Mable: In light of recent news, I feel like there is something I should say:
Regardless of the truth about Scott Cawthon's feelings and priorities, I'm going to continue writing FNAF fanfiction because I don't write for him, I write for you. I'm sorry this took so long but rest assured that I am not giving up and that I appreciate every one of you, regardless of who or what you are. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being patient.
The Broken Circus
Chapter 4: Taken
The impression Charlie got outside was right: the pizzeria was a lot creepier when it was pitch dark. The flashlight didn't even seem to make it better, just distorted the shadows into even more unflattering shapes.
"Welcome to Circus Baby's…" Charlie said cryptically.
She shined the light around the dining room and towards the stage. Everything was just as it was when she had left, all of the bots in the same exact position just now deactivated. She then just happened to notice Sammy's head turned and the annoyed glare twisted on his mask. She followed his gaze to the fake puppet beside the door.
She got a touch of an amused smile. "I see you noticed our long-lost brother."
Sammy gave a discontent hum of static as he looked at the doppelganger. She could tell that he was much more annoyed than worried, but he still whisked himself to the front of its box. He rested his hands on the edge and leaned in closely, locking eyes with the other puppet, having to somewhat bend himself under it to look up under its tilted face. He stared deeply into it.
"What are you doing?" Charlie asked with curiosity and concern.
"Making absolutely certain that it isn't like me," Sammy said. His pupils glowed as he stared into the empty eyes of the other puppet. Charlie understood what he meant; he was trying to see if it was alive, and for a few long moments he continued searching for that sign of life. Only to finally draw back and shake his head. "It isn't. It's not alive, it's just a regular animatronic."
"Good. I would hate the thought of anyone else stuck in this place," Charlie said with genuine relief.
"I'll still have to check the others to make sure, but this is a promising sign," Sammy assured. Though as he turned to hover over and check the drink clown, he cryptically added, "Though the only one I expected to be alive was Baby, so we can't get too comfortable…"
Charlie agreed and stood watch as Sammy checked the clown and then moved towards the stage. Because of the crowded state of the restaurant, it felt a lot more claustrophobic, and she felt much more paranoid, and wide awake. The clown was deemed lifeless, and they moved on to the stage to check the three there.
The stage mounted Baby and her two companions were right where Charlie had left them and no longing moving. Though she couldn't say they were moving much when she first saw them. Sammy went to each one and stared into their eyes until he was certain that they weren't alive. One by one, each got the pass, and both felt a weight off their shoulders when the Baby was deemed-
"Empty. Not alive, not her," Sammy said. He lingered on the model for a bit longer, looking over her newer plates and somewhat messy design. "Definitely an Afton-grade animatronic, but it looks like she was put together without much care. Maybe she's an older animatronic that was pulled out of a warehouse, dusted off, and propped up on stage. That would explain how little she moves," he accessed.
His attention was drawn off of the clown when Charlie passed by and drew back the nearby curtain to reveal the hatch behind it. "Think you can unlock this door?" she asked.
The Puppet tilted his head with interest and drifted up beside her. She stepped aside and held the curtain back as he reached up for the hatch, one hand on the outside and the other wrapping around the handle. He fidgeted with it for a few seconds, staring vacantly as he focused on the unseen lock, until there was a dull click, and he turned the handle and threw it open.
Much to Charlie's disappointment, there wasn't a passageway waiting inside. Instead, it looked to be an oversized breaker box with coils of wires leading into the walls and pooling at the bottom. It was nothing more than a disorganized dead end. She looked around to see if there was a secret hatch or cache or something, but there wasn't, just wires.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Charlie said through a sigh. Sammy looked around inside before he turned to her for guidance, and she tapped on the hatch with her fingers thoughtfully before defeatedly closing it back. "There's a hallway that leads into the back. I didn't get a good look earlier, so maybe it's worth a double-check," she suggested, though her heart wasn't fully into it.
They still made their way into the hallway and began to check into the rooms one by one. Charlie opened the doors into the bathrooms and Sammy quickly went in, circled around in front of the empty stalls, and exited once more. They checked the supply closet too and a more thorough job feeling over the back wall and looking around for anything hidden yielded no results.
Finally, they reached the kitchen. When Charlie stepped in earlier it had been significantly warmer due to the working oven, but now it was notably degrees cooler than the rest of the pizzeria. Sammy went in first and did a circle to make sure there was nothing waiting for ambush, then Charlie followed him inside to look around. There were a lot of cabinets and spaces for secrets to be hidden, so plenty to look at.
But not much to find, so it seemed. Other than a few cabinets filled with stacks of paper plates, bags of plastic utensils, or the occasional serving trays or pizza cutting tools, the kitchen was surprisingly empty. As suspected, the fridge had no fresh ingredients and was instead filled with bottles of soda and juice. Its freezer was filled with stacks of frozen pizza. The deep freeze had more pizza and tubs of ice cream.
"Looks like Marla wasn't too far off. She said she thought that one guy working here was cooking all the food and with this set-up he probably was," Charlie said. She frowned suspiciously as she slowly shut the deep freeze again. "…I don't think it's a coincidence that the last Freddy's only had one employee working there too."
