The Guardians' Adventures of Beauty and the Beast

**The Guardians' Adventures of Beauty and the Beast** is a crossover adventure created by C.R. Hathaway.

## Plot

In the prologue, told through stained glass windows, an old beggar woman arrives at the castle of a French prince. The woman asks for shelter from the cold, and in return, offers the young prince a rose. Repulsed by her appearance, the prince turns her away. The beggar warns him not to judge by appearances, but the Prince ignores her and shuts the door on her. The woman then throws off her disguise, revealing that she is a beautiful enchantress. The Prince tries to apologize, but she has already seen the lack of kindness in his heart. She conjures a powerful curse, transforming him into a hideous beast, his servants into household items, and the entire castle and all its surroundings into a dark, forbidding place, so that he will learn not to judge by appearances. The curse can only be broken if the Beast learns to love another and receives the others love in return before the last petal of the enchantress's rose withers and falls; if not, he will be doomed to remain a beast forever. As the years pass, the Beast sits in his castle wallowing in despair, convinced that no one could ever love him.

Years later, Julian, Alice and Zia land in a small French town, where they meet a young peasant woman named Belle and become quick friends with her. They also quickly dislike the ego-maniacal town hero named Gaston. Following Belle home, Julian and Alice meet her father. After finishing his latest invention, Maurice rides off to a local fair but becomes lost. After some time, he finds a castle, but is captured by The Beast.

When Maurice's horse comes back without him, Belle, Julian, Alice and Zia go out to find him. The trail leads them to The Beast's castle, where they find Maurice imprisoned. When they confront the Beast, Belle offers herself in trade for her fathers freedom, with Julian, Alice and Zia staying with Belle.

In a tour of the Castle, Belle, Julian, Alice and Zia inadvertently end up in the forbidden West Wing, where Belle is scared off in the fight between Julian and The Beast. A pack of wolves soon chases after her, though she is saved by The Beast while Julian and the others try to catch up with her. This attack strengthens Belles relationship with the beast.

One night, Belle and The Beast Belle feels lonely at missing her father. When Beast lets her use the Enchanted Mirror, she sees her father dying in the woods as he struggles to come to her rescue, and with only hours left before the rose wilts, the Beast allows her to leave, giving her the mirror to remember him by.

Belle, Julian and the others find Maurice and take him home, but Gaston arrives with a lynch mob led by Monsieur D'Arque of the local insane asylum. Unless she agrees to marry Gaston, Monsieur D'Arque will lock her father up. Belle proves Maurice sane by showing them the Beast with the magic mirror, but when Belle furiously confronts Gaston after he mocks her for being in love with a "monster" by saying that he is the real monster, Gaston becomes jealous, snaps, and arouses the mob's fear of the Beast, leading them to the castle to kill him. Gaston locks Belle, Maurice, Julian and the others in their basement, but Chip, who stowed away in Belle's luggage, chops the basement door apart with Maurice's machine, allowing Belle and Maurice to hurry back to the Beast's castle on Phillipe.

While the servants and the mob battle for control of the castle, Gaston wanders off by himself and, finding the Beast, attacks him. By being too depressed to speak, the Beast unintentionally reinforces the preconception that he is dumb. The Beast regains his will when he sees Belle and the others arriving at the castle. After winning a heated battle, the Beast spares Gaston's life and climbs up to a balcony where Belle and the others are waiting. Unknown to them, Gaston has secretly followed the Beast and, still consumed by his lust for Belle and jealousy of the Beast, stabs him from behind. This proves to be Gaston's downfall as he loses his balance and falls off the balcony to his death.

As Belle finds out that the Beast truly loves her as he lies on the ground, apparently dead from his injuries, she begins weeping over his loss and sadly whispers that she loves him, just as the final petal from the enchanted rose falls off, breaking the spell. Belle watches in amazement as the Beast is revived and turned back into a human. Belle studies him carefully, recognizing him as the man from the portrait in the West Wing, and seeing that he still has the same eyes, she says "It is you!" The two kiss, turning the servants human and transforming the castle back into its original elegance. The last scene shows Belle and the prince dancing in the ballroom as her father and the servants happily watch them