The Dark Rebirth: An FNAF Security Breach AU

by Clad-In-Black15

After Help Wanted, William (as Glitchtrap) decides to clone himself and transfer his soul into this new body. Unfortunately, things do not go according to plan as the clone develops sentience and runs away into the Pizzaplex. AN AU where Gregory is actually a clone of William Afton and the events of Security Breach play out differently.

42. Epilogue: Gregory Cabrera

Author's Note

Hello everyone. Sorry I'm late. I haven't really recovered from my depression but writing this epilogue has helped somewhat at least. After this…I need a long break due to personal issues. Don't expect the side stories soon.

Also I worry this epilogue may not be up to standard but I did my best and I'm also re-updating the character sheet and Glossary as most of it consisted of notes I threw in last min last week and some portions are still missing so there will be new additions from time to time.

Enjoy the Epilogue which takes place 10 years after Security Breach in 2077.

–

Location: Mega Pizzaplex Plus - Cafeteria Area

Date and Time: Friday, 6:15pm

After the mysterious fire consumed the Mega Pizzaplex, Fazbear Entertainment was devastated by the losses that they endured. Sure, their Glamrocks were still functional and there were other Fazbear themed Pizzaplexes across America that would keep on generating profits for the company but none were as Grand or as Ambitious as the Mega Pizzaplex and that outlet had lasted for merely a year before everything went up in literal flames.

However, 8 months after the incident, Fazbear Entertainment broke their usual trend of posting advertisements on social media to broadcast with great pride and joy that they would soon be building 'Mega PizzaPlex Plus', the hottest new vacation destination that wasn't only a mall but also a Hotel, Indoor Theme Park and Waterpark!

They promised it would be bigger, better and safer and what's more…There would be even more animatronics!

However, it would take some years to raise funds for, design and build the new architecture and animatronics in addition to getting it all in working order and so, what the company did for years was to loan out the Glamrock animatronics to different outlets around America and kept on leeching money from people desperate enough to pay for premium content in their VR and AR App games and soon, once 8 to 9 years had passed, Mega Pizzaplex Plus was completed and opened to the public and, as promised, it was bigger and better than ever.

The marketing campaign was a success, attracting both new and old employees and customers to the latest venture and that was where four young women, all of whom were part-time Fazbear Entertainment staff, found themselves at present: Gathered together after work in the New Pizzaplex at one of the many checkered tabletops at a fast food restaurant since all the fancier ones were fully booked for the day and applied makeup on their face (with the exception of payton who was scrolling through her social media feed on her phone which had a yellow rabbit on its back) while waiting for their fast food dinner to arrive.

"So how are your jobs as Lobby Ticket sellers going so far? It's been like…a few months since you started working here right?" Payton asked.

"Pretty boring. All we do is just sit in front of the lobby, wave at people and sell them tickets to either Roxy's attraction or whatever. I'd rather be at a spa or just at the movies." Jessica sighs as she snaps her compact mirror shut, "What about you both?"

"Not much either. We just do accounting. It's not glamorous." complains Marley, "Also there are not a lot of eye candy in our office which sucks. What about you both? Seen any cute employees or customers lately?"

"Not really. Save for a few. Like there's this very tall one that me and Brittany both like." Jessica giggles dreamily, picturing the guy in her head.

Brittany rolled her eyes at Jessica as she finished applying her strawberry flavoured lip gloss which gave her lips a silky shine, "Jess, there's a bunch of guys who are taller than us here. You have to be more specific."

"How could you not know who I'm talking about Brit? I've been eyeing him all week! He's huge and muscular, probably close to 7 feet."

Brittany cocks her head at her best friend with a lost expression on her face.

"You know…Gregory?" Jess reminds her.

"I thought Gregory was the cashier at the Daycare?" Brittany questions, "He didn't look very hot to me".

"No, not that Gregory." Jessica barked, "The other Gregory. The hotter one with the hazel eyes and fluffy hair? The Assistant Engineering Intern?"

"Oh I think I know who you're talking about now!" Brittany snaps her fingers,"I forgot about him as he doesn't appear here a lot. I think he's a college student or something because like…he only works here mainly on Fridays and late Monday and Wednesday afternoons as he has studies most of the week. I don't get why he chose to be an Engineering intern though. He's a guy with a pretty face with a pretty voice. He shouldn't be hiding behind machines. He should have been a Model or one of the human performers at the Pizzaplex…"

"You have a picture of him?" Marley inquires, leaning in to both Brittany and Jessica.

"Of course." Jessica chuckles, "He was just way too cute to not get a picture of."

Unlocking her smartphone and swiping her fingers a few times, she shows everyone an image that she surreptitiously took of 'Gregory' who was standing in a queue. He appeared to be a refined young man around their age (or perhaps a bit older) and, as Jessica described him, he had fluffy brown hair and light hazel eyes. He was also dressed in a blue shirt and black pants that seemed to cling to him, revealing a muscular physique underneath.

"Wow what a cutie!" Marley grins, "He looks like he could be a Hollywood Actor!"

"You think he's hot?" Payton rapidly blinked in disbelief, "He just looks average to me. Like…standard white bread".

"Hey! I'm high quality white bread." A charming voice that was smooth like butter and yet simultaneously pissed off yelled from behind them.

The women scream as they realise that the new intern had been watching them converse from a short distance for God knows how long and although his posture was relaxed as he leaned against a nearby wall, his crossed arms and disapproving glare betrayed how he was really feeling in that moment.

However, that glare instantly became a cheshire grin with bared teeth as the attractive young man stood upright and strode towards them. The women unconsciously backed away as they realised that yes, Gregory was indeed taller than the average man.

"Sorry for scaring you ladies." The intern known as Gregory apologised with a honeyed, charismatic tone, "I was on the way to my locker and couldn't help but listen to the compliments you were giving me".

"Ohhh hehe, we'd be happy to pay you compliments anytime~" Jessica blushes as she twirls her hair at him flirtingly.

Gregory was unquestionably handsome but even though they were face to face now, he was still…not Payton's type. He was exactly the way he looked in the picture but today, he wore a violet-colored vest over his blue buttoned shirt and his jeans were dark blue. The two most notable things about him however were his tie and shoes that seemed to be custom-made and had Glamrock Freddy's motifs on them. Additionally, on his left and right wrists respectively were a vintage watch with a brown strap and a shiny, silvery white cuff bracelet with etchings on them.

"That's a very nice picture of me by the way." Gregory smirks, "But wouldn't you prefer something clearer and more up close?"

Both Jessica and Brittany exchange glances and squee, "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"Yep. Take a picture with me. Just don't be shy to ask next time alright." He winks at the young women.

Brittany holds out her expensive holophone and faces it towards her friends and the cute new intern who does a peace sign behind Jessica's head (Or was it rabbit ears? Payton couldn't tell).

"Alright, now that that's done…" Gregory steps away and does a salute, "Bye ladies, I'm heading off soon as my shift is ending".

"See you tomorrow Gregory." Jessica and Brittany say in unison. Payton and Marley just wave back at him.

–

Straight after the Pizzaplex fire, Gregory and Vanessa were brought to a hospital for safety reasons. Both had minimal wounds but the Doctors and nurses had, of course, asked questions about his unusual wrist injuries. He gave them an easy explanation: They were from some abusive orphanage staff and that he was a child of no one. They pitied him and asked if he wanted to be brought into another orphanage once his checkup was over but Vanessa quickly stepped in and said that she was adopting the boy once they were released from the hospital.

Gregory was also lucky that as a clone, he physically appeared no different from anyone else. He was worried for a while that the X-Ray machines or medical devices he was put through would show that his insides were nothing but pink goo or expose something else that was off about him but, much to his surprise, his bones and internal organs were absolutely normal.

Not long after the hospital, Vanessa brought Gregory to a clothing shop first to quickly get a few new sets of clothes for him (as she'd learned the poor thing had been wearing the same shirt for 2 weeks!) and afterwards, they went straight home to her lonely apartment and she offered to make dinner for him with what ingredients she had in her kitchen.

"Let me help you then." Gregory responded, "I know how to cook as well".

"No, take a rest Gregory. You suffered through a long night…" She ruffles his hair.

While Vanessa makes dinner, Gregory can't relax because feels the need to be productive and thus, he grabs an empty notepad and blue pen that are idly placed on Vanessa's coffee table and begins writing down several words before Vanessa arrives with two bowls of mac and cheese in her flexible Bunny-themed oven mitts.

Intrigued by what he was writing, she set their dinner down first on the dining table and peered over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"Making plans for the future about what I should do to get ahead in life since I have a second chance to not make the same mistakes as William." Gregory tells her.

"And what are those plans?" she asks for clarification.

"I'd like to become a better person, mentally and physically but…" he taps his pen twice on the paper, biting his lip slightly, "I'm unsure where to start".

On the paper, he had scribbled down some notes about William's flaws and strengths. 'Lack of empathy' and 'tendency to commit violent acts' were some of those flaws and in red pen, at their sides, Gregory wrote 'How do I solve this?'

"It's ok. We still have time to work things out and I'll support you." She ruffles his hair, "Therapy sounds like a good place to start but first, let's eat dinner".

At the dining table, Vanessa watches Gregory with anticipation.

"I hope you like Mac and cheese and ham bits as it's all I'm good at cooking for now".

Gregory stuffs a spoonful of it into his mouth, "Mmm This is great. Thanks Vanessa."

"See Grgeory? You're already being a good person. You're being polite".

Once they had cleaned off their plates and placed them into her dishwasher, she'd shown him to her adopted mother's old room.

"This used to be my mother's room but I have no use for it anymore other than storage. It's yours now. Just help clean it up with me, yeah?"

For a few hours, they spend time moving boxes and cleaning out dust from the place until suddenly, Vanessa shrieks, "What! What is this!"

Gregory peers into the box she's looking at. It's full of child sized sweaters, teeth and even locks of hair.

"Why do I have this box?" the blonde haired woman is distressed, "And why was it hidden under my mother's bed?"

"I remember…These are trophies that your other persona collected over the past year." Gregory's voice wavered in fear, "Vanny would take them from the kids she'd murdered and showed them to William as proof of her devotion to him".

Vanessa catches sight of a photograph at the box's side and reluctantly, she picks it up and turns it around. It was a photograph of her in that creepy bunny suit and a…Fetus in a jar?

"What's this?"

"My only baby picture I guess." the boy laughs darkly, "I remember she took it using your phone but I guess she also printed one version of it out as a keepsake".

"This was you?!" Vanessa exclaims, "You're like a…test tube baby?"

"Yeah my birth was…pretty unconventional".

