Chapter Text
They didn't encounter any more frozen Fatui soldiers as they pressed deeper into the facility, searching for the reactor core. The suffocating silence of the pitch-black corridor gave them time to think.
"How did he even get the materials to build this entire place?" Oliver mumbled, his eyes straining against the gloom. "If we apply my dimension's logic, and factor in Doctor Barclay's paranoia... he wouldn't want a single soul on Earth knowing what he was doing out here."
Venti tapped his chin thoughtfully as he walked. "Maybe it's a case of him taking people from those other realms as well? He could have abducted engineers and builders from different universes and brainwashed them, just like the soldier we saw."
"Yeah," Oliver nodded slowly. "That's a real possibility." He sighed, his voice echoing faintly. "This hallway goes on forever... but wait, I think I see something up ahead?"
Venti squinted into the darkness. "I see it too. It looks like an opening." Without warning, he grabbed Oliver's hand and tugged him forward.
Oliver gasped, stumbling slightly before matching the bard's brisk pace. "W-Wait, Venti, hold on! We don't want to just burst right into danger!" He blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the shifting shadows. "It's hard to see in this darkness you know!"
Venti slowed his steps but didn't let go of Oliver's hand as they crossed the threshold into a sprawling, cavernous room.
The ground beneath them shifted from solid flooring to grated metal. From what little they could discern, they were standing on a suspended bridge flanked by heavy iron railings. The vast space beneath the walkway was a sheer, terrifying drop-off, plunging into a dark abyss. They could not see the end.
"We could really use some light in here..." Oliver muttered, his grip tightening on Venti's hand. "I wish Claire had given us a flashlight."
Venti adjusted his pace to a cautious stroll, keeping Oliver close. "Just match my speed, and step where I step," the bard murmured softly. "A bridge like this has to lead somewhere important. Maybe this is where everything works in the power plant,"
Oliver nodded, finding comfort in the steady warmth of Venti's hand. They moved deeper into the suspended void, the silence heavy and absolute, until a mechanical chime shattered the quiet.
"Motion Trigger... Circus Gal—" A violent burst of static tore through the female, automated voice. "[zzzt]... Power Plant Energy Sphere."
The two of them froze instantly.
Venti's head swiveled, his glowing braids casting a faint teal aura in the dark. "Huh... what was that?"
Oliver narrowed his eyes. Something about that audio clip dug deep into his brain. That woman's voice... and what it had said right before the violent static glitch. It sounded terrifyingly familiar, but with how stressful the journey had been, his exhausted mind hit a brick wall trying to place it.
"I don't know," Oliver muttered, shaking his head. "But we need to keep moving. We have to save those universes from collapsing."
They crept further along the metal grating until the bridge terminated at the base of a massive, metallic dome. High above the heavy, knobless door, faded industrial lettering read: Power Plant Control Module.
"Great," Oliver grumbled, eyeing the large door. "Another sealed door." He wasn't particularly worried about getting past it—Venti could easily blast it open—but Oliver was growing weary of the noise. If there were more brainwashed Fatui lurking in the dark, tearing down a blast door was a surefire way to invite them over, especially if they were not frozen like the last one they encountered, and were free.
But as Venti stepped up to the threshold, the heavy metal doors hissed and slowly slid apart on their own.
Oliver blinked, staring at the open entryway before glancing down at his boyfriend.
Venti looked up at him, an eyebrow raised. "Hmm... so there is power."
"That's weird... I thought it was completely down." Oliver remembered the motion trigger. "Then again, the PA system just spoke." He scratched the back of his neck, a pit of anxiety forming in his stomach. "Ugh, whatever. Let's just head inside. But slowly."
Venti nodded, stepping through the doorway. "Stay behind me."
Oliver followed, but offered a gentle protest. "Hey, I've changed, you know. I can look after myself." He offered a weak smile. "I have my diamond sword and everything."
Venti let out a soft, airy giggle. "I know you can. But I just want to keep you safe. You're my boyfriend~ It's my duty to protect you."
"It's my job to protect you, too," Oliver whispered back.
As they crossed the threshold, the mechanical voice echoed again.
"Motion Trigger... Funtime F—[zzzt]... Power Plant Control Module."
Despite the power technically being 'on,' the room was suffocatingly dim. It was a massive, circular command center. High above, a ring of faint auxiliary lights traced the ceiling of the dome, but their glow was too weak to reach the floor. A colossal, cylindrical beam dropped directly from the ceiling into the center of the room, plunging straight down into the floorboards.
"I think we should just keep walking straight," Oliver suggested, his eyes scanning the shadows.
But as they moved, the automated voice echoed in his head again. Funtime F... The words rattled against a locked door in his memory. There was something about it, but he couldn't lay a finger on it.
"Ollie?" Venti whispered, glancing over his shoulder. "Are you alright? You look lost in thought."
