Mable: A little late but made the Wednesday posting! 8D Hurrah!
Going Home in a Box
Chapter Nineteen
What Ennard had been calling a dump was actually a junkyard. In hindsight, it made a lot more sense. While he was still effectively scouring through trash, it was less garbage bags and more chucked electronics and scrap parts. Mike wouldn't have been surprised if he caught sight of an abandoned animatronic within the piles of refuse, but so far saw nothing but car parts and junk, the latter being also mostly made up of cars.
Ennard led them to the back entrance and opened the gate so they could drive the van straight in, meaning no jumping fences in the middle of the night. That didn't make the task much better. Even now, Springtrap and Marionette were sending wary looks at the Baby-faced doll in the back while Ennard spent as long as he could between the seats. Though he had been bold enough to step over it to go out and open the gate.
Soon they were parked inconspicuously towards the back of the lot and cautiously climbing out. Mike hopped out of the van and almost shut the door on Marionette who slid around the seat and tried to sneak out after him. He quirked an amused brow before shutting the door behind him. Marionette took a moment to look around at the junkyard and frowned at the sight.
"What a depressing place," he remarked.
"I know. Chances are this is the final resting place of my last two cars," Mike said, leaning against the side of the van. "It doesn't strike me as the kind of place Ennard would hang out."
"Can you imagine spending a whole night here, digging through all this stuff? One wrong move and you could be buried alive," Marionette said.
For some reason, the comment gave Mike a very vivid mental image of being stuck in a tunnel of trash before having the whole thing caving in. It came out as blending of his imagining of a springlock failure and memories of that time he went spelunking with Fritz and Jeremy, and it was almost scarier than the clown they had laying out in the back of the van.
"That's a pretty image," he said tensely.
Marionette hummed in agreement before turning his head to listen. Ennard was chattering on the other side of the van, and it sounded like it was to both Scott and Springtrap. They would probably be distracted for a few minutes.
"I don't think the others can hear us…" he murmured. He turned back to Mike only to see his brows raised. "No, not that. Don't get so excited," he said with a tiny smirk. It quickly fell to an uneasy look, along with his voice falling to nearly a whisper. "It's about what happened earlier when I touched that other Baby. There's something I need to tell you."
As much dread as that statement caused, there was a glimmer of hope. Mike was hoping that Marionette would reveal that he knew about the emotional outbursts he had, such as the one at Foxy's, and have some rational explanation why this apparently dead machine was doing the same thing. That would be the best outcome to all of this, but he knew to keep his expectations tampered.
"Sure. What's up?"
"…I wasn't entirely honest back at Scott's. I saw and heard things more clearly than I let on," Marionette admitted guiltily. He sunk into himself in a way that almost managed to make Mike's heart clench a little. "You'll understand once I explain- and I will explain in full once we get home. If we get home."
"When we get home."
"If we get home."
"…Let me live in ignorant bliss up until I'm sleeping in my car," Mike said. It got the desired reaction: a smile. "Keep going. I'm listening."
"Have you ever seen a haunted arcade machine?" Marionette asked. His fingers tapped together nervously.
"As a matter of fact, I have. There was one over at Chipper's."
"Would you believe that they're not actually haunted? Or at least, they don't have a spirit inside of them. We used to have them pop up all the time at Freddy's. It was as though they became haunted just being around us, the animatronics," Marionette explained. He tapped his fingers a little quicker. "And then I was thinking about what I saw inside of that animatronic and I started to think that maybe this is a similar kind of…"
Suddenly the Puppet cut off. His head snapped towards the van and he must've been listening for something, though from what Mike could hear Ennard was still going on. Someone must've said something about getting started. Marionette turned back to him and dropped his voice to a faint whisper once more.
"We'll talk about this later, okay?"
"That's fine. Don't worry about it, Mari. We've got a job to do, it can wait," Mike assured him. He knew there were numerous things Marionette was already worried about, he didn't want him to be worried about him too. He reached out and rubbed over his upper arm and shoulder, bringing a trill out of the other, along with another little smile. "Tell you what, once we dump the clown, why don't we sneak off behind some of this garbage and make out?" he joked.
That smile shifted immediately. Now to one that looked somewhere between a little amused and completely mortified, especially in the widening of his eyes. It seemed like an overreaction for flirting he did on a daily basis.
Then Springtrap stuck his head around the corner of the van and he and Mike locked eyes in the most uncomfortable stare-off the security guard had ever had. Suddenly that reaction of Marionette's made a lot more sense.
After a long moment of uncomfortable staring, Springtrap decided to finally pull back around the corner. Mike didn't have anything to say in his defense anyway and decided not to open his mouth to risk it.
It took a few seconds before Marionette's eyes narrowed and his embarrassed smile slowly spread into a coquettish smirk.
"You're so red right now, Love," he trilled. His voice oozing both amusement and adoration at once.
"You could've warned me," Mike mumbled.
"I could say the same thing!" Marionette chimed.
Mike clasped a hand over his face and rubbed in with a sigh, knowing he would have to face Springtrap again, and trudged around the van to get it over with. Marionette gently patted his back as he passed and followed along.
Soon the group was heading through the junkyard. Scott and Mike were able to carry the other Baby themselves, with her being heavy but just light enough for them to manage. They had wrapped her up in the sheet Charlie covered herself in to keep her limbs from dragging but had kept her face uncovered so they could watch for any sign of her reactivating.
Though Scott was the unfortunate one who got stuck carrying her torso. Her head was angled up on his chest like she had been watching him the whole time. He half expected to look down and see that her eyes had moved, but they didn't.
