Authors Notes

I'm glad to hear the positive response I've gotten from some readers here! Y'all really do warm my heart.

Each of my chapters are slowly growing bigger and bigger. My first ever chapter was around 3.5k words and this one is easily twice that size. I wanna thank ParticularlyLargeRat again for shouting out this fic and being such an inspiration. Make sure to check out his fic if you haven't yet (Michael Afton: Outlived Purpose).

There will also be a big announcement on his, and probably my, next new chapter so please stay tuned for that. Without further ado, let's get back to the madness.

The Old, The New

All Evan could do was run. He had dashed away from Michael the moment his eyes were engulfed in the usual, violently bright purple that haunted him and while he had no idea where he was going, every bit of him screamed to get away from his brother. By the time Evans' eyes fully cleared up, he realized he had no idea where he was. There wasn't a single person in sight and he was in some sort of dim food hall that didn't seem fully set up. He looked behind himself to hopefully retrace his steps, only to realize there wasn't even a door behind him.

Evan Afton had been lost inside the maze known as the Pizzaplex, with 0 idea of which way to go. If Evan hadn't been freaking out even a bit before, he was now. The thought of him being stuck inside of this unknown and possibly hostile territory set him on edge. He looked down at his phone to possibly call for help, just to see the service had been non-existent here. Well, at least I have a flashlight. He thought to himself. The only choice he had now was to move forward and so he did just that.

As Evan started to move around the halls, he could hear people vaguely in the distance. Perhaps the busy Pizzaplex noise had been carried through the vents to his location, which was void of any sound. He thought that until the noise became louder, becoming distinct voices. He wasn't sure who, or what, it was, but part of his reason for being here was uncovering any possible horrid secrets this place thought, horrified by the very idea. It had been something his father loved to do when he was alive, stuffing children into the vacant rooms next to him down in ARI. Perhaps someone is in trouble. Whatever it was, he steadily made his way over to the door the noise was coming through and opened it slightly, bracing himself for whatever horror could've been held within these walls only to be met with shock.

"So, do ye be holdin' or foldin'?" Said a familiar large, green giant who was sitting at a table playing what it seemed to be Blackjack. Across from him was a large, naked endoskeleton who, rather than talking, pantomimed by knocking on the table that he wanted to draw. The green giant, or Monty the gator as he rightfully should be called, snorted a bit before drawing for both of them with a smile. "I'll win fer sure this time." Monty lifted his cards and read them, just to grumble a bit. The endoskeleton, even with the lack of a mouth and many other facial features, could easily be seen as smiling smugly to the gator, looking sure of his win. Monty blew a bit of hot air and threw his cards into a pile. "Aye busted… Yer way too good at this game, Friendoskeleton." The… friendoskeleton(?) watch the gator in glee, doing a victory pose before noticing some movement from the door and getting Monty's attention. Friendo pointed towards the door and Evan fully closed the door, but not in time for Monty to not notice.

"Hey, kiddo? Ya out there?" Called Monty, who had been closing in on the door. "Ya can't be over 'ere." He opened up the door to see Evan standing not too far away. They both stared at each other before Monty spoke up. "Ahem… who are ya?" Evan, who had expected to deal with a fight, untensed a bit and cleared his throat as well.

"Evan Nafto. I got lost while trying to find the bathroom, believe it or not." Evan lied through his teeth, hoping that the gator would buy it, though who would ever buy such a faulty tale? Monty looked a bit harder at Evan and the man thought for a second that he really would need to run again until Monty snapped his fingers and pointed at him.

"Ah, yea! Yer that guy I 'eard about! The one coming to fix my light in my room!" Monty came in and threw his arm around the man's shoulders, coaxing him towards the room he had been in previously. "I don't know how you made it all the way 'ere by yerself but I can definitely show you the way! Our next show is soon and I oughta be headin' dat way anyways." Evan was baffled. Not only had there not been a trace of aggression within this animatronic, but even after coming into what looked like a restricted section, mostly can be told by the sign on the wall that all but screams 'restricted', he still was very kind to Evan. The man allowed himself to be pulled along as Monty marched forward. As they made it through the door, the endoskeleton had been nowhere in sight and cards no longer spilled out on the table. It made it seem as if he had dreamt up the entire interaction. Eventually they reached places that started to be familiar and had been slowly filling out with more people. They were in the hallway next to what he believed was called "Rockstar Row" heading towards a green colored room with a large, aquarium-like pane of glass and a set of green curtains behind them. As they made it to the door, it had been obvious there had been wear and tear on it along with a claw mark. Monty noticed Evan staring at the marks and changed to a sheepish grin.

