"You're a murderer, dad…Far worse than me and Mike."

And so, in the brief moment during which William Atton finally felt as if his eternal loneliness could be put behind him, he was stabbed right through his ephemeral heart once again. The miracle of seeing his son again again, even in such a state, was quickly shattered by the spite Chris leveled at him. Justified spite, William couldn't deny that. The boy saw his father break every single tenet he told him to follow and witnessed him fall into utter disgrace.

Now, he left William to wander alone. There was nothing he could do to stop Chris's revenge; he would no doubt find Jim and kill him sooner or later, but William had another purpose. He needed to get to Hurricane, needed to find Elizabeth. Every moment of not knowing whether she was still alive devastated his soul. If anything happened to her, William would…No, it was better to not think about this. Alison will pay either way; if he has grown as careless as it seemed, William would not him escape again.

And so he wandered across the small town, noticing novel cars, building designs, neon lights…There weren't many people on the streets of New Harmony, but occasionally, Springtrap would hear the echoing sounds of their steps coming from behind the walls of some buildings. Romantic dinners, friendly walks, family trips to the cinema…The echoes of all of those persisted in Will's mind even when he believed he was able to let go. To let go of his family and his attachment. Now he knew the truth: he, Chris, and Mike were nothing more than animatronic phantoms forced to continue their pained existence without resolution.

They were nothing.

Every time William grew weak and succumbed to his thoughts, he saw images of his children. He knew what happened to Mike. He had no doubt that Alison hurt him…William imagined a metal body hanging from the walls of Alison's hellish facility. All he could say was a single word he said while controlling Ennard for a split second.

Father…

And then there was Elizabeth, the thought of whom made William want to fall on his knees and succumb to despair. Perhaps he was lucky that he couldn't cry any longer. His little girl whom he gave a promise, one last promise to come back. He could see her weeping in solitude as she begged for him to come back, even years later, but no one responded. What if she resented him for this? What if, after all those years of a stinging betrayal, she decided that it was enough? She didn't have to give him any more chances after the endless lies he told her.

He had to hold himself together. It didn't matter if she lost all faith she had in him; he earned that and more. And no matter how she felt, she deserved an apology and deserved to know the truth.

It was time to find her.

…

It took hours hours for Elizabeth Afton to recompose herself after what happened at the warehouse. Her brave words of being ready for anything as she volunteered to go with Charlie now echoed in her mind as a cruel mockery. She was expecting that they might see the Stalker, but she didn't expect the experience to be that horrifying. For the first time in her life, Elizabeth stared into the eyes of something that was neither human nor animal yet was still clearly alive. It was not only conscious but clearly enjoyed the chaos that happened around it. Nothing could describe the overwhelming shame she felt as all of the department saw her as a sobbing, shaking mess, but she couldn't control it.

At least now, she felt calmer. Charlie brought her over to his place and helped her finally calm down and process all that happened. She now sat on a sofa, wrapping herself in a blanket to finally feel warm. Soon, Charlie came into the room carrying a cup.

"Made your tea if you want some." He said before putting it beside her and making her smile. Despite his exterior, he was acting very sweet.

"Thank you, Charlie, you're a true gentleman!" She said in a sweet voice before noticing a light blush emerging on Charlie's cheeks, even though he didn't seem to notice it whatsoever.

"Eh, just doing the minimum. We policemen don't just deal with criminals; we have to talk to victims as well, and it's important to consider their emotions."

"Do you make them tea, as well?" Elizabeth giggled.

"No, that's just…For friends." He said as he moved a little closer to the woman. "Are you feeling better? If you need anything else, just tell me."

"You've already done more than necessary; don't worry. I feel better…A little better." Her voice grew quieter. "I'd rather not think about it at all, but…You know."

"Do you want a hug?" He said with genuine curiosity, making Elizabeth chuckle once again.

"I…I kind of do." She said without expecting Charlie to act on it so quickly and wrap his hands around her.

"You're very soft to the touch," Charlie said with a pleased smile on his face.

"Doing my best…" She said playfully and hugged him in return. "Listen, I…I couldn't talk properly back there, but I heard what happened with you and Owens. I'm so sorry you lost your job." She said as they finally let each other go.

