Mable: So we have finally arrived in the Sister Location saga, but things aren't as clear cut as they seem to be… Or are they? I hope you Enjoy!


Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Twenty-Eight

The last thing Mike wanted was to crawl through a tight vent in the dark. It didn't feel safe, as he knew animatronics could climb through them. If it was any example; Marionette was easily moving through the vent behind him, and he had heard horror stories from Jeremy about some of the other toy animatronics. It didn't last and the vent opened into a small room. Upon shining the light around, he could see that it almost looked like an office, with large windows and blackened screens on the roof. He stepped out into the office and continue to observe.

There were a few more vent entrances and a couple of button panels from what he saw. The air smelled musty, stale, and the room was obnoxiously hot. With a brief cough, Mike took a few steps further into the room. A few remnants of animatronic looking beings were near the wall, but were unresponsive and incomplete. "This could be a security office of some kind. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to not put an actual door in here, but it looks like it serves some sort of purpose." Marionette slid out behind him and looked around.

Mike started to look through some drawers. "Before we go blindly into the dark, maybe we can find some sort of map or something. I'm pretty sure the power's out. It must have been manually shut off if the elevator's still running," the security guard suggested. Marionette looked over the room with curiousness. His eyes eventually landed on one of the pedestal and the buttons. The one was a light button, he had seen one like it before, but the other was more obscure in being just a lightning bolt. It took him a moment to remember where he had seen it.

"…Okay, this seems important," Mike volunteered. Marionette was suddenly leaning over the crouched man's back and he shined his light on a note. There was a list of directions listed on the old, crumpled, forgotten not, but only one part seemed important. "Remember to shut down the power to the observation rooms before you leave. The electrical fuses are over in the breaker room on the other side of Ballora Gallery. Deactivating the fuses should be instantaneous; if the fuse shows that it is still on then turn on and off again."

He looked back, "Maybe we can get the lights back on. It depends on which of these leads to the Gallery." He shined his light over the vents. Marionette hummed and tried to look through one of the windows, "It can't be too far. If need be, I can go ahead and scout out the area, then I'll come back and get you." Mike immediately shot this plan down with a concerned look, "Mari, you've seen the horror movies. The second we split up is right when one of us will get killed. We have a better chance together." Marionette seemed amused by the suggestion.

The puppet didn't dwell on it and checked the other window. After a few moments he asked, "What did you say the gallery was called? Ballora Gallery, right?" Mike agreed with this, "That's it. Why?" There was a hum for an answer and Marionette explained. "There's a stage over there and- one, two, three- four little ballerinas on it. They're adorable; come look," he moved to the side so that Mike could look. He could see nothing but darkness through the window, "I don't see anything." He looked to the animatronic, noticing the white, glowing pinpricks in his eyes.

"There's a stage right there and they're posted on it. They may just be dolls; they aren't moving at all," Marionette pointed out to his companion. "Maybe they are the Balloras? If that's the case, then this would be the vent we're looking for." This seemed like a good enough assumption. Even if there were more ballerinas, doll or not, then it was possible that this wasn't the room. However, Mike went along with it since it made the most sense. "It's worth a shot. Keep an eye on those ballerinas; I don't want them sneaking up on us."

Right as he was preparing to get into the vent, Marionette suddenly dipped in front of him, smiling back as he slid into the vent legs first. "Perhaps I should lead the way, just to be safe," he offered and disappeared. Mike playfully called after him, "Yeah, yeah. Ladies first." Marinette chimed back, "I seem to remember a horror movie I watched very recently in which it was the lady who lived." At this point, Mike just stayed silent. Though more because he was wobbling through a vent. Though this vent shaft was much shorter than the one between the elevator and the office.

Soon Mike was standing in a large room. He flicked on his flashlight and cast it across the room towards a distant door. "There we go. That'll be the breaker room." He also shined the light over onto the stage where the four ballerinas were posed. He half expected them to not be there, instead scurrying around somewhere in the room. Alas, there they were, posed and unmoving. Their smiles were reminiscent of Marionette's own; but unlike his smile, theirs left Mike feeling generally more uneasy. He shined the light back on the door and started crossing over.

About halfway across the long room, something changed. The otherwise silent room was slowly filled with the sound of music. It spread across the space, originating from one of the back corners, and trailed along the tiles. Mike couldn't help but crouch down a little more in defensiveness. Music box music was a staple at Freddy's and was seldom a sign of anything good. Especially when he noticed that whatever was making the music was getting closer. It didn't help when the puppet suddenly gave a noise similar to a giggle.

"Do you hear that? That music, that's… That's wonderful," Marionette pointed out in a strange joy. Mike could hear the music getting closer and began to grow more concerned, especially with the puppet suddenly acting odd. "Mari, there's something there," he whispered as he grabbed for the animatronic. Touching him, he could feel the striped being slowly spinning in place. "What are you doing?" he whispered in a firmer tone, unable to believe the situation. He flicked off his flashlight, hoping that the animatronic wouldn't see him.

