Author's Notes: Thanks so much to Panda and Ghost who've been helping with this arc. Hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 181

Night 2 Take 5

If the men noticed Hedy and Alex's lack of speaking to each other the next night , they didn't say anything. It was doubtful though. Both of them were too professional to make it obvious.

Ruby somehow got there before them which baffled Andre and Alex. She ignored most of them which told Hedy that she was in a relatively bad mood today. She must be missing the bots. As much as Ruby was fantastic at adapting, she still didn't like change. She was a creature of habit.

Hedy tossed Ruby the keys and irritably pulled her sweater tighter around her. She was less irritated with the cold and more irritated that it actually bothered her. Chilliness based on real weather rather than anything to do with being a ghost were two different things apparently. Strange. Ruby did shoot her a glance, probably picking up on her low mood, but she didn't say anything.

Ruby, Afton, Andre and Alex were going down in the elevator again so the teen left a call open with Hedy again so she could hear everything. At least until the signal would cut out.

The elevator started moving with a jerk that startled the adults before the Hand-Unit spoke. "Welcome back for another night of intellectual stimulation, pivotal career choices, and self-reflection on past mistakes. We're committed to creating a unique and fulfilling work experience. One part of that commitment is ensuring that you don't get tired of the voice that you're hearing right now."

Ruby glared at the ceiling with all the teenage disdain she could muster. "I hate you."

Up on the surface, Hedy snorted.

Timmy leaned close to listen, still staying close to her rather than following Ruby.

"Using the keypad below, please select a new companion voice," the voice said, oblivious to Ruby's comments.

Afton stared at the yellow control panel in a bit of amusement, but it was severely dampened by his anger and irritation about what happened the previous night. Some of the scripts sounded like the kind of humour one of his old friends had, but that friend's human element usually made the off-beat comments work. The robotic tone made the humour (for what else could it be but humour) come off cold and even somewhat sinister.

"For male, press 1. For female, press 2. For text-only, press 3. For other options, press 4."

"Is there any mute option?" Ruby muttered.

"Maybe if you say please?" Alex suggested with a grin that faded away as she received a murderous glare. She was pretty sure that the anger wasn't targeted at her but more at everything around the teenager. Still… that girl was scary.

Andre pressed 4 when Afton just looked at it with an odd expression.

"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you. Thank you for choosing: Angsty Teen."

Ruby choked on air. "Oh fuck, please no," she whispered in horror. "I'm not joking, I will destroy your servers. Don't you dare."

Afton sighed at Ruby's choice of wording but didn't correct her. Yet.

Hedy half expected it to speak back in Ruby's voice. She rolled her eyes at herself. Using Ruby's voice was something the sentient Building would do to irritate them, not some preprogrammed emotionless AI. She was also never going to suggest that out loud because Ruby would run with it and end up teaching the building swear words.

"The elevator stopped. You know the routine. You can get out now or... whatever. stay here if you want."

Ruby started banging her head against the wall of the elevator. "I feel like I'm back in school," she muttered, pained. "I don't even like my classmates, why do I have to hear you mimic one?!"

Alex actually grimaced while Andre looked equally irritated. Afton seemed mostly confused.

"A very strange option to include..." he commented, trying not to think about it too much. He'd heard teenagers like that before.

They went in through the vent, Ruby first before Afton could even stop her or insist he go first.

"So, funny story... a dead body was found in this vent once. Okay, so, not that funny, but... it's a story."

Ruby groaned loudly, not affected by the idea like Andre and Alex, who were staring at the walls in horror. It was something she'd expected actually. She wished Steve was the one delivering that line though. This was awful.

"There's going to be a dead Hand-Unit soon!" she muttered as she climbed through the vent, grumbling to herself.

William also looked suitably alarmed by the "funny story."

"What was the point of telling us that, is it even true?" he mused.

"Humour?" Andre suggested but didn't sound convinced either.

"Note to self," Alex muttered. "Don't program something that isn't alive with morbid humour."

