The world was so…cold and…black. With a body made of metal, fabric, and strings the world would feel strange. Stranger when you only look upon it through a mask with eyes as black as night and a smile that never seemed to fade away. But what would a puppet know of the world when it's stuck in a box? It only gets to leave when a child gets lucky and wins enough tickets to when the Puppet's Prize. No one would've guessed how much he hated it. No one seemed to care….No one….

He lay on the cold metal table; not moving because he couldn't. His long fingers twitched every once and awhile. It annoyed him; infuriated him, actually. Not being able to move and get away from the probing tools and screws was awful. The jab to his leg made him in jerk in one last attempt to get away. It hurt…a lot. But it was necessary. At least that's what he was told by Bon before the mechanics took him away. The blue rabbit was concerned for him. So were the others, no doubt. But Marion couldn't help but hate them for this. They knew how much he hated being worked on in such a fashion. But, as Bon had said, is was necessary.

He shivered when a screw was loosened from his left arm and the panel was opened to expose the wires there. He tried to relax to make it easier for the mechanic to work; tried not to move so he wouldn't frighten the worker. He was already shaking as he worked on the motionless puppet. Marion wondered if this was his first time on the job. The other workers knew him well. It seems like he's been breaking a lot more as of late; could've been from his 'playtime' with Jeremy Fitzgerald. Besides that kid being a complete ass-hat, he could really put up a fight. Not that Marion liked him. He had a bad feeling about the night watchman ever sense he started.

A sudden burning sensation traveling up his left arm made him wince. "Sorry….Man, your wires here are fried."

Without meaning to, Marion let out a shaky breath. The mechanic nearly dropped the tool he was holding and looked at the puppet in surprise. Marion slowly turned his head to look at the man, watching him run a hand down his face in unease.

"I'm sorry," Marion whispered slowly, not wanting to scare the poor human any more than he already has. "I-It just hurts."

The man blinked and let out a long breath. "You can feel all of this?"

"Yes," the puppet replied with a small nod. The human man looked down at the tool he was holding and gulped. "You've done nothing wrong. You're simply just doing your job."

"I'm sorry for freaking out like this. It's just…I've never had to work on something like you before."

Marion sighed and looked away from the mechanic. "What's your name?"

The human seemed stunned for a moment before gathering himself. "Uh…I'm Mike."

"Mike," Marion whispered softly, wanting to speak the name before he forgot it. "I like that name."

"Y-you do," Mike asked in surprise. Marion simply nodded and closed his eyes in an attempt to relax. His arm was still open and at Mike's mercy, making it extremely hard to stay still. Mike seemed to notice this and quickly got back to the task at hand. He removed one of the wires carefully, not wanting to injure the puppet in the process. As he worked, he couldn't help but feel sorry for the marionette. Every wince and sharp breath he made pulled at Mike's heart.

"Do you have a name? I mean, other than the puppet or the marionette." Mike closed the panel in Marion's arm with great care, screwing it shut and covering the metal with the striped fabric.

Marion felt his animatronic heart flutter with joy. A human actually wanted to know his name! "I'm called Marion among my fellow animatronics."

Mike smiled and moved to the head of the metal bench to work on Marion's mask as instructed. "So…your name is a shorter version of marionette?"

"Yes, sadly," Marion sighed. "I didn't have a say in what I am called."

This made Mike chuckle. "None of us had a choice, buddy."

Marion sighed happily as Mike untwisted the screws near his mouth. With every loosening twist, Marion could feel the tension there being released. When the second screw was loosened, Marion opened and closed his mouth experimentally. Mike watched with great fascination as the puppet got used to the feeling of being able to move his mouth freely. As far as he knew this was all he needed to do. Everything else seemed to be working fine upon inspection. Mike put away his tools and yawned.

"Tired?"

Mike smiled at the puppet as he sat up on the bench. "Nah, I'm used to having nothing but fumes. Coffee seems to be my best friend at the moment."

"Humans," Marion whispered thoughtfully. "You all have such strange customs."

"That might just be true, bud. But, to be completely honest, I wouldn't be standing here right now if it wasn't for McDonalds."