"Less employees, less risk," Sammy said. He mimicked a sigh and began to turn around. "This place is too big for this one hallway. Maybe there's more doors leading out from the…" He trailed off and stopped halfway through his turn. Charlie noticed and looked over to see what he was staring at, the door to the walk-in fridge. She looked at it too and felt a foreboding feeling rise.
"Why would they need a walk-in fridge when they don't even have fresh ingredients?" Charlie wondered. Unfortunately, her mind was already concocting an answer, and it wasn't a good one.
Throwing caution to the wind, she strode over and unlatched it before pulling the heavy door open. Much to her relief, there were no children inside. Nor any suspicious boxes, bags, or cabinets that could hide one. The shelves were largely bare, save a section towards the front that was loaded up with packaged cakes and cupcakes.
Everything looked normal, but Charlie didn't trust it and stepped inside to get a better look. It only took a few steps before she noticed something that stood out as abnormal. Sammy followed her into the freezer, and she nudged him without looking away from her finding.
"Hey." She pointed at the back of the freezer, hidden past the end of the shelves on the right side. "How often do refrigerators have back doors?"
Not very often, and not usually ones that led past both the end of the hallway and where the end of the stage would be. Sammy quickly ducked around her and approached the door with equal curiousness and cautiousness before laying his hands upon it. He used his memory of how Charlie opened the other one to open this one from the wrong side and then slowly pushed it open.
The flashlight's light fell through the ever-widening crack in the door and illuminated the hallway waiting beyond. One it was open halfway, Sammy slipped through and got a quick look around as Charlie closely followed. The hallway looked relatively similar to the other one, save the placement of doors. There was a door at each end of the hall, one marked with an emergency exit sign and the other a 'backstage' sign.
In the middle of the hallway, halfway between the exit door and the fridge, there was a security door. It looked exactly like the ones from Afton's, almost identical to the one that Charlie had gone through when she had found Sammy's box deep underground. There was a keypad beside the door, but no signs to suggest what was hidden inside. Naturally, they headed there first.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Because I'm thinking they're in there," Charlie said as she looked over the door. "These are the exact doors in that fake pizzeria. This has got to be where they're keeping them."
Sammy nodded and listened closely against the door. He knocked a few times and continued listening, then drew back. "I can't hear anyone."
"Hello! Is there anybody in there?!" Charlie called. Sammy quickly leaned back in to listen, but still heard nothing and shook his head. "Hmm… They could still be in there. The door could be soundproof," Charlie suggested, and Sammy couldn't deny that this was a possibility. "We'll need to find a way inside. The quickest thing I can think of is shutting the power off."
"Let's not jump to that too quickly," Sammy said hastily. She raised a brow in confusion, but instead of clarifying he turned his attention to the keypad. "I know a few numbers that might work."
So, he began type numbers into the keypad. Each guess was obviously a date- 1987, 1983, 1978, 1971- but one after another they failed to open the door. Eventually he hesitated, seemingly out of dates, and then slowly lowered his arm before turning back to Charlie with a defeated look.
"Alright, forget what I said. It looks like we're shutting off the power," Sammy reluctantly agreed. Charlie teasingly quirked a brow before turning back to the walk-in fridge door. When suddenly, the Puppet grabbed her shoulder and slowly turned her back, looking a little nervous. "Actually… Maybe you should wait here. I can teleport out, shut off the power, and be back in only a few seconds."
"What? No. Why would we split up?" Charlie asked in disbelief.
"Because what if I shut the power off and it triggers the animatronics out there to go off? They might not be alive, but we can't trust that they won't be programmed to be aggressive. Not after the Butchers. The chances of them attacking another animatronic is much slimmer than a lone human," Sammy offered.
This sounded plausible, though his credibility was shaken by what he said next. "Maybe you should go stand by the back door, just in case something unfriendly comes out of this one."
Charlie gave him an unenthused look. "Sammy, I'm the one with the taser," she reminded, holding it up.
"Well, yes… But wouldn't it be better if we didn't need to use it?" he asked with what looked like a tight smile. He was obviously not going to be deterred at this rate, and Charlie had to admit that he had a point.
"If you think that's best… Then okay, I'll wait here. I'm not hiding by the door though. I'll just stay by the fridge and keep the taser ready." She looked down at the end of the hall. "Let's check the backstage door first and see if it goes straight through." Sammy nodded in agreement and they went together to check.
The title "Backstage" was sort of an overestimation for the room. It was more like a crawlspace, a tight room tucked behind the stage and filled with extra props and loose wires strewn around the floor. Some of them looked like they might've led out of the box, but neither of them was confident enough to start yanking cords and hope something happened. They returned out to the hall.
"Wait here and I'll go turn off the power," Sammy said and only teleported out once she nodded. He wanted to make sure she hadn't changed her mind and planned on following, because he didn't trust Baby's.
He teleported into the kitchen and then hovered the rest of the way into the front room, keeping a close eye out to make sure nothing had changed. All of the animatronics looked to still be in place and nothing looked disturbed. Sammy quickened his pace to the breaker box and smoothly pulled it back open. It squeaked obnoxiously, which nearly echoed in the silent room.
It took Sammy only a few moments to find the main breaker switch and turned it off. Even though all the lights were off already, there was a dull powering-down noise from the box that signaled it shutting down.