"Actually erm…test tube babies are really common nowadays. It's just pricier to afford one than giving birth naturally".

"But were any of them born the way I was? From Remnant and scraps of DNA from a deceased serial killer?"

"No. You're…unique. Also what's remnant?" Vanessa quizzically asks.

"Story for another time. Anyhow, I think we should get rid of these things…" Gregory gestures to the box of Vanny's trophies.

"Agreed. I'll just burn them later. Don't want any cops finding this after all".

After clearing out the room, Gregory had a single bed, a dresser and a cleared out storage box all to himself. Then, a day later, one of the higher ups rang her up in the morning and requested that she come to the fourth meeting room located at the central Fazbear Entertainment Office downtown at 2pm. Furthermore, they requested that she bring along the child she rescued with her as well and so, she did…holding his hand as they walked into the building. On that day, Gregory wore a white shirt with blue shorts that reached his knees.

In the meeting room, two important people stood before them: Vanessa's boss and the CEO of Fazbears, who both promptly asked her to reiterate what happened that night and who this child was. She'd given them a falsified version of the events that occured and explained that Grgeory was a homeless boy who was living in the rafters of the Pizzaplex like a stray dog and that she had saved him from the fire after discovering his presence some hours before the strange fire started.

"I doubt the boy was the culprit though as I was chasing him during the time the fire happened. He couldn't have been in two places at once".

Gregory supported her statement and later, as he predicted, they congratulated her for her efforts and asked her if she wanted anything for her good deed in rescuing a child like him.

Grinning, Vanessa requested to return to her position in the IT Department and also, a huge sum of money along with a week off to take care of the boy she had saved and wanted to adopt. The Higher ups agreed and soon, they got all the paperwork done and Gregory was registered as "Gregory Ashton", a 12 year old boy and Citizen of Hurricane Utah.

However, he had to return to the hospital for "compulsory vaccinations" since he had no medical records and it was necessary that they were given to him before adoption. He hated it as the needles reminded him of not only the springlock incidents but also the remnant addiction William had developed in the future. Still, Gregory understood it was for safety reasons of course. He didn't want to end up in an Iron Lung like one of William's uncles after all.

Then, for the rest of the week, Vanessa smothers Gregory with the love and affection that he didn't have in his past life and takes him anywhere he wants to go and does anything he wants to do, allowing him to have a childhood that he never had and, on one of those days, Gregory and Vanessa were strolling through a neighbourhood and his adopted mother had caught him staring wistfully at some of the "rich people" mansions.

"Are you ok?"

"In my previous life as William, I was from a rich family…"

"And I'm guessing you would prefer to live in places like these?" Vanessa's question was tinged with a slight sadness as she knew they couldn't afford to live in such houses with the salary she was earning.

Gregory shakes his head, "You didn't let me finish: I was rich but…I was always unhappy, lonely and abused. My parents didn't give me much love and always just expected me to be the best. Sure, we don't have a lot of money but I'll admit, I'm much happier living with you and I want you to keep on being my mother".

Vanessa runs to the boy and gives him a tight hug. Gregory often enjoyed her hugs, kisses and compliments which were a sharp contrast from the life he lived as William and soon, within a month later, although she wasn't financially well off, she enrolled him into a decent Middle school who accepted him in spite of having no Elementary education. He started a year late of course but it didn't really matter because, due to having William's intelligence and knowledge of Maths and other subjects, he frequently passed with flying colours and so, impressing the teachers with his remarkable results, he moved on to High School within a year.

Of course, Gregory didn't advance as fast as he did in Middle School since the assignments and content of the studies he had were more difficult but he was alright with not being the Golden Child (and mercifully wasn't pressured to be one as he was in his previous life) as, by staying in High School longer, he made more friends this way.

Nevertheless, he kept on preserving and studying as hard as he could academically and was awarded three scholarships and 5 notable awards (three of which were Gold and two Silver) for designing and constructing brilliant and innovative machines at his extracurricular Robotics Class.

Then, he moved on to take an Engineering Diploma at a local college and, after a few years into his studies there, he was contacted by an employee from Fazbear Entertainment. It seems that they were looking for new recruits to work in the Mega Pizzaplex Plus and, having gone through his job profile that he'd registered on a site on the internet, they saw him as a very good candidate and wanted to interview him.

"For one year, you'll be a Junior Engineering Intern. Do let us know if you're interested in this position. We can inform your college and register you with us".

"Can I balance my studies with the internship?"

"Sure. Just let us know your schedule and we can adjust accordingly. At Fazbears, we love to give our employees a good work-life balance".

At first, Gregory was reluctant to go back to working with the company considering his history with it but after considering that it would just be for a year, it wouldn't hurt for him to get some more working experience before moving on to other ventures as one of the many things he had taken an interest in over the years was creating machines that wouldn't just entertain children but also protect or aid people across the world. Essentially, Gregory had dreams of being the next Elon Musk or Steve Jobs: A game changer.

"Alright. When's the interview?"

He'd passed it and, shockingly, got the position within less than three days.

Meanwhile, as all that happened to Gregory, Vanessa had been enjoying success as an IT employee at the Main Fazbear Entertainment Office in the middle of town, getting two promotions and higher salaries for her hard work and pleasant nature (which had thankfully returned after being freed from William) and, after a few years of being in a romantic relationship with Luis, the man finally decided to make things permanent and proposed to her, making Gregory officially their adopted son with a new last name.

—

Back in the present, Gregory stumbles across yet another interesting conversation. This time with some businessmen in an open room parallel to him. It's lucky that they didn't spot him walking past or else they would have kept quiet.

"I don't like to say this but…You know that new Intern? Gregory? He looks like the Second Founder".

Grgeoy leans against the wall just outside, aiming to hear even more of the conversation.

"You don't mean…Mr Afton, do you?"

"Yes. Exactly. I think he could be one of his bastard grandkids. I mean there were rumours that William cheated on his wife with several women right? Years ago? Wouldn't be surprised if one of them showed up here somehow…"

"Hmmm…It's possible but we did a background check on him and even did a thorough analysis of his DNA data but they revealed nothing".

Gregory pursed his lips together, nearly tempted to bite them. This information was new to him. If the company possessed the DNA data of their employees, why wasn't his DNA registering as identical to William Afton's?! He should have been outed from day one…unless…someone had tampered with his DNA data to get him into the company.

'But who would have been the culprit though? Why would they want me here?'

Gregory didn't know the answers yet but decided to leave it alone. Whoever helped him get this internship seemed like an ally since they were intent on letting him have an internship here and right now, he needed to get to his locker. He could find the answers later as his parents were likely preparing dinner and he needed to get back home as soon as possible to help them out but first, he had to make a quick stop at a certain Friendly Bear's room since his locker was so close to his area…

—

With his bag obtained from the Locker, Gregory taps his pass onto the door leading to Freddy's new VIP Room. It was bigger and flashier than the previous one, practically seeming like the bedroom of a person rather than that of a machine as it had a single bed, more storage boxes, couches, a coffee table with children's drawings on them and several posters of him doing things like singing, dancing and posing with the customers and employees.

The Star of the Mega Pizzaplex, who had been gazing at one of his newest plushies next to the vanity mirror, immediately turns his head towards the sound of the door opening and gasps joyfully as he sees his adopted human son come in.

"SUPERSTAR!"

"Hey Freddy. It's been a few days." Gregory greets him, "I got caught up in a lot of work and studies. How are you?"

"Good. I've been doing surprise birthday parties for children and performing on stage. As usual".

"And You do a great job at it. As usual." Gregory grins, "I'm glad to see that you're still the leading star after all these years…"

During his free time, he would sneak off from his work in the Repair Rooms to watch the bear and his pals perform on stage sometimes. Freddy was often too focused on the crowd to see him behind the curtains but Gregory understood that the bear had priorities like him and he wasn't the only person he had to please.

"Not always. Sometimes others do share the spotlight with me." The Bear says, "You should have seen Monty the other day. He shredded his guitar for seven minutes before breaking the guitar. Very impressive but also dangerous".

"Now, that would have been something to see." Gregory imagines Monty doing so humorously.

"Come, let's continue the conversation on the couch. You look tired…"

—

Freddy and Gregory sit together on a plush red couch with neon highlights at the edges. Gregory found it quite redundant but if neon lines were the trend of the future, who was he to judge?

"You know, I was very happy when I was brought in for repairs last week." Freddy kept on speaking.

"Was it because I was assigned to fix you that day?" Gregory says.

"Yep. You did a great job Gregory. Speaking of which, Are you enjoying your new job as an Engineer?"

"Sorta. It's been pretty exhausting you know…running from place to place to do tasks, collecting items and checking and fixing the Endos. They still creep me out a bit…"

"That's good to hear, but would you consider working here in the long term?"

Gregory shakes his head, "No. I have greater ambitions than working as an engineer at this fast food place but I'll still visit you from time to time".

"You seem sad about that though Gregory." Freddy perceives his true feelings with his enhanced emotion detectors, "Why?"

"It's just…I feel bad about having to leave you behind one day…"

Gregory often had this anxiety, the fear about people in his life and the relationships he had never lasting forever even though he desperately wanted them to. William feared the same with his friends and family but it wasn't because he cared for them. No, he was more concerned that he would lose valuable pawns that would validate his every word and action and eventually, he lost all of them (but that was more or less through his own faults rather than any outside circumstances).

"Vanessa, I'm worried." Gregory speaks as they wait for the reboot of the Loveless and the Damned to begin from the TV in their living room.

"Hm?"

"I have a lot of anxiety about the future. Like things are just changing too fast and life isn't slowing down. Like it's hard to believe you're already married to Luis…"

He remembers the day Luis and Vanessa got married. Gregory was made their ring bearer and, under the light of colourful stained church glass, he brought the rings to the bride and groom and watched as they exchanged them and made their vows to love one another for eternity. Gregory hoped that he would find a love like theirs someday and prayed that their marriage wouldn't end in despair like in his previous life.

"Did you not like it? Our marriage?"

"I gave my approval. I'm very happy for you Vanessa but I'm worried life is going too fast for me. Like there's never enough time to enjoy anything to the fullest and I just wish that certain moments in life could last longer like say…childhood. I never got to have one save for the week I spent with you…Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Yes…I kind of do…You're scared of change, like me." Vanessa leans backwards into the plush grey sofa, "I still remember when my mum died…I felt like time was going too fast as well. I was still stuck in my grief while the world moved on without me. It was awful and I just wished the world would slow down and give me the time I needed but life…it doesn't work that way…Nothing stays the same and things change when you least expect them to and, whether you like it or not, you just have to accept and cope with events as they come and go".

"So how do you cope with change then?"

