Beast's Castle
First Appearance: KINGDOM HEARTS II (2006)
Origin: Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Sora, Donald and Goofy have never set foot in the Beasts Castle before. Instead, they met both the Beast and his beloved, Belle, in Hollow Bastion. As Belle is one of the Princesses of Heart, she was kidnapped by Maleficent. The Beast's Heart let him follow her to the witch's castle where he met Sora and thankfully managed to save the one woman he cared about.
The group arrives at their ally's home not too long after they set out on their second journey. Sadly, they are greatly outnumbered by Heartless yet the Beast appears to make short work of them. It seems enemies are not the only ones he throws aside, however, as the trio finds itself on the floor as well. The Beast says nothing as he picks up a glowing rose encased in a glass casing and leaves the room. Convinced that something was up due to the large number of Heartless, the group decides to investigate rather than let it get them down.
They soon find themselves face to face with Belle. It seems she and the Beast aren't as close as they used to be, and that as part of the odd change to his behavior, the Beast locked up all of the castle's servants in the dungeon.
The group heads out to save them and learns the truth about the castle - the servants as well as the Beast used to be human. One cold winter's night, an old ugly woman came to the castle and asked for shelter, but was turned away by the Beast, the prince of the castle at the time. The old woman then undid her disguise and revealed herself to be a beautiful enchantress. She turned the prince into a Beast to reflect his cold, cruel Heart, and turned all of the servants into various items such as a wardrobe, a teapot and a clock.
The spell will be undone if the Beast learns to love and gets to be loved in return before the last petal falls from his magical rose, but it'll be difficult with the Beast acting as though he has forgotten how to trust. Accompanied by Cogsworth, the head of the guards who has been turned into a clock, the trio makes their way to the Beast's room in an attempt to talk things through with him.
There, a man named Xaldin is talking to the Beast. He is a member of Organization XIII and he seems intent on feeding the Beast lies about Belle. He manages to convince him that Sora, Donald and Goofy are actually assassins sent by Belle, and it takes the trio's joint effort along with Cogsworth's help to get the Beast to come to his senses. Once freed of the Darkness, the Beast can only show regret about the way he acted, and the group accompanies him so he can apologize properly to Belle. She's missing, however, last seen going out to chase the "man in black".
They hear Belle calling out for help from the ballroom and storm the room. She is being chased by a Heartless, one who despite possessing the room itself is dealt away with by Sora and his friends.
The Beast can't help but wonder what Xaldin wants of him. The group reaches the conclusion that as Organization XIII controls Nobodies, he most likely wants to turn the Beast into a Heartless so they will obtain his Nobody as an ally, as the Beast is strong of Heart.
With Xaldin gone and the Beast somewhat calmer, the party head off once Sora's Keyblade reacts with the Beast's magical rose. They manage to voice one last request before leaving, and that to be informed if either the Beast or Belle hear anything about the group's missing friends or the Organization.
They return to what appears at first to be a happy ending and find both the Beast and Belle ready for a special evening, a ball their very own. Sadly, the evening is ruined when Xaldin arrives, declaring he came to take something precious. Belle's safe and sound, which only leaves the magical rose. The Beast runs to his room and the rest of the group follows, only to find the rose, as expected, to be missing. Beast takes his anger out at Belle and Sora, but realizes soon that is the wrong approach. Seeing however how he can't control his temper, he asks them both to leave so that he won't risk hurting them in blind rage. Thankfully, Sora and the others manage to get through to him by reminding the Beast of how brave he was when they fought together in the past, and how much he would've given for the chance to save Belle. With his fighting spirit restored, the Beast declares - the castle belongs to him, and Xaldin will never be welcome there.
They find Xaldin shortly along with the rose, and Xaldin feels superior enough to share some of the Organization's goals with Sora. They're after Kingdom Hearts which will let the Nobodies properly exist. For that end they need both the Beast's Nobody and Heartless. Xaldin leaves some Nobodies for the party to deal with while he goes and kidnaps Belle. The party quickly gives chase, and Xaldin tells the Beast to choose - he can either have Belle or the rose, but not both. Belle apparently has a saying in the matter, however, and she elbows Xaldin in the ribs and snatches the rose before running back to the castle. That leaves the party free to deal with Xaldin once and for all.
With the crisis contained for good, Belle and the Beast make up. The Beast asks Belle to stay with him in the castle, and she agrees with a smile. What more can Sora, Donald and Goofy do then but give the two their blessings and head off again, searching for their own happy ending.
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