Chapter 10: True Love Conquers All Battles

Third Person POV

As rain started pouring down outside of the Palace of Justice, two of Jehan's men, one tall and another fat, were standing guard outside of the doors. As they kept looking around, all of a sudden, they saw a crippled beggar woman in a blue cloak wobble towards them with her cane. As she got closer to them, the tall one asked callously,

"What do you want?"

She didn't speak, but held up a small can as her arm shook. The fat one scoffed and mockingly asked,

"You want money?"

The tall one laughed and said mockingly,

"I'll give you some money, you little wench!" As he tossed golden coins at her head.

She then raised up her hand, making them stop, and she pointed to the keys that the tall one had.

The tall one scoffed and said, "I'm not giving you my keys, you little freak!"

The fat one then kicked the cane out of her hand, making her fall to the ground. She then weakly grabs her cane and tries to get back up, but only to have the tall guard kick her down again as they cruelly laugh at her.

The crippled woman then says in a croaky voice,

"I-I'm afraid that you guys don't w-want to be messing with me."

The thin one then scoffs and asks, "Oh yeah, and why not?"

She then said in her croaky voice, "Be-cause, I-I'm-"

And says in a normal voice, removing her cloak and revealing herself to be Natalie with a determined grin,

"Your worst nightmare!"

They then look at her in shock as Natalie calls out, looking at the roof,

"Quasimodo! Irena! Now!"

They look up to see the bell ringer of Notre Dame and her friend drop down a big net on the two of them as they looked on in shock and dropped the keys and said,

"Uh Oh."

Once the net fell on the two of them, Natalie called out to Leslie,

"Leslie, come on!"

She came out of her hiding spot with a bunch of rope. She then tossed the other end of the rope to Natalie and said,

"I got the rope."

Natalie said,

"Great, now let's wrap this up." The two girls then started tying the two men up as they struggled to get out of the net.

Once they were done, Natalie said as she took the keys off the ground,

"I'll take these, thank you."

The tall guard then growled, "Why you little-"

But after Quasimodo and Irena climbed down the roof, Quasimodo came up to them, placed his hands onto their heads and slammed them into each other, knocking them out. Natalie said with satisfaction,

"Thanks love. Now that that's been taken care of, let's go bust out our friends."

Natalie then used the keys to unlock the doors and she kicked them open to see Phoebus, Esmeralda, Djali, Pierre, and Madellaine all locked up in one cell. Once the five captives heard the loud bang, they all looked up to see Natalie, Quasimodo, Irena, and Leslie enter the Palace of Justice. Esmeralda shouted with joy,

"Quasi! Nat!"

And everybody else smiled with joy as they stood behind the bars. The four then walked up to the cell and Quasimodo said as Natalie unlocked the cell,

"Don't worry guys, we're busting you all out."

Once the cell opened, they all walked out and embraced Quasimodo, Natalie, Irena, and Leslie. Esmeralda said as she hugged Quasimodo and Natalie,

"I'm so glad that you guys are alright."

Madellaine asked, "But how did you all get pass the guards?"

Natalie said with a satisfied grin, "We have our ways."

Pierre said with relief,

"Well, whatever ways you all used, I'm just glad that we're finally out of that cell."

Phoebus added,

"And more importantly, that we're all safe and together again." They all smiled at each other in response.

Then all of a sudden, they heard someone say with a sinister laugh,

"Not for long!"

The group then looked to see Jehan standing by the front doors.

Quasimodo exclaimed as he used his arm to shield Natalie,

"Jehan!"

He responded with, "You guessed it, hunchback!"

Phoebus chimed in and said angrily,

"Jehan Frollo, you're under arrest for assaulting a woman, mugging soldiers, and kidnapping!"

Fleur-de-Lys then came in and said as she stood by Jehan's side,

"Oh, I'm afraid that nobody's going to be arrested tonight, mon capitan."

Phoebus exclaimed in shock, "Fleur-de-Lys!"

Esmeralda exclaimed in anger, "You're the little tramp that hit me from behind!"

She scoffed in response and said, "You should speak for yourself Gypsy, considering the fact that you live like one!"

Phoebus asked, "Fleur, why are you working for this man? And why are you doing all of this?"

She answered, "Because I finally have the chance to get back at you for leaving me for that Gypsy witch!"

Phoebus then said,

"Are you kidding?! I left you because you were always bossing me around, you were stuck up, you had little compassion for others, and you were always self centered."

She then fired back with, "Well, at least I'm not the one that resorted to sleeping with such Gypsy scum like her!"

Natalie snapped in defense, "Don't you talk about her that way!"

