-Break the cycle-

Addison woke up in a sleeping bag she settle herself in not realizing she fell asleep while relaxing.

She turned to a calendar she had put on the wall and marked "day one hundred and twelve" which is the last time she had seen the ink demon. It had been one hundred and twelve days, and she was still thinking about what happened. Never left her mind, it was so confusing.

Why was it just suddenly gone now? Why had it not killed her that day? She was still unsure and tried to drown her thoughts by cleaning her little stay place. It wasn’t too dirty but it definitely did need a bit of picking up.

After a while of cleaning, she had a sudden pain in her leg, she grunted and pulled down her legging.

"Gosh.." she sighed.

There was a big scratch on her knee, it must’ve happened when she was cleaning and she hadn’t noticed.

It wasn’t bleeding bad, but she didn’t want it to possibly get infected. She opened a drawer looking for some medical supplies.

Crap..she had forgotten to restock.

She made up her mind to head to the medical room, but she would have to head down, and oh goodness did she hate having to travel deeper instead of traveling out.

She got some things that would make her travel much easier and set off.

After half an hour of looting searches and avoiding aware lost ones she found the medical room. She limped towards it the limp being caused by her now very injured knee. The searches got some good hits on her, but no matter she’d treat herself once inside.

She tried to open the door but it was locked, weird…it’s never been locked before she thought.

She groaned at the thought of having to find some other way in, walking around for a bit she spotted a vent that seemed to lead her inside.

She struggled but managed to crawl inside it. When reaching the exit she plopped herself inside the medical room then silently cheered to herself.

Everything she needed was there and she began to patch herself up. Once finished she was about to leave back through the vent she came but then heard something in the room next to hers.

Sniffle

She paused and listened "what was that?" She thought

Then again

Sniffle

Was someone…crying?

She really didn’t want to see who could be weeping, but she was very curious. She slowly opened the door curious to see who was sniffling their feelings out.

Expecting it to be a lost one, she was shocked to see another toon such as herself. She couldn’t believe it, the toon had their back faced to her. A toon bendy? She thought to herself. it was nearly impossible, she has never seen one before.

She inspected them closely, they seemed to be wrapping up something, she noticed they had many wounds and scratches up their arms.

It looked like they were trying to treat themself but failing miserably

She could help, she slowly approached them. When she was behind them she tapped on their shoulder, they gasped and looked up quickly. Their terrified and shocked expression slightly faded when they saw her.

The little toon gulped as they both stared at each other for a few seconds. Addison walked to their front and kneeled down. They flinched as she did so.

She reached her hand towards them taking away the bandages they held. First she softly applied alcohol to their wounds. It stung like a bee and bendy tensed up. She then fixed the sloppily wrapped bandages bendy had already applied to themself.

They watched as she fixed it, then gazed at her face. She was so focused on wrapping them she hadn’t noticed them staring.

When she finished she stood up and stepped backwards to get a better look. Bendy still a bit tensed and confused since they didn’t know Addison and didn’t know her plans. She thought to reassure them to make them feel a little less scared

"Uhm..hey, it’s okay I’m not gonna hurt you at all. I fixed your bandages see?" She said in a soft reassuring voice

The toon looked down at their arms seeing that it was much better than how they did it originally, they then looked up and gave Addison a smile

She paused "um, can you talk?" She asked kneeling in front of them

They opened their mouth slightly, nothing but cold air came out.

"Ah..that’s okay. Are you bendy?"

They nodded then paused then gasped

"W-what is it?" Addison asked tilting her head a bit

The toon looked her up and down, her horns pointy but not to the point where it would hurt if someone were to touch the tip, and her halo gleamed. Bendy then pointed toward a nearby poster on the wall. It was a Alice angel poster, her first debut in fact.

Addison stared where the toon pointed in confusion for a second, before she could reply the toon jumped down and dipped their glove into a puddle of ink and wrote on the wall

"Alice?"

Addison lightly sighed and shook her head.

"N-no- well I suppose on the outside I am. My name is Addison." She corrected them

They nodded and continued to write to her. Addison wasn’t used to this kind of communication but it was nice to have company either way.

"How long have you been here?" They wrote.

"Not really sure, you?" She answered

They shrugged, looks like they both had no idea how long it had been.

The conversation went on for awhile, they cracked jokes and enjoyed each other’s company.

