Purgatory

But Liko still wasn't gone.

Even though the darkest pit of Hell was open and waiting for her, something, or someone, wouldn't allow her to move on.

Instead, Liko found herself locked in moments from her past: the pizzeria, her son's room, her underground bunker. It was as if her brain's neurons were all firing at once, mixing and matching all of her biggest fears, regrets, and failures.

What was this place? How did she get here?

She called out into the silence.

Then they started coming. Without warning, animatronics both new and old began to jump out at her. Bite her. Rip her limb from limb! The pain was immeasurable. Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!

Liko, for the first time, longed for death. An end to this torture!

Just as it felt like she couldn't take it anymore, everything was quiet. It was as if the world had been reset.

There was a brief moment of quiet...and then the onslaught began again.

Dozens of faces from Liko's past, all focused on her. It was a waking nightmare that she couldn't escape from.

More pain! More ripping!

It was her own personal Hell!

But why? Why couldn't she just die?!

And then she saw them, a group of characters that she never thought she'd see again. Those janky stolen characters that had started everything. Roy's first animatronics. It had all started to go wrong once they showed up, once Roy had made them.

But mixed in with their obnoxious southern drawls, Liko heard something else. It was barely a whisper, but she could just make out the words.

"He tried to release you, but I'm not gonna let that happen, no matter how many times they burn us..."

That voice, Liko knew that voice, but from where?

"Greetings from the fire, and from the one you shouldn't have killed..."

The one she shouldn't have killed? Liko thought back. She had done a lot of awful things, but there was always the one that stood out.

It was the one that she had lost control with. The one that she damaged beyond repair for no reason other than because she could. The one she'd stuffed into the old Quaxly suit that her partner used to wear.

Alison. She was back, looking to punish Liko. Make her suffer the same way that she had suffered. It was as if both of their souls had been locked together, fused by a collective mass of rage and spite, both refusing to move on.

But while Alison was so focused on getting revenge, she actually did the one thing that would be the downfall for so many others. She kept Liko alive. Even though fire should've destroyed the soul juice coursing through Liko's body, Alison kept her breathing, paving the way for her escape.

Liko's will was so strong, her soul so powerful, that she actually managed to put a piece of herself into the circuitry that housed the costume.

And there her consciousness lay, inside a single circuit board, waiting. Waiting for someone to find her and set her free.

An old friend.