There was an element of surrealness as Vanessa sat down and watched the sun rise.
For the first time in a long time, her mind felt… it felt clear. All of her thoughts were her own, no Vanny, no Glitchtrap, just her.
It was terrifying.
She had Ice Cream in her hand, although she hadn't touched it. She bought it for Gregory and then he asked if she'd like some.
It caught her off guard then, someone asking if she'd like something. For so long she was always told to like things, told to do things, it was nice to be asked for once. At least she thought it was nice.
She wasn't sure how the kid managed to free her from Vanny and the Glitchtrap (it had told her that was its name), all of her memories from when she was in the suit were jumbled into a gordian knot at the back of her mind and she wasn't sure she was ready to cut through it yet.
But that was fine, she'd be alright one day…
At least she hoped that she would be.
She took a hesitant bite out of the Ice Cream, she glanced at Gregory enthusiastically licking his cone while Freddy's head watched.
Vanessa was fairly certain that she was crazy, but there was something familiar about the voice and mannerisms of Glamrock Freddy that always seemed to nudge at her. Like she should know him, like she should remember him.
It bugged her the entire time she worked at the mall and it bugged her now.
It wasn't the only thing that bugged her, sleepless nights and overdue rent, a creeping loneliness that seemed to consume her existence, nightmares about what Vanny did…
She had trouble with Vanny, Vanny might be gone but her actions had definitely left their mark, but Vanny was dead now and so was the Security Guard.
That's what she called herself when she was working, 'The Security Guard'. She liked working, as long as The Security Guard was working then Vanny stayed quiet.
But here was the problem.
She was and wasn't Vanny, Vanny was a murderer that willing worked with Glitchtrap from the start. Vanny murdered nine children, Vanny was a monster.
She was and wasn't the Security Guard, The Security Guard was a no nonsense hard worker that always did her best to help people. The Security Guard hated Glitchtrap and resisted him every step of the way, The Security Guard did her best to save Gregory from Glitchtrap and the monster he created in her head. The Security Guard was a hero.
And the truth is that she was both of those things, but she felt like neither.
Both personas seemed so distant, and that's what they were, personas.
And with both of them dead and gone all that's left was Vanessa.
She wasn't sure who Vanessa was.
She watched the sun rise and her mind attempted to try and make a metaphor with it, something about new days and new beginnings.
But beginning implied she knew where to go, she had nothing left.
She was evicted from her apartment a month ago, she wasn't sure she had a job anymore and quite frankly she never wanted to go back there ever again.
She was lost.
"Hey."
Vanessa jumped slightly at Gregory speaking.
"Hey."
There was a beat of silence.
"I'm glad your not crazy anymore," Gregory said and to his credit he sounded sincere.
"Thanks, I'm glad as well," Vanessa replied. Although she didn't really know what to say, what do you say to the kid you tried to murder until he cured you from being brainwashed by an A.I version of a long dead serial killer?
"Your family must be worried," Vanessa said after another moment. "Would you like me to drop you off or…?"
"It's alright, we're actually within walking distance of my place," Gregory told her. "And I'm actually an orphan, although I doubt the workers care I was missing." He looked at Freddy's head. "I can't wait to show you my place! It'll be awesome."
"I can't wait to see it," Freddy replied. "I don't doubt it'll be as cool as you are."
"But I can't guarantee it'll be a cool as you!" Gregory playfully punched the head.
"I'm sure it'll be totally rad," Vanessa joined in awkwardly. Kids still said Rad right?
"That's the spirit!" Gregory looked excited. "You guys will love it."
Vanessa cringed from the excitement, "I'm not sure that's such a great idea."
"Why not?"
"Because less than two hours ago I was trying to kill you?" Vanessa pointed out. "And I doubt the workers will be pleased with me being there. Even then, you can't really keep Freddy's head with you, the company won't let you just keep him." She glanced at the Freddy head. "Uh, no offense."
"None taken," Freddy said with that inexplicably familiar voice. "And two things, firstly the company can't track me. The chip for that is located in the main body."
"Really?" Vanessa blinked. "I always thought that they were in the head, although I was never the most technical person." She had her job with the game developers, but she wasn't on the technical staff. "He handled the technical side of everything…"
They all knew the he she was referencing, a silence descended on them for a moment.
"What's the second thing Freddy?" Gregory asked once the moment passed.
"My name is Michael."
