Princesses of Heart

"In you go sister, or should I say princess…" Pete cackled as he shoved in Jasmine into a rotten looking jail cell, "Have fun with the others, hope there's lots of space, won't be like that for much longer."

With one bellowing laugh Pete walked up the flight of stairs to the higher levels now. Jasmine now was gone from the pleasure of Agrabah palace or even Aladdin's hovel home. He now was in the dungeon of some sort of castle in the middle of Allah knows were. Apparently this is were Jafar and that ally of his Maleficent live. Though where exactly was still unsure.

"So...Guess I'm trapped here," Jasmine sighed as she leaned back against the wall

"I'm afraid so." A feminine voice came from behind her. "Hello, there."

Quickly, Jasmine turned around the room was so dark that it was almost impossible to see.

"Oh apologies, let me get some light."

Suddenly a small burst of flame came from one of the lanterns on top. The room was illuminated and Jasmine now was able to see her surroundings. Finding herself now in a small room. A jail cell. Trapped with six other maidens, each of them lovely and innocent. But all of them looked worn out, as if they had been trapped for a long time, how long it was hard to say. But there beauty still remained intact regardless, yet they all had a look of exhaustion in their eyes.

"W-Who are all of you?" Jasmine asked taking a step back in case they were secretly those creatures in disguise.

The one of the middle, a young maiden with lovely yellow dress and brown hair came to her giving her a polite bow. "I am Belle….This is Snow, Cinderella, Aurora, and Alice." She smiled, it was genuine enough.

Jasmine looked at the youngest of them Alice, a blonde girl with blue dress and white apron. She wondered just what they were all doing in one single cell. Let alone were they were in the first place. All she knew that this clearly was not Agrabah though after meeting Sora and his friends, the concept of other worlds did not scare her as much. Upon closer glance something inside her tell her that they were not to be feared, but to be trusted. They all had a certain warm radiance to them, almost as if they had a connection to one another.

"Why are we all here?" Jasmine asked them.

"Maleficent." Aurora said coldly. "She captured us, and put us all together in this cell. I was the first a few years ago."

"Maleficent?" Jasmine tired to think that name brining back images. "The witch ...yes!"

Aurora nodded. "Someone from my world, I'm afraid. I thought it was part of her revenge against my family but apparently this is for something bigger."

"Why is she kidnapping us?" Jasmine asked as she looked outside the hall. "That witch seemed very determined to do so, if she had a plan I want to know what it is!"

Belle took a moment to think but shook her head, she looked at the others who shrugged. It seemed no one knew exactly why the witch had captured any of them, only that when it did, their worlds had been destroyed by those creatures known as the Heartless. Jasmine didn't want to think that the same fate could have happened to her own world of Agrabah. She could only hope that Sora and the others had managed to stop them before that fate had befallen her home.

"How long has everyone been here?" Jasmine asked looking at the others.

"I've only been here a few weeks." Alice replied stepping up. "Other than that, not much."

"A few months myself." Belle interjected. "I remember my world being attacked by those creatures, Maleficent and some turban wearing wizard led the assault personally."

"Jafar." Jasmine sneered, the name of her former advisor giving her shivers. "I should have known he was behind this too."

Belle took another sigh. "If I could perhaps find something like a library, maybe I could some answers."

"I could do it!" A high pitch voice came from a crack in the wall. "Me small, me no one see. Yes, yes."

Everyone looked around to see a tiny mouse, dressed in a red dressing shirt and sock hat poking his head from the crack. Cinderella looked shocked to see the tiny mouse. He was a cute little thing, almost human like though in his movement as if he could understand what was going on, he looked around at awe at all the others as he approached Cinderella .Holding her gloved hand out allowing the tiny creature to stand in her hand.

"Jaq, Jaq...What are you doing here? I thought we promised to keep you a secret." She said scolding only.

The mouse looks sad. "Sorry Cinderelly, look like you needed mouse's help. Pretty ladies seem sad, why sad pretty ladies?"

"Well being trapped her for one." Jasmine muttered

"Who's Jaq?" Belle asked looking at the mouse.

