Malefic Truth Dragon... one of only a handful of monsters that had the maximum base attack and defense points in the game: five thousand. No support needed. Combined with its ability to wipe out every monster on the opponent's field by only destroying only one in battle, it had completely decimated his defenses and left him unable to set up his own big hitters. Without Metal Reflect Slime or another high-level monster, The Calculator couldn't get above 600 attack points.

"Battle Fader's ability barely saved us last turn, and that's usually my last resort..." Penn looked at the cards in his hand, then down at his field. He had a pair of trap cards left, Dark Bribe and Final Attack Orders, but neither of them could do anything to stop an incoming attack. Ever since Bendy had played his spell, it was like luck had turned against him. He'd drawn every wrong card in his deck, always getting what he needed one turn late.

If he didn't know better, he'd say that something had rearranged his deck so that every important card was at the bottom.

He cringed and flinched back as a blast from Stardust Dragon blew away his last defending monster. "I still can't believe that THING managed to summon a copy of Stardust..." he growled. "The ONE monster we hate the most..."

He looked up into the sky, wistfully staring at the nearly-complete ring of blazing green lights that had been counting down to his victory. There were nineteen of them. If he had a way to survive this battle phase, all he would need to do was end his next turn and Final Countdown would bring the duel to a victorious end.

"Penn? Please tell me you're hiding something, here... What about Ghostrick Lantern? Gravity Bind? Another Battle Fader? You only need to stop ONE attack and we'll win!"

Malefic Truth Dragon reared back as a storm of black spines materialized in the air around it.

"Sorry, Aibou..." Penn whispered. "Guess I should have put together a better deck for you."

The entire world became nothing but pain as the hail of spines rained down on them. Each one exploded on impact, whether they struck him, the car, or even the ground nearby. He felt himself lifted out of the seat by the force of the explosions before being thrown through the air like a ragdoll being juggled from one blast to the next. At one point he thought he spotted his cards being scattered into the air, his entire deck explosively disassembled.

When he struck the ground, he was still moving at the same speed. He could only grit his teeth as he was tumbled, slammed, and scraped against the asphalt road. Even if this was some kind of dream, the pain was enough to make him want to scream. Once his momentum had finally worn itself out, he was left gasping for air and splayed out on the ground.

Above him, Penn could see the sky growing dark as black clouds moved in. He felt a cold splatter against his cheek, then two more on his arm. Seconds later, it was a complete downpour of blackened rain. Beneath him, he could feel the ground softening and growing wet with ink. Once the pain had faded, he pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around.

His partner's protection had been one of the last things holding his mind together, and now that she'd been beaten out of his brain everything he'd ever imagined for himself was melting away.

With a groan and a wheeze, he forced himself onto his feet. "This... is MY mind..."

The ink demon was standing further down the road, watching him with that perpetual smile. It had changed shape again. Its body wasn't gnarled or misshapen, any more. It was lithe and muscular, and a wide pair of blackened wings spread out from behind its back. It shuddered and flinched for a moment as the center of its forehead split open, revealing a panicked-looking red eye looking wildly from side to side. Penn felt his heart shatter as he realized the truth of what had happened to his partner. His knees threatened to buckle from the fear and grief as he realized the true price of their loss.

Bendy began to walk towards him, laughing a raspy laugh as his drawn-on smile split open into a pit of needle-like fangs, each one dripping with black venom.

Penn's head was spinning, and his breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps. He couldn't think.

He could only feel. He could feel the rain slamming into him in sheets. He could feel the pounding of each heartbeat through his battered body. He could feel the fear of this monster and what it was going to do to them. He could feel the shame of having lost, of failing his partner. He could feel the grief of not knowing whether or not he would ever be reunited with her again.

"No..." his voice was trembling and feeble, just like him. It was a pitiful whine in the face of the inevitable.

"What now, author? Your shield, your body, your mind, your partner... Feed me MORE of your dreams."

Penn didn't have a reply. He could only hang his head and pray that the black rain was hiding his tears. As the demon's mouth opened wider, ready to swallow him headfirst, a flutter of motion caught his eye.

It was one of his cards, landing in the mud. A trap card, with an image of a knight in battered armor standing alone against a towering, grinning figure of shadows.

His hand tightened into a fist before he plunged it straight into the demon's gullet. He grabbed hold of its tongue, digging in with his fingernails and an iron grip before planting his foot into its stomach. With a roar of fury, he tore at the dough-like flesh until the meaty appendage ripped free and the demon was thrown backwards and onto the ground. He straightened his posture, staring at the flopping mass in his hand.

"Do you understand what you've done?" he muttered, watching the demon grasping desperately at its mouth. "Because I'm VERY scared right now. I'm terrified. Out of everything we've gone up against in our travels, you're probably the most dangerous, yet."

He dug his fingers further into the tongue until he felt it change to fit the picture he had in his mind. A grip. A handle. A trigger.

"I want to keep running, run and run and run until I can't, any more. I still could... except for what you just did. You hurt my partner." He craned his neck from side to side as he moved his feet to brace for the recoil. "We don't see eye to eye, but one thing we've always agreed on is..."

He leveled the gun at the demon, watching the crackling green energy build up inside. When it had reached a peak, he pulled the trigger and let loose a blast of emerald wrath in the form of a sphere of infernal energy. It collided with the demon's gut, pushing it even further back before it burst into a cloud of electrical arcs and sunk into its body. Before the demon could recover, Penn was already on top of it, now wielding a massive stone warhammer, which he slammed directly into the side of its head. With a disgusting tearing sound, the head separated completely from the rest of the body, sailing into the sky and out of sight.

Penn took a moment to tighten his grip. "Hurt one of us, and the other will make sure it's the last thing you ever do."

The demon, however, clearly wasn't finished. Its headless body rose up, growing bulkier and more muscular until it had taken back the form it had used to try and chase him down earlier. The stump of its neck bulged out until it had formed a new head, which roared at him with enough force to push him backwards.

What it didn't see, of course, was the yellow-striped box Penn had left just beneath it. With a smug grin, he stamped his foot down on a pedal, activating the trap. The box opened, producing a cone of light and a windy vortex that began to pull it inside, one drop of ink at a time. The demon quickly realized what was happening and began trying to escape by charging forward, but Penn was ready, once again with a new weapon. He lowered the wand of his proton pack, letting loose a tendril of orange energy that pinned the demon's arms to its sides while it was pulled into the tornado. It struggled and roared, but it couldn't resist the pull, and soon it entire mass had been pulled inside, and the doors of the box swung shut again.

"Two in the box, ready to go." Penn quoted, reaching down and picking up the still-smoking ghost trap. "We be fast and they be-"

The box blew to pieces in a shock wave powerful enough to send him flying backwards. The once-again-free demon shook off the last of the effects before staring him down again.

Penn pushed himself back to his feet, already pulling the pin from the golden orb in his hand.

His smile turned to a frown as the demon used its new wings to protect itself against the blast and took to the air, disappearing into the black sky. Penn readied himself, mind racing for his next attack.

"You're never gonna bring me down, you're never gonna break this part of me..." he hummed to himself, trying to spot where the creature had flown off to. "My friends are here to bring me 'round, not singing just for-" Unfortunately, he didn't see it coming when a clawed hand wrapped around the back of his head and forced him to the ground, dragging his face through the ink at a speed that would have torn off his flesh easily in the real world.

He needed to get up if he wanted to stand a chance to make good on his threats. He raised his arm as high as he could away from the ground, calling up a familiar image. When he felt the conjured thought solidify, he reached around behind his head and grabbed the demon by the wrist, clamping down had enough to shatter the bones beneath. The demon shrieked with pain and recoiled, bringing its attack to an end in favor of an escape attempt.

Penn didn't let go as he pulled his feet back beneath him, rolling his shoulder in its socket with a series of mechanical clicks.

"Partial Integration Device. You want something I made? You should be careful what you wish for."

