See the end for author's note.
"Maybe you're right…"
(It's just another night)
"But I heard a creak!"
(Just go back to sleep)
"I'm always quick to rage,"
(So go back to your stage...Wait… Now I hear it…)
Chapter 6. Bunny Ears and Turning Gears
"If you follow his instructions, you will die."
The girl's soft, lilting words rang between Fitzgerald's ears as he crawled along the shiny tile. At first, Danny hadn't heard anything when he crawled into Ballora Gallery. Not even HandyUnit, who seemed to have taken his vow of silence seriously. That was…good, right? Danny hesitated in the gloom of the wide, square room, letting his eyes adjust.
What he wouldn't give for Bonnie's radar-like ears right about now.
Then he heard it, soft and far off. A music box.
And for a moment, Danny's heart crawled to his throat and pounded hopefully. The Puppet sometimes made that—oh, wait no. It was a completely different tune. Nowhere close to My Grandfather's Clock, which he could still hear Mike whistling if he thought back hard enough.
This was some…random song. Likely one made for Ballora specifically. Trying to track the sound, he realized with mute horror that the sound was moving about the room. Danny eyed the empty stage.
A silhouetted figure twirled in front of it, lazy and languid.
'Ballora will not return to her stage.' The girl had warned him of that, too. So far, she hadn't lied to him. Unlike HandyUnit.
And what about the slip of paper he had just found? Be ready for Freddy, it had warned. And the other one Springtrap had found, 'Out Dance the Dancer.' Those had to be instructions for making it past Ballora.
'I know Mike wrote those.' Danny thought as he crawled forward slowly. 'Ballora's puzzle I figured out. But the Freddy one…? Either he's telling me our Freddy is on the other side of this room, or there's…another Freddy.'
Which Danny wasn't sure he believed. Ballora didn't remind him of the Fazgang he knew at all. Not even the Toys, which, admittedly, Danny barely recalled since he had only been a toddler when he visited the restaurant that the Toys were part of. And even then, he knew he had hated them. Circus Baby's shadow didn't look like an animal either. Only Funtime Foxy, and he—or was it she?—was far too chrome and pink and new to resemble the scruffy, almost humanlike Foxy that Danny knew.
He was so deep in thought he didn't notice the music box was getting louder and louder. It was behind him, and that he did notice. The day guard froze in place, holding his breathing until his chest hurt and his vision swam.
But he still saw her in his left peripheral, spinning like a slow top. She was moving thoughtfully, carefully.
'She's looking for me. She knows I'm here.'
Which, of course, seemed ridiculous even as Danny thought it.
She was spinning a circle around, a slow arc from left to right that soon had her and her music dwindling away. Far enough away he could move now.
Danny exhaled as softly as he could, starting to relax.
"It seems you are taking a long time. Please proceed as quickly and as quietly as possible."
Danny almost yelled, HandyUnit's voice was so loud and jarring. Whatever magic spell Ballora's music cast in this dark room was obliterated when HandyUnit jabbered on. Though Danny swayed, he didn't trip. He slunk along the floor, watching Ballora's elegant silhouette across the room where she danced and searched, endless. Patient.
'She's listening for me. Like Bonnie would.' This thought was worse than the last, to be honest.
Danny saw the door in his sights at last—just how long was Ballora's room? And he picked up his crawling by just a hair. The music was farther away than before, making Danny assume she was completing her rotation by the vent door he had entered from.
His hands clawed, closed round the latch, and he shoved, using his shoulder so hard it throbbed in protest. But the door gave way, miraculously, wondrously. He had made it!
Danny had only sort of noticed the poster on the front door a little too late, but he was already in the Breaker Room by the time it occurred to him.
It too, had said 'Be Ready.'
"Why did you let me go, Spring?"
His chipped and stained teeth felt like they were wired or stuck shut. Afton's corpse was long gone, but he still found it hard some days to work and to move correctly. But this moment had nothing to do with faulty wiring or cracked, metal jaws. This was terror, clutching Springtrap until he felt strangely cold and empty.