Cinderella looked a little guilty at her fellow prisoners as she held out the mouse. "Sorry….But when we arrived one of my friends found themselves with me, Jaq...But I was afraid Maleficent would find out about him sooner if anyone knew, so I kept him a secret as best I could….Maybe I should have said something to you in retrospect."

"Jaq, Jaq know of library." The mouse said proudly. "Jaq, Jaq could lead one of you to library, and back with books."

Belle took a moment to think. "Well, I suppose that could work."

Jasmine looked at the others.

"Ok, I'm in for this place."

"I'll go though." Belle interjected. "I know books...I think I can find something."

-000-

The Castle was thankfully empty. Getting through the dungeon was the easiest part. Perhaps because there was no way to escape the world, security was allowed to be loose. Or perhaps Maleficent power was greater than normal, and she was watching them right now. Whatever the case, Belle remained on her guard as she followed the mouse through the grand halls.

Belle followed Jaq through the castle's halls. They were large, much like the one's back home. But still had the same gothic tendencies that she had been used to for the past for months. However still she could feel the darkness that surrounded this world. It was sickly, and smelled horrid. Echoing around her was the sound of machines and other pipes. Easily recognizable to her due to the her own father's inventions.

"Careful pretty lady." Jaq said looking around another corridor. "Bad guys everywhere...Nasty things, yes, yes. Jaq seen them, lots of them, big scary yellow eyes, smell stinky, darkness….baaaaaad things"

"I can imagine." Belle muttered as she carefully zoomed down the castle grounds.

They continued to make there way through the castle, thankfully there was no Heartless to be spotted. At least not yet. However, with the way the castle was organized, it seem easy to get lost. How the small mouse manage to navigate such a place was beyond her nor did it matter right now. Now, she needed to be careful.

As they did, Belle could not help but marvel a bit at the castle. It was a strange mix of medieval stone architecture and mechanical ingenuity. Each section felt like it had a story to tell, one of multiple owners and advancements to whoever ruled over this place. She had remembered during some of her time here when Maleficent conversed with her underlings in the dungeon that this place did not always belong to her, though to who she did not know. Though if the mechanical machinery was any indication,, surely this man was a inventor of some sort, much like her father Maurice who was a inventor himself.

"So strange." Belle muttered to herself.

Belle thought of home already, how she missed it. Her father, her friends, and even her most important friend of all The Beast.

Suddenly the smell of that same sickly darkness began to crawl around her, something wasn't right. Turning around a few Heartless manage to sneak back behind her and jump. Belle pushed her arms forward in defense, knowing it wouldn't do much. Yet, despite waiting, the attack didn't come. Slowly opening her eyes, Belle saw to her astonishment a bright aura projecting from her hand, pulling the Heartless back into the shadow, turning them into dust.

Jaq draw dropped. "Woah, pretty lights."

"Yes….Very." Belle looked at her own hand.

That power, she had never expressed anything like that before. It was so pure, warm, like all things good patroding from it. However the time for dwelling would come later, right now she had a library to find. It was a feeling that burned deep from within her heart and was emanating out at full blast.

Soon a loud bang came signaling the closing of a door, hiding again behind a tower pellat she stopped to see two of the heinous villains she had encountered during her time. One being the bag of bugs known as Oogie Boogie, the other, the tentacled horror sea witch Ursula. Both seemed to be conversing with one another as they entered the Castle's main entrance.

"Heading back to Atlantica, my dear Ursula? Always wanted to see myself but I'm afraid I might get a little soggy!" Oogie cackled madly. "But seriously I need to get back, my old buddy Jack has had the quiet life for a while, I think I should stir up some trouble."

Ursula groaned. "Yes, until I get my hands on that trident, I'm going to make the King's life miserable, already oodles of glorious Heartless are consuming the seas. Oh, I can't wait to see the look of all those poor unfortunate souls who get consumed by the darkness. HA HA!"

Oogie laughed. "I hear that, too bad my people don't have hearts we're all dead!HA! I'd love to put old Jack into our little machine, watch him turn into a Heartless."

"Makes you wonder who would make such a device." Ursula chuckled.

"Who knows but from what I've seen up close, the torture, the horror...he's definitely a hero of mine already!"

Ursula cackled, "And poor unfortunate Jafar, trapped forever in one of those human bottles, I'd pity him if I didn't loathe him."

"Man made a bad bet if you asked me."

"Bah that Vizer was always so full of himself, good riddance if you ask me."

The two villains continued cackling as Belle watched until they vanished allowing her time to move forward with the plan. Hearts, Heartless, machine? All this talk was strange to her, yet the villains were definitely using the situation to bring harm to their own worlds. Belle knew that she would have to act fast and find out what was going on, perhaps she and the other prisoners could think of a way to stop Maleficent and her followers from within, while this Keyblade Master Jasmine mentioned stopped her from afar.

"Come on, lady Belle! Jaq, show you way." The mouse points forward.

Thus she followed the mouse farther into the castle until she passed the main hall and entered a room.

Slowly, she opened the door. Beyond them was a library that likes of which she had only thought her previous home had had. But there we're just as many books, perhaps more. It was hard to tell. Yet she could just see the place oozing with knowledge. She could feel her heart beating faster with excitement, books always made her feel at home, no matter what sort of stress or sadness she felt, a book would always make her feel more at ease.

"This, this place is amazing." Belle said with wonder in eye. "I've never seen so many books in my life."

"Lots of books, reeeead good." Jaq said looking. "Lots of knowledge, answer, yes, yes...Evil people like books, good people too."

"I bet Maleficent is using this for whatever plan she has in mind." Belle stated.

Slowly she entered, making sure no one was there as she looked at each and every binder of the books that now stood before her. Books on history, philosophy, art. Some of the shelves had labels on them, one stated Tales of Illuvatia Vol 1-33 the others Final Fantasies of the Age Vol 1-? others were single additions.

"Property of Ansem the Wise." Belle read as she saw a not scribbled on it slowly she pulled out the piece of paper and read it "Maybe he was the originally owner of the castle."

Opening the door to a world's heart causes its walls to crumble.
These fragments are seen as shooting stars
This explains why these "gummi blocks" can travel freely to other worlds.
I know the catalyst of this collapse—the appearance of the Heartless. However, it will take time search out the worlds' doors and to retrieve each heart.
Furthermore, the doors can be locked using a Keyblade, making the heart forever unattainable. I must take action before the wielder of the key appears in this world.
If the princesses and the Keyblade are connected, they should resonate.
I've chosen a girl. I don't know if she holds the princesses' powers, but I will find out. She may lead me to the key bearer.

"Princess?" Belle read the passage again and again trying to understand it.

Belle just wanted to wait there and take it all in, she loved books, all the knowledge and wisdom contained within such small trinkets, just waiting for someone to pick them up and learn, it was a feeling of pure euphoria. However that feeling would pass, as the sound of a small tap appeared. Quickly, she got behind a bookshelf and looked around. Her eyes widening in shock as the figure of Maleficent appeared, her pet raven Diablo standing on the sphere of her staff as the two of them strolled down the libraries halls, stopping at on of the books to pull them out.

Watching teens she saw the evil witch walk down the grand halls of the library, a look of calm on her face. Gently she patted her ravens forehead as she hovered her hand over the bookshelves until she found a run down looking brown one and pulled it out. Belle could notice that several of the pages looked torn and worn down, Maleficent holding a few up to get a better lok.

A small smile wrapped itself on the witches face as she gazed upon the page. "Soon I will unlock the Princesses power, once they all are united. It was so kind of Ansem to catalog his findings on one of them/ Poor child, the pain she must have endured." Maleficent cackled as she continued to look over the book while Belle watched.

The raven cawed.

"Yes, Of course. As our plans move forward, we can no longer stay in the shadows long. Don't worry, I will soon rid ourselves of a potential threat soon enough."

Child? Princesses? So many questions. She had to wonder just what that horrid witch wanted with all of them. What special power did they have, and if so, how could they use it to get out of this castle?

Putting the book down Maleficent walked off after finding what she needed. Once she left the room, Belle quickly ran over to them with Jaq making sure no one was watching as she went over it to take a look. Inside several images of Hearts and Heartless emerged, along with torn out paper trapped inside.

"What is all this?" Belle asked in a hush tone.

She picked up the page and felt that it had a dark aura to it, something about it seemed wrong as if it a magical presence had taken hold of it. Belle tried to touch it, and the page felt cold, but the warmth she felt earlier was protecting her, trying to rid herself of the cold.

"Well now, what have we here?" A deep bellowing voice came from behind her

-000-

As the hours passed, Belle did not return. In fact, they were starting to get worried. Jasmine was starting to worry, her pacing around the cell began to quicken, the other girls just remained quiet as they sat back, most of them chatting to one another, while others just looked out the window deep in thought. Finally, Alice spoke, looking up at Jasmine with a concerned expression.

"I'm sure Belle is okay, they won't kill her if they need her." Alice suggested.

Jasmine sighed. "I know, still, I hope she was able to find something, anything."

"Indeed- Oh how I hope Sora doesn't blame himself for what happened back at Wonderland."

"I'm worried about Aladdin and my father." Jasmine said, a sad expression on her face. "But how can they know where to find me if I'm not even on the same world?"

"Or Phillip." Aurora said.

"Or the Dwarves." Snow added glumly.

All the girls took a sigh as they thought about their loved ones and family members. It was nice to know that they all had a few things in common. Jasmine hoped that perhaps that bond they could form would grow strong enough that eventually they would be able to escape in some form or another.

However she would have to wait, for the door to the dungeon opened up as a large lumbering body descending down the stairs, Belle standing right in front of it.

"Heh, heh heh….Thought you pretties could escape ey….Good thing Pete is on the case!" The old cat cackled madly, opening the door and shoving Belle inside. "Now stay in here till the proper time….Don't go hurting yourselves...Maleficent needs you nice and ready for the big day."

"Which is?" Jasmine asked.

Pete smirked. "You'll see Jasmine...You'll see." His laughter echoed from the dungeon as he slammed the door.

The rest of the princesses looked at Belle who waited for Pete to leave before giving them a sly smirk. From her dress she pulled out not only Jaq but a whole bunch of books that she was able to hide inside. The other princesses looked shocked.

"How?" Alice asked.

Belle chuckled. "Good thing I know how to hide a book huh…..Now come on, we have a lot of research to do. Like why Maleficent needs us in the first place."

The others gathered around and looked at the book, all of them were taken aback by the text. A few torn pages were gathered, the writing looked ancient and a bit hard to read, ink plots were spotted on some of the converse, many symbols and other pictures littered the page. Belle looked it over and started to decipher what she saw. But all were taken in by Ansem secret report, and the idea of a princess with power.

"It's going to take a while to figure some of this out, but it speaks about Princesses of Heart and a deep power they hold."

"Why do you think these will help?" Aurora asked.

"I believe so...Because when I was traversing the castle, I was able to stop them."

"How?" Jasmine asked.

Belle shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it was some strange warmth coming from me, and I think this Princess of Heart has something to do with it, whatever that is."

"So what else did you find?" Cinderella asked getting a closer look.

"Not much, just a few things." Belle said reading a few more of the notes. "This idea of a Princess of Heart is fascinating I mean I'm not a princess."

"Neither am I." Alice determined.

"I'm not either." Cinderella said. "Though I did recently marry a Prince...so…."

"I'm a Princess by birth." Jasmine said.

"So am I." Snow White said.

Belle took a moment to think. "Well it says Princess of Heart, it doesn't seem to be a hereditary thing."

"Well, do you think it will help us get out this Princess of Heart...thing?" Jasmine asked.

"I am not sure, but I think I have an idea." Belle pulled out one book about the heart and began to read. "Look at this note, this one I think is most interesting."

"What does it say?" Jasmine asked looking over Belle's shoulder.

"It says that just because a world is destroyed doesn't mean all the hearts that lived within it are gone, some hearts manage to escape through sheer force of will alone."

The other princesses looked stunned.

"So does that mean our friends could be out there." Alice asked.

Belle nodded. "Yes…..And I think I know someone with a strong will who could be out there ...Hopefully."