-You Can't-
Chapter 23: The Choice
Telling the truth was now a true dilemma, because Spring didn't want the others to... understand what was going on. Firstly, the fact that he needed to be brought back in the future would seem a little hard to believe, but also he didn't want the others to be... worried about him. Hey, he was fine ! Even if he needed to take a very painful decision about his future -and his friends' future along, of course-, he was perfectly aware about the conditions.
Speaking about it, Shadow Freddy appeared to Springtrap, who was chatting with Freddy around the Show Stage. Indeed, the bear was explaining to him that his microphone was sh*t because it didn't last more than a week without breaking. Fortunately, now that they had the 'Internet', he was able to buy one each time the damn thing broke up. The golden bunny was just listening, knowing absolutely nothing about microphones and not even understanding what in Hell's name could be Internet but wanting to be here for his friend.
The shadow animatronic shook his head, smiling widely as he saw Springtrap nodding when Freddy talked about delivery and delays until it arrived at the pizzeria. He approached them, startling Spring by putting his hands all of a sudden on his shoulders. The bunny startled and shouted with fear, turning around and frowning at Shadow Freddy a.k.a 'Fred'. "Seriously ? It's so childish, I thought you were better than that."
"Hey, easy there buddy ! You're so damn serious sometimes !" Shadow Freddy cried out, laughing when he saw Springtrap raising an eyebrow and Freddy smiling nervously, obviously not seeing him.
Spring cleared his throat before glancing at Freddy, saying almost nonchalantly: "You know what I wanna say ? He's here-"
"HE'S THERE, HE'S EVERYWHERE ! WHO YOU GONNA CALL ? PSYCHIC FRIEND FREDBEAR !" Mario's voice echoed from the Office.
"WRONG ONE !" Springtrap replied, sighing in annoyance and looking back at Freddy, who had remained silent since Marionette started singing from the opposite side of the building.
Foxy was in Pirate's Cove, nearly rolling on the floor, laughing. Shadow Freddy rolled his eyes, quite amused by the situation nonetheless. Springtrap just stared at the hallucination, smiling widely. Freddy shook his head while glancing at the golden rabbit, just catching what Marionette sang two minutes ago. "That's so stupid."
"Indeed, but we need to laugh sometimes, don't we ?" Spring said, looking at him quite scornfully. "I don't want to cry over Chica and Bonnie's death all my life."
"I-I didn't say that, dear, don't be mean with me." Freddy warned, upset by Springtrap's attitude.
Okay, Springtrap had had a pretty bad day but it wasn't enough to treat him as crap. Springtrap wasn't the leader here, after all, was he ? No. And who was the leader ? Freddy himself. Springtrap really needed to calm down if he didn't want to face his responsabilities.
The bunny snorted, turning around and looking at Shadow Freddy. This one seemed uneasy, noticing that Springtrap was in a bad mood. "Well, you're... upset today, can you explain why ?"
The golden animatronic blinked in confusion before sniffing, staring right in the shadow's eyes. "Why are you all saying this ? I'm good, okay ? Leave me be !"
"Would you please stop yelling at me and answer my question honestly ?" Fred insisted, standing up and approaching the bunny. This one pushed him away, really angry and turned to look at Freddy.
Foxy and Mario came instantly after hearing something falling and Spring began to shout at everyone: "I'M FINE, OKAY ? I'M F*CKING FINE, FOR F*CK'S SAKE ! LEAVE ME ALONE !"
With that, he ran away, locking himself up in the Office by closing the two doors. The power was about to run out at some point, everyone knew it, but they just guessed that it was what Springtrap intended.
Marionette took a look at Freddy, trying to understand what happened. Foxy glanced at Shadow Freddy while this one was standing up, seemingly hurt and his leg could barely move. The fox was about to ask what happened but the bear waved his hand, preventing him to even talk about it. Freddy and Marionette just stared at each other before sitting together, Foxy sitting along with them.
Shadow Freddy joined them unknown to the other 'bots except the fox. They sighed at the same time, Marionette speaking first: "He is acting strangely today..."
"Maybe he's stressed out, though." Fred suggested, Foxy nodding and saying it to the other two.
Freddy and Mario looked at him, confused, before the leader asked: "Why would he be stressed out ?"
Foxy took a look at Fred, who explained to him everything. Each information made his eyes widening more. He was so astonished. He didn't know that. Not like he needed to know about that, since it was only Fred and Spring's business, but... It was very weird. Almost unbelievable.
The other two glanced at him, wondering about what was going on, when Foxy inhaled deeply and explained calmly: "Shadow Freddy be sayin' that... Well, thar be a long story, guys..."
"Go ahead." Plushtrap said, joining them along with Plush Mario.
Foxy smiled to them before clearing his throat, thinking quickly. Once he knew how to explain all this crap, he raised his head and stared at his friends. "He came from ta future many years ago, intendin' to brin' our Sprin'trap in ta future, mateys."
"In the future ?" Freddy asked, not able to truly believe what he was hearing. No, that couldn't be possible. We just couldn't travel through the time like that... could we ? "How is it possible ?"