He immediately spun towards the stage and watched the animatronics upon it for any sign of a reaction. There wasn't a twitch, not a squeak, nor a hum, or any other sign that any of them reacted. This added in with it being past midnight and him certain there was no life in them seemed to suggest that they were safe, and Sammy would've breathed a sigh of relief if he could've.
Until he noticed something moving at the edge of his vision. His head snapped over and there, inching out into the dining room, was the present box with the fake puppet hanging out of the top. It slowly glided across the floor like it was on wheels, and from the barely audible squeak that seemed to be what it was on.
Sammy kept his distance as he sized up the threat and only once the box stopped, clicked underneath, and started to slowly turn towards him did he begin to imminent warning static. He was certain the animatronic was lifeless, so it had to be specific programming causing it to move and he was entirely on guard, prepared to teleport away but not wanting to leave a dangerous toy wandering around.
Once the Security Puppet faced him enough that he was in its line of sight, its eyes alit a bright yellow and it stiffly raised its arms as though reaching for him. It then began to slowly inch towards him. Sammy could feel some sort of pull coming off of it, like with both Lefty and the Conibear, but it wasn't a strong one. Not that it made him feel any less mortified by it.
Sammy quickly hovered up onto the stage and stared down at the approaching puppet with distrust. It didn't react, didn't even look up, just continued wheeling its box in his direction. He suddenly got a flash of Deja vu as he remembered Conibear rushing him in a similar manner and reacted appropriately. He swung out his arm and struck the box with a telekinetic shove.
The box tipped backwards and landed with a heavy thump and clatter against the floor. Marionette started at the wheels on the bottom for a few seconds and listened, but he heard nothing else. He wasn't willing to lean in close to check, especially since there was a perfectly serviceable back door that he could get Charlie out of. Turning away, he headed back into the hallway.
He was just about to enter the kitchen when he heard a strange notice. Almost like a tapping sound with a shuffling alongside it. Sammy perked up and tried to listen for it, but due to the angle of the hallway, and perhaps where it was located in the space of the restaurant, he couldn't tell where exactly it was coming from until it was in the hallway behind him. He spun around to face it.
It was so quick that all he saw was a glimpse of the black form crawling toward him before it had leapt up upon him.
The Security Puppet, now detached from the box, grabbed him around the legs before climbing up his form. It had no legs, instead having a thick strand of wires and what looked like an endoskeleton spine dangling out of the bottom of its narrow waist, which it must have uprooted from the box. Its long arms were just as fast on him as on the floor.
Sammy struggled with its weight and fought back its arms as he tried to get it off. Eventually getting its fingers intertwined in one hand and wrenching it back until the arm was forced to twist around. The other he tried to pry off of his waist as its long, plastic fingers started to dig into his fabric hard enough that it risked tearing. All the while he blared his music both threateningly and from shock and stared into its eyes.
There was still nothing there. The eyes were glowing and staring ahead, but they stared through him, its head not even lifting to look directly at him. There was nothing in this fake puppet except programming, and that was much scarier to Sammy. Especially once it swiveled and contorted its arm around, the one that was holding his, and began to unravel string out of its wrist and slowly wrap it down around his arm.
It was trying to get him tangled up, to subdue him. He reacted instantly, ripping his hand back out of the tangle and when the Security Puppet reached after him, grabbed it by the mask and forcibly held its head back. He thought that he was gaining the upper hand as he dropped to the floor, slamming and pinning the lifeless bot to the floor beneath him.
Except that was when the Security Puppet decided to show exactly how much it was like Conibear and began to sing the retched chiming of "My Grandfather's Clock". Sammy's panic doubled down and his body went into overdrive in the moments it had before it would start failing. He tried to combat it in the only way he knew how, by chiming his own music back, which would rile him up to keep him awake- but not for long.
He had to get rid of it. He tried to twist its head, but its neck was too secure, and its hard rubberish shell made it impossible to break it, at least with his amount of weakness. He couldn't just teleport away- if he could teleport with the creeping heaviness- and with its clinginess he couldn't get enough room to shove it off without it trying to contort around him.
He suddenly got his second wind long enough to forcibly pin its arms crisscross across its chest. He hurried grabbed at its loose strings and wrapped them around its arms. Easier said than done with it constantly trying to separate its arms. He had to use his strings to hold it still while he finished tethering it, and then yanked himself back onto to keep going. If not for his spools tightening, and the Security Puppet's weight, he would've collapsed to the floor and might've not roused.
The sudden yank to his inner mechanisms snapped him to alert again as he continued to sing in frenzied cries to drown out the lullaby. His head was hanging back and his eyes landed on the hall's supply closet. There, that's where he would put it, and he turned over to crawl towards it, dragging the Security Puppet by his strings and a flimsy grip on one of its spinal wires. He struggled to stay on as he bellycrawled across the tiled floor.
He barely made it to the door and released the wire so he could spring up to reach the doorhandle. The door opened under his weight, and he scrambled to try and get his legs underneath himself so he could lean his back against it and use the leverage to drag the Security Puppet in. The animatronic was still trying to pull out of its binds; if it was doing so with any intelligence, it would've probably gotten itself free.
