Chapter Text
Rubbing his arm to get rid of the uncomfortable chill going through him, Mugman commented as he kept walking. “You know, I’m starting to see why Bendy, Boris, and Alice sometimes try pulling all nighters. After today I don’t think I’ll want to sleep anytime soon.”
After they all jumped into the hole to try catching up to Lena, only to lose her AS WELL AS Boris and Alice, the remaining members of the group found themselves outside a very dark and ominous castle where the opening of it looked like Magica De Spell’s face. Seeing no other options, Webby led the way to find her best friend and save her from her nightmares while the others followed her.
Checking one of the rooms in the castle, Webby huffed when it was empty and continued on. “I just don’t get it. Why does she keep hiding things from me! I can understand! I’m great at understanding things! I understand multiple languages!”
Cala glanced over her shoulder at Webby as she looked down a hall. “It’s not as simple as learning how to say things in a new language kid.”
Slamming the door to another empty room shut, the young duck girl spun around and glared with frustrated tears in her eyes. “Well it should be!! Lena’s my friend! My best friend! She knows I’ll do anything for her, that I love her so much! Why is it so hard for her to open up with me like how Bendy, Boris, and Alice open up with you guys?!”
Stopping in his search, Ellroy turned to Webby and raised a brow. “You think those three are an open book? I JUST learned about this weird Susie lady haunting Alice’s dream! I had no idea about her! Hell I have no idea what Boris’ nightmare was all about, but that's okay. I haven't told them everything about me yet either. I don’t expect them to tell me everything just because we’re friends.”
Moving closer, Mugman lowered himself to a kneeling position and rested his hand on Webby’s tense shoulder. “Webby, we get that you're upset, and frustrated, but as much as Lena knows that she can talk to you, actually talking about these kinds of things is really hard. Cuphead rarely brings up his curse unless he has to, and even I don’t like talking about it. It took a long time for Bendy, Boris, and Alice to really talk about the things they went through, and even then they still keep a lot of their past to themselves. Felix said this is the most they’ve ever opened up in years.”
Huey pitched in. “And remember when you helped us figure out what happened to our mom? Uncle Scrooge and Uncle Donald struggled a lot to finally tell us the truth about how they lost her.”
Taking Webby’s hand, Violet spoke. “Lena knows she has an amazing support system. You, me, my dads, the triplets, Scrooge, and so many others. She went to Bendy because he understands her situation on a personal level. We can’t force her to talk to us, we can just be there for her when she’s ready.”
While holding Violet’s hand tightly, Webby sighed as she wiped away her tears. “I know… It’s just hard. I almost lost her once. I’m scared it’ll happen again if I don’t do everything I can to help.”
Louie rolled his eyes. “Oh come on Webby, your bare minimum would be single handedly taking on the Disney Kingdom army, while your maximum effort would be going up against every single kingdom known to man AND WINNING, all for the sake of the people you care about. Lena knows she can depend on you and us when she needs it.”
Dewey offered a reassuring smile. “ALL of us will do what we can to help Lena from now on.”
Thankful for everyone’s reassurance, Webby smiled with a newfound determination within her as she stood tall.
“AaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!”
CRASH!!
Webby then screamed with everyone else when something BURST out of one of the doors they had yet to check and slammed into the wall face first hard enough to leave an imprint of his body. When the person then collapsed to the ground with a groan, they all gathered around, and stared at the new mystery figure.
Dewey was the first to ask. “Okay, who has nightmares about a weird red headed pig nose demon?”
“None of us actually.”
As everyone turned around to look at the doorway when they heard a familiar voice speaking in their heads, Ellroy slowly tilted his head up so he could properly take in Bendy in his ink demon form and look him in the face. “Whooaaaa, so this is what you meant about how you are on bad days.”
Changing back into his regular form so his amused smile would be more obvious, Bendy, his siblings, and Cuphead rejoined the group. While Alice hugged her boyfriend and Cuphead hugged his brother now that they were reunited, Boris looked around the hallway curiously. “Well this interior design certainly screams evil witch. Hope we’re not too late.”
