A/N: Hey guys! I should let you know right now that for the next few months, this fic's chapters will be uploading more slowly (a chapter every other week at most, possibly even less). The reason for this is because my next rotation after this one is OB/GYN, and the hours are fucking BRUTAL. Quite possibly even worse than my Surgery rotation. And since each day will end at 6-7 pm, I'm going to be exhausted most days to write. And as I've said before, I'd rather slowly write good chapters than quickly write shitty ones.
With that being said, let's turn our attention back to Trivia Murder Party! Nightmarionne has crashed the party, and it's time to see if his interactions with the family are different than the other Nightmares'.
DJ KJZ: It's a neat little theory, but there's no real evidence actually supporting the idea that Mangle is Susie's dog. Also, unless I think of a reason otherwise, assume that Mangle is destroyed (though I don't directly address in the fic in case I want to bring it back).
Chapter 90 – Trivia Murder Party Part 2
Stunned silence filled the space of Mike's mind. The ghost children gaped at Nightmarionne with confusion, uncertainty, and more than a little fear, while the demon lord returned their stares with amusement.
It was Mike who finally broke the silence. "Ahem…" he addressed the interloper. His voice was guarded and suspicious, but not outright hostile…yet. "I don't believe we've met."
Nightmarionne turned to face the vast emptiness. "AH, WHERE ARE MY MANNERS?" the demon lord greeted Mike. "THE NAME I HAVE CHOSEN IN THIS FORM IS…NIGHTMARIONNE. A PLEASURE TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE."
"You're certainly more polite than the other Nightmares," Mike mused aloud, "but that doesn't necessarily give me a reason to trust you."
Nightmarionne chuckled. "UNDERSTANDABLE, THOUGH YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR. HALLOWEEN IS THE ONE DAY THAT BEINGS SUCH AS MYSELF ARE ALLOWED TO ROAM THE EARTH FREELY…SO LONG AS WE DO NOT VIOLATE THE RULES OF HEAVEN. AND THOUGH OUR BROTHER IS A FAR BETTER RULER THAN MOST, IF I WERE TO JEOPARDIZE OUR FAMILY'S FREEDOMS OUT OF SOME PETTY DESIRE TO DO EVIL, HE WOULD TEAR ME TO PIECES WITHOUT MERCY. NO, I HAVE NO QUARREL WITH YOU OR YOUR FAMILY. QUITE THE CONTRARY, ACTUALLY."
"Oh, really?" Mike shifted his attention to the ghost kids. "Can any of you confirm that?"
"Actually…yeah. Surprisingly," Jeremy answered. "He basically showed us how to play God of War while you were fighting William Afton."
"More like forced us to watch him play God of War," Susie corrected, before shrugging sheepishly. "I mean, we really didn't pay much attention because we were scared for you, dad, but honestly…yeah. It wasn't bad at all."
"Heck, I'd even go so far as to say that he's…probably the nicest Nightmare out of all of them really," Gabe added.
"Huh," Mike's voice became noticeably less tense. "I'm not necessarily happy with the idea that you showed my kids a violent video game, but considering the fact that I'm pretty sure 99% of Hell would've done way worse, I'll give it a pass." His voice hardened again. "But you still haven't explained what you're doing here."
Nightmarionne grinned. "IT'S QUITE SIMPLE," he explained. "BEFORE I DEPARTED FROM HELL, MY BROTHER INFORMED ME THAT YOU RECENTLY SOUGHT OUT HIS AID TO PREPARE FOR A GAME YOU WERE GOING TO BE PLAYING WITH YOUR CHILDREN. HE TOLD ME THAT I WOULD FIND THIS GAME QUITE…ENTERTAINING…AND THAT I SHOULD DROP BY FOR A VISIT."
"We were playing this game Dad recreated in his mind called Trivia Murder Party," Liz answered.
The lights in Nightmarionne's eyes flashed and widened. "WAIT, ARE YOU SERIOUS?" he asked.
"Yeah, Dad made all these plushies of the Freddy Fazbear characters and killed them whenever we failed what he called the Killing Grounds," Cassidy added. "It was scary at first but honestly we started having a lot of fun!"
"YOU WERE PLAYING TRIVIA MURDER PARTY?" Nightmarionne asked, sounding genuinely delighted. "THAT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE GAMES EVER! WE EVEN USE SOMETHING SIMILAR TO THE LOSER WHEEL AS A WAY TO TORTURE DAMNED SOULS WHENEVER WE CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING!"
"What's the Loser Wheel?" Charlie asked in confusion.
"OH SHIT, YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THAT ONE YET? MY BAD, I'LL SHUT UP," Nightmarionne apologized.
"Do you…want to play?" Mike asked, sounding utterly bemused and baffled now. After his encounters with the other two Nightmare lords, Nightmarionne's unexpectedly friendly personality was completely throwing him for a loop.
"OH, FUCK THE HELL YES!" Nightmarionne snapped his fingers, and a new plushie appeared. This one looked remarkably similar to Charlie's Marionette plushie, only with the demon lord's appearance instead.
