Work Text:
Michael immersed himself in his new project with complete devotion. The atmosphere in his office was always tense. He was busy developing the next generation of animatronics, striving to create an artificial intelligence that was far more advanced and powerful than previous models. He carefully customized every micro-detail, every piece of software, to provide the animatronics with new, more sophisticated functions and more accurate responses to their environment.
Dressed in his new work uniform and wearing the white mask that remained his essential attribute, Michael occasionally froze in place. It seemed that he himself, like the other robots, needed a reboot. This was not far from the truth, for he was now partially composed of mechanisms woven by Ennard's essence. These metallic innards, connected to his organic part, became part of his essence, and sometimes he felt strange feelings.
When Michael stopped once more to think, he felt himself begin to feel sick. From the depths of his memories came moments Michael tried to forget-his own agonizing screams as he succumbed to agony. And the endless nightmares.
Michael felt nausea coming up his throat, and with a jerk he leaned over, black liquid spilling out of his mouth onto the floor. He couldn't call it blood, more like ink or machine oil.
The light bulb that hung nearby on the wall flashed a bright red light.
Covering his eyes, Michael wrinkled his nose at the unpleasant sensation in his mouth. The black liquid left a disgusting taste. He couldn't understand what was happening to his body or why he was losing control of himself.
The next time he opened his eyes, Michael's inner world was so distorted that he felt shocked and completely unaware of what was happening. Everything around him seemed alien and strange.
The floor in front of him looked completely different — it was a floor that didn't belong in his office. Instead of the usual cold tile, it was wood, radiating warmth and creating a cozy feeling underfoot. Michael looked around, noticing the incredible change in the design of the space. Where computers and monitors usually stood, there were now windows that let in bright light, coloring the room in warm hues.
He carefully got to his feet, feeling the softness of the carpet beneath his feet.
As soon as Michael heard the familiar voice, albeit sounding more adult, he felt his heart clench with surprise. Mixed emotions overwhelmed him, creating an inner chaos that was reflected in his facial expression. He looked up quickly and met the gaze of a man he thought was long gone from this world — his younger brother Evan.
It just couldn't happen.
However, his eyes were just as frightened, and tears flowed from them. He couldn't understand how Evan had gotten here or why he looked so scared. What was there to think about, though? Michael felt a bitterness in his mouth. Evan was afraid of Michael himself.
Michael could hardly believe that his brother, who he thought was dead, was standing in front of him. A spark of hope flashed inside him that he could ask his brother for forgiveness, but it was immediately extinguished. It was probably just a hallucination of his sick mind, after so many years of being alone. He felt tears begin to flow down his cheeks, unable to hold them back.
"Evan, oh, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to," Michael mumbled under his breath, not taking his eyes off his little brother, "You know I'm so sorry, don't you? It wasn't supposed to end like this, I freed you and all the souls, but....
Evan, on the other hand, stood in a daze, his eyes full of terror and incomprehension. He was afraid of this stranger who had suddenly appeared in their house and was now trying to suggest something to him. The man was wearing a strange suit like the ones his father wore, and was clearly out of his mind.
It was not clear to him whether he should now try to drive the stranger away, or, on the contrary, run himself away from him. He liked the second option better. However, gathering all his courage into a fist, he cautiously asked the creepy masked stranger:
"W-what do you want from us? Money? Are you connected to our father or something? "
Michael stood next to Evan and continued to mutter something to himself when suddenly a figure burst into the room, calling out to his brother and admonishing him for his delay. With a mop of red hair and big green eyes, she looked like a typical teenage girl.
She burst into the room with such force that her hair flew in all directions. Also she had some kind of paper in her hands, which she was waving in all directions.
"Evan, did you forget again? I've been waiting for you for half an hour! And who is this guy?" she said, pointing at Michael.
But Michael wasn't stupid, and quickly recognized her.
His sweet little sister who died so young he didn't even remember her name.
