Disc: Kingdom Hearts and the other properties it crosses over with aren't mine.

* * *

Quatre

* * *

Mea culpa

Mea culpa

Mea maxima culpa

* * *

Sora had been hoping for some action, but not before he was done eating. The bellringer's lair had contained a fair amount of bread, fruits and other produce, and just the knowledge that it was there was enough to set off his stomach, as he had not had anything to eat since first stepping into this World. He had been idly munching on a cheese wedge when he heard the scream undulating upwards from several floors below. Not the bellringer, but someone in distress for certain.

Casually stretching back in his chair, he peered out the window to locate the source. No luck there, but by bending back further still he rocked the chair over and somesaulted out the window into action.

As he'd expected, it was the Nobodies. One of the floating Sorcerers from before and three of the strange dancing Dusk Nobodies were attacking the dark-skinned girl he'd seen at the festival. Though she still held onto the knife she'd used at the festival, it was obvious she'd never fought creatures like these before.

"Come ON", Sora remarked as he caught the Sorcerer right off, bisecting it. "You guys can't even cut a fellow dancer a break?"

The Dusks were not amused. Stopping their gracefully threatening acrobatics, they came at Sora as a mob, their cartwheels and backflips serving only to disguise their limbs randomly flashing out to strike. Under other circumstances he might have been in trouble, but Dusks were the single most common type of Nobody in 'non-existence'. Anyone who had fought as many of them as Sora had was used to their tricks by now and knew how to counter them. Before long, all three were down without landing a single hit.

Behind him, the girl stood, harried but uninjured. "Thank you. Did you see the bellringer on your way down?"

Shrugging, he faced her, resisting the urge to act macho. "No. Is that why you're up here?"

Something about her face made him think this was not a pleasant topic for her, but she nodded. "I wanted to apologize, but he kept running away. I don't blame him... But when I got close, those things attacked me."

"They're Nobodies", Sora explained, searching the upper levels of the bell tower for some sign of movement as he spoke. "Incomplete beings without hearts- long story. They attacked me when I was climbing the bell tower too... Darn."

"What?", she asked, only now sizing up her rescuer and realizing how foreign he really was. "What is it?"

"They attacked me when the hunchback was climbing down the tower and passed near me", he said, downcast at the implications. "They didn't attack himeither time. And they stopped the moment I left him alone. I think that whoever's controlling these Nobodies assigned them to keep people away from the bellringer."

The visage of the Dusks and Sorcerers still vivid, she shuddered. "That's cruel. Oh, and his name is Quasimodo. Mine's Esmerelda."

"Right. I'm Sora, I saw you in the festival. You're a really good dancer!"

"I know", she replied with a mischievous grin and a wink. "Old Clopin taught me from when I was just a kid."

"Clopin, huh? I saw him before the festival. Is he-"

"Just our caravan's leader. I'm an orphan." She sighed. "All the same, I hope he's alright. We didn't part on the best of terms, you know."

"I'm sure he is. Anyways, back to the problem; if we try to find this Quasimodo, we'll end up facing more Nobodies the closer we get to him. Those Dusks were just the start."

Sora saw her shift uncomfortably beside him at the prospect, but then straighten her lip with a will to set things right. "No. I can't run away now. I have to seehim. I have to apologize. Don't worry Sora; I can hold my own. You can beat them, right?"

His turn to feel uncomfortable. All the same, he'd never backed down from a request like this before, and he likely never would. It just wasn't within him. "Uhh, sure. Sure I can. Buuut... if you see any Nobodies with poofy sleeves and masks, I need you to keep them busy until I can get to them, okay? They're nasty."

"I'll try", she offered nervously. "But if they're the toughest ones-"

"They don't attack", he noted. "At least, I don't think so. Just get them if you see them. Other than that, stick near me."

"Got it."

* * *

Once again the Nobodies came, and once again they fell to the Keyblade's power. Sora was right at home, as much as he disliked the feeling of familiarity at destroying the white husks that now confronted them at every turn. Thankfully, Esmerelda had been as good as her word to him. None of the new type, which she dubbed 'Priest Nobodies' upon seeing them, had a chance to revive their allies, unable to concentrate with someone slashing them with a knife as she danced about. Aside from the odd incident where Esmerelda was transformed into a card, and again when a Sorcerer had attacked them mid-climb, it wasn't nearly as bad as Sora had come to expect from Organization XIII's armies. These ones seemed content to attack in paced waves instead of a nonstop onslaught, allowing them a few periods of rest in-between.

