Chapter Text
Gregory sighed in relief at the sight of the familiar bear. Much to Charlie's dismay, Gregory unhooked his hand from hers and shouted: “Freddy! You're okay!”
Tonight, Gregory made far too many assumptions. He figured Michael would be the same, his jokes and manner of speaking to be just as he remembered—but even when proven wrong, he couldn’t believe that his dear Freddy could’ve suffered the same twisted moral fate.
Charlie quickly snatched Gregory's hand and start backing up. Simultaneously, William forced his way to the front and shielded the pair of them with his plush chassis.
“Don't talk to him, Gregory. Just another proxy for Michael,” he warned, wondering if the kid even had time to meet the more ruthless of the twisted Glamrocks.
At William's words, Gregory's heart sunk. It couldn't be true—Freddy was good. That glitch he had at the show should’ve saved him from any virus!
But… had any of that even happened in this world?
A deep-set frown invaded Gregory's expression as he looked to Freddy; there couldn't be any faults to him. It was impossible for him to lose two family members in the same timeline...
The ever-so-slight dip in Freddy's expressive eyebrows was the only sign of his annoyance. Otherwise he kept his face passive, that pre-programmed smile still curving up his jaw as he peered around William's shoulder.
“I do not appreciate your insinuation, Bonnie,” the bear remarked, hissing the name with a bit more venom than he'd ever used before.
Even though his stunning AI might not be able to handle the concept of possessed animatronics and ghosts without having one in his own head, he knew this old model of his companion was wrong. He hadn't needed Michael to tell him that—the look in Bonnie's eyes was full of nothing but sadness and anger, and Freddy knew the real bunny would never look at him like that.
“I am no proxy, rest assured,” Freddy continued, taking a step towards Gregory. When Henry stepped in his path as well, he let out a sigh. “Please move along—my child safety protocol dictates that I must take Gregory out of harms' way, and if you bar me from doing so I will have no choice but to consider you a threat.”
“Greg, do not listen to him,” Henry insisted, sparing a glance over his shoulder to the confused kid. “Remember what we told you? The Glamrocks are very advanced—their AI can be ruthless when put to the wrong use—”
“Again with the backhanded insults?” There was a hint of something in Freddy's tone—if not Michael's soul itself, then his programmed influence, surely.
And in this universe, that was a very bad thing.
“No worries Fredbear!” William said, backing his friends towards the door. “As you can see, us and security guard Charlie are on the case! We’re already taking him back to the security room...”
William attempted to soothe in the southern twang he always put on for Bonnie, regardless if the accent change may mess with Freddy's friendly interaction sensors. Not that it mattered at this point; he clearly wanted Gregory, Michael’s influence washing over him with all its tainting toxicity.
“In fact, we were just leaving to take him there!” God everyone, William thought stubbornly, take the hint and get the f*ck out of here!
Charlie only had one arm to work with; there was no way she would let go of Gregory's without this one being ripped clear off her body.
“I think I'll take the long way 'round!” Charlie said, the Puppet and Gregory both clinging for dear life as she twisted on her heel and sped off down the corridor they came from. William blocked the hallway, knowing he was no match for a pissed off Glamrock alone.
Freddy's eyes narrowed. Instead of chasing them however, he watched them go with a cold glare that he soon turned on William and Henry.
“You are going to regret that decision,” he remarked, his tone icily flat. “If you think a pair of original models stand a chance against us, you are severely mistaken.”
“Freddy, we're not trying to compete with you,” Henry insisted, knowing it was a lost cause to reason with the peeved bear. At least he could buy Charlie and Greg some time. “We all have the same goal, right? To keep Gregory safe?”
“Yes, and the way to do so is to take him to Officer Michael,” the Glamrock bear stressed.
Henry blinked at him, a lightbulb of understanding going off in his head. So they weren't just blindly rampaging—at least, Freddy wasn't. He was still working off his original programming, though it'd been warped by Michael's influence when he sent out that damn virus. At least it didn't seem like Freddy wanted to outright kill Gregory...
