you guys, i finally got security breach and am playing it for the first time
it is so much scarier than i gave it credit for bahahaha XD
Michael walked through the entrance of the pizzeria, backing in an enormous box balanced on a dolly while mid-morning sunlight shone over black and white tiles. He was the first to arrive that morning, hoping to help by unboxing new attractions. He'd only finished setting up the latest of the arcade games: Fruity Maze, which he'd bought second-hand from another Fazbear Location.
Michael set the dolly down and eased the box to the ground. He opened its lid and pulled out a bright red candy dispenser, which he set beside the arcade games. Withdrawing two Fazbear Property stickers from his pocket, he applied one to the underside of the dispenser and the other to the back of Fruity Maze. He bent to his knees, found its plug, and pushed it into an outlet on the wall.
Seconds later, bright yellows and pinks glowed from the machine while cheery, fast-paced music chimed merrily. He stood and toyed with its control knob before proceeding to the back of the pizzeria to complete his daily check of the alley.
He passed the stacks of cardboard boxes that crowded the furthest corridor like looming, ambiguous towers, their contents equally mysterious with their scarlet WARNING stamps. He eyed them, feeling a little apprehensive.
It unsettled him to see supplies for the fire here already, as if success were close.
It sure didn't feel like it.
As he walked, he eyed the closet Freddy was locked inside, and shaking off a shudder, continued to the back door where he came to stop in front of it. His hand hesitated on the doorknob.
He wasn't sure what he expected to see today. Perhaps progress after Freddy's capture would be rapid, or it would not. The others might come in a matter of days, or maybe it'd be months, or years... maybe they would never come at all. He wasn't sure how to feel. He wondered if hope for this plan to work was foolishly assumed.
Putting these thoughts aside, he took a breath and opened the door.
His eyes took in the alleyway where he noticed a slumped figure leaning against the building across from his- and for a moment, he couldn't recognize who it was.
But as he stared, it suddenly dawned on him, and he froze, arms tensing.
"Elizabeth...?" he murmured under his breath, mouth ajar.
It surely was her, but not as he'd seen her last. Her once cherry-red hair now bore a range of blues, yellows, and oranges in an untidy set of pigtails. Her shells (what remained of them) had turned a rusty orange like Freddy's had, damaged and broken... roller-skates adorned her feet and her hands now resembled claws- one really was a claw, with clamps lined with sharp teeth.
Michael gulped.
He had to admit, the thought of her hunting him through the vents was a little terrifying, and he had half a mind to leave her in the alley... especially since she'd already proven herself to be murderous.
He stared at her, arms limp at his sides. This was the person who so willingly sacrificed him weeks ago... his own sister.
He shook his head. No, not his sister- Baby. Baby did this.
Not Elizabeth.
The Elizabeth he knew would never hurt him. She couldn't help this.
He huffed a tight sigh.
"I'm not giving up on you," he muttered quietly, perhaps more than to himself than to her as he forced himself to descend the steps to her. "No matter what you've done."
She didn't move, though her eyes still glowed a dull green.
He took a shallow breath.
"Eliza..?" He whispered. He waited, heart pounding for some kind of response, but she remained frozen.
Michael hadn't expected her to respond, but her silence left him disappointed nonetheless. He still had some small hope that he'd be able to coax his sister out of the malice of this machine she was trapped in, but his incident in the Underground made such hope feel naïve. With such a dormant disposition, he resolved that at least for today, Elizabeth wouldn't show herself and he lifted her beneath the arms back into the restaurant.
He heaved her into Parts & Service where he'd first examined Freddy, and setting her on the chair, turned and locked the door before turning on the dim lights.
Michael breathed out deeply, and bracing himself, pressed play on the recorder.
"Before you is an animatronic found in the back alley, we are unsure of its origins. It is your job to complete the maintenance checklist before claiming it as salvage. Or if you choose to you can put it back in the alley where you found it and forfeit payment. Please make your choice now."
He clutched the paper tightly in his hands, waiting in tense silence for the tape to continue.
"You have chosen to proceed with the maintenance checklist. Remember, use your company-issued taser to return the animatronic to a neutral state if you feel that it's becoming unstable or aggressive," Henry's voice relayed. "You can only use it three times before it begins to damage the animatronic and decrease its value. Begin audio prompt in 3, 2, 1."
The familiar sounds of the scooper rang from the recorder, but Michael was ready for them this time. He firmed his stance and stared back at Baby, almost indifferent to the audio playing beside him.
"Document results."
His gaze fell to mark "no" for the first prompt, and when he looked back up, she had not moved.
"Begin audio prompt in 3, 2, 1."