"Aye don't suppose you have anything' to get this out with, do ya?" He said, sounding a bit embarrassed. "Freddy chased me outta 'is room the other day and I fell against my door." Monty opened the door, letting out a bit of a grinding noise upon opening. "But the light over 'ere has been botherin' me nonstop." Monty continued to talk to him, pointing out plenty of things that didn't work, Evan realized exactly how much work there would be. He stopped the gator.

"Okay, okay. I understand that you're excited to get this all fixed but…" Evan looked out of the window briefly, seeing the guests funneling out towards the exit. "Is there something going on out there?" Monty stood and stared at the technician, and then out the window, with a confused look until it clicked.

"Oh. It's just the last show of the day, nothin' to worry about…" Monty says nonchalantly and leaning against his desk only to realize that he is in that show. "Ohh! I gotta go!" Monty starts running towards the back door, leading to some sort of concrete path and disappearing behind the door before popping his head back out a moment later. "Uh, you wanna come watch the show?" Monty offered and Evan thought about this briefly. It's been decades since I've seen a proper Freddys show. He thought to himself.

"Uh, sure!" Evan said, making the gator smile from ear to ear.

"Great! I'll cya out there, buddy!" The gator disappears once again and, this time, stays gone. Evan takes a sigh of relief now that he got some space. He takes out his phone, seeing that he now has cell service, and calls the house phone. It rings a few times before he receives an answer.

"Hello? H-hello?" Calls out from the other side of the phone, making Evan roll his eyes and chuckle. It had been the voice of a man who was dead and gone long ago, but had such a signature voice. It was a voice he heard often when he called the house and there was only one puppet in the house that loved to answer the phone.

"Chara, it's Evan." Instantly the mood on the other side of the phone changes.

"Oh, Evan!" Says Chara, back to her normal voice, sounding cheery. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be late getting home tonight. Might even work into the night. The owners here want everything done by opening tomorrow and there's a lot to get done here." He sighed softly, knowing how long his day is going to be. "At least they're paying big bucks for all of this." Chara was quiet for a moment before saying anything.

"O-oh… That's okay! We'll be here when you get back." Evan became a bit concerned.

"Is everything okay over there?"

"Yes, I'm fine. We're fine. Uhm, just call me during your next break if you can…" She said, getting a bit quiet at the end. Evan smiled.

"Of course. I've always got time for you." It seemed to do the job because you could faintly hear Chara's bells jingle.

"I hope you have a good day at work. Don't overwork yourself!" They exchange farewells before Evan hangs up, getting back to the task at hand. It seems like it's nearly time to get going to watch the show because everyone seems to be rushing towards one place. He takes a deep breath and prepares for the crowd swallowing him up.

Back at home, Chara's placing the phone down on the receiver, a black hand over her "heart", feeling the warmth from Evan's comment. She hated being apart from him for too long, but she knew that he had a job to do so she did whatever she could to be helpful around the house. Earlier that day, she had cleaned the entire house, top to bottom, except the workshop in the basement. She avoided going into the workshop, but she knew she couldn't avoid it today. As she made her way towards the workshop door, Mangle popped her head out.

"Hey, Chara. Who was that on the phone?" Mangle seems to have been riding her office chair around in her room, looking as if she's bored or waiting for something.

"That was Evan. He said that he won't be making it home tonight due to work." Mangle sighs, looking defeated.

"Again? I guess no Meatlovers Monday today…" She sighed again as she watched the puppet head towards the door and suddenly got an idea.

"...Heeeeeey… Are you heading downstairs to check on 'them'?" Mangle asked, looking a bit shy. Chara saw through her charade and motioned the pink fox to follow.

"I know what you're going to ask. Come on, let's go say hi." Mangle jumped off her chair and met up with the puppet at the door as she opened it and they slowly made their way down.

