Can't Go Home Again
Chapter Seventy-Nine
The inside of the Scooping Room was much worse than looking in from the outside, because only inside did he notice the dried blood on the floor. It was clearly blood too; he recognized that familiar brown crust of its age. By this point Scott was near hyperventilating, which completely contrasted with his original plan to try and talk Ennard out of this yet again. He could do little more but shudder and feel his head get cloudier and cloudier. If he was lucky, he would pass out before Ennard activated the brutal looking claw on the other side of the room.
The amalgam with him propped him against the wall and proceeded to slide his coat off his shoulders. It was then dropped to the side and he went for Scott's nightshirt. Scott hadn't had the time to change into regular clothes before coming after Ennard, but that was the least of his worries. Instead, he watched as Ennard guided off his nightshirt as well.
"What- are you- doing?" Scott forced out in between the rapid, heavy breathing. It still felt like he wasn't getting enough air even though he was gulping it in.
"We don't want the fabric getting in the way." Apparently, Ennard decided that Funtime Freddy's voice was more appropriate than the wailing, terrifyingly distorted voice that was clearly his own. He removed the shirt and went to tether Scott's hands together behind his back with it. The human briefly resisted, but the animatronic overpowered him quickly. He was somewhat surprised that Ennard hadn't done it beforehand, but assumed that it was because he kept his hands on him. Or he thought that until Ennard added in, "There! Now your arms won't get in the way!"
The giggling crackle that followed made Scott's hope only sink further down. Wires traced briefly over the suit scars present on his back before Ennard moved back to his front, grabbing the prosthetic limb and pushing up his flat pant leg.
"It slides on like a glove, right? This is so exciting! I've never seen it without the leg on before!" Though he was slightly disappointed right afterwards. "Oh, you're wearing something on it. Never mind! Let's get this back on…" The animatronic tried to work the fake leg back on.
Scott had no idea why Ennard was acting like the last thirty minutes hadn't happened. Maybe it was in denial, maybe there really was another personality, but it was as though he was ignoring Scott's obvious desperation in his decision. It didn't help Scott calm down either, so if it was ruse to lull him into a false state of comfort then it certainly failed. Instead, he was only noticing his vision starting to get a little strange.
"And… There we go! Now you'll be able to stand up, so the Scooper will reach!" Ennard reached out and trailed his fingers down his arm. "Your skin is so soft and so- so- sowarm," he gushed affectionately. "Oh wow, I can't wait for this!" It was obvious that he was excited. "It's been so long since I've had another voice inside. We're going to have so much fun!... Scott? You look strange."
Scott heard his pulse booming in his ears and realized that the hyperventilation had finally took its toll. Suddenly his gaze became too foggy and he fell over. Though the darkness he expected didn't come. Instead, it only felt like it was a fuzzy second of nothingness, and then he was roused by Ennard shaking him.
"Scott, stop that. What are you doing?" Ennard's usually fanatic voice sounded a bit more concerned, though it then returned to a more upbeat tone when he noticed that the human was coming around. "There you are! You scared me!" he crackled out. "Come on, let's get you up." He lifted Scott back upwards into the sitting position. Now feeling worse than ever, the man decided he needed to stall. "Up, up! On your feet!" Ennard chirped.
"Wait!" the human blurted out. Ennard just stared at him, suddenly very silent. Suddenly he was listening very closely, and Scott was half terrified that the less comforting side of Ennard would return. "Uh… Be-Before we do this, let's just slow down, I just-… I need to know why you want this." Maybe this would buy him some time. "Can you just tell me why you want this?"
"Because… Because I want to be a part of you! I want to give you a body without pain!" Ennard insisted. "I want to be a part of… Of you." His voice returned. "I need it. I want nothing more."
"But why?" Scott insisted. "What- What can us sharing a body give you that us living together couldn't? Didn't you get that warmth when we were… When you came into my bedroom?" Suddenly, Scott felt very awkward. As though this entire situation wasn't uncomfortable enough. "That, uh… Wasn't that something?"
