Hello everyone! So, semi-big announcement, I got an account on archive of our own! Mostly just because this site has been crazy glitchy and the team isn't responding to me, plus the interaction here hasn't been very good.

This isn't me saying I'm going to stop uploading here! I'm going to upload on both sites, which will probably take a while considering I have to edit and upload all 97 chapters….but nonetheless, I will do it!

My account there is: littleghostcat! If you have an account, go follow me over there, but you can still read it and leave guest reviews and kudos there if you don't want an account :)))

Reviews!

Kaseythetrackerpup: It was, yeah! I was wondering if anyone would pick up on it. And ugh I'm so sad about that too! Stupid Disney.

Enjoy!

Chapter 97

Wonderland, Part 2

Ruby stared up at the massive beast as it waited calculatingly for her response, its expression unreadable. It's cold, red eyes bored into her with blinding brightness. Despite her eyes watering, she couldn't tear her gaze away, and she wiped her smudged makeup under her eyes with her thumb.

"Um." Usually Freddy took care of the introductions, and she would be lying if she didn't find talking to the massive beast terrifying. But now wasn't the time to act like a scared little girl. "The real question is, who are you?! In the grand scheme of humans, I don't think our names matter as much as…whatever you are. I mean, assuming you're not human." She gestured to its body

"Shut up, shut up!" Freddy hissed between gritted teeth, and Bonnie made a slashing motion on his neck. Ruby gulped as the thing didn't react as it's body of black smoke grew in size, towering even higher above her. Maybe I shouldn't have said that…

But to her surprise, the being laughed a great booming laugh, and Ruby could count three layers of teeth. Why would it need so many? "Feisty! Alright, little girl, I'll tell you who I am."

Bonnie nudged her with a grin. "Wow, being your stupid self actually worked!" Ruby rolled her eyes and nudged (punched) him back.

"You see this dimension? This world?" He swept a shadowy arm across the endless stretch of black. "All of this land, all of the rules and magic and creatures were created by me, and I've ruled over it since the dawn of time."

"Well, you did a pretty crappy job," Ruby said boldly.

The being's eyes flashed, and it leaned forward on its chair. "A god can take sass, Ruby, but a god does not take criticism of his creations. I suggest you rethink your distasteful approach and consider that you're standing on a floor that I have complete control of." Before she could even question how he knew her name, he snapped his fingers and the floor opened in a ring around her. Ruby was suddenly standing on a tiny black platform with a neon pool of snapping sharks about twenty feet below.

She yelped and took a flying leap off onto solid ground, and the pond disappeared. "Okay, sorry. This place is so fun and creative and must've taken a million years."

"Two million," he corrected, "but no matter."

Ruby decided not to bite back that she could come up with a better idea for Shadow in a sliver of that time. "Anyways, these are my friends." She pointed to each of them and began to list their names, but he cut in with excitement.

"Yes, yes! Mr. Afton's creations! I've heard stories, but I've been waiting to speak with one of them! And now I have them all!" He spoke as if they were limited-edition collectables. "I adore his work, really. He's the first mortal in eons to discover the powers of Remnant, and the first mortal to actually do something with it. That's something I hate about modern humans—their demonizing of death, as if it's something taboo and forgetting everyone goes through it!

"But he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and created something beautiful out of a gray mess. And he was rewarded for his work with a god's power. Truly admiral. A shame he had to hide the beauty from the rest of the world."

"That's disgusting," Cassidy spat. "That bastard isn't beautiful, and neither are we. He twisted us into a dirty, ugly wreck."

"Well, I suppose we can agree to disagree, Cassidy." He said lightly. "And there's no need for such words in front of your superior. Have a little respect, hm?"

"What's your name?" Chica asked, a quiver in her voice as his attention turned to her.

"I've had many names, Susanna. But, most like to call me Nightmare, on the account that I can control dreams and people tend to find my appearance a bit scary."

Freddy and Ruby shared a glance. "So if you control dreams, then why does Ruby come here when she sleeps?"

Nightmare didn't seem to hear him, and instead leaned forward and tweaked one of Freddy's soft brown ears, letting out a warm chuckle. "Bear ears. These are adorable!"

"Um, thanks." He flattened his hair self-consciously.

"Mr. Afton really has a way with design. I wonder if…" He snapped his fingers, and in a whirl of shadows his appearance changed. Nightmare suddenly looked like a gigantic, wispy, recoloured version of Freddy's animatronic form, with black fur, yellow instead of black accessories, and the same fierce crimson eyes. He beamed, taking in his new appearance. "Now I fit in!"

