Note: This story takes place ten years after the end of "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" and is partially inspired by the classic Kim McFarland DWD fan-fic "Time In A Battle". Since every character mentioned in this story is copyrighted by Disney and there ARE a few Shadow references, I'm naturally writing this story with absolutely no profit motive
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In the middle of the ruins of a dark citadel deep within the area known as the Land of the Black Sands, a man in his early-30s garbed in dark blue robes that cover his entire body except for his right arm, which had a skeletal appearance, as well as a black cape and turban, stepped up to a bubbling cauldron and put in a small, unidentified item. "Perfect." the man cackled before adding "Now all I have to do is wait two hours for proper mixing and heating and this formula will be complete. It's been eleven years since I lost my magic glove to that meddlesome street urchin and his friends. I've spent that SAME eleven years hunting for ingredients to a potion that will not only restore my right arm to what it was before I started wearing the gauntlet, but also renew the life energy I lost due to the gauntlet AND, most importantly, infuse me with enough internalized magical energy to make me even more powerful than I was with that gauntlet. Thanks to the continued interference of Aladdin and his friends, I've had to settle for obtaining one ingredient at a time and, even then, each ingredient generally took me six months of careful planning to obtain. Still, the hard work will soon prove to be worth it. Curse that Aladdin, though. If not for him I would ALREADY be supreme ruler of the seven deserts by now. Once I obtain my rightful power, I'll destroy Aladdin or my name isnt' Mozenrath. Actually, in all fairness, Aladdin himself hasn't given me any trouble in seven years; not since his wife's father retired and his wife gave birth to triplets, which made him too busy to juggle the twin responsibilities of being Sultan AND a father of three. Truth be told, it's been Aladdin's FATHER, Cassim, who has been giving me all the trouble for the past seven years. Still, as they say, Aladdin DID get the ball rolling. My world domination campaign would be so much easier if Aladdin was never born and Cassim never got a chance to interfere with me. Hmmmm, there's an idea. As soon as my ultimate wizard's power brew is ready and I have had enough practice in using that kind of power again, I could find a way to travel back 30 years to when Aladdin was first conceived and not only kill Cassim, but his then-pregnant wife, thereby eliminating both of my most hated enemies in one fell swoop."
"Mozenrath ruthless and clever" cackled a flying snake who lands on Mozenrath's shoulder.
"Indeed, faithful Xerexes. Indeed." Mozenrath laughed as the cauldron bubbled and Mozenrath started looking at a set of scrolls and maps from 30 years earlier.
"What is Mozenrath doing?" Xerexes asked in an almost-too-eager matter.
"Simple. I'm studying these maps and scrolls to give myself a good feeling about where Cassim and his wife lived 30 years ago" Mozenrath answered with a sinister grin.
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Two hours later, Mozenrath returned to the cauldron and cautiously took a sip. After a few moments of intense pain as a result of the massive mystic energy surge, Mozenrath looked at his right arm. For the first time in more years than he cared to remember, it actually had flesh covering it. What's more, he felt more energized than he had been in over a decade.
Mozenrath decided to test the part of the formula he MOST wanted to test; the internalized mystic energy portion. With a glow around his right hand, Mozenrath glared at a nearby twelve-ton boulder and let out a blast that reduced the boulder to vapor. Mozenrath then concentrated enough to surround himself with a glow that lifted him a good 50 feet off the ground. With a blast from his left hand while he was still in the air, Mozenrath then caused a 50 ton chunk of rock from a nearby cliff to come loose and with a glow around his eyes, effortlessly caught the chunk of rock and mentally propelled it in the air at a rate of six times the speed of sound. "It works. I've got my dark powers back and I don't even need my gauntlet now." Mozenrath laughed as he gently lowered himself to the ground and added "Once I've spent a few days practicing using my newly restored powers, then I'll travel back in time and deal with my most major enemies before they even know me. No problem on that last front, considering that I already have all the ingredients to pull off time travel spells.". With that, Mozenrath calmly walked away while with a glow surrounding his right hand, conjured up a giant tornado which he sent spinning off in a southwest direction.