Following down the stairs, Mangle had seen that the basement was dark and mostly quiet. She had only been down here once before to see 'them' but the last time, everyone who was down here had been 'asleep' and not in good condition. As they got further down the stairs, faint noises could be heard from what seemed to be a television, playing something that remotely sounded like "Looney Tunes" or similar. As they had made it to the bottom of the stairs and turned around the corner, the source of the noise had been finally revealed.

"Arrgh, look who's here, Stumpy. Look like they 'aven't fergotten us yet." On the table had been a TV and a bedside lamp, which lit up the room, and across the table had been a disembodied fox head. The head had its signature glowing gold eyes and its jaw moved again. "What can a ol' pirate do fer ya?" Foxy had been carefully placed in front of the TV with loads of wires attached to him where his endoskeletal neck should've started. He had an old look to him with a bit of his fur burnt off, but otherwise looked fine minus the whole 'missing his body' thing. Next to him there had been movement, which appeared in the form of a small, wooden doll like the ones that followed Ballora. She used Foxys head as stability as she was missing her entire left leg. She launched herself off Foxy, sitting down on what seemed like a remote and she pressed a button.

"Hi!" Called a feminine voice from a speaker nearby. The remote had given her access to some premade sentences and sayings which had been very useful to the doll with no mouth. She then turned around to Foxy, kicking him and hitting another button. "Fuck." She said using the remote, the doll making an angry face and crossing its arms. While the remote had been a quick fix to Evan's problem with the doll's inability to talk, her options for responses were limited.

"Oh, lass," Said Foxy to the obviously angry doll. "Ye know I didn' mean anything by it. I was just makin' a joke!" She turned her head away from him, not giving up on her anger. The old fox sighed heavily before saying more. "I be sorry, Lilly. I shouldna called ye Stumpy." The doll kept looking away for a second until she uncrossed her arms and hit another button.

"Okay!" She said while now looking happy. Foxy sighed again before giving his attention to the other two in the room. "I apologize, lasses. She be a bit of a handful at times." Chara shook her head.

"No no, I completely understand. I remember the time she had waited until we came down here and ran past Evan to play hide and seek in the house." They ended up finding her in a sack of flour not too long after with the assistance of Evan's 6th sense. Chara's face twisted up in thought of a crippled doll somehow being fast and sly enough to evade everyone and, somehow, open up a large sack of flour. Lilly just smiled, giving off a small giggle. "Anyways, we just came down here to check on you two. Evan won't be here tonight." The fox thought for a second.

"Hmm… we be alright, lass. Ain't nothin' perfect, but we understand that ye can't just make a body appear outta thin air."

"Has… has Bonnie woken up yet?" Mangle interjected, a bit shy. If Foxy could, he would've shaken his head.

"I be afraid not. Somethin' was always off with that bugger since the Toys replaced us and since that time, he hadn't been the same." The Toy series of animatronics, which Chara had been a part of, had not treated the Originals very well. While Mangle had not been a part of that since she had been suffering herself from getting pulled apart and put back together, she knew that the mechanics of the time took parts off the Originals to fix the Toys and ,while they all had been taunting the Originals about it, not everyone had an equal situation.

"Yeah… Bonnie had it the worst out of everyone." Said Chara with an understanding tone. "While the rest of you had small parts taken away, he had his entire face removed. I couldn't imagine how it would feel to have someone who hates you to steal your face, your identity and your place." It had been quiet for a bit, everyone allowing moments to roll past in memory of Bonnie who they were unsure would ever return. Eventually, Foxy speaks up.

"Ya said Evan be out fer the night?" Chara nodded to him. "Did he finally get himself a girlfriend 'r somethin'?" This made Chara freeze up, but luckily, Mangle was there to save the situation.

"No, Evan can barely think past his work and us." Mangle retorted, "He wouldn't go get a girlfriend. Where would he bring her?" The idea of bringing a girl home to a bunch of sentient animatronics probably wouldn't sit right with anyone in the situation.

"Well, last time I 'eard from him while he was down here, he told me he had plans to eat with some girl this coming weekend. A co-worker from the sounds of it." This really got Chara's attention as she stared at Foxy with a static face.