"You do realize that I'm not going to treat you with any more or less favoritism than my kids, right?" Mike warned.
Nightmarionne smirked. "PLEASE. I WOULD BE INSULTED IF YOU DID."
"All righty…" Mike seized control of the Nightmarionne plushie, which vanished into the shadows.
The area around them darkened, and the chilling sequence of Freddy Fazbear locations suddenly began to play again…before suddenly pausing. "Wait a sec," Mike interrupted. "We've already seen this, except for Nightmarionne, who I doubt cares about all this. Soooooooo…" the intro sequence suddenly began to zoom forward, far too quickly for anyone to catch any details, with a giant Fast-Forward icon flashing in front of it. "…skipping the bullshit…skipping the bullshit…skipping the bullshit…"
The same terrifying scream from before shattered the silence, and the giant words "Trivia Murder Party" flashed onto the screen for a second time. The area around them slowly lit up to reveal the same arena from before, only now that the ghost kids were used to it they weren't nearly as frightened.
"Welcome to Trivia Murder Party! But you already know what's going on, and I don't feel like explaining shit again, so fuck tutorials!" A giant flaming purple 1 appeared in front of them.
"Wow, that was fast…" Charlie muttered.
"The second largest consumer of Guinness beer, after the United Kingdom, is what country?"
1. Ireland
2. China
3. The U.S.
4. Nigeria
Everyone stared at the question blankly. "What the fuck?" Gabe finally muttered.
"ONLY THE FIRST QUESTION AND ALREADY BEING THIS RUTHLESS?" Nightmarionne asked. "DELIGHTFUL."
"I don't have any fucking idea!" Fritz cursed.
"We're all going to die, aren't we?" Susie sighed.
"Who got the question right?"
4. Nigeria
A red X appeared over every single plushie. "Are you kidding me?" Liz exclaimed. "Who could possibly know THAT?"
"It was such an out of the blue answer that I ALMOST picked it," Charlie lamented.
"Such a dick move!" Jeremy muttered.
"THAT IS AN EVIL QUESTION," Nightmarionne commented, before he suddenly grinned. "THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN!"
Cassidy scowled. "Speak for yourself."
"Heh heh heh heh heh…everyone is WRONG!" Mike taunted, sounding pleased to an unholy degree. "Time for some consequences." The ring of fire circling the arena flared into a powerful blaze as Mike put up the name of the first Killing Grounds minigame: "GIFTS."
"This is just me giving you all a gift," Mike explained. Dark purple lightning flashed, and a treasure chest with gift boxes appeared in the center of the arena. "No death at all, unless you refuse to pick one. In which case you have only yourself to blame for being a fucking moron. But surely there's nothing bad inside these gift boxes, right?"
"Uh huh, dad…" Charlie didn't even bother to hide her skepticism. "Uh huh…"
"Anyways, pick a gift," Mike ordered. Nightmarionne, not even hesitating for a second, immediately picked up a red box with black ribbons. The ghost children, with a bit more uncertainty, picked up various gifts of different colors as well. The boxes suddenly opened in their hands, revealing that most of them had gotten $50 in cash…except for Fritz, who had gotten a hideous skull totem instead.
"Ooh, a cursed skull totem!" Mike exclaimed.
"Oh, God…" Fritz muttered, knowing full well that merely the name of the object was bad news. As if to prove his point, a glowing red 4 appeared in both of the totem's eye sockets.
"In 4 turns, that totem will kill you."
"FUCK!" the former Foxy inhabitant exclaimed.
"But it's not all bad news," Mike continued. "If you get a question correct, you can force the totem onto any other player who got that same question WRONG."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Fritz's fear faded, replaced by a crafty, mischievous look.
Jeremy smirked. "Oh, we've got nothing to worry about then, cause Fritz is an idiot!"
"Hey!" Fritz protested, then his eyes narrowed. "I'll remember that."
The flames around the arena died down, and Mike brought all the plushies up under a Scoreboard heading. All of the plushies were still alive with $50, except for Fritz who had his cursed skull totem hanging underneath his Foxy plushie. "Nothing much to say here, since you're all mostly in the same boat," Mike commented as he brought the plushies back up. A giant flaming 2 appeared in the center of the arena, followed by:
"Which of these ominous warnings is correct?
1. Its to late!
2. It's to late!
3. Its too late!
4. It's too late!
"Oh, a grammar question," Cassidy sighed in relief. "Thank God."
"I'll take those easy points when I can get them," Gabe commented.
"I'm with you there," Liz agreed.
"And the correct answer is…"
4. It's too late!
A green check appeared under every single plushie, swiftly turning into a thousand dollars before fading away. "Thank God…" Fritz muttered. The glowing red 4 in his skull totem's eyes counted down to 3. "Wait, crap!" he exclaimed.
"I should stop being so nice," Mike muttered as he moved on to the next question.
"Which of these spooky-sounding implements is a real tool?"
1. Ghost wrench
2. Zombie saw
3. Hex key
4. Witch screw
"Two of those sound like bullshit answers," Charlie muttered.
