Vanessa flitted around her office, which she'd "cleaned out." Namely, she just picked up everything in the middle of the room and pushed it somewhere else to be delt with later. In the middle of the room was a chair with a small table beside it. Electrical devices sat on and beside the table. She pulled her computer desk–a small dining table with a computer on it–around so it was closer. Finally, she attached a giant pair of pinchers to the top of the chair.
She took a step back to check over her work area. She nudged the table beside the chair with her knee. It wobbled precariously. She set a rolled-up bit of cable once tucked in a corner beside the electronics. She scooted two Christmas tree bases under the table to attach to two legs while the other two legs rested on hardback books. She nudged it again. The table stayed firm, for the most part. Still, an aggressive motion, especially one with strength, would topple it and damage her electronics.
Guess she would just have to be careful.
Vanessa left her office. Sun and Gregory sat on the floor playing Rock, Paper, Scissors. Gregory played paper and Sun scissors. Gregory puffed but didn't actually complain. Vanessa called, "Sun, I need to see you."
The daycare attendant and Gregory looked up at her. Gregory said a goodbye and walked further into the living room, out of sight of the hallway. Sun pushed himself to his feet and approached Vanessa, and then ducked under the doorway into her office when she stepped aside. He froze.
Vanessa walked around to her computer. "We are away from the mall, but…" She heaved a sigh. "Gregory freed the others. And he freed me. That's because Gregory destroyed his link. He didn't tamper with them directly. I just…helped." She swallowed, staring down at her computer. "But he didn't touch you. I did. So, I need to reverse what I did directly. Okay? Just… sit down and I'll get this over quickly. Okay?"
"Er…" Sun looked at the chair, and then back at her. "I don't remember any time you actually tampered with our programming. Was it something you did remotely?"
"No. You broke or bent something, or a kid did something to you, I don't know. What I know is you were in Parts and Service, and I deliberately messed with something they put in you. I had to manually pass it through the debug system and your own firewall. Everyone else was… easy." The words came out like sandpaper. Ugh, why wouldn't he sit down already?! "Just please, listen to me. I won't hurt you, okay? Not unless I feel like someone's in danger."
Sun sent another look at the chair but obeyed. She knew that since she was no longer an employee of Fazbear Entertainment, thus no longer his superior, he didn't have to take her orders. Even if he did, she didn't want to. Heh. She'd changed three different dentists because they freaked her out until one came along that was somehow magical in kindness. Maybe the animatronics, maybe the daycare attendant in specific, felt the same way. They grew to eventually fear all mechanics because of what some could, or did, do to them. That wasn't a consideration she would have taken prior to… him… but she knew better, now.
Once Sun was sitting down, she took the cable resting on the table and wrapped it tight around his elbow and wrist to the chair. "Now, I'm not going to hurt you, but this equipment was pretty freaking expensive. I don't want you accidentally bumping into it. I know you probably don't like it, so I tied it by your wrist so you could untie it with your other hand if it really becomes too overwhelming. Now, try and move your arm. Seriously try, this is extremely important."
The daycare attendant didn't look at her, but she could see him relax just a little bit upon being given the option to free himself. He didn't have the same joints as the other animatronics and could move in inhuman ways. Sun didn't often do that, but Moon like moving in crazy, creepy ways. She'd once seen him standing on his hand, but his body bent far enough forward that his feet touched the ground before him, and his head rotated so that he could see ahead from under his own back.
Again, creepy.
Fortunately for Vanessa, he couldn't actually fold his hands, so he was stuck at the wrist. Although he could worm his way out if he got up, his elbow was fastened too tight to knock into the table. She hummed and put a thoughtful finger to her lips. He could twist around and knock the table over with his shoulder. The leverage would allow him to move his arm through the cables and potentially wiggle them free. But, from where he tried without using the rest of his body, he could not move. That's if he couldn't use his hand.
Sun stopped trying and looked up at her.
"Good. Thank you. Now, I know this sounds medieval, but…" Vanessa walked around behind him and fastened the pinchers onto his head. "I do need you responsive through this. If you move your head too much, you might break something of yours. Now that would be tough to fix. I don't want to hurt you. I hurt you before, and now I want to fix it." She kept her voice brisk, mostly as she focused on repeating the words she'd carefully construed and practiced. Sun was patient and obedient, and she knew for a fact he had no ill will toward her nor would he attempt violence upon anyone.
