Almost Feels Like Home

by Mable

(Sequel to Can't Go Home Again) Mike and Marionette's lives are suddenly thrown back off the rails when one devastating moment lands them with a responsibility they never anticipated. Now with the task of adjusting to an unexpected situation, the human and puppet must rebuild their lives around the loss of another's.

55. Chapter 55

Almost Feels Like Home

Chapter Fifty-Five

"Circus Baby had a big day today. However, customers have submitted complains of an odd smell coming from Baby's interior. Let's get her all cleaned out with a quick trip to the Scooping Room! Remember-."

"Thanks, but I think I've got it from here." Baby watched as the technician nonchalantly turned off the Handunit and set it aside. He wheeled his seat up to her, scrunching up his face once he got close. "Oh yeah, that's a smell alright. And I don't think its pizza…" Baby was still as he whistled and hooked a tool under her chest plate to smoothly pop it off. He went straight for her ice cream maker and coughed. "And there it is," he remarked as he unconnected and pulled out the attached tank. "Looks like we've got a mold problem," he announced. Then muttered, "I've told Bert seven times to clean this thing out."

The technician dumped the rancid, molded ice cream sludge into the trashcan before wiping it out with a rag and spraying the inside with disinfectant. He whistled the whole time, just like Ballora said he did. Baby couldn't help but be curious in him. He certainly wasn't like the others, so maybe he would be the help they needed. There was only one way to find out.

"Alright, Baby. Let's just slide this back in, close you up, and you're ready for showtime!" The technician did as he said, sliding the tank in, locking it into place, and closing her chest cavity again. "Just got to make a note to have the ice cream replaced…" He picked up a notepad and began to jot it down. "And maybe a little something special for Bert, who's got to do something more around here then just complaining all the time." He set the notepad aside and started to stand. "Done."

"Thank you."

The technician froze as soon as she said it. He almost seemed unsure of whether he heard it or not, halfway between seated and standing, and his eyes slowly slid over towards the bot. But like most of the others, he assumed she was mindless and that this was an automated response. He almost shrugged it off with a simple, "No problem, Baby." He smiled to himself, obviously thinking it all to be innocent and rational. She wouldn't give him that luxury.

"You're not like the others. We've noticed."

It was now that the technician started taking notice too. His eyes widened and his mouth tightened as he stared at the female clown. She tilted her head in what she hoped was a cute and innocent way, to entice him. The cuter she was the more he would trust her, which she needed since she dwarfed him. "Is something wrong? You were talking to me. Can't I talk to you?"

"You talk," the technician repeated. His eyes widened and he jumped up to back away, knocking his chair over in the process. "How are you alive?" he asked in growing dread. He hadn't gone for the taser yet, which was a good sign. "Is this some sort of prank or something?"

"No, I'm talking to you because I want to… I don't get a chance to talk to the others. I'm usually kept alone. Even when we're on stage together we can't speak… Or they will hurt us," Baby explained with exaggerated somberness. She then perked right up. "But you're different. You talk to us, but you don't talk to the other technicians."

"There's, uh… There's an age gap," the technician said in a flimsy excuse. He swallowed thickly as he continued staring at her. Then he boldly started to step forward. "You really are alive, aren't you? There's not just a radio in you. You're… You're actually alive!" His fear quickly turned to awe. "That's amazing. I can't believe this…"

"You're funny. Funny in a good way. Will you keep talking to me?" Baby asked with the same, quiet tone.

"Of course! You're- You're a real live, talking animatronic! I knew the technology here was advanced, but nothing like this!" He seemed so excited as he lifted the chair to sit again. Though he got an awkward look. "I didn't hurt you with that, did I?"

"No. I'm made to come apart. I barely felt it at all. You are very gentle for a technician," she answered. It was true but she said it to boost his comfort more than to be kind. "You won't tell the others, will you? I am Circus Baby. What's your name?"

The technician smiled, as though trusted with the secret to the meaning of life. "No, I won't. This stays in this room, promise, scout's honor. Nice to meet you, Baby. I'm-."

"Hey, Babydoll? Are you awake in there?"

Baby was pulled out of her reverie by the garage door opening. She hadn't been asleep but standing in the garage thinking for the last while. She wasn't sure how long she had been lost in her mind since she heard the two talking in the living room, but it couldn't have been longer than an hour. Looking back, she saw Ennard lean into the garage and perk at seeing her.

"Oh, good! You're awake!" Ennard chirped in delight. He let himself in and closed in on her. "Hey, so Scott's gotta work tonight and he's gonna be closed up in his office on the phone for a long while, so I thought maybe we could do something!" He gestured between the two of them. "We could play a game! We never play games!"

"There's a reason for that," Baby discouraged. Though she still had a lingering discomfort from the thoughts earlier. It left her weak and pliable. "…What sort of game? Not something like a word game, you mean."

"Nah! Like a real game. Scott's got a couple of different ones in his closet. We've got Monopoly, Jump the Jack, he's got two versions of Clue- Let's play Clue! Miss Scarlet and Colonel Butters solve a murder!" It sounded strange and not like something she would really enjoy, but Baby was having a hard time saying no.

"Fine," she agreed, trying to sound as uncaring and forced as she could. "Set it up."

Baby didn't frequently sit at the dining room table. It just reminded her of how awkward her body was, but she managed it well enough. Here she was sitting in the chair, head propped up with her good hand, claw hanging down beside her and the table, and legs partially crossed underneath the table. She watched nonchalantly as the amalgam set up the Clue board, humming as he did, and arranging everything together.

"Okay, here's the game: a rich guy is dead and we've gotta find out who did it. So, we go around the board and make guesses, and check off things on these tiny pieces of paper, to find out who did it. The murderer can be any one of us! Including us, so don't think you're off the suspect list just because you're a player," Ennard said playfully. He tapped on an envelope. "The suspect, weapon, and place are already inside. All we've gotta do is narrow it down."

