As soon as the portal closed behind her, Baby wanted to go back. The cold, lifeless walls of this underground prison, the miscellaneous props of a better time, and that aggravating laughter Micheal was using to lure her and the others away from his sad excuse of an office made her want to go back. She wanted to stay as far away from this hell hole as was physically possible.
But she knew she had to suck it up and just tolerate this next little while till she could properly say goodbye to the cesspool. So right now, her main mission is getting as far away as possible.
She listened very carefully, and eventually tracked down the sound of an ad playing on Micheal's computer down the vent to her left, so she spun on her heel and made her way down the vent to her right instead. She crawled through until she came to a small steel room with only two exits. That meant it would be easier to isolate herself.
Taking the few props there were, she stuffed them into the vent she came from and the other vent, shutting herself out from the rest of Henry's little trap.
"You're a crazy old man, Henry", Baby muttered to herself. "And I'm surprised you just haven't offed yourself yet. All of this, though, is exactly the kind of thing you'd see out of Afton. So maybe you two are more alike than you'd admit.
"And you two, Micheal. I'm sorry what happened to you, but you could've changed so much if you just hadn't been such an egotistical brat. Your brother dying was all on you, and no amount fixing your father's past will change that."
The clawed animatronic sighed and moved into the corner furthest from the now blocked vents, and slid her back down until she was sitting. She brought her broken knees up to her face, and buried her burning green eyes into them.
"I just want this to be all over with. Just do it. We're all here. Just do it so I can go back…"
There was a thump to the left, and Scrap Baby lifted her face. Her eyes glinted dangerously as she spied the vent on that side. Some of the props shifted a bit, like something was trying to make it through. So, Baby did the most sensible thing: She stood up, rolled over, reeled back her claw…
And shot it forward, ripping through what she had set up and viciously latching onto whatever was crawling through.
With no problem, she pulled through the thing she snagged and tossed it into the wall behind her. With a loud thud, leaving a minor dent in the steel wall, was none other than the child murderer himself, William Afton. His older murder suit and corpse had degraded so much they were both nearly unrecognisable. But you could tell, you always could.
The moody green rabbit struggled to stand up, since having only one arm will do that to you.
But he couldn't even blink before Baby grabbed him by the throat with her hand and aimed his claw at him threateningly.
"Give me one good reason I shouldn't rip you apart here and now", the clawed animatronic snarled.
"Elizabeth", the rotten rabbit hissed out. "This isn't how you treat your father. What happened to my princess?"
Baby responded by slamming William into the wall again. "You lost all rights to call her that when you let her die. You killed her, and now I'm here."
"I don't…" The rabbit struggled a bit. "I don't understand. You were fine moments ago."
"I'm better now. I got to be part of something amazing, which opened my eyes to all the horseshit this hellhole has put me through, and now I just want to stay there and never look back. If I had my way, you'd be dead right now, so I'll ask this again…" She reared back her claw again. "Give me a good reason to not kill you."
"I'm your father! You will treat me with the respect I deserve, you ungrateful brat!"
The claw twitched. "Wrong answer." Scrap Baby stabbed her claw into Afton's torso, making the undead corpse gasp. Just as quickly, she pulled it out and tossed the rabbit behind her.
"What…" The killer said shakily. "What happened to you…?"
Baby rolled over and knelt down, staring dead into the killer's eyes. "I changed. Elizabeth is dead, you won't ever see her again. I am, and always will be, Scrap Baby. Now run off and never bother me until we rot down here, otherwise you'll be down another arm."
The rabbit glared at her, almost as a way to challenge her. But he subtly glanced at the claw, who he'd twitched ever so slightly. He got the message, and the rabbit backed off, fleeing back into the vent he was forced out of. Once he disappeared into the darkness, Baby stuffed the now mostly wrecked props back in and returned to her corner.
She stared blankly ahead, almost like she was in a trance, mind on a spiral. She then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching into the exposed mass of wires and cords in her chest and pulled something out.
Her phone, a gift to signify her place. To show the new home, the new family she had. That she didn't need Henry, William, Micheal, or anything related to Fazbear Entertainment. She had them.
So, deciding she was already going stir crazy, she selected a speed dial context and held the phone up to the side of her head.
After a short moment, a voice sounded off on the other end.
"Baby?"
"Hey Kat", the animatronic sighed. "How… How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. So is Caleb and Gladdy. But… I'm sorry if I sound so confused. You haven't been gone for more than a few hours. What's going on?"
