Author's Notes

Thanks again to Corona Pax for writing this chapter with me.

I'm going to be uploading an updated version of the first Asks for this story sometime tomorrow because I didn't like the format I used. The new one will have all the same answers with some minor alterations but will be written in a story format so it will be more interesting and entertaining to read. After that the Asks will be updated whenever a new chapter is ready. Just remember that that chapter's questions were all asked before FNAF 3 started so the answers reflect that.

Chapter 73

Night 5 Take 3

Ruby was irritated. Just…irritated. The bots had confessed that Springtrap had still gone to bother them even after she'd found out about it the previous night. The itch to take Betty to his head had intensified after she saw how upset Hedy was. She may be angry with them over that conversation about electrocution that she overheard, but she did like Hedy and Jeremy wasn't too bad she had to admit. He was just worried over his sister. She could understand that. And if there wasn't a bot hostage situation with that bodysnatcher than she wouldn't have a problem with his more…permanent solutions. As long as there was a chance at saving Spring though, she couldn't allow it.

She rubbed her temples with a sigh as she waited for the clock to hit twelve.

"Come on Steve, give me something interesting to take my mind off this urge to lose my temper." She muttered to the phone. Keeping herself in check this week was difficult. She wanted so badly to just let loose and crush that smug jerk, but she couldn't.

The clock hitting twelve pulled her attention back to the situation at hand and she started checking the cameras as the message played.

"Uh hello, hello? Uh, this is just to inform all employees, that due to budget restrictions the previously mentioned safe rooms are being sealed at most locations. Including this one." Ruby glanced up in interest.

"Work crews will be here most of the day today constructing a false wall over the old door face. Nothing is being taken out beforehand, so if you left anything inside, then it's your own fault."

"A secret room that's been hidden and wasn't emptied? Sounds like a great idea." Ruby muttered.

"Management also requests that this room not be mentioned to family, friends, or insurance representatives."

"Of course they do." She rolled her eyes.

"Thanks again, and remember to smile. You are the face of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

"I admire your endless optimism Steve." Ruby chuckled before standing and stretching. "Right, back to business."
She headed out to find Springtrap and release some of her frustration in the form of glitter bombs.

A few hours later, the night was going well but Ruby couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Something she wouldn't like. The building itself seemed on edge and she kept catching sight of that sixth ghost kid. He never stayed still and talked to her, he almost seemed to be leading her somewhere.

With a frown she tried to keep him in sight while watching out for Springtrap.

She was circling back toward the office when something made her pause. She turned the corner. "What are you doing?"

Hedy gasped as she almost ran into Ruby. The mechanic looked pale and half like she expected to pass out, clearly not thrilled about being in this part of the building.

They stared at each other for a moment, Ruby checking where Springtrap was while wondering how Hedy got this far into Fazbear's Fright without tripping any pranks with her wheelchair. In fact, it was surprising Hedy was even willing to come an inch into this part of the building.

"I need your tablet for a minute and some extra batteries." Hedy answered shortly, with a twinge of annoyance and a sigh. "BB got mine." She held up her tablet, sporting a black screen. It needed Ruby's main tablet to synch with the building whenever the batteries were changed.

Ruby stared at her in bewilderment.

"So you came into the part of the building with the murderer, who tried to kill you as a kid by the way, so you could find me, who he is hunting currently, for batteries and to sync up your tablet." She stated in disbelief. "Couldn't you wait until the end of my shift?"

Hedy rolled her eyes. "Hey, I'm not happy about it, but it causes a fair bit of anxiety when I can't see what's going on. You have two more hours to go and Teddy's yelling at BB because I can't check if you're okay without the tablet." She held out her hand. "Let me fix this quickly. I want to get out of here." Her eyes darted behind Ruby at the faint sound of a leaking pipe but it wasn't the murderer. Just a rusty old pipe.

