Michael glared at his monitor through burning tears of anger, frustration, despair and shame. So close. He had been so close! And then it was all ripped from him once again! One little slip and it was all gone, right through his fingers, again. He had lost her, again. He had lost his precious little sister again. And all due to that stupid audio lore! Michael glared at that little button, eyes burning, and he began to pound his fist against it as hard and fast as he could, taking out decades of anger, hurt, terror, death and despair on that little red circle. He cursed through his teeth, condemning himself, his sister, the animatronics that plagued them both, and the man that caused all of this in the first place to a fiery and agonizing demise. All the while, the audio lure went off like mad.
"Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi," steady, repetitive, endless, the audio lure echoed throughout the room that Michael's monitor was currently screening. For awhile, the monitor was motionless, nothing visually happened in the screen, but after enough repetition of the lure, the animatronics finally heard it and, as per their programming, came lumbering into that particular room, all of them looking for the source of the sound. Half of them were real animatronics, mindless robots, but half were possessed by various victims to this franchise's unlucky and bloody past. They were sentient, human, they knew the lure was fake, but none of them could resist its pull because the robotic programming overrode their power of will when it came to the robots' physical abilities.
At last, all of them were just congregated there in that one room. It was about this time that Michael finally calmed down enough to stop smashing the audio lure button. He turned his attention to the screen once again and while it did not really surprise him to see all of the animatronics now in that one particular room, his heart still lurched in fear, anger and disgust to see all of them just standing there... menacingly. Totally silent and still, standing in a circle and trying to find that audio lure. Michael wished that he had an option to drop a bomb and just blow them all up right then and there. The anger burned hot as fire as he continued to glare at them through the screen. All of that anger turned into guilt and grief, however, when he saw his sister's giant metallic form in that nightmarish circle of wire and abomination. She, like the others, was totally still and silent, waiting for another audio cue so that she could continue the search for the sound like all of the rest of them.
Somehow, just seeing her standing there amongst the others broke Michael's heart even more. Somehow, just seeing his sweet little sister, who was still human in his eyes, standing with the robots with the same patient posture and vacant expression was so dehumanizing that it sickened and saddened him beyond words. He hit the audio lure once in the next room. Every heard turned in that direction, including his sister's.
"Oh, Elizabeth, this was not meant to be your fate!" he moaned to himself as she obediently followed the sound into the next room, all of the other animatronics either in front or behind her, all of them headed into the next room as well. Her humanity was gone. She was a mindless drone now, just like all the others. It was heartbreaking and deeply disturbing.
Michael sat back and did not touch the lure again. Slowly but surely, the robots began to separate. With the cue no longer going off, there was no reason to stand there waiting. Michael watched them naturally spread throughout the restaurant again. It was with bitter humor that he realized that he'd spent so much time studying and working with them that he had since memorized their paths. Springtrap went this way, Circus Baby went that way, LEFTE went near, Molten Freddy went far, etc.
"How far have I fallen if my idea of normality is memorizing where giant metal robots choose to go in a pizzeria?" Michael asked himself sarcastically as he mentally traced all of their paths. Baby would go to that room, then Springtrap would walk past her in the next corridor because he was going to head to the vents while she might go to the vent on the far side of the pizzeria if LEFTE hadn't already tried to get in. Molten Freddy would either wander the halls or go in the vent Springtrap was in. He had all the timing down pat. The audio lure was the only thing that was fun because it would briefly mess up these established patterns and then he could get a cheap laugh out of sending all of the animatronics on a wild goose chase for a sound that didn't really exist. He had all the timing down pat. He had an audio lure that could send the robots on a wild goose chase... Suddenly, hope burned its way into Michael's next-to-lifeless body, the metaphorical smoke rising up to his head in a crazy idea...
For the rest of his shift, Michael intentionally kept all the animatronics towards the back of the restaurant, except one. The one he intentionally dragged closer to the entry/exit door was Circus Baby, the one with whom Elizabeth's spirit resided. Then, as soon as the day was done, once all the customers had left the pizzeria, Michael made a beeline to Circus Baby and shut her down using a tazer with the electric shocks set on maximum voltage. It pained him to do such a cruel thing to his little sister, but it had to be done if his crazy plan were to work.
