Cross Her Heart
A Five Nights at Freddy Security Breach: Ruin Fanfiction
By BG-57
Chapter 1
Deep underground, far beneath the Mega Pizzaplex, there was no one left to listen to the sobbing. Long winding dirt tunnels lit dimly by portable lights rambled into what had once been a building that had sunk into the earth. Through a series of open metal doors lay the Scooping Room, with white tiled floor running through two rows of eerily lit yellow railings. Steam vented out of pipes along the walls. Retracted neatly in the ceiling was a long arm with mounted crimson eye in the center of scooping blades that was quietly dormant for now. Strewn on the floor underneath was a patchwork cloth costume that was crudely stitched together from three different animatronic characters. The head was mostly that of a lion, with a lifeless googly eye blankly staring into space, but the endoskeleton of what had been inside was now gone.
Behind a wall of glass in a control room opposite the door a young girl was huddled in the corner, her head buried into her knees with her arms wrapped around her tear-streaked face as sobs convulsed her whole body. Suddenly a walkie-talkie near her ankle crackled to life. It was molded into the shape of a cartoon lavender wolf with amber eyes and a green streak of hair. The girl suddenly lifted her head and snatched the Roxy-Talky and pressed the button on the side.
"Hello?" she demanded her voice shaking, "Gregory is that you? Hello?"
She released the talk button and listened. But all she heard was cackling and hissing of static.
"Hello, anyone?"
"Cassie…?"
The voice reverberated with an electronic buzz, slightly husky. The machine behind the voice had been originally programmed to sound cocky and cool, but there was no hint of that now. Instead, what she heard sounded weary and hesitant, gentle and uncertain.
"Oh my god, Roxy!" she nearly screamed, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Cassie," said Roxanne Wolf's voice a little too quickly for comfort, "Are you alright? Did you escape?"
"Yes, I'm in some sort of underground room-I think Dad called it a Scooping Room," she rushed through her words, nearly stumbling over them, "I hit a red button and this arm came down and grabbed that thing. It's gone now."
"I'm glad to hear that," said Roxy, audibly relieved, "Can you see a way out from there?"
Cassie stood up and looked around the room, and peered through the glass wall.
"No, just the way I came in," she admitted, "Where are you?"
"I don't know, I'm in some sort of tunnel," said Roxy, "Can you make some sort of sound that I can hear?"
"Just a second!" she replied springing to action.
The thought of seeing her favorite animatronic alive and well again filled her with hope for the first time in as long as she could remember; especially after having to cruelly deactivate Roxy in a misguided attempt to save her friend Gregory. Cassie searched through the Scooping Room until she saw the control panel next to the door. She hefted a bright yellow tool with twin prongs on the tip, and a green and red button below a dial. She flipped open the casing and inserted her Faz-Wrench into the twin slots and gave it a quarter turn. She then activated the door to raise and lower rapidly, slamming open and shut over and over again. The racket was deafening but it worked well enough; within minutes she heard the heavy thumping of feet heading her way. Cassie withdrew the Faz-Wrench and stood in the doorway peering anxiously down the hallway.
Then she saw Roxy holding a cartoon bear-shaped walkie-talkie loosely in her grip. Cassie was already used to seeing the damage the animatronic had suffered since her last birthday at the Mega Pizzaplex, going from a proud glamorous wolf to a nearly bare endoskeleton. Only her right foot still resembled a gray paw while dingy red casings covered her chest along with purple leg warmers that were cracked and crumbling. Worse, her face was simply gone, covered by a skull like mask with gaping empty eye sockets. Her fluffy tail was missing and what remained of her hair was attached in straggly clumps to her metallic scalp.
But now Cassie could see she had sustained even more damage from the battle with the Mimic; her left arm was totally gone, a stump with dangling wires above the elbow. Her chest was dented and cracked even further. The mask was damaged and half fallen off, exposing the hole where one of her eyes had been, flanked by black wires like she was weeping oil. Roxy slumped against the door frame and Cassie ran over, embracing her tightly around her neck.
