Here's a nice, long one. Hope you enjoy it, and please leave a comment or review if you read it through!

Chapter 17: The Real Phineas?

Isabella stood in front of yet another metallic door, but this one was different. It was the same size, same shape, same dull grey as all the others she had passed before, but her both crush and fear was behind that door. This was Phineas's cell. And she was choosing to go in.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz had silently led her through a dizzying number of hallways and rooms, completely avoiding large passageways with cameras and making a wide berth around the location he claimed the boss and his guards were at. There was no way she could have done it on her own.

Something was different about some of the walls they passed. Large cracks occasionally sprouted from the hallway floors and crept up the walls. They looked fresh, making her wonder if that last earthquake had done some damage.

But while she remained alert as they snuck through the compound, part of her was becoming increasingly concerned about facing Phineas again.

What would she do if he was uncooperative or hurtful again? What would it mean for their relationship, for her feelings towards him? Even if they had done something to make Phineas act that way, could she take it?

No, not now! Isabella chastised herself, shaking her head to clear it. It was mind-numbingly difficult to push out her feelings right now, but the priority needed to be their safety and getting home.

At that point Isabella noticed Doofenshmirtz staring at her quizzically. She had been standing there for a while. She jumped to the side to let him unlock the door and proceed inside. Isabella took a deep breath, and followed him in.

Phineas was sitting on his little stool, elbows on his legs and arms holding up his head. He hadn't bothered to look up yet. It was as if he didn't care who had come to visit.

Doofenshmirtz seemed confused as well. "Uhh, Phineas? You there?"

Phineas let out a broken sigh and slowly lifted his head to the noise. And then he noticed Isabella, and his gaze froze on her.

"Isabella?"

His voice was raspy and faint. His lips were chapped and he had a purple bruise down one cheek. And his eyes were red and swollen, as if he had been crying. This was nothing like the Phineas she knew.

But there was something in the way he said her name. Something familiar. Something that felt like melody to her ears. Something that had always made her feel all warm inside. And that something was definitely there.

"Isabella."

"Phineas."

Phineas was now much more attentive, even in his bad shape. His eyes bore into hers. Isabella watched his arm muscles tense as if to push himself up to stand, but apparently he thought better of it and stayed put.

"Did they hurt you?"

Isabella shook her head. "No, I'm okay." But they've been rough with you.

Phineas breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders visibly relaxing. Could that mean he was worried about her? Even after he himself had hurt her?

No, she didn't buy it. He was acting.

"He threatened to hurt you. He said if I didn't finish building his machine for him, he'd punish you." Phineas balled up his fists and glared at Doofenshmirtz who took a step back. "What about you? Did you hurt her?"

"What? No, he's helping us!" Isabella exclaimed, taking a step defensively towards her rescuer. "This is Dr. Doofenshmirtz and he's been teaching me how we can get home. We've met him before; he let me out and brought me here."

Phineas furrowed his brow, but listened as Doofenshmirtz cautiously explained where they were and how they could get back home. He asked one or two questions, but was for the most part silent. Incredibly, Doofenshmirtz was able to stay on-topic the entire time; he seemed uncomfortable with the redhead's odd demeanor.

Phineas looked angry, but Isabella wasn't sure if it was equivalent to the anger he had shown during their hike down the river. For one, he didn't seem to be taking any pleasure from it right now, and it seemed to be going away anyway.

When Doofenshmirtz finished, Phineas sat there, staring into the ground and biting his lip. Isabella knew the look well; he was processing the information and analyzing all possible courses of action from this point forward.

"Why don't we just build our own remote to control this teleporter-time-traveller machine?" He finally asked. "Or build our own machine to teleport us back?"

"Unfortunately, neither option will work," Doofenshmirtz responded. "The boss's remote sends commands that are digitally signed by a private cryptographic key, which you need to have. And he specifically made sure to exclude crucial elements and substrates required for teleportation from the building supplies, so that's also a no-go."

