A/N: The darkness has descended upon the story, hasn't it? Liz is going to take quite a while to recover from the dark truths that Nightmare hurled at her face.

But the dark is always deepest before the dawn. Mike is the only one who can defend these kids, and so he shall. And all this shall lead to an endgame…an endgame that nobody so far seems to have predicted.

Again, some Christian themes and all that. You know the drill by now.

Chapter 23 – A Father's Challenge

Nightmare laughed. The idea that this mortal sought to fight him, after knowing what he was already capable of, was just too entertaining. "YOU SEEK A BATTLE?" he asked mockingly. "AND, HOW, EXACTLY, DO YOU PLAN TO CHALLENGE ME? THE PUPPET GIRL WAS YOUR STRONGEST IN MAGICAL POWER, AND THE LITTLE SCRAP ABOMINATION WAS YOUR STRONGEST IN PHYSICAL STRENGTH. BOTH OF THEM FAILED UTTERLY BEFORE MY MIGHT. WHAT MAKES YOU BELIEVE YOUR FATE WILL BE ANY DIFFERENT?"

Mike bristled at the insult to Liz. "Because I'm not going to fight this with strength," he answered. He had known that physically fighting Nightmare was completely impossible from the very beginning. Mike's greatest advantages as a fighter had always leaned towards stealth, awareness and agility rather than brute force. And even if he had more raw strength, it was all completely useless to him against an enemy as powerful as Nightmare anyway.

No, he was going to fight the demon with a different tool altogether. One that had served him well ever since he had escaped from his abusive father, from wandering the streets and surviving Freddy's to the intellectual challenges he had faced in college and beyond. A weapon that had only sharpened as the years passed, the only one that he had ever considered truly worth using.

His mind.

"Your arguments and attacks aren't as strong as you think they are, Nightmare," Mike growled. "I've seen this before. You use fear and terror to try and break these kids, and it's easy to see why they believed you. But I can see through it. And I can see the weaknesses in your attacks."

Nightmare sneered. "YOU SPEAK WITH SUCH CONFIDENCE, MORTAL," he retorted. "BUT UNLESS YOU CAN ACTUALLY PROVE THAT SUCH WEAKNESSES EXIST, THEN YOUR WORDS ARE WORTHLESS TO THEM AND TO ME. ARE YOU GOING TO DENY THAT THE FAZBEAR CHILDREN ARE MURDERERS OF INNOCENTS? ARE YOU GOING TO DENY THE BLOOD THEY HAVE SHED? YOU HAVE SEEN THEM ATTEMPT TO DO THE SAME TO YOU, DID YOU NOT? ARE YOU GOING TO IGNORE THEIR CRIMES IN A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO GIVE YOUR LITTLE BRATS A TEMPORARY REPRIEVE?"

"No," Mike replied through gritted teeth. "I won't. As much as I want to, I can't deny what you've said just now. Not without dishonoring the Night Guards who came before me. Out of all the accusations you hurled at my kids, this one is the only thing you've said that's a pure truth."

"A PURE TRUTH?" Nightmare mocked. "THEN DO TELL ME, OLD MAN. WHAT HAVE I SPOKEN THAT IS NOT A PURE TRUTH, AS YOU SO PUT IT?"

Mike's eyes narrowed. "How about almost everything else you've said to them?" he snapped back. "Let's start with this one. You said earlier that I owed these kids nothing. Is that correct?"

"CORRECT," the demon growled.

"And you also said earlier that because I shut down all the animatronics' AIs down to zero, I ended up making them completely helpless to fight against William Afton. And that because he was able to destroy the animatronics my kids were possessing before they scared him into Springtrap, they ended up even more trapped and helpless without being able to so much as move. Is that right?"

"YES."

A faint smile appeared on Mike's lips. "Then I do owe these kids, don't I?" he asked quietly. "Yes, I know they tried to kill me, and that they might have succeeded. But a swift death that they might have inflicted on me, no matter how brutal it might be, is nothing compared to the 30 years of enslavement and torment that I did force them into. And even if they had killed me, they would have only committed a crime against my body. But I ended up committing a crime against their very souls even if I didn't know it, and I owe them for all the pain and suffering I caused them."

"GET TO THE POINT," Nightmare snarled impatiently.

"My point, jackass, is that by trying to attack both of us you ended up contradicting yourself!" Mike shouted.

Except for Liz, who was still lamenting over her brother's fate, the ghosts' eyes all widened in shock. They were the ones who had tried to kill the man who would become their father, and he was speaking as though he were the one who had sinned against them? As they felt their admiration for Mike renew itself yet again, they suddenly realized with a spark of hope that Nightmare hadn't answered yet.

The demonic animatronic's fangs were bared and his eyes were glaring viciously at Mike, but the man had seen it. It had lasted for the briefest of moments before the familiar visage of malice and cruelty had returned, but he had seen it.

Surprise. Doubt. Uncertainty.

And that was all Mike needed. He would never have the millennia of experience that Nightmare had in the art of war, but he didn't need it. Five years fighting battles within and battles without had been more than enough to teach him the fundamentals, including one of the most important ones.

When your enemy presents you with the slightest weakness, you tear that weakness open for all that it was worth and with everything you had.

Nightmare would not admit defeat so easily though. "WHATEVER SINS YOU HAVE COMMITTED AGAINST THESE CHILDREN, REAL OR IMAGINED, IS IRRELEVANT," he growled. "THAT DECISION IS ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE, AND I WILL NOT WASTE MY TIME ARGUING THIS WHEN YOU WILL CLEARLY ARGUE IN THEIR FAVOR. IT DOES NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THOSE BRATS ARE GUILTY OF SLAUGHTERING INNOCENTS, NOR DOES IT CHANGE THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE DONE NOTHING TO REDEEM THEMSELVES OF THEIR PAST."

"We already established your first point was true," Mike growled, "so you can stop rubbing it in their faces. And as for the second part…"

He closed his eyes. "…you're wrong. I have seen proof they've changed for the better. Not a few days ago…a thief broke into my house. A thief who wanted to rob me, a person who could have potentially hurt or killed me. The children had that thief entirely at their mercy, just like they had with the Night Guards at their mercy in 1993. If they were the same as they were back then, they would have killed him for sure. Stuffed in Lefty, or something just as bad." He suddenly smiled and opened his eyes. "But they didn't. They only did what they needed to make sure he wouldn't do anything, and nothing more. They learned that violence, whether it was to get revenge or to keep the people they care about safe, wasn't the right answer. They learned, and they changed for the better. If that's not a good start, then I don't know what is."

"Dad…" was all Jeremy could say before he and the other ghosts were overwhelmed by their own emotions. They had placed their trust in a man whom they had never known, and they knew at that moment that every bit of faith and hope had been rewarded exponentially. There was no one who deserved their loyalty and love more than Mike.

"Besides," Mike's expression turned cold and he glared at Nightmare. "Even if they haven't acted out on their redemption properly," he suddenly sneered, "who the hell are you to judge?"

Nightmare's eyes flashed menacingly. "EXCUSE ME?"

"You heard me," Mike replied scathingly. "You sure like to talk a lot about redemption for someone who doesn't have a goddamn clue what the hell they're talking about!"

"YOU DARE…" the demon snarled.

"Yes, I do," the man interrupted with a growl. "I don't know who the proper judge for these kids' redemption is. God, me, who knows. But it sure as fuck isn't you, a demon straight from the depths of Hell. I don't know exactly what you are, but I've read the Bible and played enough fantasy games to take a guess. Maybe you're a fallen angel who spat on his vows of loyalty to God and all that is good thousands of years ago. Or maybe you're a literal incarnation of evil itself born straight from the depths of Hell. I don't know, and I don't care. Either way, why the fuck would your opinion would even matter? It would be like asking a chronic drug addict for advice on how to get over a drinking problem, or asking an abusive parent for advice on how to raise kids!"

"I HAVE DWELLED IN HELL FOR THOUSAND OF YEARS, MORTAL!" Nightmare bellowed furiously. "I UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF SIN BETTER THAN YOU OR THOSE BRATS EVER COULD!"