Ennard led the way and Marionette and Springtrap flanked both sides. It was unclear if this was to keep an eye out for any possible witnesses or, more likely, to pounce on the elongated animatronic if it suddenly sprung to life and lashed out at the men carrying it. The mood was incredibly tense because of it, so Ennard tried his best to combat it.
"Because when it rains, this place doesn't get wet. It gets flooded. You'll get mud puddles up to your ankles, then you take one wrong step, sink in to your knee, and get poked at by twenty-year-old pieces of buried scrap metal. Other than that, atmosphere's great! Like rain on a tin roof but all over the place," Ennard casually explained as though they were walking through the park and not a junkyard.
"How do you find anything out here?" Scott asked. A question pretty much anyone else could've been asking.
"Very slowly and rarely," Ennard quipped back. He sent a wink over his shoulder before falling back to walk alongside him, arms folded behind, spiffy in his new suit. "And when the guy who runs this place shows up, I just hop in a car and fade into the scenery."
"Somehow I don't see that happening anymore," Mike forewarned. Ennard snickered at that. "And you might want to roll up your pants if you want them to last."
"Oh, don't you worry about that! I'm going to treat this suit like it's my baby. My second skin. No more muddy dump excursions unless I'm in dire need of some hubcaps," the clown proclaimed, holding a hand on his chest, and raising the other as though a solemn swear. Then noticed up ahead and pointed with the raised hand. "And here we are!"
What he was pointing to was a warehouse at the edge of the junkyard. It was rather unremarkable and maybe in slight disrepair. Though that was probably just because it was hiding in the back of a junkyard.
"…We could've probably driven a little closer," Scott suggested.
"Nah. The road they got leading back here comes in from the front. That would be way too obvious," Ennard said.
"I think I might've risked it, all things considered you know."
The warehouse was unlocked and Ennard was able to open the heavy door relatively easily and led them inside. The inside of the warehouse was rather messy. There were some stacks of boxes and things in one half of the building, there were shelves that were largely empty, and then there was the trash compactor taking up a sizeable portion of the floor near the doorway. It was one of the kind with a chute leading in instead of a conveyor. Made for minor scrap, not cars.
"So, my best guess is that this warehouse was set up for some kinda recycling project and then they just lost interest. There's another compactor up towards the front of the junkyard, a real big one, so I don't think this one gets used that much. Like everything else it kinda just sits here collecting rust," Ennard explained.
Considering the state of the junkyard in general, this wasn't a big surprise.
"Hey, I was thinking we were going to be out in the open, so this shaped up to be a lot better for us. Now I should've asked this before we left, but does anyone here know how to turn on one of these things?" Mike asked. Ennard pointed a thumb to himself and then the same thumb at Springtrap who nodded. "Alright good. Let's toss this thing in and get started."
He and Scott carried her over and started to lift the animatronic upwards. It was awkward with her long body bending in weird direction, something that only got worse when Mike started to unwind the sheet. One of its arms fell free and smacked into Scott's chest, causing him to jump back as fast as he could without dropping it. He realized his mistake quickly, but that didn't make him any less uncomfortable.
"We'll toss her in on three. One… Two…" With a single heave, he and Mike tossed the animatronic into the chute. Mike got the sheet out the rest of the way and pushed in the leg sticking out while Scott wiped his hands off on his cardigan and took a step back, stepping right into Ennard who had seemed to just pop up behind him sometime after the scare. Not that Scott minded the backup, leaning back as Ennard's hands settled on and squeezed his shoulders.
Springtrap stepped forward to turn on the trash compactor. It took him a few minutes to get it on, during which Mike unhooked his taser and held it at his side. He didn't take his eyes off the chute, expecting for the other Baby to suddenly crawl back out and make one lash dash for freedom, or attempt to drag someone else in with her. Considering that he and Springtrap stood closest to it, he knew he would be the likely victim.
He was a little surprised when the compactor turned on without this outburst, but relieved. Though there was a part of him that might've been disappointed that he missed the action, he could just feel how strung out everyone else was- save maybe Springtrap- and knew this was the best outcome. Just in case he continued standing there with his taser, his thumb resting on the button just in case.
Marionette was having the opposite reaction. While he knew the animatronic in the compactor wasn't alive and came to terms with destroying it before they left the house, the sound of metal beginning to slowly get crushed inside put him off quite a bit. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't know there was a metal skeleton being crushed and crunched inside- no different than if he knew there were bones inside.
He turned himself around and tried to find distraction elsewhere. Eventually he noticed some toys on a back shelf and hovered over to it. They were especially broken. One a porcelain doll with a dirty dress and a piece of her face, leaving her with no nose and a lot of cracking, and the other was a plastic horse that was missing a leg, covered with wear smudges all over it, and with its mane cut crudely. There was also a rubber duck on its side on the floor.
It was a poignant sight; lost and broken toys left abandoned in this warehouse where no child would find them. Even with their lack of sentience, Marionette found an empathy and pity for them. One he somberly realized he couldn't show for the broken doll inside of the trash compactor. Though it wasn't its suffering that came to mind…
He turned to look for more toys and spotted a green tail in the back corner. Approaching it he soon realized it was actually the end of a string of Christmas lights laying beneath an outlet. The string itself led into a mound of stuff covered by a tarp, so he didn't expect it to be functional, but was curious enough to plug it. Much to his surprise, the lights popped to life, and he could see them glowing from under the tarp too.
