Trente-trois[There must be another story I'm sure we would all like to hear.]

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Getting backhanded into oblivion never got easier.

Neither did running around the lair and keeping out of reach of the beast.

Smashing its head into pipes, dousing Henry with ink, relentless chasing and roaring. It never got easier, even with every step memorized, every task down to the second, every single mistake avoided.

He hadn't been trampled to death. That was good.

The cartoonist stumbled into the throne room and grabbed the near arm of the throne. Henry panted, always so exhausted after outrunning the blinded monster ready to rip him to shreds. But he reached down for the reel with no say in the matter. His entire frame trembled at the strain of just holding still to slow the inevitable.

Henry stared at the reel, unable to stop the progression of setting it onto the projector. His arm moved on its own, but… his fingers tingled, little pricks of sensation on the ends… he relaxed his hand, and the reel fell to the floor. He sucked in a breath deep as the sea and let himself fall into the throne behind him, eyes shut from the growing headache in his skull. His heart thundered to keep up with the rest of him. Dropping the reel nearly knocked him flat from the tension set loose.

The creaking, deep footfalls of the ink demon drew closer. Cautious, shy almost, as they grew louder and louder.

Henry opened his eyes with great difficulty and sighed. "Bendy."

The ink demon paused, a massive hand lifted in confusion. It turned its head to spy the reel and then turned to look at the screens that always spelled its doom. It growled curiously and shifted to rest on its elbows. While its sides heaved from the sheer weight of its bestial form, it waited. It watched without eyes. Its useless back legs hung limp and bent oddly on the floor.

"I'm tired of this, just like you." He leaned forward to rest an elbow on his knee. "I wanna help you. I need to help you… but I don't know where to start." Falling back, his body aching after another round of fighting off the demon in the other, inky rooms. "Please… please show me, or tell me, just anything that can help."

The ink demon smacked its lips and adjusted its stance, imagined brows scrunching not from rage but concentration. Its strange, wide jaw worked slowly. A blackened, slimy tongue worked in the barbed maw as the ink demon tried in vain to speak. To make words and not garbled groans. Its jaw wasn't fixed in that perfect, wide smile. It could bellow and snap, but now it tried something else. It tried as hard as Henry just had.

Henry blinked and gave a dry swallow.

The ink demon pulled its lips in tight, making a popping noise and grunting, trying to finagle a word from its maw. It moaned, and tried one more time. "Pa… pa…"

Henry blinked. "What?"

The demon whined and army crawled forward, before raising a claw to point to Henry.

"Me? You think I'm…" But he was, wasn't he?

But Bendy wasn't done yet, it seemed. The beast lifted its hands and stuck out long, knobby claws to form a square, then it dropped a hand to point at Henry once more. No, not at Henry… at what he had in his back pocket.

Henry reached back slowly, hand shaking, then pulled the seeing tool up to give the beast before him a good, long look.

It had a mark, a single word in small, burning gold print on its forehead.

INNOCENT

And looking down further, he found the outline of a heart in the center of its chest.

The tool lowered and fell to the ground, clattering loudly but so distant to the cartoonist's ears. It all clicked into place. The two, quick grunts the demon had made, the frustration it showed at not being able to say a thing. Two words, one written, one spoken, and a symbol opposite to Henry's own gold marks… It all made such wonderful, agonizing sense. "Yeah." Henry's eyes welled up, and he held his arms open to the demon. "I'm… I'm papa."

The demon whined and slunk forward before pressing the bulk of its head to Henry's chest. Knobby, wide hands wrapped behind the man's back and clung for dear life.

Henry lay over the demon's horns and let the beast hold him. "I've got you, Bendy." The chilled feeling of the ink snaked upwards, but he shut his eyes to it. "I-it's gonna be okay. I'm here. Papa's here." Henry went limp as everything went dark around him. The ink swallowed him completely, but the dark didn't scare him. It felt better than the blinding light that meant he'd been sent back to Joey's apartment. He had someone with him, holding him tight as everything melted away.

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.

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Henry awoke… somewhere. It wasn't Joey's apartment, thank god.

It wasn't rotted sepia and wood but a softer, stormy gray. Familiar, somehow.

So… not the studio, either. Okay.

Henry rolled onto his side and pushed himself onto his knees. Time to get his bearings, figure this new place out.

Nothing but silver and shades of gray. Gray, with trees, fences in the distance, tombstones-

Wait. Hold on.

Tombstones?

"How the hell…" But the longer he looked around, the more it made sense. Of course it felt familiar; he'd helped draw this place back before he left the studio!

So… he was in Tombstone Picnic. So then, where was Bendy?

If he remembered it right, and he knew he did, the toon cut off in the middle, and Bendy was cornered near a large boulder.

