AN: As the chapter title says, this is an AU off the previous chapter. You're supposed to read the first half of the first chapter until you get to the part where Michael finally walks up to Baby. That's where this story starts. I just didn't see the point in re-posting the whole first half of this chapter because it would be the exact same as before. The AU change doesn't come in until about this point. Anyway, read on!

What followed was a very strange reunion.

"Elizabeth? Oh! Elizabeth!" although Michael knew how dangerous she was, he was far too relieved to see that she hadn't been changed to terribly by the fire to care. Instead, he almost smiled at her, though the expression was not returned at all.

"What happened? Where are we? Where is Daddy?" she demanded, voice low and growly as she glared down at Michael.

"Oh, Elizabeth, don't you remember? Everything was burnt down! We're standing right on the pizzeria! Don't you recognize it?" he asked. Elizabeth's facial plates, or what was left of them, shifted in wariness, but she did as Michael implied she should and scanned her surroundings. Yup. He was right. This was in fact where the pizzeria had once stood. She could tell based on the surrounding area, or at least, the part of it that the fire didn't get to. She uttered a low hiss of anger.

"Where is Daddy?" she demanded again, voice soft and low.

"Well, with any luck, he's dead!" Michael's pleading expression turned grimly satisfied. Elizabeth reared back in anger and Michael could tell that she was about to yell at him for such a snide remark but she didn't get to utter a sound before something else interrupted. It was a low, rumbly, echoing sound that repeated itself over and over again, but the longer it went on, the more Michael realized that it sounded like laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh Michael, Michael, Michael, surely by now you know that you cannot kill me with just a bit of fire?" it was a voice that spoke to him, but it hardly sounded human, impossibly deep and raspy, rumbling and growling. Michael and Elizabeth both whipped around in the direction of the voice but they wore totally different expressions. Michael looked horrified while Elizabeth, delighted.

"Daddy?!" Elizabeth was first to ask, and sure enough, yes, rising up from the ash was William Afton, bunny suit hardly burned at all.

"Father? But how?!" Michael demanded in terror, taking a step back as his father took a step forward.

"Foolish boy, do you really think you could fool me twice? You tried once to burn me down and it didn't work. Why would you be so stupid as to try again?!" William laughed again, the massive bronze jaw on his suit flapping as he did so.

"But we did everything right this time!" Michael cried frantically. "Henry and I, we both-"

"Henry!" William interrupted with a callous scoff. "You really think that old buffoon of a man could do better? You were an idiot to think someone so senile, old and mentally ill would be able to offer up anything of real use. He's been out of the game for decades now! His skills were rusty. He had no idea what he was getting himself back in to, though I hope he knows now..." then William scoffed, gesturing to something far to the right of Michael. He dared to turn and see and he nearly retched when he did so. It was a charred skeleton, not a scrap of flesh or muscle left on the bones.

"I'm telling you, son," William spat coldly. "You made a mistake, trying to use a previously failed method to kill me again instead of creating a new one. Like I told you, I knew it was a lie the moment I heard of it, so I took precautions. Henry isn't the only one who knows how to make a fireproof hiding spot," the decaying rabbit twitched as William's horrific laughter shook its metal shell again. "And now that Henry is dead and you have nowhere left to go, it seems to me that you have actually finished my work quite nicely! You got rid of that thorn in my side and burned down your own and only asset. Now, there's only one loose end left to tie up..." William cocked his head in Elizabeth's direction and she, still grinning crazily, lunged at once, propelling herself forward and skating at Michael with terrific speed, claw extended.

Michael was saved only by the fact that Elizabeth had been far enough away that he'd had time to react and avoid her attack. Had she been even an inch closer, she wouldn't have been able to dodge her blow in time.

"Elizabeth! No! Stop!" Michael commanded as Elizabeth turned expertly on her skates, readying to charge her brother again.

"Oh, ha ha ha, and what do you think you're going to do to stop her?!" William crowed, crossing his arms proudly as he watched the battle unfold. "She works for me now, Michael. You had your chance to save her, but you didn't, so then I stepped in! I gave her everything you never could, never did. She loves me now, not you!" the bunny bragged, ears flopping as he nodded in self-appreciation.

"No! That's not true! That's not true at all!" Michael bellowed, scampering away again as he felt Baby's claw nearly skim his turned back. "I did save her, I did love her! I gave her all that I had! The only reason she was even able to get this far is because of me, Father! And what did you do? You did nothing but scoop up the pieces that I had already so painstakingly put back together! It wasn't you that sacrificed anything for her, it was me! I was the one who went through all that for the sake of her freedom! All you did was emotionally manipulate her as soon as you saw fit and you only re-entered her life when you decided that you needed her on your side!" Michael continued to accuse, dodging blows from Elizabeth.