Jehan then said,

"Oh, my sweet gullible, Natalie. We can say and do whatever we want. For you see, you, your little monster, and friends are all outnumbered."

As more and more of his men walked in through the front doors. As the group looked on in fear, Natalie then looked to Quasimodo, and he nodded to her in support.

Putting her fear behind her, she said to Jehan as she pulled out her dagger,

"It doesn't matter! We're not going down without a fight!"

He then said, "Very well, then."

And his guards started to move in on the couple and friends. As the group started to back away, Jehan shouted,

"Poor, sad fools, despite your bravery and resistance, you are all going to perish and vengeance will soon be mine!"

They then heard someone shout,

"Not if we've got anything to say about it!"

They all turned to see Natalie's family and their dog Janie walking out of one of the rooms and towards Quasimodo, Natalie, and their friends. In shock, Natalie said,

"Mom? Dad?"

Another man who was behind her family said, "Hey Nat, don't forget about us."

And Another said, "Yeah, us too."

In disbelief, Natalie said,

"Kacy, Uncle Mike, Uncle Hal, Aunt Gina, Aunt Janna, what are you guys doing here?"

Kacy answered, "We came to help out our cousin."

Natalie said, "But how did you guys know?"

Her mother answered,

"When you left, we overheard two men talking outside about how Jehan was going to kill you and Quasimodo, so we went back to our world and rounded up some of your aunts, uncles and cousins to help."

She then asked, "So everyone else is back at home, right?"

Her mother whispered,

"Well, some of them, but your little cousins came to the bell tower to set up a trap for anyone of Jehan's men that come up there."

Natalie nodded and said, "Oh okay."

She then said, "But you should know, it was your Dad's idea."

Surprised, Natalie asked him

"Dad, it was yours?" He nodded in response.

She asked, "But, I-I thought that you-"

He cut her off and said,

"Nat, I could never be mad at you. I'm the one that was wrong. I only wanted what was best for you. But I now realize that your happiness is what truly matters to me."

Natalie smiled in response and hugged him as she said,

"Oh, Dad!" Quasimodo smiled at the two as they embraced.

Natalie's father then turned his attention to Quasimodo and said,

"And I'm sorry to you, Quasimodo, for the way I acted. The truth is, you really are what's best for my daughter."

The loving couple then smiled at each other in response as he said,

"Thank you, sir."

Natalie's father then said, "Please, call me Dad."

He then smiled in response and then the two men hugged it out while Natalie watched on in joy.

Jehan then said mockingly,

"Oh, that's sweet! Family coming together again. But unfortunately, there's only a few of you and meanwhile, there's more of us!"

Then all of a sudden, they all heard someone say,

"Make that, equal!"

They all turned to see Clopin and most of his Gypsy men and women. Quasimodo shouted with joy,

"Clopin!"

Natalie added, "You made it!"

Clopin said with a confident smile as he and his band of Gypsies walked over to them,

"Hey, I told you two to leave it to me."

They both smiled in response. Jehan then looked on in shock as Natalie's father said,

"You see Jehan, Quasimodo and Natalie have a big family that's united, related or not. So if you plan on messing with them, you're going to have to mess with us too!"

As they all glared at Jehan and his men while Janie growled at them.

Enraged, Jehan shouted, "You fools! Don't just stand there, attack!"

One of them said, "But boss, they're not-"

He snapped, "I don't care what they are you idiot! I said to attack!"

With that, Jehan's men charged towards Quasimodo, Natalie, and their family and friends. Then the whole group charged towards Jehan and his men.

Natalie's father then shouted to Quasimodo as he ran towards Jehan's men,

"We'll fend them off! You get Natalie to a safer spot!"

Quasimodo nodded in response and grabbed Natalie's hand and ran off with her down the hall. Off in the distance, Jehan grabbed the sword that once belonged to his brother and said,

"Oh, you two aren't getting away from me that easy!" And with that, he ran after them with his sword.

Meanwhile, Jehan's men and Quasimodo and Natalie's family and friends were battling it out in combat. Natalie's father punched out two of the guards while her mother punched one out and kicked another in the groin. Nathan punched out a guard and then knocked out two more by making them collide head on into each other.

Marcelle said after she clobbered one of the guards,

"That's for threatening my sister!"

As Natalie's aunts got more physical with the guards, her cousin Kacy placed one of them in a headlock and her uncles clobbered two of them. One guard then grabbed Djali, but then screamed out in pain as Janie bit him.

He started spinning around to try to get her off and another one tried to help, but Djali headbutted both soldiers and Janie then finally let go as they fell to the ground. She then walked up to Djali and licked him on the cheek, making him bleat in response.

Another guard then tried to punch Clopin, but he ducked and said as he pantsed him,

"Woah! Nice try! But you missed!"

