Location: Old Pizzeria/Pizzaplex Basement Levels

Time: ?

Before returning to the Pizzaplex, Vanny wraps the clone's small body in a large blanket which had been lying on the top of the makeshift bed that Vanny set up six months ago in the Old Pizzeria.

Ever since she started working on the cloning project with William, she had been living here temporarily so that she could cross between the Old Pizzeria and the Pizzaplex with ease. She had a proper home to return to of course but, other than the Clone, there were a few other projects they were working on within the Old Pizzeria as well:

One was the creation of a Device that would enable her to transfer William's soul into the clone later on.

Another involved the use of a charging booth and staging of a "retirement" of a...certain animatronic.

The Last involved throwing the "Remnant" into the Garbage heap below the mall for some reason but Vanny didn't question it.

All these reasons were why she had decided to live here for the past months. It was exhausting of course but, since these were tasks that Mr Afton ordered her to do, she was willing to do anything for him (and never questioned why).

After making sure she had completely concealed the clone by wrapping him like a Mummy (but still leaving him some room for him to breathe), she then grabbed one of the large, empty wooden boxes lying about and placed it on a nearby trolley. Then, she placed William's clone in the box, grunting as she did so, before also putting on the box's lid. It had a few holes around it so thankfully, he wouldn't suffocate in there.

"It's lucky that I was too lazy to bother moving these boxes out of here..." Vanny mutters under her breath. She pushes the trolley and enters the lift, ascending to Level B2.

—

Upon arriving on the floor, she first brought the clone to the room where they cleaned the animatronics. She unwrapped him and then splashed him down with a small hose. The clone reacts a bit alarmed to the water, eyes widening as he places his hands out instinctively to protect himself but after a minute, he stops, lowering his hands once he realised the water was not hurting him.

"Sorry about that." Vanny apologised half-heartedly, "You reeked of chemicals and dirt. I'll dry you up now if that's alright."

William's clone stared at her with a vacant expression. Did he even understand what she was saying? After cleaning him up, she then wrapped him in another, cleaner towel and placed him back into the box.

She continued to push the trolley, heading past a few more corridors and doors until she finally found the perfect room to drop the child off in. She liked to come to this room in particular whenever she was on break or needed one because it was a blindspot: There were no cameras and nobody came in here very often because items stored here were the ones that didn't sell very well in the Pizzaplex gift shops above and thus, said items didn't need much restocking.

"Stay here for a while." She orders, removing the clone from the box and laying him down. "I'll come back".

With that, she leaves, tapping her ID Card on a scanner before exiting with the trolley and closing the green door behind her.

Clumsily, the clone tries to stand up and follow her but, feeling weak from just having been born hours ago, all he can do is crawl about the space shakily using his limbs. Eventually, he hit a wall. Using his hands, he places them on the wall and uses his legs to push himself into a standing position. Eventually, he manages to stand but on shaky legs. He smiles to himself and very slowly, he tries to edge towards the door that Vanny had left from.

–

20 minutes had passed. Vanny had finally returned with a cardboard box full of Fazbear entertainment merchandise to find the clone pushing himself against the wall, using it as his support to stand. He was also very close to the door. Any closer and she would have hit him by accident on the way in. Her boss would have hated her if she bruised him.

"What are you doing?" Vanny asked him.

The clone's attention is drawn to her and stares at her expressionlessly with another blank gaze. It was a little creepy.

"Anyway, I'm sorry it took me a while. I had to bring this stuff without alerting anyone".

The clone tried to get closer to her but upon leaving the wall, it tripped over itself instantly. However, unlike other children that Vanny saw, the child didn't cry when it fell and he just groaned, trying to stand up again.

Vanny moved away from him, ignoring him for a while to put the box and trolley aside. She then pulled out the clothes she had gotten for the clone, handing him a blue shirt with two horizontal purple stripes across the chest area, white briefs, a pair of light brown shorts and orange "Glamrock Freddy" Brand shoes, all of which were almost a perfect fit for him. He kept staring at her blankly, unsure of what to do with these items.

Sighing in frustration, she assists the clone in putting on his clothes and then grabs a mirror and brush from the box, placing the mirror in his hands while she combed his hair downwards with a brush. The boy looks at his reflection in the mirror, taking in more details of his appearance: He had apricot coloured skin and dark golden brown hair that reached a little above shoulder length, naturally falling into slight curls at some ends and framed a child-like, oval shaped face with hazel eyes that stared in wonder at himself.

