Lore pieces used for this fic! I'm using the idea that William managed to find another suit before fnaf 6. Vanessa is Vanny, but she's freed from Afton's control. That should be it.
SpringBonnie stands in complete silence. He is frozen, unable to move an inch.
Police sirens break the quiet, their blue and red lights flashing throughout the diner. The chaos isn't over just yet, but the diner has long been cleared out. Nothing is left besides the blood stains covering both the floor and Fredbear's mouth.
SpringBonnie lets his eyes fall shut. He opens them again seconds later, too afraid of what the darkness may bring him. He doesn't want to remember it, the horror that had just occurred. He doesn't want to acknowledge that it happened, that a child's skull was-
Fredbear hasn't moved since then. He just stands there, still as ever. It makes SpringBonnie want to shout and scream. He has to resist the urge to move again, to just turn around and check on his partner. Fredbear should be moving, even with his malfunction. The police aren't watching. All of the customers have been turned away and the party members are at the hospital now. There's no reason for Fredbear to stay like this.
Then again, SpringBonnie could say the same for himself.
The front door opens, a different looking officer walking forward. Their creator is following after whoever it is, his eyes puffy and red. All eyes are on Fredbear and as they get closer to the stage, SpringBonnie can see their this new person isn't an officer at all. They're not wearing the uniform. Then who is this?
"A malfunction, huh? I guess I wouldn't know enough about robots to say." The stranger is casual as they look over Fredbear's still form. "Shit, that's a lot of blood. And I thought the head itself was bad." His eyes go to Henry Emily, then his voice goes soft. "Sorry, that's insensitive. I'm sorry for your loss."
Henry shakes him away. "William's handling that now. I just need to know what's expected of us from now on. If...if we'll have to close the diner for good."
SpringBonnie jolts, but no one seems to notice.
"Well...it's hard to say. I don't think anyone would want to come back here after rumor gets around. Who knows how these old guys may malfunction again. You could have even more accidents on your hands." Henry wilts at the news, but the stranger grabs him by the shoulders reassuringly. "Look, Henry, I'm not businessman. If it were me, I'd just throw out these animatronics and use normal old suits instead, but I'm not you. Or William."
"So, you won't make us close down?" Henry sounds genuinely surprised.
"Nah. As far as I'm aware, this was all a big accident and as long as your animatronics stay up to code, there shouldn't be a reason to close the diner."
Henry smiles up at them for a moment, but it quickly falls again. "I...I should talk to William about this. And Michael. I may want to keep the diner open, but if they want to close down, then I have to respect that."
The stranger pats him on the back and the turn away, starting to leave the diner again. "The team will come by and clean up the blood, but I'll leave the animatronic to you, Henry. You'll give him a better send off than I could."
Send off. They're sending Fredbear off, taking him away. He'll be retired from the stage. No, decommissioned. Henry's going to tear Fredbear apart. SpringBonnie will never see him again.
He moves, then, not caring who sees anymore. "Fredbear?" He asks, the panick making his voice box squeak. "Please move. Please. The kid's gone, see? You can move again?" He lets the banjo fall to the stage with a loud crack, but he doesn't care. His entire focus is on Fredbear, who's still not responding. He's not moving. Something definitely wrong.
"Love?" SpringBonnie is in front of him now, his hand gently touching the other's face, even with the blood. He doesn't care anymore. "Please talk to me!"
"Hello?" Someone's coming inside. He doesn't recognize the voice. It doesn't matter.
"Fredbear!" He shouts, now desperate as he shakes Fredbear's body. He doesn't move. Fredbear just stays there, locked in place. "Fredbear!"
"Hey, Mr. Emily! The other one's acting up now!"
There are other voices. They get closer, but SpringBonnie doesn't pay them mind. He just holds onto his partner until someone shuts him off. Until he's reduced to nothing but a hollow costume again.
The worst of it has blown over already, but the Mega Pizzaplex still has a ways to go before it's considered functional again. The biggest issues are filling up the giant hole under Roxy's Raceway where Afton had been. It's a job best left to the construction crew, so Freddy focuses on keeping everyone else safe.
"How has Gregory been?" Freddy stands beside Vanessa, both of them watching as the various workers pull up loads upon loads of rubble. They have yet to find Afton's body after it was taken by that blob thing, but Freddy keeps hope. He'll ensure that the monster finally dies this time.
"He's been working through the nightmares." Vanessa lets out a tired sigh. "Still no mention of whoever his parents were, but I'm starting to think he won't be ready for that for a long time."
Freddy nods slowly. After that night, Gregory become Vanessa's child for the time being. As much as Freddy would've loved keeping the boy close, he knew Gregory couldn't stay with him in the Pizzaplex forever. He needed a home with humans, not just animatronics. "Let me know if there is anything he needs. Or if you need anything. We all want to support you, Vanessa."
The security guard just shrugs as she starts back toward the exit. "Just focus on the others, alright? I'm not sure what happened to them, but if they start acting that aggressive again, then we'll have some big problems." She gives a wave before leaving. Just as she exits, Bonnie comes in through the other door, his eyes already set on Freddy.
Freddy doesn't speak until Bonnie is right next to him. They were the only two animatronics still conscious that night. The rest had somehow lost their minds, going against their own programming to attack an innocent child. It was hard for Freddy to watch, but it was so much worse for Bonnie, who had seen it before. He saw Monty change like that earlier and barely survived.