"That's not the same!" Ennard protested back, as though borderline preparing to argue for what he wanted. "I need a body! I'm not complete without it!" He became more frantic, "Y-Y-You don't understand! You're not an animatronic; you're a human! Your body's already put together!" Scott stared blankly, feeling a little ill and even more like he was about to start hyperventilating again, even if his head was still swimming.
The clown was returning to agitation and rose off the ground. He then began to pace around restlessly while Scott quietly watched. The vent was free, and he now had control of his leg, but with his hands tethered it wasn't like he could get too far. Though even the knot that Ennard tied with his shirt felt a little loose. He started trying to work the knot out.
"But I was never human! I was born in this body- I woke up in this body!" Ennard continued to vent. "They were here too. They- the others were inside with me… But then they left me here. They didn't tell me what I was supposed to do or where I needed to go, or if they'd come back even if I did find a body. They left me here." His voice grew colder as he turned and locked his cerulean eyes onto the human. "Just like you were going to." He stared down the human with an intense glare and moved in.
"And I was the only one controlling this body… But I'm tired of being alone and… Incomplete." Ennard twitched as his wires shuffled together. "I need a body. I need the warmth. I need… I need something. I'm missing something." Then, just as quickly, his voice returned to Funtime Freddy's, though was now more desperate and saddened in contrast with the coldness before. "I tried to live without it, but I can't! And you… You're the only body I want. You're the only voice I want to hear on the inside." He knelt, grabbing Scott's arms. "I need you!"
It was only then that something clicked in Scott's head. Ennard was an animatronic created by other animatronics, one who had never been a human soul, one who was fanatic about getting a body. So fanatic, in fact, that it seemed like he was actively fighting himself. Half of the time he was calm, half of the time he was hysterical, and yet he now outwardly admitted that he had stretched the truth on the 'others' inside of him. There was only one explanation to all of this. Ennard wasn't doing this because of real wants and desires.
Ennard wasn't fighting against other personalities. Ennard was fighting against his own programming.
"Come on, let's… Let's hurry and get this done," Ennard insisted restlessly. He grabbed his arm and tried to get Scott to stand up. "If we don't, Mari will come back for you. I could go without fight him here again! Ha ha!" That forced laughter was largely uncomfortable, but not as uncomfortable as Scott was as he was yanked to his feet. "Now you just have to stand here and the Scooper will do everything! Then I'll come and… Get inside…" There returned the breathiness and the clear overexcitement. "Inside of you."
Scott was going to have to stall through his teeth. "Wait, just- before we do this-!" From Ennard's twitching, it was obvious that he was becoming restless, and he knew he had to be careful. "I… I just want to say…" He had to think fast and then, suddenly, it came to him. "I really, really do care about you, Ennard…" He forced himself to stand his ground and continue. "I want you to know that I… I really enjoyed our time together. I li- I love you."
"Aww! I love you too!" Ennard chirped in a happier tone. Scott noticed that, for a moment, the animatronic seemed to ease up on the agitated twitching. He was listening, so now was the time to talk. Though Scott was cut off when Ennard suddenly hugged him tightly, running his wires over his back and arms. "You're so great.~"
"Yeah… I'm just glad that I can tell you now, w-with this last chance," Scott lamented, making sure to sound as distraught as he could. "I'm going to miss you."
"Miss me? I'm going to be your skeleton!" Ennard crackled in amusement as he drew back. "I'm not going anywhere!"
"… Ennard, I meant when I'm gone." He paused a few moments, then he continued again. "Even if I do survive being… Y-You know. I won't live much longer past that. I, uh… I'll probably bleed out in only a couple of minutes." It was time for someone else to be emotionally manipulated, and this time Scott wasn't going to be on the receiving end.
"Maybe, but you won't die!" Ennard assured. "You and I are going to share the body together. You just aren't gonna be in pain and might have your leg back- that's still your decision. I'm willing for either!"
"That would be nice… But that's not how it's going to happen," Scott reaffirmed, snapping Ennard from his delusion. "Even if you managed to somehow stop the bleeding, I'd be so ripped apart on the inside that-…" His voice faltered as this lightheaded sensation sunk in. Just thinking about it made him ill. "My body would stay good for only a few days and then I'd rot… You, uh, you probably don't know what that is. Basically, unlike animatronic bodies, human ones don't stick around after death. I'd break down." Ennard looked a little twitchier, but Scott insisted further. "Best to tell you everything now."
"No, wait, there's got to be another way!" Ennard protested back, hands clenching and unclenching. "A way that you won't die- a way to keep your body?"
"It's just not how it works," Scott repeated. He had a perk in confidence at the animatronic's growing panic. Perhaps fear could convince him to change his mind. "I shouldn't have even survived my accident."
"But they said the body would live! It lived last time!" Ennard protested more firmly as he seemingly began growing doubtful of Scott's claim. His voice grew more flat, deeper, more hesitant to listen to Scott's explanation. "I… I know what you're doing. It won't work." A spark of dread raised along Scott's spine as Ennard turned and headed towards the vent. He had only one last chance.
"Then where is your last body? It didn't just get up and walk away. It couldn't."
The deafening silence following this question was just enough to both terrify Scott and convince him that he had hit a soft spot. Because from what Ennard had said, he couldn't know what happened to that man, and Scott himself could only assume that his body was long decomposed in some corner of the building. Not that anyone would ever find it.
"Ennard… Ennard, look at me," Scott choked out. This time he knew he had control, even with his hands bound. Slowly, Ennard turned to face him, those blue eyes staring back at him. "Untie me."
"But I need you," a mix between Freddy and Baby's voice begged. "I need you, I need you, I need you." He began to quietly beg in a mantra. It was as though he was stuck in a loop.
"We can just pretend this never happened," Scott assured. "You don't need it-." That was when the slightly illuminated room fell into darkness and the distant sound of fans cut off. "…That… Badly?" Scott shirked back when Ennard followed with a mechanical cry of frustration.
"I KNEW he waaas go-going to do that!" Ennard growled as he easily approached the vent in the dark. "Stay here!" Scott didn't know whether to be relieved or not when he heard the banging of Ennard climbing back through the maintenance hatch. He had bought a little time, but it would all be for naught if he couldn't get free.
Ennard easily moved through the control module. As bulky as the animatronic was, he had spent years in and out of vents and they came to him like walking. He needed to be quick; he couldn't afford to leave Scott alone too long of someone, whether Marionette or not, would take him away. Ennard would not lose him. He needed Scott. Perhaps he even needed Scott more than he was willing to risk for his body.
The Ballora Gallery was empty and the breaker room door was shut once again. However, the latch was broken beyond repair, so Ennard knew it couldn't be locked. The animatronic slowly moved in on the door and could hear something shuffling inside. He cocked his head, blue eyes scanning the door, and a giggle raising in his throat.
"Oh Maaarri!~" he mockingly called in a sing-song tone, contrasting with his growing twitching from agitation at being interrupted. "I found you!" Then Ennard barged through the door.
This was met with an unseen assailant swooping in out of the shadows and lodging a hatchet into his chest.
The weapon lodged into Ennard's chest, sliding through some wires and clipping some of the others. The animatronic reacted immediately with a shriek and yanked back, causing his attacker to stumble out of the doorway, trying to keep from losing the hatchet that was briefly stuck amongst the wires. It was Mike Schmidt. Ennard was half surprised that he hadn't appeared before now, but then again he couldn't have come down until the elevator was turned back on.
Mike managed to grab back his hatchet and braced himself to swing again, but then held back and just stared Ennard down. "Surprise," he greeted, making sure to block the breaker room door. He watched as the animatronic quickly recovered and slid in its wires over the slender gap that the hatchet had made. "That was pretty clever, you know. Getting him to follow you down here, hiding inside of the Baby body, the voice mimicking; I'll admit, that was impressive," Mike began. His gaze then narrowed, "Funny how such a smart animatronic's willing to make such a stupid mistake."