"Why…? You let me go by myself." Said the voice again. Springtrap had held out for as long as he could. He worked his jaw open, and spoke with careful, detached interest.
"I didn't. You went on your own, Operator. I tried stopping you."
The shadowy figure crossed its lanky arms.
"Well, you didn't try heard enough. But that's not new, is it Springysprung? You never tried stopping anything."
Springtrap forced himself not to look at the Phantom-Mike that had appeared. He didn't need to look at it to know what hell he would be have to endure by doing so.
It would look like all the others did that hung around him. Blackened, ashy, lines down his hollow cheeks and rotted lips grinning humorlessly at him. Even Mike's eyes, normally sky blue and friendly, would be obsidian black with white pinpricks. His clothes looked like he had been in a fire. One he hadn't survived.
"Please, stop." Spring tried now, he really did. It was all he could do to keep his sanity from slipping out of his rusty fingers.
"Please stop' huh?" Phantom Mike asked, sounding amused. Playful. Wicked. "Do you think that's what I asked the Funtimes when they captured me? Let's see…they're kidnappers, aren't they, SpringBonnie? Yeah…so, they probably…chased me. Hunted me like a goddamn animal. The deadliest game—that's man, isn't it? That's what Afton taught you. Dear old daddy taught you that, Springbonnie.
"Please—you're not real—" The rotted rabbit begged softly, trying to close his creaky optics. Though the elevator vanished, Phantom-Mike did not. His image burned through, making Springtrap stumble back.
"Held me down. Gassed me, maybe, Funbear can do that, so can Funtime Foxy. But only Funbear can hold bodies, can't he? They knock me out, hide my body. Take me off to kill me in so many gruesome ways. And that's it, that's my story, Springbonnie. That's how the night guard goes out. Nothing heroic, nothing awe-inspiring." Phantom-Mike appeared to be inspecting his fingernails.
"Puppet's fucken dead so, he can't bring me or Goldy back, so I guess…that's it, isn't it?"
Springtrap decides that if he ignores the hallucination…maybe it will go away. The others usually obeyed that rule. Usually.
"Let's go over it again, Spring. So, there's me, alone down here. Defenseless. Scared."
"You have Golden Freddy, you were n-not—" But Springtrap is interrupted by his own hallucination, and there is something terrifying in that.
"Alone. Scared." Phantom-Mike moves mechanically, then fluidly. He glides in front of Springtrap, and smiles white, unmarred teeth. Against his black, soot covered corpse face, they are almost pretty. His eyes are not, though.
"You let it happen, Springtrap. Again and again. Not just me. I was just the finale." Phantom-Mike whispered in his good ear.
"There was a whooole set of Acts to come before the night guard. I survived all five nights, I survived the Nightmares, even meeting Afton himself…only to die down here like a worthless rat in a sewer. By robots you let live. Afton might as well have killed me, for all the good you've done in protecting me."
"I did not—"
"You did."
"I tried to stop—"
"You did not."
Another thought comes, sudden, overwhelming. The real Mike, something he said long ago. His voice not ghostly, not malicious. But warm and alive and gentle.
"Spring, you keep seeing those Phantom versions a lot? That's…worrying. Almost like you're….a human with PTSD. Maybe we can learn some techniques to ground you when they happen. Maybe we can out think your cpu. Worth a try, right?"
"It is." Springtrap answers himself out loud, then turns to Phantom-Mike, his arms still crossed. His smile still horribly gaunt and stretched over his many, many teeth.
"You are not real." Springtrap starts talking again, not letting the horrible image interrupt his processing. "You are not. You are impossible. Unrealistic. You're Afton's brain in me—playing tricks. You are not—" Springtrap stops at the word 'dead.'
He…didn't know that for sure. He thinks quickly, going to try for another angle.
"You are not the real Michael Schmidt. You are not my Operator. He would never…accuse me."
