When the emergency crew came to clean up Freddy, it looked like he was beyond the state of repair. Mechanical parts were strewn across the ground and Freddy's head had an ugly crack on its forehead. Bendy watched with the Neighbor as the coroners put all of Freddy's parts inside a rectangular box and place him in the back of a truck.
"Is he gone forever?" asked Bendy as the truck sped off on the road. The Neighbor seemed unfazed at Freddy's mutilation.
"The guy has been through much, I'm sure he would have had worse..."
Leaving the conversation at that ambiguous note, the Neighbor hailed a taxi and ushered Bendy inside.
"Are we heading over to Reddit?" asked Bendy as the cityscape of YouTube speed by them.
"Not yet..." said the Neighbor shortly, "You saw that whoever had attacked us in the strip club wasn't sans. Or at least, the sans that we know..."
Then it struck Bendy. An aspect of the Undertale Fandom that it was rather famous for.
"Are you saying that the sans who attacked us back there was an AU version of sans?"
"You heard Ayano call sans, Dusty," explained the Neighbor, "I need to head over to somewhere to confirm who he is."
They then sat quietly in the taxi as the landscape transitioned into a more suburban setting. Bendy figured that he would best ask the questions that lingered in his mind.
"How did you and Freddy end up partners?"
The Neighbor stiffened slightly.
"The boss tends to group people from the same video game genres together," explained the Neighbor, "Freddy was already a rising star in the industry. Before him, Slenderman used to be the big guy. He's gone bitter as more horror characters have taken the spotlight. You saw how he treated you when you entered that bar. Thinks he is still relevant after his appearance in a spaceship. You see, characters come and go, but Freddy has been around longer than any franchise should. The internet is a world of connections. You make the right links, you last longer in relevancy. I stuck close to Freddy for a while but then... You are prone to be accused of leeching..."
Bendy looked at the Neighbor seriously.
"Don't get me wrong. I don't see Freddy as a tool to bolster my popularity. But sometimes, you need to be opportunistic because the internet doesn't reward nice people. You can never be nice in here..."
Once the duo had arrived at their destination, they walked out towards a large building complex that had a weathered and worn-out sign on the front that read "The Library". Bendy had a look inside and understood where they were at. The building had two vertical mirroring F-shaped towers protruding from the main building. The inside of the library had a large entrance hall where Bendy could see shelves upon shelves of books lined on the walls. The Neighbor led Bendy to an escalator which headed downwards. After 10 minutes, they arrived at a cavern-like room with a grey door on the side. But that wasn't where they headed. There was a large shelf with CD cases that spanned the entirety of the edges of the cavern. Bendy looked astonished at the hundreds upon thousands of AUs that there stored inside those CDs. The Neighbor went over to a part of the shelf which looked more presentable than the others. He started to sift through the masses of covers on the shelves. It was a while before the Neighbor stopped looking. He didn't seem to find what he was looking for but he didn't look dejected.
"It's not here..." muttered the Neighbor as he turned to Bendy, "I assume you are familiar with how these CDs work. You put them through a port and you can bring AU characters to life on a screen. However, I think you may realize our problem."
"That sans was 100% real."
"You see here that the Dust-Tale CD is missing. Ayano must've stolen the CD and convinced the AU sans in that disk to help her with whatever she is doing. But then how did she bring him out of the CD?"
Bendy suddenly realized something.
"Wait, when those inklings kidnapped me, Splatasia told me that Rule 34 had been stealing their ink-related technology from her workshop."
"In that case, could Ayano use that technology to bring Dust-Tale sans to life like your Ink Machine?"
"She could but how could she figure out how?" said Bendy, "I haven't shared the inner workings of the machine to anyone."
"But she has displayed that she is not above stealing..."
The Neighbor and Bendy looked at each other realizing the implications of the Neighbor's statement. There was a measured silence between them, then they started to run towards the escalator.
Suddenly, the grey door burst open and two large figures intercepted Bendy before he reached the escalator. The Neighbor turned around in surprise but it was too late as he let out a yell. One of the goons grabbed Bendy by his legs like a chicken for the slaughter and slung him over their back. The Neighbor tried to reach Bendy but the two figures stepped back through the grey door and Bendy was swallowed in darkness.