The first thing Mike noticed was that he was laying on something soft and comfortable, that he was warm and he could hear voices talking nearby. He wasn't awake enough yet to recognize who was talking, but his mind identified them as family. All of this made Mike instinctively feel safe, so he slowly returned to consciousness rather than jolting awake in full fight-or-flight mode. He shifted slightly to settle better into whatever he was lying on, but doing so caused him to wince a little in pain as his injury reminded him it was still there. He couldn't recall yet what happened, but he remembered fighting a monster or something in the woods.

So a typical summer day for him ever since he joined the Pines family.

The fact that he had been injured enough to apparently pass out means that Mike was probably in for another lecture about not being so reckless with his personal safety.

Hmmm… maybe it would be better if he slept a little longer.

Unfortunately, his body betrayed his plan to delay the inevitable by becoming more awake and aware. He could even identify the voices talking as Elizabeth and Evan now.

Wait… why would they be here?

Unless…

Oh no.

"Ev! Lizzie! I swear to the Axolotl that if you even think about sharing any more embarrassing stories I will find a way to prank you even in the afterlife!" Mike promised as he rubbed his eye, though he was sure his grogginess kept him from sounding nearly as threatening as he wanted to.

Elizabeth and Evan both jumped at suddenly being addressed and Evan automatically said, "I'm sorry Mikey."

Evan clamped his hands over his mouth as soon as the words left, eyes widening as he realized he had just treated a total stranger like his brother. He hadn't been able to help it though as Mike had sounded just like Michael always did whenever he had been woken up sooner than he had wanted to be (and in some ways, sounding more like Evan's brother than Michael has been talking these last few days).

"Mikey! You're awake!" Elizabeth squealed in excitement, immediately going over and hugging Mike. Mike's automatic reaction to finding himself trapped in an animatronic's grip was to defend himself, but luckily his thoughts and memories caught on to what was happening before he started trying to shock Elizabeth into submission. Elizabeth remained oblivious to Mike's almost attack as she continued, "I was so worried! You were hurt so badly and you've been asleep for so long. I was afraid you might never wake up…"

"I'm fine Lizzie," Mike assured, ignoring how Elizabeth's hug was pulling painfully at his wounds in favor of calming his sister down. "Trust me, I'm very hard to get rid of. I'll be back in fight shape in no time."

Mike's words seemed to help as Elizabeth loosened her grip, though she wasn't ready to let him go yet. Mike resigned himself to being held for the time being and used the opportunity to glance around and figure out where they were. The house itself seemed vaguely familiar though Mike couldn't identify the exact location yet. Gregory and Evan were sitting on the carpet, watching him with curiosity. Michael and Henry came in from the other room, drawn by Elizabeth's outburst. And was that Charlie? What was she doing here?

At least Mike knew where he was now.

"Uh… hi..?" Mike said with a small awkward wave, unsure of how else to respond to all the staring and not able to do much else with Elizabeth still hugging him.

"It's good to see you're awake," Henry commented, coming closer. "You were hurt pretty badly and I worried the basic first aid I did wasn't going to be enough…"

"I'm fine Un- Henry," Mike assured with a dismissive wave, cutting off the more familial greeting considering they were technically strangers. "I'm pretty sturdy now and have walked away from a lot worse."

As long as Mike's insides stayed inside, he could recover fairly easily.

For some reason, Henry didn't seem very reassured.

"Right," Henry sighed, having the feeling this was going to be another headache-inducing conversation. Deciding to address what he considered to be the most pressing matter Henry said, "I've been dealing with the whole attack at the Pizzeria. I know you were involved in it and I have the feeling you understand what happened better than the witness there. What was going on and what happened to that woman you were fighting? I'm guessing she's the one that hurt you based on the timing, so is she still out there? Are people in danger?"

Mike grimaced and nudged Elizabeth to let him go, wanting to be able to fully face Henry for this conversation. Elizabeth reluctantly complied, finally releasing him though she stayed nearby as Mike slowly maneuvered himself into a sitting position.

"This is going to sound crazy," Mike said with a bitter smile, thinking how much of an understatement that was. "Has Lizzie told you about how I'm from the future?"

Mike knew that Henry and the others would have required some sort of explanation with Elizabeth randomly showing up on their doorstep with a passed-out doppelgänger of Michael, but he wanted to get a least an idea of how much they knew.

"Do have proof?" Gregory asked, eying Mike with suspicion and disbelief.

"We'll worry about that later," Henry cut in, nodding at Mike to continue with the current topic.

"Right, well that isn't the whole truth…" Mike began, sending Elizabeth a brief apologetic glance. Honestly though, if Mike had his way that would be the cover story he would have stuck with, but circumstances had forced his hand. If the others were going to get involved in what was happening, technically they've always had been, then they needed to understand just how dangerous that twisted William was.

"So I am from a future, but not your future," Mike said, plowing on before the others could interrupt. "More accurately I'm from a different dimension. How exactly I came to be here is a long story that isn't important right now…"

Time and dimensional travel were already a hard enough pill to swallow that Mike didn't even want to begin to broach the subject of magic and demons.

"But there was an accident in my world and I ended up appearing in the pizzeria, in the ball pit of all things…" Mike continued, not noticing how Gregory's eyes widened at that. "I knew that any chance I had of getting home would be back through it, so I've done everything I can to keep an eye on it, including connecting my systems to the security by it so I could monitor it remotely. This morning, I got an alert of an energy surge from the ball pit and when I checked the camera I saw a woman dressed like a white rabbit coming out of the ball pit-"

"VANNY!?" Gregory couldn't help but gasp in shock and fear, snapping everyone's attention immediately to him.

