Mable: Enjoy!
Going Home in a Box
Chapter Eighty-Two
…
The tournament was already underway when the Princess crept down from her tower to see. She carefully opened the door and snuck in on tiptoes, peering around at the enormous tournament grounds.
She could hear voices from somewhere, but she wasn't scared. She knew that they couldn't see her. The Princess was as safe as could be.
But she needed to find the chariots. Carefully making her way around the stands and the jousting area, far around away from the voices, she looped around to where the chariots were parked. One was red and green, one was starry blue.
The red and green was her evil stepsister's. She needed to make it so it wouldn't go far. The starry blue one belonged to one of the court jesters, but it was being used by the pirate captain who had challenged the stepsister to a race. She couldn't let it stop.
It wasn't sabotage, it was a test. A test for her evil stepsister. Like the test in the Princess and the Pea, where a girl who said she was a princess was tested on if she could feel a pea through a dozen mattresses. Any princess worth their title was both delicate and strong, and beautiful and brave. Just like the Princess. She had passed every test.
But her stepsister? No. But she could prove it with this test. Could she feel the pea through all the mattresses? Does she still run in front of karts? I bet she does.
The Princess got her knife out and got to work.
…
Foxy didn't truly black out. The world might've gone dark, but in an instant it returned.
The first thing he registered was that his hand didn't feel right. It hurt, but it also felt aligned weirdly, but he couldn't see it because of how it was trapped back and underneath him. He had to use his hook to pull himself up, hooking onto the kart and trying to slide himself free of it. Alas, the seatbelt still held, and it took a few digs of his hook before it finally came loose and Foxy slid out and fell face-first onto the floor.
"Foxy! Roxy!"
Freddy was calling from somewhere high up. That distance alone signaling how far they had fallen. Foxy was dreading what his injuries were going to look like.
He turned over to sit on his backside and pulled his legs the rest of the way out of the kart. They looked okay. His ankle felt off, but it didn't look broken- maybe dislocated. One of his ears hurt but a quick tap with his hook showed it was still there, just bent in. Fixable, replaceable, annoying but survivable.
But it was as he was pulling his legs free that he caught sight of Roxy. Her head was turned away and her mane of faux fur blocking his angle of the damage, but he could see that she was pinned by the kart. He could see that there was plating broken where it pressed into her chest and spotted what might've been an endoskeleton rib sticking out.
"Blimey, Roxy-!" Foxy gasped. His voice hoarse and crackly. That might've gotten knocked loose too, but likely his voice's change was due to the ache his whole body was in.
Foxy went to push himself up when a sharp pain shot up his arm. He recoiled it and finally got a good look at his hand. It was a gnarly wound- two of his fingers had been bent all the way back while the metal of his palm itself had been crushed in and bent, forcing even his unbent fingers to bend in towards his thumb.
This was going to require a replacement. They had the parts to do it back at the warehouse, he knew this wasn't a disaster… yet. He popped the fingers back into place. It surprisingly didn't hurt more than a little- in fact it gave a little relief- but the fingers were now especially loose and trying to move them revealed delayed results. Especially with how the fingers were now crammed together by their angle.
There was no way all of this could be fixed before Pirate's Cove opened tomorrow. He would have to either really cover up or step out and let Marionette cover for him. Maybe he could cover his hand and still work around it.
Except then it dawned on him that opening the pizzeria wasn't the problem. The problem wasn't tomorrow morning, the probable was right now.
Now he was trapped somewhere in the basement with Roxy trapped under a kart and him down his only working hand.
"ROXY?! FOXY?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"
Freddy was still calling, and that last loud call finally caught Foxy's full attention.
"WE'RE DOWN HERE!" Foxy called back up.
"ARE YOU OKAY?"
"I'm uh… I'M PRETTY BANGED UP! NOTHIN' TOO BAD, HAND'S JUST A LITTLE…" Foxy looked at his broken hand. He decided not to finish that sentence.
"THAT IS GOOD TO HEAR! WHAT ABOUT ROXY?!"
What about Roxy? Foxy turned back to her and looked at the damage he could see. It was going to be worse, he knew that much, but he had to check on her.
"HOLD ON!" he called up. He then started to stand up.
He didn't realize his ankle was dislocated until his foot popped into place as he stood. He flinched more at the noise than the discomfort, but in a way, it was better that he didn't know. It was way easier than the fingers.
Though he knew Roxy wouldn't be walking this one off. He shuffled to her before stopping dead in his tracks as he saw past her frayed hair. If he had a heart, it would've dropped right through him.
Roxy's face had been massacred. That was the only way to describe it. It had been smashed in with the eyes bulged out and barely hanging on. Her plating was cracked across her face and broken in on her chest.
She looked way worse than Chica had when she had gotten smashed. Just looking at her filled Foxy with enough dread that he nearly felt lightheaded. So gruesome enough that he might've fainted from shock even without the appropriate organs and circulatory system to do so. She just looked that mangled.
In an instant it brought her down from a person to a broken machine, and that was a sickening thought. The only small relief was that she didn't seem to be conscious. Either the severe damage or shock had forced her to shut down.
"Oh, Lass…" Foxy started to reach for her but stopped. He then very carefully touched her hand. Part of the arm above it had lost its casing. He dared not touch it.
He couldn't understand how it could happen so quickly. Had he messed up? He tried to use the brake, but maybe he was in the wrong gear. Maybe there was a trick he was forgetting- he noticed the kart had felt a little funny around corners but he had been so focused on the race that he didn't pay attention. But why was she on the track? Did her kart mess up too?
This wasn't the time to worry about it. He turned up his head and called.
"Roxy's in a real bad way…!"
"SHE IS WHERE?!"
"SHE'S IN A BAD WAY! SHE'S BUSTED UP!" Foxy yelled back. The panic edging into his voice before he shook it off. "WE GOTTA GET HER TO PARTS AND SERVICE!"
Freddy gasped and looked back to Chica and Monty. Chica had her hands over her mouth, almost gripping her beak in shock, and Monty pulled off his sunglasses to clasp a hand over his face in dread. They were as helpless as he was. He looked the other way to see Sunny. His points pulled in with dread, him looking back to Freddy with worry in his frozen face.
His points sunk in further as he saw Freddy look to him. Freddy looked to him with pleading desperation. Sunny caved instantly and tossing aside his better judgement began to climb into the hole, Freddy thanking him repeatedly as the jester slowly slinked down- only to recoil and quickly scramble back up.
