It looked like the frog temple was still in the Veil, which Hal thought was weird. It was supposed to be sent to Earth in the Reckoning, and there was no Reckoning anymore. They'd stopped it. Maybe they could just push the temple there themselves when they were done. With whatever they were doing. Uncle Phineas wouldn't tell them. He just kept smiling. Sometimes Hal didn't like it when he smiled.
The frog temple was creepy on the inside. It was dim and quiet, and there were carvings of all of them on the walls. Normally Hal liked seeing his picture in newspapers, but this was unexpected and disturbing. He never even made that serious, mature
"Dad!" yelled Alicia, as soon as she saw the ship in the sky.
Phineas was impressed. They were nowhere close to within earshot, and none of the windows were even open. Alicia had got really good at manipulating the wind. And judging by her new dress, she'd even ascended. He was so proud of her.
"Dad, we did it!" Alicia yelled. "We beat the game!"
He wasn't looking forward to disappointing her with the true goal of the game, but Phineas was more curious about what had been happening with Xavier and Fred. Fred had apparently been using one of the staves to gain the power of the sprites, but Phineas was sure that the staves and rings only wor
It didn't take long to find the others once Phineas enabled the paradox sniffer. Both Ferb and his dream self were inside some sort of interdimensional bubble full of... ghosts? Ferb's explanation wasn't very clear, and Candace suspected that he didn't understand either. Perry was floating in an eerily empty area of the void, and they found Dr Doofenshmirtz on what seemed to be Derse's moon. But the coordinates were nowhere near Derse, or any part of the game.
According to Phineas, it was another game, attached to a completely different universe. There were a lot, he said, scattered throughout paradox space. Uncountably many. They didn't see
Alicia was hiding in a tree a couple of miles from the Black King. She couldn't stop fidgeting. They were going to win this game! It was broken, and they could still win! She'd always known that the five of them could do something amazing if they tried hard enough.
On the far side of the valley, a huge, exact copy of the Black King rose up, and up. That had to be Fred! The staff had actually worked on him!
The real Black King looked around, and stomped over to Fred. They spoke, and Alicia tried to let the wind bring her his words, but she couldn't hear much. Fred was challenging the Black King, maybe? She hoped he was, because that was the
Alton had his eyes shut and a deep frown on his face. Xavier didn't have to ask what he was concentrating so hard on. It was Hal.
It did make sense for Hal to be the one to go. If he went, then everything fit together just right. But what if...
Alton broke into his thoughts. "He ascended."
Alicia cheered. "I knew he'd do it! Now we're all gods!" She pointed at her blue pajama dress, in case the others couldn't tell what she was talking about.
Alton concentrated again, and said "He's up there again." He pointed at the strip in the sky. "I'm gonna tell me to come over here." He got out his Steale and started typing.
It had actually worked!
Ferb put a hand on his chin. He was on to something, though Phineas couldn't think what. Present Phineas was dreaming, of course, but past Phineas was definitely wide awake.
"Are you addressing our adult selves?" said Ferb.
Alicia smiled slightly and nodded encouragingly.
"You mean..." Phineas began. Present Phineas wasn't dreaming anymore? Was that why past Phineas kept having those strange thoughts? Was this all completely real?
"It can't be..." said Doof.
"What?" said Francis, annoyed. "What are you guys so surprised about?"
"It's not a dream, Francis!" said Phineas. He wanted to laugh. "It's all real!"
"Uh... yeah," said Francis. "
Hal willed himself to keep walking forwards. The closer he got to the Black King, the more he wanted to be anywhere else. Maybe that forge he was supposed to have on his planet? That sounded safer than what he was about to do.
The appearance and powers of the black king were supposed to be influenced by the things that prototyped their sprites with. So Hal sort of knew what he was looking at. Those lumps coming out of the king's torso were his three arms. He was wearing one of those pointy garden gnome hats with a fedora perched on top. He was very blocky in shape, and Hal could just make out an oversized zipper on his back. He also seemed t
Phineas sat under the big tree in the backyard. He was a kid again.
No, wait. The tree was digital.
This was obviously a dream, but what did it mean? Was it the timeline that the dark god had created. He could barely remember anything about that anymore.
In the dream he was thinking about how he wished Ferb was there to enjoy the nice morning sun. But he was at a theremin lesson. He was getting really good. People thought you couldn't play much except generic 1950s science sound effects, but they'd never heard Ferb play.
The gate swung open, and Phineas looked over with a smile to see...
Doof?
His... cousin?
Nine-year-old Heinz Doofens
"just destroy the entire-- huh?"
Doofenshmirtz was still a fair way away out in the void, but somehow he sounded like he was right next to them.
Phineas stared out at him through the window of the ship, wondering what Doofenshmirtz had been dreaming about to wake up saying something like that. It sounded ominous.
It was ominous that he'd woken up at all. They'd had a lock on his life signs for some time, and he'd definitely been in a coma five seconds ago.
They shouldn't even be able to hear him, let alone so clearly. Candace had told them about how bad the whispering got out here, so they'd used their trip out of the Incipisphere to soun
Finn laughed as he and Jake flew through the freezing air. The Ice Kingdom was great for sledding! All the slopes and mysterious lumps under the snow made for a really interesting course.
They crashed back to the ground, so hard that they left a crater in the snow.
"Hey!"
Finn picked himself up, his mood souring. He recognised that grating voice. "Oh great. Ice King's here." He brushed some snow off his sweater. It was beginning to soak into his skin. Maybe he should have worn something thicker, but then he would have been too hot.
Sometimes he missed his mom. She would have known exactly what kind of sweater to wear.
"Oh, it's you two."