Dream Machine

'Okay guys, this is my second fanfiction, and I think I've improved a bit. As a request from a friend, I told this story from both Phineas and Isabella's point of view.'

'Hope you enjoy! ~TeamPhineas, May 28, 2010, 0:05 (EDT)~'

AUTHOR'S NOTE: To avoid confusion, the characters in the dreams are labeled Dream (name) and the real people are sometimes labeled Real (name).

~Isabella~ 

I’m so scared I can hardly move. I am in a dark wood, and can’t really see anything. Even though Phineas is holding my hand, it doesn’t do anything to calm me down because of the fact that there is someone after us, and that person wants us dead. Who is this person? That’s the thing- I don’t know! All I know is Phineas has saved me from him/her multiple times and has been very brave throughout this whole ordeal. I suddenly remember something. “Phineas!” I scream. “What is it, Isabella?” he asks eyes full of concern. ''Swoon. ''“Where’s Ferb?!?” His eyes widen, and then he slaps his forehead. “What is it?” I ask. “Don’t worry, Isabella, he’s visiting England and is definitely safe. I’m so sorry I forgot to tell you!” I breathe a sigh of relief, then I hear a crackle of leaves and I hold Phineas’ hand tighter. “Please don’t be afraid, Isabella, you know I would never let anything happen to you,” he tells me, staring into my eyes with his dark blue ones. “I will keep you safe.” ''Again, swoon. ''I hear another crunch of leaves, and this time I see a silhouette with a gun pointed towards us. I can’t breathe or move, and I’m gripping Phineas’ hand so tightly I can’t believe I’m not hurting him or cutting off his circulation. Phineas decides to confront this person. “Look, I don’t know who you are, how you know me, or why you want Isabella and me dead. But, whatever you do, don’t hurt Isabella. I’d rather you hurt me.” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I stand up, and he puts his arm protectively across me, similar to what a mother does when her child is sitting beside her in a vehicle that’s about to crash. The person pulls the trigger on the gun, and shoots Phineas in the leg. I gasp. “Why did you do that?!?” I scream, horrified, but I’m not sure whether I’m talking to Phineas or the killer. Phineas lets out a scream of pain, which shocks me because he generally doesn’t let his pain show. Then, adrenaline must have kicked in or something because I wrestle the gun out of this guy’s hand and hold it up to his head. “If you don’t leave in the next five seconds, I will blow your brains out!” ''Wow Isa, was that really you? That is not at all Fireside Girl Troop Leader behavior. ''And then, the scene all faded away. I open my eyes to find that this whole mess was all a dream. Thank God! Though I am still a bit shaken by it, because I’m breathing really heavily and still have that weird sensation that someone is watching me. I also find my mom sitting on the end of my bed. “I was getting worried about you, Isa,” my mom says, “you were screaming in your sleep and you never sleep past 8 in the morning.” Sure enough, I look at the clock and it reads 9:45. ''Oh no! Phineas probably thinks I ditched him! ''I quickly tell my mom that I am fine, just a bad dream, and I get changed and dart over to Phineas’ house.

~Phineas~

I’m sitting under the backyard tree with my step-brother Ferb. It’s another hot day in Danville, and not a cloud in the sky. Thank God for this tree, I think to myself, ''or else I’d be burnt to a crisp! ''We’re thinking of what to do today, but to be honest, I’ve got nothing. “Got anything, Ferb?” I ask. But he just shakes his head. I sigh. This reminds me of the first day of summer all over again, and I refuse to be bored. Isabella should be coming over soon, so I stare off into the direction of her house, hoping she’ll burst through the gate at any time with her “Whatcha doin?” and then I’ll get an idea. But thirty minutes pass, and I have no clue where she is. I turn to Ferb. “Ferb! Do you know where Isabella is?” Ferb opens his mouth, but I hear Isabella’s voice say, “Right here!” I think I’m hallucinating, until I look behind me to see that Isabella was standing right behind me, looking at me with her huge blue eyes and her long black hair just brushing my shoulder. I say, “Hey Isabella. Where did you come from?” She answers, “Sorry I was late, but I overslept because I had the craziest dream!” “Well what was it?” I ask, genuinely curious. “Ferb had randomly gone to England and some psycho was trying to kill me and you, Phineas. You said you’d rather him hurt you than me, and sure enough he shot you in the leg. Enraged, I threatened to blow his brains out, but that was when I woke up,” she quickly explains. I am speechless. ''Would I honestly ask the killer to hurt me instead of Isabella? ''It occurs to me that I probably would, and that Isabella’s dream could very well happen, if that kid Irving played some sick joke on us, like we’re friends or something. This gives me an idea. “Ferb! I know what we’re gonna do today!” I say. “We’re gonna build a machine that lets your dreams play on a screen, kind of like a movie!” Isabella comments, “That’s a great idea, only, what if I have my crazy dream while I’m hooked up to this machine? My dream was pretty scary!” “Don’t worry, Isabella, it’s only a dream. It can’t be that bad.” I say, though I am not sure of this, as she seemed really freaked out.

