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I just want to say thank you to everyone who's read this story, who has followed it, and who has enjoyed it in its making. Special thanks to Addicting Candy, fog112 and Scarlet Pikachu for reviewing on nearly every one of my chapters. Another thanks goes to ATreeFriend14, who helped me out with some character choices that will be used for upcoming HTF fanfiction.
This is the last chapter guys! But don't worry, there will be an Epilogue. I hope you've all enjoyed reading my first Happy Tree Friends story. And I hope all of you will return for any other stories I plan on writing. I'd love to hear your opinions on the conclusion.
Thank you so much for putting up with me. The ending is a little weird in my opinion, but…
Flaky sneered down at the bear before her. One hand was settled on her hip. The other held a clay doll similar to Flippy in looks. Flaky clicked her tongue in disappointment. "Flippy, you're supposed to be the smart one. I was sure you'd catch wind of my plan instead of stumbling into it like a stupid mouse." Then she giggled. "Then again, it was a good plan."
Flippy decided to keep Flaky talking while he thought of a plan. It was a strategy Sneaky had pounded into the bear the first week of his training - when being held hostage you always keep the enemy talking. Time was life.
"How did you get behind me?" Flippy asked, looking angry and defeated. Flaky huffed. "It wasn't that complicated," she said, looking away for the slightest of moments. Flippy realized that that was the old Flaky acting. She was still in there. "I've been watching you," she continued, staring him down like the winner of a chess match. "Ever since I tricked Giggles and Petunia. I was almost completely sure you knew something about the idol, and expected that you'd try to keep an eye on me. Cuddles confirmed my suspicions - you tried to draw him away from my trail by telling him that I didn't know where the girls were."
"That wasn't what I asked," Flippy spat. He pretended to struggle briefly, but Flaky had a firm grip on the doll. "How did you know I was going to come here?"
"Because I've been watching you," she growled, not liking to have to repeat herself. "Ever since I duped Sniffles, I knew you'd be a problem. So I watched you the past three days. Today you made your move. You went to the hospital-tree to check on Sniffles. I was prepared with the doll and the key." Flaky laughed again. "It was so easy! I practically threw the key in your face; did you really expect that it would be so easy?"
"How..." Flippy paused. He had a sick feeling in his stomach. And it wasn't just from Flaky's confession. "How did you know I was headed here? You must have needed time to hide." But he already knew the answer. Flaky knew that too, and she pretended to look sympathetic. "Don't feel so bad Flippy. You didn't know that by slowly crushing the doll you'd be subjecting the real Sniffles to a parallel fate. I knew you couldn't resist messing with it, and that's why I left it there. I knew if something was happening to Sniffles that you'd taken the bait and were coming here to try and save the others."
"Where were you hiding?"
"In the trees," Flaky said simply. "You should be more paranoid. If you looked just a bit harder you might have been able to see me."
Flippy licked his lips. He had an idea, but it would require more information from Flaky. He looked around the cave and angrily said, "You can't have gotten all of us!" Flaky frowned and sighed. "Sadly, no, I wasn't able to get a hold of everyone. I couldn't find Lammy, though personally I don't have a grudge against her. Mr. Pickles though..."
"What about Lumpy? You said you were going to get him."
"I already have him." Flaky pointed a claw in the direction were the grunts of pain were coming from. "I couldn't think of a good torture for someone so stupid, so I just made it so he has to sit on a bed of heated metal while slowly hacking his leg off with a spoon. The spoon bit gave me a really bad feeling of déjà vu but its working."
"What about Russell?"
"Couldn't find him. He's voyaging again, I guess."
"Pop and Cub?"
Flaky scoffed. "I couldn't be bothered to waste energy on them. So I just dumped a dead dog carcass into their well water."
"Splendid?" Flaky outright laughed at that. "Seriously? Splendid? Do you even have to ask? I'm not going to mess with that hot-headed squirrel. Like I could even stand a chance against -"
"Help!" Flippy shouted loudly, cutting Flaky off and alerting the other friends. "Splendid, help! Help!" Then they realized what he was doing. Splendid never denied a call for help. He would be there in a few seconds. The others began to join his chant. Soon the entire cave was filled with the calls for help of the friends. Flaky stared before walking back to the other side of the room, beside the dolls.
