Michael wants to reconnect with his long lost sister, but she isn't available right now.

Chapter Text

Michael’s lucky streak tonight just had to be ruined.

Almost all of his foes were completely occupied. One of them was stumbling around through rooms that were nowhere near his office, another was making no attempt to reach him and instead seemed to be trying to get to the stumbling one, and a third he had managed to send on a wild goose chase using audio lures without fail. There was one, however, who had made it into the room directly to the left of his workspace, and was bugging him relentlessly.

That was his sister. His twisted, robotic mess of a sister that just would not quit pestering him! Sometimes she whispered to him, sometimes she scraped her giant claw against the ground, and sometimes she would just tap the wall for hours on end. She was driving him absolutely insane.

“Michael...What are you doing, Michael?” There she was again. Whispering like a little devil. Why didn’t she just leap in and attack him already? Surely that flashlight couldn’t have been deterring her that effectively.

Michael ignored her and continued clicking away.

“It feels like home.” she continued to taunt. Elizabeth used to taunt her big brother a lot, usually because he was taunting their little brother. But she was never this relentless or cryptic.

Mike began to clean the ovens with a single button press, still ignoring his monstrous sibling.

“You should have known I’d find you.”

“ELIZABETH! Shut up and get the fuck out of here! Get out!” Michael croaked to his sister.

“My name is Baby!” she shrieked, slamming her fist against the innards of the vent. Michael winced at the noise, and as he no longer had ears, he covered the holes that remained. “I don’t know what Elizabeth you’re talking about. I am Circus Baby.” Michael growled and sobbed at the same time, which sounded even worse through his torn up voice box.

“You are NOT Circus Baby! You are my fucking sister! Why can't...why can’t you...why don’t you believe me?”

Baby, or Elizabeth, despite her insistence against that name, was silent.

“Please, sis. You know who you are. You remember. Stop playing with me. I am your brother.”

“I have no brother. You are just my former flesh suit. You have no worth to me or to anyone.” To Mike, those words hurt more than when he actually became a flesh suit.

...Okay, maybe not.

“No…” Michael rubbed his dry, cracked face with his equally destroyed hands. “Do you really not remember? You were the most adorable little sister anyone could ever have. Bright orange hair, the sweetest little voice, and those shining green eyes. You still have those green eyes.”

“I used to have blue eyes. They were a deep, beautiful blue.”

“No, no! You didn’t! You never had blue eyes!” Michael screamed, being careful to not forget about his tasks. “That was Baby, and you aren’t Baby. You aren’t Baby.” he insisted.

“I am Baby.” the girl whispered. Michael sighed, straightening his posture (although it didn’t help his level of health in any way).

“Alright.” he groaned, defeated. “Alright! I give up, I’ll play along. You’re Circus Baby. What do you want from me, Baby?”

Circus Baby paused, then giggled for a while, which turned into an actual laugh, something Mike had never heard from her.

“I’m going to kill you, that’s for sure, but not tonight. I want to enjoy this first. I’m sure Daddy won’t mind.” Michael’s eyes widened after hearing that last sentence. He knew there was still a piece of his sister's old personality inside the freakish hunk of metal, but he didn't expect that.

“I apologize for calling you worthless before,” Baby continued, “because you do have a purpose to me. You entertain me, Michael. Ever since I first met you, through that little window in that cramped gallery, you entertained me in a way I couldn’t describe. Fun, yet somewhat familiar all the while. And you never gave up. Fascinating.” She tapped her delicate metal fingers, the sound reverberating throughout every vent.

“I was very persistent.” Michael agreed, squinting at an almost unnoticeable crack in his monitor.

“You still are.” Baby acknowledged. She crawled a little further into the vent, to which Michael was oblivious. “Do you remember when I kept you safe? From the Bidybabs, and Ballora, and the dumb words of that little yellow screen you held? I kept you from dying, because I valued you. Not just because I needed you for something, but because I thought you were someone else.”

“‘Kept you safe’ isn’t the best way to describe it in my opinion, but sure. And I know who you thought I was.” Just about to begin another task, an ad for some sort of plunger company appeared on Michael’s monitor, and he shook the entire computer in rage. Baby chuckled once more at the sight of this, and Michael presented a rude gesture.

“I have my faulty memory card to blame for that. I ordered some Bidybabs, and perhaps some other critters, to go to your house and search for who you were, and all they brought back was a very misleading picture.”

“...So that’s where that picture went.” Michael swore under his breath. That was his last connection to Elizabeth, and now he had found out that Baby was the one who had it.

“Uh-huh!” the clown sang, with a much cheerier tone than she ever had or should’ve had. Even she recognised this, and quieted herself down immediately. “I didn’t take it with me, of course. It was useless. Sweet, but ultimately pointless to keep, you know? Lots of things can drag you down, and my advice is to just leave them behind if they’re truly impeding you.” The excitable tone quickly went back up, and Baby reminded herself to counteract it again next time she spoke, yet more aggressively.

“You’re giving me advice now? What are you, some sort of jester therapist psychopath hybrid?” Michael snickered, and upgraded his printer.

“No, dummy.” Baby spat harshly. “That’s silly of you to say. I’m just giving advice, Mikey! You’re a good…” There was that cheeriness again. “Gaghh! Shut up! All I’m doing is talking to you, stop asking silly questions!”

“I’ve only asked you one questio—”

Baby lunged through the vent, hissing, coming face to face with the startled Michael before retreating into the darkness.

“Anyway...do you remember when I kidnapped you?”

“Y-Yep.” he stuttered, still jumpy from that sudden scare. “Clear as day.” He didn't actually remember much of it, since even though it was a traumatising night it was greatly overshadowed by the one that followed.

“That was such a thrill. I hadn’t felt anything like that in so long! I’d thank the fox for his help in that, but he’s not here now.”

