With the release of another season of Infinity Train, comes another story in this very different timeline. If you thought my second story diverges from the cannon story then just you wait. Before we begin however, this story comes after two others called A Mirrored Perspective, and The Sliver Paradox. Now you don't have to, but I do recommend reading them first if you haven't so you don't get too confused later.

With that out of the way, let's have our protagonist start us off shall we?

Chapter 1: Change

Okay so… I'm not really sure how to start this, so I guess I'll just start with my name. My name is Megan Dennis, or just Meg for short, and a lot of you probably know me better as M the mysterious dork from the future who doesn't really respect the laws of time, and I'll admit, that was my b, but it turned out okay in the end so it's whatever. Besides this story isn't about that incident. No, this story takes place twenty-ish years or so later, but I guess in my case it was about a month before I went back. Sorry, time travel is confusing. The story is about my time on a strange and mystical train made for the sole purpose of helping people dealing with the hardships in their lives… I think? I'm not really sure, I don't even think my parents were one hundred percent sure about that place either.

Anyway back on track, no pun intended, It all started on a Friday in November and I was sitting in front of a black wooden desk in my bedroom getting ready for school. One look at my room and you could instantly tell what my interests were. There were posters on the walls from various video games and movies, some shelves mainly filled with video games and old toys made of little plastic bricks from my childhood, a dresser with a bunch of nerdy decorations on it. and two key shaped swords made of foam hanging above my bed.

I was wearing black and white sneakers, a pair of blue jeans, and a green tee shirt with a game controller design on it. I had just finished breakfast and was now styling my reddish brown hair in the mirror above my desk. When I was about finished, I heard a knock at my door.

"Come in." I said as I glanced behind me.

As the door opened I saw my dad poke his head through. He had brown hair, a short messy beard, and was wearing a black dress shirt.

"Heya Sweetheart," He said cheerfully, "I'm on my way to work now, but I wanted to tell you to have a great day at school."

"Thanks Dad, I will." Before he closed the door I remembered I wanted to ask him something, "Oh wait Dad, could I ask Emily if she'd like to have a sleepover today?" I asked quickly.

"I don't see a problem with that, but you might want to ask your mother first."

I was afraid he'd say that. Mom wasn't really strict or anything but Dad was way more flexible when it came to asking for things. He actually let me get away with a lot of stuff before the age where I knew any better, so it sometimes got him in trouble with Mom.

"Alright, thanks Dad. See you after school."

"See you Pumpkin."

After Dad left, I held my hair into a medium ponytail and put a purple hair tie around it. Satisfied with my hairstyle, I got up from my desk and picked up a grey hoodie lying on my black bed and put it on over my head. After that I grabbed a red backpack sitting next to the door and walked into the connecting hallway making my way to the living room/kitchen. My mom was in the kitchen part of the room just finishing up with the dishes. She had long orange hair and had on a faded blue tee shirt, jeans, and an apron from when she was cooking. As she was drying the last plate, she noticed me walking up and gave me a smile.

"Hey Mom," I said, "Did you do something with your hair? Cause you look great this morning." Asking my mom for this kind of thing was a gamble, so I knew I had to be as polite as possible to even give Emily a chance to come over.

Mom's smile was immediately replaced with a suspicious look. She squinted at me with silver eyes for a moment before she answered.

"Alright, what do you want Megan?"

"What? Nothing." I said, now nervous, "What makes you say that?"

"Because the only time you complement me out of nowhere is when you want something. So what is it?"

"Well, I... I was going to ask if I could invite Emily over for a sleepover today."

Mom's expression softened, then she smiled again.

"Well, it is a Friday so... that'll be fine." She said before she muttered something. "Better here than under the same roof as that drunken bastard."

"Sorry?"

"Huh? Oh nevermind. Yes, you can invite her over, but just know that she'll be sleeping in the living room tonight."

I blushed a little at what she might've implied there.

"W- Well yeah, where else would she sleep? Ha ha."

Mom simply laughed, I think she just enjoys watching me squirm. Kinda messed up if you ask me. She always teases me whenever we talk about Emily, even though I've told her many times that we're just friends.

"Anyway, here's your lunch money for today." Mom said as she handed me three dollars off of the kitchen counter. "Have a good day sweetie."