Ruby looked pretty annoyed. "Seriously, you couldn't go two hours without checking on me? I've got this handled, he's no problem tonight." she shoved the tablet at Hedy in irritation, spotting the sixth ghost out of the corner of her eye standing where Hedy wouldn't see him. He seemed distressed. "You've got some control issues." she dug around in her bag for some batteries.

The teen had been short with the older girl since she overheard her answering Jeremy's voltage question the other night.

"And you've got some authority issues." Hedy bit back, tense as she took the things. "You can't make people not worry about you, no matter how many times you tell us everything's fine." She flipped her tablet over and popped out the back to get to the empty battery case but her shaky fingers slipped and a battery Ruby handed her hit the ground and rolled away.

Ruby growled in irritation as she bent to pick it up.

"It would be nice to have people trust that I can do this." She muttered as she grabbed it. "Will you hurry up? I've got a few things I've got to do still. He's probably already out of the glue trap by now."

Hedy wasn't even phased by the mention of Ruby's "glue trap" and nodded as she took the battery and put it in. "Just a minute." she muttered, clicking out of the camera feeds on Ruby's tablet to go the settings.

In another part of the building, Jeremy watched the red light above a camera switch off and took that as his sign to move.

Springtrap had indeed got out of the glue trap and was in a foul mood. He went back to stalking through the building for his prey.

Ruby was the picture of impatience as she stared at Hedy, foot tapping and arms crossed.

Hedy knew she could only fiddle with the settings for so long before Ruby got suspicious.

Jeremy crept along the hallways, back against the walls just as he was trained. Hedy and Ruby should be near the entrance on the other side of the building, but where was Springtrap? Something moved in the corner of his eye and Jeremy set himself up to swing his makeshift shock prod just as a phantom leaped at him. Jeremy shouted, more confused at why a rusty decomposed Mangle was jumping at him than actual fear. But it was still a shock and it took everything he had not to react on instinct and swing the electric side of his rod at the thing. Hedy would never forgive him and as much as he didn't want to admit it, Mangle in particular, was growing on him. He rolled out of the way and...

She was gone?

"The f..." he murmured, looking around.

"Heh. They tend to do that." a deep voice said.

Jeremy turned and glared at the clump of shadows at the end of the hallway before it turned a corner.

Springtrap chuckled, distractedly tearing trash, streamers, and posters stuck to his fur with half-dried glue as he hobbled forward. "Well, this is a surprise." He sounded genuinely startled to find Jeremy instead of Ruby. How strange. He wondered where that little girl was.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes and turned on the taser.

Springtrap glanced at it, the blue crackle sending sharp shadows across the greenish-gray walls. "Ooh, I was wondering when you'd get off your ass to try something. Not that it's going to accomplish anything, you know."

Jeremy didn't say anything but tightened his grip on his weapon. He probably had only one shot to get close enough.

Springtrap continued walking forward, unperturbed. "I'm surprised, Jeremy. I would have thought you of all people would have been on the "protect the innocent" shtick. What about poor old Spring? Don't you care what happens to him?"

Jeremy wasn't a traumatized little kid that could get baited into a conversation. He simply stared the rabbit down as he came closer, the blue light casting deep shadows on their faces.

Ruby was starting to get suspicious. Hedy could do this kind of thing in minutes so why was it taking her so long? Granted she was in the territory of her childhood nightmare but that was her own fault for coming in here.

Couldn't wait two hours to fix her tablet.

Ruby's thoughts were cut off as the temperature all over the building dropped drastically. She could see her breath misting in front of her and shivered violently.

"What the hell? Hedy give me my tablet. I need to check on where that bodysnatcher is. I'm pretty sure the building is warning me about something." She demanded, hand stretched out for the tablet.

Hedy didn't seem to hear her for a moment. She stared at the mist that floated from Ruby mouth and somewhere in the back of her mind noticed that her own breath remained invisible. Next to Ruby she didn't seem to be breathing at all. The air felt just the same temperature as it always was to her. Cold, even with a jacket, but she was long used to it and Ruby always complained when she turned the heat up.