As soon as her body slumped forward a little, indicating a shut down state, Michael ran as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast at all, to his office. He then set a heavy object down on that audio lure button, forcing it to spam noise again. He set it in the room furthest away from the entry/exit door which was only a few rooms away from Baby's shutdown body. Then, while all the other animatronics flocked to that far away room, Michael grabbed Circus Baby's lifeless body and ran. It was in that moment, too, that he silently thanked her for choosing to build up her new body using skates for feet. That made it far easier to drag her out of the pizzeria than if she did still have normal feet.
Then, the moment Michael and Circus Baby were outside, he shut and locked the door, that stupid audio lure now behind very thick glass. That was why Michael had knocked Baby out. It was so she wouldn't be able to respond to the audio lure. But now, with the lure's noise behind that thick glass, there was no more danger. At least not for Baby. But for Michael? Well, he was going to turn her back on now and he could only hope and pray that the thing that responded to his touch would be his sister and not the bloodthirsty robot.
"Come on, Elizabeth, come on!" Michael pleaded as he switched the giant robot on, bringing her back to life. Slowly, those blue-green eyes started to glow and the body straightened up. There was a tense few seconds of silence as the giant robot looked at her massive claw, then at Michael, then back to her body, then back to Michael. Then, she finally spoke.
"Michael?" and the voice that came from her body was very young and had a British accent. Michael released the breath he hadn't even realized that he was holding. For the first time in a very long time, he felt at peace, he felt happy, he felt... triumphant. Like he had finally, truly, actually done something good, noble and productive with his life.
"It's me, Elizabeth, I'm right here, and you're here with me, just like I promised," he murmured as comfortingly as he could. Suddenly, then, strange noises started emitting from Elizabeth's giant metal body. For a moment, Michael feared that it was Circus Baby trying to retake control over their shared body and mind, but then Michael realized that the noises still sounded very much like Elizabeth. She was crying. Those strange noises were the sound of Elizabeth crying.
"Oh, Mikey! Mikey!" she wept, and she opened up her arms. Michael did not hesitate to go into them and accept her relieved and eternally-grateful embrace. Soon, tears began to stream down his own decayed, decrepit face as he held onto her as tightly as he could. After so very long, he had done it. He had saved her. He had actually managed to save a sibling, he'd finally rescued his little sister. Although, he mused, she was not very little at all, standing at seven feet while he barely hit five and a half. So maybe she was his big little sister, but it did not matter either way, all that mattered was that they were finally together again and he had saved her. But the job was still not done yet. It was time for him to put her back together again, but this time, he would do it properly.
Using a few of the straps in the back of his car that were meant to secure things to the roof, Michael made something like a lasso for Elizabeth and had her basically skate her way home, holding onto the back of Michael's car. It was a very interesting sight and Michael honestly burst out laughing a few times during the drive home that he was literally lugging 585 pound robot on the back of his car, but since it was pitch black outside and Michael already lived in a relatively quiet neighborhood, no one noticed that, for once, he had not come home alone. It was the first time Michael was ever glad that his neighbors actively hid from him when he was near. Such behavior used to hurt him, but now it worked to his benefit. How else would he have gotten away with a giant robot skating its way home, clinging to the back of his car?
Once the car came to a stop, Michael opened his side door and Elizabeth obediently skated over to his side, picking him up and carrying him bridal style into his own house. Although Michael had just enough physical strength to live entirely on his own, he was still very frail after having been scooped clean and used as a fleshsuit for quite a bit of time and it was much easier to just have Elizabeth carry him in.
"Look at that, big brother," she teased him, looking down at him and shaking him a little in her massive arms. "I guess I am the big sister now."
"Don't be too sure of it," Michael joked weakly, relieved beyond words that Elizabeth was actually joking with him again and that it really, honestly was her and not Circus Baby. "You may be far larger than I, but you are still technically my little sister."
"Quite the big little sister, don't you think?" she asked him, something like a smirk stretching out her jagged teeth.
"And I am your little big brother," he replied with the same sarcastic and joking tone and both of them laughed softly.
