[A/N: To be honest I haven't been looking forward to this chapter since I started this story. This come as a surprise, but Beauty and the Beast is far from my favorite Disney movie. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I just don't care for it that much. That being said I hope I did the characters and setting justice. Enjoy the chapter!]

They landed softly on the ground this time instead of crashing. Juliet hoped the glider and looked around only seeing a dank dark forest around them; the moon was shining above them. She pulled the map out of her pocket and unfolded it. "Looks like we're in Beast's Castle. That's funny I don't see a castle anywhere around."

Akio walked up beside Juliet and peered through the thick forest not seeing anything besides trees. "Well, we could go look around the forest. Maybe there will be a castle if we go look for one."

Clementine was still feeling a bit on edge from the last time she'd seen Erik and wasn't her usual self. This was something that Juliet and Akio hadn't noticed yet.

Juliet was looking further into the forest when a thought came to her. "Maybe we could split up like what we did last time."

"That's great you go on ahead and I'll take Akio with me." Clementine didn't wait for an answer and grabbed Akio by the arm.

"Um….alright then." Juliet turned and started walking further into the forest. As she continued through the thick trees Juliet could hear the distinct howl of wolves. "If its not one thing it's another. And I don't have any back up with me now." Her foot sank down into the snow as she continued to plod her way through.

After a few more hours of walking Juliet found herself at a pair of giant front gates. "Well there's the castle. I wonder if anyone's there." She grabbed onto the gates and shook them hearing the chain around them rattle. "Looks like I'm going to have to climb up them." Grabbing onto one of the bars on the gate Juliet braced herself by putting her foot on the chains and lifting herself up.

Once she was on the top of the gates Juliet climbed down a bit before letting go and falling the rest of the way down to the ground. She looked up to see a dark foreboding castle looming over her. "Let's see if the Beast is home."

By this time Akio and Clementine were on the outskirts of the forest. Akio looked over at Clementine with a questioning look on his face. "Why did you want to be alone with me?"

Clementine swallowed hard wondering if she should tell him. "Do you remember when I told you that I saw Erik in the Melodic Forest?"

"Yes."

"Well, he told me some things…."

"Yes, I know you told me about this, but you didn't say what he'd said."

She was wringing her hands nervously as if she thought that Erik could hear her. "I told him how Juliet felt about him and he told me that she's just a means to an end for him."

Akio had been suspicious of Erik ever since he'd first seen him and now he knew his suspicious had been right. "Well, where you going to tell Juliet about this?"

"How can I? It would break her heart."

"That's true. How exactly she does she feel about him? Do you know?"

Clementine bit her lip and looked down. "I don't think you want to know that."

"Just tell me. I can handle it."

"I think she's in love with him." She saw the confused look on Akio's face go to one of disappointment. "I knew you wouldn't want to know." Clementine tried to ignore the hurt look on Akio's face. "Don't worry I'm sure it's nothing more than a school girl crush. She'll get over him."

"Yeah she'll get over him as soon as she finds out he's evil." With that Akio turned to start walking back in the direction they'd come from when he felt Clementine grab the back of his shirt. "What are you doing? Someone has to tell her about this."

"And it's not going to be you. I'll tell her….just not right now."

They continued to walk through the forest in silence now until they came to the entrance of a village. Clementine took a few steps forward where they saw a small house. "Wonder who lives there. Probably not the beast since he apparently lives in a castle."

Akio came up behind Clementine and looked over at the house. "Do you want to risk it?"

"There's nothing we could lose."

Juliet had come to the front doors of the castle and knocked. She didn't hear an answer and beat on the door again. "Is anybody home? I have a question for you."

The door creaked open revealing a long pale beam of light. Hesitantly, she peeked through the door and only saw darkness. "I wonder if it's safe." She continued to stare into the darkness before pushing the door open and walking through. As she continued to walk through the front entry of the castle Juliet heard a shuffling snuffling sound coming towards her. Just to be on the safe side she summoned her Keyblade and crept a bit closer. "Who's there?"

