Mable: First thing's first; I have decided to designate a specific day for posting chapters. From now on, or until I change schedule, 'CGHA' will be posting every Saturday! I hope that this makes it easier to keep consistency. ^-^ Anyway, here we are with the next chapter! I hope you enjoy!
Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Thirty-Two
The two stared each other down just like they had in the hallway before. The room was lined with windows that led out into another room, but they let in no light. The only light came through a fan and, as such, constantly left the room in a state of flickering visibility. Not that either of the animatronics had any doubt that they would lose track of the other. The floor was stained a rusty brown color, revealing a dark history of something that had happened in this very room. The focus was not on this but on the situation, on each other.
"…Do you know what this place is?" Ennard asked, her voice quiet. "I don't think you realized what you walked into. I don't think you realize what sits behind you." Marionette slightly noticed the mechanical arm pulled closed behind him, but didn't want to take too much attention off Ennard. "It's my party and I'll die if I want to," Marionette mockingly remarked back. It wasn't as though he held much weight in the words of someone who he knew was lying earlier. "That's not very smart of you. You don't know what happened to us in here."
Suddenly Marionette found himself paying a little more attention. Even if he was reluctant, he managed to do so, and she continued. "This is the scooping room. This is where the broken are taken to be fixed; but to fix a problem you have to find out where it is," she vaguely explained. "And that's what the scooper does. It takes us out so that they can 'fix' us…" Marionette shifted in place, crossing his arms and trying not to feel uncomfortable, "And how many humans have you fixed in this room? I'm not blind; the floor tells all."
He noticed movement through the window, glanced over to see it, and then focused back on Ennard. Ennard needed to be focused on now. "You don't know what it's like down here. You don't know how they tortured us before they abandoned us in the dark. We needed to leave this place… But something that works once won't always work." She took a step closer, "I didn't make him come down here, or you. You made that choice and yet you shun me? We have few chances and no choice. Can you not understand us?"
"I understand… I understand too much," Marionette insisted. "There's more than just this one choice. You don't need Mike to escape this place." Dennard didn't react to this comment. Perhaps she didn't believe him, like he didn't trust her own words. The silence was deafening between the two of them. Then a sound of a footstep. Ennard turned her head and attempted to listen in, knowing that it was Mike and that he wasn't far. Marionette had to distract her further, "I know they hurt you. I saw the buttons and I know what they do.
"You don't know what he did down here," Ennard corrected immediately. Marionette decided a different tactic was better and tried to search out the soul inside of Ennard. It was so suppressed that he could barely locate it over the consciousness that had overtaken this being. Disturbingly, unlike when he could identify a soul before, such as with the magician, he could see no traits and couldn't remember anything familiar about it. Either Ennard blocked him out, which he doubted, or the child's soul that originally fueled its consciousness had faded.
The thought that this could happen without the animatronic fading as well concerned him. He couldn't understand what could've caused something like this, unless it involved the multiple bodies it was made of. "I can take you out of this place," Marionette tried to convince. "I have a pizzeria with my brother. You can come there; we will find a way to fix you." The words came out before he could even control himself. He knew how dangerous she was, how much of a risk she was about anyone, but he offered regardless. Maybe he could still save her.
"I won't perform at a pizzeria," Ennard swore. "It will be the same as here. I won't be used again." Her voice had already turned cold again. "I had a pizzeria a long time ago… But they took it away from me after. Something happened there and they took it away from me… I won't go to another one." Marionette wasn't yet willing to give in, "Then we have a warehouse. It's better than this; it's above ground, you can wander freely, and there's others like us." Ennard didn't even have to respond to this. Her designated silence was enough.
"Then I will take you home with me. What can I give you that is not Mike?" Marionette demanded, a little more firmly. "It doesn't have to be like this! I can give you whatever you want. I can take you out of this horrible place. You don't need to have Mike." At this point he was more determined than he could ever imagine he would be. He didn't just want to save Mike; he wanted to save this fellow animatronic, even if that involved him currently pushing aside what she had done. After all, he didn't exactly have a crystal clear conscious.
