The Heartless, summoned by that Organization XIII guy, swarmed around them again. Donald and Goofy fought them back, but Sora only defended. What else could he do, now that he knew using the Keyblade on the Heartless was only going to help the Organization do whatever it was they were doing? That they were just re-enslaving all the hearts he freed from captivity?

What if everything he'd done - all of it - was for nothing? What am I supposed to do if I can't use the Keyblade?

Sora didn't have any answers, and wasn't likely to come up with any while Heartless were trying to bite his heart out.

#Imbeciles!# raged a voice in his head, recognizably Maleficent. Not actually killed by Nobodies, because of course she hadn't been. Darkness spread around Sora's feet, sticking to his shoes, sucking him down and shoving the Heartless back. #You can't be trusted to do anything!#

Darkness swallowed Sora - not for the first time, but it was just as unnerving.

And then, it was gone. He was face-down on a rocklike surface with the Keyblade still gripped tightly in one hand. Sora bounced back to his feet, ready to fight... empty space. He was on a road - a real one, not just a dirt path - surrounded by... desert. Not Agrabah, a world he wasn't familiar with. "...Huh. I guess help really does come from unexpected places. Right, Don-" Sora broke off, because it wasn't like Donald not to already be freaking out about Maleficent moving them somewhere else. Sora spun half-left, then half-right, then all the way around in a circle. "DONALD! GOOFY! HEY GUYS, WHERE ARE YOU?"

When his yell just echoed over the desert and his friends didn't respond, he frowned in confusion. "Okay. This is weird." And no, he didn't have a problem with talking to himself out loud. Why would that be a problem? "I wonder what Maleficent wants...."

Well, he wasn't going to find out or find his friends by just standing around! There was a road, it had to go somewhere. Sora followed it towards the building in the distance, which was... a hotel? In the middle of nowhere? Super weird, but also cool. A hotel meant people, maybe that was where Donald and Goofy had gone! To look friendlier, Sora dismissed the Keyblade and walked inside, straight towards the front desk.

"Welcome, Master Sora," said the guy (Sora might have used 'nondescript' if he was the type to use words like that) behind the desk. "You will be in room 174. Here is your key. Enjoy your stay." He passed over a keycard, then appeared to lose interest.

"That's okay, I'm not staying." Sora picked up the keycard anyway, out of force of habit. He was used to picking things up when they were offered to him. "But have you seen my friends? Donald or Goofy? Or Riku? Kairi?"

The desk guy 'woke up' briefly to bland out, "I have no reservations for or current guests by any of those names."

"...Oh." So what was the point here? No Heartless, no friends... hey, that was actually pretty clever! Sora perked up. Maleficent was a smart one, all right - and yeah, it helped her too, but if destroying Heartless with the Keyblade was a problem, stick the Keyblade where there were no Heartless for a while! It made sense! And... and probably Donald and Goofy were somewhere else and looking for him? Or something?

So I guess I am staying here for a while? "Um, okay. Thanks. I'm gonna look around!"

Hah. People! And this one 'felt' a lot more real than front-desk guy. So Sora smiled and waved. Why not? The guy wasn't any scarier than Leon or Cloud, and they weren't scary at all really. Even when they were picking fights. "Hi! Yeah, I just got here a few minutes ago. I'm Sora. Have you seen anybody named Donald, or Goofy, or Riku, or Kairi?" The list was getting longer, but at least Sora didn't have to ask about King Mickey anymore. He knew where the King was!

"Yeah, he'd never heard of them either." Sora sighed and shook his head. But it wasn't like he wasn't used to looking for people he'd lost. It was just four now instead of two, and he was sure Donald and Goofy would do their own looking for him in turn.

It would all be okay, because of course it would be. "Thanks anyway. Hey, can you tell me what this world is called at least?"

"Nope!" It was a little more complicated than most world-names that Sora knew, sure, but maybe it was bigger. Worlds weren't all the same size, after all. And they had areas and things. So.... "Earth, huh? Thanks, I'll remember." He wondered what other worlds it was connected to, what pathway Maleficent had found. "How about Maleficent? Do you know her at all?" This guy, despite wearing black and having a kind of Captain-Hook-ish accent, didn't seem like her type, but sometimes it was hard to tell.

And then something else in the guy's answer grabbed Sora's attention. "Wait, you're not from here? You came from a different world too? Neat! Which one? Maybe I know it!"

Huh. Exandria was another world he hadn't heard of... but there were probably a lot of those. "Sure, I do it all the time. I mean, not usually by a witch's dark portal..." Or was Maleficent an evil fairy? Sora wasn't sure. "Anyway! Usually I travel on a ship with my friends Donald and Goofy. But yeah, I've been to lots of worlds. Not Exandria, though, sorry."

For a moment - just a moment! - Sora looked crestfallen, then he smiled again and shrugged. "Sorry. They're usually right with me, we've never really needed a way to talk to the ship. It's just like 'Hey Donald, Goofy, come over here!'" And he hadn't seen any of the glowy spots on the ground that usually meant 'gummi ship transporter', either. "And I didn't come here by ship anyway, Maleficent sent me here."

Was it possible that this world wasn't connected? It would explain no one being able to go anywhere, and no Heartless, but... how did people from different worlds all end up here, if there was no connection? Maybe... maybe it was like Traverse Town, way back in the beginning? People with strong hearts and wills ending up someplace else when their worlds were consumed by the Heartless. Like Sora himself had done, and Simba, and Bambi....

Sora decided, immediately, not to mention this possibility to the man in black, who was being friendly and helpful. It wasn't like Sora was sure, or it was anything but a mean thing to say. "I'm sure this world will get connected sooner or later. It'll all be fine."

"I'm Sora." Sora held out a hand to shake, and decided to also not mention that he'd introduced himself in his first flood of commentary and questions. There had been a lot of names in there, it was probably understandable that the only one not belonging to a lost friend had gotten missed. "And this isn't so bad. Nobody's tried to steal anybody's heart, or turned into a dragon and tried to kill anyone, or started and had to run away from an avalanche... anyway, this is a pretty nice world actually. Plus I still have hands."

Something in the back of Sora's head itched familiar, but he stopped and smiled back at the woman. Regina. She had a nice smile, and whatever the itch was trying to remember wasn't major, or he'd have remembered already. Plus, whoever she was she pretty obviously didn't know him. "Hi! Yeah, I just got here... not long ago." He didn't have a watch or anything. Ooops. "I'm Sora. It's nice to meet you."

"From?" Somehow, that was the question that threw him. Not the world travel, or trying to work out how much to explain, or wondering what Maleficent was up to, or missing all his friends. Where are you from was... complicated. "Do you mean like originally, or recently, or...? But, um. Yeah. I'm here alone. For now anyway."

"Lost... Boys?" Sora blinked. Another familiar thing, from further back, what was it- "Oh, do you mean Peter's gang? No, I don't really have anything to do with them." After a moment, he added, "Actually I try and avoid'em. Peter's kind of a pain, so." He could be a helpful pain, sure, but on reflection someone who was okay with letting the Heartless stay loose in his world as long as it wasn't inconveniencing him personally was probably worthy of being labeled a pain. And he was WAY too amused by people getting eaten by ticking crocodiles even if said people were pirate captains.

"I think I was there... I dunno, it was a while." At least a year, but he'd been asleep or something a while. For some reason he didn't remember. And... yeah, that was complicated.

Food was a lot less complicated, so Regina got a radiant smile. "Sure! I was actually gonna look for food, so that works out great!"

Sora blinked, but took the offered seat. He wanted to say that he could get his own food, but something told him to settle. Regina wanted to be helpful, and it had king of been a long day. "Um... fruit, maybe some bread? I don't eat meat, just so you know. You know, ahead of time."