Life in a New Light

By Marisa

Chapter 1: A Change in Plans

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Carpet fluttered silently over the Land of the Black Sand. It was dangerous, but Genie floated loyally next to him, with Jasmine, Abu and (reluctantly) Iago along for the ride on carpet. He hadn't a clue what he was up against, and might need all the help he could get.

The group knew well by now that Mozenrath posessed the Crystal of Ix, a powerful item that could trap any creature of magic. Genie had insisted on coming along, however – protecting his best friend was something more important to him than anything.

Aladdin gripped the wool edge tightly, keeping a sharp eye out for Mozenrath... and whatever new item the sorcerer had seemed so eager to protect.

****

The search had started when a wealthy merchant that had been visiting the palace made a passing comment at dinner with Jasmine, Aladdin and the Sultan.

"Speaking of dangerous routes..." The merchant had commented, "I saw a lone cart heading in the direction of the accursed Land of Black Sands on my way here."

That was when Aladdin, for the first time that night, had paid attention. "What was on it?"

"Not sure..." continued the merchant, "It was heavily guarded, surrounded by soldiers... they seemed very dazed, though... as if they had no soul! Of course, being out in the desert for so long, they.—" He stopped short. "Where are you going?"

Aladdin had left to get ready for a trip to Mozenrath's Citadel.

****

Meanwhile, Mozenrath watched patiently from the confinement of his citadel, using a simple spell to spy on the group of heroes.

"As I thought. The mamluks and the cart lured them here." He turned to his familiar. "You know what to do, Xerxes."

Xerxes gurgled a laugh, quickly flying out the window.

****

"Whoah!" Genie quickly morphed into an owl that looked suspiciously like Merlin's familiar, Archemedes. "These eyes don't lie, Al – flying eel straight ahead!"

"Carpet, let's move!" Aladdin called, and the rug obediently rose and sped up – as did Xerxes.

In an attempt to lose the eel, carpet descended toward the ground, with Genie flapping along. He poofed back to normal and grabbed the back tassels of carpet. As his tail brushed the ground, he instantly morphed into a shocking blue hedgehog – and ran.

Fast.

The speed was intense as Genie pushed carpet along at what was soon to become mach speed.

"A hedgehog?" Jasmine whispered to herself, glancing back at genie. . That particular animal wasn't exactly known for running fast, so why choose it? But if it was getting them away from that annoying snake, it worked for her.

"Cover your ears, everyone!" Genie called, "there's about to be a sonic—"

BOOM!!

"Yeah, that's it." Genie dug his heels deep into the soft earth of Mozenrath's dead kingdom, leaving a trail of glass as the friction melted the sand. Carpet stopped conveniently at the entrance to Mozenrath's Citadel, which was surrounded by Mamluks.

"A stealthy entrance, you said." Iago scoffed, "That went over well."

"Not a problem!" Genie stepped back and changed from Sonic the Hedgehog to his common Super Genie persona, flexing his muscles. "I can take a few Mamluks! I—whooooah!!" He stepped back and slipped on the glass he had created moments before, wobbling around and finally landing flat on his back.

"Oh, such grace your genie has, Aladdin!"

Aladdin whirled, turning his attention to the young sorcerer. "Mozenrath!"

Mozenrath sneered, "The one and only."

Aladdin readied to charge forward and shove his fist down the sorcerer's throat, but he was stopped when he, Jasmine, Iago, Abu and Carpet were grabbed by Mamluks.

Xerxes, meanwhile, slithered through the air, following the trail of glass, until he came across genie. With a loud hiss, the eel bolted down and sunk its teeth deep into Genie's arm.

"YEEEEOW!" Genie cried, swatting Xerxes and turning into a characture of Evander Holyfield, complete with teeth-shaped chunk missing from ear (And now, his forearm as well).

"Genie!" Aladdin glanced back.

"I'm fine, Al!" Genie poofed into a dentist, "But the snake won't be when I'm done with him! I'll—gah! Let me go!!" Mamluks caught hold of him too. With little effort, Genie melted out of the mamluks' hands, drifted a few meters, then reformed into the Terminator.

"Hasta la Vista, baby." Genie readied his gun, when it suddenly disappeared in his hand. After a moment, he sighed. "Somewhere in the world, an overprotective Soccer Mom complained about my gun."

Mozenrath made a motion with his hand. "Relax, your gun won't be nessicary." Aladdin glowed a pinkish red before floating up out of the Mamluks' hands and toward Mozenrath. Carpet struggled against the undead's grip and reached for Aladdin with his tassels, who in turn tried to reach for carpet against the magic binding him.

"Once I have Aladdin, you may all go free. Of course, I doubt any of you will leave peacefully without your precious Aladdin."
"You've got that right." Jasmine snapped, "Let him go, and we'll go easy on you!"

"You're in no position to make threats, Princes."

Jasmine smirked. "Neither was I at Dagger Rock, and look how that turned out."

Mozenrath winced. Dagger Rock wasn't a memory he enjoyed bringing up. Beaten by a mortal. A girl. A princess!! "If you're so eager to rescue your precious fiancé, go right ahead... if you can get to us." With a swing of his hand, he, Xerxes, and Aladdin disappeared. The mamluks released their hold and sunk down into the ground.

Jasmine stared for a moment. "Aladdin! I'm coming!" She cried, rushing forward, and yanking on the Citadel's humongous door. Genie floated over and grabbed the same handle, and together, the door was ajar enough to walk through. Jasmine wasted no time and rushed inside – only to disappear.

"Jaz?" Genie called, looking around. Abu chirped and scurried to the entrance where Jasmine disappeared, and without warning, he was gone as well.

Genie morphed into a police officer and set up "Police Line – Do Not Cross" tape around the door. "Okay! Nobody else crosses this line until I figure out what's going on!"

Iago flapped over and perched himself on the tape, looking down. "I know exactly what this is – a teleport tile. I recognize the designs." Ruffling his feathers a bit, he added, "Jafar tried for years to get it right, but never did. It always went awry and sent me to the wrong place -- I was the guinea pig, of course." He shuddered. "That jerk sent me everywhere – from Agrabah to Camelot to Hyrule. I hate those things." He turned back. "We can all fly, so we shouldn't be affected, unless we land on it."

"So where are Jasmine and Abu?"

"They could be anywhere, as long as this tile's compainion is there."

"Best place to start looking is wherever that tile leads." Genie concluded, having a rare moment of solemnity.

Iago snorted. "Yeah, right! He probably has it rigged so none of us can get back here! You know Mozenrath. Besides, we have to look for Al, too!" He paused. "By we, I mean you, of course. Anyway, if we still had Jasmine and Abu, we could split up... 'we' still meaning 'you', mind you... but then again, if we had them, we wouldn't need to split up."

"Mozenrath kidnapped Aladdin directly. I'm guessing that Mozenrath has it in for him the most, even though Mozenrath has enough reason to hate both Jasmine and Al enough to hurt them both...or even..."

The group was silent. Carpet, who had no voice, stood still.

Iago nodded. "Well, I'll be going. Let me know how it all turns out!" 

Genie grabbed the parrot's tail. "Oh no you don't. You know more about dark magic than I do, and that's all Mozenrath deals with. We need you."

Carpet 'nodded' and Iago sighed.

****

Aladdin reappeared in what looked like some kind of laboratory. Books were scattered across tables, shelves and the floor. Corked vials and beakers holding bubbling, multicolored potions were shoved onto a group of shelves in a far corner. Mozenrath stood in the center of the room, smirking. Aladdin charged at the sorcerer. However, Mozenrath took hold of him with magic and sent the younger boy sprawling backwards to the wall. Shackles chained to the walls came to life,  clamping around Aladdin's wrists and ankles. The boy struggled uselessly.

"A futile attempt." Scoffed Mozenrath, turning towards Xerxes.

"Futile!" Echoed the eel, spitting out something blue. Aladdin felt sick as he realized that it was the chunk of genie Xerxes had bit out of the spirit's arm, just a little smaller than... what had Genie called it? A baseball?

Mozenrath pointed at it, and it rose off the stone ground effortlessly. "Even when separated from the rest of him, a piece of your Genie still contains and gives off magic, you know."

"How informative. Now let me go!"

Mozenrath chuckled. "Of course, if the piece is separated too long from the rest of the body, it dies and becomes useless."

"What's your point?" Aladdin snapped.

"My point is, as long as I can keep this piece of Genie alive and separate, I'll never have to worry about the trouble of capturing him again – If I bide my time, I'll be able to harvest as much magic as I want just from this."

"And I suppose you want me to ask how you're going to keep it alive?"

"That," Mozenrath pulled his right arm back, "Is where you come in." He thrust that arm forward. With a burst of magic, the piece of Genie hurtled toward Aladdin's chest, left bare by his bluish vest. The boy cried out, and the scream faded to a soft gasp, and Aladdin fell limp.

"Theoretically, your body should be able to retain the magical flesh and keep it alive." He strolled over to Aladdin and, placing a hand under his chin, lifted his head to stare at eye level. Aladdin wanted to struggle, but couldn't find the strength.

So tired... Aladdin thought wearily, letting his eyes droop closed.

Mozenrath continued. "If it works, I'll be harvesting magic off of you for the rest of your life. And if it doesn't work..." He pulled his hand away, letting Aladdin's head drop. "Well, that's one less street rat in the world."

Aladdin's chest was burning, yet he couldn't find the strength to do anything about it. Slowly, he managed to open his eyes once more to look down at his chest. There was, as he expected, a large blue spot there. I'll worry about it later... So tired, I need to sleep... his eyes closed once again.

Mozenrath watched curiously. The sudden energy drop he hadn't expected – it would cut in on his time to gloat, but at least he didn't have to worry about the brat escaping... for now. Perhaps now, he could...

His thoughts trailed off as he eyed the blue spot on Aladdin's chest. He had barely expected it to live... and now it was spreading? Slowly but surely, the spot was growing, spreading across his chest, extending to his arm, running up his neck...

Mozenrath smirked. This is turning out better than I had hoped.

****

"It's been three hours!" Iago squawked, flapping his wings for effect. "We have no idea where we're going, and this place is huge! Now, I'm sure you two don't mind, but some of us here aren't as immortal as you and the rug!"

"We'll find him." Genie said determinedly. "Al's my best friend, and the one who gave me freedom. I'm not giving up."

Iago rolled his eyes. "The kid's really rubbed off on you, you know that? You do realize that if Mozenrath finds you here, he's going to trap you in the crystal of Ixca- er, Ix!" Iago didn't dare say its full name; if Mozenrath had one handy close by, it would pull them in and trap them immediately – A flying carpet, a genie, and a former sorcerer's familiar were all three magical in some way.

"Au contraire," A calm voice echoed through the desolate stone hallways as Mozenrath appeared before the group, "I no longer have any need for you, genie."

"Ohh, and why's that?"

"I have something better." Mozenrath grinned maliciously. "I want your little Princess and the ape to be here to see this as well." As he waved his gloved hand, Jasmine and Abu appeared.

"Genie!" Jasmine cried, "Carpet! Iago! Thank goodness!"

Abu jumped onto carpet and glanced around, chirping something that sounded like "Aladdin?"

Genie shook his head. "Sorry, monkey boy... didn't find him."

"Oh, but you will." Mozenrath sneered. "You see, I decided to use him as a sort of... medium to harvest your magic by keeping the bit of you Xerxes bit off alive inside his body."

Genie's and Iago's eyes went wide, while Carpet brought two front tassels up forward close to him in a motion of worry.

"THAT'S INSANE!" Iago cried, flapping wildly.

"What? How is it insane?" Jasmine asked, her voice littered with worry.

Genie put a comforting hand on her shoulder, then morphed into a stereotypical charicature of Albert Einstein. A chalkboard appeared in front of him, and he pointed to a stick figure with squiggly lines coming out of it. "Zee energy needed to support zee non-magical creature is much less than zee the energy that supports zee magical creature, und zee non-magical creature zerefore vill not be able to zupport magic."

Jasmine stared at him curiously. "Say what?"

"What he means is," Iago began, "Al doesn't have the strength to keep any living magic inside of him alive. That piece of genie in him is gonna suck him dry..."

Genie poofed back to normal and stared at the ground. "And then it's going to kill him."

Mozenrath cackled. "Honestly, that's what I thought was going to happen as well. But we all forgot to take into account the human body's greatest defense – adaption."

As he paused, the group below took that in. What could it mean?

Mozenrath continued. "Somehow, Aladdin's body realized that it couldn't support the bit of Genie inside – but the bit of flesh was small. Small enough to give Aladdin's body time to analyze the foreign substance and change into something that could support it before it could kill him." Mozenrath turned to a darkened hallway. "Bring it here, Xerxes."

Everyone watched Mozenrath, suspense racking their nerves. Mozenrath turned to face them once again as Xerxes brought the item Mozenrath had called for – a small oil burning lamp, not much different from Genie's.

The horrible realization hit everyone like a sword in the heart. Mozenrath saw this in their eyes, and cackled. "Ah, I see you all realize it now... What better to support the flesh of a genie than another genie?" Mosenrath paused a moment, smirking, then rubbed the lamp. "My genie!"