As he stood back up, the two of them stared at one another, their faces inches apart. Without warning, the demon's shattered wrist twisted one hundred and eighty degrees, allowing it to grab at his own arm and pull hard. Penn's entire world tilted upside down as he was flung over its head and his entire body slammed into the ground. And then he was in the air again... and then the ground hit him like an eighteen-wheeler. Air. Ground. Air. Ground. His arm was sputtering and sparking violently as all of the mechanical pieces inside were strained past their limits. Just when it felt like he was going to be reduced to a pile of broken bones, the demon slammed him down with extra force, leaving him in a small crater in the ground. It planted one clawed foot on his chest, pinning him.

"Even here, where you are a god... you are a PUNY god!" Its talons dug into his mechanical arm and pulled upwards. He didn't feel any pain when it was ripped away from his body, only a haze of dizziness as he realized he'd lost yet another part of himself.

Penn reached up to his face with his remaining hand, noticing that half of it felt numb and one of his eyes didn't seem to be working. It felt moist, cold, and completely smooth, even in the place his eye should have been. As he pulled his hand away, he could see that his fingers were covered in ink. For a brief second, he remembered the lost souls that could be seen wandering through Joey Drew Studios in Bendy's game, their bodies all emaciated and featureless as they were smoothed over with ink. For a moment, the outrage parted to make way for fear to return, and he felt a deep terror as he remembered the things that the Ink Demon could do to him when- if it won. An eternity of tortured, powerless existence as the failed creation of another.

He looked back at Bendy, seeing his partner's eye giving him a pleading look. Even when he couldn't hear her, he knew that she was begging him to run.

"By all means, continue..." The demon licked its chops as it stepped back and away from the crater with its arms open wide. "I have been relishing every ounce of your imagination... That last portion was especially delicious, I could taste your soul in it."

"Why is it... every time somebody invades my brain..." Penn grunted as he tried to push himself off the ground, "...they always make me buy time... in the most PAINFUL way possible?"

The demon was toying with him. In a duel, that was a mistake. Never giving your opponent a chance for a comeback was the smart way to play, but... the Ink Demon was too strong to worry about playing smart. He glanced down at his torn-out shoulder, brushing off the metallic remains and trying to bring back his arm as it was...

But nothing happened. At the place his flesh ended, there was only a pool of black liquid. The arm wasn't coming back.

"You know... I'm getting REAL tired of losing..." he muttered, reaching behind his back with his remaining hand. "First Cinder outsmarts me, then Salem tortures me, Frisk KILLS me... now this." When he brought his hand back around, he was gripping a large black sword with a silver edge, shaped more like a giant kitchen knife than a blade for battle. "I'm NOT losing my partner. You give her back or I swear to Slifer, Obelisk, and Ra I will end you."

"You will try, but this world is already mine. You are ALL that remains. You are alone."

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The two identical angels both poked their heads up over the assembly line to spy in the appointed direction.

A stone's throw away, they could both see a huge, green cylinder. On one end was a massive single cable, thicker than either of them were tall. Out of the other side of the cylinder came at least a hundred smaller cables of varying sizes, all leading off into different sections of the workshop. As if they needed their suspicions confirmed, the words "MAIN POWER COUPLING" were displayed in blocky lettering across the side.

There was also a massive globule of ink seated at the top, rising up of its own accord into the form of another Bendy head that was patrolling back and forth, guarding the coupling from harm.

The two ducked back down, each one humming with thought. "Okay... what if we summon something to break it?" Missy asked. "Come on, double the Ghostricks, double the power, right?"

Misprint bit at her lip and clasped her hands behind her back. "Uhhh... maybe YOU can summon..."

"Wow..." Missy frowned. "I can't imagine not having the rest of the Ghostrick family there for me..."

"Yeah, yeah, you're real lucky, can we get back to what's important, here?" Misprint replied with a glare and a flippant tone.

"R-Right..." Missy nodded. "Well, last time I summoned around the Ink Demon, it didn't end so well, but that DOES give me an idea!"

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"Okay... I think it's ready!" Sunset declared, dusting her hands and stepping away from the giant conspiracy board.

"It... doesn't look like you did anything." Clara tilted her head as she peered more closely.

