[A/N] While this story primarily focuses on Chica, some chapters will reflect from other characters to enhance the plot.

Enjoy Chapter 3 !


"The Murderous Chicken – guard your children and your pizzas." had made headlines, going viral all over the internet. The videos trended the media platforms, drawing seekers to the PizzaPlex: News outlets, paparazzi's, and the general public stood outside, wanting answers. The only response they will get is the sounds of metal barricades toppling the glass doors to shield them from the inside.

Vanessa mindlessly rubs her shoulder – the nerves in that area burned after she aggressively popped her limb back into its socket. Then she continues replaying each posted clip, one after the other. After the fourth time, her eyes shift. Watching the repair bots' attempts at restoring the battered and broken security bots. To gaze at the other carrying Sun to another room to repair his split endoskeleton. Lastly, she glimpses at the auto assist handle whirling behind the protective cylinder, scanning and picking apart Chica's compartments to analyze. It had just been a few minutes before they had just finished reviewing the results on the computer regarding Chica's 4th diagnostic – no errors found.

Her insides burn with hatred. How had she been so wrong? All her instincts and intuition completely failed her for the first time in her life. She heavily relied on both when making decisions until this moment, and she felt a shift take place in her self-confidence. If she could be so utterly wrong about something so simple as this...?

"Don't," Gregory mumbled beside her, holding an icepack on his head.

"Hmm?"

"Don't beat yourself up. It's not your fault." He answers, looking at his shoes. He doesn't see the scowl replacing her anxious expression. She appreciates Gregory trying to cheer her up. She listened to doors slamming in the distance, knowing that Gabe was on his way to release his rage. She knew that being a part of Fazbear Entertainment, everyone took accountability, whether it was their fault or not.

Sure enough, Gabe is standing outside the room. The widened glass frames displayed him fuming and ready to blow. She did not want Gregory nor Freddy to hear Gabe screaming, especially Freddy. The bear animatronic kneeled in front of the cylinder, distressed at his friend's state behind the protective cylinder, hooked up to several wires as if they were resurrecting a zombie. Vanessa ruffles Gregory's hair before walking out of the room. She gives Freddy a reassuming grip on the shoulder on her way out.

Then she meets her boss face to face. "Gabe, I –"

He's quick to interrupt her to begin the berating. "Do you know what you've done? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!" He snaps at her. "My phone has been ringing on end for hours! Phil is threatening to sue! I have the shareholders demanding an explanation. The media is having a field day mocking us, the BBB threatens to shut us down, and our stock shares are already pummeling because of that stupid chicken!"

"I – I don't know what happened; all the diagnosis reports are coming back clean. No signs of malware corruption. And she was functioning well before the show and afterward."

"I don't want to hear your excuses! Six years and all you've given me are stupid excuses! I would have you fired if you weren't competent for my company. I want that thing decommissioned into scraps and bolts. You can explain to the entire world why your stupidity almost cost a child's life tonight." He finishes, storming out of the room with obscenities echoing in the distance.

"What I would give to drop him in a pool of electric eels and plugged hairdryers," Vanessa mumbles, rubbing her temples. Reentering Parts and Services, she sees Freddy standing over Gregory. She rushes over. She hadn't been gone for more than a couple of minutes; how did he fall asleep so fast? She gets closer to see Freddy's eyes emitting translucent blue lights, indicating how he usually scans guests for any medical emergencies.

"He is fine," Freddy said, his eyes shifting back to his usual blue orbs. "No signs of a concussion." She sighs a sigh of relief. Then she notes the prompting look Freddy was giving her. One that she concludes that he had overheard Gabe berating her. Which prompted his next question. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I've said worse things to myself." She mumbled with her eyes closed, wanting this night to be over. She doesn't open her eyes to know that Freddy is still staring at her, wanting to know more. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough to understand the severity of this situation. Is there anything we can do besides decommissioning her?" Freddy urges. He knew that Chica had not been herself for some time. He thought it had been burnout. They all thought it was something the opposite of what had happened tonight. Tonight showed that she was not the Chica the Chicken he had known for years. Instead, her entire persona changed – like they had been dealt with fighting a monster. And worse of all, it could have been preventable. All those tiny, subtle moments that lead up to tonight were ignored warnings.

Vanessa opened her eyes to stare back at him with a mix of uncertain emotions. "Please, Vanessa. Please, tell me that there is something that can be done?"