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A week later, After Mozenrath has once more mastered his newly restored magic (in fact, Mozenrath found out, to his pleasure, that he was now four times more powerful than he was when he was wearing the magic gauntlet) and has rebuilt the ruins of his citadel, he then gathers the ingredients he needed to pull off his time travel spell. "I'll only be able to stay in the past for one hour, but that will be 55 minutes more than I'll need since I know where to find my enemies and have the power to easily destroy them." Mozenrath cackled as he used his magic and the gathered ingerients to open a space/time portal to his intended destination. With an evil smile, Mozenrath stepped through said portal.
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Instantly, just as he hoped, Mozenrath found himself 30 years in the past in front of the poor section of Agrahbah. With a magically created telescope, Mozenrath spotted Cassim with his pregnant wife two days before he started his twenty-year search for the Hand of Midas. In a flash of light, Mozenrath appeared in the couple's hubbel and let loose a massive mystic bolt that instantly reduced Cassim and his pregnant wife to smoldering ash. With that, Mozenrath teleported himself back to the space/time portal, returned to the present and sealed up the portal. "Ha, not too shabby. It only took me TWO minutes to pull that off." Mozenrath said to himself as he floated off to examine how much the Seven Deserts has changed without either Aladdin or Cassim around to stop him.
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To his delight, he found much of the Seven Deserts to be in ruins and most of the survivors of the wreckage to be absolutely terrified of him, as if they were seeing a very powerful and very evil ghost "Well, they would have two-thirds of that right." Mozenrath thought with a smile as he neared Agrahbah, much of which is ALSO reduced to rubble. All the sudden, Mozenrath gets nailed with a blast coming from the Royal Palace (or, at least, what's LEFT of the Royal Palace). "Who dares intrude onto MY territory? Nobody terrifies MY subjects EXCEPT ME!" an evil and all-too-familar voice shouted out as Mozenrath got ensnared by a set of mystical energy restraints coming from a magic twice as powerful his own. As Mozenrath got reeled in he looked in horror at who was pulling him in. Though the evil sorcerer hadn't seen this face in over five years in HIS reality he still knew it only too well. It was that blasted parrot who used to associate with Aladdin (and played a big role in foiling no less than three of Mozenrath's schemes during that time) and who was Cassim's partner for five years after he parted ways with Aladdin.
However, this was a slightly different-looking Iago than Mozenrath had seen before. For one thing, this Iago had a look of almost pure evil in his eyes. For another thing, this Iago was garbed in yellow robes, a black cape and a oversized blood red turban (well, oversized for Iago). Finally, this Iago wielded magical power twice as strong as Mozenrath's was now. "Mozenrath? Can that REALLY be you?" the alternate Iago said with a look of recognition in his eyes before adding "I thought you've been dead for nine years, ever since that battle two days after Jafar and I beat you to that last ingredient of that ultimate wizard's power brew.".
"So that's why this parrot is so powerful. His power has the same source as mine. He and Jafar must have both taken a drink of the formula and Iago used his magic to drain off Jafar's. Of course, without Aladdin to semi-reform him, the parrot simply became even more evil as time went on." Mozenrath thought to himself as Iago looked at him with an evil glare and smirk reminisicent of another yellow, black and red-garbed evil Disney bird (take a wild guess).
"I could have sworn I killed you, Mozenrath, but that is VERY easily remedied." Iago cackled as he tightened the magical restraints surrounding Mozenrath and added "Don't bother trying to escape, Mozenrath. I've already scanned what passes for your mind and I can assure you that I'm twice as powerful as you are and I'm nine years more experienced in USING that power.".
With a glow around his left hand, Mozenrath unleashes a flash of mystic light that blinded Iago long enough for Mozenrath to unleash a blast from his right hand that sends Iago flying backwards and releases Mozenrath from the parrot's energy bonds a split-second before Mozenrath would have blacked out. However, Iago was a VERY quick healer and let out a blast of mystic energy too powerful for Mozenrath to block and too fast for him to dodge. As a result of the blast, the evil sorcerer was sent flying a good two miles. "Nice try, Mozie, but even four times more powerful than your other self, you're still no match for me." Iago gloated as he floated off toward the dungeons with the unconscious Mozenrath.
