Chapter Text

William Afton clawed his way through another vent, trailing an etched line in the left wall with his spiked arm as he progressed to mark his progress. Noticing that it was becoming blunt again, he walked over to a rusty metal table in the next room and began to sharpen the bone against its dull grey corner. He soon noticed a collection of voices bickering against each other as they slithered through a vent behind him. Oddly enough, the withered rabbit hadn’t fully encountered any other inhabitants of the maze yet, so he decided to stick around.

“HEY B-B-BON-BON!” shrieked one of the voices, silencing all the others. “TH-TH-THAT LOOKS LIKE YOOOU!” Bon-Bon sighed with a twisted mechanical screech. She would’ve responded harshly, but her voice box was left behind in the facility they had all escaped almost half a century ago, so she could do nothing but produce garbled screams with whatever voice she had left. Ballora, however, still had a perfectly functioning voice box, and did not hesitate to reprimand Freddy.

“Would you please stop screaming?” she begged, the malice in her voice clear as Freddy’s hollering. She used to be the calmest of the group back at CBEaR, having her occasional outbreaks like everyone does, sure, but she was content. But now, after such a long time of torture and mistreatment, she had grown bitter and gained a hatred for most other people. “Can’t you talk like a normal person with a normal voice for once? Or was your artificial intelligence built by a drunk bastard who was dropped as a child and had all his tendons punctured and snapped?”

“Sorry…” Funtime Freddy whimpered.

“Realistically, it pretty much was.” chimed in Funtime Foxy, who usually only talked to alert the others of an oncoming witness or to keep everyone sane, so this was a rare occurrence. “That Mr. Afton was a complete nutcase.”

“Haha, yes...he was a delinquent, wasn’t he?” Ballora chuckled. “Heartless shithead. Left us all to rot and suffer in that cold little place, didn’t even care about our pain. Didn’t even care about his daughter either.”

“Well, she was a bitc–” Funtime Foxy was immediately cut off as the entire amalgamation of all of them was yanked out of the vent by a bony claw. There was a combination of mechanical wails and metallic scratching as they were snatched away and tossed onto the floor. All eyes made contact with the dead eyes of their new enemy, a tall rotting rabbit animatronic with cracked bones that stood out like spotlights.

“What the fuck did you say about my daughter?”

“...Mr. Afton?” Ballora rasped, taking control of the body from Funtime Freddy and reeling away like an alarmed cat. “Is that you, Mr. Afton? It’s been such a long time.” William chuckled quietly, his voice deep and scratchy. He seemed to have calmed down after hearing Ballora’s voice.

“My name is Springtrap.” he proudly claimed. “But yes, if you were to refer to my past human self, I would be William Afton of Afton Robotics.”

“Oh, come off it, scumbag.” Ballora snarled, their segmented Freddy mask shifting angrily. “I can’t believe you’re so proud of yourself after all the blood you’ve put on your own hands. And look at you! You look like a moldy skeleton prop from a science class.” She wasn’t holding back any punches.

“Careful now.” William grabbed a small rectangular object and pointed it at the mass of wires, causing it to tremble and run towards the wall. Upon seeing this, William burst into hysterics. “Holy shit! You truly thought that was a real controlled shock device! For God's sake, it’s just a television remote. Pathetic.” Ballora was furious at this point.

“You’re a fucking coward, Afton.”

“Am I the coward? You’re the one who was scared of a remote.”

“Asswipe.”

“Oh, I’m so proud of my little bots. They’re using big offensive real-people words! Tell me, did you find those on the internet or did you pick them up while hiding inside one of your skinsuits? Either way, it’s a hilarious attempt at becoming more human-like. Keep it up, I’m entertained.” Now the others began to join in on the fight.

“ALRIGHT, OLD MAN! ” shouted Freddy, taking back control of the body and crawling back towards William. “YOU BETTER Q-QUIT IT OR THERE’LL BE CONSEQUENCES! ” He punctuated his threat with a high-pitched laugh. This did little to scare William, who calmly punched and shattered the creature’s glowing eye, causing it to react in pain and shock once again. William chuckled loudly.

Ballora, wanting nothing more than to rip William apart right now, was about to lunge at him before Foxy took control and stopped her. They began to communicate with each other, thoughts, feelings, and speech travelling through each others wires and brains.

Ballora, began Funtime Foxy, you need to calm down. Mr. Afton is obviously much more powerful and honestly intelligent than any of us right now.

HEYYY! WE HAVEN’T DONE THIS IN A WHILE! screamed Freddy, who was overly loud but still correct. WHY ARE WE DOING IT ANYWAY?!

Are you mad, fox? shouted Ballora, ignoring Freddy’s question. This is the one man who put us in that facility...who put us through all that TORTURE...standing right in front of us! I can’t let this moment pass! I need revenge! I need him to suffer.

