"Alright, We'll be getting back to the Penny murders everything Universe soon," Slays said as Ruby groaned a little.
"Yeah, I know, this one revolves around a spooky Animatronic Pizza Chain," Slays said. "All the tapes are out of order though, you'll have to piece it together yourselves,"
Jimmy sat next to Slays as the tape began playing.
Winter was driving in a clearly old, beat up car in the middle of the night. Heavy bags were under the woman's eyes as she drove to... wherever she was going.
She parked outside of an old, gross looking 90s Diner "Freddy Fazbear's Pizza," it was called, Winter could tell from the sign on the front.
She sighed heavily as she entered the closed building.
"Thanks for coming in," Winter looked over at Glynda, who were a button up shirt with a tie and skirt, she was clearly the Manager.
The two shook hands, Winter with much less enthusiasm.
"Well, considering it's your first day on the night shift here at Freddy's, I should probably give you a basic rundown of how things work," She said as she led Winter away from the dining area they were in, and into a Security Office down the halls.
"From world famous Huntress to the manager of a mediocre looking Fast Food chain," Qrow teased.
"I'm definitely doing more than you in this," Glynda snided.
"Yeah, no Grimm in this Universe, probably means you're some guy who babbles to children in Fast Food parking lots," Taiying joked.
"Those guys aren't that bad," Qrow grumbled.
"Pardon my bluntness, Winter, but you look horrible in this," Weiss pointed out.
"I look like I'll fall asleep at any time, not great for a Security Job," Winter chastised her alternate self.
"You'll be watching over the Animatronics, making sure no one breaks in, and nothing is stolen," Glynda explained. "You'll be given a tablet to watch the cameras on your first day, if you ever feel as if you are threatened, you can close the doors of the office to keep anything out. Any questions,"
Winter shook her head.
"Great," Glynda smiled. "I'll call you tomorrow, first day on the job" Glynda said as she led Winter out the door, the white haired woman drove home.
Tomorrow is another day.
"You're oddly silent in this," Weiss said.
Winter was too busy to reply to Weiss' musings, as she was getting angry at Qrow claiming that this version of her "Gets paid minimum wage,"
"Those two are weird," Ruby squinted.
NIGHT ONE
12AM
Winter sat bored in her office, playing with the tie and name tag on her new uniform, scrolling through security cameras, and getting a real good look at the Animatronics.
The three on the stage were Freddy, a bulky, brown Bear with a hat and bowtie, Bonnie, a purple bunny, and Chica, a yellow Chicken.
There was also another stage. "Pirate's Cove," but it was Out of Order.
Suddenly, the phone rang, and Winter picked it up.
"Uhh, hey, Miss Schmidt, you there?" Glynda asked, getting no response from Winter. "Well considering you picked up, you probably are; you've already been told what you're doing here, I just gotta do the legal employee orientation stuff," Glynda cleared her throat. "Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun comes to life. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person,"
"You're usin' a fake last name," Qrow pointed out. "Bet you're gonna break n' steal shit,"
"No version of me would stoop that low, you drunk," Winter rebutted.
"Yeah!" Weiss cheered.
"Anyways, before your day starts, I should warn you that the Animatronics here do get a little quirky at night; do I blame them? No, if I had to sing those same stupid songs for 30 years and I never got a bath? I'd get a little irritable at night too," Glynda quickly cleared her throat. "Anyway, what this means for your job is that the Animatronics are allowed to move around at night, they'll probably head for where they think the people are, and in this case that's your office. They probably won't be that much of a danger to you, I would recommend preventing their entry into the office, so they don't break anything of course,"
"They are so gonna try to kill her," Yang squinted.
"What makes you think that?" Weiss asked.
"They're creepy, poorly made robots in the middle of the night, no offense, Penny,"
"None taken,"
"The real danger would probably be them giving her some kinda disease," Blake gagged. "Thirty years without being cleaned?"
"We actually used to let them walk around during the day too, but then the Bite of 87 happened... yeah," Glynda gulped. "It's amazing how a person can live without their frontal lobe, y'know?" No response, Glynda awkwardly cleared her throat. "Anyway, first day should be a breeze, talk to you tomorrow," The phone hung up.
"See, they've already bitten out part of someone's brain!" Yang motioned towards the camera.
"I-I think I get it now," Weiss gagged a little at the thought of having part of her brain bitten off.
Winter sighed as she watched the cameras, looking lost in thought.
After two hours of nothing, Winter elected to leave her office from the western door, taking her security tablet with her. It's not like they said she had to stay in the office all night.
Just as she left, she heard loud, mechanical footsteps coming from the dining room. She quickly jumped into the storage closet to hide.
