-Final Confrontation-

(A/N: This is NOT the last chapter! :D)

"M-my parents?" stuttered Adam. "What does my parents have to do with all this?" Forte took a sharp inhale/exhale and coughed as a result, but no more blood showed. He wiped what little did fell from his mouth, but only ended up smearing it a bit, as the rest already dried. Clearing his throat, Forte said hoarsely, "I became somber after the death of your parents." "Wait, what?" Adam gasped, eyes widened. Clearing his throat again, Forte spoke clearly, "Let me explain. I had a long period of depression in my time before coming to the castle. Though considered a Maestro and musical genius, I was not sought after. I went from here, to Italy, Spain, and back here in France again searching for someone with an interest for pipe organ music, as it was my specialty."

Forte paused when Adam shifted his footing, but showed Forte he remained attentive. He nodded to him, indicating he wants him to continue his story. "Should we...find somewhere to sit, Master?" His voice was a softer tone than before. Adam walked into the dining room and Forte followed. "We can sit in here," said Adam. "Very well then," Forte replied. They sat in the nearest chairs and Forte continued with his side of the story. "Though I could compose music scores for other instruments, no one had wanted composition for organ music. Even the churches I went to already had organists." he grumbled. He straightened up in the chair, and once again continued. "That is until one day, the very King and Queen themselves sought out a need for an organist, as they had an organ installed, but the then-current court composer had passed away."

"But what of my parents?" Adam asked politely. Forte held up a finger, saying, "In a minute. I was tasked to play a piece on their organ and they loved it. And so the castle had a new court composer, moi." He gave himself a half smile, but it faded just as quickly as it came. "I was grateful to them, King Abraham and Queen Ethel. Then a few months later, you came along." Adam tensed in anticipation of hostility, but Forte gave no sign of it. "It was...one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. They were amazing parents to you. They even thought highly of me as to make me an honorary guardian or something." He chuckled, but it faded as he said somberly, "Then one day, Queen Ethel became sick. It was so sudden and severe that she succumbed to it days later. There was nothing anyone could do."

Adam looked up at a portrait above Forte and saw the royal couple, side by side with soft expressions. The Queen wore a red and gold gown with puffed sleeves at the shoulders, extending down to her wrists. She had a white ruffled collar and red, white, and gold fascinator on her head. She was extremely fair with long auburn hair, green eyes, and dark red lips. The King had a blue shirt on with a red cape trimmed with white hanging from his shoulders. He had brown short hair, mustache, and beard with blue eyes. Each wore a golden crown adorned in an assortment of jewels and pearls. Forte turned in his seat and looked up at what Adam was staring at. He then said monotonously, "Not even four months later, the King died from a broken heart." Forte turned back around to Adam and Adam looked back to Forte.

Forte looked down as they both sat in silence. He continued, "They were such wonderful parents to you, Master. Parents I could only ever dream of." Prince Adam then remembered Piano's story. "Allegro and Adagio?" he asked. Forte paled in shock in hearing his parent's names. "H-how did-?!" "I met your sister, Forte. She's the Enchantress now." Forte sat there, eyes wide and mouth agape. "Impossible!" he shouted. "She's off doing her own concerto or something, what do you mean she's the Enchantress now?!" Adam sat and explained his encounter with Piano. After Adam finished, Forte sat quietly, looking down. "That sounds like Piano, all right," he mumbled. "Always the favorite. You know your parents don't love you when their ONLY son is missing, firstborn at that, and they never seemed to notice."

