequel to Springtrap's story. The other prequel fic is called Dead by Dawn.

This is the shortest chapter and since there's five nights, there's a lot to do so prepare for very long chapters after this.


Bee glared strangely at the damaged gates that held the cartoonish logo of a bear in a top hat holding pizza. It was molded and its paint faded, the creepy smile of the bear seemed to have indented markings of some sort that emphasized the smile with a rather disgusting color of what bleached blood would look like.

Energon flares had kicked up around the area and as far as Ratchet knew, the Missouri Freddy Fazbear Fairgrounds was a case of mystery hidden under a cover story by the government. It was a scary-looking place and apparently it was the largest estate of Fazbear Entertainment owned by a William Afton who had reportedly gone missing in 1989, last seen heading to the fairgrounds searching for one of his animatronics. He never came back home to his wife and the body was never found.

The story behind the ugly, old fairgrounds and its sister locations' reputation was a compelling cover-up of murder and possibly hauntings. From what Ratchet was able to uncover from the case file, the fairgrounds and the infamous pizzeria was a notorious place for missing children across the national placement of each site but this one had five children gone, one dead with an unnatural bite to the frontal lobe and hundreds of night guards evidently disappeared while on shift all within the range of one night to one entire work week, no more and no less days.

A few witnesses traumatized with PTSD from this job in the late 80's told government officials as best they could that what they survived was not the animatronics themselves but a powerful source seemingly acting through them that only came out at night. The animatronics were only the "suits" for enclosed spaces they couldn't get to. William Afton was confronted apparently but not long after did he disappear more activity arose and the witnesses claimed something was hidden beneath the ground levels of the buildings and its circus tent. As lack of evidence was apparent, the case was buried and forgotten.

Eventually, Fazbear Entertainment was shut down and most of the sites were demolished. This one, however, was planned to go down but a terrible "toxic spill" scared the residents out and none had bothered with it from then on. Funnily enough, Ratchet also mentioned no such spill had happened. Government officials had been sent to investigate and their route indeed took them to the fairgrounds but none returned. The government issued Times Beach a permanent ghost town after several more failed investigations, capping it off from the world as an inhabitable area unless individuals were willing to risk their lives. A few did and from what Bumblebee was able to deduce, something was wrong with these fairgrounds.

"Status report, guys?" Bumblebee yawned.

Arcee scoffed, "It's pretty dead over on the south side. This pizzeria looks like it's taken some massive hits."

Blurr laughed, "Nothing but a dead body on east."

Bumblebee reeled back, "A dead body!?"

"Joking, jeez, calm yourself. There's nothing but forest, a gate, and I think the head of one of the animatronics glaring at me."

Knockout coughed, "Smells bad too, almost like something did die here. All clear otherwise on west side."

Arcee, Optimus, and Bulkhead scoured the forest line for anything suspicious as it was fifteen minutes to midnight. Bulkhead called in as she made her rounds, "North side doesn't seem to be active."

"Good," Ratchet spoke over the intercom on all units. "Whatever was thought to be there has been dormant mainly with occasional noise, but now it seems whatever is around the fairgrounds or inside has awoken again. To put the little of the community's minds at ease, we must stop whatever it is before it escalates to attacking the remaining few who decided to stay in Times Beach."

"Not the best thing to do, in my opinion," a voice spoke near Bumblebee. The mech turned quickly with his gun drawn and peered up to see Bendy relaxing on a tree limb with one leg dangling tiredly.

"Bendy!" Bumblebee said in surprise, bringing his weapon down. "A bit far from the studio, aren't you? What do you know about this place?"

Bendy sat up and clasped the branch to steady himself while looking directly over the gate like he was trying to find something. He shook his head, tipping his hammer downward, "This place holds something inside you'll wish you never knew. A lot of pain and misery has happened here and if you decide to breach its offense, I only recommend you stay alive and turn back before it's too late because I don't want to bury your asses and pay for seven funerals. Alice wouldn't appreciate that."

