Time was running out for Phineas. After Ferb's move, he was going to have to decide between Isabella and the game. It seemed like a silly decision but for Phineas, it seemed hard.
Ferb had also begun to see Buford's strategy a few turns ago and he was very impressed that there were no flaws. If Phineas were to carry on with it, Ferb's team would certainly lose, no matter how you looked at it. The only reason that he kept on playing was the exact same reason as Buford's intention. He had been very impressed indeed by the cupid-side of the former-bully but it was also a big surprise that he knew so much about chess. He just wondered what would have happened if Baljeet was his normal self, while Buford stayed the way he was now. Would it be an even greater clash? He decided that that was going to be a problem for later on. He then pointed to Megan to move to a certain spot, which was, for now, the only available safe spot. "Your move, brother."
And there it was, he had to make his decision now. "Come on, Phineas! It's just a stupid game!" he thought to himself. "She wouldn't mind, right? After all, you've been trying to best your brother at this for years! But... it's Isabella we're talking about... or I'm talking about. It would feel like betraying her if I sacrificed her for a silly little game like chess. Then again, this isn't a small game anymore. Oh why is this so hard! I should have seen this coming, didn't I..."
"Phineas?" Isabella asked when she saw his smile disappear gradually. "Are you okay?"
He looked up at her. "I'm all fine... don't worry about me, I'm just... thinking of my next move."
"But... you've been following Buford's strategy till now... what makes this move so different?" Isabella then asked.
Even answering this question was hard. Should he just go tell her why this move was so hard? It didn't feel right for him to do so.
Isabella had begun to get a little worried. Chess wasn't exactly her strongest point and thus, she didn't know exactly what Buford's strategy was but seeing as Phineas was having difficulty with this move, she knew that something big was going to happen. In fact, she thought she knew exactly what was going to happen: sacrifices were going to be made. She had already seen him being very reluctant to letting Buford sacrifice himself and seeing as there were only one piece of each left, he was forced to sacrifice at least one person on the team. Yet he was far more occupied by his thoughts than when he was with Buford's sacrifice. Could it really be... was she going to be sacrificed? Was he really having that much difficulty with it? The thoughts kept Isabella busy.
"Come on, Din-... Phineas! Make the right decision!" Buford yelled from under the tree. He too had been anticipating this move. His plan went flawless and Phineas has, as he had expected, indeed gotten troubled. Was he going to do it or not?
Since Baljeet had found out the strategy, he too was very curious as to what would happen now. Sacrifice Isabella for the game or choose to save her in a meaningless little game of chess. It was going to be hectic all the same.
Megan, who had just been following Ferb's commands all day had learned the basics of chess as well throughout the game. Nonetheless, she had had a very great time. Only now, it became dead serious. There was going to be a sacrifice and from what she'd gathered, that sacrifice was going to be Isabella. This was great news for Isabella of course! She started chanting softly for no-one to hear. "Choose her, choose her, choose her."
Phineas then made up his mind. He looked up at everybody again and smiled. "Isabella... could you move to that spot over there?" he said.

While waiting for their dinner to be served, neither of them spoke. Both didn't want to bring up a stupid subject which might trigger the other one to get bored or even scared. They could only stare and smile at each-other, half-listening to murmurs from around them. The family seemed to be talking about going to a fun-park in a few days, while the gothic couple on their other side was talking about some kind of change-your-mind-inator... whatever that is. The silence went on for what felt like forever when suddenly, Stacy's stomach began rumbling from hunger. Stacy blushed madly at first but then, Coltrane said "You hear that, waiter? That stomach is trying to tell you to hurry up!"
Stacy chuckled and they soon broke out in laughter. "Well, at least you now know that my stomach is very impatient" she giggled.
Coltrane chuckled. "Hehehe, well then you haven't heard my stomach yet."
"No, no I haven't, which means that my stomach is more impatient than yours."
"Hey at least my stomach knows to behave itself when in a fancy restaurant."
The ice had been broken and both started laughing again. Stacy knew that this was going to be a great night indeed! Candace and Jenny were going to be so jealous when they hear about this! Step two: romantic dinner for two - SUCCES!!

"You didn't really expect me to let you go THAT easy, did you Perry the platypus?" Doofenshmirtz yelled with an evil grin on his face.
Perry turned around in the doorway. What was it this time?
"Even though I really don't have that much time left, I do have time for this!" The evil schemer then pressed a button on the wall.
Perry, expecting to be trapped yet again in some new cage, covered his face with his arms but to his surprise, nothing of the like happened. Nothing seemed to be dropping down from the ceiling, nothing wrapped him tightly. When he opened his eyes again, he could see that a bright light had begun shining. Was that all? His nemesis just put on the light?
"You can look again, Perry the platypus. In fact, I don't see why you looked away in the first place but oh well."
Finally, Perry decided to look at what was shining so brightly. What he saw, warmed his heart. Doofenshmirtz had made a huge neon sign saying 'nemesis for five years' and featuring some of their most memorable fights to date.
"Don't say you expected me to forget this, Perry the platypus, because I am perfectly fine with dates! Well not dates because uh... if I were perfectly fine with dates I'd already be married again but you get the point!"
Perry looked at him, completely shocked.
"Yeah, I know what you're thinking, 'wow, I didn't know that my nemesis was such a woozy'. Really, you think mean things sometimes! But I couldn't let this day pass without making a big show out of it. Though I did not expect you to lose your fedora! I was kind of worried that you had been assigned to another evil genius. Take your time to admire the sign because when I get back, I'll break it down again because, as you can see, the lights are flashing... and you know how much I HATE flashing lights! I'm just gonna go and..." Doofenshmirtz couldn't finish his sentence as he was given a friendly stomp by Perry.
"Ouch!... yes, I hate you too, Perry the platypus" Doofenshmirtz replied with a smile, giving the platypus a friendly kick. "But I must really be off now. Norm! Oh where is that robot when you need him. NOOORM!"
"Did the boogeyman leave, mommy?" the robot called from another room.
"Oh, and now you return to your random lines that don't make any sense, huh! Oh I'll get to that later. Right now, I want you to transform into a car again so we can pick up my daughter."
"And what about a license for me? The garage of the police head-quarters was so... dark" Norm said, remembering that time when he was towed away.
"Oh I do have one now! I don't want to have to walk all the way back home AGAIN... I mean... I don't want you to have to stay in a garage all night."
"Thank you very much."
"Anyway, Perry the platypus, I'll be cursing you tomorrow again!" the doctor said, to which the platypus gave him a thumbs up and a wink. After that, everybody left the room. One to go back home and the others to go pick up Vanessa.