"Nope! Wires- they knocked out the wires right there, I can't- there's no way…" Sunny said. He pointed down towards the wires and while Freddy couldn't see them, he could see the flash of something sparking. Eyes widening, he hooked Sun around the middle- Sunny giving a 'yip!'- and smoothly pulled him out before setting him on his feet.
"There must be another way down," Freddy said. Chica nodded and started to look around but didn't know where to start. Neither did Freddy.
That was until they heard a loud flag from above. They looked up towards the stands to see Nanny Bot waving at them. She then pointed back down the stands.
"Nanny knows, let's go!" Sunny cried. He bolted off in that direction with Freddy and Chica on his heels.
Monty stayed behind to lean into the whole. "ROXY, WE'RE COMIN'! DON'T MOVE!" he yelled. Then he ran off after them.
This left Foxy alone with Roxy. He initially planned to stay with her until they got there, but after a few minutes he started to become antsy. He looked around and spotted what looked like a doorway blocked with some wood. He lifted his patch and squinted, double-confirmed it was a door, and looked back to Roxy.
"I'm gonna go find a way out. I ain't goin' far, Lass," he promised. He doubted she could hear him, but it helped deal with the guilt of leaving her.
He slowly pulled away and started to head over to the doorway. He soon realized that it wasn't so much boarded up as someone had placed a section of heavy boards over it to replace a door. He gave it a firm shove and it collapsed into the room, and he stepped inside.
He couldn't see or hear the wires sliding out of the darkness and into Roxy's broken face.
Foxy looked around at what seemed to be a little storage room. There wasn't a lot of stuff shoved in here, save an ugly hole in the wall, but there was another door. So, likely that meant there was another way out. He was on the right trail to meet up with wherever Freddy and his friends were heading to, he suspected.
He started to approach the door when he heard a squeaking. He cocked his head and looked back towards the hole in the wall. For a split second he had seen a red glow.
"What the…?" He took a few steps to the side and, still at a safe distance, crouched down to look through the whole. "Someone there?"
His good ear perked at another metal creak. His broken one stayed stuck.
"I hear ya. Oughta just come out now. I ain't gonna fight ya," he coaxed.
Something fell onto his shoulder.
Foxy dove to the side on his hands and knees, not doing any favors for his busted hand or sore foot and snapped his head back to see… just a wire. A thick wire had fallen loose from the ceiling and was now dangling where he once stood.
Watching it sway made him uneasy.
"My face…"
His head snapped towards the door.
"Roxy?!" he called.
"M-My face!... MY FACE!"
"ROXY!"
At that wail, Foxy darted out of the storage room and back out to the exposed basement in time to see Roxy shoving the kart off of her and staggering onto her feet. Still managing to get up despite her broken body.
"Roxy!" Foxy shouted for her. Shocked that she had just gotten up and shoved the heavy, broken vehicle off like it was nothing.
Her head snapped up and his jaw snapped shut. Her hollowed-out face was even emptier now than when he left her.
Her eyes were gone.
He couldn't tell if they fell out or fell in, but they were gone.
"You… You CHEATER!" Roxy roared at him. She staggered in a few stumbly steps, nearly tripping over her own feet. "Y-You DID THIS! H-How could you DO THIS TO ME?!"
"Roxy, lass, I didn't mean fer this to happen!" Foxy defended, nearly pleading with her. "I couldn't get the kart to stop!"
"DON'T LIE! YOU HIT ME DEAD ON! You didn't even TRY!" she roared accusatorily.
She grabbed at her head and face, feeling the damage, and gave a howl of anguish as she realized the state she was in. She immediately began to sob loudly. Foxy's heart clenched at her reaction, and he took a step closer.
"Roxy, I promise I didn't- mean to!"
She turned on him with an enraged cry and broke into a sprint. Her claws slashing through the air trying to grab him before she lunged for him in a pounce. He started running backwards before diving out of the way before she pounced, landing in a clatter beside the hole in the wall. She went past and slammed into a wooden crated with paint cans stacked up on it. They tumbled over in a clatter.
Foxy stared up in shock at the beauty turned beast before him. She was terrifying. Her gutted face to her guttural wails, she was terrifying.
Roxy slammed her hands on the crate and her exposed claws eagerly sliced into the wood.
"GIVE ME BACK MY EYES!"
"I DIDN'T TAKE YER EYES!" Foxy shouted back.
"YES, Y-Y-YOU DID! I FELT YOU PULL THEM OUT!"
She turned herself towards him and braced to pounce off that very crate. In that moment Foxy realized there was no reasoning with her. Before she could leap at him, he dove into the hole and clamored through. He pulled his leg in right before she slammed into the wall on the other side.
"Yer just gonna hurt yerself! You've gotta listen to me, I didn't do this!" Foxy shouted back.
Roxy gave a frustrated cry and dragged herself up, still wailing and shouting blames. Though at this point her cries were almost incomprehensible when blending with her sobs.
This wasn't just her not getting the message. She had gone mad. She had every right to go mad with how severely damaged she was, but at this point he realized that there was no talking her down. No reasoning with her in this state.
Maybe if he could get back to the kart he could look for her eyes, but he suspected they had sunk somewhere into her and heading back would just get him cornered. He was too damaged to take her on one-on-one. Even if he wasn't, he wouldn't. Not with her in this state. It was a miracle that she was up and walking around- or perhaps not in this case.
She lurched up and fumbled off somewhere. Foxy watched her go before hastily getting to his feet.
"I can h-hear you!" Roxy yelled.
He froze momentarily before looking down the brick hallway he was in. It looked old and barely finished at the same time. He bolted down it or tried to with his limp.
"I can STILL hear you!"
Foxy turned the corner and was sprinting down the next when a metal door slammed open in front of him and threw it barreled Roxy. He froze on the spot, hunched, and braced to leap or duck or defend himself.
He couldn't imagine himself ever being as terrifying as the wolf that stood before him. Her darkened face leveled at him as she stared, growling, twitching, and cocking her head. Foxy watched her, waiting for her to strike.
But instead, she grew impatient and snapped, "Where ARE YOU?!"
That was when Foxy realized she was blind.
