Chapter 21: Fear

[Time skip: one week]

Carman had a twisted sense of satisfaction as he altered the disabled Gardemeks that Ryuzu draged into his hidden workshop. Taking a machine that the majority of Fontainians found comforting and saw as a source of safety and turning it into something that would cause fear amongst Vacher and his underlings brought a sinister smile from time to time as he pondered the looks of fear he would eventually garner if his plan worked.

With a slightly unhinged giggle, he added a music box into the chassis of the largest Gardemek. It was a pain to make, but using some tools he borrowed from Livre he managed to recreate, although a slightly off tune, version of a popular song from his former world.

After attaching the altered armor plates in the front of the Gardemek, he sat down with satisfaction plastered on his face, with this first prototype complete he could now start his revenge against Vacher. All he had to do now after the week of work he only had to wait for nightfall.

...

.....

..

It was a normal night for Andre, while some of his older coworkers were on guard and looking out for a ln entity that people in their line of work had come to call "the Pale Lady."

Andre was not afraid, from what he had heard, the masked woman only roughed up individuals who picked a fight with her, if you just stood by and only tried to speak with her, when would only brush you off and knock you out if you tried to run. Unlike the fools that surrounded him who were thinking that they would be the first to catch or at least land a blow on her, he knew that realistically, with their level of training and lack of visions they had no chance of even see her coming if she put an ounce of effort into infiltrating the building they were guarding.

Andre was woken from his musings by the sound of a music box being played from somewhere. The others heard it to, it sounded fairly jovial, like something you'd play to a young child. Had a kid dropped their toy somewhere?

The captain sent one of the others to investigate. At best they would find an abandoned toy, at worst an unlucky baffon who had accidentally set the toy off when trying to sneak into their perimeter.

Andre looked around, shiverring briefly as a cool breeze blew through the alleyway they were stationed in. He heard the guy they had sent yell something about only coming across a deactivated looking Gardemek before suddenly going silent.

Andre was sent to go look for him alongside a few others in case the last guy had been ambushed, as they turned the corner, they found no trace of their teammate splitting up to investigate, Andre stayed behind.

Something in this alleyway was off.

It wasn't until he felt an unfamiliar presence behind him that he realized what, where is the deactivated Gardemek?

As he felt the presence behind him he quickly turned around and tried to stab whoever was behind him with the knife he kept on his belt.

The tip of the blade chipped and broke as it made forceful contact with the hard armor plating of a Gardemek. The Gardemek was tilting it's head down at him, the sound of a musicbox started playing once more and Andre realized that it was coming from the machine in front of him as he also heard another sound coming from the machine, the muffled, distorted, yet eerily recognizable sound of a child's laughter.

As the music started to reach a crescendo, pale blue lights began to flicker behind the lenses of the kameras that served as the Gardemek's eyes casting a chilling glow over Andre. As the fear built up in the man, he noticed that the construct has started to move slowly towards him, one painfully slow step at a time. This was nothing like the Pale Lady, this machine was like a panther playing with its prey before landing a fatal blow, and Andre was quickly reconsidering the choices that lead to him being in this situation. He wanted to scream, but his body didn't want to make a sound as the machine came closer, when it was mere inches from his face, the machine said one garbled word.

"..rrrRuuU-Nn-n"

Andre bolted without a second thought, he no longer cared about how much this job had been offering or how this would affect his reputation as a fledgling member of the underground, all he cared about was getting as far away from that machine as possible. Ruin Guards were destructive and deadly, but they were noisy and lacked any form of stealth. That Gardemek was so silent that he didn't notice it until it was right behind him.

He heard the screaming of his team and only further increased his speed, he only slowed down when he reached a main street. As his mind calmed down from the adrenaline, he realized that his life as a criminal was over and he resolved himself to get a real job. As he walked down the street he felt his heart try to jump into his throat as another large Gardemek turned from an alley and stated walking towards him. Thankfully it's kameras were not glowing, and it walked past him without issue.

While tying up the unconscious criminals Ryuzu turned to the large Gardemek, "You have a twisted sense of humor"

"Ah sorry, I'm still pissed about nearly being dissolved into a puddle, and scaring these a$#holes $h!#less is oddly cathartic. I'm also laughing because now I know what it's like being on the giving end of a creepy robot chasing humans." Said the Gardemek, it's voice still the garbled.

"So malfunctioning automatons were a frequent issue in your former home?" Asked Ryuzu questioningly.

"No, no. Back in my old home there was a game where one had to actively avoid or activate barricades to prevent these humanoid machines that were possessed by dead children, don't ask, from coming into the room you were confined in and killing you, that's what this is based off of." Said the Gardemek as it waver a hand over it's appearance.

"Speaking of, there's another thing I wanted to do." Said the Gardemek as it used it's hand to scrape a hand along the wall, breaking the plating to carve a message into the marble bricks.

[He sends his regards,Vacher.... the one you should not have killed]

It was very tempting to write "It's me" but in a world that hadn't been exposed to the wonderfully twisted world of FNAF, the missing context would have made the quote lose it's meaning and impact.

While detaching the now broken hand to put a new one in place the Gardemek spoke to Ryuzu once again. "So you think I scared that kid straight? You said he looked like a newbie, having only shown up in the past few days, since he likely hasn't done anything too horrible I let him off with only some soiled pants and trauma unlike these fools."

Ryuzu nodded her head, "It would appear so. I followed as he ran off, from what I could hear of his mutterings, he no longer cares about his credibility as a criminal and has sworn to turn over a new leaf, from the flinch he made when he came across another Gardemek, it would seem he is not eager to engage in any activities that would potentially earn their ire."

Nodding solemnly, the Gardemek turned towards the deeper alleys of Fontaine, saying one final thing to Ryuzu, "I'm going to head back, this model is not yet ready for looting and destroying hidouts, I'll leave that to your capable hands, Pale Lady." It said chuckling at the end as it disappeared into the shadows.

-To be continued