This came out much later than I had intended, it was supposed to be out last week but stuff got in the way, but it's finally out and the second to last chapter should see no such delay. Hope you enjoy this, it is a much slower chapter, but it's sure to surprise you. But not nearly as much as chapter 4 and 5 which are sure to have you on the edge of your seat. So, without further ado, enjoy.

Chapter 3

"That...that's just crazy, that isn't true." Phineas says, his head sinks down. "I would never...he must be lying!" He earnestly mutters to himself. Older Phineas walks off into the house, older Isabella follows with a worry most extreme plastered all over her face.

"To be fair, you from another timeline isn't you." Ferb says, putting his hand on Phineas's shoulder. Phineas jerks his shoulder away.

"Whatever." Phineas storms out of the yard. Ferb looks on, sighing.

Younger Baljeet stares sideways at the ground, his head shaking slightly. His older counterpart approaches him.

"What's troubling you?" Older Baljeet asks.

"What do you think! Apparently I died losing my head! My head!" Younger Baljeet begins hyperventilating.

"That won't happen. The same circumstance happening is mathematically impossible...most likely."

"But...my head!" Younger Baljeet keeps rubbing it.

Younger Candace wipes sweat off her face, she looks down at her stomach, looking away just as fast. "There are worse ways to go..." Older Candace tells her.

"But...Jeremy!" She exclaims.

"Relax, it is probably just a scare tactic to throw us off our game. Keep your head on straight."

"At least I got to keep it. And that monster turned Phineas into something he's not! My brother is many things but he isn't a murderer."

"I've seen circumstances change people, molding them into who they wouldn't be otherwise. But I'm not judging, just focusing on the goal." Older Candace informs.

"Was that supposed to help?" Younger Candace asks with a scoff.

"Well...maybe." Older her shrugs her shoulders.

"Well it didn't." Younger Candace crosses her arms.

"That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I would never choose Phineas over Baljeet." Ginger wipes a single tear from her face.
"I'll never let something like that happen to you. Not in this timeline, or...whatever. I won't let it happen to you." Stacy tries consoling her, placing her hands on Ginger's shoulders, kneeling down to get onto Ginger's level.

"Man, that's cold, Phineas doing something like that, never would have thought…" Buford shakes his head. "What a shame…"

"If you want my opinion…" Older Buford interjects.

"I really don't." Younger Buford snaps.

"But.." He can't even finish before Younger Buford responds firmly.

"Nope." This makes older Buford become vexed–this most heinous display of utter rudeness unspeakable.

"You are a disrespectful little runt you know that?" He snaps.
"Oh really? I don't remember asking for your opinion." Younger Buford retorts. His older self takes one long look at him, almost like he's peering into his very being.

"Ha, guess you didn't." He walks off, leaving younger Buford with a smirk, that quickly fades away as he picks up a piece of the broken picket fence.

Inside the house, Older Phineas splashes water on his face, he hears the bathroom door open.

"What?" He grumbles.

"I want to make sure you're okay honey, you seemed to stomp off in quite a rush." Older Isabella says.
"I should be asking you that..?" He hangs his head over the sink more, not looking at her.

"Well, obviously it is startling news, but I'm more worried about you." She sees a brief smile across his face.

"Oh you're so wonderful." He stops leaning over the sink, walking up, he plants a kiss on her and hugs her, warming her heart so much it may very well rival the sun in temperature. She passionately returns the hug, letting out a bittersweet tear. Thinking if it could be their last hug.

"Promise me you won't lose yourself if I don't make it."
"Don't even say that, you'll be fine." He frantically speaks.
"Just…promise." She pleads, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"I promise." He says. They rock each other in a soothing manner.

"I wonder what our younger counterparts are thinking…" Isabella's voice heavy.

"I think they're in some deep…" He gets cut off.

"Don't say it!" Isabella chuckles.

"Alright alright. But they're going to need some help…" He lets out a sigh, full of the pain that aches his being, that nothing can be done about.

"What is it?" Isabella asks, looking up at him.
"It...it just makes too much sense." He says.

"What does?"
"What he...What Thanos said. The timeline was fixed, but the artifact only affected this universe, makes sense what my dad said, and that's why they're young, and we're..well, old."

"Heh, we're only eighteen, that's not that old."
"Heh, true." Phineas chuckles. He thinks a bittersweet moment, as they share in the silent embrace. "Anyways, I think we should go help them out, you take your younger self and I'll take mine." Phineas speaks up. They let go of each other with smiles adorning their faces.