"Nothing! Nothing, I'm just… I guess it's just hard. Tasted freedom and got to enjoy it, and now I'm back in my cold prison. Plus I had a run into the rabbit."
There was a gasp. "Omg, what?! Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine", Baby said with a scoff. "I completely ripped him open, but now I'm mad."
"Oh… Well, that's good. Where are you right now?"
"Holed up in the corner of this labyrinth. I've got the only two exits blocked up."
"Then how did Afton get in?"
"I heard something in the vent and went fishing. He happened to be what I caught."
A snort. "Okay, I'm sorry, but that mental image is just hilarious. Fitting, for such a joke of a murderer."
"I'm glad you find it funny. Because I'll need all the positivity I can get so I don't go stir crazy."
"You're already getting cabin fever?"
"In a way, yes. More like a 'I can leave whenever I want, so why stick around' sort of feeling. I'm seriously trying all I can to not just open another portal and stay at the castle."
"I get it Baby. Really, I do. Me and Caleb miss all of you so much already, and I had to stop him from opening a surprise portal to drag you all back a couple of times already. Still a bit emotional because of the last few days."
Baby sighed, dragging the tip of her claw down her damaged face. "Now I just feel bad for leaving him."
"Don't be. He knew you guys couldn't stay, so all of us are coping differently. But after everything with you happens, swing on by and recuperate."
"I will Kat, thank you." Baby paused for a moment. "Love you, chat later."
"Love you too, Scrapy! And Caleb says he loves you too!"
The phone call ended, and Baby's mood dipped immediately. But, she swallowed the negative thoughts down and buried them deep. Now wasn't the time for complaining, Scrap told herself, I just need to stay calm. A few more days.
A few more days and it'll all be over.
~X~
The next day, Scrap Baby was already losing her mind.
She had come to the conclusion that staying locked up in one small, metal room was not good for her mental health, so she decided to just make due and weave around all the rooms.
That was a massive mistake.
She not only ran into Afton again, but also Molten and Lefty.
But, despite what you might think, Baby was much more chill with those two. Lefty was just basically a prison for Henry's daughter, the Puppet, which meant Afton refused to go near her. This let Baby hang around her and not deal with the corpse.
Molten was annoying, but not so annoying Baby wanted to use her claw like a massive pair of scissors. Her ex-bandmates were all gone sans her version for Freddy, and honestly she missed him a lot.
So at some point, she cornered him and dragged him to a far corner of the labyrinth.
"Woah Babydoll, what's this about?" Molten asked in his usual, broken voice.
"I just want to talk, and if I don't I'll go mad. So, what have you been doing?"
"What do you think? Trying to be complete again!" His one shining eye darkened. "Especially after what you did."
Baby rolled her eyes. "Cry me a river. I've moved on from that, so just drop it." Molten flinched back in shock. "I don;t care about Micheal, I don't care about William, or Henry, or Charlotte or anyone. This whole thing is our death trap and I'm done pretending this is a 'gift'."
Molten was frozen for a second, then relaxed his tensed wires. "I… I snuck Afton muttering about how you seemed different… I guess I can see why…"
"I made him know not to cross me", Baby growled, skating around the small room as she rambled. "I am just done. I don't care about Fazbear anymore. Who cares about being happy if I'm stuck like this, in this prison. No, I have friends in a place you wouldn't believe, away from all this hate and toxicity. I want to live there, and can whenever I want… but I need to stay here till everything is done."
"Wow, that's uhhhh…" The amalgam was at a complete loss of words. "I don't know how to react to that…"
The clawed animatronic sighed, sliding down the nearest wall and bringing her knees up to her face. "I know you all, if you are still in there, probably still hate me for all the crap I put you through. All the lies, abuse, anger. I'm sorry. I just… I just want things to be better…"
Things were silent aside from the sounds of distant movement and the activated audio lures. Molten Freddy was still, processing everything that he had just heard. It was a lot, yes. But something about it didn't feel like the old Baby. This was raw emotion, anguish, hate, and sadness. And not the kind everyone here had.
This felt… Real. It felt… Human.
Cautiously, the animated pile of wires slowly slithered closer to Baby and slid down next to her. He carefully placed what he tried to make a hand on her shoulder, and in response Baby simply leaned against him. Molten was completely caught off guard, and was close to panicking, only to lock up when he saw Baby…
Crying. She was silently crying, hot tears trailing down her cracked plastic face.
