A/N: We've finally arrived everyone. Pizza Party is here. The longest arc I've ever written in this fic that's related to FNaF (and honestly I think the longest arc I've written in this story period) will soon be reaching its conclusion…for now, anyway. I still have several plans for Help Wanted. Curse of Dreadbear among other things. Those just won't be addressed right away due to the nature of the plot and the story not allowing them to be immediately implemented without sacrificing the story's coherency.

With that being said, let the "Pizza Party" begin!

Guest/Properman: I personally imagined that MNGF started at around 2024-2025, but I could see Help Wanted being released around either 2026-2027 given the fic's timeframe. Also, I highly doubt that the children realized the gravity of societal norms and changes even when they were alive, since they were, you know, kids. And even if they did, they almost certainly completely forgot about anything related to what society was like back then due to being trapped and enslaved in animatronic bodies for more than 30 years.

HealthInspector: Possibly, though maybe not the one you're thinking of.

User: I know literally nothing about Roblox and I don't have the time to research it, so I probably won't be able to implement that suggestion. Sorry :/

RedisSus/BarcodeMan47: In Liz's defense, she just finished Nightmare Plushbabies. The game mode that is UNIVERSALLY considered the hardest level in the game by a country mile. A game mode that took me multiple days and several hours to complete, and in-universe took Liz 1-2 hours when most levels can be done in a matter of minutes. With that in mind, I think she has every right to curse :P That and the fact that since the family mostly keep to themselves, they don't have any reason to regulate their language at all.

Though on a macro scale you do have a point, I'll tone it down a bit in future chapters.

And to RedisSus, no, Man in Room 1280 isn't canon to MNGF. I honestly don't consider any of the Fazbear Frights books canon to the game universe, since there's no way to fit them into the timeline that makes any sense, and the events in the books themselves lean too much into the supernatural even for the standards of FNaF. The events in Fazbear Frights likely parallel those of the canon game universe, but I highly doubt that they outright take place in the same universe, and they certainly won't in this fic.

Reap2: I need to reincorporate Helpy at some point, I've completely forgotten about him. You know, your strategy is actually not a bad one. But it's not as effective as you think it might be for dealing with the overall problem, for reasons I will discuss in the near future. And even if we put that aside, another problem is that it would still require sacrificing one of the ghost kids to being trapped in the game or sharing Lefty's body with Glitchtrap, which is…not ideal, to put it mildly. And although the ghost kids might be okay with making that sacrifice, Mike definitely won't be.

ThomasTheTank: I'm probably gonna hold off on Security Breach until it actually gets released. There's other things I can write about in the meantime, and they don't all have to do with FNaF.

TobiasRieper: She passed away at some point before the fic started, and will not likely appear. The dead in the afterlife aren't allowed to visit the Earth with very few exceptions that are usually related to giving important information or warnings (such as Henry talking with Charlie and Gabe or Serene calming Demon!Mike from going apeshit on William's soul), and Mrs. Afton doesn't fall under that category.

HarperDubus: That is true, but the ghost kids are working for it and will continue to work for it. Also, a hypothetical health inspector would just be doing their job like anyone else, likely completely oblivious to the horrible shit going on. If they did what you described, they could understandably be considered heroes and save the night guards. But at the same time they could also unintentionally prolong the Fazbear tragedy in the process. That's really all it boils down to.

Awesomesniper86: Even I'm surprised by just how large this story has grown sometimes :P As for the Plushtrap jumpscare troll prize, you do get sent to the Game Over screen if you get hit by it, but the level that you just finished is still considered as completed. Think of it as basically not getting a prize for that level.

SuperDescendant101: While I don't agree with everything MatPat says, I do agree with his fundamental premise of what Glitchtrap is in this case.

Guest: Unfortunately, I know practically nothing about any of those games, and I don't have the time right now to research them. Sorry :/

Marshall Davis: 1. Probably not tbh. The Help Wanted Jeremy probably met an unfortunate end, and Jeremy Fitzgerald was an alias of Michael Afton in this universe (even though I kinda wish I made him his own separate character like I did with Mike. 2-3. I can't reveal that because of plot reasons. 4. I just started with this unique idea that nobody else had done yet, kept expanding on it, and used inspiration from various other sources to further build it up to what it has become today. 5. I won't be revealing much regarding Vanny, but I can tell you that it WON'T be Melody, as intriguing of a plot path that would be. I already have plans for the story progression, and Melody being Vanny wouldn't make sense with them.

RDeathClawProductions: Well you're about to find out! And yeah, I need to work on giving the MCI kids more character development. Jeremy and Susie definitely need the most improvement in this regard.

Sonic245: If I have the kids play any of those, it'll just be Undertale and that's probably it to be honest.