"Hey, don't tease Chara like that, Foxy!" Mangle said, looking at Foxy angrily. "You know how she feels about Ev- Oop!" She quickly closes her mouth with her paw, realizing she said too much. Chara felt herself blushing madly about this.

"...I didn't realize everyone knew about that…" She said, a heavy blush on her mask while she pulled into herself, feeling embarrassed.

"You'd have to be blind and dead not to see it, Chara!" Said Foxy, giving a hearty laugh. Mangle rushed to Chara's side.

"I've always wanted to talk to you about this and maybe do girl talk about guys that we like." Chara looked over at Mangle with a funny face but didn't want to press this matter anymore as her head was too busy swimming in the thought that Evan could be out there, enjoying himself with some other girl. Foxy saw her look and quickly replied.

"Look, lass, I meant nothin' by it. I was just yankin' yer chains is all! Now, I'd like to keep watchin' me show and it's about to come on, so unless you'd like to stay n' watch it with us, I'd prefer that ye be on yer way." The pirate looked back over to the TV as Lilly started flipping channels. "Hey, ya dang bilge rat! Put that back on before I make ya into fish food! I oughta…" Foxy continues to yell at the doll as both Mangle and Chara headed back upstairs and into the kitchen. Mangle put her hand on Charas shoulder, who had her back turned to her.

"Don't let what Foxy said get to ya, Sis. You know he just wants a rise out of you since he's stuck in the basement, bored out of his mind." Chara nodded, still looking away from her. Mangle sighed a bit. "Let's just do something that'll make you happy! I know that when I do stuff, I always get rid of those bad thoughts. Let me go get something real quick and we'll do something fun together!" She ran off as Chara was having an epiphany. Mangle was right. She oughta do something that makes her feel better and what better thing to do than to go see Evan herself? She's always been the sneakiest one out of the group and never gets caught, so all she has to do is wait until it gets dark enough, slip through the streets and make her way towards the Pizzaplex. The place isn't too far away from here, anyways, so it'll take an hour or so to sneak over there and-. Her thoughts continued as she ran back to her room to prepare as Mangle had just come back out with some Earpods with music blasting through them.

"Oh yes, sis, this'll definitely lighten up your mood! I remember when I was down and-... Chara? Chara?" Mangle looked around, realizing the puppet had no longer been here and no one was answering.

The show was finally starting and Evan barely made it to the back of the concert hall due to the absolute magnitude of people that were flooding the entrance ways. Halfway there, he met back up with Trudge, who had been looking for him the entire time, and Evan gave the halfhearted excuse, saying he simply needed to use the restroom that badly. Trudge bought it immediately, remarking he had similar instances as they made their way in. Now standing in the back of the concert hall leaning against the railings, Evan noticed that the crowd was noisy. They had to be excited to see this show and, frankly, so was he. The shows he watched in Fredbears Diner were always terrifying to him. He knew exactly what his father had been doing behind the scenes, but was too scared to tell anyone about it. Evan steeled his resolve. He wouldn't let anyone take this new experience away from him. As it became near time to start the show, he sensed a presence that made all the hair on his body stand up on end. Michael had weaseled his way next to him, greeting Trudge who had been on the other side of Evan.

"Hey, I'm glad to see you found the toilet." Said Michael, who was now resting against the metal railings next to him. Evan took a moment to calm down before responding.

"Y-yeah… I really had to go badly. I get so busy that I just… forget." Michael eyed him weirdly.

"You said your name was Evan?" Evan tensed up a bit.

"Yes. That's my name." Michael stared at him a bit more before looking away.

"Sorry, you just remind me of my younger brother. He had the same name." It felt weird to Evan to hear his older brother talk about him so nonchalantly, but he was curious to hear more.

"Oh yeah? What was he like?" Evan asked.

"He… He was a sweet boy, our fathers favorite. Couldn't hurt a fly. He cried a lot, though, and I didn't exactly make it any better. I wasn't very good to him growing up and…" Michael paused for a second, seeming to stare off in a random location. Evan looked that way to see what he was staring at, but there was nothing noticeable. Perhaps I asked too much. He thought to himself before Mike looked back at Evan suddenly.

