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and-stir-the-stars · 1 year

Text

Necessary context for the following one-shot:

au: Silent Protector

Evan Afton has been acting as an aloof and secretive but caring "protector" for the spirits inside the fnaf 1 animatronics since sometime after his death

While Evan (or the "Protector", as the only name the missing children know him by), did a "good job" of protecting them by encouraging the missing children to kill night guards that threatened them, things went haywire for the kids when Michael Afton/Schmidt showed up as the night guard

Evan used the Fredbear suit to kill Mike, but all the children found to their horror that Michael's spirit is inside the Fredbear suit now

the kids have been watching the suit, waiting for it to attack them, only... it hasn't. It just sits there without moving. This is a relief to the other kids, but only serves to make Evan obsessively worried.

Sometime before the one-shot, a night guard tried getting rid of the spirits by burning the fnaf 1 location to the ground. The kids all thought they were done for... until Michael stopped the night guard from hurting them.

Fritz had a complicated relationship with being alone.

He hated it, if he was honest.

All those months alone in Pirate's Cove.

No. Not months. Years. It must have been years, at this point. But he had no idea how many; every day sort of… blended together.

Those years of being stuck on Pirate's Cove, his friends so close but permanently out of reach, and all those people staring him in the face and laughing as he screamed in pain, screamed for help. Surrounded by people but alone.

Somehow, it had only gotten worse when the purple curtains enclosed him in darkness and all the people disappeared, the words "out of order" dripping from their tongues and tinged with disappointment.

Fritz hated being alone. But all that time inside the Foxy animatronic and tucked away in Pirate's Cove must have messed with his head. Despite how much he hated it, sometimes it felt like there was a part of him that only felt normal when he was alone. It was like he had been Changed, and there was something living in him that craved being away from the others. He liked playing with the others– he enjoyed it, he did– but sometimes it was easier to be alone. Sometimes, the others could be a little overwhelming, and playing with them made him go right back to all that time he had been locked inside Foxy: all alone, except for the people wanting him to smile and laugh when he was begging for help on the inside.

Maybe that was why he offered to watch over this silly suit so often: to get away from the others.

Maybe.

Or maybe it just bothered him how little this animatronic made sense.

Possessed animatronics were meant to be loud and erratic. That had been the case for Fritz and his friends, at least (excluding Evan, but Evan had been dead long before the rest of them, and no one here had seen his early stages of possession). This animatronic wasn't loud or erratic at all. Quite the opposite, actually. It was weird.

And not just that, but it was an adult! According to the Prote– to Evan. According to Evan, he was one of the worst ones; the ones who lashed out when you least expected it; the ones who would pretend to be nice only to hit you where it hurt most; the ones who weren't satisfied with just leaving you alone to suffer, but needed to be there making it hurt so much worse. This adult had to be the worst one imaginable--except, perhaps, for Him– if it had killed Evan.

So why did it do nothing but just sit there with that annoying dead-eyed and slack-jawed face?

Except, that wasn't completely true, was it? The suit had moved not too long ago. When that awful night guard had burned them and trapped their Protector, the suit had… it had saved them. It had gone right back to sitting slumped and motionless after the night guard was dead, but…

As insane as it was… this thing had saved them.

Fritz really, really didn't want to believe it, but it had the scorch marks across its bubbling, melted metal frame to prove it.

The stupid thing didn't many any sense. It had worried Fritz at first– you couldn't defend yourself or the people around you from something you didn't even understand, could you?-- but it wasn't like the thing was attacking them.

Evan said the thing was just biding its time, that it was just waiting for the absolute worst time to hurt them. He was probably right. Evan was always right, and even if he wasn't, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Still, though… it was waiting a long time. Fritz would have gotten bored and given up on the waiting game by now.

…And no matter how hard he had tried, Evan hadn't been able to come up with any sort of explanation for how the suit had acted when the night guard almost burned them all down.

He hadn't been able to explain why he had cried in the thing's arms once the flames had all died down, either.

Everything was so confusing and messy now, Fritz didn't know what to think. And as much as he respected him, Fritz didn't think the Protector knew what to think, either.

