A/N: Welp, this is what I warned you guys about. The increased difficulty of my med school exams and the upcoming arrival of Boards means that I might skip weeks of chapters like I did just now. This wasn't the first time I took a break, and it probably won't be a last.

To all you guys asking me about the fandom and such: I'm actually not all that familiar with other aspects of the FNAF fandom or fan games like Joy of Creation. I might write about them, but if I do it will probably only be as part of "Random Family Moments" or MAYBE "Fun with Video Games" chapter at most.

DeaththeWolf: I honestly don't think FNAF1 Golden Freddy is "merely" a ghost. We see his head along with the other very real animatronics in the Bad Ending of FNAF3, suggesting that William DID take him down along with the other animatronics even if we never saw him actually do it (likely due to the limited number of nights). There's also the fact that if he was merely a hallucination, he shouldn't have posed a threat either to you or Phone Guy in FNAF1.

I wouldn't put it past Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria to use the Golden Freddy suit despite the controversy. It would make for a decent backup in case the main Freddy ever stopped working for whatever reason, and FFP could either claim ignorance or claim that since kids aren't allowed to come up near animatronics anymore (they used to free roam) that the grisly accident that happened with Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria won't be repeated, especially since that accident was technically caused by external factors. And putting all that aside, they're FFP. It's scientific fact that the management is a pile of brainless imbeciles.

Chapter 65 – Vacation to Korea Part 3

"So where to next?" Jeremy asked eagerly as Melody drove the car on the highway. They were hugging the edge of the island as best as they could so that they could enjoy the beautiful ocean scenery as much as possible.

"Well, we've still got plenty of time left in the day, and this time I think we should do something that's a little more focused around you," Mike answered.

"Any guesses as to where we're going next?" Melody added.

The ghosts convened and began whispering to each other. "Are we going to the Maze Land?" Liz finally asked.

Mike jolted in his chair. "How the hell did you figure that out so quickly?" he spluttered.

The kids grinned. "Well, you really didn't mention many other kid-oriented places, at least not around this part of the island," Charlie pointed out.

"Damn. Well, you're certainly not wrong," Mike admitted with a rueful smile. "Maze Land isn't too far away from Manjanggul, hence why we're going there next. And if I'm not mistaken, I think we're almost there!"

"Indeed we are!" Melody declared as she drove past a sign highlighting the entrance to the attraction and into a parking lot. "Let's see how big these mazes really are!"

The kids eagerly floated out of the car as Mike and Melody climbed out. All of them made their way over to a map stationed near the entrance of the mazes, the kids chatting and even challenging each other excitedly with each step the adults took.

"I bet I can make it through all the mazes first!" Fritz pompously declared.

"With your sense of direction?" Jeremy rolled his eyes, "I could probably make it through both of them before you even made it out of one!"

"This can't really be that hard, can it?" Cassidy ventured. "I mean, this is something made for kids, after all."

"I dunno, from what I remember those mazes looked pretty big…" Charlie commented doubtfully.

The family and Melody finally arrived at the map, and their eyes widened in surprise as they realized that the mazes weren't created in some haphazard, random shape. One of them (or two, Mike couldn't really tell) looked as though it had been grown in the form of a Korean gong, while the other looked like one of the Dol Hareubang statues that Mike and Melody had bought earlier.

"Wanna split up, four of us take one maze and three of us take the other?" Liz asked.

"That sounds like a good idea, how about we mix it up so that it isn't boys and girls like we normally do it?" Gabe suggested.

"I'm down with that. So how about Cassidy, Fritz, and Charlie take one maze, and Gabe, Jeremy, Liz, and I take the other?" Susie suggested.

"Sure!" Charlie agreed. "But to make sure we get the full experience, let's put some rules for ourselves. No flying above the level of the walls, no phasing through the hedges…"

A crafty gleam appeared in Fritz's eyes.

"…and no phasing through the floor to try and get past either of those rules."

