Disclaimer: Phineas and Ferb and all characters associated with Phineas and Ferb are the intellectual property of Dan Povenmire, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh and Disney.

The story, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased) or events is intended or should be inferred. Please review this story to let me know what can be improved or revised. Thank you.

Perry

I have no intention of searching for the cure. Right now, my only goal is finding Diana. If I find her, I'll find Mother, and the threat against Diana will be gone.

I have to find her. No matter what. She looked terrible in the camera feed. If it hadn't been for the fact that I heard her crying while being carried, I would have assumed she was dead. She looked that bad.

As soon as I split up from the others, I pull the receiver and stun gun out of my fur pocket. I turn on the receiver.

"I knew it," a voice comes from behind me.

I yelp and turn around.

"Peter!" I hiss. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Following you. It was pretty obvious that you were hiding something." My eyes widen as I realize that he's staring at my receiver. "You have a tracker on her?"

"A microphone. The microphone has a tracker in it. Peter, if you tell the others about this I'll—"

"I'm gonna help you."

I furrow my brow at him. "What?"

"I'm going to help you," he repeats, looking annoyed. "Perry, I know I've been a jerk to you for a long time—"

I cough. A 'long time' doesn't quite cover it.

"—a long time," he continues, "but that doesn't change that you chose me to help you find someone you love. Thank you for trusting me."

"You're one of the best," I say with a shrug. "I needed the best."

"Yeah, well, still… Thank you."

I nod, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. "Come on, let's hurry."

I quickly find where the signal is coming from and set off towards it at a brisk pace, careful that my footfalls are silent.

"What can we expect?" Peter whispers to me.

"Mother took Princess," I answer just as quietly. "If we find Princess, we'll find Mother."

"I thought we're trying to avoid Mother?"

I don't answer him. He grabs my shoulder and drags me to a halt. If it weren't for the fact that we're on a mission, I would have laid him out for touching me.

"Perry, what are you about to do?"

I involuntarily shift the stun gun in my hand. Peter notices and narrows his eyes at me. Peter eyes me for a few seconds longer before shaking his head.

"Come on," he finally says. "We need to find Diana."

I nod and we take off again.

The second floor of the mansion appears to be for residence, likely for Mother and whoever she wants to keep up here. I don't bother with anything up here. The signal isn't coming from up here.

We find a staircase and silently make our way down it. Thus far, I'm shocked that we haven't run into anyone. It's only now occurring to me that maybe there aren't any other humans in the mansion. After all, what Mother's doing is so horrible that it's entirely possible that she has no partners.

I hadn't seen anyone outside of Mother and a few of the female animals in the mansion when I was here yesterday. If that's the case, then…

They must be absolutely terrified of Mother if they aren't willing to gang up on her.

And considering the state that I'd seen Diana in, I can understand why.

Thinking about Diana makes my rage boil. I had been panicking earlier because I'd been too far away to save her. But now that we're in the same building, my panic is completely gone. The only things in my heart is my need to keep her safe and my fury.

I'm grateful that Peter didn't argue with me. At the same time, though, I saw hesitation in his eyes. If he tries to stop me, I'm going to take him down, too. I won't let anyone keep me from saving Diana.

We continue to follow the signal as we reach the first floor. I look at my receiver again. It's further below us. Diana's in the basement.

"We need to find more stairs and get into the basement," I say absentmindedly.

"Perry…" I hear Peter say. I ignore him and continue to follow the signal. "Perry!"

I turn to him. "What?" He points and I turn to look to where.

There's a golden retriever staring at us, her eyes wide in fright. Dammit, we've already been caught. Then again…

I rush up to her at such a speed that she's unable to react. "Where's Mother?"

"I— I— Who are you?"

Good God, she sounds terrified. I shudder as I remember that she's gone through the same thing that Diana has. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm a friend of Diana's."

Her eyes widen when I say this. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry… I— I don't know where she took her… I—"

"I need to get into the basement," I interrupt her. I understand that she's in shock, but I don't have time for it. Diana's in danger. "Where's the stairs?"

Her eyes widen even further. "Wh—what are you going to do?"

"We're here to stop Mother from hurting anyone else. We're getting the cure for you all. Now where's the stairs? Please, Diana's in danger!"

"Mother's going to fix her…" the retriever chokes. "We couldn't stop her, I'm sorry… We wanted to stop her…"

I stare in horror at the yellow dog. Mother's going to spay Diana. My rage suddenly becomes uncontrollable. The one thing, the only thing, that has kept Diana in this hell is the hope that she'd have kids, a family, one day. Mother's about to permanently strip that away from her. I stare into the dog's eyes.

"Where's the stairs?" I ask harshly.

"They're— they're that way…" she shakily points down the hall and I immediately take off running.

Please, don't be too late! Please, please, don't be too late! Please!

If Mother's fixed Diana, it would crush her. She may never recover from that shock. Her want to raise a family means more to her than anything, and if it's taken from her…

It could kill her. It could actually kill her.

I feel dread filling me as that thought repeats itself in my head.

Peter and I skid to a stop at a door. We look at each other before I grab its handle, twist, and thrust it open. Before us is a stairway, leading down. I don't hesitate and rush down them as fast as is safely possible.

We reach the bottom and I raise my stun gun. I take another look at my receiver. Diana's only about twenty meters away. To my shock, this basement is much smaller than I'd expected it to be.

Peter and I exchange a glance.

"How close are we?" he asks me.

I take a look around. This basement isn't much to write home about. The floor is concrete and the walls are sterile white. There's only the hallway we're in, the stairs, and three doors. I check the receiver to confirm. I indicate the door directly across from us.

"She's in there. Mother probably is to…" My voice fades out as the fire in my chest rises. If Mother's done what that golden retriever thinks she's done…!

As we approach the door, Peter whispers. "Perry, don't do anything stupid."

I don't answer him. I slowly twist the knob, silently push the door open, and peer inside.

There's Mother. I can see the grey woman, her back turned to me. I'm perplexed by what she's wearing: an apron. Then I remember. As I pay more attention, I can see Diana on the table, my view of her blocked by Mother. There's blood. Then I see that the human woman is holding a scalpel.

I immediately kick the door open, breaking it off of its hinges. Mother jerks around, her eyes wide. She rears her hand back, ready to throw the scalpel at me. I raise my stun gun and fire.

It's set to its lowest setting, so all it does is daze Mother, but it's enough: she drops the scalpel to the floor and grips the table to keep from collapsing. I run up to her, jump, and kick her across the face as hard as I can. Her head snaps around at the violent act and I hear a satisfying crack as bone breaks. She collapses to the floor and stares at me.

Peter hasn't even had the chance to enter the room by the time all of this happens.

I raise my stun gun to her head and change it to its highest setting. At this setting and distance, it will turn her brain into nothing but a bag of blood.

"Perry!" Peter cries out. "Stop!"

I twitch. "She deserves it!" I snarl. "She hurt Diana and every other animal here!"

"Perry!" Peter exclaims, slowly walking forwards. "We aren't killers!"

I don't answer him. I rest my finger on the trigger and look Mother in the eyes. She looks confused and shocked.

Scared.

Good. She should be.

"I always have hated you fucking animals…" she slurs through her broken jaw and the effects of the stun.

It's now that I get it. I get why she doesn't have a problem doing all of this. She doesn't see Diana as anything but an animal. That's all she is to this sick human. Not a living creature with a soul; just an animal that, in her mind, doesn't matter.

She doesn't value her life. She doesn't value her feelings. She doesn't look at us as anything but insignificant creatures for her to exploit. My rage boils over.

I pull the trigger.