A/N: I know that we just got into Special Delivery territory, but there's one other FNaF-related thing I want to address first before we dive into that arc fully.
A lot of you have been requesting an Ultimate Custom Night chapter for a very long time. I'll freely admit that compared to arcs like Help Wanted, I haven't put nearly as many chapters into Ultimate Custom Night. That's because (a) the torment of William Afton is something that's set in stone, and doesn't really affect the events of the present or future in the real world, (b) there's only so many times I can write about William Afton getting killed by one animatronic or another before the whole thing becomes repetitive and stale, and (c) the ghost kids have made the decision to move on from their hatred of William Afton, and torturing him over and over again would only keep them trapped in the past.
But there's definitely room for at least 1 more chapter about Ultimate Custom Night, and we're cranking up the craziness all the way to 50/20. Having just declared this, you'd probably be expecting good ol' William to get slaughtered by a bunch of animatronics 5 seconds after the round started. But I have something rather different in mind.
HoloMew151: Hello! To answer your first question, they were very aware at the beginning, but as the years passed it all sort of blended in together. Needless to say, not a fun time. And as for the second, I was originally not going to…but if this fic gets taken down off for whatever reason, then I'll repost it there instead.
Chapter 157 – Ultimate Custom Night 3
The day had started just like any other.
When Gabe had reported back what he had heard from the final meeting between Eisensteel and Fazbear Entertainment, the family had scratched their heads and pooled their brains together to try and figure out what Fazbear Entertainment was scheming. The revelation that Fazbear Entertainment needed "hundreds of animatronics made" was both baffling and disturbing, especially when considering that there hadn't been any news about the existence of new Fazbear restaurants, as far as they were aware.
"Are they planning on opening up a bunch of restaurants later?" Cassidy wondered. "Maybe they're making a bunch of animatronics as prep?"
"I don't think so, in the past there was only ever one restaurant at a time," Charlie countered. "And no, the Circus Baby shithole William Afton made doesn't count."
"Weren't there a couple of spare parts and even spare animatronics in the Parts and Services rooms?" Gabe pointed out. "Fazbear Entertainment might be stupid as hell, but even they realized having only one animatronic of each kind without any backup would be a terrible idea."
Mike shook his head. "I might have believed that if it were only a few animatronics, but hundreds? You'd need a lot of restaurants to justify bringing that many animatronics into a restaurant, even if you're using most of them for storage and backup."
"We're missing something," Jeremy muttered, the frustration clear in his voice and shared with the rest of them. "I don't know what, but we're missing something."
The core of the problem was that they simply had too little information to go on. If the Fazbear Entertainment representative had given more details about their plans for either Gabe to eavesdrop on or for Melody to learn about, they could have developed, if not a plan, at the least foundations to build one. But as circumstances currently stood, they had no idea what Fazbear Entertainment was going to do, or when they were going to do it apart from "soon."
Even the Internet, that all-encompassing source of information that had been so incredibly useful for so many different situations, had yielded nothing. Whatever Fazbear Entertainment was planning, they were keeping a very tight leash on it. "Probably so that everyone else doesn't hear about their fuck-ups too early," Mike thought bitterly.
There were other avenues that he could consider, if their efforts on Earth truly proved futile. The first was to ask for guidance from Heaven. He had prayed to God and Heaven far more than he had in the days before the ghost kids had showed up at his house, for when the existence of the supernatural, Heaven, and Hell was more or less confirmed, it was only natural to pray to a benevolent and just God. But there was always the option to ask Heaven for more direct guidance, whether it be in the form of his mother, Henry, or even Liz's brothers. He didn't know how much guidance they'd be able to provide, but they had helped him and his family greatly in the past, and he believed they would do their best to help them again.
And on the opposite end of the divine spectrum, the option to call upon Nightmare was always available. Mike's relationship with the demon lord had ended up far better than he could have ever anticipated, even if part of their "friendship" was based on mutual hatred of a murderer who they both thoroughly despised. But Mike had read enough fantasy and fiction stories to know that making a deal with a demon always came with its own set of dangers, if not a price. And while he would never outright refuse Nightmare's help if the demon lord offered it of his own free will, so long as he maintained his admittedly impeccable integrity, Mike wasn't stupid enough to blindly call on a favor from the demon lord and expect there to not be any consequences.
Ironically, it would be the second who would appear back in his life at that very moment.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Everyone looked up and towards the direction of the front door. "Uh…did you invite anyone here, Dad?" Susie asked, tilting her head in curiosity and confusion.
"No," Mike denied, shaking his head, "I didn't. There's no way anybody should be here, since I haven't opened up the front gate today."
Everyone tensed. "Is there a robber here? Or an attacker?" Fritz wondered nervously.
"They'd be a pretty terrible one if that was the case," Charlie replied. "Break through the gate, only to knock on the front door and let everyone inside know they were here?"
"Let me go check and see who it is," Liz offered. She floated away from the room and out of sight towards the door. A few seconds later, she came back, looking more confused than anything. "It's a man," she reported. "He's not carrying a weapon or anything. He's wearing a yellow hat and a black suit."
A yellow hat and a black suit…Mike groaned. "Oh, I know who it is," he grumbled. The ghost kids were somewhat reassured by the fact that the expression on his face was now exasperation and irritation rather than concern or worry. "It's Nightmare's human form."
"Ohhhhhhhh…" the ghost kids breathed a sigh of relief. None of them missed the irony of being relieved that a demon lord was visiting their house, instead of an unknown human. Especially when there was one specific human that they really didn't want to see before they were ready to deal with her. "Why's he in human form?" Jeremy wondered. "He's visited the house as that demonic bear form before."
It was a good question. Since Nightmare had bothered to take on a human form before his visit, it was more than likely that he had some sort of business in the real world that he had taken care of before coming to their house, or would take care of afterwards. Mike didn't particularly want to think about what kind of business a demon lord would have on Earth, and to be honest, as long as it didn't affect anyone he cared about or bring about significant harm to innocent people, he didn't particularly give a shit what Nightmare did.
"Who cares?" Fritz interrupted. "Let's just see what he has to say."
"It might be important," Liz added.
Mike got up and walked towards the door, the other ghost kids following closely behind. He opened the front door, revealing Nightmare's human form, a condescending grin on his face.
"Good afternoon," Nightmare greeted the Schmidts. "I have some business to attend to on Earth, but I figured I might as well spend some time here before I begin. Can you spare a few moments?"
