Gregory woke up in a small room, crowded by various junk items sprawled about on the floor. He was in a small room that looked like a security office. Various articles of clothing were scattered across the room, as well as some trinkets and toys.
"Where am I?" Gregory mumbled.
"YOU are in the Lost and Found, Gregory,"the angry voice of Officer Vanessa erupted.
Gregory glanced around the small room to see where it could be coming from. There was an active monitor and an audio player on the main desk.
"I know your name. I heard everything between you and Freddy trying to communicate. What, did you think I was born yesterday?" Vanessa demanded, seeing Gregory's evident shock.
"Of course you knew..." Gregory spat.
"You know, you aren't supposed to be here! My boss would HATE it if you messed up our plans for the Pizzaplex. Everything could have been all fine... if you never came back," Vanessa said in a menacing tone.
"Came... back?" Gregory questioned, as if what he was listening to wasn't real.
"Yes. You've been here before! And you escaped us. But we can't let that happen again. Goodbye, Gregory..." Vanessa crooned.
Gregory knew, somehow, he was going to die. He HAD to find a way out, but his clearance was too low. That's when he decided to check the security desk.
"Maybe there's a badge in here? It IS a security office," Gregory wondered aloud. He walked over to the desk and couldn't find a badge container, but noticed a gift box packaged in the corner. He took the gift box and removed the wrappings. Then, he took the lid off.
"Okay, there's a pass in here, but it's only Level 2. And there's... a screwdriver? Aw MAN," Gregory pouted. He wasn't able to pick the lock of the door. But that's when he noticed a vent in the far corner of the room. That's when it clicked- he could take the vent OUT.
"Hello! Are you bored? Because we're going to have some FUN?!" a strange voice called out. The voice was feminine, but it was very 'bumpy,' glitchy, and it sounded digital, but human.
"Not good..." Gregory muttered.
Soon, Gregory managed to unscrew the nails over the vent cover. He crawled inside and ended up in the Main Lobby once more. He ran up an escalator to the pair of elevators at the top. However, one of them was completely broken.
K
"Oh no. The elevator broke! I think there was a struggle," Gregory noted.
"YOU! There you are!" someone called out. Gregory glanced behind him and, just outside Lost and Found, saw the rabbit lady named Vanny. Gregory got a much closer look at her from above. The cold, painful sensation that he felt before began to plague his nerves once again. It felt like a much smaller knife was being shoved into his spine.
"Not good!" Gregory muttered. He ducked into the elevator and slammed the button that led up. Thanks to his lucky stars, the elevator doors closed the moment Vanny reached them.
"Whew! That was CLOSE," Gregory sighed. The pain in his body that was a reaction of seeing Vanny was now gone entirely. But now, he was left with many questions. Why was Vanessa acting normal? What happened to the elevator? Was there a struggle? Where was Freddy? Was Cassie here before? Did she somehow forget? How could he get the memories back?
A million questions and phrases were rushing through his mind. For now, Gregory needed to find Freddy and get a safe place to hide. The elevator reached the Main Atrium a few seconds after it departed. When Gregory walked out onto the balcony, he ran down once again, back to the vent where he navigated below. At the vent, there was no sign of Freddy. That's when Gregory realized he still somehow had his FazWatch.
"Wait! I'm surprised the guard didn't take it away from me," Gregory mumbled under his breath. First, he ducked into the vent and crawled inside far enough not to be noticed, but still close enough to be able to get out quickly. He opened the call app of the FazWatch and tried to communicate with Freddy.
"Freddy? Are you there? HELLO?!" Gregory demanded.
"Gregory?" A much more tired version of Freddy's voice responded.
"FREDDY! You're here. Thank goodness! Where are you at?" Gregory demanded.
"I have been captured, Gregory. Vanny caught me eavesdropping on her and Monty. Listen- I discovered some horrifying secrets. You've BEEN here before, but you don't remember. They are targeting you for a reason. If you leave, you must NEVER come back. They will chase you down, even if you escape. They want you, Gregory. You are their toy!" Freddy explained. But before he could elaborate further, the communications were severed.