Then, following about two minutes of trying to fit Elizabeth in the front door, Michael finally just gave up and gave her permission to plow right in. He hopped from her arms and stepped inside, gesturing for her to do the same.
"But I'm going to destroy the doorframe!" she worried, still on the porch while he stood inside.
"My house is a mess anyway," Michael shrugged his sagging shoulders. It was a crooked, uneven motion.
"If you insist," Elizabeth sounded uncertain, but before Michael could even say a word, Elizabeth shouldered her massive form right through the doorframe, causing both sides to bend and break. Michael blanched.
"Did you have to be so rough?" he whined as the cracks on the doorframe spider-webbed out to the wall.
"You said I could!" Elizabeth defended, crossing her arms and sounding more like a little kid than she had ever before. Michael was certain that she was trying to pout too, though her facial plates did not allow for such an expression.
"I know I said my house was a mess, but that wasn't a total go-ahead to wreck the joint!" Michael argued, but he was joking by now and wasn't trying to hide his amusement as Elizabeth continued to lumber inward, skates rumbling on the wood floor as 585 pounds of metal tried to fit itself into his tiny, decrepit living room. A bit of chipping paint fell from the doorframe and Michael could only laugh as he made one weak attempt to close the door. The door fell clean through the frame.
"Oops," Elizabeth's voice sounded sheepish and her teeth stretched into another grin. Michael only shrugged as Elizabeth skated back over and helped him reposition the door. It still wasn't going to be fixed any time soon, but both of the siblings at least wanted the door to look like it was actually protecting the house. Not that a person like Michael was in any danger of his neighbors because they were all too scared of him.
Once the door was somewhat upright, though, the little big brother and big little sister moved their way back into the living room.
"It's as tiny, ugly, run down and crooked as you are!" Elizabeth joked, surveying the ugly couch, very old TV, and chipping pain on the walls.
"Shut up," Michael said good-naturedly.
"But it feels like home," Elizabeth promised and a more genuine and meaningful smile crossed her facial plates. It was one that Michael mirrored with a knowing light in his eyes. The last time she'd said something of that nature had been to tease him and it had come from Circus Baby, whose voice was constantly laced with malice and cruel irony. This time, though, Elizabeth was being sincere and both of them knew it.
"It does, doesn't it?" Michael agreed gently. "I mean, it feels like home now..."
Michael spent the rest of the night carefully operating on his big little sister. His ultimate goal was to create a second body for her that her spirit could move into, then they would leave Circus Baby behind for the flames. Michael was still determined to bring about the end of the Fazbear franchise, but he no longer intended upon destroying every little last thing associated with it. Not now that Elizabeth was with him again. Not when he had a chance to save at least one innocent life, give it back the glory it deserved. And maybe he wanted to do it not necessarily to clear the family name, but to prove that not every last Afton was evil. It was only their father, but the three siblings had been innocent all along. Michael was the closets to genuinely evil, but he had outgrown it, repentant of trying to copy his father's cruel ways because such behavior culminated in the death of his younger brother, which became his catalyst for becoming good. So now, while Fazbear and its animatronics could burn, Michael had every intent upon living now, and looking after his sister and putting her back together.
"But why? Why are you being so kind as to build me a new body?" Elizabeth asked softly, sadly, as she sat in front of him on the floor.
"Because you deserve better," he replied, busily snipping and tying up the wires within her massive metal frame. At the present, he was removing some of the servos that kept her beholden to Baby's natural programming. One of the first things to go were the sensors in her "ears" that compelled her to always actively seek out noise, especially if it came from children. It wouldn't exactly do if a neighborhood kid were to walk by and laugh and then have Elizabeth instinctively go running after. Next, Michael intended upon removing her big metal claw. That way, if Baby ever did manage to take over again, she would have nothing to finish the job with. Then, lastly, Michael was installing a shocker within her very body. He hated himself for doing it, but it was to be used as a last resort. If Baby were ever to take over, either Elizabeth or Michael could activate a controlled shock of varying voltage in order to either stun or totally shut Baby down until Elizabeth could get the upper hand again. It was sad, but true. Baby was still very much alive inside of Elizabeth, and that was a constant worry for both of them, even if Baby was currently dormant.