"Yeah, but even with that I still don't know which one's correct out of the two I'm thinking of!" Liz complained.
Nightmarionne sneered. "SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, MORTALS. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE ANSWER IS."
Susie rolled her eyes. "Good for you."
"Who said…"
3. Hex Key
Green check marks appeared over Gabe's, Fritz's, Charlie's, Liz's, and Nightmarionne's plushies, while red Xs appeared over Jeremy's, Susie's, and Cassidy's.
"Which leaves only you…but we have some business to take care of first, don't we?" Mike pointed out. The Foxy plushie reappeared on the screen. "Since you got this question right, choose someone who got the question wrong to pass your totem to."
Fritz grinned at Jeremy. "What was that you said earlier about me being an idiot?" he asked mockingly as he forced the Bonnie plushie to accept the totem. "Payback's a real bitch, isn't it?"
The former Bonnie inhabitant sighed. "Fine, I deserved that, didn't I?" he muttered.
"Now then, onto the business of violence!" Mike declared as the arena transformed into the Killing Grounds. On the screen, he put up the words, "SKEWERS."
"We're going to play with a little magic trick!" There was a flash of dark lightning, and a box decorated with the symbol of an eye with many knives being stabbed into it appeared in the center of the arena. The box's lid fell open as Jeremy's, Susie's, and Cassidy's plushies appeared. Inside they could see a total of 20 spaces arranged in 4 rows and 5 columns.
"Pick a space in the box to hide yourself."
"Uh oh…" Susie muttered. "I can already see where this is going."
"We're in trouble, aren't we?" Jeremy sighed.
"God, I just hope that nobody stabs their sword here," Cassidy prayed as she picked her spot.
The box closed and four swords appeared, one in front of the other players.
Nightmarionne's eyes lit up like Christmas had come early. "AWW, FUCK THE HELL YES!" he declared with glee. "NOW YOU'RE SPEAKING MY FUCKING LANGUAGE, SCHMIDT!"
"Now pick a row or column to run your sword through. If you seriously can't figure out what happens next, you're a fucking idiot and I can't help you."
"Where would they hide, I wonder?" Fritz asked with a smirk.
"I dunno, but only way to find out!" Gabe replied, sounding just as smug.
"Time for the stabby-stab!" Mike cheerfully declared.
Four swords materialized and stabbed themselves into the box, and an agonized scream echoed throughout the room. The lid of the box opened again to reveal Cassidy's plushie in the lowermost left corner…with one sword impaled cleanly through its body. Jeremy's and Susie's plushies, while dangerously close to the path of the blades, had remained safe.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Nightmarionne cackled with delight. "MY FIRST VICTIM OF THE NIGHT!"
"Dammit!" Cassidy sulked as Mike scratched a white X onto the Golden Freddy plushie and threw it into sharp relief. A tiny red dot appeared over the X as Mike fired a giant bullet into the plushie, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of its body. "Yikes…" Cassidy muttered as Mike flipped the plushie over, turning it into a ghost.
The flames dimmed down as Mike brought up the scoreboard. Gabe had $2050, Jeremy had $1050, Susie had $1050, Fritz had $2000, Cassidy had $1050, Charlie had $2050, Liz had $2050, and Nightmarionne had $2550 thanks to a $500 bonus for killing Cassidy's plushie.
"Yep, just like last time, you're a ghost," Mike explained. "But like I said before, ghosts can still keep playing and even win the entire game! And hey, at the very least, you can always be an agent of chaos and fuck over everyone else."
Cassidy giggled. "Oh, you bet, dad!" she replied as more than one ghost rolled their eyes.
A giant fiery 4 appeared in the center of the arena, followed by:
"How much longer do we have to wait until the sun dies?"
1. About 100 million years
2. About 1 billion years
3. About 5 billion years
4. About 20 billion years
Liz threw her hands up in the air in frustration. "Ugh…I give up on everything," she groaned.
"I think I remember reading about this somewhere…but I don't remember where," Charlie mused.
"I know this!" Jeremy triumphantly exclaimed.
"GOOD FOR YOU," Nightmarionne drawled.
"Did you pick…"
3. About 5 billion years
Green check marks appeared under Jeremy's, Cassidy's, Charlie's, and Nightmarionne's plushies, while red Xs appeared above everyone else. "Pick another player to give your cursed totem to."
Jeremy smirked. "You know…at first, I was going to give this totem to Fritz, because it's the family meme to make fun of Fritz…"
"Aw, come on!" Fritz complained.
"…but then I remembered Gabe trolling me a few weeks back," Jeremy continued as though he hadn't spoken. "And since I haven't gotten payback for that yet…"
The cursed totem suddenly moved over to Gabe's Freddy plushie, its eyes counting down to 2. "Dammit!" Gabe smacked his face with the palm with his hand. "You've been waiting to get back at me all this time, haven't you?"
"Payback is a real bitch, isn't it?" Jeremy chuckled, mirroring his brother's words from earlier verbatim.
Fritz grinned. "Nice!" he said as he high-fived his brother.
