This chapter... surpised me. I mean, it just started out one way, but then I got rid of what I had and started it out in a completely different direction. But I think it worked. I just had to sacrifice some of your insight - the idea for the chapter was supposed to give you more of an idea of what was going on. But I decided to just leave it on another cliffhanger.

This chapter was interesting to write. I actually wrote Flaky's part first and all of Flippy's part at once, having started an hour or two ago. I just get so into it sometimes, y'know? For all you writers, you know what I mean. I didn't want to stop.

So, here you go - chapter 13. Think of it as your early Christmas present from me! It's funny, I was thinking of writing a FlippyXFlaky Christmas fic, but then I got uninspired (I might still do it, though, if I really feel like it).

You know what I've realized? I like writing origin stories. This one is kind of an idea of how Happy Tree Valley came to be, in a twisted and indirect sort of way. And I've got another HTF origin story idea stewing around in my head, having listened to some Gorillaz. I've also written a Pac-Man story (one chapter, but not really a one-shot) explaining how I think the Pac-Man universe works. Check it out if you like (I'd love some reviews on it)

Alright. I'm sorry to bore you with my ramblings, but please please please review on this chapter. I really need some honest opinions on what you think before I write the next one. Things are about to get serious. ;)

Merry Christmas! Or whatever you celebrate! Because I don't know specifically who reads my story and I'd like not to offend anyone... but anyways.

Happy holidays! (Now read and review, or I'll find you)

Chapter 13

Flippy was in the dark space again, hanging in the air like a ghost. He wriggled his limbs a bit but didn't move – the bear was trying to find solid ground to stand on.

Eventually his feet met the cool surface of the 'floor' and he took a moment to find his balance again. He wasn't surprised to find himself in this dream again, but something was different. He hadn't been subjected to watching his comrades fall before him again; he hadn't been forced to watch himself change into Evil, and massacre the enemy with a bloody grin on his face. Instead he was in the black space, feeling nothing yet at the same time blissfully unaware of any pain.

Flippy was unsettled by this. He wasn't used to the calmness of his dreams. There was never calm – there was only dirt and fire and gunshots and horrors and blood and screams and…

He held his hand against his chest to still his heart. Flippy was breathing deeply, quickly, and his breathe was hot and rancid. It curled around in the black air, the carbon dioxide floating like clouds of mist and then fading from view as if in slow motion. Flippy stared, eyebrows scrunched in cautiousness.

There was nothing around him. No landmarks, no other animals, not even the large, dark mirror so he could see Evil. Flippy was surprised that the idea of seeing his other half made him feel somewhat… safer. But he supposed anything – even Evil's company – was better than standing alone in nothingness.

The bear calmed his breathing and began to walk. It was interesting, because he kept feeling like he was going off course, because of course there was no way to tell which way he was going. Sometimes he even felt like he was walking upside down, and the thought disoriented him so badly that Flippy had to stop walking for a moment to steady his balance again.

Eventually though, after what seemed like too long a time, Flippy finally walked past a barely visible reflective surface. He halted just beside it, and was even more surprised (and disturbed) to find he could not see himself in the reflection. Instead he saw a battlefield. It was like a first person shooter game – the 'screen' kept moving in a way Flippy felt like he was seeing it all through someone's eyes.

It was a sparse forest, and the forest was on fire. Flaky could see his own arms and legs (though they were rather dirtied and ruffled, he thought it might be Evil), and in his hands was a brick from a nearby building, which had crumbled to the ground beneath the hungry tongues of fire. Flippy – or Evil – was standing before a huge upshot of flames, and Flippy could see just beyond the flames was a figure. Whoever it was was tall, gangly and bleeding, and they had a no weapons. The figure chuckled nervously, and Flippy himself thought that it sounded familiar. But whoever was in the glass growled, held up the rock and charged.

Rock met face, and rock one. Whoever the figure was screamed as half of his face was torn away against the rock. Evil (Flippy would just say it was Evil) growled in pleasure but spotted another opponent hiding behind a log. Flippy then saw why the bear was so angry – the other figure, female he supposed, was wearing the emblem of General Tiger. Her face was coated in the blood of her comrade, and she dropped the grenade she'd held in her hand, screaming as she stared into Evil's face.

