Midnight agony

Michael is now in a bar called Junior's. He turns and sees David Miller on a stool drinking beer. "Booze? Father doesn't drink booze."

He reaches to him and hears muttering, 'It's all his fault.'

"Huh?"

'That Ameilius. Based on my family's circus, he stole my idea of an animal-themed restaurant. Cut out my character from the show, even though everyone else is there, including that chicken. Now he even went as far as to take my son too!?"

Pound!*

David slams his fist on the countertop. "Besides being the robot he worked on, an animatronic's mouth shouldn't break a skull, let alone bone, unless it was deliberately designed that way. Not that it matters since he's now dead, but this year's fall fest literally burned to the ground, and because I didn't suffer enough, I was ultimately blamed for it by the public. That family took the Fazbear IP, and I *have* even lost her. *Sob* Clara, why couldn't you believe me? Why did you have to leave me and take our daughter too? We could have fought this injustice and got our IP back. I could have fixed everything, but instead, I've been thrown out and ridiculed under the same vein as what he did to me!" at that point, David's breathing became irregular as he grits his teeth and grabs his head.

Michael walks closer to him. "Father? Are you alri-" Michael didn't finish his sentence as when he touched his shoulder, the two Millers scream

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Michael now has multiple visions of what seems to be David's past. He sees an older man yelling, "Your mother is dead. She is dead because of you! I hated you ever since you were born for what you have done! Your entire birth caused my one true love to die!"

Michael then sees what seems to be a circus ring leader getting a fatal shot by the same yelling man from before, with the voice of a little blonde, green-eyed girl shouting.

*BANG!*

"FATHER!"

Michael then sees Fall Fest enveloped in flames and hears a female voice: "Your neglect of your family and your IP caused this, Miller. By our contract, all of your assets are mine."

Michael got closer and saw a familiar woman brunette woman. "Mrs. J?"

But what got Michael's attention the most was the outside of Freddy's, where he sees Charlie locked outside the pizzeria by a couple of laughing kids

BANG, BANG, BANG!* "LET ME BACK IN!"

"Aww, look at the pizza princess wanting to enjoy her perks."

The kids laugh, and this confuses Michael. "How could a couple of kids lock a public place like this during open hours? The only way you can do that is if you," Michael then sees a pair of keys in the kid's hands. "They must be either skillful pickpockets or their parents are the security guards. But even so, the guest comes and goes constantly. There's no way the door is locked for 5 minutes max, unless," Michael looks at the time and sees that it's closing hour. "Of course."

Beeb beeb*

Michael turns and sees David locking the door. He heads to him, but there's something off, cold, and detached about him. Before Michael knows it, David has reached Charlie.

"Uncle Davey!" Charlie called out to him. "Those security guard kids locked me out, and my brother is in the bathroom. Can you help me go back in"

David shows an eerie smile. "Sure. I'll lead the way.."

Michael gets more worried. "This is the type of thing Father would do, so why does this feel so wrong?"

Before Michael follows him, he overhears the security kids. "Boy, that Foxy masked teenager had the right idea.."

Michael stops in his tracks cold. "Foxy, masked teenager?"

"Yeah, all of those free perks they can have just because their parents own the place, while our parents are just the security people." "The bite was a little too extreme, but the rest of those pranks were hilarious."

They all laughed as Michael seethed. "They saw all of that, and instead of telling their parents, they laughed and decided to spread my bullshit to Charlie!?"

Michael was about to give them a piece of his mind, but then he heard an agonizing sound

*SCREAMING, CRYING, AND BEATING NOISES!*

Michael rushed to the scene and was stunned by what he saw. 'Father? No…It can't be.' He sees blood dripping from David's fist and a broken bottle.

David turns and sees a distraught Michael as he supports a familiar, demented smile. "Surprised, Mikey?"