"Come with me," Mike commanded. As the flames burned brightly once more, he revealed the name of the next Killing Game: "DUMB WAITERS."
"How much do you really trust your siblings?" he questioned mockingly. "Let's find out." There was a flash of lightning, and two elevators appeared in the center of the arena, hanging from the sky by a single rope. At the same time, the ground underneath the elevators collapsed, creating a pit that led into an empty void. The Freddy, Chica, Foxy, and Baby plushies appeared above them.
"Here's how this is going to work," Mike explained. "If you all pick the SAME elevator, you all live. But, if there is a SPLIT decision, I will kill everyone on the HEAVIER side."
"OOH…" Nightmarionne chuckled. "I DO LOVE A GOOD MIND GAME."
"And in case you're wondering what's going to happen in case of a tie, don't worry, I know how to solve THAT particular problem" A dummy appeared in one of the doors, and then both immediately closed.
"Feel free to talk to each other. But can you really trust each other?" Mike asked, dark amusement clear in his tone. "Are you sure that you should?"
Gabe, Susie, and Liz looked at the elevators indecisively. "All right, guys," Gabe began. "We can all make it through if we all agree to take a particular side and stick to it."
"I'm down with that, but which side?" Liz asked, before her eyes suddenly narrowed "Also how do I know I can trust you?"
"Hey, I was just trolling around with Minecraft, but I'm serious now," Gabe promised. "No lying here."
"Okay, just so we're clear, we're all going left?" Fritz clarified.
"Yes, left," Gabe confirmed.
"All right…" Susie agreed as she clicked on her choice. The other three ghosts at risk of having their plushies killed quickly followed suit.
"Let's see what fate has decided."
The elevator doors swung open again, revealing that all four of the plushies had chosen the same elevator…on the RIGHT side.
Fritz blinked in shock. "Wait, are you serious?"
"We all picked the OTHER elevator?" Susie exclaimed.
"I…I have no words…" Liz gaped. "…just…wow…"
"So let me get this straight," Mike's voice interrupted, and for the first time since starting the round it had returned to its normal manner of speaking despite its unearthly and inhuman echoes. "You all agreed to take the left elevator, you all decided to betray the others by picking the opposite elevator instead, but because all of you made that choice, you all ended up in the same elevator anyway with the exact same result as if none of you broke your word."
"I…guess?" Gabe answered uncertainly.
"What in the actual fuck?" Mike spluttered. "I've never seen this happen, ever."
"FOR FUCK'S SAKE," Nightmarionne rolled his eyes. "YOU CAN'T EVEN BACKSTAB EACH OTHER CORRECTLY," he grumbled as Mike removed the plushies from the Killing Grounds and took them all to the Scoreboard. Gabe still had $2050 (along with his cursed totem), Jeremy had $2050, Susie had $1050, Fritz had $2000, Cassidy had $2050 (and was still the only one with a dead plushie), Charlie had $3050, Liz had $2050, and Nightmarionne had $3550.
"The game continues on, even if your score says the same," Mike commented. The plushies floated higher into the air and a flaming 5 briefly appeared.
"The large Hadron Collider is currently the biggest machine in the world. What's its circumference?
1. 1 mile
2. 9 mile
3. 4 mile
4. 17 miles
Cassidy groaned. "…you're such an asshole, dad."
"I, uh, nope!" Charlie sighed in exasperation. "No clue at all."
"CRAP. I ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW THIS ONE," Nightmarionne admitted.
"This is gonna suck…" Jeremy muttered.
"Did anyone choose…"
4. 17 miles
Only one green check mark appeared, this time under Susie's Chica plushie. "Yay!" she cheered as red Xs appeared above everyone else. "I actually completely guessed that one!"
"17 miles?" Liz exclaimed. "WOW, that is a LONG machine."
"They must do some serious stuff with it if it needs to be THAT long!" Gabe agreed.
"How'd they even manage to build it?" Jeremy wondered.
"Who knows?" Mike answered. "But that's not something you need to worry about. Your plushies, on the other hand…" He was about to move the plushies to the Killing Grounds, but stopped short. "Oh, and before I forget…"
The glowing red 2 in the cursed totem's eye sockets counted down to 1. "You don't have much time left, do you?"
"No, I don't…" Gabe groaned as Mike prepared the Killing Grounds. This time, the minigame chosen was, "DICTATION."
"It's time we revisit the lost art of letter writing," Mike declared. Lightning flashed, and a typewriter appeared in the arena. "Write down my words as I say them. The person who writes the fewest of my words…WILL DIE."
"No need to scare us like that," Jeremy muttered. "Yeesh."
"Ahem…" Mike coughed. "Starting letter now."
"Dear Fazbear Entertainment,
As a former worker in your illustrious franchise, I would like to wholeheartedly and passionately tell you to go fuck yourselves. You are so fucking incompetent at keeping people safe that it frankly blows my fucking mind. Not only did you let the same asinine fuckhead kill God knows how many kids, but your ability to keep night guards safe is just as atrocious. A lobotomized baboon with a giant bamboo pole shoved all the way up its ass and into its brain could run your fucking pizza chain, and probably do your fucking jobs better than you can. As far as I'm concerned, you couldn't run out of business fast enough, you brainless shitheads."
