And so we return to the angsty goodness that is the Beast. Let's watch…

Beast "Who asked you about my angst?"

Terrific… Terrific.

Cogsworth: "Master, please! Compose yourse-"

SHUT UP! That was the most annoying part of the series.

Cogsworth: "What!"

I don't own anything, now hurry and start reading before he starts talking again!

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Chapter 82: The Curse Renewed

The Beast stared at his newly regrown claws in a mixture of shock and horror. He raised them to his face, and felt his shaggy fur, hoping beyond hope that he was hallucinating, that he hadn't really become a beast again.

He soon discovered that no, he was not hallucinating, and yes, he had become a beast again.

His eyes clamped shut, and he began to tremble with anger. He let a low growl escape his throat, before finally releasing it as a deafening roar into the night sky, ripping what was left of his suit to shreds.

"What did you do to me!" He shouted at the Horned King, his eyes widened when he saw Xaldin standing behind the sorcerer. "You!"

"Yes me, Beast." Xaldin replied, arms crossed in front of him, smiling. "How have you been?"

"What did you do?" Sora asked, repeating the Beast's unanswered question.

"I simply reactivated his curse." The Horned King replied. "It's quite a fascinating spell that was placed upon him, I must say. This enchantress was undoubtedly brilliant."

"Lift it." Sora pointed the Keyblade directly at him. "Now."

"The curse can only be lifted one way, I'm afraid." But he didn't have an ounce of regret in his voice. In fact, he sounded very proud of himself. "You'll have to destroy Xaldin, here. The curse is bound to his body."

"With pleasure!" Beast rushed toward them with a roar, running on all fours, and covering the distance between them in not even five seconds.

Unfortunately, neither of them were there by the time that the Beast reached the correct spot. What was there was a massive Heartless.

The Cursed Thorn was a huge creature with four 'legs.' It was roughly lizard-shaped, and stood on all fours. Its body looked to be composed of thick, constantly slithering black and green-striped vines. Some of the vines stretched from the main body to form four thick appendages, and a long tail. The rear legs were thicker, and more powerful. It had four huge, sharp claws for each limb that looked like they were made of a dirty, blood red wood. It had long, sharp horns and teeth that looked the same way. It had large, yellow, glowing eyes. It was at least fifty feet tall when on all fours.

The Heartless lifted one clawed 'hand', and smacked Beast away like a rag doll. He landed roughly on his back about fifty feet away by the front doors.

It uttered a soft, menacing hissing noise, and began to advance on Sora. He backed away slowly, searching its body for some kind of weak point. When he found none, he did what he always did: Attacked whatever part of it he could reach.

He ran toward it with his blade held high, and struck at its front leg. A few of the vines that seemed to make up its whole body fell away, hitting the ground with disgusting wet noises, before they faded away.

Wait, that's too easy...

The severed vines regrew, growing to their original length, and restoring themselves. The Cursed Thorn lifted its claw, sending Sora flying across the courtyard to land painfully by the winded Beast.

Beast got up first, and lifted Sora easily up by the arm. "This time, we'll do it together."

"I was about to say that."

They ran (together) toward the giant Heartless, but discovered that this wasn't going to make much of a difference anyway. The Cursed Thorn plunged one of its claws into the ground, breaking through the stone pathway.

There was a faint rumbling noise, and then several of its vines sprouted from the ground all around them, breaking through the dirt and stone to reach out and grab them. One wrapped around the Beast's ankle, tripping him. It was soon accompanied by a second, which wrapped around his opposite wrist.

Before a third one could fully wrap around his neck, Sora brought his blade down like an axe, cutting it off. He did it again with the one around his ankle, before one coiled around his waist, lifting the Keybearer into the air.

Beast managed to rip free of the vine holding his wrist, and got back to his feet. Hardly believing what he was doing, he grabbed the vine holding Sora, and bit down into it as hard as he could.

The vine vanished, and Sora fell into Beast's waiting arms. He set him back down on his feet, and ran toward the Heartless. Sora followed after him, and shot a ball of flame from the tip of his blade into the Cursed Thorn's face. It hit it dead on, exploding. The flames licked away at its constantly moving face.

It finally showed a sign of pain when it let out a shrieking noise. Encouraged by this, Sora fired another shot at its leg, as the Beast ripped at the vines that composed it. The fire struck its foreleg, but this time with less effect. The Heartless lifted its leg in an attempt to knock Beast away, but he was prepared this time, and grabbed hold of the vines, crawling up its leg and onto it's back.

Beast dug his claws into what appeared to be the base of its neck, ripping and tearing at the vines there fiercely. The Heartless shrieked again, and tried to shake it off. When it was unsuccessful, its long tail unraveled into what appeared to be hundreds of individual vines.

They stretched toward the Beast, and wrapped all around him. He tried to fight them off, but there were simply too many wrapping around every part of his body. Then, they began to squeeze.

And they continued to tighten against his body until he felt that he'd surely be cut to pieces.

Suddenly, the pressure was released, as Sora tossed his Keyblade with one extremely hard throw, cutting through the vines with only limited difficulty. He climbed onto its back the same way Beast had, roughly embedding his blade into its neck.

It shrieked again, and reared its back. It was able to throw the two of them off, but they were still able to land on their feet. The Cursed Thorn turned its head at them, and opened its gaping mouth wide. From deep down in what should have been the throat on an animal, still more vines came. These were oozing Dark smoke.

Instead of slowly creeping toward them like the other vines had done, these shot directly at them, closing the distance between them and it's gaping maw in about two seconds.

Beast leapt out of their path, but apparently he wasn't the intended target. Every vine went shooting toward Sora.

He wasn't prepared for it, and they constricted around him like so many boa constrictors. But it seemed that the Cursed Thorn wouldn't be satisfied with merely crushing him. The vines began to pull him back toward its mouth.

Sora thrashed around in its grip, the first traces of panic beginning to seep into him. But the vines must have been as tough as steel cables, and he wasn't budging at all. He thought quickly, and realized that he didn't know how to get out of its clutches.

The Cursed Thorn pulled him even closer, until he was in between its giant jaws. He braced himself for what he was sure would be extreme pain, when he felt something. He wasn't exactly sure how to describe it, but it was as if there was something inside of him that wasn't there before.

Like something had just entered his heart.

It was a strange feeling, but it wasn't by any means an uncomfortable one. Now his mind's eye was filled with a new image: a memory that wasn't his.

He could see that he was hovering directly over a giant whirlpool in a stormy ocean. There was one arm closed around her neck, and something pointy against his temple. He heard a voice that he recognized as Xigbar's say, "You're coming with me..."

"Am I?"

He had said it aloud just as he heard Kairi's voice saying the same thing in his mind. His body began to shine silver, even through the vines holding him, which were now starting to sizzle. The vines stopped, and immediately started to draw away from him, as if the Heartless knew what was about to happen. "Purifying Pulse!"

Too late, Light exploded from Sora, radiating out in all directions. It struck the insides of the Heartless' mouth, tearing through the countless dark vines that composed it. And it didn't stop there, blasting completely through its head.

It uttered one final shriek of pain. Its knees buckled, and its headless body fell forward. The vines that were composing it writhed wildly, before its remains finally faded away into Darkness.

Sora landed easily on the ground, and dismissed his Keyblade. Beast got to his feet, clutching his shoulder in pain, and Sora could see stream of dark fluid seeping from underneath his hand.

The Keybearer walked up to him. "Let me help." He removed his hand from his shoulder, and observed the fairly deep cut there that was slowly oozing blood. He had no idea when Beast had sustained this injury.

But, he still retained some of his old pride. "It's nothing."

"Yeah, right." Sora held up his hand, which was now enveloped with the familiar, soothing green light of curing magic. "Curaga."

The light flowed into the cut, curing it in an amazingly short time.

"Thank you." Beast responded, but his thoughts were obviously elsewhere. He looked at his paw for a moment, an expression of utmost sadness on his face. He sighed, and put it down. "It's happened again. It's happened, and this time it's permanent."

"Don't talk like that." Sora was feeling a sense of déjà vu. The last time Beast had been like this, he had had to give him a pep talk to get him back on his feet. "It isn't permanent. You heard the Horned King, we just have to get Xaldin."

"And how do you know he wasn't lying?"

"Because I know how he thinks now. He likes games. That means that he wasn't lying, and that he and Xaldin are still around here."

"Perhaps." He looked a little reassured, but his voice didn't show it.

The front doors opened, and the rest of their group rushed out into the ravaged courtyard. Belle was in the lead. Beast immediately looked away, as if that would prevent her from seeing his new condition.

Of course, it didn't work. Belle looked at him with a shocked expression. She approached him slowly, mouth agape. "Adam?"

Beast lowered his head, and turned completely around, still trying to hide his face from her view. But it was completely obvious what had happened to him. He seemed to have forgotten that his hairy upper body was bare.

Belle walked toward him, and placed one gloved hand on his back. He flinched away from her gentle touch, as if it burned him. But Belle kept her hand there for a few seconds in silence. Finally, she said, "Turn around."

Reluctantly, it seemed, Beast complied. He turned to face her, but refused to look directly into her eyes. He seemed to look everywhere else; Sora's shoes, the scar on Axel's forehead, a half-destroyed cherub lying on the ground, Bariss's armlet, and back to Sora's shoes again.

Belle sighed, and took his large face in both hands, raising it to where his eyes were level with hers. She looked into his eyes, and said without a trace of doubt, "This doesn't change anything."

Sora glanced at Riku, who shrugged. No one was entirely sure what this meant, and finally, Sora asked the question.

"Change what?"

Belle and Beast were silent for a moment, but then Belle answered (without looking away from Beast), "We're getting married."

"Ouch..." Roxas muttered into Sora's head.

Hush.

"...Um... Congratulations?" Nehrut said, immediately putting his foot in his mouth.

"Smooth." Axel said, hitting him in the back of the head.

Beast closed his eyes and bowed his head as if in mourning. "Yes." Then he opened his eyes again. "But Belle. I can't let you go through with it. Not with me like this."

"I said it doesn't change anything."

"Belle,"

"It doesn't change anything."

He looked at her closely, as if skeptic. Belle sighed in frustration, and leaned in. To Beast's great surprise, she kissed him right on his fur-covered lips.

"Adam, if that's not love, I don't know what is." Mickey commented.

When Belle removed her lips from the Beast's, she smiled. "Now, what have we got to do to get you right again?"

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Well… There it is. I'm not totally sure how much I like this chapter, but I had fun with the boss fight.

Please review!