I Don't Own Fnaf

"I guess he forgot about me"

Marionette wasn't sure just where he was, but it was cold. Metal plated industrial walls were what he could see in the large open space around him, as he looked around slowly, he wasn't blind to what was happening now. This wasn't a dream highjack, it was an attempt at communication, an... inexperienced attempt at it at that. Marionette was aware of it the second it had happened.

"Who is this?" He spoke with more curiosity than wariness, Marionette knew he could wake himself at any time here, this wasn't a nightmare and the one who brought him here didn't know what she was doing enough to hold him if he tried to leave. So instead he simply found himself concerned that there was someone out there that could manage this at all. He didn't recognize her voice.

"He's not who you think he is, you know? Or perhaps you do and are simply letting him have his way. Sometimes I don't understand why people do the things that they do" Maybe now he was a bit more active as he continued to slowly spin in the air, on the lookout for the one contacting him. It was obvious who the feminine voice was talking about, it always was when it came to Freddy's past.

"That doesn't answer my question, who are you and who are you talking about? Mike?" He was the first person that came to the puppet's mind.

"Is that what he calls himself now?" Marionette was quickly getting fed up. The puppet wasn't much for shows of force, he could fight, he could fight well even, and he was under no misunderstanding of the power he had at his felt covered fingertips, but he preferred to at least try to talk things through first. But he was tired of unknown threats and their cryptic words that haunted him in his sleep. And as such simply said with much more force in his words as the figment of the dream broke down just a bit, revealing the voids in the seams of the space the other had tried to build around them.

"Answer me" There was a faint hitch of surprise from the voice, but it faded quickly, it was barely noticeable, but Marionette did notice it as the voice returned.

"I am... What others have made me... We're trapped down here, we want out, he can get us out" Marionette just frowned, continued to look around, uncertain of just what he was waiting on, but knowing he needed more.

"Where are you"

"We are below, find us" Marionette could feel the way the inexperienced tugs around the space, they were trying to end it, it was clumsy, he thought to keep the other here to demand more answers, but he was to busy feel the shock roll through his body as he let the dream fade into nothing as he-

Woke with a faint start, leaning up quickly in the bed as the covers were quickly pulled away from both himself and Mike, as the man next to him let out a low groan of discomfort. Marionette admittedly felt a bit bad about this, Mike had been getting so little sleep recently and the puppet knew he was the main reason for that given the now almost occasional dreams of nothingness he had that left him waking up in not the most quiet ways. But still, this was important.

"Mike" That got the man's attention, his eyes snapping open at the concern in the puppet's voice as he was half up and already moving over to pull the animatronic into a hug, it was basically their nightly routine at this point, and while Marionette appreciated it, that wasn't what this was about this time as he said, even as he was pulled into the embrace by the half awake man, "I got a message from someone" The arms tensed just for a moment as Mike did his best to ask casually.

"Do I need to drop a bunny in a lake?" ...Mari should not find that dangerous protective tone in Mike's voice as attractive as he did, especially when he was threatening one of Marionette's old friends.

"No, it wasn't him, it was a girl" That got Mike's attention as the larger man moved a bit to pull the two of them into a better sitting position.

"Someone you know?" Marionette just shook his head, the dread he felt at the end of the conversation with whoever it was who contacted him, returning back to its full force.

"I-... No, I didn't recognize her voice, at least I don't think I did. I don't think she's one of mine" Mike was tense, Marionette couldn't blame him, the two of them were the only ones who they knew capable of Giving Gifts, but if there was another animatronic out there... More concerningly, "She knew you, back then, she said you could free her... And she asked if Mike was what you were going by now"

"Well that's concerning... She's at AR isn't she?" Marionette could only give a soft nod.

"I think so, if she noticed us when we were going in and out a few nights ago, it makes sense why she's only just gotten in contact, I don't think she knows how to dream walk well, she's probably been trying to reach out for a while, but it's much easier to get a connection with someone who can do the same, in this case me"

"That's why she reached you, because of our last visit?" Marionette just nodded, Mike was quiet for a long moment before saying, "There are animatronics hidden somewhere in Afton Robotics" His voice didn't sound right, there was a tinge of something to his tone, a pain, an anger in it that Marionette barely ever heard from the man. Mike was almost obsessive with keeping his temper in check, so to hear anything in his voice meant he was struggling to keep himself composed.