Jack0Lanterns: Well at least she never has to deal with them again :P

Rebiele: Thank you very much! I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

FrostTheFrozenFox: I actually did include the Nightmare Ennard Vent Repair tape, it was simply in a normal Fredbear's head instead of Nightmare Fredbear's head. Also, with regards to Mangle, I know that she was called Funtime Foxy in FNaF World, but I completely disagree with that classification. Just by looking at Mangle and Funtime Foxy we can see that they are completely different animatronics, and Mangle might have just been called Funtime Foxy in FNaF World just because the concept of the actual Funtime Foxy might not have been developed yet. Mangle is very clearly more associated with the Toys and has virtually no connection whatsoever with Sister Location whatsoever, and for that reason I'm going to continue calling her un-mangled form Toy Foxy in order to avoid confusion.

RicAlbuquerque: The Phantoms don't have anything to do with the Shadow animatronics, as far as we can tell. I've seen some arguments that the Phantoms were manifested by Springtrap, but that doesn't really make any sense to me since they don't appear at all in FNaF 6, and if Springtrap controlled them he absolutely would've used them against Michael in that game. I've seen some people say the Phantoms are the ghost children, but that doesn't entirely make sense either since some of the Phantoms are of the Toys like Mangle and BB, which aren't connected to the MCI (and Bonnie is conspicuously absent from that group). The theory I believe, and the explanation I'm going with in this fic, is that the Phantoms are manifestations and hallucinations manifested from the misery, fear, and horror that surrounded the Fazbear tragedy. They don't have the ability to actually impact the physical world in any meaningful way, but they can mess with people's minds and overwhelm them with the negative energy that's amassed in Fazbear's Fright. I think the best trope that fits here would be "Evil Tainted the Place", though in this case it's more "Tragedy Tainted the Place."

FireFlamerx9z: Either they're not gonna believe it, or they know something about it and are trying to hide it. Either way, they still look and are incompetent as fuck.

AlchemyWriter: I'm not sure about Special Delivery. While I think the hidden lore can be implemented without difficulty, the actual gameplay premise is a very different story. I MAY find a way to incorporate it, but I'm still figuring out the details on that one.

MegaMaster78: You'll soon find out 😊

Properman: Well, Vanny's situation is very different from William Afton's, and it's something I'll address later on down the road.

Chapter 124 – VR Help Wanted Part 10

"Are you guys okay if I do Pizza Party?" Rockstar Bonnie asked. "I didn't really have a chance to do a full set of games like most of you guys."

"Go right ahead," Rockstar Freddy answered. "Even if you hadn't, we've gone back around the circle so it's your turn anyway."

"Be careful, though," Rockstar Chica added worriedly. "This game has been giving me the creeps. Not to mention that Spring Bonnie thing."

"I will," Rockstar Bonnie promised as he put the VR headset on. When he appeared back in the main level select hub, the first thing Jeremy did was look to his right to see if the Spring Bonnie figure was there. He nearly jolted in shock when he realized just how large, and how close, the Spring Bonnie had become, especially compared to the beginning when they had only collected 1 or 2 Tapes. "That thing really is connected to the Tapes, isn't it?" he thought glumly. "And we've collected most of them already…we really don't want to collect all 16 unless we know what we're doing."

Jeremy forced himself to ignore the Spring Bonnie figure as he went over to the Tape Room, wanting to quickly check how many Tapes were left before collecting any more. 14 of the slots were filled, leaving only 2 empty ones remaining. "Okay, so if I pick up just one more, that should be okay," he mused. He went back to the main hub and switched the screen over to Night Terrors. Waiting for him was the one level that the family had not played: Pizza Party. Jeremy squinted at the level icon, all he could see were two curtains glowing with an eerie light. "Why is a level called Pizza Party in Night Terrors of all things?" Jeremy wondered. The animation of Helpy cowering behind the closet door in fear certainly didn't help.

With no idea what to expect, Jeremy sighed and entered the level. The instructions suggested that he would be using a flashlight and moving from one room to another, but other than that the only mission he had was a vague "Don't be late!"

"Why, what happens if I'm late?" the former Bonnie inhabitant deadpanned. "Do I get jumpscared? Probably."

Jeremy entered the level, only to find himself in almost complete darkness, with the only illumination coming from a red lava lamp on the floor in front of him. Creepy music began to play all around him, the tune sounding like it was emanating from a corrupted and twisted music box. Already unnerved, Jeremy turned on the flashlight, and was immediately taken aback by his surroundings. The room he was in looked like a bedroom of some kind, similar to the bedroom that Liz had described. There were several plushies and toys scattered about, and behind him Jeremy could see both a bed and, bizarrely, the Show Stage curtain.

