Lost to Time (BFDI/TPOT AU) (CANCELLED, REWRITE IN PROGRESS)

Chapter 5

After around an hour had passed, Winner once again looked up and noticed the ominous wall of boxes. It usually didn't mean anything, but now that Winner knew that it possibly was hiding a secret, it looked ominous and fear-inducing, yet still inviting due to Winner's curiosity.

Once they got to the save area, they saved their game, turned off the console along with the TV, and stared at the wall of boxes, as now was the time to decide.

Eventually, after a bit of thinking, Winner came to the conclusion that they should try moving the wall. They weren't feeling anywhere near as nervous anymore, as they had the time to relax and play video games.

After getting up and walking towards the boxes, Winner was now face-to-face with this wall of boxes. Noticing how they were starting to feel the nervousness come back again, they decided to not wait anymore to avoid being even more nervous.

After breathing a bit, Winner moved the boxes, to be met with a black curtain, as well as an interesting little briefcase in front of it. Both were just sitting there, collecting dust. It appears as though they were there for quite a while, considering the amount of dust that had accumulated there.

Winner wasn't too interested in the briefcase at the moment, as they looked at the black curtain. They were slightly nervous about opening the curtain and revealing what's behind it, but were still very curious. They were sure that there wasn't anything interesting behind there, but one part of them kept thinking that that might not be the case!

Winner then moved the curtain, seeing the dust come off and float in the air. Once they saw what was on the other side, it had felt like their heart almost stopped.

Behind the curtain was a familiar, perfect replica of Clock... but as a robot... in a see-through glass display case of sorts... from around 100 years ago... that has probably seen some better days.

Seeing this gave Winner the chills. They hadn't seen Clock in at least 70 years, so seeing him again but as a lifeless robot that's nearly falling apart was deeply unnerving. Winner had always had a fear of really old robots, electronic toys and talking dolls for as long as they could remember, and the more seconds went by, the more scared Winner became.

They looked away and tried to look at something else, as looking at this robot thing was uncomfortable for Winner. Not because of the bad experiences they had with him in the past (they had both moved past that), but because they were actually a bit scared to do something regarding the robot. The more Winner looked at its nearly deteriorated form and its closed, lifeless eyes, the more they felt like the robot was going to do something.

Winner wasn't sure what, but it was surely something that would be terrifying, or at least to them.

As much as they tried to look away from Clock and keep walking as if nothing had happened, Winner couldn't help but notice what was in front of him.

It was the same briefcase from before. It too looked pretty worn, and had the BFB logo colors on it.

To get a closer look, Winner took a few steps forward and brushed off the dust. It had a label which said "Admin Tools" and below it was a serial number which said "BFB-ANDROID-MODULE-THELOSERS-CONTESTANT-NO.14"

Winner was curious as to what this meant, so they carried the briefcase over to the middle of the attic, sat down and opened it up.

Upon opening, they saw some legal documents, patents, manuals, and also a black-and-white diagram for what appeared to be the same clock robot.

Winner was, of course, intrigued by this, so they decided to look more.

Upon digging through the boring legal papers in the briefcase, Winner found something. A maintenance key in a small plastic baggie. Winner decided to set the key aside, and grabbed the important instruction manual to read.

One part that they found particularly intriguing was one part at the beginning. It said;

"These ANDROID modules of existing Battle For B.F.D.I. characters are only meant to be used whatsoever in the event that the original contestant is unrecoverable by Four, in that case, to replace the existing, deceased contestant. Any other use is strictly prohibited."

This part implied that there were many more robot clones of BFB characters. Hell, it was likely that every single contestant had a robot clone. Of course, Winner didn't compete until TPOT, so they probably didn't have one. Winner flicked through the manual until they got to the end, which read;

"When the character is eliminated or the contest is over, please use the security key to shut down the character module. Once the character is shut down, please store it in a safe, closed off area, along with the briefcase. In case of an emergency revival, please use the security key to revive the character module. WARNING: You may only revive the character once. After you shut down the character after a revival has taken place, the character module will be rendered permanently shutdown and inoperable."

These words had to echo in Winner's head a few times as they were still quite startled at the fact that someone they had competed alongside and had known for an entire season of BFDI was a sort of robot all along. Winner wanted to tell everyone what had happened and that Clock is here again, but even the thought of telling someone or inserting the operation key into the robot made Winner nauseous from all of the panicking they were going through.

"Ugh..." they groaned while stuffing everything back into the briefcase, not paying attention to organizing it neatly. They then slid the curtain back, lazily moved some of the boxes back into place and plopped down on one of the bean-bag chairs from earlier.

Winner felt overtaken by anxiousness, seeing as they were obviously trembling and not feeling well. They felt terrible, it was hard to breathe, and they wanted nothing more to do than just be free of this nervousness they were going through. They were feeling overwhelmed by emotions and senses, all for some "weird robot". At least they knew what was up with Clock now, but... this just wouldn't go away! No matter how much Winner tried to calm themself down, they couldn't help but just sit there and be forced to deal with all of this.

Until they were reminded of something to help them calm down. The robot had sat dormant for 70 years. It wasn't gonna do anything unless someone tried to turn it on. This had to flow through Winner's mind a few times before they could understand.

Once they did, they felt a bit releived.