A heavy sigh escaped Michael's mouth. He realized his sister had frozen when she saw him. Evan waved his hand toward his sister, as if giving her a nonverbal sign to remain calm and not to antagonize the stranger. The brother and sister's gazes met.
"Elizabeth, calm down, please," Evan addressed his sister gently.
Elizabeth. Elizabeth, his sister Lizzie.
And how could Michael only forget her name?
Slowly, it began to dawn on Michael that this whole situation was somehow connected to parallel universes. It appeared that this was a reality where his brother and sister were alive, unlike his own.
The bitter truth.
Stammering, Michael made an attempt to explain his version of what happened to Evan and Lizzie from this universe. But even to himself, his words seemed like some kind of delusional fantasy.
"I don't know how I got here. It's like..." He stopped talking, losing the thread of his thoughts, "It's like I came from another universe. Yes, yes, that's the right way to put it... It must be some kind of glitch... But I don't wish you harm, and I don't want to hurt you in any way!" added Michael at the end.
He didn't want his younger brother and sister to be afraid of him.
Suddenly Elizabeth cried out in horror and turned her attention to the black blood on Michael's hands. One of her arms was warped at the wrong angle, protruding unpleasantly to the other side.
Michael looked at his hands in the same self-surprised way he hadn't noticed. His body had become so fragile that it was literally falling apart. And every wrong move could easily hurt him.
"Oh my God, your hands! You need help, are you okay?!" Evan asked worriedly, staring at Michael's injured hands.
Even in a moment like this, Evan continued to be kind to him, a stranger. His Evan probably would have grown up to be just as good a person if it weren't for his stupid older brother, who decided it would be fun to put Junior's head in the mouth of a dangerous animatronic bear.
Evan whispered something quietly to Elizabeth and she nodded, glancing fleetingly at Michael before heading out the door.
Himself Evan headed to the desk, where, opening the bottom drawer, he picked up a box with a red cross on it. First aid kit. After searching for the items he needed, he pulled out some bandages and cast an uncertain glance at Michael. He mumbled confusedly:
"Can I...?"
Michael nodded, lifting his hands, seeing them stained purple, blood gushing out in bright purple streams. It was disgusting. But even if Evan had noticed that detail, however, he didn't show it, remaining calm. Michael, on the other hand, was now able to get a better look at his brother.
He looked to be about fourteen years old, no more. He changed his striped T-shirt for a gray sweatshirt, looking older, more mature and masculine. He was somehow unrecognizable, but still the same Evan that Michael remembered from the distant past.
At that time, Elizabeth was standing in the hallway, holding the phone and dialing the number that was first on her contact list. The ringing sounded, the call was getting longer and longer, and the tension in the hallway was building with each passing second.
When Elizabeth left the room, she found her hands shaking. She didn't know what she should have done in this situation, but she trusted her brother Evan, who told her to call for help while he would help the stranger. Was he a mugger? Or worse, a maniac who had gotten into their house! But there was nothing dangerous like a knife or a gun in his hands.
Finally, the ringing ended, and a man's voice, deep and calm, came from the receiver:
"Elizabeth, baby, did you want something?"
"Oh, Daddy... I'm scared," Elizabeth whispered. "Some strange man broke into our house, and he... He wanted something from us. Evan was alone with him, and he told me to go outside and dial you."
The voice on the other end of the wire became strained, reflecting concern. "What, Elizabeth, are you safe? Where is Evan now?" A male voice asked, softly but clearly.
"We're home, everything's fine, but it's . it's weird, Dad. He just came out of nowhere and.... And talking about all kinds of weird things, we think he's crazy," Elizabeth recounted, her voice shaking with worry. "I don't know what I'm going to do. Please, could you please come home...?"
"I'll be there in about ten minutes. Don't go near him and stay away. If you can, lock yourself in your room and don't come out until I get back," Elizabeth's father replied, his voice calm but with a note of alarm.
"But he doesn't seem dangerous..." Elizabeth didn't have time to finish before her father hung up the phone. She sighed and hurried back to the room to check if Evan was okay.
