Work Text:
It had been a week since ‘that night’. Everything was almost completely fixed, she was free, she didn’t want to talk about ‘that night’ or the ‘just before’, but it was over, so she had an excuse not to.
Being free had it’s ups and downs, as life should; work wasn’t always easy, and taking care of a child less so, so to mitigate this, Vanessa had been bringing Gregory to work with her. She counted herself lucky she was still employed here and that her paycheques were paid directly into her bank. This gave her a place to stay before and after work, yet regardless, the Pizaplex wound up being a second home. Most of her downtime was spent there, sometimes off of her own volition, sometimes due to Gregory wanting to spend more time with Freddy.
Vanessa didn’t mind, as long as the hours were billable.
On the subject of Gregory, bringing him to work wasn’t even a hassle. He’d usually just hang out with Freddy in his green room, playing games such as "Faz Brawl", which was a Super Smash Bros clone with a Fazbear Entertainment makeover. A somehow palatable result from such a lacklustre effort, but whatever was entertaining, she guessed.
Vanessa, on the other hand, had work to do, so she opted to stay in the main office. Besides, anything to avoid another incident like ‘that night’ from occuring again, and she could very easily "supervise" things with the cameras.
However, the was one issue.
She doesn’t know how to use any of the equipment. Vanny did, but Vanny no longer exists.
But when it comes to learning, ‘There’s no time like the present’, she told herself before subjecting herself to an entire hour of trial and error, attempting to solve the mystery of what each of the buttons and dials do.
After a long time of getting nowhere, she threw in the towel.
“If I can’t get outa here, I’ll just claim amnesia and get on the staff training..” she mumbled as she switched from security feed monitoring to job application revising. If she could get back into her old job as a beta tester for Silver Parasol games, she’d be both astonished and happy; it was a job she had genuinely liked doing and the pay was far better than the sub-minimum wage she currently received as a security guard.
After finishing all relevant updates to her job application, she figured that she should take a nap. She’d had three back-to-back 12 hour shifts, mostly supervising repairs. If management barked at her, she could play the ‘Overworked, underpaid’ card, and the moment workers rights came up, her boss's would always shut right up and leave her to it. She tried to figure out exactly what she would say as she set the alarm on her phone to a few hours from now and sent Freddy a memo that she was taking a nap, so she may not respond if they try to contact her.
With that out of the way, she grabbed a pillow, tried to find a suitable balance between comfy and not-about-to-fall-off-the-chair, and she was out like a light.
A couple hours later, Vanessa woke up, or at least it felt like she woke up. She felt particularly hazy and disoriented, and definitely not well rested. She also felt somewhat sore for some reason. Figuring that she just needed to catch up on sleep, she tried to not think much of it and checked her phone. A single glance was all she took, and it was all she needed to know that it hadn’t gone off yet.
“May as well see how Gregory and Freddy are doing,” she told herself as she left the office and headed to rockstar row.
The walk there felt both the same and different.
As she got to rockstar row, she saw that the curtains were closed, as they were ‘that night’.
“Does Freddy usually have his curtains closed?” She asked herself, not recalling the answer.
Being unable to simply glance inside, she walked to the door, and not wanting to be impolite, she knocked, and waited. And waited. And waited.
She had no idea how long had past since she knocked on the door, and even though she had knocked a few more times, there had been no response from the room. Getting slightly anxious, she attempted to contact them on her Fazwatch. Sure, Fazwatches were for kids, but with their camera and map access, they were just as good as staff tools for many things a guard may need. She sent a second message to each of Freddy and Gregory. Then a third.
“Still nothing…”
Vanessa could now feel a cold chill creeping over her, a sinking dread.
She opened the door, muttering “sorry” as she did, and entered the greenroom.
It and its back room were empty.
“Where are they?” she could hear her voice shake as she spoke, and she broke off into a sprint.
“Gregory! Freddy!” she called out as she darted through the pizzaplex, trying to find where the two had gone.
