A Guard's life

Failure on all fronts

A/N: I'm sorry, this is a day late. I didn't mean for that to happen.

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The call came unexpected, no, the call was completely out of the ordinary. For Jeremy who had been used to ignore the ringing inside of his house for so long, seeing this new weird number on his display was almost a shock.
Maybe someone accidently called the wrong number?
Hesitant his hand hovered over the receiver, he felt Marion stare at him.
What is the problem?
"I don't recognize this number..." That earned him a weird side-glance. Not because there was something wrong with not recognizing a number, but rather because it appeared to bother the guy this much that he didn't want to accept the call. Wasn't it somewhat normal to not recognize a number?
But the Marionette kept silent, it wasn't his position to judge or decide for Jeremy... at least not for something this petty.
Another second the boy left his hand over the phone, before finally pick it up, right at the last ring. "H-Hello, Jeremy Fitzgerald speaking?"
"Thank heavens that I managed to reach you." The voice sounded calm, friendly, but somewhat distant. "Ethan Cross, maybe you remember that we talked back in January?"
"Oh, YES! That has been an eternity! I always wondered what came from the investigation!"
This created a short pause. It struck Ethan as weird that the man's first instinct was to ask for the investigation and not for his reason to call. "Nothing. The parts were shipped off before we could properly identify the DNA inside of the robots."
"DNA?" There was a hint of fear inside his voice.
"You heard me correctly. There was some sort of... residue. Once more, we could not identify what it was and this is the reason I am calling you today."
"But that has been... months now! A-and weren't you just trying to catch whoever broke them apart?"
"Was that what you have been told? Anyway, Jeremy- can I call you Jeremy?"
"Of course!"
"Thank you. Can I ask you to answer some questions for me in person?"
"In person...?"
"Do you mind that?"
"Not... really, no. It's fine, I was just surprised! W-Where?"
There was some hesitation. "I am open for suggestion, but for the time being I would say we should meet at your place? If you don't mind it that is."
"No, it's fine! When will I be seeing you?" Jeremy hadn't had any visitors since Mike and Mr. Phone Guy had broken into his house and felt somewhat anxious. It was clean and all, but still, he would feel a bit judged.
"At what point would I be the least bothersome?" Politely the detective replied.
"I-If you're asking like this... how about at three? I would have tea and maybe some cookies ready!"
The man on the other side of the phone smiled, unknown to Jeremy. This kind of person wasn't too rare, but they were pleasant... usually it were mothers who had barely any idea what was going on, but didn't feel the need to be worried about anything. They met them when they tried to talk to a kid or teenager who might have witnessed something and while they could take up a lot of time with useless banter, they still were Ethan's favorite type to talk to. It reminded him that they were real people, who don't know anything about murder or killing, who just wanted the best for their kids and saw helping the police as some sort of honor or good deed that they wore with pride. When he and his partner would leave they wouldn't have stirred up to much drama and the mother would go back to maybe cooking dinner, or telling her friends and family about the interesting thing that had happened, without too much worry, without any fear.
Alright, some people despised them for their ignorance, but Ethan saw them as exactly what they wanted to protect. Those innocent people who tried their best and were kind to everyone they could be, those people who didn't understand what laid under the surface of the human mind, but trusted the authorities like him to keep them safe and secure.
For a peaceful and worry-free society.
A split second passed in which he almost sighed deeply, but he fought that reflex down, as to not worry the person on the other side.
"U-Uh... sir? Are you still there?"
Dammit! "Excuse me, I got shortly distracted... also, didn't we already agreed to use first name? No need for using "sir" with me, Jeremy. Would you be so kind as to tell me your address, so I can ensure I have the right one?"
The kid told him and once more Ethan was smiling. "Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to meeting you. Goodbye."
"Likewise! Goodbye!" With that last word Jerry had almost instantly mashed the receiver back where it belonged, breathing in and out, trying to get his nervousness out of his body. He didn't even noticed himself tensing up to this degree.