The kids snickered, desperately trying to keep control of themselves…and they failed. Some of them outright collapsed onto the floor in hysterics, while others were holding their sides or each other. Even Nightmarionne was openly laughing with genuine amusement instead of malice.
"THAT IS THE FIRST WORK-RELATED LETTER THAT HASN'T BORED ME TO NOT GIVING A SHIT IN CENTURIES," the demon lord applauded. "WELL DONE."
"Thank you, I try," Mike replied smugly. "Now let me just take a couple of seconds to read through all these letters and see how you did."
After a few minutes, numbers began to appear under each plushie, signaling how many each player had gotten correct.
Gabe: 35
Jeremy: 33
Fritz: 22
Charlie: 37
Liz: 28
Nightmarionne: 41
"Dammit," Fritz cursed as his number turned blood red. "I was having a hard time typing this already and once I realized what Dad was actually saying I pretty much just lost it."
"You know, it's a good thing none of you ever got into the typewriting business, because what one of you wrote was actual garbage," Mike drawled.
He held up a paper containing Fritz's written words. "Dear Fazbar Entertinment, as a former worker in your ilustrius francise I would like to wholehardtedly andpassionately tell you to go fuck urselves. You are so fucking incopetet at keeping peeople saFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
"I mean seriously, what in the actual fuck is this nonsense?" Mike demanded. "I could have done a better job if I smashed William Afton's head against a typewriter over and over again!"
The ghosts giggled, both at Fritz's mess of a letter and the idea of William Afton's head being slammed against a typewriter to write a memo. "I AM DEFINITELY STEALING THAT IDEA THE NEXT TIME I NEED TO WRITE A REPORT FOR NIGHTMARE," Nightmarionne commented with a chuckle.
"What really gets me is the fact that you actually wrote out your breakdown," Charlie pointed out.
As if to emphasize his contempt, Mike stamped a giant red F on the letter and scratched a white X onto the Foxy plushie, throwing it to the forefront. This time, Mike froze the plushie in ice and shattered it to pieces, the ghost rising from the broken remains.
"Wow, that is vicious," Liz commented as Mike deactivated the flames around the arena. Little had actually changed, except that Susie now had $2050 to match most of the other players, and Fritz had joined Cassidy among the dead players. A flaming 6 briefly materialized, signaling the arrival of the next question.
"What type of animal is a hellbender?"
1. Spider
2. Salamander
3. Snake
4. Turtle
"THAT IS A BADASS NAME," Nightmarionne noted with a pleased expression on his face.
"Absolutely," Jeremy agreed. By now, they had become familiar enough with the demon lord's presence and surprisingly personable demeanor that they weren't terrified of him anymore, at least not under the current circumstances.
"There's no way a fucking turtle of all things would have a name that badass," Fritz declared.
"I'm with you," Susie agreed, "I've got two possible options but I'm not sure which one is right. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."
"And the correct answer is…"
2. salamander
Green check marks appeared under everyone's name…except for Jeremy's and Liz's. "Oh, no…" Liz groaned.
"Hey, Jeremy! Catch!" The cursed skull totem shifted over to the Bonnie plush.
"Aww, come on, man!" Jeremy protested as the totem's eyes counted down to zero. The skull's eyes flashed, emitting a menacing red aura...and then the Bonnie plushie exploded. "Dammit, Gabe, how many times have you screwed me over in a game?" he complained.
Gabe smirked, while the others tried to hide their snickering. "Get wrecked!" he taunted.
Liz was one of the ones who was struggling not to laugh. "What are you laughing at?" Mike asked as every plushie besides hers disappeared. "You still got this question wrong. Which means you're the one whose ass is on the line next."
"…crap," the orange-haired ghost girl groaned as Mike took her to the Killing Grounds. When Mike put up the name of the game, "LOSER WHEEL," Nightmarionne let out a bark of deranged laughter.
"HA HA HA HA HA!" the demon lord cackled. "YOU. ARE. DOOMED!"
"What do you…" Lightning flashed, interrupting Liz's sentence, and her jaw dropped in horror. A wheel had appeared with a similar appearance to the one used in Wheel of Fortune…except every wedge had the word DEATH written clearly on it, as well as a different method of execution. The only exceptions were tiny slivers a single space each located in between each wedge, with the word LIFE written on them instead.
At this, all the kids except Liz burst out laughing. "Pffffftttt…welp, see ya, Liz!" Fritz chortled.
"Yeah, I don't see you getting out of this one," Cassidy agreed. "Sorry."
"No offense, Liz, but I'm really glad I'm not you right now," Susie commented.
"What…what…what..." Liz spluttered in outraged disbelief. "This is SO not fair!"
"This is what you get for being the only living person to get the question wrong," Mike replied, in a tone that made it all too clear that he didn't give a fuck. "Good luck!"
