Ups and Downs

by Blackmoondragon1415

'Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure, measure a year' A what-if plot based around the Henry and the Ink Machine AU on Tumblr by thelostmoongazer.

6. Ch5: Shut Eye

A/N: And here's the last of the edits. This one's mostly the same, some tweaks, added scenes, the works. And, for everyone that's reading, thank you so much. Just glad to know I can make someone's day a little lighter (I say as I write what is basically becoming my kinda-sorta first Lovecraftian Horror story, oh boy.).

Enjoy, all!

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Shut Eye:

The panic from before had long since ebbed, but that didn't mean that Boris wasn't still wound tight as a drum. The wolf had hunkered down in the space next to the elevator, fingers clenched in the fabric of Bendy's scarf which he'd wrapped around his neck as he rested his head on his knees. His ears were perked up, listening in case something were to come along, though the taller toon's mind was a swamped wreck.

He felt awful, and not just from what he'd seen in the other room. How could he let Bendy go on his own like that? Sure, the devil was clever, but what if something happened, what if something actually got the drop on the smaller toon, and what if Bendy ended up getting hurt or god-forbid, dead? And Boris wouldn't know, and couldn't do anything about it because he was sitting out here, because he was…stupid, and worthless, and a horrible coward, and broken-.

"My machines are hungry. Gather me some spare parts!"

The sharp bark of a voice over the intercom made Boris jump, the wolf only just managing to suppress a yelp of fright by pressing the scarf to his muzzle. It took him a moment to realize that the snapped order had not been indicating him, though if it hadn't then...

Boris hurried to the railing and looked over. The burgeoning desperation vanished as he saw Bendy making his way across, very much alive and seemingly unhurt. The wolf absently noted the fact that the devil was dragging along a heavy-looking wrench with the pipe.

At the movement from the top of the stairs, Bendy's head snapped to look. Boris waved, a relieved smile falling into place on his muzzle. A similar look flashed over the devil's face, before the pale features abruptly twisted as a gloved hand came up to cover his mouth, dropping both the pipe and the wrench. Stumbling on unsteady legs Bendy managed to totter to the edge of the bridge before losing his lunch, grabbing onto one of the supports so as not to pitch too far forward. The instant the smaller toon started showing signs of distress Boris had hurtled down the stairs, quickly coming to crash into a kneel next to Bendy. The devil had already emptied his stomach over the side, though he still huddled with his arms wrapped around the wooden stake, frame shaking a little as he tried to take deep breaths. Boris hesitated for a moment before rubbing circles into Bendy's shoulder blades, whispering to the smaller toon as he glanced between the little devil and the angel's lair.

"Bendy, it's alright, it's me. Can you stand?"

The answer to Boris's question certainly wasn't encouraging, the small toon dry heaving as his distressed systems tried to do something to alleviate the horrified tension coursing through them. Still the wolf would hardly leave Bendy to deal with it alone no matter what lay just a few yards away, so he stayed kneading at the coat's material.

"There are so few rules to our world now. So little truths." The speakers suddenly rang out from across the bridge, the very sound of the 'angel's' voice causing both toons to flinch and press closer together. Even still, 'Alice' was not done.

"But there is one rule we all know and respect down here. Beware the ink that walks the halls. Stay out in the open for too long and it will find you. For if you see it, you'd better hide. If you don't, well, I enjoyed our date. Now, let us begin our work."

If that wasn't a good sign to move on, neither toon could tell you what was. Though Bendy was able to push himself up and grab the wrench and pipe, Boris still steered the devil the rest of the way across and up the stairs, a hand on his shoulder since the smaller toon's hands were both occupied. Avoiding the elevator, the pair went through the door, and were both startled by an inky monster springing forth from the floor. Bendy automatically swung with the wrench, the heavy hit to the globby frame making the monster dissipate in a splatter of ink.

"B…Boris, I need t'tell you somethin'." Bendy rasped out through a worn throat.

"Wh-What? What is it?" The wolf asked, the tone of the devil's declaration unnerving him along with everything else that had happened in the past hour alone. Albeit, Boris's concern for Bendy overrode the anxiety, spurring him to speech.

"Bendy, we can take a break for a few minutes if'n y'need to. Y'still have the ink, right?"

"Boris, we don' got time for…" The devil hissed, right before the hoarseness of his voice seemed to actually register enough to drive the smaller toon to quiet. Albeit Bendy still had one stipulation in regards to stopping.

"Not here. You heard her, we can't stay out in th' open."

"Alright, alright," Boris whispered, the wolf turning to look at a staircase to the right. Keeping a hand on Bendy's shoulder, the taller toon steered the devil to the stairs, Bendy easily falling into step with the wolf. The pair ascended, going a little faster when they found that the steps didn't really creak. This almost had them running into another inky figure on the landing, which Boris completely panicked and threw the flashlight at. The heavy metal casing went right through the lanky, half-formed frame, and crashed to the floor. The noise caused the pair to jump, Bendy immediately hooking one of his arms around Boris's wrist and hurrying up the next flight. In a moderately controlled panic, the pair rushed past another monster, up the next set of stairs.

As they came to the landing, Boris half-remembered something about this floor, pushing Bendy down a hall on the other side of the staircase. At the end was a door, the wolf easily nudging it open. The room beyond Bendy glanced at, noticing what looked like booths with glass windows, and more writing on the walls. This one though, well, he couldn't tell if it made him want to laugh or melt a little more in fear and sympathetic misery.

I DON'T WANT TO WORK HERE ANYMORE

Especially with the trailing ink leading down to the floor, looking like whoever had written it had dragged their hand down when they were finished writing, made the devil wonder if this was the last gasp of someone's sanity, before…

Bendy wasn't sure he wanted to continue that thought, especially when both he and Boris caught sight of things moving around in the glass-encased rooms. Thankfully, the wolf had spotted another Lil' Miracle Station on a raised platform across the way.

The pair hurried in and tried to close the door behind them as quietly as possible while Bendy let their makeshift weapons rest on the bench. For what seemed like an eternity they stayed silent, listening just in case something was about to meander into earshot. Bendy waited more for the wolf's ears to lower from their alert perch, his head resting against the taller toon's chest. He could hear Boris's heartbeat against his ear, choosing to focus on that instead of…

…still and limp, ribcages dully gleaming in the flickering light, but perhaps if he focused he could smell the faint odor of burnt fur under the stench of ink, too late too late yourfaultyourfault…

"…Bendy?" Even the faint, whispered tone caused the devil to jump, glancing up to see Boris staring down at him. Despite the faint light afforded through the slot in the door, Bendy could still make out a worried frown creasing the canine muzzle. Swallowing down the emotions that still broiled in his mind, the toon devil did his best to slap on a reassuring smile.

"Y-Yeah, Boris?"

The wolf opened his mouth, but seemed to change his mind about what he was going to say about halfway through.

"Y'maybe want t'try drinkin' some ink now? You still don' sound that great."

Bendy almost wanted to refuse, strange as it was given that he'd just upchucked everything in his stomach, he probably wasn't going to be able to go hunting for machine parts if he didn't at least try to get something in him. As he reached into his pocket and unwrapped the little inkwell from the cloth he couldn't help but give a sick grimace at the sight of the black liquid swirling about within. Still, the devil uncapped the top and tried to take as little as possible without draining the whole glass, or really tasting the ink itself. After putting the bottle away, Bendy let himself slump, barely protesting as Boris drew the devil's smaller frame into his lap so Bendy wouldn't end up falling off the bench or into the door. Bendy's eyes fluttered, Boris's heartbeat reverberating through one side of his head as he did his best not to think-.

-Bendy peered around the desk at the tall figure, ducking back as the other toon's pie-cut eyes met his. He really wasn't sure what to think when Joey had told him to come into his office. Sure, the studio head had apologized for not coming to get him from the closet, though Henry still seemed upset and it didn't look like things were going to be resolved now. Not while there was still the presence of the new toon for Bendy to meet.

"Joey, are you sure-?" Henry asked from off to the side, only to be stopped by a quick 'shh' from the studio head. Either way, Bendy put it aside and opted to get a closer look at the other toon. He could recognize the other's face, he'd seen plenty of pictures of Boris the Wolf plastered to the walls of the studio, and Henry had showed Bendy a drawing of Boris when the devil was first made. The animator had asked the small toon if he knew who it was, and while Bendy hadn't known at the time he certainly became acquainted with at least the image of the wolf during the few months he'd been around. Still, it didn't quite prepare him for the three-dimensional, very much alive version peering cautiously around the desk. Boris really was so much bigger than him, the observation keeping Bendy hopefully far out of grabbing range until he could decide what to do.

Not that Boris himself seemed particularly inclined to try snatching up the devil, keeping the majority of himself back behind the desk as only his head and a few fingers were visible. Bendy noticed that the other toon's pie-cut eyes were wide, the longer ears back, which made the head and face of the wolf look smaller.

Maybe Boris was a little scared…though, Bendy had an idea. The little devil reached out with a small, gloved hand, fingers splayed and the palm facing up at the ceiling. At first Boris didn't seem to know what to do with the gesture, and Bendy was left standing there a little awkwardly as he kept his hand outstretched. But then the wolf reached around the corner, placing his long-fingered hand over the devil's with a surprising amount of gentleness in the motion. Even still the heavier limb made the smaller hand drop a little with the weight, causing Boris to take his own hand away with a gasp. The noise made Bendy stop, behorned head tilting in thought. It seemed so odd that Boris was afraid or even the least bit worried. He was so much bigger than Bendy! What did he have to worry about?

Though now that Bendy thought about it, while Boris was bigger and stronger than him it didn't mean that things were safer for the wolf. A lot of people could probably hurt him if they ganged up, and because the taller toon was so new he probably didn't know a whole lot yet, kind of like how Bendy had had to learn about everything living-wise at first. Taking a hesitant step forward, Bendy quietly reached out to take the wolf's hand again, holding it from the pinkie-side, the back facing up with his small thumb resting on top. The devil mimicked a gesture that Joey had done when he'd first been created, letting his thumb rub across what he could reach of Boris's knuckles. The motions seemed to calm the wolf, the taller frame slowly inching out from behind the desk. Bendy paused for a moment at the sight of the overalls, his other hand snaking out to paw at the material, feeling out what he could of the tougher texture.

Though Boris stiffened at the sudden movement, the small hand feeling at the strap cajoled him into reaching out for Bendy's bowtie, long fingers carefully touching the softer, smoother material. A little bit more emboldened, the devil reached out for the wolf's long ears, rubbing a thumb and forefinger against the fuzzy appendage which twitched at the touch. The quick, jerky movement caused Bendy to withdraw his hand, though Boris didn't look too bothered. Maybe it was a reflex…

The wolf himself had reached out to the devil's head, fingers cautiously running over the pointed little horns. However, as the taller toon peered at Bendy's face, his muzzle pulled in a frown.

"…Where's your nose?" Boris murmured, more to himself than for the devil to answer. though Bendy found himself doing so anyway.

"'s right here. See?" The smaller hands steered one of the wolf's to sort of knuckle the front of Bendy's face, Boris's ears perking up as he felt small puffs of air against the top of his hand.

"But, how d'ya smell?" The taller toon asked, his unoccupied hand pointing to his own prominent nose.

"We-ell, I think I smell fine." The devil quipped back, a faint shadow of a cheeky grin slipping onto his face which grew to a full one when Boris caught the joke and gave a deep chuckle. A faint smile also showed though Bendy noted that the wolf's teeth were much more pointed than his.

"Bendy." Henry abruptly started, making both toons jump and look up. They'd completely forgotten that the two men were even in the room. Joey did pass Henry a hard glare at the interruption, though before he could say anything, the animator continued.

"Maybe you should, introduce yourselves?"

"Ah, of course," the studio head murmured before jumping in. "Bendy, why don't you do it first, that way you can show Boris how it's done?"

"Uh, alright…" The devil haltingly replied, turning back to Boris with complete uncertainty in his eyes for a moment before giving a shake of his head and trying to slap on a smile.

"Hey, my name's Bendy, B-Bendy th'…" The small toon stumbled a little over whether or not to have the adage, though reneged a moment later. "Bendy th' dancin' demon! It's nice t'meet you!"

"'m Boris." The wolf said, softly at first though a small, meaningful cough from Joey provoked a louder repetition. "I'm Boris!"

The taller toon himself was a little startled by how loud he had gotten, ears dropping low as his hands tensed. When he spoke again, it was much quieter.

"S-Sorry, nice t'meet you."

"It's okay. Nice to meetcha too." Bendy whispered back, absently noting the fact that his tail had started to give a few contented flicks as something black and bushy-looking kept moving back and forth behind Boris. The wolf caught the small devil trying to peer around him, and the strange shape abruptly swept into view. It was a tail, or at least it seemed to be, though it was much bigger than the little devil's long and thin one. Speaking of which, Bendy could just see the spaded tip of his tail flicking in and out of the corner of his eye, and judging from the way Boris's pie-cut eyes had focused there, the wolf had noticed it too.

For a moment, it was almost a game, each tail disappearing and reappearing like clockwork as the pair grew more and more charmed by the similarity, right before another forceful cough from behind made them jump and look up at Joey.

"Sorry to interrupt you boys, but Henry and I need to have a talk about something. Maybe the both of you can wait outside? Won't take a moment, promise."

The tone was casual, even nice, but Bendy couldn't help but tense a little at the words. The fiasco that had been that morning had not left his mind, even if Joey leaving him in the closet seemed to have been an honest mistake. Not to mention the devil certainly didn't want Henry getting in trouble for him, but at Bendy's anxious glance his way the animator gave a calm, even smile.

"It's alright, Bendy. Just wait outside with Boris. If anyone asks, tell them that Joey will be explaining things soon."-

-Bendy shifted with a groggy murmur, sleep fading as he foggily opened his eyes to stare at the old wood of the booth's door. For a moment, the aftereffects of slumber had driven away any residual tension, though a quick review of how he'd ended up in this situation had the little devil fidgeting with more urgency. How long had he been asleep, what if 'Alice' would try to find them, what if something else did-?

"Bendy, Bendy, it's alright, calm down, you're okay-."

"'s not…" The smaller toon slurred though he did stop moving, slumping more than relaxing into the makeshift bed that Boris had made out of his arms. "Y'were…s'pposed t'wake me up, Bor's, we gotta…get th' stuff so we c'n get outta here…"

"We will, when you're ready." The wolf replied, the deeper tones brooking no debate on that matter. "Also, you…"

"I what?" Bendy asked, a little confused by Boris trailing off. The taller toon seemed to waffle with his thoughts before working up his nerve.

"Y'were…gonna tell me somethin', y'said. But it can wait. I don't mind."

He was gonna tell Boris something? For a few minutes Bendy wracked his still-somewhat hazy brain for an answer regarding that bit of information, and something did start to come to light.

"…No, it's alright. We can talk now." Though that left the devil with the somewhat awkward position of figuring out where to begin, how to put everything that he'd experienced and conjectured into words that wouldn't completely upset, overwhelm, or terrify Boris. Was there any way to even…not do that with this kind of thing?

"I…" Bendy started, voice warbling a little before he managed to get something out of his muddled thoughts. Something that he at least felt he could work with. "…I talked to…I talked to Al-Alice. When I was in there. She's…I don't think she's…Alice, not our Alice. She talked about, how she'd been…made twice? Talked about puddles, an' how she…became what she is th' second time she was…made."

The devil glanced up at Boris. Though the wolf didn't look like he understood everything, hell Bendy would have a hard time understanding this if someone was explaining it to him, the taller toon seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. Bendy almost wanted to say something about how she sometimes sounded like Alice, the real Alice, and how she electrocuted her victims before cutting them open, probably shocked his pal, the one who's lap he was currently sitting in, to death. But even putting that to voice sounded like a gateway to hysteria so Bendy mentally clamped those thoughts off before they could run to his mouth.

"She said she'll let us, or me at least, leave. W-I've gotta get things for her first."

"I don't think she's gonna…" Boris started, only to falter when Bendy looked up at him.

"Boris, seriously, if y'have any ideas on how t'deal with her, I'm all ears. I just, I dunno who else t'turn to. No one down here's gonna help us, she's…I know she's bad, but she's all we've got an'…" Bendy trailed off as something occurred to him, and the words were tumbling from his mouth before he could stop. "I'm not gonna let her get you. If she wants t'do anythin' t'you, she's gotta go through me first. Boris, 'm not tryin' t'sound like I'm choosin' her or somethin', I just I dunno where else t'go-."

"It's okay, Bendy, I get it." The wolf broke through once the devil's rambling had started to lean more towards the trembling, raw tone that meant that Bendy was starting to get worked up. It was surprisingly familiar territory, despite the terrifying climate the pair found themselves in. But, that was why they were pals. They looked out for each other, had each other's backs. That certainly wasn't going to change now.

"I just, I don't think she's gonna be fair. She's…" Now Boris was the one to trail off, a hand coming up to scratch restlessly at the top of his skull as he tried to pull his thoughts together. Trouble was, they weren't…completely clear. But somehow he knew that Alice's…copy, that twisted mockery of their friend downstairs, was not going to think of what they wanted first.

"…she's not good. She does…she did…"

"D'you…remember it?" Bendy's question snapped Boris out of the odd, constricting thought he'd been caught in, the wolf looking down to meet the smaller toon's pie-cut eyes. Bendy's expression was pinched, fearful but so very much wanting to help even if he knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.

"I think so…a little…I 'member…I 'member her in pieces, s'all so messy but…I thought she was…"

"Y'thought she was Alice? O-Our Alice?"

"Maybe at first. I don't remember anythin' happenin' t'Susie, but, maybe if things had happened a-after J-." No, no couldn't say that yet, couldn't even think that yet. Focus on the pieces, they were easier to digest.

"…'m sorry, Boris. I shoulda, I shoulda made you come with me." Bendy started, that trembling tone now mixing with the new warbling, vulnerable edge that made the heart pumping under the scar on Boris's chest ache. "I-I shouldn't've left, I shoulda stayed an' kept you safe, 'm so sorry…"

"Told'ya it's not your fault, Bendy. Y'got nothin' t'be sorry for." The wolf cut in, rewrapping the devil's trembling form in a hug. He couldn't help but be a little glad, considering it the one silver lining in this whole mess that Bendy had not been dragged into it with everyone else. And, some smaller more selfish part of Boris was a little relieved that the devil was here now, if it meant that he wasn't alone. Every time before, faded and disjointed the memories may have been, Boris didn't outright remember an instance where he'd been with someone.

Maybe that could give them an edge on being able to escape. Bendy was smart, and Boris could always back the smaller toon up on whatever he needed. 'Cause that's what pals did, right?

The silence carried on for a few minutes before Bendy gave a small sigh and pushed back from the wolf, doing his best to look Boris in the eye even though he was trying to clear partially-dried streaks of ink from his face.

"Let's just…go with what we've got now. We'll figure things out, right?"

"Course." Boris replied, peering out of the slat in the wood before pushing the door open. They let it close only after grabbing both the pipe and the wrench, the devil giving the former to Boris seeing as the flashlight was likely still sitting in a stairwell a few flights down. Bendy let his eyes gloss over the writing still very much visible on the far wall, instead choosing to see if he could spot something to give them a direction.

"Any idea where we can find machine parts? That's what she was askin' for."

Boris gave the matter a moment of thought before pointing through the window to their right, at a panel on the far wall with a small yellow light glowing at the top of the frame. Though the wolf did open his mouth to explain, any words he might have been able to offer were stolen by the sight of what was in the room. It was the same creature from before, one of the Butcher Gang characters but all broken-looking, the captain one. It was hardly doing anything, just lying on an otherwise empty table in the room, completely still and silent.

Bendy too went quiet; the manner in which the warped toon was lying was a little too familiar even with the lack of straps. Not to mention, what would it do if they came in, given that the box Boris had pointed out was also on the other side of the glass? Would it leap up from the table and attack them, or just lie there? The devil wasn't quite sure which would fray his nerves more.

Suddenly Boris reached out and tapped Bendy on the shoulder, pointing to the windowed room to their left. As the smaller toon's eyes followed the wolf's finger, he caught sight of another piecemeal-formed member of the Butcher Gang, this one up and actually moving about. It was a dead ringer for the one he'd seen face-up in the ink on the way back from 'Alice', and Bendy was sure if it were turned towards them he'd be seeing a real eyeball in its face.

The tense quiet from before was shattered when another half-formed monster sprung up at an intersection in the hallway, Bendy swinging as soon as it registered. It was only after the thing had splattered back into inert ink that the devil noticed something written on the wall in front of them; HE WILL SET US FREE.

Bendy didn't let himself stare at it for too long, pushing both it and the thoughts it provoked away as he turned right and hurried down the corridor towards another wooden booth and the door for the first room. A glance back showed that Boris had paused in front of the writing, staring like there was some riddle to it that he was trying to piece together. The wolf snapped out of the daze relatively quick though, hurrying after Bendy. The pair paused in front of the door, giving a few beats of cautious silence before Bendy reached for the knob.

The first thing the pair noticed was that the table, which the mismatched captain toon had been on before, was now unoccupied. The devil paused, pie-cut eyes glancing about as he tried to see if it had gone somewhere, maybe fallen back over the other side? Still, while it wasn't as tall as Boris it definitely had some size to it. Bendy peered at the drawer-laden support for the table with a skeptical frown. Maybe if it crouched the toon-monster could have fit, but it really didn't seem capable of much more than hobbling.

Granted, it had climbed out of the wall…

The place itself looked like some kind of an animation workroom, especially with a desk shoved off to the side. The table in the center seemed like kind of an odd choice, though Bendy could see why it might be there. The presence of a camera in the corner was a little odd, but hey, as long as that wasn't going to attack them it could stay right where it was. Taking a few steps away from the door, the devil faintly registered the sound of Boris following along behind, right before another half-formed torso of ink popped up from the floor.

Bendy leapt back, immediately considering it a bad decision when he practically toppled back into Boris's legs. This gave the half-formed monster time to start dragging itself forward, a faint hiss coming from its gaping maw as it pulled itself towards the two toons. Underneath the noise though, Bendy could hear more.

"Lord…lord…"

Even though it felt like ice had settled into his ink, the devil found himself mechanically winding back with the wrench, swinging and landing a clear hit in the indistinct, dark head. The force immediately disrupted the malformed being enough that it splattered all over the floor. For a moment Bendy stared at the spot it had once occupied, thinking back to the statue he'd seen in the hallway.

What did everyone here see him as? What did they want him to become?

"Bendy…?" Boris spoke up, the hushed tone causing the devil to start before looking back to meet the wolf's eye.

"'m alright," the smaller toon automatically said, and while he didn't feel like he was lying, he wasn't sure he was telling the truth either. Bendy shuffled to the side a little, glancing to the far wall where the box was located. Yep, still there.

The Butcher Gang character still wasn't making a reappearance, unless the half-formed creature was supposed to be it. And as Bendy moved to the box, he couldn't see any sign of something hiding behind the table. Turning back, the little devil fumbled for a moment before pressing down on the panel, something under the metal giving a click and letting the door swing open. Spinning about inside were gears, though the easiest to grab was a large one directly in the center. Once it was removed, the mechanisms inside stopped turning, the other gears grinding to a halt. Bendy looked up at it for a moment, wondering if there was something else he needed to do, before concluding that, well, the warped angel, 'Alice' had asked for parts. This technically counted.

It was a little big, but the gear did fit in his pocket, making it easier to carry around. That done Bendy turned to head out, Boris right on his spaded tail as the pair walked past another piping thing on the wall next to the door. The devil passed a look to the wooden booth nestled in the corner, remembering the earlier words about staying out in the open. However, apart from the mismatched Butcher Gang characters and the half-formed ink monsters, he hadn't seen…'walking ink', whatever that meant. Besides, moving around would probably be the better option given that they were trying to find things and continually stopping would drag that out. Even still, Bendy's advance was not lacking in caution, especially given that he remembered seeing another member of the Butcher Gang hobbling around in the other room. Peering into the window, the devil's pie-cut eyes narrowed as he spotted another box sitting at the far end of a hall leading off to the back. But there was no sign of the being he'd seen before, and the rest of the room seemed bereft of any other signs of life. Bendy's eyes cut up to look at Boris, who also had pressed himself to the glass to see through.

"Think it might be gone?" The smaller toon asked, keeping his voice down in case any noise would have something make a sudden appearance. Still, nothing did, and Boris gave the room another scanning sweep from his vantage point before speaking.

"'m not sure. Maybe."

Bendy frowned as he looked again, catching sight of another hall a little ways to his right, in line with the door that would take them into the room. Next to it on the wall there was another booth, something the devil took note of as he started to inch down. Nothing leapt out at him right when he pulled the door open, but given what had happened in the other room Bendy was a lot more cautious, ears straining as he tried to keep track of the wolf at his back without turning around. Both hallways stood vacant, and the door hadn't looked like it'd been touched.

Maybe they just broke apart…? But if that was the case, wouldn't it have meant that there would be a half-formed monster in here somewhere. Maybe there was, but they just hadn't seen it yet. Bendy took a few steps in, passing the booth in the corner as he headed down the first hallway to another box at the end. With another tap on the metallic door, he got another gear.

And, lo and behold, the new vantage point let him see that the two hallways were connected, the second corridor looping back to the main room. In that little nook where the hallway had looked like it ended was a second panel. Boris had already started to walk over just as Bendy fought to get the gear he'd taken into his pocket, though when the wolf mimicked the devil's motions he stopped and stared at the insides of the box.

"What's wrong?" Bendy asked, catching sight of the hesitation as he made to come over.

"There's…nothin' in here," Boris replied, turning to the approaching devil and moving aside to let the smaller toon look for himself. And, as Bendy could now see, this box's larger gear was indeed missing.

"Maybe someone already got to this one." After all, wouldn't this confirm that they were at least in the right ballpark for what to get? "It's alright, there's probably other…wait, there are others. There was one in that hall, after those two rooms where we got split up. That was the first one I saw."

"We gotta go all the way up there?" Boris asked, though he wasn't questioning whether or not they could do it, which was a good sign. Meant that it was more than likely a possibility, though Bendy decided that he really didn't have too much time to postulate on whether Boris was not asking because he figured it would be possible or because he was remembering that it was possible.

The pair started to walk up the second hallway, another half-formed monster springing to life and Bendy smashing it back down with the wrench out of reflex. It barely had time to make any noise and as far as Bendy was concerned, that was perfectly fine.

The pair headed back out and down the hall leading to the front room, Boris glancing to the side and noticing another hallway at the opposite end from the door. The wolf reached out and tapped Bendy on the shoulder, pointing when the devil turned to look at him. Bendy looked back with a conceding nod, figuring that there could be something down there worth looking at.

Turning the corner did reveal what looked like an old time-punch clock at the end of the hall, though as they continued to head down the hall the toons quickly realized that the corner was hardly only used for that. The elevator also seemed to have a stop on this floor, judging from the existence of a familiar cage to the left. Bendy actually recognized this one, this was the level labeled 'P'. The presence of a familiar statue on the far wall of the room added some credence and gave Bendy a moment's pause, though as before with the writing he pushed any thoughts he had to the back of his mind. He could deal with them later. Instead he turned and started to walk back to the door they'd come in through, hearing Boris following behind.

Back out in the hallway, the devil paused at the staircase to let Boris catch up, before glancing up and seeing another box at the top. The sudden presence of a familiar, long-fingered hand giving his shoulder a slight, bracing squeeze made him pause, the devil's head turning to look at Boris. The wolf's face was quietly pinched, a worried furrow in the inky 'brows' as the long ears half-lowered, eyes studying the devil's face. Which, Bendy realized as he briefly took stock of the fact that his shoulders were stiff and that his jaw was clenched, probably wasn't a very friendly or welcoming look right now. Not that he was really concerned with approachability, but the fact that it was making Boris worry definitely wasn't sitting well.

"You okay?" The quiet, lightly concerned tone was what finally made the small toon take a breath, letting some of the tension out as he could feel the muscles in his shoulders and head loosening at the release of pressure. He didn't feel completely fine, probably would be a while before he was at that point (was he ever, really?), but he didn't want Boris getting distracted and worried over him, especially in a place where every corner seemed to hide some new monster. So, if only for that, Bendy let a faint but present smile slide over his face, trying to direct whatever calm he could muster to the wolf.

"Yeah, 'm fine." He whispered back, a small hand reaching up to wrap itself around Boris's fingers, giving them a light squeeze. The gesture seemed to get something to loosen in the wolf's expression, the canine muzzle giving a grin back. In the moment of quiet Bendy glanced over Boris's shoulder, noticing a small corridor leading away from the stairs, ending in an ink-flooded space. It wasn't really anything special and nothing had come flying out of the black liquid, so the devil just made a quiet note of it before turning back around. The pair went up to the next landing, easily reaching the box and quickly getting another gear from the spinning mechanisms inside. This next one had to go into Boris's pocket, as Bendy's were starting to become a little overstrained with the previous two gears, the wrapped ink, and the presence of some paper. The next staircase leading up left them on a landing with a little knoll on the left side and another set of stairs on the right. In the small knoll was another Lil' Angel Station booth, the presence of which gave Bendy a moment's pause as he remembered where they'd been elsewhere that he'd seen so far. Two on the previous floor, and they'd walked past one in the same hallway they'd seen the first gearbox. And now one was here. This seemed like a little bit much for a merchandising tool, however, Boris…had seemed to just infer that they could hide in them before.

Was that information something the wolf had guessed, or was it something that he remembered without realizing it? Bendy didn't want to turn around and ask, recalling the way Boris's voice had gone from comforting to confused, even worried when he'd been trying to talk about it before. Besides, it was just a thought on his part, a theory. No need to bother Boris over some weird possibility or idea.

Still, it did have the devil scrutinizing the landing and knoll a little bit more closely, wondering if something was about to pop out of the ink puddles or drop down from the ceiling. Albeit, all of the monsters that they'd had to deal with hadn't exactly given them, well, trouble. They just had to hit them, sometimes multiple times. They were able to be stopped, that much Bendy was sure. He and Boris were well-armed enough for that.

Unless, there was something they hadn't seen yet…perhaps…

Bendy more or less let himself walk past the knoll, sticking close to Boris's side as he kept going. The wolf's footsteps were slow and careful, any glances he might have made in the direction of the knoll and the booth fleeting at best. It honestly added to the feeling that they were sneaking around, like there was something that would be able to hear if they made too much noise. Boris's expression didn't look…perturbed at all by what he was doing. The wolf was definitely paying close attention to the immediate state of their surroundings, his ears perked up and if Bendy was remembering the taller toon's body language right, listening carefully. Not that the devil could really hear anything, the stairwell silent and still, but he decided to take stock with what the wolf was doing anyways, letting that caution carry them to the next landing.

On this one there were two things that caught Bendy's attention, a pipe with a wheel attached which made him think of the flooded room downstairs, and there was another gearbox on the next landing. This one popped open with no issues, this gear too going into Boris's pocket. Going up the next two flights took them past another booth, and left them at a door sitting to their left. This time Boris was the one to reach out, carefully turning the knob and peering cautiously in. The immediate presence of a statue soured Bendy's mood regarding the room, though he chose to focus on the presence of the elevator instead. Had he seen this level before when they were going down…?

Yeah, he remembered this, the sign giving a name to the floor even as the presence of the statue jarred a bit of the earlier frantic memory; this was the one labelled Level '11' in the lift. As both toons peered about, the only things that stood out to them apart from the earlier mentioned structures was the presence of another piping installation and what looked like another punch clock on the wall opposite, behind a pair of pillars.

A few moments after stepping over the threshold, another half-formed monster sprung to life close to the nearest pillar, Bendy immediately lifting his wrench again though it had a brief gasp of speech before he clubbed it.

"Save…please…"

He was not shaking, the devil told himself as he took a deep breath once the danger had passed. He was not, really. It just…it surprised him, same as everything else in here. He just needed a minute. It had nothing to do with what he heard, what the implications of it were, what he might be doing by making them break apart like that. 'Alice's warped voice echoed in his mind, about how the dark puddles were a 'screaming well of voices'.

These were, they had to be people at one point, the people who worked in the studio. He might have even known some of them. Could one of them be Henry, maybe even Alice? Sammy had been lucky enough to maintain some level of complexity to his personality, but what if…what if…?

"Bendy?" Boris asked, the noise breaking up the emotional and mental mire in the devil's head like a stone dropped into a swamp, making the small frame jerk as Bendy turned to look to the wolf. It was then that the small toon realized that ink was starting to run in a few rivets down his temples, the stress of his thoughts triggering the reaction. Darn it, darn it, darn it, he was trying to not need to tap into their few inkwells…! Not to mention what Boris must be thinking, he didn't need to be adding onto the wolf's worries right now.

Trying to wipe away the ink, Bendy knew with another twist of frustration that he only succeeded in smearing it about on his face from the stiff, sticky feeling against his fur and skin.

"'m fine." The devil ground out, turning towards the unexplored hallway to his right in a bid to keep things going. They couldn't keep stopping every time he couldn't hack it. Of course, it appeared the studio itself wanted to challenge him on that, as the space the hallway opened on had two distinct things that had Bendy stop for a moment with sheer indignation. One was the fact that the hallway continued, running down to some space from the opposite-right corner of the room. However, this was flooded with ink. And, the cherry on the whole goopy, reeking thing was the fact that propped up on a little beam was a cutout, the painted face giving him a mocking, leery grin.

Bendy was actually pretty sure his face currently looked the exact opposite of that, not to mention his shoulders and eyebrows were once again a tense line. Boris, meanwhile, had easily followed alongside the devil, and saw the exact same room that Bendy did. However, the wolf merely gave the whole scene a contemplative look, including the frustrated devil next to him.

And then he knelt next to Bendy, the sudden movement briefly shocking the devil enough that he started out of the funk he'd settled in.

"Hey, Bendy," Boris whispered, rolling his shoulders forward in a gesture that even after all these years, still struck a familiar chord with the devil. Still, he waffled for reasons more than a sense of pride.

"You don' gotta carry me every time we find ink, Boris."

"I know. But I wanna, if you'll let me." And there came the absolutely earnest expression that Samm-people had always said made Boris look more like an endearing puppy rather than a wolf. Not that the taller toon was done arguing his point. "Also, it'd probably be faster."

"…Alright, Boris, I know when I'm beat. I'm climbin' up."

Declaration of defeat made, Bendy easily clambered his way up onto Boris's back, holding himself in place with his hands wrapped around the wolf's neck and Boris's long arms looped to hold up the devil's legs. It was a position Bendy had known well thirty years ago; he was no stranger to piggy-back rides from Boris, especially when they were first created. He could still remember the brief moment of marveling he'd had at the first time, a little awed at how Boris could see things from so high up. Either way, it didn't take the pair long to start meandering down the flooded hallway, passing another booth set up on some planks against the wall. It was nearly across from the cutout, Bendy briefly glancing back with a perplexed stare before turning to look ahead. Out of the corner of his eye the devil caught something moving on the wall, of machine parts behind what might've been a window. Briefly Bendy toyed with the idea of ripping some off and taking that back to 'Alice', but given that they all seemed to be moving he was forced to reconsider. No need to get someone's fingers ripped off.

"Just be careful, Boris." He couldn't help but whisper, kind of moot given that the wolf sloshed his way through the ink with the utmost care regarding the noise level, or what they might end up disturbing somewhere in the dark floods. The end of the hallway bought them to a thankfully raised little platform, on which stood a few barrels, with a window peeking into a break room of some kind.

However, what was of more concern to the toons was not the room, or even that ink was smeared liberally around the edges of the glass, but what was walking through at a steady, plodding pace. Bendy felt the air catch in his throat as he tried to make some sense of this thing.

It had a running projector for a head, and a long, lanky body covered, or composed, with ink. There were also cables attached that jerked in time with the creature's movements, bobbing as it took step after step to their right, heading to the far side of the room. Boris, who had taken a few cautious steps back with a gasp, started to edge forward again once the creature had trudged out of sight. The wolf's ears pricked upright, listening carefully before shuffling over to the platform, both toons trying to peer in to see if they could make out where the…thing had gone.

As Bendy strained to see over Boris's shoulder, the wolf caught sight of another tape deck sitting on one of the barrels. Pie cut eyes shifted from the wayward recording to the window, before inching to the side and maneuvering so he could press the play button.

"Boris, wai-." Bendy started to hiss, though he was cut off when the tape inside started.

"I don't get it. Everyone's walking around here like grandma just died. Nothing but angry faces everywhere. These people gotta lighten up. I mean, hello! You make cartoons! Your job is to make people laugh. I'm tellin' ya. If these people don't start crackin' a smile every now and then, I'm outta here."

Wally again. Not that it explained any bit of what that was, but the topic would have piqued some of the toons' trademark curiosity if they hadn't just witnessed the new addition to their worries.

"Y-Y'don' think that was Wally, do you?" Boris asked into the resulting quiet, Bendy not able to offer more than a shrug.

"I dunno."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Bendy felt a pulsing ache come on, spreading out through his head and practically radiating down his spine. Without meaning to his grip on Boris tightened with a breathy, pained little whine, the wolf himself suddenly seeming a bit off-kilter though still attentive.

"Bendy? What's wrong?"

It did cross Bendy's mind to lie, to say that he was fine so they could go on searching. But then a nauseatingly fresh reverberation of pain exploded from behind his eyes, forcing the truth out in a gasp.

"M'head hurts. Really hurts."

Boris paused, arm shifting around under one of Bendy's legs before the wolf began to move again. The smaller toon started at the sound of a door opening, and when his pie-cut eyes squinted enough to see that Boris was going into a doorway Bendy stiffened. Before he could comment, another beat of pain radiated from his head outward, causing the devil to bury his face into the back of Boris's neck to keep from groaning or shouting. By the time the burning ache had started to fade, Bendy realized that the wolf had gone through into the break room. However, nothing seemed to be in there, apart from some tables, chairs, and another Lil' Angel Station tucked away in the corner. The taller toon immediately threw both himself and Bendy inside.

The devil let Boris take the pipe away, watching as the wolf propped it up on the bench next to them. That taken care of the taller toon immediately turned his attention to Bendy, gently placing the back of his head on the devil's forehead while he tested his other hand on his own head. In the background, a clock ticked out a steady beat.

"'s fine, Boris, 's passing." Bendy tried to say, though the wolf didn't seem very pacified. Still, he wasn't lying. The longer they sat there the more the sudden pain began to ease, his head feeling more or less normal. However, the stress from the experience still showed in a bit of loose ink dribbling gently from the smaller toon's right brow. The moment Bendy's fingers had happened on the leak, he immediately suppressed a groan.

"Geez, sorry, pal. I didn't drip on you, did I?" Boris shook his head at the recriminating whisper, pie-cut eyes still worried, his ears and tail mimicking the anxious mood.

"I don' care about that, Bendy. Are y'sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, fine. You know me, 'm always drippin'."

"W-We have ink, right? Y'only finished off part'a th' one, y'can have the rest-." Boris whispered, expression going from worried to hopeful, only to be struck down with Bendy's next words.

"No, no I can't do that. We might need it for somethin' else, Boris, we can't go wastin' it just 'cause I'm drippin'."

"But…what about your head?" The wolf tried, a slight, fretting whine starting to come into the hushed tone.

"My head'll jus' havta deal. We need t'get those parts. The sooner we get 'em, the sooner we might get outta here."

Though Bendy had meant for his words to be the end of the argument, the first sentence alone seemed to ramp up Boris's anxiety over the smaller toon, long-fingered gloves fisting in the fabric of his overalls at the knees. The wolf quietly swallowed before starting to speak.

"I don' want you gettin' hurt is all. I don't wanna fight you, an' if you say its fine, then I'll believe you, Bendy. Jus'…don' go runnin' yourself down t'nothin' when you don' gotta, alright?"

Bendy heard the words, but it still felt like it took him an inordinately long time to respond. Pie-cut eyes dropped until he could see nothing but his knees, a word sliding from his tongue on a mere breath.

"Okay. 'm sorry, pal."

"'s alright, Bendy." Long, furry arms wrapped around the small devil's frame, pulling him into a hug against Boris's chest. Unwittingly, Boris had also pressed Bendy's head right up against the center of his chest, the raised line of scar tissue almost leaving an imprint in the smaller toon's forehead. Still, Bendy hardly wanted to break the hug, even as feelings of recrimination and guilt came back to nearly choke the air from his lungs.

You just make him worry make him hurt make everyone hurt in your name little burden little parasite you should have never been made your fault your fault your fault…

He didn't cry, though a small gloved hand came around to latch onto whatever it could, which happened to be one of Boris's overall straps. It felt like a drowning man grasping at whatever he could to stay afloat, which summed up how Bendy felt rather nicely, except for one thing in that he knew there was nothing to sink in apart from the mire that lay inside of his own thoughts.

Eventually though, Bendy did manage to rise above the mental swamp, stating that they did need to get more parts and if there weren't any here, then there was really no need to stay. And though Boris did seem poised to keep a close eye on Bendy, the wolf did concede on that fact.

They were just lucky that whatever that projector monster had been, it didn't decide to come back. Though from what Bendy could see when they stepped out of the booth, it seemed to have gone through what looked like another sliding metal door on the far side of the room. Perhaps it couldn't get back in.

The ink flooded hallway was still quiet, Boris unable to get in a word to offer Bendy a piggy-back ride again before the toon devil had stepped in up to his knees. Though upon seeing the wolf's downtrodden expression Bendy reached out and grabbed ahold of the long-fingered gloves, the canid features struck with surprise for a moment before Boris smiled and gave the smaller hand a gentle squeeze. They continued at each other's shoulders back through the ink, easily getting to where the elevator stop was and heading back out to the stairwell. Taking the next flight up, Bendy noticed Boris looking back into a hallway leading in the opposite direction, behorned head turning to see a cache of instruments tucked away in the space. Giving a small, knowing grin Bendy gave the wolf's hand a few insistent tugs, the small bit of pulling eventually leading Boris up to the top of the stairs.

"We can't take 'em with us, Boris."

"It's a perfectly good drum, Bendy!" The taller toon whined back, causing the devil to roll his eyes a little at the familiar conversation ground. Short of Sammy Boris had been excessively careful and conserving regarding the instruments, a few short months under the music director's tutelage ending in him being able to fix things like banjoes and violins by himself. And, as Bendy had learned from Boris no end of times following a rough work day, the conditions of Joey Drew Studios meant that things tended to break a lot, instruments included. According to Sammy, Bendy'd heard through Boris, the studio head wasn't interested in shelling out much money for things he felt he didn't have to pay for. This often meant that people had to make do with recobbled things, and through that Boris had picked up a definite tendency to not throw things away unless they were completely unsalvageable. It wasn't until Bendy was out on the streets that he found himself making use of that idea, especially when it came to things like blankets and clothing.

To be fair, if this weren't a life or death situation Bendy would have no issue with Boris smuggling out a clarinet or something. A marching drum though definitely would have pushed the limits on what they could safely carry around. Not to mention there was the added issue of the whole 'life and death situation'…

The pair passed a work desk and a stack of furniture on the landing, but no more gearboxes, the noticeable lack spurring them to the next floor. That yielded another piping installation, some shelves which they did try to peek through, but no gearboxes and no loose mechanical parts either. Lots of bacon soup cans scattered and tucked about on both landings though, something Bendy noted with a raised eyebrow. The next level up just had lots of drawers packed into the one landing, though the stairwell itself was changing a little. Now it wasn't a solid wall, more of a divide between the way they'd come and the way up, which seemed to be the highest level they could go. The closed door up at the top of the stairwell did briefly give the two toons some hesitation, though Bendy carefully pulled the door open, peering through the gap as much as he could.

It took a few seconds of staring for the scene to click. They were in the room with the catwalk and stairs, the one they'd been in at the start of this particular nightmare.

Well, while it wasn't a way out necessarily, at the very least the devil knew where he was. And he knew where to go from here. As the pair stepped over the landing and into the room proper the faint sounds of the intercom system 'Alice' had been using abruptly began emanating from the elevator, causing both toons to freeze in their tracks. Not that the warped angel kept them waiting long, her voice drifting through the room like a cat that had gotten the cream.

"Have you seen it? The Ink? They say it hears everything. Every creak of the floor. Every rustle of paper. I wouldn't run so fast if I were you. You never know what will draw it in."

The teasing mock faded back into the stuffy quiet, though Bendy's thoughts whirled at the information. Whatever this monster was, this 'ink', as 'Alice' had dubbed it, could hone in on anything. Could he and Boris even talk to each other? The answer seemed to be a solid no, and as Bendy's panic levels rose, he was suddenly aware of a thundering rush in his ears, the sensation making him briefly press a small gloved hand to his chest. Though the thick coat masked it, he knew that if he were to actually try, he could feel his heart racing.

…blazes, could it even hear his heartbeat?! Could it hear Boris's? Bendy's eyes immediately snapped to the wolf still standing next to him, the taller toon's ears back as his wide-eyed stare conveyed that he'd had the same thought. Immediately, while possibilities and thoughts exploded in the smaller toon's mind, Bendy latched onto one of Boris's hands, pulling the wolf along towards the stairs. It wasn't until they'd gotten to the weird little hallway filled with moving machinery that glances turned into actual, whispered speech.

"D-D'you remember anythin' about this? About…livin' ink?"

Boris, didn't know. At first. However, after a few minutes of thinking something began to clatter its way from the more scattered memories sitting about his skull. It wasn't much, but sound of something moving steadily about, of wrongness igniting a terrible, bone-deep fear inside him, like he was about to be…to be…

To be what? Boris, didn't know, didn't remember, but he knew it was something that he didn't want to run into. The wolf let his pie-cut eyes open again, quietly fixing on Bendy's anxious face.

