Hayner dozed, not knowing when the train would reach whatever destination it was going to, or what he might see along the way. He'd tried to stay awake for the whole journey, but after a time it had become clear it was going to take much longer, so he'd sunk down into sleep without a thought for stopping the train.
When the slow realization dawned on him that there was no sound of the engine running and no feeling of movement beneath him, he roused himself and glanced around. The door on the other side of the cab had now also been forced open, and a few new footprints littered the dusty floor. Someone else had boarded the train, brought it to a stop, then left again.
He glanced out only to see it was in another station, by the looks of it the familiar, though abandoned, beach station. It was just as dusty as Twilight Town's station, suggesting that it too had not seen use in a long time.
There were fresh footprints in the dust though, leading away from the door that had been forced open. Hayner considered this, absently taking out the extra leaf he'd picked before he left and starting to eat it without even thinking about it. Once finished, he appeared to reach a decision and pushed himself up to follow the trail of footsteps.
The train had come into the beach station on the platform furthest from the entrance, leaving a long trail for him to follow. First they headed to the shared end of the station, alongside the station's long disused stores, where they turned aside behind a large supporting column. There the trail grew strange, no longer human footprints but becoming a series of pawprints leading away instead.
"Werewolf," he breathed, recognising the large prints easily. A closer examination revealed several long hairs to confirm his suspicions, no doubt left behind from the werewolf's fur.
As if in response to this thought, a howl rang out from beyond the station loud and clear. Unlike the one he'd heard in the tunnels, this one held the full range of harmonics, it was a real howl from a real wolf or werewolf, and not from one of this town's simulations of a wolf.
Hayner ran outside, only glancing at the trail of pawprints that mirrored his route. The wolf, be it a true one or a werewolf, could still be heard when he got outside, and after only a moment to orient himself he headed toward where it sounded like it was coming from.
The howl ended before he found the one who'd given it, but he continued on all the same, passing the collection of wrecked shacks and houses that had once made up the old seaside beach town better known as the Destiny Islands. Evidently without a sun to enjoy here, it had lost its appeal to the locals.
In the distance, the smaller island where the younger residents often went to play without adult interference could be seen, though even it appeared to be different here. The wildlife on the island seemed to have grown wild, taking over any structures that had once been built there, giving it an almost feral appearance.
Then the town was being left behind as he headed up the rocky path up the hills behind. The plant life here too had become overgrown, almost enough to be taller than he was, but the path he was travelling along was kept clear of any straying plants. It was as if someone had just carved a swathe through the jungle around him.
It dropped away sharply when he reached the top of the hill, returning to the neatly clipped lawns that were here in the real world counterpart to this cliffside retreat he knew as Twinmirror Cove. As he crested the hill he was bathed in a gentle light coming from a full moon ahead that seemed to be exactly the same distance from the fortress at the peak of the left branch of the path, and the forest on the opposite side of the Cove to it.
Where the path branched, there was an old sign that named the place as Twinmirror Cove, the rest of the words too faded to read. In his own world, Hayner knew that they were warnings to keep away from the cliff's edge, and to keep away from the forest due to wild animals that inhabited the forest.
It also told of the legend behind the Cove's name, saying that on both sides there had once been a stronghold that belonged to two warring factions, and what one side did, the other mirrored, forcing both sides to counter their own manoeuvre even as their opposites countered it themselves. The fortress that had stood where the forest now lay had been destroyed in an event known only as the Second Great War, a name that came from some who claimed to be survivors of it, but spoke nothing of it.
Legend also told that this Cove reached out to any other Cove like it, and Cove twinned with it, and sometimes effects, memories and more would make their way from one such Cove and another. These two legends together had given the place its name – Twinmirror Cove.
But what held his attention more than the sign was the great wolf sat in front of it. It was mostly a light brown, but patches seemed waver in colour, even becoming colours that were most un-wolflike, with a thick silvery ruff just behind the neck. There were small patches of reds and yellows, and lighter, almost blonde fur around the paws.
Hanging on a chain around the wolf's neck was a silver crown on a chain, swaying slightly in the faint breeze, occasionally glinting when it caught the faint moonlight. The most prominent feature though were the red eyes, not bright red, but a dull red, watching him. They were the only part of this werewolf – he was sure of that now – that was not familiar. Had they been blue...
