A/N: I was originally going to write a "fun" filler chapter instead of another serious one after the last chapter, but once again the idea for a more serious chapter filled my mind and I just couldn't proceed without writing this out first.

It's easy to forget after 175 chapters, but this fic had its origins in and still does revolve around Christian themes. In general, I've tried to avoid being excessively preachy. There have been very few chapters where I delved deep into the fic's Christian roots, with one of them being the chapter where Mike took his family to church and another being his conversation with Grim Foxy in the VR Corn Maze.

I think it's long time for another chapter that serves as a "spiritual journey" of sorts, though I do my best to make sure that each and every one of these journeys is different from previous chapters I've written that have addressed this topic. And while I don't want to spoil the details…let's just say that Mike and Charlie have been long overdue for a private conversation.

Jack0Lanterns: Yeah, Melody just left her at home. She can't exactly bring Bonnet to work with her and she came straight to Mike's house for the Day of Gratitude dinner after work was over.

Chapter 175 – Spiritual Introspection

It had begun, ironically enough, with a call from Nightmare.

The very next day after their Day of Gratitude celebration, Mike had received a call from Nightmare while he had been in his study, asking for an update about the current situation regarding Fazbear Entertainment and any progress that he and his family had made. "I've pretty much completely overhauled how we're making the animatronics now," Mike reported to the demon lord, "and placed in extensive security measures. Glitchtrap's possession victim might have had the chance to set up one free shot on us before I started the job, but they failed, and I'm not going to let them get a second chance."

"EXCELLENT," Nightmare replied, with the perpetually sinister grin that always seemed to be on the demon's face when he wasn't descending into the depths of snarling rage. "I AM FAR MORE CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY TO TRAMPLE ON GLITCHTRAP'S PLANS THAN I AM IN FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT'S CAPACITY TO GET ANYTHING DONE RIGHT BEFORE YOU INTERVENED."

"I mean, with their track record so far, can you really expect anything different?" Mike deadpanned.

Nightmare chuckled. "INDEED." The demon lord reached out to claw the flaming portal and break the connection, but then suddenly stopped at the last moment. "CAN I JUST SAY, SCHMIDT, THAT YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE MORTALS? UNLIKE SO MANY OF THE IMBECILES I DEAL WITH ON A REGULAR BASIS, YOU WOULD MAKE FOR AN EXCELLENT DEMON LORD. YOU ARE COMPETENT, INTELLIGENT, AND FOR A MORTAL, YOU ARE PARTICULARLY CREATIVE AND RUTHLESS IN THE WAY YOU DEAL WITH YOUR ENEMIES. I STILL REMEMBER THE DAY THAT WILLIAM AFTON ATTEMPTED TO INVADE AND VIOLATE YOUR MIND, ONLY FOR YOU TO INFLICT SUCH HIDEOUS HORRORS UPON HIM INSTEAD." The demonic grin widened with cruel delight. "EVEN NIGHTMARE FREDBEAR WAS IMPRESSED, AND I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT THIS IS NO SIMPLE ACCOMPLISHMENT."

"Thanks," Mike's voice and face were carefully neutral.

"I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT WILLIAM AFTON IS SUFFERING THE HIGHEST FORMS OF TORMENT FOR HIS MOST RECENT TRANSGRESSIONS," Nightmare promised. "I CANNOT REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I WAS PERMITTED TO RIP APART A DAMNED SOUL'S TORSO AND DROWN HIS ORGANS IN HYDROFLUORIC ACID."

Mike winced at the description, very thankful that none of his kids were around to listen to the graphic descriptions of torment and violence. He had enough basic background in chemistry to know that what Nightmare had just described was an exceedingly unpleasant fate…and knowing what he did about Nightmare, it was highly unlikely that William Afton's torments would end with just that, either. "Enjoy yourself," he replied.

"I MOST CERTAINLY," Nightmare replied with what passed for joviality in his voice, and with that he severed the fiery portal serving as their communication with his claws.

Once the portal was gone, Mike let out an exhausted sigh. The past version of himself who had mangled William Afton's soul at the height of his rage wouldn't have cared in the slightest about the atrocity he had just committed or the consequences that would come with it…but times had changed. He had changed. And he couldn't ignore what his conscience was telling him anymore.