"Missing?" repeated Adam. "Other than the story Piano told you about me coming home so late, I've tried running off, to see if they even cared I was gone." Forte said venomously. "Only Piano was concerned, and even though she keeps telling me Ma and Pa missed me, whenever I came home, they would only assumed I went outside to play. Really now! And that's including my OWN FATHER forgetting my name! He called me Fermata once! How do you forget you own son's name?!" Forte raised his voice in anger. He simmered down, taking deep breaths as he closed his eyes. He opened his eyes and became placid. "But that's another story, for another time." he said at last, calmly. "Now it's your turn."

~~~~
Earlier...

Philippe chased Fife down the winding stairs down to the boiler room. Fife closed the door at the bottom behind him and barricaded it with nearby supplies. He then proceeds to overload every furnace down there by stuffing it with an innumerable amount of wood. Fife can hear the banging on the door as he frantically looks for an escape. He runs all the way to the other side of the room,
just as he heard shouts behind him. The guard broke down the barricade and got in. Panicked, he ran to the other exit door and closes it behind him and went up the stairs. Philippe saw a door just close and went through that door.

He raced upstairs as fast as he could, but going through the hot room and wearing the heavy armor proved too much for Philippe as he collapsed on the floor, just at the top of the stairs. Fife exited the door and into the other side of the kitchen. He snucked around to see if the coast is clear, then headed back into the dining hall. Upon hearing voices, he went up under the tables to catch his breath and keep hidden, jar still intact in his arms.

"With?" Adam asked, confused. "Your turn to tell your end of the story, Master. Why have you not come down to the West Wing basement after all this time? A year, Master? Really?" Forte said flatly. He began showing visible signs of anger, but it's very subtle. Adam sighed and said, "I want to start off by saying that you are my friend, Forte. Or was, I don't know." Forte didn't budge or make a sound, so Adam continued. "I began to feel doubts that you were ever my friend, because of the fact you tried so hard to keep me away from Belle, from falling in love." "I felt unwanted by you after you stopped coming in for lessons." Forte interrupted. "You were the only link left to the King and Queen, and for you to ignore me anytime else felt like I was discarded. Avoided. Invisible."

"We were both in the wrong," said Adam. "I didn't come down to see if you were there because I was selfish. I thought only of my own pain from your betrayal, that I didn't once think you were still alive, a traitor, and that you were gone for good. It pained me to know that a friend who betrayed me was back alive or in human form before my eyes. I didn't know what to do. I thought i-it was better to just assume you w-were dead and f-for me to remember...the good times we had." Adam was shaking, tears falling in streams and voice wavering. "I-I didn't know the story of your life, i-if I knew..." Adam's voice was barely audible. "I'm so sorry, Forte. Please forgive me." Adam placed his head in his hands and sobbed quietly. Forte, now expressing grief, scooted his chair next to Adam's and patted his back softly. "I forgive you, Master. I'm also sorry." He said softly while giving him a hug from the side. "Please forgive me too."

"Aw," said Lumière, out of the blue. Startled, Forte got off Adam and tried scooting away, but his chair got caught on the carpet below and him and his chair fell over. "Ow," he groaned, slowly sitting up. Lumière offered his hand to help him to his feet. Forte grabbed his hands and got up with ease. "Thanks," he said looking away. Adam looked up to see many servants gathering in the dining hall. Forte looked at Lumière staring intently at him. "Where the hell did you come from?!" he retorted, blushing deep red. Lumière just kept staring at him. "Stop staring at me, Lumière." he gritted his teeth.

"You can't hide it now, mon amie. You hugged ze prince! Plus, we were all hiding from you, but then it got all quiet and we were all worried." "Humpf!" grunted Forte, folding his arms and looking away. "Are you ok?" said Mrs. Potts as she walked in. "I heard from Angelique that Fifi gave you quite a nasty bump on the head." "He deserved it," added Angelique, following behind Chip. Forte simply glared at her. She glared right back even harder. Mrs. Potts, Chip, Fifi, Lumière, Cogsworth, Angelique, and all the others were gathering around the room, murmuring amongst themselves. Suddenly, a cry rang out from across the room. "PRINCE ADAM COME QUICK! IT'S BELLE!"

