This is going to be an extremely important chapter.

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

Mortem belongs to YamiChaos27. Special thanks to you for writing most of this chapter.

Eini, Braxton, Scott, and Ross belong to Flautist4ever.

AURORA'S POV

Arendelle

Yope 3, 92 KA…

I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. They had done something that was impossible. They had actually defeated a kaiju. All of Harthyn's weapons, all of the armies… and they managed to do it on their own with a strange ride that appeared out of nowhere. I could see the three of them were panting heavily, looking at what they had just done like they were working on comprehending it.

Braxton then took a step forward. "Is… is it…"

"I don't know, but that. Was. Amazing." Jason said. "The impossible was just done here today, and it's all thanks to Mortem."

The dark warrior then smirked. "Yes, it was, wasn't it? And such a feat demands a reward." Before we could do anything, he suddenly appeared before Elsa. "I think I'll take this." Without giving her time to react he stabbed the tip of his Keyblade into her chest.

"Are you kidding us?" Eini asked him.

"You just took down a kaiju and you go and steal her heart?" I asked him.

Mortem just scoffed. "I warned you right from the get-go what I wanted. Not my fault you all let your guard down." He then extracted Elsa's heart and put it into that locket. Once the locket closed, he started holding his head in pain.

MORTEM'S POV

I saw myself walking atop a bunch of buildings...wait hold on. Why do I feel like an important portion of my life has been skipped? The mystical hate-powered stone that was supposed to be on my shoulder is gone. I was carrying my Keyblade instead of the sword I originally used in my previous memories. Damn it! Why must I gain such a big hole in my memories? Ugh! No matter! Whatever was skipped I'm sure I'll remember it as I continue to capture the hearts, but I'm certain some things won't make much sense because of this.

Anyway, I was walking atop a building in a city that was quite similar to the one from the Avengers' world. Tall skyscrapers, busy streets, not too shabby technology, though not nearly as advanced as Harthyrn. The name of this place eluded me, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was that for reasons I couldn't remember, I was in a melancholy state of mind. I felt like a different person at this point in time. For once, I wasn't seeking to satiate myself with battle, but instead, I was trying to find a purpose in life, one that didn't involve being a part of some violent cult. But I was struggling to figure out where to start. Had I grown soft? I looked at my Keyblade and I remember wondering to myself if I really deserved it. Present me couldn't help but wonder why I would think such a thing. Keyblades are supposed to be proof of how strong a person is...right? But then again, I don't yet remember the circumstances of my obtaining it. So what could I surmise?

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard screaming. I looked down to see a woman being held by a couple of suited thugs. Another thug was dragging a little girl into a car. The woman was begging the men not to take her, but they spouted something about payment before throwing her onto the sidewalk. The thugs then entered the car and drove off with the girl. The woman then began to shout, "No! Please! Not my baby! SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP!" Kidnapping a child alone made my blood boil, but the cries of a genuinely caring mother was also something I just couldn't ignore.

I began leaping across the buildings, trying to catch up, but the car was getting away. My frustration grew until my keyblade suddenly transformed into its hoverbike form. The surprise I felt told me that this was the first time my Vengeful Chaos transformed. I hopped on the bike and gave chase as the car sped through a surprisingly empty street. I then fired energy blasts from the bike's cannon, which all missed but impacted close enough to cause the car to sway uncontrollably until it crashed into a wall at an alley. I smirked at first, but then I pounded my own head when I remembered that the little girl was in there, berating myself for not thinking about her safety before acting. I felt like a moron. I landed on the rooftop of the alleyway the car crashed near. The driver stumbled out, looking pretty beat up. The other three rushed out, also looking banged up, one dragging the girl out, who I was thankful was still alive after my stupid stunt.

They all rushed into the alley in a panic, and I couldn't blame them seeing how an unseen force had caused them to crash. "Please let me go!" the girl cried.

"Shut your mouth!" her captor shouted as he slapped her, which burned me up. "We are not returning to the boss empty-handed."