"I…don' think so. There's definitely somethin' down here that…I think she mighta been talkin' about but 'm not sure. D'you remember anythin' about ink movin' around on its own, like it's alive?"

It could have just been the wording finally rattling it loose, but suddenly something flashed into Bendy's mind, the memory of being tied to a pole while ink rose over him, his body being dragged towards it like a magnet as he screamed and fought-.

"Bendy?" Boris asked, quietly kneeling and gently placing a hand on the devil's shoulder, easily snapping the smaller toon from the trance he'd found himself in. Bendy started with a light gasp, his eyes snapping up to look Boris in the face.

"I-I think I know what she might be talkin' about." Came out of his mouth, before several things began to run through his mind in short order. For starters, he was entirely unprepared on how to explain the 'getting-tied-up-and-nearly-sacrificed' thing, not to mention the fact that he was ninety-nine percent sure that Sammy had been the one to kick off the eponymous sacrificing. Sammy, who while Bendy had not been close to, the music director had been a large part of the wolf's life at the studio. Boris had learned how to play instruments from Sammy, learned how to fix them from Sammy, and even learned to read from both Henry and Sammy after Joey had given up on teaching him.

What the heck would Bendy telling what he'd seen do to the wolf, especially if he was right?

"Nothin', nevermind, we gotta, we gotta go find th' last gearbox, c'mon." The devil blurted out, pulling away and hurrying through the next room back to the lever hallway. Bendy was about to step into the ink-stained toy room when the warning about moving quickly crashed into his mind, causing the devil to slow down. Coming around the corner just bought the sound of the clocks ticking into greater prominence, the noise nearly drowning out Boris coming up to stand next to him. Still, Bendy couldn't say he was surprised when he glanced up and caught sight of the worry etched onto the canid muzzle.

"Sorry, Boris, I jus', I really don' wanna talk about it, please don' make me…"

"'s okay, Bendy. I...'m sorry."

"Y'don' gotta be sorry, pal. 'm jus', I don' wanna talk about it. 's got nothin' t'do with you."

The steady tick of the clocks filled the void, making the gulf between the pair seem even larger. Bendy's shoulders began to stiffen as the devil stared downward, unable to even look up to meet Boris's eyes. At least, until the top of Bendy's head was suddenly crowned by a familiar, long-fingered glove. The touch caused the devil to jerk, though Boris had a warm smile on his face despite the somber mood still gripping the scene.

"'s okay, Bendy. Let's go get that last gear."

"Best thing I've heard all day." Bendy replied, a wane smile accompanying the somewhat wry shot at humor, the pair continuing on side by side. Thankfully, the smoggy hallway was as devoid of anything as the rest of the floor, the pair walking easily past the Lil' Miracle Station to the last gearbox. The final gear took a bit of finagling, though eventually they managed to fit it with the other one in Boris's pocket. Unfortunately the wolf had had to ditch the soup cans he'd grabbed before, much to his discontent.

"Boris, they'll be other soup cans, prob'ly. Or y'can hide 'em an' we can come back t'get 'em later."

"Y'think we'll be able to?" Boris asked, ears tilting in turn with his head.

"Maybe, though I don' think we'll be havin' any issues with findin' more."

Boris shrugged with a nod, easily falling into step with Bendy as they headed back the way they'd come. Before they made it to the elevator room the wolf paused in the hallway with the levers, glancing down the corridor. The sudden halt caused Bendy to stop as well.

"…Boris?"

"There's a door down there. It's, I think it was shut before, but it's open just a lil' bit now."

Taking a few steps back Bendy's eyes followed where Boris was pointing, and indeed the door he'd walked past a few times before was now ajar. Had he tried that one? He couldn't remember…

Glancing at each other, the pair came to a silent decision before edging down the hall, both holding their weapons at the ready as they approached. However, there was nothing in the immediate area when they came in, apart from a trunk with a tape deck resting on it. They considered it for a moment before Bendy came to a decision.

"Let's give it a try. If somethin' happens, we run for it." The wolf nodded in response to the devil's whisper, watching as Bendy pressed play.

"Alright, let's go over this again. If the pressure goes over 45, I screw the safety bolt in tighter, right?" Was that Wally? It sure sounded like him, though another voice quickly came on.

"No! For the last time, you do that, you'll blow every pipe in this place! If it reaches 45, you unhook the safety switch." This one Bendy immediately placed, the repairman, Mr. Connor. But what were they talking about with the pipes?

"You sure? You know, this sounds harder than comparing ear wax to bee's wax!"

"Look, it's not that difficult! Just keep an eye on the gauge!"

"Look pal, if you think I'm doing my job and yours, I'm outta here!"

At the faint pop of the tape clicking off Bendy turned to the wolf, but Boris was facing away from him, staring down the hall. It did seem like it went on for quite a ways, though when the devil edged around to get a better look he noticed that Boris…didn't look like he was all there. The taller toon's eyes were distant, peering about the corridor as though there was a layer to it that Bendy just wasn't seeing. The devil almost didn't want to speak up, not sure if he should break the strange spell that had gripped the wolf. It was only when Boris took a sliding step forward, to go further down the hall, that Bendy felt compelled to say something.

"…Boris? Pal, y'okay?"

Though the wolf's ears twitched, showing that he had at least heard his name, the taller toon was still enraptured, taking another, more assured step down the hall. Throwing a glance back at the doorway just to make sure there wasn't anything that could sneak up on them, Bendy hurried so that he was standing in front of Boris.

"Boris!" The tone was just shy of an actual holler, though when Bendy reached out and grabbed the wolf's free hand it snapped Boris out of the strange spell.

Shaking himself, the taller toon blinked hard before turning his attention to the little devil.

"Ben? What's wrong?"

"What's-?" Bendy nearly echoed, a faintly relieved laugh bleeding through at the dissolution of the weird stupor. That had…honestly been more than a little scary. "Pal, wh-, a-are you okay? Y'kinda checked out for a minute there."

"Oh, I-I did? I'm sorry, Bendy, I didn't mean t'…" The wolf started, before something occurred to him, simply tumbling from his mouth nary a moment later. "Ben, can we, can we see where this goes? Like, what's at th' end of it?"

"…Okay." The devil hummed, falling into step next to the taller toon as he peered with wary curiosity at the canid face. Not that Boris noticed, carrying on and stepping over a sunken spot in the floor. Though the wolf did reach back to help Bendy he was still clearly distracted, enough that when the pair passed another corridor to the right the devil was the only one who noticed.

Bendy'd been about to point it out when he saw that Boris wasn't stopping, instead carrying on past a wall inscribed with 'THE CREATOR LIED TO US'. The further they went, the more the wolf grew lost in the encompassing torpor, almost jogging as the corridor cut to the right before continuing further. Though a part of Bendy knew that he should chime in, make Boris stop before he got some monster's attention, something made him hold his tongue. Perhaps it was how the wolf fell so easily into this mindset, or the faint promise of something that might be helpful or worth seeing, but he bit down on any protests and did his best to run after Boris, all the while keeping an eye out just in case. However, as he was glancing back, Bendy was just a hair too slow to realize that Boris had come to a halt. The wolf snapped to at the impact of the much smaller toon colliding with the back of his legs, twisting about and reaching out to Bendy as the devil stumbled back.

"Bendy, I, I'm sorry, I didn't mean t', are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah fine." The smaller toon murmured, rubbing at his forehead for a moment as the shock of the impact cleared. "Why'd you stop?"

Boris didn't seem to have an answer, at least not an audible one. Instead, the wolf's face mired with anxiety, the hand he'd laid on Bendy's shoulder tightening over the fabric of the devil's coat. The pair's attention turned to the space ahead, the very end of the corridor, which was occupied by what looked like it had once been a Lil' Miracle Station booth. Once been, because at the moment it was almost hard to tell with how the door had been torn off, the area around splattered liberally with ink. Oh, wait, there was the door, though from how much it was covered with ink Bendy had a hard time telling it apart from anything else down here. However, the sight was secondary in the face of what was scrawled on the inside wall of the booth.

FEEL FAMILIAR?

Well, Bendy could say that the words didn't make much sense to him as he didn't remember anything like this even from when the studio was running, but Boris…

The wolf was quietly looking about at the scene, eyes distant even as they cast over everything from the words to the decimated booth. Forcing a little more assuredness into his demeanor, Bendy tried to get the taller toon's attention. Clearing his throat, the devil spoke over what sounded like a pipe hissing, trying to find the right range of audible without being too noisy.

"Does that mean somethin' t'you, pal?"

"Huh?" Boris grunted, thoughts stalling as Bendy's words snapped him out of his stupor. "Uh…I, I guess…"

The wolf's words trailed off, his head turning from the booth to look somewhere above. Following Boris's gaze, Bendy noticed that there was a sort of catwalk or ledge up above them, leading off into a space that sat above the other hall, with the levers and the statue.

"…I think I've been down here b'fore. I don', I don' 'member too well, but there's, there's bits." Boris murmured, shifting about so that he was standing in the near center of the hallway, right in front of the booth. Staring down the corridor, the wolf shuffled back a few steps, almost recreating something playing out in his head. "We, I was standin' here, somethin' happened, I went in there…"

Pointing back at the booth, Boris continued with Bendy watching from the sidelines.

"Th-There was a lotta noise, the door got pulled off, an', an' I, I ended up out in th' hall…" The wolf trailed off, head abruptly turning to peer up at the catwalk to the right of their heads. Bendy did follow the taller toon's gaze, but it quickly became clear that whatever Boris was seeing, it wasn't something that Bendy was able to picture without help.

"An', there was somethin', somethin' came down from up there…" Boris murmured, though as he spoke the taller toon's body language started to change, drawing inward and growing more and more fearful as the seconds ticked by. "I-I think we oughta get outta here…"

"Alright, pal, we're goin'." Bendy quickly conceded, grabbing the wolf's hand as the pair started to head back the way they'd came. However, after they'd gone around the bend back to the first part of the corridor and were coming to the entrance of the other hall, the little devil felt compelled to speak up. Not to mention, they'd already come this far, why not just check it? If anything, there might be something worth finding down there, make this whole thing with 'Alice' a little easier…

"Boris, hold on a minute. I wanna see what's down there."

"Huh? There?" The wolf echoed, glancing in the direction that the smaller toon was indicating. Though Bendy watched Boris's face for any sign of the strange reverie that had taken hold before, there was no recognition. Maybe this spot was safe then? Or Boris just hadn't made it in there. Still, with no reason not to, and the possibility being too tempting to ignore in their situation, the pair darted over to the other corridor. And hurried smack into another dead end that was filled with the sight of the ink machine as it descended through the shaft, the chains steadily reeling the metallic behemoth further and further into the building.

"…How far down can that thing go?" Bendy murmured, more to himself though Boris answered anyway.

"I-I dunno. There was, I think they were puttin' somethin' t'gether before, before everythin', J-Joey had said somethin' 'bout construction?"

It made sense, given the presence of the toy room a ways back, though Bendy couldn't help but question the wisdom of building something this big underneath the studio. There was a whole city up above, that sort of thing couldn't fly. Weren't there building codes that people had to obey when it came to this? Not that the little devil would have put it past his creator, Joey was certainly stubborn enough to get what he wanted. A niggling thought about safety was also countered when Bendy recalled the apparent condition of the elevator, and the fact that there was a machine that probably weighed a ton or two at least. The shaft that apparently ran through the whole building showed that safety clearly wasn't a concern here.

It was all the more reason to leave, though with things the way they were it seemed like that was just becoming more and more difficult. And, with nothing to help them on their errand from 'Alice' the pair were forced to head back through to the lever hallway. Before they knew it, they were coming back to the catwalk leading down to the elevator, though another crackle went through the speakers before 'Alice' gave another message.

"That should be plenty. Return them to me. And try not to die on the way back."

Bendy frowned heavily at the elevator following that pronouncement, his hand curling into a fist at how…how callously she was willing to play with their lives, for her own gain. And she thought of herself being akin to their Alice…!

But, she did say they could stop, which was a relief to the somewhat frayed nerves the devil had, and he offered Boris a faint smile as he caught the wolf peering over at him. Probably concerned by the expression on Bendy's face. The devil quietly flashed the taller toon a thumbs up, nonverbally stating, in case 'Alice' could hear, that he was alright to keep going. Boris gave Bendy his own grin, sticking close to the devil's side as they headed quietly towards the stairs.

However, as the pair headed down, the small corridors leading into the cavernous front room for the toy department were filled with the sound of shrieking metal as something was forced to work against its own mechanisms. The noise continued to echo for a few minutes before stopping, as an uneasy silence began to take hold once more, broken only by the sound of a rhythmic, liquid splatting.

---

The way back down to the lowest level was mostly quiet, the toons making their way with careful purpose through stairwell after stairwell. Soon enough, the familiar bottom landing came into view, Bendy absently catching sight of an old off-white projector sitting on one of the tables that he hadn't noticed before. Once they'd gotten back to the actual stairway leading down to 'Alice', there came the somewhat arduous task of figuring out how Bendy was going to carry the gears and the wrench. Problem was Bendy's gloved hands were fumbling with the clunky metallic bits, eventually opting to hold them against his body, pinned there by an arm as he dragged the wrench behind him. Boris nonverbally fretted over the arrangement, though in the end there was nothing else he nor Bendy could really do about it. The devil had been about to go down the staircase when the intercom gave a crackle, and a familiar voice began to speak.

"There was a time when people knew my name. "It's Alice Angel", they'd say. Feels like so long ago. But those days can come back. Dreams come true, Susie. Dreams come true."

The seeming non-sequitur seemed to come on unprovoked, leaving both toons in silence as they tried to digest what they'd heard. Both sets of pie-cut eyes looked to each other, Boris suddenly looking like he might be having second thoughts about letting Bendy go down to drop off the gears. Despite the fact that his hands being full meant that he couldn't reach out to the wolf, the little devil flashed his taller companion a smile that hopefully appeared more reassuring than he felt. Bendy tried to hide any outward sign of his anxiety as he crossed the bridge, though he couldn't help that his tail began to coil close to his legs as he peered about the dais, looking for someplace to drop his cargo.

On the opposite side of the door from where he'd gotten the wrench, there was another metallic thing that looked like a garbage can, or a chute. Working on his hunch, Bendy began to levy the gears in, desperately hoping that he wasn't making a huge mistake. For a moment everything was silent, right before the intercom crackled again and a new order came through over the aging system.

"I'll make this simple. Look for valve panels. Turn the little wheels. Then bring me their power cores. Please don't make me regret sparing you. I can always change my mind."

Well, as long as he knew he was doing this right, then Bendy could figure he wasn't doing a completely terrible job. The sound of metal creaking drew his eyes to the contraption on the left, which had just revolved to reveal a new implement for him to use. Though as Bendy drew closer to get a better look, he couldn't help the brief air of frustration that flashed over his monochrome features.

After all, what the heck was he supposed to do with a plunger? Kill the various ink horrors coming after him and Boris with suction? Still, the toon devil said nothing, regretfully grabbing ahold of the wooden handle as he did his best to place the wrench back into the spot. The heft to it made the endeavor a little awkward, but eventually it revolved back around, leaving Bendy with his new weapon and task.

Well, silver linings, at least he had a good idea of how to begin this time.

Still, the expression on Boris's face when he saw the toilet plunger in the devil's hands probably mirrored the one Bendy had had when he first laid eyes on the thing.

"What was she sayin' 'bout valves?" The wolf asked once the pair had gotten back into the stairwell, voice rumbling in the dull quiet.

"Think she meant th' wheel things we've been seein' everywhere. Remember, I asked you what one a'them was upstairs?"

Dawning comprehension struck with a soft 'oh', the wolf cluing in on what the devil was talking about straight away.

"There's one on the next level, right?"

"Yeah, think there was." Bendy replied, smiling a little at the fortune that came with being already somewhat familiar with the area. It didn't take them long to go up the staircases that lead to the next floor, though when they got to the T-shaped hallway something black suddenly lurched out of the flooded part, hurtling at Bendy who had been fair enough ways ahead of Boris. Automatically the small toon swung with the plunger, though the rubbery smack of the top against the half-formed monster only knocked it back a pace. Nowhere near the force Bendy would need to destroy it, if anything it had been emboldened by the light hit. Its next lurch brought its ink head crashing against Bendy's, the impact knocking the toon over as he shut his eyes and tried not to gag at the reek of ink up against his nose or pressing at his mouth.

"Lord…lord…" The thing hissed, voice a gurgling rasp as its ink dripped over the smaller frame pinned under it. Bendy tried to bring the plunger up as a barrier, but the long arm came down and pressed it to the front of the devil's coat, pinning Bendy's arms as well. With its hand on the wooden handle, the creature started dragging both itself and Bendy over the threshold of the other very ink-stained hallway, leading down into the dark pool at the end. For a few terrifying seconds, Bendy tried to throw off the monster's grip, feeling splinters digging into his back in between slicks of ink though his struggles seemed to be all for naught. And then a pipe swung through the dark head, the force causing the rest of the monster to burst apart as Bendy hurriedly scrambled back just in time to avoid the worst of it. Still, his shoes got soaked with the stuff again. The feeling of hands on his shoulders, pulling him to sit up, almost made Bendy swing back with the plunger. The ink was still splattered all over his face, obscuring his vision and filling his nose with nothing but the smell. But Bendy's ears still worked, enough that he could hear the sounds of Boris moving about and talking behind him.

"Bendy, Bendy are you alright?! Say somethin'!"

Given that if he opened his mouth it would end in the ink that the…thing, was covered in getting into his body and oh boy did Bendy not want to deal with that, the devil just gave a wretched, slime-clogged whine of disgust and no small amount of fear.

I-It's alright, Bendy, I gotcha, hold still." Boris murmured from somewhere over Bendy's head, tone warbling a little but at least the wolf was trying to be calm, which was great seeing as the smaller toon could feel himself shaking. Nary a moment later a furry arm scrubbed over the devil's pale features, clearing the sludge enough that he felt safe opening his eyes and letting a held breath out with a gasp. Immediately Boris's face came into focus, the wolf's teeth gritted with stress as his ears tucked down against his head.

"You okay, Bendy?"

Truthfully no, no he wasn't. Even still, the devil found himself nodding, glancing at the pool the half-formed ink monster had just been trying to drag him to. It was at that moment Bendy realized that Boris was propping him up with his left arm around his shoulders, the limb vibrating slightly as it held the smaller toon's frame partly upright. However, it wasn't that particular arm that Bendy suddenly thought of. The devil's gloved hands shook as they ran through the fur on Boris's right arm, slogging off the inky residue left behind.

It didn't occur to Bendy until he'd gotten the majority of the stuff off that he should probably at least try to explain what he was doing.

"Sh-Should try t'clean that off, dunno what's in it." Even to Bendy's ears the tone was clipped and far too brittle to be natural, though Boris didn't react beyond a light squeeze from the hand resting on the devil's jacketed shoulder. For a minute it was calm, before a far-off clanging noise echoed down from somewhere above, causing both toons to quickly look ceiling-ward. Not that that really told them much, the dingy wood overhead looking about as old and ink-streaked as everything else, but they'd already been put on alert. Boris helped Bendy to his feet, the pair taking the hallway next to the stairs to the still-open door.

The place looked about the same, though the presence of something walking around in the room on the left caused the two-toon procession to pause. Bendy found himself blinking at the sight of another warped character from the Butcher Gang. This one had his head bouncing around on a line, but a black body similar to the one that had been walking around before. That would be something to deal with…later. Boris waited for the mismatched toon to go out of sight before heading to the booth that was tucked away next to the right-hand room door, ushering himself and Bendy inside. The plunger and pipe were a bit cumbersome, but somehow Boris managed to lean them up so that they wouldn't fall and there was still enough room for the pair to sit on the bench.

"Boris, we shouldn' be waitin', we gotta go get the cores…fr-from the valves."

"Alrigh', we'll do that in a minute."

"Boris…" Bendy tried again, hearing the whine in his voice as it slid out of his throat, and noticing even in the low light how the tone made the wolf's ears tuck down, a frown on his muzzle.

"Bendy, please, y'were jus'…I jus' wanna make sure you're okay."

I don't want to fight you. It felt like the same words but with a new spin, not helped by the fact that Boris was still looking so very worried and woebegone. It suddenly struck Bendy that from the wolf's perspective the devil had just been violently attacked and nearly dragged off to who-knows-where. How would Bendy be reacting if their roles had been reversed? Probably very much the same, honestly. Also he'd fallen asleep in the other booth last time and 'Alice' didn't really seem to care, heck, her words once they'd gotten all the gears seemed to imply that she wouldn't care overmuch if something did happen to them.

And maybe the continual exposure to things that thought of Bendy as some sort of god was making the toon devil want to huddle up somewhere comparatively safer and maybe try to work on shoving that down into some dark corner of his mind for at least the next decade.

"Alright, Boris. Stayin' put."

"Alright," The wolf started, expression growing a little lighter at both the conceding and the effort at humor. "Are y'okay, though?"

"Yeah, yeah. Fine, jus' startled me is all," Bendy murmured, leaning up against the taller toon and relaxing a little when Boris wrapped an arm round the devil's smaller frame. It helped him not think about the smears of ink drying at the edges of his face, or hissed, raspy voices coming from inky shapes as they reached out to grab him.

The very thought made the devil give a small shudder, Boris's arm tightening for an instant in a side hug as the wolf's other hand came to rest on Bendy's head, tousling at the smaller toon's nonexistent hair. For a bit, the two sat in silence, before warring curiosity and perhaps some desperate desire not to be alone in his plight made Bendy speak up.

"Boris…have, y'ever heard anythin' when those monsters pop up? The ones that're all ink?"

"…They kinda make a squishin' noise, if that's what y'mean, Bendy."

"N-No, not that, Boris. I mean…d'ya hear them…talk?" Well, there it was out. Maybe Boris would just be too polite to make the obvious comment, that the devil had lost it, and change the subject.

"…No, I don' think I've ever heard that. Y'hear them…talk t'you?"

Not really wanting to speak, Bendy nodded against the wolf's chest, keeping his eyes trained on the inside wall of the booth.

"W-What do they say?" Boris blurted out, the frank, unsure question causing the devil to flinch as he tried to figure out how to get over this particular hurdle in the conversation.

"It's…they call me things like 'lord', an' tell me I gotta save them. It's prob'ly got a heck of a lot t'do with th'…th' statues that're all around here. An'…an' the writin' sayin' stuff like 'he will set us free'. It's all got t'do with me, an' I jus'…I dunno what any of it means or how 'm even supposed t'do that, an' with everythin' I've seen I just…"

Bendy gave a hard blink, the image of a staring, eyeless ink face looking down at him suddenly emblazoned on the backs of his eyelids. Involuntarily the small toon's frame gave a quivering shudder, Boris speaking up at the vibration reverberating up his arms.

"Bendy?"

"I-It tried t'pull me inta th' ink. It was draggin' me towards-I don' even know what would happen t'me if I, if I'd still be, be me or-." The devil's jaw clamped shut as terrified hysteria caused his voice to tremble, his frame huddling in Boris's lap as though that could do something against the ever-encroaching threat to quite possibly the devil's very self. The only thing he could do, it seemed, was try to out-maneuver anything that came after him.

"Bendy?" Boris suddenly asked, voice soft as his arms gave the smaller frame a brief, grounding squeeze. Bendy didn't quite have enough voice in him to make anything beyond a faint, whistling question of a noise, but Boris took that as a yes anyway.

"…'m not gonna let anythin' happen t'you, an' nobody's gonna make you into anythin' you don' wanna be. 'Cause I'll stop 'em. We jus' gotta stick t'gether 'sall."

"Y-Yeah, trust me, 'm not gonna be runnin' off on my own for a long while." Bendy chimed in, voice only quavering a little as his arm gave Boris's ribcage a brief, grateful squeeze. "Think we can go 'bout gettin' those valve things?"

A brief moment passed in which the wolf peered through the slat in the booth door, confirming that there was nothing lying in wait outside. The pair slipped out and headed for the spot just inside the room they were next to, Bendy taking a moment to have a closer look at the three valves. 'Alice' had said something about power cores, were they somewhere he could see them? The panel next to the pipes seemed like a good enough guess, though it didn't open at a touch the way the gearboxes did.

Right, the warped angel had said that the wheels needed to be turned. Bendy took note of the same black dots present on the front of the pipes, all at the midway point. On a hunch he reached out and started to turn the middle wheel, stiffening with a squeaked yelp as the metal parts made a screech in their effort to turn. The sudden noise coupled with the earlier warning about making too much of a racket made Bendy stop, hands up at his sides like a criminal with a spotlight on them as he tried to look about for a sign that he'd gotten something's attention. The only living thing in sight was Boris, who'd also stiffened with tense fright at the sudden noise. Despite that, the wolf gestured for the devil to keep going, Bendy quickly turning back and doing his best to make sure the levels of the liquid lined up with the black dots. The process felt painstaking, and more than a little harrowing as it seemed to take hours.

Albeit, Bendy knew that only a few minutes had passed, the small metal door to the left of the pipes and wheels unlocking the instant everything was in its proper place. The devil swiftly reached in and gave the cylinderish, metallic piece a tug, and was incredibly happy that it popped out with only a small shower of sparks and clacking sound. Well, almost, there was one more issue Bendy had to resolve. Namely that this was far bigger than the gears, and who knows how many of these they would have to get.

And not that it was really an accomplishment but the thing did span a little over the length of the devil's forearm, though thankfully it was not that heavy. How they were gonna carry more than two, maybe three was a mystery that Bendy knew he'd have to solve somehow, especially given that he wasn't sure that 'Alice' would appreciate them coming back to her floor to drop off what she wanted in bits. Not to mention leaping back and forth would slow them down and leave things open for something to try getting at them. Though Boris's declaration from before did warm Bendy's ink, the devil could safely say that he didn't want the wolf to need to make good on what he'd promised if either of them could help it.

The pair headed to the other room next, peering about for signs of anything that might mean either of them harm. For the moment, the place seemed to be empty.

Heading inside caused a clatter to be roused from the other end of the looping hallway, a misshapen figure stumbling up the corridor to meet them. Immediately Bendy placed it as one of the Butcher Gang characters, the one with his head on a string, its cartoony body stumbling about as it beelined straight for him. As it came closer he could make out that the mismatched toon's head was also disfigured, the mouth grotesquely stretched into an exaggerated leer. From what was becoming instinct now Bendy lashed out with the plunger, remembering too late how ineffective the thing was when the warped toon stumbled back a few steps before advancing again, hands swiping at the devil. For an instant Bendy froze, stumbling a step back as the need to run overrode the desire to continue forward. Albeit the warped toon hardly gained ground, as the pipe swung and knocked it across the room. The impact with the floor caused it to reel about, disorientated, though Boris quickly met it with another strike the second it came too close.

The sight of the body juddering apart into loose ink was both a balm and more than a little disturbing to watch given that Bendy couldn't help the brief thought that asked if that would happen if they were to be hurt badly enough. The smaller toon shook his head, pushing the notion to the back of his mind as he hurried forward to the piping station on the wall, Boris quickly following behind. Bendy paused in front of the wheels, tucking the first power core under his arm and willing himself to calm down a little more before beginning to fiddle with the valves. The devil couldn't help a momentary flinch as the squeaking sounds started up again in earnest, ringing out far too loudly in the yawning quiet. Even with the hum of the machinery in the background it was far too noisy, Bendy's tail lashing about with agitation as his brow started to dribble ink. No, no, he needed to focus, needed to calm down, come on you jittery little burden, where's the bravado from before? Need I remind you it's not just your safety on the line here?

"Bendy?" The whisper was almost so quiet that Bendy might not have picked up on it if it didn't feel like his senses had been dialed up to eleven in his anxiety. The devil jumped, shoulders scrunching as he peered behind to see Boris looking at him with an attempt at a grin, though the faintest edges of tense fear were poking through.

"'salright, 'm here with you. An' I got your back, jus' take care'a th' wheels."

Despite the quietness, the calm, lightly bolstering tone added some steel to the smaller toon's spine, Bendy giving a small grin and a nod before turning back to the valves. Even though he couldn't help a wince as it continued to grind with every turn, the devil simply focused on getting the task done, to get the levels of liquid right at the dots. Eventually the wheels stopped with a click, the panel to the left opening to reveal another power core. This time Boris reached over and grabbed it, tucking it under his own arm to match Bendy.

"C'mon, we prob'ly gotta get movin' b'fore somethin' shows up." Bendy pointed out, pie-cut eyes peering about at what he could see of this room and the ones beyond the glass windows. Boris gave a nod, falling into step next to Bendy as they exited the small animation workroom. The devil didn't try to go quicker, keeping close to the wolf as the pair went back through the hallway and out the door. It also didn't escape Bendy's notice how Boris moved to block the smaller toon from the ink pool at the end of the still-flooded hallway. The devil didn't say anything but couldn't help but feel some relief at the tangible back-up.

The toons went up a few flights before reaching a landing that Boris abruptly paused on, a hand reaching out to Bendy's shoulder. When the smaller toon turned to look, he caught sight of a pipe running from the ceiling to the floor, obviously one of the ones pumping ink throughout the building. The difference was that this one actually had a valve on it. The wheel was somewhat streaked with black, but what caught the devil's curiosity was what would happen if the wheel was turned? Would it cut the ink flow to somewhere?

Boris it seemed wanted to find this out as well, though the taller toon took the more direct approach of actually reaching out to turn the valve himself. The wheel remained stuck under gloved fingers before it gave with only a small squeak, Boris turning it for a good minute before it stopped. As the wolf turned back to look, Bendy was already listening for a sound, anything from a change in the grinding machinery to the clattering of something coming to get them, but there was nothing to be heard. At least, nothing that was different from before.

Waving off the apologetic look from Boris, Bendy simply shook his head with a 'don't worry about it' sort of air, pointing in the direction of the stairwell going up. The wolf nodded, and the pair continued, right up until they got to the next level. Though the devil was somewhat glad that the next piping station was right next to the door, the fact that the nearest booth was in the next room put him on edge. However, Bendy reasoned that that was all the more reason to get this done as quickly as possible, the devil turning to the valves and getting to work. Keeping a careful eye on the levels inside, Bendy moved the wheels as rapidly and carefully as he could with one hand, the other still holding onto the previous valve and the plunger. It didn't really help that apart from the echo of ink dripping and machinery whirring away there was barely any sound, the devil even glancing back at Boris just to be sure he wasn't alone. The wolf silently met his gaze with a reassuring grin, hands still wrapped around his own power core and the pipe as he kept quiet. Though Bendy immediately turned back to the valves, he couldn't help but wonder if Boris staying quiet earlier, coupled with the wolf's unthinking sneaking about, was a behavior he had inferred from the environment, or one he remembered from sometime before.

Not that Bendy really had much time to think, the levels of liquid matching each other with a click and opening the metal panel to the left. However, this presented the devil with another problem; how on earth was he going to be able to grab this thing with an arm already full? Regretfully, Bendy ended up putting both the plunger and the other power core on the floor, standing on his tip-toes to grab the new one.

Just as Bendy reached in and yanked out the metallic cylinder, his head abruptly felt like someone had soaked it in gasoline and set it alight. Even as he shakily picked up the plunger, the devil's head turned to where the flooded hallway was, and he caught sight of something stepping out from the right into view. It was much, much taller than any of the other monsters that Bendy had seen, and through blurred vision he could make out that the room seemed to grow darker around it, black trails spiraling out over the walls and the floor. In fact, the thing's frame was so tall Bendy was sure the only toon he knew that matched it was Boris. The lack of white around its head was a dead giveaway that this was something else, though it did look like the thing was wearing very grimy, streaked overalls.

It all kind of looked like-.

"S-Sammy?" Bendy didn't even realize that he'd whispered the name out loud, until Boris made a noise from behind him that would have sounded like an equal part incredulous and completely shocked 'what' if it wasn't garbled by fear.

The mere hint of noise caused the thing, Sammy, to suddenly jerk, the whirling black patterns suddenly gaining an agitated edge as the tall frame surged forward. A low rumble of a noise like a growl began to reverberate up the hallway, Bendy freezing as he felt drops of ink patter down onto his head from the ceiling. Somehow, even though the man-turned-ink-monster was only close to six feet, it felt like something much bigger was coming up the corridor. Bendy felt like an ant in the path of a running human, wanting to close his eyes or run but unable to do much more than stare as Sammy, or the thing wearing what was left of Sammy, ambled forward with its hands outstretched. The devil distantly noticed that the inky hands of the music director almost looked misshapen, the pinkie on one hand entirely gone while the others looked like they were missing the top part or even were down to the second joint. The ink on the music director's head and shoulders was bubbling as though it were under a hot lamp, almost like it was liquifying under some unseen strain.

Bendy considered it extremely lucky that he didn't drop either the power core or the plunger when Boris grabbed the devil and took off out the door and down as many flights of stairs as he could before he found a Lil' Miracle Station, hauling both himself and Bendy inside. The wolf fumbled for a few moments trying to get everything set down without dropping anything or making noise, but he somehow managed, right before he realized that Bendy had not made a sound. The devil's eyes were wide, ink dribbling from his brow in a worrying amount of rivulets.

"Bendy?" The taller toon whispered, not daring to raise his voice any higher than he had it at the moment. Still, the devil didn't answer, breathing so shallow that Boris tugged off his glove with his teeth and checked with his hand. The sudden presence of a hand right in front of his face made Bendy blink, drawing back into his coat as he snapped out of whatever daze he was in.

"B-Boris?" The devil mumbled, gaze unfocused as his pie-cut eyes traveled from the hand to the toon it was attached to. A wane smile formed on the canid muzzle, Boris waving a little in front of Bendy's face, causing the smaller, pale features to loosen before the devil simply let his head clunk against the wolf's chest and his arms came up to desperately cling at the taller frame. Not that Boris was in any mood to complain, immediately hugging Bendy back. The pair sat in silence for a while, and Bendy gave a deep sigh as the pain in his head began to abate, his frame relaxing in its absence.

He'd very nearly let his mind wander into the territory of 'relief' when Boris spoke up, voice hushed and more than a little hesitant.

"B-Bendy…righ' b'fore…when y'called it…y-you didn' mean…"

The little devil felt tension scrunch up the muscles in his shoulders and head, though he knew that if he tried anything to not have this conversation he'd regret it more in the long run. Boris wasn't going to simply stop asking, and if he brushed the question off it might push the wolf to do something dangerous to see if the dawning realization was in fact true. Still, where even did he start with this mess…? For that matter, what the hell even happened to Sammy, if that was indeed still the music director?

None of those answers Bendy had, but he knew that for the moment they weren't important. Boris needed to know, now that it had been thrown out in the open like this. Even still, the earlier stress coupled with the dread of what he would have to now talk about briefly stopped up the small toon's voice, vocals warping as he tried to speak.

"I-It was…It's Sammy, 'm so sorry, I didn' wanna….didn' want you t'…" Do what? Run off? Scare him? Boris didn't say anything, arms slackening a little though whether or not it was from shock, or perhaps disgust, the devil couldn't say. Bendy swallowed down the brief burst of dread he felt at the thought and continued, opting this time to just state what happened. Boris didn't need to hear his half-baked excuses.

"I was down in th' music department, I fell-I thought maybe I could get out through the stairs, bu' they were flooded, so I was tryin' t'get inta Sammy's office. Took a bit, but there were all these inky monsters that popped up nearer t'th' end, an' I saw someone that was sittin' up in one of the booths, above the big orchestra room."

"The recording studio." Boris interjected in a distant whisper, tone completely devoid of anything that would tell Bendy what the wolf was feeling regarding this, the devil not daring to look up to see. Even though an insidious little whisper in the devil's mind murmured about why should he even trust you why should anyone trust you LORD?, Bendy continued.

"Y-Yeah, th-that was…there was someone up there, an' they were jus' starin' as I was fightin' off those things. Didn' say a word, but they were covered in ink an' were wearin' a mask of my face. I kinda lost track of 'em after I ran outta there, but…when I was goin' t'leave, I got whacked upside the head. Next thing I know, I'm tied t'a pole with th' guy kneelin' in front'a me. An'…" Bendy swallowed, forcing himself to continue speaking even though this part, this memory had piled in with the others, the declarations, the writing, the statues, the cutouts, what are you trying to make me Joey and am I still gonna be me when you're done?!

"H-He started talkin', 'bout how I was gonna be somethin' big, a-an' powerful, an' set everyone free, he said. B-But, when I was listenin' t'his voice, I…I realized who it was, I asked t'make sure, and he said it, he said he was Sammy." Bendy stopped himself there, not wanting to go into the jar, the ink contained within and how it had pulled at him like metal to a magnet. That…that wouldn't matter to Boris right now. And, though Bendy had stopped talking, the wolf hadn't replied, silent and still with his arms now wrapped loosely round the smaller toon's frame. Ink dripped from Bendy's brow as he waited for Boris to say something, even if it was the worst-case scenario of throwing him out of the booth and why wouldn't he, this cult-worship bunk for the little devil had gotten Sammy and loads of others dead and worse for crying out loud!

"I…'m sorry, Boris. I-I didn'…I didn' mean for any'a this t'happen. 'm sorry." When a few more seconds passed by with nothing, Bendy tried again. "I-I can leave y'be for a bit, if you-."

The moment that Bendy made to move, maybe to push open the door to the booth and slip out, Boris gave a choked gasp and immediately wrapped the devil's frame in a constricting squeeze, pulling the smaller frame into the wolf's lap.

"N-No! Don' go, Bendy, please don'. You run off an' you'll end up like him an' I can't, I can't lose you too, Bendy-." The rushed flood of words all spilled out somewhere in the span of a minute, Bendy left blinking and more than a little shocked in their wake. But Boris wasn't quite done, gasping sobs starting to take hold as the stunned silence broke apart into fresh tears. "Y-You'd end up jus' like…j-jus' like…"

Bendy looked at the wolf's face just in time to catch Boris mouth Sammy's name, emotion choking off the sound as the lankier body tried to draw in like it had been dealt a physical blow. The overall-strapped shoulders shook as tears poured down the canid muzzle, Boris's sobbing finding its way into the undercurrent of sound that ground at a constant hum around them. With little else to do, Bendy flung his arms around the broad shoulders in a hug, one small gloved hand starting to knead at the back of the wolf's head while the other simply wrapped around Boris's shoulders.

They stayed there for a while, pipe and plunger to one side with the three power cores tucked about on the other, Bendy twisted about to keep hugging Boris as his fingers carded through the fur on the wolf's head. The little toon knew he'd kept talking, though he didn't recall specifics. Reassurances that he was not going anywhere, with apologies sprinkled throughout, all generally laid out around whatever soothing white noise that came to mind. Minutes slid by as the sobs trickled down to sniffles and then quiet, if somewhat nasally breaths as Boris's tight hold on Bendy's coat grew somewhat slacker, the wolf still hunched around the smaller toon. The devil let it continue for a few minutes before he had the uncomfortable realization that if Boris fell asleep like this, the slightest bit of movement would send them falling off the bench. So, despite wanting the wolf to rest, Bendy ended up tapping Boris on the shoulder, rewarded when the taller toon gave a snort and straightened, bleary, dark eyes coming into view as Boris leaned back to look at Bendy in askance.

"Wassa'matter?" The wolf slurred out as a gloved hand came up to rub at his eye.

"Jus' wanted t'make sure y'weren't about t'fall asleep on me, pal, y'know I can't carry you. You can sleep if'n you want, Boris, jus' lean back, alright?"

"N-No." The taller toon stammered through a yawn, trying to stretch without much success in the cramped confines of the 'Little Miracle Station'. "We should get goin', prob'ly not a good idea t'jus' sit around in here."

Which was fair, but it felt a little wrong coming from the wolf who'd just been using the devil as both a pillow and a teddy bear, not to mention everything that came before the lull. Still, Bendy could definitely say he was looking forward to getting this done as soon as possible, even if he felt like he'd be wanting to keep a closer eye on Boris for a bit. The wolf had just learned that the guy that taught him pretty much everything he knew was…well, gone, and while Bendy couldn't blame Boris for wanting to get the heck away from Sammy, if that still was Sammy, the devil didn't think he was liking how fast Boris was trying to get going.

Granted, what if it was Henry? The thought made Bendy pause for a moment as he and Boris were gathering up the power cores and makeshift weapons, the question repeating itself a little louder as though the devil were internally hard of hearing.

What if it was Henry?

As he picked up the plunger and a power core, Boris already having grabbed two, Bendy ruminated that, well, there'd probably be a few things he'd do. All in all though, he'd just end up having to carry on. Like Boris was trying to do, it seemed.

I can't lose you too, Bendy! Boris had said. The wolf needed him, that much Bendy was sure. In a whirling, uncertain situation when it came to all the others he'd been close to throughout his sparse life, this was the only grounding point now. For at least the last decade on the streets, it had just been him, and while his own survival was motivating, it had been losing a lot of its driving appeal over the years. After all, he'd run from his friends and home, he had nowhere he could go, no one to turn to, with the added weight of keeping his very existence a secret. Thirty years later he couldn't help but wonder what the point was, why was he still doing what he was doing? Had there even been a point?

Well, now there was, in his best pal. Boris, the last of the people that had cared about him. The one Bendy had been greeted with when he'd first come into this hellhole, dead and torn open, died terrified and in agony.

He'd gotten a second chance with his pal, and Bendy certainly wasn't about to blow it. Boris would be getting out of this studio if it was the last thing the toon devil did. Glancing up at the wolf as the pair were heading up the stairs, Bendy noticed that the earlier caution was dulled. Boris's ears were tucked down and his eyeline had dropped to the stairs but seemed to see somewhere beyond it, another place and time. Tears were building at the corners of the wolf's pie-cut eyes, though Boris blinked hard and the wetness vanished. Still, his ears didn't perk back up and his tail was pressed close to his legs, the expression on the taller toon's muzzle still a few inches away from crumpling with grief again. Even though Bendy's hands were about as full as Boris's currently were, the smaller toon still felt the need to do something, anything.

Going up the next flight of stairs bought them to a landing with another piping station on the far wall, Bendy looking at it for a moment before peering up at Boris. The wolf's eyeline lowered from the pipes to the devil's gaze, the pair simply staring at each other for an instant before Bendy tried to give a smile.

"I'll take care of it, pal, it's fine." The wolf blinked at the whispered proclamation before he reached out to Bendy with a word of his own.

"An' I'll hold onto that for you, Bendy. Do whatcha gotta do."

Nodding in reply, Bendy let the taller toon snag ahold of the power core under his arm, adding it to the two he currently had before taking up a spot next to the panel so he could see both up and down the stairwells. Bendy only hesitated a moment before going to work on the valves, only wincing a little now at the squealing of the metal and simply concentrating on the levels of the liquid in the pipes and getting them to where they needed to be. Minutes later the panel clicked open, swinging open as Boris quickly pushed himself off the wall and immediately reached in to grab the power core, gasping a little as the thing sparked before finally coming loose. Bendy leaned away from the shower of electric sparks, lowering an arm he'd lifted to shield his face once Boris had taken the core and tucked it away with the others. Taking a deep breath, Bendy mulled over what to say before the realization that if he didn't speak now he might not have the chance to later spurred him to speech.

"Boris, 'm sorry."

The whispered apology, though a bit out of the blue, caused the wolf to pause. However it was not the suddenness of it that caused the hesitation. Kneeling, Boris took a moment to make sure he was keeping a good hold on the power cores before giving his reply.

"Bendy. I said this wasn' your fault, an' I still mean it. S-Sammy wouldn'a blamed you, an' I'm not gonna either." Even though tears did spring up again at the music director's name, the wolf pushed them back and instead let a warm smile take root. Though Bendy understood the sentiment, he couldn't quite get a grin of his own to come, instead looking down to the floor.

"Still, y'should…this isn't…it's not, right." The smaller toon eventually forced out, feeling woefully unable to address the new wound to his friend. He didn't really know how to begin talking about it, didn't know how he could help, and wasn't sure he even could given that it was…was his fault, in a way. At least, that's how it felt to Bendy. Sammy didn't ask for this, no one had, and because of…everything, cult worship and all, a lot of people were now…

"I know. I know it's not. But, Bendy…" Boris started, continuing once the devil had looked up at the sound of his name. "…please don' be blamin' yourself, this isn' your fault."

"Alrigh'." Bendy replied with a shrug, though he definitely didn't feel any less responsible. With the conversation trailing off into silence, the pair hurried up the stairs to the next level.

The catwalk room looked pretty much the same as they'd left it last time, though Bendy couldn't help but notice a new ink slick on the stairs and catwalk as they were heading up. The devil looked about for any sign of something that could have left the trail, but there was nothing. The room was almost…quiet, if it weren't for the faint sounds of machinery grinding away in the small hallway leading out to the rest of the level. Despite his suspicions, Bendy was hardly about to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly getting set up with Boris at the top of the stairs and going to work on the valves while the wolf kept watch. Thankfully, with all of the practice Bendy had gotten on the lower levels, this one went without a hitch. After they'd pulled the last power core from the panel, the faint crackling of the intercom cutting on caused the pair to pause, right as 'Alice' spoke up.

"You're quite the efficient little errand boy, aren't you? Return to me. Try not to die on the way back."

The somewhat flippant dismissal caused the devil's pie-cut pupils to roll skyward as he restrained himself from yelling something at the intercom, or giving some kind of rude gesture in the direction of the elevator. Besides, Boris seemed to notice the mounting, frustrated tension in the devil's frame and quickly reached out to ruffle in between Bendy's horns in an effort to calm the devil down some. Though the smaller frame stiffened for a moment at the contact Bendy did untense, tail giving a calmer flick as his temper cooled. A deep breath, and he peered up out from under Boris's hand, giving a thumbs-up that made a smile flicker over the wolf's features. With the five power cores in tow, the pair headed down the stairs.