"R-ruby." Hedy started in a weak attempt to buy Jeremy time, her thoughts racing as panic hit her. What was she doing? She gripped the tablet tighter and didn't hand it over. Her thoughts, usually clear, were twisting in uncertainty and fear, tearing two sides of herself apart. Panic. What was she doing? This was wrong. Ruby could never forgive her. But Jeremy needed her. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't let that monster hurt anyone else. But this was wrong. She couldn't think. Any excuse she could give Ruby couldn't escape her mouth. She didn't know what to do. This never happened to her. She always knew what to do.

Ruby was starting to get angry now and reached out to grab the tablet.

"Dammit Hedy. There's a killer bot around. I need the tablet to keep an eye on everything. What is up with you today?" She tugged at the tablet and met her eyes finally noticing her expression.

"Hedy?" Her own expression changed to one of puzzlement. "You okay?" Sure she was mad at the mechanic but she was acting weird. She couldn't help the concern that flitted across her face.

They were both startled by the sound of loud crackling and Jeremy's pained shout.

He missed.

Jeremy and Springtrap both knew he messed up when Jeremy made the first move.

They were standing almost toe to toe, Jeremy holding the broken sparking taser between them, just staring at each other.

Then Springtrap faked a step at him, and Jeremy reacted, not as cool-headed as he thought he was.

The floor seemed to warp beneath his feet as he jabbed forward and Springtrap took the opportunity to "help" Jeremy to the floor, moving out of the way and just barely tugging at the man's shirt to further pull him off balance. He felt the deal lock his joints in protest, but the cheating move was brief and the damage was already done.

Jeremy fell on the taser and Hedy's words of "a lot of voltage but a short time exposed to it" came to mind as the prongs stabbed him in the shoulder and immediate pain racked through his body. He could hear Springtrap laughing at him. He was propped up on the rod by his shoulder for a half-second before his weight slid it out from under him.

Jeremy swung the numb hand he could only guess still had a grip on the shock prod and forced through the pain and nausea that hit him as he did. He fought the stupid building with everything he had.

Jeremy wouldn't have succeeded. The deal wouldn't have let him. But for the briefest of seconds, Springtrap forgot about that as the prod swung a little closer than he expected.

The rabbit stepped back to avoid the blue electrical arcs and slipped on some leftover paint from one of Ruby's traps earlier that night.

The heavy stolen robotic body hit the ground hard and he swore.

Jeremy scrambled to his feet shakily, his entire left side feeling like he fell asleep on it and cut off the circulation. His shoulder was cut and had little blisters while his shirt was charred where the taser stabbed him. Words had floated around his head before. He considered saying something like "This is for the kids" or "This is for Hedy" or even "This is for everyone you hurt". But he was just a guy that didn't want his little sister to suffer any more or another kid to risk her life. So he stabbed the taser at Springtrap, expecting a shower of sparks and the guilt to set in at the possibility he killed someone else in there. But he would go through with it if he had to. There was even a can of gasoline in the office.

But that's not what happened.

He jabbed the shock prod and at the same time Ruby hit it out of his hand so hard it dented the metal rod and sent waves of pain up his good arm. The taser cracked against the linoleum and sparking pieces scattered across the floor before the battery disconnected and the device went silent.

Ruby wasn't angry. She was livid. And all that fury was directed straight at Jeremy. Springtrap actually took a step back from her. He gave up a perfectly good opportunity to attack her because in that moment he forgot he was a ghost possessing an animatronic and his human self-preservation instincts screamed at him to move away.

Jeremy was distinctly reminded of Sergeant Stone after a rookie made a bad decision that almost got some officers killed. At the time that deadly glare hadn't been focused on him but it still scared him. Now those glacial green eyes were locked on him as Ruby completely ignored the killer behind her.

She stalked forward and shoved him against the wall. She may have been much shorter than him but that didn't diminish how dangerous she suddenly seemed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked quietly.

Ruby was never quiet, she was loud and in your face but never quiet.