"You really are something else, Sora", she observed elatedly during one such 'slack' period. "Anyone else in this country would have died fighting monsters like that."

"Well, I do have a lot of experience with them", he noted humbly. "Them, and the Heartless. Any good weapon like your knife works, but the Keyblade is their biggest weakness."

Glancing up through the rafters above, she realized that they were directly below the belfry, and so dropped her voice a notch. "Obviously you didn't come here just to fight Nobodies, though. Why did you come to Notre Dame?"

He hadmomentarily forgotten why, in fact. Esmerelda's words brought back still-fresh memories of his home on Destiny Island. "It's a long story. Again. But to cut it short... I'm from a different world. My friends- Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy- are all in great danger. Someone told me that the only way I could save them was to track down a few people who could help me, and that the Keyblade would lead me to their worlds when I called out their names. So I started with 'Relena', and it brought me here. You know the rest."

She blinked, obviously just as familiar with that name as Clopin had been. "That's some key. But Sora... I'm sorry, I don't think you'll be able to find Relena here. I can't be certain, but everyone in Notre Dame believes she's dead."

He stopped short, nearly falling from a parapet. "Dead? How?!"

"Long story", she echoed back knowingly. "Ask Clopin some other time."

Far from appeased, he peered upwards at their goal from a four-way intersection of large wooden beams. "I just hope they didn't lie to me about those names; it's all I have to go on. Oh. Hey, we have Nobodies incoming."

Esmerelda glanced upwards just in time to see Priests and Gamblers dropping down from above, enough to surround them on all four sides. "They never learn." Inwardly however, she cursed their luck. Not good. The Priests are far enough apart to revive each other, and if we make a single mistake, we'll fall off the beams. At the very least, we'll be all the way back where we started if we survive the fall at all. "Take the east Priest, I've got the west. Good luck."

"You too."

Both tensed, but the charge never came. Even the other Nobodies were distracted when the massive bellringer dropped down from floors above, crushing a Priest beneath his feet with the momentum. Swerving right, he laid into a Gambler with large, misshapen arms that knocked it out a window. Apparently unwilling to attack the one they were ordered to protect, the remaining Nobodies turned and fled.

Sora turned, only now seeing the legendary monster up close for the first time. His forest green tunic was stretched out to cover the unusual hump on his back, going so far as to act as a hood for his deformed face and dirty brown hair. That face, however, was too filled with fear now to be considered threatening. Without a legible word, the hunchback tore past them and up the spiral staircase, prompting both to give chase.

"Quasimodo!", Esmerelda called out to him as they rapidly ascended to the belfry. "Quasimodo! Please don't run! I just came to apologize! I never in my life would have pulled you onto that... stage?"

She had halted on the final few steps, awestruck by what she saw. Behind her, Sora skidded to a halt- a bad move when climbing a staircase only barely your own width. By the time he'd recovered from falling down and climbed back up again, she was among the models and hanging glass sculptures that he'd seen on his first visit, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Did you... make all of these?"

No response from the bellringer. He was already in bed, pretending to be asleep. Pretending and fooling no one. She swept the sheets from him even as she beheld the massive model of the very cathedral they had just climbed. "This is amazing."

"I thought so, too", Sora followed up once he'd scrambled onto the last step by his arms. "Hands like those, and you can craft things like that?"

"I have a lot of time", Quasimodo acknowledged, no longer able to ignore such compliments. It was not a monstrous voice, nor that of the dispirited wretches Esmerelda had seen frequenting the streets pleading for alms. It was still a child's voice; deepened by puberty but nervous in the presence of anyone. "You shouldn't be here. This is my sanctuary."

"He speaks?", Sora noted mock-incredulously as he pulled himself from the stairwell the opposite way. "It's okay, Quasimodo. She's just here to apologize to you."

"Yes", Esmerelda acknowledged, at once looking remorseful. "At the festival... I thought you were wearing a mask for the contest, I didn't realize..."

"It's fine", the hunchback waved it away, again burying himself in the bedsheets. "It was my own fault- I never should have gone down here. I should've stayed in here where it's safe. The outside world is no place for a monster."