He then flipped over guard and punched him out. Phoebus was in a sword fight with a guard and after clashing for a minute, he knocked the sword out of his hand and punched the guard out.

Fleur-de-Lys then attempted to knock Phoebus from behind with a stone, but Esmeralda then came up and knocked her out with a punch to the face, saying,

"That's for knocking me out earlier, and for getting between me and my husband you skank!"

Irena, Leslie, and Madellaine then teamed up to take out three guards by swinging each other around, giving them clotheslines while Pierre gave one a low blow when he tried to hit Madellaine.

In the meantime, the two guards that were walking around in the streets earlier finally came to the bell tower. As they began to look around for Quasimodo and Natalie, all of a sudden, one of Natalie's cousin Justina shouted to them,

"Hey, cheese brains!" As she blew a raspberry towards them.

She then began to run as they started to chase her. They then stopped when they heard another cousin named Brian say,

"Ah, pew! You stink brains are gonna have to do better than that!"

They then grunted and started to chase after him as he ran off.

They then stopped to see four more cousins named Cecily, Evelyn, Alex and Jack along with little Zephyr standing underneath La Fidele as it hovered high above them saying,

"Na! Na! Na! Na! Boo! Boo!" And they all stuck their tongues out at them.

They then ran off as the guards ran under La Fidele. Then all of a sudden, they looked up to see the three gargoyles drop the bell on top of them as they said, "

I hate kids!"

They then started banging on the bell as they were trapped underneath it, shouting,

"You brats let us out!"

Hugo said as he and the other gargoyles came down saying, "Good job, kids!"

They all cheered as they gave each other high fives.

Natalie's POV

We ran all the way down the hall, into a room and we shut the door and locked it with a soldier's staff and barricaded it with a chair. As Quasi kept making sure that it stayed locked, I looked around the room, and I quickly realized that it was the same room where Frollo sang "Hellfire". I shuddered in fright as I looked to the door. Quasi then walked over to me and said as he placed his hands on my shoulders and said,

"It's alright. We're safe for now."

We then heard turned to see someone trying slice through the door with a sword and I screamed as Quasi shielded me. I looked to Quasi and asked,

"Quasi, what do we do?!"

He then looked to the window as it was raining and said, "The roof! Come on!"

And we ran all the way to the window as the man kept trying to break through the door. He then scooped me up and climbed up to the roof, pushing me up first, and then I pulled him up to the edge. We then got up and started running hand in hand as it was raining and thundering down on us.

As we kept running on the roof, all of a sudden, I felt myself slip on the side and I fell hard on the spikes that were sticking out on the side, and I yelped out in pain. Quasi turned to me and asked,

"Are you alright?"

I said trying to sound alright, "Yeah, I-I'm fine. I just slipped."

He then helped me up and when I took a step, a sharp pain struck my left leg and I winced in pain.

He then asked, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

I said clutching my leg, "Ow! it's my leg! Ow!"

He lifted up my skirt a bit to see a deep cut and blood running down my calf. He then said bringing my arm onto his shoulder,

"Here, you're going to be alright. But we've got to keep going okay?"

I said, "Okay."

And with that, he took me in his arms and continued running. As he carried me through the storm, all of a sudden, a lightning bolt stroke right in front of us and he accidentally dropped me. I then screamed,

"Quasimodo!"

As I slid off the edge of the roof, trying to hold on. He then shouted,

"Natalie!"

As he climbed down to the edge to meet me. He then said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me back up,

"Don't worry, I've got you."

As he tried to pull me up, I saw Jehan holding up his sword, about to strike Quasimodo from behind. I screamed,

"Quasi, look out!"

He turned around and gasped as Jehan brought his sword down to strike him, but he quickly dodged it. I kept trying to climb back up as Jehan kept trying to strike Quasi. I then immediately screamed,

"NO!" As he finally kicked Quasi down.

I then immediately climbed back up as I saw him point the sword at Quasi and say,

"At last, you filthy beast! I'll finally be able to avenge my brother's death once and for all!"

As he held up his sword to strike Quasimodo, I stood up on my good leg and threw my shoe at his head. He then turned his attention to me as I shouted to him,

"He didn't kill your brother! I did!"

I then took the blood that was streaming down my leg, Spread it across my abdomen, and bent over, showing him that I was the hunched figure that killed Frollo. He then looked at me with shock and said,

"You were the hunched figure."

I said to him as he walked over to me,

"Despite the fact that he was an evil and sadistic man, I didn't kill him out of cold blood. I killed him because he was about to kill your son!"

And I pointed to Quasimodo.

Jehan growled, "What are you talking about?"

