Author's Note: As you know, since this is an AU, some events will differ from Canon. One of which is that Freddy and Friends existed in Fredbear's Family Diner alongside Springbonnie and Fredbear but compared to them, they were just extras at the time. After the Bite Incident however, Freddy and Friends became the Main Stars after the Rebranding of the business into Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria.

Location: Pizzaplex - Main Atrium

Time: 2:26am

Feeling simultaneously depressed and full of fury, Roxy trudges around the Main Atrium since she couldn't move far beyond the Raceway due to her lack of eyes. She steps around carefully and flails her hands around to try to avoid bumping into things after nearly falling over some of the party tables, fruitlessly trying to find her bearings in complete darkness.

"This is so frustrating", she wails to nobody, "I can't see anything!"

Gradually however, she hears a distinct voice piercing the darkness: The same voice which had taken away her eyes.

"Roxy?" Gregory calls to her from afar. He was using a small, portable microphone that was clipped to his shirt and given to him by Freddy.

"You!" She snarls, turning her head towards the sound of his voice.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about earlier." Gregory apologises sincerely, "I want to give you back your eyes."

Roxanne briskly strode forward to where she assumed his voice was coming from. She knew he was definitely on this floor somewhere judging by how close the sound was to her pointy ears.

"As if!" She snarled at him, "You're going to strip more parts away from me aren't you?"

"The boy is telling the truth." Freddy supports his statement, "He wants to return your eyes. He's genuinely sorry for what he's done.

She bumps into a metal barrier of sorts and shoves it aside, "I don't believe him and I don't believe you either Freddy".

She feels like she's getting closer to them. Good.

"I'm going to rip that child you're protecting into pieces!" Roxy proclaims.

"Roxy!" Freddy chastised her, "This isn't like you. You wouldn't hurt a fly, much less a child!"

"I'm not in a good mood tonight Freddy. I think I deserve some revenge. An eye for an eye as the saying goes…" she laughs callously, "You know what? I think that's what I'll do: I'll tear out his eyes first!".

Roxane suddenly goes on all fours like an actual wolf and starts sprinting towards him.

Gregory gulped anxiously but tried to remain calm, staying where he was on the stairs of the stage. The plan was to lure her to him and that her blindness would cause her to trip on the stairs. Once she fell down, Freddy would ambush and restrain her from where he was (at the middle of the stairs) so that Gregory could turn her off. The boy even took extra precaution by placing additional objects on the stairs to make Roxy's fall more likely to happen but instead, the unexpected occurs:

While running, Roxy leaps forward and misses the stairs as well as the items she was meant to trip over, lunging right at him with a massive forwards jump. Her mouth was wide open, her sharp teeth bared with an intent to kill. Mike, William, and Gregory feel panic deep within their souls as they each remembered that fateful day in 1983 in different ways.

"Roxy! Don't you dare kill the boy!" William screams at her from inside her head.

"Go to Hell!" she internally shouts at him, "I'm not taking orders from you anymore!"

William is very distraught. He can't let her kill his Vessel! Especially not like this. As such, the gold rabbit tries to forcibly possess her and make her stop but, being already mid lunge in the air, he finds that he can't cancel her current action. Sure, he could make her jaws close but, after a quick calculation, he realised her jaws wouldn't be able to close fully at the current speed she was currently charging towards Gregory at. In other words: His Vessel was done for if he couldn't move out of the way in time.

Meanwhile, Gregory remained rooted to his spot, his body practically frozen in fear as he stared into Roxy's razor sharp teeth and abruptly became locked in a very significant memory from William's past:

Upon hearing the usually cheerful audience of children at Fredbear's Diner screaming and crying loudly, William Afton rushed there as fast as he could, desiring to know what the commotion was about.

Upon the main stage, the emergency button had already been pressed by one of the staff members which forced the two golden animatronics to stop moving. Between the golden jaws of Fredbear, was a boy with a striped shirt, head was partially cracked and bleeding severely.

"Evan? Oh no…no…"

He could see his youngest son was still alive and barely breathing but judging from the amount of blood he was losing…he wouldn't be alive for much longer if he didn't get any medical attention.

Closest to the stage were four children wearing masks based on Fredbear's other entertainers in the premises: Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy. They were gazing at the sight with expressions of shock and horror.

"It was just meant to be a prank. It was just a prank…" the boy with a Foxy mask flustered.

William frowns and approaches the four children. All of them backed away save for the boy in the Foxy mask. William grabs the Foxy mask upon the guilty boy and violently pulls it off, revealing his son, Micheal.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this… I didn't know this would happen…Dad, I'm sorry."

William's frown deepened further as he raised his fists and punched his brat of a son across the face.

"You little shit!" his Father yelled at him, "How could you? I warned you before, didn't I?! Never get close to animatronics like this! Now look at what you've done!"

William looks around at the crowd of people staring at him in fear, anxiety and disgust. Nobody had seen William, the friendly face of Fazbears, this pissed off before. They whispered among each other. Henry then arrives on the scene as well, gazing at him and Mike with concern.

"Henry! Call an ambulance and tell the staff to get Evan out of Fredbear." he drags a traumatised Mike by the collar, "I'm going to have a talk with my son in private…"

"Gregory snap out of it!" Mike begs him. Time seems to slow down for Mike as he freaks out upon seeing Roxy's gaping maw inches away now from crushing Gregory's head. This is all too familiar and he didn't, no couldn't, let it happen again.

In this moment, Mike saw Gregory not as the wicked father who abused him but as the innocent younger brother he accidentally killed: A crying child in a striped shirt who should never have died and deserved to live a long, happy life…

"Evan!"

Mike looked at Freddy who was surprisingly hesitant to take any action against Roxanne. Was it because he was programmed not to hurt other animatronics? Was he glitching? Perhaps he was in shock from seeing his friend be this brutal tonight? Mike didn't know.

Either way, he makes a split second decision to possess Freddy again and makes a well-timed leap, tackling Roxy out of the way just before her teeth can leave a single mark on Gregory. Both Freddy and Roxy fall into the stage's wall and down a few steps before hitting the ground, rolling a total of five times before Mike emerges victorious, coming out on top and he restrains her.

"Raggh!" Roxy snarls and snaps at Freddy like a rabid dog. "Let me kill him!"

Mike turns his head toward the boy on the stairs, "Evan! No I mean…Will- Erm, Gregory!"

Gregory finally returns to reality at the sound of Mike's voice, "Huh?"

"Help me shut her down!"

"oh…O-Okay…" Gregory tries to overcome the fear he had felt seconds earlier and be more focused on the task at hand as he approaches them, "Mike, how do I shut her down?"

"Top of her head." Mike tells him, "There should be a button there. That's what I remember from her blueprints down at parts and service at least."

Gregory nods and goes to the back of her head.

"No No No!" She cries, pleading with Gregory not to shut her down.

"I'm sorry." Gregory apologises to her again, "This is for your own good."

With that, the boy presses the obvious on/off button on the top of Roxy's head that lay between her waves of hair and gradually, her arms and legs began to stop flailing, becoming more and more motionless on the floor until she was completely still.

Gregory is relieved but before he can celebrate: Two orange arms lift him up and give his small body a tight squeeze. Gregory yelps a little but he quickly realises the squeeze wasn't meant to kill him, it was a genuine, loving embrace from Mike who was still in Freddy's body.

"Evan? Evan are you alright?" small teardrops spill from Mike's eyes and he's choking up, "Please…Please tell me you're ok".

Gregory gives him a perplexed stare, "Yeah… I'm ok. Thanks."

The boy then cautiously hugs him back. "Heh, it seems you do care for me. That's nice."

Upon hearing this, Mike immediately stops the hug (recalling who it was he was really hugging) and makes Freddy stand back up, ending the heartwarming moment as fast as it started.

"Ummm sorry it was just a reflex." Mike says sheepishly trying to get rid of his ghostly tears by wiping them with his sleeves, "We still need you alive to help us. That's the only reason I saved you".

"Awww I'm glad I'm thought of more highly by you now." Gregory said sarcastically, grining wide.

"Don't get used to it." Mike blushed with a downturned expression as Freddy picks up Roxy in his arms, throws her body over his shoulder, and the three of them walk back to parts and service.

