See the end for author's notes.
"It's been years I've been alone in here
I've forgotten what it's like for me to smell your fear
Am I driving you insane?
Am I eating at your brain?"
Chapter 5. In Memory of Mike Schmidt
The dead don't dream.
For that matter, animatronics aren't really supposed to be able to dream either. Two negatives can still make a positive, however. Because, logically, it was both dead and an animatronic. Then it couldn't be called dreaming, to be honest. It was a computer. Computers could play back files; provided they weren't corrupted. Computers could play just audio back, if need be. The computer must also be using the correct hardware to play said file in any capacity. So, no, computer or animatronics don't dream.
So a dead animatronic that was currently dreaming wasn't actually doing that.
"I'm not fixing you, not right now."
It was remembering.
"Do you see the mess you've made this time?"
SpringBonnie, only slightly used and currently sitting against the wall where he'd been left, was watching the two other figures in his memory. It stayed silent and simply observed, like good obedient robots should do.
One figure before Springbonnie lowered its pigtailed covered head in abject remorse. Father was mad.
"I'm sorry." said a soft, feminine voice.
"Sorry? You're sorry? Sorry isn't good enough." Then the man's tone went lighter and slower, almost sweeter. SpringBonnie knew it was a trap. "When will you ever learn, darling?"
But the other animatronic hadn't learned yet. This man was a man with two faces. When it heard that gentle tone, the other speaker began speaking again. How dumb of it, SpringBonnie thought.
"But I am trying, I know I can get it right this time. If we could just have one more party—"
"Quiet!" The man's voice rang. SpringBonnie's sensitive, long ears flicked back subtlety. It didn't like when Billy raised his voice like that, but saying so wouldn't fix anything. If anything, it would make it worse for the both of them.
At least SpringBonnie was being ignored. That was nice.
"We'll discuss this later. After you get back from the Scooping Room."
The other figure visibly tensed, and her tone was filled with dread. "No, no please—please, I don't want to go back down there—"
Oh, boy. SpringBonnie shuddered a fraction, but kept it contained. He was supposed to be in Suit Mode after all. The Scooping Room. Spring had never been in there, had only seen what it could do. But seeing was enough to terrify the yellow rabbit just fine, thank you very much. It knew it was lucky, that since Billy didn't technically own Spring, the bunny couldn't ever really be scooped.
Besides, Billy would never ruin its suit or endoskeleton because it was the only animatronic that never ever let Billy down.
SpringBonnie was a good, well-behaved little bunny.
He hoped Goldie would be proud of him, but deep down, SpringBonnie knew that he wouldn't be. Not really. Not with the way Billy made SpringBonnie act.
SpringBonnie was a good, well-behaved little tool.
The specially designed animatronic watched the proceedings before him with abject dread and silence; the sound of a little girl's weak crying rang in the back of his skull.
SpringBonnie was a good…well-behaved…large…weapon…
Billy turned, adjusted his purple shirt, his tie and relaxed his scowling face. But SpringBonnie had seen it. It knew the truth.
SpringBonnie was a…good…disobedient…monster…
Now the human was walking over, and a smile was spreading over his face.
SpringBonnie was a…bad…
"Get up. I need you."
SpringBonnie was a…k…a kill..er…of…chil…d…ren…
SpringBonnie terminated his fail-safe programming. The springlocks sliced outward, and his endoskeleton decompressed and filled his suit with a great crunch. As soon as his limbs were online, SpringBonnie began moving to stand up.
Billy smiled up at him, a wide, crocodile-toothed one.
SpringBonnie was…not…SpringBonnie anymore.
"What a good bunny. My good bunny. You and I, we make a great team, don't we?"
SpringBonnie didn't think so. But he didn't argue.
It never made much difference anyway, after all.
Springtrap lifted its optic plates, letting them stop at half-mast. His left optic still couldn't quite manage to illuminate, so he only had one to light up the little hotel room. The fans in his body, now down to only two out of the four, chugged gently. A street light was also putting some light in the room, and the slip of blue tinted light laid crossways over the thin carpeting and the single bed to his left.
Springtrap watched the day guard sleep, then looked at the clock, because his internal one had long since ran dry. The world outside was orange and crimson, and it took Spring's tired cameras a second to adjust properly. Sunset was very soon. And although Springtrap used to like watching the sunset outside his and Goldie's diner, the action didn't much thrill him anymore.
