Finding Freedom {Freedom AU} [Book Two](FNAF/UT)

Chapter Two

   The crew at this 'sister location' had spent the whole night showing the Marionette the small establishment and as well as getting to know him. Ballora and Baby had introduced the Marionette to Funtime Foxy, Funtime Freddy and BonBon.

Foxy had also mentioned that there was a sixth member of their crew, but he'd been desperately trying to stay out of the humans' sight so he wouldn't be made to serve them. So far, it'd been working pretty well. Foxy said he'd eventually come out just long enough to say hi, but on his own time.

They'd also told him about the second and similar facility, and how they were originally going to go there. At the last possible minute, one of the higher ups instead asked they bring in specially designed animatronics instead.

So, without need for question, the group was brought to the smaller location. They were due to be open for business in a couple of days.

By now, the others had gone to get some sleep. Everyone except Ballora and Puppet. The ballerina had decided to show the Marionette the exit that led to a small clearing on the roof.

"I come here a lot, to watch the stars." She told him, as the two stood next to each other under the almost morning sky. "Nobody's ever caught you?" Puppet wondered. She shook her head 'no'.

"I have a question." Puppet stated. "Go ahead." Ballora told him. "How do you know so much about what's going on? I mean, how do you stay in the know about business dealings?" Ballora's magenta eyes briefly met Puppet's dark and glowing ones. She smirked before looking back into the horizon. "I have my ways." She cryptically answered.

"So do I." The Marionette hinted. "Oh?" Ballora asked, intrigued by the response. "But, if you want to keep your ways a secret, I guess I will too." She gave him a smirk of unbelief. "Very well then." She started, "There's a file room in the small backroom office. I read them from time to time."

"I would hide and listen in on management meetings. They were held most often at locations I've been in." The Marionette started next. "Depending on the situation, I'd also look through the boss' papers."

"I see." Ballora responded, before she fell silent.

"You said you had friends at the location you're from. Do you miss them?" She wondered. Puppet nodded. "I do. They're probably worried about me too." He sighed, before being asked, "Is there anything you remember before the company?"

The Marionette looked at her. Her gaze almost distracted him from the question, but Puppet quickly brought his attention back to reality. "I... don't. Barely anything, anyways. And you?" It wasn't until now that Puppet had noticed that Ballora's hand had been resting near her neck. He noticed when in answer to his question, she pulled out an oval locket from under the fabric of her shirt.

"I don't remember much either, but this locket is all I have to remind me that we had lives before this." She opened the locket, to reveal two small images of different people. Puppet was unable to see their faces, since someone had marked over them with a permanent marker. He could barely even make out their shoulders.

"What happened?" The Marionette asked her, as she looked at the images. "I'm not sure. BonBon claims to remember seeing a human mark it out while I was sleeping." Ballora sighed, closed the locket, and hid it back under her top.

"Something similar happened to an old friend of mine." Puppet told her. "Oh?" Ballora asked curiously. "He has a photograph of himself and his younger brother, from when they were children." Puppet began. "There appeared to be two other people in the photo, but somebody ripped that half off. So, he only has the bottom half." Ballora shook her head slowly. "That's awful." She commented with empathy.

Ballora had this confused look on her face. "It's almost as if someone is trying to keep us from knowing some truth." She theorized. "As if giving them the grounds to strip us of freedom."

"All of it is terrible."

The two fell silent again.

"If you don't mind my asking, is your sister's name really 'Circus Baby'?" Ballora shook her head. "It's not. Her real name is Ella, but she'll bite your head off if you call her that." The explanation seemed odd. "I don't understand?"

"When we first arrived to serve the company, the employees and boss kept calling her 'Circus Baby', or just 'Baby'. She kept correcting them, saying her name was Ella." Ballora started. "Eventually, one of the managers came to her when none of the other humans were looking. He scolded her badly for using her real name. The human threatened her over it and threatened the same over us if we called her 'Ella'."

Ballora sighed, before finishing with, "She's forbidden any of us to call her Ella. I still do sometimes, since I'm her sister." Puppet could see a small tear from the corner of Ballora's eye. "I'm sorry." He said to her, "Don't be, it's not your fault."

"It shouldn't be anybody's fault. It shouldn't have happened." The Marionette added. "But it did, and we can't change that."

"Terribly so."