AUTHOR'S NOTE: You remember when Phineas and Ferb built the roller coaster?
If we were to compare your current position in the story to their roller coaster
ride, then you would currently be in orbit, watching that satellite that was
supposed to fall to Earth and land on the house so Candace could be in charge.
In a moment, you will begin the billion-mile-an-hour descent back through the
atmosphere and, after nearly being incinerated, you will crash down into the
tree in the backyard, somehow magically safe and sound. Until then, you will
be screaming your head off and praying that you won't die :) Enjoy the ride.
And if you haven't read parts 1-3... read them first, otherwise this'll be like
watching the last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender without having
actually watched the series. It's really cool-it just doesn't make any sense.
The Picture: Part 4-The War
Chapter 1: Candace vs. the Discourager Ray
Isabella watched the fighting from the cliffs overlooking the village.
She really wanted to jump off. When she'd first made her promise to Phineas,
she would never have believed just how evil she would have had to become just
to keep it. Her well-meaning oath had led her to attempt murder, help enslave
an alien race, actually commit murder, and now, help enslave another alien
race. Oh, if only her Mom could see her now, wouldn't she be proud?
All this, because she loved that little, triangle-faced, tyrant more
than what was right and wrong. She was chained to him by her own desire, and
now, the sins he had caused her to commit. Did she regret it? She couldn't
tell. She was still numb from splatting Candace all over the bottom of that
gorge. Once you've murdered the innocent not much matters.
She snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed hordes of Tkpxzv
appearing from thin air around the village below. Isabella knew, of course,
that they weren't really coming out of nowhere. The Tkpxzv spacecraft were
completely clear and nearly impossible to see. They had landed and now the
soldiers were leaving the craft to attack the village. Isabella watched and
almost jumped when thousands of Alions suddenly appeared around the various
landing sites and began shooting madly at the Tkpxzv, who started dropping
by the hundreds. Isabella was wondering just how it was the Tkpxzv would have
ever conquered anything if there hadn't been so many of them when she was
startled by a heavy WHOMP behind her. She turned and saw (barely) that a
Tkpxzv spacecraft had landed behind her and Phineas. Within moments, several
dozen Tkpxzv emerged, some of them pushing on multiple copies of
Phineas' invention, the Discourager Ray.
"This battle's gonna be over in five minutes," Isabella noted dully.
"Hey, guys, glad you're here," Phineas called to his regiment, "The
Alions have just emerged from their hiding places. Line the rays up along the
cliff, set up the air defenses and we'll go to town!"
"Yes, sir!" the Tkpxzv cried.
Phineas turned to Isabella, "You're commander of half these guys,
you'd better get up and lead them!"
"You lead 'em. I'm just gonna watch."
"Still down in the dumps?"
"Yeah."
"It's over Isabella. You might as well just get on with your life."
"Whatever."
Phineas sighed and shrugged, then turned back to his troops and began
barking orders. Isabella went and grabbed a pair of binoculars from one of
Tkpxzv soldiers to see the action with. All over now she could see Tkpxzv and
Alions blasting away at each other. A lot of them were dying on both sides,
but the Tkpxzv were definitely doing worse. She could see Alions going down
here and there, but the poorly-trained Tkpxzv conscripts were getting
slaughtered by the hundreds. Several of the groups that had left their craft
turned around and ran back into their craft, one of which got blown up by an
Alion Sphere Blaster. She put her goggles down, shaking her head. She looked
over at Phineas directing his aliens.
"The Alions are going to lose, but they should win. If Phineas wasn't
here the Tkpxzv wouldn't have a chance," Isabella muttered to herself. She
continued to watch spacecraft after spacecraft land with its troops and then
get ripped apart by the Alion forces. No wonder this planet had never been
conquered...
"Fire!" Phineas yelled.
"And now it ends," Isabella said.
The Discourager Rays began firing left and right at the knots of Alion
warriors, and pretty soon the situation was reversed, with the Tkpxzv chasing
the routing Alions back to their village, even though they (the Alions)
clearly should have had the upper hand. Alion Sphere Blasters began
noticing the Discourager Rays and started trying to attack them, but they
couldn't get past the thick air defenses and Tkpxzv craft defending the
position.