"Well, what good is a trap you can see coming?" Sunset stared grimly at her handiwork. "Trust me, this is WAY more dangerous than it looks... I just hope Penn's mind survives it."

"Okay, well, I guess I'll go tell him-" Clara was cut off by the sound of a heavy impact, and a form came sliding out of the darkness, stopping just at their feet.

Sunset gasped in horror as she realized it was Penn. Large splotches of his body had been replaced with black ink, including half of his face and one of his legs. One of his arms had clearly been torn off completely, leaving an empty hollow in his shoulder socket.

"PENN! Are you okay?" Clara went to grab his arm and help him up, but he quickly shook her off, casting a death glare back into the darkness with what was left of his face. He didn't even seem to realize that they were there.

"COME ON, YOU APES! YOU WANNA LIVE FOREVER?" He shouted before running headfirst back into the darkness.

"PENN, WAIT!" Sunset cried, starting to run after him. It didn't make a difference, however, when he came flying back again, now with his last arm turned spindly and blackened. She dropped to her knees, grabbing him by the shoulder to try and help him to his feet.

"Th-They are rage... b-brutal... without m-mercy..." his voice was a hoarse whisper, and Sunset barely needed more than a light touch to hold him back from charging in again, in spite of what were clearly his best efforts to return. "B-but you... you will be..."

"Okay!" Sunset finished, pulling him away and towards the edge of the room. "You will be okay, Penn... That's enough. You've done enough."

Emerging from the void was the ink demon, but... different than Sunset remembered. When she'd seen it before, it had either been emaciated and twisted or some kind of hulking beast. There had been no in-between. However, what she was seeing now...

It stood tall and proud, with wide black wings and pearly fangs. Its body was still practically skin and bones, with an exposed ribcage and a pulsing heart suspended in a pool of liquid in the center cavity of its chest. Its limbs were lean and muscular, with no sign of the previous misshapenness. She almost cried out when she saw the eye of Big Sis embedded in its forehead, bloodshot and crying black tears that ran down to join the rest of the ink constantly dripping from the crown of its head. It... even beat Big Sis? It had an air of total confidence and power as it stepped into the room, and even without eyes of its own, Sunset could feel the hunger in its gaze as it looked around at the three of them. The chemical smell of the ink was almost overpowering, and it made Sunset want to cover her mouth. She felt dirty for even breathing in its presence. The demon spread its arms wide, brandishing long, black claws.

"What SHALL I make of you? So many playthings, so much to create... So much to RE-CREATE..."

Sunset eased her grip on Penn to lean him against the wall before stepping into the center of the room.

"So, you TALK now?" Sunset folded her arms over her chest. "Fine, then I have a question for you, before you turn us all into a bunch of misshapen cartoon characters. Why? Why are you doing this?" Sunset tried not to let her fear show as she stared down the demon. "All those souls in your home, now Penn and the rest of us here? WHY do you want to hurt people like this?"

The demon paused for a moment, its impossible smile seeming to grow even wider as it regarded her with amusement.

"An artist needs no reason to create, do they? It is for the love of the craft, the process..." It continued walking towards her, forcing Sunset to walk backwards until she felt her back press up against the wall. It traced the tip of its claw up her neck, stopping just below her chin. Everywhere it touched her burned at her skin. "The act is its own reward."

"Y-You can create things without hurting people!" Sunset stammered. "Is there really no way we can convince you to just... leave people alone? You don't HAVE to do things this way!"

The demon tilted its head before leaning down to her, breathing more of that chemical scent straight into her face.

Sunset reached down, trailing her fingertips along the giant whiteboard. "Alright... Then I guess we don't have a choice. CLARA, NOW!"

There was a series of loud clicks as new lights switched on in every corner of the room and projector reels spun to life. All of them were projecting the same image into the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor: The End, written in bold, curled text.

The change from smug victory to animalistic fear was instant. It immediately stumbled several steps backward, its head swiveling side to side looking desperately for an escape.

"It took a LOT of searching to find a memory THIS specific!" Sunset narrowed her gaze. "Just a few short seconds from a short boss fight in a SHORT video game? In the mess that is Penn's memory? I almost gave up!"