Suddenly Boris's ears perked up, having heard something that sounded a little off from the grinding machines upstairs and the faint dripping of ink. A slithering noise that was coming from underneath the stairs.

The wolf looked down just in time to see something, much larger than one of the half-formed monsters slide out from under the bottom step. Bendy had heard the noise and had already started to turn though by then Boris was already moving, leaping over the rising frame and using his momentum to push Bendy to the right and stagger to the left. At the same time, the monster's momentum carried it to be smack in between the pair, pushing itself up on its arms and revealing a white spot on its chest. It was the monster that had been following Bendy since he'd turned on the ink machine, the monochrome one.

"Oh, that is not fair." Bendy found himself murmuring from the floor, immediately regretting his decision to speak as the thing's head snapped to look in his direction, ink splattering against the floor and narrowly missing Bendy's legs and tail. Almost in the same instant the monster moved, Boris started to holler from the wall he'd backed himself into.

"H-Hey, don' go near him! You leave him alone!"

The words had even more of an impact than Bendy's, the monster's head whipping about to look at Boris. The wolf's voice disappeared in a quiet choke as he found himself the creature's new target, pressing himself back into the wall as it began to completely turn his way. Reaching out, the overlarge inky hand just missed Boris, who pushed his frame to the left with a yelp.

"Boris!" Bendy hollered at the same instant, realizing what Boris himself noticed only a few seconds later; the taller toon had thrown himself right into the corner, and the monochrome monster easily closed the escape Boris could have made for the door. With the way out cut off, the wolf backed up into the nook, trying to raise the pipe to at least have a barrier between him and the monster. However, even if Boris didn't have the added weight of three power cores tucked messily under his arm, getting out of this would have been tricky at best. The monster reached out to Boris, ink starting to run from its head and face in thick, oozing drips as its hand closed around both the pipe and the wolf's fingers.

The moment the monster grabbed Boris, Bendy didn't think, barely considered the idea that he might be doing something very, very foolish. He simply acted, running into reach of the long, ink-dripping arms to ram the plunger into the monster's face, suction end first. Perhaps if he had more time and wasn't fearing for his and Boris's lives, Bendy might have considered the noise the thing made rather funny as it scrambled back on its rear with its arms flailing about, the handle of the plunger jiggling as the monster thunked into the wall. Kind of a mix between a gurgled yelp and a strangely-pitched squeak.

Once the threat was sufficiently pinned with what seemed like pure bewilderment and shock, the pair immediately grabbed the power cores along with their weapons and took off, running out of the room and down a flight of stairs. A faint, fleeting ache started to reverberate through Bendy's head, but it lessened the further away they got. It wasn't until they passed the door to Level 11 that the toons started to slow down, the reasoning somewhat split between the fact that making noise was still something they didn't want to do, and the fact that Boris could still easily beat Bendy in a footrace. The instant the wolf's ears picked up on the devil starting to wheeze a few paces behind him, he paused just long enough to wait for Bendy to catch up before carrying on at a quick walk. Though the wolf clearly wanted to keep going at a quicker pace, he didn't want to leave Bendy behind. And with his hands full, there was no way to pick up the devil and get the stairwells to fly by a little faster. Still, they eventually managed to make it down to the T-shaped hallway again, though Bendy caught sight of something off about the flooded area. Namely, it wasn't flooded anymore. Instead he could see a stairwell heading down…somewhere.

"Boris." Bendy whisper-called, though the wolf had already paused when he realized that the devil had stopped walking with him. The pair looked at each other, Bendy's eyes flicking from the newly-revealed stairwell to the power cores in their hands before taking a sliding few steps forward to see if he could make out anything from the top of the stairs.

"Looks like there's a room down there." The toon devil reported, noting the complete lack of movement from anything in said room, apart from maybe a drip or two of ink coming from the ceiling.

"Why'd'ya think the ink's gone?" Boris asked. However, Bendy had already thought of an answer.

"When y'turned the valve on that pipe up there, y'must've cut th' flow t'this room. An' then it jus' drained out." The devil couldn't see very much, apart from the edge of what looked like a table. There was no sign of anything living down there, and the smaller toon's mind also couldn't help but ask itself, why was this room flooded? Was it just to help make monsters, or perhaps to hide something?

Bendy took another step down, maybe the new vantage point would offer something new but…still nothing. He could see the table a little better, make out some stray puddles on the floor, but that was about it. A faint creaking heralded Boris following Bendy, the wolf's ears perking up to listen. The devil watched the taller toon's face, but there was no change, nothing that would indicate that Boris had picked up on something. The steps were somewhat warped, probably by the ink, groaning a little as the pair headed further and further down. All the while both were on high alert, peering about everywhere they could, even glancing back just to be sure nothing was behind them.

Eventually though the stairs ended, and both toons set foot into what looked like some kind of store room. Ink spotted the walls and floor, drips of the black murk even coming up off the ceiling. Though the only thing in the room, apart from some pillared supports running to the ceiling and a pipe or two along the wall, was the table that Bendy had noticed earlier. On the table a cassette deck sat, along with a book that had Bendy's cutout likeness on it and a can of bacon soup, as unassumingly as inanimate objects could, though Bendy's meager experience with electronics told him that the tape deck should not have been in workable shape after being submerged in ink, the book almost looking a little too dry. Still, he walked over and pressed the play button.

"Only two weeks into this company, and already it's gotten interesting. Joey is a man of ideas, and only ideas. When I mean to start this thing with him, I thought there'd be a little more give and take. Instead I give, and he takes. I haven't even seen Linda for days now. Still, someone has to make this happen. When in doubt, just keep drawing Henry. On the plus side, I got a new character I think people are going to love."

The tape clicked off, Bendy staring at it for a long, long few moments. He hadn't heard Henry's voice in years, and the animator sounded so…tired. Worn down, exhausted, whatever the descriptor, Bendy didn't like it. It reminded him of a conversation he'd had with Joey, when the studio head had mentioned that Henry had been working himself rather hard lately, and that he worried for the animator's health. Joey had simply stated to the toon that they needed to keep Henry from adding to his workload, for the man's own good. Bendy couldn't really say that things hadn't changed after that, he still would stay in Henry's office during his downtime, but he…didn't talk with Henry like he had before. Didn't want to upset the man, simply speaking.

He never wanted to hurt Henry…

Bendy almost jumped at the sight of a shape on his right, though the familiar overalls immediately placed the figure as Boris. The wolf quietly stared at the cassette deck with a frown on his face. The taller toon reached out for the play button before his eyes flicked down to Bendy, almost as though asking permission. The devil couldn't really find it in him to smile, but he did give Boris a nod. Another click, and the recorded message started up again. Bendy just gave the words a long blink, letting the sound wash over him. The words were somewhat glossed over, the devil not really finding it in him to listen again, but the tone stuck and weighed on him just as heavily as it had before. Bendy, for a brief moment, let his eyes slide closed-.

-Trembling and afraid he pressed himself behind the desk, his refuge turned into a trap as the way out was blocked by a man. But Bendy knew this one, Joey'd brought him in the other night. Though what his name had been was completely escaping the devil in his colossal, teary-eyed panic. As the noise of the man came closer and closer, Bendy covered his head in preparation for more thrown objects and shouting, a strangled, watery whimper sliding out as he tried to hunker down as much as possible.

"Hey, hey now, it's alright." Came from somewhere over his head, the voice not sounding the least bit angry though somehow that was worse because Joey often didn't sound angry when he was and oh no what if he was about to get thrown away somewhere again-.

The rising panic was causing the toon's breathing to hitch as sobs forced their way from the tense little frame. However, the man hardly seemed openly upset by the poor turn, instead shifting so he could better see the devil, and tried again.

"Bendy, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." The weight put on the floorboards made them creak, the sound causing the small, behorned head to jerk up, eyes wild as they stared up at the much taller human. Both froze a little at the contact, Bendy a little confused by the look he saw sweep across the man's face before he schooled himself back into serene calm. He almost looked sad.

The devil jumped when the animator lowered a hand down to rest in front of him, fingers splayed with the palm facing the ceiling. A hiccup rattled its way through Bendy's frame as he looked from the offered hand to the man's face, trying to ferret out some hint of dishonesty or ill will hidden behind the blue eyes. The little toon couldn't spot anything, but his hand still hesitated before placing itself on the pale pink skin, almost jerking back before settling more surely at the center of the man's palm. The human kept his hand still, letting the upset but still curious devil explore the callused skin, and smears of ink running from pinkie to wrist. Once it seemed like Bendy had calmed down some, the animator spoke again.

"Want to come out? Can't be very comfortable under there, pretty sure it hasn't been cleaned in months." That seemed, fair, though when Bendy tried to move he found another problem. How ever he'd managed to fit himself back here, his foot was jammed on something and he couldn't twist around to see what it was without hurting himself. The end result was the devil fidgeting while pulling on his pinned foot, a new round of whimpering taking hold once Bendy realized he was well and truly stuck.

"Hey, hey, it's alright, here let me just…" The man trailed off as he considered the problem for a moment, before he reached up and grabbed hold of the wooden desk. As it was yanked further away from the wall the motions stirred up more dust, the plumes causing Bendy to give a squeaky little sneeze as he rubbed at his face.

"Alright, let's just get you out of there…" He could hear the man saying from overhead, and the little devil saw through a watery film the hand from before reaching out to him, a blink or two bringing the vision into clarity. This time, he didn't hesitate long before reaching out, small fingers wrapping around the larger digits as the animator gently eased the devil out.

"There, see? You're alright." And, lo and behold, the man's words were correct. Bendy peered about at himself, taking in his once-trapped foot and flicking tail, before looking back up at the animator to see the man quietly smiling down at him. The hand the devil had seen earlier gently reached over to tousle at the devil's nonexistent hair, Bendy himself being a little surprised at the gesture before he really drank it in, relaxing in steady waves. At least, until the man's fingers happened to brush the loose patch of ink the devil still had on the back of his head from the start of this whole venture, from when Joey'd…

"Bendy, are you alright?" The worried tone caused the small toon to snap out of his tense thoughts to see the man's blue eyes go from his ink-stained hand to the devil's head, a distinct strain in his expression.

"Can I see where this came from?" Was the man's next question, Bendy thinking it over for a moment before giving a small nod and turning around so that his back was facing to the animator. He blindly felt about with a gloved hand for an instant, before the white fabric touched something wet and he gave a quiet murmur.

"Right here."

"Alright." The animator replied, voice hardening enough to cause Bendy to jerk and peer behind him with apprehension, something that the human noticed and immediately eased up on his tone. "It's alright, Bendy, you're fine. We just…need to do something about that. Can you just sit up here please? I just need to find something."

The indicated object was the animator's desk chair, Bendy easily clambering up and watching from his new perch as the man felt about at his pockets, mumbling quietly to himself as he did.

"Not there, not here, Ma's always getting on me to have these in the fall, where did I…? Here we are." The last was said as a bit of white cloth was finally drawn out of a back pocket with a flourish, the man's expression quietly triumphant before he addressed the waiting toon. "We're just going to try to clean up some of that ink. Just, Bendy, is there anything that Joey does for you when you get hurt? To make it better?"

"I gotta drink ink." Bendy answered, the slightly louder tone drawing out a rasp in his throat from the earlier hysterics. "B-But I don' want it right now, it'll make me sleep, an' there's bad people outside! They were yellin' and throwin' things, an' what if they come in here?!"

The last was said in a squeaky yelp of panic, the devil's body language tucking in again as even though the danger had not yet come Bendy still tried to make himself as small as possible. The animator recognized the fear, immediately kneeling down so he could be at eye level with the little toon.

"Hey, hey. Bendy, it's alright. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you, okay? The people outside, they were just scared. I just need to talk to them and things should be fine. I promise, you're going to be alright." Pie-cut eyes scanned the man's face again, before the small head bobbed in a nod.

And it seemed as though the animator was going to get the opportunity to prove himself sooner than he'd thought, as suddenly voices started filtering into the animation department's foyer. It seemed to be only two people speaking, though for the moment Bendy became entirely stuck on the harsh, biting tones he could hear.

"No, I don't know where it came from, but I swear, Louie, you saw it, was like the little devil himself had just jumped up off the page!"

"I know, Eddie, I know. Look around in here, it would not have gotten too far."

"Y'think it might've gone through the door?"

"Alright, then check down there too!" A pause, before. "Henry! Are you there?"

The man, Henry, had turned to look in the direction of the hallway at the first hint of noise, calling back at the shouted question.

"Yeah, Louie, I'm here! Wait just a second, I'll be right out!" Though when Henry looked back at Bendy, who had started to curl up in the chair with fright as his breathing quickened, he hung back.

"Bendy, it's alright. No one's going to hurt you, I'm just going to…explain things to everyone out there. I'll be right back, just wait in here for me, alright?" For an instant, Bendy couldn't respond, entirely frozen with panic as he was. However, dark pie-cut eyes met blue, and the devil gave Henry a nod. Henry was about to leave when he realized that he still had the handkerchief, immediately handing it to Bendy.

"Just keep this over that cut, alright? We'll take care of it when I come back."

Bendy gave him a nod, reaching back with the cloth to press it against the back of his head. Henry gave the devil a small, but warm smile as he turned to go out through the hallway. The devil waited a moment before hopping down and creeping closer to the door-.

-Who's Linda?" Boris asked, cutting the reverie short as Bendy snapped to attention at the sudden noise.

"Wh-What?"

"Henry said somethin' about a Linda. Here, listen." Boris reached out and pressed the play button again, and this time Bendy took in the words more so than the tone. This time, he noticed the name.

"I…dunno. Don' think Henry ever mentioned a Linda." Bendy wasn't sure what to make of the information, stuck between wondering if the fact that there'd been no mention of such a person meant that working under Joey had forced Henry to part ways with Linda, or if they had still been trying to see each other and Henry just didn't want to bring it up. Part of Bendy wondered if it was bad to hope it was the former, because then at least someone might have had a chance to have a life following this mess.

"It's…sorry, thought this was gonna help. Let's jus' get goin'." Bendy said into the silence, turning back to the stairs. The ink sodden steps were still clear of any monsters, and he couldn't see any hint of anything up in the hallway.

"It's fine, Bendy." Boris replied, though he remained quiet as they headed back up and down the staircase. The next few staircases were lackluster, until the pair got to the bottommost landing and stopped dead at the sight of something big and dark huddled close to the far wall. However, when moving landed a foot on a loose board, the resounding creak making the pair jump and seemingly causing the half-formed ink monster to…explode on its own? If Bendy had a neck, he was pretty sure he would have broken a vertebrate with how fast he turned to look at Boris, though the wolf hardly looked like he had any answers.

With nothing else to really add on that, and with the possibility of terrible things happening the longer they stayed where they were, the pair hurried on through to Level 9 proper, pausing only for a moment to figure out how Bendy was going to carry all five power cores down to 'Alice'. Though Boris pointed to himself in askance, Bendy gave the implied idea a firm shake of the head, a frown etched in his face at the thought of Boris getting anywhere near…that place, ever again. Eventually the compromise was for the wolf to carry them down the stairs and the devil to ferry them across the ink river to the chute. After a few tense minutes, it was done, both toons relaxing on their opposing sides of the bridge. Still, 'Alice' did not deem the devil finished, a new bit of instruction filtering through the aged speakers.

"Have you seen them? The swollen ones! They're just stuffed full of extra-thick ink. It makes me sick! And yet…it's the perfect thing for keeping myself together. If you're going to catch them, you'll have to learn to move quietly. Come back to my door. I have something that you'll need."

For an instant, Bendy stood confusedly in front of the chute. Wasn't he already at the door? She didn't want him to go back in, all the way to her, did she?

But no, the sound of the other metallic chute spinning about to give the smaller toon something new hinted at where Bendy was supposed to go. Though when the devil drew up close to the thing, he was more than a little off-put by what he saw. It was a giant needle, kind of like what one would see in a cartoon except a little more realistic, the horror really setting in when the devil realized exactly what 'Alice' wanted him to do with it; hunt down monsters to get their ink. Shoving the quiet terror the thought brought back into his mind, Bendy reached out with hands that only shook a little and grasped the syringe, pulling it from its resting place. It was only after the panel had flipped back that the devil remembered that he'd lost the plunger, yet the thought seemed somewhat less of an issue in the face of what he was about to do.

Briefly as Bendy crossed the bridge on the way back he had the thought of…letting himself get worked up, maybe letting 'Alice' take some of that ink instead of putting Boris and him in danger while running after the monsters instead of away. However, the idea was quickly nixed as Bendy remembered that for starters Boris probably wouldn't let him do it, and 'Alice' might very well be able to tell the difference.

The wolf too looked a little sickened at the sight of the cartoonishly large needle, though the fact that one of his hands quickly moved to close into fist in front of his chest made Bendy gesture towards the elevator, a question in his eyes. Still, Boris shook his head, the devil not pursuing the issue until they were close enough to whisper to one another.

"You really don' have t'do this, Boris. You can wait for me in the elevator, or in one'a the Miracle Stations if y'really want to."

"N-No, 'm stayin' with you." Though Boris's voice had grown steadier by the end of his sentence, his eyes would not land on the syringe for more than an instant, always finding another spot to look away to. Though the fact that the wolf was trying to push his discomfort to the side bothered Bendy something fierce, the smaller toon couldn't help but note that Boris's help would probably get this done quicker. Not to mention, size difference kind of made it hard for him to actually herd the wolf anywhere safe. So, with that in mind he took a few steps back into the stairwell, and froze at the familiar dark shape hunkered down in the corner.

In the quiet and with the new angle, Bendy was able to get a closer look at the thing. It reminded him of the creature from the sewers under the music department. Resembling one of the half-formed monsters that they'd been seeing, but bigger, almost…swollen. Of course.

Bendy shifted a little on his feet, quickly reviewing in his head what 'Alice' had said. In order to catch these things, they had to not make any noise. That had been why it had cut and run before, the toons had made noise coming down the stairs. Reaching a little blindly behind him, Bendy found the fabric of Boris's overall leg, giving it a squeeze before letting go and taking a few, careful steps closer. There might have been the faint sound of a gasp coming from behind him, but ultimately Boris stayed quiet. The devil crept just a little closer, the faint sound of moaning began to drift within range of his hearing. The noise, almost humanlike, caused him to pause, something like ice settling in his guts as he remembered what 'Alice' had said regarding the ink, and fresh horror at both the memory coupled with what he was dealing with now really set in.

It suddenly hit home, harder than ever before, that this was a person. It might not remember who it had been, but every one of these half-formed monsters likely was someone who had worked at the studio. And 'Alice' wanted Bendy to smash them to bits while collecting their excess ink. Would what he was doing hurt them, would they even feel the pain? Was how they were now more painful for them in comparison to them breaking apart when he hit them? Unlike before, there was hardly any justification for it, as they wouldn't attack him or Boris and seemed more prone to running away. Did that mean they were aware…?

Abruptly the creature wheeled about, visionless face seeming to recognize Bendy as it started to creakily try to ease itself forward, almost as though its body was burdened by the ink unlike its lankier counterparts. Bendy, who had already taken a step back at the first sign of motion, felt a fresh, new terror wring his insides as noise crashed in on his eardrums.

"Lord…lord…sssave pleassse…hurtsss, my lo-ord, ssset usss…free…"

Though the very hint of gurgled speech had caused Bendy's spine to tense, freezing the constricting of his insides as they seemed to congeal into one tense knot. The devil rammed the syringe out as the thing drew too close, the single hit sending it scattering into inky splatters. And, left in the center was a glob of rubbery ink though it took Bendy a moment to both realize what that was, and remember what he was supposed to do with it. The syringe pulled it in easily enough, though the fact that the toon devil's hands had started to shake again made actually sticking it with the needle a tricky thing. Once it was done though Bendy could easily say that in his heart of hearts, all he really wanted to do following that was to completely skip out on the whole thing and see if maybe he could just hide away somewhere and just not think.

The faint sound of creaking footsteps behind him made Bendy's shoulders stiffen again, but the whispered, familiar sound of his own name made him remember who else was there with him and relax. Despite Bendy not feeling like he was able to put on a proper smile he still turned to look at Boris, words of reassurance still ready even though the toon devil wasn't sure if it was only the wolf that needed the comfort.

"It's alright, pal. 'm okay."

Bendy could say that that was a lie, and he was pretty sure Boris knew it too. Still, the smaller toon did not want to have any sort of conversation regarding what had just happened, instead turning robotically for the stairs. He didn't move too quickly, definitely not willing to leave Boris behind even if the last few minutes hadn't just happened.

The pair moved up the stairwell, Bendy sticking close to the wolf's side and moving the syringe away from the taller toon when he caught sight of Boris glancing at it with apprehension. In doing so, Bendy noticed what looked like a gauge of some kind, showing him the inside of the syringe. He could see the small bit of viscous black ink that sloshed around in time with his step, but from the looks of things, he'd need to get…not a lot, but definitely a fair bit more. Unless 'Alice' didn't want him to fill it up though the devil really didn't see any reason why she wouldn't.

Thinking on that, at least, drew his mind away from what happened a mere few moments ago, and by the time the pair had gotten to the T-shaped hallway, Bendy felt calmer. At the very least, he was calm enough to be prepared when entering the offices on Level P brought him and Boris right to the back of yet another ink-logged monstrosity. It too was simply sitting there, faint noises like gurgling groans seeping from its murky throat. However, before Bendy could even figure out if he wanted to keep going with the task 'Alice' had set forward, the monster seemed to key into the presence of the two toons. At least the manner in which it suddenly turned, despite their silence, dragging itself around to their direction seemed to hint that way.

"LORD…" The voice had risen to a cry, crashing in loud on the toon devil's ears and causing him to take a step back. A hand closed over Bendy's shoulder, causing him to jump for a moment before something was flung over his head and smashed into the inky hulk. It was only after the object, the pipe, crashed to the ground that the smaller toon became aware than he needed to breathe, a gasp quickly alleviating the burning feeling in his lungs. Another deep breath, and he felt steady enough to open his eyes again, catching sight of a familiar glob of ink on the floor.

Well, if it was just going to sit there…

"Bendy?" Boris asked, the sudden sound causing Bendy to jump and look behind him to the taller toon.

"J-Jus' gonna go…get that…" The devil trailed off, turning distractedly back to the now-decimated monster and slipped away from the hand at his shoulder, even as something in him twisted at the worried grimace on Boris's face. It didn't take him too long to get the ink into the over-sized syringe this time, the motions a little bit easier now that he'd had a previous attempt under his belt.

The instant he was done, Bendy barely had a moment to breathe before a shock of pain knifed its way into the top-front part of his head. As his entire frame tensed in a gasp, pie-cut eyes blearily opened, looking in time with Boris as the pair turned to the hallway on the far side of the room. A hallway from which a familiar series of black, writhing marks were snaking out from.

Bendy had barely managed to push himself upright when Boris snagged ahold of his wits enough to leap into action, darting over to grab the devil and take off down the other hall. Bendy let himself focus on not dropping the needle as the wolf dashed to the left, in through the door, and hurried straight to the Miracle Station booth.

The noise of dripping ink sounded like a downpour as it came down from the ceiling, almost masking the faint whispers of a pair of legs as they dragged themselves across the floor. Neither toon dared to look, as all Bendy could do for the moment was bite down on his scarf to keep from crying out. And all Boris could really do was watch, pressing the smaller toon's frame to his chest. His hand automatically came up to rest on the devil's head to offer what comfort he could, though as the dripping ink and all that came with grew closer and closer, Boris found that he too was getting into trouble. The itching he had grown used to, even learned to ignore with Bendy in greater trouble, but the wolf's heart underneath the scar had started to pound with a little more than just fear. Even still, Boris tried to calm himself, the attempts at deep breaths not really sticking as his lungs began to strain for air. Somehow, the taller toon managed to not start gasping, his hand tensing on Bendy's head as his arm gave the smaller frame a reflexively tight squeeze. Boris could feel the devil jerk, his head moving under his fingers but with danger so close neither toon dared to make a sound.

And then it was gone. The dripping ink, darkness, the pain and suffocation, everything about the thing simply vanished as though it had never been. Of course the aftereffects did not leave quite so quickly, Bendy shakily wiping ink away from his face as Boris leaned back against the back of the booth, the wolf's lungs taking in great heaves of air as a hand clasped at his chest. It was a few moments before either was able to speak, though Bendy managed to recover enough to talk first.

"B-Boris?" It came out as a raspy murmur, but was audible enough for the wolf to hear. "Are you okay?"

All Boris could do was nod at first, his voice hidden in a wheeze.

"…fine…"

The whisper hardly did anything for Bendy's worry, the smaller toon reaching up to press a hand to what he could reach of the wolf's forehead. As Boris's breathing returned to a semi-normal rate, the taller toon leaned down a little, even as he tried to reassure the devil.

"Bendy, 'm fine, 'm okay now, really." A brief beat passed in which the wolf remembered that the devil had also been in some serious trouble nary a few moments ago, speaking up again. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, pal, you on th' other hand, sounded like y'couldn't breathe!" The hiss made Boris wince, Bendy immediately softening his tone. "Sorry, Boris, 'm sorry. But…what happened? That didn't happen b'fore, did it?"

"I don' think so." Boris replied, continuing after another deep gulp of air. "Jus' felt like my heart started beatin' too fast, couldn't calm down…"

"Maybe you oughta have some ink…" The devil thought aloud, and though Boris could see where the smaller toon was coming from he was a little reluctant to simply drop off. Besides, the wolf had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't really injured. The thought caused an anxious thrill to run through Boris's mind, but somehow he didn't think he was too far off. However, Bendy took the taller toon's silence as something else, immediately starting to whisper.

"Boris, it's alright. If you're hurt we can…we can find other inkwells, it'll be fine. Whatever you need pal, don' worry about it."

Boris opened his mouth, wanting to say what was on his mind when it suddenly hit him how strange it sounded, causing the wolf to reverse his earlier decision.

"N-No, it's okay, I'll have some. Y'prob'ly should have some too though, Bendy. Y'don' seem to be doin' so great either."

Which, while Boris wasn't wrong as the smaller toon definitely had a look of drained exhaustion worn into his features, Bendy couldn't say he was particularly comfortable with the idea of them both being down for the count, and unaware if something tried to sneak up on them.

"Y-You take some first." Bendy said after a moment, fumbling about in the poor lighting to get at the inkwells in his pocket. He unwrapped two, easily picking out the one he'd drunk from before and giving that to Boris. Distracted by putting the stray inkwell back, Bendy glanced up a minute later and was quickly confused by the sight of the wolf putting the seemingly untouched inkwell down.

"Boris, did'ya actually drink any?"

"Yeah, yeah I did." The response was met with a thoroughly unconvinced stare, Boris's eyes rolling to look in a different direction as he continued to speak. "Jus' didn' take a lot, y'said b'fore we might not be able t'get anymore inkwells…an' we should be careful with what we've got…"

"Boris. If y'need th' ink, y'need th' ink. We'll figure somethin' out, alright?" And with that, Bendy reached down and picked up the inkwell that Boris had set down, placing it back in the wolf's hands. The taller toon looked from the small glass to the stubborn frown set into the devil's face, the smaller toon's posture and expression brooking no debate on the subject. With a light sigh and wry smile, Boris took a longer draught of the dark liquid, though he still left just enough to constitute a mouthful for Bendy.

"You're not really givin' me much of a choice here, Ben." The wolf chuckled as he handed the inkwell to the smaller toon, shifting about so he could lean against the side of the booth.

"Yeah, 'cause someone's gotta look out for you y'big sap." The drained grumble teased another bit of chuckling from Boris, the wolf settling down and making sure Bendy was not about to slide off his lap. The pair sat in silence for a few seconds, before the ink in his system finally coaxed Boris into slumber, relaxed by the comforting weight of the little devil tucked up against his chest.

For a while, it felt like Boris was weightless, floating in darkness that both suspended and pulled his limbs downward in space. A rumble echoed from seemingly every direction, strangely soothing and…familiar to the wolf as he drifted. For a half-second, the taller toon thought that he could feel a long-fingered hand gently rubbing over his head, trailing down to rest just over his heart. Though the touch seemed more like an attempt at comfort it was eclipsed by a new sensation, a hum that vibrated through the wolf's very bones. His arms and legs felt stiff, almost numb and the faint twitches he managed to make just sent tingly shockwaves running up and down Boris's spine. Aches bloomed and quickly faded, his muscles zinging like they'd all been asleep. To get rid of the sensations, Boris tried to move, to get the ink flowing back into his limbs. The moment he did the weightlessness fell away, the tall toon only registering a falling sensation for just a half-second before he simply dropped…into himself? He didn't have very much time to think on it once he realized that he was under something, under water, and couldn't breathe-!

Limbs flailing, Boris managed to push himself upward, and broke through to the open air with a gasp. For a few horrible seconds he was completely disorientated, everything too sharp and there with the grinding roar of the ink machine running nary a few feet away, coupled with the fact that it was hemorrhaging ink like a stuck pig, flooding the room despite the shaft underneath. Enough liquid clung to the floor that the wolf was practically swimming in the stuff, shivering a little as he skittered to the wall, using that to push himself to his feet. Even still, his attempts at taking deep breaths were hampered by something tickling the inside of his throat, Boris erupting into a coughing fit that only ended after a glob of ink had left his mouth to join the shin-deep flood. Taking in deep, gasping lungfuls of air, Boris stared down at the black-coated floor, the sight finally processing along with the realization that he'd been submerged in the stuff hitting home, along with-.

-his breathing labored, eyes rolling as pain made the room around him swim. Boris just barely registered the sensation of the cloth gag being pulled away from where it had been wrapped around his jaw, eyes coming back into focus just in time to see Joey carelessly toss it to the side. The wolf couldn't help the whimper that slid from his throat, the sound drawing his creator's attention back to him.

"I didn't think you'd still be awake, Boris. We're almost done, though."

Joey sounded so calm, like Boris had just been helping with moving things around an office or working with the animators and musicians on a short. As the toon's head lolled, the resistance of the cloth gone, his eyes caught sight of a splash of white against his chest which confused him at first until it finally clicked as to what he was staring at. They were eerily white, sticking at odd angles, and as Boris labored to breathe, they moved along with the rhythmic motion. The rising and falling grew faster and faster as his breathing grew faster and faster.

Those were his ribs. He could see his own ribs.

A hand suddenly slid under his head, the fingers sticky as they ruffled the toon's fur in a somewhat clumsy gesture of comfort. Boris jerked at the sudden contact, eyes immediately snapping to stare up at Joey as the man gazed impassively down at him.

"No need for panic, Boris. This will be over soon."

"J-Joey…" Immediately after speaking Boris wanted to close his mouth and stop talking because all he could taste and smell is ink, and that mixing with the sensations of pain roiling through his body coupled with air getting into where it shouldn't be able to made him want to be sick. All the while his thoughts whirled dizzyingly, that his creator, his own creator, Bendy had been right, Boris should have listened, Alice what about Alice, what about Henry, what about Sammy, would they know, would Joey even tell them, no no no he didn't want to die, please Joey don't…

"J…Joey…" Boris wheezed as fear and pain seized his mind. "Pleas', Joey, don'…I don' wanna die, you're hurtin' me, pleas'…"

He felt like he'd said something like this…before he'd woken up. He'd panicked when the pain started to register and tried to tell his creator to stop. Joey'd just bound up his jaw and kept going. Which made Boris not surprised, but no less afraid when the studio head simply leaned in and spoke in an undertone reserved only for when someone had really gotten on his nerves.

"Boris, I will not be allowing you to die. Shame on you for even thinking it. If you'll just calm down, we can get this done much faster."

"J-Joey, pleas'-!" The wolf tried again, limbs shifting weakly against the straps binding them to the slab, but his strength had run out along with his ink. And Joey had run out of patience.

Boris choked on a yelp as the studio head's hand suddenly wrapped around his muzzle, forcing his head back and stretching his abused body with it. He only had a moment to acclimate before a new sensation forced itself to the forefront of his concerns, namely that Joey's other hand had slipped into his chest cavity, the none-too-gentle fingers causing agony to arc through the lanky canine frame.

Pie-cut eyes flew open as something, something that was beating frantically against his insides, was seized and PULLED-

-a gasp wrenched itself from Boris's throat, his lungs feeling like they were drowning even though he'd already coughed up all the ink. Clinging to the wall, the toon was drawn back into the present by small twinges of pain at his chest, quickly looking down to see that one of his hands had clenched right over the spot where he'd seen-.

Boris wrenched his hand away, looking down just to confirm that he couldn't see anything other than black fur, no ribs, nothing that shone with loose ink or…anything other than fur. Still, the thundering roar of the Ink Machine, coupled with the loose ink everywhere was making the wolf edge closer and closer to that suffocating panic. It reminded him too much of…the table, his own ink splattered everywhere, Joey, looking down and seeing white where there should not have been, Joey-.

Legs shaking, Boris sloshed through the floods, somehow climbing the ladder to get to the door. He nearly raced out into the hall before a noise at the periphery of his hearing made him stop. It had almost sounded like something had shuffled through the liquid somewhere but even with the corridors filling up with dark ink the wolf could see nothing.

It didn't take him long to move on, the rumble of the ink machine forcing him down the corridor to the main foyer of the animation department. At least, Boris thought it was the foyer. Everything had been changed, most of the furniture and desks gone and the spots that weren't covered in ink looked like they were caked with dust. The feeling extended to the air, a musty smell that Boris could just barely pick up under the reek of ink.

It suddenly struck the toon that even with the ink machine rumbling through the walls, he'd never really been in the studio when it was this quiet before. Usually someone was here, whether it be some of the animators hoping to finish a few frames before the deadline or Wally cleaning something up. Now…

…it almost seemed like the place had been abandoned, and somehow Boris had been left behind. Because he had been…because Joey…

No, no no no, he didn't want to think about it.

Boris moved a little quicker, down towards the exit, and nearly fell into a chute right in front of the door. This…this was definitely new…

Peering down into the darkness, Boris tried to gauge how far down it went. He could see what looked like a lit space down at the bottom, but not much else. His mouth opened for an instant, about to perhaps call down, but he couldn't bring himself to break the almost hush. It suddenly struck the wolf that he couldn't get out. He could maybe jump to the other side of the chute but he would need someplace to jump to, as the other side was dominated entirely by the wall and the door with not a bit of floor to speak of.

Boris peered about, from the space downward to the space beyond, ears lowering against his head as his thoughts whirled about with what to do next and came up with nothing. He had no idea where to go, or what to do. Or even if there was anyone he could go to.

Suddenly the wolf's ears perked up, catching a sound that was fainter than the rumble of the ink machine but higher pitched enough that it stood out. At first, Boris wasn't even sure what he was hearing, though he did realize that the sound seemed to be coming from down under him somewhere. Leaning towards the chute, Boris turned his head left, then right, trying to see if there was a difference. He couldn't tell much about how far away the source was, but something about it rang familiar, something about the tone…

The noise suddenly rose, and Boris was able to figure out two things. One, he realized that the sound was someone screaming, and he knew who it was. Boris hadn't heard this particular voice in so long, but given that he'd been accustomed to it practically his whole life…

It was Bendy. Bendy was down there, and from the sounds of things he was in trouble. The thought made Boris freeze for an instant as he tried to figure out what was under him. He was in the animation department, and the chute had to be long enough to go down at least three floors. That meant that…

Immediately after the realization kicked in, Boris pushed himself up, feet staggering around on the wet floor before he took off to the other end of the animation foyer. He didn't know what was going on, or how he was still here after…everything, but if there was one thing that Boris would say that he did know it was that Bendy was in the studio, and he needed help.

Stymied for a second by the sealed door at the far end of the room, Boris rammed his shoulder against it twice before the lock gave out, letting him into a stairwell. Taking the flight heading down, Boris went past two floors before he went through another door, heading to where he knew the elevator was. The cage looked a lot different than he remembered, the metal having gone creaky with age. Still, it closed, and when Boris managed to find the right button it slid downward well enough, squeaking a little in the shaft. As he reached the music department, Boris pulled the gate open and stepped off just in time to hear a door slam somewhere around the corner. Nary a moment passed before he heard another door close, a lot quieter this time, with what sounded like someone breathing heavily. Distracted by the racket, Boris didn't realize that the spot he was putting his hand was occupied, accidentally knocking a can to the floor. As it rolled out into the room proper the tension snapped, with a hoarse, familiar voice sounding from around the corner.

"Who's there?! C'mon out, whoever you are, where I can see you!"

Even though Boris had the feeling that it had been far, far longer than he'd thought, he still knew that voice.

"Bendy?" Walking around the corner though, yielded a very different image than the one the wolf remembered. Bendy was wearing a little more than the usual white bowtie, the familiar garment possibly under a combination of an old, oversized coat and worn scarf. The little devil's face was far more careworn than Boris remembered, dark rings under the smaller toon's pie cut eyes and a strained grimace twisting his expression, making it almost look like Bendy was baring his teeth. The other piece to the image that Boris zeroed in on was the fact that the toon devil had an axe held upright and ready to swing. And, despite the worry warring with complete relief in the wolf's mind, he was acutely aware of the fact that Bendy wasn't lowering it.

"Bendy…" The name he couldn't help but slip out, Boris so completely relieved that, firstly, the devil was alright, and secondly that someone was here besides him, that he wasn't alone. However, as he stepped forward, the scene started to change. Suddenly, they were in Henry's office, with Bendy standing next to the desk and a small cloth sack filled with several inkwells and an apple. Even as on some level his mind wondered at the shift, Boris found his mouth moving, Bendy's expression turning resigned before the first syllable was out of his mouth.

"I-I'm…I dunno, Bendy, I jus' don'…don' think…"

"It's okay, Boris."

"Huh?" The wolf asked, not understanding.

"Y'don' havta come. But I…I still gotta go. Somethin's…I can't stay here." Bendy turned to tie up the little pack, his voice slightly warbling despite the attempt at calm.

"Bendy, I don'-why d'ya havta go, y-you can jus' wait, Henry'll be here in the morning-."

"No!" The devil blurted, jumping a little at the volume of his voice before lowering it again. "L-Look, I can't…I don' even know how t'explain, but I…I can't…I jus' gotta go!"

Mood wound up by the half-conversation, Bendy quickly grabbed his pack, and raced past Boris before the wolf could stop him. Turning, a cry to halt lodged in his throat as the office changed, becoming finer, bigger, and hauntingly familiar.

Bookshelves lined the walls, and a candle or two was lit on a side table. But the focus was entirely on an ornate wooden desk sitting in front of a set of thick curtains that blocked the early morning view through the window. And, sitting in a chair with his fingers steepled was Joey Drew, peering through his glasses at the pair as they stood on the other side of the imposing desk like two children called before a principal.

"Do the two of you know why you are here?" The studio head asked, the pair looking between each other not out of askance, but more than slight trepidation. Boris felt his ears lower, his tail tuck close to his legs as his shoulders hunched and hands clenched at his sides. He knew exactly why, he'd been the one to touch the books. Bendy had tried to stop him but by the time the devil had been able to get in a word, Boris had already snatched a volume off the shelf. He'd put it back quickly upon hearing from the smaller toon that Joey didn't like people messing with his things, but it seemed the damage had been done. He'd only been alive for one week and already he'd made a mistake, and now-.

"It was my fault." Bendy abruptly said, the sudden speech snapping Boris out of his anxious thoughts and drawing the attention of both the wolf and the studio head across the desk.

"What was your fault?" Joey asked, voice mildly questioning, and perhaps a little surprised. Still, Bendy persisted, quickly speaking up.

"I was th' one that touched th' books. It was a mistake. I'm…I'm sorry." The entire explanation almost read like a script, until the final apology. The somewhat halting note almost sounded like, even though Bendy knew that an apology would probably be expected, he knew it wouldn't really mean very much to Joey. The thought made Boris feel even more guilty, though he didn't speak up. Part of him wondered what exactly the devil meant by this, and another was thinking of a certain conversation he'd had with Joey the following morning after he'd been made.

"The world can be a cruel place, Boris, and mistakes will not be tolerated. I am, however, willing to work with you, but I need your best efforts and cooperation. If I do not have that, then there is nothing that I can do to help you survive out there. Are we clear?"

Of course the wolf had answered yes, the tone and the fact that he'd still been a little nerveless from waking up next to the thundering cacophony of ink machine cajoling him to agree. It was a similar sort of tone to the one he was hearing now, as the studio head got to his feet and walked around the desk, eyes focused on Bendy. The devil managed to stay mostly still, though he couldn't stop his tail from twitching close to his body with a quivering anxiety.

"Bendy, I am surprised at you. We have had conversations before this where I have told you the rules, and yet you disobey them." But Bendy hadn't, Boris had wanted to say, it was his fault. But the words stuck in his throat as Joey came around and gestured for Bendy to get up from his seat. Boris watched as the devil was herded into a corner of the room and told to stand there. Through some miracle Boris didn't completely stiffen with fright when Joey turned around, meeting his eyes with the same cool indifference he'd had when he told them to come into his office.

"You can leave, Boris." Was all Joey said, though when Bendy tried to turn to catch the wolf's eye the studio head had roughly turned the devil's head back to face the wall, a growling smatter of words audible to Boris's ears. He didn't register what they were before his nerves caught up with him, urging him out the door.

The next time Boris had been able to see Bendy he'd been sitting up with a plate of food he'd set aside for the devil after everyone had gone home and had stirred from a half-asleep slump against the table just in time to see the small toon stumble into the room. Bendy was walking like each step hurt, nearly collapsing into his chair with exhaustion and hunger, fingers shaking as he tried to reach for the plate Boris had left for him.

"Is that for me? Great, 'm starving." Was all Bendy had been able to get out before he'd preoccupied himself with shoveling the cold food into his mouth, completely forgoing the fork Boris had grabbed. Though the wolf hardly had the mind to point that out, instead taking in the bedraggled expression and drained slump in the smaller toon's face and frame, the normally lively spaded tail dangling over the chair as though even the involuntary movement took something out of Bendy.

"Bendy…" Boris asked, and would have thought the devil had missed hearing his name if he hadn't seen the manner in which the smaller toon's eyes flicked up to look at him, a grunt slipping out from a mouthful of chilled pork chop. "…'m, 'm sorry."

The halting, wretched apology caused the devil to pause in his meal, tired gaze fixing more readily on Boris as he really took in the wolf's expression. Given that Boris was sure he looked every bit as guilty and diminished as he felt, it certainly wouldn't be hard for Bendy to notice.

"'s okay, Boris. I didn' tell y'that th' books were off limits. It wasn' fair fer you t'get in trouble." Though the logic was sound, the wolf couldn't help but stand his ground on his point.

"I still, I shoulda said somethin'…"

"No. 's my fault, tha's…tha's th' truth…an' we're stickin' to it." Bendy interrupted, even as his volume dipped with the weight of the exhaustion pressing down on him. The small toon resorted to propping up his head on a hand, though with the way his eyelids were slipping closed Boris wasn't sure that was going to really work. Getting up, he came around to Bendy, kneeling down to be more level with the little devil. It took the smaller toon a moment to realize that Boris had even moved, his frame jolting a little as he turned to look at the wolf. By then, Boris had already made up his mind. Holding out his arms, he tried to slap on a smile even as the condition the other toon was in made him want to curl up and hide away somewhere.

"If'n you're done eatin', Bendy, we can get ready t'go t'bed."

"…Sure." The response came after a solid minute of thought on Bendy's part. The devil pushed himself off the chair to land awkwardly on the floor, stumbling around for a moment before Boris finally reached out and simply picked up the small toon. Bendy only had a brief instant of blinking, groggy disorientation before deciding to go along with what was happening, and huddled into the taller toon's chest. By the time they got back to Joey's office Bendy was snoring, completely insensate as Boris placed the devil into his drawer and pulled off his shoes before tucking him in. Yet, as the wolf turned to walk to his spot at the other end of the room, something nudged at him…namely that Bendy's snoring sounded like it was, right next to his ear…

Boris stirred, the awkward position he was in against the side of the booth causing an ache to tick through his shoulder blades. It took him a moment to realize that Bendy had changed positions while he'd been sleeping. The devil was more or less draped over the wolf's front, one arm wrapped around the taller toon's shoulders and the other angled so Bendy's hand was resting on the top of Boris's head, fingers lethargically carding through the dark fur. The entire scene felt vaguely familiar, though with sleep still clogging his brain Boris couldn't quite put his finger on why until a few seconds later; Bendy had done the same thing, back in that room. The one with…where 'Alice' had been.

It was only then that the wolf realized that his face had some telltale dried streaks running from his eyes to the underside of his jaw. Suddenly Bendy's actions seemed a lot more understandable, though the devil might have been close to falling asleep.

Well, scratch that, he was practically asleep, as the hand at Boris's head fell away and the behorned head clunked against the back of the booth. A snore began to reverberate through the smaller frame, Bendy almost completely slack against him. Tentatively raising an arm, Boris poked the side of Bendy's head with a finger.

Only to be completely startled when the small touch caused the devil to crash his head against the back of the booth, a gasped yelp slipping from Bendy before he seemed to remember where he was, his head jerking to the side to look straight at Boris. The wolf himself had jumped, eyes wide as he stared at the devil's face, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"B-Bendy…?"

"Boris…don'-don' do that, okay?" The small toon replied, the sound of his name having shaken him back into the moment. Boris just gave a quiet nod, still a little perturbed by the odd reaction and the smaller toon's still exhausted visage.

"'kay. 'm sorry Ben."

