Author's Note

Sorry about the delays, hopefully everything will be back on track after this week.

Corona's Note: Hi everyone! Hope you enjoy the extra chapter. Thank you all for being so patient.

Chapter 77

Return

Hedy would have preferred not to surprise her like she did, pushing out into the hallway despite the pain and Jeremy trying to hold her back, but Mangle's suit was plastic, not thick foam like Foxy's. It really would crack, badly.

Mangle got such a fright that she tripped and fell on the floor but that was preferable to slamming into the door that the building clearly wasn't keen on opening at the moment. The rest of the bots all spun around to stare at her in shock.

Hedy was there.

The mechanic stared wide-eyed and worried at Mangle, dark circles under her eyes. She looked pale and slightly hunched as if she was about to fall over and couldn't hold herself up straight. She leaned on the armrest of her hospital chair, wearing an ugly police department t-shirt much too big for her thin frame and pants that seemed borrowed from a nurse. Her hair was a tangled mess that hung over her exhausted face rather than pinned back like usual.

There was a beat of silence before Chi and Toby bolted to Hedy, asking if she was alright and frantically fussing over her.

"H-hedy!" Toby tried to look at where she was stabbed but she weakly caught his hand by the wrist and held it away. "You're okay! You're alive!" he said, pulling back his hand at her silent request to do so.

Chi was already crying and he joined her, breaking down into tears.

"W-we thought you were…" he couldn't continue.

Mangle scrambled to her feet with a screech of metal against the floor and shoved both of them aside to hug Hedy, bent over the chair to reach her and shaking with suppressed sobs.

"I know, Mags…" Hedy responded to Mangle's silent cry with a crack in her throat. "I'm alright." She looked at Chi and Toby with a motherly reassuring smile and gently touched Toby's sagged ear then the top of Chi's head.

Chi took her hand and hugged it tightly, not able to speak just yet.

Teddy leaned against the wall looking utterly relieved that she was alright and the quiet panic in his eyes finally settled.

Surprisingly the Originals seemed to share that relief. Chica looked like she wanted to hug the mechanic as well but didn't want to intrude. She clamped her beak closed with her hands and let out a sound resembling a happy sob.

Freddy relaxed minutely, glad to see that she hadn't died.

Bonnie stuck close to Foxy still but he looked pleased to see her as well, his stiff ears relaxing just a bit.

Even Foxy was distracted from his task and sagged slightly, unintentionally leaning on Bonnie.

Puppet stayed back and was as emotionless as ever but he looked like a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

Hedy grunted in pain and Mangle leaped back with a squeak, afraid she had hurt her friend.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," Hedy insisted with a croak in her throat, crossing her arm over her midsection to avoid someone accidentally touching her injury.

Freddy turned on Jeremy, scolding, "Why didn't you tell us she was okay?"

Jeremy put his hands up. "She just woke up! And it's not like any of you actually answer the office phone."

Foxy managed to crack a grin in his distraction.

Freddy sounded like a scolding mother and with the man's response the interaction was downright amusing.

Hedy tried to speak and started coughing, making them shut up. She spat up a gob of blood in her sleeve, though she quickly turned her arm to hide it away, not that they didn't already see it.

"What...are you doing?" she demanded, a little out of breath and clearly in intense pain as she eyed the offending piece of painted wood (that shouldn't have been able to stand up to Foxy's efforts now that she thought about it). "Did Ruby lock it?"

The Toys all looked highly concerned over the blood with Mangle hovering over her. The fox crooned worriedly and used a knuckle to wipe a little drop of blood from Hedy's mouth.

The mechanic made a face and without looking away from the Originals, sternly took Mangle's hand and wiped the blood off the plastic with a clean part of her shirt.

The Originals ignored the exchange as they were reminded of their earlier worry.

"Yeah." Bonnie was surprisingly the one to speak up. "She was pretty mad when she arrived and we wanted to check on her only...it's locked. And Ruby carries the keys on her all the time."