This wasn't a given when animatronics lost their eyes. Some older models had eyes beneath their eyes which they could see with. Such as Bonnie, who could still see perfectly fine with half of his face missing. This wasn't the case here; Roxy was very much blind and that was his only way out of this. Sure, he could lunge back through the hole, but then she would still catch up with him again. He had to be crafty.
He got an idea. It would have to be a oneshot go at it and it really banked on getting through that other doorway in the hallway, but it was his one chance to lose her. He could only hope his ankle would hold out.
Who was he kidding. He would run without a foot sooner than he would risk damaging anymore of his suit. He was going back to out-of-service this soon.
He bolted back down the hallway.
Roxy let out a yell and raced after him, banging into the corner as she came around it, disorienting her. It stopped her just long enough to hear Foxy scurrying back under the hole. She ran up a few more steps before giving a frustrated cry and turning to run back the way she came. Her claws scraping on the brick wall as she felt her way back down the halls.
But as soon as she was around the corner and moving, Foxy pushed himself back through the hole again. He got up, stumbling, and tried to quietly run back down the halls. Trying to being quick without being loud enough to hear over Roxy's own shouts and stomps.
"Where are you?!"
As he approached the other doorway, he slowed and started to creep. He could hear her crashing through the room across the hall, but the doorway was right here, and if she heard him then she would be right back out.
He carefully stepped up to the door and reached for the handle with his hook. He slowly pulled the handle down, having to be careful to do it with his hook. Steady. Steady. He slowly turned it and then gave a careful pull to not lose grip.
The door creaked open. With a very noticeable creak.
In the other room, Roxy's head snapped to alert. She rushed the door.
Hearing her coming, Foxy threw caution to the wind and wrenched open the door before charging through into a small, almost closet, and almost into another blocked up doorway.
"Fer cryin' out LOUD!" he yelled and rammed himself into it. Unlike the last one, this one was either heavier or perhaps even nailed in. No good. If he kept ramming it all he would do is damage himself further. He had to find another way.
He turned around to find Roxy in the doorway and barely had time to duck to the side before she launched herself at him and broke straight through the boards blocking the way.
Foxy quickly hopped over her and bolted into the next storage room- this one looking a little tidier and more often used- looking around blindly and going for a heavy metal security door to the right. Thinking it was a security office, he ran over and slammed his arm on the button before tearing through. Only to freeze in place steps inside.
It wasn't a security office. It wasn't a storage room either. There was stuff shoved into it- trash, boxes, and some spare metal and parts of which some were visibly broken. But those too were trash. All the junk in here was trash.
But the floor was a grating over an eerie space in the flooring, and the metal walls were… familiar. A solid, glossy, cold metal that reminded Foxy of something. The room was smaller, a slightly different shape, but those walls reminded him of a box he had been shut in before. It filled him with immediate panic.
This was a walk-in furnace. It was just hidden under a go-kart track instead of inside of a fake pizzeria.
Freddy had said that there were furnaces. This one was built too big to be for trash alone.
Foxy staggered back out of the room as quickly as he had gone in, half expecting the door to slam down on him. Instead, the crushing weight that hit him was Roxy herself, and he found himself slammed to and slid across the floor.
She had him by the shoulders, her claws digging in and loose wires and stained strands of hair hanging down into his face. Her empty eye sockets piercing down into him.
It was the first time in a long time that he had been genuinely afraid of any of the Glamrocks. Sure, Monty was a loose cannon up until tonight, and Chica had her incident not so long ago, but otherwise Foxy had become comfortable with the humanity of the band. They didn't act like animatronics, they acted like humans.
It was her grip that reminded him of how much of an advantage she had over him. She could break him. He would fight until he was in pieces if he had to, but not without significant damage, and he could no longer risk fighting until he was in tatters. He had too much on the line to lose it all.
"Roxy, Lass, ya gotta listen to me," he tried to talk her down.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!" Roxy barked down at him. She let go of his shoulder to slam her claw down on the floor beside his head, much to close to his face. If he hadn't had turned, she would've clipped his fabric.
"It was my fault, but I didn't do it on purpose! The kart wouldn't stop! The brake wouldn't work!"
"I KNOW YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE! I KNOW YOU DID!" Roxy yelled over him. Her jaws snapping over his. "You popped my tires, you CHEATED, and then you ran me over and RUINED MY FACE!"
"If I was trying to run you over, why did I swerve?! Why'd I try to stop?!" Foxy challenged.
"Then what?! You cheated and accidentally HIT ME?! You RUINED me!"
Roxy pulled back onto her haunches so she could grab at her face. Her claws digging into the edge of the gaping opening and exasperating the cracks.
"ROXY, YOU'VE GOT TO CALM DOWN! YOU'RE GONNA HURT YOURSELF!" Foxy shouted.
"Oh, th-th-thaaa-t's rich coming from YOU!" In an instant she swung down and grabbed him by the neck, slamming him back to the floor. The sheer power of it shook his spine. "HOW COULD YOU?!"
"Argh- FEEL THIS!"
Foxy had to sort of wrestle a bit, trying to get her hand off his neck and then when that didn't work pushing forward and making a bold grab for the other. Strong enough to push back her grip far enough to hook her wrist and pull it closer and forced his injured one into hers.
"Ya feel this? Ya feel this?!"
"WHAT?! WHAT, YOUR HAND?!"
"YES, MY HAND! MY HAND IS BROKEN!" Foxy shouted. "Why would I hurt myself?! Why would I purposefully hurt you?!"
"I saw the tires!" Roxy accused.
"I was with Monty and Chica! I couldn'ta done it!"
"You're LYING!"
Roxy slammed him down again and his reflexes kicked in and all of a sudden, he slammed a foot into her chest, kicking her off onto her back. She landed on the concrete with a crash. Foxy hadn't meant to do it, he didn't want to hurt her, but he clamored to his feet with every intention of bolting. Yet still he stayed and tried to plead his case.
"Now you listen here! I DIDN'T cheat! And if I did, would I have-?!... Wait, wait, you said- you said I popped yer tires?"
"I saw where you used your hook!" Roxy accused. She sprung to her feet and started to storm in, reaching for him. "WHEN I GET HOLD OF YOU-!"
"Someone fooled with my brakes!" Foxy both realized and shouted in the same instant.
Roxy stumbled to a stop. If not for her knowledge of the karts she would've brushed this off as a lie, but she knew how those karts worked. She knew that he flew at her with the speed of someone who hadn't touched the breaks- even the automatic breaking had lapsed, causing him to go too fast.