Phantom-Mike has gone stilled, his edges thin and fluttery like a bad radio signal going in and out.
"You're a Phantom. Nothing more. Useless like all the rest."
It was working.
Springtrap repeated the words over and over, each time sounding more threatening and angry than the last. He could only bottle his rage for so long before it tried leaking out again.
Before the Bad came back. It always did, after all.
Phantom-Mike was gone by the time Springtrap reached his fifth rant. He trailed off, waiting in the silent, still elevator shaft.
"Gone. But for how long?" That was what still worried Springtrap. He couldn't shut down either, and hide from the Phantoms that haunted him like rabid dogs. Danny needed him, and so did Mike, whether Springtrap wanted to admit it or not.
"I need…to distract myself." Springtrap settled on, voice tired once more.
So Springtrap explored. It was how he found the small, hidden panel of steel in the corner. He fiddled with it for a while, until it suddenly gave way and opened. The opening was half the height of a normal door, much bigger than the vents Danny had disappeared down only an hour ago. Had it really only been an hour?
Springtrap weighed the options before him, but one recall of Phantom-Mike and his mind was made up. Stooped over and walking cautiously, Springtrap edged under the lip of the secret door. He stood upright when the space allowed him, and he eyed the long hallway that opened on either side of him. To his right was just more hallway, then it turned. To his left, though…
Another door. This one had a sign, 'Parts and Services 2.'
"Why two?" Spring mulled to himself as he wandered over to it.
As he entered the room, the first thing he noticed was how dark it was. The second thing he noticed made him pause, and a sinking feeling overcame the bunnybot. He stood in the stillness, and simply gazed into the small work room.
The worst part, Springtrap realized, was that Phantom-Mike had spoken some truth.
Mike Schmidt had been alone down here.
The Breaker Room was exceptionally smaller than the other rooms Danny had explored already. The ceiling wasn't very high, and the walls were covered in thick, corded pipes that dangled from above like so many dead snakes. They helped with the whole 'suffocating atmosphere' of the room, but after being crammed under the desk in Baby's section, he supposed this might as well be the old Dining Hall. The nests of pipes and cords didn't move very well when Danny tentatively reached out and pushed a few. And the room was, just as Ballora's Gallery, only vaguely lit. More shadows than light, more shapes than distinct things. He glanced over to his right, pausing for a moment. Was...was someone standing over there?
HandyUnit didn't give him time to find out, because soon it was yammering on again.
"You may now interface with the breaker control box." Just in front of him, a light illuminated a small box.
"Using the interface may disrupt nearby electronics."
"Nearby electronics?" Fitzgerald turned to glance into the blackened corner.
"If you feel that you are in danger, feel free to disconnect the interface temporarily, until it is safe to reconnect."
"Yeah. I'll be sure to jump right on that." The day guard muttered, crouching before the breaker box and opening the door with a soft creak.
"Mascot...response audio." Danny muttered. "What does…?" He couldn't help it, he pressed the button before he could stop himself. A soft, feminine and tinny voice sounded somewhere off to the far right of him.
("Caalmm down and go back to sleep! No one is here.")
"I gotta stop answering my own questions." He turned his attention to the control panel, small and dingy though it seemed. It flickered horribly, but the good thing was that it was nothing compared the control panel back in the elevator, the one that had named him Eggs Benedict.
"Funtime A...Ballora G...oh, auditorium. Gallery. Parts and S-theres a Parts and Services here too?" Maybe Mike was hiding in there?
"Obsv. one and two…" None of this was making sense. No one had mentioned an observation room. And he knew asking HandyUnit would get him nowhere, so that left Springtrap or the voice from earlier. Circus Baby.
Danny had just resetting the breaker box when he noticed the Danger level. And then he noticed the figure looming over him, smile wide as it fluttered in and out from the flashes of lights and sparks. It was a Freddy model alright, but it was...a Funtime version. His microphone was in his other hand, but that could have been because he had a small, rather cute looking, Bonnie model for a right paw. It was a hand puppet? That was...new. Danny recalled what Freddy had often told him, that Bonnie was his right-pawed rabbit.
