Chapter Text
Chapter 1: This Isn’t Home
“Goodbye Niko.”
Player’s final goodbye echoed in Niko’s ears as she stepped into the blinding light that would take her home. She had succeeded in the mission she’d been given; she’d carried the Sun through the Decaying World and returned it to the Tower. She’d even helped The World Machine on top of everything! But the whole ordeal had been rather frightening, and now that it was over, she just wanted her mama. Unfortunately, the ground beneath her feet suddenly vanished, wind rushing past her face as she fell into darkness.
“Ow…” Niko groaned as she came to, the buzzing sound of old lighting filling her ears as she lifted herself off the damp carpet she’d landed on.
The small child stood up and looked around the bizarre place, faded yellow wallpaper covering the dense maze of walls that seemed to go on forever. Niko dusted herself off before grabbing her hat and placing it back on her head.
“HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO?” Niko called out as loudly as her little lungs could manage, ears perking up as she listened for a response. But no answer came, not even an echo.
“PLAYER? WORLD MACHINE?” Niko shouted, tears starting to form in her eyes as the only sound other than her came from the buzzing lights above her, “WHERE AM I? YOU SAID I WAS GOING HOME!”
“SOMEBODY PLEASE! I’M DOWN HERE!” She yelled at the ceiling she’d fallen through, panic growing as she realized she couldn’t see any sort of hole she could have fallen through. “………please……”
Niko tearfully looked around, the walls stretching far past what she could see, almost as if they went on forever. Slowly, she started walking forward, or what she hoped was forward, keeping her hand on the wall as she did. She didn’t like this place, it reeked of mildew and mold mixed with faint whiffs of almond, the piercing buzz of the fluorescent lights starting to make her head hurt. A small voice inside her questioned if she’d done something wrong, if she’d been sent her on purpose. The small child shook her head at the idea, Player would never do that, and The World Machine had wanted her home from the start, something must have gone wrong.
The seconds slowly became hours as Niko wandered the never-ending maze of yellow walls, her slow walking having become a nervous jog. How long had she been wandering? Why hadn’t she reached the edge of the building yet? Was she even in a building? Niko stopped and hugged herself as her stomach rumbled, her mouth dry.
“Why is this happening?” Niko softly whispered to herself, “I just wanted to go home…”
Her ears twitched before perking up beneath her hat at the sound of something other than the buzzing of the lights. Footsteps! She rushed in the direction of the footsteps, relieved that she’d found someone, hoping they knew a way out. Her relief was swiftly replaced with shock as she rounded a corner and caught sight of a massive, misshapen creature made of black, moldy-looking wire. Niko’s ears went flat with fear as she realized the monster was standing over a body, blood soaking the yellow carpet as it dripped from the severed arm the creature was holding. She gasped reflexively as the monster hurled the arm into a wall violently, drawing its attention.
The monster let out a chorus of uncanny howls comprised of radio static and horrified screaming as it lunged towards her. By the time Niko had registered that she was being chased, she was already sprinting through the maze of walls. Tears ran down her face as she ran from the lumbering horror chasing her, the monster slamming into walls due to its own momentum as she sharply turned around corners and bends. As the chase went on, the layout of the halls began to change, the walls becoming more and more strange and distorted as she ran. Niko panted as she fled, her legs burned from running, but the monster was right behind her and had slowly begun to close the gap between them.
That’s when Niko saw it, a small, square hole in one of the walls. She pushed every last drop of energy she had into making it to that hole, diving headfirst into the small opening. The hole led to a narrow crawlspace, the only light coming from the hole she’d entered through. She gasped in alarm as one of the long, unnaturally thin limbs of the monster entered through the hole. Niko pulled the end of her scarf towards her just before the monster could grasp it, whimpering fearfully as the creature flailed about. Thankfully, the creature’s body didn’t seem to be capable of bending enough for it to fully enter the hole, letting out a roar of frustration.
Niko scooched backwards, unable to look away from the angry monster, until she felt the ground she was sitting on slant downwards. She didn’t have time to stop herself as she tumbled down the dark slide, bumping into the narrow walls until arriving at the bottom with a thud. The cat-eared child squinted as she looked around, the glow of her eyes providing just enough light to see ahead. Her ears flattened as the roar of the creature bellowed through the halls behind her, causing her to stumble forward in order to get further away. Eventually the darkness lessened as she approached another small opening she could crawl through. She shielded her eyes as she exited the narrow hall into a large room.
