A/N: Well, that was a while... Anyway, I'm trying to make my chapters substantially longer; this one came to about 1500 words, and I want something like 3000 by the time I'm done with this story. Wish me luck with that, and keep reading and reviewing!
He let go.
What else could he do? It was for Candace's own protection, as well as Isabella's, and his parents', as well as everyone else's. As he fell, the wind swept around his hair and clothes, and time seemed to slow down. Gravity, his friend and his foe, the force that brought the death of many, many people, now sought him as prey.
What would his last thought be? Certainly not the ever so pessimistic, "Goodbye, cruel world"?
Something spontaneous and in-character. That'd work well.
Then he looked down at the spire, and his heart skipped a beat. The long death-trap was not aligned...
Judging from the angle (and Phineas knew angles), the edge of his jeans would catch on the pillar, leaving the rest of him- oof!
His head banged against the silver, leaving him bloody and knocked out, with very little chance of help.
When Candace finally dared to look, she saw the very epitome gore. Phineas' leg was bent in a gruesome angle, and he was coated in blood. That probably means 'dead' by typical standards, but this is Candace we're talking about. Her first thought was, 'Let's see, if I can tie my scarf to my earbuds, that'll give me ten feet out of the thirty I need...' This was the Candace who spent the last seventeen years of her life with the oddest kid on the planet, and it was quite obviously rubbing off on her. She would find a way.
Then she saw what could possibly be the most convenient thing in the world: a rope attached to a wall labeled, "In Event of Emergency".
She ran to the rope and quickly made her way back to the Phineas' gory visage. She tied the best knot she possibly could to the edge of the building, weighed down by some odd looking ray gun, and slowly made her way down to her brother. When she got down to him, she carefully tied the remaining length of rope around Phineas' blood-stained waist.
Now came the hard part: climbing up and pulling Phineas to safety. The climbing part was simple enough; she had done this plenty of times at her gym class in high school. Her hands bled as she strained up the rough, clawing rope, but it was certainly a doable task. The more difficult part was lifting a werewolf without killing herself. She'd worry about Phineas too, but he already seemed gone. She yanked upward, but the heavily accented voice of the man who lived there interrupted her.
"Hey! Who kicked down my door again?! Perry the Platypus, are you there? Or- wait, why is the door to the balcony open? And who are you?!"
Candace gave a petrified expression and asked, "Will you help me pull him up?"
Dr. D raised an eyebrow, "What are you doing on the balcony? And why do you look like somebody just shot your puppy?"
Candace almost laughed at that comment. "Questions later. Just help me pull for now!"
So, shrugging in defeat, Doof grabbed on to the rope and pulled with Candace until Phineas appeared in the balcony again.
"What happened?!" Doofenshmirtz asked.
Candace ignored him. Her brother couldn't possibly be alive.
He'd lost so much blood that he had Ferb's complexion, and all his limbs looked bent and broken.
This was the fate of the smartest, kindest genius ever to walk the planet? Fate must be pretty darn cruel.
Candace bit her lip. He looked so broken, so depressing, so...
"Busted," Candace mouthed. After all these years, Candace's wish had come true. Phineas was certainly busted. Busted, bloody, broken, dead. This was not at all what Candace had meant. She wanted revenge for getting away with his crazy contraptions, not suicide, not blood, not death.
Tears streamed down her face, and her breath came in struggled gasps. The man in the lab coat left the balcony, muttering under his breath.
Candace gritted her teeth. "Phineas, you idiot! Why do you need to be so oblivious?! Always in the best interest of everyone else, huh?! If only you could see me now! If only you could've lived to see me!"
Her eyes burned from crying, and her voice sounded shaky, "Please, come back. Don't die; I won't be able to live with myself... You'll drive me crazy, I'll- I'll die, you hear me? I will die without you! Now please, come back..."
She wiped her eyes with her hands, and heard naught but a muffled cough. Expecting the impossible, she stared at her brother.
There came a twitch, and then he opened an eye. In a dry, cracked voice, he said, "Candace?"
For a moment, she stood there with her mouth in a large 'O' shape. Then the ends of her mouth pulled upward into a smile.
"Phineas!" She rushed toward him and hugged him; blood, gore, and all.
"Candace... ribs... broken...can't... breathe..."
"Oh! Sorry, I just... You were dead..." Her eyes widened.
Phineas attempted to sit up, failing miserably. "Uh, think you could get me to a hospital?"
Candace gave a quick nod, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed 911.
After about fifteen minutes, Phineas was on his way to the ER, with Candace following in her car.
"If he isn't out of there by the time Mom and Dad get back, I am so busted," she muttered. "Not Phineas. He never gets busted. It's always me..."
"At least he's alive... That's an improvement."
It took three days.
Six broken bones, seventy percent of his blood was lost, and it still only took three days.
He even managed to walk out of the hospital by himself. He used crutches, but it was still miraculous.
"You know, all because you're a werewolf, doesn't mean you have to show off," Candace said. "Can't you use a wheelchair like a normal person?"
"Yeah, but where would be the fun in that?" Phineas shot her his typical mischievous grin.
Candace sighed. Seeing as they were already at her car, she unlocked it and opened the door on the passenger side.
"What, I don't get to drive?" Phineas, noticing Candace's threatening glare, then added, "Just kidding," before getting into the car.
Candace sat at the driver's seat and turned on the car. Driving back home, she asked, "So, what happened to Ferb?"
"Dunno. I haven't heard from him since he called me three days ago; ya know, before I went ballistic."
"Huh... So, you're not gonna try to kill yourself again, are you?"
Phineas gulped, "That depends on Isabella's reaction to her breakup..."
"Breakup? You broke up with Isabella?"
"You could say that... I'm not sure if she'll want me back."
Then Candace giggled, "What? Dude, if you knew just how long she liked you, you wouldn't even be wondering... Of course she'll want you back!"
Phineas' eyes widened, "You sure?"
"Absolutely certain."
A/N: And there you have it, folks, Phineas is alive. See, I don't think I could handle a story in which one of the two main characters died. I can handle a supporting character (Vanessa), but not Phineas. So he lives! Yay! Bye!