It seemed that by eating some chocolate, Saphira and Springtrap were able to relax a bit more to the point of just talking in general. It actually was good. And while the two originally thought that they wouldn't be able to talk about a lot, there was surprisingly enough for them to talk about. Saphira did learn from Springtrap that there were a few hilarious incidents that happened during her years of absence. And it involved the other animatronics as Springtrap was there just as a witness. Such as the incident where Toy Foxy had been attending a birthday part, and he was helping one of the staff fill balloons with helium, and he had accidently let go of a few that he had been holding, and this scared the staff member and made her let go of the ones she was holding. And due the noise of the balloons flying around, the children roared with laughter.
Springtrap chuckled softly as he thought back to that moment. "I had actually walked through the plaza because I was on my way to Fredbear's dining room to join him for a skit, and I witnessed what happened. Poor Toy Foxy looked mortified, but he began laughing with the kids because it was an accident, and it made the party more memorable for the kid."
"Did any of the other animatronics see?" Saphira asked him curiously as she giggled softly after listening to the story.
Springtrap nodded. "Toy Bonnie, Toy Chica and Toy Freddy saw what had happened. They were actually doing some Meet and Greets, and everyone in the plaza had heard the balloons, making the entire room erupt with laughter. I did not, because I had to focus on what I had to do, and I wasn't a part of it. We all had a good laugh later though."
Saphira could only imagine. "But…no one thought it was suspicious when the animatronics started laughing?"
"Oh, no! Everyone knows the toy animatronics and the other four in the main dining room laugh, so it was not out of the ordinary. It is myself, Fredbear and the phantoms who are not known to laugh very much. It somehow scares people when we laugh." Springtrap's smile dropped slightly and looked at Saphira curiously. "Though you were the only one who really made me laugh a long time ago. I know you were never bothered by it."
She shrugged a little. "I guess I was not, but you don't have a creepy laugh, Springtrap. To me it is fine. I am not sure why others seem to think it is weird…but people can be stupid at times anyway, so it made sense. Everyone has a unique laugh, and some people think how others laugh is annoying, and it just happens. It is unfortunate."
"Seems that way. I don't understand it anyway." Springtrap looked at her bag curiously. "Do you have anymore chocolate?" Saphira grinned at him in amusement and grabbed out another bar to hand to him. "I guess I am getting addicted to this. I have heard it can be…though it seems to be the thing that I needed."
"I am going to have to remember to buy extra for you," Saphira said as she watched him open the bar and eat it. His face was full of enjoyment, and she was happy to help him experience that. "Maybe I'll bake some chocolate muffins or cookies for everyone…" He looked at her in surprise. "I'm not a horrible cook or baker…probably because a few times I've had to learn."
He gave her a confused expression. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Uh…well…" Saphira looked away from him for a moment before she looked back at him. "Before my sister was born, my parents used to go out of these trips under the lie of trying to get themselves to a healthy mental state. They started as weekend trips, and they soon turned into weeklong trips. I was left on my own to grieve and figure things out without anyone to help me. It was actually scary and it made me think they didn't care about my feelings. I still think they don't. But because of that, I became a decent cook and I do like baking from time to time."
"Really?" Springtrap was really surprised to hear this. "From memory, your parents actually loved you, did they not?" She gave him a half nod as she was not sure how to answer that. "I would have assumed that by bringing you to the restaurant they loved you…even though I do know they would disappear once you were there."
"Because the attraction became the babysitting place for me," Saphira said softly. "And I thank them for that, actually. I remember being four when I was left on my own. I did not realize they had gone until they came back and asked me if I was upset. I was super confused, and they told me they went out for dinner while I spent time with Freddy and the others. That was when it became a regular thing."
Springtrap seemed super confused as he had actually thought her parents cared about her. "I guess from my perspective, things were fine for you and your parents…and they were going to do that same for your brother, it seems." She nodded. "Hmm…" He bit into the chocolate to chew on a piece thoughtfully. "Why would they be treating your sister so differently? I would think they would treat her the same."
"I guess…subconsciously, they feel guilty with how they raised me and with what happened to Jeremy, they probably feel like that by raising Roxy differently, they are doing something right. But they are also doing a lot wrong my spoiling her and now helping me like they should…I know for a fact Roxy will go to college with help…unlike me if I were to go." Saphira didn't really like talking about this, it always brought up bitter feelings that she had towards her family. "Look, I don't like talking about my family, Springtrap. I know you want to know because we are having this general chat and all…but I really don't like talking about it."