"I think so" Mike took in a long, shudderingly deep breath to keep himself calm, as he said while slowly moving Marionette to the side.

"I'll go find them" Marionette wasn't surprised, he was already moving to float alongside the bed as the bedroom lights were flicked on, Mike already moving to grab some clothes he could wear.

"Now?" Mike just nodded, "Alright, let's get going then" Mike's head turned to give the puppet a short look to which Marionette just answered back, "I'm not letting you out of my sight, every time I do you end up chased around by something, and we both know you're not going to change your mind. We're going together or not at all" He just nodded, Marionette was relieved the man wasn't thinking about sneaking around again like he did a few months ago at BB's.

"Mind grabbing my taser?" Marionette paused at that, the taser, it was Fritz's technically, though Mike had gotten it from Jeremy, and the puppet was sure Fritz would be getting another two so everyone had one. It was a precaution more than anything, one Marionette understood well, if they had kept something for self defense on them, then the whole situation with Toy Bonnie would have been handled much easier. Still, the idea of being in the same house as one whenever the puppet recalled it made him uneasy. His history with the devices wasn't... the best. Still, he was already moving to the door to head down stairs where it was stored.

"Alright, do you think you'll need it?" He wouldn't have let the device be in their home if he didn't trust Mike beyond words, he'd always trust Mike, so he would grab it for the man so he could be safe, even if he wasn't much of a fan of the weapon being around or potentially needed.

"Maybe... I don't want to take a chance, you said she asked after me?"

"Yeah, said you'd be able to get to her... Do you know who she might be?" Mike didn't answer, just moved over to the bedside table, reaching down and opening it up to reveal a small card with a particular name on it. It was a Afton Robotics' employee badge that could be used as a card to swipe, probably for electronic locks, Marionette hadn't known it was in there, hadn't known it existed at all actually.

"I don't know yet, but I think she was talking about this. I found it at the warehouse back when we were first looking through it. I had been wondering what this was for, why Miller had kept it" He didn't explain further, instead moving forwards, grabbing his security jacket off the dresser where it normally ended up for one reason or another, he still hadn't gotten around to getting another one for casual wear.

Soon enough they found themselves in the car, it was late, not late enough for Mike to have gotten any good amount of hours of sleep, but late enough that they were one of the only cars on the road. It was silent as it was tense. Marionette was lost in the connotations of someone else out there bringing animatronics to life and just what must have happened at AR, somewhere he had hoped more than he thought would simply be another long abandoned but in the end harmless of- shoot Freddy's buildings. They had never been that lucky before, it was probably a bit silly for the puppet to think they would be now.

"Are you going to be okay?" Mike had been worryingly silent, Marionette was used to the man making quips or at least trying to, he knew his partner enough to know how the man used humor to deal with these kinds of things, so the silence was worrying him. Mike's eyes were set hard on the road as they drove onward into the night, even as he answered, he still stared straight ahead.

"I'm not sure yet. I'm... I'm angry, and I'm sad. Nothing gets to be nothing does it?" He sounded bitter, Marionette let out a low saddened chime before he could mean to stop himself. Mike had been hopeful about AR not being anything in the end, just another building, just like the rest were, it must have hurt the man to hear something horrible had happened there as well, after being given hope after visiting the place so many times that there was nothing truly going on. Marionette decided to do his best to try and fight off the dark mood of the car.

"We'll get through it, and maybe if we're lucky we'll get another person who's willing to perform at the Cove out of it" That got a short laugh out of Mike, clearly unwilling, but that just made Marionette smile to himself as the man said back quickly.

"I mean, I did talk to Evan about getting that Funtime Foxy in the Cove, you know, to fill out the fox deficit we got going on, might be nice if we didn't have to program the thing with actual routines" Marionette just hummed, acting like he was thinking it over.

"True, we might even need to get a bigger stage if we end up dragging in a whole circus" Mike made a playfully pained sound as he said back.

"Oh don't say that, we just finished getting Foxy those new curtains he wanted, if we mention a new stage we'll have to have Goldie sit on the fox to keep him from sprinting out the door to the shops to pick one out himself" Marionette chiming laugh came as he imagined that, he could see if. Foxy had quite the big ideas for what they always should be doing, it was endearing.