Curious still, he circled around and that was when he realized that it wasn't quite a mound of stuff. Sure, there was stuff stacked up around and inside, but it was actually a shelf that had been tilted against the wall and covered with a tarp and pushing some half-filled boxes aside he found a little hidey hole underneath.
There were a couple of blankets in a tight nest on the floor, topped with one especially soft-looking, but equally dirty, blue baby blanket with sleeping stars on it. A car's seat cushion was propped up almost like a pillow in the back. The lights were weaved into the shelves above it, lending a warm glow to the almost cozy space. It looked like someone had been sleeping in there, and that was terribly sad.
Unless it was Ennard. "Ennard, can you come here?"
"I'm on my way!" the clown chirped. He looked down at Scott momentarily before slipping his hand into his, lacing their fingers together, and pulling him along with him.
"Err, uh, I guess I'll be right back," Scott said to the others apologetically before falling along. Though there was no denying the relief he felt once he got more than a few feet away from the trash compactor. If not for what it contained, then for the noise alone. They found Marionette knelt down amongst the boxes. Scott noticed that Ennard reflexively slowed once he noticed the light, unaware who turned them on and cautiously making sure nobody else was there.
"What's up? Or down?" Ennard asked.
"Have you been sleeping in here?" Marionette pointed into the hiding spot. Ennard crouched down to peek in.
"Nope! Looks like someone has though… Huh." The clown trailed off uneasily as a weird stare took his face. Him studying that spot and how secluded it was, and knowing he missed it, and knowing he could've missed anyone hiding inside.
Scott leaned over behind them to look and frowned at the sight. "That's really a shame. There's a homeless shelter in St. George. Why wouldn't they just go there?"
"Can you be rejected from a homeless shelter?"
"Uh… Y'know, I don't know. Maybe if you're getting into fights or have a serious drug problem, or are caught stealing or doing anything else illegal, maybe. Still, I don't know why you'd hide out out here. Hurricane doesn't have any sort of homeless loitering laws that I know of. We've even got a food pantry! I don't know, maybe I should leave Arthur's number. I don't want to butt in, but he could get them some help," Scott said. "I think I've got a pen in the car-."
"Say no more, I'm on my way!" Ennard agreed and stood up.
"Hold on, I wasn't hinting for you to go get it. I can go get it."
"It gives me an excuse to stretch my legs and makesurenobody'shangingaroundoutthere and it's better I do it now when everyone's here then you trying to come back alone, which you will," Ennard teased with a knowing look. Scott didn't try to argue. "Give me two minutes and an extra five to find the stuff."
"O-Okay, if you're sure. Just don't, uh… Don't take too long," Scott said without saying something. Then at risk of Ennard going ahead with it and feigning ignorance, he clarified, "And if you see anyone, don't… engage?"
Ennard gave him a wink. "And blow my cover that easily? No way, they gotta work for that!" He started to turn away before turning back, looking at Marionette while gently shaking Scott by the forearms. "Guard this with your life."
Marionette gave an amused chime and a nod. With that, Ennard turned and began running for the door. As he passed by the compactor, both Mike and Springtrap looked over, with the latter's half ear twitching as he straightened up.
"Are we running?" he called.
"Going to grab something!" Ennard yelled back. Springtrap deflated once more, ear slipping into a somewhat cock-eyed position. He didn't even acknowledge it.
Though with Ennard passing by and both Marionette and Scott distracted with something, Mike suddenly recognized who he was standing alone with and there returned the painfully awkward silence. One that he knew he was imagining since they had been standing in this silence- save the compactor- for a few minutes without issue. It was enough to force him to break it.
"How's it been? It's been a while since we're caught up," he asked. He had to speak loudly to be heard over the rhythmic crunching and mechanical wheezes.
Springtrap looked at him for a second in disbelief at the out of the blue question, but then answered. "Fine enough. I'm looking forward to the weather getting warmer again."
"Same. I used to come home from my morning runs being able to feel my fingers. I miss that," Mike said. Springtrap gave a hum of agreement but added nothing more. "…I'm going back to college. It's going to cost me, but I think it's worth it if it means getting a degree in my field of work."
"What degree?"
"Mechanical Engineering."
"Good choice, on both accounts. You'll have a good time with it." Springtrap sounded a little more somber towards the end but then returned to silence.
"Okay, so he doesn't want to talk about it. That's fine. I made a big deal out of nothing," Mike thought. He stole a glance over at Springtrap, only to notice that the rabbit was eyeing him out the corner of his eye. Which wouldn't have been as weird if he didn't uncharacteristically look away the moment he was noticed. "…Let's just get this out of the way. I was just joking back at the van with Mari."
"Mike, with all due respect, I find your relationship with my brother to be a bit odd and somewhat embarrassing but perfectly fine," Springtrap said curtly. "That being said, I don't want to hear about it."
"I can live with that," Mike agreed.
"Now then, this is about finished and then we can see how things have shaped up."
Mike got a tinge of a smirk at the pun as Springtrap walked around the other side. The compactor noise had finally died down to a dull hum that lasted until the sudden and nearly deafening noise of scrap metal clattering to the floor.
"For God's sake!" the rabbit hissed. He thumped back around and beckoned the other man with a wave. "Come take a look at this cube."
He came around to see for himself and promptly whistled.
"That's a beautiful cube," Mike remarked as he stared down at the pile of crushed and broken trash from the compactor.
"I'm starting to see why this one's sitting in the abandoned warehouse," Springtrap muttered, pointing to the compactor.
