Defective Souls - Niki's Struggle

Chapter Five

✰Hunters Become The Hunted✰

Niki awoke to darkness. Her head throbbed, and her leg wound felt as if it were on fire. She blinked rapidly, slowly beginning to see hazy shadows around her. She quickly became aware that she was lying on something hard and slightly sticky. When she placed her hand on the material below her, she felt a cool touch, as well as the texture of packed soil and pebbles.
She straightened up slowly, cringing as her head continued to throb. She soon noticed a faint, and very dull light somewhere beyond some fences, and it illuminated the surroundings just enough for her to make out some things.

Including Gregory, laying on the ground nearby. She tried to get up to go to him, but the pain in her leg had become far worse, and she almost collapsed. She resorted to crawling over to him, kneeling beside him and gently shaking him. He stirred, blinking his eyes open with a slight groan, holding his hand to his head. Niki could see a bruise beginning to form near his eye, and guessed he'd been knocked out too.

"Wh... Where are we...?" Gregory mumbled groggily as he sat up, facing Niki. She was about to respond when a voice stopped her.
"That's something I'm sure you'd love to know, isn't it?"
The voice was ragged and rough, yet deep and had what Niki might've guessed was a British accent.
That was when a bright, blinding light suddenly turned on, making Niki squeeze her eyes shut in pain and look away, shielding herself from the light.
A shadow fell over them, and she looked up to see a new figure standing in front of the light. The sight of it almost made her scream in horror and disgust.

Standing before them was what Niki could only describe as a ragged, mostly torn animatronic. Its endoskeleton legs were entirely visible, as were the arms. Only sparse bits of plating, which resembled fake fur more than anything still remained, but that wasn't what scared Niki so much.
The head of the thing was like something she'd never seen. It had the top part of a rabbit mask, with torn and mangled ears with metal bits protruding from the tops.
There was no bottom jaw on the mask however, which exposed the human jaw beneath. It was various shades of black and charred looking pink, the dirty and rotten teeth fully exposed.

Niki shuffled back away from the creature, staring up at it in horror. She glanced to Gregory, who was watching the thing with a look of recognition in his eyes. He followed Niki, shuffling back away from it, but looked less afraid than her.
"I've seen him before..." He murmured. "The day I was trapped here as a child... I saw him. But Freddy and I got out of there quickly. I think we're under Roxy Raceway."

The rabbit gave a haunting chuckle. "Well done, Gregory," it said in its rough voice. "I see you're back for more. It's a good thing my friends figured out how to catch you before you took out all their chips."
Niki stared in shock at the rabbit. "That was you?!" She exclaimed. "You hacked them?"
The rabbit said nothing, but he raised a metal hand, waving his fingers in a summoning motion. Out of the darkness behind him came Roxy and Foxy, both of them wearing evil expressions.

"Foxy..." Niki murmured, watching the fox with a longing expression. "You've gotta fight back... I know you're in there...!"
But he didn't respond in the way she hoped. Instead, he took a few steps forward, glaring down at Niki. She looked up hopefully at him.
"Fight back...!" She urged. In return, Foxy swung his paw across her face, causing her to cry out in surprise and pain as she fell back, Gregory catching her to prevent her hitting the hard ground.

"The only thing I'll be fightin' is ye both Galley Slaves! Now shut yer mouths!" Foxy hissed, glaring daggers at Niki before returning to stand beside the rabbit.
Niki rubbed her head in pain, tears pricking her eyes as the rabbit gave a sinister laugh.
"Now," it said slowly. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am William Afton. Sound familiar?"