The lights were on.

The driver dropped William off in the woods at the footsteps of his own house. He expected to find a mess, a dirty, forgotten hole of a home that was long abandoned and left in the dust. Not only was it clean and relatively well-tended, but someone was inside.

The lights were on.

William felt his soul aching as he realized that someone must have lived here now. There was a faint glimmer of hope suggesting that it could've been Elizabeth, but she lived in the orphanage until becoming an adult, and then she wouldn't have any reason to return to a place that brought her so many troubling memories. William stood outside as if stuck in a time loop, unable to take any steps, be they forward or back. Whoever lived there, William had to see his home, had to know what had become of it.

Finally, he stepped forward. He left his home almost thirteen years ago. The same day, he left a suicide note to throw people off his track, but he planned to return alive back then. He was no longer alive, but he was home; after all this pain and suffering, he was home. There was a broken window just beside the door; he could easily get in, yet William decided to ask for an invitation.

He knocked on the door.

He felt someone watching from the other side.

He felt their fear.

"The freak found us…Get behind me!" He heard a tense male voice on the other side and echoing steps as someone moved to the right, just where the broken window was. Moments later, Will heard an echoing shot from the side; a few bullets got sent in his direction, and a few of them even hit the mark. They pierced his carcass and caused the animatronic to recoil. He could see an armed young man at the window, targeting him already. "On the ground, freak!"

"Wait…I am not going to harm you!" William raised his hands up, making the man visibly recoil.

"You…Can talk?" The man looked over his 'guest' very thoroughly. "You aren't Stalker, are you?"

"Stalker?" William wondered and took another step.

"Stay where you are, or I'll shoot; we're not done here!"

"Charlie, wait!" A female voice echoed from behind as another figure emerged. A young red-headed woman whose appearance immediately made Will freeze on the spot. He felt a memory emerge in his mind, a memory of him sitting alone in a library, overtaken by the most delightful of reads. It was then that a red-haired woman who looked just like her approached him, and they started a conversation. The same beauty, the same kindness in her eyes, the same hope. It was her spitting image, a phantom risen from the grave. William couldn't keep his eyes off her. "I know this voice!"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't shoot!" She stood between Charlie and William, slowly turning around towards the animatronic. He looked into her green eyes, remembering them many times before, the last time being when he left her in an orphanage. Now, she was a grown woman, staring right into his eyes.

"Elizabeth…"

"D-dad?"

…

This couldn't be happening; it was simply impossible…

The fear Elizabeth felt over another rogue animatronic turning up at their door quickly dissipated the moment she heard him speak, making her terror dissipate into a whirlwind of chaotic emotions. She shook in sheer disbelief. This couldn't be him…This could not be real. This was an animatronic, a monster created by Alison, a murderous machine! Yet why did it talk just like her father? She convinced Charlie to let the animatronic in, even though he was very reluctant to do so. And now they had an old, ailing bunny animatronic standing in the middle of their living room. An animatronic whose eyes were set on her.

"Elizabeth…My god, you've grown!" He reached out towards her only to have Charlie raise his weapon again.

"Stay where you are."

"Come on, Charlie, let him talk!" Elizabeth spoke up.

"But what if it's a trap? Some kind of new fiend that's imitating your father's voice? He might be waiting for the right moment to kill us!"

"It's alright, I…I don't know, I just feel it's alright."

"Feeling doesn't cut it." Charlie shook his head.

"Please, I will explain everything." The animatronic pleaded. "I will stay where you want me to, just please…Let me explain."

"Alright…" Charlie nodded. "I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But do you seriously want me to believe…That YOU are fucking William Afton?"

"You don't have to believe me; you don't have any reason to. But can you at least assume that I am him? Just pretend for a moment and listen?" The animatronic didn't sound malicious at all. On the contrary, Elizabeth felt warmth eroding from him.

"Yes…We can do that." She reassured him, making Charlie let out a sigh.

"I suppose we can."

"Thank you. I promise, when I'm done, all of it will make sense…It all began with the day Gron and I brought you and other kids to see Mother perform." He said with pain in his voice.

"Swan Lake…" Charlie added, making the animatronic stare at him with shock.

"What? How do you…"

"It's him," Elizabeth spoke again. "Charlie, Gron's son, don't you remember?"

"Charlie Takaliken? Is that…Really, you?"

"Don't get off-topic." The detective said rather sternly.