Michael steps back as everything falls into place. "No. This isn't real. It can't be real, IT CAN'T *Sniff* because if it is, then that means,"

David then walks forward. "That's right. You recognize me, don't you?" His whole body turns purple. "Well, don't be shy." His clothes transform from a yellow/purple business casual outfit to an all-purple security outfit, complete with a name tag of the man behind the slaughter. "SAY HI TO PAPA!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Michael runs in the opposite direction, screaming as a black shadowy rabbit appears behind him. "AND HERE I THOUGHT YOU'D BE HAPPY TO SEE US ONE MORE TIME! MY MISTAKE! On cue, multiple animatronics appear and chase Michael. He tries to outrun them but trips on the ground, and all the animatronics pounces on him.

Present day: 6th night

"AH!" Michael jolted awake in an unknown location. He looked around and saw that he was at a toolshead. "Ugh, where am I? Why do I feel so off." Michael puts his hand on his face and hears a noticeable clank coming from him. "Huh?" The clanking continues as he touches his face; he then looks at his hand in shock. He's not seeing a human hand. He's seeing an endoskeleton hand. "What the!?" Michael then looks down to see the feet of the endoskeleton and quickly leaves the toolshed. He finds himself in a backyard. "Mirror, mirror, I need a mirror!" He attempted to leave via the backyard gate only to get himself shocked

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!/"AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

THUD!*

Michael lands on the ground, face up, and sees a figure looking down at him. He's a regular, dirty blonde, bearded guy in an orange plaid shirt and blue overalls. "Oh, you're finally awake..."

The man said. 'That hair color…why does it look familiar?'

"*Hmph* so you have met my son. Along with my daughter, their new friends, and all in their haunted robotic glory."

Michael's memories started to stir as he saw two kids, a blonde and a brunette, and two animatronics, a sock monkey clown and a golden bear. "No way…Are you Henry Emily?"

The man didn't answer and only extended his hand. "On your feet then, boy, there's a few people you need to meet, and once that's done, we got a lot of work to do."

Michael took Henry'shand and followed him to his house and his basement. While climbing downstairs, he saw two endoskeletons near a Chica head and a Bonnie head. The one near the Chica's head, in particular, got up to Henry and Michael as the two reached the bottom.

"Is that him, Henry?" a female voice rang out from it

"Mmm, hmm. In his new mechanical body," the endoskeleton raced to Michael and hugged him.

"BROTHER!"

"BROTHER!?"

Black tears flow from the eyes. "I never thought I would get to see you!"

Michael breaks the hug. "Woah, woah, woah, woah, Slow down! I don't have any , Ihadsiblings, but," Michael's tone gets somber, "my little brother is dead, my little sister's practically MIA, and I don't even know who you are."

The endoskeleton then looks at Henry as he gives it a nod. "I see. Then this will make more sense." Something floated out of the endoskeleton. It was a blond, green-eyed ghost girl. She wears a pink blouse and a long blue skirt. Michael is still confused. "Oh right, you only saw my baby pictures. Let me fix that." The host girl then changed herself into a baby. It was then that Michael realized who the girl is

"Elizabeth? Is that you?"

"Yes, that's right. It's me, Elizabeth Miller, your little sister."

"You were in there the whole time!? Then that means-"

"It means that Afton got to her, along with me and you," The other endoskeleton pointed out

"Afton got to me?" Michael then remembers the endo hand and feet. "WHERE'S THE MIRROR?" The endo points to the nearest mirror. Michael looked at it, and he was appalled. What was once a human body is now replaced by a metallic, robotic endoskeleton. Michael fell onto his knees and looked at his hands again. He covers his face as black tears flow through his eyes. Two metallic hands were then placed on his shoulders.

"It was hard for us too. When we first learned what that purple bastard did to us."

"We would have been lost if it weren't for Henry."

"What did the purple bastard do to us?" Michael's mind flashes back to Vanessa's betrayal. His hands went down.

"It was her. She did this to me:" *POUND!* Michael punches the floor as his tone goes dark. "And to top it all off, she was a goddamn animatronic the entire time. THE FIRST DAMN FRIEND I HAD SINCE THAT FUCKING YEAR, AND SHE HAPPENED TO BE AN MURDEROUS ANIMATRONIC!" Michael is now crying. The two Endoskeletons looked at Henry, who once again nodded.

Elizabeth asked, "Can you tell me about this friend of yours?"

"*Sob* yeah, sure."