His eyes scanned over the refuse for any sign of the animatronic. It had seemed to melt into the scrap it had been crushed with, but eventually he spotted a pale hand sticking out. The plate of its palm and back of its hand cracked from the pressure but its fingers all intact. He cautiously reached for it, Mike readying his taser again, and clasped it in his own. A few tense seconds passed.
"…Nothing. I feel nothing," Springtrap remarked.
"In general, or from her?" Mike retorted. This got rewarded with a sharp look. "Sorry. I know this is serious, it's just been a long night and this is all I've got to get through it… I don't remember you touching her. Did you?"
"I bumped it coming out of the van and felt it."
"So, you know what you're feeling for…" That should've been assuring, but it all sounded too easy. Especially when the animatronic's hand was largely intact. "Should we dig up the rest of her?"
"Perhaps," Springtrap agreed, "but first we need Marion to come feel for himself."
Mike knew this was coming eventually but his heart still sunk at the thought. All it would take was a second, but that's all it took last time to Marionette in such a state. He took a deep breath and considered their lack of options.
"I know. Better safe than sorry," he sighed. He then looked back towards the Puppet now talking with Scott. "Mari, Doll, can you come check this for us?"
Marionette knew exactly what he was talking about. His expression dropped in a blink of an eye as drifted back to the compactor. He came up between the two to find Springtrap holding the other Baby's hand. It didn't look like he was in pain.
"You can't feel anything?" the Puppet asked.
"No… but we can't be too sure." Springtrap released the hand and moved over to make way for his youngest brother. "It's partially detached but I think its pinned by wring, so perhaps still connected to the body."
Considering that the point was to completely destroy the body, that was largely the point. Marionette reached down and hesitated, his hand hanging in the air above its for a second, and then he gently made contact. First a brush of the fingers, then gently sliding into lacing them together. He tried to get as much contact as he could as he sought out any trace of that earlier feeling.
But there was nothing. There was still a tepid warmth to the body, but the burning heat and jarring pain was gone. Their plan had seemingly worked. It was too good to be true.
"I don't feel anything," Marionette said. Scott, who had walked up behind them, breathed a sigh of relief. "But…" Perhaps it was too soon, as the Puppet's voice took a skeptical tone. "…I don't trust it."
Without any warning, he released the hand and then proceeded to shove both of his into the mound of metal. Pushing into it and squirming his limbs through the tight, heavy mass interlocked and crushed together.
"Hey, hey, careful! You might cut your arm open on one of these things," Mike warned. Marionette nodded and twisted himself, burying his arms in deeper, and now totally kneeling on the pile.
Something got jarred loose and Springtrap noticed the hand flinch. He instantly snatched it up, only to realize that Marionette's efforts had dislodged it from the pile. Other than a few, thick wires, the casing of the arm was practically hollowed out, which raised some concerns. Though not nearly as many as the wires that did remain.
He stood back up and silently held out the limb to Mike and Scott, tapping the edge with his finger as he continued to watch Marionette. Scott felt his mouth dry out at the familiar metal wiring hanging out, innards just like Ennard's own.
Marionette suddenly flinched with a soft chime and Mike's head snapped back to him. "Mari?"
He had felt it. Somewhere in the scrap he had felt that intrusive heat pressing back. It was fainter than before, but he knew it was there, and after a brief recoil he searched after it. Soon he grabbed ahold and felt the pulsing through his hand and up his arm, though this time it went no further than that, and both voices and visuals were gone. Confused, he pulled with all his might to dislodge whatever he had grabbed.
In one jerk he pulled the offending mass free of the pile. It turned out to be a handful of metal wires. Marionette felt his spools tighten as he saw them and got his confirmation that the off-model Baby was, in fact, an Afton Robotics creation.
As soon as he pulled the wires free, he felt the heat starting to die down, as though whatever was fueling them was either draining out or slowly losing its power. Soon he no longer felt anything at all and stared down with confusion and surprise. Perhaps it actually had worked. It was hard to believe it had, but the evidence was sitting in his hand.
Springtrap took one look at those rather intact wires and knew they had a second problem. He turned to Scott and Mike- "We can't let Ben see these…" -only to immediately spot Ennard staring back at him from by the door. "…In the rare chance that he hasn't already."
Scott looked over and immediately started to flag the clown back. "It's, uh, it's okay! You just stay over there!"
"What's going on? Is it still moving?" Ennard asked.
"No, just stay back!" the man insisted. "It's all good, we've got it under control!"
Mike wasn't sure exactly what Michael or Scott were worried about, but he guessed it was either the fear that Ennard would start uncontrollably devouring the wires or rejecting his own. Either way, best to keep him back, and with them distracted Mike stepped towards Marionette. He had to step on the mound and had his foot shift unsteadily but reached enough to lay a hand atop Marionette's head. He didn't trust his footing enough to lean further.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine, I just… I felt it for a second, but then it faded away…" Marionette said quietly.
After a brief pause, he lurched forward and started to dig into the scrap again. Mike was left standing there with his hand out, watching as the Puppet feverishly searched and felt through the scrap metal. He let his arm drop to his side and after a few minutes Marionette let his own follow suit as he pulled back from the heap and sat back into his kneel.
"I can't feel anything else… Perhaps it worked?" he offered. "…I'll be honest, I didn't really expect it to work. I was more than prepared to have to return to ARI if we needed to… but I can't feel anything."