Springtrap felt bad for Saphira. He had the animatronics all trying to support him during the pain and anger had gone through, and all Saphira got was a brick wall from her parents. He had no idea she had no one on her side to help her through the pain she was going through. And it never helped that she went through bullying at school. He felt very bad for her, and he wished that he could have been there for her.
"It is too bad they didn't just drop you off after the incident," Springtrap commented and she looked at him in surprise. "You and I would have been in a better place, and you would have had true friends around you. We would have been much better company than what you have had to deal with."
Saphira smiled and nodded, he was definitely right about that. "Yeah...at the time though, I am not sure how I would have felt. Especially since it was that particular drive that killed my brother, so I am not sure how I would have felt. But I guess we can only speculate what could have been because we cannot change the past."
Springtrap finished off the chocolate bar and placed a hand on her shoulder gently. "I have to admit, I am not entirely familiar with grief. I know I had been really upset and angry when you left, and I guess I grieved that you were gone, but not that you were dead. So I am afraid that I don't know what it feels like."
"I suppose that makes you lucky in a way. You are not grieving for the employees that have been killed, though I guess because you had no friendship with them, you are only disturbed by wondering why they were killed." Saphira was a little jealous he knew nothing of what grief felt like, she hated the feeling. But he was in a position where he would likely never feel it, unless someone was to kill one of the other animatronics.
"Maybe we are lucky, but I can tell I would never want to go through it," Springtrap said as he gave her a gentle smile. "Seeing and hearing how it has affected you and made your parents weird, I hope to not go through it. I know that I could, but I don't think I want to go through it at all."
Saphira smiled at him, slightly amused and understanding at the same time. "I suppose the only way for you to go through grief is if one of the others die or if you are still around when I reach an old age and pass naturally, though that is many years later."
"Yeah, that is true. At least here, we care more about you than your own family. Too bad you can't stay here more than just the night shift. I would like that a lot." Saphira smiled at Springtrap's wish. She thoroughly understood why he wished she could be there longer. Though she doubted they would have much extra time since it was an attraction, and he couldn't reveal that he wasn't just a normal animatronic to the other employees. "I am curious, will you still work here when you finish your school?" She shrugged uncertainly. "I suppose you might be since you might not go to college."
"Well, I think it will depend on some things, Springtrap. But I think I want to be where I am with friends...and not with random people who I may not like and hate going to work everyday." Saphira looked at the tablet again when another alert goes off and hits the reboot button. She looked up when she heard footsteps approaching and saw Bonnie walking by the window. "Oh, hey, Bonnie!" Bonnie entered the office with a smile. "I hope you were able to deal with the bodies."
"Sort of...that's the reason why I am here," Bonnie said in an uncertain tone. "We think we found a basement as Foxy found a door that leads to a dark place down some stairs. But..." He rubbed the back his neck uncertainly. "You might want to come with us, Saphira. We found some weird things...and they could be connected to how we exist as living animatronics."
Saphira was definitely surprised and interested suddenly. She grabbed her flashlight as she stood up from the chair. "Where did Foxy find the door to this basement?"
"It was by accident. We were just going through the hallway leading up to Chica's Love Chapel and he was just playfully shoving with Freddy. And Foxy had shoved Freddy a little hard into a seemingly clear wall, and the animatronic forced the door open." Saphira raised an eyebrow. "I told those idiots to stop as we were looking for somewhere to store the bodies. We figured we might have found something, but we aren't sure."
Saphira was really curious about what the animatronics had found. It sounded rather interesting. "I guess we had better investigate." She grabbed the tablet to take with her as Bonnie turned to leave the room. Springtrap waited to let Saphira go ahead of him before he followed. "I assume you must have gone down into the basement if you think the basement holds keys to your existence."
Bonnie nodded. "Yeah, we did. And I have to tell you, it was the first time that I felt kind of...nervous." Springtrap gave him a surprised expression. "You will understand why, Springtrap. I just happened to find the basement to be very unsettling. I mean, we could be totally wrong..."
"I might be able to figure it out." Saphira did wonder what could be down there. She figured maybe something like organs or someone was there, but she was not sure. "Day four and it seems like I will find out more about you."
"And I hope that by unintentionally finding something else won't cause any bad consequences for you, Saphira," Bonnie said softly as he glanced at her. "Especially since we were the ones who found it."
