The Sapphire Sorceress
Disclaimer: The rights to Kingdom Hearts belong to Disney and Square Enix.
Act 58: Waltz of the Damned
"You! Get out of my castle, now!"
The Land of Dragons: Throne Room ( Auxaq's POV )
Despite being aware of the increased amount of security in this castle infiltrating such a place was simply for a nobody like myself. Of course, it wasn't like any of these soldiers were capable of stopping me in any way possible. Stepping into the room where I heard the ruler of this land would be resting in I found an empty throne instead. From what I figured they must be having quite a festival cheering on those two "heroes" of the keyblade. Not only did this two heroes of light help save the Chinese army, the somebody of Roxas had managed to seal up another keyhole preventing heartless from coming here...for a while at least.
Eventually, the darkness lurking in the universe always returns no matter how much keybearers struggling to keep the peace. That is a lesson that I've had to learn in a long and painful way over this past couple of months.
"You there! Stop in the name of the emperor!" Oh, some of the rank and file grunts have come instead of the man in charge. Leading them was, in fact, Mulan, who I've seen before when I first visited this realm with Roxas. Watching her give commands to these men was an interesting change, seeing as how I spoke with her back when I foolishly thought I could still be human in some way. Times do change people...
"Identify yourself at once, intruder!"
"Mulan! My dear, dear old friend can't you recognize your pal without having that blonde fellow in tow." Smugly holding out my hand Mulan couldn't see my face underneath this hood but she must know my voice.
"I-is that really you?!"
"Well, I've seen better days since we last saw one another Mulan, but indeed it is me my old pal." I was sent here to learn more about Kairi and Sora's development while Xaldin was sent to Beast's Castle to continue with his project of creating a nobody and heartless from that animal of a man. Our invasion of the other worlds would continue if Sora and Kairi wanted to continue fighting us, but I had another objective in being here that didn't involve following my Superior's orders.
"Why have you returned here? I know we once worked together once, but you don't seem to be treating me that friendly now..."
"Well, we could have some tea with your precious captain, and even the mighty emperor of this country!" I couldn't help pretending to show care by making a little chuckle of humor that was flat in both tone and my affection towards her. I wanted to know why I was treating her like this since we did get along just fine. Was it due to the realization of how distant I've become around somebodies; the friendships I've had certainly were mostly broken at this point leaving me even more as a hollow being than when I first lost my heart.
"How were those two exactly? Did they live up to expectations, Mulan?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Easy! They might be the chosen, but they are nothing like true warriors of light just yet. That is why I plan to snuff out their destiny before it is fully realized." She looked at me like I wasn't even the person she met all those months ago, the person she was looking at must have seemed like a stranger in her eyes and that wasn't far from the truth.
"You wish to protect your country, but I'm looking to regain what is rightful might With that said I need you to send a message to me when those two come back. A very special message..."
Beast's Castle: Entrance Hall ( Kairi's POV )
After the success of our first voyage into Mulan's home, we decided to explore the next world that was displayed on our ship's monitor. The place certainly looked pretty fancy, the likelihood of this castle belonging to someone who didn't have a major supply in wealth seemed impossible. Looking around this entrance area I didn't see anyone in sight, but I knew that someone must live here in a part of this huge castle. While I pondered this a sudden booming sound rang into my ears, and this put a smile on Sora's face as he knew who nearly made me deaf moments ago.
"Hey! That's the Beast!" Beast? Wait? Wasn't that the man who fell in love with one of the Princesses of Heart: Belle. She explained to me his plight of being unable to stay in his normal form due to the curse of a rose that turned him into a real beastly-like man. They loved each other despite such a horrifying aspect being added to their relationship, which made me admire them for overcome such issues to come together for each other. That is why we had to help out if there was something going on here like in The Land of Dragons.
Of course, the first matter of business would mean dealing with the heartless roaming around the place. While they certainly looked different with these sharp-looking hooks attached to their bottoms they aren't that tougher than ordinary shadows, the catch was there were lots of these guys meaning we had to cast out lots of magic to defeat these creatures. Once we went inside of another room several different shadows began to attack us, the keyblades were more than enough for these weaker foes leaving just us two in the room with a weird rose trapped in a glass case.
"Wait a minute...that flower..." Looking over at Sora he began to clutch his head feeling some kind of a pain in his head, so I rushed over to see what was going on.
"What's going on, Sora?!"
"Garwsh, Sora are ya gonna be okay?"
"Yeah - there was something in my head that popped up but I don't think it will be bothering me again." The way he said that implied he was remembering something, and this could be the opportunity to help him remember those memories he hasn't been able to recover yet.