Jeremy grunted in pain, his head swimming as the numbness worked out of his muscles. He could barely stand, much less give her an answer he knew she wouldn't like. He needed a minute. A tiny bit of blood leaked out the corner of his mouth from when getting tased made him bite his tongue.

"Ruby..." Hedy's whispery voice echoed from the end of the hallway. She'd just arrived from following Ruby as fast as she could. She looked at her brother and stifled a gasp at his state. Her eyes darted to Springtrap, but she looked away despite the pit in her stomach. "Let him go, please? He's hurt."

Ruby didn't react to Hedy and just stared at Jeremy. She wouldn't ask again.

"I had...to at least try." Jeremy eventually whispered, a little slurred but clear enough. Heartache dripped out of his voice as his head tilted in exhaustion and defeat.

Ruby sneered at him, disgust flitting across her features.

"Had to try? Had to try what? Becoming a murderer? Becoming just as bad as him?" She let him go abruptly and looked at him coldly. "Killing someone innocent just because they're in the way to your goal? Who the hell gave you the right to make that decision? If your sister was the one that had to die so that some psycho could be permanently stopped would you be so calm about it? Would you accept 'had to try'? Or don't you think he counts since he's 'just a bot'? The way I see it? You just tried to kill someone helpless to stop you in your selfish quest for vengeance. That's just as bad as targeting helpless kids. At least they had a chance. Spring can't even scream."

Ruby turned on Hedy next.

"And you helped him." Her tone was ice cold. "Congratulations Hedy, you almost assisted your brother with murder. Because it was easier than waiting until the end of the week. How does it feel to be so like your childhood nightmare?"

She buried the hurt and betrayal under her anger and lashed out at the two. Springtrap just stood in the background, not willing to interrupt. He was enjoying this.

Hedy jerked as if struck and suddenly she couldn't breathe. "I-I'm not like...Ruby, d-don't say that...please." she begged quietly, her voice cracking as she fought back tears and shook her head slightly. "Please."

She wanted nothing more at that moment than to run away, but she was stuck, trapped with limbs that didn't work properly and past mistakes that put her in the chair to begin with.

Jeremy's face twisted in pain at hearing his little sister struggle not to cry with Springtrap right there. "I've never done anything for revenge, Ruby. I couldn't let him hurt anyone anymore. I...I can't. Not again." He glared at Springtrap as he tried to stand straight but his still numb legs couldn't support his weight. He stumbled, catching himself on Hedy's chair as she helplessly tried to support him.

"Couldn't let him hurt anyone. Oh so you can just hurt Spring then?" She spat, knowing she'd regret some of these words later when she calmed down but too angry and hurt to care for now. She always did get nasty when mad. "You're a hypocrite Jeremy. You don't get to pick and choose what lives are worth saving!"

She focused all her anger back on Jeremy.

The shock was working its way out of his body, slowly but surely. Jeremy glared at Ruby warily, strength coming back in his voice. "And you don't get to risk everyone else, including yourself, for someone who might not even be alive anymore. This piece of crap," Jeremy pointed at Springtrap shakily, "Shouldn't have gotten a moment of opportunity to hurt you o-or anyone else, much less a whole damn week."

"Jeremy..." Hedy said.

He continued. "I don't know if Spring is in there, but you don't either!"

Ruby clenched her hands into fists like she wanted to punch him.

"No one else was in danger, well until you pulled this stunt." She snapped back. "I had two nights left. And then you do this? I'll tell you what I think. You didn't want to wait until I won at the end of the week in case Spring did come back because then you wouldn't have to feel guilt over doubting it." She stepped closer and glared up at him. "Unlike you, I think the chance of saving someone is worth the risk. It's my life to risk, not yours, not your sister's. Neither of you had a right to interfere. This week was mine to handle, my way. But like an idiot you went against the deal. What if I hadn't arrived here? What if the building punished you for trying to break the deal and I came across you injured or dead because of your own stupidity? And then he took advantage of my shock to attack me? Or what if your sister did? I'm sure he would have loved to mock her while standing over your injured body. Some brother you are. Dragging your sister into her would be killer's lair. Although apparently she doesn't care about the bots as much as I thought she did." The last part was dripping in bitterness.