The clone touches the mirror surface with his right hand before touching his cheeks experimentally and adjusting his shirt collar, noticing that the boy in the mirror did exactly what he did. He smiled, amused by how the reflection copied him.

"Okaayy...I think I've had enough of your silence." Vanny spoke up, "It's creeping me out. Maybe I should teach you to talk...if you can."

Vanny stops combing his hair and leads him to the box. They sit in front of each other, Vanny sitting cross legged while he sits in a reclined position.

"Let's start with our names, I'm Vanny." she points to herself.

"Vanny?" he repeats after her. His voice was soft and unsteady, not like the man she knew at all.

"Yes. Good. And you are William."

"You are William." he repeats after her.

"No." she shakes her head, "That's you."

She gestures to his face in the mirror again.

"You are William Afton. A much, much younger version of him but still... Him. However, calling you both William is going to be confusing so I think I'll just call you ... 'Will'. What do you think?"

The clone remains distracted, obsessed with his reflection and how it mimicked him. He waved at it.

She sighed, "Seems like this is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought it would be..."

—

For the next 2 hours, Vanny did her best to teach him basic words and their meanings, mainly for emotions and commands and Will nodded along with what she was saying. Vanny had no idea if he was really listening or not and thus, she made a mental note to try to test him tomorrow.

"So if your stomach hurts, it either means one or two things. One, you're hungry and you need to eat food. Two, you need to use the bathroom which is over there" Vanny pointed to another door at the side with a more translucent look to it.

"What eat?" The clone asked a grammatically incorrect question.

"Eating is when you put food into your mouth, like this."

Vanny grabbed a packet from the box they were sitting next to and peeled the wrapper off of one item which was labelled Vanilla Biscuit, revealing the wafer inside.

"This is food," she pointed to the object in her hands, "and this is what you do with it".

Next she tipped her mask slightly, revealing her lips which had a purple shine to them, and then used her teeth to bite and chew it. Will could see that beneath the weird mask she wore, she had blonde curly hair.

Suddenly, her phone rang, beeping loudly.

"Sorry Will, I have to go. I'll be back tomorrow morning. Just stay here and remember what I taught you today. Everything you need is in there." she pointed to the box, "Goodbye".

Will watched Vanny leave by that green door again, tapping that object in her hands onto that other object. He felt...upset about that but wasn't sure why (he would later learn that this feeling was called "loneliness"). His stomach grumbled and he winced. He recalls what Vanny said about the box and crawls towards it. In the box are several items: A large orange blanket with blue streaks across it, four soft odd looking toys that he couldn't name (yet), a Colourful Cube and unopened packets of the "food" the Vanny had taken minutes ago. It was frustrating for him not to know what any of these were called.

He recalled what Vanny did earlier and tore open one of the packets. He then opened his mouth and started to chew on the object within. His eyes lit up with joy from the sensation of tasting the biscuit before a strange moving visual crept into his mind. He was with someone...a boy with green eyes and they were laughing, tossing chocolate wrappers into a bin as they ran along in an unknown place.

'Chocolate...What's that?' Will wondered to himself.

Then, just as quickly, the visual vanished. Will didn't know what that was about and so, they ignored it and decided to do something else and instead of spending the night sleeping, he spent the night trying to stand up and walk like Vanny did. It was trial and error but over some hours (and some fall downs), he finally got the hang of walking about. He was still shaky with his movements but Will smiled, proud of himself for managing to stand on his own.

Unable to think of anything else to do, he then gazed at the door that Vanny had gone out of and tried to open it himself. He pushed and pulled but it wouldn't budge. He sighed and then went back to the box, fiddling around with the toys she'd left him but, still uncertain of what using the blanket meant, he lay down on the floor, grabbing one of the soft toys which looked the best to him for comfort: An Orange Bear with a blue streak on its chest and eyes.

When Vanny returned, she found the clone drooling on the floor with the Glamrock Freddy plushie in his hands. She goes up to Will, shaking him awake.

"Will, wake up..."

"Hm?"

"You slept on the floor?"

Will nodded.

She pulled out a blanket from the box, showing it to him. "Next time, before you lie down to sleep, use this. I don't want you catching a cold."

