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The room was damp, water condensing on the walls, forming stripes that mimic the wallpaper he had back home.
It wasn't as nauseating as the newly brought in animatronic.
The stench of a rotting corpse filling the room and despite losing the ability to smell, his nose scrunches behind the mask. He closes the door and a small snap echoes the room before disappearing into silence.
He knows who it is, can still feel his eyes deeply observing him. Just like he did years ago. It reminds him of how he used to sneak out and come back home at late hours. He was always awake no matter what time Michael came home, sat on his personal couch, waiting.
There's no use worrying now, he had a job to do and he better do it right or Henry's plan will fall apart.
He slowly sits down across the animatronic, inching forward to get a better look. The only thing protecting him is his white bear mask that he doesn't remember making. He breathes, an exhale after a long pause, seeing as the animatronic seems to be deactivated.
He begins the test, and for each sound that comes out he wonders what had happened after the fire.
No doubt it was still the springlock suit his father wore, the same damn suit he used to kill the trapped souls he's looking for.
It had a bigger hole in it's head, exposing the skull of his father, somehow the bunny ears were still intact. He notices the limp arms, particularly the left one. A sharpened bone protrudes out of the arm, instead of the usual hand he had before.
Something must have happened for him to lose it, he hopes it hurt.
He comes back to reality, noticing there weren't any test left anymore. Which meant he needed to take his father's suit in and potentially endanger himself again in the following nights.
He knows he already promised to do this, knows its what he needs to do, but every bit of his being is repulsed from the idea of being near him.
He grimaces behind his mask, not caring if his father sees it. He doubts it. He has never payed attention to him.
With a tick on the paper, he stands away from the table. Trying to walk faster, somehow still in fear of his father.
The fear was reasonably right as he gets pulled back to his chair in a matter of seconds.
He almost knocks the chair by stumbling back.
He sees the hand that grabbed him and he isn't shocked anymore but deeply infuriated.
Why can't life ever be easy? He internally groans to himself.
Sensing his displeasure, Springtrap forces him to look at his face. The animatronic quickly lets go of the chokehold and instead moves to hold his son's head.
His grip on Michael's head was unmoving. He was almost certain if he squeezed him just a little tighter, his jaw would get crushed.
The silence is irritating, and despite his present fear, he still knows his father.
He knows this is yet another tactic to make him quiver and obey his next words.
So he stays silent, observing the gray robotic eyes watching him intensely, he suppose they have that in common now.
"I know its you."
Finally a voice comes out, not his but Springtrap's.
Michael doesn't know what to respond, he wanted a quick retort, maybe get him off guard but something tells him his father wouldn't let him live for a minute after he says it. So he shuts his mouth tight, glaring at him behind the mask. A small tint of purple comes out, bouncing off the white mask and Springtrap is fascinated.
The grip loosens just a bit, and he figures this would be the opportune time to run for it but what his father does next freezes his entire body.
William's cold molten hands, gently caresses the mask's cheeks, almost tickling his ears with the slight touch.
He stays seated, not knowing what to do or think anymore.
Michael stares at his father's face, noticing the line of sight he held on the mask, reaching forward to take it off.
Its quick, he pulls it off the second he could, just to see his son's face,
but he slowly puts it down, no crash on the table between them.
"Michael." he says, almost sympathetic of his appearance, the result of what he had to endure because of his father.
Hearing his name, Michael sits straight, eyeing the mask instead of his father, he doesn't want to stay here anymore.
He wants to leave.
He wants to be free.
He wants to die.
"You look just like me."
And that ticks him off.
He wants to die but he wants his father to die first.
He opens his mouth, ready to scream at him.
But he doesn't have anything else to say when he sees his eyes. William's eyes, his father's adoration and attention all on him now. The one he so desperately craved years ago.
Part of him feels.. happy to finally see it on his face and another part seethes with hate, not knowing whether its towards himself or William.
He notices he's been silent for too long, seeing his father's patience thin at his lack of voice.
Much more evident in his tone when asking "How did you survive, Mike?"
Its the same tone he used whenever interrogating Michael on his homework, or on past occasions, when he got detention.
Michael lays back and relaxes on his chair, almost certain his father wont kill him this time.