"She never locks us out of places." Chica was stressing again and wringing her hands. She shuffled closer to Hedy, looking her over quietly, not quite trusting her own eyes.

Hedy didn't seem to mind and just glanced at her as Jeremy stared silently.

"Can't even dent the stupid door so it's got to be the building stopping us," Foxy added, sending a scathing look at the door.

The building shuddered slightly around them as if to confirm the suspicion.

"She disconnected the tablet so we don't know what's going on," Freddy explained. "And Goldy is in her poster so we can't ask her to check. We've been trying to get in for three hours now."

"It's already almost six..." Chica whispered, looking extremely anxious.

Right on cue, the chimes sounded, startling them. Jeremy swore under his breath in his fright.

The week was over. The game was over. Just like that.

They waited for a tense minute in silence, expecting Ruby to appear. But the eerie silence persisted.

Ruby won. She had to have won...

So where was she?

Foxy tried the door again, but it remained locked. "Bloody..." he muttered before pounding on it. He even kicked it before starting to back up again.

"Stop. Jeremy has my keys," Hedy said, stifling another cough. She glanced at Jeremy, knowing she was in too much pain to move herself for the time being.

Chica sagged in relief.

"Right here," Jeremy said.

Hedy gestured to the right key and he tried it. But it wouldn't work.

"Oh come on…" Jeremy snapped. "You sure it's this one?"

"Yes," Hedy said with a strange tone of voice as she stared at the unyielding door.

Jeremy tried for a little while, feeling the staring at the back of his head get more impatient.

"Jeremy, give me the keys," Hedy finally snapped.

"I know how to use goddamn keys, Hedy," he said but handed her building keys over again anyway.

"I don't think it's you…" Hedy mumbled with an odd knowing tone. The front door hadn't worked for him either. It only unlocked when Hedy tried. She doubted Jeremy thought much of it then, probably assuming he used the wrong key.

Freddy shook his head. "If the building doesn't want us in, it's still not going to..." He was interrupted by the sound of a metallic click.

Hedy and everyone stared as she lightly shoved the door open with her finger. It didn't even creak.

She blinked. "They're my keys," she said with a shrug, too weak to argue magic or some other ridiculousness. She glared at the door as if it was a child caught doing something it shouldn't. She gestured for Jeremy to push her through as Mangle let go of her free hand since the door was only big enough for Hedy's chair.

Foxy stepped behind them, a frantic call of Ruby's name and "Lass!" on his teeth moments before the door slammed in his nose of its own accord.

Jeremy and Hedy jumped and looked behind them as the bots knocked on the door, their panicked voices muffled.

Hedy tried opening it from their side as Jeremy tried prying it open with a disturbed look of confusion on his face.

He might be okay with the bots, but he still hated this weird building.

Eventually, Freddy kindly told everyone to shut up. Ignoring Toby's whiny complaints and Foxy's incoherent growl, he told Hedy to find Ruby.

"It let you through at least," his muffled voice said, clearly upset.

"Be careful!" Chi cried.

"Everything's fine, Chi," Hedy sighed. "Okay, we'll get Ruby."

"We'll be back in a few minutes," Jeremy assured as he pushed Hedy's chair.

The lights behind them lit up as if the building was trying to lead them somewhere.

Jeremy groaned but didn't question it. He was getting too used to this place.

Fazbear's Fright was silent. No explosions or yelling. It actually seemed kind of...peaceful. And lacked the menacing air it had had all week.

The long hallways didn't seem as dwarfing, nor did they stretch or turn into suffocating shadows at the ends. The decor looked cheesy and fake like it was always supposed to.

"You alright?" Jeremy looked at Hedy, worried she'd feel sick being in this part of the building. But she seemed fine besides a worried frown on her lips. There was no twisting panic in her gut. It was like any other part of the building to her now. There was something else she couldn't quite explain and when the words to describe the feeling came to mind, she would have stopped in confusion if Jeremy wasn't pushing her.

Safe. Apologetic.

It didn't feel like her own thoughts. She looked up at the lights for a moment, a little scared of the implication.

"I'm fine, Jeremy. Seriously," she whispered. "Apparently, I'm really hard to kill."

Making light of her injury didn't seem to work with her brother, despite the silly smile she shot him.

Jeremy just shook his head, disturbed. He was still in his own kind of shock from the attack. He glanced around, half expecting Springtrap to pop out.

Hedy looked down when they came to a split in the hallways, both directions equally lit. "That way," she mumbled and Jeremy complied without questioning how she knew.

She knew the questions were coming, though she wondered if the others suspected she knew how Springtr- how Michael cheated. Did they chalk it up to all his doing? Doubtful. She didn't want to keep what she learned a secret, but how was she going to explain it? She couldn't think of another explanation, despite the one she was stuck with being so incredibly strange.

She couldn't worry about that now. Where was Ruby? How badly had she reacted? What state was Spring's presumably vacated body in?

Eventually they turned a corner and found the answers she needed.

The first thing she saw was the pipe, slick with bloo-slick with oil. Not blood. Not her blood this time.

The animatronic was on his back and completely still. His leg was limp inside the suit, turned at an unnatural angle. She saw the pool of oil before she forced herself to look away. She would see to the damage later, but her first intuition told her it was bad.

Ruby was sitting against the wall, oil splattered over her face and clothes. There was even some visible in her dark hair, glinting in odd holographic colors under the low lighting. She hadn't noticed them, which was odd. She was just staring at Spring with empty eyes, mind clearly somewhere else. Betty was beside her, also covered in oil.

It was a good thing the building didn't let the bots down here. It looked like a crime scene.

Jeremy stopped, letting go of the chair in surprise. He moved to put a reassuring hand on Hedy's head, his rough hands tugging her hair gently.

Hedy swallowed. The last time she and Ruby spoke...wasn't on good terms.

She looked at Spring, a little sickened that his body was in that state because of her, and guilty that she'd been looking forward to Michael feeling the pain that damage must have caused. But at what cost?

Ruby was seen at the hospital according to Jeremy. She had every reason to think Hedy was dead.

Jeremy said Hedy's state was touch and go for a long time.

"Ruby?"

She whispered, barely hearing herself. It didn't sound like her own voice, to her. Speaking seemed to take effort, like she was intruding on the silence, nevermind her soreness or the painful lump in her throat.

The teen heard though, head snapping up and around to look at her.

She stared for a long moment before hesitantly speaking. The hope in her eyes was painful.

"Hedy?"

It was strange to hear the confident night guard sound so unsure and it broke Hedy's heart.

Ruby stood up slowly and took a couple of steps closer.

Hedy stilled, staring at Ruby's eyes, searching for some sign of how the younger girl was going to react. She felt a pang in her chest. Did Ruby still hate her?

"Hedy." This time it wasn't a question. It was a statement.

She stared at Hedy for another long moment which allowed the siblings to see that she was completely unhurt apparently. There wasn't any red mixed in with the black oil and she moved easily enough, if a little stiffly. Like she'd been sitting in place for a while.

Ruby suddenly launched herself at the older girl, wrapping her in a hug and knocking her out of her chair in the process, making both Hedy and Jeremy yelp as the latter tried to catch them both to mitigate the possible damage.

Jeremy winced sympathetically, not fast enough to catch them. That had to hurt. "Ruby, be careful," he stressed gently. He crouched down to check if Hedy was okay, worried about torn stitches.

Hedy ignored his hovering. "Hey, Ruby. I'm okay. I'm right here. I'm fine. See?" She tensed at the feeling of stickiness against her skin under her shirt where her chest hurt, unsure if it was oil or blood.

"Don't you ever do that again!" the teen yelled, unaware they were on the floor apparently and completely ignoring Jeremy. "I thought...I thought you died..." The last part was said in a trembling voice they could hardly believe belonged to Ruby. They couldn't actually tell if she was crying now, she'd ducked her face into Hedy's shoulder as the mechanic hugged her back. That of course smeared oil all over her shirt.

Her words were a bit worrying too. She was one of the most optimistic people they knew, choosing to believe that she'd win life-threatening games and that murderous animatronics were great friends to have.

And it also put a disturbing spin on Spring's injuries. Was it some kind of twisted revenge? Putting the killer through what Hedy had endured? What she thought had killed the mechanic?

Hedy refused to cry out in pain at the jostling fall and just lay there. She held onto Ruby whispering, "I'm sorry. I know. I'm so sorry." The oil smeared across her cheek and the shoulder of her shirt as it rubbed off Ruby's hair. Tears pricked her eyes, partly from the pain moving around so much caused, but she ignored it. "I'm okay. I thought I was dead too..." Hedy murmured, her gaze drifting to the animatronic in the corner of her eye. She tore her gaze away and forced a chuckle, but her voice wavered as tears sprung to her eyes, "But I thought you had more faith in me than that, at least. I'll be okay, I promise. They did a good job patching me up." She tried not to think about the torture Springtrap put her through or how much damage her body had actually sustained. She had never been in that much pain before and it wasn't over. It hurt to just breathe and she definitely just popped a few stitches.

It was scary to remember he would have drawn it out longer if he could.

"Don't ever do that again," Ruby mumbled, still clutching tight to her. "Who's going to keep me from going too far otherwise?"

It was the first time that Ruby acknowledged her as something other than the Toy's keeper.

Hedy took a deep shuddering breath. "You give me too much credit," she gave Ruby a reassuring squeeze. "You're not him."

The teen's breathing hitched but she didn't lift her head. Ruby had needed to hear that badly, the assurance that she hadn't become as bad as the monster she opposed.

Hedy could feel her shirt becoming soaked with salty tears.

They stung. Her arm numbed painfully as the wetness soaked to her skin. Oh god. Salt...

It freaked her out, but she didn't want Ruby or Jeremy to notice.

Ruby didn't make a noise but Hedy could feel her shudders as she cried.

Too proud to show her tears as always.

"I'm okay. You're okay. Everything's okay," she whispered soothingly through her own tears.

Jeremy put his hand on Hedy's other shoulder and she reached up to hold his fingers like a child, silently thanking him for always being there for her. They stayed there until Ruby's shaking had eased a little.

She stubbornly refused to lift her head yet.

"I'm sorry." She spoke so softly Hedy could barely hear her. "I thought I got all the loopholes in the deal. I still don't know how he got around it..."

There was clear guilt in her voice.

Hedy tensed and her hold on Ruby must have tightened for a second because Ruby stiffened. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known..." Oh man, how was she going to explain this? "It wasn't your deal, Ruby. You worded it fine." She ducked her head lower, hiding part of her face in Ruby's hair as she looked over the night guard's head at Spring with distant eyes. "You didn't know," she whispered.

She felt someone staring and glanced up at Jeremy.

He didn't pry. But as their eyes met he crossed his arms and gave her a worried and confused look. She knew something, he was sure. He didn't trust how powerful the others said the building was, never truly had. But the way Hedy spoke made it seem like Springtrap didn't break the deal, even though he obviously had. The tear in her stomach and lung was proof of that.

He had thought about this before, but was patient and hadn't asked. That patience was running out.

"What do you mean?" Ruby sounded confused. "He got around the deal somehow. He stabbed you with that pipe!" She jerked back slightly to meet Hedy's eyes.

Up close she could see the guilt and anger the teen held. She blamed herself for the attack.

"What didn't I know?" Her eyes narrowed.

At least she was sounding a bit more normal.