Ennard responded with a burst of laughter, though didn't move with the laugh. It merely twitched and flinched while a recorded laugh played over it. "Well, well, hello again! Takes someone really determined or really ignorant to walk right back down here after how you left the last couple of times!" The giggling interrupted the voice again, but the animatronic was still and its gaze was cold. "Where's your plaything?"
"Doesn't matter," Mike responded. "Where's your plaything? Where the hell is Phone Guy?"
"He's waiting for me!" Ennard answered. "But we can't get started until we get the power back on."
"Yeah, no, that's not happening." Mike lifted the hatchet threateningly. "I'm only giving you one warning: let him go or rest in pieces."
"Aww, that's no fun!" There was a growing humming under his voice. Mike recognized it from both Marionette and Foxy, and he knew it meant that Ennard was just about ready to attack. The security guard took a step back towards the door and Ennard took another step closer. Blue eyes narrowed further as he lowered his hatchet further, getting his hand closer to his taser.
"It's going to be the highlight of my year," Mike disagreed with a smirk. "So, before you ask, no, I'm not moving."
He almost expected Ennard to continue bantering. In fact, he had hoped he would to buy them more time, but this was not the case. After everything earlier, Ennard was at the end of any form of patience and, like with Marionette, he dove at Mike with an aggressive shriek. Mike's eyes widened and he swung out, hitting Ennard in the shoulder. Ennard only flinched slightly and grabbed at the hatchet with the intent of claiming it for himself while grabbing out with his other hand for Mike's collar.
The security guard yanked himself down and grabbed his taser, jabbing it into Ennard's thigh with a harsh jolt. In the moment that Ennard spasmed, Mike managed to grab back his hatchet and prepared for the animatronic to recover, stepping out of grabbing range. To his surprise, the animatronic responded with a frustrated cry instead of immediate attacking.
"I-I-I'm tired of your cheap shhhhocks!" Ennard roared as he dove back in. This time, Mike swung much higher, and managed to snare the button on Ennard's chest. While it didn't hit the wires, the force dragged the button free and caused the bundled wires to collapse down the animatronic's chest in a messy display. Ennard went for Mike's hand that was clutching the taser, ignoring the hatchet entirely, and managed to force Mike back against the edge of the doorframe. With his focus on Mike's taser holding hand, Mike managed to swing around Ennard and leave a sloppy strike on his back.
It must have done something as Ennard shuddered and twisted at Mike's wrist, prying at his fingers and trying to get the weapon. The security guard swung again and the animatronic nearly wrapped his arm around the human's, then yanked back. His already lose hold on the hatchet gave and it clattered to the ground, and Ennard's focus shifted to try and trap his arm, enwrapping the now weaponless arm in his mass, which was easier now that his wires were coming undone. Mike defiantly took a swing and landed his fist against Ennard's mask, but Ennard didn't flinch.
Then, as though out of sheer desperation and pure defiance, Mike grabbed for Ennard's mask. His fingers managed to hook under the edge of the eye, just against Ennard's own eye, and yanked back. The plate swung open, but Mike clung to it and continued to pull, trying to yank the mask off. This just managed to infuriate Ennard enough that he wrenched the taser out of Mike's grasp and threw it back somewhere near the vent. Then the amalgam grabbed Mike's now freed arm and slid his wires up his sleeve, pressing them into his flesh.
Ennard leaned in further and his voice shifted to something jarringly different.
"Let's motivate- Mike -with a controlled shock!"
"What?" That was all Mike got out before he was suddenly struck with a jolt of electricity. It coursed through his body quickly, but it felt like it lasted much longer. There was pain, but there was also a sort of loss of function. He couldn't move, he couldn't react, and only once the jolt stopped was he able to gasp in a mouthful of oxygen. "Son- Son of a-!"
"Let's try another controlled shock!"
There wasn't more than a second of pausing before he was jolted once more. It seemed to be the same intensity, but he swore it hurt more. He seized, trying to move, but it was as though his body simply wouldn't react. When the jolt stopped, Ennard threw Mike to the floor before he could recover. The animatronic then stared down at the human with a tilt of his head, wires tightening and wriggling.
