Charlie felt her vision blur as a car flew past her, nearly knocking the woman off her feet. She let out a sigh before slowly drawing her cane back and resting it beneath her arm. Eventually, her sight returned to its normal haze and she carefully limped across the street.

It had been fifteen years since her near death and time had not been kind to her body. She could feel the joints of her right leg swinging limply as she walked. She didn't used to need a cane, but in the last few weeks the pain had become too much. Despite the strength of Afton and her father's work, her form was beginning to fail in a lot of places.

Honestly, given what William had designed her for, she was shocked that her body was breaking this quickly.

Daddy never cared about us enough to constantly fix it. You should thank me for having the luxury of a functioning body at all.

That was another interesting predicament that Charlie had to deal with. After shoving a giant metal sword through her and stealing her body, Elizabeth had somehow stuck around in the depths of her mind. It was something she also had to get used to, sharing a body with her former enemy.

Charlie still shuddered at the memory of her initial revival in Baby's body. The mental argument that followed from both their realizations had lasted for days even after she reunited with John. After many harsh words (and some miraculous mediation from John) they had settled on a sort of uneasy peace for the last 15 years. Elizabeth finally got to experience a somewhat normal life and Charlie got to stop being insulted every 5 minutes about her lack humanity.

Though it meant that getting any closer to John would've probably led to a very awkward situation for the two souls. Not that the couple wanted anything more right now. John was very caring, giving Charlie the space and time she needed to sort out their lives.

"All things considered, I think we turned out pretty okay Lizzie."

There was a pause that was so unlike Elizabeth before she finally responded.

Yeah, I think we did.


It had been a long 15 years for Jessica after she saw her best friend for the last time. Marla, John, and Carlton had all talked about being there when she first woke up. However, whenever Jessica's thoughts drifted to Charlie, she could only picture the whirling blades of Baby surrounding her face and the fury of a dead daughter who desperately wanted to be human again.

She had heard the story of Elizabeth from John at the time, but she knew that he was certainly holding back some secrets. Unfortunately, before she could question him further, he disappeared shortly after Charlie. The last lead of his whereabouts came from Clay. He had tracked him to the only cemetery in town, only to find nothing but a pair of footprints and a blank grave with its name scratched out.

Jessica had argued with Clay for hours about trying to find the identity of the unnamed grave. After all, its position next to Henry's grave was no coincidence. Nevertheless, Clay wouldn't budge.

"We can't just dig up a body to inspect it Jessica. Not only is it illegal, but also very disrespectful to Henry."

"But what if we find something that can help us find Charlie?" Jessica protested.

"What can we find from a body? The evidence is just too circumstantial to pursue this form of investigation. It's most likely that this is the body of Charlie's twin. The date says 1980-1983 which is the year Sammy went missing according to Charlie."

Nonetheless, Jessica got Marla to hack into the coroner database. The next day, she announced to Carlton and her that the grave was listed as anonymous, which meant the name was etched secretly only to be removed years later.

John had also been reported missing at this point, leading Jessica and her friends feeling confused and a bit betrayed. Lamar reasoned that John needed time to grieve. He had been the closest to Charlie after all, but when he didn't turn up after 2 weeks, Jessica became agitated.

John visited Clay in the hospital alone without Charlie, leading to a lot of questioning from everyone. John mentioned that Charlie had a confrontation with her doppelganger that turned bloody and that she was taking time to recover. Jessica was furious, both at the fact that he hadn't brought her with him to the hospital and that he refused to go into anymore detail on what happened. The only thing he added was the assurance that Fake-Charlie was no longer a threat and Real-Charlie was safe.

That was the last anyone had seen of him in the last decade and a half. Most of her friends had lost hope at this point. Many simply tried to forget, or believed that somewhere out there John and Charlie were happy together, but not Jessica.

Jessica never got to say goodbye; never got to talk to her friend after she was swallowed up by Twisted Freddy in a shower of blood and screams. Her last memory of her face was the moment before it shifted and split open to reveal a horrifying monster beneath. Jessica didn't want to remember her friend as a monstrous robot who kidnapped kids under the orders of William Afton. She wanted to remember Charlie as the selfless friend who did everything she could to give life and safety to those around her.

She never should have let John confront Baby. She never should have gone after the monster in a pitiful attempt to protect Charlie from her.

She never should have abandoned her best friend.

Jessica climbed into her bed with tears in her eyes as memories of everyone she lost washed over her. It was going to be another restless night for her as she felt the nightmares close in.