Coming out of the darkness was a footstool that appeared to be wagging its tail. It ran in a circle in front of Juliet before putting its tail in the air and lowering its 'head'.

Just in case there was something else lurking in the dark Juliet kept her Keyblade at her hip. "It's a dog….or a footstool? Can't really tell." She held her hand out to the footstool, but instead of sniffing it the footstool ran off back into the darkness. "Come back I have a question." Juliet followed the footstool into the darkness, but tripped and fell on her face.

"Oh sorry about that."

Juliet sat up looking around to see where the voice had come from. "Who's there?" She had her Keyblade pointed in the direction the voice had come from.

"I'm down here silly."

Looking down Juliet saw a small tea cup with a chip in its rim. "A talking tea cup? I wonder is this world like Wonderland?"

"Wonderland? I don't know where that is, but now you're in the Master's castle."

Before Juliet could respond she heard another voice this one sounded a bit more motherly.

"Chip, Chip where are you?" Coming clinking out of the darkness was a teapot with a kind look on her face. "Oh, who is this? How did you get in the castle, love?"

"The door opened and I came in." Juliet sat down on the floor and watched the teacup hop over to the teapot. She looked down at the teacup. "Is your name Chip? I'm Juliet."

Chip turned back to Juliet and smiled at her. "Yep, that's my name. This is my Momma." Chip tilted his head in the direction of the teapot.

"Call me Mrs. Potts, dear. Oh….oh dear how are we going to explain this to the others?"

"What others?" Juliet looked over the top of Mrs. Potts and Chip, but didn't see anything. "Are there others in this castle?"

Mrs. Potts was looking around a bit nervously. "Oh yes, there's Cogsworth, Lumiere, Fifi, and many others. And the Master of course, but I don't think he'd take too kindly to you being in his castle without an invitation."

Almost as soon as these words left Mrs. Potts's mouth there was more shuffling noses and coming out of the darkness was a candelabra, a clock, and a feather duster. Mrs. Potts turned around to face them and gestured for them to come forward. "Juliet, this Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Fifi."

Cogsworth, the clock came forward first. "Who is this? How did you get in here?"

Lumiere, the candelabra came forward next with Fifi the feather duster trailing behind him. "Don't be too hasty now Cogsworth. Maybe she's the one who can break the spell."

Juliet looked quiet confused. "Spell? Oh no, I don't know anything about breaking spells."

Cogsworth looked a bit more interested in this and took a few steps towards Juliet. "Is that what you're saying is that she's here to break the spell?"

"No, that's not what they're saying. That's not what I'm saying actually. I just have a question that maybe you can answer."

Lumiere looked up at Juliet and beckoned for her to lean closer. "What kind of questions do you have?"

By this time Akio and Clementine had come up the house and were staring at the door. Clementine looked over at Akio. "So, aren't you going to knock?"

"Why do I have to knock?"

"Because I'm older then you and I'm telling you to knock."

Akio grumbled as he knocked his fist against the door. The door cracked open to reveal a tall young woman with long brown hair wearing a blue and white dress.

The woman looked a bit surprised. "Visitors? I wasn't expecting anyone so early in the morning."

Akio and Clementine looked between each other half expecting to get the door shut their faces.

The woman smiled at them and opened the door a little wider. "Well, aren't you going to come in?"

As they walked through the doorway Akio looked over at Clementine and tweaked her shirt sleeve. "Do you have a warm feeling in your chest?"

"I do? What's it mean?"

Akio looked back at the woman who was shutting the door. "That means she's one of the seven pure lights that we've been looking for this whole time."

"So that's three we've found, right?"

"Yep, that's three." Akio turned back to the woman who was now walking towards them. "Excuse me Miss what's your name?"

She looked back at them in confusion. "My name? It's Belle. Why do you ask?"

Clementine was quick to respond. "We would just like to know the name of our gracious host."

Belle smiled although she looked a bit shy. "Since we're doing introductions what are your names?"

"I'm Clementine and this Akio. We have another friend named Juliet, but she's somewhere else in this world right now."