Phineas slowly nodded at the response. "And so we need to steal that remote, go straight to this Converger, then use the remote to take us back to Danville in the modern era, right?

"That's right," Isabella confirmed. That statement normally would have raised eyebrows, even within the Phineas and Ferb gang. But after what Isabella and Phineas had been through, it made total sense.

Phineas had been acting completely rational, even if he lacked his usual spring, much to Isabella's relief. But she couldn't tell what he was feeling beyond his thoughts on the escape plan.

"Got it." Phineas turned back to Doofenshmirtz, who oddly kept glancing between the two of them. "This is good news, but I worry about the machine I had to build for this so-called boss. It's a mind-controlling raygun, and with my additions, its effects no longer wear off after a few hours. It now augments the subject's intelligence rather than limiting it, and now this boss can control as many people as he wants." Phineas looked up at each of them in turn with an expression of guilt. "What I'm trying to say is, it's dangerous. ...And I'm the one that built it for him." He hung his head in shame.

Seeing Phineas so distraught sent a pang of anguish down Isabella's spine, and she momentarily forgot about everything else. Perhaps this was why he was looking so down. "It's okay Phin," she soothed, quietly stepping up to him, "You were forced against your will by the boss. You only did it to protect me. That isn't your fault." Isabella laid her hand gently on Phineas's to comfort him.

His jaw dropped and he stared up at Isabella, bewildered. That brought her back to the present. Isabella gasped and pulled back a few feet. What was she thinking?

"Sorry," she mumbled, quickly stepping back to Doofenshmirtz, who now looked like he would rather be locked up in his own cell indefinitely than stay here any longer.

"Uhm, i-it's fine," Phineas choked, still looking very surprised. "And, I-I don't know about that, Isabella, but thanks." He cleared his throat several times then looked back at the doctor. "Speaking of which, who even is this 'boss' figure? I've never seen him; he's only ever talked to me through speakers."

"I guess I can tell you that secret, now that I've decided to revolt," Doofenshmirtz answered, shrugging. "And I turned your cell microphone off so no need to worry about eavesdroppers. His name is Thaddeus Weber. When he was my apprentice early on, he told me that he and his brother Thor met you and your brother when you were younger kids. Mentioned some kind of backyard contest?"

Realization dawned on Isabella. It had just been one summer day, many years ago, when she had helped Phineas build a fort-skyscraper for a contest in their backyard. Two of the neighbor's nephews that bore a striking resemblance to the Phineas and Ferb duo had challenged them to the fort-building contest and had expectedly been blown out of the water. Honestly, it was a rather lackluster day compared to many of the gang's adventures.

But Isabella could still remember that day well for one specific reason: Thaddeus, that curly brown-haired, triangle-faced jerk, had insulted Phineas. And she hated it. Nobody was allowed to treat Phineas like that, especially since he was so unaware of it. Glancing at Phineas now, it was clear that he didn't remember this day or that bully like she did. Because of that, Isabella had tried her hardest that day to help Phineas and Ferb beat them.

Thinking back to that day made Isabella frown, but it didn't add up. Why would Thaddeus, this annoying but inconsequential past rival, be the head of this kidnapping, mind-controlling operation?

Doofenshmirtz must have read her mind. "Thaddeus showed up at my door about 6 months ago during my sabbatical," he explained with a slightly defeated tone. "He claimed to be an inventor and wanted me to teach him how I built my inators; apparently he and his brother had noticed that I'm an evil scientist. I agreed, but after a few days, his lack of cooperation and disrespect frustrated me, so I shot him with my Ultimate-evil-inator to make his personality more on-par with mine. You know, since I'm evil."

Isabella raised an eyebrow and Doofenshmirtz let out a sheepish laugh. "Apparently, that was a mistake. You see, I think Thaddeus was already a little evil, so zapping him again pushed him a little too much over the edge into insanity. He started wanting to do things too far over the line. He liked doing things to people, hurting them just for the fun of it. When I objected, he started threatening me and forcing me to help when I resisted, and now we've wound up here."

