Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Legion

by lyokoMARVELanime

Sequel to Dual Keys. Sora, Donald, Goofy return to the worlds after an event that caused them to have their memories modified, and they're off on a new adventure with Ven. But this time they've some new friends with them. Can Roxas and Xion help to save the worlds from this new evil group? Is there some deeper mystery surrounding the two siblings? Find out along with the new team.

12. Monsters or Beasts

Sora: Phew! Well, as always, vacation was great, and I'm glad I got in plenty of rest and relaxation, but now, it's all back to work for all of us.

Xion: Yep, and that means we're back at it in the studio of lyokoMARVELanime. Though I gotta admit, I'm kinda glad that he's finally updating this story again. I was getting bored of watching you hanging out with the Avengers in Hearts of Avengers.

Sora: Well don't look at me. It's not like I'm the one who told him to make that story go from the very beginning of my journey, but at least it'll go a little more original with the KH storyline than this series does.

Roxas: [running into the room] Hey guys! Sorry I'm late.

Ventus: You're actually not late, Roxas. If anything lyoko is.

Kairi: Yeah, where is he? I thought he was supposed to be here by now.

Aqua: Um...I think he's over here. [indicates an area off-screen, and everyone turns to see AN talking with a specific group of four]

AN: So you guys are cool with this arrangement right? I mean, it is going to be quite a while before your world appears in any of my KH stories/series.

Ruby: Yeah, of course. I mean, as long as we get to work with you at all.

Weiss: Speak for yourself. I think our show should be getting a full story for our first time working with lyokoMARVELanime.

Ruby: Weiss! Hush!

AN: No, no, it's cool, Ruby. I like getting feedback from the people I work with. That's why I try to answer my reviewers as often as I can with each new chapter. That said, Weiss, I would start up an entire RWBY story of some kind, but the fact is, the only ideas I have at the moment are the ones where you guys are visited by the heroes of Kingdom Hearts, so maybe once we get those chapters out or something, I'll be able to come up with something a little bigger. Something that really has more a bang to it!

Yang: Or maybe something that has more of a Yang. Eh? Eh?

Blake: [facepalms] That wasn't even funny the first time.

AN: Either way, I'm sure everyone's going to be excited to see Sora and the gang visit the world of Remnant, be it in the Keyblades Unleashed Series, or over in the Kingdom Marvels Series. [finally notices that they're being watched] What the...? Oh! I'm sorry! Are we rolling?! Are we finally getting the next chapter out?! [looks back to Team RWBY] All right, ladies, great talking to you all, and I'll be sure to keep you all updated on any new developments. If I do think of a full story idea, I'll have my people call your people.

Blake: Uh...Do you have any people, and what do you mean "our people"?

AN: Oh, you know. Ozpin, Qrow, and a lot of those other guys like that. Either way, talk to you all later. Ruby, feel free to help yourself to some more of the cookies on the way out.

Ruby: Yay! I officially like this guy! [dashes out of the room in a burst of rose petals]

Weiss: You'd like anyone who gives you cookies. [follows her partner out along with the rest of their teammates]

AN: [muttering] I don't think Cinder would agree with you. Or Salem for that matter. [normal voice] Okay! Welcome back guys! We're back from vacation and back on the clock, and it's all starting off on the world where you can Be our guest.

Ventus: Be our guest?

AN: Put our service to the test! Tie your napkin round your neck cherie, and we provide the rest...Ahem, anyways, before we visit the Beast's Castle, let's answer a review or two.

For starters, "CG", all your suggestions are really good, impressive at that (though I will admit that I didn't get all of the references), and I will try and use as many as I can, but I'm going to warn you right now, I've already got a lot of things already set in stone for this series's version of KH3, especially in the case of the final battle. To answer your questions, everything that meets my approval is something I run by the cast first to see if it meets their approval, otherwise I wouldn't give it the go ahead. Second question's answer, I've never heard of Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross (or at least I don't think I have) until you mentioned it. For the moment, I have planned on going with the game's version of the story in San Fransokyo, but I do like the idea of working in something from the series. Regarding Kairi's fighting style, I do feel like I can see her using a fighting style that's similar to either Asuna, Leafa, or Yuuki, and I'm actually thinking about working that into this series. I'm keeping all cards close to the chest when it comes to the True Organization XIII, so you're just going to have to wait and see what I have planned regarding them. I am...sort of skipping over Coded. I'm thinking of having that adventure happen simultaneously alongside the story Dark Reflections, assuming I decide to make that story completely in canon with the Keyblades Unleashed series (Fair warning, it's looking like I might end up doing that). I liked nearly all the songs from KH3, aside from the ones that felt really sad to me. Don't ask me to name any titles, because we'd be here almost all day if we did that. And yeah, the Master of Masters does seem really out of wack in every appearance aside from his chat with Ava.

Now that we've got the long-winded answer out of the way, "Anonymaton", I've actually been thinking really hard on all the Keyblade transformations that I could do for each Keyblade in this series, and I kinda like that ideas that you had for Xion's Keyblade, so I'll keep that in mind for now. Thanks for that.

"Anonimosx", there isn't any plan for a full crossover, but I do plan to have the Transformers appear in both this series and the Kingdom Marvels series. As for what worlds, you'll just have to wait and see on that. Don't worry, one of those two will be revealed pretty soon.

Rolling on over to "Monkey D. Conan", all of your questions regarding the visit to this world will be answered today, or at least some of them. In fact, one or two of your other questions will be answered either in this chapter or in the preview for next chapter. Regarding Ven and Aqua's reunion, and moments that they'll share later on, I do have a few things in mind. You'll see what I mean soon enough. Regarding your questions about Beyond the Worlds, Sora and Kairi will retain all of their abilities that they'll have learned in both time lines, but you'll find that the number of things they learn over the course of Keyblades Unleashed kind of outnumbers or outclasses the stuff they learned in that alternate future, save for their Command Styles. Anymore than that is the stuff I can't explain right now.

Next, "Dragon Rider 66", don't worry, you'll get a better understanding of the reason why Roxas isn't taking the Mark of Mastery Exam with the other four soon enough. While this story is called Keyblade Legion, a good deal of the plot in this one does tend to focus quite a bit on Roxas and Xion, so those answers will come very easily.

To the guest reviewer "Balto1", Kairi's going to be joining the Keyblade Legion very soon in this story, as has been implied in both the cover art and some of the past notes and chapters, but as for Axel...well, that's another "wait-and-see" answer, I'm afraid, because Axel's role has a lot of things involved.

Speaking of guest reviewers, "Guest" of 3/6/2019, in order, I don't know for sure about this story (at least not at the moment), but something similar may happen in the series later on. The chances of Aqua acting in similar way to the kids as Ventus does is pretty high, and when they reunite, they won't really need to do too much asking for Sora to get why they want to be alone for a bit. Sora's not that bad...at least not in this series.

Sora: Hey!

AN: Ah, I'm just kidding, Sora...Mostly.

Aqua: Ahem, I'll be taking the next answer, namely to the guest reviewer "Guest" from 3/7/2019, and I'm just going to answer based on the assumption that you mean in this series's timeline. It's really more of a question on what didn't make me fall in love with Ven, to be honest. He's brave, fast, kind, always so eager to help his friends, and his smile just lights up the room in a way that can't be described when he's truly happy, but at the same time, he can also be reckless, impulsive, but he makes up for that in his determination to do good and his honest desire to be with and help his friends no matter what. Not to mention that the way his eyes get when he looks at something in wonder, or how they seem to twinkle like stars when our eyes meet, and...[sighs dreamily with a far off gaze]

AN: Okay, Aqua, we get it. Thanks for your input...Aqua? [looks to see that she's caught in a love-struck daydream] Whelp, she's gonna be out of it for a while. Moving on, to the guest reviewer "Sapphraze", you're right in saying that Xion is technically a replica of Roxas in canon, but keep in mind, this is an AU story. Plus, Roxas had already viewed Xion as a sister for a much longer time than Sora, and it would've been a lot weirder to say that Roxas was her dad. (and less funny)

Roxas,Sora,&Xion: We heard that!

AN: Sorry. Moving to the Guest reviewer "Guest" of 3/23/2019, I'm not sure if I could've or not, but to be honest, I didn't really try that hard to unlock the Ultima Weapon until after I cleared the main story of the game. I kinda figured that it would do that for the final battles, and ultimately would've made the whole thing way too easy for my liking.

"Guest" of 4/3/2019, don't worry. Ven's not going to be pulling anything like that again in this story. At least, there's no plan for him to at this time.

Next up is...

Kairi: I feel like these review answers are taking a lot longer than usual, and we've really got to get the chapter started since it's so long.

AN: I know, I know! I wrote the thing! Just give me a few minutes, please. Ahem, anyways, "barbatos009", glad to hear you enjoy my work so much, and I do plan to have the Lingering Will play a larger role in this series than it seemed to have in KH3, so no worries there. Also, I'm afraid that you're link didn't quite go through, so I wasn't able to see that thing on Pinterest. Sorry.

Rounding it around to "Guest" of 4/23/2019, no, Aqua never tried communicating with Ven like Kairi did with Roxas. Part of the reason being because that whole thing was not intentional on either Kairi or Roxas's parts. Another part, she was focused on either helping Mickey to help Riku, and later training Kairi, and as we all know, once Aqua sets herself on something, it's not easy to get her off that task for anything else. She may love the guy, but she's also a really dedicated, hard-worker that sometimes takes on a little too much for her plate.

Finally, to the "Guest" of 5/11/2019, Ven will still recognize Saix, but any warnings he tries to give will more than likely fall on deaf ears. Especially when you consider that Saix is one of the most absorbed into the the Organization's goals.

Okay, now that we're finally through all of that, let's get on with the show, everyone!

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

---

Chapter XII

On his last journey through the worlds, Sora had found a certain comfort from being able to pick up on the subtle sounds of the gummi ship's engines reverberating through the walls as it flew across interspace. He found that it served as a reminder for the fact that he was living out his life-long dream of traveling to other worlds and how he was doing so as part of a mission to help his friends, both old and new. However, unlike the original Kingdom, this one did not seem to have that subtle sign of reassurance. Sure, he could still feel vibrations in the walls in some parts of the ship, but it was mostly in rooms that were closer to the engineering section of the gummi ship, and none of those rooms were living quarters, or the simulator deck. It was a little disappointing to him in a way, but it did also help him remember that this was not the same old ship that had been destroyed at the end of his last journey. Of course, it probably should have helped remind him of how he needed to focus on his current training spar as well, because Xion was quick to take advantage of when he paused to try and listen for that subtle hum for a few seconds.

"Don't let your attention wander, Sora. Keep your focus on the battle at all times," Ventus coached from where he was standing on the sidelines while watching Sora scrambled to roll away from Xion's most recent attack. Sora only just barely had time to nod a reply before he brought his Keyblade up to deflect or block Xion's next round of attacks. The main purpose of this spar was to help the girl get a better feel for fighting with the reverse grip since she had used it so much now, and to help her refine it a little more, so it was no surprise to Ven that Sora was mostly playing on defense more than anything else. Not that he was okay with his first apprentice doing so. "Xion's never going to refine all aspects of a reverse hand-grip fighting style if you just keep playing on the defensive side of things, Sora. If you find an opening to attack, then you should take it and press on it."

"Got it," Sora confirmed, and it was not much later after their exchange that the wielder of Kingdom Key did find such an opening, and made sure to take it as instructed.

Xion may have had him at a disadvantage with her being left-handed, but Sora was still a much more experienced fighter than her, especially when it came to swordplay, so the girl was finding him to be a somewhat harder opponent to handle that Shang had been. Though looking back, Xion had to wonder if Shang might have been holding back a little during their spar, and ended up unable to really fight when he realized that was a mistake on his part. She had to put it aside to think on later, because she knew that Ven's advice to not get distracted by outside things applied to her as well, and it was only driven home when she stumbled a little under the force Sora's most recent swing held when their Keyblades collided once again.

"Don't let yourself remain stationary for too long, Xion," Ventus advised. "Using a reverse grip means you need to be light on your feet, and that you need to be slightly faster than someone who uses a standard grip. Also, try to extend your reach a little more than that. If you going to use a reverse grip, you need to extend your arms out a little more in order to compensate for how the blade can't go as far as it would in a standard hold."

"Right," Xion nodded, before she slipped away from Sora with a spin, sliding her blade along his as she went.

"Oh, and one more thing," Ventus called out as Xion started to attack, only to pause when she heard him speak. That left her open for Sora's next charge, and she soon found herself falling to the floor flat on her back with Kingdom Key's tip pointed at her throat. "Okay, make that two things. One, watch your footwork, and two, don't get distracted."

"Not funny," Xion grumbled in response while Sora just smiled in good humor.

"Don't worry about it too much. He did the same thing to me more than a handful of times during some of our first sparing practices," Sora reassured her.

That did get Xion to smile a little bit, knowing that Sora had to deal with the same bit of humiliation that she just did, and she was soon accepting a helping hand up to her feet again with the older boy offered it to her. "All in all though, I'd say you're actually off to a pretty good start with that fighting style, though, Xion," Ventus admitted as he approached the two. "I'm not sure if it's natural talent or certain other influences, but your progress in terms of skill with using a reverse grip is certainly impressive. I think you're getting the hang of it even faster than I did."

"Thanks, Ven," Xion smiled in response, though a part of her did feel a little upset at hearing those words. It was mainly because she knew "other influences" was Ven's way of referring to how she had a fragmented version of his heart inside of her, a fact that they had still not told Sora, Donald, or Goofy about, and Xion was far from okay about keeping such a secret from those three. Still, Ven seemed to think that was for the best, so she kept her mouth shut and tried to conceal any upset feelings she had behind her smile.

