Author's Note:

Charlie's appearance is based on the Books but she has Henry's green eyes in this AU (Also helps to parallel her with Elizabeth. Both of them being the daughters of the Founders who died and went on to possess specific animatronics).

Also since this is an AU, expect there to be some changes from Canon. Especially where Timeline is involved.

Also, even though Charlie died as a Child, she's heard a lot of big words over the years from various conversations so she can use them.

Location: Pizzaplex

Time: 4:05am

In the corridors of the Pizzaplex, William Afton was communicating with the Daycare Attendant (who was currently in his Moon form) from one of the digital screens.

"So let me get this straight," the Gold Rabbit's eyebrows were creased and his usual Cheshire Grin was downturned, "you had Gregory right in front of you and you didn't take the opportunity to capture him!"

"Bringing Freddy to the repair room was a priority at the time." The Daycare Attendant argues, "He was heavily damaged."

"I gave you an order." William raises his voice, "Why did you disobey!"

"I didn't disobey it. It just wasn't a priority…" The Attendant simply states in its goblin-like voice.

William's eyes glow bright purple with pure rage at that statement. "I'll give you 'priority'…"

From the screen, William leaps into the Daycare Attendant and forcibly reprograms him. The poor robot shrieks, clutching his head in agony for several minutes until William leaves him.

"I've altered your programming to better serve me." William grumbles, "Now Go! The very moment you find the boy, grab him and bring him to me. We are running out of time!"

The Moon hisses at him and crawls back into the darkness. William leaves the screen, leaping back into the digital world.

'Grrrr…these robots really are useless.' William groans in frustration. He then looks at the current time and lets out a guttural yell.

'Dammit! Time's running out faster than I thought. It's only a few more hours until 6am!'

He flicks through visual after visual in the Garbage Disposal Area until he sees movement in the cameras. There, outside one of the entrances that led to a lift going to Pizzaplex, were several staff bots pushing a trolley with a shut down Chica, his Vessel and that accursed Puppet. William's eyes widened at the sight. What was Charlie doing with him? Did she not know who he was? It seemed very likely considering his Vessel wasn't dead.

William laughed at the irony of Charlie unknowingly working together with a copy of the man that slaughtered her and for a second, wondered whether he should reveal Gregory's true identity to her once they were close to a screen. However, he decided against it, knowing that Charlie would kill his Vessel instantly the moment she found out and he didn't want that at all.

Finalising his thoughts, William then finds Vanny, who was currently in her Vanessa state, wandering the basement halls of the Pizzaplex…

—

Location: Pizzaplex

Time: 4:07am

Vanessa walked in solitude, continuing to stare at her smartphone absentmindedly flicking through camera footage after camera footage. There was nothing. The boy had vanished and Freddy was somehow out of Parts and Service and unconscious in the kitchen. Chica was also nowhere to be found which was curious and thus, Vanessa had to head down to the Pizzaplex's underbelly to search for her, believing that Chica had likely fallen into the garbage chute again somehow.

Passing through the corridors, Vanessa was almost to the lift that led to the Loading Docks when something made her freeze in her tracks. It was a door: A plain and simple green door.

Vanessa knew it was one of the many, many average storerooms in the Pizzaplex and yet…why did she feel eerily drawn to it. A partial headache strikes her and all of a sudden, her head is flooded with fleeting images of plushies, picture books and a brown haired boy smiling at her. The very same boy she was searching for tonight.

Vanessa rubs her temple, feeling sick and puzzled simultaneously as a thought springs to mind:

'Have I met this Gregory kid somewhere before seeing him at the Pizzaplex? No it can't be. We just met today. If I met him before…I would have definitely remembered'.

Vanessa had a sharp, photographic memory. There was no way she'd forget a face so easily and she doubted she was going crazy….at least she hoped not as she was presently on her prescribed medication. Perhaps those images were just wrongly remembered memories…

Vanessa tries to believe that but she couldn't help feeling that those images she saw were real memories, ones that were buried deep in the recesses of her mind somehow.

Taking a deep breath and clearing her thoughts, Vanessa tries to turn her head to face the corridor in front of her but bizarrely enough, she can't and finds herself being persuaded No— compelled to go inside this very specific room. She felt like metallic pins being drawn to a magnet and couldn't pull herself away…

Vanessa steps towards the door warily and, as she was about to reach the door knob with her fingers, her phone rang and the world around her went black….