"She didn't exactly introduce herself," Mike commented, tilting his head slightly as he studied Gregory. And considering she was just a puppet for that twisted William, Mike doubted she ever would. Still calling them "Vanny" would be an easier way to distinguish her from this dimension's William. Pressing on Mike said, "And I doubt she's the same Vanny you know, as she's from a completely different dimension like I am, though she's something more inhuman. I'm guessing this dimension's Vanny isn't very friendly either."

"She was trying to kill me," Gregory admitted, his angry tone doing very little to hide the fearful tremble in his voice. "She was chasing me through the Pizzaplex and in desperation, I hid in a random ball pit I had come across. I thought I had fallen asleep when I somehow found myself in a completely different place… but if what your saying is true…"

Gregory hadn't really questioned it too much at the time as he had just been relieved to be safe, but now…

"I can find out if you're right just give me a second," Mike said, opening up the panel on his arm and quickly reviewing the footage from the modified camera to see if Gregory briefly appeared on it. Luckily there was a moment when he had come across the camera just long enough for it to register any lingering energy. "Well, you're not from a different dimension as you don't have any traces of crossing a dimensional barrier. However… Gregory, are you aware that you are currently in 1983?"

"What!?" Gregory said in shock, mind racing as he thought everything over. "But that… you mean… I'm the time traveler from the future?!"

"That explains so much," Evan couldn't help but comment as he processed it. "All those weird comments about antiques and old shows…"

"But how!?" Gregory demanded though it was unclear if he was asking someone in particular or just the universe at large.

"Time and space become a lot more flexible in supernatural hotspots, like where ghosts are formed and then haunting," Mike explained, gesturing to Charlie and Baby as a reminder that ghosts were real. "Any passages and portals are usually brief, random, and self-contained to one dimension though the weak point itself can linger for a long time. It isn't unheard of for people to vanish through one of those weak points, the Bermuda triangle being a great example of this. If they're lucky they only end up a few miles away and miss a few days, but there's a reason there are stories of people vanishing without a trace without any signs of foul play. It does explain how I ended up here rather than in a time period closer to my home dimension's though. If there was already a current running through space and time that ended here, I just got caught up in it when I unexpectedly entered this dimension. Not to mention similar energies tend to be drawn to one another and would strengthen any preexisting link…"

Mike blinked as he realized he had been rambling a little bit and noticed everyone looking at him in a mix of awe and confusion. With a shrug, Mike explained, "I've spent the last few years around people who literally study this kind of thing for a living. I was bound to pick up something from them."

"Ghosts and holes in time and space are things I need to be concerned about now," Henry grumbled, rubbing his head as the predicated headache started to make itself known. "Back to this Vanny… it sounds like there's a good chance she's going to try and kill people. Do you know where she is?"

"I think we have a little time before she'll be able to start hunting again," Mike said before gesturing to his injuries. "She hurt me pretty badly in the fight, but I was able to deliver a crippling blow myself, mostly thanks to Elizabeth's timely appearance."

Mike knew enough about possession to know that while the human hosts can be pushed beyond normal limitations, they aren't completely immune to things like exhaustion and fatigue from injuries. Mike had come very close to killing Vanny and even hurting the twisted William in the process, so they would need time to recover.

"Because I'm the best sister ever!" Elizabeth said, puffing up with pride at Mike's admission.

"And while I might not know where she is exactly, I do have a good guess where she'll go," Mike said with a grimace. There was really only one place a wounded remnant-eating void monster would be able to go for a quick fix.

"She's going to go to Daddy isn't she," Elizabeth deflated, coming to the same conclusion as Mike. "His Foxy was helping her…"

"They weren't working together yet," Mike said eyes darkening at the thought of it. "But I have no doubt they will be… "

William cautiously walked deeper into his workshop, senses alert for anything even remotely off. He had gotten notified that Funtime Foxy had returned, but there hadn't been a message indicating that it had been successful in its mission or even just its current status. Something was off about this situation and William refused to be caught unawares.

A noise from where he kept most of the remnant he's collected stored drew his attention and alarm. He hurried over to the room and came across an unusual sight. A woman dressed in a rabbit costume with the costume's head discarded on the floor behind her leaned heavily on the table that used to hold various samples of remnant. Most of the test tubes that had once been full of the shimmering substance were now empty and scattered haphazardly on the table and by the woman's feet. Even as William watched, the woman grabbed one of the remaining filled ones and tipped her head back, pouring the remnant down her throat.

A part of William was curious about what kind of effect drinking so much remnant would have on some like that and why the woman would even do something like this, but those answers were not worth the loss of all his remnant. It took time to gather that much without drawing too much notice and William would not let this theft go unpunished.

He had only been able to take a few silent steps toward the woman before he suddenly found himself restrained by Funtime Foxy.

"What's the meaning of this!?" William could help but hiss. "I'm your creator! You obey me!"

"Actually it obeys me now," the woman said, turning to face William and letting him see her fully purple glowing eyes for the first time. "But it isn't going to hurt you. I just needed to make sure you couldn't do anything foolish until we had a chance to chat."

"And what do you want to talk about?" William asked, both insulted and intrigued.

"About how I can advance your research by decades," the woman said, remnant dripping from the corner as she smile. "I can help you finally unlock the secrets of immortality."

"And what would you want in exchange for this "generous" offer?" William said, voice heavy with suspicion.

"Nothing much, just the chance to drain the one that's already been causing you problems," The woman replied with clear hunger.

"I'm listening…"