"Another one in the bag, eh, Isabella?" Phineas said.
She didn't even answer. She felt awful, knowing she had helped cause
this. She pulled up the binoculars again and began looking at the fleeing
Alions. As she turned from one group to another, she happened to glance up
near the gorge she had dumped Candace in. Her guilt intensified further as
she was reminded of the blood she had spilled to make sure Phineas would win
today. She gazed at it for a while and finally turned a bit and saw something
that made her feel even worse... which was surprising because it actually made
her feel less guilty. The guilt was, however, replaced by incredible fear.
She took her eyes away, and looked again. She turned away, and looked
again, and again, and again, willing the specter to leave, wishing the wraith
would go away, but she couldn't deny what she saw.
"No... how?" Isabella whispered shakily, "Ph-Phineas? Phineas?
PHINEAS!"
Phineas ran over, looking alarmed, "What? What's wrong?"
She handed him the binoculars, "Just look..."
He picked up the binoculars and looked, "Okay... what am I supposed to
be-?"
He froze, and Isabella knew he saw it. He just stared for a bit, then
he growled fiercely, threw the binoculars down and let out an angry roar.
One of the nearby Tkpxzv spoke, "Captain Flynn, is something wrong?"
"All guns fire that way!" Phineas screamed, pointing.
"But... that's just an empty field..." he replied.
"I'm the captain, do what I say!" Phineas yelled.
"Yes, sir!" he said, and the Tkpxzv all turned and began firing their
Discouragers at what appeared to be an empty field. Isabella picked up the
binoculars and looked out again.
"It's no good, Phineas, you're missing completely!" she said.
"I don't care! If they fire enough shots one's bound to hit her!"
"And do what? Make her wet her pants?"
Phineas paused, then said, "That would help!"
"The Alions are starting to regroup, Captain Flynn!" the Tkpxzv said,
should we begin firing on them again?"
Phineas hesitated, then groaned and said, "Yes."
"Yes, sir! All guns resume firing at will on Alion Forces!" the
Tkpxzv cried. The other Tkpxzv obeyed and the rout soon resumed back down in
the village.
Phineas looked at Isabella, "How? Isabella, how?"
Isabella stared at him uneasily for a bit, then slowly looked up at
the sky.
"Oh, c'mon, really?" Phineas asked.
"How else? She wasn't exactly trying to catch the cliffs or anything!
She was broken! She'd given up! She was just going to let herself go splat!"
"So you're saying something must've saved her, like her shirt caught
on a rock or something?"
"Yeah."
"But you don't think it's a coincidence?"
"Not really."
Phineas growled, "That's crazy stuff Isabella. She just got lucky,
that's all."
"Okay..." said Isabella.
Phineas sighed, "Watch her will you? Make sure she doesn't screw
things up."
"Yeah..." Isabella said, pulling up the binoculars again and looking
out at Candace. She was crouching behind a boulder, watching the action and
apparently trying to decide what to do.
"Maybe you did get lucky, Candace Flynn, but I don't think so," she
whispered, "You lost every battle with him back on Earth, but I think you were
meant to win this one. Guess we'll know when this battle's over..."
"What do I do?" Candace wondered aloud, "There's no way to win with
those Discourager Rays, and I can't fight Phineas and his entire bodyguard
myself! The Alions are about to be destroyed and I can't do anything to stop
it!"
Candace stared in horror for a while at the fleeing Alions. There
were TONS of them. She figured most of the planet had gathered to fight the
battle. There were more of them than there were Tkpxzv, but all the Alions
ever were completely useless if they wouldn't stand and fight. Most of them
were cowering in Kilisyth already, and the Tkpxzv had the entire village
surrounded.
Candace yelled in frustration and sat down hard in the Alion grass.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Is this why I lived? So I could witness my final failure? This
would never have happened if I hadn't busted Phineas and brought him here.
I should have just killed myself... I would've deserved it."
She looked again to see hundreds of Alions getting cut down as they
ran from their enemies. Candace almost couldn't stand to watch. She knew
that within minutes all the Alion Forces would be trapped in the
village and that the Tkpxzv would butcher every last one of them and the
Alions wouldn't even put up a fight.
