Chapter 43

As the Last Petal Falls

On seeing Belle, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy ran up to meet her. Sora waved from atop Belle's shoulder and Belle picked Kairi up out of the satchel.

"Sora, Kairi! We found something about the Mini spell," Mickey said. "There's a spell that undoes a variety of status ailments, both magical and chemical. It's called Esuna, and it would easily undo a more temporary Mini spell. From what I can surmise, we can use that spell to restore you to your normal size, if we boost it with a lot of light magic."

Sora grinned. "That shouldn't be a problem. I have the Keyblade of Light and there are two Princesses of Heart right here," he responded confidently.

"Alright, then. Let's find a place to work," Cogsworth said.

Belle set Sora and Kairi down on a table and placed her hand in front of them. She thought hard about light, not having as good an idea of how to draw on her innate magic as Kairi, and hoped it would do.

Sora raised his Keyblade and imagined returning to his normal state. "Esuna!" he shouted. A white light washed over the Keyblade, and a warmth fell over him and Kairi, and they felt themselves growing. Belle stepped back as they both grew over a foot in height. Sora and Kairi jumped off of the table when they realized that their weight was putting stress on it. In seconds, they had grown back to their normal size, along with Sora's Keyblade, and everything looked normal to them.

"Aw, yeah! We're tall again!" Sora cheered. Belle snickered, inwardly noting that Sora was still shorter than her.

LeFou ran over, offering an awkward wave to Belle. "You should know, Gaston's gone upstairs. He's heading for the Beast," he warned.

Belle gasped. "I have to stop him!" she said.

"We're with you," Riku affirmed.

Mickey noticed a Heartless waddling out the front door. "The Heartless could still hurt the villagers," he muttered loud enough for the others to hear. Then, more loudly, "We need to cover their escape."

Sora saw a sword that had been discarded. He picked it up by the handle, holding it upside-down, and held it out for LeFou. "In case there are some in the woods, someone's going to need to protect them. That'll be you," he said.

"Me?" LeFou asked, surprised.

"You can do it," Mrs. Potts encouraged.

"Can we trust you?" Sora asked. Nervously, then resolutely, LeFou nodded. "Alright. Let's move."

They moved to conduct their tasks, but LeFou stopped and turned back to Belle. "Oh, and Belle," he called. She stopped and turned to hear what he had to say. "Can you tell Gaston that he's on his own?" he requested, his eyes showing his newfound disdain for his former friend. Belle raised an eyebrow, to which LeFou gave her a puckish smile. "No one sees the monster in the man like LeFou!" He waved, then turned and ran out to join the fleeing mob.

Belle smiled at him. She had always been fond of him, even in spite of his slavish devotion to the boorish Gaston. She was glad that he had finally grown a backbone. Deciding that taking a weapon was not a bad idea, she picked up a shovel that had been discarded by one of the invaders. She turned and ran up the stairs, accompanied by Riku and Goofy.

"Hello, Beast." Beast turned to see who it was, and realized that the newcomer was here to kill him. He sighed and turned away, looking out to the horizon. "Belle sent me," Gaston's claimed.

Beast shook his head. "No…" he whispered. She would never do such a thing. But he did not bother arguing the fact.

It would not be long before the time was up. What would happen to him? The Enchantress had said that if he did not love and be loved before the last petal fell, he would remain a beast for eternity. He had never understood the specifics of that last part entirely. Would he remain in the same state, sapient but monstrous, for the rest of his life? Or would he lose the last remaining pieces of his humanity and become a feral monster? He had decided long ago that the latter possibility was the fate that would befall him. No one had any idea what would happen to the servants, whether they would remain the same or become inanimate, lifeless trinkets, but he figured that it did not make a difference if he turned into a rampaging monster that would not recognize them. He believed that he was living his last moments as his own self. So, he wanted the hunter to make it quick.

Gaston released the bowstring. The arrow hit Beast in the shoulder. Beast roared in pain. Gaston rushed him and knocked him out the window, laughing. Beast tumbled down the roof before stopping on a landing below and to the left of the window.

Hearing the Beast's scream, Belle, Riku and Goofy quickened their pace. Gargoyle statues broke from their places to attack them, but Belle knocked one down and caused it to break apart with a swing from her shovel, while Riku sliced the other one in twain with his Keyblade.