"Silence! Impudent boy!" William finally was goaded into arguing with Michael. "How dare you accuse me of doing such a thing?!"

"What thing? Being a fair-weather friend instead of a real father who sticks by his daughter no matter what?!" Michael laughed breathlessly, but the laugh was cut short as Elizabeth finally landed a blow. It hit Michael right in the gut and he went sailing backwards, landing hard a few feet away.

"Ha! You did it Elizabeth! Well done! Oh, you make me so proud!" William cheered. Elizabeth, having ignored most of the previous argument between her father and brother, turned around to smile sickly at her father, pleased by his praise.

"Shall I finish him off, Daddy?" she asked sweetly.

"Of course, darling, go ahead! He's all yours!" William waved benevolent at Michael, who was struggling to stand again.

"No, Elizabeth, don't listen to him! He's just using you!" the man gasped through his pain, clutching his stomach.

"Oh, come on, Mikey, I expected a retort more clever than that!" Elizabeth laughed coldly, softly. "Could it be that you are just afraid? Or perhaps jealous that father is a thousand times the man you'll ever be?" she continued tauntingly, taking her sweet time to skate over to Michael since he was barely able to stand, let alone run anywhere.

"No! I mean it Elizabeth!" Michael continued to growl through his pain, still clutching his stomach. "If Father really were so great, he would kill me himself! But no, while you chased me around our battlefield, doing all the work, what did he do except watch?"

"I resent that!" William shouted, having heard this remark from his wayward son. Michael ignored him in favor of listening to Elizabeth.

"Hey! He's entitled to a break when he wants to!" she defended. "I've seen him kill before, and sometimes we've killed together! So whatever you're implying, you're wrong! He's not weak or lazy!"

"But you're in worse shape than him and yet he's insisting that you do his dirty work?" Michael cried incredulously.

"He needs his rest!" Elizabeth repeated, fiercely loyal William.

"Does he really now?" Michael mocked bitterly. "If he were so tough, why can't he finish me now himself?! Look at me, I can barely stand! And yet he still won't try to kill me himself even though there's nothing he loves more than murder? Or can it be that he's still afraid of me, even now, weak as I am? And rather than risk his own neck to see if I really can be killed, he's throwing you under the bus first?!" Michael continued to spit. He was still holding both hands to his stomach where Elizabeth had hit him, but he was standing straight now, anger strengthening him.

"What?! Darling! No! That's not true at all!" William cried, hobbling over to where his children stood. He could see the way Elizabeth had lowered her claw, pondering what Michael was saying. That wasn't a good sign. "He's just trying to get inside your head, love!" he continued pleadingly as he finally reached Elizabeth's side, extending a rotting hand to touch one of the metal plates on her forearm. "He's tricking you!"

"Ain't that the pot calling the kettle black?!" Michael laughed grimly. "But seriously, Elizabeth, how do you believe he's really the god he claims he is if you're the one he always sends out first? When has he ever landed the first blow?"

"In all the times we killed those stupid city citizens before we were dragged back here to this pizzeria!" Elizabeth replied angrily, though the fire in her voice was flickering down now. "We managed to get a few street rats before you came along!" she snapped accusingly.

"And by "we" do you mean that William would only pick on the especially weak ones while he had you go after anyone bigger?" Michael asked.

"Enough! Michael!" William interrupted, hiding worry under anger. "It is only common sense that she take on bigger foes because look! She stands a head taller than I and a head and a half taller than you! And she has that wicked claw! What do I have but my own hands?" William looked down at his bronze-covered palms. "She is more built for combat than I!"

"And yet you never thought of upgrading yourself, Father, to be like her?" Michael continued to threaten softly. "And you've just admitted, now, that all you've ever done was hide behind her! Even back when she was still just Circus Baby, by admitting that she was designed for combat means you just admitted, too, that as much as you loved to kill, fear always drove you to hide behind someone bigger! Even when your victims were only little, innocent children," Michael broke off in disgust, tightening his arms around his midsection.

"Enough of this stupidity!" William replied, snarl exceptionally harsh and hissing now. "Elizabeth! Finish him!" he commanded, but Elizabeth didn't even move, Michael's words starting to take hold on her.

"I don't think I want to, Daddy," she murmured softly.

"WHAT?!" William thundered.