The toon wrote another question.

"If you have to leave, Can I come with you?"

Addison paused for a moment, it would be nice to have this little guy be a companion. She did hate being on her own after all and she couldn’t just leave them there by themself.

She happily nodded. Bendy smiled and hopped excitingly.

After a few more minutes of conversation Addison stood up and motioned for it being time to leave this area, bendy nodded and followed close behind her.

They headed up, while walking Addison marked a area on her map. She’d occasionally look behind to see if bendy was close behind and noticed they had a very uncomfortable looking limp. She slowed her speed walk to a normal walk after noticing.

Then they finally got to the elevator, with no trouble! to Addisons surprise since she had encountered a lot of searches on her way there, she shrugged it off and opened the elevator letting bendy go in first.

The little toon hopped onto a chair on the back of the elevator, Addison after choosing their destination joined bendy on the chair as they both awaiting for the elevator to arrive at their selected floor.

-Break the cycle-

It’s been a month since Azael has seen anyone other than crazy lost minds. On the bright side she found herself a nice place to stay. She called it 'the den'. It was quite messy, and she didn’t bother cleaning, in fact she didn’t really care.

She eventually stitched together those overall parts, making overalls for herself to wear.

Despite being all alone, she found a way to survive and entertain herself. Enemy’s around the studio weren’t much of a threat, they’re very easy to get rid of. She can easily twist off the head of a searcher, or stealth kill a lost one without being seen. After awhile, she got bored of the enemy’s around the studio and didn’t really bother killing them at all.

She’s heard of the all hearing ink demon, posters were strung up about a man named Wilson killing it. She’s never seen this ’ink demon’ but she had a gut feeling that some old man didn’t defeat it.

In some way, she kinda feels bad for the ink demon. Everyone around the studio seems to hate it and want it gone, but Azael didn’t know what it was like so she couldn’t judge.

She laid in her dirty nest thinking about it.

What was the ink demon like?

She thought, for hours on end, eventually getting bored and sitting up.

Her stomach rumbled, she checked her stash to see if there was any food left.

Nothing.

The toon deeply sighed, and threw her satchel over her shoulder. She grabbed a pipe for protection, and set off.

Opening the dens hatch, the toon crawled out and shut the hatch behind her. Her den was in the deeper parts of the studio, despite those parts being rather dangerous, there was a lot of resources that upper levels were often skinned of. Since heavenly toys was nearby, the toon decided to head there first.

Out of no where, a piper jumped out of a blind spot. Azael, caught off guard, yelped and fell back, dropping her pipe as well. The toon has never dealt with a butcher gang member before. It growled savagely and prepared to swing at the little toon. Azael threw her arm forward and shut her eyes tight.

CRACK!

She opened her eyes, a sharp blade now piercing through the pipers head. The blade pulled out, and the piper fell to the floor. Azael quickly looked up to see who had just saved her life. A angelic like woman, reached her hand out.

"Are you alright?" The angel said.

She was another toon? Azael had never seen anyone other than searchers and lost ones. She nodded, the angel handed the toon her pipe and pulled her to her feet.

"You’re lucky I was around, otherwise you’d be toast" the angel said, tapping on a device, looked like a radar.

The angel paused, then turned her attention to Azael.

"Azael?" She said, lowering her radar from view.

The angel took a step forward, the toon took a step back then nodded.

"Huh…never seen another one before." The angel mumbled, what did she mean ‘another one’ ?

"Don’t worry, I don’t plan on hurting you or anything, I’m Alice." She reached her hand out, Azael gripped the angels clean glove and gave it a shake.

"Are you all alone here? That’s quite dangerous for someone like you." The angel said, tucking the radar into her pocket. Azael nodded, the angel sighed.

"Well, do you want to come with me? It’s dangerous to stay in the open for too long. The ink demon might find you." The angel said, slicing planks out her path.

Azael tilted her head, and wrote in a notebook she kept in a pouch on her overalls. The angel turned to her.

"Isn’t the ink demon defeated?"

Alice let out a laugh, the shook her head.

"Naive little one, it’s far from gone. Don’t listen to that old man he tells nothing but lies." Alice proceeded forward, Azael stayed close behind.

"The posters lie?" Azael wrote, Alice stopped to read then paused before answering.

"I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen the bastard in awhile, but trust me it’s still around." Alice said, quickening her pace.