Enough time had passed by as she darted through corridors and in to rooms, echoing “Gregroy? Freddy? Where are you?” in her shaking voice for her to have done almost a full lap of the Pizzaplex. As she ducked under the shutter back into rockstar row, she remembered something: Fazwatches have trackers that can be used to find other Fazwatches. Gregory still has his Fazwatch.
In a mad haze of panic, she navigated the unhelpful and needlessly vague menu system of her own modified fazwatch to access the trackers on the map.
There was a blip on the screen, located in one of the storage rooms. A small, out of the way storage room.
Quick as a flash, she darted over to the room.
As she approached, she noticed the door was slightly ajar.
“Gregory? Freddy?” She quietly called as she knocked on the door.
Still no response.
With a deep breath, she announced, “I’m opening the door, ok?” as she gently opened the door.
Once the door was open, she saw… Gregory underneath a blanket on a chair in the back with Freddy in rest mode standing next to him.
Vanessa let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
They had just been resting. That… explained a lot really: why she didn’t get a response when she tried to contact them, and why Freddy’s greenroom was empty. But that didn’t explain why they were out here.
Did someone chase them out? Did something happen?
With a mix of relief and nerves, she walked over to where Gregory was sleeping, carefully pulled back the blanket to check if he was ok, and…
…
Vanessa let out a blood-curdling shriek at the sight that greeted her: Gregory, disembowelled and covered in blood.
The body collapsed to the floor.
“This… has to be a hallucination… Right?” She clamped her eyes shut and shook her head, trying her best to convince herself that she was simply just hallucinating, and that Gregory was ok, or just anywhere that was not here. Yet as she opened her eyes, the blood-covered corpse remained. The overwhelming scent of iron was the final nail in the coffin, telling her that this was reality.
She collapsed to her knees, no air left in her lungs and tears streaming down her face as she tried to find any sign of life.
There was none.
Shaking, she began to wail “How! How could this happen H-!”
A familiar giggle coming from behind her cut her off and answered her question.
Trembling, she turned around to discover... Vanny.
The rabbit lady was standing over her, and her form was - for lack of a better term - rather fuzzy. Vanny wasn’t physically there, but she was still there. Still in Vanessa's head, and now making her presence known.
Vanessa went silent. How. How was SHE here?
The Princess Quest arcades were supposed to make Vanny go away? Wern’t they supposed to banish that monster? Did they miss something? Were there more arcades?
Did the arcades actually do anything at all?
Had Vanny been playing the long game against her.
Vanessa completely collapsed as she was assaulted with memories that weren’t hers.
Vanny had taken over whilst she was asleep. She had made use of the security functions of her Fazwatch that she had no idea how to use in order to control Freddy and lure Gregory into a back room under the pretence of a surprise. The surprise was an ambush; a swift attack which would kill in one blow.
Whilst Vanny would have wanted to toy with her prey, she did not want a repeat of the last time. Besides, the real fun would come later. A true surprise.
To prepare this, she ensured that the corpse was as ruined as possible, bar anything above the neck. Then, she covered his body with a blanket with a non-absorbent backing so the blood wouldn't soak into it to make it look like he was sleeping.
Now THIS would be a surprise.
To ensure Vanessa would not expect a thing, Vanny washed her hands (the disemboweling process was VERY messy) and placed her body in the exact same position that Vanessa had fallen asleep in so that she would be none the wiser.
Vanessa tried to convince herself that this didn't happen - it couldn’t have happened! Yet the small flecks of red under her fingernails erased all hope; deep down, she knew it did happen.
She couldn’t delude herself any longer.
Tears flooded down as she screamed herself hoarse, shaking and blubbering as if it could turn back time. Giggles echoed in her ears, drowning out her own sobs.
She felt her control over her own body waning, and the agony set in. Her voice cracked and vanished as she tried to scream. Migraines and nausea built up as she fought to stay in control.
