Freddy

I could see Gregory and Grace on the floor above me, their heat signatures moving around in my periphery vision. For some reason, I was also picking up on the blue toy Gregory had earlier today. It wasn't registering as a human or an animatronic. When I thought about it, the word "pet" came to mind. Grace was tucking it into bed with him, I was sure.

When these eyes were first installed, they felt like a blessing. Being able to see through the walls was exciting, even despite the circumstances. But now that we were no longer in danger, now that I'd had some time to think without worry, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with a sense of loss. I had been outfitted with parts belonging to my closest friends, even my hands were not truly mine.

Monty's claws clicked against my head plate as I brought his hands to my face, covering Roxy's eyes and closing them. I just wanted to stop seeing, if only for a moment.

"You...know you're scratching your paint off, right?"

This sudden introduction startled me, and I sat bolt upright. Grace, who was standing in front of me, jumped back and reached for her tool belt as soon as I'd raised my head. When I realized it was just her I relaxed, but she still seemed on edge.

A puzzled expression twisted her features as she looked down at me. "Did...did I scare you?" She asked, cracking an uneasy smile.

"You caught me off guard, yes." I admitted. "I'm sorry I did not hear you come down."

She snorted, then laughed briefly before resuming her stoicism. "I dunno why you're apologizing, you didn't do anything wrong just...weird." While kneeling to pick the car battery off of the floor, her head tipped toward the stairs. "Anyway, we're doing this in the living room, there's no way in hell I'm sitting on this concrete while I fix you." She gestured for me to stand. I obeyed. "And I don't feel like dragging you upstairs when I run out of things to charge you with." Now that I was upright, she handed the power cell to me. "This way we can just jump you with my car when you're feeling low."

She turned away from me, making her way back up the staircase and I followed suit. As we passed through the kitchen Grace grabbed her laptop and a collection of cords off the table, bringing them into the living room and setting everything down on the arm of the larger couch.

"Sit." She instructed, arms set in akimbo. Her fingers tapped repeatedly on her tool belt as she watched me take my seat. Then we both remained still, locked in a stalemate. Her jaw was clenched. She seemed hesitant to get started.

I removed my bowtie and handed it to her. She accepted it and stared down at it blankly. "This helps to keep the chest plate in its place." I began to explain, acting as the guidance unit since one was not present. "Then, you push up on the plate and lift straight out to remove." As I spoke I also performed the action, taking the plate off myself and setting it on the coffee table behind her. "It functions similarly to the cover of a battery receptacle on a universal remote."

Grace continued to stand there, expressionless and unmoving.

I took my bowtie back out of her hands and set it next to my chest plate.

"Are you going to be alright?" I asked her. "Removing the voicebox will require your close attention, as I cannot see inside myself to assist."

My question seemed to snap her out of her stupor, and she nodded in response. "Yeah...yeah sorry." She muttered, moving her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I haven't been in the guts of an intact animatronic in years, at least five." She chuckled half-heartedly. "I'll be honest, the thought of it makes me downright sick."

A period of silence passed before I decided to break it. "If it is any consolation, I have no intention or desire to hurt you." I told her. "You have your taser with you, correct?"

Again, she responded in the affirmative.

"If I get hostile at any time, please use it. I will not hold it against you."

Grace wrung her hands together anxiously, taking a breath in and exhaling it slowly. "Okay, tell me what I'm about to do, I don't want you talking while I'm working."

"Of course." I agreed. "If I recall my blueprints correctly, you should see the fully installed voicebox, connected to the cervical section of my endoskeleton via six colored wires, adjacent to corresponding colored lights."

"There are seven." She corrected.

"That should not be an issue." I assured. "In order to remove the voicebox, the wires have to be detached in a specific order. When in voicebox maintenance mode, the lights will flash, and you will disconnect the wires according to the pattern you are given."

"So it's like a memory game...that shouldn't be too hard."

"Just be careful, try not to jostle other wires or electronics, it could cause a malfunction to occur."

"Right." Grace tossed her glasses onto the couch, likely so they wouldn't fall off and into my endoskeleton. Then, she inhaled deeply, holding it in as she began the removal process.

I could hear tones sounding in my chest as soon as I'd activated maintenance mode. She watched attentively, only needing to stop a couple of times to steady her shaking hands. When the voicebox was successfully extracted she set it down carefully on the coffee table, taking a moment afterwards to breathe and quietly celebrate.

On reflex, I tried to offer words of congratulation, but all that escaped me was static.

"What was that?" She asked, grinning. "I can't hear you over the sound of how fucking great I am."

I chose to ignore her cursing for now, as Gregory was out of earshot. I was unable to verbally protest anyway. So instead I just responded with a simple thumbs up.

Now that this part of the process was over, Grace seemed significantly more at ease, finally taking her seat and returning her glasses to her face.

"I didn't see a power limiter switch while I was in there." She told me, grabbing one of her many cords and plugging one end into her laptop. "But there is a usb-c port for data transfer, so I can crawl through your code and see what's going on." The other end of the cable was plugged into my hard drive. "There's a lot to go through though, the drive is four terabytes." She informed, crossing her legs and setting her computer on her lap. "It might not be completely full, but get comfy, we're probably gonna be here a while."