Michael then explains to everyone about Vanessa J Fitzgerald. The more he spoke, the angrier the trio got to the point where, by the time he finished, everyone clinched their fist.

"Mimic," the trio spoke

"Mimic?" Michael asked in confusion.

Once again, the Endoskeletons looked at Henry, who sighed and then decided to talk to Michael. "That's the name of that animatronic you've been hanging around. Not only is that thing our second most personal enemy in the room, but fittingly enough, it's that purple piece of shit's right-hand robot."

Michael gives a dark chuckle. "So even her name is a lie!?"

"It's much worse than that." The other Endo said as something floated out of it, revealing a blonde, green-eyed woman with pink lips. She is wearing a long-sleeve purple shirt and skinny jeans.

Michael is dumbfounded. "You have GOT to be kidding me."

"No, I'm not becauseI'm the real Vanessa J Fitzgerald. That robot tricked me into having all of my bones taken out of my entire body and had it replaced with metal."

"TIME OUT! That robot can take bones!? HOW!?"

Vanessa glanced at the side. "I was a vain person. I was obsessed with beauty. When it came into my life, I was promised to be beautiful as long as I wore a pendant. However, I didn't know then that the pendant was acting like a beacon for those mini ballerinas to invade my mouth, remove my bones, and replace them with metal. However, The pendant masks this, but not for long, and when it was taken off outside my control, I saw the changes." Vanessa clenched her fist as black tears started to flow. "I betrayed EVERYTHING IMPORTANT TO ME BECAUSE OF THIS! NOT ONLY DID I LOSE MY BEST FRIEND, BUT I WAS NEVER ABLE TO COMPLETE MY ARCHEOLOGY DEGREE! 4! WHOLE! YEARS! Of learning about ancient civilizations. GONE!" Vanessa then cries as Michael places a hand on her shoulder

"So we're on the same boat then.."

"All of us are." Michael turned to Elizabeth as she said, "What about you? How did he kill you?"

Elizabeth's tone went somber: "Afton. He tricked me into getting near Mimic, and it killed me."

Michael's mind flashes back to Dave Jr and shudders. "Let me guess. It bit you to your death."

"Not quite. What it did, however, was grab me with a metallic claw from the torso and leave me inside it for decades."

"Jesus Christ. How did he even trick you?"

Everyone looked at each other, then turned back to Michael. Elizabeth said somberly, "I will tell you, but first, I want you to answer my question."

"OK. What is it?"

"Do you know who William Afton is, like what he is?"

Michael's mind flashes back to his recent dream. "I had this dream. Father was in a bar, muttering to himself about his multiple grievances over the years. When I touched Father, I was enveloped by his memories until I was at the diner. Staff kids locked out Charlie that I…badly influenced." On cue, Henry clenched his fist and glared at Michael. "Charlie turned as Father walked towards her. She asked for help, and he lead her to the backdoor, but when that happened Charlie…Charlie…"

"Finish it."

"Huh?" Michael then looked at a glaring Henry

"Finish it, boy!" He snaps

"Henry!"

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth, but I want to ensure he will face this. My kids and those other kids SUFFERED because of him, our failure to stop him, and if I go further, spinelessly, ripping off the Fredbear name. I want to end this tomorrow night, and I need everyone's help to do it, but to do that, well, all need to know what happened. Having said that," Henry's glare returned to Michael. "Finish. The recall. NOW!"

Michael then sees Henry's anger radiating. The same anger he felt from Cassidy when he confronted the vengeful spirit. "Yep. That's his father alright" "Charlie was murdered…by…Father" black tears flows from him "He the turned to me with a demented smile, his skin turned purple, and his outfit morphed from his business casual outfit to a purple security guard uniform with a name tag labeled…William Afton"

Black tears start to flow from Elizabeth's eyes. "You know what that means, right?"

Michael reluctantly nods. "William Afton isn't my uncle; William Afton is my father!" At that point, an emotional dam bursts from Michael, and he cries uncontrollably.

Henry'sgaze softened as he walked to the crying Endo. "Honestly, Michael, I wanted to hate your father for his actions. All this pain, all this hardship.He was the source of it all." Henry clenched his fist.And I would have, too,if it weren't for agony."

