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[Dawn : Training Car]

"Don't worry about it," Dawn said to Louis smiling slightly at the Ivalican, "But you are right we are here to train. Maybe another time."

She did find his story rather fascinating. Louis was indeed an unique individual on the train. She wouldn't mind making friends with him. Along with the others on the train. She soon drawn her attention back to Kyle.

"Aw, you're leaving?" she asked with a pout, Dawn wasn't paying attention to her hands but the markings from Kyle's enchantment was fading from her hands, "But we just got started. Maybe you could stay and spar or something?"

[ Sora : Stable Car -> Forest ]

Sora quickly jumped on the back of Destati at Joe's confirmation, grinning as he did so. A mini-adventure was just what they needed, even if it was a little chilly outside. With a chuckle at Joe's pronunciation of his name, Sora lightly nudged Destati and they were out of the car, heading into the forest.

Sora quickly summoned his Keyblade as they crossed the treeline, noticing that, even in the sunset, the shadows were oddly dark. Destati grew somewhat restless, but remained on the steady path, with Sora's reassuring hand rubbing her neck. "Get ready- they tend to be attracted to the Keyblade."

[Alice :: HT :: The Gorge -> Hook's Ship :: Below Deck]

The puppeteer had fallen asleep as she sat on the branch, leaning against the tree. Any other person might have questioned the safety of falling asleep ten feet in the air, precariously balanced on a branch but Alice could care less. The feat was one thing, but the dreams that haunted her was a completely different issue.

A wave of memories flooded into her, much like what happened beside the creek. There was shouting, but like most dreams, Alice could not make out the words said but somehow her mind had filled in the blanks for her. A crying child holding tight unto a tear-stained stuffed bunny. Sadness and anger overwhelmed her emotions; a sense of loss and loneliness. Alice watched as the child stood in the dark bathroom, its tiny hand reached out to touch the cold mirror-

Alice woke with a start, bolting upwards yet remaining balanced. Cúchulainn remained oddly silent in her mind, the animator coming to expect a snide comment, or a fit of his hollow laughter yet hearing nothing. She gracefully jumped from her perch, landing lightly on the barren ground with little to no noise. Something glowing caught her eye and she glanced down to her left leg. Half hidden by her boots was the command seal of the Impure Esper, surrounded in brilliant green light that seemed to pulse in varying degrees of brightness. Alice knelt down, narrowing her eyes and gently pulling down her boots to the ankle, immediately recognizing the tattoo as the glow died down to a dull light before vanishing all together, leaving the black mark upon her leg.

"Cúchulainn," she remarked with no inflection, "would you like to make it obvious to the world that you are at my beck and call?" Alice gave a wry smile as she once again stood straight.

~"Merely seems fitting dear, now that you have approached your final avenue of growth. It's a little present from me~" The esper responded with a trademark chuckle.

Growth? The animator remained silent, choosing not to respond as she opened up a dark portal straight below the deck of Hook's ship. She closed her eyes and welcomed the chill that enveloped her as she walked into the portal, the light behind her eyelids dimming as she arrived.

As she reopened her eyes, she walked straight to the wall littered with an assortment of mounted weapons: various swords and daggers dancing across her vision. Her reflection seemed strange in them, her hair was now a pitch black, no variation of colors in them. Her eyes seemed to be a lighter brown, but it could be due to the weird red tint that graced her pupils. Unthinkingly, she reached out to touch the cool metal of a sword. But right as her flesh made contact, a strange hissing noise could be heard, almost akin to sizzling. The metal seemed to melt away beneath her touch, distorting and dripping into molten blobs on the floor. Alice pulled her hand away, an undecipherable look on her face before a slow, calculating smile curved up her lips. She reached for the wall, touching the wood and watching it disintegrate much like the sword, leaving a smoldering imprint.

"Interesting~" The animator cooed. With a twisted smile, Alice unwound the threads of her boots, reweaving the fabric to create a pair of black gloves instead. She heard a similar sound as her bare feet touched the floor but she could care less if her steps caused the wood to corrode. Of course, tracking her was made a bit easier, especially if she didn't use portals but she could easily remedy that when the situation arose. The threads of one glove unwound, revealing long green nails upon a pale hand."Just peachy~ now, what havoc can I wreck next? Where has that brainless apprentice gone?" Alice sang out happily, as she skipped above deck, "Oh Timmy~ Where are you~"

[Jenny :: Train :: Dining Car -> Training Car]

"I haven't either," she responded as she rose out of her seat, taking the empty ramune bottle on the way. She tossed the bottle into the recycling bin, or what she hoped to be a recycling bin. Do people in the KH world even recycle? The mage momentarily thought, before brushing it aside.

She walked through the various cars, straight towards the last car, stopping only momentarily to smile warmly at her chocobo. Jenny opened the door quietly, peeking her head in. Surprise filling her eyes as she saw Louis, Dawn and Kyle. She hadn't expected that so many people would be in the training room. But maybe they all decided that they needed venting. "Uhm, hey guys," she semi-whispered, in case they were still busy blowing heads off of training mannequins.