"Oh Roxy, I'm so sorry, this was all my fault," she sobbed, "I was such a fool to listen to that thing."
"No Cassie, I should be sorry," said the machine sniffling as she held the girl close with her good arm, "I lost the fight-I'm so worthless!"
"Roxy, you're awesome, you saved me!" protested the girl, "I wish I was strong and brave as you!"
The animatronic fell silent; of course, Roxy used to tell herself the same thing every day, but back then the words rang hollow. But now somehow despite the horrors that had befallen her she had found this one child that believed in her more than she deserved.
"Do you really mean that?" she eventually said hopefully.
"More than anything," said Cassie, "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Thank you; now, let's find a way to get you back to your Dad."
Cassie looked around and suddenly remembered the Mimic's costume. She hopped down and pulled up the head and inspected the mechanical pale blue-colored eyeball dangling loosely from the face. She gingerly pulled it free of the costume and turned back to Roxy. She pulled out the Faz-Wrench again.
"Hold still Roxy," she warned.
"What are you doing?" wondered the wolf, her metallic ears swiveling trying to determine what was going on. Cassie inserted the wrench into the eyeball, giving it a jolt of electricity, then carefully inserted into the exposed eye socket on the unmasked side of Roxy's face. She shrieked in pain and covered her face with her clawed hand.
"The light it burns!" she shrieked.
"Can you see anything?" asked Cassie, holding a comforting hand on Roxy's forearm. Slowly the animatronic lowered her hand and squinted down at her, the pale blue eye glowing faintly.
At first everything was blurry blobs of colors but they eventually resolved into the girl staring up at her with anxious golden eyes framing a face under wavy brown hair gathered into two small pigtails at the back. With a shock Roxy realized they shared the same color palette: a red jacket over jean shorts and dark tights, fingernails pained the same shade of green, and purple hair elastics.
"I can see you now Cassie," said the wolf with amazement placing her hand on the girl's shoulder, "Thank you."
Slowly Roxy noticed her own skeletal hand, which began to shake.
"What's wrong?" wondered Cassie. Roxy let out an anguished scream and covered her ruined face.
"I'm hideous!" she screamed, "I don't want to see anymore! Take this eye out!"
"Don't say that Roxy," begged the girl tearfully, "You're beautiful still. I promise I'll have my Dad fix you up."
That seemed to snap the machine out of her screaming fit. She slumped forward for a minute, then hesitantly got to her feet.
"I'm sorry Cassie," she said taking her hand, "I don't know what came over me."
She was realizing that there was something broken about her, not just her body, but her soul. Roxy had this insatiable drive to win, to be admired and envied by all, which had made her mean. But now after losing everything, she now knew that being a spoiled diva never really mattered; just making children happy did. She just had to find a way to shut up the voice that kept telling her she was not good enough.
Of course: the answer was standing right next to her! She still recalled the Cassie's last birthday, giving her a makeover and presenting her with her favorite carrot cake and how she had to comfort her after no one else came to her party. Protecting this fragile child gave her greater purpose than she had ever been designed for.
"Let's get out of here," she stated simply. Together they walked through the doorways down a long hallway with checkerboard yellow and green tiled floor.
They found themselves in the tunnels again. The wolf looked around confused about a place she had never seen before, but Cassie led her by the hand down the correct path, backtracking to the broken forklift that had smashed open the door the vault that had sealed the Mimic away. They walked down a ramp into a dark and dusty room with a computer console to their left. This is where Cassie has switched off the malevolent virtual rabbit program; despite its hostility she now felt bad about shutting it down, since it was only trying to stop her from freeing the Mimic. A hole in the back wall had created a crawlspace.
"Can you get through that Roxy?" she wondered.
"Not to worry," the animatronic reassured her, "I'm a lot skinnier now."
The girl scooted through the hole, followed by the wolf. Roxy got stuck for a moment but was able to wiggle through. They stood up and found a staircase leading up, with portable lighting on the wooden slat walls barely penetrating the gloom. The animatronics' footsteps thumped on the metallic steps, making them shudder. Through a door at the top of the stairs was a basement hallway. Cassie ran down to another door at one end.
