"Phineas, where are you going?!" screamed Isabella over the thundering of guns all firing at once. He glanced back once, then turned and resolutely continued through the battlefield. People were getting shot all around him, and it was a miracle that Phineas was still standing, let alone walking. Finally, Isabella saw his destination. A crippled young man, barely of age, lay alone bleeding on the ground. Of course Phineas would go to help him. Isabella growled and took off after him. He'd need someone who could actually use a gun to get him out of this one.

Since she was running, she never actually saw what happened. She definitely felt it, though. A sharp, stabbing pain hit Isabella; she grasped at her stomach in shock. Totally expecting to feel the warm wetness of her own blood abandoning her, it was a shock when her hands came away completely dry. That was when she heard him.

"Isabella!" Phineas cried. She looked up and it was as if her worst nightmare had been made into a reality. The only person she was fighting for lay crumpled and bleeding on the ground a few feet away from her. One look at the wound and she knew it was fatal.

"Phineas," she breathed, tears gathering in her eyes. She ran the rest of the way to him and gently gathered him into her arms, babbling and crying as she did so. "Phin, it's going to be okay. You're fine, really. Please, please! Tell me it's going to be okay, Phineas! Phin, I need you. You can't leave me alone. Please. I can't let you leave me!"

Once she'd picked him up, she immediately jogged away from the battle, ignoring whether or not she could get shot in favour of making the ride as smooth as possible for Phineas. Luckily, they were already on the edge of the fighting, so it didn't take too long for Isabella to get them away.

Isabella set Phineas down as gently as she could once they were out of the battle and in the shelter of a nearby forest grove.. "Hey Phineas, hey, don't look back, it's gonna be okay now I swear. Just lie still and it'll all be alright, okay darling?" She couldn't quite hold back the tears spilling from her eyes that betrayed her lies.

Phineas weakly reached up to grasp her hand. "No, Izzy, I know. I can feel my wound. I'm not going to make it."

"No!" she yelled. "I'll never let you go, Phin, I forbid you from leaving. Please." Isabella took a wavering breath and pursed her lips, determined not to let Phineas see her cry anymore. "I need you. Just hold on to me, okay? If you do that, it'll all be fine. Right?"

"Isabella. I love you." Phineas's words had an air of finality that terrified Isabella.

"Don't say things like that, Phineas!" she burst out, the words breaking her emotional barrier and suddenly she was sobbing. "You can't do this, please! I can't live, let alone fight without you!"

"Hush, Izzy, it'll be okay," Phineas whispered. A pause in the faroff noises of guns and warfare settled a deep silence over the couple. Light streaming through the treetops dappled over Phineas's face and glossed over his wound. For a moment Isabella could almost convince herself that this was just like any other adventure that they had completed when they were younger, and all this was only her and Phineas sneaking off to finally get some alone time. Then the sound of fighting, like a steady drumbeat, began once more in the background and she couldn't pretend anymore.

"Phineas," she whispered, tears streaming down her face. "Please." Then suddenly she was shouting and pounding the ground in anger at her utter helplessness. "I should be the one lying there right now, not you! I'm the soldier, you're the medic! This is NOT how things were supposed to be! If I was on the ground, you would know something that would help but all I can do is sit here and cry!" Her energy left her in a rush of depression and she slumped over Phineas's prone form. "Oh, Phineas."

He smiled weakly at her, but all Isabella could think was how it was such a pale echo of Phineas's normal shining, vibrant grin. She looked down at herself in order not to have see him like that anymore, only to be greeted with his blood all over her uniform from when she'd carried him over here. She sucked in a sharp breath and it was all she could do not to cry again.

"J-just don't think about it, Phineas. You'll be alright," she said weakly, without any sort of driving force behind her words. "Please, just be true," she wished, tears beginning to form again. Hot and damp, they fell, leaving streaks through the mud and grime on her face. "Please."

As soft as a blade of grass brushing against your face, Phineas stroked Isabella's face one last time before grimacing in pain and letting his hand fall back to the ground. "Don't ever give up, Izzy, okay?"

"Why do you keep acting like you're going to leave, Phineas, you can't! You have to stop!"

"No, Isabella, you need to let go," Phineas rasped. "You have to stop saying leave, and accept it. I'm d-"

"Don't say it!" she cried, as if saying it would make it real and maybe if she pretended it all wasn't happening she would wake up and no one would have started a war and Phineas wouldn't have decided to be a hero and kind and amazing like he always did-does!-and volunteered as a medic and she wouldn't have followed him because let's face she will always be there with him. But denial couldn't change reality, and Phineas was here, lying on the mossy forest floor with one hand growing steadily weaker barely holding hers.

"Isabella, this is what's happening. This is goodbye."

"No," she whispered, unable to do anything and hating herself for it.

"I still love you."

"I love you too," Isabella said, her face contorted with grief. She picked him up, pausing every time he winced, and kissed him once lightly. His last kiss. Their last kiss. Phineas died, smiling up at her like it was any other time they'd told each other that they loved each other.

The battle had moved closer to Isabella in her distraction, and fire burned brightly altogether too close. Slowly, sadly, she set Phineas down. Isabella removed her coat and set it on Phineas, covering him carefully with it and being sure to totally obscure his wound. He could almost be sleeping now, calmly slumbering on the forest floor.

"You're safe and sound, now, Phin. They can't hurt you anymore." Isabella got up robotically, not knowing what else to do. What else could she do, without him? She looked down at him once, and he looked so much like a child, like the innocent ten year old boy she had first loved, that the tears came all at once and she fell back down onto her knees. This was not how it was supposed to be for them.

FIN