She processed this for a second. "…You're lying," she said. Yet now she didn't seem entirely convinced.
"I wouldn'ta hit you. I hit those brakes with all me might and they didn't engage! Why'd ya think I swerved and flew outta control?! If I wanted ta hit you, I would've ran ya down!"
"But… But, no… No, what? You… You had to! Who else would've done that?!"
Foxy immediately knew who he expected. The person behind all the screwy stuff that went down at the Pizzaplex.
"…That freak in the rabbit suit! Vanny! The bunny lady!"
"Why would SHE care about our race?!"
"It's got nothin' to do with racin', Lass! She's been gunnin' fer us all!" Foxy explained. "She wants that kid who's been runnin' around. She attacked me brother tryin' to get him and she might as well've been behind Chica's accident!"
Foxy wasn't lying. He knew Ennard and Baby were the cause of the accident, but he had now become all but convinced that Vanny had a hand in it. That she had a hand in anything that went sour at the Pizzaplex.
"She attacked Michael too. My brother, the rabbit that was in here with the clown. She attacked him in the basement. Messed him up, and she's gettin' more bold."
It didn't make sense to Roxy… at first. At first, she thought he was making excuses, but once she started thinking about it, she recalled the last and only time she had encountered the woman.
"…She-She could be getting back at me. For catching her in the r-raceway… You were there, you saw it!"
"Aye, I did! Yer-!..." Foxy trailed off. A long pause followed as he stared at her.
"What?! I-I'mm what?!" Roxy snapped.
"…You're the only one who can see her."
There was a heavy silence as Roxy processed that. The weight of those words falling on her as hard as they fell from Foxy.
Then she gasped. A slow, shaky, sob of a gasp.
"Sh-She did…" she realized. "She did. She knew. She knew I could see her."
"It had to be her," Foxy growled out. "I wouldn'ta cut me own breaks. And I sure as all hell wouldn't have popped yer tires."
"This can't be happening…" Roxy grabbed at her head only to feel her frizzed and clumped up oil-streaked mane. She patted over it in dismay, trying to comb it back. "My hair is RUINED!"
"Lass, I think ye have bigger problems."
"Don't you DARE!" she snapped with an accusatory point. Foxy put his hands up in defense.
"I ain't, I ain't! Nothin' we can't fix. Look at Chica, she was trashed and looks good as new!" he assured.
"…R-Right… R-Right… I just… need a little work done."
"We'll worry 'bout that once we're out of here. Freddy and friends are lookin' fer a way down here. If we can find a way back up-..."
Foxy heard something. At first it had sounded like a dull thud coming from somewhere and he thought it had been Freddy, but as he turned and cocked his head to listen, he quickly realized it wasn't his heavy footsteps. It wasn't Sun or Moon's either. The gait was strange. Step, drag. Step, drag. Sliding metal, like a limp.
It was coming from the other metal door. The one in the other corner of the room, which he hadn't taken notice of when he bolted for the security door. He eyed that door as he heard the footsteps come closer.
"Somethin's walkin' 'round over there," Foxy warned.
Roxy sniffed a little. Mostly because she was crying, but then she began to sniff more, and soon she gave a disgusted sound.
"It smells like- Ugh, like- li-like burnt plastic… What if it's my hair?!"
"It ain't yer hair! It's from all these wires hangin' a-." There was the creak of a door moving. Foxy's ears went up in alert and he pushed back against Roxy and moved them back behind the shelf. "Shh!"
He watched through the shelf as the door slowly slid open. Through the crack he could see glowing red dots staring back at him. Foxy felt those eyes burning into his own.
A metal hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed the edge of the door before pushing it open. Allowing the room's light to fall on the figure as it took a lurching step out of the darkness. Shuffling out into the room in a stagger.
It was an endoskeleton. Not one of the endos from the basement but an older model, flimsier, partially melted in spots with its metal reformed into bent shapes. Tangled around its chest, over its shoulders and loosely into its limbs were wires. The same thick wires he had seen hanging from the ceiling or connected in places in the basement. A web of them clung to the endo's metal and shifted and moved with each struggling step.
A large portion of them hung around its hips and weaved into one of its legs. They seemed to be holding it on, with the lower portion of it not matching the opposite leg. This directly caused its limp, though there was a lot of melted structure on its other leg too. It looked like a clumsy, frail thing, but the sight of it struck a deep fear into Foxy.
Largely because of its eyes. Its much newer eyes, glassy and white with yellow irises, barely being held in its sockets.
Those were Roxy's eyes.
Foxy swore under his breath.
"What is it?!" Roxy whispered.
"It has your eyes!" he blurted in a shocked whisper.
"WHAT?!"
Had he been thinking straight he might've realized how tactless it was to say this in Roxy's state. As soon as he realized his mistake he tried to reach out an arm to stop her, to no success. She shoved past and ran for the endo.
"Lass, no!"
She ran in its direction with an enraged cry and her arms and claws swinging. It stumbled drunkenly out of the way, and she crashed into the wall. Before she could recover is swung itself at her and was on her. Its wires slither like snakes and wrapping into her.
Immediately she began to scream in pain. Foxy, thinking she was being electrocuted, leapt into action and tried to get between them. Trying to wedge his shoulder into Roxy and shove back the endoskeleton with his leg to pry her away.
But he soon realized it wasn't shocking her. The moment he touched that endoskeleton and its wires he was hit with a sizzling, burning heat. He knew what it was just from that alone and he could hear the crackle and static of music crawling up the back of his head as he fought to get it off Roxy. Eventually twisting his head and sinking his teeth into the cords and managing to chew through them quickly with only a short shock.
Finally, they released enough that Roxy slid free and fell back to the floor, Foxy landing atop her, the endo staggering above. Foxy looked up and raised his hook in defense as its eyes rolled around loosely before focusing on him.
"Are you having fun yet?" it asked mockingly. It had Vanny's voice, but that voice was quickly covered up by another and they melded into each other in a unsettling harmony. "Let's have some real fun."
"Roxy, run!" Foxy shouted.
"NOT WITHOUT MY EYES!" Roxy yelled and went to lunge. Foxy used all the strength in his legs to buck back and force her against the corner.
"FORGET THE EYES! THEY'RE GONE! WE'VE GOT TO GO!"