The Autobot frowned, "Offenses? Are you saying the gate isn't for keeping something out? It's to keep something in?"

"You can say that but it's more like the gates are the boundaries they refuse to cross because their systems don't register the outside world. They don't try and escape because they see no purpose in it. There's only one escape and it involves death," the toon smirked.

"So like Night at the Museum exit-and-you-die type clause or what?"

Bendy chuckled, "Oh no, more like if they want to leave, someone must die. By the way, it's almost midnight, might not want to linger around here for too long."

"How do you know all this? Bendy, what's in there?" Bumblebee questioned suspiciously.

"Let's just say, I know who started all of this and they know how to end this. You'll see if you dare stay but once you give your time, you must finish five nights or die trying. Many have tried and only a few survived all of the nights. Some quit which came back to haunt them until they ended up committing suicide. Those are the rules," the ink demon grinned. "Max was very specific."

Bumblebee turned away briefly to peer at the circus and carnival rides past the sharp gate, "That still doesn't answer my-"

When he turned back, Bendy was gone. "...question."

Blurr and Knockout jogged towards him and peered up where he was staring before the Knockout smirked, "Did you see something?"

"Bendy came by, said for them to be free, someone must die. Whatever's in there isn't happy and he knows why but apparently, he doesn't want us going in," Bumblebee responded.

The clock tower on the admissions building near the entrance rang out, signifying midnight as the Autobots joined up from different directions though it took Optimus a while longer. When the chime stopped, an unusual creaking noise near the tent followed by rather large slow footprints sounded in the night for a moment then it drew silent. All of them glanced at the carnival portion of the property but no one was there.

Optimus approached the gate entrance that reached his abdomen and carefully placed a servo on one of its stakes, observing the environment. Child-like laughter rang out to his right and everyone shot their heads towards it. Nothing.

Knockout gulped, "What was that?"

Bumblebee sniffed the air, "Well in order to find out, we would have to go inside the gate."

"Nah, I'm good out here," Bulkhead whimpered.

Something slammed on the opposite end of the property faintly which made everyone's eyes grow wide while Optimus' narrowed. "If we are to know this nuisance that terrorized this town, I believe Bumblebee might be right. We must go in."

"Are you kidding? There are acres to explore with buildings scattered throughout with trees blocking the visibility of some areas. If we go inside, we'll be attacked at any given angle," Arcee snapped.

"It is a chance to solve this mystery and I wish to help make this place habitable again. Sometimes we must take our chances," the Prime hummed.

Blurr made a happy gesture while Bumblebee frowned and Knockout groaned. Optimus quickly and ethically unlocked the gate's entrance and stumbled inside cautiously, closing it after all of them entered but did not reseal it in case they needed to escape.

Various boulders and trees hid some rides and buildings from view which made a majority of them very weary of their surroundings. How big the property was exactly none of them could say but it took at least ten minutes for Optimus to return to Bumblebee's position and he was on the opposite end previously.

The ground level had uneven parts here and there but otherwise relatively flat. The admissions building they passed had rather large holes for entrances in it and the original doorway had only one half of the actual door present though unhinged almost like something broke through it. It didn't take long to navigate to the pizzeria which was the closest to the admissions building and beside that, a large security terminal which seemed to have been the security guard complex with TVs that held cameras...which were still active?

Suspicious, Bumblebee instantly made his way to the security building and entered the larger blast doors, oddly enough, as Bulkhead and Knockout followed. Arcee raised her arms in disbelief, "What happened to sticking together?"

"There are cameras active over here, monitoring the entire property. If we can't see whatever is here, maybe this can!" Bumblebee huffed as he kneeled, seating him in front of the cameras while he had a window that peered out towards the tent and pizzeria next door.

"Arcee, Knockout, Blurr, stay with Bumblebee. Bulkhead, you will accompany me to the other end of the area where the laughter was heard," Optimus ordered.