"Yes, you do," Mike calmly replied. "Of sin. But sin and redemption aren't the same thing, are they? In fact, I'd go so far as to they say they're the exact opposite, or close to it. And the only people in Hell are the ones who don't have any regret for their crimes whatsoever, are they? Have you even so much as talked to anyone who actually redeemed themselves in your entire life? My father understood redemption better in five minutes on a hospital bed than you ever could in a thousand years."

"Wait, dad…" Susie interrupted in shock. "You can't be talking about…"

"That's right, Susie," Mike confirmed with a smile. "I didn't tell you this at the time, but I did see my old man one last time. And he apologized for everything he ever did to me. He wasn't a great man, not by any stretch of the imagination. But at some point, he turned into a good one." He turned his gaze at Nightmare. "And that alone makes him a better judge of redemption than you could ever be," he finished contemptuously.

"GRRRRRRRRRR….." Nightmare growled. He couldn't believe what was happening. Despite all the knowledge and tools that he had harnessed to try and break this family, a mere mortal was trying to seize control of the encounter. And somehow, he was succeeding.

"Besides, that's not the only thing you're wrong about," Mike had no intention of stopping now that he had the momentum. "Let's talk about my little vacation that you brought up. The one that you brought up and try to make these kids feel even worse about themselves. The one that cost me thousands of dollars?"

"YOU CANNOT DENY THAT THIS VACATION WAS CANCELLED BECAUSE OF THEM," Nightmare snarled.

"Oh, I don't have any intention of denying it all," Mike responded. "But you made it sound like it was the biggest deal ever, another way they wronged me even after they got to know me."

"But we did wrong you, dad…" Cassidy murmured guiltily. "You lost that chance because of us."

Mike shrugged. "There's plenty of ways for me to enjoy life now that I'm retired," he said nonchalantly. "But do you realize just how little I actually give a shit about that vacation? Do you know how little that money actually matters to me? I did the calculations. All the money I spent and would have spent? Less than 0.1% of the money I have in the bank. Remember, kids. I handed out 5000 dollars to Colm. What is 5000 dollars or even 10000 dollars, compared to the 5 million I currently have stocked up in the bank?"

The ghosts' eyes widened in realization, and Gabe and Fritz even facepalmed. Nightmare had been so brutal and ruthless in his accusation that they had completely forgotten just how rich Mike actually was. "And besides," the man continued with a smirk, "it's not like this was a one-time only thing and I'll never be able to try this ever again. There's always next summer, or the summer after that, or the summer after that. At my age, one year passes by like a blur. And besides all that, who said I only had to plan my vacations for the summer? There's four seasons, not just one. So at the end of the day, your big revelation really doesn't mean anything, does it?"

Nightmare's eyes blazed with fury as he realized that Mike had managed to somehow upstage him yet again. Already, he could see the fear and despair in most of the ghosts' eyes begin to fade, the darkness breaking under their adopted father's potent combination of logic, compassion, and surprising aggression. All of them…except for one.

"AND WHAT ABOUT THE LITTLE AFTON BRAT?" Nightmare sneered. "HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY HER SINS? HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY HER TREACHERY?"

"I don't have to justify anything," Mike retorted. "God already took care of that for me."

"YOU CLAIM TO KNOW THE MIND OF GOD?" the demon mocked. "SUCH HUBRIS HAS LED TO THE DOWNFALL OF GREATER MEN THAN YOU."

"I never said any such thing," Mike replied calmly. "But I know what I say is true. Because if God really did think that her crimes were her own fault, Liz wouldn't be here. She'd be burning in Hell along with her father. But all those sins you mentioned…did she ever have a choice to begin with? She was driven insane by decades of isolation without being able to so much as talk to another person, and she was being corrupted by Afton's evil programming throughout every single one of those years. Who wouldn't turn evil after that? He knew she didn't deserve to be sent down there, and no matter how many black truths and insults you hurl at my daughter, you can't do a goddamn thing to change that, can you?"

"YOUR WORDS ONLY RING TRUE FOR HER ACTIONS IN THE PIZZERIA WHERE THE FAZBEAR FRANCHISE MET ITS END," Nightmare countered. "AND YOU HAVE SAID NOTHING TO ANSWER FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF HER BROTHER."