“We'll take him there,” Henry reassured, starting to back off now to join the others. He hated the thought of leaving them alone, although he was hesitant to turn his back on Freddy as well. “Just... trust us.”
The rockstar's head tilted at an odd angle before he let out a staticky sort of laugh. “Trust you?! I am not a human—I do not deal with things like trust. I will find that boy again, and when I do he is coming under my protection immediately.”
“Try it, Fredbear. See what happens.” Henry's voice was cold now, all false pretenses of kindness out the window. Grasping William's arm, he tugged him backwards towards the doorway.
Still, the newest Freddy didn't move, simply staring after them with that wide-eyed look of cleverly-composed mania.
William watched the tense exchange. It was obvious Michael put Freddy there to guard the supplies. Now they would have to scavenge tools and parts elsewhere.
Finishing their tense conversation with a very concerned Freddy, the two diner animatronics bounced from Rockstar Row. Painfully, William dragged himself just behind Henry, fearful of the bear following them. Michael certainly knew where they were now, and William's only hope was that both Charlie and Puppet were smart enough to run and find some cover.
***
The sound of light footfalls echoed, clicking hard against the tiles of the Pizzaplex. They dashed, unsure of where to go or where to hide.
“Gregory! It's, like, going to be totally okay!” called an airy valley girl's accent. There were more in pursuit of him; it was as if they all communicated silently to one another, letting one know where their target was heading. “We need to take you to Officer Mike! Like—please stop running from us!”
Charlie's brain raced, knowing she would only be harassed until Gregory let go of her hand. After all, they couldn't stop her when she was already escorting him. That was until Gregory snapped and stopped in his tracks.
“I'm hiding inside the hamper,” he said, but Charlie tried to pull him along.
“Gregory no! We have to keep running—” she attempted, but the shadow of Chica loomed just around the corner. In a hushed tone she looked to Puppet for help as Gregory dislodged his hand and crawled beneath costumes and rags in one of the utility room hallways.
The others had a good head start, but with Gregory stalling at the sound of the bird Henry and William soon caught up. Throwing out an arm to stop the rabbit, Henry froze at the sight of Chica coming around the bend. She barely paid them any mind, simply casting her gaze over the pair with a slightly disgusted look before moving on.
“We need to get away from here,” Henry murmured, catching sight of Puppet raised on Charlie's shoulders and looking around. “Ugh, but we need supplies, too... sh*t.”
So much for carefully-laid plans... Closing his eyes for just a moment to gather himself, Henry tried to come up with something else. “Okay, I think... one of us needs to be a distraction. If Chica and Freddy are here, it won't be long 'till the others show up.”
“Gregory won’t come out of the hamper!” Charlie would say, pointing then as Chica’s shadow grew closer. She would completely distance herself and the Puppet from the hamper as Chica approached.
The chicken thought Freddy said the kid was with the other security guard, but here they all were with no child in tow.
“Oh my goodness, what happened now?!” Chica asked without any shred of patience left. Since her last ‘tune up,’ she’d been acting differently. Some might call it giving others attitude or sass; she called it being assertive. “Like, really? You can’t hold onto ONE child’s hand?” She sighed, attempting to radio Mike to update him. “Mikey… They lost him. Again.”
William looked to Henry, then back to the bird with a nervous demeanor. If Michael showed up and searched the hamper, he would be the only one capable of defending their little group. So, acting fast, William gave Chica a stilted wave.
“He headed back towards the West Arcade faster than a speedin’ twister!” he attempted to convince, watching as Chica eyed the older model with high scrutiny. “Fredbear an’ I are far too slow now to keep up. You and your friends could still get him!”
“Yeah, we saw them heading towards the main atrium—you can make it, I’m sure, Chica!” Henry corroborated, putting on his best affect of the goofy Fredbear voice that matched this model. Encourage his friends, that’s what Freddy was supposed to do…
Chica considered this for a moment, trying to determine if they were lying… but she didn’t seem as in tune to their deception as her Glamrock bear counterpart. She turned slowly, making her way for the door and picking up speed as she summoned the others towards the West Arcade. Henry followed her to the exit, peering around a corner to make sure she wasn’t lingering behind. With no sign of Freddy either, he meandered over to the hamper and tapped it with a paw.
