After the initial shake, the train proceeded to undergo mild shock waves in the course of the next five minutes. Granted, Zexion and Demyx were able to get up and move about, but the constant shaking made those tasks a challenge. How Axel and Rox had managed to get so far ahead of them was a mystery, and the fact that the train was dead silent beyond the occasional screeching from the tracks and the reoccurring shakes was unsettling. Zexion cursed as he stepped out of yet another passenger room, meeting Demyx mid-way down the hall.

"No good. I can't find anyone."

"Me neither," Demyx said worriedly. "No conductors, no passengers, no one." Then, a bit more fearfully, the blonde added, "What do you think happened to them?"

Zexion scowled at him. "I have no clue. It just makes no sense! I know I heard people outside our door just before Axel and Rox left!"

"We haven't seen them either. Maybe we should go look for them. You know, make sure they're alright?"

"I agree." The dark-haired boy looked over at one of the windows, blinking briefly as he thought he caught a glimpse of something, glowing faintly green. Before he could double take, he caught sight of Demyx looking at him, confused, and shook it off. The stress of this whole situation must have been getting to him.

"I think they were headed toward the baggage car."

Not a minute earlier:

Elsewhere, Axel tugged Rox into the baggage car and quickly closed the door behind them, looking much more relieved now that they were away from ticket checkers. Rox, still unaware of all this, glanced around at his new surroundings, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"Okay, so...what are we doing in here again?"

The redhead flashed a grin at his companion, working his charm. "Well, kid-"

"Don't you mean 'Your Highness'?" the boy said flatly, raising an eyebrow.

"Highness, yes," Axel groaned softly, so that it was barely audible. It was gone in a second. "I didn't want you to have to mingle with all those lowly commoners."

Rox snorted at that. "What, lower than you?" He managed to ignore it when the man gave him a small glare. Looking more around the room with disdain, the blonde drew his hands up and clasped them to his arm, rubbing them as he shivered lightly. "You've got to be kidding me. It's freezing in here!"

"Oh, stop being such a drama queen!" Axel was at his side in seconds, shrugging out of his coat gruffly before dumping it onto his shoulders. "There! Now you cope with it!"

"Axel, it's gotta be negative five degrees in here!" the boy protested. "You'll freeze! Take this back!"

"I don't need it! You-"

Just then, the train shook. Rox stumbled in his step to return the coat, and Axel, by pure instinct, moved to catch him. The two managed to stay on their feet until the wave subsided, and Rox looked up from where his face had been pressed to Axel's chest, the redhead meeting his gaze, equally dumbfounded.

"What just happened?"

"How the hell should I know?" Axel growled, pushing away from the boy and brooding slightly. Each turned away from the other briefly, so consumed by the troubling shake and their own thoughts that neither noticed the other blushing ever so slightly.

In the end, they both brushed it off as a result of the cold.

Finally, after another minute of frustration, Rox hushed him softly, before firmly deciding they had to leave the car. Something had to be wrong with the train.

"Axel, we-"

"Shhhhh!" the redhead hissed at him, before turning back to face the door.

Rox stuttered indignantly for a moment, then strode over to the taller man, hands firmly resting on his hips. "Did you just tell me to-"

"Shhhh! Yes, I did! Now be quiet! I'm listening!"

The blonde made a small "harumph," but stifled his annoyance. He waited, listening as well, trying to understand what Axel was waiting for, but another minute passed and he heard nothing.

Then it dawned on him. Nothing.

"Axel?" he whispered, more nervously.

The man still stared at the door, eyes narrowed. Just then, there was a loud bang as the door swung open. Both boys jumped a mile high, only realizing then that it was Zexion and Demyx, bringing a barking, squirming Sora with them.

"Oh guys! I'm so glad we found you!" The mulleted boy sprang forward and crushed both of them in a hug. "It's so weird! Everybody else on the train seems to have disappeared!"

Axel blinked. "Disappeared? How?"

"We don't know," Zexion said coldly, stepping into the room as he eyed it with the same disgust Rox had. "I think there are other questions we should be focusing on right now. Like who is driving this train?"

"And more importantly, how are we getting off?" Demyx supplied helpfully. "I can't speak for you guys, but me personally, I'm itching to get off this creepy train a.s.a.p.!"

"Here, here," Axel muttered, shrugging out of his friend's hug and leading the group out to the nearest window. Peering out of it he could see more frost on the glass, but beyond that there was an eerie green glow outside the train. Zexion came up beside him first, his eyes widening as the glow seemed to be spreading over the train. Though they could barely see it through the frost, something appeared to be wrong in the first car. There was lots of black smoke billowing from the smoke stack, as well as something else...