She remained slumped, one arm braced on the table. Michael couldn't help but feel she looked incredibly tired.
"Document results."
He marked "no" again and proceeded.
"Begin audio prompt in 3, 2, 1."
The audio played, and he wondered if he'd seen her hand twitch under the struggling lamplight.
"Document results."
He'd looked down to once again mark "no" on his sheet, but he stiffened as his gaze raised to see Baby.
She'd lifted her head to peer at him down her slanted nose, the pinpricks of her eyes white as snow while her green irises remained dead and dull. She grinned a wide, taunting smile that showed rows of metal teeth.
"Begin audio prompt in 3, 2, 1." Henry's voice relayed, indifferent to whatever was happening in real-time as the two stared at each other.
"Document results."
"Elizabeth..." Michael murmured, heart pounding in his chest, hoping, begging for his sister to hear him through her prison. Her eyes glinted in the dim yellow light, expression unchanging.
His hands tensed around the paper.
"Begin audio prompt in 3-"
"2... 1..." he heard her whisper beneath Henry's recording, and he instinctively recoiled, the loud bang of the scooper ringing in his ears over and over. All he could see was the coiled remains of the Funtime Animatronics beyond dark glass, tubes of iron wrapped tightly around him like a cobra. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think, the excruciating pain he was feeling was too much, way too much, it was his blood flooding the floor as the animatronics entered the scooping room, and he couldn't move-
Michael inhaled sharply, ears popping as Parts & Service materialized again before him. He felt robbed of air, like coils still bound his chest and he forced himself to breathe.
He was standing, shakily braced against the wall behind him, paper clutched to his chest.
He breathed heavily, eyes finally processing that Baby had moved. She was leaning onto the table comfortably, smile fallen as she stared back at him. The recording had ended, for how long, Michael didn't know.
Her eyes bore into his.
"You don't really know who your employer is, do you?" She spoke softly, mouth frozen open.
He swallowed and crumpled the sheet in his hands. He threw it to the floor and carefully watching her, rounded the table, but Baby didn't move. He lifted her beneath her arms and hurriedly moved her from Parts & Service to a closet reserved for her on the West wing. He hardly stole a glance at her as he shut and locked its door, leaning against it momentarily to catch his breath, ignoring her words that still pierced his hearing.
His hands were shaking so badly he almost couldn't re-attach his key ring to his belt, and he only managed a small wave at Dana as he crossed through the dining room back to his office.
Michael had caught her concerned expression, but chose not to give it second thought. He didn't look to see if Laura was there. He could only think to do one thing, and that was to keep going. To get through this cursed afternoon and get home.
He shut his door, turned on the computer, and began to work through his daily tasks.
It was only an hour in when it began.
"I heard your call." He'd heard her utter through the vents. He'd stiffened in his seat, unsure if he'd really heard her and eventually resumed his work, when just a little later, she spoke again.
But this time, it wasn't as Baby.
"Hello?" Was spoken in Elizabeth's voice. It was unmistakable. "Hello?"
Michael had tried to ignore it, shutting vents and distracting her with audio lures through the maze within the walls, but she always came back to torment him.
"I don't understand!" She cried when he shut her out. "I know it was an accident. Everything is okay. I'm still here."
So many times, he'd wanted to just open everything and let her come. He wanted so badly to believe it was her, that his sister was back and well. But beneath the words uttered with her voice, he heard the same deception that'd ended him in the Underground. He would not be so easily tricked again.
"You have to let me inside the room!"
"I don't understand."
"Isn't this why you went there? To be with me again?"
It came over and over, again and again. It didn't stop. It would not stop.
"We need you so that we can leave! So that we can hide!"
"I don't understand. I don't understand."
You would never understand, Michael thought. You weren't programmed to. You can't feel anything.
"Let me in."
"Let me in"
"Michael, let me in!" She screamed.
It was a monotonous cacophony that rang maddeningly in the vents for hours, whose echoes fell a thousand times to Michael's ears mercilessly. Each time they did, he felt more and more like he was going crazy. It was like one of the countless nightmares he'd had these last seven years, but it was horribly, tangibly, real. It was so much, he almost couldn't take it.
At hour seven, he sat down and laid against the door, jamming his hands over his ears as he shut his eyes. A knock might've come at some point from outside, but he didn't know and he didn't care.
It was too much.
"Michael! Michael, let me in!" He could hear her crying. "I'm dying, Michael, you have to let me in!"
He grit his teeth as scratches came beyond the closed vents, sweat trickling down his neck while the office swelled with heat.
"Michael, please!" Elizabeth began to sob. But he knew the bawls were fake, created using Baby's mimic function.