She reached over to a bookshelf and pulled a book from it before sitting down on a chair. "It's nice to meet you Clementine and Akio. I'm afraid that my home isn't that big, but I've lived here all my life so feel free to stay as long as you like."

Akio looked over at Clementine who was peering curiously at Belle who was now engrossed in her book. "Do you think we should go find Juliet and tell her what we found?"

"No, let's wait a little while longer. Maybe Belle could show us around this world a little."

While in the castle Juliet heard the soft noise of feet and looked back to make sure that her hosts were occupied with leading the way before she slipped off. She went through another doorway until she came into a large empty room. "Erik, I thought it was you."

Erik cursed upon hearing his name and thought about giving her the slip, but thought better of it. "Juliet, how have you been?"

"Good….good this is another world where one of the seven pure lights is so I've been looking for them, but there hasn't been any sign in this castle so I'm thinking about going somewhere else." She had a slightly worried look on her face. "Actually, do you think I could ask you something?"

Erik turned to face her; his face blank. "You can ask, but I'm not sure if I can tell you what you want to hear."

"Clementine and Akio too….they say I can't trust you. Why would they say something like that?"

His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. So the pig squealed did she? "What do you think? Do you think you can trust me?" He started walking towards her.

Juliet didn't try to back away although she was feeling a bit threatened; her gaze unable to meet his. "I want to trust you I really do. I like you so I want to trust you, but now I'm not sure."

Erik continued to walk towards Juliet until the gap between them was miniscule; his robes brushing against her. "But do you still trust me? I can't think of anything I could have done to make you not trust me."

"That's true. So you don't know anything besides what you've told me about Puck and Antonia or the wraiths?"

"Yes."

"And that's the truth?"

"Yes, that's the truth. I know very little about them so if you're thinking I could tell you I'm afraid you'll be disappointed."

Juliet sighed in relief and threw her arms around Erik's waist. "I knew I could trust you. You've been helping me from the start. I knew you were good."

Erik put his hands on Juliet's shoulders and tried to push her away. "Its more like you've been helping me. Now, could you let go of me? This is really quiet uncomfortable." He relaxed as he felt her arms leave him. "As much as I hate to disappoint a lady I'm afraid I must be going now."

"Wait a minute. Just give me a few more minutes." She almost had a dreamy look on her face as she stared at him. "When I was little and my home world got attacked there was this boy who came out of nowhere. He saved me and I didn't even learn his name. This is going to sound crazy, but you remind me of him so much. After he got me into Traverse Town I waited for him for years. I always went back to the spot where I'd last seen him and would wait for hours sometimes."

He blinked, but his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I don't understand. How could you have known him well enough for me to remind you of him if he just came out of nowhere?"

"Your face looks like his that's all."

"Is that all?" He saw her nod. "Well then I guess we're not so similar after all. For all you know this boy could have been awful."

"I guess that's true." Juliet looked a little downcast. "I guess you can go now if you want to. That's all I wanted to say." She watched him go and felt a little defeated. "How stupid can you get? It's not like he was actually that boy. I shouldn't have even told him. He probably thinks I'm some silly dope now." She sighed and started to walk back out of the room to look for Mrs. Potts and rest of them again.

Back in the village Belle had set her book aside. "Would you two be interested in coming into town with me? I need to pick up a new book."

Akio got up first. "Sure we'll go with you."

As she walked to the door Belle hesitated for a moment. "Oh, before we go I should warn you first. There's a man in town who likes me very much and he can get a little grabby."

Clementine had gotten up after Akio. "What's his name?"

"Gaston and he has this little flunky named LeFou. I'd try to avoid them both if I were you."

Once they were out of the house Akio and Clementine followed Belle through the streets of the village until they arrived in the square.

Coming out of the forest was a tall muscular man with long black hair that was tied in a ponytail wearing a red shirt. Following him was a short buck toothed man who was holding a handful of dead birds.

"You didn't miss a shot Gaston you're the greatest hunter in the whole world."

"I know."