She bites her lip. "I'm sorry, Freddy, there isn't any other option."

It was Freddy's turn to be silent, glancing at Chica in the cylinder. After what seems to be forever, he responds with his eyes downcast. "I, I understand." He turned his back to her and exited through the service elevators.

She hates seeing Freddy upset, especially because she understands his distress. She knows that Monty and Roxy, while a great addition to the band, weren't the originals. It had been Freddy, Bonnie, Foxy, and Chica in the first few years. Their bond was inseparable. Again, she compares their friendship to being around multiple times in the last few centuries. Freddy would be missing his friends. First, it was Foxy, then it was Bonnie, and now it would be Chica.

Freddy cared for all of them, but she notes how he would care for Chica differently. Their relationship seemed different than what it would be with Roxy or Monty. Genuine and long-going, like they'd been friends for centuries. She often jokes that their relationship stemmed from different reincarnations. On the other hand, tonight was not a laughing matter, but it is over and done with. Now, there is a price to be paid.

"It's getting late," She wipes off her tired tears with the back of her hand and lets out a weary sigh, programming the repair bots to put Chica in the charging station behind her green room. Then she takes Gregory and leaves the building, ensuring that all lockdown protocols are in place for the night.


She felt like she hasn't slept for long. When she returned home, she had put Gregory to sleep in his own room. Then she struggled to go about the minimum yet necessary nighttime routine. It was nearing one in the morning when she was under the covers. Then there was the fact that her anxiety kept her up for what seemed like hours, recalling the nightmare of the event with intensity. She knew that the birds were chirping when she'd finally drifted to sleep. And just as she's getting ready to hit that right phase in the REM cycle, someone had to be poking her forehead repeatedly.

"Vanessa? Vanessa, wake up!"

"Gregory, you have five seconds to get out of my room, or I will twist you into a meat pretzel." She snaps, lifting the covers over her head. She heard him sigh before seemingly leaving the room, only to feel herself levitating up and down from him, jumping onto her mattress and ripping the covers off. "Are you kidding me?"

"Look," He shoves her phone in her face, the screen omitting enough brightness to alert her already tired brain. Readjusting her eyes, she sees a picture of many serial codes. "I forgot about this picture. I took this last night before I fell asleep; these serial numbers don't match up with the current flow of coordinates and –"

"Whoa, whoa! Say that in English, Einstein."

"This monitor and programming are from the dinosaur age." He continues. "It's possible that whatever has been happening with Chica before yesterday, the reason why we couldn't detect any errors –"

"Is because the current system isn't compatible enough to provide a full diagnosis. Only compatible enough to meet any performance issues." She was wide awake now. The boy nods his head vigorously, and she scoffs. "I knew Gabe was cheap. I just didn't know how far he would take that cheapness."

"Enough to not pay $500,000 for this," He shows Vanessa a website at a demonstration of software and equipment that was pricey. "We need to get a hold of these. We can review her diagnosis from a different angle. Maybe it'll be enough to pinpoint the malfunction code and remove it from her system."

"Gregory," Her hopefulness died down 1000%. "I doubt Gabe is going to support it."

"Then we could host a fundraiser."

"Okay, but how is it a guarantee even if we did? Her behavior could have stemmed from seeing the pizza."

"We don't know that for sure. But if Chica's programmed to pretend to eat pizza when she does in reality, we could talk to her about it. Get to training her to refrain from pizza and retain some skillful tactics while combating whatever she may have."

"Like an intervention?"

"Yeah. It's not practical given that Chica's a robot, but this is more for reflecting a positive image to the public. Make them change their minds, and they may protest for her to not be destroyed."

She takes her phone and dials Gabe's number.

"You better have a good reason for calling this early!" He yells cranky.

"How soon could you and the shareholders get to the PizzaPlex?"

Grumbling is heard in the background. "Within a couple of hours."

"Give them a call, and have everyone there as soon as possible. I will explain everything when the time comes." She hangs up the phone and searches for a presentable business outfit in her closet. She pushes Gregory out of her room. "You may be onto something, kid, but the next time you interrupt my sleep –"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're going to twist me into a meat pretzel. Don't see how you can do that when you got scrawny muscles." He points out. She grabs the nearest pillow to throw at him. It hits the doorframe as he dashes inside his room. "Ha!" His voice muffles from behind the door.

She rolls her eyes. I swear this kid will give me gray hairs before I'm 25.