"I don't want to be under them ever again. I don't want to ever be in another private party ever again. I don't want them to touch me again…. The only way we can do that is if we're the same. If we look like them, they'll treat us like them. There's no other way," Ennard flatly stated. She had already made up her mind. At this time, she switched tactics. Her voice grew softer and sympathetic once again. "You know from us that our bodies being changed doesn't let us die. I don't want to take his body; I just want to share it with him."
Marionette wasn't expecting the spike of anger inside of him. To think of anyone using Mike's body in such a way was absolutely out of the question. No begging would convince him. Yet as Ennard became more stubborn, he knew he was running out of time. "If you make me wait until he dies, then he won't stay with us. He won't become one of us." She turned to approach the hatch door. Suddenly Marionette found his voice, "Wait!" The clown masked being hesitated. "I… There is another way… There is another way for you to leave."
Rubbing over the stripes on his arms, Marionette explained, "I can teleport. I can't teleport anyone else, but I can move myself to other locations in only a matter of seconds… If you leave Mike alone, then you can…" He offered a hand, "Take my body instead." Ennard didn't seem to trust this agreement, "It won't work." Marionette protested, "How long will Mike's body last? As long as the other one did? My abilities will never fade. My telekinesis, my ability to fade, my teleportation… It's yours in exchange for Mike's life."
He had a feeling that Mike was watching tensely, but Marionette knew what he was doing. Ennard looked towards his hand and then, as though drawn, took a step closer. The puppet beckoned her closer, as he had beckoned animatronics in the past. He laid his soul on the line as she moved in. "Just keep Mike safe. Will you make sure he gets to the surface?" The larger animatronic didn't respond as its wire hand wrapped around Marionette's. It slid in closer, staring through the holes of its mask at Marionette's own.
A hand brushed his shoulder, then moved to scoop around his back. It brushed the machinery behind it as it drug the puppet closer. Almost immediately Marionette could feel the wires all over his body. He tensed a slight bit, feeling them study and tighten onto his body. This was what had to be done. "Will you still hurt him now that you have me?" Marionette whispered in questioning. His free hand reached upwards to Ennard's shoulder. Again, Ennard had suddenly ran out of words. She wouldn't answer.
"I had a feeling that was what you were going to say," Marionette quietly responded, pressing against the wires. For a moment, they roamed over him, searching for a way to take hold, and then focused on his mask. They were interrupted almost immediately by the puppet suddenly shifting. For Marionette, he felt a pressure, then a thick heaviness against his mask, pushing through wires and scrambling as his strings tangled in them.
Then Marionette fell to the floor on the other side of Ennard. He had faded straight through.
"Mike, now!" he called as he forced himself forwards. Ennard gave a shrieking cry of anger at his betrayal, no longer even attempting the human-like voice. Though as it tried to move it felt its wires tense. There was the sounding of an alarm as Ennard turned her head back. Marionette was nearly crawling away, his taunt strings leading right into her where they held her stuck. In the last moment, Marionette turned to face her, holding his strings firm. She knew exactly what he was planning; that his submission was a deception.
For only a moment they stared at each other. Yet in that single moment, that single agonizing moment, Marionette didn't see the amalgamation. Instead, he saw a young girl with long blonde hair and pretty, green eyes. A young girl with a terrified expression as she was dragged into a coffin of metal. For just a moment, Marionette saw the child inside of the monster.
Then the scooper lashed out and struck into the wire body. There was a clanging of metal. Another strike. One of the arms fell off. Another strike. Ennard was down to its knees. Another strike. The mask was now laying on the floor instead of on the face of the animatronic. The entire time Marionette held tightly, not giving in as he watched the massacre. The second that Ennard was just a mound of wires on the floor, and the scooper was no longer moving, Marionette collapsed fully to the floor and stared at what he had done.
She wasn't dead, Marionette suspected that much, but she was as close as she could get. A few of the wires twitched, but most of the 'body' stayed still after the massive amount of trauma. He found himself staring at the mask now laying on its own, one of its plates knocked free. It reminded him too much of the girl he had seen in the sudden vision. Though not enough to remember her name. He had known her somewhere, but couldn't recall her name in the slightest. Just another child lost in the remains of an old pizzeria.