After registering that the room was empty, Niko sniffled, before completely breaking down. She’d never felt so scared, she hated this place, she wanted her mama. Niko curled up in the corner of the room and hugged her legs, burying her face in her knees as she softly cried. Eventually, her tears ran out, leaving her feeling tired and hungry, her empty stomach growled as she finally stood up. Carefully, Niko returned to wandering, cautiously peeking around every corner now that she knew she wasn’t alone in this place. She fought back a gag as she recalled the poor person the monster had caught prior to her finding it, forcing the images of blood out of her mind.
Niko’s head throbbed painfully as she shambled through the never-ending halls of moldy yellow wallpaper that had started to make her eyes hurt. She’d stopped trying to keep track of time hours ago, wandering the maze of buzzing lights and damp carpet in a daze. Her ears perked up as she turned a corner and caught side of an arrow painted on the wall in blue spray-paint. Despite her exhaustion, Niko pushed forward as she followed the arrow’s direction, finding another, and then another. She followed the path until reaching a massive room with a single door on the other end, the floor comprised of narrow walkways surrounding square pits that were so deep she couldn’t see the bottom.
She looked across the room at the other side; the doorway had several spray-painted arrows pointing at it. After taking a deep breath, Niko slowly crept into the room, carefully making her way across while trying her hardest not to look down into the pits. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as she finally made it to the other side, seeing another arrow at the end of the hall. Niko pushed past here exhaustion as she followed the arrows, a smile quickly growing on her face as her hopes grew. Her smile that had slowly been growing on her face vanished as she turned the last corner and found herself in an empty room.
Niko glanced around the room in confusion; the room had a large square hole in the center of the floor and nothing else, the only doorway was the one she’d just come through. The arrows had led her to a dead end. Her mind was a flurry of confusion and hopelessness, slowly sinking to her knees as she stared around the empty room, her hands starting to clench in anger. It was like a sick joke, as if the arrows existed solely to give her false hope. Her small claws pressed into her palms as angry tears rolled down her face, why would anyone do something like this?
She wasn’t used to feeling angry, it wasn’t an emotion she liked to feel, but what else was she supposed to feel? Niko wiped her tears away with her sleeve, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm down. Telling herself that maybe there was something she missed, Niko pressed her hands against the walls of the room, looking for something…anything. But after circling the room several times, she found nothing, which left the one part of the room she’d been avoiding, the hole.
Niko tentatively approached the hole and gasped as she found one final arrow she hadn’t noticed before painted onto the carpet pointing directly at the hole. Her heart skipped a beat and felt like it was climbing into her throat as she realized what the implication of the arrow was.
“…no…” Niko shook her head weakly as she backed away from the hole, “…please…”
Her heart raced as she stared fearfully at the pit, she knew what the path she had followed led to, but she didn’t want to keep going. She couldn’t see the bottom of the pit, for all she knew it had no bottom and she’d just keep falling if she jumped in. Niko decided whatever the arrows led to wasn’t worth it, unable to bring herself to simply jump into a seemingly bottomless hole. As she turned to leave, the roar of the creature that had chased her boomed through the halls causing her blood to run cold. Rushing to the room full of holes, her fears were confirmed as she caught sight of the monster crossing the room.
Niko returned to the dead end, frantically running about the room, she was trapped! There was no way out, nowhere she could escape…except. She turned to the hole, eyes wide with fear, there had to be another way. Her decision was ultimately chosen for her as the monster barreled into the room, causing Niko to stumble back in fear, right over the edge of the hole. She screamed as she fell, the monster peering down at her over the edge as the opening grew further and further away. Tears flew from her eyes as she plummeted down, squeezing her eyes shut as she braced for the impact she was certain was coming.
However, instead of splattering against the ground, gravity somehow shifted as Niko went from falling to rising as she was ejected out of a dirty ball pit, her forehead colliding with the forehead of a boy.
_
“Ugh…”
Oswald groaned as he sat up from the dirty floor of the pizzeria, holding his head. He had been about to jump back into the ball pit when a girl in some sort of weird cat costume had launched out of the plastic balls with way more force than what should have been possible. He glanced at the girl and immediately tensed up as the cat ears on her head twitched, almost like they were real. She looked a bit younger than him, maybe by a year or two, though as he got a closer look he noticed several other things about her that were strange. She had three thin tuffs of hair on either side of her face that resembled whiskers, the sleeves of her coat had fallen back revealing hands that looked like paws and her eyes…her eyes were like a cat and literally glowed a soft gold.
“…ow…” The girl whimpered softly as she held her own head.
“Um…hey?” Oswald swallowed nervously as he held out a hand, “Are…are you okay?”