"Why am I seeing someone give me a flower, and why do I remember being here before..." Wait a minute. That comment about being here in some other time despite this being our first visit to this world, the answer could only be one thing in my mind.
"Was the person giving you the flower in a black cloak?" I looked at Sora's face; the expression was a mixture of innocence and guilt about what he wanted to say to me.
"...Yes."
"That must be a lie! There is no way you could be here or remember meeting one of those nobodies while we were all asleep."
"No. It couldn't be Sora however it was someone who was born from Sora." As I unintentionally scolded Donald I tried to explain where my train of thought was heading. "It had to be the nobody of Sora who he remembers and not himself." Before I could say anything else there was another loud roar, so strong that it send it all onto the floor as a huge, hulking beast walked up to where the flower was and picked it up. Sora tried speaking with him, but the man ignored him like we weren't even in the room.
"Beast?! Hey! Don't you remember us?! We fought together in Hollow Bastion to save Belle and the others...BEAST?!" Sure enough, he simply left the room after taking back that rose that was in here. This certainly wasn't normal to see meaning there was something wrong here.
"What was that about?!"
"I don't know, Donald. I know Beast can be a little hard to speak with sometimes, however, he didn't even recognize us." I guess the only way to figure out the answer would be finding him or Belle in this castle. The thing us all of us exploring such a place without a guide or map won't be so easy...
While I was thinking about where we need to head to first Donald mentioned that he saw a lady walking up on the higher floors of the place.
"Are you sure that someone was there, Donald?"
"Positive!"
"Well...If the Beast is here in this castle, that lady musta been Belle, right?"
"Yeah, maybe so. Belle might know what's happened to the Beast, too."
"C'mon! Let's go find her!"
Nodding in agreement we all ran throughout the castle in search of one of the fabled Princess of Heart. There were a couple more of those annoying bats that tried lifting up Donald up in the air, but we took them down with our blades ripping the captive hearts free of the darkness. Once we passed by a couple of doors we could hear the whispers of a woman near us.
"What am I going to do?"
Before I could say anything Donald rushed at the door and fell right on his face as Belle opened it up for us, her yellow dress was gone as she was in a more normal looking outfit for someone who might work in this castle rather than royalty.
"Oh, I'm so happy you're here!" Suddenly Donald was being squished by her arms as she continued hugging him before looking at the rest of us. "Sora! Goofy! Kairi?!"
"It...it has been a while hasn't it, Belle! You wouldn't know where the Beast could be right now, do you?"
"Oh, he must be in the west wing, Kairi. We don't talk like we used to..."
"Did something happen?" Looking at her face I could tell there is something very wrong about the Beast.
"Yes. Isn't that why you're here?" That might not be our purpose in being here, but if someone like Beast is in trouble, then it is our duty to help out.
"He's been acting strange lately. The only ones who might know why are locked up in the dungeon. I want to help them, but..." What? Someone looked up the ones who know the truth about what is going on here!
"The Beast...He locked up his own servants." Why would he do that to his own people?! "That's what I don't know about, Kairi."
Fine. I guess it is will be our job to free the prisoners, set things right, and give Beast a few good knocks to the head in order to get some sense back into his head. With our objective clear we made our way towards the west hall, but the heartless certainly wouldn't make things less difficult for us. That is when I ran into a huge block in the middle of the road; except it wasn't a huge rock rather a giant heartless that began to swing its arms around to hit me and Sora. Such is the forces of darkness, made to hurt and destroy anything or anyone that stands against them.
Running under the beast when it tried hitting me again I attempted to slash the creature in the back only to get his from behind by a shadow who tried stopping me. Sora charged at the bigger heartless, his feet jumped into the arms of the beast while it struck at the small head on this heartless, which allowed me to finish it off with a stab through the backside.
"Thanks for the assist!"
"No problem, Kairi!"
Once we cleared out the remaining shadows lurking around we continued down this path leading us into a different hallway with several metal armors decorating the place. I began to get nervous that we were in the middle of a haunted mansion, the next thing I expected was some of the suits of armor to come to live and is attacking all of us while we walked by them. That is when we arrived at the strangest thing I've seen all day, the sudden sight of a huge dresser...that was, in fact, alive and...asleep?
Apparently, the huge dresser was standing in front of a door that likely would take us into the dungeon area meaning we need to push her out of the way. I wasn't expecting this item to actually have a gender let alone be female.