"I'm going to go see if anyone's still driving this thing." With a pointed look at each person, he ordered, "Zexion, you stay here and make sure everyone stays together. Demyx," he almost deadpanned, "For God sakes, listen to him when he tells you something. And Rox," with more irritation this time, "Put a leash on that damn dog and don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

He ignored the boy's glare, heading out to the door that led to the outside of the train. From there, he stepped across to the next car and grasped the ladder, taking it all the way up so that he could walk on the roof. From there, he had a good vantage point to see the state of the train, and as he moved along, what he saw shocked him thoroughly. Parts of the train were worn away; several cars looked like they'd been bitten into by something. Other spots looked charred somehow, and the smoke stack at the very front was releasing black smoke, with a slight green tint to it. The whole train appeared to be shaking out of control, and as Axel looked over the side of the train, he found the answer.

"What the hell?"

Little green things were ramming the side. To say they were "things" is to say that Axel had never seen anything like them in his life. They vaguely resembled animals, but the limbs were elongated and gangly, the teeth too sharp to be anything natural. They were proceeding to slam the train and bite into the metal siding at the same time. Axel very nearly lost his balance as he watched them. The green light glowing from them looked almost radioactive.

Suddenly the plan for checking the engine room looked too dangerous. If his suspicions were correct, everyone else on board the train had vanished somehow, meaning the conductors were probably gone. And even as he slowly considered climbing up ahead and possibly stopping the train, a huge gust of flame exploded from the smoke stack, sending some smoke and embers back to him. The man raised a hand to his face, shielding his eyes and nose from the burning particles.

More of the train was being eaten away at as he began backing up, crawling along the roof. As he moved back further, his eyes still fixed on the green demons as they swooped up and ate away at the train, his foot slipped. Axel let out a shout as he began to fall back fast, expecting to get caught and thrown under the train. But his feet met neither snow nor track.

Opening his eyes again, he registered a squeezing pressure in his wrist, and upon looking up, met familiar blue eyes.

"Axel, you clumsy ass!" Rox shouted over the roar of the train. "Hold on!"

The trains whistle sounded loudly, shrill on the air. Axel jolted at the sound, but clung to the boy's arm with his other hand, climbing slowly back up onto the roof. Once safely balanced again, the two sat for a moment, panting from exertion, before Rox spoke.

"You should watch where you're going, idiot! You could have been killed!"

"You...saved me..." Axel's expression changed from confused, to grateful, to mildly irritated very quickly. "I thought I told you to stay with the others!"

"And I thought I told you, stop bossing me around!" the blonde snapped.

Axel sighed. "Touché'." He didn't really feel like fighting right now. There was also the little fact that the boy had just saved his life.

Rox mumbled something then that he couldn't really hear over the noise, but it sounded like, "I still have your coat." Glancing back at the boy, Axel realized that he did. He had barely noticed.

So slowly, carefully, the boys made their decent back down the train, until they reached the ladder of the last car. Axel told Rox everything he had seen, even showed the boy the little green creatures eating away at the metal on the lower part of the train. They weren't moving very fast, but soon they could easily eat through something important. Or just generally eat the train right out from under them.

"So what do we do now, if it's too dangerous to reach the engine?"

"The train cars are connected via these heavy metal hooks and chain links near the bottom on the outsides. Our best hope is probably to unhook this car from the rest of the train and wait till it coasts to a stop."

The blonde looked at him flatly. "Well, I gotta say, this has been a first class ride. Tell me there's more of this in store on this trip, Axel. Please do."

"Hey, it's not my fault that these...whatever they are are messing with the train!" Axel yelled back, exasperated.

"If we live through this, I'd rather let Demyx book the next trip!"

"Oh, shut up!"

The train whistle blew again, and this time they both looked up, bemused. Their eyes widened, though, when they saw a bridge over a deep quarry up in the distance, and the bridge was out.

"Oh my God..."

Axel immediately sprang into action, grabbing the boy's shoulder.

"Looks like we don't have much time. Come on."

He helped them both down onto the space between platforms, but upon closer inspection, the two groaned when they found that the hook holding the cars together looked rusted. Even if they could lift it normal, it was almost impossible now, seeing as the thing was practically welded down. Axel screamed in frustration.

"This'll never work! What the hell do we do now?"

"You're asking me?" The boy paused briefly, gripping the ladder as the train shook hard again. "Wait! I've got an idea! I'll be back!"

"Where are you going?" But the boy didn't answer him. Rox disappeared through the heavy door, and Axel settled for following him, snapping at Demyx and Zexion.

"Guys, give me a hand! Find a crowbar, a hammer! Something!"

