Disclaimer: I do not own Infinity Train, or anything related to it. I only own the OC featured in this story.
The Castle and the Bell
After Ryan and Min leave, Kez sets out to do what she should have done in the first place. Make amends with the other denizens she caused so much trouble.
She tells Morgan about where she's been, who the denizens that attacked their car were, and what she planned on doing. Both of them are set pieces for the Castle Car, but Kez is free to come and go as she pleases, unlike Morgan, whose foundation is attached to the car itself. They both know that the only way Morgan will ever get to experience the rest of the train is through whatever Kez tells her.
Kez helps Nigel in the Astro Queue Car, setting up for the next party. She also tells off her so-called friends that made jokes at her expense and ditched her when they show up for it; passengers like Ryan, Min, and Jeremy taught her what real friends are like, as in not like those jerks.
Kez cleans up Pig Baby and Cow Creamer's car. While sweeping up crumbs and scrubbing dishes, she finds some cookbooks full of recipes that lined up with Ryan and Min's respective heritage. She asks Pig Baby and Cow Creamer if she could take them back to Morgan; they consent.
While Judge Morpho refuses the apology she gave, Kez still tries to pay her dues in the Old West Car. The Cat is kind enough to find her odd jobs she could fill.
Her attempts to make things right with the aliens from the Eon Oscillator Car go similarly to the Old West Car. Unlike Judge Morpho refusing the apology, the aliens accept it, and find little things for her to do to pay them back. She rearranges book shelves, vacuums floors, and other common household chores.
Feeling satisfied with her work, Kez returns to Morgan and waits for their next visitor to pass through. Things are bit better between them, but Jeremy's exit still leaves a minor rift in their partnership as the Castle Car's denizens.
As time passes, she worries that she's beginning to forget their voices. She can remember Jeremy's clearly since he had been with her and Morgan for five years; Ryan and Min were with her not nearly as long. To preserve their memory, she looks at the cookbooks, thinking about how the two friends would reminisce about their parents' cooking and their favorite things to eat. She tries to make some of the dishes in Morgan's kitchen, but without them there to judge, she never knows if she got them right.
Some days, she sits in the foyer at the reception desk and wonders what they're doing and if they're okay. Did their music career take off just like they wanted? Did they have a big fight and split and the train hasn't picked them up again to fix it? Or did the train pick them up and they just are far out of her reach?
She can't sleep at night sometimes because she worries about them. Them and Jeremy, the three passengers she got the most attached to, ever. Morgan doesn't understand about Ryan and Min, but she does understand about Jeremy. They talk about him sometimes on those sleepless nights, slowly mending that rift bit by bit, and bringing up old memories from their five years of friendship with the passenger.
Eventually one day, a new passenger enters the Castle Car.
Morgan tells Kez the minute they enter through the car's door.
Once they get through the maze and approach the foyer, Kez finally sees them.
It's a girl passenger, clearly younger than Ryan and Min were when they were onboard. She has blond hair, a streak of pink to the side, and wears an orange hoodie with a pair of headphones around her neck. As she gets closer, Kez can see a glowing green 73 on her right hand.
The passenger stops at the reception desk, and looks around. "Um, hello?"
"Hi!" Kez greets cheerfully as she always does to new passengers. The girl shrieks in surprise, and Kez holds back a snicker at the reaction. That never gets old. "Welcome to the Castle Car! I'm Kez. Meet my roommate, Morgan. Say hi, Morgan!"
"Hello, new passenger!" Morgan's greeting startles the girl more, her eyes darting everywhere to figure out where the voice is coming from.
"Morgan is the castle you're standing in," Kez explains, floating up from her spot on the desk. "What's your name?"
"Um," the girl plays with her headphones, "my name is Angelica, but I hate it so everyone calls me Angel."
"Okay, Angel it is." Kez hovers over the register. "Want to write your name down? We do it with all our passengers that come through."
Angel shrugs and picks up the pen. She moves to write her name down below the most recent name, but she pauses. Her eyes bug out at the name, or names, she would have written under. "Wait, Ryan Akagi and Min-Gi Park?" She turns sharply to Kez. "As in The Ryan Akagi and Min-Gi Park? As in Chicken Choice Judy?!"
If Kez had a heart, she was sure it would be pounding as she heard their names be spoken by someone other than herself.
"You know them?" The call bell asks in shock.
"Know them? I was on my way to a concert of theirs before the train picked me up!" Angel digs into the pocket of her hoodie, pulling out a CD player that the headphones were plugged into. "I have one of their CDs in my player, listen!"
She takes the headphones off her neck and sets them on the desk, which Kez lands back on and arranges herself in between the headphones. Angel hits play and cranks the volume up to the highest setting.
As the first song starts up, music fills the previously silent foyer.
Then Kez hears it. She hears them.
Their voices sound a bit older, but it is definitely them.
Memories flood to the front of her mind like they had just been yesterday, memories of their discussions and jokes and attempts at writing a song based on their experiences.
Tears well up in her metal eyes as she strains to memorize every note and every lyric in the song she listens to.
Once the song is over, Angel hits stop, and Kez gazes up at her.
"Those corpses…" Kez murmurs before raising her voice louder. "They did it? They made a career?"
Seeing how moved the little bell is, Angel smiles. "They became a big hit in the early 90's. One of their first albums was called…" Angel's smile disappears as she is struck by a realization. "…The Castle and the Bell. It's you!" She points at Kez. "You're the bell their album was talking about!" Angel looks around herself. "And Morgan is the castle."
"…They wrote a song about me? About us?" Kez presses softly.
"It's not just one song," Angel says, waving her hands excitedly. "It's a whole album's worth. A lot of their songs talk about a special friend, and a lot of weird metaphors I'm now understanding were about stuff they must have experienced on the train." She blinks as another insight comes to mind. "They dedicated the album to a special friend they called Kez. I'm realizing just now they dedicated it to you."
"They remember me," Kez says, stunned.
Angel smiles again. "I think anything from the train would be hard to forget."
They go silent for several minutes. Even Morgan does not have anything to say about the recent news.
Then Kez speaks up once more. "What do you know about them? Ryan and Min?"
"I'm a fan of their band. I know everything. How they started, when they've toured, names of their songs and albums, what instruments they play."
"Tell me?"
"Sure. Got anything to eat?"
The End