AN: Thanks again for all the reviews. Also Kenikitten you seem to have put far more thought into Sonia's evil self than I have yet, it just struck me that I never thought of a name for her or Flippy's psychopathic side. It's good to know I'm not the only one enjoying this fic. Unfortunately this is my last pre-prepared chapter so updates will probably be slower from now on.

Disclaimer: I don't own HTF. I just use the characters, blah blah blah. (If anyone read this they'd realise they are completely unconnected to the story.)

Chapter 10: War Party.

Cuddles pulled himself out of the wreckage that had been Cro-Marmot's house, dragging the caveman behind him.

"This would be a lot easier if you would move." He paused, "What do you mean you're thinking?" He stepped away from the ice-cube and glared at the creature. "Why don't you pull your weight?... I know, I know."

The yellow rabbit gripped the ice's slippery surface and struggled to lift it yet again, he groaned under the weight. Cuddles frowned back at Cro-Marmot, he used to trust the caveman and he remembered how that had turned out.

"You're lucky that lives are a stake... Will you shut up about that."

With that the grumbling rabbit set off, lugging the massive lump of ice as best he could, onto his back; both of them however failed to notice their audience. Two squirrels slunk back into the shadows, the shorter of the two's manic laughter finally pouring out, as if he could not hold it for more than ten seconds.

"See, I told you this was serious, hehehehehe."

"Are you going to follow them or not?"

... ...

After several hours Flaky was finally beginning to recover. Words and memories flowed back into her mind, pooling into to place and flooding slightly over the edges. She had always been cautious though, when her sense had returned as things came back into her head Flaky would wait a minute (maybe longer) before revealing that it was back. Due to this Flaky noticed things, she noticed just how much safer the room felt since Flippy had left, she noticed how tired she felt, and finally she noticed that, as Giggles became aware of how awake Flaky was the look she had had in her eyes disappeared, to be replace with the usual kind friendliness. Part of Flaky was relieved, not being able to work out what someone was thinking had been terrifying, but another part of her worried; had she just imagined that look? Was she just being paranoid? But still, why would Giggles go to so much trouble to stop her from knowing what she felt? Her mind raced. What could Giggles be hiding from her? What if there was a secret she didn't know? What if everyone was in on it? What if everyone was just pretending to be her friends? What if she was the only one dying all the time and everyone else was just faking? What if everyone was out to punish her, to hurt her? After all Flippy had done that enough times.

Flaky buried her face in the blankets of her bed, she could feel the tears on her cheeks. With all her memories had come all her fears, spiders, heights, Flippy, blood, mirrors, chicks, Flippy, knives, guns, explosions, everything. Flaky was terrified of everything, and right now it was all closing in on her, her phobias came from every direction, surrounding her, pinning her in and at the front... Sonia sat in Flaky's mind, throwing blame and condemnation at her along with her fears.

"You shouldn't have left me alone... You're a terrible mother... Even The Soldier is safer than you." Flaky's tears were flowing faster and faster, her greatest fear slowly realising itself in the back of her mind. She was useless, a useless parent, a useless friend, a useless person. She had all the competence and bravery of a baby. She could feel sobs shaking through her body, useless, useless, useless. She felt an arm on her wrist, someone trying to talk to her. Ha, why should they bother, it wasn't like she had anything to add, useless. She could hear someone calling her name, it sounded far away, she just blocked it out. It wasn't like anyone could really care about her.

"Flaky, are you okay?" Giggles' voice finally penetrated Flaky's nightmares, "Flaky, you need to get up." She sounded like the porcupine's mother.

Flaky's tears dried, her breathing coming back under control, she could remember her mother, just about. Back when the world had made sense, before Flaky had come here, her mother had been the one to make everything safer, she had put Flaky's mind at ease. But that had been so long ago, Flaky's tears began welling up again. She hadn't seen her mother for years, she couldn't remember her mother's interests, or fears. She couldn't remember her mother's voice. It brought tears to her eyes to realise that, about the woman who had brought her into the world, the person she had meant the world to, she knew nothing. She couldn't even remember her mother's face. Yet more tears cascaded down her face, worthless. How could you not remember your parents? They were the closest people to you. No wonder everyone saw her as useless. She was...