I asked, "You remember Florika?"

He asked, "Yeah, so?"

I asked, "And how you got her pregnant?"

He asked, "What are you getting at?"

I said, "The man that you just tried to kill, that's her son!"

His eyes widened with shock as he looked at Quasimodo. I then said,

"Jehan, I don't blame you for wanting to kill me, but you need to know the kind of person that Frollo was. He was someone who was corrupted by his own hatred and prejudice towards others, and in the end, that's what made him kill Florika and himself."

I continued to say with a sigh as the storm continued,

"But it doesn't have to be this way. You can come with us, you could be apart of our family, and there wouldn't be any hatred or violence, there would be love and peace, and you could finally be the father that Quasimodo never had. Jehan, you have a chance to turn life around right now. Please Jehan. Please."

He then looked at his sword in thought, and then back at Quasimodo as he was still down. He then sighed and then looked at me and kicked me down to the edge of the roof. He then snarled as he pointed his sword at me,

"Any last words before I slit your throat?!"

I then looked to Quasimodo and he gave me a firm nod. I then looked to Jehan and said with a determined grin,

"Yes, your fly's open."

He then said, "What?" As he looked down.

I then took the chance and kicked him in the groin. He groaned and sunk down in pain. I then rotated myself from the edge and he snapped as he grabbed me by the hair,

"Why you little-"

But I slapped him across the face, making him let go and Quasimodo stood up and yanked Jehan towards him. As Jehan pleaded,

"N-No please, I'm sorry!"

But Quasimodo didn't have any of it and said with a glare,

"This is for threatening me, my friends, and my fiance!" As he punched him out.

I gasped in response as he slid off the roof and fell to his death.

After a moment, I looked back at Quasi and said trying to climb back up towards him,

"Oh, Quasimodo."

He said, "Natalie."

As we reached for each other's hand, another lightning bolt struck the roof right next to Quasi and it startled him, causing him to fall. As I saw him slide down, I dove out at him to try to stop him, but it proved to be futile as we both started sliding down the roof. I shouted to Quasi,

"Quasi, grab onto something! Quick!"

He then shouted trying to find something, "There's nothing to grab onto!"

We both continued to scream as we were close to sliding of the roof. But then all of a sudden, as we were about to slide off the edge, we were stopped by some sort of wind. As the wind circled around us, I asked,

"What's happening?!"

Quasi said, "I don't know."

But then the wind appeared in front of us, and then turned into a bright glow, and the glow became the spirit of a woman. But not just any woman, it was the spirit of Quasimodo's mother!

As we looked on in shock, I uttered the words,

"Y-You're Florika, aren't you?" She nodded in response with a warm smile.

Quasimodo then said, "And y-you're my-"

She then spoke up and said with pure joy,

"Yes, my son. Oh, my son!"

And she hugged him with joy as Quasimodo hugged her tightly as tears streamed down his face. She then said looking at him,

"My, how you've grown." Quasi smiled in response.

She then turned to me and saw the cut that I had on my leg. I said,

"Uh, i-it's nothing. I-It was an-"

But she then placed her hand on my leg and her hand started glowing warmly. She then removed her hand after a few seconds and I saw that my cut was gone! I then said in amazement,

"My cut is gone!"

She smiled and said, "It's the least that I could do for what you've done for my son."

I then said, "Thank you." She nodded in response.

Quasimodo then asked, "But mother, there's something I don't understand. Why were you with Jehan? And why did you leave him?"

She answered,

"Oh, for many reasons. When I first met him, I thought that he was nice and that he was meant for me. But then I left him when I became pregnant with you because he drank too much and he was abusive to me, and I thought he would've done the same to you. So I left him."

She then said,

"Quasimodo, I'm proud of you for the man that you've become and how you came to accept yourself for who you truly are. And Natalie, I'm proud of you and thankful that you came into my son's life and showed him the true beauty that he had inside, and how you've protected him from the judge. I don't think that I could choose any other woman that is right for my son."

We both smiled in response as I shed a few tears. She then hugged me and it almost felt as if she were actually hugging me. She placed her hand on my cheek and said,

"Take care of him for me."

I nodded and said, "I will, I promise."

She then turned to Quasi and said, "I love you, Quasimodo."

He said, "I love you too, mother."

And she kissed him on the forehead. She then flew up into the sky and turned into a bunch of bright stars for the night sky as the storm died down.

I then turned to Quasi and said, "Quasi?"

He said, "Yes?"

I said,

"No matter what happens, no matter what enemy we might face, lets promise to stick together and always remember that we have each other."

He said, "I promise. Now and forever, baby."

And with that, we shared a kiss as it continued to rain down on us.