Evil grinned, breathing heavily and turned to the man he'd just defaced (quite literally). Pulling out his bowie knife, Evil ripped open the poor animal's stomach, ripped out an intestine and turned back to the woman, who'd by then begun to get to her feet in an effort to flee. Evil threw the intestine over her head and pulled back, catching her by the neck. She hacked and struggled but Evil had his foot against her back and was pulling. Slowly, the woman faded to death.

As Flippy watched, he noticed that the sequence of deathly events was giving him a sense of déjà vu. There wasn't something right about this picture; something about the enemy, General Tiger's men and women. They weren't fighting back. They had weapons (the woman with the grenade and the woman he was chasing after now, who'd been holding a rifle) but they weren't trying to protect themselves. They only dropped their protection and ran. Something about that fact was making Flippy more and more uncomfortable, more and more guilty.

The last one, the woman, had run a little ways off and Evil had lost sight of her. He was looking down a mini-clearing in the trees, only a yard or two from the largest fire, next to the two dead bodies. He then saw another dead body among the others.

It was shaking. Whimpering. Flippy could almost see Evil grinning. The bear picked up the bulging carcass, turned and threw it into the fire. Screams followed, and the woman found she was trapped inside.

Flippy was shuddering. Those screams sounded very, very familiar.

And then the scene changed. Again it was in a forest, and again Evil was in control. The forest itself seemed harmless enough, save for the heavily trotted earth, the bullet holes in the trees and the bits of ash falling through gaps in the canopy. There was rustling in the leaves and bushes, and Evil was attune to every sound and sight there was to sense.

Flippy saw most of this one in a blur, and it didn't last for too long. Evil snapped an enemy's neck – he'd been camouflaged against a tree, a trick he'd learned from Sneaky before the poor chameleon's death – and had then climbed up into the trees, crawling from branch to branch in search of prey. He'd spotted one – another female reminiscent to the one who'd hidden in the carcass.

Then something strange happened. Instead of attacking right away (Flippy saw Evil had a vine prepared and ready in his hands), the bear's vision seemed to waver. The tiger below him was no longer blue, but a shocking shade of red. She was also shorter, and her fur seemed to have become much spikier. Evil actually hesitated for a moment, wondering if his vision was impaired, but then the tiger was back to normal. Tall, blue, and completely unaware that death was above her.

Evil soon finished her off, dropping the vine about her neck and pulling her up again, effectively suffocating her hang-man style. But all the while Flippy could see Evil's vision wavering, and the tiger went from blue to red, tall to small, smooth to spiky. And then, at one point she wasn't a tiger at all.

She was Flaky.

Flippy's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he watched Flaky chocking, trying to rid herself of the deadly vine but dying much too quickly. Evil must have seen her as well, because the second she was dead he dropped the vine, hands shaking slightly. The bear let out a confused 'huh?' sound, but after another second she was a tiger again. She was lying on the ground, dead as ashes from above fell onto her body.

It was a thing after that. Every time Flippy watched Evil attacking someone, there would be flashes of reality. He would be killing someone and then he'd see them for who they really were – Petunia, Nutty, Lumpy. But none so much as Flaky.

The porcupine was everywhere, and it seemed the more and more Evil encountered her, the more the delusional bear kept seeing her for what she was. She even managed to break him from his rampage one time at the fair, her screams knocking Evil out of his zone, allowing Flippy to regain control.

Everywhere there was Flaky, and Evil was seeing her. Everywhere else he saw war, a war that had ended a long time ago. But when he looked at Flaky, he only saw her. Little, red, flaky Flaky.

Flippy was so absorbed by what he was seeing, so preoccupied by his new discovery that he didn't notice the blood at first, not until he started choking on it. The bear coughed and tiny drops of it splattered against the glass. Flippy gasped, coughed again and held a hand up to his mouth, feeling the blood as it pooled in his mouth, dripping out the sides like water escaping the lip of a glass. He spit on the ground but more blood kept coming, from his throat and from his nose, dripping into his mouth and choking him.