"Fuck," Fritz muttered. More than one of his siblings rolled his eyes.

"What about dad and Melody?" Cassidy asked. "Are we going to leave them behind?"

"This is mainly for you guys," Melody explained. "And besides, we're going to need all the energy we can get when we go for the biggest part of the day later."

"All right," Gabe answered. "You know how to summon us if you need us."

"Enjoy yourselves, kiddos," Mike waved them off, and the ghosts headed off into the maze in the groups that they had arranged. After they were gone, he turned to Melody. "I think now would be as good of a time as any to talk about the project I mentioned earlier in a little more detail, if you don't mind."

"Sure, let's just find a place that's a bit more private," Melody replied. They walked into some nearby woods that were part of the park, enjoying both the emptiness and the shade around them. "So what's this project you wanted to share with me?"

Mike cleared his throat. "So, I came across plans for…an animatronic," he began. "Similar to those old Freddy Fazbear animatronics, and yet different. More advanced. Melody, have you ever heard of Circus Baby?"

Melody tilted her head. "I…vaguely recall something about it. A sister franchise to Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria, I think? I don't know, I never really had any significant interaction with that animatronic or franchise."

"And thank FUCK for that," Mike thought, though he didn't say it out loud. "I…came across some old blueprints that were used to make Circus Baby. One of my kids really liked Circus Baby…she was her favorite animatronic back when she was alive, and even now she still is."

"…it's Liz, isn't it?" Melody interrupted. When Mike stared at her, she sighed. "I've been around your kids long enough, Mike. There's something different about Liz, something that makes me think she wasn't originally one of those kids murdered by the fucking psychopath. I do have to admit that there's technically something different about Charlie, but it's pretty clear that she's connected with the Puppet, not this…Circus Baby character."

"I won't go into the details regarding Liz and Circus Baby now. That's her story to tell, and she's the only one with the right to share that with you. But the long and short of it is that I've come across the old blueprints for Circus Baby," Mike explained. "As advanced as she was, there were some features in her that were incredibly dangerous, and I spent a LOT of time removing and changing things to make it so that she's completely safe. I was thinking about remaking Circus Baby as a gift for Liz, since we had our first family birthday a while back and I kinda gave her the short end of the stick as far as birthday presents are concerned."

For a few seconds, Melody wondered what he meant by that, but then brushed it off. "Will working on this get me in trouble?" she asked. "I don't want to get sued or arrested for copyright violations."

Mike smirked. "You don't have to worry about a thing on that score, Mel," he assured her. "The company that originally owned Circus Baby went completely out of business. I doubt most people remember who Circus Baby even is. Besides, this is meant to be more or less private to my family anyway."

"If it's for your family, I'll be happy to give you a hand," Melody decided with a smile. She still couldn't help but marvel at how easily Mike had transitioned into a family man especially given that he hadn't had a true family for the better part of 40 years.

"Great!" Mike grinned. "We can discuss payment later. And yes," he silenced her with a hand before she could speak, "I AM paying for this. I don't believe in forcing people to work for me without giving them something back in return."

"Only you, Mike," Melody muttered as she rolled her eyes. She looked back over the way they came, towards where the mazes were. "I wonder how the kids are doing so far."

/

"Fritz, where the heck are you going?" Cassidy demanded.

"The other side of the gong is this way," Fritz confidently declared. "I'm sure of it!"

"You got lost three times in a row!" Charlie retorted. "One of which was somehow going back the way we came! Do you even know what the heck you're doing?"

"Nope!" Fritz cheerfully replied. "It's more fun this way!"

Cassidy groaned and Charlie palmed her face. "Typical…" she muttered under her breath.

/

"This is a small, circular clearing," Gabe muttered as he looked around him. He was sorely tempted to fly upward so that he could get an aerial view of the maze, but it would be going against the rules. "I think we're in one of the eyes!"

"I think you're right!" Liz exclaimed as she flew a few feet away. "Look at those three hedges over there. Two of them looked curved and one of them looks almost triangular. I think that's the nose!"