"You sure do. So, if you could answer my question—"

Nightmare let out a feline-esque yawn, stretching. "Exposition. How tiring. I'm going to take a nap, get Katy and Jeremy to explain the rest." And with that, he disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving everyone just standing there.

The blond boy, Jeremy, glanced their way with an apologetic look. "Sorry about him. We don't get many visitors."

"Quite alright. Do you think you'd be able to answer my question?"

He hesitated. "Um, kind of. See, it's a funny story—"

"Jeremy screwed up the names and sent the murder-furries to the girlie instead!" Katy cackled.

"Shut up! It wasn't a complete mistake! Besides, I never planned for her to come here, let alone…" He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that? Speak up, little boy!" Katy goaded.

"I never meant for her to survive, okay? Our client asked for a bunch of ruthless murder machines to torment the victim, and I found them and assigned them to someone else!"

"You never meant for me to survive?!" Ruby screeched, and started towards him. She knew she had at least a half-inch of height on him. "Alright, that's it, you're dead."

"Ruby!" Freddy snapped, tugging her back by her shirt strap. "Hold on, let's just talk about this. Jeremy, was it? Who's this client, and who was the victim?"

"We can't tell ya the client. That's against our privacy policy. But we can tell ya the victim!" She cupped her hands over her mouth and hissed; "between you and me, I think it's Jerry's lil' crush!"

"Oh my God, Katy!"

"Ehmagawd Katy!" She mimicked, fluffing up her short white-blonde hair so it resembled his. "Of course, I have no idea why he'd want to commit to an Afton for the rest of his life. Nine out of ten doctors agree that it's detrimental to your health, and probably causes wrinkles."

Jeremy wrinkled his nose. "Didn't you, like, kiss his dad?"

She gave him a horrified stare. "Please don't make me answer that."

Cassidy looked like she was going to vomit, so Freddy interrupted them. "Wait a minute! So we were intended to kill Michael?"

"Yeah, but he plugged in the girl's name instead of his, and now here we are."

Ruby grinned. "I'm totally telling him this as soon as I get back. He's gonna be so pissed."

"Who would want him to be tortured, though?" Mari asked.

Freddy shrugged. "Who wouldn't? He's the son of William. I bet there's buckets of angry souls up here looking for revenge, and Mike's the next best thing. Heck, they might have even mistook him for his father."

"True," Ruby agreed. Then she paused. "Wait, hold on. Jeremy. You like Michael?!"

"Ugh, no! Word of advice; don't listen to a thing that comes out of her mouth. She's delusional."

Katy nodded enthusiastically. "Sometimes I don't even understand myself!"

Chica frowned. "So like, why are you guys living with a literal god? After all, you're just regular mortals who did bad stuff like us, unless you did something special."

"Special? Puh-leeze. Jeremy sold drugs to teenagers on the daily and I…" She hesitated. "Well, I did some things I regret and sided with some people I don't like. But we ended up here, walked in one direction like y'all did, and met the big shadowy guy. And then we passed his trial—ooh, the trial! We didn't tell them about the trial!"

Jeremy face-palmed. "Okay, basically, we have this system where you face your biggest fear, and if you can do that, you're offered a gift. You can go to the afterlife like a regular soul, or you can return to the living world as a ghost. Or, if you're stupid like us—"

"—ahem, really cool like us—"

"Then you can become a sort of apprentice to Nightmare, help him out with organizing souls and whatnot. It sounded fun at first, but then Katy came along and being stuck with her for more than ten minutes really makes a guy regret his decision."

"Hey! Not fair!"

"Kat, you're a fifty-year-old in a pink tutu. I think you can handle a bit of bullying."

"I died at thirty-nine, but okay, whatever you say."

The conversation having run dry, everyone stood awkwardly in silence.

Jojo was the first to break it. "So…now what? Is this our new home?"

"No, honey, it's not. These people live here, remember?" Mari said gently. "We'll just continue on through and find a quiet place to settle down until we figure things out."

"But figuring things out is boring! I miss our old home. Why can't we do the trial thing so we can go back?"

Mari shook her head. "Absolutely not. It's much too dangerous, and even if you could pass it, our home burned down, remember? We don't have anywhere else to go."

"We could go to the afterlife," Mal said hopefully, "and see our families."

"Yeah! Alot of us have dead parents. Like us. And you," she pointed to Mari, "and you, and you, and you, and you!"

"Wow. That's more parents killed off than Disney," Ruby commented, having three dead father figures and one dead mother.

"Even with that, it's far too much for kids like you. Besides, we don't even know what the afterlife is like—for all we know, we could be separated up in heaven."

"Or we could go to hell."

"I doubt that, Cass, but I suppose that's also a possibility." Mari sighed. "I just wish this wasn't so cryptic. Clear rules would be nice."