"Uh yeah, thanks Mom." I said, still recovering from my embarrassment, "See you later."

With that I left the house and made my way to school. The girl that me and Mom were talking about, Emily, actually lives in the house just across the street from ours so we usually walk to school together, but today she wanted to get there early to work on a project she'd been busy with. I had to walk there by myself this time, but school wasn't too far away so it wasn't that boring.

The first half of school went by like normal. In fact I think I zoned out during third and fourth period… again, and it was now lunchtime. I was in the cafeteria waiting in line, and after a moment I was in front of the counter with a woman behind it with an apron and a hairnet.

"What would you like?" Said the lunch lady.

"Chicken please." I said as I handed her my lunch money.

The lady then picked up a white box on the side of her and handed it to me along with an apple juice box. I put the juice box in my hoodie pocket and made my way to the mechanics class after thanking the lunch lady.

Some of the classrooms were separated a bit because a few of the school buildings were about a block or two away, though I didn't really mind the walk. At least that's what I tell myself.

But after a few minutes I was now walking into the mechanics class. There were eight metal tables set up for students to sit at and one for the mechanics teacher in the front. In the back there were many tool drawers and big equipment for the students. Not counting myself there were only two people in the room.

The first was an older man with dark skin with whitening black hair wearing purple coveralls with many many oil stains on them from over the years. His coveralls were purple because that was one of the school colors.

The second person in the room was a girl with lightish dark skin and long jet black hair wearing a blue denim jacket with a white shirt underneath and black pants. She was currently working on some kind of small metal cube on one of the tables closest to the parts drawers. This girl also just so happens to be my best friend Emily.

The mechanics teacher looked over at me and looked a bit relieved.

"Oh, hello Meg." He said.

"Hi Mr. Wilson."

Mr. Wilson is a really nice guy. From what I hear he's super patient with all his students and helps them when they need it. Unlike those teachers that just want a paycheck, Mr. Wilson actually cares about his students, he even let's Emily work on projects here during the recess periods.

"Here to see Miss Rose?" he asked.

"Yep, that's right."

Upon hearing her last name, Emily looked up to see me and waved with a smile. I waved back, then she continued on her cube thing.

"Hey do me a favor Meg," said Mr. Wilson "Try to get Emily to take a break from that gizmo of hers, she's been working on it the second the lunch bell rang. I don't even think she brought any food with her."

"Don't worry Mr. Wilson, I'm way ahead of you."

He gave me a nod before I walked over to the back right table.

"Hey Emily." I said getting her attention.

"Hey Meg. You got here at the perfect time, check it out." she said excitedly.

I looked down at the small metal cube. It was a little bit bigger than a baseball and had a little switch and an open panel showing a bunch of wires inside. With the level of knowledge I had when it came to mechanics and engineering I gave the most educated amount of support and feedback I could muster.

"Cool... box." I said awkwardly.

"Oh you haven't seen anything yet." she said looking very confident.

Emily then closed the panel on the cube and flipped the small switch on the side. After a moment the box began to float above the table. There it sat in the air without any kind of support from below or above.

"Whoa…" I said in amazement.

"I know right?"

"Did you... turn off the gravity or something?" I asked, waving a hand under the box.

"Nope, check it." Emily then held a small metal nut above the box and dropped it, and the nut hovered above the cube for a moment before falling to the side of it. It looked like the cube was repelling metal or something.

"How is it doing that?" I asked, amazed.

"Well you see, I used electromagnets to-"

Now I won't pretend that I remember all of Emily's explanation, in fact I barely even understood most of it. So let's just say that it was very sciency and sounded very smart. And after her very smart explanation I looked at her feeling very confused, which she luckily picked up on.

"Basically," she said sympathetically. "It uses magnets to push away anything metal like a force field."

"Oh, that's really cool." I said, once again impressed.

"Yeah, but it still needs work." Emily said grabbing the cube and turning it off, "I think I can make it stronger. Maybe I can even get it to repel other materials too."

She opened the panel again and continued to work on it. Emily plans to submit the cube to the science fair in a few weeks and she wants it to be perfect. Even if it means neglecting herself.