"I mean, you've been my friend since forever!" John raged. "Just like Marla or Carlton or Jessica…I love all my friends. Ugh."

John stormed out of his car, feeling the weight of everything he had learned on his shoulders. He came alone without his friends, to the cemetery that held the confirmation he needed. The graveyard was empty as always. People avoided it as if it were cursed. Thus, it was fortunate that when John entered, the grounds were empty.

Despite the town's general obliviousness to the Freddy murders, John was thankful that the townsfolk were aware enough to avoid digging up any dark secrets hidden here.

John strode through the cemetery with purpose. Charlie rarely talked about the deaths of her twin and her father. However, she did say that they were buried together on a hill with a tree. She never understood why Aunt Jen never let anyone, including her, visit the gravesite. Nor did she allow Charlie to talk to anyone about Sammy's disappearance.

At the time, Charlie told him that she had been heartbroken and a little confused. Then Charlie's mom left followed by her father's suicide shortly after. For months, John had watched as 4 year old Charlie broke down and tried to shut herself off from the world. Eventually, she had been dragged away by Aunt Jen leaving her anguished friends behind. Overtime, the town forgot all about the events of 1983 as the "Missing Children's Incident" began.

John had been 5 at the time and utterly baffled by everything that Charlie was put through by her family. Of course, he had a strong suspicion of what happened now. He just needed to confirm it.

It didn't take him long to find what he was searching for. The two graves stood out together on the hill, surrounded by the memorials of the five children who were never found. Clay had talked extensively with everyone about removing the kids bodies from the suits and giving them a secret burial, but Carlton had shut that idea down.

"All the animatronics were destroyed in the Circus Baby Pizza World fire. They freed themselves from Afton and dragged him straight to hell in a furnace," he explained smugly. "Their remains are all gone now and the fire made sure of that."

Of course, Clay had eyed his son with disbelief. After all, a furnace shouldn't have been enough to set the whole building alight, but John recognized the gleam in his friends' eyes. Silently, he was thankful that no other funtimes that Afton built would be escaping from that horrible place. Personally, he would've loved to see the building burn himself.

Back in the present, he gave a respectful nod to his childhood friends and the ones he barely knew before climbing the top of the hill. His eyes briefly passed over Henry's grave before he turned to the second.

Charlie Emily

1980-1983

John felt his knees grow weak and the weight that had been with him from the moment he saw Charlie's body, with blood and wires oozing out of every wound, finally lifted. He finally had conformation that Charlie was truly dead.

Dark thoughts began to swirl in his head. Had everything they had gone through together meant nothing? Was Charlie always meant to die this way? Was Elizabeth right?

He quickly assured himself that none of it was Charlie's fault. She didn't ask to be made. She didn't ask to be saved by Aunt Jen as a husk of her former self. She didn't ask to be murdered by Afton not once, but twice.

As he stewed in his misery, he heard the quiet crunch of heavy footsteps approaching. His head shot up and he caught the gaze of a pair of bright green eyes. He scrambled backward in a panic as he recognized Charlie's smiling face. He felt a familiar nausea as an unseen illusion disk blanketed the thing in front of him.

"Elizabeth?!"

The robot's smile instantly dropped and John began to see black oily tears form on her eyes. She dropped her outstretched arm and looked like she wanted to curl in on herself.

Only when the lack of immediate danger faded, did John take in the rest of "Charlie's" appearance.

She looked nothing like Elizabeth or Charlie had before. The person was wearing a dark shirt with a light blue button up sweater and purple knee length skirt. In her left hand, she held the damaged form of the Ella doll.

"John?" she spoke hesitantly. "It's me…Charlie."

John's mind was spinning, unsure of what to believe. The animatronic hadn't attacked him yet, and he knew Elizabeth could be very fast if she tried. Yet the buzz of an illusion disk still echoed in his mind.

"Prove it." He demanded. "Why are you using an illusion disk?"

John saw her heart visibly sink as she fidgeted with the Ella doll clutched tightly to her chest. Suddenly, the illusion faded and John gasped in horror. Even if he had seen her earlier and even if he was still not sure if this was truly Charlie, he still flinched at the sight.

The body was covered in blood, mechanical parts, and had a gaping hole in the chest where the knife struck. Half her face was torn away leaving a metallic skeleton beneath. She looked nothing like a monster now.

"Oh…"

The robot took a hesitant step towards him, and held the Ella doll towards him. He looked at it in trepidation as he recalled the story Elizabeth shared.

"This is all I have that makes me unique," the woman pleaded desperately through her tears. "Please, John! Baby never had this part of me."

