Author's Note

I'm so glad everyone is still enjoying this story! Thanks again to Corona Pax for her help and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 75

Night 6 Take 3

Jeremy sat in the waiting room of the hospital, hands still covered in Hedy's blood. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think.

She lost a lot of blood. She was a rare blood type so it was a lucky thing they matched. But he hadn't even seen her and the doctor's wouldn't give him updates yet. No news. She could die in surgery any second and he wouldn't be there. They had to revive her in the ambulance once and again at hospital.

Jeremy shuddered out a sob and sunk his face into his hands, forgetting about the blood for a minute. His sister's blood.

What if he had left? What if the bots hadn't stopped him?

How?

He grit his teeth in rage. Why had he been stopped from keeping Springtrap from doing this very thing, but the same deal that would have blown the tazer up in his hand had Ruby not intervened let that monster tear Hedy apart?

"Excuse me. Mr. Fitzgerald?"

Jeremy jumped and looked up at the doctor, hastily standing up.

He'd get his answers about Hedy now, good or bad...

Later that night, when Ruby arrived for her shift she went straight to Fazbear's Fright, pausing only long enough to assure the Originals that she was alright. They didn't seem too convinced as they watched her head to work.

As she stepped into the attraction she did something she'd never done before. She locked the door behind her. She was regretting not doing it the previous night, although Hedy also had keys to the entire building so it might not have helped.

The familiar ball of fear and anger tightened as she thought of the mechanic, gripping the door handle until her knuckles turned white.

No one was walking in on her tonight. Only Goldy could enter without the key and she wouldn't go into this part of the building willingly. Ruby didn't want them to see her tonight. She knew herself well enough to know that the fury bubbling below the surface was going to explode rather violently when she next saw Springtrap.

A twisted smile crossed her lips as she heard the bodysnatcher calling out, obviously very confident of tonight's outcome. He was expecting a frightened and traumatised teenager.

Oh wouldn't he be surprised?

"You called?" Springtrap heard behind him and he turned in surprise. He'd expected to have to hunt the girl down. Trying to put on a brave face then?

"Ah yes, I wanted to ask about dear little Hedwig?" he gave a cruel smile.

Ruby's expression darkened and something lit up in her eyes. He couldn't quite place what it was though.

"Do you remember what I told you last night?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, eyes locked on him.

"What?" Springtrap was surprised at the apparent lack of anger.

"I told you that you'd regret targeting Hedy. I don't like cheaters you see."

A chill went up his spine as he remembered Hedy saying the same thing as she laughed at him. He tried to shake it off. That was ridiculous, she'd been delusional with blood loss.

"I made the game fair, gave you a fair chance. Then what do you do? You go after someone not participating. Bad sportsmanship Michael," she sighed.

He started in surprise at the sound of his name. Had Hedy actually told her who he was? She'd been calling him Springtrap since the beginning so he'd assumed that Hedy had kept it to herself.

"Oh yeah. I know who you are. Wasn't too hard to find out." Ruby shrugged nonchalantly. "Oldest son of William Afton; owner of Afton Robotics, the company that made my bots and co-founder of the Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria franchise." she began circling him as she spoke. "Two younger siblings. The middle child, your sister Elizabeth, died mysteriously when she was eight. Your youngest sibling, Timmy, had his head crushed when you shoved him into an animatronic's mouth." she paused. "Was that your first kill?" she asked innocently while her eyes stayed locked on him. A smirk formed on her face and her eyes glittered with malice. "You were as bad a brother as you were a human being weren't you? Did you do it on purpose? Or was it all a horrible accident Michael?" she drew his name out with a twisted smile.

His eyes narrowed and he lunged at her. Who was she to dig into his past? It was gone and forgotten, he and the company had done their best to bury it after all. How'd she find this out?

Ruby easily side stepped his lunge and tripped him, sending him crashing to the floor.

"I'm busy talking Michael. Don't be rude," she admonished before a crack filled the air. He screamed in shock and pain as she brought Betty down on his left leg, completely shattering it. "Oh don't be a baby." she rolled her eyes. "It's just a broken leg." she gave said leg a swift kick as he tried to get up. He fell back to the floor with another shocked cry.