"…Please tell me it's not the music," Mike flatly begged, suddenly noticing to parallel between the behavior and the music. "I'm fine, don't worry. It's just wonderful to listen to… Keep going, I won't let it get too close." This was all the confirmation that Mike needed. He crouched down further and tried to slowly shuffle through the dark. Whatever 'it' was, it moved in closer, moving around the area. It softly squeaked as it moved, which was the only indication to where its metallic body was. Marionette kept spinning, but always moved to stand between Mike and the thing.

By time Mike reached the door he felt a bit more confident. Whatever it had been, it didn't seem to be much of a threat, or was afraid enough of Marionette that it didn't get any closer. It wasn't until Mike was through the door and had it closed behind him that he felt safe enough to talk. "What exactly was that?" Marionette seemed to sober up extremely quickly. "It was an animatronic… I think. I'm sorry, I was a little distracted," he admitted with embarrassment. Mike gave a scoff and approached a control panel immediately in front of them.

"A little distracted spinning in circles, maybe… Huh, what's going on here?" Mike started to look through the panel and a screen attached to it, fiddling with a few switches until the breaker room came to life. Or somewhat came to life. There were a few sparking wires and the screen turned on, which signaled that power returned to the immediate room. Mike was met on the screen with a map of the level they were on. He started to turn on the electricity in the rooms, scanning the map and trying to remember it.

"I'll pay more attention when we pass back through," Marionette insisted and started to explore the room. There was a passageway near the back wall that seemed to lead into a different part of the facility, but Marionette didn't want to leave Mike alone in the room. After becoming so distracted minutes earlier, the puppet simply didn't feel safe letting his guard down. He returned to Mike as he finished turning on the power. The security guard moved back from the panel and turned to the puppet.

"Okay, so I think I have a good idea of where we are. The other two vents off of the first room head to the Circus Gallery, the Circus Control room, and the Funtime room. Parts and Services is on the other side of the Funtime room. Our best bet is probably to check all of it and see if we can find the animatronic you're looking for." Marionette silently agreed as Mike approached the door again, "Let's just get back to the other office as quickly as possible. Preferably before whatever's making music out there finds us."

As cautiously as he could, Mike nudged the door open and stared out into the Ballora Gallery again. This time Mike planned on not using the flashlight and trying to get through the room in the dark, but noticed immediately that something had changed. The music had silenced itself and the animatronic, if it was still there, was completely quiet. Mike let the door slide closed and knelt down, waiting for a few moments before beginning to slowly crawl back towards the vent. Even through the power was on, the room was practically pitch black.

Something didn't feel right and while Mike only felt it from the silence, Marionette knew the other animatronic was still there, but found his own troubling issues with what he could feel of it. It wasn't the same as one of the animatronics at Freddy's; something didn't feel 'all there'. He stopped floating and Mike stopped crouching at the same time, when a soft shifting noise could be heard from some distance in front of them. It was a strange noise, like metal objects slowing sliding against each other. Out of reflex, Mike flicked the flashlight on.

It was then when Mike saw what 'it' was. It was clearly an animatronic and seemed to be a ballerina from its pose and its design. Other than this, everything else was eerily out of sorts. She was in a ballerina pose, but hunched forward towards the vent, as though struggling to stay upright. Cracks around her middle and back spilled wires, and her right leg missed a large portion of its leg, revealing a metal structure underneath the covering. She slowly turned, her head craning to look back instead of further focusing on the vent.

Her face was also damaged. It seemed to be made of plates, but they were put together unevenly, with one sitting higher than the other. Then there were her eyes. Eyelids were opened to reveal emptiness beneath them; she was missing her eyes. As she turned her body continued to teeter awkwardly, as though she was struggling to stand. "Is someone there?" she faced in the human's direction. "I can hear your breathing." Her voice was deceptively smooth, almost a complete mimic of a human's, but was laced with crackling and fuzzing.

Mike reacted abruptly, clicking the flashlight back off out of reflex. He immediately regretted the motion, knowing she could hear the sound the button made. Now in the darkness, there was the sound of movement and shuffling as the animatronic started to move in. The human started to crawl out of her line of movement while the puppet started to softly chime in a distracting way. Clearly he was trying to keep the animatronic, possibly 'Ballora', away from his companion. Mike took advantage of this and wandered into the dark, searching for the wall.

Instead, his hand came in contact with what was obliviously the stage he had seen earlier. Mike ran his hand along the side and up atop it, planning to use it as a guide to get him to the wall. Or he was going to when he was suddenly interrupted by bright lights illuminating the stage. In this instance he was now face to face with the four, small ballerinas; though they had moved from their dancing positions to stand right in front of him. The stared with empty eyes and blank smiles, one moving closer towards his hand, and he retracted it immediately.

