Well, here we are. A chapter that I got a lot of help with from YamiChaos27, so thanks for that. I hope you enjoy.

I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, and/or Square Enix.

Mortem belongs to YamiChaos27.

MORTEM'S POV

Arendelle…

Leroy shook the snow off of him while we regrouped in the mountains overlooking the kingdom. "Brrr. So that's what nearly being frozen feels like. At least we managed to get one of the hearts. Huh? Mortem?"

I wasn't speaking to my partner right now because the memories were still flooding back into me like before. I had to force myself to ignore them earlier as we had to get away from the ice queen's wrath, but now I wanted to know what I had unlocked from my past. This memory seemed to pick up where the last memory left off. After losing to Silverhead, the group I was working with bickered for a bit before the sorceress walked in, explaining that now that the girl had successfully retrieved some kind of...amulet I think, she had now become a bigger threat, and our enemies would grow as a result. I had insisted that they exclusively let me handle the Keyblade Princess myself… Well, now I know who I used to call that name before Kairi. My request was shot down by her comment about not wanting to risk letting her live for too long for my personal satisfaction. Not happy about that, I grew more aggressive to the point where I apparently insulted her god, and she responded by using some gauntlet to squeeze my heart with my own darkness. Yeah, needless to say, this woman was not someone to take lightly.

After I begrudgingly submitted to her orders, she decided to loan us these mystical gemstones to give us an edge over our enemies. I was given a yellow stone, a topaz I believe, that embedded itself onto my scarred shoulder. I know for a fact that present me no longer has this stone, but now that I think about it, it looked just like the topaz that appears on my Keyblade's claymore form. Interesting. Anyway, I remember the power that flowed through me from that stone, as well the extra feeling of hatred it gave off. I remember it had the power to convert my anger into power, making me stronger than normal and sometimes generated an astral projection of a larger sword around my greatsword or a projection of claw around my left arm, the latter of which present me found ironic because of the mutation I now have. I remember the first time I used its power, and how much of an adrenaline rush it gave me, quickly leading to me using it recklessly enough that the stone ended up hurting me instead of empowering me. I got a good scolding from the sorceress after that.

I remembered a little more about the group I worked with. Apparently, it was some kind of cult that worshipped some dark god. I personally never cared for their god, as I remembered once outright saying, "What good are gods that do nothing but watch the world burn?" All I really cared about was satiating my thirst for battle. I remember that we didn't just use darkness, we also used a power that was capable of amplifying darkness, making us stronger and our bodies more durable. What this power was called still eluded me, but I couldn't help but wonder if this was the power I sensed I had but couldn't access for some reason.

I also remembered a few details about the other members. One was a cyborg assassin who took great joy in torturing and killing her victims, regardless of their strength and had a frustrating habit of labeling me as the weakest of the cult's inner circle, something I was determined to prove her wrong. Another was a muscular mountain of a man whose durability was unmatched and was deeply loyal to the sorceress, and the one who trained me after I joined. Not that we had any real student-teacher bond or anything like that, his brutality earned him no love from me. But one that stood out was a man who resembled that vision of a crazed scientist I had before. Was this him? I also noticed he had drones identical to the one I encountered in Harthyrn. Did that mean that he was the one behind that speaker? Whoever he was, present me was feeling a deep hatred toward him right now. I remember witnessing some of his experiments on human subjects. One was a girl about the same age as me, maybe older, whom he was apparently trying to turn into the perfect warrior of darkness. Seeing her writhing in pain as a result of his experiments was unsettling. Not as unsettling as him experimenting on a child no older than twelve, apparently trying to extract something from their heart. That particular instance just burned present me up.

I remember that the Cult's enemies had a power that could amplify their light, similar to our power to amplify darkness, but once again its name eluded me. I also remember fighting against Silverhead and her allies, that flying rabbit creature, some girl with an element-changing spear, and some boy with a mechanical magic staff, multiple times, only to lose every time. So much so that it frustrated me to no end. She was the only opponent in the same league as I was at the time, and I just couldn't kill her! I come close but each time she narrowly gets the upper hand. Even with this stone in my possession, no matter how much hatred I exuded in our fights, I couldn't win! I remember asking myself: What was I doing wrong? Why couldn't I beat her?

And if that wasn't enough, I remember one instance when our fight was interrupted by that scientist's pet project I mentioned before, his warrior of darkness now accompanied by some shadowy spirit. When I tried to tell them to let me finish my fight, they attacked me without warning, telling me to know my place, and I was left critically injured. At the time, I didn't know any sort of healing magic, and I could hardly move. When the dark girl fled due to a sudden seizure she had before she could finish the princess, Silverhead approached me, and I had fully expected her to either finish me off or just leave me for dead. But to my shock, she just healed me with a cure spell before starting to walk away. I felt a mixture of confusion and frustration as I shouted, "What do you think you're doing?! Are you taking pity on me?! Are you mocking me for my weakness?!" The last thing I wanted was to feel so weak that I had to be healed by my own enemy.

She just turned to me as she spoke. "It just didn't feel right leaving you like that, especially when you were attacked by your own ally."

I growled. "But why? Why would you...heal your sworn enemy!?"

Her answer was, "I just don't want to see anyone suffer, friend or foe. And perhaps because… I hope that you can do better than this… hope that you're capable of something other than killing and destruction." I remember being so stunned by her words and actions that I suddenly didn't feel like fighting her at that moment and so I fled. Past me was frustrated at my inability to understand her, while present me noticed yet another similarity to Kairi, who has claimed that she only wanted to help me. Just what is it with these girls?

That wasn't the only thing that frustrated me though, as I remembered another encounter I had with Terra's older lookalike. In this instance, he was lecturing me about my anger. I remember snapping at him, asking him whether or not he fought the cult with anger and hatred in his heart too. His answer was: "I'd be lying if I said we didn't. But the thing about anger and hatred is that if you let them consume you, soon enough you'll lose sight of everything! Lose sight of who you are,...and what really matters." What really matters? What did he mean by that?

I then remembered an encounter with… an older Riku? First Terra and now Riku? Anyway, I remember him asking me why I sought power. My answer was that power was all that matters in the world. But then he said this to me. "Power for the sake of power is meaningless. Without a purpose that is firm, then what is even the point of it?"

"What is even the point?!" I shouted. "The point is so no one can step on you! So no one can push you around! What other reason do you need?!"

"If that's your only reason, then you won't get very far. I seek power to protect what really matters." There's that again. What is it that they believed 'really matters'? "That is all the reason I need. To seek power just to be strong, ironically that is what makes you so weak." How dare he call me weak!

And then I remember encountering an older Sora-okay there is NO WAY that is a coincidence! What the hell is going on here?! Anyway, he had this to say about me: "I pity you." I remember recoiling in disbelief after hearing that. "The only reason you're so fixated on my apprentice is because you think that killing someone as important as her will give your life meaning or something." His apprentice? Was he talking about Silverhead? "You don't even care about the Cult, its members, or even their god Chaos?" Chaos? Is that why that name's been popping into my mind recently? "Even as a member of a cult, you are all alone. And for that I pity you."

I snapped at him. "So what! Depending on others just proves you're weak! I don't need anyone!"

The man just shook his head. "You poor misguided boy. If you don't have anyone you wish to protect or even a promise to someone important to you that you wish to keep, then why fight at all? Tell me, Ad-" his voice seemed to cut off for a split second. Damn it, these stupid holes! "If not for the Cult, then what ARE you fighting for?! Yourself and only yourself? Because that sounds like an empty existence to me!" Past me grew enraged at his words, however, present me felt… conflicted. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something about those words got to me somehow.

And with that, the memories ceased once again.

"Mortem? Mortem?" I heard Leroy calling my name, bringing me back to the present. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I told my partner. "But I'll be even better once we take the heart of the queen. Then we'll only have three hearts left before I reclaim my past."

"Is that a good idea? I mean, you said it yourself that it was Madsane himself who sent you on this quest. What if it's just a ruse to get you to help execute his master plan?"