Nudging the unconscious demon with her foot, Cala looked at the ink wolf curiously. “Wait what? What do you mean "too late”?”
Approaching, Bendy took back his cloak from Cuphead and put it on as he glared down at the demon. “This is all Magica De Spell’s doing. She and this nightmare demon Jeepers Creepers made a deal that he’d help her torment Lena so Magica could manipulate her and get her magic powers back.”
Louie commented. “That, actually, explains a lot. The Magica themed doorway should have been a give-a-way in hindsight.”
Alarmed to hear that Magica is involved in this, Ellroy looked around for any signs of the dangerous woman. “How do we find Lena then? She’s going to need our help!”
Holding up his finger to signal that he needed a moment, Bendy knelt down, and gently patted Jeeper’s face. When the dream demon started to groan again, Bendy stopped and soon Jeeper’s red eyes cracked open.
Which let him get a nice eyeful of Bendy’s terrifying glowing red eyes as ink oozed from his twisted smile.
“Boo.”
Screaming at the top of his lungs, Jeepers Creepers instantly got up and BOLTED down the hall. Wiping his face as his eyes turned back to normal, Bendy started running. “FOLLOW HIM!”
Doing as Bendy said, all of them started running, though Louie couldn’t help but give Cuphead a judgemental look. “You have a terrifying taste in men you know!”
Cuphead smirked. “You call it terrifying, I call it hot! He’s a damn good kisser too!!”
“EW, NO, STOP.”
Cuphead’s cackles echoed through the halls as they continued to chase after the dream demon.
_________________________
Groaning as she came to her senses, Lena pushed herself off the ground until she was in a kneeling position. Opening her eyes, she noticed a mirror in front of her, and saw how her feathers were now green and black.
Like Magica’s.
Gently rubbing her cheek as she stared at her reflection in dread, Lena jumped when a terrible familiar voice spoke. “About time you woke up.”
Turning her head, Lena saw her “aunt” sitting on a throne with her magic staff nearby, smirking at her while waving mockingly. “I mean not actually woke up, because you wouldn’t be trapped in a nightmare realm of my grim devising, soooo.”
Running her hands down her face in frustration, Lena cried out. “NOOO! I was free! You lost your powers! What did you do to me?!”
Magica rested her hand on her chest. “Me? This was all you. Did you think you’d turn out differently than me?”
When Lena glared and covered her ears to block out the witch, Magica just smiled as she stood up from her throne. “I’m trying to SAVE you! You came from me! Evil is in your… Whatever shadows have instead of blood.”
As Magica came closer, Lena lowered her arms and braced herself, though that didn’t stop the witch from talking. “Don’t you ever feel like there’s something, off, about you?”
Lena turned her back to Magica and hugged her knees. “It’s just a dream.”
Getting back into Lena’s line of sight, Magica knelt next to her. “Yes but it is really me. We’re psychically linked. Because you, me, same, evil, etcetera.”
Leaning away, Lena scowled. “I’m NOT evil. Bendy said so.”
Rolling her eyes, Magica held up her hand and pointed at it. “Yes, take the word of the demon with the power to corrupt souls with ink who shattered my hand in a fit of rage. He’s trying to make you live in the same denial he uses every day, but you’re better than that my dear.”
The sound of screaming outside the room cut them off. As both Lena and Magica looked at the doorway in confusion, Jeepers Creepers burst in and slammed the door shut behind him. Standing up, Magical had an irritated look on her face. “What are you doing here?! You were supposed to keep that little ink monster and his friends busy!!”
“YOU DIDN’T WARN ME ABOUT HOW THAT KID IS A FUCKING MONSTER!! I THOUGHT I WAS HORRIFYING, BUT HE SHOWED ME THINGS LADY! HORRIBLE THINGS!!”
Hearing Lena’s friends outside in the hall calling out her name, Magica huffed in irritation. “This is what I get for trusting a demon to do a witch’s job.”
A wave or relief washed over Lena from hearing everyone, she then gave Magica a smug look. “My friends are here! They’re going to save me!”
Magica scowled as she walked back to her throne. “Those dopes are here to stop you like they’ve always tried to stop me, because we’re MONSTERS Lena.”
“I’M NOTHING LIKE YOU!”
Glancing over her shoulder with a smirk, Magica then disappeared after a flash of magic light, and her magic staff started to glow.
Then, something started to feel wrong within Lena.
Groaning, Lena grabbed at her chest, and clenched her teeth as she felt herself changing. Being engulfed in a magic energy, Lena’s body was lifted off the ground, and once the wave of discomfort passed, Lena’s feet landed back on the ground, right in front of the mirror.
To Lena’s horror, her reflection was of Magica, staring back at her in terror. “NOOO!”
God, she even had her voice…
CRASH
Turning towards the door, Lena watched how it fell to the ground after Bendy, Boris, and Alice kicked it down. Rushing in first, back in her dream Scrooge accessories, Webby gasped when she looked at Lena. She then glared and pointed her Scrooge cane at her. “Magica! What did you do to Lena?!”
Realizing how bad this all looked, especially with Jeepers Creepers rushing and hiding behind her, Lena tried her best to stop the situation from getting worse. “No no! I AM Lena! I just look like Magica!”
“STOP MOCKING ME!”
God damn Lena’s naturally sarcastic tone.
Stomping forward, Bendy bared his fangs, making the dream demon behind Lena shake hard in terror. “We should have known this was your doing Magica. MONSTERS LIKE YOU DON’T KNOW WHEN TO QUIT!”
Feeling her heart sink from the accusation, and how everyone she cared about were looking at her with faces full of hate, Lena shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself as she started to glow and the wave of discomfort came back.
“NO! NO I’M NOT, A, MONSTER!!”
Everyone gasped as they watched “Magica” change. Her arms became wings, her feet grew claws, and a long tail grew from behind her. Even Jeepers looked impressed as he momentarily forgot about his terror. “Damn, ironic.”
Intending to call out to Webby in distress, Lena accidentally spit out a burst of purple fire from her throat. Turning her dream cane into an umbrella, Webby opened it and used it to block the fire blast, then Dewey rushed forward in his dream armor, and threw a shield at “Magica”. “TAKE THIS-.”
Thanks to his bad aim, the shield instead hit the floor in front of Lena, and bounced back at Dewey, smacking him in the face and making everyone wince when the young duck was knocked off his feet.
While Webby rushed forward to fight, Huey, now with extremely long legs, focused on the ink siblings. “We’ll handle Magica! You guys get that dream demon!”
Seeing Bendy’s very confused expression on his face as he stared at Huey, Boris rested his hand on Bendy’s shoulder and shook his head. “His dream, plus lack of imagination. Don’t ask.”
Shaking his head over that, Bendy and his siblings then turned their attention to Jeepers Creepers. Shrieking, Jeepers quickly dove and hid behind the throne, covering his head and shutting his eyes in terror. “Figures that hairball parents the most terrifying kids in all of history! He could have just adopted something like a bear, a rabbit, a fox, hell maybe even a little chicken girl! But nooooooo, he had to adopt demons!!”
A feminine voice spoke up behind him. “Well he IS co-parenting 420 bunnies, and all of them would have been as pissed as us over you threatening him.”
Tensing up, Jeepers looked to his right, seeing Boris and Alice standing next to the throne. Cracking his knuckles, Boris added. “Yeah, it wasn’t really smart of you to do that villain monologuing cliche. I never understood why bad guys feel the need to do that.”
Whimpering in fear, the dream demon tried moving to the left in an attempt to run, only to bump into Bendy, who grabbed a fistfull of his beard and slammed him against the back of the throne. “Let me make this clear. If you ever show your face here again, if you ever threaten people we care about again, and there will be no dream you can hide in that will protect you from us. So, with that being said, I suggest you tell us where Lena is, RIGHT, NOW.”
Rightfully scared of what the young demons were capable of, Jeepers raised a trembling hand and pointed behind himself. “S-she’s closer than you think!!”
At first looking confused, Bendy glanced around the throne, watching as all their friends tried fighting “Magica”… who, didn’t look like she was trying to fight.
She kept spitting fire balls as Cuphead and Mugman kept trying to shoot at her, but it sounded like she kept trying to say something as the fire spilled from her mouth. While Ellroy dove to get Dewey who was disoriented from being hit by his own shield attack, Huey used his, long noodly arms, to grab Louie who had turned into an animal cat, and threw him at the witch.
As Louie clawed at her face Ellroy successfully got Dewey to safety and handed him to Cala. In an attempt to turn around and check on his brother, Huey unintentionally slammed his head against a chandelier on the ceiling, hard, causing the ceiling around it to start cracking.
Seeing Webby standing under said chandelier, Bendy gasped and let Jeepers Creepers go. “WEBBY LOOK OUT!”
Throwing Louie off, “Magica” looked over at Webby, then dove for her. Safely pushing her out of the way right as the chandelier landed right on top of her.
Which is something Magica would NEVER do.
Rushing back to the others, Alice helped Webby sit up, who looked extremely confused as she watched “Magica” throw the chandelier off herself. However, rushing forward, Violet opened a book in her hand that shot out some kind of energy, which blasted “Magica” and sent her slamming into the mirror in the room they were in.
Pushing herself up to kneel in front of the mirror, “Magica” looked at her reflection as she changed back into a less monstrous Magica form. The reflection then started to move on its own as it smiled and spoke. “No matter how hard you fight it they will always turn on you. Give in. No worrying if you measure up. If you’re flawed. You’re tired. Come HOME to me.”
Magica’s hand came out of the mirror, and Lena stared at it.
… She was tired. So tired.
Who was she kidding with all of this? Maybe she was in denial like Bendy…
Watching as “Magica”’s shoulders dropped in defeat, and slowly started to raise her hand, Bendy’s eyes widened when he noticed something on her wrist. “Webby, look!”
Looking where Bendy was pointing, Webby softly gasped when she noticed the bracelet.
The bracelet she made, and gave to-
Wait, was that… “Lena?”
Feeling soft, gentle hands take hers, Lena pulled her eyes away from the mirror, and looked at Webby who looked up at her in remorse. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see. Of course it’s you… Is this what’s been bothering you? That you might become Magica?”
Though relieved that her best friend finally realized it was her, Lena sighed tiredly as she turned her back to the mirror and leaned on it as she sat. “I’m just, so tired of fighting it… I am her…”
Moving closer to Lena with the rest of the group, Bendy shook his head. “Lena, you're nothing like her. All she does is think of herself. This whole time you’ve been focused on your friends. Even before we ended up in this group dream you wanted to work on your powers for your friends sake.”
Cuphead added in. “Not to mention you actually saved Webby when we were all trying to kick your butt. Does that sound like something the old hag would do?”
Considering that, Lena then turned to the reflection, which was glaring at Cuphead with an offended look on her face over the “old hag” bit. “You’re right, she would never… I would.”
Pulling her gaze away from Cuphead, Magica in the mirror turned to Lena. “What are you doing? Don’t listen to those idiots! You ARE me!”
Squeezing Lena’s hand, Webby smiled warmly. “You’re not her. You’re you. You put so much pressure on yourself to be good, but you’re good enough!”
Moving closer, Bendy rested his hand on Lena’s shoulder with his siblings by his side. “You’ll always be good enough.”
Alice nodded in agreement. “Especially to those who love you unconditionally.”
Boris then added. “Anyone who says differently, can go to Hell.”
Looking up at the four, feeling a comfortable warmth spread through her, Lena slowly began to smile as she squeezed Webby’s hand back.
“GIVE ME BACK MY POWERS YOU UNGREATFUL BRAT!”
A painfully tight grip grabbed at Lena’s wrist, and caused her and the others to cry out in alarm as she was being yanked back. Quickly gathering around Lena, the younger members held her hand tightly as they started to pull, while the teenagers quickly grabbed her arm being pulled into the mirror and tried keeping her from being dragged in.
Fighting with all her might against the group, Magica within the mirror turned her gaze towards the throne, spotting Jeepers peeking out from behind it. “WELL DON’T JUST STAND THERE YOU COWARD! DO SOMETHING!!”
