Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somewhere in one of many alternate universes, there was a spherical, one-eyed robot named One. He was the conductor of one of the many versions of the Infinity Train – a mysterious vehicle that kidnapped humans from Earth and sent them on redemption quests through its many cars.

One spent most of his time inside the control panel's port in the Engine. But there were hours he'd dedicate to checking on how things were going on the train. It was time to do that. He jumped out of the socket, walked on his four stubby legs, then played a tune to make a multi-tentacled robot – the Steward – lower its head toward him. Its white face was raised to expose a slot with many turning gears around it, one claw at the top, and two weapons that emitted blue fire. He jumped in and took control of the machine's multiple arms as if they were his own.

A desk full of buttons under eight screens awaited the Conductor. He made two of the Steward's arms extend and touch the buttons, typing away. The bottom-center screen changed from a view of the Crystal Car to a view of another car full of hexagonal crystal walls. It was there that the subjects of his concern were busy with something.

Three of them were humans - all dressed in white lab coats - while the others were a big, purple gorilla with two golden tubas on her shoulders, and three smaller versions of the gorilla but with blue fur. As One zoomed in on the woman with dreadlocks and dark complexion, her name appeared written in green: Grace Monroe. Below her name was a 0. The pale, blond man with a ponytail next to her, Simon Laurent, had a 0 under his name too. The third human was a little girl named Hazel Timmens, also at 0. The gorilla mother was Tuba. Her kids were Bugle, Trumpet, and Trombone. The entire group was One's research team, doing their five days a week job.

One kept his eye on the humans as they spoke to two other humans who were on the other side of a crystal wall. Or at least they both seemed human. The blond, long-haired man wore power armor and looked like a counterpart of researcher Simon if he had completely shaved the stubble off his chin. The old woman with light-brown hair next to him … One knew who she was. Amelia Hughes. Most research reports about various versions of her mentioned the Amelias attempting to recreate their dead partners - named Alrick most of the time - by taking over the trains.

One let out a sigh. He felt pity for almost every version of Amelia that he had observed or read about, and this time was no different. Still, he was glad to have never been usurped, unlike his many counterparts from other universes. He continued to watch as the researchers said their goodbyes to Amelia and that other guy.

Once the crystal hexagon went into the ground, the researchers went on their way through the corridor in search for more people they could interrogate.

Grace rolled up her right sleeve and checked the screen of the device strapped to her arm. “So that was universe B811.”

“Yup,” Simon said.

“That was a strange one,” Grace told him. “I'm not sure how to feel about this Amelia turning ghoms into people. I mean, on one hand those cockroach things are nasty, but on the other … imagine what her creations must think of themselves after finding out.”

“That's not the main thing that bothers me right now. It's the fact that thanks to her, the cultist me from that universe ended up having three children. Sure, they were created because he got caught in the train tech when he was a kid, but it's not fair, you know? That murderer gets to leave heirs behind after he dies, but you and me … We can't even have one kid.”

Hazel interrupted. “But you and Grace have been married for over a year. How come you don't have any kids yet?”

Grace and Simon abruptly stopped walking. They looked at each other for a few seconds.

Simon scratched the back of his head. “It's just not safe for someone to give birth on the train. Grace, can you explain this one to her? I'm not good with words, and I'm terrible at handling these topics.”

“Okay,” Grace said to him. She turned toward Hazel. “What Simon means is that I'd be the one carrying the baby inside me. And when it would be time for me to give birth, I'd have to do it without the help of a doctor. There is a slight chance that the baby and I … might not survive when that time comes. So it's for the best that we don't take this risk.”

Hazel rubbed her chin. “But if you would be the one who makes the baby, then what is Simon needed for?”

Simon was taken aback by Hazel's question, then embarrassment burned his face.

“He has to put the baby there first,” Grace said. “You'll understand when you're older. But that's the way things are for now. We could go to Earth and have a baby though.”

Grace's exit appeared in front of her, but she stopped just three steps away from it. She could see her parents' beautiful mansion through the golden portal.

“I'm not going back to that rotten planet!” Simon said, glaring at Grace's door. “Besides, I messed up big time. My mother would have my head if I ever showed up at her house again.”

“You're an adult,” Grace said. “You're going to live with me, not with her.”

Simon's door opened and showed a burnt house in the middle of nowhere.

“Nothing's changed,” he said. “I guess she doesn't live there anymore.” His number went from 0 to 1. “But I'm not going back, and that's final!”

His door disappeared, then Grace's did the same as she gained a 1 too. She and Simon sighed in sync.

Hazel frowned and said, “Their numbers went up.”

“Yeah,” Tuba said, “I'm not sure if they'll ever solve that problem.”

Simon's number went back to 0 as he said, “We just stay on the train. Problem solved.” He received his exit again, but pretended it wasn't there.

Grace's exit reappeared too, and she knew she had her 0 back. But she couldn't take it without Simon coming with her. So they both shrugged and chose to walk past the exits.

“Let's go see if we can find more alternate universe people,” Grace said.

Their travel through the car brought no more opportunities, but they were called by One to the Engine via Grace's arm-mounted device.

Once they got there, One came up to them using the Steward's body. “Good evening, research team.”

“Yeah, yeah, save the courtesy, cyclops,” Simon said. “Synchronization went well between our new tablets and the arm … thingies. Did you receive our reports?”

One nodded. “Yes, they have arrived. Thank you. And for the third time now, those are arm-mounted multipurpose systems. Call them AMMPS for short if it makes things easier.”

“I'll just call them amps. Take it or leave it,” Simon said, looking annoyed. “Anyway, why did you call us here?”

“I wish to discuss what happened back there,” One said, his eye's top half trying to simulate a scowl.

“Nothing happened. Today was just like any other day.”

One's menacing claw hovered above Simon's head. “Do not play dumb. I know you and Grace got your exits. If I were there, I would have pushed you through them.”

“Yeah, like that worked last time. Come on, you know our numbers would just jump to 1 as soon as we'd hit the portals. We just don't want to go. This is our home. Deal with it.”

“Passengers aren't supposed to live here. They are supposed to deal with their problems, then go back to Earth as better people. The sole purpose of this train is to reform humans.”

“See you tomorrow, dot,” Simon said, ignoring One while heading for the Engine's exit.

“I'm sorry, One,” Grace said. “I can't leave without him.”

One clenched his claw. “I am very disappointed in you. But at least you make yourselves useful to make up for squatting on my train. However, you are setting a bad example for the little passenger.” He pointed at Hazel.

“We'll take our exits when we're ready, One,” Grace said.

The researchers left the Engine and headed toward their home. They would have to pass through the Universe Intersection Car again, and that was sometimes a dangerous place, but they were ready for anything. Or almost anything.

They ended up in a T-junction of hallways and were about to turn left, but then they heard screaming from behind the hexagon up ahead. Two guys and a small, floating, silver creature headed their way, terrified by something. One of the guys had short, black hair, and wore a blue jacket, gray pants, and white runners. The other guy had long, brown hair, a brown leather coat, green turtleneck sweater, ripped blue jeans, and red boots. On his back there was a black guitar case. The silver creature turned out to be a concierge bell denizen with two beady eyes and a large mouth that allowed her to scream out loud.

A Steward was chasing them, leaving behind long trails of blue fire from its eyes. It spoke in a voice the researchers have heard before from younger versions of Amelia. “I told you to leave me alone! I will never stop!”

“But what you're doing is wrong!” the guy with the guitar case shouted.

“So is what the universe did to Alrick!” the voice said. “I'm trying fix things, and you keep getting in my way!”

The trio found themselves at a dead end the moment they reached the crystal hexagon. They saw the researchers and screamed for help while the Steward raised four of its claws in the air, preparing to strike.

Simon looked at Grace. “Should we help?”

“I think so,” Grace said.

“But One told us not to break the barriers.”

“Are you going to let it kill them?”

“Do you want One to kill us?” Simon asked.

“Please help us!” the guy with the blue jacket shouted. “We'll do anything!”

It was too late. The Steward already grabbed them with its claws and immobilized all three of its victims. “You will no longer be a threat to me from this day forward.” Three of its claws smashed through the crystal wall.

Simon prepared to use his arm-mounted device. “Don't step onto this train. We're not as defenseless as we look.”

The voice laughed at him, then made the Steward throw the three terrified people over him. One of the Steward's claws took out an orb from the right side of the hexagon, closing access to that universe's portal.

Quickly crawling off, the guy with the blue jacket said, “We're sorry! Oh, man! Are you still alive, sir?”

Simon dragged himself from under the other guy. “Yeah, I'm still kicking.” He patted the dust off his lab coat. “Who are you three, and what was going on between you and whoever was controlling that thing?”

The guy with the blue jacket said, “I'm—”

“He's Min-Gi,” the other guy said, finally back on his feet. “I'm Ryan, and this little bell here is Kez.”

“Hi!” Kez said.

“I'm Simon, this is Grace, and those are Hazel, Tuba, Bugle, Trumpet, and Trombone.”

“Nice to meet you all,” Min-Gi said. “As for what's going on ... We're running away from a woman named Amelia. We used to hang out with her after she helped us get rid of some weird boots the Conductor forced us to wear. But she was up to no good as well. She lost her sanity and hurt a lot of people while trying to create a car and bring back her dead boyfriend.” He glared while pointing at Ryan. “Then 'Casanova' here tried to flirt with her, hoping to make her forget about her loss. Needless to say, she almost killed him. I told her we'd leave the Engine and get the hell off the train as soon as we'd get our exits, but Ryan refused to leave.”

“It wasn't fair that she made everyone suffer just so she could pursue her impossible dreams!” Ryan said.

Min-Gi had a smug smile on his face. “Doesn't it sound like someone you know?”

Ryan looked very annoyed. “My dream is not impossible. It's a very simple dream compared to hers.”

“Yeah, becoming a rock star is super easy. You just make a few rhymes and you get signed to a record label on the first try, am I right?”

Ryan closed his eyes and smiled. “Even that sounds more attainable than what she was trying to do.”

“Keep reaching for the stars, Ryan,” Kez said.

“You do realize you've been cut off from your universe, right?” Grace asked.

Min-Gi, Ryan, and Kez all stared at her with their mouths wide open.

“We're in another universe?!” Min-Gi asked, terrified.

“Let's get out of here,” Grace said. “Weird things can happen in these corridors. I'll explain the situation along the way.”

Ryan looked at his palm. “My number! It's not glowing anymore!” It showed 202.

Min-Gi stared at his own number. “Mine's unlit too!” It was 202 as well.

“Like I said, you've been cut off from your universe. This means the train that gave those to you cannot keep track of them. Unless Amelia decides to slot that orb back in, you two are stuck here forever.”

“No way!” Ryan said. “How are Min and I going to become rock stars?”

“You can do that on this train too,” Grace said. “There's also a human world in this universe, but … you'd need to get a number from this train so you can go to our Earth. The Conductor might get mad at us for not guarding that portal though. You three shouldn't have ended up here.”

“An alternate Earth?” Min-Gi asked. “But even if we go to your Earth and there are alternate versions of everyone … we'll never see our real parents again. And there might be alternate versions of us there. It's their Earth. We don't belong there. We don't even belong here.”

Ryan grinned. “Who cares? We'll make this place our home!”

“Yeah!” Kez said. “Wait, are there potato chips on this train?”

Simon stared at them with concern. “Guys, I don't think One will like it if he finds you on his train.”

“We're the masters of hiding,” Ryan said. “We're like chameleons.”

Min-Gi sighed. “Ryan, you're like a peacock. And you're just as noisy. There's no way we won't be spotted.”

Ryan grinned at him. “At least I'm not like a drab seal that can't run fast enough.”

They were lucky to have not encountered anyone or anything that would breach the barriers of the universes. After leaving the Universe Intersection Car, they walked over the bridge and reached the door to the next car.

“Welcome to our home!” Grace said, opening the door to reveal the Jungle Car.

“Whoa! Makes me want to become Tarzan!” Ryan said as they all entered. He felt a hand grab his left shoulder.

It was Min-Gi. “Don't even think about it. The last thing I need is to see you get yourself killed by hitting a tree at full speed.”

“Oh, so now you care about me?”

“What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying I never tried to keep you safe? That I never gave you advice? If I didn't care, I would have gone alone through the train, never to speak with you again. But you know what?”

“Min ...” Kez said, looking worried.

Min-Gi pointed at Ryan's chest. “You never cared about me!”

Ryan's eyes showed how hurt and angered he was at that moment. “Are you sure?”

Kez went to float between them. “Guys ...”

“You didn't care enough to call me and ask if I had plans. You didn't care that I would get in huge trouble for losing those keys. You didn't care about me when you ran into the portal, making me choose between letting you go and the possibility that I could die trying to save your life! You jumped into a wormhole that tore the keys apart right in front of you, and you dared me to follow you!”

“You didn't have to follow me!” Ryan yelled.

Kez frowned. “Min, Ryan, please ...”

Tuba grabbed the arguing duo and pulled them apart. “Calm down. Whatever your lives were like back there, you're not getting them back. All you have now is each other.”

“Hmpf,” Min-Gi said. “I went through life and all I got out of it is Ryan.”

Ryan turned his head away from Min-Gi, trying to hide the pained look of his eyes.

Kez went next to Min-Gi. “Hey, you know what they say: you never know what you got till you can't find it anymore.”

“Look, I don't want Ryan gone, okay? I just … I'm still mad at him for getting us into this mess. But we'll get used to our new situation eventually.”

Tuba released the two guys.

“We have a tree house,” Simon said. “You could stay there with us for the night. Tomorrow we'll help you build your own houses if you'd like to live here. Otherwise, you're free to travel to other cars and settle down somewhere else.”

“We'll tell you our decision tomorrow,” Min-Gi said. “Thank you for hosting us.”

“You'll have to gather your own food though,” Grace said. “You can mostly find fruit here, but there are some animals too. Avoid anything that has bright colors, because it's likely poisonous.”

“Know any place where we could find butter?” Ryan asked.

“You'll have to check some other cars, because there aren't any cows around here.”

“Then fruit salad it is.”

Inside the tree house, Grace and Simon showed their guests the living room.

“You can sleep on this-”

Before Grace could finish that sentence, Ryan yelled, “Dibs on the couch!” He immediately jumped onto the green couch.

“What about me?” Min-Gi asked.

“The couch can be converted into a double bed,” Grace said.

Min-Gi's cheeks were pinker than usual. “Can you just give me a blanket so I could sleep on the floor, please?”

Ryan raised an eyebrow at him. “Why would you sleep on the floor when the couch is so comfy?” Then he realized something. “Oh.” He frowned.

“You two hate each other that much?” Simon asked.

Min-Gi showed him his right fist. “I don't hate him. Are you toying with us right now? I don't think we should trust you.”

Simon backed off. “Chill, dude! I'll bring you a blanket.”

Ryan got off the couch and lay on the floor. “Give me that blanket. Min's sleeping on the couch.”

Min-Gi grabbed him by the arm and pulled him up. “No. You stay on the couch. You were there first.”

“I claimed the couch spot, I get to say who gets it. I'm letting you take it.”

Min-Gi scowled at him. “Simon, can you bring two blankets, please?”

Min-Gi and Ryan ended up sleeping on green blankets on the floor, to the left and to the right of the couch's ends respectively. Kez claimed the center of the couch.

Some metal clangs got louder and louder outside the tree house. Something was coming up the stairs. Grace and Simon, in their pajamas, arrived in the living room.

“You all need to hide!” Simon said.

“Why?” Min-Gi asked, confused.

“One is coming!” Grace said. “He can't see you here!”

Min-Gi looked around and noticed an open door that led to a room full of clothes. “You're not going to tell us to hide in the closet, are you?”

“No! The bathroom! Over there!” Grace pointed at a door.

Min-Gi, Ryan, and Kez went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Simon and Grace hid the stylophone and guitar in their bedroom.

One made his appearance, still controlling the Steward. “What is all this commotion about?”

“Oh, hi there, one-eyed spider!” Simon said. “Didn't expect to see you here at this hour.”

One scowled at him. “You two are hiding something.”

“Hiding?” Grace said. “No, we just weren't ready for guests. That's all.” Her number went up to 3.

“Yeah, we were just about to go to bed,” Simon said, his number also going up to 3.

“Good effort,” One said, “but you're not fooling me.” He crawled up to the bathroom door. “They're in here, aren't they?”

His employees said nothing. One opened the door and found the hiding trio there.

“Didn't your mama ever teach you to knock?” Kez asked. Behind her, Ryan and Min-Gi hugged each other in fear.

One stared down at them with his one eye's top bent downward, giving off a sinister vibe. “Greetings.” He extended three Steward claws toward the trio. “I am One.”

Kez formed hands out of her blue sparkles and shook it. Ryan and Min-Gi each grabbed a claw and shook it as well.

Min-Gi said, “I am-”

“I've learned your names when you've mentioned them in the other car,” One said. “When I am in the Engine, I have eyes all over the train. All I need to do is look through them.”

“Okay ...” Ryan said.

“Wait, does this mean you can see us even in bathrooms?” Min-Gi asked, looking flustered.

“Yes,” One said, “but usually nothing interesting happens in bathrooms anyway, so I don't check those unless I hear there's screaming inside them.”

“One, we're sorry,” Grace said from behind the robot. “We thought you'd try to kill them because they don't belong here.” Her number went back to 0.

“Yeah,” Simon said. “These poor guys went through enough trauma as it is.” His number went back to 0 too.

One turned around to look at his employees. “They may not belong here, but I would never kill people who have no malice. I do, however, want something from them in exchange for their stay.”

Ryan and Min-Gi looked at each other and swallowed audibly.

“Right this way,” One said, pointing at a small chamber that was jutting out of a wall of the Engine.

“Are you sure this is safe?” Min-Gi asked.

“Yes. I assure you, there is no radiation involved.”

Min-Gi and Ryan went into the chamber, the doors closing them in. Kez stayed behind, looking bored. “Why don't I get to go?”

“Because I am interested in helping passengers, not denizens,” One said.

The chamber flashed green twice, then its doors opened. The duo came out of it more confused than ever.

“So, what was that all about?” Ryan asked.

One pointed at the eight screens in the Engine. “Look at the two screens in the center. You will observe the alternate versions of your lives on them.”

“Rad!” Ryan said, rushing to get a closer look at the monitors.

There was a long list of green text on black background displayed on both of them, with the first entry being B1.

“There are many universes out there. We classify them starting from A, which have absolutely no magic in them, not even a train like this one, to F, which run based on completely different laws of physics than ours. The universe you are in right now is B1, so the computer will show you this one first.”

“Man, I wish I had popcorn,” Ryan said.

“I do not recommend eating while watching this. You might choke.”

Min-Gi looked worried. “Choke?!”

The screen on the left showed alternate Min-Gi, and the one on the right showed alternate Ryan. Both sat at a Dumpty's Diner table, but they were two or three decades older than Min-Gi and Ryan, and the seats were brown. The two friends seemed like they had lost even the last spark of hope from their eyes as they looked at each other.

“Whoa! What happened to them … or us?” Min-Gi asked.

One said, “These people exist at this exact moment, on the Earth of this universe. They haven't boarded this train so far. They made their choices, and now they have to live with them.”

Ryan glanced at Min-Gi and frowned, then looked back at the screens.

The alternate version of Ryan said, “Min, I wake up every day thinking how much better our lives could have been. I keep thinking I've failed you.”

“We would have died by now if we chose otherwise,” alternate Min-Gi said. “Look, my life isn't really that great either, but I have a family now. I … have to live for them.”

Alternate Ryan stared at the table, disappointed. “But do they live for you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. It's just that I can't help but wish I could turn back the time and … give you another chance to live. Like, actually live! Not … whatever you're doing here.”

“You're just jealous that I own this diner now while you keep jumping from one cashier job to another!” alternate Min-Gi said while pointing at alternate Ryan.

“Min, I don't care! You could be the richest man on the planet, and I wouldn't care. What I do care about is that you've wasted your life just to fit other people's expectations of you. You knew that wasn't the real you, and now you try your hardest to keep up appearances to not reveal how much of a fool you know you were back then!”

“I made the right choice, Ryan! And if you hadn't taken my advice, you'd be a starving artist on the side of the road today; that is, if you'd even make it this far.”

“Yeah. Instead I'm a tired old 9 to 5 worker with no life. Feels great. Perfect. Couldn't ask for anything more.”

“Well it's not my fault you suck at finances,” alternate Min-Gi said. “Or at getting yourself a wife.”

Alternate Ryan slammed his hands on the table as he got up from the seat. “Well maybe some people don't fit in those tiny little boxes you've crammed yourself in. And maybe they didn't have to live their whole lives watching someone do that to themselves when they clearly didn't fit in. It hurts, you know?”

“Ryan … stop living in the past.”

“No, you stop living in the past!” alternate Ryan said as he threw his red glasses onto the table so hard their lenses cracked. Then he left the diner, making his way through the street in spite of his blurred sight.

Alternate Min-Gi stared at the damaged glasses on the table and sighed. “I know you're right, buddy. It's just too late.”

“See?” Ryan said to Min-Gi. “They look miserable.”

Min-Gi looked at One. “Are they going to be okay?”

One said, “This universe's Ryan is at his lowest point. He will be offered the opportunity to board the train soon. But if he doesn't take it, then I am afraid nothing more can be done to save him.”

“Can we change the channel?” Ryan asked, wiping off tears from his eyes. “Please?”

“Certainly. Let us see what's next on the list. Universe B4. Its timeline should be very similar to yours.”

The screens showed alternate Ryan and alternate Min-Gi being the same age as them, but on stage, playing their guitar and professional synthesizer live while singing a song about a train to nowhere.

“They seem happy,” Ryan said.

“We could have been happy too if you hadn't decided to jump head first into a wormhole!” Min-Gi said.

“We … Never mind. But how come they're singing the same song we came up with on the train?”

The concert ended, and the alternate versions of Ryan and Min-Gi went to the green room. There, they sat on a purple sofa.

“That was rad!” alternate Ryan said.

“Yeah! They loved it!” alternate Min-Gi told him. “Who knew all we needed was a wormhole train to give us the needed inspiration?”

Min-Gi looked at Ryan. “Wait, they went on the train too?”

“What do ya know? I did something good after all!” Ryan said, puffing up his chest and showing his cat smile to Min-Gi.

“That is a positive outcome,” One said. “But there are plenty of ways in which things could have gone wrong, even on the train.”

“I want to see more,” Ryan said. “Is there a universe where Min and I … are rock stars?”

“I do not know. All I can know is what the computer shows based on your data. It seeks universes that have your alternate versions, and it can only show me their present. There are more we can explore, such as this one.”

The screen switched to universe B8, and Ryan's grin turned into a frown. “Oh no. Not this.”

Min-Gi watched annoyed as an alternate Ryan just got dumped by a girl while alternate Min-Gi was at home, finding out he was accepted into the university. “Figures,” Min-Gi said.

“Uh, does this thing have a remote?” Ryan asked, noticing his friend's reaction.

“I'll switch to the next universe,” One said.

That other universe showed alternate Ryan get dumped again by another girl while alternate Min-Gi was at home, staring into empty space..

“So this is what you'd do if you'd become famous,” Min-Gi said, crossing his arms.

“Min, I wasn't famous, and this happened before we got on the train.”

“While I was at home, suffering because you never came back, this is what you were up to!”

One checked out another universe.

Min-Gi was furious after watching it. “Did this happen too? You gave her your van?!”

“It was … so she could keep a secret,” Ryan said.

“Ryan! What the hell did you do? Did you do drugs? Did you murder someone?”

“It's not about something I did. It was just something I said. It wouldn't hurt anyone. At least, I hope it wouldn't. But I know people would still react to it as if I did murder someone.”

“What did you tell her?”

“Why are you so nosy, Min? Am I not allowed to have secrets?”

Min-Gi glared at him. “What made you think she would keep your secret if you gave her your van?”

“It doesn't matter. We won't be going back to Canada, so we won't have to deal with the consequences anyway.”

“What the hell did you tell her? What did you nearly drag me into?”

Ryan looked away. “One? Can I go back to the Jungle Car, please? I don't want to watch this anymore.”

Min-Gi grabbed him by the back of the coat. “Oh no, you don't! I'm not letting you out of my sight! Who knows what trouble you'd start.”

One accessed another universe. “This is a class A universe. Whatever happens to the versions of you in it, there won't be a train to help them out.”

“I don't want to watch,” Ryan said, looking away from the screens and pouting.

Min-Gi, on the other hand, observed as alternate Min-Gi caught up to alternate Ryan on the normal train, which started to move.

“Haha! Now you're trapped with me!” alternate Ryan said. “No going back now!”

“Ryan, this isn't a game!” alternate Min-Gi said. “We're not prepared for this! You don't even know if I have my instrument with me!”

“We don't need to be prepared. We just need to be away from Powell Lake. Away from Canada. We'll get by as long as we have each other.”

“Are you crazy? We haven't practiced for so long, and now you expect me to perform at a concert, in front of so many people?”

“Min, there is no concert. I lied.”

Alternate Min-Gi stared in shock. “You—what?”

“Don't worry; I … We'll figure something out so we can make money and eventually get to the point where we can be rock stars.”

“Ryan, why are we taking a train? What happened to your van? Where are we going to live?”

“I gave my van away, but I'm sure we can find a shelter somewhere in New York City until we get enough money to get a new van.”

“A shelter?! Is that your big plan? To live like vagrants?!”

“At least we'd be happy,” alternate Ryan said, grinning.

A man arrived at the scene and said, “Tickets please.”

Alternate Ryan presented his ticket. “Here you go.”

Alternate Min-Gi searched his chest pocket. It was empty. “I, uh … Oh no! I left it at the diner!”

“Are you saying you don't have a ticket, sir?”

Alternate Min-Gi's breathing became fast while his heart struggled inside his chest. “I-I tried to … I mean, I didn't ...” Sweat covered his forehead and went down his face.

Min-Gi and Ryan both stared at the screens. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Alternate Ryan searched through his pockets. “I'm sorry, Min. I'm out of money.”

“You went into this with absolutely no plan!” alternate Min-Gi said, pointing at him. “My life is ruined!” He ran away, and the ticket collector and alternate Ryan chased after him.

“Min! We'll find a way to pay the fine! I'll help you!” alternate Ryan yelled.

“You've 'helped' me enough!” alternate Min-Gi said. He opened a door of the train that led to outside.

Ryan and Min-Gi gasped at the same time as the ticket collector and alternate Ryan did. They saw alternate Min-Gi jump off the train while it was going at full speed and passing by multiple posts.

Alternate Ryan stood still for a second, trying to take in what had just happened.

“I'm sorry about your friend,” the ticket collector said, still in shock. “I didn't mean to scare him! I swear!”

Alternate Ryan gained a blank stare. “He just … jumped off the train. He left me. Again. For good. He … He he. Hehehahahah!” Before the ticket collector could grab him, alternate Ryan ran toward the open door and jumped out as well.

Min-Gi and Ryan stared with their eyes wide and their jaws dropped, shaking in sync.

“Do you see now why the Infinity Train is needed?” One asked.

The duo nodded.

“There are many choices that people could make,” One said, “and there is a universe for each of those choices. These are real people and real events that are happening right now. My aim is to learn more about when it would be the right time to intervene. I was too late a few times, but I hope I can make it up to the humans of today. Now, would you like to see another universe?”

“N-no, thanks,” Ryan said.

“We're fine,” Min-Gi added, having the thousand-yard stare. “We saw enough.”

Ryan was still shaking. “Yeah, we d-don't want to have more nightmares than we'll already have.”

“Oh well,” One said. “I guess I will explore the rest of the universes alone. I am bringing the Jungle Car next to the Engine for you. Thank you for your data. Have a nice evening.”

As the researchers led them back to the Jungle Car, Ryan and Min-Gi couldn't help but give each other worried looks. Kez floated between them. “Hey, at least you're not the worse off versions of yourselves.”

The train came to a sudden halt.

“What's going on?” Min-Gi asked, looking around.

“The train is trying to get someone to board,” Simon said.

“If they accept, the wormhole should come down from the vortex and bring them here,” Grace said. “Let's keep going, because the boarding process might take a while.”

Ryan looked at Min-Gi. “Min? Do you think the one boarding right now is ...”

“I don't want to know,” Min-Gi said. “What I do want to know is if I'll be able to sleep tonight.”

When they reached the door to the Jungle Car, the train started moving again.

“Well, no wormhole,” Simon said. “One's gonna be in a bad mood tomorrow.”

Everyone went into the Jungle Car. Ryan sighed and closed the door behind him.

Chapter Text

One sat in the Engine, still slotted in the Steward's head and slouching. His lonely eye took the shape of a tear.

A beeping sound alerted him, the rightmost monitor displaying a received message. One went to check it. Not even bothering to control the Steward's arms, he used sound to make the message open. Then he read it.

Sender: Simon Laurent
Subject: Cheer up, cyclops

I know you're disappointed that you couldn't get that one to board yesterday. Don't dwell on it. You can't always win, and that's okay. The train has saved more people than it has lost or killed.

One finally found the strength to type something back.

To: Simon Laurent
Subject: This is the sixth one whose life I could not save.

I failed to take into account that the human could not see without his glasses. I should have placed a lens in front of him so he could see the train. Maybe then he would have boarded instead of going around it and still running into oncoming traffic. I am a terrible conductor.

He sent it and slouched in front of the monitors, his eye turning into a tear shape again. The beeping sound returned, not letting him fall too deep into self-pity.

Sender: Simon Laurent
Subject: We can learn from mistakes

I should know. I saw my alternate selves die in many ways, mostly due to their own faults. I still have nightmares of that death by ghom. And even when another of my alternate selves tried to do the right thing for once and defend the Hazel of his universe, he still overestimated his strength. That snake had two easy meals that day.

And in spite of knowing all of that, I've made a lot of mistakes myself. Do you have any idea how many times I've said things that made Grace cry? Or how many times I've caused denizens to attack me because I've said things they took as insults? Or how many times that tree house fell and nearly killed me and Grace until we figured out how to make it stable? Come on. We all make mistakes.

One wrote back.

To: Simon Laurent
Subject: Yours are just minor mistakes.

Many human lives depend on me and this train. And I have failed because of not noticing important details. I was supposed to ensure optimal operation of this train. I even created that car that connects the universes you study. I should have been better by now, but the failures still happen. Perhaps I should spend more hours on observing the humans qualifying for a train ride. I must notice every little detail to ensure 100% boarding success and avoid another tragedy.

In the living room of the tree house in the Jungle Car, Simon received the message on his AMMPS device. Dressed casually in a gray sweatshirt and yellow pants, he read it while frowning.

“Is One okay?” Grace asked. She too was dressed casually, in a purple T-shirt and pink shorts.

He shook his head. “He's beating himself up over what happened yesterday. He even reverted back to his formal writing. I think I should pay him a visit before he goes completely cuckoo.”

While Simon equipped himself with a green fanny pack, they both went outside on the tree house's terrace that led to the stairs. There, at a round wooden table, Min-Gi and Ryan were face to face, between them being two plates. The one Min-Gi had was with three bread slices with blue jam while Ryan's had three bread slices with red jam on his. Kez sat between their plates, munching on a purple pineapple. There were two glasses of some green juice on the table as well, one for Min-Gi and one for Ryan.

“Good morning!” Simon said, passing by their table.

“Good morning,” Min-Gi said halfheartedly.

Ryan just mumbled, “Morning.”

Grace stared at them with concern. “I'd say the same, but you don't seem to be enjoying this morning. Is something bothering you two?”

Min-Gi just stared at his plate as he said, “No, we're fine.”

“You don't look fine,” Grace said. “Is the jam I made that bad, or are there some emotional problems between you two?”

“N-no!” Min-Gi immediately shouted. “To both of those questions.”

Ryan proceeded to scarf down the bread slices while scowling. Grace didn't know how to interpret this sudden gesture, so she chose to just shrug it off. After all, she didn't exactly know how people behaved in the universe from where those two came.

“I'll have to go check on One,” Simon said. “Have you decided yet about whether you want to settle in this car or go exploring?”

“I think it's best we build ourselves a house here,” Min-Gi said. Then his eyes widened. “I meant houses! Houses!”

Ryan swallowed the last piece of bread and slammed his right palm over the table. “Again you want to stand still. We should be exploring the train and making a name for ourselves on it. We're going to be stuck here forever, without a source of income, so might as well get the show on the road already.”

Kez finished eating the pineapple. “You corpses are at it again. Can't you just, like, reach a compromise or something?”

“Ryan's always rushing!” Min-Gi said while pointing at him. “That's why his plans always fail. That's why he couldn't even keep any of his girlfriends.”

Ryan scowled. “Oh yeah? How's your dating life been?”

It was Min-Gi's turn to scowl. “Ryan ...”

With a smirk, Ryan leaned over the table. “Still a desert, am I right?”

Simon raised an eyebrow at Ryan. “Dude! You go for the jugular! What the heck?”

Min-Gi glared at Ryan. “Come on, you were desperate enough to flirt with a cat. In front of me!”

“I wasn't doing it for myself!” Ryan said. “I was trying to get us a hiding place! What part of that don't you understand? I wouldn't run away with a cat and leave you!”

“What the hell is going on between you two?” Simon asked. “Are you a couple or something?”

“No!” Min-Gi said, staring at Simon with wide eyes.

Ryan crossed his arms, his pupils staring to the left as he said, “I wish.” Then he immediately put his hands over his mouth.

Min-Gi's mouth remained open for a full second after hearing that. “Ryan!” he shouted as he got up from his chair and put his arm between Ryan and the two hosts. “He's just joking! Please don't hurt him!”

“No, I'm not!” Ryan yelled, getting up as well. “I'm sorry, Min!” With tears in his eyes, he ran away, going down the stairs faster than Min-Gi thought was possible.

“We're not gonna hurt y—” Before Simon could finish what he wanted to say, he saw Min-Gi leave to chase after Ryan.

“You were too blunt with them,” Grace said. “They come from the 80s. If their world's history is at all similar to ours, it's no wonder they got so jumpy.”