"I found my ways of accepting and coping with it. Maybe you will find your own way of doing so one day as well." She holds his hand, "Would you like to know more about my coping mechanisms?"

"Of course."

"Hey, you can still see me even if you decided to work at a different job." Freddy pats him on the shoulder reassuringly, "I won't be replaced or discarded. I promise"

"Of course you won't. You're Freddy Fazbear! The star of the Mega Pizzaplex!"

Freddy embraces him warmly and Gregory accepts it, embracing him back and resting his head near his chest cavity.

"You know, It's funny. To think 10 years ago, you were small enough to fit into my stomach hatch once…" Freddy fondly reminisces, "and now here you are, half my size and able to hug me like this".

Gregory laughs. "How time flies huh?"

"Indeed and you're looking better as well Gregory. Those workouts you've been doing have really paid off." Freddy admires the young man's currently athletic physique.

Thanks. You were kind of my inspiration." Gregory blushed, "I wanted to be big and strong like you".

"Awwh." Freddy ruffles his hair, "That's very heartwarming to hear".

"Although, I do miss it…" Gregory confesses, "How you used to carry me around in your stomach hatch before my growth spurt kicked in…"

After leaving the Pizzaplex and enjoying his time with Vanessa before he had to go into High School, Gregory had already started making plans for his future with the knowledge he gained from his past life. The first goal he wanted of course was to develop into a good person. His second goal (and one that he found frankly much easier) was to gain a fitter body. He knew that he was going to be as naturally tall and handsome as William but he also knew that William took his fast metabolism foregranted over the years and became overweight, kind of ugly and severely diabetic when he got older and he didn't want that for his future again. Furthermore, seeing as how his body was weak in terms of stamina and strength due to being recently born, he wanted to acquire more strength for the future.

Thus, he had made dietary and exercise plans to achieve what he wanted (with some research from the internet of course) and his parent(s) were supportive of this goal as well. He recalls that after a year passed. He didn't look much different. He'd grown a few inches but that was about it but he already did feel different. He recalls one time Vanessa brought him to the outlet where Glamrock Freddy was and Freddy had carried him around but the space inside the animatronic was more cramped than usual.

The next year, the year that Vanessa got married to Luis, he had worn his old clothes from the Pizzaplex but he recalls that they were smaller and ill-fitting on him now, especially since his body was undergoing puberty. By the next year, he had already thrown them away and he could no longer fit inside Freddy at all.

"But I can still carry you, Superstar." Freddy gets off the seat and crouches down in front of him, "I give you Piggyback rides almost every time you visit me".

"Like how you're offering me one right now?"

"Yes".

Other than sensory upgrades, Freddy also obtained upgrades that enabled him to move more flexibly and have given the bear enhanced strength and so sometimes, when no one was looking, Freddy would give Gregory Piggyback rides in his VIP room.

Gregory was never unamused by the Giant Bear, "Sure. Carry me around Dad".

Freddy spends two minutes with Gregory, going around in circles and Grgeory laughing about how fun it was and commanding him to go faster. However, their moment was soon interrupted awkwardly by Gregory's close friend who burst into the room as soon as the automatic doors opened again.

"There you are!" Harry huffs, "I knew you were here. Playing with Freddy again?"

Harry was an introverted young man that was the same age as Gregory. He had light caramel brown hair and emerald green eyes that were often framed behind a pair of black, half-rimmed glasses. Today he was dressed in a white blouse that lay beneath a cherry red sweater vest along with matching snow white pants. Slung over his shoulder, was a green backpack with a Keychain with Freddy's Face attached to one of its zippers.

"Why not? I don't judge you for role-playing with your figurines Harry." Gregory teased.

"I…I didn't mean it like that." Harry stammered a little, "I just came looking for you as the next bus to our houses arrives in 15 mins".

"Hello Harry." Freddy greets him, "Gregory has told me you're a very good friend of his but…I don't believe we've met before…"

"Yeah. That's because I'm interning in a different department and I don't really get opportunities to get up close and personal with the animatronics".

"That's unfortunate. No matter, would you like a piggyback ride too?" The giant bear offers sincerely.

Harry offers him a sheepish smile in response, "That's kind of you but maybe another time. I kind of need to get home soon as I have a VR D&D Session to prepare for".

Freddy unexpectedly jolts, hearing someone calling him from the built-in communication device in his head, "Ah I nearly forgot, there's a birthday girl waiting for her surprise so I have to go meet her as well".

Freddy kneels down, allowing Gregory to climb down from his back and head towards Harry.

"No problem." Harry says as he grabs Gregory's hand, "See you another time Freddy!."

Freddy nods and waves, "Goodbye Superstars. See you tomorrow".

"Goodbye Dad." Gregory bids him farewell with another wave and a warm smile. All of them exit his VIP Room in opposite directions.

—

Gregory had met Harry sometime around his Freshman year of High School and the young man had stuck by him ever since he rescued him from a gang of bullies that were beating him to a pulp during recess hours. He learned that at that time, Harry was being bullied for being the smartest one in their class which was…terribly unfair to say the least.

Gregory at first tried to talk them down into leaving the teenager alone but when his words fell on deaf ears, he had to resort to using violence. However, he got into trouble of course for beating them up and knocking out a tooth from one of them but he defended his course of action, arguing that if he hadn't struck back, they wouldn't have backed off from hurting the boy.

Nonetheless, much to his chagrin, his convincing words did not work and he was temporarily suspended from school for a week. As he left highschool that day via the courtyard as usual, believing that a suspension was better than being expelled, he heard a shy voice stuttering from behind him.

"H–H-Hello. Sorry to hear you got suspended for a while because of me".

Gregory spun on his heel to face the person who was strolling towards him and immediately recognised the caramel-haired teenager he had saved earlier. Said caramel hair was covering his left eye plus his red-rimmed glasses and his face had three plasters: One on his cheek, one on his nose and one more on the underside of his chin.

Up close to him, Gregory could further discern other details about him such as the fact he was at least 5 inches taller than him, a small cartoon bear's face was printed on the top left of his hoodie and, more importantly, that Gregory had never seen him before at all.

"It's fine." Gregory reassured, "I'm just glad I managed to save you before you got your head bashed in or something. Teenagers are violent like that sometimes".

"Yeah…you got that right. Anyway, I didn't get the chance to thank you. So umm yeah…" he places his hands together, "Thank you so much for what you did".

"Who are you anyway?" Gregory narrows his eyes at him, "Are you a new student? I haven't seen you before".

"Oh…Yes I am. Where are my manners?" He extends his right hand, "My name is Harry. Harry Emily."

His friendly expression rapidly changes to one of panic, "Oh no I meant Emley. It's nice to meet you".

Gregory's blood ran cold, "Why did you say that name?"

"Ah dammit, I forgot I wasn't supposed to tell anyone my real last name." His eyes darted around the courtyard nervously, "You don't know what it means right? I hope"

"I do but I don't hate you for what Henry may or may not have done. I just…didn't think I'd meet an Emily here because of…the incident. Last I heard of them here, Henry moved to Canada".

"Actually, that was his son Samuel." Harry corrects him, "We had to change our last names before moving here from Canada for…safety reasons."

"But why would you move back to the middle of Bumfuck Hurricane? There's nothing to do here!"

"My father recently got a contract here as a Machinist and we pretty much came with him. I didn't have a choice…" Harry sighed sadly.

"Oof, sorry to hear that man." Gregory apologises.

"It's ok…not your fault I had to move away…" He rubs his wrist nervously as he asks his next question, "Do…Do you want to exchange numbers? I'd like to be your friend as thanks for saving me".

"Sure but uhhh we shouldn't be friends just because I saved you once. We should let it happen naturally. For now, you are my acquaintance".

Gregory had wanted to keep Henry's great great grandson as far away from him as possible (or at the very least, an arm's length) but there was no point. Within 6 months, they became the best of friends and even assistants to one another's projects despite the fact that they were classes apart, connecting like the polar opposite ends of a magnet due to their identical interests among other things. He was far too attached to Harry as he reminded him so much of William's old friend. However, he wasn't his replacement or anything like that. He was his own person, much like Gregory. And he had to remind himself of that a lot.

"Woah, how the Hell did you get taller than your parents?" Harry asked him during a New Year's party upon noticing that Gregory had had a massive growth spurt over Christmas that had left him about 6'8. At this time, both of them were 19 years old.

"More importantly…how did you grow taller than me?" Harry questions with a bit of playful jealousy.

"I'm adopted." Gregory shrugged, weirded out that he would now have to literally look down at Harry for the rest of his life, "Maybe my biological parents had good genetics but I dunno, I was left at the orphanage when I was a baby, remember? That or maybe my diet of mostly proteins, carbs and vegetables over the years worked really well in my favour".

Harry whistled, "Well whatever it is, You're a real giant you know that. I feel like a bit of a bear cub compared to you, Gregory".

"Awww I don't think you're that short Harry. I mean you look to be about…4 inches shorter than me, sure, but you and me, we're both taller than the average men in America".

"Thanks man".

Beyond high school, Gregory and Harry kept in contact with one another and were rarely ever apart: Discussing their favourite movies, going to gym almost every evening without fail and even learning their deepest fears and secrets….Some of which Gregory let out of the bag accidentally…

Their bus arrives and Harry and Gregory climb aboard, naturally heading to the back of the bus as per their routine since their stops were farther away. As they sit down, Gregory's expression changes to that of anger as his brows furrowed and he stares fixedly at the empty seats opposite to them.

"Is it them again?" Harry recognises Gregory's change in mood.

"Yes. One of the twins is with us."

"The boy or the girl?"

"The girl this time." Gregory tells him, "The boy was yesterday".

Today Cassandra Cassidy was in her human form: A cornflower blue-eyed girl with freckles who had her long black hair tied into two ponytails that each rested by the sides of her heads. She wore black high tops with yellow laces, a knee-reaching yellow cloth dress with short sleeves, a white collar that had three big white buttons arranged horizontally below it and a black ribbon wrapped around her torso like a makeshift belt.

The little girl ominously gazes at the both of them as she sits down on one of the empty seats and casually pops a candy into her mouth before chewing down on it hard.

Harry whispers into Gregory's ear, "Do they ever leave you alone?"

"Rarely." Gregory groans, "Also, this is going to sound really morbid but I think William should have stuck them inside a bee animatronic instead. It suits their personalities: pesky and annoying."

Cassandra, having heard what he said, reacts infuriated at his statement and sticks her candy-coated tongue out at Gregory before suddenly transforming into her terrifying golden bear form and mockingly pounce at him as the bus lurches to a halt at the next stoplight. Gregory shrieks a little and flinches away, causing everyone to stare at him. The little floating ghost then backs away with a content grin.

