Thanks for the reviews! They're about to enter the castle…but Belle came and left in a day here so the Beast isn't going to be quite as trusting.

I'm basing the characters (and everything else) mainly on the 2017 film but with a definite 1991 influence too on their personalities and looks. Hope you all enjoy it!

In the moonlight on the dark road, Agathe looked younger than ever. Her hair streamed wildly behind her. The rags she wore fluttered in the wind like the wings of a wild bird. The torches and shouts of the town were left far behind. She turned to the riders beside her.

'He was wrong, you know,' she said quite conversationally. 'I am a witch.'

Maurice almost pulled Mon Ami up involuntarily. Beside him he heard Belle gasp with shock.

'I am a witch,' she repeated. She stared ahead, her face split between bright moonlight and dark shadows. Her eyes glittered - with anger or tears, Maurice couldn't tell.

'Did you put the curse on them?' Belle asked tentatively.

'Hah! Yes, I put a curse on them all. On the selfish prince and foolish servants.' She grimaced. 'But I forgive them! If the prince has not been able to learn from his mistakes in ten years, I can.

'I'm sure he's very sorry,' Belle ventured. 'For whatever he did.' She looked sideways at Agathe. 'He seemed very unhappy,' she said earnestly.

'He turned me away,' Agathe said bitterly. 'I offered him a rose in return for shelter from the rain. He stood there, all in gold and lace in his fine ballroom and laughed in my face. I transformed him into a beast, terrible to behold. All who saw him fled in terror, if they were able. For years, those servants stood by in silence and allowed their master to become a monster. For their punishment I turned them into the little object a castle holds. Their punishment is bound to his.'

'But you should meet them,' Belle cried. 'They're very kind, really, especially Monsieur Lumière and Mrs. Potts. And Mrs. Potts has a little boy called Chip. He's only young! What could he have said to the Prince to stop him?'

Agathe sighed. 'I was vengeful,' she said. 'I admit it. But as a prince's power extends over all his subjects, so must his punishment. You said that they were kind? If they, poor inhuman objects that they were, were able to love each other and be loved in return, what could he have done? I cursed him to learn, for ten years, to offer love and find love in return or else remain a beast forever. What has he done? Buried himself in the depths of the castle; too proud to love a servant! And so he would have remained a beast forever, but for tonight.'

'For tonight?'

'You know that I have never truly belonged to the village here. For years I sat by on the edges, for years an outcast and beggar; the lowest of the low. Tonight a man I believed arrogant and thoughtless saved a beggar woman. When you see him again, you must tell him this: my debt is paid by the lifting of the spell.'

'But why couldn't you free yourself?' Maurice wanted to know. 'Surely you had the power to escape at any time. Was there…any need for that at all?'

'My hands were tied and their iron weapons were at my head,' Agathe said flatly. 'Nothing can charm iron.'

'But…if you don't mind me asking,' Belle said hesitantly. 'Why did you live that way? I mean, the way you've been living until now. People…pushed you aside in the streets. You had to sit in the rain!'

'I've never been one for towns and castles nor for anything made by hands. I live in the woods more than any other place. They speak to me; all the living things there.' She smiled slightly. 'Better that ones like me touch the earth lightly. But you're a kind girl. You brought me bread when you had little to spare for yourselves.' She reached between them and touched Belle's hand. 'Maybe your children or your grandchildren will see me again. I will remember you.'

Belle stared at Philippe's ears for a few moments without speaking. She looked at Agathe; looked away and then back again. 'Can you see the future?' she asked very quietly.

'We make our futures moment by moment,' Agathe returned. 'But I see meetings and partings in yours. Roads and a great city. Children beside you; a man standing behind you.'

'Who?' Belle demanded eagerly.

Agathe shook her head. 'The future is made of mist.' She turned unexpectedly. 'For you, Maurice, I see three stags and a doe. Enough now!' She held up her hand. 'No doubt there will be happy endings but these things aren't for me to see or you to hear. Too much knowledge of the future is as dangerous as poison.' She narrowed her eyes at the trees alongside the road and suddenly urged Magnifique into the forest. Their paths slowed in the darkness and they rode in single file. The hoof beats were muffled by the wet fallen leaves that blanketed the ground.

