It wasn't like dealing with...say...Zohak, either. That presence had been young and confused before he'd incarnated himself; the train had a presence, but where Zohak had been little more than a baby, the train was more...inscrutable, a mystery.

Xander hated mysteries.

"Guess that's what we have to do, then. I mean, it's not like we were trying to hurt it..." Even if the peridexis had frightened the train, it wasn't like any of them had been actively making an attempt at harm. But then again, maybe there was a grain of truth in the opposite...that for whatever reason, the train was afraid of harming them?

It was confusing. "Beyond that, I've got nothing. My brother was the one who was the best at being a think-tank. Me? I'm the rebel." But Xander laughed at that.