Cipher Liberation Anniversary
Today marked a very special day for humanity. It had been one year to the day since the end of the Cipher War. None could forget easily when it started, the day the entity known as Bill Cipher unleashed waves upon waves of his nightmare soldiers all around the world, attacking every country, every landmass, simultaneously. When the initial fighting was over, and the Earth's armies were defeated and petrified, the aftermath that those who had evaded petrification had to endure; anarchy reigning supreme, living in fear of either Bill's armies or the remnants of humanity choosing to survive by looting and pillaging from those who they deemed weaker than they, or living in the sewers beneath what was once a great civilisation turned to ruin, was worse than any movie anyone had ever watched. None but a few knew how, one day, it all just reversed itself, but for everyone as a whole, they had chosen to count their blessings and rebuild their lives.
For Phineas Flynn, however, recovery was not that simple. Before the war, he had been tricked into building a device that would've started the war sooner, had it ever been turned on. Afterwards, he had had two assassination attempts on his life by Bill himself, the second of which Bill had used Phineas' sister Candace. It was safe to say, for him, the war never truly ended. Phineas secretly feared that Bill was still alive, just biding his time until he inevitably tries again. Phineas did try to fall back into his usual routine, but his love for inventing was never the same. Quite the contrary, he was so scared of inventing he almost stopped for good. It was only through the encouragement of his family and friends, that Phineas was back to doing what he did best again. Which was why today was especially important for him, as he and Ferb decided to host the celebration of the end of the war.
"You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to" Ferb assured his step-brother. Phineas had been going back and forth about the whole thing, but after that Easter where his friends made him confront a chocolate Bill, Phineas was more determined than ever to put the war behind him.
"No, I feel like I have to. It's like if I don't, Bill gets the final victory over me" Phineas said with conviction. The two brothers then went outside to their back yard, where they would set up the usual party decorations and carnival attractions. Everyone Phineas celebrated the victory over Bill with last year helped pitch in for the anniversary celebrations. Star, Marco, Milo, Amanda, all of them pitched in to some degree. Even Candace, Jeremy and Stacy helped. With all their help, the preparations were done a lot faster than normal, which for Phineas and Ferb, is saying something.
"Wow, you guys. Thanks for the help. This usually takes us all morning" Phineas thanked everyone gracefully.
"How could we not? This day is important for everyone here" Marco pointed out.
"It's ours and Melissa's anniversary, for starters" Zack piped in.
"Not to mention the day I finally moved in with the Pines family" Pacifica added.
"Safe to say, everyone here has at least one reason to celebrate, so less talking and more carnival games" Mabel suggested, and everyone picked a game they wanted to try first. There was a game where you threw balls at Bill-shaped coconuts, one version of skeeball where the highest points were the ones where you got the ball into Bill's eye, and Buford was especially fond of the punching bag with Bill's picture on it. Phineas, meanwhile, felt like he needed this. He was enjoying the Bill-shaped dartboard with Ferb, while Star, Mabel and Isabella were trying to top each other's scores at 'Whack-a-Bill'. Isabella was especially vicious at this.
"What? No-one tries to kill my boy- err….best friend and gets away without feeling my wrath" Isabella said when asked about this.
"Got yourself a keeper there, Phineas" Dipper commented. Phineas, being Phineas, had no idea what anyone was on about.
At the Excalibur Institute, Albert and Kilstone had a puzzle on their hands. Over the last few days, the device they got from Phineas had been picking up some odd communications. Since it was capable of inter-dimensional travel, they assumed that the communications came from another dimension. They had resolved to try and decipher the messages, but signal was weak.
"All this time working, and we still have no idea what the purpose of these messages is" Albert said.
"We could try outsourcing to other agencies. Our undercover agents could try and get resources from elsewhere to help us" Kilstone suggested. While Albert didn't like asking others for help, he wanted to ascertain the nature of the messages more, so he came up with an idea.
"Call Carl. Maybe O.W.C.A. can help. They have experience with this sort of thing from that time with the 2nd Dimension" Albert suggested.
"You don't have many friends in that organisation. Major Monogram especially hates you" Kilstone observed.
"I'm aware of that, Kilstone, but I'm sure he'd agree that whatever these messages say may be important to global security. Make the call" Albert instructed. Kilstone acknowledged his orders and left to call Carl.