"I can," Mike replied politely. It was the truth, after all, and he wasn't stupid enough to antagonize the demon lord needlessly. Nightmare's grin widened and he stepped over the threshold. Once the door closed, the shadows seemed to stretch out from and coalesce around him, consuming him in a pillar of darkness that slowly expanded in strength. A few seconds later, the shadows dispersed, revealing the demonic bear form that they had grown accustomed to after so long.
"AHHHH…" Nightmare flexed his claws contentedly. "SO MUCH BETTER. THE HUMAN FORM IS SO…CONSTRICTING, AT TIMES." He glanced over at Mike. "INDULGE MY CURIOSITY FOR BUT A MOMENT, SCHMIDT. WHAT NEWS HAVE YOU REGARDING THE LATEST OF FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT'S MANY MISTAKES?"
"We haven't heard anything about Glitchtrap's possession victim," Mike explained grimly. "And all I know for sure is that Fazbear Entertainment tried to partner up with my old robotics company to try and create hundreds of animatronics, and we have no clue why."
"INTERESTING…" Nightmare mused, scratching his chin with his claw. "AND VERY CURIOUS."
"Do you know anything about this?" Fritz asked.
The demon lord sneered. "EVER SINCE WE ADDRESSED THE MATTER OF THE VR GAME, I HAVE TURNED MY ATTENTION TO OTHER MATTERS," he retorted. "WE MAY BE ALLIES, BUT I DO NOT ANSWER TO YOU. I MAY BE WILLING TO PROVIDE SOME ASSISTANCE, BUT I HAVE NEITHER THE OBLIGATION NOR THE DESIRE TO PERFORM YOUR DUTIES FOR YOU."
Charlie shot Fritz a warning glance not to provoke the demon lord any further. "And we're grateful that you've helped us with so much," she replied diplomatically.
Nightmare nodded once at her and turned his attention back to Mike. "IT APPEARS THAT YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO WAIT FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT ITSELF," he commented. "BUT FOR NOW, LET US TURN TO THE BUSINESS THAT I ORIGINALLY CAME HERE FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE." The shadows coalesced in his hand, and when they dissipated, they revealed the spiky black laptop that they had all seen before.
It was the laptop that Nightmare had showed them when he had first shared the existence of William Afton's special torment…the ultimate ironic Hell as he was forced to face the embodiments of his sins as a helpless night guard.
"I HAVE MADE CERTAIN…ADJUSTMENTS, SINCE THE LAST TIME I SHOWED THIS TO YOU," Nightmare explained, the unholy grin returning to his face. "ADJUSTMENTS THAT I THINK YOU WILL FIND QUITE FASCINATING. IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ENJOY YOUR MURDERER'S SCREAMS. IT IS ONLY RIGHT FOR ME TO OFFER YOU THAT PARTICULA JOY AND PLEASURE ONCE AGAIN."
The demon held out the laptop towards them, offering any of them the opportunity to take it. The ghost kids looked uncertainly between the laptop and each other. Mike watched them cary, not saying or word or making a move. Nightmare could see the temptation in their eyes, burning more strongly than in some than in others, to take the laptop and force William Afton to suffer yet another incarnation of his personalized torment.
But none of them reached forward to take the laptop. After several seconds of silence, Susie was the one to float up in front of her siblings by just the tiniest fraction.
"Thanks, Nightmare…" the former Chica inhabitant spoke for all of them. "But…we won't do it." There was clear hesitancy in her voice and behavior, both out of fear and the repressed desire to accept the offer, but she stood firm regardless. "We won't go out of our way to torture William Afton anymore."
The demon lord's expression didn't change too much outwardly, but even he couldn't hide the widening of his eyes to indicate his surprise. "…MAY I ASK WHY?" Nightmare asked, sounding more curious than angry or insulted.
"We spent years being angry and hateful towards William Afton, and all it did was get innocent people killed," Susie explained, her voice becoming stronger with each word. "Even if we're free from all that, keeping that hate is just chaining us to the past and stopping us from moving on."
"That hate was the only thing that kept us going back then," Jeremy added. "And it was also our biggest mistake."
"William Afton is in Hell." Gabe continued. "We know you're going to torture him for the rest of eternity, and it doesn't matter if we add to it or don't. Just knowing that he'll pay for the rest of forever is good enough for us."
"…it's tempting," Fritz admitted, with a rare display of maturity. "It's so tempting. But they're right. We can't keep doing this."
"We have to move on," Cassidy agreed. "It's for the best."
"Thanks for offering," Susie concluded. "I know you're being generous, offering this to us. But we'll have to pass now. We have bigger things to deal with."
Neither Nightmare nor Mike said a word, instead contemplating the children's words. Mike was smiling proudly at them, pleased and impressed with how they had rejected the temptation to indulge in the old hatred that had driven them for years to the point of insanity.
Nightmare's face, on the other hand, was almost completely expressionless, which was no small feat for a demonic creature with malice a permanent part of his very soul. For several seconds, the children wondered if Nightmare was going to lose his temper and attack them, or at the very least go into a fit of rage. But then the demon lord merely shrugged. "FAIR IS FAIR," he replied nonchalantly. If he was angry at their decision, he was hiding it extremely well. "THE CHOICE IS YOURS. I SHOULDN'T BE SURPRISED THAT YOU WOULD CHOOSE THE PATH OF VIRTUE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS," the words were spoken with mockery expected of a demon, but didn't seem particularly vitriolic beyond that. "BUT THAT IS ULTIMATELY YOUR DECISION TO MAKE."
The ghosts blinked. Nightmare seemed to be taking their refusal remarkably well. "Oh, wow…" Cassidy mumbled. "I thought you would've been a little more…"
"…angry?" Liz helpfully supplied. "Insulted?"
Nightmare sneered. "PLEASE. THE DAY THAT I BECOME INSULTED OVER THE DECISIONS AND ACTIONS OF MERE CHILDREN IS THE DAY THAT I AND MY INFERNAL CLAN LOSE ALL DIGNITY AND RESPECT," he retorted. "ESPECIALLY WHEN THEIR ACTIONS DON'T EVEN AFFECT ME PERSONALLY."
"Fair enough," Charlie conceded.
"BESIDES, EVEN IF I WAS INSULTED BY YOUR REFUSAL…THERE ARE MANY SINS AND ATROCITIES THAT I WOULD WILLINGLY AND GLEEFULLY COMMIT WITHOUT REMORSE," the demon lord added. "PREYING ON CHILDREN IS NOT ONE OF THEM, OUR FIRST MEETING NOTWITHSTANDING."