"That's a good thing, right?" Mike asked. He reached out and managed to snare a hand under Marionette's arm. He helped him back up from the ground. "I didn't think it was going to work either, but if you're not feeling anything then it must've done something," he offered. The Puppet still looked unsure, and Mike glanced over the scrap. Remembering what he said earlier, he asked, "Would the arcade machines stay haunted after they were broken?"
"…No. Not if they were broken to this extreme. Not that I know of, I don't think," Marionette said unsurely. Though Mike trusted his initial answer. He gave him an assuring pat on the back.
"We'll give it a few minutes and if we don't see anything we'll get out of here. I don't think there's much use in picking out all her parts and burying them. If she was still kicking it wouldn't do much to stop her."
It was still a few minutes before they got out of the warehouse. Enough time for Scott to write up the note and leave it in the hiding spot alongside the porcelain doll Marionette had left there. He unplugged the lights too. Ennard stayed close to him and decided to trust his and Michael's judgement enough to not look at the pile. Springtrap gathered what parts of the other Baby that he could find into his arms and scattered them across the junkyard on the way to the van.
Soon they were piled back in and back on the road away from the junkyard and back towards Scott's house.
"Michael, you want me to drop you off at the warehouse?" he offered. Springtrap considered it a moment before shaking his head.
"I think I should stay overnight just in case. If it's alright with you."
"That's fine with me! To tell you the truth, I think an extra body in the house might do me some good, because I'm just… not really looking forward to going back just yet," Scott admitted with a tense smile.
Mike sent him a sympathetic look from the passenger's seat. "How'd this whole thing start anyway? You said you went to the park because you heard there was a Circus Baby there?"
"Right. Baby found out about it online and asked to go… and for some reason I said yes even though I knew better," he confessed. He sounded remorseful. "…She's just been so upset about this new pizzeria opening. She convinced herself that there was a new Baby there and started looking around online and found this one. Err, I mean, she didn't know it was going to look like that. We were all pretty shocked when we saw it."
"You heard my first reaction," Mike remarked.
"Don't be modest. The whole neighborhood heard your reaction," Marionette teased. He was sitting behind the passenger's seat again with his back against it, back-to-back with Mike who gave a dismissive 'eh'. Though Marionette thought back on what Scott had said and looked to Ennard questioningly. "Why did she think there was a new Circus Baby?" He assumed she was more likely to tell him. "Is this because of that sun that sounds like you?"
"Oh, don't remind me," Ennard said, tone dropping at the end. From the disinterested glint that took Springtrap's eyes, he had probably heard plenty about this sun over the phone. "Nah, she was just overthinking it is all. Getting paranoid."
"She called Natalie earlier and asked about it," Mike said. Scott looked to him with his own surprise and the younger man gave a half shrug. "Didn't think anything of it. I didn't even think about it until I was driving over there."
"She was asking Natalie? Why didn't she just ask Charlie?" Marionette asked.
"She did, she just… You know, when you get into thinking like that, worrying about stuff you can't control, it's a slippery slope…" Scott said. When this got a look in return from Mike, he clarified, "She thought Charlie was trying to hide something from her. It's no big deal, she just got into her head."
There was an uncomfortable silence shared between Mike and Marionette. Neither made any comment on the situation, but they just knew the other was thinking of the same thing. Of the thing that Charlie hadn't told Baby about. About the thing that the three others in the van knew nothing about.
Suddenly Mike knew what he needed to do. This was the worst time to drop it on them, but this was the opportunity he had, and he needed to take it. They deserved to know.
"Everything okay? You went a little quiet there," Scott asked.
"Yeah…" Mike looked out the window at the night before taking a deep breath. "Mari, I'm going to tell them."
"Oh no," Scott said under his breath.
Marionette felt a tinge of dread, but he knew that they couldn't keep this from them any longer. Tilting his head back against the headrest of Mike's seat, he gave only a, "Go for it."
Mike took an extra moment to brace himself, looking at the streetlights and the occasional patch of illuminated windows. He rolled his head back to look at Scott with his regret on display. Scott was already starting to look nervous as he kept his eyes on the road, occasionally stealing a glance over. Mike plunged in headfirst.
"Natalie's been getting harassed at the Pizzaplex by a woman running around in a rabbit costume with a knife."
Scott reacted immediately. He didn't say anything, but the car lurched like he might've accidently nudged the break. Ennard's reaction was vocal, with a surprised, "There's a what where?!"
"There's a-."
"I'm sorry, but I thought you just said there was a woman with a knife dressed as a rabbit in the Pizzaplex, which would be the newest Fazbear establishment," Springtrap said in a dangerously low voice. It was the only warning that he wasn't going to take this well and was just harsh enough that even Ennard side-glanced him with a little unease.
"Yeah, that's it," Mike said. He slid slightly down into the seat like he was bracing himself or trying to disappear out of view.
Springtrap's neck twitched a little as his eyes narrowed. "And exactly how long has this been going on?"
"We just found out about it. Natalie's only been working there a few nights and the rabbit wasn't even there the first shift or two…" Mike explained. He let that settle before shrugging and adding, "Just a few days."
"A few days?!" Springtrap exploded. "You're telling me there's a deranged woman dressed in a rabbit suit at Freddy's even as we speak, and you decided not to tell me until now?! Does Gabriel know?! Does Lizzie?!"
"This is the first time we're hearing about this!" Scott jumped in. "I would've told you, o-or Ennard. One of us would've."
"Gabe knows, but he was going to find out anyways because he's been running around over there. He and Freddy have been buddy-buddy," Mike answered. "Look, we just didn't want to work everyone up into a frenzy."