–

Location: Parts and Service

Time: 2:39am

"Well…is she ok?" Freddy questions standing outside one of the room's rectangular windows that separated him from the boy. Gregory analyses the circuits in Roxy's now exposed head and face carefully. The metal parts that made up her face were placed aside in the corner for now.

"Her circuits and wires look fine and undamaged." Gregory informs Freddy of her condition, "But…I can't seem to see any sign of the corruption Mike is speaking of."

"Diagnostic complete. No virus detected." Handunit confirmed.

"See? Even Handunit agrees. If she's naturally this violent, I'm scared to activate her again..."

"She's not Gregory! Something is definitely affecting her!" Freddy insists.

Mike phases into the door without warning and takes a look at Roxy for Gregory.

"I don't think we are dealing with an ordinary virus, Gregory. The corruption I'm seeing is more…supernatural in nature."

"I see it too." Henry says while also phasing into the room uninvited. "I don't think this corruption will be possible to get rid of normally."

"So now what? I'm not that great with programming or making antiviruses for supernatural things." Gregory scratches the left side of his head in frustration and defeat, "Is there anything else we can do?"

"What do you mean you're not great at programming? You repaired me didn't you?" Freddy inquired.

Gregory groaned, "Freddy, just because I'm good at repairing machines doesn't mean I'm just as good at programming them. Also, I may have William's skills and knowledge but … programming machines have become a lot more advanced since His time and I only knew how to repair you earlier because the tools here were similar to the ones in William's basement".

They're both quiet for a while, attempting to formulate what to do until Freddy speaks up.

"Hmm…I may have a solution: Try turning her Safe Mode on." Freddy helpfully advises.

"Safe Mode?"

"It's a function that cuts us off from the Fazbear Network for emergency purposes. The only disadvantage however is that it leaves us on Reduced Power mode and thus, our battery lives do not last as long."

"Ah so that's why you have to keep recharging." Gregory at last comprehends why the bear was constantly going to the charging stations every 30 mins.

"I have a theory that William may be corrupting the others via the Fazbear network. If that is the case, it could be the reason why I wasn't like the others when I woke up".

"That's a good theory actually." Gregory compliments Freddy, "Now…How do I activate her Safe Mode?"

"All Endos have a switch on the right side of our heads in case Safe Mode doesn't automatically activate".

"Thank you Freddy."

Gregory looks at Roxy's exposed grey neck until he finds a small, lone switch and flicks it.

"Ok done. Will it work?"

"The only way we can find out is if we activate her." Freddy tells him.

Gregory looks around the room. "Are you serious? Dammit, There's almost nowhere to run or hide if she wakes up and attacks me."

"If you feel frightened that she will attack you, I would offer to hide you in my chest cavity Superstar but sadly, I'm not with you in that room."

"It's alright." Gregory takes a deep breath, "I just have to be brave and hope for the best".

Gregory fiddles with the control panel, instructing the claws to apply the various parts of her metallic faceplate back to their correct positions and then instructs HandUnit to reactivate Roxy as he ducks into a corner.

Roxy lets out a groan as she starts up again.

"Ugh where Am I?" Roxy blinks and sees Freddy Fazbear just outside the window, "Freddy?"

"Roxy, I'm glad you are okay." The giant bear expressed his joy.

"What happened?" Roxy asked, looking around, "Why am I here?"

"How much do you remember?"

It takes a few seconds but Roxy starts to recall everything that occurred to her over the past hours...

"I remember a man called William. He talked to us through our built-in intercoms and told us to look for his kid called Gregory. I remember searching for him far and wide and then he challenged me to a race. I got angry as he was winning and then I got so mad that I tried to kill him. I…didn't even know why I did that. I don't normally hurt guests."

Roxy whimpered sadly at what she had tried to do.

"And then that boy took my eyes. I was mad but I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted my eyes back. I shouldn't have wanted to kill him either at that moment earlier but I really don't know what came over me. I wasn't myself…"

Gregory clenches his hands. Mike and Freddy were right after all: All of them had been controlled by and corrupted to follow orders from William. All of them. Additionally, it seems they were unaware that they had been corrupted either…

"Speaking of which," Roxanne continued, "where is the kid, is he ok? Is he hurt?"