Ventus must have realized what Xion was thinking, because he gave her a quick, reassuring smile before turning his attention to his third apprentice to see how the younger blonde was doing. At the moment, Roxas was actually practicing his fighting abilities with one Keyblade over two, his Keyblade of choice for this round of practice being Oblivion, and from the look of things, you would think he was doing pretty decently. Ventus knew better though, because he could see many signs of Roxas making an effort to resist the urge to summon Oathkeeper to his other hand, along with more than a few indications that the younger blonde was getting frustrated with something. It was not that Roxas's swings or the moves he was practicing were turning out badly, but from what he could see, it looked like they were not coming out in a way that Roxas was too fond of, and every time this happened, only seemed to sour Roxas's mood a little more. Eventually, his frustrations finally reached a breaking point, and after one more swing, Roxas just let out an agitated growl before tossing Oblivion to the ground, much like he had the copy of Kingdom Key when it appeared in his hand on the day of the Struggle tournament. Even if they were not taking a break at the time, Ventus was sure that Xion and Sora would not have missed this any more than he had, especially given how concerned they both looked as they joined him in moving to check on Roxas.

"Everything okay, Roxas," Sora asked as Oblivion disappeared from where it landed, only to rematerialize in the blonde's hand a second later.

"Oh yeah, of course. I just like to growl in frustration to the sky because it's fun," Roxas replied with sarcasm so heavy, some of them were sure that it probably slowed the ship down a little in its flight.

"Bro, come on. How many times do I have to tell you that you shouldn't be talking to people like that when they're honestly worried about you," Xion asked.

"Are we talking about the actual times that I can remember, or the times that we only think were real," Roxas snipped in return, earning him a reproachful look from Ventus while Xion turned a little more downcast. Seeing how hurt his sister was, Roxas immediately dropped all signs of frustration for a much more apologetic appearance when he next spoke. "Oh, Xion, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that. I just…I can't get used to fighting like this. Every time I try and fight with just one Keyblade, I feel like I'm cutting off a part of myself, or like I'm fighting with one arm tied behind my back. I know how weird it sounds, considering that I was able to fight with just one weapon easily not that long ago, but now that I know I can fight with two Keyblades, it just feels a lot more natural to do so than it does to only use one."

"It probably doesn't help that your fighting style and stance are pretty similar to Sora's, either, does it," Ventus guessed, earning a small nod from Roxas in reply.

That got Sora's attention a little more, and made him feel brave enough to speak again without worry of how Roxas would respond. "Say, how come you use the same style as me anyway," Sora asked. "I mean, I get that you're…that you were my Nobody, but since you're your own person now, shouldn't that mean you should have tried something a little more original, like Xion has?"

"I…I actually don't know," Roxas admitted, silently thanking Sora for his earlier correction when he mentioned their previous connection. "I guess it just never really occurred to me before since I normally use both of my Keyblades in a fight."

"You know, maybe that could be the key to helping you finally master using just one Keyblade over two," Ventus offered. "I don't really know how Xion learned or developed her personal fighting style, but from what I can tell, it has been a huge help for her in terms of developing her combat skills."

"I don't know."

"Well, just think about it for a little bit," Ventus advised. "Right now, I think it's time you three got another magic lesson."

"But I thought I'd already learned all the spells you had taught Sora on his last journey, at least in terms of the basic ones. Are you saying that you're going to teach us the rest now," Xion asked.

"No, that's something I think I'll leave to Sora. After all, I can't have him shrinking on his duties as your sibling disciple, now can I," Ventus replied. That earned him amused smiles from the three kids, and he took that as initiative to continue on. "Besides, Roxas still hasn't quite mastered use of fire, ice, and lightning spells yet, and I'd at least like for him to better master those and healing magic before I get into all the other spells I taught Sora last year. Right now, I think I'll just go with something that you can all learn right now: a new defensive spell."

"Really? But I thought defensive magic was too complicated for new Keyblade wielders if it wasn't Aero Shield," Sora pointed out, remembering that Ven had said something very similar to that when he first asked about the differences between offensive and defensive magic.

"Usually yes, but I'm sure we've all noticed that Roxas and Xion are special cases in more ways than one, and given what we're dealing with, it's better safe than sorry," Ventus pointed out. That got him a couple small nods from the kids, and he took that as his cue to explain the spell he had in mind. "I actually mentioned this spell to you once before, Sora: Fire Ring. As the name implies, it is a fire element spell, and in some ways, it is a little simpler than Aero Shield. The idea is to basically create a trio of fireballs that spin rapidly around you in a single ring, burning anything that gets too close. However, it's more complicated than Aero Shield because you're just making a single, solid ring that spins in one direction as opposed to a large sphere that spins around you in several directions at once."

"How is a single spinning ring more complicated than a sphere that spins around in several directions," Roxas asked.

"I'm…not entirely sure about that myself," Ventus shrugged, gaining some small looks from the kids in response. "What? Aqua was the magic expert, not me. She could list all these details like it was as simple and common as a sunrise. Just bare with me as I do my best to simplify it, okay?" When the three nodded in response, Ventus carried on with the best explanation he could offer. "Basically, Aero Shield is a large, three-dimensional shape, and as such, you have more to work with in its creation. Fire Ring on the other hand, is just a single, curved line, which means you need to narrow the field a lot more. While some would argue it's harder to form a three dimensional object, others would point out that it would probably be because they weren't looking at it from the caster's perspective. You guys have all gotten used to casting spells that can span a large area, so I'd imagine that asking you to narrow it down to this extent may be more of a challenge."

"I think I see what you mean," Sora nodded in understanding. "Basically, to cast Fire Ring, we can't just project it outward as much as possible, but we need to contain it a lot more in the shape we want, and since it's a smaller shape than the sphere of Aero Shield, that makes it a little more challenging, right?"

"Pretty much. Like I said, Aqua could probably explain it better, and with a bit more detail, but that is the basic gist of it from what I've always understood," Ventus confirmed. "So, who wants to be the first to try?"

"Oh! Me, me, me," Xion jumped up in excitement, waving her hand in the air like an excited kid that wanted to be called on to answer.

The boys could not help but chuckle a little at her excitement, but Ventus still let Xion try her luck at the spell first. He did not think she or the other two would be likely to get it very quickly though, but it would definitely serve as a good way to pass the time until they finally reached their next destination.

---

"Fira Ring," Sora shouted as he prepared to cast the second level of the defensive fire spell. While Roxas and Xion were still working on getting a handle on the basic spell, Sora had seemed to get it down pretty quickly. Ventus figured that was partly because Sora already had some experience with defensive spells thanks to his learning Aero Shield, and that the rest was due to the fact that Sora was still technically much more experienced with his magic abilities than the other two. Still, Xion was catching up very quickly, almost to the point where Ven was beginning to think that the girl would probably benefit a great deal if Aqua were to start teaching her at some point. That did not mean he was okay with Sora trying his hand at the next level of the defensive fire spell just yet. While Sora was capable of easily using level two magic again, Ven had warned the spiky haired brunette against trying to do so with this spell since it was different from the usual level two spells he had used up until now, and as such, he had advised Sora to just get a solid feel for basic version of the defensive fire spell for now. Clearly Sora had not listened, and would have to learn the hard way.

As it turned out, Sora ended up learning the hard way very well. When the spell first materialized, creating three balls of fire that spun rapidly around him, Sora was sure he could handle it, but what he had not expected was that the fireballs would be a bit bigger and faster than they were in the level one version of the spell. As such, he was barely able to avoid getting burnt to a crisp when the spell finally came to a close, but he did not get out completely unscathed, and everyone quickly found that out when he started yelling. "My hair is on fire," Sora cried out as he began running around the peaceful clearing that they had generated in the simulator deck with his spiky locks enflamed. "My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire! My hair is—Blarblublullullull!"

That last thing Sora cried out was due to the fact that Ven finally got tired of watching the kid run around like a chicken with its head cut off and blasted him in the face with a powerful stream of water from Guardian Wind, much to Roxas and Xion's surprise. He ignored those looks for now as he focused on Sora and scolded, "Now do you see why I told you to not try that right away? Not all defensive spells are as easy to handle as you move up their ladder as Aero Shield was. You need to be prepared for anything as you increase the power you put into them."

Sora barely paid attention to what Ven was saying, only nodding along when the blonde had finished, with his wet spikes dripping water on the ground as his head moved. He probably would have given a little more focus to Ven's words if it were not for the stunning discovery he had just made. "Did you just a water spell on me," Sora finally asked.

Ventus was caught off guard by that being the first thing to come out of Sora's mouth, but after thinking about it for a moment, Ven realized that he probably should not be too surprised. The kid was always very interested in things that looked pretty cool or amazing when it came to anything regarding Keyblade wielding. "Yes. Yes, I did," Ventus confirmed at last. "Why do you ask?"

"Well since when is water magic a thing for Keyblade wielders," Sora asked in return.

"Since always," Ventus shrugged. "I mean, it's not really one of the basic spells that every wielder is required or known to learn when they begin training, but it is still a type of magic we can use. It's like I told you when you first started training, magic for Keyblade wielders is really all just a matter of making things happen that you want to happen."

"But why isn't water magic one of the basic spells that Keyblade wielders need to learn," Xion questioned, having taken a little more interest in the topic, and from the look of things, Roxas was wondering the same thing.

Ventus was just about to answer her, but he ended up just standing there with his mouth open and no words coming out for a few minutes. "I'm…actually not sure," Ventus admitted while scratching his head in thought. "I always thought it was a little odd myself, to be honest. Aqua and Master Eraqus once told me that water magic is just something that others only choose to learn if they wanted to, but most people don't because they feel like it's not that different from ice magic, but I've never really understood why. It just seemed silly to me."

"You know, I don't think I've ever asked this before, but how many different types of magic do you know, anyway, Ven," Sora suddenly inquired.

"Yeah, I mean, we all know you can use the basic three spells, healing magic, and that you're really good with wind magic, but I don't think I remember you ever saying what other types of magic you were good at besides those, Command Styles, and Shotlocks," Roxas added on, remembering those very details from what he and Xion saw in Sora's memories.

"Plus you're also really good with time magic too," Sora finished for the blonde.

"I wouldn't say I'm that good," Ventus immediately denied. "The most I could ever do with time magic is the level two spell, Stopra. Mickey can cast time spells that are way more powerful than that, and even then, there are time spells that surpass what he can do."

"That doesn't change the question though," Xion pointed out.

Ventus crossed his arms in thought for a minute, since it had been a long time since he seriously thought about it, before he finally answered, "Well, you guys pretty much listed all of it for the most part, but aside from those, there's also the ability to cast summon spells, assuming I have a charm that I can use, not to mention how I've recently started learning how to use Flowmotion magic. As far as regular magic goes though, I do have a few other spells up my sleeve like reflect magic, along with spells in the magnet and gravity elements."

"Wow," all three kids breathed in awe, and they were about to ask why he had not tried to teach any of them all the spells he had learned in the elements he had just mentioned when a familiar warble crackled over the intercom once again. "Hey everyone, the next world's coming up, so if you want to get a look from the bridge, now's the time to do so!"

"Well you heard the duck. We'll have to continue this conversation later, and carry on with more of your training either on the ground or the next time we're on the ship," Ventus told the three, and he was soon leading the way out of the simulator deck and up to the ship's bridge, each of them excited to see where they had ended up now.

None of them were disappointed, because upon arriving on the bridge, they were greeted with the sight of a world that seemed to be dominated by a massive castle. Sure, there did seem to be a small village not too far from the castle, but it was just a small little spot in comparison. More than that, despite whatever magnificence you would think that the castle might hold, there was something about it that gave all of them an anxious feeling. Maybe it was the beastly gargoyles that sat perched up on some of the walls, or maybe it was how dark and old the place seemed to be, almost looking as though barely anyone lived in the place now, or had even lived there at all for years. Still, despite its less than pristine state, they could all tell that something or someone was in fact living there, and that made the group even more curious.

"So what is this place," Sora finally asked.

"Not sure. I've never been here before," Ventus replied, closing his eyes for a minute so he could better reach out with his senses. When he opened his eyes again, he revealed, "Whatever it is though, I'm definitely picking up on a very strong source of light from somewhere inside the castle. And I mean very strong, but also…familiar."

"Do ya think this could be the world of one of the Princesses of Heart," Goofy asked.

"Maybe. After all, none of us have been to the worlds of all seven of the princesses," Ventus recalled.

Sora nodded in admittance of that fact when he noticed that Roxas's brow had furrowed quite a bit, while Xion was holding a hand to her head like she had a headache. "Hey, are you guys okay," he asked the twins, getting everyone to turn to the two and see the same thing.

"Yeah, fine, it's just…" Roxas started to say, but he was unable to finish his sentence due to a sudden spike of pain in his forehead, similar to the ones he had during his and Xion's last day in the virtual Twilight Town.

"Something about this place feels…really familiar," Xion finished for her brother. "It's like…It feels like I've been here before at some point, both with and without Roxas."

"Do you think that maybe you visited this world while you were with the Organization," Donald offered.

"Maybe," Roxas shrugged as the pain in his head began to subside. "From what I can remember, we definitely went to a bunch of different worlds, but I don't think we really interacted with too many people."

"Well you must've talked to some people while you were with them, considering how Pete reacted when he saw you two at Yen Sid's tower," Sora pointed out.

Before Roxas could argue that point, Xion cut him off while scratching her head in an attempt to recall any memories of her time in the Organization that pertained to this world. "I do think I visited this castle once before…and I think…I was with someone other than Roxas. A really big guy who wasn't really too social and seemed to view certain things in a negative light…"

"Yeah…I think his powers had something to do with air…or was it wind," Roxas then recalled, picking up on the trail of memory that Xion had laid. He then rubbed his head for a minute before he added, "I think there was also something about a curse…and moving furniture?"

"You guys moved around furniture while you were visiting this world," Goofy asked.

"No, we didn't move it. The furniture was moving on its own…I think," Roxas corrected. "All I can remember for sure was what Xion mentioned and that there was some kind of curse involved with this castle and the people living in it."

"Well if that's the case and this is the world of a Princess of Heart, then we should probably take a closer look, just to make sure it's not something that the Heartless can take advantage of, and that it isn't a serious threat to said princess," Ventus determined. "Everyone, to the teleporter!"

With that command, everyone rushed over to the room in question, and in a matter of seconds, they were disappearing from the inside of the gummi ship and being beamed down to their next world and the adventures that awaited them on it.

---

"Whew, this place is actually kinda creepy on the inside," Roxas muttered as they all entered the castle seconds after their feet had touched the ground, while Sora closed the large doors behind them.