Bulkhead looked a bit uncomfortable being inside the gates but knew better than to refuse a direct command from his superior. The other three Autobots used the broken-down walls of the building to keep track of Bee's progress and the outside as he checked each group of cameras for each building and its exterior. Only eight cameras existed per interior and exterior group, four each, and only one group appeared up on the monitors unless he clicked on the clusters which made them appear accordingly.

At first, no sign of movement was detected except near what seemed to be the auditorium exterior which was Optimus and Bulkhead scouting. Then he switched to interior cameras and one in the pizzeria caught his attention. The storage chamber of the building held over a dozen animatronics each with an animal appearance including Freddy himself. They all looked beat down and scrapped.

Upon staring at them for several seconds, the screen suddenly glitched with static. Bee growled, "Stupid early 1980's computers!"

He hit the main console but when the screens reappeared, the main one on the largest monitor above the window held a surprise. All the animatronics had been facing multiple ways before but now all of them stared directly at the camera with their mouths hanging open.

"Oh my god," Bumblebee muttered.

Arcee squinted then noticed an oddity, "What's that in the top left corner?"

True enough, above all the creepy animatronics, a yellow orb with a lighter yellow vertical streak down its middle that didn't fit the size ratio of the electronic eyes of the machines lingered above them in a window or doorframe. As the Autobots studied it, the orb instantly jerked like an optic would to refocus on the camera before it contracted. Whatever it belonged to zipped away in a flash and the static returned. When the screen returned, all the animatronics were now lined up in two rows facing the camera and seemingly offline with their eyes closed and markings of some sort of liquid appeared to run down their bodies like scars. All of the watchers screamed in panic.

"That was an optic! That was a Cybertronian optic!" Arcee fluttered, gripping Bee's shoulder.

Blurr cried out, "Oh, that's not good! Knockout, what the hell was that!?"

"I-I don't know but that seemed a lot bigger than the animatronics!" Knockout whined.

Shifting to other camera view exterior and interior, new forms were sitting in familiar views that weren't there prior. Near the entrance of the fairgrounds, a two-headed Dinobot-like creature acknowledged the camera but was frozen mid climb where one clawed foot was safely on the ground while the other latched onto the gate poles as if preparing to hike itself up onto the fence. Another Seeker-like creature was on top of the Ferris Wheel barely noticeable as the Fazbear Fright roller coaster camera wasn't positioned to see the entire ride.

Bumblebee suddenly began switching the cameras at random trying to find Optimus and Bulkhead, ignoring the views that had several new characters staring aggressively in different angles at the camera. When he finally got sight of them, something moved in the bottom of the screen barely visible and slowly raised its head before turning slightly as if to challenge the camera. In a flash though, it darted out of sight but if anything, it may have been preparing to hurt the two Autobots nearby.

"There's got be a loud speaker in here or something! We have to warn them!" Bumblebee frantically spoke as he began pressing random buttons.

A groaning whine echoed just beyond the hole in the security building they entered before a large smiling dragon coaster hit the ground and rolled by. Whispers, child-like almost, emitted as all three of them stared frightened. A slow-moving servo appeared and gently grasped the damaged edge of the hole, and it didn't resemble any bot's servo they could recognize.

Bringing her blasters out, Arcee made a motion for them to stay still. She approached the makeshift entrance quietly then whipped around the wall to the outside. Her optics widened in terror and she found herself reluctant to shoot as a face nearly bumped her own, snarling. She glanced over it as it stood its full height which was almost as big as Optimus.

A faded black and brown paint job with numerous silver streaks lingered menacingly over her. Blue optics, though one eyelid drooped a bit lower than the other, acknowledged her, adjusting to an unknown mood. It had a broken jaw spring which made its mouth tilt to the side while various other body parts had rips and dents across them, some even exposing the endoskeleton. It was a Cybertronian.

