Note: The story will take on my view of the events as canonical as possible. If anyone reading this detects a flaw that can be corrected, address me and I´ll see what I can do.
Disclaimer: I do not own FNAF or Beauty and the Beast
-Tomorrow is another day.
The words coming from the Fredbear plushy are meant to ease the kid´s agitated soul but they are left hovering in the air.
14 year old Paul places the mask under his armpit and leaves the living, still laughing of his achievement. And the Paul that is forced to come up with an explanation for the events he just witnessed feels his throat dry and his mind in a confusing whirlwind.
-It doesn´t make any sense. Vincent is the older of us two but if I´m over there… No, let´s rewind. Calm down. The younger brother has my name but Vincent is over there, and looks like me, while I don´t, I mean he doesn´t… Oh Lord…
Paul buries his head in his hands in frustration. He then concludes the only thing possible, what had happened. He lifts his head up suddenly to reveal his theory when he sees they are back at the restaurant, this time with party decorations and balloons all around the place.
-This takes place seven days after what we just saw, in the party of a girl whom Paul knew, a girl who had a crush on him. She had invited him and his father had accepted it in his place, with the condition that you… Vincent… – She corrects when Paul´s jaw tightens. – …kept watch over his brother.
Sobs are heard in front of them, coming from the younger Paul, in the same clothes as the previous memory, who was on his knees with their back turned on him.
-Oh Paul are you serious with me?
Vincent comes into view, wearing a Foxy mask, he too barely changed, with three friends close to him. They were of Vincent´s age, all with masks of the demons` faces, looking out of place but laughing at Paul´s sight. They surround him.
-Wow, your brother is kind of a baby, isn´t he?! – One of them, with the Chica mask, nudges to Vincent.
-It´s hilarious. Why don´t we help him get a closer look! He will love it. – Vincent says.
-NO, please! – Young Paul cries, pleading with his eyes.
-Come on guys, let´s give this little man a lift. He wants to get up close and personal! – Vincent claps.
The older kids didn´t mind Paul´s protests, lift him up, and head across the room to the show stage, the louder protests incentivizing the older kids` cruelty. They reach the show stage, with Fredbear and Buzz singing, and go up to the stage.
-Hey guys, I think the little man said he wants to give Fredbear a big kiss!
-Please stop. – The Paul next to Delilah begged. – Please!
-On three! One… Two… THREE!
The kids shove Paul´s head inside Fredbear´s mouth when the latter opened his mouth, getting the young Paul hanging from the head, struggling to get out.
-Do something! – A girl asked a security guard.
-And, with the tears moistening the locks inside the creature´s mouth… - Delilah began.
SNAP! CRUNCH!
All Hell broke loose.
The scene fades and they are back in the white room.
-Do you see reason now? – Delilah asks.
Silence.
-Paul? – She asks again, truly concerned.
-You´re the devil... –There is only a tiny whisper.
-I beg your pardon? – Delilah questions, not having understood a word.
-You´re the devil! YOU´VE COME TO LEAD ME ASTRAY! – Paul roars, raising a hand in mad fury.
-No Paul, I cannot and I will never lead anyone astray. – Delilah kindly corrects him, unfazed by the physical threat. – But I was wrong. Perhaps…
She snaps her fingers and they are in an old room. Paul, from the faint lights coming from the doors, recognizes that he is back at the old room where he saw Buzz´s withered suit. And there he was, but with no blood pool around him or dirtying him. The doors are opened and Paul looks, with big shock, at himself, with the same characteristics and the same age, except for a crucial difference. The sadistic look on his face.
-One night, long after your brother´s death and after there was the incident of 1987, you returned. You had been having constant nightmares of your victims stalking you and your fears had won in the end. You returned to Freddy Fazbear´s Pizza and dismantled the creatures to be sure it wouldn´t happen. – Delilah summarizes.