"Doesn't feel so good, does it?" Ennard was back to the crazed Freddy voice and punctuated it with wild laughter. Then it turned and headed into the breaker room. Mike forced himself back up to his feet, feeling disoriented but unwilling to give up just yet. He grabbed the hatchet off the ground, but couldn't find the taser through the dim light from the breaker room. This would have to do, and he followed the animatronic through the door. Ennard was already trying to turn the power back on.
With a slow inhale, Mike braced himself and dove forwards, taking a swing at his back.
Scott was pulled out of his struggle by a strange sensation. It felt like a tremble down his spine, though not as painful, and was followed by the feeling of being watched. Scott glanced around and quickly noticed two white pinpricks of light in the room with him. He recognized them immediately as belonging to an animatronic, especially when they flickered and wavered, and then moved in as an animatronic approached. He just stared aghast at the lights with little vocal reaction; at this point he was too burned out to say much.
That was, until it grabbed his arm in a gentle hold. Scott drew back out of reflex, but it didn't take him long to realize that the slender, fabric hand was obviously not a normal animatronic. The following chime, brief and slightly hushed, reassured that it was the Puppet, and by now Scott had realized that the Puppet was his only chance at escape. Marionette hovered behind him and quickly worked the knot out of his shirt, freeing his arms. Scott was quick to yank on his shirt and cover his scars once more.
Marionette took him by the wrist and led him to the hatch. He guided him out to the Funtime Auditorium and all the way into the Control Module, which was thankfully semi-lighted by dim running lights. This probably meant that the power to the elevator was on too, but he wasn't certain. Marionette started to lead Scott to the vent when he froze, turned his head, and suddenly approached the window. Between the dim light and the angle of the window, Scott could see nothing, but he could certainly hear something brewing inside.
A familiar cry alerted him that it was another fight. "Mike?!" Scott guessed. Marionette immediately dipped down to plunge through the vent when Scott approached. "Wait, let me come to! I can distract Ennard! Maybe I can get through to him!" he began to plead. These cries were abruptly cut off when the Puppet slid right back out of the vent and stared him down.
It was the first time that Scott ever saw the Puppet wearing a full, forewarningly annoyed frown on his face. It pointed him in the direction of the vent, obviously wanting him out of the way.
"Uh, okay…" Scott coughed. "If-If you're sure about that. I won't get in your way."
With that, Marionette slipped through the vent and back out the other side. By now he had almost fully recovered from the cracks and the jolt, so when his eyes landed on the fight-
"Let's try another controlled shock!"
-he was seeing purple.
Marionette teleported himself closer and then flung himself onto Ennard's back, just dodging Mike's hatchet, as the man was still trying to fight the animatronic back. From the way Ennard was turning, it was obvious that he was trying to get away and that Mike was the one keeping the fight going. Considering that Ennard only wanted to get away so that he could scoop Scott, it was understandable that Mike wasn't letting him go without a fight. Though Mike's left hand was ensnared and that was all that Ennard needed to give him a painful shock.
Almost immediately, Marionette's fingers jabbed into Ennard's neck and he coaxed his strings in as deeply as he could. Instead of just the chiming song of 'Pop Goes the Weasel', he started to emanate a higher noise, once just high enough that Mike couldn't hear it. The pitch immediately started to delve in just as deeply as the strings. If Marionette couldn't fight Ennard with blunt force, then he would have to take him down from the inside. It was starting to work too; Ennard's focus became fractured and most of its thoughts became empty, mindless.
That didn't necessarily stop Ennard. He couldn't think straight, static was edging on his vision, but the aggression was still prominent. It reached upwards with its free arm to grab Marionette around the neck, but was rewarded to a sharp strike to the side with the hatchet. This time it did hit wires and the amalgam let out a crackling cry. It decided to change focus and slung it arm, slamming Mike back first into the wall beside the doorway. Ennard, blinded by the frenzy, released Marionette and grabbed Mike with both hands. It yanked the hatchet from his grasp and then threw him back into the breaker room.