Mike took another sad look at Liz, who still had her head buried between her knees in shame. He didn't know if what he was about to do with help. He didn't know if she could even hear what he was saying. But anything was better than doing nothing and watching her suffer. "I do have this to say," he said after several moments of thought. He turned to the other ghost kids. "You guys…I'm going to ask you a hard question. One that might even cause you some pain. But I'm doing it for a reason."

"Do what you need to do, dad," Gabe replied firmly.

"All right," Mike took a deep breath. "How long did it take for you to forget your families? How long before you started to forget their faces, what they looked like?"

"…" the ghosts were silent for several moments. They knew why Mike was asking them this. And if it would help to save a sister whose suffering was even worse than theirs, then every second of pain would be worth it.

"It took me about 3 years," Gabe finally answered. "3 years before I forgot their faces, the sound of their voices, everything about my family disappearing as time passed."

"It only took me 2," Jeremy added quietly. "Then everything just faded into a blur."

"2 for me as well," Susie agreed. "I don't even remember their names anymore."

"I think I was only able to remember for 2 as well," Fritz supplied, his voice uncharacteristically serious.

Cassidy was the last to speak. "It only took me one," she finished quietly.

"One to three years," Mike repeated. "One to three years before they forgot almost everything about their loved ones apart from the fact that they existed at all. And in only 1-3 years, their families' appearance wouldn't have changed much. Oh, kids grow up and adults might get a few more wrinkles, but their fundamental appearance would stay around the same in that short a time. But after five years? Maybe even more? I've compared pictures of how I look as a teenager and as a young adult, and I can barely recognize myself. How could anybody possibly expect Liz to ever recognize her brother when he's a fully grown adult AND she hasn't had any type of legitimate human contact for at least half a decade?" his voice raised to a shout. "It's fucking impossible! You're judging her based on a standard that no human being could possibly hope to match!"

"YET THE FACT REMAINS," Nightmare coldly growled. "WHETHER IT IS BY ACCIDENT OR BY INTENT, HER BROTHER IS DEAD BECAUSE OF HER. A BROTHER WHO HAD AN ENTIRE LIFE AHEAD OF HIM, CUT SHORT BECAUSE OF HER ACTIONS."

"Maybe so. But this wasn't a cold-hearted murder and betrayal, like you keep saying it was. This was a tragic accident and a series of mistakes that anyone could have made in her shoes. You twisted her actions into something completely out of proportion to what she actually did. Though maybe I shouldn't be surprised," Mike's eyes narrowed. "I bet demons like you just love to corrupt the truth, don't you? Everything you said about them," he gestured towards the Fazbear ghost kids, "about her," he gestured towards Liz, whose head was still buried in her hands but was no longer sobbing as hard as she was before, "the fact that it might all be technically correct doesn't make it any less bullshit, and you know it!"

"ENOUGH OF THIS!" Nightmare suddenly roared. He ensnared Mike with the shadows and pulled him forward until the man was standing right in front of him. "DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE PROVEN YOURSELF TO BE MY SUPERIOR WITH YOUR WORDS AND YOUR LOGIC? YOU ARE STILL JUST A MERE MORTAL, FRAIL AND WEAK. YOU ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO MY POWER, AND I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR YOUR INSOLENCE! WHEN I AM THROUGH WITH YOU, HELL ITSELF WILL WEEP AT YOUR SUFFERING AND YOUR DESTRUCTION!"

But Mike didn't seem fazed by the demon's threat at all. Instead, he took everyone completely by surprise and started laughing.

"Is THAT it?" he mocked, throwing every bit of Nightmare's contempt right back at him. "You can't answer my arguments so you resort to threatening me? And with something so cliché and predictable as pain and death?" He let out another bark of derisive laughter. "I didn't give you the right amount of respect. I gave you too much. For all that you know about my kids, you don't know a goddamn thing about me, do you? I've lived with pain and the threat of death for nearly a decade and a half. I didn't fear them as a kid, what the hell makes you think I'll fear them now? The important stages of my life have passed. I'm content with what I've accomplished. And if I die to keep them safe, then it's a death I'll gladly accept no matter how painful it is."