After putting the last bandage on Michael's arm, Evan finished his work. Michael clenched his hand into a fist, testing its mobility. It felt a little better. The door opened, and Michael saw Lizzie again, frozen in place, watching them. She was back.
Michael had a sense of deja vu.
Forgetting everything, he took a step forward. Followed by another, and another. He walked out of the room, looking around. So this was what the house he'd lived in as a child looked like. It had been so long. He walked into the living room, which looked just as it had in the old days. The paintings on the walls, the old worn furniture, the purple wallpaper on the walls all brought back old memories.
Which, though, not all of them were pleasant.
"S-sir, where are you going?" the hesitant voice of Evan sounded in the silence.
When Michael returned his attention to his brother and sister, he felt their puzzled looks. Right, they saw him as just an outsider. When he was a long lost and forgotten family. Michael slumped his shoulders, clenching his hands into fists frustratedly.
It was hard for Michael to realize how Evan and Elizabeth had grown, considering that in his world he had lost the opportunity to see them grow older. There was a deep regret inside for the lost time and for not being able to watch them grow and change.
" O-okay, sir, let's deal with this situation together, shall we?"
Evan approached the stranger, his movements cautious and uncertain. Taking a step forward, he held out his hand as a friendly sign. Behind him, Elizabeth tried to pull her brother away. But was stopped by a barely perceptible shake of Evan's head.
Without hesitation, Michael accepted Evan's hand. The moment they shook hands, Evan felt as if something familiar, long lost in the past, had resurfaced. A look, a movement, or perhaps even an energy emanating from this man. Evan couldn't pinpoint exactly what had triggered the feeling, but in that moment it was clear that the past and the present weren't that far apart.
"Okay," Michael agreed. That was more or less an adequate conversation starter.
Elizabeth stepped back, elbowing Evan lightly, and whispered quietly in his ear:
"Dad told us to stay away from him."
But Evan only shook his head negatively again: "No, I feel we have no reason to be afraid."
"Well, if you say so..."
Elizabeth obviously wasn't sure what Evan was saying, but since he was the eldest, he was the one who made the decisions. Anyway, Dad was going to be here soon....
"What do you r-remember before you were here? How do you know us?"
Michael shrugged. He was their older brother, of course he knew them.
"Because I'm part of your family."
Evan frowned.
"Our family?"
"Yeah."
"But we don't know you. Could you take off the mask, p-please? It's a little l-looking scary."
And what was under the mask looked ten times worse.
Michael's hands came up, beginning to carefully remove the mask. He knew his face, mangled by scars and holes, looked threatening, so he tried to put on some semblance of a friendly smile. He hadn't smiled since his rebirth, so his facial muscles ached from the experience.
Fear and curiosity merged in one look as the mask gradually released Michael's face.
"W-what's your name?" asked Elizabeth, sounding startled.
"You can just call me Mike."
He chose a short version of his full name, which sounded a little closer to his heart than his real one. Michael often used fake names when applying for new jobs. It was easier that way. And it sounded better than the cursed Afton, the name belonging to the killer.
Evan was scared out of his mind at first, seeing the stranger's purple skin tone, strange scars, and missing eyes. He felt all of his insides sink down into his stomach. In front of him was a living corpse. He covered his mouth with his hand, trying to contain his disgust.
But as he looked more closely, he began to notice familiar features. Evan could discern a resemblance that transcended the usual physical contours — it was the details he knew, the facial expressions, the contour of the chin. Even as a purple corpse, he looked like his older brother.
"Are you... M-Mikey?" whispered Evan, his voice sounding like an echo in a room filled with nothing but dead silence. He didn't want to believe it, but living proof stood right in front of him.
Smiling in surprise at being recognized, Michael noticed Evan's look of mixed emotions. There was sadness, shock, and a hint of joy in that look. Elizabeth's words, trying to get Evan's attention, sounded distant and lost in all the emotions Evan was experiencing as he looked at Michael.