"Flaky, snap out of it." Flaky felt an impact on her arm, blinking back into reality she looked up to see Pop glaring down at her, the brown bear looked more angry than she'd ever seen him before. He was grating his pipe in between his teeth, he was obviously enraged and seemed to be channeling all his frustration at Flaky. "Get up, someone wants to see you."

Despite Giggles' protests Pop lifted Flaky to her feet, half-leading, half-dragging her out of the hospital room, the building and out into the street.

Flaky looked around her blearily, beside her she could here Pop groaning with the effort, she wasn't light and he was getting older, she groaned and tried stand on her own. Failing again Flaky stumbled and fell forwards, Pop sighed, gripping her tightly by the arm and pulling her back to her feet. She wobbled for a second, before looking up at the group of people before her.

On one side Flaky could see a small table, absurdly set up with fine china and wine crystal, and three people sitting behind it. Petunia leaned feverishly over the surface, polishing and cleaning, her hands blurring with movement. Her husband sat next to her, tapping the table occasionally for someone to pass him something, looking even angrier than Pop but acting for all the world as if he were at a tea party. To the left of those two was placed a massive ice-cube and staring blankly from its depths sat Cro-Marmot. Flaky's eyes rested on him for a second, that impassive stare, the isolation from everyone that seemed thicker than the ice, he'd always given her the creeps.

The other side was a different story. In contrast to the rapid movements near the table (except of course for Cro) the two figures that stood there were practically statues. Flippy stood rigidly at attention, for a second Flaky felt herself tense, just looking at him made her feel... Memories kept flooding back, she turned to look away, then realised she couldn't as Pop was still holding her up so she just stared past him. She couldn't help noticing though that Flippy hadn't been looking at her, he had been looking off into space, focusing intently at something that wasn't there and his eyes hadn't had a single trace of green.

Beyond Flippy sat Cuddles, on yet another ornate chair, he seemed lost in another world, his body still as stone, his gaze cold and unfocused. Yet as Flaky looked closer the illusion seemed to collapse, the yellow rabbit was shaking quietly and the look on his face, seemed to be one of the most empty things Flaky had ever seen.

"Ugh... Everyone on your feet." Pop's voice sounded tired, completely worn-down. He looked across the group, "I think everyone's here." He turned to Flaky, helping her to a chair next to Handy, "We mostly know why we're here I think, so now we need a plan."

Flaky sat in her chair, watching the group planning, feeling completely alienated. She knew this had something to do with Sonia, but if that was true then why were Handy and Petunia here? They were friends, but she didn't know how they had found out about Sonia. Had Flippy told them? No, he'd been totally unable to accept the situation as real. Then why...?

"This is pointless." Handy was talking now, leaning his feet on the table and frowning, "How can we make a plan when we don't even know what's going on?"

At the sound of his voice Petunia finally seemed to snap out of her cleaning, she looked up, her hand slowly coming to rest, clenching tightly around the edge of the table. "We can't just do nothing."

Handy's expression changed immediately, he whirled round to face his wife, hugging her as tightly as he could with just his stumps, "That's not what I meant dear, it's just..." He trailed off with a sigh, trying to calm his wife down. Now she had stopped cleaning though, it was as if her emotions were boiling over. Sobs racked Petunia's frame and tears cascaded down her face. Handy glared at the group, his face silently blaming everyone and daring them to go anywhere near his wife.

But in Flaky's mind everything was starting to fit together. Why was everyone here? She could tell just by looking at Petunia's face, it was exactly how she felt. That meant... More children had disappeared besides Sonia. Flaky managed to contain her shock though, she had always been good at hiding her emotions, people saw only mild nervousness where there was an absolute terror of everything. Flaky just sat absorbing all this new information and silently cursing herself for being so selfish. No wonder no one cared about her. Useless.

... ...

In the darkness of the camp Gregor staggered along, from tent to tent, the smashing sound his tail made shattering the silence and scaring wildlife. Infront of he guided the squirrel in the long coat. He smiled lopsidedly, it had been a long time since he had had a new recruit in medical, it wasn't as if the general cared much for the well being of his soldiers, so Gregor was constantly under staffed. But then again, it wasn't as if he cared for the soldiers either, with a few notable exceptions Gregor was capable of tearing anyone to pieces without a second thought. That notable exception, unfortunately, was right infront of him. Gregor had not liked the general's plans in the slightest, he could detach himself from people with ease, but when it came down to it Gregor could hardly bare to see children in the line of fire. The only reason Gregor managed to maintain his professional cruelty around the recruits was simple, the cause. The cause was everything, they had to win.

