Chapter 9

I do not own Happy Tree Friends. All credit goes to Mondo Media

After half an hour on the road, Flippy and Sniffles switched places so the veteran could rest, and Sniffles took the wheel. Flippy leaned his head back and tried to muffle a pained moan as he held his mouth. The bluenette looked over with slight concern. "Are your teeth growing back?" The veteran could only nod and close his eyes so he could ignore the slight pain in his jaw. Meanwhile in the backseat, Handy was trying to get into contact with Petunia so he could tell her that everything was alright. Unfortunately, the connection was worse than he thought. He cursed under his breath and tried again, waiting for a few minutes until he heard a ring. A few seconds passed before it stopped, and he heard a familiar voice on the brink of tears on the other line. "Handy, are you alright!? Where are you!? Oh please tell me Lilac is with you!"

"Calm down calm down," Handy began to interrupt. "We're on our way back, and yes I have Lilac with me," He glanced down at the sleeping child in his lap. "Everything's okay now." He heard a relieved sigh from the other line, and Handy knew she was about to break down. "Listen, Petunia, I want you to call the others and tell them to wait for us at the conference hall. Can you do that?"

"I can do that, although I don't have Nutty's number."

"I'm sure Flakes can give it to you." After a confirmation, Handy hung up the phone and slumped back in his seat with a loud sigh. "She was probably losing her mind while waiting for me."

"Knowing Nutty, he probably found that candy stash that I hid from him a year or so ago," Sniffles replied with a calm smile. "Wouldn't be surprised if he devoured it." The image of the green-haired candy lover biting his hands made him cringe somewhat, and he pressed his foot on the accelerator harder. Russell turned around to check on the kids in the trunk to see that they had gone back to sleep despite the earlier commotion. He gazed over at Umi and noticed the puffiness in her eyes as she curled up tighter under the blanket. He turned back around and leaned back, looking down to see that his hand was slowly former back to its original state. While there was pain, it was nothing compared to the heartache he was currently feeling.

By the time they had pulled up to the building, the remaining parents were already waiting outside and grew nervous when they saw Sniffles pull up. Once he got out of the car and closed the door behind him, he was tackled in a bear hug by a certain greenette and was attacked with kisses. The bluenette pulled him away by the waist and stroked his cheek. "See? I told you it would be fine." Nutty lowered his head slightly before pecking him on the lips again. Sniffles pulled him towards the trunk and lifted the door open. He gently shook Danny out of his sleep to wake him. "Danny, open your eyes," He whispered. "We're home now."

The eldest triplet moaned slightly and rose from the cocoon of blankets, rubbing an eye and gazing at his father before his eyes widened at the sight of Nutty. "Mama!" He crawled over his now-awakened siblings and grabbed onto the greenette's shirt. Once Sammy and Candy had realized what was going on, they joined their brother with the hug, and Nutty didn't hesitate to return it. All three of them were sobbing as they held onto their mother tightly.

After a moment, Flippy exited the car as well only to be greeted by his boyfriend and doppelganger. Flaky looked as though he was about to cry, and Fliqpy had his arms crossed. The veteran was about to speak until Flaky wrapped arms around his neck and kissed him hard. Flippy was slightly taken back, but cupped his cheeks in response and deepened the kiss while Flaky ran fingers in his hair. The greenette felt a tap on the shoulder and his other speak up. "Uhh I hate to interrupt you two, but the longer you two make out, the more time we waste in getting your daughter."

Flippy gave him the finger before pulling away and leading the two towards the trunk, ignoring the sobbing triplets and holding Ruby in his arms. Flaky had a smile on his face before noticing that the toddler was covered in blood. Flippy noticed the expression and lowered his head. "Yeah, there's a lot of explaining that needs to be done, but let's save that for later." Ruby nuzzled him before slightly opening her eyes and looking around. She stopped her gaze on Flaky and her eyes widened in shock. "Mommy?" Flippy set her on the ground and pulled off the jacket as he watched the tiny red-head hold onto her mother's leg with tears. Flaky picked her up and held her close and had almost started sobbing as Ruby turned to Fliqpy. "Daddy?" She turned around to see her father's lowered gaze, and then back to Fliqpy. "I have two daddies?"

"No sweetie. That's your Uncle Fliqpy." Ruby blinked a few times before reaching out to him. Fliqpy gave a concerned glance to both parents, before Flippy nodded in confirmation, and in a few seconds, the two were staring at each other with mixed feelings. Flippy and Flaky gave each a concerned gaze and held each other's hands.

Petunia rushed towards the car just as Handy got off of the seat with Lilac in his arms. The orange-haired male smiled at her appearance and gently shook the toddler to wake him up. Lilac sleepily moaned and slowly opened his eyes. "Are we home, Papa?"

"Almost. We just needed to see someone." Lilac turned towards the bluenette and his eyes were filled with tears at the sight. "Mama." Handy didn't hesitate to hand the child over to his lover, who had grabbed him and held him tightly. Lilac had started crying in her arms and clutched her shirt tighter. Petunia let the tears roll down her face as the other pulled both of them close. "It's good to be back." He muttered quietly.

