For a moment, no one moved. Then Tom stepped forward, lips drawn back in a snarl. "Joey Drew..." he growled.

But before the wolf could do anything, Joey was thrown into the floor by a long arm. Before the man could get up, a shiny black shoe pressed into his chest. "YoU hAvE a LoT oF nErVe ShOwInG yOuR fAcE hErE, dReW," Bendy growled, the cartoon's body rippling like ink. "dId YoU fInAlLy GeT sIcK oF lIfE?"

"Bendy!" Audrey cried. "Let him go!"

"LeT hIm Go? LeT hIm Go? Do YoU kNoW wHaT hE hAs DoNe? WhAt He HaS dOnE tO mE!?" Bendy cried. "MiStAkE! fAiLuRe! DeFeCtIvE! dEmOn! SoMeThInG tO bE lOcKeD uP aNd FoRgOtTeN! wHy ShOuLd I nOt End hIs MiSeRaBlE eXiStAnCe!"

"Because he has changed!"

"AnD hOw Do YoU kNoW? wHaT mAsK dOeS hE wEaR tHaT mAkEs YoU sO lOyAl To HiM?!"

"He's my father!"

Bendy blinked, his body stabalizing out of shock. "Wait, wha-"

"I'm sorry."

Bendy looked down at Joey. "Whaa..." he said.

"I'm sorry," Joey repeated. "For everything that I have done to you, for everything that I've done to everyone in this studio, I am sorry. I don't know how I can make this right, or even if I can, but I want to make this right."

"Joey." The trapped man looked up at the speaker. "Did you mean it?" Henry asked.

Joey sighed. "Every word," he said. "I wronged you terribly, and I know that you can't forgive me-"

"Bendy," Henry said, cutting off his former business partner. "Let him go."

The imp removed his foot, and Henry helped Joey up.

"I don't hate you," Henry continued. "Hate is such a strong word, and I grew tired of hating many years ago. I may resent you for doing this to me, but I no longer hate you.

"So I forgive you."

Joey stared at Henry. "Why?" he asked.

"Because the Joey I knew would be too prideful to acknowledge that anything was his fault," Henry said. "And maybe it's a part of me that still sees you as the friend you once were, but I would like to believe that you can change for the better. After all," he added with a grin. "Dreams come true."

Joey groaned. "Seriously? I grew sick of that phrase years ago!"

"So, this is nice and all," Buddy said, "But, what are you doing down here? I thought you wouldn't be trapped down here."

"That's a long story," Joey answered. "A story that I'm not sure if we have time for." He looked toward Audrey.

She pulled out what looked like a pocket watch out and looked at it. "There's a safe space in the boat house right beside the pier," she said. "We can explain everything there."

"How do you know that?" Boris asked.

Audrey grinned. "Magic," she replied.

-MToLaCNBatIM-

Everyone had settled in, and Marinette felt that they were finally getting some answers. Joey Drew sat on a stool near the front, seemingly lost in thought. Once everyone had been seated, he started speaking.

"I suppose the place to start would be in 1948, right after the studio closed," Joey said. "I must admit, I was bitter back then, especially after hearing about your success, Henry, over at Walt's company," he added, shooting the man a look.

"Although if I'm being honest, the first real change happened in 1960, about five years after I had, well, trapped Henry in here. I had thought that trapping my old friend in here would make me feel better about myself, but it didn't work.

"So, I began asking myself. Why was I unhappy while Henry was happy? What is the difference between him and me? The answer, I decided, was family. So, I decided to see what the big deal was.

"I was making a little money from the Sillyvision process that I had patented, so I bought some ink, paid some workers to bring the real-life Ink Machine to my apartment-"

"I knew it!" Tom cried, before he was shushed by Allison.

"And began my experiments, trying to create a human from the machine. The first couple of experiments didn't work out... or so I thought, but that's not here or now."

"That us!" Porter cried, indicating himself and Heidi.

Joey glared at him, before continuing his story. "Finally, I created something. A human girl, around the age of four. A child that, for all intents and purposes, was completely human. She looked at me, and spoke her first words."

Joey gave off a wistful smile. "She asked me, 'Are you my father?' and everything changed for me.

"I understood why my workers complained about not being able to spend time with their families. I understood why Henry left me to spend more time with his wife." His face turned sad. "I understood too little, too late."

"Joey," Henry said. "Did Linda...?"

"I don't know, Henry. I never told her, and when I tried to find her, I couldn't. The people who I talked to said it was like she had disappeared.

"Anyways, after Audrey's creation, I changed my ways. And those were happy years while she grew. I became an art teacher, so I could get a bit more money for raising a child. I even got back in touch with my old friend, Nathan Arch.

"The next big thing was in 1977, me and Audrey were visiting my old friend. Us old men were talking in his study while Audrey looked at various artifacts he had gathered during his many travels."

"That's were I found this," Audrey added, holding up the claw she was wearing.

"Yes, the Eagle Power Stone," Joey continued. "Gave us quite a fright when Libré burst out of the stone. But when he explained what it could do, I had hope. Hope that I could fix my mistakes, hope that I could finally make things right and set everyone free.

"Me and Audrey went to the old workshop, where I had hidden the focus. But before we could get to my office, we were attacked."

"By who?" Bendy asked around the mouthful of popcorn he was chewing.

Joey blinked. "Where did you get that?" he asked.

"I hit the popcorn button," the imp said, pointing to a button on the wall.

"That's not a popcorn button, that opens the doors to let the barges out!"

Bendy blinked, then looked at the bucket he was holding. "Then where did I get this yummy popcorn...?"

"I-I- Never mind, we've gotten off topic. Now, where was I?"

"Wilson attacked us," Audrey said.

"Oh, yes. When we got to the studio, we were attacked by Wilson Arch."

"Oh, I've heard of him. He went missing in the seventies," Adrien said. "He was on that conspiracy theorist show, Buzzfeed something or another."

"If there's no more interruptions..." Joey said, glaring at the audience. "Anyway, he attacked us, knocking Audrey out and doing... something to me, my memory gets hazy after that. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the studio with Audrey, trapped inside as well. Libré explained that if we tried to free everyone from inside, we end up releasing something horrible. So we wandered the studio for a few dozen Cycles until we got to now." He looked at the group. "Okay, now you can talk."

"So you know what the focus is?" Marinette asked, mentally crossing her fingers.

Joey sighed. "No I don't," he said. "Something, probably Wilson, messed with my memory, and I can't remember what it is. All that I can remember was that I used one item, and that it would somehow get stronger as time went on."

"Do you know where it is?" Adrien asked.

"Yes, it should be in my office still. Fortunately for us, in this version of the studio, it has fallen down to the lower levels. And I know how to get to it from here."