Gaston cornered Beast, daring him to attack. He grew frustrated when the Beast continued to lie there in pain and despair.

"Get up! Get up! What's the matter, beast? Too kind and gentle to fight back?" he taunted. When he received no response, he reached down and broke a spire off of the side of the roof with ease. He raised it above his head to smash Beast's with it.

"No!" a familiar voice ordered from behind him as the plate of a shovel hit him in the back of the head. He turned around and saw Belle glaring defiantly at him. She had set the shovel down and pulled all of the arrows out of his quiver. Gaston watched as she broke them all over her knee. "Stop this, Gaston!"

"Belle…?" Beast muttered, hearing her voice.

Gaston grabbed her by the arm. "No. I am done playing games. When we get back to the village, you will marry me and the beast's head will hang on our wall!" he yelled.

"Never!" she shouted defiantly, struggling to escape his grip. "Don't you get it, Gaston? You disgust me! And not just me. Everyone has abandoned you. By now, LeFou's already telling them all about you!"

"LeFou?" he asked.

"He said you're on your own," she spat. She continued to struggle, until Gaston threw her aside. She fell to the ground but soon started to pick herself back up.

"That's enough!" Riku shouted. He ran at the hunter and swung his Keyblade at him, but Gaston blocked the strike with the spire and pushed him back. Goofy charged in, his arm drawn back to bash him with his shield, but Gaston swatted him in the chest with his makeshift weapon, hitting him so hard that he flew back into another wall, leaving a sizeable dent. Dark smoke visibly bled off of Gaston, and his pupils and irises turned a solid black.

Riku's eyes widened when he saw just how strong Gaston was. "Wow. What do they feed this guy?" he wondered aloud.

"Five dozen eggs a day, so they say," Belle grunted.

Riku and Goofy regained their bearings and rushed Gaston. However, at the last second, his body was covered in a black silhouette, which exploded outward, launching them off of the roof.

Sora, Kairi, Mickey, and Donald had finally cleared the last of the Heartless from the bridge and had reentered the courtyard only to see Riku and Goofy tumbling through the air straight at them. Kairi and Donald cast Aeroga magic to slow their descent, but they still landed with a thud. Mickey looked up at the scene on the roof and his jaw dropped.

A giant Heartless had grown out of Gaston's body. It resembled the hunter greatly, except that it lacked legs, leaving its waist to taper out into ragged shreds almost like a ghost, it had dark blue-gray skin, and it wore a giant elk skull on its head, obscuring its eyes. It even held an enlarged version of the spire that Gaston held. The hunter still stood on the roof, a bit woozy but still very much human.

"I thought when a person turned into a Heartless, his body disappeared," Mickey said, perplexed.

"If that person has his heart stolen or lost to darkness right then and there, yes," Jiminy said, poking his head out of the mouse's pocket. "But I guess if they go the long way, and the Heartless grows out and detaches itself, the body sticks around. Like with Scar, whose body stuck around to fight and die before his Heartless revealed itself. The same could be said for Clayton, in the Deep Jungle."

"So, we're fighting the really big Heartless of a really strong dude, and the really strong dude is still up there attacking our friend," Riku summed the situation up, grunting from the pain. Kairi cast Cura on him and Goofy, and they stood up as if they had not just fallen a hundred feet.

Gaston's Heartless swung its club, but its targets ran closer to it so that they were perfectly safe from the attack. Donald cast Thundaga while Sora cast Firaga and Mickey shot Pearl spells at its arms. Goofy threw his shield, hitting the monster's jaw. Riku jumped at it and slashed its chest, while shooting Dark Firaga balls at its head with his free hand.

The Heartless punched down with its free hand, but the party dodged easily and began wailing on the fist. Sora grabbed onto the thumb as the Heartless drew its arm back up, then he climbed up to the shoulder and ran up to the head. He struck the back of the neck as hard as he could. This caused the Heartless to falter, and it let the club bend to the ground. Riku and Mickey jumped onto the club and ran along it, then they jumped off of its hand and struck it in the face. Kairi threw her Keyblade and cut through the free hand.