Splendid appeared in a mirage of blue wind. He struck his hero pose - legs spread, arms on his waist, hands fisted, with the remaining wind blowing his cape majestically. The flying squirrel nodded before looking at Flippy, who had begun the calls. "It is I, Splendid, come to aid any and all of the needy Tree Friends. What seems to be the problem?" Flippy opened his mouth, but wasn't able to say anything. Flaky threw something at Splendid. The rope caught around the squirrel's neck, momentum from the throw bringing back the ends. It clenched his neck and restrained his lower torso. The two heavy metal weights at the ends fell to the ground. Flippy and the others expected Splendid to break from the bonds, for that weak attack should have done nothing. But the super powered Friend instead fell to his knees, coughing. "What is this? Why have my powers ceased to activate! I -" His sentence was lost in a barrage of sneezes. He sneezed so many times Flippy thought his nose might fly off. Which it did.
Flaky grinned evilly down at Splendid as the animal continued to sneeze and cough. "Sniffles was kind enough to show me a lovely cavern filled with pretty stones. And guess what that cavern happened to have? Nice, pretty Kryptonut. I ground it into dust and sprinkled it on the rope."
Flippy watched in horror as Flippy gripped the rope around Splendid's neck, lifting him up, and gave him four good slashes on each of his cheeks. She then made a point to kick him where it really hurt. The male Friend squealed in pain and allowed himself to be thrown down onto the ground. She turned back to Flippy.
"Oh, Flippy," she began, slowly walking towards him again. He realized things were going to get very messy very quick, and he needed to think of something. "It's not my fault that this is happening. It's yours. You shouldn't have pushed me. This stupid town shouldn't have pushed me." Flippy quickly reviewed over what he knew. Flaky was like this because she fell in a radioactive lake and burned to death. But she should have reset when she was Reborn. No status or anything should have followed her back. But as he thought about it more, Flippy realized that the waste might have been working on Flaky while she was dying.
Maybe that was the loophole, the exception. Flaky's emotions had fused with the waste, and it bonded with her as she died. Because it happened as she died, it canceled the reset, instead staying with her as she began the process of Rebirth.
If he wanted to get rid of this Flaky, he needed to kill her. And as he killed her he needed to rip the other Flaky away.
But he couldn't kill Flaky. He realized he had feelings for her. No matter how small or new they were, they were there. He couldn't bring himself to hurt her.
But his other half could.
Flippy looked around at the other friends. They'd been broken, beaten, and used. Some of them, like Sniffles and the raccoon twins and himself, wouldn't be wiped of these feelings or memories after Rebirth. The experience would stay with them forever. He couldn't massacre them. He needed to only attack Flaky. So how would he do that?
Flippy closed his eyes. The prisoners - Petunia, Cuddles, Giggles, Nutty, Toothy, Mole, Lumpy, Mime, Lifty and Shifty - they weren't his enemy. They were his friends. His comrades. Comrades that had been kidnapped and tortured by the opponent.
Flippy opened his eyes. He was no longer in a cave. He was in an underground room. His comrades were hanging by chains against steel walls. Most of them were bleeding.
His eyes turned to Flaky. Her scarlet eyes, her raising quills, her sharpened claws, that devilish grin spreading across her once cute and shy face. She wasn't his friend. She was the enemy. She worked for General Tiger. She had been sent to kill him. Flippy's vision turned dark. A wild frenzy of anger and perverse delight took hold of him. The old Flippy was fading away to watch.
Evil Flippy had taken control.
His eyes were green bands now, as green as Flaky's were red. He let out an evil laugh. All around him was war. Blood, sweat, death and hatred. Evil Flippy inhaled deeply. His kind of world.
This female before him. She'd gotten around his defenses, somehow. She was a true opponent. But she would have to die. Evil let out a hysterical laugh, slowly pulling a machete from the hidden pocket in his army jacket. He stared down Flaky, holding the end towards her. He would first aim for her throat. If that failed, her heart was the next target.
Flaky realized what was happening, but at the moment she didn't care. A kind of haze was clouding her judgment. This battle would be one to remember. And after she'd done away with Flippy, the others would continue to suffer. They would forever be her toys to play with, to mess with, and she would make their lives a living Hell, just as they'd made hers.