However, Moon was a different story. She made sure of that.
Considering Sun and Moon were two halves of a whole, and Moon could hear her and was probably jeering at her at this moment, she had to pretend she was talking to Moon directly. Or at least consider that she was talking to him indirectly.
Vanessa hooked up a wire to the back of Sun's neck where some more wiring wriggled into his metal endoskeleton. He didn't have the same endoskeleton as any other animatronic they had, but he still technically had one, albeit one that was more akin to a stick figure than an actual body. She meddled with the device the wire connected to. The orange button with a little yellow lightning bolt lit up. She pulled open the plate on the back of his head and inspected the board presented to her. Vanessa plugged in a wire connecting him to her computer.
"Now, this might take a second. Just be patient."
"Okay."
She wrinkled her nose at the tone Sun had taken. Guilt wormed within her, just as strong as it had been since that morning. She didn't talk about that morning and its events, and no one else did, either. Well, except for Gregory. But mostly it was his curiosity about why Freddy had been different rather than anything having to do with him.
Damn, his code was more complex than she thought. That or she just wasn't used to it. The other animatronics followed extremely similar programming, almost like they were cut and pasted. Maybe being a rockstar was different than being a babysitter. Go figure.
Eventually, she found something disgustingly familiar. No wonder Sun was so antsy and emotionally unstable. She pretty much installed a negative feedback loop into him! She pulled it into a program on her computer and messed with it there rather than in the daycare attendant directly. She frowned at her computer. She really was a mean genius. Technically, she wrote it so she could reverse it.
Once satisfied, she brought it back to the daycare attendant to directly reprogram him.
Throughout the whole procedure, Sun had been very still and quiet. It made sense; animatronics didn't need to breathe, so he probably wouldn't be moving. She was fairly surprised he was that still, though, considering she expected maybe some finger twitching at the least. Something that allow him to maybe register something other than her and the procedure. But he didn't.
Vanessa ran through more of what she had originally changed and attacked it. She didn't really need to bother with anything further than where she was.
After messing with the same bit of code for a while, she pushed away from her computer. "Okay. I'm going to turn out the lights, now."
"Are you sure?" Sun burst out.
"Yes." Vanessa flicked the switch. The lights stayed on. She hurried back to her computer and waited. After ten seconds elapsed, the lights turned off.
Now the daycare moved, twitching and pulling into themself. The spokes around his head shifted in to be replaced with a navy blue and yellow speckled night cap. Gold and red turned to blue and white and sharp yellow. There were more layers to his costume, but she wouldn't be able to see them without a blacklight.
A quiet, chilling cackle followed Moon's complete transformation.
Vanessa leaned to the side to look at his face. Small red lights glimmered where his pupils would be. She stepped back and went to her computer. She opened a new document and tapped at the keys, pretending to type. She saw his free hand approach the cable holding his arm in place.
Vanessa pressed the orange button.
Moon jolted and seized up at the massive current that crackled and visibly sparked where the wire touched the metal of his neck, then went completely limp. His free arm slipped off the arm of the chair and dangled uselessly by his side. The red lights in his eyes turned off. After a few seconds, the lights in his eye flickered back to life, and he pulled his hand back.
"Don't make me do that again," Vanessa stated bluntly. "I have two more controlled shocks until I begin to damage your wiring. Considering Gregory and my own safety is more important than you, please don't test me."
Moon growled at her. "You said you wouldn't hurt us." Still, he didn't try to untie his arm again.
"I won't, unless you make me defend myself," Vanessa stated.
Moon seethed, "Liar."
"I'm not lying. I wouldn't hurt you unless I absolutely felt like I was in danger." Vanessa went back to the actual document and combed through it. Sun and Moon shared a lot of code, but some pieces "went dark" or locked while Moon was awake, and Sun was asleep and vice versa.
Vanessa gritted her teeth against a yawn.
Moon chortled. "Is someone tired~?"
"No." Vanessa reached for her mug and raised it to her lips, only to find hardly a few drops of her favorite bean juice pooled at the bottom. She set down the mug and wiped her hands down her face. "I'm awake, I'm awake. You are, too."
"It's dark and you're tired. You should sleep," Moon suggested.