This got Michael's attention. "Agony?"

"Vanessa."

"Already on it," Vanessa said back in her endoskeleton and headed to the bookshelf. She then showed Michael a book called Remnant of the Soul by Dr. Talbert and Phineas Taggart.

"This again? I already read the book."

"Did you read the entire book?" Vanessa asked dryly.

Michael sighed, as Vanessa flips to section for him to read ""Those Remnant experiments in the ancient times are the mixing of the tangible with the intangible, of memory with the present. The people and things that are lost—it makes them almost real again. However, another way to bring people to life is to bring objects to life. Every living thing that can project emotions can affect its environment to a certain degree. Still, our studies show that extremely negative emotions have a greater impact and power. The biggest is agony. When we looked into each Gollum we found for our research, we realized that each is made from the same material that gave them the agony of death. Such as torture devices and items located near murder sites in an attempt to salvage any remaining remnants the dead have left. Agony proves to be a horrible mistake as those gollums went rogue with their revampers and killed them indiscriminately. Agony has a greater energetic radius and power than any other emotion; it can transmute itself into the energy of physical action. This, I believe, is what explains what people call 'haunted' objects." Now, wait a minute. With that logic, everything should be moving, right?" "Keep reading, Michael," Henry and Vanessa instructed, "However, like a remnant, it needs intelligence to function properly; for example, humans. Since humans are capable of expressing agony, this means that, in theory, we are subjectable to its effects; the key word here is theory because our positive emotions are strong enough to keep agony at bay and not let it run rampant. Unfortunately, despite all of its strength, given enough time, Agony can take over a person or create..."

Michael then closed the book as his mind flashed back to last night and the dream "YOU HAVE TO LEAVE NOW…WILLIAM AFTON IS-" "AND HERE I THOUGHT YOU'D BE HAPPY TO SEE US ONE MORE TIME! MY MISTAKE!"

Michael then turns to the trio, "a separate personality. The living embodiment of my father's agony. That's what Afton is, isn't it?"

Everyone nods to this. "Because of this, it was easy for him to pretend to be Daddy and say that the animatronic he was working on was finished." Black tears flow from Elizabeth. "The worst part is that Daddy designed that animatronic based on me, and it quickly became my favorite."

"Mimic was based on you?"

"Huh? Oh no. I was referring to Elanor."

"Elanor? The circus baby? What does Elenor have anything to do with-" Michael then remembers when he visits Elanor's room in the 1280 building in which the circus baby herself is missing, and the fake Vanessa's transformation into a red and white animatronic. His voice went deadpan. "Mimic was Elanor the whole time, wasn't it?"

"And daddy didn't exactly know what it was until it was too late."

"Because Afton is the one who made that thing."

Henry shook his head. "Wrong again, boy, that robot's original creator was me."

"wait, WHAT!?"

"Before I even made Chica's party world, I was developing an artificially intelligent robot that could copy human behavior; I stopped when I was told to open that copy restaurant. When Charlie died, my…wife took the abandoned project and disguised herself as my daughter. As a result, I was blissfully ignorant of her death FOR TWO YEARS!"

PUNCH!*

Henry punches a nearby wall as tears run down his face

"Henry!" the girls yelled to the now-hand-bleeding man.

"I'm sorry, girls, I just needed to hit something." Henry goes to a first aid kit.

Michael stands in horror. "Your wife…covered her own child's death!? WHY!?"

"Ever since the 83 bite, the business had a decline in sales; the last thing it needed was another dead body," Elizabeth recalls

"SO SHE DID SUCH A THING FOR MONEY!? JUST WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK SHE IS!?"

"The greediest old bat you could ever have the misfortune of meeting, Jennifer Jane," Vanessa answered

"Jennifer Jane?" Michael flashes back to a brunette, bispectral woman. "Wait for a second; that's the lady who made me the nightguard of that pizzeria in the first place! Ugh, the only reason why I stayed for the three other nights at Freddy's was to get enough proof of the animatronics trying to kill me so I could quit; so much for THAT two weeks' notice, and that's before getting into the ghost angle; something that I did not tell her due to how out there it was."