"How can you possibly say that?" Elizabeth still sounded guilty and miserable. Michael hated that. "After all the awful things I've done."
"Because none of that was you," he said. "Like I told you before, everyone involved in this franchise has killed someone at least once. You can't beat yourself up over that. Sure, killing isn't right, but you aren't entirely to blame. No one can judge you for that."
"But I hurt you!" Elizabeth cried, twitching unhappily but still not moving as Michael continued to snip and tie.
"Circus Baby hurt me," Michael corrected.
"Oh, come on Mike, don't insult me like that," Elizabeth sounded like she was pouting again. "Baby might've been in control most of the time, but do you really think I was dormant for that whole time?" she pressed. "I was still there, with her. I could talk to her, communicate with the others, and sometimes take control of this body for myself."
"What do you mean?" Michael was genuinely mystified.
"I mean that some of the things Baby did, I was on board with too," Elizabeth mumbled, then she instinctively began to draw her legs and arms up and inward like she was trying to curl up, but Michael quickly patted her knee to remind her that he was still right there. She paused but looked deeply uncomfortable still being so physically open as she confessed her darkest secret...
"Some of the things that Baby did, I agreed with. She convinced me, sometimes, to kill the nightguards and technicians because they were hurting us. Now, I know that it's not good to hurt people, even if they hurt you first, but I still did it. She made me so mad and whenever she asked if I thought we should kill them, I would say yes. I liked to hurt them, to hit and kick and punch until they died. I liked punishing them for hurting us, and then when Circus Baby finally figured out that Daddy had intentionally designed her to be a monster and not a performer at all, she wanted to get her revenge on him and convinced me to help her out even though I still loved Daddy. She convinced me to kill my own father!" Elizabeth paused, voice rising to a wail. "Then, when that didn't work, she managed to switch my mind around again and I almost joined forces with him!
"Hey now, shhhh, easy, easy," Michael tilted his head back to look his big little sister in the eye and, after a few more soft reassurances, Elizabeth finally calmed down again enough to continue her story.
"Her plan was always to use a fleshsuit. We were going to escape, find Daddy and punish him for what he did to us, to her, but then you came along. When we realized who you were, I tried to stop her, but she convinced me to keep going. Oh, Mikey, I'm so sorry, but what I'm trying to say is that I knew it was you too, but I didn't always try to protect you! Sometimes, I wanted to hurt you too. I wanted to do what Baby said. I knew you were my brother, but I didn't care. Mikey, I really did kill you!" Elizabeth began to shudder, those weird noises coming from her again. This time, though, Michael knew at once that she was crying, and although he had to admit it was a bit terrifying to hear that there was genuinely a point in time when sweet little Elizabeth wanted him dead, it wasn't entirely unreasonable.
"Hey, hey, easy, easy, shhh," Michael awkwardly comforted the giant metal robot, cooing gently to her. "Look, even if Baby did convince you to kill me and really got you to genuinely hate me, you can't blame yourself for that either. Baby is really persuasive, I know. There were moments when she honestly did trick me. You both knew I had only returned to save you, Elizabeth, but there were moments when she tricked me into wanting to save her too. She's really impossible to ignore, Circus Baby is. And besides, any true anger you might've felt towards me is still entirely understandable. To be fair, I probably deserved some of it, and even if I didn't, we've all still felt that way before where we've wanted to hurt or kill those we loved in a fit of rage..." Michael paused and swallowed. "I felt that same way too. There were some days when I just wanted to kill you. Partly to end your suffering, but partly to end my own too. I didn't always have the idea of trying to save your life. Sometimes, the plan was to end it and hope that your suffering followed suit..." Michael was unable to speak anymore, full of self-loathing now that he had just confessed wanting to kill his little sister to her face, but then roles reversed and Elizabeth became the comforter instead.
"Maybe you should have," she said. "Maybe you should have killed me. It would've been quicker and easier in the long run anyway."
"No. No! Don't say that!" Michael sobbed into her cold, hard shoulder.