The demon's skin was beginning to sizzle and flake away. It tried to run back out of Penn's War Room in the direction it had come from, only to crash headfirst into a new wall. They'd closed the trap on it.

"No! NO!" The demon dropped to its knees and clutched at its head, trying to block out the sight of the final film reel. Its new body was boiling and melting away, reducing it back to the emaciated and twisted form it had once held. "That was destroyed with the rest!"

"Well, if there's one thing I've learned I can count on, it's Penn's impossible memory!" Sunset stepped up to the creature, now towering over it as it cowered from its own end. "I tried. I want you to remember that. I gave you the chance to change, and you threw it away. Now... you're paying the price for everyone you've hurt, including my FRIEND!"

She punctuated the statement with a kick to its head, knocking away its hands. For a brief moment, she accidentally locked eyes with the protruding red eye of Big Sis. It was fleeting, but Sunset could have sworn that she felt a sense of... gratitude from it.

This time, however, the demon's gloved hand managed to seize hold of her ankle. At the same time, the sounds of all of the projectors ground to a halt and the room fell into complete darkness.

"I-I don't know!" Sunset felt panic swiftly beginning to set in as she fruitlessly tried to pull back on her leg. "It's not letting go!"

"This is MY domain..." The voice was coming from every direction, now. "You DARE attempt to end me HERE?"

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"...but she exists here, in this pocket dimension connected to his consciousness? And he was the one who wrote her into existence?"

The two of them had accidentally come across one another, in spite of the fact that they had started off walking in opposite directions. Noir had taken up a position on the Doctor's shoulder, claiming that his wings had grown tired.

"He had the idea and the... 'real estate.' I put in the actual work, all the little details of her character and specs." Noir shrugged. "Consider it a joint custody situation."

"Not yet. As far as his characters go, I've been kicking around up here longer than most. Just can't seem to get that story right." Noir rolled his eyes. "Not that I mind. He gave me my own little corner of this place and bounces some of his creative ideas off me once in a while. I should practically be a co-author on his Integration story!"

"You know, this reminds me of something... imagining people up into existence..." The Doctor knocked at his head, trying to trigger his memory. "Autonomous mental constructs... some type of new-age thing-" He snapped his fingers. "Tulpamancy! That's it!"

"Crock of hooey, if you ask me." Noir shrugged. "Writers have been talking to their characters for as long as storytelling's existed, Tibetan monks didn't invent that!"

The entire world shifted and shook around them, causing the Doctor to lunge for the guardrail. In the distance, a titanic blast of white energy arced up into the sky, atomizing anything in its way. In every direction, machines fell limp and lights switched themselves off in a massive rolling blackout.

"By my guess... probably the crater formerly known as the central power coupling..." Noir growled.

The Doctor paused, taking a moment to more closely listen to his surroundings. Aside from the remaining echoes of the blast, everything in the workshop had come to a complete and total stop. Only the bare minimum of emergency lighting was active, everything else had shut down.

"If she so much as SINGED any of the other machinery, I'm going to- I'm gonna-" Noir huffed repeatedly before breathing a plume of flames upwards. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GONNA DO, BUT IT'S NOT GONNA BE PLEASANT!"

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"You don't think Noir's going to be too mad about the mess, do you?" Missy asked, glancing at wide swath of incinerated slag metal she'd cut into the workshop. "I tried to aim it..."

"Pfft, how could ANYONE be mad about something THAT cool?" Misprint leaned against her shoulder confidently. "Besides, we totally saved the day!"

Missy smiled as her own confidence quickly began to return. "Yeah, you're right! I'm sure it's fine!"

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"G-Get away! I said GET AWAY!" Sunset shouted, kicking her captured leg to try and shake free.

"You were a poor excuse for a demon, Sunset Shimmer. Perhaps you might make for a better angel..."

Sunset felt a hard pull on her leg that drew her further into the dark. Something warm and slimy licked at her cheek as musty breath flooded over the side of her face. Sunset swung her fist hard in that direction, but only found empty air. Whatever the creature had done to plunge them all into darkness, it had left them fumbling blindly.