Indeed, Vincent is looking like he had won His Majesty´s favor and made a noble, swinging a screwdriver and barely holding his laughter. He throws the tool away and takes out another small rectangle with glass and twelve buttons in it. After pressing some of them, he speaks to it, ranting about his accomplishments and his next plans. When he is done he sits in silence, close to the cabinets, and spends the time dozing off.
THUM, THUM, THUM
Vincent jolts awake and looks at the door. He hadn´t heard things; someone was banging at the doors.
-I´m the only one who knows about this room. Who in the hell…? – Vincent mutters.
THUM, THUM, THUM
The bangs are fiercer. Vincent doesn´t know what to make of the situation. And then a march begins to play. The Toreador´s March.
-Oh fuck, oh fuck. HOW? – Vincent almost faints.
Paul won´t blame him. It´s Freddy that´s at the door, and he knows Freddy is as relentless in his chase as a rabid dog. Vincent looks to Buzz´s suit then to the door. Making a decision, he pulls out the rectangular object and dials some numbers.
-Hey, hey. Day four. . - Vincent, like he had done with Buzz with a hoarse, changes his voices to sound more hesitant. He can´t fake the fear in the voice though. - Didn´t think you´d make it! Listen, huh, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow. It´s been a bad night for me. I´m kinda glad I recorded these messages, hum… when I did.
Vincent presses another button, leaves the object on the metal table and walks to the suit. Still speaking to the rectangle, Vincent puts on Buzz´s suit using the same method as Paul had seen being used previously before Belle´s dance. The doors are banged harder but stop suddenly as Vincent is about to put the mask on. The doors` handles turns and the doors open.
It´s a Fredbear and Freddy mixture, Paul comes to describe it, with the golden colors covering the suit but with Freddy´s model, bowtie and top hat. It´s even weirder when it collapses on the ground and out of it something white and hollow evaporates and takes shape. It becomes a ghost of a small kid.
Paul and Vincent share a shiver. It´s Paul, but the younger brother one.
Delilah, to see the scene in a better position, took Paul with her by an arm to the doors.
-Oh, no. – Vincent mumbled, dropping the mask on the floor.
His brother snaps his head to the voice´s direction and lets out a moaning scream, deep and hurt. The echoes makes it sound terribly upsetting to the point Delilah holds her breath. The rectangular object beeps, trembles and dies. The rain intensifies and water begins to leak in through the ceiling, dripping to the floor and to the suit. Vincent is terrified, even the spectators can notice that.
-Vincent saw himself cornered in the room and was faced with two terrible fates: One was being murdered by his brother and the other was being killed by the suit. – Delilah breaks the silence.
-How? - Paul asks, too mesmerized by the scene to face her.
-What happened to his brother that killed him? – Delilah questions as the answer.
Paul thinks back. There was Fredbear, him being crushed… Wait, he had been crushed because, as Delilah had said, the tears moistened the locks in the mouth and…
Paul looks up. The water drips on top of the suit, running down and seeping inside the suit.
"Mon Dieu", Paul claws his scalp when he realizes Vincent´s fate.
Young Paul´s ghost floats to Vincent. Vincent, fearing correctly for his safety, rams through the ghost to get some distance.
-Back off! – He orders.
It´s of no use. The ghost turns around in no hurry and floats to him. Vincent has no choice but to get some distance and repeat the same cat and rat game over and over again fruitlessly.
Four ghosts come inside, a mess of white and grey brought together, guarding the door. Paul assumes that they were the murdered kids, released from their prisons, and they become witnesses of the happenings. Vincent rams through Young Paul´s ghost and runs to his original position. In the way however, he trips over the mask and falls spinning, landing with his back to the wall.
A smile creeps over the ghost as Vincent begs to be left alone. He then has an idea: Risky and nearly impossible, but worth trying. He takes the mask and puts it on, concealing his face completely. The ghost stops approaching him and looks around, confused to the mysterious disappearance of his prey, floating to Vincent´s last know location.
He had tricked the ghosts.
Vincent stands up abruptly and laughs mockingly, making Paul´s heart cringle.
-Oh my… - Paul pinches his nose.
CRUNCH!
-AAAAAAAAHHHH!
