Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts II, Xaldin, Beauty and the Beast, or Beast's Castle. However, I do own Faith, the little Heroine(sp?) of this story. Who is also Belle's sister, try to imagine a different version of Belle, just a wee bit younger.

This story was in fact, inspired by one of my RPs, Beauty and the Beast.

'Why send me to this retched place? I'd have rather went to the world where all those pirates were but Luxord got to that one first.' Xaldin thought as he was sitting on a high wall that blocked the inside entrance to the castle door. 'Why would the Superior send me here?' Xaldin continued to questioned himself as he heard a noise come from a corridor.

A young girl, quickly ran around the corner. She slid as she turned and fell flat on her stomach. She quickly pulled herself off the ground. She ran as fast as she could towards the entrance. Little creatures were following her. She glanced over her shoulder to see the small bug-like things.

Xaldin thought the place to be boring. . . at first until he heard a couple of footsteps being made down on the ground below. Around the corner came a small frame of a girl that seemed to be running from some shadow heartless, the lowest form of heartless there was. 'Finally, some action.'
Jumping down to where the entrance of the door was, Xaldin waited for the creatures to come closer, not really noticing the girl that was running up to him but then again, she won't notice who he is since he had his hood draped over his face. 'This won't last long but at least it's better than doing nothing at all.'

The girl slowly down at the sight of another person in front of her. She quickly peered over her shoulder and saw more of the creatures. She gave a small shriek of fear. She didn't want to chat with the person in front of her, for obvious reasons. She quickly ran around him and just continued to run. She tried to stop and slid slightly, this time she was able to keep her balance. Faith ran and hid behind a tall pillar. She stuck her head out to see what was going to happen.

Xaldin smirked when the girl ran off and took cover from the heartless, leaving them to him. With a flick of both his wrists, two lances appeared in his hands. Taking them in his hand, Xaldin leapt at the heartless and began his immediate attack on them. One by one, all went down with one strike from his purplish-blue lances.
A while after, Xaldin was done with the battle after all the heartless dematerialized into nothing but black ashes. Taking a small glance at the girl, Xaldin began to mind his own business again as he started walking off, hoping to find him some better opponents. Sora hadn't appeared yet and the Beast was at a still point now. Nothing was being done just yet.

The girl gazed at the person who had just, practically, saved her life. She had to thank him. She quickly walked towards him. "Excuse me! Sir!" she said trying to get his attention.

This girl. . . was actually talking to him!? A nobody!? Well, he couldn't just ignore until he found out what she had to tell her. Stopping in place, Xaldin only turned his head slightly, looking back as the girl ran up to him. Saying nothing, he only wanted to move on from his spot and find something more fulfilling to do.

She caught up to the man and smiled. "I wanted to say thank you," she began. "I am very thankful, if my sister were here to see you, she would be too." Faith said and paused for a moment. "Can I have your name?" she asked politely. "My name is Faith." she said.

Xaldin wasn't the type to take gratitude and give out names. First off, he should be trying to steal this girl's heart but he wasn't actually feeling that moment just yet. Boredom still kept him on edge. A very high edge, at that. Maybe he might just give the girl his name of identity. ". . . My name happens to be none of your concern, my dear. Since you're fine, you should be on your way before more of the heartless come after you." Then again, he can be cruel.

Faith looked at the cloaked man, with hopeful eyes. "Please? All I ask is your name." she said. "Just so I can tell my sister who saved me." she said. "She and I would be very grateful." she added holding her hands together.

Xaldin turned to the girl completely, giving her his full attention. All she was asking was for his name but if he were to tell her that, the people would know about him and his antics to take their hearts. Xaldin had to play this coolly or this would not go well and his plans would definitely be ruin if he were to expose himself to her.
About to answer, a beast comes storming to the outside where Faith was and finds itself staring at the man in the cloak. "Faith, get away from him!" the beast called out as he ran in front of Faith with his claws stretched out and ready to fiercely attack the cloaked man. "What do you want here. . . What are you trying to get?"
"Nothing that is of your concern. I will have it and there will be nothing that you or that boy can do about." the cloaked man answered before he turned around, walking away slowly. The beast became furious and went after the man for an attack but Xaldin vanished into disarraying smog of darkness, leaving Faith and the beast in the courtyard.

Faith looked up to Beast. "Beast? Who was that?" she asked. "And why did you get so mad? He saved me." she said. She looked back to where the man had disappeared. 'Odd... How could someone just disappear like that?' she thought to herself.