"Sorry. Anyways, the show seems to be starting." Evans' head turns towards the stage and, thankfully, the show does seem to be starting. The lights began to dim as the fog machines began to blow, setting the stage for the Rockstar crew and the crowd gave a loud cheer before suddenly quieting as a platform in the middle of the stage rose. Slowly, each animatronic member came up, rising up from the floor. Each of them had stuck to a pose, which they kept the entire way up as the crowd started to cheer and chant "Rockstars! Rockstars!". Even Mike started cheering in tangent with them.

As they get to the stage, Freddy makes his way up to the front. "Are you ready to rock?!" The crowd goes wild with confirmation, allowing the group to start rocking out on their first song. Evan was ready for a lot of things. He expected that the Rockstar animatronic group was good at what they do and was sure that he'd enjoy it even if only a little bit, but what he wasn't ready for was how good their music truly was. You'd think they were record winning song artists with this sort of sound, Evan thought, allowing himself to get swept up in the music and cheer along with them. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and he could only hear screams and music in his ears. The man was having the time of his life.

After 35-40 minutes of banger music and corny jokes lined up in between songs, the crew said goodbye, playing one last song for the day before wrapping it all up. Evan hasn't had this much fun in a very long time, realizing how swept away he truly was in the mood of the music. He reminded himself to come back again and attend another concert again at a later date. After the last song had finished, he made a quick getaway out of a nearby door to avoid the crowds which had been seeming to flow towards the doors. He made his way back towards Rockstar Row when he felt the same familiar presence behind him.

"Let me help you out." Said Michael, catching up to Evan. "A lot of the places you need to get to are locked and can't be opened without a special key." He waved around a red card with a little Rockstar Freddy on it. Evan acknowledged him and they made their way towards Monty's room. On their way there, they ran into Arin.

"Hey, how are the repairs going?" He asked. "Did you get to see the show as well?" Evan nodded.

"The show was great. It's been awhile since I've seen anything like it and it blew all my expectations out of the water. I'd love to come back and see it again sometime." Arin smiled at the positive response.

"I'm sure we can arrange something. Our technical guys quit recently so we're scarce on actual hands for repair around here. I'm sure we can squeeze you in once a week or so to come around for the last show of the day and some repairs." Evan liked this idea, but he knew he'd need to discuss it with his partner first.

"Just send a formal request and I'll talk it out with my partner when he comes back into work." Evan and Arin shook hands, but then the manager turned his attention to Michael, who had kinda just been standing in the back, mind wandering aimlessly.

"Hey Mike. I actually came here to see you." Arin stepped in closer towards Mike. "Have you seen Cooper? He had mentioned coming to see you and then ran off before the show." Mike nodded his head slightly.

"He asked me some stuff prior to the show and ran off saying he had some amazing idea. I wanted to stop him, but he disappeared like some sort of ninja." Arin scratches his head and sighs heavily.

"Well, thank you for letting me know. If you do see him again, let him know that he needs to get some work done. He's stopped using his phone entirely unless he's the one to start the contact or to send you money. He had been talking a lot about you the other night, praising you on high for some reason or another." Arin shook his head.

"If you need any help around here, just give me a call." Mike offered but Arin shook his head.

"I appreciate the offer, but you're doing great work where you are now. I'll keep that offer in mind, though." Mike nodded and Arin turned back around to Evan. "Well, I gotta get going. If you have any questions or concerns, this man here should be able to help you." Evan nodded and Arin left them quickly, looking in a hurry. The technician noticed how tired he was when talking about Cooper to Michael, assuming that's why the young man looked so tired out. This had him curious, but not enough to pry. As they continued on their way towards Monty's room, Evan realized how long this night was going to be.

The orange hue from the street lights lit up the pathways in this small city. They had turned on not too long ago after the sun dove past the horizon, only leaving an orange and pink hue in the distance. Despite all of that, the surrounding areas were getting dark pretty quickly, making it a perfect time for anything to be outside unnoticed. That unnoticed thing happened to be a familiar black and white striped puppet, who snuck around the alleyways and dark spots with absolute precision. Chara had a lot of experience doing this with Mangle, who had been in pieces at the time they first wandered out on the streets. She had become a master at it, and was even more so without having another animatronic following her, but she had her fair share of troubles. Going from their old pizzeria to ARI had not been a small task and took almost a week of constant night movement to get from one point to the other. They had managed to scare some kids a couple of times, not by their own choice, but who wouldn't scream when a 6 ft tall puppet and a disconfigured pink fox had been hiding out in your treehouse?