It sniffed her, human breathing unusually sounding from the damaged nose plate. What made her even more suspicious was the top hat it had on its helm which seemed be man-made and so was the twisted black bow upon its neck as if it was a Christmas present. Taking a step forward and forcing her backwards, it drifted under the nearest lamp light attached to the exterior of the security building to reveal its full presence which made it look like it had gotten run over and beaten on like some of the poor cars in monster truck rallies Bulkhead loves to spectate.

A coarse giggle suddenly came from it, its throat protoform creaking slightly to distort it. The last note of its laugh was heavily baritone which must have meant its voice was going in and out from a severely altered voice box but apparently not on the same level as Bumblebee's former injury. At least it still could make actual noise with it whereas Bumblebee was mute for who knows how long until recently, relying on systematic noises to speak.

Then something clicked inside her processor as she remembered the cartoon bear logo at the entrance to the fairgrounds and glanced behind her to see a poster with the same character and animatronic before peering back at the bot. It looked almost just like Freddy albeit with blacker coloring than brown.

"Freddy?" She gawked.

The bot made a noise of approval and nodded up and down twice before standing a bit upright and striking a pose of greeting that mimicked the pose cartoon Freddy was doing while holding a pizza. This bot actually believed it was Freddy Fazbear but why?

"By Primus," whispered Knockout.

In a flash, Freddy's head turned towards the other three who were now in view and his blue optics shrunk to white dots as he bared his teeth, stomping intimidatingly into a predatory offense. Arcee jumped in front of him and held up her servos frantically. The mangled bot hesitated, turning his head slightly in confusion.

"These are my friends. They aren't your enemies. Please, don't harm them," the femme pleaded.

The bot's face gave a sorrowful frown and his optics returned for a second before he suddenly reverted back and charged past her. He lowered to enter the building with a roar as the Autobots pressed against the console in absolute fear. Bumblebee placed an arm in front of Knockout but then noticed movement in the corner of his optics. In a split second, the bot didn't hit them but rather whatever else was nearby.

He slammed into a white and pink form, pushing it back through the second entrance and bellowed as the Autobots gasped at the scene. The form quickly scrambled up and from what they could determine, it was a Dinobot…almost? What breed exactly was not the actual concern at the moment. As this Dinobot stood up, only one side was facing the crowd and part of its equivalent of a ribcage was present as well as its armorless head. The visible neck and four-clawed hand bared its protoform too. There was an unusual streak of spiraling spikes alongside its neck that looked it was twisting around unevenly but it was completely bare otherwise. Strangely, no optic was present on the visible right side.

The bot turned towards Freddy with a growl and they all saw another terrifying sight. The creature had two heads, one damaged and one not, and the non-damaged seemed to have curled around the other's neck. There were two optics which one laid on the right side whereas the damaged head had it on the left side but only one on each head and they both faced inward to each other leaving the opposite outer sides blinded. There was no damage to the completely armored side and the armored head of the Dinobot spun back around the damaged to untangle their heads back into position.

Smiling like hyenas, one head went high and the other low and faced two different directions to scan their environment. Both eyeless sides appeared to the Autobots before alternating with the eyes present but now the heads both faced differently at different levels once more. Despite lacking one eye each, the two heads made a very great combination watching each other's backs. Shaking their tail agitatedly, one head snapped its jaws angrily, yellow crocodile-like optics narrowing while the other roared at Freddy, its red dotted clown cheeks flexing into an oval. It was duly noted how shiny and nearly pristine the armor was, almost like plastic.

Ghostly whispers emitted from the brightly colored Dinobot and Freddy was rumbling a similar noise back. They were speaking with each other and Bumblebee heard the harsh whisper of a name. Gabriel. After a moment, the two-headed Dinobot clicked their jaws once more and turned away, climbing the nearest tree and wrapping its tail around a branch like a snake. The heads hung low almost searching for something beyond the gate before it began to angle itself to where it was no longer visible. Freddy glanced back at the group before breathing a moan, walking past the visibility of the hole in the security building where they hid. When Arcee tried to confront Freddy, the bot had disappeared.