'Is this the old road to the castle?' Maurice whispered. The trees seemed to be leaning in to listen to them. Agathe nodded. There was an uncanny silence in the forest. Even the trees seemed to hold still against the wind as the golden haired lady rode past. He turned to look at Belle, riding behind him. Her eyes were distant, hands loose on the reins.

'How are you holding up, Belle?' he called softly.

She seemed to start out of a dream. 'I'm well, Papa. I was just thinking….'

'Put thoughts of the future out of your mind.' Agathe's voiced floated back to them. 'The future is made, not given. Now listen. The rose lies in the west wing of the castle…'

The three stood at the foot of the great gates and looked up. The iron gates of the castle loomed high above them, locked and barred against their entry. Staring at the gates, Maurice was overwhelmed with a sense of déjà vu.

'This is where I stay,' Agathe announced, settling herself down on a convenient tree stump.

'But…what about the gates?' Belle asked in confusion. 'I thought you were going to help us get through the gates.'

'I told you,' she said rather grumpily. 'The rose is the castle and the castle is the rose. It cannot be stolen or torn away. The spell is delicate enough as it is. The prince alone must carry it out to me. If they don't leave of their free will, they will not leave at all. Oh, I could tear down these gates,' she gestured grandly. 'Melt them like ice in summer! But they would tremble and run from the sight of my power. Bring them out to me seeking forgiveness and I will forgive them. Ask no more of me! This castle was not here when I was young. This forest was not here when I was born!' Her eyes burned and a wind from nowhere rose up and buffeted them. Around Agathe, there was a wild golden glow both beautiful and terrible.

Belle and Maurice backed away, afraid yet mesmerized. Belle tried to speak, failed, swallowed hard and tried again.

'I think I can climb the gates,' she volunteered bravely. She reached a hand as high as she could on the cold wrought iron.

'Wait,' Agathe commanded. She smiled slightly. 'You have done me many small kindnesses in the past. There is one I can do in return.' She rose and set a hand on the gates, whispering to them. Belle and Maurice fell back to either side as her muttering grew louder. She shaped the air with her hands, the light growing stronger around her again. Suddenly she raised both hands in the air, bathed in a golden glow and at the foot of the gates, roses twined around the metal. They grew, curling onto the gates, reaching upwards until a great spray of white roses on sturdy branches covered the gates, decking it out as if for a wedding. Agathe let her hands fall with a satisfied smile and turned to Belle. 'A rose without thorns, my dear. Let it remind you that love isn't always painful.'

Belle gasped, nodded suddenly and reached for the first branch with absolute faith. Climbing the rose was as easy as climbing a staircase. As they hurried up the causeway beyond the gate, Belle looked back, murmuring to herself.

'What did you say, my dear?'

'I'm just trying to remember all this,' she said softly. 'I think I'll remember these things for the rest of my life.'

Belle pushed the great door open a crack and slipped inside. The hall was dark and the huge fireplace bare. Shadows hung on the walls.

'Hello?' She called softly. 'Is anyone there?'

The whispering began in another room. A light flickered under a door and disappeared.

'It's me, Belle. I've come back!'

A door creaked open and a streak of golden light ran across the room. Each step clinked on the stones. Behind him, a slower clock clattered across the floor, bouncing from foot to foot.

'Oh, Mademoiselle! You have come back to us.' He turned to the clock behind him. 'See? I told you she was the one.'

Belle knelt, taking his tiny hand in her own.

'Yes, I've come back. We've found a way to save you!'

'Only love - true love - can save us.' Behind him Cogsworth nodded dolefully. Lumière looked up. 'You have come back to the Master, haven't you, Mademoiselle?'

'Well, yes and no,' Belle admitted. 'I've come back for all of you. We know the secret! We're going to get everyone out of the castle and she'll turn you all back.'

'She?' Cogsworth asked suspiciously.

'The witch…oh please don't go!' Cogsworth had already turned to leave. Lumière sank down helplessly, his lights dimming.

'She promised to forgive everyone,' Belle assured them, her voice animated with sincerity. 'My…friend saved her life. She promised she would lift the spell in return. All you have to do is walk out to her at the gates and tell her how sorry you are.'

The servants exchanged a look.

'That's not all she wants,' Cogsworth predicted gloomily. 'Not from a witch.'

Lumière gave her a sharp look. 'You didn't…promise anything else to her? Your firstborn child? Your soul? Believe me, Mademoiselle, we are not worth it! We would not have you give up these things for the whole world.'

'No! No, it's just because my, my friend saved her.' Belle stumbled over the words and rushed on. 'The only problem is, we have to persuade the prince - he is a prince, isn't he? to bring the rose out of the castle to her.'

The servants deflated with a sigh. Cogsworth shook his head.

'It was a pleasant dream while it lasted.' He hopped off slowly into the shadows. Lumière remained behind, his eyes downcast.

'Are you certain you could not…find it in your heart to love him? Perhaps one tiny kiss?' There was a note of desperation in his voice.

Belle raised her chin and straightened her shoulders.

'There's a lot of ways people can show love. What does a kiss mean compared to a real sacrifice? She's willing to break her own spell and she's waiting outside the gates. If you don't believe me, look outside. Don't you see the roses? The castle is changing already. We can do this. I'll speak to him myself for as long as it takes.' She held his gaze. 'Won't you help everyone, please? We have to do this together.'

Lumière strode bravely to the front door, shielding his flames from the wind as best as he could. He stared into the darkness.

'I see nothing,' he apologized. 'Monsieur, will you hold me up? I wish to get a better view.'

Maurice obligingly picked him up. The little metal man was surprisingly heavy in his hand. Maurice could feel the jagged edges of his jacket pressing against his hand. Lumière rested his sharp elbows on Maurice's fingers and leaned forward. In the distance, roses gleamed like pearls under the moonlight.

'I see them.' He sounded shaken. 'I didn't think…we would see such a sign. We were punished because the master would not accept a rose. See how many roses she brings us now.' Maurice set him gently down on the floor again. 'Cogsworth…Cogsworth! We are saved!' He turned back to Belle and Maurice, jumping from foot to foot. 'I'll gather them together and spread the good news.'

'I'll go and speak to the prince,' Belle said bravely.

'Surely he will listen to you…Cogsworth! Where are you? I'll go and…oh.'

'Is something wrong?'

'Why, yes.' The face of the candlestick had fallen. 'You see…we are fortunate, Cogsworth and I and a few others. We have arms and legs of a sort. We can move freely. Will Madame le sorceresse not come to us? You see, some of us cannot go to her.'

'Oh.' Belle and Maurice exchanged looks. 'I'm afraid she…said she wouldn't.' Belle ran her hands through her hair.

'We'll get everyone out,' Maurice assured them with a determination he didn't know he had. 'We won't leave anyone behind. If we help each other, that will go a long way and for the rest, we'll see what we can do with pulleys and rollers. This is the age of invention, you know.'

'Oh yes!' Belle lit up. 'Papa is an inventor. He can build a way out for people.'

'Right.' Maurice took charge. 'Belle and I will go and speak to the prince and we'll all start getting people out. Shall we assemble here before we go out of the gates?'

'Yes, Monsieur. You will find him in the west wing. Off that way and up the stairs. Oh, what a night!' Lumière danced off into the hallway, beaming from ear to ear.'

As they climbed the stairs, the castle began to seem alive with voices that called and echoed across the halls. Little objects scampered across the floors, clattering and tinkling while heavy furniture thumped and scraped. The corridor Lumière had indicated, on the other hand, was silent. Doors at the end of the corridor stretched above them, higher than them both put together. Belle set her hand cautiously on the door and it yielded easily. As they crept in the corridor darkened around them. Cobwebs clung to the dusty walls and furniture finer than they had ever seen lay tossed aside and broken. Maurice eyed one table closely. Claw marks an inch deep were gouged into the wood.

'Let me speak to him alone, first, my dear,' he said quietly.

'But he threw you into a cell, Papa,' she objected. 'I think I might be able to get him to understand.'

'Just while he gets over the first surprise of seeing us.' Maurice was reluctant to mention the claw marks to Belle. 'If you will stay back here…'

A growl reverberated around the corridor. Maurice and Belle froze where they stood.

'Why have you come to disturb me?' The Beast unfolded his huge form from the shadows. His fur was matted and dull. The clothes he wore hung in rags where he had raked at them with his claws.

Belle recovered her voice first. She stepped forward a little so a faint pink glow from the chamber beyond could throw light on her face.

'It's me,' she said gently. 'I've come back, your…your Highness.'

'Who told you I was a prince?' The Beast snarled.

'Agathe,' Belle answered automatically.

'Agathe? Who's Agathe?'

'We knew her as Agathe in our town,' Maurice explained. 'However, tonight, we discovered she was a witch. Your title was something she let slip as we rode here. It has been…a night of revelations to us all.'

'She's waiting outside the gate,' Belle rushed on. 'If you'd like to come outside with us…'

'Outside?' He broke in. 'So she can curse me again?' He laughed bitterly. 'What more can she do to me? In just a few weeks or months, the final petal will fall and I'll be a beast for the rest of my life.'

'No, no, you won't be,' she reassured him. 'She's ready to forgive everyone and undo the spell!'

The Beast blinked uncertainly. 'Undo the spell? That's impossible.'

'She put it on everyone in the first place,' Maurice pointed out. 'All she wants you to do is to bring the rose out to her along with everyone in the castle. She's waiting just beyond the gates.'

The Beast shook his great head violently. 'No! What, do you think I can trust a witch? This is a trick of hers. It can't be done.' He turned on them, snarling. 'She brought you here. Am I a spectacle now? Have you come to mock my misery? I tell you, it can't be done!'

'It can be,' Belle insisted bravely.

'It can't be.' The Beast turned away slowly. He buried his face in his huge paws. 'Go!'

They stayed.

'I told you to go!' The Beast clenched a fist.

'Please come with us,' Belle invited in her gentlest way.

'Go!' He whirled around and they saw tears in his eyes. 'I'm lost. Do whatever you will in the rest of the castle but leave me here. I can't trust a witch who cursed men, women, children and animals even if you can.' Seizing their hands in a surprisingly gentle grip, he towed them back along the corridor. 'Go home. Live the rest of your lives in peace. Try not to remember me. My name is lost already.' The doors slammed close and beyond them they could hear the thud and scrape of heavy furniture being piled up against them.

'We're not finished yet,' Belle announced with determination.

'No, we're not, my dear,' Maurice agreed. 'Let us try and rescue the fixed objects. We can ask his closest friends to speak to him again.'

By the great doors, the servants were gathering and chattering with an excitement that made Maurice's heart ache. As he stopped to let a few plates roll past, Belle was ahead of him, picking her way carefully through towards the familiar form of Mrs. Potts, perched high on a trolley. By the time Maurice reached them the good lady clearly understood the problem.

'Not to worry, dear,' she told them confidently. 'We'll all have a talk with him too. Chin up!'

'Thank you!' She turned to Maurice. 'Papa, let's try to get the Chef out. He's in the kitchen.'

The Chef turned out to be an enormous range. It took all of Maurice's ingenuity to plan a route upwards and out of the kitchens. Helped out by two hulking stone gargoyles who were unable to speak but, the others assured them, were Michael and Gregory, they dragged him onto rollers.

'Heave!'

The trip up the stairs took even greater planning. Madame Le Garderobe gave the strongest cloth she had to fashion pulleys.

'Heave!'

With twenty strong servants underneath, pushing for all they were worth and twenty more including Maurice and Belle hauling away on the pulleys, the edges of the huge stove began to tilt up. Counterweights dropped. Lumière leaped onto them to weight them down. The final edge came off the ground. The Chef hovered in midair and gradually, imperceptibly began to rise. More helping hands piled in and finally the Chef was dragged into the entrance hall amid cheers and applause. He rolled to a halt near the doors.

When he spoke, it was in the voice of knives, harsh and metallic but there was a tone of wonder that showed the man's soul underneath.

'I haven't seen the sky in ten years,' he said.