"Thank God for that," Susie mumbled. Nightmare had been the one doing the attack, but William Afton had ultimately been the one behind it that time.
"THAT BEING SAID…" the grin that had been on Nightmare's face returned, making the children much more nervous than they had been seconds before, "I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER YOU SOMETHING DIFFERENT. SOMETHING OTHER THAN A CHANCE TO TORTURE WILLIAM AFTON'S SOUL TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT. I OFFER YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO DELVE INTO THE MIND OF THE MONSTER, TO LEARN WHY HE FELL AND FOLLOWED THE PATH OF DARKNESS AND BLOODSHED TO HIS DOOM AND YOURS."
None of the family had been expecting this, as the expressions on their faces clearly proved. "Wait, what?" Fritz spluttered.
"HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY WILLIAM AFTON CHOSE TO MURDER INNOCENT CHILDREN? WHETHER HE TRULY HAD AN UNDERLYING MOTIVE, OR WAS MERELY A BLOODTHIRSTY PSYCHOPATH WHO SLAUGHTERED YOU JUST BECAUSE HE COULD? HAVEN'T YOU EVER WONDERED WHY YOU HAD TO DIE SUCH A VIOLENT DEATH AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE?" Nightmare's grin widened. "I CAN SEE THAT YOU HAVE."
The ghost kids looked at each other uncertainly. They had rejected the temptation to initiate a torture session for William Afton out of hatred, but this was a temptation of an entirely different nature. One that was much harder for them to resist.
Before any of them could do anything, however, Mike got up and walked over to Nightmare. "I'll take it," he brusquely answered for them. "If anyone's going to commit the sin of torturing William Afton today, it's not going to be them."
Nightmare grinned. "BUT OF COURSE," the demon lord replied. "IN FACT, I THINK IT WILL BE QUITE FITTING THAT YOU BE THE ONE TO CARRY OUT THE DEED. IN ORDER FOR YOU TO SEE MY SPECIAL MODIFICATION, YOU WILL NEED TO TURN EVERY SINGLE ANIMATRONIC'S LEVEL TO ITS MAXIMUM 20."
"Holy shit," Fritz breathed. "EVERY animatronic at 20?"
"William Afton's not going to last 10 seconds if it's that hard!" Cassidy exclaimed.
"TRUE," Nightmare conceded, "BUT I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE IN MIND. A MODIFICATION THAT I DID NOT INCLUDE PREVIOUSLY, WHICH WILL FULFILL MY PROMISE."
Curiosity won over their other emotions, however slowly. The ghosts floated behind Mike, watching with anticipation and dread as Mike increased every single animatronic's AI level to 20. Given Nightmare's malicious and vengeful nature, Mike somehow doubted that the animatronics seen on the screen would be the only ones William Afton would have to face once this round of the deadly game started.
Taking a deep breath, Mike pressed the GO! Button.
The screen flickered into life, transforming into the cluttered and chaotic office that served as William Afton's prison. Both the family watching the murderer, and the murderer himself, were looking carefully around the office, waiting for the first of what they were certain was going to be many, many animatronics unleashing a brutal and relentless assault on their victim.
But no animatronic stepped through the doors, or emerged from the vents. No hulking monstrosity of an animatronic forced its way into the room, eager to sink its claws and fangs into the murderer. Instead, the sound of chilling laughter began to echo within the room. William Afton's head immediately straightened up, and he began to look around the room frantically. The ghost kids knew that something momentous was happening, something fundamentally unheard of.
Because for the first time, William Afton looked truly and utterly terrified. Not even in his first death in the Spring Bonnie suit, when they had cornered him in the old restaurant decades ago, had any of the ghostly children seen such wild, primal fear.
"No…NO!" Afton shouted in horror, desperately looking around both the room and on his tablet for any tool he could use to defend himself. In his frantic attempt to defend himself, he committed several mistakes such as shining his flashlight on an inactive Nightmare B.B., actions that would surely have killed him under normal circumstances…but these weren't normal circumstances. The other animatronics were deliberately withholding their wrath…all so that their new arrival could deal with Afton himself.
Shadows began to emerge from all around, both from the many entryways into the room and from the room itself, coalescing into a storm of darkness that began to swirl and manifest in the center of the room. The chilling laughter grew louder and louder, and to Charlie's horror that laughter was familiar. Several months had passed since William Afton's attempted attack as Nightmare Springtrap, but she would never forget that laughter.
It was the exact same laughter that Mike had let out in his dark incarnation deep within his mental world. And the former Marionette now knew exactly who and what Nightmare had summoned against William Afton in his punishment's most brutal and lethal settings. "Oh my God…" Charlie breathed, her voice barely above a whisper.
And from his horrified expression, Afton knew it too.
"Impossible!" he bellowed in panicked denial. "You can't be here! YOU CAN'T BE HERE!"
The shadows exploded outward, revealing a humanoid entity made of shadows, wearing a black longcoat and wreathed in purple flame. The shadowy being's face was completely covered in darkness except for two glowing red eyes that burned with contempt as he stared down at his victim. He wasn't carrying the scythes that he had used when he had fought against Nightmare Springtrap, but his presence was otherwise unmistakable to Charlie.
Somehow, Nightmare had managed to create a near-perfect replica of Dark!Mike within William Afton's special torture chamber. And after the vicious torments and cruelties that Dark!Mike had inflicted upon William Afton the last time they had faced each other, the murderer had every right to be terrified.
"Is that…Dad?" Liz asked hesitantly. "He seems so…horribly familiar…"
"I recognize him," Susie murmured in disbelief. "I recognize that thing from Dad's drawing!"
"That can't be him, though!" Cassidy denied, fighting down her panic. "There's no way that shadowy thing can be Dad!"
"It is, though…" Jeremy confirmed grimly. "I can sense it. It's Dad…but also not Dad. It's like if Dad was a thousand times more powerful…and evil."
Gabe turned to face Charlie…and realized that their older sister had fallen silent. "Have you…have you seen this before?" the former Freddy inhabitant asked, as the chilling realization settled into his very soul.
"…Yes…" Charlie reluctantly admitted. "I have. I've seen him before, and this wasn't even the worst of it. Not nearly the worst of it."
"How bad did it get?" Fritz pressed, both dreading and anticipating the answer.