His brain completely shuts down. His body goes numb except his left arm. Paul yells as his arm is cut open in several places in wounds with the same diameter. Next follows the chest, the belly, the rest of the limbs, his eyes and ears. His brain turns itself back on but this time with a whole new reality of knowledge haunting him. Paul sees everything:
-He sees his father cursing the girl that he had killed out of frustration;
-He sees his brother in the hospital bed, bandages on his forehead and in the sides of the head, as the heart-monitor swallows his innocence and his brother;
-He shakes hands with the manager of the pizzeria, his new purple uniform and a flashlight on his free hand;
-He locks the Storage Room´s door and turns the lights on, showing the kids confused and whining for Freddy, as he smiles maniacally and swings a kitchen knife savagely;
-He sees his friend, Fritz Smith, being carried away in a body bag, and releases his long held back tears as he glares the purple box to death, where the Pop, Goes the Weasel song is being played;
-He looks at himself in a mirror, the water running down his bearded and unclean face, fragments of the animatronics tearing him apart limb by limb lingering in his memory;
-He sees his end, crushed to death and forever stuck inside Buzz and the specters evaporating to rest in peace;
-He sees himself roaming the place he had observed in the squares of the glass thing in the office ("They´re cameras", Paul identified), trying to evade the security guard taking the night shift. He wanted to kill him so much, to feel excited once more, to feel the thrill of the chase;
-And he watches as his trapped self is stuck in a burning vent, the night guard having survived six nights of relentless pursuit and deciding that the place had to burn. He hears the screams, demanding him to Burn!, calling him disgusting, and laughing his way out of the building.
Delilah smiles triumphantly and swipes the scene away. They had returned to the black room where Vincent waits for them with his arms crossed.
-Ah, brother! How´s yer mind, now? Is the soul in peace? – He greets Paul.
Paul eyes Vincent with hurt trust.
-How could you… how could I? – He sobs.
-Easy really. We took a knife and… - Vincent grinned lifting a finger up.
-NO!
For once Delilah shows surprise for the outburst.
-Our brother… how could YOU? – Paul clarifies with clenched teeth.
-Easy really. In me mind I never had a brother. He was nothing like me, we shared blood, but we were not brothers. – Vincent smiles, giving Paul a need to hit him. – I only saw me self as a brother and all the times that lil squirt curled an` cried, I saw my innocence in it. Ah despised that and I´m glad it died with him.
-You bastard. – Paul snarled.
-Ye´re me brother not him. And now we can be together as one. Just ditch the whore and join me. – Vincent extended a hand to Paul. – We can keep up the good work we´ve done. No rules, no bounds… Whaddya say?
Paul stares at the hand. He smiles and with a laugh he grabs the wrist instead, pulls Vincent closer to him and knees him in the diaphragm. Vincent gasps and falls on the ground, holding his stomach and with a moan of pain. He sends a creative curse to Paul and when he stares at him he sees his right hand grab his hair and pull him up.
-I may do lots of things from here on out. But I refuse to become you ever again. – Paul spits venomously on Vincent and uppercuts him, sending him spiraling to the ground unconscious.
Paul realizes various things simultaneously: One is that he, as Vincent, had punched many people in many brutal ways; another one is that he, as Paul, had never really felt so disgusted to the point of punching someone; the last one is that that had felt tremendously good.
-Is that your final answer then? – Delilah asked, stepping over Vincent´s body and offering him a hand.
A deep breath.
-My name is Paul Roy-Palomer, and whatever link I have with Vincent´s persona is now gone. I live in France with my sister and my father, I love them as much as life, and I regret not seeing them once more. And also… I also regret what I did to my little brother.
He takes the offered hand and Delilah glows with a bright light. Paul closes his eyes, warmly welcoming the afterlife.
"Wait, how is afterlife so cold?", Paul wonders with a frown.
He opens his eyes. And he can´t believe what he sees, for he was back in the basement where he had died. He looks to where he had died. There was a blood pool in there but there was no body.