Still, he kept his optics trained on the setting sun dutifully. It was one of the few forms of self punishment he had left, because night time never meant anything good was going to happen.
The dead don't dream.
The dead remember.
Danny woke up to his alarm from his phone going off. His hand found it on the third try, and as he shut it off he sat up. Springtrap was staring out the window, and didn't so much as acknowledge the now awake human.
"Spring? Springtrap," Danny called a second time, finally getting a head turn. "You okay? Something exciting out there?"
"No." Well, he was honest. Or a terrific liar, Danny couldn't decide on which. "I was watching the sunset."
"It's pretty isn't it?" Asked the young man as he pushed himself out of bed. "Sure, we got a great view of the parking lot but that has its merits."
"Because it means privacy. Less curious humans. Less questions." Springtrap droned, still not moving his rotted head from the sight. It was 'pretty' in an emotional sense, the robot supposed. Still, sunsets were always a bit of a catch-22. Yes they were lovely to look at, yes they meant an end to a long day, but that didn't matter much if the sun never rose again, did it?
There went the sun. The sky was still purple and crimson, but would soon melt into inky black and blue within a few minutes or so. Danny started to clamber out of bed.
"Right, exactly that." Danny agreed with a bob of his head. He yawned, and mentioned something about going to get a bite to eat from the vending machine down the hall. Springtrap turned away as the door closed, and with a creaky noise, blinked tiredly.
Danny returned to the old warehouse with Springtrap in tow. The night was chilly and dark, and though the city was making plenty of ambient noises far off to the north, the air around the two was silent and still. Buildings loomed like tombstones, forgotten hollow corpses waiting to be bulldozed. The city slept, but Danny did not.
When they reached the elevator, Springtrap spotted something new. Something out of place.
"Whadjya' find, Spring?" Danny bent down before Spring had to force his rusted body to. His fingers snagged the paper lying beside the keypad and he quickly unfolded it.
To Out Dance the Dancer: FLFFRLFRLFF –M
"Do you think Mike left this?" The human asked the expressionless bunnybot eagerly. "Do you think he's okay somewhere? Maybe—down here? Just hiding?"
"Why is he hiding then?" Springtrap countered calmly, sounding like a patient tutor teaching a slow student on arithmetic. "What is so terrible that Operator—the Suit of Golden Freddy—has to hide?"
Fitzgerald deflated and winced, "Forget I asked." He moaned, as the elevator lurched to a stop. "Still…this is a good sign, he left this here for us."
"Someone did, anyway." Spring's voice was light but held a razor sharp edge to it.
Danny pocketed the strange string of letters, deciding to worry about it later.
"Right. Could be that, too….but I wonder who the dancer is? Does it mean…" The night guard wracked his brain for the animatronics he had been told about. "Ballora, I guess?"
"It could be." Springtrap agreed in that easy going way of his. It was taking some getting used to, but Springtrap's sense of self-preservation and logical trains of thought were kind of nice and reliable. Familiar, even, like that old steady-as-she-goes PC your folks had that was only good for playing solitaire and checking mail. Springtrap wasn't sleek and shiny, nothing at all like the Funtime models Danny had already seen. And yet somehow, Danny liked Springtrap better.
It wasn't long before HandyUnit piped up his programmed dialogue, chipper and over-confident as ever.
'Speaking of sleek and shiny…' Danny thought with a growing frown at the ceiling. He still blamed HandyUnit for last night, for making him essentially torture those three animatronics. If Mike WAS hiding, it was probably from this creepy shit of an AI!
"Welcome back to another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now."
"…you're shitting me." Danny deadpanned, to the amused snort from his rotted rabbit companion. As usual, HandyUnit did not understand the outside speech or, as was getting more and more likely, was choosing to ignore Danny.
"Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice. For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text only, press 3. For other options, press 4."
Springtrap watched dubiously as Danny's fingers tried finding a 1, 2, 3 or 4 in the mess that was the keypad.
"Maaan…this interface is soo glitchy!" Danny moaned, finally just jabbing at the screen where he thought he saw a 3.
"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for choosing… Angsty Teen."
Silence reigned in the little circular room, which was finally touching the basement's ground floor.
"So, wait—what?" Danny asked, eyebrows raised. "It's going to sound like a—"
"The elevator's stopped. You know the routine. Get out now, or whatever. Stay here if you want."