Hedy's immediate thought was of Puppet and she tried not to snort as she remembered Puppet's programmer was right there with them. Did the bot always have a dry sense of humour or did it just come with all he's been through?

Ruby was waiting for them impatiently when they arrived through the vent, having already unlocked everything for Hedy to come through.

"Ok, let's start with your nightly chores. You should check on Ballora and make sure she's on her stage, but... whatever."

Alex tentatively pressed the light button, very careful not to even brush against the shock button.

She heard Hedy approach the door from the service hallway, the familiar sound of wheels giving her a small comfort.

She swallowed at the empty stage cast in the shadow of a lithe figure.

Ballora was in there. Out of sight and close to wherever the light was coming from apparently. It was kind of creepy. She had the concerning thought that maybe the robot was hiding from them.

Alex shuddered at a realization. Based on where the light seemed to be, Ballora was maybe standing right below them, under the view window... Either that or near the back towards the wall where the tunnel they just crawled through was situated, meaning she was potentially less than a foot away from them while the Hand-Unit shared its "funny story."

Fuck. That.

"Huh, I guess Ballora has better things to do. Let's zap her! That should be fun."

Ruby stilled, rage filling her eyes. That was the look Hedy associated with the teen about to do something in a reckless fury. She'd already been pushed too far with the shocking the night before.

Alex squeaked and put her hands up, stepping back from the panel and bumping into Hedy.

"Ruby...let's think about this. It's a stupid machine," Hedy tried despite her own rage. She ignored the noise William made as the man set his jaw and stared at the panel in contempt.

She was a little confused at the sharp and surprised look Afton shot her before he relaxed. He must have thought she was calling Ballora the machine before he realised she meant the Hand-Unit.

Ruby looked at her sharply. "I'm not letting it shock them again!" she hissed. "Even if I have to break through those vents and go and destroy the entire server room! I'll do it! I don't have to follow it's damn rules!"

They both knew that she didn't but they also knew that the others might not survive the consequences if she followed through on her reckless impulses.

"We're not even sure if we can get to it from here," Hedy said, gesturing at the tightly locked vent cover to Ballora's room.

Her eyes sparked dangerously. "I'm not going to let a little vent cover stop me. That's what explosives are for."

That was more than a little concerning to the others since they couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

Hedy frowned and went toward the vent.

"Hey didn't you hear? You're supposed to zap her," the voice said with dry boredom.

Hedy ignored it and tapped the vent with a flathead screwdriver and poked at the space where the door slid up. There were no hinges. "It's pretty thick. This is too small of an area to set off something strong enough to punch a hole through."

"Wait a fucking second, you're being serious?" Alex balked while Andre looked pissed.

"How do you have explosives?! Why do you have explosives?!"

William, not for the first time, stared at Hedy with a side glance at Ruby and wondered just who exactly he hired. He didn't stop them though.

Ruby shrugged. "It's really not that hard to get them."

And that was disturbing...

"Listen, they're never going to trust us if they keep getting shocked," she pointed out.

"I know," Hedy agreed, "But if we do something too hastily, I don't want the system to react and flip some kind of kill switch." Her mouth went dry saying that. "There has to be a device, internal or attached to them that administers the shocks. You saw how me disconnecting the switch automatically just made it shock them without stopping. It didn't just turn off and disconnect. It's like shocking them is the default and the Hand-Unit is holding itself on the button to not shock them."

Ruby grit her teeth and looked away. She was angry with the situation and her inability to just bulldoze through everything like usual.

"It's going to do it automatically if we don't do something!" Alex pointed out frantically as the Hand-Unit repeated itself.

Afton immediately went to the panel.

"I already tried to bypass it," Hedy said. "We might have to let..." she bit her tongue as her stomach knotted up.

Ruby growled. "We can't let it hurt them again!"

Hedy really didn't know what to say for what felt like the first time in her life. She felt her throat tighten with what might have been tears if she wasn't resolved in her decision to be the calm (if maybe cold) one about this horrible situation. She and Ruby had never been in a life or death situation like this together. And it was slowly becoming evident that this was indeed a life or death situation. Just possibly not for them. Before, it was always either Ruby or her going about their own hell. Separately. The choice had been their own pain, not primarily the pain of the bots.

They didn't have a choice. Not yet. The bots in those rooms three inches of glass away were going to get shocked once or twice more whether the girls wanted it or not. The only thing they could do was get to the servers as soon as possible and stop it.

"Ruby..." Hedy said cautiously and evenly, despite the tension of the Hand-Unit mentioning a warning and noncompliance. It didn't immediately shock Ballora for some odd reason though. She didn't listen to what exactly that irritating voice droned. Her voice stayed even and clear so Ruby could hear how serious she was while she still spoke somewhat quickly. "Do you have an idea for how to stop it?" She looked Ruby dead in the eye.

"With consideration for the high risks I've pointed out keeping in mind my experience with materials and electrical systems..." Hedy took a short breath, interrupting Andre's likely unhelpful comment. "I don't want to hurt them either," she said softer. "But I can't see the options. Not at this very moment."

William was looking at her with a flash of surprise and confusion for how they both spoke of not hurting the animatronics, but he couldn't dwell on it long as he frantically pried off the paneling almost just as Hedy had the previous night. Unfortunately, he didn't recognize the wiring either but he was wise enough not to immediately poke it like Hedy did.

"There has to be a way to stop this…" He muttered, racking his brain.

Ruby gritted her teeth, entire body tense. She hated this, Hedy could tell. She never hesitated to put herself in danger, or to put herself between danger and the bots. But now she physically couldn't and it was killing her. Her stubbornness usually carried her through difficult situations but at the moment she was so out of her depth that she didn't know what to do. Everything in her rebelled at the thought of the bots getting hurt and she struggled with the idea of compromising like this.

It was a downside to her stubborn nature.

"Alright, guess I have to do it myself. Whatever," the voice complained in a bored tone.

William startled at the loud zapping noise that crackled through the room. He pulled back from the panel and covered his mouth with both his hands.

The second of noise and lights felt so incredibly long and it took so much not to just tear out all the wires in desperation. He even reached to do so but Alex moved to stop him in his panic and her hand in his periphery halted him moments before she snagged his sleeve.

Hedy was about to quietly whisper her apologies to Willam when horrible distortion warbled through the speakers.

Ruby's nails were digging so hard into her palms that there was blood dripping down her fists, and from the way Alex was glancing between her and Hedy, she had noticed.

"Let's check on Funtime Foxy. Make sure he's ready for showtime tomorrow. GREAT. GREAT. GREAT." They all startled at the voice going weird.

There was a beat.

"There seems to have been a problem with the voice synthesizer. Default settings have been restored. Please proceed through the vent ahead of you to Circus Baby's Auditorium."

"What the hell..." Hedy whispered, disturbed at the glitching. Suddenly she stopped. "Is Funtime Foxy male? I would have assumed female since pink is the usual marketing thing toward girls, but good for him if so." She'd honestly rather focus on that than anything that just happened. She handed Ruby the keys again, but silently took her wrist and didn't let go until she had shakily, but discreetly, wiped the blood with a tissue.

"They're robots..." Andre was looking at her strangely again, not particularly aggressive and cautious right after the electrocution. He wasn't as keen to crawl in that vent as he was yesterday, not after that dead body comment. "They don't have gender." He scoffed, but hesitantly. It was hard to miss the glance at Afton, as if Andre was looking for approval.

Afton didn't look happy with his comment as he slowly composed himself. He discreetly dried his eyes and cleared his throat, "Funtime Foxy is female," he answered Hedy's question. "They all have genders. Ballora and Circus Baby are also female. Funtime Fredbear is male but Bon Bon is female." He was giving Andre a disapproving frown. The thought that he had perhaps made a mistake in hiring Andre was clearly written all over his face. "I'm going to have to ask you to treat this project with more respect." He told the younger man, "I did state before that these animatronics are special."

Andre flinched back at the words while Ruby glanced at Hedy in surprise as he spoke. The other groups were primarily male, as the Chickens, Mangle, and Goldy liked to joke about occasionally.

Hedy shared her glance. Well, now they confirmed how many bots there actually were and their names. Afton didn't tell them that before they arrived. "Huh." There wasn't much they could say that wouldn't give them away.

They already knew who was supposed to be in the group, thanks to Goldy, but the confirmation was nice. It was unfortunate that Funtime Chica wasn't mentioned but Goldy had said that it was unlikely she was with the rest of her group. Goldy didn't go into much detail, but she was sad when the girls tried to press.

Alex looked about to open her mouth to ask about the Puppet back home (it looked like it had lipstick but she distinctly remembered it speaking with a male voice), but she remembered Hedy's words of waiting until this job was done and shut up.

"The Hand-Unit only told us to check on Ballora, Funtime Foxy..." Hedy started. Oh, the fox definitely needed a better name than that. Hedy already couldn't stand saying "Funtime Foxy" over and over. "And Circus Baby." That was a weird name too. "It didn't say anything about where those last two are. Fredbear and...Bon Bon?"

The last one sounded like another Bonnie. A girl rabbit. That certainly mixed it up.

Ruby briefly took a moment to think about all the times she teased Toby about looking girly. Fun times...fun times.

"Let's get going then." She impatiently gestured at the vent before jumping forward to dive headfirst into potential danger.

Again.

Hedy grunted in irritation and Alex wasn't sure if she was annoyed at being left behind again or annoyed at Ruby's behavior.

At least the fox didn't get shocked again right?

Afton moved to follow Ruby, looking worried. Neither Andre or Alex moved to follow yet.

"It's kind of, uh, cramped there. With four people," Alex admitted.

Hedy glanced at her friend. Suddenly she smirked, just a little.

Alex looked at her sideways. "I'm not scared or anything."

"You said it, not me."

"Shut up, Hedwig." Alex muttered as she made a face.

Usually the joke would catch a smile between them, but this time their attempts were strained and awkward and they both looked away and shoved the discomfort away.

Andre missed it. He was looking at the entrance vent and shuddered, the Hand-Unit's "funny story" still fresh on his mind. "It is a rather smaller space," he added, agreeing with the younger engineer for once.

Ruby was missing a good laugh at their expense.

The teen was already standing impatiently in the little room when Afton made it through.

"Circus Baby had a busy day today! Let's check the light, and make sure she's in proper working order."

Ruby said something Afton would expect to hear more in a biker gang. She knew some foul language.

"Ms. Ruby," Afton cut in, "This is indeed…a horrible situation, and I agree we must move quickly, but please…please keep your language in check."

The look he got from her was all unimpressed, rebellious teenage attitude and he didn't doubt that he was going to be hearing more swearing from her fairly soon.

He went toward the panel and his fingers briefly touched the light button before he pulled back. He froze. It had been...so very long since he'd spoken with Baby, much less seen her. She must think he hated her. Nothing could be further from the truth though. His eyes focused on the shock button. They must all hate him. What had he done? He would never wish this on any of his bots. What was happening? How on earth could things go so wrong? Who did this?

Ruby was watching him carefully. The regret was practically dripping from the older man.

She still didn't trust him. She didn't like the scolding on her language either, but at the very least he seemed as upset about the shocks as she and Hedy were.

"Oh, Circus Baby, we aren't here to play hide and seek! Let's encourage Baby to come out of hiding with a controlled shock."

The swear that followed Hand-Unit's statement echoed down the vent and actually made Andre blush in the other room. Hedy had heard the teen say worse so she wasn't affected.

