"Allow our guests to pass!"
Cogsworth and the others led us through a secret pass that took us through another part of the dungeon. Just one command from him made the knights' armor step away to move on from here. They stood by idly as we walked through a set of doors overlooking the undercroft.
Unfortunately, it was no easy task getting through the tunnel. We were warned that the door at the other end was concealed by a peculiar contraption. Cogsworth held tight to a lever to reveal a lantern burning with an enchanted flame. If it were to be lit with the power of light, then we'd be able to unlock the door and get out of here.
To put out the flame, a mix of water and Sora's Keyblade were used. Lumiere did the rest with his own flame to light the lanterns throughout the passage. A tedious task was what we made out of it, but our lot got out of there in the nick of time.
Sora called for the rest of us to head for the end of the passage after he, Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts lit the rest of the lanterns. Donald, Goofy, and I followed Cogsworth and Chip down the stone path. As we made our way there, something on my mind bothered me.
"Mind if I ask you something?" I asked the clock man.
"Ah, what is it, Miss Kara," Cogsworth answered politely.
"You seem to know about the Heartless," I pointed out to him, recalling what he said back in the dungeon. "How do you know about them?"
"Those strange creatures lurking around the master's castle?" he thought out loud. For sure, he and I were thinking of the same creatures. "I do believe that they came up out of nowhere, but... a man in a black coat used them to separate us from our friends."
"A man in a black coat?!" Donald and Goofy said in unison.
"That could only mean..." I turned to them, and they nodded. "We'd better hurry to find Beast."
We met up with Sora and the others at a stone wall, which turned out to be the secret door that'd let us out of there. The hidden route took us back to the west wing, but on the other side of a set of armor blocking the stairs. Now that we were on the right side, we could go and see the Beast in his chambers. Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, and Chip went off to check on the rest of the servants in the castle. Thankfully, Cogsworth remained with us to see the Beast.
I felt uneasiness going through the west hall. A powerful darkness was lurking somewhere inside, watching our every step. It was just like before in the dungeon. Statues came to life once again due to the Heartless Possessors. Not all of them did, though. It seemed like it was only a select few coming to life.
Organization XIII must be behind all of this, I thought to myself. They apparently had the power to summon and control the Heartless. Either it was them or Maleficent's lackey holding responsibility. My best guess was the man in the black coat mentioned before. We had to hurry before anymore trouble came up.
At the door to the Beast's room, we heard a voice speaking. I cracked the door open and peered inside to see the Beast standing with his back to us. Someone else was there, pacing around our friend in there. He was the one that Cogsworth spoke about- Organization XIII's member.
"It's time you dealt with Belle," the man said in a cold tone. Narrowing my eyes, I figured he was up to no good talking about Belle like that. Sora, Donald, and Goofy gathered at my back to listen in on it as well. We listened until we couldn't listen anymore. "She's scheming to take everything you have. This castle, your precious rose. And then- your life. Trust no one. Feed your anger! Only anger will keep you strong."
"I've had enough of strength," Beast replied. I slowly opened the door and crept inside along with the others. "There's only one thing I want-"
"What?" the man in the black coat scoffed. "To love, and be loved in return? Who could ever love a beast?"
"A princess who's heart is filled with pure light," I replied in a snark way toward the man.
"Ah, so she has accomplices," he chuckled and disappeared into a corridor of darkness. "Eliminate them, if you want to see freedom again."
Somehow, we were pitted against the Beast in a daring battle. The exit was blocked off by an invisible barrier the man had set up. There was no escape at this point, so we had no choice but to fight our friend. He swiped at us and tore up the walls of his own room. The beastly prince lost his senses after being swayed by that guy from Organization XIII.
But with the help of Cogsworth, we were able to snap the Beast back into his normal self. His senses returned after a small beating. I was glad that we didn't have to fight him too hard. He was back to fighting for our cause. When he came back to, it was up to Cogsworth to explain all that had happened during his tantrum. The Beast was actually shocked that he put his servants down in the dungeon, meaning it wasn't him in a sober state.
"So, Beast, who was that guy you were talking to?" Sora asked. "The one in black?"
"Xaldin!" Beast gasped, remembering the Organization member. "...That's his name. He came from the darkness... He... He used my anger to control me. Took all my sorrow, my sadness, my pain... and turned it all into rage. There was nothing I could do... I could no longer see the truth."
"Well, I'll be," Goofy snapped his fingers. "That must be why you threw all of your friends down there into the dungeon. You wanted to make sure that you didn't hurt 'em, right?"
"Was that it?" Beast wondered. "Was it to protect them?"
"Let's go with that," I told him. "We know you wouldn't hurt them for no reason. Your heart is too good to do something so bad."
"They're right, Master!" Cogsworth said. "We've all seen how kind you can be. After all, Belle can see the goodness in your heart, but I'm afraid you've yet to-"
"Belle!" Beast suddenly blurted. He let out a moan and dropped his shoulders. "I've mistreated her... I've mistreated her and been so selfish."
"She didn't say anything about that," Sora said.
"She'd never tell anyone of my cruelty... She's too good," Beast stated.
Of course, he had to be so harsh on himself for things he had little control over. We managed to stop him from judging himself so badly and convinced him to go and talk to Belle. She was surely still in her room at the east hall. Putting aside the issue with Organization XIII, we made our way there to go and talk to her so that this mess could be cleared up. Beast had to believe in her words despite ignoring ours.
Surprisingly, Belle was not in her room when we got there. The talking wardrobe, one of Beast's servants, was still there, however. She was shocked that her master was back to his senses but glad for him to be. It was a relief to her that everyone was safe now.
"Where's Belle?" Beast asked her.
"Why, she left to go and follow this... man in black," the wardrobe explained, angering the Beast.
"WHAT?!" he howled. "Why doesn't she do as she's told?"
"Temper, temper!" the wardrobe tsked him. "Her spirit is what makes Belle so special."
"We'd better go find her!" Sora said, urging the Beast to turn the other cheek.
At first, Beast's lack of a response was worrying, but it turned out that he had the resolve to save the princess from the dire situation that she was in. We rushed out to the east wing and fought off what Heartless-possessed statues there were.
"I'm warning you! You'll be sorry!"
I could hear Belle's muffled voice from somewhere as we hurried out to the entrance hall. But, the castle was so huge. She could be anywhere, and it sounded like she was in danger judging by the distress in her tone of voice.
My foot landed on the last step of the stairs, when I caught a whiff of the scent of darkness. It was awfully strong and somewhere nearby.
"Belle!" Beast called out to the princess. "Where are you?!"
"Beast! Help! I'm in the ballroom!" Belle cried out in response to his booming voice. Our eyes landed on the tall and narrow doors leading to the ballroom, which was just behind us. That was where the scent seemed to be strongest, I noticed, so that was where we went.
Beast burst through the doors to get inside, but it wasn't because they were locked. The damages weren't a big deal, though. Belle was who we were most worried about. Getting inside the ballroom, we saw the young woman running away in the other direction. She looked back only to appear extremely troubled and frightened.
"Belle!" Beast called again as Belle retreated to the balcony.
"I'm alright!" she replied, shutting the door.
No she is not, I swallowed when a giant ball of darkness wrapped in heavy chains descended upon the door. It was following her, but our presence drew the creature away from Belle. A blue aura was radiating from that thing. Its yellow eyes were glowing brightly with a fire of darkness. Although I couldn't see an emblem on it, that thing was definitely a Heartless.
The Heartless rose into toward the chandelier but immediately dove into the ground to spread a sickening amount of darkness throughout the ballroom. Before our very eyes, the whole area was morphed into a place of darkness.
"W-Wha?!" Sora yelped loudly when the darkness crept beneath his feet. "What's this?"
The Heartless shot back out of the ground and confronted us. It was an intimidating foe, but we stood our ground and faced it head on.
"C'mon!" Donald encouraged everyone to fight. "Let's beat that thing!"
Fighting the Shadow Stalker- the name we referred to it as- turned out to be a not so bad battle. It would take possession of different parts of the ballroom to attack us. The walls, chandelier, and pillars. However, we were able to beat it without too many issues.
Sora, transforming into his Valor form with Goofy's aid, used a formidable combo to deal the last hit. Shadow Stalker wailed and hissed at us as it rose into the air.
It let out a howl, darkness pouring from its mouth to wrap around it.
"Did we win?" Goofy blinked in surprise, peeking over his shield.
The dark mass that formed was quietly sitting. Nothing about the ballroom changed back to how it used to be. I wanted to call it a day, but... I got a terrible feeling about this. The fight couldn't possibly be over yet. Tightening my grip on my Keyblade, I prepared myself for the worst. "I don't think we're done yet."
Its timing couldn't have been any better. The darkness pulsed and exploded to reveal an enhanced foe. Growling and baring its vicious teeth was a transformed Shadow Stalker, which was now deemed as Dark Thorn. This time, things were a lot tougher to deal with. Dark Thorn turned himself invisible to knock Donald and Goofy aside. Pitting himself against the unseen foe, Beast pushed it back with his strength to help Sora get in a few hits.
"Move!" I called out to the others, vaulting off the back of the Heartless to get onto the transfigured chandelier. I stomped my foot hard to knock it out of place and stun the Heartless, and Beast used that as his chance to crush the Dark Thorn against the wall by shoving the chandelier into it.
Jumping down to join in on attacking the enemy, we dealt a plentiful amount of damage to it until the giant Heartless stumbled back in defeat.
The battle ended with Dark Thorn fading away into darkness, with its stain on the ballroom disappearing with it.
"We did it!" Sora cheered, raising his Keyblade above his head.
"Yeah!" I grinned, enjoying the victory alongside the others.
"So you think," murmured a man from the other side of the ballroom. I whipped around to see some guy dressed in Organization XIII's black coat, and it was the same man from Beast's room. "I'd hardly consider it a step in the right direction."
"Xaldin!" Beast howled, rushing in to try and attack the Organization member.
"Farewell," Xaldin chuckled. Before we could make it to him, he fled through a corridor of darkness.
"Darn it," I grumbled a little, becoming irritated. "He got away..."
"What does he want here?" Beast questioned, clenching his claws.
"He must be with Organization XIII," Sora deduced the obvious first. Beast turned to Sora, interested. "Ever heard of the Nobodies?"
"The what?" Beast growled.
"It's like this," I started, putting away my Keyblade. "Someone with a strong heart becomes a Heartless. What's left of them creates a Nobody, too."
"Right," Sora and the others nodded in agreement to the summary. "The Organization controls the weaker Nobodies."
"And they were gonna make you into a Heartless," Goofy added. "That way, they could get that Nobody of yours and have control over it."
"You're okay!" Belle called out from the other side of the ballroom. She came back in after everything calmed down. Grinning from horn to horn, Beast ran over to her on all fours. The servants arrived just in time to see them together.
"Belle..." Beast spoke softly. "I-I'm sorry- I... wasn't myself. I hope I haven't done anything to hurt you."
His plea for forgiveness was granted when Belle smiled sweetly at him. I was glad to see that the both of them were getting along now.
"I know you weren't yourself, so don't apologize," Belle shook her head. "I just hoped... that you might have changed. Just a little bit. I wish you could start trusting me."
And, it happened. The sweet moment turned into something else. We were disappointed that there wasn't more of the joyous feelings between them. It seemed like Beast really messed up this time. At least, Belle didn't look like she was beyond forgiving him any more.
"Oh, dear," Lumiere sighed. "I'm afraid time is running short."
"What do you mean?" Sora asked. We turned to the servants, concerned by Lumiere's words.
"Remember the rose?" he asked us, and we nodded. The rose he was referring to, I recalled, was the one Beast was so touchy about.
"Yeah, the one from his room," Donald answered.
"Precisely," Cogsworth nodded. "You see, if the master can learn to love, and earn love in return, before the last petal falls..."
"The spell will be broken," Lumiere finished dramatically.
"Really?" Sora put his hands on his hips and looked back at Beast and Belle. "You think he's gonna make it?"
"We think so," Mrs. Potts said.
"Yep, I think you're right," Goofy threw in his hopeful opinion.
"I HOPE you're right..." Sora pursed his lips.
Looking at those two, I frowned a little. It was a rough start for them to get on track to breaking that curse. But, at the same time, I somehow knew that things were going to work out for those guys. Well, for this whole world. Everything would be just fine. A smile spread when the thought came to mind.
Sora's Keyblade flashed into his hand at that moment, letting us all know that it was time to open the gate and leave this world.
"Guess we'd better get going," Sora said, looking over to me.
"Guess so," I nodded.
The situation with the Heartless was done for the time being, so we had no complaints about leaving. We promised to return again to see how everyone was doing in case the Nobodies made an appearance like they did today. After giving our farewells, we left for the gummi ship and departed for the next world.