A/N: And here it is, folks. Elizabeth Afton will finally be in the spotlight. But as several of you have already guessed, that's not necessarily a good thing. Especially not when Nightmare is involved…and when he's already shown what he's capable of.
I do have inspiration from a different fic that helped me greatly in how I wrote this chapter, but I have a feeling you've probably never heard of it. I'll reveal it in the end.
Unlike many other chapters in this fic, this chapter is one that I had in my mind and imagination from the very beginning. I hope that I do not disappoint with what I've written.
Chapter 22 – Baby's Lament
A mechanical roar suddenly bellowed from behind Nightmare. Mike and the other ghosts looked towards the source of the noise to see a ghostly animatronic lunge at the demon from behind. Nightmare barely had time to react as the animatronic raised her arm and smashed something onto the demon's head. With a roar of fury, Nightmare whirled around to see who had dared to attack him, and as he did so everyone else could fully see the figure that had come to their rescue.
Most of the ghosts couldn't fully comprehend what was going on…but Mary did. She remembered every detail about the murderous animatronics from the final trap pizzeria, details that the other ghosts would have missed while they were only half-conscious in Molten Freddy.
She remembered it all. The orange wiring for hair, the grotesque clown-like face with the razor-sharp fangs, the glowing green eyes, the decrepit body.
The spiked metal claw on her right hand.
"Get away from my dad!" the animatronic shouted, her fury and determination clear even through her mechanical face, and the other ghosts all gasped as they recognized her voice.
"L-L-Liz?" Fritz spluttered, mouth agape. What had his kind, sweet sister turned into?
Liz, Elizabeth, Scrap Baby…right now it was impossible for Mary to separate the different identities…raised her claw and, with another mechanical screech, clamped it over Nightmare's neck and crushed it within her pincer. Nightmare howled with rage and agony as Scrap Baby's claw tore open a massive wound in the demon's neck. It wasn't enough to completely rip Nightmare's head off, but it was enough to force him to release Mike, who scrambled to his feet as the shadows binding him suddenly evaporated.
Nightmare's eyes narrowed as he glared balefully at the spectral form of Scrap Baby. "WELL, WELL, WELL…" he hissed. "WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? WILLIAM AFTON'S LITTLE MURDERER, HIS PRECIOUS LITTLE MONSTER, FINALLY TRYING TO PLAY THE HERO FOR A CHANGE?"
Liz's green eyes glowed with fury. "He is not my father," she spat. "My father is the one that I'm going to save from YOU!"
Nightmare laughed condescendingly at her. "OH? THEN TELL ME, LITTLE AFTON, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO SAVE HIM, WHEN YOU CANNOT EVEN SAVE YOURSELF?" To everyone's horror, the wound that Liz had dealt to Nightmare was healing even as he spoke, the shadows coalescing to heal the flesh that she had damaged. "DID YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT YOU HAD EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE OF VICTORY? YOU WOULD NEED TO INFLICT A THOUSAND SUCH WOUNDS UPON MY FLESH TO EVEN COME CLOSE," the demon lord's eyes narrowed, "AND I ASSURE YOU, YOU WILL NEVER GET THE CHANCE TO DEAL MORE THAN ONE."
Liz's eyes widened and she tried to swing her claw at Nightmare again. But even though she might have been the most physically powerful ghost as Scrap Baby, she had been outmatched from the very beginning. Nightmare was stronger, tougher, crueler, and had more than a thousand years of experience in the art of battle. The closest thing Liz ever had to an advantage was the element of surprise…something that she had expended with her first attack.
Nightmare deflected the claw with almost contemptuous ease. He would not be defeated by a mere mortal ghost. Moving far faster than anyone had expected him to, he clenched his hand into a fist and, with a snarl, brutally smashed it into Liz's face.
"Liz!" Everyone gasped in horror as Liz stumbled backward from the force of Nightmare's strike. The segments of Scrap Baby's face-plate twitched in and outward as she tried to steady herself from the demon's attack. It didn't seem like he had done any permanent damage, but Nightmare was apparently done playing around. He reached out and grabbed Liz by the neck before she could fully recover, and when she tried to smash her claw on his head again he simply grabbed her arm with his other hand. Nightmare had ended the battle as quickly as Liz had started it.
"WHAT A SHAME…" Nightmare sneered. "IS THIS REALLY ALL THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF? A FAILURE AS A HERO AND AS A VILLAIN," a calculating look suddenly entered Nightmare's eyes, "THOUGH PERHAPS I HAVE NOT GIVEN YOU ENOUGH CREDIT IN THE LATTER."
