2051

Pathetic. This place was pathetic. Roy clearly tried to reopen one final time with those original animatronics from so long ago, but Liko's damage to the brand had been permanent. These things stank of death, they hadn't been washed in decades. But even if they had, nothing could wash the stink of murder that had haunted these halls.

One night, then another, then another. Liko repeatedly snuck into the old, defunct restaurant to lure the living animatronics to her one by one, dismantling them, and robbing them of their endoskeletons. The metal had to be the secret. It had to contain the remnants of life itself. But she had to know for sure.

Leaping out of a room invisible to the animatronics' programming, Liko dragged the oversized robotic skeletons back to her underground workshop, where Stripey the Gothitelle watched on with glowing, curious eyes. Eyes that somehow felt alive.

Not knowing what else to do, Liko melted the robotic parts down. Five animatronic endoskeletons reduced down to one silvery puddle of goo. Could she transfer this living metal to her own creations? She had to try.

She picked up a syringe and filled it with the molten metal, injecting it into one of the new animatronic's twisted, wiry endoskeleton. And suddenly, the coils came to life, writhing in a pile. What had once been cold, lifeless metal moved and jolted on its own.

Liko had done it, she had unlocked the secret to life itself. But clearly something was wrong.

The movements were erratic. The were violent, angry. Stripey didn't act this way. She had been calm, collected. But this was clearly something else, something mindless and frantic. Perhaps by mixing the souls and then portioning them out, Liko had created an incomplete beast. She would need to keep testing to truly understand it. She needed more of that soul metal.

As she searched the old pizzeria one more time for any remaining scraps of metal, the ghosts attacked. Her past victims come to collect their due, all led by Alison. All ten of them lined up and blocked the door.

Liko's mind reeled. The scientific implications of this were incredible. Ghosts, real ghosts that she could see, all standing against her. But what could they do. What couldn't they do?

She panicked as Alison approached. How would she stop something that's already dead? Maybe with the thing that resulted in their death in the first place.

Liko would get into a costume like old times, and she would regain her power over them just like on the day they died.

She was the genius!

SHE was the one in the costume!

SHE WAS THE ONE IN CHAR...

Maybe it was her frantic movements, or the leaky, abandoned restaurant, or just fate coming to collect its due. She didn't know. All she did know was that her brain was suddenly filled with searing white-hot pain as hundreds of metallic pins and gears stabbed into her body from all sides. She collapsed to the floor, blood slowly oozing out of the costume and pooling onto the floor around her.

It couldn't end like this. It wouldn't end like this. Her work was unfinished. Unable to move, her only option was to survive. To live. To keep living.

It took days lying in her own blood, but eventually someone found her. A security guard, making a normal report. When he saw the animatronics torn apart in the middle of the hallway, he immediately reported a break-in. An owner would have to come in and claim the damage.

And who else would it be other than Roy?

Hope jumped in Liko's heart. Roy would see her. They were partners after all. He would be the one to save her, get her out of this suit, relieve her from this tremendous pain.

Roy entered the secret room. His eyes fell on Liko, sitting there in the pool of blood. Saying nothing, he turned and walked away.

And so there Liko sat, hanging on for twenty years, trapped behind the walls with an iron will that refused to die.