She didn't know why she expected something different seeing Gabe with arms folded as she pulled into a parking space. At first, she would hope the man would be grateful that this idea could save the PizzaPlex. Instead, his scowl remains on his face as Vanessa and Gregory pass him. "Geez, what's up his butt?"

"Sssh, not so loud."

They enter the conference room in the presence of three women and three men dressed in expensive suits. The intimation and temptation to melt into a glop of skin tempt her. Gregory's tiny but affirmative reassuring hand squeeze told her otherwise as he sat next to her.

"Alright, Vanessa." Gabe closes the door behind him and sits next to man #3. "The floors are all yours."

"Right, well, first of all, thank you all for coming on short notice, but I promise this will be worth it." She began, recalling the tactics she learned about business from a college course. "After careful analysis, we've concluded that Chica the Chicken has suffered a malfunction, perhaps a more complex error. We'd also figured out that the current software to operate the animatronics software is outdated as the company that produced it is out of business and this 2030. Yes, it is admirable that a system from the early 2000s is still competing with today's complex technology. It fails to fully investigate areas that would have otherwise been preventable." She pulled up the website shown earlier onto the projector. "And with this, we have devised a plan. We obtain this software; we can pinpoint the errors on Chica and get her to function properly. We're also prepared to stage an intervention for her to go through the motions of reinventing herself to show the public a positive image. Thus, saving the PizzaPlex and maximizing your profits."

Man #2 laughs. "Ha! An intervention? An intervention for a robot programmed to eat pizza, that's your idea? Pathetic." He rolled his eyes.

Woman #2 scoffs. "And you're asking us to up put half a million dollars for new software? With the millions of dollars this place pulls in monthly, you mean to tell us that there hasn't been updated equipment to lessen liabilities?" They were picking at her like she was the one who made Chica go haywire.

Woman #1 adds. "With all due respect, Vanessa. I'm impressed by your ability to devise such a brilliant plan. However, $500,000 is asking for too much. The return in investment pales compared to the millions of dollars we'd lost after this incident went viral."

"Come on! Don't you believe in second chances?" Gregory asks. "Whatever happened to 'if you don't succeed at first, try again?' This can work!"

Man #1 sighs. "Sonny, it's nothing personal, but this isn't no lemonade stand. This is grown folks' business."

"With all due respect, sir, don't underestimate Gregory; he's a lot smarter than you're taking him to be," Vanessa interjects. "He's the one who detected the systems outdated and told me of this software."

A scoff from Man #3 "This generation really thinks they're 'smart' just because they could work on a computer. I had to build my business out of literal sweat and blood. You played a game on Fortnite and think you come up with an idea off the internet and that you hold the key to success?" He stands up. "This was a waste of my time. I'm out of here."

"I second that." Woman #2 states along with Woman #3 and Man #1. They all exit except for Woman #1, who motions to Gabe to chat in a private corner of the room. Vanessa sighs, seeing Gregory's furious expression. "Sorry, kiddo. They operate on a different level."

"But what are we going to do now? We have to get that software Vanessa; we can't destroy Chica. It's stupid that they think spending money to replace something is easier than fixing what's here." He mumbles.

Woman #1 approaches them. Oh great, Vanessa thought. More degrading from people who think they know it all just because they have money.

"You have quite an outspoken child," She starts with a warm tone. "I admire both of you and your rather complex approach to technology." She hands Vanessa her card. "Should anything change with Fazbear Entertainment, I would love to discuss your future with my company." She leaves with her back turned, and Gregory mocks her words.

Gabe hands her a pamphlet. It was the map of the layout of the PizzaPlex. Why is he giving this to her? Feeling prompted to open it, she bends the flaps, revealing a check for their desired amount. She stares at it speechless.

"Consider this as a last resort," He warns. "Two weeks and not a second more. Permanently end Chica's software malfunction, or else I'll make sure no place will ever hire you other than McDonald's." He then turns to Gregory. "And that you will end up in an orphanage in Timbuktu."

Oof, wrong choice of words, Gabe.

Gregory rolls his eyes. "Uh-huh. Will that happen before or after your wife divorces and sues you over for every penny because you were screwing other women?" A shocked expression is on Gabe's face, and he glares at Vanessa.

"I swear, I have no idea where he would have gotten that." She defends with an equally surprised expression. However, the moment Gabe leaves, a slight smirk displays on her face.