"I hate you all…" Liz grumbled as she spun the wheel. The wheel spun rapidly for several seconds before slowly coming to a stop…right onto a wedge that said "DEATH by Nails." "Dammit!"
"You know, I used to absolutely fucking HATE this minigame with a passion, but I suddenly have a whole new appreciation for it after seeing it from the other side!" Mike commented cheerfully. He brought up the Baby plushie into the forefront, and Liz could only watch as her plushie was violently impaled with a volley of nails and turned into a ghost.
"DAMN," Nightmarionne whistled. "THAT WAS BRUTAL EVEN BY MY STANDARDS!"
"Normally I'd feel shame at a comment like that," Mike replied just as flippantly, "but since this is all for the sake of game where the whole point is I'm a killer host, thank you very much!"
"I'm still calling BS on this!" Liz pouted, crossing her arms in a sulk.
"Yeah, it is kinda bullshit…" Charlie agreed, trying not to hide a smile. "But even I have to admit it is pretty funny."
Back at the Scoreboard, Gabe had $3050, Jeremy had $2050, Susie had $3050, Fritz had $3000, Cassidy had $3050, Charlie had $4050, Liz had $2050, and Nightmarionne had $4550. Jeremy's, Fritz's, and Liz's plushies had all joined Cassidy's as ghosts, leaving only Gabe, Susie, Charlie, and Nightmarionne alive…for now. "The Nightmares should use the Loser Wheel or something like that whenever they can't decide how to torture William Afton for the day, or are too bored to actually come up with a plan on their own," Mike suggested. "Put up some of their best ideas in the past on different wedges, spin the wheel, and go with that idea for the day. Obviously no life spaces though, that fucker doesn't deserve any."
"THAT'S…NOT A BAD IDEA, ACTUALLY," Nightmarionne mused. "I'LL TAKE THAT UNDER CONSIDERATION."
Most of the ghosts smirked at the idea of William Afton being randomly tortured ala the Loser Wheel for a day, though Charlie barely suppressed a shudder at the reminder of her father's potential for cruelty as Mike prepared Question 7.
"Violin strings are sometimes made of catgut…which apparently isn't made from real cat guts at all but is instead made from what?"
1. Sheep intestines
2. Horse hide
3. Whale blubber
4. Human hair
"…all of these are terrible!" Susie exclaimed.
"I think most violin strings are made of metal nowadays," Charlie added. "And thank God for that!"
"WE SOMETIMES USE THE ETHEREAL FLESH OF DAMNED SOULS TO MAKE OUR INSTRUMENTS!" Nightmarionne remarked cheerfully. At the dirty and disgusted looks sent his way, he shrugged. "WHAT?"
"Anyways…" Mike interrupted before the conversation could get more disturbing. "The correct answer is…"
1. Sheep intestines
Green check marks appeared under Gabe's, Jeremy's and Liz's plushies, while red Xs appeared over everyone else's. "I just went with the obvious answer," Jeremy admitted.
"Yeah, me too," Liz agreed. "It was either completely wrong or 100% correct."
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT THAT WRONG…" Nightmarionne growled as Mike dropped the Chica, Puppet, and Nightmarionne plushies back into the Killing Grounds. This time, however, there was another pile of money on the floor, similar to the Arena minigame from the previous round. This time, however, the word that Mike put up on the screen was "DONATIONS."
"I'm in the mood for another mind game," Mike commented, "only this time with some money thrown into the equation." As he spoke, $500 appeared under each plushie. "You each get 500 dollars. You can give some of that cash to whoever you want. The person who has the highest amount of cash will die."
Susie thought for a moment, "Okay, maybe I should just give all my money to…"
"…but there's a catch,"Mike interrupted. "If you give to someone and they end up with $800 or more, I will kill YOU instead!"
"…never mind," Susie shook her head, her train of thought derailed by Mike's caveat.
"Get to work," the man ordered.
Susie, Charlie, and Nightmarionne began eyeing each other shiftily, trying to gauge each other's expressions and predict their plans. The next few seconds were surprisingly silent aside from some faint whispering among the spectating ghost kids, who were trying to guess which one of them was about to die. One by one, the three made their decisions and wrote out their donations.
"Show! Me! The! Money!" Mike proclaimed. To everyone's surprise, both the Chica and Nightmarionne plushies each gave $200 to Charlotte, bringing the Puppet plushie's total up to $900.
"Oh, NO!" Charlie groaned as her plushie gave $250 to Nightmarionne, leaving her with $650…and the highest cash total. "I didn't know you guys BOTH gave me money!" she protested as the number turned blood red.
"Oh, wow. The rich will actually suffer consequences for once," Mike commented as he prepared to execute Charlie's plushie. The Puppet swelled like a balloon and popped, leaving only a ghost behind.
"Okay, that one was kinda funny," Liz giggled. Charlie scowled but didn't say anything as Mike brought up the Scoreboard again. Gabe now had $4050, Jeremy had $3050, Susie had $3350, Fritz had $3000, Cassidy had $3050, Charlie had $4700, Liz had $3050, and Nightmarionne had $4850. More than one ghost was shocked at how close the scores were to each other, though Fritz complained briefly about the fact that he was now in last place by only $50. Gabe, Susie, and Nightmarionne were the only ones alive, a bit of a surprise since many expected Charlie to either survive the questions or at the very least be the last one to die.