Fritz sat in the backroom with his legs crossed, his elbow on his knee, his chin resting in his palm, and his fingers thrumming boredly against his cheek. Huffing, Fritz straightened as he stared the Monster in its soulless black eyes.

"You've caused us a lot of trouble, you know," Fritz whispered in the dark. "Things were so much easier before you came along."

(Fritz had long ago learned to ignore how different his voice was now. Or– he was fairly certain he hadn't always sounded like this, but then again, his memories weren't always the greatest. Suzie, Gabriel, and Jeremy's voices all had the slightest southern drawls to them, like the animatronics' voices they had all been forced to speak through. Fritz's voice was… well, he wasn't sure how to describe the strange accent he had picked up other than 'pirate-y.')

The eleven-year-old rolled his eyes as the suit, completely surprisingly, didn't respond to him. Fritz didn't even know if this thing understood anything that was happening around it. But then again, it had to. How else would it have been able to fight back against the night guard that had tried burning this place down?

The Monster was like a stupid puzzle with pieces that never quite fit together no matter how many combinations you tried. It was a confusing mystery that just didn't make sense no matter how hard you squinted at it… but Fritz had always liked mysteries, ever since his mom started reading him stories about adventurers and detectives. He hadn't always understood the things that happened in the stories, but he had liked coming up with predictions for how the story would end that made his mother laugh. And he had loved the way her eyes would sneak up from the page to steal glances at him as she read the story's solution, eager to see the look of astonishment on his face as all the puzzle pieces that solved the mystery fell into place within his mind right before the big reveal happened…

Fritz had always been a curious and inquisitive boy; perhaps too curious for his own good, in the end. But if there was ever a mystery worth solving, it was this one.

He couldn't help but hesitate, though. Call him crazy, but… well, trying to talk to the giant possessed murder robot that had every reason to be mad at them– the only thing that their fierce Protector had ever been scared of– probably wasn't the kind of thing the others would agree to.

Then again. The others weren't here.

He knew them well enough to know that they really, really wouldn't like it. But, it wasn't as though they had ever outright said not to talk to it. Evan had said not to listen to it, sure, but only because he was scared of it tricking them. Fritz was a clever boy, though. It wasn't easy to trick him at all, if he said so himself. Besides, the dumb suit would have to actually talk before Fritz could even begin to worry about Evan’s command– no, not command. Friendly suggestion.

Rising to his feet, the eleven-year-old prowled closer to the crispy golden bear.

If he was going to try talking to the Monster, he was going to be the one towering over the Monster. He would be the one with the high ground here.

(...Fritz decidedly ignored that the lumbering bear suit was so big that even slumped against the wall, Fritz was only just barely taller than the thing.)

"Listen up, Mikey." Pausing for dramatic effect, Fritz glared down at the animatronic's lifeless eyes. "You're weird and stupid and annoying as hell. You hurt a friend of mine, and maybe you really do deserve to rot inside that suit like Evan says. But…"

The bravado slipped as Fritz sighed. Shaking his head, Fritz tried to keep on glaring at the Fredbear suit. "Something about you just doesn't make sense. You're an adult. You– you could try doing anything to us if you really wanted to. But you just– you won't do anything, but you won't leave, either. Almost like you want to stay."

Not that Fritz could imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to stay here. Except for him and his friends, Fritz supposed, but that was different; they only wanted to stay because as long as their Protector had been here, this place had been safe.

"And when that monster tried to burn us…" Fritz's throat tightened at the memory of the heat searing his skin– Fritz hadn't even known that was possible anymore– and his friends' voices screaming and sobbing ringing in his ears. "I– I don't know what h-happens to ghosts when someone tries to hurt or k-kill them, but I know it has to be bad, and it was going to happen to us. It should have happened to us, if you hadn't…"

He faltered on the next words. Saved us.

It didn't make sense. No one ever saved you– no adult, at least. Not even the ones who were supposed to care about you and keep you safe.

(Night guards only ever left you to rot. If his own mom hadn't saved him, then why would a night guard, of all people?)