"I am aware of that, but I have no other choice. Regaining the hearts has worked so far, and I'm going to keep going until I have all my memories back. Besides, why do you care? I thought you liked causing destruction and mayhem."

"I… I don't know. Just considering this option seemed like the thing to do given your actions."

I narrowed my eyes at that. "My actions?"

"I've noticed you've been more helpful to those losers recently. Giving warnings about Madsane, helping the others defeat monsters. It's like you've changed since I first met you."

I grunted in frustration. "I'm not helping them. By giving that bastard more enemies, and giving said enemies any advantage I can offer, I'm increasing the chances of Madsane getting what's coming to him. I'm helping myself! Got it!" Somehow I didn't fully believe what was coming out of my mouth. Why was that? Is it because of that...older Sora's words about fighting only for oneself being an empty existence?

Leroy seemed to think for a moment before saying, "So you're basically saying that you're using them just like Madsane was using you, the very reason you want revenge on him." Wow... When he put it like that, it made me sound like a hypocrite, especially after claiming in my memory that depending on others makes you weak. But… I'm not deceiving them in any way, nor do I plan on letting them do all the work for me, so that doesn't count...does it?

"Th-That's different! He actually deceived me, while I'm in no way deceiving them! A-and I'm not sitting on the sidelines either!" I tried to save face, but something told me that it wasn't convincing.

Leroy opened his mouth to say something else when one of his ears perked up. "Do you hear that?" Without waiting for an answer, the red monster curled up into a ball and rolled off into the forest. Rolling my eyes at him I jogged after him as best as I could in the snow. My boots began to soak through, and the wind did send chills through me. Part of me was starting to wish I got some winter gear like those losers had back in the castle.

After rolling for several minutes Leroy uncurled himself and pointed ahead. Not far away under the snow-laden trees stood two figures in black cloaks. I was about to make a remark when I heard one of them speak. "You sure Madsane calculated that Mortem would be here?"

"His data shows this world has two of the Hearts of Light. He'll be here for certain." One of the figures, whose hood was down to show a man with a scarred face and shaved head, pulled out one of those holo-screen devices. "The pattern shows that where he shows up, Jason and Clair would not be far behind. Just like the professor planned it."

Great… More of the doctors lackies I presume. And they're trying to use me to get to Jason and Clair? Figures. Well, joke's on them, Clair is missing.

The other lackey shook his head. "I still don't see what Doctor Madsane gets out of having that oaf collect the Seven Hearts of Light. Just seems like a waste of time to me. If those hearts are that much of a problem, why not just kill the princesses? They're not special like clones are, and-"

"Out of the question. I know from the professor himself that in order to gain the power of Kingdom Hearts twenty hearts are needed. Seven of light, thirteen of darkness. Without that equation the power will forever be beyond him."

"Okay, fine. Can we find out where those two losers are? I'm eager for some payback in that other world."

The older man seemed to chuckle. "After the Morugan showed some strategic planning at our last encounter, I admit that I've been wanting to strike her down as well. It would also mean I can find Kendall's little punching bag again. It was satisfying to see that look on his face when I dropped that bombshell before. Who knew that Kendall wouldn't speak of his insubordination to his manufactured spawn?"

"Whatever. Jason's no real clone. The doc told me that his parents only opted to grow him in a tank because they didn't want him to be ashamed of being born. Other than that, he's no different from others who came by 'natural' means as those idiodic purists would say. If he was a true clone he would've been modified to be the best at everything. Smartest, strongest, fastest. That's why I can't wait to take one of these thrones for myself."

Take one of these thrones for himself? This guy must be really full of himself if he thinks just taking thrones like that makes him strong.

"Patience. That will come when all the pieces are in place. Just wait until I purposefully send Kendall to a world his son is in. He's so eager to regain his lost honor that he'll obey me without question. No more sparing villages because they're 'innocent'. And if one of them takes the other out, all the better."

"You said Madsane wanted us to check something out? Not that I need a reason to go chasing after justice for a fluke."

Looking down at his holo-screen, the older man said, "Ever since the Heartless swallowed the heart of Harthyn, the professor has detected spikes in radiation on some of these worlds. He's theorized that like us, some of the kaiju may have survived our world's destruction."

The egotistical one just shrugged. "So?"

"If they start rampaging, it could ruin the professor's plans. He doesn't want these worlds exposed to the kaiju until he uses Kingdom Hearts power to end the division."

"Well, well, well. Look who it is." A new voice said. Turning, I was struck by an attack that forced me out of my hiding place and close to where the other two were talking. Looking up, I growled as I saw a face I didn't want to see again. The pink-haired girl took several steps forward while looking at the other two. "Looks like we've got a couple of spies."

Leroy growled at her and prepared to attack, but the monster was hit by several bolts of electricity while leaping into the air at the girl. He flopped down next to me as I summoned my Keyblade. "You know, I don't appreciate being sneak attacked like that," I said.

"And I don't appreciate having my heart broken," she scoffed as she strode over to me, "and yet that's precisely what you did."

Never before had I wanted to vomit more than listening to her whine. Thankfully, my ears were spared by her commander stepping in. "Isabel, get back to your assignment immediately."

"After what he did to me? After I nursed him back to health?"

"The professor's machines healed him, not you." The black-haired boy corrected. "Don't act like we don't know you spent hours hovering around him spilling your life's secrets. Seriously, that doesn't make him your soulmate."

"How dare you?!" She practically spat the words at him. Dark energy gathered around her like she was going to attack her teammate. However, a metal sheet appeared out of the snow and wrapped itself around her. While she struggled to free herself the elder man marched over to her. Picking the seething girl up, he chucked her through a dark corridor he conjured and closed it.

Dusting off his hands, the man then returned his attention to me. "Now, what are we going to do about you?" Without waiting for an answer he snapped his fingers and four metal poles shot out of the ground around us. Before we could react a metal plate appeared underneath us while our wrists and ankles were cuffed to it. So this guy had power over metal. "Rex, if you'd be so kind."

Smiling in anticipation, he said, "With pleasure, Arnold! Celestial Punishment!" The sky rumbled with thunder, and I sensed a massive buildup of energy while I connected the dots. With a grunt Leroy managed to tear his restraints before ripping mine apart. Next thing I knew I had grabbed him and leaped away just as a massive pillar of electricity came crashing down on the metal platform. Shielding my eyes from the flash, I waited until I sensed the attack had finished.

Setting my partner down, I felt my rage build up while calling Vengeful Chaos to my hand. "I'll have you know...I'm the last person you want to anger." I pointed my Keyblade and unleashed a fusillade of dark fireballs at them.

The senior just raised his hand and caused another metal plate to appear in front of them. As my attacks dissipated harmlessly off it, he then said, "Iron Ballista." The plate then changed into a giant sharpened pole that flew straight at us. With a leap, Leroy caught it and brandished it like a bat.

"How cute. Your pet now has a weapon." The one called Rex scoffed.

"I'm not a pet!" Before he could react my partner swung the pole and gave the jerk his first flying lesson.

I then turned my attention back to the senior before transforming my keyblade into its Death Scythe form and leaping toward him. "Reaper Storm!" I unleashed an electric spinning attack. My move managed to make a direct hit on him, making him cry out in pain before he growled something and a pair of metal plates slammed shut around me. In the darkness I could see metal spikes forming and inching towards me like an iron maiden.

No way was I going to be turned into a pincushion. Channelling my powers, I cried out, "Chaos Wave!" As the darkness surged out of me, I felt it pushing against the walls of my prison until they gave way and I was free. I immediately saw Leroy dusting off his claws after tossing one of the metal panels away. "I had it handled."

"No doubt, because their attacks-"

"Iron Fist," The one called Arnold coated his fist in metal, and swung it at me. It made contact with me, but as I fell backwards I immediately compared that attack to the ones I've taken from Jason. He may have been a fool, but I could tell he had given it his all when we dueled. This attack, despite its intimidation, just lacked something. I wasn't sure what, but it left me feeling disappointed.

There was a boom like thunder, and then I noticed a flash heading this way. The one my partner knocked away earlier was back, using his powers like a booster rocket to return to the battle. "I'm gonna make you pay for humiliating me like that! Thunder Strike!" Bolts of lightning ripped from his body and surged towards us. My little pal leaped up and caught them in his paws, laughing a bit before tossing them around like they were starting to hurt, and then throwing them at the old guy.

With a scoff, I asked, "Is that the best you've got? Phantom Hunters." With that the shadow wolves appeared from my darkness and set themselves upon attacking the two lackeys of Madsane. "You know, I was going to make you feel my full wrath for what your boss did to me, but I almost feel like you're not worth it."

"Needle Piercing." Was the old man's response as several sharp spikes appeared in the air and shot themselves towards Leroy and I. Spinning my scythe around, I was able to deflect a great deal of them, but some still managed to hit us. What the devil? They hardly hurt. No different from getting scratched by a thorn or something like that.

Grabbing a pair of the metal spikes, the red monster just broke them in two without breaking a sweat. "Oh, it's going to be a breeze to beat them, Mortem. Despite all their bluff, they're not that powerful. They're just a pair of rookies."

Now it all made sense. Resting my weapon on my shoulder, I glared at my opponents. "You're pathetic. You guys talk big, but in reality you are no more than a pair of newbies. Even Jason without his Keyblade has more bite than you,"

"Don't make him out to be better than me. I'm a superior clone compared to him." The teen growled as sparks flew from him. Oh, so scary.

"Debatable. At least he got his head out of his ass. What makes you think you are worthy of sitting on a stupid chair over these people?"

"I was engineered to be better. Superior intelligence, peak physiology. Why am I debating with someone who only exists because two people got together? Someone who had to grow with imperfections? Someone who should be worshipping the ground I walk on?"

"Those imperfections are clearly making me withstand your attacks." I then transformed my Vengeful Chaos into its Dark Bazooka form. "Besides… If you ask me there's no such thing as a perfect lifeform...natural born or engineered." I then start firing at them.

Rex dodged while Arnold blocked with a sheet of metal, which left a few dents on it. The latter then punched the metal at me, only for me to slice it with the blade on my bazooka. The bolt boy then began charging up a lot of electricity as I responded by charging my cannon. We both fired energy beams, which clashed, but it didn't take long for my attack to overpower his, knocking him backwards.

"So you were grown in a lab," I said. "Big deal! That doesn't mean you're better than everyone. Make whatever science claims you want, science doesn't mean jackshit to me. And clearly you're failing to prove otherwise."

"I agree. Science is nothing, unless there are people willing to enforce what it proves as fact." Something about Arnold's voice set me on edge. Turning, I ended up hearing him say, "Execution Firing," right as I got pelted by a seemingly never ending barrage of bullets! His new attack forced me to the ground before my partner rolled in front of me and took the attack for me. I expected him to perish, but instead he just laughed while he tossed aside the bullets that had been flattened against him.

As the miniature wrist guns seemed to power down, the man looked at him. "Impressive. I did not expect your associate to be bullet-proof. We'll have to find a way around that. Stand down, Rex."

The pompous jerk did a double-take at that. "What? Why?"

"Because I gave you an order."

"You dare order-" His protest was cut off as the other guy reminded him of the chain of command by pointing one of his weapons at his face. I almost found myself going to Rex's rescue, but stopped myself upon remembering his attitude. Part of me hoped that he'd get his face blown off.

His next words were full of darkness. "Orders are to be obeyed, not questioned. Even by you. I will spare you this time because you are one of the best clones Madsane created, but next time you commit insubordination I will not hesitate to end your life. Do I make myself clear?" When the now silent jock gave a nod, Arnold withdrew his weapon. "See to it that you remember."

"You kill enough of your lackeys, eventually you won't have an Organization anymore." I found the idea slightly amusing before I scoffed. "Good help must be really hard to find for that whack job doctor if you two are the best he's got." I then start charging my bazooka. "You sure haven't impressed me much. Chaos Cannon!"

My attack raced across the snow and hit the both of them where they stood. As the massive explosion ended the battle, my weapon returned to its normal form and I prepared to leave. However, Leroy cried out in warning before I could turn around just in time to be stabbed by a knife coated with electricity. As I cried out in pain, I saw the two of them stand again, battered and in rough shape, but still alive.

"That'll teach you for humiliating me!" Rex growled.

Holding up a hand to silence his partner, the older man told me, "It doesn't matter. We're done here. You have shown us the faults in our battle plans, so now we will work on correcting those strategies. You'll find that in the end all roads lead to Madsane's victory, and if necessary we will do to countless worlds what we did to Moruga."

I struggled to move as the knife kept zapping me. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Why don't you ask your friends?"

"He's talking about how we wiped Moruga out of existence!" The younger one boasted. "One teroi bomb and the entire continent was vaporized. That taught those savages to question the necessity of wiping out the kaiju. And it was so fun to watch our team wipe out a few villages in that Moruga knockoff world, and then make your pals think we did it." He only stopped bragging when his superior slapped a metal plate across his mouth, silencing him.

I narrowed my eyes. "Vaporize an entire continent? Don't you think that was rather...excessive? Especially from people who could hardly even fight back?"

"They were pretending to care when they were plotting to weaponize the kaiju against the rest of the world. Besides, they proved they weren't human. As the Hocamli tend to put it, they were savages." The way the man said that last word just made it seem like it meant something far worse than what I was used to. "I even saw to it that soldiers who refused to exterminate any Morugan were dishonorably discharged." Maybe I was reading too much into his words, but Arnold almost sounded proud of that. Even like it was playing into a plan he enjoyed seeing play out.

Still, my past experiences of being tricked have made me more cautious of what's truth and what's not. "Is that a fact? Or is that just what you guys want everyone to believe? After the lies that lunatic you work for fed me, you'll have to forgive me for being skeptical."

"If you doubt us, feel free to ask your friends about it."

I sighed. "First of all, they're not my friends. Second, whether that is true or not, it has nothing to do with me. Though if I'm being honest I wouldn't be surprised if you guys just made that up as an excuse to commit genocide on people you don't like. And you call them the savages here?"

"You dare make such an outlandish accusation?"

"Oh I dare, seeing how there's clearly nothing you can do about it with how weak you are compared to me." I managed to remove the knife and tossed it away. "And that's another thing, you're not proving anything by slaughtering those who are far beneath you, and with such a cheap tactic no less. I'm all for proving your strength, but weaklings who can't fight back are not worth the effort, and the only thing you've proven to me is that you are nothing but cowards."

Despite the restraint on his mouth, Rex threw a bolt of lightning at me, which I managed to block with a dark shield. He moved to attack again, but Arnold stopped him. "Mark my words, Mortem. You will suffer for your blasphemies." With that, he opened a dark portal and dragged his lackey through it, closing before I could go after them.

Well, this chapter had a lot going on. Mortem now has some insight into their plans, and some crucial intel about their strength. Plus now we know a little more about his past.

I know it was strange for me to write that the villains weren't that powerful, but I was kind of inspired by how the Bow, Sword, and Spear Heroes from The Rising of the Shield Hero operated. They didn't earn their special moves or equipment, and I daresay their levels. They were all handed to those three by King Aultcray, and as a result they ended up being incredibly weak. That's what I wanted to capture here, that they were handed their dark powers and haven't made those abilities their own. Yeah, they were tough against Jason and Aurora back in The Land of Dragons, but Aurora is still new to all this, and Jason's lost his Keyblade.

Also, this gives us an indication as to how high Mortem's stats would have to be.

Like I said, this story is going to go on hiatus for a bit while I help Flautist work out the spin-off we're trying to do with her characters. I hope you enjoy this, and I'll try to not take so long. Until then, enjoy.