"That's better." she nodded in satisfaction, looking far too cheerful for just having broken his leg. "Now, where was I?"

She strolled around in front of him. "Oh right! I was going over your exciting history." her smile would have been happy if it wasn't for the cruel twist and the darkness in her eyes.

"So your siblings are dead, one because of you. Stress on the family yadda yadda and your parents separate. You go with mommy dearest and your dad vanishes to who knows where. It isn't long before tragedy strikes again and mom dies as well. Same mysterious circumstances as her daughter. Of course you're of age by now so you need to support yourself. Can't find daddy anywhere so you head back to Freddy's where you get a job as the night guard."

She crouched down in front of him, just out of arm's reach. "And this is where things get interesting isn't it?" she asked mockingly. "Big birthday bash and you see the perfect opportunity. You know where all the suits are stored so you pull an old one out, a springlock one that you can wear. You lure six kids away and kill them. One. By. One." she tapped Betty thoughtfully on the ground. "Oh, except you're an idiot and can't count. So one gets away. Can't cover that up. Big police investigation. But you still get away with it." she sighed and shook her head mournfully.

He was glared at her. Just what was she doing?

"So, what I want to know is how you ended up in that suit. How did you end up possessing Spring Michael?" she asked, still tapping Betty on the tiles.

"Like I'm going to tell you." he smirked through the pain. "And really? Damaging Spring's body? Dangerous tactic little girl. I thought you wanted to save him?"

"Oh I did. I do. But you see I'm royally pissed off," she answered. "And when that happens I don't really think very clearly. Truthfully I'm feeling a strong urge to fetch the gasoline that Jeremy left in the office and watch you burn."

He stared at her and felt a shiver run through him. She wasn't bluffing. He could see it in her eyes. Fury, grief, sadistic pleasure and under all of it...an undercurrent of madness. Her green eyes practically lit up with it.

"So you understand now?" Ruby purred, leaning in closer. "I'm on a knife edge. I'm barely restraining myself from doing serious damage to you. And oh it would hurt." she sighed blissfully. "But that would be a very very bad road to follow. I've fallen off that knife edge before and the consequences...are dire."

Her eyes clouded for a moment as she clearly remembered something.

She shook her head to clear it. "My therapist would be very disappointed in me if I did that again. And I really don't want to worry Alice and Clint like that again. So how about you answer my question?"

"Screw you," he spat. She loved the animatronics too much to do anymore serious damage to this body he was sure.

Quick as a striking cobra, Betty lashed out and slammed into his right wrist, crushing the metal and his theory. He screamed again.

"Oooh, low pain tolerance huh?" Ruby asked conversationally as she pulled the bat, now dripping in oil, back. She watched the black liquid for a moment before turning to him. "Now, my question?"

Gritting his teeth he finally realised what Hedy meant. The entire week this girl had been playing with him. Handicapping herself to make the game fair and to stop her from causing too much damage.

He'd angered her enough to cut through that restraint now.

"I hid him in a secret room in the building that no one else knew about," he reluctantly told her. "When the investigation ended I went back to get the suit. I didn't know about the brat's ghosts."

Ruby laughed, an unhinged sound. "Oh that's priceless. Bet they frightened the living daylights out of you."

He glared but continued when she lifted the bat again. "I hid in the suit but the locks failed..."

She didn't even flinch at the image that produced.

"So you died and possessed the suit that killed you?"

He reluctantly nodded.

"Makes sense in a weird way. Now, second question. Was Spring still there?"

Now he smirked. "I kept him awake just so I could make him relive those memories. I needed to have some entertainment when I was moved into storage."

Ruby's expression went from politely curious to barely contained fury. "And now?" her voice was ice cold.

"He was too distracting when they opened Fazbear's Fright the first time so I shut him up. I shoved him so far down that I haven't heard from him since," he answered smugly before realising his error as Ruby lashed out again, this time with a taser. It was a good few minutes before she pulled it back and he was still twitching and actually sparking to say anything for a few minutes after.

"What would your dear bots say if they saw you now?" he asked, trying to throw her off.

She just smiled back. "Door's locked and I disconnected the tablet they were using to watch. It's just you and me Michael," she practically cooed. "Just us, all shift. And the night's just begun."