As if noticing him for the first time, the girl scrambled back, ears flattening against her head as she shielded her face with her hat. Definitely not a headband.
“No, wait, it’s okay,” He assured as the girl started sobbing softly, “I won’t hurt you—”
His attempts to comfort the crying girl were interrupted by the sickening sound of heavy machinery approaching the door to the room the ball pit was in. The skin on the back of his neck prickling as the Rabbit lumbered towards them.
“Crap!” Oswald grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her with him as the Rabbit swung the door open, “Come on!”
“Wait—"
She didn’t get a chance to finish her objection as the two of them fell into the ball pit, popping out into a much cleaner version of the room.
_
“What was that?” Niko asked as the boy she’d accidentally headbutted pulled her by her wrist through a crowded pizzeria, the smells of food making her empty stomach growl, “What’s happen—”
Her questions were cut off as the boy pulled her under a table in an empty party room, clamping a hand over her mouth as the door opened and something heavy stomped into the room. The boy held a finger up to his lips, eyes wide with fear as whatever was in the room walked around for a bit before leaving. After several seconds the boy let out a tired breath.
“Sorry…but there wasn’t time to explain,” The boy apologized before holding out his hand, “I’m Oswald.”
“Niko,” She introduced, “What was that…thing?”
“No clue,” Oswald sighed, “All I know is that it’s big, fast, and nobody but me seems to be able to see it.”
He glanced at her, “Well…nobody except you…”
“Where am I?” She asked, “Why did the room change when we went through the ball pit?”
“Again, no clue.” Oswald shrugged, “But I’m pretty sure the ball pit lets whoever goes through it travel back in time.”
Niko considered the idea of a time traveling ball pit and shrugged, after what had happened in the Decaying World, it wasn’t that unbelievable. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but her stomach growled painfully as she wobbled. Her fading adrenaline leaving her head spinning and her body feeling weak.
“Hey, are you okay?” Oswald asked as he worriedly looked her up and down, “You look like you’re about to drop.”
“I’m…I think I’m okay?” She said uneasily, “But I’m hungry and tired and I don’t know where I am or how to get home or if I even can get home—”
“Hey, hey, don’t cry…um,” Oswald awkwardly patted her shoulder as she struggled to pull herself together, “I know things are scary but…um…”
Oswald seemed to think of something, “Wait here, I’ll be right back!”
_
“Please don’t be there, please don’t be there, please don’t be there,” Oswald peeked out of the party room and sighed in relief as he found no sight of the Rabbit, “Finally…”
His mind raced as he casually grabbed a slice of pizza from one of the many opened boxes in the crowded restaurant, pretending he wasn’t stealing from some random kid’s party. Niko obviously wasn’t from Utah, or anywhere on Earth for that matter, unless there was some country of cat people he’d simple never heard about. But whatever Niko was and wherever she’d come from, she was able to see the Rabbit too, which meant it would probably be after her just like him. As awful as it was, part of him was happy to have someone else involved, if only to prove he wasn’t going completely crazy. After snagging a bottle of water, he made his way back to the party room and climbed back under the table.
Niko practically inhaled the pizza, biting into the food with small fangs that reminded Oswald of a cat.
“So, Niko…” Oswald began as the cat-eared girl downed the bottle of water, “How’d you end up in the ball pit?”
She froze, “I…I was finally going home…but something happened…”
_
“After that, I just kept falling until suddenly I wasn’t,” Niko fiddled with the end of her scarf, “That’s when I ran into you…”
Oswald stared at her for a moment before letting out a soft chuckle, then another, until he was giggling like he was having a nervous breakdown.
“Jesus…” The boy ran his fingers through his hair, “And I thought I was going through a lot! How the hell are you not freaking out?”
“I don’t think I have enough energy to…” She admitted, “Every time I get a break something new happens.”
They both jumped as Oswald’s watch let out a loud beep, the boy checking it with a groan.
“Crap, dad will be here to pick me up any minute!” Oswald glanced over at her, “Do you have anywhere to stay? What am I saying of course you don’t, maybe…”
“Oswald?” Niko tilted her head, “Is everything—”
“You can stay at my house, I’ll think of something to tell my parents,” The boy decided.
“What about the—” Niko’s question went unanswered as Oswald climbed out from under the table, “Wait!”
As the duo made their way through the pizzeria, Niko finally got a good look at Oswald. He was a bit taller than her, his blue eyes were strangely rounded and had brown hair slicked back with a slight cowlick, and he had freckles on his face. Though she couldn’t ignore the bags under his eyes, he looked about as tired as she felt. While they approached the room with the ball pit, Niko noticed a trio of animatronic animals, a bear, a blue bunny, and a chicken, all preforming on stage.