Charlie didn't say anything for several seconds as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. And when she opened them again and spoke next, her voice was uncharacteristically cold. "There are things you are better off not knowing, Fritz. If you trust me for anything, trust me on this."
"And yet…" Dark!Mike replied mockingly, as all eyes turned back to the screen. "…here I am. And don't for a second believe that Mike Schmidt has been damned to Hell. The true version of myself is on Earth, enjoying life with his children, the family you murdered. I am the darkest aspects of Mike Schmidt given flesh, crafted by Nightmare's hand, here to complete the vengeance that he started."
William Afton shrank back, whimpering as he tried to avoid his fate, his laptop and tools forgotten and laying uselessly on the desk. This was a foe he was helpless against when the rules meant nothing, and they both knew it.
Dark!Mike tilted his head ever so slightly, the grin on his face widening. "But before we get down to business, I just wanted to have a little chat with you first," he spoke almost conversationally, as though he weren't about to brutalize Afton in a manner of seconds. "We could talk all about how much we can make you suffer if I wanted…but I have something rather different in mind. I want to delve into your mind for a moment, Afton, talk about why you slaughtered innocent children to begin with."
William Afton said nothing, though it was impossible to determine whether it was due to cowardice or the last, faintest dregs of defiance.
"No matter. If you don't want to talk, I can speak more than enough for both of us." Dark!Mike continued with a grin as he approached the desk. As he did so, the Scrap Baby already sitting on it came to life, her green eyes flickering on. But instead of attacking William, she moved aside to allow Dark!Mike room, and he placed his hand, a metal gauntlet with razor-sharp claws on the desk. "Now then, where shall we begin? Ah, I know! How about the very beginning?"
"You don't know anything about me!" Afton spat.
Dark!Mike laughed in amusement. "The true version of me does not, no, nor do I think he would ever care to. But I am not just an aspect of Mike Schmidt reborn. I was created by the power of the Nightmares, and they know all about your past and the evil that it is so thoroughly drenched in."
"You don't know what he's talking about, right, Dad?" Gabe asked him.
Mike shook his head. "No, I don't," he replied. "I think I know what happened to the piece of my darkness that I gave to Nightmare…but you heard him. He isn't just me. He's basically a demon like the Nightmares, at least partially. And they probably told him things they never told me, assuming he wasn't just born with it all to begin with."
"NOW YOU SEE WHAT I HOPED TO ACCOMPLISH WHEN I ASKED YOU FOR THAT PIECE, DO YOU NOT?" Nightmare asked.
"I do…and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet," Mike admitted.
Back in the depths of Hell, Dark!Mike's shadowy lips curled into a smirk. "You were shrouded in darkness from the very beginning, weren't you? But that darkness wasn't always a fundamental part of your very soul. Once, a long, long time ago, you were on the receiving end of darkness, rather than on the giving end." The smirk vanished. "Poor William Afton…suffering under the yoke of an abusive father, knowing nothing but pain in your childhood. That was when it all truly began, wasn't it?"
Voices began to echo all around the room, even though there was nobody inside it save for William and Dark!Mike. William clutched his head in pain, as though voices themselves were being forcibly grabbed and extracted out of the depths of William's memory, thrown into the open for all of them to bear witness.
"What the fuck do you want?" an older man's voice snarled out from the shadows. "Can't you see that I'm busy?"
"But, Dad…" a much younger, boyish voice cried back. It was clearly filled with sorrow, its owner sounding as though it were close to bursting into tears. "I just…I just wanted to show you…"
"Make it quick!" the man growled. "If it isn't super important, then I don't give a shit!"
"I…" the boy stammered. "I got an A on my report card! See?"
"THAT'S what you wanted to show me?" the man shouted furiously. "You wasted my time just for THAT? Get the fuck out of my sight, you little brat! Come back when you show me something that's actually important!"
There was the sound of shattering glass, and the last thing that everyone heard before the echoes faded away was the tearful crying of a young child.
"It was terrible, wasn't it?" Dark!Mike looked down at William, and to everyone's surprise, there was an expression of sympathy on his face that seemed genuine. "A tragic tale that has repeated itself countless times throughout human history. The father abusing the child, a bastardization of what should be one of the most loving relationships a human can possibly have."
"Holy crap…" Liz breathed. "William Afton had an abusive dad too?"
"Jesus Christ," Jeremy muttered in disgust. "Why the hell do we keep hearing about abusive parents over and over again?"
"That doesn't justify anything though," Gabe interrupted firmly. "It doesn't justify all the terrible things William Afton did afterwards."
"No," Mike agreed quietly, "it doesn't."
It seemed that his dark incarnation agreed with him, for when he spoke next, his voice was utterly cold. "But that is where my sympathy ends," Dark!Mike growled. "Do you think you are the ONLY child to ever suffer at the hands of an abusive parent? As I stated seconds before, this tragedy has been repeated countless times throughout human history. Some of those children swore to never become like the parents who tortured them, rising above their darkness to embrace a brighter future and destiny. Others never escaped the chains of the past, and either fell to despair or became abusive parents in their own right, continuing the vicious cycle. If you had merely been one of these, William Afton, then perhaps I could have found it in my heart to forgive you, or at the very least my hatred for you would not burn as brightly." The shadow's scarlet eyes flashed dangerously. "But you chose to fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, sinking so deep into depravity that no amount of torment that you suffered could even begin to justify your actions."
"My father made the cold harsh reality of life very clear to me," William spat. "What value is there in the lives of others, when the only person you can truly rely on to care about you is yourself?"
"A truly self-centered philosophy," Dark!Mike sneered. "And one worthy of a monster like yourself. You learned the wrong lessons from those tortured years, and it is all too easy now to see how they transformed you into an arrogant sociopath."
"And how would you know that?" William sneered. "I saw you sit there, in your comfortable bed, in your lavish home, made with far more riches than any average human could hope to possess in their lifetime. What would you know of the lessons to be learned from an abusive childhood?"
"Because I suffered that kind of childhood myself," Dark!Mike replied coolly. The frank admission seemed to take William completely off guard, and he stared up at him in stupefaction. "I suffered under the hand of an abusive father, just like you did."
"Did he just admit that?" Liz asked incredulously. "He just flat-out admitted a secret like that to Afton?"
"It's not the real Dad," Susie pointed out. "Just something created by the Nightmares. He wouldn't care."
"I wouldn't care even that was me," Mike countered, "because it doesn't affect me anymore. I've made peace with myself a long time ago; the present and the future matter a lot more to me now."