"Freddy? What happened?" Gregory exclaimed desperately. "Freddy?!"
However, it was no use. Vanny disabled the networks. Gregory was truly alone. However, he wasn't going to be stopped from finding his friend.
"I'm coming to help, Freddy."
~~~
"He... got away, Master."
"What? Did you just say?"
"I wasn't able to kill him in time."
"YOU FOOL."
A surge of pain erupted through Vanny's master as a result of her Master's rage. Vanny's task was easy- SO easy. The boy was locked in a room with no foreseeable way out, and he somehow slipped through her grasp yet again.
"My little puppet is running around in this building. He could be ANYWHERE. Deploy the animatronics to find him," He commanded.
"Yes, my Lord." Vanny replied.
Soon, he was gone. Vanny was left sprawled out on the floor of Lost and Found. It was already a little past 2 am, so Roxy was probably just leaving the Daycare. Vanny knew she was traumatized after her time with the Attendant. That's when a plan began to form in her head, a great plan, yet malicious in nature.
Vanny leaped up from the floor and ran out of Lost and Found, looking for the next one who would deliver, or fail. Roxanne Wolf would be the one, she knew it. Vanny walked to the Daycare and found herself opening the large, medieval-style doors to the Playpen. Roxanne Wolf leaped out of the room immediately.
"THANK YOU. I've been liberated!" the wolf animatronic shouted dramatically. Though, it was a genuine reaction.
"Not so fast. Your incompetence landed you in there. You failed to capture Gregory. Listen to me, and you will be rewarded..." Vanny began.
"What...? Am I... going to die?" Roxy asked, pain evident in her softened voice.
"You will die if you FAIL. Find Gregory. Bring him to me, alive. We will deal with him from there. That is all."
"I... will find him. I won't... won't FAIL!" Roxy shouted. Normally, it was in her nature to be competitive. However, that was mostly for small games for the children. This was a fight for her life. Roxy was determined on ending Gregory's life. The reward would be hers, and hers ALONE.
"Where is he?!" Roxy demanded.
"He's upstairs. We captured Freddy. Gregory is going to do everything in his power to find him! Make sure he does NOT reach Parts and Service," Vanny commanded.
"Go... upstairs. I WILL find him," Roxy muttered.
Without another word, Roxy ran up the steps to the path leading outside the Daycare. Roxy ran down the hall of the Lobby until she reached the elevators. Then, she picked up a scent. It smelled similar to the blood spots she smelled earlier. It was the scent of Gregory.
"It's Gregory. I can SMELL him!" Roxy exclaimed. She ran into the functional elevator and pressed the button to go up. Inside the elevator, she could smell traces of the boy. Gregory had indeed gone up.
It wasn't long before Roxy reached the Atrium, where Gregory was supposedly wandering. When she stepped out onto the large balcony just above the floor of the Atrium, she began to sniff around for any scent of Gregory. The carpets reeked of the boy, and all of the smells seemed to lead down an escalator to the Main Floor.
"Gregory? Where are you?" Roxy called out in an unnerving tone. Roxy walked down the escalator, the clanking of her metal feet echoing through the open arena. When Roxy reached the bottom of the escalators, she began to smell more traces of her prey. She was drawn toward the snack bars below the second floor. The traces of dirt, sweat, and blood began to practically scream out to Roxy's sense of smell. That's when she realized a nearby vent was airing out the smell of a person. Someone was there, or maybe they never left...
"I found you!" Roxy exclaimed. She tried to lunge inside the vent, but she was too big to do so. Roxy began to kick the sides of the vent from outside, the sound of aluminum being smashed raging around that section of the building.
"You can come out now, Gregory! You're going to die," Roxy snarled. She eagerly scratched away at the vents, hoping to attract help or get inside the small space surrounded by metal.
That's when she heard a light tapping in the vents. Roxy stopped all movements and waited, longingly, to see if anything would come out...