—-

"Vanny! Vanny come in".

His servant responded instantly as usual on her smartphone.

"Hello, Mr Afton? I'm a little confused." Vanny feels her face for a mask that isn't there, "Why am I back outside the place where I stored Gregory? And why am I not in costume?"

"Forget your worries! I'm very pissed off." William complains to her, "Quickly wear your costume again and go to the old Pizzeria. We need to bring it out. Now!"

"Bring what out?"

"The transfer device from the old Pizzeria. You know? The one which we've been working on for months?"

"You want to move it up to the Pizzaplex? Are you sure?" Vanny asks worriedly, "It's still a little unstable".

"Doesn't matter. Two animatronics are out of my control and we are out of time and other options. So what if it has a few kinks? It will still function".

"But why now?"

"Vanny, it's nearing 6am and I've made use of almost every animatronic here but none has managed to capture him and bring him to me. Not even you. Worse, Roxy's been freed from my control soon, Chica will be freed as well. Gregory already has her and he's found yet another ally".

"Another ally"?

"She's an old enemy of mine, a spirit I despise more than Micheal. Her name is Charlotte and she's in possession of an extremely flexible animatronic".

"I think you told me about her once. Charlotte was your first victim right?"

"Yes." William verifies her answer.

"Would you like me to go after them?"

"No…I'm afraid Charlie would be too difficult for you to handle. She's dedicated to protecting children and will do it at any cost. Even murder".

William smirks to himself, 'How ironic. To think that she's become just like me: A Killer with blood on her hands…'

"Anyway, make haste Vanny!" The Gold Rabbit on her screen orders her, "If he's not going to come to us, then we shall have to go closer to him instead…"

—-

Location: Entryway to Lift - Garbage Disposal Area

Time: 4:12am

The nightmarish Staff Bots push open the metal gates to reveal the pathway to the lift. What Charlie and Gregory didn't expect however was for how…bizarre the pathway to the lift was going to look like.

Grgeory and Charlie were expecting to pass through another empty, plain corridor but what they got instead was a corridor full of multi-coloured Post-it notes, decapitated Staff Bot heads, a variety of empty boxes as well as deactivated artificial candles all strewn about haphazardly through the wide corridor.

Just ahead of them, was a ramp that led to the large lift just above.

"Charlie, what the hell is this place? Gregory asks as the Staff Bots try to slowly navigate the trolley around the area, avoiding the candles and boxes.

"I…I'm unsure." Charlie replies equally perplexed, "This place was always like this before I arrived. I have no idea what any of these things mean at all or who this place belonged to but whoever was here, they never came back again…"

Gregory looks about the place in curiosity from where he is, gazing at the various notes attached to the walls and pillars. He aims his flashlight on the ones closest to him and manages to identify what's written on them: There are various zeroes and ones on certain papers while on others, there are random, almost nonsensical words or drawings of birthday cakes, a bear, crying children and balloons. It was making Gregory uneasy.

"'Why is I?'" Gregory read the words aloud, "'I can feel it', 'Hide', 'Kids', 'Love', 'Happy', 'Pizza time'? What does this all mean?"

"Why are you asking me?" Charlie says annoyedly, "I don't know either."

"I'm actually asking myself. Sorry." Gregory apologises.

After examining the pillars and walls long enough, Gregory next shone his flashlight onto the ground where something glinted at him from under a stack of papers.

"Hang on a minute." Gregory jumps off the trolley and rushes towards the object that was reflecting his light invitingly.

'Could it be..?'

He squats down and removes the cluster of papers from atop the item to reveal:

'Another knife!' Gregory grins avidly. He picks it up and looks at it. The knife is a dull gray and not as flashy as the others but it was still retractable and would do for now. Putting it into his duffel bag, he runs back to the trolley quickly.

"What did you find?" Charlie asks curiously like a child would.

"Just a screwdriver to use later." Gregory replies, "Nothing much".

Charlie nods, not asking more. Eventually, the Staff Bots managed to wade past the obstacles and post notes and push them up the ramp. That's when Gregory sees some figures to the right on one of the flat surfaces.

"What's that?" Gregory points to a rectangular table where 5 Staff Bots were placed about in different positions. At the end of the table were two Staff Bots that were dressed as a man and a woman. The man wore a top hat and suit while the woman wore blue hair and a purple dress. On the man's side was one Staff Bot with a baseball cap and striped shirt and on the woman's side were two other Staff bots: A deactivated Circus Baby bot and a headless bot.