The most striking feature about the room, and arguably the most disturbing, was the messages and shapes that had been painted onto the walls. "Find Me" was written on the wall in front of him by an unknown entity. The same entity had also written "This Way" on the floor" and "Do You Trust Me?" further to the left, both accompanied by arrows pointing to the left door. All of the messages had been written in red paint, which in the unnatural glow of the room looked disturbingly like blood. "Did Fazbear Entertainment write this?" Jeremy wondered. If they had, writing the messages in such a creepy manner was in exceedingly poor taste, though something about that answer didn't seem right to him.

Without anything else he could do, Jeremy focused his attention back on the two doors. Deciding not to trust the mysterious figure behind the messages, he instead chose to go through the right door. Once he teleported through, he found himself in a much larger room with a few gift boxes scattered here and there. The most prominent feature about the room was the Foxy head next to him on the left wall, its eyepatch open and glowing with an eerie light. "Wait a minute," Jeremy studied the head more closely. "That's the Foxy head from FNaF 3! Is this room supposed to be based on FNaF 3?" He took another look at the room, but he couldn't really identify any defining features, although there were more messages scrawled on the walls such as "This Way", "Are You Lost?", and "Find the Party." "How many rooms are there in this place?" Jeremy couldn't help but wonder. "Are there going to be rooms based on every single level in this entire game?" It would certainly be a fitting way to wrap up the game through its final level, as much as Jeremy hated to admit it.

On a whim, Jeremy decided to go straight ahead this time. This time, when he went through the door, he found himself at the edge of a long hallway. This time, there was no mistaking it: the room he was in now was definitely based on FNaF 3. More specifically, the long hallway right outside the FNaF 3 office, complete with its long window through which Springtrap could directly look at the player and attempt to make his advance to CAM01. Curiously, the door leading into the office was blocked and barricaded, complete with a giant Red X painted over it. Clearly, Jeremy wouldn't be able to enter through that way, at least not now. "Maybe later, though?" he wondered. He had a feeling that this blocked door was important somehow, even if he couldn't go through it currently.

Jeremy looked around the FNaF 3 hallway again. There was a lot more paint all around the room, although this time it was more haphazard and disorganized. Even the messages were unhelpful this time around, with the only two being "Not This Way" leading to the barricaded door and "This Way?" down the hallway to the right. However, when Jeremy looked down towards his feet, he found to his surprise a Coin on the floor to his left, next to a vent opening. "Oh cool!" he exclaimed as he picked up the Coin and it disappeared with the sound of cheering children. "I'll definitely take that!"

His sense of victory quickly faded however as the lights flickered briefly. When Jeremy looked at the window again, Springtrap was looking at him from within the office, his head tilted slightly as he observed the black-haired ghost boy with glowing yellow eyes and a grim smile on his face. "Oh God…" Jeremy breathed, "I need to get out of here." He had a bad feeling that Springtrap would attack him if he waited in the room for too long, and that was not something he wanted to experience. Glancing between the two doors he could go through, he decided to take the one to his left, the one located down the hall with a Chica head next to its base.

That door took him down to an empty metal hallway that Jeremy didn't recognize from any of the games. Unfortunately, as empty as it was, it didn't change the fact that there five possible doors that he could choose from, the most choices that Jeremy had seen from a single room thus far. There was one door on each side close to him, one door to the left and right further down the hallway, and a door straight across. A red X was splattered on all of the doors, with a few arrows pointing towards the far right labelled "This Way."

"I have no idea what the heck is going on anymore," Jeremy sighed as he entered the door to the far left. When he flashed his light, he groaned when he realized that he was back in the room with the Foxy head, meaning that he had effectively gone in a circle. However, this time it appeared as though he had entered from the side opposite the one he had first come in through, since the Foxy head was now across the room in the far distance and to the right. Jeremy was about to pick a door to go through, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. He aimed his light down and to the right, and was delighted to discover that there was another coin waiting for him on top of a gift box. "Yes!" he declared triumphantly as he picked it up. "Man, I am really picking up the coins today!"

Satisfied with his accomplishment, he confidently crossed the room and through the door…ending up right back into the starting bedroom. "D'oh!" Jeremy groaned as he smacked his face with his palm. "Right…I already came through that way." He trained his flashlight on the right door and walked through to retrace his steps…

…and was promptly greeted by a shadowy black Freddy with glowing red eyes and teeth. There was no warning given; one moment, Jeremy was walking through the door, and the next Freddy was leaping at him, screaming and shaking in a berserk rage.

"GAH!" Jeremy yelled, completely unprepared for the Freddy's sudden ambush. "The heck just happened?" he shouted as he found himself in the Game Over room. "That Freddy thing definitely wasn't there the first time!"