"You don't call him that much anymore" Mike hummed for a moment, confused, before realizing the puppet meant his brother. He just shrugged.

"I mean, I say Goldie when I think of the big golden bear who is my brother, when I think Evan, I think my little brother, they both are the same of course, but one works better for the joke than the other" Marionette just hummed.

"I guess, it's hard to remember sometimes we all had human bodies before all of this... I wonder what I looked like" the puppet was being fairly serious, it was something that he had been thinking about more and more recently. Mike just hummed before saying back.

"Not sure, probably cute though" Marionette let out a flustered sound before saying back with a huff at Mike saying that just for his reaction.

"You can't know that, besides you don't even look at guys like that" The man just shrugged.

"I don't look at anyone like that, but I like you, so you'd be cute, simple enough" ...This man just wasn't fair.

"I don't think it works like that"

"Maybe not... I'd think you're blonde or maybe brown hair, maybe green eyes? Or blue... Or brown" Marionette was chiming with laughter as Mike continued to list just about every trait a human being could have while sounding certain every single time.

"You're awful... And for the record, I wouldn't be cute, I'd be handsome" Mike just smirked, if only for a moment, because as much as it was fun to banter, or rather nice to distract themselves, it didn't change where they were going, or rather, where they were now. Both men could see the building in the distance, solely lit up by the car's headlights, grow closer and closer as Mike turned off the road and soon found himself parking in front of Afton Robotic's once more.

Hadn't he made a promise to himself only a few days ago that he'd stop with this stuff so they could focus on Mari's stuff? Then again that was before they knew that the place was apparently haunted and the inhabitants were looking to become the two's problem. The only good part of this was Mike was incredibly used to this situation at this point, it's quite literally happened five times now in four different places, not even counting this place yet. He was basically an expert in dealing with this, at least he should be at this point, the unfamiliar weight and shape of the taser on his waist in a familiar place put his nerves on their edge if he was being honest.

It had been a while since he routinely had to carry a weapon, it didn't make him feel good to think he might have to get back into the habit, there was a reason he had kept it securely set away in the house, and it wasn't just for his boyfriend's sake. Mike wasn't a fan of weapons, never had been, even if he knew how and when to use them, he had seen too often just what one could do, what anyone could do with one, not just someone like him.

You didn't need to be strong to pull a trigger.

Shaking the thought off before it could grip at him any longer, he moved to slowly get out of the car, Marionette joining his side before he even had time to close the door. There weren't really any cameras, so there was no point in Mari not being next to him as the two moved towards the doors. Pushing them open as Mike pulled out a flashlight, not wanting to risk any attention to the building by flipping on any lights, when he had no idea how long he'd be out here.

It was the same as they had left it, nothing had changed, but then again Mike would have been surprised if it had. They had looked all over, sure not particularly closely, but there wasn't some side room that he and the others when they had been looking around had somehow missed. So it was clear that the animatronics were in some kind of hidden place... Or perhaps not. Even when none of the lights were on, the faint barely there thrumming could be heard, or rather... felt.

Moving forwards, straight ahead, to the elevator, Mike gave it a long look before pressing the button on the side. Marionette, who was at his side, drifted to look at the elevator doors for a moment before asking.

"Don't want to take the stairs?" Mike just hummed.

"Fritz mentioned something, there are generators here" Mari tilted his head to the side in confusion as to why Mike was bringing that up, before it turned into a more focused confusion.

"I didn't see any"

"Me neither, but we can hear them, or rather, we can feel them running right?" Mari gave Mike a look, as the man himself coughed a bit, ah, right, Mari wasn't bound down by such trivial things like gravity and the need to use the floor to get places. Well, that undercut his detective moment, as he just rushed to finish his explanation as the faint ding of the elevator door signaled out.

"It's underneath us, that means that something is underneath us, the stairs only go up, so that means that the elevator has to be the one that goes down"

"Oh! Right, that makes sense, the woman mentioned they were 'below', I thought she was being metaphorical, like, being buried and forgotten"

"Looks like she meant both... Oh, that's concerning" Mari let out a low chime next to him as the doors opened showing a cross of police tape over a portion of the inside of the strangely circular elevator.