Roxy wanted to keep fighting but something about the panic in his voice- and the sudden deviation of his classic accent- snapped her out of her frenzy and made it more apparent how wrong this all was. Very wrong, something was very wrong here, and she had to get out. Now.
She got up, grabbing Foxy by the shoulder, and wrenched him to his feet with her. Her eyes went forgotten for the moment- that familiar burn was enough to send her fleeing like her life depended on it- but her lack of vision was still a problem.
"Be my eyes! BE MY EYES!" she yelled.
"RIGHT, RIGHT! BACK THROUGH THE DOORWAY!"
Roxy clipped the edge of the doorway and fell into it, but Foxy grabbed her and pulled her along. The two of them racing back into the first room and slamming the door shut, throwing their weight on it. Roxy holding it with her shoulder and Foxy with his back, both frazzled.
"Wh-Why was she covered in wirrres?!" Roxy asked.
"She wasn't. It was like some sort of endo covered in wires. They were holding it together," Foxy explained. He tried to steady himself, looking around the room. "But that was her, no doubt about- oh, bloody hell, the hole."
"Oh God. What hole?"
"The hole in the wall! Right there!" Foxy hissed. "Thing could just slide right in!"
"Well, good for it-t! I don't know where in the hol-ly heartland we are right now-now, but there's no going out this way- obviously!" Roxy ducked her head down in frustration only to have her hair fall into her face and she whined.
"What's that?" Foxy whispered.
"The sound of my entire image being shattered!"
"Not that! Outside the door. Listen."
She thumped her head to the door and they both listened. They could hear the lumbering steps of the endoskeleton wandering into the hall, but not just that. It was also singing. Or that is, projecting an old music recording, one crunchy and glitchy. Barely comprehensible as it echoed through the empty hall.
"H̴ey̵ ever̴rr̷y̶b̴o̶d̶y̷,̵ ̵tu̵R̶n the̴ r̶A̵D̷i̷o̷ ̴o̶nn̴n̶. ̷G̴o̷n̶n̷a̴ ̵th̴r̷o̷o̶w̷ ̷o̴u̴r̶ ̴t̷r̷o̷u̴b̶ll̵Ll̴es̷ ̷a̷way-̴ ̴h̴e̴e̶e̵y-̷her̶r̴r̶ry̶yy̴.̷"
Foxy felt a sudden drag in his head. A pull, a yank, making him fuzzy and loose. Like something was soothing and grabbing at him. Sort of like when Marionette sung- not on stage, but to the animatronics as a call to arms back at the old pizzeria. It felt like that, but less soothing and comforting. It felt deceptive. Like a shiny hook on a fishing line.
Something grabbed the door handle and started to turn it. Foxy quickly caught it with his hook and stopped it. Not that it would've been able to push through both of their weight anyways. After a moment it released and he heard it shuffling down the hall. The music followed with it.
"Do you feel that?" he muttered. He didn't receive an answer. "Roxy?"
She was frozen in place with her head against the door. Completely still and silent save the low eerie hum of a fan.
Foxy nudged her arm. "Roxy!"
"What?!" she snapped. Shaking off whatever happened and pushing him back.
"Sorry. I thought I was losing you there. Spooked me," Foxy mumbled. He looked around uneasily then watched the hole on the wall. "…It came through another door. That's got to be the way out."
He listened as the music started to shift around the corner of the hall, heading towards the hole he was watching so intensely.
"The second it starts coming in, we make a run for it," Foxy said. "I'll give the signal."
"I swear if you d-ditch me here-."
"I can't. I'm yer eyes," Foxy assured, slowly slipping back into character. "Any second now…"
He saw the slightest glow of red appearing in the hole and braced himself, starting to pull off the door. Roxy felt him and straightened up as well. They were ready to throw the door open.
And then red eyes peeked through the hole.
"I see you!"
"Now," Foxy hissed.
He yanked open the door and was blindsided by a load of wires dumping upon him from above. A clump of thick tangles dropping through the same opening that singular one fell through earlier. They wriggled like a bed of snakes and burned to the touch. Foxy yelped and tried to shove them off, feeling them squirming into a tear in his back.
"AUGH!" Roxy yelled. She ripped them off herself, and Foxy in the process, and angrily tore them out of the ceiling in handfuls. Her claws tearing through the casing and shredding into the core, and barely feeling the dull sizzle of electricity. "You're DISGUSTING! Get off me!"
With a roar, she tossed a bundle of them at the direction of the hole and all but shoved Foxy out the door. He stumbled and almost fell, and almost fell again when Roxy ran into him, but then began to run. Driven by Roxy's, "MOVE!"
Foxy bolted into and across the storage room and for that door the endo came out of. Having closed itself, he wrenched it open prepared to throw himself in.
And came face-to-face in a hall that ended in a cluster of rancid Staff Bots. Big menacing grins drawn on their faces. The tear marks drawn above them giving away that they were supposed to look like Marionette. They all unanimously lifted their arms towards him as their eyes illuminated in red.
"Bloody 'ell. We're gonna halfta go through the walk-in oven," Foxy realized.
"The what?!" Roxy asked.
He shoved her back. "That way!"
Foxy guided Roxy through the security door and snapped his head over to see the endoskeleton skulking into the room. Hoping to slow it down, he stepped into the furnace before risking reaching out to hit the door button and yanking his back in. The door came down fast enough to knock into his arm but didn't do any significant damage. He rubbed it with a hiss and looked around for a way out.
The other security door was shut and there was a panel beside it that looked like a covered vent. The only other option were two chutes connected to conveyor belts, though they had been partially blocked by lowered grating. That seemed like the only possible option, prying back the grating and squeezing through. He hastily limped to it.
In the meantime, Roxy felt the grating on the floor with her feet and sniffed at the room. She could smell a sooty scent wafting from beneath that grate and she realized where they were.
"Wait, are we in the furnace?! Wh-What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinkin' of getting out of here!"
"W-Well that's one way- letting it burn us to death!"
"Belay that! We can pry one'a these off!" Foxy hurried over and grabbed the bars covering one of the conveyors. Knocking against it with his hook to bring it to her attention.
Roxy's broken ears twitched and she started over, kicking past a box of trash, and made it beside him. He hooked his hook on the metal and started trying to cry it. But it alone would do no good. The bars were thicker than his hook.
"I'm gonna need to borrow yer hands," he said.
"Move," she agreed.