The two stared each other down. Evil saw an army enemy, and Flaky saw the dark side of one of her dear friends. They were each in different worlds. But they saw each other for what they were.
One saw a monster. The other saw a prisoner.
Evil lunged first, knife pointed. Flaky easily dodged him, but with a swing of the arm he caught her arm. She hissed as blood slowly dripped from the cut. Evil immediately attacked again, but Flaky knelt down. The blow missed, and Flaky grabbed hold of Evil's ankles, forcing him up and backwards. The bear lost his balance and Flaky followed by kicking him in the stomach.
Evil quickly regained his footing and looked around. Flaky had taken the chance to hide. The war bear grinned, teeth pointed and sharp, as he looked around for her. The watching Tree Friends were also looking around. "There she is!" Giggles shouted. She was looking towards the whiteboard that was still in front of Petunia. The skunk was getting over her obsession, but her lack of air freshener was taking it's tole on her smell.
Evil walked over, knife ready. But Flaky was prepared - she kicked one end of the whiteboard so that it swung sideways, hitting Evil in the face. She then hopped off and ran into the room Nutty was being kept. Evil growled, following her. A plate was thrown at his head. He used his knife to defend himself. The platter broke into dozens of pieces that fell to the ground.
Nutty was going wild. Flaky was holding the old, crusty, stale brownie in her hand. She crushed it in her fist and threw the crumbs at Evil. He sputtered as it got in his eyes. As he rubbed them clean he finally noticed that she was holding Nutty's doll in her hand. She was also closer to him. She punched him, quickly taking the machete and before he could get it back she drove the point of it down on the chains that held Nutty to the wall. It pierced through easily, driving itself into the ground.
Nutty went insane. He leaped on Evil, licking the bear's fur and biting his ears and clung to him so tightly that Evil found it hard to breath. He growled deeply and threw Nutty off of him, but the sugar deprived squirrel just ran back. The remaining line of chain kept around his neck trailed behind him. Evil moved out of the raging Friend's way and grabbed a hold of the chain. Then, swinging, he lifted Nutty from the ground and sent him flying at Flaky. The porcupine turned, allowing her quills to stop the flying Nutty. He looked like a pin cushion by the time Flaky ripped him from her back.
Flippy did a barrel roll and grabbed hold of his knife but Flaky was escaping again. She fled the side room and returned to the main one, running towards the voodoo dolls. Evil chased after her.
Flaky got a hold of Flippy's doll. She proceeded to crush it in her fist.
But nothing seemed to happen. Evil kept walking towards her, oblivious to her efforts to get rid of him. She blinked and looked down at the clay in her hand. Why hadn't it worked?
Then the tiny red bits of sand came out. This caused Evil to hesitate. Flaky noticed this and paid more attention. She thought about it. She'd put the idol's magic into the clay. It made sense that if she destroyed the dolls, then the power would seep back out in a solidified form.
Power... solidified...
Flaky grinned and glanced at Evil, who knew exactly what she was now planning. Inside, Flippy watched in horror as she began to quickly lick up the sand, squeezing the clay harder so that more would come out. He had to do something. Now.
He charged. Dropping the machete, Evil grabbed hold of both of Flaky's wrists. He swung her around and threw her at a wall. She glared at him as she arched in the air, and then her quills drove into the dirt wall. Some of her quills drove through her own body from the force of the impact. She gasped and shuddered. Drops of blood fell from her mouth. Evil saw that one quill had just barely missed her heart. Two seemed to have punctured her right lung. Her breathing became irregular and painful.
"You..." she growled. Flaky's eyes were losing their light. "You always kill me. Always. Even when I..."
Evil was grinning at his work. Slowly the adrenalin rush was ending. Flippy was about to regain control again. But just as his eyes began to return to their regular black, Flaky let out a laugh. She inhaled deeply, oblivious to the busted lung and slowly, very slowly, pulled herself from the wall. Quills remained in her body, but she landed on her feet. Her eyes, still red, were burning brighter than ever before. "It's always been you Flippy, hurting me... now it's about time I got rid of you."
