A/N: Sorry about the late post, I had a lot of med school shit to deal with this week.
So…it's quite possible (with evidence from the Logbook) that Jeremy Fitzgerald the Night Guard might have been his own separate character from Michael Afton after all, and possibly even the Bite of 87 victim. So I could have used my original plan from "A Legacy Laid to Rest" with Mike and Jeremy being their separate characters and have been right all along XD
Oh well. At this point it's a bit late for me to re-introduce Jeremy. I'll do it if people REALLY want me to, but it'll involve me having to retcon part of Chapter 43 and I'll need to come up with a good excuse as to why Jeremy has been absent for the past couple of months.
Speaking of retcons, I implemented a minor one in this chapter, and I updated the only other chapter that mentions this retcon to reflect that change. My story isn't perfect, and I sometimes feel the need to make small changes if I look back and realize something don't make sense or if I feel like making these changes will improve the story in the long-term. If I ever introduce a major retcon, I WILL let you guys know in advance. Anyway, see if you can find out what the retcon is.
I think it's time we get back to some more serious stuff, wouldn't you agree? The past is not done with the family yet, and the family is not yet done with the past.
Chapter 49 – Madman's Legacy Part 1
Mike hummed to himself as he tinkered with the metal parts in front of him. He had been working on this particular project for the past few weeks now, and he still had no idea whether he would create what many would consider to be a technological marvel or a worthless pile of scrap when all was said and done.
"Well," he thought as he turned off his blowtorch, "I'll never know unless I try." He took another look at the blueprints. "So complicated for something so small," he muttered.
"Dad?"
Mike looked up and deftly rolled up the blueprints. "Sup, Charlie?"
"I just found something on the news," the girl inside the Marionette explained. "It's REALLY important."
Mike raised an eyebrow. Charlie generally made it a point not to bother him or the other ghost kids with her issues, so the fact that she was openly putting a high priority on what was troubling her was already a red flag in and of itself. "I'm listening."
It was only then that Mike realized that Charlie had been carrying her laptop. She wordlessly took it out, opened the cover, and showed the screen to Mike. The man's eyes widened as he saw a picture of a robotics factory with the words AFTON ROBOTICS glowing with neon lights on top of the building. And above that picture was the headline:
"LOCAL ROBOTICS CORPORATION AND ASSOCIATED BUSINESSES PERMANENTLY CLOSE."
Mike stared silently at the news website for several seconds. "So…" he muttered, "it's finally happened."
"Several years too late, but it has," Charlie agreed.
Mike turned off the power tools he had been using on his project. "Round up the rest of the kids, Charlie," he said grimly. "We've got a lot to talk about."
Thirty Minutes Later…
"And that's where things stand," Mike finished as he looked his kids in the eye. "Afton Robotics and Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental are finally closed down. Forever."
"Took them long enough!" Susie exclaimed. "It took them THIS long to shut down a factory built up by a psychopath to create a bunch of murder robots?"
"To be fair," Charlie countered, "William Afton never had total control over his company to begin with especially after Liz's death, and his own death in the Spring Bonnie suit has pretty much destroyed his hold entirely. For all we know, Afton Robotics might have been a proper, normal robotics company for years now."
"Sorry Charlie, but I don't trust anything Purple Guy touched," Cassidy retorted, to which the Puppet only shrugged in acknowledgment.
"Well, for our purposes it doesn't matter what Afton Robotics was like," Mike interrupted, drawing their attention to him again. "We know that Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental had Remnant that bound souls to objects somewhere inside it, and considering how nobody knows about it it's likely that this Remnant is still there. As long as that Remnant still exists, there'll always be the chance that some poor shmuck will get killed and have their soul enslaved by it. I don't know about you, but I can't let that happen in good conscience."
"Neither can we!" Liz declared as the other ghosts made similar noises of agreement.
"So what are you going to do about it, dad?" Gabe asked.
