ONCE...
A brutal winter's night...
"GRANDMOTHER...GRANDMOTHER" a frightful half human voice in panic was yelling as there lungs as the wind howled around the door of the small cabin. Just then the door swing open was the figure in red tripped over the edge of the warm cabin. The blackness of the room filled the hooded figure with fear.
"BY THE GODS!, your...your covered in blood!"
The figure answered "I killed them!"
"Who did you kill!?"
The figure was laughing as if the grandmother had told a joke "Men, a whole platoon of small simple men. They provoked me, they angered me into changing in the very thing they were hunting and the worst feeling come over me as take there lives..."
"...AND I ENJOYED IT"
Just as the figure said that, the sudden glow of torches overwhelmed each and every widow of the cabin as well as the number of the angry mob were ramming the doorway.
The voice of the Grandmother filled the room, there was no love to it for the kneeling figure before her. "In one twisted way am supposed to feel sorry for you but this is not that time...
...Your careless selfishness just brought out the Beast that always within you...
...And from this moment on, YOU WILL REMAIN A BEAST FOREVER..."
A shaking thumbing hairy clawed hand vainly try the dress of the Grandmother as the figure's frightening voice echoed its scared tone. "Grandmother, please just help me, make them listen!"
"...TO WHAT?, THAT THEY WERE ALWAYS RIGHT TO FEAR AND HATE YOU, THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT...
...FOR I SEE THERE WAS NEVER ANY LOVE IN YOUR HEART TO BEGIN WITH..."
The cabin around them was slowly turning into glass as the Grandmother's voice sounded louder over the now shocked mob.
"...LET NO MAN EVER TOUCH YOU, LET NO ANIMAL EVER FOUND PITY FOR YOU UNTIL MY CURSE BE DONE..."
"...UNTIL YOU FOUND A PERSON WHO WILL EMBRACE YOU FOR THE ASPECTS I LOVED ABOUT YOU. THAT ASPECTS YOU'RE LOST AS THEY WERE REPLACED BY THE VAIN HATRED OF EVERYTHING I TAUGHT YOU AND MONSTROUS CORRUPTION OF THE IDEALS, I ALWAYS LOVED ABOUT YOU...
"Grandmother?"
"...YOU AND I ARE NOT RELATED, I HAVE NO GRAND DAUGHTER!, WHO COULD EVER LOVE A BEAST!..."
TOWN OF COCTEAU...Many years later
"Whose's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" A man in a knight's uniform asked to the crowd of the local tavern hall as he wander around the room holding a drawing of the creature.
"THE most fearsome of the Werewolves, the creature who served with the Evil Queen herself in her war against our brave Snow White. This monster has wandered into towns to take fresh maidens to eat and kill even the bravest of men!."
"What is your point then, good sir knight?" a village man questioned
"Snow White is offering a thousand pound reward for killing of the Big Bad Wolf. I just found it interesting that the town of Cocteau lies alongside the most recent sightings of this infamous monster"
"Our little town wouldn't dare be a safe haven for werewolves!"
"The Big Bad Wolf is no common werewolf, there are rumors that even the most fearsome of packs run whenever he is near. If they fear him then so do we."
The knight was smiling but to only one observed towns person noticed that it read as false.
He was simply a young man serving his duty to the legendary queen Snow White, for no one among the Enchanted Forest dare question her regain except the Evil Queen,and she had been uncharacteristically silent in those past weeks.
"Answer me this, good towns people, who among you is brave enough to face the horror that is the Big Bad Wolf?" the knight shouted
"...I WILL KILL THE BIG BAD WOLF!" A sharp female voice rang out over the crowd. Her accent was most unusual among the towns people as the knight to face who it was coming from.
The crowd parted as the knight walked toward the back of the tavern to see the stunning figure before him. A raven black haired woman with piercing blue eyes and red lips, she only seemed a bit shorter compared to the tall knight. She wear a white dress under a blue overcoat, her hair tie was also the same bright color of blue. He noticed that the only thing clashing with the blue and white was some long red leather gloves that covered both her hands.
"And what name goes with the bravery?" the knight questioned
"Belle"
That name sounded familiar as the knight suddenly realized something
"Belle as in the very same young girl who KILLED THE DARK ONE HIMSELF!?"
Belle seemed very amused by the knight's shocked realization as she smiled widely "Yes the very same, i have also taken on a number of other creatures. This werewolf will be no different...
...Now as for money after this job, Snow White said a thousand pounds right?"
"Of course"
"Let us say we up it to about a fairly reasonable 22 thousand pounds"
"THAT'S INSANE!"
"That's business, more importantly monster hunting business, one that pride myself on...well that and Sir Gaston whose the bravest of any monster hunter. So about 22 then?"
The knight was now both equally charmed by Belle and also equally annoyed by her as well. But if this was get the job faster then he had little choice in the matter.
"Already 22 thousand then on completion of the job by no less then a week from today!"
The knight handed now the small bag of gold as well the rough drawing to the now very happy young woman
"So nice serving the Queen, sir knight"
"Please the honor is all mine to stayer of the foul Rumple, may he rot!" the knight said as he left the tavern
"You should have said "no"
a woman yelled across the room to Belle, as it had been several hours later in the tavern since the knight left.
Belle know the woman well as she come near her, the tall thin form with a more piercing yellow colored eyes, a rather massive bosom and long legs. Her outfit was a pure red corset over a green dress. Her voice was pure and sensual but now sounded angry or deeply annoyed at Belle
"Perdita, please, am sorry that my job seems upsetting to you for some reason"
"22 thousand pounds for killing the Big Bad Wolf?. Belle are you insane?"
"No i mean what i said by hunting down this brutal monster." Belle had always taken this job seriously but it seemed Perdita don't like that answer.
"Belle, there's a pretty good reason as why the other monster hunters haven't kill him yet. The Big Bad Wolf is something that is smart and it will be the one that hunts you. It already killed before with it's first murder being the Queen of the Red Forest. Do really dare face that Belle? "
Belle laughed "Your talking as if you feel sorry for it, Perdita?"
Perdita nodded her head "Yes, Belle maybe because not all of the world's monsters are the Dark One" she walked out bitter as Belle drink her beer.
Just then a big manly shadow appeared over her table "Hello Belle"
"Sir Gaston, i was hoping you arrived" Belle said happily as she hugged the huge red coated and fabulously handsome monster hunter
"Oh as my soon to be future wife and follow hunter, i was always hoping we would move away from this town and settle down in..."
"My mother still says NO, Gaston!" Belle said sharply
"But what of her identical twin sisters, the smart Susan and the equally beautiful Paige ?"
"They equally said NO as well, they just don't trust you that way i do. That's what happens when you're born into being the third in line of identical triplets!" she actually sounded greatly disappointed.
Her mother was keeping her from marrying what she felt was the right man
"You're family is nothing more then inventors all but you, my dear"
"And for that am glad but my mother and sisters are always talking about the next big thing and they all feeling it's this newest project. Which ironically they are keeping from me. You can rant all you want about our forth coming marriage, it's bloody nothing compared to do what my mother has in store"
"Belle i hope your not having dangerous second thoughts about me?"
"Believe me...you're face is what kept me sane after i killed Rumple. Otherwise i would be lost and alone in that moment afterwards..."
"Belle, you had no choice, it was ether you or him and you choose wisely. Am still keeping you sane"
Gaston watched as Belle slowly walked away from him, he noticed tears in her eyes as anger grow in her voice toward
"...NO Gaston, whats keeping me sane is the fact that which and EVERY time i'll kill at least one of those things,
am getting one more inch of my humanity back,something they clearly lacked.
This...this BEAST..this Big Bad Wolf that EVERYONE in the land fears is going to be NO FUCKING DIFFERENT!"
She now run out of the tavern as Gaston just smiled "She wants me"
Belle had to dry her tears as she near the large house just outside of town. She needed to be stronger then this if she was to hunt down the Big Bad Wolf, the greatest and dangerous of all foes within her reach. She felt that Snow White must have really wanted to kill that werewolf, and whatever this creature did to her must have been quite horrible. The Snow's war felt like it happened ages ago and still the Evil Queen lived somehow and now there was a unnerving period of peace between them. The town of Cocteau was far away from such things but not Belle.
The thrill of hunting any number of monsters within such marvelous places such as the mermaid Old City of Atlantis under the sea to the sand dune streets of Agrabah.
Belle had seen the world and then some and in which and everyone of them had there fair shire of problems. She would live the rest of her life fighting them, money was but one among many rewards including the utterly handsome Sir Gaston who she felt only saw her as the grand "hero" of fame and fortune. She know that was a unworthy title, but there was no other way to met the vast network of other monster hunters that travel the world just as well as she had. Gaston had made his fame through his countless hunts in such places as OZ and Wonderland.
He had even met Dorothy and Alice, serving even as best man for there joyous wedding.
She would never get to places like that in this small part of the world, mainly because she take this "job" seriously compared to Gaston who treated everything as a game. These creatures were not just mare animals they destroy lives as she personally felt. And the Big Bad Wolf was just one of them, once he was gone she thought this world would a bit more safer.
As neared the house, she saw a very familiar sight greeted her
It was her sister Paige's white horse Philippe who looked quite tried and scared drinking water near the back of the house. Belle suddenly run toward him as the clouds over head darkend as loud thunder and lighting clashed. Panicking as she talked to the horse
"Where's mother and my sisters?, please take me to them!" she yelled as the rain poured down around them
Philippe's hooves run fast over the increasing muddy road as Belle had held herself as the heavy rain poured ever quickly.
The horse seemed to somehow know where it was going as Belle saw through a huge mountain made of solid ice raising before her, she don't see any opening at all to it. And somehow both of them were heading right toward as Belle closed her eyes feeling they were both to ram into. She opened them again as the rain suddenly seemed to have stopped.
For on the other side of this mountain was a entirely different landscape, it had suddenly turned into a peaceful night even though she know it was a morning rain, they had just witnessed. The trees were twisted into weird shapes around her.
A full moon and starlight sky filled the landscape, beautiful yet unsettling to Belle and she fought monsters for a living.
Looking forward she saw some sort of town from far away and it looked even bigger then Cocteau.
Then she entered a magnificent garden surrounded by a hedge statues which mainly by the look of them..wolves!. A huge foundation also in the shape of a wolf was in the very center of the entry garden, gigantic and bright red in color.
She saw beyond the garden was the grandest castle in existence.
Colored in dark red, parts of the castle seemed to be ruin while others looked incredibly new. Some windows were broken by the looks of it and she even noticed doorways in least two of the seemingly endless castle.
As she get off Philippe, she then noticed the gigantic overhead door. Above it was the head of not a wolf but strange twisted creature with horns. Such weird and terrifying details were all through out this place where ever the hell this place was?. What in the world was her mother and sisters doing here? and who could have been the owner to such a dark and spooky castle?
As near the doorway, she had heard some loud crying coming from nearby. She run into one of the hedges to see a cage in the middle of it...
"MAMA...
SUSAN...
...PAIGE" she shouted in surprise as run toward them.
Hugging each of them in tears
"Who the hell did this to you?" Belle barely calming voice asked as Paige answered
"A monster!, it overwhelmed us once we all picked from this glass tree of strange roses and left us in this cage. By the gods am soooo scared right now..."
"So am i sister" Susan answered but Belle wasn't listening as she draw out her pistol and cocked it slowly.
Since she entered here, she felt like she was being watched. The figure moved with her every step of the way. It was fast and in her mind don't move on four legs.
The figure seemingly was watching her at every possible way and now within the garden hedge it will strike.
Quickly turning Belle aimed her pistol at the darkened top of the hedge.
"Fire that gun and they will never go free!" A deep growling voice commanded, to Belle's ears it almost sounded...feminine?
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TO EVEN IMPRISON THEM LIKE THIS?" Belle shouted in utter anger
" They come here for asking for food and shelter from the storm, then a moment later I found them stealing my roses. For all i know YOU are just part of a group of thieves" The deep voice reasoned but still Belle wasn't buying it
"MY MOTHER AND SISTERS ARE NOT THIEVES AND YOU HAVE BETTER COME OUT OF THE SHADOWS RIGHT NOW,
AND TELL ME TO MY FACE AS WHY I SHOULDN'T JUST KILL YOU FOR THAT!"
The next few minutes there was silence and then a loud burst of laughter from the figure. "I'll come out but only it's because i found you amusing"
The figure just down from the hedge tops perfectly landing near the cage. Belle back away as the figure neared her
The figure stood over a foot taller then Belle, it had a striking black furred coat. Massive long legs and arms that both ended in sharpen yellow claws. The face was that of a blackened wolf with piercing yellow eyes that were less animal and more human. "A werewolf ahah ...of course it's a fucking werewolf holding my family prisoner"
She turned to see all of her family within the cage nodding no "It's not just a "werewolf" Belle!", her mother yelled
Suddenly the creature grabbed Belle's pistol and with one hand crashed it, then it lower it's head toward Belle...
"AM THE BIG BAD WOLF"
This was unexpected , Belle couldn't do anything without endangering her family in front of the most feared of all of the werewolves.
Sounding truly desperate she needed to save to her family from it and she closed her eyes as she talked again to Big Bad.
"What will take to let them go?" tears were forming in her eyes as the creature turned away.
"An exchange, one prisoner for three" Big Bad said as Belle looked at her family within the cage, there was little to decided for her
"I'll do it, take me and they go free..."
"Brave but stupid, still i see no harm in it" Big Bad seemed surprised by this as it talked
Susan cried out "NO BELLE, THINK OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING!"
"Yes this "thing" is a monster!" Paige said shaking uncontrollably and not just from the cold
"Belle there has to be another way, i'll lived my life..."
She looking down to the ground as she speak again " No mother,I'll make my own fate"
Big Bad with it's sharpened claws cut the lock to the gate of the cage, it watch sadly as the three family members gathered around Belle. It almost seemed...envious of Belle's happiness of her family.
As Belle hugged her mother, she whispered into her ear "I been hired to kill the Big Bad Wolf, in the next few days, when he changes into a man..."
"Whoever said I WAS a man?" Big Bad laughed
Suddenly behind them, Big Bad pulled out a striking bright red hood that seemingly had been inside the cage.
Wrapping it around it's furry back, Belle and her family watched as the hood give off a bright light.
And where there had been a towering wolf had now appeared in it's place a tall beautiful black haired woman. Belle couldn't help being stunned by the change before her very eyes, no werewolf in the entire world had this type of power if any. The woman's hood was long and flowing almost magical around her, and yet the striking yellow eyes of a animal remained along with the human hands still having claws.
Her beauty seemingly surpassed that of Belle, with red crimson lips, her skin still smooth even if she still run through dry dirt. The wild black hair still had fragments of fallen leaves. She was taller then all of the sisters, yet
The black haired woman was nude except for the hood as the change was completed as she walked toward the mother.
And with a wave of her hand, two white horses appeared in front of the garden as the human Big Bad speak with the same type deep growl to the voice
"There collective names are Magnificent, they will take you back to the town...
BUT tell no one of what you seen here of ether this castle or the existence of the glass roses"
"WHY!?" Belle's sisters both said angrily toward the creature
"Because you're lives would be endangered otherwise and not just from me!"
As Belle's mother get on the first horse shouted madly toward Big Bad, "WHEN WILL MY DAUGHTER BE SET FREE MONSTER?"
The red hooded young woman simply walked toward her "It's forever" she looked shocked by that statement.
Just as Big Bad whistled at both horses, and the next thing Belle saw was the horses running toward a swelling mist. With a blink of a eye the mist disappeared just as quickly and leaving now just Belle and her captive. Her fists tighten as she walked the hedge cage but was soon blocked by the black haired woman.
"No!, this cage is not where you be staying"
Belle looked confused as the tall woman lead her away from the hedge and back to the front door. The woman single handily pushed the heavy front door of the castle, Belle followed her inside.
Belle looked to see a rather bizarre entry hall of the castle. One part of the hall had the look of a rustic log cabin, a huge fireplace was in the center of it complete with two deer heads mounted on ether side of it. Nearest to the fireplace was a large leather green chair, underneath it was a bearskin rug.
The middle of the large hall had been a spinal wide twisting staircase, and the another side to it was what look like a wide opened ball room.
Belle could already hear some sort of party going on, there were another people here with this woman?
"Are there another prisoner here?" Belle questioned as the tall woman turned quickly toward her
"Not prisoners..servants but don't bother interacting with them. They are but shadows of there former selves..."
Just then the ball room door opened suddenly to hear what sounded like two playful children. Belle was looking wildly when she saw in the candlelight of the staircase, shadows of a little pony tailed girl who was laughing who was about 7 years old and her companion a more older 9 year boy in a top hat. "Ghosts?" Belle shocking said which to seemed to make the black haired woman laugh at her
" AHAHAH,no there very much alive my dear!, they can see and hear you but they can't talk. I will obey your every desire as they have with me" The black haired woman intoned to her. Belle don't quite understand her or why she was suddenly so treating to her.
The woman now lead her up the twisting stairs to a second floor landing. Belle saw in the center of it, a large panting of what seemed to be a queen sitting on her throne. Claw marks were seen across every inch of it and the one thing missing from it was the face. That part had been torn completely from it, Belle had to stop once again to question her directly "Whose this?"
"Just a picture of a foolish,vain girl" The black haired woman now said very bitterly "she sealed her own fate"
"In words...YOU killed her!"
"You're already judging ME?, listen well my dear that bitch was no saint. I was doing her a honor..."
"Monsters like you shouldn't be judge and jury"
"That's where you're wrong, there ARE NO OTHER MONSTERS like me!.