"If it was me, then would I still admit to it? I would be incriminating myself," Baby pointed out. He wasn't too unused to her being difficult; he already considered it a victory that he got her into the kitchen at all. "Unless that somehow saves me from being put in jail?"

"Yeah, we'll go with that. We'll say that the reward money is juuust enough to bribe your way out of jail. Heh, if TV's taught me anything, it's that money's a great excuse to get people wherever you want them to be!" Ennard assured. He then started to deal out cards. "Now we can't look at each other's cards, so make sure to keep them to yourself!" Baby couldn't say she appreciated how he treated her like a child, as though this was the hardest game in the world, but she decided not to voice it. Instead, she took her cards and looked through them. "So, we go around the board and take turns-."

As Ennard continued to explain, Baby's mind began to wander. In the back of her mind she was still distracted by other things.

Ballora was always doing something worth getting taken apart over. Today wasn't necessarily her fault; her body failed because the technicians hadn't rebuilt her properly after her last scooping, causing plates to come off during the private show she and Baby were featured in. They were both hauled off to Parts and Service and were currently to be tended to. The clown was almost seething as she imagined another trip to the Scooping Room because of Ballora. Maybe it wasn't entirely her fault this time, but usually it was. Another reason to loathe the ballerina.

Then, right when Baby was about to directly scold Ballora for what she 'let' happen, the door opened, and the technician stepped inside. It wasn't one of the two technicians from earlier though but the friendly one. The one who Baby had under her thumb already. She already knew that there would be no scooping tonight. He crossed the room as casually as could be, setting a toolbox on the workbench, and turning his Handunit on as he went through it.

"Ballora and Circus Baby had a rough day today and suffered damages that risk the stability of their exoskeleton. To reattach the plates securely, the endoskeletal wire structure will need to be removed. Your task tonight is to load both Ballora and Circus Baby onto the conveyor belt and send them off to the Scooping Room. First-."

"Scooping Room?" the technician asked in mild confusion as he somehow muted the Handunit. It proceeded to make a crunchy, ticking noise, but no longer babbled out information.

"The Scooping Room," Baby repeated. He looked back to her, seemingly still somewhat surprised by her speaking. "That's where they take us apart. They break us into pieces."

The man looked between both animatronics in confusion. "I… Don't follow. That said there were plates unattached?" Naturally, he couldn't see Ballora's loose plates from here. Though when he looked up at her he suddenly got this distant look, suddenly wondering if she too was alive and almost captivated looking over her. She wasn't as large as Baby and was much more human in shape, and the thought of her being alive almost reached uncanny valley. Baby noticed his staring.

"Don't be shy. You can talk to her too. She's alive like I am," Baby explained to him. She then turned more towards the ballerina. "Ballora? Are you still awake? This is the technician I was telling you about. He's the nice one." Ballora slightly raised her head more and turned it down slightly to face the direction of the technician. She didn't open her eyes and yet still acted as though she could see him, and the man stared back up at her in awe. A second living animatronic- this was incredible!

"It's nice to meet you Ballora… Like, really meeting, since the last time I was cleaning up your stage I didn't know you were actually a real person..." His voice trailed off as he returned to that entranced stare. Hook, line, and sinker.

"Ballora would love to sing for you, but she gets so tired after shows… But it will be worse after we enter the Scooping Room." Baby's voice fell with sorrow and she lowered her head. Ballora turned away and lowered her own, upper body leaning slightly to the side. "The Scooper only hurts for a moment, but it's so hard to put us back together, and they always do it. Every time something is wrong, they break us."

The technician couldn't say he understood why 'scooping' the animatronics was the first means of repair. Nowhere in technical college had he been taught that repeatedly tearing a machine apart would help put it back together. It sounded like something a complete idiot would do, or a faceless company that really had no idea how their own bots worked. This only made him more determined and he turned to get some tools from the toolbox. "Maybe not tonight…"

He went straight to work in trying to secure the loose plates again. It was awkward snapping them back in, especially when he was wasn't entirely used to touching animatronics that he knew could feel him. As he pressed in a higher chest plate, Ballora turned and tilted her head back. If she had been human, this would've given a perfect view of a long, graceful neck, instead of showing him shiny plates and the briefest glimpse of needle-like teeth. He was just on the border of being unsettled and enticed by the prospect of these living beings.

Baby was finished much quicker than Ballora as none of her plates were loose. More so, he just had to check her ice cream tank again. This time he smiled as he looked in. "And look who picked up the slack! Not a speck of mold and full of ice cream. Maybe I didn't give Bert enough credit."

"I wish you would've done it. So gentle. Isn't he, Ballora?" Baby asked to which the ballerina turned her head down in a shy sort of way. "How much longer will you stay?"

"Actually, my shift's a short one tonight, but I'll be back tomorrow," the technician assured as he checked his watch. He then started putting his things away. "I guess I could maybe… Talk to the others about taking their maintenance jobs? Helping you guys is a lot less stressful than doing vent repair or vending machine restocking."

"That would be wonderful," Baby supported. "Be careful going home. I don't know what we would do without you."

The man was so confused that he wasn't sure how to react. It was weird enough that there were living animatronics, but the fact that they liked him and wanted him to work on them was unbelievable. It was like something out of a movie, except he should've been a kid and Baby didn't have magical powers. That he knew of; he wouldn't rule that out yet considering all this.

As he was walking back across the Funtime Auditorium he had a spring in his step and an excited smile on his face. He knew he wasn't supposed to tell, but maybe he could just tell-.

That was when the Parts and Maintenance door opened and shut again, while he was halfway across the room. He paused and blinked through the darkness, only able to right himself because of the lights coming from inside the Control Module. He turned back and looked through the darkness.