"You ok Gregory?"

"Sorry." Gregory flushes and apologises, "I'm alright. I just about fell over".

On Gregory's 21st Birthday a few months ago, he had the wise idea to go heavily drinking at a local pub unsupervised since he was now legally old enough to drink alcohol with Harry.

It was a very bad idea as he admitted things he was never meant to.

"You know, those theorists are right Ha-Ha-Henry! The Missing Children's incident was caused by William Afton." Gregory slurred while wheezing with laughter, "It wasn't some rando!"

"Wooooaah, how do you know that?" Harry was plastered as well but not as badly as Gregory.

"That's because I'm him." Gregory pauses to hiccup, "Kind of. William Afton murdered 7 children and shoved their bodies into the animatroincs at the first Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria. Don't you find that sad? That makes me so upset. I feel so bad for what I've dohhhne…."

Gregory suddenly starts sobbing at the table. Everyone looks at them with displeased expressions.

"Ooookaaaay I think we've had too much to drink." Harry puts down his glass, "Let's go back to my place…"

"Can I kiss you Luv?" Gregory asked randomly. Harry dragged the both of them out of there over his shoulders (even though Gregory was much heavier than him) and tried to give his parents a call. They regrettably couldn't make it due to being busy at work.

Then, he called Vanessa who drove over likety split and took them to her apartment. In the car, he also tried to make Gregory shut up as he worried his weird ramblings were going to worry his mother.

"I luv you Henry Darling. Don't let go of me." Gregory cuddles him affectionately.

"What the hell were you both thinking!" Vanessa hissed.

"I don't know. I didn't think we'd get this hammered easily!" Harry answers for both of them.

"We're adults now Mom. We can do whatever we want." Gregory proclaims in a singsong voice.

"How much did he drink!" Vanessa's voice was raised with concern.

"I don't know. I'm so sorry….I didn't keep count."

"Did Gregory say anything to you while he was drunk?"

Harry is silent for an uncomfortable amount of second. Should he tell her what he heard? He didn't think it was that important. Gregory was just drunk and drunk people say things they didn't mean. There was no way he was really —

"It's ok…be honest with me. I'm guessing he told you he was William Afton right?"

"How do you know that?" Harry is shocked, "Is…Is that true? Is he erm…William Afton?"

"Lucky guess and Yes…" Vanessa rubs her temple in frustration, answering both of his questions, "Let me explain what Gregory told me ages ago."

As she does that, they drive home and tuck Gregory in his bed. Harry's shocked and un-sobered brain continues to process the information Vanessa told him like a slow computer while Vanessa led him to the living room, passing him a plastic cup of water.

"So what you told me on the way here…let me get this straight: it's all true?" Harry asks again, still incapable of comprehending what he had heard, "Gregory is William Afton? One of THE Founders of Fazbear's and he was the culprit behind the missing children's incident?! And he tried to come back from the dead through using one of Fazbear's inventions?"

"Yeah. Even now when I talk about it, it sounds like a fuckin fever dream. So what will you do? Knowing what you do now…"

Harry is silent once again and deeper in thought, doing his best to rationalise with himself on what to do.

'My friend is a copy of William Afton. THE William Afton. The charismatic founder who died ages ago and … as it turns out … was secretly a nutjob killer who murdered children to live forever. That's crazy! I can't believe it! All this information surely is game changing, but … should I tell anyone? … I don't think so. Who knows what they would do to Gregory if they found out! Something bad for sure; considering how memories run long here, in Hurricane! And besides, if Gregory doesn't want to be William like Vanessa says, I'll respect his wishes. I'll still treat him the same way I usually do. Learning this about my best friend changes absolutely nothing for me since I don't really know what sort of person William was at the time … and Gregory's nothing like what I've heard about his previous self."

He takes a deep breath in and exhales, "I'd…like to stay his best friend. He doesn't feel like a murderer and much less like whoever William Afton was".

"That's very good." Vanessa sighs in relief, placing a hand over his shoulder "Tell him that when he wakes up. He'll be happy to hear it".

—

Less than halfway through their journey home, Gregory reaches into his bag and starts to squeeze the stress ball in his hands to get his frustrations of the day out. Harry notices this.

"Rough day? Or is that twin scaring you?"

"Both." Gregory replies.

"How's your therapy going by the way?" questions Harry.

"My therapist tells me I'm getting better at controlling my anger and violent urges which is good." Gregory replies to his subsequent question again calmly, "I haven't instigated many fights in years and exercising when stressed has been really beneficial for me".

The bus passes under an overhead bridge, casting shadows before going back to the sunlight.

"What about you Harry?" Gregory asks, "Did you also have a rough day?"

"I feel like a failure." Harry declared his emotions honestly.

Harry it seems was about as frequently insecure as Henry and somehow, Gregory wondered if this was a genetic trait among the Emilys…

"Why do you feel like a failure today?" Gregory wraps his left arm across his best friend's shoulder in a consoling manner and pulls him closer to him.

"Even with the skills and knowledge I have, I feel like I'm out of my depth here at Fazbears working as a Social Media intern…Like whenever I show them my graphic designs, I get more criticism than praise because it 'doesn't fit to company standards' but I'm really just doing my best." Harry complains irately, "And honestly, I think my work looks great and I don't get why they don't like my work most of the time".

"Hey, chill. Don't take the criticism personally Harry, you can't please everyone. One man's trash is another's treasure after all and sometimes, you have to give the company what they want even if you may not like it sometimes as well." Gregory advises him with the wisdom he has obtained from his current and previous life, "Also, I honestly feel the same as you. I have so much knowledge about machines at my fingertips from William's memories but this new tech is confusing me. I should be a Pro at this stuff but somehow, I feel like I'm starting from scratch, having to re-learn things and it just…really frustrates me".

"At least we can feel confused together…" Harry concludes.

"True but you really gotta have faith in yourself more Harry. Think of all the things you've accomplished so far. If you can do this, you can get through anything else that comes in your way. You just have to adapt and listen to people who are higher up than you sometimes, that's all".

"Thanks for the encouragement, man. I'm not annoying am I?"

"No, not at all. I'm always happy to be your source of encouragement." Gregory grins at him confidently before suddenly remembering the conversation he heard earlier, "Oh before I forget, did you know that Fazbears is storing data about your DNA?"

"No? Why? Also that's very disturbing…"

"Yeah, I know right?" Gregory says, "I heard some employees talking about me, about how they searched my DNA data to see if I was related to William Afton.

"And did they find anything?"

"Nope…and that's the strange part. So then I thought about you and wondered if you were in trouble as well. Has anyone brought up your possible relation to Henry?

"Surprisingly no. No one has brought up my possible relation to him at all AND Come to think of it, if they do have data about our DNA, we both should have been in trouble by the first or second week!"

"Harry listen," Gregory shushes his sudden panicked realisation, "I don't know who did it but I have a theory that someone has been helping us keep our internships here by tampering with our data".

"But why?"

"Like I said, I don't know…"

The robotic voice announces the next stop. Instinctively, Harry sits up, knowing that this is where he must depart.

"Well, whatever it is, why don't we figure out who our mysterious helper is on another day?"

"Yeah. Sounds good".

"Alright, see you next week Gregory".

The young man in the purple vest watches Harry step out of the bus and walk ahead to his home and, after he's gone from sight, Gregory pulls out his earphones, pushes his worries out of his head and falls asleep to the ambience of a peaceful forest and the noise of the bus's purring engine.

–

Gregory opens his eyes and finds himself in a sunny meadow that's identical to the one William and Henry used to go to. He looks around to see that yes, Henry is behind him, napping beneath the shade of a tree in a dark green, plaid flannel shirt and orange slacks, appearing as though he had come back from a long vacation.

Gregory approaches the older man, his footsteps crunching on the grass. This alerted Henry to his presence and the older man's eyes opened to stare at him. For a few seconds, there is silence as Henry studies Gregory in fear (or perhaps hope?) that he might be his old friend but then, as fast as that happened, he halted his dazed expression upon recognising that Gregory wasn't William and spoke to him invitingly.

"Oh Hello Gregory. I've been waiting for you".

"Hey Henry, you're not a dream are you?"

"No, it's really me." Henry confirms, "I came to visit you from Heaven. I'd hoped to talk to you while you slept at night but I can talk now since we have a bit of time."

"Wait…You were waiting for me all day in my dreams?"

"Something like that. I'm not entirely sure how this works either." Henry stretches his arms and yawns, "Also, I heard from Old Man Consequences that you told my great great grandson your secret while heavily intoxicated".

"Oh…yeah." Gregory scratches his head, "I'm really sorry about it. It won't happen again. Are you mad at me? Are you here to scold me?"

"No. I'm not mad. Just concerned." Henry shakes his head, "I'm just glad that Harry accepts you and that hopefully, you learned a lesson about limiting your alcohol intake".

"Ahahah Yeah." Gregory chuckles in embarrassment.

"Anyway, how is Harry? Is he doing well?"

"Harry's good." The young man responds as he sits next to Henry, "Sure, he's insecure and an anxious wreck from time to time but I feel he's gotten stronger, more confident and more independent with me around to guide him. He even had his own circle of friends who play Virtual DnD with him a lot."

"That's great to hear." Henry is pacified by what he hears about his descendant.

Gregory scoots closer, "Soooo if you're not here to scold me Henry…why are you in my dreams?"

"I wanted to talk to you about visiting us more often from time to time. We have a nice big house in Heaven and we would love it if you could visit but…you never do. It's always us who has to visit you and…some of us are feeling hurt that you don't come visit us. You are aware that you can request Old Man Consequences to bring you to Heaven for a temporary visit can't you?"

A pang of guilt sets in Gregory, He hadn't wanted to have this conversation so soon. "I'm aware but…I think I don't want to associate with the people from my past much anymore, Henry. Some things should be left behind".

"What…do you mean?" Henry sounded heartbroken.

"I just think…You're all better off without me and I'm better off without you".

"Really? That's funny." Henry's tone then transitions to that of coldness, "William said those words too when we split up".

Gregory turns to face Henry with a horrified expression, "I…I hadn't meant it like that! It's just…I just want to let go of the past and I want you too as well Henry. It will be healthier for all of us".

"You're afraid of Micheal, aren't you?" Henry deduces.

Gregory bites his lip reflexively before undoing the action in a second, "Why wouldn't I? He tried to kill me multiple times in one night and I…still haven't really forgiven him for it. He never visits me a lot either by the way and I have nightmares where that bloody bastard tries to drown me or bludgeons me to death…"

Gregory usually had a bizarre habit of slipping into a British accent when he was upset. He wasn't sure why exactly but unable to get rid of the habit, he simply got used to it.

"It's…understandable that you fear Michael but what about the others? Don't tell me you're afraid of them?"

"One of them is William's ex-wife and the other two are children he also abused. They're better off without me…"

"Who said that!" Elizabeth steps out from the other side of the tree. Both of the men are taken aback by her out of nowhere materialisation.

"Elizabeth! What are you doing here?" Henry gasps.

"You don't think I would have let you see my Brother-Dad without me would you?" Elizabeth lies next to Gregory and hugs him despite what he currently looks like, "Please don't think that we hate you Gregory. We really don't".

"Awww Elizabeth…" Gregory cuddles the girl affectionately, "Thank you for trying to convince me to go but I'm not sure if I can – ".

Elizabeth gives him sad puppy dog eyes (a trick she learned very well from her Father) which causes Gregory to trail off as he and William could (usually) never say no to his daughter whenever she gave him that face…

"What…what she says is true." Henry validates Elizabeth's statement, "We miss you and we aren't better off without you. We'd still like you to visit us sometime if you can."

"And if you're scared of my brother, it's ok. He doesn't live with us anymore." Elizabeth says, "Mike got married to a guy called Jeremy Fitz-something and moved in with him last month in Heaven but he does visit from time to time so you can come over when he isn't around. Will that be ok?"

Gregory is silent.

"Gregory, if not for me, then visit for Elizabeth." Henry begs, "She loves me but she also wants to spend more time with you and so does Evan…"

"How's Charlotte?" Gregory changes the topic, not wanting to talk about this anymore.

"Charlie has been…reconnecting with old friends." Henry hands him a photograph that Charlie handed him yesterday. It displayed six young adults, five of whom were each in a different pose and surrounding a young adult version of Charlie who had longer hair that reached her waist and wore a lilac dress that complemented her jet black punk leather jacket and combat boots.

"Wow Charlie looks like a pretty goth girl." Elizabeth comments while examining the picture with Gregory. Gregory examines each of the young adults in order from left to right.

One of them was a tall, gorgeous and slim woman with silver hoop earrings and glossy cocoa brown hair with blond highlights. Her lovely smile was accentuated by rose pink lipstick and her posture dignified as she held a magenta bag in front of her elegant peach-coloured dress with both hands.

Beside her was a younger, meeker woman with shorter, wavy chestnut brown hair and freckles and, kissing the meeker woman's right hand affectionately and gazing deeply into her eyes, was a man with (dyed?) red hair and a coy smile who seemed like the most relaxed person out of the bunch.

Gregory spotted that only her and the red-haired man were the only ones he could see (in the image at least) that donned matching gold rings.

The fourth was equally tall, dignified and attractive as the first woman: An African American man who grinned lopsidedly in a business suit and the last, who was in the middle of hugging Charlie, was a man wearing an identical leather jacket to her. He had neat, brownish-black hair that spiked up at some ends and leaf green eyes that were far more radiant than hers.

"Charlie's…decided to be older in Heaven because she wants to look like them and be a part of their clique again." Henry explains.

"Them?"

"Her former Kindergarten classmates. Somehow, I can still remember all their names," Henry slides his finger over every one of them from left to right as well, "That's Jessica, Marla and her now husband Carlton and those last two are Lamar and John. I suspected that my daughter and John had a crush on one another back then but please don't tell her I said this to you".

"Sure. It's nice to hear that she managed to reunite with her friends up there…" Gregory's voice is happy and yet pensive, "What about Violet? How's she?"

"Happy with me as always. We're very happy together…"

The dream world around them starts to crumble away. Gregory was waking up. Or someone was waking him up.

'Dammit,' Henry thinks to himself, 'I needed more time to talk to him'.

"Anyway, please think about what I said today Gregory…" Henry shouts as he vanishes.

"Don't be a stranger Brother-Dad!" Elizabeth adds.

"HEY WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD, You're gonna miss your stop!" Cassandra rudely yells in his ears.

Gregory groggily awakens from his sleep and yells, "Alright I'm up. I'm up…Thank you".

The remaining bus passengers stared at him awkwardly or angrily. There was no in between.

"Uhhh sorry." Gregory swiftly apologised and exited the bus, tapping his travel card on the way out. Sometimes the twins could be annoying as hell but other times they were useful. Like the other day, Andrew was making fun of him during his workout…That was very annoying….

After Gregory finished his incline dumbbell chest press routine at a Gym he signed up for (which was fortunately void of people during certain evenings such as today), Andrew Cassidy, in his Fredbear form, proceeded to fire questions at Gregory in rapid succession: "Hey, Why do you exercise so much? Are you compensating for something? Did my sister's comment about you being a fatty in the past hurt you that badly?'

Gregory doesn't make eye contact with him as he wipes his head which is drenched in sweat, "Erm…No?"

Andrew tilts his head, staring at Gregory's well-developed pectoral muscles, "I'm wondering…what's the appeal in making your boobs bigger? I don't get it".

"They're not boo–" Gregory pauses, gesturing at his chest as he gets a sense of Deja vu, "Hey wait a minute! You asked something like this before to William: I'm not falling for it. I remember you pointed out that he had fat man tits and asked if he needed a bra".

Andrew guffaws, "Oh man that was hilarious. I thought you'd forgotten. I was gonna ask you if you needed a Bra too."

"Why do you both taunt me a lot? You're worse than Mike!" Gregory hisses.

"Think of this as your minor punishment from me for the actions of your other self. Believe me, I'd rather do much worse." Andrew sadistically rubs his hands together.

The young man grumbles, "Well, that makes me feel SO much better!"

—

The young man walks along a five minutes stretch of road until sees it come into view from the next house he passed by: The new two-storey suburban house with a red roof and orange-walled exterior that now belonged to his new family (consisting of Vanessa, Luis and, their newest addition, Luna) as of last week.

Sure, the front porch still needed a bit of touching up as it was barren and the white paint half-done for the time being but at least the small, artificial rose bushes that Vanessa and Luis planted around the garden managed to give the house a pleasing atmosphere. What's more, they had few neighbours as the house was at the edge of the neighbourhood so noisy neighbours weren't really an issue and the place was often quiet, save for passing cars and a nearby dog that barked from time to time.

Some years ago, out of curiosity, Gregory remembers typing William's address up on the internet and, much to his astonishment, he discovered that there was a brand new two-storey suburban home on the property which looked nothing like William's old home and was currently on sale at a 70% discount.

Seeing this, he gained a few questions that needed answers and so, as he dozed off that night, he immediately called out to the Angel in his dreams and the Old Man brought Micheal Afton to him (He was too lazy to do it the other way around and luckily, he didn't ask why he wanted to see him). Upon entering, Gregory's dreamscape was warped into a replica of Evan's bedroom. It was a place of solace for Mike after the death of his brother and continued to be so even after passing on…

Mike at first was puzzled when Gregory mentioned that there was a new house there as Gregory learned that when Micheal faked his death after being 'zombified', he torched the old Afton home with gasoline and a lit match so that people would believe he died in a miserable fire accident. His body of course was never found by the police and so, they'd inferred that it was burned so badly by the intense heat that it became ashes in the wind along with the rest of the old home.

People called his 'death' by the fire a "tragedy" and only the concrete base of home remained, the grass around became scorched earth and Micheal watched it all burn. Well…almost all of it.

"So why is this new house there then if you burned it?" Gregory asked.

"I suppose nature slowly overtook the plot of land that William used to own and life moved on…" Mike shrugs, "Some company probably bought the property, built this new house upon the ruined foundations of the old Afton home and then various people moved in and out over god knows how many decades".

At that instant, a specific thought strikes Gregory, "And what about William's underground…rental service/workshop? And the elevator leading there? Did those remain? Or did they burn too?"

"Ah yes…Sadly, they did. They wouldn't burn. The damn basement and facility was fireproof so I was just content to shut off its power supply and leave it be. No one else knew about this place anyway except for me, William and the 5 other employees who were working there and likely died several years ago".

"Like from old age?"

"Nope. After William vanished, The Funtimes merged together and used my body to escape the place. After exiting me, they killed every single person who knew about the underground facility".

"They did?…That's terrible." Gregory exclaims.

"Yeah but don't be worried, they're gone forever. We burned them alive along with William in that trap we set for him".

The two of them are silent for a while.

"Do you think this house still has it? The secret entrance in the basement that leads to William's underground facility/workshop?" Gregory's eyes light up.

"Possibly but please, be careful. If you want to continue my father's Remnant research there for your soul, I won't stop you but," Mike folds his arms, "Please…don't do what he did alright?"

"Thank you Micheal. I promise, I won't hurt anyone".

When Gregory woke up, he knew what he had to do. Sure, the house on that address was currently different but he was undoubtedly sure that it was built on the very same foundation as the old Afton home and this meant that there was a chance that William's underground lab or whatever was still down there. Waiting for him…

If Gregory wanted a soul, the laboratory was his best chance at enabling him to find out how to obtain one and thus, he had to convince Vanessa to buy the house.

Two weeks later, Gregory sat with a heavily pregnant Vanessa in her bedroom to bring up the proposition he had in mind. She was wearing a loose shirt and sweatpants and already in her third trimester, her belly was as round as a full moon.

He recalls William was always afraid to touch his wife while she was pregnant. Whenever she asked him to, he turned away or made an excuse and it hurt her feelings deeply. It was as though he didn't want to acknowledge he was having kids.

"So will the baby be a boy or a girl?" Gregory inquires, "Do you know yet?"

"We found out she'll be a girl." Vanessa gently massages her pregnant stomach in a soothing manner, "Luis and I already decided on her name: Luna. What do you think?"

"Luna huh? Like the Moon? That's a really adorable name".

"Ugh…" Vanessa abruptly winces.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. It's just the baby has been getting more…enthusiastic to leave as soon as possible I suppose." she chuckles.

Gregory stares at Vanessa's belly which is shifting slightly, "Sorry if this sounds awkward but may I touch her?"

"S-Sure".

Gregory feels her belly with his right hand. He's surprised when he feels a small response which targets where his hand is.

"Aww I think they'll like you already." Vanessa smirks.

Gregory beams at that and reaches out again to her stomach while leaning his head against Vanessa's shoulder in silence, comforting the new life within Vanessa until they feel the moving stop. After that, Grgeory decides breaks the silence with the topic he originally wanted to bring up.

"Vanessa…I think we need a new home in a few years."

"Hm? Why?"

"Well, I think we have enough money now to move and erm, I think this house is getting a bit too small for us. Especially with the new baby coming along".

