I don't own Kingdom Hearts and/or Disney

Mortem belongs to YamiChaos27. Special thanks for helping to write and edit

Gracie belongs to Flautist4ever. Special thanks for looking over the section with Gracie

Jessica belongs to TheGoodandtheBadXBoy

Chapter 14: Plans of Trust

Devil's Bayou…

CLAIR'S POV

"Mortem!" Gasping, I summoned my Keyblade, Divine Way it seemed to whisper its name into my mind. As the green stone that attached itself to my weapon caused the chain to rattle a bit, I prepared to face the dark warrior.

With a scoff, he said, "Chill out. As surprised as I am to see you here, and as rodents no less, I'm not interested in the heart of the princess at the moment."

Raising an eyebrow, Kairi then voiced the thought that was in my head. "Then why are you here?"

"Mortem. Do you know these two?" A feminine voice inquired, making me realize that the dark warrior was not alone. Coming in behind him were two mice.

"Unfortunately for the braided girl." Mortem answered before looking my way. "Now put that thing away before I knock it out of your hands."

Before I could think of anything to say the piece of furniture we were under suddenly started to move. Turning my gaze was met with the nostril of one of the alligators trying to get at us. How did that thing realize we were underneath here? Before I could figure it out Mortem just swung his Keyblade and cut the reptile on the nose.

Pulling back in pain made the animal toss over the piece of furniture, exposing us. The two mice that knew Mortem wasted no time running away from them and I was about to follow them. However, I let out a cry when I felt something step on my tail. "Oh, no you don't." Mortem said. "You want to live? You fight these things."
"Are you insane? They're the size of kaiju!" I protested.

Of course the two monsters tried to eat us while we were talking, but both of them hit some sort of crystalline force field that appeared around us. The Barrier Spell. I remember reading about that, and I could see Kairi casting it while Mortem acted like nothing was wrong. "And you're a Keyblade Bearer. Act like it."

"Did you not hear me? They're as big as kaiju!"

"The size of the monster is irrelevant. When you hold a Keyblade they should be afraid of you. If you're too scared to fight, stay out of the way." With that he tossed me aside while he turned to face both predators. "You're with me, Keyblade Princess."

MORTEM'S POV

What a joke. That girl has a Keyblade and she's still afraid of fighting foes bigger than herself? I swear, just like with that hot-headed idiot, her Keyblade must've chosen poorly. Whatever, I don't have time for cowards.

And meanwhile here I was having to work alongside one of my targets, this Keyblade Princess… I had no idea why I was calling her that. The name just popped into my head for some reason. I mean sure, Kairi was a Princess of Heart who can wield a Keyblade, so it's obvious how I'd come up with Keyblade Princess, and yet I couldn't shake this feeling that I've called someone else that before. Ugh, it didn't matter right now, as I had two oversized lizards to deal with.

Once the princess dismissed her barrier spell, I opened up with a fusillade of Dark Firaga spells. The two brutes snorted in a mixture of agitation and confusion, so I could only assume they never encountered prey that fought back. Turning to the one that I had fought in the bayou I held up my weapon. "Ready for some more scars, you prehistoric reject?"

Eyes widening at my words, the one I fought before lunged at me with jaws wide open. It didn't get close enough before the piece of furniture slammed down on top of its head. While I saw it was a large chair there was only one being at this size who could've lifted it. "Impressive, Leroy."

"Nothing to it." The red monster said as we turned to face the other beast. As it snarled at us, Leroy snarled back before leaping upon it. The reptile's eyes widened as it was picked up with ease by the little guy who laughed as he spun the green beast around before throwing it to the other side of the room. I had to admit, it was quite amusing see such a little creature lifting a much larger one. For a small beast, he certainly was proving himself useful.

I glanced at the other gator to see Kairi pelting it with spells. The Blizzaga spells she pelted it with seemed to make the animal uncomfortable, and made it take a few steps back. However, that was when I saw a gleam in its eyes. "Look out!" I warned as the animal began to swing its tail at her. Even though the tail managed to make contact the damage was lessened by the Barrier she managed to put up in time, though it was still enough to knock her back against the wall.

As she cried out, something strange happened. In an instant I didn't see the princess, but someone else in pain. The person I saw before, but who was she? Not knowing was getting under my skin, and in that instant I felt my rage flare up. Not anger in not knowing, but anger at seeing that person in pain. Don't ask me why, but all I knew was now these leatherheads were going to get it.