"But where I endured through that torment and rose above it, you let that darkness consume you so thoroughly it became part of your very being," Dark!Mike continued. "And we need not look any further than how you treated your own children, proof beyond measure that you have learned nothing. You deceived Michael and left him to die in your cursed facility. You ignored Evan Afton's pleas as you dragged him to an establishment that he feared and despised against his will, just as you ignored Michael's cruelty against him in the days that led to his death. The only one you showed any kind of affection to was Liz, back when you had the faintest traces of humanity buried deep within your sociopathic mind. And even then, you didn't bother to watch over her, giving her plenty of opportunity to wander in front of Circus Baby and let the animatronic kill and consume her."
William scoffed. "I told her not to come near Circus Baby," he retorted. "She got what she deserved for not listening to me."
"You fucker!" Fritz snarled as Charlie put a comforting hand on Liz's shoulder.
Moving with an inhuman speed that no human could possibly hope to achieve, Dark!Mike raised his armored gauntlet, curved it into a fist, and slammed it against William's face. The murderer howled in agony as he was sent flying backward, laying on a sprawling heap on the ground. Before he could recover or even move, Dark!Mike reached out with his hand, which now glowed with a sickly purple light, magically lifting William up and forcing him back onto the chair. The impact of his fist would have easily killed William if he was a mere mortal, but he was an immortal soul now. And he would not die quite so easily.
"Spoken like a true psychopath," Dark!Mike commented sarcastically as William grabbed the area where he had punched him, trying to lessen the pain. "And you will pay for that comment, soon enough. But as I was saying…you cared nothing for your children, that much is clear to all. Whether you actively participated in their deaths or merely did nothing as they met their ends, you failed spectacularly in your duty to protect them." The shadowy figure stroked his chin thoughtfully. "And yet, in that failure…you found opportunity, did you not?" The thoughtful expression vanished, replaced with a contemptuous sneer. "The moment you learned that Liz continued to exist beyond death in Circus Baby's accursed shell, you thought you found the key to immortality." The shadowy figure's eyes burned again. "You knew that Liz suffered alone in the darkness, and ignored her to pursue your own selfish goals."
The ghost kids all stared in horror at Dark!Mike's declaration, and the implications of what it meant for Liz. "He…he left me there…" Liz murmured, her voice barely above a horrified whisper. "He knew I was suffering all alone in there, and he…left me there…"
"That SON OF A BITCH!" Fritz howled furiously. "That complete and utter piece of SHIT!"
"You know what?" Cassidy added, her eyes cold with fury. "After hearing this, I hope the evil version of Dad beats the everloving shit out of him!"
"PATIENCE…" Nightmare growled, although even he seemed genuinely disgusted. "THAT TIME WILL COME SOON ENOUGH."
"Opportunity," Dark!Mike repeated, letting the word roll off his tongue. "One that you found in the murder of innocent children. When you first murdered Charlie and left her broken body out in that alley, so many years ago, it wasn't just because you were a murderous, disgusting piece of shit. You wanted to see if you could replicate the circumstances that led to Liz's continued existence in an animatronic body. You killed innocent children who had nothing to do with the torment of your past five more times," the entity contemptuously hissed, "seeing them as nothing more than experiments. You were hoping to enslave their souls in prisons of metal, even if you didn't understand how such a thing was possible at the time, or you were too much of a coward to personally revisit the sites of those atrocities. And when the rumors started of animatronics coming to life and killing night guards, you knew that you had gotten one step closer to your ultimate goal."
"Ultimate goal?" Jeremy asked in disbelief. "You mean William Afton killed us for reasons OTHER than being a complete piece of human garbage?"
"I need to know," Susie insisted. "I need to know why he killed us."
"Yeah," Cassidy agreed. "Even though I know we're not going to like the answer, it's going to feel even worse simply not knowing."
"You sought a goal that countless other fools and weaklings desired throughout their lives, without any comprehension of its true meaning," Dark!Mike continued, his voice dripping with mockery. "You desired immortality, William Afton. Not for the benefit of humanity, or even intellectual curiosity. You sought immortality solely so that you could prolong your pathetic existence and live to satisfy your dark desires up until the end of time, without fear of the consequences."
"And I found it!" William Afton retorted, the traces of his old self-centered personality briefly overshadowing his fear. "I found the key to immortality! I did the work to discover how to prolong life after death! And it was rightfully mine!"
"He wanted immortality?" Gabe asked incredulously. "That's it? He killed us so he could find a way to live forever?"
"That doesn't even make any sense!" Susie protested. "We didn't come back to life and have a party in Heaven or anything like that! We were trapped in robot bodies and couldn't even move except at nighttime, trapped in the same stupid pizza restaurant for years!"
"Did he even know what kind of immortality we were actually forced to live through?" Liz wondered bitterly. "Of was he so much of a coward in front of death that he'd do anything to avoid it?"
As if he were listening to them, Dark!Mike vocalized their thoughts. "You didn't understand a single fucking thing about what you desired, William Afton," he sneered. "You didn't realize that the immortality you sought wasn't freedom, but a prison, a cursed existence no decent being would ever wish upon anyone else. For someone who spent most of their human life in the fields of robotics and science, you were incapable of even the most basic fundamental of information gathering. You didn't even realize that one of the things that made that immortality possible was something completely out of your control."
Charlie cringed. "In hindsight, maybe giving you guys life might have been a bad idea," she mumbled.
Jeremy shook his head. "If you didn't, we'd be COMPLETELY trapped in the animatronics, unable to do move at all. EVER."
"Some freedom is better than nothing," Cassidy agreed.
"That somehow makes a terrible state of existence even worse," Mike cringed. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone…except William Afton."
Back in the pit, Dark!Mike's shadowy face broke into a grin. "But I will give you credit for one thing, William Afton. You DID discover the substance that would theoretically make your so-called immortality possible."
"Remnant," Liz muttered the word disgustedly.
"Whoever decided to start using it to make animatronics made a huge mistake," Susie commented.
"We're really lucky that whoever used it before didn't end up enslaving someone's soul to the Earth by accident," Gabe commented, earning nods of agreement from the others.
"Not that I can give you too much credit," Dark!Mike added condescendingly. "You just stumbled upon it and realized what it could do, trampling on the lives of innocent children in the process. You didn't even accomplish anything meaningful with it, just left it stored up Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental until my true self went down there with the victims of your crimes and destroyed it."