It was so much more of a struggle than it had to be. Sammy felt his head lolling back as he forced the rest of his body to work in the last very literal push to get the Security Puppet into the closet. With some struggle he released his strings from the animatronic and grabbed the doorhandle before swinging back his weight, managing to slam the closet door with a noisy bang.
Sammy's fingers released beyond his control, and he flopped onto his back on the floor. His body was weak and exhausted, drained by only a few chords of seemingly harmless music. It was moments like this that he despised being a machine.
Thankfully, the door muffled the music just enough to restrict its power. It was still sapping at his energy and he still found himself struggling to recover, but now he felt less at risk of going fully unconscious. Though that wasn't saying much, laying on the hall floor staring through foggy vision and trying to get feeling back into his tingly fingers.
It was now that he had a moment to think about what just happened. The way that animatronic aggressively pursued him on programming alone- it must've been wheeling its box over to him with the same intentions in mind. Thinking about its strong arms clinging to him brought him to the conclusion that it was probably made to drag him into the box and hold him inside. Then the music would've subdued him the rest of the way.
Suddenly it all made sense to why its movements had reminded him of the Conibear. It was literally the same kind of trap, though from the look of the box it didn't seem like it was built to destroy him, just to hold him in place. Of course, someone could've been planning to do something later, like contain and dismantle him.
That was when a horrifying realization dawned on Sammy: someone made this trap specifically to catch him. Not only did they know he existed and how he worked, they knew he was going to come. They were prepared for him.
Sammy rolled over immediately and began to push himself off of the floor, fighting his own weakness with a burst of energy brought on by panic. He had to get back to Charlie, now.
Back in the hallway, past nearly soundproof walls and unable to hear her brother's plight, Charlie had been watching the security door from the walk-in fridge when the power died and the door flew open. With the flashlight aimed down, the doorway showed little more than gaping darkness. An empty void calling out to her. Or that's what her heart felt like when no children came running out.
Knowing that Sammy would be back any second now, she took a deep breath and daring to approach the doorway. Yet as her light fell inside her breath came rushing out in relief. No remains, no stains, just a room with equipment inside. Her disappointment in not finding the children was nothing compared to her thankfulness to not find their bodies. She steadied herself and began to shine her flashlight inside.
Almost immediately she realized that she had found something significant. The room wasn't too large and the right side was overtaken by shelves overfilled with toolboxes and supplies while the floor was covered with cardboard boxes spilling with parts. Her light fell on an endoskeleton arm sticking out of the nearest box. The dull metal looked out of place in this brand-new restaurant.
Slowly she dragged her eyes to the other side of the room, the larger side, and there she found something more significant. There was a desk in the corner closest to the door topped with a couple of monitors and two separate computer towers sitting underneath it. There was a large box alongside the desk with the wires from the computer leading into it. The shell was nondescript, so she couldn't tell if it was some kind of generator or what it was supposed to be.
Her flashlight followed along the thicker wires coming out of the other side of the box to where they lead under the edge of a tarp that covered some sort of large form in the corner. The fear of what was underneath returned for a moment, but the shape of it was too large to be anything as small as the children, or she hoped.
Stepping onto the edge of the tarp, she leaned over and reached for one of the closer lumps. She pressed her hand against it to try and feel what was underneath. It was firm, cold, something metal.
Her eyes widened as she grabbed the tarp and ripped it back, already knowing what was hiding underneath, and she was right.
There, slumped in the corner and hidden under the tarp, was the broken body of Circus Baby.
It was her, just as she remembered her looking. Her head was tilted against the wall with her eyes devoid of light, her arms laid limply at her sides, and her legs were bent in front of her. It was her knee that Charlie had touched. Her chest plates were removed and the wires from the box led directly into her belly.
Just seeing her here confirmed all of Charlie's worst fears. Seeing her deactivated in this room only served to prove that she was out wandering the street in a new body, one probably controlled by the machines in this room. Now she regretted not bringing a camera, though the only people who would realize the true seriousness of the situation would be her Clay, Mike, John, and the rest of her friends.
Charlie heard the walk-in fridge door lightly squeak and knew it was Sammy. "I'm in here," she quietly called to him. She didn't feel safe looking away from Baby and instead cautiously backed towards the door. "You have to see this…"
But he didn't see anything, because at that second, she was grabbed from behind and instantly realized it was not Sammy who had come up behind her. Not from the slender arm hooking around and trapping hers and the long fingers clasping a damp wad of napkins over her nose and mouth. She could smell a sweet chemical odor and immediately held her breath as she began to struggle.
"Shh. Don't fight," Izzy hushed into her ear. "I'm not going to hurt you. I need your help. So be a good girl and stop fighting."
This was a rather odd thing to say and something worth taking note of, but that didn't mean Charlie was going to trust her for a second. Not when she was convinced that this was chloroform shoved under her nose. She had to get Izzy- Baby off of her fast, though that was easier said than done. Regardless of how human her body looked she had the strong grip of a machine and Charlie knew she would need more than brute force to get free.
But what Baby didn't know was that Charlie had learned quite a lot since the last time they had fought, but not just from robotics classes. From self-defense classes.