Emily was always so determined when it came to this stuff, she can make some incredible things and she puts so much work into them. It's honestly super impressive. Though, I still don't like seeing her work so hard. Even if school is the only way she can work on her tech, Emily has been my best friend since kindergarten and I hate seeing her push herself so much.

I then placed the white box I got from the cafeteria on the table and opened it. Inside were three chicken tenders and a bunch of curly fries. There were other options to choose from back in the lunchroom, but I liked this meal the best, though I think it's pretty easy to see why. I mean the pizza they serve is pretty much just cardboard covered with pizza sauce.

Anyway, I ripped off the lid part off the box and placed the chicken on it using it as a makeshift plate, before pushing it along with the juice box between Emily and her project.

"Oh," Emily said, noticing the food, "That's okay Meg, I don't really want any. You eat it."

"C'mon, you didn't go to the cafeteria and I know Bill didn't pack you anything to eat. He never does."

"It's fine, I'm not hungry anyway." and as if on cue, Emily's stomach made an audible rumbling noise making her cheeks light up red instantly.

After a moment of silence, both Emily and I started to laugh.

"Okay you win, I'll eat." Emily said, taking a chicken tender.

"Good." I said, eating the fries.

After eating, me and Emily began to chat. It was mostly about game or movie stuff. You might not have guessed it but Emily is a nerd like me. Well maybe not as big a nerd as me, but she does like a lot of the things I do. Unfortunately she can only experience them whenever she comes over.

"Oh by the way," I said, remembering. "After school do you wanna have a sleepover at my place?"

"I…" Emily looked hesitant, "I'd like to, but I don't know if Bill would be okay with it."

"Then don't tell him, I doubt he'll care."

"Maybe not, but if I just go without even telling him, he'll be furious, and you know how my uncle gets Meg."

"Yeah… I do." Even if it hurt our chances, Emily was right. Telling Bill would be for the best.

"But hey, I'll try to convince him." Emily said reassuringly, "Maybe I'll get him when he's in one of his better moods."

"Well, alright," I said with a sigh, "Let me know what he says okay? And if he does say yes, maybe I can help with your project there."

"Sounds good."

Except… she never did get back to me. After I got home that day, I waited a long while in my room staring at my phone wondering what was keeping her. This was the first time I'd ever waited this long for a reply from her. In fact after that day, I hadn't heard from her for ten whole days.

It was now a cloudy Monday afternoon, and I was now arriving home from school. Alone. It wasn't my first time walking home by myself, but this time felt completely different. Instead of only feeling a bit lonely, I felt the anger and despair I had been keeping in this whole time.

And it was about to come out.

After a few moments I was past the front gate and went up to the front door with my head down. Before I turned the handle I looked over at Emily's house. Emily's uncle Bill was outside mowing his lawn looking... a bit down actually. Not that I really noticed at the time though. I glared at him for a moment before letting out a sigh. I then faced the door again and opened it slowly. Inside I saw Mom and Dad talking in the living room. They both noticed me come in.

"Hey sweetheart," said Dad with a soft voice. "H… How was school?"

"...It was fine." I said coldly.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Mom with the same softness.

"I guess."

I then shuffled past them about to go to my room until Mom got up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Megan, listen I… I know this is difficult for you, but-"

"Let me guess," I said, interrupting her. "It'll be okay in the end? Yeah I know, you guys have been saying that for over a week now."

"I was going to say," she said a little louder, "That we're here for you if you wanted to talk about-"

I interrupted her again only to face her this time.

"What's there to talk about? My best friend is missing and no one seems to care except me."

"That's not true Megan, your father and I care about-"

"No you don't! You two don't care at all. You don't even do anything about it. All you do is say stuff like, She'll be okay, Don't worry, It'll be alright. Emily is gone and all you can do is tell me not to worry!?"

That really struck a nerve with Mom because she looked at me with a more stern face.

"You listen here young lady, me and your father care very much about Emily, maybe even more than that uncle of hers. We want her to be safe just the same as you."

"Then why don't you actually do something instead of sitting around like you don't give a damn!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

With that I turned around and stomped off into my room before slamming the door causing a photo on the hallway wall to fall. I then threw myself onto my bed and screamed into my pillow.

"Ugh! Why are they so frustrating!?"