"'s alrigh'." The devil slurred, rubbing at an eye with the heel of his hand. Boris could say that his ink-induced nap had helped; he definitely wasn't feeling the wear from…whatever that was before with the heart pounding suffocation. He wasn't even going to try to comment on much else, mental state especially, though if anything Boris could say that he was regretting his rather hasty decision to poke Bendy. The poor devil looked absolutely drained, head drooping as his eyes just barely kept from sliding closed.

"Bendy, y'wanna take a break too? I'll keep watch." The devil looked ready to protest, though Boris was ready for him on that front. "'s okay, Ben. Y'can sleep, I'll be right here."

With the fight having been sapped out of the small toon, Bendy could really only lean into Boris as his eyelids already started slipping closed. For a moment, it looked like Boris was going to get his wish. That is, until the sound of something squelching into existence outside of the booth snapped the pair back into tense wakefulness, Bendy scrambling up to peer through the slat in the door. Boris too looked up, able to make out what looked like a familiar, oversized ink shape huddled across the room. Even in the low light, the wolf could see Bendy looking from the silhouette to the overlarge syringe still tucked away against the side of the booth. Quickly, Boris went through several things in his mind, one being that 'Alice' wanted the ink, but the ink monsters wanted Bendy. He needed to step up for this one, Bendy'd been through enough.

Before the devil could even reach for the syringe, Boris had already snatched it up, thoroughly startling Bendy as his gaze went from the spot the needle had just occupied to where it now sat in the wolf's hands.

"Boris?" The devil whispered, eyes flicking up to look at the aforementioned toon's face. Boris tried to slap on a reassuring smile, something to make the twisting, uncertain feeling in his stomach seem less looming.

"'s alright, Bendy, I got this one. Just stay here, okay?"

The worried grimace that crept over the smaller toon's face nearly made Boris lose his own nerve, but the thought of Bendy going out there and dealing with the monster fortified his resolve. Doing his best to give the devil as strong and comforting a smile as he could Boris nudged his way out of the booth, trying to make the door close as quietly as possible. Albeit, it was easier said than done given that from the resistance Bendy was holding open the door.

Still, Boris's mind was made up, and he shakily grasped the syringe in both hands, crossing the room in a few quick, quiet strides. Just as Boris drew within reaching distance, something creaked behind him, and the ink-monster turned in his direction. Or perhaps, to what was behind him. Almost as soon as the thought registered the creature began to reach forward, a gurgling noise emanating from what passed as a mouth.

The image of Bendy, eyes wide and teary and broken, flashed through Boris's mind, and his arms quickly moved to slam the unwieldy tool into the loose, bulky frame, blinking heavily as it splattered over the floor. Staring down at the loose ink on the floor, Boris fumbled for an instant with the syringe, a strange sense of wary disgust seeping through his own ink as he shakily jabbed the end of the needle into the black glob, feeling a strange sense of deja-vu with the sight. Just as he'd pulled it into the syringe proper, the faint sound of shoes on the floor behind made him jolt, looking to his left just in time to see Bendy creeping slowly up, wide eyes trying to peer at his face.

"Boris?"

"'s okay, Bendy, I got it." The taller toon found himself saying despite the shakiness still making the needle tremble in his hands. Just don't think, don't think…

"Yeah, y'did. Thanks, pal." The quiet affirmation did put some steel into Boris's spine, making the wolf stand a little straighter, though he was more than ready to hand the needle back once Bendy reached for it. The devil peering at something on the side of the syringe piqued the wolf's curiosity and despite his wariness of the oversized implement he leaned down to see too. Enough that he could see the gauge on the side, nearly full if it weren't for a small quarter at the top.

Glancing up at the same time Bendy did, the pair passed a look between themselves before turning back to the little gauge.

"Maybe that's good enough." Boris whispered, hopeful though Bendy's next thought quickly shot the idea down.

"Might not be either. There's enough for one more, we just have t'get it."

"If'n you say so, but, Bendy, y'can still take a break if'n you wan'-."

"No." Bendy rushed out, dashing Boris's hopes to get the devil to at least try to get some sleep or ink into his system. "No, Boris, we can't. We're almost done. Jus' one more."

"…Alright," the wolf replied, unable to come up with a good argument that would unseat the devil's logic. Following Bendy's line of sight as the devil peered around, like another large, half-formed monster would simply spring from the floorboards, Boris looked about the room. Nothing came, the yawning quiet pressing like a thick blanket on the wolf's sensitive hearing.

"Maybe they're somewhere else…" Bendy murmured, already turning to leave. Boris hurried to follow, the pair heading back out to the entryway room. Pausing before the door, Bendy gave the elevator hall an instant of consideration before turning to go down, only for there to be no monsters. In fact the entire place was barren of any activity, which was both comforting and a little concerning when thinking on for more than a few minutes. Either way, it wasn't helping their situation, and they were forced to leave.

The stairwells seemed to crawl past, Bendy noticing how his legs felt heavier and heavier the more he climbed. Even still he kept the mantra going in his head, just a little longer, just a little more, Boris needed him, he could do this, just a little more…

The still-open doorway did cause a thrill of relief to run though the devil's ink. The pair hurried through, only to get blindsided as a half-formed monster sprung from near the pillar and a limping Butcher Gang character hobbled in from the right. Jabbing out with the needle, Bendy managed to deliver a few good whacks to the lanky creature, the sounds of Boris swinging with the pipe crashing in on his ears in time with the sounds of the monster in front of him.

"Lord…" It gasped out right as it started to fall apart, Bendy swallowing down a shudder as he whirled to Boris. The wolf had battered down the patchwork captain, just in time for another mismatched toon to fill the space. This one had the head bouncing around on a line, the teeth snapping at the wolf. Bendy rushed under Boris's arm, wielding the syringe like a bat as he swung at the Butcher gang character's head. The force caused the body to snap around, Bendy following up his charge with a few more strikes, enough to make the thing start to fall apart in short order. At the same time, Boris managed to club the other zombie-toon into nonexistence. The pair quickly turned to each other, relief seeping into their respective frames.

"You alright?" Bendy whispered, tension unwinding at Boris's answering nod.

"Yeah, you?"

Between the aching exhaustion and the slight jitteriness from what had just happened, Bendy could say that he would be good with hiding away somewhere and not leaving for the next three decades. Still, all things considered…

"'m fine, pal." The small toon responded, though he couldn't keep the faint edges of tiredness out of his grin. Bendy plodded closer, letting his head clunk against Boris's leg as he came to stand next to the wolf, a long-fingered hand quietly squeezing at the frayed shoulder of the devil's coat.

And, almost like a gift from whatever passed as a god in this place, behind the pillar huddled an ink-saturated, hunched figure. Passing a look to Boris, the devil began to take a few, hesitating steps forward, the syringe clenched in his hands. Trusting the wolf to have his back, Bendy shuffled his way across the room, the ink-monster starting to turn just as he slammed the syringe into its chest. The splatter of ink was both a relief and a little nauseating, though Bendy made quick work of getting the glob on the floor and looked with something close to joy at the now-filled gauge on the side. Turning an exhausted but gratified smile to Boris, and receiving one in return, Bendy turned to leave with the wolf in tow.

As they crossed back through the room the intercom crackled, 'Alice's voice filling the air.

"How sickening! Makes my skin crawl! But the task is done. Bring me back my equipment, please."

You and me both, Bendy wanted to say. But, given the fact that he was still dealing with a murderous toon-lady whom he was trying not to set off, the devil kept silent. Boris pressed a little closer at the warped angel's voice, the pair stepping out onto the landing.

Turning, the devil caught Boris's eye and tried to flash a smile. It rang a little flat, but from the fact that the wolf quickly returned it Bendy could surmise it was at least a little convincing.

Boris was with him, they were together, it was going to be fine. They would make it fine.

Bendy had just turned to go down the stairs when a sudden spike of pain jabbed its way into the space behind his eyeballs, a hard blink nearly making him miss the moment when dark trails started to snake down the upward stairwell, a tall figure almost gliding into view on the landing. In the light afforded by an overhead lamp, Bendy could make out the increasingly devolving look of the music director. Now Sammy's entire left arm was gone up to the elbow, his right hand also completely melted away to the wrist. The ink in the music director's body seemed to be constantly shifting, bubbling and dripping though the whirls of darkness seemed to drink it in.

Between the pain and the feeling that not-Sammy's presence brought on, Bendy's nerveless steps back felt more dreamlike, though the devil was yanked back into reality when Boris gave his arm a yank. Somehow Bendy managed to run along with Boris down the staircase, though the wolf quickly picked up the smaller toon as they practically leapt inside the Lil' Miracle Station a couple stairwells below. For a few, tense minutes, neither toon dared to so much as twitch, Boris peering out the slat and Bendy pressing himself into the wolf's front as he tried to focus on something other than the ache reverberating through his skull.

Still, it didn't grow any stronger, and there was no sound or sign of the thing coming any closer. When the pain faded away entirely, Bendy couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief, Boris also relaxing against him. The feeling of solace was so strong that the little devil felt the soft, inviting lull of sleep tug at the edges of his mind, almost making him slide into darkness if it weren't for the fact that the syringe was still clenched in his hands.

At the devil's renewed shifting, Boris briefly tightened his hold, straightening up.

"Bendy?"

"We gotta, we gotta keep goin', get rid of this…" Bendy shoved his way out from under the wolf's arm, listening for a moment before pushing his way out of the booth with Boris quickly following behind. The taller toon quickly drew level with the devil as they went down the stairs, Boris gripping the pipe a little tighter as he took in the slumped posture and exhaustion that was steadily becoming an integral part of the smaller toon's frame. A brief, mental image of Bendy being dragged out of sight by inky, grasping hands flashed through Boris's mind, and the wolf tried to put himself a half-step ahead of the smaller toon while keeping a careful ear out for any hint of noise.

Boris's caution did pay off when a knoll next to one of the landings did disgorge a gurgling, dripping ink creature, the sudden blur of motion and noise causing tension to ripple through the two toons, Boris launching himself forward with the pipe upraised. The quick impact shattered the dark form, the splatter painting the floor briefly causing an image to spring to Boris's mind, of a floor littered with cables and ink, and a form topped with horns and a halo, and glinting objects held in its arms. One looked like a blade of some kind, the image sliding in and out as it was placed off to the side. The other, entirely metallic, was long, one part thick and the other thin-.

"Boris?" The quiet voice caused the taller toon to jump, snapping out of the reverie and turning around to see Bendy come around from the left, the devil peering up at Boris's face. However, in the short pause the wolf's eyes flicked down, and immediately locked onto the syringe still in the devil's hands. Before he even realized, Boris took a few steps away, breathing leaping from slightly sped up to approaching off-the-rails hyperventilating as the image of shining metal, thick and thin, superimposed itself over the syringe, the pair almost indistinguishable-.

"Boris, Boris!"

The strangled whisper of a voice almost didn't register, instead it brought to mind another place, another time, with a smoother, far-too calm voice telling him that he'd done well, as sticky fingers pressed themselves to the underside of his head, a familiar yet unfamiliar voice telling him that if only he knew what he was needed for, the perfection his ink would fuel, stop whimpering you cowardly mutt-.

"Boris, please listen t'me, I'm right here, we're almost done, it's okay, Boris, please-!"

It hurts it hurts to breathe to think scared so scared please don't I don't want to die….

Vaguely Boris knew that he'd backed up into something, probably a wall, though the feeling of something pressing up against his back didn't detract because it just felt like a table, all that was missing was the straps-.

And suddenly something crashed into his front, knocking the wolf's tall frame back into the wall and causing him to let out a watery cry of fright and surprise, an arm quickly sliding in between him and whatever had just latched onto him with the intent to push it off. However, before he could either freeze or start to flail, the thing wrapped its shorter arms around his shoulders in a hug. It was only then that the familiar feel of the embrace and the smell registered to his nose over the overwhelming stench of ink.

"…Ben? Bendy?"

A quiet, relieved sigh settled over Boris's ears, the devil leaning against him practically slumping in relief as reality reasserted itself in the wolf's perspective. It was only then that he realized that his arm was still wedged in between himself and Bendy, ready to knock the devil from him in a snap if he so wanted. Not that Boris wanted, the realization of what he'd been about to do coupled with what he'd just…experienced, making him feel more than a little ill.

Shakily the wolf managed to unweave his arm from its stuck position, wrapping Bendy in a tight, desperate hug.

"You're alright, Boris, you're alright, I gotcha, 'm here…" The devil babbled, barely breaking whispering volume as he spoke. The taller toon's head bobbed in a wobbly nod at the words, wanting to acknowledge Bendy, thank him for putting up with this mess, apologize for creating problems when his little buddy really didn't need any more trouble, apologize for messing up and being broken-.

The sudden sound of something upstairs thumping snapped the two from their misery, both toons glancing back over as one at the staircase leading up, though if there was trouble lurking about it didn't seem interested in making its way down to where they were. Still, neither of toon wanted to wait around for trouble to find them. So, even as both frame trembled with the stress of what they had just gone through, the pair continued on, Bendy trying to pick up the oversized syringe as surreptitiously as possible. When he peered back around and noticed Boris looking his way, the devil tried to carry the unwieldy syringe on his opposite side, where the wolf would have a hard time seeing it. Still, there was only so much Bendy's smaller frame could block, though Boris hardly seemed to hold it against the devil, even giving the shorter toon a shaky head ruffle as they fell back into step next to each other. Even still, the studio groaned, dripped, and creaked around them, the walls almost claustrophobically winding as they tried to go down the stairwell with as much care as possible.

Thankfully, that one ink monster seemed to be the crux of the activity for their walk back. Level 9 was as vacant and expansive as it had been. As they came down the stairs to the bridge, the intercom crackled, a new message filtering through to the pair.

"Sammy said I had talent, he was always a good liar. Still, he was once a very handsome man." Well, Bendy could say that he definitely wasn't imagining the frown that sprung up on Boris's face at the sound of that. The wolf turned a hard look to the Alice statue across the bridge, noticeably clenching his jaw. Bendy quickly reached up, grabbing ahold of Boris's hand, the sudden contact jolting the wolf from his stewing mood.

"'s alright," Bendy mouthed, doing his best to slap on a reassuring smile. "You know Sammy better than she does."

The barely audible encouragement did chase away some of the angry gloom from Boris's face, but worry still seeped back in as Bendy stepped away and headed across the bridge. Despite the exhaustion and slight achiness in his legs, the small toon ascended the stairs, and immediately made for the metal chute to the right of the door. Levying the somewhat unwieldy syringe into the metal opening Bendy let it fall, more than glad to see it go. However, if he was hoping that that would be the end of the tasks the warped angel had for him, the devil was sadly disappointed.

"You see those grinning demons? Let's remove them, shall we? I've got just the tool to make this even more enjoyable."

The metal casing spun again, and Bendy's eyes widened as he caught sight of what was there for him to take. The wood fit comfortably in his hands, gloved fingers already finding the best spots to grip as they settled around the familiar handle. It almost dulled the feeling of mild conflict in the small toon's mind at what 'Alice' was asking him to do. True, he didn't like the cutouts, but they were by far the least antagonistic thing in here. Not to mention, if they were moving around and kinda-sorta living, wouldn't that mean that he could be ticking off something that might not mean him ill-will to begin with?

The fact that 'Alice' was asking Bendy to actively destroy things that looked like him was a somewhat haunting thought, a sudden trembling running through the small frame as the musing struck while he was walking back across the bridge. Whether or not that was warning of something remained to be seen, but Bendy liked to think his instincts had been honed quite well from the three decades of being out on the streets. More dismally though, he still couldn't come up with anything better than what the warped angel offered. Even if she was going to just…betray him or leave him for dead at the end of this, Bendy couldn't come up with a more secure plan. 'Alice' controlled the elevators, the stairs didn't go up any higher, and the hallway that he and Boris had come through to get in here was blocked as far as he knew, the memory of the strange cutout in the pitch-black making another quiet shiver go up his spine, Bendy's tail coiling closer to his body.

No matter how he looked at it, he just felt more and more trapped. There was nothing that he could do from his perspective, and time was running out.

The trip back across the bridge blurred a little in Bendy's memory, but suddenly he was back at Boris's side, and stopped as the taller toon let a hand drop to devil's shoulder, stopping him from simply walking past to the stairs. Even though it hurt to do it, as he'd just been trying to reassure Boris by telling him they were almost done for crying out loud, Bendy creakily lifted his head to look the wolf in the eye, watching a little distantly as Boris's face pinched a little at the sight of whatever Bendy's expression was. Probably not very positive at this point, but right now the devil found himself too drained, defeated, and just plain tired, so much so that he couldn't even muster a smile any more. Instead, Bendy let Boris steer him up the stairs, the wolf quickly ushering him into the stairwell and started trying to get them both up the stairs. And, Bendy was trying, but every step felt like it was getting heavier and heavier, his head swimming with exhaustion and bleak, numb grey that seemed to seep through everything, practically encouraging him to sit down there and let something find him, whether it be the black and white monster, one of the zombified members of the Butcher Gang, or hell, whatever was running around in Sammy's body, he…he nearly didn't care anymore.

What's the point? It's all your fault, you can't make anything right, and it's going to catch up to you, no matter how hard you try…

"Bendy?" Boris suddenly whispered, the sound managing to pierce the grey haze and Bendy slowly turned his gaze to the wolf. The taller toon had knelt next to the devil on the stairs, expression worn but wearing vestiges of that smile that Bendy knew so well as he rolled his shoulders forward. Reading the cue, and feeling more and more small as the moments trickled by, Bendy felt his mouth and face give some twitching that might have been a returning grin. The twitches caused the slight burning that the devil was feeling around his eyes to liquify, though through some miracle none of it spilled down over his face. Even still, Bendy clambered up onto Boris's shoulders, somehow managing to maneuver the axe in a way that only pulled at his arm a little as it dangled over the wolf's shoulder.

He'd be better off without you…

Heading up the staircase after staircase, the pair made their way through to the T-shaped hallway, Boris making his way through to the animation rooms, immediately heading over to the booth across, Bendy really only registering what was happening once they'd stepped inside.

"Boris…?"

"We're takin' a break." The wolf offered in explanation, putting aside the pipe and the axe and settling down on the bench. Bendy blinked as he found himself nestled carefully against Boris's front, the side of his face pressed up against the raised scar under the wolf's fur.

"D'ya wan' some ink?" Boris murmured, fishing around in one of Bendy's coat pockets before coming up with an inkwell, the one that had already been drained quite a bit in the hours before. Still, there was enough left for a few mouthfuls.

"…Sure." Bendy hummed, quietly taking the glass and popping it open. The few gulps of ink went down quick, the small toon barely having it in him to be disgusted by the taste. With Boris taking the now-empty inkwell from him, Bendy let himself drop to huddle against the taller toon and closing his eyes. Sleep claimed him in a matter of moments as black drifted up from the depths of his mind.

"Bendy, can you help Boris read the next story for us, please?" Joey asked, the devil straightening up in his seat at the sound of his name and peering over to the book in Boris's lap, the wolf adjusting himself so the smaller toon could see. Immediately Bendy's eyes picked out the start of the story, though Joey had first called it a 'fable', and began to read.

"There was once a young sh-shepherd boy who tended his sheep at th' foot of a mountain near a dark forest." The first sentence done, and at a somewhat impatient gesture from Joey Bendy indicated where Boris was to pick up.

"I-It…was ra-rather lone-ly for him, all day, so he th…"

"Thought." Bendy whispered, just loud enough for the wolf to hear.

"Thought!" Boris echoed, a brief, grateful smile shining through for a moment before Joey's watchful gaze registered again and pushed the taller toon's eyes back to the book. "He thought up-upon a plan, by which he could get a lil', a lil' com…compan-y an' some…"

The next word made the wolf completely stumble, his ears lowering as he fought to make heads or tails of what he was seeing. Bendy peered at it too, the sheer length causing him to take a moment too as he tried to puzzle out what was written.

"Is there a problem?" The sharp snap of Joey Drew's voice made the pair jump, both Bendy and Boris quickly looking to their creator. The studio head had gone from looking at papers to staring at them over the desk from behind a set of interlocked fingers. The devil felt himself stiffen at the manner in which the dark eyes seemed to sweep over his and Boris's faces, almost as though he were looking for something. Shoving down the immediate thrill of dread that thought brought-Joey hadn't even been there, after all, how could he have known?- Bendy turned his attention back to the book, a small hand quietly clasping around Boris's arm when a glance told him that the taller toon looked close to completely losing his nerve. Boris didn't really much like this sort of thing, if only because Joey made success such an important part of…well, any sort of lesson that he was teaching them. Bendy'd only heard one of the younger animators call Joey a 'perfectionist' a few days ago, but after hearing that, and learning what 'perfect' meant, he could say that the word fit Joey to a tee.

Well, Bendy thought as he settled back into place next to Boris and peered determinedly at the book, he would make sure that Joey would have nothing to complain about or get upset over. Boris didn't deserve to be yelled at for something he didn't know, especially when, to Bendy's mind, the wolf was downright eager to please whomever asked anything of him.

That in mind, he took another look at the problem spot on the page, managing to pick out the first six letters as its own word.

E-x-c-i-t-e, excite. And with that out of the way, the last four letters formed into '-ment'. Fighting back a light tremble of anxiety, the devil whispered to the wolf next to him.

"Excite-ment."

"Eh-excite…ment?" Boris repeated a little louder, nervously glancing to Joey to see if they had been right. A few seconds passed in silence before the studio head finally spoke.

"I don't think that is the end of the story, you two. Keep reading." It was as good of an affirmation as the pair were going to get, quietly passing relieved grins as they continued, Bendy taking the next sentence.

"He rushed down towards th' village callin' out..." Bendy paused, frowning at the next words on the page. Oh boy, it was going to be one of those stories, was it? Briefly glancing up at Boris, he continued to read. "…'Wolf, Wolf', an' some of the villagers came out t'meet him, an' some of them stopped with him for a con-con-sid-er-a-ble time."

Boris, who had gone still at the mention of wolves as a threat in the story, had to be poked a few times before he realized that it was his turn to read.

"Oh! Uh, th-this plea-sed th' boy so much…that a few days ah…"

"Afterwards." Bendy murmured.

"Afterwards, he tried th' same trick, an' again the vill-agers came t'his help." Boris finished, the devil picking right up with the next sentence.

"But shortly after this a wolf actually did come out from th' forest, and began t'worry th' sheep." Bendy paused for an instant, giving Boris's arm a quick squeeze as the mention of the wolf made the taller toon scrunch down a little, muzzle briefly twisting in discomfort. "And th' boy of course cried out 'Wolf, Wolf' still louder than before."

It took Boris a half-second longer to snap to and go to his own sentence, but thankfully he did before Joey had to speak up again. However, by this point any interest the taller toon might have had in the story was replaced with a weary sort of dread.

"But this time th' vill-agers, who had b-been fooled twice b'fore, th-."

"Thought." Bendy offered again.

"Thought, the boy was again de-de…"

The devil quickly leaned in and peered at the word, mindful of the fact that the studio head's eyes were still very much on the pair. This one wasn't much longer than any of the previous ones Boris had stumbled with, though just looking at it Bendy could see why it had given the wolf pause. There were words that didn't always match with how they were written out on a page, that the devil knew, but he didn't know which ones they were, or how different they sounded. Still, they had to try.

"Dekeeving?" Bendy warbled out, Boris just about to open his mouth to repeat what the smaller toon had said when Joey broke in.

"Deceiving, Bendy. The word is deceiving."

Numbly nodding at the sharp bite to his creator's tone, Bendy gave Boris's arm another squeeze, the wolf quickly taking that as his cue to continue.

"De-Deceiving them, an' nobody stirred t'come t'his help."

"S-So…" Bendy jumped in, trying to clamp down on the nerves that squeezed at his insides. There was something about this that was ringing an alarm in the devil's mind, something about the way that Joey was watching them and had sounded when he'd made his correction. Though, for the moment, Bendy simply shoved the thoughts to the side and continued to read. "…th' wolf made a good meal o-off th' boy's…flock, an' when th' boy com-complained, th' wise man of th' village said-."

"A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth." Joey interrupted, getting up and coming around the desk. The words, combined with the fact that the studio head had been the one to say them, almost felt like this was the crux of what he had wanted to impart upon the two toons. However, Bendy couldn't think of a reason as to why Joey would think this was important, not unless…

The studio head, meanwhile, had come out entirely from around the desk, the fact that he was leaning on his cane taking away nothing from the nearly menacing image he cast as he loomed over the pair. Bendy immediately found himself caught between shrinking away and holding his ground so as not to give anything away. He didn't dare look up, though from the manner in which Boris's hands had begun to clench on the book Bendy knew that the wolf was feeling the same.

"Is there something that either of you wish to tell me?" Joey asked, the tone calm, even casual, but he kept leaning forward into the pair's space, causing them to hunch further away. Now the fear was climbing in Bendy's frame, his entire body growing as tense as a stretched rubber band. He could easily guess as to what the studio head was asking about. And the devil had no illusions regarding Boris's ability to figure that out. The wolf had already tried to argue that he had to take the blame for what he had done, that it was wrong that Bendy was punished. But to Bendy, that hadn't been the point. Boris hadn't known that what he was doing was wrong, but Bendy had. Boris didn't know as much as Bendy, and it was Bendy's responsibility to help the wolf, that's what Henry had said, and Bendy had agreed with him. If he didn't then no one else could, and Bendy definitely knew that being alone to figure everything out was no picnic.

And Boris pretty much latched onto anything that Bendy told him from the get-go. The wolf wasn't dumb, certainly wasn't mean. If anything, Bendy could say that Boris's worst quality was that he worried too much, but it was usually regarding the smaller toon himself, so the devil…couldn't really call it a bad quality. But, now, that worrying was more than likely to undo the point Bendy had been trying to make.

The point wasn't to punish Boris, the point was that punishing Boris wasn't needed. The wolf hadn't gone near the books again following that incident, so there was no need to punish him. If he was told not to do something, he listened. But Joey didn't care…!

"J-Joey…" Boris whimpered out, though with a deep, steadying breath, the wolf continued as Bendy's heart sank. "B-Bendy didn' do anythin' wrong, he didn' touch the books, I did. Y'don', y'don' haveta punish him no more."

The quiet dragged on for what felt like years, Bendy not daring to look up to see what Joey's face looked like, or reach over to Boris to maybe bolster the wolf some, reassure his pal that it wasn't his fault. Because it WASN'T.

"Alright now, Boris, I understand." Joey hummed, the tone giving absolutely nothing away as to what he was thinking. Bendy could just make out the taller toon's frame stiffening out of the corner of his eye, Boris's hands shaking as they closed the book. The studio head suddenly reaching out with his hand and taking the book from the wolf, Bendy just managing to see how the taller toon's hands stayed outstretched for a moment before tremblingly clasping in his lap. Joey had turned to place the book on his desk, revolving back around using his cane, a maneuver that Bendy would have ordinarily been fascinated by if the moment wasn't wound so tight.

"Boris, stand up, would you?" The studio head suddenly instructed, the taller toon only hesitating for an instant before hurriedly getting to his feet. Only now did Bendy dare to look up at the scene playing out in front of him, just in time to hear Joey.

"Now stand in that corner over there, and don't move until I tell you to."

The instructions were innocuous enough, but Bendy knew enough about this kind of punishment to give a small wince, remembering how long it had been before Joey had decided to tell him otherwise; hours. Everyone had gone home, the only person up besides them being Boris, who had been kind enough to put aside food for the by then thoroughly exhausted and sore toon devil. And, judging from that, it looked like Boris was going to be in similar straits by late tonight.

But Boris had gotten the message, he wasn't about to go round poking at the books again. This wasn't fair, the thought making the devil's insides twist again, but almost resentfully this time around.

However, once the wolf had gotten to his corner, Joey turned back to the now-solitary devil, Bendy stiffening at being the sudden focus of his creator.

"Bendy, you get up too."

The small toon got to his feet, eyes widening at the next words out of Joey's mouth.

"And go stand in that corner over there."

"Bu-wait!" Boris cried from his nook, spinning around. "I-I said Bendy didn' do anythin' wrong! He didn' touch the books, tha' was me! Y'don' have t'-."

"Boris!" The harsh, overriding tone to the studio head's voice immediately caused the wolf to clam up, arms wrapping around himself like a shield against Joey's anger. Once he had quiet, Joey kept speaking. "What was the moral of the story, Boris?"

The question caught the taller toon off guard for an instant, though he recalled the exact lesson quickly enough. "Th-that liars, won'…they can't get people t'believe 'em, 'cause they always lie?"

"Not entirely. A liar will not be believed even if they tell the truth, because people will think that they are lying."

"But I wasn' lyin'! Bendy didn't touch th' books, it was me-!"

"Who lied, Boris?"

"Huh?" The question may have completely thrown the wolf, but Bendy already had an idea of what Joey was trying to get at.

"I lied." It took everything in Bendy not to flinch as Joey turned back to him, Boris staring between the human and his fellow toon with an expression that looked like he wanted to leap in the middle yet something kept holding him back.

"Exactly." Joey started, addressing Boris but keeping his eyes on Bendy. "Though you were not the one who told the lie, I can only imagine that there was some level of coercion on your part to make it happen. We have been reading these fairytales for the past few weeks, it seems logical that you would have picked up on something from them."

Even Bendy started at the implication, though Boris was the one that spoke up.

"I-!"

"Boris, would Bendy have lied to me if you hadn't touched the books?"

A tense, worrisome pause went through the room before the wolf spoke up, voice trembling with a mix of dread and guilt.

"N-No..."

"So, I would guess that there was something said between the two of you that would cause him to act this way, perhaps I should have thought more regarding how the two of you would interact…" Joey thought aloud, gaze moving impassively between the pair before finally resting on Bendy, who had still not moved from his spot in front of his seat. "What did I tell you to do, Bendy? I don't have all day. That corner over there should work just fine."

The question really only needed a few seconds to register, the devil quickly scurrying to the opposite corner from Boris and standing to face the wall, already bracing himself for the hours of simply standing in that one spot and not moving.

"And, Boris, turn back around."

There was a pause, after which it was clear that the wolf was doing the exact opposite of that, and though Bendy didn't dare turn to look he couldn't help the momentary, agitated flicks that his tail made as Joey spoke again.

"Boris. Turn around." The desire to communicate to the wolf that it was going to be fine, to just play along, overrode Bendy's desire to do whatever he could to avoid making his creator any more upset than he already was. Taking the chance that Joey was facing the opposite way, Bendy brought his arms up to cross them over his front, though he reached up so that his hand was resting over his shoulder, fingers giving a few flicks that Bendy hoped Boris would interpret as 'just do as he says, don't worry about me'. It seemed to work, given that Joey's next words were much less harsh-sounding.

"Now, the both of you will stay there until I say you can go. There will be no talking, and if I catch someone moving or making noise, I will add on an hour to your punishment." Neither toon dared to speak up, the silence translating to obedience in Joey's eyes. Bendy listened carefully as his creator moved to sit back at his desk, papers shuffling as he got back to work. Perhaps, if the devil strained hard enough, he could also make out the faint sounds of hitched breaths, like their source was doing his best not to make any noise but also couldn't bring himself to stop. And, though Bendy couldn't do anything right then, hours later he would tell Boris it wasn't his fault, and that he certainly wasn't angry with him.

However, hours later, both toons were practically falling over with exhaustion and aching legs, any tears and upset long since drained out along with their energy. Joey had only left the room for about a few times, for about an hour at a time, though neither toon wanted to risk their creator's ire by moving around. Bendy still couldn't figure out how Joey had figured it out, he hadn't even been there! They'd also put the book right back, and even if there were some sign that it had been moved, how would he have known that Bendy had been lying?

Ideas had spun through the devil's brain, but they'd long since lost their ability to connect to reality the longer he stood there, his stomach growing emptier and emptier and his legs feeling more and more like dead weight as the hours wore on. Bendy could have fallen over right there in relief when Joey finally said, long after night had quieted the studio down around them,

"Alright, eleven o'clock. Bendy, Boris, you can go down to the break room and get something to eat, but I want you back up here for bed."

Neither really had it in them to argue, or do much other than shuffle painstakingly for the door and out into the hall. Bendy stumbled around a little in his attempts to change direction, though he was somewhat blindsided when Boris creakily bent and picked up the small toon to hold to his chest like a stuffed animal. Albeit, after peering up and making out the woebegone, drained expression on the wolf's face, the devil couldn't find it in himself to protest or demand to be put down. Instead, he went along with it as Boris hobbled his way down a couple flights of stairs, through the animation foyer, and down the hall to the break room. The Ink Machine churned fitfully in its room as they passed, the dull but prevalent noise nearly setting Bendy's teeth on edge as the pair slogged past.

There was something of a windfall in the break room, someone had left at least six ham and cheese sandwiches wrapped up in paper in a box. If Bendy had more like time to ruminate on it, he might have thought that he should thank either Henry or Wally, given that there was a definite air of deliberateness to how it had been left, like the toons were meant to find it.

But for the moment, neither questioned the good fortune, or wondered as to who it had been from, instead scarfing down at least two sandwiches each in the span of half a minute. For plain old ham and cheese, Bendy could easily say that they had been the best things he'd ever tasted in all his life, his stomach only ceasing in its complaints once they were finished. However, with that out of the way, the devil's body felt it needed him to attend to another issue, namely the fact that he was completely worn out. Even as Bendy tried to reach for a third sandwich, he could feel his eyelids starting to droop, head bobbing as exhaustion started to lull him into slumber. It made him miss the fact that Boris had polished off his third sandwich and had been reaching for that one as well, the pair only realizing that they both had their eyes on the same prize when their hands bumped into each other. Though Bendy could easily say he was a little loopy with fatigue, he was not so out of it that he didn't notice the way Boris's expression turned dejected, ears lowering against his head as the wolf withdrew his hand like it had been burnt.

"'sokay, Bendy, y'can have it." Boris murmured, voice lowering in recrimination as he drew back in his chair, putting as much distance between himself and the sandwich as he could without leaving the table. Fighting down a slump, as Bendy was decently sure that if he let his head hit the table now he wasn't going to get up again, the smaller toon let out a sigh.

"Boris…d'ya want it? 'Cause if you do, y'can have it, really."

"…I don' want it. You need it more." The wolf answered, eyeline dropping to his lap as he spoke.

"…Y'know, nunna that was your fault, right? It wasn' fair for Joey t'punish you, y'didn' know what you were doin' was wrong." Despite the devil's words, Boris still looked fairly miserable, ears and eyes still downcast as his shoulders hunched. Even though Bendy was sure all the wolf could see was his overalls, he continued talking. "Boris, 'm not mad at you, alright? It's okay, really, y'can ha…have it."

Boris glanced up at the yawn that broke through the latter half of Bendy's sentence, the smaller frame stretching before slumping a little, finally breaking down and propping up his head on his hands. It didn't much help with keeping him awake but at this point Bendy was fading whether he liked it or not.

"'s alright, Bendy. We'll save it for tomorrow." The taller toon said after a moment, getting up to put the leftover sandwich back in the box. By the time Boris came back to the table, Bendy's eyes were slipping closed, the devil's head bobbing on his hands. The exhausted, miserable look fled from the wolf's face a little, a fond, if somewhat concerned smile taking its place instead. Reaching down, Boris picked Bendy up off the chair and cradled the small toon against his chest, even as his own exhaustion caused his shoulders to slump. Padding out of the break room, the wolf spoke up, even though he was mostly sure Bendy had already dropped off to sleep.

"…Thanks for lookin' out for me, Ben."

"'s what pals 'r for. Yer my pal, so I gotta look out fer you." Bendy mumbled.

"Think if anythin', I'd be lookin' out for you, Bendy." Boris spoke up, foggy mind easily recalling the times in the past week alone that he'd had to help the devil out of a tight jam, or act as a safety net for when Bendy decided that his diminutive height wasn't going to stop him from getting something. Needless to say, the smaller toon was very adept at putting himself into precarious positions.

"Hey, 'm older'n you. 'm th' one who's doin' the lookin' out." The devil said, voice turning into a cranky grumble as Boris's chest shook with laughter. "Wha's so funny?"

"Didn' y'fall off a table yesterday, an' I had t'grab you b'fore y'hit th' floor?"

"I…" Another yawn interrupted the devil's rebuttal, and Boris waiting patiently as the becoming-familiar bickering eased some of the tension from the wolf's frame. "…w-will have you know tha' I had perfect control over tha'. Was ab-so-lute-ly fine."

"Sure y'were." Boris snarked, looking down and just managing to make out a grumpy pout trying to form on Bendy's face. It would have had a much better chance if the devil weren't fighting to stay awake.

"Hey, pal, I was climbin' all over things before you showed up, an' I didn' fall…well, maybe once…bu' it wasn' very far!"

"Not helpin' your case, Bendy."

"Mmurrggghh, shuddup 'm tired…" The small toon groaned, trying to flop himself so that he was burying his face into Boris's chest to avoid the conversation. The wolf decided to help Bendy with that by simply levying the devil up so that Bendy's head was resting on his shoulder. As they climbed the stairs to go back to Joey's office, Bendy spoke up.

"…Hey, Boris?"

"Y-Yeah, Bendy?" The wolf replied through a cavernous yawn of his own. Still, he was awake enough to listen to what the smaller toon was saying.

"Jus', if Joey never says it, then 'm gonna say it." A moment to marshall his thoughts, and Bendy continued. "'m glad you're my pal, an' y'aren't the least bit like any a'those other wolves from the stories. I lied t'Joey 'cause I wanted to, not cause'f anythin' y'said, alright? He can't blame you for me lyin'. I lied 'cause you're my pal, an' you didn' deserve t'get in trouble."

It seemed to take a moment for Bendy's words to sink in, though the devil felt the wolf's arms tighten around him in a grateful hug.

"…Thanks Bendy." Though it came out as a hushed, rumbling whisper, the complete appreciation in the words could easily be felt. Bendy lazily threw an arm over Boris's shoulder, wanting to at least give back some of the hug even though he could feel himself quietly slipping off to slumber even as he half-clung to the taller toon's frame. Still, the devil couldn't bring himself to care overmuch about that, or the fact that his legs still felt like dead weight. It was over, and Boris wouldn't be doing the same thing again, so there was no need to worry about it. They'd just…go back to the usual tomorrow. And stay well away from the studio head's books.

Somehow Bendy felt that he wouldn't need to do very much convincing to get Boris to follow along with that idea. It was the last, clear thought he had before finally sinking into a deep slumber.

Though, when the devil opened his eyes again, things felt distinctly different. No longer were his legs stiff and sore, but there was a faint line of tension sitting in his shoulders that made the muscles twitch. However, the fact that he could still feel fur pressed up against the right side of his face made him calm down some, though the raised line under it briefly brought up some questions in the devil's mind.

Well, that is, until the memory of the last…day, two days maybe, flooded back in and Bendy felt his thoughts sink, both at what had happened, and the fact that he and Boris still weren't out of the woods yet. And, while the brief nap had done something for the smaller toon's energy levels, he still didn't have any plans as to how they were going to get out of it.

That's what pals are for, looking out for each other. It seemed like lifetimes ago since Bendy had said that. Not that his opinion had really changed regarding the sentiment but it did cause an idea to spring to mind. Boris had, kinda sorta, been here much longer than he had, enough so that he was familiar with everything, even to the point of knowing things that Bendy would have been left guessing about. Maybe, just maybe, there was something in those memories that they could use to get out of, if not the studio proper, then at least this situation. Briefly, Bendy went over their options; the elevators were a no-go because 'Alice' controlled them and there was no way to send it higher than Level K, the stairwell also didn't go any higher, and as far as he knew, the doorway leading directly out and back to that hall was still blocked by a heavy metal door. Boris was pretty strong, but he couldn't move that on his own. Unless…

Bendy considered what had happened once they'd gotten here; Boris had gone into the ventilation system, found something to open the other door, which let them into the toyshop proper. Maybe there was a way to open the other door hidden in there somewhere? The brief memory of the cutout did spring up in the devil's mind, but with a crazed angel downstairs, multiple monsters out for blood, and who even knows what wandering the hall, it seemed like an acceptable risk given that staying here just made them more and more trapped. Going back up to the studio at least gave them an out.

Still, there was one thing needed for this plan, harebrained as it was, to work, and that was…

"…Boris?"

"'m here, Ben." The wolf answered, the devil pushing himself up to look the taller toon in the eye. Boris let Bendy kneel on his own end of the bench, though scooting back to his own end was…more than a little cramped for his taller frame. Still, the wolf waited for Bendy to continue.

"'ve jus', been thinkin'…"

"About what?"

"Well, for starters, that you were prob'ly right about, her…downstairs. Don' go rubbin' it in," Bendy quipped, the bit of humor easing some of the tension. "But, we still need an out here."

"…Do, you have any ideas?" Boris asked, the question hanging in the air for a moment before Bendy worked up the nerve to voice his plan. Heck, it was less of a plan and more of an idea…

"…I-I was thinkin', you remember how you opened th' door t'the toyshop? Maybe y'can open the other door an' we can jus' head out th' way we came in." Bendy put forth, Boris seeming to think on the idea for a minute, though if the devil were hoping for a more rousing reaction he would be sorely disappointed.

"Uh…maybe, 'm not sure…I-I don' think…I mean, I've never…"

Never tried it, or never had the opportunity to. Not the best odds. But, with them basically trapped and an ally, in quotes so large they would have dwarfed the building, that didn't seem to care about whether or not he and Boris lived or died, Bendy wasn't sure what else they had.

"Alright, how about this…we'll destroy the cutouts, like she wants, an' if she jus' sends us off t'do somethin' else, we'll try the idea with the door. It should be easy enough, I mean, we've been seein' 'em all through here. It's not like they're going t'be hard t'find."

"…Good point." Boris conceded, though he didn't look any more thrilled by the prospect than Bendy was. Something that the devil understood pretty keenly at the moment. Still, they weren't going to get anywhere by hiding in a booth…

"You ready?" Bendy asked, putting a hand on the door and peering up at the wolf. At Boris's nod, the devil pushed his way out with the wolf close on his heels. The immediate presence of the cutout across the room gave Bendy somewhere to start, the devil creeping across the room as quietly as possible. The resounding crash as the axe slammed through the cardboard and sent the pieces to the floor seemed to undo that effort though, both toons stiffening with preemptive fright and peering about.

Bendy briefly took a moment to ask himself if there had been any other cutouts on this floor, and when his admittedly frenetic memory came up with nothing he was quick to head for the door. As he and Boris put as much distance between themselves and Level P as possible, Bendy kept an ear out, easily remembering how quickly not-Sammy could come and go through the levels with seemingly, well, not quite effort, if the melting state of the music director's body had been any clue. Unless that wasn't why that was happening… Though, now that he thought on it, Bendy wasn't sure he wanted to think too hard on the logic behind any of that. Mostly because being sure on anything regarding that would require more than just a few seconds of observation and Bendy knew without a doubt that he definitely didn't want to get too close.

The pair tried to go up the stairs as quickly and as quietly as possible, making it to the doorway of Level 11 and hurrying inside only to be nearly jumped by a half-formed ink monster. Instinctively Bendy swung out with the axe and caught it under the chin, the impact causing it to splatter apart in a shower of ink.

The suddenness of the whole thing had the pair standing in stunned silence for a few minutes as they tried to process what had just happened, before Bendy shook off his daze with the thought that they still had one thing to do. Quickly the devil darted off to the room down the hall, just barely registering Boris's gasp and a whispered exclamation of his name before he brought the axe down on his cardboard counterpart, shattering it and wheeling around to head back to Boris. The wolf had taken a few steps forward, though quickly caught onto what Bendy was doing once the devil had turned back around. Though the pair bolted up the stairs as quietly as they could, Bendy still couldn't help but wince at every creak the aged wood made as they climbed. Boris too took note of the noise, doing his best to mitigate the possibility of his heavier footfalls making noise with the memory of 'Sammy' still firmly in his mind. They'd seen it going down, so it had to be somewhere nearby, unless it'd been going back up but why would it do that…?

And, underneath those thoughts was a somewhat more bone-deep but murky sense of deja-vu, something about the way the cutout had fallen apart, or perhaps it was the noise…Boris nearly felt himself sink down into the foggy recollection, of crashing noise need to run run run…

But, from what? On that, the half-memory was hardly clear. Fighting down a wave of uneasy frustration, the wolf noticed that Bendy had started to draw ahead of him. The faint impression was immediately pushed out by an image of the devil with a half-formed, sightless ink creature pinning him down, dragging the smaller toon across the floor and to a pool of ink and if he had just been a few seconds later…

Swallowing down a flutter of fear, Boris pushed himself forward, the next few steps somehow managing to not creak as the pair made it to the last landing before Level K. Once they came close to the stacked dressers, Bendy's eyes lit on something tucked just out of sight under the one closest to the far wall, like someone had tried to hide it but hadn't done a very good job.

Taking a few steps forward and craning his nonexistent neck to see, Bendy noticed that the object looked like a tape deck.

Scratch that, it was a tape deck, the devil realized as he pulled it out into the open, staring at it as though that would tell him something about what was on it. Predictably this method was not very successful, but the fact that it had been shoved out of sight like this…All the other tape decks they had seen where in somewhat easy to find places, the only exception to this being Henry's. Maybe there was a reason someone had tried to hide this one?

Bendy glanced up just in time to see Boris peer down at the tape deck as well, the taller toon's eyes narrowing as he too considered it. The devil's fingers found the play button before pausing, a brief frown flashing up to the wolf.

"What's wrong?" Boris rumbled, catching the torn look.

"There might be somethin' important on this, but if we play it, we might be gettin' ourselves into trouble." Bendy rushed out, the wolf's eyes widening a little at the implication.

"But, wait, Bendy-." Boris whispered, fighting to keep his voice at an undertone. "I-It's gonna, you think it might find us, cause'a that?"

"Probably." Bendy conceded after a moment, though from his memory the nearest Lil' Miracle Station was on the floor above them. "If it takes longer'n a minute, we'll drop it an' go. An' if my head starts hurtin', we'll book it right away."

Boris nodded at the makeshift plan, and Bendy quietly pressed the play button, leaving the pair to listen to both the voice that filtered out of the tape deck and for anything that might be trying to hone in on the noise.

"They say the real problem with Mr. Drew is that he never actually tells us little people anything. Oh sure, according to him there's always big stuff coming, adventure and fame and the like. But I'm the guy, see, who has to make sure our budgets don't go all out of whack just 'cause genius upstairs went out and got himself another idea. Speaking of which, and this is top secret, apparently Mr. Drew has another large project in mind now, and it ain't gonna be cheap."

There wasn't any sign of anything coming, but Bendy didn't want to wait out in the open any longer than he and Boris had to. Gesturing for the stairs, the devil slid the tape deck back where he found it and hurried to leave, the wolf following close behind. Heading up the staircase, the pair rushed over to the booth and hurriedly got inside. As Bendy curled up as much as he could to give Boris room, the wolf peered out through the slat.

"…I think we're fine. Your head feelin' okay?" And, after a pause. "Bendy?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I feel fine." The devil replied, almost a little too robotically for Boris's comfort. The taller toon crouched down, struggling for a moment with his legs in the cramped space.

"Bendy? Y-Y'sure you feel okay?"

"…Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, my head doesn't hurt. 'm okay." Bendy glanced up at the wolf and noticed the worried frown on the canid face. A similar expression started to form on the smaller toon's own face, though this one was edged with guilt. "Jus', sorry. Thought that would lead t'more, not just another…nothin'."

"It was worth a look, Bendy. An' I'm not mad. So no bein' sorry over it." Boris finished, reaching down to poke at the center of the devil's noseless face. Though Bendy went cross-eyed at the gesture, he still couldn't help a snigger at the familiar motion.

"Yeah, yeah." The devil murmured back, waving away the larger hand. "Still, what'd we learn, really? Nothin' t'help us get out of here."

"Joey…had lotsa projects, an' they cost th' studio a lotta money. An' th' guy talkin' wasn't happy about it 'cause it made his job harder." Boris quietly rattled off, line of sight drifting lower and lower for a few seconds as he thought.

"Again, though. It doesn't help us any." Bendy pointed out. "Unless…th' project was meant to be kept secret…but how does that help anythin'?"

As the devil trailed off, Boris frowned, ears lowering to match the despondence settling into the smaller frame.

"'s okay, Bendy, it was a good idea." A beat, before. "Who d'ya think that was? The guy talkin'?"

"I…don't think I ever got his name, but I remember him. He called Joey in his office an' I answered the phone. Only issue was, I didn' really know how answerin' phones worked."

At the faint snort the mental image of a younger Bendy trying to figure out a phone drew from Boris, Bendy couldn't help a small smile that broke out over his face.

"S-Seriously?"

"Yeah…he said somethin' like 'who is this' after he told me his name, an' I answered him with his own name. Thought he was quizzin' me or somethin'." The faint recollection snapped something into place in Bendy's memory, and he straightened up. "Grant. I just remembered. His name was Grant-somethin'. I don' think I ever really met him face to face, so he didn' work in the animation department."

"Not music department. Don' remember his voice." Boris murmured. Both sat in silence for a minute, listening to the sounds of the machinery grinding about upstairs.

"…Y'think it's gonna come?" Bendy whispered, peering up at the slat in the door though he couldn't see very much from his vantage point. Boris, who had a slightly better angle to look from while seated, let his gaze rove around what he could see of the room outside.

"Think if it was, would've done so by now."

Giving that a nod, the devil waited for Boris to finish checking for anything through the slat, and when another minute rolled by with nothing happening, well, there was hardly any reason to stay in the booth, as they still had, one more cutout to find from his memory. The one before the toy storage room.

However, the fact that they hadn't run into some kind of trouble yet was making Bendy antsy, the devil moving quickly for the stairs the instant his feet hit the floor. The only thing that caused him to slow down was a hissed exclamation from Boris, the taller toon hurriedly catching up to where Bendy was standing on the topmost landing. The ink slicks were still present on the floor, but most of it seemed dry…ish. There was still a patch near the door that was relatively fresh, and everything in the office seemed like it had been done pretty recently. It did bring the black and white ink monster to mind, the fact that the corridor beyond had the same sort of coating to its floor just making Bendy more tense. Was the black and white monster nearby?

Well, they did last see it on this floor, and he hadn't seen it on any of the other levels, so it likely had to be somewhere around. Not that that was particularly reassuring, the thought keeping Bendy peering about the hall and tense as a drawn bowstring while he and Boris headed across and into the storage room. The eerie silence to the area hardly helped, Bendy's eyes peering about the slicks of ink on the wooden floor as he tried to make as little noise as possible. Was there more ink than he remembered, or had it always been like that?

It was a feeling that was compounded when Bendy noticed that the floor of the small hallway before the doorway, right next to the cutout especially, was also liberally covered with ink. That trail seemed reasonably fresh too, like whatever had been tracking ink had been doing so multiple times, going up and down the hall. But why would anything, especially the black and white monster which had had no problem stopping Sammy and the other half-formed monsters, be pushed back?

Though, at the thought of Sammy, the…thing wearing the music director's body suddenly came to mind, forcing the devil to concede that he could probably guess as to why. Come to think of it, his head had hurt, just for a second, while they'd been coming back downstairs following getting jumped by the black and white monster when they were getting the power cores. Maybe it had been reacting to the noise, or it was just ticked that someone else was trying to get at the toons…?

So, did that mean that they weren't on the same side? Seemed to be the case, as from 'Alice's words, the 'moving ink' wasn't exactly anyone's friend, not to mention what had happened to Boris the instant it got too close. Still, the fact that it appeared in seemingly random places made Bendy wonder how exactly it was getting around. Heck, on Level P it had walked out of the spot where the elevator was. Yet, if it had somehow climbed down the shaft, wouldn't his headache have showed up in stages rather than suddenly appearing like it did? Unless there was a range…

Granted, remembering how Sammy had somehow disappeared from a dead end corridor did bring some ideas to mind. Though there'd been no more of those circles from what Bendy had seen, unless the circle wasn't important at all.

There were just too many questions and not enough answers. Which was exceptionally bad when it came to the fact that none of these things meant him or Boris well.

Not to mention, it wasn't exactly helping with what they were dealing with now, the thought kicking in as Bendy considered the cutout propped up against the wall. Peering around revealed that though the corridor floor had gained a new coat of ink, it wasn't otherwise changed, or occupied. The only thing that Bendy noticed that had changed was the fact that the door down at the end had been closed, ink splattered on the front like something had been slammed up against it, or holding the door shut? It was hard to tell from the mess. It was, however, giving him second thoughts about continuing back to the metal doors so Boris could open them. Though, speaking of his pal…

"Boris, what's th' matter?" Bendy hissed, noticing how the wolf had halted just inside the doorway, staring between the cutout and the axe with a distant look in his eyes. Snapping out of whatever daze he'd been in at the devil's whisper, Boris briefly shook himself before answering.

"Nothin'…jus'…had a bad feelin'…"

"What kind of bad feelin'?"

At this, Boris seemed a little reluctant to answer, fingers twitching on the pipe and eyes casting about, like he was expecting something to just jump out of the shadows.

"Like…rememberin' somethin' bad feelin', or y'think somethin's gonna happen kinda feelin'?"

Boris hesitated for a moment before holding out a hand with the palm down and fingers outstretched, waggling it a little to show that it was a little of both.

"…Alright." The smaller toon whispered after an instant. "Then let's break this an' get outta here."

And with that Bendy swung, the cutout dashed to pieces on the floor like the rest. At the noise, Boris jumped, looking about the room like he was expecting something to leap out from one of the ramshackle shelves. Despite both toons peering around, nothing seemed primed to jump out from anywhere at them. Letting a sigh quietly escape from his mouth, Bendy started to walk back to the storeroom door, missing how the door at the end of the short hallway to his left quietly drifted open.

The devil was about to tell the wolf everything was fine, when a faint noise coming from around the corner behind him made him stall, freezing up as he tried to listen. It only made Bendy marginally more prepared for when he was yanked up and backwards by his tail, back around the corner and towards the longer part of the hallway. He only got enough time to grab onto the wall corner and shout Boris's name before he was given another harsh yank, fingers slipping from the old wood.

It was almost funny how Boris turned, at first startled but not comprehending what had happened before his eyes locked onto the little devil being pulled around the corner. A picture-perfect look of shock, horror, and frantic fear flashed into the wolf's muzzle, and before Bendy was pulled out of view he could see Boris's mouth move to form the devil's name. Then whatever had gotten ahold of Bendy shifted its grip, a thick, inky forearm tucking him close to what seemed like the thing's side, and they were off. As the hallway flew by around him, Bendy tried everything he knew to get the monster to drop him, though the position he was being held in didn't allow for much room to bite, and the inky body was too slippery to scratch, punch, or kick. The devil tried to scream and holler as much as he could, anything that would help Boris find him, though the arm of the inky monster around him gave a hefty squeeze. Bendy gasped, coughing as ink from the flooded room splashed against his face.

"Bor-!" He tried again, the constriction of the arm holding onto him cutting off his voice once more. Through a breathless haze, the devil distantly recognized the showroom and the workshop rush past him, the sight provoking a new stab of panic as Bendy guessed where the being was taking him. Back to the hallway with no lights, which would lead them back to the studio and back to the other monsters and Boris would be on his own-!

The thought provoked another round of flailing from the devil, punctuated by everything from wordless hollers to shouted nonsense ranging from insults to pleas, only to get cut off with another suffocating squeeze to his ribs. Bendy struggled for an instant against the inky arm before going limp, limbs jerking at gravity's whim as he was carried through the toy room and down the hall. The monster came to a halt when it got to the door, the metal jerked open just enough for a body to slide through. It wasn't large enough for the creature, who stalled for a moment to put the still form of Bendy down before turning back to the door. The moment the devil was placed on the floor, a pie-cut eye flicked open, taking quick stock of the situation before rolling to his feet and trying to amble as quietly as possible down the hall. For a few seconds it looked like Bendy might get away, the small toon's legs nearly carrying him to the right hallway leading to the toy room before the inky monster paused in its attempts to pull the door open wider and glanced back.

The breath stalled in Bendy's throat, right before he gave up on being quiet and started sprinting pell-mell down the hall, shouting Boris's name with one last burst of air before being tackled from behind. Even though the right side of Bendy's face smacked against the floor, he still retained enough energy to flail against the weight that was pinning him. His efforts were for naught though, as all the devil seemed to do with his efforts was make the monster angry.

With a gurgling roar the towering figure snatched the small toon up off the ground, raising him up over its head and tightening its hand over Bendy's chest as it dragged him back. The devil gasped for air, though his eyes caught sight of the fact that gravity had started to pull the ink on the monster's head down, exposing the shape of what looked like a muzzle filled with bared, black-stained teeth coming narrowly close to Bendy's head.

"B-Bor's…" The devil wheezed out, eyes squinting shut as he weakly scrabbled at the hand holding him up, which just caused him to be shaken like a rattle. He couldn't breathe, and well, silver linings at least he wasn't about to be sacrificed or brainwashed, just be made very very dead. 'Course he would go out this way, though it would probably be better to die as he was, rather than be twisted into something that quite frankly terrified him.

"PUT HIM DOWN!"

The wrathful shout made the shaking stop for an instant, before the monster was blindsided by a shorter figure that had come hurtling down the hallway swinging the pipe and the axe at its face. The first hit connected, the shock causing Bendy to drop to the floor, the sudden rush of air entering his lungs causing a moment of pure clarity that had his eyes focusing on his rescuer in a way that left a picture-perfect impression on the devil's mind. Boris, his teeth bared in a snarl as he swung with the pipe again, though what Bendy zeroed in on was the fact that the taller toon's eyes had changed color. Instead of a pure black, the pie-cut pupil had turned a deep, bloody scarlet, the whites of the wolf's eyes greying over as something appeared to create a film over them. The snapshot of focus lasted only for a second before Bendy hit the ground, dazed and more than a little battered. The small toon could hear what sounded like impacts somewhere off to his right though by the time he managed to turn his head, Boris was rearing back from where the larger monster lay, its limbs giving uncoordinated twitches from its spot on the floor. The other toon had either completely dazed it or had broken something with the pipe.

"B…Bor's?" Bendy faintly called, his tongue running through the syllables with a stunned slur. The wolf definitely picked up the sound, head quickly following the turn of his ears to look over at where the devil lay on the floor. Boris seemed decidedly rattled, muzzle pulled in a look of fright which morphed into a plaintive, teary expression once he'd laid eyes on the smaller toon. Eyes which, Bendy noticed, looked…normal, black on white as they should be. Had he just imagined what he'd seen…?

"B-Bendy…" Boris's voice sounded completely frayed, at the end of his emotional or even mental rope as he shakily began to walk over, pipe and axe lowering to hang limply at his sides. Proper awareness quickly returning, Bendy tried to push himself up with one arm, the other reaching out to the wolf as Boris stumbled closer. The motions pulled at his abused ribcage, but the look on the taller toon's face seemed more important now.

Boris stumbled into a kneel, a hand giving a quick squeeze to the one Bendy proffered though the wolf hurriedly gathered Bendy into his arms, wincing and shakily apologizing when the jostling made Bendy give a pained grunt. Even still, they knew they couldn't stay where they were, and despite the worry Boris began to walk down the right hallway, carrying Bendy nearly to the end before Bendy was taken by surprise by another flood of pain starting from the top of his head and working its way down his spine like a paralyzing lightning bolt.

And, without the usual bastions of mental fortitude Bendy could usually have used to remain on guard even through the pain, the devil became completely adrift in the swirling agony, nearly crying out if it weren't for a hand clamping over his mouth. Distantly he registered the scenery around him changing from light to dark, the space he was in much smaller. What had happened? Where was he?

His attempts to move were immediately stopped, hands grabbing onto his legs while an arm wound round his frame in an effort to keep him still. Before Bendy could even begin to understand why that was, he was swept away by another wave of pain, this time from his ribs which burned under his inky skin. At the renewed attempts to twist away, whoever was holding him began to speak, voice hushed and strained sounding despite an attempt at being soothing.

"Sorry, Bendy, 'm sorry, jus' hold on a moment, it'll be okay-."

Bendy wasn't sure how this was going to be made okay, but for the moment, he had bigger problems. Namely that it felt like his head was splitting open, his hands spasmodically twitching as they fought to do something, whether it be simply grabbing the offending thing or start scratching in an effort to deal with the agony blazing through his skull.

"Bendy, here-." The voice was back, muffled somewhat though no less hurried even while whispering. "Drink this, you'll feel better, please-."

And something was being pressed to his lips, feeling like a glass jar of some kind. For a moment Bendy was a little wary, something flickering in his memory, about how they were supposed to save those, but another boiling stab to his brain made him gulp the liquid, ink he realized, down as if he hadn't drunk anything in weeks. A few moments after it had hit his stomach, a heavy exhaustion began to push past the pain, dulling it and the rest of Bendy's senses as he slid further and further down into an all-encompassing, unfeeling black. At first, the devil tried to fight, the faint recollection of something terrible, need to run hide making his suddenly heavy limbs jerk and pull against whatever was holding them. He might have whimpered, or made some noise, though almost immediately whoever had been talking before started doing so again, murmuring quiet, soothing nonsense into his ear. The last thing he could recall was being held against something warm and faintly trembling, a heartbeat reverberating against the side of his head as everything faded into a dark haze.

"-endy, wake up."

The voice was familiar, but Bendy didn't want to wake up. Everything hurt, and if he went back to sleep he wouldn't have to feel it. However, the speaker seemed to have other plans, and Bendy jolted at a slight squeeze to his bruised leg.

"OW! Oww…" He groaned, eye flying open and fluttering a few times before catching sight of his creator staring down at him with the sort of focused, unblinking stare that usually preceded some form of punishment. No matter how foggy his brain currently was, the sight still managed to cause a knot of nerves to settle in his guts, compounded by the fact that he was basically flat on his back in what seemed like his little drawer bed and in no position to move. Not to mention his vision was half not there, his other eye covered with something and just as sore as the rest of him.

Joey waited, seeming content to let his presence soak in before asking the demon a question in a lightly irritated tone.

"Now then, do you want me to help you or not? Or would you rather end up needing to be carted about, or a cane, for the rest of your life?"

The little devil gave a small nod to the first question, at which his creator turned and hobbled away out of Bendy's sight. Looking around, the smaller toon's eyes took in the familiar settings of the studio head's office, trying to remember how he'd gotten here, and why he felt like he'd fallen down a flight of-.

…Oh, oh right.

The clunking of Joey's cane caused Bendy to tense up again, watching as his creator hobbled back into his vision with a pair of inkwells clutched in his cane-less hand. Joey settled himself down on a chair he'd pulled next to Bendy's drawer bed, setting his cane aside along with one of the inkwells before cracking the top off the remaining one.

"Can you sit up, Bendy?" The studio head abruptly asked, the devil stiffening a little at the sudden acknowledgement before he tried to pull himself upright, only to have his arms tremble and give out, the pain causing his vision to blur at the edges for a moment as he dropped back onto the pillow. Looking down at himself, Bendy could mostly see that his limbs had been wrapped in bandages, though it felt like the mere movement was pulling at the injuries under them.

"N-No, Joey, I can't. Hurts too much." Bendy answered, voice crackling with upset and discomfort. Even still, there was barely a twitch in the studio head's face at the pitiful tone, his expression as calm as ever as his eyes swept over the small toon's frame.

"Alright, I need you to keep still for me Bendy. Can you do that?"

The devil nodded, not really feeling as though he had a choice for much else. Besides, Joey's hand was for the most part gentle as it reached under the smaller toon's frame, propping Bendy up so that he could drink from the inkwell his creator proffered in his other hand. Despite the fact that his insides felt like writhing with the upset energy surging through his nerves, Bendy forced himself to stay still and obey Joey's wishes, even though something about the way his creator was holding the inkwell was nearly forcing the ink into the devil's mouth.

Suddenly some of the ink hit Bendy's throat in just the wrong way, causing him to cough mid-draught and send a spray of the dark liquid splattering over his front and Joey's arm.

"Bendy!" The studio head hissed, the anger plain in his voice making Bendy's aches and twisting guts grow a just a little bit worse. The little devil suppressed a whine as Joey jerkily lowered him back onto the pillow, still racked with hacking coughs that made his whole, aching frame shake in a manner that his injuries definitely didn't like.

"S-Sorr-." He tried, though his lungs were currently prioritizing air over apologizing. Even though the ink was making him groggy, the fact that his creator was standing over him and obviously not very happy summoned up whatever adrenaline Bendy had in his system to stave off sleep for a few moments. Especially when a knock abruptly sounded at the door that made Joey's head snap around like he might have considered hollering at whoever was there. However, whatever apparent rage the studio head had he swallowed down enough to calmly call to whoever was on the other side of the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's Henry, Joey. Can I come in?"

Immediately the studio head hobbled over in the direction of the door, his path taking him out of Bendy's line of sight. Bendy could hear the door opening, someone murmuring something right before Joey responded with a brusque 'see for yourself'. The devil's swimming head had just enough time to register the sound of approaching footsteps before a new face appeared in the air overhead. This face, however, had an edge of worry to it despite Henry's best efforts to mask it with a gentle grin. One that fell a little once he'd gotten a good look at the devil's face, the animator quickly kneeling down at Bendy's 'bedside'.

"Hey, Bendy." Henry started, right before he seemed to notice the excess of wet ink at the edges of the devil's face and on what was exposed of Bendy's chest, as well as dotting the blanket, likely enough. "It's alright, kid, we'll get you patched up in a minute-."

"I already did." Joey cut in, Henry's head immediately turning to look at the studio head at the other man's words. "He coughed right as I was helping him with the ink, unfortunately. Half of it's on me, a fair amount got on him."

As the ink-stained sleeve and hand gripping the cane attested to. Bendy felt his expression freeze on his face, though his eyes began to burn as he could feel his browline starting to liquify in spots, hands gripping at the blanket in an effort to send the bad feeling elsewhere. He was sorry, but it wasn't good enough, but he didn't know what else he could be. Not to mention Joey's expression, had he done something wrong, somehow, when he'd had the accident with the door? Maybe Joey'd been busy with something and Bendy having his accident had messed with the something? Maybe he'd broken the door?

He wasn't sure, but this way Joey was acting towards him. Bendy could only say he'd seen the studio head behave this way when he'd been in trouble, so there had to be something wrong, right? He had to have done something wrong in some way. It didn't make much sense, but the poor devil's brain was so scrambled by both nerves and pain that he grasped at the familiar logic.

"Clean him up, then. I'll see to myself." Joey finally said, turning and striding off to somewhere. Henry quickly turned back to the devil in the drawer, and though Bendy was making a valiant effort at keeping the emotional as well as physical strain at bay, the small toon could tell by Henry's next words and tone that he hadn't been very successful.

"It's alright, Bendy. You're going to be alright." The animator soothed, producing a handkerchief from somewhere and gently mopping what he could from the devil's face and chest. Despite the fact that the soreness wasn't about to up and leave, Bendy found the tension steadily uncoiling from his center, face and hands relaxing as his eyes took a few longer-than-normal blinks. Still, the smaller toon managed to stay awake through Henry quietly taking the ink-spotted blanket away, snapping to a more aware state when he heard the animator ask someone if they had a spare blanket. The only person Henry could be speaking to was…

"Here, I'll give you one from the closet. Henry, don't give him that."

"Why? Isn't this…?" The pause had Bendy listening to figure out what was going on. What were they talking about? "Oh. Green ink doesn't work?"

The devil tensed again at the question, and all that implied. Joey was going to give him green ink, was he changing his mind because Henry was there?

"No, it doesn't. Here, he can use these. Make sure he doesn't waste this one."

Bendy could make out a brief shuffling to his right before Henry appeared in his vision again, a blanket across one arm and an inkwell in his hand. The devil allowed the thin but soft blanket to be tucked carefully around his battered form, though when Henry began to open the inkwell and ease Bendy up so he could drink it the smaller toon leaned away to get a better look at what he was being given. His left eye was still swollen closed, but his right was still workable enough to try to see. Henry was at first stymied by the resistance, pulling the inkwell back for a moment as he tried to see what was wrong.

"Bendy, it's alright. It's just normal ink, see?" Letting the fingers that were clasped on the lower part of the inkwell uncurl, showing the black liquid sloshing about under the label. Bendy blinked at it for a moment before meeting Henry's eyes and tried to pull his aching frame up. Picking up on the change, the animator readjusted his grip on the glass and eased Bendy upright so he could drink. This time, it didn't feel like the ink was being forced down his throat, the devil finishing the small bottle off in a few moments. Taking the inkwell away, Henry gently lowered the small toon back down to the pillow, the devil catching sight of Joey watching the pair from his desk chair. However, something rattled its way into coherency in Bendy's mind, and he felt he had to ask before the ink-induced slumber took effect.

"Henry? Where's Al'ce an' Bor's?"

"They're outside, Bendy, they're fine." The animator replied, voice calm and soothing, that coupled with the words nearly enough to nudge the devil off to sleep. He wanted to, given that his stomach still felt a little wobbly, and everything still very much hurt. Bendy could say he was more than ready for the ink to kick in. Albeit, there was still something knocking about in the smaller toon's mind, a fading but shrill alarm flashing in and out with the memory of colored ink, and Joey's cold demeanor. Bendy certainly had no further ideas when it came to what the studio head might have been upset about, nothing confirming or contradicting the instinct that said he might have been the one at fault. However, even if he had known, the sudden image of being alone in such a vulnerable position was enough to get Bendy to fumblingly reach out from the blanket, fingers patting around for a moment before finding Henry's hand, which immediately closed around his own.

"'enry?" The devil slurred, barely waiting for a sign of acknowledgement from the animator before hurrying into what he wanted to say, trying to quickly get it out before consciousness abandoned him entirely. "Don' go."

And, with that, the small toon plunged into darkness, his last memory being that of a familiar hand gently resting on his forehead.

Though, in what seemed like no time at all awareness trickled back in, Bendy feeling a faint twinge in his ribcage first, a fading ache as he properly woke. It didn't help that he was being pressed against something, though the dull irritation was wiped away when he recognized both the furry texture, and the raised, vertical line pressed against his cheek.

"Bor's?" The devil whispered, voice slurring even as the dull exhaustion quickly drained away. However, the reaction to the devil came almost too quickly, with the surface he was propped up on abruptly shifting as Boris tried to peer down to look Bendy in the eye.

"Bendy." The sheer amount of relief in the name was both good to hear and a little worrying. The devil tried to pass a grin to the wolf, but it ended up feeling a little weak to Bendy's own senses.

"…Hey, pal."

Boris honestly looked like he wanted to sweep the smaller toon up in an ecstatically relieved hug, though for the moment he just contented himself with trying to wipe away some of the partially-dried ink that was stuck to the devil's face. Which, there was actually quite a bit of, if Bendy was to be any sort of judge.

"H-How're you feelin'?"

"'m fine, I-." The mostly calm mood vanished the second Bendy remembered how he and Boris had ended up where they were, or, well, bits of it. Some parts were still a little fuzzy. Still, it was enough for the devil to realize that something had come through from the other side of the closed door, just to find him. And, just because they had stopped one didn't mean that there wouldn't be more on the way.

"B-Bendy, wait-!" Boris started to say as the smaller toon wiggled free from the wolf's hold, immediately going for the door-where was his axe, oh blazes he'd dropped it back where he'd destroyed the last cutout- and trying to explain his thought process to Boris in what felt like the few minutes they had.

"We can't go out through the door, Boris, th-there's nothin' but a hallway there, an' if somethin' else tries t'come through, we'll be sittin' ducks."

"Okay, alright, but Bendy-."

Perhaps if he wasn't in such a frantic mood Bendy would have stopped to see what the wolf was trying to tell him, but he was too busy thinking about what else they would have to deal with the longer they stayed near the entrance. Pushing his way out, Bendy stepped out onto the floor, peering about and finding the room thankfully deserted.

"C'mon, Boris." The devil whispered back, managing to get to the middle of the walkway on the right before the wolf managed to catch up to him, grabbing the devil and holding the smaller frame close to his chest like one would a rowdy child. Before Bendy could even start to struggle, the taller toon started to hurriedly whisper in his ear.

"Bendy, somethin' came through the room when you were knocked out, went towards the hall."

It was only then that the devil looked down and realized that he and Boris were standing in an ink slick that went from the stairs down the walkway, and presumably to one of the corridors behind them.

"How long ago?"

"Few seconds, maybe." Boris replied, voice still low. Bendy could feel the taller toon look back, but judging from the lack of a reaction, the wolf didn't see anything.

"…Alright, put me down, we're goin."

Once Boris set him down on his feet and handed him the axe, Bendy glanced back and pointed towards the stairs. At the wolf's answering nod he started to move forward, trying to keep his steps as light as he could.

A faint clanging echoed from somewhere, both toons peering around the cavernous room for a moment before Boris tapped Bendy on the shoulder and shakily pointed to the hallways behind them. Giving a nod, Bendy reached out and grabbed Boris's hand, leading the taller toon as silently as he could to the stairway. It wasn't until they'd gotten to the middle of the gated walkway that Boris suddenly turned to look behind them and quickly reached out to tap Bendy on the shoulder again. The devil looked around the wolf's taller frame to see what Boris had seen and felt the breath stall in his throat as he caught sight of something moving at the far end of the room.

The black and white monster was sliding in from the far hallway with as much silence as it could muster. Bendy's fingers tightened around Boris's hand, the wolf squeezing back as the pair tensed, ready to run as the inky creature reached the end of the gated walk.

And…didn't do anything, didn't snarl, didn't try to chase them even though they were standing right in the open. Instead it pulled itself down to the left side of the room, head sweeping about like it was looking around, but it couldn't be because it already glanced in their direction at least three times and nothing had happened.

It couldn't see them, the realization hitting home when the large hands the monster was pulling itself around with started to feel about at the railings and toys, missing the gated walkway entirely. It probably heard the racket but couldn't see where they were, and if they stayed quiet then they could sneak away with it being none the wiser. Bendy threw a glance back at Boris to point back at the right staircase, pressing a gloved finger to his lips for quiet. Keeping the still-searching monster in view, the pair began to ease their way back to the stairs, trying to feel out the boards on the floor to make the least amount of noise. They were right next to the fountain, but the ambient sound of the ink could only hide so much. At first, it seemed to be smooth sailing, with Bendy having made it to the third step on the staircase and Boris just about to leave the landing to join the devil. However, in his zeal the wolf tried to bypass the first two steps and ended up putting a considerable amount of weight on the third, which groaned.

Both toons froze, Bendy peering over and Boris doing his best to pivot without moving to look in the direction of the monster. It too had paused at the sound, head swinging around before it turned its whole body towards them, and though it wasn't exactly rushing over it definitely seemed to have a bit more purpose to its movements now. Though it wasn't exactly the start of a chase, the fact that the black and white monster was coming in their direction made Bendy start to panic, the devil grabbing onto Boris's hand and throwing himself up the stairs, the wolf soon to follow. The clatter of noise drew a gurgled cry from the ink-covered monster, the long arms working overtime as it tried to pull itself across the floor. The moment Bendy's feet had touched the landing, Boris snatched the smaller toon up and tucked him against his chest, facing backwards. From the new perch, Bendy had a perfect view of the black and white monster sliding to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Though it did try to pull itself up, the manner in which it moved kept it from accelerating up the incline, though it was definitely trying as hard as it could. Boris, however, had no such problems and quickly dashed down the catwalk and into the workshop, easily carrying Bendy through and to the showroom. While they ran, Bendy caught sight of a new slick of ink on the floor, leading to under the worktable and then going out the door and to the right. The observation was quickly whisked out of view as Boris ran on, a plaintive, watery cry coming from somewhere near the catwalk door.

The studio halls blurred in the devil's vision, Boris flying through the inky room, the hall, and back around the corner into the lift room, only really pausing once to grab the axe that Bendy had dropped at the door to the ink-logged toy room when he'd been grabbed. Not that the devil was in really much of a frame of mind to say anything apart from being distantly relieved that Boris remembered the axe, instead opting to practically cling to Boris as much as his shaky hands would allow. It was only when Bendy noticed that the wolf was starting to wheeze with the exertion from the pell-mell sprint that he started reaching up to grab at the taller toon's arm.

"B-Boris! Boris, stop!"

Though the shout did get the wolf to glance down at him, Boris didn't stop running until he'd gone to the end of the lift room catwalk, down the stairs, and right across to the booth across the room. The taller, inky frame practically threw itself into the little seat, though Bendy wasn't set down, instead the little toon was yanked to rest onto the wolf's lap, practically crushed against the furry chest. Not that the devil minded, squeezing back with all of the strength his comparatively smaller arms could muster. The pair sat in silence for a long while, the hum of the studio around them masking any sounds of distress or wary relief that managed to seep from beyond the grimy boards.

Though Bendy knew that his arms were practically quivering like jello, he at the very least was managing to recover a little quicker than Boris, who was starting to sound a little bit too much like he was…well, the gasping sobs were starting to sound a little too familiar.

"Boris, Boris, 's okay. I'm here, you got me."

It took a moment for the whimpers the wolf was making to condense into words, though Bendy's heart immediately dropped at the quiet, teary murmurs.

"'m stupid, 'm so stupid, wh-why did I e-even turn aroun'-."

"Pal, c'mon don' say that. You're not stupid, I shoulda been more careful t'start with. This one's on me."

"Y'coulda b-been…b'fore…a-an' I…I-I saw…it looked like me, Ben-."

"But it's not, alright? You're here with me, heck you came an' saved my bacon, Boris. Twice." The unintentional slip of the tongue did get a warbling, weak chuckle from the taller toon, though the sniffling and shakes took a few more minutes to fade. Bendy simply kept up the steady stream of noise, ranging from reassurances to corny, terrible jokes that caused the wolf's breathing to rocket between helpless giggles to watery, stifled laughter. After a bit the conversation fell quiet, Boris slumping a little against the back of the booth with his eyes closed, breathing still a little clogged but going at a steady, deep pace. Bendy simply opted to stay still, letting his head rest against the wolf's chest and mostly trying to relax himself with the taller toon's heartbeat thundering against his ear. It also put Bendy right at level with the spot he'd noticed a few times before, the raised line under Boris's fur. A frown started to blossom on the devil's face, the sensation of the scar against his skin making the sight of white streaks on inky black fur resurface in his mind's eye.

Your fault…

The memory caused Bendy to shift about, though not for very long given that immediately after the smaller toon started to move Boris seemed to snap to life. The wolf's arms tightened in a manner that caused a breath to rush out of Bendy's lungs with a noise that sounded like a cross between a squeak and a gag.

"'or's loos' up…" The devil wheezed out, the wolf realizing what he was doing a second later and instantly letting go with a hushed, quick apology.

"'s okay, Boris. You alright?"

"Yeah, 'm…was I sleepin'?"

"Pretty sure you were, pal. Dead t' th' world. Only thing missin' was you sawin' logs." Bendy quipped, causing Boris to smile with a light snigger. Despite the fact that it had stayed quiet outside the pair knew they couldn't stay long, not if the black and white monster was still out there and trying to find them. Though, as Bendy thought about it, he wasn't sure why 'Alice' hadn't at least said something over the intercoms. Hadn't they gotten all of the cutouts? Granted, maybe they had and she did but they didn't hear it because of that…catastrophe, but he couldn't help but feel like they would have heard something. She usually seemed to wait until they came back near the elevator, and there hadn't been anything.

It truly boggled the mind until Bendy had stepped out of the booth with Boris and happened to notice another cutout tucked into a space boxed in by the elevator cage and the stairs. The wolf glanced over at the irritated huff of a sigh, following Bendy's line of sight until he too caught sight of the errant bit of cardboard.

"Huh."

"Yeah. Huh. I swear…" Bendy could only say, leaving the rest of the declaration hanging when he remembered the fact that there still might be a two-way intercom in the room and the person on the other end was insofar their only chance at getting out. Even still, the devil kept the scowl firmly on his face as he stormed as quietly to the stairs as he could muster. Luckily, he could pretty easily climb over the back railing for the stairs, gesturing for Boris to stay on the landing. Levying the axe in his hands, Bendy wound up and swung, the blade easily breaking the cardboard into pieces that spilled all over the floor. The moment it was done the intercom crackled, 'Alice's voice quickly filling the room.

"Ah, now that was fun! Oh, but I forgot to mention…it hates when I do that. I would hide if I were you."

That was about the only warning Bendy got before a familiar pain suddenly roared into being behind his eyes as the top of the stairs grew dark, though the moment the meaning of what 'Alice' was saying became clear the devil was already trying to scramble back up to the stairs. Boris was holding out his arms, immediately grabbing Bendy once he'd clambered up. Which ended up working out for the smaller toon given that the headache had grown to the point where there were spots blinking about the edges of his vision. It made the transition from the room to the inside of the booth seem more like teleporting, though Bendy ignored it and focused on not crying out and alerting the thing to where they were.

His fingers found his scarf, shakily biting down on the worn fabric as the pain reached a new pitch, causing his eyes to tear and body to tense up tighter than a coiled spring. Though Boris couldn't say anything, the wolf held the devil's smaller frame close to his chest, fingers gently kneading around the black horns to give whatever comfort he could. And outside, the sound of ink mingled with the lighter, sliding sounds of legs dragging themselves across the floor of the catwalk. As it came closer to the space above them, Boris felt his breathing start to hitch, a thunderous, disorientating pounding reverberating through his chest. The kneading turned into desperate clinging as the wolf tried to slow down his own racing heartbeat.

Just as the pain reached a crescendo that had Bendy's insides putting themselves in tense, nauseating knots and Boris's frame shake with suppressed coughs, it vanished, the dark whirls outside going away with it. The devil took a deep breath, feeling like his lungs were straining to regather the air they hadn't been able to get when he was nearly writhing with pain. Huddled around him, Boris slumped against the back of the booth, the very act of breathing causing as much exertion as if the wolf had tried to run a marathon. For a moment the pair simply sat and tried to just breathe, listening as the faint clanks and whirring of the machinery filtered in around them. There was nothing slithering, no sounds of heavy, plodding footsteps overlaid with ink nearly cascading from the ceiling.

It was gone, whatever it was, and they were alright.

Well, not completely alright, Bendy had to ruminate as his breathing returned to a normal rate, they still needed to get out of here. And 'Alice' was the only one who could do that now. The door was out of the question; heck, the devil didn't want Boris to go near any of it considering what had just happened. Question was, did he want to take time going down the stairs with what seemed like more things out to get him, and put both himself and Boris at risk?

Well, he thought as he remembered what was outside of the booth they were in, they might have other options…

"Boris?" Bendy whispered, continuing when the wolf peered down at him. "Wanna try using the elevator t'go back down?"

For a few honest seconds Bendy wasn't sure if the taller toon might protest going back down to 'Alice', before the wolf gave a quiet nod.

They waited a few more minutes to be sure that everything was clear before getting out of the Lil' Miracle Station, hurrying across the room and pressing the 'call' button for the elevator. It took an agonizing few seconds for it to actually come, though the pair dashed inside the instant the gates opened and pressed the button for Level 9.

Just as the elevator started to go down, movement on the catwalk caught Bendy's eye, just in time for him to see the black and white ink monster pull itself to the railing. It could have just been the devil's imagination, but it seemed to react to the sound of the lift pulling away, hurrying along the catwalk to the stairs. They were swept out of sight before it could come near, and though Bendy worried that it might try to break through the gates and jump down, nothing further happened. Instead, the intercom gave a crackle, and 'Alice' started to speak.

"Once upon a time there was an angel. And she was beautiful. And loved by all. She was perfect. No matter what Joey says." The strange, trembling break at the tail end of the little story left Bendy feeling both sympathetic and cold. Joey, Joey, everything went back to his creator. Joey did this, Joey did that, Joey murdered a studio-full of people trying to do god-knows what and turned people into monsters. Trying to do the same to him. And the ones that he couldn't turn or didn't see the need to…he killed them over and over, like Boris and the Butcher Gang.

You said you were going to take care of us, Joey, Bendy couldn't help but think, head bowing as the tension wound tighter and tighter in his small frame, settling heavily into his shoulders, head, and guts. The devil didn't even realize that he'd started dripping until Boris reached down, a long-fingered hand resting on the ragged coat's shoulder. Bendy didn't look up, but he did lean into the taller toon's frame, head pressing into the overall for a moment before Boris decided to simply kneel on the floor and wrap the smaller frame in an equally nerve-wracked hug. The floors ground by one after the other, and the intercom did not fire off with any more soliloquies.

It seemed far too soon that Level 9 arrived, the elevator coming to a creaking halt. Boris followed Bendy down to the top landing, the devil gesturing for the wolf to stay as he went across the bridge. However, before he could even begin to drop the axe down the chute, the intercom suddenly rang out, the warped voice reverberating with fury.

"The disgusting wretches have wandered my halls, have been left unchecked! They're trying to drag me back to the darkness! Don't let them take your angel! Purge them, one by one! Smash them into puddles! Kill them!"

Bendy leapt back from the chute covering, his fear only compounded by the sudden appearance of a half-formed monster right next to him on the landing, and the distant howling cry of some horror coming from across the bridge. Albeit, it was only after he'd slammed the axe through the ink creature's form did he remember why that was bad; Boris was still across the bridge, with whatever was coming.

Racing down the stairs, Bendy tried to make his way to his pal, only to be stopped by two ink monsters popping up on the bridge. Chancing a glance up as he hopped back, Bendy made eye contact with Boris, who had already started to run forward at the first sign of trouble.

"Bendy!" The devil could see the wolf's mouth moving, but the cry was overridden by the howling snarls of whatever was coming down the stairs, and the gurgled hisses of the two ink monsters right in front of the smaller toon. Swinging the axe, Bendy managed to catch both creatures in the head with the blade, looking up to see movement on the staircase. Namely, that of three Butcher Gang toons stumbling down the steps to them.

"Boris, behind you!" Bendy hollered, pointing in the direction of the stairs. Though Boris had already turned, he was backing up to the bridge and putting himself between the oncoming trio and the devil. The realization made Bendy start, because like hell was he letting the wolf get himself hurt on his behalf. By the time the devil started forward, the first, a copy of the captain toon, had already surged ahead. The wolf managed to catch it with the pipe, but the hit only knocked it to the side and left the way open for the one with the chattering mouth to duck in and try punching at Boris. The wolf jumped away, Bendy sweeping in and swinging the axe into the patchwork toon's head. Even still the mangled frame flopped about, striking at Bendy though the axe kept it away. The devil was forced to move back, partially because his weapon had gotten stuck, and partially because the last zombie toon, the one with the disconnected head, had tried to angle in while Bendy was distracted and Boris was busy fending off the captain.

Bendy's efforts to move the axe ended up causing something to give in the betoothed zombie's head, the similarly sized frame falling apart. It didn't stop the one with the bouncing head from swinging the disconnected body part at the little devil, the teeth managing to clamp down on Bendy's coat sleeve just in time for Boris to bat the captain aside for good and whirl around.

"Bendy!" The wolf hollered, immediately rushing forward, though Bendy had already reacted, swinging one-handed to catch the zombie toon's body in the side. The shock caused it to jolt about and fall, accidentally pitching under the guardrail and over the side into the ink river below. Just as the gravity from the fall started to act on the devil and brought him crashing to his knees into the wooden rails. Just as the strain was starting to hurt Bendy managed to angle the axe again to get in a good strike. As the patchwork toon's jaw grew slack, Bendy yanked his sleeve away, pulling back up and straight into Boris's more-than-slightly shaking arms.

They hardly had time to breathe, as the rancorous din hadn't abated. In fact, hobbling down the stairs was another horde of toon zombies, still copies of the same characters from the Butcher Gang. Bendy counted about five in total, letting Boris pull him back to the other side of the bridge. Which, the devil reasoned, was probably a good idea given that it forced the patchwork toon zombies to come at them two at a time, at the most.

Boris did try to push Bendy behind him, though the small toon was having none of that. The devil forced himself to stand level with the wolf, throwing Boris a sharp look before turning his attention to the oncoming horde. Still, Boris was the one that swung first, leaning in a little to force the first two back and giving Bendy the opportunity to hack at Chattering-Teeth-Three-Arms as the zombie tried to slip under the wolf's arms and take a shot at him. The axe slammed directly into the side of its head, and into the realistic-looking eye, Bendy swallowing back a disgusted shiver as he pulled away just in time for the patchwork toon to fall back into ink. One of the zombie toons did survive its encounter with Boris's pipe, and ambled back into the fray, along with the Detached-Head-Bitey-Guy following behind. That one, whom Bendy had started to dub 'Captain Hobbles', started to swing with an arm that looked like it was almost fused with a wrench.

The observation made Bendy pause, just long enough that Boris was forced to jolt away and got a glancing blow on his left side with the wrench. At the wolf's yelped whine, the devil felt his vision tunnel, axe automatically swinging to connect with Captain Hobbles's shoulder. The hit caused the zombie-toon to fall apart, the axe continuing through the motion to connect with Detached-Head-Bitey-Guy and cut the string holding its head to the rest of the body. That alone did some damage, the body stumbling as the head rolled around on the bridge and over the side and into the ink below. Nary a moment after the head dropped out of sight, the now headless body lurched around even more erratically for an instant longer before exploding, the ink spraying everywhere and discombobulating the other combatants.

Bendy hurriedly ducked behind his arm to avoid getting a face full of ink, a real possibility judging from the state of Boris's overalls once he looked up, the off-white fabric nearly drenched on the left pantleg. However, the wolf had been able to bring up an arm to stop the spray from getting to his face, the lone Butcher Gang character had been completely splattered with the amount that had gone towards it, another copy of Chattering-Teeth-Three-Arms stood there before seeming to snap back into the moment and charging forward, right before getting clobbered by Boris's pipe. As the pipe crashed into it and sent it reeling towards the railing, its warped frame collided with one of the wooden posts and knocked it apart entirely.

It was only then that quiet finally settled into the cavernous room, the last, ringing echoes of the Butcher Gang's howls reverberating off the rafters before fading away entirely. It took Bendy a moment to remember that Boris had in fact been injured in the scuffle, though the instant he did the devil immediately rushed to the wolf. It didn't seem like there was any ink leaking, a careful hand brushing over the fur on Boris's side confirmed that there weren't any open injuries. Bendy still caught a slight wince on pass over the wolf's face, even as he leaned to grab at Bendy's newly-frayed coat sleeve. Catching the taller toon's objective, the devil lifted his arm, letting Boris's fingers feel out the sleeve, and even gently roll it up to check the arm underneath it.

Not that Bendy was in any mind to deny the wolf, besides the damage wasn't very bad. If anything, the worst Bendy could say he had was some soreness and maybe bruising, but he wasn't going to bother the wolf over that. The physical evidence that the smaller toon was indeed alright did ease some of the worry from Boris, though the wolf was kept from asking any more questions when a crackling in the speakers over their heads heralded 'Alice's own input into the moment.

"So quiet. Like a welcoming grave. I like the silence, don't you?"