"So we managed to find our way to the face?" Susie asked, before she burst out into giggles. "That is so cool!"

"Do you guys think there's any way to connect between the two mazes?" Jeremy asked. "I might have seen something like a pathway between them, but I don't know for sure."

"Maybe we might be able to pass the others?" Liz suggested.

"Only one way to find out!" Susie declared. "Let's go, guys!"

/

Mike shrugged. "I'm sure they're fine," he commented. "If these guys can navigate through the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, a small maze park should be a joke in comparison."

"True."

"You know, I've always wondered something," Mike changed the topic as they started to walk out of the woods. "Do you have any family still in Korea? I know that you have a sister who's in the states on the other side of the country, but that's it as far as I can remember."

Melody nodded. "I have a cousin who lives in Seoul. We're gonna be spending our first night in Seoul there after we get finish up with Jeju. Luckily she mostly lives alone, so we won't be imposing on her too much." She made a face. "It'd be kind of awkward if she had a huge family and we just barged in and crowded up her apartment."

"No kidding," Mike muttered as the two stepped out of the shadows of the trees. They waited for a few minutes until the group of four ghosts came out of the maze shaped like a gong. It wasn't very long before the other group of kids joined them at the entrance to the Dol Hareubang maze.

"Hah, we beat you guys!" Jeremy declared with a grin. "I knew we'd win!"

"I wasn't aware that we were in a race to begin with," Charlie retorted.

"I think we're good to go now," Liz informed her father. "Can we take a few seconds to fly up and see the mazes from above before we go?"

Mike grinned. "Be my guest!" he invited. The ghosts flew several feet in the air, enjoying a scenery perspective that would normally only be found on Google images. It still amazed her, Charlie mused, just how much beauty there could be even in something as simple as a hedge maze. Content with the view, the kids flew back towards the rented car, Mike and Melody following closely behind. The welcome chill of air conditioning revitalized them as Melody drove out of the parking lot and out into the open road.

"Should we do some of the volcano-related things now, or…?" Melody asked after several minutes of driving on the road.

The kids perked up at the mention of the word volcano, but to their surprise and disappointment Mike shook his head. "I think it'd be better if we wait for tomorrow to do that," he decided. "One of the most popular mountains in Jeju is supposed to have a beautiful sunrise view, and it's way too late for that right now. Besides, I'm interested in doing things that are a little more down-to-Earth today. Remember those rail bikes we mentioned earlier?"

The kids' eyes flashed with excitement. "Yeah!" Gabe eagerly answered. "It sounded really fun!"

"Well, that's where we're going to next!" Mike declared. "Hopefully I can get some exercise to get rid of all the fat from our earlier buffet."

"That sounds really cool!" Liz exclaimed. "I hope we get to see a lot of cool things in the countryside!"

"Yeah, so far it's either been all trees or empty grasslands," Jeremy commented dryly.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough," Melody said as she pulled into the what appeared to be the Jeju Rail Bike station. It was a small outpost-like building with several orange picnic tables scattered about. One could even see a disused railbike amongst the tables for kids to have fun in. Beyond the station were two sets of railroad tracks with several rail bikes with different patterns of colors and shapes drawn onto them. Melody and Mike bought two tickets for themselves and climbed into one of the rail bikes, a light blue one with several moon and star-shaped patterns that particularly caught Melody's eye. The bike itself turned out to be an electric one that required only minimal effort to get moving, which Mike wasn't sure was a good or a bad thing. Once he was sure that all the ghost kids had securely anchored themselves to the rail bike, Mike hit the pedal and the rail bike set off at a pleasant, relaxing place.