"Oh, oh I can walk." Will blurted, seemingly ignoring what she said.

Cautiously, he stands up and takes a few steps back away from her. Vanny instantly notices the bruises on his legs and knees.

"Will! What happened to you?" she shouts with concern.

"Ummm...I want to walk but keep fell down again and again but I kept getting up until I could walk".

"Do you not feel pain?"

"Pain?"

"Like you felt...a bad feeling in your legs?"

"I did but I wanted to walk so I umm...I ummm"

Will had no idea that the words he wanted to use next was 'ignored it'.

Vanny sighed in frustration, realising what had happened, "I'm happy you learned to walk Will but...he's not going to be happy about this. I need to get you a medkit and when I come back, I'm going to teach you more things..."

Even though he spent the first day in a bit of an uncertain haze and speaking in mostly broken English, he started learning and adapting much faster to her lessons over the course of the next 6 days.

"Go to the left."

Will nodded and moved in that direction.

"Good job Will. Now move right".

Will nodded and moved in the other direction.

"Great. Lastly, you see that box there?"

"Yeah." Will spoke for once.

"I should have mentioned this before but...if you see anyone other than me enter this room other than me one of those days, hide under it or my desk. If they spot you, just run out of the room and hide somewhere else. I'll find you."

William nodded.

By the eight day, Will was able to walk more confidently and properly without his legs shaking, talk in near coherent sentences and even fully grasp the concept of the more complex words she spoke of and he managed to do it all without having to hurt himself by accident.

Then, on the ninth day, Vanny started giving him children's picture books that she borrowed from a nearby library and taught him how to read. Then, two days later, Will displayed that could read the words in the picture books by himself without her help. Vanny herself was scared and impressed by how rapidly the clone was developing.

However, with increasing knowledge, there also came an increasing number of questions that Will would ask Vanny constantly.

"Vanny, if you're a person like me, Why do you dress as a Rabbit?" asked the boy reading a book about different animals. The Orange Bear sat beside him.

"I dress like this because William likes me that way." Vanny answers as she types away on a metal rectangle (which he would later learn was called a laptop) upon a nearby desk in the room. She was seated down comfortably in a chair that she had brought into the room a day ago.

"I don't think I told you that I wanted you to dress like a Rabbit".

"No, not you. The person you were cloned from: Mr Afton. He said he liked me in this costume"

"What does "cloned" mean?" asked Will.

"That you don't need to know. Not yet anyway."

Will nodded and continued to read his next picture book which was about a family living in a neighbourhood. The characters in the book were a Mother, a Father and their Three children. Something about it...tugged at his heart somehow. Reading a page that featured the mom, he came to a sudden realisation, abruptly asking Vanny: "Are you my Mom?"

Vanny stopped typing, feeling a little stunned at the question she just asked him. "Ermmm No. I'm just your caretaker. I helped in creating you, don't get me wrong, but I'm definitely not your mom Will".

He looked at his book and then back to Vanny. The rabbit woman was a mystery to him. He asked her once if he could see what she looked like under the rabbit mask and she just refused adamantly. Then, while she was distracted, he then tried to take it off but ended up being shoved to the floor where Vanny scolded him and proceeded to give him an angry lecture about the importance of asking for permission. Will knew that even though Vanny took care of him, she didn't "love" him like the mother in the book did (and the concept of love was also still foreign to Will). Still, he did see her as his Mother figure of sorts she was the closest thing he had to one and so, he decided he would see her as that for now.

Meanwhile, Vanny had different feelings about Will. She was devoted to William and would do anything he asked but...his clone freaked her out. She could always feel his empty but curious gaze on her somehow even when his face was buried in a book, as if he was always watching her like a predator stalking prey from a distance. But that couldn't be right could it? He had no malicious intent towards her at all. He was just a bit of an unsettling clone that was just curious about everything and that was it.

A familiar ringtone signalled to Vanny that it was thankfully time to leave him and so she did, promising to return to Will soon as usual and then exited swiftly. Very often, her time and lessons with him would be interrupted when that beeping sound played for some reason. Will couldn't figure out why.

"Where do you think she goes?" Will asked the Orange Bear he'd gotten attached to. It didn't respond. He wished he could talk to it though or that it would talk so that he wouldn't feel alone whenever Vanny went away.