Evan approached Michael slowly, his hands gently moving his hair away from his forehead, as if he wanted to see every detail of his face. Evan's gaze was full of curiosity, and his eyes glided steadily over the scars and features on Michael's face, as if he were trying to read their history.
"Mikey?" incomprehension and question lay on Evan's lips as he asked: "But what happened to you...?"
BOOM.
The question hung in the air as the door lock opened loudly. The room was filled with the presence of William Afton, who entered quietly, looking out of breath after his run. He began to survey the room with a wild look when he stopped at his youngest children. He looked at Evan and Elizabeth, and at the so-called stranger who had broken into their home without asking, Michael.
Michael felt a mixture of horror and anxiety as he saw his father, replenishing his inner world time after time. His father's sudden appearance exactly matched his childhood memories: purple suit, disheveled hair, and those same cold, gray eyes. Michael's heart must have jumped out of his chest, had it been inside him.
William looked at Michael, his gaze full of wariness, anger, and rage. Before him stood the stranger who had broken into his home and threatened his children. William smelled danger.
"Get away from my son at once."
Evan recoiled in horror when he saw William, with unmistakable rage on his face, striding toward Michael. In his father's hand was something resembling a bat. Evan shouted, trying to get through to his father, to stop him, but it was too late.
With a sweeping motion, William struck a blow to Michael's face. The sound of the blow was heavy and muffled. Michael fell to the floor from the blow, his shoulder aching like hell. He felt the blood pulsing in his temple and tried to gather his scattered thoughts while the pain wracked his body.
In turn, William wrinkled his face squeamishly. What he saw made him wince: the man's skin was not just a shadow, as he had assumed, but was colored with purple hues. This creature was no ordinary man.
Michael lay where he'd fallen, staring blankly at the ceiling. Had his... Had his father hit him? He didn't know how to feel about that. Hatred, yes, but he felt it for his father, who was trapped in a zombie rabbit by his own victims. This William looked too human.
The situation was becoming extremely tense. Michael was trying to crawl as far away from the angry and agitated William as possible. William himself stood holding the bat, ready for another blow, but it was noticeable how from time to time he trembled. He couldn't hide his horror and shock at the sight of the man in front of him.
Michael had never seen William afraid.
Evan's words shattered the silence. He finally found his tongue and tried to reassure his father, saying that everything was all right. But William wouldn't listen. The expression on his face was full of anger; he was determined to protect his children.
"D-dad, I know him, he's not a threat. Let go of the bat," Evan said, pointing at Michael.
"Evan, shut up. I clearly told you to find a safe place and hide there."
His gaze remained cold and murderous as he looked at Michael, who stood before him. Michael, on the other hand, feeling horrified and panicked, realized that Evan was his chance for an explanation.
"Yes, that's right, Evan and I know each other and..."
Making an unnecessary movement with his hands, Michael was immediately pinned in place by William's warning words.
"Don't move. Otherwise I'll fracture your skull."
Michael suggested, with a tinge of despair in every word, that perhaps he had somehow traveled from his own world to this one, but he couldn't even explain how it had happened. William raised an eyebrow, his expression remaining skeptical.
"What, you expect me to believe that? Give me one reason to trust you?" insisted William.
"Dad, please just look at him," Evan interjected. "D-dad, please."
William exhaled heavily through clenched teeth. He didn't understand what his son wanted from him. But as he focused on Michael's face, the meaning of Evan's earlier words slowly began to sink in.
After hesitating for a moment, William began to slowly approach Michael. His footsteps seemed loud in the silence. As Michael met his father's approach, he felt the tension in his body grow, preparing for another blow, another outburst of aggression.
However, when William finally approached and quietly spoke his son's name, something inside Michael collapsed. His father's eyes were wide open. He dropped to the floor and grabbed Michael's face without asking permission. As he began to turn Michael's head from side to side, William stared at him steadily, as if trying to get to the bottom of Michael's soul.
