Once Upon a Time, there was a prince named Adam who lived with a wonderful King and Queen. They were kind and understanding royals who ruled over their subjects with pride, something their son did not seem to understand. As much as they tried to teach their son to be kind and selfless, Adam became the opposite - he was too prideful and he was selfish, and felt he was entitled to things because he was royalty. He would be King some day, did he really need to learn how to be good when people would just obey him? Surrounded by servants who cared for him, Adam had a childhood that most would have dreamed of. The more he grew up, the more selfish he became. Things he wanted, he was given. His life was exactly how it wanted, and people played the roles that he wanted them to. He didn't need to be kind to be a Prince, he just had to live out his life - because when everything was handed to you on a silver platter, you had no reason to change who you were. So Adam did just that. Lived his life.
Until one day, his parents died. Left alone to control the castle himself, but not yet a King, Adam only got more ruthless to hide the pain of losing his parents. A Prince did not need to feel! A Prince did not need to do anything other than rule and have servants that adored him. He was a prideful Prince, and did not need to give away any emotions. It was this thought that would get Adam into more trouble than what was worth.
A year passed, and soon it was Christmas Eve, and the castle was decked out for the holiday spirit, despite the fact that Prince Adam refused to have anyone to celebrate -- it would take the attention off of him. Outside, the wind howled, and late into the night there was a knock on the door. Adam hollered for his servant Lumiere to answer it, but when he got no answer, he complained as he walked to the front of the Castle and opened the door.
In front of him stood a beggar, who hoped to spend a night in the castle to get out of the cold. Adam refused. The beggar woman asked again, and once again, Adam turned up his nose towards her, refusing shelter to such an old and ugly woman. Why kind of Prince would he be if he let the old and weak in? They did not earn it! As he lectured the woman, a green shimmer took her form over, and instead of an old woman, a beautiful young woman stood. She scowled at Adam, calling him evil and selfish. Adam tried to apologize, having never seen such a beautiful woman in all his life, but he had done his damage. The woman declared him evil, and she would curse him for his sins. If he was a selfish beast who could not love, then that was exactly what she would turn him into.
Adam was hit with a green smoke and passed out. When he came to hours later, it was to find he was no longer a man, but a beast. He had horns, he had large sharp teeth, he had claws. There was nothing around him but a mirror, and a rose sitting on a nearby table. On the table rest a note - it read that "if he could learn to love another and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken", but if he failed, he would remain a beast forever.
When he realized what was going on, Adam raged. He broke down tables, he ruined the mirror, and by knocking off the table, a petal from the rose dropped. His heart immediately clenched and he fell to the floor in pain, grabbing his chest. When a candelabra started hopping towards him and talking, along with a clock and a teapot, he knew something was seriously wrong.
Despite the witch's warning about the rose and his life, Adam -- though now calling himself Beast -- did nothing to change his fate. Despite the begging and pleading of his servants, Beast stuck in the castle, refusing to do anything to change. He remained as selfish as a beast as he was as a human, and had resigned to his fate.
One day though, fate decided it had other plans. Without Beast knowing it, the servants had let in a kindly old man into the castle, in search for help. But once Beast realized what was going on, he had the old man locked up, in fear that the man would tell the world that the castle was now home to a hideous beast and talking objects. He treated the man with cruelty, and treated the man with how he thought all outsiders needed to be treated - without care, without kindness. The man stayed in the dungeon for a week before another visitor came calling.
Again, the servants let the visitor in, but instead of an old man, it was a young woman, curious and looking for something -- and she found it: her father. When Beast discovered the young woman, he screamed at her, he roared, he claimed her as his prisoner. She was stubborn and refused to bend to his will, and begged him to let her father go. The old man pleaded, saying he would never tell anyone about the beast in the castle, but Beast was not moved. When the woman, who said her name was Belle, would take her father's place, the old man was unhappy but Beast agreed.
With Belle in the castle, Beast started to change. He hated the sight of her around, because it reminded him of how he used to be - human, a prince, possibly capable of something better if he had let himself. He warned that Belle was not to go into the West Wing of the castle, but when he caught her there, he banished her to her room forever. She did not need to see his truth, and certainly did not need to see the rose -- the only thing left that gave him false hope.
Yet, he was slowly growing dependent on Belle. He would never admit to it, his stubbornness getting in the way, but she was getting under his skin, or fur, as it were. But catching her in the West Wing, catching her almost holding onto the rose, the thing that kept his curse from being a forever thing, Beast raged. He roared at her to get out, and she left -- visibly upset. Belle was finally done with how he had been treating her, and Beast was done thinking he could trust someone other than himself. A few hours passed, and despite telling Lumiere that he was sticking to his decision, the wise candle convinced Beast to go out and get Belle back. By the time he had tracked her into the woods, he had found her just in time to see her surrounded by wolves.
Belle looked frightened, and Beast jumped into action, attacking the wolves and scaring them off, getting badly wounded in the process. He had saved her life, for reasons he didn't know why, but found himself getting weak. With Belle's help he made it back to the castle, and things started to change.
They became friendlier. They became interested in each other, and Belle reminded him what it was like to be civilized, and he in turn gifted her with his library (which had not been used for years) once he learned her love of the written word. The more they talked, despite his temper sometimes coming through, the more Beast wanted Belle around.
Then one day, he decided to gift her with a magic mirror, one that would let her see whatever she wanted to see in the outside world. She saw her father, she saw her father coming to get her from the castle, lost and dying. When Belle begged Beast to let her go and save her father, he did something neither one of them expected - he understood. He told Belle to save her father, and he would do what he could to help him. He had finally put someone else in front of himself, and Beast realized something -- he was in love with Belle. But there was no way a woman like her could ever love a beast like him.
Much to his fear, Beast found out that a mob was coming to the castle, as they had heard a beast was holding their beloved Belle captive. Fighting followed, and Beast was again hurt badly, but as long as Belle was not harmed, then he would be okay. He would gladly give his life for hers if it meant she would be happy -- he no longer cared about himself, but cared for her, a first in his life. He was close to death now, and was wounded fatally. By the time Belle came to him, he was cold and not moving.
He was only barely awake, barely alive, hearing Belle's voice very distantly say that she loved him, she didn't want him to die. Then everything, instead of going black, went white.
He felt his body change, and he felt his lungs fill with air, and when he opened his eyes, it was to see he was resting in Belle's arms, and she was shocked at what she saw. Unable to fully find his voice or move, she simply held up a mirror to his face, and what he saw was something unbelievable. He was human. Beast had turned back into Adam.
Adam had never thought he would see the curse broken, but it was, and he had a woman that loved him, being able to see past the horrible man he was and instead to the man that he could become. He courted her properly once his wounds had healed, and asked her to marry him shortly after. She became his wife, and they started to have their happy life together, excited to see what the future could hold.
Until, the war for the kingdom started. Determined to protect Belle and their friends, Adam told his wife that he was going to take up in the war, he was going to fight. He refused to let evil win. Lumiere and Belle begged Adam not to go, but his decision had been made -- Adam was determined to give Belle the happy ending she so deserved, and nothing would stop him.
That was until everything changed, and his future was completely ripped away from him. There was no way he could have seen anything like this happen.