"Yeah, a lot like the kind of place where you might find a few ghosts," Xion teasingly grinned, giving her voice a spooky inflection towards the end.

That made Roxas, Donald, and Goofy all shiver in their boots a little bit, but Roxas quickly buried the reaction in an attempt to hide it as he stuttered, "C-come on, Xion. That's just ridiculous. Th-there's no way this place has ghosts…right?"

"Well we have seen some ghosts before, and encountered some ghost-like Heartless on our last journey," Sora pointed out, not noticing how Roxas paled a little after he had spoken.

"Somehow, I don't think we'll have to worry about any actual ghosts, though," Ventus reassured everyone. "I'm pretty sure this isn't some haunted castle or anything like that."

"But it is huge," Donald pointed out.

"And sorta gloomy, don't ya think," Goofy added.

"Yeah, but there isn't really that much dust, so there must be someone here," Xion noted as she brushed a finger along the surface of a nearby table.

"Or something," Ventus added on, earning nervous shivers from Roxas, Donald, and Goofy once again.

"Either way, it does make you wonder who lives here," Sora commented. He got something of an answer a minute later, when a loud roar suddenly echoes all throughout the castle, making everyone jump in fright, while prompting Sora and Ven to jump into ready stances on instinct as Roxas and Xion quickly grabbed hold of each other out of fear.

After calming his nerves though, Goofy started to think for a minute, and then smiled as he asked, "Hey, does anybody else recognize that?"

"You mean as something that will likely rip us to shreds or eat us all alive," Xion nervously questioned.

"No, I mean as in something else, and something much more friendly too," Goofy clarified.

That made Sora, Donald, and Ven all pause to think for a minute, but it was not until the roar came again that any of them figured out what it was that made Goofy think it sounded so familiar. "Hey! That's the Beast," Sora finally cheered.

"Yeah," Donald nodded in agreement.

"The Beast? You mean as in the same Beast that helped you guys out when you all went to Hollow Bastion a year ago," Roxas recalled as he and Xion finally relaxed enough to let go of each other.

"Yep, that'd be the one," Ventus confirmed. "Guess this must be his world, and if that is the case, then maybe we should check on him to see how he's doing."

It seemed like a good idea to all the others, especially since it meant that they would be able to introduce Beast to Roxas and Xion while getting some confirmation on whether or not they knew anyone here, but something else quickly caught Xion's attention when her eyes caught a glimpse of something slinking around nearby. Turning to the thing in question, her eyes immediately widened, and she did not hesitate to point it out to the others, shouting, "Guys, look! A Heartless!"

Turning to where Xion had indicated, they all quickly spotted a lone, Shadow crawling along the floor towards an open room that seemed to have a faint light shining out from the crack in the door, and considering what one Heartless being around usually meant, none of them had any problem with chasing down the little creature with an intent to get rid of it before it could cause any damage. They did not have to go far, because the room that the Heartless was fleeing to was barely that far away from the main entrance of the castle. Upon entering the room, they all had to pause for a moment because it looked like the Shadow had disappeared from view. That was not uncommon when it came to Heartless, but there was just something about this disappearance that made the group worried, so they kept their guard up.

As they searched for their quarry, they also took the time to analyze the room in an attempt to get a lay of the land. Doing so allowed them to easily figure out that they were in some sort of parlor, and a very empty one at that, because aside from the faint flames in the fireplace, there was not a soul in sight. There were however, quite a few old-looking portraits, some slightly torn drapes, and some pieces of very dusty furniture. Of course, there was one other thing in the room, but only Xion seemed to notice it at first since the others were all more invested in location their runaway Heartless.

"Where did it go," Donald finally asked after a few more seconds of looking.

"I'm not sure," Ventus finally said. "But don't let your guard down. If it did come in here, then it's more than likely still here. Heartless don't normally leave an area entirely without being frightened off, and that's not something that usually happens."

"Hey guys. Take a look at this," Xion told the group at last, diverting all their attention to what she had caught sight of: a single, red rose inside of a glass jar on the nearby table, and from where they were standing, it looked as though the rose was glowing, and had a few sparks of light slowly falling from its petals. As Xion drew closer, she saw that was exactly the case, and while it made her a little nervous at the same time, she was also getting more and more curious. "I've never seen a flower this beautiful before…" Xion whispered as she finally got within arm's reach of the jar.

"Careful Xion," Sora warned her. "It doesn't exactly look normal."

"Oh relax, Sora. How much harm can a little flower cause to the girl who helped save China," Xion waved off as she drew a little closer.

"Wait, Mulan's here? I didn't know she joined the team," Sora quipped back in easy reply.

"Very funny," Xion replied with a roll of her eyes, knowing that Sora had her say that she helped to save China, not that she saved China alone. She then proceeded to reach out and remove the jar from around the rose, but just as her hand was about to come into contact with the glass, their missing Shadow suddenly popped up between her and the rose, making her jump back in shock. "Uh…Found the Heartless!"

Roxas was quick to start heading over in order to provide aid to his sister, only to be cut off when another three Shadows suddenly appeared in front of him. A moment later, Sora and Ventus found a few Shadows materializing almost right in their faces, too, and not much later, the entire team was surrounded by Shadow Heartless. It was not long before they had drawn their respective weapons, and even less time passed before they set to work slashing, slicing, and blasting in response to when the Shadows pounced. The battle that had ensued was wild and somewhat uncoordinated beyond the fact that they still managed to avoid getting in one another's way somehow, but for every Shadow that they destroyed, it seemed like another three were just waiting to take its place.

Eventually, the Keybearers of the group began powering up in whatever method was available to them, with Ventus activating his Fever Pitch Command Style, Xion switching into her Valor Form, and Sora activating his own Unique Command Style shortly after that. Despite all of this though, even the incredible powers that they gained with these power-ups did not seem to do them any good in slowing down the swarm of Heartless. Eventually, they were beginning to tire, with Ventus even going so far as to enter his Tier Two Command Style Wingblade, and Sora activating his own Valor Form soon after Xion's had faded out, but the Heartless clearly still had much more to throw at them.

"Aw, c'mon, don't you guys ever take a break," Roxas groaned as he let his arms fall limp on either side in an extra show of tiredness.

"No kidding! Enough already," Sora agreed.

"Somebody help us," Donald finally shouted.

It was hard to say if anyone was going to voice doubts that anyone in the castle would be able to hear Donald's cry for help, but even if they were, they would have been proven wrong, because a mere few seconds after the duck had warbled out his shout, the doors to the parlor slammed open, admitting a new combatant that frightened Xion and Roxas a little, and brought excited smiles to the faces of Sora, Ventus, Donald, and Goofy. Stomping into the room, in his full, furry glory, was none other than the Beast. The Heartless seemed to take notice of the big guy's arrival too, because they quickly turned their attention from the team to attack Beast. This proved as further evidence to the fact that the Heartless were not all that smart, because they clearly were not able to recognize that it would have been smarter to run from the obvious threat, and as a result, they were quickly destroyed with a few simple swipes of Beast's claws. A few more swipes and a loud, earthshaking roar later, and all the Heartless were destroyed, leaving only the six adventurers and the Beast in the room.

"Just in time," Sora cheered, raising his hand up for a high-five from Beast, but he and Ventus were both left feeling a little confused with their friend did not seem to even notice.

"Uh Beast? You okay," Ventus questioned out of concern. The only answer he received was the Beast suddenly swatting both him and Sora aside as he passed them.

Seeing that startled both Donald and Goofy a great deal, so they were left unprepared when the Beast did the same thing to them not a second later. Upon seeing more than half of her friends getting shoved around so roughly, Xion took it upon herself to get into the Beast's path, earning her a great deal of his anger when she did. "Hey, what did you do that for," Xion demanded, either not knowing or not caring about the fact that she was getting the larger being angry. "That's not how you should be treating your friends."

"Xion, get away," Roxas shouted, but his warning was too late, as Xion was soon roughly batted out of the Beast's path as well. Seeing his sister getting hurt like that really set Roxas off and he immediately summoned Oblivion once again, gripping it with both hands as he charged the Beast with full intention to strike back. "You leave my sister and friends alone," Roxas shouted as he swung, landing a strong hit on Beast's back.

Roxas's attack caused Beast to roar loudly in pain for a minute, but after he stopped roaring, he spun around to level a fierce glare on his attacker, and Roxas had no trouble of returning the look with a glare of his own, even as he held his Keyblade in front of him with both hands still gripping the handle as he let the blade's tip point at an upwards angle. Seeing Roxas stand in the way he did would likely have reminded Sora and Ventus of Cloud's typical battle stance were they not more concerned with the fact that the younger blonde was attacking their friend. Then again, Beast was also on the attack, so they were not entirely sure who they should move to try and stop, assuming they could stop the Beast. In the end, they did not have to do much, as Roxas began charging again, only to end up swatted away the minute he was within arm's reach of the Beast, and he was sent tumbling into the recovering Xion as a result.

They all then watched as Beast carefully picked up the jar with the strange rose inside, nuzzle the jar for a moment like a precious child, and then spin around as he stalked off, taking very short, cautious strides as if he were afraid he would drop the rose if he did not watch his step as he went. The whole time he was doing all of this, he did not spare any of the group a single glance, so he more than likely missed the way Roxas was glaring at him as he left, the worried looks that the rest of the boys were shooting him, and how Xion was just looking between each of the occupants of the room and the door in an attempt to try and better understand what she just saw.

"…What just happened," Xion finally asked after another minute.

"I'm not really sure myself," Ventus admitted with a small groan as he helped Donald and Goofy up.

"Gee, do ya think he maybe forgot who we are," Goofy wondered.

"With this many Heartless around, something must be up," Sora reasoned after using a little healing magic on his sibling apprentices.

"Why'd he have to do that," Donald grumbled as he rubbed the side of his head where he had been hit.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because that's exactly how an animal would act," Roxas sarcastically remarked, surprising the others with both his comment and his agitated tone.

"Roxas," Xion questioned.

"What? I know you were all paying attention. That thing may have saved us from the Heartless, but a minute later, he just attacked us like any other mindless animal would."

"Beast is not mindless, and he's not an animal," Sora retorted as he stepped closer to Roxas as a show of how upset the blonde's words were making him.

"Could've fooled me," Roxas snapped back.

"Last I checked animals can't talk," Sora argued. A minute later, he turned to Donald and Goofy, and sheepishly corrected, "Well…most animals can't talk."

"I feel like Donald and Goofy don't really count in this case," Xion whispered to herself.

"Just because something can speak, it doesn't mean they're intelligent," Roxas pointed out. "Face it, that thing isn't an ally, it's a monster."

"He is not! Beast is our friend, and there's obviously something wrong with him," Sora snapped back, now looking about as angry as Roxas had when the argument started.

Roxas himself had only been getting angrier as this carried on, and it showed when he pushed it a little further. "Just because someone helps you it doesn't mean they're a friend. Maybe if you weren't always living it up like everything's all sunshine and rainbows, or even tried to use what little bit of brain power you possess, you could see that just as easily as anyone else."

"You saying I'm stupid or that I shouldn't try and help out my friends," Sora demanded, his fingers starting to flex as if he were going to summon his Keyblade.

"Well from what I've seen, you haven't really done much to help us so far when we're on other worlds, and I haven't seen anything to indicate that you're smart," Roxas snapped back in kind, already moving to hold Oblivion in both hands as he assumed the battle stance he had just improvised on a moment ago.

It was at that point that Ventus decided to intervene, and he quickly stepped between the two boys. "All right, that's enough," the bearded blonde stated, making sure that the distance between Sora and Roxas was large enough so that neither of them would be able to easily take a swing at the other. "Look, Sora, I get where Roxas is coming from. As far as he knows, this is the first time he and Xion have ever met Beast, so you can't blame him for having a hard time believing any claims we make, and it's not like we really know Beast that well, personally."

"But Ven…" Sora started to say.

"Just hear me out," Ventus interrupted. "I do understand it, but at the same time, I also agree with you when I say that something is definitely wrong here. The Heartless may have something to do with it, or it may be something else that we don't know about, but we can't really say for sure just yet. Which is why we should try and figure things out before we do anything else."

"Well here's an idea, we destroy the Heartless and free anyone that animal's holding here as a prisoner, or a meal, and leave," Roxas offered, still clearly upset and angry by the whole thing.

Sora was now ready to charge Roxas after he heard that, and likely would have if it were not for Ventus holding him back with one arm, and Xion stepping over to try and reason with her brother. "Roxas, I know you're upset, but if Ven and Sora both say that Beast is a good guy, then maybe there is something more going on here," the girl reasoned. "We should at least try and see if there's something going on and then try and help."

"You can't be serious," Roxas grumbled. "You want to stay and try and help that creature, even after what just happened?"

"I'm not saying that I'm okay with getting tossed aside like a ragdoll, but I am willing to keep an open mind about what our friends are saying," Xion clarified. "Let's just give them a chance to prove they're right, okay?"

Roxas just stared angrily between the occupants of the room, and when he clearly saw that he was outnumbered, he just huffed in concession of the group's decision and stomped out of the room, with the others following after him, most of them with worried expressions. Sora was the only one who was of a different story, because he continued to glare at Roxas's back for how the blonde had just been talking about Beast. Obviously he felt like he was still liable to attack Roxas for his earlier judgment of Beast, so he made it a point to stay at the back of the group so there were a good number of people between the two of them. If anyone noticed that, they did not think about it too much, because they needed to focus on their new objective. The only question they faced now was how they were to go about solving this mystery of what was wrong with Beast.

Thankfully, they did not need to think or look too hard to find any possible leads, because it was not long after they left the parlor, Donald stopped short and began looking towards a corridor at one end of the stairway. "What is it," Ventus questioned.

"I just know that I saw a lady at the top of those stairs," Donald muttered, prompting everyone to look towards the location he had indicated.

"Well…If the Beast is here in the castle, that lady musta been Belle, right," Goofy reasoned.

"Yeah, maybe so," Sora shrugged.

"Belle…she's one of the Princesses of Heart, right," Xion recalled.

"Yep, and she's the Beast's girlfriend, too," Donald confirmed.

"More like a prisoner suffering from Stockholm syndrome," Roxas muttered.