Mike's eyes fell on the Holy Bible that lay on his desk. He had been reading it sporadically in his free time, ever since his kids had first arrived on his doorstep and proved the existence of God, Heaven, and Hell in the process. But now, it was maybe time to read some of its passages a bit more seriously. Whether he found comfort in its pages, or harsh truths that he would have no choice but to accept, he didn't know.

But either way, he'd put this off for long enough.

A Few Hours Later…

A knock sounded on the door to the study, causing Mike to look up from his Bible in surprise. "Dad?" Charlie's familiar voice asked. "Are you all right? You've been in there for a while."

"Yeah, I'm all right, Charlie…" Mike answered gently. He was about to dismiss her…but then stopped. No. Charlie had been the only ghost who had seen the worst aspects of his personality in full force. She deserved the opportunity to talk about the horrors she had seen, if she so desired. "You can come in if you want."

The former Marionette inhabitant phased through the door and into the room. As she positioned her spectral body onto the other chair in the room, her eyes fell onto the Bible that Mike had been reading. "Have you been reading that for the past couple of hours?" she asked curiously.

"I have," Mike agreed, putting the Bible back on the desk. "And reading it...forced me to confront things I didn't want to admit about myself. Things that I'd ignored in the past, and things that I've put off talking about for far too long."

"Like what?" Charlie wondered, not sure where her father was going with this.

"Let me ask you a question first, Charlie…" Mike took a deep breath and sighed, before continuing. "Do you think that I'm a good person?"

"What?" she spluttered. "Of course I do, Dad! You're one of the best people I've ever met in my entire life!"

Mike chuckled humorlessly. "I'm glad you think so, Charlie. Because I don't. At least, not with the way I've been behaving over the past couple of months."

Charlie's mouth opened and closed again, with no sound coming out.

"One of the big themes about the Bible is redemption and repentance," Mike continued solemnly. "A unique thing about Christianity compared to other religions is that it isn't the actual sins that you've committed which matter so much, but rather whether you're willing to seek forgiveness for those sins and strive to become a better version of yourself as proof that your atonement is genuine. And that last point is something that I haven't just failed at, but I've failed spectacularly and repeatedly."

"Is it because of the way that you've been manipulating Fazbear Entertainment?" Charlie asked, even though she had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what Mike was talking about. "Or how you've been working together with Nightmare?"

Mike shook his head. "No. Fazbear Entertainment's behavior has made it clear that trying to be open and honest with them is destined for failure. I've honestly started to hate how I've become such a deceitful and manipulative bastard towards them, but there really isn't a choice when the other option is letting Glitchtrap run rampant and indirectly cause hundreds or thousands of deaths. There are times when you're stuck in between two evils, and all you can do is choose the lesser of those evils, accept the consequences, and pray for forgiveness afterwards. No, that's not what I'm talking about, and I'm not talking about working with Nightmare either. The demon lord is an evil bastard, there's no doubt about it. But he's also working under God's command at least for now, and except for his very first attack on us Nightmare has been a straightforward and honest ally to our family. As long as that stays the same, it's only just that we treat him the same way." A shadow crossed over his face. "No, when I say that I've failed at repentance…I'm talking about what I did to William Afton on the two nights when he tried to attack me and our family."

A chill crawled down Charlie's spine as the memories came flooding back at those words.

"To make it clear, I don't regret fighting back against Afton," Mike elaborated. "He was a rabid dog that needed to be thoroughly defeated, and not fighting back against him would be a supreme act of cowardice and pretty much an open invitation for his atrocious evil to win uncontested. But what I did after I defeated him…" he took a deep breath and sighed. "You saw what I did to him afterwards, didn't you, Charlie? You don't need to hide the truth."

"…I did," Charlie reluctantly admitted. She could still hear Afton's agonized screams as the demonic version of her father hideously tortured his soul in ways that would've put most horror movies to deep and everlasting shame. She could still remember the hatred that had emanated from her father's soul, an aura of pure malice that still caused her to shiver whenever she remembered it months later.