"I want to make things better…" She said in a pained whisper. "I want… I want to have a better life, and feel like I deserve it… that I've earned it…"
Molten shook his crumbling head and looked at his once despised leader and ex-friend. Here now, exposed and vulnerable.
"Baby…" He began. "I don't know what happened, what you saw or who you met… But if it means anything… I'd be willing to help."
"What?" The clawed animatronic asked, looking up at the other with wide eyes.
"I'm gonna help ya'. You've changed, but so have I! I don't hate you as much anymore. If it means anything, when… this", he gestured to himself, "came to be, we became someone new, something different. I didn't hate you, at least not as much as they used to, but now I want to be like you. Leave the hate behind, and find a better future."
Baby wiped her face with her normal hand, then paused when she saw Molten looking down at her with such an innocent expression.
"Thank you, Molten", she said, voice crackling with emotion. "That means a lot."
"Do you want to get that black bear in on all of this? We could bag the rabbit and scram."
Scrap shook her head. "She's not someone I'd like to share with. I don't… I don't even think she's aware of what's going on anymore."
"And I'm not, yeah sure. That bear looks brand spanking new!"
"It's just a shell, though. Remember that fire a while back, the horror attraction the rabbit came from." Molten nodded his head. "That bear was made to capture something else that also survived. Some fabric animatronic that's over 30, maybe 40 years old."
Molten winced, and his ears dropped slightly. "Yeesh, okay, yeah, that sounds bad. So no bear?"
"No bear. The rabbit hates the bear, and vice versa, so it's best we just avoid them."
Molten nodded and helped Baby back to her feet. She was still a bit wobbly from all the crying, but otherwise was fine.
"Soooooooo… What are we gonna do now?" The wire amalgam asked.
"We just wait and stick together. And if the rabbit decides to step over our boundaries, he's nothing but junk at that point."
"You got it, Baby." There was a lull in the conversation. "Hey, I wanted to ask… Why wasn't I getting tipped off from the kids laughing?"
Baby shrugged. "Because we aren't just killing machines anymore. Now, what do you want to do?"
"Hmmmmmmmm…" The wire bear looked down the vent that was producing the most noise from Micheal's computer. "Wanna see what the guard is doing?"
Baby shook her head almost immediately. "I'd rather he not know."
"Then how about we just chill here for the rest of the night?"
Baby nodded to that. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
And that's what they did for the rest of the night. Just sit on the floor, catching up and talking. Baby shared an exaggerated version of what happened with her, while Molten looked absolutely entranced. Internally, Baby smiled, now feeling like things were picking up finally. Or at least she hoped.
~X~
Molten made it very easy for avoiding the other two animatronics they were sharing this underground maze. Since he was just wires, he could stretch out and act like a spider web, alerting Baby whenever they got close.
Scrap Baby liked it, as it helped keep her on the move. Helped her joints from locking up down here, and since she had no way to repair herself, this was massively needed.
"So, you feel that too, right?" Molten asked.
"That something big could happen? Yes." Baby went to crawl through another vent as another confrontation between Afton and Lefty could be heard in the next room.
"That, yeah, but also the heat. Does it feel… Warmer to you at all?"
Baby paused after she exited the vent and stood waiting for Molten. "A bit, yeah. I don't like it all too much, it reminds me of the old furnace back at the rental place."
"Yeah… Fun fact, that's where I found this mask." Molten slithered out of the vent, but his comment alarmed Scrap Baby greatly.
"You went back?! Molten, what were you thinking?!"
"Hey, I had quite literally nothing. I was a moving puddle of wires the others jettisoned you from our makeshift body. So we went back when we heard it was closed, and snagged whatever we could salvage from the furnace." He stood in a matter-of-fact way. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, Babydoll."
Baby groaned and rolled her eyes, but truely, she was happy. She felt at peace, even though she knew things were probably gonna take a turn for the worse soon. But right now, things were fine. She had Molten, she wasn't wanting to rush down Afton and rip him into unrecognisable pieces, and she wasn't trapped in a doom spiral that made her want to curl up on the ground and cry.
"So… You never told me about a lot of these other 'friends' you made", Molten mentioned. "What are they like?"
"Well, some of them are super sweet", Baby started. "And while others are annoying beyond belief, they are all just the best. One of them is an inventor, so he fixed me up in some places after we met."
"That sounds sweet!" Molten's ears perked up. "Maybe he could give me a proper body again. Or modify this body so I'm at least not spilling out constantly."