So many things didn't make sense here. An ultimate-evil-inator? And that Thaddeus kid was really behind this whole compound?

"What do you mean, a sabbatical?" Phineas asked, scratching his head. It was the first time Isabella had noticed him showing any emotion beyond caution or depression. "Isn't that something professors do to travel or do focused research at a university? So you're a professor?"

Doofenshmirtz made a strange scowl. "Well, yes and no. I am a Doctor, after all, so that basically makes me a professor in Evil Science. I've always wanted to teach evil to young bright minds like you two, and while that hadn't worked out until Thaddeus, it wasn't like I never tried until then. And I still hadn't decided where I'd travel."

"A doctorate in Evil Science? Is that really a thing?" Phineas questioned, his brow furrowing in confusion, and Isabella had to hold in a giggle.

"Don't give me that!" Doofenshmirtz retorted defensively, his scowl deepening. "I got my degree from a highly reputable online source and it was not free! And you're just an immature kid; if I want to be a professor, I can just say so and I am!" Doofenshmirtz lifted up his chin and scoffed. "Anyway, I had to start somewhere, so I figured for my first year as a professor I'd take a sabbatical. But I was still figuring out where to travel to when Thaddeus showed up asking me about how I built my inventions, and I was so flattered that I decided to cut it short and start tutoring him right then and there."

Phineas was snickering under his breath, Isabella noticed, and this time she couldn't fight back a grin from creeping across her face.

"Thaddeus and Thor caught onto my training quickly and were building basic inators in no time. But I could tell that Thor wasn't invested, so I only zapped Thaddeus with my Ultimate-evil-inator. Thank goodness for that; I really need to add a self-destruct button to that old thing. Once I taught Thaddeus about OWCA and other spy agencies, however, he got incredibly paranoid and wanted to take drastic measures to evade them."

Yep, Doof is back in character, Isabella thought as she smiled at the scientist going on. She wasn't even going to try to understand all the different acronyms and things coming out of his mouth, helpful as they were for establishing motive on why they were there. She glanced back at Phineas, who appeared to be fighting back laughter.

But once their eyes met, Phineas's smile disappeared. He looked away again and shrunk back into his seat.

"Thaddeus convinced me to build my Interdimensional-time-travel-inator with him along with this invention base here. OWCA already knew I was on evil leave so I didn't care, but now I know his ulterior motives—he wanted to keep me and others here and use us until he got the tools he needed to take over the world. And if he trapped you two here, I guess he's doing a pretty good job at it."

Doofenshmirtz kept going on, filling in more details about the compound and Thaddeus's motives that were actually very helpful for their predicament. But Isabella had a hard time focusing on him, instead feeling a growing sadness inside of her.

For a moment there, she had nearly forgotten about what had happened with her and Phineas. They were sharing laughs about the ridiculousness of the situation and Doofenshmirtz's strange antics, and those little dimples that appeared on Phineas's face when he smiled were just too cute!

But now it was gone again, and Isabella had to remind herself that Phineas was not himself. He had said he hated her after she confessed her love. She needed to keep her guard up. He even seemed to realize that now and was keeping his guard up as well. Their friendship, and even moreso, her crush, had to be put on hold at least until they were out of this mess.

She looked at Phineas again and caught him staring at her hard. But there was no malice in his eyes, not like she could remember from by the river shortly before their capture. He just seemed confused. She held his gaze, trying to read him.

Nothing ever made sense anymore. How had Thaddeus and Thor's thugs found them so quickly that night? And how could Phineas not remember a single thing? Was he really this good at pretending? He never could have pulled off a lie without giving it away before.

"Ehem," Doofenshmirtz said awkwardly, interrupting her thoughts as he glanced back and forth between her and Phineas repeatedly. "Well I think I'm gonna—uhmm—grab us some supplies and paper—and maybe check on the guards. We have a few hours before testing will be completed and I'm in charge of watching you now anyway, so you'll be fine here." The lanky scientist took one last embarrassed look at them, then strode out without closing the door.