Flaky pulled one of the quills out of her stomach and expertly threw it at Evil like a dart. The bear moved out of the way. But the sand had made Flaky faster, stronger. She yanked more and threw them faster. Soon a rain of long sharp red quills was flying at Evil. He continued to dodge, jumping in the air and rolling on the floor, turning on his heel. Eventually he got to his knife again. Picking it up he used it to deflect the quills. They fell broken to the ground. Flaky held one in each hand. Running at him, the met, quill to blade.
Then began their fight of weapons. Flaky was on the offence with, Evil defending himself from her quick slashes and stabs. Once or twice Flaky managed to cut a wrist or cheek. They moved around the cave. The imprisoned Happy Tree Friends cheered for Flippy. But Flippy himself was only doing half of the work. Evil moved swiftly and hit hard. But Flippy was thinking of something, anything, which would get Flaky to realize what she was doing. This wasn't Flaky. It couldn't be.
A wide silver ark and Evil knocked both quills from Flaky's grasp. Laughing, he held the knife high above his head and quickly brought it down. The movement was easy and smooth, like an executioner with his ax.
But Flaky caught the blade in her hand. She grinned back at Evil. The blade dug into her palm as she tightened her grip and in one swift motion, Flaky delivered a low kick at the bear. He dodged, and Flaky gained possession of the machete. She threw it at the far wall and charged once again for her opponent.
Flaky punched and Evil caught it in his hand. The blood from her hand stained his own fur; Evil gripped her wrist and tried to throw her away again. Flaky maneuvered the throw and caught her footing again, now holding Evil's wrist. She pulled him closer and kneed him in the stomach, and as he doubled over she lifted her knee and hit him in the nose. The bear stumbled backwards but then punched Flaky in the face. She attempted to kick his side but he caught her foot and lifted it, causing her to fall backwards.
As Evil bent over her, ready to strangle the last breath from her, she caught his neck between her heels and threw him over her shoulder. He fell into the table where the dolls had been. Cuddles and Toothy fell from their invisible binds, the strings holding them up broken. Cuddles grunted from the fall but Toothy almost immediately headed for the other dolls.
Flaky growled and tackled the beaver, snapping her teeth onto his ear and ripping. Toothy shouted in pain and fell backwards in an attempt to get her off, but Flaky wrapped her arms around his neck, digging her claws into his throat. The Friend thrashed, but in seconds the life was driven from him. He soon lay still and Flaky kicked his body aside.
Evil sat up in the broken wood parts and saw the jar of ants at his side. The ants were jumping, pointing at Flaky. They looked angry. Evil picked up the jar and chucked it at Flaky. The female saw this and quickly ripped Toothy's tail off. Using it as a bat, she swung it at the flying jar, breaking it into tiny pieces. The shards fell everywhere, and the ants decided to take this opportunity to escape.
Cuddles was slowly edging towards Splendid, who was lying on the floor, dribbles of vomit running down his chin. The rabbit bent down and slowly began to untie the squirrel.
Flippy saw this and quickly decided what to do. He pointed behind Flaky and shouted, "He's trying to free Splendid!" A flash of fear ran though Flaky's eyes - a look that was familiar on her face - and the porcupine turned around and was outraged to discover that Flippy was right. She hissed, pulling out another one of her quills and scared Cuddles away from Splendid.
Flaky ripped the rest of the rope off of Splendid, and while the super powered squirrel was still weak drove the quill through his heart. Then she took the rope and pulled it behind her. Cuddles saw and backed away. But Flaky was faster. She swung, and the weight at the end of the rope bashed hard against Cuddles's skull, impaling it. The rabbit's body wavered and then fell to the ground. Giggles was crying in fear and sorrow.
Flippy had used this distraction to free Giggles and Petunia from their binds. They both fell to the ground, but Flaky wasn't paying them any attention. She wanted to finish off her prey. Flippy made a short gesture at the two of them to go free Lumpy, Mime, Lifty, Shifty and The Mole. The nodded to him and went to work as Flaky glared at him.
"Why do you have to do this?" Flippy asked, standing back up. A shard of wood had driven into his arm, but he left it where it was. Flaky spat blood at him. "I always die at the expense of these idiots," she answered, making a sweeping motion behind her. "I get killed and hurt every day of my life because they never learn."
"It isn't their fault."
"So? It doesn't change the fact that they drag me into their problems. I shouldn't die half as much as I do. I'm smart. I stay out of trouble. Yet I always get skinned or crushed or murdered."
