(1) Ink Distortion (BATIM/EPICMICKEY)

30- Tell The Whole World

The cricket urged Gus to sit down and take a breather multiple times, but Gus persisted, insisting on going a little further, as if by some miracle, something would happen. Anything.

Then a loud thud interrupted the void of silence.

Both toons glanced at each other, confirming that they did, in fact, hear something.

The sound came from around a corner. Gus—with Jiminy on his head—cautiously creeped closer, peeking his head around the wall.

There was a puddle of ink, seemingly stuck to the wall, and at the foot of it, was Bendy.

"Bendy!!" Gus and Jiminy exclaimed in unison at the sight of their friend.

Bendy was on all fours, sputtering out ink, and clutching his side. The two toons rushed to help him, and hoisting him up (well, Jiminy tried to the best of his ability).

Gus and and cricket both got a good look at a large gash in the side of his torso, under his ribcage.

"Oh-Oh my Disney!!" Jiminy exclaimed, and buzzed down to examine the wound.

"Bendy what happened?!" Gus added.

Flashes of the fight Bendy had just narrowly escaped flooded his mind. Dale's death. Oswald. Oswald!

"Oswald!!" Bendy yelled his thoughts without warning.

"What? Did..did Oswald do this to you?" Gus's tone immediately changed from concerned to...almost betrayed, but his misconception was quickly corrected when Bendy added:

"N-no! Oswald!! He's still up there! With that...thing! I need to go back up there!" The devil darlin' tried to pry himself out of Gus's grasp, but to no avail. The harder he tried, the weaker he felt. All his limbs felt like they were being drained of any substance.

"Nuh-uh! You're in no state to return to...where ever you came from!" Gus said, barely using any strength to fight against Bendy's thrashing.

"What was going on up there?" The cricket inquired, worry building up in his voice.

"I...I think," Bendy swallowed the pain from his side, that's began creeping up his body, "I think maybe, Oswald 'ad turned on the machine."

There was a collective gasp among the two other toons.

"Oswald? Are you sure?? He wouldn't do that, would he??"

"Well," Bendy winced, leaning against the wall for more support, "The only ones up there were Oswald and Sammy, and Sammy can't turn on the machine."

"Who's Sammy? Why can't he turn on the machine?" Gus inquired further.

"He can't touch it. He would've been pulled back into the ink. Swimming in the v-voices," Bendy coughed, "Voices until someone turned the machine back on."

"But...we've already established that you're made of ink! Would you be pulled back too?"

"I...No...I wouldn't—er—I haven't. I've been surrounded by all sorts of things that would've—should've pulled me back, but it didn't! It's like I'm not made of ink at all!"

"Then what could you possibly have been created from?!"

"I...I dunno," Bendy slid down until he was sitting on the floor, his head spinning, and wrapped his arm more tightly around his side.

"We need to do something about that—uh—Jiminy, find some cloth, paper, anything!!" Gus said frantically, attempting to staunch the ink and blood oozing out of Bendy's torso.

Jiminy flew off, and with Bendy's current state, it seemed like ages until the cricket finally returned, with some paper, tucker into the pocket of a pair of dirty overalls, which he was clearly struggling to hold up.

Gus immediately lifted the load off of Jiminy, using the old sheets of music to wipe away as much ink as he could, before using what he had left as some sort of pad underneath the overalls, which he (with much difficulty) tore in half, creating a fair sized "bandage".

Bendy immediately (though in the slightest) perked up after he was cleaned and bandaged.

All three toons decided to take a breather, sitting down on the dusty floor, listening to each others breathing.

Until Bendy finally broke that bliss with:

"Where's Mickey?"

Jiminy and Gus's heads both flew towards the demon with wide eyes, as if Bendy had said something he shouldn't of. Jiminy and Gus tried to silently communicate, but to no avail. They both finally turned away with sad eyes, ignoring Bendy's question, which he repeated with more force.

"Uh, guys? Where's Mickey?"