Mozenrath came to in a very strong cage and was about to try to teleport out when he heard an all-too-familar voice cackle "It would be pointless to even try, Mozenrath. Those bars are not only strong enough to withstand the combined strength of 100 Odifferians, but is constructed to nullify the magic of anybody in it. Further more, since the cage is of MAGICAL construction there is no need for a lock and, thus, there's no lock to pick.".
To his horror, he discovered that everything the evil parrot said about the cage is true. Desperate to stall for time until he can think of an escape plan, the evil sorcerer, feigning calmness, simply asked "Seeing how you're going to kill me after you've had your fun with me anyway, it wouldn't hurt to say that I'm impressed about how well you've got the Seven Deserts cowed into submission. You've done an excellent job in terrorizing the populace and laying waste to all in your path."
"It pains me to stoop to such petty tyranny," Iago started in mock sorrow before adding in a sadistic tone "but you wouldn't believe how expensive a really good magical weapon is these days (hey, this is ancient Arabia; they didn't have thermonuclear warheads back then), or at least WOULD BE if I didn't STEAL them.", finishing with the typical arch-villain laugh.
Iago then proceeded to say "The bars on this cell nullify your magic by DRAINING it from your body, keeping you weaker than a newborn kitten, but when I throw ... THE SWITCH (sorry, couldn't resist), all that delicious mystic energy will come flowing back into you 100 times magnified at a rate that will fry you like an undersized sausage.".
The thought of that caused Mozenrath to visibly shake in fear, something that Iago was sadistically aware of as he said "Now, without further ado, THE SWITCH." as he pressed a button on a nearby wall and .... nothing happened (except that Mozenrath wet his pants). After a brief pause, Iago pressed the button four more times and said "Oh, I guess THAT's not it soooo.... it must be .... THIS one." as he flipped a small horizonal switch near the button and, once more nothing happened (though Mozenrath WAS getting increasingly worried). "Okay, that leaves only .... THIS ONE!" as Iago pointed to a large vertical lever near the small switch he just flipped.
With an insane cackle, Iago flipped that switch and sent a painful degree of mystic energy flowing back into Mozenrath. However, JUST at the point when the incoming mystic energy became too much for even HIM to withstand, the evil sorcerer used his newly restored magic to discreetly conjure a powerful mystic shield, praying that it would be enough to save his life. Within a minute, however, Mozenrath had blacked out. A quick mystic scan convinced Iago that Mozenrath was truly dead and teleported the evil sorcerer a good 50 miles away from the palace."
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A spray of water from a still semi-working fountain near him revived the intensely pained Mozenrath about an hour later. Mozenrath knew he was still alive because he was in FAR too much pain to be dead. Apparently, he absorbed JUST ENOUGH mystic energy to create a strong enough protection field to allow him to JUST BARELY survive (the fact that Iago's mystic scan indicated he was dead [though Mozenrath didn't know about Iago scanning him] meant that it was an EVEN closer call than Mozenrath thought). With intense concentration, Mozenrath cast a healing spell on himself. By the time Mozenrath fully healed, which took about an hour, he was too exhausted from maintaining the healing spell to even stand up straight.
After Mozenrath caught his breath enough to regain his strength, he decided to reopen the space/time portal (fortunately, he had the presence of mind to hold on the necessary ingredients for the time travel spell) and stop himself from killing Cassim and his wife. Long story short, he not only suceeded but he did it with such ease as to indicate that he was four times more powerful than when he started out on this quest (which was twice as powerful as the alternate Iago Mozenrath tangled with). After a few quick tests, Mozenrath found out, to his delight that his new power WAS increased fourfold but he quickly kicked himself mentally and said "I could have settled the score with that parrot with this increased power. Oh well, spilled milk and all that stuff."