He had clenched his teeth to avoid crying out, and yet somehow Ballora was still alerted to his presence. By time Mike looked back, Ballora had focused on him and was moving in quick spins towards him. It would've been amusing if not for the fact that a falling apart ballerina with murder in its eyes, or lack thereof, was coming for him. Then she suddenly jolted as though she planned to jump towards him, but was caught midway through the motion. In the lights of the stage, Mike could see the strings that were holding her back.

The puppet had her enwrapped. Ballora struggled against the binds, trying to free herself, but seemed to twitch and slow during the process. It was almost as though the strings themselves were doing something more than holding her still. Suddenly Marionette swung his arm out to point towards the vent off in the dark. The gesture was obvious; he wanted Mike to flee to safety and, considering that he had the situation handled, Mike was willing to do it. The motion moving his strings and causing a large section of her chest plate to drop off.

Underneath wasn't what Mike came to recognize as an endoskeleton. Instead it was a matted miss of crisscrossed wires that didn't look appropriately set. Perhaps this was why she was so off balance. He didn't spend more time dwelling on it; Mike made a mad dash towards the vent, deciding that the caution method had simply not worked in his favor. He paused at the vent when the sudden sound of music returned. This time, it was 'Pop Goes the Weasel', Marionette's own music. Accompanying it shortly afterwards was scuffling and a loud cracking noise, then a thud.

Mike was already in the vent when he heard the crack. He reacted immediately by turning back and shining his light down the vent. Instead of seeing out into the gallery, Mike's vision was blocked by one of the tiny ballerinas. He scowled at it and turned away, planning to climb into the office and turn the lights on. In an instant the ballerina started trying to climb his leg. Its small hands tugged at his pants and it used this grip to climb. Mike was quick to kick it off, knocking it out of the vent. As he turned away three more returned in its place.

One yanked at his ankle, the other climbed on his arm, and the third even tried to climb under his shirt. This time he was more frantic, cawing at the wooden dolls. "Get off of me!" he commanded, throwing them back out of the vent. Mike then reached out and grabbed the edge of the vent, dragging himself out. Another of the tiny ballerinas leapt onto his leg. It made an aggressive, hissing noise and moved much quicker. "I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm not letting you on my face!" Mike scolded and grabbed it tightly.

He threw it back out of the vent and went the rest of the way, starting to climb out. Once again there was a familiar bumping noise in the vent. Mike was fed up and yanked off his Taser. "Alright, fine! If you-!" Mike cut off as he swung his arm around. He had turned it on, was clearly prepared to shock whatever was coming through, but stopped when he recognized what exactly was climbing through the vent. Marionette didn't even look surprised as Mike quickly put the taser away. "You really need to warn me before you do that."

The puppet slid out of the vent after the security guard. The latter then went to the button panel and turned on the light button for the stage, noticing the lights were off again. "Something must have turned the lights on from in here. Could've been another one of those annoying, little ballerinas, but be on your guard." He looked over, noticing that Marionette seemed to be lost in thought. He had his arms crossed and was looking perplexed, even though his face showed his usual smile. "Something on your mind?"

"It's a bit strange. Usually I can feel an animatronic out very quickly. Emotions, anger, the soul in them; it's very open to see… But she was very faint. I can't tell if she is not all there or if she's in the process of moving on. Then there was how easily her body was falling apart-… It's unimportant." Marionette suddenly added the last part in with a wave of the hand. "She's not who we're looking for. That much I do know." His tone returned to a more pleasant and confident one. Mike then added in, "I heard that scuffle in there and thought… You know."

He gestured to his own face to signal Marionette's own mask. "Hmm?... Oh, no, nothing like that! Ballora got a bit too close for my liking, so I popped over her, threw her balance off, and she fell over. Fell apart as well. Which is a shame, no girl should give up their performing career just to fall for me." The end grew even more playful in tone. Whether or not Marionette enjoyed doing what he did, which he didn't, he was still able to keep with the relatively lighthearted banter. Mike didn't back down either and gave a sarcastic clap.

"That's a nice way to describe how you throttled poor Ballora," Mike responded with a smirk. "And against your own kind. Mari, I must say I'm surprised." This seemed to oddly strike a chord is the puppet. He reacted with a brief flinch, though covered it quickly with an adequate excuse. "I'm here to keep you safe, Mike. I can put aside animatronic comradery for the time being." Mike had noticed the subtle reaction and considered questioning it more, but Marionette quickly changed the subject.

"Which vent was which again?" he questioned and Mike answered. "That one leads into the Circus Control and the Circus Gallery. It's probably crawling with animatronics. The other leads to the Funtime room and the Parts and Service room, and is also probably crawling with animatronics. I'm willing to search wherever so you make the call." It seemed only fair to give Marionette the choice considering that he knew more about who they were looking for. "It seems like a waste to go through the Funtime room if it is just going to be like the Ballora Gallery."