Danny fell silent, but beside him Springtrap said, his tone heavily amused, "It sounds rather like yourself, day guard."
Danny shot Spring a look, but didn't say anything as the doors flung themselves open.
"Well…" The human hesitated before the dark, empty space of the vents he had to travel through. "You'll be here?" He tried to make it sound light-hearted, teasing even. It almost worked.
"I'll be here." Springtrap's response was downright firm and promising. That tone did more for Danny's nerves than his own meager attempts at jokes.
"Okay…see you in a bit."
At first, Danny was pleasantly surprised that HandyUnit's AngstyTeen voice was staying relatively silent. It was silent as he bent down and clambered into the vent, it was silent as Springtrap lowered himself to illuminate Danny's path from behind, and it was silent as Danny crawled deeper into the darkness.
Until all of a sudden it wasn't.
"So, funny story, a dead body was found in this vent once. M'kay, so, not that funny, but, it's a story."
"God…" Danny moaned, just deciding to ignore the new voice of HandyUnit. He made his way out of the vent and into the control room, getting up so fast he felt a little light headed. Danny barely had time to recover before once more, HandyUnit's Angsty Teen voice mumbled from the speakers, sounding dull and bored.
"Alright, so, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora, and make sure she's on her stage, but, whatever."
Danny checked, frowning when he noticed Ballora was in fact gone. Because he couldn't see her, he couldn't see if she fit what he thought a dancing animatronic looked like—and he certainly didn't remember from last night after all the excitement. Still, he was willing to be money she was the dancer he would have to 'out dance' as Mike (hopefully) had put it. Ballora sounded a little to close to 'Ballerina' to be anything but.
Ballora wasn't on her stage. But her silhouette was covering up most of the window, making Danny jump and clutch at his chest. HandyUnit, as usual, ignored it.
"Huh. I guess Ballora has better things to do."
"Wouldn't you too instead of being stuck on that dumb stage all night?" Danny muttered, feeling sour towards the AI in the speakers around him. "I know Foxy sure hated it…"
"Let's zap her! That should be fun."
The sound of hundreds of volts slamming through the air and into some poor unsuspecting animatronic still made Danny feel awful. Before he could check on the animatronic, HandyUnit's response distracted him.
The garbled, sickening sounding mumble of noises reminded him a lot of the weird groaning Bonnie used to do to freak him out. But unlike Bonnie's friendly teasing this was just…spooky. And while Danny assumed Bonnie could control and make the noise at whim, this did not seem to be the Angsty Teen's attempt to liven things up.
"Uh…you okay up there?"
"Let's check on Funtime Foxy…" Angsty Teen spoke up as if nothing had happened. "Make sure he's ready for show time tomorrow.
"Great.. Great... Great..." The voice chimed though, distorted and mechanically low.
"Uh…" Danny waited, shoulders tense and heart nearly forgetting to beat. "HandyUnit? Is your motherboard melting or something?"
Yeah. These things definitely hadn't had the Mike treatment. He could keep anything going, with minor accidents happening. This wasn't so much an accident as a huge melt down.
"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer." The usual voice suddenly spoke, nonplused as ever. "Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium.
"Right…we're just going to ignore that, I guess." Danny muttered, turning toward the front vent and crouching down. He clambered in; inwardly thankful HandyUnit didn't expect him to fix that weird little feature.
This place seemed wrong. And the feeling was getting worse by the minute.
Springtrap had very little to do.
The elevator had fallen silent and refused to go back up, which Springtrap supposed was for the best. If the young day guard needed to leave in a hurry like he wanted to last night, then the best course of action would be for the elevator to stay on this level just in case.
As a general rule, computers generally are unable to get bored. But the animatronics created by FazCorp were rarely the sort of computers that followed normal rules.
There was also, of course, the addition in Springtrap's body. Unlike the rest of the animatronics he had known, he was the only one to carry with him a corpse for so long. Sometimes Springtrap wondered if this were his own form of punishment, for allowing Afton to go on with his horrific ways until the murder count got as high as it did.
There was only one person who ever tried removing Afton's rickety, petrified corpse.
But then Michael Schmidt, his new Operator, had shut him down one day. And that was the last Springtrap had seen of the Night Guard until young Danny activated him.
The silence was a scary sound.
