Inside Job (FNAF: SB Rewrite)

Chapter 17 - Catch Up

Parts and service was more dimly lit than I remembered. The light inside the protective capsule shone the brightest, an almost blinding bright blue. Freddy laid inside, and I was about to turn on the monitor and begin the upgrade process when I noticed a black laptop sitting on a chair beside him. The only way inside was to start the upgrade, so I selected the eyes option and the door opened.

I investigated the laptop. Its screen was black, and when I tried to turn it on, it asked for a password. The laptop itself was plugged into a port wedged between his head and neck. I didn't want to risk ruining the upgrade while having this computer plugged in, so I pulled out the cord before following the capsule's instructions.

I sat on top of Freddy's stomach like I'd done before the previous times. I opened his face plates and saw the endoskeleton underneath. Even though I've seen many of these endoskeletons, seeing it inside of Freddy's face casing was unnerving. It was just a reminder that he, Chica, and Roxy are all hunks of metal built to be nice . Their personalities are pre-programmed, and while they are all different they are still designed to protect children. If everything they do is part of their programming, are they even sentient?

No, they must be, right? Roxy was built with the intention of being what she described as "a sheep in wolf's clothing," but even so she refused to follow that role and developed her tomboyish personality. I had to stop thinking about this before falling down a rabbit hole into what sentience and awareness even means.

I took out Freddy's eyes. They made a clicking sound as they unlocked from their sockets. Unsure where to put them, I tossed them to the side and pulled out Roxy's old pair. I pushed the eyes into Freddy's sockets and put together his face.

Just like the previous two times, I played a game of Simon says to calibrate the eyes, and soon enough the exit opened and Freddy turned back on. He stood up and scanned me up and down.

I approached him with open arms. "Freddy! It's so great to see you–"

"Stand back," he said, pushing me away. He covered his eyes with his hand, and then moved them out of the way, and then covered them again. He did it several times before I asked him, "Is something wrong?"

"Everything looks different," he said, looking around the room. "It's like I can see through things."

"That would be because I gave you a new pair of eyes. You're welcome," I said pridefully.

He turned in place, looking up and down as if searching for something. "Incredible," he whispered underneath his breath. "Where'd you get these?" he asked.

I paused. I knew they were from Roxy, but how would he react if I told him that? But it's not like I can lie to him either; at some point he'd see Roxy missing her eyes and piece two and two together. I was just going to have to fess up.

"They're, uhm, Roxy's," I said, nervously holding my hands together. Freddy's ears perked and he stared at me. "What?"

"She attacked me, just like Chica did, but it's okay! I figured it out, I know what's causing them to lash out! Once we stop it, we can fix her–"

"Gregory, what are you doing?" He stomped his foot and I felt the floor shake beneath me. He continued to yell, "You can't keep breaking them and say you'll fix them like that makes it okay! They are my friends, how dare you use their parts like this!"

My heart dropped to my stomach. I looked down at the floor, not wanting to see Freddy's face with his new eyes. I already feel guilty about what I've done to them, but I'm doing it to save myself. I don't want either of them to die, and when this is all over I just wanna hang out with them again, but if I have to destroy some of their parts to be able to live through the next few nights, I don't really have a choice. Does he not realize how much they mean to me as well?