If Fazbear Entertainment had put that Freddy in to give people a scare, it had certainly worked. The Freddy himself was certainly disturbing to look at, his black body and unnatural red eyes and teeth matching well with the eerie atmosphere of the level itself. But what had really made the ambush successful was the fact that it had been in a place that Jeremy had previously thought was safe, making it even more shocking than it would have been otherwise.

"Okay…" Jeremy calmed down. "So I can't go through that right door twice, apparently. At least I got two Coins through that run, so it definitely wasn't a waste of time."

He restarted the level, finding himself back in the bedroom that marked its start. Jeremy eyed the right door distrustfully, knowing what he did now about the danger that lurked behind it if he went through it twice. "You know what," he shifted his gaze over to the left door, "I think I'll go through the left door this time. See what's down there."

Jeremy went through the left door and found himself in a very familiar hallway. The West Hall of the 1993 Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria and FNaF 1, and the hallway that he had walked down so many times as Bonnie to attack and kill the night guards that he knew now had never shared in William's atrocities. Jeremy felt a shiver of guilt flow through him, but he forced himself to regain control. "This is why you're doing this," he thought, "to do something right and make up for those deaths." He looked around the hallway, and although he could see the familiar FNaF 1 Office to his immediate right, there were only 2 doors, 1 to the left and 1 to the right, that he could go through. One of them was marked with a red arrow leading to it, along with a "This Way" message.

Before Jeremy could think about which way to go down, the flashlight flickered, and suddenly Bonnie appeared in the hallway, walking slowly but surely towards him. "Okay, time to move!" Jeremy declared, quickly going through the left door before he could be caught and jumpscared.

The next room turned out to be one of the most interesting ones so far. The path had led Jeremy to the FNaF 2 hallway, more specifically the area just right outside the Office and next to the first set of party rooms. Unlike Springtrap and Bonnie, who had taken several seconds to appear in their respective rooms, Mangle was crawling on the ceiling out of the Office and towards him immediately. "Oh no…" Jeremy muttered, wondering if he had somehow fallen into a trap, but Mangle disappeared just when it seemed that she would close the distance and bite him on the head. Jeremy blinked as Mangle vanished, deciding to get moving while there was still time. There was nothing notable in the Office, but the wall in front of it had the question "Favorite Flavor?" painted on it. As Jeremy looked between the left and right party rooms, the balloons blocking the entrances cleared up, revealing rooms that had a decorated party table and doorways at the far end of each room. Above the doors was a banner that had a single word written on them. The left side led to "Chocolate" and the right side led to "Vanilla."

"Wait a minute…this is for the so-called party, isn't it?" Jeremy realized. "Whichever one I choose is the one that will be at the party. I think that's how it works." The former Bonnie inhabitant decided to pick Chocolate for this particular run and move on, not wanting to be caught by Mangle and jumpscared in such an embarrassingly easy manner. The door took him back to the Springtrap hallway, and by now Jeremy was familiar enough with this particular room to immediately pick the left doorway. When he ended up back in the hallway with the five doors, he decided to try and go for a path he hadn't chosen yet, and decided to go through the far right door.

The location he arrived in was certainly one he hadn't seen yet, and wasn't like any Freddy Fazbear place he was familiar with. It was one of the largest rooms he had been in so far, with a checkerboard pattern on the floor and pipes running through the ceiling. The wall in front of him, which was much farther away from him than the walls of the other rooms, had 3 doors right next to each other. Each was marked with a faintly glowing Exit sign, as well as the word Exit scrawled in red paint next to each door. Though he had never seen this place before, it reminded him eerily of the cold metal atmosphere of Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental, or at least the few parts that he remembered seeing. "Maybe Liz would recognize this room if she saw it?" Jeremy questioned. "I mean, she's certainly seen a lot more of CBEAR than I ever will."

Though he didn't know it, Jeremy had arrived in a room very similar to the Funtime Auditorium, one that had an animatronic lurking in the shadows. Before he could think about the new room any further, there was a flash of light that briefly illuminated the room around him. "Ah crap," Jeremy groaned. "Something's coming to get me, isn't it?" In every room where the environment changed or the flickered, that usually meant an animatronic was a few seconds away from approaching and very likely attacking him. Which meant that he couldn't waste time trying to figure out the right path when he had never been in this room before.

Not wasting any time, he decided to go through the left door first. To his consternation, he found himself back in the room with the Foxy mask, meaning that he had effectively gone backwards. "Aww, come on!" he complained. "This is NOT the way I wanted to go!" He tried to turn around to see if he could go back the way he came, but the door wouldn't budge an inch. "I guess I can't just turn around and go back," he sighed. Jeremy turned back to face the three doors he could go through. After a few seconds of thought, he figured out a possible solution. "Wait…the Foxy head is right next to me to my right," the former Bonnie inhabitant reasoned. "If I go to the right I'll end up back at the start. I don't know where the door across from me will take me. But if I go to the left…I'll end up back at the Springtrap hallway again. And I can just go back to the Funtime Auditorium from there! So that's probably the best way to go!"

Feeling pleased with himself for figuring this out, Jeremy went through the chosen door. Just as he expected, he was back in the Springtrap hallway, and he easily retraced his steps through the empty five-door hallway and back to the Funtime auditorium. "Might as well go right this time and see what happens," Jeremy commented with a shrug as he went through the door before the flash beacon could light again.

This time, he found himself in another large room that was just as unfamiliar and bizarre to him as the Funtime auditorium had been. There were tech boxes and machines scattered all throughout the room, as well as a large set of gears rapidly turning and churning to his right. The room had four doors scattered through the wall almost haphazardly, as well as an elevator door right in front of him that had five neon-yellow numbered lights above it. The door to the far left had a red X painted on it, but there was also cautionary signs painted on the floor, including "Warning" and "Not This Way," pointing at some of the other doors as well.

"Ugh, this is so confusing…" Jeremy complained, not amused at all. As he thought about which path to take, knowing full well he could easily backtrack if he picked the wrong one, the sound of elevator music suddenly reached his ears. With a growing dread, Jeremy looked back towards the elevator door, and his fears were confirmed when he saw that the elevator number lights were turning green…and slowly counting down.

"I don't know what's coming, and I don't want to know!" Jeremy exclaimed. On a whim, he moved towards the right door closest to the elevator before whatever was in the elevator could come down. When he flashed his light, he discovered that he was in a much more familiar location: the kitchen of Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria. There was a pizza box open in front of him full of pizza, and two doors in front of him on the opposite wall. The door to the left had the word "Cheese" scrawled on top of it, while the door to the right had the word "Pepperoni" above it instead.

Jeremy smiled as he realized that he had very likely reached another room that was important for setting up the Pizza Party. As he was about to make a decision, he heard the sound of stomping footsteps. Chica started to approach him from the far corner of the room, mostly intact except for her missing left arm. But instead of trying to attack him, Chica's attention was fully focused on the pizza box, the chicken animatronic looking as the box with clear delight on her face as she reached out to grab a pizza slice. The light flickered and Chica vanished, but Jeremy could still hear crunching sounds as Susie's former animatronic ate the pizza slices one at a time.

"Man," the ghost boy smirked. "Imagine Susie's expression on her face when she realizes what Chica is doing in this level." He looked back towards the two doors offering different topics, then back at the steadily disappearing pizza slices. "You know what, screw it!" Jeremy declared. "I want to see what happens when all the pizza disappears." Probably a jumpscare, but the former Bonnie inhabitant was too amused by Chica's behavior to care.

To speed things along, Jeremy decided to start picking up pizza slices and eating them directly, since he could move faster than Chica. Once the final slice was gone, Chica reappeared, looking at the pizza with a disbelieving and saddened expression on her face. Slowly, she began to turn her head towards Jeremy, giving him a deadly and furious glare as though she were directly accusing him of eating all her pizza. Which, granted, wasn't a false accusation to make.

Jeremy grinned, imagining Susie doing the exact same thing in Chica's place. He raised his fingers and started to count down. "Three…two…one…"

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Chica screamed, lunging at Jeremy with her beak. The former Bonnie inhabitant was somewhat taken by surprise when Chica's color scheme unexpectedly changed for the jumpscare, her entire body turning dark with unnatural glowing green eyes and a dark red beak. But other than that, he found her attack more humorous than anything else.

"Worth it," Jeremy commented with a chuckle as he restarted the level at the Game Over screen. He was definitely telling Susie about this once he finished with the Pizza Party.

When the start bedroom reappeared, Jeremy could easily retrace his steps through the doors (minus his earlier mistakes), by now knowing the paths that he needed to take to get to the FNaF 2 hallway and the Kitchen, where he could choose the flavors for the cake and pizza that he would presumably be rewarded with at the end of the level. This time, he went for Vanilla and Pepperoni, and barely paid any attention to Chica going for the pizza.

Although the brief reprieve with Chica's pizza obsession had been a welcome distraction, Jeremy's unease about the Pizza Party level had never faded entirely, and by now it was returning. Even without the red paint scrawled across the walls, ceiling, and floor of the vast majority of the rooms, every single room had been colored in hues that seemed unnatural and unearthly. It didn't help that the haunting music played continuously as Jeremy progressed through the level, only adding to the creepy atmosphere. Pizza Party might not have been the hardest or longest level, and honestly not even the scariest. But it was certainly disturbing in its own right, in a way that the other FNaF games hadn't been.

"What were Fazbear Entertainment thinking, making this level?" Jeremy couldn't help but wonder. It wasn't even an insult this time; Jeremy genuinely didn't understand why they would create this level in such a weird way. Was it simply to try and amp up the creepiness factor to try and make the whole Fazbear tragedy look like a fantasy? There was something about this level that felt…off, somehow. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, and it was frustrating him to no end.

"Maybe it'll make more sense once I reach the end," the former Bonnie inhabitant thought. After choosing Pepperoni, the next room he ended up in was one that he was very familiar with. It was a FNaF2 Prize Corner-like room positively filled with gift boxes and adorned with banners on the walls, with an inactive Balloon Boy to his left and a carousel to his right. But by far the most important feature in the room was the large music box in the middle of the room, which had a door to either side.

A music box that was quite familiar to anyone who had ever played FNaF 2…and was already playing "Pop Goes the Weasel."

"Oh hell no!" Jeremy exclaimed. "I'm not sticking around here!" Having been around Charlie and the Puppet for way too long, he knew what was going to happen if he stuck around. He quickly entered the right doorway and found himself, once again, back in the Springtrap Hallway.

But this time, there were crucial differences to the other times he had arrived here. All the red paint on the walls and floor was gone. And the door leading to the Office, which had previously been a metal door that had been barricaded and marked off with red paint, had been turned into a simple wooden door…which could now open. "I think that's where I have to go," Jeremy thought as he moved through the door. Inside the FNaF 3 Office-like room, which only had stools and a party table instead of the Office machinery he had been expecting, there was only one way to go: through the vent right in front of him. The vent door opened the moment he shined his flashlight on it, and Jeremy pushed forward, sensing that the end of the level was near.

The room he entered wasn't so much of a typical room, and looked more like the center hub of a vent system. Right in front of him was a small shaft leading to a vent grate, with a Spring Bonnie plushie and a single balloon inside of it and the question "What Goes Up?" written with red paint on the floor of the shaft. A fan hummed gently below him, and there were two vent doors, one on each side. "Wait a minute…" Jeremy interrupted himself, focusing the flashlight back to the center shaft. Specifically, the "What Goes Up?" question. "Is there…" he shined his flashlight upward, and was rewarded with a much larger, circular vent gate opening up in the ceiling with a ladder leading up to it. Even though he couldn't make out many details, he could see the balloons in the distance, and the message "This Way" painted on the wall circular vent wall. Jeremy smiled to himself. "I think I found the Party," he thought triumphantly as he transported himself through the ceiling gate.

And when he flashed his light in that final room, the lights all suddenly flashed on, and the sound of cheering children echoed through the air. The show stage curtain covered the area in front of Jeremy, above which hung a vibrantly colored banner with the message "Happy Birthday!" on it. On the floor, a red arrow had been painted pointing to the Show Stage. There was also a cake on the circular purple to his immediate left, as well as an open pizza box filled with pizza to his immediate right sitting in front of a large stack of gift boxes with a few party hats on them. He could also see another Tape lying on the table just behind the pizza box.

Jeremy looked at the cake and pizza sitting in front of him. The cake was Vanilla and the pizza was Pepperoni, matching the flavors that he had chosen while wandering through the maze. "That's…cool, I guess?" Jeremy mumbled. Even though it might have been logical to see the flavors that he had chosen appear at the Pizza Party, for some reason it still felt jarring. Almost as though the hypothetical figure who had written the messages in red paint had seen the choices he had made while wandering through the maze…and had prepared them for him. "I still don't know who wrote those messages," he muttered. The only hint had been a Spring Bonnie plushie…and given who had once been in Spring Bonnie, that didn't make him feel any reassured in the slightest.

Jeremy looked around the room. To his right, the room contained only a desk and a few scattered balloons. The left side was a little more interesting, as the wall was covered with Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria posters, and there was a Bonnie with his face missing and a Chica with her left arm missing sitting in front of the posters. "This looks kinda like the Parts and Services room," Jeremy mused. "But why would you hold a pizza party in the Parts and Services room of all places?" he wondered. "Why wouldn't you just hold it in some place like the Dining Room instead? Wouldn't that make more sense? And…" he took another look around the room again. "Why does this all look so familiar? And not in a good way…"

He should have felt relieved, excited, happy that he had made it to the Pizza Party and through the maze. But he wasn't feeling any of those things. The unease and nervousness that he had been feeling all throughout the level was growing, to the point that it could even be called fear.

Moving much more reluctantly than he should have, Jeremy trained his flashlight on the Show Stage curtain, which slowly opened. The Spring Bonnie figure that had been appearing before him and the rest of his family pulled the curtain open. He was no longer translucent and glowing with unnatural colors, instead having the regular dirty golden color and purple bowtie expected of a Spring Bonnie figure. The Spring Bonnie waved at Jeremy, his mouth still fixated into that disturbing grin, and beckoned the former Bonnie inhabitant to follow him behind the Show Stage curtain.

And in that moment, with a horrible clarity, Jeremy finally understood what was going on.

June 26, 1982

"Hey, Jeremy?" Gabe looked over at his friend. "Have you seen Susie in a while?"

"…no, I haven't, actually…" Jeremy replied after a few seconds of thought. He and the rest of his friends had been enjoying the performance provided by Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. The man in the Spring Bonnie had offered to show them a special surprise since they were the birthday girl Cassidy's closest friends, a surprise that he insisted had to be shown one at a time.

"Fritz's gone too," Gabe observed. "He's going to be really mad if he finds out he missed a Foxy show."

"Where's Susie?" Cassidy popped up next to them. Though she was still really excited about her birthday party, she was still concerned that her best friend wasn't there with her. "She's going to miss Chica's show soon!"

"Maybe he'll be done showing them the surprise soon?" Jeremy suggested. "It must be something really special since he's saving it for last." He looked up and his eyes widened. "Hey, there he is!" he exclaimed, pointing towards the other side of the room. "Hey, Mr. Spring Bonnie man!" Jeremy called over to him, waving his hand.

"Hello there!" the Spring Bonnie man answered back, mirroring his actions with a wave of his own hand. "Are you enjoying your time at Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria?"

"We sure are!" Jeremy replied with a grin, though a slightly worried look appeared on his face. "But…where's Susie and Fritz? We haven't seen them back in a while."

"You'll all be together real soon," Spring Bonnie promised. "But in the meantime, who'd like to see my surprise next? I promise, it'll be something you guys will never forget." The way he said those last few words was a bit odd to Jeremy, but he didn't put too much thought on it.

Spring Bonnie guided him away from the Dining Room and towards the Parts and Services Room. "What's it like to be working at Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria all the time?" he asked Spring Bonnie as they walked.

"It's…quite the experience," the man in the springlock suit replied. "You really feel like you're part of the Fazbear family."

"Really?" Jeremy asked excitedly. "Maybe I'll work at Freddy's someday!"

Spring Bonnie chuckled. "Perhaps. Now tell me, Jeremy, who is your favorite animatronic?"

"Bonnie," he answered without any hesitation. "Bonnie the bunny. The way he plays that guitar is just so cool!"

"Ah, Bonnie. You have quite the good taste in animatronics," Jeremy grinned as the man in the Spring Bonnie suit approached the Parts and Services. He opened it just a fraction and then stepped inside. Spring Bonnie turned to look back at Jeremy, and gestured at him with his finger to follow. "Follow me, Jeremy!" he requested, his teeth stretched in a delighted grin. "Your friends are in here. I'm going to show you something you'll never forget!"

Grinning eagerly himself, Jeremy followed Spring Bonnie into the Parts and Services. Completely unaware of the horror that lurked within…and that the only gift Spring Bonnie had for him was death.

Present

The way the Spring Bonnie had waved at him, the way he had beckoned at him to follow him behind the Show Stage curtain…those actions were almost exactly the same as the ones that William Afton had made when luring him over to his death, all those years ago. Combined with all the disturbing stories that he and his family had heard through the Tapes, and it was enough for Jeremy to reach his conclusion.

This Spring Bonnie thing, this glitch, this anomaly…it was some form of William Afton's malevolent spirit, trapped inside this game. And it had been him who had painted all over the walls and doors of the Pizza Party minigame, luring him over to this room while trying to confuse and disorient him at the same time so that he would feel a false sense of security when he finally arrived here.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Jeremy thought frantically, fighting not to let his growing panic and horror overwhelm him. "We saw William Afton break out of Hell as Nightmare Springtrap. We saw him invade our house and get beaten by Dad in his mind. How can he be here now, like this?"

Jeremy didn't know the answer…and frankly, it didn't matter. He looked back over at the now closed Show Stage curtain, and knew without a shadow of a doubt that if he followed the Spring Bonnie through the curtain, he would be making by far be the worst mistake of his life ever since he had first come into Mike Schmidt's home.

Many things had changed since Mike had adopted him and his siblings into his family. He had finally been able to start living the closest thing he could to a normal life. He had been given happiness and love that, just a few years ago, would have been unthinkable to receive from someone who had every right to hate them for what they had done and tried to.

But for all the things that had changed, Jeremy was still a victim of the MCI. A child who had been lured to a violent and gruesome death by a psychopathic murderer who had put on an innocent appearance to gain trust that he had so foolishly given away. And not only that, but he was the adopted son of Mike Schmidt. A man who, despite his chill demeanor and the way he seemingly approached every challenge in his life with casual nonchalance, was actually incredibly careful, methodical, and some would say even paranoid in how he handled many of those challenges. Jeremy's many experiences throughout his life and afterlife, both good and bad, had taught him many important lessons. Lessons that he had taken to heart.

The former Bonnie inhabitant might have made a catastrophically foolish mistake that had cost him his life once. He would never make that same mistake again.

"I've got to get out of here," he thought. "I've got to warn everyone." He cast one last look at the Show Stage curtain, making sure not to actually shine his flashlight on it, fearing that the Spring Bonnie figure might grow inpatient or suspicious. To his relief, the curtain was still closed, and nobody was there. Just to be sure, he reached out and grabbed the cut cake slice and one of the pizza slices, eating them both to give the illusion that he was just playing around in the room. Then, he reached out and grabbed the Tape, waiting until it had disappeared with a flash, before turning off the headset and yanking it off his head.

Breathing heavily, Rockstar Bonnie threw the VR headset onto the couch as if it were radioactive. He looked up to see Mike and the other animatronics looking at him with confusion and concern, wondering he was suddenly behaving so erratically.

"I know what it is," Rockstar Bonnie began, then shook his head. The animatronic's voice wouldn't be enough to convey his emotions. Jeremy flew out of the animatronic, and his family recoiled at seeing the fearful and panicked look on his face.

"I know what it is," Jeremy repeated, and this time there was no mistaking the desperation in his voice. "The Spring Bonnie thing we've been seeing. The thing that the Tapes were talking about. I know what he is. I know WHO he is."

He looked Mike straight in his eyes, and said the words that would change their thoughts on Fazbear Entertainment's VR game forever. "He's William Afton. He's everything we were afraid he was going to be."

/

A/N: It seems as though Jeremy and the others have finally figured out the truth. Somehow, the enemy who they thought was vanquished and trapped in Hell forever has returned yet again, in another form. And now they're going to have to deal with much more than just Fazbear Entertainment's incompetence and greed.

I kinda did Jeremy a disservice, not just in general by failing to develop him as much as some of the other characters, but also by giving him the short end of the stick for the Help Wanted arc. So I'm giving him a much more prominent role as the player of Pizza Party to make up for that. And, as an added bonus, a bit of a flashback to the MCI and how Spring Bonnie lured Jeremy over to his death. Something that I hadn't intended to add at first, but with the way the chapter was turning out I figured that it would only be fitting to compare William Afton in the past to Glitchtrap in the present

Besides, there's a bit of poetry here. Jeremy the beta tester fell to Glitchtrap's malevolence and paid for it with his life. Jeremy the ghost child, however, recognized that same danger for what it was and managed to avoid falling for that trap.

But the family's problems are not over. Jeremy might have avoided Glitchtrap, but that doesn't mean the danger is gone. Glitchtrap hasn't been defeated, and he's still lurking in the game, with only one Tape left before he can fully manifest…

In terms of how to complete Pizza Party, here's the best way to complete the minigame as quickly as possible:

1) If you just want to get to the end as quickly as possible: Start (bedroom) - Go Left - FNaF 1 Hallway - Go Left - FNaF 2 Office/Mangle (choose either Chocolate or Vanilla. The actual choice doesn't matter, but you NEED to visit this room) - FNaF 3 Springtrap Hallway (there is a coin at your feet to the bottom left) - Go Left - Plushtrap Hallway - Go Far Right - Funtime Auditorium - Go Right - Ennard Elevator Room - Go Near Right (the door to the Right that is closest to the elevator doorway) - Kitchen (choose either Cheese or Pepperoni. The actual choice doesn't matter, but you NEED to visit this room) - Puppet Prize Corner - Go Right - FNaF 3 Springtrap Hallway again - Go into the Office - FNaF 3 Office - Go through Vent - Vent Shaft - Look Up - Pizza Party Location

2) If you want to get both Coins at the same time: Start (bedroom) - Go Right - FNaF 3 Room with Foxy head - Go Straight - FNaF 3 Springtrap Hallway (again, there's a Coin here at your feet to the left) - Go Left - Plushtrap Hallway - Go Far Left - FNaF 3 Room with Foxy head again (Look down at the gift box to your right, there is a Coin on top of the box) - Go Left - FNaF 1 Hallway - See above guide starting at the FNaF 1 Hallway. DO NOT enter the right door from the Start bedroom twice, or you will be jumpscared by the Shadow Freddy with glowing red eyes.

The Help Wanted arc is approaching its conclusion, with not much left to go. Hope you guys enjoyed!