"Ugh! Why is she so frustrating!?" I said loudly to myself.

Megan had just stormed off before screaming in my face. I was still standing there feeling furious that she would even imply that I didn't care about Emily. I felt ready to take a battering ram to her bedroom door until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't take it personally Heather," Mike began, "You know she's having a horrible time right now."

I looked back at Mike, then took a long breath.

"I know." I said a lot calmer. Mike was always good at pulling me out of my anger.

"It's just… I hate that she actually thinks we don't care. I mean Emily feels like a part of the family at this point. There's just nothing we can actually do."

There was a moment of silence before Mike spoke up.

"Maybe… we should tell her?" he said.

"Tell her what?" I looked at him confused, but the look on his face told me what he meant, "I don't know Mike. I mean, are we even sure that's where Emily ended up?"

"C'mon, you know what her living situation was like. All it would've taken was something bad between her and her uncle to send her there."

"Well what would we even say to her Mike?" I said holding my arms outward, "Sorry honey but your best friend is stuck on a weird train until she has some big revelation about herself which there's a chance that she won't and be stuck there forever. Oh and I know this because I'm actually from this train and by the way, not Auntie Tulip's sister, but her literal reflection!" I held my head down as I continued.

"She wouldn't understand Mike."

"Maybe not, but… what else can we do?" Mike asked somber.

"I… I don't know."

We stood there in silence until I sighed.

"Tomorrow, we'll tell Megan tomorrow."

Mike gave me a soft smile before pulling me into a comforting hug.

"It's probably for the best." He said.

"I know, I just hope she'll understand."

I overreacted, I know I did. Mom and Dad only wanted to make me feel better and all I could do was yell at them. I was so angry I couldn't listen. When I was a lot calmer I decided I wouldn't wait anymore, I was going to find my friend. I was going to bring Emily back.

Later that night I was lying in my bed, staring at my digital alarm clock on my dresser waiting for the last minute to go by as every excruciating second ticked away. I planned to get some sleep then wake up at midnight, but I couldn't fall asleep. With what I was planning to do, my mind kept me up. I had stayed awake for about three hours longer than usual. I would've used my phone to help me fall asleep with some music or something, but I wanted it to have as much charge as possible in case I needed it.

The second it hit twelve I heard my phone vibrating on my desk. I set an alarm on my phone to go off because my alarm clock was way too loud and would've woken up Mom and Dad. I reached over and turned off my phone then quietly got out of bed and got dressed into some blue jeans, a plain dark purple tee shirt and my grey hoodie. I grabbed my red backpack already filled with some things I thought I'd need to bring with me and opened my bedroom door. My room had moonlight coming through a window so in comparison it was almost pitch black in the hallway. I stood there for a moment letting my eyes adjust then walked forward.

I quietly made my way into the kitchen portion of the living room and filled my backpack with some food. I didn't know how long I'd be gone for, but I didn't want to be unprepared. Especially for this mission. Now most of the stuff I packed was snack food, but in my defense it was all stuff I didn't need to cook in a microwave or a stove to eat.

With my bag mostly full I was now ready to go. I walked out the front door and left the house. As I walked past the front yard I looked at the navy blue house across the street. Just looking at Emily's house made me even more sure about this.

"I'm not turning back." I said quietly to myself. Then I had an important thought. "Wait, where am I even going to look?"

Even though I was filled with determination to find my friend, I wasn't really sure where I'd go.

To be honest I only planned up to this part. A little embarrassed, I tried to think.

"C'mon Meg, be like Emily and use your head." Emily was always very logical when making decisions. I just needed to do the same here. "I guess looking near her house would make the most sense right? According to the police report, her last known location was her house."

With an actual plan now, I began to cross the street. That was until I noticed something weird. There were suddenly two metal rails embedded into the road. They looked like train tracks.

"How did these get here? I'm positive they weren't here earlier."

Before I could investigate further, a train suddenly zoomed by without any warning causing me to stumble backward. I simply stared in shock as it traveled down the newly laid tracks.

"What the?" I said completely weirded out.