Shocked, Adam got up quickly, wiped away tears and ran to the other side of the dining hall, near the kitchen. A servant was carrying Belle in his arms as she laid unconscious. "I found her down in the boiler room." he said as he laid her down. "Oh no..." breathed Forte. "But the boiler room was fine, what happened?" he asked. The servant simply said, "I heard whistles and all sorts of noise, so I went to investigate. Then I found her." Adam got down on the floor and held Belle's head up. "No, she's burning up. Quick, fetch her some water!" he pleaded desperately. "Stay with me Belle," said Adam, new tears falling. "I, I didn't know-how did she-?" Forte started. "She was following me in pursuit of Fife," said Philippe, leaning on another guard helping him walk. "He did this." "Fife?" Forte said confused. There was no way Fife would do something like this.

Just then, Fife popped out from under the table and shouted as loud as he can, close proximity to Forte, "FORTE!" and opened the jar. A vacuum began pulling on Forte, first appearing as green waves leaving his body, then after a while appearing as color trails of him sucking into the jar, all the while Forte screaming. "Fife! Stop, Forte is okay now! We don't need the jar!" Adam said, looking up. He refuses to budge, due to propping up Belle's head, but other tried to pull Forte away from the jar. He's stuck in place, screaming in pain. "FIFE!" Adam demanded, but Fife refused to close it. Cogsworth pushed Fife away, and managed to stop the jar any further. Forte was devoid of color in his face, body pale as death as he held mouth agape and eyelids heavy before collapsing. "Forte!" cried Adam, Lumière coming to his aide. He laid Forte on his back and checked for breathing. "He'z gone, Your Highness." he said, pale.

"I-I thought you w-wanted to end him, r-right, Prince A-Adam? I did it, r-rig-?" started Fife. "No Fife, it was only to take his powers away if he didn't listen! I just wanted to talk to him!" Adam yelled, furious. "The Enchantress said to NOT point it at him for too long, or else." his voice softened. "Oh no..." said Fife. "And what's with overloading the furnaces, Fife?!" demanded Cogsworth. "Are you trying to burn the castle down?" "N-no! I was t-trying to stall the guard from chasing me, I wanted to keep the jar to stop Forte! I wanted to be a hero! I didn't know Princess Belle was after m-me too! Oh," Fife whined. He raised the jar up high in the air, and smashed it down.

"NO!" Bellowed Adam, nearly jumping up. A servant came back with water and Adam trickled some down Belle's throat. She mumbled and coughed, but was luckily alive. Adam sighed with relief. The energy from within the jar manifested into a humanoid form. It took on the appearance of... Forte. It looked like Forte, but with a ghostly pale blue hue. The wig was a light blue in color versus the lavender-ish color Forte has. The skin was milky white, blush nearly absent on its face. The marking around the eyes were darker and took on a purplish hue. The lips also gained a darker, purplish bluish hue and the pupils glowed red. It glowed an outline of white and levitated, furthering its ghost-like appearance.

"Oh no I killed him!" cried Fife. "I'm so sorry, Maestro! So sorry-!" "SILENCE!" it bellowed, using its red powers to restrain and choke Fife. It sounded a lot like Forte, but with an added echo. From the shattered remains of the jar, pink wisps of energy rose up and went over to Forte's lifeless body. As it entered his mouth, he gasped sharply as he came back to life. The pink aura then expelled from his body, making him glow a warm golden color as it whips around healing his injuries. He got up, dazed as he looks around and sees his double. Forte concentrated on his right hand, until it glowed green. He still has his powers. Not stopping to ask what just happened, he flung his energy right at the spectral image of himself. It cried out in pain as it drops Fife and he fell on the floor, passed out. The others have since vacated the dining hall, screaming as they did. The copy turned around and looked at Forte.

"Who the devil are you?" Forte said spitefully, clenching fists. The eerie image laughed, echoing as it did so. "Can't you see? I'm you, but better. I shall be called Fortissimo."