Hey, it's just me again. Sorry it's been so long, but I've been kind of intensely ridiculously busy lately so hopefully no one will be mad at me. Anyway, I'll probably update again soon, since I've got the rest of this thing written out, so please be a little patient. It'll only be a few days this time, I promise! :P

It was almost one o'clock by the time the boys and Candace returned home. They'd taken as many pieces of Zhalgo as they could salvage, although Phineas knew that what they could work with was limited and that they'd probably have to forge a few replacement parts. Before he could do that, however, they had to give Zhalgo a power supply so that it could see Phineas again. Although its eyes had begun to glow a little, Phineas knew that it wasn't fully active - it didn't seem to register that he was here, or anything else for that matter. Once it knew that it was safe he could begin the massive repair job.

Candace had grumbled the whole way home, of course, but Phineas didn't really mind that. Candace complained about a great many things, and so he didn't take this as any different. He'd had the pieces taken to the garage (which was empty due to both Linda and Lawrence having left a few days ago for a business trip) and set Zhalgo's head on the workbench in the back. He was about to begin work when Marissa opened the back door and poked her head out into the garage. With the household phone in one hand, she glanced over at him. "It's Isabella's mom," she said, "She wants to talk to you."

"Missus Garcia-Shapiro?" Phineas frowned, "What's it about?"

Marissa just shrugged. "She just said she wanted to talk to you."

Phineas glanced back at Zhalgo, lying in several pieces on the floor, and then back at Marissa. He sighed. "Fine. But I don't want to spend all day talking to her."

Marissa just shrugged as he came inside and she handed him the phone. She knew not to intrude any further, and quickly disappeared upstairs.

"Hello? Missus Garcia-Shapiro?" Phineas asked a little nervously into the phone.

"Yes, is Isabella there?" came the voice from the other end, "She has not come home in days and I am beginning to worry."

Phineas stalled, his mind suddenly going blank. Finally he managed: "Um...what?"

"Is my Isa there?" Missus Garcia-Shapiro repeated, "Have you seen her?"

"I - I haven't, actually," Phineas replied a little uncertainly, "When was the last time she was home?"

"She has been missing for two nights, and I worry for her. Where could my Isa have gone?"

Before Phineas could answer, there was a spectacular crash from the garage, followed by the sharp clank of steel on steel. Phineas glanced back to the door, keeping his eyes on it as he spoke. "I'll have to call you back."

"But-"

"Something's come up," was all Phineas said before hanging the phone back in its place and opening up the door to the garage. What he saw made his eyes widen: two of that robot man's droids, each jumping up at the workbench like dogs begging for food. On top of the workbench was Candace, hiding behind Ferb as best she could. Ferb held a shovel in both hands, jabbing it down at the two droids in the hope to drive them away.

One of them spotted Phineas, and within seconds they both charged after him, quickly pinning him on his back on the cold cement floor. He could see the cameras mounted on them rotate slightly to come into focus, and both of them settled on him in mechanical silence.

One of them suddenly shattered apart, making Phineas flinch, and he looked up to see that Ferb had swung his shovel clear through it, the tip of the spade having missed him by less than an inch. He kept his eyes on the other droid, which quickly jumped off Phineas and scuttled out the open garage door and out of sight.

Ferb turned back to Phineas, offering him a hand and helping him back to his feet. He was certain that the droid would be back, probably with friends, so he kept the shovel in hand.

"Thanks, Ferb," Phineas said gratefully, giving his step-brother a slight bro-fist and then turning back to Candace. "I think you can come down now."

"Oh, right," said Candace a little sheepishly, hopping down from the workbench and avoiding eye contact.

Phineas turned back to Ferb. "Do you think they'll be back?"

Ferb nodded. "They're after you, bro."

"Yeah, I know," Phineas replied, a little dejected. He hopped up to sit on the edge of the workbench, his eyes fixed on one of the many tiny dings in the metal's otherwise-smooth surface. "And on top of this we have no idea where Isabella is. I mean we don't even know if she's okay, or - or if she's even still alive. For all we know she could have been caught, or eaten by the wolves, or-"

"Phineas, calm down," Candace told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, "We'll find Isabella, okay? I bet she found a safe place out there."

Phineas was silent, clearly unconvinced by his sister's words, but nodded. He was certain that she'd been killed, either by that robot man or wild animals or any other thing, and now that he was next he had a heavy knot forming in his stomach, making him a little sick. Regardless, he knew he had to fight. He had to hold off until Moon came back. She'd come back and she'd take care of things. She always did, didn't she?

He wondered too about Zhalgo. Where had it come from? He was sure he could fix it, even though it didn't seem to have any blueprints, and after that he supposed he might keep it, as long as he could find a place for it to stay. He didn't think his mother would like the idea of a giant robot living in the backyard - maybe he could keep it in the woods outside Moon's house. There was plenty of room there. In the meantime, it had to be repaired. It had taken serious damage from its fall, and Phineas knew he owed it his life for what it had done for him. He had to repay it.