John carefully wrapped his hand around the doll, as if it were the most delicate thing in the world. Here was not just a robot, but someone who was giving him what was essentially her entire soul. It felt crushing to be shown this level of trust and love.

"Charlie?"

Before she could respond, John threw himself into her arms with a sob. Immediately, he felt a pair of arms reach around him weakly. There were many tears, but mixed with a feeling of consolation as the two friends held each other under the tree with the piece of Charlie's soul shared between them.


Charlie had insisted that they avoid talking to their friends, a thought which John agreed with. He simply wasn't prepared to explain everything to them, and it appeared that she felt the same way.

Telling your friends that you were a special animatronic who was semi-possessed by the real Charlie who died in 1983 and was now inhabiting the body of a animatronic that tried to kill them all was not something that John believed Charlie was ready for.

So they ran, with Charlie clutching his arm as they pulled away from Hurricane in his beat up car. Charlie briefly told him to stop at the Silver Reef to pick up some things. He watched as she dashed into the house before returning after several minutes with her old body and some suitcases. John looked slightly sick as he saw the former host of the friend he knew for so long finally put to rest. She quietly explained that she needed the extra parts to fix herself, but John sensed there was more to the story.

He only learned about Elizabeth a month later.

As his hand shifted to the gear, a thought occurred to him.

"What about your aunt?"

Charlie turned away and her eyes began to leak oil.

"We can't move the body without getting in serious trouble. I'm sure Jessica will take care to bury it with me and my dad. Since we removed my name, it should be nothing but another blank grave to everyone now."

It felt weird hearing her talk about her body like this. He recalled with sadness that nothing had truly been her body for a long time.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

Charlie didn't say a word as he threw the car in reverse before pulling out of the driveway. She rested her head against his neck and he did his best to keep her warm as the two drove off into the cold night.


Charlie reached her small house in reasonable amount of time given her hobbled leg. The fortune left by her dad's patented animatronics and Aunt Jen was enough to get her, John, and Elizabeth a quiet home away from any prying eyes. John mostly ran errands as it was too risky for Charlie to be out in public too much. Although the money carried them through the first few years, it had been drying up steadily due to Charlie being unable to hold many jobs.

The house was in a slightly worse shape than previous years. It was nowhere near the state of Silver Reef, but it was no longer the shining haven it once was. The windows were rounded by mildew, the stone pathway was covered with vegitation, and the roof was missing several shingles. Still, she reasoned it would last a decade more at least.

You think we can last a decade like this? Elizabeth asked childishly.

Charlie scoffed and looked at all the dents and loose wires under her clothes that were kept hidden by the illusion disk.

"Hardly," Charlie retorted, "but it's nice to live a little. Hopefully when all of this is over, we can be done with this weird purgatory."

Elizabeth hummed in agreement. Our dads did such great work.

Charlie really didn't want to start another argument right now, so she bit back some rather scathing remarks about William.

"I guess they did for the time," was all she offered in response.

She walked up to the door and sucked in the pain of her leg before knocking twice with her free hand. She caught a glimpse of a blurry eye through the door before it was swung open. Charlie felt herself tip forward out of balance, much to her embarrassment before she felt a pair of strong arms catch her.

"Charlie, are you okay?" John smiled in amusement.

Charlie mumbled a sorry before gripping her cane and balancing herself again. She limped to the couch as fast as she could and collapsed onto the cushions. John's amusement faded to concern as he took in her disheveled appearance and clear exhaustion.

"I really think we need to get you a wheelchair."

"No, no that makes things worse," Charlie protested. "The joints are only failing because they've had to stand the last fifteen years. If I just stop using them, they'll only get more rusted and stiff."

John groaned, but deferred to her (and Elizabeth's) expertise.

"Do you need any help today?"

"Yes, in a moment."

John nodded and offered his hand to her. Charlie looked at it hesitantly, before grasping it and letting him pull her to her feet. She wobbled a bit on the spot before the cane steadied her balance.

How cute.

Charlie ignored Elizabeth's taunting as John helped lead her to their secret workshop. It was originally in the basement until Charlie found she could no longer climb the steps, so John moved everything to the ground floor. Charlie carefully climbed onto the table, hissing in pain as she lay flat.

"The right leg needs work again. Can you grab the small wrench and a couple matching ½" size hex bolts?"

John fumbled around the workshop, much to Elizabeth's amusement, as he tried to find the tools. Charlie quickly took pity on him.

"It's in the top left cupboard."

John returned with the wrench and screws shortly after with a glare.