-I know what you wonder and so I remind you I hold the power to bring the dead back to life. And one cannot go without tying up loose ends. – Delilah moves a hand to his chest and a white dot shines in his clothes. Paul´s mind is informed of what it is through the dot speaking with him.
–Help Belle and Adam achieve happiness – Delilah continues.
She grows less solid with each word spoken.
-I can´t fight the whole town. If I had the Fazbear´s gang at my side however I could take them on. – Paul calculates aloud.
-You shall have help, you only need to seek them. Now that they have ended their purpose in this land, they are now visible by everyone. – She adds quickly. – And you may use it whenever you wish to. – She points to the dot.
-Wait!
Delilah keeps herself from disappearing long enough to listen to Paul.
-Why could Gaston see Vincent the second time and not the first? – Paul questions, keeping it brief.
-The spell holding Vincent in your head was meant for you to be the sole person who could see him. When Vincent controlled Gaston´s mind, he created an exception, seeping some magic inside his brain. – Delilah answers. She might have said it calmly, but she was getting exhausted from staying in the same place.
And she vanishes, just like in the dreams.
Standing very still, Paul looks at his hands, clenches them and he sets out to the night.
It was full of clouds announcing the rain, some holes letting out the moonlight. Paul recalls his time walking at night on the streets of the place he formally lived with his mother.
"Momma, where do all the stars come from?"
"They are our loved ones, sweetie. They never actually leave us, they stay behind to see how we grow. Your grandparents, your great-grandparents…"
"Even a pirate great-great-great-great-grandfather?!"
"Hahaha. Yes, even him."
-Watch over me, mother, father, Paul. It´s time I make amends. – Paul announces to the skies.
"Man, watching drama theater is inspiring.", Paul realizes, grinning like a fool.
He runs inside the house, gets a spare lantern and makes a run for the town and to Louis` stable.
The sleeping horses jolt awake with surprised neighs as Paul´s heavy footsteps fill the stables. In a second he is rounding the back of the stables and the horses neigh at his sight.
-Now, which one of ya is helping me? – He asks them.
He takes an old saddle and reins from the top of a chair and places them on a yellow mare´s back and head, mounts her fast and hurries her to trot her way out of the stables. The mare shakes her head neighing and with a single word and order, she gallops into the forest. The town is almost deserted with the absence of all men and few are women and children, left on their houses praying for safety, open her windows to see the mad Paul Roy-Palomer riding to the forest.
Not long after it starts to rain, something that bothers the mare and Paul, the latter taking out his fancy blood dried coat and putting it over his head as a hood. Protected by the lantern, the light shows the trees and the paths to take, and Paul has no difficulty to lead the horse from them. In the middle of the trip the mare stops and stomps the ground nervous. Paul looks around with the lantern for any immediate danger and discerns a huge red fox in yellow tattered pants walking away from them. Paul imagined that that was Delilah had meant with they becoming visible to everyone. Clearing his throat, Paul calls out to him:
-Why, if it ain´t me best pal Foxy? Did ye enjoy killin´ me brother? – Foxy stops and slowly spins around with a mystified look. – Well, guess what? I´m Deadpool, bitch! I canna die!
-Freddy killed you! – The animatronic exclaimed.
-An` it worked, didn´t it? Now come one, come all, they who do not catch the prey are a bunch of rotten eggs! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! – Paul mimics Vincent and stimulates the mare to run like the wind.
-Francis! Charlotte! He´s a-A-A-alive!
Paul chuckles. Oh, he really can´t forget to thank Vincent for what he knew now.
Paul curses. The animatronics are fast and strong and they were close to catching him.
Freddy hadn´t believe what Foxy had exclaimed until he had seen Paul riding the mare and Chica had outright gasped in disbelief at their failure. Passing those reactions, they gave chase.