Oliver was lost in thought, and he was just about to tell the bard exactly what was bothering him, when something in the room caught his attention.
The room was filled with towering banks of supercomputers as they walked more deeper inside, their server racks blinking with tiny, scattered dim lights. But what caught Oliver's attention was a single, flickering fluorescent tube light mounted near the floor at an intersection of server aisles. It would buzz to life for half a second, illuminating a small patch of the grated floor, before dying with a sharp click, plunging the aisle back into total darkness.
It would die with a sharp, electrical pop, plunging the entire aisle back into an inky, suffocating blackness. The cycle repeated, completely devoid of any rhythm. Sometimes the darkness lasted for a second. Sometimes it dragged on for ten.
Oliver noticed a row of identical lights lining the pathway, but they were all completely dead.
He stepped closer, Venti right beside him. "Is the power failing in here?" Oliver murmured.
"I dunno," Venti said, placing his hands on his hips. "Seems like it is. So the lights are working, just... not as intended, I suppose?"
Oliver squinted, using the brief, agonizing flashes of the broken light to peer down the long aisle of servers. "I'm surprised we haven't tripped over anything in the dark yet," he whispered.
"Well, haha, let's just be grateful for that," Venti giggled.
Oliver turned his head, staring down the intersecting pathway.
Click. Buzz.... The light flickered again.
In that split second of harsh illumination from the interval of the flashing florescent light, the shadows at the very end of the hall seemed to warp. It was just a shape, a towering distortion standing perfectly still at the very edge of the light's reach.
The light flickered of again, shrouding everything in darkness.
Oliver froze, his blood running cold. He blinked hard, the afterimage of the blinding bulb burning into his retinas, convinced the darkness was just playing tricks on his exhausted mind. He stood completely rigid, holding his breath, waiting for the bulb to fire again.
Click. Buzz....
Nothing now. Just an empty hallway, the shape was gone.
Oliver didn't relax. In a facility built by a dimensional terrorist, he knew gaslighting himself into a false sense of security was a death sentence. He didn't say a word to Venti, but he mentally reached for the familiar weight of his diamond sword, keeping the magic primed to eventually let lose for him to summon it.
The darkness dragged on... until the light flashed another time.
The silhouette was closer. Much closer. It hadn't walked; it had simply appeared further down the hall, like a photograph skipping forward in a slideshow. It was towering, unnaturally tall, standing completely upright. Just before the bulb died, Oliver saw the light reflect off something sickeningly glossy—and he watched its head twitch with a violent, mechanical jerk.
Venti had seen it too. The bard's playful demeanor vanished instantly. "What in Teyvat was that?" he whispered, his Anemo bow materializing in his grip with a soft, glowing hum. His eyes widened in sheer horror. He slowly turned his head to Oliver. "Ollie... what is that thing?" he looked back down the path again. "Oh? Was it... one of those Fatui soldiers?" he asked. "Were they frozen? I barely saw it, but there's something—"
Click. Buzz.
It was right on the edge of the light now, looming just a few yards away. A massive, bipedal fox. Its body was composed of gleaming, segmented white plastic accented with bright, garish pink. It didn't look like a robot designed for war; it looked like something built for a children's show. As the bulb flared, the animatronic's glossy faceplates violently stuttered—snapping open and shut in a rapid, sickening whir of gears, revealing a grotesque, grinning endoskeleton woven with thick metal cabling underneath.
The darkness was absolute once the light turned off, but the horrible shk-shk-shk sound of shifting metal plates echoed in the black.
Oliver swallowed the lump of absolute terror in his throat and summoned his diamond sword, the blue blade casting a faint, icy glow in the dark.
Click. Buzz. The fox was mere feet away, crouched low in a predatory stance. Its head convulsed wildly, the faceplates spasming outward in a terrifying, mechanical bloom of steel and wiring. Its golden, unblinking eyes were locked directly onto them.
"Get your bow ready," Oliver commanded, his voice trembling but firm.
Click. Black. Total darkness enveloped them. And then, from the void just inches away, a booming, theatrical voice erupted from a hidden speaker box with deafening, distorted volume.
"It seems you couldn't make it to my show, so I brought the show to you!"
Click. Buzz.
The fluorescent light blazed to life, catching the towering animatronic mid-lunge. Funtime Foxy was airborne, its massive metal claws outstretched, its segmented face fully split apart to reveal the horrifying metallic skull beneath.
"It's time to take your final bow!"
Oliver didn't hesitate. He poured every ounce of Cryo magic he possessed into the diamond blade and swung with all his might.
At the exact same instant, Venti pulled back his bowstring and fired.
Oliver's blade slashed in a wide, freezing arc, tearing through the animatronic's plastic chest plate and embedding deep layers of frost into its internal wiring. A microsecond later, Venti's concentrated Anemo arrow slammed into the exact same spot.
The elemental reaction was instantaneous.
