I Don't Own Fnaf


'Uh, hey, listen... I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.'

Mike felt... numb, walking forwards, down the halls, heading back to the repairs and service room, a faint sense of dread, of bile trying to already rise in the back of his throat, and yet he was still walking, moving, his shift only ended minutes ago, but it felt like hours, because he had been half thinking about this for as long as he fought to survive that night.

'It's, it's been a bad night here. For me. Umm... I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you... uh, when I did.'

It nearly got him killed, multiple times, Foxy nearly got him, Mike could still remember the glazed gleam in its one seeing eye ready to lunge at him, just before the door barely managed to close in time. Mike's legs were still slightly shaking, knowing those animatronics were still around, just... not active at the moment.

'Uh hey, do me a favor: Uh, maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits? Uh, in the back room? Uh, I'm gonna try to hold out... until someone... checks.'

The image of a blood coating a suit flashed through his mind, Mike barely stayed on his feet, but he was still walking, his mind buzzing like he wasn't in control of himself. He knew what he would find, Phone Guy couldn't hold out, not for that long, not... not in something like that.

'Maybe it won't be so bad. I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads... back there.'

Mike knew exactly what happened to a human's head when it was forced into a suit that wasn't made for it. He could still remember the crack of the bone that made up the skull pressed against by harsh metal.

He had been thinking about it the entire night.

Mike finally arrived at the room, faster than he wanted too, because Mike still wasn't sure he could breath, but he pushed on, into the room past the tables heading to the side room attached to it were the spares were kept, pushing the door open, expecting... something, in one of the corners no doubt given he couldn't see anything on the cameras.

Michael wasn't disappointed.

It was awful.

Blood was everywhere, pooled together but not nearly dried on the ground surrounded by an empty Freddy suit, or at least, a once empty suit Mike's mind unhelpfully told him, as he slowly moved closer, a strange sense of revulsion pushed through him before vanishing until he was just there. Mike had always been good at blinding himself to the horrors in front of him, it's how he survived prison when sometimes it got... rough between certain inmates.

Mike would have liked to say this was going to be the first body that he's seen since his brother's death, it wasn't.

Maybe that's why he moved over to the suit, it was faced away from him, as he leaned down. Taking in one last gulp of air to steady himself before looking down at the face mask...

Nothing, there wasn't anything there.

It was like water had been dosed onto his head as he gasped before half falling against a nearby wall with a breath he hadn't known he had been still holding. Shaking hands thought quickly moved and grabbed the sides of the suit's head, pulling tightly on the releases before it snapped open, using muscle memory about the suits he wasn't sure when he learned. He had to make sure.

There wasn't anything... Well, that's a lie, there was blood caking the metal, but no... no body...

Mike felt dizzy, unsure of just what he was seeing as he half stumbled back away from it before shaking his head... He had to report this, no body or not, that amount of blood... Maybe... Maybe Phone Guy had held out, managed to pull himself out?

Mike felt sick again, he stumbled out of the room all the same, managing to get his way into one of the back offices that was for employees and the manager, his hands with a tremble reached down and snatched up the phone line as he quickly managed to punch in the number for the police before... before slowly stalling, staring down at the phone for a moment, before nearly letting out a faint fit of hysteria out, as he put in another number instead.

'Upon discovery of damage or if death has occurred, a missing person's report will be filed within ninety days or as soon as property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached and the carpets have been replaced.' Blah, blah, blah.'

He had a faint feeling that if this was him, Phone Guy wouldn't have called his death into the police, a gut feeling mostly, that came from hearing how the man talked. That wasn't what stopped him though.

Phone Guy was dead, Mike saw people die from less blood loss, the man was gone, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything that Mike could do.

He had leverage now, as sick as it made him feel, at himself more than anything, if he wanted to see this through, then he would have to do what he had to. Michael Afton had been taught that lesson again and again over the last eight years he had been alone, and it wasn't one he was going to forget now that he had someone needing him to keep going.

So with that he called the one he could use this against the most.

Mike called the manager.

