A/N: It's been 27 chapters and I still haven't enabled the kids to get out of the house yet. Which is probably the most important thing that I could possibly do to expand the story and scope of the fic. So let's fix that right now.

I'm thinking about setting an update schedule for this fic, as in picking a specific day and time in which I upload a chapter. With that in mind, I'd like to ask you guys what you think would be the best time for me to upload, or if you don't mind the more sporadic but still relatively consistent uploading intervals that I currently use.

To Blazing Groudon: that's an incredibly interesting analysis, as well as a bit ironic since Giratina reminds the kids of Nightmare. The only issue is that there's no threats for her to fight against, at least not that I have planned right now. And you're right, William Afton is completely and eternally screwed. Especially since Afton managed to offend the sliver of morality and honor that prevents Nightmare from lacking any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

To sonic: In my verse, the victim of the Bite of '83 is the youngest Afton (his name will be Evan), and is Liz's and Michael's brother. I'm not sure whether Evan will be making a direct appearance in the future, though he will have an impact on parts of the story in the future. Also, I don't plan on making any holy animatronics at the moment (mostly cause I don't know how).

Anyways, on to the chapter!

Chapter 28 – Expanding Horizons

Mike rubbed his temples as he stared frustrated at his desk. He had left the kids to play down in the living room to focus on the one problem that had eluded him ever since the ghosts had first come here. The kids had accepted life in his house just fine for around a month and a half now, but he knew they would soon get agitated. It wasn't just the general restlessness of being stuck in one place, either – without new things to explore and distract them, the ghosts would inevitably start brooding on their past torment and sins. Some of the older ones, like Gabe and Jeremy, either hadn't reached that point yet or were hiding their thoughts very well. But others…Cassidy had come crying to his room a few nights ago from another Freddy's-related nightmare, and while Liz hadn't outright fallen into depression again like he'd feared, she'd become much quieter and more subdued ever since Nightmare's attack and it wasn't hard for him to guess why. Hopefully, exposure to the outside world would draw their attention away from their past and towards the wonder and curiosity children naturally had.

"What do I do about this…" he muttered as he tapped his fingers on his desk.

While there was technically nothing stopping them from exiting and the conditions of his house were almost certainly much better than their existence in the animatronics, the ghost kids were still functionally trapped in the house, even if this time it was for their own good. Mike sighed. He might not have to deal with several of the disadvantages of being a parent, but taking care of 7 kids was still a major challenge when he had to bear the weight of their problems on his own shoulders.

Wait a minute…bear the weight of their problems on his own shoulders…

"I'm an IDIOT!" Mike all but shouted as he slammed the palm of his hand onto his desk. He couldn't believe it – it had taken him THIS long to finally find a solution to this problem? "How did it take me an entire month to figure this out?" he shook his head, disappointed in himself. "God, only 48 years old and I'm already going senile…"

"Uh, dad?" Liz's head popped out of the floor. "Are you all right?"

Mike seamlessly masked his frustration. "Yeah. Actually, if things work out the way I hope they do, I might be better than all right. Would you mind doing me a favor?"

The girl smiled. "Anything for you, dad!"

"Would you mind getting all the ghosts and bringing them up here? I think you guys are gonna like what I have to say."

Liz nodded and disappeared back down through the floor. A few seconds later, all the ghosts floated through the floor and into Mike's library as Mary entered through the door.

"Ever since that whole mess with Nightmare blew over, I've been thinking about how to finally get you guys out of the house," Mike began without preamble. "And I've been thinking about it all wrong."

"Wait…did you finally figure it out?" Fritz asked eagerly, his excitement shared by his new family. Even if they hadn't realized it, they had all felt that same yearning to go out and explore the world around them without the search for redemption hanging over their heads.

"I think I have," Mike confirmed, and all the ghosts cheered. He held out a hand to calm them down. "It won't happen immediately, you're not gonna be able to just fly out of my house and to the city today. But I think I know how to approach this."

He took a deep breath before continuing his explanation. "All this time, I've been trying to think about this from what I can do to prepare you for the outside world. And yes, I do need to prepare you properly, for reasons that we've already gone over before. But when it comes to making it possible, it doesn't depend on me."