"Well...Saphira and I did hear something crawl through the vent in the office as well," Springtrap said thoughtfully. "And from memory, I do not remember anything like that at all. So I am not sure of that is something to be worried about yet."
Bonnie was shocked that there was something in the vent and he glanced up at one of the vent covers as they enter the main dining room. "That does not sound that good to me...hopefully whatever it is, it is just an animal and not something that is spying on us."
That thought that Bonnie had did make Saphira wonder if the animatronics were spied on. The camera system does not record anything, so something had to. And Mike knew that the animatronics have not killed her, and he likely would be wondering why, other than that he knew she used to come to the restaurant as a kid. So she would imagine that he and Mr Afton would want to watch what is happening.
"Well, let's see what we can find in the basement..." Saphira did glance at the tables to see Samson's body had been removed and she was relieved. "I am definitely curious about what is there. And a little nervous."
"We will make sure you won't get hurt, Saphira," Springtrap said reassuringly, placing his hand on her shoulder to rub gently. "But I highly doubt we need to be worried about something jumping out and attacking you. I would be shocked if there was something there that would."
Saphira agreed with him. She knew she was more likely nervous about what she would find rather than being attacked. Which made sense, as while she was still wanting to know why these animatronics were being made, she was still nervous about the answers she would find for that answer. And she did know she hoped to know more before the nightmare animatronics arrive. Even if she had to see if she could follow Mike or even work out where exactly Mr Afton was, he was obviously in the city or maybe just outside somewhere.
"While I agree there isn't anything that will physically attack Saphira...we did find something that is making Freddy, Chica, Foxy and I nervous about. You will understand once you see." They walked through the Haunted Classroom to get to the hallway to Chica's Love Chapel, and Saphira saw the animatronics gathered in the hallway. "We do hope that when we close the door, Mike won't notice. I don't think we have ever seen anyone use this door, so we don't know how long it has been there for."
Saphira nodded in understanding as they approach the doorway. She was surprised by the nervous expressions on Freddy, Chica, Toy Bonnie and Golden Bonnie's faces, along with the uncertain expressions on the others. She definitely was curious as she saw the door open and it definitely seemed that while it opened inward, the fake bricks hid the door extremely well.
Looking into the doorway, Saphira saw it was dark and she turned her flashlight on. "I guess I better see what you guys found." She walked to the door and shines the light down at the wooden stairs in front of her. "I don't like basements…"
Springtrap looked at Saphira curiously as she began to walk down. It was a rather interesting statement she had made that just now, and he wondered why she disliked them in particular. However, as she walked down the stairs, Bonnie stuck close to Saphira. Springtrap followed right behind him, and he sniffed the air curiously. From the scent he could smell, Springtrap noted that no one had been down here in a long time. Maybe Mike had not been down here in a while, but it was clearly here for a reason. The scent was filled with old air, dust, mould, and very old scents of people being down in the basement, but there was nothing that he could detect that was unusual.
The other animatronics followed and as they got closer to the bottom, Saphira saw old, wooden cabinets and storage boxes around the room. There was an old, deep freezer that had mould growing along the door and a large, rusty, metal chair. She could smell the cakes of dust that was all around the area, and when she stepped off the last stair, she was surprised that dust kicked up when she put her foot on the tile floor. She grimaced and coughed, waving her hand to get the particles away from her face as much as possible. Though when the animatronics stepped onto the ground, that was a lot harder to manage. And the dust started to tickle her nose, though her tried to ignore it for now as she walked around.
"Hmmm…" She saw that this room wasn't the only room, she could see a large doorway into another part of the basement. She walked over to it curiously, and as she shines the light inside, she gasped in surprise by what she saw. "Oh my…" She widened her eyes and walked closer. "I see what you mean, Bonnie…" The animatronic walked over and looked in with a worried expression. "These look like the original animatronics before you…and even the original Fredbear."
Springtrap widened his eyes as well when he stepped closer, seeing what was sitting on the floor against the wall. These were the original animatronics, and all of them have definitely seen much better days. The original Fredbear was sitting on the floor with its body slumped to the side slightly with the jaw wide open. As it had a spring mechanism, it was loose, and the jaw could not be closed properly. The eyes were gone with wiring hanging out of cracked pieces of the body, and the limbs had very plain ligaments and not fluid-like, like Fredbear's body. The original Freddy looked slightly better as it still had the eyes, though the left eyelid was halfway down, and it was missing covering mainly around the knees due to the wiring sticking out. It was sitting up straight against the wall with the head looking down.