"I have a goddamn right to have a frenzy! Freddy Fazbear's was built on a man in a rabbit suit slaughtering children, most of which with a knife- Gabe himself was killed with a knife- and you hid that for days?! My God, Mike, people could be getting killed right now and you didn't think it was important to tell anyone?!"
"Michael, calm down," Marionette said. He already sounded irritated, which didn't bode well for him deescalating the situation.
"I am not going to calm down! You know just as well as I do how it feels to be left in the dark!"
"Well, you're not helping matters! All you're doing is making a big scene!" the Puppet yelled back. Static and discontented crackles filled his chest.
The two were now staring each other down like they were about to tear through each other, though more likely vocally than physically. The pressures of the night only adding gasoline to the already flammable situation.
Then something else sunk in and Springtrap's head snapped back to the front. "And you said Gabe's been down there?!"
"Here we go," Mike mumbled as he sunk down further. Now covering his eyes with one of his hands. "Yes. Gabe's been sneaking out and going down there."
"My brother is going down there-!"
"Yes, our brother is going down there!" Marionette snapped. "And it's already been dealt with! Foxy was caught, Natalie humiliated him, and he said he was going to stop." He hung on that for a moment before his glare dropped to the corner. "Or he… said something like that… He got caught and he knows about the rabbit. That's the best we can do."
"The best we can do," Springtrap repeated lowly. His gave narrowing further. "And tell me, Marion, how did it work back at the old Freddy's? Where everyone 'did the best they could'?"
"Don't talk down to me about Freddy's," Marionette rattled back. His pupils beginning to glow.
That was when Ennard quite literally threw himself in between them. "Whoa-ho, okay! I think we're getting a little too heated, ha ha! Okay, so this is really, really bad, but let's not make this a whole lot worse please!" He dropped a hand on each of their shoulders and regardless of how wound up they both were, neither pulled away. "We've all just had a real rough night. No reason to get at each other's throats! Ha ha…"
"I was going to tell you," the Puppet hissed, cutting through Ennard's attempts to placate them.
"When? You waited for days," Springtrap returned. His eyes lidded with doubt. "Perhaps whenever you got around to telling us what you "couldn't" say you saw inside of that animatronic."
Marionette caught onto what he was applying and looked startled. "You heard me talking to Mike..."
"Of course I heard you talking to Mike. You were standing on the other side of the van," the rabbit hissed.
The Puppet's glare returned. "I thought you wouldn't be able to hear me over Ennard... No offense, Ennard."
"None taken," Ennard awkwardly interjected. "But hey, since we-."
"I should've known. You said you couldn't say. You made it purposefully sound like you didn't know, but chose your words to cover the lie," Springtrap scolded. Marionette looked away, knowing that he had done so. "She's my sister too, Marion. You can't gatekeep her from me."
"Gatekeep?!" Marionette's head snapped back. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that you're so fixated on keeping control of the situation that you're not even willing to be honest about what that situation is." He finally brushed Ennard's hand aside. "I know you think you're protecting us, but all you're doing is hiding the inevitable until the last second when we have no choice but to step in. With the rabbit, with Lizzie- I know you know what you're doing, Marion, because it's exact same thing Henry did to you."
That was the tipping point. It was his name being brought in that finally pushed Marionette over the edge and before Mike could get himself involved- he was currently turning to lean through the middle seats- he found his voice.
"Do you really want to know, Michael? Do you want to know what I saw? Then I'll tell you what I saw," Marionette said. His voice low and feigning calmness, but the static and ticking coming from his chest showing that he was using every ounce of willpower to keep it that way. "I saw Father hurting Lizzie."
Springtrap was struck silent. He was struck silent so fast that it was like he had been physically hit by it, but Marionette wasn't finished. Once it started coming out, he couldn't stop it.
"I watched through her eyes as he dragged her over a concrete floor. I felt his fingers digging into my arm just like they would've into hers, twisting it so far it could've snapped. And I heard her screaming, begging, pleading with him- but she wasn't begging him to stop. She wasn't telling him it hurt even though I know it did. No, she was apologizing. And I knew- I know from how scared she was that it hadn't been the first time."
It was with those words that a look of dawning passed Ennard's face. His look of shock changing to one of horror as he remembered the words the other Baby had cried out to them. His face almost matched Scott's, who had been looking for a good place to pull over to try and break up the fight before hearing the confession and finding himself freezing up. Everything Baby told him replaying in his head as he made the same connections.
Marionette still wasn't done. He made what sounded like a shaky inhale but was actually a roll of static, trying to suppress the twang from his stressed music box that followed afterwards. Tears had welled back up in his eyes, but he refused the show any form of weakness and kept his face firm in its galled expression.
"I didn't tell you what I saw because it was none of your business what I saw, nor mine, nor his, or Mike's, or anyone else's. Those were Lizzie's memories and I think it was Lizzie's pain that brought it to the house. What was I supposed to do, tell a room full of people that I saw our-! That I saw those things? How was I supposed to stand in front of Lizzie and do that to her? I couldn't, and you couldn't either."
Then he was done, and the silence came back. He awaited the delayed reaction from Springtrap, for up until that moment he just stared at him with alarm but little else. He waited for him to understand the gravity of the situation.
Since he was staring directly at him Marionette saw that moment when it sunk in and regretted everything he said.
His own face fell but he hadn't a chance to say a word more before Springtrap crumpled over, his head dropping into his hands. The Puppet started to tentatively reach for him, now afraid to step back over the line, letting out a distressed thrumming as he did.
"That's it. I'm going back there," Mike defiantly muttered. He unclicked his seatbelt and climbed in between the seats. Scott warning him with a quiet 'whoa!' as they were still driving but making no attempt to stop him. He got into the back in time to see Ennard putting an arm around Springtrap and Marionette with his arms out, frozen mid-way towards reaching for him.
Mike knew Marionette was upset and knew the risks with touching him in this state but like with the other Baby he threw caution to the wind. He could handle it- he would handle it for Marionette's sake.
Except just like before he laid his hand down on the Puppet's back expecting the surge of pain and instead felt nothing. It took him off guard.
"And now it's not doing it. I don't understand. He's upset, why is this time different?" Mike thought. Yet thinking back the situations were also different. "…But he's not as upset as he was back at Foxy's, and he's not holding any of it in now."
Something about that almost assured him as he started to pull in close to Marionette. That lasted only momentarily with the puppet acknowledging him by turning his head towards him, nodding as though he thought Mike was encouraging him, then leaned in the rest of the way to slowly wrap his arms around Springtrap's head and neck. He rested his head against his, only turning it enough to not stain him purple.
Springtrap dropped his hands with his head still left bowed. After another few seconds to recover he reached around Marionette's waist to rest a hand on his back, to hold him where he was. The Puppet gave a sad warble and squeezed tighter.
At this point Mike decided not to intervene. It seemed healthier to let them work this out on their own then putting himself in the middle of them. He gives them their space, and it gives him a minute to think.
"If Mari's right and that thing was powered by Baby, then how did that happen? It's not like she could've been handling it that much. Was it something with that necklace or just… spread?" He tried to think back to the arcade analogy, but it was hard to compare it to possessing animatronics until they acted independently. "…And Baby can't even possess animatronics. If that happened with Mari we could be looking at a disaster. He might be able to spread it into a body that wasn't empty... What am I thinking? I got to get ahold of myself, none of that's going to happen. The only one who's even felt it was me and it stopped the second he calmed down."
He tried to push those thoughts back further. "We can worry about it after we get home… Are we stopped?"
It was then that Mike noticed the van wasn't moving and looked out the windshield to realize that Scott had stopped in front of his house. He reached over to tap on Marionette's shoulder only to have his hand slowly pushed back by Ennard's. He sent him a questioning look, to which Ennard smiled and gave a little shake of his head. Mike glanced back at the two brothers and then gave a begrudging nod.
Thankfully, it was only about five minutes later when Marionette and Springtrap finally pulled apart. Both chose to remain silent as they started the process of moving everyone back inside. Scott quietly and awkwardly mentioned not wanting to open the garage if Baby had gone to sleep, which the animatronics used as an excuse to tempt fate and walk to the front door. Springtrap at least willing to use the sheet while Ennard just made a run for it.
Unlike Scott expected, Baby and Charlie were both still wide awake. Baby leaning on the back of the couch with her head resting on her crossed arms, rolling her skates back and forth beneath her. Charlie was laying sideways on the couch while flicking through the TV channels with the remote. Both had sat up to alert when they heard the van pulling up, then listened as it confusingly just sat outside.
"That can't be a good sign," Charlie remarked.
"What do you think they're doing?" Baby asked.
"Trying to figure out a cover story?" she guessed. Baby gave her a less than enthused look, only to sit upright and look at the door expectantly as she heard keys jingling in it.
Ennard came flinging himself in, leaving the door open for the others but getting as much distance from it as he could. He spotted Baby and quickly made his way to her.
"We're home!" he announced before throwing himself onto her and pulling her into a hug. This was weird. Not the hug, Ennard was that type of clingy affectionate person, but how quickly he jumped into it.
"I can see that… What happened?" Baby asked in paranoia.
"Not much! Just watched a lanky clown get resized in a trash compactor. Or, well, I didn't, but everyone else saw it."
"Hmm…" She wasn't entirely convinced even though he sounded honest. He leaned in and whispered a quick addendum.
"…And Michael and Mari got in a fight and the whole thing got kinda weird."
That filled in the gasps neatly.
"Over what?" Charlie asked. Ennard must've not thought she would hear him, but it was hard not to when she was sitting only a few feet away. The clown rolled his eyes upwards and mimicked a weary sigh.
"Brace yourself, Babydoll," he warned, looking back down at her, "but there's some bunny broad running around the Pizzaplex."
"Oh, her. Charlie told me about her," Baby answered. Ennard's eyes widened at the blunt confession.
"Oh, okay! Ha ha, no problem then!...?" he said. He looked back at Springtrap coming inside with Scott and Mike close behind. Marionette had already popped up in front of the couch.
"Are they still-?" Baby began, only to be cut off by Ennard shushing her with a hiss, expression tense, silently pleading her to not finish the sentence. She was unenthused by his antics. "Fine then. I'll just figure it out myself." It took her only a few seconds of reading the room to notice how quiet her brothers were, though they looked more weary than angry. "Hmm… Perhaps not," she answered herself.
"At the risk of getting wrangled into another late-night run, I think its time we took off. Charlie, are you staying or coming with us?" Mike asked.
"I'm going to stick around. Just in case."
"Sounds good to me. Need me to bring you back something from the house?"
She declined and got up to give Marionette a hug goodbye. She could tell from the squeeze alone that he was still upset about whatever happened in the car. She also noticed when Springtrap started to make his way over, both from his distinct movement sounds and the way the other puppet tightened his grasp before slowly, almost reluctantly, drawing back.