"Oh that? I'm also unsure." Charlie tells him, "but the Staff Bots do look like a family of sorts…"

"A family…" Gregory's head hurts. Another memory comes back to him:

In the Afton household, tensions were at an all time high at the Dinner. William and his wife were seated in the middle of the table while Mike and Elizabeth were seated adjacent to the two of them. Elizabeth was attempting to eat her potatoes and chicken in peace but to no avail.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Micheal sobs, "It was an accident".

"And so were you clearly!" William slams his fist on the table, "I warned you time and time again that Fredbear was dangerous to go up to and what did you do? You didn't listen and look at what happened!"

"I'm really sorry for what I did, Father. I really am. We just wanted to prank him".

"I'm not upset that your brother is dead." William runs a hand through his brown hair, "I'm upset because I'm going to lose my finances because this news gets out! The business is going to suffer unless I can find some way to clear up the issue."

Mike gives him a look of disbelief. "Are you serious? Is that all you care about?!"

"No…" he backtracks, "of course not. I'm upset about Evan's death as well. I…actually have no words to describe how much I hate you right now Micheal. You killed him. It's all your fault! You're a murderer!"

William then leans in towards Micheal intimidatingly. "Tell me, Did it feel good? His blood on your hands! Did you enjoy seeing his head crushed to a pulp!"

"Shut up!" Mike cries.

"William, stop." His wife, Violet, has had enough of this and grabs his wrist, "Mike feels bad about it. Don't push him anymore…."

"Hey! Hey! You alright?" Charlie calls him soothingly and wraps herself around his small form, "Don't be scared. I'm here for you".

Gregory resurfaces from the memory to see Charlie hugging him in her slender arms and the trolley now being right in front of the lift. He hadn't registered that time had passed and that he was breathing so rapidly.

"Y…yeah…" Gregory hugs her back, partially feigning a need to be soothed. "I'm scared. I want to get out of here."

Despite looking creepy, Gregory found that the Puppet's body, in contrast, felt soft, warm and comforting. Its metal parts hardly poked into him and so, it felt more like he was cuddling a big, cotton-stuffed plushie instead of an animatronic.

"I feel the same way. This place gives me the creeps…" Charlie strokes him on the back, "I've already pressed the button. The lift will be here very soon".

As the two of them seperate, Charlie spots something familiar on one of Gregory's wrists: A green wristband with his full name scrawled on it. She yanks that hand and brings it close enough for her to see. Gregory feels a bit shocked by the pull and lets out a small yelp of surprise.

At the sight of it, Charlie starts to feel wistful, recalling the rainy day she died…

"You ok?" Gregory asked her, feeling genuinely worried.

"Yeah." The Puppet shakes its head, "It's nothing."

DING

The light bulb on top of them lights up and the doors open. With that, Charlie lets go of his wrist and continues to command the Staff Bots to push the trolley and they board the lift to the Pizzaplex floor.

—-

Location: Loading Docks - Kitchen Area

Time: Some minutes before Gregory and Charlie boarded the lift.

Meanwhile, earlier above, Freddy has just woken up from his deactivation. He looks left and right but doesn't see the boy anywhere. The last thing he remembers was him shouting a warning.

"Gregory?" Freddy hollers, "Gregory?! Where did you go?"

Mike and Henry manifest in front of him, looking equally as lost as he is. Not that Freddy seemed to realise it though.

"Mike? Henry? Where's Gregory?" Freddy asks with severe worry in his voice, "Did you see where he and Chica went?

"We don't know where he went too as when Chica screamed, something about her frequencies made us fall unconscious with you." Henry notifies him with a distressed tone.

"I didn't know Chica's scream could affect Ghosts." Freddy was perplexed.

"I don't think it could." Mike states, "Not at first…"

"Huh?"

Mike offers a theory: "I read Chica's blueprints. Nothing about it said it could affect ghosts. However, I get the feeling William may have done something to Chica's voice box. Like maybe he told that Rabbit Lady to make some alterations that would cause Ghosts to fall unconscious or something like that."

"But how? Does that kind of technology even exist? And would others have these modifications too? Do I have them?!"

"I don't know the answers to all your questions but let's just say my Father is a man of many talents. If he could figure out how to make fucking computer chips that disguise their user, he could definitely figure out how to create tech that allowed him to hurt ghosts".

"I'm worried." concern laced Freddy's words, "What if Gregory got hurt or …"

"Died?" Mike finished for him, "Chill, he's my Father. He doesn't die that easily as proven time and time again".

"Right you are Micheal." A voice crackles to life behind them and William Afton himself appears on the screen. Both Mike and Henry are taken aback from seeing William's real face again which was visible to them with high clarity.

"Speak of the Devil." Mike curses, "What do you want this time?"

"I simply want to make a trade with both of you. As you are well aware, I have the children with me…even the ones you both love so dearly: Charlie and Elizabeth."

Henry and Mike's eyes widen at this information.

"Where are you keeping the children?!" Mike confronts him.

William makes a 'tsk tsk' noise.

"Now why would I tell you so quickly? It's no fun if I give away all the answers so soon. You need to have more patience, Micheal. Additionally, you rude brat, I hadn't finished talking yet so let me repeat myself."

William pauses for a moment before announcing his offer:

"I'd like to make a trade with the both of you: In exchange for the children, you must both deliver Gregory to me. If you do that, I'll give you what you want and won't bother the two of you anymore tonight. We can all move on with our lives. Doesn't that sound nice?"

"Hell No!" Mike raises his fist to the screen, "I don't like your clone but I don't like the idea of you possessing his body and existing once again even more. You'll never be reborn! I'll make sure of that!"

"I refuse as well." Henry nods in agreement.

"Of course you would refuse me Mike but I'm surprised you refused the offer Henry. You almost never refuse me and I'm the only one who knows where your precious Charlie is".

"I'll say what I said back then the day we got fired: You're a monster and a liar." The former founder gave William a dirty look, "You're too far gone to be trusted and you're not the good friend I know anymore."

"Oh? I'm surprised you don't share the same opinion of my Vessel. Despite all you've seen, you think he's a good person?" William questions him, "Nothing like me?"

"He has…issues sure but definitely feels more empathy and guilt than you at least." Henry retorts, "The boy repents for anything wrong he does unlike you!".

'Hmmm…these traits are things that I'll have to get rid of when me and my Vessel become one'. William notes this down mentally to himself and then tries to figure out another plan. Clearly, this exchange wasn't going to work to get them off his back, especially when they knew he wanted to be reborn through his vessel. Thus, he had to try to get rid of the ghosts with another type of offer then.

"Okay fine…How about I give the both of you something better then: Eternal Happiness." The Founder does his wide, signature grin, "And the best part: Nothing needs to be exchanged."

"Huh?" Henry asks.

"Eternal Happiness?" Mike's question follows suit and he folds his arms, "From the likes of you? What a joke".

"Oh it's no joke Micheal. I have the children stored away somewhere, that much is true, but they are not in pain. They're home with me… on their Happiest Day…for all eternity".

"Bullshit!" Henry swears for once.

"Would you like to see where they are? I can show you."

William's is replaced by footage of a new yet familiar place which flashes on screen. There's a massive birthday cake on a table in a room that looks identical to the ones at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. Several children are playing games with one another. Mike and Henry look at each other, unsure what to do or what they are witnessing.

"See? They're having fun. They're in bliss at this very second and you both can be as well if you want".

The screen switches to footage of Elizabeth grinning while eating ice cream with some kids beside her.

"Elizabeth's happy here too, Micheal. Really happy. Don't you want to be happy too?"

"I would." Mike shakes his head and scowls at him, "but your promises of happiness are always false. What you're showing us right now is probably just an illusion or something".

"I'm not lying this time but fine. So be it. Refuse me." William scoffs, "What about you Henry? Don't you want to see Charlotte again? Accept my offer and I can take you to her or make you relive the past again. Remember the happy times we had then, old friend?"

"Freddy! Freddy come in!" A voice pipes up from the Fazwatch, "I have Chica."

"Superstar!" Freddy exclaims happily, "Are you and Chica alright?"

"Yeah. I fell into the garbage disposal area with her and she tried to bring me to William but luckily, I got help from an…unexpected friend."

"Who?"

"Dad? Dad, are you there?" A childish, female voice chimes in, "It's me Charlie".

Henry's eyes light up at the sound of her name, "Gregory, You have my daughter with you?!"

"Yeah. She was looking for the children too and we found each other." Gregory simply explains, "Meet us at the–"

"Hang on." Henry pauses Gregory, "Don't say anything about your location yet. Give us 5 minutes."

"Okay…"

With that, Gregory stops talking and the communication line ends.