Springtrap didn't feel bored persay, but he certainly felt restless. Maybe it came from having long dead nerves within his frame, maybe he had picked up more human ticks from Afton than he'd like to admit, he didn't know. What Spring did know was that the night was still long, even though his internal clock had bit the dust years ago.
There was a far off noise, a dull clank of muted metal. Thankfully, Operator had removed the pre-programmed urge to head for any little bit of noise. It was an old command, when he was still SpringBonnie and meant to keep the Toy Animatronics from wandering to empty rooms. Now whenever Springtrap heard a child's voice, he only felt dread and fear. Better that then Afton's endless little comments within him, pushing him to find the source, to silence it.
It was nice to have the choice now—follow or ignore? Freedom tasted bitter sweet, but Springtrap reminded himself robots do not taste.
The rotted bunny wandered the small stretch of room, keeping his good ear trained behind him just in case.
Everything in here was so…reflective. In truth, Springtrap had forgotten most of his memories here on purpose. Digging them up, even knowing he had to help the day guard and Operator, were still hard for him. And since Mike wouldn't blame him for it, Springtrap blamed himself. Springtrap became distinctly and suddenly aware of himself, staring back from the shiny metal plating that made up the wall to his left.
Springtrap turned slowly, looking at his terrible and true form in the reflection.
Overcome with a sudden, terrible wave of irritation and anger at himself, the animatronic swung and buried his fist into the wall, denting it. After the rage began to subside, Springtrap's optics blinked from purple back to their normal calm silver.
Being bored was perhaps just a bit better than being angry.
"Circus Baby had a busy day today. Let's check the light and make sure she's in proper working order."
"I still haven't seen Circus Baby." Danny spoke mockingly to the damn, infuriating AI. "How do I even know I'm doing any of this right, you Knight Rider reject?"
As usual HandyUnit spoke cheerfully on.
"Oh, Circus Baby! We aren't here to play hide and seek. Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."
Danny groaned, but closed his eyes and hit the button. He winced at the sheer sound of a thousand volts slamming into somewhere. The noise was horrible, the way metal echoed. If this ever happened to Bonnie, Danny would probably hurl.
"Let's try another controlled shock."
"Let's not and say we did." Danny grunted, but it could not be avoided.
This time, however, there was strange silence. Only the sound of fans chugging and the display board in front of him. Danny paused, lifting his finger slowly. For a second, he thought HandyUnit hadn't noticed.
He was wrong.
"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen."
"Okay." Danny paused. "Oxygen!? Oi! Wait—stop! Desist or something—"
"…Commencing system restart."
"You piece of shit—"
The room went dark. Danny's flight or fight instinct slammed into overdrive and he froze like a spooked mouse. The fans had died, there was no oxygen moving anymore and he dutifully tried to hold his breath for as long as he could. There was still breathable air, but he didn't know how long this little reboot would take. Knowing what he knew already of this backwards joint, Danny fully was prepared to pass out down here from lack of air. He hoped he was wrong, though. The day guard knitted his eyes shut, wishing Springtrap were here, or that he could at least yell for the android.
"I don't…recognize you."
Danny almost fell over into the dashboard, that too dark. He peered anxiously out through the glass, but could make out nothing. That voice—it wasn't HandyUnit. He was pretty sure it wasn't HandyUnit at all, let alone any version of AngstyTeen that was trying to reactivate.
The voice, without waiting for a response, droned on.
"You are new. I remember this... scenario, however."
It sounded female, and young. Mechanically young, a bit like BB's tone without being the pitch. A child animatronic? Danny wondered. He let out a little, unwilling gasp, his body screaming for air. He tried not to pant, becoming ever aware of the lack of fans.
"It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this, willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance."
"I mean, stupidity sounds about right—" But once more, Danny was interrupted, and he didn't argue when he was.
"There is a space under the desk; someone before you crafted it into a hiding place, and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry, though. You will be safe there. Just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest."
"Wait—someone before me—was it Mike? Was it Mike Schmidt—hey!" Danny called, feeling useless. "Are you there?!"
He was answered, after a second. Not by the voice, but by the soft sounds of scuttling and dull thuds behind him. Fitzgerald spun, remembering the sounds he heard last night when he was crawling back to the elevator.
These were identical.
Danny ducked down, seeing the way the space under the desk went back a bit too far to be normal. He shot right for it, fitting his body into the tight space and twisting to see out from under the desk better. His shoulder hit a smooth, mottled plate of steel that slid when he connected with it, and when his hand found it, Danny realized what it was.