"If we wait too long, people are going to start coming in and take things out of CBEAR," Mike explained, "including the Remnant. Then there'll be no way to know where it goes or what might happen. We need to take care of this as soon as possible."
"But we can't let anyone know about this either," Charlie added. "If the wrong person learns about Remnant, if another William Afton discovers what it can do, it can lead to a whole new chain of tragedies like what happened to all of us. We CAN'T let that happen, no matter what."
"Which leaves only one real option," Mike finished. "I'm going to have to break into CBEAR at night, when nobody will be around, find all the Remnant, and destroy it."
"How are you going to do that, though?" Jeremy questioned. "And when were you planning on destroying it?
A thin smile stretched across his father's lips, one with zero humor. "No time like the present," he answered dryly. "I was going to do it tonight."
The ghosts' eyes widened in shock. "That early?" Susie spluttered.
"I want this out of my hair and out of my life as soon as possible," Mike curtly explained. "The longer we wait, the more likely someone will take that Remnant out of CBEAR and we'll have no clue what the hell to do with it."
He looked at each of the ghost kids. "You might be wondering why I'm telling you this. Well, it's because I want to give you a choice. You can either stay here while I take care of what's left of William Afton's twisted little experiments, or you can come with me to help me finish the job. It's up to you, I'm not going to force you either way."
To his surprise, Fritz immediately burst out laughing, even though there was zero humor in his eyes. Mike raised an eyebrow. "Something funny?"
"You're kidding, right?" the former Foxy inhabitant replied, cutting off his laughter abruptly. "I mean, there isn't even a question." He looked around at his brothers and sisters. "We're coming with you. All of us."
"You sure you don't want to spend more time to think about this?" Mike asked.
"Dad, I still remember what Nightmare said to us all the way back then," Cassidy added. Before Mike could say anything, likely to deny his condemnations, the girl continued. "We didn't do anything to show that we deserved redemption, and we technically STILL haven't."
"This is our chance!" Susie fervently added. "Our chance to make things right, to actually help undo the Purple Guy's evil the RIGHT way, just like Liz's brother did!"
"The animatronics in CBEAR were dangerous, and they might still be there," Liz pointed out. "If they are, we can protect you from them if they try to attack you."
"The only person in danger from whatever's in CBEAR is you, dad," Gabe finished their extended argument. "Maybe nothing's in there at all, maybe you can just walk right in, take the Remnant, and get out. But if things can go wrong, they will go wrong. And when that happens, we'll be there to help you deal with whatever comes."
Mike listened silently as the kids made their case, and then stayed silent for several more seconds that seemed to last an eternity. "…I tried to think of arguments against you," he finally admitted. "If this were any other time, bringing a bunch of kids to a place like CBEAR's goes against every principle I have." He started chuckling. "But you're not just ordinary kids. You're ghosts. There's nothing in that place that'll be able to harm you, and if I leave you guys here you'll end up worrying for my safety." His smile faded a slight look of worry appeared on his face. "The only thing I'm worried about is that if you end up touching Remnant you might have your soul trapped somewhere or something."
Charlie shook her head. "I don't think that's how Remnant works, dad," she countered. "You have to be surrounded by it or be filled with it for it to trap you like that. That's how everyone's souls were trapped in the first place. I'm the only exception to the rule, and even then my case is a bit weird to begin with. Simply touching it shouldn't have any major effects."
"All right," Mike conceded. He gave all of them a hard look filled with authority. "But if I'm going to bring you guys with me, and we find the Remnant, you don't do anything near it unless I tell you to."
"We'll be careful," Gabe promised. The corner of his lips twitched dryly. "Believe me, we don't want a repeat of the last thirty years any more than you do."
"I figured as much," Mike replied with equal dryness. He got up from his chair. "Now then, if you excuse me…I need to think of a game plan."
