Portal Timer and Time Travel

Time, its a bit funky

Steve fiddled with the Portal Timer in his hands nervously. It's swirling vortex was mesmerizing and soothed his nerves. He looked up at Otso nervously.

"You're sure... you're sure this will work?" Otso glanced up from his stash of donuts. "No but like, you got any better ideas?" The animatronic shrunk into himself and looked back down.

If he could just... get Bryan back, everyone would be happy. And that's all he wanted.

Focusing on the metaphorical sensation of the Portal Timer in his hands Steve allowed himself to drift into unconscious, or the closest he could get without going into Security Breach.

"Woah." He snapped back to attention but his vision was fuzzed with static. Otso was standing up now but looked to be getting farther and farther away, as if the ground was diverging between them. "The hell?!" A staticky voice called from the door, and much to Steve's surprise Molten was also a lot farther than he should've been.

The gap kept growing and growing, the other twos voices fading into nothing before his entire vision turned white.

And then there was pain.

An agonizing pain as if his chest plates were being pulled apart, as if his wires were laced with lava, and he could feel his legs give beneath him. There was a mushy sensation in his abdomen, like water was sloshing around.

Steve wrapped his arms around his head and screamed.

The first thing Bryan saw when his eyes opened was a bright blue sky dotted with clouds. When he turned his head he saw trees.

And when he sat up, he saw the old pizzeria. His heart stopped beating. And then he realized his heart wasn't beating at all. He placed a hand on his chest, and sure enough, nothing. Seems he was still dead. But this time he could feel the asphalt road digging into his palms as he pushed himself up.

There was a sound of scraping metal from behind him. Steve was curled into the fetal position, his animatronic body shaking violently. Bryan felt a pang of sympathy and knelt down. "Steve?" The humanoid looked up in shock as if he didn't believe the person, that for so long he believed was himself, was standing before him. Not some internal representation, but was actually here.

"Bryan?" The animatronic lunged forward and buried his head in the others stomach as he was wracked with sobs. "You're alive!" Bryan returned the hug awkwardly. "We both are. But..." he looked back at the pizzeria. "... something tells me this won't be easy."

Steve followed the dead mans gaze to the brick building not too far away. "What is that place?" Bryan swallowed nervously and pulled himself away from the embrace to stand up. "That's my old pizzeria..."

"I thought that place burned down?" Steve stood up now but stayed behind the human. "It did."

They stood in silence for a while, staring at the pizzeria.

"Do- do you think the portal timer...?" Steve didn't need to finish the question before Bryan cut him off. "We're in the past." He was breathless. "We can save everyone."

He felt a cold hand grip his shoulder. "But... it won't be the same."

Steve was right. Everyone they'd met no longer existed and... Bryan's stomach dropped, Molten was his enemy back then. And Springtrap was still alive.

The revived business owner shook his head. He'd faced death and the feeling of his soul being split in two. He'd dealt with Springtrap once, he can deal with him again.

Bryan turned to face his former body and found Steve fidgeting with his hands nervously. "We'll try and find a way back."

"But for now..." he turned back to the pizzeria and was hit with a sense of nostalgia. "For now we have some old friends to greet, even if they don't remember us."