It was a small Music Man toy-animatronic. Roxy did a double take on the inside. These toys were meant to navigate the vents and spy- or chase down- Vanny's targets. Surely, it would know of Gregory's whereabouts?
"Vanny caught the boy not too long ago, but he escaped. Have you seen him in the past few minutes?" Roxy interrogated hopefully. The toy stared at Roxy from the edge of the vent for three seconds, then finally, it shook its head.
Roxy let out a yell of rage, and slammed her fist onto the Music Man toy, ending its very existence.
~~~
Gregory stifled a laugh as he watched Roxy from above, as she was yelling in rage at the fact that she lost him. Hiding his old bandages in the vent was the perfect strategy to throw her off. For now, he needed to find Freddy.
There were a few places he could go look. Freddy's room was one, but that would mean he would have to go back through the way he came, and Vanny was currently downstairs. However, it seemed like the most probable. Gregory needed a way to get back to Rockstar Row.
"How do I get back? There must be SOME kind of clue..." Gregory mumbled. Then, he decided to check places that Freddy could have been before he was caught. One place he could try was the Recharge Station where Freddy was at when Gregory went downstairs. Sure enough, at the Atrium's only recharge station, there was a small purse with a tablet sticking out, just outside the red tube.
"This has to be it, I know," Gregory mumbled. He turned on the tablet and transmitted the information on it to his watch. Then, two notifications popped up on Gregory's watch.
"Two messages? This has to be interesting," Gregory thought. He opened the first message, which was a note from Freddy.
"Gregory, if you are reading this, just in case you need to get back to my room, I have a path for you if your clearance is still too low. Go to Roxy Raceway. Somewhere just outside the entrance, I stacked several boxes for you to climb over a construction fence. From there, you will walk through a construction zone and a storage zone. You will end up in the backstage and from there, you can find your way."
"Okay, it looks like I need to head over to Roxy Raceway. The entrance isn't far. Now what's the other message?" Gregory wondered aloud. Gregory checked the other message on his watch, but it demanded a 4-digit code.
"Are you serious?! I'll have to ask Freddy about that, but it looks like I need to go," Gregory said. He ran toward the roll-up door that was supposed to lead to Roxy Raceway. The door automatically opened for him, and what he saw was a maze, surrounded by wood, crates, boxes, and construction equipment. This place was evidently under construction.
"Whoa! I wonder what's going on here. Now where are those boxes?" Gregory said. It wasn't too long before he found a set of boxes stacked in a stair formation, running above a railway. Gregory climbed on the boxes and went over the wall, then he landed in a small room with construction equipment. In the far left corner, there was an orange door that led out.
"This is surprisingly convenient!" Gregory said. He walked out of the door and navigated a dark pathway of blue construction boxes. He reached the end of the path and ended up in a dark storage hall. Flickering lights illuminated some corners and exits, but the middle of the room was dark. Security drones, like the ones Gregory saw earlier, were making pattern walks around the room. On the other side of the room from where Gregory was, there was a long hallway that presumably led to the Backstage area. Green walls and concrete floor lined the storage hallway as it grew closer to the Backstage.
With not much time to spare, Gregory took a mad dash down the halls, his footsteps echoing on the concrete and sounding through the somewhat wide walkways. He navigated around various props and equipment in the halls, and made it to a set of red double doors that led to the backstage. Thank goodness. The backstage had a set of bleachers for a chorus, a microphone set, and multiple stage props and decorations. There was a gated off exit on the side of the room. Gregory walked through the door and made it back to Rockstar Row, in the familiar, colorful environment that he was introduced to when seeing the Pizzaplex for the first time, but hiding a much darker secret.
"I made it! I need to check Freddy's room," Gregory said. He ran down the long museum-like corridor, past Chica's bright green room, Monty's blocked off Green Room, and Roxy's cool but colorful room. Then, he made it to the familiar orange-and-red decorations of Freddy's room. Gregory walked through the door inside the room, hoping to find Freddy.
He found nothing of the sort, but in the Back Room, he DID discover something else, something he thought he would never see in a million years...