The rest of the day seemed to pass by with a blur as Mike came up with his plan of attack, bringing both Charlie and Liz to his study periodically throughout the day to talk privately. Night fell almost too quickly, and the family drove to the now-abandoned Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental in silence. The building was located on the outskirts of the town away from the areas that were heavily populated, which Mike was pleased to know since it decreased the chances of them being caught.
"Everyone's telepathy working?" Mike asked mentally as they got out of the car. "If there is something still at CBEAR's, the quieter we can be in real life, the better."
"I'm good!" Jeremy confirmed.
"Same!"
"Everything checks out here!"
"Great," Mike replied as he put on his gloves and boots. If the place was investigated later due to their break-in, he would need to make sure that there was as little trace of his presence there as possible. Now that Afton Robotics was closed he doubted that people would care, but he wasn't taking any chances. "You ready, Liz?"
"Yeah," she replied as she transformed from a human girl to Scrap Baby. "Let's do this."
The family made their way over to the abandoned building, which predictably was locked shut. Mike was about to reach into a bag he brought with him to take out a lockpick, but Charlie stopped him.
"I have a better idea." She extended a hand towards the door and the Puppet's eyelights flickered. A few seconds later, the mechanism unlocked and the door swung open.
Susie's eyes widened. "Whoa…" she breathed, "I didn't know you could do that."
Charlie shrugged. "I can help you guys possess animatronics and make blue flames with my hands. Opening a locked door is laughably easy in comparison."
Mike peered into the darkness with both a flashlight and Scrap Baby's eyelights. "Geez, this place already seems completely abandoned," he muttered as he entered the room, with some of the ghosts in front of him and some of them trailing behind. He shut the door behind him to make sure that the place looked as undisturbed as it had been when they had first come here and re-locked it for good measure.
"They only just closed today, so this place should still have some power," Liz added, and more than one of her siblings resisted the urge to shudder at how her voice had changed from a young British girl to an adult American woman. She looked around uncertainly. "But back when Michael came here, it operated on limited power kind of like the 1993 pizzeria. Though I don't know if that was just the private room…"
"Well, it's been thirty plus years, so maybe the electricity's fully operational," Jeremy offered hopefully, but Charlie shook her head.
"If they cut off the power, then it might only have a limited supply again," she countered. "We need to be careful with the power just in case. If the entire building blacks out and there is something still down here, dad's in serious trouble."
"Couldn't Cassidy just teleport dad out if shit hits the fan?" Fritz asked.
The girl shook her head. "I've only just started getting the hang of it again, and I can only do it for myself. It won't work on dad."
"Let's figure things out a bit more while we're on the elevator ride down," Mike suggested. The ghosts all agreed, and Mike walked over to the elevator leading down into the depths of CBEAR. He pressed the Down button and the elevator doors swung open, leading into a faintly lit but still very operational elevator. "Well, this part of the building still works just fine," he commented as he and the ghosts made their way inside.
The doors slid shut and the elevator began to descend. "I don't know if the smaller animatronics like the Bidybabs and Minireenas are still around, but we have to assume that they are." Liz began. Mike was surprised by her demeanor and the way she suddenly took charge. He had been secretly monitoring Liz, worried that coming back to the place of her past torment would destabilize her emotions. But if anything, she seemed to be the most determined out of all the ghosts to see this mission through.
"Is it really a surprise though?" he asked himself as Liz detailed the plan that she and Charlie had made together. "She's always been the one who wanted to make things right the most."
"Thanks to my Scrap Baby form, I'm probably the best person to protect dad from the front," Liz continued as she snapped her claw once to prove her point. "And Charlie is the most powerful ghost here so she's probably the best person to protect him from behind. The rest of us can surround dad to make sure he's got someone watching out from every angle."
"That sounds like a good idea to me," Gabe remarked, and the other ghosts nodded in acceptance of the strategy.
