Copyright notice: "Kingdom Hearts" is not mine. Which is okay.

Author's note: Out of all the other characters in the Disney pantheon, somehow Belle and the Beast/Prince always seem to get the rawest deal of all in fanfics. We do like torturing this pair, don't we?

Chapter 2

It seemed to Belle that, in most of the tales she'd read, the heroine would almost inevitably fall into a swoon at the slightest hint of danger. This always annoyed her to no end, and left her fervently hoping for a story in which the damsel would not spend an integral moment of her life comatose and actually help do something, anything that would have a positive effect on the outcome.

However, as the shadows ebbed away from her, leaving her in the center of an eerie, poorly lit chamber, she wondered if perhaps all those distressed damsels were onto something. After everything she'd been through in the last couple of months, certainly this was the strangest, and the one that she would most want to remember strictly as a nightmare.

Was she in another part of the castle? With all the other enchantments running amuck there, she wouldn't have been too surprised. But this place…it didn't feel like the castle, and it certainly didn't look like any of the architecture there. She looked around at the ghostly green marble laid upon the wall and the floors. The ceiling was so high, the room so dark she couldn't see the arch of the vaulted roof. The room vaguely reminded her of Chartres, but with an air of desecration. Not like the little chapel in Beast's castle…

Beast.

"Beast?" she called out into the darkness, expecting him to emerge gallantly out of the shadows. He'd been right behind her, reaching towards her, his eyes mad with desperation as the darkness swallowed her. Why wasn't he here?

She wanted him here.

Very much.

She wanted to be back in his arms, back to the time when the whole silly world finally made sense. Back when she felt his heart thundering against her cheek, comforting and exciting at once. Back to the time when she was safe, he made her feel safe, because he loved…

Loved?

Her.

Belle began to shiver, the enormity of everything that had occurred to her in the last several hours finally weighing down upon her. Her father, lost somewhere in the wolf-infested forest, the shadow-demons, stealing her away, and Beast…

He would come for her.

She was sure of it.

He had to.

The hero always did.

"Ohhhh…yeah."

She startled, not at all recognizing the voice. But the tone was far too familiar: lust tinged with the selfish cockiness she remembered from another lifetime ago, back in the village. It was the undertone she always heard in the village men as she approached, particularly Gaston, and one she had grown quite used to not hearing from Beast. Suddenly aware of the revealing neckline on her dress, she straightened her posture, throwing her shoulders back as though that would conceal the bare flesh.

A soft, threatening chuckled followed as someone materialized out of the surrounding darkness. A man, a frightening man, taller even than Beast and robed in torment glided over to her. Even though he appeared misted in smoke, there was a coldness about him that terrified her.

He looked her over, grinning with such lechery she almost wished for the buffoonish attention of Gaston. "You…I like," he finally pronounced.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice strong.

The grin widened. "Hades, Lord of the Underworld. And you, my brunette beauty, are?"

She didn't answer, her mind reeling in shock as her entire system of belief came crashing down. "The Underworld?" she repeated, her voice now just above a whisper. "I'm in the Underworld?"

"Oh, if only. Babe, if we were there, you'd know and you'd never want to come back."

"Not before me men got a fair crack at her," a second voice said, a sneer laid deep in his words. Another man appeared, and this time Belle didn't need to be told what he was:

Pirate.

Her fear boiled to fury, flashing the memory of the swine who had robbed and killed her merchant uncle and seized his fleet of ships. It was because of them that she and her father had been castrated from the city, the good graces of her Uncle Robert no longer able to support them.

"Tell me lass, have ye got a sturdy pair of sea legs? It's on long voyages we could always use a trusty wench."

"Who cares about legs?" Hades answered. "All she needs is a strong pair of hips and-"

"You two! Touch one hair on her head and I will blast the both of you into the next eon."

A third voice, a woman this time, appeared before Belle's honor could be divvied up, though the appearances of this particular woman were far from reassuring. She could have been the handmaid of Lucifer, cloaked in black and beset with devilish horns, and a pale complexion that reflected the green of the walls.

Hades looked unimpressed. "Doll face, we were just getting to know our next resident and-"

"Out!" the woman thundered. This time, neither objected and disappeared in a trice.

"My sincere apologies, child," the woman said soothingly, approaching Belle. "Some of us at here Hollow Bastion are much less refined than others. I'm sorry if they troubled you."

"They did."

"They won't anymore, let me assure you."

It didn't assure her. Belle had no clue who this woman was, but that she kept the company of vile creatures like those previous two didn't impress her at all. Still, this cloaked woman had yet to show any intention of harm, and that, for the moment, was the best she could hope for. "Who are you?"

"I am Maleficent, caretaker of Hollow Bastion. And what is your name, my dear?"

"Belle. Of Lyons." She paused, hoping to get a straight answer. "What is Hollow Bastion?"

"It is this castle, and all the surrounding lands."

"How did I get here? And where's Beast?"

"You are an inquisitive little one, aren't you? Come with me, and I'll try to explain." Maleficent led Belle down a large corridor, a lone torch here and there offering little illumination. Belle was reminded of another walk such as this, Beast leading her to her chambers the first night she was in his castle. She had a terrible feeling this venture was not going to end up so well.

"You are here because you are good and pure of heart," Maleficent began. "The darkness that claimed you from your home was actually sent to rescue you, as your world was mere moments away from destruction."

Belle latched onto the last word of the thoroughly mystifying explanation. "Destruction?"

"Yes. The Heartless had entered your world. All the brokenness and cruelty that was in your world called to them, and they ripped it apart. You survive only because of your innate goodness."

Now Belle stopped in her tracks, beginning to understand what Maleficent was telling her. "My home…it's gone?"

"I'm afraid it is, child."

It was too staggering to even contemplate. Greece fell, Rome burned…but they didn't just vanish. And if her world was indeed gone, then there weren't too many places she could have come to.

She found herself wanting tears that wouldn't come, mourning for the loss of her friends at the castle, her dear, dear Papa and Beast.

She wanted them all here, to give her comfort, to be reassured that they were all right. But bringing them here would only damn them as well, and she would never wish that upon them. If hell was indeed the place she would spend eternity, for whatever sin it was that may have sent her here, then alone she would be.

Maleficent was speaking. She sounded so far away, but there was an insistent urge in her voice that brought Belle around to her question. "…you are a princess, are you not?"

"No," Belle whispered, "No, of course not."

"But you were at the palace, you are clothed in the dress of royalty. Are you not a princess?"

"No. I was…I was with Beast…why isn't he here?"

Maleficent ignored the question. "Who is the Beast? Is that an appellation of some sort? Did he kill beasts for sport?"

"No!" Belle cried, now verging on hysterical. "He was a beast, but he was the master of the castle, he was good, he was my friend, my dearest friend…he was kind…"

Maleficent arched a surprised eyebrow. "I have heard of such spells," she murmured below Belle's dry sobs. "Perhaps you aren't a true princess, but you may have been soon enough. You'll do. Come," she barked, now dragging Belle by her arm. Too confused now to offer any protest, Belle simply shuffled along, still searching the shadows for Beast.

After a long flight of stairs, Maleficent came to a large hall. Glass columns lay embedded on the walls, three on either side. Half were empty, while the other three-

"What happened to them?" Belle whispered, horrified. Three young women, no older she, lay entombed in the glass. All were fair, all royalty, judging by the finery that adorned them.

"They are merely waiting. And you will now join them."

A blast of magic shot out from Maleficent's hand, striking Belle and petrifying her body. Tendrils of magic crept over her, lifting her body into one of the empty chambers, then crept into her mind, lulling it to sleep. As she fought to remain conscious, she realized Beast had not come for her.

And that was the thought that carried her into nightmares.