Chapter Four is slightly shorter. Oh well, things'll get interesting (if they aren't already). Please R&R

Note: Thanks to Athena and Mooncry for bringing up a good point about Hollow Bastion now being called Radiant Garden. I'll try to throw in an explainer to cover this up in a later chapter, heh, heh . . .

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. The only thing I own is my crazy mind! Bwahahahahahaha! (and this laptop).

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Chapter Four -- Train Ride

Zexion stood, leaning against a lightpost and calmly smoking a cigarette. All around him the students began to mill about, waiting for the trains to start boarding. Zexion moved down the platform toward one of the trains which would fill more slowly. No way am I going to join in the pushing and shoving just to get on a closer train. Some other students seemed to be thinking along the same lines. Like Zexion, they appeared to be the quieter, more sullen youth. Zexion didn't pay much attention to them, however. He just leaned against another lamppost, smoking his cigarette.

One of the trains sounded it's horn and the doors to the trains opened. Zexion heard the yells and the sounds of the students all scrambling onto the closest trains. Smirking to himself, he climbed aboard a relatively empty train. There were only a few other students in this train although Zexion was sure that it wouldn't be long before this train was crowded with a bunch of immature kids too. Sighing, Zexion threw his bag in one seat and sat down, tossing his cigarette out the window. He watched it smolder for a few moments before it was trampled by the other students entering the train. Zexion watched them enter onto the train. Most of them ignored Zexion while other looked at him with uncertainty and nervousness. Zexion didn't care what they thought of him. He wasn't here to make friends.

"May I sit here?" a girl's voice voice asked. Zexion started and looked at the person with surprise.

She was very pretty with auburn hair that ran just past her shoulders and startlingly blue eyes. She was looking at Zexion with a friendly smile that somehow kept him from saying no. Zexion shifted and nodded and she sat down beside him. Why the heck does she want to sit beside me?

"I saw you talking to Cloud Strife." the girl said, smiling at him. Zexion stared at her in surprise. She knows Cloud? The girl laughed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, "My name's Kairi." She held out her hand. Zexion took it, completely thrown by the odd behaviour of this pretty girl. That name sounds familiar.

"I'm Zexion." he said, "How do you know Cloud?"

"We're friends." Kairi replied, "He helped me and my friends when we needed him and I've stayed in touch." Zexion nodded. Where have I heard that name before?

"Kairi!" someone called out. Zexion and Kairi both looked up. Zexion saw two boys and a girl coming toward them. They threw themselves into the seat in front of Zexion and Kairi.

"Sorry," one boy said, "Our parents decided to see us off." he rolled his eyes.

"This is Hayner." Kairi said to Zexion, indicating a feisty-looking youth with messy, sandy-brown hair, "This is Pence." she indicated the stocky youth who had fought Seifer before Zexion, "and this is Olette." She indicated a pretty girl with dark brown hair. "And this is Zexion." she said to her friends, indicating the confused youth sitting beside her.

"You did better than me, facing Seifer." Pence said, holding out a hand. Zexion shook it.

"I didn't even want to fight." he muttered. Pence nodded.

"Krail and Heuler are a couple of idiots." the boy named Hayner said, pounding his fist on the back of his seat, "When I get my hands on them at school . . ." He left it hanging. Zexion turned to Kairi. The one thing had been bugging him in the back of his mind since she sat down.

"Why did you want to sit with me?" he asked. Kairi smiled at him.

"Because you look like you need a friend." she said. Zexion stared at her and then suddenly it clicked.

"Cloud put you up to this." he accused pointing a finger at Kairi. Then he gave a short laugh. Kairi laughed too.

"Yeah, he caught us on his way out of the station." she said, brightly. "He said we should introduce ourselves to you. But you do look like you need a friend." she finished. Zexion gave a small smile which Kairi returned. This is one strange girl. She's pretty though. Zexion frowned slightly. Pretty? Since when have I cared if someone was pretty or not? It must be my heart.

