A/N: Much credit for this one-shot must go to FanofPnF for help with the ending and the summary and for generally encouraging me to post it. Other than that, there's not much to be said. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.
"We copy ya, Irving." Phineas said into the phone. "We're just emerging from the peaks and valleys of fickleness."
"I cannot believe there is a whole valley in there devoted to your love-hate relationship with ambivalence," Baljeet said from behind him.
"Yeah," Candace replied. "I… have mixed feelings about it."
Phineas smiled slightly, but said nothing, as they continued to walk along the path inside his sister's brain. This place was… well, it was cool, but ever-so-slightly unsettling, too. There were a lot of psychedelic colors and flashing lights here, as well as fair amount of really dull and gray places. And places like the mountain range they'd just left behind, which were somewhere… in between.
The path suddenly shifted beneath their feet, as the ground turned an ominous shade of purpley-pink. A huge cliff towered up from nowhere in front of them, over which poured an immense amount of water. A turbulent river snaked at the base of the cliff, whisking away the falls to who knows where.
All around, a faint, echoey, yet at the same time, booming voice sounded.
"Whoa," Phineas said aloud. "The falls of anxiety."
Well, it was a good sign that they'd reached this point. According to their scans of the human brain, the falls weren't too terribly far away from their eventual destination - the forest. Everyone's falls were different, of course, but everyone had them, and their general location was roughly same from person to person.
He tried to recall the image of the brain scan they'd printed out before jacking into Candace's brain. If they just waded through the river - which was supposed to have been shallow - there was a cave behind the falls where the path would resume. In a funny way, it made sense for the river to be shallow and lacking in any real depth. After all, wasn't that most anxieties for you?
The echoey voice continued speaking from the falls.
Is my neck too long? Is it okay that I wear the same dress every day?
"What's that?" Candace asked, suddenly sounding nervous.
Is it weird that my hair is so bright orange when Mom's and Phineas' is red? Am I too tall?
"It is all of Candace's anxieties." Baljeet said.
Phineas glanced back at his sister for a second, and saw a supremely uncomfortable look emerging on her voice continued to echo.
Am I too short? Is it bad that I can only play instruments that start with the letter 'B'?
Were these the things his sister worried about? He hadn't really given much thought to it - they all seemed like such trivial matters, honestly. But apparently she did - given they were in the falls. And the look on her face definitely confirmed it.
"Whoa…" he said slowly. "There are… so many of them."
Could this be the reason why she so often seemed to want Mom around? He felt a bit taken aback - having not at all realized this before. Everyone worried about things, of course, even he did at times. But to worry about all this - and more, because the voice was still echoing.
"She has a rich internal life." Ferb said.
He was her brother, too. If she really did worry about all these things… he should definitely try to help. It - well, it wasn't quite fair that she have to worry about all these things with no one to help. They weren't even that important, really. Hadn't the falls just said something about her neck being too long?
He stole another glance at his sister. Well, it didn't look too long to him. Honestly, he'd had no idea she worried about that sort of thing.
"Yeah," Buford agreed. "She's really messed up."
Phineas frowned, but couldn't quite think of a reply. It wasn't so much that Buford was right, as that… well, he wasn't saying it very nicely, but apparently Candace did stress over a lot of things - more than he'd realized.
"Buford!" Candace exclaimed.
We really should try to invite her to come along with us for our projects more, Phineas mused. She always seems happy when she does come. Like that time with Skiddley Whiffers.
"You can't come in here!"
Phineas tried to recall a time in which his sister had mentioned these worries to him - or to someone in earshot of him. He couldn't - and that fact made him feel sorry for her. No one should have to worry all alone. He had Ferb, and Baljeet and Buford had each other and, well, he'd thought Candace had Stacy for this sort of thing, but it looked like the falls were simply too big for one person to handle. He wanted to help, too. But how?
"It's a free country."
The falls continued echoing.
"No, it's not! It's my head! And you're getting crumbs all over - all over - cru - cru - cru -"
Candace suddenly began shaking violently, and started tripping over her words. Phineas' eyes opened wider in worry.
"What's wrong with her?" Buford asked carelessly, taking another bite from his sandwich.
"The anxieties are getting to her!" Baljeet replied.
"Cru - cr- cru - cru -" she continued stammering, shivering even worse now.
Well, shoot. He'd not realized that this might happen - but it was perfectly logical, after all. They had to - she had to get away from the falls. Farther away, down the river of thought, where it would become apparent just how shallow it really was.
"Hurry, everyone!" Phineas exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing ahold of her. He was instantly shocked by how clammy she'd become in just the few moments since their arrival at the falls. The cold sweat made it difficult to maintain his grip, but he was able to hang on despite it. "Through the falls!"
For the moment, none of that other stuff mattered - right now, they just needed to get through the falls. Once past, Candace would be able to calm down, and they could proceed to the forest as planned. And later - well, better to focus on the 'getting through the falls' part for now.
So they ran, plowing through chill, shallow water as quickly as was possible, given Candace's hysteric screaming and the fact that she really wasn't doing much in the way of helping run.
"The palms of sweatiness!" Waving his arms in front of him, he attempted to shake off the cold flying hands that swarmed them. Not much farther to go.
"The harpies of hyperventilation!" Baljeet cried. Almost there now - the voices from the falls had become almost inaudible. Candace had stopped screaming, which was also good, and somewhat drained the urgency of the situation.
A single rubber duck fell from somewhere and bonked her on the head.
"Rubber ducks?" she asked in disbelief, apparently having found her voice again.
"Do not ask me," Baljeet responded. "It is your subconscious."
A sudden splash of water drenched them all, and they burst through on the other side of the falls.
Everyone stopped for a moment, panting for breath from the exertion. Phineas noticed that none of them were actually wet anymore. That was probably due the fact that it was all in their - well, in their sister's head.
Still, he couldn't quite help but feel like that even if they hadn't found the forest yet, he'd realized something else - something quite important. That Candace, the sister he'd always looked up to, she had anxieties. A lot of them, too. Something about that fact unsettled him - he'd never known this before? It wasn't really fair that she have to deal with this all on her own.
She should know that she shouldn't - wouldn't have to deal with it alone anymore. Because he would help her, if she needed it.
Even as they resumed walking down the now-reappeared path, he fell back to the back of the group next to her.
"Hey, Candace, uh, about what happened back there…"
She shivered, turning slightly red. "I don't want to talk about it."
"No, yeah, of course," he replied. "I just, you know, I wanted to make sure you knew that if you do actually worry about… all those things - well, I can, I'm here."
She looked down at him. "What?"
"You know," he explained. "To help. If I can."
"Oh." Candace turned her eyes back to the horizon. "That's… nice of you, I guess. Thanks." She shook her head. "Let's just find that memory before Jeremy gets here, okay?"
Phineas nodded and began picking up his pace. It wasn't exactly a huge revelation or anything, but at least now she knew that he was here. Would she ever even take advantage of that fact? He didn't know - but he couldn't worry about that here.
Right now, they needed to reach the forest.