And if he was lucky, it would be a few days before they found Phone Guy's body, and by then Mike hopefully could be gone. He'd have to get more papers for another name, but that was fine, he'd do what he had to. Didn't stop Mike from feeling gross in his own skin, it wasn't just about Evan, he needed to know as well, to know what the hell happened to the business that had been his entire family's pride. His thoughts were stopped as the line clicked through as a tired and annoyed came through the phone.

"Ugh, hello? Who is this?"

"I found a body in the Pizzeria" It was silent for a long moment before the man spoke up.

"Night guard?" It was clear he wasn't asking if that's who Mike was, clearly having already forgotten his voice from a few days ago. Mike felt a faint twitch of anger pull up easily at the idea that the man's first instinct was to assume that it was Mike who had died, it really didn't help just how... neutral the man spoke as he asked.

"I am, I think he was a day worker" That got the man moving, Mike could hear the sudden movement of someone rushing about as the man spoke up, sounding much more alert.

"Schmidt? I- Uh, right, I'm sure this is quite shocking to see" He was trying to do damage control, an old familiar anger pulled in Mike's chest harder now, burning through the sickness he was feeling as the man continued, "But listen, I'm sure you're unsure what to do, so how about you wait until I've arrived and we can discuss somethings"

"Shut up and listen" Mike's voice was cold, he heard the faint stutter of rushing footsteps suddenly stop for a moment, Mike didn't get the feeling of satisfaction he normally would have had, as he spat down the line, "The floor is soaked in blood, the body is horrid, and I already have photos, so here's what's going to happen, you're going to listen to what I have to say and ask and I don't tank the last remaining shred of this companies already bloody reputation" Mike's faint but never gone British accent seemed to flare up a bit as he spoke, a habit when he was emotional.

It was quiet over the line for a long moment, but it seemed no matter how sharp Mike sounded, the manager was made out of harder stuff as a harsh almost hissing voice came over the line.

"Now listen here, you are not going to go bossing me around just because you think you know something. You're under waivers for not discussing anything you see, so if you don't want to go down just as hard as I am, then you're going to keep your mouth shut"

"Bold to assume I give a shit, I've been to jail already, something I'm sure can't be said for you. So here's the thing, body's already moved, the injuries are telling though, and best yet, I got it on camera, as well as a few nice recordings that discuss freely about just what the policies are for missing staff members and just how long you've been aware of this. So listen up, either you do what I say, or you're going down as the ringleader for however many guards you've gotten killed and had... vanish"

That shut the man up, Mike could hear the rustling sound of pacing in the background, he was cornered, and the man knew it. There was nothing more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose, and Mike was very good at pretending like he didn't, it was his normal state of being after all.

"What do you want? A bribe? I don't know if you've noticed, kid, but the business isn't exactly booming" Mike felt his face frown at that, before shaking his head, it wasn't important. Who cared if the man thought that Mike only cared about cash.

"I could care less about the money, I need information. What the hell is going on in this place? Why are the animatronics like this and why the hell has the owners let it keep like this" There had to be a reason why someone would willingly allow those things to still be around right? What the hell was the purpose of that?

What the hell was going on here.

"I-... I can't tell you that, not because I don't want to!" The man managed to get that in before Mike could threaten him again, as he quickly continued, "I don't know! It's from above me, you're not the only one locked in a contract alright? Just some of us care enough to not throw our lives away. Listen, the people who own the brand just... shoved all this together and told any leftover employees to make a profit or else, alright? I just run the floor and hiring on staff"

Mike frowned, that wasn't... What the hell? It sounded like it was just a bunch of shareholders just trying to turn a profit no matter what happened, but... Who the hell was fucked up enough to just do that to people?

"What about the animatronics? What the hell is up with their programming and the damage, does anyone know anything about that?" It was quiet over the line for a shorter time, before finally.

"The things have been busted for years, the company barely paid enough to get them up and running, nothing else. I have no idea what the hell is wrong with them, but none of the things have been right for ages now, more than half the total animatronics the company's had over the years have had to be scrapped. I have no idea why these ones are the ones that they decided to try and keep up. Smith might know, but I don't"

What? There was more? Over half meant at least six animatronics that Michael hadn't known about, he only knew about the three 'toys'. It didn't matter now, those ones were gone, apparently. Mike's mind caught on the name mentioned finally as he asked.