[ Sora : Forest ]

As they managed to get deeper into the forest, the thin shadows grew to cover the entire ground floor, despite the remaining sunlight. Sora stopped on Destati, watching the ground beneath him carefully, and- predictably- noticed spots get darker and reveal golden eyes.

"Alright, girl, stay close," Sora muttered, jumping down and, without any sort of battle cry, he slashed into the first Neoshadow to show its head. It seemed they'd attracted a bit more attention than the typical Shadows. A flurry of opening portals nearby revealed that a trio of Wight Knights (those annoying mummy Heartless he hated so much) and a couple of Crimson Jazzes (the bigger Fire mage Heartless), along with the group of Shadows and Neoshadows underneath them.

"Well, seems the party's started!" Sora said with a grin before throwing a small Blizzard spell toward one of the Crimson Jazz Heartless.

{James : Train : Dining Car -> Training Car}

James followed suit, quickly downing his second bottle of ramune and then picking up his empty one and tossed them into the same bin that Jenny just did and followed right behind her into the sleeping car. Probably the car he had spent the least amount of time in as he walked past all of the bunks and cots and other beds. Continuing on he made his way into the Stable Car. He paused there, searching among the stalls until he found the one marked "Feni"

Feni the large primarily black chocobo let out the all too familiar "Kweh!" of joy as he saw his rider approach the stall and immediately lowered his head onto the corsair's shoulder. James smiled as he raised his right hand up to brush the feathers on the side of the bird's face.

"Hey Feni, good to see you again."

He suddenly felt a slight breeze and turned to see that the ramp had been lowered when he was fairly certain it hadn't been.

'Did someone go out...?'

He thought to himself as he now absent-mindedly stroked Feni's feathers. As he did so he looked around at the stalls, all of the familiar chocobos were there but he counted that two of the stalls were empty. He looked around as he removed his hand from the chocobo, giving the mount a pat on the beak good bye and then turned back toward the door to the Training Car which Jenny had already gone inside.

James soon pulled open the door and saw Jenny standing in the front of the massive room. Kyle, Dawn, and Louis were already there. He closed the door behind him and immediately felt something different... about the place. As he walked forward he immediately noted that he felt revitalized as well as the limp in his step was now gone.

"Hey guys." He greeted them with a small smile, "This place is pretty cool looking."

The corsair noted that there seemed to be more then enough room for not just the people who were already in there including Jenny and himself. But there was room for plenty more too. Eagerly the corsair turned to Jenny.

"So where shall we start?"

[Timmy : Hook's Ship]

He opened up the door to his room and walked over to his bed. He sat on the edge and starred at the floor all while rocking back and forth slowly. I've always been better doing things alone. Always been better doing things alone. Better doing things alone. Alone. Alone. Alone. He then grabbed for his head, trying to cover his ears in an attempt to stop the noise, but it was futile.

"YO! YO! Get a hold of yourself!" The voice seemed to stop the boy's torment. "I don't think you made the right choice joining that egomaniac," she said worrying about him.

"Tia? Tiamat? Is that really you speaking?" Timmy said slowly.

"Of course it's me you moron! You're getting me all worried! You should probably go back to the train! Maybe they'll take you back! What do ya say?!" she said happily.

"No..." The boy looked in despair. "NO! NO! NO! I've already betrayed them! I'm alone now! I've tapped into the darkness, and now I'm alone..." There was a silent pause lingering in the room. Under his breath he mumbled, "I need more power... I don't want to lose... I want more power." Tiamat shrunk back to the back of his mind and then he began to hear something softly.

"Oh Timmy~ Where are you~"

"What does she want?" He didn't give it much thought before thinking that he wanted to be alone again.

[Alice :: Hook's Ship]

Alice scanned the entire ship in a blink of an eye, useless deckhands were scurrying above deck... and below in one of the rooms, was who she was searching for. She lithely made her way towards the room, only really using her toes to seemingly walk down the hall on pointe, creating smaller areas of corrosion as she did so. She creaked open Timmy's door, soundlessly slipping in.

"Oh Timm-" she stopped midway, raising a slender eyebrow at the defender, who seemed to curl himself onto his bed, while sitting up. She tilted her head in mock perplexity as a smile slowly crept up her face. She glided towards her 'teammate', glancing down at his sorry, pitiful face. "What's the matter Timmy? Wallowing in self-pity about your lack of strength?" Alice stood up straighter, placing the index finger of her right glove inside her mouth, gently tugging the glove free. The fabric unraveled, revealing her hand as her eyes looked to Timmy again.

"Answer me this, what exactly is your reason for fighting?" Alice asked, masking any emotion behind her voice, her eyes narrowing somewhat the longer she looked at the poor soul.