“Gregory!” he hissed, leaning close so the kid could hear his voice without him having to shout. “Coast is clear; come on, I’ll carry you for a sec.”
Gregory popped up, throwing rags and clothes everywhere to scramble back up into Henry’s waiting arms. With his good arm slung around Henry’s shoulder, he huffed.
“I’m sorry—I got tired of running,” he excused, jostled slightly as the group broke back into a run.
“Great. There goes our plan. I doubt Freddy's going to leave his post unless…” William stopped briefly in his jogging pace, the gears turning in his skull. “If we offer a distraction… We could lure him, away. Then, maybe we could lock him out as soon as we’re past him.”
There really wasn’t time for debate. Whether they chose to go with this half-baked scheme or not, they had to decide now.
There was the perfect opportunity to sneak back towards Rockstar Row as a split in the hallways came back up. A handy directional sign pointing them back towards the “fun” would guide them in a big circle essentially.William folded his knuckles into his opposing palm, cracking the joints much to Gregory's confusion. “Leave the distractions to me, everyone.”
It was all a matter of knowing your strengths, and William knew exactly how to get beneath people's skin. Luring Fazbear would be a cake walk. Sighing heavily, Charlie shook her head and exchanged a look with Puppet. She was going to be stuck with Will making sure he didn't kill himself while distracting Freddy, wasn't she?
“Guess that means we've all on watch duty. If things go south, we can meet up at El Chips—Gregory should probably eat something after our heist. Right, little man?” Charlie asked, steering the group in the right direction as she looked to her friend.
“Please. I need two everything burritos, like, yesterday,” mentioned the hungry kid. He could wait, of course; he’d gotten very good over the years at ignoring the hollow growling in his stomach. But after being on a pretty steady diet for the past week, the pain tolerance had ebbed away slowly.
“Kiddo, when we get out of this you can eat burritos until you pop,” Henry promised, lifting the hand not supporting Gregory's weight to ruffle his hair.
Regardless of them being undeniably bonded because of such dire circ*mstances, Henry really liked this kid. He was spunky and somehow still retained a relatively positive outlook, even when the situation was dire. In a way, Gregory reminded him of Charlie before everything went wrong...
“Okay, this is where we split,” Henry announced when the time came. He reached out to give Charlie a hug—and Puppet, still clinging to her back—then gripped William's shoulder. “Good luck.”
This plan was going to work. It simply had to. William hardly cared that a Fredbear's mask was now permanently apart of Henry's face; the way he held Gregory reminded him so much of the good old times. Before the grave mistakes they both made, regrets they both shared... More so on William's end. He saw how they all could be happy again, even as their window of opportunity grew smaller and smaller with each passing day trapped inside the Pizzaplex.
“No need for luck, Hen; I've got it handled,” William replied, grasping Henry’s forearm in solidarity, a potentially empty promise depending on whether or not Freddy could catch up to him. Looking to Gregory—the kid who inexplicably resembled his Evan—he bent down a little to see him eye to eye. His floppy ears lilted to the side as William co*cked his head.
“You've grown up so much...” The hint of something serious he was trying to communicate was lost as he smiled. “For now, you're the man of the group. Keep Henry in line, will you?”
At this, Gregory would crack a smile. Perhaps in another life, he and William could’ve been good friends... His chest hurt thinking about it this way. Giving Will a lazy salute, he assured: “Don't worry, I've got this on lock.”
With a final nod of determination, the group parted ways. Henry tried not to linger on how much William's words sounded like a goodbye.
But... it's not like they could really die, after all. In the worst scenario, he'd be incapacitated and unable to help take down his crazed son. Although, Henry doubted he'd let that happen—William had quite a few things to say to Michael before he left this plane of existence, after all. The old Brit always came back.
***
As Henry and Gregory snuck around to lay in wait for the distraction, Glamrock Freddy was currently pacing in the same spot he'd been at before. The bear was... well, annoyed wasn't quite the right word—he couldn't have that sort of emotion. But he was certainly feeling something about being put on guard duty.