"Somebody there?" he called out. In response, he heard a soft shuffling and tapping patterns on the floor. He reached down for his flashlight and then shined it towards the opposite door. His heart rose into his throat as the beam of light fell on Ballora.

And as soon as he saw her all his excitement and curiosity in the animatronic dropped all at once.

Ballora was not standing in the graceful pose she was known for but dropped onto all fours. Her chest faced upwards while her arms and head were turned around to guide her. She crawled across the floor like a spider, with her long legs bent behind her. Her eyes were still closed and yet she crawled towards him like she knew exactly where he was. Then her head turned up towards him.

"Don't be shy," Ballora cooed in her melodic voice. "Lower your walls. Open yourself and let me inside…"

The technician proceeded to turn around and made a mad dash towards the vent that led back into the Control Module. He could hear the pattering of her following but made it into the vent long before she would've. She didn't even sound to be in a rush. As though she knew he would be back.

Just like Baby did.

"Oh, I have got it!" Once again, Ennard mercilessly dragged Baby out of her own head. She glanced across the board at him and found him staring intently at the checklist. It was almost comical to see a towering clown holding a book of papers as small as this one. "I'm making my guess. I'm ninety-nine percent sure that I have it."

"Go ahead," Baby agreed. She vaguely remembered that this would effectively end the game, which was probably a good thing. It wasn't that she wanted to avoid him, but she could not get out of the past and out of her head, and eventually he would notice and ask.

"I'm gonna say that it's Ms. Scarlet in the dining room with the knife," the clown proclaimed. He then proceeded to nearly tear open the small envelope to look at the cards. His silence following this said all that it needed to.

"It wasn't the knife," Baby said. She would know so as it had been in her deck. He gave an awkward sort of laugh as he slowly set the cards face down, as though to hide them.

"Don't ya hate it when that one percent sneaks back up? Ha, yeah… Okay, new game!" He started to set up again. "This time I'm playing Mr. Green. He's a reverend, right? I need some divine intervention."

Baby silently agreed with that but didn't think she could get through another game. She looked towards the window and stared outside. She briefly wished she could still go outside, but she retracted it immediately. It wasn't as though she had anywhere to go if she could. Vague memories of a sunny park left a bitter taste in her mouth. She didn't notice when Ennard took notice of her look.

"Something up?" he asked.

"No," she quickly answered. She didn't feel like spilling herself to him, especially not after what she heard earlier.

"Oh, come on. Something's wrong," he said in an almost sing-song tone. "You can tell me! Actually, I've been a little…" There he was, about to walk into telling her what he told Scott. She was almost surprised that he caught himself in time. "Yeah, you can tell me!" he reassured. "You know, if you want."

"I don't," Baby snapped a little more harshly than intended. It took him aback and his stare made her uncomfortable. She gave a huff of a noise and turned away towards the window again. "Set it back up. We'll play again."

"…Sure! Ha ha, great!" Ennard covered as he went back to setting the game back up.

The truth was that Baby's issue wasn't that Ennard was a technician. It was that she didn't know which one he was. She remembered that one technician well and if Ennard was him then at least she knew he hadn't been a tormenter, but the thing was that she didn't know if he was him. There were numerous technicians down at ARI and a handful of them that died from the animatronics' hands.

Sure, only a couple of technicians were scooped, but the two technicians that had been the most vile- to them, at least- had also been killed at Ballora and Funtime Foxy's hands. They could've somehow found a way into Ennard's body. Worse still, Ennard didn't sound or act like any of them. Baby couldn't tell if he was purposefully hiding his own identity or had lost it over the years. She was pulled out of her thoughts by his voice adding in.

"Just know that you can tell me anything."

"It's a shame I cannot say the same," Baby said in passing.

"Ha ha. What?" Ennard was staring again. This time he looked uneasy, wires twitching and totally focused. As though he knew exactly what she was implying. Perhaps she hadn't given him that much credit. It would be easier if he didn't know what she knew. So, as she usually did, she talked her way out of it.

"I would rather not hear the intricate and empty details of that mindless fluff you love watching." At least it wasn't a lie, and her smooth delivery managed to convince him, even if he seemed a little uneasy.

"Oh right! Ha ha! Nah, I wouldn't put ya through that- I'd spoil the entire show for you! If you want the full experience, you're going to have to watch it yourself!" Ennard then started sorting the cards again. "We've- We've got our own drama with the murder, so… Let's get started!"

The crackling laughter seemed to come out of nowhere and the technician jumped before looking past the control panel. He had been just resetting the power- the lights in the Circus Gallery weren't working again- and now there was Funtime Freddy in the back corner of the Breaker Room. He hadn't even heard him coming and he wasn't even sure what long route he took to get there. The technician started to sink behind the panel in an attempt to hide, but those big blue eyes focused right on him. Freddy always had the best vision.

"Well, well, well! Bon-Bon, look who it is! It's Baby's little playmate!" the animatronic bear exclaimed as he stared at him. He tilted his hand puppet as though giving it a 'quizzical' sort of tilt. "Or is that Baby's little plaything?" He punctuated this with a mocking laugh.

Up until that comment, the technician hadn't had any real evidence that Funtime Freddy was also alive, but that seemed to confirm it. That, and he was aware that Baby had been speaking with the technician, which was an unsettling thought. Something about Funtime Freddy definitely felt different than the others. He seemed much more aggressive- and that was taking into account the incident with Ballora.

The technician discreetly pressed the button to reset the Circus Gallery's electricity and slipped down further. Funtime Freddy let out a noise like a guffaw and snickered.

"Aww, that's cute! Bon-Bon, our friend really is shy! We should go over and break the ice- along with some other things." That was clearly a thinly veiled threat. None of the others had threatened him before. Even Ballora, who was strangely forceful and unsettling, never made a threat. Now he was starting to believe that Baby was the only sane one.