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After preventing himself from killing Cassim and his wife, Mozenrath decided to try altering the past in another way. After all, any reality when the blasted parrot was as evil as and more powerful than him was one that he didn't want to visit again. Though he was powerful enough to probably beat THAT Iago now, the parrot was crazy enough that Mozenrath didn't want to chance that he had ways of dealing with opponents more powerful than himself. Suddenly, Mozenrath had a thought; Jasmine. That blasted queen was Aladdin's personal glue, the love of his life. Kill Jasmine BEFORE she and Aladdin even met and kill Jafar BEFORE he could call Aladdin's attention to the Cave of Wonders and Aladdin would, forevermore, be nothing more than a mere street rat. Even if Aladdin DID interfere with his plans at first, he would be almost completely on his own, with no Genie or magic carpet to help him. As a bonus, Mozenrath could kill Iago as pay back for what the parrot did (or will do or whatever) to him as a result of his FIRST effort to change the past.
With the time travel spell ingredients and his even stronger magic, Mozenrath created a portal to take him to the Agrahbah Royal palace fifteen years in the past which he hurriedly stepped through.
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When he arrived in the Royal Palace fifteen years in the past, Mozenrath quickly ensnared the attacking royal guards in an incredibly strong mystic energy net and turned the on-rushing Rajah to stone. After that, Mozenrath crushed Jasmine and Jafar into paste with two different sets of energy bonds. When Iago tried to flee, Mozenrath nailed him with a flawlessly aimed fireball which reduced him to a few ounces of smoldering ash. Stepping back through the portal, Mozenrath said to himself "With no Genie and magic carpet to help him, Aladdin is probably long dead by now if he's tried to face the villains he did in MY reality."
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To his surprise, Mozenrath found that the Seven Deserts don't look THAT much different than before he started trying to change the past. In fact, he looked at a caravan being robbed and, to his horror, he heard a familar voice call out "You plunder every caravan that comes your way and you thought you could get away with it? You thought I wouldn't find out?" with an echo that had the gang of thieves looking around in terror as a black blur came up behind two of said thieves and slammed their heads together before pushing them hard into the side of one of the wagons.
Three more thieves pulled out their swords and charged at where the blur took down two of their comrades, but that same blur dashed up to the three over and over again and delivered four very quick and very hard punches to each, which put those three out for the count along with the other two.
The last five thieves looked frantically around, only to have a piece of strong rope snake off from one of the thieves' horses and wrap around those five continuously. Only when all ten thieves have been soundly defeated did the source of the blur appear in full sight. A tall, reasonably-muscled figure dressed all in black, including mask, turban, cape and robes calmly said "You can go on through. These ten cutthroats have learned the hard way not to mess he who knows what villainy lurks in the souls of sentients."
A quick mystic scan indicated that this was unmistakably Cassim and even revealed what happened. Since Aladdin and Jasmine were never married (considering Mozenrath killed Jasmine before Aladdin and Jasmine even met, though Cassim didn't know that), they never received the oracle as a wedding present and the Forty Thieves never crashed the wedding. Because of that, Aladdin never found out about his father being the King of Thieves. Because of THAT, Cassim continued to journey the world in search of the Hand of Midas until, eight years ago, Cassim stumbled on to a temple of mystic monks who, eventually, not only reformed him, but also taught him limited telekinesis, somewhat increased strength and speed and, of course, the power to cloud men's minds. For the past two years, Cassim been operating as a mysterious vigilante (in fact, a vigilante SO mysterious he didn't even have a alias) in atonement for his criminal past.
"Oh well, he's STILL not going to be as troublesome as that blasted parrot was with all that magic power" Mozenrath thought to himself as he fired a mystic bolt at Cassim, though the former thief's increased speed was enough to dodge the blast. However, Mozenrath half-anticipated this and made the blast designed to follow Cassim no matter where he went. Cassim kept dodging the blast and moving toward Mozenrath, using his limited telekinesis to wrap Mozenrath's cape around his neck until he got close enough so that, the next time he dodged, the blast would, instead, hit Mozenrath.
Cassim lifted the evil sorcerer after he fell down and glared at him. Mozenrath spat at Cassim and said "You think I'm going to be as scared of you as a bunch of third-rate thieves were? I'm a sorcerer. In fact, I'm the most powerful sorcerer in the world. I'm not going to be cowed into submission by some two-denara vigilante capable of semi-impressive stage trickery?" as he let loose a blinding flash of mystic light and then levitated Cassim while he was blinded. Mozenrath kept spinning Cassim around and around in mid-air while continously zapping him with low-level mystic bolts just to make the vigilante suffer.