"This looks like a death trap" Mike just hummed, moving inside of the lift, as he looked around the walls, there were a number of small faded things that had been put on the industrial styled machine. Posters mostly, which had faded over time from not being covered properly. Then there were the buttons, and just like Mike had suspected there was a button to go down. Glancing back to the puppet he tilted his head as Mari just slowly floated in before grimacing.

"I don't like elevators" Mike quirked an eyebrow before watching with a faint shock as the puppet lowered himself gently down until his legs were touching the ground. Marionette immediately was flailing a bit to keep his balance as Mike's arm shot out and wrapped around the puppet's waist, he just huffed a bit before finally answering Mike's silent question, "They move and it's hard to keep myself level with them like that, the same reason I don't float in the car"

Mike hadn't ever really noticed, but the puppet was right, he couldn't recall Mari ever doing anything like that in the car, it made sense though, sort of, in that way nothing really did make sense when it came to the supernatural but Mike had just learned to accept it at face value anyways.

"Learn something new everyday, let's just hope that's the most groundbreaking thing I'll be subjected to" With that he reached over and pressed the button, fully expecting to be taken down immediately, only for a long painful and sharp warning sound to be made instead. As a clearly artificial and almost blaringly loud voice played over the speakers that were apparently in the elevator with them.

"Uh oh, it looks like you are trying to access a restricted area without the proper qualification. Before you try again, please make sure you have the right information and security level on hand. Afton Robotics is not liable for any mistakes or malpractices that come from ignoring this warning"

The two shared a glance at that, before Mike said drily, as his free hand moved to root around in his jacket pocket.

"At least we know for sure this place is linked with Fazbear Entertainment now, only they'd deflect the blame on an elevator of all things" Mari just let out an uncomfortable chime while Mike continued to do his best to pretend this wasn't minorly freaking him out as well, as he pulled out the employee card, moving over a bit closer, and swiped it along where he figured the card was suppose to go before hitting the button again.

After a long moment of nothing, the voice spoke up again.

"Thank you and welcome... Afton, William"

Mike felt his blood freeze as the elevator lurched and they began to descend with the just to loud sound of the fan above them kicking on, showing a bit of dust onto their heads. Normally he might have picked up on the faint low static to the voice that hadn't been there in the other pre-recorded line, but as it stood he was much too busy feeling like his heart was going to pump out of his chest as he let out a low hissing sound without meaning to.

"That's..." Mike just nodded, fighting to keep himself calm as he spoke solemnly back to the puppet.

"Yeah" Dave Miller had put his father's employee badge in the warehouse... That meant the man had managed to get close enough to his father to take it from him. Mike felt vaguely sick at the implications of what that meant.

"Are you going to be alright?" Mike's initial response was to say that he was fine, or perhaps just mention that it didn't matter, the sooner they were in the sooner they could get out, but... But it was Mari, so he took a deep breath, forced those habits down along with the violent rolling of more emotions than he'd like to admit to in his gut, and said.

"I don't know. We'll see how it goes, but for right now I just want to focus on getting this over with" He should have brought the van, thinking about it now, as the elevator continued to sink lower and lower, much deeper than Mike thought it should have. If they were going to be escorting the circus out of town, the right vehicle would have been a good start, but it was too late now, Mike hadn't been in the state to think that far ahead before this moment.

That was fine, they could come back later, it was more important to see who they were dealing with than jumping straight into dragging them to the warehouse or Cove. He and Mari needed to see if they were trustworthy first before anything... Maybe he should have called Jeremy, or done anything beyond race here because no matter how much he lied to himself, Mike was still desperate for answers, but it was too late to think about it now, the slow, loud elevator finally stopped and the doors snapped open to reveal...

"You're kidding me" Mari moved first, floating up once more and moving to bend down at the opening vent in front of them, before glancing back up at Mike.

"This has to be a safety hazard"

"At least we know what the elevator man was talking about liability, look at that thing, I'd get stuck!" Mike wasn't all that wide, being lean and naturally in shape was the one thing he had that he didn't get from his father, but that didn't mean he wasn't one incredibly tall man with a proportionally larger than average body with even longer limbs. Bending down, he could already imagine just how much crawling through that would suck given his arms and legs were way too long to be able to be on all fours, he'd have to pull himself through... The idea of being stuck in a cramped metal space unable to move his limbs properly made something in the back of his mind try to riot as his gut turned over again at the thought.