She got her hands on the grating and started to pry it back, shuddering at how the strain affected her damaged body. It didn't stop her though. She readjusted her footing and kept trying.
That was when they heard a bang on the opposite metal door.
…
While Foxy and Roxy had been making their way through the basement, Freddy and the others had been led to a door that led to a stairwell that descended under the raceway. There they found another door that led to a hall that led to a security door without windows. ''Furnace-RR" was plastered in white lettering over the door.
Freddy tried the door button under the keypad but only received an error noise. He hummed in discontent.
"It must be under lockdown for safety purposes," he said. He looked to the keypad. "There is no way we could guess the password."
"Start at all zeros and work up from there," Monty suggested.
"That's not going to- Freddy, stop that- that will not work," Moon said flatly. He pressed two fingers to his temple. "Allow me…"
It was right then when Freddy heard some voices in the distance. It was hard to hear through the door, so he pressed his ear to it and listened, and gasped.
"I hear Foxy! A-And Roxy!" he said. He strained to listen. "Are they… Are they fighting? No, they cannot be. They must be fighting something else!"
Chica was shocked while Monty looked very uneasy, and finally Moon started to shout out numbers given to him by Jake. Freddy began inserting the codes in, but none of them were opening the door.
They continued trying until Foxy and Roxy could be heard entering the furnace.
…
"Now what?!" Foxy bitterly thought. He held out hope and called, "Freddy?!"
"Foxy! It is us!"
Indeed, it was Freddy, much to Foxy's relief.
"What are you doing in the furnace?! Foxy, you must get out of there immediately! Many of the systems are automated!"
"That'd be the least of our worries! Can ya open it on yer end?!"
"We are trying, but we cannot find a code to get the door open!"
It was at that moment when Chica suddenly had an idea. She ran back to the stairwell to check before returning, grabbing Freddy by the arm, and pulling at him. He looked to her with a start.
"You saw something?!" Freddy called.
She nodded and let him go to start running, with Moon and Monty shortly behind her.
Freddy turned and yelled through the door. "Chica might have found something! We will be right back!" He then turned and followed the three.
"He better of found another door 'er we're done for," Foxy remarked.
"That's easy f-for you to say when I'M doing all the hard work!" Roxy finally got fed up and punched the grate, barely bending it in. "UGH! OF C-COURSE THIS WOULD BE THE ONE THING THAT C-CAN'T BREAK!"
"Ya just dented it in! Yer almost there!"
"Almost there?! I'm almost completely BROKEN, my eyes are GONE, my face- my hair- RUINED! I DON'T NEED YOU PA-PATRONIZZZING ME!"
There was a thump as a security door slid open.
Roxy lifted her head instantly and listened, knowing where it came from and still holding out that same pitiful hope that Foxy had.
"Freddy?" she asked.
"No…" Foxy said.
He found him staring eye to eye with the endo as it stood in the doorway. It took a staggering series of steps in. Clumsy and awkward, like it truly was only being pulled around by the wires. The door shut behind it, but Foxy couldn't see who or what pressed the button.
Foxy wasn't sure where Freddy ran off too, but he was sure even he could hear his explosive curse.
"Keep going with that! I'll fight 'em off!" Foxy then yelled to Roxy. He ran over to the pile of junk and hoisted up a box over his head before throwing it at the endo, causing it to stagger back. The pain in his hand went ignored as he forced it as best as he could to pick up another box and launch it over, only to then dart and dive aside when the endo charged it in its pitifully disheveled gait.
It wasn't that strong. It wasn't that fast. It wasn't that dangerous unless it touched him, and Foxy wouldn't let that happen.
He didn't even consider it until he stole a glance in Roxy's direction and caught sight of wires sliding down from above.
"Roxy, LOOK OUT!" he shouted. She shirked and back up. "ABOVE YOU!" he added.
She stepped back in time to have a slimy wire slide along her muzzle. She made a disgusted noise and tried to wipe it off with the back of her broken hand before lashing out, seizing the wire, and ripping it out with a furious cry. She swatted blindly and tore and ripped down whatever she could, clenching her teeth in pain with the lighter shocks but not backing down.
With her distracted though, the endo turned its attention on her. It began to stagger at her with an arm outstretched, only to be thwarted by Foxy diving into it and taking it to the floor.
While this was happening, Chica led the others back to the stairs and pointed out a vent near the floor. She then easily kicked it in with a relatively small kick. The moment she did, Moon lunged in, flipping his legs, and crawled into the shaft.
"Be careful!" Freddy called after him.
Moon crawled down the shaft and around the corner and came face to face with a secured hatch closed over the end. He crawled up and felt it, and quickly realized it was not a cover but a miniature security door itself. He grumbled a little and sent another message.
"Jake, can you get this vent open?!"
A few seconds later he received a response.
"Hang on, let me try!" There was a pause. "Okay, I found you! Hold on. Let me see." A little longer. "Working on it… no password! I can get this one open. Just… two… seconds…"
Jake continued fiddling around on the control panel while Moon waited until there was suddenly a loud pop and a low whoosh from somewhere in the wall.
The noise made a chill run down Moon's spine. "What did you just do?!"
"I had to deactivate the security measures to unlock the vent- I'm almost done!"
"Jake, that is not- that is not what you did…" Moon stared at the metal panel as he heard the rising shouts from inside the room. "Jake, hurry."
"I'm trying! I think I activate some sort of failsafe- I'm almost there! Just have to- Just…!"
Moon could only helplessly wait in suspense.
Because he knew exactly what had happened when Jake triggered whatever failsafe was in that room.
Foxy had gotten up, a foot planted on the endo's chest as he tried to pull himself free of the wires trying to sink into his suit.
He could hear noises, screaming and wailing, and music. Music from the diner. Music he remembered from yesteryears at Freddy's that still haunted him as much as the image of a golden bear and a yellow rabbit dancing on stage did. He wasn't able to break that image until he finally ripped himself free and staggered back on unsteady feat. The heat lingering and leaving his body both pulsing and numb.
He pulled free just in time to hear the WHOOSH that signaled the furnace kicking on. He shook his head out and looked and his heated body ran cold at the flames lighting near the walls. Just like they had in the phony pizzeria.
All those terrible memories resurfaced and washed him over with cold, sucking fear. Dragging him down into an immediate panic. Him snapping his head around and backing away like a cornered animal.
"ROXY! ROXY, THE FURNACE IS ON!"