As Mozenrath gloated over his outmatched enemy, Cassim levitated a small stone behind the evil sorcerer and nailed him from behind at 150 miles per hour, causing Mozenrath just enough pain to cause him to let Cassim go. Before Mozenrath could fully shake off the impact of the five-pound rock hitting him at 150 miles per hour, Cassim nailed the sorcerer with a continued barrage of lefts and rights until Mozenrath finally fell unconscious. Cassim dragged the defeated Mozenrath up to his horse, placed the villainous wizard horizonally on the back of said horse and rode off.
Mozenrath, however, quickly came to and teleported himself to safety thinking to himself that he underestimated Cassim because he always figured that the only reason Cassim kept beating him was because Mozenrath didn't have any powers since he lost his glove eleven years earlier. Now, however, he could see where Aladdin picked up his knack for upset victories. Even though Mozenrath was technically the more powerful of the two opponents, Cassim made good use of what powers he DID have. Mozenrath travelled back to stop himself from killing Jasmine, Jafar and Iago, though, unlike when he stopped himself from Cassim and his wife, this was an evenly matched fight until the five-minutes-smarter Mozenrath drained the energy from his past self and made himself twice as powerful as before. With that out of the way, Mozenrath returned to the present.
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Mozenrath grumbled about how his two efforts to alter the past resulted in more formidable opposition than what he was trying to eliminate. When he tried taking Aladdin out of the picture entirely, he indirectly created a villain more fearsome than himself and, when he tried killing Jasmine and Jafar before they even met Aladdin, he created a more formidable version of a familiar foe. But what about if he were to travel back to Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding? He could take both Aladdin and Cassim out of the picture permanently in one fell swoop. After all, he was now ten years more experienced than he was then and 32 times more powerful than when he was wearing his magic gauntlet. Yes, with the extra power and experience, he could EASILY emerge the victor. He could also capture Genie and murder all of Aladdin's friends to ensure they DON'T come seeking revenge later on. With that, Mozenrath decided to use his time travel spell one last time, this time going back only ten years.
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Mozenrath cackled "Well, this is it. Aladdin and Jasmine are just going into their vows and Cassim is waiting outside. All it would take would be a quick all-out burst of mystic energy to create the perfect disaster, one that, with the exception of Genie, nobody in there will be able to survive.". With that, Mozenrath quickly conjured up a giant cyclone, a massive earthquake and a towering flood. The sinister wizard watched with sadistic glee as the cyclone, flood and quake combination engulfed all of Agrahbah and Genie, the sole survivor, flew out and spotted Mozenrath. The sinister wizard glared at his magical blue attacker with a look of near-pity as he conjured up a reinforced bottle and cork that sealed up Genie and shrank to a size that Mozenrath could easily carry in the palm of his hand. With that Mozenrath stepped through the portal with his magical blue captive.
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Mozenrath emerged with a triumphant look in his eyes until he saw what happened to his citadel. It now looked too .... wholesome for his tastes. There was no sinister looking lab, no torture devices, nothing that looked evil. He walked around the citadel cautiously, keeping Genie under wraps the whole time. However, A familar looking skeletal arm comes forward, pulling Genie out of Mozenrath's pockets and releasing him. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to get away with genie-napping. It just wouldn't be right." an eeriely-familiar voice replied in a surprisingly goody-goody tone.
Mozenrath turned around to see ..... himself. Only this Mozenrath was dressed in light blue robes and a white cape and turban and still had the skeletal right arm. Genie zapped anti-magic restraints around the Mozenrath who kidnapped him and the Mozenrath who FREED Genie explained "Apparantly, Genie THOUGHT he saw me ten years ago in Agrahbah the day all of his friends died. All of his friends, of course, except Eden and her charge, who Genie left a summons and clue for. I gathered this from what Eden told me when she captured me and subjected me to all sorts of something she called aversion therapy. I didn't do what she accused me of, but, considering my past record I can understand where she would make that honest mistake. Eden couldn't kill me, being a genie, so she decided on the next best thing, which she felt was fitting for the guy who she thought kidnapped her boyfriend and murdered so many of her boyfriend's friends. Ironic, I actually got what I deserved for the one thing I was accused of that I was actually innocent of. Anyway, though I wasn't killed by the aversion therapy, my evil impulses WERE. Just in case, however, Eden keeps me locked away in my citadel permanently, providing me with enough food, clothing and water to keep me alive, but very few luxuries."