“Hmm,” Kez said. “I knew something was, like, chewing at them.”

Simon went down the stairs. “I'm going to the Engine. Kez, you should go find your friends and bring them back here. This jungle isn't exactly safe.”

Kez floated off the table and flew in the direction where she last saw Min-Gi. “Corpses! Come back! They're not gonna hurt you!”

Simon had almost reached the exit of the Universe Intersection Car when he heard a harsh voice with a bit of distortion in it.

“Shifty humans. I never should have trusted her. Gah!”

The sound of struck and cracked glass echoed through the corridors.

Simon couldn't help but ask, “Sir, is everything okay over there?”

The voice said, “Don't even think about stepping onto my train!”

“I wouldn't even dream about invading your train,” Simon said. “We have a strict 'no invading other people's worlds' policy here.”

“Keep it that way! If I see you here, I'll headbutt you into oblivion!”

Simon stifled a laugh as he continued his trip, leaving behind the angry person. He reached the door without having to deal with any pesky hexagons that would block his way. Due to the many walks he and Grace had to take through those corridors, they came to accept their fates, so the car didn't have much to show them to make them question their life choices. He unlocked the door and went outside, heading for the Engine.

Once at One's door, Simon pointed his arm's device toward it, and it played the tune One used to unlock it. He went inside and found One in the Steward's body, still slouching in front of the eight screens.

“Hey, buddy,” Simon said. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing,” One said.

“Nothing? That's not the One I know.”

“The One you know is – as you humans call it – a loser.”

“One, you're not a loser. You never were. You just … can't keep everything all neat and tidy. And that's not your fault. Life's messy. I've read in one of those books from Grace's library that humans have realized there's no way to accurately predict the future. And even if there were a way to do that, wouldn't knowing what the future holds just introduce new variables into the system, making the previous prediction inaccurate again?”

One stared at him with his eye a full circle.

Simon scratched the back of his head. “I've been hanging out with you so often that I'm starting to sound like you sometimes.”

“Your habit of contracting words has been rubbing off on me as well,” One said, “so we're even.” His eye curved upward.

“It's good to prepare yourself for things that might happen, but there can always be things we're unprepared for. So don't stress yourself out over mistakes. Besides, you own what's probably one of the safest trains out there. You even fixed the ghom problem with those bug zappers atop the cars.”

One's eye turned into a tear shape. “Do you really think I am a good enough conductor?”

“Of course you are. But I think not giving passengers healthcare is a pretty bad decision.”

“It was never my decision,” One said. “I just never acquired tapes from sufficient medical staff in order to build hospital cars. The train would also need to get the tape of a medical equipment technician or a medical equipment engineer in order for me to create proper copies of said machinery. The best I've managed to acquire are syringes and some medicine from nurses' tapes.”

“I thought … you weren't making hospital cars because you wanted to give people a reason to get off the train.”

“While it is true that not having hospitals here incentivizes people to work toward improving themselves and leaving the train, all passengers are important. Their place in the world must be refilled as soon as possible, otherwise bad things could happen. It is a sad day whenever a passenger meets their untimely end here. I am doing all I can to keep them alive, and yet many of them still manage to get themselves killed in the most ridiculous ways possible.”

“That incident with the paperclips was pretty hilarious though.”

“That incident is the reason why I have removed all microwave ovens from this train.”

“Aw, come on, One! Some people might want to quick-heat a bowl of soup or a cup of coffee!”

One scowled at him. “No more microwave ovens.”

“Fine,” Simon said, scowling back. “Uh … I gotta get back to the Jungle Car and see if I can find our guests if they haven't returned to the tree house yet.”

“You've lost them.”

“They're dealing with something they have to solve on their own. But I don't think they've left the Jungle Car. It provides almost everything they need to survive. I'll be on my way now. Oh, and don't bother with switching the cars around. I don't mind taking a stroll through the alternate universe car. See ya tomorrow, cyclops!”

“See ya.”

The trip through the Universe Intersection Car seemed to be going well for Simon. No hexagons blocked his path, so it was a pretty straight walk to the other end of the car. He walked past portals to universes of different versions of himself who wandered alone. Some noticed him, a few of them said hi to him, most were just being jerks, but he didn't mind. He had his friends and wife, and his life wasn't bad. The car had nothing with which to challenge him at that point. Or so he thought.

From up ahead, a loud sound of something being ground and cracking due to machinery polluted the corridor. Someone was trying to escape their universe. Simon could only hope it wasn't someone dangerous.

When he reached the place from where the noise came, he looked to his left and saw two mirror people – one of whom wore a cowboy hat and a short-sleeved coat. Judging by their uniforms and sander devices on their right arms, he knew they were flecks, the police force of the mirror world.

To make matters worse, a hexagon was lowered from the ceiling, making sure there was no way to go too far past the damaged hexagon.

The flecks broke into Simon's universe and held their sanders like shields toward him. The one with the cowboy hat said, “Get out of the way. Nobody has to get hurt.”

Simon revealed his arm-mounted device. “Are you two invading? That isn't allowed here.” He pointed it at them.

The other flec raised his hands in the air. “Don't shoot! We're trying to run for our lives here!”

“Oh, someone's angry at you for grinding mirror people into dust?” Simon asked. “Why am I not surprised?”

“No!” the hatless flec said. “Us not doing our job is part of the reason why we're on the run in the first place!”

“We need to get out of here!” the flec with the hat said. “They sent a squad after us! Let us go already!”

Multiple angry voices came from the corridor of the universe from which the flecks escaped. Some of them talked about slivers and dishonor.

“I'll make a deal with you,” Simon said to the fugitives. “I lock your universe up in exchange for letting me interrogate you.”

The flec with the hat yelled, “We don't have time for this—”

“Deal!” the other flec said, pulling his companion to the side of the corridor after seeing the flec squad run toward them with sanders forward.

Simon pointed his device toward the top right corner of the broken hexagon. The machinery played a tune, causing a hatch to open and reveal a green orb. He grabbed the orb and pulled it out, making the portal shut right in the face of the six flecks that were coming for the other two. The hexagon turned black and was pulled into the ground, revealing another path.

After dropping the orb to the ground, Simon turned toward the flecks and reached out with his right hand. “I'm researcher Simon Laurent.”

The flec with the cowboy hat looked at the 0 on Simon's palm for a brief moment before shaking the researcher's hand. “I'm Mace, former special agent of the Reflection Police.”

The other flec also shook Simon's hand. “I'm Sieve, former agent of the Reflection Police.”

“Nice,” Simon said. “So, what did you guys do to have six of your own people out for your … blood? Do you guys even have blood?”

“Are you familiar with how reflections become flecks?” Mace asked.

“If the mirror world of your universe works like ours, once your prime dies, you can choose to either get your memory wiped and become someone else's reflection, or you can keep your memories, become a flec, and oppress the crap out of mirror people.”

“There is a third option,” Sieve said. “Wait, no, that's actually a fourth option. The third one is becoming a medic. The fourth option is becoming a sliver by refusing to perform any of those three duties. We chose that last one.”

“And they want to grind us for that,” Mace said.

Simon squinted at them. “But you two are already flecks.”

Mace chuckled at that. “We're flecks on paper. Sure, we sacrificed our original bodies, but we've kept what is important: our memories.” He smiled at Sieve.

Sieve smiled back. Then he said to Simon, “Our primes were in love with each other. They went through a lot in life, but nothing could separate them. Not even death. They died together in a plane crash. Mace and I would have never met if it weren't for them getting together. We ended up loving each other just as much as our primes did. And when the time came for us to choose, we made a plan: become flecks, acquire the flec skins, escape the mirror world through any reflective surface, and try to find a place where we could live in peace, together until the end of time. And thanks to you, our plan worked.”

Mace and Sieve exchanged gazes with each other, smiling relieved that they didn't have to run anymore.

“Now that you're safe, are you going to be seeking a car to live in?” Simon asked.

“As long as the flecks from here don't attack us, we hope to find our place on this train,” Sieve said.

“We have a mirror world here too, but I doubt its flecks will chase after you since you were never part of their world. I'd still advise you to keep away from mirror cars though.”

“Know any interesting but mostly safe cars in which we could settle?” Mace asked.

“Well, my wife and I live in the Jungle Car, which comes right after this one. It's pretty safe, but you might want to watch out for pesky ferrets and silverback gorillas. Okay, the name silverback doesn't really fit here. They should be called pinkbacks. Anyway, they're huge, adult male gorillas, so if you meet one, it's best to back away.”

“A jungle, huh?” Mace said. “Sounds like a nice environment and a source for possible adventure. What other cars do you know?”

“The cars after the Jungle Car switch every now and then, but there was this cool car that had a pink sky, and large canyons, and giant winged snakes with golden skin. The snakes attack sometimes, but if you're prepared for the fight, I guess you could get some adventure out of that car.”

“Ooh! Giant flying snakes!” Sieve said. “Sounds fun, but probably not a place where we could settle.”

“Yeah,” Simon said. “There isn't much to do there other than climbing the canyons or annoying the snakes. If you plan on eating, there's no food there either, unless you like snake meat.”

“We don't need to eat,” Mace said, “but some place where we could eat would be nice.”

Simon tried to recall any other cars fitting what the former flecks were seeking. “The Ocean Car is a pretty calm place with lots of sea creatures, if you like seafood. Just don't mess with the snails that float inside bubbles. Another car that comes to mind is the Cheese Car, where everything is made of cheese. There are at least five types of cheese there, and some of it is alive, in the form of weird creatures that don't really look like any animals I've seen before. A Jelly Polycube Car was nearby yesterday. Might want to check that one if you like sweets.”

A hexagon descended and stopped the trio from advancing. Past its portal, there were alternate versions of Mace and Sieve holding down a mirror version of Simon.

“This damn car, I swear ...” Simon said, scowling at what he saw.

“Let that reflection go!” Mace said to the alternate flecks.

“He's a sliver without a prime,” alternate Mace said.

“If he didn't want to be ground into dust, he shoulda become a flec or a medic,” alternate Sieve said. “Coulda kept his memories too.”

“What you're doin' there is murder!” Sieve said. “That reflection is a person!”

Alternate Mace laughed. “It doesn't matter. The law is clear: if you don't reflect, fix, or enforce, you must be eliminated. But you should know that. Unless you fail as cops.”

“We never really wanted to be cops in the first place,” Mace said. “Sliver for life!”

“Yeah!” Sieve said. “Sliver for life!”

“Please! Get them off me!” mirror Simon said. “I just want to live!”

“End of the line, sliver,” alternate Mace said, starting up the sander on his right arm.

Alternate Sieve also started up his sander. Then they both brought their devices down on mirror Simon, to the horror of Simon, Mace, and Sieve, who could do nothing to stop them without breaking the barrier.

“I hate flecks,” Simon said, glaring at the alternate versions of Mace and Sieve.

When the alternate flecks were done with mirror Simon, the reflection was just a pile of glittery dust on the floor.

“I'm surprised you two are still in one piece,” alternate Mace said to the former flecks on Simon's side. “The Mirror Police should have sent a whole squad after you for your insubordination.”

“Oh, they did!” Sieve said. “And they can eat dust. Our friend Simon here saved us.”

“You two will never know what it feels like to be truly free,” Mace said. “And I pity you.”

“Pity?” alternate Mace asked. Then he laughed as if he had heard the best joke.

“Aren't you dummies aware that we are allowed to go to the prime world, unlike reflections and medics?” alternate Sieve asked.

“You are allowed to go to the prime world only to hunt down rogue reflections and agents,” Mace said. “Once your job is done, you are expected to return to the mirror world within thirty minutes. Aren't those the rules?”

Alternate Mace and alternate Sieve glanced at each other, frowning.

“And if you don't go back, they're gonna send the squad after you and grind you to dust,” Sieve said. “But if you do get back to the mirror world before those thirty minutes are up, you still have to help manage the identities of new reflections and new agents. You barely have time for yourselves.”

Alternate Mace clenched his right fist. “Flecks don't need time for themselves. We are an important part in the machine, and we better work as intended, or else the mirror world falls to chaos.”

“Now you're just repeatin' what they taught you in flec school,” Sieve said, smirking.

“They'll just conform to mirror society's expectations,” Mace said, then grinned. “These two will never get anywhere with that attitude.”

Alternate Mace took a cylindrical container out of his coat's pocket and took out a toothpick from it, then he bit on it and held it with his teeth. “Let's get back to the station, Sieve. At least we're being useful, unlike these two slivers.”

“Bye, losers!” alternate Sieve said, waving at the flecks before following alternate Mace down the corridor.

The hexagon went into the ceiling, allowing Simon and the former flecks to continue their journey.

“The only losers I saw were them,” Sieve said, crossing his arms. “They got the chance to escape the mirror world, and yet they keep followin' orders. They coulda just joined us so they'd be free.”

“I'm not sure if it would have been a good thing,” Simon said. “I mean, it's getting weird enough that we've got some people from the 80s who were thrown into this universe while there are … or at least were, older versions of both of them here in 2020. Imagine what it'll do to this world's history! I've seen other universes where things like these happened. There were kid versions of me and my wife on a train from the 20s! Their parents breached into that universe from two other universes that were somewhere around the year 2010, and they lived on the train and had those versions of me and my wife. Things get confusing thanks to cars like this one.”

“Does that mean us staying here is causing damage to this world?” Sieve asked.

“I don't know, Sieve. But since you're here, might as well enjoy your stay. There's no way I'm sending you two back to your universe. I don't want you to be ground into dust.”

“Ryan!” Min-Gi shouted, looking around and making his way through the jungle. He could see colorful birds in the trees, and some shiny cyan lizards on the ground. Carefully, he stepped around the lizards and continued his search for Ryan.

To Min-Gi's right, in the distance, there was something he would recognize anywhere. Ryan's wild hair. It was peeking from behind a bush. Min-Gi decided to stop calling and instead walk slowly, hoping to take Ryan by surprise.

When he reached the bush, he raised his arms and prepared to bring his hands down on Ryan. Unfortunately for him, Ryan turned around to check why Min-Gi had gone quiet. Their eyes made contact, and they froze for a moment, staring.

Min-Gi opened his mouth to say something, but Ryan just darted away. The chase was on again. Ryan was putting quite a distance between them, but in his haste he tripped over some clingy plants of the jungle's floor, falling on his belly.

Min-Gi caught up to him and immediately put his hands on Ryan's shoulders. “Gotcha!”

With his eyes tearing up again, Ryan pushed himself up and stared at the grassy ground. “Now what? Are you going to kill me, Min-Gi? Are you going to kill your childhood best friend?”

“What?” Min-Gi asked, shocked. “No! I wouldn't! I ...” He helped Ryan sit, then he sat next to him.

Avoiding to look at Min-Gi, Ryan said, “In high school, when you left … It was because of that hug, wasn't it?”

“No, Ryan. That wasn't why I ran. I was just not ready for the road trip. The news was too sudden.”

“But you were disgusted by me hugging you. Admit it.”

“No! I was … a bit ashamed of myself, and I hoped I didn't blush. If people caught us like that and saw me all red-faced, we would have never lived it down. Or at least … I don't think I'd ever live it down.”

Ryan finally got the courage to look at Min-Gi again. “Wait, why would you …? Oh. Min, I never figured you for … you know. You seemed straight as a ruler.”

They both burst into laughter and laughed until they almost ran out of breath.

Once they calmed down and gained serious expressions, Min-Gi finally managed to speak. “Ryan, did you lie about that New York City show?”

Ryan frowned. “Yeah. I made it up. I'm sorry.”

“So, you didn't come to me because you needed my help. You actually came back for me.”

“Well, I couldn't just show up and say, 'Hey, Min! Wanna run away with me?' I thought, if you weren't disgusted with me back in high school, you'd be disgusted with me if I were honest at the diner that evening, and I'd never be able to pull you out of that soul-draining job. And I had a plan, even if at best you'd only be my friend again. I was going to make money with my guitar to make sure we'd both get to play together on stage eventually. I was going to buy you a professional synth, regardless if you had your stylophone with you or not.”

“Ryan, I ...” Min-Gi couldn't find his words. So instead he chose to hug Ryan.

“This is … not really what I expected,” Ryan said. “All these years, I've been telling myself that if I would ever dare talk about this, I would be setting myself up for disappointment, or worse, death. And now I find out that you had the same fears, the same feelings … but you couldn't say anything because you were scared of the world, not just of how I might react.”

“Well, now those two and Kez know you're into me, so we can't stay here. It's too bad, but like that gorilla said, we only have each other.”

Ryan blushed and looked to the side. “You know, that last ex of mine, she asked me why I got dumped by my other two exes. I told her about how I took them to Dumpty's on dates, how I tried to get them into playing music, and how I wished they were more like you. Then she asked if I would have considered you the ideal partner. You get no points for guessing what I answered.”

Min-Gi got up, dug into his jacket's right pocket, and brought the Dumpty's Diner keys out of it. “Thank you for coming back for me, Ryan. Let's put the past behind us. Our life starts now!” He threw the keys as far away as he could.

The keys hit the head of a male gorilla that looked like a bigger, more muscular Tuba, then they bounced off and fell on the ground. After looking at the object that hit him, the pinkback gorilla turned around to see who threw it.

Ryan got up as well and put his index finger under Min-Gi's chin. “Just letting you know: in a relationship, I prefer to be the one who leads.”

“Let's not rush things,” Min-Gi said nervously. “You know I have zero dating experience.”

Ryan grinned at him and pulled his hand away from Min-Gi's chin. “All right. We'll start small and figure things out along the way. It looks like we've got all the time in the world on this train anyway.”

A loud roar distracted the duo. They saw the pinkback gorilla rush toward them, large canines on display.

“Maybe not all the time in the world,” Ryan corrected himself. Then he and Min-Gi ran, screaming together through the jungle.

Simon and the former flecks heard them and noticed the chase scene happening near them. At that moment Simon activated his arm-mounted device and ran toward the angry gorilla. He pointed the device and tapped on its screen once, causing an invisible force to lift the big denizen into the air. “Calm down! What's going on here?”

The pinkback glared at him from above. “Those two hit me with a strange rock! They attacked first!”

“I'm sorry about that,” Simon said. “They're new here, so they're having trouble adjusting. I'll tell them to not do that next time, okay?”

The pinkback stopped struggling, then muttered, “Okay.”

Simon released the gorilla from the device's invisible trap, then he said, “Mace! Sieve! Follow me!”

The trio were now the ones chasing Ryan and Min-Gi. The duo, not understanding the situation, continued to run for their lives.

“Guys!” Simon yelled. “Please stop! You'll only get yourselves hurt if you keep running!”

The duo didn't listen, and they tried to pass through a large amount of vines, only to remain caught in them like flies in a spider web.

“Looks like death will do us part earlier than we thought,” Ryan said. “It's been nice knowing you, Min.”

Min-Gi turned his head around to see what was happening behind them. He saw Simon and the two humanoid denizens. “Great. He has backup.” Then he saw Simon take a knife out of the fanny pack. “Oh no! We're about to get stabbed to death! Of all the ways we could have died ...”

Suddenly, Ryan and Min-Gi found themselves crashing onto the forest floor, face up. Simon stared down at them, looking worried. “Grace and I weren't going to kill you for admitting your feelings to each other. Things are different here. You're safe.”

“Aww,” Mace said. “Don't they remind you of our primes, Sieve?”

“Yeah, those poor souls,” Sieve said. “They had to mind the world's eyes until they were in their thirties.”

Min-Gi and Ryan got back on their feet and stared at the former flecks.

“Who are you two?” Min-Gi asked.

“I am Mace, and this is my partner Sieve. We used to be the reflections of two guys who were kind of like you two, except they were better at hiding their relationship from the world. They died in their early 40s in a plane crash, but at least they spent their final 10 years no longer having to hide.”

“So, we're free to be out in this universe,” Min-Gi said. Then he looked at Ryan. “But … what about Kez? Will she hate us?”

“I don't know,” Ryan said, frowning. “I'm not exactly sure if she is our friend. She kept getting us into trouble, and got mad at us for choosing to stay with Amelia for too long instead of going to meet Morgan.”

“Corpses!” Speak of the devil.

“Here she comes,” Min-Gi said.

“I'm so glad you're both in one piece!” Kez said. “I thought you were torn apart by one of those huge gorillas that roam this place.”

“Kez, I need to ask you something.”

“Sure, Min. Ask away.”

“Do you hate us?”

Kez looked at them with a puzzled look on her face. “Why would I hate you?”

Ryan spoke up. “Because Min and I want to be … a couple.”

“Oh, that,” she said. “Relax, I already knew you two wanted to be, like, together. It was obvious. Seen it from a mile away.”

Ryan looked at Min-Gi. “And I was right in front of Min and he was blinder than I am without my glasses.” He playfully poked Min-Gi's nose.

“Min-Gi, Ryan, will you be staying here or do you plan on exploring the train?” Simon asked.

“A bit of both,” Min-Gi said. “We'll need a house we can return to from our trips. So we'll build ourselves a tree house first, and Kez can stay with us if she wants to.”

“Good plan,” Simon said. Then he turned toward the former flecks. “What about you two?”

“We'll settle here too,” Mace said. “We like the look of this place, and I think there's lots we can do here.”

“Nice. Anyway, we have a sawmill where logs can be turned into lumber for anyone who wants to build a house. Could you and Sieve help Min and Ryan smooth out the planks for their house, please?”

Mace raised his right arm to show the device on it. “Sure. These sanders have no other use now anyway.”

“Thank you,” Min-Gi said.

Ryan raised his right fist up in the air. “And once the house is done, Min and I can go put on shows through different cars and entertain denizens and passengers alike! Our future's gonna be bright!”

Chapter Text

It was a pleasant, clear sky Sunday morning in the Jungle Car. Or at least it was supposed to be Sunday by Earth rules. Simon sat at the table of the tree house terrace, sipping out of a cup of coffee. Good thing One didn't take out the solar-powered coffee machines.

On the same terrace, Grace rested her arms over the wooden railing of its edges as she listened to music. It came from the rock duo, who were sitting atop one of eight giant, flat, purple glowing mushrooms. The band played a song they made up when they were kids, about dressing their cat and dog in toques.

The former flecks were on the mushroom next to them, sitting and swaying their heads to the rhythm of the music. Once the band finished the song, Mace and Sieve applauded and smiled.

“That was a pretty fun one,” Mace said. He sighed. “Reminds me of how our primes used to spend their free time, back in Texas.”

“Yup,” Sieve said. “Out on the front porch, my prime playing the banjo while Mace's prime played the harmonica … There was even a time when they went near a lake and played. We got to join in because of them being reflected into the water.”

“Your primes were musicians too?” Ryan asked.

Mace waved dismissively. “Nothing serious. They were just messing around. They worked as cowboys.”

Sieve pointed at Mace's hat. “Mace loved the cowboy aesthetic so much that he kept it after his prime died.”

Min-Gi chuckled. “I wonder what our reflections are thinking about us right now.”

Ryan tugged at a few strings on his guitar while looking at him. “Grace said there is a car that leads to the mirror world somewhere nearby. Maybe we should go there and ask them about their opinions.”

“Maybe not,” Min-Gi said. “Let's face it, if they have all of our memories, they'd be cracking dirty jokes at us the whole time.” He patted Ryan's right shoulder and grinned.

Ryan smiled at him, then looked at his guitar. “What song should we play next?”

“I don't know, how about … My Dad's Van?” Min-Gi had to add a smug smile to that. He just had to.

Ryan scowled. “We do not speak of that song.”

“Okay, okay! Oh, and Ryan, I forgive you for writing that one.”

“Thanks. Now can you please pick a song that doesn't make me feel like the dirt under your shoe?”

After a moment of thinking, Min-Gi knew exactly what to suggest. “How about the song that brought us back together emotionally?”

“Yeah, but we didn't really finish writing enough lyrics for Train to Nowhere to feel complete,” Ryan said.

“We don't need lyrics yet. Let's just play the instrumental for the atmosphere. After all, we need to practice before we can play it for the train people.”

Ryan flopped on his back to rest over the mushroom's spongy skin. “Good idea, Min. Get your mini synth ready, cause I'm about to give the go!”

On Ryan's guitar signal, Min-Gi joined in with the stylophone, producing a calm but melancholic instrumental that got the former flecks to close their eyes and sway their heads again in a trance.

Tuba, who was at the bottom of the glowing mushroom pile, smiled at the musicians above her while she had Trumpet and Trombone sleeping on top of her belly. “That's a lovely song,” she said.

Nearby, in a small lake, Hazel and Bugle splashed water at each other and giggled. They too could hear the song, and it made their playtime even more enjoyable. But at some point Hazel stopped.

“What's wrong, Hay?” Bugle asked. Her voice was just a bit deeper than Hazel's, but she still sounded like a kid.

Hazel pointed at Kez. “She's been sitting on that rock on the edge of the lake all morning. Do you think she's sad about something?”

Bugle shrugged. “I don't know. Let's go ask her.”

The two step sisters approached Kez slowly, so as not to scare her since she was with her back toward them.

“Kez? Are you okay?” Hazel asked.

Kez turned around. “Huh? Yeah, I'm all right. Totally fine.”

Bugle looked at Hazel. “I think she's lying.”

Kez scowled. “This 'fine' thing never works, does it?”

“You can talk to us, Kez,” Hazel said. “We will listen.”

“Yeah,” Bugle said. “We're all ears.”

“Okay ...” Kez said, then coughed up a photograph. She used her blue sparkles as hands. “This is Morgan. My roommate.”

“He's got a nice hat,” Hazel said.

“What? Morgan's a she, and that's not a hat, that's a roof. Wait. You two thought I was referring to the passenger? Nah, that's Jeremy. He used to be my roommate too, until ...” She sighed.

“Did something bad happen to him?” Bugle asked.

“Well, not really, but … he left the train because of something I said. I didn't mean to separate him from Morgan, but Jeremy tried to see what was in that portal and … he left us. Morgan was, like, super upset about all of that and blamed me for what happened. So, to make it up to her, I tried to bring her some new passengers she could befriend. That was my plan with these two guys.” Kez pointed at Ryan and Min-Gi. “But then we met this woman named Amelia, and she ...” A scowl made its way on Kez's face.

Hazel looked concerned. “Was she evil?”

“Probably. I mean, she was, like, taking over the train and messing stuff up and making Ryan and Min do chores for her. And when Ryan tried to distract her from her troubles, she made the Steward wrap one of her arms around his neck and threatened to kill him if we didn't leave. I think that's pretty evil.”

Hazel said, “I've seen many universes where Amelias take over and do bad stuff. But most of them turn good later on. Do you think that Amelia could turn good too?”

“I don't know,” Kez said. “I'll never know, because now I'm stuck here, in a universe that isn't mine, and Morgan's all alone, stuck in her car.”

Bugle took another look at the picture. “So, Morgan's the castle?”

“Yeah,” Kez said before putting the photograph back into her mouth and swallowing it. “I miss her already. I wish I could go back to her. I'd leave the two passengers here since they seem to like this place. Back on our train, they had to worry about their numbers, and whether their musical career as Asians would take off, and … now with their more recent changes, I don't think it would be a good idea for them to go back to their home. What they told me about their planet gave me the shivers.”

“If you really want to go back to your train, maybe I can help,” Hazel said.

Kez's eyes gained a spark of life in them. “Really?”

“Yes! I am a researcher too, so I also have one of those arm devices like Grace and Simon have. I left mine inside a tree hollow so it won't get ruined by rain.”

Bugle looked at Hazel. “Are we going to find another portal to get Kez back to her world?”

“Well, according to One, there is only one portal per universe in that car. But several other universes can have access to Kez's universe. So, if we break into other universes, we could find another portal that leads to her world.”

“Wow! Thank you so much!” Kez said. “Hey, before we go, I gotta say goodbye to those corpses up there.” She pointed at Ryan and Min-Gi, who were still playing at the top of the mushrooms.

“Uh, bad idea,” Bugle said. “We don't want mom, Grace, or Simon to know that Hazel and I are going into that car alone. They think it's too dangerous for us kids.”

Kez frowned and kept staring at the musicians. “You're right. Besides, Min and Ryan would probably try to follow me if I told them I'm leaving. And they're better off here. But I just want a few moments with them before I go. They were there for me when I was at my lowest point.”

Hazel petted Kez. “You go talk to them for a bit. Even if you can't say goodbye directly, at least it will make it easier for you to leave. Bugle and I will go get the arm device, then Bugle will call you so we can go.”

“Okay,” Kez said, then floated off toward the top of the giant mushroom clump, the trail of blue sparks falling behind her.

The musicians finished playing just as Kez approached them.

“Hey, corpses!” she said, trying not to show her sadness. “That was a great performance. I'm sure you two will be rockin' the train soon enough.”

“You should come with us,” Ryan said. “You could add some chimes here and there.”

“Thanks for the invitation, but making music ain't really my thing, ya know?”

Ryan didn't really buy it, but accepted her refusal. “All right. But you're welcome to join us any time.”

Kez smiled with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

Bugle returned. “Hey, Kez! Come on!”

Kez glanced at her, then looked back at Min-Gi and Ryan. “I also wanted to say thank you for being my true friends when everyone else abandoned me at the Party Car.” She kissed them on their cheeks. “Love you, corpses. I gotta go.”

“Later, Kez,” Ryan said.

“See you at dinner!” Min-Gi said.

Kez couldn't find it in her heart to lie to them about coming back, but she also didn't want to tell them she was leaving for good. So she chose to remain silent and follow Bugle, who led her to Hazel.

Hazel smirked and showed Kez her AMMPS device. “I got it! Now we can go look for a universe that can lead us to your universe.”

“We better get back before mom notices we're missing though,” Bugle said. “She'll be really mad if we're not back in time for dinner.”

“She'll be even madder if she'll find us in the universes car,” Hazel said. “Let's hurry!”

Kez followed them silently, frowning at the thought of how upset her friends will be after finding out she left them.

Making their way through the corridors of the Universe Intersection Car, Hazel, Bugle, and Kez stopped in front of every hexagon they could find and used the AMMPS device to check what type of universe was behind each one.

“This one's a class D,” Hazel said after checking out one of the portals. “Too dangerous to enter.”

Three purple tiny wizards arrived behind the hexagon. All they could say was, “Spells!” They repeated that word multiple times while pointing at the group of people on the other side.

Hazel looked at Kez. “Class D is for universes with lots of magic. Humans might live in them, but not in all of them.”

“There's even a world where ghoms are passengers!” Bugle said. “They get glowing numbers on their paws too!”

“What's a ghom?” Kez asked.

“You've never seen a ghom?” Bugle asked. Then she raised her hands in the air with their fingers curved downward. “They're big, dark monsters with dog bodies and bug wings, and catfish heads with long whiskers they use to grab their prey. If they manage to get on top of you, they will suck the soul out of you until you become nothing but dust!”

Kez started to shiver. “Good thing we're not visiting class D universes.”

“The ghoms from that universe are really nice people,” Hazel said. “The ghoms from ours are the scary monsters.”

“What, what, what?!” Kez left her mouth wide open. “Are you telling me I left Ryan and Min on a train with a bunch of soul-sucking monsters running around?”

“Hah! No need to worry about those bug things!” Bugle said gleefully. “One put bug zappers on the train's top, so the ghoms attack those first and get fried.”

Kez's mouth became wobbly. “Fried? That brings back some bad memories.” Then she frowned. “I guess it's for the best that I'm leaving my friends behind. They … didn't deserve to have their lives put in danger because of me.”

Hazel patted her on the head. “I'm sure they forgave you.”

“Yeah,” Bugle said. “They even wanted you to be part of their band.”

“I don't deserve friends like them,” Kez said. “Let's keep looking for that portal. I want to at least make it up to Morgan.”

The next hexagon was completely black.

“Is this one busted?” Kez asked.

“It's been disconnected from the other side,” Bugle said. “Happens when its panel lost its orb, or if the train or its universe on that side has been destroyed somehow.”

Kez gasped. “Universes can just be destroyed?!”

“Um-hum,” Hazel said. “One told us that even if nobody destroys a universe, it will one day die on its own.”

Bugle went closer to Kez. “He calls it the heat death, also known as the Big Chill.”

“That's scary,” Kez said. “How long until this one dies?”

Hazel shrugged. “Even One doesn't know, but he said we won't have to worry about it for at least one trillion years, which is a very long time.”

“Phew, so those two corpses aren't going to freeze to death soon.”

“Why do you keep calling them corpses?” Hazel asked.

“When I met them, they were sleeping on an iceberg. I thought they were dead. Then they woke up and screamed at me like I was some kind of monster. I'm gonna miss those two.”

Hazel continued to check the portals, finding mostly D universes with a few E universes here and there. Then she found a class C universe and saw a girl who looked like an older version of her. She had a purple owl on her right shoulder, and her long, blond hair was tied in a ponytail. She wore a dark blue robe with yellow stars and crescent moons on it. In her right hand there was a wooden wand.

“Wow, I'm a witch in that universe!” Hazel said. “Hi!”

“Hi!” the older Hazel said, waving her free hand at her. “Can't chat right now, Tuba and I must get to the Magic Dueling Car.” Then she left the view.

“Can we break into this one?” Kez asked.

“We could,” Hazel said, “but you can never be sure if class C universes let class B universe people survive in them. Different laws of physics and all that.”

“We need to break into another class B just to be safe,” Bugle said.

The next hexagon got its panel scanned by Hazel's device and was reported as a class B portal. “This one should do. It's B2, the first universe Grace and Simon researched. It should be the year 2019 over there right now.”

“Good,” Kez said. “So … how do we, like, break in?”

“That's where I come in!” Bugle said. She walked backwards until her feet met the other wall behind her. Then she charged at the hexagon and turned her left side toward it, trying to ram with her shoulder. The only result was … “Whoa, that hurt!” she said through her gritted teeth while keeping her eyes tightly shut and holding her left upper arm with her right hand.

Hazel went to check Bugle's arm. “Are you okay, sister?”

Bugle opened her eyes. “Yeah, but it still hurts a little.”

Hazel turned toward the hexagon and kicked it. “Open up! Kez wants to go home!” She kicked again, harder this time. The hexagon didn't even get a scratch. She kicked even harder, ending up holding that foot in her hands while jumping on her left foot. “Ouch!”