Marionette turned to Mike, "Usually the one straight ahead is the important one, so I say we throw caution to the wind and go straight into the Circus are. We'll skip a lot more excess walking." Mike agreed with Marionette's statement and the two headed into the vent. It was longer; just about the same length as the vent leading in from the elevator. Again, Marionette led the way into the new room, with Mike loyally following. The vent abruptly ended in the Circus Control room, which looked somewhat similar to the office they had just left.

Large windows showed out into darkness while a lit control panel was lit to life. Ultimately, the control panel was worthless without adequate directions, as most of the buttons were unlabeled. There was a separate panel with the two buttons from before on it. Mike went for these and pressed the uppermost button, hoping to have the room light before him. Instead the light didn't seem to work correctly and his hand went for the second button. He was stopped by a black hand grasping his wrist. It took Mike aback and he glanced down, then to the puppet.

"Don't press that one," Marionette suddenly commanded, staring out into the darkness of the windows. If it hadn't been for the cold feeling he suddenly got when Mike reached for the button, he would've never realized that he recognized it. He would've never put the pieces together. "That won't help us." He hoped Mike would let it drop, but the human quirked a brow. "Then what does it do? I just assumed it was an electricity control," which he had. It occurred to him, suddenly, that he had seen the small lightning bolt recently.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the taser. On the back of it was an identical lightning bolt, the same shape and size. He didn't know where the taser had been made, considering that he got it from Fritz, but it was too coincidental. He knew that the button had to be some sort of built in taser used when animatronics became aggressive. Or he hoped that was what it was used for. He always assumed that shocking animatronics was not a common practice; that even using it on the mini ballerinas was an overreaction.

"It's to jolt the animatronics, right?" Mike asked. "That seems pretty extreme. I mean, I'm holding this here, but to build one into the control panel. Why would you need to do it that much?" Mike didn't expect answers; he was really just talking out loud. "…Do you ever get the feeling that you're staring at something important, but you just don't have all the pieces? I'm getting that feeling again." Marionette slowly nodded in agreement. "Something… Something is wrong here. Something happened down here," he admitted.

"I have a feeling that a lot of things happened down here. Otherwise, why would functioning animatronics be sealed down here in an abandoned factory?" Mike pointed out. Just saying the words made him feel uncomfortable, especially if these animatronics also carried the souls of children in them. Marionette remained silent, trying to see through the window, still holding onto his companion's wrist. "I don't know what's wrong with the lights, but this panel is practically impossible to decode. Even then, it might not control the lights."

Marionette's grip tightened a little firmer, "…Then we need to find a way inside, don't we?" Mike didn't exactly want to accept this answer, but he knew they had no choice. "Kill me now," Mike murmured under his breath. He followed with a sigh and tried the lights once more. They again made the noise, but failed to illuminate. "There was a section of rooms between the Funtime Gallery and the Circus Gallery. Maybe we can go through there," Mike pointed out, but noticed that the animatronic still was silent. "Mari?"

"That makes sense," Marionette answered. He was clearly distracted and readjusted his grip on Mike's wrist, then released him completely. "Let's not waste any more time here." Truly, the puppet didn't want to stay in this control room much longer, and eagerly slid into the vent. Mike didn't pry and instead put the taser away before checking the windows one more time. He felt like he was being watched through the windows; an uneasy feeling. He knelt down to climb into the vent, unable to see Marionette inside. "Don't leave me back here. I already got ambushed once in a vent," he called after the puppet.

There was no response at first and he climbed in. Now Mike was more insistent, "Look, I know this is a pretty rough situation… Mari?" He cut off midway as he heard a strange, banging noise further in the vent. He shuffled further into the dark vent, a little faster, "What was that?" He hoped it was just one of the small ballerinas, but what followed was something much different. There was the frantic chime of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' along with the sound of aggressive scuffling and banging further on.

Mike didn't wait even a moment and began to quickly crawl through the vent. He struggled to get his flashlight on, but focused more on crawling quickly than shining the light down the passage. The music devolved into a distorted jumble of radio noises, static, and a mix between banging and sliding. Something had gotten ahold of Marionette and there was clearly a struggle. Mike tightened his grip on the crowbar, prepared to attack whatever was attacking the Puppet, but by time he could see from the incoming offices' lighting he only caught the end of it.

There was a brief blur of black fabric and some sort of metal before it disappeared out of his narrow line of view. By time Mike got into the control room, stumbling out and preparing for a fight, both Marionette and whatever had grabbed him were gone.

Mike's only companion was gone.


Mable: The next chapter will be posted as soon as I finish it. I hope you enjoyed!