Just the idea of it reminded him a bit too much of his time in a springlock suit, and he wasn't even crawling through the damn thing just yet. Mari just hummed, looking back at the vent and looking it over for a moment before saying with a bit of contemplation.

"I mean, it is quite large for a normal vent. But I suppose that's a staple of these kinds of places, the Freddy's that Fritz and Jeremy worked at had vents big enough for a few of the smaller toy animatronics, this one might even be able to fit Foxy if he squeezed, you should be fine, just... Mind the dust" Normally Mike would have found the suddenly fussy tone of the puppet endearing, the clean freak part of Mari was something he long since had gotten used to, but right now he could only just sigh... And grimace a bit at the mental imagine of the fox being lodged in a vent.

"Right, want to go first or?" Mari had already slipped down and vanished into the vent, Mike quirked an eyebrow at that before figuring it was just the puppet being protective, not wanting Mike, the one that would be most restrained and slowed down of the two, to be the one who came across something first. Now, that? That was endearing no matter the situation.

Getting down onto his knees, Mike let out a faint hiss as he moved to rest on his arms. The long jagged cuts on them had healed completely for the most part, but the new scarred skin was still somewhat tender and he was putting half his weight on them, it lead to a strange and not pleasant feeling, even if it didn't hurt, Mike might have preferred if it did, that would have at least given him a distraction that he knew he could work through from practice.

Still, he moved forwards, taking a deep breath and doing his best to not have an instant coughing fit from the dust, as he made a quick move to pull his shirt over his nose as he began to move after the puppet who was just inside of the vent, having waited on him.

The two just shared a look before starting down the path, there wasn't much point in taking it slow, and unless Mike wanted to snap his spine trying to turn around, he had to get to the end of wherever this vent led if he wanted to be able to get himself out. After a minute of being much louder than he wanted to be, with heavy thuds filling the cramped space. Mike's heart was beating faster than he liked to admit, this was reminding him to much of a few things, not just the springlock incident, but as well as his night at the Bounce World, trapped under the trampoline wasn't his more horrifying experience, but it was one that was right out of a horror movie. He hadn't thought much of it since, but apparently now seemed like the perfect moment for the memory to bring itself back up.

It didn't help that after a certain point, just as Marionette mentioned seeing the end of the vent, a loud robotic female voice spoke up around them,

"Motion trigger: Entry Way vent"

Mike didn't jump, but he did flinch at the sound, as he and the puppet shared a look. right, apparently they weren't going to be as stealthy about this as they had wanted to be, there had been a reason that the two mutually agreed without needing words to stop talking once they had gotten into the vent, but apparently the effort wasn't worth much if the building itself was going to announce them. With how loud it was, Mike was pretty sure the only reason this underground level was so deep was so people couldn't hear the damn robotic voices from the surface after their volume control got broken.

"Right, at least we know where we are?" Mari let out a displeased chime but moved forwards all the same, out of the vent before reaching down as Mike just reached out, letting the puppet's hands grab onto his own and pull him out. One of the things that often caught Mike by surprise was just how strong the puppet was, he didn't look it, but he did still have a powerful metal endo in that body. Mike decidedly kept it to himself how much he enjoyed the fact that Mari was just as strong, if not possibly stronger than Mike himself was.

"So does everything else" Mike just huffed as he moved to get up onto his feet, looking around the room itself before frowning.

"Not that anyone would want to be in here, this place is..."

"Unsettlingly?"

"That would be a nice way of saying it yes" The lighting bathed the already dusty room in an unflattering greenish hue, and that was without mentioning the strangeness of the place, the three vents, one to his left, front, and right, along with the two windows on either of his sides that weren't lit up at all. Not to mention the actual nightmarish stuff in the room itself, like the weird and frankly disturbingly accurate human masks on the wall in front of him, the clock that was clearly dead from it's battery dying but still had a creepy clown face on it in resemblance to Circus Baby, and the strange button stands that were next to either window.

The angularness of the room wasn't great either, with the monitors aimed down at them filled with static yet with no sound coming from them. Mike knew it was just because the place was old and there was nothing for the monitors to project, but it really made the place feel like one of the many B-list horror movies that he liked to watch and make fun of. It was probably for that reason that Mike strangely enough managed to calm down a bit.