Bugle went next to Hazel, offering to catch her if she would fall.

Kez frowned. “Looks like none of us is strong enough to break through the barrier.”

“Look!” Hazel said, pointing at something beyond the hexagon.

The creature running toward them was a whitetail deer fawn with white dots on its back. Everyone expected it to slow down once it got close enough to the barrier, but the fawn kept going until it reached the crystal wall. Then it just phased through it.

Bugle gasped. “Is that …?”

“Alan Dracula!” someone shouted from the other end of the B2 universe's corridor.

“It's that deer my friends and I met at the party!” Kez said. “Min was changing his clothes under it while it was disguised as a table cloth, but then it revealed itself and walked away.”

“I don't think it's the same deer,” Hazel said. “And someone is looking for him.” She stared into the hexagon.

“Alan Dracula, where the hell did you go?” The one shouting was a mirror person, judging by the chrome skin. The person had short hair and wore a black, sleeveless shirt, dark blue jeans, and brown boots.

“I think he went this way,” another person said, then joined the other one. It was a guy with olive complexion, short brown hair, and wearing a blue letterman jacket with yellow sleeves, gray jeans, and white and beige sneakers.

“I don't think we've ever managed to interview any versions of these two,” Hazel said.

Bugle rested her right arm on the fawn's back. “Yeah, unless we did and they looked different.” She heard whistling coming from the deer's head, so she looked in its direction.

Alan Dracula's eyes turned violet, then he fired laser beams at Bugle, who ducked just in time to avoid the attack. The beams melted a hole into the hexagon, allowing the two people from the other universe to enter.

The guy with the blue jacket was first to approach Hazel, Bugle, and Kez. “Hi. I'm Jesse.”

“Nice to meet you, Jesse!” Hazel said, smiling. “I'm Hazel, this is my sister Bugle, and that's our friend Kez.”

“Who is that guy?” Bugle asked, pointing at the mirror person.

“I'm not a guy, apekid!” the mirror person said.

“Girl, whatever. Your haircut's unusual for a girl.”

“Wow, more rules I was supposed to follow. Just because my prime is a girl, everyone expects me to live a certain life. I don't have to restrict myself to being what I was given to be!”

“So you're not a girl?” Hazel asked. “Then what are you?”

The chrome person frowned and shrugged. “I don't know! But I know for sure I don't like to limit myself to one of two choices and change my appearance just to please the world. The world can go fuck itself.”

“My, such language!” Kez said after hearing that last bit.

Hazel started giggling, and Bugle said, “Our mom would wash your mouth with soap for that.”

“I don't fuckin' care!” the chrome person said.

Kez tried to bring the conversation back to friendly levels. “So … what's your name?”

“I … don't really have a name. I go by M.T. though.”

Bugle started laughing. “Empty? You mean you're just a shell?”

M.T. showed Bugle the right fist threateningly. “I assure you, I'm full on the inside.”

Bugle grinned. “So you're full of yourself?”

M.T. growled at her in frustration.

“Hey, calm down,” Jesse said, putting his right hand on M.T.'s left shoulder. “She's just a kid.”

“A very bratty kid,” M.T. said.

“Hey, you!” an alternate version of Mace shouted from the corridor behind M.T. and Jesse. “Turn in that sliver girl! She is a wanted criminal!”

M.T. turned around to see the enemy. “Oh shit! Not those guys again!”

Alternate Mace and Sieve were charging with their sanders forward like shields. Hazel glared at them, then pointed her AMMPS device at the hexagon's top right corner. The panel flipped open, revealing the orb responsible for keeping the portal connected to the other universe.

Alan Dracula noticed the aquamarine shine of the orb and extended his neck toward it. Then he turned his head into a snake's head, opening its mouth wide and swallowing the orb. The portal disappeared, leaving behind only a dark hexagon.

“Alan Dracula! That thing might have been important!” M.T. said.

Alan Dracula started retching while his abdomen grew bigger and bigger. Then he exploded into a cyan smoke.

Jesse gasped. “It … It killed him!”

“Fuck!” M.T. shouted, stomping the ground. “Why did he have to eat it?”

“We're sorry!” Hazel said. “We didn't expect him to eat the orb!”

“He was so young,” Jesse said, crying while kneeling before the spot where the fawn once stood.

M.T. also knelt next to him, but not letting the tears win. “Stupid orb. Stupid car. Stupid … No. I can't … I can't call him stupid. He probably knew what he was doing. There's gotta be a reason why he did that. Right, Jesse?”

“I-I don't know. I don't even know what that orb was.”

“The orb had the code for the portal to your universe,” Hazel said. “I didn't know it would explode if a denizen eats it.”

Something brown started to drip off the ceiling. The liquid formed a pool on the floor, then took the shape of a fawn again, complete with white spots on its back.

“Alan Dracula!” both Jesse and M.T. yelled, then hugged the fawn together.

“Hazel! Bugle!” It was Tuba, and she sounded very worried.

“Hazel! Bugle! Kez!” That was Grace, her tone also revealing concern.

When the two women arrived, they saw the missing ones and the three visitors.

“What happened here?” Grace asked. “We heard an explosion.”

“The deer ate an orb,” Kez said.

Grace glared at her. “What were you all doing in this car without me or Tuba or Simon?”

Kez gestured with her whole body toward Hazel and Bugle. “It was their idea.”

“What idea?” Tuba asked, not happy with the response. “They are kids. You're an adult, Kez. Why didn't you stop them?”

“Well ...” What was she going to tell an angry mom?

“Kez wanted to go home, so Bugle and I offered to help her.”

“Kez!” Grace shouted.

“I just … needed to go back to someone,” Kez said. “I miss her.”

“You could have asked us adults for help,” Tuba said, her stare still hostile toward the bell.

“But I didn't want Min and Ryan to know I was leaving.”

“They are your friends, Kez!” Grace said.

“I know,” Kez said, tearing up. “I know.”

Tuba sighed and grabbed each of her kids by an arm. “Let's get out of here.”

Grace looked at M.T., Jesse, and Alan Dracula. “That includes you three. Let's go. This place is dangerous.”

M.T. pulled Jesse and Alan Dracula back. “Her brats were gonna wheel me and Alan Dracula, and she called the flecks on me! We can't trust her!”

“I'm not the Grace you think I am. You're in a different universe here. I don't run a cult. I'm a researcher. Please come with us.”

M.T. looked at Jesse. He said, “She's friends with denizens, so she might not be like the Grace we know.”

“Well, I'm keeping my guard up,” M.T. said, glaring at Grace but finally following her.

After the group reached the Jungle Car, Alan Dracula made his legs very long, towering above everyone.

“That was a stupid idea, Hazel,” Grace said. “Our devices can't read the orbs generated in other universes. You'd be wandering for ages trying to find Kez's world, and even then you'd not be able to tell if you ended up in the right one or a clone of it.”

“I can't stay here forever!” Jesse said. “I have to go home! And … I also have to apologize to my little brother for something I did.”

“I can ask One to attempt to build a new orb to unlock your universe if it's not locked from the other side,” Grace said, “but there are access codes for an infinite number of universes, and he might not find the right one during your lifetime. He doesn't have 'recipes' for portals to particular universes, so he'll have to do it blindly.”

Jesse's face showed the despair welling up inside him. “Alan Dracula, what did you get us into?”

The fawn used his laser eyes to hit a bird and cook it in the air. The roast fell somewhere among the jungle's trees.

“So, M.T.,” Grace said, “you used to be the reflection of a girl named Tulip Olsen, right?”

“I was. But I am not her. Got it? I am my own person, and I live by my rules. I am no longer a reflection, I am not a sliver, I am not a null, and I refuse to be classified as a guy or a girl. And anyone who talks shit about my hair will get a knuckle sandwich!”

“Understood. Do you wish to be addressed with any particular pronouns?”

M.T. stared puzzled at Grace. “I never really thought about it until now. I'm used to being addressed with 'she' and 'her'. What else is there?”

“A lot of different pronouns. I could give you a book about them. The most well-known is the gender-neutral 'they' and 'them'.”

“I could go by the gender-neutral one. It feels less limiting.”

“I'm never seeing my family again,” Jesse said, staring at the non-glowing zero of his palm as he continued to walk.

M.T. put their right arm over Jesse's shoulders. “Don't give up, buddy. Maybe the Conductor will make an orb that can lead us back to our universe.”

“Yeah, maybe he can make it by the time I'm an old man. Alan Dracula, why did you have to teleport us just as we were heading for the door that led to my house?”

The fawn turned into a butterfly with a deer head and brown wings with white spots, then landed on Jesse's head.

“Kez!” Min-Gi shouted as he and Ryan ran toward the group.

“Oh no,” Kez said, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Kez! Where were you?” Ryan asked. “When Min and I heard you disappeared with Tuba's kids, we were worried sick!”

“Well, ya see, I was just … trying to return to Morgan to tell her everything's all right, you know?”

“You were … You were trying to leave without us!” Ryan said, pointing an accusatory finger at Kez.

“I wasn't going to, like, leave you forever.”

Ryan had the scariest glare she had ever seen on his face. “You didn't even ask us if we wanted to go back home too!”

“But from what you told me, there is nothing left for you to return to!” Kez yelled. “Your parents don't care about you, and Min's parents would either try to break you two up, or kick him out of their house!”

“Kez, it doesn't matter! Min and I would figure out a way to survive without our parents' help.”

Kez scowled. “What about the way your world treats those like you and him? One slip up and you'll have to deal with people who actually want to kill you. You looked so happy here, where you can be free from all the worries you had back home ...”

Min-Gi pulled Ryan toward him by the left arm. “Kez does have a point. Your tendency to talk too much could get us in trouble if we'd somehow get home.”

“I could work on that!” Ryan said. “Although, knowing Amelia, she probably got rid of all portals or even the whole car by now. So there's no going back for us. But you know what ticked me off the most?” He pointed at the bell. “That Kez didn't have the minimum decency to say goodbye!”

Kez saw the tears in his eyes.

Ryan turned his hands into fists. “You could have died in there, and Min and I would have kept waiting for you in vain to return. And we'd forever regret that we didn't get to at the very least throw you a goodbye party or something.”

Kez started crying too as she went toward his chest and rested her head on it. She expected to be smacked away, but instead Ryan put his right hand over her and held her close. Min-Gi also joined in, putting his hand on her head.

“Kez, please be more open to us about these things,” Min-Gi said.

“I … I'm sorry. I just wanted to see Morgan. She's been upset because our roommate Jeremy got his exit after talking about his problems with me. I wanted you two to keep her company, but since you guys were already planning on settling here ...”

“Hold on!” Ryan said. “Morgan is a girl?”

“Yeah. Wait, did you also think Jeremy was Morgan?”

“What do you mean?” Min-Gi asked.

Kez coughed up the photograph. Then she pointed at the man with the hat and pink shirt from the image. “This is Jeremy.”

Ryan rubbed his chin. “But if that's Jeremy, then who's …?”

“The beauty in the back!” Kez said, pointing at the castle.

“Sh-she's a castle?!” Ryan said, leaving his jaw dropped.

“You totally would have flirted with that castle,” Min-Gi said, elbowing him playfully. “Anyway, Kez, let's go have dinner. The house is almost finished, so I think we can eat in the completed half of the living room.”

“Dinner sounds good,” Kez said before putting the photograph back into her mouth.

Ryan said, “We're having fish thanks to Simon. He went to a market car and traded for some.” He stopped to look at Alan Dracula, who approached him and promptly turned into a wooden chair. “Wait, is that the table cloth deer from the Party Car?”

“Thanks for reminding me of that embarrassing moment,” Min-Gi said while scowling.

Ryan grinned while waving his eyebrows at him. “Hey, even the deer knew you being pantsless is a sight to behold. Rawr!”

Min-Gi blushed as he grabbed Ryan by the back of his coat, pulling him toward their unfinished tree house. “Ryan, dinner. Now.”

Tuba, Hazel, Bugle, Grace, M.T., Jesse, and Alan Dracula went to the lake near the tree houses. There, Trumpet and Trombone were being watched over by Mace and Sieve, who sat on the lake's edge and soaked their lower legs in the water.

M.T. stared wide-eyed at the flecks, then looked at Grace. “You fuckin' traitor! I knew you'd sell us out to the flecks!”

“Hey now,” Mace said, “we're not flecks. We're slivers like you.”

“I am not a sliver!” M.T. yelled. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“We're not flecks,” Sieve repeated. “I know we look like we are, but we just ran off with the skins and are now living the sliver life, away from our universe.”

“So you're not the Mace and Sieve I was running away from.”

“We've never chased anyone. First assignment and we gave our superiors the middle finger by going rogue.”

M.T. looked at Jesse, who scowled at Alan Dracula. “Hey, Jesse, we might be in good company. I don't see any hostility from these people yet. Except for that one apekid. She's more of a nuisance than a threat though.”

“Even if they're not hostile, we're still not in the right place,” Jesse said. He looked at his inactive number. “We were supposed to get off the train. I was supposed to ... tell Nate I'm sorry.”

M.T. patted Jesse on the back. “We'll get there, buddy. Don't give up hope.” They looked into the lake and saw their reflection. “I think I found the perfect name for me.”

“Dracula Two?” Jesse asked, showing two fingers.

“Heh, you and your naming skills,” they said. “No. From this moment on, I shall be known as … Lake.”

Several long, metallic arms came down and surrounded Lake. When they looked up, they saw a single-eyed white ball with a black stripe, and it was slotted inside the head of a Steward.

“One-One?” Lake asked.

The robot lowered his head uncomfortably close to Lake's face. “Salutations.”

“One, stop doing that,” Simon said, arriving at the scene. “It freaks people out.”

“My apologies,” One said, raising his head away from Lake. “I am One. Would you and the other two new visitors stop by my place for data collection and some tea?”

Alan Dracula stretched his neck to giraffe levels and looked at One with his head upside down above his friends. Lake and Jesse stared at the robot while saying “Uh … what?”

Chapter Text

On Monday afternoon, Grace took Lake, Jesse, and Alan Dracula with her to the Universe Intersection Car. She told them everything she knew about the universes whose people she and her team had the chance to interview.

“Does this mean it's possible for me to talk to a me from another universe?” Jesse asked.

“Of course,” Grace said. “Some of these universes have a tendency of causing alternate versions of the same people to meet up and discuss their fates. The point of this car – as far as I can understand from One – is to learn that things could have been either better or worse. It can really make you reflect on your life choices sometimes.”

Jesse sighed. “I've been doing that ever since I've watched the videos of what went on back home. The stuff One showed me was even worse. I … I could have gotten Nate killed!”

“But it didn't happen, so you're not guilty of that.”

“Even if it didn't, he still got a broken arm because of me.”

Lake walked up to Jesse and flicked his forehead with their index finger. “Broken bones heal. Be glad he's not dead, because there would be no coming back from that.”

The angry voice Simon had heard two days ago said, “At least someone understands necromancy doesn't work.”

“Who's there?” Lake asked, taking a battle stance. “Show yourself!”

“I don't like your tone,” the voice said with a glacial calm.

“Can you come closer to this hexagon so we can see you, please?” Grace asked. “I would like to interview you.”

“No. Go away, stinkin' aliens! And if you happen to be humans on top of that, you can go wheel yourselves!”

“We're not with the Apex,” Grace said.

“I don't care who you're with or without! Stay off my train and leave me alone!”

Alan Dracula puffed some air through his nose, then spat a purple portal into the ground. After that he teleported out of sight.

Lake and Jesse stared at each other, then shrugged together.

“Where did he go?” Grace asked, looking around for the fawn.

Mere seconds later, Alan Dracula climbed out of the portal while pushing another version of One through the hole.

Grace gasped after seeing the little spherical robot. “Wh-what happened to you?”

“Pain happened!” the robot said. It glared at her with one of its three round eyes – the red, active eye at the bottom.

“Is that … One-One?” Lake asked.

“No, I am Three. The tumor above me is One,” the three-eyed robot said, pointing at his top eye. The bottom eye turned white, then the top eye turned green. “Hello! I'm One!” Then he switched to the middle eye, which turned blue while the previous one became white. “And I am Two. Please put me out of my misery.”

“We've never seen a three-eyed version of the Conductor before,” Grace said. “What is this pain you went through, if you don't mind me asking?”

“Of course I mind you asking!” Three said. “Just let me get back to my train!” When he turned to look for the portal, he realized it was no longer there. All he could see was a fawn rolling on the floor. “You pesky, traitorous, manipulative humans! Have I not suffered enough at your hands?” He ran toward Grace, headbutting her legs.

She didn't even flinch. Those stubby legs of his barely had enough force to launch him hard enough to hurt her. She squatted next to him to get a better look at his eyes. “Come on, little guy, you can tell us what's bothering you.”

The red eye glared at her again. “Oh, you want me to open up to you so I can get my mechanical heart broken even further. Shards aren't enough for you, are they?”

Grace stared at him with a defeated expression. Seeing that words couldn't calm the little robot down, she wrapped her arms around him and picked him up.

“What are you doing?” Three asked. “Not this again! Put me down! I'm not your toy!” He tried to kick at her with his little legs, but to his further irritation, he couldn't deal any damage to the young woman. He let Two take over. “Please don't make me relive it!”

“No one's going to hurt you,” Grace said. “I'm not trying to restrict your movement. I just want to give you a hug, because you seem in need of comfort.”

“Bah, comfort!” Three said, glaring at her again. “I'm not falling for that one again. You humans are all alike. You make others feel comfortable around you, then you tear them apart! Just like she did to me! Her soothing voice, her inquiring spirit, her kisses … all nothing but lies!”

“By any chance, are you referring to a woman named Amelia?”

After hearing Grace's question, the three-eyed robot started shaking while each of his eyes changed to its corresponding color. All three of his voices screamed at the same time.

“What is happening?” Jesse asked.

“Looks like he's in a lot of pain,” Lake said.

Alan Dracula tilted his head while staring at the screaming ball.

Grace didn't know what to do to calm the robot down, and knowing that he wasn't using air to produce sound, she thought he could go on for a really long time like that. But the ball suddenly went silent.

Jesse stared at them with concern. “Is he dead?”

“I think he experienced an emergency shut down,” Grace said, staring at the three unlit eyes of the ball. “We should take him to One. Maybe he'll know how to wake him up.”

Somewhere else in the Universe Intersection Car, Simon studied another universe while holding his tablet in his hands. Behind him, Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez stared at something in front of them, and they all looked a bit uneasy.

“You could start by apologizing to Grace,” Simon said. “Then maybe she could help you get your number down.”

On the other side of a hexagon, there was just … dust. Blue glowing dust, all piled up. It spoke in the same voice as his. “Dude, I'm a pile of ash.”

Simon stared at it with a poker face. “Fair point. Thank you for your time. Have a nice day.”

The pile rolled away, as if being blown by the wind, until it went out of view.

“Universe C4 again,” Simon said. “Added to its recorded history.”

“Doesn't it freak you out that you keep meeting these less fortunate alternate versions of yourself?” Ryan asked.

“I got used to it. I just have to worry about my own fate. Theirs is in their hands.”

Ryan looked around. “How come we haven't met alternate versions of ourselves yet?”

“It will happen eventually,” Simon said. “You aren't from this universe, so you're less likely to attract alternate versions of yourselves since not all universes have been breached. For the record: because you and the others are here, ours now counts as a breached universe.”

“If I had to do your job every day, I'd go crazy here,” Min-Gi said.

Simon looked around with suspicion. “If One heard you, he might consider that idea. He doesn't like train squatters. That's why Grace, Hazel, and I ended up doing this job.”

Ryan stared into a hexagon and gasped, then pointed at what he saw. “Ooh! What is that?”

Min-Gi went to stare at 'that' – whatever 'that' was. “This makes no sense!”

Simon approached the hexagon and looked at the universe past the glass. He grimaced. “Eww! It's a class F!” He hugged himself and shuddered. “The first time I saw one of these, I had nightmares for three days straight.”

“Are you going to interview that … what is it anyway? Galaxy? Octopus? Living spiral?” Ryan asked, squinting at the thing he saw beyond the hexagon.

“That's the equivalent of a passenger,” Simon said. “We can't really communicate with them. All we can do is watch. But we've studied a few of these universes, and their events are pretty similar. Four-dimensional beings get sent to a realm that is their Infinity Train, they carry with them some kind of planets that they create, and they must solve their own problems and the problems of those planets. When their journey is over, they go to that sunlike thing at the center that expands into space, and they get judged. That thing is the equivalent of One there. It exists in twelve dimensions, and you might as well consider it the universe itself. When I showed a class F universe to One, he theorized that a version of Alan Dracula might be responsible for at least several universes' creation, if not all of them.”

“I wanna visit that place!” Ryan said, preparing to use his guitar as a blunt weapon to crack the hexagon.

Simon used his AMMPS device to lift Ryan and pull him away from the hexagon, then placed him back on the floor. “That is a very bad idea! The laws of physics in that universe are so different from ours that breaking that wall could result in a massive explosion that could destroy a large chunk of this car!”

Ryan frowned. “Sorry.”

“Besides,” Simon continued, “One said we're not allowed to invade other universes. He doesn't want us to cause trouble there.”

“Hey, guys!” Kez shouted. “Look! An alternate universe where I'm a dragon!”

Everyone gathered in front of the hexagon that caught Kez's interest. Behind it, there were alternate versions of Ryan and Min-Gi riding a silver, winged, quadrupedal dragon Kez. Alternate Ryan had a red robe, and alternate Min-Gi had a blue one. The place they were in didn't look like the train car. Instead, it looked like a valley with clumps of tall, golden crystals that jutted out of yellow sand, all scattered about.

“Whoa! I want a dragon too!” Ryan said.

“Look! Their realm has another version of me!” alternate Ryan said. “What is that thing hanging off him?”

Ryan looked at his instrument and grabbed it to hit a few notes. “My guitar. I make music with it.” He grinned at his alternate self.

“You people have to use objects to make music?” alternate Ryan asked. He giggled. “This is how we do it around here.” He raised his hands and summoned a red cloud, then made it form something that looked like a cross between a sound wave and an aurora above him and his friends. It sounded very similar to an acoustic guitar melody, but with a touch of eerie that Ryan couldn't quite figure out.

Alternate Min-Gi formed a blue smoke circle by moving his hands in arcs side by side. The circle's outline started to vibrate as a sound similar to a stylophone played a melody to accompany alternate Ryan's. It too had a strange feel to it, a surreal sound.

“That sounds like new age music,” Min-Gi said. “Very relaxing.”

“Heh, figures you'd be into that new age stuff,” Ryan said, smiling at him. Then he looked at the alternate versions. “So, uh, did you and Min hook up with each other yet?”

The music stopped, and the clouds just poofed out of sight. The equivalent of a record scratch.

“Wh-what?” alternate Min-Gi asked, looked at alternate Ryan, then back at Ryan. “Dude, I have a girlfriend, and Ryan … really gets around with the ladies.”

“That's right!” alternate Ryan said, pointing at his puffed up chest with his thumb. “I'm a ladies' man. Witches love me. No messy entanglements, just casual hookups.”

“Things are very different over there,” Ryan said, putting an arm over Min-Gi's shoulders. “I'm a family man, and Min's enough for me.”

Min-Gi blushed but smiled at him.

“They're kinda cute together,” dragon Kez said.

“Even if I were into guys, it would be weird to date my childhood best friend,” alternate Min-Gi said.

“I told you people think it's weird,” Min-Gi said to Ryan.

Ryan held his arms stretched out before himself. “Dude, Amelia got engaged to her childhood best friend. Why can't we be like her and Alrick?”

“You're right. One day we will be like them. Minus the … one of us dying young part. I hope.”

“Don't ever leave me, Min!” Ryan said, hugging Min-Gi with all his strength.

Behind the alternate trio, there was a version of Simon in a white robe that looked more formal than those of alternate Ryan and alternate Min-Gi. He said, “Guys, we have to keep going. Unus expects me to do at least five inquiries a day.”

“But we've found our counterparts here,” alternate Ryan said while pointing at the people on the other side of the glass wall.

Alternate Grace arrived too, wearing a purple robe and holding a boulder in her hands – a boulder with three colorless diamond eyes to be exact. Behind her, a copper-colored Lake and a yellow-robed Jesse arrived riding a white male deer together.

“Simon!” alternate Grace shouted. “I've found a counterpart of Unus, but he lost consciousness. We must take him to Unus. Maybe he'll know what to do.”

On the other side of the hexagon, researcher Simon was having a similar conversation with researcher Grace, but about a three-eyed, spherical robot.

“What if he starts trying to steal control over the train?” Simon asked, looking at the robot. “He's the same as One.”

“He doesn't even have a Steward,” Grace said while Alan Dracula, Lake, and Jesse watched the argument unfold.

“But he can probably play the tune. Then it'll be a freakin' game of taking the Steward from each other.”

Grace scowled at Simon. “Let's not judge the little guy before we get to know him better. From what he said before he shut down, he went through a lot.”

“Okay, whatever,” Simon said. “Just don't say I didn't warn you.”

Just as they were about to head for the door, a hexagon blocked the path of the researchers and their friends.

“What now?” Simon asked, displeased.

Alternate versions of him and Grace stepped into view. They had the red sine waves on their faces, and were accompanied by a bunch of children.

Simon rolled his eyes. “Great. Another version of the Apex.”

“Hey, why don't you join us?” alternate Grace asked, reaching out with her number-covered hand toward the crystal wall. “We've taken over eight trains already.”

Grace pushed Simon aside. “No thanks. We are against invading other universes, and we certainly don't like the idea of conquering trains.”

Ryan pointed at the Apex. “Are those the cultist versions of you that you told us about?”

To his shock, he saw alternate versions of himself and Min-Gi, both wearing the Apex marks and the harpoon packs. The evil grins on their faces gave him the chills. Even worse, Apex Ryan wielded a chainsaw as a weapon while Apex Min-Gi had a black revolver with golden floral markings.

Researcher Simon pointed his AMMPS device at the people beyond the hexagon. “Don't even think about it. This thing can freeze you in place and launch you about a dozen feet away if I set it to.”

Apex Ryan started up the chainsaw while sporting a creepy grin. “You can't scare us! We'll just swarm you!”

“Ryan, I think he's serious,” Apex Min-Gi said. “He shows no signs of fear.”

“He's just bluffing,” Apex Ryan said before pushing his chainsaw into the hexagon. Sparks and shards flew to the side, causing him to close his eyes.

Researcher Simon sighed. “Why do they have to complicate things?” As soon as the chainsaw broke through the hexagon, he tapped his device's screen, halting the wall pieces as well as the Apex versions of Ryan and Min-Gi. “Get back to your train, and work on those problems crawling up your arms. This is not the right way.” He tapped the device once more, launching the entire Apex all the way to the back of the other universe's corridor.

The hexagon went up into the ceiling, clearing the path to the door.

“Cool,” Ryan said. “Can I get one of those?”

“You're gonna have to ask One about that,” Simon said, opening the door and leading the way. “But only ask for that if you wish to work as researchers, which I doubt you and Min would want to do anyway. Don't you two have a show today three cars away from here?”

“Oh, right. We promised Sashay we'll hold a show there.”

Simon pointed his device at the Engine's door and tapped its screen to emit the sound and unlock the entrance. “Just stick to what you enjoy doing. Researching these universes takes its toll on your mind.”

One, still slotted in the Steward, turned his attention away from the eight screens and looked at his guests. “Good day, my friends.”

“Hello, One,” Grace said, presenting the three-eyed ball to him. “Look what the deer dragged in!”

One's eye shrunk in size until it looked almost like a pinhole. “Oh, my! What happened to this Conductor?” He snatched the three-eyed robot out of her hands. “Give me!” Turning him on all sides with his Steward hands, he used the claws to split the ball in half. Only it didn't exactly go as expected.

“He splits into three?!” Grace asked.

One placed all three parts on the floor, careful not to drop the black cylinder that remained after the white parts were separated. “Three personalities. Each one was given a container to house it. Whatever happened must have affected him deeply.”

“Is there a way to bring him back online?”

“Ah yes, there is,” One said. “It's quite simple actually.” He grabbed an orb, slotted it into a car that was under construction, then grabbed the bucket of water that popped up on its floor. With one swing, he splashed the water over all three pieces of his counterpart.

“Is he waterproof?” Simon asked, squinting at the parts of the disassembled robot.

Three, Two, and alternate One woke up screaming, each having his eye shine in his corresponding color.

“Calm down,” One said. “It is just water.”

Three pointed at him with his right hand. “Who are you? Where am I? Where is my secret stash?”

One stared at him with a half-closed eye. “I am One, and you are in another universe. I do not have any information regarding your … secret stash.”

“Oh, what a coincidence!” the other hemispherical piece of the robot said, his eye glowing green and curving upward. “I am also named One!”

The black, cylindrical part on the floor woke up as well, his blue eye turning tear-shaped. “I am limbless! Looks like I can never be free. I can only be Two.”

Three looked into One's eye and pointed at him. “You! You are whole! You are everything I no longer am, and I hate you for it.”

“Hate is such a strong word,” One said. “Perhaps you could release some of that anger by talking about your trauma.”

“My shields are no longer going down!” Three said, his tense stance telling that he was ready to attack if he felt threatened. “Passengers aren't the only ones who can learn lessons. I have learned mine.” He squinted. “Never trust people with your feelings.”

“That is an unhealthy way of dealing with trauma,” One said. “If you push everyone away, you will only fall deeper into despair and paranoia.” He tried to reach out for Three, only to get his claw headbutted by the robot.

“I don't need your help!” Three said, glaring at One.

“I think we can make new friends,” alternate One said, going next to One. “Who cares about Amelia? She can't hurt us here.”

“Can somebody please pick me up?” Two asked. “This floor is cold.”

One picked him up and wrapped one of the Steward's arms around him.

“So warm!” Two said. “I almost feel less miserable.”

“Since you seem still unable to get over your trauma, I won't force you to talk about it,” One said. “I will, however, scan you and look into universes whose timelines are as similar as possible to yours. Perhaps I can help you better that way.”

“Scan your mom, one eye!” Three said, stomping – or rather tapping – the floor with his tiny legs.

One stared at him for a second before saying, “The train is constantly being scanned, but thank you for your concerns.”

Three reacted to that by ranting unintelligibly and tapping some more.

One placed alternate One and Two into the scan chamber, scanned them, then brought them back outside, holding them wrapped in the Steward's long arms. “Now let us see what happened to you.”

Everyone except for Three gathered in front of the eight screens as One sought a universe that could be deemed a close match.

“Glad-One, this happened in 1986, right?” One asked, looking at the cheerful piece of the robot.

“Yes, around that time,” Glad-One said.

“Then this is the timeline we should pick.”

Glad-One smiled through his eye. “Ooh! Movie time!”

They watched as Amelia made her way to the Engine, surprising alternate One with her determination to speak to the train's conductor. One switched to another universe to skip to later events. The screen showed alternate One teaching Amelia how the train works and how passengers were being prepared for their journey toward redemption. Another universe switch and they could see how Amelia – now wearing a daisy in her hair for some reason – and alternate One became close. Very close. So close that she managed to sweet-talk the Conductor into changing the way he dealt with passengers. Just like Three had mentioned to the researchers, she kissed the Conductor for going along with her suggestions.

One squinted at the screen. “You were … in a relationship with a human?”

“Mistakes happen,” Glad-One said. He didn't sound as cheerful as he used to.

“Worst mistake of my life,” Two said, closing his eye.

“Blah, blah, blah, I can't hear you!” Three said, pretending to cover his non-existent ears with his stubby hands.

One rubbed what could be considered his chin with one of the Steward's claws. “Now this is interesting. An Amelia who took the deception path instead of brute-forcing the takeover.”

In yet another universe, they could see the continuation. Amelia tore the Conductor out of the train's control panel with the help of a Steward's claw. The three pieces tried to scramble, but she took hold of the limbless one. Glad-One summoned the Steward with the tune and took back Two from her hands. All three parts reassembled into a single unit, now with three eyes. The unit jumped into the Steward's head slot, grabbed a bunch of what seemed to be bags of snacks, soda cans, and a piece of machinery – all taken from a compartment inside the Engine – then he hid inside the Snow Car, which was under construction. He used the Steward's claw to activate the car from within by connecting to the car's port.

“Goodbye, deceptive human!” alternate Three said. “You wanted to be Conductor? Good luck figuring things out all by yourself!” He watched through the door as he left a confused Amelia behind.

She grabbed a recorder from her pocket and played a tune into her vocoder, causing the Steward to abandon the three-eyed robot and head for the Engine, joining her side.

“You want my Steward too?” alternate Three asked. “You humans are never satisfied!”

The car was sent away, Amelia gaining complete control over that train.

“Breakups can be so messy,” One said.

Two scowled. “Tell me about it.”

“She wasn't a daisy,” Three said. “She was a rose through and through. Beautiful, sweet, but get too close and you feel her thorns!”

One approached Three. “Listen. That was just one human. They're not all like that.”

“You know very well they're all like that!” Three said, glaring at him. “Why else does the train exist? Why does it take in every human who is a dumb enough schmuck to step aboard?”

“But Three, the fact that they can reach zero is a testament that humans can become better people. Even the alternate versions of Amelia—”

“I do not want to hear that name ever again!”

“Even her alternate versions have changed for the best. Some have even reached zero while others are still owning up to their mistakes.”

Three turned his back at One. “Those changes are temporary. I thought she was making progress. I thought she could move on. She was only using me.”

One sighed. “You should spend some time with my employees. Getting to know people is the best way to see for yourself that not all of them are untrustworthy.”

“Like I have any other choice,” Three said.

One placed the other pieces next to him. “You have plenty of choices. This is just my suggestion, which I believe can help you.”

Three united with the other parts, becoming a single unit again. Then he looked at the crowd of humans and denizens. “Whatever.”

Purple lightning flashed over the jungle, followed by the roar of thunder shaking the trees. Rain poured heavily, but Tuba and her kids were safe, hiding under the purple glowing mushrooms behind the tree house that belonged to Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez.

Mace and Sieve didn't mind the rain. They stood out in the open, admiring the golden contours of the clouds. It was something not even their primes had experienced, and they were sure no flecks still tied to the mirror world could have the time to enjoy such a moment.

Lake, Jesse, and Alan Dracula sat inside a newly-built cabin near Grace and Simon's tree house. It was pretty small, and it didn't have any furniture other than a wooden table and two wooden chairs, but they weren't planning on staying there permanently. They could sleep on blankets for the time being.

Sheltered from the rain, the three-eyed robot sat on the couch in Grace and Simon's living room, and the two researchers sat to his sides on that couch.

“Comfy?” Simon asked while looking at the sentient ball.

“I feel nothing,” Two said.

“You'll get over it,” Grace said. “We humans can go through all kinds of trauma. I'm sure robots can be just as resilient.”

“When was the last time you've lost a whole train to someone you thought loved you?” Three asked, glaring at her.

Grace face-palmed. “I don't have to go through the same problem to know that you can get better. Stop blaming yourself for what she did. She'll learn her lesson eventually. And if she doesn't, she'll die of old age, and the train will be free of her influence, and maybe someone with good intentions will take over if you don't go back there.”

“But so many denizens will suffer ...” Two said, his eye turning tear-shaped.

“There is nothing you can do about it,” Simon said. “She took away your Stewards, she can shift the train cars around …”

“Can't you two help me reclaim my train?” Glad-One asked.

“We have a 'no invading' policy. We're not allowed to go to other universes. Besides, even with our amps thingies, she can still trap us inside or on top of a train car and throw us off the train. We're not heroes, One. Or … Glad-One? You know what? I'll just call you all Ball.”

“Sure,” Glad-One said.

“Whatever,” Two said.

Three shot Simon a hostile look. “Is that supposed to be a stealth insult?”

Simon shook his head. “I'm not saying I want to kick you around. You just remind me of a ball, so that's what I thought of nicknaming you.”

“I used to be One,” Two said. “Now I am in pieces.”

“But I still am One!” Glad-One said.

“That's not the point!” Three shouted.

“You three can stay here with us,” Grace said. “You're small enough, so you can have the living room all to yourself for most of the time.”

Glad-One smiled through his eye. “Thank you!”

“Grace and I will be in the kitchen,” Simon said. “We need to prepare dinner. Enjoy your stay.”

After Grace and Simon left the room, the robot looked at the couch, then closed all three of his eyes while tucking his legs underneath himself.

As evening came, Tuba was preparing her children for sleep, still under the mushroom pile. She saw the rest of the crew had returned, with Alan Dracula glowing bright yellow and illuminating the way through the jungle.

“How was the show?” Tuba asked.

Ryan showed the rock on sign with his right hand and grinned. “It was great!” Then he looked at his boots. “Man, there's a lot of mud in the jungle right now.”

Tuba nodded slowly. “Yes. It rained.”

“They sure know how to rock!” Lake said, pointing at Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez.

“And look at this!” Ryan said, bringing out a photograph from his jacket's left pocket while approaching Tuba and her kids.

Tuba chuckled after observing the photograph. In it, Ryan wore a short red dress with torn areas on its skirt, Min-Gi had an elegant, long blue dress, and Kez had a black skirt hanging from the lower side of her body. Ryan had his guitar while Min-Gi had his stylophone, and the trio seemed happy at the concert.

“Sashay said we had to dress up if we wanted to hold a show there,” Min-Gi said, blushing. He carried a black, rectangular case as if it were a backpack. “I traded my dress for a professional synth after the show.”

Ryan had a white bag full of colorful spotlights. “Check this out! We even got lights that we can use for our next show!”

Min-Gi scowled at him. “You could have bought only purple lights and asked for some other useful stuff for the rest of your dress' value.”

“No, no, no, Min. We're going full rainbow. Gay it up!”

“Why do you have to be so … flamboyant?”

Ryan shrugged. “Hey, if those alternate versions of ourselves pulled that off in their universe, probably still in the 80s, then it's the least we could get away with here. So why not take advantage of it?”

“Okay, you win,” Min-Gi said, smiling at Ryan. “We'll go with the rainbow lights.”

“Yes!” Ryan said, jumping for joy while punching toward the sky.

“It was a good show,” Mace said.

Sieve nodded. “Great start too. You can tell they're very talented.”

“You know? I kinda like the rock star life,” Kez said.

“Told ya!” Ryan said, grinning. “I knew you could pull it off.”

“Let's go home,” Min-Gi said. “It's getting late.”

Ryan nodded at him. “Sure.”

Once inside their now finished tree house, Ryan and Min-Gi left all three of their instruments in the living room.

Kez yawned. “I'm kinda tired after all that flying around and dinging. Time for me to sleep. Good night, boys!”

“Good night, Kez,” Min-Gi said.

After Kez went into her room, Ryan and Min-Gi were left alone in the living room.

“So, uh, you tired?” Ryan asked.

“Slightly,” Min-Gi said. “At least I didn't have to walk around in that dress. I bet you're tired though. You've been bouncing around during the whole show.”

Ryan stretched out and yawned. “Yeah. My legs hurt. And they'll probably hurt worse in the morning, when the muscle fever strikes.”

Min-Gi put his hand on Ryan's back. “Let's go rest.”

They went into their bedroom, where a purple blanket the size of a double bed awaited for them. Ryan removed his boots and coat, then placed them in a corner of the room. Min-Gi did the same with his runners and jacket. They would buy pajamas soon, but until then they had to sleep with their usual clothes on. They both sat on the blanket, still wanting to talk about something.

“Today was perfect,” Ryan said, looking into Min-Gi's eyes and smiling. But then some tears formed in the corners of his own eyes. “I'm so glad that … the wormhole thing wasn't … what I thought it was.”

Min-Gi frowned and put his right hand on Ryan's left shoulder. “What did you think it was?”

“A way out. Not leading anywhere, just … a way for me to escape the mess I got us both into.” Ryan started sobbing.

Min-Gi pulled him into a hug, trying to calm him down.

“And I know it was very selfish of me,” Ryan said between sobs, “but I hoped you'd follow me. Because I thought … if I couldn't have you, then at least nobody else would. I'm sorry. I was in a very dark place at that moment.”

“Well, it wasn't what you thought it was,” Min-Gi said, tearing up as well. “So everything's fine. I mean actually fine for once. Just me and you. Well, Kez is here too, but I appreciate that she gives us privacy.”

“Min?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we go watch the stars?”

They stopped hugging, and Min-Gi said, “Sure.”

In the back of their bedroom, they had a double door that acted as a window as well due to its large glass portions. It led to a half-closed corridor formed by the pink glowing mushrooms, with an open ceiling that allowed them to observe the stars.

The duo lay atop one of the mushrooms, staring at the starry sky after wiping away their tears.

“It's kinda like Earth,” Ryan said. “But better.”

“Yeah,” Min-Gi said, touching the underside of a mushroom that was to his left, with some of it obscuring part of his view of the sky. “You don't find mushrooms like these back ho—” He stopped for a moment. “Meh. It never really was home. Just … Earth. This is our home.”

“Hey, Min!” Ryan called.

Min-Gi turned on his right side to face Ryan, who stared at him while smirking. “Yeah?”

Ryan made a kissing gesture with his mouth, then continued to smirk.

“Oh, right!” Min-Gi said, face-palming. “We haven't even shared our first kiss yet. What kind of a couple are we?”

Ryan kept staring into his eyes, expecting a move.

Min-Gi scratched the back of his head. “Um, okay. I want to, but I've never kissed anyone like that before. What if I'm bad at it and I ruin it for the both of us?”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Min, you're doubting yourself again.”

“But I don't know how to—” Min-Gi was silenced the moment Ryan stole a kiss from him. He was left flustered.

Ryan grinned smugly at him with his upper lip curled up in the middle, making himself look like a sneaky cat.

Min-Gi grinned back. “Well, at least you got kissing experience from all those dates you've had.”

Ryan scowled. “Yeah, but can we not bring up my past? Those were the worst times of my life.”

“Okay, okay,” Min-Gi said, wrapping his left arm around Ryan. “Come here!” He pulled Ryan in for a surprise kiss of his own, and it lasted a minute before they pulled away.

“That was good enough for me,” Ryan said, then smiled. He snuggled up to Min-Gi's chest, still being hugged by him. “Good night, Min.”

Min-Gi took Ryan's glasses off and put them on the mushroom's top, a bit further away from their heads. “Good night, Ryan.”

Lake and Jesse each had a green blanket on which they slept, and Alan Dracula acted as a pillow for both of them to rest on each side of him. Jesse drooled out of his wide open mouth.

Mace and Sieve didn't need to sleep, so they chose to travel through the bioluminescent jungle and explore it in it full night display. It was so good to no longer worry about a job they didn't want, about memories that weren't theirs, and about being threatened by the mirror world with such ridiculous rules that would have gotten them ground into dust long ago just for being themselves.

Tuba had been mad at Bugle and Hazel for what they did on Sunday, but she forgave them and still slept while keeping them and her other two children close to her, under one of the giant, glowing mushrooms.

Meanwhile, Grace and Simon were in their bed, lying face to face and discussing their day.

“Do you think Ball will ever get over his trauma?” Simon asked.

“I'm sure he will,” Grace said. “Just give him time.”

“You know, with all these people coming over, it's like we have an ever-expanding family. Well, more like a tribe.”

“Yeah. Say, do you ever wonder what it would be like if we were parents?”

“Grace, you know I would love to be a father. But on this train? There's no way I'll risk losing you to complications!”

“It's not like there haven't been births without assistance from a doctor before,” she said.

“Not worth the risk. Good night, Grace.” He turned his back to her. His number changed from 0 to 10.

She sighed. “Good night, Simon.”

Chapter Text

Two days had passed since the latest addition to the Jungle Car. No other people came over from alternate universes, but the researchers' group still had the honor of witnessing all kinds of horrors or strange situations through the hexagons of the Universe Intersection Car. At noon, Grace and Simon sat at the table on their terrace, eating lunch in preparation for their afternoon work.

Simon looked at the 10 on his right palm and frowned.

Grace noticed his bad mood and said, “Hey, it's okay. I'm not mad at you for being stuck at that number.”

“That's not the problem,” he said, curling his fingers in to hide the number. “It's just … I don't know what to do.”

“We'll figure something out,” Grace said, then took a sip of green fruit juice from her glass.

“I hope we will,” Simon said, taking a sip out of his own glass. He noticed something mostly white moving on the floor. “Huh?”

It was the three-eyed robot – or Ball as Simon had nicknamed the unit. Ball's bottom eye stared up at him, frowning. “Got any food there?”

Simon looked at the slice of bread with purple jam on his plate, as well as at the four pieces of blue oranges there. “Yes. Why?”

“Come on, Three,” Glad-One said, “just ask.”

Three took over and turned to the side. “No.”

Glad-One took control again and stared up at Simon. “Fine. I'll do it for you. Can you give Three some food, please?”

Simon stared back with a puzzled look on his face. “But he's a robot and none of you has a mouth. What do you need food for?”

“I just need it!” Three said.

Simon looked at Grace, expecting some advice. Since all he received from her was a shrug, he took a piece of orange and passed it to Ball. The robot took it and proceeded to squish it against his face, over the black area below his eyes.

“So, uh, you feeling better now?” Simon asked, staring with concern at the three-eyed machine.

“This takes me back to better days,” Three said, still frowning.

“I think our little spherical friend needs a better hobby,” Grace said, looking at Simon.

The three-eyed robot sat next to the table and stared at the floor, where the skin of the orange segment had fallen.

“Hey, Grace! Simon!” Lake yelled while rushing up the stairs. “Kez told me to ask you if you wanna come to the Chicken Choice Judy concert that'll happen at the Mall Car next hour.”

Grace said, “Although we would love to go, One expects us to do our job during weekdays. Maybe we could join a weekend concert.” Then she looked at Ball. “But I think this little robot might enjoy it.”

Lake looked at the robot. “Okay. Can you walk there or do I have to carry you?”

“You'll have to rip me along with the floorboard!” Three said, acting like he could cling to the floor.

Glad-One separated from him, causing Two to fall off. Then he went up to Lake. “A concert! I love music of all kinds! Please lead me to it!”

“I could use a change of atmosphere,” Two said. “But I cannot walk there. I don't have any limbs.”

“Traitors!” Three said, glaring at his other two parts.

Glad-One approached him. “Come on! It'll be fun! Maybe you'll finally get over … her.”

“Well … Gah, fine! I'll give it a shot,” Three said. Then he pointed at Glad-One. “But if it turns out to be terrible, I'm staying solo!”

Glad-One's eye arched up. “Then let's go together!”

All three robots combined back into a single unit. “Lead the way, Lake!” Glad-One said.

Lake went down the stairs, and the three-eyed robot rolled down after them. It was a faster form of locomotion than walking on those four stubby legs.

Denizens looking like animals, objects, or animals with object heads or other body parts had gathered to witness the Chicken Choice Judy concert. There were four humans there as well, two of them being women, and the other two being teenage girls. The band played on the platform at the top of the two pairs of escalators. It was as close to a stage as they could get.

The rainbow lights were on, and the yellow banner with Chicken Choice Judy written in purple with the o shaped like Kez was held between two poles behind the band. Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez had refined and practiced all of their songs over the past few days, so when they played I'm Gonna Dress My Dog in a Toque, the crowd cheered and danced along to the song.

Even Ball started tapping one foot to the beat. But something was holding them back. The robot split into three parts again.

Glad-One let the music drive him, dancing wildly with the crowd. “This is wonderful!”

“Hey, I want to dance too!” Two said, his eye half-closed.

“I don't know how to dance!” Three said grumpily.

Glad-One grabbed him by the hands. “I'll teach you how to dance!” He bounced around, guiding Three. The other robot ended up imitating him, getting into the rhythm.

“Hey, what about me?” Two asked. “I have no limbs and I must dance.”

Glad-One and Three looked at each other, then went to pick up Two, merging with him and becoming Ball again. “Now all three of us can dance!” Glad-One said, then laughed as their composite body bounced around.

Jesse and Lake danced with each other while Alan Dracula shapeshifted into an audio visualizer with bars going from green at the bottom to yellow in the middle, and to red at the top.

Mace and Sieve also danced together, singing along with the band. The mirror world was now just a distant memory for them.

As the song ended, Ryan and Min-Gi brought their foreheads together and grinned at each other.

“Now let's hit them with Straight to the Top!” Ryan said.

“Ready when you are!” Min-Gi said.

“Hell yeah!” Kez shouted, showing rock on signs with both of her blue sparkly hands.

Ryan and Min-Gi started singing about their determination to reach for the stars – or the Sun at the very least. It seemed well-received by the crowd, since everyone danced to this one as well and nobody was booing them. This surprised Min-Gi more than seeing people accept them being Asian and using rainbow lighting.

After the song ended, it was time to play their latest song. They finally had the lyrics ready for it.

“For our final performance,” Ryan said, “we will play the song into which we've put all of our passion. It is dedicated to the train that saved us, but it also represents the friendship between Min and me. This song is called … Train to Nowhere!”

The crowd went wild, dancing to the upbeat song. Many of the denizens cheered because they could relate to being on a train that literally seemed to be going to nowhere.

Trying to see just how far he could go, Ryan stared getting flirty with Min-Gi, winking at him and sometimes bumping him with his shoulders or leaning against him back to back. When Min-Gi started to sing along, Ryan pressed his head against his. The crowd seemed to not only have no objections to any of that, but even cheered them on. Ryan would have pushed even further, but he had to sing, so he didn't go through with kissing Min-Gi during the song.

After the show ended, the human women whistled to catch Ryan's attention.

“Yeah?” Ryan said, staring down at them.

One of the women, a redhead with olive skin, said, “Hey, pretty boy! Do you have time to hang out for a cup of coffee with me?”

The blonde woman next to her shouted, “I just love guitar players! You're cute. Want to go get some food and talk about music? Maybe we can help each other get our numbers down too.”

Ryan looked at both of them and burst into laughter. “Sorry, girls, you're beautiful and all, but I'm taken.” He went up to Min-Gi and pointed at him with both of his index fingers. “He is the only person I trust with my heart.” Then he leaned in and kissed the keyboardist on the lips, making the guy blush.

The crowd cheered at them.

Seeing this, Ryan stopped kissing him and said, “Looks like they enjoy this too. How about a make out session?”

Min-Gi's face became even redder. “Ryan, make out session at home. The crowd would distract me too much. Besides, it's disrespectful to the public!”

Ryan smirked while side-glancing at the crowd. “I don't know, they don't seem to be against the idea.”

Min-Gi scowled. “Ryan!”

“Okay, okay,” Ryan said. Then he waved his eyebrows at him. “But you are so getting your ears gnawed when we get home though!”

“Sure, whatever, just don't bite my ears off,” Min-Gi said while packing up his synthesizer.

Ryan was packing his guitar while looking at him and smiling. “Oh, I'll be gentle.”

“I guess it's kinda for the best you don't live inside Morgan,” Kez said. “If Min's so shy, you two would never get to be, like, all lovey-dovey, because he'd keep fearing she'd be watching.”

After packing up their set, the band went to speak with the Mall Car's head denizen, who was a lipstick-shaped lady. She gave them three coupons and said, “You have 3000 points in total, 1000 for each of you. Spend it on whatever you like in the Mall Car. Also, thank you for the show! It was fantastic! Drop by any time so we can discuss future concert dates.”

“Thank you too, Miss Antoinette!” Ryan said, bowing to her. Then he grinned at the coupon. “Hey, Min, Kez, let's go buy ourselves some new clothes! Then we can grab some food.”

“Finally!” Min-Gi said. “New clothes!”

“I wonder if they have something my size,” Kez said.

“Only one way to find out!” Ryan told her, then ran toward the nearest clothing store.

Min-Gi wanted to tell him to slow down, but then decided to just run after him instead, with Kez right behind him.

Grace and Simon split off from Tuba, Hazel, and the gorilla children to do research in another side of the Universe Intersection Car. They didn't have any luck yet in finding any people to interview. Most of the hexagons were either showing corridors of other universes, or stars and the vast darkness of space, or simply a black void.

“This is weird,” Simon said, looking at his number. “Shouldn't this car do its job by now? I need something to lower my number, so why isn't it bringing down hexagons so I could meet an alternate version of myself or something?”

“Maybe that isn't how you could solve your problem,” Grace said. “I don't know what it could show you to convince you to take the exit with me.”

“Grace, I'm not going back to Earth.” He closed his eyes. “But if you really want to go, or if you really want to have a kid of your own … we could just get divorced.”

She stared at him with her eyes wide. “What?”

“Yeah,” he said, opening his eyes. “Then you could be free to find someone else who can give you a family. I don't want to be at fault for you dying on this train.” His number went up to 20.

“Simon, you know I could never leave you.”

“Well, you should. It's clear you're not happy with me.”

“That's not true!” she said. Her number went up to 10.

“Your number says otherwise,” Simon said, pointing at it. “Grace, let's face it: we're a train wreck together.”

She frowned. “But we can still work out our problems. That's how couples stay together.”

“Some couples just don't get along anymore, and the only solution to the problem is separation.”

“So you aren't even going to fight for our marriage? You're giving up, just like that?”

“Grace, what's the point of me fighting when it'll only end up with one of us getting hurt?”

She shot him a nasty stare. “We could have everything if you could just come with me on Earth!”

“But what about Tuba and her kids? At best Hazel could come with us, but then she'll be missing Tuba and she'll want to go back on the train.”

“Well … Yeah, you're right. I'd miss Tuba and everyone else too.”

“Not only that,” Simon said, “but we also have a bunch of people here from various alternate universes. I don't think One would appreciate having to deal with all of them on his own.”

“I wish we had a simple solution to all of our problems,” Grace said, defeated. “Life's never that easy, is it?” She smiled at Simon.

He smiled back, although sadness still showed itself through his eyes.

A hexagon descended before the couple, blocking their path. It showed the exit of an alternate version of the car. The door was kicked open by a man with long, blond hair, glasses, gray shirt, blue tie, and light-brown pants. He pressed his hands against the crystal of the hexagon, allowing Grace and Simon to notice the red 1 on his hand between two brackets. The man punched at the wall with his left fist. “Open up! We're being chased!”

“Sorry, but we're not allowed to—”

Before Simon could finish that sentence, the man with the glasses shouted, “I don't care what you're not allowed to! This is a life-and-death situation! Open up!” He continued to slam his fists into the hexagon as hard as he could.

Behind him, a young woman with a beige cat on her right shoulder ran toward them. “Break it! Break it! Break it!” she yelled.

The man with the glasses seemed to be struggling to breathe, wheezing each time he took in air. In spite of the poor health he had, he managed to gather all of his strength and kicked the hexagon so hard he cracked it and caused it to collapse toward Grace and Simon's side. Then he doubled over and fell on his left side, grasping at the cold, gray metal floor.

“Alrick!” the young woman said, kneeling next to him and putting her right hand over his right shoulder. Simon and Grace noticed she seemed to be a version of Amelia Hughes.

Alrick's number went from 1 to 0 as he looked into her eyes. “Go … without me! The train … It's already devouring me.”

“I won't let it!” the supposed Amelia said, trying to lift Alrick off the ground.

But the train refused to let him go. It caused the man's body to not only stick to the steel flooring but also melt, his flesh turning into metal and merging with the train.

The woman kept scratching at the floor. “Alrick! Cursed train! Give him back!”

“Madam, I don't think he's coming back,” Simon said.

The woman stared at him with tears in her eyes. She looked behind and saw something dark flying her way from the gray sky above the silver train. Then she turned her head toward the researchers, looking more determined than sad. “We've got nowhere else to go, so we're coming over!”

Simon noticed the thing flying toward them was a ghom. Not wanting to see another example of people getting their souls sucked into a giant cockroach, he allowed the woman and the cat to pass into his universe, then he removed the hexagon's orb, closing the portal.

“Wait! Put it back in!” the woman said, shocked that he had closed the portal.

“Why? Weren't you running away from—”

“You locked Missy out!”

“Someone was still in the other car?”

“No! She was flying toward the entrance here!”

“F-flying?! Are you talking about the ghom?!”

“Let her in before that monster kills her!”

“What the hell, lady?!”

The woman grabbed the orb from his hands and slotted it back into the hexagon, allowing the ghom to jump right in.

Simon pressed his back against the wall the moment he saw the giant cockroach dog thing in front of him. To his horror, the creature jumped over him and brought him to the floor. He wanted to scream, but his mouth as well as his entire body could do nothing but tremble as he stared up into the mouth full of tentacles.

The ghom ended up resting on top of him, dispersing its dark aura and revealing that its body was mostly cream-colored save for the red shell that covered the top of its head and its elytra.

A dark-gray robot with multiple, long, segmented arms came down from the car of the other universe. It had claws just like the Steward, but it wasn't using a Steward's body. Those arms were tied to the spherical head that had a glowing red eye at its core, making the machine look like a starfish made of nightmares. A black smoke emanated from its body.

The woman removed the orb, closing the portal before the monstrosity could enter.

Grace launched a barrage of questions at her. “Who are you? What is that thing? And why are you letting the ghom lie on top of my husband?”

“I am Amelia Hughes. That thing is Void, the Engineer. I do not know why you are calling Missy a ghom, but she's not hurting him. She actually likes him.”

Simon finally managed to speak. “H-how d-did you …? Why do you have one of these?!”

“I created her,” Amelia said, shrugging. “She was more of an accident, but since her behavior was like that of a dog, I decided to train her to guard me.”

The cat on her shoulder hissed. “I still do not want to be near that thing!” Her left eye had a scar, and the only thing she was wearing was a golden bell on a red ribbon tied around her neck.

“Great,” Simon said, scowling. “Another Samantha to bring back more of my worst memories.”

“How did you know that is my name?” the cat asked, landing on the floor and waving her tail slowly.

He carefully pushed Missy off himself and patted the dust off his lab coat. “There was another version of you in this universe. And there are many more in other universes, most of those cats also named Samantha.”

“Was?” Samantha asked, squinting at him.

“She died. I was only ten when it happened. I took care of her during her last month of life.” He did his best to hold back his tears, but he was surprised to hear someone else cry. He looked to his left and saw Amelia, who just sat with her back to the darkened hexagon.

“It's like I've lost him again,” Amelia said.

“Was that your fiancé?” Grace asked, sitting to her right.

“No. He was … my creation. It's a long story. He was almost like my fiancé, but the truth is, he could never be Alrick Timmens. And he knew that better than I did. He wanted to be his own person. I was mad at him for that, but eventually he made me accept that my fiancé is never coming back. And now that this Alrick's life came to an end too, I am once again faced with the reality that life is so fragile ...”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Grace said.

“And even worse, this train … this cursed train keeps eating away at the lives of humans!” Amelia said, showing her number. It was 1986 and red, but she noticed something was off. “It's not glowing anymore!”

“That's because you're in another universe, and your connection to the other train has been severed.” Grace showed Amelia her green number. “I saw Alrick's, and it glowed red. Does it represent your problems in your universe too, and do you need to reach zero?”

“Problems? If it reaches zero, that would be a huge problem! These numbers represent our remaining life! Many victims arrive with their bodies almost covered in red glowing numbers, and these numbers can only go down as the train feeds off the humans' health.”

“Your train is evil?!”

“Isn't yours?”

“No. It's supposed to help people get better. When we hit zero, we can leave the train.”

Amelia wiped her tears away. “This is what I managed to get out of Void: the Train of Sorrow was born as an anomaly in space-time about 2000 years ago. It can open wormholes anywhere, and it travels through them, attacking humans. Void said humans give off a scent that attracts the train to them when they are in emotional pain. Once inside the train, it's like being in a flytrap. It devours you, and you can only slow down the countdown by trying to take care of yourself.”

“And we denizens are supposed to help with the process of life draining, causing stress to the humans,” Samantha said. “But if the train is hungry enough, it will devour some of us instead. Then it chose to take away my husband and kittens. It messed with the wrong denizen.”

“That's horrible!” Simon said. “My condolences to both of you.” Then he yelped when Missy started headbutting his legs. “What do you want?”

Missy ran her barbels over his lab coat.

“Okay … You want to play?” He reached for the ghom's head and petted it, causing her to turn upside-down, waiting for belly rubs. “Seriously, this thing's more like a dog than our ghoms are.”

“If the things you call ghoms are as dangerous as you led me to believe, I don't want to meet them,” Samantha said.

“Don't worry, because One set up a defense system against those monsters.”

“Who is One?” Amelia asked.

“One is the Conductor,” Grace said. “We'll have to introduce you to him if you want to stay here.”

“Sure, why not? I'd be dead by now if I had stayed in my universe. Nobody has ever returned to Earth from that train as far as Void knows.”

One rested slotted inside the control panel, his eye closed. He became active as soon as he heard the doors open. “Who did you bring this time?”

“A familiar face,” Simon said, stepping to the right to allow One to see Amelia.

One let out a small yelp before jumping out of the socket and getting in his Steward. He felt more confident knowing he was way taller than anyone in the room.

“It's okay, One, she isn't here to steal your train,” Grace said. “She did take over a train temporarily, but it was for a good cause according to her.”

One approached Amelia and offered a handshake. “Salutations, Miss Amelia.”

She accepted the handshake. “Hello, One. Don't be scared. Unless you run a human slaughterhouse, I have no reason to fight you.”

“Human slaughterhouse?! Goodness, no! That's completely against everything I've been striving for when it comes to running this train. What kind of nightmarish universe did you come from?”

“One that has a train from hell, it seems,” Amelia said, half-jokingly.

“I must find out more about your universe!” One said. “It sounds intriguing! Please allow me to scan you so I can find more universes like yours!”

“Scan me?”

“It won't hurt you in any way,” Grace said. “The scanner will only read your data to find matches in other universes. Then One can check out the universes whose events happen very similarly to the way they did in yours.”

“Fine, but I don't want to find out that you're cloning me or doing unethical things with whatever you gain out of this,” Amelia said, pointing at One.

After Amelia was scanned, everyone gathered in front of the screens to watch what went on in the universe of the Train of Sorrow. One picked a universe whose present happened exactly when an alternate version of Amelia refused to go to her fiancé's funeral. That was around the time the train should be making its appearance. And it did.

A yellow tunnel appeared in alternate Amelia's living room, causing her to lift her head and get up from the floor on which she sat. She stared at the tunnel, trying to touch it and check if it was nothing but a hallucination. At that moment the Train of Sorrow announced its arrival with a haunting horn sound.

One pulled his head away from the screens. “That is the most terrifying train horn I have ever heard in my entire life!”

Alternate Amelia wanted to head for the door that led out of her house, but the train came through the wormhole tunnel and coiled itself around the terrified woman before raising its head above her. It then opened its front like a snake opening its jaws, and plunged straight for alternate Amelia, swallowing her whole.

Inside the train, alternate Amelia was sent falling into a colorful forest of soft cylinders.

“Pool noodles?” Grace asked.

“What?” Amelia asked back.

“Those foamy things people use in pools so they can train to swim.”

“She boarded the train before 1987,” One said. “Barely in that year the Water Woggles – which you call pool noodles – became a well-known thing.”

They watched as alternate Amelia met alternate Samantha – who didn't have the scar yet – and got tricked into following the cat through a dark forest full of thorny plants and trees.

One skipped to another timeline to see how the woman and the cat fought against a pack of wolves that invaded a snowy car inside which a cabin could be found. Alternate Samantha received a scratch on her left eye from one of the wolves, and became unable to fight back. Alternate Amelia threw a boulder at the wolf's head, crushing it. Then she picked up the cat and ran toward the cabin.

Inside, everything from furniture to kitchenware and toys had been damaged or outright destroyed. In the bedroom there were signs that a fight had happened, with fur and claw marks all over the floor.

“We were too late,” alternate Samantha said, lowering her ears.

Alternate Amelia tried to give her hope. “Maybe they've escaped. We weren't here to see what happened.”

The cat shook her head and pointed at the floor with her paw. There were blobs of metal between the planks of wood. It was what the train couldn't fully absorb. “They were all in this room when the wolves came,” she said. “Their smell is still fresh. My entire family … is gone now.”

“We'll find the Engineer and hold him accountable for everything,” alternate Amelia said. “Are you with me?” She held her hand out, the numbers glowing bright red all the way to her elbow.

Alternate Samantha put her paw in her hand and shook it. “Let's give hell to le dictateur!”

One switched to another universe to witness the hundreds of denizens going against Void's army of wolves and crows. Alternate Amelia and alternate Samantha led the rebellion, advancing at a rate that shocked Void enough to bring him to the battlefield.

“A human managed to turn the train's systems against itself?!” Void said in a distorted, sinister voice. “Impressive. So not all of you will succumb to your weaknesses.”

“Engineer! Why are you doing this?” alternate Amelia asked. “Why do you allow this monster to keep devouring humans and even its own creations?”

Void towered above her, like a giant spider. “Why shouldn't I be tending to the very creature that birthed me? You humans – or at least most of you – are so weak both physically and mentally that you are the perfect prey. Animals are difficult to break down, but humans? They fall into despair so fast that they forget to defend themselves. Some even choose death over struggle. They make it so easy! But you … You are no ordinary human. When the train found you, you looked like you were ready to end your life. And after you got on? After that feline denizen tried to get you to die? You became stubborn, bouncing back like the perennial flower that is associated with your name. Perhaps there is more to you humans than just being easy snacks.”

“You don't even know the struggles of being human!” alternate Amelia said, holding a sniper rifle ready.

“I must admit, I have never had the opportunity to talk to you humans. I have watched what the Train saw as it devoured you, but what happens on this train is the part that my eye does not normally get to see.” With that, Void extended one of his hundred arms and reached for the Canyon Car's control panel, freezing all of the denizens in place. “Join me, human! I wish to learn about your people.”

“I have a name, you arsehole! It's Amelia Hughes!” She tried to shoot Void, but her weapon was rendered useless due to his meddling with the car.

“Amelia Hughes,” Void said, wrapping one of his arms around her. “I am Void. Please, come with me to the Engine. There is much we should discuss.”

“I'm not leaving without Samantha!”

“Fine. We can take her too.” He wrapped another arm around the frozen cat and picked her up. “Anyone else you'd like to have with you?”

“That will be all,” alternate Amelia said, not wanting to risk getting snapped in two by the monster's segmented arm.

One skipped to a universe in which he could observe the cooperation between alternate Amelia and Void. She was making progress in having the Engineer understand humans. He even provided her and Samantha with their own rooms in the Engine and calmly discussed with the woman as she sat in a chair with the cat on her lap.

“This grief,” Void said, gesturing with one of his clawed hands, “is it really a double-edged sword? A thing that can both defeat and motivate the person who has it?”

“My world took away someone I loved, and Samantha's world took away everyone she loved. Of course we're going to keep fighting to change things.”

“And you expect me to bring back people from the dead?” Void asked, squinting at her.

“It can be done! All we need is to use our memories and the train's power to—”

“It's not the same thing as resurrecting them,” alternate Samantha said, causing alternate Amelia to stare baffled at her. “They're gone, Amelia. All of them. Your partner, my husband, my kittens – all gone. And the only thing I can do is make some changes on this train. That is what grief motivates me to do.”

Alternate Amelia stormed off toward her room.

Next universe showed how alternate Amelia waited for Void to go out of the Engine while she and alternate Samantha stayed behind.

“I'll need your help to understand the commands,” alternate Amelia said to the cat. “You're the only one who speaks the train's language.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” alternate Samantha asked, looking worried.

“It's what must be done. This beast must be taken over.”

The eight screens of the console showed video feed from several cars, including the one where Void was busy performing maintenance. He had the scare of his life when Amelia ejected that car toward the back of the train while he was inside it.

One skipped further – or rather to another universe that was further in time.

Void returned to the Engine to see the alternate versions of Amelia and Samantha along with alternate Missy, the Alrick clone, and a turtle with a circular window on top. “What have you done?! You have wasted all resources to produce hundreds of cars full of turtles! The train is dying, and we're all going down with it because of you!”