She peeked outside of the storage closet to see Bonnie loudly trudging towards the office, before peeking his head in to see nothing.
"I'm suspicious of her, she knew what to do a little too quickly," Qrow squinted his eyes.
"I think the normal reaction to something trying to kill you walking nearby is to hide from it," Winter snided.
"She coulda hid in the office,"
"I thought you were a 'breaking rules even if it's an unfathomably stupid idea to do so' man?"
"Obviously not, you must be thinkin' of someone else," Qrow smirked, Winter continued to grumble.
Bonnie began to walk back down the hallway... nope, he was walking towards the closet.
Winter quickly climbed over a shelf of cleaning supplies and scuttled her way into a vent above it just as the Bunny burst into the room.
She swore she heard it breathing as she crawled through the vent in the opposite direction of the closet.
"I do not wanna see what that thing does to her if it catches her," Yang said.
"Me neither," Winter affirmed.
"Why is It breathing?" Penny tilted her head.
"Iuono," Slays shrugged. "What do you think I know everything about everything?"
She plopped out of the vent, and into the backstage, a room with shelves line with spare Animatronic parts, mainly heads; it also held a door to the manager's office. Winter felt a small shiver go up her spine.
She looked out of the door into the dining room, no one was there except for the deactivated Freddy on the Main Stage. She elected to explore the Pizzeria, and tip toed through the Dining Hall.
She heard more footsteps. Winter dashes into the Kitchen, and hides in one of the cupboards.
She pulls out her security tablet, and looks in the Dining Hall.
Chica was there, heading straight for the Kitchen.
The Schnees held their breath.
Winter keeps her breathing to a minimum as the Chicken enters the room, she switches to its camera to get a good look at it, but the Kitchen's camera seemed to be broken.
Through the silence, she could hear what sounded like... eating? Or more accurately pizza being shoved against metal to imitate eating.
Winter looked through the crack in the cupboard doors, and saw the Animatronic stuffing food in Its face, though seemingly not doing much other than make a mess.
Winter near silently tip toed out of the Kitchen, letting the Chicken do its business.
Just as she left, the Chicken stopped eating, Winter bolts into the Men's bathroom and hides in one of the stalls.
"Ooo, what a pervert~" Nora teases.
"She's hiding from that weird Chicken thing, you Dolt!" Weiss defended.
"Speaking of that thing, why is it eating, do robots need to eat?" Yang asks.
"Nope," Penny smiles.
"Huh, weird,"
She anxiously checks the cameras of the Bathroom Hallway.
Chica enters the Girl's bathoom, leaves, and then stands right outside the Men's room; the Animatronic seemed completely unwilling to enter.
Winter breathed a sigh of relief.
"See, the Chicken knows the sanctity of a Bathroom," Nora waved her arms around.
"It's a robot, Nora," Ren said.
"That's no excuse,"
Chica walked away from the bathroom, Winter elected to sit there for the rest of her shift.
6:AM
Winter breathed a sigh of relief as morning came, all the Animatronics had headed back to their stage.
Tomorrow would be another day.
"Great, one night in, and I nearly died twice," Winter sighed.
"You'll make it, I'm sure," Weiss reassured.
"Thanks,"
"Not that I want her to get attacked, but why are they ignoring her?" Jaune asked.
"Her shift is over," Nora said.
"But they can still-"
"Her shift is over,"
NIGHT TWO
12AM
Winter was back in the office, the phone rang again, she picked it up.
"Hello, hello hello?" Still no response. "Well, if you're hearing this it means you made it to Day 2, congrats!" Glynda said. "I shouldn't talk for long, Freddy and his friends tend to get more active as the week progresses, Freddy himself though doesn't come of stage often" Glynda explained. "...Anyways, by now you should have notices Pirate's Cove," Glynda referred to the out of order stage. "The character in there, Foxy seems to get more active as the cameras remain off. We're actually gonna be sending someone in to do maintenance on him day after tomorrow, y'know, to see if we can get Pirate's Cove operational; the kids always loved Foxy, makes sense to me he's always been my favourite, heh," Glynda chuckled. "Er- anyway, second day should go fine, see you tomorrow,"
Winter looked in the cameras as Glynda hung up, Bonnie and Chica had already left the stage.
"Already?" Weiss said in disbelief. "I-I'm sure she can handle this,"
Glynda thought back to her childhood, she was surprised that this Universe included her former love of pirates, she regrets to remember those days.
"You were ten, Glynda, you were allowed to be embarrassing," She tried to steel herself.
Winter elected to stay in the office, at least for now.
The bunny was trudging towards the office from the western hall, Winter turned on the light to get a better look at it.