"Alright. Alison made us overwork on the next day; you should remember that, Elizabeth."

"Yes, dad…You came back very late that day."

"There was a reason for that. On that day, Gron and I discovered something about Alison that we shouldn't have by accident…Followed him into a secret passage behind one of the walls at "Fredbear's Family Diner." It could be opened by entering a tile code on the wall. Alison didn't notice us and used it to enter, but I saw him enter the code."

"A whole secret passage?" Charlie said, finally showing genuine interest in his voice. "We've been conducting an investigation on Alison, and this seems to line up…Carry on."

"There was an elevator there which we used to descend into an underground bunker. A 'facility,' as Alison called it. It was a secret place run by him and his most trusted workers. They took people in, put them through suffering, and attempted to fuse their souls with animatronics. Brutal, merciless experiments, imagine a springlock failure but a couple times more agonizing…" Elizabeth could feel his voice grow quieter and more pained. Simple imagination would not have caused such a reaction; she believed him.

"Wait, souls?" She asked in disbelief. "You mean…Not metaphorical, liberal souls?"

"Yes…I never imagined that I would ever get a confirmation that souls exist in my lifetime, but here we are. All of this restaurant business, even the Freddy cartoon…It was a way to find and mask this facility, a place for Alison's twisted experiments. His attempt to achieve immortality through becoming one with the machine…This is what we found out that day."

"Did you escape?" Charlie wondered.

"Yes, it was a stroke of luck that was over the moment we came home. Alison sent his agents to our houses, ready to kill us and our families if we even attempt to tell someone the truth! We were forced to comply and come to him in the morning…"

Now, the puzzle finally began to piece itself together. The reason why her father became so distant, busy, and depressed was that he had to hide something from his own family. All of those murders…If Alison had the means to kill them at any time, his behavior made sense. "He forced us to sign a contract to ensure our families' safety. A contract that made us do everything he asks of us and lie to everyone around us…"

"Is that…Why did you become a murderer?" Elizabeth said in a trembling voice.

"Yes, my dear…It was. I lied to you and your brothers ever since. At first, I tried to resist somehow, tried to find evidence and secretly bring it to the police, but I got caught. As a punishment, Alison orchestrated Clara's car crash."

"No…"

"I'm sorry…I failed her. I failed you all." The animatronic closed his fist in a fit of despairing rage.

"And what of my father?" Charlie asked. "He became distant as well. Mother couldn't get anything out of him, but he disappeared almost immediately!"

"He…Choose another way to fight." William looked down in shame.

"What kind of way?"

"You won't like it, Charlie."

"It doesn't matter; I've been waiting sixteen years for this. I have to know!"

"He…He decided to destroy the company's reputation in the most drastic way possible. His mental health troubles led him to delusions."

"Just tell me what he did already!" Charlie spoke with a shaking yet demanding voice.

"He killed four children." The animatronic admitted, making both Charlie and Elizabeth recoil.

"W-what?!"

"Killed and placed their corpses inside the four animatronics I made, all so that the police would eventually find them and blame the restaurant. But they were never found…After that, his madness caught up with him, and in a fit of despair, he decided to commit suicide in a golden spring-lock suit of Frankburt. But his soul fused and became one with the animatronic. This is how Lockjaw was born." William explained as both Elizabeth and Charlie could barely let go of their shock. "The city myth tells what Gron became afterward."

"No…"

"Charlie, please…" Elizabeth tried to calm him down, but the detective couldn't hold his anger.

"That's a lie! That's fucking impossible!" He said before pulling up his weapon again. "Whatever you are, you better drop this act. Right. Fucking. NOW! Is it you, Alison? Is it you controlling this thing remotely and lying about my father to our faces! I…I knew him, and real William Afton knew him, too! He was a kind, honest man, and the only times he hurt others were on accident, he…"

"I'm sorry, Charlie, I wish it wasn't so. I don't want to believe that this is who Gron became…But you deserved to know the truth."

"I…No! This can't be!"

"Charlie, please, listen to him!" Elizabeth said. "I know it hurts, but…You said your mother suspected that Gron might be Lockjaw, right? It lines up."

"It's just…It's just fucking insane!"

"Let him finish." Elizabeth turned towards the animatronic again. "So, you lied to us…Does this mean Chris was right? You killed children, killed Lily?"