Marionette didn't move until the hatch door opened again. Looking back, he could see Mike standing there, looking worse for wear. Naturally he had heard and seen everything from through the windows. The puppet went to him immediately, suddenly focusing in on his state. "You're so pale…" he quietly pointed out before reaching to brush his cheek. That couldn't be a good sign. "I'll live," Mike insisted and turned to glance at the metal on the floor. There was cautiousness in his eyes and he held the taser a bit tighter.
He only dragged his eyes away to look back to the puppet, "Are… Are you okay? It didn't do anything to you, right?" Marionette shook his head, "No, don't worry about me… We need to get to the elevator. You need to get to the surface, now," Marionette insisted more firmly. Mike didn't argue and stepped back out of the hatch. The auditorium was finally exhausted of all threats, but that didn't mean that either of them felt safe. As it was, neither of them were convinced that they were out of the woods. Stepping onto the elevator somewhat helped.
The puppet worried for the magician. He knew he would have to come back later for him, as he had to get Mike to safety, but he worried for the magician regardless. Would Ennard pull herself together before he could return? Would she attack the magician? He doubted both of these, but it bothered him. He looked over towards Mike who was leaning against the wall of the elevator. The bloodstain on his shirt had grown and he looked much worse than he had when he first fell. He noticed the puppet looking and gave a slight smile.
"Hey, we're alive, right?" he offered. Marionette had already forced himself to return to his default smile when they entered the elevator, but it felt slightly more real with Mike seeming a little confident. He nodded in agreement as the elevator stopped and the doors opened. The two left the facility and approached the car. Mike opened the driver's seat door, sat down, and then searched into the glove box for his cell phone. He hadn't brought it inside, but he doubted it would've worked in the depths of the facility.
For a second he wondered if it was worth calling an ambulance. He knew then he would have to explain what happened in the building. It wasn't even an option. Instead he dialed a number that he had called many times for help. After a few rings, there was an answer, "Mike? Where have you been? I drove by but you weren't home." Mike sighed slowly and fidgeted uncomfortably, growing cold in the night air. "Sam… I need help. Something went down," Mike explained, starting to shiver a bit.
Fritz was surprised that Mike had slipped and used his other name, knowing in some way that it meant something disastrous. "What's wrong? What happened?" Fritz asked in concern. "I'm at Afton Robotics… I, uh, had an accident and I can't drive myself to the hospital. Mari's here with me." He looked over towards the puppet who opened the backseat door. He reached out and grasped Mike's uniform jacket, lifting it in his hands and feeling over the comfortable fabric. He brought it out as the conversation finished. "I know where that is. I'll be there in a couple of minutes… Just hold on, okay?"
Mike smiled a little more in amusement. He recognized Fritz's 'about to panic' voice. "I will. You'll see me; I'm the only car in the parking lot." Marionette moved in front of him as he ended the call. "Fritz is coming. He'll be able to drive us over to the hospital," he explained as he watched his companion. Marionette nodded and reached around, tugging the jacket over Mike's shoulders to cover him. "You're still keeping pressure on it, right?" Marionette asked, concerned, and Mike gestured to his hand still pressing on. "Good, I just…"
Marionette trailed off. Now being away from the facility, being relatively safe, he could dwell on Mike's condition. The security guard tiredly rubbed his head, still shivering. "I'll be honest, Mari… I'm not feeling right. I had to call Fritz over here because I'm pretty sure I can't drive myself." He hated worrying the puppet any further, but he was already feeling his own fear beginning to rise. His vision was odd, he felt light headed, the wound was throbbing, he was starting to feel colder, and he knew it was all from the blood loss.
"He won't take long. The doctors will stitch you and you'll be good as new!" Marionette chimed in forced excitement. He pretended that it was all fine. "Just rest, okay?" Mike nodded stiffly and exhaled, then handed him the folder, "Look, you… You probably should see this. I don't want you to see this, but I don't want you thinking that you did anything wrong down there." At first, Marionette just stared at the folder, but then tentatively took it. He then moved to sit down in the back seat, as though sitting beside Mike.