"I don't know why you did it. Maybe you got something out of it. Maybe you had some–"

What was it? He knew what the word was; he'd heard it before, in one of mom's books…

"Maybe you had some upside motive. I can't for the life of me think what that motive could be. But for whatever reason, you wanted us safe."

Throughout Fritz's speech, the animatronic hadn't moved. It was still in the exact same position it had been in since they threw the suit back here after the fire. With how long he'd been watching it, Fritz was confident that if he closed his eyes, he'd still be able to see the animatronic seared onto the back of his eyelids.

While Fritz was by no means surprised by the lack of response, he was annoyed. Sticking out his chin, Fritz stared the animatronic down with renewed vigor.

"Well, if that's what you want, then the least you could do is talk to us. We have questions, you know."

Nothing. No response. If not for that sense in the air making his hairs stand on end, Fritz might have thought that there was no spirit inside the suit at all.

"If you really want us to be safe so bad," Fritz whispered. "Then why did you kill Evan?"

Fredbear's eyeless sockets stared straight through him.

"Come on," Fritz's voice came out in a desperate half-moan. "You don't know what it's like! We all died out of nowhere! The– the things he did to us– he hurt us s-so bad, and we never even knew why! We'll n-never know what we did that was so bad we deserved to die because of it. You'll never know how much that hurts! Never! If just one of us can know why he had to die, then it'll– it'll be worth it! Maybe the answer will somehow help the rest of us heal too, but even if it doesn't– just– just one of us getting that peace has to be enough!"

Fritz held his breath as he stared down at the animatronic.

…Nothing. No response.

"Are you kidding me?!" Fritz hissed. "If you want to help us, then do it! Why help us then and not now?!"

Fritz's eyes started to burn, and the eleven-year-old rubbed at them, furious.

What was that stupid adult doing? Why– why couldn't it– why couldn't it just–?!

Maybe Evan was right. Maybe the spirit inside the suit really was just looking for the best time and way to hurt them.

Maybe that's what this was. Was the adult inside the suit taunting them by not answering? Did it want to get their hopes up and leave them lost and alone in the dark? Did it want to torture them by giving them hope that someone cared, just so it could watch the hope fade from their eyes as it refused to answer?

….If so, it was working. It was really, really working.

"You– you rat bastard!" Fritz's hands shook as he came another step closer to the animatronic. "You're so– stupid! You stink! You stink like a dumpster– nay, like a goddamn sewer! And your stupid hat and bow tie are crusty and gross!"

And of course, the suit didn't move. Which was insane, because this was the point where anyone in their right mind would get offended and try punching him. So how was a stupid, prideful, self-centered adult staying so blank-faced?

In a fit of frustration and rage, Fritz slammed his foot down on the animatronic's three-toed foot– which Fritz knew from experience hurt like hell.

"I hope that hurt ye– you– spineless bilge-rat!" Fritz hissed. He could hear the strange accent strengthening in his voice like it always did when he was mad, but he was honestly too far gone to care. "I know ye can hear me! I– I know you can! And I know you can talk back! Blast it! You– ye stupid, cow-hearted scalawag!"

Turning away from the animatronic, Fritz sucked in a shaky breath. On top of how demoralizing it was that the suit was ignoring him, he hated when his voice did this. It was never this strong for any of the others; this was humiliating!

Fritz took a second to just breathe, trying to ignore the frustrated tears still pricking at his eyes. Maybe he wasn't a great mystery solver after all. Maybe deep down, he had known how this was going to end before it had even started: uselessly.

Fritz was just turning back toward the animatronic when that weird sense in the air suddenly tightened, like a tightrope or a trip wire suddenly going taunt. A frightening grinding gasp drifted into Fritz's ears– but it wasn't the sound that scared him, but the fact that it came directly from the Fredbear suit.

The child stumbled backward in shock– and spewed across the ground as he managed to trip over his own feet.

Fritz stared wide-eyed up at the golden bear. The strange staticky sound echoed in his ears, and it wasn't until right that moment that the child's frazzled brain pieced the sound into words.

"Yo ho ho," the thing had said through its creaky, rusty voice box.