When he did not answer, she cried out again. "Please, Michael, you're letting me die-"
"SHUT UP!" He roared.
His hands quaked over his ears with anger as silence fell for a few moments in the office, until finally, he heard her again. But this time it was Baby, laughing gleefully. She laughed and laughed, like his torture was the funniest thing she could conceive, the sounds echoing painfully around the metal walls of the office.
He almost couldn't take it anymore when finally, to his relief, his alarm rang from his watch.
He blearily opened his eyes to read 8-o'clock on his wrist, and it felt like a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders. Michael shakily got to his feet and turned the vent back on, only just realizing how hot it was in the room.
Neither Baby or the imitation of Elizabeth spoke again as he began to power things off, drawing his arm over his face to wipe the sweat from his brow. His arms were braced shakily on the desk when a real knock came at the door.
He sighed and forced his exhausted body to stand, moving to open it.
"Hey," greeted the knocker on the other side, her brow drawn in an expression of gentle concern. He blinked.
"Dana? What are you doing here? Didn't we close two hours ago?" Michael asked in confusion, checking his watch again to make sure he had the right time.
She nodded. "There was just some extra work to do." But he felt like that was a lie.
"Are you okay? We thought we heard... things..." she questioned gently, eyes peering over his shoulder at the thermometer perched on the wall.
He nodded, leaning against the doorframe. It felt like he was waking up from a severe afternoon naps. "Y-Yeah... Baby showed up this morning. She was just giving me some trouble," he answered easily. From the look on her face, he knew she suspected that that was a drastic understatement, but to his relief, she didn't question him further.
"Oh... okay..." Dana acknowledged. "Well- everyone's gone home. I uh... checked the alley while I was cleaning up..." she trailed. "We've got another one."
"What-?" Michael questioned, brow furrowing. "Already?"
She nodded solemnly.
"I wanted to wait for you to pull him in," she elaborated.
"Who is it..?" He asked hesitantly. She glanced down. "I think it's better if you come see," she answered grimly.
He eyed the corridor and threw his gaze behind him as he eased the office door closed and followed her to the alley exit. She turned the doorknob and opened it, stepping aside for Michael to see. For a moment, he didn't spot anyone until Dana leaned out, pointing down the wall toward the street.
"There," she said.
He squinted and stiffened as he spotted a horribly familiar set of feet sticking out from behind garbage bins. The two carefully descended the steps to see him better.
"Oh my gosh..." Michael murmured.
Springtrap lay slumped against the trash cans, chin on his chest. He looked somehow worse than he'd last seen him. One ear and arm were missing (noticeably the one Charlie had broken weeks earlier), and dozens of new holes gaped all over the suit. Moss and mildew grew over his feet and legs, which made Michael suspect he'd been hiding in sewers... no wonder Henry hadn't been able to find him.
But perhaps most disturbingly of all was the mere fact that he'd become more machine than human.
"I figured it'd be safer if two people handled this," Dana murmured beside him with disdain. He eyed her, wondering if she'd seen his father as the monster he really was. Her tone seemed to indicate as much.
"Yeah... yeah." He agreed.
He carefully stepped next to Springtrap, waving a hand in front of his face, but he didn't move. Stealing a glance at Dana, he carefully wrapped one arm under his father's and lifted him to his feet while she supported him on his other side. Together they carried him back up the stairs and into Parts & Service.
As Michael set him on the designated chair, he suddenly felt overwhelmingly tired at the prospect of confronting yet another family member tonight, hands shaking lightly from fatigue and hunger.
Dana put a hand on his wrist as he reached for the recorder.
"Not tonight," she said gently, looking at him. His eyes lifted to hers and she sighed softly with concern.
"It can wait. You've been through enough today."
He nodded slowly, relief washing over him. He almost wanted to weep in his exhaustion over the mental and emotional torture he'd endured the last several hours, and he wanted nothing more than to go home and rest. Internally and eternally grateful for Dana, he flipped off the light, carefully locked the door, and followed her to the parking lot.
"I'll be back in a little while, Henry and I have some things to do... but Laura should have dinner for you at home. Okay?" She said gently, patting his shoulder. He couldn't help the twinge of guilt he felt at her worried tone.
"Y-Yeah... okay. Thanks," he answered. She offered a tiny smile, squeezed his shoulder, and walked to her car.
He started to his and waited for her to leave the parking lot before closing his eyes, letting out a long sigh.
Who would have known family reunions could be so stressful? And if Elizabeth- Baby- was this bad, he didn't want to think about what Springtrap might have in store for him. He swallowed, pushed back tired tears, and started the drive home.