"It never bothered you before."
Flaky shook her head. "SO! The fact of the matter is that you started this. For the reason I hate you, you gave me the reason. You killed me, Flippy; you overturned my car and made me dissolve in that lake. And as I was dying I realized that we didn't need to take this. We didn't have to die because of you. I wanted revenge. It took us until then to really want it..." She smirked at him. "I suppose we should thank you, Flippy. Without you, none of this could have been possible."
Flippy tilted his head, an eyebrow rose. "We? Us?"
Flaky blinked. And then she shook her head. "I mean I. Me. Not us."
"But you said us. As if... you weren't the same Flaky?"
Her eyes grew wide, and Flippy could just see the faintest bit of fight growing. "No. There aren't two. There's only one Flaky. Me. These are my feelings. This is how I feel."
"No, you don't Flaky. Maybe you did, and maybe in a way you still do, but you'd never want to do this."
"NO!" Flaky took a step back. "I'm Flaky. I want you to hurt like I did!"
"You don't want to do this Flaky!"
The Other Flaky snapped.
"Yes she did! She wanted this. Flaky knew she wanted all of this. The idea had come to her more than once. I wanted her to do it! But she was too kind, too timid, to shy and too feeble to do anything about it. She wanted all of you to suffer. But she wouldn't do it herself. So I'm doing it for her.
"She kept telling herself that it wasn't your faults when it obviously was. She's different from you idiots - she's smart and has common sense. He's not just some... some..." The Other Flaky began to cry hot tears of frustration and hatred. "She isn't just some ugly, boring tom boy that everyone thinks she is. She has feelings!" The Other Flaky stomped her feet in anger. "And she isn't a scardy cat! She's not a shy timid little weakling!"
The Other Flaky fell to her knees. Flippy watched as he slowly edged over to his knife. "You're Flaky's Anger. You're all of the emotions that she kept locked up inside of her, for the sake of her friends. But you aren't Flaky."
"Yes I am!" The Other Flaky stood and clenched her temple. "I am Flaky! I'm what makes her strong! Without me she would be nothing! I AM FLAKY!"
"No!" Flaky was breaking through. Flippy was amazed to see another arm sprouting from the Other Flaky. "You aren't me! You don't make me strong! I don't need feelings like you!"
Another head split from the first. Two Flaky's were glaring at each other. One with hating, fiery scarlet eyes. The other with soft, determined, pac-man shaped pupils. "You need me!"
"No I don't!"
"You're nothing without me!"
"You're the one who wouldn't be anything without me!"
"He doesn't care about you! No one does! They need to be punished!"
"It isn't their fault. And they do care!" The real Flaky was breaking getting an edge. "And even if they don't I don't need their acceptance or revenge to make me feel better about myself!"
Flippy grabbed a hold of the machete. And before either the real or fake Flaky could say anything, he drove the knife into their joined chest. The Other Flaky screeched in anger. But the real Flaky just looked up at Flippy. Her eyes were teary, but thankful. "Flippy..."
"No," protested the Other Flaky. Her fur was beginning to lose its color. "Don't!"
"Flippy... I forgive you. For everything. And I'm sorry I did this to all of you."
"I hate you!" The Other Flaky screamed over and over, "I hate you. All of you!" The real Flaky looked pained. She avoided Flippy's gaze. He slowly pulled the knife from their chest, pulling the heart out with it. "It's alright Flaky. I'm not angry at you."
Flaky looked so relieved that it made Flippy relax. And slowly, very slowly, the Other Flaky began to disappear. She was growling, crying, and screaming as she did so. But Flaky only allowed herself a small smile. Soon only her body was left. She'd not only forgiven Flippy and the others, but she'd forgiven herself.
Flaky's body fell to the ground. Flippy knelt down beside her. Gently, he closed her eyes. The idol's power had been the last push in separating Flaky from her emotions.
Flippy looked up to see the others standing around. They looked lost, and even fearful, as if Flaky's body would snap back up to destroy them all.
They all stayed there. And then, one by one, the Happy Tree Friends left. Flippy knew that most of them would put this behind them. To the younger ones this would only become a hazy, broken up memory. But to others, like Sniffles and Flippy and Flaky herself, this experience would live with them forever.