"You're right. Perhaps we could move to a larger place now…but I haven't figured out where to yet."

"I may have an idea." Gregory pulls out his phone from his right pocket and shows her a website, "This estate is on sale at a cheap price and there's a lot of rooms for all of us. Also, the location is strategic as it's not very far from the Pizzaplex and there's a bus stop nearby with many buses that go straight there".

Vanessa sees the location: It's a quaint suburban home that's two stories high.

"I'll think about it but I want to explore –"

"No. It has to be here!"

"Gregory? What's wrong?"

Gregory leans back and takes a deep breath. He doesn't hide his true intentions from Vanessa, "This place was where the Aftons used to live. I recognise the address even if the house is different".

"Why move back there?"

"I need to access William's stuff in his underground facility. Mike told me it's still there and I…need to know how I can get a real soul and go to Heaven before I die but to do that, I need to study Remnant and William…He has a lot of items and tools I can use to do that but it's all beneath this house. People died for his research, that's true but I want to continue the research not for immortality but just…a soul. I promise I won't take another life," he grins at her pleadingly, "Do you trust me?"

Vanessa is sceptical "Alright…I'll talk about it with Luis but you have to be with me to finally tell him the truth about yourself…"

Luis took the truth rather…distrubedly at first upon learning that the boy Vanessa adopted was a reincarnation of the serial killer that was responsible for the Missing Children tragedy that occurred decades ago but, with full awareness that Gregory had proven himself to be a good boy for most of his life, he got over the initial shock within a few months and kept on viewing the child as nothing more than his own person…

Gregory arrives at the doorstep and uses his set of keys to open the wooden arched front door with intricate patterns of leaves carved at its edges. Upon opening it, he sees the wooden stairs that lead to his bedroom on the second floor and beside it, a big and modern Art-deco style chandelier that was held up by three strong metal cords over the archway that leads into the living room.

However, the strong scent of meat sizzling on a grill entices his senses first and so, he instinctively heads to the kitchen which is just to his left before the first step of the stairs and, upon entering, he witnesses Vanessa and Luis were inside preparing dinner together. Luis was making mushroom soup while Vanessa was in the middle of making the main course which was her mother's own pomodoro pasta recipe that she had learned to master a while ago.

"Hello!" Luis greets his adopted son.

"Hey kid." Vanessa greets him as well. He couldn't believe she still called him that but he didn't mind.

"Sorry that I couldn't help with the cooking." Gregory apologises, "I was dismissed late today".

Vanessa focuses on the wet spaghetti swirling in the sauce as she speaks to him, "It's ok. Go shower first and put your stuff down. We'll call you when dinner is ready."

"Greggy! Greggy!" his 6 year old sister, Luna, runs up to her older brother and tackles him by the legs with a hug. Tonight, the dark-skinned had chosen to wear her amethyst coloured two-piece pyjamas with a pepperoni pizza on it and in one of her hands was a miniature Stanley the Unicorn Keychain.

Gregory was aware that Stanley the Unicorn was a personal toy of Charlotte's in the distant past but at some point, Fazbear's got their grubby hands on Henry's blueprints for Charlie's toys as well (mainly Ella, Stanley and Theodore) and turned them into marketable merch that he'd seen on shelves. He'd asked Henry once whether he was upset by it but he only laughed and said that he was ecstatic that his beloved daughter's toys could be shared with other children as well.

"Awww hey Luna, how was your day?" Gregory ruffles her messy brown hair that's the same shade as her Father's.

"I made…Ory-gami things in Art Class, did some tough maths stuff and played a long game of tag for PE!" Her energetic green eyes go wide and almost seemed to sparkle at him.

"That's awesome. You can show them to me later, alright?"

"Yeah. You're kind of sweaty." her nose wrinkles, "Go take a bath".

Gregory nods and heads up the wooden stairs to the second floor where he passes by the wall where many photographs of him and his new family at crucial moments in their lives. Each photograph was hung to the wall by a nail and arranged in chronological order from the bottom to the top of the stairs: The first photograph was from the day Gregory was adopted by Vanessa and taken to an Amusement park followed by Vanessa's marriage to Luis, Gregory's graduation from middle school, Luna's birth and then Gregory's graduation from high school and lastly, a picture that Gregory himself added of him and Harry at the bar on his 21st Birthday.

After throwing his clothes into the laundry basket that's beside the sink, Gregory unstraps his watch which exposes one of his faded Springlock scars from that night. However, he leaves the bracelet on since it was waterproof and a gift he had received from Old Man Consequences during the week he had with Vanessa. It was meant to act as an extra safety measure that strengthened the Angel's blessing against William's…intrusions into his head.

On a majority of days, the young man wouldn't see or hear anything from the Geezer but on other days, William would find ways to slip past the Angel's protection/blessing, invading his dreams at night or whispering ominous things into his ear during the day. Fortunately for him though, Cassidy was keeping a close eye out for William too and would punch him whenever he would try to harass Gregory.

Under the shower, Gregory turns on its valve and lets the falling water do it's magic, rinsing away his anxieties and troubles of the day (along with the germs). Then, he does his usual routine of applying shampoo, conditioner and soap before stepping out and drying himself off next to the sink's mirror with a lavender towel that hangs outside the glass shower door.

'My hair got longer…I'm starting to look like Him again.' Gregory internally notes, 'Perhaps I'll cut my hair soon and make it look weird like Micheal did…'

Years before moving into the new home, Vanessa is about to knock on Gregory's door in her apartment when she hears audible sobbing from within and instinctively, she slams the door open to see her 20 year old Birthday Boy seated on his carpeted floor and crying into his hands.

"Gregory, what's wrong?" she goes up to her son and sits beside him, stroking his hair, "Did you have another nightmare?"

"I…I look like William. I really look like Him now." He sobs, "I can't see my own face anymore".

Vanessa observes that the bathroom door was open and that the mirror was the first thing he had seen in the morning. The mirror always showed what he appeared like.

"No no, You aren't William." She gently holds Gregory's wrists and pulls them away from him, making him look into her eyes, "You aren't Him, You're still Gregory, my sweet and handsome young man".

Vanessa then gives him a comforting smile, "And you're better than Him: Wonderful, kind and caring…even if you do have some issues you still struggle with".

Vanessa then moves her hands from his wrist to his own hands, pulling him upwards until they are both standing and she turns him towards the mirror, cuddling the tall young man by the waist.

"Now look into the mirror. Who do you see there?" she asks.

Gregory takes a close look at himself again fearfully. He sees that he's significantly taller and stronger, not as small or as weak as he used to all those years ago. He also sees his facial features. They're sharper, more angular, more mature. He sees nothing of his child self anymore save for his hazel eyes and fluffy golden brown hair.

"I still see the awful man I was before." Gregory replies gloomily.

"Well…it doesn't have to be that way because remember: This face is yours as well. Also your body is different too don't you think? You're definitely in much better shape than he was".

Gregory laughs, staring at his athletic body that had well-defined abs and pecs with more confidence this time, "I suppose that's true".

"Now tell me, who do you see in the mirror?" Vanessa asks again.

"I'm Gregory. I'm your son." The young man smiles at her, looking at his reflection with more acceptance this time.

He then notices that Luna has been observing them from the side. For how long, he doesn't know.

"Mum, why is Greggy crying on his 20th Birthday?"

"It was just a nightmare." Gregory promises his little sister, wiping away his tears, "Don't worry. I'm all better now…"

Three knocks sound on the bathroom door outside.

"Greggy! Dinner's Ready!" Luna announced cheerfully, "Are you done yet?"

He stops looking at the mirror as he hears his name being called.

"I'll be right down." Gregory shouts, "Just give me five minutes to put my pyjamas on."

—

Gregory and his adopted family have Italian-inspired dinner together at a dining table for eight. Their dining area was located right next to the living room which has a light brown L-shaped sectional sofa with orange cushions and circular coffee table facing a widescreen television.

Most of the furniture in the house already existed when they had bought the home as whoever had last owned this place had left everything here and seemingly, they had a taste for the Art-Deco era aesthetic. Kind of similar to William now that Gregory thought about it.

However, there were some things that weren't provided to them such as furniture for Luna's room along with a dining table for the five of them (plus guests) and so, Luis and Vanessa had bought the dining table and chairs as a set when it was on sale at a local furniture shop which is why both the chairs and table were made of similar oak although the chairs had a bonus of being padded with a soft material at the bottom and at the back so that when people ate, they could feel comfortable doing so.

Decades ago, this place had a miserable family filled with lies and false happiness but presently, this place was a home for a genuinely happy family that loved one another and Gregory was forever grateful to the Angel for giving him this new chance at life. As usual, Gregory eats heavily, finishes early and dismisses himself, going to his bedroom.

—

Gregory flops down on his Blue and White bed for a while, staring at the spinning fan on the ceiling which was painted dark blue in contrast with the rest of his sky-blue walls and furthermore, they had Glow-in the-Dark stars of various sizes that Gregory himself personally fixed there so that his room would look less dull even in the dark.

Compared to Luna's amethyst-coloured room, his was slightly larger and had a door adjunct to this bedroom door that led straight to the bathroom. Other furniture within his room included a chair and study table with two small drawers just beneath, a tall Bookshelf for the fiction and non-fiction books he'd been reading over the years, a double-doored wooden closet for all his clothes and lastly, a drawer for his other items who's surface was practically a shrine to Fazbear's because lying upon it were several Fazbear Plushies of the Original band and the Pizzaplex band. Furthermore, decorated on the walls behind the drawer were several posters of the Mega PizzaPlex Plus Animatronics. Every poster had the animatronics individually while others were of them as a group. Additionally, Some posters included the newer Animatronics which had arrived one by one over the months such as Glamrock Pirate Foxy, Glamrock Mr Hippo and Orville Elephant, Glamrock Balloon Boy and DeeDee, El Chip, an animatronic Shark called Felix who lived in the water park and let children ride on his back, a brand new (and more cutesy) Security Puppet, a uncannily human-like Gymnastic animatronic named Kara that was paired with Chica (plus looked suspiciously like Ballora except more beautiful and with long, realistic and flowy hair) and lastly, coming in next month and teased frequently in the marketing, was Glamrock Bonnie who was finally going to be re-introduced to the Glamrock Brand as their…Saxophonist.

It was an odd choice of instrument to include in a rockband to say the least but nonetheless, both Gregory and Freddy were thrilled at the news. Especially Freddy who couldn't wait to reunite with his dear friend once again.

Gregory's door slams open and he gazes away from the ceiling towards Luna who exuberantly hopped in.

"Wanna hear about my day?"

"When do I never?" Gregory sits up.