"The one thing that matters above everything else is that we HAVE to keep dad safe," Liz insisted. "I don't know about you guys, but if he ends up getting killed here, I'm going to hate myself for the rest of eternity no matter where I end up in the afterlife." Her eyes were utterly serious. "And trust me, I am VERY familiar with what that feels like."
The ghosts made varying noises of agreement, not noticing Mike wince at his daughter's wording. He wasn't suicidal by any stretch of the imagination and he certainly wouldn't mind living for as long as possible, but he was also happy with how his life had turned out and wouldn't have any regrets if he did meet his end earlier than he expected, especially since it would mean his kids would be free to pass on to Heaven as well with their mission completed. "I'll think of a way to get them out of that mentality," he thought as the elevator ground down to a halt. "We're here," he said aloud as the doors swung open. "Lead the way, Liz."
Liz nodded and advanced, her glowing green eyes falling on a vent opening a few feet away. "You have to crawl into that vent space to enter the Primary Control Module," she explained, gesturing towards it with her claw. "That's the room at the center of the building and it's the only way you can access the other parts of the building."
"Why vent spaces?" Jeremy asked. "What, were doors not good enough for the Purple Guy? It's like the guy went out of his way to make this place as creepy as possible!"
"Who the fuck even knows," Mike muttered. "All right, so Liz in front, Charlie behind me, and the rest of you split between guarding my front and back while I'm crawling through these things."
"Sounds good to me," Susie agreed, and they assumed the appropriate positions as Mike bent down onto his knees. He crawled forward into the vent passageway with Charlie following close behind, while the rest of the ghosts (who were unimpeded by the metal walls by their very nature) scanned the passage to make sure that nothing was either going to meet them from the front or follow them from behind. The passage through the vent occurred without incident, and Mike soon found himself into the Primary Control Module.
"I know that this place is supposed to be more of a storage facility instead of a restaurant, but geez…this place gives me the creeps," Gabe muttered.
Mike could see where he was coming from. Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental had the same creepy and unnerving atmosphere that Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria had, but the environment felt menacing, hostile, and oppressive in a way that the pizzeria had never been. The three white masks in the corner, each one with a different empty expression, only served to disturb him even further. It didn't help that despite her being in Scrap Baby form, Mike could see nervousness, pain, and even outright hatred on Liz's face as memories of imprisonment and hopelessness in this facility came back to her.
"Let's not beat around the bush here," he decided. "The sooner we get rid of this Remnant crap and get the fuck out of here, the better."
"We should check to see if there's anything new in the galleries," Charlie pointed out. "Considering how long Afton Robotics has existed so far, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to actually recreate the animatronics. It certainly wouldn't surprise me," she added with a derisive snort.
Mike approached one of the small control panels. "I'm guessing one of these buttons is to view the galleries?" he asked.
Liz nodded. "The top blue one," she confirmed, pointing at it with a ghostly metal finger. Mike pressed the button and the screens showing the galleries lit up. To everyone's immense relief, there wasn't a single animatronic in sight.
"Thank God…" Jeremy muttered. "I was going to rage if we actually had to deal with more animatronics here."
"Well, we don't know if there are larger animatronics placed in a storage or something," Gabe countered. "And there's still the smaller animatronics that Liz mentioned."
"We should be able to deal with anything that comes our way, assuming we keep to the defensive positions that we agreed on," Charlie commented.
"We know that there's Remnant in the Scooping Room," Mike turned to Liz. "How do we get there?"
"It's pretty simple, which is good news for us," she answered. "First, we need to go into the vent on the right, which will take us to the Funtime Auditorium. Then, we need to go to the right side of the auditorium, which will have a door that will lead us to the Scooping Room. That's where the Scooper with the Remnant is."
"Sounds like a plan," Mike agreed. He bent down to his knees, his children surrounding him in their protective manner, and crawled into the right vent. The passage itself occurred without anything happening just like before, but as he got out of the vent leading to the Funtime Auditorium he heard faint giggling a distance behind him. He immediately flashed his light back through the vent, and he could swear that he saw a tiny silhouette for a fraction of a second before it vanished back into the darkness.