"You mean Fritz? He's the one who works on them right?"

"Yeah, Fritz Smith, he's bound down worse than nearly any of us, been here for the last few years, he was brought back from the last location when this one started up, he has to do the night shift occasionally but he's mostly here for repairs, as much as he can get done according to him"

Mike frowned, remembering the man in question before making a decision.

"When's he coming in next?"

"Uh, I guess he should be there within the hour, he works mornings though he hardly ever does anything" The end of that sounded more like a mutter Mike wasn't supposed to hear, he just ignored it, instead just slamming the phone down without a goodbye. He had some questions, and he needed them answered, he wouldn't have this blackmail for long, the body would show up somewhere, it was probably in one of the other rooms in a corner the cameras couldn't spot, meaning the police would be here within the next few hours when it was found.

That meant he needed to do everything he could now, get the information he could, and then get this place shut down hard. There was no way he was letting another death fly under the radar, the Phone Guy probably would appreciate that, even if he'd more than likely have an issue or two with how Mike was using his death.

Still, he had maybe another day or two here to get everything he needed while the chaos reigned down on everyone here, his fake name should hold that long until he had to leave, and... well, he was already breaking the law right? What was a few more.

Moving over to the rest of the parts and services, Mike grabbed a Freddy themed tote bag and quickly looked through the shelves for tools and items. None of them were exactly spring lock suit parts, but he didn't need them to be, he was looking for something more directly relevant. Finally after a moment, he found it, an old and worn down, but still potentially viable voice box. As well as some things that seemed like a good idea for general maintenance.

Better than Mike having to go out and buy these things himself that was for sure.

All the same, he moved the bag over his shoulder as he left the parts and service room, he needed to find the body. Though that... wouldn't be easy, the blood didn't leave a very obvious trail, and by that, it didn't leave a trail at all, it was just pooled, but... no streaks...

Had... Had any of the other bodies been here? Phone guy never mentioned anything about bodies, just the... clean up, 'replacing the carpets' as he so put it.

So where did the bodies go? Who handled them? There was no way, no matter the contract, that someone would willingly bury a body... Right?

Mike felt his head hurt again as he tried to put all this in his mind in a way that would make sense, unfortunately, nothing about this made sense and just trying was giving him a headache worse than he already had from stress.

Eventually he gave up on trying, his life was no doubt weird enough as it was without seeking out more problems for himself when he couldn't get an answer by just thinking on it, so instead he looked around, waiting for the man, Smith, to show up, as he moved around, looking through the rooms with a flashlight in hand, but he had been right in thinking that the body wasn't... around. It had to be somewhere, but not somewhere that was obvious... Mike didn't know how he felt about that.

He just chose to not as by the end of the near hour of waiting by the front when finally the man showed up, a tired look to his face that instantly turned to suspicion as he noticed Mike leaning against a wall, staring at him.

"You're still here... Again" Mike nodded slowly before saying.

"Someone died last night, after closing probably, before I came in" The man paused, a look that Mike identified as grief passing over his features, just for a moment, before his face closed off as he said softly.

"Oh... Who have you told?" That felt... loaded, but more than anything it just sounded tired, Mike knew for certain now that Fritz knew much more than he was talking about, no one was that numb to death unless you went through enough of it to become numb. Mike knew that from first hand experience just how long that could take. Still, it was time to get to work, tired or not, the man knew something and Mike needed to know what it was.

He couldn't handle not having answers, it was like all the desires that had been muted in his life over the last eight years had been reignited since that night. The idea of not knowing was like an itch in the back of his mind that he couldn't ignore, constantly growing with need to understand just what was happening here.

"The manager only, I figured if I wanted to figure out what the hell was happening here, blackmail would be the most effective way of going about it while I'm working here" That got a reaction, a sharp one, Fritz's eyes widened with shock before he spoke up, seemingly without thinking.

"Are you a psycho? Someone died and you're looking for answers? Here's the answer, those monsters on stage want you and anyone who works here dead, that's it. What the hell do you think you're getting from this? The company's going to sue the hell out of you for this" Mike just shook his head.