Gaston's Heartless collapsed from the injuries it was sustaining, though everyone made sure that they were not under the body when it landed. A few more blows and the Heartless disintegrated. Not taking a single moment to catch their breath, the party ran back into the castle to try to reunite with Belle and Beast before it was too late.

Recovering from the wave of darkness that washed over his senses, Gaston turned his attention back to the Beast. He raised his weapon up above his head and brought it down, but a large, hairy hand grabbed it.

The Beast, reinvigorated by Belle's return, stood up and grappled the weapon with Gaston. Gaston adopted an expression of pure terror when he saw the Beast snarl at him in pure rage. Realizing that he was outmatched, Gaston broke free and scrambled away, climbing up a cone roof and clambering around it, but the Beast followed.

Gaston swung his club at his opponent, but Beast dodged and then grappled with it again. Gaston lost his footing and slid down the roof, dropping the spire. He just managed to grab onto the roof before he tumbled off, but Beast lunged at him and carried him off, tumbling down another section of roof until they landed on another flat area, on the western side of the castle. Gaston kicked Beast off of him and picked the club back up. He ran for the grotesque figure silhouetted in the dark of the night, and smashed its head with his weapon.

Stones crumbled from the face of the griffin-shaped statue. Gaston was surprised to see that he hit the wrong target.

"Come on out and fight!" Gaston taunted. He glared around the roof but only saw more griffin statues. He heard a crackling sound in the distance and rolled out of the way of a fireball which destroyed the remnants of the grotesque. He turned to the source and saw Donald on a separate landing; the hunter and beast had gone too far across the roof for the others to easily join them, which was why Donald could only perform magic spells from a distance while the others tried to reach them.

Gaston ignored the duck and continued hunting the beast, his club raised. "Were you in love with her, Beast?" he taunted. "Did you honestly think she'd want you, when she had someone like me?"

Beast growled and crept from his hiding place behind one of the statues, approaching his foe from behind. Gaston heard his footsteps and turned around, swinging his club at Beast unsuccessfully. Beast circled around him, and Gaston followed his movements. Beast threw himself at his enemy and grabbed the club in his mouth as he forced his enemy back. Gaston pulled the weapon loose and swung a few more times, though Beast backed away until he was standing at the edge of the roof, with only a steep roof and an abyss on either side of him.

"It's over, Beast! Belle is mine!" Gaston yelled, raising his club. Beast swatted him into the steep roof, causing him to drop the club, then lifted him by the collar. He held Gaston over the ledge by the neck, grabbing onto a statue with his free hand to keep his balance. He glared at the man who tried to kill him with all of the rage in his heart.

The hunter's bravado dissolved instantly, and he quickly began to fear for his life. "Let me go! Let me go!" he begged. "Please! Don't hurt me, beast! I'll do anything! Anything!"

Beast's vicious expression faded, and he realized that if he did this, if he murdered this man, no matter what he did or tried to do, then he would be nothing more than the monster everyone saw him to be. "I am not a beast," he muttered. He stepped back onto the roof and lowered Gaston onto his knees, his palm still grasped onto the man's thick neck.

"Get out," he commanded, staring right into Gaston's eyes. He let go, dropping Gaston to the ground. The hunter breathed heavily to catch his breath.

"Adam!" a voice called from above. Beast turned and saw Belle standing on the balcony of his room above. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Goofy were with her. The servants were just on the other side of the window, distracted by the sight of the rose only having one petal remaining, which hung onto the wilting stem weakly.

"Belle," Beast said, smiling. Belle held her hand out to him. Beast clambered up the roof to meet her. He wrapped his hand around hers and touched her cheek. "Belle, you came back." Belle smiled and wrapped her arms around Beast's. They continued to stare passionately at one another.

"Huh? Where'd he go?" Goofy whispered to his friends. Riku gasped when he saw something coming up behind Beast.

SHINK!

Beast roared in pain as Gaston pulled a blood-specked dagger from Beast's back. With a wicked sneer on his face, Gaston flipped his dagger back around in his hand to slash at Beast. The Beast lashed out blindly, swinging his arm back. Gaston shuffled to avoid being hit, but he lost his grip on the balcony banister. He dropped the dagger as he flailed wildly in an attempt to maintain his balance, but he fell. He screamed as he tumbled into the gorge below.