"What monster?", Sora asked him feigning confusion. "I didn't see you throw tomatoes at anyone, or lasso them down and mock them, or-"

"I'm a monster", Quasimodo corrected him bitterly, leaving no room for further argument. "This is where I belong. You should leave me. Both of you."

At first fighting not to laugh, Esmerelda knelt down tenderly over the bedspread like a mother with her child. "And who exactly fed you that caca?"

"My master, Minister Claude Frollo. And it's not a lie; its true. You saw what happened."

"I really should be suprised by that", she retorted, the old anger flooding back again and toning her voice with hostility. "But I'm not. At least now we know who sent the Nobodies. He wants to keep you isolated from the rest of the world for your entire life."

"And he's done a pretty good job of it by the look of things", Sora agreed with her, feeling outrage of his own at the idea that the man had forced Quasimodo into complete isolation from childhood. "What's his problem anyway?"

"Claude Frollo's got a lotof problems", Esmerelda answered him, looking out the sun-tipped windows thoughtfully, as if expecting to see the man she loathed suddenly pop out of one of the brick chimneys that stretched to the horizon. "I just didn't know about this one until now. Could he possibly be an illegitimate child?"

Quasimodo actually laughed at that, natural merriment forcing its way onto his features no matter how he tried to shut them both out. "No, no. He's not my father, he's my guardian. He protected me, took me in when anyone else would have drowned me."

"It seems there's a lot of that going around these days", Esmerelda remarked dryly. "No surprise with the war on and everything. Convenient though, that you only have Frollo's word to go by on that. How could such a cruel man raise someone so kind-hearted?"

"He is not cruel!", the hunchback protested, following her to the window. "He saved me. He brings me food, taught me to read and write and speak. All of the wood and glass I used to make those models, he brought me. He is a great man. Notre Dame doesn't know how lucky they are to have him."

Looking back at Sora, Esmerelda shrugged helplessly, realizing there was no winning this argument without proof stronger than mere words. "Well... Maybe there's a side of him the rest of us haven't seen. Come here. Let me see your palm."

As they drew closer, Sora casually checked the windows to see what their dancer companion had been looking at. Soon enough, he found it; every single exit to the Cathedral was being patrolled by soldiers. Even the alleyway he'd used to access the bell tower was under surveillance. I knew Esmerelda made that Frollo guy mad, but I didn't think he was this mad. The only way we're getting out of here is to fly... Pity this isn't Neverland.

"A long life line. And, this one means you're shy. Hm. That's funny. I don't see any..."

Sounding like his frightened self again, the hunchback looked up from his palm. "See any what?"

She copied his move, locking her mesmerizing eyes into his. "Monster lines. Not a single one. Now, look at me. Do you think I'm evil?"

"Oh, no, not at all! You are beautiful, and kind, and good, and-"

"-And I'm a gypsy. A member of the 'order of witches' Frollo is committed to destroying. I don't know if you've checked outside recently, but he's got every path out of here blocked with either soldiers or Nobodies."

Seeing confusion in the bellringer's deformed face, Sora nodded. "I didn't see any Nobodies around, but if I fought them on the streets we'd raise enough of a commotion so that the soldiers would find us. I'm not using the Keyblade to kill people who are just doing their job."

"I wouldn't expect you to, Sora", Esmerelda acknowledged simply, lowering her eyes to hide her worry. "Sure, some of them are real jerks about it, but they're still human. We've never killed if we can help it either. So, what can we do?"

"We wait", Quasimodo interrupted their planning, suprising them both. "Wait for nightfall, I can get you out then." Neither of the others had expected this, and so Sora took a good five seconds to reply: "Are you sure? If they see you-"

"Trust me", the hunchback assured him, smiling and at last regaining the warm skin and desire for camaraderie that had first brought him to the Festival of Fools. "I may be a monster, but I'm a talented monster. Wait for nightfall, and then we'll fly."

* * *

The hallways of the Palace of Justice were cold that night. Even if the reconstruction project from three years ago was 100 percent complete, Captain Hyral doubted it would serve to keep in what warmth there was very well. The entire place seemed more dedicated to ceremony and intimidation than comfort, featuring a massive frontal spire at the entrance that was several stories taller and wider than it truly was inside. The Palace's gothic architecture was meant to impress the innocent and terrify the guilty, nothing more.

