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."