Chapter 13: Who to trust

Ava ran out of the portal she had created to Phineas and Ferb's backyard. She ran into the house, pulling off her hood, startling everyone at the table.

"Ava, what are you doing here?" Candace asked.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think there's something going on with Emily." Ava replied. "I was thinking that she might only listen to her close friends, so..."

Phineas nodded. "Come on, Ferb, let's go. Ava, you get Isabella. Do you know where Emily is right now?"

"At her house." Ava said. She walked towards the front door. "I'll meet you guys there. Hurry!"

The boys left the table and went to the garage to grab their bicycles when Candace stopped them.

"Are you two going to be alright?" She asked. "A lot of weird stuff has been going on lately, and I really don't want to see you get hurt."

"We'll be fine, Candace." Phineas said. "I'm just worried about Emily. She's our friend after all. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her, especially with everything going with her right now."

Candace nodded after a while. "Alright. Good luck. Please come back safe, okay?"

Phineas and Ferb nodded back solemnly after a while, then got onto their bikes and rode down the street as fast as possible.

They just hoped that they could help Emily out as fast as they could.

When the boys arrived at Emily's house, they were astounded by what they saw. Cedric Kinney was fighting with the best of his abilities a shadowy silhouette of Emily, trails of darkness flowing every time she moved.

"What happened to her?" Isabella asked as she came up to the boys on her own bike, Ava standing on the back.

"She's been mostly corrupted by darkness." Ava explained as she got off and summoned her card deck. "This forme is called her Anti Forme, but it's surprisingly rare for anyone to get it. Either way, though, she's completely encased in darkness."

"Alright then, looks like I'm going to have to learn to use my light magic then!" Isabella said, and threw down a series of electrified shockwaves towards her friend. Emily looked towards her, and leapt towards Isabella, who blocked the incoming attack with an electric shield.

Ava rushed over to Cedric and helped up back onto his feet. "You're going to have to get out of here. We can handle it from here, just go!" Ava looked through her deck of cards, pulled one out, and tossed it to Isabella. "Isabella, use this card on yourself."

Isabella caught the card, and as she held it, was encased in a bright light. When the light died down, she was holding a glowing lance, and wearing a short white dress with a lightning bolt shaped brooch on the top of the neckline.

Emily summoned her own sword, a short sword with several lines running through it. She charged towards Isabella, then did a downward slash when she was no more than ten feet away, the sword breaking apart in many chained segments. Isabella dodged, but got hit when Emily swung the sword back in her direction. She stumbled backwards slightly, only to get hit again. Isabella blindly threw a lightning bolt in Emily's direction, and a second one joined in with hers, knocking her to the ground.

Aeor stepped out of the shadows, wearing his black coat. He knocked Ava out before she could react, knelt down by her, and removed something from her aura. He walked over to Emily and did the same thing to her, and she returned to normal.

"You're welcome." He said, and opened a portal.

Phineas ran over to him. "W-wait! Why'd you help us? I thought we were enemies."

"Perhaps we are." Aeor replied coolly. He closed the portal suddenly and picked up Ava. "One of you, grab your other friend and follow me. There's something else here. Some other powerful form of darkness."

Ferb picked up Emily in his arms and they ran through the deserted streets until they reached a small alley. After a while, Aeor put Ava on the ground.

"You should be safe here for a while." Aeor said. He looked at the teenager with a slightly sad expression on his face. "I'd be careful with trusting that girl if I were you. She's often known to...not follow the rules at times." With those words, he opened a portal, walked through it, and left.

Emily woke up after Aeor left, confused and slightly dazed. She asked what had happened to her, but everyone else was distracted by what Aeor had said to them.

They were now unsure of who to really trust, and which side they were fighting on.

Emily returned home to find a container of garlic chicken alfredo in the fridge and a note saying that her father went to bed early, and to heat up the food for dinner. She sighed, and put some of the food in the microwave. While she waited, she thought about what had happened. No one would tell her what exactly what had happened, and she just left and went home without any answers.

This, to her, was perfectly normal, though. She just always walked through life with several unanswered questions. For example, why exactly did she and Cedric move to Danville? Cedric never explained why they had to leave London, just that they were leaving, and going to Danville. Whenever Emily asked why, her father would just dodge the question and say something else in response.

But, that was just one piece of a much larger puzzle involving her father and his mysterious past. He never really talked much about what happened to him, or even how he and her mother met.

Emily pulled out her necklace from inside her shirt and looked at it when she heard the microwave timer beep. She grabbed her food from the microwave, ate it, and went to bed, but didn't fall asleep until much later, her thoughts about unanswered questions and secret keeping not letting her fall asleep.

Candace woke up in a cold sweat, panting and gasping for air. Once she was able to breathe normally again, she looked at her clock. Three in the morning.

She rolled over on her side and tried to fall asleep, but she was too awake to do so. Candace finally gave up on any thoughts of sleep, and decided to go out for an evening bike ride to clear her head. She got changed into her regular outfit, found a light coat to put on over it, and started pedaling on her bike. She didn't care about her destination, she just wanted to get away.

Candace stopped biking when she reached the heart of the downtown area. There were still a few places open, mostly small 24-hour drugstores and the such. However, she didn't need to go into a store.

The reason why Candace stopped was because of the large cloud forming over downtown, ominous and stinking of darkness.

Wide eyed and fearful, she turned around and went back home, biking as fast as she could. She fell a couple of times, but didn't stop otherwise. She parked her bike in the garage, ran up the stairs to her room, and just stayed there until morning came.

She had a bad feeling about the future.