A holler from one of them instantly caught Arcee's attention and Bumblebee ran back to help. Knockout pointed to another camera inside the tent, "Look there."

Near the edge of the middle ring of the circus stage, a Seeker-like Cybertronian stared at the active camera with a slack jaw and wide purple optics. It held something pink in its left servo but nobody could make out what it was.

"Chica!"

Everyone peered at Knockout with several confused looks then Arcee broke the silence, "How exactly do you know it's a femme?"

Knockout shook his head, "No, that must be Chica, one of the characters here."

He pointed at a poster behind them which had multiple characters and names above each on it, some with their own items and Chica had…a pink cupcake in her left hand. Under her, a post-it sat with another name, "Override Susie". Beside her, the pink and white form of a fox had a little post-it that read "Mangle Stephanie" when above it was Funtime Foxy. The lavender blue rabbit was named Bonnie but the note read "Hijack Charlie". "Gigabyte Jeremy" was located under Foxy's. To a picture on the sidelines had a yellow tinted Freddy on it that read "Sunlight Cassidy" as well as several others scattered over the wall.

"Moondust Theresa" on Ballora, "Sprocket James" as Balloon Boy, "Starblitz Elizabeth" under a rather old picture of a clown girl animatronic, but "Ennard Michael" had no picture. It did hold a torn blueprint of some sort below Knockout noticed as he grabbed it off the wall. The readable specs looked familiar.

The medic whistled, "Either whoever wrote this had an agenda or they just wrote down a bunch of passwords for their employees for hackers to use."

"Why are human names always after underlined words?" Bumblebee mumbled.

"Guys, remember when MECH got a hold of Optimus' and Breakdown's blueprints?" Arcee recalled.

They all nodded, eyes widening as they studied the mapping design. Bumblebee scowled, "This can't be!"

Arcee grimaced, "It is! Those are designs for a Cybertronian…and those parts aren't supposed to be compatible with Dinobots' nor arachnid-types or Seekers! Whoever planned on doing this was making a monster if not already!"

Bumblebee then peered back up at the posters and frowned, "These names. Those Cybertronians must have been alive before and went by their original names until something happened. Override? Chica?"

They all glanced at the camera that was targeting the Cybertronian and took into account very quickly she had moved closer with white dotted pupils but little to no color.

"They've been here for quite some time now to where they don't remember who they are. The others are probably here too somewhere but they might be dead," Bumblebee muttered.

"Hate to break your light-bulb moment but what was that name we heard this Mangle Dinobot thing say to Freddy or Blacklight as it apparently says here?" Blurr questioned, pointing unsurely at Freddy's picture.

Bumblebee placed a servo on the post-it and his breathing hitched. Gabriel. "Gabriel. That was what Mangle said to Freddy or at least a mention of it."

"I've got more news," Knockout stated. "I'm looking at the old case Ratchet sent us and you won't believe this but all those names on there, all the human names, are from people who went missing at this particular Fazbear fairground. Gabriel was the name…of one of the missing children."

"So what's up with their names being paired up with the Cybertronian names?" Arcee stared baffled.

"Also, look at the character next to the Golden Freddy in this picture," Blurr scoffed. "The name tag on this is 'Shadowrunner' and beside it is…"

"William...the owner," Bumblebee announced.


In the hours at hand, Bee and the others monitored the fairgrounds but knowing now what they were up against, Bee knew he needed to find Optimus and Bulkhead quickly.

Bumblebee ran towards the last sighting of them in the area of the fairgrounds where a sudden shout came from. He tried to listen closely for another noise when Bulkhead flew past him, breaking a tree in progress. The mech looked dizzy and moaned as he rubbed his helm. Looking towards where Bulkhead came from, another Dinobot-like form stomped towards him.

Red with a salmon underbelly and snout, it growled at him and its yellow optics narrowed. It wasn't hard to notice how one servo had a hook attached instead while the other appeared armorless from similar damage to that of the pink and white Dinobot he saw earlier try to attack him and his teammates. Behind it, a second Cybertronian emerged but it wasn't Optimus to his dismay.

A purplish-blue ragged bot with pink optics clambered out to pause at the Dinobot's side. Its chest area had several sized holes and the spark chamber was exposed through some of them but…it was empty. No glow meant it was dead. The bot had horns facing back more than the Dinobot's but they were integrated with the helm design not as separate pieces. Part of its thigh was missing a good chunk of armor as well as its neck but everything else was covered.

Suddenly, Optimus barreled out behind a few trees and swiped his blade at the purple bot who dodged it as quick as a hare. It got a good kick off of Optimus that sent the mech back and lifted its pede to slam it down on the Prime's helm. But before it could, Bumblebee pushed it back and sent a good blast to its exposed neck. The bot whimpered as the Dinobot charged but Optimus hit the beast square in the cheek, nearly breaking it. This caused the Dinobot to stumble back and bellow angrily. As soon as the bot beside the Tyrannosaur-Carnotaurus hybrid twisted its head back into place which would have killed a living Cybertronian beforehand, they prepared to retaliate but the chime of the bell in the admissions building made them freeze.

Six o'clock the time struck which was odd as normal clocks only chimed for midnight. The two bots shook a little as the purple bot retreated its reaching servo though a bit resilient to do so. Giving a hard glare at the Autobots, they both sped off with unnatural sounds and roars. Where they went, Bumblebee wanted to know but he gave up his mission to kneel next to Bulkhead as the mech groaned.

As the sun started to rise, no other activity was present and the mysterious desecrated Cybertronians had vanished. As Optimus helped Bumblebee bring Bulkhead to the ground bridge, he noticed several of the animatronics were sitting limply outside various buildings but he never recalled them ever moving from the storage basement in the pizzeria. But at the same, he didn't remember there being more than one of each. Three Chica animatronics sat close together, some with strange moldy red markings like what was on the Fazbear sign at the entrance. Not being able to investigate further, he simply sighed.

Blurr as well as Arcee began stripping the wall of the posters and post-its to take back before heading out towards the ground bridge, waving somewhat tiredly at Bee and Optimus. As most of them passed through, Bumblebee glanced back but what he saw made him squint in confirmation.

The massive body of a golden yellow version of Freddy, or "Sunlight" as the post-it under its name originally read if he recalled correctly, sat beneath a tree at the far end of the visible gate almost like a dead body. No optics were present but a green mist seemed to be leaking from the empty sockets and ended at its chin almost like as if it was crying. Then above it on its helm, a similar green essence swirled up and formed the embodiment of a young girl no older than seven.

He stared at the figure as it made eye contact with him but like the Cybertronian body "she" stood upon, she had no eyes and black streaks stained down her cheeks the very same way. However, there was a slash vertically on her neck with similar stains leaking from it as well as two on her head and one that surely cut what would be the main artery. Cassidy. The note had a human name on it as well as a Cybertronian name so what if…no, that was impossible.

The green essence figure sudden screeched angrily and the sound was muffled, but the body she stood on synchronized with her and jerked forward, roaring at the exact same time she did as if she was controlling it. The bellow sounded almost like a cry of pain mixed with adult and child vocals. In an instant, Bumblebee's head started to spin and flashes began blinding his vision like a terrible nightmare before the Cybertronian and the ghost girl disappeared in thin air.

Backing up slightly, Bumblebee held his head and breathed harshly. He didn't wish to endure it again and ran into the awaiting ground bridge as quick as he could. When it disappeared, whispers grew around the tent and pizzeria and under the latter in a secret room, chains rattled as a clawed servo slammed down which eerily scratched the floor as a high-pitched growl rumbled.


AN: I hinted to doing this story for a while. I have all the chapters, posting them is going to be interesting. Having fun yet? Don't worry, everything just gets worse from here.