The pictures on the glass wavered, and then they were gone. Flippy finally saw Evil on the other side. But the bear was not hacking or choking like Flippy was. He seemed to be transfixed, still looking upwards to where Flippy had been watching. It occurred to the bear that Evil had been watching as well.

Evil was bleeding too. There was blood dripping down his chin, running through his fur all the way to his neck. But he wasn't reacting to it as Flippy was. He was standing, hands resting shakily against the glass, staring at where Flaky had been only seconds before.

It wasn't for a few more minutes that Evil's bright green eyes finally flickered, his gaze going to Flippy and locking onto the struggling bear. Flippy was too busy trying not to choke on his own blood to register that Evil wasn't following his every move. Not even a bit. He seemed completely independent in that department.

Suddenly he was scowling. Growling. Evil pulled back a fist and slammed it against the glass.

This brought on an incredibly painful shock to Flippy's brain, the worse migraine he'd ever felt. It hurt so badly that Flippy let out a horse cry, somewhere between a choked sob and a weak scream, falling to his knees and cradling his pounding head. All there was was ringing, and he felt more of the warm liquid crawling from his ears.

Flippy looked up, still struggling to breath against the endless wave of blood and saw Evil's ears were bleeding as well. The ragged bear's eye was twitching and Flippy realized that Evil was feeling the pain as well. But regardless, he continued to pound against the glass, bringing more and more pain with each impact. Flippy writhed beneath the crushing sting, grunting and growling and choking in agony against Evil's anger. The other bear, with each hit, fell more against the glass, sliding inch by inch to his knees – he glared powerfully at Flippy and all the bear could do was stare and wait for the pain to end.

Evil pulled back, the glass cracked beneath the power of his hit. More pain, stronger than anything Flippy had ever felt, agonizing and blindingly hot. He threw his head back and screamed.

Evil screamed with him. And then he pulled back his fist and struck.

This time, the glass shattered.

Flaky awoke to screams. Which actually wasn't too much of a surprise, for she'd woken up to such circumstances before during the past few weeks – her friends would wake up from nightmares or their minds would trick them into seeing something scary was in the room or they'd forget their memories. Waking up in a random hospital with sickies lying all around you wasn't the best way to wake up, Flaky supposed. But there was something different about these screams. They were louder, and it was hard to explain but Flaky thought they sounded less like fright and more like shock, astonishment. She could hear it in the tone of their voices, the volume. Flaky thought she could also hear another, deeper voice among the screams, shouting what sounded like commands.

Flaky listened, but for a decided not to move right then. She was concerned for her friends, but having just woken up the feeling was detached. The sequence of her dream was still fresh in her memory, and she wanted to replay it as many times as possible so she wouldn't forget.

It had been a very odd dream. Flaky couldn't remember many details, but even the things that she did recall made little to no sense. There had been voices, dark hallways, and glowing specs of what seemed to be sand…? Everything was foggy and jumbled and in no specific order – Flaky eventually groaned in frustration and gave up on trying to organize her thoughts.

The screams. She'd been so absorbed in her dream that the porcupine had hardly registered the shouts. Rolling out of bed, her nurse-ly instincts kicked in and Flaky pulled her pajama's closer (another pair of Flippy's undershirt and trousers). The morning was very cold, colder than usual but the fact didn't really register with Flaky as she sped down the hallway to the first flight of stairs. Her progress was hurried as panic finally began to set in, and Flaky had to save herself from tripping over her own stumbling feet several times.

As Flaky finally approached the door to the heavy ward, she saw that everyone else was already assembled around the door. Sniffles and Ms. Giggles, Mime, Pop and Cub, Handy, Disco Bear and Giggles were standing around the door, leaning in but seemingly too afraid to open it. Sniffles had his hand on the knob, but made no move to see what was going on inside.

For a second Flaky only stood – she too was paralyzed at the speculation of what was beyond the door. But a sudden anger flared. How could they not be doing anything to help? They had all faced far worse so far, and whatever was going on surly couldn't be as bad as what they'd already endured. Flaky huffed, braced herself and pushed her way thought the packed line of animals, pushing Sniffles aside and pushing the door open.

Everything froze.