The Marionette tilted his head, having listened to the one sided conversation, but still expecting the full story... for which he didn't even had to ask.
"It was one of the police man! You remember, back in January? He said he had a few questions for me and would like to come over for a while... it's about something he found in the Toys but couldn't identify?"
They probably found years old remains of the children... at least the part that Phone Guy could not reach.
"If you say so... but the less I know the better I think... so please leave it at that. Except you think he can somehow help us?"
The animatronic paused and considered it for a while. He had always thought about initiating Ethan into what was going on, but deep down he couldn't stop doubting that Ethan's nature would bring him to use official means... ending in his swift execution. When faced with someone like Dave you couldn't rely on the normal justice system. There was a chance that at one point the man might become desperate enough to use the... other route and take it all into his own hands... but for now he doubted that Ethan was the right man for the job.
Also, what was he supposed to do? Despite being literally the victim, who would believe a bunch of machines? There was nothing they could PROVE... and even if common sense would only allow that conclusion... for some reason Freddy's managed again and again to tear itself away from the edge of shut-down.
It was as if the whole fucking franchise was haunted, not only the robots.
People were surprisingly opposed to the idea of ghosts in general, even if the evidence stared them directly in the face.
"Marion?" Apparently the boy still expected an answer. Fine.
Not yet. Maybe one day he will understand... for now I cannot risk him acting on his own accord and harming himself and our plan.
"Plan?"
Okay, I admit, I have no plan yet, but... for now I can keep my option open, if he acts in the wrong way then we will have a harder time and our enemy will be alarmed.
"Marion, let me be honest with you, I hate how you're talking about this. Who is the enemy, Marion? Why does anybody have to be the enemy?"
BECAUSE CHILDREN DIE HERE, JEREMY.
"... We've had this discussion already." The boy hugged himself, leaving the Puppet to screech internally. Jeremy was as opposed to believe that Dave and Old Sport killed the children as a normal person was to believing in ghosts. It made Marion want to scream out in frustration and bash his stupid little head in.
Though, it didn't matter, of course it didn't. Jeremy didn't have to be a part of the revenge and he didn't have to know about anything. As long as he was careful in what he told him... also, the boy's kind nature would make him excellent at freeing souls. Where others might turn away, calling the machines all killer robots, he'd fight through it and see them for what they really were; confused, helpless children.
So... have him play along for now, distract him a bit with tasks that are a bit tedious, but necessary and in no time they'd be done with William and Orange Guy and off to freeing everyone.
"Anyway, I'll go make some cookies now! You wanna help?"
No... the last time didn't go too well, do you remember?
"Heh, you're right! Then get comfortable, I'll be a teeny tiny bit busy for now!"
So Marion did! They put on the TV and let a few cartoons run in the background... but the Puppet paid it barely any mind, instead taking in the ambiance.
Sunlight crept through the rooms as the day went on and the unobtrusive noises out of the kitchen, the clanking of pots and Jerry's humming created a scene so peaceful, it put him into some sort of comfortable trance.
This must be what home felt like. Quiet, calm, warm and nice.
A bothersome hint of worry sneaked into his being as the possibility of the detective breaking into this place and disturbing Jeremy's happiness made itself apparent... but no. It was hard to bring Jeremy out of balance, no matter what you threw at him.
Yet... he was a bit nervous...
As the day went on, the shadows became shorter and the sunrays even hotter. At some point Jeremy had finished his brownies and joined Marion on the couch, curling up and falling asleep.
What a lazy Sunday.
Softly he forced the kid awake when the bell rang and then went to hide in the bedroom, listening in to their conversation.
When the man came in, the first thing he noticed was how empty it was. Yes, there was furniture, but it was mostly the necessary and seemed all rather old. Nonetheless, the place was warm, in appearance just as much as in actual temperature and inviting. The many pictures on the wall sure did their fair share for that effect...
Quietly he wondered if the boy had younger siblings that drew for him or if he kept any pictures the children in his workplace handed him. There were a lot of Freddy's typical motives, so much was apparent.
