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He should've have done this a long time ago.
But maybe...
Maybe some part of him wanted things to go back to how they were.
Maybe some part of him missed it, as twisted as it had been.
The control panel was off. A hand reached for the wires.
Rip them out.
Destroy it.
End it.
He didn't make it.
Ferb woke to their alarm clock going off. Normally, Phineas either woke up before it or immediately after, meaning he didn't have to listen to it blare for more than a few seconds.
Today, it continued on.
Groaning, the teen stuck his head out from under the sheets, glaring blearily at the empty bed across the room.
The empty, unmade bed.
Ferb blinked. That was also unusual. He may have dwelled on it longer, but he was half-asleep and his ears were under assault. After dragging himself out of bed, he walked over and turned off the alarm.
Yet, it wouldn't be the first time Phineas woke up early and let him sleep until the alarm. It was, admittedly, rare, but it did happen. He generally still made his bed through, since all he had to do was press a button. Ferb pressed it absently as he turned away, hearing the mechanical arms unfold from the floor and begin preforming their task.
It was after he had done the same for his own bed and gotten dressed that he realized Perry was absent from the room as well. Of course, that was much less unusual. While he generally didn't disappear until later in the day, he had been vanishing earlier lately.
Perhaps that was it. Phineas had caught Perry leaving and decided to follow him.
If it was, Ferb would going to have words with him. He would have liked to have been invited along.
That was not it. Phineas was sitting at the kitchen table with their parents when he come down stairs, seemly ignoring their idle chatter about today's headlines in the newspaper. He fetched a bowl from the cabinet and fixed himself a bowl of cereal before taking the seat next to his brother. "Good morning." Their parents gave brief acknowledgement but his eyes were locked on Phineas.
Phineas glanced at him, expression unreadable. "Morning." And went back to eating his own cereal.
Ferb blinked. "Why didn't you wake me?"
A shrug.
A frown tugged at Ferb's lips. "Are you mad at me?"
"No."
Ferb let the frown form. Clearly, he was. Phineas was not the monosyllable type. He tried to remember if he had done something yesterday that might have put Phineas into a mood.
He couldn't recall anything.
It could be as simple as that they had school today. Phineas had been growing more lackluster about it as the years passed. It was not an obvious thing. But for someone who knew him as thoroughly as Ferb did, Phineas' boredom in the classroom was palatable. He caught him turning in more than one carelessly written paper. Of course, them being them, even a half-assed report would earn an A grade, but they were hardly up to the standard Phineas could easily give.
As deeply as he understood Phineas feelings towards it, the majority of the high school classes rarely taught them anything they hadn't already learned on their own, there was little they could do about it unless they wanted to skip a few grades. Reasonable, but he knew Phineas was against graduating before their friends, as well as losing all those Summer Vacations from school.
Still, it wasn't a good reason to be giving him the monosyllable treatment. Besides, Phineas hadn't done that in years. Not since they were eight? Nine, perhaps? A good five years, at least.
A lot had changed since then, hadn't it?
Ferb refocused on his breakfast, trying to recall the last time. And how he'd gotten past Phineas' sulking. He believed he had apologized but he had also know exactly why he'd been upset in the first place.
He was lacking that piece of information now.
He continued to muse on it as he finished eating and went though his morning routines. With any luck, Phineas would forget about whatever it was by the time they reached school. He had seemed to have gotten worse at holding grudges over the years. Not that he couldn't or never did but his willingness to give others second chances won out frequently over it.
It wasn't until they were getting ready to walk out the door that he was pulled from his thoughts. "That's my jacket."
Phineas froze, glancing down at the sleeve already pulled fully onto one arm. Even sitting high up on his shoulder, the cuff covered all but his finger tips. "Oh."
"Did you... want to wear it?" It wouldn't be the first time Phineas had borrowed a jacket, but he looked genuinely confused at Ferb pointing out that it wasn't his.
The confusion vanished from Phineas' face, his eyes narrowing slightly, once more unreadable. "You're chatty today." The statement was innocent enough, it was something he'd said teasingly over the years. But the tone lack that playfulness. It was hard, almost judgmental, and Ferb found himself at a loss. Epically since Phineas was the one who'd been encouraging him to talk more often. Phineas slipped the jacket back off, shoving it forcibly against Ferb's chest, he almost dropped it in his bewilderment. "Where's mine then?"
Freeing a hand from the leather and polyester trap, he pointed at the vibrant yellow hoodie hanging on the coat rack. Phineas followed his finger and gave a slight recoil.
Ferb's hand fell limply to his side. One, he wasn't sure how Phineas had missed it the first time, it was close to blinding when the light caught it right. Two, it was, annoyingly, one of Phineas' favorites for that very reason. He claimed they needed a little more sunniness in their lives when summer was over. He should not be reacting that way to it. Watching Phineas drag on the hoodie as if just touching it were last thing he wanted to do, Ferb was very close to asking if he was okay, but he had a sinking feeling that any answer to that question would be a boldfaced lie.
Phineas was following him through the high school hallways. At first, Ferb thought it was because he had something he wanted to say before they parted ways, but Phineas had yet to say a single word. He'd be late for his own class if he didn't get a move on. Ferb stepped out of the way of the flow of fellow students, easier said than done but possible, nabbing his brother's arm as he went.
"Ferb?" He was staring back at the doorway to the classroom. "Aren't we going in?"
Ferb's eyebrows rose. "I am, you have English with Mr. Coelho."
"We're not in the same classes?" The whisper had his eyebrows going up the rest of the way. "Uh, where's that? I think I forgot."
"You forgot the layout of our school in one weekend?" Only practice kept the disbelief and suspicion out of his voice.
"Yes?" The word was dragged out.
Ferb blinked. Then blinked again.
There were numerous explanations, but he narrowed down to the most likely four: Phineas could have honestly just forgotten, unlikely but not impossible. Phineas could have been replaced by an alien, also unlikely as he had faced such situation enough to know there was normally some sort of physical tell, but still not impossible. Phineas could have hit his head and be suffering from a concussion. Phineas was messing with an invention and accidently gave himself partial amnesia or was hit by a random beam from the sky that did so.
Three of those four would be difficult to check in the hallway without causing a scene.
His hand shot out, gripping Phineas by the jaw and, ignoring the startled shout, tugged his face close enough to see his eyes as his other hand fetched a penlight out of one of his many pockets. He barely managed to check the dilation before Phineas broke his grip.
Stumbling back out of reach, Phineas seethed. "What the actual hell, Ferb?" His glare lost some of its heat due to him blinking and rubbing his eyes.
'Hell,' not 'heck?' Ferb frowned. "You're going to be late."
"I don't know where my classroom is."
They stared each other down for a few seconds before Ferb rattled off the directions. Phineas spun on his heel, disappearing around the first corner.
Which was actually the wrong way, but Ferb wasn't going after him.
Not yet.
They had no shared classes until after lunch. As such, Ferb had sent off a group text Buford and Isabella (and Baljeet, despite him not being anywhere near the high school grounds) in-between his first and second classes instructing them to keep an eye on Phineas. That any odd behaviour was to be noted, and he would like them to met up after school, sans Phineas, to discuss.
The immediate questions that had came back were given a vague response simply because he didn't know. He would rather not cause them unnecessary distress if it turned out to be nothing. But if it was something, he didn't want them unprepared either.
It was just after the lunch bell that Ferb found himself heading towards where Phineas should be coming from rather than the cafeteria. He may miss him in the crowd but he'd been able to locate Phineas in ones much larger than this for a decade.