The train had a very sleek designed chrome body with glowing green windows. As weird as a train coming out of nowhere was, I also noticed that this train didn't seem to have an end to it. It just kept going down the road until I could see an endless amount of train cars from both sides. After a while the train slowed to a stop and the green light from the windows dimmed. One of the doors opened in front of me as if to invite me to come aboard. Nothing about this felt right. I was about to walk away from the train until I noticed the destination which only confused me even more.

"Emily Rose?" I read aloud completely lost at this point. "But… what does that mean?"

How would this train not only know about Emily, but apparently know that I'm looking for her? I made no sense. Unless…

"Are… are you on this train Emily?"

It sounded crazy but as soon as I said it, I had some kind of feeling in my gut that I was right. I stood there for a moment weighing my options until I decided that I had nothing else to go on. I looked into the entrance filled with nothing but blackness with my determination coming back to me and took a breath.

'If you are on this train,' I thought as I took a step on board, 'Then I'm going to find you.'

Just then from the empty train car, I saw a light suddenly moving toward me. I raised my arm in front of me on instinct, but soon my vision was filled with light.

I'm not sure how long it's been I stepped aboard that train, or when I fell asleep for that matter, but I was now groaning as I was waking up. When I opened my eyes I was looking up at a bunch of reddish trees growing high into the deep red sky…

"Wait what!?"

I quickly sat up in shock, only to slam face first into a screen. I immediately noticed that I was sitting in some weird opened pod thing with a screen in front of me

"Ow!" I quickly reeled back and held my face with my left hand. After the pain went away I looked around more calmly. I was in some kind of redwood forest, only everything was way more redder than it should've been. The trees were red, the leaves were red, the grass was red, heck, even the sky was red.

Just then I noticed that a video had been playing on the screen since I woke up. I guess I drowned out the first part. The video had a little white ball that had a black line in it down the middle and two circles for eyes had four little legs. I looked like a little robot of some kind.

"You'll probably have a lot of questions," It spoke in a cheerful tone, "Like… Where am I? Why am I here? Are snacks provided?"

That last question confused me a little.

"Wait do people actually ask that?" I asked.

"For those of you talking to me like I'm there in real life, I'm not!"

"I'm a cold, steely, pre-recorded video." It said in a sadder voice before continuing in it's happier one.

"And this is a train where you sort out your problems. How about that number on your hand, huh? Pretty cool and green."

I glanced down and to my surprise, noticed a glow under my right hand. I lifted it up and looked at my palm, then felt… confused. There was indeed a number on my hand, it was the number 274 but it wasn't green, it was blue.

"Green?" I asked looking back up at the robot.

"Every passenger has one. The numbers are made by the train based on your life in order to help you have the most personalized experience we can offer."

Suddenly the video started to go all staticy and cut out at certain parts.

"If you want to go home, get your numb-_ But always remember there are lots of denizens along the way to_ Don't be afraid to reach out. Unless the denizen i-_"

I wasn't sure what was going on until I noticed my hand again. Every time the video glitched out, the number would flicker. I wasn't certain, but I looked like the number was messing with the video somehow.

"Remember, you can't spell "escape" without-"

At that moment the number on my hand glowed brighter and flickered even more intensely. It looked like the number itself was glitching out or something. Then the screen was filled with nothing but static then promptly shut off. I looked at my reflection in the now black screen.

"Well, that's not ominous or anything."

I looked back down at the number and it seemed to have settled down. Now it was just a glowing blue number on my hand. I had so many questions, but they could wait. For now I needed to look for Emily. If she was here, then I couldn't waste a second.

I looked around the red forest until I saw a red brick building that had a rounded red double door with a weirdly shaped gold handle on it.

"Good a place to start as any I guess." I said to myself.

I jogged up to the door and turned the handle, but when the door actually opened I was only filled with more questions. Through the door I saw a metal bridge leading up to a huge metal box with another one of the doors I just opened on it. The entire place looked like a giant train traveling through a brown and orange wasteland with nothing in it but darkened clouds and empty lands. It was at that moment I thought back to that robot in the video. He called this place a train. I finally stopped and let full impact of the strangeness and unknown of this place hit me. And… I felt afraid and confused by where I was..

"Where… what is this place?"

Author's Notes

And another person begins their journey on the Infinity Train. However Meg's experience won't quite be the same as other passengers.