Though the restraints kept him from using PERSONAL magic, Mozenrath was able to reach into one of his pockets and pull out a set of exploding ball bearings that unleashed enough flashes and smoke for the villainous mystic to pick the lock on his chains (a trick he learned from being without actual magic for eleven years. However, he knew this was a delaying tatic at best so he used this opportunity to slip through the portal and stop himself from killing Aladdin and the others, siphoning the enegy from his past self in the process.
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In the end, Mozenrath decided after those three efforts to leave the past as is. After all, he preferred Cassim as a non-powered adventurer-for-hire than as a mysterious vigilante with mystic skills and at least he wasn't a mentally mutilated version of himself. Besides, he was sixteen times more powerful now than when he started, so the vile archmage's efforts to rewrite history weren't a TOTAL loss. Yes, it was a good learning experience and he got lots of extra power from the deal. He would leave it at that.
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As aforementioned, all the characters mentioned in this story are copyrighted by Disney. Because of that and some Shadow references, I wrote this story PURELY for entertainment purposes. I also apologize profusely to anybody who might have been peeved about my treatment of the Iago of the first alternate reality. In addition to Aladdin, I'm a HUGE Darkwing DUck fan, so I couldn't resist slipping some Negaduckisms into that Iago during the dungeon scene. Again I profusely apologize to anybody who didn't like the story.
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In the middle of the ruins of a dark citadel deep within the area known as the Land of the Black Sands, a man in his early-30s garbed in dark blue robes that cover his entire body except for his right arm, which had a skeletal appearance, as well as a black cape and turban, stepped up to a bubbling cauldron and put in a small, unidentified item. "Perfect." the man cackled before adding "Now all I have to do is wait two hours for proper mixing and heating and this formula will be complete. It's been eleven years since I lost my magic glove to that meddlesome street urchin and his friends. I've spent that SAME eleven years hunting for ingredients to a potion that will not only restore my right arm to what it was before I started wearing the gauntlet, but also renew the life energy I lost due to the gauntlet AND, most importantly, infuse me with enough internalized magical energy to make me even more powerful than I was with that gauntlet. Thanks to the continued interference of Aladdin and his friends, I've had to settle for obtaining one ingredient at a time and, even then, each ingredient generally took me six months of careful planning to obtain. Still, the hard work will soon prove to be worth it. Curse that Aladdin, though. If not for him I would ALREADY be supreme ruler of the seven deserts by now. Once I obtain my rightful power, I'll destroy Aladdin or my name isnt' Mozenrath. Actually, in all fairness, Aladdin himself hasn't given me any trouble in seven years; not since his wife's father retired and his wife gave birth to triplets, which made him too busy to juggle the twin responsibilities of being Sultan AND a father of three. Truth be told, it's been Aladdin's FATHER, Cassim, who has been giving me all the trouble for the past seven years. Still, as they say, Aladdin DID get the ball rolling. My world domination campaign would be so much easier if Aladdin was never born and Cassim never got a chance to interfere with me. Hmmmm, there's an idea. As soon as my ultimate wizard's power brew is ready and I have had enough practice in using that kind of power again, I could find a way to travel back 30 years to when Aladdin was first conceived and not only kill Cassim, but his then-pregnant wife, thereby eliminating both of my most hated enemies in one fell swoop."
"Mozenrath ruthless and clever" cackled a flying snake who lands on Mozenrath's shoulder.
"Indeed, faithful Xerexes. Indeed." Mozenrath laughed as the cauldron bubbled and Mozenrath started looking at a set of scrolls and maps from 30 years earlier.
"What is Mozenrath doing?" Xerexes asked in an almost-too-eager matter.
"Simple. I'm studying these maps and scrolls to give myself a good feeling about where Cassim and his wife lived 30 years ago" Mozenrath answered with a sinister grin.