Belle grabbed Beast by the cape to prevent him from falling as well, and Sora, Riku and Goofy hauled him over the banister and laid him down. Cogsworth, Lumière, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Wardrobe gasped in horror at the state of their master. Donald rushed in and quacked in shock at the sight of the injured Beast. He cast Curaga, but nothing changed.

In spite of the pain, Beast smiled at Belle. "You came back," he said.

Tears rolled down Belle's face. "Of course, I came back. I couldn't let them… I'll never leave you again," she said soothingly.

Beast nodded weakly, but cramped as he felt the pain flare up. "But I'm afraid it's my turn to leave," he muttered resignedly.

Sora shook his head. "No. You've come too far to go out like this. Belle came here to fight for you," he told him. "Now we're here with you. You're not here alone. Now fight. Stay with us. We're not leaving you."

Beast regarded these words warmly, reminded of the speech that he had given the boy when they had first met.

"Sora's right. You'll be alright. We're together now. Everything's going to be fine. You'll see," she assured, though she sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.

"At least I got to see you one… last… time…" Belle held Beast's hand up to her cheek, and he held it there for a second. Then he dropped it, the strength leaving his arm. His head dropped back and his eyes closed.

Belle dropped his paw and put her hands to her mouth. Sora stumbled back, a look of tragic horror on his face. Kairi pulled him into a comforting hug, tears streaming down her face. Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy could only stare, unresponsive. The servants looked mournfully at their dying master. Cogsworth glanced up and saw the final petal wiggling on the stem, its glow beginning to fade.

"No, no! Please! Please! Please don't leave me!" Belle begged, crying. She laid her head down on Beast's chest, which no longer rose and fell from breathing. "I love you…"

Goofy glanced over and saw the final petal break off and fall to the bottom of the case. Its glow faded and it turned dull. The thorny stem curled up and fell, dead. The servants bowed their heads sadly. Cogsworth sighed in resignation. It was all over now. Belle continued to cry, while Sora and the others tried to process their friend's death.

A ray of pink-colored light fell, catching Donald's attention. More beams fell, like shooting stars. Mickey and Goofy took notice of this. When more beams fell in different colors, Kairi noticed and patted Sora on the shoulder to get his attention. He pulled out of their embrace and turned around. The rays were falling even faster and in greater numbers than before. Soon, everyone had noticed, even Belle, who stared perplexedly at the sparks left on the ground.

Belle felt something pushing up at her, and she realized that Beast's body was rising into the air. She shuffled backward to let it happen and they all watched as he was magically raised into the air, the beams of magic light still falling around him and a mist forming around him. His body began to glow, and everyone gasped when they saw what appeared to be him taking a breath. He shook about, as if waking up from a nap, and raised his arm up.

All eyes were on the Beast, staring in wonder, as his form shifted. His arm shrunk, the fur faded away, and the claws turned into fingernails. Rays of yellow light shot out of the tips of his fingers. His canine legs shifted into human feet, and rays of light shot out of the toes. His hulking frame shrank down, and his tail shrank out of existence. Lastly, his head transformed from its monstrous shape into a human one. The transformation complete, the former beast sank back down to the floor, lying on his detached cape. The tears in his now-oversized shirt remained, but the blood was gone.

Belle reached out to him, but the man brought himself to his feet. He paused in the midst of doing so for a brief second when he saw his hand, then stood up. The man with long auburn hair studied his hands, then looked the rest of himself over, kicking his feet out in wonder. He turned around and faced Belle. Belle and the others took in his new, handsome visage.

"Belle, it's me," he said, taking her hand in both of his own. Belle studied him closely, still amazed at what had happened. His entire form was strange and new. She felt through his hair, trying to develop a sense of familiarity. She looked into his blue eyes and knew for certain.

"It is you!" she exclaimed. They stroked each other's hair while staring into each other's eyes. He leaned in and they kissed.

Swirls of blue magic light flew around them and shot up, exploding over the castle like a firework. The magic rained down on the castle, and all structural damage was undone. The clouds above parted and the sun rose over the horizon, though there was a moment of rain over the party as the magic eruption caused a cloudburst. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy looked around in wonder as the demolished furniture rose up and restored itself all on its own, even though the damage had been dealt years ago. Belle and Adam broke off their kiss to watch everything change around them.