Vanessa chuckled dryly. "Yeah, sing me a lullaby and maybe I will." She stretched as long as she could and went back to working.
After a short moment, Moon began to sing, his voice quiet, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
"How I wonder what you are!
"Up above the world so high,
"Like a diamond in the sky.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
"How I wonder what you are!"
Vanessa, after getting over her mild surprise, tried to go back to work and block out the noise. Right, he probably was programmed to know a whole bunch of lullabies and songs for sleepy toddlers. She muffled another yawn.
"Then the traveler in the dark,
"Thanks you for your tiny spark,
"He could not see which way to go,
"If you did not twinkle so.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
"How I wonder what you are!"
Everything was looking normal, though she did have to squint and go through the lines at least twice considering she could hardly concentrate. Why did she deem this a good idea to do right now after spending an entire night anxious and pissed and possessed and wandering a mall?
"In the dark blue sky you keep,
"And often through my curtains peep,
"For you never shut your eye,
"Till the sun is in the sky.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
"How I wonder what you are!"
Vanessa jolted as she felt herself falling forward. She bit her tongue and stretched again. Come on, anything to stay awake! Did he just not get that disturbing the contact between him and her computer could mess him up? Or did he not understand she was trying to help? Was this just a joke to him?
"As your bright and tiny spark,
"Lights the traveler in the dark,
"Though I know not what you are,
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
"How I wonder what you are!"
Vanessa ignored him. His red eyes gleamed in the dark. Ugh, if only she could have the light on! The computer light in this dark of a room was going to murder her vision.
When he got no response, Moon sang another one. "When I'm worried and I can't sleep,
"I count my blessings instead of sheep,
"And I fall asleep counting my blessings."
Vanessa didn't have time for this. She needed to fix him so that no freak accident happened if the power went out. Also, she could just imagine the power bill in her little apartment if the lights were left on all night.
"When my bankroll is getting small,
"I think of when I had none at all.
"And I fall asleep counting my blessings."
Heh. Well, she knew that part a little too well, especially considering her circumstances. Maybe all her money went into a murder fund while she wasn't looking.
"I think about a nursery, and I picture curly heads,
"And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds."
That's what he did, right?
"If you're worried and you can't sleep,
"Just count your blessings instead of sheep.
"And you'll fall asleep counting your blessings."
He stopped singing.
Vanessa, finding that she'd both stopped typing and paying attention to the computer, mentally slapped herself and went back to work. Thankfully, she was getting near the end. It had been a few seconds since she needed to fix something.
"The other night dear, as I lay sleeping,
"I dreamed I held you in my arms.
"When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken,
"And I hung my head and cried."
Oh, boy, here comes a sad one. Why did he even know this one? At least his voice changed so he didn't have that mocking undertone.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
Vanessa shut her eyes and tried to force out the noise before opening them again and concentrating hard on the computer.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
She released her computer and put a hand to her mouth. Deep breaths, ignore it. Push it down, you don't need to think about it. Not the time nor place. Dwelling only makes the bad feelings stronger.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,
"You make me happy when skies are grey.
"You'll never know dear, how much I love you.
"Please don't take my sunshine away."
Pain scrunched up in her chest. Vanessa finally bit and took a shaky breath. She shut her eyes tight, but it was too late. Traitorous tears trickled down her flushed cheeks.
"Hmm?" Moon's voice came back, confused as if he'd forgotten she was there.
She wanted to snap at him, but she was afraid any words she forced through her raw, constricted throat would only degrade her further.
Something slithered to the ground.
Her eyes snapped open. The cord binding the daycare attendant slumped by the chair. The pinchers holding his head had opened. Moon stayed in his seat, but now he was turned back so he watched her with bright white eyes, his pupils baby blue rather than red. "Vanessa?" he asked, possessing the same rough but quiet voice as usual. "I disturbed you."
That's one word. "No," she managed to say. She put all her willpower into just keeping her voice level. "How are you feeling?"
"…better."
"Well, I don't see any more abnormalities." She waved him back so she could unplug the computer and the wire from him. "If anyone, including yourselves, notice something dangerous or odd, tell me. I mean anything odd, even if you don't think it means anything. Now, if you excuse me…" She turned off her computer. "I'm going to take a break for about ten hours and sleep until I starve."