"I mean, not without you," she amended weakly. "Would you fight him with me?" she asked, and all three of them knew at once that she was testing him, seeing if he really would push his own weight in this father-daughter duo.

"Alright. Fine. But only because you seem to think that I somehow am only using you even though I've been nothing but good to you ever since I found you alone, stranded on the side of the road!" William reminded his daughter angrily, then he took a step towards Michael. He raised his fist, ready to throw a much, but Michael got there first and threw a fish of ash right into William's face. That had been why Michael had held his stomach for so long. It wasn't totally from pain, it was because he'd been holding a secret handful of soot for that whole last argument!

"ARGH!" William thundered in rage and pain as the flecks of dust stung his eyes and clouded his vision. Though he had a metal body like Elizabeth, his corporeal body could still feel pain. Elizabeth, too, had died inside of her animatronic, but in a secret cavity within that robot's chest. Her body was far "safer" than William's, whose own body could still be seen even through the wires and metal plates of his tomb. William clawed at his eyes while Michael bent down, grabbed two more handfuls, then popped back up, throwing one at each of his family members.

"Well, come on then!" Michael cried. "If you want to kill me, then do it! I never said I'd go quietly though!" then before anyone could say anything else, he took off running.

For the next 10 minutes or so, the three of them raced around the ashy landscape. By some miracle, Michael managed to outrun his father and dodge his sister every time either of them came too close. The reason Michael was continuing to draw this little game out was not just for fun or bragging rights, though, instead, since this moment was supposed to be William's chance to prove himself to Elizabeth, Michael dragged this game out just to show her that he wasn't. After all, he claimed to be like a god of war and death, yet here he was, unable to catch his own son who wasn't even that strong or fast to begin with.

"Come on, Father! You have to do better than that!" Michael scoffed as William tried to hobble-run over to him. Then he turned his attention to Elizabeth. "Seriously? Can't you see that he's not good enough for you? Don't listen to him anymore! He's not worth it! He brings nothing to the table! He's only using you so he can hide behind you! He's making you do all the hard work because he can't do it himself! He's useless! Maybe he can't die, but he's hardly living either! But you, Elizabeth, could be and do so much more if you would just leave him!"

Michael continued to preach to his sister, imploring her to see how bad William was for her and how much he was holding her back and just using her as a doormat and human shield and, when William was unable to prove Michael wrong, Elizabeth finally began to listen. Sure, she still felt affection for her father and distaste for her brother, but she couldn't deny that Michael was making a lot of solid points. And it seemed everything her father did, or tried to do, only proved his points even more. Father was pretty lame and lazy, unskilled and uncoordinated, too bulky and weak to do more than look scary. But if he couldn't deliver on any of his threats, what was there to fear? What was there to respect or love or stand by? What kind of partnership was her father really having with her if she had to do all the hard and the dirty work while he stood back and gloated, only actually working when it was easy for him? How was that fair or equal or loving?! How was that more than simple manipulation? Well, it wasn't. And Elizabeth began to see it, the longer her father tottered around, shouting obscene threats all of them knew he could not keep.

At last, Elizabeth had seen enough. She came to a halt at once, the wheels on her skates going totally skill.

"What are you doing, Elizabeth? Can't you see he's tiring? Kill him!" William commanded angrily.

"No, Father," she replied, and in that one change of name for him, William knew his days had just ended. "Michael's right! You really haven't been pulling your weight around here! And I know that's because it's hard for you to do so like this, but like Michael said, why not try to fix yourself up? Or at least not make me do all the hard work?!" she complained.

"But Elizabeth! I thought you liked killing people!" William whined right back, raising his hands as he took one step back.

"Only because I thought it would please you!" she cried back.

"It does!" William tried to smile, it didn't work anymore.

"But why should I care what you think?" Elizabeth demanded. "Especially if you are so useless and manipulative? Why should I care what pleases you when there's nothing you can really do to please me?"

"I can be proud of you," William whimpered weakly.

"But that's not enough!" Elizabeth shouted again. "I don't want my existence to be contingent upon your validation and approval! What have you, like Michael said, brought to the table to make it equal? What stake do you have to lose if I were suddenly to hate you?" she demanded.

"My life?" William guessed.

"So that's it then?" Elizabeth's voice suddenly became impossibly soft. "All along, you were never afraid of losing me, you were afraid of losing yourself! You were never afraid of angering me except if it might cause harm to you!"

"Pretty much," Michael agreed, having listened to this whole turn of events with the biggest most boastful smirk anyone had ever seen on him.

