I survived the semester! I just got my grades back and now I can officially say I passed. I should have more time to write this summer. Hopefully this means I can update a little more frequently. I recently got this chapter back from my beta and so I can mark this occasion with an update.
Chapter 4
By the time Sora, Donald and Goofy reached the ballroom Xaldin had already made his move. He was standing on the upper level of the balcony. Sora had no idea what he had been saying for it was drowned out by Beast's roars, but whatever it was, it couldn't have been good. "Beast!" Sora called running up to his furious ally.
"What's this?" Xaldin asked in a smooth calm voice. "More guests and Demyx! What are you doing here?" Sora didn't know if surprise was an emotion or not, but to his untrained ears the shock in Xaldin's voice sounded genuine. Sora looked back over his shoulder and found that their tag-along Nobody had entered the ballroom shortly after them. He hung back by the door, looking nervously at the various warriors. "What are you doing here?" Xaldin repeated. There was an undertone now in his calm voice. Sora watched Demyx curious to see how the Nobody would respond. This could be a great opportunity to learn was Demyx was really up to, though realistically Sora was aware that any explanation that came out of the younger Nobody could be a lie to appease his elder. Demyx's eyes darted over the two factions in the ballroom before he seemed to make a decision.
"I'm here to fight Roxas," he announced, false confidence making his voice bold. He disappeared into the darkness only to reappear a moment later standing on the balcony next to Xaldin.
Xaldin snapped his fingers and a new kind of nobody that Sora had yet to fight appeared on the ballroom floor. Demyx followed a moment, later summoning a few dancer nobodies to join the battle. Sora found himself forced to ignore the Nobodies standing on the upper level and focus instead on fighting the lesser ones now surrounding him. That battle took awhile. Fighting dancers was a pain. Their swift movements made them able to turn the tables on Sora quickly. One moment he'd be close to landing a finishing blow, but next thing he knew the dancer would have reached out and grabbed him and hurled him across the room. The new type of nobodies provided a challenge also. Sora nearly got skewered by their spears a couple of times before he learned enough of their fighting style to understand how to counter them. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Beast's claws ripping apart some nobodies. His other allies helped too, Donald with magic and Goofy with his shield. At last the final lance wielding nobody was destroyed by Beast and the fighters could survey the damage. Luckily Belle and the castle's servants were perfectly safe having escaped out the balcony doors just as the fighting began. The upper level was empty- in the confusion both Xaldin and Demyx had gotten away.
"Thank Goodness you're safe!" Belle exclaimed making her way over to Beast.
He gave a roar in response causing, Belle to back away. "I want those Nobodies out of my castle!"
"I knew we couldn't trust him." Donald mumbled.
Sora shrugged. They had never really trusted Demyx to begin with. And to be fair to him he hadn't betrayed them per se. Demyx had stated from the beginning his intention was to fight Sora as soon as he was able to, they just didn't expect it to be so soon. Besides Demyx wasn't their main problem. "It's the other guy we have to worry about," he pointed out.
"I wonder what Xaldin is after?" Goofy mused.
"If I tell you," said a familiar voice, "will you forgive me for sending my dancers after you?" Another dark portal opened up on the ballroom floor and out stepped Demyx. It was a mistake on the Nobody's part to appear so close to a furious Beast. The castle's Master let out a roar worthy of his form and lunged at Demyx. Sora tried to yell at Beast to stop but he couldn't even hear himself over the roar.
With a slight "Eep," Demyx managed to avoid the swipe, but barely. The quick movement cost him. He hunched over with a grimace across his face, moaning softly and clutching his still injured stomach. He failed to dodge the next blow. Beast's claws connected with the Nobody's shoulder. Thought the leather coat provided some protection, Beast's claws were able to penetrate at least deep enough to draw blood.
Beast had paid no heed to the others' yells, so Sora was forced to resort to physically stopping him. It was only after Beast had landed the hit was Sora finally able to grab his large ally. He tried to pull him away from Demyx. Although Sora was far too weak to accomplish such a feat, the contact of Sora's hands on the Beast was enough to break him out of rage and back to his senses. "STOP!" Sora yelled.