Sensing his daughter's agitation, Mike reached out and gently placed a hand on his daughter's. "What I did back then…it was evil, plain and simple. If I'd inflicted those unholy tortures on an innocent person, or even just a common criminal whose crimes were relatively mundane in comparison to William Afton's…people would be calling me a monster if they knew what I'd done, and they'd have every right to do so."

"…even if those tortures were against someone so irredeemably evil as Afton?" Charlie asked faintly.

"The idea of paying evil against evil is so appealing in theory, but then you realize just how easy it is to slide down the slippery slope and get innocents caught in the crossfire," Mike answered grimly. "You and your siblings would know that better than anyone else."

Charlie could only nod silently in agreement. Every ghost in the family had innocent blood on their hands for that very reason.

"It isn't just committing those supreme acts of evil against Afton that has caused me to realize just how badly I've been failing as a person," Mike continued. There was a sense of reluctance in his tone, as though he were just now accepting a truth that he had been trying to avoid confronting for a long time. "It's the fact that I've been trying to justify that evil. Oh, William Afton's a piece of shit. Oh, he deserves to suffer for all the horrible crimes he committed against my family."

"Both of those things are true, though," Charlie pointed out.

"Maybe they are," her father acknowledged, "but it doesn't change the fact that I was using those two reasons as excuses. At the end of the day, I wanted revenge on William Afton. I wanted to make him suffer. I leapt headfirst into that cesspit of cruelty and sadism without looking back, without even thinking about it, and I committed such horrible atrocities that a demon lord with centuries if not millennia of experience torturing damned souls looked at my work and was impressed with it." He shook his head, disgusted with himself with the benefit of hindsight. "My behavior that night was downright unholy, and that's not the type of example I should be setting for anyone, no matter what the reason. At the time, I was blind to that realization, and have been for several months. It's only the recent events that have finally shown me just how far I fell that night, to the point that it took my mother coming down from Heaven to snap out of it. And that happened not just once, but twice."

"Didn't you have the Anathema Curse on you the second time?" Charlie wondered. "The one that Nightmare put on you? Wasn't that the reason why you went crazy on Glitchtrap?"

Mike let out a sardonic bark of laughter. "Nightmare didn't make me do anything," he answered darkly. "Blaming Nightmare or the Devil for my sins is both a lie and doesn't accomplish anything. I chose to torture William Afton entirely of my own free will. I have to acknowledge that fact and accept it for what it is, because there's no way I'm going to improve myself as a person if I just keep blaming my own sins on someone else. Even the Anathema Curse didn't change my mentality, it just gave me the power to hideously torture William Afton in the world of the VR game."

"…do you think Nightmare was trying to corrupt you, Dad?" Charlie asked the question she had been wondering for a while. "Do you think that was his plan from the very beginning? Tricking you into drowning into your own rage and hate so that he could try to claim your soul at the end?"

"Honestly? No, I don't," Mike answered without hesitation. "I think Nightmare's praise for what I did was completely genuine, and his help didn't come with any ulterior motives that he was seriously pursuing. And that's the scariest part. Because it only proves that those wicked choices were ones that I made without anybody else influencing my decision."

Charlie didn't say anything for several seconds. On the one hand, she couldn't help but be disturbed by her father's admission that he had freely willingly committed those cruelties to William Afton without being externally corrupted or forced into it. But on the other hand, she was relieved to hear that he was accepting responsibility for those actions and had finally found the will to rise beyond them.

Because up until recently, she wasn't sure if he actually had.

Mike sank back into his chair and let out a tired sigh. "The promise of salvation is real, Charlie. I know it is, because you and your siblings wouldn't be here if it wasn't. But there's other promises in the Bible that I've forgotten too, Charlie. And the one that struck out to me in particular is that you will reap what you sow."

"But that's been more of a good thing for us, hasn't it?" Charlie interrupted. "We've tried our hardest to show that we've bettered ourselves, and I'd like to think God rewarded us for it by bringing us together as a family and all the blessings that came with it."

"Oh, I absolutely agree with you on that," Mike readily agreed. "I've already told you before, but you guys were the greatest thing to ever happen to me in my entire life. Nothing comes close. But just like doing good leads to more good things in life, doing evil leads to more hardship and evil in the end."

