Mable: This chapter gave me a little bit of trouble, but I think I finally got the kinks worked out. XD Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Thirty-One

Mike didn't know that Marionette could sing. It wasn't too shocking, of course, but somehow the action had taken him off guard. He had stayed quiet and listened, compressing his wound as he did. Eventually Marionette had left the auditorium, but only after destroying Funtime Freddy and Foxy. Or that's what Mike assumed happened from what he could hear below. Once he was gone, the security guard tried to relax and wait, knowing that his heart rate needed to stay down.

He was bleeding, he was sweating bullets, and getting his heart rate to calm down was excruciatingly slow. All in all, Mike didn't have high hopes for his chances. He didn't actually think he would die, but he didn't have any idea how he would pull out of this alright. He already had to think of a story for when he showed up at the hospital; which he knew he would have to. Maybe he would lie and say it was a motorcycle accident. Or maybe that he fell in an attic and didn't know what it was that stabbed him.

It was around this time that Mike suddenly heard something nearby. At first he thought it was Marionette, clanking something around nearby, but this changed after the clattering continued for a few minutes. It was near the bodies of the two animatronics and it seemed to be something moving the bodies. It couldn't be the puppet, as Mike knew he would have come and got him. That meant it had to be someone else. Fearing the Minireenas returning and knowing he couldn't fight back, Mike slid further under the ledge of the hole, to be less visible.

"Is someone there?" An unfamiliar voice broke the silence. It sounded female, almost like a young woman with a hushed voice, but Mike wasn't about to believe that it was a human. He stayed quiet and listened further "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," the voice cooed softly. There were heavy footsteps as it moved closer to the hole. "Please, I'm not like the others. I want to help you." For an instance, and only an instance, Mike wondered if it was possible that it wasn't lying. This went away the second it got close to the hole.

The smell coming off of it was unbelievable. The closest thing he could compare it to was Golden Bonnie's smell and even managed to cover the same distance. It was clearly a decaying flesh smell and Mike smothered him mouth and nose in his sleeve. This was already a sign that something was terribly wrong. Apparently, the thing that had spoken didn't see him and, instead, continued moving towards the parts and service room. "Don't be afraid." Yet as it shuffled by, Mike could see a brief outline of its form in the flashlight's light.

It was taller than he could've expected with the voice and, somewhere on it, he could see wires. "Ugh, I knew letting that thing go was going to come back to haunt me." His thoughts were contrasted by a fit of inward swears. Marionette hadn't returned and now this thing appeared, and was clearly looking for him. It wouldn't be long before it realized he was still in the hole. "The vent's unguarded. If I can just get there quick-."

There was a crunching noise and the light died. Whatever it was, it had somehow managed to step on the flashlight, and the room was mostly sent into darkness. He knew he had to do something quickly, "Have to get to the vent. Maybe it won't fit through." Mike slowly moved to stand, trying to ignore the pain in his side and back. He held the wound still as he slid the taser into his pocket. Thankfully, the room was filled with many worthless things, which allowed him something climb onto to get out.

He dragged himself onto the floor of the auditorium, breathing through clenched teeth and trying to listen for nearby footsteps. It was all quiet and Mike moved fully out of the hole, then slowly stood in the center of the room. The slight light from the wrong pointing stage light had somehow gone out. This left him even more in the dark and he began to wander blindly. He couldn't see what it was that had been calling out to him, but he certainly heard its footsteps soon coming for him. "You're going to hurt yourself more if you run away."

This meant that it could not only see him, but could see him well enough that it saw he was injured. In a panic, Mike sprinted forwards into the darkness. He soon hit the wall and was left blindly following it, completely disoriented. It first followed slowly with steady steps, but then suddenly started to quicken its pace. Right afterwards Mike found a door, so he assumed that it was this that quickened it. He couldn't tell where he was by now, but any door out of the auditorium was a sanctuary to him.

It was locked by what felt like a keycard slot. Thankfully, Mike worked at Freddy's long enough to know that when any locks were tampered with in any way, they would react by instantly unlocking. Uncovering his wound briefly, he snatched out the taser and jolted the keycard slot. As expected it promptly malfunctioned and followed by unlocking the door for him to quickly stumble inside. Once in the somewhat lit room, Mike grabbed an office chair and blocked the door in a frenzy. Whatever it was, it didn't try to come in behind him.

The second he was in he covered his wound again. In those few moments uncovered the wound had leaked even worse. He couldn't tell if it was from the strain, his heartrate, or from it being uncovered, but he quickly placed pressure back on it and tried to ignore how sticky his hand was getting. For now, Mike investigated the room surrounding him. It seemed to be some sort of office with a couple of monitors, two doors, and a vent on the wall in front of the desk. Some documents were spread out on the desk beside a rusty fan.

"This has to be one of those rooms offset the Funtime Gallery," Mike mentally noted and thought back. It then struck him which one fit the bill, "This was the room Mari and I probably would've used to get to the Circus gallery. Or try to use." He focused his attention on the monitors and, after a moment to check out the doors, started to work and get them on. It didn't take too long to get a view of the surrounding rooms. One monitor showed outside the left door, one the right, and one directly in the vent. This was enough to leave it be.

Now his attention turned towards the file and the spread-out documents. It wasn't as though it was safe to leave the room anyways; Mike knew his best chance was to wait until Marionette returned and drove the animatronic away. So, the file was his focus. He flipped it open, looking at the multiple papers trying to slide out. Some of the documents seemed to be legal papers, there were a few receipts, a few papers that were simply empty money information, and blueprints. For a few moments, even the blueprints seemed to be unimportant.

It was just the animatronics Mike had seen, along with one of a girl who looked like a circus clown. "This could be what's running around out there. The voice fits… Seven foot?! What- I can't even believe this." He checked the cameras again and tugged at his collar a little, uncomfortable with how hot it was. He wasn't about to turn the fan on though, in case this place also had limited power. He looked back to the blueprint, "Must have come out of the Circus gallery. Ice cream, balloons, emergency stop- That might be important later."

He set down the blueprint and moved onto the next, which was Ballora. He intended to just scan it over again and set it aside, but his eyes came to a stop on some words in the bottom right corner. Among some relatively standard features was a single, questionable one. "Deter and misdirect?... What in the hell is that supposed to mean?" Of course, Mike knew what it meant, but the context seemed out of place. Why would a performing animatronic be made to deter and misdirect children? Or he assumed it meant children.

After checking the cameras again, Mike went back to the blueprints. This time, he found Funtime Foxy's blueprint and scanned it. This time, there was yet another warning sight. "Parental voice sync and reply… God, they're made to mimic parent voices." Mike didn't need to see anything more to know that something was terribly wrong with these animatronics. He tried to keep himself together and let his eyes scan the rest. "Scent release my ass." Then he set the blueprint back into the file.

Oddly enough, Funtime Freddy and the Minireenas' blueprints were missing. Mike began to search around the desk, hissing in discomfort when he leaned over to look underneath. It was rewarding enough, as present under the desk was yet another blueprint. It seemed to have fallen and Mike struggled to crouch down, his back protesting as he did. Once he got his hand on the blueprint he yanked it back and scanned what it held. It was a single sentence that struck him cold. Though the other sentences were suspect as well.

Apparently, Funtime Freddy had both grouping coordination, parental tracking, and a voice mimic mechanism, one that was disturbingly labelled with 'luring'. Then there was one last feature. One feature that stood out blatantly on the paper; 'Storage Tank'. Mike had no words but instead felt a surge of sickness. He didn't know whether it was the wound or just the disgust, but it was only from a lack of a recent meal or drink that he held it together. It was as though his worst nightmare had come true.

Before he could even comprehend what this meant, and consider what happened to the children these animatronics had been around, Mike was alerted to a nearby banging noise. He knew it was the sound of a vent being knocked open. Scrambling back to his feet, Mike checked the cameras. It wasn't the vent attached to the office, so it had to be another vent in the vicinity. His mind was completely distracted with other things, though.

