Choice 1: There wasn't a choice
"Gregory" The robotic bear called, his voice softly ringing throughout the pizzaplex.
Gregory turned around to face Freddy, his eyes baggy and tired. It was 6 o'clock, the doors were open. The boy could escape, finally this nightmare could end. All he wanted to do was leave. Yet… Gregory had nowhere to turn. He'd been trapped in the pizza plex for weeks, surviving on pizza and fizzy drinks. Only today had he been caught, and now he had to leave. That or he could go on a suicide mission and try to finish off Vanny.
The boy looked up to his companion, the only ally he had throughout the entirety of his nightmare. Freddy Fazbear. In only 6 hours since midnight his body had completely degraded. His once pristine glistening exoskeleton was now nothing more than a scuffed and dirty plastic and metal. Gregory felt bad.
He felt worse for the others though, Monty was split in two, Chica had his vocal box ripped out, and Roxy's eyes were plucked out. All thanks to him. What made it worse is he somewhat lied to Freddy, he played off the damage he did as an accident. Yet he was entirely responsible for their breakdowns.
"Gregory, you have a choice to make" The animatronic told Gregory, his heavy arm resting on his shoulders, his glowing yellow eyes staring over the boy. His voice carried a strange distorted echo, one he heard from Chica as she hunted him.
"The door is open and you can go. Or you can continue to investigate the pizzaplex. I feel there is something else going on besides Vanny." The big bear told him, there in his mind Gregory could feel the choices bearing down on him.
"If I go, nothing changes. People will still go missing, Vanny will still hurt people, I… I don't even have a place to go…" The young boy teared up, looking up at his hero. His protector.
"Don't you have a family… a mother, a father… Maybe a sister or… brother?" The bear looked over the boy, his stare soft and compassionate despite his lack of a soul.
"Mom and Dad…. No… Look, I need to come clean. I've been hiding things from you Freddy. I've been here for a long time, since this place opened to the public. I woke up in a small room behind the daycare, I woke up inside of a chest. I've been stealing pizza and living off of what I can. If I go, I have nothing…. Please Freddy we can go together, we can hide together." Gregory's shirt was wrinkled, the two stripes crumpled and grey, covered in a thick layer of dust. His cheek was scratched and roughed, the bandage on his cheek barely hanging on.
"No Gregory, I cannot come with you. My program will not allow it, I can't even collect a charge. You must leave, it is too dangerous to keep you here, I want you to stay, I want to protect you. But Vanny and the others will stop at nothing to find you. We… You cannot stay here." Gregory was crying as he heard his only friend tell him to leave.
"Please Micheal don't leave me alone again!" Gregory shouted, but covering his mouth, after the words came out of his mouth.
The boy looked back at the bear who stared at him with a soft smile, though the boy could tell something was being processed in his mind. The glint in his robotic eyes quickly ended.
"Micheal, who is Micheal? Is he your friend? You should go to him, if he is important than per-"
"Freddy, I don't know who Micheal is… I just know that name." Gregory looked shocked as if he had discovered something new. "M-Maybe Michael is the guy who brought me here. I remember somebody knocking on the chest I was trapped in when I woke up… M-Maybe we can find him, We can figure out why he brought me here!" A revived look overcame the child, a smile came over him, and his smile shot up. He could stay a little bit longer, he was sure employees would soon fill the pizzaplex.
For a moment Gregory didn't realize a reaction from Freddy. He looked up, staring the robot in the eyes, though they didn't look back. There was no glow coming from the robot. His arm became incredibly heavy and started to weigh down on Gregory's arm.
"F-Freddy?" The lost child asked, he tried to lift the arm up, but as he did so, the animatronic bear slumped to the ground, his eyes flickering off and on. The boy crumbled to his knees shaking the bear trying to get them to wake up. To react. "FREDDY! FREDDY! COME ON FREDDY! WAKE UP" Tears shot out the kid's eyes, his breathing off paced and rapid.
Gregory stood up, looking at something trying to find out what was happening. He ran to the front desk trying to find if something was interfering with the building's electricity. He wouldn't find the answer.
"Are You Having Fun Yet?" A familiar voice sang.
Gregory ran out of the counter, seeing the dancing rabbit slowly come towards him, their speed slow and steady but their terrifying presence filling Gregory with fear. His knees went weak, and dark lines filled his vision.
"Gregorrryyyyy" Vanny sang, her leaps getting closer and closer with each movement. Her arms swayed side to side, uncaring and free, but full of danger and ruthlessness.
The lost boy slowly moved back towards the exit, his eyes never leaving her but his vision remaining blurry. His body is slowly getting slower and weaker. "L-Leave me alone Vanny, Why are you doing this!"
"Gregory~ Our Family Is looking for you, We miss you both so much~" She replied, though only confusing Gregory more than he needed to be.
Something hit Gregory's back, he shot his eyes up to see Freddy standing over him. Though something was wrong. He wasn't himself. His eyes looked as they did when he saw him on the stage before he collapsed.