Demyx stuttered, beginning to dig through the bags on the right side of the room. "Uh, right! Something!"

Zexion shot Axel a look. "What's going on?"

"No time! The train's about to run off a cliff!" At that, the men scrambled faster. At last, Axel held a hammer in his hand, and he went back out, beating it down against the metal hard.

"Come on! Come on!" No matter how man times he slammed down on it, it didn't break. The cars were still hooked, and at this rate, even if they did get free, there was no way they'd slide to a stop before they reached the end of the bridge. The train whistle blew yet again, to which Axel responded by pounding faster, more frantically.

"Come on, you damn thing! I didn't come here to die!"

"Hey Axel! Think this'll work?" Came a shout from behind him. The next thing he saw was a lit stick of dynamite being shoved in front of his face.

"Oh...Yes!" He grabbed it and shoved it down into the wedge firmly. He then grabbed Rox's arm and dragged him back inside, shouting to the others to scramble for cover. Pulling the blonde behind a wall of packages, he rushed the boy as he called Sora to him, pulling the anxious dog close to his chest. The two boys lowered their heads and prepared for impact.

"Where the hell''d you find that thing?"

"In here. There was a crate marked 'explosives' I saw earlier. It just came to me."

"Huh..." After a pause, "What the hell do they teach kids at orphanages?"

The train then shook violently with the explosion. They heard a scream from Demyx and saw a few flying pieces of luggage, but somehow the wall in front of them managed to stay. Though, now, the train was looking eaten away-at for a completely different reason than before.

Once it was safe, Axel stood slowly. "Is everyone alright?"

"Zexion got hit!"

"How the hell did that happened?"

"Some of the debris got him! He's out cold!" Demyx cried, sounding more and more upset.

Axel groaned. "You'll have to carry him then! Come on! We need to get off this train now!"

Rox held his squirming dog tighter in his arms, trying to soothe him despite the noise from the tracks getting louder. Demyx joined them soon, carrying an unconscious Zexion over his shoulder, and Axel saw a small trace of blood dripping down from underneath his hair.

"Stop blubbering! He'll be fine! But none of us will be if we don't get off of this thing!" He motioned both boys to follow him out the back door. Sure enough, when they stepped outside, they saw that the car was indeed slowing down. Not nearly fast enough, though. The snow was still whipping past them, but it would hopefully be enough cushions to keep the rest of them from getting too battered.

"Well, I think this is our stop," Rox said snarkily, looking strangely calm despite the situation. Axel hooked his arm through the boy's on his left, Demyx's on his right, and then together they jumped, as Demyx let out a shrill, almost girly scream, which was soon muffled when they hit the snow.

Behind them, the train sped on for a few more minutes until it reached the bridge, the green glow around it still eating away even as the engine began to plummet down. It vanished within seconds, and then exploded at the bottom, sending flame and smoke shooting into the air. The ground shook briefly, but then there was no more. The snow kept falling, and the wind kept howling.

From his lair, Ansem watched with growing fury as the group emerged from the snow, mostly unharmed.

"I hate trains," the redhead snapped. Once he was free, he began to pull Roxas out, as the snow was almost over his head, it was so deep. "Remind me never to go on a train again."

"Zexion!" The mulleted boy cried, brushing snow onto the unconscious boy's forehead, then wiping it away with his sleeve. "Is he going to be alright?"

The man watched them bicker and argue for another moment before he swiped at the magic image with a growl, immediately causing it to dissipate.

"That little fool! He managed to escape!"

Riku looked impassively from the side where he leaned against the wall. "Why didn't you send those things to destroy him, instead of just the train?"

"These creatures," the man rumbled, holding up a small one in his open fist, "are what one might call 'gremlins.' They have been enchanted with teeth and may be commanded to attack metal crafts, but they have no interest in people. That is something that even I have not managed to teach them. They were to take out the bridge and meddle with the train only. I had hoped that would be enough."

The silver haired boy shrugged. "I told you to send me. I could do the job real quick. Just a slit of the throat while he's asleep and the boy would be out of your hair."

Ansem scowled. "You have so little faith in my abilities, Riku?"

"Perhaps not, if you did the deed yourself. Your magic has always had side effects, some more detrimental to yourself. Need I remind you of how the revolt left you?"

The old man looked down, for once silenced by the younger man's words.

"I do not need reminding."

"Then perhaps you should listen to me, and gets this job over with before that boy foils you again. This time he may very well kill you."

Ansem scoffed bitterly. "I will kill him before that ever happens. And as for your faith in my spells, I'll show you something. Something crueler, more effective. He will not escape me this time."