The ghosts had noticed it too. "What the hell was that?" Gabe asked warily.
"That was a Minireena," Liz explained. "A tiny ballet dancer animatronic that was created to assist Ballora. They're harmless in that they can't do anything to hurt dad directly." Her eyes flickered worriedly. "But…"
"They might let other animatronics know we're here," Mike finished. "We probably shouldn't overstay our welcome." He began to move towards the right like Liz had instructed, but suddenly stopped. "Wait a minute…oh, SHIT!" he cursed.
The ghosts instantly looked at their father. "What is it, dad?" Cassidy asked.
"I just realized that the Remnant in the Scooper might not be the only place it's in," he explained grimly. "If William Afton hid more Remnant somewhere else, then I honestly have no idea where he might have put it."
"Crap…" Jeremy muttered.
"Is there anywhere that might have a hint as to where the Remnant actually is?" Gabe asked Liz.
The girl thought for a moment. "There…might be," she slowly answered. "There's an office on the opposite side of the Scooping Room. We only knew it as the Private Room, and it was always locked. I remember seeing a desk drawer, and the HandUnit called the things in there sensitive. Maybe it's because my old dad was hiding something he didn't want others to find out?"
"Then going there sounds like the best option," Mike decided. "This might end up being a waste of time for all we know, but I'd rather waste a couple extra minutes than miss any Remnant that might be hidden around here."
Liz led the way, with Mike and her siblings following behind. As they advanced, Mike could have sworn that he heard the faint sounds of footsteps in the distance, and the looks on the ghosts made it clear that they were hearing it too. But every time they stopped and Mike flashed his light around in the direction of the noise, there was nothing to be seen. Still, none of them dropped their guard until they reached a locked door with a keycard mechanism holding it shut.
"Oh, great…" Fritz groaned. "We don't have the keycard."
Liz's eyes glanced towards an unseen location further in the darkness opposite the way they had came. "I think I might know where it could be," she began, but Charlie raised a hand to stop her.
"No need, I'll handle this." She raised her hand towards the door and her eyelights flickered again, just like they had when she'd worked on the entrance to the building earlier. It took several seconds longer this time around and she even let out a grunt of exertion, but in the end she was successful.
"ACCESS GRANTED." A soulless, mechanical voice intoned as the door opened. Mike advanced into the room with the ghosts following close behind.
"Wow," he whistled as he looked around. He had seen the Private Room before in Nightmare's illusion back when he had tormented Liz, but he was still surprised by just how similar the room was in nature to the old office that he had worked in at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. The main difference, aside from the more mechanical nature of the room, was a large vent close to the top of the room.
"Uh, guys…" Gabe's worried voice broke Mike out of his thoughts. He and the kids turned to look at the former Freddy inhabitant, who was holding a tablet in his hands. "I think we might have a problem."
Mike took the tablet from Gabe and looked at the screen. "Oh, fuck me…" he cursed. The screen was showing the inside of the vent system…with a Bidybab crawling through it.
"The vent!" Susie shouted. Acting quickly, Mike hit a button on the tablet corresponding to the vent and it shut with a resounding clang. They could hear the Bidybab approach the closed vent door and hit it twice, before it crawled away. A quick check with the tablet showed that the Bidybab was gone.
"I knew it," Jeremy growled. "I knew things were being too easy."
Liz took the tablet and began looking through the different rooms, praying that her worst fear hadn't been realized, that Afton Robotics hadn't somehow recreated Funtime Freddy, Ballora, or Funtime Foxy and that these new versions were now preparing their own attacks. To her immense relief, she couldn't see any of them, but she could see Minireenas scurrying about in the halls. It was practically impossible for them to kill Mike by themselves, but that didn't make her feel any better.