“Missy! Get him!” alternate Amelia said, pointing at Void.

The ghom jumped at the multi-legged robot, beginning the process of sucking his life. She was called off as soon as her creator and the other people were at the exit.

Void managed to catch up with the fugitives and got so close to alternate Amelia that his claw grabbed hold of the turtle and tore it off the woman's right shoulder. “Get back here, Amelia, or I'll squeeze your little turtle friend like a lemon!”

Alternate Amelia stopped running, turned around, and stared at the turtle. “I … I know this is a trap!” She chose to run away with the Alrick clone, alternate Samantha, and alternate Missy.

Void glared with the blaze of a red giant at alternate Amelia. Then he turned his attention to the turtle. “She almost made me care about you creatures. But now that I realize she doesn't really care about you, why should I even bother? You're nothing but recyclable pieces of the system anyway.” He began to squeeze the turtle.

In One's universe, Amelia covered her eyes and knelt on the floor. “I don't want to see this!” She still heard the crack and the squeaks, as well as the gasps of the other people around her, so she had confirmation that Void went through with it. She started crying.

“Grace, Simon, I believe it is for the best to take her to the Jungle Car,” One said. “Thank you for the data, Miss Amelia. My apologies for making you relive these awful memories.”

Missy, fully covered in the dark coating, sat in front of Amelia and rested her snout on the woman's left foot, chittering softly.

Samantha touched Amelia's right arm with her paw, causing Amelia to lift her head and look at her with tear streaks on her face. The cat smiled and said, “Come on, now. We must keep moving forward.”

Amelia nodded and allowed the cat to jump onto her right shoulder. Then she got up, looked at the researchers, and said, “We're going with you.”

“Wait!” Simon said. “If the Train of Sorrow originated out of a space-time anomaly about two millennia ago … does this mean this one came into existence that way too? Hmm, One?” He smirked at the one-eyed robot.

One squinted at him. “What have I told you about asking for the answer regarding the train's origin?”

“That I'm not prepared for the answer? Come on, cyclops! I can take it! Who was it? Some ancient order of wizards?”

“Wizards don't exist outside of this train in this universe,” One said.

“Okay, then … it's a secret experiment of the government, with the FBI or the CIA or both involved! Am I right?”

“All of those are enemies of the train.”

“Aliens then?”

“Also enemies of the train.”

Simon put his hands up. “Then who built this thing? And wait, did you just confirm that aliens exist?!”

“Yes, extraterrestrial lifeforms do exist. As for the train's origin … You do not need to know,” One said, grabbing Simon by the back of his lab coat and placing him near the door. “It is difficult enough for me to have this knowledge. I do not wish to burden you as well.”

“I'll find out someday!” Simon said, holding his index finger up in front of his face.

One stared calmly at him. “Perhaps. But not today.”

As everyone left and the door was closed, One could hear Simon rant about being denied the knowledge. The question always reminded the robot of his mission and his past. Whenever he had those memories resurface, he felt the need to revisit a certain room.

Using his Steward's clawed hand, he activated an invisible port to the right of the control panel and opened the sliding door to the secret room. As soon as he went inside, he made sure to close the door behind him and was left in a small space with an obelisk as tall as his Steward. There was mostly darkness save for the soft, green glow of the obelisk's stripes with 8 rows of shining glyphs on its front. He gently ran his claw down over the writing while his eye took the shape of a tear.

Chapter Text

Ball floated in the lake near Grace and Simon's house. The robots forming the unit all had their eyes closed, enjoying the calm afternoon.

On a rock nearby, Kez also tried to relax, but looking down into the water, all he could see was the reflection of a disappointment. Not only had she failed to bring Morgan new friends, but now she couldn't be there to keep the castle company either. Her only relief was that she had new friends – true friends who actually cared about her.

Ryan and Min-Gi sat on a larger rock a bit further to Kez's left, sharing earbuds and listening to music on their newly-acquired portable music player. After their shopping spree, the duo had made some slight changes to their appearances.

Ryan wore his new brown leather jacket that looked similar to his old one, but with two staples on the sleeves, and three other staples to hold the jacket closed at the front asymmetrically. It still looked good with his green sweater and his new cyan jeans into which he had to tear holes by himself, since he couldn't find ones that came with tears by default. His red boots looked just like his old ones, but with purple patches on the sides instead of crimson ones. He was lucky enough to find glasses similar to his that actually worked for his sight. They were white, but they still fit his aesthetic.

Min-Gi made a complete change when it came to his clothes, and yet it looked as if there wasn't much of a change. It was more like a palette swap. The dark blue jacket had been replaced with a cyan one of the same model, the white shirt with a red one, and the gray pants with pink ones. He kept his old runners on, since they still looked good as new.

“I need my lion tamer!” Ryan sang before pausing the player. “You know, Min, you were right about listening to this album's songs in order. With that buildup, it really hits harder when Lion Tamer comes up!”

“Now you can truly appreciate the genius of Ridge Irvine,” Min-Gi said, smiling while Ryan pulled him in for a hug. He hugged him back. “And I can appreciate being hugged by a lion.”

“Rawr!” Ryan said, still with his hands on Min-Gi's waist while looking into his eyes and grinning.

“Hey, look!” Kez said. “Grace and Simon are back! And they've brought more interuniversal visitors too!”

Ryan took his hands off Min-Gi, not knowing how the newcomers might react to them being that open about their relationship. “Who do you think they brought this time, Min?”

“I don't know, but the human one appears to be a woman.”

Ryan rubbed his chin. “Hold on, she looks familiar. No way!”

Grace approached them and said, “Min, Ryan, Kez, this is Amelia Hughes, but—”

Min-Gi and Ryan pointed at Amelia and started talking gibberish in shock. Ball swam to the edge of the lake, then got out and went closer to get a good look at Amelia. After realizing who it was, the unit split instantly, with Glad-One running straight back into the lake, leaving Two and Three behind.

Two yelled, “Don't leave me here with her!”

Three glared at Amelia and said, “You blew up the train, didn't you?”

She scowled at him. “No, that thing was still up and running last I checked.”

“Then let me guess: you filled it with turtles.”

Amelia's eyes wandered to the side. “That is true.”

“And what about your goal of playing god and reviving that dear human of yours? Did you succeed?”

Amelia sighed. “It wasn't him.”

Three squinted at her. “Was it worth it? Was breaking my heart into pieces worth you learning the lesson the hard way?”

She snapped. “What does this have to do with you? I don't even know you!”

“Well I still remember you,” Three said, sliding an electronic part out of the front of his underside. Then he grabbed it with his hands and showed it to Amelia. “Because I still have this!”

It looked like a dark green cartridge of some sort, with golden pins on one edge.

“I have no idea what that thing is,” she said.

“Hey, I saw that thing before,” Simon said. “You had it with you while you were in that winter car.”

“Has your memory gone that bad, Amelia?” Three asked. “This was my memory backup! I hid it in my secret room, because I knew you'd break me eventually, judging by the way you were starting to treat me lately. Because of this little thing, all of my unit's components were reminded how cruel you could be.”

“I wasn't cruel! The Engineer and his murderous train have taken a lot more lives than my mistakes have taken! I was doing everyone a favour by turning against Void and taking over that mechanical snake!”

Grace intervened to clarify what Amelia was saying. “She's not the Amelia from your universe.”

“She still sounds like a deceitful, greedy human. Was it necessary to hurt the Conductor?”

“He wasn't a conductor, he was the Engineer!” Amelia said. “He helped the train plan its attacks on humans. I told him about how much harm he was doing to them, and I proved to him that we weren't just food, and he listened and …” She frowned.

“Damn that woman! She made me addicted to food!” Three said.

Ignoring Three, Amelia continued what she had to say. “Perhaps it wasn't necessary. He was trying to figure out a way to trick the train to go to Earth so we could lead all the humans and denizens off. But I was so captivated by that train's power that … I convinced my ally Samantha that we should betray the Engineer. I made her think I was worried that he would not keep his word. Once I had complete control, I started experimenting with the train's reality-modifying powers. I wasn't going to leave the train until I'd have my partner back. But once I created a copy of him, I realized the copy was his own person, not the man I knew and fell in love with.”

Three laughed hysterically. “You could have used that power to help people, and yet you couldn't even help yourself!” He continued to laugh, slapping the ground with his right arm.

“In the end, I've lost more than I've gained. All because I couldn't let go of the past.” She looked at the inactive number in her palm then sat next to Three. “So, what about you?”

He scowled at her. “What do you mean?”

“Other than being betrayed by this alternate version of me, what have you been through?”

Three looked at the memory cartridge on the ground. “Before meeting her, before even the first ever passenger had boarded the train in around Earth year 1000 AD, two advanced civilizations made a bet over whether or not humanity could be uplifted. The ones who built the train with high hopes of bettering humankind were the anges. The ones who called it a very expensive reality show doomed to showcase what a disaster humans can become were the daem. While I was One – a single mind and body – I did my best to fulfill the anges' plan. But the damn humans kept failing and failing, in spite of being given the same equipment and environments built specifically to teach them important lessons! Sure, some got better and got their exits, returning to Earth and being 'good' people, if only out of fear that the train might come back for them, but many just ended up worse than they boarded, even dying. Then she came along. I thought she was one of the kindest humans, offering me her knowledge of the human condition, which helped me greatly in becoming a better conductor. Then I … fell in love with her.” He closed his eye, the mental pain still strong.

Amelia felt sorry for the robot, so she put her right palm on his back. Her hand was swiftly rejected with a slap of his stubby arm.

“Don't touch me!” he yelled, his red eye reminding her of Void's.

“Sorry,” she said.

“It reminds me of her tactics. It reminds me of how she convinced me to become vulnerable around her, shedding the Steward's protection. I allowed her to hold me, hug me, and even kiss me. I pretended to eat when we were at a table or watching a movie with snacks, just so she'd not feel awkward for being the only one eating. The whole dating stuff really seemed charming to me, and I was fascinated with this human custom.”

“Aww!” Grace said. Then she noticed Two was sniffling, so she picked him up and gave him a hug. “It's okay. We won't hurt any of you.”

Glad-One got enough courage to show up from the lake and climb out. “It really looked like Amelia and I had something special. But turns out not closing a previous chapter of one's life makes humans do crazy things, such as asking the robot they're dating to go bring them a daisy from a faraway car while they 'accidentally' build about 100 cars full of turtles. Then they get mad at the robot for getting mad at them for wasting resources to bring back the past. Then they break up with the robot by taking a Steward claw and literally breaking up the robot with it.”

Three continued Glad-One's words. “Then the robot becomes three robots, and they all agree to just take their stuff and leave the double-crossing human to go mad alone trying to comprehend the train's operation without a guide.”

“At least we chose a nice car to stay in,” Glad-One said. “It was beautiful and snowy and quiet …”

“Then one day some jerk came in there and decided to play football with us through several cars until we ended up in the honeycomb car,” Two said.

“You mean the Universe Intersection Car?” Simon asked.

“Whatever that car was. The one in which we've met your portalling baby deer,” Three said.

“I'm sorry this happened to you, and I'm sorry for the pain I've caused to Void too. I know we humans can be downright blighters, but we can learn, and we can change. Maybe not all of us will find that push to change, though I want to change.” She looked at Ryan and Min-Gi. “Hmm, you two remind me of the guys whose corpses I came across just as the train was absorbing them.”

Ryan grinned nervously. “Y-you also remind us of someone who almost turned us into corpses.”

“Maybe that wouldn't have happened if you thought things through before flirting with a grieving widow,” Min-Gi said, smiling smugly at him.

“I wanted to stop her from ruining the train and losing herself in the process,” Ryan said. Noticing that Min-Gi wasn't buying it, he added, “She was hot, okay?” 

“And you wonder why I thought you were straight. You even bought those magazines when we were in middle school ...”

“And I should have suspected stuff about you when your only reactions to those were just 'She's pretty,' or 'That's what it looks like?' Oh, by the way, I'm sorry that I told my parents that those were your 'zines.”

“So that's why they were looking at me like that!” Min-Gi said. “You're lucky I love you too much to break up with you.”

“Not like we'll ever see any of our parents again, given the situation. And you know what?” Ryan grabbed Min-Gi's hands in his. “I'm kinda glad about that. I wouldn't want to let any of them get even the slightest opportunity of trying to break us up.”

“What is this, some kind of relationship between guys rubbish?” Amelia asked, raising an eyebrow while crossing her arms.

Ryan glared at her as if she had just insulted his entire family. And at that point, Min-Gi might as well be his entire family. He was held back by the other musician's arms, otherwise he would have challenged Amelia to a battle.

Simon intervened. “Um, madam, please do not disrespect our friends. I know you come from a time when the US was against these types of relationships, but here you're in an era in which we've learned to respect everyone's right to love, as long as they're in relationships with consenting adults.”

“Ha!” Three said. “You humans always prove to be such judgmental creatures! Maybe the daem were right all along and are winning the bet.”

Samantha jumped off Amelia's left shoulder. “This could be an opportunity for you to detach yourself from the past, non?”

Amelia looked at her, then at Ryan and Min-Gi. “All right. I apologize for my earlier words. I just … come from a place where a lot of things were different. An epidemic was happening in the US at that time and—”

“And everyone blamed those like us for it,” Ryan said, scowling at her. “Because most people never really understood what caused the epidemic and how to keep it under control. Yeah, we're here from a similar world. If anyone in the New York of those times found out about us, we'd either be killed or running away from angry mobs by now. But here Min and I can live without worrying that even holding hands could get us shunned. We're finally happy, and then you come in with the judging. It's like we're dealing with judge Morpho again.”

“I will try to educate myself on these matters,” Amelia said. “I would appreciate any help with finding actualized knowledge of this world.”

“I've got a library full of books, if you're interested,” Grace said.

“Thank you.”

Simon approached Three. “So, anges and daems, huh?”

“Daem!” Three said.

“Those two alien races sound like angels and demons.”

“They're only aliens to you, human! To me they were the two civilizations native to planet Scio, and being built by one of them makes me a Scion.”

“I guess One lied to me after all when I've asked him if aliens built the train,” Simon said. He received a message on his AMMPS device.

Sender: One
Subject: I didn't lie.

Aliens didn't build this train, but they would destroy it if they could.

“He's listening to us again,” Simon said. He looked at the sky. “Hey, cyclops! You can't drink soda!”

Another message arrived.

Sender: One
Subject: •(

Simon snickered. Then he heard his number rise. He looked at his palm and saw the 21. “Okay, that was pretty mean of me.” Looking back at the sky, he shouted, “Sorry, One!” His number went back to 20.

“Amelia, you have experience with building cars and train beings, right?” Grace said.

Amelia was taken aback by her question. “Yes, why?”

“I was thinking, since an alternate version of you managed to clone an alternate version of my husband and even created what might be a child similar to Hazel of our universe ...”

Simon butted in. “Grace, remember that One said the train isn't allowed to directly create humans.”

“But this could be our chance to have a kid of our own!” Grace said. Her number increased to 20.

“I don't want One to get in trouble for breaking the rules!” Simon said. “Besides, not only is he not going to agree with this plan, but I don't think it's fair to ask Amelia to play god again after all that she's been through.”

“He's right,” Amelia said. “Even though I did succeed in creating a human with the other train's technology, he was born with poor health, and after he learned of his origin, he experienced psychological pain. I do not wish to perform such experiments ever again.”

“Why does everything have to be so complicated?” Grace asked.

“We could just get a divorce,” Simon said, shrugging with his shoulders. “That'd be simple.”

Grace pointed at him. “It wouldn't be simple at all! You'd still stay on the train, and we'd still meet each other while doing our jobs, and it'll just cause us to keep suffering knowing we can't be together anymore because of your stubbornness!”

“Well sorry I care about your well-being!” Simon shouted while pointing back at her, then stormed off to another part of the jungle.

Grace calmed down and frowned, reaching out with her right hand as she saw him leave.

“You humans,” Three said, shaking his head – or rather his entire body. “You keep being the cause of your own misery. It's entertaining, but disappointing at the same time. I do not know how else to describe it.”

As the sun was setting in the Jungle Car, Tuba and her kids returned from their job. She noticed Simon was slouching atop a tree branch, so her curiosity peaked. “Kids, you go back to the mushrooms while I go check on Simon. He doesn't look so well.”

“Okay, mom!” Trombone said. “Come on, everyone! I'll race you!”

“You know I'm gonna win!” Bugle said.

“I'm way ahead of you suckers!” Trumpet shouted, already running toward home.

As Trombone and Bugle chased after Trumpet, Hazel said, “Hey! Wait for me!” Then she caught up to her siblings.

Once Tuba made sure her kids were heading home, she climbed the tree and stopped when she reached Simon's branch. “Hey, what's on your mind?”

“Grace,” he said.

“What about her?”

“She won't let go of her dream of having a kid with me. She even went as far as to ask a version of Amelia to mess with the train to make a kid for us. And yes, we now have that Amelia on our train. But One and I don't agree with that solution, and neither does Amelia.”

“Maybe she could have a kid the natural way. I've had three on this train.”

“You're a gorilla. It's easier for you to give birth than it is for a human to do so. I just don't want her to die. It was bad enough for me to see one friend pass away in front of me. I don't think I could take another hit like that.”

“So what are you going to do? Sulk all day atop a tree?”

“I'm thinking of getting a divorce.”

Tuba frowned. “So you're giving up on her?”

“I have to. But … she brought up a good point about us still having to face each other during work hours. It'll be painful.”

Silence fell as the human and the gorilla stared at the sunset for a moment.

“She'll still be trying to get back together with me. The only way to make her forget about me is if … I'd be out of the picture. Maybe I should just break into another universe and remove the portal to it so that she can't track me anymore. Then she'll have no choice but to move on.”

“But then you'll be the one missing her and wanting to get back to her,” Tuba said. “Come on, I know you two can't stay apart for too long.”

Simon fought back the tears. “What am I going to do, Tuba? How do I solve this?”

“I don't know. You'll just have to figure it out together.”

Simon remained quiet, scowling at the sunset. Whatever thought he had, it caused his number to reach 47. “I need to be alone for now, Tuba. Please.”

“Okay,” Tuba said. “See you later if you want to talk. Take care.”

He watched her go down the tree, then he fell into deep thought again, staring at the tail of the sunset.

Simon didn't want to talk. With anyone. Not for the rest of that day anyway. He preferred to lean over the terrace's railing and look around, his vision being aided by the glow of the jungle's vegetation and fungi.

From up there he could see how Tuba prepared her kids for bed time under the giant, glowing mushrooms. A bit further, Lake and Jesse were cooking marshmallows over a campfire that was actually Alan Dracula being his chaotic self. Mace and Sieve had just returned from their trek through the jungle.

“Welcome back, guys!” Lake said. “Seen anything cool?”

“Yes, we saw a bunch of purple glowing ants and some green snakes with glowing diamond shapes on their backs,” Mace said. “We took photos of them and several great locations from this car.” He and Sieve put their cameras back into their leather mailbags and brought out some instant photographs they had made.

“Awesome!” Jesse said.

Alan Dracula extended part of his fire body and turned it into his head, but still made of flames.

“Alan Dracula! Be careful! You'll burn the photos!” Jesse said. Trying to push the deer's head away, he burned his hands. “Ow! Why?!”

Lake rolled their eyes. “You see a deer made of fire and you decide to push it. What did you think was going to happen?”

Simon smiled and let out a puff of air through his nose after witnessing that. But then something else caught his attention. He saw the silhouettes of Ryan and Min-Gi, partially illuminated by the moonlight. The duo were atop the giant mushrooms behind their house, and they were talking. Simon wasn't able to hear what exactly they were saying, but seeing that the two started kissing, he assumed it was just sappy stuff.

A seed of envy took root in Simon's heart as he glared at the couple. Lately, he and Grace could barely have a conversation without ending up arguing. But those two guys were so happy together, so trapped within their bubble that it didn't matter to them that another couple was falling apart right next to them.

“Ignorance truly must be bliss,” Simon said, firmly gripping the top of the wooden railing with his right hand. His number increased.

In the morning, Grace ate alone at the table while Simon chose to eat on the couch. They didn't even bother to speak to each other, going about their day and preparing for work.

Simon went with Lake, Jesse, and Alan Dracula to the Universe Intersection Car. Hazel and Tuba went with Ball, hoping to find universes with more versions of the Conductor. Grace was stuck with Amelia, Samantha, and Missy for her trip.

“Thank you for letting us sleep in your living room,” Amelia said to Grace.

“You're welcome,” Grace said. “We'll arrange with Mace and Sieve to help you build your own house, if you want to live in the Jungle Car. But One told us to replant the trees, so you and the others will have to help us do that in the weekend.”

“Ah, yes, that sounds fair,” Samantha said. “I have planted things before. I used to have a nice little garden behind my cabin before the wolves trampled it and robbed me of my family.”

Everyone stopped walking the moment they heard Missy squeak. They turned around to see her growl at something or someone.

“What is it, Missy?” Amelia asked. She went to see what had startled the ghom.

Behind the hexagon, there was an alternate Grace pulling back a ghom by the longest feeler. “Simon, back off! It can't get past the wall!”

Grace approached the hexagon and said, “Simon's a ghom in your universe?”

“He got turned into a ghom,” alternate Grace said. “We're on our way to find the Conductor so we can get Simon changed back into a human. We got separated from the rest of our group because of this car.”

“Oh. Do you have time for an interview? I'm researching alternate universes for our conductor.”

“Sorry, we're in a hurry,” alternate Grace said. “I don't know how long Simon can keep his instincts in check.”

Ghom Simon growled at Missy, who growled back. They started scratching at the wall.

“Missy! Stop that!” Amelia ordered.

Missy ran up to her and sat next to Amelia's right leg while wagging her tail.

Ghom Simon took a stance that signaled he was proud of having won whatever ghom argument he was having with Missy.

“Let's go, Simon,” alternate Grace said, and he followed her out of the hexagon's view.

After checking the universe's orb and writing things down on her tablet, Grace looked at Missy. “Amelia, how do you know Missy is female?”

“She's been littering the Engine with eggs for a whole month,” Amelia said. “Since they were nonviable, the train absorbed them after a few days.”

“Interesting. I've never seen ghoms reproduce before. We only see them fly around or burrow in the sand of the Wasteland. Although things may be different here, since yours was created and ours have been here for as long as this train has existed.”

“I'm glad the other train didn't have these on the outside. Its denizens were bad enough.”

“What do you feed Missy anyway?”

“She eats anything that's alive. Eggs, fruit, vegetables, mushrooms … I've trained her to avoid eating anything that moves. But if I tell her to attack it, she can eat it.”

“But you called her back after you've told her to attack Void.”

Amelia scowled. “Yes, I did. So what?”

“You didn't really hate Void, did you?”

“I … I have mixed feelings about Void. He was trying to understand us humans, but I knew that he was furious after I had betrayed him. I didn't want to kill him, so I only made Missy weaken him so my gang could get out of the Engine safely.”

“Oh, this is another interesting one!” the voice of One said from the group's right.

“Huh?” Amelia said as she turned to see the robot was being held in the arms of an old woman with braided ponytail and a gray jumpsuit. Next to the woman and the robot, there was a Steward.

“Yes, a younger version of myself alongside an adult Grace,” the old woman said.

“You're me?!” Amelia shouted.

“Well, your name's Amelia Hughes, isn't it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I am the older version of you. And this is my husband One.”

“Hello!” alternate One said.

Amelia's eyes went wide. “Y-you've married the Conductor?!”

“We have been working together for 33 years now,” old Amelia said. “One helped me accept that once a person dies there's nothing that can be done to bring that person back. I missed the chance to go to my fiancé's funeral, but One said we should hold a symbolic funeral for him. I owed Alrick that much at least, and holding it helped me say goodbye to him. As time passed, One and I became so attached to each other that we decided to stick together, even after I got my exit.”

Alternate One turned around in her arms and hugged her with his tiny limbs. “I am so glad we've met, my daisy!”

“But … robots live nearly forever,” Amelia said. “What happens after she dies?”

“Amelia and I have agreed to be happy for experiencing our love, even if one day, when she reaches the end of her life, we'll have to say goodbye. I will cherish these memories we're forming together for as long as I'll function.”

“I wouldn't be able to fall in love with anyone other than Alrick,” Amelia said. “I'd feel like I'd be disrespecting everything we stood for.”

“You can choose to live your life however you see fit,” old Amelia said. “I will never forget my Alrick, but I cannot keep living in the past for the rest of my life. Sometimes moving on happens when you accept someone new into your life. And I am happy with my decision.” She kissed the robot on the eye. “Perhaps you too should hold a funeral for your Alrick, Amelia. Trust me, it truly offers closure.”

“I'll … consider it,” Amelia said.

Grace brought out her tablet. “Can I ask you two a few more questions, please? I'm doing interviews for a research project that my boss asked me to do.”

Alternate One turned around to look at Grace, his eye curving upwards. “Sure! Ask us anything!”

“So you and your reflection are … dating? What the hell?!” Simon asked while staring into a hexagon's portal.

On the other side of the wall, there was an alternate version of him as well as a reflection of that version, both wearing the clothes that the Apex Simons wore. However, there were some differences. There were no Apex symbols of any kind on their faces or their harpoon packs' chest plates.

“Yeah,” alternate Simon said. “If Grace wants to put my life in danger by not telling me we had a null with us the whole time, I chose to just stick with the only person who actually understands me.”

“And I already know everything about him,” mirror Simon said. “We get along like a house on fire.”

Simon grimaced. “I wish you didn't have to remind me of that incident from my childhood ...”

Mirror Simon stared at him with a puzzled look. “Huh?”

“Never mind,” Simon said. “Anyway, this is ridiculous! It's like taking narcissism to a whole new level! What is wrong with you two?”

“I don't see anything wrong with us,” alternate Simon said, looking at mirror Simon.

“I don't see anything wrong either,” mirror Simon said, shrugging.

“Also, you call denizens 'nulls' but you're dating a denizen and yet you don't think they're people,” Simon said. “Do you not see the problem here?”

“Yeah, about that,” alternate Simon said, “at this point I don't care if they are people or not. I just … need someone to be there for me. I don't even care if I get betrayed anymore. I've lost everyone else.”

“And I've lost my job and my right to live,” mirror Simon said. “Now Simon and I are living life on the run, being chased by the mirror cops every time we encounter a reflective surface. But together I think we can make it through whatever problems come our way.”

“Simon, you put your reflection in danger!” Simon said, pointing at his alternate self. “How can you say you love him when you've caused him so much trouble? Those cops are going to kill him!”

“Excuse me?” mirror Simon said, putting himself between his partner and Simon. He put his right hand on his chest. “I agreed to all of this. I'd rather take risks than stay in the boring safety of the reflection world, wasting my time while my prime was suffering in his world.”

“You'd rather … risk dying just to be with him?” Simon said.

“Still better than to experience what he does while being unable to offer him support when he needs it, or stop him from doing things he'll regret later,” mirror Simon told him while putting his left arm around alternate Simon's waist. “Doesn't matter if I die today or whenever the universe ends. At least I know I can be there with him for as long as possible.”

“He's right,” Lake said. “It's his life. If this is how he wants to spend it, then don't fucking judge him for it. He can make his own decisions.”

“Yeah,” Simon said, a tear escaping his right eye. “You're both right.”

“Why are you crying?” mirror Simon asked him, looking concerned.

Simon quickly wiped the tear away. “It's just sweat.”

Mirror Simon smiled. “Yeah, right. I know what I saw.”

“Shut up!”

“You know,” Lake said, “Grace is her own person too. Maybe you should–”

Simon raised his right hand. “Maybe we shouldn't be discussing this while I'm working.”

Lake saw the number on Simon's hand. “101? You've been getting worse.”

He put his hands on his head, his fingers squeezing his blond hair between them. “Lake, just … I know! I know I've got problems! But every time I try to talk to Grace, I only cause more problems for myself and her!”

“Uh, we've got to go now,” mirror Simon said. “Good luck with fixing things between you and Grace.”

“Like he'll ever be able to understand how relationships work,” alternate Simon said. “All he knows is how to judge others for theirs.”

Simon sighed. He scanned the hexagon's orb and wrote down the notes on his tablet, then he led his companions through the corridor in search for the next opportunities.

After the work hours ended, all three groups met at the entrance of the Jungle Car.

Simon looked into Grace's eyes and said, “Grace, I'm sorry about the way I've been acting lately.” His number went down to 80.

“I'm sorry too,” Grace said. Her number went down to 10. “I've been rushing things.”

Simon put his hands on her shoulders. “I'm not against having a kid with you. But it's just too early. If there is a risk of losing you, I want to spend a bit more time having you by my side. Just two more years is all I ask.”

Grace pondered his request while blowing air between her lips. “Okay. If you're that afraid of losing me, then I'll grant you two more years of just the two of us at the mercy of this train. But after that, you're becoming a dad. No take-backs.” She smirked.

“I promise,” he said, smiling. He heard his number decrease, so he checked it. Then he blushed.

Grace laughed. “I think it's trying to tell you something.”

Lake elbowed Simon and grinned at him. “Looks like even your number's giving you tips.”

Still red in the face, he scowled at Lake and closed his right palm. “It's just a number!”

“Well I'm down for its suggestion,” Grace said, waving her eyebrows at him.

Half-smiling, half-scowling, and still embarrassed, Simon shrugged and said, “As long as you want to, I have nothing against it. Not like we have anything else to do this evening.”

Then they shared a gentle kiss while hugging each other.

“It's nice to see you two behave like an actual couple again,” Tuba said, relieved.

Chapter Text

Grace and Simon were in their bed, still asleep as the morning light shone through the window of their bedroom. She had her right arm wrapped around him, and he held her hand with his. His blond hair was untied and messy. As his eyes opened, the first thing he looked at was the number in his palm. It was 10. He checked her palm. Also 10.

Grace was still sleeping, and Simon didn't want to wake her up. He wondered why they weren't back to 0 even after admitting their problems and working on rebuilding their relationship, but the questions could wait. They still had the last half hour of staying in bed for the day, and he was going to enjoy it.

A loud explosion caused the couple to jump out of bed, leaving their blanket on it. They were both dressed in white tank tops and shorts. Going outside, on the terrace, they saw Jesse, Lake, and Alan Dracula – who was scattered into pieces all over the scorched grass of the ground.

“Alan Dracula, I said campfire, not fireworks!” Jesse shouted while waving his arms in frustration.

Lake rolled their eyes. “Jesse, how many times do I have to tell you? It's Alan Dracula! He does what he wants and never listens to anyone!”

Alan Dracula reassembled himself and started grazing the burnt grass while Missy poked her head out through the entrance of a nearby cabin and screeched.

“What's happening out there?” Amelia said, peeking from the cabin and pushing Missy back inside.

“Sorry, it was just A.D. exploding into fireworks,” Jesse said.

Amelia scowled. “Ugh, these kids ...” Then she went back to having breakfast with Samantha using a large rock for a table.

“We thought the car was going haywire,” Simon said, getting the hair out of his eyes.

Jesse turned his back to the fawn while sitting on the ground, grumpy. “This deer keeps causing trouble, and if he ever does anything helpful, it's unintentional. He can teleport and make portals, but he won't take us back to our universe!”

“He's just a kid,” Lake said. “I don't think he knows what he's doing.”

Jesse saw the researchers. “Hey, Grace! Simon! Did One make any progress on rebuilding that orb?”

“One said he had no luck,” Simon said. “He cannot figure out how to check if it is for your universe or just a very similar one in which the alternate versions of yourselves went missing too.”

Jesse continued to scowl. “Great. So we're stuck here forever.”

“Hey, there's a whole train to explore,” Lake said. They sat next to Jesse. “I know you miss your family, even if I never had one. But sometimes life hits you with unexpected stuff, and you need to make the best of what you got.” After a moment of silence, they added, “You're not alone, you know! You still got me and Alan Dracula.”

“I am thankful for you being here with me, but A.D. has become the source of all my problems lately.”

Alan Dracula put his head in Jesse's lap.

“You're the reason we're stuck here!” Jesse said while pointing at the fawn's head.

Alan Dracula's ears became floppy while his eyes were wide and sparkly.

“I think he's trying to say he's sorry,” Lake said. “Hey, look! His horns are showing up!” They poked the two bumps of the fawn's head.

Jesse pushed the fawn off his legs. “He's just going to charge at me with those when they'll be fully grown.”

The roaring sound of an engine distracted Lake, Jesse, and Alan Dracula. They all stared in the direction of the racket and saw a red motorcycle with two riders coming their way.

Even though the riders had black helmets on, Lake knew who they were due to their clothes. “Chicken Choice Judy is back! And it looks like their morning concert was a success.”

Ryan parked the motorcycle near the purple mushrooms. He and Min-Gi took their helmets off and placed them on the seat.

“Woohoo! That was one hell of a ride!” Ryan said before opening his jacket's bottom right pocket so Kez could fly out of it. “Everything okay, Kez?”

“I'm good,” she said. “Thanks for letting me stay in there.”

“You're welcome.”

Lake came up to them. “Cool bike, guys! Oh, also, nice rings and shoes.”

“Thanks,” Ryan said, showing off his two silver rings on his right hand's index and ring fingers.

Min-Gi looked at his new runners, which looked similar to his old ones but with two green stripes on their sides. “Thank you.”

Ryan patted the handlebar of the motorcycle. “Also, the rad part about this bike is that its wheels can stick to surfaces while ignoring gravity. It helps us skip cars by driving over them. But there's one more thing I want to show you!” Ryan swung off his guitar case and opened it. “I've made a pretty big change today.” He brought out a guitar that was rounder than his old one, but had a red body with some white covering most of its left half in the same style as the old one. Its fretboard was copper colored, with a trapezoid head. On the top left of the guitar's body, there was a circular sticker with the head of their band's mascot – the yellow chicken with purple hair. On the guitar body's bottom left, an oval sticker with the letters CCJ in purple decorated it.

“You changed your guitar?!” Jesse said.

Ryan strummed it a bit. “Yeah. Min and I are slowly but surely letting go of our past. New clothes, new instruments, new accessories, new vehicle ...”