Before she could say another word, Charlie slid her leg back between Baby's and outward to sweep out her right foot. This caught Baby off balance enough to stagger, and Charlie used her loosened grip to lean forward and then elbow her in the throat. It wasn't as effective as on a breathing human, but it caused the bot's head to snap backwards with a mechanical crack and gave her a moment to twist out of her grip.
Charlie spun around and yanked the taser off her waistband in the same smooth movement and then shoved it into the other woman's belly. The taser crackled before making a loud sizzling noise followed with a smell like burning plastic. Baby looked down and shrieked, but not as though in pain. It was more a cry of horror and considering how quickly she yanked up her shirt to look at the damage that seemed to be the case.
The section of skin that the taser had hit was currently melting like candle wax, sinking inward and leaking down over her navelless abdomen. Charlie's eyes widened in shock and disgust before she moved to slip past Baby.
She made it out into the hallway before she was grabbed by the jacket and pulled back so hard that it nearly slid over her head and trapped her arms. She held onto the doorframe to stop herself from staggering back into the room, but this was already enough of a stumble for Baby to step forward and grab her wrist, trying to rip the taser out of her hand. When Charlie didn't give it up, she twisted her wrist painfully, forcing her to drop the taser.
Now Baby was literally gaining the upper hand. Her body twitched and eyes blinked rapidly, less like a human and more like a shaken doll. Charlie watched as the "Izzy" guise became less human with every passing second.
Suddenly Charlie felt a harsh force shove her downwards and fell down onto her bottom only a split second before Sammy sprung over her and tackled Baby into the boxes of parts. Charlie scrambled to her feet, grabbing her taser in the process, and looked into the room to see that her brother had Baby pinned down on the carboard boxes, some of which had broken under her weight and spilled parts beneath her.
The tables had been turned instantly. While Charlie had held her own but struggled against Baby's strength, Sammy matched it, and he had more tricks up his sleeve- literally the strings that slid from his wrists and started to snare her arms. He got one of them instantly as she tried to crawl back with the other. She made struggling noises and her eyes blinked rapidly, but her expression couldn't change past mild shock.
Just the sight of her sent Sammy into a blind rage. Not just because she was in this artificial body- which he could tell right away was a fake- and not only because she had been attacking Charlie, though that was a big part of it. It was because now he knew for certain that it had been her. She had taken those children, snatched them off the street, just like their- just like her father would've. It made him see white.
"Where are they?" His voice was a cold echo calling over the deafening music from his chest. He gave her only a second to answer before pressing in harder. "Where did you take them, Elizabeth? Where did you hide them?"
Baby made a frustrated noise, most likely at hearing her own name, and thrashed onto her side to try and get free. Sammy was unamused and used this position to twist her arm until it was mere inches and one harsh snap from being broken. Tears of frustration were beginning to drip down his mask.
"You can't run from me. You can't run from this. Tell me where they are or I will break you."
The threat fell on deaf ears as Baby continued to try and crawl out from underneath him. The strings holding her back began to wrap tighter from his growing anger when suddenly one found its way inside through the small hole left from the teaser melting her skin. She could feel it delving into her wires and already starting to influence her programming, but she couldn't let him take control of this body. She wouldn't let him take it from her.
She grabbed the edge of a still upright carboard box for leverage but just managed to knock it over and spill the tools and oily pieces inside. Her free hand felt around in them for something to cut herself free while his face twisted up in disgust. He saw what she was doing and like a viper's strike pinned her free arm down where he could reach it, digging his fingers into her fake skin. Still digging his strings painlessly into her open wound.
"Just like Father…" His voice caught like he was choking on a sob. Her body was turned away, so she couldn't see how her eyes widened and teeth clenched. Her fingers tightened around a heavy handle. "You're just like Father!"
Before Sammy could realize what was coming, Baby suddenly and silently snapped. She ripped her partially free arm out of his grasp and forcibly turned over, dislocating her other in the process, and before he could react, she swung out with a heavy socket wrench and cracked it across his porcelain face. A web of cracking erupted from the blow and covered the right side of his mask and sent him falling sideways to the floor.
"Sammy!" Charlie cried. She was at his side in seconds, turning him over to see the damage done to his mask. His pinprick optics flickered around frantically as he looked up at her in shock and pain, arms shaking like he couldn't lift them.
Baby's body lurched upright. She grabbed ahold of the strings inside of her and smoothly yanked them out, pulling out some of her own wiring in the process and then poking it back in. She then reached up and popped her shoulder back in with little effort. Charlie caught sight of what she was doing and realized that she had to get Sammy to safety. Hooking her taser back to her pants, she gathered him in her arms and managed to lift him bridal style.
Sammy was long and awkward, but not heavy. His head lulled back, and she could see how deep the cracking was on the edge of his mask. She didn't know why damage to his mask made him so weak, she didn't really understand how she could feel something made of porcelain without any nerve endings, even artificial, but she knew that it did, he did, and she had to get him to safety.
The moment she turned to rush out, she felt a sharp tug and turned back around to keep from dropping Sammy. Baby, who had just ripped out his wires from her body, now had a tight grip on them. Winding them around her hand and pulling back sharply, then beginning to slowly rise to her feet. Charlie didn't give her the chance. With a rush of anger, Charlie strode forward and kicked at Baby as hard as she could, her boot going straight into her sternum.