A massive Cryo and Anemo Swirl detonated between them. A localized, violent blizzard exploded outward, blasting the massive animatronic backward with the force of a freight train. Funtime Foxy slammed into the metal grating with a catastrophic crunch. Its plastic casing shattered, sending pink and white plates skittering off into the darkness.
The ruined machine convulsed on the floor.
"A-A-A-a p-p-per-per-fo-formance was-was dema-demanded of me-me-me-eeeee," the voice box glitched wildly, sparking as the frozen Cryo magic rapidly melted against the heat of the exposed circuitry. "And now-n-n-n-now-now I have de-de-de-de-delivered. En-n-n-En-En-corr-cor-cor-eeeeeee!"
With a final, violent pop of electricity, the water completely shorted the motherboard. The animatronic's glowing yellow eyes flickered out, and it went dead.
Venti stood frozen, blinking rapidly at the smoking pile of scrap metal, before slowly turning to look at his boyfriend.
Oliver let out a long, shaky breath and dismissed his sword, the diamond blade vanishing into thin air. He stared blankly at the ceiling.
"I just killed Funtime Foxy," Oliver said, his voice entirely monotone. "With a diamond sword. Infused with Cryo magic. Standing next to Venti from Genshin Impact." He slowly dragged his hands down his face. "I feel like I'm a self-insert OC in the most unhinged crossover fanfiction on the internet." He shook his head, a hysterical laugh bubbling in his chest. "Silent Hill... Minecraft... SOMA... Five Nights at Freddy's. What the actual hell."
Venti's small, supportive smile faltered, replaced by total confusion. He clearly had no idea what an OC was, let alone a fanfiction. "Ollie? Babe? Are you alright?"
Oliver dropped his hands, nodding slowly. "Yeah. Just..." He looked down at the dead robot. "Doctor Barclay really imported FNAF animatronics to guard this place. He's a psychopath, but he's not stupid." He looked at Venti. "We're right back to the mortal guard theory. Yes, these things can be destroyed easily enough with magic... but if an ordinary, baseline human wandered in here and saw Funtime Foxy stalking them in the dark? They'd have a heart attack before it even touched them."
Venti straightened up, planting his hands on his hips with a proud giggle. "Well, good thing we aren't 'ordinary Joes'! We're Venti and Oliver! World Savers!"
Oliver blinked, a genuine smile finally breaking through his shock. "World Savers, huh?"
"Is that not exactly what we're doing?" Venti beamed.
"I guess it is." Oliver looked back down the dark hallway, the broken light still buzzing faintly in the background. "And I'm the one who dragged us into this. So we're going to finish it. We have to."
~~~~~~~~
They left the ruined animatronic behind and pushed toward the center of the massive dome.
"Look, over there!" Oliver pointed.
Directly beneath the massive central pillar was a control console. It was the only thing in the room fully illuminated, casting a sterile, blue glow over the surrounding metal. "This has gotta be the main controls, right?"
Oliver ran up to it, staring down at the dizzying array of switches, dials, and keyboards. "Oh god... this is going to be impossible to figure out."
Venti floated up beside him, leaning over the console. "Look over there," he pointed.
Oliver dragged his eyes to the glowing screen set into the center of the desk. The interface was a stark, scrolling terminal feed. "Huh?" Oliver muttered.
SYSTEM OVERRIDE - INITIATED BY: SAMUEL BARCLAY
POWER ROUTING: 96% ALLOCATED TO DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL (EXTRACTION SITES)
POWER STATUS: ACTIVE AT BARCLAY'S OFFICE - MAIN TERMINALPOWER
STATUS: LIMITED IN POWER PLANT SECTOR
Oliver gasped softly. "Oh..."
"What does it mean?" Venti asked, leaning closer.
"Look," Oliver tapped the glass. "The power isn't broken, it's being intentionally diverted. Almost the entire grid is being funneled directly into the transfer chairs for the extraction process."
"Surely the power plant itself shouldn't drain so much energy that it can't even keep its own lights on," Venti blinked, frowning at the screen.
Oliver reached out, tapping a few keys on the console to try and reroute the auxiliary power, or better yet, turn it off.
Instantly, the screen flashed red.
ERROR: INSUFFICIENT CLEARANCE.
MAKE SYSTEM CHANGES VIA MAIN TERMINAL IN OFFICE.
"Main terminal?" Oliver muttered. His mind raced, flashing back to the scattered files he had scoured back at the lab. Some of the printed logs had mentioned data being routed to a 'Main Terminal' instead of being written. He turned to Venti, his eyes wide. "Venti... we can't turn this off from here. I think it is in Doctor Barclay's office."
"Where would that be?" Venti asked.
"We have to go back outside I think," Oliver realized with a groan. "It has to be in the main building Claire told us about. There's no way his personal office is sitting in the middle of a dark power plant. Let's head over there now,"