"Why?" Beast demanded. "He's in league with Xaldin."
Why was a very good question. Why was Sora trying to spare Demyx's life? Did Nobodies even have lives? Spare his existence then? Whatever it was, why was Sora trying to save him? Demyx was a bad guy, part of the evil Organization. Hadn't he just shown where his true motives lay? Sora might have felt it wouldn't sit right on his conscience to kill a badly injured Nobody in a highly unfair fight but clearly Beast didn't share his qualms. So why couldn't he just sit back and watch Beast end whatever sort of quasi-existence Demyx currently had? Sora found he couldn't come up with an answer.
Sora was saved from having to explain or even understand his motives by Goofy who spoke up, "We should at least hear him out."
Demyx shot the knight a look which would have been grateful, were he capable of the feeling and started to explain, "I didn't want to attack like that, cause I'm not ready to fight you yet." For added emphasis he gently placed hand on his injured ribs and winced at the contact. "Nowhere near ready, but I realized Xaldin has been here awhile and he doesn't know I'm in trouble yet. I didn't want to give him reason to think I was cause he's really scary, but I don't really want to fight you yet so I hope you're not mad about the summoning dancers- I didn't want to make Xaldin suspicious so I had to. " The more he spoke the faster he got until his words were coming out in tumble with barely a breath between them. Sora was beginning to notice Demyx babbled when he was nervous. Well, not nervous since Nobodies couldn't be, but when he was in a situation where he might become endangered, or in other words, when a normal person would be nervous.
"So why are you back here, shouldn't you stick with Xaldin?" Sora asked still trying to figure out if Demyx had some kind of plan up his sleeve.
Demyx frowned. "I was going to help him but he was all Nine you 're a screw-up. Can't you find and fight the keyblade wielder without messing up someone else's mission? Which is mean but whatever I'm used to it. He never really liked me anyways. But then he's all I don't need your help and you'll just mess up my mission, which is like just plain rude, so I left. " He shrugged. He smiled at Sora, "Besides I think you're going to beat Mister Overconfident so I'll try my luck sticking with you. " He hobbled toward Sora and raised his arm. Figuring out what was coming Sora ducked out of the way before Demyx could lay another unwelcome arm around his shoulders. He was going to have to establish a no touching policy with the Nobody.
"What is Xaldin up to?" Donald demanded.
"That's right! I promised to tell. You guys know he's trying to turn Beast into a Nobody, cause really he'd make a great Nobody and with all that rage extracting the heart should be-" It was at this point that Beast's growl, which had started near the beginning of Demyx 's explanation grew loud enough that the strange Nobody realized what his words were doing to Beast and that angering Beast further wasn't a good idea. He cleared his throat and changed topics slightly. "Um, so to get the Nobody he figures he needs the rose-" At this point Beast once more cut Demyx off. This time it was with a mighty roar and as he charged out of the ballroom. Demyx blinked, "Was it something I said?"
Ignoring Demyx's inane question, Sora turned to the others "Let's go." They made their way out of the ballroom and toward Beast's room in the west wing all the while fighting the heartless. Demyx followed much like he had during the trek down the mountain, ignoring the heartless and neither helping nor hindering their fight. Belle and the castle servants also followed at a safe distance. As they neared the door they could hear Beast growling inside.
Sora was about to open the door when Goofy cleared his throat. "Maybe Demyx should wait outside," he suggested.
Sora considered this. They were supposed to be keeping an eye on the Nobody but calming Beast down was going to be hard enough without Demyx unintentionally (or perhaps he was doing it on purpose?) making things worse.
Given that his last in encounter with Beast had left him the worse for the wear it was no surprise Demyx was all too willing to go along with this suggestion. "That sounds like a good idea to me. You guys go and deal with that beast guy, I'll just wait out here," he volunteered. He sat cross-legged on the carpet leaning against a wall. "Me and the talking teacup can keep each other company," he added with a wide smile.
