Weight of Memories
Summary: When Candace was 16 she ran away from home. 10 years later Phineas has given up all hope of ever finding her until his 6 year old niece appears on his doorstep. Now he must go a journey of a life time to reunite his family and follow the path of fate.
Disclaimer: "Phineas and Ferb" belongs to Dan and Swampy along with all it's characters. Some of the inspirations belong to "The Longest Journey," which is owned by Funcom. Everything else is owned by me unless I say otherwise.
Rating: Mature for language, implied sex, and maybe slightly graphic violence later on.
Thanks to azomhg for reviewing!
8*8*8
Perry had been sitting on the bed when he had heard the doorbell buzz. He didn't really care who was at the door. After all, he had a long day fighting Doofenshmirtz and besides, it was never anyone really important. Most likely it was just one of the boy's friends.
"Are you Phineas or Ferb?" a voice he didn't recognize demanded suddenly. Curious, he looked up at the doorway. There his eyes widen.
'Candace?'
No, she was way too young to be Candy, but the little girl looked so much like her. It was both frightening and heart breaking. He watched Phineas gapped for a moment like a fish, stunned just like him and Ferb. The girl raised an eye brow as she impatiently tapped her foot, hands on her hips.
"Well?"
"Um, I'm Phineas…" his owner managed to finally say. Perry watched as the girl's face brightened and a wide smile crossed her face.
"Awesome!" she said. She reached out, grabbed his hand, and shook it. "Pleased ta meet cha! I'm Amanda and I'm your niece!"
Perry's eyes widen as Phineas froze. He noticed Ferb slip out of his chair slightly as he accidently knocked his computer down with his elbow.
"N-niece…?" Phineas finally stuttered.
'Niece?' Perry repeated in his mind. 'How?' It took all his will power not to drop his mindless pet mode.
He watched Phineas' brain overload from the information before he fell back in a dead faint. The little girl blinked at him.
"Hmph! I didn't think I'd have that kind of effect on boys until I was sixteen!" she smirked.
*8*
When Phineas opened his eyes, he was standing on the surface of pure, bright ocean water. The above was dark, but there were so many stars and the moon was so bright he didn't really even notice. Everything was so peaceful and so beautiful. Phineas had never felt so relaxed before.
'This place… it feels nice.' He thought.
"Most dreams do."
Phineas looked up and blinked when he saw a woman with long, dark brown hair and almond shaped eyes. She sat on a lone rock and held her legs close she watched the sea longingly. She looked so sad that Phineas almost cried when he saw her.
"Who are you?" Phineas asked. The woman shrugged.
"I don't even know anymore." she replied in soft voice. The lady then turned her attention to Phineas. "Just like you." Phineas frowned slightly in confusion.
"What do you mean? I know who I am." He said.
"Do you now?" she asked. "Then who are you?"
"I'm Phineas." Phineas said simply. The woman tilted her head slightly.
"Are you?"
Suddenly the whole area began to shake and all the lights in the sky began to vanish. The water beneath him turned, red as blood.
"He awaits you." The woman whispered. Phineas gasped as he saw the shadowy figure of a dragon rise from the sea with a mighty roar. He didn't have any time to react though as the bloody water below him, consumed him.
*8*
Phineas let out a startled gasp as he finally woke up. Then moaned when was suddenly hit with a large headache.
"Ugh… my head!" he groaned. Ferb offered him a glass of water, which he gratefully took. "Thanks, bro!" He took a sip and let out a laugh.
"You know, I just had the strangest dream," he said. "But before that I dreamed that Candace had a daughter and that she came here! Crazy, huh?"
"Hiya!" Amanda waved from Ferb's bed as she held Perry on her lap. Phineas almost did a spit take, but stopped himself, almost choking in the process. Instead, he started to stare at the girl with owlish eyes. After a few minutes, Amanda scowled.
"Okay, this is getting weird." She said. "Say something!"
"I! I… But! I…" Phineas tried to talk, but every time he said something, his tongue would get in the way. Taking pity on his dear brother, Ferb placed a hand on his shoulders.
"Amanda and I spoke while you were asleep," he said. "Apparently, Amanda is Candace's illegitimate child and was put up for a closed adoption right after she was born. Unfortunately, Amanda couldn't get along with any of those families; so she ran away to look for her mother. But she had as much luck as we did, so she found us."
Phineas didn't know what to be more shocked at. The fact that his brother actually spoke, or that there was girl who claimed to be his niece was sitting right across from him. He opted for the latter.