Beside him the squirrel shuddered. The beaver commander was terrifying, not just because of his size, but the way people reacted to him, the few soldiers they had run into, who only hours ago had been tormenting him, took one look at Gregor and immediately hurried out of his way, one even screamed. It was satisfying, in a morbid sort of way he realised, to see the fear in people's eyes as you walked past, he also realised how dangerous it was to be with a person who got that kind of response. He hurried along infront of the beaver, painfully aware of how much danger he was probably in and he had thought medical would be the easy way out.

Gregor raised his hand and the squirrel was snapped out of his thoughts, they were approaching a dirty white tent, from inside various sounds could be heard, the sort of sounds that made a normal stomach flip, but neither of the people approaching had what could be described as a normal temperament. Even so the green squirrel buried his face in his coat, giggling nervously.

Gregor just grunted, ripping the tent flap out of the way with unnecessary force he pushed the squirrel forward and stepping after into the darkness.

"Hello gentlemen, I'd like you to say hello to a new recruit."

The squirrel forced his head up slowly, blinking in the darkness. As his eyes became accustomed to the gloom he could hear voices booming across the room. He became aware of a throng of... He should call them doctors, but these people looked like the most unreliable doctor's he had ever met; missing limbs, scar tissue, and smiles that made them look like the figures were sizing up his organs, wondering how much they could pull out of him before he died. The squirrel screamed.

"So does he have a name Gregor?" The figure who had spoken was a gaunt skunk, standing at the front of the surgeons, his smile stretched just slightly too wide for his face, his entire frame too thin for his head, it lolled there looking decisively ill; the bandages over his left cheek weren't helping either, "Can't have a soldier without a name. We need to know what to label his organs." He laughed, it made him sound like he was chocking.

Gregor frowned, looking down at the boy at his feet, he raised one eyebrow and choked out the word, "Name?"

The boy looked down, burying his face in his coat neck again and mumbling something, before collapsing into giggles. If the scene had not been so disturbing it could have been set in a classroom, a nervous new boy faced with a stern old schoolmaster. This illusion was confirmed a few seconds later by Gregor's reply. "What did you say boy?"

The squirrel looked up, giggling still more, his mismatched eyes span around the room settling on Gregor's face, "Toffee." He pushed his head back down into his coat, his shoulders shaking. "Toffee's my name." His giggles subsided. Toffee, Toffee, it was a stupid name. He hated it. Just some bad joke.

And now the comments began, the tormenting. Toffee, that's a sweet name etcetera. He could see it in the skunk's eyes, malice, the skunk opened his mouth, but seeing the looking in Gregor's eyes he closed it again. Medical wasn't a walk in the park, but no one was going to insult the newbie... At least not when Gregor was watching.

... ...

Petunia's hand was a blur infront of her. Pain shot across her hand as it burned itself across the rough surface of the table. Cleaning usually made her calm, normally clean was safety. Usually...

But right now it was just hurting her, she wanted to turn away from it, she wanted to run to her husband and find her children. He thought she was strong but she couldn't handle this, not this. Handy was strong, Handy kept on going even when he had lost everything that gave him his power. She envied him, for her the entire world was magnified. A small piece of dirt, others dismissed that as pristine, she didn't know how people could live in such squalour. Dust was dirt, and dirt contained diseases, and diseases could...

Petunia realised that something was touching her hand, she looked down to see someone had gripped her hand. For a second she almost suspected Handy, then looking round, saw the small lamb balanced on the seat behind her, holding a cup of tea. Lammy had arrived a few minutes ago with what some of the more militant creatures (most notably Flippy and Cro) had declared important evidence. Still, it was comforting in a way to know that someone had noticed her. Petunia looked down, paling at the amount of blood on the table, her hand moved frantically, trying to wipe it off. The hoof tightened and Lammy twisted Petunia's hand behind her back, holding it there with surprising force.