Jeremy and Katy exchanged looks. "We could…help you out. Help you prepare for the trials and stuff."

She turned to Jeremy, excitement sparking in her cocoa-brown eyes. "Really? Oh, that would be wonderful. Thank you."

"'Course, it's not exactly allowed by the big shadow man. But when have silly things like rules ever stopped us?" Katy smirked.

Freddy hesitated, "Are you sure this is a good idea? Angering a god doesn't seem like the smartest move to make."

Katy narrowed her almond-shaped eyes. "And what other plans do you got? Sit in Shadow for eternity, trembling in fear that you run into one of the beasts—or that you turn into one? In my humble opinion, getting Nightmare a little angry seems like a small price to pay for your freedom."

Freddy cast an expectant glance at Ruby, who just shrugged. "I'm not the one stuck in here, this is your guys' decision."

"Fine, then. Let's take a vote. Cass, papers?" When she didn't hand them over, he raised an eyebrow. "Papers, please?"

"Last time we took a paper vote, everyone obviously wasn't thinking straight. I just want to make sure we're thinking clearly before we make any rash decisions." Cassidy said sweetly, ripping out seven pieces and keeping one for herself.

"How thoughtful," Freddy said tiredly, shuffling the papers and passing them out to the group, "but this is a much different context to the last."

As they passed around a red pen, Ruby watched in curious anticipation. Would they get the apprentice's help, even if it enraged the god of this realm? She sure hoped so. Facing her greatest fear, heights, sounded undoable, but with extra help maybe she'd be able to surpass it. Ruby pursed her lips. She wondered what everyone's fears were.

"Alright, the votes are in." Freddy counted them each, then counted them again. "Six votes for yes, and two for no. Katy and Jeremy, we accept your gracious offer, and sorry to those who voted against it."

"No!" Mari cried in anguish. "Everyone, think of the kids! Seven and nine, that's so young. Too young to be prancing around a minefield of activities that'll surely cause trauma!"

"With all due respect, Mar, that's the age range most of us were in when we were killed, and we got over it," Bonnie quipped.

"Sure, but how long did it take? Shouldn't we pick the option where children aren't traumatized?!"

Mal tugged at her sleeve. "We're already ramarized, Mari. It's okay."

"I'm afraid of bugs, but I can face them! I'll squish 'em!" Jojo chimed in, making karate slashes with her limbs.

"I'm afraid of large spaces," Mangle added. "Which I know is weird, but you're all weird, so you can deal with it."

"I'm afraid of walking the plank." Foxy confessed, with groans from his friends erupting. "What?! It's true."

"We've all been through so much crap, this will hardly be anything compared to our past," Chica said confidently. "I know we can overcome these silly little phobias in no time."

"Now, now." Nightmare's voice boomed all around them like a surround sound speaker, and everyone froze in place. Jeremy made the sign of the cross on his chest. "If you really think you can overcome your worst…nightmare, so to speak, so easily, then I think Charlotte was right. You really can't handle this at all."

"Nightmare! We were just talking about you! All good things, all good things." Katy chirped, her voice unnaturally chipper.

"Relax, Katy. I can hear everything that goes on in Shadow, there's really no point in keeping secrets. And while I could smite you for that, I won't. I admire this group's persistence in getting to the afterlife, and I will allow you to train them on account that you never go behind my back again. Deal?"

Jeremy blew out a long breath. "Deal. Our deepest apologies, sir."

A pause, then a laugh full of mirth. "You humans are so cute when you're serious. Alright, back to your little conversation. I'll be watching."

"Well, that was…eventful." Ruby said after a beat of silence. "I should probably get going, though. Tulisa's making apple crumble for dessert!"

"Ugh, food." Chica groaned. "I so miss that."

And then all of a sudden, an aluminium dish of hot apple crumble materialized in front of them, nine plates beside it.

Ruby's eyes rounded. "Holy mother of rectangles. Hey Nightmare, think you could magic me some food in the normal realm?"

"No."

She sighed, "Damn. Worth a shot. Alright, see you all tonight. Enjoy the crumble!" Ruby ruffled Chica's golden-blonde hair, and she ducked her head to hide her blush.

A blue portal swirling with water opened up on the floor, and with that Ruby was gone, leaving her friends standing there, ready to eat and ready to train.

A/N

I'm too tired to write an author's note, so I'm probably just going to get started on re-uploading stuff. Uh, I figured out how to use the long—dash, so that's fun!

Question/Challenge: What's your favourite way to eat eggs? Me personally, it's to not eat them at all. But if I had to, I like them scrambled with kimchi. As long as I don't think about it too hard.

Have an amazing day/night!

~ghosty