This little patch-job of a hiding hole just had to be Mike's doing! Even now, the guy was looking out for him. Danny wrenched the steel door hard and frantically, tugging until he could no longer move it.
He sat there, feeling exposed and claustrophobic all at once. It was hard to hear around the rushing sound of his heartbeat in his ears, and his palms were slick with sweat as he waited.
"Where arrrre you?"
This wasn't the voice of the female giving him the suggestions just a second ago, and he wasn't about to assume it was anyone good either.
"Someone is inside."
Danny clapped his hand over his mouth, pressing against it hard until he could feel his teeth.
"Is it the same person?" One asked the other.
"We always find a way inside~" whispered the new voice, and when Danny jerked his head, he could see a single optic. Suddenly, his metal wall started sliding back on the track that someone (most likely Mike) had built. Danny forgot all attempts at silence and grabbed on his end, slamming all his weight into pushing the gap away. His attempts were met with more tugging, getting stronger and stronger. Danny felt it start to slip from his grip, but he dug his heels in and leaned back, teeth gritted. He absolutely refused to go down like this!
"She's watching us!" Another gasped suddenly, and the voice sounded farther away. "We have to leave now—"
"But we'll see you again sooooon," chimed the other voice before the thudding started up and soon ended.
Danny sat there, crammed under the desk with the wall still folded in front of him. He kept his knees drawn up to his chest, which was heaving best it could given his taut, tense position. His adrenaline spike had only just started to drop when the female voice came back, and dizzyingly, Danny wondered if that was Circus Baby's voice.
"When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room."
"The breaker room…" Danny breathed, trying to commit everything she was saying to memory.
Danny started to pull his shaking body out, fumbling for the flashlight he'd dropped in his haste to hide. It wasn't where he remembered dropping it, which meant something—or someone—had moved it. Unable to find his voice again, he let the stranger keep whispering in that gentle, lilting tone of hers to him.
"If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly."
"But…" Danny wheezed a bit, "But what will I do about Ballora?" He had already shocked her more than once; there was little reason for him to suspect she'd be as docile and friendly as the animatronics he knew from Freddy's.
"When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near. Listening for you.
Wait and be still."
"Wait and be—but where am I going? Isn't there anything else you can tell me?" He tried, and as if on cue the fans chugged to life and started spinning at their usual speed. The wave of fresh, slightly cool air was a welcome relief. HandyUnit, however, was not.
"Thank you for your patience. It seems like the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module."
Danny paused, considering his options. On the one hand, the stranger had been right. She'd saved him once. Twice if she was telling the truth about Ballora, which he supposed she was.
But then why was HandyUnit lying?
"Maybe it is just a clueless hunk of junk…" Instantly, Danny felt this was wrong. Mike had always told him to never underestimate an AI, even less complex ones. That had certainly been true so far…
The day guard bent down and slipped back the way he'd come. His sneakers were barely on the cheap tile before HandyUnit started yammering at him again.
"You will now be required to crawl through the Ballora gallery using the vent to your left to reach the breaker room."
He spied the open door down to his left and tried to ignore the way those weird eyes on the mannequin heads followed him.
"It is recommended that you stay low to the ground, and reach the other side as fast as possible, as to not disturb Ballora."
"As fast as possible, huh?" Danny muttered, recalling the stranger's words. He decided to go with her advice, and if for some reason he felt Ballora was going to get him too easy, he supposed he could just sprint back here and call for Springtrap, maybe. At the very least, he knew the animatronic he had seen dancing on stage would not fit through the small space down by his sneakers.
He wondered if that was by design.
"I will deactivate myself momentarily, as to not create an auditory disturbance. Deactivating..."
"Good riddance."
Before he crawled through, Danny noticed a folded slip of paper sitting where the door had been. It would have been invisible until the panel was lifted. He grabbed it eagerly, and smoothed it open to read it.
The merry go round will break down, but some things must break before they can be fixed. Be ready for Freddy. -M
The release of FNAF6 has certainly kindled a lot of my love for the story! I admit that for a bit I didn't really enjoy working on the knight guard universe. Due to personal feelings and stress, not because I don't love the FNAF world any less. Welp, regardless I pushed to get this chapter up, and plan to continue working on Finding Freddy until it's done.