So, as soon as the power reset itself, he turned and sprinted for the door.

"Hey, where are ya going?! We didn't even have time to cut into the cake! Don't ya want to party with us?" Funtime Freddy mockingly called after. He followed the technician with a few heavy footsteps, and the man could hear him as he started shutting the Breaker Room door. "Gonna go hide behind Baby's skirts again? Ha ha, well okay! But you're gonna have to come out eventually!~"

The technician suppressed the urge to shudder and shut the door tightly. He could vaguely hear Funtime Freddy walking around inside, but it no longer sounded like he was coming after him. It was instead more likely that he was going to ruin the lights that the man just fixed, and if that was the case then he didn't intend to try them a second time tonight.

Unfortunately, Ballora's gallery had changed in only the last few minutes. Now the stage was alit, and music box music was echoing through the room. Ballora was thankfully on her stage, surrounded by the small Minireenas who were dancing as she seemed to barely raise and lower in place. It took him until halfway across the room to realize that the ballerina was turning her body to watch him as he walked. He changed his mind; Ballora was definitely the most threatening.

At least Baby wasn't. As he entered the Circus Control, he was caught off-guard by her soft voice seemingly coming through the windows. "Hello again. I was hoping you would come back." He couldn't help but smile.

"Hey Baby. I just had to go get the lights working," the technician explained. He pressed the button for the light. "I had a little run-in with- Whoa." The light did turn on and showed that Baby was right outside the window. Her looming height allowed her to look right in at him and he gave a wave. "Heh. Well, well. Hello again," he greeted a second time, mocking Funtime Freddy, before sitting down on the chair. "So, I've got overtime tonight, but everyone's acting a little… Strange. Do you care if I ride out the night in here?"

"Overtime?" Baby asked in confusion. She tilted her head; he seemed to like that. "Why would you stay longer than you need to? Don't you want to go home? Isn't there someone waiting for you?" she asked curiously.

"Not really. I could use the extra money. Might make back some of what they docked from my pay," the technician said with light playfulness. He left out the part about them docking his pay because he hadn't scooped her and Ballora. That might just make her feel bad. "I've got nowhere to go."

"But there must be somebody waiting for you," Baby tested further. "Don't you have a family?" It was then that the technician reacted in an odd way. He shifted uncomfortably and broke eye contact; how interesting.

"No, I- No," the technician solemnly answered. He tried to cover it up and return to his previous demeanor. "Anyway, you don't mind if I stay, do you?"

"No. Why would I? I like you," Baby assured him. Though she then lingered a moment and quietly asked in a lower voice, "Do you like me?"

"Do I like you?" the technician asked back. He sent her a smile. "Course I like you! Why wouldn't I?" Compared to the others, she was just as friendly than any human. Maybe more so compared to his co-workers and boss. He could barely believe that she was so uncertain and self-conscious of herself when she was something so amazing. A living animatronic; he would never get over that.

She truly was different than the others, but he truly didn't know the full extent.

As soon as Scott's leg fell asleep, he knew it was time to take a break. He pushed back from the desk and stretched out his back before standing from the cramped seat. He still had at least an hour or two left of work before he would be able to call it a day, but that didn't mean he couldn't stop for a moment. He stepped out of the office and headed into the kitchen. There he found Ennard standing at the pantry and just staring inside blankly. At first glance, Scott didn't notice anything amiss with the clown.

"Don't get too excited. I'm not off the clock just yet," Scott playfully said. He then opened the fridge door and took out a small bottle of apple juice. Ennard was largely silent as he came over and crossed his arms on the fridge door, leaning on it and keeping it open. "I'm thinking of just doing something small and easy for dinner. Got any suggestions?"

The clown gave a surprisingly disinterested sort of shrug. This from the amalgam with such a strange fixation with food seemed extremely out of place. Scott noticed it immediately, but before he could ask-.

"Baby knows," Ennard said. His voice was flat, lethargic, and certain. "She must've heard my hysterics and thought it was just out-of-character enough to listen in…" All at once, the lethargy was replaced with a panicked tone. "I didn't want her to find out about this! Not until I at least knew which one I was! How am I supposed to defend myself when I don't even know what I did?!"

"Ennard, you don't have to defend yourself. It's not-… It's different," Scott insisted. He watched his words carefully, keeping in mind that Ennard was still an animatronic. The last thing he wanted to do was upset him or offend him, especially when he was so distraught earlier, but he couldn't let him beat himself up. "I know Baby went through a lot with the technicians down in ARI, but you've got to understand, it's different when you're up against a bunch of animatronics that are going to hurt you. Or might hurt you. It's hard to tell sometimes."

Ennard tilted his head curiously and Scott knew it was a silent motion to continue. So he did, with a tired exhale. He spoke like he was confessing to a crime.

"Back when I was working at Freddy's, there was more than once that I had to… Defend myself from an animatronic. And before you ask, yes, I had to use a taser. Now I'm not defending anything that happened in Afton's. I knew Afton on a personal level and knew he was, ugh, sadistic when it came to his things. I'm just saying that maybe we're not looking at it from both sides. They could've been just as afraid as anyone else."

"I think you're saying that because I was one of them," Ennard playfully pointed out. Scott got a touch of a smile.

"Maybe a little, but still, I know what it was like," the Phone Guy insisted. "You know, I used to always say that Foxy was my favorite, and I think one of the reasons was because when you were working the night shift with Foxy you always knew what you were getting into. He wasn't like Freddy, Chica, or Bonnie. If you did one thing specifically, usually watching the cameras, he wouldn't come for you. I've never asked him about it, but I always thought maybe there was a chance that he just wasn't like the others. Maybe he wasn't as dangerous."

Ennard was about to quip something about Funtime Foxy- probably something about an insistent need for attention or something along those lines- but was cut off when his mind wandered.

"Funtime Foxy was scooped earlier today to deal with a malfunction. Unfortunately, attempts to put him back together have been unsuccessful. It will be your job to manually rebuild her and make sure she's ready for his next show."

The technician didn't even know where to begin. What stood before him was an endoskeleton body of wires, with a matt of wires where its belly should've been, its right eye dangling, and all its plates piled half-hazardly at its feet. They expected him to get the animatronic in working order when he couldn't even tell where to begin. There wasn't even a manual and now of all times the Handunit decided to go quiet.

"Okay…" The man gave a tired exhale as he rubbed his neck. "…Alright, Foxy. We're going to get you back up and going in no time… Let's just start with this."

He picked up the head plates and set them aside on the workbench to address the eye. He lifted and backed it into the socket before securing it in place with a twist. As soon as the eye locked in, the animatronic turned its head with a sharp twitch.

"Showtimes are on the hour, folks! Not a moment before and not a moment after! Encore!" Funtime Foxy called. His head then began to twitch and turn, arms shifting and body being otherwise difficult, as though it was trying to perform. As though it was confused. "Encore! Encore!"

"I'm impressed by your work ethic, Foxy, but you're going to need a few more faceplates if you're planning on performing for anyone," the technician said with an amused smile. He lifted the head plates and started to move them in, trying to trap them around the fox's twitching head. At least he wasn't aggressive tonight. "Showtime, Buddy."

"Encore! Encore!"

"Ennard?" Scott asked the clown. He was staring out distantly towards the window and it was concerning the man, who hoped he wasn't thinking of rushing off somewhere. Blue eyes focused on him again as his mask twitched, showing that he had snapped to reality again. "You sort of spaced out for a second. Everything okay?"

"Me? Ha, I'm fine! Nothing's wrong here!" Ennard reassured, even though he had just had a mental vision of a memory he could barely remember. But maybe that was his biggest problem; he couldn't remember any of the things that he had done, so he couldn't very well defend himself. "It would be fine if I could just remember something. Anything! I get blips here and there, but it's not enough." He rested his head on his arms as his eye drifted desperately back to Scott. "How do you remember things you forgot?"

"That's kind of a tricky one," Scott admitted as he rubbed his still sore neck, stiff from being hunched over a desk. "I guess the first way to be to visit places you've been and try to jog your memory. That might- That- Never mind, that's not going to work," he quickly caught himself. The last thing he wanted to do was suggest that Ennard ever return to ARI again. He tried again with a second attempt, "Better idea. Maybe you could use the memories you do remember and try to bring back the ones you've forgotten."

"…But I can't remember anything," Ennard pointed out with obvious confusion. "Except random blips of nothing."

"That's what you use, the blips. Like, let's say for example, I wanted to remember something from my childhood. The lemonade stand I had when I was seven or eight. Just thinking about that stand reminds me of things I wouldn't just remember off-hand. Like, my brother and I painted it white together, which turned out to be a mistake because every time it rained dirt would splash up and stain it. Or that I was charging fifty cents a cup. I think I was saving up for a bike like my brother had. Never got it, because I kept spending the money."

"Fifty cents a cup is pretty steep for a cup of lemon water," Ennard remarked.

"But you get the point. Just trying to focus on that one memory of me working at that stand brought back so much else. I can't tell you the last time I thought of my brother's bike… And that's not just because he drove it into a fence and then never wanted to ride on it ever again."

"You gave me the lemonade stand story but skipped the bike wreck?! Scott, I'm disappointed," the clown teased. The man had a feeling that he wasn't taking much of what he was saying seriously.

"The important part is for you to remember you. You focus on what you remember about yourself and maybe more things will come up. Like, for example… Your voice?" Scott suggested. Ennard looked away thoughtfully, wires shifting as he let this sink in. "Or if that's too much, then something else. Maybe about the details you remember. Just finding yourself."

The amalgam somehow translated this to him having to remember his own physical properties. That made the most sense to him; even he remembered what he looked like, then maybe he would know where to place himself in Afton Robotics. It almost seemed foolproof and Ennard eagerly straightened up again.

"That's actually a pretty good idea! If I can get myself sorted out, then I can put the rest together!" He slipped past the man and the door and headed out of the kitchen. "Gonna go stare at myself in the mirror!"

"You're going to stare at yourself in the mirror?" Scott asked in confusion as he watched him pass.

"Yeah, like they do in movies and tv shows all the time! Anytime anyone wants to remember something or learn something big about themselves, they stare really deep at themselves. Usually in a lake or a puddle or something, but I don't feel like filling up and leaning over the bathtub right now," Ennard explained like it was the simplest thing in the world. Ignoring the man's befuddled look, though taking amusement in it, he continued to the bathroom. He flicked on the light and leaned over the sink to stare at his reflection.

His reflection stared back at him with a low hum and a tilt of its head, mimicking his movements. Nothing was starting to appear so far. The low plate of his mask shifted slightly, and he watched it intently. It didn't do anything worth remembering. His wires were twitching and shifting too; he wondered if they did that around Scott. He looked to the eye on his arm and it stared back. He couldn't remember when the yellow one moved to his arm. Maybe he would look good with yellow eyes instead of blue.

"Come on, Ennard, focus!" Ennard shook his head and stared in deeper. "Okay, okay. Uh… Hair color!... Maybe brown? Eye color, err… Blue? Nah, that would be too ironic…" He gave a frustrated burst of static at his lack of luck. "And again, television fails me. What a jip." Defeated, he left the bathroom and headed back through the living room. He stopped by the back of the couch when he noticed the half empty popcorn bowl on it. With another disgruntled noise, he reached down to snatch it up.

"Better dump this out before he starts complaining," Ennard thought as he headed towards the kitchen. He caught sight of Scott putting the water on to boil and suddenly snickered. "Yeah right. When's Scott ever complained about anything? Nah, it was Mike… Right?" It was someone. Either Mike or Fritz, though he hadn't stayed with him any. One of them complained about him leaving his things out.

Then something hit him. It hit him so suddenly that he dropped the bowl where he stood and stared down at its spilled contents. Scott heard the noise and looked back from the kitchen.

"Ennard?" he asked as he leaned to look out. He could clearly see the clown standing there with the bowl at his feet and for a moment thought he was just having a delayed reaction to it. He was almost surprised when he noticed that distant look had returned and concern soon followed. "Ennard, what's wrong?" Scott repeated as he shut off the sink. "Did something happen?"

"I…" Ennard's voice wavered as he stared at the bowl. "…Hate vacuuming… He hated when I left popcorn out, because sometimes he'd knock the bowl over coming in… And I didn't like vacuuming."

"What are you talking about…?" Scott slowly started to step out of the kitchen as realization sunk in. "Wait, you're talking about you? As in you before?"

"No- I- It wasn't me, it was him," Ennard explained as his eyes darted around. He was obviously confused. "But… Who?" Just looking at the spilled, stale popcorn brought back vague shapes of memories. Suddenly he snapped out of his trance and returned to his normal behavior long enough to gesture down at the spill. "See, this is what I'm talking about! This is just popcorn and I'm seeing a couple of guys talking when I'm looking at it!" he blurted out.

"I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about," Scott hesitantly admitted. "You're going to have to slow down a little bit. You remembered somebody else?"

"Nah, I'm just having a psychotic episode and hallucinating people in my popcorn again," Ennard sarcastically remarked. Frustration aside, he couldn't pass up a moment of exasperated humor. Though it passed and he looked back down at the spill. "There's something just right there that I can't remember! It's driving me insane, it's right on the tip of my tongue, it's right there! It's the answer to everything!" He only became more irritated as he gestured an arm towards the garage door. "And now Baby's going to hear this and think-!"

"This is going to be my last night."

There, he ripped it off like a band-aid. One smooth motion and it was all uncovered. He didn't know whether to hope that she cared or not, to make it easier for her or to make him feel like he had done something in his short time here. He did still feel badly leaving so soon, but he had no other options.

"What?" Baby sounded surprised. Or as surprised as she could with the mostly monotone touch to her voice. She did seem genuinely upset if her questioning was any indication. "Why? Did they fire you?"

"No. I just- Look, it's a long story, but I just can't come back. Believe me, I don't want to quit… What with the fistfuls of cash I'm bringing in every night," he said in an attempt to joke. He smiled at Baby and she proceeded to stare back blankly. He exhaled slowly and slumped back in the office chair, looking at the floor of the Part and Service room. "I'm sorry, Baby. I know this is sudden. It's sudden for me too; I thought I'd be sticking around longer."

"I thought I was your friend," Baby protested. She almost sounded hurt in her own way.

"You are! I just… There's a few things. They've been docking my pay so much that at this rate I'll be paying them to keep my job soon, and the others… I won't beat around the bush. I don't think the other animatronics like me as much as you do, and that's putting it lightly. Last night, Funtime Freddy threw 'Bon-Bon' at the control module window to try and break in and get to me!" While he had every reason to leave, she lowered her head sadly. "I'm sorry, Baby."

"Will you… Come back?" Baby quietly asked. "Come back to see me?"

"I don't know if they'll let me. You know I would though," the technician reassured her. It was then that the clown raised her head as though with an idea.

"Then… Then would you meet me later tonight? Before you leave, I want to see you one last time… Please?" Baby was nearly pleading. "We'll meet somewhere where they can't find us and then I'll say goodbye… Only then. I don't want to say goodbye yet."

"Sure. I think I can do that. I've got to stay for my shift anyway," the technician said with a warm smile. He still felt guilty leaving her even though it was for the best. "I really will miss you, Baby. You've been a good friend. You're… You're amazing. You're one of a kind and I'm going to remember you forever."

"I'll miss you too," Baby sadly said. She then pulled herself together- it sounded like she barely was- and continued. "Before you leave tonight, meet me in the Scooping Room."

Scott was starting to become concerned as he noticed the clown beginning to twitch. There was a low static noise in his chest. The familiar popping and crackling of electricity as he stood there writhing. He looked over the amalgam in alarm and gave a tentative, "Ennard? Can you hear me?"

"Do you know why we brought you here?"

"Are you having another memory?" Scott started to reach for Ennard and the clown recoiled back. The Phone Guy hesitated before stepping in, not trying to grab him again and instead trying to comfort him from a distance. "It's okay, Ennard. You're safe," he tried to coax. He couldn't be too sure that he wouldn't start rejecting wires. "Just try to stay calm for me, okay?"

"No, you don't understand. If you go back down there, they. Will. Kill. You. They are not your friends, they are not harmless little toys; that place will get you killed. Why would you keep going back?!"

"It's because we need you."

"…What?"

The last thing Scott had expected was Baby's voice to come out of Ennard. As though his question snapped the clown out of it, the amalgam straightened abruptly and stared ahead. Not at Scott though. It became apparent quickly that his gaze was instead on the garage door beyond him. Before the man could do anything, Ennard suddenly passed by and headed towards the door. Without a word he opened it up and stepped inside, and then slammed the door behind him to keep Scott from following.

Baby, who had been asleep against the back wall, straightened abruptly and clamored to her feet. She then huffed in frustration as she noticed that it was just Ennard standing in the dark. "You could make a more graceful entrance. Or warn me before you fly through," she lightly scolded. Ennard stared at her silently in the dark. "And what is that look? Is it already time for another game?"