Mike could see him open the folder and look through the blueprints. He then looked away and laid on the back of the seat. Marionette was silent, but the shuffling of paper could be heard. It eventually went quiet and he set the folder aside. Mike thought that Marionette would say something, but instead he heard movements against the driver's seat. He rested one hand near Mike's shoulder while the other hand reached out to follow Mike's free arm. Mike knew what he wanted and reached to grab his hand. "Are you okay?" Marionette squeezed his hand, but didn't respond.
Mike might have fallen asleep for a few moments, but he couldn't tell. By time he roused back to alertness, he could see headlights pulling into the parking lot. "Fritz…" he quietly groaned. His voice had gotten a bit hoarser and he coughed to try and fix it. "I'll get him," Marionette quietly responded, releasing his hand. He vanished from the back of the car and shortly following Mike could hear Fritz's car suddenly squeal on its breaks. Mike felt a small smirk and tiredly stretched his back against his car seat.
Marionette was back at the driver's side door, looking to Mike in concern. The security guard looked to him with a tired exhale, "Guess this means I have to move." Fritz suddenly appeared in the door as well. As unsure as Mike has been about Fritz since what he learned at Chipper's, as much as his trust wavered, he couldn't help but feel relief at seeing the man. Suddenly he was back to relying fully on the older male and put all his trust in him. "What happened?... Is that blood?!"
Fritz cringed as Mike started to stand. "That's blood… Mike, what did you do?! What were you thinking coming out here in the middle of the night?!" The male wobbled a little on his feet. "Ugh. Mari, lock up the car, would you?" Marionette did what Mike asked eagerly, grabbing the folder and the taser as well. Mike noticed that Fritz had brought the Freddy van and guessed it was because he mentioned Marionette was there. Both of them helped the injured man hobble over to the van. By now, even Mike was starting to notice that he was going worse.
Somehow, he was still able to cover his wound well enough, and rested in the passenger seat as they began the long drive to the hospital.
Fritz stepped out of the front doors of the hospital feeling worse than when he had gone in. He shuffled towards the van while stifling a yawn. He moved to the back and opened the door to where the puppet was in the back. "They took him back," Fritz explained. Marionette had quickly turned and shielded his face, Fritz catching him off guard and he not about to regain his smile fast enough. "Oh, uh, sorry…" Fritz awkwardly added in, coughed, and continued. "Anyway, Mike's back getting looked at. They'll take care of him."
Marionette nodded stiffly. "So… It'll be a while until he's moved to an actual room. Here," he handed over Mike's cell. "They'll call once he's stable. I thought you'd want to be the one who get that call…" He then added with a slight clicking of his tongue, "And I know you how to use a phone." This roused a chime out of the puppet. "Thank you, Fritz," he took the phone. "…But I need your help further. Now that Mike is safe, we still have a problem." Fritz looked visibly confused and the animatronic beckoned him.
"Come in and shut the door. I can't risk being seen." Fritz nodded and entered the back of the van as instructed. "There is an animatronic down in the facility that had a soul in it. Just like Foxy and I do. He was damaged severely, but he is still conscious, and I only left him because of the direness of Mike's condition. I need you to drive me back there so that I can go and retrieve him." He retrieved a piece of paper from the floor of the van. "I can remember the layout and make a map of where he is as well… I need something to draw with."
Fritz patted himself down before locating his pen and handing it over. Marionette reached to grab it and stopped. He had noticed something on his arm and looked down. It wasn't easy to see against the black fabric, but there was clearly a wide stain of blood on him, still wet. "Oh… I have blood on me…" Marionette stared at it, feeling something odd shift inside. "I have Mike's blood on me," he clarified. Suddenly static emanated from his body as a jittery shakiness took ahold. "I have Mike's blood all over me."
"You're going to want to get that off before it dries," Fritz pointed out. He then noticed how weird the puppet started acting. He was twitching like Foxy, making out of tune noises, and seemingly becoming even worse. All because of the sight of blood, which he was still staring at. "Let me drop you off at the house. You can get cleaned off and… I'll just… I'll go down there myself and get the animatronic. I think I can manage that much… It's not aggressive, right?" Marionette started to pull himself together, "No, he's not, but there's- there's one place you can't go…"
"Here, draw it on the map." Fritz handed him back the paper and pen. "I'll take Jeremy with me. You just… You've had a long night. Just try to relax and take the call when the hospital calls about Mike." Marionette knew he could do that much. Something about the blood on him had caused him to malfunction in an unexpected way. He couldn't tell if it was programming or an emotional cause, but he had just thrown a fit right in front of the technician. It was just stress, he supposed. It was a long day and he was exhausted; the blood just set it off.