"You had Charlie with you huh?" Henry raises an eyebrow towards William.

"Well, I didn't technically lie." the digital version of his old friend grins, "My clone has her which means I did have her in a way".

"Whatever. Freddy, let's get out of here." Mike orders the Bear, "My Dad's lying his ass off as usual".

William scowls back at the ghosts as they leave.

'Ah well, I tried but it seems my negotiations with them failed. Time to check on Vanny and proceed with Plan B…'

—-

Location: Parts and Service Room

Time: 4:20am

As Freddy left the Kitchen, he contacted Gregory again and he told them to meet at the Parts and Service, Freddy is the first to arrive followed by Gregory and Charlie who have Chica with them on the trolley. However, they encounter a technical problem almost instantly.

"Charlie, why can't the staff bots go in with Chica?"

The bots suddenly became motionless as they tried to enter the room. They reversed and tried again to no avail.

"I think certain robots aren't allowed in here." Charlie speculates, "Same with those bots over there".

Gregory looks at the still Endos in the corner that were trying to lean past the border that separated the corridor from the Parts and Service room. Had William tried to enter this place with them but couldn't for some reason? Seems likely.

In the distance, Gregory sees a large flash of orange come down from one of the lifts above.

"Freddy, we're over here!" Gregory calls loudly as he spots him. "Help me carry Chica to the repair room".

Freddy nods, waves to him and then sprints towards them, lifting up Chica and bringing her to where he was instructed to bring it.

Mike whistles as he sees Freddy rush past him with Chica's broken body, "Woah Chica looks all cracked up. What happened to her?"

He's concerned and angry that something might have triggered his Father's…murderous urges again.

"She got crushed too much in the garbage smashers by accident." Gregory replies honestly, "I didn't mean to hurt her this badly but I kind of forgot to change the settings before I brought it down on her".

"Uh Huh…" Mike says observing the clone's hands. He doesn't see them shake at all and so, he doesn't lash out.

Then, Gregory also finds himself doing the same unconsciously: Observing Mike's crossed hands and then his fingers. The boy's eyes widened in surprise as he noticed something that he hadn't noticed before…

"Is that nail polish?" Gregory points to Mike's left hand.

"Oh yeah." Mike outstretches both of his hands, admiring his handiwork, "I applied it before I burned alive".

"Why?" Gregory raises an eyebrow.

"I was bored and also wanted to look good before I died in Henry's trap." Mike tells him sheepishly, "No other reason".

"Dad!" Mike and Gregory turn their heads towards the sound of the girl's voice.

"Charlie!" Henry calls her name with tearful enthusiasm, "Charlie, Oh God I've missed you so much."

The Puppet leaps towards him in happiness but forgets that he's a ghost and so, she passes right through him and falls to the ground automatically. He turns around with arms still outstretched, wanting and waiting to embrace her still.

Reluctantly, for the first time in what felt like years, Charlie sheds her spirit temporarily from her Puppet body, rising from it like a snake shedding skin, and appears before everyone as a round-faced, rosy-cheeked little girl with shoulder length light brown hair. Over a white shirt, she wore a juniper green jacket and below, a pair of blue pants that were tucked into black rubber boots.

The 5 year old girl runs up to Henry, managing to hug him this time, colliding into his body. Tears run down both their eyes.

"Oh Charlie, Charlie, It's good to see you again."

Gregory watches their heartfelt reunion with a heavy weight in his heart as all he sees is Charlie begging him to spare her in the rain and lifeless eyes shortly after. He looks away remorsefully but is glad that Henry and her managed to reunite. Gregory however, looks back again and sees Henry returning him a genuine smile that was almost like a silent sign of forgiveness. Gregory smiles back at William's former partner.

Eventually, both Henry and Charlie separate and look towards Gregory.

"So Charlie," Henry begins, "I see you've met Wil–"

Upon hearing what he's about to tell her, Gregory shoots a cold look at him before the rest of his tongue slips, as if saying 'Please, don't tell her the truth. Not now, not here'. Henry's words catch in his throat. He knows that look: It was a look that William gave to him whenever he wanted him to shut up.

"Gregory." Henry abruptly shifts his words. It makes Charlie squint her eyes at her father suspiciously.

"Wil-Gregory? That is a weird name. I thought you were just Gregory?"

"I am…Henry meant to call me Gregory Miller." Gregory grins at her anxiously. Charlie examined his smile closer. It's…strangely recognisable to her somehow.