It was-
Oh god oh shit it was running for the door.
Winter smashed the door button, slamming it right on the Animatronic's foot. It let out a surprisingly human groan of pain.
The bunny limped away. Winter looked in the cameras to see it go to the Backstage, seemingly to replace its broken foot. Winter also checked how much power the building had left, 90%.
"How cheap is this place?" Weiss sneered. "The generator is barely holding up,"
"Well, this is one of the last Freddy's locations, the company is having budgeting issues," Slays explained.
"I guess that makes it make sense to leave the Office," Winter said.
Winter snuck out of the office and into the now empty west hall.
The curtains of Pirate's Cove moved a little as she walked past it, but nothing beyond that.
She could hear Chica banging around in the Kitchen, Freddy was still deactivated on the stage.
Winter decided that she'd probably need to find something to defend herself; there were probably flashlights, and other equipment that could be weaponized in the backstage, once Bonnie was out she could go there.
She hid in the bathroom again, Bonnie seemed to entirely avoid the East of the building, and Chica didn't wanna enter the Men's room.
"The Fox character, I got a real bad feeling about it," Qrow squinted. "Never was a fan of pirates,"
A small part of Glynda was offended by Qrow's pirate hate, though she did her best to not show it.
Winter checked the cameras to the East and West halls, Chica and Bonnie were in their respective hall.
The Curtains to Pirate's Cove opened a crack and then closed, Freddy was still deactivated on the Show Stage. Winter's perfect opportunity had shown itself.
Winter walked through the Dining Room, making absolute sure to be as quiet as possible, getting to the Backstage wouldn't take too lon-
Pirate's Cove's curtains tore open, the half broken Fox Animatronic inside burst out and looked around.
Winter and Foxy had a stare off for a moment, before Winter bolted towards the Backstage, with Foxy trampling on the ground as he bolted for her.
Winter slammed the Backstage door behind her and threw an abandoned Endoskeleton in front of it to buy herself some time.
Foxy banged wildly on the door as Winter rummaged through whatever equipment she could find. Eventually grabbing a flashlight and a pipe wrench as-
BANG
The door burst open as the Fox entered, it crouched down and prepared to pounce. Winter turned on her flashlight in a panic.
The Fox yelped in Its piratey voice as it covered Its eyes in pain.
Winter took this opportunity to hit the Fox over the head with the wrench, knocking it to the floor, and noticeably damaging its head.
"Oh, that was close," Weiss let out a sigh of relief.
"She ain't home safe yet," Qrow said.
Ruby had fainted due to getting jumpscared by the pirate.
"Uh... is that normal?" Penny asked.
"Yup, she'll be fine," Yang said.
"Happens whenever something spooks her," Taiyang added.
Winter dashed into the Dining Room, Bonnie noticed her and began to give chase.
Winter huffed and heaved, but kept going until she reached the office and slammed the security door shut.
The Bunny stood outside the door for a bit, but It eventually gave up and went back to the Dining Room.
Winter stayed in the Office for the rest of her shift, closing doors whenever Animatronics got close.
6AM
Tomorrow is another day
"That was far too close," Winter said. "Why doesn't this me just not go to this stupid job?"
"Little old rulefollower wouldn't go and break her contract now, would she?" Qrow mocked.
"Oh... fuck you," Winter pouted.
NIGHT THREE
12AM
"Hello? Hey day three, congrats!" Glynda said. "Most people don't last this long... I mean, they move onto other things by now; I'm not implying that they died, that's- that's not what I meant," Glynda awkwardly cleared her throat.
"Sure," Yang rolled her eyes.
"Uh... I'll try not to keep you busy for too long. Freddy and his friends are definitely moving by now, also we're uh... having someone come over tomorrow to repair Foxy; maybe the other Animatronics too. Keep trucking along, talk to you tomorrow," Glynda hung up.
Winter still had her flashlight and pipe wrench with her. She breathed a sigh of relief as she got away with damaging Foxy, though she also realised she probably couldn't afford to damage the other Animatronics.
Still, even with the looming threat of the mascots, she exited the office, deciding to go through the vent in the storage closet to backstage.
She decided that she had the time to explore the only place she hadn't been in yet, the manager's office.
It was a pretty standard office, desk, carpet, filing cabinets, etc.
Winter decided to rummage through them out of curiosity, but only found a bunch of financial reports. Really bad financial reports, but nothing super important.
One cabinet was locked, and Winter didn't wanna wait for something to come in while she was finding the key, so she checked the backstage and storage closet on her camera. Both were empty for now, so she crawled through the vent in the former to go to the latter.
