Disclaimer: No, I do not own this. Only a few twists and a character or two.

A/N: So... if you're reading this... that means you haven't gotten bored with this fic yet! Yeas. I had planned for this to be a weekly update, but I thought, since it's actually finished and all I needed to do was upload it, I could post a bit more often. Reviews would help with that by the way. Just a little hint. Now enjoy the story!

Never Stand in the Way of a Woman on a Mission

Maurice ran to the town, then raced home to try and get help in rescuing Belle. "Daniel! Daniel! He has your sister, he has Belle!" he shouted as he entered the house. Daniel looked up from his work and at his father, confusion plain on his face.

"Who's Belle?" he asked. "And who has her?" Maurice stared at him.

"The beast has your sister," Maurice said, confused. Daniel shook his head and said,

"I have no sister. I may love the farm hand like a sister, but I don't have one. Another thing is, the farm hand's name is Isabelle, not Belle." Maurice slumped into a chair, shaking his head in denial. "I know it's hard father, but it's true."

"No, it's not true! The Human Bear captured me and Belle traded herself so I could come here and live. I can't leave her with that monster! Please, you have to help me get her back!" Daniel shook his head and said,

"Father, you must have hit your head hard because the Human Bear is just a story made up to explain why that forest is called the Forest of Fears. Go lay down, I'll get you a cup of tea."

"No! The Human Bear is real! He threw me in the dungeon and then Belle came and struck a deal with him and now she's stuck there forever. You have to help me! We have to get her out of there!" Daniel shook his head. He knew his father was probably delusional. Then something his father had said came back to him.

"Wait, she struck a deal with it? How could one strike a deal with a wild animal?"

"It walks, talks, and reasons like a human. That's part of the reason it wants to be human. Don't you remember the whole story?" Daniel shook his head. Maurice took a breath and launched into the tale, without glossing anything over. "Once, there was a castle on that hill, the one over looking the forest, and what a castle it was! Shining marble, soaring towers, sweeping arches, and dark, impressive doors carved with the royal crest. Then, five weeks after the good Queen died, joining her beloved King in the high halls of heaven, the Prince shut the gates. That very night the castle vanished in a flash of light. Blue and green sparks were the only evidence that magic had gotten rid of the castle. The next day, several men went up the hill to see if they could find any trace of the castle. When the men came back, they all asked, 'What castle?' when questioned. Next, the hunters returned with tales of a bear who screamed with human pain. There were sightings of a huge, shaggy animal in the forest. It had the horns of a bison, snout, hind legs, and tail of a wolf, and misshapen arms with claws like a bear but more human. He had the eyes of a human, yet all the hunters said that it could see them, even in the dark when all they had to tell them that they were not alone was the rustling of leaves and the crunch and crackle of old leaves and twigs being stepped on. They all agreed that the calls they heard were the frustrated cries of the Human Bear's frantic attempts to become fully human being thwarted time and time again. Though the Forest of Fears lays quiet and still, the Human Bear is still there, biding his time. He has found the way to become human, so they say. Love, true love. That is the only thing that can make him fully human. Yet it is futile, my son, futile. He is a beast, through and through. It is impossible for him to experience the love we humans bare for our spouses." Daniel, who had been the picture of seriousness throughout the tale, laughed.

"Sounds a bit like dear Harrison. He has no room for love in his heart. It is full of self love and a burning passion for hunting. The man lives for it!" Marice nodded, the spell placed on the village taking affect. No one knew, but the enchantress was making sure the two at the castle had long enough to realize that they cared for one another before anyone came for Belle. As the enchantress watched Maurice fight the spell she was amazed at the strength of the man's will and love for Belle. She had chosen well.