"I need time to go through the cabinets and find out if there's any Remnant besides where the Scooper is," Mike declared. "Here's how we're going to do this. Jeremy and Susie, you watch the left door for anything that's coming. If something does come to attack, shut the door. Gabe and Cassidy, you do the same for the right door. Fritz, you're in charge of the vent. Charlie, check on the tablet every so often. Liz, stay here in case anything somehow slips through your siblings' notice. I'll try to find whatever I need as quickly as possible. Okay?"
"Got it!" everyone affirmed, and they took their positions where Mike had instructed. Liz raised her claw in a battle stance, eyes scanning the room carefully for any sign of an intrusion.
Mike reached out towards the cabinet and, to his surprise, it pulled open without any resistance. "Afton must have really been confident that nobody would ever get in here without him knowing," he thought as he began pulling open files. The first few files were completely useless to him, simply designs for the layout of the building. The only thing that was mildly of interest was the fact that the rooms seen in the Private Room's tablet didn't match with any of the rooms Liz had described during their daytime planning.
"Get out of here, you little shit!" he heard Fritz snarl at what was almost certainly an advancing Bidybab, and Charlie took that as the cue to slam the vent door shut.
Mike tossed aside the building plans and took out the next set of documents. He immediately recognized the shapes of several animatronics, as well as functions labeled for various parts on their bodies. "Blueprints for the Funtimes," he realized. He read some of the functions listed, and as he did so his anger grew. Voice mimicry, luring, parental voice sync and replay, storage tank. He already knew what those functions were for but seeing the truth before him with his own eyes inflamed his hatred for William Afton even further than it already burned. He was about to toss aside the blueprints and continue his search, when he suddenly noticed that the air had suddenly begun to thin, as though it was getting harder to breathe.
"What are those Minireenas doing?" Charlie asked Liz as she pointed to a couple of them messing with what looked like several canisters clustered together. Liz's eyes widened when she saw them.
"They're tampering with the oxygen in the room!" she exclaimed. "If we let them keep doing this then dad's going to pass out from lack of air! Shock them, quickly!"
Charlie pressed a red button with a lightning bolt on it, and the Minireenas immediately scattered, letting out small gasps of surprise as they did so. Immediately, Mike felt the air start returning to normal.
"Good catch," the girl inside the Puppet praised, and Liz's fanged mouth flickered in her best impression of a genuine smile given her current form. "I better check that area every so often."
Mike gave the two of them a brief smile of approval before turning back to his work. He tossed the blueprints in the same direction as the plans and turned to the final stack. The first page that he pulled out was a blueprint of the Scooper, identical to the one that he had found on Henry's computer. The next was something like a journal entry written by who Mike presumed to be William Afton himself, and he felt his blood go cold as he read it.
"Remnant…such a fascinating substance. A substance, seemingly innocuous and mundane, may very well prove be so much more than anyone believed. If I am correct, then this Remnant may very well be the key to immortality. It may hold the secret to life after death itself. Those childish mascots in my fool of a partner's pizzeria chain…there is more to them than just artificial intelligence now, isn't there? More to them than just mechanical flesh and gears churning in their minds. Perhaps those little brats I slaughtered and stuffed in those metal bodies have become one with their new bodies, though how this occurred even I do not know. The animatronics that I have created, the machines I have created to kidnap and kill in my stead, they were created with this same Remnant. Perhaps the victims they claim will be able to live on through them as well? If that is so, then the possibilities are truly endless, and eternal life may be within my grasp."
"That son of a bitch!" Mike roared angrily, not noticing that he had shouted his words out loud. Heads swiveled around Exorcist-style to look at him, which he would have found both creepy and hilarious in any other circumstance.
"Are you all right, dad?" Susie asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, sorry about that. You can go back to your posts," Mike curtly replied. There was an edge to his tone that none of the ghosts wanted to argue with, and they did as they were instructed. And right on time too, for a second Bidybab (or the same one from earlier adopting a different strategy) had tried to force its way through the left door while they had been distracted.