"Sounds like a plan." Isabella says with enthusiasm, they leave the bathroom.

Isabella sees her younger self in the yard, sitting down by the tree and seemingly staring off into the far reaches of space, despite stars not being in the bright blue sky. Phineas looks around, not seeing his younger self. Phineas walks up to both the ferbs. "Where'd Phineas go?"
"He left the yard in that direction." Older Ferb says.

"I gotta go after him." He says, taking a step forward with energized legs.

"Mind if I come along?" Younger Ferb inquires, his voice as smooth as paper, and as pleasant as flowing honey.
"You're very welcome to." He says.

"You coming?" Younger Ferb asks his older counterpart.

"I'll stay here, it'd be simpler on him anyways."
"Good point. C'mon, lets go." Phineas says. They both swiftly leave the backyard.

"Isabella, hey…"Older Isabella says.

"What?" She doesn't look at her, instead staring straight ahead, off into space.

"I just wanted to check on you…"

"Check on someone else. Leave me be." Younger Isabella snaps.

"You don't actually…" Older Isabella begins to say.

"Get lost, you heard what he said. There's nothing left for me. It was all ruined. He...he...he never loved me..." Younger Isabella wipes tears away.

"Phineas Flynn? The one you've had a crush on, the one who includes you in all your little inventions? One who...well, It didn't sound like that to me…" Older Isabella says.
"Oh really? Like you would know...You got everything you ever wanted."

"It wasn't some yellow brick road I walked to get to where I am. Sounded like he went to the end of the world for you..."

"If he loved me...he would never have done what he did." Younger Isabella tells her older self in a most stubborn defiance.

"And who says Thanos is telling the truth? He's seems to be nothing but a cold blooded manipulator." her argument weakened.
"But...it all makes sense." Older Isabella bites her lip at the sudden deja vu lapse following that very statement.
"Well…" Her heart sinks, having to do what she's about to do; be so direct and blunt. "See it from a different perspective: you all helped us overthrow a dictator, you got your minds erased, Thanos comes along, gives you all your memories back, then, not a moment later he rips it all from Phineas, rips YOU from Phineas. Don't you see how that could affect someone?"

"He betrayed me, doing those things. If he loved me truly, he wouldn't have had a child with Ginger of all people, then just kill them?" Younger Isabella snaps a look at her older self, dried tears all over her face.

"Well...do you see that Phineas anywhere?" Older Isabella retorts.

"Huh?" Younger Isabella stammers, trying to hold back a fresh tear, the thoughts and accumulated visions and interpretations buzz in her mind like a rabid swarm of bees.
"I mean, he reverted everything back, that Phineas is gone. Seems to me he gave his younger self a chance at life, so he would never have to experience what he did, never be tainted by the things he had to do." Older Isabella says.

"He shouldn't have sunk that low." Younger Isabella mumbles.

"It isn't your Phineas though, this Phineas, yours right now, he will never be that Phineas." Older Isabella ensures.
"But he would have been…"
"But HE ISN'T. Love isn't a one way street, not everything is sunshine and rainbows and magical unicorns coming to take you away to a perfect gassy field, it's real, the sooner you wake up the better!" Older Isabella thrusts her arms out in frustration, baring her teeth as she does so.

"Screw you!" Isabella storms off and out of the backyard. Older Isabella groans, she strikes the tree with pent up fury. Her head comes to rest against its bark. Shortly after she slides down the tree, in much the same position as her younger counterpart.

"No luck huh?" Older Candace comes up to her.

"It's a fickle thing, love." Older Ferb chimes in.

"What is even going on anymore?" Isabella holds back tears with all her conscious might.

"We have to stop Thanos and keep everyone together." Older Candace says.

"I...I...know…" Older Isabella sighs.
"It will be alright." Older Ferb kneels down, reaching his hand out. She grabs it and drags herself up.

Meanwhile Older Phineas and the younger Ferb comb the streets for any sign of younger Phineas.

"Any idea where he could have gone?" Older Phineas turns to younger Ferb.

"None, if he doesn't want to be found, I doubt we will." he says.

"Well we have to find him." Older Phineas says, gazing ahead.

"Agreed, though he definitely won't like us trying to reach him. At least initially."

"I know that very well; believe me, but we must."

"Suppose you would." Ferb says. Older Phineas hangs onto those very words, from it he gets a fountain of inspiration.
"That gives me an idea! Ferb, we got to make a quantum entanglement device! We're two of the same person, on the same earth, theoretically we must have some connection that we can't automatically access, and if my intuition is correct, I can see what he sees, and get a location!"