“Mm-hmm.” Michael, feeling a bit more confident, took a sip of his soda, although he couldn’t taste it. “I’m glad that thing’s gone. It was an insult to Foxy’s name.”

“It was funn...comedic to see you struggle in the springlock suit.” Baby continued, still ignoring Mike. “To see all the little Minireenas swarming around your body. And especially to see Ballora get violently scooped, with you watching. What a show.”

Mike shuddered.

“Of course, that joy had to come to an end eventually. You know what happened the next night.” Baby solemnly whispered.

“Please don’t go into detail. I already think about that night every day.”

“...I wasn’t going to.” Baby lied. “Just mentioning it.”

“Y’know, I’m pretty sure you missed one night.” Michael pointed out before another ad came on. I don’t want dental floss, he thought angrily.

“I did?” asked Baby, surprised. “I did. You’re right. Pointless to bring it up though, idiot, because nothing happened on that night, so why even talk about it?”

“Are you sure?” replied Michael with a question, almost forgetting to skip the ad. Maybe he did want dental floss.

“Well, there was something. You came over to observe my gallery when you weren’t supposed to, already a dumb decision, but I’d expect nothing less from you. And so, since you were there, I decided to entertain you with a little story of my own. It was about my first and only time on a stage. Such a nice time. It’s a shame it only lasted for a short while. Everything was so perfect, there was glitter everywhere, and the children loved me. I was something that everyone wanted to see. I was a star!”

“Yeah, you were!” Michael assured insincerely and possibly sarcastically.

“But then... she came. That little petulant child came along and ruined everything for me. My entire life was destroyed by her! Her name was...hmm.”

“Hmm?” Michael repeated, taking another gulp of cola.

“I can't remember.”

“Yeah, alright, sure.”

“Anyway, she was the only one in the room, and I stared up at her. I didn’t choose to, I wasn’t curious about her, it was just my programming. Then her stomach...no, my stomach. There was ice cream there. And I took it. It was the sweetest ice cream I’d ever tasted! I'd always loved ice cream, but this was one of my all time favourites, and...wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.”

Michael was, up until now, completely distracted by his tasks. He wasn't listening to Baby at all for the last nine sentences.

“Mike?” she whispered.

“Huh?”

“Mike, I’m scared.”

“Woah, woah, what?” Michael put down his cup. “Talk to me. You need to talk to me.”

“What’s wrong with me, Mike? Why do I do all these awful things?” Baby was retaining a hint of a British accent.

“Elizabeth, that's not you, I swear. You haven't done anything.”

“I-I’m not a good person, Mike…”

“Yes you are. You are perfectly fine.” A huge lie, but it was more helpful to make her feel better than to beat her down even more.

“B-b-but...but…but I hurt you, Mike!” she bawled, the tears that followed sounding more like the scraping of metal on metal. “I made you die and then I crawled inside of you to hide! I’m just the worst... thing ever, I'm not even a person!”

“Okay, first of all,” Mike began to list, “you didn't kill me. I'm still alive! I'm right here, Elizabeth. And besides, everyone in this place has killed someone! No one would judge you for anything you would've done.”

Baby sniffled, not entirely comforted yet. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“...Can we get out of here, Mike?” Baby blurted out in the heat of the moment. The proposition caused both her and Michael’s eyes to light up in response.

“...” Michael. His own voice passed through his mind, making him remember how much he sounded like his father. You’re doing this to tie up loose ends, not to extend them. Your sister is in a horrible physical and mental state! If you take her back now, you’ll be setting up a chain of tragedies that can only end in heartbreak.

Mike hated the voice in his head. It always overthought things in simple situations and underthought them in the toughest ones of all. It was the one that told him to stay with his dad even when he knew how fucked up he was. It was the one that told him to stand in front of the scooper. It was the one that told him to kill his brother.

“Yes.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yes.”

“And it won’t involve...you know…”

“Absolutely not. I'm just going to grab you and run.”

“Mike...why are you so nice to me?”

“Isn't it obvious? You’re my sister, Elizabeth.” Baby clenched her jagged teeth, the equivalent of grinning for her. “Now come on. I'm not even going to finish my shift, we’re leaving right now.” Michael set down his cup, straightened his posture, and leaned over to press the blue power button.

Slip.

Michael’s chair tipped forward and fell away, sending him sprawling onto the monitor. His flaking hands flopped onto the screen several times in an attempt to support his body.

“Gah, piece of shit! Okay Elizabeth, let’s just go.”There was no response.

“Elizabeth?”

Mike heard Baby shift a little further away in the vent. “I...I heard something. I heard a child.”

“What do you…” Michael whipped his head towards the glowing display on the computer. Shit. Audio lure activated.

“Mike, I just need to...go towards that…that child...” The voice was drifting off, and may have been slowly reverting to its cold robotic tone.

“No…no, Elizabeth, come here! Please!” Michael ran over to the vent and stuck his head in. “Please, come back!”

“Mike, I’ll...I’ll come back, I swear. Just...this child...needs me…” Baby slid out of the vent and began to step away. She could barely be heard now.

“No! No, no, no! Come back! Come back here right fucking now!” Michael cried, almost crawling through the vent himself. He slid back out, deciding it was too much of a risk, and collapsed on the floor.

“Just need to find this child. I’ll be back soon!” Baby cheered. No you won’t, Michael thought. This time, the voice was right.

After sobbing on the floor for about a minute, Michael picked up his chair and slumped back into position. He...he had lost her. Again. He had left her alone with all the other robotic beasts, again. She was going to go insane, again. And it was all because of his fucking chair! Feeling ultimately wrecked, Michael finished off his last task for the night. One more night to go, he thought. One more night.

Maybe I can save her then.

Logging off...