More out of a desire to find a warm room in the palace for the night than a need to report in to authority, he came upon the palace's study and the live fireplace it contained at its far end. Strangely, only one other occupant was warming himself by it, its orange light serving only to black out any features that might have identified him until the Captain had walked nearly even with him. It was Minister Claude Frollo, looking pale even with the orange firelight reflecting off him and deep enough in thought that it was possible he hadn't even noticed Delita's arrival until now. He clutched a transparent purple hand cloth tightly- a souvenir of sorts from the gypsy girl's dance that she'd bestowed on him.

"How go the patrols, Captain?", he asked quickly, as if trying to prevent the Captain from choosing the topic. His aged voice seemed diminished, robbed of the strength he'd reprimanded Esmerelda with.

"Acceptable", he decided. "I can't say I approve of putting so many men on a single assignment when there's so much else that needs doing, but they haven't complained about the shifts yet. At least we'll have lots of extra room in the barracks tonight."

"Keep them focused, Captain. I want complete surveillance of the cathedral. This gypsy girl cannot escape us, no matter what."

Unable to hold himself back any longer, he fixed Frollo in the eye. "Why, sir? Surely she's not the only gypsy to ever rebuke you that way, not with what I've learned of this country's history. Are you really so determined to avenge one little slight?"

He'd made the wrong choice. The fire in the hearth flared up as Frollo countered him, its wild light dancing in his eyes as they spoke. "That is none of your concern, Captain. But for the sake of your education, I will enlighten you. You are no doubt aware of the underground support networks that traitors provide to the gypsies and other heathens in this city?"

"Of course, though I've yet to see one in person."

"Of course. Well, more than three years ago, that support was at an all-time low. I had thought everyone had learned their lesson after seeing the true colors of the evil gypsy Relena. Indeed, several families lost fathers and brothers to her rampage. Our people, it seems, have short memories." He wrinkled his brow in disgust and stretched the purple handcloth out as if wringing someone's neck.

"So it was actually Madame Relena who nearly destroyed the Palace of Justice three years ago?" Strange. If it was just another prejudiced lie, why is the palace still being rebuilt?

"It was", Frollo confirmed. "She attacked indiscriminately, slaying soldiers left and right, destroying walls and pillars with her evil sorcery, laughing all the while. It seemed nothing could stop her."

"...You?"

Frollo blinked and clapped a hand to his back. "Smart boy. Yes, stopping her was in fact what elevated my rank in the church from Judge to Minister. But in fact she did not die, she merely left us. I believe if we catch the gypsy girl Esmerelda, if we execute her as she so rightly deserves, her evil will be laid bare in the same way. This time, no one will ever forget what they see. I will make sure of it. My only concern is if we can defeat a second witch."

"Leave that to me", Captain Hyral said, bowing and wondering to himself if the Minister had been drinking against his vow of sobriety to the Order of Rheims. No. There's more to it than that. I can't trust him to be completely honest about what happened three years ago.

"And yet", Frollo continued on, staring into the roaring fire as if he hadn't heard Hyral. "Thiswas something I never expected to happen. Mayhap her witchcraft is even greater than Relena's."

"Sir?"

"All my life, Captain, I have beheld the weakness of Man from afar. Gluttony, ale and most often the darkest temptations of the flesh have inured their hearts to a wicked, impure society. All of them weak and lacking in self-control, save for me..."

He tensed up like a wanted man, simultaneously frightened and furious, and the Captainl began to realize it was not liquor that was making Frollo regard him as though he were a stranger. "It is not my fault. Not my fault! Not my fault! She cast a curse on me, I know she did! How else could I be so inflamed by infatuation for that which I despise?!"

Having witnessed his share of magic, he was almost inclined to believe the Minister's glassy-eyed appeals. He is in love with her? Something in the powder, perhaps? No... It would have affected the men as well were that the case. Then he must truly be... Poor man. "Calm down, sir. Everything's going to be alright. You swore an oath, remember?"

"I did", Frollo acknowledged lamentably, gazing upon the facets of the hand cloth again, as if debating whether to use it to block any sign of tears. "Yes, yes I did. Even as this curse enslaves my heart, I cannot falter. I will not succumb to corruption." Slowly regaining control and a new determination to go with it, he cast the handcloth into the roaring blaze before them. "In the end, she will be mine... Or she will burn in the fires of hell forever after, and I will accept either outcome in grace. This, I swear."