There was no way for anybody to know exactly where they on the island they were going on the rail bike, but wherever it was, almost all traces of civilization had been left behind except for the tracks on the rail bikes themselves. The children enjoyed the scenery as it passed by, but they hadn't yet seen anything that they wouldn't have already seen driving around the island in their car. Until, several minutes later…

"I see animals!" Susie exclaimed as she pointed out the window. Everyone turned to look where Susie was pointing. Sure enough, not too far away from the rail bike, were a group of four brown cows grazing peacefully in the meadow. One of them was close enough that if he wanted to, Mike could reach out and touch it.

Instinctively, the former Chica inhabitant reached a spectral hand out of the rail bike and stroked the cow's side. The cow looked up and stared at the rail bike for a few seconds before returning to its business.

"Did it notice you?" Cassidy wondered.

"I don't think so…" Susie murmured, "but it might have felt something."

"I doubt that, to be honest," Melody said as she shook her head. "I can barely feel you apart from maybe a brush of air, and this is when one of you guys is actively trying to hug me."

Fritz smirked. "Maybe we could try and spook it?" he suggested mischievously.

Susie smacked his brother on the head. "That's so mean!" she chided.

"And it's a terrible idea for so many reasons," Mike deadpanned. "Leave the poor animal alone, Fritz."

"Awww…"

Mike pushed on the pedal and the rail bike sped past the cows. It wouldn't be the only time that they would see the animals of Jeju, however, as they soon came across ducks, horses, more cows, and even black pigs.

"Oh, so that's what tonight's dinner is gonna look like," Mike remarked.

The ghosts all whirled around to stare at him. "Wait, WHAT?" Jeremy exclaimed.

"You didn't think we were going to eat two buffet meals in the same day, did you?" Melody questioned, clearly amused by their reactions. "We were looking for something a little smaller scale, and wouldn't you know, Korean Pork BBQ made from black pigs is actually quite the delicacy around here."

Liz looked at one of the black pigs, which was caked in mud from resting in a dirt puddle. "Ewwwwww…." she made a face, "I think I'll pass on tasting tonight."

"Aww, don't be like that!" Melody grinned. "I remember when my family used to make Korean BBQ pork and Kalbi. Those were easily some of my favorite Korean meals ever, and I'm pretty sure the locals know what they're doing cleaning and preparing the food."

"Maybe…" Cassidy muttered, "but only because you're the one suggesting it."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Mike asked with a smirk.

"Not all adventures are created equal," Gabe countered.

Mike shrugged. "Fair enough, but it's worth at least trying once. That way you don't have another What-If to add to your life. Because God knows those can really drag your spirits down."

Nobody could find anything to say to Mike's sudden bout of wisdom, so they drove the rail bike on in silence. "You really like animals, don't you, Susie?" Melody suddenly asked after they passed another group of black pigs. "Did you used to own one?"

Susie sighed. "Yeah. Back when I was alive, I used to own a golden retriever. He was such an adorable little puppy that I used to play with all the time. Then, he got…he got killed. Run over by a car." She buried her face in her hands. "I never saw what happened, but…but…"

Melody's eyes widened as the girl struggled to hold back her tears. "Shit, I just fucked up big-time," she thought frantically. She tried to hug the girl but to her frustration her hands passed through her. "I'm so sorry to hear that," she murmured. "I hope it was quick and painless."

Susie managed a weak smile. "Not your fault, Melody. And yeah, Oliver was one of the big reasons why I love animals so much. Maybe Dad might buy a pet for us one day, but with us being ghosts I don't know how that would work out."

As the ghosts and Melody took turns comforting Susie, none of them noticed Mike's eyes narrow or the dark expression on his face. Not because Melody had accidentally brought up a painful past or Susie's request, but because of what Susie hadn't told Melody. He knew that William Afton had lured Susie to her death with the tainted, deceitful promise of reuniting her with her lost dog. And though Susie had said nothing about it, Mike couldn't help but wonder if William had been the one to kill her beloved Oliver, all so that he had an excuse to dangle in front of an unsuspecting, innocent Susie.

"Either way, who gives a shit?" he snarled in his head. "The fact that he used Susie's dog as a way to manipulate her and kill her is yet another reason to hate the fucker just a little bit more than I already do."