As she made her way across the backstreets of the city, she could start seeing the neon glow from the Pizzaplex getting brighter, showing that she was getting near her objective. A few times she had thought about turning back and going home, thinking that this idea was stupid, but then she thought about the possibility that Evan had been seeing someone in secret. Her resolve would instantly sparked, flames of passion burning inside of her brighter than before.

She would not allow anything, or anyone, to take away from her what truly made her happy.

No, never again.

Around the time the Pizzaplex had started to come to a close, Evan had been done with more than half of the tasks assigned to him. He had the luxury of meeting Monty again, who had tried to give him Bass guitar lessons and called Michael 'Mike-a-like'. He met Chica again along with the day shift guard, Trudge, who was still in the building for some reason but that wasn't the weirdest thing. He had come across him and Chica holding hands and walking down the hallway, giggling to each other like a bunch of love birds. Well, I can't judge. Evan thought to himself. If they're happy, then that's all that matters. Mike, who had been waiting up ahead, jumped out and scared the two lovebirds, causing both of them to scream and run away at fast speeds. He met Freddy next, who had been fixing up something that looked like a watch with a screen on it. When asking about the contraption, Freddy went into a speech about his new and improved "Faz-Watch". The technician knew that the bear animatronic would be a great conversationalist if given the chance, seeing as their passions were similar. It was very interesting to see the animatronics thus far have such unique personalities and hobbies to match them. Except, the most unique one was the last animatronic of the crew he met, who was a stark contrast to the other 3.

It was when Evan and Mike had been leaving from Freddys room to another section of the building that he had met her. The gray wolf jumped out and roared at us, arms in the air in a menacing pose. Naturally, this made Evan jump but Michael, who was leading the way, did not react at all. She scowled at Michael, making a 'tch' sound with her mouth.

"I came to find you and you're hanging out with someone new again." Roxanne scowled heavily towards Evan, who just stood there and waved at her with a nervous smile. "Who is he anyways? Actually, I don't care. Corpse, when are you going to spend time with me?" At the word 'corpse', Evan froze up. Does she know about him? How can she tell? Maybe she can seem Remnant like I can. I- Evan's thoughts were interrupted by Mike's monotone response.

"I'm doing my job." He said, looking at her with no emotion on his face.

"How is he your job?" She pointed at the technician. The night guard stands in front of Evan.

"He's supposed to be fixing up the Pizzaplex for tomorrow's big show and I'm here to help him figure out his way."

"Your job is to be guarding this place."

"I am. I'm guarding it while helping Evan."

"No, you should be with me!"

"Look, Rox, you can come follow us while I show him around and when we finish, we can do whatever you want, okay?" Roxanne becomes quiet, pondering her choices.

"...Fine, but I get to pick the movie for tomorrow as well, got it?" Mike puts his thumbs up in confirmation and they start moving again. Evan moves close to Mike.

"...Are you two dating or something?" Said Evan, who watched this weird back and forth unfold. Mike opened his mouth, but it was Roxanne who answered.

"Dating? Him? There isn't a woman in this world who'd be desperate enough to like a corpse like him." She said loudly behind both of them, making Evan jump again. Mike looked back towards Roxanne before saying anything.

"You know, she says that, but the only reason she jumped out at us was because she's been following me for the past 30 or so minutes." Roxanne's face lit up in shock as Michael accused her of this.

"I-I… I was just taking my time to come get you! Yeah! You couldn't properly function on a normal day without me so I was just around to see how you were doing." Evan stared at the Wolf, who didn't even deny the sudden stalking accusation.

"From afar?"

"Got a problem with that?" Mike stopped and looked at her, a face full of mischief.

"Roxanne, that's called stalking." Roxanne's face went from one full of confidence to one of utter embarrassment. She looked like a fish out of water, keeping her mouth open and looking stumped at what to say. Mike patted the wolf's back.

"It's okay, I'll forgive you this once."

"Mike… Y-you lied to me." She looked a bit annoyed and hurt.

"No, how did I lie to you?"

"You told me it was okay and normal to follow you."

"Yeah, but you lied to me about it."