Ennard then slung the hatchet off somewhere into the dark, seemingly not wanting anyone to use it, including himself. He followed by wrapping his wires around Marionette who started trying to slip out of his grasp, and was doing so rather easily. The strings were getting deeper and the Puppet's influence was starting to dip further in to the point where Ennard could hear the lull of hushes. As though he was trying to force him into a state of calmness. Marionette was trying to coax Ennard into submission.
In a clear act of defiance, Ennard jolted him with a surge of electricity, forcing past the interference to do so. Marionette tried to fight past it and the moment the shock stopped, he was back to trying to overtake him. Another sharp jolt strangled his body as he finally felt his strings ensnare some of the actual endoskeleton located under the bed of wires. Right when Marionette had the moment to start possession, it was stolen by the volts, and Ennard started to take heavy footsteps towards the vent, determined to return to the Scooping room.
Mike barged back out of the breaker room and, even without a weapon, even without any line of defense, he charged in as Marionette received another violent shock. This time it was cut off when Mike rammed his shoulder into the center of Ennard's back. Apparently Ennard was starting to come undone, as the strike alone caused a mass of his wires to come loose off his pelvis. Marionette's recovery caused his control to slip, meaning that Ennard was more than able to round on Mike, swing him around, and awkwardly 'throw' him towards the vent.
Though it wasn't much of a throw. It was more live a heavy push that caused Mike to slide across the tiles on his back. He didn't even make it to the vent and was back on his feet and moments. He would've been back on Ennard again too, but couldn't see much of anything and had to flick on his flashlight to catch a glimpse of what was happening in front of him.
As Marionette's strings tightened and tugged, Ennard's mind started to slowly shut down. He was shrieking, frantic, violent, and nearly grabbed for Marionette again. This time, Marionette barely managed to shift out of the way, forcing silent pleadings into the core, where the amalgam was forced to hear them. Then, suddenly, everything went disastrously wrong the wires loosened around Ennard's chest began to come loose and twisted their way backaround Marionette's body. Some of them pressed into his black fabric and tried to break through. He was trying to overtake Marionette's body.
However, Marionette wouldn't willingly let this happen. He shoved himself downwards, sliding easily through the wires and dropping to the tiles. What he didn't expect was for Ennard to do the same thing he did to Mike to him. Seemingly fed up with the fight, Ennard grabbed Marionette, swung to the side, and threw him right at Mike. Mike hurried forward, braced himself, and caught Marionette at his own legs. It was an awkward sort of grab, but it kept his fragile mask off the ground.
Unfortunately for Ennard, his attempt to get Mike and Marionette off him landed him in a worse situation. Now both were blocking the vent and taking the long way was simply not an option. Not when these two were more than capable of getting to Scott first. He trembled in irritation as his wires started drawing in, trying to realign themselves into their proper places before he struck; and it was obvious that he was about to strike. The silence was a dead giveaway after Ennard had been so vocal.
Marionette pulled himself out of Mike's grasp and hovered in place. He raised his arms and paused, poised, seemingly waiting for something. Mike noticed the dull cracking noise and looked back over his head. The pane of glass directly above them was starting to crack and it wasn't hard to connect it to Marionette's current movements.
Then, with a violent shudder from the Puppet, the glass broke. The Security Guard quickly shielded his face as the glass pieces clattered to the floor, but then watched as they were swept up in a telekinetic hold. They surrounded Marionette protectively as he kept his arms poised, as though puppeteering the glass to hover there. The light reflected off the sharp pieces, making them more visible to all parties. They were like dozens of little blades, made of glass just thick enough to be a threat, all being controlled to hover in place.
But that wasn't the only thing Mike noticed. From the lack of chiming music to the lower static gargles, from the fact that Marionette's legs were touching the ground as though to hold him up to the way he limply flinched every few moments, it was obvious that he was exhausted. He wouldn't be able to hold out much longer and, unlike Ennard, he couldn't just pull himself back together. Yet he still stood, so Mike stood beside him- though far enough that he didn't interfere with the glass shards.
This was it. The amalgam was staring them down. Marionette was waiting for him to strike. Mike was standing to the side without a weapon and with no idea where his actual weapons currently were. This was the face off.