"Eh?"
Michael, confused and dumbfounded by the unexpected turn of events, stood there like a stumbling block. Now, he was truly afraid. It was unclear what was going on in his father's mind, but his behavior was out of the ordinary.
The seconds dragged by slowly, as if time had slowed to a crawl. Then William, without saying a word, suddenly released Michael's cheeks and gave him space. The expression on William's face changed from anger to a mixed feeling of surprise and some elusive longing.
"You've grown..." whispered William, as if making some unusual discovery to himself, "Michael, it's you, isn't it?"
"Yes, father, it's me," Michael replied, trying to regain balance in his inner world.
William nodded slowly, absorbing every detail of his son's face.
"I'm sorry, Michael, I... I wasn't expecting... To see you like this."
He reached out to Michael's cheek again, but this time, instead of an unpleasant squeeze, Michael felt a gentle touch. The hand began to slowly stroke his cheek.
"Daddy, are you okay?" asked Elizabeth, standing nearby.
William shook his head, trying to regain his composure. "Yeah, yeah, it's okay. Evan, could you and your sister please leave me alone with..." his father was silent for a moment, "With Michael. I need to talk to him."
William Afton's children clearly had a different opinion of this.
"But, d-dad, why can't we stay?" objected Evan, his voice sounding insistent.
"Yeah, we're not little kids anymore," Elizabeth added, arching her eyebrows in protest. "We want to be part of this conversation, period."
"Kids, not now," William said irritably, "I need to talk to Michael alone. Now. You and Elizabeth can talk to him...later."
"But, Daddy!" insisted Elizabeth.
William, tiredly but firmly and resolutely repeated:
"No means no, Elizabeth. I'll call you when we're done."
Elizabeth and Evan, not without displeasure, slowly backed away from their father and Michael. At the door, Evan looked around once more with an expression of mixed feelings before slamming the door behind him.
Now they were alone.
Michael awkwardly continued to sit on the floor. He was sorry to see Evan and Elizabeth go. He wished William was gone. Gone from Michael's life for good, so that Michael could finally find the peace he'd longed for.
His eyes met his father's gray eyes.
"I guess my saying about other universes doesn't seem so crazy now?"
"Right... I've missed you, Michael. Never mind that you're not our Michael, not anymore."
What was that supposed to mean? William suggested that Michael change where they were talking, gesturing to the couch. He offered his help, but Michael was quick to decline. He was uncomfortable being touched and preferred to stand up on his own. That was the answer William was satisfied with, and they moved to the soft blue couch in the middle of the room.
"Tell me, Michael, how did you end up here?"
"I'm from another universe," Michael began his story, "everything here is different. Including you, Evan and Elizabeth. You left me, died. I understand Mom left us, and in this universe as well?"
William nodded.
"So that's how it is."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Michael."
"No, it's okay. I'm fine."
"What I care about is why you look... That way?"
"Purple?" Michael grinned "The animatronics did that to me. My skin... it turned purple after they killed me. No idea how I stayed alive, but that's how I am now."
"Is that why you're rotting now? "
"As you can see," Michael replied a little wryly, "I know that you, Evan, Elizabeth are not happy about my presence, and if I could, I would go back. But I just don't know how to do it."
"We don't mind you being here, son," William hastened to object, trying to reassure Michael. "We can find a way to work this situation out together."
"And your Michael, where is he?"
"He's gone," William smiled unhappily.
There was guilt, sorrow, and indescribable pain in the smile.
"How?" asked Michael, as if trying to put together the scattered pieces of a puzzle. "How did he die?"
Michael never got an answer to his question. As William hurriedly changed the subject to another, talking about the differences of this world. It turned out that Evan and Elizabeth were indeed teenagers who went to school and lived their most troubled years of rebellion.
Evan was active on the soccer team, striving for athletic success, while Elizabeth favored ballet, following in her mother's footsteps. Together with Henry, William continued to expand their chain of pizzerias, creating places where people could enjoy good taste and atmosphere.