Foxy by being the fastest of the three had been the one who was always the closer one to Paul, Freddy, back in his brown color and keeping the bowtie and top hat in the dark color, basically rammed or smashed the trees in his way and Chica, yellow with her orange beak, had a special accessory with her. She had a freaking cupcake that she threw whenever Paul was locked in her sights. Paul had never considered that the plastic cupcake would become a goddamn biting bitch until it decided to bite the left shoulder and sinking it´s teeth deep in the flesh.
It paid off in the end when the castle majestically emerged outside the forest and Paul stopped the exhausted mare outside the open gates. Dismounting as the mare slowed down, he ran the rest of the way inside and halted by the open door. He looked back to see the animatronics throwing down the mare in fury and looking straight at him.
-Catch me if ya can! – He dared them mimicking Vincent again.
With that said and some roars blasting his eardrums he went inside the castle where, to his relief and shock, he saw the staff giving the whole town an old-fashioned castle defense. He ran inside, shoving his way through the disoriented and scared town´s men, encountering Cogsworth and Lumière by chance, and running up the main staircase and taking the right route to Adam´s room.
Gaston had left muddy footprints, as indicated by the size of the boots, and had gone after Adam alone. All the better. Paul was just dying to give Gaston a remedy for his actions.
Down a floor, the men scream as well as the staff as roars echo in the castle.
-Where is he?– Freddy yells, making loud CLANGS! as he walks.
-Vincy, be a gOod boy ANd play nice! COME OUT! - Chica demands, her voice cracking and faltering.
-Everyone for themselves! – Some men shouted terrified.
-This castle is haunted! Run! – With that said, running footsteps and yelling flood the castle.
"Have to hurry", Paul mentally notes.
The footprints lead to Adam´s room, one of the rooms of the castle where Paul had never gotten in, and this one had the window opened to outside, broken glass in the balcony and a beautiful woman in it.
-Beast! – Belle calls out.
-Belle! – Beast calls back in joy.
-Belle? – Paul asks walking inside the room.
The girl in question spins around.
-Paul! – She happily exclaims.
Paul runs to her and hugged her with all his might.
-You´re not dead! – She kisses his face repeatedly.
"I always come back, Belle. Just not in the best way", Paul wants to tell her but thinks otherwise.
-You two came back. – Beast, who had climbed to meet them, jumps over to the balcony rail.
-You´re our friend. We don´t le… - Paul begins to smile.
It fades away with roars from either sides of the room. Coming the closer to him, Beast roars in pain, his right arm reaching for his back. Behind him, a knife twirls in a gloved hand that Paul recognizes as Gaston´s. On the door to the room, the angry animatronics twitch and smile maniacally.
In a split second, Paul knows he has to save his sister and friend. And so he calls out to the white dot for help, pulls the Beast away from Gaston and seizes the man´s descending arm that was about to strike Beast a second time.
-NO! – The siblings scream in unison for the same reasons.
Gaston´s brief shocked expression is short lived and Paul takes pleasure in it as the white dot brightens his veins and, with the increased strength he is given, crushes the bones in the arm. Gaston screams in agony, dropping the knife that falls inoffensively off the roof to the rocks below, and is lifted in the air by Paul, who throws him to the left.
-I´ll be back. – He says in a cold tone to Belle.
-Vin-c-cent. – Foxy shouts.
Paul leaps off the balcony to the left where he had thrown his target. By the time he lands, Gaston has gotten up and stands to face him. His eyes briefly fly to Paul´s hands. The hands were no longer human and had shifted to tough decayed skin with dirty yellow and green.
-It´s over Palomer. I know your secret. The monster is dead and Belle will be mine. – Gaston shouts backing away to gain distance, holding the injured arm.
A dark side of Paul´s surfaces with that statement and causes him to first giggle, then chuckle and lastly to laugh crazily to the sky as thunder ripped the sky. It makes Gaston´s eyes widen, and the animatronics in the balcony to freeze in horror. And when Paul spoke, it´s added dark and hoarsen tone sent shivers to Gaston´s spine.
-I only see two monsters, fuckface. One is you, who holds nothing back to his personal gain, going so far as to kill my friend and deem my father a lunatic. And the other is me.
CLANG!