"I'm really sorry Petunia-aaa," The sheep looked desperate, "You just need to stop for a second." She smiled sadly, "If you keep going you'll just hurt yourself more."

Tears began to form in Petunia's eyes, she began to wail. Hearing this Handy span round to face Lammy, his eyes blazing.

"Get off my wife!" The words came out as a roar, powered by an anger that Petunia could have sworn struck as hard as any blow. The enraged beaver took a step towards the small lamb, the look in his eyes making it clear that it didn't matter that she was small and he had no hands, he would rip her to shreds.

As it was that wasn't necessary, on seeing that look Lammy immediately released Petunia, curling into a ball, her hand shaking so much that she poured boiling tea onto her lap. Tears steamed down the lambs face and, as Petunia's sobs faded, her wails flooded over the group. The lamb fumbled in the pocket of her jumper for a second, drawing out a small pickle.

"Please, it wa-aa-asn't me. I-it waas Mr Pickle. Please," She held up the pickle in shaking hands, apparently ignoring the hot tea that was scolding her skin, "See..." Her eyes were filled with hope and desperation, "See... I-I..."

The group turned away, Petunia's hand had already fallen back onto the table, and without her thinking about it had began to move backwards and forwards, in a desperate attempt to wipe away her blood and every speck of dirt. Usually cleaning helped her, but now wasn't usual... and the only one who really understood how terrible this was, besides her, was Handy.

The main group however had long ago turned itself away from these people, worrying about the madmen was a concern for another day; today must be purely planning. Fortunately the information Lammy had brought came in the form of a single shred of grey material.

"No mistaking it," Flippy's voice came across as deep and scratchy, like a broken record, "This is from the war."

Giggles looked sidewise, glancing at Cro for a second, "Which war?"

"THE war you idiot, the most recent, the one I am under psychiatrist's orders NOT to name under pain of death." He growled, "And I really don't want to die."

Giggles glanced at the cave-marmot again, listening intently, "Why is that important?"

Flippy smiled, "Only one of those monsters is mad enough to come here years after a ceasefire. He shouldn't be too hard to follow, subtlety was never his strong point."

Cuddles frowned, raising his head for a second, "So we can follow whoever did this?" A nod from the soldier, "Then we're going to need weapons, this doesn't sound like it'll be an easy fight."

Flippy smiled briefly, revealing huge sharp teeth that caused the others to flinch away from him, "Don't worry about weapons, I think I can handle that." His smile lapsed again, "Just think up a plan, because if I have to, I'm going to break all those little necks of yours." Flippy blinked once, the darkness falling back into his mind and leaving his eyes clear again. He frowned, "Huh, what's going on?"

Flaky's mind flailed for a minute, wary of a trick. But then, Flippy never seemed to remember what happened while his dark side was in control and he hadn't been happy to accept reality earlier, so what was the harm in lying. "Your just dreaming Flippy, just a... erm" She searched for the word, "Exercise. So if you wouldn't mind, we need to get a lot of weapons very fast." She looked at Flippy's vacant expression on his face, "We also need you to find someone for us."

... ...

Sonia had woken up from her nightmares covered in sweat. Although she hated to admit it this new life hadn't taken nearly as much toll on her as it should have. Her nightmares scared her more than the prospect of death, even permanent death, none of it frightened her as much as what Cub had said. They weren't fighting anyone... Then...

The main infantry had been sent off on what the commander called campaign two days ago, they were set to return today, focus on that. Sonia focused on her friends in the infantry that would be coming back today, after all if there was no enemy they would have survived. She shook the sweat out of her spines and picked her beret up off the floor; it had only been three days but the hat was already filled with holes where her quills had speared through it, doing almost as much damage as the explosion it had no doubt been in. She frowned, why was she worrying about something like a hat when she was in a situation like this? She pulled the hat tightly onto her head, that was simple, worrying about something simple prevented her from seeing the huge problems. For instance right now she was a nine year old, in the middle of a war she did not understand and she could still hear the guns ringing in her ears. As of yesterday she knew why these were suicide missions, since the General's demonstration. Right now she was slowly coming to realise the danger she was in and if she hadn't focused on something simple. Well she wasn't quite sure how she would get to sleep.