“Are they going to—”
“No,” Oswald responded quickly before frowning, “At least I don’t think so, not during the day.”
After jumping into the ball pit, the pair climbed out into the same room, though it looked years older. However, they weren’t alone, a man in a blue shirt and jeans was in the room standing next to a man in an apron who looked like he wished he was anywhere else.
“There he is,” The man in the apron pointed, frowning in confusion at Niko before shrugging, “Not my problem.”
“Oswald, what were you thinking, hiding in this nasty thing?” Oswald’s dad scolded, “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”
Before Oswald could even open his mouth to explain, the Rabbit jumped out of the ball pit and grabbed his dad.
“Dad!” Oswald cried out as he lunged for his dad, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop the Rabbit from pulling his father into the pit.
The boy reached into the pit and grabbed his dad by the arm while Niko rushed over to help. The pair pulled with all their might until they managed to pull the larger man out. As Oswald’s dad stood up, it became very clear that something was wrong, his eyes were glowing and as the lights above them flickered, the ghostly visage of the Rabbit was visible for a second.
“Dad?” Oswald took a step back, holding his arms out as Niko cowered behind him.
The man said nothing, silently grabbing both Oswald and Niko by their wrists and leading them through the restaurant.
“Have a good night guys,” Jeff called vacantly from the counter, not really paying attention.
“Wait, Jeff!” Oswald called out, “I think there’s something—”
Niko whimpered as the grip on her wrist tightened, something that Oswald noticed.
“Hmm?” Jeff looked up from his magazine, eyes narrowing at the scene before him, “Hey…is everything—”
“It’s nothing!” Oswald said quickly. “H-have a good night.”
Jeff shrugged, “Thanks, I guess…”
_
Oswald waited until both he and Niko were in the back of the car before glaring at the thing pretending to be his dad.
“What are you? What did you do to my dad?” He demanded, “Are you what brought Niko here?”
“Where are you taking us?” Niko asked softly.
The being’s eyes glowed in the rear-view mirror, lingering on Niko for a moment before returning its gaze to the road.
“How do you even know how to drive?” Oswald questioned.
Eventually, the car pulled up to a house that Oswald recognized immediately, “My house? How do you—"
The Rabbit exited the car, no longer bothering with disguising itself as it grabbed Niko by the wrist and pulled her towards the house.
“Niko!” He stumbled out of the car and ran after them.
Oswald rushed into the house where the Rabbit had dragged Niko, his cat Jinx arched her back and hissed at the Rabbit before running off.
“Let…go…” Niko struggled against the Rabbit’s grip before falling to the floor as it abruptly let go.
Oswald rushed over to where Niko had fallen, the Rabbit standing still as it watched them silently. Once it became clear that the Rabbit didn’t seem to be interested in attacking either of them in that moment, Oswald helped Niko up and nudged her towards his room.
“We’ll just…turn in for the night,” Oswald guided Niko to his room, both of them letting out a sigh as he locked the door.
“What do we do?” Niko whimpered as she rubbed her wrist, “It’s so strong…”
Oswald paced his room as he tried to come up with a solution, “I don’t know, I don’t even know what it is, let alone how to deal with it.”
“I—” Niko stopped mid-sentence and yawned, exposing a mouth full of small yet sharp fangs, “I’m so tired…”
“We’re safe for now…I think,” He frowned, “I mean, if it wanted to hurt us, it already would have…right?”
“I…just…”
Niko didn’t finish her thought, her body giving out as she crumpled to the floor, leaving Oswald to lift her onto the bed. Oswald frowned as he tried to process what was happening, his father was snatched by a Rabbit robot that had taken his place, he had a cat person from another world passed out on his bed, and while it didn’t take a genius to figure the two different problems were most likely connected he had no idea how or why they were. He let out a yawn of his own as he sat down at his desk, glancing at the drawings of the animatronics he was constantly sketching. There had to be a connection, maybe if he could find it, he could figure out how to end this living nightmare he’d found himself in.
_
“………………wake up……………”
“……hey……come on……get……UP!”
Niko bolted up, breathing heavily as she glanced around at her surroundings, struggling to remember where she was. The memories slowly came back to her as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She was in Oswald’s bed though she didn’t remember getting in it, Oswald himself was snoring over at his desk where he’d apparently fallen asleep. But if Oswald was asleep…who had been nudging her awake?