Belle went to work getting the castle fixed up. The servants loved it, and her, because for once they were doing something, plus there was someone new to talk to. The servants would tell her things about hundred times. It got so bad, she had to say, "Would you please stop?" Matthew was pleased at how well she got along with the servants, he just wasn't so happy about them getting the castle presentable again. Once the walls shone as brightly as granite could it would bring back too many memories. He feared that he would harm Belle and his servants when they got too close to having the palace nice looking. Belle started in the servants wing, seeing as that was where she was going to be living for the foreseeable future. She helped the servants get higher up, as well helping them to be more effective. After the Servant's Quarter was as spotless as she could get it, she moved to the kitchen. Never had she scraped more grease or scrubbed more grime off a single stove top in all her life! The floor was littered with scraps of food and caked with spilled soup, sauce, broth, and drippings. The cupboards were swept out and rubbed down. New stain and new polish was applied to all the wood in that grungy kitchen. Bottles were organized, ingredients were sorted through and organized according to height, type, and how often they were used. When the kitchen was done, she decided to take a look at the exterior. It was crazy! She had seen that the lawn had fallen into mismanagement, but it was ten times worse looking at it and knowing that you were going to fix it up. That wasn't counting the court yards or the drive. The servants were very encouraging, they knew how inactivity effected people. So, with her band of strangely animate objects in tow, Belle went to work systematically. She alternated inside and outside, one inside job then an outside job. This seemed to be a relatively easy way to get it all done and still be able to get out. Belle decided to start the outside jobs with the stables. Like the kitchen, she had never seen such a holy mess! The stalls were filthy. All of the hay had been spoiled by the persistent drip from the ceiling, and there was no way the grooms could have fixed it, seeing as they had all been turned into hammers, nails, rakes, and ladders. The stalls were all mucked out, the wood was even cleaned and oiled. Once the stables were deemed passable, Belle moved back inside. She tackled the Entrance Hall and all the galleries facing it. The drapes were even replaced and the carpets beaten. She slowly made her way to the east wing. Once she got to the door to the ground level of the east wing, she moved back outside. The lawn was next on the exterior list. Belle wondered if the 'No going into the West Wing' rule counted for the grounds and walls. She ended up doing the western lawn and walls. If the master didn't like it, oh well. They raked, weeded, and clipped the lawn, hoping that the master wouldn't thrash them all for going to the west side. Belle and her crew then tackled the east wing. Slowly, they went deeper and deeper into the ground level of the east wing. The expedition was halted for a moment when Belle ran from a room, coughing violently.

"There is a very mad pair of bellows in there," Belle said between coughs. Somehow they got the whole wing cleaned, which was hard, seeing as this was where all the prickly people had been when the spell had been cast. As with all the other inhabitants of the castle, the touchy people had all stayed where they had been after the spell took effect. Next were the vegetable patches, which were numerous and large. Not to mention they were nearly over run with weeds. There were several vegetables tat had to be thrown out since they had been munched on by small forest creatures during the past year or so. Belle and her band of cleaners plunged into the underground levels after the vegetable patches were sorted out. After the lower levels were done, Belle somehow managed to clean all the windows. Again, the west side was done, the servants praying the master would spare them afterward.

Matthew watched Belle and her bucket come ever closer. He moved away from his window and drew the blinds as she came close enough to see him. He hoped she would pass over his windows, seeing as they were not the strongest in the world and one could almost see them bend when the wind blew. He was wrong, she washed them too. He could hear her telling someone to make a note to replace the windows as soon as possible. He heard a muffled reply. "Nonsense. His or not, they are simply unacceptable. They're dangerous! One good strong wind could blow them in!" He felt himself smiling inside. She was worried about he getting hurt? He firmly told himself he was reading more into it than what was really there and tried to shake the thought away. She moved along the castle wall, cleaning the windows and frames as she went. He saw her silhouette against his drapes. "It's a shame really," she said, "Those drapes would be so pretty if they were washed and aired. Pity he won't let me in there. I wonder what he's hiding." Matthew was about to call out an answer when he heard the servant she had with her say,

"The master has many secrets. No one knows how many, but we all know how fiercely he guards them. Not to mention how much he enjoys having one place where he is safe from seeing us and being reminded why he is trapped in this living nightmare." Matthew stood in open mouthed shock. Did the servants really know so much about him? And since when did they have such sweet talkers in the Servant's Guarter? He would have to review the old duty roosters his father had made for long ago feasts. Thinking of his father got Matthew thinking about how the man had treated the staff in the castle. He held his actions up to his father's and shuddered. He was seeing just why his form was so hideous. Compared to his father he was a black hearted villain with no shame. No care at all for the world as long as he got what he wanted. Matthew sighed and his thoughts turned to how the castle was looking more hospitable every day. It was like they were going to have a party. The thought made him edgy. Thoughts of parties made him think back to the balls and feasts his family would host, and how he had acted at those parties. Man had he been a pain. Now, the very thought of a dance made him start to get riled up. Yet somehow he knew that Belle would love a ball. She did have a ball gown after all. Why Dashiria had made that gown he did not even pretend to know. He thought back over the past few weeks, the weeks he had watched Belle cleaning from the shadows. She was a delight to all in everything she did. She wanted the servants to feel needed, so she told them to fetch things and do things for her. She wanted the place to be as peaceful as possible for them all and so she cleaned. She wanted the servants to be happy, so she told them stories by the fire after the day's work was done. Singing ballads, marching songs, nursery rhymes or plain old songs she had picked up as she worked she lifted even his spirit. An amazing puzzle was this bright, singing woman whom he had trapped by her own word. Matthew smiled, even though the monster inside him, who seemed to be blending into him, growled. Maybe there is hope for you yet, Prince. Matthew jerked about, trying vainly to find the source of the hopeful statement. With no answers forthcoming, Matthew settled down for the night.