"It needed to be refined," William Afton hissed. "It needed to be perfected. I was so close to uncovering the secret to continuing one's consciousness beyond death. All I needed was to find the missing piece, one last bit of knowledge before I could finally reach a full understanding of what had to be done!"
Dark!Mike scoffed. "Considering that you didn't even understand the nature of the immortality you desired, I very much doubt that. But it makes sense now, why you bothered to go back to the Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria of 1993, long after it had run itself into the ground, and everyone had abandoned it. You actually realized that you were missing something, and thought that the animatronics and my children's souls were the key to finding it." An unholy grin so reminiscent of Nightmare's appeared on his face. "But all that you found in that abandoned restaurant was your death."
William's teeth gritted at the reminder, at how he had attempted to evade death at the hands of the children by trying to hide in a springlock suit, only for the suit to kill him in a violent and horrendous manner. Even now, in an afterlife that was dedicated to inflicting the most hideous tortures possible, he could still remember the agony from the moment the springlocks tore apart his insides and left him a mangled carcass in Spring Bonnie's lifeless body. "If only those brats hadn't gotten in my way…" he growled.
"I know I shouldn't be saying this," Fritz commented with a sheepish grin, "but it felt REALLY good to finally give that bastard what he deserved."
"Yeah, at least we got the person who was really guilty in the end," Susie agreed. "As much as what we did was horrible, it would have been even worse if the only people we killed were innocent and everything we did was all for nothing."
"William Afton pretty much handed the opportunity to us when he came back," Gabe added.
"What makes it all the more ironic, what makes this whole thing both hilarious and pathetic, is that from a certain perspective, you technically succeeded," Dark!Mike continued with a cruel chuckle. "You found the immortality you desired…and you spent it trapped behind a wall in an abandoned pizzeria that everyone forgot about for 30 years. Congratulations," he applauded sardonically, clapping his hands together in a mockery of appreciation. "Truly a worthy prize worth the deaths of several children, William Afton!"
"Those little brats meant nothing to me!" William snarled. "Their deaths were far more useful to me than their lives ever were."
"Useful?" Dark!Mike scoffed. "Exactly what use were you to anyone, yourself or otherwise, spending 30 years trapped in a backroom doing absolutely nothing? At least when you were human, you had some intelligence and cunning to disguise your motivations with the Circus Baby animatronics. But all that decayed away to nothing along with your body and that bunny suit. You became little better than a savage beast, and the only thing you could think of doing when you finally, finally gained some form of freedom was do to start killing again. An action that any generic criminal could do, and one that you weren't even particularly effective at doing. You blundered right into Henry's trap, idiotically choosing to fall into despite the fact that you knew something was amiss, and the only thing you found in that trap was the damnation you so thoroughly deserve."
"You're lucky I never came across you when you didn't know about me or what I'd done," William growled. "I would have taken great pleasure in snapping your head in two!"
Dark!Mike laughed, a mocking, inhuman sound that the real human had certainly never demonstrated in front of his children. "An empty threat, considering that you couldn't even defeat me when you were empowered with the essence of Hell itself! You think yourself a genius? A being inherently superior to anyone else around you? You're nothing but an arrogant, ignorant imbecile, William Afton!"
The ghost kids cheered as they watched Mike's dark aspect tell William Afton precisely what he thought of him. "You tell him, Dad!" Cassidy cheered.
"You're so right about everything you said about him," Liz declared.
"I couldn't have said any of this better myself," Charlie agreed.
William couldn't hold his fury back anymore. Forgetting that his tormentor was a supernatural being exponentially more powerful than he was, the damned murderer lunged forward as if he were trying to strangle Dark!Mike. The shadowy entity sneered at the attempt and responded by wordlessly punching William's face again, this time on the opposite side. Once again the murderer was sprawling backward, but this time Dark!Mike didn't even wait for him to lift the floor before closing his hand in a tight fist. William was stopped in mid-air…only to start clawing at his own throat instead, a look of panic and terror on his face. The ghosts stopped cheering as they realized what Dark!Mike was doing – he was psychically strangling the ghost in just like the Sith in Star Wars.
"I always wondered what motivations you had for your wicked deeds, William Afton," Dark!Mike hissed, and this time when he spoke, everyone could hear the sheer, overwhelming hatred in his voice. Hatred that he had kept carefully concealed until now, a malice that chilled the ghost kids to their very soul even if it wasn't directed at them. "What could drive you to murder many innocent children, abandon your own sons and daughter to their deaths, and experiment with something not meant for humanity to begin with. And now that Nightmare gave me the answer, I am so thoroughly disappointed with that revelation."
The shadow lifted William up so that he was glaring straight into his terrified, panicked eyes, even as he continued to gasp for breath in Dark!Mike's pitiless grasp. "I could have forgiven you if you had started out as a man with genuinely good intentions, led astray by the path you took. I could have at least respected you if you went about your quest for immortality intelligently, or actually had motivations or coherent plans for what you were going to do with that immortality if you ever found it." Dark!Mike bared his fangs, his fury clear for all to see. "But none of that is true. There is nothing respectable about you or what you have done, William Afton. Nothing."
Dark!Mike released his grip as he shoved William backward, allowing him to finally claim some air with heavy gasps as he slumped into the office chair. "At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what your motivations are or what flimsy justification you can possibly have for slaughtering children. What matters is that from the very moment you decided to focus only on yourself, to prioritize your own interests and desires with not even the barest trace of compassion or concern for anyone else, you became nothing but a sniveling piece of shit, a self-obsessed mongrel and human filth who made the world a better place with your destruction. That is all you have ever been, and that is all you will ever be" he mockingly declared, a sinister grin returning to his face. "And now it's time for us to dispose of the trash."
Dark!Mike snapped his fingers. Immediately, an animatronic appeared, one that neither the Schmidt family nor William Afton had ever seen before. It had a similar appearance to Dee-Dee, but it was colored completely in shades of black, white, and gray. Dee-Dee's vibrant green eyes had been replaced with empty black sockets, and instead of peeping up in front of William Afton, it shifted in and out of reality, moving across the room frenziedly as though it were possessed. And most disturbingly, instead of speaking Dee-Dee's mischievous lines, the animatronic (if it was even truly an animatronic to begin with) spoke in an alien, unholy tongue that was completely incomprehensible to the ghost kids, but that even they could tell promised nothing good for William Afton's future.
"What the heck was THAT thing?" Fritz exclaimed.