Isabella felt like she should be alarmed being left alone with Phineas, but she wasn't. She just kept mirroring his gaze from across the small cell. It seemed like neither one of them knew what to do or say. She knew they should be devising a plan to steal the remote control, but this thing between them was too big to ignore.

So they just kept staring.

A few minutes went by in silence, filled only by the faint buzzing of the cell light above them. As nervous as Isabella was feeling, she couldn't deny that Phineas looked even more nervous. Or maybe uncomfortable. Sweat began to bead above his brow which he had to keep wiping away. He seemed afraid to make any move, which she had to admit was probably a smart choice.

Finally, Isabella broke the silence. "How can you not remember?" she asked quietly.

"How can you forget about our long trek by the steaming river and pools of water? Can't you remember how upset you were at me taking that bath? And what about the earthquake?"

Phineas strained his eyes, looking away. His breath hiked and it took him a few moments to respond.

"Ever since you first asked me, I've been racking my brain for memories. Trying to remember a single detail. And I remember the river. I remember us falling into it, somehow getting out, talking with you, and a lot of sleeping." His hand curled up into a fist. "But that's it. I'm missing time. One moment, I fell asleep, and the next I was in this cell, on that bed."

"But how can I believe you now? You lied to me when I told you how I felt by the river."

Phineas's balled fist and his arm began to quiver, but he kept looking down at his lap. "I don't know why I can't remember. I don't even know what you mean by that. I'm not saying I'm not at fault; I just don't know what happened! Nothing makes any sense!"

How could this all be an act?

Phineas took a deep breath, relaxing his arm. "Regardless, what you said I did to you haunts me. I don't know how to process it. It is inexcusable. I actually hit you. I actually hurt you. I-It's insane. Maybe I've developed a strange Mr. Hyde side of my brain here on this planet."

Phineas took several more shaky breaths, leaning his head into his arms and rubbing his eyes. Isabella watched him intently. Keep your guard up, come on, she kept repeating to herself. But she had hardly ever seen him like this before, so upset and helpless, and he wasn't being mean to her in the slightest.

It was so hard to resist him.

Phineas finally looked up at Isabella's pain-filled expression. Pain of which she could no longer identify the source. A tear had welled up in his eye, and rolled down his cheek.

"I don't know how I can be trusted, or how I can ever make it right. But I don't want to lose you. You're my best friend and so dearly important to me. And I am so sorry."

Why did he have to cry? Didn't he know that would set her off too? Isabella already felt her eyes beginning to water. She had to look away.

She just wanted to hug Phineas. She wanted to comfort him, make his pain go away. It was almost as if she could feel his pain too.

Her logical side kept warning her that it could be a trick, but he was too real. Phineas couldn't possibly be faking all of this. He was back.

The air in the room felt dense, and Isabella needed to sit down. One step at a time, she approached the bed, and took a seat on the opposite edge from Phineas. She could feel a heat burning at the back of her throat. He felt so close to her.

"So you really can't remember a single thing. That Phineas wasn't truly you." It had meant to be a question, but ended up more as a statement that she was getting herself used to.

Phineas shook his head. "I've tried to remember for so long that I haven't even thought about how we can get out of here. "I only know what you've told me so far. And I hate myself for it."

Isabella nodded but her frown deepened. As much as she was glad he wasn't acting crazy, she hated how he was beating himself up so much. If he wasn't in control, should he really be feeling so bad? She opened her mouth to respond, but Phineas wasn't done yet.

"I at least remember a lot of other things, though. I can remember what seems like ages ago when we were getting ready to camp at Badbeard lake. I'm pretty sure that Ferb and the others wanted to hike Mount Santa."

He paused for a second in thought. "And when we do get back home, I think I'll skip hiking another snowy mountain with them for a while. What else? Well, I most certainly remember getting teleported into that snowdrift with you and arguing about that coat."

Isabella's lips twitched upwards.

"I remember all the snowstorms we pulled each other through, and I remember our campouts every night. ...Especially that first night." Isabella felt her cheeks turning pink and she turned her head away to hide them.