"YEAH, I NOTICED!" Roxy called back. Having just yanked her hands away from the wall with a yell when the fire lit up beneath them. She stumbled away, pulling in her tail, and trying to get her bearings.
And then, suddenly, there were two loud clanks and one error noise as the security door and vent hatch on the back wall opened. The one they had come through stayed locked closed, but now they had an open way out. This did not turn the furnace.
But it did free Moon who was finally able to see out of the vent. He looked out and immediately the world stopped.
"Did that do it?!" Jake asked. "…Andrew?! Are you there? Hey!"
But Moon could not reply. He could only stare in aghast at an endo he never thought he would see again, now tangled in wires and mutilated by melting- and moving on its own. Piecing together very quickly what was really happening.
It was like the world stopped in that moment.
But Foxy didn't waste a second. He snapped his head to the newly opened beacon of hope that was the exit.
"THE DOOR'S OPEN! Roxy, quick, get out! It's right behind you! In the corner!" he yelled to her.
Roxy didn't need to be told twice. She turned and tried to right herself, trying to narrow in on the door at Foxy's instruction, feeling the heat radiating from the floor as she staggered to the door.
Roxy didn't get afraid. She wasn't supposed to. She was the brave one, the tough one, the unflinching image of perfection. Now she was filthy, broken, and blind. Deafened by the multitude of sounds and only able to smell the noxious odor of the gas fueling the flames. She was more disoriented than ever and trapped in a room heating up like a sauna.
And then she heard it. It cut straight through the chaos and reached her ears.
"̷S̴n̴e̶a̷k̶̵aw̷a̵y̵,̴̵y̵ou̶̴c̵o̶w̶a̵r̷d."̷
It cut straight through her.
Roxy couldn't control herself. She was busted and angry, and she couldn't see- because of her. Because of that sick, vile woman running around in a knock-off Bonnie costume. Even though blind she was seeing red.
She turned and threw herself across the furnace and collided with the endo head-on, tackling it into the pile of trash. Boxes fell against the wall and began to burn, plastic containers began to sizzle, and the endo cackled underneath her.
"SHUT UP!" Roxy screamed.
She swiped for its face and felt her claws clatter against the glass of what used to be her eyes. She was filled with disgust and dug in her claws in around them, trying to pull them free. They were tightly pulled in.
Wires quickly encircled and climbed her arms. They burned and clenched, and she shouted. Her grip tightened against her own accord. The glass of the eyes cracked underneath her claws.
"Not so pretty anymore, are ya? Now your outside matches your inside," the voice whispered at the base of her skull. She tried to fight it; the eyes crushed further in her grip with her efforts. The menacing voice shifted until it was the rabbit lady's, "G̵̜̪̒͌̽̓̕͜ͅO̴̺̿̑̏̊Ǫ̶̛̼̣͍̀D̴̺͕̲̈̇̊."
Roxy howled and yanked herself away, trying to twist out of the hold. By now no longer to feel her eyes crunching under her fingers or even the heat of the flames she was inadvertently leaning in towards trying to get away. She could only feel the sharp agonizing pangs spreading through her systems.
She didn't realize Foxy was pulling her back off the endo until her hands had been detached from it- now twisted and clutched close to her chest- and the wires were starting to tug free. She became defiant, disoriented, and angry- thrashing against both.
"LET GO! I-I'VVE GOT- I'VE GOT-!"
"I'm not leavin' ya in here to burn!" Foxy yelled back.
"I-I-I CAN'T LET HERRR WIN!"
"She's not even here! Yer not burnin' yerself over some metal puppet- THAT'S WHAT SHE WANTS!"
She knew he was right. She knew he was right, and she couldn't stand it. Because this was the closest, she was going to get to her when she couldn't see her. Letting her go was admitting defeat, but staying was letting her win.
No matter which way she chose, she would still come out of this looking like this.
With a frustrated cry, she kicked out and smashed her foot into the endo. It had been pulled up by the wires and when it was struck it was slammed back to the floor. The wires pulling tight, its arm twisting up, and something snapping inside of it. It looked so deceptively frail, Foxy thought. It became clear to him then that his assumption that it was a tool to the wires was correct, whatever it was.
But that kick freed Roxy further and she finally started clawing herself up, assisted by Foxy who got her by the arm and led her to the security door. By then it was growing intensely hot in the room, even with the door and vent open. Nothing like the pizzeria's inferno but close enough to remind him of the burn.
He noticed Moon in the vent as they passed. He had been watching the whole thing shirked into the vent and was staring at the endo. Foxy didn't blame him- he wouldn't have turned his back on the thing if not for having to get Roxy out.
Unfortunately, with the furnace still on there was a low wall of flames blocking off the bottom of the door. Foxy was almost certain that this was a purposeful design choice.
"The floor's spewing! You're gonna have to jump over it!" he warned.
"How far?!"
"Yer about three feet out, give 'er take. It's about a foot high. I've seen ya jump higher, ya just can't stand around in it!"
Roxy took another step forward on her own, crouched, and then sprung over the flames. For the most part. Her feet dragged through it a little, but it was so quick that there wasn't really time to do real damage.
Foxy could've maybe made that jump with both legs at full condition, he might've been able to do it now with minimal singeing, but he couldn't so much as consider getting anywhere near that fire. It paled in comparison to the fire at the pizzeria and yet it could've been the walls of flames surrounding him that he had seen then.
"Keep going! I'm going through the vent!" Foxy called. Then he went for the vent.
Unlike the door, there weren't flames burning under the vent- elsewise it would've been impossible to get through without severe burns- but they were close enough that he had to keep his arms tucked in. He sprung into the vent and began to clamor inside, Moon retreating once startled by Foxy's leap.
Foxy was just in the vent shaft and watching Moon start to climb backwards around the corner when something snagged around his ankle. In an instant he was dragged back, sliding on the slippery interior of the vent, and back into the furnace. The heated air engulfing him once more.
"GaBrIeLLllll…" the endo mockingly singsonged. "I thought you liked bunnies!"
"Get off!" Foxy swung a hook back and managed to slap off the wires slithering down from the endo standing above him. It mockingly giggled down at him before going dead silent.
Foxy didn't notice but it had just locked eyes with Moon.