"Come here," she said excitedly as she pulled the door open.
"What is it?" wondered Roxy.
Cassie pointed out a red cylinder in the corner of the room that had a circular window in the front under checkerboard trim with a jagged white lightning bolt below.
"Thanks Cassie," said Roxy as she opened the door and climbed inside, "The fight drained a lot of my power."
While the animatronic recharged Cassie inspected the floor more closely. Spaced in even rows were circular metal plates with holes punched out, making the floor resemble a stovetop with burners; which was apt as that was the purpose of the room. Her Dad had once told her that the Mega Pizzaplex had to incinerate trash constantly. She sat on the floor near the door as far from the burners as she could get; maybe they would fire up without warning.
Cassie was also worried about her Dad. He worked so many hours at the Mega Pizzaplex's new sister location now that this one was defunct, on top of a long commute of several hours. She had lied to him about staying over at a friend's house so she wasn't even sure if he knew she had gone missing. Roxy opened the door of the charging station and stepped out.
"That's better," she said, "Are you ready to get out of here?"
"More than anything!"
At the other end of the hallway was different door that led to another wood paneled staircase. At the top they reached a large series of interconnected basement storage rooms with checkboard trim near the tops of the walls and metal shelves overflowing with moldy old boxes and junk. Under the harsh glow of fluorescent lights they came upon a deactivated robot with a saucer shaped head inset with colored panels.
"Candy Cadet," whispered Cassie. Roxy tentatively touched its arm but there was no reaction. She gestured her to follow and they entered a large cavern filled with rusty looking water, phosphorescent green shelf fungi on the walls and several waterfalls streaming down from the stalactite covered ceiling.
"It's beautiful," said the animatronic peering around.
They then passed into a cylindrical tunnel that sloped gently upward as it borrowed through a rocky layer. Some kind of drill maybe? The came out in a large space where an enormous model Freddy Fazbear head leaned dangerously to one side over a precipice. Their feet rang on the metallic plating on the floor, while sparks flew from loose wiring, obscured by steam billowing from nearby pipes.
Before them was a stone pillar with steel elevator door mounted into them. Cassie pressed the call button and the doors slid open. They got in and Roxy pressed the up button, which was shaped like a silhouette of Freddy Fazbear's head. Cassie hugged Roxy's arm tightly as they ascended; elevators always made her nervous.
The doors slid open into a large basement room with a high ceiling lost in the shadowy darkness supported by metal pillars; clearly, they were back in the Mega Pizzaplex now. Roxy walked with more confidence now; Roxy Raceway was her home turf. It was then she noticed Cassie lagging behind. Wordlessly she picked her up and began to carry her. Cassie didn't protest; now that the danger had passed, she was suddenly aware of how exhausted she was.
Roxy surveyed the dilapidated ruins of the raceway sadly, with the go-karts and rubble strewn haphazardly about. Not only was it beyond repair, slowly sinking into the caverns below, but this was also the site of her greatest defeat. She'd never get to settle the score with that brat Gregory; even if she did, she couldn't have her old self back. Now that she could see the decrepit state of the Mega Pizzaplex, she realized that Fazbear Entertainment had truly abandoned them, leaving them to rot. It made her want to crawl in a hole and deactivate herself forever.
Unexpectedly, the Roxy-Talky in Cassie's grip crackled to life.
"Cassie!," said a woman's voice in wonder, "And Roxy, you both made it out!"
"Who is this?" asked Cassie innocently, not noticing Roxy's sky-blue eye narrow.
"Vanessa," she stated darkly.
"I'm glad you're both okay," said the voice, "Meet me by Lost and Found by the main entrance."
"Okay, we're on our way," said Cassie cheerfully. She then followed Roxy's gaze to the security camera above the door to the Atrium. It was moving, with a blinking red light on the side flashing.
"What's wrong Roxy?" she asked in concern.
"Just be careful around Vanessa," said the animatronic cryptically.
With that she pushed through the doors and out of the raceway.