"YOU THINK YOUR SACRIFICE WILL MEAN ANYTHING?" Nightmare sneered. "AFTER I HAVE DEALT WITH YOU AND CRUMBLED YOUR BONES TO ASH, WHAT WILL STOP ME FROM TURNING MY ATTENTION TO THEM ONCE YOU ARE OUT OF THE WAY?"

"The same thing that's been stopping you since the very beginning," Mike shot back. "You don't have nearly as much power over these kids as you pretend to, do you? I could think of a thousand insults to throw at you, Nightmare, but I'll be the first to admit that stupid isn't one of them. You're cunning and crafty for someone who looks like a savage beast. You're good with words, but that's all you really have to hit them with. And the problem with words is that they'll only hurt my kids as much as they let them. If you really wanted to do some long-term damage, you wouldn't have wasted this much time with cheap talk. You would have just dealt with us and moved on with your day."

"AND IF I WAS SIMPLY IN THE MOOD TO PLAY WITH MY FOOD BEFORE GOING IN FOR THE KILL?" Nightmare countered. "WHAT IF I WAS SIMPLY TOYING WITH ALL OF YOU THIS TIME, AND MY PATIENCE HAS FINALLY REACHED ITS END?"

Mike gestured towards Liz and Mary. "You already played with them," he pointed out. "And you didn't do anything to permanently hurt either of them. Why? You clearly don't have any moral issues with it. And for that matter, why are you bothering with all these shadows in the first place? Why not just grab me directly? Is it because your hands are filled with sharp claws that can accidentally kill me by tearing open my blood vessels or organs?"

"..."

"It's because you can't, can you? At the end of the day, what do you really have to threaten us with? You can't touch them, and maybe you can only kill me. But you're not going to do that, are you?" the man asked with a smirk. "Because if you kill me, their quest for redemption is technically complete. If you kill me, you set them free. So go ahead. I'm waiting."

Nightmare bared his fangs and dragged Mike even closer to him with the shadows. Then, to the ghosts' horror, his free hand began to burst into unholy flames. "ARE YOU SO SURE ABOUT THAT?" the demon hissed. "ARE YOU SO CERTAIN THAT I CANNOT LAY A HAND ON YOU AND YOUR LITTLE CHILDREN? IS THAT YOUR FINAL SAY ON THE MATTER?"

Mike matched Nightmare's gaze with all the contempt he could muster. "Rot in Hell," the man snarled.

The ghosts all cried out as Nightmare raised his flaming hand to annihilate the former Night Guard. Liz broke out of her despair and even tried to get to her feet to launch another attack, but more shadows wrapped around all of them, keeping them trapped and forcing them to watch. All the while, Mike glared straight into Nightmare's eyes, refusing to expose even the slightest hint of fear.

He had denied the demon his morals and his soul. He had denied the demon his fear. He wouldn't even give the creature the satisfaction of closing his eyes.

And until the very last bit of his endurance was spent, he wouldn't give Nightmare the satisfaction of hearing his screams.

And then, Nightmare began to do something completely unexpected.

/

A/N: This Nightmare arc is full of Cliffhangers, isn't it? :P And this chapter was surprisingly hard to write too.

Nightmare's psychological attacks were brutal and devastating, but they have weaknesses. Both in terms of the specifics, which Mike tore open one at a time, and in terms of the macro level too. There was no way anyone could ever beat Nightmare in physical or magical power. But a battle of words? That's a playing field which a normal human could win in. And Mike did exactly that.

Next chapter will be the big one. The one where all the secrets and answers to your questions will be revealed. Why did Nightmare even come to attack Mike's family in the first place, when in "A Legacy Laid to Rest" he was content to torture William Afton's soul for eternity? Why does his character seem so different compared to before? What exactly is the demon lord planning?

And why, as Mike pointed out, did he go for a psychological attack on the children in the first place when clearly he blows them all out of the water in terms of raw physical or magical power?

Everything will come to light next chapter. And all I'll say is that Nightmare's endgame...is not what you are expecting.