I. Hate. This chapter.

I'm just so upset. I mean, this it she chapter I've been wanting to write for a while. But I really don't like how it turned out. It doesn't help that this one is freakin' important. I don't like the ending,either. And I knew how I wanted it to go, like, two weeks ago. It was going to be great...

*Sigh*

I guess that's what I get for putting it off. Moral of the story: Don't Procrastinate!

Read and Review, and give me advice on how to make it better. This chapter is definitely going to be re-done when I go over the story. Also, if you have any questions, just ask in the comments or message me - I'll be happy to answer you.

Thank you, and I hope I don't disappoint anybody...

Happy New Years!

Chapter 14

Blood. That was the first thing Flaky registered. It was darkening Flippy's fur, staining the sheets and pooling on the tile floor. She could see it streaming from his mouth as he coughed, and dripping from his ears. The green bear was growling, but couldn't move from his position. The coughs made him shudder – he lost his grip on the side of the bed and his left side slammed down, causing Flippy to grunt in pain.

Though the sight deeply concerned Flaky, even scared her, it wasn't what held everyone's attention. It was the knife at Flippy's throat that made everyone freeze. It was also who was holding the knife.

"Don't move!" He shouted, pointing a clawed hand, sweeping it around the room. For some reason he hadn't seemed to notice Flaky as she burst into the room, and the porcupine stayed completely still as Evil's wild gaze flickered to and fro in the room. His eyes landed on Petunia, who was scrunched up against the back of her bed, gripping tightly onto the edges. "You, Skunky! Where are we?"

Petunia froze, opened her mouth but nothing came out. Licking her lips, she tried again but still she said nothing. Flaky was worried for her friend, but didn't think that her inability to speak was because of fear. Petunia's hands were griping her bed tightly, jaw clenched, and her eyes sparkled with anger. Evil growled but ignored here, turning back to Flippy, who was still writhing carefully beneath the bowie knife.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Evil snarled angrily, applying pressure to the knife. Flaky flinched as she saw a thin trail of blood run down Flippy's neck. She had to do something quickly or else Flippy would be killed.

"I – I'm you," Flippy managed to say, almost choking on his own words. Flaky saw that, like Flippy, Evil was bleeding, but it wasn't as badly. Some bloodstains marked the sides of his mouth, and a few drops fell from his ear, but he was otherwise fine.

Evil snarled, grabbing onto Flippy's head fur and bashing the bear's head into the bed. "¡Cállate! You're an imposter. I be you're one of General Tiger's men!" Evil spit out the name like poison, and pulled his knife back, aiming for Flippy's throat.

"No! Stop!" Flaky screamed without thought. She stepped into the room, ignoring Sniffles as he called for her to stay by the door. Flaky glanced around at all of the other friends. Lifty and Shifty were on a single bed, with Lifty standing over his brother protectively and Shifty sitting up, glaring apprehensively at Evil. Petunia was by herself, but Lammy had stumbled from her bed and was standing beside Petunia, hands touching the skunk's shoulder. Lammy had abandoned Mr. Pickles, who sat on her bed, but she made no effort to go to him.

Cuddles was with the Mole, gently shaking his shoulder but getting no reacting (the Mole was still fast asleep, somehow). Cuddles glanced towards the door but stayed where he was. Flaky could hear Giggles whimpering as she stood beside Sniffles by the door.

Evil flinched, looked up and turned to glare at Flaky, only to blink in astonishment. Flaky was standing before Petunia's bed, and she felt something touch her hand. She jumped, looked back and saw Petunia's foot. The skunk herself was shaking her head, mouthing something that looked a lot like 'What in the hell do you think you're doing?'. But Flaky didn't move, and when she turned away again Evil was already moving towards her.

"It's you," he said, his rough voice sounding almost like a purr as the rustled bear pushed Flippy off of the bed, ignoring the other bear's gasp of surprise. Evil stood on the bed, jumped off and slowly made his way over to Flaky, knowing she was too shocked to move. The porcupine was shivering with fear and anticipation. She wasn't afraid of death, she found, which surprised her – something about Evil's actions made her doubt he would just murder her, at least right away.

Everyone was quiet and still as Evil stood before Flaky, head tilted just as it had been the day before, when Flippy had flipped-out. "Who are you? I know I know you – you're always a tiger but then you're not."

"Huh?" Flaky couldn't help but be confused. "A tiger… I-I don't k-know w-what…"

"Shh!" Evil commanded, and Flaky stopped talking. She squeaked when he grabbed hold of her shoulder with his free hand, but stayed still. Evil turned and said, "Hey, imposter me – who is this chica?"

Flippy had crawled back onto his bed and was wiping the blood from his lips. "She's Flaky," he said to Evil, glaring protectively. Evil raised an eyebrow and turned back to Flaky. "¿Está loca? She looks pretty sane to me."