"Sora?" Hayner murmured, taking an unconscious step back. If it was him, he was not one to be tangled with lightly, that was for sure. But why was he here? Had he followed some lasting scent of his own brief time as a vampire? Or was he here to track down any vampires in this world?
The werewolf shook itself, then rose, turned and bounded up the right path toward the forested region above. Was that an indication to follow? He took it as such, heading up the path after it.
From his left, there seemed to come a faint angry snarl that caused him to pause, glancing up the other path toward the fortress with its orange slits where the windows were, but then he shrugged and continued up the right path.
Pence had decided to keep his views to himself since Seifer had been sent through, mostly because he had given him the delivery of Hexafaun leaves that he'd asked for. He might not like Seifer or like having to work with him, but as long as he had a leaf to munch on whenever he started to get agitated, he reasoned it'd be fine.
Now that he had a small supply, he could set about cultivating them here. He was not the only one to have built up an addiction to the leaves and their effects, and as the plants did not naturally grow anywhere, let alone here, he'd have to find a safe way to replicate the conditions they needed.
Several more small groups had been brought through since Seifer's arrival, and he'd commandeered one of them to give him a hand managing. Now they were the one passing on the general advice about this world, while he focused on maintaining their connection and bringing others through safely.
However, not everyone had made it successfully no matter how much care he took. Everyone had survived, but some... they'd had to set up a triage area upstairs in the mansion that had become their home in this world.
Most of those injured had entered this world with only minor injuries. Some few had appeared missing parts or in rare cases even a whole limb. Rarer still were worse cases than that. But one of the oddest and most common cases were of people arriving that had been fine in their own world, but appeared here in this world partially covered in some of the fungus from their own.
Removing it had not been trivial, as it seemed to be parasitic in nature and not willing to let go easily. A few early subjects had agreed to let the doctors attempt to remove it, there had been no fatalities, but there were clear marks left from the procedures. Fewer people had opted to be treated that way, instead preferring to help with newer treatments.
All the while, Pence kept a close watch on Hayner. Somehow he'd managed to slip past whatever arrangements had been made and gone to Twinmirror Cove – and worse, there was an unknown intruder inside the simulation, a real person from the real world and not anyone native to either Twilight Town or the simulated version. Who they were and what their intentions were was a secondary matter to how they'd managed to get in at all, let alone unnoticed.
His attempts to investigate were again interrupted by a signal from the other side, signifying another group ready to come through. He didn't bother to acknowledge the signal, instead transferring them directly over to this world. There was only one person on this one, the system on the other side reported.
To his surprise, it turned out to be his mother, as usual with the bright red eyes that proved she never let her craving for blood get ahead of her.
"You're here!" he exclaimed, his investigation forgotten.
"Of course I'm here," she replied warmly. "I told you I'd come as soon as I could, didn't I? Has Seifer given you any trouble?"
"No, mother. Once he got out of the mansion he kept to himself. Anything he wants me to forward on, he gets Rai to bring to me instead because he can't stand the sight of me... or so Rai says."
"Good thing too. We still need you, Pence. Now be honest with me son... I know you get your own supply of our leaves from somewhere, and they're nearly always on the same level as my own."
"I don't know about that..." he protested. "Yours are always better than hers," he said, then looked chagrined.
"You're not in trouble, don't worry. We just need to know who she is, and where to find her."
"I don't go to her myself," Pence admitted. "She hates me with a vengeance. But I know where she is. On Market street, there's a back street just up from the noticeboard. You go down there, and her store is right behind the red curtain. Why do you need her?"
"We received word that you've been having trouble growing our plants here. Much as I would love to protest otherwise... it appears your supplier knows a great deal more about growing the plants than anyone else, and so we are... acquiring her services."
"I guess that frees me up from having to do it. I've got an anomaly I'm trying to figure out anyway." He briefly explained what little he knew about the intruder.
"Inconvenient, but it changes nothing," she told him eventually. "Ignore this and continue your work. His lordship will advise us when it is time to begin the final phase."
"About that... I can't be sure it'll work yet."
"It's your job to see that it does work, Pence. And you must ensure their Hayner is returned to this world safely too, or we risk something happening to our own."