The students had almost entirely loaded on the train. A couple of rowdy young men were sitting in the seat across from them, talking and laughing loudly. Zexion threw them an annoyed look. He hated partying. When he had been with Organization XIII, Xigbar, the organization's number two, had always been throwing parties. About half the members would join and the other half would decide how to punish Xigbar later. Zexion had always been with the latter group.

Zexion looked over at Kairi and saw her digging through her purse. As she was digging, a small picture fell out and onto the ground. Zexion reached down to pick it up and gave a gasp when he saw it. It was a picture of Kairi with a boy and Zexion knew which boy it was, having tried hard a couple years earlier to kill him. It was Sora. Suddenly, Zexion realized where he had heard Kairi's name before. Part of Marluxia's overall plan had involved using Kairi's nobody, named Namine, to mess with Sora's memories. She had been ordered to substitute memories of Kairi with memories of herself. This must have been Sora's friend, Namine's other.

"Sora . . ." he muttered, looking at the picture. Kairi looked at him.

"You knew Sora?" she asked, taking the picture and looking at it with something close to adoration.

"Knew?" Zexion asked, confused with the tense. A shadow passed across Kairi's face.

"He died a year ago?" she said, quietly. Zexion saw her eyes glistening with tears.

"Who would have wanted to kill him?" Zexion said, almost to himself, "The Organization was destroyed. He destroyed us . . . them." he finished quickly. Kairi obviously had missed Zexion's slip.

"He was killed fighting a renegade keyblade warrior." she said. Tears were starting to fall down her face. Zexion felt odd. What feeling is this? It's been so long . . . pity? No, compassion. Zexion awkwardly put a hand on Kairi's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." he said. Through her tears, Kairi gave him a smile.

"I'm sorry, too." a new voice interrupted, "I'm sorry that such a beautiful girl is crying on the train to school." Zexion and Kairi both started and looked up. A tall and handsome young man was standing in front of them, smiling down at Kairi. He looked like an all-star quarterback, but Zexion took an immediate dislike to him. There was something about him that Zexion thoroughly hated. He didn't know what it was, but one of his talents was his ability to accurately judge people based on first impressions. And his first impression was telling him that this guy was a jerk.

"Who are you?" he asked softly. The young man ignored him. He looked to be a year or so older than Zexion and was much taller. He knelt down in front of Kairi, who was staring at him in surprise. He reached up and wiped the tears away from her cheeks. Zexion felt himself grow angrier but he had no idea why this youth should bother him so much.

"My name is Dellan Haiko." he said, "You may have heard of my father, Lord Haiko, governor of Destiny Islands?" Kairi nodded mutely. Suddenly, with a slight lurch, the train started forward. Dellan looked behind him at the two loud teens. "Kroan, Ellsen, mind it we steal your seat?" He finished with a brilliant smile a Kairi. Zexion felt his hand clench. Zexion, what's wrong with you. Who cares if she sits with some loser playboy, keep it together. The two teens grinned and moved a seat up, scaring a couple of younger students out of the seat. Dellan sat down and pulled Kairi gently over to his seat. He looked over at the Cloaked Schemer. "You don't mind." it was a statement, not a question.

"Only if she does." Zexion answered coldly. Kairi had been thrown by Dellan's sudden appearance and didn't seem to be able to argue. The handsome teen with his winning smile seemed to have entranced her. One of the two teens who had formerly occupied that seat, moved over into Zexion's seat. Zexion stared at him coldly. "Who invited you?"

"No one." the teen answered, "I'm Kroan. I know that you're Zexion. I saw you fight Seifer and you're hard to forget because of your . . . ah, interesting . . . fashion statement." The teen reached up and pulled piece of Zexion's long bangs that covered almost half of his face. Zexion knew that the young man was trying to get under Zexion's skin. Zexion knocked Kroan's hand away and laughed contemptously at the youth, who looked to be about his own age.

"You're an idiot if you think that you can attack my vanity," he said, "or the way I fought Seifer."