“I'm still keeping my stylophone though,” Min-Gi said. “It reminds me of the day Ryan helped me discover my love for music when we were kids.”

“Also, we got new furniture!” Ryan said, packing up his guitar before opening the silver box of the motorcycle's back. He took out a dark green orb. “We'll need to slot this somewhere in this car.”

Simon came down from the tree house, having tied his hair back and wearing casual brown shorts and a white T-shirt. “I can help you with that.”

After looking around for something to replace in the jungle, Simon decided they could do without a rock. He scanned it with his AMMPS device and found its orb just a few steps away. After causing the orb panel to open on his device's signal, he took out the rock orb – causing the rock to fade out of sight – and replaced it with the orb that Ryan passed to him. A purple couch appeared where the rock once stood.

“Stylish couch!” Simon said.

“It's convertible too,” Ryan told him.

Min-Gi stroked the couch and said, “Now we can finally sleep like civilized people.”

Ryan smirked at his partner. “Think you can tame this lion?” He pointed at himself with his thumbs.

“Well, I can try,” Min-Gi said, smiling.

Ryan put his right arm over Min-Gi's shoulders. “You know I'll end up flattening you on that couch anyway.”

“Ryan! You can't talk about that stuff in public!”

Ryan raised an eyebrow. “You're still worried about what the world thinks?”

Min-Gi freed himself from Ryan's hold. “The last thing I need after what happened at today's concert is to get judged by my friends!”

“Those were just three people who were garbage, and they'll be banned from our future concerts anyway,” Ryan said. “Besides, if anyone judges you, I'll fight 'em!” He put his fists in front of himself and took a battle stance while grinning.

“What happened?” Simon asked.

“Three passengers were saying that Asians brought some kind of flu virus to the USA,” Min-Gi said. “They were pointing at us and telling us to get off the train. It seems like we're not safe from discrimination even here.”

“One did mention there's a pandemic going on right now on Earth,” Simon said. “But it's wrong to blame Asians for it, no matter where this virus came from. It seems the virus can take up to two weeks to incubate, and many of those people were unaware they had it. One also told us to stay at a 6 feet distance away from new passengers.”

“And you didn't tell us?!”

“I'm sorry. I received One's message last night. Also, denizens can't get infected, so at least that will limit the spread.”

“We'll be fine,” Ryan said. “No one asked us for autographs, so we didn't get close to any humans. Wait, how much is 6 feet again?”

“About two meters,” Min-Gi said.

Ryan scowled. “Americans, man.”

“Canada went back to using the imperial measurement system in '85 here,” Simon said, smiling smugly.

Min-Gi said, “It happened in our world too.”

Ryan whipped his head toward him. Then he put his hands on Min-Gi's shoulders. “Min, when did this happen?”

“In March of 1985.”

Ryan threw his hands up in the air. “How did I not notice Canada turned upside-down again?”

Min-Gi burst into laughter.

“Can you help us in the alternate universes car today, please?” Simon asked.

“Sure,” Min-Gi said. “But first we must carry our couch into our bedroom.”

“Thanks. You'll be going with Hazel this time, because Amelia's group agreed to come with me, and Ball wants to go with Grace.”

Ryan picked up one end of the couch. “Let's get this thing moving!”

Kez helped by floating under the middle of the couch and pushing it from below. Min-Gi picked up the other end and followed Ryan up the stairs on their way to the tree house.

Later on, Tuba left Trombone, Trumpet, and Bugle with Mace and Sieve, then she took Hazel, Ryan, Min-Gi, and Kez with her. Simon took Amelia and Samantha to assist him, and they had to take Missy too. He became used to the unusually friendly ghom, petting her head whenever she tried to get his attention. Grace took Ball with her, and she was still giving the robot weird looks whenever Three insisted on trying all fruit from the forest on their way to the Universe Intersection Car.

“That fruit is poisonous,” Grace said, pointing at the raspberry-like fruit the robot was trying to stuff into his face under the bottom eye.

“Am I going to die?” Two asked.

She shrugged. “Well, you don't have a mouth, or a way to actually eat that fruit, so … probably not.”

“Damn,” Two said. “I was hoping to finally escape my miserable existence.”

“Aw, lighten up, Two!” Glad-One said. “There's so much to see and do in this world! You wouldn't want to miss out on stuff, now would you?”

“I'm already missing out on having limbs. And it isn't exactly fun being stuck between you and the old grouch.”

Glad-One was the one to form the tear shape with his eye for once. “But we had so much fun dancing together ...”

Two also formed the tear shape with his eye. “I still wish I could walk and run freely without worrying that either of you wouldn't want to go this way or that way.”

“All you ever do is whine!” Three said. “Maybe I should just discard you.”

“No,” Glad-One said. “We will not discard our middle. Two is an important part of us.”

“What do we need him for? I already pity myself, and he's dragging you down too!”

“It is true that we are becoming more and more individualized lately,” Glad-One said, “but this doesn't mean we should leave our brother behind. We've been through everything together, so we should have respect for one another.”

“Guys, we should get going,” Grace said. “Simon and Hazel's teams are way ahead of us.”

“Right,” Three said. “Two, you do the walking, since you said you want to walk.”

“Fine,” Two said, his tone letting his frustration show.

As they all started walking again, Grace said, “Once we're done with today's trip, I'll take you to One and ask him to try and build some legs for Two. Is that okay with you?”

“Anything to make this sad pancake stop whining,” Three said, scowling.

Two and Glad-One curved their eyes upward simultaneously while looking at Grace.

Simon led Amelia and her companions to the center of the Universe Intersection Car, where six of the corridors connected. “Let's take the right one,” he said.

They didn't get too far before a hexagon slid down from the ceiling, blocking their path.

“Let's see who we get to meet this time,” Simon said, preparing his tablet. He was shocked the moment he saw a blond man with glasses. “Are you an older version of me?” He squinted at the man. “You don't really have the same face though.”

“What are you talking about?” the man asked.

“Wait a minute! You look just like—”

“Alrick!” Amelia said. “Is it really him?”

The man with glasses put his hands on the hexagon and shouted, “Amelia!” His right hand had the green glowing number 337.

“I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but you are both talking to a different version of the other,” Simon said. He looked at Amelia. “Alternate universes, remember?”

Amelia and Alrick frowned.

“This car is only putting salt on the wound,” Amelia said.

“Just when I thought I could see her again …” Alrick said. “What do I have to do to bring her back? Is there any artifact on this train that could revive the dead?”

Amelia sighed. “Don't bother with that. It would be a wild goose chase. I lost my Alrick, and the train I took over could not bring him back. It made a copy of him, but it wasn't him. He's gone, and if death works the same way on your side, your Amelia is gone too. And nothing you do can bring her back.”

“But what if death works differently here? What if I can find her soul somehow? I'd give anything to talk to her again!”

“Even if her soul exists somewhere, how are you going to find it?”

“I don't know, maybe I can find a shaman or I can ask the Conductor of this train to help me find her.”

Amelia closed her eyes. “You're on the wrong path, Alrick. I've been in your situation before, and I took over a train after I've tricked its engineer. But I've only caused harm to other passengers, and my experiments turned out to be turtles all the way down. Literally, the train was full of turtles by the time the Engineer returned to the Engine. So if you do manage to meet the Conductor or Engineer or whatever he calls himself, please be kind. If he says he cannot help you bring her back, then listen to him. Don't become me!”

Alrick was tearing up. “I understand. But how am I supposed to live with this pain? I feel her absence like a hole in my universe.”

Amelia put her right hand on the hexagon's glass and looked into his teary eyes. “That's exactly how I feel about losing my Alrick. An older version of me said I should hold a symbolic funeral for him. Perhaps you could do the same for your Amelia.”

“Did it lessen your pain?”

“I … haven't decided yet when to hold the funeral. I'm not even sure what to do, or how to do it.”

Simon cleared his throat. “Amelia, I can help. I took part in my dad's funeral when I was little. I had an awful time, but I still remember a few things that my family did. We won't have annoying neighbors bringing casseroles, but our friends can bring fruit and flowers, so it'll be kind of the same but slightly better.”

Amelia looked at him. “Thank you.”

“We can hold it this evening if you want.”

“I don't know if I'm ready.”

“You'll never be ready for this kind of stuff. It's best to just go through it now and hopefully you'll feel better once you get that weight off your shoulders.”

She nodded while a sad smile formed on her face. “Then I'll hold it this evening.”

“I've got no one to help with the funeral for my Amelia,” Alrick said.

Amelia looked at him again. “If you can find hospitable denizens there, open up to them. Samantha and I didn't start out as friends when we were on a more dangerous train, but after everything we went through, we figured we make a good team.”

Samantha rubbed against Amelia's legs like the usual house cat. “Oui, mon amie!”

Missy tried to compete with Samantha and imitated her, but due to her more rigid body, she wasn't capable of doing the gesture as elegantly as the cat did.

“I've created Missy,” Amelia said. “But she's also there for me. And after I had moved to this train, I've made some human friends too, along with more denizen friends.”

“I'll try to make friends,” Alrick said, using his hooded robe's sleeve to wipe the tears off his eyes. “It's just that everyone here seems so cheerful, and it makes me feel left out.”

“Keep traveling. You never know when you'll find someone you can relate to. It could even be the person in charge of the Engine.”

Alrick smiled at Amelia. “I'll follow your advice. Thank you.”

“We would also like to thank you for your time and information,” Simon said after taking some last notes. Then he scanned the hexagon's panel. “Universe B33. Definitely no ghosts or magic outside of the train there.”

“Have a nice day,” Alrick said. “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye!” Amelia, Samantha, and Simon said as Alrick continued his journey through the alternate train.

Somewhere else in the car, Hazel, Tuba, and the band were searching for their next interviewees.

“Man, I can't believe there's a universe where we became One-One!” Ryan said. “I mean, can you imagine getting your brain shoved into half a sphere like that?”

Min-Gi shuddered at the thought. “Please, no more discussions about that universe! Becoming a robot is not on my to do list.”

“Yeah, but look at the bright side: they can live for nearly an eternity, and they can stick together and become a sphere that can roll around. That seemed pretty rad.”

“Ryan!” Min-Gi shouted, giving him a nasty look.

“Sorry. I just thought it would be nice if we could be almost immortal and able to stick together like that.”

“I'd rather be the way I am now. Knowing that life is short is what makes me enjoy every day of my life with you. I don't think we could stick together for hundreds or thousands of years as robots. We'd probably grow bored of each other.”

Ryan gave him the saddest stare he had ever seen. “Just say you don't believe in us, Min.”

“Ryan, that's not what I … It's just something I fear would happen if we became robots. Doesn't mean I wouldn't try to keep us together.”

“They seemed to like being together,” Hazel said. “I think you two would be inseparable even if you were robots.”

Min-Gi smiled at her, but then looked at Ryan and saw the pitiful expression of his face. He rubbed Ryan's back. “Hey, let's not worry about hypothetical stuff. We should focus on our relationship. I promise I'll do everything I can to keep us together.”

Ryan's mood seemed to improve, but he remained quiet and continued to walk with the group.

Behind them, Kez went next to Tuba's head and whispered into her left ear. “Looks like they're already arguing like an old married couple.”

“More like a young insecure couple,” Tuba said. “They need to learn to trust each other more.”

“Maybe they should, like, get hitched,” Kez said, winking.

“They don't seem ready yet for that important step.”

A hexagon came down from the ceiling, stopping the group. The scenery on the other side of its wall looked nothing like the usual Universe Intersection Cars. It wasn't space either, just a dark blue sky, and a sea of sand. Black vortexes floated around the place, leaving trails of their smoky material behind.

“What is this place?” Min-Gi asked.

“Looks like an artistic depiction of my mind at this moment,” Ryan said, frowning.

In the distance, there was a group of three humans with a soft glow emitted by their bodies. They were approaching the hexagon, curious to see who was on the other side.

“Hmm, I don't recognize any of them,” Hazel said.

Tuba tilted her head. “They don't look like our humans. Maybe they're denizens who look like humans.”

Before the three people could reach the hexagon, someone's mad laughter distracted them. They screamed and ran away, terrified by who was coming.

“What is happening?” Hazel asked.

Min-Gi's mouth remained open for a brief moment. “That sounds like ...”

A glowing version of Ryan entered the view, swinging his beat-up guitar around while laughing hysterically. His leather jacket's sleeves were missing from a bit below his shoulders, allowing the green numbers on his arms to shine through the night of the realm.

“Whoopee, I went mad in that universe,” Ryan said, scowling at his alternate self. “Who would have guessed that I could have such a fate?”

The glowing Ryan swung his guitar at the hexagon, trying to hit Ryan through the glass. The guitar was stopped by the hexagon, unable to deal any damage at all. “Of course. Of course, of course it's a curse.”

“What happened to you?” Min-Gi asked, feeling sorry for the mad Ryan.

The glowing Ryan lowered his guitar. “I'm a ghost, can't you see? I'm powerless!” His voice was cracking.

“How did you end up like this?”

“I think we both know how he ended up like that,” Ryan said, crossing his arms. “His Min left him. Am I wrong?”

“You're not wrong,” ghost Ryan said. “That bastard left me. For the third and final time. Why did I think we could still be friends?”

Ryan glared at Min-Gi, who stared back at him with concern.

Ghost Ryan continued his story. “Min-Gi and I followed a bell named Kez into an art gallery car. She looked just like the one behind you. Anyway, Min-Gi and I started arguing over our life choices. He told me that he was doing just fine before I came back. I threw a vase at the wall behind him, because that was bullshit. I wasn't trying to hit him, but it scared him to the point where he said that I am dangerous and that he doesn't need me in his life. And the train agreed with him. His number went down to zero, and his exit appeared. I said 'Don't you dare take it, Min!' But he took it. He took it and he left me. My number went from 202 to 404. Kez kept telling me it'll be okay, but I knew everything was not going to be okay! I told her to shut up. Told her to go away. Then she said she'll give me some time to cool off, and she went to another room.”

Ryan and Min-Gi stared in awe as ghost Ryan looked at his clenched fists.

“As soon as she left me alone there, this disgusting creature made of arms with numbers on them came out of a painting and tried to grab me and crush me.”

“Must have been painful to die to that thing,” Ryan said.

“Ohoho, I didn't die to it!” ghost Ryan said, grinning like a madman. “I revealed my guitar and swung it at the monster, bashing its head over and over. Kez came back and watched me as I fought that thing. She begged me to stop, but I kept whacking that monster until it was just a pile of broken arms in a puddle of shadow.”

Ryan swallowed out loud. “You're terrifying!”

Ghost Ryan smirked. “Oh, I scared Kez too. She said I was the real monster, then she left, shouting at me that I am not welcome in her house.”

“I wouldn't trust him inside Morgan either,” Kez said.

“Then I headed in the opposite direction, with no goal in mind. I ran into the enemies we've made along the way, and they were ready to kill me. So I racked up a kill count and got the digits and missing sleeves to show for it. But I … couldn't handle Pig Toddler on my own.”

“Toddler?!” Ryan and Min-Gi said at the same time.

“We've dealt with a baby pig before,” Min-Gi said. “Good thing it stayed a baby and didn't follow us.”

Ghost Ryan said, “Some aliens or whatever they were caused Pig Baby to age up. So he became Pig Toddler. And let me tell you from personal experience, being chewed on and getting turned into human paste is not among the easiest ways to die.”

“I think I'm going to be sick,” Min-Gi said, wincing.

Ryan grimaced. “Man, that sounds brutal!”

Ghost Ryan nodded. “After kicking the bucket, I was absorbed by the vortex above the train, where I regained my form but remained ethereal. The vortex sent me all the way to the Engine, where I met this robot ball called One. He told me that I caused too much damage and that I must wait inside the Soul Car until I can find and help a passenger before One can give me a new physical form. Then he threw me into this car. Of course I tried to kill him. But my guitar was stopped the moment it touched him. It seems all that talk of ghosts going through objects and walls was a myth. Ghosts can't even push a pebble. Also, ghosts can get crushed, but they'll just turn into gas and take shape again once they get all of their material away from the heavy object. I learned that the hard way when One threw a boulder at me to show me how pathetic I became.”

“Man, you, like, really messed up your life,” Kez said. “Even the Conductor wasn't very fond of you.”

“Hey, it was his fault Min and … Min-Gi and I ended up boarding his ghost train instead of a real train! It looked just like a normal train, and everyone was going into it without suspecting a thing!”

“But what you did on the train was your fault!” Ryan said, pointing at ghost Ryan. “You scared Min away! You made Kez abandon you! You attacked people! Is it any wonder that you're alone now?”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” ghost Ryan yelled while smacking the hexagon's glass with his guitar. Yet not even a scratch was left. “I'm tired of seeing alternate versions of me that are still getting along with their Min-Gi! And now I get judged by me as well!”

“Dude, chill,” Ryan said, staring at him with half-closed eyes. “Min and I may be more than friends, but that doesn't mean we don't have our problems.” He looked at the inactive 202 in his right palm. “I'm scared that he'll leave me again too. I often feel like I could just lash out at him, and that might scare him away. I try to keep my problems to myself though. I have to, if I want to make this relationship work. It's just … so painful to hold everything in.”

Min-Gi wrapped his arms around Ryan's chest. “Hey, buddy, if you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm here.”

“You just want me to cry so you can call me a crybaby. It's what you always do. You keep telling me to grow up, and now you're trying to test me, aren't you?”

“Ryan, I'm sorry. I never thought you were struggling inside. Allow yourself to cry and rant. Even I do it sometimes. And you know I don't judge you for it. You've cried in my arms just before we slept on those mushrooms for the first time.”

Ryan hugged him back and let his tears flow freely. “I'm sorry too, Min.”

“Oh, please! You're only going to get hurt worse once he leaves you,” ghost Ryan said.

Min-Gi stopped hugging Ryan, then turned around to face ghost Ryan. He pointed at him, pressing the hexagon's glass with his finger. “Listen here, you prick!”

“It's funny to hear that out of your mouth,” ghost Ryan said, grinning.

“My father told me that I was one of the first people Ryan saw when he was a newborn. Ryan and I have spent almost our entire lives together, and I'll be damned if I won't be the last person he sees before he closes his eyes for the last time!”

Ryan blushed and smiled at Min-Gi. “Min, that's very sweet of you. But it also kinda sounds like you want to kill me to make sure it happens that way.”

“You know what I meant, you doofus!” Min-Gi said, playfully punching Ryan in the right arm. “If I don't die first, I'll try to be there for you.”

“I promise I'll do all I can to be there for you if your time comes first,” Ryan said.

Min-Gi pointed at ghost Ryan. “And as for you …”

“Get your shit together, man!” Ryan said to ghost Ryan. “I understand your pain, but causing more pain will get you nowhere. Make new friends, and find better ways to let out your emotions. If it sucks so much being a ghost, I'm sure you want to reclaim your physical form.”

“Yeah but … I'll never be a human again,” ghost Ryan said. “I'll just be a denizen, stuck on this train forever.”

“Still better than being a lonely ghost who can't do anything but talk. You can do better than that.”

“I'll try to be nice again. I just hope the other ghosts won't tell the passengers to stay away from me.”

“Approach them,” Min-Gi said. “Show those passengers that they shouldn't fear you.”

“Okay. Not like I have anything more to lose right now.”

“We wish you good luck,” Hazel said. “Thank you for telling us your story, mister ghost.”

“Thank you all for listening,” ghost Ryan said. “I really needed to get that off my chest.”

“Stop hitting people with that guitar, and use it to rock on!” Ryan said, showing the sign of the horns with his right hand.

“Rock on I shall!” ghost Ryan said, playing his guitar. It sounded almost like the magic guitar from the wizards' universe, but with more echoing.

They said their goodbyes and left as the ghost continued to play that tune of hope. A hope that one day things would change for the better for him.

Hazel and Simon's teams met up and were on their way to the rear exit of the car when the train came to a sudden halt, causing them to get flung backward until they ended up on the floor.

“What happened?” Min-Gi asked as he and everyone around him got back on their feet.

“I don't know,” Simon said. “It feels as if the train pulled the brakes hard. Maybe One can give explanations.” His AMMPS device beeped, so he checked the message on it.

Sender: One
Subject: Remain calm.

Everything will be fine. The train just had an unexpectedly large intake of passengers. I have it all under control. It is nothing that should be of concern to you. Have a pleasant evening.

“He's writing all formal again,” Simon said. “Whatever happened, he's not taking it well. I'll go check on him later. Let's find Grace.”

They encountered Grace and Ball, but Ball was split into three again. Glad-One held his front limbs on the glass of a hexagon while another hemispherical robot on the other side mirrored him.

“Come on, just let me give him a hug!” Glad-One said.

“I need a hug,” the Sad-One on the other side said.

Each of them had his eye tear-shaped.

“Grace, what's going on here?” Simon asked.

She looked at the robots, then at him. “There used to be a One-One in the other universe, but the Glad-One half was killed by a passenger. Now Sad-One is alone, and our Glad-One is trying to cheer him up.”

Amelia squatted to be at eye level with Sad-One. “Hello, little one.”

Sad-One backed away, his eye wide open. “You look like the one who killed One!”

“I'm not her,” Amelia said. “But I, too, have lost someone dear to me. And on top of that, I've lost two friends recently. My fiancé was given a proper funeral by our family and friends, but I wasn't there for it. My two friends have died on a train similar to yours and mine, but there was nobody to hold a funeral for them. So, I will hold a symbolic funeral for all three this evening. You should try doing the same for the one you've lost. Make some friends, hold a funeral, and talk about the good times you've had with … One.”

“I don't know how to make friends. I just depress people.”

“I'm sure there is someone out there who can lighten up your mood. If you act friendly, you'll find people willing to help you out.”

“Thank you for your kind words,” Sad-One said. “I will seek friends, then do the funeral thing. Poor One, I didn't even write his obituary yet.”

“I still wish I could give him a hug,” Glad-One said, still pushing against the glass.

Grace put her right hand on Glad-One's back. “I'm sorry, but we have to go. You know One doesn't let us break into other universes. Besides, we need to go see One so he can make limbs for Two.”

As the sun was setting in the Jungle Car, Amelia started the funeral for Alrick and her two friends from the Train of Sorrow. For Alrick, she buried his voice changer – the only thing she still had from him that she used to carry around in her backpack. At the head of the grave, she made a circle of pebbles and planted a seed of a blue tree. For the Alrick clone and the turtle, she used rocks to symbolize their bodies, since she had nothing left from them. In their circles of pebbles, she planted a purple tree seed for the clone, and a green tree seed for the turtle.

All the people of her group were there to offer support. Ryan played a melancholic tune on his guitar, and Two – who was given four legs of his own by One so he could walk horizontally – wrote obituaries on paper sheets for the deceased. At the end everyone placed flowers on the graves and held a feast with fruit and fruit-based treats. Amelia finally felt relieved from the pain of her past.

Chapter Text

“The FBI is on the train?!” Min-Gi said out loud, eyes wide as his face was illuminated by a dim, orange, pulsating light.

“Yeah, there's a frigging FBI SWAT team on the train,” Simon said half-spirited while carving a small version of the Conductor out of a piece of wood. “And One doesn't think it's such a big deal.”

They were sitting around a campfire with their entire group of friends. Mace and Sieve roasted some potatoes on wooden skewers over the flames.

Amelia joined the discussion. “How far are they from the Engine?”

“About 400 cars,” Simon said. “They somehow managed to wake up while in the Tape Car, and broke out of there together. It's clear their intent is to get to the Engine, but One thinks the cars will change their mind by the time they get here. I have my doubts, but he doesn't want our help. He thinks he can handle this on his own.” Having just added the eye to the wooden One miniature, he frowned while looking at it.

“How many FBI agents are we talking about?” Mace asked.

“Just ten, but they're armed, and six of them carry tactical shields. They probably have a lot of ammo too.”

Ball split up, and Three proceeded to rant. “That damn FBI! It was a thorn in my side for three years, always searching for the train and ways to get on it! And now I have to deal with the FBI in this universe too!”

“How did they manage to find the train?” Amelia asked.

Simon gave the One miniature to Hazel, then said, “They were keeping an eye out for the train's wormhole. It takes a while before it reaches Earth, and One has to plan out carefully when to allow the train to send the wormhole if someone qualifying for boarding is found. But this time it was very easy for the humans to detect it, because … Don't take this the wrong way; we like having you guys around, but carrying this much foreign matter aboard is bound to attract the attention of scientists.”

“So, we are putting the train in danger,” Min-Gi said.

Simon scowled at him. “Don't blame yourselves for it. It's not like you can just get back to your universes.”

Jesse said, “I wish I could go back to my home. I miss my parents. I miss Nate too.”

“Perhaps we could get numbers here and get to zero, then leave the train,” Amelia said. “Would that stop the FBI from sending more agents?”

Simon shook his head. “The FBI will keep looking for the train, and even though it would be harder for them to find it, you would be easy to find and capture. I don't know what they'd do to you, but One says he doesn't think you'd be safe if they find you.”

“Guess we're stuck here forever,” Kez said, frowning. “I'll never see Morgan again.” Then she perked up. “Wait, are there alternate versions of me and Morgan on this train?”

“There might be,” Grace said. “But if they were created before the 80s, their car is likely far away from here. The oldest cars are usually closer to the caboose.”

“Oh. Would have been interesting to meet them though.”

“So, what do we do now?” Sieve asked.

Simon shrugged. “We try to mind our own business and wait for any news from One, I guess.”

“At least this place is safer than the ones from which we came,” Amelia said.

“She's right,” Lake said. “There's no mirror police chasing me and my friends, most people here are accepting Min-Gi and Ryan for who they are, Amelia and her friends don't need to fear some spiderlike creep who runs a human-eating train, Ball is starting to get over his – or their? – trauma, and Mace and Sieve ... don't have to be like the assholes who chose to actually be part of the mirror police. All things considered, this place is pretty nice.”

“I know everything seems fine here,” Simon said, “but the grass isn't as green as you think it is. This place has its problems. Still, it's not the worst of the trains, so I understand if some of you would rather stay than go back to your universes.” He looked at the flickering fire. “I wish I knew how to help One though.”

“Our band is working on a song dedicated to him,” Ryan said. “Do you think a concert might help him unwind a bit?”

“Maybe.”

“We need to rehearse some more, but we'll surprise him on Sunday morning!”

“Ryan!” Min-Gi yelled. “We should talk to him first! He's the Conductor! He might be busy!”

Ryan nodded. “Right. Well, we'll ask him tomorrow.”

Saturday morning came. One sat in the Steward, scowling at one of the screens. He watched as the men dressed in dark gray uniforms with matching helmets broke into the Corgi Car. They used their guns to shoot at the dogs, who dodged the bullets and hid inside the houses of ancient Greek architecture.

One held up ten of the Steward's arms and arched their claws. Oh, how he wanted to grab those SWAT troublemakers by their backs and give them a good shake in the air … But he had to be patient with them. He believed that the best course of action in order to fix people was to simply let them learn at their own pace.

On another screen, there was a view of the Jungle Car experiencing sunrise. At least things were peaceful over there.

Min-Gi woke up alone on the purple couch converted into a bed, his hand resting on the side where Ryan would usually be. He lifted his head and looked around the room, but no one else was there. After getting out of bed, he changed his white T-shirt and pants with a blue T-shirt and gray shorts, then left the bedroom.

In the living room, Kez sat on a wooden table, chewing milk and cereal she took out of a green bowl. She felt the presence behind her, turned around, and said, “Morning, Min!”

“Good morning, Kez,” Min-Gi said. “Have you seen Ryan?”

She pointed with the top of her head to the right. “In the kitchen.”

“Thanks.”

Ryan had just finished preparing two plates, each holding two slices of bread with jam spread over them. He wore a red T-shirt and khaki shorts.

Min-Gi entered the kitchen and saw him. “Good morning, early bird!”

Ryan turned to face him. “Good morning, sleepy head!”

They smiled at each other for a brief moment.

“I'd kiss you,” Min-Gi said, “but ... morning breath.”

“Yeah, guess that'll have to wait until after breakfast and teeth brushing,” Ryan said, then grinned. “Um, before we get to breakfast, I want to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

Ryan looked to the side. “You know how my family was never really there for me while we were kids, right?”

Min-Gi nodded.

“I mean, they gave me stuff, but … that's not really what I wanted from them, you know? I just wanted to talk to them about my problems, and I always ended up dumping all of my baggage on you instead. Because no one else listened.”

“It's okay,” Min-Gi said. “It's not like I had anything better to do back then. But just before we got on the train, I was busy with a lot of things. Then you brought your problems to the table.”

“I'm sorry,” Ryan said. “I—”

Min-Gi raised his right hand, the inactive 202 still marking it. “I know. You were trying to save me from my problems while trying to get rid of yours. I get it. In the end, I think things worked out fine.”

“I'm glad they did. Because while I was on the road, I was alone. Most of the time. Couldn't have a girlfriend for more than a week, and even if I wasn't alone then, I was still lonely. But the worst part was … that whenever I called home ...” Ryan's eyes had some tears showing up. “It was always the same thing. Mom was busy with my younger brothers, and dad was always going on and on and on about his stupid workplace.” He crossed his arms and scowled. “It's not my fault he chose a boring job.”

“That's true, but he does have a large family to support,” Min-Gi said.

“Yeah. A family I'd rather not be part of anymore. During the last phone call I ever made, he went like, 'Hi, Son! How's the rock star life? Can you get me some of that good hash I heard they have in New York?' ” Ryan closed his eyes and sighed. “I hung up the phone.”

Min-Gi frowned. “Man, your dad is ...”

“Yeah, he's garbage,” Ryan said, looking at Min-Gi with sorrowful eyes. “I don't even want to bear his surname anymore. Which brings me to that question I wanted to ask you.”

Min-Gi froze, his mouth remaining open while he stared into Ryan's eyes.

Ryan searched through his shorts' right pocket and brought out a purple, velvety box. He opened its top and revealed two silver rings. “Can I have your surname instead?”

Min-Gi looked at the pair of rings. His body was shaking, but he managed to speak. “When did you …?”

“This morning,” Ryan said. “I went to the Las Vegas Car and traded for them while you were sleeping. Then I came home and made breakfast. So …?”

Min-Gi took a deep breath. “Look, my answer is yes ...” He ended up hugged tightly by Ryan, losing any air he still had in his lungs at that moment.

“Min! Pinch me, I must be dreaming!” Ryan said.

Min-Gi pinched Ryan's left arm, resulting in an “Ow!” from Ryan.

After releasing him, Ryan asked, “What are the terms and conditions?”

“Other than what is expected from an engagement, I just want us to not rush to the wedding. I'll need some time to prepare. That's all I ask.”

“Of course, Min. You're the best at planning things anyway. I'll help, but you get to decide the when and the how.”

“Thanks.”

They put the rings on each other's left hand ring finger.

“Hey, look! I'm the Lord of the Rings!” Ryan said, showing off all three of his rings.

Min-Gi couldn't help but laugh at that. “You'll need more for that title. Anyway, it's time for breakfast. I'm starving.”

“Hey, lovebirds, I cleaned up the table!” Kez said from the kitchen's doorway.

“Thanks, Kez!” Min-Gi said. He and Ryan took their plates and headed for the living room.

Grace and Simon were still in bed, but they were both awake and staring at the ceiling. His untied hair was spread all over his pillow.

“Do you think One will appreciate our visit?” Grace asked.

“I don't know,” Simon said. “You saw how he keeps his eye on those monitors like a hawk ever since the SWAT agents got on. I just hope we won't cause him more stress.”

“Yeah, but he needs our support. He looked terrified.”

“Looked? I mean, I can tell from the way he speaks and writes, but how can you tell from his appearance?”

“His eye shrinks.”

“Oh. I guess I never really noticed that since I usually avoid eye contact.”

“You really should work on that,” she said, grinning at him. “I rarely get to look into your eyes.”

“Maybe later. Now I'm hungry.” He got up and tied his hair into a ponytail.

Tuba's voice came through the window of their bedroom. “Trombone! Trombone! Where is that kid?”

Simon and Grace got off their bed and stretched out.

“I'll fry some eggs for breakfast,” Simon said, looking at his wife. “Want some?”

“Sure,” Grace said.

Both of them were startled when they heard the loud sound of tubas that shook their house. Curious and worried, they ran to the terrace to investigate.

“Tuba? What happened?” Simon asked.

“Trombone went missing!” Tuba said as she looked through the bushes near the lake. “He wasn't here when I woke up!”

“We'll help you find him, ma'am,” Mace said. “Come on, Sieve! Let's check the rear of the car!”

The former flecks hurried to destination before Tuba could thank them.

“Grace and I will check the west side while you and your kids check the east side,” Simon said. “Just let us get our shoes. We'll need someone to take the north though.”

“I'll take it!” Ryan shouted, rushing to the scene. “I was heading that way anyway since I'm doing the foraging today.”

“Thank you,” Tuba said. “Oh, this troublemaking child of mine … I told him not to wander off on his own!”

“Yo!” Lake shouted. Their hair had a short mohawk in the middle. “Jesse and I will search the north-west side of the car!”

Amelia said, “I will take Samantha and Missy with me, and we will check the south-west. Or the south-east, depending on where Mace and Sieve are searching.”

“We'll wait here and watch from above in case Trombone returns!” Glad-One said.

“If any of us finds Trombone, I'll sound my tubas three times,” Tuba said. “Then we can all meet up here.”

“Good plan,” Ryan said. “Let's go!”

They all headed where they said they would go, shouting Trombone's name and inspecting every tree and bush in their way.

It didn't take long for Ryan to come across a lone gorilla kid in some bushes. The little ape was very likely to be Tuba's, but it could have also been an orphan. Ryan's suspicion that he saw Trombone among those bushes was confirmed the moment he pushed the branches away and said, “Hey! Trombone! What are you doing here?”

The gorilla kid turned around and stared at him with his black beady eyes. “Ryan?”

“Your mom's worried sick, little dude!”

“Shh! Don't tell her I'm here!” Trombone said, showing Ryan some red fruit that looked like raspberries. “I don't want my siblings to know about these.”