"Ms. Ruby..." Now Afton was a bit harsher, though he really spoke with gritted teeth directed at the Hand-Unit, not her. "Language. Please. Such colourful descriptions of threats to an AI's non-existent genitalia really aren't helpful right now. Though I too would like to be rid of this..." he hesitated and grimaced, not sure how best to describe the AI, "And while I'm not sure how, cursing like a sailor isn't going to help get rid of the Hand-Unit."

The teen glowered at him and crossed her arms defiantly. "You have your stress relief, I have mine," she snapped.

The Hand-Unit didn't even try to warn them for "non-compliance" this time. They jumped at the sound of the button activating and tensed.

But there was nothing. No reaction or loud buzzing. For a moment Afton wondered if Hedy had figured out a way to disable the electrocution back in the other room.

Ruby frowned and glanced around in suspicion.
"What on earth…?" Afton muttered in the brief silence.

The teen's instincts were firing up and saying that something wasn't right as she turned in a slow circle and looked around again.

"Let's try another controlled shock." Again the Hand-Unit didn't wait and just activated the shock itself and again nothing really happened. "There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby. Please stand by while I reboot the system. I will be offline momentarily during this process. Various other systems may be offline as well, such as security doors, vent locks, and oxygen. Commencing system restart."

"Can you just...not come back on?" Ruby muttered.

They heard Andre yell about the 'oxygen' part since the others could still hear Hand-Unit over the speakers. Then the power cut.

There was a long moment of silence and Ruby's instincts were screaming now. She shifted her weight restlessly from foot to foot.

Then a new voice spoke. It echoed through the room in the near-darkness. It was too clear. It sounded like she was right in the room with them. "I don't recognize you. You are new. I remember this…scenario."

Ruby already had her torch out and was scanning the room with it. She glanced at Afton.

He was still. He recognised that voice. He opened his mouth, but that didn't mean he knew what to say. Did he intend on greeting the owner of the voice? To apologize? Neither he nor Ruby found out because the voice just kept talking.

"However," it continued. It was a female voice. There had to be vents or some kind of opening into Baby's room that let sound through. "It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events will lead a person to want to spend their nights in a place like this willingly. Maybe curiosity, maybe ignorance."

"B-" Afton's voice cracked. Part of him was unsurprised, but the other part was heartbroken she didn't recognize him. Did he really look so different? He looked older than he was, he knew, but surely... He had been gone too long. And yet, he was confused as he murmured, rambling again. "Baby…It's me, dear…I'm so…" he's voice faltered, out of breath and pained with something akin to…grief?

"There is a space under the desk, someone before you crafted it into a hiding place and it worked for him," the voice interrupted, sounding resigned, but only about the space it mentioned. It was as if it hadn't heard him.

Which was likely. Will could barely get his voice over a cracking whisper at the moment.

"I recommend that you hurry though. You will be safe there, just try not to make eye contact. It will be over soon. They will lose interest. When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful, that you must restart the system manually. He will tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the Breaker Room."

The voice paused, as if Baby considered her warning carefully. "If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you. The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She can not see you and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder she is growing near, listening for you. Wait and be still."

"Now… things are getting interesting," Ruby murmured with a slow smile.

The voice didn't reply.

"Get into the crawlspace." She lightly shoved a frozen Afton.

"No, I...th-that's Baby.. I have to..." Afton tried to argue and was about to call out to the voice, but he was like putty to Ruby in his shock. "What are you..."

"Get in there," Ruby hissed, shoving a little harder. She could hear scratching coming from the other vents now. "This is exactly why Hedy brought me along. This is my job."

William, properly shocked by her tone, clumsily folded himself into the crawlspace, staring at her as he struggled to grip the sliding panel and pull it closed. He really wasn't sure what he was doing. He shouldn't just leave the girl alone against whatever was coming. What was he thinking? Even as his thoughts spiralled, his body moved automatically.

The sliding panel closed just as he caught a glimpse of a baseball bat.

Ruby stood still in the middle of the room, torch turned off as she listened. Soft voices giggled ominously in the room as the scratching got louder.

Unseen in the dark, Ruby grinned.