"That coward thinks we should simply give up," Charlie said with disdain. "As if this wouldn't mean allowing that thing to kill everyone, Alison commands it to. But apparently, having to deal with a rich company and an advanced animatronic is simply too much for our 'wonderful' chief." Elizabeth felt the anger as he talked. "Guess I'll have to act on my own, but I will not stop either way."

"Not on your own, I'll help you," Elizabeth said firmly.

"You don't have to. I wouldn't want to traumatize you even further."

"I still want to help. You were right when you said that no one would care except the two of us. And it's not just a matter of letting go, either…Not after seeing that thing." Elizabeth said firmly. "I know that I am weak and inexperienced with this kind of work and cowardly…But I will do everything to help, I promise!"

"Don't call yourself cowardly!" Charlie spoke up. "Not just because you were scared of a deranged and seemingly invincible murder-robot. That's a pretty normal reaction for anything, but saying you still want to go on even after that isn't…Thank you, Liz, thank you." His voice softened up for a moment.

"Anytime." She smiled in return. "Mind if I…Hold your hand?"

"As if you had to ask."

Elizabeth held Charlie's hand, doing her best to soothe him. It felt incredibly sweet having someone she could open up to once again, someone she could trust and someone who accepted her care.

"We'll show Owens that you were right; we'll show them all." She said with a smile, which cheered Charlie up.

"Oh, we will! I'm certainly planning on it."

"And I'll support you in it."

"Thanks…Though we're out of leads as of now. We know what the Stalker looks like and that it has to be an animatronic, but it doesn't give us anything to build up upon."

"Hm…Maybe check out the restaurant?"

"That will probably make us targets in Alison's eyes, and he will send this new toy to get us. We have to be more careful."

Before Charlie could suggest anything, his phone rang once again.

"God, Cody really knows how to pick his timing." Charlie shook his head and answered the call. "Hi, Cody."

"Hello, hello. You two alright?"

"Yes, fairly so."

"I'm not interrupting anything?"

"As if that ever stopped you."

"Okay, so I wanted to talk to you about something I found…I know you aren't supposed to be seeing anything from our archives on Owens's orders, but I couldn't help it…"

"Have you found something new? We really need new leads here." The redhead said with hope.

"Oh, hi there, Elizabeth. It was nice to meet you back there. I see you're better now…But okay, I'll get to the point. And don't worry about him catching us again; I'm not using the work number for this anymore. Sooo…Charlie, you know the deeper archive? The one that's supposed to be kept private? Stevie oversees it."

"Raglan?"

"Yeah, him. Anyway, I might have tricked him into allowing me to take a quick glance, and I realized that there is a peculiar file there, an encryption that someone sent anonymously many months ago, which they still couldn't decrypt."

"That happens. What does this one have to do with the investigation?"

"Ah, well, the name of the sender apparently didn't have as much of a cipher on it, at least a part of it. Mr. Akira."

"Akira…Hano?"

"Yep. I can't imagine there being many Mr. Akiras in Hurricane, of all places, so I have to assume it's him. And Stevie also said that they tried to track him down back in the day and couldn't. But now he isn't exactly hiding, as you've seen."

"Then I have to talk to him soon."

"That might be hard. I checked, and apparently, he left for New Harmony almost immediately after you've met."

"Dammit! Then I need that message. I can try to decrypt it myself."

"Really, now…You ain't a computer scientist, Charlie."

"Then I'll find a hacker. Anyone who cares about this job more than our department shouldn't be too hard."

"Well, I can't take part in this any longer. I'm sorry…Owens talked to me as well and said I risk losing my job if I continue helping you, so I'll have to pretend that this talk never happened…But hey, at least Owens hasn't nulled your keycard; you can come into the department yourself and download that message from the archive. I'll send you the ID number."

"If I can get past Raglan."

"Oh, you know Stevie, he's gullible as fuck. Just have a semi-convincing sob story, and he'll do anything for you."

"I'll think about it."

"Hey, just trying to help. But I have to get back to work, so good luck; I'm crossing my fingers for you both!" Cody said before finally ending the call.

"Well, seems like the lead found us once again.

Now, all they needed was a plan.