"Dad!" Mike was snapped out of his thoughts by Liz's excited voice. "There's something really cool over there!"

Forcing a mask of pleasant emotions on his face (he was still a bit in turmoil to match his inner thoughts with his facial expression), Mike turned to look at where Liz was pointing. In the distance was a tall mountain surrounded by many smaller hills. Mike thought he could see a few craters interspersed with the hills as well, but with their distance there was no way for him to be sure.

"This is Yongnuni Oreum!" Melody explained. "It's something called a parasitic volcano. I have no idea what the hell that even means, but apparently it's called that because it looks like a dragon laying down."

Charlie scrutinized the mountain. "I…can't see the resemblance," she admitted after several seconds. "I mean, granted, I've never seen a dragon laying down before, but still."

"I mean, I can kind of see it if I look at it in a really specific way," Gabe squinted. "But I don't know if I'm only seeing it because Melody pointed it out to us."

"Wish we had a real dragon laying down to compare it with," Fritz snarked.

"When we find one, you let me know and I'll schedule an interview," Mike deadpanned as they left Yongnuni Oreum behind them. During the remaining length of their rail bike ride, the kids found three other sights that they found particularly interesting. A wind power generator farm with might turbines that spun freely in the air, a particularly majestic mountain that they all marveled at (missing the smirks on Melody's and Mike's faces as they did so), and an island off the coast of Jeju that had a lighthouse standing proudly on it. When they arrived back at the station they had started at, the ghosts all agreed (especially Susie) that despite the occasional dull moment, the rail bike had been well worth it.

Melody started driving back down in the general direction of the Jeju Shilla, though she was using a different route than she had taken so far. On the way there, they stopped at the Jeju Folk Village to satisfy Charlie's interest in the ancient history, society, and culture of Jeju. Though some of the more immature ghosts couldn't help but groan at the idea of *shudder* learning, even they had to admit that they were curious to see how people lived back then.

Although the gate to enter the folk village was impressive and majestic, the ghost kids soon realized that the buildings within the folk village were rather simplistic and very small. The vast majority of the buildings were made of stone and thatched roofs, and most only had 1 to 3 rooms at most. There were several interesting materials in the buildings made of wood, porcelain, bamboo, earth, and even iron, but none of the ghosts pretended that they would ever choose life in a traditional Korean village over the comforts of modern housing in a thousand years. It didn't help that some of the structures were dedicated to housing animals, which left a…less than pleasant aroma. Despite this, however, there was a certain organization to the village, how each building was suited for a different purpose, that the ghost kids could appreciate. They weren't sure if ancient villages really had arranged their buildings like this or if modern individuals had constructed the village in this way, but either way they couldn't help but respect the amount of effort that had gone into the creation of the village.

The most interesting building to them was the palace. Separated from the rest of the village by stone walls and a large gate, it was an impressive structure with a courtyard that possessed a sense of majesty even with its ancient roots.

"Still can't hold a candle to Dad's house, though," Jeremy declared as they left the palace behind them. "It's my favorite house ever and nobody can tell me otherwise!"

"Is that because of the house itself or because dad's the one who owns it?" Gabe questioned.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "The answer should be obvious, Gabe."

"True," the former Freddy inhabitant conceded as they completed the last stages of their journey through the folk village. On their way back, they passed what was apparently a prison of some kind, and the kids had fun pretending to be criminals locked up in jail for a few seconds. Once they had arrived back at the entrance, Mike and Melody decided to buy a few more souvenirs (including a pack of Jeju citrus chocolates), before making their way back to the car.

"Has the nerd gotten all the history and culture she wanted?" Fritz quipped at Charlie.

Charlie rolled her eyes and barely resisted the urge to swat him on the back of the head like her sister had done earlier. "Yeah, I'm good," she affirmed as Melody drove away from the folk village. There were a few more sights that Melody and Mike wanted to see with the kids, but those would have to wait until nightfall. Melody drove in the direction of the Shilla Jeju, but to her surprise she passed the hotel entirely. Instead, she continued for a few more minutes until they arrived at a seemingly unimportant parking lot near the edge of the island.

"Why are we here?" Cassidy wondered. "I don't see anything around here at all!"

"We just need to walk this road for a few minutes," Melody explained as they did exactly that. The kids tried to get a glimpse of what Melody wanted to show them, but there were several trees around them that blocked their view. It wasn't until they approached the end of the road and a wooden overlook on the edge of the cliff that they finally saw what Melody wanted to show them.

And not for the first time or the last, they found themselves blown away.

In the distance was the Jusangjeolli cliff face, and it wasn't like any cliff face any of the kids had ever seen before. The wall didn't seem to look like a regular cliff wall so much as it did a set of mighty and imposing stone pillars, as if a team of master crafters and masons had carved the pillars out of the cliff wall. The top of the cliffs appeared as though they had been painted white with white streaks creeping down the black stone, a beautiful juxtaposition of light and dark. The coast at the base of the cliff seemed equally intricate in its design, as though it were made out of cuboidal and hexagonal stone building blocks positioned right next to each other.

"This can't be natural, can it?" Jeremy spluttered. "I mean, how did random nature and chaotic elements make something this organized and intricate? This can't be real!"

Gabe and some of the other kids flew up to the cliff face to examine it more closely. He shook his head in wonder. "It's real. I have no idea how, but this cliff face is real!"

"This is amazing!" Liz reached out to "touch" the stone. "I don't remember seeing anything this wonderful even in the Grand Canyon!"

"Imagine, so many other places in the world with marvels like this!" Cassidy murmured. "The world is truly a beautiful place."

The ghosts flew back towards the adults, who had taken advantage of the kids' distraction to ask a tourist to take a picture of the two of them. Once the tourist had given the photo back, they returned to the car and Melody drove them over to the Korean BBQ pork place that she had promised. It was still only 5 PM, but Mike and Melody's stomachs had finally emptied from the massive buffet meal they had planned earlier, and they had deliberately planned to eat an early dinner so that they could go to bed very early in preparation for tomorrow.

The kids were still a bit queasy about the prospect about eating black pig, especially given that they had SEEN the pig when it was still alive during the rail bike tour, but one taste of the pork through semi-possessing Mike quickly put their fears to rest. Melody instructed Mike to cut out the excess fat on the pork slice, wrap it up in a large lettuce leaf, dip it in sesame oil, and then add gochujang sauce if he wanted to spice up the flavor a bit for maximum deliciousness. It might not have been an extravagant affair like the buffets at the Shilla Jeju, but Korean BBQ had its own unique flavor and taste that all the kids thoroughly enjoyed.

"Just gonna try not to think about the black pig we saw earlier as I enjoy this," Susie mumbled.

"You saying that defeats the purpose," Gabe commented dryly.

"I noticed that you're not adding the gochujang sauce yourself," Mike pointed out. "There a reason why?"

Melody looked a bit sheepish. "Well, to be honest…I really hate spicy food."

Fritz's eyes bulged comically. "Wait, WHAT?" he spluttered. "Spicy food is AWESOME!"

"Yeah…" Melody admitted, "I don't like most spicy food at all. I absolutely despise kimchi."

"Oof…" Mike groaned melodramatically. "That's a stab to the heart right there."

"Hate spicy sauce, hate cabbage, hate hot peppers, how do you think I'm going to react when you mix all that crap together?" Melody asked.

Mike shook his head. "You are a TERRIBLE Korean," he muttered as he ate another pork slice, this time for Cassidy's benefit.

"You're not the only one to tell me that, believe me," Melody deadpanned as she did the same.

"Dad, I think the real question is how you don't know this about Melody after twenty years of being her friend," Charlie questioned.

