Hello dears!

This one shot works as an Introduction for my FNAF series, Until Death Shall Reunite Us. The series will be Canon-AU, and will touch all games. I will work with canon but at the same time, I will work around it and play with it. You'll recognize the canon, and you'll also know when I diverted from it. This one shot is set Post-Series, however it won't spoil any major events. Or any events at all.

Note that most characters will appear, though not necessarily in the same story. The series has 4 major arcs planned out, so there will be 4 multi chaptered stories telling the events that lead to this Intro one shot. I hope you'll have a fun ride with this series!

Warnings: For the whole of the series, there will be death, violence, swearing, blood; all more or less explicit. In this one shot, apparent character death, though implicit.

Pairings: None. Or, no official one. I didn't want to choose from the pairings I have, and I believed putting an official ship might drove off people. So, to be clear: all relationships during the series are not romantic. However, all relationships are written so they can be seen as romantic. In short? If you ship a pairing in my series, you won't be wrong to see it as such. But if you see it as friendly/family like, you're not wrong either!

When Fear leads to Joy

Azure eyes flickered all around the screen as fingers swiftly shifted cameras. One hand went down to force his jittery leg to stop its anxious tapping. The tablet was lowered all of the sudden, as now that the sound of his foot had stopped, he could hear faint steps. The young man almost hesitated to lit up his door light. Almost.

A sharp intake of breath followed the reveal of the purple rabbit standing at the left door. Not even a second later, the solid door slammed down. It was almost instinctive, how his hand would fly from the light button to the door button. Then again, this was his fourth night.

The young male passed his hand into brown hairs, letting out a shaky laugh. Why was he still there again? He wasn't certain; yet he could not deny his own presence. He would have never believed he would end up in a life-or-death job, except in the end even a common Night Guard meant there were some risks of danger.

Well, usually, it would not be glitchy animatronics that were supposed to be children's entertainers. Although, during daylight, the animal shaped robots seemed friendly. If only they acted the same way at night. Or really, if only their helpful ways didn't extend to stuff the 'rogue endoskeleton' into a suit. He was fine the way he was, thank you very much.

A quick check showed the rabbit was not here anymore, as the steps he had heard alerted him. A sigh passed his lips as he opened the door, eyeing his power level. Not too bad, but not good either. A flashing of light to the right made the brunet jump slightly at what it revealed.

"Damnit Chica..." He breathed out as he closed the door. The temptation to flash on and off the light on her was great, but he had learned on his second night-the first time he saw her at his window-that it would not make her leave faster.

And well, as much as it amused him to flash fast on the animatronic, he did not need a repeat of yesterday. Nothing compared to the terror of Freddy's brightened eyes in the pitch black darkness as the bear played his little tune. Though, maybe the immense relief that assaulted his body when 6 am hit as the last note of the tune played felt like the sweetest of warmth.

"Oh come on!" The cry passed his lips in frustration, as the yellow chicken had not moved. "Go. Away. Chica. Please." Each pause had been marked by the light being lit, despite knowing better. Then he threw himself to lean completely against the back of his chair, throwing his hands up before crossing his arms. Despite the glare he sent the window he knew Chica to hide behind, his expression looked too much like a pout.

He waited five seconds, before flashing the light again. Blue eyes blinked as he caught the only female animatronic having a faint smile. It had left her face the second she was under the light, but the young man knew he had seen it. Now, it wouldn't be the first time one of the robots would show an expression, as Bonnie and Chica liked to show some smugness when they managed to make a yell escape his throat. But this time... This time it had seemed genuine amusement, or... He was tempted to call it fond amusement.

So lost in his thoughts and the confusion, he missed one vital sound. Fast running metal feet on his left. When the young man jolted up, it was too late. A hook wrapped around his wrist and forced his hand down before he could hit the door button. Wide azure eyes stared in fright at the face of Foxy, flinching back when the pirate screeched at him. He jabbed the back of his knees on his chair, flailing his arms as he lost his balance. With luck, he would just crash down and knock himself down so he would not feel his own death.

The world froze as a metallic hand caught one of his arms, keeping him only half fallen. He gazed up at the fox, quite pale at the little grin. It distracted his attention from the single golden eye, missing the worry that had flashed. Foxy pulled the young man to him, touching his cheek with his cold hook before marching out the office. The brown haired man struggled, heart wild in his chest.