My darkness bursted out, summoning a bunch of Unversed as my Keyblade converted into its scythe mode. My Unversed proceeded to swarm both gators as I charged the one that attacked Kairi. It tried to snap up the Unversed to little effect, but soon several red cuts appeared all across its snout. Crying out in pain the massive head reared up in an attempt to throw me off, but I only embedded my scythe's blade into its nose so I wouldn't be thrown off. Summoning a large surge of dark energy, larger than what I had summoned before, I blasted both reptiles back into an old organ. Metal pipes clanged against the wood as organ pieces went flying all over.

"What in heaven's name is going on in here?" I heard the woman, Madame Medusa, return to the area to see the mess it now was. "Brutus! Nero! What have you two been up- aaaaahhhh!" The woman screamed before she scrambled up a smaller chair. "Snoops! There are mice in here! Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!"

She must've seen the others because her lackey came in trying to hit the others with a broom of all things. You had got to be kidding me. Running over to where they were among the wreckage, I returned my Keyblade to its true form and ran up the broom to the man Snoops. For some reason my gift kicked in, the ability to see the light and darkness in the hearts of others. Needless to say both had high amounts of darkness in them, but there was something else as well on his hands. Gunpowder? But that means… he shot me down? Oh, he had gone from inconvenience to target of my wrath!

With a snarl I transformed my weapon into its bazooka mode, and blasted the fat man with a surge of darkness. With a cry of pain, the man held his burnt face while he fell backwards into the woman who he served. Narrowing my eyes at both of them, I poured all the darkness I could into my bazooka and prepared to end them.

Right before I could pull the trigger something hit me from the side and knocked me to where the princess had reunited with those who couldn't be bothered to fight the walking handbags before. Growling curses under my breath I turned to see a human-sized Heartless standing between me and my prey. It had a resemblance to a Pirate, but instead of a sword it carried a pickaxe, and it had a warped parrot head instead. A few loose blades did protrude from its arms like fractured bones piercing the skin. "Are you freaking kidding me?!"

"What kind of Heartless is that?" Clair asked the princess who stood ready to face it.

"I don't know. I've never seen it before." Was the answer she gave.

"Crookedtoo." I said, not knowing how the name came into my head. Must be the connection to the darkness. "And it's going down."

With a roar the Heartless swung its weapon at us, but I simply leapt over it. Pointing my weapon at the beak, I blasted it with more darkness. However, that didn't seem to affect the Heartless one bit. Eyes widening, I moved to attack it with my Keyblade only for it to raise its arm at me. Before I could react it fired some of the blades in its arms at me, and I cried out as they cut me while the force of their movement forced me off the pickaxe.

"Mortem!" Bianca called out to me. "Be careful!"

"Gee, thanks!" I snapped as I leapt up to attack it again, but before I could launch an attack the gigantic abomination hit me with the pickaxe, sending me flying against the wall. I growled as I stood up, doing my best to ignore the pain. My anger grew as I gathered my darkness into my Keyblade. I pointed it at the large Heartless and fired a beam of darkness which hit it square in the chest.

As it clutched its chest in pain I smirked upon feeling the satisfaction of hurting it, but I let my guard down and it almost cost me. With a squawk the Heartless spun around like a twister, swinging its pickaxe the whole time. Rolling over, Leroy grabbed the pickaxe before it could hit me and managed to throw it back into the wall where Medusa and Snoops had been not too long ago. Now I was starting to appreciate having the little guy on my side.

Changing my Keyblade back into its scythe mode I ran forward and leapt up on the pickaxe. Charging forward along the wooden shaft I swung my weapon at the head of the Heartless. Shrieking in pain it did its best to throw me off by shaking its head, but I stabbed my blade into its temple in determination to end its existence. And I felt a strange sense of pleasure in making it hurt.

Then there was an explosion and silence.

Next thing I could recall was floating through air. There was nothing but blackness around me, and an eerie silence. What was this void? And what was I feeling? Regret? Shame? Why? Why were these emotions coming to me?

Then, there was a light so bright I had to cover my eyes. However, that was followed by the sensation of my head lying on someone's lap while my hair was stroked. "You've grown into a strong young man."
"Wh-who are…" I tried to ask before being shushed. For some reason I chose to listen to this voice.

"Don't worry. It is not your time yet." The voice said. "You still have much left to do, and so little time before the day is done. Look to the light, and remember."

"Remember what?" As I asked that, the sensation vanished and I felt like I was being dragged down by something cold and wet. Flailing around I woke up to find myself being hauled onto a glider where Leroy, Kairi, and her partner were while Bianca and Bernard were getting into their leaf boat. Wait. Were we outside the riverboat?

Looking at me, Kairi said, "Welcome back to the land of the living."

"What happened?" I groaned while feeling immense pain vanishing from a healing spell.

"Medusa pulled out some sort of long gun and shot you, though Leroy took the blunt of the attack." Clair explained. "She then began shooting at all of us and we all ended up out here. What I don't get is how you're still alive from taking a shot point-blank."

"Don't you believe in miracles?" Bianca asked her.

"A miracle is what we need right now." Bernard said. "Look at us. A group of mice can't do this job. It's too big for us."
Growling, I turned to face the rodent. "Now listen here. I may not be here for the same reasons you are, but I'm not calling it quits. Those two losers attacked me with their fireworks and guns, and I have no intention of leaving this putrid swamp until they pay."

"There's something at stake here, something more important than your revenge." Kairi glared at me with an intensity that managed to put a spark of fear inside me, but it was easy enough to squash. "There's a girl up there they've kidnapped, and they're willing to risk her life to get some diamond. If we don't get her out of here she might end up paying the price for Medusa's greed."

"Why should I care?"

"Consider this making up for what you did to Alice and my friends not too long ago." Something about those words stung my heart. First I feel a pang of guilt about Alice and now I'm feeling the need to stop bad things from happening to Penny. What is it about kids that get to me like this? Then again, I myself know what it's like to have a dreadful childhood.

"What did happen between you two?" Bianca asked.

Looking at her, I said, "We're enemies. Plain and simple. You might be better off allying yourselves with those two."

"Stop it!" Clair suddenly snapped, earning my attention. "For Gri's sake, you want the same thing we do! To stop Medusa and Snoops! The two of them are our enemy just like they are your enemy, so that means we should be working together instead of fighting like narpols and jurdas."

"Clair is right." Kairi agreed. "We stand a better chance of success by working together."

"Please, Mortem. We could really use your help, and so can Penny." Bianca begged me.

Looking at me, Leroy said, "We can still get revenge on Medusa and Snoops by helping them. The odds of success are about thirty-seven percent with them, while it's only twelve percent with us alone."

Rolling my eyes, I looked at the Princess. "Let me be clear about one thing: I'm only helping you so I can kill those two goons. After that, I make no promises. Until Medusa and Snoops are at the bottom of the bayou I will help you rescue the kid."
"We'll find another way to stop them without taking their lives." Clair insisted.

That was so funny I broke into laughter. "Kid, one thing I'll teach you about being a Keyblade Bearer: Sometimes you have to take lives in order to save lives."

CLAIR'S POV

As we climbed up the side of the riverboat, I couldn't stop thinking about everything Mortem's been saying. I would have to kill people as a Keyblade bearer? No, I wouldn't do that. I'm not a murderer. And about monsters would have to be afraid of me? How could I fight a pair of reptiles that big when I wasn't at my normal size?
But then, I did figure out how to beat Tamatoa. I used his love of gold against him with my magic, but that wasn't going to work on the alligators. They were completely organic, and I wasn't sure how well they would've conducted electricity. Was I overthinking things? I don't know. I still feel like I'm being asked to march to the home of Zudyss, or face Ryukumo with a needle for a weapon.

Approaching the window, the six of us heard someone speaking inside. Taking a peek, Kairi whispered to us, "She's praying." From what I could hear she sounded like she was at the end of her rope. One by one we entered through the broken window and made our way down to her bed.

"... and please let someone find my bottle with a message inside it because running away just isn't working. Amen." As Penny finished praying, she hugged her teddy bear and spoke words as if she was trying to comfort him. However, I got the feeling that she was trying to give herself hope and failing because she ended up breaking into tears on her bed.

That just broke my heart as we made our way down the pillow. More than anything I wanted to return to my normal size, take her in my arms and comfort her the way my Mom always comforted me when I was sad. Was this how she felt when I was scared or when I got made fun of at school for liking books? I hadn't felt this sad when Jessica's mother passed away several years ago, and when we stopped hanging out.

"Penny." Bianca spoke up to the girl. "Penny."

Looking up to see all of us on her bed, the little girl didn't seem scared by the fact that we were talking mice. "Yes?" Was it an average occurrence in this world for people to meet talking animals?

"Don't cry, Penny. We're here to help you." Bianca explained.

Continuing, Bernard added, "We found your bottle with your message inside of it."

"And we've come to get you out of here." Kairi finished for them.

That brightened up her spirits before she asked, "Didn't you bring somebody bigger with you, like the police?"

"N-no, it's just the two of us, and these four." Bernard explained.

"But we don't need someone bigger." Mortem interrupted while summoning his Keyblade. "With the Keyblade nothing is impossible."

"With all of us and a little faith we can do this." Bianca said.

Smiling, Penny remembered something. "That's what Rufus said. Sometimes a little faith makes things turn out all right."

"I know it's late, but we need to escape tonight." Bernard said.

Nodding, I added, "We overheard Medusa planning to keep you in a hole until you find this Devil's Eye, and it sounds like the place floods a lot."

"It does. But I just got caught by Brutus and Nero."
"And I left Brutus with a new scar on his back." The dark warrior informed her.

"That was you? I didn't think anything could hurt those two."

"Now you know I can hurt them, and if they try to stop us I'll turn them into a nice pair of handbags for you."

"Those vicious monsters need to be locked up in a cage." The female mouse gave us her opinion of those two.

The girl's face brightened as that came up. "I know, I know. Come on, I'll show you." As we followed her out of her room, she pointed to some metal container at the bottom of the stairs. "See there? The elevator."

"Oh, it's perfect." Bianca said.

"It will be once I get it working." Leroy laughed as he curled up into a ball and rolled his way down the stairs. I wasn't sure how he was pulling it off, but I swear I heard the sounds of a miniature construction zone come from the elevator as the red… whatever he was got to work.

Mortem nodded with approval. "We lure them in using Clair as bait-"

"Hey." I said.

"There's no need. I figured out how they found us in the first place." Opening a satchel she had, the female mouse produced a perfume bottle? Why would a mouse need perfume? "They must've smelled this from before. We can use this to lure them in."

"Then we slam the door shut and we've got them." Kairi smiled.

"No need to slam it. It'll close on its own." Leroy told us while he continued working. It looked like he was using scraps from around the boat to get it working. That thing must be super smart to use all that junk to make the elevator operational.

Looking at us, Mortem asked, "And how do we get away from Medusa? You two weren't out there when she nearly ran me over with her swamp-mobile."

"We'll swipe it. I've always wanted to drive it." Penny began making a driving impersonation.

As cute as it was, I had to make a point, "But what if they catch us before we can get it to start?"

"There's only one way to deal with a mad dog." Mortem insisted.

"Let's try to think of another way first." Kairi told him. "There must be something we can use to distract them."

Thankfully Penny knew what. "Mr. Snoops fireworks. We'll shoot them off in her bedroom."

I couldn't help but giggle at the thought of that. But then I had to ruin it by asking, "Who'll fire them off in her room?"

"You will." Mortem decided for me. "You couldn't face the alligators, so you'll set the fireworks off in her room."

"But we'll need her to stop the Heartless, especially that Crookedtoo." Kairi told him.

Looking at her, Mortem stated, "You and I can deal with the Heartless. She's only dead weight."

"Oh, it's a wonderful idea." Bianca said. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"A lot of things." Mortem deadpanned.

"But it's our only chance." Kairi said. "Everyone has to do their part just right."

"We're going to need help." Bernard said. "Thankfully I know where we can get some."

Yeller Space Station...

GRACIE'S POV

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." I tried to regain my composure as I brought Professor Yeller his tea for the day. The old man tensed up as I entered his private lab, leaning protectively over his devices while I came to his main computer. I did pause in my venture forward as he held his hand up because, well, that's universal.

Shaking his head, he told me, "Don't come any closer. I don't want any of this equipment to get damaged. I remember what happened the last time you spilled synthetic energy in here."

"I-I'm still sorry about that." I apologized again as I set the tea on one of the tables. "I guess your devices can't run on energy drinks."

"No, they can't. I thank you for bringing me my tea, but please go before you break something."

"O-okay, Professor." But I wasn't going to give up that easily. Spinning around as if I was about to leave, I made sure the edge of the tray caught my skirt to put my plan into action. Just as I predicted the tray spilled over coating me with hot scalding liquid and crashing against the floor. To sell the act I made sure my foot caught against a table leg, sending me falling forward over the spilled utensils. "Ow!"

With a growl, the elderly man grabbed his cane and came over to me. Annoyance and mild frustration were replaced by the wide eyes of concern as he noticed that I landed on the kettle and tray as well. "What happened? Are you alright?" As he knelt down to look over me I had to fight my revulsion of that man showing concern. "Is anything broken? Do you need the medical room?
"N-no. The stupid tray caught my skirt and… oh, no. This was my favorite one. Now it's ruined."

"You'd better go change."

Change. That's what he needed to do, and I'm not talking about the retro lab coat and space uniform mixture he had on. But I needed him out of this room. "I… oh, I can't. I think it tore open my pants too. Yeah, it did. Oh, phooey." With a few sniffles I began to make it seem like I was on the verge of tears. "Th-this was the last thing my g-grandmother got me before sh-she passed away. N-now I've destroyed the last gift she e-ever gave m-me, and I have nothing else to remember her by!"
"... wait here. I'll find you my prototype fabric restorer. Why did I have to let Herod borrow it to work out the bugs? No matter. But stay right there and don't touch anything. I'll be back before you know it." Walking to the entrance he left his lab to help me with my 'problem'.

Perfect. Just as I wanted. Getting up, I moved over to his personal computer and pulled out my microbot. "Okay, Spinster. Do your thing." As my partner activated, some wires moved out of him like tendrils and hacked into the professor's system. Smiling, I rubbed my hands together. "Okay, doc. Let's see what you don't want people to know you're working on. Spinster, make sure to patch this to HQ."

As the amounts of data passed by on the computer, I smiled as now my associates would be getting their hands on it. All in the name of the cause. I still can't believe I got chosen by the Professor Anton Yeller to be part of his space program. My Gracie Goodheart identity must be the best disguise I ever went with.

Huh? Project Dragr? What was that? Why would Professor Yeller make a project named after a corpse? Experiment successful? What does that mean? Pulling it back up I dared to open it, and what I found made my eyes widen. "Inserting microscopic parasitic bots into a corpse that would repurpose it to destroy any life within animalia? Why would someone make something so horrible?"

Spinster then started beeping. A transmission from HQ. Tapping the microbot's head, I answered, "Agent 1-3-7 here. Infiltration successful. Data being transferred now."
"We're getting it. This is worse than we thought. If some of these items were to get out it would spell the end of the Downtrod." My superior said from the other end. "Any word on the fate of the two from the station?"
"Some of the students have found them, against all odds." Taking a breath, I added, "They were sent to what they claim is a parallel world."
"A parallel world?"

"Yes. I see them popping up in some of these other projects. There's too many to get a clear picture. We'll have to analyze them to get a clear sense." I explained as crazy as it was, but the Downtrod needed to know.

My superior then told me this: "We'll get the best agents to study these files. We'll know what Yeller is up to soon."
"I sense it has something to do with this Mortem Contingency I see in a few files."

"We'll analyze it, and get back to you. Maintain your cover, find those two, and make sure they find their way to us. They might have knowledge that can aid us in our fight."

"There's more. We talked with Clair, and she claims that Jason believes there's a traitor on board."
"To Yeller or to the station?"

"Unclear. But someone they fought seemed to suggest something bigger is going on, and I believe the answer is somewhere in Yeller's files."
"Repeat, maintain cover. We'll contact you when we have something."

Nodding, I said, "Copy that. Agent 1-3-7, out." As communications ended, I gathered up Spinster once the last of the files had been sent. Still, I felt uneasy about some of the stuff I read. Project Dragr, the Mortem Contingency, and all the old data recordings of the reemergence of the kaiju. What does all this mean? I had a feeling this was not going to be good for anyone on Harthyn, so that means we have to stop it.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to reveal more of what is going on. In Gracie's part something she sees is connected to Lost and Alone, because I thought it would be good to create a connection here and show that Yeller isn't the humanitarian he pretends to be.

As for Clair in this chapter, I thought that Mortem's words and treatment could be good in helping her develop her character, and have her fully overcome her lack of confidence. My plan is that she strives throughout arc 2 in overcoming it, and this world is kind of the starting point for that part of her growth. You could say in a way Mortem is getting her to grow

I will say I don't know when the next chapter will be as I'm going to be doing a short spin-off for Jason's father for the Christmas season. I intend on getting the story written in 5-6 chapters, and I intend on trying to make sure it's done by the 25. Nothing like pressure.

Anyway, YamiChaos27, Flautist4ever, if there's anything you want me to add or change feel free to let me know.