"No beast stands a chance against you and no girl for that matter." He was chuckling.

"It's true LaFou and I've got my eyes set on that one." Gaston pointed over at Belle. "Who are they?" He was looking over at Akio and Clementine and started walking towards them; LaFou following close behind.

Clementine was the first to notice that Gaston and LaFou were coming towards them and tapped Belle on the shoulder. "Is that them?"

Belle looked over and grimaced. "Yes, the tall one with the gun is Gaston and the shorter one is LaFou."

Looking over at Gaston and LaFou, Akio didn't look too impressed. "So, Gaston wants to marry you?"

"Yes."

"Well why don't we cause a distraction and you can go to the bookstore without having to worry about them."

Belle smiled over at Akio and nodded. "That would be very nice. It's almost every day that Gaston is trying to convince me to marry him." She didn't' give Gaston even a parting glance before disappearing down another street.

Gaston saw that Belle had gone away and started to walk after her when Akio and Clementine stood in front of him. "Get out of my way."

Clementine only took a step forward so that she blocked Belle from view. "Why don't you just leave Belle alone? She's not interested in you so just go away."

There was a scowl on Gaston's face. "Who do you think you are telling me I can't talk to Belle? Silly woman…." He tried to walk around Clementine when Akio stepped forward. "Come on boy don't you know what its like to have a special lady in your life? Don't you want to spend every minute you can with her?"

Akio blushed and quickly brushed it off. "No I wouldn't know what that's like, but that's not the point. You need to leave Belle alone."

Gaston tried again to get around them when a small fireball was shot at his feet. "What was that?"

"You need to go away." Clementine readied another small fireball and aimed it at Gaston's feet. "If you don't go away I'll do it again."

The scowl on Gaston's face got bigger and he aimed his gun at Clementine's face. "If you don't get out of the way I'm going to have to do something about it." Cowering behind Gaston was LaFou. When he didn't see them move fired the gun at Clementine only to have the bullet bounce off of Akio's disk.

"You want to try that again?" Akio caught the disk as it flew back to him. "Or do you want to leave Belle alone?"

Not to be deterred Gaston aimed the gun this time at Akio and was about to pull the trigger when Clementine threw the second fireball at him; this time it was aimed at his hands. He didn't drop the gun, but took a step back a bit closer to LaFou who had crouched down behind him with his hands over his head.

Clementine threw a blizzard spell at him this time nearly knocking the gun from his hands.

Gaston took another step back to avoid both the blizzard spell and the disk which came dangerously close to his head. This time when he took the step back he tripped over LaFou's crouching form and fell backwards into a puddle of mud. He threw the gun aside and got up his face contorted in rage as he stood up clothes spattered with mud. "This isn't the last you've seen of me." He pointed a finger at Clementine and Akio before grabbing LaFou by the back of his jacket and pulling him away.

Akio looked back at Clementine and looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. "That wasn't so hard. I guess Gaston is kind of a pushover. You think we should go look or Juliet now?"

By the time they were back in the woods there was the sound of howling wolves again. Clementine was feeling a bit nervous and fell back behind Akio. "Do you think the wolves could get us?"

"Don't worry Clementine I won't let the wolves get you."

"Juliet's got herself a good catch if she'll ever open up her eyes and look."

"What?"

"Nothing."

It didn't take them long to get through the forest they only stopped when they came to the gates of a castle. Now that the threat of the wolves had gone away Clementine had become talkative again. "That's probably where Juliet is." As soon as these words had left her mouth the door of the castle opened and Juliet came walking out.

Juliet saw them off in the distance behind the gate and walked a bit faster so that she could get over to them. "So did you find the one who's supposed to be here?"

Clementine was a bit quicker then Akio to get the response out. "Yep we found her. Her name is Belle and she's really into books."

"Really? That's great I can't wait to tell Erik." She the smiles on their faces disappear. "Oh…that's right you two don't trust him." Juliet thought it best that she leave out that she'd actually talked to Erik not that long before. "Well why don't we get out of here and go look for the next one?"