Charlie frowned as she realized what her father was saying. "You're talking about Toy Bonnie's attack, aren't you?"

Her father nodded. "I've been building up a lot of rage and resentment towards William Afton and Fazbear Entertainment, and when I let that hatred get the better of me, it's lead to terrible consequences every single time," he admitted with a grim expression on his face. "The first time I let the worst aspects of my personality take over, when I turned into that fiery demon with eyes burning with hate, you saw everything, Charlie. You saw things that no child should ever have to be."

"…it's all right, dad…" the former Marionette inhabitant feebly tried to reassure him, but Mike shook his head.

"No, it's not all right," he interrupted. "And the second time was even worse. Because not only did I expose everyone to that cruelty, but I hurt you, Charlie." Guilt crept into Mike's face, along with remorse, horror, and disgust at his own actions. "I burned your hands. I was so caught up in my hatred that I hurt my own family in the process, and I didn't even have the decency to notice at first." He shook his head and sighed. "No matter how you look at it, that was completely and utterly inexcusable. A complete and horrible failure of my duties as a father, and I have nobody but myself to blame for it."

Charlie instinctively glanced down at her hands, the burn marks inflicted by Mike's hateful aura having long since faded away into nothingness. "I forgave you for that, Dad," she gently reassured him. "I don't have any room to judge you after what I've done in the past."

Mike smiled faintly at her. "Thanks, Charlie, but forgiveness doesn't mean there won't be consequences," he answered, this time with resignation in his voice. "I let my anger get the better of me again when I learned that Fazbear Entertainment was trying to con Eisensteel into making their animatronics," he acknowledged the truth that he had been hiding for a long time. "I just couldn't bear the idea of Fazbear Entertainment manipulating and abusing a company that I had faithfully stood by for years. I acted on impulse when I asked Melody to make sure Eisensteel rejected Fazbear Entertainment. If I had been thinking rationally, I would have been able to see the advantages that having Eisensteel as a head of the Special Delivery project could provide. With Eisensteel's extensive quality control and security measures, Glitchtrap's possession victim wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to causing even a single incident in the animatronics…" He let out another sigh. "But I didn't think about that. I let my rage get the better of me for a third time, and this time I was punished the hardest for it."

"Toy Bonnie's attack…" Charlie murmured. "And you being forced to take up leadership of the Special Delivery project directly, when you didn't want to get involved at first."

"Yeah," Mike nodded. "Maybe this was something that was always going to happen anyway, as a way to make sure that you guys would get a chance to play an active role in redeeming yourselves for the murders you committed in the past. But I have this gut feeling that at least some of this was a divine punishment for letting my rage and hate get the better of me multiple times…and I can't exactly blame Him for it. If I get rewarded for all the good I've done in life, it's only fair that I get punished for the evil too."

"This is why you were saying you were failing at repentance, isn't it, Dad?" Charlie asked quietly. "You were committing the same sin over and over again."

Mike smiled thinly. "You always were the wisest of my kids, Charlie," he couldn't help but comment. "But yeah…that's why. And it's also why I've said that none of us can truly claim to be good people, at least before we came together as a family. Not me, and not you guys either." He shook his head. "Let's not lie to ourselves or to each other. Most of your siblings have a body count on their hands, and committed a grave sin in their quest for revenge. If God had looked on those Gabe, Jeremy, Fritz, Susie, and Cassidy with judgement instead of mercy, and banished them to Hell for the many murders they'd committed…could you honestly say that He would be wrong to do so?"

Slowly and reluctantly, Charlie shook her head. "I can't…" she admitted, as painful as it was to vocalize the words. "Murder's considered one of the worst sins in most religions and pretty much any society with a functioning moral compass, not just in Christianity. It's one of the biggest reasons why I'm terrified of what would happen if our existence was ever exposed to the public. There are plenty of people who would hate us and harass us…and I wouldn't be able to blame them for it, either."