"Well, if you had hung around, you would have seen the match where Dellan completely destroyed Seifer." Kroan said idly, "I think the score was something like 180 to 10 or something. Seifer was massacred." Kroan finished with a laugh.

"I really don't give a shit." Zexion replied, "I didn't want to fight but for-"

"Krail and Hueler." Kroan finished, "Krail's my younger brother and you're lucky that he and his friend Hueler aren't on this section of the train. Once they take a dislike to someone, they got out of their way to make that someone's life unbearable."

"I take it that you're the same way." Zexion remarked, lighting a cigarette. He glanced over at Kairi. She was laughing at something Dellan said. The sight made Zexion's gut clench. What's wrong with you Zexion? Control yourself. No emotions, the Cloaked Schemer has no emotions.

"I'm more subtle." Kroan said in answer to Zexion's statement.

"Sure you are." Pence said, looking over the back of the seat. "I know your family and the Mantakas are all jerks." Pence finished looking at Zexion. Kroan smiled up at Pence.

"I saw your match too." he said. Zexion noticed that his smile didn't reach his eyes, which were ice-cold. "I also notice that you voluteered yourself." Pence looked slightly defensive.

"I figured I'd give it a try." he said, "I knew that I wasn't going to win."

"I did too." Kroan responded. Pence's face reddened.

"Don't worry about it, Pence." Zexion said, "You're just playing right into his hands. I never saw you fight." Zexion added, looking at Kroan with the penetrating stare that he had perfected during his time in Castle Oblivion. No one could hold his gaze for long and sure enough, Kroan's eyes dropped. He looked angry with himself and Zexion knew that he was silently berating himself for being the first to look away. When he looked back up, though, he was smiled again, although his eyes remained cold.

"There was no point." Kroan answered, "After Dellan beat Seifer, there was no reason for me to compete. Why would I fight my best friend?" Zexion made a sound that indicated he didn't believe Kroan. Kroan's face darkened and Zexion attacked further.

"Strange." he said, idly exhaling some smoke out of the partially open window, "The ringleader of your little gang-" he said gang with dripping contempt, "-was the first to fight Seifer. Usually they let their cronies soften the challenge up first." Kroan was smiled but his eyes told Zexion that Kroan was incensed.

"You're a mouthy freak aren't you." he said with a laugh. Zexion gave a small smile.

"I've practiced." he said, "Maybe I'll give you and you're loser friends some lessons sometime. With practice, you might be able to hold my gaze for a full seven seconds." Pence, who had been listening to the conversation, laughed. Kroan could no longer keep up the facade. His smile vanished and he glowered at Zexion.

"Be careful, punk." he hissed, "You've made some dangerous enemies."

"I'm terrified." Zexion replied sarcastically, "Now get out of my seat." Kroan's smile was back in place again as he withdrew. Zexion saw him go over and join his friend, the one called Ellsen. The two put their heads together, no doubt discussing the coversation Kroan had with Zexion. Zexion, however, didn't care. He took another whiff of his cigarette. Pence glared after them.

"Those two are going to try and make your life hell, you know." he said. Zexion nodded. He glanced over at Kairi. She was still talking to Dellan. Zexion felt his fist clenching again, but stopped when he realized what he was doing. Easy, Zexion. Who cares if she likes some moron.

Kroan and Ellsen continued to whisper to each other, casting glances over at Zexion that he didn't like the look of. He sighed. It didn't look like he would get away from these two unless he gave them a reason to respect him. Unfortunately, he didn't think he would stand a chance against those two in a fistfight. Silently, he cursed the fact that the powers he had had as a nobody seemed to have left him. Having a heart seems to be causing me more trouble than good. I should have just stayed a nobody and let that little girl have the heart. She would make better use of it than I will. Too late now though. She's a dusk, probably destroyed by some heartless and I'm a miserable teenager with a heart I don't know what to do with. Zexion cursed again, both his hands clenching into fists.

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I'm not one hundred percent sure how Chapter five will go, but it will start with Kairi. Thanks for reviewing!