His other bandmates were, to put it lightly, rather incompetent compared to himself. Bonnie had been on par with the leader, but ever since his decommissioning Freddy had been left to deal with the scrap. Chica was alright most of the time, though she tended to get distracted easily, but wrangling Monty was a chore—and Roxy drove him up a wall sometimes with her whining about being “the best.”
These thoughts ran on a loop through Freddy's mechanized mind as he swept the floor, no longer kicking up dust due to his frequent movement. Somehow, he had to get Michael to switch him out with someone... He doubted the others would be able to catch that kid without his help, and the longer they waited the angrier the night guard became.
Then, a familiar, amiable voice fluttered through the air. William had come to the threshold of Rockstar Row, big fuzzy ears peeking right around the corner.
“Freddy? Oh Freddy-Eddy!” he called. William could always slip right back into character. Maybe a part of him dearly missed performing with Henry; if he closed his eyes, this was almost like those little comedy skits they would do between shows for the kids. “Fredbear, where’d you go and run off to?”
He finally poked his head around the corner, finding Freddy alone in the hall. He could get Freddy to move; all it would take was some careful convincing. He stepped into the room, the slightly off-color fur on Bonnie's body shifting as he placed his hands upon his hips.
“Mike said that you were on guard all by your lonesome,” he remarked sympathetically, implying that he may have spoken to Michael in a non-confrontational way. Freddy locked onto the rabbit with a confused stare, stopping in his tracks and turning to face him.
“I thought you and Michael were not on speaking terms,” he said, his tone measured and smooth as always. “He told us not to pay you any mind, nor my old model.”
Blinking rapidly, Freddy searched his glitching database for the conversation he'd had with Michael about this scenario. Unfortunately, the virus took a big toll on the Glamrocks' internal systems, and some of his recorded memory banks were inaccessible. Still, Freddy couldn't deny that this rabbit was suspicious. Why in the world they'd chosen to allow such decrepit suits into his shinning Pizzaplex, he had no idea...
“...I do not recall anything that indicates that I cannot speak to you,” Freddy eventually added with a curious tilt of his head. “Although as you stated, I am performing a task that does not lend well to distractions. Please, tell me what you wish to say and move on so I can focus.”
Smiles. William was all smiles as he posed against the busted glass of a display cabinet, trying to look casual despite the pained way that he moved.
“You're a real diligent man, Fredbear. You remind me a lot of my Freddy. Kind...” He strolled in further, moving slow as he didn't want to come off as threatening. “Dependable. Always looking out for the kids. That's why I'm here!”
It was a sad fact that Michael had learned such manipulation skills from watching his father. Another regret of William’s was being such a bad person throughout his eldest’s formative years. Looking at Freddy, he knew that tonight he was on the right track to making it better.
“I saw Mikey; he an' I got to talking. Y'see, my central processor needed a lil’ updating. Apparently I just didn't have enough CPU to understand what Mikey needed from me! I'm gonna help you out now, as per his orders,” he explained. “Right now he's looking for Gregory in the West Arcade. So he's asked me and Chica personally for complete radio silence. Poor kid's startled by the static!”
Though this Freddy's AI was certainly the most advanced in the business, he was still just a machine at his core. He didn't have the gut, human instinct to tell when someone was lying. Sure, he could determine it based on facial and body cues, though this was only useful on humans and animatronics like himself. These older models, with their static faces and limited movement... they were much harder to read.
Bonnie's explanation did make sense—perhaps the reason he and old Fredbear had been so difficult was because they simply hadn't been updated with the proper software.
“The West Arcade?” he echoed, glancing past the rabbit's shoulder as if he could see the attraction from here. “Ah, Michael should have contacted me before going dark...” Freddy let out a little simulated huff, his gaze soon drifting back to Bonnie. “Does he require my assistance finding Gregory? I believe the child has taken a liking to me, so I may be able to lure him out easier than the others...”
Maybe this was his chance to actually do something instead of standing around. This sort of job was much better for the likes of Monty than Freddy Fazbear.