"So is that just it? These things were sent out as rentals- did they just kidnap kids and bring them down here?! What would they want with kids- Purple Man was killing them in broad daylight already; why was he bringing them down here?!... How many bodies could be hidden down here?" His panic only grew. "Shit, is that why this place is abandoned? Is there a stash of dead kids and they couldn't get rid of the evidence?!" His heart was starting to pound and he could feel a growing lightheadedness as he tried to switch cameras.

It took a few tries before Mike could see something worth looking at through the cameras. Standing at the end of a nearby hallway was a hulking figure, but it was clearly not the female clown animatronic. Instead it looked to be a humanoid animatronic covered in those wires from before, but from the angle he couldn't see it well, save what looked to be a clown mask. "You've got to be kidding me…" Mike quietly muttered. And worse still, Mike didn't have the crowbar any longer. He had lost it in the fall and, while he did have the taser, he didn't want to get close to it.

He stared intently as it stood there in the hall. He knew immediately that it was staring towards the open door on his right. His eyes flickered over to it and the button within reach. He could close it out and stall until Marionette returned… If he returned. A new feeling of panic started to grow; if these wires were now attached to this animatronic then that meant they had still been moving around the facility. It meant that it could've ambushed Marionette again and now he was lost somewhere in the facility. Mike didn't even know where he would start looking.

Then the animatronic suddenly started to sprint towards the door. Mike slammed his hand on the button and the door shut with a loud bang. He could hear its heavy footsteps outside the door and stared through the camera at its form. Now at a closer viewing range with this other camera, Mike could see more details on the back of the animatronic that was staring at the door blankly. Unlike what he first assumed, it was not an animatronic covered in wires. Instead, it was an animatronic made entirely of tangled wires.

Rust colored splotches speckled various parts of its body, but rubbed away as the wires dragged together and fidgeted against one another. The only part of its body that was covered by any sort of suit, and that word was used lightly, was the out of place clown mask it worse. It leaned closer towards the door and Mike reflexively leaned towards the other one. If it somehow got in, he would have no choice except to run. This would naturally be an awful idea, but he was limited on options. He prepared for the worst and he got the unexpected.

"Don't be afraid. I mean you no harm," the hushed female voice echoed through the door. This confirmed that it was the same animatronic from before, but made the voice so much worse to hear. By now Mike's teeth were clenched so tightly that he was surprised nothing chipped. "I know you're scared, we're all scared down here, but I want to help you. Please, I just want to talk… I just want to see you're okay."

"I haven't seen a human down here in so long… One day they all just left. They were all gone, but they left us behind. I don't understand why…" Mike looked to the monitor; it was still outside the door with its face pressed against the metal. He knew it was draining battery, but he couldn't open the door for it. "I'm not like the others. They're confused, they don't understand why we've been in the dark so long, so they fought you. It's wrong… But they're not all to blame. It's this place; it's made us like this."

Mike bit his lip and silently listened. "We used to perform for… Children… And had our own Pizzeria for a short while, but it was taken away from us. You have to understand; we don't want to be like this." Her voice sounded so sad, so somber. "I'm sorry for what they did to you, but they're not a problem any more. I need to make sure you're alright. You're bleeding. You're limping." By now Mike was also panting and sweating profusely, but his sarcasm all but died the second the animatronic started to talk through the door.

"Will you let me in?" There was a moment of silence where the clown awaited an answer. "Please?" Finally, Mike found words forcing themselves out, "No." The tension felt too thick in the room. "…No?...Why?" He knew the second that he said this everything would change, but the charade couldn't last. "…Because if you really were coming in to help, or to check on me, you wouldn't want in here this bad." There was no response to his accusation so, for a second, Mike thought it would continue to stand there waiting and pleading.

It did speak, but it was no longer begging.

"You can't keep me out."

The heavy footsteps could be heard going down the hall and Mike knew that his shift had only just begun. Soon the animatronic passed through the rooms in the further area and looped around towards the other door. Mike waited until it got halfway down the hall before slamming the door shut. It still approached and lingered outside the door, as though it thought he would open the door. Mike tiredly watched the cameras and tried to fight back an uncomfortable lightheadedness. His hand pressed tighter against his wound.