Hedy stared at her with an unreadable expression and Ruby could see she was struggling to word her explanation. Finally, Hedy blinked and glanced away.

"I'll explain later."

"Hedy." Ruby's voice was a twisted mix of demand and pain.

"I will," Hedy insisted. "But right now, you just need to know it wasn't your fault. I need you to trust me on this, Ruby."

Ruby glared at her. After a minute she said, "I'm not letting this go."

"I'm not asking you to. I just need to think about it first."

"What are you talking about?!" Ruby snapped, "He h-hurt you!" She looked away sharply as her voice cracked. "And you know how?"

"Ruby…" Hedy trailed off.

"...The animatronics are worried about you," Jeremy interrupted gently, "We should head back." He glanced at Spring with mixed emotions. "I'll come back to get Spring. Hedy can look at him in the main room. But you guys should calm the others down first, okay?"

"He's gone." She suddenly sat straight up, the only sign of her crying her red-rimmed eyes. "Michael. I saw him get flung out of Spring."

She stared defiantly at Jeremy. Seemed she was still wary of him around Spring. Hedy was apparently completely forgiven.

Jeremy jolted in shock at hearing the name.

Michael? This whole time...

He squashed the disgusted horror as hard as he could, locking it down in the deepest pit of his mind and filing it away for later. He shook his head. "I believe you. I won't hurt him." He was the only one of them that could probably carry the suit, besides one of the Originals. But they might be traumatized by all the oil. It was the least he could do after everything that happened. "I won't do anything to him, I promise."

Ruby eyed him for a long moment and he stared back guiltily. She'd always been a bit wary of him since he arrived but his stunt did seem to have stripped away any goodwill between them. He'd have to start building up that particular relationship from scratch.

"Fine." She couldn't bring herself to look at the bot as she stood. "Did the building keep them out?"

Hedy nodded as she reached for her chair. Ruby's knowledge of things she shouldn't know, like Michael's name, didn't escape her. "It wanted me to calm you down first," she said, not noticing how strange her wording was as she looked at the broken bot. It probably didn't want them to completely see what Ruby did either, for Ruby's mental sake, but she wouldn't say that out loud.

Ruby seemed to accept her strange way of talking about the building easily, then again she'd often talked about the place like it was alive too.

"Probably a good idea." She mumbled. Sure the talk with Timmy had helped but hearing it from someone she was closer to...that helped more.

She was finally having to accept that it wasn't just the bots she wanted to protect in the pizzeria anymore.

"Let's go see them then." She glanced down at the oil that covered her and faltered. "Maybe I should clean up first..."

Hedy winced. Oil didn't come out of clothes easily. She would know. She looked down at her own clothes, noting that she was going to have to wash them up too but there was nothing she could do about it until she went home.

She mumbled something sympathetic as she stared at the wheelchair hesitantly. She wordlessly held out her hand to Jeremy.

"Ready?" Jeremy said cautiously.

Hedy nodded stiffly and stifled a cry as Jeremy helped her up, startling Ruby who stared wide-eyed.

Jeremy barely reacted to her shout of pain, too used to helping her like this, though he did frown. It always upset him how Hedy even needed help for simple things like that, though she was unbothered by that reality. Her injury of course made it worse, but it was added pain.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

Hedy placed a fist over her stomach and squeezed her eyes shut as she got her breathing under control, fingernails digging into her borrowed chair's armrest. She nodded her head. "It just hurts to move. I'll be fine."

Ruby nodded guiltily. She grimaced as she remembered that there wasn't a bathroom in Fazbear's Fright so they couldn't properly clean up since the bots were all waiting outside the door.

"Well, I'm about to traumatize them all." She joked weakly. She'd wiped most of the oil on her face off on her jacket at least.

Hedy nodded. They'd probably be more worried about Ruby than an oil-splattered Spring anyway.

It felt wrong to just leave Spring lying there, but they had to.

Author's Note

Next chapter is still scheduled for Monday like normal.