"When you have homework…?"

"Oh…right. But I'm free tonight so talk all you want".

Luna sits by his bedside and Gregory patiently listens to Luna's tales about her day before Vanessa comes in to carry Luna away as 10pm was her curfew and it was time for her to sleep.

"But I wanted to talk to Gregory more." She sulked.

"Tomorrow is another day Luna. Get some rest." Gregory gently orders her, "I'll see you in the morning".

30 minutes later, as the lights and footsteps dwindled outside, Gregory merely pretended to sleep and read a notebook near a small, Crescent moon styled nightlight that was near his bed. Then, once he was sure everyone was slumbering, he snuck downwards to the basement, slipping the notebook he had into the sizable pyjama pocket located on the lower left side of his torso along with a special UV torchlight.

He had waited for this opportunity for so long and now, he could finally access William's underground facility that would grant him the resources (and hopefully answers) that he needed to obtain a real soul for himself.

–

"C'mon c'mon where is it!"

Upon switching on the basement lights, Gregory sorts through a bunch of boxes that Vanessa and Luis had stacked atop one another, placing them aside one by one as he desperately searches for the button that would open the secret entrance.

"It has to be here somewhere…" Gregory switches on his UV torchlight once he separates every box away from the walls, "One of these squares should be the button…"

He shines the light onto all of the wall's dark green tiles methodically until ultimately, it was spotlighted: The one tile which was unique from the rest of the basement wall tiles as, at the very second it became bathed in UV light, the old Afton Robotics logo made itself visible to him.

"There you are!" Gregory smirks victoriously. However, as he's about to press it, a girl's voice disrupts him.

"What are you looking for?" Luna questions from the basement stairs.

Gregory turns around to see that his little sister had been watching him, her hands on her hips and eyes glaring at him suspiciously.

"Luna? What are you doing here?" Gregory whispers in a discomposed manner, "It's 1am in the morning!"

"I couldn't sleep. I had a nightmare and the yellow bear in my dreams told me to follow you because you were there searching for something. I heard your footsteps and then I thought you were getting cheese from the kitchen fridge but then you walked into the door opposite the fridge to the basement and I started following you down…"

"Hang on," Gregory pauses her long-winded rant, "Is this the same Yellow Bear that told you to fling gum at your teacher in English class?"

"Yes."

"I thought I told you not to listen to them!"

"But they said you were in trouble and I got worried too".

"I'm alright Luna," Gregory attempts to put her mind at ease, "Go back to sleep. I need to find something important".

"Can I help? Is it for school?"

"No. Go back to sleep".

"No. I want to know what you're looking for. Is it a treasure?"

"Luna, I'm serious. What I'm searching for is too dangerous for you to handle." Gregory's tone was very stern, "I have to find it myself but I'll let you know when it's safe to see."

"Is it illegal things? If it is, I'll scream and let Mom and Dad know what you're doing!"

"No! It's not 'illegal things' and anyway, I was going to tell them once I knew what was down here".

"What do you mean by down there?" Luna's voice was rising in pitch, "Why are you being so mysterious?!"

"Okay fine." Gregory groaned, "Since you won't stop pestering me…Hidden in this basement is an entrance to an underground facility and, within this place, are machines and substances that were created and left behind by a…mad genius".

"Ooo That's cool! There's an abandoned mad scientist laboratory within this basement!" Luna jumped excitedly.

Gregory was frankly astonished that she had more energy than him at 5am than he did before his cup of coffee every morning.

"Yeah…but like I said, it's dangerous. If you want to follow me, stay close to my side, hold my hand and whatever you do, don't enter any rooms without me!"

"Why?"

Gregory thinks back to the time Mike narrated the story of his terrible experience with the Funtimes and his gruesome 'Death' at their hands the Scooping Room.

"Let's just say that the last person who entered this place and fiddled with things he shouldn't have and … died. You understand what death means right?"

Luna nods and hesitantly, Gregory presses the tile. A portion of the concrete wall shifts and separates itself, sliding open to uncloak a hidden entrance that leads to the doors of a steel elevator…

—

Gregory and Luna take a long trip down the elevator to William's underground facility, their journey accompanied by the uneasy jittering of the platform below them in addition to the whirring sounds and light winds that were produced by the immense fan-like machine spinning constantly above them. Luna stopped looking upwards and focused on her older brother.

"So….How do you know this was down here?" his little sister carried on her slew of queries to distract herself from the idea that the lift they were in would break down at any second, "Weren't you an orphan? Unless…was this your home before you became homeless?

"Something like that…" Gregory's hazel eyes focus on a speaker beside the lifts doors, pondering why Handunit wasn't communicating with them right now. Regardless, her older brother kept speaking.

"My great great grandfather, the madman I spoke of earlier…he built this underground facility but he never let anyone inside. Except for himself and a few other employees who worked for him".

"And your great great Grandfather is William Afton?"

"What?! How do you know that name!"

Luna rolls her eyes, "When I told my friends that we were moving to this new house, they told me that William Afton's family used to live here".

"And what did they say about William?" Gregory's interest is piqued.

"They said he was a good person who had a habit of getting drunk but that his family were a bunch of crackpots who all died. They also said his older son Mikey, he was the worst of them".

"How dare they slander them like this!" Gregory yells louder than he intended too. Luna cowers in fear from her giant of a brother.

"Sorry." he apologised to her for his outburst, "I meant to ask…How do they know this? Your friends?"

"Their parents all work for Fazbear Entertainment like you do. They gossip a lot about the company".

"But I thought there was a rule that prevented them from talking about the Founders?"

Luna pouted, "Didn't seem to stop them".

The elevator dings and the doors open, revealing a smooth metallic tunnel and another set of metallic double doors that's a very short distance ahead of them. To its left was a camera and below it, a circular speaker. Gregory calculated that they had to do was take 10 steps and they would be at the doors in a matter of seconds.

Everything has changed, rooms were demolished, furniture rearranged above but the secret laboratory below remains, a hidden monument to William's sins for nobody had ever uncovered the secret entrance in the basement.

Gregory and Luna set one foot out of the lift and into the metal tunnel but the moment they do, the white lights and whir of a generator automatically come alive like an awakened beast and subsequently, a red light shone from the nearby small camera which scanned them rapidly before the voice of an artificial intelligence addressed them. Gregory immediately recognises it.

"Greetings, William Afton." The Original Handunit's voice crackles to life, "I was unsure if the person boarding the lift and coming down here was truly you but now that I can see your face more clearly here, it's safe for me to say that it's very good to see you again".

"William Afton?!" Luna stares at Gregory in horror.

"I uh I think the machine is confused." Gregory whispers to Luna, clearing things up quickly before she can jump to a conclusion, "I mean… It's been years after all and I do kind of resemble the Founder. Still, we can use this opportunity to enter the area!"

Gregory steps away from Luna to address the AI at a closer distance, "It's good to see you too Handunit."

"Hmmm…you seem different." Handunit is silent for a second, "You have an American accent and you look…younger and more robust. Have you been working out?"

"Yeah. I have." Gregory simultaneously lies and tells the truth.

"Hmmm there appears to be an unauthorised guest with you. Shall I deal with them?"

The lights around them suddenly go blood red. Luna clings to her big brother's legs, her voice trembling, "W-What does that mean?"

"I don't know either but don't be scared, as long as it thinks I'm William, we're safe." Gregory whispers to her before continuing to talk back to the AI, "No! She's with me. Handunit, I order you to grant Luna here access to this facility".

The lights revert to their normal colour.

"Very well. Proceed inside with Luna, Mr Afton".

The metallic doors open with a satisfying click to show another, more compact metallic corridor before them and abruptly, Luna has an epiphany. Or so she thinks.

"Oh my gosh, I get it now…" Luna gasps, "No wonder you begged Mum and Dad to buy this place. You're a secret descendant of the Aftons aren't you!"

"Yeah. Clever. You figured it out." Gregory lies while ruffling her hair, "But they're not all psychos like all the rumours say, I swear".

"So I'm guessing William slept with your…grandma? Cos I heard that William was guy who slept around with a lot of women around town and then abandoned them in the morning —"

"Luna, you're 7! How do you know about — ugh never mind." Gregory is vexed, "I'll just get mum and dad to talk to you about the birds and the bees later".

"Didn't you ever hear gossip at my age?" Luna asks.

"Not like this." Gregory shrugs and he holds his sister's hand tightly, "Whatever you do, when we go in, DO NOT let go of my hand under any circumstance. Understood?"

Luna nods as she holds Gregory's hand while he leads her down the cold and narrow corridors of William's secret facility.

Both Gregory and Luna are surprised how ahead of its time the area looked and how clean and non-dusty it remained after so many years. He could still smell the scent of disinfectant on the walls which meant that Handunit had been preserving this place perfectly for years somehow.

'Perhaps it used the Minireenas or Bidybabs?' Gregory speculates, 'I wonder if they're still here or perhaps they merged with the Funtimes too?'

The Minireenas and Bidybabs were designed as miniature companions to Ballora and Circus Baby, to entertain children and assist them in various tasks. The minireenas were doll-like humanoids with pink Tutus and white face masks while the Bidybabs were hideous, uncanny and baby-like animatronics. However, with their leaders gone, he wasn't entirely sure what became of these animatronics or if they escaped the basement. Not even Micheal knew what happened to them.

"Woah, I feel like we walked into a UFO."

Gregory shivers, partially from the cold air surrounding them, "It feels like a really creepy UFO though, don't you think?"

"Yeah…say what do those buttons by those glass windows do?"

"According to the documents I read, it says that the button above shows you the animatronics while the one below would shock them" Gregory states matter of factly.

"But why would William hurt them?"

"Maybe they were dangerous, like wild animals?" Gregory throws his hands up in a shrugging gesture, "Who knows."

Luna playfully reaches out to the top button of one window they pass and the lights flicker on to display Ballora's stage. For some reason, there was a cut rope there that was highlighted by the light from behind the curtain. Neither of them knew what it meant but they were both unsettled as they went deeper into the place that was once familiar to Gregory.

Suddenly, Gregory and Lina hear scuttling noises from above them in the vents.

"Eeep. What's that?"