~Isabella~

As always, I support Phineas’ Big Idea for the day, and to be honest, it isn’t a bad one. But what if I have my dream again and Phineas sees how brave and flirtatious he was in my dream? What would he think of me then? He’d probably be freaked out, there’s no way he likes me back. Anyways, he and Ferb are working on their machine, and it impresses me with how high-tech it is, as usual. “Isabella,” Phineas says, “we’re almost done. If you’re really worried about having your dream again, you know you don’t have to do this. There’s no way I’d intentionally put you through that again!” ''Swoon. Seriously. ''“It’s okay Phineas,” I say,though he still looks worried, “I usually don’t have the same dream twice. I’m sure I’ll be fine! This machine is basically one of those giant screens in a movie theater, with cables coming from it that will attach to the person’s head. Phineas sees me examining the cables and says, “These will feed the images to the screen. But don’t worry; they aren’t needles, because I know you don’t like needles. To be honest, they give me the creeps too, and I wanna use the machine!” ''How sweet! He remembered my fear of needles! But seriously, who wouldn’t be afraid of them?'' “So who’s going first?” I ask. I secretly hope that it’s not me. Sure, I’m excited that he created this project pretty much for me, but I don’t want to be the first one to use it! “Ferb said he wanted to; is that okay?” Phineas asks. “Fine by me!” I say. Ferb is hooked up to the machine in no time flat and he is trying to make himself fall asleep. It doesn’t take long, because I soon see an image of a blond haired girl with big blue eyes. I noticed she looked vaguely like me, bow in her hair and all. “Wonder who that could be?” Phineas whispers to me, as Ferb is a light sleeper. “I have no idea, but she’s pretty!” I comment. This girl appears to be looking right at me and Phineas and says “Come on, Ferb! We don’t have all day!” in a thick, yet somehow very graceful sounding, British accent. The screen shows Ferb and he is smiling. ''Oh my gosh! I’ve never seen Ferb smile before!'' Phineas must’ve known that I’ve never seen Ferb smile before, because he’s carefully watching my reaction and he starts whisper-laughing. “Shut up!” I say. “He’s your brother; I’m not around him all the time!” Dream Ferb then runs to catch up to this girl. “Okay, okay, Emily. I’m coming!” Dream Ferb exclaims. Phineas and I turn to each other and both say “Emily?!” Phineas remarks, “Ferb told me about an Emily once or twice, but I never knew he actually still dreamed about her. From what I know, they met when they were two or something and Ferb fell in love with her. How can you meet someone when you’re so young and then decide you will be in love with them for the rest of your life?” ''Oh, I think I know. ''

~Phineas~

This machine is working perfectly! Plus, now Isabella knows about Emily. I kept forgetting to tell her''. I wonder what she’ll dream about.'' Dream Ferb and Dream Emily are working on building a tree house. This kind of reminds me of Ferb and I with our wild inventions, and Isabella always willing to help. Maybe this is why Ferb and I do this stuff; I don’t remember doing anything like this before he got here. I mean, I’ve known Isabella for my whole life, but I don’t think we ever would have been this good at building. I learned most of what I know from Ferb. Real Ferb wakes up. “Emily again?” I teasingly ask. “Yeah…” he says, looking at the ground and blushing slightly. “Your turn, Isabella!” I say. “If you have your bad dream again, I promise I will wake you up.” She looks relieved at this and hops up onto the machine. “Alright, now the cables go here,” I explain while I attach her to the machine, using this as an excuse to run my fingers through her silky black hair, “and here. That should do it.” She looks nervous. I guess I would be too if I had a nightmare like that. “Now you just need to fall asleep.”  She does almost immediately, and I see a picture of her in her bedroom on the screen. She appears to be writing thoughtfully in a journal. Then, I see myself enter her room and Dream Phineas says, “Hey Bella! Whatcha dooooooin?” Dream Isabella slams her journal shut and throws it behind her pillow. “Nothing!” she replies, a little too quickly. Wonder what she’d have to hide from me… Dream Phineas ignores this and says, “Okay then, I have something to ask you.” I seem nervous in her dream. I don’t usually get nervous around Isabella, though lately I have been feeling a little tingly. I don’t exactly know what to call it. “Sure Phineas; shoot!” Dream Isabella says. Dream Phineas sits down on the bed and begins, “You know how that 6th grade dance is tonight?” “Yeah….” she replies. “Well, I was wondering if you’d go….. with me?” Dream Phineas finishes. Dream Phineas looks embarrassed. ''Why would you be embarrassed, Flynn? It’s just Isabella, ''I try to reason with myself. But then I get that weird tingly feeling again and I can understand a little why Dream Phineas got so embarrassed. "Wait, do you mean you and me and Ferb or just you and me?” she asks. Dream Isabella must be thinking of the Night of the Falling Stars Girls Choice Dance that she asked me to.  If only she knew that the only reason I even bothered bringing Ferb was because I thought I’d be too nervous with it being just me and her… “Just you and me,” Dream Phineas replies.  “Sure! I’d love to!” says Isabella.  “Okay then, I’ll come by at 7 and we can walk over together.  Sound good?” says Dream Phineas.  “Cool! See you then!” Dream Isabella replies.  Dream Phineas leaves the room and Dream Isabella instantaneously jumped over to her journal and began to write.  The scene faded out, Real Isabella was waking up.