When it came down to it, Phineas had an deniable sort of energy around him that was hard to miss when you knew what you were looking for. Having grown up together, Ferb felt himself was able to tune into it better than anyone else. Aside for Candace, perhaps, she had a way from tracking them both down better than a bloodhound. She said it had to do with their 'smell,' but when he'd purposed the idea that she may be claireolfactant, she'd kicked him out of her room.
Which meant he found himself somewhat confused when he realised he was walking in circles. With the hallways mostly empty now, it was easier to pinpoint, but it also felt like he was following trail marks that been moved three feet off. They were there, but they weren't leading him along the path, only along side it.
He likely would have continued on the same had he not heard Phineas' voice. Speeding up, Ferb followed it, finding his brother standing in front of a set of lockers talking to another boy. The boy looked familiar but was unplaceable.
"-in it for me?" They were the first words Ferb could hear clearly and they had him misstepping.
"What?" The boy asked.
What indeed. Ferb hung back.
Phineas appeared bored, leaning against a locker with his arms crossed. "Just what I said, what's in it for me?"
"Uhh..."
A deep sigh came from Phineas. "Okay, I'll make this easier. How much ya got?"
"...Got?"
"Money? Cash? Greenbacks? Moolah? Whatever you want to call it. How much?"
The other teen started fumbling his pockets. "I don't-- I don't--"
"C'mon, you gotta at least have lunch money on you."
Ferb started moving again. He didn't know what was going on but he couldn't stand by and let Phineas shake down one of their fellow students for their lunch money. "Phineas?"
Phineas looked over, his lip pulling up slightly, giving a smile at resembled more a bearing of teeth. "Ferb."
He inclined his head towards the boy in question.
Phineas stared a moment before rolling his eyes. "Edwin here wants us to build something for him." His gaze refocused on the boy dubbed Edwin. "I told him we weren't doin' it for nothing."
They always did it for nothing. Phineas insisted they never charge for helping people... Unless it was a fundraiser in which case the point was to charge to help people.
Ferb glanced at Edwin, frozen with a hand in his pocket. "Go." He gave just enough of a glare to make it clear he wasn't asking.
Edwin ran.
"I don't know what your problem is."
That had Ferb's eyes snapping back to his brother's, searching for anything there that didn't belong. That was wrong.
They didn't look wrong.
But the glint there, underneath the annoyance...
He knew that glint. He hadn't seen it in a very long time.
About as long as it had been since the last time Phineas had given him the monosyllable treatment.
There were puzzle pieces clicking together but he was missing the bigger picture they formed.
The rest of the school day consisted of Phineas avoiding him at every turn, and glaring at his back when he couldn't. It was simple enough to beg off walking home together, citing that he had cheer practice. Technically, he did, but he'd already told Toni he wouldn't be able to make it. She would pass on the message.
He met up with rest of the 'gang' at the Fireside Girl's Clubhouse. Despite Isabella no longer being an active Fireside Girl, she still had a borderline unreasonable amount of pull within the organization.
Once the four were seated, they started comparing notes. Ferb went first, outlining what he knew as facts and leaving out his speculations for now.
Isabella went next. "--then he just... dismissed me!"
"In his defense, you ain't exactly been paying him attention lately." Buford leaned his chair back, balancing it precariously on the back legs.
"I know, but normally that makes him more determined to get my attention, not less." She sighed. "What you got, Buford?"
"Well," Buford swung his body forward, making the front legs hit the floor with a deep thud, "he acted like he didn't know who I was, kept screwin' up my name. Got real smart-assed with me when I corrected him."
Baljeet frowned. "Admittedly, I have not seen Phineas today, but that does not sound like him. None of this does."
Isabella hands curled into fists as she gave a short laugh. It was a bitter sound. "After everything we've been through, some times I forget we've only been friends with you guys since we were nine."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"He is acting like Phineas. Just not like the Phineas you got to know." She cast Ferb a look for help. He gave her an encouraging nod. "You remember the first roller-coaster?"
"We were not there for it, but yes, we remember hearing about it."