"Please come in, sir- I mean, Ethan. Sit down, I have tea ready in the kitchen and... I hope you like brownies?"
With a soft laugh the adult looked at his subject. "I thought you would have normal cookies that one always keeps back for guests... now it turns out you made brownies? May I ask for what occasion they were made?"
"O-Oh, I had a bit spare time... so... uh..." Jerry laughed a bit awkwardly, hoping the detective wouldn't see him as weird or anything.
"Well, in that case I should count myself as lucky. Thank you, Jeremy." He took one and tried it, they were delicious! Freshly baked and still warm inside. But... he had to come to the questions. "I would expect of someone who usually holds the nightshift to sleep most of the morning...? Or am I mistaken in saying you are a nightguard?"
"Not mistaken, no... we all switch shifts! Depending on who feels ready to do it, every dayshift guard is also a nightshift guard!"
"Interesting. But isn't that quite exhausting? Changing your sleep cycle so much?"
"It's... alright." Hesitant Jeremy began thinking about it. "After I come back from Freddy's I can always sleep fairly easily and feel pretty rested afterwards! Heh, if I'm thinking about it, Sundays are the days that leave me the most unrested and exhausted. We also can sleep in between our shifts, for example we all sleep before the nightshift starts... the chairs were made extra comfy just for that!"
Ethan's fingers tapped against the table, a semblance of worry creeping into his demeanor. "Seemingly Freddy's isn't for everyone though. Quite the amount of people disappeared while working there..."
"Not many people like working there... you need to basically have no other life I guess, heh. The working hours are a bit... chaotic, you need to be available at almost any time. I don't mind it though! Really! I enjoy having this routine."
"Excuse me, but let me say that again. People quite literally disappear from the face of the earth while working at Freddy's. Never to be seen again." With great attention Ethan watched the kid in front of him, this distraction has surprised him. Was the boy hiding something or was he this ignorant?
"I've heard of it..." A bit taken aback Jeremy nodded, his smile vanishing. "But while I worked at Freddy's, nothing of this sort happened. Everyone is satisfied with working there and no one ever mentioned leaving... let alone disappearing without reason. Sorry I can't help you on this topic."
"You have no idea what could have happened to them?"
"Not really, no." Really, for a moment Jerry sat back. What happened to employees who got... stuffed...?
Ethan nodded. For now he would believe the boy. "There are a few other things I would like you to tell me about."
"I will answer as well as I can..."
"What did your boss tell you about our task at Freddy's?"
"I was told that he hoped that-" What was he told again? "- you could take a look at them, find out who broke them and something about legal things? Insurance?"
Sounds about what you would tell a person who has no idea and didn't ask any questions. Well, it was about the right type of guy a Freddy's employer would want to work for them.
"Jeremy. He lied to you. We were actually called as some unknown person claimed that there were... hints... to a previous case hidden inside the machines and that they were to be shipped off soon. It was nothing substantial, so we were unable to hold them back."
"A previous case?"
"The disappearance of a boy. Gary Baker was his name. He disappeared in a previous location, namely the one in California, out of which the robots were shipped over."
Jeremy stayed quiet for a while, not knowing what to say. "But... you didn't found anything?"
"Nothing substantial."
"Maybe... there was nothing...?" It somewhat sunk in that the robots he had fought of at night were really possessed. No, he didn't forget, but he... suppressed. It made thinking back of staring them into their faces in terror a hint more depressing.
Yet, what was he supposed to say? Tell them the robot had them inside all the time?
They were gone, both children and robots- wait.
No.
Marion would have told him if the children would have been in trouble, right?
Of course! Marion cared about the children!
"Do you really believe that?" The man crossed his arms and sat back.
"Well, yeah, because... you would have found something, right? You can't just hide a corpse somewhere and nobody notices...!"
"Usually not. But Freddy's seem to be talented at getting away with odd happenings. For example, children disappear incredibly often around it."
