The Archives [a BATIM Fanfiction]

The Archives

'Joey' calmly emerged back up onto level one, as he heard the most commotion coming from up there. He looked around cautiously, then heard the voices pick up again.
He wasn't fully Joey, as some may lead on to believe. He simply had the man's form down pat. It was too easy. His voice, too. Joey had been around the demon the longest.
And Henry had been around Joey.

Henry wiped his forehead, staring down at the boards a final time. This will work.
It had to.
He looked at his arm, he didn't know why. He was already covered in ink, it wasn't like he'd be able to see  the ink he just wiped off himself on his ink coated arm.
He heard a faint chuckle, which made him look up. Allison and Tim still hasn't returned, but a few more lost ones had made it up. The second Bendy was gone, Henry thought, they could could escape. All of them...
There it was again. The chuckle.
Henry turned around, and his gold eyes immediately widened.
"Joey?" He said quietly.

There he had stood. Joey Drew and his ink-stained arms, his smile wide as always. His hands were in his pockets, and his eyes were big. He laughed again.
"What's all this for, Henry?"
Henry hesitated, but ran to Joey. He wrapped his arms around the other, stopping a sob from leaving his throat.
"I listened to you. I found a way to kill Bendy."
Joey stared straight ahead, not moving to look down at Henry until the other looked up. His smile turned to a small grin.
So it was Joey's idea, eh?
Haha..
Didn't matter. It wouldn't work.
Joey glanced to the side. "Y'know, Henry, I made more than one of those.. those tapes." He shrugged, "Could always go back to that."
"You mean- just- reset the time line?" He stammered, letting go of the other slowly. "Why would I-"
"Because it's. It's just how the story goes..."

"Ok, hear me out," Henry said, bits of potato on his lower lip. Joey laughed, and reached across to wipe Henry's mouth.
"Thanks. Ok-" Henry smiled, "What if you gave Bendy some... like better control over this whole place. He like- he's satan in an internal hell.
"No matter what you did, Bendy always had control over one thing. Bendy can be the most useless person down there- or, thing- but he always had a one up on everyone."
"But what would it be?"
"Maybe..."

"... Because that's how you wrote it." Joey said coldly, his eyes staring straight into Henry's. Henry's happy smile faded to a confused frown.
"What?"
"Look, Henry! I'm just- I want everything to get back on track." Joey's voice distorted for a moment. He cleared his throat, then smiled. Henry could tell it was fake. It was obvious it was fake..
"And the easiest way to do that- is to play the little reel, and let me work my magic. You can't kill me! I'm the god of this place! I'll always have a one-up on you, like you said! A super power! And no matter what you try, I can always just turn it right back to a puddle of ink." The black liquid dripped from the corners of Joey's forehead as he took a step forward to Henry. Henry backed away quickly. It was Bendy. Oh, for fu...

"Ok! So..." Joey rubbed his chin, then picked up the fork on his right. He stared at it. Nice silverware..
He pointed it at Henry. "Henry is made of this golden ink. He is like- the hero, ok? So... Henry, this gold ink, is the only thing that can stop Bendy. Back to the end reel- the reel I had made. Has a nice tape to go with it." Henry laughed.
"This reel, is made of the gold ink, too. It contains just about everyone's memories and stuff. Henry plays the tape every time with the intent on killing Bendy, but that isn't what actually happens. Instead it gives him his own consciousness back. And then he sees me?"
Henry nodded, "Yeah,"
"Then how would this loop you talked about restart?"
"Because Bendy..."

Joey gave up on slow attacks. If Henry was doing this his way, he'd do it his way too.
As if that wasn't already what he intended.. What was happening today?

Joey lunges at Henry, who made a swift turn for the door. Joey stumbled up, ink pouring down the sides of his face from his black hair. He sighed angrily.
"Henry, you aren't going to make any progress by running!" He called, walking swiftly.
Henry ran for the exit, swinging it open. He backed up into the ink-filled room.