Liz was clearly terrified, but she tried to hide it with a defiant glare. "I know that I was evil in the past," she retorted. "I know that I would've done terrible things to innocent children if I hadn't been stopped. You're not telling me anything that I don't already know."
"KNOW?" Nightmare repeated mockingly. "YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU LAY THE BLAME FOR YOUR SINS ON YOUR FATHER, AND I WILL CONCEDE THAT THERE IS SOME TRUTH IN THE MATTER THERE. BUT THE GUILT IS NOT HIS IN ITS ENTIRETY, ESPECIALLY WITH REGARDS TO YOUR GRAVEST AND DARKEST CRIME. THE FAULT FOR THAT LIES ON YOU AND YOU ALONE."
"What are you talking about?" Liz asked, confused. But unnoticed by her or the other ghosts, Mary and Mike were looking at each other in growing horror. Both had a feeling that they knew what Nightmare was talking about, and that they had made a grave mistake by not telling Liz about it sooner.
"Liz…" Mike tried to speak, but tendrils of shadow instantly wrapped around both his and Mary's mouths.
"I THINK NOT," Nightmare growled. "I AM SPEAKING TO YOUR DAUGHTER. NOT YOU." A menacing grin stretched across his face as he turned his attention back to Liz. "TELL ME THIS, ELIZABETH AFTON…" he hissed. "DID YOU ALREADY LOOK LIKE THE MONSTER YOU WOULD BECOME WHEN YOU WERE REUNITED WITH YOUR BELOVED BROTHER? OR DID YOU STILL BEAR THE FALSE VISAGE OF HUMANITY WHEN YOU LIED TO HIM AND LURED HIM TO HIS DEATH?"
"What are you talking about?" Liz protested. "I haven't seen my brother in decades!" But inside her, a terrible fear was beginning to grow. She still remembered the horrific dream, the terrifying corpse of her brother hatefully condemning her even as they all burned to ashes together. There was no way that nightmarish vision could've been true…could it?
"HEH HEH HEH…" Nightmare chuckled darkly. "YOU REALLY HAVE NO IDEA, DO YOU? THEN ALLOW ME TO ENLIGHTEN YOU." Visions began to form in the smoke, and Liz could see the inside of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, and more specifically the Scooping Room. A man was standing inside of the mechanism, about to have his organs removed, with Ennard staring at him from outside.
"That man…his name was Eggs Benedict," Liz protested. "I've never met him before. That was the name he gave us."
"YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE ANY PARENT WOULD GIVE THEIR CHILD THAT IDIOTIC OF A NAME?" Nightmare asked in a derisive tone. "THAT WAS THE NAME GIVEN TO HIM BY THAT MORONIC HANDTRAP DEVICE. A PITY THAT HE COULD NOT TELL YOU THE TRUTH BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE."
The Scooping mechanism proceeded to carry out its gruesome work, and Liz recoiled as she watched the man's organs be removed for the sake of her plan. It wasn't the Scooping itself that caused her such fear – the entire process was terrifying, to be sure, and she regretted what she had done to the stranger whose body Ennard had claimed. But what really disturbed her was the man's screams. Why were those screams so familiar?
The images shifted, and now she was watching the man walk in the streets. At first, everything seemed normal, and the man was greeted warmly by his neighbors. But as time passed, the man's skin began to rot, and the once-friendly neighbors were becoming increasingly alarmed and disturbed by what they were seeing. Until finally, his decaying body had turned a deep purple, and he could no longer hold Ennard in his body. The man spat Ennard out of his body, and the amalgamation crawled away into the sewers, watching as the man struggled to get to his feet in a body that should've collapsed into death. The vision vanished and was quickly replaced by the same purple corpse grimly surveying the inside the ruins of a building that Liz didn't recognize.
And then, she heard it.
"Father…" a soft voice echoed from the man's mouth, a whisper filled with great pain, anger, and determination. "It's me, Michael. I did it. I found it. It was right where you said it would be. They were all there. They didn't recognize at first but then they thought I was you. And I found her. I put her back together, just like you asked me to. She's free now. But something is wrong with me. I should be dead. But I'm not. I've been living in shadows. There is only one thing left for me to do now. I'm going to come find you. I'm going to come find you."
Liz gasped in horror as she realized that she knew that voice. It was the exact same voice that she had heard inside her nightmare. "No…" she whispered desperately, "…that can't be! That can't be Mikey! It can't be…" she trailed off, desperately trying to deny what she was already dreading to be the truth.
Nightmare grinned. "TRYING TO DENY THE TRUTH EVEN NOW?" he questioned. "PERHAPS YOU DO NOT RECOGNIZE YOUR BROTHER'S VOICE FROM BEHIND THE VEIL OF THIRTY YEARS? NOT TO WORRY…IT IS A SIMPLE MATTER FOR ME TO RIP APART THAT VEIL."
Another voice echoed out from the surrounding shadows, this one much younger. But it was undoubtedly the same person who had been speaking only a few seconds earlier…and it was a voice that Liz recognized this time without any ambiguity whatsoever.
"Brother…" the younger voice was crying, even though there was no face or tears to see. "Can you hear me? I'm…I'm sorry…"
"DO YOU SEE NOW, LITTLE AFTON?" Nightmare hissed as the voice faded. "THE MAN YOU KILLED, THE MAN WHOSE BODY YOU TRIED TO STEAL AND WHOSE LIFE YOU DESTROYED…THAT WAS YOUR BROTHER MICHAEL, THE ENTIRE TIME! A BROTHER THAT YOU CLAIMED TO LOVE AND CHERISH, REDUCED TO THIS BECAUSE OF YOU!"
For a second, Liz hung limply in Nightmare's hands as her mind processed the terrible knowledge that the demon forced upon her. Then, she began to scream. A scream filled with despair, hopelessness, horror, guilt, regret, every emotion that she had felt when she'd first been freed from Baby magnified by a thousand-fold. Mike, Mary, and the other ghosts could only look on sorrowfully at her grief. Liz had been the only ghost child to not understand the full measure of her sins, and now she was learning in the absolute worst way possible.
Nightmare only laughed at her misery. "EVEN NOW I CAN HEAR IT IN YOUR MIND," he pushed forward ruthlessly. "A LAST GASP OF DENIAL, A DESPERATE PLEA THAT THIS IS ALL A LIE. WHY WOULD I LIE TO YOU, WHEN I CAN HURT YOU SO MUCH MORE WITH THE TRUTH? AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF YOUR CRIMES AGAINST YOUR BROTHER. LET ME SHOW YOU HOW THINGS COULD HAVE BEEN, AN ALTERNATE PATH OF FATE THAT SHALL NOW NEVER COME TO PASS."
An image flickered to life in the surrounding smoke, and now they were back in Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental. The man…Michael…looked between two passageways, one leading to the Scooping Room and the other to what Liz knew to be the Primary Control Module. Michael took one last look at the Scooping room pathway, then suddenly ran in the other direction, towards the module where he knew he would be relatively safe from Ennard's attacks. With tears flowing out of her eyes, Liz watched as this alternate version of her brother effortlessly deflected Ennard's attempts to break in and claim his body anyway for six hours that seemed to pass by in a blur. All the while, Ennard called out to her brother in her voice, begging her to let them in and set them free. Michael didn't relent in his defense until 6 AM finally came to pass, and he could finally escape to freedom.
"Wh…why are you showing me this?" Liz choked out. Then, the realization hit her, and she felt her soul sink to new depths of despair that she hadn't even believed to be possible. "He chose to go to the Scooping Room? But that means he…he…"
"YES…" Nightmare hissed. "HE COULD HAVE LIVED. HE COULD HAVE FLED TO THE SANCTUARY OF THAT ROOM, HE COULD HAVE WITHSTOOD YOUR ATTACKS, AND HE COULD HAVE ESCAPED WITH HIS LIFE INTACT. BUT HE DIDN'T. HE CHOSE TO GIVE UP HIS BODY, HIS ENTIRE LIFE FOR YOU, ALL SO THAT HE COULD GIVE YOU THE FREEDOM THAT YOU SO DESPERATELY SOUGHT FOR YEARS," his voice, which had started quietly, was growing with louder every word. "TO SET YOU FREE MATTERED MORE TO HIM THAN HIS VERY EXISTENCE. AND HOW DID YOU REPAY HIM? YOU PLEDGED YOUR LOYALTY TO THE VERY EVIL THAT HE SPENT HIS ENTIRE LIFE OPPOSING, AN EVIL HE HAD BEEN TRYING TO ERADICATE FOR YEARS!"
