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paigelts05 · 1 day

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Bad Deduction [FNAF, Renegade AU]

Artwork: https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/Bad-Deduction-FNAF-Renegade-AU-1046547408

Story: https://www.deviantart.com/paigelts05/art/1046548951

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/55526266

Published: Apr 28 2024

This was written for Vanweek, an event hosted by hallogenrobotics on tumblr dedicated to Vanny and Vanessa. I made this as the one thing I'm planning on doing for this event, and I based it on the second day AU prompt 'bad ending', but I'm using it as a regular prompt, meaning that this is day 1's Free space and free space means Renegade AU time, because it immediately gave me ideas and allowed me to flesh out what happened between the end of the Raid and before Prelude of Ruin. So here we have a post-Raid pre-Ruin scenario, where everyone thinks things are finally going to die down, but Faz Ent is planning on kidnapping Ness in order to "regain control over Vanny". A fact that makes Sylvia's thoughts that she'll be able to go home in a few days sting just a little more.

=°•.🌹.•°=

Immediately after the Raid, Officer Vanessa Sylvia Blake's first dream is a horrible nightmare born from the little Seer's deductions. The Seer keeps trying to figure out every little detail of the megaplex, now more than ever thanks to having more information thanks to the Raid, but he manages to pull a sleeping Sylvia into his deductions too because of one ghost who had good intentions.

You see, Sylvia is posessed by Elizabeth and Gregory is posessed by Evan, and Liz wanted to help out her brother and the Seer whom he possesses, but she didn't know that it it would pull her own host into the deduction too.

Now in a mindscape born of information and deductions, Sylvia can't do anything but live through one of Gregory's Bad Deductions.

=°•.🌹 Story 🌹.•°=

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[🌹 Worst night's sleep 🌹]

Sylvia was exhausted.

The Raid had taken a toll on both her body and mind, so as soon as she got back to her temporary accommodation and sat down on her bed, she fell asleep, still in her old, torn, and bloodied guard uniform.

Fire raged around Sylvia.

Where… Was she?

She couldn't see much at all, and couldn't hear anything over the fire alarm, but she ran towards what she hoped was an exit. All the smoke seemed to be traveling that way. Her head was too fuzzy to remember if that was the correct option or the wrong option. But she had to take that chance. Her brain felt as if it was as full of smoke as her lungs.

As she ran, she found herself running up a flight if stairs, and then she hit fresh air.

Fresh early morning air.

It was still dark.

She couldn't see the stars.

And not a person in sight.

She headed over the edge of the building, hoping to gain some bearings on where she was.

Sylvia didn't exactly know what she was seeing.

A white blob surrounded by red on the floor below the megaplex.

Why was she back at the megaplex? Why was she on the roof?

Hadn't she just left that place for good? The Raid was over now; she never had to step foot back in this place again, right?

She tried to remem-

It suddenly felt as if a huge chunk of her mind had been ripped out. Her memories were failing her. But she couldn't let that stop her.

She had to save her sister before she could leave this place.

Then once they were out, she'd be able to help Mike plan the Raid as they'd finally have proof of Faz Ent kidnapping Ness.

But something in her gut told her that there was no goal anymore.

As she kept on looking down at the shapes on the tarmack below, they made sense.

That was the Vanny costume.

'Strange, why would she just throw it off the roof? Did someone free her when I wasn't looking?'

She thought to herself as the scene below was still a blur in her mind.

She felt as if she knew that she was in denial.

She kept on looking, and noticed something she already knew would make her wish that she hadn't seen it.

The costume wasn't empty.

The mask was a smaller white blob, and she saw the distinctive bleached blonde hair; one of the many things William had forced her sister into doing was bleaching her hair.

She had already seen everything on the ground below clearly, but just didn't want to acknowledge what she was seeing.

She did not want to acknowledge what she was seeing.

Her sister was on the ground, surrounded by blood, at the foot of the fire escape.

And so was Freddy, broken beyond reasonable repairs.

Had… Freddy pushed Ness off of the roof?

Even from up here, it was clear that Ness was dead. There were no signs of breathing. Her neck was at an awkward angle. There was too much blood, and Sylvia knew what too much blood actually looked like.

Nothing short of possession would save Ness now.

She had one question on her mind.

Why?

Why did that bear kill her sister?