She shook her head and turned away from Jeremy. "Two more nights and we would have known about Spring. And the bodysnatcher wouldn't have been able to hurt anyone anymore. Nice to see how much faith the two of you have in me despite the fact that I'm still alive and winning."

She paused and tilted her head. "Oh, I'll give you this warning now then Jeremy. You tried to hurt a bot. That's something I won't tolerate. Before this you were just Hedy's irritating brother. Now you're a threat. Become a danger to my bots and I'll make you regret it." Her eyes held a dangerous light. "I don't know what Hedy ranks at at the moment since I'm too angry to think about it but she's certainly not a friend anymore."

Hedy made a small noise akin to a choke. Moments ago she was about to beg Jeremy to back down, afraid of her friend and brother getting into an actual fight with Springtrap standing in the shadows, but now her mind was blank.

Jeremy glanced at Hedy, and immediately he saw the pain in her eyes at Ruby's words. His gut twisted in guilt. He should never have gotten his sister involved in this plan of his. Ruby was correct when it came to that.

But she was wrong, so wrong, to say Hedy didn't care about the bots. He saw the care she put into taking care of them, even the Originals who didn't let her near. He saw how she watched them from a distance, listening to the squeaks of old gears and grimacing at them as she subtly left another can of WB-40 in parts and services.

But Ruby was beyond angry and saying all the things that came to Jeremy's mind would do nothing but make it worse and Hedy was already struggling to stay composed as it was.

Jeremy didn't respond. He just nudged Hedy's arm and prompted her to turn away, towards the main building.

Hedy didn't know what else to do and left so she could find somewhere to be alone. Away from Ruby, who probably wished she'd leave and never return at this point. Away from her childhood nightmare, just standing there, enjoying himself. Away from Jeremy who she knew she should have discouraged from ever trying what he did.

Jeremy stayed, glaring at Ruby. "Be mad at me all you want." he snapped. "But none of this was Hedy's fault." He gestured behind him. "You know what she was thinking." Jeremy's eyes drifted to Springtrap who just narrowed his eyes and grinned in glee. "Ruby, I dearly hope you win. And I hope you're right about Spring because it's clear anything I'm desperate enough to try isn't going to work. Hedy cares too much, so there's no way I can convince her to leave with me, but here's hoping you never see me again. I'm done. If you want to get yourself killed, making these so-called "deals" time after time, then so be it. I've lost too much to care about other people's kids anymore." He was going to regret saying that, he knew, but he was hurt, tired, and so damned defeated that all he wanted to do was give up, especially if all of his efforts were for nothing. If Ruby wanted to win this argument so bad, fine! He was done.

The teen shrugged nonchalantly, like she didn't care. She'd always been good at hiding her emotions. In her anger and buried hurt though she lashed out at the closest target which was him.

"I've been trying to get myself killed since I was ten and I watched my parents bleed out in front of me. The building insists on the game being fair though. So I'll play to the best of my abilities. You stay the hell out of my way though Jeremy. And don't try and exonerate her. She's an adult. She made the decision to help you. She could have said no and she didn't."

Springtrap took their distraction to slip away unnoticed. Ruby was furious at the moment. It was too funny that she was directing that at Jeremy to interfere with.

"Just because Spring might be gone doesn't mean you have a right to kill him." her voice shook for a moment as her emotions threatened to escape before she got them under control again. "Just because you can't scream or ask for help doesn't mean you don't deserve it."

She turned to leave.

"Now get lost. I've got a game to win." the determined look she was wore was all Sergeant Stone. "You've already cost me enough time."

She stalked off to find Springtrap.

She'd regret some of those words and was glad that her bots didn't hear her. For now though, she had a job to do.