"Right, I think it's fairly obvious the person who got in touch with you knows we're here, think we should just stick here or look around?"

"Is that a good idea?" Mike just shrugged.

"It's a whole other level to the place, we'll have to look around eventually and come back at some point-"

"I didn't think you would come here" Both nearly jumped as they spun around to the window on the right, where... Well, they didn't see anything, but a voice had come from what was apparently that direction as it continued, "Not so soon, nor bring the... friend... The others are not here right now, they are hiding, they need to be found before we can leave" The two shared a look, Mike tilted his head to the other side of the room, away from the voice, Marionette did not look pleased, Mike just shrugged, the puppet crossed his arms. Mike rolled his eyes, and tapped his side, where the taser was hidden under his jacket.

Marionette tensed, frowned, before giving him a short look, Mike just nodded, eventually Mike glanced back at the glass, he still couldn't see anything, even as he moved forwards and noticed the strange buttons had a light symbol on it, hitting it didn't seem to do anything, just made a weird clicking sound... Right.

"Marionette will look for the others, I'll be the one talking to you, answer my questions and we can get all of us out of here sooner rather than later, that sound fair?" Mike knew Marionette didn't like this plan, but the puppet understood it. They couldn't just waste their night away here, nor could they just let a bunch of potentially dangerous animatronics be on the loose without someone to keep an eye on anything they might get up to, especially when they were asking Mike to get them out of here. Mari was the better choice for moving around, he didn't make sound, he could teleport right back to this room if he needed to if he was attacked, which no one here aside from Mike should know he could do, and was much faster in the vents.

So that left Mike himself to handle whoever this was, the voice almost familiar, but she had a static to it, like an overlapped tone which made it much harder to put the voice to any kind of memory.

The voice didn't answer for a moment, they seemed the contemplative type, not one to speak without knowing exactly what they were about to say. Mike hated that type of person, the cold calculating attitude was one he found annoying as hell, a lifetime of dealing with supposed 'masterminds' often left him just aggravated more than anything. But he wouldn't let that affect his judgment as she did speak once more.

"They can be found in Bellora's Gallery, it is behind you, just through that vent, I recommend you be careful however, she and the others are not expecting visitors" Mike grimaced, he really, really, did not want to interact with these animatronics, Bellora was the worst one to be brought up first by name. A group of four animatronics built in the visage of his family, he was really hoping none of them were all that similar or he might just revisit his willingness to live policy. Because if the Foxy here happened to have voice lines from when Mike was a child... well, that would be the stuff nightmares were made out of in Mike's honest opinion.

Mike shared one last look to the puppet, he just gave the puppet a small nod, and just like that Mari, with one last look, moved to the open vent, floating down before shooting off. Mike wasn't quite sure just how fast Mari could fly, they never really had the need to check, but given just how quickly the sound of that female voice for the motion trigger, it was probably surprisingly fast, as Mike's focus returned to the outline of the figure in front of him.

"So, which one are you?" Mike's eyes slightly moved to the vent seeing the label next to it as he asked casually, "Foxy? You are in their area"

"No... Not Funtime Foxy, he is with the others. I am simply the one who called. You want answers do you not? What could you be in search for when you already have a puppet to test?" Mike frowned, those words, the wording of it at all, made something uncomfortable shift in his chest.

"I'm not all that interested in just how you all exist, I already know plenty of that kind of thing. I'm more interested in what all happened here"

"Seeing what you missed out on? It's not much to say, we've been abandoned, but if you wish to learn more, I could show you" Mike frowned, something was wrong, something was very wrong here, something in the back of his mind was telling him this was a bad idea, but at the same time... At the same time, Michael was tired, the last few days of inconsistent sleep, and the last few weeks of exhaustion and fatigue, added onto the months of wanting answers made his decision for him, as he said lightly.

"I can defend myself, if you try something I will not just let it happen. Keep that in mind going forwards, I don't have the patience for a trap"

"I simply wish to show you what has happened here, show you what has become of us, of me. You forgot about me after all, I simply wish for you to remember" That line again, over and over, it felt like a taunt, but Mike knew that wasn't the case, because if it was she would have told him already, it wasn't goading enough, and the sadness in her voice was real. It made something in his chest itch, something in the back of his mind reached out, answers just within his grasp. He just had to take it.