"Listen," Gregory keeps grinning while he speaks, walking backwards, "Why don't you both catch up while I repair Chica? You can tell me what you talked about afterwards".

"Sounds good." Henry nods.

Gregory then turns his head towards Micheal, who has been suspiciously quiet during this whole reunion, giving him the same warning glare but Mike looks away. He then leaves the three of them and selects the repair procedure in the old computer before entering the room. Going in, the large metallic door once again slammed shut behind him, leaving the boy in total isolation, and he got to work.

"Can that boy actually repair her?" Charlie questions her father, "Isn't he a child?"

"Actually he's about…13 years old I think but yeah, he's a very talented kid."

"He's 13?!" Charlie is shocked, "I thought he was nine or ten years old."

"Yeah. I was surprised too. He erm…probably hasn't fully hit his growth spurt yet." Henry chuckles, "So what were you doing all this time Charlotte?"

"Trying to save more children from William. He's been kidnapping them from the Pizzaplex for the past months by possessing Chica and the others but I'm not sure why. I was able to save some of the children but not all of them."

"Kidnapping more children?" Henry hears this and his happy mood sours, "What for?"

"Probably to make them suffer for his own amusement as usual." Charlie makes a wild guess, "I don't know…I keep trying to find out where he brings them with the animatronics but when I try to, I get disabled by Chica's voice box, attacked by Monty or Roxy or sometimes two of each. They're faster than they look and their claws and teeth are sharp enough to damage me. It also doesn't help that Roxy can see my weak spots with her eyes…" As she says this, Charlie gestures to the stitched and patched up parts of the Puppet body.

"The trail goes cold huh?" He strokes Charlie's hair and pulls her in for another hug, "It's alright. We will find them together along with the other children".

"I'm surprised he never used Freddy though." Charlie adds, "He always seemed to avoid using him for some reason".

"How curious…" Henry ponders, "Why would he avoid Freddy? Unless it was for sentimental reasons?"

Before Henry has a change to think further, Charlotte barrages him with her own set of questions.

"Hey Dad, why are you here with Mike? Why did you both not go to the afterlife? And what have you been doing all this time?"

"Woah slow down. One question at a time. Okay Charlie?" Henry hugs her tighter.

"For the first two questions, I don't know. Believe me, I wanted to move on and I wanted you to move on but it seems we both couldn't do that."

"For your second question…It's a long story Charlie but I'll try to sum it up. After the fire, I died but then I woke up and this shinier, more modern version of Freddy Fazbear was gazing into my eyes. He asked me who we were and I was confused about the 'We' until I saw Micheal next to me. He was awake as well. Freddy asked me who we were and we introduced ourselves. I then asked him where we were and he told me that I was in the Pizzaplex built by Fazbear Entertainment. I also learned that it's been 39 years since we perished and that now, we were ghosts inhabiting his body, just like you and the other children, and Mike and I were unsure why''.

"The Fazbear Staff." Charlie begins her answer, "I remember waking up to the sound of rumbling and all of a sudden, the front doors broke. Back then, I had no idea 39 years had passed. A group of men and women came in and with them were animatronics: A Bunny, a Bear, a Bird and the Wolf. As they walked in, I exited and saw that the burned Pizzeria and everything in it had fallen into some kind of deep pit in the depths of the earth."

"A pit?"

Charlie nods, "Maybe an earthquake happened at some point that caused the place to fall down into the pit?"

"That's possible." muses Henry, "Earthquakes do occur from time to time. I only wish we'd stayed buried deeper underground though…Sorry, continue your story Charlie."

"Okay. So for a while, I watched them take things from the burned Pizzeria and learned that they were doing this because they wanted to find and display "relics" in the Pizzaplex. However, items that weren't going to be displayed were burned by men who had guns which shot fire".

"Flamethrowers." Henry corrected his daughter.

"Yeah those. I then saw Freddy take your body and Mike's and he brought them to be burned along with some other things. Maybe that's why your souls became attached to him?"

"Perhaps." Henry ponders on this thought. However, there was also another thought on his mind…one that was much more burning with animosity.

'They burned my body with a flamethrower?! They didn't even give it a proper burial. Those motherfuckers!'

"It'sstrange that I couldn't sense you or Mike at the time though…"

"Maybe that's because our souls were 'resting' or 'inactive' when we went into Freddy which is why you couldn't sense us?"