Almost back to the usual routine they used to do every night in the past.
"No thanks to you." he adds a small huff of a snicker, clearly sarcastic but William either ignores or interprets it differently.
"I see, the scooper was a success and you have now possessed your own body."
He says, nodding at the progress he sees in front of him
"Get to the point." Michael snaps, suddenly seeing where this conversation was going. He's being treated as a test subject, another creation his father pulls reports on. Something he loathes and despise him for. Its one of the reasons young Michael thought was the cause of his father's negligence.
How wrong and naive he was.
"I can make you a new body-
William eyes him up and down. Despite the clothes and bandages covering most of his skin, his face and hands were harder to hide.
"Something to reward my son for being the first successful transfer."
He says it like its a good thing. Oblivious to Michael's experience of the agony on getting his organs ripped out and having his body used as a suit to inhabit the monstrosity his father created.
But, it does intrigue Michael.
He also knows ignoring his father will result in aggression.
"First successful one." He repeats, "So there were others before me?" He already knows the answer, has heard it before from uncle Henry, but he wants it directly from the murderer himself.
"Yes as most experiments go."
William isn't dense, he knows what his son is doing but he indulges the boy for the time being.
"If you want me to admit in killing those kids, then guilty as charged." he smiles, no disgust in his words.
Michael feels uneasy now, he wanted to feel secure in his decision of righting his father's wrongs but looks like all it brought was the realization that his father is an absolute monster. 'Gee, as if being a child murderer wasn't enough to constitute as a monster.' Michael's mind berates himself.
Silence permeated the room again. Neither one of them knowing what to say next. Michael has got half a mind to just run for it and hope the doors would keep his father away from him. William seems invested in having more conversation though, as he tries to garner Michael's attention.
"You might be interested to know, I didn't kill those children just for me."
"What do you mean."
Michael asks, a hint of anger in his voice.
"I wanted to bring him back."
William sees his son's reaction and decides to prod the topic further. He genuinely sounds guilty and regretful, but Michael knows better. He only ever uses that voice when he missed to seize an opportunity.
"Don't you dare-
He almost chokes on his words but William continues, raising his voice and ignoring Michael.
"I wanted to bring both of them back." He says while gesturing towards Michael's current state, a dead rotting corpse just like his father.
"Stop, just shut up."
"I never wanted you to die alone underground." The suit moves closer, a hand gently placing itself on his son's shoulder. Michael felt revolted at the touch and swats away his father's hand, never minding the pain of hitting the metal underneath the suit.
He barely stands up from his chair, banging the table with his fury.
"Bullshit! You knew damn well Elizabeth was in there. You left her and everyone behind."
If Michael was alive, tears would've been pouring out his eye sockets, but unfortunately, he was not anymore.
"They thought I was you-
A choke and a sob came out.
"You should've been the one to die! Not me!" He gives an accusatory finger pointing towards William, pushing the animatronic back down to its seat.
"Michael. I need you to know I did it all for our family." His father tries to reason.
"Sure it might not have went in the way I planned but you're here now! You lived! You can bring back our family!" William says with great triumph, a desperate voice comes out near the end.
"Together we can bring back our family."
At that moment, Michael is seeing red. Flashes of his past childhood resurfaces on his mind. The rants, the beating, the deaths, all of it reminding Michael not to trust his father.
"That family your thinking of is already dead, already broken even before you started this crazy fiasco!" He shouts, louder this time, not wanting to get interrupted anymore.
William's silence only proves he remembers and is well aware of his past actions.
Michael continues on his points, questioning on why and how his own father could do the horrible acts he committed.
"And what about Charlie, huh? What about your best friend's daughter, your niece? Have you ever thought about how you broke her family? Broke her dad."
He remembers meeting Henry after years of no contact, despite the incidents that happened he was still a broken man who missed his daughter, only he had a fire in his eyes as he went over the plan he shared with Michael.
A plan to end it all.
"Don't bring them into this. That was before I started."
A plan that Michael is almost willing to throw away with what his father was saying.
"Oh so what? Am I supposed to believe you killed her just because?!" He was absolutely hysteric at the excuses he was hearing. Who would have known that William Afton was such a terrible liar.