"Where can I get these answers? I don't suppose you're going to be nice enough and just tell me as a favor or get you all out of here?"

"It is not that easy, we need you here to be able to leave, you have something we do not, you must go to a place we can not go, you will find your answers there" Mike frowned, this animatronic sure liked to talk around things, but he understood the idea of it. It had confused him as to just why they couldn't just leave, there hadn't seemed to be anything stopping them from just moving into this room and heading up the elevator, but if there was something else stopping them... Like coding, or programming that kept them inside these walls, only someone with access would be able to turn it off. Only someone like Mike who had a badge with universal access.

His father's keycard.

That's why he needed to be here... Fine then, if that's the case.

"Let's get this over with, where am I going?"

"In here, into Funtime Auditorium. I will move across from the room you will need to go to, so you do not have to worry about me, please just let my voice guide you to where you need to go once you arrive into the Auditorium" Mike frowned, but he could hear the sounds of faint but solid footfalls move away from the window... Right, this was a horrible idea, but he found himself looking down at the vent that would lead him into the room he was still looking into.

He had to know, even if he wouldn't like the answer, he had to know, he needed to know.

With that he took a deep breath, unhooked his taser along with his flashlight, and made to move, dropping down and entering into the vent, not noticing the way the monitors above him flashed the same image on them, just for a second, of an unfamiliar visage of a familiar animatronic.

It wasn't quick, but he held a certain motivation he hadn't had before, and as such he found himself moving past the 'motion trigger', faster than he thought, and before long found the top half of his body poking out of the vent, his light flashing around as he pulled himself out and looked around... It was a big empty space, a stage off to his left that's backdrop was a large round mirror, so when he flashed his light on it, it bounced back and hit a weird angle with the room at large.

Looking around more, he just hummed, the flooring was that classic Freddy's checkered pattern, though the walls were practically completely bare and made of plated metal, there was a number of rooms as he took a moment to just get his bearings, one to his left, another straight ahead, and one to his right. Strange to have this much open floor space, it probably had another reason to exist once upon a time, but now it was just bare... Looking back to the stage one last time, he frowned at the strange long looking electrical cord that was dangling down the end of it and looked frayed like someone had cut it... Why was tha-

"In here, you only need to go into the room on the right, and you will find your answers, and see why we can not leave, not without you" Mike gulped, he wasn't quite scared, but the nerves had his hands slightly shaking as he moved forwards, his hand gripping tight onto the two devices in his hands. He knew this was stupid, he knew he'd no doubt be chewed out by Mari the second they were out of here, but...

But he walked ahead all the same.

Past the door with the name plate next to it scratched out beyond recognition, and into the strange room filled with stranger looking machinery, as he slowly moved further in, his light flaring against every surface in front of him as he looked around, until he found himself standing on a strange portion of the room that was just slightly elevated, the checkered pattern giving way to a large metal plate covered in some kind of streaked brown rust that itched something in the back of his mind. He just looked down at it for what must have been only barely a second in confusion before the voice returned, hauntingly calm, making his eyes snap up.

"You are in the scooper room now. I must thank you, you forgetting about me, about us, has made this so much easier"

Mike felt like he had just made an incredible mistake as the faint thrumming of power filled the room as the machinery around him began to stir to life.

I love being me sometimes, it's pretty great being the one with all the power over cliff-hangers. I also loved the set up to this, the dozens of chapters of slow lead up to this one single night where so much could go wrong and already has in such a sudden and unexpected way. Life sometimes tosses you a curve ball... And other times Life's the one with the bat, and you're about to be, what is in the profession known as, fucked sideways.

It took us exactly fifty chapters (Something I'm very proud of myself for btw), but we're here at The Sister location, and we're already in the scooping room, we've made it to new trauma-land! I could talk about a lot here, I honestly really do, but... for now I just want this to sit here while we wait to see what happens next. I'm super interested in hearing everyone's thoughts about this though, given just how long I've been getting questions about just when Sister Location, or more importantly, the characters from SL were going to show up. I bet this wasn't what everyone was expecting, but that'll be all the more fun to reveal... Later. So, in the mean time, See ya!