CHAPTER 4 BEAST’S CASTLE THE GUMMI SHIP SPED THROUGH THE OTHER SKY to the next world. In contrast to Sora’s high spirits, Donald and Goofy looked despondent. “What’s Sora gonna do if Riku’s really with the organization?” Donald whispered to Goofy, making sure their friend wouldn’t overhear. “Hmm…” Goofy folded his arms, frowning as he thought. Sora poked his head in between them. “Hey, what’re you guys whispering about?” “Uh, gee…” “Er…” Donald and Goofy looked at each other. “Is it about Riku?” Sora asked. They nodded sheepishly and avoided his eyes. “So what if Riku is in Organization XIII? It’s fine.” “No, it’s not!” Donald objected with a scowl. “Those are the same guys who kidnapped Kairi!” “But he tried to help Mulan’s world,” said Sora. “He told the emperor that the organization was there. So he can’t be working against us, right?” “Well… Okay, but…” Donald looked down in a confused slump. “Axel’s one of them, too,” Goofy said brightly. “But he helped me out.” “When?!” Sora and Donald both leaned in close to grill him. “You never told us that!” Donald fumed. “When you fellas went on ahead without me at Hollow Bastion, he sorta gave me a hand,” Goofy explained. He didn’t sound upset about it. Sora cocked his head. “What’s that mean?” “Beats me.” Donald shrugged. “Maybe Axel’s not such a bad guy…” Sora thought back to that feeling he’d gotten when he saw Axel. Something familiar, something sad. He put his hand to his heart, clenching his fist there. Hayner, Pence, Olette…and Axel. He didn’t know why, but when he thought of those four, something in his chest ached. And Roxas. It was different when Sora tried to think of him—his head felt foggy, and something itched at the back of his mind. “But he’s the one who nabbed Kairi!” Donald argued again. Sora looked up at that, trying to clear his thoughts. “But, uh, didn’t he say he was sorry?” Goofy pointed out. “Are some of them good guys and some of them bad guys…?” Donald wondered. “Anyway, let’s get going,” said Sora. “Maybe we’ll find out more.” The trio nodded. Naminé, Riku, and Axel were gathered back in the computer lab, in the basement of the “haunted” mansion. They hadn’t managed to extract a single piece of useful information from the computer. Naminé let out a tiny sigh and opened her sketchbook on top of the keyboard. She’d drawn a picture of a fearsome beast. Riku peeked at it over her shoulder. Naminé turned, looking up at him. “Someone you know?” “Yeah…I’ve met him before.” The Beast had a ferociously strong heart—its strength of will alone had taken him to Hollow Bastion to save one of the princesses, Belle. “Looks strong,” Axel remarked from behind them. “Yeah. He is,” Riku said, sinking into thought. His heart is even stronger than his body. It’s exactly the kind of heart the organization wants… “But someone that strong won’t just do whatever the organization says,” Naminé murmured. “Well, this is their chance to show how persuasive they can be,” Axel said with a bitter smirk. Beside the Beast, who had once been a handsome prince, stood a man in a black cloak. “It’s time you dealt with the girl. She’s scheming to take everything you have,” said Xaldin, his hood pulled low to hide his face. “Your castle, your treasures…and then your very life.” The Beast hung his head. His castle was a desolate place, ruled by a monster. “Trust no one. Feed your anger. Only rage will keep you strong!” “I’ve had enough of strength. There’s only one thing I want…” The Beast gazed, unmoving, at the glass bell jar around a single red rose. What he wanted was— “Hah,” Xaldin spat. “To love and be loved in return? Who could ever love a beast?” The Beast whirled again, his cape rippling. He glared and let out a roar of fury. “Good. Let your anger rise!” With that, Xaldin vanished. They disembarked from the Gummi Ship and stepped into a shadowy castle hall. “What…is this place?” Sora swiveled his head this way and that, bewildered. It didn’t look like anywhere they’d been before. “It’s huge!” Donald waddled to the middle of the immense foyer. “And kinda gloomy, don’t ya think?” Goofy hunched up his shoulders, a bit spooked by the dreary atmosphere, and glanced back at Sora. “Yeah…I wonder who lives here.” Just as Sora began to follow them, a terrible growl echoed through