"So, you'd say you know what we're going to do today?" Ferb smirks, looking up at him.
"Why yes, yes I would!" Ferb smiles far and wide at this remark.

Wasting no time, they find the materials they need, and with some borrowed tools they create a headband with interwoven electrical circuits with quantum circuitry funneling that electricity. Its appearance is much simpler than its layout and purpose would imply.

"Well, let's put it to the test." Older Phineas flips it in his hands, he puts it on his head. As soon as he does so, his eyes snap shut, as if pulled down by some unseen force.

He 'sees' something he wasn't looking for, almost as if his signal was intercepted. He sees a clearish blue square shaped object, hovering in a fully transparent cylinder, he hears heavy clanking, like footsteps on grated flooring, and muffled breathing all around. Almost buzzing like bees. The cube begins to light up. Suddenly he sees a sign for a café, hearing echoing footsteps, the image then tilts down, revealing blue shorts. Suddenly older Phineas's vision returns, seeing Ferb standing in front of him. "I know where he is, come on." They start heading immediately for his location.

Meanwhile Younger Isabella fumbles with a familiar door handle, she forces it to open. Her shoulders slumped and her posture sunken down and pushed forward. She plops on her bed, staring at the oh so tranquil flat surface and color scheme. She starts to doze off into her head, snapped out of it when the door opens. She quickly turns her head to the side, almost a piercing pain manifests in her side when she sees Ginger standing in the doorway, looking so apologetic and sorrowful...pfft.

"What do you want?" Isabella grits her teeth.

"You headed off in quite a hurry, wanted to see if you were alright."

"So I appeared distressed to you? You've come to my 'rescue'? How noble of you Ginger."

"What's that supposed to mean?" A thought hits Ginger harder than a wasp sting. "You can't possibly think…"

"What?"

"That Thanos was telling the truth. It was clearly a lie."

"My whole life is over now." Isabella wipes a tear from her face.

"Don't talk like that, what he said doesn't matter. It never happened. The other Candace said it was probably meant to throw us off our game. Make it easier for him. But he won't win!"

Isabella sits up, dangling her legs off the end of the bed, looking Ginger in the eyes with eyes reminiscent of puppy dog eyes, they turn away, coming back at Ginger with the look a viper. Ginger's heart beating a bit faster.

"Sounded to me like he already did…" Isabella snarks. Ginger walks up to her, a moment of silence thrusts itself into the room as they lock eyes, Ginger holding back tears, started purely from the look Isabella is giving her. Suddenly a stark sound ruptures in Isabella's ear drums and her hand instinctively covers her cheek as redness from a most vicious slap forms.

"You're Isabella Garcia-Shapiro! Not a coward! Now man up and let's get back to the others because Phineas needs us...needs you!" Isabella lets out a huff, she leaps off the bed and shoves Ginger to the ground,

"Obviously not when he has you!" Ginger gets up, her heart pounding in a frantic attempt to escape her chest. Isabella shoves her back down, she lands harder than before.

"What are you doing?" Ginger cries out.

"If it's not me it will just be someone else, I thought we were meant to be together! But that was just a lie. Just a lie! Just...a...lie…!"

"It wasn't...isn't…" Ginger shakes her head, hesitant to push herself up. Isabella drops to the floor, her back resting against the side of the bed.

"I...I wish I believed you…" Isabella shakes her head, looking off to the side.

"You'll come around Isabella, trust me. Sometimes...it just takes a little while." Ginger looks to her fingers spread out on the floor, her palms pressing against the ground, she shifts her feet to put her in the standing position, looking at Isabella. She lets out a pressured smile, reaching her hand out. "Come on, let's get back." Isabella sighs at this. Her hand reluctantly flapping to Ginger's, gripping it, she is drug up by Ginger. They leave the house.

"We good?" Ginger asks.

"I suppose." Isabella replies. They step out of her room, and begin walking back to Phineas's house.

Meanwhile the older Phineas and younger Ferb find the younger Phineas walking along the street. "Hey Phineas, wait up!" Older Phineas shouts his feet fast towards younger Phineas, catching up before the processing could be complete. Younger Phineas looks at him with fiendish eyes. "How'd you guys find me?" He snaps.
"With this…" Older Phineas puts his hand out, showing the headband.

"So you two make quite the pair huh? Don't see then why you need me."