"You know..." Candace muttered, "Maybe it's better that I lived.
Watching this and knowing that I caused it is a fate worse than death."
She stared numbly, wishing, almost praying that a miracle would
happen-but knowing that it wouldn't.
"I wish..." Candace said tearfully, "There was something... anything
that I could do... I caused this... I wish I could fix it somehow... change
what I've done... but I can't. The last hope of the Milky Way is going to be
crushed forever... all because I had to go and bust Phineas."
She sat and stared, silently weeping.
"I can't take this anymore," she finally said. She took her
swordspear and put it to her throat, "Their last hope is dead, my last hopes
are dead, so I might as well be dead, too. At least I can say I had the
decency to die with them."
Candace awkwardly held the blade to her throat and prepared to cut,
when something crossed her mind.
"Wait... didn't that prophecy say something about what I was supposed
to do when all the hope was dead?" She thought a moment.
"Use the weapon Candace gives you..." she said, She looked over at
the big tent she'd had the prophecy at, "From the top of the cliff I got the
prophecy on..."
She stared at the cliff, which she noticed was directly over the
center of town where the scared Alions were all huddling together.
"Candace didn't give me a weapon, though... she just taught me that
song..."
Candace kept staring. Everything slowly coalesced in her head.
"That song... the Alions sang it when exactly this was about to happen
to their old city... it gave them the courage to stop running and fight
back... of course... holy guacamole, I need to go get my guitar!" Candace
dropped her spear and made a mad dash for Candace the Candasaur's house,
hoping beyond hope that was she was about to try would work.
Minutes later she made it to the Candasaur's house. She was surprised
to see Candace and her parents positioned around the yard, waiting for Tkpxzv
to show up. Candace the Candasaur saw her human counterpart running toward
them and called to her.
"Candace! There you are! What happened?"
Candace dashed up to the Candasaur, "I'll explain later. Quick! We
need to get me, a guitar, and a boom box to the top of the cliff we got our
prophecies at!
Candace furrowed her nonexistent eyebrow, "What? You want to play
music at a time like this?"
"Not just any music... THE music."
The Candasaur thought for a bit, then her eyes widened, "The old song
from the city siege..."
"Yep."
"That's brilliant! Let's go!"
"What are you talking about?" Candace's father asked.
"Just trust us, Dad, let's go!"
The four of them charged into the house and grabbed a bunch of musical
equipment before charging back out and straight for the big initiate tent.
"What's she doing?" Isabella asked herself. She watched as Candace
and the three Candasaurs darted through the woods leading toward a big tent,
carefully avoiding gunshots, bomb blasts and Tkpxzv soldiers. She noted the
guitar, but wasn't sure why Candace would want to play a song during an
apocalyptic final battle. A funeral hymn, maybe? After several minutes she
and the Candasaurs reached the tent and set up their equipment on top of the
cliff. Candace hooked up the guitar to what looked like a couple of speakers,
took a big breath, and...
She started singing a song. In Alion. All Isabella could hear was a
bunch of incoherent spitting and gargling.
"I don't get it."
Isabella turned and saw Phineas standing next to her, He was staring
at Candace, looking totally perplexed.
Isabella just shrugged.
Candace felt like a complete idiot. She heard the Alion gibberish
gushing from her mouth and heard herself playing random chords on the guitar
(she never came up with a tune for the song) and, although she at least knew
what the song was saying, the clear ineptness of her performance was making
her seriously question the little venture.
"Ah, grath batz, jyixth jikthya zoth!
Gz jyixth vulunk izo harrgdt yik!
Ma zakbg! Ma ziyith! Ma zyuns!
Ma zixi! Ma zix! Ma ishth yza!"
"What the heck is she singing?" Isabella asked, "If you call that
singing, that is."
What the heck am I singing? Candace thought to herself. She was
about to drop the guitar and quit when she noticed a sound from the Alions
down in the square. It was a sound even more horrible than the ones she was
making, but her heart leapt when she heard it.
Down below, she heard one, single, lone Alion voice breaking into song
and taking up the lament (yes, it was a lament) with her. Candace shrugged
and continued.