"Marion, if we could talk before you leave," the rabbit requested. Marionette gave a nod of agreement.
"Take my room. It's nearly a soundproof vault," Baby offered. Charlie knew from experience that this wasn't entirely true and wasn't certain if her generosity was out of concern or the hopes that she could maybe listen in. A plan which was immediately kneecapped by Ennard 'innocently' dragging her off to help him find spare blankets.
Springtrap closed the garage door behind him and stood there with his hand still on the knob as he considered his words. Then he finally turned around to face his younger sibling. "Marion…"
"I'm sorry," Marionette blurted out, beating him to the punch. He shook his head.
"Don't be. I got exactly what I asked for," Springtrap responded. He gave a small sigh, one accentuated by a click of his stiffened jaw. "I'm sorry. Everything I said was rubbish; I trust you with my life, I know you don't hide things without reason, and of all the people I should be angry with over the Pizzaplex, it's not you."
"No, it wasn't. You were right, I should've told you and everyone else the moment I knew… And I should've done something more by now. Something more than just waiting to act," the Puppet admitted guiltily.
"And what, expose yourself hunting down this woman only to have her framed as a victim and get off while you end up decommissioned? How many times did that happen at Freddy's?" he dared to ask. His brother's silence and gaze falling to the floor answered him. "Let's be fair, my track record is not encouraging. I wouldn't begrudge you for thinking I would've taken the news and stormed right over there."
"Will you?" Marionette asked, eyes raising again.
Now it was Springtrap's turn to look away. "Not yet… Not that I would get very far." The way his voice dropped towards the end was awfully telling.
"…What do you mean?" the Puppet asked.
"Let's just say that it's fortunate I'm still able to get across town in this useless piece of junk."
"Michael…"
"Ever since I holed myself up in that warehouse… It's been both a blessing and a curse," Springtrap admitted. He slowly walked over to the washer and dryer, and the few loose tools and lone hat left upon them. "I wouldn't have lasted this long on the streets, I can assure you of that… but now I am entirely out of the loop. Completely secluded from society, hiding out until the eventual- whatever that is."
"But you don't have to stay there if you don't want to! We have more than enough rooms at the house, and Jeremy's not going to be staying with us forever. Why not come move in with us?" Marionette offered with a tentative smile.
"I appreciate the offer, but I can't go back there. Even if there was another option, I don't think I would take it." Springtrap lifted the hat by its brim and turned it over in his grasp to look at it better. "My point is that I overreacted earlier- not about the woman herself but about you waiting to tell me- and I know it was fueled by my own insecurities. I don't want you thinking that I'm angry with you." He set down the hat and turned to face him again. "Or that you deserved that."
"It's alright."
"I shouldn't have brought up Henry," Springtrap confessed, his own voice carrying that guilt.
"You didn't have to. I'm already thinking about him when I make decisions like this," Marionette said. His music box began to tick, and he gave his chest a light thump. To his relief it cut it off. "And just so we're clear, any word of her stepping out of line and I'm going in there myself. The only reason I haven't already is because so far, she hasn't given me enough of a reason to."
"Didn't Mike say she had a knife?"
"She sat a knife out where Natalie could find it and then took it when she tried to hide it. It all seems very threatening to me, but that's through the eyes of someone who saw what he's done. She's not him. She could just be some maladjusted person doing this all as a prank and even if it is in poor taste, I couldn't live with myself if I did something I couldn't take back…"
Springtrap hummed in thought. He wasn't sure if he agreed with this. Just the context alone gave him a gut feeling that this was more than a harmless prank. Marionette seemed to mostly give people the benefit of a doubt, but Springtrap wasn't nearly so willing to put those feelings aside. That being said, he had a point about their own biases. It wasn't like he could trust anyone easily anymore.
"But that's not important now. Lizzie is… You won't tell her what I told you, will you?" Marionette asked.
"No, I won't."
The Puppet got a relieved smile. "Thank you. I just… Knowing Lizzie, I don't think she would handle that well."
"No, I agree. If she wanted to talk about it, she would on her own terms. In this case, I think she's better off not having to know, and I'll be watching tonight to make sure nothing else happens," Springtrap said. He let it sit on that note for a few moments before continuing. "We'll be fine, you should head home and get some sleep. Mike's waiting on you."
"He is, but… there's one more thing we should maybe discuss," Marionette admitted. He laced his fingers nervously before getting a small, strained smile. "About what Mike said earlier-."
Springtrap's eyes started to glaze over. The warehouse suddenly wasn't sounding so bad.
It was funny how everything felt different and yet the living room remained unchanged. Like Mike and Marionette had walked into an entirely different night when walking through that door. Both were feeling twice as exhausted and there was a sort of disinterest looking towards the pause screen illuminating the living room.
Normally Mike would've just considered this night a bust and headed straight to bed, but when he looked at Marionette to offer as much and caught sight of how down he looked, he decided he could put off sleeping a little longer.
"You feel like finishing up your turn?" he offered.
"I don't know. I'm not really in the mood," Marionette said with a tired tilt of his head.
"You sure? We have to get to a checkpoint anyway," he tempted. The Puppet still seemed uncertain. "You can watch me play. Anything's better than me sitting alone in the dark."
"…Well, when you put it like that, why not?"
They sat back down in front of the television. A few minutes later Marionette took back the controller when they got lost and the night picked up where they left off.
Mable: Scott's sleeping schedule has officially been decimated.