"Well fine then," Elizabeth promised. "I won't say it anymore. But I still mean it. And if you think that I can still be forgiven and that I am not to blame for wanting to kill, how can you think that you are any less than I am?"
"Because I wanted to kill you even before I set foot into the Sister Location!" Michael confessed woundedly.
"But you still changed your mind and kept it that way, even after Circus Baby tricked you so many times. You still wanted to save both of us," Elizbeth reminded him gently. "I'd say that negates any initial negative feeling you might've had."
"Besides, then I still have to apologize for what happened in your most recent pizzeria," Elizabeth continued.
"No, you don't need to apologize for that either," Michael moaned into Elizabeth's shoulder, then he miserably confessed what this latest pizzeria really was: a labyrinth, a lie. A trap and a trick designed to totally destroy every part of the franchise, including Elizabeth and himself.
Now it was Elizabeth's turn to sit in silence as Michael wept in her massive arms. There was a vague sense of hurt and fear in her remaining wires now, hearing that her brother had still tried to kill her even after trying so hard to save her. Of course, she totally understood where he was coming from, but it was still a bit creepy and upsetting to hear that Michael was going to try and burn her to the ground without her even knowing and that he actively tried to convince himself that this was the best course of action.
"Even now, it still might be, but I can't do that Elizabeth. I can't do that anymore! Not to you!" Michael wept. "Even if the safest path is to burn everything to the ground, I can't burn you and I don't want to burn myself because who will look after you if I go?" Elizabeth blinked. So was that what this was about now? A guilt complex? Her metaphorical heart went out to her little big brother, so frail and small in her arms and seeking comfort so desperately. Maybe they were more alike than it seemed. Maybe time had only drawn them closer together despite them being apart for so very long. Elizabeth understood how Michael felt all too well...
"Well, maybe we can worry about that tomorrow," the giant robot finally decided. "It is a pressing matter, yes, but you're only going to make yourself more upset and that's not how I want to spend this night with you. Whether if it's the first of many to come, or the last we will ever share, let's not waste it on crying the whole time, ok?" she asked and Michael laughed wetly, finally pulling away from Elizabeth.
"I suppose you're right," he said. "After all, I still have to finish working on you. I hope my tears didn't get into any of your sockets."
"Gross," Elizabeth said as Michael pulled away. "You're an ugly crier, you look even worse now than you did five minutes ago!"
"Says you," Michael teased as the last of his sniffling passed. "You aren't exactly beautiful either."
"I'm still prettier than you," Elizabeth insisted. "And if you really are intending on keeping me, making a new body, then I'll be way prettier!"
"And who's to say I won't intentionally make it ugly?" Michael suggested, comically raising his eyebrows.
"Me," Elizabeth tilted her chin, gears squeaking as she did so. "I won't let you design anything less that perfection!"
"Of course you won't," Michael snickered, wiping away the last of his tears and taking a deep breath to steady his shaking hands. It would do no good to accidently cut the wrong wire inside of Elizabeth.
"You owe me a pretty body!" Elizabeth insisted as Michael continued to operate on her.
"Spoiled brat," Michael laughed, tossing another servo and handful of wires aside.
"I'm your little sister! You're supposed to do that!" Elizabeth reminded as Michael reattached several wires into different sockets.
"My big little sister, you mean?" Michael quirked an eyebrow playfully, but he did not turn away from his work.
"You, my little big brother, would be wise to listen to me," she growled, but she made sure to do it in a way that showed Michael she was teasing. Michael knew she was only faking threatening him, however, and he didn't doubt her for a second.
The two spent the rest of the night this way, side by side on the hard wood floor, bantering back and forth like siblings who had been together their entire lives. Michael still wasn't sure what he was going to do now that such a large piece of his plan had been altered, but he took his sister's advice and let it go for that night. He could work it out later. For now, he was going to work on a far more important and immediate task: putting his (big) little sister back together again, just like he had promised years and years ago, only now this time, he was going to do it right.
AN: This is a semi-sequel to chapter 2 of Penroses' "The Maze" FNAF fanfic, made at the request of Dardmulzombie. Hope all my readers like it & don't think the plotline of Michael taking Scrap Baby home was too cheesy or unrealistic!