Baby looked her friend up and down, then shrugged. "Who knows, maybe he'll feel generous. Or be hit with a bit of 'creative genius'." She said that last bit with air quotes, which made Molten giggle a bit.
but all fell silent as the wire amalgam started shifting uncomfortably.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just feeling like it's getting hotter…" he shifted a bit more, and sure enough, the base of his wire-only body left a red mark on the ground, which slowly cooled.
"That's… That's a bad sign…" Baby looked around, trying to make sense of things. They were in a room with vents on all sides, and she couldn't help but feel like this was the last place they wanted to be.
Then she heard it. A ticking, spliced with a low rumble. She looked up, and spied the pipes that followed along the walls and snaked around the ceiling.they were shaking slightly, with steam shooting out of little breaks.
"That's bad…" Molten said quietly.
"No…" Baby hissed in fear. "Not that."
Suddenly, there was a distant explosion, and the two animatronics looked down one of the vents with wide eyes. Through the once dark tunnel, they could see an orange glow and hear the crackling of flames, which made Molten lose it.
"NO! ANYTHING BUT FIRE!"
Another explosion sounded off, only this time it was down a different vent. Baby looked through it and watched as Lefty was caught up in a burst of flames and swallowed in the inferno. Down another vent she saw the same fate happen to Afton, who was crying out for Micheal to help him.
And that's when the vents began to seal up.
"No no nonononononoNONONONONONO!!!" Baby screamed in increasing panic. She made her way to one of the vents and did her best to keep it from shutting on them. She used all her strength, but it was fruitless.
While all of this was happening, the PA system was turned on, and someone was spouting some overly dramatic speech which Baby could care even less about. She screamed as she used all the strength she had, but the door just couldn't be stopped. So the clawed animatronic finally gave up, letting go and having the door seal on her. She looked over at Molten, who was frantic, and reached out to reassure him.
But she froze when a bang was heard, then glanced up for a split second before the roof caved in.
Baby shut her eyes, expecting pain, but instead she was met with nothing. She peeked her eye open, and saw she and Molten were in a long hallway. The wire amalgam looked around in complete confusion.
"Weren't we just about to meet a fiery death?" Molten asked in dumbfounded confusion. "Like, we saw the flames, right???"
"I think… I think we did die?" Baby said in an unsure tone. Looking down towards the end of the hallway, she saw what looked to be a door of some kind, a soft glow shining through the cracks.
"Please tell me we don't take the super scary door?"
"I think we have too…" Molten whimpered fearfully, and Baby was quick to grab a handful of his wires. They reactively tightened around her hand in comfort, and the wire amalgam relaxed.
"Lead the way, Baby. No one will take you on with that claw of yours."
"That's what I'm counting on…" Scrap Baby began to skate forward, Molten keeping pace. As they headed down the hall, Baby took in more of its appearance.
There were crude kids drawings lining the walls, depicting a variety of happy memories at multiple Freddy's locations with different characters. Baby recognised some of them, but not them all. She couldn't tell if that was because she didn't know, or the drawing so bad it made it too difficult to tell.
The walls themselves had a white and black chequered stripe along the whole length, outlined with a thin red stripe. Above the band was a solid grey wall, and below was solid black. The floor was black and white tiles, alternating like the stripe.
Baby got this uneasy feeling of deja vu from this, which only got worse as they neared the door. A sound, almost like a heartbeat, was rhythmically beating in the background, getting louder and louder by the second.
"Baby…" Molten whispered, his voice breaking through the beat. "Where are we…?"
Baby let go of Molten and reached for the door. "Let's find out…"
She grabbed the handle and ripped the door open, claw brandished in defence.
~X~
And here's Claw My Heart Out. This is gonna be the shortest of the DCT sequel stories, since it's set in one place and only has one character to focus on. But yeah, this is a Scrap Baby story. I just felt like, since she's from such an ambiguous story, I can have a bit more fun with this.
SO expect a lot of angst and anger at this one, and more interaction with the Capital than the other stories. Trust me, I have ideas for this fic. You all will sympathise with Baby by the end of this.
Also, never made a FNaF only story. So I'm breaking new ground for myself!
Hope y'all enjoy!
Up next: Baby and Molten are given the tour of their new home, and meet all their very noisy and annoying roommates. Including two in particular, which brings an aggravating catch…
P.S. This story won't be updated until WorldWide Wreck-It is finished. I don't want to burn myself out by tackling several stories at once.
~Caleb~