"No way." Still breathing a tad heavily from the shock, Fritz's lips curved into a beaming smile as he shot to his feet. "I knew it! You can talk! I knew it!"

Laughing, Fritz pumped his fist up in the air. As it came back down, though, Fritz met the empty, lifeless hollows the animatronic had for eyes. Fritz's heart twisted around inside his chest, wrenching painfully. What was he doing, pumping his fist in the air like he'd won against his friends in a game? This thing wasn't his friend– it had killed one of his friends! This wasn't a game, Fritz reminded himself. It was an interrogation.

"Did… did you just use your first words to make fun of me?" Fritz gaped at the animatronic.

Fritz waited a few moments, his gaze flicking half-nervously, half-excitedly, and wholly annoyedly over Fredbear’s dingy form.

It still looked exactly the same. Even its mouth was in the exact same position it had been since the kids had thrown the suit back in this room.

The longer Fritz waited for the thing to reply, the more his certainty began to waver.

…Had the thing really spoken? This place was old, and the others were probably dealing with the latest night guard right about now. Maybe the sound hadn't come from the suit at all…?

A growl rose in Fritz's throat. No, the thing had definitely spoken to him! He knew it had! He didn't know why– why now, why him, why that phrase specifically– but the Monster had definitely spoken.

"What are you doing?" Fritz narrowed his gaze at the suit. "What do you hope to gain from this?"

Fritz stalked closer to the animatronic, his eyes never once leaving the suit as though he could make the thing answer him if only he glared hard enough.

The suit didn't answer him. But something else did.

Fritz jumped as the door slid open behind him; the child immediately whirled around, hands flitting behind his back as though in manifestation of his need to hide what he had been doing.

Gabriel was looking at him weirdly. "Fritz? What are you doing?"

Fritz's lips moved soundlessly, gaping like a fish out of water. Then, he smiled. "You won't believe it, Gabe! The suit, it– it talked!"

Gabriel's dark brown eyes widened. Then his gaze flitted to the suit, taking in its motionless form. And Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Haha, good one. But don't make jokes like that. Especially not when, you know, he's around."

Fritz's jaw dropped. "You think I'm joking?!"

"The suit doesn't move," Gabriel said. "And it certainly doesn't talk."

"But it did! I swear!"

"Why would it talk to you?" Gabriel asked. "He hasn't told us how yet, but the Monster knew the Pro– I mean, Evan– back when they were both alive. Surely if it was going to talk to anyone, it should be Evan. Not you."

Fritz puffed out his chest. "Well, it did talk to me."

"Uh-huh." Gabriel raised a skeptical brow at him. "And what did it say?"

Fritz immediately flushed. He mumbled the answer under his breath.

"What was that?"

"It said 'yo ho ho!'" Fritz whined.

Gabriel stared. "The suit… said… 'yo ho ho'..."

"It did!"

"Uh-huh. And did it say anything else?"

"Well, no, but–"

"Fritz." Gabriel sighed. "It's not a good time to make jokes like that, okay? Everyone is on edge enough as it is. You've been watching over the suit for a while now. I was gonna take over, but if you're just gonna try to freak everyone out…"

"No!" Fritz yelped, his eyes widening in horror at the idea of Gabriel taking over.

"No?"

"I mean… I mean, I'm fine. You can, ah, you can go back to helping Jeremy and Suze deal with the night guard, yeah?"

"If you say so." Gabriel stared at him for another few seconds before shaking his head. The door began to shut behind him, but it paused just barely ajar. "Bye-bye, matey."

Fritz flushed all over again as the door clicked shut behind Gabriel. He stared at the door, fuming, before finally turning back to the golden suit with pursed lips and a determined glint in his eyes.

The mystery wasn't over yet, not by a long shot. And if anyone was going to solve it, it was Fritz.

#okayokay this is a very... rough... one-shot.#this is basically like concept art but in writing form #so don't judge too harshly.#silent protector au #fritz fnaf #missing children's incident #fnaf missing children #fnaf missing kids #foxy ghost #fnaf #fnaf 1 #fnaf fic #kats scribbles #no offense but you guys better appreciate this :/#i have a final on friday and i wrote this instead of studying

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