That statement sent a shiver down his spine again and he looked closer at her. His earlier words came back to haunt him. He'd convinced her that Spring was gone.

Why should she hold back now?

Finally admitting how dangerous this girl was, she wasn't completely sane and she was apparently fine with torture, he grew desperate. Using his good arm he grabbed the front of her jacket and pulled her down, surprising her. Her reflexes were far better than his in his still twitching body however and he was positive that that taser had fried a few circuits.

She twisted out of his grip and got away from him with only a bruise. He growled and used the nearby wall to pull himself upright. His right hand was useless with the wrist mangled like that and his left leg was beyond help currently.

He was horrified to admit that he was at this girl's mercy.

"Not a nice feeling is it?" she asked quietly. "To be helpless with a dangerous psycho out to get you."

Her eyes were tired and she seemed far older than her sixteen years.

"I'm at least able to admit my faults and learn to control them. You let yours control you your entire life. First your brother paid for it, then innocent children and you scarred the rest of Hedy's life. Then you tried to kill her too."

She reached into her bag and pulled out the rusty pipe he'd attacked Hedy with. She'd grabbed it from the hospital when no one was looking.

"You're a sick killer. And as horrible as it is I see some similarities between us. Resorting to violence while having strategic minds. Quick to anger. Able to stomach doing horrible things. The difference is I choose to control it. I choose to keep my humanity intact. Just for tonight though, I'll give in." she looked at the pipe for a long moment before walking towards him.

"It's over Michael." she leaned in close and for once he was frozen with true fear. He saw himself reflected in those cold, green eyes. Just for this one moment. "Goodbye, it hasn't been a pleasure."

She shoved the pipe into his midsection, exactly where he'd stabbed Hedy. Oil sprayed out at Ruby, while burning pain hit him cutting off his scream. It was a twisted recreation of the previous night as his body hit the floor, twitching. Of course he wasn't dead but this body had reached its limit.

The game was over.

Ruby felt sick as she watched the oil spread out under the twitching animatronic. Her need for revenge, to protect her little found family at this pizzeria was satisfied. She hadn't wanted to take the risk that he could use the same method that let him attack Hedy on anyone else. She'd needed to end it as soon as possible and this was the best method.

Even if she hated it.

If she'd trapped him he could have escaped. If she'd avoided him he'd have gone after someone else.

It was over. However, the oil looked remarkably like black blood soaking the floor as well as her clothes, face and hair. Shaking she leaned against the wall and slid down.

Most days she hated the memories that plagued her. Some days she hated the world that took her family from her. Then there were days like today, where she hated herself for what she was capable of.

She looked up when she felt a cold presence and found the sixth ghost looking at her.

"Don't cry," he whispered, making her realise that there were indeed tears falling down her cheeks. "You feel regret. You're not the same as him." he turned to look sadly at the twitching killer. "It's over. You saved Spring from further torment from him. Whether he comes back or not, that's what's important Ruby. You saved him and everyone in this building from Michael. He would never have stopped until forced to. Thank you. I think you finally taught my brother to fear something besides death."

"You're Timmy Afton aren't you?" she asked, still watching Michael.

"Yes."

"You don't hate him for causing your death?"

"No. He didn't mean to. But I still hold him responsible. I don't blame Goldy though."

"That's good," she sighed tiredly and leaned her head back against the wall.

"You've got some similarities to him Ruby. But you're very different people. He did horrible things because he enjoyed it. You do horrible things because you have precious people to protect. Don't forget that."

She gave him a weak smile.

"The others will understand."

"I stopped Jeremy from doing exactly what I did today."

"No. He would have ended up hurting himself if he continued."

She sighed. "You're talkative today."

"I want you to place the blame where it belongs. On Michael for forcing your hand. He crossed the line. You reacted."

She stayed silent, she still wasn't sure what to think about her actions tonight. Or what the others would think. Timmy stayed with her all through the shift until the chimes rang at six. The rabbit animatronic they were watching shuddered again before going still. The ghost of a young man, barely out of his teens was forcefully thrown out of the bot. He stared at the two of them for a moment, eyes wide when he spotted Timmy.

Then he vanished. Timmy followed soon after.

Ruby didn't have the energy to get up or the willpower to face anyone right now even though they had to be frantic with worry.