Henry finished inking the last line and looked over the page. Satisfied with what he saw, he tore it out of the sketchbook and added it to the stack of completed pages he had. Looking again over his work, he was satisfied with the results.
Now he just needed to know what to do next.
Getting up, he peaked around the corner into that room with the four glass tubes that seemed to serve no purpose. Chat had been pinned to the wall with some thick ink in a way that prevented his hands from touching anything, while Ladybug and Audrey were running around the room, trying to keep the End out of the hands of the Machine Demon.
"Henry!"
The named man turned around to see Joey Drew running down the hall. "Is it too late?" he asked.
"I have no idea," the old animator replied, waving a hand at the fight happening in the next room.
Joey looked in, then breathed a sigh of relief. "We're not too late," he said. "The new script, is it done?"
Henry held up his pages. "Just finished it. Now how do I put it in?"
Joey seemed to hesitate. "I can do it. Give it to me."
Henry frowned. "Joey..."
"There's no time to explain, you'll just have to trust me. I know I've given you little reason to, but I'm asking you, as your friend to trust me, just one more time. Please, let me make this right."
Henry stared at his old friend, then gave him the papers. "I trust you," he said.
"Thank you, old friend," Joey said, stuffing the papers down his Bendy costume. "And once again, I am so sorry for what I have put you through."
"And I already forgave you."
"And tell Audrey that I love her, and I am sorry that I won't be keeping our promise."
"Joey, what are you talking-"
"Promise me!"
"I will, I will. But seriously, why are you talking like you are going to... die... Joey, wait-"
Joey didn't respond, just running into the next room, towards the Machine Demon.
"Joey!"
One swipe from the Demon, and Joey Drew was turned to ink.
"FATHER!" Audrey cried.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Joey floated in darkness.
Creator.
You traitor.
The voices inside hated him.
The Machine probably thought this would be a fitting punishment, trapped forever with those that hated him.
Nightmares are also dreams.
Joke's on it though.
He was right where he needed to be.
Who prays for the creator?
He removed Henry's pages from his suit and let them go.
The papers floated until they were in the proper order, the inked lines glowing gold.
The question is, who are we?
But that didn't feel like it was enough. The ink seemed to want something more.
"Just a pencil and a dream?" Joey asked. "No, that's never enough. To create true magic, you must also have... heart."
Dreams come true.
With that, he let himself go, dissolving into golden light.
The ink surrounding the pages also turned gold.
And the story changed.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Audrey was slammed into the wall. She slid down it, and looked around dizzily at her surroundings.
The Machine Demon had gotten hold of Ladybug, and was pulling the End from her grip.
"Why do you resist? Why do you persist in these pointless heroics?" the Machine asked, pulling the reel from her grasp. "It doesn't matter in the end. Whether by me or Hawkmoth, your world is destroyed, and a better one is-"
Its hand fell off.
The hand bounced on the ground twice before reforming into Bendy, who was still clutching the End.
"Blah! I'm going to need so many baths!" he cried, spitting out a bit of ink. As quick as could be, he dodged the Ink Machine's grasp and threw the End like a Frisbee. "Audrey! Catch!"
She caught it, tossing it again as the Demon leapt at her. "Henry! Heads up!"
The old animator caught it, before tossing it. "Ladybug!" he cried.
"Oh, no you don't!" the Ink Machine cried, leaping in front of the spotted heroine...
Just as Chat Noir caught the End. "CATACLYSM!" he cried, and the reel dissolved into ash.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then...
CRACK!
The air broke.
And inside the cracks were the same scene: Henry sitting in the throne, watching a beastly version of Bendy melt under the light of the End.
Then darkness appeared. Loud, roaring darkness spilled from the cracks, a darkness that stung and bit and made everything dark...
Darker...
Yet darker...
But over the roaring noise, she heard something.
"I cleanse you from evil!"