Ennard took a quick step forward, with the low garble in his chest raising in volume. It was followed by an almighty crack.
Which was then followed by Ennard's head falling against his chest, hanging on by a nest of wires.
There was a swing and another crack, but this time Mike caught the brief glimpse of the hatchet before it fell into Ennard's upper back. The animatronic grabbed at its head and neck, dropping down onto its knees as it scrambled to pull itself together. Wires that were no longer secured on the back fell onto the tiled floor beneath him.
And there, standing behind Ennard, was the Phone Guy clutching the hatchet.
Mike's reaction was immediate. "How in the hell did you get over there?!" he blurted out as he stared at the other man.
Scott was too stunned to respond at first, staring down at Ennard, who was still struggling to get his head back into place. It was obvious that even partial decapitation wasn't going to kill Ennard, but then again, the goal wasn't to kill Ennard. The goal was to subdue him, and he had. There was no getting up and fighting in this state.
Marionette's arms dropped to his sides and with them fell the glass pieces. He then started to slump towards his human companion. Mike barely managed to hook an arm around him before he hit the floor.
"Easy. I've got you," Mike assured, then looked over at Scott. "The elevator's on! Let's get out of here before It pulls itself back together!" Scott gave an uncomfortable nod and started to step around Ennard, looking down at him as he went.
Unfortunately, Ennard managed to somehow turn his head. Even though barely hanging on, he turned to lock gazes with the human that he had clung to before.
In this same moment, Scott broke into a limping sprint and followed Mike into the vent, through the Module, and into the next vent. Mike climbed out of the vent first, coaxing the weakened Puppet with him and lifted him into his arms- regardless if he had gained back enough strength to hover or not. He stepped into the lift and Scott followed right behind, fumbling with the buttons, and then started to send the elevator on its ascent through the building.
Scott rested his forehead on the cool wall above the keypad and tried to even out his breathing. His mouth was dried out, his muscles were only now starting to ache, and his pulse was heavy and quick. None of these symptoms were new, he just hadn't noticed them until now. He looked back towards Mike, who was leaning against the opposite wall of the elevator. Mike looked rather disheveled as well, but seemed to be more emotionally put together. Then again, both of them were still going off a strong adrenaline high.
It was then that Scott looked to the Puppet in Mike's grasp. He couldn't tell whether it was conscious or not, or whether that applied to animatronics at all, but he was concerned about the shocking. The rule of thumb with tasing animatronics was that one use was considered enough, for multiple shocks could cause parts and pieces to fail. Again, he didn't know if this applied to the Puppet, but he did know that he had been shocked repeatedly. Scott hadn't even known that Ennard could shock others like he did; he supposed that he was lucky that he hadn't been on the receiving end of it.
Mike now turned his focus on Scott, noticing his staring, and asked again. "So, how did you get behind him?"
"I came through the vent while you were fighting. Just, you know, snuck around him before he could notice," Scott explained. "Couldn't have done it without you… Uh… Thanks for coming. I… I'm sorry."
"Wouldn't miss it," Mike answered. He then looked down towards Marionette as Scott turned to watch the window, counting the floors. Mike lifted the Puppet closer and tucked his head onto his shoulder. "You did great," he murmured to him, partially not caring if the Phone Guy heard or not. "That was amazing. You were amazing," Mike continued to praise, trying to ease the animatronic. It was only now, in the light of the elevator, that he noticed the distorted paint on his cheek signaling that his mask had been cracked earlier.
Yet before he could say another word, the elevator came to a sudden stop. The main lights in the elevator then died, leaving only a light by the controls and some dim light through the windows.
"For crying out loud!" Mike blurted out. "What is it now?!" As though he didn't already know.
"He… He shut off the power," Scott sputtered out. "We're trapped." They stood silent for a couple of seconds.
"Well, it's not like he's getting up here," Mike assured as he looked to the door. He wasn't sure what floor they were on. "Is there a way to get that open?" Before Scott could answer, the speaker on the keypad came to life with a crackle of laughter.