Joey crossed the planks, then stared down into the room with an unamused curl of his lip. He snarled, "Really? You think i'm stupid?"
"No," Henry smiled calmly.
The demon backed away with a step at a time, his hands being coated in the ink once again. He glanced up at Henry.
From behind, Henry heard a small shuffle. He knew that they had heard them. The commotion wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
Joey was pushed in swiftly by Sammy and Buddy, who then slammed the door closed quickly.
"You're on your own, Henry!" Susie called. Henry nodded.
Joey stumbled in the ink for a moment, staring down nervously at it. He huffed.
"Well then," Joey hissed, the voices all chiming in at once. He smirked at Henry, clutching his hands.
"Let's make this fun."

About ten minutes passed. Henry was constantly dodging the other 'man', trying his hardest not to fall. Bendy seemed... well, not stuck. At all.
Why? Why was that...
As Joey swung for Henry, he snapped from his small thought process and fell back into the ink. Joey reached his hands down and grabbed Henry by the neck.
The other stung. The ink.. it almost hurt him. Henry grabbed Joey's arms and kicked himself up, throwing the demon down into the ink. Joey yelled.
Bendy's hands flung down into the ink, flailing helplessly to try and get himself up. Henry held him down.
"No! You're.. staying right there," He growled, his hands starting to glow.
Bendy let this loop go too far. He didn't know why he hadn't just done this in the beginning. It would have been.. more logical.
But he liked watching the hope fade from Henry's face each time the loop had reset.
Joey smirked up at Henry, then it was Bendy. Then he blacked out.

"..Bendy would have been ability to just- reset the story. He'd only use it when the reel played, giving Henry the satisfaction of watching Bendy seemingly fade away. So that way, the reel was a distraction from the true way to destroy him. But, if Henry got too close to actually killing him, he'd let him. And give Henry the false hope of winning.
"So, pretty much, Bendy would have a sadistic mind and all that. If Henry were to be about to destroy Bendy, he'd reset the time line there instead of when Henry would remember."
Joey stared in awe.
"What?" He chuckled.
"I swear, this is why I love ya."
"Because my ideas are easy to steal?"
"What? No!" Joey laughed. The waiter placed a small check on their table.
It was small. Nothing much.
Joey reached to his pocket.
"Hey uh, Hen? I uh- forgot my wallet."

Henry huffed loudly. Joey smiled a little.
"I'll pay ya back.."

Henry opened his eyes inside a large room. He looked around quietly.
There were statues of everyone. It was like a large maze.
Had he.. had he done it?
Had he defeated Bendy?

Henry looked at his hands. He was human. Human was.. Human was good!

He walked around the room, staring at everything. Bits of memories and happiness flooded to him, staring at each piece like it was for the first time in a while.
Some pieces had multiple statues. Bendy had the most. He had been through a lot of character development..

Henry circled back around to an
empty pedestal. He stared at it.
Henry Stein.
Was this.. for him?
Henry slowly took a step up onto it. He smiled.
Then something clicked.

Henry stared down at the ink machine. "You kept this piece of junk?" He laughed. "It looks so broken and old. My god, Joey."
Joey shrugged, sitting down on the couch. A small golden haired girl ran from the same room as Henry, plopping on to the couch.
"Hello, Linda." Joey said with a smile.
"Hi, uncle Joey." She giggled.
"Uncle?" Joey looked to Henry. Henry shrugged. "You can just call him Joey, baby."
"Dad."
"That works, too." Henry snickered, sitting in a chair.
"Can you tell me a story? I know you have lots." Linda said with a smile. Joey leaned forward.
"Well, as a matter of fact, I do." Joey cleared his throat. "It's about Henry, too. Once upon a time..."

Henry's vision faded back. He stared down a long hallway, no other thought in his mind but...
"Alright, Joey, I'm here. Let's see if I can find what you wanted me to see..."

Bendy had that small ability that Henry had given him. Bendy didn't exactly always have his own mind, either. Right at the end he would remember, 'oh! I can do this!' and reset the time line.
Henry had been given false hope. But, one day, he would destroy Bendy before he got a chance to remember that ability. He would escape one day.
But for now, Henry was just the main character in a story that was told to a young girl.

"Tell me another one, Joey."