"Oh, so you're all here to help free the servants locked away in the dungeon! Well, it is important to remember that we all once were human in form, but then were placed under a curse by that enchantress," As she admitted what exactly is with her having a face despite being what I assumed as an inanimate object I gasped at this realization along with Sora. "Even the Beast was once a normal man, and he was even a prince of royalty although he didn't exactly behave like a common prince."
"What's this about a spell?"
"Well, it was a long winter's night..." Thus, the four of us heard a little about how everyone here had their lives changed forever due to a simple spell that altered their bodies. I also heard how Belle and Beast came to meet each other, but then she smiled after she refused to tell us about this Gaston person who managed to bring them together in a sad, yet romantic way.
"A deal is a deal. Rescue my friends and the rest of that tale will be revealed to you all..." Sighing, the door to the underground dungeon was opened as we looked around for the area where the rest of the servants must be in. Sure enough, there was a rather creepy-looking door in front of us.
'It is almost like those figures could come to life like those suits of armor...' My body was beginning to shake as I realized something was wrong here - this feeling of a...heartless!
"Donald! Get away from that door!" The doorway suddenly sprang to life like that dresser with two beasts hanging from it with their claws exposed to us. Alongside the door turned heartless were some gargoyle statues that began to attack with their swords. These guys were much tougher than any other heartless we've encountered thus far, and I had trouble just deflecting their strikes let alone hurt them. Sora also was having difficulty in dealing with this huge door with its arms wiggling around the place making it hard not to get hit. Donald and Goofy tried to take out the bats that were summoned, I focused on finishing off the gargoyles, and Sora was free to take on this heartless door, but when it was hit with a beam of light it suddenly revealed a ball of darkness with a face on it.
"That must be the real enemy!" I saw it begin to float around the room, which meant it could possess an object to make it come to life. While Sora dealt with that I stabbed this statue in the head finally destroying it while Donald used some ice magic to take care of some of the red bats floating above our heads. It would require a team effort in order to defeat foes like this going forward; we had to work on improving ourselves both individually and cohesively, to grow strong enough to defeat the darkness like this as the ball finally faded away into nothing allowing us to enter the door with no issues.
Actually, the people we came to rescue were indeed here, but they weren't in the shape of a somebody rather inanimate objects like a clock, a candleholder, a teapot, and a teacup that completed the people in this room. As it turned out these servants knew the rest of the story that we were given by the dresser earlier, and as it turns out there is much more to that story. The dark night, an old woman who was truly an enchantress, and the consequence of not allowing such a woman in changed the lives of these people and their prince.
"That sounds horrible..."
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
"Let's get the enchantress!"
"Oh no, dear."
"We already know what needs to be done, but with the master out of sorts..."
Beast, the series of strange incidents already comes back to him. Then, the clock gave the assumption that he's become heartless that surprised me.
"Just like with that Gaston fellow, the man who tried earning Belle's love before until that boy in the dark cloak saved us."
Black Cloak! That could only mean one thing...
"That rose! I remember it being a gift from Belle...why am I remembering that..." Sora was once more holding a hand over his face as his eyes glazed over for a moment. If this continues to happen, there was a possibility that he could get back a memory of something that was lost to him making it important to uncover if Roxas could have been here in the past or not. First things first, the goal of getting out of this dungeon to confront the Beast about his behavior recently...
Beast's Castle: The West Wing
With a couple of the other bats and gargoyle heartless being unleashed I was finally getting the hang of fighting alongside Sora and his friends. I had a couple of bruises and cuts over my body however they would help in no time. As we came in front of the door in the long, dark hallway I began to get a sensation that ran through my bones.
"What is lurking behind this door?"
"Kairi? What's the matter?"
"Is something bothering ya?"
"Yes Goofy there is something that I'm finding wrong here..." Beast might be behind this door, and that could mean he won't be happy when he sees us. That could mean a battle might ensue...that I don't want to have with someone who looks as strong as he does. Still, he's also in trouble if there is something that is affecting him; keyblade heroes are meant to help those in trouble not flee at the first sign of trouble.
"Let's do it, Sora!" With his nod we charged into the room, the first thing we could see was Beast speaking to someone: Organization XIII?!
"See? She has accomplices." Were they the ones behind this? I hadn't expected us to run into one of their members, but at the very least we can settle things.
"Why...do I remember this happening before...Xal...Xaldin?!"
Xaldin? Who could that be, the nobody that we're looking at?
"I see. It would seem that creation's fusion with our traitor's somebody has produced some interesting side-effects. No matter the keybearers will become a good test for this Beast." A barrier suddenly appeared, which allowed the nobody to get away from us. As Sora tried approaching the Beast, his roar suddenly pushed it back showing that he was no longer in a reasonable state of mind thanks to that nobody. Taking the first move I tried using magic on this guy, but he quickly dodged it while grabbing hold of my arm that really hurt with those sharp nails on my skin.