"Was it fun for you? Did it bring you happiness seeing her die the night before and comforting Henry the day after?" Michael taunts, a tight smirk on his face.
"Would you rather have had me kill you?" A cold voice coming from his father.
"What."
And with that, the smirk falls in mere seconds. He blinks at what William said, hoping he had heard him wrong.
"Charlotte's death was an act of revenge."
He stated, ambivalent in his voice yet refusing to face Michael.
"Something I wasn't in the right state of mind to do, after you accidently got Evan killed."
Michael stops. He slowly drops back to his chair, Recoiling from the sudden mention of Evan's name. He bites back from lashing out again. Merely dumbfounded from the information given and processing it as fast as he can.
"I used to blame you, wanted to blame you but in the end I couldn't."
This time William was ready to look his son in his eyes, guilt and regret surrounding both of them.
"So I had to blame someone else for your mistakes."
He continues bitterly,
"Henry built that god damn machine, built it to have a stronger bite than expected.
He admitted his mistakes to me, after your brother died."
The suit's bunny head bows down, looking at the table, examining the paper and cassette recorder on it.
"I could never take his life, not when we were so close, not when I needed him most." Trying to distract himself.
"Are you saying its all my fault..?" Michael's voice was small now, terrified of the possibility that all of this was his fault. All of this was his fault and all the blaming he placed on himself years ago were right. Maybe he did deserve this.
"Yes Michael, if it wasn't for your stupidity, I- " Springtrap stops his rant and pities his son's condition for a moment
"We might have never been in this position."
Michael sees the hint of regret in his voice, its enough for him to reassure himself that it wasn't his fault.
No, not entirely.
"No. You're wrong-
Everything was already a mess before it happened. You were always gone, you always left us alone.
You never really cared, you just wanted to act like you did so you could pat yourself in the back and let your ego do the work. I'm surprised it wasn't you who killed me first. " There's anger in his words but his body can't deal with all the actions he's doing, can't deal with being able to finally let out his frustration.
William is not at all shocked from his son's outburst. He expected it to happen before getting himself spring locked of course, but its better late than never.
In this case, he doesn't feel the need to defend himself. He knows his flaws as a father and accepts it.
"This is getting off topic, we don't need to discuss the past anymore." He says, switching the conversation once more.
"What we have is the future! We have everything in our power to bring back the dead! Bring all of them back if you so wanted." William talks to Michael like he's doing a sale's pitch, even adding the last part to entice Michael in accepting his offer of alliance.
"All of them..? You mean the children you killed." Michael ask, tired yet willing to know if he could reverse all of the things that happened.
"If it makes you happy and willing to help then yes." His father simply smiles at him. It brings disgust to Michael.
Bringing back the children alive. He would have never thought of doing that. All of them alive wouldn't change a single thing, they've been dead for too long, their families already moved on. No one would welcome them back, no one to trust or be with anymore. He knows if he were to accept his father's offer he would be putting new children as victims, lab rats for William to experiment with, him included.
What about Evan? Michael's mind asks. Would bringing Evan make everything fine for him, would it make him feel at ease? Can he really ignore everything wrong just to get a chance for his brother to come back? A chance to apologize?
"What's it then Michael?" His father's patience as always is thinning by the minute.
Thinking about it, Michael has never been selfish.
"No."
He starts, a long heavy sigh coming out of his mouth. He didn't realize he was holding in his breath until then.
"Nothing will ever be right anymore. Not with you alive, not with all the dead kids you murdered still left roaming this world. They deserve peace."
"We deserve peace...dad." He ends with finality, anger gone and only exhaustion catching up to his body.
Michael is ready to stand up, William tries to grab him but he flinches his body away, almost like getting ready for a slap. It confuses William before he lets go, settles to put both arms on the table.
Seeing his son just walk away from an opportunity he gave. Seeing him ignoring his own father. It sends visceral rage through out whatever's left of his body, and yet he stays silent, the only thing indicating anger would be his closed fist and glare on Michael as he opens the door.
"I never wanted a kid," he starts, almost like he regrets the words that comes out, something he didn't intend on spilling.
But he guesses Michael already knew that.
"But you wanted a father." He ends, almost pleading Michael to stay, to act like all the years that has gone by haven't existed.
"Well I guess we're both disappointed."