Lumière laughed mirthfully as the blue magic swirled around him. His candelabra form glowed blue, then vanished. In its place stood a lanky man with light brown hair in a ponytail and a long, pointed nose. A fat man with a long, pencil-thin moustache popped up next to him, standing where Cogsworth did.

"Lumière! Cogsworth!" Adam said to each in turn. A middle-aged woman with graying brown hair popped up in front of them. "Mrs. Potts! Look at us!" He pulled all three of them into a group hug.

The teacup changed into a seven-year-old blond boy with a missing tooth, who ran in and hugged his mother. The Wardrobe, who had turned into a tall, stocky woman wearing a large white-and-gold wig, pulled everyone into an enormous hug. Mrs. Potts broke off to pull Chip into a proper hug, one that they had not shared in ten years.

"We're human again!" Cogsworth exclaimed. Donald snickered as he noticed that Cogsworth looked almost exactly like he did when he was a clock, right down to the clothing and hairstyle.

"It is a miracle!" Lumière cheered. Sora gave Adam a heavy pat on the back, and Mickey and Riku shook the restored prince's hand. Kairi and Belle shared a quick hug.

They spent the following hours catching up on recent events. The guests learned that the former Wardrobe's real name was Madame de Garderobe. Now that the Beast was human again, it became much easier for them to get used to calling him "Adam". Belle and Cogsworth rode out to the village to tell them that the curse had lifted and explain what had been going on. A group of villagers followed them back to scout the place out, led by LeFou. Maurice rode back with Belle, and he had the chance to formally get to know what kind of man the "Beast" truly was. The villagers were saddened to hear of Gaston's death, but, after learning of what he had done and what he had tried to do, many of them came to agree that he had gotten what he deserved. Père Robert prayed for his soul.

Lumière, Mrs. Potts, and Chef Bouche, who was the head chef before the spell hit the castle and had spent the last several years in the form of a stove and oven, prepared a large feast to celebrate the breaking of the curse, to welcome the people who had long since forgotten about the castle and its cursed inhabitants, and also because none of the staff had actually eaten anything in a decade. Chef Bouche almost cooked some duck as part of the banquet until he was made aware that one of the guests actually was a duck. Since they had grown used to controlling enchanted utensils to perform their duties, and had also likely lost their edge due to the Beast simply hunting for his food for years rather than letting them cook for him, they gladly accepted Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Belle's assistance.

When everything had calmed down and the visitors returned to the village, Adam took Sora and his friends aside and asked them about what the two magically-powered intruders from the previous night were doing in the castle. Riku and Mickey took their turn explaining what they knew about the assortment of villains and what they were trying to do.

"The guy in the top hat said that they were looking for something in the form of a clock," Belle recalled. "So, one of the items that will supposedly give them the power to change everything is a clock, and it's supposed to be in the castle?"

Cogsworth winced at that, though anyone who noticed decided that he must have just had some PTSD from his years as a clock.

"Yeah. But for some reason, even though they searched the entire castle, they couldn't find it for some reason," Riku replied. "And frankly, we haven't actually seen any of these artifacts, so we wouldn't really be able to know how to find them."

"I suppose that means you're going to have to leave," Belle guessed, a sad tone in her voice.

"Afraid so," Kairi said, shrugging. "The clown and the witch doctor giving up here would only mean they've gone somewhere else, and taken the Heartless and Nobodies with them."

"But we'll be back before you know it," Sora assured them.

"Well, we'll do what we can to find what you're looking for," Adam promised. He smirked, an animalistic look in his eye. "And I would be happy to get some payback against those two."

Sora and Adam shook hands. "Take care, Prince," Sora said.

After saying their good-byes, Sora and his friends transported to the Gummi Ship from the parlor. Meanwhile, Lumière noticed Cogsworth looking rather nervous.

"This does seem to be a noble cause, Cogsworth," the maitre'd said. "Perhaps it would be wise to speak."

Cogsworth shook his head. "I mustn't, my friend. You know I have been sworn to maintain the world order," he reminded the other.