What was he supposed to answer?! No children disappeared while he worked there, he hadn't seen anything and no matter what Marion said, he himself didn't know who did it or why.
Thankfully, or not, Ethan continued. "Do you know what a Serial Killer is?"
"Uh... somewhat...?"
"Serial Killer, or at least the type haunting Freddy's always follow the same pattern. Compulsive. When we first were faced with the case, we thought it was an employee, a sick one at that, wanting to get revenge on the company. But more than soon enough it turned out that with that man there was so much more to it... when you want to profile a person, you need to ask yourself what they do what they don't need to do. Now, with our mysterious monster we have a lot of weird habits. Five children. Always, but the ages vary. They get lured away by the person in the suit. This tells us that the man behind the mask always has access to the staff only section and is a long time employee... or maybe even one of the higher ups? Problem with that being that both Henry Miller, as well as William Afton seem to have vanished around the time of Fredbear's Family diner's closing, making them unlikely to be subjects, despite all else making it very plausible. They just... seemed to have left the face of earth, first Mr. Miller, leaving Mr. Afton devastated. A few weeks after that man disappeared as well, suicide is the ongoing theory. Either way, the killings have not stopped. Not to mention that a surprising amount of places with a similar gimmick have fallen victim to murder as well, though far more rarely than Freddy's itself. The children disappear without any trace, which leads us to assume that they are probably dead." At that his demeanor suddenly changed and became far more pain-ridden than before. Silence settled in.
"... Ethan...?" Jeremy worried for this man. He seemed at the brink of insanity.
His voice sounded broken. "They're all dead Jeremy. All of them. I failed and I continue to fail and nothing... nothing changes. We shut down location after location, imprison suspect after suspect. But it all... they all return. Freddy's always returns, but the children..."
Unsure of how to react, the boy helplessly petted the older one's shoulder, quite a reach but he managed.
At the touch Ethan seemingly snapped out of it, moving away, a shaky laugh followed. "Wow... I'm... sorry, this is incredibly unprofessional."
"But understandable..." Quietly Jeremy added. "... Who wouldn't feel horrible about this situation? Yet... did you... lose someone yourself...? I'm sorry if it's none of my business..."
Her birthday would have been yesterday. In retrospect he should have known better than to schedule this event... but he wanted to be stronger than this. He wanted it so bad, but he forget that he couldn't will things like that into existence.
But at least wear that burden with a semblance of composure. "Her name... was Evelyn. And her death had been purely my fault."
"I never understand when people say that. It is as if the killer has nothing to do with it."
"Ha- you're right, kid. But as... when you... as a parent..." For a moment he trailed off. "I shouldn't have told her about the case. I told her I was searching for a few kids at Freddy's... I thought- I didn't think anything of it, because it was a Freddy's in another area, far enough away to feel safe... to feel... at that point we were positive to find them before it was too late- or at least had a strong lead... Evelyn, she... she loved to hear stories from my work... and always wanted to hear the newest, even if it was... if I did barely anything for a day, she always wanted details... when she asked me if I asked Freddy if he had seen anything, I laughed it off as a silly child idea, because- as what else were I supposed to see it?" Again, a long pause and his words afterwards were almost too quiet to hear. "I... I didn't expect her to try and help like that. I told her I didn't because... bear's aren't good witnesses. She thought her idea was so great and she was so baffled about me not talking with Freddy that she took it into her own hands and left to go to Freddy's the next day. A different Freddy's naturally, but for some reason... for some ungodly reason she was right where the killer hit next. He took her. He fucking took her along with five others. Because I wasn't quick enough. Because I didn't catch him. Because I let her have those stupid ideas. Because..."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. She wouldn't want that, I'm sure of it..."
"We will never find out, will we?" The man took a sip of his drink. "I would give up my damn worthless life to see her again. But I can't. I... can't. All I can do is find that monster. But... not even that it seems..." There was some almost hysterical laughter, but Jeremy knew how to fight that. He handed him another brownie.