Baby seemed more surprised than hurt as she was knocked back onto her backside. Charlie grabbed the strings she had and pulled tightly, yanking and tugging tightly, until they slipped out of the false woman's hold. Charlie turned and made a run for it as fast as she could, Sammy able to do little more than activate his spools and slowly drag his strings inside, more out of reflex than of will.
The sound of quick footsteps rushed in behind them, but Charlie just managed to throw herself through the door and closed it behind her. With Sammy's head balanced on her shoulder, she held the door handle with that hand to keep it closed, and still almost tumbled out into the hallway when Baby yanked roughly on the other side.
Charlie was barely able to hold it somewhat closed and even then, it kept pulling open before she could bring it closed again. This tug of war went on for a few minutes and she didn't think she was going to be able to hold out much longer.
Thankfully, neither was Baby. Eventually she got impatient and with a frustrated huff she suddenly released the door and walked hurriedly down the hall towards the back door. She was probably planning on looping around the restaurant and cutting them off in the front. This meant Charlie had no time to waste and after readjusting Sammy she hurried to the other door and pushed it open.
A black and white striped arm shot through the crack and started making grabs for Sammy. Charlie gasped and pulled the fridge door shut, closing it on the arm but not having nearly enough strength to do damage with it. Between the music and the masked face pressing against the crack, she realized it was the knock-off puppet from the front of the restaurant and knew exactly what it wanted.
But she had to get Sammy out of the restaurant and if she waited in the freezer too long, she would be cornered. She couldn't hold both doors at once and this one definitely wasn't closing, and the animatronic didn't seem capable of standing. She would have to fight back and make a run for it. Taking a deep breath, Charlie shoved open the door with her shoulder, yanked her taser off her pants again, and thrust it down on the animatronic's head between its mask and prong.
The animatronic violently shuddered but made no noise of pain and then slumped onto the kitchen floor. Charlie was quick to reattach the taser, gather her brothers into her arms again, and shove the doppelganger puppet back with her boot so she could get by and make a break for it. She noticed its lack of legs and how its arms were partially tangled together and intuitively knew this was what held Sammy up.
Fearing it would spring back to life, Charlie raced out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and out into the dining room.
Her heart was pounding in her ears as she ran past the tipped box and towards the front doors, so close to making her escape, holding Sammy for dear life.
And that was when she saw the blur of something running at her from her left. She tried to run to the side, but there was no chance of escape as Baby sprinted seemingly out of nowhere and rammed her with her shoulder. It was like getting hit by an aluminum bat covered in a thin sheet of putty and Charlie was knocked right off her feet and skidded across the tiles, nearly into the arcade. Sammy falling to her side.
This time, Baby was ready for her and immediately threw herself onto Charlie. Her weight took all of the air out of the woman's lungs and before she could gasp in more the wad of paper towels was over her mouth again. It was still sopping wet and this time she had no choice but to inhale the sweet, medicinal smell. With one arm pinned under Baby's knee, the other reached up for her wrist to try and pry it off, but her nails dug into her cheek and her grip was tight.
Not removing her gaze from Charlie, Baby set the heavy socket wrench on her chest with purpose. Then she reached over and grabbed Sammy's arm and pulled him right beside her. Charlie realized what was coming and watched with wide eyes as Baby grabbed the socket wrench again and lifted it over Sammy's head.
Sammy was trying to struggle back could do little more than squirm in place, eyes darting frantically, tears leaking into and emphasizing the cracks on his face. Charlie stopped trying to pry Baby's arm off and reached down to cover his mask with her hand, shielding him for the blow that was coming. Baby paused before raising the wrench further and swinging down with all her strength.
Then stopped only an inch above Charlie's hand.
Instead of breaking bones and porcelain, Baby just stopped herself on a dime and continued staring intensely. This was a clear threat of what she had in mind for if she kept fighting. Charlie said nothing, but Baby could tell the moment when she realized she was trapped, could see the raw fear in her eyes, and she knew she had her totally under her control.
Baby's gaze glazed over with something that almost looked like disinterest, or perhaps disappointment, and dropped the socket wrench back on Charlie's chest. She then pinned her other arm down and readjusted the napkin to fit snuggly over Charlie's mouth and nose and waited for it to take effect. She was certain now that it was chloroform from how long it was taking to take effect.
Baby's eyes wandered towards the Puppet laying at Charlie's side. His face might've been a broken mess stuck in a look of shock, but she knew that he was devastated.
"I'm nothing like Father. Father would've left you for dead… Didn't he?" she spat at him. He tried to push himself up but was struggling against a limp body. There was so much purple paint. "Such a baby."
Then she looked down at Charlie again and knew from the anger in her gaze that she would've told her off if she had the chance. She would've still been fighting if she could've, Baby found that peculiar.
"It didn't have to be like this. If you would have done what I said, then he wouldn't have gotten hurt. You let him get hurt… But that's okay, you're doing better now. Such a good sister taking care of her baby brother."
Charlie couldn't express how much white-hot anger she felt in this moment. All she could do is reach out with her pinned arm and grab Sammy's arm, trying to somehow console him while still keeping eye contact with the bot above her.