"Probably rats." Gregory guesses as he pulls her away from the window, "Let's keep going…"

The two of them stroll further down the facility's cold corridors. Gregory recalls that William had commissioned this secret place to be built in order to perform his shady and extremely illegal experiments with Remnant. He also recalls that the Funtime animatronics were built in this very facility and purposefully programmed to kill people and harvest Remnant from their souls. However, those plans were fortunately (or unfortunately) derailed by Elizabeth's death and so, he'd stored the Funtimes back here and later on (aka after being fired from Fazbears), he converted a humongous portion of this place to be a Rental Service that was to be operated by a few trustable employees. However, none of the employees he hired would ever know the true and original purpose of this underground facility other than his own son…

Gregory finds it ironic that he's finally back where the horrors all began but he's not going to let the mistakes of the past happen again. He promised it to Old Man Consequences and Cassidy after all…

Luna tugs his hand, snapping Gregory out of his reverie, "So what are you looking for down here? We clearly aren't here to just stare at creepy corridors right?"

"We're looking for my– I mean the inner sanctum of this laboratory. I want to see what my great grandfather was hiding as I saw some documents that mentioned this place and I wanted to see if there was anything interesting…"

As they carry on walking down the corridors, Luna's sharp eyes notice that one metal door is slightly ajar and something within it glinting at her.

"Hey, are you looking for one of the items you're looking for in this room?" Luna unconsciously breaks her agreement, letting go of his hands and opens the rest of the door.

However, Gregory sees the familiar curved shape in the dark and violently pulls his little sister backwards.

Gregory scowls, angrily reprimanding her, "Hey! What did I say about not letting go of my hand!"

"What's the matter with you?" Luna's eyebrows crease anxiously.

"Don't go in there! I read that this room was called the Scooping Room and it's where William dismantled his machines. You don't want to be dismantled do you?!"

"No but…how could you tell this is that room?"

"There's a reason it was called the Scooping Room." Gregory points to the device that looked like a scoop that ice cream vendors always had when serving their customers.

"Does that device even work anymore?" she asks.

"I don't want to know and that's not why we're here…Cmon".

Luna follows him, holding his hand once again, but glances back at the Scooper as they leave…

—

At last, they make it to William's main workspace. Three fluorescent tubes were the only sources of light that lit the entire room and, in the left corner, there was an empty foam board and a workshop while in the right corner was a plastic study table with a plain light blue lamp, stationery box and small desk drawer.

However, several large drawers were placed alongside the study table and Gregory recalled that in those drawer boxes were items sorted and labelled according to type so the first row at the top of every drawer was folders, documents and journals, the second middle row were animatronic parts and the third at the bottom was what William referred to as 'chemical research'. Of course, those were keywords for 'Remnant' which he hoped to find.

Lastly, in the centre, were two metallic, rectangular slabs placed parallel to one another that were identical in width and height. However, one was grey and reflectionless with silvery restraints on them and while the other one had a reflective surface that distorted the images of their bodies upon nearing and what's more, dangling above it was some kind of machine with 10 claws which resembled the device which was used in that Pizzaplex repair cylinder that Gregory had been in so long ago.

In all honesty, Gregory thought William's workspace resembled an eerie operating room more than a regular engineers' workshop and, just by being here, he could feel more of William's memories overwhelm him. He recalls the near endless hours William spent here pouring life (sometimes literally with Remnant) into his animatronics and attemtping to unlock the secrets to eternal life instead of spending time with his own loved ones that he didn't even have the heart for. This secret room was William's place of comfort, located away from the prying eyes of the people he had to pretend to care for but ironically, to Gregory, this place made him feel sick.

"This entire place really does feel like a mad scientist's lab…" remarks Luna as she gazes around the room with childish curiosity and anxiousness.

"No kidding. Everything here is nearly up to date with present technology and this was built in the 1980s".

"Was William a Doctor as well as an Engineer?" Luna questions.

"Not that I know of." Gregory mutters, "I don't believe that man has ever been to a medical school if these are his working conditions".

Luna eyes the restraints on the other table and shivers in fear.

"Gregory … What was William Afton doing in here? What things did he make?"

"Mainly animatronics." Gregory states neutrally, "Why?"

"If he was making animatronics, why would he need a table with cuffs on them? It gives me the creeps".

"I'm not sure but don't worry, we'll be out of here soon. I just have to find one thing…"

Gregory leads his sister to the right where the drawers are and begins opening and rummaging through some of them. Before he could find his Remnant, perhaps he could find something for his sister to play with first. Something that wouldn't kill her…

Similarly, Luna tries to lend a helping hand to Gregory by searching inside the drawers close to her as well but upon opening one of the bigger drawers, she glimpses a creepy endoskeleton skull along with a small, deactivated uncanny animatronic with a round shaped head.

All of a sudden, its grey eyes open and it looks up at her, "Hello?"

Luna screams and rapidly slams the drawer box shut with a wide-eyed, frightened expression, "Umm Gregory, Can we get out of here now?"

"I thought you were excited to come down here?"

"I was but now, this place is freaking me out".

"Alright. Give me a few more minutes".

Gregory opens one of the drawers labelled as 'Unfinished Items 5#' and immediately, he recognises the small and cute bear buried beneath various unused metal parts.

He remembered that William initially wanted to give this to Elizabeth for her birthday so that he could spy on her like he did with that Fredbear toy for Evan but tragically, due his obsession with work and immortality, his progress on the toy was extremely delayed and ultimately abandoned due to Elizabeth's passing and then, after vanishing, William's blueprints for the doll were stolen by Fazbears and transformed into their own mass-produced product.

"Luna, I found something." Gregory pulls out the Pink mechanical bear labelled 'Helpy', "Do you want it? I think it isn't working at the moment but I could make it function again with some of the tools here…"

Luna's eyes light up,"Yes please! Thanks so much! You're the best Brother ever!"

"Great, I'll bring you up first but I'll stay here for a while longer. Will that be ok?"

"Yep! That's fine with me! You think it often gets people's identities wrong?"

Gregory recalls Micheal telling him about "Eggs Benedict" and giggles a bit which confuses Luna.

"I really don't know the answer to most of your questions but we'll figure out the rest of this place eventually." Gregory assures her, "Also, we'll tell mum and dad about this together in the morning. I promise".

Luna (of course) didn't know that Ness and Luis had already been informed about the existence of the underground facility a few years before they moved in but it didn't matter and, after escorting his little sister up to the lift, he goes to Handunit's 'room' which is a huge computer monitor. The AI once again welcomes him.

"Hello Mr Afton".

"Hello Handunit. I'd like to make some adjustments to your system".

"No worries Mr Afton. Go ahead".

Handunit opens his complex console, trusting and allowing his inventor to change what he needs to.

"Please call me Gregory Cabrera from now on." Gregory informs the AI, "I don't wish to go by William Afton anymore".

The AI is quiet for a while, attempting to process his creator's new name "An interesting change of identity. I'm not sure why you're Spanish now but I won't judge".

"What can I say? I got adopted." Gregory snarks as he starts to reprogram Handunit with the necessary changes. While that occurs, the young man hears the mechanical scuttling noises from earlier return with a vengeance and, applying the finishing touches to Handunit, he sighs and rubs his forehead in annoyance.

"All right, every one of you. You can come out now!"

Twelve Minireenas, each with their assigned number plastered on their torsos, and Circus Baby's Two Bidybabs climb out of the vents and skitter towards him. The Minireenas moved like elegant birds in contrast to the Bidybabs who moved to him like clumsy babies about to fall over.

"Daddy!" Minireena 1 says as she hugs his legs with the others, "It's been so long. Where have you been?"

"Uhhh…Long story." Gregory brushes aside her question, "I didn't think any other machines were left here other than Handunit…I thought you had gone with them".

"We…tried with one of the dead bodies the Funtimes killed but we got bored of the outside world quickly with nothing to do and no orders from you." Minireena 2 whines.

"Are you…mad at me for leaving you behind?" Gregory questions tensely.

"We're a little mad but not really. We kept this place tidy and running for you in hopes that you'd come back and ask us to collect remnants again."

"I miss entertaining kids." sighs Minireena 3, "Can we play with kids again? Like the one you brought down?"

"What about Remnants? Do you still need that?" Minireena 5 speaks up, "We can collect it for you from unsuspecting people."

The Bidybabs nod in agreement, unable to say a word as they weren't programmed to speak.

Gregory remembers that after William left Hurricane permanently, he had yet to fully complete Minireenas and Bidybabs which explained their creepy looks. He remembers that the finalised versions of the Minireenas were meant to look like barbie dolls with flexible joints while the Bidybabs would look like smaller versions of Circus Baby. Looking at them presently, Gregory felt sad that they were left discarded in these incomplete states for many years and in his head, he made a note to conclude their designs and further reprogram them during his next long break.

"I don't need Remnant." Gregory tells them, "Not now anyways as the first order of business is a revamp of this place. First things first, I need all of you to help me dismantle some equipment".

—

The Minireenas and the Bidybabs assist Gregory in taking apart the scooping machine and a few other inventions without complaint. He wouldn't need these anymore, not for a while at least and then, he dismissed them and told them that he'd visit again to request for their help again sometime soon.

"I'll let you out one of these days and complete all of you. I promise".

With that, the small humanoid animatronics all left to rest back at their usual spots.

Gregory returned to William's workspace and inserted the notebook in his pocket into one of the journal drawers which contained written knowledge and information on the processes of Soul Transference and cloning that Gregory had gained and kept for years when he and The Fake merged twice. With this knowledge, he decided that he would use it to live for a long time, possibly even forever…that is if he couldn't find out how to get a soul of course. Additionally, it was useful for the future as if Gregory started to die from a fatal wound or illness, he could quickly create and jump into another clone body and wouldn't make the same mistake of accidentally giving one a soul like himself.

However, he could work on making himself another body later as presently, he was exhausted from dismantling many items so early in the morning. Gregory plonked himself down on William's desk, resting his head on it until suddenly, from the smaller drawer's compartments upon the table, he caught sight of something that made him feel awake again: A small light dimly shimmering inside which could be seen from the edges.

He pulls it out and his eyes widen upon noticing that it was a vial of Remnant labelled 'William'. He looks at it with reborn hope. He doesn't want immortality of course. Only a real soul and Gregory swore that once he had one, he'd stop the research. All he had to do now was figure out a way to research the substance without sacrificing any innocent people like William had…

—

Meanwhile, down in hell, a decrepit and weakened William Afton raises his head beneath the lake and smirks. A bubble escapes his lips as he chuckles ecstatically, learning of his clone's intentions through their psychic connection.

"Curious, Will? Then follow your curiosity young man! It'll give us everything we've ever wanted!"

EPILOGUE END

—

So that's the end of Dark Rebirth…Is this Epilogue a teaser for a possible sequel next year? Who knows but we still have the side stories to go :)

And who knows, maybe I'll even do a few humorous one shots set in this universe as well.

Next DLC/Side story: Purple Guy. A quick one shot about a conflict between Charlie, The Missing Children and Cassidy in the search for their murderer.

Coming…Maybe End of August.