He takes a step forward. The shoes are shredded, his feet go cold and bare and they become metallic feet.
SCRATCH!
The legs are gradually covered in the same decayed skin that disintegrate the pants, showing the brown bones inside, and ripping some skin left to shreds.
CLUNG! SNAP!
The clothes toughen and become more part of the growing skin. Paul takes another step and Gaston slips on a water puddle as he tries to get away from the morbid vision he sees. Jumping to his feet, he retreats to the shadows of the gargoyles.
-You call Beast a monster. But what he did is nothing compared to what I have done.
Paul leaves his transformation mid-stage to better frighten the little man and hides behind a gargoyle, employing the same tactics as when he had tried to hunt down the night guard. To make it entertaining, he leaves an arm swinging from the cover, long enough for Gaston to see it, which the latter does. Hurried steps move further away from the gargoyle.
Thunder rips the sky for the fourth time that night, illuminating Gaston´s muscular silhouette two gargoyles ahead to the right. Paul makes sure to stomp the puddles to let Gaston know he is coming. He hides behind a gargoyle behind Gaston´s location and moans loudly, peeking just enough for Gaston to see him closing in on him.
SNAP!
As the skin forms on the arms and reaches the neck, Paul´s eyes glow green and are encased in metal locks. In fact, all the body parts encased by the skin are pierced by the same metal locks that had doomed him. This makes Paul stop and scream, clutching the eyes and stumbling out to the open.
Gaston sees a chance and goes to punch the monstrosity with his good arm. However Paul´s left arm flies forward and stops the fist from making contact, proceeding to push the fingers again the palm of Gaston´s hand and crushing them.
-Wait… Is Vincy…?
Paul turns his head to the animatronics who had climbed down to take him down. As the skin decays and toughens around the jaw, forcing it to become round, he manages to smile with all teeth visible. The jaw separates in two from the inside, forming one of tough skin and another one a bony jaw. Soon the teeth separate and become squares, the mouth forming an eternal creepy smile.
Freddy trembles in fear and crumbles into three crying Freddy miniatures.
-I killed my brother. My mother, my father… I was happy as I cut down four kids` bellies open, and stuffed them inside suits to ROT. I CAUSED THE DOWNFALL OF THE GREATEST EMPIRE OF CHILDren PIZZERIAS! – He snaps his head to face Gaston. Between seeing his ears retracting and watching long rabbit ears erupted forcefully from the top of the skull, Gaston keeps quiet. – I´ve hurt more PEOPLE THan you ever have!
-You´re not Paul! You´re a demon! – Gaston kicks Paul´s right leg as he shouts. He gets an injured foot instead and Paul decides to hoist him up from the neck.
-Paul, where…
Paul violently snaps his head to the balcony to look at Belle. She sees him and drives her hands to her mouth in horror, tears gathering on her eyes.
-I´m sorry, BelLE. AH AM. – Paul apologizes her.
Gaston narrows his eyes to protect his vision from the rain drops. With no comprehension of why or what he was facing, he looks at the demon holding him prisoner: A heavily damaged giant bipedal rabbit of a dirty yellow and green color, with a great portion of his right ear was missing, metal veins sticking out of the stump left behind; The entire body torn and tattered with gaping holes exposing caging and more veins throughout, thus making it appear much more macabre-looking; His legs were entirely stripped from the mid-shin down, fully exposing the bones. From his right hand, half of the middle finger is missing. Both the eyes became pale gray instead of glowing green.
-BUT You´re RIGHT AND WRONg. I´m PAUL ROY-PALOMER AND I´m Vincent RoY-PALOMER, A COMMON MAN and a psychopath. AND YE KNOW WHAT? – Paul exhales his breath in Gaston´s face and the latter coughs violently at the rotten smell. – DO YOU KNOW HOW I ENDED UP!?
The hand holding Gaston´s useless hand lets it go and moves up to the upper lip, pushing the mask from the face. His eyes glow brighter and, freezing for a moment, he rips the mask off, exposing the foul-smelling brown and red skull.