The minutes continued to tick on until she started to finally feel the effects creeping in. She began to feel lightheaded, maybe a little sick and groggy, and once the confusion set in, she forgot why she wasn't fighting back. She released Sammy's arm and began to feel over him, knowing he was there and knowing what was going on, but also having it all start to become blurry.
This spurred Sammy back to life momentarily and he weakly raised a shaky arm before shooting out to grab Baby's arm. She swung her arm out and knocked him back, rolling him over easily and causing the edge of his mask to hit the tile. Pain shot through every crack and down through his endoskeleton that was so severe that he could only give a mechanical whine.
Until he heard Baby moving behind him. He could hear her getting up and then the rustling of her moving Charlie and he began to panic. He tried to push himself up and managed to weakly roll himself over just in time to see Baby lifting Charlie in a fireman hold and with one last look at the puppet, turned and walked towards the hallway with the now unconscious woman.
Sammy tried to call to Charlie, but his voice was little more than a gargled mess. He could only watch helplessly as his sister was carried away. Fear spurred on his second wind, and he started trying to crawl after them. His whole body was fighting him, reluctant to obey under the guidance of his broken mask, but he just barely managed to drag himself along the tiled floor. It was too slow to catch up with them though.
Not that it mattered. It wasn't long before he heard the footsteps of Baby returning, and he knew it was her and not Charlie. By then he was barely dragging himself and stopped only when the other bot knelt beside him. He started to turn his head in her direction only to have something jab into his back and electricity shoot up his spine. If he could've thought, he would've realized it was Charlie's taser overloading his servos.
Between the damage and the controlled shock, Sammy last only a few seconds before his body shut down.
Baby removed the taser and stared down at the Puppet with little interest in his condition. Her hand tightened on the taser, nails scraping along the edge of it. It wasn't enough, she realized, she wanted to do more. She wanted to reach into his chest and rip out his music box, crush it in her claw, see if he could still lord over her in that state.
…But she wasn't alone here. She leered up at the closest security camera. Everything she was doing was going to be seen and she knew she was already toeing the line. With a huff, she slung the Puppet over her shoulders like she had to Charlie and then proceeded to carry him out the same way. Through the walk-in fridge, down the hall, out the back door, and to the dumpster and garbage cans behind the restaurant, and that's where she abandoned him.
The lurch of being dropped onto the concrete was enough to wake Sammy again, but he wasn't in any state to do anything. His vision, even when just lying there, was foggy and wobbly. Everything felt numb and painful at the same time. He knew he was malfunctioning and there was nothing he could do about it. He could only lay there and listen as Baby walked past him and got into the vehicle, listen to it come to life and know it had to be the van, and hear her peel out in reverse.
Eventually the vehicle's noises faded away and Sammy was left alone in the gutter. Unable to move, only able to lay there and think about what had happened, replaying the moments of Charlie being taken away.
Charlie was gone.
…
When Charlie eventually woke up, she was confused and sick. So much so that she had fallen back asleep despite herself, unsure where she was or what happened. She wasn't sure how long she slept at that point, but by time she awoke the second time she still felt groggy, but clearheaded, no longer shaking like she had been the first time. She was finally cohesive enough to remember what had happened.
Finally cohesive enough to realize that she was not in her bedroom. She hadn't awoken from the nightmare after all, she was still living it.
She was lying on a twin sized cot in a room almost as small as her bathroom. The walls were a musty white drywall, and the floor was a basic slate-blue tile. There were no windows and only one door, a security door.
"Oh God, where am I?" Charlie thought with growing panic. She shoved down the covers and sat up in bed, still feeling a little lightheaded by capable of sitting up. She realized much to her relief that she was still fully dressed. Not that she thought Baby would tamper with her clothes, but she was still relieved that she hadn't. She leered at that security door. "I'm either in Afton Robotics or another secret room in Baby's. I have to be."
She reached into her pocket and gave a frustrated groan when she realized it was empty. "And she took my phone. Smart." Though her frustration quickly turned to fear once she realized she was alone in the room. Specifically, Sammy wasn't here, and considering the state he was in when she blacked out, she had reason to worry. "I swear if she did anything to Sammy. I swear to GOD if she did anything to him… I've got to get out of this room. She might've brought him here too; he could be somewhere nearby."
She stood on wobbly legs and got a better look around the small room. Other than the cot and a small, grey nightstand beside it, the only other piece of furniture was a school desk sat in the corner. There weren't any controls for the security door, not even a keypad, just a light switch on the wall that controlled the overhead light. She turned it on to get a better look around.
That was when she took noticed the other things on the nightstand. There was also a bottle of water and a small packet of pills. She was wary of both, but a close inspection showed that the bottle was unopened and untampered with, and the packet was labelled as chewable Tylenol. Even though thirsty, she didn't use either of them and set them back down. Only to notice a piece of paper sticking out of the drawer.
She pulled it out only to find that the slip had something written on it: "Open me".
"What…?" Charlie assumed it meant the drawer and cautiously pulled it open while keeping her head back and away. Inside of the drawer was a peculiar looking tool that she carefully lifted out.