"It didn't matter to begin with anyway. Other than a remnant, agony, and the concept of ghosts, she already knew about animatronics' quirky behavior," Henry answered.

Michael's patience is running thin."Are you serious right now?"

"Must I remind you that my two kids have been haunting this world out of vengeance for decades, boy!? That woman sent you to the pizzeria to kill you indirectly, which you might have guessed worked."

"This makes no sense; I didn't do anything to her!"

"Not anything directly."

"What?"

"Remember what Elizabeth said about the bite causing the decline?"

"Yeah?"

"She wants to make sure that you stay away from this.."

Slam!*

Henry then placed a flyer for a location that slipped Michael's mind. "Fazbear Frights? You're opening this!?"

"Me and her. Don't misunderstand me, boy; after everything that happened, even I'm disgusted with myself for opening another Freddy's, even though I have good intentions."

"What do you plan to do?"

"You've read about remnant. So you should know its weakness."

Michael flashes back to the first time he read the book "Fire. You're going to set the whole thing on fire!"

"Mmm hmm, the biggest country barbeque in a hurricane, Utah."

"This sounds contradictory to Jennifer's motives."

"That's because she doesn't know about it. To her, this building is a gold mine to capitalize on those slain kids. Our kids included!"

"SHE'S THAT GREEDY!?"

"Greedy enough to ask me to rip off your father's idea, making sure you won't unintentionally cripple our new " establishment" and be convinced to leave the faulty wiring and abysmal ventilation alone for the sake of saving money. If you can't tell, I'm using her as she used me.."

"Why did you marry her then!?"

"Because I thought she loved me, but all she fell for was my robotic skills and the capability to make money. I was so putty in her hands that the only reason I made Chica's party world, along with the mediocre melodies, and regrettably, Nedd Bear was her. This could have been avoided if I had been a better character judge!" Henry started to shed tears

Michael looks on in deep thought. "Henry…He's more guilty about this than I am about Dave, but something's not right here." "Henry?" Henry turns to Michael. "There's a few things that I still don't understand. You say that the kids are trapped but can still move out of their animatronics. Why couldn't they find an occult or something, and why didn't they kill Afton from the get-go? Not only was he in the secret room the entire time, but they had been there several times. Even going as far as to refer to him as the one who'll give them their lives back. So what gives?"

"Once the sacrum becomes one with the new body, the remnant-infused reverent can leave the new body as a ghost, but they can't travel far without the new body, which contains the sacrum. It's like how an anchor works on boats; that's how limited their options are, and going outside won't be an option either because no animatronic from the 80s can do the things they do without a highly skilled programmer."

"You seem to know awfully a lot about this stuff, Vanessa."

"I was studying Dr. Talbert and Phineas Taggart's necromancy research as part of my major." Michael's eyebrows went up out of shock. "Small world, I know. Agony has multiple supernatural properties; one of them is memory manipulation. Afton used that to make those kids think he was on their side, while those who took the night guard position died by being taken to the secret room where Afton conducted more Remnant and Agony experiments."

"Those who take-YOU MEANT THAT I'M NOT THE FIRST ONE!?"

"Sadly, yes. Ever since 1993, Afton used his powers to manipulate those kids, to indirectly kill the night guards, mistaking them for their murderer."

"1993?" Elizabeth nods

"That's the year when me, Daddy, and Afton died.."

"How did you all die?"

"When Afton and Mimic killed me, Daddy finally learned who Afton was and rushed to the pizzeria to find a confirmation. Once that happened via a violent meeting with the ghost kids, he went to the secret room. He put on the compression spring-locked Bonita suit to trap himself and Afton in the scenario where you are in a never-ending cycle of pain out of atonement. A springtrap suit, if you will. However, Daddy was too hasty, too impatient, too out of depth to understand how much of a bad idea it was to feed a pain incarnate creature more pain, and not to mention too driven mad by Afton's interference."

"Interference?"

"When Daddy created Elanor pizza rental, he wanted to start over, but Afton saw it as an opportunity to kill more people, so he kept corrupting his work. Each time Daddy sees this, he not only undoes his violence but fires the one who thinks he is responsible. This continued until nobody else worked for him but himself."