A giant flaming 8 appeared in the arena, followed by:
"Which of the following is NOT something Rick Astley sang he's never gonna do?"
1. "…make you cry…"
2. "…pass you by…"
3. "…say goodbye…"
4. "…tell a lie…"
Nightmarionne immediately let out a loud groan. "REALLY, SCHMIDT?" he asked incredulously. "YOU'RE BRINGING UP THIS SONG?"
"I've never heard of this song before," Susie said uncertainly.
"IT'S TIED TO ONE OF THE OLDEST MEMES OUT THERE," Nightmarionne growled. "I'M DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF FOR KNOWING THE ANSWER. IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW, FIGURE IT OUT ON YOUR OWN TIME."
"…okay…" Liz muttered as he picked his answer.
"Who said…"
2. "…pass you by…"
Three green check marks appeared for Gabe, Charlie, and Nightmarionne. "Oh, crap…" Susie groaned when she realized she was the only living person to get the question wrong. "This is gonna suck, isn't it?"
"Yep!" Mike cheerfully replied as the flames of the Killing Grounds ignited once again. He put up the words "SCRATCH-OFF" and gave Susie a scratch ticket. The girl couldn't tell much from it other than the fact that it was a 3x3 grid of gray squares.
"Scratch tickets are widely considered to be one of the shittiest and most uninspired gifts of all time, so it's perfect for you!"
"Gee, thanks…" Susie rolled her eyes.
"Scratch and find three dollar signs to live. If you keep scratching, I'll give you extra cash for each dollar sign you find. But if you scratch even one skull…" Mike's voice descended into a demonic growl. "…YOU DIE."
The former Chica inhabitant looked at her ticket uncertainly and scratched the top right corner…revealing a dollar sign. Feeling her hope that she might survive this minigame rise, she scratched the square in the bottom left corner…and was instantly greeted with a red skull. The entire ticket immediately turned blood red and vanished.
"Aaaaaaaaand you lose," Mike commented, and everyone could hear the smugness oozing from his voice. "You know what that means!"
The Chica plushie was immediately thrown to the forefront, and promptly crushed in a giant metal bear trap before turning into a ghost. "That scratch ticket is almost as bullshit as the Loser Wheel!" Susie sulked.
"No way, Susie!" Liz shook her head. "NOTHING could be as bullshit as the Loser Wheel!"
"There were two skulls in that ticket, by the way, so Liz is objectively correct," Mike interjected as he brought up the scores. Gabe now had $5050, Jeremy had $3050, Susie had $3350, Fritz had $3000, Cassidy had $3050, Charlie had $5700, Liz had $3050, and Nightmarionne had $5850.
"The Puppets are really running away with the game, aren't they?" Jeremy muttered as Mike got ready for the ninth question.
"What color M&M was retired in 1995?"
1. Purple
2. White
3. Pink
4. Tan
Everyone stared dumbfounded at the question for a few seconds. "…Get the fuck out of here, dad!" Fritz cursed.
"What M&M color?" Liz repeated incredulously. "I didn't know they even MADE M&Ms in that color!"
"Dad's just trying to kill us as quickly as possible, isn't he?" Gabe groaned.
"THIS IS A BULLSHIT QUESTION," Nightmarionne growled.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with you," Charlie added in irritation.
"Who said…"
4. Tan
A red X appeared over every single plushie again. "Heh heh heh heh heh…" Mike chuckled menacingly. "Everyone is WRONG! And wrong answers must be punished!"
The flames of the arena ignited once more. "I'm in the mood for another dice game," he remarked as he put up the words "HIGH ROLLERS." The Freddy and Nightmarionne plushies appeared, each with three red dice underneath them.
"The person who rolls the highest will die," Mike explained.
"Seems simple enough…" Gabe began, only to fall silent as the rest of the plushies appeared underneath, each with a single red die in front of them.
"…but we have some help to make things more interesting. You have a dice that you can give to whoever you want to make their odds WORSE."
"Ohhhhhhhhhh…" Mischievous smirks and grins began to appear on the ghost kids' faces, while Gabe looked at them nervously and Nightmarionne seemed mostly disinterested with the entire affair.
Jeremy was the first to break the silence. "You know, at first I was going to give my dice to Nightmarionne, since he's a demon lord of Hell and all. But then I realized that he actually hasn't done anything bad to me personally, and I still haven't gotten back at Gabe for blowing up my house in Minecraft in a way that actually mattered. Sooooo…" the dice under the Bonnie plushie joined the group of 3 under the Freddy plushie. "…here you go!"
"Aww, come on, guys!" Gabe protested as Liz immediately gave her dice to the Freddy plushie as well. "Can't we talk about this?"
"Nope!" Fritz retorted with a smirk as he added the Foxy plushie's dice to Gabe's growing pile as well. Liz was right behind her brother, bringing Gabe's total up to 6.