"I need to know, besides I have other reasons to stick around. And they won't do anything, I'm quite good at threatening people, and I couldn't give less of a shit about the contract I signed, they can try whatever they want, it won't get anywhere. Mutually assured destruction is effective when they think you don't have anything to lose, especially when it's multiple accounts of murder versus breaking a job contract" Sure, he could get in trouble, but he never signed a contract with his actual name, sure he could get in plenty of trouble for lying, but... Not as much as they thought he could be in.

"That's so fucking dumb, you should get out of this when you can" Mike just shot the man a look.

"I'm blackmailing a corporation over the death of an employee, there isn't really a point of return in sight for me. Look, it doesn't matter about them, what matters is you telling me what the hell is happening. You know more than just those animatronics are quirky right? There's no way you don't know at least something"

"Hell no, You don't want to know alright? Just leave it alone, this isn't something you can just forget" Fritz seemed uncomfortable, but that might have been because he now knew just how... serious and determined Mike was about getting answers. Mike wasn't having that.

"Listen, just tell me alright? Trust me, I can handle strange, what is it? Some idiot fucked their code over so bad they just do this? That's not shocking, I want to know why the hell they're still like this, can't you just shut the damn things off to purge the issues from their systems?" That got a laugh, a sardonic one, from Fritz as he roughly brought a hand up, ruffling it through his hair for a moment before finally saying.

"Are you going to keep this up? Because you're not going to survive if you do, I ain't going to tell you, if it gets to the higher ups... I care a lot more than you do about not being dragged into the shit show that is this place's purpose, I don't know, I don't care. I just know I don't want shit to do with it, haven't in years but I got dragged back and I don't want to be in jail. But I can point you in the right direction if you aren't going to leave me and this alone" Mike felt a swelling of anger, just for a moment, before stamping it down, it was fine, anything was better than nothing, and if he could look into this in his own time, then that was better than in these moments between murderous shifts.

"Tell me" Fritz just sighed before looking away.

"There is something seriously wrong with you.. Fine, whatever, look there was an... incident at an old location years ago" Mike felt his heart freeze for a moment before Fritz continued, "Something happened to some kids... well the official story is they went missing, but... a lot of people go missing in these places. Look into it, if you really want your whole view on life to be ruined, that's where you should start. You shouldn't though" Fritz gave him a serious look with that last warning.

Mike frowned, trying to figure out what the hell that had to do with anything, it had been sad, heartbreaking even, when Michael had learned what had happened, learning his family died, learning kids had never been found, all of it tied to a place that once had been so wonderful, it was disgusting and horrifying to hear about that loss of life. But it had been years since the first missing children's incident, and while Mike felt sick to know it happened twice, why would that have anything to do with today?

It was only when Fritz had long since moved away, muttering about needing a cleaning crew in the distance, no doubt seeing the... mess, that it clicked in Mike's head.

Fritz had pointed him in the right direction, but without knowing beforehand, Mike probably never would have come to the right conclusion, it was just too impossible to think about, even with what Mike did know, he still willingly ignored the idea of it for actual days because it still didn't seem possible enough to be the case. Fritz probably thought Mike would get lost in the weeds, unable to figure out how a random tragic event tied into anything involving the four's strange behavior.

At least long enough before Mike got arrested or whatever by all this falling down on him.

But Fritz didn't know Mike knew about one important thing.

One important bear, and the secret it held within its form.

It was like ice had been injected into Mike's veins, the idea of it too horrible to truly think through all the way without wanting to be sick, like his head had just been dunked into a pool of icy water.

But his feelings didn't matter as everything clicked into place, as Mike left the Pizzeria after his fourth night, with a single conclusion in the back of his mind.

If Evan could possess Golden Fredbear because he died in it, then what's to say another kid couldn't possess another animatronic if they died around it? Or worse... In it.

Is that where they got the 'glitch' of wanting to stuff security guards in suits?

Mike didn't make it to the bus stop before he had to stop as that thought hit him, he felt dizzy and was liable to fall into traffic at the rate he was going. It was too much, the idea of it, the thought someone would and did willingly do that to children.