"Henry and I," William said, "decided that a good solution would be to expand the pizzeria's customer audience."
There was no Michael Afton in this world, but life was radically different from life in Michael's home world. Would his brother and sister still be alive if Michael had died? No, this was different. To be more precise, it was their father, who was notable for his unwillingness to kill everyone and be a bloody killer.
The door creaked open.
His head and his father's head turned swiftly to the sound coming from behind them.
Peeking out of the door, Elizabeth gasped, realizing that she and her brother had been discovered. Instead of listening to their father for once, they had been standing there eavesdropping on them the whole time. The room filled with a tense silence, as if the air was filled with anticipation of William's possible reaction.
"What did I say to you two, Evan, Elizabeth?" he asked, in a voice that didn't express anger, but was clearly displeased.
Elizabeth tried to open her mouth, but the words stuck in her throat. Evan shrugged; he didn't have an answer for why he and Elizabeth were still here.
"Okay. Okay, you and I, we are going to have a serious conversation" said William, and at that moment his phone rang, catching the attention of everyone present, "Now I need to step away for a few moments. I'll be right back. Michael, I'm sorry, don't go anywhere."
Michael didn't mind.
He tried to hold himself together when Evan reappeared in the room. The guilt was consuming him, dragging him to the bottom, and he didn't want to let go. Suddenly, Evan said something Michael hadn't expected to hear:
"Michael, you could have stayed. It's like a second chance for all of us."
His little brother wanted him to stay here?
Michael felt bitter in his mouth, as if echoes of past mistakes reminded him of himself. "You don't know me, Evan. You don't know my past, who I was. You don't know about the terrible things I've done. The things I've done to you..." The words hung in the air like inescapable ghosts of the past.
"It doesn't matter. We lost our brother, but you're here again. We could have a fresh start."
"Yeah, but..." tried to object to Michael.
"Also, we heard everything you talked to our father about."
"God, you shouldn't have..."
"Yeah, but we heard. Our brother often drove us to school and made breakfast. Sometimes played board games with us. And braided my hair," Elizabeth recalled, recalling warm moments from the past. "He took care of us as best he could."
"We loved you even when you weren't an ideal brother."
Evan looked at him hopefully. "The important thing is that you're here, and you're our brother. We can accept you as you are now."
Michael lowered his head and whispered his words, as if each one was a heavy stone in his soul: "I wish I could get my family back, but I can't. It's too late for me," he whispered, admitting the bitter truth not only to his children, but also to himself. He couldn't change anything. He couldn't change himself, and all the things he'd done. He couldn't change the past.
Evan and Elizabeth, unwilling to accept this tragic ending, rushed to change Michael's mind, as if trying to escape from the captivity of irreversibility. Their words tore through the darkness, filling the room with vain hopes.
It didn't matter what they said, because Michael had made up his mind long ago.
William came back into the room, and this vivid picture of all his children together made his eyebrows come together in a sad scowl. Michael noticed that his father was about to say something to them, but the very next moment the world darkened around the edges.
Michael blinked, the world shook again, and he was back in his office. Everything was as it had been before, as if nothing had happened.
He was alone again.
The return to reality brought with it emptiness. He stared at the walls of his office as if they were a stone wall separating him from everything that had once been. Michael gazed into the monitor screen, which reflected a pale picture of a desktop. Perhaps it was some sort of glitch in the universes and he had actually traveled to another world. Everything around him seemed so real.
Or maybe he just passed out from fatigue, exhausted from working endlessly without a break. He didn't need sleep, but when fatigue took over, he could pass out for minutes, maybe hours, going deep inside himself.
Michael tried to regain control of himself, rubbing his eyelids hard, as if that would erase the imprints of the past. Sometimes, he felt like the world was laughing at him. With one slight movement of his hand, Michael put the mask over his face. He didn't want to see his face in the reflection of the black screen anymore.
"Pull yourself together, Michael. The job won't wait."