"L-Let go! Please! I'm not an endoskeleton!" If only he had not been too distracted by Chica... To think he would get caught because he had broken one of the most important rules: to never let his mind wander.

The young man swallowed with difficulty as he realized they were close to the room where he would meet his end. It was too early to hope for 6 am, so it meant he could only try to escape back to the office. Chica stood at the start of the East Hallway, Freddy still on stage; so Bonnie would be the main danger as he watched from the start of the West Hallway. At least, he knew the door to the East would be closed, as he had been caught before opening it again.

The fox animatronic faltered when he felt his prey suddenly move forward instead of trying to break his grip. He understood too late as a hand used his arm as leverage, a leg hitting his face. He had no doubt the sudden twist hurt badly the arm he had been gripping, but the surprise forced him to take a step back and to accidentally open his hand.

The brown haired man hissed at the pain in his arm, it had not broken but the sudden twist with his little jump kick would most likely leave a mark for both his arm and leg. He almost collapsed when he was back on his two feet, his leg sending jolts of pain from hitting the very hard robot. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed both Freddy and Chica had moved forward. He did not hesitate to run, though he felt fear as he realized Bonnie had not moved, instead blocking the West Hallway. Maybe he could try a feint, pass through a small opening by making the rabbit move after him? Maybe he could grab something, anything to hit the rabbit's face?

Or maybe he could just yelp when a weight pounced on his back and sent him down. Seemed like Foxy's speed had been his downfall-again. It was not like his kick had done more than distract the fox.

The fall made him dizzy, stars in his eyes and his breathing difficult. Then, he found himself over the fox's shoulder, hearing a faint Dum Dum Dum in his ear. "Fucking..." He managed to mutter, wanting to hit the back of the fox just because the animatronic was apparently showing his happiness at the successful capture. He felt cold once he heard the door open, watching the three other animatronics as they followed the fourth one into the Parts room.

"No..." The young man struggled once more finally as he was placed on a table. "Stop!" But with four robots pinning down his limbs, he knew he had no chance to escape again.

One of the animatronic moved to pin both his legs, freeing another to go take the suit. His breathing became heavy and irregular when Bonnie showed once more, Freddy moving to the side to allow the rabbit to start putting the young man into the suit by starting with his legs.

The last thoughts he had were of the pain as he screamed, his mind blanking on him and his body letting go on him by passing out...

"Arrrrrrrr!" His two hands slapped on his face. "I can't believe it! When was the last time this happened? How could I be so stupid! Now I lost my title of Number 1!"

An amused but seductive voice whispered into his ear, making him startle badly. "And here I thought only I could distract you so much." It was followed by a bark of laughter as the culprit jumped backward to avoid the hand that tried to slap him. Instead, he smirked at the glare of those azure eyes.

"Pull a Freddy on me again and I will stuff you myself into a suit!"

"... You did not deny his comment, you know?"

"Do shut up or I will slam the door on you next time. Hook or not."

Red ears lowered, though the golden eyes were definitely amused. For how many times had they witnessed such scene?

None of them could have guessed how their life would evolve, though. Years ago, if someone had told them what they would live through, and where they would be now, they would not have believe it. So many events had happened, yet with the consequences that fell, one could wonder if fate had not pushed them all together.

Oh, make no mistake. Their story was not full of rainbows. It was full of pain, anger, sadness, fear and simply messed up. And yet, here they were. Bonded together by the very thing most hoped to avoid for as long as they could.

Death had pushed their paths to cross, their life to entangle. It had been a few events linked to one another, a chain reaction that had been started by the very people who also finished it.

The story to come is their story.

The story of the Guard of the Night and the Death Bringer.

Stay tuned...

If you feel confused by this one shot and want to scream it's really vague, I can only be happy. This was my intent after all!
Despite not using names except for the animatronics, I think one character present is obvious-hence how I actually marked his name for the story. But I wonder, was there other characters in this that weren't named? I'll give you one hint: One talked. The others did not.

Remember: this is a one shot, so the next story for the series will be posted separately. Following this one shot won't tell you when I do post the second story of the series! Unless you prefer to check manually, I suggest either following me as an author (on FFnet), or my fanfiction blog on Tumblr (chrisemrysblog) if you're interested to read more. For AO3, well, you can follow the series itself~