"Okay, okay!" he said, taking a deep breath as he tried to straighten his thoughts. "First thing's first; Are you sure, we're your uncles?"
"Yup!" Amanda reached into her bag and pulled out a data file.
Because of the disaster ten years ago, there was absolutely paper was rarity in the world and as a result, everything had been moved to computers.
"I got a hold of my birth information and then did some research on . I couldn't find her, so I looked up the name 'Flynn' and found you guys!" Phineas looked at the data pad with the birth certificate, but was in such a spiral of confusion that he couldn't read it, so he handed it to Ferb.
"Wait! Assuming you didn't forge this, how did you get a hold of this?" he asked the child.
"'Get a hold of it?' You know, this is my birth certificate so rightfully, I should have had from the beginning!" Amanda huffed, avoiding the question.
"That doesn't tell me how you got it."
"And neither will I!" Phineas sighed and guessed that she must have hacked a hospitable main frame and stole it. She actually seemed smart enough to do something like that.
"How did you even get here?" he continued. As they spoke, Ferb stood suddenly and walked over to his computer with Amanda's birth certificate.
"Let's just say I got my hands on a lot of cash." She replied. In her arms, Perry mentally groaned. He prayed and hoped to every heavenly being that he was wrong, but the more he heard, the more the feeling of dread grew in his chest.
Even though he knew he wasn't getting anywhere, Phineas decided to continue with his questions.
"Does anyone know you're here?"
"Yes!"
"Who?"
"Me, you, and unca Ferb!" Phineas buried his head in his hand as it began to throb.
Just this morning, Phineas and Ferb didn't even know whether or not Candace was even alive! Now they find out she had a kid?
She had a kid.
Candace had become pregnant with a little girl and never contacted them about it? Did she really decide to cut them out of her life completely?
The more he thought about it, the more hurt Phineas felt. What else did she never decide to contact them about?
'Wait…' Phineas looked up as a thought suddenly came to his mind.
"If Candace is your mother… Then… Then who is your father?" he asked. Amanda opened her mouth to answer, but Ferb replied for her.
"According to her birth certificate, it's Drew Doofenshmirtz." He said.
"What he said!" Amanda piped in.
'NOOO! Oh, god no!' Perry cried in his mind. He wanted so much to grab his head and bang it against the wall in hopes of finding some sense of logic in what Ferb just said. 'How could this happen? How could she sleep with him? They hated each other! They used to try and kill each other on a daily bases!'
With an amount of will power that only a priest in a hooters bar could muster, he kept his disguise up.
"Drew Doofenshmirtz?" Phineas muttered as his eye brows wrinkled in thought. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
"He's Vanessa's cousin." Ferb muttered. "We met him before the disaster, remember? He and Candace worked together at the part time job she had gotten."
"Oh yeah!" Phineas said as he remembered. Then he became confused. "Wait. Didn't they… Well, hate each other? How could they have a kid?" Ferb shrugged.
"Must have gotten past their differences." He said. 'Or got drunk one night.' He silently added. He turned back to the computer and pulled up a picture of Drew Doofenshmirtz. If someone had said that Drew was Roger Doofenshmirtz's son, they wouldn't have believed it for he looked nothing like the man, well except for the fake smile he wore. His face was round while his eyes were almost black. His short auburn hair was messy, but all in all he wasn't bad looking.
This brought up another question for Phineas.
"Hey, if you couldn't find your mom, why didn't you find your dad?" he asked Amanda.
"Because he's scary!" Amanda pouted. Ferb had to agree. The years must have been really tough on Drew, for instead of having the cheerful cockiness look he used to have, his face was solemn and his eyes were narrowed like a hawk's. He would look scary to any five year old.
"I see," the gears in Phineas' head began to turn. "Wait! If he really is Amanda's father, he must have had contact with her!"
"Obviously," Ferb muttered. Though he was sure the contact he meant was different than the one Phineas meant. "The keyword would be had. Judging from their past together, he might have left her when he found out she was pregnant."
"So? He's still the last person to have contact her! So he might know where she is now!" Phineas said excitedly. "Quick where is he now?" Phineas didn't even wait for an answer. Instead, he shoved Ferb out of the way and grabbed his computer. Ferb stumbled back then shot his brother an irritated glare. Phineas didn't notice this however, and began to type like the wind. Amanda sat there as he did, clicking her heels together as she waited.
"So," she said to her new found uncle. "Is Ferb short for something?"