Oh.
Oh.
That made sense.
A sound that was halfway between a laugh and sob escaped Vanessa, it soon turned into a sort of hysterical giggling.
Both of them were looking at her with proper concern on their faces.
"Are you okay?" Gregory asked as the giggling died down.
"Yes… Just…" Vanessa looked for the right word. "Processing. You're really Michael? The Michael?"
"That's me," Michael confirmed. "I just hope I've put my father down for good this time."
"Maybe…" Vanessa looked off into the distance. "He always seems to come back. But this wasn't him, just a copy."
She'd seen some of his memories, felt his emotions and knew his resolve. But she knew that he was just a copy of the original, she felt it.
He wasn't the famous Purple man.
In a way it was funny, he'd always rant about his Michael trying to stop him and now here a fragment of the man has done it again.
Silence descended on the trio again, she took another bite from her Ice Cream.
He was gone now and so was his plans, it bought her to the question of the evening.
Where does she go from here?
Vanessa didn't have a clue, she had no money, nowhere to go and no job.
What do you do when you've got no plans or options?
"When did you realise you were Michael?" She asked.
"When I saw Father, it was like a flood of memories coming back to me," He recalled. "I remember the flames and Henry's voice, then a feeling of peace. Then I was pulled, that's what it felt like, pulled back into Freddy, although I don't think it was all of me, just a part, a fragment of the full man. I can barely remember anything of Michael now, he's gone until he's needed again."
"Well I don't know what any of that means or who your both talking about," Gregory said. "But you both are my friends and that's enough."
They were friends? Vanessa never had a friend before.
"Thanks," She said. "For everything. You've done a lot for me you know."
"It's no problem," Gregory said. "You probably would have done the same for me."
Would she have? If the roles were reversed as she was the kid would she have done the same?
She could remember some of her childhood vividly, her mother and step father arguing. Her thinking that it was her fault and that if she was just a good enough girl maybe they'd stop. The trial, mother's funeral, stepfathers smile as he watched the coffin lower.
Then a mere month after the funeral Stepfather disappeared completely. No note, car and all the money and valuables gone, no explanation, just her alone until CPS picked her up and left her in an orphanage.
She still remembered what he said to her last, told her that she was just a disappointment, told her that she wasn't anything more than a nuisance that he loathed. Told her that it was her fault that her mother died.
Those words haunted her then, but with everything that's happened…
His opinion didn't seem to matter that much anymore.
But back to the question, if she was a child now and Gregory the security guard, would she have tried to save him?
She didn't have a clue.
She'd like to have thought so, but she was always a scared kid, more honestly she was pretty certain that she'd have run out the front door first chance she got.
"You were a very brave kid," Vanessa told him. "Very smart too."
"It was nothing," Gregory blushed.
"I wouldn't say that kid," Michael/Freddy said. "You're the hero that saved the day here."
"Thanks Fr- Mi- Do you prefer Freddy or Michael?" Gregory asked.
"Freddy," The head said after a moment. "I think it's time I let Michael rest for a while."
"I'd like to rest," Vanessa told them, the tiredness clear in her voice. "Although I don't have anywhere to go, I was actually living in that place after I got evicted."
Glitchtrap always told her that she needed the money for his projects, he'd be watching her he said, he'd know if she disobeyed him he said.
That's why she'd been living at the mall, of course that didn't leave too much time for sleep. God she felt like she could sleep for a week right now.
"You know, you don't have to stay there anymore," Freddy said after a moment. "I know somewhere you can stay for as long as you want, I don't need it anymore I think."
Vanessa tilted her head quizzically.
"In the city on Hamilton street, there's an apartment complex. Tell them you need the key for Fritz Smith's apartment and when they ask for a password say Elizabeth, they'll give you the keys to my old apartment. Michael owned it so you don't have to worry about rent."
That sounded almost too good to be true, but she wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth.
"Thank you… Both of you, your both so… kind."
"Are you alright?" Gregory asked. "Your crying."
Vanessa felt her face and yep, there were tears. But right now, she felt justified in them, she'd never really been treated like this. Treated with simple kindness from strangers, she wiped away the tears on her sleeve.
"Sorry, it's just that no one's been this kind to me before."
Part of that was her own fault, she never knew how to make friends and make them stick. Anyone that she'd ever thought of calling a friend fell out of contact with her after the thing she had in common with them went away. Be it school, university or work. Another part to blame was Glitchtrap's influence, when he was in her head, he always said that having friends was a bad thing, that they made people weak.