Lumpy opened the door to see Russell half delirious from the loss of blood as he turned to the taller bluenette. "You don't look so good." He observed, looking down at the newly reformed hand that had ripped through the bandage. Russell shrugged off his comment and turned his head with closed eyes. "I just need some sleep."

"Yeah I got that," Lumpy replied before pulling the former pirate into his arms and held him. "That's why we're going home so you can rest. You've had a rough night."

"Right." Russell muttered before he was carried to the other car and strapped into the passenger seat before Lumpy went to get Umi. A few moments later, the sleeping toddler was in the backseat and the three were on their way home. Lumpy had a slight thought that things might be peaceful after this, but he knew that it wasn't over until he could somehow restore Umi's mental state. Judging by her silence and the state the former pirate was in, he could tell that it would be a while before she would be near Russell again. He released a sigh at the thought and continued to make his way home.

The next morning, Flippy had visited Sniffles so they could further discuss what went down in the Dick Squad's headquarters. Of course, he had brought the others with him so they could also get an explanation. When Flaky first heard what had happened, he almost didn't want to believe it, and Fliqpy had a feeling that he was the cause of it somehow. Sniffles had suggested that Ruby might have developed her own version of Fliqpy, which concerned the three greatly. Although it was a hypothesis, they didn't know unless it was proven true.

Sniffles lead the four of them into the lab, placing Ruby on the table as he rummaged through the cabinet. "So, are we doing this the same way we separated Fliqpy and I?"

"It's the only way we'll know for sure if there's another personality," Sniffles replied as he pushed bottles out of the way, spotting the gender chemical before shoving it to the side. "Aha here we go." He pulled out a box and stepped over to the group, opening it to reveal a pair of helmets connected to each other by a black wire. "If what we're thinking is true, this may be trouble."

"And if it's true, do we separate them?" Fliqpy asked.

"We should wait to see what it can do." Sniffles replied as he pulled one of the helmets out of the box. The response caused Flippy's eyebrow to twitch in annoyance. He crossed his arms with a glance. "You do realize that I saw this thing up close and personal, right? I know damn well what it can do. I don't want my daughter turning into a killing machine."

"But first we need to find out what it is." The bluenette placed the helmet on the toddler, who looked over at her family with a slightly frightened look. "Mommy?"

"Don't be scared, okay?" Flaky gave her a comforting hug and held her close. "Nothing is going to hurt you."

"Okay." Flaky pulled away as Sniffles placed the other helmet on top of him and turned it on. He gave a thumbs up at the three of them before sitting on the table next to the tiny red-head and holding her in his lap. "We'll be back soon." A few seconds later, both pairs of eyes had closed as the two traveled into the toddler's mind.

About an hour later, Ruby shifted in her position before slowly opening her eyes and looking around, Sniffles following suit a second later. The other three that were still in the room approached them with waiting glances. Sniffles sighed and removed the helmet. "I. . . couldn't find anything." He replied with disappointment, and Flaky's eyes widened in response. "S-So what does that mean?"

"I find that hard to believe," Fliqpy said with crossed arms. "There has to be something that causes her to kill. I mean it wasn't that hard to find me."

"Maybe it's because we have no idea what the hell we're looking for," Flippy replied with a lifted eyebrow. "Everyone in town knew about you, so of course it wouldn't have been hard to find you because we knew about you. With Ruby, we have no idea what this is. All we know is that it's something in her mind." While the three were discussing the matter, Flaky had removed the helmet from the toddler and held her in his arms. He gave her a warm smile, but it faded when she hid in his hold and clutched his shirt tightly. "What's wrong, sweetie?" He asked softly with a lowered gaze.

"Bad shadow people," Ruby muttered and nuzzled him in response. "T-They were gonna get me." The toddler had almost burst into tears and Flaky rubbed her back in response to soothe her. "The bad shadow people won't hurt you, okay? You're safe with Mommy and Daddy."

"R-Really?" Ruby lifted her head to gaze at her mother before looking over at her father and uncle talking with Sniffles. The tiny red-head nuzzled her mother once again and Flaky held her close. "I'll get some ice cream to cheer you up. Do you want that?" Ruby nodded in response and the red-head made his way towards the door, speaking up to the others as he did so. "We better go. There's no point in arguing. We'll figure it out another time."

"But Flakes-" Flaky cut him off with a hard gaze before speaking. "We're going." Flippy sighed, knowing that he couldn't argue with the red-head once his mind was made up, and proceeded to head out the door. "We'll talk about this later, Sniffles."

"Sure." Sniffles watched the doppelgangers leave, and he turned back to the helmets with concern. There has to be something in Ruby's mind that's causing her to kill like this. I'm not going to believe that there's nothing there. He placed the helmets back inside the box and placed the box back in the cabinet before closing it shut and returning to the main area of the house.