He gestured towards his children. "It depends on you. I'm not the one with the ghost powers, I can't do anything other than supervise. You can turn yourselves invisible, you can hide yourselves to the point that nobody can see or hear you. I've seen you do it before, both to Alex and Meghan and to that thief who tried to break into my house earlier. You have the basics of stealth down from what I can tell. What you need to do now is perfect them."

The kids looked at each other with grins on their faces. That was it? That didn't seem too difficult to pull off. But Mike wasn't done. "When I say perfect them, I mean perfect them," his clarified, his tone utterly serious. "Just because you can turn invisible doesn't mean that people can't tell you're there. A lot can go horribly wrong if the public learns that there's a bunch of ghosts living in my house, and that's even if they DON'T learn about the things you did in the pizzeria. Before I let you guys out into the world, I want you to be so stealthy that the only reason I know you're there is because I know you guys exist beforehand. And I'm not going to be satisfied until we get to that point."

"Wait, time out," Gabe made the gesture with his hands. "I don't have any problem at all with keeping ourselves as secret as possible to people who don't need to know we're there. But how are we going to talk to you, then? Either we're gonna have to whisper into your ear literally floating right next to you, which people might still be able to hear anyway, or we're not gonna be able to talk to you at all."

Mike nodded. "Great question. Which is where Mary comes in. Cause magically she's the strongest one here." He raised an eyebrow at her. "By the way, how come you're the only one here with all these powers when the rest of these guys don't? I know Cassidy could do things like the hallucinations and teleporting while she was in Golden Freddy, but still."

Mary shook her head. "It's complicated," she answered, "and probably a story best told for another time."

Mike shrugged. "Eh, fine by me," he replied. "Where was I? Oh, right. I've read a couple of fantasy stories in the past where two people could communicate telepathically with each other. Can you set up something like that between you, me, and the kids?"

Cassidy raised her hand this time. "What does telepathically mean?" she asked. Being the youngest, her vocabulary wasn't as extensive as some of the older ghosts.

"It means you can talk with your mind," Jeremy explained succinctly.

"Jeremy's right," Mary agreed. "As to whether I can set up something like that, I'm pretty sure I can. I'll need some time to remaster my magical capabilities since I haven't used them in a while, but yes, I can do it. It would only be a weak link, though, enough to send messages but nothing further. You won't be able to experience others' inner thoughts and emotions, and neither will we."

"That's actually perfect," Mike gave her a thumbs up. "Messages and talking are the only things I want to hear. If I experienced every single thing all seven of you were going through at the same time, I'm pretty sure my brain would literally explode."

Susie cringed at the image. "Let's not do that," she muttered.

"Yeah, I like my brain intact," Mike agreed dryly. "The only other issue we need to take care of is how to make sure you guys don't get lost. I mean, I know you managed to find your way over to my house from who knows where, but still."

"I think I have a solution to that, too," Mary offered. "I can teach my brothers and sisters how to anchor themselves to something or someone."

Gabe made the time-out motion again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up!" he interrupted. "This anchoring thing sounds disturbingly familiar to how we ended up getting trapped in those animatronics. I really don't want a round 2 of that."

"Me neither," Liz added. "I'd like to keep my freedom now that I finally have it."

"Wait a minute…" Jeremy interrupted, giving Mary an accusing look. "Wasn't it YOUR fault that we got trapped in those animatronics in the first place?"

Mary shook her head. "I was only partially responsible for your existence in the animatronics," she responded to his accusation. "There were other factors that actually played a much bigger role, but now's not the time to think about that. And what I'm talking about is completely different and nowhere near as dangerous."

"How so?" Mike asked.

"It's an ability that each individual ghost controls him or herself, rather than something someone else does for you," Mary explained. "By anchoring himself to a specific object or person, the ghost will move along with that object without having to expend any energy."

"Like a car…" the former Night Guard's eyes flashed with understanding.

"Exactly," the Marionette nodded. "Without any anchoring, a ghost would have to expend his own energy to move. If they wanted to keep up with a fast-moving car travelling over long distances, they would end up completely exhausted by the end of it all. Anchoring removes that problem."

"What happens if the object gets destroyed?" Surprisingly, it was Fritz who asked the insightful question.

"If the object gets destroyed then the anchor link breaks automatically," Mary explained. "The ghost can also break the link at any time. All in all, rather simple, easy to execute, and with minimal risk overall. The main downside is that you can't move too far away from an object that you're anchored to."

"How do you know so much about this?" Jeremy asked. "I mean, you're stuck in the Puppet, right? You have a physical body for all intents and purposes even if you're still dead."

Mary smiled again, but this time the smile was faint and a wistful look entered her eyes. "Someone I trust told me how…" she murmured distractedly. She stared off into space for several seconds until Mike snapped his fingers to bring her attention back.

"You all right there?" he asked.

Mary snapped back to reality. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"No problem." Mike brushed it off. "How long will it take for you to get ready?"

The Marionette shrugged. "Maybe about a week? I'll need a few days to refamiliarize myself with using my magic since I haven't done anything with them in a while, and another few to set up a stable mental link. Teaching how to anchor shouldn't take long at all."

"All right, then," Mike said approvingly. "Sounds like a plan. Soon as I think you guys are ready, we're finally getting you out of the house."

"When are we gonna get started?" Jeremy asked.

Mike grinned. "You know what they say," he answered. "No time like the present!" He got up from his chair and the ghosts launched themselves into the air. "Let's get started."

A Few Days Later…

Mike tapped his fingers pensively on the kitchen table as he evaluated his children's progress. Truth be told, they weren't doing badly at all. Like he'd told them before, they were already familiar with invisibility and quickly mastered how to mask their presence visually for an extended period of time. It had taken them a little while longer to learn how to avoid how to, for lack of a better phrase, make people feel like being watched. Gabe was the one who had eventually come up with the solution – simply avoid focusing their attention on a person for too long. Once they'd started doing that, combined with their improved invisibility, and Mike could sense their presence a lot less keenly than before, though it never faded entirely since he knew they were there.

The real issue was their ability to keep themselves silent. He knew from interacting with other kids that children tended to be hyperactive to begin with, and the fact that these particular children had only recently been freed from decades of quiet suffering had certainly done nothing to change that. Gabe, Liz, and to a lesser degree Jeremy were doing better at keeping themselves quiet for a couple of minutes at a time compared to the others, but it was always only a few minutes at most before one of them said something, giggled, or otherwise gave away their presence.

"You've got to do better than that," Mike had gently reprimanded Susie when she had blown her cover earlier that day. "I can take you guys in a car or to a deserted place just fine, but what if I'm waiting in a room with a decent number of adults and one of them starts hearing kids talking or laughing? At best, they'll think they're hearing things, and at worse, they might start thinking places are haunted."

Susie sighed. "I know, dad. It's just…it's just hard, is all. We're not used to keeping quiet for longer than a couple of minutes at a time. We couldn't call to anyone for help when we were trapped in those animatronics, and now that we can finally talk freely, I just can't help myself."

"I do get what you're saying," Mike assured her as he stroked her hair. "And I'm sorry I'm making you go through this. But I really do think this is best for you."

The girl nodded. "I know, dad. And I'll keep trying."

Mike's mind returned to the present. "Am I being too hard on them about this?" he thought gloomily. He knew that it was entirely possible to stay quiet for a long period of time, having been a college student studying for hours in a library. But that situation was completely different from the children. "Am I being too cautious? I lived my entire life by not taking risks and planning everything out as carefully as possible…but just how well does that actually work with trying to raise these kids? What if I'm just restricting them for no good reason?"

"Mike?"

Mike looked up towards the door to see Mary looking with concern at him. "Oh, hey Mary," he greeted her tiredly. The Puppet floated into the dining room and sat down on a chair next to him. "I've been thinking that maybe I'm going too overboard on this whole stealth thing. Is it really realistic for these kids to not say a word or laugh or make any noise with their mouths for long periods of time?"

Mary shook her head. "I couldn't tell you that, Mike," she answered. "While part of me thinks that you might be expecting too much of them, the other part of me knows just how determined my friends and family can actually be when they set their minds to it."

"Oh, believe me, I know all about their determination," Mike's lips twitched upward. "I've had 20 nights to get familiar with it."