Something about how Mike refused to look at him directly made Marion uncomfortable. "Mike…is something wrong?"

"You," Mike stopped and took in a shaky breath, "Have you heard of a place called Core Silence?"

Marion has heard of such a place; mostly on the news. The things they talked about were absolutely horrifying. Core Silence was a group created by the government to keep the peace among civilians. But what they were doing to do so was wrong and inhumane. They forced medication into patients; toxins they have recently created and tested on animals awhile back. Seeing that it worked on the animals, Core Silence decided to test the toxins out on humans. The results were devastating. The patients they had experimented on were now all wrong and twisted. They had no emotion or any sense of humanity in them.

"Yes," he replied carefully. "Why do you ask?"

Mike closed his eyes tightly and rolled up his sleeve. What was there made Marion tremble….On Mike's skin was a large black spot that looked like some sort of infection. Marion reached out to try and touch it, but Mike pulled away with a deep growl. The puppet looked up at the mechanic in both fear and confusion. He's seen this mark on the news before. It was a mark all the patients from Core Silence inherited after being injected with the toxins. If Mike was one of those patients, then why was he here? Shouldn't he be there under surveillance?

"M-Mike," Marion whimpered. Mike looked down at the black spot on his arm…and started to laugh. "Y-you're scaring me."

Mike growled low in his chest and looked back up at the trembling puppet. "I've never been to Core Silence, Marion. But my sister has. She was one of the first patients there. When they thought she was all clear to leave, I took her home. That's where I got this…."

"I-I don't understand."

"She got sick; sick in the head, anyway. I was attacked by my own sister…my own flesh and blood turned into a monster! I didn't even recognize her anymore…"

Marion could see Mike's hands begin to shake uncontrollably from where he sat. His heart began to race, and he looked around for an escape route if anything were to happen. But there wasn't any except for the exit behind Mike.

"And now," Mike laughed manically, "I'm going to become just like her!"

And just like that, Marion was on the floor with an adult human male on top of him. Mike's eyes weren't the brown they used to be. They were now red swimming in a pool of black. Mike wrapped his hands around Marion's throat, cutting off the puppet's air with little effort. Marion struggled and thrashed around in an attempt to get the deranged human off of him. But no matter what he did, he wasn't able to get the mechanic off of him.

"Just stop fighting, Marion. Make this easier for the both of us." Marion's eyes filled with tears at the words spoken to him by the only human he truly liked. Yes, he only knew him for a couple of minutes, but Mike was so nice to him. It made this so much harder.

"Let him go!"

A golden paw ripped Mike off of the puppet, making Marion gasp for air. Golden gave Marion a brief look before returning his attention back to Mike. The human was struggling in an effort to get free from the bears grasp, but Golden refused to let him go. Mike tried to bite the animatronics hands with a vicious snarl. As a result, Golden ended up having to knock the mechanic out. Marion looked at the unconscious human and felt a few tears slide down his mask.

"Marion," Golden said in a hoarse whisper. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you too badly?"

Marion looked up at the golden bear and shook his head, allowing a few more tears to fall from his eyes in small droplets. Golden knelt down before him with worry set deep in his dark blue eyes. With a rare gentleness, he grabbed the shaken marionette and held him in his arms close to his chest. Marion let out a small whimper as he continued to look down at the motionless human. He actually really liked this human. It was short lived, however, when he saw the mark on his arm.

Golden looked down at Marion and sighed heavily. "We should end his misery, Marion. Stuff him into a suit and let him be in peace."

"I-I…I don't know if I can, Goldie. He was so nice to me…he actually cared." Marion began to sob, burying his face in Golden's chest. The animatronic bear let him cry. He let him soak his fur with his tears because that's all he could do.

"Let me," Goldie said as he drew Marion closer. "I'll do it for you, old friend. After all, things are only going to get harder."

Me: I want to write something today!

*Looks at what I've written*

Me: What have I just created? -_-

Well...If people like this than I'll continue but...ehhhh!

To anyone that reads this: BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR THE NEW YEAR TO COME