Two heavy hands landed on his shoulder pressing him down and keeping him there. Faintly, Gregory tried to escape the bear's grip. Yet he could not move. "F-Fre-Freddy W-We need to go."
"I cannot move Gregory, I am not in control." He said, his voice monotone and clear. Vanny only got closer, until she stood only a few feet away from Gregory and Freddy. At this point, Freddy was holding Gregory up, his hands planted firmly under his arms.
"Vanessa… Vanny…. Please let him go" Freddy begged, though with no emotion, no sign of determination of protective want. "Elizabeth… please"
Neither party reacted, Gregory was too out of it, Freddy couldn't react, and Vanny stood there staring at both of them with no look other than the one her mask made.
"I want us to be a family again" She replied after unending silence. She came too close to Freddy and Gregory, staring down at the weak boy, whose mouth hung open as he made weak attempts to get loose.
"Poor Gregory, it seems you need a controlled shock!" Vanny pressed a taser-like object against Gregory's chest.
"You cannot use that! It will kill him, It is not meant for humans!" Freddy protested.
Vanny didn't react, she gestured towards Freddy's eyes and laughed, a suggestive comment. Something Gregory was clueless about. She turned the shocker on, which caused a painful burning and electrocuting feeling throughout his entire body. He felt a sudden paralysis go throughout his body and his entire body fell over, Freddy now having to fully support him.
Yet Gregory, for the most part, was entirely fine. His vision even cleared, he could see Vanny without the black lines interfering and messing with his vision.
"Freddy, Pick up little Gregory for me please…" She asked kindly, her voice robotic just like Freddy's.
The robot obeyed, lifting Gregory and cradling him in his arms. Gregory's arm slouched at the side, as his head tilted over to the side. Gregory couldn't even say anything as he felt his entire body just felt off.
"Follow Me" Vanny asked of both of them, A shiver went through Gregory's body, as for Freddy. Although nobody could see it, he was scared that if his systems were forced to a minimalist point then he'd be fully aware, fully ready.
Freddy did as he was told, they followed Vanny, her slow skipping methodic and tactful. She chuckles fast and inconsistent. They walked through the Pizzaplex step by step, moving through the galleria, past the animatronics rooms, finally stopping at the main stage area. Gregory started to shuffle a little, but only made small movements..
"F-F-Fred-Freddy-... W-where…. a-a-are we g-going?" Gregory asked, his voice sounding slightly different, almost like it was malfunctioning.
"Poor Gregory, Don't you want to see your family again?" Vanny asked, she didn't turn around, they kept walking until they arrived at a closed off point in the pizzeria mall. Gregory was there earlier collecting parts for Freddy's upgrades.
"I do not know Gregory, I cannot fight back. I am sorry." The robot kept stomping towards the area, before finding an elevator, one hidden by construction. On the sides of the elevator were four animatronics. Freddy knew all of them, in a way so did Gregory.
Roxane, Chica, Monty and even… Bonnie too. The whole group was there, standing quietly next to the elevator. For Monty he was on the floor but… that was the least of his concerns. No noise was heard from them. Instead they stood like guards to a royal family, particularly with Vanny prancing like a Princess. She opened the elevator walking inside, giggling.
"This elevator is not safe, it will not allow us to leave," Freddy commented.
"Exactly," The rabbit said.
She pressed the button, the animatronics disappearing as the three succumbed to the elevator's downward push, sinking further into the complex before disappearing under the megaplex.
"I have been here before, they have brought me here, I was chasing them… Gregory, something is down here. It is evil, pure evil. Gregory we must escape, we must leave." The bear's emotion returned, a sudden urge that could not be downplayed by programming. However his body would not respond.
Vanny only laughed.
The elevator landed and the dust settled. Gregory looked around, it looked… familiar. Freddy must have thought so too. The boy stared at the decor, it was burnt and charred. Ash and dust crusted along the walls.
Vanny stopped skipping, she just walked. There was a large hole in the ground, its shape large enough to fit equipment and people down there. How many more people have been down there, what was happening down there, it looked like a collapsed tunnel.
Freddy, with Gregory in his arms, followed. They came across something akin to a security office, along with a bed inside. A child's bed, the covering looked remarkably similar to Gregory.
Freddy looked down at the boy, who was awestruck. The group of three then came across a large mount of wire and steel, with a few masks and hooks poking out of it. Gregory could feel something, an energy. It was angry, so angry. It even seemed angry at them. He had no idea why. He didn't even know what this thing was.
They kept moving forward, until Vanny led them to a room. Within the room 5 chairs were set about. On one chair a ballerinas mask was held. In front of that chair lay a cake split into 5 pieces. Each piece had something on top.
The piece facing the front of the table had the same ballerina mask that the chair held. Left to it held a mask with a doll with bright red cheeks. To the far Left held a purple security badge. To the right of the center held a golden bonnie mask, with black eyes and bright white teeth. To the far right, held a golden freddy mask, with no eyes and no teeth. It looked empty and hollow.