"I know this is really mean…" Cassidy admitted, "but piling all this dice onto Gabe is just too funny for me to resist!" A 7th dice joined the rest.
"You know what, fuck it!" Gabe threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "Just give it all to me! Come on, I know you want to!"
With a shrug, Susie gave her dice to Gabe as well. The only one who broke the trend was Charlie, who felt bad for her brother and decided to give her dice to Nightmarionne instead. Still, that only gave the demon lord 4 dice to roll…compared to Gabe's eight.
"Ha ha ha, yep!" Mike pitched in, clearly amused. "You. Are. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked!"
Gabe rolled his eyes. "Thanks a lot, dad…" he grumbled.
"No problem!" his father cheerfully replied, before his tone suddenly turned businesslike. "Now roll."
Gabe sighed and rolled his eight dice, while Nightmarionne casually rolled his 4. The former Freddy inhabitant let out another loud groan of defeat when he saw the many 5s and 6s scattered across his die, which congealed together to form the number "35". By contrast, Nightmarionne had rolled a mere 12, easily enough to win by a landslide.
"Oh, wooooooooow…" Mike drawled, sarcasm dripping in his voice. "I tooooootally never expected THAT to happen…"
"WOW…" Nightmare whistled as the 35 turned red, sounding more confused than anything else. "I HONESTLY EXPECTED EVERYONE TO INSTANTLY GIVE THEIR DICE TO ME INSTEAD OF THE BRAT OVER THERE. I MEAN, I'M THE BIG BAD DEMON LORD. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO SCREW HIM OVER INSTEAD?"
"He blew up our houses in Minecraft," Jeremy explained tersely.
"AH," the demonic puppet nodded. "IN THAT CASE, YOUR VENGEANCE IS COMPLETELY JUSTIFIABLE."
"I hate you all…" Gabe muttered as his Freddy plushie was thrown to the forefront. Opting for efficiency, Mike swiftly sliced the plushie in half before turning it into a ghost. When he brought them back to the Scoreboard, the ghosts were pleasantly surprised to discover that everyone except for Charlie and the victims of the minigame had been given $500 as a reward for giving their dice to the one who had actually died. With this killing bonus added to the funds, the total scores were $5050 for Gabe, $3550 for Jeremy, $3850 for Susie, $3500 for Fritz, $3550 for Cassidy, $5700 for Charlie, $3550 for Liz, and $5850 for Nightmarionne. And this time, the only plushie that hadn't been turned into a ghost was Nightmarionne's.
"Only one of you is still alive…" Mike declared. The ghosts looked around, waiting for another demented clip show to transition them to the Final Round chamber, but Mike did something much more disturbing he spoke, the ground suddenly began to shake and tremble, as though they had all been caught in an earthquake. Flames ignited within the eyes and mouths of the demonic statues in the background, all of them chaotically spouting bursts of fire from their grotesque jaws.
"What's going on?" Cassidy asked frantically.
"I don't know!" Susie exclaimed. "This didn't happen last time!"
Cracks began to form in the floor, and Charlie suddenly had unpleasant flashbacks of the moment when Mike had shattered the arena in the last stages of his duel with William Afton, before plunging him into the abyss. Though she knew Mike's actions were merely theatrical this time around, without genuine malice or intent to harm, the fact that this new transition to the Final Round had so many similarities to the moment where Mike had fully revealed the worst aspects of his character to William was enough to fill her with dread regardless. Even Nightmarionne seemed surprised by what he was witnessing, though unlike her the demon lord was impressed more than anything else.
"YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS," Mike growled.
The floor underneath them collapsed, and with screams of surprise and fear the players fell into the darkness. The Final Round was about to begin.
And in the back of their minds, the ghost kids had a suspicion that Mike wouldn't be so merciful with his questions, this time around…
/
A/N: Originally, I was going to have this entire chapter include both the main part of the TMP round AND the Final Round, like last time. But when this chapter started reaching Page 18 with just the regular parts, I decided to split the final round into next chapter.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: "oh, God, I don't want you to split this into another chapter. I just want you to end this." However, I did this for two reasons. The first is because I don't want this final round to end quickly like the last one (which I would have to do if I don't want this chapter to stretch on to 30+ pages). I want to leave you guessing as to who will win, and though I won't reveal the details, the next game will be MUCH closer than the last one. And will feature more of the darker aspects of Dark!Mike and MAYBE even a hint of Demon!Mike.
And the second is because I will also be providing an intro (of sorts) to the next big FNAF game with regards to how it will fit into this fic. That's right, I will begin to address Ultimate Custom Night in the next chapter and how it will play out in the MNGF universe. While the more prevalent theories, WillHell (in its most traditional interpretation) and PurgaMike will not be able to fit in MNGF for obvious reasons, but I have already prepared a somewhat…different…take on UCN to help it fit better into this fic's universe.
Who do you think will win this round? Nightmarionne has the advantage in terms of both money and being the only one alive, but that is a state of affairs that can very easily change.
Hope you guys enjoyed!