"Silence!" William snapped, whipping his head around to face his son angrily, despite the more pressing issue coming from his daughter.

"No, Father, maybe it's time for you to be quiet for once!" Elizabeth said, then, proving William's point, she grabbed him by the neck in her claw and raising him nearly six inches off the ground. He began squirming at once, panicking, helpless as a bigger thing was about to kill him.

"What? Elizabeth! No! Don't do anything stupid!" William choked in fear. "I mean, can you blame me for being afraid of what might happen to me if you get made because you've pretty much just validated my fears?!" he grabbed at her claw in desperation, but it was unforgiving.

"This isn't stupid, Father, it's the only smart thing I've ever done," she growled. "And yeah, maybe you were right. Maybe you did have real reason to fear me. But if you had actually loved me for real, then that fear should not have even crossed your mind, but the fact that you were scared of the idea of me overthrowing you tells me that you knew all along you weren't treating me right. You just hoped I never would find out! Well guess what, Father? Because of Michael, I have, and now that's exactly what I'm going to do: overthrow you! And you have Michael to thank for it, and your own stupid, selfish pride!" then with one quick flex of her arms, her claw clamped shut and William's head popped right off his shoulders.

Although Michael had wanted to see William die for a long time, to see it be done so quickly, cleanly and remorseleslly, especially by his own loving daughter, made Michael feel almost queasy and he looked away when William's head rolled towards him. Elizabeth then dropped William's headless body right on top of his severed head and skated over to them both. Before Michael could ask what she was doing, she began to violently stomp both body and head into the ground with her massive, heavy skates. She uttered a string of angry cries every time she brought her foot back down on her father's corpse and Michael was deeply shaken by how violent and angry his sister was at the moment. She didn't stop until both bone and metal had been flattened into one, pressed into the charred ground around them. It would take a very big, powerful crowbar to pry William's body off the ground and they would never be able to find a body because it had been so thoroughly squished into the suit by Elizabeth's ceaseless and powerful jumps.

"Good riddance!" she growled, fists clenched as she finally ceased stomping on her father's corpse.

"Well. That was... impressive," Michael murmured, shaking with fear from Elizabeth's intensity. He had forgotten that she was capable of having quite the temper! But with William gone and only Michael and her remaining, her face softened at once.

"Oops," she said. "Sorry I scared you," then something akin to a sheepish grin stretched across the two facial plates she had left and Michael gave her a nervous laugh, accepting her apology and promising her that it was all good, but he still sounded shaken and scared as he said this.

"So now, what do we do?" Elizabeth asked, all traces of anger and hurt gone.

"Well, first, I'm taking you home and both of us are going to do a bit of self-repair," Michael chuckled darkly, trying to control his shaking. "Now come on, I can have you hold onto the back of my car as I drive and you can just skate home after me," he said.

"And you don't think that'll be weird or that people will stare?" Elizabeth almost sounded amused, quite a change from moments before.

"Eh, what do I care what they think? I'm already the freak of my neighborhood," Michael shrugged, shaking finally mostly stopping. Then he, on slightly unsteady feet, led Elizabeth back to his car. Thankfully, the fire had not touched it. He hopped into the driver's seat while Elizabeth held the rear of it with a massive hand and claw, trying not to leave any dents anywhere. Then, once Michael revved his car's engine, Elizabeth pushed herself forward on her skates, both of them propelling the car together. Then, with that, and without another look back, both of them left the burnt pizzeria and the finally-dead body of their father behind them, only a little metal box and a piece of ventilation still standing.

30 minutes and many terrified, disgusted, disbelieving, shocked stares later, Michael and Elizabeth had reached Michael's home. As Elizabeth released Michael's car and skated up the driveway to his door, she could hear cries of terror from the other neighbors. It didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it would. Instead, she only followed Michael's lead as he unlocked the door. It still took a few minutes to fit her inside the house but, in the end, they managed to do it with only a bit of collateral and, once Elizabeth was standing in her brother's living room with him at her side, she couldn't help but smile, but this time, it was one of true happiness and not malice or sadism.

"Hmmm," she said. "It feels like home..." and it was.

AN: Surprise, Tjoc rap, they got the time wrong and my day-long event doesn't start until 2. Because of that, here's your AU on the previous chapter posted a day earlier than I thought, LOL. Also, the way I have it written, you're supposed to read the first half of the first chapter until you get to the paragraph where Michael finally confronts Baby, then that's where this story picks up. I just didn't feel like rewriting the whole first part out since this is only an AU on the previous chapter.