Sylvia couldn't will herself to move. No matter how hard she tried or how much she wanted to run down the fire escape steps, she could hardly move. The tears didn't stop falling either. She didn't know when she started crying, but she couldn't stop. And even if she could, she wouldn't. She couldn't stop shaking. The mere thought of moving made her feel as if she was going to collapse. The heat around her from the building burning below her made her feel as if she was going to burn, but even with the fire, she still felt cold.

Distant.

So very very dizzy.

A flood of memories hit her like a truck. The raid was over. This was all suposed to be over. Why was she back at the breach. Why was her sister's hair back to bleached blonde when she'd dyed it before the Raid. Why did Freddy push her sister off of the roof again. Why was she far too late to grab her like she did last time, during the Raid when William controlled Freddy into making that attempt on Ness's life?

Why was she seeing this horrid scene in front of her eyes.

Sylvia collapsed to her knees. If her sister was dead, then the past month of her life meant nothing. Everything she tried to achieve had just been ripped away. Her sister would never experience the freedom they'd worked so hard to reclaim.

She didn't care as everything faded as the fire surrounded her.

Because even if the fire escape was still functioning, she didn't see a point.

Sylvia woke up slowly. There was no scream, nor was there a moment of shooting up out of bed.

Instead, she crawled out of bed, still shaking. She slowly pulled herself to her feet, but collapsed to the floor with a loud thud. As she hit the ground, she felt her hands brush against her face. Her cheeks were burning with tears, and she hadn't even noticed.

As she tried to pull herself up again, she heard the door open.

"Is everything OK? Gregory said he heard crying and then a thud."

It was Ness. She was alive.

Sylvia tried to open her mouth to respond, but only a pained wail escaped.

Almost as if on instinct, Ness crouched down by her older sister's side and gave her a hug.

Ness didn't need to know the specifics of Sylvia's dream to know vaguely what happened: Gregory had nightmares about the Breach incident and Raid. Ness just figured that her older sister was just having much of the same.

[🌹 Explanations 🌹]

Sylvia went over to Ness, Luis, and Gregory's room for the rest of the night. As Ness got back into bed, Sylvia noticed that the laptop that stored a copy of all of the Breach incident security camera recordings was not only on, but plugged into the wall. And Gregory was sitting nearby, looking a bit nervous.

"Gregory, are you running deductions again?" Sylvia asked.

Gregory nodded.

"You don't need to. Please, let the adults handle this. I know you don't trust adults to handle stuff properly, and believe me, you're justified, but you're still a kid," Sylvia wasn't mad: she couldn't be. She tried doubly hard to make sure that her tone matched her intentions too, because she genuinely just wanted Gregory to go back to having a childhood, "Try to enjoy yourself whilst you can. Deduce the best speedrun for your favourite game or something, please."

Gregory shook his head. "What was your nightmare about?" He asked with a particular look in his eyes. One of knowing and seriousness. Sylvia knew the look in Gregory's eye: he wasn't trying to change the subject.

"I was on the megaplex rooftop, and from what I could put together, Freddy had pushed Ness off of the roof before I got there…" Sylvia replied.

Gregory nodded.

"I'm sorry," the kid mumbled, "I don't know how, but you're connected to my deductions."

"It's Elizabeth," Sylvia stated almost immediately, "you saw her during the Raid. She only starting to appear after my managers started to micro-inject remnant into me well before the Riot, and she's why I was put in therapy. She'd been somewhat dormant until the Raid. Then during it, she started manifesting more again. Then you remember, in the fight against Afton: she wanted him dead more than I did I swear, she just flat out took over and was the last push we needed to make William burn himself alive. She's really changed since the CL4 and EnTrap incidents."

"Go on," Gregory seeemd slightly confused, but also as if he understood everything.

"Basically, now Liz and I have the same sort of connection that you and Evan do, and the fact that Liz and Evan are siblings," Sylvia started, paused, and then took a deep breath before continuing, "But it's simpler than you think: Evan is just asking Liz for help with his deductions: Liz did passively observe my perspective of the Breach, and Evan really doesn't want to accidentally simulate Ness getting torn apart again."

"So how does that put you - the actual you - in my deductions?" Gregory asked, knowing that Sylvia probably already knew the answer.

"When Liz accepted to help with the deduction, she essentially just joined the deduction; simple as that. And guess who also wound up getting dragged in because her body is connected to Liz's ghost because she's possessing me: me."

Gregory was silent for a moment before he replied. "How did you figure this out?"