"THAT WAS XOR," Nightmare explained. "AN ALTERNATE, DARKER FORM OF DEE-DEE THAT I CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR ALL 20 MODE. IF ONE CHOOSES TO UNLEASH THE FULL WRATH OF THE ANIMATRONICS AGAINST WILLIAM AFTON, SHE WILL ALWAYS APPEAR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ROUND. AND UNLIKE HER TWIN, SHE CAN SUMMON MULTIPLE ANIMATRONICS AT ONCE, NOT JUST ONE."
"Oof," Susie winced. "Making an already insanely hard struggle to survive even harder."
"INDEED," the demonic black bear agreed as his mouth stretched into a fanged grin. "ALTHOUGH IN THIS CASE, XOR IS SUMMONING FAR MORE THAN JUST A FEW ANIMATRONICS. THERE IS A REASON WHY SCHMIDT'S DARKER ASPECT HAS SUMMONED HER."
"What are you planning?" William Afton spat, glaring at Dark!Mike. "What's that little wretch up to now?"
"She's calling all of our friends," Dark!Mike replied spreading his hands outward. "Bringing them all here for the finale. But there's one last piece of business we must tend to before we get to that point."
William scoffed. "Get on with it," he spat. "I don't have any business with you."
"If you so insist," Dark!Mike agreed. Then, without the slightest hint or warning to his next movements and intentions, he suddenly lunged forward, grabbing William Afton by the head and tightening his gauntleted claws over it.
"Gah!" Cassidy exclaimed, leaping into the air at the sudden display of extreme violence. They watched as Dark!Mike bashed William Afton's head against the desk repeatedly, stopping only when the Afton's forehead had been thoroughly smashed open, spurting out blood and exposing pieces of bone. William was groaning in pain, reaching up towards his forehead to try and cover his gaping wound…but Dark!Mike wasn't done.
"This is brutal!" Gabe commented in disbelief as Dark!Mike opened his hand, revealing several razor sharp claws of black metal. The ghosts could only stare, stunned and horrified, as Dark!Mike stabbed two of his fingers deep into William Afton's eyes, viciously gouging them out as he simultaneously stabbed and crushed them with an inhuman snarl. Blood splattered out of William Afton's eyes, and when Dark!Mike finally pulled out his fingers, the ghosts screamed as they saw that the only thing left of William Afton's eyes were ruined, empty sockets with blood pouring out of them and down William's face.
"What the fuck…" Fritz breathed. Even he couldn't find any enjoyment or satisfaction out of this, not when a being clearly meant to represent his father was unleashing this level of obscene cruelty. "What the actual fuck did I just watch?"
"And I thought the Nightmares were vicious already, holy shit!" Jeremy exclaimed.
"That's not Dad," Liz denied, trying to stave off the dread that was sinking in her soul at the implications "Dad could never be this cruel!"
Charlie didn't say anything, but there was a heavy shadow over her eyes and her heart. She didn't have the heart to tell Liz that, yes, their father could be this merciless and vicious, if the situation called for it. She was extremely grateful that she had been the only one who had witnessed the full might and depths of Mike Schmidt's dark side the fateful night of William's attack. For not only was Mike very capable of that level of cruelty…
…but this wasn't even close to the worst of it. She would remember the twisted, broken appearance of William's mangled soul after Mike had finished with him, and the burning red eyes filled with unholy hatred, for the rest of eternity.
"Just kill me…" William whimpered, before he screamed out the request. "JUST KILL ME ALREADY!"
"And why would I do that?" Dark!Mike asked coolly, even as the blood dripped from his fingers. "I'm not the one who suffered for your sins. I'm not the one who paid with their lives to satisfy the altar of your evil. No…it wouldn't be right for me to end your life here, now that we've reached the end of our chat. That honor goes to them."
Dark!Mike pointed behind him, and it was only now that the animatronics finally started to enter the room. They crowded into the room from all possible directions and entryways. While most of them entered through the two doors, others came in through the vents and ducts. Some of the more supernatural-based animatronics simply materialized in the room, coming into existence either quickly or slowly, while Nightmare B.B., Scrap Baby, and Music Man woke from their slumber and joined the crowd of animatronics behind Dark!Mike.
Some of the animatronics were looking at William Afton with undisguised, malevolent glee. Others had faces hard as stones as they glared coldly at the murderer. But all of them shared the same hatred, the same desire for vengeance. And they were seconds away from satisfying their bloodthirst, all at the same time.
Dark!Mike's grin widened, and he snapped his fingers. As one, the animatronics marched forward, a tide of growling and laughing metal monsters reaching out their hands as William Afton shrank back, futilely trying to delay the inevitable. He had been killed by an animatronic many times as part of William Afton's twisted prison, but never had he faced all of them at once. His death would have been quick as a living mortal, but by now he understood that he wouldn't be as lucky now that he was a damned, eternal soul.
"How did you describe Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria again…ah, yes! A place where fantasy and fun come to life. Well, William Afton, my family is finally here! And they're going to have so much fun repaying everything you've done to them." Dark!Mike's flames suddenly blazed around his body, turning to a blood red color, as his scarlet eyes flashed with intensity. "Heh heh heh heh heh…HEH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
The shadowy entity threw back his head and laughed, a deranged and unholy sound that echoed around the room, even as the animatronics lunged at William Afton with enraged shrieks, screams, and roars. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhhh!" was all William Afton had time to say as he was buried under a mass of metal limbs and bodies. Blood splattered and pieces of bone were sent flying from where he had been sitting only moments prior, giving the Schmidt family plenty of hints as to what was the animatronics were doing to William Afton.
"Urrrghhhhhh…" Susie breathed as she turned away, unable to see any more.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Gabe groaned. "And I don't even have a stomach to be sick with anymore!"
"This is messed up," Fritz mumbled.
There was no satisfaction to be had from this. From seeing the darkest aspects of their father in full display, to the unspeakable hideousness of William Afton's death at the hands of every animatronic tied to Fazbear Entertainment's tainted legacy…it was too much even for ghosts who had spent the better part of several years trying to bring a violent end to Afton themselves.
Dark!Mike had vanished at some point during the carnage, leaving behind the animatronics to satisfy their vengeance. William Afton's screams had already faded away long ago, and when the animatronics finally left, all that was left of the murderer's soul was a growing pool of blood and pieces of bone and gore that made his corpse in Springtrap look like a carefully preserved and well cared-for body ready to be presented at a funeral. The screen vanished, leaving only a blank laptop that soon transitioned back to the menu screen for the animatronics.