Mike knew exactly what it felt like to do something like that to another human, to a child, and he knew he'd never be able to even think about doing anything like that ever again. The idea someone did it again and again, five times in total for each missing kid...

It made images come to mind, the smell of rot he thought was strange in the pizzeria taking a new form as he remembered just what it was like to wash brain out of the insides of Fredbear, imagining it over and over, five times, not stuck in a back room but trapped all the same, forced to perform...

Maybe it was because of how many times he's thrown up over the last few days already, but no matter how sick he felt, he didn't vomit this time, just... Sat there, on the sidewalk like a bum, as his mind played over the horrors his brain conjured to the front of his mind.

Mike had only learned about the minor details about his family history through reading an article over the downfall of the founders and current state of Fazbear Entertainment. He only had the jest of a lot of things, but everything was slowly beginning to click into place, in some... places, not all, as he moved finally, getting to his feet once more as he headed to the bus stop. He wouldn't be going back, not yet, not while he still had things to learn.

Not when he had a mistake to fix.

It wasn't just Evan that was trapped, it was multiple kids, children. Murderous or not, Mike couldn't just not do anything.

Michael was sick of not doing anything to help.

And no matter how disowned he was, it hurt worse than he could imagine to know what had happened in a place his family had loved. He was the only family of the Founders left still around here to try and fix the mistakes that had happened. It wasn't like he was exactly living for himself at the moment anyways right? What was the issue with trying to help out a few more ghosts while he was at it?

The thought of that nearly made him break down again with thoughts that threatened to drown his mind, but he kept himself together, and he kept himself moving. None of the children got any breaks over the last decade, so why should Michael get one?


The local library had records of the local newspapers over the last few years, and though Mike got more than a few strange looks for requesting anything to do with the events around the locations under Fazbear Entertainment, he was still given them. He was still wearing that scarf around town covering the bottom half of his face, no way in hell was he going to risk people recognizing his face. Sure he had been fifteen at the time, but he knew more than well enough just how similar he looked to his father, and the man's reputation clearly hadn't been great by the time he vanished.

The only real thing separating them now from what Mike could remember of William was maybe one or the other was a bit taller and Mike had blue eyes from his mother unlike his father's silver colored ones.

Maybe he should invest in a proper mask or something to disguise his face fully. He'd get some weird looks, but it'd be better than nothing while being at risk.

Those were thoughts for later as he finally dug into the events that had been recorded that happened around the pizzerias.

At least he tried to, sadly it was a mix of things that hit way too hard at home to want to look at for long right now, after the already... stressful reveal, and others being just useless. The newspaper with the missing children's report holding Elizabeth's picture had hurt, same with the one about Sam, Henry's son. The report about 'Afton kills brother' hadn't... it was nice to see among the stacks of headlines, but at least there hadn't been any pictures. While others were just... lacking. The company seemed to have gotten a lot better at hiding things as time went on, because while there were several reports about the missing children, very few mentioned Fazbear Entertainment locations, as well as the fact that not a single person's name was mentioned for the most part.

The biggest bit of information that Mike found he already knew, that his father had been arrested briefly before being released, and from there it was all just written in vague and unhelpful terms. He didn't even know the names of the kids that were trying to kill him.

Though, he did find something... else. It wasn't all that important to anyone else, and frankly it wasn't a big deal with Mike when he first read it, it was a report about the third location, where Mike finally got a glimpse at the 'new' set of animatronics, called the toy line. It was about the place's 'grand reopening', with a picture showing the new cast of what was called toys, along with a faint portion in the main bit in the paper talking about new security measures, including facial recognition, for all present animatronics.

The animatronics could recognize humans as humans, programming be damned, meaning the four at this location knew exactly what they were doing. It gave Mike a shudder down his spine as he realized that, but he managed to keep himself together as he thought it over. There was a... chance it was still programming and that the animatronics, these ones at least, didn't get those upgrades, but it felt like a vain hope. Evan knew exactly who Mike was, and his suit shouldn't even be able to be turned on.

So that meant the animatronics were doing it on purpose, they were on free roam mode at night only, meaning they could only have the chance to attack during these times, thankfully, but what did free roam mean? Why go for him, why go after night guards in general? Evan didn't seem all that... angry, then again, they couldn't really talk much, but what is the purpose behind just killing anyone they can? Revenge? Revenge on what? Mike didn't even know the things had kids piloting them at night and he doubted anyone else taking the position knew that as well, or even cared.