"I remember all the new alien plant species we discovered and our conversations about them and about everything else. I remember how scary the earthquakes were and how we were nearly crushed by one of those crayon trees. I remember rationing our food and going hungry with you, and being so cold."

Phineas's voice dropped to a mere whisper. "I remember holding hands with you as we walked. I ...I sort of liked that." Isabella looked up at him in shock and was even more shocked to see that Phineas's cheeks were even redder than hers, nearly matching his hair.

What was going on?

"And I remember the snowmobiles, getting shot at, and falling into that ravine with you. I remember pulling you out. I remember being with you."

Phineas turned his face away from her as well. "To tell you the truth, Izzy, if I had to do it again, but I got to do it with you, I'd want to do it."

Isabella could feel her heart melting over this boy. Things like this were why she loved him. What was odd though, was how embarrassed Phineas was to tell her all of this. He was normally so confident and expressive, yet he was acting so shy saying these nice things to her.

Isabella looked up at him with softened eyes longingly. The logical, cautious part of her brain was now completely off. For all she knew, that river debacle with Phineas had never happened.

"Phineas," she said, blushing. "If I had to do it again but I was with you, I'd want to do it too. And please stop beating yourself up over what happened, or even for being forced to build that machine. If you weren't in control, you can't blame yourself."

Phineas met her eyes, blushing as well but giving her a huge, toothy grin. He sat up more straight, as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"We'll see; I still don't know if I can trust myself. And you don't have to believe me, but I love you, Isabella."

She smiled. "I know. I love you too, Phineas."

They were only a few feet apart, but Isabella wished they were touching. Those words meant so much to her, yet she wanted them to mean even more than the friendly love that Phineas felt. She had already confessed her love, but if he really couldn't remember anything, which she now believed, then none of that, not even that devilish rejection counted, right? She was sure he didn't actually feel that way. Right now felt like a great time to say it again.

But she knew now wasn't the time to go there. Isabella needed to be content that she was reunited with Phineas, even if there was still a lot to figure out and assess about this split personality issue after they were back home and safe. Right now, she needed to catch Phineas up on her ideas and get his inventor's mind going again, there was no use in further confusing his oblivious mind.

In the lull of their conversation, Isabella began to think. To start, they needed to get that remote. And ask Doofenshmirtz exactly where in the compound the converger was located, as soon as he got back.

She also needed a better visual map of this prison, and once they had one, each of them could sneak around to get parts for an invention, assuming the guards were still all occupied with Thaddeus.

Phineas moved from his stool to the other side of the bed, looking away again. "Isabella?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"Mhmm?"

"There was something you—. Could you tell me a little more about something that happened during my memory lapse?" He was acting incredibly nervous and Isabella wasn't sure why.

"Sure," she replied with a smile, scooting closer on the bed to close the awkward distance. He's rightly curious about what happened, and we don't have much time, but why not?

As Phineas watched her move closer, he began to tap his foot. "The other day… you said something about a confession." The tapping sped up. "What did you mean?"

Isabella froze, her smile remaining plastered on her face, good hand hovering mid air about to adjust her tattered sling. But inside, her thoughts zoomed into hyperdrive. Phineas is the most oblivious person I've ever met, she thought frantically, As dense as they get! He doesn't notice romantic gestures if they slap him in the face! Can't even fathom why people go on dates! Her eye twitched slightly. No, there was no way he had actually picked up on that out of everything else in that moment. And this was the wrong moment for that anyway; she didn't want to confuse Phineas any more.

She finally unfroze, fixing the sling strap and letting out a nervous chuckle. "Oh, that? I was just angry and spouting things off in the heat of the moment. At first I thought you were tricking me." Her voice came out much higher than usual. Get a grip, girl!

"But I know you aren't, which is good because now we can figure out how to get out of here."

Phineas looked unconvinced, and Isabella noticed his eyebrows almost imperceptibly narrow. He didn't buy it. Why was now, of all times, the moment that Phineas decided to pick up on something? C'mon, Phin, just let it go.