"Yes…He shouldn't have seen it, but he did." The animatronic admitted. "And I lied to his face…I am a murderer, no better than Gron at all. I knew of those experiments. I enabled them time and time again. I was so busy that I didn't even stop Mike from tormenting Chris, and you know how it ended…As outlandish as it will sound, Chris isn't gone, either."

"What?!"

"His soul…Rested within Fredbear. Alison conducted more experiments on him behind my back until he escaped, making himself a body of all the funtimes and deciding to kill all those that were a part of that cruel prank." He explained, making another horrifying realization strike Elizabeth.

"So are you saying that Ennard is…"

"It's Chris, and he has been freed along with me." Elizabeth thought back to Mike's visit and his stealing father's keycard to get inside the bunker. He died down there, and now she knew that Chris was the one who killed him.

"He…He killed Mike?"

"Yes." William nodded. "Mike became the second soul inside Ennard until…It is a long story, but we have time."

He recounted everything, and no matter how insane this tale sounded, somehow Elizabeth still believed him. About Mike's separation from Chris and his alliance with Lockjaw and Lynda. About their elaborate plan to get deep into the facility and destroy everything Alison created and its eventual failure. The pizzeria became a battlefield of minds that trod carefully in an attempt to achieve their goals, but in the end, all it brought was slaughter.

"You…Set a trap for my parents?" Charlie said before clenching his teeth. Elizabeth noticed tears falling down his eyes and moved towards him to offer him a hug.

"I did." William nodded with shame. "I did it to protect Elizabeth…Henry had to trust me, and he did."

"And you've never heard from them before?"

"No…I know it is not an excuse, but I did not know your mother would be there; it was a trap for Gron and Henry."

"That doesn't make it better." Charlie clenched his fist. "You sold your soul to him, you killed people, killed children, and my father did all of this, too…Just to protect us?"

"Our families were everything to us; we knew we would kill for our wives and children. But even for me, it became too much to bear…When I saw you lay your hands on yourself, Elizabeth, I knew it couldn't continue like this."

"And so you pretended to kill yourself…"

"I needed a new identity to infiltrate the place, and so I did. I…I know I promised to return, and I swear, I was going to keep this promise." William's voice began to be filled with despair once again. "But I made a foolish mistake in hiding inside the Spring Bonnie springlock costume when the souls chased me…I had a spring-lock accident. I died." A terrifying realization occurred in Elizabeth's mind.

"So…It's not just your soul inside this thing?!"

"It's my body, too. Rotten and disfigured after twelve years of being sealed in a back room. I was only released a few days ago. I was lucky that Chris helped me get out. He decided to continue his spree, and I…I came here." He finally concluded.

"Now that's a story…" Charlie sighed, no doubt still struggling to process it. William looked at his daughter once again.

"I'm sorry that I was so incredibly late. I'm sorry that I lied and broke my every promise. I'm sorry for leaving you to live alone without anyone to support you, fearing for your own life without even knowing the reasons why. I…I can never make up for it, and I don't deserve your forgiveness." His voice grew quieter and more emotional; William kneeled before Elizabeth and looked her in the eyes. "But I'm here now…And I want you to know that I love you more than anything. I spent most of the time in the back room thinking about you and seeing you safe and grown up. It's…It makes the pain worth it. I won't ask you to forgive me, but…Will you accept me?" All of Elizabeth's fears about him abandoning her on purpose and running off with some other woman were shattered in an instant. He never stopped loving her, and despite all the horrible things that he did, he was not a complete monster. He was her father, her idol.

"I-I want to see your face," Elizabeth said, making Father pause for a moment. "The real face…Please."

"It…It's not necessary; no need to scar yourself like this."

"I want to. I have to…" She said, making the animatronic put his hands on his mask. It creaked as he put the upper part of it upwards, allowing Elizabeth to see. To see the disfigured remnants of her father's body, scorched and withered, not resembling anything human. She could see parts of his crushed skull with dark skin covering them like coating, the eyeballs poked out of the disfigured head…Elizabeth couldn't hold back the stream of her tears.

"Oh my god…" This was her father. Tormented, disgraced, and with arms stained by blood of innocent people. For the first time since the night he knocked on the hell's door, he was able to speak the truth. And just like Elizabeth expected, she felt no hatred or disdain. She just wanted to be with him once again; circumstances be dammed. She rushed to the animatronic and gave him a tight hug. "I love you, father, and I…I forgive you."

She would've never expected an animatronic's hug to be such a bliss.

"I…I will do everything I can to make it right by you, Elizabeth. That I promise."