In O.W.C.A. HQ, Carl was prepping the office party for Cipher Liberation Day. Perry had regretted not being able to protect Phineas from this evil. Even more so, during the war. He always told himself he had to maintain his cover or risk being re-assigned. Still, he wished he could've acted as a bodyguard. After the war was over, he swore to himself not to sit on the sidelines while his host did the fighting again. If Bill did come back, he would be ready. When Carl's phone rang, he excused himself to take the call. At that point, Major Monogram chose this moment to have a one-to-one with Perry.
"Look, Agent P. Carl told me about the failed attempts on Phineas' life before the war, and we've been thinking, maybe it's time for you to go on permanent protection detail" Major Monogram briefed. Perry raised an eyebrow in curiosity, being unable to speak, he had to use non-verbal cues such as this.
"Between you and me, I don't think Bill's gone for good. Carl tells me Excalibur feels the same, ironically it is the only thing we agree on. We would, ideally, like to preserve secrecy, but it should not come at the expense of human, or animal, safety. So, that is why, from this day forward, your assignment will be the protection of the Flynn-Fletcher family, Phineas especially. Clearance level: black fedora. Good luck and enjoy the party" Monogram concluded. Perry was both elated and unsettled. Black fedora clearance meant that, if necessary, an agent may reveal his status to his host freely without risk of re-assignment. Was O.W.C.A. really that paranoid about Bill? Nevertheless, he re-joined the party with the rest of the agents. Carl came back a few minutes later, with news for Major Monogram.
"Sir, Excalibur's requesting our assistance. It seems they've been getting some odd messages they can't make sense of" Carl explained. Major Monogram chuckled at this new development.
"So much for their 'superior technology'. Why us?" inquired Major Monogram.
"Because the messages were sent via Phineas' device. Albert believes they may be coming from another dimension" Carl answered. Major Monogram thought about this. He knew that the Cipher War wasn't the first time Danville was invaded, but only O.W.C.A. knew about the alternate dimension Doofenshmirtz's incursion. After that battle, a lot of memory erasures were carried out and the whole thing was excused as a publicity stunt for a new video game which had been cancelled at the last minute. Still, if those messages did come from the 2nd Dimension, it was worth a look, Monogram thought.
"Alright, tell them we'll come by to lend a hand. Tomorrow. Tonight, we celebrate and put whatever may come on hold" Monogram decided, and Carl left to convey his message. Both the O.W.C.A. office party and Phineas' backyard celebrations carried on as usual.
Back at the Flynn-Fletcher backyard, Mabel broke off from the others to use the portal gun she kept from the Smith household to portal herself to a site she felt she had to go to today. When Dipper saw this, he immediately knew where she was going and decided to follow her. Several of the others got curious as well, so they all came too. At the other end of the portal was a cemetery. Mabel turned around to find her unexpected entourage and knew she couldn't keep it in forever.
"There's something I want you all to see" Mabel said, and led the group to a specific grave. When they got there, the headstone Mabel wanted everyone to see was inscribed:
'In memory of Morty Smith. Son, Brother, Hero, sadly missed'
"Who was he?" Milo asked.
"He's the reason we had a fighting chance against Bill to begin with. Without him, we'd probably still be under Bill's rule" Dipper responded. There was another grave next to Morty's that Dipper also pointed out. It read:
'In memory of Rick Sanchez. Father, Grandfather and Innovator. Loved and missed by all who knew him'
"That was his grand-father. He may have been a bit too cynical, but he fought Bill with the same vigour and determination as all of us did" Dipper explained.
"I've seen his name before, in my father's journal. He was my father's teacher" Phineas added. He approached the grave site and spoke. "Since you inspired my father, I like to think you inspired me too, in some way. In a sense, I owe what I am to you. Thank you, Rick. Rest peacefully".
"What happened?" Isabella inquired.
"It's a long story" Dipper prefaced, then he went on to tell the story about the Pythian Cult, the Citadel, Morty's relationship with Mabel and, most tragically, the suicide mission to locate Bill's statue body. When story-time was over, Milo felt a profound wave of grief for Morty.
"Morty gave his life, to save mine?" Milo wondered.
"Most probably. If the cult was successful, they would've killed you after they were done with you. Say what you will about Excalibur, but at least they let you get on with your lives when all's said and done" Dipper concluded. Milo and the others did not know what to think, but all were in agreement that Rick and Morty were heroes who fought until the end. Milo took this opportunity to approach the grave and say a few words.