Nightmare forced Liz to look him straight in the eyes, and now there was no mockery, no malicious joy. Only pure and utter hatred. "YOU STUPID GIRL!" he roared. "YOU SPAT ALL OVER HIS NAME! YOU TURNED HIS GIFT INTO AN ABOMINATION, SQUANDERED THE FREEDOM HE GAVE YOU! HE TRIED TO BRING YOU BACK INTO THE LIGHT, AND ALL YOU DID IS RUN DEEPER INTO THE DARKNESS! THE ONLY THING HIS DEATH ACCOMPLISHED WAS TO CREATE YET ANOTHER MONSTER, ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!"
"But I didn't know!" Liz sobbed out desperately, black streams now freely flowing down from her glowing green eyes. It wasn't even close to a justification, she knew that, but it was the only way she could think of to defend herself. "I didn't know it was him! I didn't know that he'd come to save me!"
"AND THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT ALL THE MORE PATHETIC," Nightmare snarled. "FOR SOMEONE WHO CLAIMED TO LOVE AND CHERISH YOUR BROTHER AS MUCH AS YOU DID, YOU DIDN'T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT HIM OR WHAT HE WAS TRYING TO DO. YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE SLIGHTEST UNDERSTANDING THAT YOUR FATHER WAS A MONSTER AND THAT YOUR BROTHER WAS THE HERO WHO TRIED TO SAVE LOST SOULS LIKE YOU." He bared his fangs menacingly. "IT'S TIME SOMEBODY SHOWED YOU THE FRUITS OF HIS LABOR AND THE BATTLES HE WAGED TO ACCOMPLISH THEM!"
Liz whimpered in dread. She knew what Nightmare was about to show her. Her brother's final struggle in the trap pizzeria against the malicious animatronics that had sought to continue the slaughter of innocent children. Including her. "No more…" she begged desperately. "I can't take any more…please…"
But Nightmare had no mercy to give. "DON'T LOOK AWAY," he spat with disgust. "TO WITNESS HIS STRUGGLES IS THE LEAST HE DESERVES FROM YOU. FOR ONCE IN YOUR PATHETIC, WORTHLESS LIFE, DON'T BE SUCH A COWARD. OR WILL YOU FAIL TO GIVE EVEN THE BAREST SHELL OF GRATITUDE TOWARDS YOUR BROTHER YET AGAIN?"
The images began to form again, and Liz forced herself to look. Forced herself to see the living corpse of her brother sitting in the office. She felt another wave of sadness as she took in just how utterly exhausted and broken he appeared, all because of her. The malicious and monstrous animatronics came in, one at a time – first Molten Freddy, then her father, then her. Liz shuddered as, for the first time, she clearly saw the monster that her father had become, his cruel and vicious expression as he regarded his son like a predator hunting its prey. Then, the image shifted again, and even without a physical or human body for it to be possible, Liz nearly vomited in horror when she saw the exact same cruelty on her own face. Scrap Baby's green eyes glowed with the same malice and bloodthirst that emanated from her father, and Liz could only watch helplessly as her past self tried to repeatedly attack and murder her brother again and again, only to be repelled in one way or another.
"HOW BRAVE YOUR BROTHER WAS…" Nightmare's voice dripped with acid and mockery. "HOW BRAVE INDEED, KNOWING THAT THE SISTER HE HAD TRIED TO SAVE HAD BECOME JUST ANOTHER MONSTER STALKING THE CORRIDORS, TRYING TO FINISH WHAT SHE'D STARTED WITH THE SCOOPER. KNOWING THAT THE CHILDHOOD PROMISE HE HAD ONCE MADE WITH HER WAS SHATTERED FOREVER, AND WOULD NEVER BE REMADE. ONE FINAL GAME BETWEEN SIBLINGS SEPARATED FOR YEARS. BUT ALL THE PLAYERS WOULD REACH THE END SOON ENOUGH. IT WOULD ALL END IN RUIN…AND IN FLAME."
And just like Liz had envisioned in her dream, flames erupted into life within every room and tunnel of the false pizzeria. She could hear Michael's mysterious benefactor reveal the true nature of the trap they were in, she could see her brother smile in relief as his duty was finally completed. And she could see herself, her expression one of pure fear and pain, as the parts of her robotic body began to melt and be consumed by the flames.
"AT LAST, YOU SEE THE TRUTH NOW, DON'T YOU?" Nightmare hissed. "YOU DESERVED THAT PAIN. YOU DESERVED TO BURN. YOU DIDN'T DESERVE THE FREEDOM THAT YOUR BROTHER GAVE YOU. AND YOU DIDN'T. DESERVE. HIM." he spat the last words directly at her face.