"Kairi!" I tried hitting him on the arm to let me go, but his strength was too much as he threw me into the wall, his other arm went around to smack Sora around with ease. Physical force wasn't an option for this guy, so when I saw the clock servant come into the room I knew what must be done.
"Sora! Get working on that clock to make it ring. I will hold him off this time around."
"Kairi, the Beast is dangerous! Be careful..."
Don't worry about that with Donald and Goofy in the room, the both of them will keep me safe. Grinning, I threw up my blade to deflect more of the claws from this rabid prince as Goofy stepped in with his shield and Donald kept him at by with a few ice spells.
'Hurry...Sora...'
Despite our combined efforts, Beast was much too powerful to keep distracted for very long, and I knew unlike the heartless the power behind this former prince was much stronger while in this state.
'I have...to keep holding my stance...' I was being pushed back, and Goofy's shield was knocked away along with himself. Poor Donald tried more magic, but he was in the vice-like grip of this cursed man getting knocked out with a single punch.
"Cogsworth, do your stuff!" A loud buzzing rang through everyone's ears that stunned even the Beast, so I decided to end it with a series of strikes with my keyblade while Sora struck the man with his red outfit, and his duel-wielding keyblades - the results were the Beast finally had calmed down.
"Kairi!" I couldn't help falling over not even noticing that my arm was bleeding with some holes in the skin left behind from the raw strength of that changed prince. He saw how much pain I was feeling as his face showed fear and concern.
"Did - No...I didn't mean to inflict pain on you, Kairi. A friend of Sora." Despite the horrible pain shooting through my injured arm I couldn't help but smile at seeing how much the Beast had changed thanks to us, there was still much to do in this world, and we will finally get some real answers from one of that nobody's victims.
"Xaldin. He came from the darkness...He...used my anger to control me," I could see along with Sora that he felt guilty about what he did while in that state of rage. "He took all my sorrow, my sadness, my pain- and turned it all into rage. There was nothing I could do...I could no longer see the truth."
"Well, I'll be. That must be why you threw all of your friends down into the dungeon. You wanted to make sure that you didn't hurt 'em, right?"
"Was that it? Was it to protect them?"
"Sure. We know you're good inside." I nodded in agreement while Cogsworth spoke about how much Belle and his servants appreciate him and his kindness, but the Beast doesn't see things that way from how he sounded...
"I've mistreated her...I've mistreated her and I've been so selfish."
"She didn't say anything about that."
"Why don't you see her yourself, Beast? If you feel like you can't admit your feelings to her, then we will come and support you."
"Y-you would do that despite what I've done to your arm?" I shook my head at that while Sora cast a cure spell over the wound making the holes disappear.
"Physical injuries are capable of being healed, but it is the words you say to someone that can hurt worse than any stab from a sword. She needs to hear you, speak with you, and see you in person..." I looked at the rose that sparked in the light cast from the moon outside. It was strange how something that beautiful can make me feel so uneasy.
"Very well...I suppose running away from my mistakes won't fix them." Yes, the answer is indeed solving the issues you made by doing them yourself, and thankfully we had him on our side during our trip back to Belle. His sheer power was able to overcome some of the remaining heartless roaming around the place who came armed with huge axes that looked sharp enough to remove our limbs if we are not careful. That is why I stayed away from the now moving statues to use more powerful magic spells like Fira in order to break them apart.
"I can't believe these many intruders have come uninvited under my watch!"
"Let's show them the door, Beast!" Sora and Beast did just that with their combined attacks along with the rest of us handle the stragglers trying to flee. I even got to take down the last remaining soldiers with a series of swipes that cleared the area, which allowed us to continue onward with no threat of being attacked. In the entrance, I saw a few lance-wielding heartless try and jam their weapons into the Beast's back, so I covered for him taking a couple of blows to keep him out of harm's way.
"Kairi! You would - defend me with your body despite what I did to yours..." I nodded to him while I deflect the lancers that tried poking him while Sora covered my vulnerable side with Goofy and Donald to cover me. Watching the enemy move I knew that I had to be careful around them, and I took advantage of when they were trying to launch their weapons upwards to strike them down before those lances could hit any of us from above. With those guys out of the way finally, we could go to Belle's room...and she wasn't anywhere in sight?!
"Belle? Where is she?!"
"I heard she was going to confront the intruder. The man in black..."