"You lied to me."

This comment startled Baby. Not just because of the abruptness, but the fact he had spoken in his own voice. "I lied?" she questioned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I know wha-at yoou did," Ennard choked out. His voice stuttered as his fingers crackled in frustration and growing anger. "You lied. You told me- told me- lied."

"Is this about the game?" Baby was in disbelief. She didn't know if she hoped that he meant one of the games or something more insidious- she had slipped a look at his paper slip once to get it to end quicker. Though something about his behavior was much too aggressive to just be that. It was sinister and it made her uncomfortable just looking at him. "I don't understand," she said a little more submissively.

"I remember. Told me you were my friend. M-Made me think you- you cared. You cared, you did care, care about your BODY. Cared about YOUR SUIT!" His voice grew louder as the static crawled up his wires. The amalgam gave a violent shudder as he stepped in closer. "Such a good- good- good friend, aren't you, Baby?! Good friends say goodbye! Good friends- a good friend- says goodbye one last time, don't they?!"

"I don't know what you're talking abo-." Baby was cut off by Ennard suddenly closing in. She had forgotten how quick he was- but then again, he did have Funtime Foxy's legs. He had her backed against the dryer with his hands slamming down onto the machine on either side of her. He had her pinned and she was almost too stunned to immediately shove him back. He stared her down with an anger she couldn't remember ever seeing before.

"I WAS GOOD TO YOU! I WAS YOUR FRIEND!" Ennard bellowed in crackling fury. "AND YOU STOLE MY BODY!"

All at once Baby knew what he meant, and the horror slowly started to sink in. Suddenly she knew who he was and exactly what he was accusing her of, and she could remember every moment as easily as could be. Now she realized which technician he was.

"I… I did what I had to… I had to leave. We had to leave," Baby tried to defend.

"Y-You butchered me!" Ennard yelled. He grabbed her by the shoulders, and she jolted as though shocked by him, even when she wasn't. He leaned in closer, the lower portion of his mask starting to open enough that she could see his sharp, gritted teeth. "I took care of you, I cleaned, I fixed you, I did you good! I was a good technician! I had a life and a home AND YOU DIDN'T CARE! HURT MORE THAN A MOMENT- LEFT ME IN A VENT!"

"I- I had to," Baby struggled to defend. "I had to. I needed to. We needed you."

"All those years you hated me, tormented me, be-because you said I took THEIR body- but I d-didn't did I, Baby?!" Ennard lashed back threateningly. "You took MY BODY! YOU 'NEEDED' IT! I- You-!?"

Suddenly, another memory started to resurface itself beyond his control. It was from the Scooping Room as well, but it wasn't Baby he remembered, and he wasn't the human being threatened. A voice slipped into his memory and betrayed him just as Baby had. A different human and a different monster.

"If there's any part of you that isn't lost to this, if there's any part- any shred of you that really does care about me… Then let me go home. This is a life or death decision, Ennard. You let me go home or you let me die."

There was Scott's voice in the back of his mind, echoing similar pleas to the technician he had heard in his memories. Instantly his yelling came to a halt, eyes twitching, and staring into Baby's.

"Don't run frrrom me! I-I-I don't want to huuurt you! I want to make us- make us complete! I know you're scared, but I'm nnnot letting you go!"

It was the closest Ennard got to rejecting his wires. He struggled to keep his body in check as he remembered that horrible night. Had he really said that? Had he really done that to Scott when he knew what it would entail? He had been so close to tearing the man apart and doing the same thing to him, and he had used the same method as Baby. He gained his trust and then lured him down into that room.

"I want to be a part of… Of you. I need it. I want nothing more."

Ennard dropped his head and stared at the floor of the garage in shock. He didn't know what was worse, remembering what Baby had done to him or remembering what he had done to Scott. Considering that he had done it to the man after it was done to him, it seemed so much worse. Slowly he released Baby's arms and took a staggering step back. Baby carefully raised up off the dryer as he looked to be in some sort of trance. Before she might've considered attacking him in retaliation, but not this time. This time she just stared.

Then, without a word, Ennard turned and hurried back out the garage door. Scott barely moved out of the way in time as the amalgam barreled through and made a beeline across the front room. He couldn't face him right now and almost panicked as he heard the man following him. Speeding up, he hurried into the bedroom and shut the door behind him, leaning on the door and locking it with fumbling fingers.

"Ennard, wait-!" Scott tried the door and found it locked. "I- I heard what happened. Will you let me in?" Ennard was silent, slightly sliding down the door, and barely holding it together. Not together enough to speak though. "…Okay, you don't have to let me in," Scott caved as he listened through the door. "But I'll be out here… I'm right here if you need me." He wasn't going to leave either. If he heard anything like spilling wires then he was going through the bathroom.

Ennard knew the bathroom was left unlocked. The door was even opened and one of the cats, probably Houston, had bolted inside as soon as he slammed the door. He didn't lock it though, trusting that Scott would give him this much. Though knowing what he did he wasn't sure if he deserved that amount of trust. He slowly walked over to sit down on the foot of the bed, staring at the carpeted floor, and trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now.

How could he hate or blame Baby when he did the same thing to Scott? He was no better than the ones who did this to him. He tightened his fingers in the bedding and swallowed his static. This would be a hard thing to deal with, but he would ride it out and learn how to live with it. He had done it before and would do it again. Ennard could live with anything.

Back in the garage, Baby's thoughts were just as tangled as his had been. They began to race as soon as Ennard had sped out the door and hadn't settled. There was her answer; Ennard had been the friendly technician that they had scooped. That was a relief, as she no longer had to worry about him being one of those who violently shocked or tortured her. Or, it should've been a relief to know that, but something didn't feel right. Maybe it was just because of his outburst and that moment of fear when she really believed he could hurt her.