-Take A long LOOk AT my face, GASTOn. `CAUSE WHEN you go to HEEEEELL THis is how you´ll look LIKE!
-I can´t be killed. No one can best me! – Gaston tries to protest but the words come out as a hoarse.
If he could, Paul would smile at the words. He just settles with putting the mask back on.
-Let´s TEST ThaT SHALL WE? – Paul´s skull speaks as it disappears under the mask.
And so, squashing Gaston against his chest, he screeches and jumps off the roof and into the abyss. His and Gaston`s figures are engulfed by the dark fog below, with Gaston screaming and slipping Paul´s embrace, and Paul in peace at long last, knowing he had done something right in the very end.
...
...
...
"What the hell?"
This was Paul´s first though in a long while. He is sure he crash landed on the rocks below with Gaston not far away from him. But then how come he is alive?
Rain penetrates the suit from his back, wetting it and itching Paul´s ribs. The skin had cracked from the impact on the river´s left bank, the mask broken and revealing the top of the skull, with the left ear detached and by the water, his torso letting pointy rocks stab him on the skeleton.
His arms are broken from the locks snapping and hitting the ground, pulling the bones apart, just like the legs. And laying on his belly in muddy but rocky ground isn´t the best position to be on.
"Why can´t anything go as planned?", he sighs inwardly.
He´d take longer hours to die now. Or, maybe because he was dead, he wouldn´t and would live all eternity mangled on the river bank. He tries to move his head to the sides and stops when he spots a familiar man surrounded by wolves, on a blood pool.
"Ouch. Burn in hell, mate", Paul wishes.
A wolf moved away from the pack, his snout red and bloodied and walks to the water to drink. Paul shudders painfully. By chance the wolf hears him and lays his eyes on the mangled body. The wolf crosses the river and sniffs Paul everywhere, whining in disgust.
There´s a growl in the air and the wolves, alerted, scatter away from their meal and discovery. Unfortunately, they leave Gaston´s mauled bloody body open for view for Paul and the latter closes his eyes, feeling sick. He feels hands on his chest rolling him to face the sky and dragging him to lean his back on a boulder.
-Who arE YOU? – Paul can´t help but question.
His answer comes in form of metal sharp fingers involving his back and hugging him. Paul´s confusion is momentarily lived when he sees yellow arms, shoulder and chest, with a purple bowtie and a mouth with sharp teeth on the belly. Paul is surprised even more when his suspicions are confirmed as Fredbear releases him from the hug.
-FIVe animatrOniCS, FOR FIVE CHILDREN. ANd you ArE THE One I never wished TO KILL. Right PAUL? – Paul smiles.
Fredbear´s mouth might be composed of sharp teeth and ridiculously huge and emotionless, but Paul imagines his brother is smiling.
-Yes, Vincent. It´s me. – Fredbear says in confirmation.
-I´m sORRY FOR EVERything up until NOW. I SHOuldn´t HAVE TREATED YOu the way I diD. I took yOUr LIFE AWAY And no one can Fix that. – Paul apologizes sincerely, the first time in his two lives he had ever done it with guilt.
Fredbear glows white and Paul closes his eyes. When he opens them again, Fredbear was gone and in his place was the Paul he knew.
-I forgave you when I saw your actions these last few days, bro. You were different from the kid I had as an older brother and from the man I tried to call to reason the day you died. – Paul sits at his older brother´s side, putting one of the broken arms around his shoulders.
-And now WHAT? DO WE Go together back to Delilah? – Paul asks, covering his brother from the rain.
-I will. But you have a new life here with Belle and Adam and you´re needed and loved. You´re going to stay with them. – Paul says. – Don´t worry about Vincent too. Francis, Charlotte, Carlos and Brad will settle their issues with him when they go back.
-AH don´t thINK THEY CAn forgive mE. – Paul laments. He sees a flash of light falling on the castle.
-They have. They saw you up there defending your friends against a real monster, like you were. That changed their way of thinking. – Paul assures.