The device was some sort of handheld screen with a handle on the bottom of it. It was painted a stark yellow with fake googly eyes on the top, giving it an uncomfortably toy-like appearance. There was a little piece of tape stuck to the top corner that had "Charlie" written on it. A quick look confirmed that it was the same handwriting as the slip that had been in the drawer.
"Huh. Weird…" she murmured. She sat down on the bed and started to look over the tool, seeing if there was a way to turn it on. She couldn't find a switch or any buttons, so she tapped on the screen searching for a response, and she got one.
The screen alit with a dull glow, though still showing a black background, and green text came up on the screen reading: "Searching for signal." A few bars appeared and disappeared underneath the words to show it loading. A minute passed by, during which Charlie got desperate enough to crack open the water bottle and was midway through taking a sip when she was caught off-guard by a voice.
"Good morning, Charlotte."
Charlie froze up with a mouthful of water. Not only because the voice suddenly came through the tool's vent or speaker without warning, but because the voice was one she had heard before. She swallowed heavily and looked down at the screen, which showed the word "Connected" with a speaker icon beneath it. The minimalistic messaging didn't do much to assure her when she heard that voice. She knew that voice.
"Michael?" she said quietly. Apparently, he could hear her as he answered shortly.
"I'm afraid not, but I don't fault you for not recognizing my voice. It has been many years since you have last heard it."
Charlie furrowed her brows and was about to question this, since he sounded almost exactly like Michael, when he continued.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am William Afton."
It was like Charlie's heart stopped and for a moment it felt like that water she just swallowed was going to come back up. Then reason caught up with her, along with doubt. "William Afton's dead. Who are you really?" she asked skeptically. Honestly, she half-believed it could've been Baby modulating her voice to sound like his.
"I assure you; it is me. I always come back. Not even fire could stop me," he said. This statement didn't do much to convince her, whether she was truly doubtful or simply in denial. "I can prove it. Ask me anything."
"…Alright," Charlie said. With defiance in her voice, she asked, "Tell me about the worst night of my life. You were a part of it, so tell me what it was." A purposefully difficult question that he wouldn't be able to answer.
Much to her surprise, he did answer.
"You mean the night I took your brother? It was Halloween. We were celebrating at the diner when I found you both hidden away in a costume closet. I almost took you both, but I needed only him. He was the only one to fit the role, so I took him out through the back door and took him down the rabbit hole… And made him into the perfect son… And then the perfect puppet."
Water rolled over her fingers from how hard she was squeezing the bottle. Her hand was shaking and she was staring at the screen with shock. It really was him. It was William Afton.
"But this is not about your brother, Charlotte, this is about you. I have a special opportunity for you. A way you might put your technician skills to work for a better cause."
"I can't believe this," Charlie choked out. She clasped a hand over her face and tried to calm herself but was quickly becoming overwhelmed. "You're alive… YOU were the one who took the kids! Baby's just- Baby's working for you!" Her fear was reignited. "What did you do with Sammy?! Where is he?!" she demanded.
"I had no use for him. Elizabeth left him wherever he was. As for the children, if you look down at the screen you will see that they have not gone far."
She wasn't sure how much she trusted his words, but she did look at the screen and watched as a partial building layout appeared on the screen. It revealed a hallway with little rooms lining along it and in each one was a colored dot; one green, one yellow, one orange, one blue, one pink, and one purple.
"Every light is a life. Your color is green, and the others are the five children I have brought to this place. They are all within feet of you, but they cannot hear you and you cannot hear them. Rest assured that none of them have been harmed."
"And why should I believe you?" Charlie blurted out. She stared down at the screen with shock and disgust. As insane as this all was, this was exactly what she could've expected from a man as twisted as William Afton. "And- what- you're threatening to kill them unless I help you?! How could you think I would even- You're really sick! Beyond sick, you're a monster-!"
"Oh no, Charlotte, no. All I ask is that we make a deal. I am in need of your services and in return I am offering you the key to the children's escape. I am giving you a chance to save five little souls."
"What does that mean?" she asked, reining herself in. As much as she didn't want to be civil, she knew this was vitally important. She had to find out what his plans were if the children really were alive.
"Do what I ask of you and if you succeed you will be allowed to choose a child to be set free."
"'Set free' sounds an awful lot like killing them. Don't think I didn't catch that."
"We both know that you are not in a position to refuse. Fortunate for you, your work is worth more to me than their lives. Complete your tasks and I will gladly release a child, but you will need to earn that key to freedom. Mistakes won't be tolerated… and if you do well enough, I may offer a second."
"…What do you get out of this?" Charlie bluntly asked. She knew there was something he wasn't saying and suspected he wasn't going to come off of it.
"This has nothing to do with what I want. It is what I need. I need you, Charlotte."
It was just like Baby had said, except coming from this voice it disgusted her deeply. It made her feel wrong in her own skin, but she didn't have any choice. This was all she had to go on, her only chance of finding a way out of the room. She would go along with it for now and then make a run with all the children when she had the chance. If she had the chance.
"…Alright."
"Perfect. Are you ready for your first task? You will need to be alert to avoid any… Accidents."
"No. I'm ready," Charlie insisted. She refused to show any weakness with him and steadied herself as she stood from the cot. A cold ball wobbled in her stomach as she did so.
"Very good. Let's begin."
With that, the security door slid open.