"I-I-I hope you d-di-didn't thiiink you were- were leaving so sooon!~" Ennard's voice was even worse than earlier. It was now a combined mess of the higher pitched chortling and the low broken gargling, and it didn't exactly sound from the shuffling through the box like Ennard himself was all the way put back together. "Sc-Scott, you wouldn't leave me! We- We- Together!" It was obvious that Ennard was no longer thinking cohesively. "Such a warm body. Warm. I need it. I'm c-coming for you!"
At this point, Scott knew that he was pretty much in the worst situation possible. Mike's swears alone showed that he wasn't prepared to fight, and the Puppet was clearly in danger of receiving lasting damage. Scott laid his finger on the call button, licked his cracked lips, and then pressed it down. "Ennard."
"There you aaaare! I- I almost missed you! Ha ha ha!" The brief, halting laughter broke down into the move frenzied laughter. "It's okay, I forgive you for hu-hurting me. I know you're scared, and I- and I hurt you too. We're all even!" Wires grated over whatever Ennard was talking into. "I don't have to come up if you c-come down."
"Ennard," Scott started a bit more firmly, "I'm not coming back down."
"Then I'll just come for you," Ennard suggested. "I-I'll be there soon!"
"Ennard, don't." It took all his nerve, but Scott managed to keep his voice resoundingly firm. "Please. Don't do this to yourself. You're… You're just going to hurt yourself more in the process."
He mentally accessed what he wanted to say before continuing. "I know you don't understand it. You don't understand anything except that for some reason you… would want to exist inside a human body." He pressed his forehead back to the wall. "And it's your programming, Ennard. The ones that you are made from, those animatronics… They were made by someone. Someone who just… Who would hurt anyone. He would make animatronics just so that they could hurt others… And I don't think they knew they were made like that."
The silence on the other end persisted, so Scott decided not to back down yet.
"I don't know if you lied the entire time, but I… I really did enjoy our time together… And there is a part of me that still does care for you even though you probably only wanted me to come down here. I don't want to leave you here. I came here to bring you home… But you wouldn't let me, and now you won't let me leave. You're willing to kill me for my skin." Scott made sure to angle his face away from where Mike could see it as his eyes started to burn. "You're probably not even hearing any of this, and if you are you probably don't care, but I need to say it."
There was still looming silence on the other side.
"Ennard, 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," Scott was nearly begging. "This is a life or death decision, Ennard. You let me go home or you let me die."
Then even more silence, but this time Scott did not break it. He just waited, finger poised over the button, prepared to see if the words meant anything. It seemed like Ennard had already left and heard none of it. Though it was in this moment of doubt that he was rewarded with a crackling shriek. A yell of broken voices hissing and cracking over the speaker. It felt like Scott's heart had stopped hearing it, unsure how to interpret such a disturbing sound.
Then in that same moment, in that same breath, the main lights turned back on and power returned to the lift. Scott eagerly pressed the button to the surface level and the elevator began to raise, unstopped.
The entire time, Ennard cried out in distorted words over the speaker. It sounded like he was begging for something, or was hysterically crying, and it was gruesome to hear. It was just as gruesome as watching his head fall to his chest. Every semi-audible promise and yell of his name, as though Ennard hadn't willingly done what he did, even though they both knew that this was his first decision not forced by the need to fulfil his internal programming. That was why he called out but didn't stop the elevator; perhaps part of the animatronic finally understood.
By time they started to reach the top, Ennard's voice was becoming obscured with static, but unbelievably Scott could still hear the apologies, the begging, the pleading for him to come back.
And as twisted as it was, part of Scott almost wanted to cave,
but that wasn't the part that followed Mike out of the elevator.
Mable: So, this and the next chapter were going to be one chapter, but then it became so incredibly long that I realized the only sane thing to do was to break them up. As such, chapter 80 might arrive quicker than you think… Which isn't saying too much, considering this shocking writing streak I've been on for most of December. I just wanted to say this now because the ending seems abrupt, but there's a reason for this. Expect the next chapter soon!