The two never rarely talk anymore because of it. Now, they can't even be in the same room together.
"How've you been holding up, Freddy?" Bonnie asks, sounding genuinely concerned.
"I have been fine, thank you." He isn't lying either. With Gregory being taken care of and the rest now repaired from the damage done, there isn't much for him to worry about. Well, except for one thing. "Do you think they will find him?" He doesn't need further explanation.
Bonnie looks toward the hole just as another team brings up a load of rock, broken wood and wires. They cleared out the pizzeria first, then the monitors and charging stations. Now they just have to stabilize the area so they could fill it in.
A hand takes hold of Freddy's and he turns to Bonnie properly. "I think they'll take care of it, Freddy." The rabbit gives him a smile, the expression making Freddy's heart melt. Something about his partner puts him at ease unlike anything else. It gives him the courage to move on. It's the only reason he managed to survive that horrible night.
But the worries still press. "What if they don't? We have learned that fire does nothing and we cannot trust the other souls to keep him at bay. What if he gets released again?" He doesn't want all the work of those before him to amount to nothing. It may have just been a few moments, but Freddy can remember those nights in the security office, checking cameras over and over. He remembers burning alive with that monster, hoping it would finally be the end.
Why will Afton never rest? What more is there to live for?
"They'll find him, Freddy. And if they don't, then he'll be buried under a hundred tons of dirt. There's no escaping that, even for him." Freddy still isn't sure, though. Afton escaped fire. He escaped his death too many times and if he's still on their databases, then-
"Hey, Boss! Get a look at this!" A worker shouts and Freddy leans over the railing, his entire body beginning to shake with dread. A group has formed around the latest pile. They uncovered something. Something more important than old wires and tables. Something possibly dangerous.
Did they find him? He hopes so. Then they can finally destroy Afton in a way that's permanent. They can extract every ounce of remnant from his dying body and finally damn him to hell.
Freddy closes his eyes for a moment, forcing the thoughts away. He can't think like that, even about Afton. He's not the same person anymore.
Movement next to him pulls Freddy back to the present and he sees Bonnie begin walking down the stairs to join the crew. Freddy follows after him, wanting to ask if he caught a glimpse, but he stays silent. His processors are working overtime by this point. If he had a human heart, then it would be heating out of his chest.
"What is it?" One worker asks. Freddy sees them reach forward with the end of a shovel before they get pushed away by someone else. It's likely for the best they don't poked whatever they found.
Once they're finally in the crowd, Freddy gets a full view. His jaw hangs wide open as fresh memories come back to him. It felts impossible. No, it is impossible. He's seen many things over his times as a security guard, has witnessed demons returning too many times for his own liking but this...he never thought he would see this suit again.
Somehow, the SpringBonnie suit looks worse than Freddy last remembered from Fazbear Frights. It's still a sickly green color with many parts missing, but now there are little plants growing along the fabric. It's decayed in several parts and the metal under it is rusted badly, but it's still there in it's glory. The SpringBonnie suit from all those years ago, originally created by Afton in the late 70s, has returned.
This time, without a corpse inside.
Freddy jumps when he feel something touch him. He turns to see Bonnie's eyes move slowly from the suit to Freddy, the message clear. He finds it just as impossible. Of course he does. He worked as a security guard too and although he never went to Fazbear Frights, he still heard about this suit. Every employee knew about the springlock suits.
"It's not him." Freddy says at last, feeling the need to state it for himself more than anything. "The corpse it gone. It's not Burntrap." And just as he said it, he realizes it's true. The Afton they saw before wasn't like this. He was a real skeleton. He was missing different parts. This was just the suit itself.
"Do we take it to the dump?" The first worker askes, his eyes going from Freddy to the site manager, as if the animatronic has any say in that decision. But then the manager looks at him too, considering for a moment.
She shakes her head. "No. We'll take it to Parts and Service. If this thing still works, then it'll be a historical item. We should salvage as much of it as possible." With that, she's leaving, as if they had just found a sparkling rock.
Despite the fact Freddy agrees with her, he still feel the need to protest. Salvage the suit? Perhaps if they took out the inner mechanics of it and set the costume itself up for display, just like they had done with the original Foxy casing. But there's no way this thing can still work. It probably can't even lock in the springs anymore without breaking something. There is just too much rust.
Freddy watches numbly as the teach carefully puts the suit on a cart and rolls it into the nearest elevator. They really are going to try and fix it up, huh. Freddy has to be there to see it. He needs to. He was the last one to see that suit before it was burnt-
Wait. The suit doesn't look burnt. Did he really light Fazbear Frights on fire just for Afton to escape without a worry?
"Freddy." Bonnie's voice comes back and he turns to his partner. Their hands lock together easily and Freddy finds relief in the contact. He isn't that person anymore. He's Glamrock Freddy now.
Just like how Bonnie is no longer the boy who died to the bite of 87.
"It's not him, Bonnie. We can trust the suit." He watches Bonnie's eyes slowly soften. They stay like that for a long moment, just staring at each other, but it doesn't matter who sees. Freddy needs to make sure they're on the same page.
"I trust you, Freddy." Bonnie finally said, looking completely sure of himself. And Freddy, by extension. "Let's go see if it still works."
With that, the pair begin making their way toward Parts and Service. They'll tell vanessa and the others about this later, once they're sure it wouldn't bring back any unwanted souls.
You know the drill! I haven't written anything but this chapter yet, but if people like it, I'll keep going!