"Why is she digging through company records?" Glynda asked.
"Seems out of character for- ow!" Qrow was elbowed by Winter. "Asshole,"
She heard deep laughter as she went back to the storage closet, she checked the west hall camera and.
Freddy was waiting right outside, looking straight into the camera.
Winter scampered up into the vent.
"It's stalking her," Weiss realised, worrying for her sister.
"It also clearly knows it's being watched," Ozpin pointed out. "Odd for a machine of this calibre,"
"They also usually don't walk around trying to murder employees," Glynda said.
"That is true,"
She saw Bonnie walk in and then out of backstage as she entered the vent, Freddy continued to stand outside the closet.
Winter hopped out of the vent as she saw Bonnie enter the hallway on the cameras, looking at Freddy oddly for a moment and then continuing to walk down the hallway.
She snuck out into the dining room, turning off her security tablet to minimise the noise she could make, and went into the bathroom, as that seemed to be the only place where the Animatronics didn't go.
She heard more deep laughter as she entered, she panickedly looked at the cameras to see that Freddy had left the hallway the minute the camera was off of him.
The bear was in the dining hall now, completely still as Winter switched her camera to there.
"It doesn't move when it's being watched," Ozpin said. "I suppose this helps It in hunting Winter,"
"You say that like you want it to happen," Qrow chuckled, Ozpin chuckled too.
Winter had noticed this by now, she had also noticed the fact that Freddy didn't know that she had left backstage.
She shut off the camera and waited a few minutes.
The dining room was empty, Winter switched to the backstage.
Both Bonnie and Freddy were there; with Bonnie continuing to stare in confusion at the now still Bear.
The tablet only had about 60% of its power left, so she wouldn't be able to keep it on for much longer.
Winter dashed through the dining room, trying to get to her office as fast as-
Foxy burst from his curtains and gave chase, he didn't sound particularly happy about having his head broken open last night.
Winter nearly tripped as she dashed into her office. She nearly broke the door button with how hard she hit it.
The Fox crashed into the door, letting out a piratey groan of pain before walking back to his cove.
Winter breathed a sigh of relief.
Nothing much happened for the rest of the night, it eventually hit.
6AM
Tomorrow is another day.
"That was... stressful, hopefully whoever comes tomorrow can fix these things," Weiss said.
"I have a feeling this isn't entirely a mechanical issue," Ozpin said.
"What does that mean?" Yang asked.
"Nothing yet,"
"Well that's vague," Yang grumbled.
NIGHT FOUR
12AM
"Uh... hello? Sorry if I don't have the best news, but uh... this place is probably gonna be closed by the end of the week it's been a rough financial season for old Freddy's, heh." Glynda chuckled nervously. "On the bright side, the Animatronics are backstage being repaired, so they shouldn't bother you tonight... tomorrow will be your last day at work, have a good night," Glynda hung up.
Winter decided to test Glynda's claims, and yep, all four Animatronics were deactivated in the backroom, a black haired woman in a stained, grey tank top was huddled over Foxy.
"Nothing trying to kill me, that's good," Winter nodded.
"Kinda sad that this place is shutting down, even if the Animatronics are really creepy," Yang said. "This place reminds me of those places Dad used to take us as a kid,"
"I still have no idea why you and Ruby liked those places so much, those robots gave me the creeps," Tai shuddered.
Winter walked over to the backstage, breathing a sigh of relief as she walked through a Furry Murder Robot free establishment.
"Oh hi, I didn't know I was gonna have someone interrupting my work," The black haired woman, who the audience could now identify as Cinder chuckled. "Whaddaya want?"
"Makes sense, I do have a Master's in robotics," Cinder declared, getting odd looks from most of the audience. "What? I went to college before I joined this er... death cult,"
"It's not a death cult, no one's died for awhile," Salem corrected.
"Yes ma'am,"
Winter didn't say anything.
"Wow, not only do you look like a corpse, you also act like one," Cinder smirked as she went back to repairing Foxy. "You can watch if you want, it's nothing interesting,"
Winter sat on the floor, unhappy about being snided, but happy about not being hunted down.
"So, you're the night guard here, right?" Winter nodded. "Cool, considering you aren't doing anything, because this place isn't worth breaking into; could you go make us a pizza?"
Winter turned her head in curiosity as she stood up.
"I know, they suck, but I'm hungry and no one's delivering at one in the goddamn morning," Cinder shrugged.
Winter sighed, and walked over to the kitchen.
"The pizza always tasted like cardboard at these places," Yang grumbled. "Now I don't even know why we liked these places,"
Winter entered the kitchen, and got one of the frozen pizzas out of the fridge. She intently watched the oven as she waited for it to heat up.