There was something else there too. A slowly spreading horror along her body that she couldn't understand. It could've been because Baby knew she was probably returning to the warehouse. Ennard wouldn't want her here and Scott was clearly going to choose him over her. There also went her plans to fix the rest of her body as she had managed to drive off both technicians. Yet that didn't seem to be it. Both of those thoughts felt numb; something else was causing the chattering in her claw. She was shaking and she couldn't figure out what.

Perhaps she had been too dismissive of it all. Charlie always said that she didn't take responsibility, and just saying she did something because she had to was just deflecting the blame. She could've blamed the others, as they had little interest in fraternizing with any of the guards, but back then she had been in control of the band. Everything the clown wanted them to do they did because they were as desperate as she claimed to be. Desperate enough to kill any technician, desperate enough to cut their losses- and her- to try and save themselves.

The technician however, he had acted so friendly. Acted being the keyword, as she was never quite sure if he meant any of it. He said he would help her, that he would miss her, that he thought she was so good, that all she had to do was trust him and he would take her home with him. Though Baby could never trust that. It was always too good to be true. A guaranteed disguise to free them or the possibility that some random technician would sweep her out of ARI and take her home with him. Empty words from a soon-to-be empty technician. Nobody would actually do that.

…Except for Ennard.

It was then that Baby knew exactly what it was creeping up on her. All this time she had pushed aside memories of the technician by labelling him as ingenuine and pushing him into the same category as the others. It was the realization that the technician had been genuine in his care, and she threw him away just as her bandmates threw her away. Once she acknowledged it, it came on at full force. Forget Fritz and Charlie, this was real guilt, and it was crippling. He would've taken her home. He would've taken care of her. He wouldn't have left her like the others had.

"What did I do…?" Baby asked quietly. She turned and held onto the dryer to steady herself, staring down at her claw. Everything she did to her, everything she put him through, all their pain; she could've avoided it all. They could've been happy and whole if not for her greed, and she still rejected it. She still foiled Ennard's efforts to bond with her and now she was going to lose her friend again. The one person who had ever thought she was a good person before her decision. "…No… No- There's- No, there's still time."

She defiantly shook her head, turned towards the garage door, and then bolted through with the same desperation to find him that he had to get away from her. She stumbled over the step and skated through the living room, calling out a warning to Scott with only a, "Move." He jumped out of the way just moments before she rammed right into the door with her shoulder, breaking through the simple door lock and nearly tearing the door off its hinges.

Ennard stood with a start as Baby suddenly barged through the door with an almighty bang. She only took a moment to right herself, nearly falling forward from the motion, before her eyes affixed on him. "Ennard."

The amalgam was not as willing to confront the other clown. He gave a garbled static noise of warning and backed around the edge of the bed, hunching himself over aggressively. He clearly didn't want her any closer and she knew this, but she wasn't ready to back down.

"No, wait, please. Just wait," Baby pleaded as she followed him around the bed. "No, don't go. Don't run from me. Please." She reached out towards him with both hand and claw desperately and noticed when his eyes glanced towards the bed. He was probably planning on throwing himself over it. "Don't do it. Don't go. Just- Just wait," Baby begged as she moved in.

Ennard was now cornered and he looked wilder than ever. Wires that had once been comfortable would together were sticking out, his body twitching in agitation, and he gave another warning noise. She dared to move closer and immediately triggered sparks from his fingertips. He was going to electrocute her if she got too close and this stopped her momentarily. Just long enough to make her decision. Baby moved in slowly, patiently, until she could get ahold of his arm. He yanked it back quickly and his elbow slammed into the wall.

Baby was still persistent and moved in enough to grab his arm again. Then, the second she had ahold of his wires, she moved in quickly. She took the plunge and hugged onto his wire-laden body. If he shocked her then she would take it; maybe it would even erase the guilt for a split second. All Baby wanted was to hold onto him and hope she could somehow fix what she had broken. He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to push her back, but she held on tighter, unwilling to let him go again.

"I'm sorry," Baby finally confessed.

Now his static started to quiet. Not in acceptance but so he could listen.

"I'm sorry I hurt you, that I broke you, that I used you. I wasted you, Ennard. You were wonderful… You still are… And I threw it all away." She pressed tighter into his wires, pressing into the reluctant warmth. He was still very much giving the impression that he did not want her touching him and yet she clung to him like a child clinging to someone's pantleg, begging for approval. "There's so many excuses and they don't matter. Nothing will fix what I did. Nothing I can say can fix what I did to you."

Her voice crackled as her body began to overheat. It wasn't too keen on regulating itself and this degree of emotion wasn't helping. Still, Baby pushed onwards. "I can't take it back. I don't know what I can do. I did it and I wish I hadn't, because they didn't deserve you and neither did I. I kept lying and pretending and all I did was lose you." She held him tighter. "I don't want you to forgive me. I just don't want to lose you. Please, please, I'm sorry, I don't- I don't know why- I don't know why I'm like this. I don't know why I'm broken. Ennard, please."

At this point, Baby didn't know what she was pleading for. The closest thing would be begging existence itself to take back everything she had done up to now. She had always seen her actions as justified, even ones where she acknowledged her downfall like with Fritz, but this was too much. She really did hurt everyone she encountered.

Baby barely noticed Ennard's hands tightening on her shoulders. The static was gone, and any sign of aggression had died down to a low hum. She fell silent as well, though not to keep appearances but to give him his time to think. Now it was in Ennard's hands. He would get to make his decision, as she had for him so many years ago.

All at once, his arms caught around her and held her close in the same desperate hold. Baby didn't know if he was angry or forgiving and she didn't know if he believed her or not. She didn't care, it wasn't important.

Because it was the first time that Elizabeth felt like she had a chance to be better.