The phone in Michael's hotel room rang. When he picked it up, Henry was on the other side.

"How was the week-long training course?", asked Henry enthusiastically.

Michael replied, "It was alright. Not much to go over. You sound much better than before."

"Yeah!", Henry laughed, "The wife is great, as always. Do you remember the plan?"

"Find out how to put Elizabeth back together, then do so. Then quit the job and leave with my sister."

"You're focused! That's good. Good luck, Afton Jr.", Henry said as he hung up the phone.

Michael put on his uniform and walked down the street as he passed a row of houses. Many of the people there were Afton Robotics employees and waved to him as he passed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he got to the building, Liara was waiting for him in the lobby.

"Heya Afton Jr!", Liara said with a smile, "Ready for your first day?"

Michael fake-laughed and said, "Yeah sure, Liara."

"Just  use your ID card to access the elevator and you'll be on your way!", Liara explained, "The normal entrance isn't working, so you'll have to use the crawlspace. Good luck!"

Michael shook her hand and opened the elevator doors. The doors creaked open slowly and the elevator looked much older than the building even. He swallowed his fear and got into the elevator.

An energetic but monotone voice came over the speakers in the elevator to introduce itself, "I will be your personal guide to help you get started. I'm a model 5 of the Handyman's Robotics and Unit Repair System. But, you can call me 'Hand-Unit'."

Hand-Unit then gestured for Michael to enter his name on the pad, but as Liara said, it was glitchy and kept jumping around. 

"It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type, and I will auto-correct it for you. Welcome: Eggs Benedict", said Hand-Unit matter-of-factly before retracting back into the wall.

Michael shook his head, "What computer thinks that someone would be named 'Eggs Benedict'?" The annoying Hand-Unit prompted him to open the elevator and continue through the vent duct, as Liara said. It continued to speak in a dull tone about the history of Circus Baby's Pizza World and the rental service.

Once he got to the next room, Hand-Unit made him perform check-ups on the ballerina, Ballora, and the recolored foxy, Funtime Foxy. After that, Hand-Unit led him through another vent shaft to Circus Baby's gallery.

Michael breathed in deeply and said out loud, "This is it. I can do this and get out of here in one day."

Hand-Unit explained, "Looks like a few of the lights are out, but we can fix that later. Let's encourage Baby to cheer up with a controlled shock."

Michael didn't really want to shock his 'sister' but he followed the instructions. After 3 attempts at getting her to respond, she never showed up but Hand-Unit took no notice and instructed Michael to return home for the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...and she never showed her face", Michael explained the first night on the job to Henry.

Henry sulked, "Well that sucks. But I'm pretty sure that she might probably show her face tomorrow? I don't know. Have hope, Afton Jr."

"But what if she doesn't?", Michael asked, "I can't find out where my dad is if I don't do this."

"Look, I'm sure everything will be okay. I'm sorry but I can't be of much help over here. We're having Taco Friday in Charlie's honor and the missus makes the BEST tacos." Then the line went dead.

"C'mon Henry", Michael said as he turned on The Immortal and the Restless. The show premiered a few weeks ago so he decided to catch up on it before drifting off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Michael told Liara about how he hadn't seen Circus Baby.

"Well, some of the light were pretty funky so I'm sure she was there, you just couldn't see her", Liara explained, "Everything should be good tonight though!"

Hand-Unit's antics continued on the way down the elevator, making him select another voice synthesizer which malfunctioned after checking on Ballora and Foxy. It then led him back to Circus Baby's gallery.

It told him to shock her again and like the night before, nothing happened. On the second shock, Michael heard a breaker trip before the lights proceeded to go out.

"There seems to be a power malfunction that is affecting our ability to properly motivate Baby", spoke Hand-Unit, "Please stand by, while I reboot the system." It deactivated all the power and all of the vents opened as a result.

"I don't recognise you."

Michael's head whipped around as he tried to find the origin of the female voice that sounded slightly familiar.

"You are new. I remember this scenario, however", the familiar voice said, "It's a strange thing to want to do, to come here. I'm curious what events would lead a person to want to spend their nights, in a place like this. Willingly. Maybe curiosity? Maybe ignorance?"

"Who's there?", Michael asked fearfully, but she ignored him and said, "There is a space under the desk; someone before you crafted it into a hiding-place and it worked for him. I recommend that you hurry though."

He quickly crawled into the cut-out space under the desk. He tried searching his memory before an idea clicked.

"You will be safe there; just try not to make eye-contact. It will be over soon; they will lose interest", she warned.

Michael slid the sliding door underneath the desk shut and pleaded, "What 'they'?" 

He began to panic as he heard the sound of clamoring metal. He peered through a crack in the door and saw an eye staring back at him.

"Hello in there", it said as it kept scraping along the vent. Then the door started sliding open.

Michael's eyes were wide with fear as he struggled to hold the door shut. The things behind the door kept arguing amongst each other before deciding to leave Michael alone.

He wiped the fear from his brow as the voice spoke again plainly, "When your guide comes back online, he is going to tell you that he was unsuccessful. That you must restart the system manually. He will then tell you to crawl through Ballora Gallery as fast as you can to reach the breaker room. If you follow his instructions, you will die. Ballora will not return to her stage anymore. She will catch you." 

Then Michael came to a realization. The voice was that of Circus Baby. That of his sister. 

"Elizabeth, it's me!", he tried shouting to her, but again Circus Baby ignored him.

"The power will be restored shortly. When you crawl through Ballora Gallery, go slowly. She cannot see you, and can only listen for your movement. When you hear her music become louder, she is growing near; listening for you. Wait, and be still."

Hand-Unit returned and said, "Thank you for your patience. it seems that the power system cannot be restarted automatically. You will need to restart the power system manually. Please return to the primary control module."

Michael didn't want to leave, but he returned to the main maintenance room. Hand-Unit told him to reach the breaker room as fast as possible, but Michael remembered Baby's instructions and went slowly, stopping only when hearing the eerie music of Ballora as she passed by.

When he reached the breaker room, there was a panel labeling all the areas that were receiving power from the underground generator. Hand-Unit instructed him to repair the power.

It also warned Michael that repairing the power might disrupt electronics in the area.

"What would there be to disrupt?", Michael thought to himself before looking in the back corner of the room to see Funtime Freddy staring back at him. Freddy's lifeless eyes regarded him as he began setting the breakers in their place.

Freddy began to move, but before he could get too close, Michael used the taming device to make him return to his stage.

After what felt like hours fixing the power, everything was in order.

"Great job", Hand-Unit announced, "This completes your tasks for the night. Please proceed back through the Ballora Gallery with care, and we'll see you back here tomorrow."

Michael sighed with relief as he crawled back into Ballora Gallery. On his way back, there was no music this time.

As he got close to the exit, he heard Ballora's voice, "Is someone there?" He froze in terror.

"I can hear someone creeping through my room."

He started slowly and cautiously moving forwards again.

"Perhaps, not", she said as Michael left through the vent.

Michael got in the elevator as quickly as possible to get home and relax.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Radio chatter could be heard from the stations.

A younger female voice spoke, "Everything is going well. Soon he'll listen to me long enough and we will be free."

Growling was heard.

"He won't fall so easily", an older female voice said.

A scratchy voice was also heard, "We should go give him a suprise!"

"No", the first voice asserted, "This will work. My way will work."