* * *

Quasimodo had not been at all annoyed about having his dinner halfway eaten by Sora. Indeed, he cheerfully offered to split the remaining bread three ways between them over dusk. Over the loaf, he'd explained again why he was here, and what had brought him to the bell tower. Now that they'd pried the hunchback from his tight shell, he was actually quite talkative, trading tales and views all through the night, though Sora and Esmerelda had yet to see any sign of movement from a trio of small stone gargoyles that Quasimodo insisted were his friends, 'Victor', 'Laverene' and 'Hugo'.

"I can hardly believe it", he commented in awe while passing out a bunch of fresh grapes. "I've never seen these 'Nobody' creatures you say have been guarding the bell tower before today. Yet, your tale is too strange to be a lie. I can understand what drove your friend Riku, Sora. I came to the festival today, because I could no longer hold in my want to spend a day- just one day- out there in the city." Here he slumped, remembering all too well what had happened. "But we were both in the wrong."

"Don't say that!", Sora implored him. "This tower can'tbe expected to be someone's entire world, Quasimodo. And Riku... Riku did what he thought was right; it was only Xehanort's Heartless who messed that up."

"All these other Worlds", the bellringer was remarking to himself humbly. "I only ever dreamed of seeing this one."

"One thing at a time", Esmerelda pointed out, one eye to the sky. "If you really do feel you have to stay here, then I can't stop you. I just wish you weren't staying up here out of fear. People aren't like that most of the time. I promise."

"Thank you, Esmerelda. You're very kind.", the bellringer said, both eyes veiled under his hair as he leaned back and smiled. "But I don't know if this world can ever accept a face as hideous as mine. Ugliest face in all of Paris, remember? Maybe you're right, maybe Master Frollo's right. Either way, now isn't the time to stir things up further than they already are. He'll never forgive you for insulting him the way you did, just as he'll never forgive me for disobeying his orders." Seeing the last traces of daylight finally wane from the sky, he abruptly sat up to shake his depression at the thought of it. "Let's go. The guards will be changing shifts around this time."

Witholding himself from looking to be sure, Sora looked on in confusion. "How do you-?"

"Frollo and his old Captain of the Guard arranged the schedules. About this time, all the afternoon soldiers are wanting nothing but food and sleep in their barracks."

"What about the Nobodies?"

Quasimodo blinked in surprise, then flexed one bulging arm to answer him. A lifetime of working the heavy bells in the tower had left him with deceptively powerful arm muscles beneath that deformed frame and forest green tunic. Barehanded, the deformed hunchback might have been a fair sparring match for even Riku.

A lifetime of learning to leap about the tower to ring said bells as needed had given him the legs needed to do what he did next. With Esmerelda holding on with both arms, he braced and soared from highest balcony over to the closest rooftop, that of a famous shoemaker's emporium. Watching their descent, Sora gaped. "You can fly." Being no stranger to high-altitude acrobatics himself, he could probably leap that same distance too, as well as make the other precarious jumps across rooftops Quasimodo was making now... But doing all of that with a passenger was another story entirely. This guy's just full of surprises. Glad he's on our side.

Of course technically he wasn't, but he knew now that Quasimodo would never turn on him or Esmerelda even if Frollo demanded it. Which brings up the matter of where I'm going to stay until it's safe to contact the Court of Miracles. He hated to risk endangering his new friend, but there was no other place for him to spend the night. No innkeeper would take him even if they accepted his meager supply of Munny, which he wasn't sure they did. This world was very strange.

If Frollo comes, he reasoned as he went back to examining the models, picking up the angry-looking model of the man in question, I'll just say that I climbed up here trying to confirm legends of Notre Dame's bellringer. It's the truth, even if it's not the whole truth. If he realizes how strong I am to be able to beat his Nobodies, he'll have no reason to fault Quasimodo for not ejecting me from the bell tower. Inwardly, he ached to show the old creep that strength firsthand, but such violence would not go over well with the hunchback. Strange that they follow a man like that instead of another powerful Nobody now. Are they just attracted to people with dark hearts... or is it something else?

At last feeling the strain of a day's running and leaping and fighting wear upon his back, he settled into a chair free of such concerns. Within a few minutes, he was asleep.

Riku... Kairi... I miss you.

* * *

Hellfire

Dark fire

Now Gypsy it's your turn

Choose me or, your pyre

Be mine or you will BURN

* * *

M: Just thought I'd point out that I haven't spoiled myself for Birth By Sleep, so future chapters may contradict it somewhat. Not likely, though.