Suddenly, the darkness started funneling, being sucked into a tiny circle of light. After what was both an instant and an eternity, all the darkness vanished, leaving Ladybug standing tall, her opened yo-yo held up above her.
The ink holding Chat dissolved, releasing the feline hero. "Is it over?" he asked.
Ink poured off the avatar, revealing its original form. The figure fell down on its knees and looked forlornly at the ground.
"M-my pow-ow-ower," the Ink Machine stuttered. "It-it-it-it's two fa-fa-fading roads..."
"It's over, Machine," Ladybug said, stepping forward. "Your hold over this world is gone. You have no more power here."
The Machine stared at the ground, as if the secrets of the universe could be found in it. "I... I can't lo-ose. Not here, no-not nothing should last forever. Creations burn end-dure. The Ma-Machine must in the fire. Awe-inspiring."
"It won't do any good," Henry said. "It was just trying to complete its purpose."
"Two worlds, one tethered," it sang as it started to fall apart.
"It never had a mind of its own," Audrey added, her headache making the rage away for now. "Only a facsimile of the minds trapped within the Cycle."
"The faithful drown together!" the radio played, even as the avatar tried in vain to keep itself together.
"Then let's put it out of its misery," Ladybug said.
"Thirty years, don't you remember?"
"Good riddance to it," Bendy spat.
"Ink unfettered!"
Henry gave the pen back to Ladybug, who tossed it into the air and it spiraled up and up and up as she cried out:
"MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"
"MY MASTERPIECE!"
The pen exploded into ladybugs.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Norman was forced to a knee as the pressure on his shield increased. He had never kept a spell up like this for so long under such conditions. As such, his head felt like it was about to burst.
A large crash had him looking up. Bertrum's body had been knocked on his back, some of the various rides making it p falling apart on impact. The Machine Beast brought its extremities up for the killing blow-
CRACK!
When it reeled back in a state of shock and pain. The Machine Beast started bubbling, it's chest expanding out, red light appearing in cracks in the ink. This process repeated two more times before it finally exploded.
Norman was washed away in a wave of ladybugs and ink.
-MToLaCNBatIM-
Tom slid across the ground before coming to a halt. He laid there for a few seconds before his legs got the message and flopped back down.
With a groan, he picked himself up, looking around. "Allison?" he asked.
"I'm right here."
He looked to see her sitting against a wall. "Where are we?" she asked.
Tom looked around. "It looks like we're on the top floor, but it seems different. And how did we get here?"
Something hit his nose.
He looked up. Red ink was dripping from the ceiling, and soon enough it was falling like rain. "What's going-"
Clank.
Tom looked down. His metal arm was lying on the ground. Raising his left stump, he was amazed to see it grow out, until the end of it formed into a new hand.
A hand with five fingers.
Looking at his right hand, he watched as the glove melted away into a human hand. Looking up, he saw Lost Ones slowly transforming back into humans, as color slowly came back.
"Tom?"
He looked back to see his wife lose the last part of Allison Angel and become Allison Conner once again.
He took her hand. "Allison," he said tenderly.
"We won," she said with tears in her eyes. "They did it. We are free."
Tom let out a laugh. "We are," he said. "We don't know what the future holds, but we are free."
A sound like tinkling bells drew their attention.
Forming in front of the studio entrance was five figures; Ladybug, Chat, Henry, Audrey, and Bendy.
He approached them. "Well, looks like you did it," he said.
"Where's Joey?" Audrey asked, tearfully.
"Uncle's been reunited with himself," Porter said, for some reason looking like he did in the Cycle. "All the magic was undone, even what Wilson did." He waved a hand as he talked, indicating a man in a gray jumpsuit curled up on the ground while a woman dressed as a maid kept kicking at him.
Audrey relaxed at that.
"So, what happened to the Machine?" Allison asked.
The five of them pointed. All that was left of the Ink Machine was a small radio that mournfully played, "Who are we, who are we? Who are we?"
Chapter 5 is completed.
All that remains is the Epilogue...