Chapter 5

The four of them sat in the gummi ship as they headed for the next world.

"Hey Sora, how did you get that second keyblade during the fight?" Train asked.

"It's called valor form. Goofy lends me his strength and I get enhanced strength and mobility. The three good fairies gave it to us after we visited Twilight Town," Sora said as they approached the destination. The others disembarked right away but Train stopped when he felt and odd sensation. A tingling on his chest where the XIII was tattooed.

'What is going on?' he wondered as he got off. When he landed however he was nowhere near Sora and the others. He was standing in the middle of a town and he had no idea what was going on. As he explored he came to the local tavern and entered to see the people were drinking and being merry, except for one man who seemed upset with something. He was muscular and seemed to take pride in his build, his black hair was short and his chin was broad and split with a cleft. He had the appearance of a man who valued brawn over brain.

"Who does that girl think she is?! No girl can say no to Guestan!!" he proclaimed. People tried to console him but he seemed to only get angrier.

"What happened? He get dumped?" Train asked as he walked over.

"Who are you to but in on this private matter?!" Guestan demanded.

"Just a harmless traveler, I work as a bounty hunter." Train began, deciding to use that term instead of sweeper "And this is hardly private when you proclaim it for the entire village to hear."

"He got turned down by Belle. The daughter of the crazy inventor who lives a little ways out of town." A small man said who seemed to be the man's flunky.

"Well there are other girls out there." Train said calmly as he took a seat at the bar "Bartender, a glass of milk."

"What, don't want some beer?" a man at the bar asked,

"Prefer milk." Train replied as he turned, the bell on his choker ringing softly. Train sat at the bar for awhile when a man came rushing in. He was an elderly man with grey hair and by the way the people looked at him he was the crazy inventor on the outskirts of town.

"Please you must help! He's taken her!" He exclaimed.

"Taken who?" a man asked.

"Belle! He's taken Belle!"

"Who's taken Belle?" Guestan asked intent on finding out what happened.

"The Beast!" With that the bar broke out into laughter and started to ridicule the poor man. After a few minutes a sharp voice broke through the noise.

"He speaks the truth." Everyone turned to see a man sitting at a booth at the back, wearing a black leather coat with a hood pulled up covering his face "I too have seen this beast. It resides in the castle past the forest, if it has taken the girl then it must intend to feed on her." He said. This got the bar in an uproar, and soon Guestan and several men were heading for the castle. As they walked Train could see the dark energy that they were emitting and knew that it would draw the heartless. With quick steps he approached the man in black and said quietly "You must be one of Organization XIII."

"And if I am?"

"Then you just crossed a very dangerous black cat." He grinned fiercely as he pressed the barrel of Hades to the mans back.

"A gun? You would use a gun against number III, Xaldin of the wind? You are indeed a fool." he said calmly as the wind began to spin around him. With a single motion the cyclone threw Train out of the bar allowing the man to go outside and fight at his full strength, or so Train thought. As soon as he stepped outside a portal of darkness opened and he walked to it and said "You are indeed foolish. These men will corrupt the Beast even further and then he will become a Nobody and help us achieve our goal. You cannot stop us." He then entered the portal and disappeared from Trains sight,

"This is not good." He muttered as he ran. Soon as he entered the woods he saw the trail that the men had taken and followed it to where they had stooped to cut down a tree to make a battering ram to get past the gates. Sneaking around he made his way past and managed to reach the castle, and what a castle it was. It was enormous with multiple levels and soaring towers. A bridge spanned a small ravine and a large wooden door stood, past that was a large courtyard that separated the massive wooden door and the door into the castle itself. Train opened the metal gate that separated the bridge from the wilderness and locked it behind him, hoping to delay the men for as long as possible. He then ran to the wooden door and pushed it open to see the large courtyard. Inside it were four gargoyle statues at the four corners of the paved portion of the courtyard. Checking to see if there were any enemies about he ran to the door and pushed at it to find it was locked.

