Hey, everyone! This story was inspired by the Toon Henry AU created by squigglydigg in Tumblr! So if you haven't seen that, well... You're probably not gonna understand what's happening here! I really suggest to go check it out, though, it's really cool and the art is super charming!

A slight grunting had called his attention. Henry lying on the floor of the meeting room, covered in the fine sleeping powder he had set as a trap earlier that day, had Bendy smiling maniacally. Oh, poor, poor, innocent Henry. He surely had thought he was finally outsmarting Bendy, finding all those ways to avoid him, always dodging his gags at the last minute. Fool. If only he slept a bit quieter, maybe he would have avoided reminding Bendy of his little plan. Now he was just there, with his back towards him. Bendy rubbed his hands as he thought of the possibilities.

But just what, he wondered, could be the perfect thing to do in this scenario? He didn't have to think much. After all, nothing ever beat the classics. He pulled out a fake rifle seemingly out of nowhere. Getting this right in Henry's face would most likely give him a good scare, and Bendy could only imagine his face when he received a full blast of confetti. Ah, he was going to be absolutely furious! He tip-toed closer and closer, thinking how boring Henry was for not even having a funny snoring that would make it easier for him to approach. Once he'd gone around him, though, getting in the way of his shot was Henry's stupid dream cloud-

A completely blank dream cloud. Huh. Bendy looked at it, mirroring Henry's currently furrowed brow. He had seen Joey had similar ones, where it was impossible to tell what he was dreaming about. Maybe it was one of the things that differed between the real cartoons and the human-toons.

A grin made its way into his face as a very crazy idea struck him. Whatever Henry was dreaming about, it obviously wasn't pleasant. If he could only take a peek, maybe he could find something embarrassing he could use against him in the future! Stifling a laugh, he reached for the cloud and zipped it open. Right before entering through the gap, he stuck his tongue out at Henry, already celebrating his soon-to-be advantage in their little game.

.

.

The transition was… weird, to say the least. Every previous time he had entered a dream (mostly to play with Boris in a place that wasn't the studio) had felt more like going from one room to another. At that moment, he felt like he was floating and everything but himself was pitch darkness. The entrance he'd made for himself was nowhere to be seen either. He would be lying if he said he wasn't getting at least a bit nervous. Bendy shook it off as the darkness finally started to dissipate and he felt himself slowly descending. The moment his feet touched the ground, the darkness plummeted down and disappeared.

The first thing he noticed was the red sky. Not blue, like Joey had taught them with a color palette on past days. A vibrant red. Bendy had always been curious about a world filled with actual colors, one with so many little details that the cartoon world apparently didn't have. He wasn't sure he liked this one. The ground was brown, or maybe gray, or maybe a darker red? He couldn't quite tell. Looking around he noticed his surroundings were weirdly deserted. He frowned. If this was Henry's dream, then he had to be close. In the distance he could see weird accumulations of wood and barbed wire. Looking the opposite direction got him the same sight. Maybe walking towards one would give him some clue of what was happening.

"GRENADE!"

He jumped at the warning, and sudden movement over him caught his eye. Before he could do anything to react, the round object exploded with a blinding light. Bendy instinctively covered his face, his eyes watering at the offense. He rubbed at them, the sudden ringing in his ears slowly fading away too. He wished it hadn't. The screams were much more difficult to deal with. He tensed up. What was happening? The urge to run away immediately overcame the pain in his eyes. He forced himself to finally look up, hoping that there would be anywhere he could go. He wasn't expecting all the people that had appeared out of nowhere. Nobody seemed to notice him, though. Bendy looked at everyone around him and gave a couple of steps back when he realized they were all holding weapons. Very real weapons that they were using. The sound of explosions surrounded him, as did the buzzing of bullets travelling right over his head. His breathing became labored as he realized what exactly Henry had been dreaming about. Everybody was running, shooting… killing. All were in uniforms, none of them had faces.

Except two.

He almost didn't recognize Henry. His face was covered in dirt and soot, almost hiding the fact that he looked several years younger. Having spotted his old creator, he latched his eyes to his figure and bolted towards him, not caring that he was far away. Right beside Henry was another man. He looked even younger than him, his face sometimes clear, sometimes blurry. Somehow, even at that distance, what most seemed to stand out about that man was his blonde hair. Henry seemed to be struggling to tell him something above all the noise while trying to aim a rifle himself. Bendy noticed the blond guy wasn't holding a weapon.

A loud bang and Henry fell. Bendy froze on the spot. He held his breath, watching how the blond guy quickly kneeled to try and help. When Henry clutched his leg a second later, Bendy sighed in relief. But it was short lived, as the blonde guy was having a difficult time getting Henry to stand. Bendye wished he could help… But he realized he could, in fact! Just what was he doing? He was a cartoon! He could easily lift them both and take them to safety, he really could! But as he tried taking a step forward, he realized his legs weren't responding. Bendy looked down, searching for whatever could be holding him back. But there was nothing. He tried with all his might to advance, but all he managed was to stumble forward and land on his stomach. He lifted his head, quickly catching sight of them. Henry's comrade had managed to get him to lean on him, and was now advancing to what Bendy could only guess were trenches. At the same time, Bendy felt his legs lighten a little. Taking the opportunity, he stood up and started walking towards them as fast as he could, which… was frustratingly slow. There was a sense of urgency in him, a horrible feeling that pushed him to reach them.

And then one of the soldiers wearing a uniform different to Henry's got a face. It was a blurred mess, but definitely there. And he was running towards the pair. Bendy tried to scream a warning, but he couldn't hear his own voice over the chaos. Bendy tried. He tried, he tried, he tried! It was useless. The man reached them, but Henry caught on fast. He quickly pushed the blond guy away, managing to make the first shot miss them both. Having lost his support, Henry fell and landed on his wounded leg, causing him to scream in pain. Bendy fell as well. The enemy soldier went for Henry first, but the blond guy had grabbed Henry's rifle. Unfortunately, he missed, only managing to grab the man's attention. In a mere second, the enemy soldier turned around and shot him square on the chest. Henry screamed for his companion, causing his attacker to return his attention to him. The barrel of the soldier's rifle was positioned right in Henry's face. Henry could only shut his eyes close. A stray bullet saved him. The soldier fell, and Bendy could no longer distinguish him from the ground.

Henry quickly attempted to crawl towards the blond guy. He had to stop short, when the ground all around the blond guy started to shuffle. Something emerged forcefully from the earth and latched to the blond guy's arm. It looked like a charred hand, with a pair of missing fingers. All around the blond guy, more and more started to appear. The sleeves on the arms were from both sides of the battle. They all grabbed him and started to pull down. By then, Henry was frantically trying to reach him, but no matter how much he seemed to claw at the ground, he didn't advance an inch. The earth swallowed Henry's friend whole, at which point the man could only watch in horror. Bendy looked down, having the terrifying thought of the number of people that could be right under him because of that same fate. He couldn't dwell on it much, though. A round object had just landed right in front of him with a metallic sound.

"GRENADE!"

An incredible force pushed him backwards. Launched through the air, he felt a soft material on his back a second before slamming against a wall. He slid to the ground, a bit stunned from the impact. He looked up and saw a quickly disappearing Bendy-shaped hole in Henry's dream cloud. Had it been in other circumstances, he would have thought it funny to be so forcefully removed from a dream. It would have normally happened because he was messing around in the dream, some mischief causing explosion gags or some trouble to laugh at. Right now, the last thing he wanted to do was laughing. He just sat there, looking at the dream cloud with an empty expression. It had been just a dream. He felt cold, he felt a tightness in his chest. Just a dream. He started to tremble, so he hugged himself trying to make it stop. Just a dream. Images of Henry's nightmare were flashing through his mind and he wanted them to go away. Just. A. Dream. Bendy tried to convince himself that maybe that had been just Henry's mind exaggerating what happened when he was drafted, that it couldn't have been as terrible as that. He was afraid it could be quiet the opposite.

The familiar environment was helping him though, and after some of the longest seconds in his life, he managed to calm down. He slowly got up, fearing that his legs would once again fail him, but they managed like they would any other day. It had been all just a dream. More at ease, he approached Henry once again, who now was covered in sweat and whose face was contorted into an anguished expression. He looked over at his fake rifle on the ground and felt a pang in his chest that definitely could not be guilt. Bendy guessed that if he used classics all the time, his audience would get bored. Yeah, maybe he could try something new. Like maybe letting Henry sleep through the rest of the sleeping powder effects. That way when he woke up he would be paranoid about Bendy having done something to him while asleep. Of course, that would mean no loud noises around, so he would have to go and collect all the fake gun weapons in the studio and put them in a far away room. And lock that room. Forever.

Before he picked up the fake rifle, though, he caught sight of the dream cloud once again. He glared at it with all the hate he could muster. Then he looked down at Henry, whose expression had not changed in the least. Without having to consider it too much, he grabbed the sides of the cloud and started stretching it until it was completely round. Now it was a dream bubble! Bendy nodded at the new shape, and proceeded to take out a needle. With a prick, the dream bubble burst with a gentle pop. It wasn't until Henry's face had relaxed into a neutral expression that Bendy did pick up the rifle and went out the room. Now, it wasn't that he had just made the old man a favor; it was just no use if when he woke up he was too tired to be paranoid. He just hoped he would be too tired to notice there was a new splat of ink on the wall of the meeting room.

I hope you enjoyed! Please tell me what you think, constructive criticism is always appreciated!