He was missing something, but he didn't know what, it was like there was pieces hidden everywhere, but it did give him an idea, even if he had to leave faster than he'd like, he needed to get moving if he wanted to get any sleep before tonight, given there was no chance that the Animatronics would somehow get easier, he barely survived last night because of how out of it he was, he wasn't sure he could handle another night where they would be more difficult.

So with that he started his walk, a small part of his mind scoffing at how quickly he had returned to this place.

As he stared up at the front of his family's house.

But some things were more important than Mike's wanting to be comfortable. If he could handle being occasionally homeless before now, then he could handle this place. He didn't have the time to go back to his apartment anyways, not that he was expecting much more than a box in the front of his door with his stuff in it at this point. It would happen soon at any rate, and Mike wasn't sure he wanted to address that just yet.

The thought he'd be squatting in his family's old home mocked him more than he liked as he managed to get through the back window once more as he moved to find what he needed before he would pass out on the couch, the idea of sleeping on any of the beds leaving a... poor taste in the back of his mouth.

He wanted to check up on Evan today, but the second he had ended up on the couch, all the stress and adrenaline that had been keeping him moving vanished.

He passed out long before he had time to think more about visiting, though he could have sworn, in those last moments of consciousness, that he saw flashes of something golden in front of him.

A faint thought occurred to him then, the original four was only that, four...

So what happened to the fifth child?


It was a stupid plan admittedly, now that he had more time to think about it when he wasn't half brain dead from a life threatening nightshift, world altering revolutions about the afterlife, and dealing with a coworker's death that he then exploited the hell out of for his own gain.

But he was already here, and the only thing it would really do was make him feel like an idiot so there wasn't much harm in it in the end beyond just being embarrassed and unpleasant memories about how he had been before.

With that, he reached into his bag, just as midnight began to roll around, and pulled out a mask, it was old but it was made of metal and special felt material to make it last for ages, it was actually the prototype that his father and Henry had made when designing Foxy's head model. Michael loved it when he was younger, they had made Foxy for him after all, he had been so young, but he had loved pirates so damn much that the two finally caved to make him something.

He never expected the above and beyond Foxy the Pirate that he would be shown when he was eight, when the first models had first come to the showroom floor. Nor had he expected to be given this prototype, refitted as a mask when he was ten, still much too big for him at the time, even when he was fifteen when he was wearing it on... that day, it had been a bit big. At the age twenty-three, the mask, as he pulled it on, having already cleaned it up earlier, fit almost perfectly over the front of his face.

Covering all his facial features and the sides of his head, it should do enough to trick the sensors in the suits into thinking he wasn't a person, and if not, then that let him know that everything the Phone Guy had said was probably bullshit, and those kids were more aware than Mike thought they were. Evan was aware, but he didn't have his own suit and body affecting him at all hours like these four did, given that had to be why they weren't murderous all the time given Evan was bound by some pointless night schedule.

Still, he was ready for anything, he knew tonight would be hard, last night he barely made it, the power had cut off right before six and he had nearly had a heart attack, the chances were something like that would happen again, the mask was his... back up plan, in a way, as well as a test to see just what was going on in those heads.

Of course, then everything he thought he was expecting went out the window as the phone rang on his desk as Mike turned to look at it in shock, for a brief moment thinking the Phone Guy had somehow survived, when instead of connecting with Mike pushing it like it always had before, the phone automatically connected as...

A horrible warbled demonic sound of what might have once been a voice came through the line. It honestly caught Mike off guard as a feeling that he was half sure wasn't his own pressed down onto his chest, as he let out a gasp as something flickered across his vision, only there wasn't anything actually there, yet all the same something yellow filled his eyes, which Mike only realized after he had slammed his back into the back wall trying to get away from it.

Mike couldn't quite put a word to what the hell it was, he just knew it scared him, like some primal fear in the back of his mind had been grabbed and yanked on without thought.