"Despite the fact we never met, I owe you everything. We all do. Thank you, Morty Smith, for giving us the fighting chance we needed" Milo said. Mabel portalled herself somewhere else, only to return seconds later with a wreath to put on the grave site. Everyone gave a small salute and returned to Phineas' backyard via the original portal. Mabel stayed behind a few seconds longer to say her own words.
"I'll never forget those moments we spent together, nor those touching stories you wrote. I still read them, even now; my little piece of you I keep close to me. This is your day, more than anyone else's. Goodbye, Morty. Rest in peace" Mabel said mournfully and returned to the festivities.
When night drew, it was time to light the bonfire. Ferb placed the Bill Cipher effigy onto the pile of wood and other assorted materials, while Phineas lit the fire. The whole group had decided ahead of time that Phineas be the one to light the fire. After all, they thought it would help him in his recovery. For Mabel, this meant finally coming to terms with her grief. She used her work with Excalibur to distract herself from Morty's death, but today, she felt like she could finally let him go and move on. After all, Morty would not want her to mourn him for the rest of her life. Linda came out to partake in her sons' festivities, after returning from a similar party held by her bridge group, accompanied by Lawrence.
"Did I miss anything good?" Linda asked.
"No, the real party's just beginning" Candace answered, and all present danced the night away, until it was time for everyone to return home. Mabel portalled everyone back who didn't live nearby, and everyone went to bed, grateful for their victory last year.
The next day, Major Monogram and Carl arrived at the Institute to help Albert with his message problem. They brought along the Other-Dimension-inator they saved from Doofenshmirtz and, combined with the device from Phineas, they were able to get a clearer signal. They homed in on the source of the messages and were able to establish communication.
"Carl, we've got visual, finally" the Major Monogram on the monitor observed.
"Took them long enough" Carl-2 commented.
"Wow, other dimension Carl is a lot mouthier than mine" Monogram-1 said.
"Tell me about it. Who am I calling anyway?" Monogram-2 probed.
"This is Captain Albert Stevens of the Excalibur Institute. What is the nature of your messages?" Albert pressed.
"They were distress calls. Calling you was our Candace's idea, said something about your Phineas and Ferb helping us topple our Doofenshmirtz" Monogram-2 replied.
"Do you need assistance in any way?" Albert asked.
"A few days ago, our Doofenshmirtz got a hold of a strange object with, dare I say it, magical properties and, well see for yourself" Monogram-2 responded. He had sent over video footage of what looked like an invasion that looked all too familiar. Albert had the footage of the other Doofenshmirtz enhanced. He looked to be flying, had a new outfit like a conquerer's robe and was holding what looked like a wand, only this one was not of Mewman origin. Far from it, the wand, upon further examination, was modelled after Bill himself. Albert recognised it as the wand Bill gifted him along with the book, and he knew the wand shared most of the same characteristics as the Book of Avalon did.
"Where did he get that?" Albert pressed, panicked at the sight of the object.
"I don't know where he got it or where it came from. At this point, I don't care, either. Just tell me if your Phineas and Ferb are willing to help" Monogram-2 answered bluntly.
"Phineas and Ferb can't help you because they don't remember you. Besides, I don't want them involved in this" Monogram-1 countered.
"Nor do I. We can handle this ourselves. Kilstone, call Major Smith. Tell him we have a new problem" Albert agreed. Kilstone left to call Major Smith.
In the Flynn-Fletcher household, preparations were underway for the next big idea, when Phineas did something no-one expected. He excused himself part way through building to, as he put it, check on something important. The others were confused by this, but trusted Phineas enough to let him do what he wished. Isabella offered to come along, but Phineas said that he had to do this alone. Isabella, feeling dejected, respected his wishes. Once Phineas arrived at the same bunker that they had used to fight the pistachians, he booted up a computer. The monitor flickered to life, showing a status bar progressing further and further.
"Project Earthguard at 60% completion" the computer announced.
"Almost done" Phineas said to himself.
Author's note: The purpose of this fic is two-fold. One, it is to commemorate Armistice Day by celebrating the end of the Cipher War and honouring the sacrifice of those who gave our heroes the fighting chance they needed. Two, it is to tease other fics that are in the conception stage and I just need to write the meat of the fics. I am releasing both this fic and another at the same time, because Armistice Day also happens to be the birthday of a friend of mine, and the other fic is my present to her. The usual disclaimers, I own nothing. Dan and Swampy own Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law, Alex Hirsch owns Gravity Falls, Daron Nefcy owns SVTFOE and Disney owns them all. Additionally, Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon and Adult Swim own Rick and Morty. Enjoy.