"Why are you doing this? What did we ever do to you?"

"Blame your father for not paying the money he owes us!" Was that it? Did they kidnap a little girl...over money? That just made me sick.

Without hesitating, I leaped off the roof and landed right next to the girl's captor, and punched him in the face, releasing his grip on her and sending him flying. The other thugs attempted to attack me, but they were weaklings. I was able to subdue them with CQC alone. They soon backed away before one of them pointed a gun at me and shouted, "You think the mafia would let you get away with this, boy? Now say your prayers." He then took a shot at me, only for his ordinary bullet to bounce off of an aura I was emitting, whose color seemed to shift between dark red and bright gold, which I don't think I'm capable of using now. Was this the power that that mysterious drone claimed I had but was no longer working for whatever reason? Regardless, the men looked confused and unsettled by the bullet's ineffectiveness, especially after a few more shots didn't even leave a mark.

Soon I summoned my Keyblade, an act that startled them. I then pointed my weapon at them while igniting its tip with dark fire, causing them to tremble with fear. And finally, I fired the spell to knock the gun right out of his hand, making them gasp in fright. I glared at them as I said, "Give me an excuse! I dare you!" That sent them packing, and they ran away scared out of their wits. Once the coast was clear, I dismissed my Keyblade and turned to the girl. Getting a better look, she looked like she was about nine years old with brunette hair tied in pigtails. Wait a second, I remember seeing an image of a twelve-year-old that looked just like her back in Agrabah. Was this the same girl just a few years younger? Regardless, she looked a little scratched up, and she was holding her arm, which didn't look right. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I...I think so," she answered. "But...I think my arm is broken."

I winced before asking, "Was it the crash?" She nodded, and I looked down guiltily, chastising myself for my reckless stunt. "I'm sorry...that was on me...I wasn't thinking."

After a short pause, she replied, "Well, you did save me. So...thank you..." I looked up at her to see the warm smile on her face. Somehow rescuing her, her thanks, and that smile made me feel good about myself. I still felt guilty for hurting her so I took her arm, told her to close her eyes, which she did without hesitation, and I used Rejuvenating Night on her. Rejuvenating Night was more potent than a standard cure spell, but I had to be extra careful when using it on someone who lacks resistance to darkness. I had her close her eyes so she doesn't panic from the dark mist that momentarily shrouded her. Fortunately, it was a successful healing with no drawbacks apart from a slight shiver, as she thanked me for healing her. And then came the first name of someone I knew that I remembered. "My name is Marion! Marion Lowell! What's your name?"

Unfortunately for present me, my introduction got skipped in favor of going straight to returning her to her mother. Marion's mother thanked me hysterically for rescuing her daughter and insisted that I accept her invitation into their home for dinner, which somehow I couldn't refuse. At the dinner, I learned that the money the father owed the mafia was supposed to have already been paid, which his budget was barely able to cover as it was, but they claimed that the money never reached them. I smelled a scam and he did too.

What really shocked me though was that when they learned that I didn't have a place to stay, they didn't even hesitate to offer me their place. At first, I was reluctant to be a burden to them, but once again, they insisted that I could stay for as long as I needed, and I couldn't refuse. It was...not easy adjusting to living in a household after spending most of my life on the streets or the battlefield. I had accidentally broken several things, I was having trouble figuring out how some things worked, and I got worked up over trivial things. I was frustrated at myself for not being the perfect house guest. And yet the Lowell family was surprisingly patient with me. I never told them about my past life as a violent cult member, as at the time I was too ashamed of it. But it was like they somehow knew that I had a rough life and could tell how hard I was trying to be civil. They did scold me a few times whenever I did or said something they didn't agree with, but it never felt malicious. Of course, one thing I refused to be civil about was whenever the mafia was hounding them for money, as I took it upon myself to scare them off every time they tried.