To support his claims, the four, no, three animatronics materialize in front of them, looking every bit of macabre they had always looked. Then the suits crumble and out of them emerged the spirits of the children: Francis, with brown hair and glasses, wearing a blue shirt with a big bloodied cut and trousers, looks to the pair happy; Carlos, with dark hair and an eye-patch, wearing a leather jacket over a white bloodied shirt and blue pants, averts his eyes in shame for what he had done; And Charlotte, looking just like Paul had seen her previously in Vincent´s memories, eating a cupcake.
-We´re… we´re sorry, Vincent. – Carlos whispers, dragging his feet on the mud. – For your friend and all that, I mean.
-And so will be Brad when we tell him what you just did. – Francis smiles sadly to Paul.
-Can you feel it? There is a happy ending to our stories after all. – Charlotte says.
The night is filled with multicolored flashes of light that shine over the castle. An unconscious Beast is lifted in the air and shines.
-Adam found love at long last and the curse is now lifted. Reminds me of a true love story. – Paul sits on his older brother´s lap.
-I preFER A GOOD PIRATES STOry. – Paul smiles as Beast, human now, levitates back down to the balcony.
The rain falls weaker on the ground and eventually the clouds stop "crying", as the young older Paul had misunderstood once in his previous life.
-It´s time I go now. – The young Paul gets up and stands next to the children. – I will see you later, big bro.
Paul gives the pain in his arms a good inward "Screw you" and reaches out for his brother, the latter slamming himself against Paul and hugging him one last time.
The castle is no longer dark in color, they notice, with the flashes of light reestablishing it´s natural color. Bursts of light flood the windows, happy exclamations are shouted to the heavens and, in tiny little dots, Adam and Belle share a passionate kiss.
The clouds open on themselves and out of them five rays of shinning multicolor light descended to Paul and the four children. While one involves Paul and returns him to his human form and healing his injuries, the other four involve the children and lifts them up to the sky.
-We´ll be waiting for you! – The young Paul waves at his brother goodbye.
Paul moves his human arms and legs to find then unbroken, gets on his knees and waves too at them until they are no longer visible. Where the kids had stood, masks of Freddy, Chica, Foxy and Fredbear, back to their normal non-nightmarish shape, faced Paul with emptied souls.
-…down there… p him! – Belle says high on the castle´s balcony.
Paul looks at her and gives her a thumbs-up, and he hears her gasp slightly and run off. They´d get him up from the abyss, he would just have to wait. In the meantime, Paul dedicated the time digging up four holes in front of the boulder and burying the masks.
-Reposer en paix, mon frère. – He intones, making crosses with sticks he collected from the river banks.
After waiting about five minutes, walking in circles and discovering and questioning new information he had from the future, he sees movement above him.
-Over here! – He calls out.
An end of a long rope falls down and lands on Paul´s shoulder.
-Climb up, Monsieur. – Lumière instructs, peeking from the end of the cliff.
Paul grins as he faces a human Lumière and nods in understanding. Even though a part of him had never climbed ropes like that, the Vincent part of him takes over and helps him pull his way up the abyss. Climbing the last inches panting, he hoists himself up and looks around to the castle staff, Belle and Adam. Everyone had come to give him assistance, like a family would actually act.
Belle embrace him sudden and strongly, berating at him for his suicidal act but not exactly angry; Adam tries to keep things under control between his girlfriend and Paul; Lumière and Cogworth whisper to each other and cast delighted glances to the siblings; Miss Potts and her son Chip examine him carefully and other staff gather around them, celebrating the curse´s end.
Paul told everyone that they all needed a rest, something no one objected to, and they all headed back to the castle. Along the way Paul spotted Delilah observing him from the top of a naked oak, smiling to him and Adam. She holds an enraged Vincent, covered by the dark substance again, by a collar and chain.
-You… When Ah get me hands on you, I´ll gouge yer eyes out! – The man vowed, nearly leaping to chase Paul.
Delilah pulled him back to her and with some foreign words, she vanished along with her captive.
-I really need to rest. – Paul yawned.