"Where are we going?" Azael wrote.

"Someplace I call home, cmon it’s not far." Alice said, stopping at a elevator.

The elevator opened, Alice stepped to the side allowing her companion to step inside first. The toon did, Alice came in behind her. Pressing a few buttons, the elevator door closed and ascended. Azael took a seat on the floor, scrapping it with her finger.

Alice leaned against the wall, pulling out a different device. The angel spoke into it.

"Tom, I’m heading back, open the door for me." The angel said, nothing but static responded.

Azael tilted her head. Who’s Tom? She wasn’t alone??

"Who’s Tom?" Azael wrote, Alice turned to her.

"Oh! Right, I forgot to mention him- don’t worry, he means no harm. He’s a friend." Alice said, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

Alice stepped out the elevator and went down a twisted hallway. Nervously, Azael followed.

Alice approached a door.

"Stay behind, okay?" Alice said. She knocks on the door with rhythm.

Azael nodded, and stood close behind Alice.

The door opens, a wolf greets Alice and moves aside to let her in. Alice grabs hold of the little toons hand, leading her inside. The wolf, noticing Azael began to sniff her. The toon jolted, and stood completely still.

"Relax Tom, they’re clean." Alice said, placing down her sword onto a rack on the wall.

So, the wolf is Tom?

The toon inspected Tom a bit, he was big in size, with buff arms. His left arm replaced with a mechanical robot one.

Tom scoffed and approached Alice, making gestures with his hands.

"Who is this?" Tom signed, Alice looked over at Azael, then turned back to Tom.

"Some kid, well I assume it’s a kid. They was attacked in heavenly toys. Couldn’t just leave them." Alice signed in reply, Azael stared at the two in confusion.

Why’re they just waving their hands at one another?

The toon thought.

"What if they’re dangerous?" Tom signed, Alice sighed.

”They’re not, they couldn’t even take down a piper. Relax." Alice replied, ending the conversation.

Tom looked back at the toon, and approached her.

"Do you know sign?" Tom asked, Azael tilted her head.

"It’s sign language, we could teach you if you want?" Alice said, Azael paused then nodded.

"Oh, this is Tom by the way, Tom this is Azael." Alice introduced the two, Azael reached for Toms hand and shook.

Tom gestured for the little toon to take a seat, she did so and he showed her some basic sign. Azaels stomach rumbled low, she then remembered why she left her den in the first place. For food.

Alice took notice, and slid a bowl across the table. The toon looked inside, boiling bacon soup brewed within the bowls center. Alice placed a bowl for Tom as well, before sitting down and placing a bowl for herself.

"Sorry, it’s all we have." Alice said to Azael. The toon nodded, she didn’t really like bacon soup. Then again, she didn’t care, she just wanted to eat.

When finishing, the toon tugged on Alice.

"What’s up? Want more?" Alice asked, holding a spoon over a pot of boiling soup. Azael shook her head and wrote in her book.

"I need to return to my den."

"Oh, you already had a place to stay? Why not stay here with us? We can protect you." Alice said, crouching to the toons eye level.

Azael thought about it, she didn’t enjoy being all alone, she also liked Alice, she could warm up to Tom. She didn’t have anything too important in the den. She’s got nothing to lose.

The toon nodded, Alice clasped her hands and laughed.

"Alright, we’d love having you here! Right Tom?" Alice turned her head to Tom, who was lying in a hammock. The angel repeated herself a little louder, Tom opened one eye and nodded. Azael felt happy, but her blank expression remained.

"One rule, don’t leave on your own." Alice said, scooping some soup into her bowl. Azael nodded, and sat down on one of the beds.

The toon kicked her feet up, and closed her eyes. Her heart rate slowed, and she drifted to sleep.

-Break the cycle-

Fuzz filled the air.

It stung so very badly.

Such a strong headache.

They couldn’t stand it. They sat up rubbing their forehead and turned to a mirror, they gasped in awe..and touched their face, it was chubby and had big pie cut shaped eyes and small cartoony lips covered by black lip stick. They then ruffled their hair, It was golden yellow, with black ’highlights’ at the bottom, they also had horns poking out from each side of their head, laid atop was a black halo that spilled ink onto one horn.

Azael stared at her new self in the mirror, wondering what…had happened to her. She looked at her surroundings, she woke in a prison bed and seemed to be in a prison cell but unfortunately for her the cell didn’t have normal prison doors that she could easily slip through instead it had no windows and a solid door, looked more like a dungeon really.

She was alerted when footsteps approached her door. A strong pain shot to her head and she crouched down with a splitting headache again.

The door opened, a man walked in with two keepers accompanying him.

Her headache didn’t stop in fact it got worse when one of the keepers came closer, the man spoke to the allies that accompanied him but Azaels mind was too full of fuzz to properly understand what he was saying.

When the man and his allies left, there was a tight click that could be heard from the door when it closed

Oh they locked it wonderful

Azael stood up, her headache dying down just a little. She didn’t know where she was but she wanted out.

She looked around for possible escape points, and spotted a vent above her. It was way to high up, but it was quite literally the only way out.

She found a few boxes and stacked them up, it was just enough for her to jump and grab the grids of the vent.

She did so, and tugged on the vent until it flew open. She climbed inside without a second thought.

That was easy

The vent was tight and smelt absolutely awful, like a body had been decomposing within.

While crawling, Azael spotted many rooms through the vents, she saw a lost rocking back in forth like a madman, a man she doesn’t recognize was drawing, and another woman that seemed to be an Alice angel laughing maniacally. They all seemed to be locked up, Azael however ignored them and proceeded forward.

At last she found an exit to that awful smelling vent, she made sure no one was around first so she wouldn’t be caught.

She plopped down onto the creaky boards, and made her way around any patrolling keepers. She had no idea how she had gotten here, but desperately wanted to get out.

She had noticed some tapes lying around, and collected them out of curiosity. She didn’t listen to them but instead collected them for later.

Wandering around she found a big door, it was slightly open just enough for her to slip inside. She did so and spotted another vent that was open, to avoid being seen she’d travel through there.

While traveling up above, Azael noticed a door with the signs "EXIT" Just want she wanted to see.

However, there were keepers blocking the door. She huffed in annoyance and crawled back.

After finding another vent exit, she crawled out of the cramped space and into a room. There was another grate on the floor, it could be a way out. She lifted it up and moved it out of the way.

Smelt even worse, she didn’t think twice and jumped inside.

The pipe spat her out into a large inky 'ocean' good thing she knows how to swim on instinct. She swam to shore and shook off, the ink reeked and smelt so strong.

Azael took in her surroundings, it was almost purely dark aside from some lights and lanterns spread about

Where the hell am I?

She thought. Looking up she spotted a latter than seems to lead outside, wanting to leave this awful smelling inky abyss.

She climbed the latter and reached the exit. The place she was in seemed familiar, there was a little cafeteria place and had a lot of food just laying around. She scavenged the food laid about, she made sure to save some for later.

She didn’t know where she was now, but decided to look around this place more. For supplies and stuff.

She entered the kitchen part of the cafeteria and spotted even more snacks.

Must be my lucky day.

She thought, while taking the snacks. She realized she didn’t have pockets or anything to hold these treats in. She set the snacks down and looked for a basket, bag anything that could give her hands some space.

She found a satchel, it was just big enough to carry all her sweet treats.

After an hour of laying about she decided to leave the cafeteria, it was no use anymore since she skinned it dry if it’s resources.

She had noticed some ripped up parts of what seemed to be the top of overalls, not wanting to walk around in a dress she picked up the scraps and decided to sew it back together for herself once she found a place to settle down in.

She left the cafeteria, and wandered around for awhile before spotting a room with a..plus sign on it? She tried to open the door but it was locked however, there was a open vent she could go through to possibly get inside.

She jumped and grabbed hold of the open vents bottom, climbing up she crawled inside and fell into a room full of surgical crap like bandages, needles, pills and other things used to treat wounds.

There was a sign above the door she tried to open to get inside previously, it read

LITTLE ANGELS NURSERY

In bold black text, two angels can be seen above the sign in nurse outfits. One looks very similar to the little toon but instead of having a black halo, a yellow one laid atop her head. The other angel, instead of having blonde hair she had black hair, she also had identical horns and halo to the other angel.

There was no one inside the room and it seemed to be locked up, Azael made her decision to stay here for the time being. Besides she was feeling a bit tired from all the walking. She had a seat on one of the hospital like beds.

Feeling exhausted, she relaxed.