The herb gardens were attacked the next day with a vigor that made Matthew jealous. He had never been so bent on getting something neat. With every passing day, Belle was getting closer to the master's room. The drive was cleared, as well as the court yards and even a few of the bricks were replaced. Belle oiled and re-stained the doors, as well as applied polish to the dark portals. Everyone knew that though he was happy that Belle was happy, the master was getting edgy about the cleaning, like he thought they were going to hold a party. It got worse and worse until he saw them working in the West Hall, right in front of the doors to the West Wing. He went berserk and tossed buckets around, and even tossed a few of his servants. When he tried to slash the curtains, Belle grabbed his forearms, one in each hand and, with unusual strength, held him there. She stared into his eyes and said,

"Please don't tear my curtains, I will get very mad. I have just finished making those, and if you harm them more than getting them wet, you WILL regret it. Am I understood?" He simply nodded his head. When she let him go, he scampered to his room. Everyone was amazed that she had actually made him run from her. They never had more trouble from the master, not with the cleaning of the rest of the castle at least. However, he had ideas about the West Wing that Belle had no care for.

"I am not having you anywhere NEAR there!" The roar reverberated throughout the whole castle. The servants moved with a little bit more care, for they had no way of knowing where he was. His voice always seemed to come from the very walls when he was really mad.

"I WILL clean your room whither you like it or not. I just can't leave ONE WHOLE WING untouched! It must be aggravating your allergies, what with all the dust and all."

"I have no allergies."

"Really? I heard that you were allergic to dust. So, I'll just go clean up all that dust, replace what is unable to be salvaged, have some lunch brought up for you and be on my way." She tried to pass him and enter the West Wing. The master blocked her, his massive body nearly filling the whole doorway.

"You are forbidden! There is no way of knowing how long you will take in there."

"Like I was forbidden to change the drapes?" Belle came back smartly.

"I told you no."

"I say, let me clean your room."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes, and if you keep me from your room you will regret it."

"Oh, and HOW could you make me regret it?"

"If I told you, I would have to give you amnesia."

"I still say no, and I'll tell you why. There is an air in there, an air that can magnify the emotions people are feeling, making it nearly impossible for anyone to keep it together when more than one person at a time goes in there," he said. However, Belle could tell he was wondering if she really would give him amnesia. And if so, how?

"And I say you need a clean environment or you'll just get more prickly. I have no fear of magical air that could make me snap at people."

"I'm not prickly!" the beast roared, ignoring her later comment. Belle cocked an eyebrow at him and chuckled to her self.

"Point," she paused, her eyes daring him to retort, "proven." She brushed past him, armed with broom, dust pan, and duster.

"Would you like a bandage master?" quipped the feather duster as she was whipped around the corner. The master growled at their departing backs. Belle had known he was making up that whole story about magical air, yet how she had known is the real question.

Belle and her band took care of all the other rooms on the first floor before they went to the master's. Belle opened one door and was greeted by a gasp and a dark shape scampering away from the light. "Is someone in here?" she asked, waving aside the mop she had brought with her. A voice called out in response,

"Who are you? I had no idea that there was another human within these walls." As the voice spoke, a woman walked hesitantly out of the shadows. All the servants did their best to bow, a few even trying to take Belle down with them.

"Princess Elizabeth, this is Belle. She is bound here by a deal she made with the Master to free her father. She is allowed anywhere on the grounds, though your brother has only recently been forced to allow Belle into the West Wing to clean."

"BROTHER!" Belle and Elizabeth both screamed. "I didn't know the master had a human sister. And a royal one at that!" Belle elaborated. Princess Elizabeth shook her head.

"That beast is not my half brother! That boy died long ago." Belle lit a lamp and exclaimed,

"This room is a mess! You can tell me your story while I clean. When I am done, I'll tell you mine." Elizabeth agreed and began to give a narrative of her experiences.