The longer I stayed with them, the more a strange feeling grew inside me. It was...warm and comforting. I felt a sense of belonging with these people. I never felt this way with my bastard of a father. I couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like to live with a real family. Damn, I was getting soft! Just what the hell happened that made me this way? And yet, the present me couldn't chastise my past self for becoming close to someone.

And as if to seal the deal, the very last thing this heart allowed me to remember was when little Marion hugged me and told me, "I always wanted a big brother."

AURORA'S POV

After the pained look on Mortem's face ceased, it was replaced with one of… major confusion I think, and then frustration at what I assume was whatever he was confused about. "Still no answers. Still no answers!" Only Braxton dared to get close to keep Elsa's comatose body from crashing against the ground.

"You give her heart back right now!" I snapped as I called my keyblade. I tried to get close, but Jason just got in front of me saying something about not getting close to him right now. I didn't want to believe it. He was just trying to keep me from stopping that creep from getting away with this.

He then sent a glare at me. "You should listen to him. You're in way over your head, kid. You have a Keyblade, and yet you took a back seat when things got rough."

"She's still learning." Jason defended me. "And it's not like we had an idea on how we were going to stop Cryopelta before your Keyblade did… that thing."

The redhead looked uncertain at the mention of that weird train thing he summoned. "Y-Yeah… Well it really just shows how far power gets you. Without power, what can you hope to accomplish?"

"You know what I've seen power used for? To hurt everyone. To cause innocent people to suffer for no reason! That's all it ever does." I found myself snapping as unpleasant memories surfaced. "If that's all you care about, then you're no better than Madsane. All he's done with his power is–"

"You think I give a damn what he's done to your people?" He snarled. "No matter what your people have gone through, it pales in comparison to what was done to me!" He then decided to take off that jacket he was wearing, revealing…so many scars on his bare arms and shoulders. "As a child, I was abused by my own father, before he tossed me into the streets! I was left at the mercy of a whole village who scorned me for being some kind of demon! All because my mother, a beloved priestess, died giving birth to me. I had to steal food just to survive because no one lifted a finger to help me! And then eventually, they decided they had enough of me and tried to publicly execute me!"

Not gonna lie, that sounded horrible.

"The only thing that saved me was the power of darkness, and some dark god worshiping cult! They took me in and trained me…but still they treated me like I was dead weight! I tried to prove myself by fighting strong opponents, especially their mortal enemy, but no matter how hard I fought, I could never win! Hell! The one time I was shown what you might consider 'mercy' was that same enemy healing my wounds when my own ally attacked me! Do you know how insulting that is to my pride!?"

All of us just stared at him with wide eyes. That guy seriously went through all of that? Part of me wanted to retort with the effects of the teroi bomb, but somehow I think that would've set him off even more.

"And I haven't fared much better since losing my memories! Do you know what it's like to wake up with no idea who you are, surrounded by strangers you don't know you can trust, who you later find out was using you for their own schemes? Do you know what it's like to slowly regain those memories, only to suddenly have a gap in them, and now nothing makes sense to you?"

At least your homeland, culture, and history wasn't vaporized, punk. At least you and your people weren't scattered, assimilated, and treated like vermin. But I do know what it's like to have to fight for yourself, to have no one you could really trust.

But he still wasn't done. "I bet none of you has anything like this plaguing your body!" He then growled in pain and he held up his left arm. Soon that arm transformed. It turned black, grew noticeably longer, his hand turning into a three fingered set of claws, its skin was hardened, spikes protruded out of his shoulder, and a red gem emerged below those spikes which then emitted some kind of red electricity. That wasn't the only thing that changed though. Black marks covered the left half of his face, and his eyes changed: his yellow irises turned red and his white sclera turned yellow. Needless to say it was overall a very freaky sight. "Some kind of Dark Virus that allows this transformation, but at the price of both physical and mental pain! It's a struggle just to keep my sanity intact because of this thing!" Just looking at all this, I can definitely see why. He then thankfully decided to transform back to normal though it did once again look painful for him to do so. "No one ever cared about my suffering! So why should I care about everyone else's?"