The smile on Mike's face returned, and for the first time, it had a shadow of the same genuine smile that the ghost kids loved to see. "Then let's be thankful that when He encountered a unique situation that wasn't bound by the laws of life and death that He established, God chose mercy over judgment and gave them a second chance by sending them here instead," he replied. Then, to Charlie's surprise, he chuckled slightly. At Charlie's confused expression, he explained. "There are so many people who wrestle with faith and belief. Whether God is real to begin with, whether He's as good as the Bible portrays Him as, whether He actually did sacrifice His son Jesus on the cross to save humanity from its own sins. Concepts and questions that so many people struggle with, but has effectively been rendered a nonissue for us. True, the Bible never mentioned things like the Crimson Lake or Old Man Consequences. But five of you guys have stood in the presence of God, and we know that God, Heaven and Hell are all real. Liz's brothers, Henry, and my own mother all visited us from Heaven at some point or another. And the three of us who didn't briefly visit Heaven aren't going to question what they saw, unless we want to call our own family liars. So many people out there in the world wrestle with belief and faith, but for us that's the easy part." The smile faded away, and he let out another sigh. "The hard part, and the part we still need to commit to even after the question of faith is settled, is what comes after. Showing that our repentance and atonement are real, and that we're willing to rise above our past sins and become the best versions of ourselves that we can possibly be. Time and time again, you guys have shown your eagerness to atone for your sins. And ironically, I was the one who was failing on that front the hardest, and it shows."

"We're not as good at that repentance as you think we are, Dad," Charlie admitted sadly. "Even though I was horrified by what I saw that night you went crazy on William Afton, there was still a part of me that wanted to see him suffer what he'd done. And I know the same thing is true for all of us. Susie was the first one to see that we needed to let go of our hate after seeing what it was doing to you, and that wasn't a truth we realized until just a few months ago either."

Mike wasn't fazed in the slightest by this revelation. "Then we all have things to work on, Charlie. Different ways for us to atone. You guys are working your hardest to prevent another Fazbear tragedy from ruining and destroying innocent people's lives on a much grander scale than anything the old Fazbear Entertainment could have done, whether they be children or adults. And I have to overcome my fatal flaw of rage, so that I never lose control over myself like I did the first times my path crossed with William Afton's." He chuckled slightly. "I think God was been much happier with the way I handled Colm than I did with Afton. That time, I showed mercy to a potential enemy instead of vengeance, and we've been rewarded for it with a loyal bodyguard and one of the biggest reasons why Glitchtrap's possession victim can't risk a direct attack on me." The humor vanished from his face. "Unfortunately, as much as cruelty and vengeance can't be the path I choose for dealing with Glitchtrap going forward, mercy simply isn't on the table either."

"…would you have forgiven William Afton, if he had genuinely repented for his crimes?" the former Marionette inhabitant couldn't help but wonder. "If he had escaped from Hell not to attack you and our family, but to beg for our forgiveness for destroying our lives?"

Mike frowned as he pondered how he should answer. "I would be very suspicious of his motives," he admitted. "I'd be watching him like a hawk to make sure that this wasn't some grand deception to attack us when our guard is down. But assuming that his repentance was genuine? I can't answer for how I would've behaved back then, but the way I think right now…I think I'd have to give him that chance. You guys had a chance to redeem yourselves, and we'd be massive hypocrites not to pay that favor forward. And maybe that wouldn't have been enough to save a repentant William Afton from Hell, but at least we'd be able to send him back with some measure of peace from our forgiveness that not even Hell itself would be able to take away from him." Mike's eyes immediately hardened. "But that's not what happened, and it doesn't do anybody good to think about the maybes. The reality is that William remained a monster in life, death, and damnation. And Glitchtrap's existence is just one more layer of what little's left of his humanity that's been stripped away from him."

"What will you do if you come across Glitchtrap again?" Charlie asked, concern clear in her voice. "Like you just said, you can't just ignore his existence. He's still a monster that needs to be put down."

"Then I'll put him down," Mike answered without hesitation, "but it won't be as a sadistic monster who delights in his suffering. If I ever have to fight against William Afton a third time, I'm going to do it as a soldier carrying out an act of duty. No unnecessary cruelty or sadistic pleasure in the act. Not anymore. I owe it to God, to this family, and especially to you, Charlie, that I can rise above my greatest flaw just like you would all want me to."

