World Refugees Final Mix

Oh good, it was finally talking. Needless to say, Song was much more comfortable setting aside her glaive and opening her mouth. Hopefully this would go as smoothly as the fighting had.

"To be precise, your rampage was causing a lot of trouble in this town and we are sort of its protectors by default, at least when the Heartless are involved. We weren't certain it was you, my lord, but as you have confirmed it, I would like to formally request your aid in future battles. If you find us worthy, that is." She wasn't sure about Doomtrain, but she remembered quite well the tests of similar entities in Final Fantasy VIII. They always seemed to determine worthiness by strength, so hopefully Doomtrain would accept his rescue as the test, if he required one, and not bother challenging them himself. Attacking a train with a bladed staff just didn't seem all that productive, to say the least...

From:

Seph reentered while Song was talking. Seeing that she was taking care of communicating with the train he went over to Aria and quietly informed her that they defeated the Heat Saber and that Roxas had fallen off the train but, was probably fine.

"Probably?" Aria was not amused.

From:

Roxas was fine in that he would live and was not really severely injured. And now that he felt like taking a look around, he realized that the train had actually taken them a ways out of town. Grumbling, he stood up, but it was painfully obvious that he wasn't going to be walking anywhere. Even if he cast a Curaga to heal himself up, he needed some rest. He stayed where he was, testing his injured leg and pondering whether or not it was worth it to use up his last bit of mana to heal himself.

"Protectors?" the train echoed, "I think you need to work on that a bit. Whoever, as we both find issue with the Heartless and you have helped me, your request is not unreasonable."

From:

Song laughed.

"Yes, well, we're stretched a little thin right now. It's not just this world we're trying to protect." A conversation a with a train... this was just another mark on the list of utter weirdness that being a Refugee entailed. "With help like yours, perhaps we'll do better in the future." A little flattery probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Satisfied, she perched sideways on the conductor's seat so she could look at Aria and Seph... and catch a moment of rest. Again, she was very good at hiding weariness. It didn't mean she hadn't worn herself out.

"So there's a Roxas pancake we need to scrape off the ground? Too bad Eric's not here. That was supposed to be his job."

From:

Seph wasn't particularly worried. "He's not a pancake. He's just been tenderized a bit." Still, they probably left him quite a ways behind by now.

Aria mentally face-palmed. "How far back are we gonna have to go to get him?" She didn't miss the fact that they were still moving either.

From:

For his part, Roxas had found a convenient rock to sit on to wait. If the train really was a summon and if it decided to help them they'd be along, possibly having gotten a ride from the new friend. If they didn't acquire the summon, they'd probably come strolling back in a few hours, the train hadn't been going too fast, so they couldn't have gotten too far away.

The train, however, seemed mildly amused by this conversation, "Your friend is probably all right. We can go back and get him and I can take you back to town."

From:

For an inhuman entity called 'Doom', he was certainly being considerate. Song decided to tell him so, in precisely those words. After all, she was Nothing if not honest.

From:

Seph was relieved that they didn't seem to have to fight the train. He leaned against a wall to wait.

Aria joined him and quietly started a conversation to pass the time.

Of all things they discussed what to do for lunch...

From:

Roxas was beginning to wonder whether or not he should go ahead and use Curaga when he remembered that, duh, he had a load of potions and ethers in his pockets. With a sigh and a mental self scolding, he dug out a potion and took it. It wasn't quite enough, all things considered, but now it didn't hurt so much to put weight on his injured foot. This didn't mean he was in any rush to catch up to the others, but he did set off down the tracks, reasoning that either the train had stopped somewhere or his friends might be hiking back this way to get him.

He was mildly surprised to see the smoke from the train's engine so soon after he started off and it took him a moment to realize that the train was moving toward him. He couldn't tell yet if it had turned around or was going backwards and he wasn't sure he wanted to know which it was. But, it was coming. There didn't seem to be any Heartless around it and the presence of darkness was considerably lessened. He would be pleased to know that it was not only free of Heartless but willing to help against the Heartless, but since it wasn't there yet, he didn't know yet...

From:

Song's various little pains were taken care of with one of her own minor Cure spells during the short ride back. Roxas had healed them all before the last two cars, so the weak cure was all it took.
And as there was nothing else for her to do while the summon carried them back to Roxas, she exercised the truth behind her alias.
It was a simple lullaby, but what else would Song sing here?

"Steel wheels rolling on steel trails,
Rumbling, grumbling on steel rails,
Engineers with striped hats,
Head-of-the-line aristocrats,
Up in front, sitting high,
See them wave as they go by.
Trains with passengers on board,
Clickity-clacking, rolling toward
Their destinations far away,
Whistle blows, there she goes,
Slicing through the day
Through the tunnel, going fast,
Clickity-clack, she's roaring past
The cities, suburbs, little towns,
Past forest greens and desert browns
Spikes and crossties, smooth, worn rails,
Through the twilight, whistle wails,
Feel the rhythm, hear the sound,
Clickity-clacking homeward bound."

From:

ariakitsune.livejournal.com

By then Aria had started playing with Seph's hair again.

Seph turned his head so she could more easily work on the braid she had started behind his other ear.

She was almost finished when they reached Roxas...

From:

It might have been obvious when his friends could get a good look at him that he was favoring one leg and more so when he cautiously approached the train after it stopped... not that he was trying to hide it anyway. They would have been stupid not to expect him to be injured after the tumble he took. And there was no way he was climbing in without a little help this time... though rather than ask for the help he kind of needs, he had to ask a stupid question instead.

"No fight?"

From:

Song had moved to the doorway of the engine car as the train came to a stop, just so she'd be there to look Roxas up and down and answer his question.... in a way.

"What, did you not get enough Heartless killing to satisfy your bloodlust?"

From:

Of course Seph noticed that Roxas would likely need a hand getting back on the train. He looked questioningly at the Key-bearer, silently offering a hand into the train.

Aria hadn't noticed the injury yet because the others were blocking her view. Roxas can expect some fussing once he gets his skinny butt on the train.

From:

"Very funny, Song," Roxas grumped as he accepted the offered hand up, "I don't know if you've noticed, but every summon that showed up before had to be fought before it would help."

He really wasn't too badly injured when one considered that he fell off of a moving train. Still, he would take the fussing as long as it was quiet fussing. A lecture would earn some sharp responses.

From:

ryu-saria.livejournal.com

"Our host here has decided to be reasonable and considerate enough to judge that extermination job as our test. Either that or he doesn't think it worth his time to fight a puny little copy-keyblade master who just fell off a moving train."

Hey, she was allowed to tease. It happened to be her favorite de-stress method. For example, no one but her knew how difficult it had been to refrain from commenting about Josiah, Paris, and French-kissing...

From:

Seph thought the train was probably somewhat worn out from attempting to rid itself of the Heartless but, kept that thought to himself. It didn't really matter anyway.

Aria fussed quietly over Roxas for a moment before deciding to cast a Cure Bubble on him. Cure probably would have fixed him up but, she felt the fact that she chose to stick him in a bubble would stand in nicely for whatever comments she could have made about him falling off the train.

From:

There could have been any number of reasons why the train didn't want to fight, but at the moment, Roxas didn't want to think about it. He was sore. He was tired. He was being quietly fussed over...

If he wasn't mistaken, he may have drifted for a moment as a healing spell was cast, but something seemed different about it...

'What the hell...?'

... He was in a bubble. This was anything but funny. If it was a commentary on recklessness, he hadn't been trying to fall of the train.

"What was that for?"

From:

Song just smirked at the bubbled Roxas and sat back down, giving the inner side of her new "friend" a pat.
"Have you seen many other worlds, oh incarnation of serpentine locomotion?"

From:

Seph was content to just watch the scenery as the train took them back to town. They weren't so far out that it would take too long.

Aria snickered at Roxas. "Any excuse to put someone in a bubble."

From: