A/N: I am currently motivated from seeing the new live-action Beauty and the Beast movie, so I will try to write out this plot bunny before it's gathered dust. This will not be a re-telling of the classic tale (after looking through the archive there is a LOT of those), but a continuation of a what-if situation that popped into my head.

Please read and review using the buttons below. It's been a long time in coming back to FFN since I made my account when I was thirteen. I will take constructive criticism to heart and ignore the anonymous flames.

'Hello' – Thoughts

"Hello" – Spoken Words

Pairing: Beast/Prince x OC/Belle

Warnings: Character Death in this first chapter. Sorry! It will get better I promise.

Classics Never Die (Temporary Title)

Chapter One: A Hitch in the Tale

It had happened suddenly, just as things were looking up.

When the prince had made the decision to free his love from her imprisonment, he know that to go to her father would mean the end of his time limit. While the animal inside of him railed against the action of letting the prisoner go – their only chance! - he had watched her mount Phillipe fade into the frozen forest at the edge of the castle grounds.

'Forever' the beast within him roared, 'she left and you are now cursed with this unrequited love! She could have broken us free from these chains before you tossed her out the gates-'.

'No' the prince rebuked, 'her father would not have lasted. What kind of love could be begotten for the one that would bar her from her father?'

At the arrival of the torch-wielding townspeople to the castle, the prince could have cared less about living another day knowing that the only one who mattered left. Too lost in in warring pieces of his being, the prince and the beast fought with the unyielding emotions caused by the events of the past few hours. Too tired to care, to hate, to keep living with such a large hole ripped from his heart.

The beginning of the castle's assault below barely roused the beast enough to notice the door to his rooms opening. The commotion that followed the intrusion became distorted as he was attacked and forced outside the room by his assailant, Gaston the hunter. In desolate pain, the prince kept pushing the beast down, tramping down instinct to retaliate. A crude storybook ending deserving of the once spoiled prince – as the hunter had come to kill a mindless beast.

...

An echo of his name on the nightly wind brought the beasts attention to a castle window just below him. As his eyes met the honey brown he had grown to love, the dying flicker of hope began to bloom again. In stunned adoration of the woman who had once again returned despite all that has happened, he could only whisper a quiet "Belle".

A moments distraction and Gaston was once again upon him. As the fighting again ensued, the two men became oblivious to the crumbling of the surrounding structures. The appearance of Belle spurred the princely beast to quickly finish the fight so that he might finally confess his love to her.

As seconds became minutes, Gaston began to lose his advantage and soon after found himself caught around the neck by his quarry over the side of the castle wall. Despite the burning fury, the prince showed the hunter undeserved mercy.

"Get out!" the beast roared to the man, knowing Belle to be watching from her perch.

The hunter only gave a quick nod of the head before he was roughly tossed aside on the crumbling ledge. Thinking the fight over, the beast turned to rejoin his lady. As blue eyes met brown, the beast leaped to close the distance between them…

Just as love can be salvation, so too can it cause devastation.

Gaston had lost, everything. His plans to imprison Maurice, Belle's father, fell apart as his damsel of an intended wife returned to save him! His prowess as an excellent hunter dismantled as he lost the fight with his prey! His humiliation became all-consuming as he witnessed the couple reunite before him. Enraged, he saw only one way to solve both problems with one stone-like bullet.

The clicking of a gun, was the only warning the Beauty and her Beast had before everything changed.

On a perch hallway to Belle, the beast turned back to the hunter prepared to end the fight for good. For all of Belle's gentle kindness, this man no longer deserved the mercy the prince had shown him. As his eyes landed on the other man's figure, his breath was stolen seeing that the gun wasn't pointing at him.

A roar, a gunshot, and a final collapse of stone was the only thing heard before a female scream pierced the air.

...

The fading sounds of the skirmish in the courtyard barely reached the ears of the beast who cradled his love on the balcony ruins in the West Wing. With shaking paws the beast attempted to staunch the flow of blood coming from the brunette he held. His desperate pleas for her to move, to keep her eyes open, were lost as eyelids slowly fluttered over dulled eyes. His Belle, his world, lay dying in his arms just as the last petal fell.

Cogsworth and Lumiere attempted to console a Mrs. Potts who had gathered past the threshold of the door as the townspeople had retreated from the castle. While the rest of the servants and Maurice (still carrying Chip) rejoined in the aftermath of the battle, they wept for the loss of their friend and their prince. The love between them had been their hope in the past few months, their one glimpse of light since the enchantment. The loss of their humanity was a pale comparison to the loss that they were now witness to as no hope remained to save Belle's life.

From the doorway, a hooded figure appeared behind the servants and gazed mournfully into the room. Agathe, as the townspeople had named her, walked the expanse of the room to the covered rose she had once offered the prince. A growl from the enchanted beast halted her from moving any further towards the table.

"Was this the lesson you wanted to teach me?! Did you want me to find love only for it to be ripped away?" the horrible growling threat of his voice only became thicker as waves of despair and grief threatened to drown him.

"No" the eyes of the enchantress met his form, "I simply wanted you to see past your vanity and greed. Your spoiled nature was hurting those around you, those that had raised you and trusted in your leadership. This ending I would not wish on anyone and was not my intention as your punishment."

The beast could only gaze on the cooling form of his love as her breaths began to shallow out.

"C-Could you save Belle Madamoiselle?" Lumiere braved to ask. "They have found love in each other I know it! Hope cannot be lost now when they have gained so much!"

A slow shake of the head was all the woman could give. Turning to the beastly form of the prince she watched as his paws delicately traced the features of his lady, attempting to ease the pain of her wounds, as the red of her life continued to seep from her chest.

´I cannot change the fate of death, that is a power no one has."

A growl of fury was directed towards her though the prince remained holding Belle. A quiet cough brought blue eyes to the beauty's face as a paw tenderly held her face. As he watches the last fleeting moments of her fading life, her face begins to blur as tears come to his eyes.

"I cannot change her fate, but I might be able to help you reunite in her next life."

A/N: Okay, Love it/Hate it? Please review below! This is a pilot chapter and I would like to know if I should continue or not with the plot. I know there are going to be a lot of you that hate that I killed the main character in the very first chapter but this is the what if situation I had haunting my brain.