Charlie floated over to Mike and wrapped her father in a tight hug. "I know you will, Dad," she murmured as she closed her eyes, allowing her ghostly arms to embrace him as much as they would allow, "and we won't let you down either. As long as we're here on this Earth, we won't ever let another Fazbear tragedy like the one that destroyed our lives happen ever again."

Mike went through the motions of stroking his daughter's hair. "A promise for all of us to keep," he answered, his voice equally soft. "We'll triumph over the darkness both without and within, together."

Charlie let out a hum of agreement as she reluctantly broke apart their embrace. "Are you going to talk about this with the others?" the former Marionette asked. "I feel like this is a conversation that we should all have together."

Mike nodded. "I will," he promised. "But I wanted to have it with you first. Even if it's a conversation that all of us needs to have, you're the only one who saw the darkness within me directly, and you're the one who deserved to have a heart-to-heart conversation about it before anyone else."

Charlie nodded, and slowly flew up and away from the chair. At the same time, Mike stood up from his armchair as well, and together, father and daughter made their way to the door of Mike's study. As he passed by his desk, Mike's eyes fell on the Bible that he had been reading, and he couldn't but smile as it lay serenely on the wooden furniture.

It had opened his eyes to the truths that he had tried to hide away from, and it had helped mend the rift that had formed between him and Charlie ever since had unwittingly exposed her to his darkest aspects and flaws in one of the worst ways possible. And thought it might be a bit too late for the day of gratitude that his family and Melody had celebrated earlier, Mike couldn't help but feel grateful for those teachings nevertheless.

/

A/N: And there you have it, everyone. This was a chapter that was a long time in coming ever since Charlie first saw Mike's dark side, and this was a one-on-one conversation that they absolutely needed to have.

It wouldn't do any good for me to simply just write a chapter as a sermon, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I could tie in the themes of this chapter to my characters and their flaws, Mike in particular. There were quite a few comments back when I wrote about Dark!Mike and Demon!Mike torturing William Afton that what he did was unholy, and he should never have indulged his rage and hatred in such a cruel and sadistic manner. I'm ashamed that it took me such a long time to realize this, but…those reviewers were right. Mike's actions were straight-up evil, even if they were against someone infinitely more despicable than he could ever be. And just like his children needed to repent and overcome their own flaws, so too did Mike need to acknowledge and repent of his own sins both for his own sake and to set a good example for his family. It's an important lesson not just for Mike and Charlie, but for myself as well.

I'm well aware that this chapter may have come off as excessively preachy, especially towards the end. And while I apologize to anyone who might have been offended or made uncomfortable by the words written in this chapter, I don't regret actually writing these words to begin with. I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about where I stand with regards to my faith, and some of this chapter comes from my reflections on my own failings. And I've come to the realization that just as I need to respect the beliefs and opinions of others, I shouldn't be ashamed of my own beliefs either. If you're an atheist who has no interest whatsoever in converting to Christianity or any other religion, I fully respect your decision. It's completely valid to view this chapter through the perspective of self-improvement and being the best version of yourself you can be, themes that aren't inherent to any religion but are universally viewed as a positive thing. But if you're a Christian whose faith has been weakening or you haven't been following your moral code as closely as you should (and this is NOT me judging anybody by any means, I'm very much guilty of this as well and I'd be a massive hypocrite to condemn anyone else), then I hope this chapter has helped you in some way. God knows I needed to do some serious soul-searching of my own.

I'm not going to stop any of you from discussing religion and spirituality in the comments, but if you do so please do it in a respectful and courteous manner. It's also unlikely that I will participate in any such discussion directly, as I've started my floor month on the hospital and this is easily one of my busiest months so I don't have time to respond to people's comments like I sometimes do when I have more free time on my hands.

I think that's enough serious and heavy stuff to fill in two filler chapters. I'm thinking about either advancing the Special Delivery plot again starting next chapter, or writing one more lighthearted and fun filler chapter before going back to the all-important business of plot advancement. I welcome your opinions on whether or not you'd like me to do the fun filler chapter first.

And speaking of the fun filler chapter, here's a quick poll that I can assure you has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the filler chapter in question:

Primal Groudon, Primal Kyogre, or Mega Rayquaza?

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed!