God Help the Outcasts: A Disney Crossover Fanfic

Chapter Twenty-One: City In Your Hands

"But I--"

"And now, all Paris is burning because of you!" He threw the figure onto the table and pointed accusingly at Quasi.

"She was kind to me, master," Quasi said quietly.

"You idiot!" Frollo cleared the table with one swipe of his arm. "That wasn't kindness, it was cunning!" He circled the table and grabbed Quasi by the shirt, shaking him. "She's a gypsy! Gypsies are not capable of real love! Think, boy! Think of your mother!"

Nakoma choked back her angry retort with some effort. She couldn't expose herself, not now. This was Quasi's fight. The judge was quiet for a moment, and then cleared his throat. He let go of Quasi's collar, leaving the poor boy heaving for breath on the floor.

"But what chance could a poor, misshapen child like you have against her heathen treachery?" He studied the figure of Esmeralda on the table for a moment and then pulled a dagger from his robes, spearing it and holding it over the flame of the overturned candle. "Well, never you mind, Quasimodo. She will be out of our lives soon enough. I will free you from her evil spell." He tossed the figure onto the floor where it lay in flames, illuminating the terror and confusion splayed wildly on Quasi's face.

As Nakoma watched the figure burning, and saw Frollo's triumphant smile, the flames seemed to enkindle something fierce in her heart. Quasi's horrified face sent it boiling, churning through her veins. Leaping out from her hiding place, she stood between the enraged judge and his terrified charge, throwing her arms out like a shield.

"Stop it!" she cried. "You're a monster!"

Frollo's face twisted with confusion, but as he recognized her, his eyes widened and his lips turned up in a wicked grin.

"Ah, I'd been wondering where you had crept off to," he snarled. Before she could make a move, he snatched her wrist and pulled her away from Quasi. Her fierce anger turned to ice in her veins as she realized her mistake.

"Master, no!" Quasi reached toward her, but Frollo stopped him with a look that could have chilled the sun.

"You dare disobey me again?" he thundered. Seeing Quasi retreat, he softened. "This is your just punishment. You see what they have done? You see the trouble these gypsies--" he shook Nakoma's wrist violently-- "have caused? And I wonder who gave them reason to defy me?" Quasi began to back away, shame slowly dawning on his face in red blooms.

"But I didn't--"

" 'Tis no matter now, Quasimodo. What's done is done. But now, we can exterminate the gypsies once and for all. You see, Quasimodo, I know where their hideout is. And tomorrow, at dawn, I attack with a thousand men." He gave Nakoma a glance of withering contempt. "This one will be the bait to make the others come along quietly."

"No!" Nakoma shrieked, using all of her strength to try to get away. But it was no use—the judge's grasp was iron. He pulled her toward the staircase; she glanced back desperately at Quasi, who was staring after her, frozen with indecision. "Help me!" she pleaded feebly, tears forming as she realized he wasn't going to move. Frollo had him trapped in a cage of fear and guilt so strong it had immobilized him. A guy like you, Quasi...you can break out of this!

But as his form receded, as she was pulled farther into the cold darkness of the stone stairwell, her only glimmer of hope vanished. I thought I could count on a guy like you...don't prove me wrong!

* * *

Quasi couldn't believe it. Frollo had snatched her, dragged her away, and all he could do was watch. She was going to die. Esmeralda was too, along with all the other gypsies. And there was nothing he could do. With Nakoma gone, he felt all the warmth leave him; it was as if someone had extinguished his only candle, his only point of light in his dark, cold bell-tower. And Esmeralda...he couldn't bear to think of her engulfed in those destroying flames the way his master had so casually burned his beloved figurine.