It was cold, and dead silent in the kitchen at least it should've been.
"IT'S ME" Winter heard a whisper from behind her, that of child-
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Winter's daydreaming was interrupted by the oven beeping, the pizza was ready. She shoved it into a box and took it backstage.
"Four days and she's already hallucinating, heh," Qrow chuckled.
The voice felt... familiar to the Schnee family, though they couldn't pinpoint exactly why.
As Winter re-entered the room, Cinder had finished patching up Foxy, all that was left was to replace his legs.
"Oh, thank you," She said as she grabbed a slice and ate it. "Say, come by tomorrow, and I'll show you something. I have a feeling you didn't just find this job,"
Winter raised an eyebrow as Cinder said that.
"Just a hunch," The brunette shrugged.
Cinder finished up fixing the Fox, both women ate the cardboard esque pizza.
6AM
Tomorrow is another day.
"What does she mean by that?" Winter asked.
"You were using a fake last name," Qrow shrugged.
NIGHT FIVE
12AM
No phone call, the Animatronics were still deactivated backstage.
Winter sat in the office for a while until she-
CRASH
The window broke, Winter ran out of her office to check and.
"Oh hey, corpse girl, the door was locked," Cinder greeted as she stepped through the window.
"Why would I not have a staff key?" Cinder asked to herself.
"Also I got laid off yesterday,"
"Oh,"
"It really is closing down, probably for the best," Yang chuckled. "The Murder Robots probably weren't doing the establishment any favours,"
"So, about that thing I said I'd show you, follow me," Cinder walked over to the bathroom hallway, it was at this point that Winter noticed the fireaxe in her hand.
"Now, this may look like any old doorway, but use my magic technique and..." She violently slashed at the wall with her axe. "New room,"
The new hole in the wall revealed a secret room, derelict and decrepit. There wasn't much in the room: just an arcade cabinet, a box full of papers, and two golden suits, one of Freddy and one of Bonnie.
The two women climbed inside the room, Cinder immediately started rummaging through the box.
"Why are you stealing paper?" Mercury asked.
"I'm searching, who steals paper?" Cinder asked to no one.
"Yeah," Emerald said.
"Simp," Merc muttered under his breath.
"Y'know, I've always had a theory as to why the Animatronics try to kill you; one I think you'll be inclined to believe in," Cinder said as she pulled out a newspaper and flipped to a specific page.
FIVE CHILDREN GO MISSING IN PIZZERIA
[ ]/[ ]/1985
Winter read through the article about the missing children's incident.
"Yup, this is the place where it happened," Cinder chuckled. "Y'know, I was sixteen when that happened," She said just as she got to the part talking about the oldest victim, a 16 year old by the name of Emerald Sustrai.
"Five kids died in this place?" Weiss asked, slightly outraged. "How did it stay open at all after that?"
"One of them was me, that sucks," Emerald pouted.
"I think I get what this Cinder is trying to say," Ozpin said. "The Animatronics are inhabited by the souls of these children,"
"That's... horrible," Glynda said.
"At least they can find peace when they're left alone, hopefully," Blake said.
"Her dog died the day before, she said she wanted to be left alone," Cinder chuckled, Winter had looked up from the paper at this point. "I was such a fucking idiot," She said as a tear streamed down her face.
Winter silently put a hand on her shoulder, it seemed the calm the shaking mechanic just a bit.
She pulled out a cigarette and smoked it, before handing one to her coworker.
"Want one?"
Winter accepted, as she smoked her eyes began to dart over to the Golden Freddy suit.
She swore she heard it whisper, she heard it say "It's me,", she pretended she didn't hear a thing.
"You are one hundred percent gonna get fired for this, heh," Cinder chuckled, Winter nodded. "Not like it matters, this place is going down anyway,"
The two women continued to smoke.
"You'll probably find a new job though, tomorrow is another day, after all,"
6AM
NOTICE OF TERMINATION:
WINTER SCHMIDT
11/12/1993
REASON FOR TERMINATION: BREAKING INTO NON PERMITTED ROOM, ASSISTING CRIMINAL IN BREAKING INTO ESTABLISHMENT, ODOUR.
"Well, what'd you think of that?" Slays asked.
"Creepy," Yang said.
"Not a fan of the dead kids thing," Tai said.
"Well it can't help it," Qrow defended.
"She does care about me," Emerald thought to herself as she smiled.
"Emerald died in a mediocre pizza restaurant? I need a better partner," Mercury thought.
The Schnee family was wondering who that voice belonged to, enough to ignore the slanderous lies placed upon Winter (She showers daily, thank you very much,)