"It all started when my half brother was seven. He found me, who was fourteen, reading a book about daring princes and trapped princesses. He knew that the prince and the princess he rescued got married, and he also guessed correctly that I was daydreaming about dating. Well, after that day the whole boy craze left me. My half brother, who had always been a darling boy, started to give me a hard time. Father always gave him a talking to when he caught the boy at it, but it didn't make too much of an impression until father got so mad over something he said that he threw the boy into the pond. I remember that he had such a bad cold after that, it had been in the tail end of one of the hardest winters we had ever known. Well, after that I was left in peace. Then, when father died and Isabelle came, I began to have hope that he would recover. Yet, Isabelle left, seemingly never to return for she sent my half brother's letters back unopened. When his mother died, three years after our father, he broke. I watched as our father and his influence faded from the young Prince. He was only sixteen! I vowed to return to the castle, in which he had locked himself up, in four years. I arrived here about a year ago, and it took me awhile to find the castle for the last time I had been here, it was on the hill. Anyway, when I got here, I was greeted by a snarling voice and a monster looming above me. I know it tried to tell me something, I was just to terrified to pay attention. I believe quite firmly that the master of this castle has eaten my dear half brother, and if that is so, no-one can kill it. My younger sibling was the best swordsman I have ever seen, even at thirteen." Belle smiled at the praise the princess gave her younger half brother.

"Maybe the beast took your brother by surprise. My older brother, Daniel, isn't the best in the fighter in the village, but he nearly defeated the strongest man around in a fist fight. The only thing that saved his life, besides the fact that the man he was fighting wants to marry me, was that he caught the brute by surprise and made him throw up all over his favorite chair by ramming his shoulder into the man's stomach with all his strength." Elizabeth smiled and nodded, it made sense. Her brother had been out of sorts when she left and she guessed that it wasn't long after that when he and the castle were enchanted.

"Wait, are you saying that the royal castle that was on that hill over looking Tale's Wood Village is the same as this one?" asked Belle, disbelieving.

"It is the only explanation available, Belle." Belle frowned as she thought.

"Have you ever heard the Legend of the Human Bear?" Elizabeth shook her head. "It goes like this. Once, there was a castle on that hill, the one over looking the forest, and what a castle it was! Shining marble, soaring towers, sweeping arches, and dark, impressive doors carved with the royal crest. Then, five weeks after the good Queen died, joining her beloved King in the high halls of heaven, the Prince shut the gates. That very night the castle vanished in a flash of light. Blue and green sparks were the only evidence that magic had gotten rid of the castle. The next day, several men went up the hill to see if they could find any trace of the castle. When the men came back, they all asked, 'What castle?' when questioned. Next, the hunters returned with tales of a bear who screamed with human pain. There were sightings of a huge, shaggy animal in the forest. It had the horns of a bison, snout, hind legs, and tail of a wolf, and misshapen arms with claws like a bear but more human. He had the eyes of a human, yet all the hunters said that it could see them, even in the dark when all they had to tell them that they were not alone was the rustling of leaves and the crunch and crackle of old leaves and twigs being stepped on. They all agree that the calls they hear are the frustrated cries of the Human Bear's frantic attempts to become fully human being thwarted time and time again. Though the Forest of Fears lays quiet and still, the Human Bear is still there, biding his time. He has found the way to become human. Love, true love. That is the only thing that can make him fully human. Yet it is futile, my Princess, futile. He is a beast, through and through. It is impossible for him to experience the love we humans bare for our spouses." Elizabeth shook her head again.

"That last bit is misled. That is really quite close to what must have happened, and the dates of the myth and of reality fit. He is not a beast through and through. I see now that there is a shadow of my brother in all that fur. Thank you, Belle, you saved me from going mad! I would like to help you fix up the castle, I have been in here to long."

"Wait, my story is not yet finished." Elizabeth nodded and motioned for Belle to sit. "I had been having strange dreams about a dark castle and a beast who lived there for days. Every time I closed my eyes, every night, I saw that castle and that beast. Then, two days before I came here, I had the same dream from the night before. Then, when my father left, I was still trying to work out what the dreams were trying to tell me. I was not the only one either. Daniel, who has never seen an actual sword much less welded one, had been having dreams about being a war hero and captain, only it was like an out of body experience. The day after father's departure, Phillip, our Clydesdale draft horse, came back to the stable without my father. I set out to get him back, but in the process of getting him freed, I trapped myself." Elizabeth was saddened by Belle's tale. "Well, it's all behind me now. Do you think you could give the tea cups a bath? I have something I have to do." Elizabeth nodded and said she would do her best. Belle walked with her to the West Hall and there they parted company. Before Elizabeth rounded the bend, she turned to look at Belle and said,

"Just as my brother is a shadow of his past, yours may be to. What is his full name?" Belle looked back and said,

"Daniel Marcos Ivino." A smug smile slid over Elizabeth's face.