"Oh hell no, get out!" Jeremy snapped at it as he forced the door shut. Mike grit his teeth as he realized the implications of this journal entry, not the least of which was the fact that William might have either known or suspected that his daughter might have lived on through Baby and apparently didn't give a single shit about her. He crumpled the document and stuffed it in his pants pockets – he was going to burn it personally later.
"There's gotta be something here," the man thought as he looked through the last set of documents. But he found himself utterly disappointed. He found a few more of William's private entries that only confirmed just how utterly insane and monstrous the man had been, but there was no mention of any additional Remnant storage locations or hiding places beyond the Scooper.
Still, this search had not been entirely fruitless. He now knew for certain that William had a much greater understanding of Remnant and what it could do than what he originally believed, and he knew that he had to change his plan. Originally, all he had intended to do was dismantle the Scooper, take it out to somewhere that nobody would be around to see him, then set the inside of the thing on fire.
But if William knew about Remnant's properties, which was something that was now very likely based on his ramblings, then that was no longer good enough. For all he knew, William might have other Remnant stored inside the facility somewhere hidden, only for an unsuspecting soul to find it and open the possibility of more trapped souls and tragedies.
There was no way for Mike to know 100% if he would destroy all the Remnant in CBEAR. But there was a way for him to maximize the chances.
And that was to burn the whole place down.
He was about to inform his children about the change in plans, when he suddenly heard a giggle to his right. He whirled around to see a small pink puppet shaped like a female version of Bonnie suddenly lunge forward out of the darkness, the little animatronic creature moving too fast for Gabe or Cassidy to close the door in time. The metal hand puppet dived straight towards Mike, who barely had time to wonder exactly how a small thing like that would be able to hurt, let alone kill him.
*WHAM!*
Faster than either Bonnet or Mike could react, Liz's slammed her giant ghostly claw straight onto Bonnet's nose. The strength of her blow smashed the puppet downward and she hit the ground with a hard thud, her giggling replaced with a cry of shock and pain that would have been piteous if it weren't for the fact that she had just attempted to kill her father.
Liz stared down at Bonnet with undisguised fury, Scrap Baby's grotesque face perfectly complementing her enraged mood with terrifying effect as she placed her pincer right over Bonnet's neck, not closing it but leaving her trapped. "Do you remember me?" she hissed, and everyone was surprised to see genuine fear in the hand puppet's eyes. "If you do, then you should know who I used to be…and know who I've now become. I should destroy you. I should make you pay for trying to kill the person I love more than anyone else. But I'm going to give you one last chance. Tell all your friends what will happen to anyone who tries to attack my dad, and don't come near us again," her green eyes flashed menacingly, "or I'll tear you all apart piece by piece."
Bonnet let out another whimper as Liz lifted her claw and glared down at her. "Now get out." With a shriek, Bonnet crawled towards the door as quickly as her little arms allowed her, not stopping until she was far out of sight.
"Nice hit!" Gabe praised once he was sure the bunny puppet was gone. "Good thing you were paying attention when that thing came in. I don't want to think about what would've happened if you hadn't stopped her."
Cassidy shuddered slightly. "You're kind of scary when you're mad," she admitted.
Liz was about to say something, but Mike interrupted her with a snort. "Oh come on, Cass, that description fits literally every single person in our entire family," he dryly commented. He looked around to make sure nothing else was attacking, then gave Liz an apologetic glance. "Giving that bunny puppet mercy was a nice thing for you to do, but I don't think it's going to matter in the end. I didn't find anything suggesting that there was more Remnant besides what was in the Scooper, but I don't consider that very comforting. If we really want to make sure we get all of it, we're going to have to burn this place down."
The ghosts' eyes widened. "The whole thing?" Susie asked incredulously.
"The whole thing," Mike confirmed.
"But that's so dangerous!" Susie protested. "You could get caught up in the fire and burn to death! We can't let that happen!"