The Marionette thought for a moment. "I do have a solution for you," she finally offered. "One that will greatly simplify things. I can cast a silencing spell on my friends to prevent them from making any verbal sounds. This will eliminate the problem you're worried about entirely, and remove the last obstacle that's stopping them from safely going out into the world."

Mike frowned. "The problem with that is that these kids were forced into silence for decades," he commented. "The only one who found any way to talk at all was Liz, and…well, we know how that turned out in the end. I don't like the idea of forcing that onto them."

"Let them decide," Mary suggested. "I've been with them much longer than you have, except for Liz. I can tell that they want to be free of this house, and I know you can sense it too. The decision should rest with them."

A Few Minutes Later…

"So those are our options?" Gabe asked.

"Yep," Mike nodded. "You can keep practicing silence, or we can take the easy way out and have Mary silence you guys with a spell while we're in crowded places like malls and hotels and stuff. And no, this won't affect our mental link at all. You'll still be able to mind-talk with me and everyone else here. But it's up to you. The only condition I'm going to add is that, for consistency's sake, everyone's going to be doing the same thing. So, talk amongst yourselves and come to a decision."

The ghosts looked at each other. "I don't like it," Fritz was the first to say something. "I don't like the idea of being forced into silence. Reminds me too much of what things were like back in the pizzeria."

"I don't see the problem," Susie countered. "Trying to be quiet for a long time is a lot harder than I thought it would be. And I really, REALLY want to see the outside world soon."

"Yeah, it would help a lot," Cassidy agreed. "Besides, we can still talk to each other. And it's not like we have any reason to talk to a random stranger."

Liz shook her head. "I'm with Fritz," she argued. "It took me so long to learn how to talk through Baby. After so many years of being trapped in the dark, being able to talk again was the first and closest thing I had to getting some freedom back."

"Do we really have a good reason to keep our mouths open in public, though?" Jeremy challenged. "Remember, it's not like we're being silenced from the moment we leave this house to the moment we come back. We'll still be able to talk just fine in Dad's car, and in places where giving ourselves away won't be an issue. Besides, I have to agree with Sus. I'm really getting tired of this house!" He gave an apologetic look to Mike. "No offense, dad."

Mike shrugged. "None taken. There's a reason I go out almost every weekend."

Gabe decided to intervene at this point. "Look, here's the thing," he interrupted the debate. "We can't leave the house anyway until Mary finishes prepping all of her magic stuff. Why don't we keep practicing for now, and if we still can't pull it off right by the time Mary's done, we go with the silencing thing. Personally, I'm okay with having that spell on me as long as it's only for a short period of time, but I think the other side at least deserves a chance."

"I'm cool with that," Fritz agreed. Liz was a bit more reluctant to concede, but ultimately, she too agreed with the compromise.

"So it seems we've all reached an agreement," Mary said approvingly. "That's one less issue in your way to freedom. I'll go back inside my music box to keep practicing. The sooner I master my magic again, the sooner you can be free of this house."

As she floated away from the living room and into her music box, Mike's lips suddenly stretched into a mischievous smirk that all the ghosts caught.

"What did you do, dad?" Cassidy mouthed.

"Wait for it," he mouthed back. Suddenly, a deafening electric guitar and drum sequence blared from the next room. The Marionette immediately popped out of the music box, clearly agitated. "WHO THE HELL CHANGED MY MUSIC BOX TUNE TO HEAVY METAL?" she shouted.

The rest of the family collapsed into laughter. "Get wrecked, Mary!" Mike chortled as the Puppet gave him the middle finger.

"Can you PLEASE fix it?" she all but growled. "You think I can concentrate like this?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, hold on a sec…" Mike moved over to the music box. "I honestly don't know how you can stand hearing the same tune over and over, but whatever…"

A Few Days Later…

"You are really bad at this game, Fritz."

"Shut up, Jeremy! You're not much better!"

"At least I didn't get a Game Over because I died in a pit while having the flying P wing activated!"

"Guys!" Mary popped out of her music box and rushed over to the living room, looking visibly excited. "I'm ready to set up the mental link. Your wait is finally over!"