Chip, the talking teacup , gave the Nobody a funny look before turning toward the tea kettle. "Mom?" he asked.
"Stay with me, Chip. You can't trust Nobodies." Mrs. Potts glared at Demyx.
Demyx held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, I'm the evil Nobody and you don't like me, I get it." The cheerful voice with which he said this contrasted with his words. Perfectly relaxed, despite being in the presence of sort-of enemies he put his hands behind his head and stretched out his legs in front of him.
Before they could further address the issue of leaving Demyx unsupervised in the hallway, Belle rushed forward and ran into the room. Afraid for her safety if Xaldin was again manipulating Beast, Sora rushed in after her. Donald, Goofy and the castle's servants followed suit leaving Demyx alone in the hall.
Regardless of if it was a good idea to leave the former member of the Organization unsupervised, not bringing him to meet Beast was pure genius. Even without the presence of an enemy the encounter did not go well. Xaldin had taken the rose that normally stood on the table in Beast's room. Sora didn't understand what was so special about the flower, but losing it set Beast off. Without Demyx present as a convenient scapegoat Beast turned on Belle blaming her for "having to have a party." Sora immediately stuck up for Belle. Beast's anger disappeared but it was replaced with depression. Beast told Belle and Sora to leave the castle, telling Belle that he'd thought she could change him but all he was a Beast and he deserved to be alone. Frowning Belle opened her mouth to say something then thought better of it. Sadly they left Beast alone his room.
"There's got to be something I can do," Belle said once they were back in the hall. "I just can't let him give up like that."
"We'll trying talking to him again," Sora volunteered.
"Thanks, Sora," Belle told him. "I'm going back to my room to think. I have to make him see..." Belle made her way back down the hallway working on the problem quietly with herself. " There must something I can do..."
Donald's voice cut in, momentarily distracting them from the problem of Beast. "Hey, waterboy left again!" Sure enough the hallway was empty of Nobodies. Sora groaned. He briefly entertained the notion of getting a leash for Demyx if the Nobody planned to continue following them.
"Uh, guys," Goofy pointed to one the suits of armor that decorated the halls. Halfway hidden behind it stood Demyx.
Realizing that everyone in the hall was staring at him, Demyx gave a sheepish smile and emerged from behind the armor. "I didn't want the first thing that Beast guy saw to be me," he admitted. That actually made more sense than anything Sora had expected from the odd Nobody and he found himself nodding along with the guy's reasoning.
Their Nobody tag-along accounted for, the rest turned to their attention to the problems at hand. "What's so special about that rose?" Sora asked the castle's servants.
"We told you about the curse. It has a time frame. Beast must learn to love another and earn their love in return before the last petal falls or he will remain a Beast forever," Lumiere explained.
"All beast's hopes are tied up in that single flower," Mrs. Potts added.
"And that flower was the first living thing the Beast learned to take care of." Cogsworth put in.
"There aren't many petals left, are there?" Goofy asked.
"No," Mrs. Potts agreed sadly. "He's almost out of time."
"But, Belle!" Lumiere cut in. "Surely he must care for her."
"That's right" said Sora remembering when he first met Beast. "That's it! I think I know what to say to Beast now. Ready guys?" he asked Donald and Goofy. They nodded.
"If you're going back in there, I'll be just be going back here now." Demyx moved back behind the armor. Now that Sora knew where the Nobody was it easy to spot him, but if Beast wasn't paying attention or looking for people hiding there was a good chance he'd miss Demyx. All things considered, it was a good thing for all involved, since it would save Demyx from getting even more injured, Beast from getting worked up again and Sora from having to explain or try to understand why he was helping Demyx.
"We'll keep an eye on him. No Nobody will be messing with this castle," Cogsworth announced conveniently ignoring the fact Xaldin was still on the loose.
With Demyx back under surveillance and a good idea of what to say to Beast a confident Sora, Donald and Goofy entered Beast's room.