He barely managed to keep himself from falling over because of the sound of creaking metal signaling an approaching animatronic. Mask or not, Mike had no interest in seeing how his plan would handle itself, as he moved over and quickly shut the door on Bonnie before finally moving to the cameras, doing a quick cycle through while getting his head back in the right space.

While also adjusting to the weight on his face, it wasn't that bad, the thing was made originally half based on the Springlock suits, meaning it was made for a person to be able to see through the eyes before his father and Henry had decided to make the next set fully robotic.

It was weirdly comforting, it was familiar but somehow not in the bad way he had assumed and first felt when he had found the thing once more stuffed in the back of his old closet, in a way Mike wasn't sure he liked to think about, so he didn't and instead got to work.

The night wasn't... easier, but Mike did notice some things. Bonnie didn't give much of a damn about his mask, but that was because he stayed right in front of the door instead of staring through the window, so once the door was shut the bunny couldn't see what he looked like, just knew that usually someone was in there, so he didn't change in the slightest really. But for the right side, Chica, whenever she showed up, looked inside while Mike checked the lights with the door shut, and not too long after she would leave, much faster than normal.

He didn't know about Foxy, and frankly he didn't want to find out, given that one's sprinting habit. Freddy was much the same, he didn't really show up in the window when he was by the door, but Mike survived all the same. It was more like how bad it had been yesterday, but not worse, he barely scraped by with enough power to make it to six, given just how many runs Foxy had during his shift tonight.

But he did survive.

Face covered in sweat and panting more than a little with heat exhaustion from the poor air inside the mask and just normal exhaustion or not, he survived.

It wasn't fun, but it made Mike think that maybe this wouldn't be too bad, he'd normally be done for the week, but he had already put himself down for overtime for Saturday, and he had a feeling the manager wasn't exactly going to say anything about it.

Still, for the time being, he had a few minutes before anyone else showed up, Fritz probably wouldn't be in, at least Mike doubted it, the man probably didn't work every morning, it seemed unlikely at least, so he had until at least seven until the day crew showed up to get the place up and running.

Mike planned on making use of that in the only way he knew how.

Heading to the main showroom, he felt his pulse spike once again, staring up at the animatronics, the mask now gone, not wanting them to get the idea that there was a human under it for any of his future shifts, as he moved up to the main three on the main stage, and just... looked at them.

Knowing what he did now didn't make him feel better, in fact he felt almost half frozen as he moved a bit closer, staring up at the three before saying finally.

"I don't know if you can hear me when you're locked in your performing mode or if you can only... be aware at night when free roaming on, but I know you're in there, and I'm sorry for whoever did this to you, all of you. I have... I have a brother in a situation like you, and I'm working on fixing it. I don't know how yet, but I'll try to make this better... however I can do it. I'll figure something out, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't try to kill me in the future, I don't know just why you are murderous, but I'm here to help, so if you could, the chance to be able to do so would be nice"

They didn't react, at least not in any way that Mike could see or notice, finally he just nodded, feeling incredibly awkward for giving some stupid speech to the animatronics when he had no idea if they could hear him or not.

All the same, he stopped by pirate's cove on his way out, briefly, giving a repeat to the fox as well, though not actually going into the cove, he wasn't sure he was ready to see the fox in it's current state up close, and he already knew Foxy was the most... twitchy, Mike didn't feel like pushing his luck in regards to the animatronic right now.

After leaving, he had no chance to notice the faint shaking and now voids of black that had formed in nearly every single one of the four animatronics as they tried to break through their programming, for most of them for the first time in years.

Though nothing came of it, the day crew would mention to each other how the robots seemed to stop and stare a bit more at adults than they had before, once happening during a show even when one of the very few patrons of the day got a bit too close to the stage.

Of course there was only one man to call about it.


Fritz was freaking out, the animatronics were doing it again, the same thing that happened when Jeremy had been bitten making Fritz take over the night shift, only to be fired and then rehired more times than he liked to admit.

Of course he had been the one who was called in, because why wouldn't he be? He was the only damn person in the place that tried at all to give the damn bots any form of maintenance, not out of actually being willingly but more out of guilt from knowing what they were and the idea of not doing anything like everyone else in this forsaken company being enough of a motive to at least try.