Now Sora was sure he was going to slug Roxas for his attitude, until Ventus intervened once again. "If Belle is here, then she must have some idea of what's going on. After all, being a Princess of Heart, she does posses the an innate sense for darkness, even without knowing it, and I doubt she's forgotten about the dangers that the Heartless pose after the part they played in her kidnapping from this world a year ago, so if anyone knows what's going on with the Beast, or just any problems relating to the Heartless in general, she's our best bet to finding out."

"C'mon! Let's go find her," Goofy encouraged in agreement, and like that, they were all following Donald up the stairs and towards the east wing of the castle, where he had claimed to have seen Belle heading.

Roxas was not quite as eager in their rush as the others, but he did still keep up enough so that he would be able to jump in should they run into another fight. Still, there was something about the younger blonde's recent skepticism and temperament that had Ventus a little worried, and while he did have a hunch on what the cause was, he figured it would be better to worry about it later. After all, it was just a theory, and they had a few more important things to worry about right now.

---

Everyone was very glad that they did not run into too many more Heartless as they explored more of Beast's castle, but they did find themselves quickly annoyed by another new kind of Heartless that Jiminy identified as Hook Bats. Though that may have had something to do with the tension between Roxas and Sora, as the two were definitely trying to keep their distance from one another as much as possible, and on the rare occasions that they failed to do so, they seemed liable to snap at one another over every little thing. Thankfully, any problems between the boys never seemed to escalate beyond angry words and annoyed huffs, and they all soon forgot about those problems when they heard a soft noise coming from one of the rooms up ahead, prompting them all to go quiet and start sneaking closer to the room in question.

As they went, Xion and Roxas could not help but feel a certain sense of nostalgia from sneaking around like this, and they could only assume that it was due to something that they experienced during their time with Organization. Whether it was in this particular castle or a similar location, they could not say, but since it was just a feeling, they kept quiet about it. After all, it was not like it was a solid memory so they saw no reason to bring it up to the rest of their friends.

"Oh, what am I going to do," they all suddenly heard a woman's voice bemoaning in worry, and they took that as their cue to surround the door that the voice had come from.

Once they were all in position, Ventus motioned for someone to discreetly open the door, but from the way he started backing up, it looked as though Donald had other ideas. "Okay," the duck determined, and a minute later, he was rushing forward, despite everyone else's warnings to wait. Just as he was about to make contact with the door, it suddenly flung open, and Donald was left to stumble into the room, face-first into a large amount of dust, much to his annoyance. "Hey! Who opened the door?"

"Uh…I think she did," Xion quietly whispered in reply, indicating the room's sole occupant with a surprised look on her face.

Roxas seemed just as surprised as Xion, because inside the room was a woman with fair skin, and brown hair that was tied back with a blue bow. She wore a long dress that matched the color of said bow, and the rest of her attire consisted of a white shirt and apron, and a pair of black shoes. The only thing that was more beautiful about this woman was the way her eyes sparkled in recognition as her smile lit up the room upon seeing who had just unexpectedly tumbled into her room, despite the annoyance of said person. That same smile was shared by Sora, Ventus, and Goofy as well, and Donald soon after when they recognized the woman as someone they had met on their last adventure, even if they had only officially met her during their second visit to Hollow Bastion a year ago.

"Oh, I'm so happy you're here," Belle exclaimed as she scooped Donald up and pulled him in for a very tight hug, much to his protests. "Donald! Sora! Goofy! Master Ventus!"

"Hiya," Sora politely greeted as he and Goofy both waved hello.

"It's good to see you again," Ventus nodded. "Though, you can just call me Ven."

Belle smiled a little more upon hearing that, and was about to comment on the matter when she finally realized just how tightly she was squeezing Donald and heard him begging her to put him down. Her smile turned a little sheepish at that point, even as she released the poor duck at last, and the others could only giggle lightly at Donald's previous predicament, even as his eyes spun a little from the aftermath of said moment. When the laughter finally ceased, Belle soon took notice of Roxas and Xion, and it was no surprise that a curious expression soon graced her lovely features upon seeing the twins.

"Hi, I'm Xion, and this is my brother, Roxas. We're new to the group," the raven haired girl greeted, mainly because from what she could tell, Roxas was still a little out of it from the sight of the woman before her.

"It's very nice to meet both you and your brother, mademoiselle," Belle said in return.

That last word that Belle said left Xion a little confused and she could not help but give voice to it. "Uh…what was that last word?"

"Mademoiselle. It means 'miss,'" Belle clarified with a slightly amused smile. "I'm guessing you don't know a great deal of French."

"Not really," Xion helplessly shrugged in admittance, her smile not faltering even a little.

"I'm working on that…sort of," Ventus reassured Belle, though he did keep the last bit a little quieter than the rest. He then noticed that Belle was studying him, Xion, and Roxas rather closely, and could not help but ask, "What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just…I was wondering if Xion and Roxas were related to you in any way," Belle explained. "I mean, Xion said Roxas was her brother, and since Roxas looks so much like you…"

"We're not related in any way beyond teacher and student. Any resemblance between me and Roxas is purely coincidental," Ventus clarified for her. When Belle just nodded and continued to scrutinize though, he quickly figured out the other reason, and immediately slumped his shoulders in slight dismay. "You're also a little surprised by my beard now, aren't you?"

"Well, I didn't want to say anything, but…" Belle started to say, her tone honestly apologetic as an extra show of how she was not trying to offend her friend.

"Don't worry about it. I've been getting that a lot lately," Ventus reassured her in resignation, much to everyone's amusement.

It was not until Xion realized who was not laughing that her own amusement came to an end, and she quickly turned to the person in question to see he was still staring at Belle in wonder. Feeling that his staring had reached the point of rudeness, and seeing an opportunity for teasing her brother, she quickly elbowed Roxas in the side, and smugly said, "I know she's really pretty, Rox, but you really shouldn't be staring like that. What would Naminé think if she found out you were looking at other women?"

Roxas's face immediately turned red after hearing him say that, and pulled everyone's attention to him soon after. "I-I wasn't…Well, I mean I was staring, but not for that reason," he insisted. "I'm just…a little surprised. I didn't expect…"

"What? That the Beast's girlfriend would be so pretty, so nice, or did you just think we were lying about her being a friend too," Sora accused, his previous anger at Roxas starting to show itself again.

"I never said you were lying," Roxas countered, though with a very noticeable bite.

"You might as well have," Sora bit back.

"All right, that's enough you two," Ventus cut in once again, but the two just huffed and turned away from each other. It would have been amusing how much this reminded Ventus of the argument that Sora and Donald had on Deep Jungle a year ago if they were not in the middle of something so important. "I'm sorry about that. We just had a run-in with the Beast, and he wasn't all that…friendly at the time. Needless to say it's left a pretty bad impression on Roxas."

"I can understand," Belle nodded, her happy mood having noticeably dropped upon hearing this. "To be honest, Beast hasn't really been himself for quite a while now. We don't even talk like we used to, now."

"Did something happen," Sora asked, now more invested in this conversation than he was in arguing with Roxas.

"Yes. Isn't that why you're here," Belle asked.

That got the team to exchange some uneasy looks between one another, since she was not really wrong, but at the same time, it was still not the full reason for their being here. Still, that did not mean they were going to ignore a friend in need, as Goofy proved when he replied, "Not exactly, but we can still help."

"Since we're here and all," Sora agreed, with the others all nodding along as well. Well, most of them did.

"Ow," Roxas snapped in response to the sharp elbow that Xion snapped into his side when she saw he was not agreeing as well. This time, she was not as gentle as before, and it showed in his irritated face. "Why is everyone hitting me today?"

"Maybe because you're giving them plenty of good reasons," Sora muttered.

Thankfully his retort went unheard, as everyone was more focused on the problem at hand. "The Beast won't talk to you," Donald asked.

Belle shook her head in negative response. "He's been acting strange lately."

"Do you think the Heartless may have something to do with it," Ventus proposed.

"I'm not so sure. The Heartless were a big problem around here for a while, and Beast was doing everything he could to keep them from hurting anyone, but then one day, they suddenly started disappearing on their own. It was not until after this really big and dangerous one was destroyed that the Heartless stopped appearing, and for a while, I thought things would get better. Then, Beast started acting strangely, and the Heartless began appearing again shortly after that," Belle revealed.

Hearing her recounting of recent events made Roxas and Xion think for a little bit, and after a few minutes of thinking, Roxas had to ask, "That really big Heartless you mentioned…did you ever see it?"

"I got one or two glimpses of it from the balcony," Belle confirmed, though it was obvious that she was not entirely sure why he was asking.

"Would you say that it was box-like, seemingly mechanical, and with four black wheels? Maybe had a few smaller Heartless riding on top that fought with bows and arrows," Roxas continued to ask.

"Yes, that does sound a lot like it," Belle nodded again. "How did you know? Have you seen it before?"

"I…I'm not sure," Roxas admitted, scratching his head in obvious frustration. "I don't know why that image came to my mind, but…for some reason that seemed like something I saw before."

"Gawrsh, maybe it's some of your memories coming back to ya that gave you the idea," Goofy suggested.

"That would make sense," Xion hesitantly agreed. "I mean, I'm starting to remember a few things about this place too, but I don't remember anything about a Heartless like that."

"I don't think you were there when I ran into it. I feel like I was actually alone when I fought it," Roxas informed Xion.

"That would make sense. You two did tend to have a good number of missions alone while you were with the Organization from what I saw," Ventus revealed. When he took notice of how Belle was now looking very confused, he quickly realized that they had unintentionally drifted away from their previous topic and left her very out of the loop, so it was only natural that they apologize and clue her in. "Xion and Roxas can't really remember much about the last year of their lives due to events beyond their control, and part of the reason we're journeying is to help them remember."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Belle told the twins in question.

"Don't be. It's not like you had anything to do with it," Xion reassured her. She then decided to make the best of this opportunity and asked, "Though I have to ask, since it does seem like we remember visiting this castle before, do you remember ever encountering me and Roxas, or anyone like us? We would've been wearing black coats at the time."

Belle had to think for a moment before she finally said, "Sorry, but I've only ever seen one person in a black coat recently, and he was much bigger than either one of you."

"Well, it was worth a shot," Xion sighed in response.

"But at least now we know that the Organization has been here recently, so maybe they have something to do with whatever's wrong with the Beast," Sora offered.

"From what I've seen of their members when I had a chance to spy on them, some of them did seem to have a particular talent for manipulating the hearts of others in some way," Ventus agreed.

"Or it could just be that they're bringing out the person's true nature," Roxas grumbled, only to grunt in pain again as he received another sharp jab from Xion's elbow. "OW! Stop doing that! I'm just saying!"

"Well stop saying, before you get anyone else mad at you," Xion advised, having seen that Roxas's attitude was now starting to annoy a lot more people than Sora.

"Either way, the only ones who would really know for sure about why the Beast is acting so strangely are locked up in the dungeon," Belle revealed. "I want to help them, but…"

"Wait a second. Who locked who up," Sora asked, as he was now the one feeling lost.

"The Beast locked up his servants," Belle clarified.

"Why would he do that," Donald asked.

"That's what I don't know."

Hearing that was a little disheartening, but they would have kidding themselves if they had actually thought Belle would have known everything that they needed to know, so that left them with an easy choice. "Where's this dungeon," Sora asked.

"Down in the undercroft. You can get to it from the west hall," Belle instructed.

"You thinking what I think you're thinking, kid," Ventus asked.

"Yep. We go free the servants and see if they can help us get the Beast back to his old self," Sora explained for everyone.

"And if our mystery Organization member is there," Xion asked.

"Well, that's why we learn how to fight and use magic," Sora pointed out, summoning his Keyblade for greater emphasis.

"Be careful, all the same," Belle requested, and the group all nodded in unison.

Just as he was turning to leave with the rest of the group, Roxas suddenly felt someone gently grasping his arm in a silent request to wait, and he turned to see that the hand holding him back was Belle's. It did not take too much for him to guess why she stopped him, so he could not stop the tired sigh from escaping past his lips. "Let me guess: you're going to try and convince me that the Beast isn't a monster too, right," Roxas asked.

"Only partially. I'd actually like to tell you a short story," Belle corrected. "You see, when I first came to this castle, I was looking for my father. I found him locked in the dungeon, and he was very sick. The Beast refused to let him go until I offered to take his place, and that was the last time I saw him."

"So you are a prisoner, just like I thought," Roxas concluded.

"Not exactly. If I really was a prisoner, then why would I be given a room this nice instead of being locked in the dungeon," Belle disputed. When she saw the boy could not come up with a response, she continued on with her story. "During my first days here, Beast was mean, course, unrefined, and his temper was very terrible. To be honest, I didn't want anything to do with him at the time, but then, when I tried to run away, I was attacked by wolves. I would have been killed had the Beast not come to my rescue. He saved my life, and from that moment on, I could see that he really was a kind, gentle soul who cares for me and others a great deal on the inside. That's why he was able to reach Hollow Bastion when I was taken there a year ago, and I'm sure that kindness is still there."

Even after all of that, Roxas was still unsure what to think. He wanted to believe what Belle was telling him; what everyone was telling him, but so far, he had not seen anything to prove that. Add in the fact that it seemed like everyone was out to get him today, at least in his eyes, and it was only natural that the only response he could give was not very kind. "Well let me know when it's on the outside, and maybe I'll be able to believe a little easier."

As the boy turned to follow his teammates, Belle could only watch him go with a sad look on her face. She could tell that Roxas was a good person, but more than that, she could somehow sense that there was something wrong with him. She was not sure what, but she did know that whatever it was that was affecting the boy, it was most certainly something very dark.

---

It was not long before the group found their way into the west hall, even with the Heartless that they had to fight along the way, and all throughout that time, Roxas was decidedly more vicious in the way he fought. Every time they came across the Heartless, Roxas would charge in and start slashing away with a mad abandon that was almost similar to that of a berserker. It was not an ineffective strategy, but it was a dangerous one, and it was beginning to worry everyone. Even Sora was starting to grow concerned for the former Nobody, but since he was still pretty mad at Roxas, he was determined to keep his distance for the time being. Of course, there was something else about how Roxas was fighting that got some of the group's attention.