"Why do you have to amuse her?" he groaned, already guessing what Elizabeth was doing.

"Why do you not know where things are after 15 years?" Charlie retorted. "Did I really have to do everything myself back then?"

John's mouth curled upward as he gently took her sock off, revealing the metallic flesh beneath. The illusion was gone and John could clearly see the dents and holes on the ankle.

"Umm, how do I not damage you again?"

Elizabeth let out a cry of disbelief. Charlie smiled as she tried to draw herself to a sitting position. Instantly, pain laced through her as her back joints creaked and bent in protest. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming as she got upright.

Charlie are you alright? Elizabeth asked.

John was looking at her with worry as Charlie gritted her teeth. She kept a firm grip on the table to stop herself from falling backward.

"I'm alright just give me the wrench."

"Are you sure you're…"

"I'm fine!"

She took the wrench out of John's hand and with a violent twist, popped the panel in her leg open. John sucked in a breath, but Charlie didn't feel any pain. One of the many things Afton got wrong she supposed.

Elizabeth had no response. After all, she hated this body as much as she did.

Beneath the skin, Charlie could see a round knuckle joint that attached her ankle to the rest of the leg. Several bolts were loose and one seemed to have rusted in place. Charlie let out a sigh when she realized the magnitude of work that needed to be done.

"John, can you tighten the top right bolt."

John nodded and moved in carefully with the wrench.

"Not that one! The other right!"

John jerked away and Charlie took several deep breaths to calm herself down. Slowly, he reached for the other one and locked the wrench in place. He locked eyes with her.

"Ready?"

Charlie nodded nervously and he began tightening the bolt. She bit back a scream and locked her jaw shut. Seconds passed as torture before John finished. He gently removed the wrench and Charlie allowed her mouth to move once more.

Man, even I felt that, and I can't feel anything.

"Charlie," John looked sick. "Are you sure you're okay? We can finish this another time."

Charlie wanted to cry with relief, but instead she just shook her head.

"The longer I wait, the worse it gets."

John looked like he wanted to be doing anything else right now, but instead he pursed his lips and reached for the other bolt.

It wasn't much better the second time and another 3 seconds passed agonizingly slow before the bolt was tightened. After the agony in her body subsided to it's usual level, both of them turned to the rusted bolt.

"H-how do we do this?" John stuttered.

"You have to take it all the way out and replace it before it gets stuck or the joints fall apart. Do it as fast as you can, but be careful to pull it straight out perpendicular to the hole." She took a deep breath and prepared for the worst part. "If it's bent, wiggle it loose and hold the joints in place the entire time just incase something goes wrong."

John was deathly pale and Charlie squeezed her eyes shut so she couldn't see his face. Tears were already racing down her cheeks as she summoned what little courage she had remaining. She felt Elizabeth silently giving her support.

She shivered as John's hand went to her ankle to hold it in place. She sensed the wrench slide into place. The last thing she remembered was a cry unlike anything she had ever heard before followed by all the sensors in her body firing pain all at once.

Then, she felt nothing.


Charlie awoke feeling numb all over and a strange sense of coldness. She was laying in her bed with John sitting at the end watching her.

"What happened?" She asked through her tears.

John sighed, "Elizabeth knocked you out and took over for the rest of the operation."

Charlie's felt her tears intensify. Elizabeth never took control ever unless it was an emergency and never without Charlie willing it subconsciously. It took a long time for them to trust each other and switch back since Charlie was always in control. They had only switched twice over the past 15 years and the first was by accident when Charlie was hitting a really low point.

The pain she felt was unbearable, but it hurt even more sharing it with Elizabeth. She sent a silent thank you, but received no response. It seemed that Elizabeth was resting for now. She forced her mouth to move once more.

"John…I don't think I can do this anymore," she admitted with heaving sob.

John sat up straight at that.

"Wait, Charlie we've talked about this! It's only been fifteen years and you're barely scraping mid thirties." His eyes glistened with water as he tried to comfort the woman in terrible pain.

"I know but…" She hiccuped, "I've been doing this for thirty years since I first died. I can't do this anymore John!"

She banged her head against the wooden headrest and heard it crack. John carefully climbed over and Charlie took him into her arms.

"Everything hurts. I can feel every part of my body starting to break," she choked. "The illusion disk is failing and the chest plate is already strained to the limit. If that fails…"

She couldn't finish, but the horrific implications were clear. As they sat together through the night, Charlie wept as she felt the faint power of the Ella doll will her soul to rest.

Tomorrow was another struggle, but John and Elizabeth would be there for her every painful step of the way.