Then without warning, Moon rolled out overtop of Foxy into a handstand, spun his legs, and kicked the endo directly in the chest. This knocked it back and in that second, he dropped on all fours, grabbed Foxy around the middle, and all but shoved him into the vent. Foxy didn't need to be told twice and crawled on hands and knees.
Moon spared one look back at the endoskeleton. It stood there staring at him. He glared, forced in the points that were trying to come out due to the light and crawled in after Foxy.
No matter how much it hurt he refused to look back.
Foxy clamored down the vent and around the corner, and soon came up of Freddy crouching in front of the vent peeking in.
"Foxy, thank goodness! Where is Roxy?! Where is Moon?!"
"Present…" Moon called from around the corner.
"Roxy came in the door! Someone's gotta go get her, make sure that thing don't get in!" Foxy warned.
Freddy looked to Chica and Monty who didn't need to be told twice. They both hurried off, with Chica quickly leaving Monty behind. Freddy reached a hand out to help Foxy and he reached back with his hook. Freddy was a little confused but took his wrist securely and helped pull him out and to his feet, gasping as he noticed his ear.
"It ain't that bad. I can get a replacement," Foxy said, thinking he meant his hand and holding it up.
Freddy's eyes popped open at the sight of the hand and he gasped. "You are hurt!"
"Eh, ain't that bad. Just a couple'a scrapes," he brushed off. He stared at the floor. "…But…. brace yerself for Roxy. She… She ain't lookin' so hot."
Freddy's ears tilted with worry. Moon, who was standing from the vent with slumped shoulders and his gaze too on the floor, reached out and put a hand on Freddy's shoulder. A comfort and a foreshadowing of how bad it was about to be.
Chica almost ran up on Roxy who was making her way down the hallway. She saw her and raised her hands to her beak in shock with her eyes wide, unable to make a sound.
Roxy had heard her footsteps though and lifted her head.
"Who's there?!"
Chica reached out and knocked on the wall with one hand. Though it was entirely nondescript, Roxy knew it was her.
"Ch-Chica? Don't… Don't look at me. I look- I look disgusting…" she choked out. She turned her head away and tightened her dirtied and roughened hands, and then began to softly cry once again.
Chica crept up to her right as Monty came thumping around the corner. He yanked his sunglasses off and looked at her with shock, not believing what he was seeing.
"DAMN!" Monty bellowed tactlessly. "You okay?"
"Do I look okay?!" Roxy snapped.
Chica carefully put a hand on her shoulder and tried to lean in to see her chest. Roxy tilted her head up and it was only then that she realized that her eyes were gone, having not being able to see it beforehand. She jumped back startled.
Roxy felt her reaction and read it without seeing it as she quickly covered her face and began to cry. Chica covered up fast and went back to patting her shoulders.
"S'cuse me," Monty said gruffly. He squeezed past and thumped to the door before looking into the furnace at a safe distance. It was empty- save some trash- and the other door was open. "….Somethin' attacked cha, right?"
"S-Something- Something covered in wires- and that PSYCHO in the rabbit costume was controlling it! Look at me, she TRASHED ME!" Roxy vented. She cut herself off with a frustrated cry and punched the wall. Chica grabbed her arm and yanked it back. Unable to show her emoting, she tapped the back of her hand in a scolding sort of way. "I'm fine… I… I'm fine. I just- I need to go get fixed."
"Well… it's gone…" Monty said uneasily. He noticed some wires hanging out of the ceiling and quickly put on his sunglasses before rushing back. "Let's get outta here."
Roxy was led back to the stairwell by her two bandmates. That was when Freddy was able to see what had become of her. He gasped again and Foxy lowered his head once more. Moon's never lifted.
"Roxy!" Freddy boomed in alarm. "I- you- We must get you to Parts and Service immediately!"
"That's where we're headin'," Monty agreed. Then muttered, "One we get up twenty flights of stairs…"
"Ugh, whe-where ARE we?" Roxy choked out.
"Underneath the raceway… You fell a long way…" Freddy said lowly.
"Did ya see where that thing ran off to?" Foxy asked.
"Nah, but the other door was open. Must've run off," Monty replied.
"Of course it did," Moon hissed.
Freddy watched them help Roxy up the stairs and felt utterly useless. Like this had been his doing as he had been the one to not step in when he had his feeling. He could've never imagined a race could've turned into this.
Moon followed them and then Foxy behind him, but Freddy caught him by the shoulder before he could sulk up the stairs.
"Foxy, what happened during the race?" he asked.
There was no judgement in his voice, no suspicion, and it almost made Foxy feel worse. Both because Freddy expected the best from him and because he was stuck delivering the bad news.
"Vanny happened. She popped Roxy's tires, cut me brakes… I didn't have a chase to swerve."
Freddy gasped and Foxy lowered his head further.
"I… I am so sorry. I could never have expected… Oh, Foxy…" Freddy drew back his hand to look at the wound on his back, lightly grazing his fingertips by it. He looked down at his hand too. His damage wasn't as severe as Roxy's, but it was still noticeable. "I am… I am so sorry."
"Tis a flesh wound. I'll live. She'll live too, but… she's gonna need a lot more work than I am," Foxy lamented dryly. He sighed and shrugged. "Let's just get her to Parts and Service. See what you can do. Worry about me later."
"I will worry about you now. But yes, I agree. We need to focus on Roxy first," Freddy agreed.
He gave Foxy a gentle push towards the steps. Foxy didn't need more encouragement and began to head up. Freddy waited a moment before following behind him, taking a step up onto the stairs.
…
"Fr…dy…?"
…
Freddy's head snapped up and he looked back suddenly.
"Hello?!" he called. Foxy looked back at him as he continued looking around. "Is… Is someone there?"
"Freddy? Ya hear somethin'?" Foxy asked warily.
"I… I thought that I did…"
But he couldn't tell if it had been something he heard externally or internally, like a message sent to him. Or even if it had been some sort of intrusive memory like before. It filled him with a mix of unease and sadness.
"Freddy?" Foxy asked worriedly.
This snapped Freddy out of it for the moment. He reached back for the railing as he took a few steps back to the stairs.
"It is nothing. We need to get Roxy to Parts and Service as soon as possible," he said.
Foxy nodded, but waited until Freddy came up the stairs and accompanied him in following the others, making sure not to leave him behind. Which Freddy wouldn't do. Roxy needed his undivided attention until they could get her stabilized.
And then…
…
…And then he could come back and make sure it was just a memory.