It is YOU'RE decision that here in the first place not mine, i rather not regret that like am now "
Belle tried to calm herself by refusing to talking to this..."woman" the rest of the night. As they finally entered into what would be Belle's room within the bizarre castle.
The "guest" room if one were to call it that seemed really be a trophy room filled with more animal heads. Along with mounds of guns and swords, any other woman wouldn't stand for it but not Belle. Somehow the Big Bad Wolf know unknowingly how to suit her tastes.
The bed was made of smooth sheets and topped with animal furs
Another large panting hung over a smaller fireplace, this time it was a woman in a hunter's uniform standing triumphantly over a dead ogre.
This time this panting was not damaged as it showed entirely different woman from the one in the middle of stairs.
The huntress was a beautiful red head, seemingly smiling over her prize. She wear a eye patch over the right eye much like a pirate, she usually saw at the tavern. She also seemed much more buster and curvier then even the black haired woman. Over her shoulder was a rapid action cross bow, the type similarly used in some kingdoms since the end of the war.
Belle looked up to see a name engraved at the bottom of the panting
Gran
"Should i think you're being kind to me now and not still try to hate you?" Belle said sharply
"If want to sleep inside a wet smelly cage...then be my guest" Big Bad said equally sharply to her
"Don't you dare think that am taking this as lightly as you are...
...You're just a foul evil thing now taking on the disguise of a helpless beautiful naked woman, so you could lure them and then kill them like me!"
Big Bad walked seductively toward Belle, a big smile across her face. She run her claws along the red outfit Belle wear, her eyes were closed. Her lips were nearly close to Belle's lips. So many dirty thoughts were running through Belle's mind. Even thought men wanted court Belle because of her beauty, she always secretly prefer women and wanting them to court her. It was hard not look at the naked mermaid race of Atlantis and the fair maidens who surround Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. And not think they would somehow tame Belle's secret desires.
Yet here she was with a entirely naked woman throwing herself at her and not think those dirty thoughts were coming back.
She wanted to stop herself and that was a weak effort and as she was about to kiss her...
" You're NOT worth it, my dear!...
Besides you're right to thank of me as a MONSTER and not a helpless naked woman. Even in this "form" i am still nothing more then a BEAST!"
"Am not afraid of you" Belle proudly said as Big Bad pushed away from her and slowly walked out
She turned towards Belle again, her hood swaying around the room cutting off all the light including the fireplace. She growled her words with a dead look in her eyes...
"You should be!"
Writer's note: This my fairly interesting M-rated take on the femslash RED BEAUTY with a complete reworking of Beauty and the Beast.
Except with the added fact that at first Belle and Ruby HATE each other and there good enough reasons for it. Here also is the fact that i am made Ruby's wolf form less like a real looking wolf(as is the standard whenever it's shown) but more classic werewolf design but only once the magical red hood is off.
Also the fact that Red is showing herself as nude is in fact a interesting little detail of at least one of the earlier versions of the fairy tale of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. And later on the detail of her throwing her own clothes into fireplaces. I thought it would be showing how much of a actual "Beast" this Ruby is.
This AU version here actually give in more to her animal side then a human's along with her own curse and therefore clothes except for the hood are useless for her now.
Belle on the hand well i made her start that career in monster hunting by being the one to kill Rumple(sorry about that but don't feel like writing him). And the show ISN'T making it any easier through each season of just uncomfortably abusive "Rumbelle" has gotten.
Ruby is NOT forcing Belle into becoming her maid here ether
Belle also wanting to be a entirely rough and ready monster hunter seemed like a interesting idea to me. Along with the fact that her mother and sisters were ones being the thieves of the Beast's beloved roses. So more of the fairy tale in here although under different circumstances. Also this version is so totally into Gaston here
I put in a mixture of the DISNEY movie(although Ruby's servants are shadowy figures and not objects here)and some of Jean Cocteau's version mainly in the weird other worldly images that the Red Castle presents mostly.
And yes there are still cues from the show here(although i felt like am one of the few who doesn't feel completely liking Regina in a lot of ways)but i don't feel like using the show's excuse of "magic always has a price" and dealing more with the emotion of Ruby/Big Bad's tortured mind. It was "magic" that made her cursed but it was a curse that already brought out what already there inside her.
Magic don't create the Big Bad Wolf which i guess is a interesting take on how to look at a curse. Plus the fact that Belle is still here to do a job which is to KILL Big Bad and not fall in love with her(that may change in upcoming chapters)
I hope you enjoy this and make sure to review and have suggestions
Next chapter: the Curse of the Rose