It was starting to catch up to him. Mike knew this as he continued to watch the strange animatronic pass back and forth in front of the cameras. He physically couldn't keep up all night; something would have to give. This thought was followed by the sound of clanking in the vent. He straightened from his hunched position and glanced inside, then choked as he saw it crawling further down. He lashed forward and hit the button, sealing the vent closed again and waiting for it to leave. It was only one, he reminded himself, only one animatronic.

Once it was out of the vent, it returned to the right door, which was the door it had first spoken through. Mike instantly shut it, but again it fully approached the door. The security guard continued to stare at the door, waiting to hear footsteps, and looked over to the monitor. He didn't expect to see its face presented on the monitor before him. It was now staring into the camera, looking directly in at him. It, or she, had large blue eyes, though one seemed to be damaged. A row of needle teeth could be seen under the mouth of the mask that clearly didn't belong to it.

There was a third eye as well, positioned on its arm. "It is that thing from before…" Mike realized. He had noticed the similarity, but this was a definite confirmation. "Was it just a separated part of it?... Maybe it got the wires out of Freddy…" A shiver coursed through him, but he couldn't tell if it was his fluctuating temperature or actual fear. It appeared to be nothing but an endoskeleton with a mask; something about that unsettled him. Slowly it backed from the camera and continued down the hall once more.

Mike waited until it was out of the hall to open the door, and then began to check the cameras. It didn't take long for him to notice that the camera closest to the vent entrance was dead. He knew that it had to have been the animatronic that destroyed it. It was only a matter of time until it-

Suddenly sprinted down the hall towards the right door again. It was sudden, alarming, and Mike reached out to catch the button. It had only been a split second, a sudden moment, and somehow his hand had just managed to miss. He moved his hand to strike the button directly, slamming his palm onto it and watching the door drop. It was a terrible shame that the door didn't strike the floor all the way. In the last second, a bundle of wires that seemed to somewhat resemble an arm was thrown underneath, blocking the descent.

If the door wouldn't have stopped on its own, perhaps with a sensor on it to stop itself if something was in the doorway, it could have possibly crushed the arm. In a frantic desperation, Mike clicked at the button repeatedly, but only got hollow noises in response. He was now wishing that he had the crowbar and looked back towards the taser on the desk. The moment he turned to run he had wire fingers on his ankle, holding him in place. He stomped down on the arm, "Get off!" He didn't expect a response but still made the command.

The animatronic had a tight grip on him and used its other arm to grab and push the door upwards. The door slowly raised and revealed more of the animatronic waiting there. "I just want to make you better…" the soft, feminine voice whispered as the white mask was revealed. It could easily slide inside and get ahold of him now and Mike knew he had to fight, taser or not. In a sudden attempt to free himself he reeled back his free hand and punched the animatronic right in the mask. The clown's nose released a shrill squeaking noise, but it didn't even flinch at the punch.

This didn't stop Mike in the slightest and he took a few more swings. "Just let go! What's wrong with you?!" In truth, Mike was becoming much more frantic. It had a vice grip and wasn't preparing to let him go. It suddenly moved in further and wrapped its arm around the calf of the trapped leg, then yanked it closer against its body. It released the door and reached with its other hand, grabbing at Mike's belt. He responded by releasing his wound and trying to hold the animatronic off with his hand. Blood smeared across its white face.

He knew it would soon overtake him. This mound of wires, this collaboration of animatronic innards, would soon be completely atop him. It was sliding under the door, preparing to come in, when it suddenly halted. Mike didn't realize why at first, but could only feel relief as it loosened its grasp on him. It seemed to suddenly be distracted by something in the hallway and slid back underneath the door, holding it to keep it from closing as it stared down the hall. Though it seemed to lose interest in keeping the door open as it stood to full height.

The door would not shut again. Mike covered his wound and stumbled to the monitors, looking through the cameras. A few changes of position and he was able to see the hallway. There the animatronic, Ennard, stood at attention with its full focus down the hallway. There was what it had let Mike go to confront, waiting at the end of the hall. Mike could help but feel a renewed hope when he spotted Marionette through the flickering in the camera, which struggled to record the puppet.

Out in the hall the two were now face to face. Marionette stared down the amalgamation that he had set free. The magician hadn't lied; it was clearly the remains of the others. This was why its consciousness had been so empty, that he couldn't see it, because it was incomplete. Though it didn't necessarily look complete now either. Not that the puppet cared. He cared much more about the redness streaked across its face than about whether or not it was complete. She then spoke, "Haven't you taken enough?"

Her voice no longer held the soft compassion. It was much colder towards Marionette, who was an intruder on a situation that she almost had in her grasp. He didn't respond to her. "I don't understand. I don't understand why you would attack us when we did nothing to you. Do you not see that we are the same? We shouldn't be fighting…" For a moment, her voice grew soft again, more calm, but then came back with a sharp bitterness. "He won't survive like this. You won't be able to get him the help he needs in time. I can save him."

But unlike Mike, who didn't trust the words but knew of no ulterior motive, Marionette already knew exactly how she planned to 'save' him. His own response ignored her words and confronted her meaning. "I know what you've done and he's not yours to take," Marionette responded. His gaze narrowed, "If anything he is mine, and I don't intend to let him go easily." Ennard changed tones once more, this time to the gentler voice, "I don't want to fight you. You don't know what we're been through, you don't understand how important this is."

"I believe I do," Marionette remarked firmly. "I know exactly how important this is… Which is why I will not let you enter that room." The aggressive sound of static and ringing returned with a vengeance. He was already ready for what was coming. Ennard took a step closer, "I don't want to hurt you." She then followed with an almost confused, "We don't want to hurt anyone…" Slowly she was making her way down the hall towards him. Marionette didn't back down and waited as she moved in closer.

All of her wires shifted as her good eye stared him down. She was so eager; he didn't even want to guess what for. A coil of wires that almost resembled a hand reached out towards his black fabric.

It was then overcome by a surge of electricity. Ennard shuddered at the direct voltage to its wires, trembling in front of the Marionette, before falling to its knee. Behind it stood Mike with the taser tightly clenched in one hand, the other hand on his wound, and the file tucked under his arm. "Come on!" he called to the puppet and turned back into the office. Marionette didn't even hesitate and followed behind. Both headed back out into the dark auditorium, soon followed by the heavy footsteps of Ennard.

Now there was darkness, and silence. Mike started to crawl towards the parts and service room, knowing that Ennard would probably head directly to the vent. Marionette floated behind him, protectively watching the auditorium. They could both hear footsteps on the other side of the auditorium that blocked their way to the vent. Mike reached out and grabbed Marionette's arm to tug him closer. "She's blocking us," he whispered to Marionette. The animatronic stared across the auditorium, then whispered, "I know what to do. Wait here."

It didn't take Ennard long to hear the whispering and start crossing the auditorium. There was a little more movement from where the whispering came from, a bang as something was knocked over, a soft gasp; Ennard went still and waited. Some shuffling followed the wall, light but audible, and Ennard focused on the noise of blind scrambling. Mike would just lead her right to him. It took a few more moments, but only a few more moments, before Mike's voice could be faintly heard, "Mari…?"

The amalgamation moved in. He could hear her and his voice became frantic. "Mari, where did you go?!" There was knocking on the wall as he scrambled by, continuously calling the puppet's name. It was a perfect situation; he had no idea what hatch door he was closing in on. Ennard quickened its movement as the hatch could be heard opening and closing. He had unintentionally walked right into the room that she wanted him in. Ennard followed inside, blocking the main escape route from the room.

Stepping inside the cold and familiar room, she could see him immediately. The amalgamation confronted the voice of the human it needed…

And the puppet mimicking it.

Mable: This is the last chance Mike and Mari have to escape… If something goes wrong now, there's no going back. There will be no chance of going home.