"Actually, yes. It's short for-"
"Dammit!" Phineas cursed to himself as he slammed his head on the keyboard. As it turned out, despite how popular Drew seemed to be, he just as impossible to find as his sister was. Amanda gave him a flat look.
"No luck, huh?" It was a statement, not a question.
'I'd be more surprised if he did find him.' Perry thought. He untangled himself from Amanda and snuck away before anyone could notice.
Phineas bit his lip as his shoulders slumped in disappointment. He thought he had finally had a lead. After ten years he thought he finally a way to find his sister. And now it was gone! Why was fate doing this to him? Why wave a carrot in front of his face only to snatch it away the very next moment? Wasn't fate supposed to be kind?
Amanda thought for a moment.
"Didn't daddy have any relatives?" she asked. Another idea came to Phineas and his face brightened.
"That's it! Ferb! Do you still have Vanessa's number?" Ferb scowled slightly at his brother. Did he just ask him if he still had his ex-girlfriend's phone number five years after they broke up?
"Oh, right… Sorry!" Phineas said, sheepishly. "Well, at least we know where she's in New York! That's at least a start! We can look her up in the phone book and ask her if she can tell us where Drew is."
"If she's in the phone book, couldn't we just call her?" Amanda asked.
"Oh yeah! That's probably better!" Then Phineas began to dig around for his phone. "Where's my cell? I know I dropped it here somewhere…"
"Is this it?"
"Yes! Thanks Amanda!"
Neither of the two noticed the sad look that crossed Ferb's face as they spoke.
*8*
When Perry was in his lair he called up a very irritated Major Monogram on the screen.
"Agent P," he said annoyed. "This had better be important! It's almost dinner time! And the wife is making Chinese!" Perry began to make a bunch of wild motions with his arms trying to explain the situation to them. Carl and Monogram could only blink at him.
"Uhh… You get any of that?"
"Not a word, sir."
Perry smacked his head and grabbed a picture of him with Candace. He pointed at her.
"Hm? Oh, Agent P! I told you! The whole agency is keeping an eye out for her, but it's been ten years! And with the disaster and all, it's been very difficult! I'm sorry, but you need to accept the facts and-" Perry growled as he sat the picture down and grabbed another. This one was of Doofenshmirtz with his nephew. He pointed vigorously at Drew. Monogram and Carl shared a look.
"Uh, what does the mayor's son have to do with anything?" Perry pointed at Drew then Candace. Monogram blinked before his face brightened.
"Wait, I get it!" he said. "You're trying to tell us something!" The platypus smacked his face again before pulling out a communicator. He then texted the news to Carl since Monogram was useless with technology. When got it, Carl read it.
"What? Candace and Drew had a kid?" he gasped.
"What? How?"
"Well, sir when two people reach a certain age they-"
"Not that!" Monogram interrupted. "I mean, they hated each other! There's no way they would even do anything like… Well, anything that didn't involve throttling each other."
"Actually, I've found that hatred actually makes for really hot-"
"CARL!"
"Sorry, sir!" Carl apologized. "It's possible that their hatred might have been dulled when we erased their memories."
"Hm, that could be it." Perry growled and then did a focus motion.
"Right! Right!" The major cleared his throat. "Anyway, you think that Drew knows where your owner is?" Perry nodded and Monogram sighed. "Okay, because you're one or our best agents, and we're afraid you might go rogue, we'll try to find Drew for you and you can question him. Don't expect too much though, the Agency is still recovering from the disaster."
Perry nodded his thanks before cutting communications. When he was alone he grabbed the picture of him and Candace. His face became mournful as he traced Candy's face.
'I never should have let her go.' He thought as he hugged it.
*8*
Will anyone find Drew? Will he know where Candace is? And just who is Drew? And what's his relation to Candace and the OWCA? Want answers? Review!
And to Candermy Fans, calm down. Just because Candance had a kid with someone else, doesn't mean she won't end up with Jeremy, okay? In fact the only thing that I've really decided that when considering pairings, Candace will notend up romantically with Drew. I want that one thing clear. Hell, if I make anything clear it's that Drew and Candace do not have a romantic relationship! So put your claws away.
Profile:
Ferb Fletcher
Age: 21
DOB: December 12
Occupation: Film student
Skills: can build and hack into anything (Course he doesn't do the latter too often.)
Other: After he broke up with Vanessa when he was sixteen, Ferb suddenly found himself falling for Isabella even though he knew she still liked Phineas. He is very determined to fulfill his childhood dream and become a director. Though he misses the adventures he used to have with Phineas, Ferb doesn't pressure his brother and uses sculpting as a creative outlet.