Lammy made a confused sound, and Flippy rolled his eyes. "Not flaky like that. Her name is Flaky."

"Oh…" Evil looked at Flaky. "That's a weird name." Then, as if remembering his anger, Evil snarled and pointed his knife at Flaky, causing the female to scream. "Where am I? Why is there a look-a-like of me and who are you?"

"Calm down!" Flippy shouted, stumbling over the bed in a hurry, afraid he would hurt Flaky. "I'm not a spy or anything. This isn't the W.A.R!"

"What do you mean it's not the W.A.R?" Evil scoffed and pulled Flaky closer, making sure to keep the knife close. The porcupine whimpered, but otherwise kept surprisingly calm, at least for her. She tilted her head back to see Sniffles bend over and slowly pick up a bucket they'd used for Nutty. Her eyes widened and she wanted to shake her head at him but couldn't with the knife against her neck. "I've been fighting General Tiger's grunts for months now!" Evil huffed and shook Flaky. "Who is this?"

"I told you, that is Flaky!" Flippy growled. "Leave her alone. She hasn't done anything!"

"Why do I see her in my dreams?" Evil said. "She's always a tiger but then she's not! Is she working for Tiger?"

"No!" Flippy was standing now. His legs were wobbling and more than once he slipped on the blood coating the floor. "This is all a big misunderstanding –"

"And you." Evil growled. "I always see you! Who are you, and why do you look like me?"

"You are me," Flippy said, steadying himself on Nutty's vacated bed. "Or at least, you were, but then you came out." He was standing close to Evil and Flaky now, and Flaky could see the blood on his shirt and fur clearly; she was close enough to smell it too, and it made her feel nauseous. Evil took a step back, dragging Flaky along with him. "¡Auséntese! You're the flaky one," Evil snarled.

A shadow fell before Evil and Flaky, and before either could turn something came down and collided with Evil's skull. Flaky screamed as the bear cursed, then fell limply to the ground. Flaky fell to the floor and scooted away from Evil's unconscious body. Sniffles stood above her, bucket in his claws, shaking in surprise.

"Good… job," Flippy muttered, staring down at his evil twin with a curious look on his face. The bear bent down and helped Flaky to stand, but immediately after Flaky began fussing over him. "Flippy, are you alright! I've lost so much blood – are you dizzy? What happened…?"

"I… I'm not sure," Flippy told her as the other Friends started moving. Sniffles called Cuddles over, ripping the rabbit away from his conversation with Giggles. He instructed Cuddles to grab hold of Evil's legs while the anteater lifted the bear's upper half. "We're taking him downstairs and tying him to a chair," Sniffles said somewhat shrewdly. "I don't even see how something like this is possible! Things are getting more and more out of control around here."

"I'll come down in a minute," Flippy said. "I can –" Coughs cut him off, and Flippy was pushed back to his bed by Flaky, who was already instructing Giggles to fetch her more water. The chipmunk hastily went away, and when Ms. Giggles asked what happened multiple voices began speaking. Sniffles – already halfway out the door with Evil in his claws – rolled his eyes and shouted, "One at a time!"

"We were all sleepin'," Lifty said, slowly kneeling back down on the bed, careful of Shifty's foot. "And all of a sudden we heard Flippy scream. When Shifty and I woke up, Evil was wrestling with Flippy over the bowie knife, but Flippy was too weak to overpower the psycho."

"He started shouting things like 'where the hell am I' and 'what hospital is this' and 'which side are you all on'," Shifty continued. "He was kumfumbled. He thought we'd kidnapped him and were all working for the General Panther dude."

"Tiger," Flippy said absentmindedly, allowing Flaky to wet a rag and rub the blood off of his face. He felt tired, weak. Flaky was already arranging for Cuddles to bring him a clean change of clothes when he got back but paused as she was rubbing the red liquid from Flippy's cheek. "Um… kumfumbled?"

"It's a word," Shifty said defensively. Petunia rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. The only way you would use a three syllable word effectively in a sentence would be to make one up."

"Shut it, skunky," Lifty snapped, tail twitching in anger.

Petunia's own tail began to twitch irritably, but before an argument could break out Lammy spoke. "Hey, was I the only one who noticed Evil was speaking Spanish and had an accent?"

"He's been in there for a while."

"Don't worry Flaky, Evil's duck taped to the chair. He won't be able to hurt Flippy."

"I know, but it's been an hour. Don't you think they'd be done by now?"

"Just… sit down, Flaky. Have a drink or something – it's been a long day for everyone."

The porcupine sighed and sat down at a kitchen table, allowing Sniffles to bring her out some water. It had taken a while to get everything back in order, to make sure everyone was safe and sound before leaving them again. Flaky sighed shakily and rubbed her eyes. It was as Sniffles had said – things really were getting worse as the days went by.