The red fox seemed a bit lost but went on: "There was a machine. A time-travel machine. He used it. He came here with ta purpose t' brin' Sprin' in ta future, 'cause the other be dead and Shadow Fred was about ta destroy everythin'. Thar be why... Er... 'Phantom Fredbear', isn't it ? Okay. That's why 'Phantom Fredbear' brought him aft'in t' 70's."
Marionette blinked, really confused by this story, and asked slowly, worried: "And what does that have to do with the situation... ?"
"As Fred says, Sprin'trap has t' decide if he wants t' go to ta future with him, and save everyone, or if he wants t' stay here with us..."
Freddy, along with the others, dropped his jaw when he heard that. That explained some things... That could explain why Springtrap was upset and why he was comtemptuous with everyone. Indeed, that didn't pardon his attitude, being mean with everyone you encounter can't be forgiven by a difficult choice in life, but... somehow, they could understand why he was doing so.
Marionette lowered her head, reuniting her hands and wondering about everything. What would she do if she had that kind of choices ? She doubted that she would be nice with her friends. But still, he didn't have to act like a jerk with everybody.
Shadow Freddy turned around, looking as Springtrap was coming back to them. He was walking slowly, lowering his head, tears running down his cheeks. It seemed like he had enough time to think about what he did. He maybe regretted it. Maybe.
Foxy walked towards him, smiling cheerfully and hugging him tightly. The bunny hugged him back, crying over his shoulder. "I'm so sorry guys... I'm just so... stressed out today..."
"It be okay, matey. We be here for ya. We be understandin', pal."
The two remained like that for a minute before stepping back, Springtrap looking at the others and coming to them, hugging them as well. Even if he didn't like hugs or things like that too much, he thought that it was... necessary. He needed to do that. They were his friends, and he hurt them. He was mean with them. He didn't know what he was doing, to preoccupied by his own business.
He was being selfish, and he hated that so much.
"I'm just worried about my decision... It's too difficult, Fred..." He whispered, glancing at the purple bear.
The hallucination shook its head, smiling slightly, tears running down its cheeks as it understood that Springtrap wasn't ready to come yet. "It's nothing... That's not imposed, you can refuse."
Springtrap shook his head vehementely. "No, I don't want to refuse ! I will come with you, I promise, but I'm not ready... not yet."
The purple bear nodded, reassured. Spring could take the time he needed before coming along, that wasn't important for him. He just needed to know that the bunny was ready to sacrify his friends and himself to save the next generations. He was so glad to hear that Spring was ready to come along. He was doubtful since a while, even more than Springtrap was, in fact.
He doubted because he didn't think that even him would do that kind of sacrifice. Sacrifying our own life to save the other ones... It was heroic and very brave. Those kind of choices showed if you were truly a good person or not. And... even if he never doubted that Springtrap was a good person, he... doubted if he was. He asked himself many time, wondering if he would accept or not.
The answer was that he wouldn't. If he had his own life somewhere, with the one he loved and all his friends... He wouldn't leave. He wouldn't voluntarily kill them to save the world's fate. Even if it was the only way to save everything, to save humanity or else... he wouldn't choose to leave everything. Leaving meant suffering, because not seeing your friends again and knowing that none other than you made them die... You should suffer for eternity after that.
But even if it was a very hard choice, Springtrap decided to go ahead and save everyone's life. He decided to kill his friends, his girlfriend, his best friend ever who sacrified everything he had for him, just to be sure that everyone after them would live a long and happy life. Shadow Freddy was very proud. Not like he had something to do with the bunny's choice, but he considered Springtrap as his friend, his confident.
Or maybe lover, if the golden animatronic wanted to be that kind of friend. That was also possible for him.
"Fred ?" went the voice that awoke him.
The hallucination shook its head, recovering the reality, only to stare into Springtrap's golden-grey eyes once again. He was so happy. He felt better than ever. Knowing that all was going to be okay again.
No more fears. No more nightmares. No more cries. No more pain.
"Okay, you know what ? Time for nightmares." Shadow Freddy said, smiling as he quickly approached Spring and put a hand over his forehead.
Springtrap blinked in confusion, raising an eyebrow before asking: "Time for what ?"
But before he could even think about what Fred had said, the purple bear spread his magic in Springtrap's body and sent him off to sleep.
To be continued...
Helloo ! How are you all ? Hope you're all fantastic ! I officially tell you, right now, five chapters until the end, that there will be a sequel to this fic called "FNaF: It's Me".
If you want more informations about it, (even if I won't give much details about the storyline) PM me :) I don't bite, I promise. XD
Anyway, hope you liked this chapter ! Tell me everything in the comments !
To EmeraldKnight26: Unfortunately, I don't have an X-Box so I can't play with you ^^ Sorry. I only have a Wii U. :) Thanks for reading ! Hope you'll enjoy the next chapters as well !
Thanks to everybody for the support, you're amazing people :D
Until next time, that's to say Saturday,
Circle of J.