Turning his attention to Jeepers as well, Bendy snarled as he did his best to save Lena, using his gaze to silently DARE Jeepers to help Magica.
For a moment there, the dream demon seemed to consider his options, until a snap of his fingers made a door appear beside him. Opening said door, Jeepers Creepers went inside, and grabbed the doorknob to close before saying. “I quit.”
With the door slamming shut, then disappearing, Magica groaned loudly in aggravation as she fought harder to pull Lena to her within the mirror. When she started to lose her grip on Lena's arm, the witch instead pulled herself out somewhat to wrap her arms around Lena’s neck and get a better hold. “If you want something done right, YOU HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF!!”
Struggling to keep her footing as Lena was being pulled in more, Cala grunted as she and the others kept trying to fight against Magica who was extremely strong thanks tk this being a dream. “NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO WAKE UP!!”
Lena whimpered as Magica’s hold around her neck started to hurt. “I’M TRYING!!”
Feeling her hand slipping out of Webby’s grip, then something wet hit her beak, Lena focused on her best friend. She, along with her other friends, were now all glowing in a soft blue light of magic energy as they all fought desperately to save her.
All while Webby was tearing up, scared over losing her again.
Oh, HELL, no.
Tightening his grip of Webby’s hand, Lena’s body was engulfed in the same soft blue magic light, which then spread to the mirror, making Magica scream loudly in rage.
Then everyone’s eyes snapped open.
Sitting up in her sleeping bag, Lena let go of Bendy’s hand and looked around Webby’s room, before patting her face and feeling her head, realizing how she didn’t have Magica’s appearance anymore. “I’m awake! I’m me again! We did it!!”
While Webby cheered and tackled Lena for a hug, Cala rubbed her stiff limbs from sleeping on the hard floor without any cushioning all night. “Are we sure we did it? What if this is a trick?”
Agreeing with the sea beast, Violet spoke up. “We should probably test it to be sure.”
Yanking his sleeping bag away from his legs, Huey stared at them for a moment, before huffing and crossing his arms. “No, we’re awake. Which is TOTALLY fine. Whatever.”
While Boris patted Huey’s head and assured him he’ll get taller someday, Bendy moved closer to Lena and looked at her in concern. “Are you okay? I'm so sorry we got separated, Lena. I was supposed to help you and-”
Pulling Bendy into the hug, Lena nodded. “I'm okay. Really. It's not your fault we got separated. Thank you so much for helping me.”
Smiling as Bendy hugged back, Webby hugged a bit tighter. “I'm sorry too, Lena. I shouldn’t push to get you to talk to me. You have every right to talk to whoever you're comfortable over opening up about whatever is bothering you.”
Pulling apart from the hug, Lena smiled at Webby. “I appreciate that Webby, but I do want to talk about these things with you. I swear I do. It's just… you're the brightest thing in my life. I don’t want to drag you into my dark garbage.”
Webby pointed up at her ceiling. “That's, why I have glowy star crystals.”
As the two girls giggled over that, Ellroy rubbed his stiff neck and asked. “Think we have to worry about Magica doing something like this again?”
Boris shook his head no. “We'll tell Mickey and Oswald what happened. They'll make sure to put up more precautions in the dungeon so Magica stops harassing Lena. Though now that Jeepers Creepers probably won't come back for a looooong time, she's back to being powerless and pathetic.”
Mugman looked at the ink siblings curiously. “What exactly did you guys do to scare a dream demon of all people?”
All three siblings, and Cuphead, said at the same time. “You don't want to know.”
Thinking about everything that happened in their dreams, Lena hummed. “You know, Magica tried so hard to convince me I was a part of her, that I needed her, but she can't do anything alone in the dungeon, hell, she actually had to have a dream demon help her… I don’t need her, she needs ME.”
The ink demon chuckled as he stood up and stretched. “Yeeeaaah. These egotistical power-hungry jerks tend to be pretty dependent on others they try to use. Now I don't know about you guys, but after a restful night like that, I'm starving. Probably hungry enough to eat twice as much as Boris.”
As Boris snarked back that he doubted Bendy could even eat HALF of what he can eat, everyone left Webby’s room together, ready for whatever today had in store for them.