It was a hopeless, losing battle, but she wanted to fight it. She didn’t want to go back to being a monster. She tried to scream again, and begged her last plea.
“IdontwanttoIdontwanttohelphelphelphe-”
Waking up felt like breaking the surface tension of water after being under for so long.
She was back in the office. Things felt … clear. She looked at her hands and blinked. They looked normal. No flecks of blood. She looked at the clock. Barely half an hour had passed since she had set the alarm. She blinked. The clock stayed the same. She was not dreaming anymore. She was awake; for real this time. What she had just experienced had to just be a horrible nightmare.
After reassuring herself that she was awake, her mind could only drift to one place.
“GREGORY!”
She fumbled with her Fazwatch and sent out a message to contact Gregory and Freddy.
She received a quick response from each, and it sounded like them enough.
With a deep breath, she found herself on the floor, her legs having given way with the wave of relief that had washed over her. As she felt tears welling up in her eyes, a mix of relief and residual stress, she realised that being by herself all night was not a good idea. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts, or at least what she HOPED were her own thoughts.
“It was all in your head,” she reassured herself, over and over, “just breathe.”
Once she had calmed down enough to stand again, she headed to Freddy’s room.
She didn’t want to be alone.
She knocked on the door, and waited what felt like an eternity.
Freddy opened the door, in what felt like slow motion to Vanessa, to see her awkwardly standing there.
She breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Gregory standing alive and well in front of the Smash Bros ripoff arcade machine.
Freddy’s words broke the silence and brought Vanessa back to reality.
"Officer Vanessa, I was not expecting you, may I ask what the purpose of your visit is?"
Still shaking a little from the events of her nightmare, she had to think for quite some time before she could muster a reply. "Oh, uh... well, Freddy I was uh... wondering if… you and Gregory...umm…” She took a deep breath to try and get ahold of herself, “Please could you let me just... hang out with you two, please?”
Freddy and Gregory were silent for a few seconds, perplexed by how awkward and polite Vanessa was acting; a complete shift from her usual stern self.
Disheartened by the silence, Vanessa tried to plead her case. “Please. I ... kinda really don't want to be alone...” realising how pathetic she sounded, she tried to backtrack a little, “I know, it’s pathetic and sad, but-”
Freddy put a hand on Vanessa’s shoulder, cutting her off from what she was about to say next.
“Of course you can hang out with us,” Freddy said, “We were just… perplexed by your sudden change in tone. Is everything alright?”
“No…” Vanessa snivelled, trying really hard not to cry.
“Well… Please, come on in,” Freddy stepped out of the way of the door as he spoke.
Even though she had been invited, she didn’t step inside. She could feel Gregroy glaring at her.
“Gregory? Are you OK with me hanging out in here?” She asked, fully expecting a no.
“Sure.” Gregory stated so bluntly before turning back to the arcade machine.
She breathed a sigh of relief before tentatively walking over to the greenroom’s sofa and sitting down. She felt her legs go to jelly, but at least Gregory was safe. She sat and watched Freddy and Gregory play the arcade game in silence for quite some time. Whilst it was vaguely boring, she was content, as it was far better than being alone with her nightmares.
After some time, probably a match or two, Gregory turned to her and stepped to the side of the arcade machine, pointing the the empty two of four sets of buttons.
“Oh,” Vanessa was slightly shocked by the implicit invitation to join the game, but hadn’t quite summed up the courage to ask until now, “Umm. May I play with you?”
“Obviously,” Gregory replied, “Get up here and pick a set of buttons. I’m blue, Freddy is yellow. You can be red or green.”
Vanessa tentatively stepped up the the arcade machine and examined the buttons. Red was like Vanny’s eyes, like blood, like so many bad things-
“I’ll be green.”
She cut off her own train of thought and focused on the green buttons. They were green. Like her eyes. Like grass. Making the comparisons helped her get out of her own head.