Who had taken that so literally when they had built Funbear and his friend?
"WELL HELLOOO AGAIN!" Funbear half-yelled, sounding far to eager and a little bit like he'd been inhaling helium.
"Holy-" He slammed the mascot response, hissing in relief as the gentle voice sounded on cue.
("Everything is oookay.")
Funbear was back on his stage in the time it took for Danny to blink, and he felt sick to his stomach. Was that….was that the Bonnie's voice saying that?
He forced himself to focus back on the breaker system, holding the recharge system desperately. All too soon the day guard could feel Funbear getting more and more agitated, getting closer in the dark.
"BAWN-BAWN, SAY HI TO OUR-!"
Danny hit the mascot button.
("Shh! Go back to your stage. Everything is okay.")
"Almost half left still." Danny said.
But he kept up his game, careful of Funtime Freddy's constant, threatening presence and relying on BawnBawn to keep the Funbear quiet and on his elevated stage across the room. He had only just finished the last Observation room when it happened. Funbear had gotten close, was nearly breathing down his neck, when Danny hit the mascot button. Nothing happened. He hit it again. Zilch. So Danny looked up, and up and up, only to notice that Funbear wasn't the only one staring at him.
BawnBawn was gazing down at him, too.
"OH well HELLO again!" Funbear seemed to mock, taking a step closer.
"Fucking hell-" Everything was reset in the breaker room, but he had the feeling that if he didn't want to reset a broken leg, he needed to get out of here and fast. Except Funbear seemed to figure out his next move before he did, and he blocked off the door to Ballora's Gallery. With no where else left to go, Danny moved back into the room, leaning into the tangle of cords and pipe working until he felt something dig into his back. That felt like a door handle, not a pipe-it was!
He turned it, pushed, and fell through into a new, thin hallway.
"WHERE YA GOING, LIL GUY?"
Desperately, Danny dug out Mike's journal, opening it to the list of rules, begging for anything that could help him. Behind him, Funbear bullied his girth through the door, chuckling to himself as he and BawnBawn looked around.
3. Play Dead
"I don't think this is the time for that one," He snapped the journal shut and stowed it away as he ran. He had only just turned a corner when he saw the writing on the wall, beside a big red button.
To escape harm
sound the alarm –M
Danny moaned, debating it all back and forth in his head. Worrying, wondering, what good would it all do if he were dead? His hand moved like it was on a string, and he slammed his palm into the big, shiny red button.
Nothing.
"Of fucking co—" it was then the most ear splitting sound erupted from everywhere and nowhere and once. Danny jumped, clapping his hands over his ears as he turned to see Funbear and BawnBawn had halted. BawnBawn looked distraught, his tiny blue paws tugging down his ears as he trashed, swinging Funbear's arm around. Funbear took his attention off the day guard, trying to tend to his audio sensitive puppet-partner.
"Of course," Danny finished, realizing what the tip alluded to. Bonnie models had super delicate hearing—massive speakers and receptors that allowed them to see without their optics.
Even smaller models like Bawnbawn hadn't escaped that feature. And it certainly came with a big drawback, because loud, shrill sounds threw the entire model out of whack.
A deaf Bonnie was a useless one.
Danny eyed the connection between Funbear and BawnBawn. With their close proximity, it was no wonder Funbear was focused on BawnBawn instead of him, now. Danny slipped away, then broke out into a sprint through the new, long hall. This…wasn't what he was used to.
He ran blind, slowing when he didn't hear the sound of metal feet thudding after him. He was alone—well, alone as he could be with HandyUnit down here with him.
"You are entering an unauthorized section of—"
"Shut the fuck up!" Danny shouted over his shoulder at the ceiling, and was a little surprised when HandyUnit did shut the fuck up. Huh.