"No I didn't… Mmh… Maybe I did. I'm… I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Roxanne. I told you it wasn't all that big of a deal."

"But I also called you a corpse a few times and I know you hate that…"

"Again, Roxanne, it doesn't bother me that much. It's not your fault."

"I just didn't see you much even though you were here all day." She pouted a bit.

"Awwh, you missed me? That's sweet of you." Mike pokes at her and she tries to bat away his hands.

"N-no! I never said anything about that. I just know that you'll freak out and get lost if I'm not here to keep you safe. That's it. You're mine after all." She crossed her arms and huffed at him, her tail wagging a bit.

"Well, if you are looking forward to someone freaking out and getting lost, you should've seen this guy earlier." Mike pointed back at the third wheel of the party, who had still been following them to their destination. Roxanne looked back surprised, forgetting he had been there. "He rushed away from me because he needed to use the restroom and got lost deep underground somehow." Roxanne blushed, realizing how forward she had been in front of a stranger.

As they continued to banter, Evan was astounded how much his brother had changed. Of course people change over time, but seeing him interact with someone and soothe them was foreign to the technician. While Michael was trying to calm down the embarrassed tsundere, Evan felt something strange nearby. His hair stood up on end and he froze, realizing what it was that he sensed. Remnant, he thought, turning his head to see it's the front of the building. It had been almost completely empty minus a singular worker, who was playing on their phone, but that feeling didn't come from them.

Instead, Evan looked up in time to see a thinner black figure zip from the rafters above them and disappear. His blood turned ice cold and his face and hands became clammy. He realized he was starting to freak out a bit when a voice pulled him out from his head.

"Hey, Mike. I think your friend there is freaking out again." Evans' eyes shot back to the pair he was supposed to be following, with both Michael and Roxanne staring at him. "Gotta use the restroom again, loser?" Mike was staring at him weirdly and Evan knew he needed to calm down. He put on a bit of a smile and faked it.

"Y-yeah, sorry. I have a bit of a weak bladder so I do need to use the restroom again." Evan said apologetically, scratching the back of his head. He felt the presence move around about them. Mike unfroze from his stare and smiled a bit.

"Yeah, let me show you the nearest ones. This place is pretty difficult to get around, y'know, with how big it is and all." Evan nodded his head, following the night guard and wolf. Above him, he felt the presence move along with them but couldn't see it very well. The roof of the Pizzaplex had been high up and covered in glowing stickers that resembled stars. He could see a few of them blip out as he felt whatever was up there moving around. It seemed to be following him.

As they got to the bathroom, which was a little bit out of the way, Evan excused himself and moved towards the sink. He washed his face, no longer feeling the presence once he came inside the bathroom. I don't know what it is, but it wants something from me. Evan thought as he was splashing water onto his face. I need to take a chance to just get away from the group and confront whatever it is. Except, he'd never get a chance to. Soon after that thought, a loud robotic screech came from outside, along with a lot of heavy movement. Evan rushed out to see something black attacking Michael, who was barely fending it off. He realized this situation was a lot worse than he originally thought.

Chara had finally made her way to the Pizzaplex to see that they were closing. The enormous parking lot out front was devoid of many vehicles, minus the ones on the side. As she saw them, she realized that she recognized a particular vehicle that Evan owned at the side of the building. The puppet made her way over to the vehicle, popping it unlocked with ease using her telekenesis. She knew that she'd need camouflage going into the Pizzaplex if she expected not to get seen, so she grabbed her black hoodie that they kept in the back of the car in case Chara wanted to go on a stroll with Evan in the middle of the night. With that done and the entrance in sight, all that was left was to find Evan.

Weirdly enough, she found Evan pretty quickly considering how big the building was. As she climbed from rafter to rafter, she spotted him walking with a familiar wolf animatronic and an even more familiar human. Her eyes focused on the other human, recognizing who he was. What is Michael Afton doing here?! She thought to herself, her programming screaming to kill him, purple slowly melting into her vision from his body. She hated Michael for tampering with her friends back in her original pizzeria and she hated how every time they had gotten close to killing him, he'd get away scott free but more than anything, she hated how he had hurt Evan. Evan didn't just have nightmares about his father, but his childhood where his brother had emotionally abused him several times before eventually trying to kill Evan, sending him into a dreamland full of nightmares and terrors. She burned with a passion to kill him before, but now it started to consume her thoughts.