Bendy had to bite his tongue to keep from making a quip about how downright cheery that was, his nerves more than a little frayed by everything he'd had to deal with since getting trapped in the toyshop. His uncharacteristic quiet was helped as both of Boris's hands landed on his shoulders, the wolf's frame drawing inward at the sound of the warped angel's voice. Not that she was finished speaking.

"I hate leaving work unfinished! Fortunately, I have you to pick up the pieces. But you'll have to go even deeper. Down, down, down, into the abyss. Take the lift down. Say hello to an old friend."

She…wanted them to go down? But they'd been on most all of the floors, hadn't they? Where else was there to go?

But, from Bendy's memory, there had been another button in the lift, with a label that he didn't remember seeing on any of the other floors that he'd been on. They hadn't tried pressing it, though, and from what he'd seen, there hadn't been any other way to go further down. No stairs or anything like that.

"Sending you a little present. A little firepower. Take good care of it. It belonged to someone very special."

The sudden speech yanked the devil from his thoughts, the wording throwing him off. Firepower? Belonged to someone special? What could she mean by that?

He got his answer at the sound of the turnstile revolving around, and when Bendy padded his way to exchange the axe, the thing he saw sitting in the metal container nearly made his jaw drop.

A gun, a tommy gun to be precise. The warped, crazy, ink-thirsty psycho of an angel was giving them a gun.

Bendy blinked hard, internally counting to three before opening his eyes and looking again. Nope, the gun was still very much there. Waiting for him to grab it. Looking to Boris, the devil found that the wolf seemed to be just as equal parts nonplussed and mildly disturbed as him. But, someone needed to do something.

Though a thought briefly flared through Bendy's mind about how he didn't have the faintest idea how to use these things, his fingers still shakily closed around the metal gun, taking care to avoid touching where it looked like the trigger was. The devil managed to lift it off the rest, and into his arms, right before the hard surface suddenly turned squishy, the gun liquifying into ink in his hands.

"Oops. I forgot. It's a little hard to get ahold of. Oh well. Better luck next time."

Immediately Bendy felt several emotions, one being slight relief as the gun was nearly as tall as him and would have been unwieldy to carry, the other being pure shock and more than slight irritation because how dare you you cruel, psychotic nutjob-!

Swallowing down the new one Bendy'd been planning to verbally ream the angel, the small toon spun on his heel, reaching out and grabbing Boris's hand and steering rather than pulling the wolf after him down the stairs. Not that Boris seemed interested in fighting the devil, easily falling into step behind the smaller toon. The cage of the lift was already sliding open as they approached, the pair hesitating at the border between wood and the elevator floor.

Bendy knew in his heart of hearts that it would be easier to go, that they had their last avenue of retreat cut off and the 'angel' was the only way out. Besides, he hadn't been to the aforementioned floor, and there could be something worth seeing down there. There might be a way back to the exit, or another way out entirely. However, he wasn't sure he'd want to drag Boris down there with him but leaving the wolf behind seemed like an even worse idea, especially if there was something to be found.

Glancing up at Boris, Bendy happened to catch the wolf's eye. For a moment, the taller toon looked about as uncertain as the devil felt, before something seemed to quietly steel itself in Boris's eyes, his ears raising back upright and posture drawing out of the tense huddle that it kept falling into. Even as he watched, Bendy felt himself doing the same, tail uncoiling from where it was around his legs to flick about behind him, shoulders steadily dripping tension as though it were simply boiling off.

Alright, well, as long as he wasn't alone, he could handle it.

He wasn't alone.

The thought gave Bendy enough bravery to step forward, Boris moving right at his side into the lift. The metal cage clicking closed around them did dim the assuredness somewhat, but as a minute went by with nothing happening Bendy had a beat to recollect himself, and figure that if he wanted to get this show on the road he'd probably need to press the button. Funny thing though, as 'Alice' hadn't needed him to press it before when she brought him and Boris down to Level 9 the first time.

Maybe she only could control the elevator sometimes, which was heartening. Or perhaps she was just messing with them for kicks, which was decidedly less heartening. Either way, they certainly couldn't go up.

So, with a click of the button labeled 'Level 14', down the pair went, the lift clanking and creaking around them as it descended further down into the depths of the studio. Just as the lift clattered out of sight, silence descended over the cavernous room, broken only by the light noise of the ink rushing through the channel under the bridge with the distant rumble of machinery overhead. However, even as the sounds gently echoed through the room, they were joined by another, quieter noise of ink dripping, and a rhythmic splatting. The noise barely echoed in the room, fading out almost as quickly as it had come, but nary a moment later, a black and white frame pulled itself to the doorway.

---

Bendy watched the walls slide by, keeping close to Boris's side as he tried to piece together what might be coming. 'Alice's description of Level 14 as the 'abyss' wasn't exactly encouraging, making the devil wonder if there was even a proper bottom level to the lift. Heck, he wouldn't've thought that the studio would even go down as far as the toyroom, the fact that there were bigger spaces at all made him wonder if they were going to eventually just hit the stuff folks said was in volcanoes. Lava, he thought it was called. At this point Bendy wasn't sure if that would have surprised him.

The thoughts were scattered as the lift clattered to a halt, a new, enormous space in view beyond the metal cage. Bendy wasn't too sure if the reason everything was so dark was because it was too big, that the walls were covered with ink, or that there weren't that many lights down here. For all he knew, it could have been some combination of the three. Still, with the fact in mind that 'Alice' might very well be able to tell if they were still on the lift, the smaller toon stepped off onto the wooden floor, Boris not far behind. Catching sight of a landing with stairs leading down, Bendy padded over as quietly as he could, peering down to see another catwalk leading around a corner.

He could hear Boris creaking on the stairs behind him as he went along the railing, trying to peer into the semi-darkness to see what he could find. The first thing that caught Bendy's eye though, was an alcove with a lit-up, enormous statue of himself sitting on a pedestal, raised a bit over the floor. However, the devil only had a minute to feel intimidated by that, as the sudden appearance of a bouncing light at the left-hand side of the space drew his eye. For a moment, he wasn't sure what to make of the creature, though Bendy quickly realized with a start that it was the same one that he and Boris had seen upstairs. Speaking of the wolf, the instant the newcomer's presence had made itself known, the taller toon had quickly reached out and drew the devil away from the railing. Something that Bendy wholeheartedly supported given that he still wasn't sure what that thing was capable of, or what it would do if it spotted them.

And, almost in answer, the speakers crackled near the elevator, 'Alice's voice echoing off the walls as she spoke.

"Shhh…there he is. The Projectionist. Skulking in the darkness. You be sure to stay out of his light, if you don't want trouble. Just bring me back the pieces I need."

Though the crackling speech from the aged speakers was certainly loud enough for the toons to hear, the…Projectionist didn't even so much as turn in their direction, something Bendy caught onto in a heartbeat. If the Projectionist couldn't hear them, that might put them at an advantage, given that they'd hear and see the monster coming when it could only see them…maybe. The devil couldn't really imagine how well one could see with a projector on their head.

Still, as the towering, lumbering figure moved out of sight into what looked like a door opposite, the pair had begun to inch forward, heading along the catwalk until they came to a flight of stairs heading down. At the bottom Bendy paused, realizing that the ink he'd noticed from the catwalk was a veritable pool encompassing all of the floor, if there even was one down here. Noticing Boris stop next to him, Bendy passed a look to the wolf before peering about to see if he could pick out anything in the room that might be dangerous. The Projectionist may have been long gone, but he wouldn't put it past 'Alice' to know something else about this place and simply forget to tell them. Still, nothing moved apart from some dust floating on the air, the ink remaining silent and still though Bendy could hear it glopping down from the walls and ceiling. Warily he put a foot in, relieved when he felt floor a few inches under. The ink itself wasn't too deep, it just went up to the devil's knees, which meant that for Boris it would probably be just up to the midpoint of the wolf's shins. Looking back, Bendy caught sight of the taller toon frozen in an attempt to reach out to him, mouth partially open as though to call out though something, perhaps the overwhelming nature of the space, stopped Boris from doing so.

However the moment the wolf noticed that Bendy was fine and hurriedly motioning for the taller toon to join him, Boris gingerly stepped into the ink, expression only slightly relieved by the relatively low level to the dark fluid. Though the initial sounds of their legs sloshing through the ink did give them pause, it was silently agreed that they couldn't really go back. Not when 'Alice' controlled the elevator. And while they couldn't see anything they could hide in, or any sign that the noise had drawn some kind of pursuit, the pair knew that staying in one place likely wouldn't lead to anything good.

An odd shape in the ink in front of them drew Bendy's eye, and as he tried to move forward as quietly as possible the devil was able to make out more and more of it, realizing what it was after an instant. It was a box, the wood stained black by the ink, sitting at an inch or two over the devil's waist. And, on top of the dark and probably rotten wood, was another tape deck.

Perhaps he might have had more hesitation if anything had responded to their earlier attempts to move through the ink, and nothing appeared to be coming even now. Bendy passed a look to Boris, only going to press the play button after he'd gotten an affirming nod from the wolf. The voice that filtered out of the aged, ink-stained device was a surprisingly familiar one, the pair straightening at the words.

"Now I'm not lookin' for trouble. It's just the nature of us projectionists to seek out the dark places. You see, I've learned the ins and outs of this here studio. I know how to avoid being bothered by the likes of this…company. That projectionist, they always say, creepin' around, he's just lookin' for trouble. Well, trouble or not I sees everything. They don't even know when I'm watchin'. Even when I'm right behind 'em."

The last sentence of the tape caused both toons to glance warily around, though the lumbering monstrosity they'd seen from the deck above was long gone. For now.

"Th-That was Norman?" The choked, hushed note in Boris's voice made Bendy look up, a hand reaching to grab the wolf's.

"We can't help 'im, Boris. 'm sorry, we jus' haveta get the stuff an' get outta here." And it was true, they couldn't, not as far as Bendy knew. As Boris glanced down at him, eyes tearing and face drooping in misery, the devil wished he could give some answer, could take it back and give some hope to the idea that Norman, and hell, all the rest could be saved.

But, as far as he knew, there was nothing. And right now, they needed to look out for each other first before trying to help anyone else. But, well, the only way out of here was to get what 'Alice' wanted, and she hadn't been exactly clear on what that might have been. Maybe there was a clue somewhere…? Coming round, Bendy came to the doorway of the room that…that Norman had been coming out of, and nearly tripped over something partially submerged in the ink. At the sudden sloshing, Boris quickly hurried over, keeping any cries locked in his vocal chords in case something was around to hear. Thankfully, Bendy managed to regain his balance before he could fall, though once he got a look at what he'd stumbled over the devil was almost sure he'd rather have a face-full of ink.

Because the crumpled shape partially submerged in the black fluid was another Butcher Gang toon, just as crudely patchworked and gruesome as the rest. But what made the smaller toon's insides freeze, and Boris's hands still in their place on Bendy's shoulders, was the condition the zombie-fied, cobbled-together toon was in. It was very dead, to start off, but the cause was not so simple as something having gone and bludgeoned it to lifelessness. No, it's ribcage was ripped open, and a heart of mechanical parts held in a hand somehow propped above the ink.

Pieces. 'Alice' said she wanted pieces. And judging from what Bendy had seen when he went into her part of the toyshop, this might be very well what she meant. Numbly, the small toon reached down to poke at the heart, the thought that Norman, or something else, coming along making his fingers close around the metallic organ. The slight give and squishing noise it yielded when he picked it up nearly made Bendy want to lose his lunch again, if there was even anything his stomach could still throw up.

However, the thought was immediately ditched as the sound of quickening breathing from behind him reminded Bendy of who else was here and might have a worse reaction to this sort of situation. Quickly turning, the devil retained just enough presence of mind not to drop the heart, instead shoving it into his pocket as he faced Boris.

The wolf wasn't quite as bad as he had been those few times before, though there was a distant, glazed look to his eyes that Bendy could definitely say he didn't like. Coupled that with the fact that the taller toon's breathing had started to speed up, and the devil could definitely say that the worst was not far off.

"Boris, Boris, just look at me." Bendy started to say, sloshing forward through the ink. The noise did draw the wolf's eyeline, but Boris still gripped the pipe like a lifeline, a hand coming up to shakily grasp at his chest, right over the spot where-.

The moment the movement registered, Bendy made up his mind as to what he was going to say next. Boris probably wasn't going to like it but making him come along with this seemed like an even worse idea.

"Boris…" Bendy whispered, the name barely making a sound though he knew that the wolf had heard. "Jus'…go back t'th' elevator, o-okay?"

But Boris was shaking his head, a watery whine sliding out of his mouth as tears started the slide down his face. He wouldn't look at the pocket where Bendy had hurriedly stowed the…heart, but neither would he take one step back up to the lift.

"Boris, please, I don' wan' you dealin' with this. Jus' go, it's okay."

"Don' wan' you d-dealin' with this…!" The taller toon answered back, shakes beginning to reverberate through his frame and voice even as steel started to creep into his eyes and straightened his spine.

"I'll deal with it anyway. I always do." The toneless response didn't really seem to be the right thing to say, Bendy looking away as that fact registered. However, this caused him to completely miss how Boris's eyes widened at the words, the meaning strengthening his resolve and hardening his jittery frame. With a swallow, and a deep, shaky breath of air, Boris abruptly reached down and plucked the devil up off the floor, practically tucking Bendy under his arm before he started to move forward, with the pipe upraised in his other hand.

"B-Boris-?" The smaller toon half-hissed, half-squeaked, more than a little thrown off by the sudden disorientation of ending up parallel to the floor. It took the wolf a moment to actually articulate what was going through his mind, the explanation coming out a little choppy at first.

"No. You aren't. You won't. Cause I'm not goin' away 'r stayin' behind this time. An' I won't be doin' it again cause that's not what pals do. An', Bendy?" Boris asked, only continuing once he could see the devil looking up at him. "Runnin' away 'r not, y'never stopped bein' my pal. Even with everythin'."

Even though the relative darkness of the doorway made it a little hard to see, Boris's more nocturnal vision was able to pick out a few things. Like the sudden shine to the smaller toon's eyes, and a dribble of ink that was starting to break free from the black widow's peak. The sight made the wolf pause, his earlier confidence starting to slip a little in the face of the apparent upset; it certainly hadn't been his intention to make Bendy cry.

"I-I'm sorry, Ben, don'-don' cry, okay? I jus'-."

"Boris, 's okay, really." The devil mumbled, voice thick as he tried to scrub at whatever loose liquids there were on his face, whether they be ink or tears. Still, Bendy hardly sounded unhappy. Emotional, but not unhappy.

"'n fact, think I mighta needed t'hear that. Thanks." And, because Bendy was Bendy, the devil quickly followed up the heartfelt comment with a warm jibe. "When th' heck did you become the smart one?"

"I gotta be, 'cause I gotta look out for you."

The familiarity to the wolf's reply caused the smile to fully break over Bendy's features. Still, he had one last thing to say before giving up and letting Boris take the lead.

"Yer still a big sap."

Boris could really only shrug at that, the somewhat good mood disappearing as the pair rounded a corner and came upon a projector pointing at a wall. Still hanging under Boris's arm, Bendy craned his neck to peer at the strange set up, noticing that there was a snippet from a cartoon playing on the wall. It wasn't much, just a clip of Bendy himself walking with what looked like a picnic basket in hand. The sight stirred something in the devil's memory, Boris too staring with faint recognition of what he was seeing. Though, for the moment, Bendy was more worried about the implication from Norman's recent tape, that he could see everything in the studio. Or at the very least, everything on this floor.

Could this be how he was doing it? It might be a long shot, but Bendy wasn't really sure why there'd be projectors just lying around otherwise. It made a disturbing amount of sense, in a conclusion-leaping kind of way. It was a theory that made even more sense when rounding the next corner bought the pair to another projector pointed at the wall to their immediate left, this time displaying an image of an incensed Bendy walking up to Boris, the wolf having the picnic basket in front of him and eating a sandwich.

Well, Bendy thought as Boris passed warily in front of the flickering image, at the very least if Norman was going to be able to see them, it might take him a while to actually find them. From what the devil had seen, the old projectionist wasn't moving especially quick. Not that he wanted to find out the hard way what Norman's top speed was, but cold comforts were definitely something in this situation.

Peering down the hallway gave Bendy a look at another piece of the short, this one depicting a small dark figure, the toon devil himself, leaning up against what looked like a very large rock. There were also more booths in here too, as Bendy could see one of them to the left of the flickering image. However, while the devil had been staring straight ahead, Boris's eyes had alit on something in a small knoll in the wall to their left. Upon feeling the wolf's arm tense up around him, Bendy tried to see if he could get a look at Boris's face, following the taller toon's line of sight to another crumpled shape in the ink.

Hoping to cut off another panic, the devil began to squirm, the sudden resistance against Boris's hold causing the wolf to gasp and quickly look down at the smaller toon. Though Boris did relax a little once it was clear that Bendy was doing this of his own free will and not because he was being yanked away under the wolf's nose, the taller toon still was a little stymied by the devil's abrupt desire to move.

"Wh-What're you-?"

"I'll take care of it. You keep watch, alright?" Bendy whispered, making sure the floor under his feet was sturdy as Boris set him down. At the wolf's still-uncomprehending stare, the devil clarified. "Just make sure nothin' sneaks up on us, okay? I'll be right here."

With Boris giving a nod to show he'd understood, Bendy turned his attention to the partially eviscerated toon corpse partially submerged in the knoll. The sight did make his stomach turn, though the devil fought to keep upright and not start shaking or showing any other sign of his distress. Just keep it together, if you start cracking, then Boris is going to have to deal with this and after that meltdown earlier do you really want him to? After everything you put him through do you really think you deserve to get out of this?

Swallowing down the roiling feeling of dizzy nausea, Bendy quietly reached down, fumbling for a moment in the near-darkness before his hand closed over something that was propped up in the corpse's hand. The oval, metallic and slightly inky surface clinched it as one of the hearts, the devil hurriedly doing his best to stow the organ away in his pockets. Not that he'd really be able to do that if they had to get many more of these, the heart neatly filling the pocket along with the still wrapped pair of inkwells he still had. The other pocket still had a little room, but Bendy wasn't sure that it could contain another heart along with the one it already had.

The quieter planning did help Bendy to regain some control over his mind, the flip-flopping in his stomach easing a little as he turned away from the corpse to look back to Boris. However, at the sudden mental image of the mismatched toon abruptly rising from the ink after him, the devil half-stepped away from the still figure, the wolf looking to him at the sound of liquid sloshing. Once the taller toon's eyes landed on him, Bendy immediately tried to slap on a reassuring smile, hoping to draw Boris's eyes away from the corpse.

"I got it. W-We're good." The stammer nearly had Bendy's shoulders stiffen in a physical recrimination, because damn it he hadn't been trying to make the wolf worry! But even though he did try to inject some confidence into his frame, Boris didn't seem very convinced. The wolf felt around in the dark, latching onto Bendy's hand. Though the stickiness to the smaller toon's ink-coated fingers caused Boris's hand to stiffen, he didn't let go. Instead, Bendy let the taller toon lead him down the hall and to the booth he'd noticed before, not resisting an iota as Boris opened the door and ushered the devil in. At first, Bendy just sat across from Boris, given that his pockets were now full of inky horribleness that he was pretty sure the wolf wouldn't've wanted anywhere near him.

However, Boris didn't seem to want to be let alone, head turning to look in Bendy's direction as the wolf tried to properly see the smaller toon in the semi-darkness, their only source of light a flickering projector at the other end of the hall.

"Bendy?" Boris whispered, reading something from the devil's silence as he spoke up again. "'s not your fault, okay?"

"…okay." The word barely made a sound, coming out so small and hollow that Bendy ruminated that he'd have a hard time believing himself at this point. It hardly seemed to fool Boris, the wolf giving the resounding silence a beat to set in before reaching across the booth and drawing Bendy into a side-hug.

If the devil was a little more emotionally alive, he might have tried to hug the wolf back. As such, Bendy felt torn between leaning into the relative comfort the taller toon offered and shying away due to the heavy weights sitting in both pockets of his coat.

Suddenly the wolf stiffened, the movement sending a ripple of anxiety through the devil's frame as he jerked his head back to stare at where he could make out the outline of Boris's face.

"Boris, what's wrong?"

"'m fine." The wolf hurriedly answered back, though the actual explanation seemed buried under a layer of hesitation so thick Bendy could have cut it with the axe if he still had it. The toon devil cast about for something that could have caused the jolt, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary in the booth. Maybe it had been outside…?

"You sure?" Bendy asked. "We can…You can still head back t'-."

"No." Boris broke through, voice as undisputable as a brick wall, Bendy himself immediately going silent. The wolf himself seemed to realize how he had come off, hurriedly softening his tone.

"Sorry, Ben. I-I jus'…had a thought."

"W-Did'ja remember somethin'?" Bendy asked, a faint bit of hope and fear warring in his frame at the idea of possible information, because while they could certainly go up from here what if they hadn't hit the bottom? How deep they could go in this rabbit hole?

"No, the cartoon…" Boris murmured, a brief, thoughtful pause filtering through before he spoke again. "That was the dud reel, 'member? We had t'get rid of it because it wouldn' play right after a spot?"

The description did jog some of Bendy's memory. They'd been made to sit and watch pretty much all of the shorts that were made while they were around, though this one, the one with the picnic and the graveyard, was somewhat of an oddity in that it was the only time he remembered the reel having some kind of a problem. The film cut out right in the middle of the short, and despite Joey's and Norman's best efforts they weren't able to get it going again. Bendy distinctly remembered the older projectionist telling his creator that the issue was with the reel, there was no fault in the projector that he could see. While this explanation did stave off some of Joey's temper he was still in a somewhat frightening mood for the rest of the day, Henry keeping the pair in his office with him until it was time to go home.

What had even happened to the reel, come to think of it? There was a faint, foggy memory of Joey saying that he'd take care of it, but given that it was surviving down here in some form it was obvious that the studio head hadn't done anything with it. Well, apart from cut it into bits, that is. Not to mention, out of all of the shorts the pair had helped with, why was this one the one down here playing? Didn't make much sense.

And it was that lack of sense, coupled with the leering creepiness to the whole place, that had Bendy leaning a little in the direction of the door. Still, Boris wasn't about to let him simply run back out.

"We can wait a little longer."

"Let's just get what she wants, then we can go. Maybe get outta here quicker." Bendy murmured in reply, feet splatting back down into the ink as he made his way back out with Boris following close behind.

"B-But, how many d'you think we need?"

"'m not sure, we got two now though." The devil offered after a moment, feet splashing forward as he tried to slog through knee-deep ink. Well, for him, Boris had it up to his shins. The hallway forced them to take a left, Bendy glancing at the flickering image of himself walking along with a basket, the screen around focused in on the image with a black screen, a circle cut in the center so the devil could be seen.

"An', there might be another way out of here. 'Member how we saw…saw Norman upstairs?" Bendy asked, eyes cutting nervously to the wolf as he tried to gauge Boris's response to the Projectionist's true name. Even though a part of the devil didn't want to remind the wolf of the remnants of the man wandering around, coupled with that of Sammy's situation, it still felt wrong to use the monster name when they knew who the Projectionist really was. Norman Polk was, perhaps still to some degree, a person. The fact that he was now like he was didn't quite erase that.

It was a sentiment that Boris didn't disagree with, though in the shine of another projector light Bendy could see how the wolf's eyes shone for an instant at the reminder of what had happened to the people he'd known.

A sudden image flashed into Bendy's mind, of an inky head like the half-formed monsters, but with a pair of bright blue eyes peering out at him; Henry's eyes. Fighting away both the mental image, and a resulting shudder, the devil plodded forward a little faster, his feet taking him a little ahead of Boris who hurried to catch up. Head around another corner, Bendy came to another turn, this time pointing right. However, the presence of another knoll caused him to look to his left, eyes quickly landing on another crumpled shape in the ink. The lighting was still too poor to see which Butcher Gang character it was, but Bendy tried to ignore looking at anything too identifying, instead trying to see if there was a heart being held in either of the mismatched toon's hands and not let that dizzying, icy feeling have too much sway with his insides.

"Bendy…?" The whisper caused the devil to jolt, but memory kicked in nary a moment later. Still, he didn't relax, as Boris's arrival on the scene didn't necessarily mean his troubles were over.

"'sokay, pal. Just, just 'nother one. Don' think he's got-doesn't matter, let's just keep going." Bendy stammered out, hurrying along down the hallway. Boris, however, took a moment longer to get moving, eyes riveted to what he could see of the long-dead toon shoved away in the knoll. The fact that there was no obvious, gaping wounds kept the panic at bay, but the fact that it was about the right size, and dark in color, made something squirm uncomfortably in Boris's insides.

The wolf quickly looked from the pipe to the devil, and came to a decision.

"Boris?" The smaller toon murmured, turning back around as he noticed the wolf wasn't following him. "You alright back there?"

"Y-Yeah, 'm fine. Just, Bendy?"

"Uh huh?" The aforementioned devil grunted as he made his way back over to the wolf. The pipe suddenly being proffered to him caught Bendy off guard for a moment, his eyes snapping from it to the taller toon's face.

"B-Boris, I can't, y'might need it-."

"No, y'need it more, Ben. It's okay, y'can take it." Boris pressed, pushing the pipe into Bendy's hands. For a moment, the devil looked about ready to give it back, though the wolf took his hands away, crossing his arm in front of his chest. "Not takin' it back. 'Sides, 'm bigger. Y'can use the extra help."

"I can still reach your knees with this, pal." The tone was somewhat ruined by the grateful smile starting to form across Bendy's face. Something that Boris was starting to mirror even as he fired back with a quip of his own.

"Really, t'my knees! Y'must be gettin' taller Ben, last time y'said my ankles."

"Yeah, think I can get your shoulders if I jump?" Bendy's mirth at the banter was dampened somewhat when the sounds of something splashing about echoed from somewhere, the noise causing both toons to stop and peer about fearfully as though something might leap out of the shadows in the next few moments. Albeit, once those few moments had gone by with nothing, the pair leapt back to their senses, continuing on at a brisker pace down the hall.

To their surprise the space did open up to a somewhat wider room, some parts blocked in with wooden boards arranged like walls for booths. On both sides were at least four knolls, with a hallway leading on beyond. In the one nearest to the door, another projector cast an image onto the wall.

Walking past showed a flickering image of the title card for the short, 'Tombstone Picnic'. The name stirred a memory to life in Bendy's mind, not really much, but he distinctly remembered sitting and watching as his animated counterpart on the screen was backed into a corner, with the shadow of something tall and humanoid falling into view. There were whispers all around him and Boris, Bendy catching snatches of phrases like 'was that your shot?' and 'no, maybe Henry did that one', though the animator looked just as confused as the rest of them, as the picture skittered to a blinding white halt. When Bendy had asked after it, Henry had told him that no, he hadn't been the one to do that particular shot, but maybe someone else had and just didn't want to come forward given that that had been where the reel had broken.

Not that Bendy really could say he understood what that would have had to do with it but then again, considering how tense Joey had been following that whole thing the devil could understand why they might not have wanted any attention drawn to themselves. Besides, judging from the odd lumpy shapes he could see poking through the ink, illuminated by the light of the projector, it seemed as though he had to…get to work, as it were. Even though the very thought made his nerves wrench, Bendy still tried to take a steadying breath, turning to Boris.

"Boris, wait 'ere, okay?"

For an instant, the wolf looked ready to protest, before catching sight of the shapes, and noticing where Bendy was turning to go. Even though the sight hardly banished the tense lines from Boris's face and stance, he still remained quiet, giving the devil a nod.

Bendy took that as his cue to slosh as carefully as he could over to the downed corpse, immediately catching sight of an oval piece shiny with both ink and metal, partially resting on a hand just above the dark floods. The devil's hand trembled as he reached out, gingerly closing around the organ, and immediately realized a problem. He had no more room in either of his pockets, how on earth was he going to carry this, or any others they might find?

The possibility of Boris carrying it in his pockets occurred to him, but as soon as he thought of it Bendy dismissed the idea. Even if the idea of having a disembodied heart in his pocket didn't send the wolf into another panic, Bendy knew he didn't want Boris to have to deal with any of what he was currently dealing with. That still left him with his earlier problem though, and 'Alice' might be more willing to step up on getting them out if they brought her more than just two…

Casting his gaze about for a moment, Bendy's eyes lit on the scarf wound around his neck, and an idea started to form. Winding it off, the devil carefully placed the heart inside the loop of fabric, using it like a sling to carry the load at his side. Well, score at least one victory for them, even if Bendy couldn't say that it felt like much of one…

Turning back to Boris, the smaller toon couldn't help but note the faint, worried look that flashed over the wolf's face for an instant, though it lightened a little at being able to see Bendy's own expression. Passing a faint grin back, the devil decided then and there that he'd made the right decision by not having Boris help him with this one.

The rest of the room was much less illuminated, though Bendy could make out the familiar shape of a Lil' Miracle Station sitting past a divider, tucked away in the corner of its knoll. The fact that they were around was…well, something of a boon, better to be able to hide somewhere rather than outrun Norman. The guy did have a fair longer stride than him. Boris might be able to make some headway though…Even still, the devil did not want the wolf to meet with the Projectionist.

Then again, he'd felt that way about Sammy too, and look how that had turned out…

Bendy peered about as they started to walk towards a short hallway, noticing the knolls to either side and feeling something sink as he realized what probably lay in the ink inside them.

"Boris…hold on…" The devil murmured, just loud enough for the wolf to hear.

"Bendy, what's wrong?"

"I..It's okay, just keep an eye out, alright?" Was all Bendy could offer back, not giving Boris too long to puzzle out what was happening before skirting to his left, moving carefully to check for a heart on the corpse he could only just see collapsed in the ink. What he wouldn't give to have that clunker of a flashlight, at least he could've gotten this done a lot quicker…

Still, the search turned up nothing, and Bendy turned his attention to the knoll across. Boris didn't say anything as the devil sloshed through, though Bendy didn't make much effort to meet the taller toon's eyes. Not to mention that this time, the devil's luck paid off…at least somewhat. After a bit of fumbling, Bendy managed to get the newfound heart nestled in his scarf with the other, holding it close to prevent anything from falling out.

Turning back to Boris, Bendy was almost a little relieved that he couldn't quite make out the expression on the wolf's face, if only for the fact that there was a part of him that was somewhat convinced that his pal was going to…to hate him or something. It seemed like a reasonable assumption given that, really, what was he doing here that wasn't a sort-of replication of what 'Alice' did upstairs? The only difference in his case was that the toon in question was already dead.

"Bendy…y'okay?" Boris mumbled, leaning carefully down to look the devil in the face. He probably had a somewhat better vantage point given that the light was pointing in Bendy's direction.

"Sorry, 'm…" For a moment the small toon was torn. On one front, he was internally berating himself for the apology, how could he think that would even make any part of this better, how was Boris in any better a situation with him here? And, on another, he couldn't say the last word. He couldn't say he was fine, because nothing was fine, hammering in the fact that this whole situation wasn't fine, that nothing was going to make it fine, and it's your fault, you're the one everyone's trying to get-.

"Bendy." The wolf broke through the emotional miasma, crouching down to look the smaller toon in the eye. With the somewhat closer vantage point, Bendy could see Boris's expression a little better. The wolf didn't look angry, or even remotely close to the hateful, accusatory cast that Bendy's mind had painted him to have.

"I've said it b'fore, an' I'll say it again, y'don' gotta be sorry. This ain't your fault."

And, even though the words helped to ease some of the smaller toon's misery, he still had to push a little, he had to be sure. And heck, what else could he do at this point but touch on the stuff that was digging into his nerves?

"E-Even with this? Don' think 'm that great a pal anymore if I keep gettin' you int'situations like this. Guess I ain't that smart, can't…can't even figure a way out of here without needin'…her…" The admittance almost felt like a punch in the gut, Bendy's face turning downward even as he emphasized his point with a shake of his ink-stained scarf, still bundled up around their not-so-precious cargo.

"We're both kinda stuck, Ben. 's still not your fault." Boris fired back, reaching around the devil's smaller frame and drawing Bendy into a hug. "An' you're plenty smart. Y'figured out what she wanted every time, didn'tcha?"

"Yeah, but I still don't see a way outta here."

"Maybe cause there ain't one down here. Doesn't mean we won't get another chance, Bendy." Boris pointed out. "We just gotta keep an eye out for it."

"Alright, alright pal, y'got me there…" Bendy conceded, nodding against the wolf's shoulder before opening his eyes and making an observation.

"Yer tail's gettin' ink-logged…"

"I'm…very aware a'that, thanks, Ben." Boris drawled back, though Bendy felt some of the tension unwind in his center at the lighter, teasing tone to the wolf's voice. Giving the smaller frame one last squeeze, Boris stood back up, a faint smile visible on the canine muzzle. One which Bendy echoed as he turned his attention back to the maze.

"C'mon, let's hurry up an' get on with this." The statement was punctuated as Bendy turned towards the darker halls, Boris stepping up to be next to the devil as they continued on. The only rub was, even in the low light, both toons could see that the hallway forked up ahead. But with the darkness it was hard to see where either of them went.

"…Think with mazes you're always s'posed t'go t'th' left." Bendy murmured, putting his scarf-laden hand to the corresponding wall and using that to help him head forward. But before he could go too far, Bendy reached back, only proceeding when he felt Boris's longer fingers grasp his other hand. The pair continued round the corner, and laid eyes on another projected screen, this one of the toon wolf himself with what looked like the picnic basket on his head.

It could have just been the suddenness of the image, what it contained, or some combination of the two, but a laugh slipped out of Bendy's mouth at the sight, a quick glance up confirming that yes, Boris had heard that, and that while he'd been surprised at the image, the wolf found it more wearisome than funny.

"Laugh it up, Bendy. 'm pretty sure y'had some embarrasin' moments in the shorts." Despite the words, the tone was entirely too light-hearted for the devil to take it seriously. It let Bendy fall back into some of the banter he was more familiar with, even if his witticisms needed to be aired out after thirty years.

"Yeah, but I don' think anythin' I did comes close t'that level'a-."

"Bendy, shh." The taller toon abruptly said, cutting off the devil's reply. For a moment, Bendy was about to fire back with a line about how his jokes weren't that bad before the tone registered, a harsher, low rumble that signified that something was not right.

It was only then that Bendy noticed that Boris's ears were pricked up, listening to something that the devil hadn't noticed. Though in the near silence, it was much easier to hear what the wolf had picked up on; the faint sounds of ink sloshing about, being churned by what sounded like a set of feet. The noise echoed a little too much to be sure of where exactly it was coming from, but Bendy watched as Boris's head turned to look off to their right and started to pull at the wolf's hand. Though their attempts at sneaking were not as quiet as either of them liked, the ink around their ankles seeming to forbid any efforts either mustered, they did manage to get to the end of the hall, a small knoll cut in the wall with a divider blocking part of it from the rest of the hall. Reasoning that the wooden barrier might be a good spot to hide in, and perhaps there might be a booth inside, Bendy tugged on Boris's hand to get the wolf to follow after him.

Albeit, while the knoll was certainly a good place to hide, as if they stood still enough the pair could easily blend into the ink stained wall, Bendy had been entirely incorrect as to what was there. It was something that he had a minute warning to when he realized that firstly, there was no booth tucked away behind the boards, and secondly, his foot had just brushed up against something a little too soft to be a part of the wall. Swallowing, and peering down in the dark, Bendy felt something in his chest sink at the faint outline of something just a little bigger than him in the ink. A faint squeeze from Boris's hand told the devil that the wolf had noticed the corpse too, either by stumbling over it like Bendy had or by simply looking down. The taller toon did have better night vision between them, after all…

Squeezing the wolf's hand back, Bendy's eyes happened to catch sight of something somewhat oblong and faintly shining in the dark, held just a little over the level of the ink. Trying not to think too hard on what he was doing, the devil let go of Boris's hand, scooping up the object that was only a little bigger than his fist. Levying it into the sling with the other two, Bendy listened to the area around them, realizing that he couldn't hear any more noise. Albeit, his caution was being somewhat overridden by the desire to get himself and Boris out of the corner, and the wolf hardly fought with the devil hurrying him back out into the hall.

Yet, the toons were so engrossed in trying to get down the hall they missed the faint sounds of ink sloshing around behind, until the sudden light of the Projectionist landed on them. The pair only had a moment to register the glow and what it meant, before a noise roared through the hallway and made them both jump out of their skins. Completely debilitated from the echoing screech, Boris was completely unprepared to defend himself as the towering figure descended on him and wrapped one hand around his shoulder hard enough to bruise, and another hand around his throat.

The Projectionists's momentum knocked the wolf over, the only thing keeping Boris from falling into the ink was the fact that he was being held up by his neck and shoulder. Even though his air was getting cut off by the inky fingers squeezing his windpipe, Boris hesitated in striking the once-man, instead trying to push at the hulking monstrosity's shoulders and hands.

"M-Mr. Polk, pleas', 's Bor's!" But, despite the sputtered words, the Projectionist's grip didn't loosen, the slimy hand clenching over the dark fur as the wolf was shaken like a rag doll.

Bendy, who had been knocked to the side when the Projectionist had thundered forward, finally managed to flounder out of the ink, wiping the thick liquid from his face just in time to see Boris be pushed to his knees, the Projectionist looming over the wolf's crumpling form. And, even though he could only just get enough air to breathe, Boris still fought to speak to the man he'd known, trying to reach some part of the projectionist that he remembered.

"N…Norman, pleas'…"

But the wheezes could barely be heard over the screeches the Projectionist was making, Boris's vision starting to darken at the corners. At least, it was until the former Norman Polk abruptly let go, rearing back with a fresh scream of noise as his legs crumpled under his weight. The culprit of the sudden weakness was clutched in Bendy's hands, the devil only sparing a moment to view his handiwork before attempting to pull Boris to his feet.

"B-Boris! Boris, c'mon pal, we gotta go-!"

The wolf was definitely more than a little unsteady, though he was able to get to his feet, peering through the darkness at the Projectionist, who was still flopping around in the ink as he tried to get to his feet, the monster's kneecaps both more than a little banged up from the lead pipe.

Grabbing Boris's hand, Bendy pulled the wolf into a splashing amble down a hall, thanking his lucky stars when he happened to catch sight of a booth in the corner of the next room. The screeching of the Projectionist began to fade the instant they drew out of sight, but neither toon slowed in their mad dash for safety. Once the door was closed behind them the pair quieted down, listening with racing hearts to the sounds of the Projectionist as he lumbered by, the ink monster once more placid and quietly roaming the halls.

For the two toons nearly hyperventilating in the confines of the Lil' Miracle Station, calm was a little harder to achieve. Standing on the bench, Bendy watched as the outline of the Projectionist slid by, before turning to Boris. The wolf had quietly curled up as small as he could on the edge of the bench, legs pulled close to his chest and his face buried in his knees. It was also not so dark that the devil couldn't make out the fact that Boris's shoulders were shaking every moment or so, a faint, hitching note entering the wolf's breathing.

Yet it was only until he was sure the Projectionist was gone that Bendy felt safe speaking, shuffling carefully to peer down at Boris's face just in case the wolf was a little too far gone to accept a hug.

"Boris, pal, you alright?"

Immediately after it was out of his mouth, Bendy felt stupid. Of course Boris wasn't fine, Norman, or what used to be Norman, had just tried to throttle him. On top of this and Sammy, the devil could entirely understand if the taller toon needed a good cry, or wanted to stop this entirely. Boris had looked up at the sound of Bendy's voice, the devil able to see how wide the wolf's eyes were, and how tears were still running from them in rivets.

Even though a part of Bendy wanted to leave well enough alone, the devil had to concede to push further, especially with the memory of the Norman's hand wrapped around Boris's neck so fresh in his mind.

"Boris?" Bendy asked, continuing once it seemed like the wolf was listening to him. "Pal, are y'hurtin' anywhere?"

At the somewhat hesitant pause, the devil couldn't help but wonder if Boris was still not all there enough to respond, though the thought was immediately chased from his mind as the taller toon gingerly nodded, hands shakily indicating his neck and right shoulder.

"Can I see?" Was asked next, and at the more present nod, Bendy leaned into Boris's space, smaller fingers quietly feeling out the skin under the dark fur. Not that it was really any mystery as to how bad the injuries were; Bendy hardly had to touch the spots to notice the puffy bruising under the fur. And, judging from the way Boris squirmed at the contact, it certainly wasn't painless.

"B-Bendy?" Boris whispered as the devil abruptly took his hands away and started rooting around in his pockets.

"Just gettin' y'some ink, pal. We better take care'a that now, while we got the chance. We'll figure out what to do in a bit, okay?"

Though there was a part of Boris that desperately wanted to leave, run clear out of this maze of things that died like he had and once friends that thought nothing of strangling him to death, he knew that Bendy had a point. Besides, rushing haphazardly out into the open certainly wouldn't do them much good, especially without having some idea as to where Norman was. The wolf managed to rise out of his thoughts just in time for Bendy to finish fumbling with the contents of his pockets, finally coming away with an inkwell that he unwrapped from a slightly stained piece of fabric. The devil cracked the top off, handing the bottle to Boris with his best attempt at a smile in his tone.

"Here you go, pal. Take what you need, alright?"

The wolf's hand trembled slightly as it closed round the glass, carefully lifting it to his mouth and taking only a few small swallows. The taste alone made Boris shudder, reminding him too much of the inky reek that clogged his nose, the dark trails that surrounded Sammy's melting form, the way Norman's hand had felt when it wrapped around his neck…

Bendy's hand taking the inkwell away snapped Boris from his thoughts, the wolf watching a little numbly as the small glimmer of glass was rewrapped and put back in the devil's coat pocket. Seeming to notice the taller toon's gaze Bendy turned his attention back to Boris, expression falling a little before the devil tried to rally and bolster the wolf.

"Hey, I gotcha, Boris, alright? I'm here, promise, 'm not goin' anywhere."

"Okay." The taller toon rasped, Bendy unable to hide a wince at how worn Boris's voice was, also noting how gingerly the wolf settled himself on the bench. However, groggy though he was, the instant Boris noticed that his frame even while scrunched up was taking up the whole bench, he tried to shift around to give Bendy more room.

"'m sorry…"

"It's fine, Boris, I can stand fer a bit. Y'need the space."

Perhaps the wolf would have argued more, if his injuries coupled with the lethargy from the ink weren't weighing him down. Still, he had enough coherency left in him to reach around to grab at Bendy with the hand of his uninjured arm. The devil didn't seem to care, even clutching back at the wolf's fingers even as his other hand came up to ruffle the fur on Boris's head.

"Hey, hey, it's fine, don' worry, pal. 'm stayin' right here, I'll be right here when you wake up, promise."

The last thing Boris registered before blackness rose to meet him was the feeling of his face trying to pull into a grateful smile, Bendy's expression doing the same.-

-And he stumbled into a familiar, stately office, the smell of printed paper and candle wax filling his nose as the wolf quietly closed the door behind him, early morning grogginess vanishing at the sound of the knob clicking. For a moment, Boris wavered by the door, before Joey's eyes shot up to look at him, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk as he wrote on a piece of paper.

"You can sit down, Boris, I will be with you in a moment."

Quickly taking the seat, the lanky toon peered around at the shelves lining the walls, the sheer number of books boggling his mind as he tried to guess what his creator could want with them all. Joey had, more or less, absently explained to him yesterday that books were a way of telling things, holding information so that others could have it for themselves.

Well, if that was the case, Joey had a lot of information here in this one room. But that still didn't explain what use the man could have with it all.

However, Boris didn't really have much time to think on that, given that Joey finished with whatever it was he was writing and put the pen down the paper facedown to the side. Straightening, the man calmly interlocked his fingers atop the desk, considering Boris through the lenses of his glasses.

"So, Boris, how do you like Bendy? I noticed you were both having a bit of a rough start yesterday."

"No, i-…I mean, I like him, he's very nice. We went down t'th' music department an' got t'play in th' big room with th' stage!"

Though the tone of the wolf's reply never wavered in its positive note, a faint flash of something passed through Joey's face at the word 'play', the minute expression of what seemed like unease giving Boris pause too once he'd caught it.

"W-Why…did som-what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Boris, though I do want to have a talk with you, about Bendy. Particularly about when the two of you play."

"…Okay." The wolf replied cautiously, the tone not hinting at any particular upset being directed at him, though there was something in Boris's memory that made him wary, a foggy feeling of weakness in his limbs as he was dragged across a floor, a whimper answered with a sharp 'oh quiet, I'm the one doing the work, Boris' before everything greyed out.

Not to mention the conversation they'd had once the wolf had woken up, about dangerous settings and things and I can't protect you unless you work with me, Boris, I need you to do that or I can't keep you safe.

Joey simply gazed at Boris for a minute, either studying the toon in front of him or gauging how best to present his argument. The studio head eventually took a breath before settling down to address the issue.

"Boris, when you play, I want you to be mindful about how you play with Bendy."

"H-How I play…? Why?" The wolf echoed, head tilting as he tried to puzzle out the meaning behind the statement, and why his creator would be making it. Bendy had seemed fine when they'd last seen each other, had he accidentally done something to the devil, what had he done wrong-?!

"Quite simply, please be aware of the fact that you are much bigger, and stronger, than Bendy, Boris." Joey elaborated, before continuing. "I noticed that Bendy had bruises on his legs and arms this morning. It may have only taken a little bit of ink to fix, but I would like to not have to dole out ink to him regularly because you cannot control yourself."

The idea that Bendy had gotten hurt while they were playing and didn't tell him was concerning, given that the devil seemed completely fine, even helpful last night when Boris hadn't been sure where to go to bed down for the evening. Unless, he'd been pretending to be? But why, why wouldn't Bendy say anything if something the wolf was doing was harmful…

"'sokay, Boris, you're the new guy, so things are gonna be weird for a bit 'till y'settle in. An' it's okay, I made plenty'a mistakes too." The half-remembered reassurance from Bendy flitted through Boris's mind, the whirling implications his mind constructed making him feel slightly rotten. Had Bendy not said anything because Boris was new, because he didn't want to draw attention to what was an honest mistake?

Well, mistake or not, Boris certainly didn't feel any happier about making it. Especially not when it got someone hurt, who, frankly, had been nothing but kind to him, even acting as a buffer for Boris and the other members of the studio for the evening when everything was too intimidating to directly interact with.

"…I'm sorry, Joey. 'm gonna be more careful, I promise."

"I certainly hope so, Boris. Simply because you resemble a wolf does not mean that you need to act like one."

The remark caught Boris completely off guard, so much so that he had no response. He didn't…need to act like a wolf? What did acting like a wolf have to do with hurting Bendy? Unless what Joey was saying was that wolves…hurt people a lot…

Boris was put so off-kilter it took Joey a moment or two to actually get his attention, the studio head seeming to realize the impact his remark had on the young-minded wolf toon because he started to venture into a similar topic.

"Though, Boris, there is something that you could do…" At a still anxious but imploring look from the taller toon, Joey continued. "…perhaps you could look after Bendy, as I'm sure he does for you. You are, after all, bigger than he is, it would make sense to have you help and look after him when possible."

"Y-Y'think I can, Joey?"

"Do you want to?" The frank question caused Boris to pause again, completely unsure of how to answer. Albeit, Joey took pity on the poor wolf this time and elaborated. "Boris, if you want something, then by all means, pursue it. It's not a matter of whether or not you can, it's how badly you are willing to chase it."

The information made Boris's mind whirl again, this time more positively than before. He could do anything, as long as he was willing to put in the work to get it.

Though, for the moment, the wolf didn't want anything large or grand, he just wanted to keep what he had here. He wanted to keep Bendy okay, even if it was from himself. And if he could do that, then…honestly, he'd be fine with whatever else. Well, perhaps he could learn more about the instruments he'd seen being packed away in the music department. But for now, he'd stick with helping Bendy.

"So, Boris, was there anything else you needed to ask?" Joey's voice broke through the wolf's thoughts, Boris snapping to attention at the question.

"…No, Joey. I'm fine. I-I'll keep an eye on Bendy though, an' I'll be very careful with 'im, I promise!"

But, contrary to Boris's own faith, his creator simply looked at him for a moment, seemingly unimpressed with the wolf's declaration. Though, just as Boris started to falter again, the studio head spoke up.

"Boris, I admire your conviction, but if you want me to believe you then you have to show, not just tell me, that you are serious. Promises mean nothing without action behind them."

Oh. It made sense, but the wolf couldn't help but feel like his nerves were being wrung out with all of this back and forth. Still, it looked like Joey was satisfied with the conversation, glancing down at the papers on his desk.

"That'll be all, Boris. You can go, just remember what we talked about."

"…Alright, Joey." Boris all but whispered, getting up from his chair and heading for the door, the scene shifting as he did into a familiar, well-loved room with musical sheets tacked up on one wall and drawings on another. Three cots were set up in the corners, two somewhat messily made ones closer together and a prim, neatly made one on the other side of a dresser. Sitting on the lone cot was Alice, the angel looking up from a book she was reading as Boris entered the room.

"Good evening, Boris!" Alice greeted, as proper as could be, though once she'd put the book down the angel practically raced to the wolf, coming just short of where Boris had stopped though the taller toon had already anticipated what the angel toon had wanted, holding open his arms so Alice could wrap her arms around his torso in a hug.

"Hey, Al. Did everythin' go well t'day?"

"…I-I think it did. Honestly, I'm not sure sometimes the way Sammy talks…"

But Boris was already shaking his head at the old worry, opening his mouth to verbally chase it away nary a moment later.

"Naw, Alice, trust me, if y'were doin' real bad, Sammy woulda said somethin'. Y'shoulda heard us when I was learnin' t'read."

"Were you that bad?" Alice asked, giving the wolf one last, grateful hug before letting go and walking with Boris back to the other end of the room. At the query, the taller toon couldn't help a somewhat embarrassed grimace from spreading across his muzzle, mind easily recalling those tumultuous first days when Sammy had taken on the wolf's schooling, after-.

Shaking his head, Boris elected to simply focus on what Alice was asking, rather than dwell.

"Th' worst. I still have trouble puttin' the longer words t'gether, but Sammy didn' let me give up, or give up on me. No matter how many times I messed stuff up, neither. Trust me, if Sammy's tellin' y'stuff about your performance, it's cause he…he cares enough t'help y'improve. He said it better than 'm sayin' it, maybe we can ask him t'explain it."

But Alice shook her head, a quiet but no less bright smile forming as she replied.

"No, it's fine. You explained it pretty well."

The pair settled down on their respective cots, Boris sinking heavily onto his as the strain of the day caught up with him. Catching onto the exhaustion, Alice couldn't help but speak up.

"…Are you alright, Boris? Where did Sammy have you working, by the way? I hardly saw you at all today."

"Jus' movin' boxes 'n things. Though Sammy's been gettin' stretched thin again, 'cause we got a new song to finish up an' some'a th' band members…" Boris trailed off, unsure as to whether or not he should finish the thought. He didn't want to make the angel worry but judging from her expression the wolf had already said too much.

"What about the band members? Did…Did something happen?"

"Well, no, nothin' happened, jus'…some'a 'em aren' comin' back." The taller toon replied, letting his gaze drift downward as he busied himself with pulling his shoes off and setting them down on the floor next to the cot.

"…Who's not coming back?" Alice asked, hesitation and curiosity warring in the angel's voice.

"Ah, Greg, an' Frankie. An' Larry." Boris reported, the names of the three violinists rolling heavily off his tongue. He'd known them for about a few months, and while they'd initially been a little wary of the wolf, they'd warmed to him in time. Still, what they ended up not warming to was the workload and the haphazard work environment, from what Sammy had told him, which lead to them quitting.

"Oh…" The angel quietly replied, the wolf realizing that this was her first brush with someone leaving the studio. A few of the animators had walked out the day Alice was introduced to the staff, but given that she'd hardly known them it was hardly a blow. Boris…was somewhat more well-versed, and he knew that the conditions of the studio tended to upset folks.

Didn't mean that them leaving was all that great either, but the wolf certainly didn't want anyone to be where they weren't happy. Especially in cases where an injury was involved.

A knock sounded at the door, Boris pushing himself up and padding his way over before Alice could get up. Even before he opened the door, the wolf already had some idea of who it could be, given that it was past dinnertime and the majority of the animators, musicians, and other staff had gone home for the night. In fact, the only person who would probably be coming here, unless someone had gotten lost again, was-.

"Bendy?" Boris blurted out, eyes widening at the sight of the devil laid out in someone's arms. That 'someone' turned out to be Joey Drew himself, face strangely blank as he somewhat awkwardly handed the prone toon devil over to Boris, who had unthinkingly reached out for his friend. From what the wolf could see Bendy was completely insensate, limply dropping into his arms. Automatically Boris tried to press a hand to the devil's forehead, noticing with a new flare of worry that the smaller toon's temperature was a bit higher than it ought to have been. It was also then that the wolf picked up on an odd smell hanging in the air around the pair, mixing in with the smell of ink which dotted the studio head's sleeves and speckled Bendy's face and front. Something sharp, metallic, like nothing he'd ever smelled before…

"He's fine, Boris, he just got into something he wasn't supposed to. He may need ink when he wakes up but just keep him in here for now." The instructions said, Joey pushed past Boris to step into the room, forcing the wolf to shuffle away to avoid his feet getting stepped on.

"W-What's wrong with-? What happened?" Boris stumbled as he pinwheeled between trying to keep a careful hold on Bendy, staying out of Joey's way, gaining whatever information he could from his creator about Bendy's condition, and trying to catch a glimpse of the devil's face under a proper light. Quickly crossing the room, Boris carefully sat down on his cot with Bendy in his arms, the new perspective under a nearby lamp revealing the somewhat ashy features of the smaller toon's pale face, Bendy's expression pinched as though he were under some sort of unseen strain.

But Joey simply sighed, and reiterated.

"If you were listening, Boris, you would have heard me say that Bendy had gotten into something that didn't agree with him. I've already given him some ink but he may need more later." Though, for the most part, the studio head seemed to have completely moved on from the devil's current condition, instead choosing to rifle through the drawers of the dresser. What it was he was looking for became apparent a moment later when he turned to Alice.

"Alice, would you be a dear and get some inkwells from one of the offices? About three should do it." The angel had been peering closely at Bendy's face, though the sound of Joey's voice caused her to snap her gaze to her creator, only hesitating a moment before nodding and hurrying out into the hall. Though once she was gone, Boris took his hand away to get a closer look at Bendy and noticed that the flushed appearance to the devil's face wasn't the usual grey like when they got sick. In the light of the lamp, it looked faintly purple.

The observation did freeze the wolf's hands for a minute, but Boris still did his best to clean up the devil's face and front with a stray corner of a blanket. The sound of clacking drew the taller toon to the fact that Joey was hobbling back out the door, leaving both the wolf and Bendy alone.

"J-Joey?" The stammered call caused the studio head to still, and the way the man gripped his cane made Boris wonder if he was making a mistake. Still, his mouth worked before his brain could tell it to shut up. "Wh-Are you alright?"

The question seemed to catch Joey off-guard for an instant, before the man seemed to recollect himself and reply.

"…I'm fine, Boris, just look after Bendy. Also…" The man gave a heavy sigh, turning back around to face the wolf. For a beat Joey simply stared at the pair, one prone and the other growing confused and increasingly worried, before he spoke again. "…Boris, if Bendy wakes up and starts, babbling, don't worry about it or question him, you'll only make him more upset. Just give him some ink and let him lie down until this works out of his system, alright?"

"Okay, Joey." Boris's answer was more than a little tinged with concern, not that Joey seemed in the mood to address it. Hobbled down by his leg, and what seemed like a thick curtain of exhaustion, the wolf's creator limped his way down the hall, presumably back to his office, leaving the door open in his wake. Not that Boris really had any mind to get up and close it, instead focusing on the devil toon still cradled in his arms.

Bendy was still unconscious, the dark widow's peak still furrowed as though the small toon was worrying over something even while asleep. Remembering something that Henry had done when he and Bendy had gotten sick from spoiled food, Boris quietly rubbed his thumb over the devil's brow, smoothing it back into a calm arch. At the touch, Bendy's face relaxed before scrunching up, the light contact jerking the devil to wakefulness. Well, not quite wakefulness, Bendy's eyes still looked unfocused when they opened, peering about at everything from the room to Boris's face and not really seeming to register any of it. After a second, Bendy's expression morphed from bleary and confused to fearful and darting, line of sight zipping all around the room as his limbs twitched in a somewhat uncoordinated attempt to move.

"'s still watchin', th'-th' walls 'r swimmin' roun'…" Bendy slurred out, the words worrying Boris before he remembered what Joey said.

"Ben, Bendy, 's alright, you're okay-."

"Boris, is he awake?" Alice asked as she came back through the door, though the angel wasn't alone. Following right behind her was Henry, the animator close to resembling a raccoon from exhaustion but worry keeping him awake enough to peer around the doorway, relaxing a little at the sight of Bendy awake in Boris's arms.

The presence of the two did bring some calm to the wolf, as, well, Joey might be busy, but Alice had come with ink, so they could do as their creator had said, and, well, Henry was Henry, and the animator had a way of making things better.

What Boris didn't expect, though, was for Bendy to tense up in his arms, the devil going stiff as a board at the sight of Henry. The animator too had paused, expression turning unsure at whatever he could see in Bendy's face.

"Bendy…?" Henry asked, voice calm, cautious, but with a faint undercurrent of worry to it which had Boris feeling a little nervous himself. So much so that he spoke up.

"Ben, 'sokay, buddy. It's just Henry." The wolf quietly reached up and rested a hand on Bendy's head, about to start kneading around the smaller toon's horns in the manner that he knew would calm the devil down, but just as the Boris's fingers made contact Bendy jerked with a gasp, head spinning around as he tried to see where the touch had come from. The sudden reaction made Boris tense up too, immediately drawing his hand away. Though at the sight of the frightened, if still very groggy expression on Bendy's face the wolf forced himself to relax, focus shifting entirely to Bendy to calm the devil down. Carefully he changed positions to prop Bendy up against his chest, rubbing circles into the smaller toon's back.

"'s okay, Bendy. 'm right here, nothin's happenin'. You're okay."

"B…Boris?" Even if the devil's voice was slurring with tiredness, the fact that he had enough of his wits about him to remember the wolf's name at all was heartening enough to Boris, who smiled faintly as he continued hugging the smaller toon close. Hearing Henry come around to the side of the cot with Alice in tow, Boris glanced up at them just in time to see the angel hold up an inkwell, a questioning look on her face. Giving a thankful smile of his own Boris reached for the glass jar, keeping a careful hold on Bendy with his other arm.

"Hey, Ben, got some ink fer you, might help y'feel better."

The declaration did get the devil to focus some, though it was a long few moments before Bendy actually nodded, shakily reaching for the inkwell. Already spotting a problem between the fact that Boris's hands were mostly occupied and Bendy's general unsteadiness, Henry quickly reached over to crack the top off the little glass, the motion making the devil jolt and Boris stiffen up in kind.

But before the wolf could think of anything to say to calm down the smaller toon, Bendy's hand cautiously reached out for the inkwell. Henry seemed to think better of directly handing it to the still-shaky toon, instead keeping the small, gloved hand steady with one of his own while Bendy drank. Though Bendy allowed Henry to help him, the devil's frazzled, paranoid stare didn't quite go away.

"H-Henry…?" Bendy spoke, voice a little ragged to Boris's ears.

"Yes, Bendy?"

"W-Were you, was…" The devil almost seemed to lose track of what he was saying mid-thought, blinking hard before continuing to talk. "…W-Were you, goin' away, you weren' leavin', right?"

"N-No, Bendy. I'm not leaving or going away." The man replied after a moment, a little caught off-guard by the question. Almost as though to give some physical grounding to the reassurance, Henry reached over to knead around the devil's horns, the motion causing the small frame to quietly relax inch by inch as Bendy's eyes took longer and longer blinks.

"Yeah…shoulda figured…wasn', wasn' rea-." The devil slurred, sentence cutting off with a large yawn that seemed to snap whatever threads that anchored the small toon to the waking world. Before Boris knew it, soft snores were drifting up from the devil tucked against him, a sense of calm settling back into the room.

Still, with the wolf's own exhaustion from before starting to seep back in, it wasn't long before Boris's own eyelids started to drift closed. At first, he jolted himself back awake, something that Henry noticed straight away.

"It's alright, Boris, I'll stay up and keep an eye on Bendy, you get some sleep."

"Y-Y'sure, Henry?" The taller toon forced out through a yawn, able to recall even with a foggy head how tired Henry had looked when he'd first come in.

"I'm sure. Alice, you should be getting to bed too."

The angel didn't fight the animator on the topic, instead simply putting her halo on her side of the dresser and settling down under a blanket. Henry grabbed a chair in the interim and made sure she was well and truly bedded down for the night. Boris eased himself back into his cot, letting Bendy use his chest as a pillow and watching with bleary eyes as Henry came back around to sit. Still, there was one thing that the wolf had to do before surrendering to slumber himself.

"G'night, Alice." Boris said into the quiet, not needing to wait long to hear the angel's warm reply.

"Good night, Boris. Sleep well."

And, then the pair hit an odd pause, as this would usually be where Bendy would either wish them both goodnight or make some sort of mock-gripe about the pair making too much noise. Still, even though the devil was already out like a light, Boris felt that at least they should keep up the routine. However, in the hush following the pair wishing the devil a good night, a shared, somewhat mischievous thought went through the two, prompting them to both chime with a quiet but no less enthusiastic 'G'night Henry!'.

"Good night, you two. Go to sleep." The animator replied, mock-sternness warring with amusement in his voice as Boris finally slipped off into slumber.

Suddenly, however, the wolf wasn't lying back on a comfortable, well-loved cot. Instead he was partially cramped into someplace that reeked of rotten wood and ink, faint twinges running through his muscles as they tried to deal with the shortage of space.

Boris's eyes cracked open, slowly at first, though the fact that Bendy was gripping his arm tightly made him rise to wakefulness with as much quickness as he could muster, questions already starting to form in his mind.

"Ben? Wassama-?"

A hand suddenly reaching up to clamp over the wolf's snout made him cut off entirely, awareness fully snapping to life at the gesture and what it could mean. It was then that the taller toon's ears picked up a sound, just low enough to almost fit into the ambiance of dripping ink and far-off projectors clicking away nearby. It was a sort of wet, slithering noise, like two soaked things sliding together. As the pair listened, it passed right-to-left in front of the booth, heading off into the hallway beyond before fading out entirely. Still, Bendy waited a few minutes before turning around to address Boris, squinting a little in the semi-darkness as he tried to study the wolf's face.

"How're you feelin' pal?"

"…Fine." Boris replied a slight rasp clearing from his voice as he spoke. Though the wear in the wolf's tone made Bendy wince, the devil quickly pulled his face into a grin.

"Alright, but I think we wanna hurry up and get outta here. Gettin' a lil' too noisy."

Boris was about ready to agree with the devil when an odd sound caught his ear, a faint creak of aged hinges. Over the devil's head, Boris caught sight of a widening slit of inky black appearing at the door, the slab of wood making only the smallest of squeaks as something pulled it open. Before he could even think to call Bendy's name, something gave the back of the smaller toon's jacket a yank, quickly pulling the devil from sight with nary enough time for Bendy to gasp, nevermind cry out.

"BENDY!" Boris shouted, immediately flying out of the booth, just in time to see the hint of a dark shape disappear round a corner. Taking off after it, the wolf flew through hallway after hallway and around corner after corner, only just missing his quarry as it always seemed to be a hallway ahead of him. Even still, he could hear Bendy, doing everything from shouting the wolf's name to screaming insults at whatever had grabbed him, probably to make noise and let Boris know where he was.

Still, it would only be helpful if he was able to catch them…! The sudden loss of volume to the cries made Boris dash through the ink faster, shouting as he did.

"BENDY, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"BORIS!" The devil hollered back, voice pitching in fright. "HELP ME!"

Putting on one last spurt of speed, the wolf turned another corner and came back out into the alcove in the big room, feet stilling at the sight in front of him. The dark shape was a giant figure of ink, its frame almost too tall to have been fitting in the mazelike hallways. However, its limbs seemed nearly modular, whipping and moving about in ways that they should not have been able to. And the current focus of the monster was Bendy, the devil pinned by his wrists to the front of the statue, one of the creature's long, whiplike arms wrapped around the smaller toon and his larger, frozen-smiling counterpart.

Fear had flooded Bendy's features, though his vision still caught onto the flicker of motion that the wolf's arrival had bought, and immediately snapped to look at the taller toon.

"Boris, BORIS, WATCH OUT-!"

Before he'd even had time to be bemused at the fact that Bendy was worrying about him in this situation, Boris felt something slam into him from behind, sending him face first into the ink. Floundering to his feet, the wolf sputtered and coughed, insides twisting at the sudden, acrid, and overwhelming taste in his mouth, far greater than he would ever get from an inkwell. Just as Boris managed to get himself at least up over the ink, something grabbed at the straps of his overalls, flinging him onto his back a few feet away. Hurriedly scrubbing at his eyes, Boris cleared the grime and finally beheld what had knocked him over, the sight quickly causing ice to settle in his stomach.

For though the frame standing nary a few feet away was covered from head to toe in ink, the height was about right, and the face was clear enough that a pair of familiar dark eyes could be seen staring out from the dark floods. Perhaps, if the wolf cared to look closer, he'd see the faint hint of a familiar, grandiose-fueled smile only just hidden by the ink.

Still, the eyes were more than enough for some memory to click, Boris's throat suddenly very dry as he tried to speak.

"J-Joey…?"

"I told you…" Came a faint, gurgling whisper, almost in reply. "I told you I would never let you die, Boris…"

And suddenly it was moving, almost hurtling towards him at a speed that Boris would have not thought possible for something of its stature, frame jerking eerily about as it came at him. Through some instinct Boris threw himself to the side, avoiding the charge and nearly getting another reeking, gloopy face-full. Trying to keep his trembling limbs from fumbling too much, the wolf pushed himself to his feet, just in time to be grabbed round the arm, the other inky hand reaching for the taller toon's torso in a way that was too much, too familiar, with those eyes and that voice-.

The wolf gave a sobbing cry, twisting away from the hand reaching for him though he couldn't break the other's grip. A flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye snapped his gaze to the being holding Bendy to the statue, the longer prehensile limbs spiraling about and churning up the ink around the tall framed monster. Still, the devil hadn't seemed to notice, wide eyes watching the struggle between Boris and his respective creature.

"BORIS!" Bendy shrieked, though the wolf's eyes had focused on the way one of the long whip-like appendages of the thing had changed, looking a bit sharper and more rigid than it had a moment ago. The instant Boris registered the shift, the long, needle point rushed down, ramming straight through the ragged coat and impaling Bendy at the center of his chest.

Everything seemed to grow quiet, even the shifting of the ink around them was muted. Boris could only stare as the expression on Bendy's face changed from fear, to shock, and began to loosen, eyes rolling back as the lids started to close. The large figure started to vanish, the ink composing it dripping away into the slurry covering the floor. Albeit without that to hold him up, Bendy dropped to the floor, landing face down in the ink. And he wasn't moving.

Finally managing to throw the amalgamate away, Boris charged towards the prone devil, unable to keep from whimpering as he yanked the smaller form out of the dark floods. Doing his best to cradle the toon devil in an arm, the wolf shakily tried to clear some of the black slime away from Bendy's face, freezing as he realized that ink was seeping from under the bedraggled jacket and scarf.

"B-Bendy?" Boris whispered, voice creaking with raw shock as he took in the devil's slack, unconscious features, a hand shakily coming up to tap at the side of the small pale face. "Bendy, please, wake up, th-this isn' funny…"

A newfound wetness against his fingers alerted Boris to the fact that there was a new, rapidly-expanding stain on the front of Bendy's jacket, the cloth growing dark with the volume of ink leaking from the wounds. Immediately the wolf reached for Bendy's scarf, desperate for something, anything, to help stem the flow. But his hands were shaking so badly that all he was able to do was wad up the fabric and press it down on the wound. Still, even with the efforts, Bendy didn't move, wasn't waking up, why wasn't he waking up-?

Boris had just been about to call the smaller toon's name again, when the sounds of squelching caused his attention to snap to the amalgamate, who had stumbled to its feet and was turning in their direction. Trying to maintain his hold both on Bendy and to the scarf Boris scooted backwards, only remembering what was behind him when his back hit the base of the enormous Bendy statue.

However, instead of coming close, the amalgamate started to drip away into the ink under their feet, everything from the lanky frame to those horribly familiar eyes and leering grin running away into nothing.

The tension running through Boris's frame suddenly snapped with a visible jolt when a hand abruptly landed on his arm, the familiar feel and size nearly making the wolf start crying again with a mix of relief and worry. That is, until he looked down and locked eyes with Bendy.

The devil's eyes were entirely overtaken by black, though unlike the inky floods in the cavernous room, the darkness swirling about in Bendy's eyes were spinning with pinpricks of light.

"B-Bendy?" Boris found himself mumbling, even as a part of him couldn't look away from those eyes, could barely move until he realized that Bendy had, gotten up and pinned the wolf's left arm against the statue, quickly doing the same with his right. And, unlike any other time that they'd play-wrestled or rough-housed, Boris found he couldn't break the devil's grip.

Boris looked forward, staring at Bendy who was now standing in front of him, the devil's head lifting to meet the wolf's eyes. However, the instant the smaller toon's mouth opened, ink started to spill over his teeth and lips in a black river. At the same instant a spasm ran through the smaller frame, Bendy's hands convulsively squeezing his arms to the point where the devil's grip hurt. However, even though he couldn't help a pained yelp at the sudden pressure, Boris's heart leapt in his throat at the sight of Bendy vomiting what seemed like his own ink and the creaks and pops that started to rattle through the devil's frame. And with every one Bendy shook and jerked as though he were being struck, the wolf's worry and terror only compounded by the fact that it wasn't simply just noise, Bendy was changing.

The devil's frame was growing taller, limbs and body stretching to accommodate a longer stature. Boris could feel claws start to poke through the fingers of Bendy's gloves, the hands stretching out until the digits were longer than the wolf's own. Ink had also started to cascade down from Bendy's head as the dark horns grew longer and more curved at the ends, though the devil's eyes never closed or broke their stare at Boris. They were almost too wide, downright unreadable, the rest of Bendy's face almost frozen in calm blankness.

Was it even still Bendy? The thought made the bottom drop out of Boris's stomach, compounded by the sight of the devil's face pulling into a grin that was all wrong, too wide and not fitting at all with the still expressionless, dark, hypnotic eyes. Boris blinked hard, causing tears to spill over his eyelids and down his face. However, things were no better when he opened his eyes, the mere act of looking away causing the scene to shift. Now, instead of being a thick layer of liquid on the floor, the ink was more like a swirling whirlpool, forming a black vortex around the pair. Though that was hardly the end of the change. From the inky whirlwind shapes flashed by, vague suggestions of heads, reaching hands, perhaps a more detailed image of a face stretched in agony.

However, Boris's eyes were drawn by a flicker of motion at his and Bendy's feet, a hand and barest hint of a face forcing themselves through the gelatinous ink. What made the wolf stare was the fact that the shape of the nose, the longish fingers, it all looked just a little too familiar.

"S-Sammy…?"

The exact content of the reply was marred by the ink, but the voice is a dead match to Boris's ears. The mere garble of sound seemed to trigger something in the surrounding vortex, more voices joining the sounds of gurgling, swirling ink.

"…lord, lord please…"

"…help…"

"Where are they?!"

"Free, please, set us free…"

"Oh god, help me…"

"Make it stop…"

"-an anyone hear me?!"

"Please, someone…"

"Help me!"

The wolf almost wanted to cover his ears, do anything to make the cacophony go away but he could hear familiar voices and tones mixed into the deluge, coming and going too quickly for him to even think of forming words to call out to them. It hammered in now even more than ever that everything, everyone, Boris had known was gone, everything he'd ever known had been changed and warped and gone bad, it had all gone so bad-.

Boris was abruptly shaken out of his terror by a long, clawed hand landing on his head, steering him to rest his chin on an inky shoulder. Despite the sharp points, the fingers carded carefully through the fur atop his scalp, the gesture so painfully familiar the wolf couldn't help the name that spilled from his mouth.

"…B…Bendy?"

For a moment, there was no answer, though the moans from all around had quieted enough that Boris heard the rumble of sound that seemed to reverberate through his bones.

"You need to hurry, you don't have much time."

The words, despite the odd, rumbling tone mixing in with the devil's voice, caused something to loosen, the ink and open room swimming away as Boris half-fell, half-floated through space.

Right before he jerked back to wakefulness in a cramped, ink-reeking booth. For a moment the wolf was completely disorientated, limbs flailing about to thunk into the wooden walls. His lungs were working overtime, trying to draw oxygen from the fume-laden air, and feeling like the Miracle Station itself was far too small.

"Boris! Boris, stop, it's okay!" The hissed, familiar-toned exclamation made the wolf pause, though as he peered through the semi-darkness to his right his heart leapt in his throat as he caught sight of Bendy pressed back against the door, the wood itself parted just a slit with a field of black sitting beyond. The horribly recognizable image made Boris freeze, before reaching out as his jaw unclenched enough for him to speak.

"B-Bendy, look out for-don' st-stand there, its gonna-!"

Luckily Bendy didn't need much prompting before launching himself forward into Boris's arms, the wolf enclosing the smaller frame in a protective hug. Still, once a moment passed with no noise, no sign of anything coming through the door to get them, Bendy relaxed, confusedly staring up at Boris in the dark. Not that the wolf himself was able to offer much of an explanation, frame shaking like it was stuck in a localized earth tremor.

"Boris…?" The sound of his name did seem to get the taller toon to remember that the devil was present, Bendy just able to make out the way the wolf's head tilted down to look at him. Heart sinking a little as the shaking turned to more rhythmic, hitched sobs, Bendy reached up to clumsily pat at the wolf's head, trying to offer what comfort he could even though his left arm was somewhat pinned in between Boris and himself.

"It's okay, pal. I'm right here. It was jus' a bad dream, okay? I didn' go nowhere."

But the wolf was shaking his head, even though the overwhelming emotional surge had left him vocally lacking. Boris's mouth worked for a moment, trying to explain something about what was going on in his head before simply giving up and opting to cower even more, head partially resting on Bendy's. Managing to get his left arm free, the smaller toon quietly wrapped the lanky frame in a hug, stuck between wanting to offer more verbal encouragement, and listening on the off-chance that Norman was still patrolling outside. Because, well, after that, Bendy could easily say that they were throwing in the towel on this, enough hearts or not.

Boris had been through enough.

That thought in mind, after the wolf's sobs had quieted down, Bendy finally spoke.

"'s okay, Boris, it's alright. We're done, we're gettin' outta here."

"B-Bu'…what, what 'bout-?"

"She's just gotta deal. We're done. 'm puttin' my foot down. Not very imposin', I know, but it's the meanin' of th' thing." The last quip got a somewhat belated, watery smile, the sight further strengthening Bendy's resolve.

Getting out of the booth took a little longer than either anticipated, as with the encounter with Norman still fresh in both their minds made them wary. Still, neither wanted to stay in the maze, scurrying as quickly as possible for the next room. Boris was more than eager to leave, the presence of a door leading back out into the larger room a balm to the two toons. Though the calm mood really lasted only a second before the wolf caught sight of the towering Bendy statue and nearly picked the flesh and ink counterpart up in his arms with how fast he'd tried to hurry away. Not that the devil himself would complain, given that he wasn't fond of the things either, but the sudden fear did provoke enough curiosity for him to whisper a question once they got back to the catwalk leading up to the elevator and were heading up the last flight of stairs.

"Boris, you alright?"

Definitely not the most tactful, the smaller toon ruminated, but he wasn't sure how else to broach the topic. Still, the wolf was spared from answering when the intercom crackled from the lift, 'Alice's' voice easily carrying down to the pair.

"Tell me, were they still writhing in your hands? Bring them to me now! I don't like to wait."

Bendy was pretty sure he came close to biting his own tongue off when it came to holding in the diatribe that threatened to surface. Angry hollers about how if the angel wasn't satisfied then maybe she oughta try coming down to get the hearts herself stayed locked in the devil's vocal chords, even as his hands clenched angrily around the pipe and ink-logged bundle he'd made out of his scarf, and Boris's hand. He really only realized how angry he was getting when Boris gently squeezed back, quietly reaching over to press the call button for the elevator. Once the cage slid open, neither wasted any time in getting back aboard, pressing the button for Level 9. The sooner they got there, the sooner they could get rid of their god-awful cargo.

Still, the actual elevator ride was a relative cakewalk compared to the actual act of getting rid of the hearts. Boris had nearly not wanted to stay behind on the other side of the bridge once the pair had gotten up to Level 9, though Bendy forced the wolf to compromise by waiting right on the other end of the canal for him as he trundled up the stairs and to the chute. Only then did the devil realized how much of an ordeal this was going to be as he lowered his bundled scarf to the floor.

Looking at its contents in the light now made Bendy almost want to throw up again, his stomach flip-flopping threateningly as he shakily unpacked the three hearts from his scarf. However, he didn't dare give any sign of his stress away, not with Boris watching from just across the bridge. Instead, the devil loaded the metallic, inky organs into the chute one by one, trying not to look at them too long and taking deep breaths of air. It seemed to take an eternity, but long last, all were gone, leaving him to empty out the two in his pockets. In his haste to get the hearts out, the devil ended up draping his scarf over his shoulders out of habit, leaving him wincing and unable to fully suppress a shudder at the feeling of cold ink dripping into his coat.

By the end, Bendy was feeling more than a little off-kilter, the feeling of ink sticking to his gloves and on the inside of his scarf and pocket making him feel like his insides were squirming all about his frame in an effort to be rid of the disgusted horror they were being forced to endure. Distantly, as the last one tumbled out of sight, he registered the crackling of the intercom, and only just managed to work up enough presence of mind to rise above the dizzy, sick mire than had gripped his mind.

He just needed to breathe, just breathe and listen, he could do that much, at least…

"It seems like we've reached the end of my to-do list, my little errand boy. I hope you've enjoyed our time together. I'll always treasure it. Return to the lift. It's time to go home."

The words took a few seconds to register and immediately, Bendy's first thoughts were suspicion mixed in with relief. It was done, they were going, no more getting things or doing anything that upped their chances of dying, but…really? So easily?

Not that he was going to complain much about the chance to get as far away from the warped angel as he could, because well after all that some distance really was the best thing for everyone. Bendy's feet stumbled and shook as they plodded down the stairs, the devil nearly shambling to the end of the bridge and right to Boris, who quickly knelt with a worried grimace as he took in the smaller toon's ill pallor and shaky steps.

"'s okay." Bendy whispered once he was sure Boris was close enough to hear him. "Jus' get me on th' lift, please."

He didn't complain or squirm as Boris simply plucked him off the ground, the wolf holding the smaller toon close to his chest like one would a beloved stuffed toy. Instead Bendy just buried his face into Boris's shoulder, trying not to think about eviscerated toons, his best buddy with his ribs gleaming as the reek of ink and burning fur pervaded the air, Alice lying with blank eyes in a pool of ink, a half-formed monster staring at him with Henry's eyes-no, he wasn't going to give it an iota of thought, no matter how much it threatened to unseat his sense of dizzy stupor. Instead, he tried to focus on the feeling of familiar fur against the side of his face, a heartbeat gently pounding under a raised line of scar tissue, and the manner in which the taller toons arms wrapped firmly around the devil's smaller frame. It was almost exactly like he'd remember, on late nights when he'd been working with the animators or busy doing something for Joey, how Boris would simply end up carrying him to bed because he and Bendy both knew that the devil was done for the night, even if Bendy himself hadn't wanted to admit it.

It was safe, quite simply speaking, and after thirty years with all of the changes and recent horror, Bendy would take it.

It might have been all he had, but it was his, and the devil would fight for it. It was better, and infinitely more preferable, than decades filled with nothing but hunger, survival, and loneliness.

A faint creaking drew Bendy out of the distant calm, and he turned his face away from Boris's shoulder to take a look around. The wolf had walked onto the lift, the metal doors of the cage closing around them and the gears of the lift grinding with age as the elevator began to head up. The change coupled with the sound made some of the mire from his head clear, and though part of him wanted to pretend things were fine for a bit longer, Bendy motioned for Boris to put him down. Though a look of worry came from the wolf, he gently lowered the smaller toon to the elevator floor, entirely willing to let Bendy lean against him while the devil got his bearings.

However, as they ascended past Level K, the sound of the warped angel's voice filtering in through the speakers overhead made both grow tense again.

"Have you ever wondered what Heaven is like? I like to dream that it's quite beautiful."

The tone was almost whimsical, barely a hint of a threat in it anywhere, but the fact that it was coming at all coupled with the content had Bendy's hackles raised. The devil reached up to grab onto Boris's hand, the wolf's fingers quickly squeezing back in tense anxiety. Looking over, Bendy momentarily glanced to the manner in which Boris's head was slightly back with his eyes staring up at the ceiling, ears folded against his skull.

"A soft valley of green grass, blanketed by a warm sun. I don't think I'll ever get to see it." The tone of 'Alice's voice had not edged away from the whimsy, the warped angel sounding more like she had when she had been telling her little story a while ago, when she'd mentioned Joey's name. Still, while there had been some sort of sympathetic trembling to Bendy's insides, the tension still kept building in his muscles. However, letting in some form of rationality in alerted him to the fact that if there was a problem, he and Boris would have had nowhere to escape to. The lift was still rising, the stops had long since passed them by. Now only metallic walls ringed them on all sides, effectively trapping the pair in the elevator. Hopefully, she'd just say creepy stuff, and leave it at that…

"Are you ready to ascend, my little errand boy? The heavens are waiting."

Alright, still creepy but fine as long as it stayed that way. Albeit, the wording was giving Bendy an uneasy sense of premonition, causing the devil to glance up at Boris again. The wolf looked no less unnerved than he had a moment ago, though this time the taller toon seemed to feel Bendy's gaze, looking down and flashing the devil a look torn between a flickering attempt at a smile, and worry. Mostly worry.

However, before Bendy could address it, 'Alice's voice filtered back in over the speakers. This time though, instead of creepy soliloquies or comments, there was just a momentary hint of sobbing, before giggling laughter began to ring in the confined little space.

As she laughed, the lights overhead began to flicker, Bendy and Boris looking around and pressing closer together, fear curdling their ink as they tried to glean what comfort they could from the other's presence, and try to figure out what was coming next.

Suddenly the floor under them halted, and a bit from Mr. Connor's most recent audio log replayed through Bendy's mind.

'Someone's sure to end up falling to their death.'

"Oh no." The devil mouthed, pure panic lacing its way through his insides just as the lift jerked, and dropped. Over the pair's screams, 'Alice' continued through the intercom, voice rising in an incensed pitch.

"Did you really think I'd let you steal from me?! Do you really think I'd just let you go?! No, Bendy! I know who you are! And I know why you're here! And you will not stop what needs to be done!"

"I jus' wanted t'leave-!" Bendy hollered, his frightened plea cut off as 'Alice' continued to yell.

"Now come down and bring me back my Boris!" It took a moment for the exact content of the shout to register, though the mention of Boris's name dropped Bendy into a new level of shock. Numbly, he looked up into the wolf's face, Boris's terrified expression growing tenfold as the words and their meaning sunk in. The toons' eyes flicked back to the outside of the elevator as stop after stop flew by, the pair plummeting even further into the bowels of the studio. And, all the while, the warped angel continued to scream through the intercom, somehow managing to rise above the din.

"It's the most perfect Boris I've ever seen, and I want it! I need it. I need its insides so that I can be beautiful again!" The howl reverbed in time with the screech of the elevator, Bendy involuntarily passing Boris another look. Though this time he saw white streaks where there should have been black, and crossed-out eyes where there had once been pie-cut pupils. Shaking the image away—she can't take Boris, she can't have him she can't she can't-, Bendy raced to the button panel. But none of the stops would work, not to mention the fact that the metal was heating up from grinding against the sides of the shaft, sparks flying everywhere from the outside. Boris's hands soon joined his, though the wolf was forced to pull the devil away when the friction made the panel too hot to safely touch.

"Don't you understand? Don't you get it?! Give him to me!" 'Alice' continued to scream, Bendy only just now registering the shakes that ran through Boris's arms, which were still wrapped around him. The closer proximity also allowed the devil to more readily hear the shuddering gasps that the wolf was making, fighting with his own fear in order to simply breathe.

"Boris…!" The cry came almost too late, the wolf already stumbling back as the floor jerked and vibrated underneath them, putting them in the far corner though heat kept them away from touching the metal frame of the elevator. Instead Boris crashed to his knees, eyes squeezing shut as his ears tucked down, practically folding over Bendy as he was completely overwhelmed by both the situation at hand and something that the devil couldn't see. Bendy had no idea what to do. There was literally nothing that he could do. They were falling, in the elevator, and probably going to die. He had failed.

Though, despite the despair sinking into his ink, weighing in heavily with the fear, Bendy still latched desperately onto his pal, some relief flooding in when Boris hugged him tightly back.

"Or better yet, I'll take him!" 'Alice' screamed over the intercom, Bendy simply tried to ignore it. She was nuts, she'd basically just killed them both, he couldn't do anything to stop it, he couldn't do anything-!

But the presence of the taller toon, still shaking like a leaf around him did ground the devil some, enough that Bendy managed to change his grip on Boris so that the wolf's head was pushed into the shoulder of his jacket, exactly how it had been when they'd first entered 'Alice's grisly horror show. The devil didn't trust his voice to stay steady, heck, he barely trusted it to be audible, but he hoped the sentiment at least got through.

He was here, Boris wasn't on his own, and 'Alice' was going to have a hell of a time getting her twisted hands on the wolf if Bendy had anything to say about it. Well, she would if they survived this…

Speaking of, there was one last holler echoing through the intercom, Bendy tuning it just enough that he caught the words.

"Once…you're…DEAD!"

The screech of protesting metal gave way to an almighty crash, the last thing Bendy registering was being knocked away from Boris before he hit something hard, causing everything to go black.

"B-Bendy?" A faint nudge at the devil's shoulder caused him to rouse with a snort, behorned head blearily bobbing to wakefulness. For a moment, Bendy was confused and more than a little worried about the presence of the tall, wolf toon sitting to the right of him. It was only after he'd jumped and fallen over that he remembered what had happened that morning; the closet, Henry finding him, Joey's office, and meeting-.

"Bendy, a-are you alright? 'm sorry, I didn' mean t'scare you." Boris fretted, the wolf's hands hovering in the air as he was entirely unsure of how to proceed.

Geez, he almost couldn't be mad at the canid toon. It would just make him feel bad. Instead Bendy slapped on a more genial smile, if not a bit tinged with sheepishness at his somewhat over-the-top reaction.

"Don' worry about it. 'm fine. Just startlin' myself over nothin'."

The quip-like nature of the remark did tease a chuckle from the wolf, though with the ensuing silence, the faint sound of voices on the other side of the door became more and more pronounced. It was too muted for Bendy to make out what was being said, but there was the occasional rising in tone that the devil wasn't sure he liked hearing. Still, Bendy was hardly sure on how to deal with it, whether that be by talking over it so as not to hear or remaining quiet to get some hint of what might come through the studio head's office door. Luckily no one had been through the hallway yet…-

-At first, Bendy wasn't going to listen, but when he recognized the voice, and heard his name mentioned, he couldn't help but stop. That was Joey, but who was his creator talking to? It didn't sound like there was anyone else in there.

"Things will need to progress much faster. Henry and Sammy have been asking questions that you know I cannot answer without giving too much away, and the longer Bendy and the others are allowed near people, the more likely my plans will be compromised. Not to mention how often I find Norman creeping about the studio. Who knows what that old coot's managed to figure out…"

But, Bendy couldn't hear anyone responding to Joey. Perhaps, at the edge of his hearing, was a faint rumble, but given his years of being raised with the ink machine rumbling in the background the devil hardly thought of the noise as noteworthy.

"If you do want to be free, then you will do as I say." Joey replied to no one, voice harder and colder than Bendy had ever heard it. Still, the words made him reel a little. What was happening? Who was Joey keeping trapped? What did that have to do with him and the others? The tone was also unsettling Bendy, the way the man was speaking just seemed aggressive, wrong. Whatever Joey was planning, the devil wasn't sure he wanted any part of it.-

The two toons jumped when the door opened, not enough to slam but forcibly enough that Bendy could say without a doubt that he was thankful that they hadn't been sitting on the other side of the doorway.

The first out of the room was Joey, clomping out with his cane thunking a tense pattern on the floor, face like thunder as he seemed to take in the hall around him before looking to his right, down at the frozen pair. Before their creator could say anything, Henry quickly darted up to stand behind Joey, forcing words through lungs that hadn't quite gotten their necessary allotment of air.

"Joey, look, just let me handle it next time, alright?"

"I will take it under advisement, Henry." The studio head replied shortly, though a lot of the venom seemed to have been sapped out of his voice. Instead Joey turned his attention to the toons, though with his next words he still addressed the animator. "There's something I have to see to, do you want to perhaps keep them in your office for a bit? Shouldn't be more than a couple hours at the most."

Bendy tried not to read into the flash of relief that passed over Henry's face before the animator agreed, the pair hurriedly ushered down the hall-

-The corridor was dark, even foreboding after everyone had gone. Though this was opportune for Bendy, the dead silence sent chills racing up and down his spine, causing his tail to tuck close to his legs with the occasional tense flick. Part of him didn't want to be here, part of him wanted to go back to his room with Alice and Boris.

But he didn't, despite his worries, keeping his course to the office. Joey had already gone up to bed for the night, even though the toons were still awake. It was only when Bendy got there that he realized a problem with his plan, that he had neglected to think of how he would get the door to Joey's office unlocked. For an instant Bendy could have thunked his horned head into the wooden door in sheer frustration, before he took a breath and simply reached out for the doorknob. Despite a faint shake running through his fingers, he still managed to close them around the cool metal, giving it a twist and being utterly surprised when he heard the mechanisms click, the door creaking open.

For a moment, Bendy hesitated before going in, possibilities springing to mind when he considered what he might find. He hadn't heard any voices answering Joey during that sort-of conversation he'd overheard, but his creator had been speaking with someone. Had Bendy not heard anything because they were speaking too quietly for him to hear over the ink machine, or because they weren't able to speak at all?

The image of confronting something with no visible mouth and unblinking, eerily glowing eyes briefly flickered through the devil's mind, making him swallow and stiffen.

However, even with fear thrashing like a frightened animal in Bendy's mind, the desire to know what his creator was hiding, coupled with the harsh, shadowy words that had come from Joey's own mouth, pushed him over the threshold of the office, pushing the door partially closed behind him.-

At first, Bendy thought that Henry might have tried to take him and Boris to his own little office, which the devil figured might be a little cramped but from what he remembered his notebook was there, maybe he could show Boris while Henry was working.

But, when the animator kept heading down the stairs, the smaller toon was confused enough to try speaking up.

"Uh, Henry, where're we goin'?"

The question made the man start, expression murked with exhaustion as he turned back to look at Bendy.

"S-Sorry, Bendy, I wasn't…what was your question?"

For a beat the devil almost didn't want to repeat himself, more than a little off-put by Henry's demeanor even as the man tried to hide it. Still, he knew he'd likely look more than a little strange simply sitting on the question when he'd already said it. Not to mention Boris was watching from the sidelines, looking between Bendy and Henry with a similar, tense expression as the wolf seemed to be trying to deduce if there was indeed about to be a problem between the two.

"…Where're we goin'? Your office is on this floor, right?" Henry's confusion cleared notably at the clarification, though the faint flash of discomfort that went through the animator's features did not quite ease the nerves that were starting to squirm in Bendy's stomach.

"Yeah, though, I wanted to show Boris where the music department was. I thought he might like it. I'm sorry, I should have asked if you both wanted to go. Is this alright with you, Bendy, Boris?"

"Sure, Henry, I don' mind." Bendy spoke up, though Boris took an extra moment to answer.

"…Y-Yeah, sure, I don' mind." Initially, the devil might have found it a little strange that the wolf was copying him verbally, though the fidgeting that the taller frame was undergoing as Boris seemed to wrestle with some thought chased the observation from his mind and caught Henry's attention as well.

"Everything alright, Boris?"

Bendy frowned at the manner in which the taller toon's frame jumped a little at the question before shrinking in on itself a little, eyes staring at the ground as the long, dark ears folded back against Boris's head as his tail tucked close to the backs of his legs.

"Uhm, I-I jus'…'m sorry, I…I jus' wanted t'ask somethin'…"

"Well, I'll do my best to answer it." Henry lightly joked, a faint smile quirking the wolf's muzzle as Bendy gave a humored snort. "It's alright, Boris. You're allowed to ask questions."

"Oh, okay." The wolf replied, hesitation still heavy in his tone but with a definite note of courage present, just enough that he didn't stall too much before getting to the meat of what was on his mind. "What's a music department?"

"Where they make music." Bendy jumped in before Henry could answer, the animator closing his mouth for a beat at the interruption before letting out a snort of laughter.

"Yes, it's where they make music."

"But what's music?" Boris's question did cause both Bendy and Henry to stall, the former because he honestly wasn't even sure how to explain the concept of music, though Henry hardly seemed to have any reply for an instant, Bendy's eyes catching a faint flicker of melancholy surprise passing over the animator's face. However, it passed so quickly Bendy was nearly certain he'd imagined it.

"Music is…" Henry started, though he seemed to lack the proper means to explain the term. The animator visibly fumbled for a beat before seeming to come to a decision, a quiet smile gracing his features as he spoke. "It's…hard to explain. It would probably be a lot easier to show you, Boris."-

-The office was dark, nearly impossible to see into despite Bendy's best efforts. Even though part of him didn't want to go in, wanted to turn tail and hurry back to his, Boris's, and Alice's room, he knew that he'd come too far to run away. His creator was hiding something, something that made the devil's insides twist a little when he remembered what he could of what he had overheard.

Cannot answer without giving too much away…the more likely my plans will be compromised…

The more Bendy thought about it, the more he had a fair amount of unsettling questions circling round in his brain, with no one to get answers from. Henry was on the outside it seemed, as were his fellow toons. He was the only one that had some inkling of what might be happening. He should try to do something, find something to bring forward.

All he had was what Joey had said, which the studio head could easily beat down with words which would not convince Henry that something was wrong. Besides, if this was time-sensitive sort of thing, Bendy might not be able to wait for Henry to come in in the morning. He'd already stalled enough during the day trying to figure out what to do.

Even though the layout of the office was as familiar to Bendy as the back of his hand, he couldn't help but watch his step, feeling out every part of the floor as he inched around. There was only a faint bit of light shining from under the curtains behind the chair, concealing the windows that Joey seemed to like obscured more often than not. It was something Bendy hadn't understood, still didn't, but he wanted to keep his physical contact with anything and everything to a minimum. Not to mention, the memory of what had happened when Boris had accidentally messed with the studio head's books was starting to run through his mind again.

Still, while Joey had always been very strict about the toons not touching his books and the candles, he'd never mentioned much regarding the other objects in the room. Like the closet. And, as Bendy knew from experience, it was certainly big enough to hide a person. Probably at least three people if space wasn't a concern.

But the only thing the little devil was greeted with was a closet cluttered with boxes stuffed to the top with what looked like papers, the light too weak for him to really make out much else. The devil could also see the taller lines of what looked like a wheelchair shoved off into the corner, he remembered that from the time when Joey locked him in the closet following that prank. Still, there was nothing in there, no secrets, certainly nothing alive.

Come to think of it, maybe Joey had been talking on the phone, that would neatly explain why the devil hadn't heard anyone answering the studio head back. The thought sapped some of the tension from Bendy's stance, tiredness rushing in instead as his mind started to spin. Still, even if his creator had been speaking to someone over the phone, the language Joey had used was more than a little unnerving. His mind kept coming back to those words, hinting at secrecy and some sort of unseen trouble for anyone who tried to pull back the veil too soon.

Not to mention, that implicit threat in the latter half of what Joey had said; If you want to be free, you'll do as I say. And Joey had mentioned that it was going to compromise his plans to have the toons interacting with people, would that mean that they might be put in the same situation, or perhaps taking this mysterious person's place?

No, no, Bendy thought as he shook his head, trying to calm his thoughts down before he started to drip. Thinking like that wasn't going to help. He needed proof, he needed answers.

He needed to keep searching through what he could of Joey's office. Something noteworthy had to be in here somewhere. He just needed to either find it.

Cautiously the devil pushed the closet closed, wincing at even the smallest click the mechanisms made. Keeping his steps light, he padded around to the side of Joey's desk, trying to look over what he could of the stately, solid wood in the poor lighting.

The devil hesitated at touching the drawers, though his eyes managed to pick out a small, flattish shape tucked out of sight just under the border of the desk, only a few shades darker than the wooden floor it was resting on. It was only when Bendy drew it out from its hiding spot that he realized what he was holding, feeling a slight thrill of anxiety running through his ink at the sight; a dark-covered book.-

-The band seemed to be working on a song when the trio came down into the music department, the sounds of the instruments almost reverberating through the thin walls of the studio. A quick glance up showed Bendy that Boris's ears had perked up, eyes riveting down the hall where the melodies were coming from. However, though Bendy was not a regular to the music department, he knew that the actual band room was on the same floor as the one they were currently on, which is why when Henry's path took them to a set of stairs leading up the devil was a little confused. Once he and Boris had followed the animator up the staircase though, the plan in mind became a little clearer.

Henry had taken them up to the projector booth overlooking the musicians, and they had a perfect view of the band as they played. Bendy glanced up at Boris, noticing the wide, wondering eyes and careful attentiveness in the wolf's face. The taller toon leaned down a little, gloved hands gripping the edge of the booth as he tried to listen to every instrument and get as good a look at them as he could. To Bendy's ears, the music was like a living thing, bouncing and vibrant, making his feet tap at the wooden floor. It was almost inaudible over the symphony, though Henry peered down at the sudden movement from the smaller toon, a faint smile playing over his face to mirror the joyful grin starting to form over Bendy's as his shoes tapped in time with the beat.

Boris only looked away when he noticed that Henry was no longer watching the band, the wolf's head turning to see the devil hopping about to the rhythm of the music. The glee was somewhat infectious, a smile quirking the taller toon's face as he watched Bendy move about in an approximation of the jitterbug. Yet the moment was altogether too short-lived, the bliss interrupted by an oncoming clunking noise of someone coming up the staircase, the music dying down in the room below.

"Hen-?" Norman asked, stopping short at the sight of the two toons, particularly the towering figure of Boris, who were occupying his projector booth. Noticing the shock, Henry quickly jumped in to try to mollify the older man, just as a voice drifted up from the recording studio below.

"We're all ready down here, Norman, just-!" But whatever it was that Norman was supposed to do no one would know, as that voice fell silent too, along with the rest of the chatter in the cavernous room below. It didn't take Bendy long to figure out why, as while he was too short to be seen over the divider Boris was standing pretty much at the edge, and tall enough that he was perfectly visible. And, judging from how the wolf had turned, body language immediately shrinking in on himself as he took in the now completely quiet band in the studio below, he noticed too.

"Boris…?" Bendy murmured, voice astonishingly loud in the yawning quiet of the room. The slight noise seemed to break some sort of spell in the room, the devil hearing a few voices fire off with exclamations and disbelief alike. Boris leapt back from the edge of the booth, all but dashing behind Henry and Bendy to press himself to the far corner, as far away from Norman and everyone in the room downstairs as he could go. Henry quickly changed tact, quietly telling the projectionist that he would explain but he needed a moment before turning to go to Boris, Bendy hanging in the background and more than a little taken off guard by what was happening.

The wolf had huddled down in the corner as small as he could make himself, overall-covered knees drawn close to his chest as his ears pinned back. Still, he looked up as Henry came to kneel in front of him, appearing to listen to the animator's words.

"Boris, it's alright-."

But whatever Henry was going to round off with Bendy didn't quite hear, as someone called to the room at large in a tone that overrode the softer, more soothing timbre.

"Everyone, we're taking a break! Make sure you have your pieces memorized and we'll pick it up again in thirty!"

Bendy had a vague memory of the voice, but the clattering of people getting up and things moving around down in the studio chased the exact identity of the speaker out of his mind. By the time the noise cleared, though, Boris was looking a little steadier, getting back to his feet even though his shoulders were still a tense line.

Though as the clatter died down another round of footsteps came up the stairs, their tread light though the cause was on par with Boris and Norman in terms of height. Bendy's nonexistent nose nearly wrinkled at the slightly overwhelming smell of smoke coming from the man, whose long, dark hair partially hung in his face as he surveyed the scene. Despite some heavy shadows around his eyes, the newcomer looked no less intently at every single person present, Boris squirming a little and trying to edge behind Henry. Feeling a little indignant on the taller toon's behalf, Bendy moved to stand in front of the wolf, turning a hard look of his own up at the intensely-staring man. It did appear to take some of the edge off, the stranger's look softening a little as his eyes turned from the pair of toons to the animator standing next to them.

"Sammy, look, I…" Henry started, the sudden burst of speech causing both toons to look between the man at their side and the one still partly standing on the stairs. Norman, Bendy realized, had moved off to the side and was quietly watching the whole exchange from where he stood. "…I know I should have warned you, and I'd be happy to explain what I know of the situation, I just need a moment to get…"

The sudden trailing off got Bendy to glance up at Henry, noticing how the animator's eyes cut over to him and Boris before turning back to Sammy. Whatever meaning that had been implied with the look seemed to transfer over to the other man, the music director, Bendy remembered, with no trouble. Giving a quiet, somewhat drained sigh, Sammy replied.

"Alright. Given that downstairs is pretty empty at this point they can wait down there while we talk."

"I still have that reel of 'Sheep Songs' sittin' over there, Mr. Lawrence." Norman spoke up, causing everyone to jump. "They can watch that, if'n they like."

The name of the reel did stir something in Bendy's memory, mostly being that that was the cartoon that Boris himself had starred in, at least, the toon's animated counterpart had. It seemed like just the right thing for the wolf, so the devil tried to make eye contact with Henry when the man glanced over at him and Boris again, giving a grin and a nod.

"Alright, that's fine." Henry replied. "Just let me walk them downstairs, Sammy, and I'll be right back up."

"Sure thing." Sammy's answer was calm, even casual, though as Henry ushered the toons downstairs, the music director had one more thing to add. "Far be it from me to keep you from your kids, Henry."

The resulting, borderline annoyed sigh from Henry was echoed by a shadowy chuckle from Norman, Bendy looking back just in time to see a mock-innocent, joking half-smile flit over Sammy's face.-

-His hands turned the book over, trying to see if there was anything identifying about it that might explain why it had been tucked out of sight. Partially Bendy still had a very strong sense of 'WRONG' blaring in the back of his mind, though he figured that if he'd already dislodged the volume from where Joey had hidden it then the least he could do was figure out as much as he could. It took the devil a moment of fumbling before he remembered that the room was mostly dark, and despite his best efforts he certainly could not read with no light.

Shaking his head, Bendy turned to place the book in the thin ray of light coming from under the curtain behind the desk, straining to read the title in the soft glow. However, after a moment of squinting and even turning the book upside down just to be sure he had it the right way, he was forced to conclude that whatever the words were they were written in some language that he hadn't been taught how to read. He knew a little about other languages, Louie had spoken some Italian while he'd worked at the studio, and there were a gaggle of animators that had spoken some other stuff. Still, while he'd heard these other languages used, the devil had never been taught how to read them. Certainly not enough to recognize this.

The fact stymied Bendy, though after a beat of frustration the small toon concluded that should at least try to take a look at the book's contents; maybe there would be something, some sort of clue, that could be gathered from any pictures that it might have.

With barely any fanfare, Bendy flipped the book open, peering at what he could see. There was text seemingly scribbled on the first few pages, the look to it causing the devil to wonder if Joey had perhaps made this himself.

Well, if his creator was the one to make this, then perhaps he really did have something to hide if he was writing it in some completely different language. Not that it really helped Bendy much in knowing what that thing to hide was. The thought did occur to him to take the book and show it to Henry, but there was a twofold reason as to why that caused the devil's stomach to churn uncomfortably. One is that this proved that there was something to hide, but not what that was, and two, Joey might count this as one of the books that was off-limits. No, scratch that, Bendy knew Joey would likely count this as off-limits, that's why it was hidden.

It left him in a bind, honestly. How was he supposed to move forward from here?

A little desperately now the smaller toon flipped at the pages, trying to find something that wasn't the same cryptic squiggles. Maybe a picture, numbers, something in English? Catching sight of a blob of something that decidedly wasn't a paragraph of text Bendy stopped, letting the book fall open to the page he had seen.

On one side was more text, but on the other was a big, dark, blob of a drawing that took the devil a few moments to piece together in the low light. It looked like something tall and thin standing upright in a nearly black space, the entire body a few shades darker than the surrounding area. Yet as Bendy stared, something began to change about the image. Tiny pinpricks of white started to appear in the black, the dots swirling about over the page. The devil blinked hard, straightening as he rubbed at his eyes. Surely he had to be seeing things, pictures in books did not suddenly change of their own accord. Albeit, when he opened his eyes to look down at the book again, Bendy got another shock.

The whole picture was now moving, the black background and white dots spinning across the page in a strange sort of dance. He couldn't even see the figure that the picture had been depicting anymore, the devil trying to pick up the book to see if maybe the shift might get it to stop. He had to be overtired, the worrying had crackled his brain, he wasn't actually seeing-.

The feeling of something burning cold and slick traveling up his hands made Bendy start, though he quickly found that he could not move an inch. He couldn't put the book down, could barely blink or turn his head. But he could still see the manner in which the ink from the page traveled over the white of his gloves, and he could feel how it crawled up his arms and to his shoulders. The only thing more terrifying was the manner in which he could see the darkness and shadows start to swim out of the corner of his eye, a faint rumbling and chittering growing audible in his ears.

A terrified whimper managed to escape the small toon's throat as the crawling, freezing ink jumped from his neckless body to his head, soon coming to encase his whole cranium as the office began to fall away around him. Though he was unable to speak Bendy's mind screamed, crying out for someone, anyone, Henry Boris Alice Joey HELP ME PLEASE-

-The devil tried not to pass too many looks up at the booth. Over the clicking of the projector running he could just hear the quiet hum of voices, and could barely pick out who was speaking. Sammy was a little louder, as was Norman, Henry was barely audible. Bendy wasn't sure if Boris could hear what was being said, but the wolf kept his eyes riveted forward as the screen lit up with the title card. Albeit, Bendy wouldn't be surprised if the wolf was looking at it just for something to focus on. While the big studio room was empty, a fair amount of the band was milling about in the front room, and Henry's path had taken him and the monochrome pair through the small crowd. The conversations had died down to a hush, Boris not making eye contact with anyone as he visibly shrank behind Henry. The animator didn't say anything, but kept a hand on the wolf's shoulder as they went through, even taking a moment to ask Boris if he was alright once they'd gotten into the studio. Bendy, for his part, had come around to walk on Henry's other side, throwing a hard look at everyone who was staring. Which was pretty much all of the band, and in looking back on it the devil realized that his attempt at intimidating them back probably didn't work as well as he would have liked given his diminutive height.

Well, not that it mattered much, given that it was long past, and Henry had closed the door to the studio to keep out any prying eyes. Not to mention that Henry was right up in the booth and while Sammy wasn't someone Bendy was overly familiar with, he did remember bits and pieces of what he'd heard regarding the music director, mostly about his temper and mostly from Wally. If anybody could keep the band in line, it would be him.

It wasn't as though there was much they could do otherwise, so Bendy let himself get lost in the cartoon about to play on the big screen. Not all of what Bendy had seen cartoon-wise was funny, but he'd liked the 'Sheep Songs' short, and it had a lot of great music so hopefully Boris would like it too. He'd certainly been spellbound at all the great melodies earlier.

Bendy glanced at the taller toon as the first few animation frames of the short started to play, watching the confusion that had taken ahold of Boris's face at the sight of both the wolf and the devil moving about on the screen. Most of the conflict in this episode came with Boris trying to manage the sheep and Bendy, at least in the devil's opinion, trying to well-meaningly help the wolf with his job.

"Why's…?" The wolf toon whispered, staring up at his animated counterpart on the screen. It didn't take Bendy long to guess what Boris was so confused about; this had tripped him up the first time he'd seen a short too.

"Yeah, that, that's us. We're cartoons. That's why we look so different from everyone else. We're…" The devil wasn't sure how to finish the thought, so he let it hang. When he and Joey had had that conversation, the sort of implication had been that the devil should not exist. His creator had managed to paint the living toon as an achievement, though not one that people would recognize as such which was why Bendy had spent the first week or so of his life shut in the studio head's office. Right before…well, there was a very good reason he shied away from touching his creator's books now.

Still, he didn't want to get into all that with Boris right now, not after the morning the wolf had just had, so Bendy simply sat in silence with the taller toon, the pair watching as the cartoon shenanigans played out on the screen.

Well, while Boris definitely had bits of his old anxiety clinging to his demeanor, he had caught the odd, trailing quiet at the end of Bendy's speech.

"We're…what?"

The devil jumped a little at the question, though in retrospect the fact that Boris might need to have the meaning of what a cartoon was explained to him should have been obvious, given that the wolf had needed some explanation of music.

"Well, a cartoon is, it's that, basically. We're kinda…I-I mean people watch us, t'laugh an' stuff. They like these kinda things, these, uh, shorts, Henry calls 'em."

"They've seen this?" Boris asked, turning his head back to the screen with pie-cut eyes fixing to his animated double. "An'…they liked me? They weren' scared?"

"Yeah, yeah, Boris," Bendy responded, putting all of the heartfelt, bracing confidence he could into the words. "They liked y'a lot. They loved the music in y'made in th' episode!"

"…D'ya really think I can…make music like that?" The wolf asked, deep, rumbling tones hushed as he stared at all the screen. Flickering against the white, his animated counterpart continued to play on the clarinet, the melody soft and lulling as the sheep began to bed down. However, Bendy watched none of this, his eyes turning to Boris as his brow furrowed, sensing the uncertainty and not quite so sure where it was coming from, or how to address it. The wolf had to be a natural with music, because that was how he'd been made. Same went for Bendy when it came to dancing, though the devil had to admit that when he'd first started, he hadn't initially felt...

…Oh.

"Hey, I know y'can, Boris. Y'got the stuff t'do it, an' it's not like it's th' doin' that's got y'nervous. Jus' don' think about anyone else, think 'bout what you want t'do."

Pushing himself up on the chair so he could look the wolf in the eye, Bendy studied what he could of the canid face in the dark. The eyes were liquid and large, looking far too uncertain considering the fact that the toon in question towered over the devil.

"An' hey, from the way you lit up when y'heard the music, I'd say you're already on your way t'makin' some great stuff yourself. Alright? So no gettin' bent outta shape b'fore y'even done anythin'." And, partially running on the feeling of the moment, Bendy leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the wolf's shoulders in a hug.

For an instant, Boris froze completely, before the lanky frame relaxed and quietly wrapped a long pair of arms around the smaller toon's body, nearly lifting Bendy away from his seat. Still, the devil hardly minded, not when he could feel the sheer gratitude and relief in the motion, coupled with the fact that the wolf's tail was wagging against the back of the chair.

Suddenly, Boris stiffened, head turning to look at something in the balcony. A faint clatter was becoming audible to Bendy's own ears, though from the looks of things at least Norman was up there. Maybe Henry and Sammy were coming back down?

However, just as quickly as they noticed the change Bendy found his eyes were being drawn to the second booth, where he'd thought he'd seen someone tall standing the in the shadows, entirely still. Though the devil had no way of knowing for sure, he thought they might have been watching him and Boris rather than what was on the screen. He could almost make out a faint outline of someone up there now, though the darkness was…not quite thick, there were bits of light, shining-

-Shining in darkness, the pinpricks glow like distant, uncaring stars as they drifted about. But somehow, despite how far away everything was, the devil couldn't help but feel an enormous, overpowering presence, all focused on him.

"J-Joey?" The devil tried to call, voice nearly choking at how small and insignificant he sounded, like he had somehow become the last being alive in the whole world. It was only then that Bendy realized he could move again, which was great, given that the last thing he remembered-.

He stiffened at the memory, of burning cold and paralyzing suffocation, and shadows whipping and flickering about out of the corner of his eyes. What had happened, what was that what even was all that?!

And, for that matter, how did he get here?

The possibility of passing out did occur to Bendy, but he didn't remember getting dizzy or hitting the floor. He could have fainted from fright though; he wasn't sure if that made a person dizzy before it happened. He didn't remember getting up, either. It was like he'd just somehow come into this place on his feet.

Wherever here was, which certainly didn't look like the studio. All the walls and long winding hallways were missing. Everything was gone. It was just a big, expanse of space, a plane of darkness that stretched out as far as the eye could see. This, this couldn't be right though, he had just been in the studio, he couldn't be outside. Bendy might have only been outside, or seen it through a window, at least once or twice in his life, but he did know that there were landmarks, things out there like buildings and trees. Turning around, and peering down at the small splooshing noises his feet made against the apparently wet ground, Bendy continued to call out.

"Joey, Henry? Boris? Al-?" The last name cut off as a shape came into view behind him, a big, somewhat distant rise on the horizon. The only thing Bendy had seen before in his life that could compare were the few glimpses he'd gotten out of Joey's office window, of a mountain that stood tall near the studio.

Was, was this the same mountain? It didn't look quite like it, the ridges were in different places, but Bendy hadn't exactly seen much by way of enormous geography.

Then the 'mountain' started to move, and Bendy felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

He couldn't make out very much about this thing, everything was so dark and mired, but he could see the distinct shape of what might have been a head and perhaps, long, lanky arms with the palms pressed to the floor on either side. At first, he could just make out two, before another set unfolded to push against the floor with the first pair.

The glow pinpricks were all over the surface of the, the thing, either blinking or glowing steadily, though somehow Bendy knew that they were eyes, and they were focused on him. That feeling had come back, the one that felt like he was being put on the spot by something far, far removed from his own perspective. Bendy had been told about the dynamic between predator and prey animals, partly from the vantage point of the stories Joey would have Boris and him read, and this, if anything, felt like a real, personal brush with the concept. It was too big, and he was too small, it could hurt him, it felt like it was going to hurt him, if not kill him.

RUN AWAY. The thought emblazoned itself on his mind. Just run, get out, you aren't safe here. But, even though everything in Bendy wanted to head for the hills, he couldn't break his gaze with the being, pie-cut eyes still caught by the baleful, distant gaze of the thing that stared back at him. Even though the entire frame was enormous, challenging the dark expanse around them, Bendy's entire focus was drawn the eyes. Those pale, glowing eyes in its head that spun with lights both bright and dim, causing a humming to reverberate through the devil's frame. His mind turning to a slow stagnancy as he stared, growing more and more bespelled as the lights gently whirled around. Until he felt something nudge at his leg.

Bendy dazedly glanced down, only to see malformed, shapes of things on the wet floor. He only realized that they were alive when one pawed at him again. They almost looked like creatures, made of slime. Leaping away, and falling to land on his backside, he realized that the 'slime' was in fact ink, and the creatures were hardly the only change. The devil's own body had been altered, the once-small frame now uncomfortably stretched, his limbs aching from the rapid growth spurt. Shakily, Bendy reached for his face, feeling claws scratch at his cheeks as his hands trembled. His mouth was pulled into a leering, fixed smile, his jaw clenching so tightly that it hurt and forcing tears from his eyes.

The humming was suddenly back, Bendy's head craning to see the…the thing, the not-mountain, as it leaned over him, its massive head resting just above his body.

For a moment, it simply hung there, before a split appeared in the dark form, Bendy recognizing it as a mouth just before he noticed the black slurry spilling out, rushing down as one mass set to smother him.

Just before the flood came down, Bendy thought, for one instant, that he could hear the faint snatches of a slow, soft song-

-Forcing the devil up with a gasp, his arms (normal, thank everything) hurling the book away as the dark slog dripped off. But even as he let go the small toon was already fighting to get to his feet, stumbling to and out the door with the frantic pulse of run run RUN in his ears, the shadows of the room blurring at the edges of his vision as the darkness grew speckled with flickers of distant light, something just barely whispering at the limits of his hearing, Bendy Bendy B-

"-en, Bendy!"

As the devil rose up to conscious thought, he realized that his head hurt, and it felt like he'd bitten his tongue coupled with a soreness focused on his back. At first, this was worrying, but it was hardly the first time he'd woken up after he'd holed away somewhere following an escapade gone wrong. Then everything came rushing back in, the elevator, 'Alice' screaming about needing Boris's…insides, the crash-.

With a gasping cough Bendy forced his eyes open to see Boris crouched over him, relief spreading over the wolf's face as the devil stared up to meet his gaze.

"Bendy! A-Are you okay?"

"Sure." The devil grunted, though he still felt very unwilling to try moving. Even still, his limbs flopped about in an attempt to push himself up off whatever he was lying on with minimal success. Boris reached around the smaller toon's frame, gently easing Bendy off of what felt like something hard and bumpy. Despite the fact that the wolf was obviously trying his best to be careful, Bendy accidentally let a grunt slide out of his throat as the shifting jostled his aching frame. Miraculously, his fingers were still closed around the pipe, the devil dragging it with him as he moved.

"Sorry! Sorry…" Boris whined, and though his fingers twitched he still didn't let Bendy go. The devil didn't dare make another iota of noise, no matter how much his battered body hurt, as the taller toon tried to lay him out on the flatter floor.

"Boris, w-we gotta move, she's gonna-."

"Bendy, you're-."

The frantic whispering stopped dead away at the sound of heeled shoes clacking against wood. Boris's head moved like lightning, snapping to look behind him before immediately hurrying to gather Bendy up to his front and flip around so they faced their tormentor. The rapidfire movement brought a few more shocks of pain to Bendy's system, though the devil was somewhat pleased by the fact that he didn't give any sign apart from a strained gasp. Though the pain caused him a brief moment of dizzy nausea, he didn't pass out, instead everything fading into murky grey around him for an instant as the devil fought it with everything he had. He couldn't pass out, she was here, she was going to take Boris, Bendy needed to stay awake, he needed to protect his pal, he couldn't let Boris down again. Despite the tension coursing through the wolf's frame from 'Alice's approach, Boris still seemed to notice the sudden limpness of the smaller toon, a hand immediately shifting his head around to face upward and patting with light franticness at his cheek.

"Bendy…" The devil wanted to do something then and there, the terrified, pleading tone to the wolf's voice nearly coaxing some sort of attempted sign that he was not in fact unconscious, until 'Alice' started to speak.

"Hmm, I suppose a fall from that height would likely do some damage, but seeing as he's not yet melted away, I'll be taking back another prize tonight. I wouldn't mind seeing what makes the lil' devil himself tick."

Boris's arms tightened around him, Bendy fighting to keep his facial features slack from both the mild spike of pain the movement caused and the anger that flared in his guts. Just hold still, wait until she got close. Hopefully Boris would have clued in by that point as to what was happening, as while the small toon summoned what reserves still remained in his battered state he definitely could say he was not up for a marathon.

"No, no no don', don' please…" Boris was mumbling, barely loud enough to really be heard over the sound of something sparking in the background near them. If 'Alice' heard the toon wolf's words, she opted to ignore them, walking closer.

Bendy waited, listening for when the sounds of 'Alice's' footsteps got within a few feet of him and Boris before he acted. Gathering what little stamina he still had, the devil sprung from Boris's arms, flinging himself with the pipe upraised towards the monstrous woman, gearing for a swing.

And found himself freezing just a few feet away from 'Alice', yanked off the floor enough that his feet could not touch the ground. Adrenaline turned from driven determination to frantic confusion as Bendy tried to figure out what had happened, tried to piece together what was going on and why he couldn't move. Boris had quieted down behind him though the tension in the room rocketed up to razor wire levels, like a pot about to boil over. Bendy looked up and noticed 'Alice's' singular eye fixed upon him, the yellow glowing in the low, flickering light. And though the amalgamation of toon and human had barely moved, Bendy knew that somehow she was responsible, the thought causing ice to settle in his stomach.

"You were supposed to be something, you know. They talked about how the power in the ink, in this place, would be yours to wield once you returned. How you would set everyone free. It's so strange to think about now…" 'Alice's' voice was almost languid, considering as she stared the devil down. Remembering the elevator, Bendy felt that strangling, cold fear grow stronger. "…as here you are, so small, helpless…fragile."

At the last word, Bendy felt himself be thrown face-first into the floor, left eye slamming into the wood with enough force that he could already feel it swelling in a bruise. Though he wasn't allowed to stay there, 'Alice' raising him back upright to hang in the air in front of her. The devil thought he might have heard Boris yelp at the impact, but he wasn't sure. Wait, Boris, where was-?

The thought was cut off as Bendy was abruptly flung forward, crashing front-first into the far wall next to the floor sign.

"S-Stop! Stop, please! Don' hurt him!"

"A little late for that. But why stop now? You said you wanted to ascend, didn't you?"

The feeling of being scraped across the wall for a few inches barely had time to register before Bendy was hurled back and upward this time, slamming his already abused back into the ceiling and forcing a cry of pain from the small toon. Blinking black spots from his vision, Bendy dazedly stared at the floor and his own dangling arms, watching as ink fell to the wood far below. And suddenly, the pressure holding him up to the ceiling released, allowing the devil to plummet to the floor with his shrieked name echoing in his ears. Through the pained haze, he heard Boris speaking, a teary, pleading note to his voice.

"Please, please just leave him alone. You don' havta hurt him anymore, you don', y'can-."

But whatever promise Boris was about to make, 'Alice' didn't seem to care, as moments later Bendy was sliding across the floor to be pinned against the wall. The pressure didn't stop at merely holding him up though, the devil beginning to gasp with both pain and the fact that it was growing difficult to breathe.

"BENDY!" Boris yelled, the sound of frantic shifting causing Bendy to jerkily lift his head as only his right eye opened enough to see the other side of the room. At first, he couldn't understand why Boris was still by the wrecked elevator, until he noticed that some of the cables had wound themselves around the wolf's frame, holding him down.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE! STOP, STOP HURTIN' HIM RIGHT NOW! Y'don' need t'do this, you can take me! Please, jus' take me an' leave him alone, please…" Bendy tried to shake his head, use some of the air being forced from his lungs to tell Boris to stop, to just run if he could, but the clacking noise of shoes coupled with the sudden presence of dark, inky legs in his vision made him freeze.

"Business before pleasure, dear." 'Alice' remarked almost distantly, before the pressure around Bendy's chest tightened for a scant few seconds, air rushing from his insides as he gasped and weakly writhed. This wasn't fair, they were going to die here, they were supposed to get out…!

He could hear Boris shouting something, but the words simply washed over him, not registering beyond their sound. Then the crushing sensation lifted, Bendy taking in a deep, raw gasp of air as he slide sideways to the floor. He could hear the sounds of 'Alice' moving about, a scoff in her tone. The black gathering round Bendy's head was enough of a hint as to why.

"Disgusting…" The murmur was accompanied by a vibration in the floor and the toon devil tensed, instinctive dread pushing him to try to curl up to protect himself. However, the noise he heard next caught him completely off-guard. A sort of rubbery, whistling noise followed by a thwack as the object landed next to 'Alice'. Bendy cracked open his unbruised eye, just in time to catch 'Alice' staring down at an object on the floor next to him.

The plunger. But where had that come from, they'd lost it when-.

The next surprise was a glob of ink flying through the air and landing directly on 'Alice's' face, her scream muffled against the goop. Bendy's eyes dazedly retraced the path of the projectile, and landed on a new figure that had just skidded in through the hallway.

It was the black and white ink monster, a gurgling roar breaking forth as the goopy black it was covered in bubbled, like it was a cat trying to make itself look bigger. Bendy couldn't even bring himself to be scared with both how exhausted and hurt he was, coupled with the fact that for once, the monster's attention was not aimed at him or Boris. It seemed entirely focused on 'Alice', perhaps angry that she'd tried to take its prize away. It could stay distracted as far as Bendy was concerned.

Albeit, his ability to move was a little hampered at the moment, so the devil could really only watch as the ink monster charged forward, tackling the warped angel just as she managed to wipe the ink from her face. The pair crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs, 'Alice's' screeching horribly clashing with the gurgling roars that the monster was making.

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FILTHY-!" The shout was cut off as the ink monster headbutted the warped angel in the face, leaving a new splatter of ink that covered her eyes and mouth. It was almost impressive to watch. Strange, bizarre, distantly terrifying, but definitely impressive for something that couldn't see what it was doing. The sight was so eye-grabbing it took Bendy's hazy, pain-dulled brain a moment to realize that someone had come to kneel next to him, until they called his name.

"Bendy!"

The devil gave a pained little jolt at the sudden sound, eyes looking up to see Boris staring down at him, canid face contorted in worry. The small toon couldn't say for certain if he replied, but in the next moment the wolf was picking him as carefully and as quickly as he could. It didn't stop Bendy from giving a hiss of discomfort, but if there was anything that the devil could say it was that now might be a good time for them to leave, his pain be damned.

Even still, at Boris's apology there was a lull in the noise from the fighting, 'Alice' managing to wipe away some ink from her face just in time to see that her 'perfect' Boris was getting away. Bendy gasped in time with the taller toon as Boris abruptly locked up, stiffening as something unseen grabbed at his limbs.

"Oh, no you don't-." She hissed, venom dripping from her double-toned voice as the wolf started to slide backwards on the floor, black shoes making grinding squeaks as they tried to find traction. Frantically Bendy looked from the wolf's terrified face back to the warped angel whose gaze flicked from his friend to the monster, who while still being on top of her didn't seem able to move either. Boris, still caught between his own body being pulled back and his attempts to continue forward toppled onto his front, only just managing to brace himself so he wouldn't fall on top of Bendy. Even still he was sliding back, the devil's gaze flipping desperately between Boris and the glowing, yellow stare of 'Alice', words slipping from his mouth and into the air before he could really stop them.

"'m not gonna let y'take him!" Even as he ground out the sentence between a clenched set of teeth Bendy found himself latching a hand around one of Boris's overall straps, his tail wrapping around what it could of the wolf as his other hand scrabbled at the floor in a bid to escape.

'Alice' didn't reply, the only warning Bendy had being a low growl before pressure and pain suddenly exploded like a lit firework in his face, the hallway dissolving into an unfocused haze as his head snapped back on his neckless body as though it had been kicked. His ears were ringing, everything hurt and Bendy could taste ink so he let his head flop sideways so the dark liquid could dribble onto the floor. The ringing started to die down, enough that the devil could hear his name being shouted with increasing urgency, the familiarity of the voice making him spit out the last of the loose ink before creakily turning his head. His left eye had swollen closed entirely, but his right still…mostly responded. Enough that he could make out Boris staring down at him, eyes wide with tears spilling over. For a moment, Bendy couldn't remember why the wolf might be so upset, before it came back to him; 'Alice'.

The devil's limbs were very much bruised, his head still felt foggy, and he could still taste ink coming from somewhere in his mouth, but he still wouldn't let her take Boris. Even if he only just remembered a bare, more emotionally raw sense of how his pal had been hurt, Bendy still did his best to keep his hands clenched around Boris's overall straps, a sort of dim reasoning being that at the very least the wolf would not be alone. If 'Alice' wanted one, she'd have to take both of them. Not that Boris seemed to have very many reservations regarding that sentiment, cradling the small toon in an arm as he tried to push himself to his feet.

Distantly Bendy could hear…noise, sounding almost like the oncoming roar of heavy rain, and a familiar set of pipes screeching something though he couldn't make out the words. Whatever it was, Boris stiffened, a growl reverberating through the taller toon's chest as his head snapped back around to look in the direction of 'Alice'. Bendy's eyeline shifted, giving him a good view of the warped angel's face going from angrily confrontational to…shock? It didn't make much sense, though Bendy didn't have very much time to process it before whatever was holding Boris back fell away, the wolf barreling down the corridor the moment he was free. The rapid bouncing made the aches and pains throughout Bendy's system zing through his abused frame, the devil burying his head into Boris's fur and clenching the overall straps in a death grip. After what had happened, Bendy was hardly going to risk letting go of the wolf now.

Meanwhile Boris dashed down the hall, too wound up to care about keeping track of the many turns he was taking as he simply ran. The pure, frustrated anger that had roared through him a few minutes ago was gone, the bracing heat it bought to his insides vanishing with it and leaving him feeling cold and small. Now he just had to run, if for nothing else than the small toon still pressed to the wolf's front, who barely made any noise.

What was that, what had happened, she'd hurt Bendy so bad without even touching him, and yet Boris wasn't surprised by that, why wasn't he, are you sure you want an answer-?

Boris was gasping for air by the time he felt safe enough to stop, almost sliding into an office door before managing to work his nerveless fingers to grip the knob. Ripping the door open, the wolf hurried through before doing his best not to slam it behind him as he leaned back for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

"'or's…?" Bendy mumbled, the devil's small hands still clamped on the wolf's overall straps.

"B-Ben…" The wolf's voice came out as a warble, and he tried to regather himself. Bendy needed him to be strong, he needed to take care of his pal. Bendy had gotten hurt, could have died just to keep the taller toon safe despite everyone and everything in here wanting a piece of the little devil.

Boris had to keep Bendy safe, he was all the wolf had left.

"It's alright, Bendy. I'm here, it's okay. I'm gonna h-help you-."

Boris's voice cracked again as he remembered that Bendy had been the one with the inkwells, and he was pretty sure they wouldn't have survived the beating the devil took. A shaking, gloved hand maneuvered to check Bendy's pockets. Both inkwells were still there, and Boris found what felt like a piece of paper that he left alone. One of the little glass bottles was definitely damaged, seeping ink into the cloth Bendy had wrapped it in. Boris did his best to uncap the bottle, trying to rush along getting the dwindling supply to the stricken toon as he tried to ignore a growing, dull ache in his own limbs.

"He-Here, Bendy, drink this, alright?" The wolf shakily instructed as he tried to lift the inkwell up without spilling it. There were still drips that slid down the devil's pale face, from both the breakage of the glass and the shakiness of the pair, but a good amount of it managed to get into Bendy's mouth. Boris quickly tossed the ink well aside, grabbing the other one and quickly uncapping that.

This time however Bendy moved his head away, a stubborn frown settling in on the devil's face.

"Bendy, c-c'mon don' do that, you need…"

"Y'havta hav' s'me too." The small toon croaked, keeping his head turned away from Boris's still-unsteady attempts to get him to drink.

"Huh?" Boris wasn't really sure what the devil was talking about at first, he felt…

…Not so great, now that the wolf took stock. His limbs felt like they'd been pulled, probably from the cables that 'Alice' had used to hold him, and the fall he'd had while trying to get away had definitely banged up his knees. However, he felt sore in places like his shoulders, his head and jaw, even in his fingers. Places that hadn't been strained by the elevator cables.

There was also the fact that all this soreness seemed concentrated at the center of Boris's chest, a faint, constant itch present under the fur. That particularly set the wolf on edge, his eyes going from the middle distance to the inkwell he still held in his hand. Bendy had started to succumb to the narcotic effects the ink but fought sleep for the moment to muzzily stare up at Boris, a confused, searching look sweeping over the small pale face as he tried to puzzle out the expression he was seeing.

"I-It's okay, Bendy, I'll take it." Boris soothed, shakily bringing the inkwell to his mouth and drinking a few sips before proffering it to the devil again. "See, I had some, you take th' last bit."

Thankfully exhaustion and ink-induced sleepiness had taken some of the wind out of Bendy's sails, the devil swallowing down the last few sips with no more complaint. However, though the small, gloved hands loosened on Boris's overall straps, they didn't uncurl enough to let go. The wolf's longer fingers gently pried the devil's away, pie-cut eyes casting about before the taller toon picked out a cot on the far side of the room, next to a dusty desk and chair. Trembling fingers pulled the blanket away, Boris placing it down before realizing that he probably should take off the devil's coat and scarf. Throughout the entire painstaking process, the wolf felt his eyes burn more and more at the sight of patch after patch of swollen, tender-looking, and in a few cases, ink-dribbling injuries marring Bendy's small frame.

He needed to do something. The realization seemed slower in coming than it ought to have been, though immediately following it Boris tried to place Bendy on the cot as carefully as possible. The smaller toon barely moved, though his widow's peak minutely twitched, the rest of Bendy's face already mired with pain. The toon wolf paused just long enough to hold Bendy's hand for an instant, giving it a gentle squeeze before carefully placing with the rest of the devil on the cot and turning to see what was available to work with in the room. The office itself was pretty bare, with the aforementioned desk, chair and cot being the only real pieces of furniture in the room.

There were a couple of boxes on the far wall, with something flat under a tarp. The wolf opted to leave that alone and turned his attention to the desk. The drawers creaked as they were pulled open, but the bottom one yielded two tightly folded, if somewhat dusty blankets, one of them thin enough to tear into strips. The next few minutes passed in somewhat tense silence, broken only by the light sound of the linen giving as Boris painstakingly tried to both make suitable bandages and shake out as much of the dust as he could. Eventually they passed a very reluctant muster, and Boris began the somewhat harrowing process of maneuvering the small, unconscious toon in the cot to bandage up the injuries he'd noticed.

The first was on Bendy's back, the entirety of the dark shoulder blades marred by swelling. As Boris finally managed to cover the spots that were seeping ink, Bendy's face scrunched, a cough rattling its way through the small frame. At the sight of more ink staining the devil's lips, Boris floundered for an instant before carefully easing Bendy to rest on his right side. The shifting did allow the small toon to be rid of the ink a lot quicker, gravity and a few coughs causing a small bit of black to dribble onto the cot. Boris quickly put a piece of the linen under Bendy's face to catch the liquid, and tried to get back to work as quick as he could. The next thing he patched was a part of the left side of Bendy's face, the close look at the still-swollen eye making the wolf wish they had ice or more inkwells. He wasn't sure if the small bit of ink Bendy ingested would be enough for this, the thought especially prevalent as he wrapped another strip of linen around a shallow cut on Bendy's leg, just above the knee. They'd have to at least try to find more, if…if he'd found some before, he could surely do so again, right?

Boris shied away from the thoughts, not wanting to deal with any hazy bits of memory right now, instead focusing on wrapping another strip around Bendy's head, fumbling a little between that and his earlier patch job to the devil's temple. The fact that the smaller toon had barely moved throughout the whole ordeal was both somewhat relieving, and a little worrying. However, the wolf could feel a steady beat of air against his hand when he rested it close to Bendy's mouth, so he opted to at least try to relax a little. Besides, what else could he do?

There was still one more blanket in the drawer, this one a little thicker than the one that was lying about in pieces now, and given that the wolf was starting to feel a chill in the room, he covered Bendy up in the cot before pulling the chair over and wrapping himself in the remaining blanket. Despite the fact that the new position caused the various hurts from before to start coming back in earnest, Boris couldn't quite bring himself to settle down. Images of something coming through the door, pushing their way through cracks in the walls, even seeping up through the floor to separate them kept the wolf frenetically tense. He almost wished Bendy were awake, just so he would have something to distract him from the thoughts that now crept in with the yawning silence.

Nerves caused the lanky frame to fidget under the blanket, Boris fighting with himself for a moment before he reached out and carefully wrapped his hand around Bendy's, longer fingers completely encapsulating the small appendage. Even still, it gave him comfort in knowing that the devil was still here with him, wasn't stolen and neither of them, at least for this moment, were in danger of dying or…or being lost. The faint serenity the idea brought, mingling with the feeling of achy heaviness in his limbs, finally let Boris's eyelids sink lower and lower before finally sliding closed altogether, the wolf's frame relaxing entirely under the threadbare blanket. His fingers still remained closed around Bendy's smaller hand, both toons entirely asleep as the studio rumbled and clanked around them.

And, from across the room, the sheet that had been covering the flat shape slid off with a jerk, the pie-cut eyes of a cutout having a clear view of the room and the two toons passed out practically next to each other.

And, in another hallway in the decrypt studio, the black and white ink monster juddered to a halt in its journey down the passage, head bowing to the floor for a moment before it pulled itself forward with a shuddering lurch, the ink near its face beginning to drip a little quicker as it pushed on.

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Changed up things a little bit at the end there, hopefully it doesn't take too much away from the flashback. Feel free to let me know what you think in a review. Still getting the hang of having major edits in a fanfic.

And thanks for bearing with! It's definitely been a hell of an experience, and with hopefully a lot more to go!