Ballora… Funtime Foxy said, now having a more melancholy tone. I understand, Ballora. We all understand. You’re just very shocked and frustrated right now, I can tell—

Don’t you remember? Ballora asked, suddenly more soft-spoken than before. How he made us murder all those young, innocent children? All those little souls, lost to our slaughters! Did you not go through that? Did you not experience that?

Foxy was unsure on how to respond.

Well, answer me! Ballora screamed, her tone raising once more. Give me a straight fucking answer! In fact, give me one reason why I shouldn't tear this man LIMB FROM LIMB! She was close to sobbing now, if she could even technically do that without tear ducts. L-look! He’s over there, he’s distracted! She pointed a single rusty finger towards William, who had grown bored of the trash pile since it had stopped talking and continued to sharpen his bone.

Don’t do it, Ballora. You will kill all of us. You hear me? You. Will. Kill. Us. Funtime Foxy followed his threat with a deep growl, being careful not to do it with their physical voice box.

There is no point in living… Ballora said, in a new monotonous and almost alien tone, as if she had forgotten how to speak for a while and just remembered, ...if we don’t do this.

Ballora? Ballora!

Molten Freddy lunged at William, one hand wrapping around his arm and the other clamping on the back of his head.

“Huh? What the hell are you doing?! Get off of me, idiots! You’ll regret any harm you do to me!”

The mass of wires, not hesitating to attack, began to pound William’s head into the corner of the table. Over and over it bashed his face into the dusty edge, hearing him howl in pain all the while, continuing to break him even when only bone was left. His glassy fake eyes had already tumbled out at this point, but Molten Freddy destroyed his eye sockets as well.

“BALLORA!” Funtime Foxy screeched. “FOR FUCK’S SAKE, CALM DOWN!” They took back control of the body and reeled back, slithering into the vent they had used to crawl in here, watching William silently.

William stumbled back onto his feet, rubbing the side of his head. Suddenly, he realised his new handicap, and staggered back towards the wall. Not long after, he began to shake with rage and scream hoarsely, trying to find the thing that did this to him. A loud wail echoed from somewhere in front of him.

Bon-Bon, unfortunately, just couldn't contain her laughter when she saw the fool. She quickly shut up as soon as William turned towards them, but the others were still angered either way.

“Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one who ever helps us.” growled Funtime Foxy, who was slowly backing further into the vent.

William yelled and pounced into the vent, horribly startling Molten Freddy. Acting on impulse, it grabbed William’s bone spike and snapped it clean off before dashing away to the other end of the maze. William did nothing more than loudly grunt this time.

“That was a close one, Ballora. Don’t ever do that again, you hear me?” Funtime Foxy snapped before turning around and crawling further into the vent.

Ballora didn't respond. She didn't do anything, for that matter.

“...Ballora?”

Still, no response.

“H-H-HEY BALLORA!” Freddy screeched. “S-SOMEONE’S TRYING TO TA-TA-TA-TALK TO YOU! DON’T BE RUUUDE!”

She didn't even scold him this time. She whimpered a little, then some more, but no actual english.

“ARE...ARE YOU CRYING?” the bear asked, luckily not stuttering on any word somehow.

“...No.” Ballora finally spoke. “...Robots can’t cry. They don't have tear ducts. They’re not human. I wasn't crying. What would I have to cry about? What, William? Why would I be sad for William? And I'm not crying over the broken eye either, if I was crying at all, which I was not—”

“I don't think those were sad tears.” Foxy chuckled. Bon-Bon gave a scream of agreement.

“They weren't tears at all, idiot! I wasn't crying! It's completely illogical that I would be crying! I have nothing to feel emotion over. Robots don't feel emotion. Robots don't feel anything! Get off my back!”

“Alright Ballora, if you say so. Robots don't cry.”

“You’re damn right they don’t. Now let's go, and never mention this again. We must focus our attention on leaving this place.” Molten Freddy slipped out of the vent and into another room with papers stuck all over the walls and a single chair of solitude sitting in the centre.

“I THOUGHT WE WERE TR-TR-TRYING TO GET TO THE CHILDREN!” Freddy exclaimed.

“No, you moron!” Ballora hissed. “We are not trying to get to the children! That is not what we’re doing!”

What must’ve been a child ran through the room next to them, giggling and squealing as it dashed around. Something about it was too tempting to resist. Something was drawing them towards it.

“But…” Ballora loudly muttered, “…I suppose if that child got in here, he must know where the exit is. Yes...he’ll know. We have to go after him, of course!”

“HA HA!” Freddy laughed. “MY IDEA!”

“Shut up!”

Then it was all silent, except for the cries of children, a few surrounding footsteps, and a very noisy printer. The amalgamation slithered into the next vent, beginning their new search for freedom, and perhaps peace as well.

After all, that's what all of Afton’s creations want, biological or mechanical.

Speaking of which...