Vanny sat down first, she took the first chair to the left. Then like a natural instinct took over Freddy put Gregory on the chair with the Golden Freddy Slice. Looking at the slice caused Gregory to gag, his mind suddenly felt cramped and tight, his body weak and trapped. It was like a prison he'd been in for years suddenly returned to him. Freddy took a seat at the security badge seat.
They all looked at each other, a feeling washing over all of them. Freddy, Gregory, Vanny.
Vanny took her mask off, revealing Vanessa's obvious face hidden beneath. There was a look on her face, like a conflict she could never be rid of faded away.
Gregory was slowly gaining strength in his limbs, and managed to sit up almost properly. The sight was strange to be sure, he was slumped and his body looked curved in an almost unnatural way.
The whole situation was strange. Each of them knew each other, and they knew they had a connection deeper than tonight's events.
"I- You- We- What is this?" The child asked first, looking first at Freddy, then at Vanessa who seemed shocked and Ill prepared for whatever came next.
Freddy spoke next, his voice drastically changed though. Almost human with a distinct accent, along with a robotic reverb, "1983 four days before your birthday… I had a foxy mask over my head. I was hidden under your bed. You couldn't find me for a long time, you spoke to that little bear so much. Father spoiled you. I was… bad to you, I scared you and you wouldn't stop crying for hours."
Gregory looked confused. He had no idea what Freddy was saying to him, he looked at Vanessa whose eyes just wouldn't blink as Freddy named the event. "Wha-" Gregory tried to ask.
"Four days after that, you… I killed you" Gregory was taken aback, he was becoming scared. The robot did what? Gregory wasn't even an adult, how could he be from 1983.
"1990" Freddy kept Gregory from finishing. "Father took you to one of his locations… He told you to stay away from the animatronics, just as he told him…. You didn't come home… Then he stopped coming home. In 1993 Henry and I found him. He died too…"
Vanessa didn't respond either. She looked at the cake she was given, as did the other two characters in the room. There was a long silence between the three of them. Before one more story.
"6 years ago… I died too… In the fire… In this building. My body is still down here, but my soul is not. My body wasn't real either… I died long before that too. This is. I've just ended up like all the others. My soul is trapped in this suit, just as your friends were Gregory… My friends' souls are trapped in the others above this place."
"F-Freddy you aren't working, Y-You need to be reset." Vanessa stuttered, looking at her hands, then at the cake slice with the baby on it.
"No Elizabeth" Freddy Started.
"I'm just Va-Vanessa, I'm not some girl who died thirty odd years ag-"
Freddy Slammed the table. Gregory was taken aback, not seeing the animatronic get angry. "YOU ARE, YOU ARE NOT VANESSA, I AM NOT FREDDY FAZBEAR, HE IS ONLY A COPY OF THE REAL GREGORY, YOU ARE THE REAL GREGORY BUT YOU ARE NOT THE REAL YOU!"
The bear seemed to refuse to make sense as the two others continued to relish in confusion.
"We are not just Gregory, Freddy, and Vanessa… You are Elizabeth Afton, You are Gregory Afton, I am… Micheal Afton… We are Afton…"
On cue, 5 metal fingers, sharp and pointed with twisted steel pressed against the opening of the door. Fingerless bones scratched against the wall, the scrapping of old metal and weak fainted breaths of man that has been dead for a long… long time.
"CHILDREN" The voice spoke, the single word was drawn out, a robotic reverb present that was much weaker than the one existing on Freddy. The gurgling of the throat long and present, and the fear that the volume imposed, tremendous.
A pair of torn up, rotten bunny ears shoved into the room first. Wires and metal sticking far out of it. Then the head. A mangled lower jaw dried off any blood it once contained, the muscles thick and dense. The teeth are almost entirely gone. Two eyes that should have been human were nothing more than two dark purple dots. As the body slowly shuffled into the room, more of its body was revealed. There was barely anything left, a little bit of muscle and organs, a little bit of animatronic skin, and a poorly preserved rusted exoskeleton.
Vanessa and Gregory shook in fright, a fear resonating deep within them as they looked at the creature. Freddy, or Micheal on the other hand only tightened his robotic fist, and felt the anger build with himself. His eyes changed from the colorful orbs to two white dots akin to the dead animatronic.
"Father… You are dead…" He spoke softly.
"YOU SHOULD- SHOULD- SHOULD KN-KNOW BY NOW M-MICHAEL THAT WE DON'T DIE!" The terrifying robot replied to his title being called. The robot shuffled standing in the doorway, its jaw hanging. Forever changed. Its voice glitched horribly, stuttering in the same emotionless tone over and over. Gregory and Vannessa refused to believe their eyes. In no right sense were they related, nor were they related to Freddy and this monster in front of them. What they were witnessing was a nightmare.
"YOU'VE DIED TWICE, YOU AND TH-THAT BASTARD HENRY AND THOSE PATHETIC CHILDREN HAVE KILLED ME OVER AND OVER AGAIN, ELIZABETH HAS DIED TOO, AND YOU KILLED YOUR BROTHER. I HAVE FIXED YOU ALL, AND I HAVE FIXED US AGAIN. WE ARE A FAMILY AGAIN, BECAUSE WE ALWAYS COME BACK"