"We need you because we can't do this without you, we need you because you don't deserve to be by yourself. You have done nothing wrong, who cares what Thanos said. What matters is who you are right now." Older Phineas exhausts himself.

"I know that...I couldn't have done those things But still..." He retorts.
"I get you might want some time to process, but we need you now, more than ever. Come back with us?" Ferb smiles and puts his hand on Phineas's shoulder, Phineas doesn't jerk his shoulder away, lets out only a sigh. "I suppose." He lets out with utmost reluctance.

A short while after they find themselves back in the yard. Everyone stares at them with a variety of looks. From the sad, and sympathetic, to the straight up furious. Younger Phineas stands there, being drained of all life, that life being sucked out by the environment, the people, and his own darned self. Older Phineas notices this, and being keenly aware of everyone else, makes a decision.

"Alright, look, I hate to put everyone on the spot right here, but stopping Thanos is priority number one, so, you are going to either be with us, or not. We all have our opinions on what Thanos said, but we can't afford all this bouncing around, we need to stand together. So, whoever's with us, line up here." Older Phineas commands. He walks in front of the sliding glass doors, his back to it, facing forward at everyone else. Younger Phineas walks up next to him with Ferb in tow. Without hesitation, all the older ones walk up next to them. The younger versions stare, on, hesitation, not so much as sprinkled, as plastered all over their faces.

The younger Candace walks over, "Come on guys, what's the point." She gestures the rest to follow her. She stands in line, looking back to see everyone just standing there. "Come on, what...what are you guys doing?" A streak of visible sweat trickles down both sides of her face. "Can't force them if they don't want to." Her older counterpart says, her bo staff snug against the grass.

The younger Buford and Baljeet look around, Baljeet hesitant to move.

"Eh, dinner bell's been mostly good to me...come on dweeb." Buford picks Baljeet up, and carries him to the line. The attention turns to the last three, Stacy, Ginger and Isabella. Ginger looks at Baljeet, almost donning a smile, but simply doesn't. Though she can't help but think of doing so every single time she looks at him. To that end she gently elbows Isabella to get her attention, gesturing her to move forward and integrate in the line.

Isabella doesn't move, Ginger huffs, "Fine, be that way, guess our whole talk was for nothing."

"Yeah yeah." Isabella grumbles. Ginger turns to look at Stacy with puppy dog eyes.

"What?" Stacy snaps. Ginger doesn't relent in her stare, Stacy bites her lip. "Oh fine." Stacy walks up next to Ginger. As Stacy turns to line up, everyone begins to stare at Isabella. She shyly glances up, darting her eyes amongst everyone in the line except her Phineas. His older self looks at the older Isabella, a shared unnerving feeling courses through their veins, near paralyzing them. Older Isabella puts her head down, out of peculiar shame.

Younger Isabella's eyes turn back to that of a viper's as she looks up to scan most everyone. "What are you all staring at? You sit in judgment of me? It's him you should sit in judgement of!" She thrusts her finger towards the younger Phineas, not looking his way.

"Every day of my life has been a lie! But I see the truth now! The truth none of you want to face because you're all cowards! Well I'm no coward!" Ginger takes a gulp in, which stings almost as much as her entire nervous system does from that statement.

"None of this will amount to anything! You all think it will, but no...I know the truth...all these useless inventions made in this very back yard, all this 'fun', with family and friends...just a bunch of lies! I'M OUT!" She storms out of the backyard, sending the gate crashing against the fence as she slams it with the fury of years of passion having gone up in flames.

They all stare in that direction, that one gate, younger Phineas shakes his head, every muscle in his face straining in utter confusion. His brother puts his hand on him, patting it slowly, gently. The only thing he can do is slump his shoulders and sink his head as low as possible.

Meanwhile, a distance away, an elevator dings, the doors open, a lab coat wearing, Heinz Doofenshmirtz steps out, He looks to his left, noticing a blasted out section of the building wall, and glancing slightly downwards, enters his vision is Perry; stuck on a piece of metal, not moving, just like a pig over a fire.

"What happened?!" He exclaims, grabbing hold of Perry, taking his hands off, the metal beam holding Perry tight. He backs up, he then looks up, thinking of just the thing that could help. "Hold on there, I'll save you." He rushes back into the elevator smashing the buttons as he looks up, and paces. Meanwhile a slight twitch springs up in one of Perry's fingers, his hand then twitches right into a fist, which is consciously clenched with all his might.