"Leave her alone! Sunset, where are you? I'm on my way!" Clara shouted. Her voice, however, was growing fainter by the second.

"Clara! O-Over here! This way!" Sunset called desperately into the dark, trying to guide Clara the right way.

"It's much too late for that. Everything here, every scrap of imagination, every last soul, is MI-"

With a flicker, the light above their heads switched itself back on. It was only now that Sunset realized that she was being held in place by a disembodied hand sprouting up from the floor. The attention of the demon, itself, had moved on to Clara. She tried to run to the left, then to the right, but each time the demon's arms would stretch out to block her, and she was rapidly being shut into a corner of the room.

"CLARA! Hold on!" Sunset reached down, beginning to pry the hand away from her ankle. "I'm coming!" The grip was like iron, and she was barely able to pull away even one finger at a time when devoting all of her strength to the task. Just as she thought that she was going to be able to slip free, a second gloved hand sprung up, grabbing just above the first one. I'm going to be too late!

Everyone, including Bendy, all snapped to look at Penn. He'd managed to stagger back to his feet, and was limping his way towards the monster.

"Should have known something... Joey Drew made... would leave the job unfinished!" he taunted, reaching up to turn his red cap around backwards. "So why don't you... quit talking big?"

The demon turned and began to walk, and the two limping figures met at the center of the room. They both stood for a moment, as if trying to each intimidate the other. Sunset's took a deep breath to make her own threats, but Penn held up his hand and motioned for her to keep quiet. Now that they were both properly in the light, Sunset could see a glimmer of intelligence in his eye that hadn't been there in his earlier ramblings. He's not delirious any more... but what's he planning?

"You're not looking so good..." Penn looked the demon up and down. "Did somebody unplug your little juice maker?"

"That you built an ink machine in Noir's workshop? Yeah." Penn raised his single eyebrow. "You're not the only one who was playing multiple games at once."

Penn narrowed his eyes and plunged his hand straight into the demon's chest, causing it to roar with pain. He seemed to rummage around inside for a moment before withdrawing it, now holding a card in his hand. At the same time, the split in the demon's forehead shut as the eye of Big Sis disappeared. Penn examined the card for a moment before slipping it into his chest pocket.

"Now then..." he cleared his throat before glaring up at the demon's still-smiling face. "Third time is the charm, right? MY mind, MY rules!"

He's got control back! Sunset felt a swell of hope as she realized what was happening. "GET HIM, PENN!"

The demon made an attempt to swing at him, but Penn blocked it with his arm and planted his non-inked leg in its gut to send it tumbling backwards toward the wall of references. When it collided with the wall, the demon's skin boiled and burned again, and it left a long black smear across the wall.

"You don't create anything. That's why you needed those souls and why you needed ME!" With every step, Penn seemed to grow stronger. "You caught me off-guard before, and then you got a foothold, but do you know what my biggest advantage is?" He lowered his shoulder, ramming the demon just under the ribcage and pushing it back up against the wall. Behind them both, the huge structure began to slide, moving from one topic to the next and dragging the ink demon along its entire length.

That was when Sunset felt the pressure on her leg release. She didn't even wait to see what had happened, rushing up beside Penn and adding her own shoulder to keeping the demon pinned down. It struggled and thrashed, but Sunset ignored it, using every ounce of her strength to force it back against the wall. As they both turned their heads inward, Sunset and Penn locked eyes, and both of them couldn't seem to help smiling at each other.

One painful inch at a time, the two of them continued ramming forward, until Sunset realized that she was simply pressing against the wall, itself, now.

"I... I think it's gone..." Clara's voice came from behind them, and they both stepped back to look at their handiwork. The entire board had been smeared with a thin layer of black ink, but even that remnant of the demon was disappearing quickly. Seconds later, everything had returned to how it once was, and the three of them were alone. "Uhm... does anybody wanna explain what happened?"

Penn took a deep breath before sighing with relief. "Right now, the only thing I wanna do is get some sleep."

Sunset nodded and reached up to her geode. "We can talk once we're all back to the TARDIS. Long story short... we won."

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

...I Can Win This Game