"Zagrak az trith, zigirth ti zyeeth az shooth!
Zakoong ziz Raxaat ganx, ugr dax xankx!"
Isabella and Phineas listened in confusion as the bizarre song drifted
on the wind up to their cliff. They began to hear Alion voices chiming (or
spitting) in as well.
"The Alions seem to know what this is," Isabella observed.
"Yeah, but that doesn't really help us," Phineas replied.
Candace continued, heart pounding as she heard more and more Alions
joining her so-called song. She couldn't believe her horrible spitting and
jumble of guitar chords was actually having an effect. Although the Alions
seemed to be enjoying the concert, the reader is probably totally frustrated
by now because they haven't understood a single word of Candace's song. A
translation of the previous six lines follows:
"O, my city, how are you lost!
How have you fallen before this terrible host!
My home! My children, my sweet wife!
My friends! My family! My entire life!
Tattered and burned, smoking in flames and ashes!
The taskmasters of Raaxat come, bearing their lashes!"
Now you're up to speed. Candace sang on in Alion, but here it's
translated:
"Freedom and liberty, the joys of this life,
Today they are destroyed by this false god's strife!
Never again will this world be free!
Never again will I breathe the sweet air of liberty!
Gone is my city, that hope of Tizilidai!
Gone is that light I hoped would never die!"
As she finished the first verse, a strange feeling came over Candace,
and she could almost hear the voices of the ancient Alions lamenting the fall
of their city... and she could almost hear them singing. Her jumbled guitar
notes began to gain some sort of structure, and all the spitting and nonsense
started sounding vaguely like music. She went on:
"Now I stare, whilst you are burned,
And wish, somehow, you could return,
That this army would move on,
That we would be safe
That our soldiers were strong
And could win the day
Alas! It is only my wishful desire!
Only the heavens could save us now!
Our city stands burned in the fire!
And dripping with tears my head I bow,
Broken in heart, broken in spirit, sadly I
Long for my city, that light I wished would never die."
By now the entire Alion army was singing, and the song was actually
starting to sound like, well, a song. Candace played a strange, haunting, yet
sweet melody on her guitar. She didn't know where it was coming from, but
something told her she was somehow channeling the same melody sung by the
ancient Alions.
"Huh, well, I guess it's a confirmed song then," Isabella said, "The
Alions must understand it."
Phineas stared at Candace, eyes narrowed and with his fingers
scratching his non-chin, "I wonder if she's trying to inspire them with a
patriotic hymn or something," he said, "Tkpxzv! Fire all Discouragers at that
ledge!"
Candace went on to the third verse. She was starting to get caught up
in the song and to really feel the music move through her:
"O, heavens above us, is there anything thou canst not do?
Even now you can deliver us, powers above, we call on you!
Return to us our city!
Do this thing we ask!
We know that thou art mighty,
And canst accomplish any task!
All things are-
Candace saw a bright flash and suddenly felt a terrible panic wash
over her. She stopped abruptly and almost ran, but she heard the Alions
singing below and was filled with a strange courage that helped her continue:
-in your hands
And you can save our little band
We know, through thee, that we can stand
The last of the free, 'gainst foes like sand!
The power that made the stars in the sky
Can save our city, our star, that light that must never die!
Candace got blasted over and over as she sang, but the mad fear that
had first enveloped her got squashed by the encouragement she got from the
song. It was hard to resist the urge to panic, but she forced herself to
stand and keep singing. The Alions below were now singing loud and strong, as
they had all those years before.
"Why isn't it working?" Phineas cried, "She should be running like a
ninny!"
Isabella barely listened to him. She watched the concert and shook
her head. Somehow she felt that something didn't want Phineas to win this
battle. The powers that had once protected him and preserved him had deserted
him for his sister.
"The shoe's on the other foot," Isabella muttered.
Down in the valley, the massive swarm of Tkpxzv had surrounded the
Alions in the city, and they were closing in for the kill. The Alions,
however, instead of cowering like they had earlier, turned outward and began
rushing towards their foes, singing the song of their forefathers:
"With the powers of Heaven we will stand!
We'll stand and fight and save our land!