So he and Ferb began work. He began with the head while Ferb sorted through the other pieces, using a chisel to chip away enough rusted metal to be able to open up the back of its head and take a look at what was inside. He could see its old battery pack, rechargeable but corroded, surrounded by dozens of tiny intricate gears and cogs. It looked like clockwork, although much of it had been rusted in place, and he knew he had a long day ahead of him. Regardless, he sat and patiently began taking a few of the upper gears apart so that they could be cleaned. He was careful - more so than he usually was when building something small - as he didn't want to disrupt Zhalgo's inner workings too much. He didn't have a blueprint, after all, and so his only guide was how it looked when it was complete. That wasn't what worried him, though; he'd built things from scratch before, but there were so many tiny pieces that he was sure that it would take hours, days, even, to finish the repairs.

He'd just finished replacing the battery pack when Candace called him and Ferb inside for dinner. He quickly reassembled the surrounding gears and cogs, screwing the now-shining back plate of Zhalgo's head into place and following Ferb inside. He ate in silence, mostly because he had a lot on his mind but also partly because Candace's attempt at salisbury steak was less than desirable and he didn't want to have to say anything bad about that. Soon as he was finished, he and Ferb headed back out to the garage.

He found that Zhalgo had powered up, staring back at him with its intense eyes. Now that it had fresh batteries they glowed brighter than they had before, and as it spotted him Zhalgo gave an enthusiastic squeal.

Phineas grinned. "Hey, Zhalgo," he said quietly, putting a hand on the side of its head, "I told you I'd come and fix you up. I told you that, didn't I?"

Zhalgo agreed with a low grind, grateful that Phineas had brought it here. It was glad to be away from that dark cave after so many years that it had spent there, and it was glad that it had come into the hands of this little living creature. It knew it would be much happier with him.

Phineas smiled. "We still have a lot of work to do, you know. You could have been destroyed jumping off that cliff like that. Good thing Ferb and I can help."

Zhalgo just stared, now silent. It found it might want to just watch, since it currently wasn't operable. It wouldn't be for a while, it thought. It could see its arms and its cage and its wings and its tail lying in assorted pieces throughout the garage. Most of them were mangled and twisted, all of them rusted, and although its friend Phineas and this other boy worked quickly, it would be several more hours before they would be finished.

Phineas knew he had to work quickly. If he could get Zhalgo's wings working again, he could go out and search for Isabella. He had to.

A sudden noise behind him made him jump. Turning back to the rest of the garage, he could see three of Six-Bolt's spider-robots, sitting at the edge of the garage without a sound. After a minute they were joined by three more.

Phineas' eyes widened. Reaching one hand behind him he found the shovel that Ferb had used to fight them off earlier, and he handed it to Ferb, grabbing another one for himself.

There was only tense silence for a few moments as at least a dozen more of the little droids assembled, sitting ominously on the sidewalk without a sound other than the metallic click of their steel claws against the concrete. Soon there were twenty of them, far too many for the boys to fight off even together, but for a long time they just sat, watching. It vaguely reminded Phineas of something he'd seen in an old Hitchcock movie, and if that was any indicator of what would happen next, he knew he had to fight.

Suddenly the door opened and Candace came out, holding a small piece of cake in each hand. She set them down on the side of the workbench, not having noticed the droids that had accumulated just outside, and then turned to the boys. "There's cake for you if - oh," she faltered, the droids catching her eye, and just stood for a moment, now silent.

Suddenly there was a flurry of movement as the droids attacked, swarming the garage and quickly driving the boys back.

Candace shrieked, quickly jumping up onto the workbench and finding a wrench that she could use to fend them off as best she could. She hit one of them as it made a leap for her, and she could see the boys with their shovels doing the same.

The droids had far outnumbered them. Within seconds the boys had been driven back to the workbench as well, and three of the droids quickly pulled Ferb's shovel away from him. They advanced, ignoring Phineas and swarming over Ferb instead, collectively dragging him down.

"Ferb, no!" Phineas exclaimed, grabbing his hand and pulling him back, "Leave him alone!"

Candace took Ferb's other hand and smashed one of the droids with the wrench she'd found, pulling him up onto the workbench. With him came several other droids, reluctant to let him go so easily, and several more swarmed over Phineas and Candace as well.

Phineas scrambled back, dropping Ferb's hand but unable to free himself from the droids. Realizing this he grabbed Candace's hand instead, kicking one of the droids away and pulling her closer to him. He reached suddenly into his pocket, having thought of an escape from this, and glanced back at Candace. "Hold on!"

"I'm losing him!" Candace cried, pushing two droids away and clamping harder onto Ferb's hand. Regardless, she could feel it slipping and it wouldn't be much longer before he would be lost.

Phineas grabbed the cell phone he and Ferb had made a few weeks ago, quickly clicking it on and keeping it tight in his hand as it took a few seconds to warm up.

"Phineas, hurry!" Candace exclaimed, "I can't-"

Phineas turned back to the phone and demanded, "Go to Isabella!"

Instantly they were gone. Phineas just sat, frozen for a moment, with Candace's hand clamped hard in his own. It was cold here, and after a moment he realized he could see his breath - but at least the droids had gone, he reasoned.

But then he realized Ferb was gone too.