"OPEN UP!" he yelled as he hammered at the door. It then was pulled open but no one was there. Train walked in, his senses on high alert. After several steps he saw what looked like a candelabra standing near the door. With a shrug he reached down and picked it up and began to examine the front hall. It was a gloomy place with very little light. There was a grand staircase at the far back of the room which led up to two separate hallways and in between was a large door that led to another part of the castle. On the main floor there were four doors, two to the left and two to the right. After a few minutes of searching he finally called out "Hello!"

"Hello." The candelabra said.

"WHOA!" Train exclaimed as he jumped back.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spook you. I am Luimere, and who might you be?" Luimere asked.

"The names Train. I'm looking for some friends of mine. Their names are Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"Ahh. So you are the missing friend of theirs. They have been rather worried. Come I will take you to them." He said happily.

"No better bring them to the courtyard. The villagers are on their way here and they are very angry." Train explained.

"Goodness me! I shall alert them and the master at once!" He exclaimed as he hopped towards the stairs. Train then ran outside and climbed to the top of the gate that separated the courtyard and the bridge. Looking about he saw the torches of villagers and estimated them to be fifteen minutes away. Loading Hades with tranquilizer bullets he readied himself to defend the gate.

"Train!" Sora shouted as he ran out.

"Good timing. The villagers will be here soon and they are out to kill. There might be heartless among them so be prepared to fight. I can pick them off from here." He explained as he returned his focus to the matter at hand. Not much time passed until the villagers reached the iron gate. After trying to open it like civilized people they used the battering ram to knock it off it's hinges. Train then began to fire into the crowd, shooting anyone who got too close. After some time though they managed to get to the gate with the battering ram and were trying to smash their way into the courtyard. Train then leapt down and joined Sora and the others, and caught his first look of the Beast. He was a large animal with thick shaggy brown fur, powerful claws, and short curved horns on his head. He wore tattered purple pants and a purple cloak, and his eyes were fixed on the gate and what was to come through it. It took some time for them to bust the get down but when they did Train hurled a grenade into the crowd and watched as it sent many of those not injured running. However there were still plenty with the will to fight and they rushed at the five of them. Train avoided making fatal shots into people and mainly focused on smashing faces or joints with Hades. They each fought hard but the villagers had numbers on their side and were determined to get through. Soon though they began to retreat when a dark aura overtook Guestan and he summoned a giant heartless. It was taller than the gate itself and was entirely black, its face was covered by black tentacles except for its shining yellow eyes, and in its center was an empty gap in the shape of a heart.

"What on earth is that?" Train asked.

"It's called a Darkside. I haven't seen one since we fought Ansem." Goofy said in shock. Guestan then charged at Beast while the heartless attacked the rest of them. Train dodged its massive fist and saw that it had created a dark pool that was summoning the smaller shadow heartless. Reacting quickly he loaded regular bullets into the gun and fired away into the Darksides face but it was barely fazed. Even with all of them attacking it at once it didn't stop its attacks. Train soon began to lose hope of winning against this thing that seemed invincible when he felt static around him.

"Oh no. Not this again. Sora, Donald, Goofy! Get back, you're about to see some serious fireworks!" He yelled as he pointed Hades at the Darksides head. Pulling the trigger before it could overload the railgun blasted right through the heartless, destroying it on the spot. Train the collapsed, completely drained from having the nanomachines react like that again.

It was several hours later when he woke up and heard the story.

"Right after you collapsed the beast defeated Guestan. They had been fighting on the roof of the castle and you attack had distracted Guestan, giving the Beast an opening for victory."Sora said as they walked through the castle.

"Well that's good. What happened to him?"

"He fell off of the roof. We didn't find a body though so we think that the heartless took him." With that the conversation ceased and their way to Donald and Goofy and left the world, promising the inhabitants of the castle that they would visit again someday.