"I just figured it out I guess. Helps that dealing with stuff like this is my day job. I'm sure you've noticed that you just know things that only Evan should know about," Sylvia mused, she would have not been entirely sure if it wasn't for the fact that she has spent plenty of time around posessed folk and had to learn how it all worked for her job as a paranormal responder, "It's that. Well, it's a bit more complex than that, but it's basically that: we can sometimes feel each others thoughts and emotions because she lives in my central nervous system."

"Figured as much," Gregory nodded, "I keep remembering the war that Evan died in, so you knowing that Liz agreed to help with deductions and you getting dragged in as a result should have been obvious."

"You're like, ten or something, knackered from the Raid, and have been running deductions - with memory locking - instead of sleeping. I'm surprised that you actually remember who I am," Sylvia gave Gregory a pat on the head as she spoke, "get some rest, kid."

Gregory nodded as he shut the laptop and clambered into bed.

Meanwhile, Sylvia bunkered down at the side of Ness and Luis's bed.

"Aren't you going back to your own room?" Gregory whispered.

Sylvia shook her head. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep without being in the same room as my sister tonight, if I can sleep at all."

"Fair. G'night," Gregory shrugged before falling asleep.

And that left Sylvia alone again.

"Everything ok?" She heard Ness's voice.

Sylvia had to stop herself from jumping; she'd forgotten that her sister was also awake. Ness was just so quiet these days, and just how quiet she was was pretty unnerving, unnerving because Sylvia knew why and how.

Sylvia shook her head. "No, I'm not. I saw you almost die so many times during the Raid, and Liz decided to help Gregory and Evan run deductions, which dragged me into it, which made me have to see you die during that deduction."

As she had spoke, her voice had shook, starting off with a small shake, and ending with Sylvia practically in tears, barely holding on.

She didn't think too much about the silence after she had spoke until she found herself in her sisters arms. Ness had managed to sneak to her side without Sylvia noticing. That much was expected; Ness had had a trial by fire in terms of having to learn to move around silently: William had demanded perfection and had dished out harsh punishments when perfection was not obtained; inhumanely unfair, seeing as that madman had been practically piloting Ness like a meat puppet the whole time that he had controlled her for whilst at the megaplex, so he had - to put it bluntly - been punishing Ness for his own shortcomings birthed of years of inactivity. Thinking about what William had put her little sister through made Sylvia cry even more.

"It's ok. I survived everything William threw at me during the Raid, and that nightmare of yours was just one of Gregory's deductions," Ness cooed as she held her sobbing sister, "and, if William wants to possess me again, he has to do so normally. His 'alternative vector' won't work anymore."

"Alternative vector?" Sylvia asked, "like, as in VR headsets?"

Ness shook her head. "Nope," she smiled, "that old family heirloom that I thought was the whole reason why he was able to possess me in the first place. 1 - it's broken now, and 2 - all it does, well did, was reduce my resistance to possession. Our great great great grandma was a medium who was resistant to possession so getting posessed hurt more, so she made it to help her help ghosts better and not be in agony so much, but cos it was made so so long ago, before anyone started to bother understanding ghosts, it had a bunch of complications. Like being tied to our bloodline because the use of it inadvertantly filled it with remnant - which GGG Gran did not know about either. So, it was only really useful to William because I already had a blood tie to it and a low possession resistance. It basically let him slip out of the headset he was hiding in and into me without causing the tell-tale pain that getting posessed by Mr I-got-springlocked-three-or-more-times would cause."

"So that's why when it happened to Cassey, she passed out, but when it happened to you, all you felt was pain in your eyes from where he jumped from the headset to you," Sylvia mumbled.

"That's right!" Ness nodded, "and that's why I was in pain when he tried to possess me during the Raid."

Sylvia started to shake. She briefly remembered how she felt when she had been posessed: she had been the second. Between Jeremy and Cassey. To think her sister had gone through such pain? After all this? Sylvia found her cheeks drenched in tears; she couldn't stop crying.

"I just made it worse didn't I…" Sylvia heard Ness mumble before her little sister sighed, "well, I guess I'll just have to keep you company untill you go back to sleep."

Sylvia didn't remember when she nodded off, and she didn't remember if she'd had a dream or not. But her back and butt ached from sitting on the floor all night. She panicked for a moment until she saw Ness still sitting beside her, asleep, breathing, and Sylvia only then realised that she was leaning on Ness.

As she pulled herself together and thought about the day ahead, Sylvia thought to herself, "just a few more days in this cursed town, just gotta get through the paperwork and questioning, and we'll all be able to go home."

°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•🌹•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°•°°

@vanweek2024

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