"Xaldin!" Belle was trying to stop him; she isn't ready to fight off a nobody like that even if she had the pure heart of a princess. We have to keep her out of trouble no matter what.
"We need to get back to the main hallway to start looking for her!" I had to agree with Sora as did the Beast, so we made our way back hoping to find any sign of where she could be at the moment when I heard a cry.
"I'm in here! The ballroom."
"Belle! S-she is always getting into some kind of trouble..." I wanted to say something about the attitude of the prince, but heartless interrupted my line of thought as these lancers would take priority over calling him out on his issues with Belle. It would seem that would come to ahead once we find her in the ballroom...
"Belle!" As we watched her run across the room she looked to be running away from us.
"I'm all right!"
We won't be alright...the same ball that I thought we destroyed in the dungeon was back, and it certainly looked different from last time with the chains and horns that were sticking out of its body. Then, it began to corrupt the whole room in darkness changing the ground and floors to create a darker area with its power. I could feel the floor below becoming like quicksand, the black goo around my feet made it hard to move around as the ball of darkness floated around the area while Sora tried attacking it.
'Is it going to possess things like before?' I saw the ball float into the wall creating a mirror that revealed itself looking down at us before firing off beams of light at us. He must have the power to possess things in the room to use against us. I tried blasting it with light, but the slippery thing got out of range while moving up toward the ceiling.
"Kairi! Look out!" I heard Sora yell at me to move out of the way, but I could feel the ground keep me stuck in place as I saw the chandelier fall down from the ceiling likely ready to hit me in the head. Instead of experiencing a lot of pain, I could see that someone was holding up the huge chandelier above my head: Beast?!
"Don't worry. You're not going to get hurt again. A friend of Sora!" Why does he keep saying that exactly? Politeness?
Watching in awe he was able to push the thing back into the air while helping me get out of range when it came back down, the possessed decoration began shooting fire out of the sides to attack us. Goofy kept the flames at bay with his mighty shield, Donald fired off some ice magic to harm the possessed item, and Sora used his "Valor Form" in order to destroy the thing revealing the real enemy once more. Chasing after the ball I managed to finally land several blows on the creature.
'Come on and give up already!' Before I could lay the finishing blow it managed to enter some of the pillars circling around the room. Suddenly, the pillars turned into spikes that tried impaling us with their sharp points.
"Why is this room becoming a giant death trap. I didn't expect a dance with such a vile demon on this night."
"More like a waltz of the damned, Beast." That is why you are going to give Belle a damn good one after we clean up the mess here with this heartless. Guarding another strike from these pillars Beast once again impressed me, his arms were capable of grabbing hold of several of these malevolent spikes allowing Sora to cut them down to expose the hidden evil within. I knew that we couldn't waste any more time, so with some assist from Sora, I jumped onto his shoulders to get enough leverage in order to pin down the heartless to blast it with enough light magic that caused it to finally disappear...
"We did it!"
"So you think." That voice belonged to Xaldin. He was simply watching us take care of that heartless...
"To think I once believed keybearers were a rare breed in the universe. Well, I suppose she has already proven me wrong about that- she who opposes you two now."
She? Was he speaking about Xion, but she was absorbed into Sora if DiZ's experiment worked meaning he was talking about Aqua.
"Farewell..."
"Why is he doing this to us?"
Why is he talking about Aqua opposing us like she is going to get in our way? We've had our issues certainly, but I'd hoped she would begin to understand that we don't have to be enemies. While Sora, Donald, and Goofy explained to Beast the concepts of a nobody and a heartless I wondered how Beast would be able to handle speaking with Belle. Even if he didn't feel like he could speak to her I knew deep within that body lies the heart of a true prince.
"Belle...I-I'm sorry - I wasn't myself. I hope I haven't done anything to hurt you." As I expected she didn't hold anything against him, her smile managed to warm my own heart as she excused his behavior knowing that he was not in his right mind.
"I know you weren't yourself so don't apologize, but I'd hoped that you might have changed a little bit! I wish you could start trusting me." Nodding, I knew that these two would need some time in order to heal their relationship, and yet I didn't know their love would be needed in order to break the curse put on them. It seemed like these two will need more understanding and trust between each other before true love could bloom before the last petal fell from that rose. While Sora sealed away another keyhole I began to wonder if Belle and Beast were the only ones...who wanted to have love and be loved in return.
[ I know there isn't anything from that new Beauty and the Beast movie. Thing is, I haven't seen it yet so I can't really give me take on it :P
Anyways the next update will cover our good pal Hades and Herc, so I hope you stick around for that and our favorite Sitar player sorry this took longer than usual to come out btw I was working on something else. ]