~Isabella~

You know how you have dreams sometimes and you don’t remember them when you wake up? Well, that’s kind of what happened. All I can be sure of is that I didn’t have my bad dream, because Phineas is a man (boy? kid?) of his word and would’ve shaken me awake if I had my bad dream. “I guess I didn’t have my bad dream.” I say, secretly ecstatic that Phineas has to mess with my hair again to get the cables out. “No, no you didn’t,” he replies. He is blushing slightly and looks kind of embarrassed. ''Oh crap, Izzy, what did you dream about? '' As if reading my mind, Phineas says, “You had a dream that I came over to your house and asked you to a dance. Just you and me, not Ferb.” Ferb glares at Phineas. “What?” Phineas says, “Dream Isabella only wanted to go with me! You saw what happened!” Ferb just rolls his eyes. Alright Isa, at least it wasn’t as romantic as SOME of your dreams… Phineas gets the cables out of my hair and says, “I guess it’s my turn now.” Ferb and I stick the cables in his head and he tries to fall asleep. “Seriously, guys? You know I can’t fall asleep with you guys staring at me like that!” Phineas says. ''I wonder if he’s stalling…maybe he doesn’t want me to see his dream! ''I suppose this could be a good thing, or a bad thing. After a good fifteen minutes or so, Phineas finally gets to sleep. The first thing I see on the screen is me, and I appear to be unconscious. Dream Phineas is screaming at me, and Real Phineas has a pained expression on his face. ''Must be an avid dreamer, to make facial expressions in the real world when you dream. ''I wonder what happened to me, and my question is soon answered when the screen shows an enormous building with a window five stories high that is open. I’m guessing I fell out. “Why did I let this happen?” Dream Phineas asks. “I should’ve been here to catch her! I need to protect her! Isabella, if you can hear me, please wake up!” Did I imagine this, or did I see a single tear fall down Dream Phineas’ face? He then picks me up and runs off screaming “Someone please help! My girlfr- I mean, best friend is out cold!” He keeps running, and running, and running. Eventually, there is not a street, or even a ground. Nor is there a sky. He’s running to nowhere, yet he’s still running. Eventually he stops. Dream Phineas and Real Phineas both whisper the word “No…” I decide I’ve had enough of this; it kills me to see him like this. I go up to his face and snap him out of it, literally. Phineas is a light sleeper, and this is enough to wake him up.

~Phineas~

I see Isabella’s face in front of me, and I immediately hug her and scream, “Isabella, you’re alive!” Ferb comments, “Isabella’s death was only a dream, you know. She never fell out of a window, you have nothing to worry about.” “Oh yeah…. Sorry! But you, Ferb, know that I often can’t separate dreams from reality,” I say. Isabella hasn’t said much, so I say, “Izzy, it was only a dream. If you are ever in any real danger, I’ll be there to help you; you can always count on that! That’s what best friends are for.” She blushes. ''Way to be obvious, Flynn. Whatever. The point is, she knows I’ll protect her, no matter what. ''I made a promise to myself a long time ago, back when I was six or seven, that I would do everything in my power to protect her. Of course, back then, I didn’t know how much she would mean to me in the future. “I know, Phineas,” Isabella replies. “But you do realize you called me your girlfriend in your dream. I believe the exact quote was ‘my girlfr-I mean, best friend!’” ''Jesus Christ, Phineas. What have you done now? Now she knows! '' “Well….uhh….” I stutter. “……I don’t know. Dream me was just concerned for your safety.” Ferb mouths, “Real smooth, Flynn.” I glare at him. “Mhmm… okay,” Isabella says, “whatever you say, Phineas.” ''She certainly seems happy. And that’s all that matters, isn’t it?''