As the puppet let out her static, Evan looked up. She snapped out of her trance and hid just in time. She couldn't allow Evan to know that she followed him all the way here, so instead she watched them closely. Why is Evan with his brother? She thought, seething with anger. His brother was a terrible person overall and killed many of her friends and family. He had been one of Evan's worst nightmares and yet he was standing there next to her human as if they were good friends. Purple had consumed her vision and her mind was set. She couldn't allow this to happen any longer. She would not allow Evan to be corrupted by Michael.

As they made their way along, they ended up coming to a series of bathrooms out of the way of the main area. Evan had disappeared into one as well as the wolf animatronic, leaving Michael out by himself all alone. This had been the perfect chance to get him. If Chara had let this chance pass by, what other chance would she possibly have? She couldn't let this man live. She couldn't allow another murderer to walk away. She readied herself up and launched her body from the rafters and down on the back of Michael Afton.

As she hit his back, she cried out a staticy screech, sounding her war cry as she unleashed her multiple black ribbons from her body, wrapping them around him. Michael had reacted in a poor fashion, only reacting defensively after strings of fabric had wrapped around his throat, cutting off his air supply. His eyes turned a solid purple suddenly and he started truly fighting back, smashing the puppet against the wall, but she did not let go of him.

"I can't leave you alive! You must die this time, Afton!" Chara grunted out to him, struggling to keep a hold of the night guard. He smashed her against the wall again, to no avail, as he was starting to lose his hold on her. He couldn't breathe and she knew that he was meeting his end soon. She could finally do this and gain revenge for everyone this man had hurt.

A door nearby bursted open, revealing Evan coming out of it. He had made eye contact with Chara and his face was full of shock. The purple had seeped from the puppets eyes and she regained her rationality quickly. She knew she was in trouble now.

"Chara?!" Evan yelled, running over to Mike and Chara's scuffle. "Let go of him, you'll kill him!" He grabbed the puppet, but she wasn't ready to let go.

"No! He has to die here and pay for all he's done!" She screamed at him, attempting to resolve herself. "He's killed so many of the animatronics who were just trying to make their life normal after getting their bodies taken from them. He sabotaged Mangle and most of all, he hurt you. He tried to kill you. How could I forgive him?" Evan kept pulling on Chara, seeing that Michael was on his last limb, barely holding consciousness.

"That's all in the past! He doesn't know who I am! Even if you get revenge, what after? You would have killed my only living relative and any chance of making him repent for what he's done." Evan grabbed the puppet and looked at her pleadingly. "Please, let him go." Chara stopped herself and looked at Evan for a moment before letting Michael go, who laid on the floor, gasping for air and basically unconscious. Chara stood in front of Evan, a tear rolling down her face. Evan took her in his arms and hugged her and she reciprocated.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me! I just…" She started to sob, realizing the gravity of her mistake. "I saw him and I lost it! I thought of how he had hurt everyone I loved and I just-" She buried her face in Evans chest, fully crying her purple tears. He rubbed her back, shushing her softly.

"There there. I understand how you feel, but we can't just kill someone because of how we feel or we'd be no different from my father." Chara's hug gripped tighter on the technician as she cried even harder. She had really been at a risk of being like the person she despised the most and only stopped because of her human. She felt awful.

"I don't know how I'm going to explain this to him, but we'll figure something out." Said Evan as he continued to hold the puppet. She nodded and everything seemed to be fine for that moment. Michael did have a long past with animatronics so perhaps an excuse would work here, too. Evan held onto Chara and thought that everything would be alright in the end. What's the worst that could possibly happen?

"Mike?!" Called from behind the two and heavy steps ran to the fainted Michael, who had been laying on the ground. Roxanne checked Michael out and saw the reddening stripes where Chara's ribbons had been and looked over to us, her eyes furious.

Maybe things were not going to be alright.

Authors Notes

Welp, Chara really screwed that one up. How does one possibly explain that a terror from their past casually came along and attempted to murder them, but it's okay now? I'm sure that'll go well in court.

I hope you all enjoyed it and I'll cya on the flip side!