Of course, Nightmare chose this time to provide his own bit of input. "WOULD NOW BE A GOOD TIME TO REMIND YOU ALL THAT WILLIAM AFTON IS A DAMNED SOUL, AND THAT SOULS ARE BY THEIR VERY NATURE ETERNAL?" he offered with a sinister grin. "WILLIAM AFTON WILL EVENTUALLY REGENERATE, EVEN FROM THIS MOST BRUTAL OF DEATHS. OF COURSE, IT WILL TAKE HIM EVEN LONGER THAN IT WOULD NORMALLY, AND HE WILL FEEL THE PAIN OF HIS CURRENT EXISTENCE FOR EVERY SECOND THAT IT TAKES UNTIL HE RECOVERS."
"Oh my God!" Cassidy exclaimed in horror.
"Please stop…" Liz groaned. "I really, REALLY didn't need to know that."
"I'm glad we didn't take the offer before," Jeremy shook his head in disbelief. "This is too much, even for us."
"That's my bad," Mike raised a hand, a gesture that he was accepting the blame for this. "I didn't even realize it was going to be this messed up."
"I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be tortured like this," Charlie provided her own input, "but it shouldn't be us doing the deed. Let Hell deal with torturing the damned for eternity and giving William what he deserves. All we'd be doing is making things worse for ourselves."
Nightmare shrugged. "THAT IS YOUR DECISION TO MAKE," he replied. "IF YOU WISH TO DEFER THE MATTER OF TORMENT AND VENGEANCE TO US, THEN WE WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO CLAIM THAT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES."
"Still," Liz interrupted, her voice hard and her expression pitiless. "Just because we might not want to be the ones torturing William in his afterlife, doesn't mean I'm going to feel sorry for him either."
"He killed us all, and it wasn't even for a good reason!" Susie added. "He didn't even really know how Remnant and the immortality worked until he shish-kabob'd himself in that Spring Bonnie suit!"
"William Afton is a piece of shit," Gabe declared, crossing his arms with a scowl. "No matter what he says to justify himself, he's a selfish, sociopathic asshole who got what he deserved."
"Let him rot," Mike agreed. His voice didn't carry the same malice and sadism that his dark counterpart had, but there wasn't even the slightest trace of sympathy either. "Let him burn in Hell where he belongs. We've got bigger problems to deal with than him."
"YOU DO INDEED, SCHMIDT…" Nightmare nodded in confirmation. "WILLIAM AFTON'S TRUE SOUL MAY BE SUFFERING IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL WHERE IT BELONGS, BUT THE ABOMINATION CREATED BY FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT'S STUPIDITY IS STILL LOOSE IN THE WORLD, READY TO REPEAT THE ATROCITIES OF HIS GREATER WHOLE SHOULD HE BE LEFT UNHINDERED. AND HE IS NOT THE ONLY THREAT THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH."
The demon lord's eyes narrowed at Schmidt. "YOU MISCALCULATED IN YOUR APPROACH TO DEALING WITH FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT, SCHMIDT," he warned. "YOUR ACTIONS REGARDING FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT WERE COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED. THEY WERE LOGICAL, THEY WERE UNDERSTANDABLE, AND MANY RATIONAL, INTELLIGENT HUMANS WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME. BUT THEY WERE, UNFORTUNATELY, THE WRONG COURSE OF ACTION. A REALIZATION THAT YOU WILL LEARN SOON ENOUGH."
"What do you mean?" Mike asked. "How did we fuck up?"
"I CANNOT TELL YOU, FOR I AM FORBIDDEN FROM REVEALING THE FUTURE TO MORTALS," Nightmare shook his head. "BUT I WILL SAY THIS, MIKE SCHMIDT. THE NEXT THREAT THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH IS COMING…" the demonic bear's eyes flashed, "…AND IN ITS OWN WAY, IT IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD HAVE ANTICIPATED."
/
A/N: Not your traditional 50+/20 mode, admittedly. But the Nightmares each had their own special introduction scene when they haunted Michael Afton in the world of his dreams, after he had killed Evan by accident. This chapter was meant to be a parallel to that, with Dark!Mike serving as the "nightmare" torturing William Afton. Given how thoroughly and horrifically Demon!Mike tortured William, he is almost certainly one of the few things that William Afton is truly terrified. A fact that Nightmare is both fully aware and willing to take advantage of. And besides, if I did write 50+/20 like I wrote the other UCN chapters, it would just be me writing William Afton getting his ass kicked by different animatronics over and over again, and that would get old fast.
Some of you might point out that William Afton's motivations as presented by Dark!Mike might have seemed rather…flimsy. When I first started writing this chapter, I'll freely admit that I had difficulties coming up with motivations and rationales for William Afton's actions. But then I realized…that's the whole point. William Afton, as he was presented in both the books and games universes, is a selfish, sociopathic, murderous piece of shit and an equally atrocious father who committed horrible crimes without showing a shred of remorse for his actions. His motivations WOULD naturally be flimsy and unsympathetic because that's just the kind of person he is. There is no justification that he could possibly provide to explain his crimes, as Dark!Mike rightfully points out. He is as evil as evil can get, and doesn't deserve sympathy or redemption when he's not willing to put even the slightest amount of effort towards atonement or bettering himself.
I'm not necessarily against writing UCN chapters in the future, but if I do so they will certainly be filler chapters where I've hit some mental roadblocks writing the more important chapters and decide "Oh hey, let's just torture William Afton a bit in a chapter, cause why not?"
One last thing, here's Dark!Mike's UCN mechanics. They weren't actually shown in this chapter given how I wrote it, but he absolutely has his own role in Nightmare's twisted game.
Dark!Mike: He will randomly manifest in the Office throughout the night. Whenever he is about to appear, you will hear cruel, mocking laughter as the room darkens. When you hear his laughter, immediately put on the Freddy Fazbear mask to protect yourself from his attack. If you succeed, he will disappear after his attack. If you have the tablet up when he attacks, Dark!Mike will destroy your tablet, preventing you from performing any actions with it for the remainder of your round. If you don't have either the tablet up or the Freddy Fazbear mask on, Dark!Mike will claw your eyes out, leaving you permanently blind for the remainder of the run. Dark!Mike can attack multiple times throughout the night, and if you fail to protect yourself from his attack a second time, he will instantly kill you.
Next chapter, we'll be going right back into Special Delivery, and how Mike has miscalculated in handling Fazbear Entertainment (some of you have already gotten that right). I hope you guys enjoyed!