But maybe now that he was gone, maybe she could make at least one friend.
"I always liked the blue sky," She announced after a moment. "It always looked so peaceful."
"It is pretty neat," Gregory agreed. "And uh, can I ask you something miss?"
"Sure thing."
"What's your name?"
Vanessa thought about it for a moment.
"That's complicated kid… And a long story."
"We're willing to listen to it," Gregory said with that same earnest smile on his face.
Alright then, the full story.
"I never knew my Father, my mother says he left just a few weeks after I was born," She recalled. "But I did know my Stepfather, he never liked me, always hit me when Mother wasn't looking and towards the end... I think Mother was scared of him. Then they went to court over custody over me, he said that Mother was unfit to take care of me and the estate, mother died just before we went to trial. Stepfather disappeared shortly afterwards," She let the memories wash over her. In the end that's what they were, memories. "In the short few weeks before CPS came to get me I managed to find a box with two padlocks containing Fathers old things, but only one of them stood out to me. An old foxy mask and letter."
That was his legacy to her, an old foxy mask and a letter to what would have been her uncle if he wasn't dead. But she knew more about his legacy now, thanks to the game, thanks to the knowledge that the A.I had given her. She wondered about his reasons for leaving her, she could make guesses but ultimately she wasn't him, even the bear wouldn't know.
She wasn't her Father, she wasn't her Stepfather, She wasn't her mother, she wasn't Vanny, she wasn't the Security Guard.
She was Vanessa.
But she did have a last name of course, everyone had one, but she never told anyone it. She always tried to ignore that it existed, she always tried to compartmentalize it. For her that last name represented many things to her over the years, from a curiosity to a source of anger to a source of shame to a cause of pain.
But what was it her therapist told her once? That she needed to face her memories and past in order to move on to the future?
With all that had happened, maybe it was time to do just that.
"I still have them around somewhere, but soon after I found them I was sent to the orphanage, I went to school and then to University where I got a degree in game design. I… I never had any friends… it was lonely. After that I got a job in game design for Fazbear entertainment."
"You worked on the VR game?" Gregory asked with awe clear in his voice.
"Yep. A few months dealing with code before I was made a Beta tester," Vanessa's face darkened. "Although that's something I can't talk about, not yet. But it's where I encountered him."
"Oh."
"Yeah… I don't want to talk about the next two years either, but they were the worst years of my life," Vanessa closed her eyes. "Maybe one day I'll tell you about them, but not now. And the pint of me telling you this is that I never used my last name during any of it, just went by 'A' for it."
"Why?"
"Because I wasn't ready to handle it, or even attempt to try," She said.
And that was the truth, she wasn't ready then, even now she wasn't ready to deal with it. To deal with everything that last name represented to her.
An absent Father, a complex family, years of curiosity and resentment, lost hope and her darkest moments.
But the longer she put it off the worse it would get, it was time for her to just deal with it and try to move on.
"But to answer your question kid, my name is Vanessa." She said as she watched the sunrise. "Vanessa Afton."
She knew this was an end and a beginning.
She hadn't dealt with any of her issues yet by a longshot, tonight she'd have nightmares of Glitchtrap, Vanny and her part in all this, the past wasn't quite dead and buried yet. But Gregory and Freddy had freed her.
They'd given her a chance to bury the past for good and move on, to get better.
Vanessa Afton had no illusions that the road ahead would be easy, on the contrary she thought that it would be harder than anything she'd ever done before.
But she wanted to get better and was willing to go down that twisting and narrow road to do so.
But that was in the future, for the moment she had Ice Cream as she watched the sunrise with her friends.
And that was enough.
"It's nice meeting you Vanessa," Gregory held out a hand.
"It's nice meeting you Gregory," Vanessa shook it. "Would… would you like to be friends? Like properly?"
But for as long and twisty as that road to recovery would be…
"Yes! That would be awesome!" Gregory cheered.
As hard as it'll be to overcome her demons and be at peace with herself…
"It'd be glad to be your friend as well Vanessa," Freddy's head said kindly.
For as endless the path was to redemption…
"Thank you both, I'm glad to be your friend." There were tears in her eyes as they all watched the distant sunrise with Ice Cream in their hands.
Maybe she wouldn't have to go down that road alone.