The freaky AI was right though, he was in a section he didn't remember seeing on the map he had just been fixing. Or ever. The long, steel hallway stretched before him like one thin snake, and at the end of the hall was a door.
A door that was opening. A door that was—
"Springtrap!?" Danny called, half in relief, half in disbelief. Yet there was no mistaking the green-yellow torn up Bonnie model, not even at this distance. After seeing only shiny, chrome-plated animatronics, seeing Springtrap was like seeing God himself appear before Danny.
"Day guard?" Spring called back, a touch of surprise in the inflection of his tone. Clearly, he didn't know Danny would be here either! Nor that he would be followed by Funbear, who made it round the corner. His optics settled on Danny's back, and the pupils shrank to red, tiny dots lighting up the dim hallway.
"Ohhh BIRTHDAY BOOY!" Funbear crowed in his booming, comically high pitched voice.
"I'm coming! I'm coming just—just be ready!" Danny called back, afraid to look over his shoulder. The banging that rattled and thudded behind him was exactly like last night's.
'BawnBawn was in the vents with me.' Danny's panicked mind filed the information away for later.
Springtrap was ready, and he held the door firmly in his rotted mitts as Danny ran full tilt toward him. Behind him, Funbear lumbered. BawnBawn seemed to be still acting glitchy, but instead of slowing Funbear down it only seemed to make him that much more intent on reaching the scrambling day guard.
"Close it!" Danny choked out as he flew by Springtrap. "Close it—closeitcloseit—"
Springtrap obeyed, slamming the thick door into its opening and turning the locks. The door buckled when something, presumably Funbear, collided with it. It wobbled, it creaked and it protested, but the metal did not give.
Springtrap waited, lidded eyes and working ear trained on the industrial door. Behind him, leaning heavily on his knees, Danny tried to catch his breath. He leaned, narrowly avoiding toppling over and instead grabbed onto the metal bench that sat halfway up the wall.
"Where-? Where is…?"
"I'm not sure. It said Parts and Services 2. I haven't found room one yet." Springtrap was still watching the door. Funbear had quieted down, but that didn't mean the chromatic bear and his partner in crime had left. Especially since BawnBawn likely had the same hearing capabilities the other Bonnie models came with.
The kind Spring used to have, anyway. But he wasn't bitter.
Danny tried the flashlight, the little plastic one with the deep crack in it. Still, it did not work.
So Danny let his eyes adjust, trying to make out the tiny, dimly lit room Springtrap had found. He noticed a pair of familiar ears, but passed them over at first. Then he remembered Springtrap had one full ear, not two.
Only one other had two that size-
"Oh, god, oh, fuck." Danny gasped, but it trailed into a shaky sob. "Spring, look, it's—it's them."
Springtrap turned, activating his floodlight eyes for the day guard. He had found them already, but he had hoped to not let Danny see them. Somehow, that made it worse.
Sitting slumped and silent on a thick sheet of metal work bench was the Fazgang.
Freddy was in the middle—like always—but he was settled back against the wall. His mascot head had its jaw thrown wide open in a silent, soundless roar that Danny's brain filled in. He shuddered, taking a step closer to the only lively bot in the room. Springtrap, thankfully, said nothing. He swiveled his head slowly, eyeing the others. His eye sockets empty.
Chica was leaning on Fazbear's shoulder, but instead of four lines of metal teeth she had just her beak. She too, was still and silent. And…hollow. Even Cakey was gone, her hands empty like Fazbear's.
Foxy was flanking her left, but he was leaning the other way. Foxy's suit was torn and matted even worse than Danny remembered. Because it was already ripped and gouged, it was that much easier to notice what was missing in the old pirate captain. Besides his loud, boisterous personality.