Ever since their encounter with the Beast, Ventus and Xion could not help but notice that Roxas was only fighting with Oblivion. At first they figured it was because he was trying to get used to his new battle stance, but that also raised the question as to why he had not been using Oathkeeper to help as well. After all, it did not make sense to only adapt the style for one specific Keyblade when he could use two, and more than that, but the two also had to note that Roxas had been using Oblivion almost every time he only used one Keyblade lately. Add in the fact that his temper and attitude had been slowly getting worse ever since he started doing so, and it was only natural that Ven and Xion would start thinking that there were a few connections between the two.

Before either of them could say anything, they finally came into the west hall, and Sora said, "There should be a way into the undercroft around here, right?"

"Among other things, yeah," Roxas muttered, surprising the others with his sudden input.

"Do you remember something else, Roxas," Donald inquired.

"All I can remember right now is a vague recollection of various secret passageways in this castle, and that I used them to sneak around whenever I was here, be it alone or with other members of the Organization. Nothing more specific than that," Roxas shortly replied.

"Well, it's still something to keep in mind," Ventus stated before anyone could say something that could set Roxas or any other person in their group off. "Xion, has anything come back to you about that?"

"Nothing other than what Roxas mentioned," Xion shrugged. A minute later though, she found that she did have something else to add, and did so. "I think I do remember where the entrance to the undercroft is."

"Lead the way then," Ventus encouraged, and they all soon fell into step behind her. Not that they had to go too far, mind you, as Xion quickly came to a stop beside a wardrobe at the other end of the hallway.

"It should be right here," Xion informed the group. "Someone must've moved this wardrobe here to block the entrance."

"Not the most clever way to hide an entrance, but it is a good attempt," Ventus shrugged, feeling that he should at least give the person who tried this a small bit of praise for trying.

Everyone else could only shrug in reply before they all moved to push the wardrobe aside. It should have been an easy enough task, and it was for a moment, but just when they had nearly gotten it away from the door, the wardrobe suddenly lurched a little, turned towards them with the face of an annoyed woman, and asked, "Do you MIND?!"

The entire team was so startled that they jumped back from the wardrobe and remained frozen in place as it hopped right back to where it had been standing before. Things only continued to grow even more unbelievable when the wardrobe closed its eyes and began to snore a little indicating that it was now asleep, and that was what finally prompted someone in the group to finally question what had just happened. "Did that wardrobe just yell at us and move on its own," Sora asked.

"Shh! Sora, quiet! We don't want to wake her up," Goofy hushed.

"It shouldn't be waking up in the first place," Donald immediately retorted in a whisper.

"I swear, just when I think I've seen it all, the worlds find some way to prove me wrong," Ventus muttered to himself.

"On the bright side, I guess we now know why Roxas and I had memories of moving furniture when we saw this place from the ship," Xion pointed out in a more optimistic tone.

"Yeah, great. Can we just move this wardrobe…lady…whatever the thing is out of the way now? We still need to get through that door," Roxas cut in, moving to shove the wardrobe aside again.

"Wait a minute, Roxas," Ventus cautioned. "We still don't know if this wardrobe is friendly or not, so maybe we should try to avoid waking it up again."

"It's a large, hunk of wood full of things like clothes and brushes. How much of a threat can it be," Roxas questioned.

"I don't know? How much of a threat do you think a single Heartless can be, even if it's just a simple Shadow," Ventus offered in return.

"That's completely different," Roxas disputed.

"Is it? As we've clearly just seen, you should never judge something or someone by their appearance, because even the most unassuming of things can surprise you," Ventus reasoned out, taking the opportunity to try and teach another lesson to his kids.

Roxas just rolled his eyes in response, feeling that it was another attempt by the older blonde to convince him that the Beast was not the monster he believed him to be, but all the same, he did heed Ven's advice and opted to be a little gentler in his attempts to move the wardrobe away from the door. After another second or two, Sora came in to help speed things along, offering only a nod to Roxas as a sign of good will, and with the two of them working together, the sleeping wardrobe was finally moved clear of the door, allowing entrance to the undercroft at last.

Everyone had to try very hard to keep themselves from cheering loudly at the boys' success, but it seemed that they were not out of trouble yet, as a large amount of dust had been kicked up from when Sora and Roxas were moving the wardrobe. That dust had steadily collected inside of Donald's nose to the point where, by the time the wardrobe had been moved clear, he could not help but feel like he was about to sneeze. Goofy realized this before anyone else and quickly rushed over to snap Donald's beak shut before it was too late. Everyone sighed in relief when they saw Goofy had averted the disaster, but it was short lived, as a second later, Goofy let out a loud sneeze of his own, startling the wardrobe awake once again, much to everyone's dismay.

"And I was just starting to get comfortable," the wardrobe miserably moaned as she finally stood up straight from the wall she was leaning against.

"Uh…Sorry for waking you, ma'am," Ventus hesitantly apologized, not really sure if it would help or not.

"Oh no, don't worry yourself too much. May I help any of you," the wardrobe politely offered in return, acting like it was no trouble at all.

No one was sure how to react to this, or really anything that had just happened, but when it finally registered that the wardrobe was no threat and offering to help them, they figured they should just cut right to the chase. "We're friends of Belle's," Sora explained. "She said that she needed us to go to the dungeon."

"Goodness! You're here to help my friends," the wardrobe exclaimed happily.

"I guess so."

"Well why didn't you say so," the wardrobe happily chuckled.

"Er…um…" Now Sora was not sure what to say, but only because he knew that most responses he could have given would likely have been viewed as very rude.

Roxas on the other hand, had no problems with being as blunt as possible. "Because normally, you don't need to so much as ask a wardrobe to move out of the way, since they aren't supposed to be alive."

"Roxas," Xion hissed.

"No, no, it's all right," the dresser reassured the young girl with a chuckle. "Believe me; this isn't really normal for me either. Why, even Belle was a little startled when we first met. You see, I actually used to be human, until…"

"You were put under some kind of spell," Xion finished for her. When she realized that her sudden interruption had earned her a few surprised looks, Xion just shrugged and said, "I'm not sure how I know that, but it just seemed to be the only thing that made sense."

"Oh, that's quite all right, dear. You're not entirely wrong, anyway," the wardrobe explained. "It wasn't just me who was changed by the enchantress's spell, but everyone in the castle was transformed too when the prince was turned into a beast."

"The prince…" Sora repeated in disbelief.

"The Beast is a prince," Goofy asked in equal surprise.

"Doesn't really act all that princely," Roxas commented, and this time, no one disagreed with him. Even when they first met the Beast a year ago, none of the team had ever gotten the impression that he could have been royalty of any kind.

"Well to be fair, his behavior was far from princely even before the enchantress had cast her spell," the wardrobe admitted.

"Can you tell us anything else about this spell," Ventus asked out of both curiosity and wonder. A part of him could not help but think that maybe they could do something to help reverse this spell if they knew a little more about it, but somehow, he had a feeling that this would be one of those matters that they could not get involved with.

"Well I suppose I could…" the wardrobe began, and the others all leaned in a little closer, eager to hear whatever story she was about to tell. They ended up nearly falling flat on their faces in disbelief though, when she finished, "But it'll have to wait until you rescue the others."

"Aww," Donald groaned on everyone's behalf.

"Not cool," Roxas and Xion both muttered.

"Well it is important that you hurry, after all, the dungeon is damp and chilly. Certainly no place for a clock," the wardrobe insisted.

"A clock," Goofy repeated.

"What do clocks have anything to do with this," Roxas asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," the wardrobe insisted, and with that, she started trotting away, likely to find a new place to nap.

"Well…that happened. Now, let's get going," Ventus commented, not really sure what else he could say at that point.

The others all agreed with Ven's choice of words and slowly followed him down into the undercroft. Not that they had to go too far, as the descent to the undercroft was quite short, and there only seemed to be one other room at the bottom of the staircase as far as they could see. That same room was sealed shut by a stone door that seemed to be held closed by a pair of gargoyles. "This must be it," Sora observed.

"Then let's hurry up and get those guys out," Roxas decided, summoning Oblivion into his right hand as he did.

Seeing her brother call out that Keyblade once again, Xion finally decided to bring up the matter she was so concerned about. "Roxas, wait a minute," she called, making the blonde stop just when he was within reach of the door. "Can we talk?"

"If this is about the Beast, then no, we can't. Besides, I thought we were in a hurry," Roxas immediately replied.

"No, it's not that, and I don't think it'll take too long," Xion reassured him. "If anything, it's about the way you've been acting lately."

"What do you mean by that? I'm as normal as ever," Roxas insisted, not necessarily angry, but he was definitely confused.

"No, you haven't. You've been a lot more short-tempered than usual, more aggressive in the way you fight, and you've been acting like everyone's out to get you even before we got here," Xion insisted. "And I can't help but think it might be because…"

Roxas was a little confused by how Xion stopped short in her mini-speech, and was about to prompt her to continue what she was saying when he noticed that she appeared to be a little frightened by something. "Xion? What is it," Roxas asked. The girl did not answer him, and he was about to ask again when he noticed that the others all had similar freaked out expressions on their faces as well. After a few more minutes, he finally realized that none of them were directed at him, and he could only come to one conclusion. "There's something really bad right behind me, isn't there?"

The rest of the team could only nod in response, and Roxas slowly turned around to see that the gargoyles on the door had suddenly gained a lot more color and come to life, each holding the lock of the door in their shorter hands, while the other hands stretched out with the intent to slash him apart with their long, yellow claws. Thinking quickly, Donald summoned out his staff and cast a quick blast of Thunder on the gargoyles, stunning it just long enough for Roxas to scramble back over to the others, all of whom were summoning their weapons as they moved closer to Roxas as well. A second later though, more Hook Bats appeared around the door, along with a pair of what looked like living, winged statues, one wielding an axe in its clawed hands, and the other a sword.

"Uh…Jiminy," Sora started to ask, only to find that he did not need to, as the cricket had started flipping through his journal the minute that the Heartless had appeared before them.

"Got it! The ones on either side of the door are a Gargoyle Knight and a Gargoyle Warrior," Jiminy reported.

"Well, which one's which," Xion questioned.

"The Knight is the one with the sword, and the warrior's the one with the axe," Jiminy clarified for the girl. "They're normally known to hide in regular gargoyle statues so that they can ambush an unsuspecting victim with surprise attacks, but that doesn't make any less strong. As for whatever the Heartless that's holding the door closed is…I've got nothing. There's nothing in my journal about it at all!"

"So we'll have to be extra careful while we deal with this…Thresholder," Ventus determined, naming the commanding Heartless as he did. "All right. Donald, Goofy, and Xion, you three help me deal with the Hook Bats and those Gargoyles. Sora and Roxas, the Thresholder's all yours."

"Seriously," Roxas groaned in protest. "Can I trade partners with someone?"

"Hey! That's my line," Sora snapped.

"No, neither of you can, and this is not up for debate. Now go," Ventus snapped, slashing his Keyblade through a Hook Bat that had flown in close to him.

Just like that, the battle got underway, and Goofy was soon blocking a very powerful strike from the Gargoyle Warrior's axe, while Xion locked blades with the Gargoyle Knight. Donald and Ven both took the chance to fire off a few spells at the Hook Bats flapping around them, which became easier after Ven used the spell Gravity to pull the winged terrors down to Earth and hold them in place long enough for either him or Donald to finish them off. As a side effect, Ven's spell also made the two Gargoyles falter in their attempts to break through Xion and Goofy's guards, and the two were quickly able to break the locks and unleash a few attacks of their own. Xion's fast paced slashes allowed her to make quick work of the Gargoyle Knight, but since his shield was a much more blunt type of a weapon, Goofy had to work a little harder before he finally destroyed the Gargoyle Warrior. With their target Heartless dealt with, both the young girl and the knight turned to provide their other friends with some assistance in dealing with the remaining Hook Bats, all the while hoping that the two arguing boys could handle dealing with the Thresholder for now.

Thankfully, Roxas and Sora were able to put aside their differences and work together in battle quite well this time, as they were both covering for the other as they avoided whatever attacks the Thresholder launched with its long arms. Most of the time, Roxas was the one to make an attack on the strange Heartless, but most of the time, his plan was to just rush in and hit it as hard as he could with Oblivion. That ended up getting the blonde hit by many of the Thresholder's attacks, resulting in either a great deal of pain for Roxas, or Sora having to abandon his own attempts to hit it in order to help Roxas in any way that he could. After having to break off another charge to push Roxas out of the way before he was flattened by one of the Thresholder's massive fists, Sora was starting to get more than a little annoyed, but it only really showed on his face for a moment, because he soon noticed that the Thresholder was losing its grip on the door's keyhole.

Taking the chance to try and force the door open, Sora immediately aimed his Keyblade towards the center of the blocked entrance and fired out a beam of light from Kingdom Key. He figured that getting the door open would force the two halves of the Thresholder apart, but what happened instead was something else entirely. After his beam had struck, the Thresholder suddenly went limp before it froze completely, and a second later, what looked like a ball of smoke with yellow eyes and a thin, jagged red mouth seemed to be spat out of its body. The ball of smoke eventually just started floating around the room like it was in a dazed state and unsure where to go or what to do, and the two boys were no really much better than it. Luckily, someone was able to get the Keybearers back to the situation at hand when he suddenly shouted out from inside of Sora's hood.

"Oh my stars above! So that's what was really behind the Thresholder! A Possessor," Jiminy cried out. Before either Sora or Roxas could ask what the cricket meant by that, he quickly informed them, "You fellas need to hurry and destroy that thing now before it can get back into the Thresholder and do any more damage, or worse, take over something else to attack us all with!"

They may not have fully understood what was going on, but Sora and Roxas were able to get enough of what Jiminy was so worked up about to follow his advice, and they both quickly chased after the ball of smoke the cricket had identified as a Possessor. Not that they were having much success, because despite its apparently disoriented state, the Possessor was quite nimble and quick enough to keep them at a distance. To make matters worse, the number of Hook Bats in the room only seemed to grow with each passing second, which meant that the rest of the team was starting to get overwhelmed despite their best attempts. Looking around the room and seeing all this happen prompted Sora to suddenly skid to a halt and aim his Keyblade all over the room in preparation to fire off one of his most powerful Shotlocks: Trinity Force. Sure, that might have been overkill, but at that point, Sora was not really in the mood for being merciful towards the Heartless.

Before he could unleash the power of his Shotlock, Sora suddenly had another thought, and stopped building up the power of his attack. He then started infusing his Keyblade with a strange element of magic that he was not entirely familiar with, and then sent it flying with a powerful toss, as he shouted, "Reflect Raid!"

All the others heard of Sora's cry was the last word, and they all assumed that meant he was trying to use Strike Raid on one of the Heartless. Naturally, they were all left very surprised when they saw Kingdom Key strike the Possessor and then split into multiple copies of itself that flew off in several different directions, striking whatever enemy lay in that random path before splitting into even more copies that also went flying. It left a good number of them quite surprised, since by the time the attack ended, the only Heartless left in the room was the Possessor, and it was looking much weaker than before now. Thankfully, they were able to shake it off and move in to help finish off the Possessor.

Xion struck first by landing a fast slash with her Keyblade, using the momentum of the swing to help her spin around so that she could fire off a blast of Blizzard from her free hand. The icy spell was easily accompanied by a Thundara spell that Donald had cast at that same moment, and Goofy was soon to follow after with a hard bash to the Possessor's head from his shield. The knight then spun around and allowed Ven to use his shield as a springboard, catapulting the Keyblade master into the air and into the perfect position for him to land a few aerial strikes on the Possessor while it was disoriented. Roxas then rushed in and finished the fight by jumping into the air and landing a powerful, downwards slash. With that last attack, the others all watched as the Thresholder finally burst into the smoke that always followed a Heartless's defeat, while the Possessor itself vanished into thin air. Somehow, they all knew that they had not seen the last of that Heartless yet, but the team could not worry about that right now. There were still people to free from the dungeon.

Roxas was about to try the door to the dungeon to see if it was open, when Ven suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from doing so. "How long have you been using Oblivion for," the Keyblade master questioned.

"Is that a serious question? You know how long I've had it," Roxas replied, not really understanding the meaning behind Ven's question.

Seeing this, Ven quickly clarified, "I mean, how long have you been using it as the Keyblade you summon whenever you only use one of your two Keyblades?"

"Oh," was all that Roxas could say after realizing what Ven meant. "I don't know. I guess I've almost always used it whenever I just summon one of my Keyblades. I mean, why wouldn't I? It's the stronger one of the two in terms of strength, and while Oathkeeper is normally the best one to use for magic, I don't really use magic too much, so it just makes sense for me to use Oblivion more often."

"I thought so," Ventus nodded in reply. He then looked to Xion, and when the girl nodded in reply, he knew that she had the same thought as him, which made his next decision pretty obvious. "Roxas, I want you to use Oathkeeper for the rest of the time that we're here whenever you use only one of your Keyblades, and maybe even for a little longer than that."

"What?! Didn't you hear a word I just said," Roxas questioned.

"I did, and that's why I'm telling you to use Oathkeeper instead," Ventus replied. Before Roxas could say anything more in protest, Ventus quickly explained, "Roxas, do you remember what you said to me a while back during an earlier training session? About how you think that only using one of your Keyblades too much might affect you in some way? I think that we're starting to see some evidence that your theory may be right in how you've been acting lately."

"That's what I was trying to say earlier. What if your recent change in attitude is a sign that using Oblivion for so long is starting to make your darkness a little stronger than your light," Xion cottoned on a minute later, hoping that her two cents would help convince her brother of what they were saying.

Roxas looked between both his sister and his teacher for a minute, before he finally took a deep breath and let out in a long, tired sigh as he dismissed Oblivion in a haze of shadow, and allowed Oathkeeper to take its place a second later in a flash of light. "I'm not sure if I should hope that you guys are right about this or not, but I'll humor you for now," Roxas informed them.

That was good enough for both Xion and Ventus, and apparently, it was good enough for Sora too, as he was the one who next spoke up. "Alright guys, if there's nothing else we have to worry about, it's time we got down there and did some rescuing."

"Right behind ya, Sora," Donald agreed.

"Yeah, let's go and set those servants free," Goofy added, and everyone then proceeded into the dungeon, thinking that they had dealt with the worst for now.

---

The dungeon ended up being a bit larger than they were expecting, and consisted of both the typical cells and larger rooms that were only secured by heavy, wooden doors. If the set-up were not so simple, they were sure that they would have ended up lost in a maze. The only thing that they did not find anywhere in the place so far were people. Not a single cell showed any sign of there being anyone down here, and the last room was just as void as the imprisoned servants. All they could find in this last room was a candelabra, a clock, a teapot, and a single teacup.

"There's nobody here," Sora finally sighed.

"Actually, there's TWO nobodies here," Xion joked, indicating herself and Roxas when she did.

That got a brief chuckle out of everyone before Ventus stated, "Either way, it doesn't look like there's anyone down here."

"You mean there's nobody to rescue," Donald questioned.

Before Roxas could warn his sister off of making another joke, another voice that did not belong to anyone in their group suddenly asked, "Did someone say 'rescue'?"

"Shhh! Keep quiet. It might be THEM," another man's voice hushed.

"Oh, they look like nice dears to me," a third voice soothed, this one being a woman that sounded very motherly.

"We are nice. We're your friends," Goofy called out to the room at large.

"Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! Who even said that," Roxas questioned as he snatched up the candelabra in an attempt to better illuminate the room.

"Over here," the first voice stated.

"Where," Roxas asked, spinning around to face the voice, only to find no one there besides Donald and Goofy, both of whom could only shrug as if to silently say they did not know where the speaker was either.

Just before Roxas or anyone else could call out again, the blonde felt something tap him on the head from behind, and upon turning to face the perpetrator, Roxas found that the candelabra now had a face, and was now moving its two arms like actual arms. What was even more surprising was when he actually spoke! "Hello," he greeted, and upon hearing the living light fixture speak, Roxas reacted in the way that most anyone would expect; he freaked out and dropped the thing like it had burned him. "Oof! That's the second time that's happened now," the candelabra groused as he relit the flames on his candles.

"The…the candle's…talking," Xion gaped in disbelief.

"Uh actually it's…he's a candelabra," Ventus corrected, correcting himself halfway through his sentence when he did

"What's the difference," Sora asked.

"I'll tell ya later," Ventus reassured him. "Right after we get acquainted with his friends."

Turning to where Ven had waved the others all saw that the clock, teapot, and teacup had all hopped down from where they had been sitting and moved over to where they were gathered. "Um…Hello," Sora greeted with his usual smile as he knelt down to better speak with them. "I'm Sora. And this is Xion, Roxas, Ventus, Donald, and Goofy."

The next thing anyone knew, Donald and lunged forward and scooped up the clock of the bunch so that he could fiddle with it, much to the clock's protests. "D-don't touch! I-I am self-winding, sir!"

Donald seemed too fascinated by what he was seeing to take notice, and Goofy was no better, given that he was just standing there and watching as Donald shook the clock around. Thankfully, Xion came to his rescue and placed a hand on the wizard's shoulder as she said, "Donald, maybe you should put the poor guy down before you hurt him."

The minute that the clock was on the floor again, he breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Oh, thank you, madam."

"Your welcome," Xion nodded. "We're just glad you're all okay."

"It is we who are overjoyed to see you, mademoiselle! And of course, all of you as well, monsieurs," the candelabra cheered as he hoped up on one of the chairs.

"Uh…what did he just call us," Roxas questioned.

"Monsieur. It means sir or mister," Ventus whispered in translation.

"Oh, but where are our manners? I am Monsieur Lumière," the candelabra revealed.

"I am Cogsworth, the master's most loyal and trusted servant," the clock nodded.

"My name is Mrs. Potts, and this is my boy, Chip. It's pleasure to meet you all, dears," the teapot nodded to the group, indicating the teacup when she mentioned her son.

"Nice to meet you all, too," Goofy waved hello. "So did somebody put a spell on you guys, too?"

"Yes, that's right. You've heard," Cogsworth confirmed. "It was the enchantress."

"It seems so long ago," Lumière somberly recalled.

"What exactly happened that made this enchantress put a spell on all of you," Ventus finally asked.

"Well, long ago on a cold winter's night, an old beggar woman came to the castle, and asked for shelter," Mrs. Potts began.

"But the master of this castle, that is of course, the prince turned her away, all because of her, ahem, meager appearance," Cogsworth continued.

"That's awful," Roxas stated, angry that the prince would do such a thing.

Apparently, the servants agreed, as the team soon learned when Lumière said, "Oui, he was a spoiled prince, so selfish and…how shall I say…cruel."

"Lumière," Cogsworth snapped in scolding, showing that he was not at all fond of anyone speaking poorly of his master, even if it may have been true.

"The old woman warned our master not to be deceived by appearances," Mrs. Potts continued, almost appearing to ignore the other two's brief quarreling. "Still, he would not take her in. Then the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. She turned the prince into a beast, a shape she thought fitting for his cold heart, and to further punish him, everyone in the castle was enchanted, too."

"Wow…that's quite a story," Sora breathed in awe. He was upset by what the enchantress had done, but that did not mean that the story was any less impressive.

"Is there anything we can do to help," Xion questioned.

"Let's get the enchantress," Donald suggested.

"Not happening," Ventus determined for the group. He then dropped his voice into a lower whisper, mainly because he was not entirely sure what the Beast and Belle had told their friends about what had happened a year ago. "Even if we knew where to look for her, we shouldn't get involved. This would be one of those things that we can't get involved with because it isn't our place to interfere."

"So it's one of those world order things," Roxas reasoned.

"Exactly," Ventus confirmed.

"It's very kind of you to want to help, dears, but there's no need," Mrs. Potts reassured them, much to everyone's surprise.

"We already know what needs to be done, but with the master out of sorts…" Lumière explained.

"He sure is acting weird," Sora nodded along in agreement, with Donald, Goofy, and Ven doing the same a moment later. Xion did not really give any sort of indication one way or the other, but she still noted that these people all seemed to think that there was good inside of the Beast, and from the contemplative look on his face, she figured that Roxas had noticed, too.

"It's almost as if he's forgotten how to trust others," Mrs. Potts noted aloud.

"You don't suppose he's been turned into a Heartless, do you," Cogsworth asked, startling the team of adventurers.

"If the Heartless are involved in this, then it's definitely a good thing that we're here right now," Ventus informed the servants.

"Yeah, the Beast helped us fight the Heartless before, so now it's time we returned the favor," Sora determined.

Xion and Roxas exchanged a look between themselves before the former commented, "Well, if any of the feelings and strange fragments of our old memories are any indication, we've helped deal with Heartless problems that this castle has had in the past, so I'm sure we can help do it again."

"Yeah," Roxas agreed. He may not have a high opinion of the Beast, but he was not going to let the Heartless have free reign of this place, either.

"Let's go find the Beast," Donald decided, thinking that would be the best place to start, and everyone seemed to agree.

"Splendid," Cogsworth cheered.

"Follow me, monsieurs and mademoiselle. I know a shortcut," Lumière revealed, hopping down from his chair so that he could lead the way to said shortcut.

---

Getting through Lumière's shortcut turned out to be fairly easy, even with the rather trying task of having light several lanterns that were enshrouded by dark flames, but then again, no one ever said that secret passages were not complicated in one way or another. Shortly after doing so, they all split up once again, with Lumière, Mrs. Potts, and Chip going to check on the rest of the castle, while Cogsworth led the team to the Beast's room. Thankfully, it was practically a hop, skip, and a jump away to the Beast's room, and with only a few Heartless popping up in between. They only seemed to run into a problem when they finally came to a stop at the door to Beast's room.

As they had started approaching the Beast's room, they could all pick up on the sound of voices, and they did not need Cogsworth to tell them that no one else was supposed to be in the Beast's room right now to know that whoever it was, it was likely the culprit behind all of this. What did come as surprising were the brief looks of recognition that flashed over the faces of Roxas and Xion, and they could only think of one reason why they would have such looks. Now was not really the time to be worrying about that type of thing, though, as some of them were more focused on the conversation that the Beast was having with his visitor from the Organization, but Xion and Roxas still figured that they needed to speak up.

"I know that voice," Roxas whispered as he stood against the door, ready to jump into the room at a moment's notice with the others.

"Yeah…I don't really remember the face or the name, but…" Xion started to say, until something suddenly clicked in her mind. "Wait a minute…Number…III?"

"Huh? Number III," Goofy questioned, not understanding why Xion would say that.

"That's his identification and rank in the Organization," Roxas replied in her place. When he saw that everyone still looked confused, he quickly stated, "We'll explain later."

"Agreed. We may need to hear what they're saying," Ventus hushed, and like that, the whole group went silent so they could better listen in.

"It's time you dealt with Belle," they could hear Number III saying. "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 growled, and they were all a little surprised at how tired he sounded. "There's only one thing I want."

"What? To love, and be loved in return? Who could ever love a beast," Number III scoffed.

"I think you'd be surprised," Sora shouted after bursting into the room, apparently not noticing how Beast had roared angrily at Number III's words. The others could only follow behind Sora, some a little more hesitantly than others, but all the same, they were all more than happy to draw weapons on the intruder from Organization XIII.

"See? She has accomplices," Number III told Beast, showing his ability to improvise a situation on the spot was very good when he did. He then backed away, and with a wave of his hand, he summoned a battlefield barrier between the Beast and the rose that was resting on the table behind them, and another one that blocked the team off from the door that they just came through.

They were all sure that they would be battling it out with a member of the Organization at last, but before any of them could attack, Number III just disappeared into a Dark Corridor, leaving them with only the Beast. It did not make any sense as to why he would trap them in the room and then leave, but what made even less sense was that the barrier was still there even after he was gone. Then again, there was one other person that the adventurers were likely being forced to fight, but it did not seem that Sora had realized this as he approached that person as casually as he would any other friend.

"Hey, Prince," Sora greeted as he got close to the Beast. He quickly came to regret doing so when the Beast let out a vicious roar, and he knew that it was not to express friendly intent.

"Oh, dear! Master," Cogsworth gasped. Another cry of fright soon escaped him when Xion scooped him up as she jumped out of the way of the Beast's vicious lunge along with the others. "Oh, thank you, mademoiselle."

"Don't thank me just yet," Xion cautioned after setting Cogsworth aside in a place that she was sure he was likely to be safe for a bit, and she then turned to summon Two Become One into her hand. "We've still got to deal with this problem."

"We can't fight the Beast," Goofy protested.

"He's not really giving us much choice," Ventus pointed out.

"Maybe not," Roxas argued, much to everyone's surprise. He then stepped forward with Oathkeeper held before him in both hands, and explained, "Number III obviously did something to mess with his head, but I don't think it's something that sticks for very long."

"How do you figure that," Donald questioned.

"I may not remember everything, but I do remember that Number III liked coming back to this world, even when he had time off. One time, I was even sent to bring him back because he had not returned to the Organization's base in a while. When I asked him why, all he said was that he was making sure that certain events were set in motion, and that he needed to make sure nothing would derail his efforts," Roxas elaborated.

"You think that he kept coming back because he was worried that his influence on the Beast might've worn off if he didn't keep coming back to reinforce it," Xion reasoned, having just had similar memories come back to her ever since she realized who was in the room with the Beast.

"So then, we just need to snap him out of it," Sora reasoned as he summoned Kingdom Key into his hand.

"That and we need to keep him from killing us until he does come to his senses," Roxas pointed out.

"Either way, it almost sounds like you're starting to believe what we've been saying about Beast," Sora told him.

"Let's not get too crazy just yet," Roxas smirked in return, letting Sora know that he was not entirely convinced, but he was at least considering that the others may have been right now.

All banter was dropped when the Beast swiped at them again, and the two Keybearers immediately rolled out of the way to avoid getting torn apart like those drapes that were hanging over the nearly destroyed bed. Upon getting to their feet again, Sora and Roxas both charged, with the former firing off a blast of Blizzara to distract Beast and give the latter an opening to attack. When Roxas did so, he made it a point to hit Beast with the blunt side of his Keyblade, even though he was pretty sure that it would not have made much difference either way, and it seemed to leave the big guy a little disoriented. Just not to the point where he was unable to return the favor by batting Roxas aside. Beast then pounced at the younger blonde, and likely would have started tearing into Roxas had Xion not activated her Valor Form and jumped in the way to block Beast's attack with Two Become One and Midnight Roar.

Xion was forced to remain on the defensive for a little while longer, but thankfully, her use of her Drive Form made it a little easier for her to deflect or block Beast's mad swipes, and it also offered Ventus a chance to bounce of the wall with Flowmotion and land an attack from above. Ven's attack struck true, and allowed Goofy to bash his shield into the Beast's head a few times while Donald and Sora worked together to try and freeze Beast where he stood with some more ice spells. After Ventus had jumped back and joined the two in their icy attacks, Beast had quickly ended up stuck in the hold of some very strong ice, and Cogsworth took that moment as his chance to jump in, and rang whatever alarm he had inside of him as loud as he could while shouting at his prince as loudly as possible.

"Please, Master! Please! Control yourself," Cogsworth pleaded, and the sound waves that were released by Cogsworth's cries, mixed with his incredibly loud clock chimes seemed to be what finally did the trick in dispelling the aura that had surrounded the Beast ever since he had fallen under the Number III's manipulations.

While Beast had stopped raging and roaring like a wild animal, the team was still a little wary of releasing him from the ice that they had trapped him in, hence the reason why Ventus and Donald did so very carefully and slowly. By the time that the ice had melted though, it was clear that Beast was not likely to attack them again. If anything, he seemed more likely to curl up in a ball and brood in misery for a while, even though he was still rather disoriented. That did not stop him from taking note of who all was now in the room with him, and the first person he noticed was someone that had served him more faithfully than anyone else in the castle had for many years.

"Cogsworth," Beast roughly rasped. "What happened?"

"Well, Master…ah, you see…that is…How shall I say…ah, actually…mmm…" Cogsworth stuttered. Clearly leaving the clock was not the best person to explain the situation to his prince.

"Well, you put everybody down there in that dungeon," Donald finally stated once he decided that he could not just stand there watching Cogsworth stall for much longer.

"I did what," Beast gasped in disbelief. Not only that, but his gaze swept over both the magician and the rest of Donald's group in surprise, indicating that he only just now realized who they were, and for a brief second, the team could have sworn they saw him smile a little bit before it vanished a second later.

"Ah…you did," Cogsworth admitted.

"I'm guessing you don't really remember much of what happened recently, do you," Ventus questioned.

"No…I can't really remember much of anything aside from that man in the black coat," Beast confessed. His gaze then paused on Roxas and Xion for a moment, and the two quickly became a little unsettled when he started sniffing at them before finally saying, "You two…You actually share a similar scent to his."

"Yeah, that's a long story," Xion replied. It was not like she could really give any other answer right now.

"Don't worry. Roxas and Xion may have been part of that guy's group, but they're part of our team now," Sora reassured his old friend.

"Speaking of the guy in black, I don't suppose you ever got his name, did you? The only thing we can remember about him is his rank in the group he's part of," Roxas hesitantly asked. He may have been the one to come up with the plan to snap Beast out of his anger-induced haze, but it was still disorienting for him to see that the Beast acting so dazed, confused, and from the looks of things, ashamed.

The Beast's shame seemed to grow a little more as his memory continued coming back to him, and it showed in the way he spoke when he answered the blonde boy's question. "Xaldin! …That's his name," Beast gasped with a low growl. "He came from the darkness. He…used my anger to control me. He took all my sorrow, my sadness, my pain, and turned it into rage. There was nothing I could do…I could no longer see the truth."

"Well, I'll be," Goofy cheered, much to everyone's surprise. "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?"

While everyone was very much aware of Goofy's highly optimistic attitude, many of them could not help but think that he may have been onto something, though some members of the team's party were still a little more focused on something else. Not that anyone really seemed to notice, as they were all distracted by the Beast's own musings. "Was that it," Beast wondered. "Was it to protect them?"

"Sure, we all know you're a good person on the inside," Ventus insisted, agreeing with Goofy's earlier assessment, and Sora and Donald both nodded along with him a second later.

"They're right, Master," Cogsworth agreed. "We've all seen how kind you can be."

"Not quite all of us," Xion corrected, drawing everyone's attention to the twins, but mostly to the blonde one of the two, since they she was mainly referring to him.

Roxas did not need any prompting to know that his sister was talking about him, but they were all left a little surprised to see that he was giving the Beast an apologetic look when he finally spoke up. "When I first saw you downstairs in the parlor, I didn't really think you were anything but a monster. Even though other people all insisted that you were a good person inside, I refused to listen and just judged you based off of the one encounter I had with you. I'm not entirely sure why I wasn't listening, even when Belle told me about what you've done for her, but that's still no excuse. Bottom line is…I was the one who was really acting like a beast, not you."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up over this, Roxas," Ventus told his younger look-a-like. "I'm pretty sure your recent attitude was just the result of you using Oblivion too much whenever you were only using one Keyblade. Surely you've noticed that you're a lot less snappish now that you're using Oathkeeper instead, haven't you?"

Now that Ventus had mentioned it, Roxas had noticed that fact, and he figured that this definitely served as proof that he needed to be careful whenever he was not using both of his Keyblades at the same time. It was certainly not the way he had wanted to prove his theory about how the two Keyblades influenced him, but it was still good to know now. Though that did not make Roxas feel any better about this whole thing. "I still should've at least tried to listen instead of starting a fight with my friends," Roxas insisted.

"Hey, you weren't exactly the only one at fault there. I probably should've done a better job at keeping my cool, too," Sora argued, only this time, it was in a much calmer manner than he had been before. "So, are we cool?"

Roxas looked at Sora for a moment before he finally smiled and said, "Yeah. Frosty."

Everyone else was smiling as well when the two boys shook hands to show they had made up, even Beast, until he something Roxas said triggered another memory for him. "Belle! I've mistreated her," Beast gasped in greater despair. "I've mistreated her and been so selfish."

"I don't remember her saying anything about that," Xion recalled. "Do you guys?"

"Nope, not me," Sora replied, with the others giving similar responses right after.

"She'd never tell anyone of my cruelty. She's too good," Beast argued, and unfortunately, none of them were really able to argue his point on that. Even if that was not entirely accurate, Beast did have a point in saying that Belle would not likely tell others if someone she cared about was upsetting her in anyway.

"You see, I'm afraid he judges himself far too harshly," Cogsworth whispered to them.

"You know, if you're really that worried about how Belle feels regarding your recent behavior, then maybe you should just go and talk to her," Roxas suggested. "I mean, if my friends can forgive me for the way I was acting then surely Belle would do the same for you."

"But…" Beast started to protest, but the Keybearers were not going to hear any of it.

"Oh no you don't! If you really are sorry for how you've been acting, then you're more than able to man up and apologize to the pretty lady who was so worried about you, and that you clearly care so much about," Xion ordered, startling Beast a little bit.

"I'd listen to her if I were you. Trust me, my sister's not someone you want to make angry," Roxas advised.

"Don't worry. We'll go with you, if you want," Sora then offered.

That seemed to do the trick, and just like that, the group found themselves leading Beast over to Belle's room. At least they did after Xion stopped to study the rose from before again, and she could not help but ask, "So…what's the deal with this rose, anyway?"

"Nothing you need to worry about. And don't touch it," Beast warned in a low growl that left no room for argument.

Xion immediately raised her hands in good faith, and decided that she would ask Cogsworth and the others about it later. Right now, they had a relationship to mend.

---

Barely halfway to Belle's room, things suddenly took a worrying turn for our heroes. Namely, when they all heard screaming coming from the ballroom. That alone was sure proof that someone was in trouble, but the fact that they all recognized the voice as Belle's made things even more worrying. That did not stop Beast from grumbling a complaint or two under his breath about Belle never doing as he tells her, but he was still bounding ahead of everyone else as they raced to the ballroom in order to try and help the endangered Princess of Heart.

When they came into the ballroom, it was not hard to spot Belle. Not only did her attire make her stick out in the rather extravagant ballroom, and the fact that she was the only person in the ballroom that they could see played a big part in things too, but what really got their attention was the large, spherical Heartless with twisted tentacles and chains around its body that was flying after her. Looking at the Heartless, most of the team first thought that it was a Darkball, but Jiminy was quick to correct that mistake, and told them a much different story. "Careful. That's a Shadow Stalker," the cricket chronicler reported as he read off from his journal. "It can take over various things like the Possessor, only it's a lot harder to force out, and can take over stuff that's much larger. And that's not even the worst of it."

"Dare I ask what is," Ventus offered in query.

"If it feels seriously threatened, or like it's about to be destroyed, it'll release the chains surrounding its body and transform into a much more massive monster known as the Dark Thorn," Jiminy revealed, and he quickly spun his journal around to show everyone a picture of the Heartless in question. They definitely saw more than a few similarities between the Dark Thorn and the Shadow Stalker, but between the two, they had to say that Dark Thorn was much more terrifying in appearance alone. It possessed black skin, and had teal, rose-like thorns wrapping around its body, while both of its wrists and ankles had manacles on them, and while it did have a muscular body and large hands and feet, the limbs were rather thin, but what was especially noticeable were the large orange horns on its head and the massive, orange mane that it possessed.

"Yeah, I vote we defeat this thing before it can turn into that," Xion suggested, and no one disagreed.

It was at that very moment that Ventus noticed Belle had managed to slip out onto the balcony and shut the door behind her, and he took that moment to add a little extra protection by casting the necessary spell to form a battlefield barrier, trapping the Shadow Stalker in the ballroom with them. The Heartless let out a vicious, ear-shattering howl upon seeing it was trapped, and the group immediately readied themselves for battle, knowing that it was going to attack at any time. At that point, Sora could not help but wonder aloud, "What do you think Jiminy meant when he said that this thing could take over something larger than the Possessor can?"

He soon got his answer when the Shadow Stalker dived into the floor, and before anyone knew what was happening, the entire ballroom was transformed from its beautiful, extravagant appearance, and into a much more sinister, twisted version of the room, from the floor, to the columns on either side of the room, and even all the way up to the chandelier. Seeing the change that the Heartless had inflicted on the room, Roxas could only glance to Sora and say, "You had to ask."

A minute later, the Shadow Stalker reappeared before fading into the windows on the far side of the room. Ventus did not need to shout for everyone to move clear; the way that the windows flashed before several energy beams were released from them was clue enough. Thankfully, the Shadow Stalker did not stay in the windows for long, but instead, floated out and up towards the chandelier, which it soon dropped down onto the floor so that it could try swinging it into one of them. Sora did not remain idle long enough for the Heartless to use the ceiling fixture on them, and he immediately rushed forward with his Keyblade at the ready. The minute he got close enough, he used Kingdom Key to force the Shadow Stalker out of the fixture, leaving it seriously disoriented. Ventus and Roxas both rushed in and started hacking away at it with every powerful swing that they could throw out. Donald and Xion were more than happy to blast it with a few spells, leaving Beast, Goofy, and Sora to rush in and help the blonde duo with bashing it over its spherical head.

The Shadow Stalker was eventually able to shake off the team and attempted to take over part of the ballroom again, this time fading into the columns that had been changed into a form similar to sharp tentacles. The Shadow Stalker was quick to use the columns as such, and everyone was forced back as the various support structures tried scratching them apart. Thankfully, they were able to avoid getting hit, and Xion was soon forcing the Shadow Stalker out once again after she had hit several of the columns several times over with her Keyblade. When the Heartless came forward again, Ventus immediately rushed in with Sora at his side, both intent on ending this creature then and there, but just when they were getting in reach of it, the spherical monster suddenly enwrapped itself into a large cocoon of shadows.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Ventus muttered as everyone paused to watch the cocoon, fearing that it would be unwise to attack it. They all ended up scolding themselves for thinking like that afterwards, because as soon as the cocoon exploded open, the Dark Thorn had come crashing down. "And that would be why," Ventus continued aloud, only to end up being slammed into a wall seconds later by the Dark Thorn's vicious claws.

When the blonde master hit the floor again, it was clear that he was unconscious, and that seemed to drive Beast into a very serious rage, because he immediately started tearing into the Dark Thorn with everything he could afterwards. Sora was right behind the big guy, casting spells and whatever special attacks he could use, and as a result, by the time he had reached the Dark Thorn, he was already powered up in his Destiny Blaze Command Style. He was not the only one to use a Command Style though, as Xion was soon following to hit it with Thunderbolt, leaving only Roxas, Goofy, and Donald as the ones to attack it the old fashioned way. Despite all of their best efforts, the Dark Thorn was still able to go pretty strongly, and was moving a little too fast for them to be able to properly keep up.

Looking to rectify their problems, Roxas immediately broke off his assault and ran towards the nearest wall. He then leapt up towards and off of said wall as hard as he could, putting him well within reach of the chandelier, and he did not hesitate to grab onto it. "Look out below," Roxas called out, which served as all the warning the others had to get clear before the chandelier dropped down onto the Dark Thorn, with Roxas riding it the whole way down. The dual Keyblade wielder was not done yet though, as he immediately spun himself around the chain holding the chandelier to the ceiling, sending the fixture spinning around the room with the Dark Thorn getting thrown about as it did. Getting off before he made himself dizzy, Roxas immediately whipped out both of his Keyblades and charged while shouting, "Now! Hit it while it's dazed!"

"You've got it, Roxas," Goofy cheered as he and the others came up behind him. They all hit the Dark Thorn with everything they could, and between Beast's amazing strength and claws, Donald's staff and magic, Goofy's shield, and the other three's Keyblades and powers, the Dark Thorn was clearly being forced into a corner. Sadly, like any animal, Heartless only become more dangerous when they're cornered, and the Dark Thorn soon proved that after it suddenly turned invisible.

A minute later, everyone was being bashed or thrown across the room, with barely any time to react. By the time that the Dark Thorn had become visible again, Donald was barely supporting Goofy, while Xion was taking cover behind one of the columns as she tried to use healing magic on both herself and whatever others were within her reach. Sora was just about to cast a spell or two so that he could activate Rhythm Mixer, but the Dark Thorn must have realized what he was planning, because it immediately began focusing all of its attention on Sora. The wielder of Kingdom Key was then forced to use whatever extra power Destiny Blaze provided him to stay ahead of the vicious Heartless, and while this did serve to keep it from attacking the others, it also left Sora with little to no openings with which he could fight back.

Seeing this, Roxas was soon growling in frustration, hating that his friends were getting torn apart like this, but he soon calmed down when Beast came over and placed one of his massive paws on his shoulder. "Easy, Roxas," the cursed prince advised. "Sora's giving us a chance, and that Heartless is about to learn what happens when you cross not one, but two beasts."

Roxas immediately smirked when he heard that, and without either of them realizing it, an aura of rose-red light began to surround them both, along with Roxas's Keyblades, and that same aura flared brilliantly when they both let out mighty roars that not only echoed throughout the castle, but also came with a powerful sonic shockwave that actually knocked the Dark Thorn off of its feet and away from Sora. The Keyblade warrior was sincerely thankful for that, mainly because his Command Style's power just died out, but he was also a little stunned by what he was seeing happen to his two friends. "Whoa! That's almost just like what happened with Mulan and Xion when we fought Shan-Yu," Sora whispered.

Ventus had actually started coming around at that point, and he was soon met with the same thing that Sora was seeing, much to his astonishment. "First Xion with Mulan, and now Roxas with Beast? How is it possible for them to be using such advanced powers before they've even learned the basic ones?"

There was not any time to really think on the matter, because Beast and Roxas were already charging in to attack once again, still shining with the aura of the Command Link. Beast was the first to strike, using a great deal of his impressive strength to pounce and tear into the Dark Thorn, with Roxas following up soon after by lunging at the Heartless and slash it several times over using both of his Keyblades. They continued their combination for several minutes, until they finally came to stand back-to-back in front of the Dark Thorn, and after sharing a look between each other, the two let loose a powerful, roaring howl that was enhanced by powerful magic to create several shockwaves, and inflicting quite a severe amount of injury to the Dark Thorn. When their final howl of power came to an end, the Dark Thorn staggered a little, and let out one final, defiant roar before it finally broke apart into dust, releasing a crystal heart into the air as the last traces vanished, and the ballroom returned to its normal state.

"Way to go you guys! You did it," Sora cheered as he rushed over with everyone else, Ventus lingering a little closer to the back as he thought over what had just happened at the end of the fight.

"Yeah, you were great," Xion praised with a smile.

"Hey, what do you expect from a couple of beasts," Roxas questioned with a joking tone, earning a smile from Beast when he did.

"Either way, it looks like everything's okay now," Donald declared.

"So you think," the familiar voice interrupted, making everyone turn their attention back towards the door into the ballroom, and they all quickly caught sight of the Organization member from before.

"Xaldin," Beast growled, preparing to charge the Nobody the minute he saw him.

"So, the Whirlwind Lancer himself makes an appearance," Roxas growled.

"Not too surprising, given that he's so in love with this world," Xion stated as she glared at Number III just as fiercely.

"Please, child. You know better than that. As Nobodies, we don't have hearts to feel. Though I must still ask that you not insult me. I have told you that love is a foolish delusion; nothing more than the stuff of poetry, not practicality," Xaldin chided. That seemed to egg the Beast into trying to attack him, but Xaldin did not even flinch. Instead, he simply opened another Dark Corridor, and bade, "Farewell."

Just as quickly as he came, Xaldin left, and while he was glad that the intruder was gone, Beast was still left with a serious, unanswered question or two. "What does he want here?"

"He's with a group called Organization XIII. The same group that Roxas and I used to be part of and it's entirely made up of very dangerous beings," Xion explained.

"Ever heard of the Nobodies," Sora asked. When he got a negative growl in response, he went on to explain what he had learned from the others. "When a strong-hearted person turns into a Heartless, a Nobody's created, too, and especially powerful Nobodies can retain their human shape and memories, at least in most cases."

"And then you've got odd cases like me and Xion," Roxas added. "We were Nobodies once, but we don't look like the people we had been before they fell to darkness, and we didn't retain any memories of being human. It's only thanks to Ven, and to some extent, Sora that we were able to learn the truth about the Organization and leave, but at the price of all our memories from our time with the Organization."

"You seem to remember a fair deal about Xaldin, though," Beast noted.

"Not everything, but the memories are slowly coming back to us," Roxas clarified.

"More importantly, the members of the Organization have control over all other types of Nobodies," Ventus added.

"That's right. They musta been tryin' to turn the Beast into a Heartless. That way, they could get that Nobody of his and have control over it," Goofy realized.

"I guess that's what Xaldin was trying to set into motion all those times he was here. Then again, despite what he says, I know for a fact that Xaldin has a serious dislike of anything resembling love, at best," Roxas recalled. He then paused before amending, "Or at least, I can remember that about him now."

"You're all right," Belle cheered, and the group all turned to see that she had finally come back in from the balcony.

Beast was definitely pleased to see Belle was safe, and he immediately bounded over to her, only to hesitate a little when he finally reached her. He was obviously still a bit worried about what Belle would say or how she would react, and from the expression on her face, she was already pretty upset with him. When he tried to shy away though, he caught a glimpse of Roxas's face, and saw that the boy was still looking at him with a calm expression as he nodded in encouragement. If that boy was brave enough to give him a chance despite his misgivings, then the Beast could not run away now. Although, this was much harder if you asked him.

"Belle…I-I'm sorry," Beast stuttered, doing his best to meet her gaze so that she would see how honest he was being. "I…wasn't myself. I hope I haven't done anything to hurt you. Forgive me."

Belle just looked at him for a moment before she finally grinned at him happily, bringing a smile to Beast's face when she did, and said, "I know you weren't yourself. You don't have to apologize." She then frowned a little as her tone turned scolding. "But I had hoped…that you might have changed a little bit. I wish you could start trusting me."

Beast had the decency to hang his head in remorse upon hearing that, though it was mostly because he knew she was right about that. Seeing that these two were obviously still going to be arguing a little made the team feel a little sad for them, but others were sad for different reasons. "Oh, I am afraid time is running short," Lumière groaned, letting the Keybearers and their friends know that he and the other servants had just arrived.

"What do you mean," Sora asked.

"Remember the rose?"

"It's kinda hard to forget something like that," Xion pointed out.

"You see, if the master can learn to love, and earn love in return, before the last petal falls," Cogsworth explained.

"The spell will be broken," Lumière finished.

"Really? You think he's gonna make it," Sora asked in a rare moment of skepticism.

"We think so," Mrs. Potts nodded.

"Yep, I think you're right," Goofy agreed.

"I HOPE you're right," Sora worried.

"Hey, I thought you were supposed to be a little more optimistic than that, Sora," Roxas teased. "They'll make it. Just you watch."

Not even a second after Roxas had spoken, Oathkeeper had jumped into his hand, with everyone else's Keyblades doing the same soon after. Sharing a look with each other, the group all nodded to show they were thinking the same thing, and Roxas immediately stepped forward, holding his light Keyblade out before him in both hands. The group then watched as the tip of Roxas's Keyblade glowed brightly, while the image of the x-shaped emblem he wore materialized around him, glowing brilliantly as a familiar energy surged out from the image's outline. Much like many times before, once the surge passed, Roxas found himself in the strange sky, and he quickly spotted the Beast's rose up in the air before said flower shot out a beam that dispersed into a Keyhole high above it. Without even thinking, Roxas leapt back a short distance, spun his Keyblade around, and then aimed his Keyblade at the Keyhole that had appeared, allowing a beam of light to be fired off from its tip the minute he had lined it up with the Keyhole. When the beam connected with the Keyhole, a faint ringing sound reached his ears, over the sound of something being unlocked, just as his surroundings returned to normal.

"What happened," Beast questioned as he and Belle came over.

"The gate is open," Donald declared, making it clear for their friends in this castle as to what that meant for the team now.

"Do you have to go," Belle asked, sad to see that her friends were leaving so soon.

"Afraid so. We're still needed out there, but we'll try and come back and visit," Ventus promised.

"Yeah, count on it," Sora guaranteed.

"Now, no more arguin', okay," Goofy teased, making both Belle and Beast turn bashful, though more so in the case of the Beast than Belle.

Just before anyone could give the team some well-wishes of farewell, a low growl suddenly echoed throughout the ballroom. Naturally, everyone looked towards the Beast, but he immediately shook his head to silently say that it was not him. That was when Roxas turned to Xion and noticed that she was trying to bury her face in her scarf, and he could not help but smirk as it all came together. "Sis, was that your stomach?"

Xion gave up her attempts to hide her embarrassment, allowing everyone to see her blushing face as she quickly explained, "Hey, I didn't get to eat all that much before training today, and fighting works up an appetite."

"Oh now, goodness me! We can't have you all leaving on empty stomachs," Mrs. Potts declared.

"No we can't," Beast agreed, apparently having realized what his servants were already planning. "Please, join us for dinner before you leave."

"That's really not necessary," Ventus tried to insist.

"We wouldn't want to impose," Sora added.

"Oh no, of course not, Monsieurs. You are our guests, and we always treat our guests with the utmost care," Lumière reassured them.

Before anyone knew it, the Keybearers, Goofy, and Donald were all being shown into the dining room, and at that point, they had all pretty resigned themselves to the fact that this was going to happen. Beast and his servants did have a point in saying that they should not leave on an empty stomach, and saving the worlds was hungry work.

---

AN: Okay, yeah. This chapter is really long, and it covers everything that happened at Beast's Castle. I know that probably makes it a little too long for some people's liking, but I felt that after being away from this story for so long, and after going so long without updating any of my stories, you guys deserved something this big, so...here we are.

Now, obviously, I didn't include everything that happened at the castle, but I did make it a point to get all the most important stuff in there. I mean, did you really think I was going to detail the mini-game of lowering the lanterns and all that stuff for the shortcut? There really wasn't that much I could to make it more interesting without making this chapter infinitely too long. Not only that, but we also got a fair bit of development for the characters, including whether or not Roxas's Keyblades would have some side-effect on him if he used one more over the other when only using one Keyblade. I think the reason for why we saw more of Oblivion is self-explanatory, as the fact that it has more strength than Oathkeeper is in fact something that's drawn from the games.

Another thing I want to address is the matter of Sora learning about water magic. Yes, that is a thing in KH3, and part of me kinda had to wonder why we never saw a water spell until that game (at least as far as I know). This was basically my way of having Ven explain it away to Sora and the others, and I also wanted to bring in some of the KH3 spells a littler earlier if possible. Water, Waterra, and Waterga being the easiest was only natural, and it also has the added benefit of giving us a funny moment.

One final thing I want to mention was that I planned to have a little performance of "Be Our Guest" at the end of the chapter here, but by this point, the chapter had gotten so long, that I just felt like it would be better to end it where I did. Maybe I'll go back and add it in later on, if you guys want me too, but for now, I think that's going to be something we'll be seeing in the Keyblades Unleashed Series Extras.

Ventus: I feel like we should've gotten another journal/diary entry this chapter.

AN: Maybe, but I couldn't really think of anything to say in such a thing this time, and really, did we need to make this any longer than it already is? Well, next chapter's probably going to be a little bit shorter, but certainly a bit more exciting.

Kairi: [waving a hand in front of Aqua's face in an attempt to break her out of her earlier induced daydream] And why's that?

AN: The best hint your getting comes from moving Onto the Preview!...

As the team's journey continues onwards, another journey is just about to begin. Kairi is confronted by Axel, and as a result, she and her protector are soon flung across the worlds, all the way to Twilight Town. Though unexpected, it is not unwelcome, as it does allow the girls to step in and lend a hand against a recent problem that the town finds itself in the midst of. Can the girls handle themselves against these strange opponents? Meanwhile, Ven's group is on its way to another new world, and this one is promising to be like none any of them had ever experienced before, while also bringing them to another reunion. Many paths are beginning to open up, next time.

Yeah, I told you we would be seeing the girls again a little sooner than we did in the canon story line. And as for what the next world will be...well, I'd wager that's gonna be quite the surprise that you will all enjoy very much when we get there. Until then...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!