"And how there was a few days between that and when they built that beach in their backyard?"
Buford gaze went distract. "Yeah. That was one long summer."
"Phineas... for lack of a better word, changed in between those two Big Ideas."
Buford and Baljeet were asking questions that Isabella was doing her best to answer.
He sighed. It had been years since he had to think about these things. While Ferb hated to say it, when they'd been younger, Phineas had often been a jerk. He'd been more than relieved when Phineas' arrogance gave way to confidence, his stubbornness lost it's defiant edge, and he'd stopped purposely antagonizing Candace for his own amusement. He'd assumed- he'd told himself, that it was the result of Phineas seeing what they could do after building the Coolest Coaster Ever.
That didn't mean he didn't know there had to be more to the story.
When the coaster was gone, and they'd retreated inside for snacks, Phineas had counted the money they'd earned. It was pitiful fraction of what had been spent, but it was also the first money they earned outside of their allowance.
Phineas had gotten a glint in his eyes and started brainstorming ways to make more. At best, he would call it capitalist interest, at worse, he'd say he'd become money hungry. They'd spent days enacting plans, researching stocks and bonds, and setting up channels that would allow them to bypass most issues that their young ages would cause.
Then Phineas said he'd wanted to look into something. He'd been annoyingly vague, taken his bike, and dropped out of contract for several hours.
He'd come back... personally changed and seemingly having forgotten random, everyday things.
Same as today.
He did believe in coincidences but he didn't believe this was one. Had Phineas tried experimenting on himself, way back then? How that would have made them money was unclear. Unless whatever it did, wasn't what it was supposed to do. If so, maybe whatever changes it had induced had finally worn off, reverting Phineas bad to his pre-experiment persona.
It was most benign theory his mind could produce.
His cellphone chirped in his pocket. He pulled it out, glancing at his friends, the questions having escalated to an augment. He couldn't blame their skepticism. They may have shared classes with Phineas back then, but they hadn't known him. And Phineas, if nothing else, knew how to delude people into seeing what he wanted them to.
Or he had been able to. That was a skill that seemed to have fallen to the wayside, alongside his grasp of finances and ability to lie convincingly on the spot.
He checked his text, half-expecting it to be from the source of this puzzlement. It wasn't. An unfamiliar number stared back at him along with another set of unfamiliar numbers, but he did recognize the formatting.
A quick online search later and he was slipping quietly out the door, unnoticed by the others.
Even without Phineas' drive for money, Ferb had kept up on their plans. He'd invested where he thought was best, made sure their inventions were properly patented, advertised the book series they'd written, launched a rebranded 'Ferb TV' as a subscription streaming service, and bought real estate. The warehouse the coordinates he'd been sent, and why they'd done that instead of texting him the address was something he'd like to inquire about at a later time, was one of the first they'd bought.
Unlike some of the others they owned, they didn't rent this one out. It was for their personal storage before they'd designed the S.H.E.D. They rarely used it these days.
It should be empty.
The first thing Ferb registered when he opened the door was that it wasn't.
A hulking mechanical archway loomed in the middle of the warehouse floor. It's opening simmered in the dim light, sparks dancing across its surface.
It would be aweing if it wasn't causing his insides to twist.
He had never lain eyes on it before. He'd always believed he'd be aware of everything Phineas had designed.
...Except for whatever it was he'd secretly been working on when they were nine.
He stepped in, the door slammed behind him, making him jump.
No one was there. It closed on its own.
He was alone.
He wasn't alone.
Ferb almost missed the figure hidden in the shadows.
Blue eyes locked with blue.
Shock met fear.
Ferb ran across the floor, skidding to a stop next to the wooden chair as his hands went for the ropes. His fingers just brushed them when muffled shout rang out. Someone barreled into him, knocking him down. Ferb twisted, trying to angle a kick at his attacker.
"Stop! You don't understand!"