"So, Afton knows that revealing himself would be inevitable."

"Exactly, especially since I sped that up."

"What do you mean?"

"When father sleeps, Afton is in control. He kills, spreads his agony, and returns to bed dormant as a father who doesn't share his memories and feels his last emotions before waking up, such as the euphoria of Afton's Agony bath. That persisted until I came into his life."

"How so?"

"Ever since I was born, Mommy worked hard to avoid the past, cutting ties with you, Daddy, and her grandpa's former legacy, even going as far as to send me to a boarding school. I was so sick of it that I finally ran away from home to meet the rest of you."

"YOU DID WHAT!?"

"I lied to Daddy about it, so he spent the whole time bonding with me and reaching Mommy. I didn't know then that I kept interrupting Afton during his tampering because each time he heard my voice, saw my face, or acknowledged me in any capacity, Daddy regained control, and Daddy became himself again. Afton did not like that very much and realized that I had to go because I was important to Daddy. Afton killed me by being a mastermind to a hitman, or in this case a hit AI."

Michael begins to seethe as he realizes where this is going. "Mimic,"

"That's right, my former creation, used as a weapon for murder."

"How did it get to Father's hands anyway?"

Henry's tone went somber: "After I discovered the truth about Charlie in 1985, I closed down the dinner for good, divorced my wife, destroyed the mimic machine in a fury, and threw it in the garbage. David must have recycled it out of pure, cruel coincidence."

"This happened out of pure happenstance!?"

"But that's not the worst of it, boy; I received a letter from your father in 1993. Of course I tore it up, and threw it in the trash. Looking back at it, it was most likely talking about how Elizabeth needed help because ten years ago, I came across the most bizarre-looking animatronic I have ever seen. A twisted metallic amalgamation that almost looks like the internal organs of the human body. They screamed for help, wanting to remove this agonized emotion that hammered them before they kill someone. That thing was Elizabeth and Vanessa, and because of them, I learned about Remnant and agony. After I learned more about them, I realized that I unintentionally cultivated two monsters that are ruining lives as we speak."

This gets Michael's attention as something dawns on him: "unintentionally cultivated two monsters…If this confusing timeline checks out, then" Everything starts to flash within his eyes, from the 83 bite to the bar to the book about remnant and agony, to the murder sprees, and finally David and Afton. Black tears flow from his face. "What do we do know?"

"While the animatronics you chopped are getting ready for Fazbear Frights, we must be as well," Elizabeth explained.

"How can you be sure that Afton would be there?" "Agony is like an affection. It can affect a person or an object and spread like a virus, and again, Afton is in Agony," Vanessa points out. "So he would go to the sister location to try to kill more people."

"Exactly," said a determined Henry. "He lured them all back. Back to the secret room. Back with supernatural tricks. He brought them all together so he can kill more people through them."

"Are they...aware of this?" Michael asked

"I hope not. It keeps me awake at night. I could make myself sleep...Like the rest of you three." Everyone gasped."But not yet. Not until I undo what he has done and heal this wound - a wound first inflicted on me, but then one that I let bleed out to cause all of this. Dave wore a trap for him. I know exactly what it was, but Afton was playing him, and it led the kids there again. He overpowered them again. And he robbed them of the only thing that they had. Again. Until I read that book, I didn't know how those tiny breaths of life came to inhabit those machines. But they will never find rest now. Not like this. I have to call them all back. All of them. Together, in one place, and once we do, we'll set the whole thing up in flames. This. Ends. Tomorrow night!"

Author's notes: The second longest chapter, with six pages! And the most expositional (Sorry about that), Henry, Vanessa (The real one, not the robot we've been following), and Elizabeth's backstory will get their own chapters later. Right now, the good news is that I'm now reaching the endpoint of this story. You all know what that means, BURNING TIME! For the sake of simplicity, I'm combining Fazbear Frights and the Trap Pizzeria into one location. This is where the final confrontation for this first part of the story occurs, and I can't wait to finish it. Thanks for reading, and I'll be posting next time.