As for the Bonnie, it definitely seen better days. The face was practically gone, except for the lower jaw leaving the animatronic practically without a face. The left arm was gone with wiring hanging out and it was leaning slightly to the right, as if the endo skeleton got stuck there. The right hand and left foot were missing covers and this animatronic just looked like someone really got into it. Chica too, with both wrists gone, the jaw mechanism was locked, leaving the mouth wide open and showing that this Chica's design was made with the similar spring lock features as the original Fredbear. This animatronic had wiring sticking out as well.
As for Foxy, it lacked coverings on its upper arms, abdomen, hand, legs and left ear. Though Saphira noticed the animatronic was also missing its right eye under the patch as well. All these animatronics were slumped with missing parts, wiring and were covering in dust. Saphira could see their endos and they certainly were very different to the animatronics she knew now. She could see why this disturbed Bonnie, because it was like looking at a ghost.
"I wonder why these old animatronics are here. They must have been dragged down here a long time ago." Saphira looked at the animatronics who shrug with uncertainty. "It is weird since these animatronics would have been removed after Mike took over to replace them with you five, Bonnie."
"It is very strange, we agree," Bonnie said with a nod. "But you might want to take a look to the right. We are not disturbed by the animatronics here, they're obviously just stored here to keep hidden and maybe used for parts, though they probably aren't used for that anymore. It is what is on the right we are not sure about."
Curious, Saphira stepped forward into this side of the room and widened her eyes when she saw what looked like a giant, glass sarcophagus. And it looked big enough to house something as large as the animatronics on the inside. Saphira stared at it curiously and looked around, before gasping as she saw old blueprints on the walls. These all resembled similar blueprints to what she found in the folder. She walked over to wipe away the dust concealing one of the blueprints and she saw this blueprint seemed to show Fredbear and the details about how he would be designed.
She heard an animatronic step closer and looked over her shoulder to see Springtrap. She stepped aside for him to look. "Um…this is similar to what I saw in the folder, Springtrap. This seems to be a design for Fredbear." Springtrap said nothing as he and the other animatronics look at the blueprint curiously. She looked at the large sarcophagus curiously with a frown. "This really seems like something out of Avatar…"
Bonnie looked at Saphira curiously. "What is Avatar?"
"A movie." Saphira walked away as she walked over to a cabinet and opened it. She saw a folder inside and grabbed it, seeing the writing on the side. The Plan and Steps to Building Live Animatronics. "I bet this is where Mr Afton tested his ideas…"
"I wonder if this is where…I was made…" Fredbear turned to the sarcophagus curiously as he stared at it. "But…I don't smell anything familiar. Maybe not…at least I hope not. But…" He glanced at the other animatronics with worry. "What if this is how were created? At least…the internal part of us…"
"I am wondering the same thing…" Bonnie looked away from the blueprint and looked at Saphira, seeing that she had opened the folder curiously. "Is there anything in that book that might give anything away?"
Saphira looked up at Bonnie. She did not want to admit that it was something, but she only opened up to one page, and she would need to sit down and read it properly. "Maybe, I am not sure yet. I'll read it upstairs." She jumped when the alert sound on the tablet came on and she hit the reboot button. And the tickling to her nose finally made her give in and she began to sneeze. "Oh, damnit!" She sneezed again and sniffled, making her way out. "Alright, I'm getting out, the dust is making me sneeze. I think you can store the bodies here, I don't think anyone will find them."
She nearly stumbled up the stairs as she kept sneezing, and she was already getting annoyed with how much she was sneezing. Bonnie followed her out of concern, though she reassured the animatronic she would be fine once she was out and was able to wash her face. She kept the book with her though as Saphira intended to take it home with her. She doubted Mike would even know she had it. After all, seeing the possible way of how the animatronics were made this way was extremely interesting, even if it was only early theories.
The animatronics remained in the basement for a bit longer, she guessed to think over the possibility on a sarcophagus was where they were created in. It definitely seemed to be the case, but it might not be how they are actually made. It could have been an earlier experiment. Though she wondered if that meant this building itself had been Afton's and he was already working on live animatronics before Mike took over the previous establishment, and had the old animatronics replaced with the ones there are now. She suspected it was a possibility, and she was left with her own thoughts for the rest of the night. Springtrap did not return to the office, and she saw in the cameras that all the animatronics seemed to be distressed and worried. She didn't blame them. She had known they were likely lab grown, but she did not really know how they were created in that sense. So when she read the book further, she might be able to find out more.