Her voice had a tinge of guilt to it. Gregory cautiously moves in front of her line of sight, coming out from his 'hiding place' by the side,

"Hi umm, I gave back your eyes." Gregory apologised sincerely, "Sorry I took them out in that race. That was kind of a bad move on my part. I just thought they would be good for Freddy to help me find things."

Roxanne chuckles, "You do know there are other eyes of mine here that you could have used right?"

"I didn't know." Gregory mumbles remorsefully and adds, "I don't work here."

"Figures…Anyway, thanks to the both of you, I don't have to follow William's orders anymore. You just go back to him now, ok kid?"

"Actually, about that…I can't go back to him".

Gregory and Freddy take a while to explain the truth to Roxy who is in a state of surprise and disbelief throughout the whole explanation.

"So let me get this straight: William Afton is the Founder of Fazbears and therefore our creator…sort of. He murdered people and came back to life as a ghost in the Pizzaplex and he did something to me, Monty and Chica. His goal is to possess this boy to use him as his new body. Am I right?"

"That's the basic gist of it." Freddy shrugs. He graciously left out the fact that Gregory was William's clone as Gregory secretly sent Freddy a message via the Fazwatch which told the bear to keep his true identity a secret from Roxy as he feared she would have the same reactions as Mike.

"That was… a lot to take in but what I do understand is that this William guy doesn't sound like a good father or person." Roxy surmises, "I can't believe he would control us to harm you….We animatronics were built to protect kids like you from bad people like him."

Roxy fumes with unhappiness from the fact that William was using them for a sinister purpose. "Listen, kid, If he bothers you or if you need help freeing the others, you can just contact me on the Fazwatch. Here, I'll add my contact".

She walks up to Gregory, taps her finger on his watch and then walks away with a dramatic hair flip.

"Anyway, I'm off."

"Where are you going?"

"Back to my room. If you need me, just tap my icon on the watch. I'll be in my room styling my hair and charging as I'm at 50% for now. Bye."

"Wait!" Gregory stops her.

"Hum?" Roxy pauses, "What is it?"

"Before you do that, Can you get me the Dance Pass you promised me? I believe I won it fair and square".

Roxy stops in her tracks, recalling their bet. "Well, I wouldn't say 'fair and square' but yes, you won so I'll go get it for you." Roxy then turns around in the other direction, "You can follow me if you want."

"That would be great." Gregory beams, "I'll stay inside Freddy while you both walk there."

—

Roxanne, Freddy and the child in his chest cavity walk briskly under the neon lights and on colourful floors of the Pizzaplex towards the Counter with the Dance pass. Freddy stays behind her while Roxanne moves faster than him without looking behind.

"Hey Freddy," Gregory whispers, "Are you sure you're friends with her?"

"Why do you ask? I think of her as my good friend. I'm not sure about what she thinks about me but I think she likes me too." Freddy says with positive innocence.

Gregory felt like the bear was too naive for his own good sometimes but a part of him also loved him for his ability to see the good in even the worst of people.

Meanwhile, much farther behind, Mike and Henry chat as they follow the two robots in front.

"Hey Mike, thank you." Henry said to him out of the blue.

"For what?"

"You saved Gregory back there before Freddy could. That was good of you." Henry remarks.

"Pfft, I only saved him because I didn't want to see another person die like that again." Mike asserted, "Don't get me wrong. I still want Gregory dead but if he has to die, I want it to be by my own hands".

"Mike…" Henry metaphorically facepalms and groans at that, "Are you sure you can't let go of your grudge for your father?"

"I can't. Sorry." Mike shrugs nonchalantly.

Back in the centre of the group, Freddy decided to ask Gregory what he felt was an important question.

"Hey Gregory, are you sure you want to use the Dance Pass for the Fazer Blast Arena to get the Fazer Blaster? Personally, I believe the Monty Cam is easier to obtain if we use the Dance Pass for Monty's Golf Course."

"But a laser gun would be more cool to have." Gregory reasons, "and besides…How hard could it be to win a Fazer Blaster anyway?"

Chapter 22 End

Chapter 23 Title: All Your Fault

Summary: Mike and the clone of his Father try to bond at Bonnie Bowl.

Also yes, that scene where Mike rescues Gregory was inspired by 'That Scene' from Spiderman: No Way Home (for those who have seen the movie you know what I'm talking about)