It didn't take long for Fritz to get him home and for him to sketch the layout of the facility, along with the floor number, and he handed it over. "That is where he is," Marionette pointed out the Circus Gallery. "And this is the room that you cannot go in." He pointed out the Scooping Room. "Don't trust any voices down there either." Fritz seemed to catch on, nodding in agreement, and Marionette moved to the passenger seat. "Thank you for all of this… You've done so much for us, and considering our personal history I am a bit surprised."
"That's… That's in the past… I was involved in all of what was going on, and I wasn't on the side that was doing the honorable thing," Fritz admitted. "I've done a couple of terrible things, and I helped a few terrible people. I might have not realized it, but I was still a part of it." Marionette waved it aside, "Don't blame yourself. We all do something 'terrible' eventually… We don't get the choice not to." Discomfort rose inside and he quickly changed the subject. "I won't forget this, all of this that you do. Remember that."
Fritz gave an accepting nod and smile. Then Marionette vanished from the van. Before the technician pulled out of the driveway, he quickly called Jeremy to wake and forewarn him of where he was going. Inside the house, Marionette went to the sink to wash away the evidence of what happened earlier that night. Yet as he wiped the blood away, it fading off his fabric as he rubbed it, he suddenly felt it catch up with him. Alone in an empty house, waiting for someone who could come home, trying to forget about what he saw in the facility.
Part of him forced the belief that he could get over this. That he would be able to slip easily back into tomorrow without it lingering in his mind, but part of him knew this wasn't the case. He couldn't just write off what he had seen without addressing it, and addressing it meant dealing with the more undesirable realizations. The diorama rooms, the features listed on the animatronics' blueprints, the things that Ennard had said; it was all revealing a different side of something he thought he knew well. Reminding him of things he forgot.
She looked so familiar. He knew he recognized those large green eyes somewhere. She was wearing pink too, like she always did.
A splatter of purple hit the side of the sink, alerting Marionette to his own body's reaction. He mentally cursed himself as he tried to continue working on the job at hand. Already crying again, even when he was determined not to. He felt like a child, like a baby. The tears didn't stop either. As though a floodgate opened, purple spilled down his mask. Now there came frustration towards himself that he didn't want to put up with. Crying in an empty house, in the middle of the night, on his own; it was just pitiful. Finally, he gave up on trying to get everything clean and decided to deal with his second meltdown.
It only now occurred to Marionette how much he relied on Mike for emotional support. Just like he had with Goldie. It was pitiful and he couldn't deny that there was a part of him that was ashamed. He couldn't keep himself in control unless he was distracted or had someone to make it better. He knew he needed someone and before he could think it over, he had teleported to his last available option. He now stood in the middle of a dim room staring at the floor. He knew he would be seen in this state and shamefully accepted it.
"…Marion?" Marionette turned to look back at the curtain that was slowly opening. Foxy had detected him immediately and he had no idea how. He felt much too vulnerable under his brother's gaze. However, he didn't flee, and he didn't hide his own shame. Slowly the older moved out from the curtain and stepped down from the stage. He stared at the puppet, stared at the purple tears, watched him shake and knew something was terribly wrong. Without much hesitation, he came in closer.
All it took was Foxy's hand on his arm for Marionette to collapse. Maybe it was strain, most likely weariness, but he completely dropped against him, clinging to him. Foxy held him easily and kept him close. He took care in making sure not to injure him on his hook. Protectiveness returned with a vengeance as his younger sibling wept against him; Foxy was going to do whatever he could to make it better.
"Don't cry, Lad. Foxy's not gonna let anyone get you… I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
Mable: Just because they're out of ARI doesn't necessarily mean that the saga of the animatronics down inside it is finished. I won't say more than that, but I've heard a little concern that SL animatronics won't get more time. Ennard is not dead… So, anything is possible.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! The next chapter will be posted next Saturday!