To entertain himself, Will fiddled around with his toys for a while (his favourites were the Orange Bear plushie with the blue lightning bolt and a Rubik's cube) and re-read his books. However, when he got bored, his eyes drifted to the door where Vanny would come in and out from all the time. He had tried to open it himself once to no avail but at some point, he began to notice that every time before she left, she would tap a white, rectangular card onto that small black box as she did so.

He was getting curious: Did that card allow her to leave this room somehow? Was it the only way he could get out of here too? What was out there? Were there beaches and mountains like in all his books? Did Vanny get to see all that?

Additionally, sometimes, he would hear loud noises from the ceiling such as the thumping of feet and even cheerful screaming. He had no idea what was above them at all and the sounds were making him increasingly curiouser and curiouser. He wanted to know more about what was beyond this room.

I'll ask her tomorrow if she can take me outside, Will thinks to himself. Exhausted, he then fell asleep in his large and comfy blanket.

—

When he was asleep (or took short naps), Will would have (what Vanny told him were) nightmares and dreams. They began after the third day, flashes of different people and places would appear and each one gave him various feelings.

"Dreams are just something that happens when people sleep." Vanny explained to him when he questioned her about the topic, "And Nightmares are just Bad Dreams that make you feel bad. Don't think much about them when you wake up, they're just nonsense images".

In his dreams, there were recurring images: A family around a dinner table, a living room with a Clock shaped like a Sun and a Golden Rabbit and a Gold Bear singing together. However, he would dream of other things as well: A creepy basement of steel and wires, red paint (?) on a checkerboard floor and the sounds of crying children. However, one nightmare he had recently that unnerved him the most was being consumed by fire and trying to shatter a glass panel, staring hatefully into the eyes of an elderly man with green eyes framed in a pair of glasses. That man returned an equally dark gaze back at him.

"The darkest pit of Hell has opened to swallow you whole, so don't keep the devil waiting, old friend."

The sheer uneasiness of these nightmares would cause him to wake up with sweat on his forehead and the sensation of a heavy weight on his chest. He had no idea what these dreams were at all or why they made him feel this way. He told Vanny about these recurring images and she only told him that what he felt was "Fear" and kept on assuring him that what he saw in them wasn't real, only mere illusions.

Still, why couldn't he shake off the feeling that his dreams were more than just the illusions that Vanny said they were?

–

Will stirred from his slumber when he heard the door creak and Vanny entered. However, she did not greet him this time and instead, she set up her laptop on the desk. Something different was happening.

"Will, today we are meeting with Mr Afton." Vanny told him, "Just give me a while to get him".

Mr Afton? Will thought to himself. He'd heard Vanny mention the name a few times and even told him that he was his "clone". Come to think of it, she never really did explain what that meant. Maybe he would find out more today.

Vanny turned on her laptop and typed in her password. Immediately, an icon of a Gold Rabbit that had a very wide grin appeared on it. Will looked at the image with puzzlement and interest, grabbing the Orange Bear plushie lying next to him as he got off his comfy blanket and slowly approached her.

"Vanny," a digital voice which belonged to the Gold Rabbit blared from the speakers, "it's been some time since we last spoke. How is the Vessel?"

Will noted the mysterious voice sounded different from Vanny and himself. Something about the inflection his voice had was different from theirs.

"He has been developing fast. Mentally of course." Vanny updates him, "He can walk and talk now".

"Within 2 weeks? That's great news!" The Gold Rabbit's static image changed, now grinning wider, "Perhaps it inherited my intelligence. Did I ever tell you I was a child prodigy Vanny?"

"Never did."

"I was a very gifted child. A top student who would always get the highest grade above everyone else. Sure I might have missed out on a lot of my childhood due to constant studying most of the time but I got ahead in life, surpassing everyone. Even now, I've surpassed death. Outliving everyone I've ever known..."

The image changed again. The Gold rabbit now had its smiling mouth wide open as the rabbit's voice let out a dark and unsettling laugh but somehow, Will could sense a tinge of sadness in his laughter too.

"Hahah Anyway," he calmed down and it changed back to it's default expression, "Another theory I have is that the Remnant I infused into my clone could also have something to do with its fast adaptation. Perhaps it's unconsciously tapping into my own memories to re-learn what he should already know. Tell me, does he have dreams of things like a family or golden rabbits?"

"Yes."