Flaky thanked Sniffles for the drink, but didn't attempt to sip. She was tired, having been yanked from sleep and pulled into the chaos of reality. There was wet, drying blood dotting her shirt and worry weighed her heart. There had been so much blood… all coming from Flippy. What if she hadn't been able to help in time? Sometimes Flaky doubted she could protect Flippy as he always tried to protect her.

Sniffles sat across from her, arms drooping, his back sliding against the chair in a slouched manner that didn't fit him. His eyes were closed, and Flaky took her chance to scrutinize him again. He was even worse than yesterday; the bags beneath his eyes had gotten worse from more insomniac nights slaving over microscopes and test tubes. His breathing was rough. Flaky saw his hands were shaking slightly, and it occurred to her for the first time how hard it must be handling all of that small, delicate equipment with such huge claws. Flaky sighed sadly. She liked Sniffles and hated that he was doing this to himself.

Flaky pushed her drink across the table, grabbed hold of her chair and moved it over so that she was sitting beside Sniffles. Before the anteater could argue, she grabbed hold of his arm and leaned on him, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry you have to work so hard," Flaky whispered to him, hoping that this wasn't too uncomfortable. It did cause him to sit up straighter, but other than that Sniffles seemed content, even at ease with Flaky's soothing voice. "I wish you didn't have to."

"Thanks, Flaky," Sniffles said to her quietly. Feeling somewhat accomplished, Flaky sat up but kept her arms wrapped around Sniffles's. She gave him a shy smile and said, "Do you want anything to eat? Giggles never made any breakfast."

"I – I'm…" Sniffles paused. Flaky guessed he'd been about to deny himself food, but his stomach interrupted him loudly. Flaky giggled at Sniffles's blush and pushed the glass of water over to him. "Eggs and toast?"

"With cherry jam, please?" he added. Flaky nodded kindly and set off to work.

Thirty minutes later, after she and Sniffles had finished their private breakfast, Flippy finally exited Sniffles's room. He rubbed his knuckles against his forehead, but otherwise seemed calm. Flaky put her plate in the sink and scurried over to him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"And how is Evil?" Sniffles asked, taking another gulp of water. Flippy and Flaky sat down at the table. "He's… thinking things over," Flippy told the anteater. He sighed and then leaned back in his chair. "I don't blame him. After how long it took me to explain and re-explain things to him, I started confusing myself, to be honest."

"What did he think?" Flaky asked. "I – I mean, why did he think he knew me and why did he think he was the real Flippy and not you?"

"It's… complicated," Flippy said softly. "To him, it's like the war never ended, and reality is the dream. For a while he kept thinking this was all a dream. But after I explained to him how things really were – how he was… created, about my PTDS, and about you guys – he began to understand, if only a little bit."

"And he's okay with how things are?" Flaky asked, resting her hands on the table and debating on whether or not to put Sniffles's dish in the sink right now. After second thought, she reached over, took the plate and cup and stood to go put them away. As her back was turned, Flippy chuckled nervously. "You know, he actually talked about you, too, Flaky."

Flaky paused, her hand hovering over the faucet handle. "Me?"

"Yeah." Flippy rubbed his neck, frowned when he accidentally touched the cut, and then said, "He said he's seen you before, when he thinks he's still fighting in the war; sometimes in his dreams, too."

"Oh…" Flaky frowned, but a blush was growing too. "W-why… Why me?"

"I don't know." Flippy shrugged. "Maybe it's because sometimes you're able to keep me from flipping-out. I recognize you, so he does too."

"Maybe…"

"It's possible," Sniffles said, leaning back in his chair again before standing. "Is he safe to let loose? I want my room back, but not with some psychotic war veteran who doesn't know dream from reality."

Flippy thought, and after a second's hesitation he said, "Yeah, you can let him go. I think he'll be fine… as long as he stays with me."

"Okay." Sniffles started towards his room, but before opening the door Flippy said to Flaky, "He said he wanted to talk to you, Flaky."

Flaky frowned and then suddenly felt fear. "M-m-me? Wh-why?"

Flippy shrugged, but the worry on his face was enough to keep Flaky reluctant. "I-I don't th-thing th-that's such a g-good idea…" Flaky sighed, saddened that her stuttering had returned. She wondered to herself why talking to Evil would be such a bad thing. But for some reason the very thought of it made her edgy.

"Alright…" Flippy stood up, started towards Sniffles, but then paused and turned around. "You know, you're going to have to talk to him sometime, no matter how much I dislike the idea."

Flaky didn't say anything, but nodded to Flippy, understanding. They both understood, even if the others didn't, that the reason Evil had split from Flippy was because of her.