He froze, actually taking in his attacker. Phineas' face was caught between anger and desperation. Gaze going past him, Ferb checked that, yes, Phineas was still tied and gagged in a chair. In retrospect, he should've taken out the gag before going for the ropes. Snapping his eyes back to the closest... Phineas, Ferb let his head flop back against the hard floor. From what he could see, they looked exactly the same. Though, he'd place his bets on the Phineas on top of him being the one from school today. If it was his brother, he would see straight through Ferb's ploy of acquiesce to the situation.
That still left the question as to what the other one of them was.
"Aliens?"
Phineas blinked, expression falling into innocent confusion. "What? Aliens aren't real."
How was it that was it that that was the most outrageous thing he'd heard today? Though, if he was the shapeshifting alien creature, he could be trying to throw Ferb off. On the other hand, there'd been so many alien attacks and failed invasions over the last five years that claiming they weren't real wasn't a sound strategy.
He raised an eyebrow.
Phineas shifted, slowly climbing off of him to sit on the floor. "He's an imposter, Ferb," he whispered. "He came through there," a gesture at the archway, "we have to send him back."
Because that made complete sense. Ferb resisted an eyeroll as he sat up. He could ask where the archway come from in the first place, he highly doubted it magically appeared...
On second thought, this was Danville. It very well could have and still not come close to ranking as one of the top ten weirdest things to happen this year.
"It was you at school, wasn't it?"
"Yes. Yes, it was."
"How do I know you're not the imposter?" As casually as possible, Ferb moved to a position where he could quickly get to his feet if this turned nasty. "You were acting rather peculiar."
"Not like myself, huh?" There was a slight smile as he said it that grew rather tight when Ferb nodded. "You noticed..." He jerked forward, eyes flashing with anger. "You can notice him being replace but not me?!"
The pieces clicked.
Ferb's mouth went dry. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything." He got to his feet, hand clenching and unclenching at his sides. "I was going to make things better. You know Pizzazium Infinionite least abundant chemical element. All I had to do was find a dimension where it's not and bring it back. We could do anything!" His hands shot out in bold, vague gestures. "We coulda ruled the world, if we wanted."
Bright eyes bored into his as Phineas bared his teeth. "But he found the doorway on the other side. He came though. He closed it. He locked me out." His voice grew louder with each 'he.' "He stole my life! And no one even noticed!" He closed his eyes, hands trembling, before reopening them, staring somewhere passed Ferb's head. "But I come back and you can tell?" he finished, voice falling back from a yell into a broken whisper.
Ferb stared. That couldn't- He couldn't-
But he had noticed back then, hadn't he? He had, and he'd accepted it. Hadn't questioned it. Had only questioned it this time because of the open hostility Phineas failed to keep hidden.
How had he not realised something was wrong? That the person he was calling his brother wasn't the same person, in more than just outlook? In personality?
He felt sick.
"But I'm back now. I can fix this. I will fix it." Phineas started walking backwards, taking the few steps to his double. He grinned, bright and happy.
Then he pulled out a Swiss Army knife.
Specifically, Ferb's Swiss Army knife.
He hadn't felt him take it.
Perhaps it was the smile that had Ferb lulled into a false sense of security. Or maybe he had forgotten what Phineas, his Phineas, had truly been like.
Whatever the cause, it only lasted until Phineas found the actual blade in the knife and his smile changed into something far more sinister. His hand shooting out to rest the tip against his double's throat. Tied as he was, he couldn't do more than tilt his head back, eyes panicked. A drop of blood appeared at the tip.
There had been several moments in his life in which Ferb acted on instinct, any and all conscious decision making taking a backseat. This was one of those times, when he found himself going from the floor to, well, still on the floor, but with Phineas underneath him, in a near reverse of their pervious position. The greatest different coming in the form of the knife that now rested against this Phineas' throat.
Despite that, Phineas was grinning up at him, expression alight with glee.
Ferb's hand shook.