"Out of the question," Liz agreed firmly. She didn't truly remember her last moments as Scrap Baby in the trap pizzeria, but judging by the image she had seen in Nightmare's visions of her terrified and pained expression, there was no way she was going to allow even the smallest possibility of her father suffering through the same thing.
Fortunately, Gabe had the solution. "We don't have to!" he realized. "We're ghosts. We can do the deed ourselves without any risk of getting hurt. Meanwhile, we can wait until dad is far away from this place before we light it up. There's no chance of him getting hurt that way, and if he's in an area where other people can see him he won't be connected to the fire here since he'll physically be in a separate location when we light it up."
"That could work, but here's my question," Mike answered. "Will our telepathy still work if we're at a long distance from each other?"
Charlie shrugged. "I… think it will? Distance can weaken it, but it's a connection made between our very minds. So long as we don't go too far away from each other, it should still work. It did in the mall, after all."
"Hold on a sec," Jeremy suddenly floated up into the air and through the ceiling before anyone could stop him. After several seconds of tense silence, his voice suddenly cut through their minds. "Can you guys here me?"
"Yeah!" Mike mentally responded. "I hear you."
A few seconds later, Jeremy returned. "I just floated out of the building to where you parked the car, dad. It seems like we can still talk to each other just fine."
"That's good to know," his father sighed in relief. "Okay, so we just need to head over the Scooper, dismantle it, dunk it and everything else with lighter fluid, set the whole place on fire, and call it a day." An uncomfortable look crossed his face. "The only problem is…if you guys are going to insist on keeping me safe, then that means that you're gonna have to be the ones who do all the work. As you guys keep pointing out, I'm the only one who's in danger of getting hurt or killed. It just doesn't feel right forcing you guys to do all this."
"Dad…" Cassidy gently interrupted and lightly grabbed onto her dad's arm. "Part of the reason why we came here with you because we wanted to prove that we actually deserve a second chance. If that means doing some work in a creepy place that can't actually harm us so that you stay safe, then I have absolutely zero issues with that."
"I'm with you, Cass."
"A hundred percent."
"This is something we have to do, for you and for us."
Mike smiled and stroked Cassidy's hair. "You guys are the best sons and daughters I could ask for," he declared, earning delighted smiles and grins from his children. "All right, let's wrap this up and blow this joint. Literally."
The kids started laughing at Mike's joke as everyone followed Liz out of the Private Room, Mike taking William's private notes with him so that he could burn the cursed knowledge of Remnant along with the soul-trapping substance itself. As they left the room behind, none of them noticed the shadowy figure of a black bear with glowing white eyes and teeth suddenly materialize. The figure searched through the documents that Mike had left scattered on the floor. Without making a sound, he picked up one specific blueprint and vanished, taking the document with him.
And none of them noticed another different, much smaller figure start to follow them from behind, its eyes glowing faintly and erratically as a small stream of electricity crackled through its body.
/
A/N: I honestly have no clue how Bonnet or Bonbon would be able to kill anyone. They're freaking hand puppets, for God's sake! Then again, they were made by William Afton, so…
Things have certainly gotten a bit more interesting, haven't they? It looks like Mike and the ghost kids are about to use the same strategy that Michael and Henry have before them: burn everything to the ground.
And Liz finally gets to act out her new role as protector! I don't think she expected to have to carry out that role so soon, but she must feel content knowing that she can back up her declaration of protection to Mike. And with how well she took care of Bonnet, her new father's teachings have already paid off quite nicely.
With only Bidybab, Bonnet, and Minireenas, Sister Location's Custom Night must be hilariously easy, especially if you have ghosts guarding every possible entrance into the room and only need to stay in there for a couple of minutes at most.
As for the two figures I mentioned at the end, it shouldn't be very hard to figure out who they are. But as to what their goals are, that's another matter entirely.
See you guys next chapter, and hope you enjoyed!
