Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender OR The Beauty and the Beast

Spoiler Warning!

If you haven't seen season 3 of V:LD, this story spoils important information that is revealed during that season. If you have seen it, or just simply don't care about spoilers, please continue on!

It began long ago, the seemingly unconnected stories of a forgotten princess and a tortured prince, trapped and untouched by time for nearly 10,000 years. It all started when a vengeful empire laid waste upon a peaceful kingdom and a sorceress toyed with the natural order.

The story of the two monarchies is a tragic tale, for once they had been allies. The king and queen had even invited the emperor and empress to their kingdom to meet their newborn child, a daughter who so early in her life had the beauty and grace of a princess. However, while the king wished nothing more for his kingdom than peace and prosperity, the emperor grew hungry for power and desired to spread his empire's rule to new lands.

Over a short time the empress became deathly ill, and convinced her husband in order to save her life he must perform a dark ritual that would require the assistance of the king and three other rulers. Knowing well that four leaders would never agree to such a task he tricked them into taking part, but once his ruse was discovered it was too late. The ritual had been completed, but to the king and the other three rulers it appeared to have been a failure, as the emperor and empress both lost their lives in the process. The empire began to fall without its rulers, there was nothing the king could do to save his friend's land except to promise a home for his former subjects.

As the empire crumbled in on itself, a surprise came shortly after. The emperor rose from the dead, a new life and a new mind with him, the dark magic used in the ritual having granted him eternal life. Seeing his empire falling and his subjects scurrying to the allied kingdom, he believed it to be the king's fault so that he could conquer the empire for himself. Angered, and aided by a dark sorceress, the emperor set his wrath upon the kingdom. Innocent people were slaughtered for his "revenge" and the king and queen feared not for their lives but their daughter's.

They decided to send the princess, who was still very young, to a far away farm town with the king's advisor where she would be safe and sound and able to one day carry on the family line. A decision that was not a moment too late, for once the princess and the advisor had gone, the emperor and his men destroyed the castle, along with its rulers. The princess would grow up in a foreign kingdom with no knowledge of her heritage, with her only memory being of her parents loving faces.

The princess's kingdom wasn't the only one to find misfortune. There was another, much smaller kingdom ruled by a gentle king and his son, a brave prince with a leader's instinct. He was beloved by all his subjects, and he was a friend to all his servants. Everyone believed that under his and his father's rule they would see peace for decades to come, but tales are not usually written about peaceful kingdoms.

The king was suddenly called away to assist in battle elsewhere, leaving the prince in charge. Sadly, shortly after a messenger arrived to tell of the king's death and the battle's loss. With the king gone it was the prince's job to take the throne in his place. However, on the day before his coronation, a sorceress arrived and with her dark magic she managed to capture the prince, experimenting on him and turning him into an unforgiving monster.

The prince, still holding some semblance of free will, managed to escape back to his castle, but the sorceress was not going to let her pet get away so easily, so she froze time in his kingdom, and enchanted his castle. Making it so that he and his people would never age, but only he and his castle servants would remember the misfortune brought to them while his people would forget him and the curse they bore. The sorceress taunted the prince, by providing only one way to break the curse, a girl must fall in love with him. But having left him scarred and deformed the sorceress was sure the curse would never be broken.

10,000 years would pass for the prince in his castle, and the world would become overrun by the immortal emperor's rule. As for the princess, her coming of age came and went, but she never emerged to claim her throne. Presuming her dead, the world let her memory fade from existence, and she was forgotten by history all together. It seemed likely that the story would end there, with nothing more to tell. And it might have, if not for a small stroke of luck, and single act that would set in motion two joined destinies, and ignite the fire of salvation.

A/N: It has been nearly 2 years since I did so much as update a fic, let alone publish a new one. I've been stuck between writer's block and just spending more time focusing on my original ideas. I've thought of plenty of fanfiction during that time, but I've not really gotten past writing the summary for any of them. So, I thought I would try to break through this block with something relatively simple, a Beauty and the Beast AU. There is of course no shortage of BatB AUs, but this one has been on my mind since I started watching V:LD, and I was honestly surprised by how well a lot of the characters fit into different roles. Some of them actually worked for multiple roles, but with some help from friends on Twitter I managed to get everybody's roles in order. It should also be known that BatB has always been, and probably will always be, my favorite princess story, especially considering I've always related to Disney's version of Belle. Loving books, being a bit of an outcast, I even have the brown hair and eyes. However, I don't intend to follow Disney's storyline to a T. I'll be drawing from a few different versions of the story as well as adding my own ideas to better mix the Voltron universe in, and you know...so I don't feel like a huge copycat. I'm always a little weary of AUs that build off of pre-existing stories, but here I go writing my own! Here's hoping you all enjoy it. The prologue will probably be the shortest chapter in the entire story, after that I'll be back to my 2,000 word minimum. I'll do my best to have the next chapter out within the week!

Thank you for reading and remember, reviews and feedback are always appreciated!

P.S. If you're reading this on August 21, 2017, enjoy the eclipse!