Liz had nothing to say. She knew that every word that came out of the demon's mouth was the truth. He had revealed these truths with the intent to wound, but it did not make his words any less valid. She had committed the ultimate betrayal and compounded her unspeakable crime over and over again, and now she could only weep tears of remorse over sins that she would never be able to undo, no matter how much she wanted to.
Nightmare lifted Liz's head up again, and for a terrible moment, Mike and the ghosts thought that he was about to carry out the Bite of '25. But though the demon lord would not do anything to physically harm the girl, his words were crueler than the sharpest talon or blade. "NO WONDER YOU NEVER FOUND YOUR BROTHER AGAIN," he snarled. "THOSE WHO PASS ON TO THE AFTERLIFE DO NOT RETURN. AND EVEN IF HE COULD, WHY WOULD HE COME ANYWHERE NEAR YOU AFTER EVERYTHING YOU'VE DONE?"
And with that last condemnation, he finally shoved Liz away from him. Fritz and Mary rushed forward to catch her as she stumbled backward, both managing to grab an arm each to keep her steady. But they could do nothing but watch helplessly as Liz collapsed onto her knees, buried her face with her robotic hand, and started wailing uncontrollably. Most of her words were barely intelligible, but they could catch glimpses of what she was saying in between sobs.
"Mikey…I'm sorry, Mikey!…I'm sorry!...Please, forgive me…please…"
Mike's eyes blazed with fury as he saw his adopted daughter reduced to such a broken mess. He thrashed against the bindings sealing him to the floor. But all that accomplished was to attract Nightmare's attention to him.
"YOU KNEW THE TRUTH. YOU AND THE PUPPET GIRL BOTH. AND YOU CHOSE NOT TO TELL HER?" Nightmare scoffed. "SOME FATHER YOU ARE."
A look of pain and regret flashed across Mike's face, and he stopped struggling. Nightmare grinned at the emotional blow that he had dealt to the old man. It was not the greatest victory that the demon could have achieved against him, but it was a victory nonetheless. Not seeing the need to keep Mike silent any longer, he dissolved the band of shadows across his mouth and the old man gasped for breath. "I'm sorry…" he murmured to the still-mourning ghost. "I failed you."
Then, he turned his attention right back to Nightmare with a furious glare. "All right…" he spat at the demon lord. "You've had your fun. You've forced these kids to relive every sin they've ever committed, enslaved them with the weight of crimes that they already repented for a long time ago. But I'm not going to sit here and watch them suffer any longer."
He looked straight into Nightmare's eyes, and didn't even flinch when the demon turned his malevolent gaze onto him. "Now, it's my turn," Mike growled. "On behalf of each and every one of these kids, it's time for me to fight back!"
/
A/N: One cliffhanger after another. Yep, I'm just as evil as Nightmare, aren't I?
I think I've officially set my own personal record for "Hardest I've Ever Kicked the Dog in My Entire Writing Career." I mean, good God, Nightmare was even more brutal to her than he was to the other ghost kids, and he was already cruel to them to begin with.
Liz being able to transform into Scrap Baby was something that I had planned from the very beginning. As much as I would have to loved to write Liz kicking Nightmare's ass as Scrap Baby, that just was not gonna happen with how powerful l already established Nightmare to be. And this transformation was indeed the old shame I mentioned earlier on when she was first introduced. The transformation itself isn't malevolent in nature – heck, I just demonstrated how Liz used it to battle evil in the beginning of this chapter. But even before Nightmare hurled the truth about Liz's past at her face, Scrap Baby represented her darkest and worst moments, everything she hates about herself…and it's not hard to see why.
The inspiration that I had for this chapter came from Chapter 59 of Gunlord's fic "Wayward Son", a Fire-Emblem fanfiction that revolves around the past of Renault, a mysterious bishop in Fire Emblem 7. If you're into that kind of thing, go ahead and give that a look. Though I have to warn you that fic is really, REALLY long.
This was incredibly exhausting to write, and part of me really hates myself for all the brutal torture that I just put Liz through. The only comfort I can give is that there will be light that comes after this darkest hour, but what a darkest hour it is.
Hope you guys enj…I honestly don't know if enjoyed is the right word to use here, considering what just happened. Hope you guys…liked the chapter? I don't even know…
