Mysterious Time-Hunt

(Beginning Notes: This is gonna be one of the chapters that somewhat diverges from the gameplay of FNAF World and the story of Spring-Trapped. I hope that you enjoy it, but if not, I apologise.

As always, feedback is appreciated, positive or negative, and everything else. Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.)

*Begin Chapter*

It took about a minute for any of the team to notice something off about the tree: something that they wouldn't admit to even their most trusted friends.

The Individual that noticed was Elizabeth, and that was only because she didn't metaphorically root herself in place and instead carefully circled around it to see it, as well as looking at the other trees to compare and contrast. Once she noticed the anomalies, she waited with Fred-Bear for the rest of the bots or her dad to notice, but once the waiting became unbearable, she spoke up:

Elizabeth:"Okay, the fact that it's taken this long to see something out of the ordinary is actually agonizing to see.

I recommend giving up now if you don't want a headache."

Bonnie:"Yeah, ok. I'm backing out of this."

Foxy:"Same here."

William:"Fine. I give up. What do you see, Circus Baby?"

Elizabeth:"There's some light-blue rectangles popping out in the same formation as the tree, but it's more noticeable over by the right of it."

William:"Ah, I see. a wonderful eye, my dear daughter."

Fred-Bear:"This isn't even remotely close to normal. My best guess is that something undesirable occurred within the flipside."

Elizabeth:"Wait, the flipside? What happened in there for Glitching trees to be the spawn of it?"

Fred-Bear:"Hold on. You are already familiar with the flipside?"

Elizabeth:"Me and Dad are just as in the loop as you all are. Foxy ended up explaining how to use the flipside as a quick way to get around, alongside what she thinks the flipside looks like. I personally am not a huge fan over it, but it does have it's merits."

Bonnie:"well, of course it has it's merits. My sweetheart was the one that said it.

Foxy:"Bon..."

Elizabeth:"yeah, ok, Dad was right, you two are adorable together."

Bonnie:"Thank you. But aren't we getting off topic?"

William:"Oh, we've gone majorly off topic. Fred-Bear, please continue."

Fred-Bear:"Thank you, Springtrap.

As I was saying, you can use these distortions upon reality in order to quickly travel between locations. A word of warning though, some individuals have attempted to go beyond three levels, with the promise of returning to their familiars."

Elizabeth:"And did they come back? Are they okay?"

Fred-Bear:"...It has been three weeks since the last one, a broken pirate fox, has made his promise to their friends.

They have not been seen since then."

Foxy:"I really didn't want this to be told, but I understand that this was necessary to emphasize the danger of the flipside."

William:"Wait, if the flipside is as dangerous as you say, then why use it at all? Why not isolate any flipside instances, and order people to not approach them?"

Bonnie:"Cuz it's the only reliable way to travel nowadays. There's not a lot of people that want to live in the same place with anyone else, and even then, most folk eventually got to go their separate ways from the town. And that's not including the fact that the walking paths to these places were sealed off in an effort to keep any threats like Chop-n-Rolls or Glitched people out of the village."

William:"Ah. I see. My deepest apologies, then."

Bonnie:"It's ok. You raised some good points about the dangers, but we already tried those ideas before you arrived. They didn't work in the slightest."

Fred-Bear:"Now, before we continue waiting for SpringBonnie, I need to have a chat with Springtrap and Circus Baby."

Foxy(Surprised):"Wait, what?"

Fred-Bear:"Relax, Foxy. It shall only be a couple of minutes before we're done. After that, you'll have them back. Now then, follow me, you two."

*Later...*

Following Fred-Bear was a completely different experience compared to gently high-tailing the others For the Aftons. For one, he didn't converse with any of them, seemed really determined to get their conversation out of the way and just overall had a completely different mental state, almost as if the Fred-Bear from earlier and the current Fred-Bear were two completely different Animatronics.

None of them spoke a single word, and even though they had only been walking for three minutes, those minutes felt like years.

Finally, Fred-Bear stopped at a very weird sight: a pitch-black void entrance.

There was no change in his expression, though. He still held that focused glare, even whilst turning to Elizabeth and William and issued an order in a few words:

"Walk within this realm, and our chat shall begin."

They didn't want to risk agitating the Golden Bear, so they did exactly as instructed.

William went in first, and something happened.

He went from looking like a plush trap to bearing the same appearance as when he was concealed within Fazbear's Fright.

Elizabeth went in next, after calming herself down from seeing the visual anomaly.

Her differences weren't too drastic, if you didn't count the eyes and claw.

Then Fred-Bear followed suit.

And the visual anomalies for him were night and day.

Instead of wearing the colour of gold fur, a yellow muzzle and purple accessories, he was completely Neon-Green, with his accessories donning a Neon-Pink colour, with both of these being vaporwave patterned that appeared to move.

The eyes, though?

The eyes were pitch-black, with purple pinpricks in the middle that seemed to burn into William's and Elizabeth's corrupted souls without moving towards them. Unlike the body, tophat and bowtie, however, there was no vaporwave pattern, providing a haunting image that wouldn't leave their brains no matter how hard or long they tried.

Finally, after 4 horrifying minutes of silence, Fred-Bear decided to break it, but not without securing the tension in the process:

"Speak now, Aftons, or forever hold your piece."

Elizabeth and William physically recoiled at the name. They weren't expecting Fred-Bear to say their actual names.

Elizabeth:"Wait, you know who we are?"

"Of course I do. Especially your father. His reputation precedes him."

William:"Oh, great, someone other than my family, my friends and their families know what I did."

"Do not think that you are above any jurisdiction, Afton, or should I humour you with your false identities, Steven Raglan or David Miller?"

William:"... Afton's fine. So why did you bring us into this...place? Other than to toss your opinion about what happened at me?"

"There is a task to complete. Before you explore the Flipside, search around Fazbear Hills. Locate the clock."

Elizabeth:"Hold up a minute. We're gonna be going on a goose chase to find a clock?"

"Indeed, Elizabeth, although this will not be the only clock. It is merely the closest in proximity to our location. Once you locate it, let me know immediately."

William:"And what is in it for us if we do as you say, hmm?"

Elizabeth:"Okay. Look, Dad, I love you, alright, but just give up on trying to be in control. We clearly aren't gonna get anywhere like this."

William:"...Very well."

Elizabeth:"Thank you. So, back to task discussion. Finding clocks. We can do that."

"Wonderful to hear. Now, then, let us return to the others before they get suspicious of this plan."

*Later...*

The trio returned to the others, but SpringBonnie was now awake, as is evident by the fact that she was chatting with Foxy, so introductions and apologies were very much in order once she caught sight of them, which was very swift, to the point of unnerving William.