Beast growled and snarled as he searched the area but found nothing that was left of the cloaked man. "He may have saved you. . . or more likely, he was looking for some needed action. That man. . . you can't trust. He's dangerous and you need to stay away from him. Come on, Belle's waiting on you in the Ballroom." Beast said, walking back into the castle.
From afar, Xaldin happened to be watching the two. He knew now that Faith had a connection with Belle that lives with the beast. "Hmph, so she does have a connection between these commotions, now does she. Maybe I'll be able to use her later on when need be."

Faith had nodded and then followed Beast back inside. But before entering she took another glance towards when the man had disappeared. She sighed and shut the main door behind her. "What does Belle need?" she asked as she caught up to Beast as they walked towards the ballroom.

'Weren't they going to meet Belle in the Ballroom? Yes. . . it's so perfect. Hmm?' Xaldin had been thinking about this plan for awhile now and he has it perfectly planned and he wouldn't have to worry about it going wrong. . . unless someone interfered with his dominating plans for stealing another heart. 'Him. . .Hmph, time to start putting the plan into play.' Xaldin vanished off to start up his plan.
Beast shrugged, not knowing why Belle wanted to see Faith. Seemingly enough, he halted for a moment and stared back at the main door. Coming through it, Sora had jumped into the scene yet again. "Hey, Beast! Hmm?" Sora ran up to Beast and asked, "Hey, who's your new friend? Is she related to you or something like that?"
Shaking his head, Beast answered, "This is Belle's sister, Faith. I didn't know that she had another relative alive. Also, while coming here, a cloaked man had been having conversation with her. He is probably from that Organization that you're looking for. I don't have anymore information on to why he came but I'm sure that he'll be around sooner or later."

Faith smiled at the new boy. "Like Beast said, I'm Belles' sister. It's nice to meet you." she said. "Organization? What Organization?" she asked. "You mean the man from before that saved me?" she asked. "He didn't seem that bad..." she said. "I don't mean to be rude but, I never got your name." she said.

"It's Sora and this is Donald and Goofy." Sora said, pointing to his two animal friends behind him. "And about the Organization, what did you see exactly, Beast? Was he after another heart? Are his nobodies here?" Sora asked, looking around a bit, hoping that there were none in sight.
"We probably missed 'im, Sora." Donald answered.
Goofy sighed, "Well, we were close but I guess we weren't close enough."
Beast shook his head, "No. He happened to by Faith and I don't know what went between the two. Faith. . . What did go on between you two?" Beast asked as he and Sora turned to her, waiting to see what she had to say.

Faith looked at both of them. "Well... It started when I was walking in the halls. I was going back to my room to practice my flute, like I always do. Then something just possessed me to turn around when I saw these... Little black creature things chasing me." she said and took in another breath. "So, in natural instinct, I ran from them. Then when I ran through here, the cloaked man came out of no where and saved me. He used these odd weapons though... They had just came up out of no where." Faith said. "After he saved me, I went up to him and thanked him. I asked for his name but I never got it. That's when Beast came, he disappeared." she finished.

Sora clenched his fist lightly, knowing that he had just missed him. "So he was part of the Organization after all. Wait, if he's trying to get hearts, why did he go on and save Faith instead of letting the heartless take her heart? Something's going on here and I don't like it." Sora said, shaking his head from side to side.
"I don't know, Sora, but all that matters now is that she's safe and away from that man. Faith, you should go meet up with Belle in the room up the stairs. She still needs to talk to you." Beast informed as he wanted to tell Sora more of the strange appearances of heartless and nobodies. They seem to be appearing more often.

Faith nodded. She looked back towards Sora and his friends. "It was nice meeting you three." she said politely and began to walk from them. She walked through the hallways towards Belles room. She quietly hummed to herself. As she reached he sisters room, she quietly knocked on the door and opened it slightly, enough to put her head through the doorway. "You wanted to see me Belle?" she asked.

"Ah! Yes, I wanted to see you, darling." Belle said, walking over to Faith and giving her a bear hug. "It's been a while since we had a good long talk." Behind Faith's back, Belle's hand had turned into black claw. Nails extending into a dangerous, dark weapon, Belle was going to use her nails to dig into Faith's body and steal the heart she was looking for.
Suddenly, a lance struck right through Belle's head. Soon, the image of Belle had vanished and what was in its place was a huge version of the shadow heartless. It wasn't long until the heartless was completely gone. There Faith was again, in and out of trouble just like that. You have to wonder. . . who saved her?
Coming through the open window, the figure from before stepped into the room, arms crossed over his chest. "Yet again, you have gotten yourself into more trouble. Is there something about you that make the heartless want to steal your heart so badly? . . . If not, then what else could it have been?" Her savior had returned. . . Surprsing, no?