"Good. So maybe my second theory is true, or it could be a combination of both: Genetics and Remnant. Who knows. This is an interesting discovery..."

The screen glitched slightly as the Gold Rabbit changed the topic: "Other than mentally, how's my Vessel doing physically?"

"He's alright." Vanny decided not to tell him about the bruises he got on the first day since they had mostly healed by now, "I've been feeding him what you told me to feed him. He's at a healthy weight range but in terms of height, he is kind of small. However, I think he might be undergoing a growth spurt right now as he gets slightly taller on some days when I measure him. I've been keeping track of it in my journal".

"Heh...Seems about right. I was embarrassingly short as a kid. He is definitely ageing normally though, which is a bummer." laments the voice, "But still, we can work something out eventually. May I see him?"

Vanny turns towards Will who had stopped walking towards her at some point in favour of watching them intently, not daring to interrupt their conversation.

"Come over here Will," Vanny beckons him to her, "I'd like you to meet William Afton".

Vanny steps out of the way as Will gets closer towards the laptop with the Orange Bear plushie in his hands.

"You're Mr Afton?" The boy tilts his head. "I thought you were a man. Not a rabbit on a laptop screen."

"Well, I used to be a man." William admitted to his clone, "It's just that unfortunate things happened to me a long time ago and it's why I'm a Rabbit now."

The Gold Rabbit chuckled in amusement while examining the boy from the camera, "This is so surreal. I'm actually talking to another version of myself. You know, he kind of reminds me of my older son, Michael. That boy resembled me a lot but this clone, he's exactly like me. Down to the smallest detail. I love him."

"Glad you do, Mr Afton." Vanny beamed at him.

"Lastly, Vanny, how is the Device coming along? Will it be completed soon?"

"Yes Mr Afton. I think with just a few more tweaks, we should be able to do the transfer tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Excellent. That's it for now. Goodbye Vanny."

Not bothering to say goodbye to his clone, The Gold Rabbit vanishes and Vanny shuts down her laptop.

"Vanny?" Will spoke up after her laptop screen went black, "Remember you told me I was cloned from Mr Afton?"

"Yes."

"You didn't explain what that meant..."

"Oh...right." Vanny remembered, "The person we just spoke to: His name is William Afton and you are technically him as well."

"I still don't quite understand what that means..." Will scratches his head still trying to make sense of what she's saying.

"Hmmm..." Vanny tried to simplify her explanation, "Think of yourself as a Copy of him."

"A Copy?"

"Yeah." Vanny confirms as she places the laptop back into the case she had brought it in.

"How can I be a copy of someone?"

"It's difficult to explain in detail but you were born in a glass case with different chemicals" Vanny shrugs, "Just know that it's a good thing and that we will be meeting again with him tonight".

"Ok. Umm...Why does William sound weird?"

"Sounds weird?" Vanny thinks about what he's trying to say and then realises, "Oh... that's just because he's British. Don't mind that".

"What's British?"

"He's from Britain. You saw the World Map in your books right? People from different countries sound very different from one another even though we have the same language."

"Oh...I see..."

Vanny could sense Will wasn't done speaking yet as he kept his eyes on her.

"Any more questions Will?"

"Just one:" Will's voice perked up with a bit of excitement, "Can...Can I leave this place with you today?"

Vanny hesitated to answer the question for a few seconds, "What do you mean? Aren't you having fun here?"

"I am but there's more beyond this room isn't there?" questions Will, "I hear noises from above me sometimes and I wanna know where you go and what's happening up there".

"I'm sorry Will but... I can't let you leave." Vanny zips the laptop case and carries it in her hands, heading towards the door.

"Why not?"

"You're gonna get lost up there and I don't want to lose you." she told him, her voice becoming more stern, "Especially Today of all days. If I lose you, Mr Afton will be very angry with me".

"What if we hold hands so we don't get lost from one another? I promise I'll hold tight".

"No. Will, you stay here. That's final."

RING RING RING

The phone vibrates with its usual urgency in Vanny's pocket. "Anyway, I have to go again. Stay here alright. If you really want, I'll bring you another toy when I get back".

"Wait – !" Will tries to run after her but it's already too late: Vanny swiftly taps the card on the scanner and exits, slamming the door behind her before Will could take a single step outside and he was left all alone again...as always.

CHAPTER 2 END

Next Chapter Title: "ID: Gregory Miller"