No force is too strong, no army too great,
To destroy a free people, to break down their gate!"
Up on the cliffs, Phineas realized the Alions had regained their will
to fight and ordered his Tkpxzv to open fire all over the Alion army.
It didn't work. The Alions sang on as they charged their foes:
"Through struggle and strife we will prevail,
Our free brothers and sisters, once more we will hail,
In our free city, bastion of liberty,
In a world of slaves, the light of the free!
To choose our own destiny, that is our way!
To make our own fates, we will conquer today!"
Candace almost stopped singing as she saw the two armies about to
collide. She expected them to smash into each other in an epic charge and
started slugging it out back and forth.
Instead, the Alions suddenly took flight and soared over their
astonished foes. A cyan-blue cloud of Alions warriors hid the Tkpxzv army
from Candace's view. As they hovered over their foes they finished the song,
"Warriors of this nation, ye free people of Tizilidai,
Let us stand, fight, and save our city,
That light that will never die!"
After that the Alions all let out a horrible roar and swooped down
upon their enemies. Candace heard thousands of Tkpxzv screams as the
Alion cloud completely enveloped its foes. Candace stared in horror as the
Alions landed and began literally ripping their under-trained and physically
weaker opponents to shreds. Blood and alien body parts and screams of terror
filled the air above the battlefield as the Alions did what they did best-kill
stuff. A few Tkpxzv tried to escape, but they were far too slow and the
Alions flew right after them and slaughtered them too. In less than a minute
the entire Tkpxzv force had been annihilated. The Alions stopped for a moment,
looked around, and then one by one they shouted until the whole area erupted
into a valley-shaking cheer.
The Alions had won. Tizilidai had been saved.
"Wow. That was a reversal. That battle was over as soon as it
started!" Isabella exclaimed.
Phineas stared in slack-jawed amazement at the cheering Alions. It
looked as though his brain had completely locked up. He simply did not know
how to react to... that.
"Captain Flynn! We need to go before the Alions come up here and kill
us!" one of Phineas' soldiers cried.
"Go... right..." Phineas said dazedly. He said it, but he didn't do
anything. Isabella finally grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the
Tkpxzv spacecraft behind them.
"C'mon, Phineas, let's go. Candace won."
"But-but-but-but-but-but-but-" Phineas began repeating.
If things hadn't been so grim Isabella probably would have laughed
at the irony of the situation. The shoe was INDEED on the other foot. She
dragged Phineas to the spacecraft, followed by the Tkpxzv squad, and then they
took off and left the planet, heading for Trisaria.
"Candace you did it!" Candace the Candasaur cried. She leapt on
Candace and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Yeah..." Candace was almost as flabbergasted as Phineas was, "I guess
I did. I guess you can beat a scary gun with a cool song."
"Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace! Can-dace!"
Candace looked down and saw the horde of blood-stained Alions shouting
her name. She stared at them with her mouth open like a big dummy until an
Alion suddenly swooped down and landed next to her.
"Candace, my daughter, you have saved our people!" Xosizi yelled.
"Hey, I just, sang a little song..." Candace said shyly.
"I have come up with a name for you," he said.
"Oh, yeah, what's that?"
"Aizyalia."
"That's quite a name."
"Indeed it is," Xosizi said. He seemed to choke a little on the last
word. Candace was shocked to see a tear roll down his stalk.
"Xosizi? Are you crying?" Candace asked, "I didn't know Alions DID
that."
"Aizyalia is the city... Candace," he whispered.
"The city? The one the Ancient Alions defended?"
"Trag. For as Aizyalia was the light that never died, so were you
today our undying light of hope in our darkest hour. You reminded us of
things we had long forgotten, reminded us of who we were..."
He paused for a moment, then whispered:
"And you reminded me that the Heavens are still there."
At this point the old warrior broke down completely. Candace knelt
down in front of him and the two embraced. As Xosizi wept, Candace looked up
at the sky. Clouds had rolled in since the start of the battle, but as she
looked, the clouds parted and a single ray of light shone down directly on the
spot where she and Xosizi were standing. Candace's eyes welled up with tears
as well.
"Thank you," she whispered, "Who or whatever's up there... thank you."