"You can't hurt me, can you?" Phineas cackled. "You know you can't."
The handle dug into his palm and fingers as he fought to keep still.
Indecision warred.
He was right.
Ferb couldn't hurt him.
But he'd tried to hurt Phineas.
But he was Phineas.
This was his brother. The boy he'd met when he was three. Who accepted him. Who convinced him to open up. Who convinced him to talk. Who encouraged him to build. Who-
Who apparently had no qualms about murder.
Over the sound of his heart pounding in his ears, he could hear the other Phineas trying to speak through the gag. Even without words, the tone was calming. Even without words, he knew he was begging not to do anything rash.
Because that's how he was, seeing the best in everyone, wanting everyone to have a second chance.
He couldn't say the same about the one he had pressed to the floor. The one that had been his brother once.
He'd been right when he said the other one had stolen his life.
He'd stolen it and he'd made the best of it. Far more than this Phineas ever had.
Ferb backed off, climbing to his feet.
"I knew you'd-" Phineas cut off with a choked gasp as Ferb's hand coiled in the collar of his shirt, yanking him to his feet.
He ignored the panicked look as Phineas fought to free himself. Nails clawed at his hand. Ferb attempted to ignore to frantic pleas falling from his lips. They still cut into him.
This was still Phineas, no matter how deranged he may have become. Or may have always been.
He couldn't think too hard on that right now.
The shimmer of the portal failed to lose its allure up close. He hesitated. From here, he could see through to the other side. It was the warehouse, but used. Crates lurking in the shining shadows.
Phineas had obviously survived there for years. The other Phineas had come from there.
He wasn't dooming him to death.
"Ferb, please."
But it was still Phineas. Couldn't he let him stay? Couldn't he keep them both? But he remembered the blood.
He turned, staring deep into Phineas' eyes, taking in the pleading.
"Don't do this."
He searched beyond it, finding the anger, the glimmers of hostility that had slipped out before, the hate burning in their depths. Such a far cry from the love he was used to seeing.
If this Phineas had been at his side throughout those apocalypses that had almost ended the world time and time again, would he have fought against them to save his friends? His family? Would he have followed Candace to space when she was kidnapped? Would he have cared?
Staring into those eyes, all he could feel was a resounding 'no.'
This may have been the Phineas who had connected with him, but it was not the Phineas who completed him.
"I'm sorry." If his voice cracked, it didn't matter.
"What?" Phineas gasped, expression twisting with disbelief.
Ferb moved quickly, twisting and propelling Phineas through the arch. Watched him tumble over his feet on the other side before crashing to knees. Ferb flipped the knife over in his hand. Phineas looked back, shocked disbelief turning to rage. His mouth opened, the sound didn't carry.
He didn't know how the portal worked, but some things were obvious. For example, the control panel was always important. Tearing his gaze away, Ferb rammed the knife in, hissing as it sparked, burning his hand.
The opening flickered.
Glitched.
Failed.
Ferb cradled his hand, staring blankly through the archway to the other side of the warehouse.
He was gone.
He was gone.
Ferb's vision blurred, what had he done? He was numb.
A muffled sound behind him had him turning. Phineas was-
Phineas was still here.
Expression showing as much shock as his double's.
He needed to process but not now. Not yet. He had to get him out of here. He had to-
He had to-
Pulling the Swiss Army knife from the panel, he walked to Phineas. Cut the ropes. Untied the gag.
That done, he sunk to the floor, letting the tears come. The knife slipped from his fingers.
Phineas stood above him. "Ferb, I-"
He grabbed his hands, pulling him down. Phineas went, letting Ferb hugged him to his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The apologies were for him and weren't.
He should've known.
He should've have done something back then.
It shouldn't have gone on as long as it did.
He was happy he didn't.
It wasn't until later that he truly questioned his choice. Not for what he had sent that Phineas back to, but for what he had released (rereleased?) on another dimension.