And that left…
Springtrap's younger model. His…little brother, for lack of a better term. Bonnie the bunny. Noisy, cheerful, lively Bonnie, who had given Danny back something of his father to remember him by. Who had told him he wouldn't forget Danny again, who Danny had then basically forgotten by leaving for so long. The bunny was sitting forward on Freddy's right, his guitar long gone. His big paws hanging between his legs, his head down and ears slack and dangling sideways. Bonnie's ears were like living things, they moved so much that for Danny to see them lifeless was…too much.
"Jesus Christ….Bonnie." Danny let the name slip out, feeling his eyes sting tiredly.
No one should have to see their best friend like that.
"We were too late." Danny moaned, taking a step back and near the door, as if he was going to let Funbear in to kill him.
"Day guard—"
"No! No we were, look at them, Spring. Look at them, Mike would never let this happen! If they're like this then what about him, h-huh? Because, I-I sure as hell know that my boss would have—would have died before letting…them get….gutted."
Because they were, Danny could see it now. They were empty fursuits. Their endoskeletons were gone. Freddy and Foxy were easy to see, Chica's teeth were her giveaway, but Danny couldn't bear to check Bonnie. Seeing his best friend looking worn and still had already been enough to push him over an edge he didn't think he could come back from.
"I'm done, Springtrap! I can't do this anymore—"
"The night guard choose you—"
"Well he choose wrong. What? Mike can't make mistakes? Please! He did it all the time, he used to say so himself!" Danny turned away at Springtrap's disappointed expression, throwing his arms up carelessly.
"And, and anyway who is he to ask me to do this? To endanger myself? Mike's a nice guy, and I know he loves the restaurant but this—this isn't the restaurant I worked at. I shouldn't have come here at all."
"Operator clearly thought you could handle it." Springtrap said icily.
"Mike always thinks the best of everybody, that's not my fault!" Danny snapped back, defensiveness rising steadily. Springtrap shot him a look, but a cork had been popped off and all the nights he had spent in silent, stricken fear were coming back to him. Danny was mad, and he wanted to make some noise about it. He wanted to be heard.
"I—yeah, I owe him one, okay, and—and I owe Bonnie, because Bonnie gave me back my dad, and Freddy's really stern but he was always nice to me. And Chica…Chica gave me hot chocolate whenever I asked, sure…and, and Bon and Foxy are close so I'd have to make sure I got him too, otherwise Bonnie would never let me hear the end of it, and…and…I just…I'm not…"
A moment later, the young man's breath hitched in a wet, exhausted sound. And Danny began to cry.
"I'm not Mike. I can't do this. I'm gunna die down there tonight, aren't I?"
Springtrap moved, lurching with surprising gentleness as he neared the day guard. He hung back only for a moment, but when the sound of Danny's depression turned toward a louder sob, Spring extended his good arm and rested his rotted mitt gently on Danny's shoulder.
The human hesitated, clearly between disgust, or maybe fear, but suddenly the corpse in Springtrap was no longer on Danny's mind. He turned and stepped closer to Springtrap, leaning his head onto the bunny's only intact shoulder. It was grimy, but age had worn the smell of gore away.
"I'm just made of metal, day guard. What are you made of?"
Danny Fitzgerald turned, staring into Springtrap's silver eyes. He was silent, looking heartbroken, lost and lonely. He didn't feel like some big hero, he certainly didn't feel like an adult capable of pulling this all together.
And he definitely didn't feel like someone responsible enough to be a guard at Freddy's.
"Be nice, Spring." A new voice said. The two turned as one, staring at the slumped over, lifeless Bonnie.
Only one thing had changed, Bonnie was staring at them, his optic slid up but his head remained drooped down. One of his ears covered his sight, so that only one pink, glass eyeball was staring at them.
"Voice activation. Pretty cool, right?" Bonnie said to the stunned pair. Bonnie's ears started rising slowly, as did the rest of him.
"Mikey thought so too."
This plot needs to thicken like pea soup, like, last month. Besides, I still got one more story to do! This chapter's song is 'You Can't Hide' by ChaoticCanineculture. The exchange between Funbear and BawnBawn has always been my favorite part of the song, it's done so well.