Then Jason spoke. "You say that, but I've seen you care whenever young children get hurt. Explain that…"

Mortem's eye just twitched a bit before looking away in frustration. Either he doesn't want to answer that… or he doesn't even know the answer.

He just growled before he opened another of those dark corridors. I wanted to charge after him, but Jason held up an arm. "Don't try, Aurora. Nobody make a move. Just let him go. He wins this round."

"Why are you saying that?" I snapped.

"So no one else gets a redecorated face like mine." With that, we watched as the dark keyblade wielder and his little monster friend left us in the cold.

MORTEM POV

Leroy and I arrived in a secluded forest. First thing I did was punch the nearest tree so hard that it shook, while shouting in frustration.

The little red monster looked at me quizzically. "What's gotten into you?"

I growled. "Nothing is making sense anymore!"

"What do you mean?"

Before I could answer, a familiar electronic voice made itself known. "Quite maddening, Isn't it Cain?" I turned to see that same drone we encountered on Harthyrn.

"You again!" I snarled.

"I can't imagine how confused you must be, having such a huge gap in your memories. One batch you remember working for the cult and fighting the silver-haired Keyblade Princess, and suddenly you're in a city rescuing a little girl and living in a civil household."

That was too on the nose for my liking. "Wait…How would you know what I'm remembering?"

"From where I am right now, I can send my mind into this universe's dream world. Our memories, whether we remember them or not, remain in our subconscious, and thus tend to inhabit our dreams. I take a peek everytime you nab another princess's heart to see which memories are let out of their cages and which stay locked up. So I know which memories you consciously remember, and which you don't." He let out a delightful chuckle.

Needless to say, I was very creeped out by this information. It was unsettling enough to have Naminé pry into my memories, but somehow this guy prying into my dreams felt even more disturbing. For some reason, I would take Naminé over him in a heartbeat. I gathered darkness in my fist in anger. "Alright you creep! Who are you?! Why don't you just show your face?!"

"I won't bother telling you my name. But I know you have a very good idea who I am. We used to work for the same cult, after all. I'm certain it is only a matter of time before you remember my name." And here he is just deliberately prolonging my torture. He was really burning me up. "As for showing myself, I'm afraid I can't even if I wanted to right now, because I'm in an unfortunate predicament. My body is currently trapped between dimensions with no immediate means of escape, no thanks to you, demon boy."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll leave it to you to remember the specifics yourself, but let's just say that your bullheaded recklessness led to us both being blasted into another dimension. And while you managed to cross into this universe unscathed, your scrambled memories notwithstanding, I wasn't so lucky, and now I am stuck in between. And with my only means of communicating with the physical world being the drone you see before you, which has become linked to my mind by the event."

Wait a minute, what did he just say? "Blasted to another dimension? Cross into this universe? What the hell do you mean?!"

I heard him laugh maniacally. "I mean exactly what it sounds like! You and I are not from this dimension! Jason and all the other natives of Harthyrn are, but not you!"

I just stood there shocked, I'm from…a different dimension entirely?

"Funny thing: At first I thought we had merely time traveled, what with you encountering Sora and the Guardians of Light far younger than the ones we know. But then I searched around and discovered many differences that didn't add up. I certainly didn't recall any record of Harthyrn before, and I can't seem to find the Luminous Highlands or Dusk City anywhere. It appears as though the Powers of Harmony and Discord do not exist in this universe, and I suspect that they are…incompatible with this dimension, hence why they don't seem to be working for you anymore, similar to how the Corridors of Darkness didn't work in that universe you Jason and Clair got that Tesseract from. And finally, it appears that this world is being run by a much different deity from Cosmos or Chaos. It soon became clear to me that we are indeed in a parallel universe, and apparently in a time a couple decades behind ours, hence the younger versions of the Guardians of Light. Curious detail, is it not? Everyone you ever knew before you were found by Madsane is beyond your grasp! You are all alone now, stuck in a foreign dimension with no means to return home!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Th-that… That can't be true! You're lying!"

"I don't have to lie to you! Your memories will surely make you accept the truth soon enough." He then chuckled again. "You know what I find amusing? You had become a different person by the time of your latest memory batch. I'll leave the specifics for you to decipher. But then once you lost your memories, you seemed to have…relapsed back into your old ways from back in the cult. Gee! I wonder what exactly that says about you!"

"What are you implying?!"

"Let's just say one can't help but question: Which one is the real you?! On the other hand though, I can't help but wonder: How will you live with yourself with what you've been doing lately once enough, if not all, of your memories are restored? How will you handle the weight of your actions once the truth sinks in? Will you just brush them off like they're inconsequential? Or… Will you beat yourself up over them, perhaps even fall into despair? Whatever the case, it could prove quite enjoyable for me!"

I looked down as I tried to process what he was saying. Becoming a different person? Which one is the real me? What was he even talking about? And what did he mean by the weight of my actions? In short, I could not answer his questions at all. And the fact that he's still being cryptic with me was really ticking me off, not helped by the fact that he seemed to be enjoying this. I growled in frustration as I summoned my Keyblade. "Shut up!" I swung at the drone, only for it to vanish into thin air and reappear behind me.

"Very well! I shall leave you to your confusion-induced sulking! But mark my words: I will find a way out of this dimensional prison! And when I do, you and I will have a lot to…talk about! That is, if my Dark Virus doesn't claim you first! You think you have it in check for now, but we'll just see how long that lasts, Cain!" He then laughed loudly before the drone seemed to disappear in what I could only describe as…TV static?

Once it was just me and Leroy, I shouted in anger as I swung my Keyblade at the same tree I had punched, slicing right through, and it soon fell over. I took several deep breaths as I thought about what that creep said. Was he speaking the truth? Or was he just messing with my head? Am I really from a different universe from this one? Is that why I could not find anything to jog my memory other than the pure hearts? What kind of person was I before this? Why can't I just get straight answers? If there was one thing the drone was right about, this really was maddening!

It took a minute to calm down, and once I did, Leroy finally spoke. "You good?"

"I'm fine. Just don't know if I can take what he said at face value. I mean, me from another dimension?"

"Considering we've been to a world where my cousin and I are characters in a movie franchise, that's not exactly outside the realm of possibilities." I had to admit, the little monster had a point. After a long pause, he said. "So what now?"

I clutched my head in pain. It seems that two rushes of memories in such a short time frame was more mentally taxing than I thought, not to mention the info dump from that drone. "I think I need a rest. This day was too much for me."

Leroy shrugged. "If you insist."

As I sat down on the new tree stump that I made, my thoughts turned to Sora and the Guardians of Light, the one thing apparently this universe and mine had in common. Couldn't help but find this an odd coincidence. Still it answered my question to how I've encountered younger versions of them here and older versions in my memories.

Still didn't explain why Silverhead looked just like Kairi, yet both of them looked around the same age. Part of me wondered if she was Kairi's daughter, but something told me that wasn't quite it.

I sighed as I thought about those Guardians having a field day with this new information, assuming Naminé is still watching me through my memories. No doubt they'd be given more food for thought.

"So, do you think this dimension you came from… do you think it has its version of that universe with the Avengers?"

I just looked at him before saying, "Nah, I don't think so."

With a shrug, he asked, "Want to find out why you turned into a big cat?"

Huh?

See? Very important. We now know more about Mortem's past. His powers work differently because he is from another dimension. Another KH universe that is the basis of YamiChaos27's story Keyblade Princess: Cosmos's Crusaders. Be sure to check that and some of his other stories out.

Now I need to work on writing the trip to the next world. I want to at least start it as the movie turned 50 this year. I'll tell you now which one it is: Robin Hood.