“You ready?” Gregory asked, staring at the screen with feral gamer instinct.
“Yeah, but isn’t character and stage selection before the fight?” Vanessa asked, vaguely familiar with the gameplay loop from watching Gregory play.
“Yep. Stages are all the same layout with a different background though.”
Gregory pressed the start button, and brought up the character select screen. The roster consisted of stylised forms of Freddy, Monty, Glamrock Chica, Roxy, STAFFBot, Bonnie, Endo, Foxy, Old Chica (who had more of a mermaid motif), Ballora, Circus Baby, Funtime Foxy, the mangle, and somehow, springtrap, Fredbear and Spring Bonnie.
“I’d have thought they’d want people to forget about most of these guys. Especially the last three.” Vanessa said as she selected the STAFFBot.
“Fazbear entertainment’s just like that I guess,” Gregory just shrugged as he picked Freddy.
“Yeah,” Vanessa let out a huff of air in a kind of half-hearted laugh, “Wouldn’t be the first time they’ve tried to profit off their own tragedy and claim ‘They’re just mascots’. Anyway, what’s Freddy picking?”
“Bonnie. He always does.” Gregory replied as he watched Freddy pick Bonnie as his fighter.
“So, let’s go.” Vanessa said, feeling herself smile for what felt like the first time in a while.
Whilst Vanessa was unfamiliar with the game, she quickly found herself catching on, and despite STAFFBot being a ‘light’ character, she found that it had pretty good recovery moves and was pretty good at a range. After losing a stock, she realised that it was a 3 stock game. She figured she’d go easy whilst learning the controls, and wound up losing. But she had learned the STAFFBot’s moveset.
After that loss with her first match, she decided that it was on, and begun to make use of the STAFFBot’s ranged moveset to start taking stocks for herself. In this second round, the stocks soon looked like 1 remaining for Freddy and Gregory, and they both vocalised that they were going to have to team up to stand a chance. With the competition heating up, she used her skills as a beta tester - the only job she ever truly knew how to do - and fought with her all. A combo of her STAFFBot’s up-a’s and side-b’s kept Gregroy’s Freddy at bay whilst she juggled Freddy’s Bonnie until the damage percentage was high enough to land an up-b to send Bonnie flying off the stage.
Now it was just Freddy vs STAFFBot. Gregory vs Vanessa. Mele vs Range.
“Where did that mine come from!”
Vanessa practically jumped out of her skin as her STAFFBot was sent flying into the blast line.
She heard Freddy laugh, and figured that THAT was Bonnie’s down-b. She’d have to watch where she stepped.
Now on roughly equal footing thanks to the mine, the battle continued. Overworked gamer Vs Feral gamer.
Both players were somewhat on-par with one another, with Vanessa’s expertise and years of gaming giving her an upper hand in most areas, but the sly unpredictability of Gregory proving advantageous in others. The two of them battled it out as the timer ticked down, getting close to the final 30 seconds.
Damage was 81% on STAFFBot and 130% on Freddy, the characters weight categories making the actual impact of the accumulated damage roughly equal.
A pair of well timed attacks sent both STAFFBot and Freddy flying off the stage at the same speed at the same time.
Both used the hold-the-stick-to-the-centre-of-the-screen strategy. Both used any moves they could to delay their blast-out.
The final stocks were lost within frames of one another, so Gregory and Vanessa both waited in anticipation for the game’s announcer to reveal the winner.
“And the winner is…” the game stated, the pause feeling far longer than necessary.
.
.
.
“STAFFBot!”
Vanessa couldn’t help but cheer a little bit, but what made her more happy than this victory was that Gregory was smiling too.
“GG,” he said with a grin, “that was a close game.”
“Yeah, it was!” Vanessa replied.
“But I’ll beat you next time. So, another round?”
“Yep.”
“Another round!” Gregory shouted in excitement, and picking the same characters, they all went back for round 3.