"But… Didn't you say something about me breaking your heart? And something about your feelings j-just before? Am I missing something?" His cheeks were burning red as he stared at her with his curious blue eyes.

This time, Isabella's heart froze. She was caught, a fish out of water. It wasn't as if she'd been trying to hide anything from him; up until an hour ago, Isabella wasn't even convinced he had forgotten her confession or anything else.

And this was a perfect moment for her to tell him her feelings. So much better than that last failure! Phineas was Phineas right now, and her feelings hadn't changed for this version of him.

"Isabella?" Phineas asked again, making her wince and bite her lip anew. He had a piercing look in his eyes—was it concern for her?

A small, involuntary noise escaped Isabella's mouth and her hands shot up to cover it. Or at least they tried to, sending a fresh wave of pain up her secured left arm.

She wanted to say it so badly. She wanted to tell Phineas about how long she had loved him and how she wanted to be with him. And she wasn't even afraid of doing it anymore, embarrassing as it was.

"It's just…" Phineas gulped, and slowly, delicately took her right hand in his. His palms were clammy but she didn't mind one bit.

Pure exhilaration. That was all Isabella could feel.

"Up until they forced me in on you the other day, I couldn't stop thinking about you. I know it doesn't make logical sense. I kept thinking about how, if I were teleported to Arcopis again, I wouldn't do it with Ferb, nor Baljeet, nor Buford or anyone else. No, I would want to be with you. His blush deepened even more; Isabella hadn't even known that was possible.

"When I talk with you, I feel happy. Happier than when I talk to anyone else. When we helped each other up the rocky parts on our hikes, I looked forward to holding your hand. So much, that I took a leap of faith and decided to try holding it for even longer. And I like it. I'm brand new to this, but I like being c-close to you."

Isabella's heart rate had doubled, no, tripled, but her eyes stayed glued to his. Was she not in Phineas-Land? Was it possible that Phineas was really doing the confessing? To her? Right now?!

Phineas let out a shaky breath, wiping his forehead again with his other hand then resting it on his chest.

"While caged up in this cell, I've realized that, when we get back home, I don't want things to go back to how they were between us. I was scared of what that might mean for our friendship, but after whatever you were saying earlier, it sounded like maybe you wouldn't want things to change either?"

He was dead-on. Isabella knew he was growing out of his romantic ignorance and had grown comfortable with affection, but had she ironically been the one not noticing that he liked her back? And right now, of all times?

She wanted it. She wanted it so badly. Isabella bit her lip again and accidentally squeezed Phineas's hand. She knew what was coming; it was not concern in his eyes she had seen, but longing. And she longed to hear him tell her that he loved her like she had always dreamed. The same way she loved him.

But as she sat there, inches apart from her crush, she knew it had to wait.

"Isabella, what I'm trying to say is th-that, I think–"

"Phineas," Isabella interrupted, carefully moving her hand out of Phineas's and pressing a finger to his open lips. Surprise appeared over his pointy face.

"You have absolutely no idea how much I want to do this with you. Really, this is incredibly hard." She moved his hand over to his cheek, holding him there. "But the reality is, we're still trapped in an enemy base, in a different universe and on a separate timeline from our own. We aren't safe here. If we go down that path right now, I don't think we'll be able to focus on anything else, and we might not get out at all. Right now, there are a lot of details I picked up that I still need to fill you in on, and even then we still need to have a plan to get that remote without detection."

Phineas still looked surprised, but it quickly faded and was replaced with a big smile. "That's one thing I love about you, always so focused and keeping us on track. Okay."

Isabella licked her lips, trying to unfix her gaze from Phineas's chapped ones. She could hardly comprehend that she had just stopped the moment she had always wanted.

But she had to be patient. That moment would still come, if they could first get out of here alive. Phineas's expression showed that he understood that too.

Isabella narrowed her eyes. Now that both Phineas and Dr. Doofenshmirtz were united with her, they had a fighting chance.