The game was quickly abandoned as the family gave her their full attention. "When I finish establishing this link, you'll be able to talk to each other with just your minds. Everyone, close your eyes."

They did so, and the Marionette's eyes flashed as she channeled her energy. Everyone felt a warm glow envelop them as they were surrounded by Mary's magic. After several moments, the glow faded.

"Did it work?" Mike asked.

"Can anyone hear me?" Susie's voice called out in his head. It took Mike a second to realize that she hadn't actually spoken a word.

"I heard you!" Gabe's voice echoed in their heads in the same way.

"I think it worked!" Liz added her own thoughts through the same mental link.

"This is awesome!" Cassidy declared with a joyful laugh.

"Now that I've established the mental link, it will be a simple matter for me to turn it on and off whenever we need it or not," Mary finished. "Since we don't need it right now, I can shut it off right now."

The family felt something disconnect in their minds. Fritz tried to send a message through the mental link, but judging from the unchanging expressions on his family's faces, it was clear they didn't hear it. "To be honest…" he admitted, "we haven't gotten as far with keeping quiet as I would've liked. I guess we're gonna have to go with the silence spell thing after all, at least for now."

Mike shook his head. "Well, that might be true for some places we go to," he suddenly grinned and picked up a cell phone. "But not for the one I have in mind."

One Hour Later…

"Ugggghhhhh…." Alex groaned as he buried his head into his couch pillow. "I'm so freaking booooooooored!"

Meghan slammed her head onto her desk. "Why is there nothing to do?" she complained loudly. "For God's sake, even video games have gotten boring now!"

Her brother sighed. "If it were up to me, I'd be out with my friends by now," he muttered. "But can you believe it? They're ALL busy doing one thing or another."

"Bad luck, I guess…" Meghan sighed.

"Hey, kids?" they heard their dad's voice call out to them. "Would you mind coming down here, please?"

Alex closed his laptop and Meghan put her phone down. Both of them headed downstairs and to the kitchen. "Sup, dad?" Alex asked.

"You guys doing good?" Ryan greeted them, looking more cheerful than expected. "How's your evening going?"

Meghan groaned audibly. "We are so BORED!" she exclaimed. "Please, dad, can you do anything to help?"

Ryan laughed. "Oh, don't you worry, sweetie. I'm about to change all that right now. He looked over their shoulders. "Right, Mike?"

The two children whirled around to see Mike sitting lazily on the sofa in the living room. He waved at them with a lazy grin. "Sup, kiddos?"

"Mr. Schmidt!" Alex called out to him in surprise. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"And yet, here I am!" Mike replied good-humoredly. "But I don't think you guys would be all that excited to see some old guy, to be honest. Nah, that's not why I'm here."

Meghan opened her mouth to speak. "Uh…"

"Don't worry," Mike interrupted, and his grin widened. "I've brought some guys along who I think you'll be very happy to see again."

Alex's eyes widened. "You don't mean…"

All around Mike, the ghostly figures of children materialized into existence. Children they were very familiar with.

"SURPRISE!"

/

A/N: And I think that's a good place to stop. I don't think there's any place the children would want to go to more than the home of their first living friends in over 30 years for their first time outside of the house. And now that the kids are free to go to the outside world, there's a lot more that I/they can do now that we couldn't do before.

I wanted to show Mike putting a bit of a firmer hand on parenting since he's been relatively laid-back and relaxed up to this point, Nightmare's attack being the main exception. Since he's never parented or had consistent examples of good parents in his life, I also wanted him to experience some level of internal struggle over whether he is doing a good job, even though I'm fairly certain everyone would agree that he is, at least in-universe.

For those of you who like the Marionette, I've brought her more into focus here. Despite her being one of the most important characters in FNAF, up to this point in the fic I've kinda put her more off to the side since a lot of the attention was on the rest of the ghostly children. As the magically gifted ghost and the Team Mom/Cool Big Sis of the group, she also plays a significant role in guiding and taking care of them, though the main part of that burden has passed on to Mike. And did you guys catch those hints to the past? I have some plot arcs in my mind, and there'll be more FNAF lore exploration for those who like that kind of thing 😊

Hope you guys enjoyed!