William had to hold in the urge to laugh out loud. Oh, this was a cakewalk. Besides, it was better than coming in here aggressively and risk being brutalized by the larger, stronger machine. What did the American Southerners say? You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar...
“Say, that's a great idea Fredbear!” Bonnie encouraged, hoping the animatronic would process this as his own idea rather than William's. “Well, I'd be chuffed to watch Rockstar Row in your absence. After all, I'm no spring chicken anymore; I couldn't catch moss if it was growing on my knees.”
Which... William honestly thought there might be moss growing on him these days. But that was beside the point. Bonnie looked up to Freddy with an innocent look—one that mirrored the kind and thoughtful expressions of his later Glamrock model.
Despite his older look, this was still Bonnie, and Freddy always valued his best friend’s opinions. His face lighting up in a bright grin reminiscent of the expression Gregory would see on his own non-infected bear, Freddy started for the door.
“Thank you, Bonnie; I would greatly appreciate it!” he told the rabbit, patting him on the shoulder as he passed. His brow furrowed at the squishy texture of the suit—it was a far cry from his sleek, metallic model. Still, it wasn't Bon's fault he was made like this. Times had been very different, back then—those suits were even designed to hold people, Freddy recalled, doubling as costumes when the owners decided they were better actors than the animatronics themselves. No wonder they were so odd.
“I will be sure to update Michael on the situation when I find him,” the bear called over his shoulder, then broke into a jog as he crossed the threshold of the door.
Nearby, Henry was clutching Gregory in a tight grip and watching slack-jawed at how flawlessly William's plan had worked. He remained in the shadows for now, waiting for either Will or Charlie's signal that the coast was totally clear before emerging.
Charlie was just as flabbergasted as her father. Now that Freddy was gone, they could work to fix the broken connection in her arm and patch up Gregory! Peeking out from behind one of the oversized potted planters, Charlie checked for a clear coast and came out.
“Dad? Gregory, come on!” she encouraged, hightailing it to the elevator behind Roxy's room.
William nonchalantly leaned with his arms poised behind his head, looking pleased with himself that he had tricked Freddy so easily. It wouldn't be long before the irony set in: this wasn't the first time he'd manipulated his friend—or in this case, a rather diluted extension of his former best friend's personality. He opened an eye when Charlie asked in astonishment:
“How did you get him to leave?”
To this, William thought for a single moment, his content smile fading away into as hard of a frown as Bonnie could muster. “The way I always get people to do what I want. Come, Charlotte; we need to get you fixed up...”
He beckoned, working on helping her gather all the supplies necessary to fix herself as they made it to the treasure trove of Parts & Service. Gregory made sure to lock the magnetically sealing doors that led to Rockstar Row. He'd hate to think of someone disturbing them while they took this much needed rest.
“Henry?” Gregory asked, looking up to his newest guardian. “What... exactly are we going to do with Mike when we finally get the upper hand?”
Surely, even after everything they weren't going to kill him… But then again, if Michael hurt people the same as William had in another lifetime, would he not deserve similar punishment? Gregory had been wracking his brain with this puzzle for some time now.
It was the same game board, just with shuffled pieces. Like Gregory’s own reality, there was one ruthless killer Afton and everyone else trying to take him down. To the Gregory this world belonged to, this was the only reality he’d know. Though he might balk at the thought of killing someone, after learning all that Michael had done—all the pain and torment he’d put his friends, family, and innocents through—he would accept that perhaps he did deserve such a fate.
…Unfortunately, this was not the correct Gregory Henry was speaking with. This was the immortal counterpart brought in to help push things along so Michael could be defeated and his alternate self could lead a semblance of a happy life after this traumatic weekend. This Gregory got so used to Michael as a caring brother—even a dad in another lifetime—he was having a hell of a time replacing him with the William in his mind.
Henry might not know these details, but he could tell Gregory still had a soft spot for Michael for some inexplicable reason. Therefore, he chose his answer carefully.
“We’re going to take him down, whatever that entails. We can’t let him hurt anyone else, Greg—and we’ve tried to stop him so many times before, but failed. That’s why we’re all here right now… but we’re tired of fighting. Once we get the upper hand, we’re going to end him.”