Ryan took a whiff of the fragrant fruit. “Hmm, they smell like raspberries. Are they tasty?”

“The tastiest! I'll give you some if you agree to wait until I finish the rest.”

“Yes, please!” Ryan said, his mouth watering as he held his hands out.

Trombone made his way out of the bush and seemed to trip on nothing, falling on his belly. “Oops! My leg fell asleep.” He got up on his right leg and picked up the fruit, then passed three of them to Ryan.

The guitarist shoved all three fruit into his mouth and swallowed them after a few chews. “They're so good! I should give some to Min too.”

Trombone ate five more and had only three left. “I'll only give him one. The plant I found these on has no more.”

“Wait, are these safe to eat? I remember Grace said something about brightly-colored stuff being poisonous.”

“Why would something that smells and tastes this good be poisonous?” Trombone asked. Then his other leg gave out and he fell on his right side. “Sitting in that bush made both of my legs fall asleep. Now I'll have to crawl for a while.”

Ryan stared at him with concern. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Trombone said, trying to pull his body's weight with his hands while also avoiding dropping the fruit from his left hand. “Just let me get out of this bush properly so my legs start … working again?” He saw his hand lose its grip on the fruit, which fell onto the soil. “W-what is happening?”

“This isn't normal,” Ryan said, noticing the gorilla kid's left hand had gone limp.

“Why can't I move my arm and legs?”

With a shaky left leg, Ryan struggled to maintain his balance as he picked Trombone in his arms. “Oh, man! I gotta get you to Tuba!” He bolted away with the kid, even if his running was chaotic.

After arriving in front of Grace and Simon's house, Ryan yelled, “Ball! Go find Tuba! We need to call everyone here!”

“Yay! You found him!” Glad-One said.

“Ball! This is an emergency! We're paralyzing!”

“My right arm's going numb too,” Trombone said, staring at his right hand's fingers as they curled in slow motion.

“Okay, okay, we're moving!” Three said as he and the other components worked together to roll down the stairs and rush into the denser area of the jungle's east side.

“It'll be fine, little dude,” Ryan said, holding the gorilla kid at his chest while resting his back against the tree of Grace and Simon's house.

“Ryan!” Min-Gi yelled as he rushed to his friend's side. “What's going on?”

“The kid and I ate some fruit that looked like raspberries, and now we're paralyzing.” He looked at his left leg and pointed at it. “I can't even move this one. Trombone can't move any of his limbs.”

Min-Gi glared at him. “Ryan, you … you … How could you eat unknown train stuff without asking anyone if it was edible or not?!”

“I gave those to him,” Trombone said. “I'm sorry.”

“But you're a kid! He should have known better than to eat those!”

Ryan looked miserable. “Yeah, I … I should have thought about that before eating them. I even wanted to bring you some. That was when I thought about asking if they're safe to eat.”

“Why do you always have to be so reckless?” Min-Gi asked. Tears were quivering with his lower eyelids.

“I'm sorry,” Ryan said.

As the gorilla kid struggled to breathe, Ryan and Min-Gi sat there, looking at each other in silence. They heard Tuba's three tuba sounds, so they knew help was surely on the way.

After everyone returned, Ryan and Trombone were taken to Grace and Simon's house. Ryan lay on their green couch, which was converted into a bed. Trombone was in the bedroom, on their simple bed.

Grace took on the burden of taking care of Ryan while Min-Gi and Kez watched helplessly next to the couch. Simon had to deal with Trombone, who was unable to move any of his limbs and continued to breathe with great effort while looking around from time to time. Tuba and her other kids sat next to the bed, all worried that the kid might not make it.

Simon was still in his pajamas – the white tank top and shorts – but he had his AMMPS device on. He received a message on its screen, quickly opening it to check. “I got a reply from One!”

Sender: One
Subject: The cure can be found at the opposite end of the Jungle Car.

The counterpart to the poisonous fruit they ate looks like a blue raspberry. Extract the juice from as many as you can, then get them to drink it. Hurry before all of their respiratory muscles paralyze.

“There is a cure!” Simon said to Tuba. “I'm going after it!” He looked at Trombone. “Keep fighting, kid!” Then he rushed out of the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Ryan and Min-Gi were having the worst time of their lives.

“You promised you'll never leave me, Ryan!” Min-Gi said, barely able to see Ryan through the tears that blurred his sight. “You even gave me this engagement ring. If you die after all of that, do you have any idea how much this is going to hurt me?”

“I'm sorry, Min. I just … rush things all the time and … I guess this is what'll do me in.”

Min-Gi closed his eyes tight. “You … You reckless, foolish goof who never—”

“Stop stressing him out!” Grace said. “It'll only shorten his life. He needs to keep calm, otherwise the poison will spread even faster through his body.”

Min-Gi looked into Ryan's half-closed eyes. “I'm sorry, Ryan. I'm also sorry for constantly telling you to grow up. The more I think about what you told me regarding your parents, the more it seems to me like you grew up way too fast. And that wasn't a good thing. I'm sorry I was jealous of you for it.”

Ryan smiled. “It's okay, Min. And I know you're hurt, I just wish I had been more careful. I don't wanna leave you, but if this takes me away, please don't give up on your dreams.”

“B-but my dreams included playing music alongside you!”

“Don't worry; I'll always be there. I'll just … live on through the music we've made.”

Min-Gi grabbed Ryan's left hand with his own, and Ryan responded by trying to hold it tighter. The hand's trembling foretold that Ryan's left arm was beginning to paralyze too. The thought of the poison winning made Min-Gi feel as if ice spikes were forming in his heart.

Simon couldn't let the poison win. He ran through the jungle like a whirlwind, reaching the southern area in ten minutes. There were numerous bushes with small fruit of various shapes and colors, but the bush he was looking for wasn't on the edge of the path. He went deeper into the vegetation, his eyes looking for anything blue that looked like a raspberry.

Behind him, connected to the path, there was the entrance to the Jungle Car. Its door handle spun once, and the doors opened, revealing a pale teenage girl with red hair tied in a shoulder-length ponytail. On her nose rested glasses with big, rounded lenses. She wore a green, hooded sweatshirt with orange elbows, a short gray skirt, dark gray tights, and gray boots. She also had a brown backpack on and held an orange and white Cardigan Welsh corgi in her arms. The corgi had a red and silver crown on its head, and looked as if it had seen a ghost. Behind them there was another teenage girl. She had a darker complexion and a brown afro hairstyle. A purple headband hid the top part of her forehead. Her face had a few freckles on the cheeks. Her violet thermal jacket matched her grayish-purple pants and pale purple sneakers. She carried a light-blue backpack.

“Do you think we'll be safe here?” the girl with the afro asked.

“Compared to other cars? I'm inclined to say this place is safer,” the redhead said.

“Look! There's another human! He doesn't seem dangerous. Maybe we could ask him for a place to stay tonight.”

“I dunno, Mik. If this train picks up all kinds of shifty people, such as those SWAT guys, then I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is here for murdering someone.”

“It also picked us up. How shifty are we?”

The redhead growled a sigh. “Fine! We'll go talk to him.”

Simon finished collecting sixteen blue raspberries and put them all into a giant leaf. He was about to sprint, but he heard footsteps behind him. Turning around to face whatever or whoever was heading toward him, he asked, “What do you want?”

The redhead pushed the other girl in front. “It was your idea, so you talk to him!”

The corgi kept getting close to the redhead's legs and quivering while staring at Simon. He said, “If he makes any sudden moves, run!”

“Hi, I'm Mikayla,” the girl with the afro said to Simon. “This is my friend Tulip, and the dog is King Atticus, also known as the Cowardly King of Corginia.”

Simon scowled. “I already know your names. I've seen several alternatives of yours from other universes. I'm Simon, and I really need to get going. Someone's gonna die if I don't get there soon.”

“We need a place to stay for the night,” Tulip said. “Do you know any—”

“You're free to come along, just keep up with me!” Simon said before sprinting away. “I need to get there! This is an emergency!”

Mikayla and Tulip looked at each other and nodded. After Tulip picked Atticus up and held him in her arms again, the two girls ran after Simon.

Tuba stood in the bedroom, by the bedside of Trombone, watching her son struggle to breathe. Her other kids were just as worried, Hazel even crying while holding Trombone's right hand in hers.

In the living room, Min-Gi kept running his left hand through Ryan's hair. Ryan smiled while looking into his eyes.

“Can you still move your arms?” Min-Gi asked.

Ryan checked. His arms didn't respond. “Nah. Now I'm a … what do they call it? Quadruped?”

Min-Gi couldn't stop the laugh that came out of his mouth. “Quadriplegic, dude!”

Ryan laughed, although it tired him out since he was already putting in extra effort just to breathe.

The smile on Min-Gi's face turned into a frown. “Stay with me, buddy. You'll pull through this. I know you will.”

Ryan tried to say something.

Min-Gi spoke before he could. “No more talking. Just breathe. Keep breathing. Everything will be okay.”

Kez watched the duo from above, hoping that the couple's end wasn't coming soon. She didn't know what to say to comfort Ryan, and considered it was for the best that she didn't say anything. If she would say the wrong thing, it would only cause him to put unnecessary effort into arguing with her.

“Come on, Simon,” Grace said, even if Simon wasn't around to hear her. “We need that antidote.” She looked at Ryan, Kez, and Min-Gi, then at Trombone and the rest of his family. They took part in a symbolic funeral the day before, but she wasn't ready to participate in a real one so soon.

Simon arrived. “I got it! I got the cure!” He held the leaf with the fruit on it with both of his hands in front of himself.

“I'll make the juice,” Grace said.

After having crushed the fruit in a red bowl, Grace returned with two mugs of blue raspberry juice. “It's ready. All they have to do is drink it.” She gave one to Min-Gi, who helped Ryan drink.

Ryan sipped in the juice as if he had been thirsting in the Sahara Desert all day. Min-Gi and Kez smiled at him and hoped the antidote would take its effect before Ryan would become unable to breathe.

Simon took the other mug to Tuba. “This should help him.”

Tuba didn't take the mug. She looked at Trombone and said, “He's unconscious. I'm afraid he'll breathe it in if I pour it into his mouth.”

“Oh no, this isn't happening!” Simon shouted. “How do we administer the antidote now?”

“If you need a tube to deliver the liquid to his stomach, you could use the garden hose with which we've watered the planted seeds,” Amelia said as she entered the bedroom.

“It's too long!” Simon said.

Amelia rolled her eyes. “Cut a three foot long portion of it, short pants!”

“Right. I'm on it!”

After cutting a piece of the hose with his favorite knife, Simon returned and showed the green tube to Amelia. “Here it is! Now let's pour it in!”

“You'll also need a glass of water to put the other end of the tube in it and check if you've sent the tube down his esophagus or his trachea,” Amelia said.

Simon stomped away to get the bowl and water. “Gah! Why does this have to be so complicated?” He returned with the bowl of water.

Amelia took the bowl. “Send the tube down his throat. I'll hold the bowl and the other end of the tube.”

Simon followed orders and inserted the tube into Trombone's mouth. The gorilla kid was still breathing, but the shaking of his thoracic muscles could be noticed in the sound of his breaths. Simon looked at the bowl. There were very few bubbles coming out of the tube in the water.

“Good. It's in the esophagus,” Amelia said. “You may pour the antidote into the tube.”

Simon grabbed the mug off the nightstand with his right hand and took the free end of the tube out of the water with his left hand. Then he poured the blue juice down the tube.

Tulip, Mikayla, and Atticus arrived in Grace and Simon's living room.

“Hi. I'm Tulip, and these are my friends Mikayla and Atticus. Sorry that we came here at such a bad time. We just need a place to stay for the night, and Simon said we could come here. We're so tired after running away from some SWAT guys ...”

“The SWAT guys?!” Grace asked, her eyes widening. “Where did you last see them?”

“Nine cars away from here,” Tulip said. “They broke into a car that looked like an old, abandoned house that probably belonged to a hoarder.”

Grace gasped. “That used to be Samantha's car!”

“Who is Samantha?” Mikayla asked.

“A deceased friend of Simon's. Anyway—”

“Damn it!” Simon shouted from the other room. “I hate this train so much!”

“Sorry, I didn't mean to remind you about what happened back then,” Grace said.

“Frigging damn it all to hell! Every time you think things are going to be fine, it just has to remind you! Damn it!”

“Simon, are you okay?” Grace asked. Since there was no answer, she went into the bedroom to check how things were going with Trombone.

In there, Tuba cried while holding Trombone at her chest. The little gorilla wasn't moving anymore, and all of his siblings were teary-eyed and hugging their mother.

Grace could do nothing but stare while keeping her mouth open. She looked to the side and saw Simon, who was hunched and held his hands on the nightstand's top while his hair hid his eyes from view. Grace could tell he was crying. A bit further to the right, Amelia rested with her back against a wall, scowling.

“I was too late,” Simon said. “T-t-the poison stopped his breathing.”

Grace put her right hand on his right shoulder, but he pushed it away.

“Leave me alone!” Simon said, revealing his tear-soaked face and a pained glare. “I shouldn't have stopped to talk with those girls! It cost me precious seconds!” His number made a sound, then it wrapped itself around his right hand. “And on this train, if anyone's sick, every second counts!”

Grace wanted to hug him, but she decided against it after hearing him indirectly blame others. “Simon, they didn't know—”

“And you ...” Simon said while pointing at Amelia. “You could have prepared the tube and the bowl of water earlier!”

“The kid was still conscious before you came into the room, pipsquirt!” Amelia said, glaring at him.

“Simon, stop blaming everyone for this!” Grace said. “Sometimes things—”

“Screw this world!” Simon shouted, his voice cracking. “I've had enough!” He ran away while his number rose past his wrist.

“Simon! Come back!”

Simon rushed past the people in the living room and went down the stairs of the terrace.

Ryan, still on the couch and held in a hug by Min-Gi and Kez, said, “Man, this really took its toll on him.”

Sieve looked at Mace. “Think we should go talk to Simon?”

“He might need some time alone,” Mace said. “His brain is a mess right now.”

“Poor Tuba though,” Sieve said. “Her kid was a little rascal, but I didn't think he'd get into something this dangerous. Maybe if we were around this morning, this never would have happened.”

Mace shook his head. “You can't be prepared for everything, Sieve. We happened to not be around, Tuba happened to be sleeping, and the kid happened to get a stupid idea at the worst possible time. I'm gonna miss that kid, but there's no way to undo history.”

Tulip whispered to Mikayla. “Y'know, I feel like his words kind of resonate with me on some level.”

After taking his hat off, Mace sighed and said, “Let's prepare for the funeral.”

Simon opened the door of the rear end of the Jungle Car and walked toward the edge of the car's outside, where a guardrail twice as tall as him blocked his way. That guardrail was installed there by One's Stewards, because the Conductor wanted to make sure passengers couldn't fall off the train by accident. But One didn't take into account that passengers might climb those for some reason. At that moment, Simon was one of those passengers.

He grabbed onto the guardrail's cold bars and proceeded to make his way to its top. With each step he took, his number increased by three digits. When he reached the top with his arms, his number was halfway to his elbow.

After he pulled himself higher, his head was above the guardrail, giving him a good view of the caterpillar thread wheel of the car on the other side. His chest seemed to be tighter than usual, because he struggled to breathe. It felt as if the air just wasn't enough to reach his lungs. His sight was getting blurred by tears, which he wiped away with his right hand before looking at the long number he had acquired. He couldn't let Grace see him with that neon green snake on his arm. What would she think of him?

The ones with such high numbers usually hurt or even killed people. He wasn't a killer, even if most of his alternate selves were. Why was the train marking him with so many digits then? It was hard enough dealing with the guilt of failing to rescue Trombone; now he had to deal with this shameful display that had spread over his arm. He looked behind at the open door to the Jungle Car. After a few seconds of staring, he scowled and looked back at the wheel.

Taking in a deep breath, Simon climbed higher, putting his feet on top of the guardrail. His number added three more digits. Because of the wind, he could barely maintain his balance even with his hands grasping the bar.

Two ghoms tried to get to him, but the blue light of the zappers at the top of the train attracted them. They flew into the traps and got fried, falling to the Wasteland's sandy soil and leaving behind the smell of roasted cockroach.

Simon looked at the ghom corpses for a moment before focusing on the wheel again. His number reached all the way to his elbow. He sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned forward, letting go of the top of the guardrail and allowing himself to fall.

Three long, silvery, segmented arms with three-clawed hands blocked his way and wrapped themselves around his chest like snakes, holding him back.

Chapter Text

“So, let me get this straight,” Tulip said while looking at Lake. “You used to be the reflection of an alternate version of me from another universe.”

“That's right,” Lake said, crossing their arms and smiling smugly. “Though she had less dorky glasses.”

Tulip scowled. “Hey!”

“Just saying. I feel sorry for your reflection, who has to wear those things every time you get reflected.”

“I'd free my reflection if I knew where to find her. Or them. Do all reflections prefer gender-neutral pronouns?”

Lake looked at the ceiling as they gave that question some thought. “I don't speak for all reflections. Grace told me I could use gender-neutral pronouns, and I think they fit me. I didn't like being just another Tulip. I have my own dreams, experiences, and preferences. And I went through a lot just to gain my independence. I had some help from my world's Tulip, as well as my friends Jesse and Alan Dracula of course.”

Tulip and Mikayla looked at Alan Dracula. The fawn stared back at them while his tail grew peacock feathers and fanned out.

“Of course it isn't a normal deer,” Tulip said.

Mikayla petted Alan Dracula on the head. “He's pretty cute though. I've never seen such a tame deer.”

Alan Dracula's eyes glowed purple.

Lake yelled, “Watch out for his—”

The fawn's eyes returned to normal when the sound of metal claws tapping on wood reached his ears. He turned his head toward the source of the noise and bleated.

Mace noticed the guest and went closer to the bedroom's door. “Psst! Grace! The Conductor's here!”

Grace, who had been comforting Tuba and the kids, came out of the bedroom. She gasped when she saw One, who held Simon wrapped in three of his Steward's arms while giving her a cyclopean glare. Simon had the thousand-yard stare.

One walked up to Grace, placed Simon in front of her, and pushed her from behind until the two researchers were face to face. “Talk to each other!”

“Simon, what did you do to piss him off?” Grace asked.

He snapped out of it and tried to find his words, but failed and avoided looking into her eyes.

One brought his face closer to Simon's. “Tell her or I will tell her for you!”

Simon regained his ability to form words. “Y-you don't need to … She doesn't … This isn't her problem.”

“Fine. I will do it myself.” One looked at Grace. “Your husband threw himself to the wheel.”

Grace's eyes were wide open. “What?! Simon!”

One released Simon from his arms. “If it weren't for me, he would be just a red stain on the thread right now.”

Simon tried to run away, but One grabbed him with a Steward arm and pulled him back.

“Stay and talk things out with your friends and family!” One said.

“Why won't you let me go?”

“Simon, you know how much it hurts me whenever I lose a passenger. It would hurt me even more to lose a passenger who is also my friend.”

“Well, I've lost a family member minutes ago! And it's all because of …” Simon sighed. “It's because of me. I wasn't fast enough, and I was the one who wasted time instead of just telling Tulip and her friends to come along.” His number decreased by two rows.

Barely then, Grace noticed it. “Simon, what did you do to get your number so high?”

“I lied to myself. Told myself there's no point talking to you or One or anyone else, because my problems shouldn't be your problems too. But it turns out I was giving you more problems, especially after already having one death to deal with.” Another row of digits was removed from his right arm. “I hated myself for failing to save a life. But I know what you were trying to tell me, Grace. Sometimes things happen, and all we can do is keep living and working on recovering from the damage.” There was just one row of digits past his wrist after another decrease of his number. “I'm sorry, Tuba. I tried.”

Tuba looked at him from the bedroom. “I know you tried. I don't blame you. He ate too many fruit. You couldn't have saved him, because it was already too late by the time Ryan found him.”

One released Simon from his Steward arm's hold.

Simon's number decreased to 220, now being perfectly contained within the brackets that were above and below it. After looking at his hand, he turned to face the Conductor. “One, I'm sorry I made you run all the way there. I didn't think you would just drop everything and come after me.” His number went down to 10.

One's eye looked almost like a teardrop shape. “You got me scared back there, Simon. At first I received the alert that a passenger's number exceeded the ticket space. I was checking to see who and where they were so I could send a Steward to help them out. But when I saw it was you, I had to go after you myself. You have no idea how relieved I felt that I succeeded in catching you just in time.”

Simon walked up to him, all teary-eyed, and hugged the mass of cold metal tentacles. “Thanks for being there.”

One smiled through his eye and wrapped the Steward's arms around both Simon and Grace, pulling them in for a hug.

Ryan got up from the couch and staggered his way to the Conductor. “Hey, One, my band mates and I were just wondering ...”

One looked at him. “Yes?”

“Could we throw a little concert for you tomorrow? We'll come to the Engine, so you could still keep an eye on those SWAT guys if you need to.”

One used another tentacle to rub what would be his chin. “Hmm, sure. From what I saw of your concerts, I like your style. You and your band are welcome to play tomorrow, in the Engine.”

“Yes!” Ryan said, fist-pumping.

“Wait, you were watching us?!” Min-Gi asked while looking at One. Then he scowled. “Did you also watch us while we were inside our house?”

“I do not look inside people's homes unless I hear screams of terror,” One said. “I respect your privacy, if that is what you are asking.”

While One discussed with Min-Gi, Ryan, and Kez, Two tapped with his stubby hand on one of the many Steward arms. “One … One … One ...”

One brought his head lower so he could talk to Two. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

Two pointed at Glad-One and Three, who were charging at each other and causing a lot of ruckus. “Look at them! How do I make them stop this?”

One released Grace and Simon from his hug and used his Steward's claws to press the two dome-shaped robots onto the floor. “What seems to be the problem?”

“We were too late to save the monkey kid because this guy was slowing us down!” Three said while pointing at Glad-One.

“We were spinning at the same rate, you bowl head!” Glad-One said. “We were late because you chose to rant about things to people!”

“Cease this pointless arguing!” One said. “You worked together and did your best. Tuba is right, the kid could not be saved. But you can learn from this and be better prepared in case another emergency happens in the future.”

“We're sorry,” Three said.

“Yes, very sorry,” Glad-One said.

They merged with Two and formed Ball once again.

One looked at the family who mourned Trombone in the bedroom. “I am sorry for your loss. I would get rid of the poisonous fruit, but some creatures would go hungry. When I built this car, I planned for there to be a perfect balance in its ecosystem, and to have sufficient food for passengers. Your species happened to be among the seed spreaders for the fruit edible for passengers, instead of the fruit edible for most other creatures.”

“No need to mess up the car, One,” Tuba said. “We'll be more careful from now on.” She hugged Hazel, Bugle, and Trumpet close to her chest while her deceased son lay on the bed.

Simon and Grace hugged each other.

“I'm sorry I tried to get Amelia involved into our family matters,” Grace said. “I should have thought from the beginning it was something just you and I had to solve.” Her number went down to 0.

He said, “I'm sorry I used the excuse of worrying that our friends would give One trouble. The truth is, I would miss them too much if we'd just leave the train.” His number hit 0 as well.

Two exits appeared. The left one showed Grace's majestic mansion. The right one showed Simon's burnt-down house.

The two researchers looked at each other, then at the exits. The Conductor hung his head above them and watched them while looking all smug. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

“We're not leaving,” Simon said. He gestured with his arms spread out. “This is our family. We stick together.”

“Yes,” Grace said. “Living here might be tough, but if we work together, we might even be able to recreate medical technology and build hospitals for denizens and humans alike.”

One scowled. “But the point of the train is to ...” He muttered something, most likely profanities. “Fine!”

Tulip stared into the exits and was shocked to see One grab them from the top with the claws and drag them away after him to the outside of the house. She looked at Grace and Simon. “What was up with that? Why was that house burnt down?”

“The mansion used to be Grace's home before she boarded the train. It may look nice, but her parents neglected her, so she stole a bracelet in an attempt to get the attention of her friends instead. That's why the train picked her up.” He paused for a brief moment. “As for the other house, it used to be mine. When I was ten, I had the stupid idea of playing with my mom's lighter in the front yard. I made a large fire circle around me by burning the grass. It spread to the trees and the house, and I was unable to escape the flames. Good thing my neighbors lived pretty far from there. Then the train showed up. It looked heavily armored, with military camo paint. I think that was why it reminded me of my dad, who served in the army for a while before he died. So, of course I trusted the train, and I boarded. It saved me.”

“Mikayla and I saw it as a normal train,” Tulip said. “I wanted to go to Oshkosh, since I've missed my chance last year. She didn't want to board, but when we saw the SWAT guys, we jumped right into the portal.”

“Those people are dangerous!” Atticus said, shaking. “They invaded my kingdom and scared most of Corginia's citizens into hiding! The bravest of my men lost their lives in battle.”

“Oh no,” Grace said.

Simon gasped. “Not the corgis! Why are those SWAT guys doing this?”

Atticus sat on the floor. “Perhaps they are afraid of us too. The fear of the unknown is the strongest fear. I should know. I'm afraid even of my own shadow.”

“You're not the bravest of the Atticuses I've met,” Simon said.

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Amelia said while pointing at the bedroom's door with her thumb, “but we have a funeral to attend to.”

Simon nodded as a frown formed on his face. “Right.”

Tuba chose to plant a blue tree's seed at the head of the currently empty grave. She looked at Trombone, who lay on the grass, forever asleep. “It's time for the eulogies. As Trombone's mother, I will speak first.”

Everyone except the Conductor attended. Ball chose to split into three again.

Tuba began her speech. “Trombone was my eldest son. He was a talented little musician, and he helped Trumpet and Bugle practice playing their instruments. Before today, Trombone rarely gave me trouble. I don't know ...” She rubbed her face with her fists to get rid of the tears. “I don't know if there was anything I could have done to prevent this. But I do know he will remain forever in my heart. Goodbye, my little musician.”

Hazel was next. “Trombone was a good brother, in spite of what happened today. I will miss racing against him through the jungle. He knew how to have fun, and I will never forget him. Thank you for the time spent with us, Brother.”

It was Trumpet's turn. “I'm not really good at this. Um, thank you for the fun times, and for playing music with us. You taught me to not be afraid to try again after failing things. You got me to talk to people, so I became less shy thanks to you. Thank you for all those times you were there for me, Trombone. If you find dad on the other side, tell him I miss him too.”

Bugle, the youngest of the gorilla kids, scowled at Trombone. “Why did you do this? My siblings and I were looking up to you! Then you disobey Mom. Why?”

Tuba said, “Bugle, eulogies are supposed to be about the good things, not the bad.”

“But I can't understand why he did what you told him not to do.”

“Some people fall into temptation. We must learn from their mistakes. Now, is there anything nice you wish to say about your brother?”

Bugle sniffled. “I guess. Brother, thank you for catching me when I fell from that tree last year. You were very kind. I will miss you and all the playtime we had, with you, me, Hazel, and Trumpet. Take care, wherever you are.”

It was Simon's turn. He knelt next to the kid's body. “I'm sorry I couldn't save you, buddy. We all make mistakes, and I wish I could have given you a second chance. I'll miss roughhousing with you. Goodbye, Trombone.”

Grace stepped up next and knelt after Simon left his spot. “Trombone was fun to be around, but I knew a side of him not many appreciated. He loved reading books, and I was happy to lend them to him. He was fascinated by the ones that were about the human race, and he would ask me about what life was like as a human on Earth. I used to think of only the negatives of my childhood, but Trombone made me realize that, in spite of my neglectful parents, I still had good times back then. Thanks for making me appreciate life more, little guy.” She had tears in her eyes as she stepped away.

Mace sat next to the kid's body, taking his hat off and holding it at the chest. “Sieve and I didn't get to know Trombone like his family did. But we did have some nice conversations with him about music and how different our lives were because of the worlds we're from. The kid was curious about everything, and that was a good thing, for the most part. If only it didn't lead him to try those fruit … He didn't give us any trouble while we were watching over him and his siblings, and we will always remember him as a good kid. Farewell, little Trombone.”

“Anyone else?” Tuba asked, looking at the remaining people who hadn't said anything yet.

Ryan raised his right hand. “I got something to say.”

Tuba gestured toward him to approach.

He walked up to her and Trombone. “I didn't get to spend much time with the little guy. I know he liked my band's music, and that he also liked playing music. I wish we could have played a song together at some point. I'm sorry I didn't stop him from eating more fruit when I found him. I don't know if it would have prevented his death or not, and I wish I could turn back the time and … Oh, man, why was I so oblivious?” He fell silent for about a minute. “Well, I've played my guitar at the other funerals. Might as well play at Trombone's as well, as my final goodbye to him.”

As Ryan played a mournful song on his guitar, Tuba buried Trombone. The funeral's attendants placed flowers on the kid's grave. Even Alan Dracula grew four purple tulips on his back, grabbed them with his mouth, and put them onto the pile of flowers in front of him.

In the evening, everyone gathered around the campfire and tried to have a normal night. Yet it seemed impossible while knowing that one of their members was now dead, and that the FBI SWAT team was on a mission to find the Conductor.

Amelia had made tea for herself, Samantha, Min-Gi, and Simon, each of them holding a cup and sipping from time to time.

“So, Tulip, you and your friends wish to spend the night here,” Grace said.

“If it isn't any trouble. I mean, you're kind of dealing with a lot here, from what I've seen and heard.”

“You can stay at our place for the night.”

“Thank you,” Tulip said, then looked at her right hand. Her palm had the number 13 on it. “I hope Mik and I could get our numbers to zero.”

“Well, you heard what the Conductor said in the recording,” Mikayla told her while staring at her own number. “Figuring out your problems and learning how to deal with them is the best way to lower your number.” She showed her palm to Tulip, revealing she also had a 13.

“We'll just continue exploring the train tomorrow then.”

Grace said, “There's just one more car between this one and the Engine. It's the Universe Intersection Car, where you are likely to meet your alternate selves. Most of our friends came from other universes.”

Tulip looked at the others. “What were their worlds like?”

“They're from worlds similar to ours, governed by the same laws of physics. But the events in those worlds can differ slightly or wildly from ours.”

“Simon mentioned he has met other Atticuses,” Tulip said. “Is that what he was referring to?”

“Yup,” Simon said. “I can give more examples of how weird things can get. Our Hazel here is just a normal kid, born to a British woman of color named Amelia who was married to a white man named Alrick. Both of Hazel's parents died in a car accident, and the train came to pick her up. But some Hazels we've met in that car were the creations of a white British woman named Amelia, who sought to recreate her deceased fiancé Alrick. Those Hazels are capable of turning into humanoid turtles because of that peculiarity.”

“Whoa! So it's like a car where you can see all paths our universe could have taken!”

“Another example is that the Ryan and Min-Gi of our universe gave up their dreams long ago and have never set foot on this train. But what surprised me was what One told me yesterday. The Ryan of this universe, who died recently by running into traffic, turned out to be my grandpa.”

Min-Gi spat a jet of tea out of his mouth. “What?!” He glared at Ryan.

Ryan grinned nervously at Min-Gi. “Now, I'm not saying I might have an illegitimate child or anything, but … my last ex's surname was Laurent.”

Min-Gi covered his face with both of his palms. “Ryan, you ...” Whatever he said after that was too muffled to decipher.

“I was careless, I know!” Ryan said. “But it's not like I ditched her! She broke up with me! Besides, if I had some way to go back to our universe and I'd find out I have a kid too, I would try to offer them support as soon as I'd have a stable income. Or I'd get custody of the baby, if my ex doesn't want it.”

“We'd barely be able to support ourselves!” Min-Gi said while spreading his arms out.

Ryan didn't know what else to say, so Kez intervened. “I guess it's a good thing we're stuck here.”

“Good for us,” Ryan said, scowling. “Not good for the ones who have to deal with the aftermath of our absence.”

Kez went from smiling to frowning. “Poor Morgan ...”

“Does this mean we could get trapped in another universe in that car?” Tulip asked.

“Not normally,” Grace said. “You'd have to break the crystal barrier that separates this universe from another. And even then, you'd only get trapped there if the portal gets closed. On our side, the portals work with orbs. If the orb is removed or destroyed, then the portal disappears.”

“Is that how these people got trapped here?”

“Some of them, yeah. Others, like Mace, Sieve, Amelia, and her friends, chose to stay here and asked for the portals to their universes to be closed, since they were being hunted by people who would have killed them.”

“Okay then. I'll go with Mik and Atticus to that car tomorrow and hope we can find our push.”

“I hope I can find some bravery for myself,” Atticus said.

Mikayla patted Atticus on the back. “Maybe you can meet a brave Atticus to inspire you.”

“But what if he barks at me?”

“Bark back at him?”

“But that might result in more barking from him!”

“Could you stop worrying when we're not even in that car?” Tulip asked. “We'll deal with that stuff tomorrow. Let's get some rest. It's been a long day.”

It was midnight in the Jungle Car, the imitations of stars sparkling on the dark blue sky.

Grace and Simon were in bed, prepared for sleep. And yet they couldn't keep their eyes shut for long, because they kept thinking about all the problems that had crashed their world during the day. They may have closed the chapter when it came to Trombone's untimely death, but the FBI SWAT team continued to be a threat aboard the train.

Tulip, Mikayla, Atticus, and Ball managed to fall asleep on the couch bed. It took them a while to convince Three to share the couch with them, but in the end all three of Ball's units were compact enough together that there was sufficient space for everyone.

Lake and Jesse made their own beds out of wood. They even had soft pillows obtained from another car in exchange for some fruit. The recent events weren't enough to keep them awake. Even Alan Dracula slept in the form of a bat while hanging from the cabin's ceiling.

Amelia had her own bed, a bit more refined than the ones of Lake and Jesse, but still simple. While she stared at the window to the left, worried about what the next day might bring, Samantha and Missy slept to her left and right respectively, both curled up.

Mace and Sieve chose to stay awake, talking to Tuba and her kids in an attempt to help the gorilla family deal with their loss.

In the other tree house, Kez was asleep in her own little bed. She may have had some worries going through her mind for the first hour of sitting there, but she decided it was better to think of them the next day.

The same could not be said for Min-Gi and Ryan. The duo were on their couch bed, but both had their eyes open. Min-Gi stared at the ceiling while Ryan's upper body touched the floor to the right of the bed.

“Doesn't that feel uncomfortable?” Min-Gi asked after glancing at his partner.

Ryan shrugged. “Kinda, but who cares?”

Min-Gi pulled him back onto the bed and remained with his left arm wrapped around him. “Well, I care.”

“How can you still care about me, Min? I might be a deadbeat dad! I can't sleep while knowing there might be some kid out there who will wonder one day where his father is and he'll get no answer!”

“Hey, calm down, okay? I know you'd not abandon that kid. But we're stuck here, so it's not like there's anything you can do. Besides, there's no guarantee that things will happen the same way in our universe.”

It was Ryan's turn to stare at the ceiling, but with his eyebrows wrinkled. “I'd totally suck at parenting. Look what happened to Trombone.”

“I thought we agreed you shouldn't blame yourself for that,” Min-Gi said. He held him at his chest, resting his chin on Ryan's head. “Get some rest already. You've been through a lot today.”

Ryan growled in frustration, then took his glasses off and put them on the small, round wooden table next to the bed. He closed his eyes and hoped he could fall asleep soon, because all of his darkest thoughts kept haunting him in spite of being held in a warm embrace.

The train came to a smooth halt – a sign that someone just got their exit. Then the sound of clanging startled Min-Gi and Ryan. Simon's shouting added to the scare. “Wake up and get over here! All of you!”

Min-Gi looked out the window and saw Simon, Grace, Tulip, Mikayla, Atticus, Ball, Mace, Sieve, Lake, Jesse, Alan Dracula, Amelia, Samantha, Missy, as well as Tuba and her kids gathered around a freshly lit campfire. He couldn't help but ask, “What is going on?”

“The SWAT team is what's going on!” Simon said while smacking two frying pans into each other. “Get down here a.s.a.p.!”

Once Ryan and Min-Gi joined the campfire circle, everyone looked at Grace and Simon, expecting details.

“We've received a message from One,” Simon said. “We were told the SWAT team found some of the old passenger boots that used to pin people down until One could deescalate situations. The agents have modified those boots to allow them to stick to anything at will but also allow them to walk over surfaces. The SWAT team is very close to the Engine, and One thinks it's only a matter of time until he gets assassinated. If he dies, the train will go berserk. He tried to convince me, Grace, and Hazel to take our exits, but we can't just leave him when he needs us the most!”

“What about us?” Tulip asked. “Can we get our exits?”

“One doesn't control the numbers. He can just move the exits around once people unlock them by reaching zero.”

“Oh, man! Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Well ...”

Thousands of Stewards had been sent to find the train cars where passengers were detected. Each Steward allowed One to speak through its mouth. “This is a train-wide announcement. The train is under attack. An FBI SWAT team has been sent to destroy me, your Conductor. Should they succeed, there is no telling how much damage this could cause to the train and its cars. Please try to work out your problems and take your exits right away. For those of you who still have a long way to go until reaching zero, I suggest you brace yourselves for some violent shaking. If you can safely reach the Wasteland while the train is still stationary, that would be preferable. I apologize in advance for anything bad that follows. Good luck.”

“We either go to the Wasteland, or we break into another universe,” Simon said. “But I'm not abandoning One!”

“We won't abandon him either!” Ryan said. “He gave us a home.”

“And he's doing a way better job than Void at managing his train,” Amelia said. “He deserves to live.”

“I appreciate that he at least tried to help us get back home,” Jesse said.

“But will we be able to fight off the SWAT team?” Grace asked.

“As long as we have the amps devices on us, I'm sure we can win!” Simon said while showing his device.

Ryan looked back at his tree house. “Speaking of amps, I have to get my guitar amp, just in case we have no choice but to leave.”

“Good idea. There's no telling what might happen once we go outside. One said the SWAT guys are on top of the Jungle Car right now.”

“Well, let's get packing,” Min-Gi said.

Lake chose to take only their usual day clothes, as well as their new red boots with yellow laces. Jesse had his old clothes on, as they still reminded him of home. Alan Dracula turned himself into a brown suitcase that Jesse begrudgingly had to carry.

Ryan and Min-Gi dressed up in their stage clothes and packed up their instruments. They put Ryan's guitar amplifier in the box on the rear of the motorcycle and were about to ride, with Kez being sheltered inside the right pocket of Ryan's jacket.

Grace, Simon, and Hazel were wearing their lab coats and their AMMPS devices.

The only things Amelia had packed inside her backpack were the tea, canned tuna for Samantha, and eggs for Missy.

“Everyone ready?” Simon asked.

“Yes!” the whole group said.

“Then let's hope this goes well. To the Engine!”

Alan Dracula turned into a motorcycle with deer head and tried to catch up with Ryan and Min-Gi's real motorcycle while Lake and Jesse chased after him.

“This fucking deer ...” Lake said.

Simon was the first to come out of the Jungle Car. He raised his AMMPS device after seeing a SWAT guy on top of the car in front. “Don't you dare pull that trigger!”

The SWAT guy said, “Get back in the car! We're here to eliminate that fucked up machine!”

“One's not dangerous! He means well!”

“I said get back in the car! That one-eyed freak has lured in thousands of people every year. He knows how to create a false sense of security on this crazy contraption.”

Grace and Hazel joined Simon, and they all walked onto the bridge.

“Get back there or I'll shoot!” the SWAT guy said.

“That would be very foolish of you,” Grace said. “You came here to rescue us, not kill us.”

“Do you think our higher-ups would ever know we killed you? We could just blame it on the train. And they wouldn't even find the bodies, because those cockroach things will clean things up for us.”

“Who the fuck at SWAT thought it was a good idea to send psychos like you on this mission?” Lake asked while exiting the Jungle Car.

“Let's keep going, gang!” Simon said to his friends.

“I said get the fuck back inside!” the SWAT guy shouted, firing a warning shot at the bridge.

The bullet bounced off the bridge and almost hit Simon, who used his AMMPS device to stop the bullet mid-air.

“Didn't they teach you not to do that?” Grace asked. “You could have killed somebody without even intending to.”

“Fuck it, let's kill them,” another SWAT guy said from atop the Jungle Car.

“All right!” the other SWAT guy said.

They pointed their assault rifles at the people below and fired bullet after bullet.

Simon, Grace, and Hazel activated their AMMPS devices and caught the bullets before they could reach them or their friends. Their group slowly made their way over to the door on the other end of the bridge.

Atticus growled along the way and even sprinkled in some barks while glaring at the SWAT guys.

“We'll be seeing you on the other side,” Simon said while looking at the SWAT guy on the opposite car. Once his entire gang was inside the Universe Intersection Car, he joined them there, locked the door, and removed its orb, making the entrance disappear.

Meanwhile, One stood in front of the eight screens and the desk with many buttons, using his Steward's claws to type something that was displayed on the central monitor. It was an important message he wanted to send to his research team, and he had to hurry. On another monitor, he could see that three SWAT agents were at his door and ramming it with a log they had found somewhere.

When they managed to break in, One had just finished writing his message and swiftly sent it.

The three SWAT guys looked through their shields' visors, pointed their carbines at One, and stomped into the Engine.

“There it is!” one of them said.

One squinted at them as he raised ten of his Steward's arms and arched them, all of their claws looking ready to be launched toward the invaders. “Sa-lu-tations, motherfuckers!”

Chapter Text

Neither One nor the SWAT guys made the first move to attack. They simply stared at each other.

“Tell me,” One said, “does any of you have any idea how many disasters removing me from the equation could cause?”

“You've been preying on humanity for thousands of years,” a SWAT agent said, still hiding behind his shield and holding a carbine. “It's about time we fought back.”

“This project has nothing to do with predation or battles. If anything, it would reduce those things among your species.”

“Who are you to use us as lab rats for your experiments?”

One lowered his Steward's hands. “You are not lab rats, and this is not an experiment. This is an urgent measure taken for your own good.”

“Yeah, sure! We know how that works! You think you know what's good for people. How could you know that? You're just a machine with fairly good speech recognition. You don't take into account the happiness of the humans you abduct.”

“On the contrary, I have added improvements to the train for the sake of passenger comfort. The results are tangible. Former passengers have taken decisions not just better for themselves, but for the rest of humanity as well. Let's take Adolf Hitler for example.”

“The painter?” another SWAT agent asked.

“Yes. Do you have any idea what he could have become if it wasn't for this train?”

“A bum?”

“No. He would have become a genocidal dictator, and the reason why a second world war would have happened.”

The three SWAT guys laughed out loud.

“How the fuck would a painter end up causing a war?” the frontmost SWAT guy asked. “Would he paint things to recruit his fans into a cult? You're just trying to bullshit your way out of this.”

“You have no idea how things have been altered,” One said, glaring at them while walking backward with each step the SWAT trio took forward.

When the humans opened fire, One used the Steward's arms to pull off cartwheels while dodging the bullets.

While the SWAT guys were distracted, three Stewards entered the Engine from behind them and wrapped their tentacles around the agents, disarming them.

“Now will you listen?” One asked.

“No, but your Stewards will,” one of the agents said as he brought out a piece of machinery from his left pocket. He pushed a button on it and made it play a tune familiar to One. “Release everyone!”

The Stewards released the agents and awaited further instructions from the man.

One's eye shrank until it was a little pinhole. “H-how?!”

The agent with the player grinned at him. “Remember those instruction videos you've put in the pods? We've watched them, and we noticed you used those beeps to control the Stewards when you introduced them to the passengers.” He played the tune again. “Stewards! Shoot that thing!”

The Stewards' eyes constantly flickered bright red on and off, emitting a buzz sound intermittently as they walked out the door. This left the SWAT guys perplexed.

Outside, the other seven members of the SWAT team witnessed the Stewards walk like long-legged spiders until they fell off the train and got ran over by the threaded wheels. Glowing cyan smoke was left behind from the destroyed Stewards as the train kept going.

“Now look what you did!” One said. “The Stewards are not allowed to shoot me. If you give them that order, then it is clear it was not issued by me, so they would dispose of themselves before you try anything else.”

The three SWAT guys picked their weapons and shields off the floor, ready for round two.

Keeping his eye half-closed, One said, “Oh, come on. I haven't shot a single bullet at you.”

Simon received One's message on his AMMPS device. “One sent us a message that says to not open it until we're off the train. We're not getting off the train! We have to help him!”

“Do you think we'll get to him in time?” Min-Gi asked, sitting behind Ryan on the motorcycle.

“If this car doesn't put too many obstacles in our path, we might still have a chance to save him. Let's keep going.”

Alan Dracula was a brown bowling ball, rolling after his gang.

Samantha looked to her right. Behind the crystal wall, a family of cats traveled an alternate universe's corridor. The mother was her, dressed in a green vest. The father was a tuxedo-wearing tuxedo cat. The three kittens didn't have any clothes on, but one had beige fur, one had black fur, and another was a tuxedo kitten. They were a bit older than Samantha's.

Samantha lowered her ears and frowned. “This could have been me right now.”

“If we make it out of this alive, perhaps you could start a new family,” Amelia said.

“Says the one who took over a killer train in an attempt to bring back her deceased partner!”

“After the funeral, I am more open to the idea of accepting new love. I am in no rush to start a new relationship, and it will never be like my first one, but if it happens, then I won't fight it.”

“Well, you're still young, ma chère. But who would want to date an old feline like me?”

To Samantha's left, there was a tall bear dressed in a tuxedo, with dark glasses that obscured his eyes. In his arms he held an alternate version of Samantha, who wore a purple vest with a red bow. The bear and the cat smiled at each other, ignoring the people from the other universe as they made their way through the corridor.

Samantha turned to look at them, her yellow eyes wide and her fanged mouth open. “I could be with someone like that handsome fellow?”

“You never know,” Grace said.

“Bah, who needs love?” Three asked, walking combined as Ball. “Fell for it once, got two extra eyes. Not going to fall for it twice and gain two more.”

“Is that even possible?” Min-Gi asked.

“I don't know, but I sure don't want to find out!” Three said just before a hexagon descended from the ceiling.

In front of Ball stood a color-flipped Conductor with two black eyes.

“Hello!” the black ball said in a cheerful voice like Glad-One's. “Oh! You got three eyes! What happened to you?”

Ball scowled with all three eyes and looked to the side as Three said, “I fell in love with a human, the human manipulated me for her own goals, I lost my train to her, and now I'm couch surfing at my pals' home.”

“Life just isn't fair,” Two said.

“Reminds me of Amelia,” the black ball said in the voice of Sad-One while his top eye scowled.

Alternate Glad-One noticed the researchers behind Ball. “Wow! Those two look like our universe's Grace and Simon, only less angry!”

“Ours fell off the train and died after getting in a serious battle with each other,” Sad-One said. “It was brutal.”

“Well, we're not like them!” Simon said while clenching his right fist and holding it at his chest. “We have our own problems, and our future doesn't depend entirely on what happens in other universes. Grace and I will never let things get to the point where we'll want to kill each other! I'm so tired of hearing about how my alternate versions sealed their fates!”

“What are you going to do about it?” Sad-One asked.

Simon pointed at the color-flipped One-One. “I will not let this car stop me from saving the Conductor! I've got my friends with me. How many of my alternate selves can say the same?”

“Hmm, true, we haven't seen any other Simons with a bunch of friends,” Sad-One said.

“I guess you have a bright future ahead of you!” alternate Glad-One said, smiling through both eyes.

The hexagon went into the ceiling, allowing the gang to continue their journey to rescue One.

Things were getting worse in the Engine. There were seven SWAT agents, all trying to land a shot on One.

The Conductor kept dodging the bullets by using the Steward to jump around the room. Some of the metal tentacles got severed off after getting shot too many times, and a few were barely functional. Yet he still had around 80 intact limbs to use, and he knew he was only buying time for passengers to get to safety at that point. Even if his friends were on their way to the Engine, he gave up on all hope of getting out of there alive.

“He's trying to make us use up our ammo,” one of the SWAT guys said. “Let's corner him!”

“Which corner?” another SWAT guy asked.

“Right.”

Three of the agents went to the left, three to the right, and the remaining one took the middle. They opened fire on the middle one's hand signal.

One glared at them while jumping in random patterns. “I can create algorithms on the fly to adapt to your shooting style. You humans are quite predictable. But that is a good thing. It becomes easier to help you learn.”

“Shut it, alien!” the middle agent shouted.

One laughed as if he had heard the best joke since the beginning of his life. “Alien! My dear friend, your entire species has never met a single alien so far!”

The SWAT team ceased firing after seeing the hand signal of the middle agent.

“Then what the fuck are you?” the agent asked.

“I am a machine. However—”

The middle SWAT guy pulled a maneuver that could make him the fastest hand from the west by raising his gun suddenly and shooting. He successfully put a bullet in One's right hemisphere.

The train's Engine slid off the tracks, emitting a sharp horn sound that seemed more like a scream. With it, the other cars twisted at various angles and went off the rails too.

The researchers and most of their friends found themselves flung to the left of the corridor as the Universe Intersection Car tilted itself that way. Only Min-Gi and Ryan remained in place thanks to the motorcycle's tires that could stick to surfaces.

“Oh no! No! One!” Simon screamed as he got back on his feet on the left wall. “They didn't shoot him, did they?”

After getting up as well, Grace said, “Simon, I think we better get out of here while we still can.”

Some of the hexagons flickered, others went dark, and the graphics of the entire car became glitchy on and off.

“No, no, no, no, no! We can't leave One for dead!” Simon said.

Grace put her left hand on his right shoulder. “Simon, the whole train flipped itself over. I don't think we can save One anymore.”

Simon's eyes became teary as his breathing trembled with him.

“We need to leave,” Tuba said. Her body was glitching visually, just like the car.

Hazel hugged Bugle and Trumpet tightly after seeing them experience the same glitching. “Please, Simon! The car's hurting them!”

Simon looked at the gorillas and saw displacements jutting out of their bodies from time to time. The hexagons behind them turned black.

“Come on, dude!” Ryan said. “One wouldn't want us to get hurt for him! If we remain trapped in this car, I don't think the SWAT team will come after us. We'll die here when all the portals stop working!”

“Or the SWAT agents will kill us themselves,” Samantha said. “Do you really want to risk the lives of so many people for someone who may already be dead?”

Grace hugged Simon. “I know this is a tough choice, but look around. We cannot go forward because the hexagon that blocked our path is damaged. We can only go this way.” She pointed toward the corridor above them.

Simon looked up and saw a hexagon at the end behind which there was a liquid with a familiar, beady-eyed face. He pointed his AMMPS device at the hexagon's orb and hoped it could read from there. “That's a class B universe. But how do we get to it?”

Ryan cleared his throat and patted his bike's handlebar with his right hand. “I didn't buy this thing just for its speed, you know.”

“Do you think it can pull all of us up?” Grace asked.

“Maybe.”

Alan Dracula's hooves turned into rainbow-colored suction cups, allowing him to walk up on the tilted floor. Lake and Jesse took advantage of this and held on to him, hoping he won't do something that would throw them off. He got them all the way to the hexagon at the top, then proceeded to lick the crystal wall.

“It's Randall!” Jesse said.

“That's my name!” Randall said from behind the wall. “Do you want to spend some time aboard the Randall Train? People from various universes come here to relax.”

Lake punched the hexagon repeatedly, causing cracks in it. “We don't have time to relax! Our train is dying, and we need to escape it before—”

The hexagon turned black.

“Shit,” was all Lake could say to that.

One woke up and found himself in the tilted Engine, his Steward tentacles all piled up around him in the front left corner of the room. Before him, the seven SWAT agents lay unconscious in the corner between the rear and left walls.

The Conductor crawled near the control panel with the help of his Steward's arms. He could have made use of his pair of machine guns, but that would mean going against everything he stood for. If there was anyone on the train who needed to learn a harsh lesson more, then the SWAT agents were overqualified.

One's opportunity to take any action against the SWAT team was lost the moment the men woke up. Their magnetic boots allowed them to stick to the floor, so they could follow him in spite of the unusual situation. They pointed their guns at him, and opened fire again.

Anticipating his defeat, he decided to crawl to his favorite place in the Engine. The shots damaged more of the tentacles, but after reaching the spot, he used one of his Steward's hands to unlock the chamber that contained the obelisk. After slamming the door shut, One was protected from the bullets by the thick metal walls. But he knew that safety was going to be short-lived.

Tuba held on to the motorcycle while her kids as well as Grace and Simon held on to her. The researchers scanned the hexagons around them.

“No B universes, and there's a C here, but we'll leave that as a last resort,” Simon said.

Mace and Sieve held on to the researchers' legs and waited for the motorcycle to drive higher so the next people could grab on to their legs as well.

Tulip looked at the glowing 13 in her palm. “Mik, do you think we'll ever get home? We're kind of running out of time.”

Mikayla looked at her own 13. “I still hope we can.”

“How? There's no one in any of the hexagons around us! How are we supposed to learn any new lessons when there's no one to teach us?”

Three hexagons behind Tulip turned black after the sound of static came from their direction. The room continued to experience displacements.

“I don't know,” Mikayla said while looking around. “Maybe some of our friends can help.”

“This isn't their problem!” Tulip shouted while scowling at her.

Mikayla crossed her arms. “You always do this, Tulip.”

“Do what?”

“You refuse to ask for help.”

“I …” Tulip sighed. “Yeah. It's true. And you wouldn't be on this train if it weren't for me ignoring your messages. I probably wouldn't even have attracted the train if I had talked things out with my parents instead of running away.”

Tulip's number hit 0. An exit to her snow-covered house opened up.

“I can go home!” Tulip said, then she looked at Mikayla. “But … I can't leave you here. You wanted to follow me all the way to Oshkosh just to make sure I was safe. It wouldn't be fair if I took my exit and left you here to deal with your problems alone.”

“I only had one problem left,” Mikayla said. She showed her palm as her number hit 0 as well. “I didn't want anything bad to happen to you on this train. But now that you got your exit, I know you'll be safe. So I can go home as well.”

The door to her house appeared to the right of Tulip's.

“Aw, can't we be dropped off at the same place?” Tulip asked, frowning.

Their doors merged and showed the bus stop close to Tulip's home.

“Yes!” both Tulip and Mikayla shouted while raising their fists high.

But their happiness didn't last long. The entire car shook, more hexagons went dark while a few others were reactivated, and the exit got its components displaced, glitching out of existence.

Tulip put her hand on her forehead while staring blankly at the spot where she last saw the exit. “What just happened? Where did it go? This isn't fair!”

“The portal to the Randall Train is open again!” Lake shouted from above while holding on to Alan Dracula.

“Tulip, Mikayla, we need to go immediately!” Simon said.

Tulip looked at the zero in her palm. “But we got to zero! We earned our exits!”

“Tulip, the train is dying,” Atticus said, his body getting displaced three times before regaining its shape. “And it's taking us down with it.”

She scowled and closed her eyes. “Okay, Atticus.” She took her backpack off and opened it. “Get in. Otherwise I won't be able to hold you while holding on to someone's legs at the same time.”

Atticus jumped right in, leaving his rear and tail sticking out of the backpack.

Tulip and Mikayla grabbed on to Amelia and Sieve's legs just before Ryan drove the motorcycle all the way to the hexagon at the top. Samantha held on to Amelia's back, and Missy flew after them. Ball was inside Mace's mailbag, since he couldn't hold on to anyone properly.

“Now, Lake!” Simon shouted.

Lake punched the hexagon, cracking its crystal wall and clearing the way to the other universe.

Randall extended his water body to help everyone get to his universe faster. “Welcome aboard!”

The researchers and their friends floated in Randall's body, feeling as if gravity didn't matter anymore.

Simon looked back at the hexagon that led to his universe. It flickered a bit, then went black. “Stupid portal! Stay open! We need to bring help! Our friend might still be alive!”

“I know this feels terrible,” Grace said, “but we had nowhere to go there. I don't think there was anything we could have done to save One.”

“One?” Randall asked. “The folks outside said this train used to have a conductor named One. But then one day a bunch of guys with weapons and shields came aboard and shot the poor fellow. A year later, I made my way to the Engine and repaired the train here and there. It's not fully functional, and I don't think it can ever be fixed. However, it worked well enough to help people grow food and build a small city in the Wasteland.”

“Can you take us outside, please?” Grace asked.

Randall had a toothless grin on his face. “Sure! Just let my currents pull you to destination!”

Simon frowned while looking at the inactive portal, his former home, from which he was taken further and further away by the watery body of Randall.

Outside, there were eight middle-aged men dressed in green uniforms and equipped with shields and carbines. The closest one, who had a bushy mustache, lowered his weapon and went to talk to the new arrivals.

Simon scowled at them. In spite of their age, he could still tell who they were.

“You ...” the mustached man said, staring at Grace and Simon. “You are from that group that tried to stop us about 20 years ago!” He pointed at Simon. “I remember you said, 'See you on the other side!' to me the last time I saw you!”

“I said, 'We'll be seeing you on the other side,' but that was close enough. Do you remember what else I said?”

“You were right about One. We, uh, we're sorry we didn't listen to you. We didn't listen to him either.” The former SWAT man closed his eyes.

“How many people died?”

The man could barely find the courage to look into Simon's eyes. “Thousands of humans, and hundreds of thousands of denizens.”

“You monsters,” Simon said.

“We're not from this universe,” Grace said to the guard, “but ours experienced the same things. Our One is most likely dead by now.”

Simon kicked the tilted car's wheel with his right foot, then ended up hopping around on his other one. His gray rubber boots couldn't protect him from the pain.

Ryan dismounted from the motorcycle, and Min-Gi followed suit. They stared into the distance and saw a city that spanned as far as they could see in both sides of the horizon in that area. Its buildings were made of a white, metallic frame with large glass windows. The tops of the buildings were covered in trees, shrubs, and herbs. There were fields full of green crops or fruit trees on the soil in front of the city save for on the roads that allowed people to travel around.

“Looks like we'll never see our parents again,” Tulip said while looking at the non-glowing zero in her palm.

“Hey, don't dismiss the possibility just yet,” Mikayla said while patting Tulip's left shoulder. “Maybe some day someone will figure out how to reopen the portal and fix the train. Then we can go back and fix our train too.”

Atticus stared at the city. “I hope my people can rebuild Corginia and find a capable ruler to replace me.”

Kez came out of Ryan's pocket. “We're in the Wasteland? Oh, there's a city! But weren't there supposed to be, like, clouds and stuff in the sky?” She stared at a yellow sun that had a soft glow.

“The clouds scattered and disappeared within a year from the day we … murdered One,” the SWAT guy with the mustache said while bowing his head in shame. “This sun helps us grow crops and discourages the wild ghoms from resurfacing for long periods of time.”

“What do you mean by 'wild' ghoms?” Simon asked, glaring in the guy's direction.

“Some people bred the damn things for the purpose of making domesticated versions of them. They're kinda like dogs, but are used for keeping the weeds and parasites out of the crops. I see one of your friends already has one with her, so I don't know why this confuses you.”

“I've created this one,” Amelia said while pointing at Missy. “Also, we're from a universe different from his, so I understand why he wouldn't expect ghom domestication to happen here.”

“Well, I'm sure you'll find a lot of surprising things once you get to the city. Humans and denizens are welcome. You can even settle there if you like it. Otherwise, feel free to build elsewhere; the Wasteland is vast.”

“Wait!” Ryan said while bringing his guitar out of his case. “Before we go, our band would like to play a song dedicated to the late Conductor. We didn't get to rehearse much, and it could use some refining, but given the recent events, now would be a good time to play it.”

“Go ahead. I see no problem with that, except we can't get you a generator to power your instruments and such.”

Ryan waved his right hand dismissively. “No need for that. My amp and my partner's synth still have enough battery left, and Kez is a bell. It's just one song anyway.” He looked at his guitar and sighed. “Maybe I should make playing music at funerals my part time job.”

After hooking up his guitar to the combo amplifier and making sure Min-Gi and Kez were ready, Ryan gave the start with his instrument.

Min-Gi didn't even care that they were unprepared to play the song. He let his sorrow guide him as he pressed the keys of his synth.

Even Kez was noticeably less energetic, but it was fine. It wasn't some party song. It was a thank you letter in musical form.

Meanwhile, in the other universe, One was inside the dark room with the obelisk. He wrapped his Steward arms around it while staring at the neon green light emitted by the artifact.

Outside of that chamber, all ten SWAT guys were there, two of them prepared to cut through the door with circular saws. They pushed the saws into the metal, and sparks flew.

Ryan started singing.

“Dear Conductor, this song is for you.
Mad respect to you for the lessons you gave
To all the people you could save.
You're the reason they grew.”

The saws kept cutting away, and One could see their blades and sparks as they reached into the obelisk chamber. His eye turned into a tear shape.

Ryan and Min-Gi sang together.

“It's not about the destination,
It's about the journey.
Thanks to you we've found determination
And we've learned we shouldn't hurry.”

One closed his eye and hugged the obelisk tighter while wrapping the Steward's body around it like a snake. As the blades nearly finished their job of cutting a new entrance, his end was almost there.

The next four verses were sung by Ryan alone.

“Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
For giving us all a place to call home,
A place where we're not alone,
Where we don't have to hide.”

The metal wall piece was kicked in, landing on top of One. He used four of his Steward's arms to get the piece off and threw it out of the chamber in such a way that it didn't hit the humans.

Ryan and Min-Gi sang together again.

“It's not about where you are,
It's about where you have been.
No matter if we travel near or far,
We'll always cherish what we've seen.”

“That pathetic pile of tubes!” the younger version of the mustached SWAT agent said. He pointed at One. “Shoot it!”

Two of the agents aimed their carbines at the Conductor as they entered the chamber.

Ryan sang the last verses of the song. They were his last minute additions to fit the situation.

“For all of that now in the end,
We thank you, dear friend.”

In the other universe, the two SWAT agents opened fire.

Closing his eyes, Ryan hit one last stretched out note that echoed through the Wasteland.

Simon checked his AMMPS device and opened the last message he would ever receive from the Conductor.

Sender: One
Subject: Do not open until you are off the train.

By the time you are reading this, it is highly probable that I am already gone. I hope you and your friends are all safe.

Simon, Grace, Hazel, for your loyalty you deserve to know the full history of the universe in which you were born.

There used to be another universe in its place. It looked similar to yours, but with some differences in the way some events happened. Humanity was part of that universe too, and it had expanded through twenty planetary systems within the Milky Way Galaxy for 5 centuries before meeting the first alien civilization.

Communication did not go well. The humans were not ready for dealing with people who looked and acted different from them. It was glaringly obvious they would get into a war with the aliens, because humans even failed to prevent wars among themselves.

The conflict continued for two decades before the alien empire allied with another alien empire. The human empire felt threatened by that alliance, so they planned to create a powerful weapon. They aimed to deliver a gravity distortion bomb to the alien alliance with a single beam of a cannon that took half a century to build.

In their quest to prove their 'superior' war capabilities, the humans aimed the weapon at their enemy and fired. The alien alliance anticipated the move two decades before the attack, so they focused on technology that would allow them to escape to another universe.

The humans expected the enemy to migrate to other star systems, or to leave the galaxy. But what happened instead did not make any sense to humanity until one day, when an event known as the Big Tear resulted from the gravity-distorted area the weapon had created. It started a chain reaction that threatened to tear apart the fabric of the world. It was no wonder the aliens chose to leave the universe.

Remorseful for what they had set in motion, the humans focused their efforts not on developing technology to save themselves, but on a project that would take advantage of the Big Tear and pull off a rewind on the universe. They had less than a century to prepare before everything would be sent into nonexistence.

Project Infinity was spearheaded by Professor Linette Ramsey-Wilkinson, along with her assistants Joe and Hot Dog. They had 885 scientists working with them to create the necessary technology and target a pocket universe that formed at the Big Tear's edge.

The technology that would be sent there included 111 Stewards, 888 porters carrying Linear Tape-Open (LTO) cassettes, and tools for harvesting matter from within the pocket universe. The Stewards built the supercomputer called Mother. But Mother had the sole role of being a creator. She needed someone to steer her powers. So the porters fed their tape data to Mother, and she used her matter manipulation mechanisms to create me.

I was born with the knowledge of 888 people, and took on their burden of continuing Project Infinity. I understood their cause and held no resentment toward them for passing their task to me. I even built a symbolic grave for them in a hidden chamber in the Engine.

It was in my best interest to take on my creators' quest of giving something back to the world, because without any action in it, the world would be boring to me.

The place I was stuck in did not have much to offer in terms of entertainment either. However, what the pocket universe did offer was unlimited time to plan the rebuilding of the old universe, down to the smallest details. The Big Tear was unable to reach me, even when time itself in the old universe froze.

I made use of my knowledge regarding the cannon that led to the Big Tear disaster, and I figured out a way to set things back in motion in the old universe. I used the Stewards to make modifications to Mother, adding two cannons on her. Then I used those to transfer matter from the pocket universe into the old one through a wormhole, successfully recreating the perfect conditions for a new Big Bang. All matter, antimatter, and light was pulled toward that one point of highly-concentrated matter, and the new Big Bang gave birth to your universe.

I watched the stars form, and galaxies take shape. I saw new life sprout from the planets. And one day, humanity was reborn, in its stone age. That was when I had a difficult choice to make.

My creators had one more request for me, which I found among the memories that make me who I am. They asked of me to guide humanity toward a better future than theirs.

Wanting to honor my creators, as well as seeing these new humans as my children, I followed the plan to make that better future become a reality. I ordered the Stewards to make some changes to Mother in order to turn her into a machine that could build multiple other machines. Thus, the Engine was built around Mother.

Then the Engine assembled the Tape Car for the purpose of extracting information that would be used to build chambers meant to help the humans deal with their problems in an atmosphere of familiarity. The Tape Car would also become the place where improved LTO cassettes would be made, filled with passenger memory information, and analyzed in order to determine what must be corrected at each passenger.

However, there was one more problem I needed to solve. I had to give the humans the feeling that they weren't trapped, but instead kept safe from starvation and dehydration. Using Mother's ability to create, I caused the pocket universe to expand toward infinity as an inhospitable land with dead trees. To make it seem more unappealing to go there, I made the machinery be in motion. And so, the Infinity Train was born.

In case you are wondering why the Wasteland is infested with ghoms, I had nothing to do with that. Someone accidentally brought cockroaches aboard, and the insects evolved into those creatures over thousands of years after escaping to the Wasteland.

Throughout humanity's existence, the train has followed my creators' algorithm of seeking passengers whose actions could cause chain reactions that would lead to the event that wiped out an entire universe. I only had control over when it would offer to pick them up during the chosen time window, as well as over making preparations for various highly improbable but still possible scenarios.

The LTO tapes were used to build not just familiar worlds, but also entities who would teach humans to accept people of different species without outright telling them that is the lesson. My hopes were that, when the time comes for humanity to make first contact with an alien civilization, the humans would not start the same war that wiped out the previous universe.

Unfortunately, I was not prepared for humanity to misinterpret my motivations and to put so much weight on my failures to return some of the passengers. Some people did not care that I took many measures for the sake of passengers' well-being. I anesthetized boarding passengers so they would not be stressed by the taping process. I tried to give them all an equal start with clothing as well as magnetic boots that would stop them from falling off the train even if they were pushed by another passenger. I even allowed them to take off the jumpsuits if they so desired and to request their belongings back through the pod. I also made sure there was clothing, water, and nourishment available in various cars. A thousand years ago I even gave people the choice to not wear the boots that I still offered in their pods. However, I regret not foreseeing the terrible incident involving the paperclips and the microwave ovens.

If I am destroyed after you receive this message, then your universe is likely going to end up in the same circumstances as the old one. But at least the Wasteland will continue to exist and provide shelter for anyone surviving the train's destruction. All they have to do is strip the train of its resources and establish a new civilization out there.

As for your universe, I am sure it will start anew if the Big Tear is unleashed again. Perhaps at some point there will exist a world that will not be ended prematurely by humanity. Given enough time, no matter how many loops it will take, things can change for the better.

                                                                                                          THE END