“Mrow.”
She jumped a bit as she turned to find a black cat with big yellow eyes staring at her from where it sat on the bed.
“Hey…” She reached out as pet the cat’s head, smiling a bit as it leaned into her touch with a purr, “Where did you come from?”
“Why from outside of course!” The cat responded proudly in a deep, smooth voice, “I found a window opened downstairs and let myself in.”
“Eep!” Niko yelped as she tumbled off the bed, “You can talk!”
“Why do you say that with such surprise?” The cat questioned as it stretched out on the bed, “You are able to speak, so why wouldn’t I?”
“But you’re a cat!”
The cat tilted its head in confusion, “So are you?”
“I’m not a cat!” Niko corrected, “I’m a person!”
“How odd,” The cat mused, “Well, regardless, you clearly aren’t from this place so I must ask, have you seen a girl in a yellow dress named Fran?”
“Fran?” Niko repeated, “No, I don’t think so. Is she your friend?”
“Yes, Fran is my person, my family,” The cat nodded, “But dark forces have worked to separate us. We were sailing through the sky in a flying contraption when we suddenly crashed, when I awoke, I found myself in a strange place with yellow walls before arriving here.”
Niko gasped loudly, “That’s what happened to me!”
“I’m up!” Oswald exclaimed as he sat up from the desk abruptly, “What’s going…where did that cat come from?”
“From outside,” The cat answered, “I’m not sure of all the facts, but I think we might be able to help each other.”
Oswald stared at the cat for a moment before letting out a tired sigh, “I hate that a talking cat is the least weird thing that’s happened to me today.”
“He came through the yellow place like I did!” Niko explained as Oswald rubbed his eyes, “He’s looking for someone named Fran.”
“Well, I don’t know anyone named Fran,” Oswald admitted before his eyes widened, “Wait, where’s the Rabbit?!”
“Worry not, the mechanical beast is not currently active,” The cat licked his paw, “It lays dormant on the big bed in the other room.”
“It’s…sleeping?” Niko asked in confusion, looking over at Oswald who shrugged. “Is it alive?”
The cat nodded, “I believe so, I noticed a peculiar darkness surrounding it, one very similar to the darkness that took Fran.”
“Darkness?” Niko tilted her head.
“I believe it was after Fran because of the light within her,” The cat mused, “The darkest shadows often strike at the brightest lights.”
Oswald gasped sharply, “That’s it! That’s the connection!”
“Connection?” The cat asked, “What connection?”
“You said that this “darkness” was after Fran’s light,” Oswald explained, “Can you literally see that light? Specifically, in me and Niko?”
“You do have a great deal of light within you, just like Fran!” The cat nodded at Oswald before looking over to Niko and yowling in surprise.
“What is it?” Oswald asked as the cat blinked its eyes.
Niko frowned, “Are you okay?”
“Incredible!” The cat said after a moment, looking at Oswald, “You have light within you that shines like a pillar of fire in the dark.”
“But you…” The cat looked back to Niko, “Your light shines with the power of a supernova piercing a pitch-black night! It is as if you carry the very light of day within you!”
Niko looked away, remembering just how powerful the Sun had felt when she’d carried it. The Sun had contained the power to save a dying world that had been in the process of being torn apart. She’d carried it for several days, was it possible that some of that power had stayed with her?
“That would explain why the Rabbit was more interested in Niko,” Oswald reasoned. “But why take my dad?”
“Your father, is he a heavier man wearing blue?” The cat questioned.
“Yeah, that’s him!” Oswald nodded, “Did you see where he was taken?”
“I fear he has been taken from this reality entirely,” The cat frowned, “I searched for him on the other side of that strange box of colorful balls, but he seems to have vanished.”
“The yellow place!” Niko gasped in horror, “If I got out of the yellow place by coming out of the ball pit…”
“Then it wouldn’t be impossible for my dad to end up there by getting dragged in!” Oswald finished, “We need to get to the pit.”
“But the Rabbit is still here, it might wake up!” Niko worried, “And the restaurant is closed.”
Oswald clenched his fists, “My dad is in trouble, I have to save him!”
Niko gulped, but deep down she knew she would have to return to the yellow place, it was most likely her only way home.
“…okay…” She whispered softly, “But we have to be careful, the yellow place isn’t empty!”
“The wired beast,” The cat nodded, “Yes, I had a rather unpleasant encounter with that wretched monstrosity.”
“Right…” Oswald took a deep breath, “So, cat…do you have a name?”
“Ah, yes,” The cat nodded, “You may call me, Mr. Midnight.”