the castle, shaking the very air. “Wak?!” Donald hunched up, too, his glance darting around. “What was that?” “Hey, haven’t we heard that somewhere before?” said Goofy, cocking an ear. Sora tried to do the same, and they heard another roar. “Beast…?” he said softly. “Right! It’s the Beast!” Donald hopped once in relief. They knew that roar, after all—it was the Beast who’d fought beside them in Hollow Bastion. “I wonder if he’s okay?” said Goofy. They didn’t have to go far to find him. The Beast appeared on a staircase looming over the hall. “Beast! It’s good to see you!” Sora called out cheerfully and ran up to him. But the Beast barely spared them a glance, instead descending the stairs to pace the length of the hall as if something bothered him. “What’s going on?” Goofy wondered. Sora shrugged. He had no idea. Donald nervously edged closer to the Beast. “So… How’s Belle?” The Beast only responded with a low warning growl. Baffled, the trio looked at one another and huddled together to whisper. “Should we go look for Belle?” Sora suggested. Goofy had to agree. “It looks like the Beast doesn’t wanna talk to us.” Donald nodded, too. “Well, we’re going to see how Belle’s doing, okay!” Sora told the Beast, but he kept his back turned. It wasn’t just the entrance hall. The whole castle was oppressively gloomy. “It doesn’t look like there are Heartless or Nobodies here…,” said Donald, walking on tiptoe like a thief sneaking around. They’d gone up the staircase where the Beast had come from, down some corridors, and finally arrived at a door where they could see light underneath. “Ya think anyone’s in there?” Goofy tried to peek through the keyhole. “Patience, please! The mademoiselle is dressing!” said a reproachful voice from inside. Goofy jumped back. They heard another voice. “Beast? Is that you?” The trio exchanged a glance. “Belle!” cried Sora. “That voice… Sora?” The door opened wide, and Belle beamed at them in her beautiful gown. Behind her was a wardrobe with a lady’s face. “Hi there, Belle!” Sora said. “Sora, Donald, Goofy. I’m so glad you’re here!” Belle gave them an elegant curtsy. Then the Beast spoke from behind them. “Tonight is very important.” Belle gazed up at him with a smile, and the Beast offered his arm. She twined her own slender arm around his elbow, and they strolled down the corridor together. “Uh…maybe we came at a bad time?” said Goofy. Sora nodded faintly. It was good to see Belle and the Beast back from Hollow Bastion, home in their own world and happy together. “Let’s see what the big deal is!” Donald followed the couple. A few moments later, Sora and Goofy did the same. They entered a grand ballroom. “Hey, this isn’t too dark at all,” Donald murmured to Sora. “And Belle seems to be having fun,” said Sora. Goofy nodded, grinning. In the middle of the ballroom, a middle-aged man-turned-clock bustled to and fro, along with a maître d’ candelabra, a teapot maid, and a cup who was a little boy. They were household objects now, but they had once been the prince’s very human servants. “What a funny castle,” Goofy whispered. “Now then, monsieur, mademoiselle—please enjoy the evening,” said the candelabra. Then he noticed the trio of visitors. “And of course, our honored guests are welcome, too.” Belle turned and flashed them a brilliant smile. But an unwelcome voice rang out through the ballroom. “Think there’s room for one more?” It was a man in a black cloak. “The organization!” Sora faced him with the Keyblade ready. “Don’t know when to quit, do you?” Xaldin sneered down at the trio. “We could say the same about you!” Donald shot back, shaking his wand. “Oh, not tonight…!” Belle sighed. At nearly the same time, the Beast launched himself at Xaldin. “Get out!” Nobodies appeared out of the air to block his way, but he swept them aside with a roar. “Didn’t I tell you?” said Xaldin. “She means to rob you of everything you have.” “Silence!” the Beast bellowed. “If that’s how it is, I’ll have to take something you hold very dear.” Xaldin disappeared, leaving them to puzzle over that and fend off a number of Nobodies. “Beast, let’s take care of these things first!” Sora told him, but instead of replying, the Beast roared again and scattered the Nobodies. “Wow, he’s strong!” Donald marveled. “Well, we can be pretty tough, too!” Sora charged at the Nobodies in the other direction, swinging the Keyblade. It reminded him of when they’d fought together in Hollow Bastion. How the Beast had been fighting to protect someone dear to him. How Sora and the Beast had fought against Riku. How Riku had been back then. He got the feeling that he’d learned a lot from the Beast. “There!” The Nobodies were vanquished, and Sora turned to Belle—who wasn’t there. “Where’s Belle?” “Over here!” she called. The clock and the others had ushered her behind a pillar, away from the battle. “Oh! She’s okay, Beast!” said Sora. Without a word, the Beast approached her—but then he stopped in his tracks. “Beast?” Donald said tentatively. He didn’t answer, instead tearing out of the ballroom at full speed. “Gawrsh, what’s wrong?” Goofy cocked his head. “We’d better find out. Let’s go!” Sora called to everyone in the ballroom, now considerably less pleasant than before. The trio pursued the Beast, while Belle and the transformed servants followed them. The Beast’s destination was a dismal place, illuminated only by moonlight. “What is it?” Belle asked uncertainly as the Beast stalked in circles. “Please calm down!” He stopped pacing to glare at her. “Calm down?! You just had to have a party, didn’t you?! Don’t you see what’s happened?!” “Hey, what’s the matter?” Sora cut in. “The rose… My rose…” The Beast growled in apparent agony. Donald cocked his head. “Rose?” “He took a rose?” asked Sora. “Surely you can get another one,” Belle said gently, trying to reason with him. “Silence! You don’t know anything!” The Beast closed in, raising a massive paw as if he might strike her. “That’s not fair, Beast. You can’t take it out on Belle!” Sora chided him. “It’s not like she stole it!” “…” The Beast groaned, which sounded more like a growl, and hung his head. “I’m sorry,” Belle told him softly. “No, you don’t have to apologize,” said Sora. Unconvinced, Belle looked at the floor. “But—” “Belle, Sora…I want you to leave the castle,” the Beast said in a low voice. “Look at me. Look—this is what I am. When you first came here, I tried to change… But I was only fooling myself. I’ll always be a beast. So I should live like a beast. Alone.” He turned away from her. “You can’t mean that,” she pleaded. He didn’t look at her again. “Good-bye, Belle.” “Gawrsh, I think his mind’s made up,” Goofy whispered to Sora. “Yeah…,” Sora murmured, turning to Belle. “Look, Belle, just leave this to us. If we can get the Beast’s rose back, then he’ll be okay again.” Belle nodded and silently walked out of the room. The trio went after her. The Beast was left alone with no company but the moonlight. The castle’s servants were clustered nervously outside of the room. “Belle…,” the teapot maid, Mrs. Potts, called softly to her, but Belle continued down the corridor without a word. “Oh, how could it have come to this…?” moaned the clock butler, wringing his hands with a sigh. “And they were so looking forward to this evening…” Lumière, the candelabra maître d’, drooped sadly, his candles almost going out. “Now, now—chins up, everyone,” said Mrs. Potts, trying to be encouraging. “Once we get the rose back, everything’ll be fine!” added the teacup boy beside her, Chip. The others nodded. “What’s so special about this rose, anyway?” Sora had to ask. The servants all looked at one another. “If the master can love and be loved in return, the spell will be broken,” Cogsworth replied, “and we’ll all be human again.” “Gee, why are you fellas like this in the first place?” Goofy wondered. “It seems so long ago…” Lumière gazed into the distance. “It was a cold winter’s night. An old beggar woman came to the castle, asking for a night’s shelter…,” Mrs. Potts began as Chip nodded. “But the prince, our master, turned her away. All because of her, ahem, meager appearance,” Cogsworth went on. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at one another. “That’s terrible,” said Goofy. “Oui. He was a spoiled prince. So selfish and, how can I say, coldhearted—” “Lumière!” Cogsworth cut him off sharply. “The old woman warned our master not to be deceived by appearances. Still, he would not take her in. Isn’t that how it happened, Cogsworth?” Mrs. Potts sighed. “And then the old woman’s ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.” A distant smile came to Cogsworth’s face, as if he was recalling her dazzling beauty. “She turned the prince into a beast, a shape she thought fitting for his callous heart. And we were changed, too…” At Mrs. Potts’s recollection, the servants slumped with a collective sigh. “And as for the rose, it is the time limit,” Lumière explained despondently. “He must find his true love before the last petal falls, or we will be trapped like this for all time…” “Ah, but that is not all,” Cogsworth added. “Over the years, caring for that rose has become a cherished part of the master’s daily life. It’s as if all his hopes and dreams are attached to that single bloom.” With that conclusion to the tale, a mournful silence fell over them. Sora broke it with a resolute declaration. “Then we have to get the rose back!” The servants looked up at him all at once. “Oh, please do!” Mrs. Potts nodded entreatingly. “We can’t do it without the Beast, though,” said Sora. “If it’s that important to him, he’s gotta see it through himself.” Donald and Goofy agreed. “Okay… I’ll try to talk to him.” Sora ducked back into the room they’d just left. “Hey, Beast…” The Beast didn’t even twitch. “…Leave me alone…” “No. C’mon, listen. When we saw you a year ago, you would’ve given your life to save Belle. It meant a lot to us, you know. You gave us all courage. Where’d that strong heart of yours go? You’re really just going to give up on everything now?” Sora said all at once. But the Beast only stared up at the moon. “That rose is your only hope, right? But it’s not just yours. Everyone else needs it, too. Is there anything worse than living without hope? Remember what it was like before Belle came here?” At that, the Beast’s shoulders lifted a bit. “See? You can’t give up. Not now,” Sora persisted. “There is still hope.” “…I know one thing.” The Beast finally turned to face him. “This castle belongs to me. And that stranger has no right to be here.” Sora nodded with a determined smile. “Let’s find him—and the rose!” The Beast gave him a firm nod in return. They hadn’t seen any Heartless before, but now the castle was crawling with them. “Where’d they all come from?!” Donald complained, brandishing his wand. With the Beast’s help, the trio took out swarm after swarm of Heartless until they finally arrived at the great entrance hall. “So, monster, you’re here after all.” The voice came from above them. They followed the sound and saw the man in the black cloak on a high window ledge, staring down at them—and holding the glass bell jar that housed the rose. “The organization!” Sora cried. He pushed back his hood and revealed a strong-jawed face with thick black eyebrows and sideburns, framed by long dreadlocks—all features suggested he was a man with intense drive. “Xaldin, to be precise. You had me worried. I was afraid you’d given up for good.” The Beast rumbled deep in his throat. “What do you guys really want?!” Sora demanded. “Kingdom Hearts,” Xaldin replied plainly. “When Kingdom Hearts is ours, we will be complete. So you see, Beast, we need your Heartless and your Nobody!” “That’s your excuse?!” Sora leaped up and charged at him, but Xaldin had plenty of time to dodge. He sprinted past them outside to the courtyard. “Let’s get him!” Sora cried, and they followed hot on the intruder’s heels. Belle gazed out from a second-story balcony, sighing heavily. I know the Beast really does have a kind heart, she thought. He just has so much trouble letting it out… I know that, but it still hurts so much that he would tell me to leave. Another sigh escaped her. “Belle?” someone suddenly called up from the courtyard below. She looked down to find the Beast with Sora and his friends there. Not wanting the Beast to see her so upset, she quickly turned to go back inside, but then she saw it—the rose, right there at her feet. “Hmm?” She carefully hefted up the bell jar with both hands and grinned. “Look! It’s the rose!” But as she called down to them, she didn’t notice Xaldin sweeping in behind her like a dark wind. “Belle!” the Beast roared. Xaldin covered her mouth and grabbed her by the arm. Belle tried to struggle, but she couldn’t let the bell jar fall. “Let her go!” shouted Sora. Gathering Belle in his arms, rose and all, Xaldin leaped all the way across the courtyard, over the arch of the castle gates. From the ground, they lost sight of him. Belle heard Sora urging the others, “C’mon, let’s go!” and their footsteps hurrying to catch up. Xaldin stood on the wide stone bridge leading to the castle gates. One hand held Belle captive, and the other held the rose. “You! Get out of my castle—now!” the Beast snarled. “With pleasure, but I’d prefer to travel light,” said Xaldin. “Which one should I leave behind? Belle or the rose?” The Beast let out a furious roar and sprang at Xaldin. “Belle!” In the same instant, Belle rammed her elbow into Xaldin with all her might—then snatched up the bell jar and ran. “Nice one, Belle!” Sora called, making sure that she had escaped back through the castle gates as he readied the Keyblade. “Beast, let’s take care of him!” The Beast roared in reply. “Fools…,” Xaldin muttered. Darkness swirled around him and took shape into six lances hovering about him like a pointy barrier. “Here I come!” Sora jumped up high to attack, but the lances moved of their own accord to defend their master, and he couldn’t get close. As they swooped and stabbed with the wind, Sora didn’t get away unscathed. Donald tried his magic. “Thunder!” “Can’t get him!” Sora groaned, on one knee as another whirlwind bore down on him. “Sora!” Goofy scurried to him and gave him a potion. Behind them, the Beast dealt Xaldin a heavy blow. “Yeah! Get ’im, Beast!” Sora scrambled to his feet and dashed into the action again. “Thunder! Thunder! Thunder!” Donald shot off spell after spell, trying to stop the lances, but none of his attacks reached Xaldin himself. Another whirlwind rose. “Uh-oh! Uh…huh?” As Sora desperately tried to brace himself, the wind turned to a cloud of black fog, passing over his head and scattering Xaldin’s lances. Sora watched, bewildered. “What’s going on?” “How dare you…!” Xaldin glared in the direction where the other wind had come from. “Well, whatever!” Sora rushed at Xaldin. “Beast!” “Sora, now!” They took turns striking at Xaldin, cooperating to bring him to heel. Xaldin groaned, and the instant his swift movements paused, Sora brought down the Keyblade. “Take this!” The lances stood on end, completely still, then flared with light and vanished. “Agh… Ahhhhhh!” Facing the sky, Xaldin screamed in agony, a sound like the last of his strength tearing from him. His body dissipated into dark wisps, and then he was gone so completely, it was like he’d never been there at all. “We did it!” Sora punched the air. Behind him, the Beast started back toward the castle. Belle was waiting there in the courtyard, holding on to the bell jar. She smiled when she saw him and offered the container with its enchanted red rose. “Here. It’s yours again.” “Belle…” “I know. You want me to leave.” Sorrow came into her face. The trio came running, then stopped and watched them closely. Cogsworth and the other servants were huddling nearby, too. “No… What matters is that you weren’t hurt.” The Beast spoke slowly, appearing troubled. “And…I’m very grateful to you…for bringing the rose back to me.” Hearing that, Belle smiled again. “It was the least I could do before leaving,” she said softly. “You’ve been so good to me.” “Actually…Belle…” He set the rose down on the ground and mumbled, hanging his head, as if he was struggling to say something else. “Yes?” He couldn’t meet her eyes. He glanced at Sora and the others instead. “Go for it!” Sora encouraged him. “Master, tell her!” “C’mon!” “You can do it!” “Go ahead!” “This is the moment of truth!” “Don’t be bashful now!” Lumière and Donald chimed in, followed by Mrs. Potts and Chip, Cogsworth and Goofy. The Beast took a nervous breath and returned his attention to Belle. “I’d like you to stay here…with me. Always.” Smiling, she reached out with her right arm. It was an invitation to dance. He took her hand and placed his other on her waist. Her voice was low and gentle as she answered, “I will.” The others watching broke into grins, finally able to breathe again. “Maestro—music!” Lumière called in a stage whisper, and a waltz began playing. The Beast and Belle twirled around the courtyard, unhurried in their happiness.
Chapter 28
19 min read