Thankfully they had never actually let him get too far before they started to actively... fight against their coding to kill him, daylight be damned, the second they started to so much as twitch wrong Fritz was done for the day. But he hadn't seen it this bad since '87, and of course people were demanding that he fix it.

Like he had any idea what the hell to do with the things, the people in charge should still be praising the ground he walked on for getting the animatronics working this well after the horror show they had been when they forced Fritz back to fix them up the first time when he was brought back here. He never had such a stressful series of weeks since and he was not looking for something to test that for a new first place. He was just lucky no one noticed anything wrong with Foxy with it being hidden in its cove.

He knew all too well just how much damage a foxy model could do with those teeth.

All the same, he managed to get the animatronics to the repair room, though he wasn't much of a fan of being in a tight space with the three, he made it work, mostly by wearing one of the masks on the wall. It still messed with them, though not as much as it had with the toys, but it was enough to at least do the basics to keep them running before the animatronics realized something was up and tried to get... forceful.

He personally blamed that Mike guy for all of this, the man was up to something, that much was obvious, though there was no way he'd ever find out the truth, Fritz had to admit he wasn't sure how he felt about how determined the younger man was about everything here. Who the hell had the balls to hold another person's death over a company's head just for answers about a place you just started to work in? The man just gave Fritz the creeps, something about him was just off, it was something about the way the man spoke, but as it stood as long as Fritz didn't get himself somehow in more hot water by being dragged into whatever mess that psycho was creating, then he didn't care.

One thing you learn when working at Freddy's is how to turn a blind eye to the problems other people caused if you didn't want to wind up dead or worse.

Of course that meant he cared a lot given in the parts and service room with him was Freddy who's eyes were black voids currently with white pits in them, his body twitching occasionally like it was trying to lash out of it's assigned programming to do something. Fritz himself wasn't being glared at, but it was clear the animatronic was trying to do... something.

God Fritz couldn't wait until his damn contract finally expired, if he lived that long he was going to have nothing to do with robotics for the rest of his damn life.

As it stood however, he just sighed and got back to work, he couldn't do much, he knew what the issue was, he knew it for longer than he liked to admit, Jeremy told him when he visited the man in the hospital after the... incident with Mangle. Some things happen when you work at Freddy's long enough without dying, you learn things you don't want to know, especially when you're one of the few that were 'lucky' enough to be able to come back from the brink.

Even if that meant missing some parts of your body.

Fritz shook his head, no point in reliving those memories when he had more important things to deal with, like not dying while giving the things inside of the animatronics time to cool down while not surrounded by potential victims for the animatronics to snap around. Mike though, well, Fritz wasn't sure what he hoped, but he knew the kid was going to be in for a very rough night if he signed up for overtime... God Fritz hoped he didn't.

He did know he hoped things calmed down, if just for a while.

Fritz doubted it though.


RIP Phone Guy, he'll probably be missed.

While I'm sure for all those that are in this fandom enough to read fanfics that we can all agree disaster Michael Afton is fun, I wanna make sure this one is everything he can be, he's smart if not educated, he's strong if not trained, and he has an insane determination if with some skewed morals.

He's very much a diamond in the rough in many regards here, and that's on purpose. Not to mention I wanna play into some things that'll come up later involving similarities between Michael and William that are not just about their looks, but also in other ways. I feel like there aren't enough parallels between the two, it's usually boring with how while Michael might look the same he's reassured and acts completely different to his father which is... ok, if a bit boring, but the morally grey complexities of being an apple from a psychopath's tree is much more interesting in my opinion so that's the angle I'm aiming for here.

Beyond that, what we thinking about bringing the Foxy mask into the story and making it actually, like, something sort of important? I thought it was a cool idea, and I knew I wanted to show off Mike's research into the pizzerias to give him some kind of an edge, and the only kind I could think of that would make sense was the mask trick in Fnaf 2, and, well, come on, using the Foxy Mask only made too much sense. Plus, I like how it anchors Mike and his past more into the story in my opinion so I like it, but... Eh, feels weird as well in a weird way, not sure yet but I don't care enough to go back and fit it now so... here we are! Anyways, See ya.