Henry scratches his head, "Sorry, it doesn't make much sense. And I'm not entirely sure how this ghost stuff works. It's just my silly theory".

They both remain silent for a while, watching Gregory repair Chica from afar with the machinery.

"So…what else did you and Mike been doing while you were in Freddy?" Charlie asks curiously.

"We just existed as we were unsure of what to do with ourselves. Sometimes we even took over Freddy whenever he had a malfunction".

"What, like you sang?" Charlie giggles, very amused at the idea that he and Mike would perform song numbers for kids.

"Kind of. Being up there performing on stage reminded me of…"

William and Henry (wearing their Springbonnie and Fredbear costumes respectively) performed on stage to a live audience, instruments in hand. Henry, despite being a complete introvert, finds himself bravely singing the catchy (but annoying) theme of their restaurant while William deftly plays the electronic piano. Under their metal masks, they felt confident enough to do anything. They lock eyes with one another as William plays out the final stanza and at last, a spray of Confetti falls on the two of them and they take a bow.

"Of what Dad?" Charlie prods him.

"Sorry, it's nothing." Henry brushed off the memory, "Anyhow, I remember that when Freddy was walking through the tunnels, we felt and heard the missing children. We chalked it up to our imagination at first as we assumed they went to heaven but then, we kept sensing them over and over again. We tried asking Freddy to go deeper into the Pizzaplex to find them but his programming wouldn't allow it. I thought there was no hope until Gregory came along. He can see ghosts and get to places we can't and so, we've enlisted his help since he's been kidnapped by Vanny and there's no way out for him at the moment."

"No way out?"

"I know…management here is terrible. Apparently all the doors don't open till 6am according to Freddy. Even the emergency exits".

"None at all?"

"No".

"Poor thing." Charlie pities the boy.

"Tell me Charlie, are the children really down there?" Henry asks Charlie for confirmation, "Mike and I are not imagining it are we?"

"Well…to be honest, I'm not even sure myself. I saw them but I wasn't sure if it was them…"

Henry is befuddled by what she's saying, "Can you tell me more?"

"I'll do my best." Charlie says, "After I saw that you and Mike were burned, I remember seeing that they took William's body and tossed it in the fire too. I could not sense his soul nor yours, Mike's and the childrens'. I thought everyone moved on and I didn't know why I was the only one left behind after everyone had gone. The only reason I could think of was because I killed too many innocent security guards trying to find my murderer and made the children do it as well. I felt sad. And then the Staff found me, said I "wasn't worth anything" and tossed me into a large pit."

"I'm so sorry you had to endure all that alone".

"It's ok, I'm used to being alone…." Charlie laments.

Henry gives her a sad look, remembering that although she was a happy and generous child that loved to give other children hugs and gifts back then, her generosity went unpaid as the other children she tried to befriend found her normally overly friendly personality annoying and so, they would usually abandon her to play among themselves. For a long time, he had always wished he could have been by her side on that rainy day to play with her rather than finish the paperwork he was doing or at the very least, held her in his arms in her final moments…

They're both quiet for a while, briefly lost in their own regrets, until Henry prompts her to go on.

"Charlie? You left off your story with being tossed into a large pit?"

"Ah yes," Charlie continues, "So since I no longer had a purpose, I lay dormant but then, I also sensed Elizabeth's soul nearby as well. It seems, like me, she had awoken, was tossed away and hadn't moved on to the afterlife either. Back then, she was fully convinced William would come back for her and I told her about the cruel things he did. At first, she didn't believe me and wouldn't even talk to me but after some time, I think she began to realise that not only was her father coming back but that he never loved her. Not truly anyway. One day, Elizabeth dragged herself to me in her Circus Baby body and cried that she felt miserable and lonely. So I did what I did best: I comforted her, knowing that the truth she had to accept was hard and that all we had now was one another. I'm not sure how many months passed exactly but Elizabeth and I talked about a lot of things over time and we found out that we had a lot in common." Charlie smiles melancholically, "If I wasn't killed by William, I think she and I would have been good friends…"

"That's nice to hear Charlie. Then what happened?"

"After what felt like years, we eventually sensed Him return. Wethought it was impossible as we saw his soul vanish but nope, he was still alive and was talking through the mask of some kind of Rabbit lady with him…."

Chapter 25 End

Chapter 26 Title: All is Hell in the Afton Family Part 2

Summary: A Flashback Chapter revealing certain events from Charlie's perspective…