"Then his dream is a repressed memory, for that is the name of my brother's old training master." Belle was amazed, but for some reason it made sense. Daniel had been acting a bit more like a self-assured soldier. Something tugged at the back of her mind, like something was not quite right. As she made her way to the master's room it clicked. Daniel had never mentioned anything about being a training master to the crown prince. If he had been the training master he would have told her stories about training him. Another possibility hit her like a wave of cold ocean water, sapping the warmth form her bones. He could have been placed under a spell, like all the servants. Sure he was a really high ranking servant, but even a training master had to be viewed as part of the staff. She hated the idea of Daniel, her beloved Daniel, being under a spell and not even realizing it! She made her way down the hall in a brooding cloud of dark thoughts. The storm cloud was whisked away as she neared the mine field the Prince called a bedchamber. The door needed a new coat of paint and the hinges needed oiling. She sent for the materials needed for that task and moved on to the room beyond. Nothing had prepared her for the battle of getting the prince's room neat.

"She has arranged a palace coup with household objects! She is completely taking over!" Matthew ranted to himself in the privacy of his room. He was trying to hide some things before 'The Cleaner' came. He hid his mother's mirror, tossed a cloth over the bell jar containing the rose and swept some other things under the bed. When the dreaded moment came and the door opened, Belle shrieked.

"I cannot believe you trashed your room so completely! I'm going to have to get rid of most of this, I will not allow you to have such trash in your room. And WHAT have you done to your BED?! I'll have to haul that out. The walls will need some major cleaning, as well as a new coat of paint. All the windows need to be replaced. A new dresser and wash stand are also needed, along with new railings for the balcony. Have Dashiria notified that more drapes are in need of repairs, and could some one get me the buckets, mops, as well as the trash bins brought up here? I'll also need hot, sudsy water and the scrub brushes." She had gotten really good at assessing the situation and figuring out what was needed to fix it, as well as getting people to follow her orders. Guess it was needed of her, seeing as she had made it her top priority to get the castle habitable again. 'Enough is enough.' Matthew thought as he listened to her rant about how his room was unacceptable and how to fix it.

"I am sick and tired of having you think you can run the place. I have to draw the line some where, and here is where it is," he said savagely, ready to go on, but to his amazement Belle was looking at something on his wall.

"Where did you get that painting?" she asked, pointing to a shredded portrait clinging to the wall. Paint still showed through the dust and faces through slashes.

"It was sent to me six years ago by an owl. Very strange that, it's usually a mail man."

"I was the one who painted that. I wondered where it went. What have you done to it?" Belle asked, turning to face the beast. Her eyes could almost be called sad.

"What I have done to the rest of my things," the beast replied solemnly, noting that Belle's eyes had the same effect on him as Isabelle's. Belle looked up into his face, focusing her tumbling emotions in her gaze, and said,

"I painted it to represent a prince I had... met." She turned her head to the left and down. Matthew could see her confusion at realizing she had met a prince, no matter how long ago. Even though he didn't realize just how weird it was for her that she was talking to the half brother of the princess, he knew something was seriously troubling her. He walked over to her, feeling the most human he had felt in nearly four years.

"It was a prince and a princess, right?" His voice the softest and most musical it had been in four years. Belle looked up and forgot what she was going to say as the ghost of a face came in to view. It was framed by thick, dark brown hair just like the master's fur, and a ghost of a smile was on his fair, expressive face. His shocking blue eyes smiled at her, though she was sure she had once seen them as orbs of ice. She thought of The Painted Prince and compared the two images.

"The only difference between him and the Painted Prince are the eyes, even though they are the very same color. His are much softer and warmer than those of the Painted Prince." Matthew blinked a couple of times before asking,

"What are you talking about?" Belle gasped as she realized she had spoken aloud, and that she was talking to the Master of the castle in which she was trapped. She turned to leave without a word, her mind working in overdrive. She knew he was the prince from the painting and she knew that the girl was her. What she didn't know was how she met him, what his name was, how she knew the girl was her, and how he got to be the Human Bear of the Forest of Fears, though she knew that he was probably under a powerful spell. 'I can't let her leave just yet. I need answers!' thought Matthew as he took her departing arm. She turned and said,

"Let me go, dear Prince. I know some of who you are now. The rest will come to me with time, I know it will. All I need is some time alone to think and I will have the whole picture. I know that you are the prince from the painting, I just need your name and how I met you. I also have a feeling that the Princess you had in that dust filled room really was your sister. You really have had a rough time Beast, I just hope you and your half sister make it through." As she left, Matthew was already putting the pieces together, his mind also working in overdrive.