The boulder itself was a few yards away, luckily enough! To be fair, it wasn't a vast graveyard to start with. Henry strode to the boulder, catching faint movement on the other side of it.

The man didn't know his heart could still race after all this time. Making his way there, Henry Stein braced himself for whatever the little devil darlin' could have in store. They were on his turf now, the turf he'd been made for, at least.

Bendy's legs stopped shaking, and he lifted his head to look up. A shadow, tall and dark, fell over him. His small frown broke into a wide, excited grin as he found a stunned man some yards away. He bounced on tiny shoes with clenched fists raised to his chest, close to vibrating where he stood.

The cartoonist stared and blinked. He felt… familiarity, closeness. No fear or the desire to flee but the urge to get closer. He gulped and took a step forward. "Uh… hi."

The lil devil whistled and scrambled over to Henry like a frantic puppy.

The cartoonist couldn't quite wrap his head around what was happening… but after all he'd been through he had to at least try to. "Bendy. There you are. It's… it's how I made you, too." Cute little imp, with an infectious smile and mischief on his mind.

The demon nodded with a whistle, gloved hands to his hips. He stuck out a hand to shake, pie-cut eyes wide.

Henry, still bewildered by the switch to 2D, stuck out a shaky hand and grasped it gently.

Bendy took this as a cue to squeeze Henry's hand with all his might and drag the man to his knees before engulfing him in a hug. His little feet kicked excitedly as they left the ground.

"Oof! Hey, bud." The might of the tiny toon shocked the cartoonist. He still gladly returned the hug. "It's nice to finally meet you, Bendy." He pulled back and looked the little toon in the face. "Do you still know me?"

Bendy nodded so hard his head rattled. He drew a dotted outline of his head in space and booped Henry on the nose.

"You do know me!"

Bendy nodded with a bright grin… but it faltered when Henry started tearing up.

"Bendy, I'm so sorry. I never should have let Joey take you from me. I didn't know any of this would happen. You gotta believe that."

Bendy reached into his built-in pockets and pulled out a hanky.

The man huffed a laugh and dabbed an eye. "Thanks."

The little devil posted both hands to his hips and tapped a foot with a scowl. He pointed at Henry and then walked two fingers across his palm. Bendy shrugged, pouting.

"Yeah… I left you. I'm sorry I ever did."

The demon raised a brow.

"I couldn't hire a lawyer to get the rights to you back. Joey had his own legal department that made it impossible for me to have-" Seeing the confusion on the toons face, Henry cleared his throat. "There were too many bad guys on Joey's side. I couldn't fight them all by myself, and I regret that more than anything."

The little devil let out a whistle that went from high to low, face brimming with understanding.

That… raised an uneasy question. If Bendy knew that Henry left, what else did the lil darlin' know about outside? "Do you know what's happening outside of this place, Darlin'?"

Bendy frowned in thought, a finger tapping at his chin. With a snap of his fingers, a thought bubble appeared over his head. A simplified and rapid replay of what happened in the studio played.

"Oh… oh you're all caught up, huh?"

A nod and a pleased smile as he finally took back his hanky.

That saved him a lot of time. "...is there a way out of the studio? I need to get everyone trapped there back where they need to be. How do I do that?"

The little devil nodded, the thought bubble showing Joey getting grabbed by a massive Bendy hand and dragged out of sight, complete with a slide-whistle sound effect.

"...you want Joey?"

Bendy nodded with a toothy frown, his widows peak flat over his eyes. He crouched like a boxer and whirled his fists, ready to rumble.

"There's no other way?"

A head shake.

"... not even me in Joey's place?"

Bendy paused, still as a single frame. He looked… disappointed in the man. Little, gloved hands raised to ask a question, but gestures only carried the conversation so far.

"I hate to say it," Henry smiled sheepishly. "But this would be easier if you could talk."

Bendy blinked, before tapping under his chin in thought. He let out a squeak and a lit bulb popped up over his head. The little imp grabbed Henry's hand, gave a wink and spun Henry with all of his might.

Okay. Motion blurs when you were a three-dimensional human were… awful. He didn't have bones for a whole second of smudgy spinning. But Henry came to a stumbling stop, arms out to keep himself from tumbling to the ground.

Staring straight down at the ground showed a perfectly drawn sidewalk, Raising his eyes to the world before him, the cartoonist found himself in the small, vibrant, silver city that the Bendy movie had taken place in. Diner that way, library the other way, stores lining both sides of main street, leading down the road to a tall hillside, topped with a beautiful tree that overlooked the farm Boris lived on. Looking past that, perfectly puffy clouds floated above. It looked to be about sunset, colorless of not.

"Well, pops! Whatcha think?"

Henry froze. He knew that voice. The one from the flop of a movie that finally tanked the Studio for good. He turned around, and braced himself.

Bendy was beaming, hands on hips, and pie-cut eyes shut. "Not bad, eh?" He buffed the gloved fingers of one hand to his bean-shaped body. "Gotta say, it's nice havin' a voice that don't sound like a grizzly bear." He opened his eyes, and his grin grew. "Don't leave me waitin'!"

"Bendy."

"The one and only!" He opened an eye. "And you're Henry! The guy what made me!" His grin turned cheeky. "Don't tell me that lil' spin made ya lose the last two minutes!"

"No, I… I got it."

"Good!" He grabbed Henry's hand and tugged him to the hill at the edge of the town, arm stretching to keep the man from stooping over. "Cuz we got stuff to sort!"

He swallowed. "Yeah. We do."

"So, first things, first!" Bendy held up a finger with his free hand. "I got no idea how that ol' machine or that ink work, but they're how I ended up on your side of the screen, so don't ask." He hopped over a fallen log, the arm holding Henry's hand stretching like a slinky to not pull him over. "Letter numbah B, Joey's a jerk to the core, so don't feel bad for that stinkpot." A second finger popped up.

"Yeesh, the mouth on you."

Bendy's head spun on a swivel, neckless and smiling. "Pops, you oughta hear me mad! Nuffin' but bike bells and seal barks! But anyway! Three! Never meant to hurt ya, I just gotta say that now. I was hoppin' mad with the whole studio! Got plopped out of my home and lookin' like a ball of licorice? Goin' from genius prankster to spooky halfwit? Nobody wantin' to play games or cause mischief? No friends? No laughter? No thanks!"

"You were a fright, bud."

A humorless snicker. "Joey didn't like how I looked much either, pops. Ya can thank your buddy boy Buddy for lettin' me out! It was dark in that closet. But Thomas? He wasn't so bad. Tried to be nice sometimes. Nicer'n Joey."

Henry frowned. "So… you weren't trying to hurt me?" They'd come to the top of the hill, taking shade under the sprawling willow on top.

The imp let go and did a pirouette. "Was at first! I just knew ya were intruding on my terf! But soon as I figured who ya were, I didn't wanna hurt ya!" He frowned and crossed his arms. "But you try huggin' someone with scary arms like those. Couldn't think straight with my brain all muddled 'n stuff. Took a million loops to say one measly lil word!"

"Three hundred-and-thirty three."

A blink from the little imp. "You were countin'?"

A shrug. "Not much else to do."

"Other than snuggle up with Sammy Lawrence, ya mean?" He drew the words out, a smirk growing to take up half his face in a perfectly aligned cartoon grin. He gave a bob of his eyebrows for good measure.

"Oh, my god."

"Y'know, I didn't think that loony was ya type, but I ain't one to judge."

"Bendy."

"Yup!"

The man took a deep breath. "I… you got me confused, bud."

"How so?"

The man squinted. "Back in the graveyard, you said, er, showed you didn't wanna hurt me."

"Yup!"

"...why not?"

The demon blinked. "Do ya want me to? I got a mallet behind me if ya really-"

"No, no!"

"I could get a baseball bat, or a good ol' fashioned bear trap! Pick ya poison!"

He waved his hands before him with a chuckling huff of surrender. "I'm confused about why I'm not… in trouble?"

"Well, das an easy one." Bendy's bright grin simmered to a genuine smile. "Cuz ya loved us. Ya made us. We know you as well as you know us. Somethin' bad musta gone down on your side when you weren't the one givin' us movements no more. Couldn't find ya nowhere! Not the story boards, not the pencil tests, sure ain't in the writing!"

Henry's heart sank at the implications. "So… you know you're not… real?"

"Up-up up! Not real on your side of the screen!" A gloved finger booped Henry's nose with a wide grin. "We're as real here as you are out there, pops! But we ain't meant to cross over. Heck, I don't even know how you wound up here! I just wanted my darn hug!"

"Can I get back to my side?"

"Aw, ya bored already? Well, can't say I blame ya for wanting to get back! Sammy sure is sweet on ya." He wiggled his eyebrows with a lopsided smile.

Henry flushed and rubbed a hand to his neck. "Jeez."

A gloved hand gripped Henry's wrist. "But I ain't the only one wantin' a word!" He came to a stop at the top of the hill, putting a finger to his grinning lips and pointing around the trunk.

Henry's brows lifted at the familiar snores of Boris the wolf. Looking around the trunk slowly, the man found that the wolf had set up a hammock and was peacefully dozing away.

Bendy then stuck his pinkies in his mouth and blew to let fly a shrill whistle.

The wolf flailed his limbs and spun in the hammock before he belly-flopped into the earth with a grunt and grumbled. "Ben, ya don't gotta go startlin' a guy like-" He paused, ears perked at the sight of Henry. "Wait a minute. How'd he get here?"

Bendy grinned proudly. "Magic."

The wolf beamed. "Well, golly! You're a special kind of magic if you got Henry here!" The wolf grabbed the man's right hand with both of his and shook with all his might. "Good to meet ya, Henry!"

"Careful now, Boris." A sweet voice called from above. "That might hurt his bones."

Bendy grinned up at the slowly falling cloud. "There she is! Guess she heard me."

"...yeah." Alice had been the only one with a proper voice.

Alice stepped off the cloud with dainty strides, stopping short and looking up at Henry. She smiled warmly at him, but all he heard was Allison when she spoke. "Henry?"

He nodded dumbly.

Alice giggled. "It's nice to finally meet you, creator."

Creator. You traitor. The creator lied to us. How was he supposed to apologize? "I… Alice?"

"Mm?"

"I…." He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry."

"I know."

His smile grew strained. "Figures. You guys seem to know more than I do."

"Well, I can't be mad at you, Henry. It's not a good idea to be on the wrong side of the screen too long. It can make you a little… kooky."

Bendy frowned up at her. "How'd'ya figure that?"

She glared without venom, small eyes lidded. "How many times did you try to kill Henry?"

Boris snorted a laugh, "Like we ain't all guilty o' that!"

"Wait, you all knew what was happening?"

Alice nodded. "Yes. But because of how we, er… came out? None of us could think straight."

"I made you how you are now, not the way you are out there."

The angel nodded and waved his worries off with a hand. "Oh, we know! That was that mean ol' Mister Drew." Her smile returned. "But it's good to finally meet you!"

"But…" He shook his head and looked down at the town the trio called Home. So full of life that he had no hand in, but they all felt familiar somehow. It somehow made the guilt settle harder in his gut. "How come you're not mad at me?"

The angel squinted. "Mad? Why?"

"I left you with Joey, and he hurt you. All of you."

"Well… yeah?" Bendy piped up. "But getting' in a twist and going for ya throat won't change that."

"Guys, I left, and it made Joey go off the deep end. Maybe he'd have been fine if I stayed-"

"Doubt that'd change nothin', Hen. Listen up," Boris grumbled and slapped a hand to Henry's shoulder. "There's a story my pa told me a long time ago when I was a pup. He was a pup himself when there was some fox chasing a cute little bunny. Well, he chased the fox off and took the bunny off to the woods where it'd be safe. He sets it down and not a second later? A hawk comes out of the sky and scoops the bunny up!"

Alice facepalmed, but Bendy shot Boris a look. "This story goin' somewhere?"

"Yup! You can do good and still have bad things happen."

"Yeesh, what a bummer."

Henry chuckled. "Yeah… but it's not a bad thing to keep in mind."

The wolf stepped back and puffed his chest at the small pinch of praise. "See that Ben? I got some good ol' wisdom in me!"

"Yeah and half the bakery in ya, too."

"Bendy, behave yourself." But Alice was fighting a smile.

"No way, toots. Parta my charm is bein' a pest!"

Henry chuckled at the trio who all put their focus back on him.

Alice folded her hands before her hips. "I wish we had more time to talk to you, Henry. But keeping you here too long isn't good for you."

"Wrong side of the screen," the man murmured. "I know. One more thing. The people who were, uh… part of you? Buddy and Susie and all of them? Now that you're back here-"

"They just look like us, dear. Don't worry. They're alright."

"Ya sure did!" Boris gave the man a squeeze, grinning brightly. "Don't you worry about us none, ya hear? We're where we oughta be, so we're good to go!"

Alice sniffed quietly before joining the hug.

Bendy squished the toe of one foot at the ground, pouting at Henry. "Don't like having to say goodbye so soon, pops." He managed a tiny smile. "But at least we got to meet ya. Not every toon can say they did that!" He popped up into the air at the final word, and flung his arms around the cartoonist's neck.

Henry's eyes blurred, and he hugged the trio to him. "Love you, bud. Love all of you."

"Love ya too, Henry." He hugged the man around the neck. "Oh, and you let Sammy know if he breaks ya heart, I'll give him something to really pray about."

Even through the tears, Henry chuckled. Eyes shut and held by creations he loved, Henry Stein faded from the silver, two-dimensional world on a laugh.

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Henry awoke, calm but stiff on the small bed. Colors filled his vision, and he sat up. Swinging his legs over the bed, he stood slowly, pulling his glasses from the small table beside it.

This was it. All he had to do was stall for time. The whistling of a once-playful tune met his ears, and Henry took a breath and rounded the corner. All the pictures and awards he could think of had been read over a hundred times, but he'd do it all again if it bought the other side of the door a chance to destroy the machine.

All he could give the denizens of the studio now… was time.

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