"You will find him! After all, you've been at this for so long... you're probably right at him and just need... I don't know, one last revelation!"
"I need... answers. People keep... avoiding to answer, it is as if Freddy's is one giant conspiracy- I think there might even be more than one killer." His eyes lit up with some sort of suspicion against the guy in front of him. "I want information and I want it now- but life isn't about what I want. For now I would already be happy with SOME answers. Please, what do you know about the animatronics?"
"They're awesome! Dave brought them in one day... or was it Mr. Phone Guy? Dave knows the robots better than anything, but I'm not quite sure who of them ultimately was the one deciding to get them. I'm glad they did though!"
"I've seen one of them harm a customer... or at least strongly inconveniencing him. How is that possible?"
"Maybe he was rude to them? Depends on who we're talking about!"
"They're all robots. They shouldn't care if someone's rude to them!"
"How can you say that? They're all intelligent beings... did you ever try to talk to some of them?" Jerry frowned displeased, but the approaching breakdown quickly got him out of that again.
"Of... of course I did. After what happened to... I asked them... They're a horrible glitch mess..." And after he had been seen talking with them, there were serious doubts about his mental stability. Not that it wasn't warranted, but it... went all downhill from there.
What was he doing?
He was supposed to ask questions!
But... look at him. That boy has no idea what has happened. That kid doesn't even truly understand the amount of terror and pain Freddy's brought to the world. This was a waste of time. A giant, fucking waste.
No, he shouldn't have come here. This was a major mistake, one of an amateur as well.
Slowly he stood up, breathing unsteadily. "Apologies, but I... I need to leave. I am very sorry about this lackluster... interview."
The sudden change left Jeremy shocked. "Sir- I mean, Ethan! Are you sure you don't want to... stay for a while? You don't seem so good."
"No. I need to leave. Thank you for your time Jeremy." But before he could leave, the boy held him back.
"If you have more questions, you can call me anytime! And come over! When I'm not at work I'm pretty much always here. Uh... that... offer goes also if you want to just talk...! I'm interested in the theories and I... I would like to help in any way I can."
"That's really nice of you, but-"
"I'd... also be curious to hear about Evelyn. If that helps to make you feel better, I mean..." A moment it was quiet. "... S-sorry if that's... rude..."
"No... no. It's alright. We will speak again, Jeremy." When he wasn't a mess.
"Goodbye!"
Quietly he watched the detective leave, feeling a pit of sorrow in his stomach. Would he understand all that Freddy's was? Would he ever find the children?
Would it be good for him?
Nervous Jeremy looked around towards the Puppet, but it didn't seem that he had been the one saying that. This was his own mind asking if the man really would be happy if he found his daughter inside a machine.
Evelyn Cross...
Maybe he should try to do some research later.
Marion was still distracted with something.
Wonder what that is?
Well, if Jeremy would bother to ask, he would find out that Marion was trying to use his powers to check in with the restaurant. It was supposed to be closed and it probably was... or at least it were only Dave and Old Sport rummaging around in there, playing with their "children" and having an unfairly good time for being sinners.
For a moment he pulled back, losing focus.
Who would take the nightshift?
Usually Sunday was more of a... weird day. Sometimes they still went full force on the guard in question, sometimes they were too lazy and tired to do anything at all. It depended on what they did in the daytime and how they personally felt over that night.
Now, those new animatronics... they were a wildcard.
Hopefully Orange Guy took the nightshift, at least then no one would get hurt.
...
... Not that he cared.
They were all just... tools.
Right?
Jeremy's soft touch made him jerk up a bit. His friend looked at him with slight worry, but on his lips was a soft smile. "What a day! There I was thinking we would just laze around!"
We SHOULD laze around. We deserve a break from this mess.
"If you want to?" Surprised the human tilted his head, seeing his partner wanting to take a break was rare enough. "Hey, maybe we'll find a new good series!"
Floating next to him, Marion forced the weird fears out of himself. The Guard would be fine. For some reason they were always fine.