Mike shrugged. "Don't ask, don't know, never came up before now," he replied blithely as he finished his last pork slice. The two paid for the meal and they climbed (or flew) back into the car, where they could talk freely. "Remind me, Mel, is there anything else we need to do before we wrap up today at the hotel?"

"One last thing," Melody replied. "A place known as the Jeju Glass Castle. From what I've heard it has some really beautiful glass structures and artwork that I think the kids will really enjoy."

"Uhm…slight problem," Charlie interrupted. All eyes turned to her as she held up her cell phone. "It closes at 6 and we have less than an hour to get there. And it's halfway across the island. We're not gonna make it in time."

"CRAP!" Fritz exclaimed. "And I was really hoping to see it too!"

"No problem, no problem," Mike brushed it off. "There's a reason why Melody and I decided to schedule the plane flight to Seoul the day after tomorrow rather than late tomorrow. We have all day tomorrow to take care of anything we might've missed today."

"Thank God," Liz sighed with relief. "It would've been really sad if we missed something cool just because of a time constraint."

"I do have to say something, though…" Jeremy began as Melody drove back to the hotel. "You guys promised us that we would see a lot of mountains and stuff related to volcanos. We have seen some of it, sure, but not anything up close and personal like I expected. Closest thing we've seen so far was Manjanggul, and even though we drove through Mt. Halla-san we didn't actually stop at the campsite there. That was the part of the vacation I was looking forward to the most, to be honest."

Melody and Mike smiled at the former Bonnie inhabitant. "Oh don't you worry, Jeremy," he promised. "We wanted to save the best for last. There's no way we'd forget about something that important."

"The way we scheduled our trip, we wanted to save the best for last," Melody continued. "Tomorrow's going to be our last day in Jeju, and we really wanted to make it count. I might not have ever been to these places personally but just from the pictures I've seen I can promise that what you see tomorrow is gonna blow you away more than anything else we've done today."

The confidence and assurance in her voice was able to wipe away any doubts that the kids had in their minds. All of them had been utterly amazed and delighted by what they had seen in the past two days, and Mike and Melody still hadn't showed them the best parts yet?

The ghosts had always been incredibly grateful to Melody. For accepting them despite their past crimes, for giving them company and a link to the outside world, for bringing them to this island and showing them the marvels and wonders that the world could hold. They were close to both her and the Marshalls in different ways, and yet Melody was privy to secrets that the Marshalls were not, and in a way their connection to her was deeper because of this despite seeing her less often than their other friends.

And more than one of them couldn't help but wonder how much better life could be…if Melody was their mother figure instead of merely a close friend of their father's…

/

A/N: And I think that's a good place to stop for now. There will be one more chapter in Jeju, and then either one or two more chapters in Seoul, Korea. I spent three weeks in Seoul when I went there, but I doubt that our characters will spend more than a few days there.

One of the things I wish I did in this fic was touch on the interaction between Melody and the kids more often. While I didn't want to have her take up too much focus (any chapters that focused on the FNAF timeline are MUCH more important than anything involving Melody or even the Marshalls for obvious reasons), I do acknowledge that I could have utilized her a bit more before this arc. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

It looks like at least some of the kids are seriously warming up to the idea of pairing up Melody and Mike, or at the very least having Melody have a bigger presence in their lives as a mother figure of some kind. Mike might be a great father figure, but no matter how hard he tries he would never be able to truly fill in the gap caused by the lack of a maternal figure. Mike and Melody aren't completely clueless that the ghost kids are up to something, but I don't think either of them realizes just how seriously they are considering this idea, especially Susie and maybe Cassidy as well.

But that's in the future. I actually have a VERY big reason why I'm holding off any full-blown romance between Mike and Melody. The next arc I have planned after this one will probably be one of the most important arcs, if not THE most important arc in the entire fic, and as you'll soon see, characters outside of the original FNAF timeline have no place in it.

Next chapter, the family will FINALLY get to see those mountains and natural wonders that I promised. Hope you guys enjoyed!