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Two hours later, Mozenrath returned to the cauldron and cautiously took a sip. After a few moments of intense pain as a result of the massive mystic energy surge, Mozenrath looked at his right arm. For the first time in more years than he cared to remember, it actually had flesh covering it. What's more, he felt more energized than he had been in over a decade.
Mozenrath decided to test the part of the formula he MOST wanted to test; the internalized mystic energy portion. With a glow around his right hand, Mozenrath glared at a nearby twelve-ton boulder and let out a blast that reduced the boulder to vapor. Mozenrath then concentrated enough to surround himself with a glow that lifted him a good 50 feet off the ground. With a blast from his left hand while he was still in the air, Mozenrath then caused a 50 ton chunk of rock from a nearby cliff to come loose and with a glow around his eyes, effortlessly caught the chunk of rock and mentally propelled it in the air at a rate of six times the speed of sound. "It works. I've got my dark powers back and I don't even need my gauntlet now." Mozenrath laughed as he gently lowered himself to the ground and added "Once I've spent a few days practicing using my newly restored powers, then I'll travel back in time and deal with my most major enemies before they even know me. No problem on that last front, considering that I already have all the ingredients to pull off time travel spells.". With that, Mozenrath calmly walked away while with a glow surrounding his right hand, conjured up a giant tornado which he sent spinning off in a southwest direction.
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A week later, After Mozenrath has once more mastered his newly restored magic (in fact, Mozenrath found out, to his pleasure, that he was now four times more powerful than he was when he was wearing the magic gauntlet) and has rebuilt the ruins of his citadel, he then gathers the ingredients he needed to pull off his time travel spell. "I'll only be able to stay in the past for one hour, but that will be 55 minutes more than I'll need since I know where to find my enemies and have the power to easily destroy them." Mozenrath cackled as he used his magic and the gathered ingerients to open a space/time portal to his intended destination. With an evil smile, Mozenrath stepped through said portal.
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Instantly, just as he hoped, Mozenrath found himself 30 years in the past in front of the poor section of Agrahbah. With a magically created telescope, Mozenrath spotted Cassim with his pregnant wife two days before he started his twenty-year search for the Hand of Midas. In a flash of light, Mozenrath appeared in the couple's hubbel and let loose a massive mystic bolt that instantly reduced Cassim and his pregnant wife to smoldering ash. With that, Mozenrath teleported himself back to the space/time portal, returned to the present and sealed up the portal. "Ha, not too shabby. It only took me TWO minutes to pull that off." Mozenrath said to himself as he floated off to examine how much the Seven Deserts has changed without either Aladdin or Cassim around to stop him.
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To his delight, he found much of the Seven Deserts to be in ruins and most of the survivors of the wreckage to be absolutely terrified of him, as if they were seeing a very powerful and very evil ghost "Well, they would have two-thirds of that right." Mozenrath thought with a smile as he neared Agrahbah, much of which is ALSO reduced to rubble. All the sudden, Mozenrath gets nailed with a blast coming from the Royal Palace (or, at least, what's LEFT of the Royal Palace). "Who dares intrude onto MY territory? Nobody terrifies MY subjects EXCEPT ME!" an evil and all-too-familar voice shouted out as Mozenrath got ensnared by a set of mystical energy restraints coming from a magic twice as powerful his own. As Mozenrath got reeled in he looked in horror at who was pulling him in. Though the evil sorcerer hadn't seen this face in over five years in HIS reality he still knew it only too well. It was that blasted parrot who used to associate with Aladdin (and played a big role in foiling no less than three of Mozenrath's schemes during that time) and who was Cassim's partner for five years after he parted ways with Aladdin.
However, this was a slightly different-looking Iago than Mozenrath had seen before. For one thing, this Iago had a look of almost pure evil in his eyes. For another thing, this Iago was garbed in yellow robes, a black cape and a oversized blood red turban (well, oversized for Iago). Finally, this Iago wielded magical power twice as strong as Mozenrath's was now. "Mozenrath? Can that REALLY be you?" the alternate Iago said with a look of recognition in his eyes before adding "I thought you've been dead for nine years, ever since that battle two days after Jafar and I beat you to that last ingredient of that ultimate wizard's power brew.".
"So that's why this parrot is so powerful. His power has the same source as mine. He and Jafar must have both taken a drink of the formula and Iago used his magic to drain off Jafar's. Of course, without Aladdin to semi-reform him, the parrot simply became even more evil as time went on." Mozenrath thought to himself as Iago looked at him with an evil glare and smirk reminisicent of another yellow, black and red-garbed evil Disney bird (take a wild guess).
"I could have sworn I killed you, Mozenrath, but that is VERY easily remedied." Iago cackled as he tightened the magical restraints surrounding Mozenrath and added "Don't bother trying to escape, Mozenrath. I've already scanned what passes for your mind and I can assure you that I'm twice as powerful as you are and I'm nine years more experienced in USING that power.".
With a glow around his left hand, Mozenrath unleashes a flash of mystic light that blinded Iago long enough for Mozenrath to unleash a blast from his right hand that sends Iago flying backwards and releases Mozenrath from the parrot's energy bonds a split-second before Mozenrath would have blacked out. However, Iago was a VERY quick healer and let out a blast of mystic energy too powerful for Mozenrath to block and too fast for him to dodge. As a result of the blast, the evil sorcerer was sent flying a good two miles. "Nice try, Mozie, but even four times more powerful than your other self, you're still no match for me." Iago gloated as he floated off toward the dungeons with the unconscious Mozenrath.
Mozenrath came to in a very strong cage and was about to try to teleport out when he heard an all-too-familar voice cackle "It would be pointless to even try, Mozenrath. Those bars are not only strong enough to withstand the combined strength of 100 Odifferians, but is constructed to nullify the magic of anybody in it. Further more, since the cage is of MAGICAL construction there is no need for a lock and, thus, there's no lock to pick.".
To his horror, he discovered that everything the evil parrot said about the cage is true. Desperate to stall for time until he can think of an escape plan, the evil sorcerer, feigning calmness, simply asked "Seeing how you're going to kill me after you've had your fun with me anyway, it wouldn't hurt to say that I'm impressed about how well you've got the Seven Deserts cowed into submission. You've done an excellent job in terrorizing the populace and laying waste to all in your path."
"It pains me to stoop to such petty tyranny," Iago started in mock sorrow before adding in a sadistic tone "but you wouldn't believe how expensive a really good magical weapon is these days (hey, this is ancient Arabia; they didn't have thermonuclear warheads back then), or at least WOULD BE if I didn't STEAL them.", finishing with the typical arch-villain laugh.
Iago then proceeded to say "The bars on this cell nullify your magic by DRAINING it from your body, keeping you weaker than a newborn kitten, but when I throw ... THE SWITCH (sorry, couldn't resist), all that delicious mystic energy will come flowing back into you 100 times magnified at a rate that will fry you like an undersized sausage.".
The thought of that caused Mozenrath to visibly shake in fear, something that Iago was sadistically aware of as he said "Now, without further ado, THE SWITCH." as he pressed a button on a nearby wall and .... nothing happened (except that Mozenrath wet his pants). After a brief pause, Iago pressed the button four more times and said "Oh, I guess THAT's not it soooo.... it must be .... THIS one." as he flipped a small horizonal switch near the button and, once more nothing happened (though Mozenrath WAS getting increasingly worried). "Okay, that leaves only .... THIS ONE!" as Iago pointed to a large vertical lever near the small switch he just flipped.
With an insane cackle, Iago flipped that switch and sent a painful degree of mystic energy flowing back into Mozenrath. However, JUST at the point when the incoming mystic energy became too much for even HIM to withstand, the evil sorcerer used his newly restored magic to discreetly conjure a powerful mystic shield, praying that it would be enough to save his life. Within a minute, however, Mozenrath had blacked out. A quick mystic scan convinced Iago that Mozenrath was truly dead and teleported the evil sorcerer a good 50 miles away from the palace."
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A spray of water from a still semi-working fountain near him revived the intensely pained Mozenrath about an hour later. Mozenrath knew he was still alive because he was in FAR too much pain to be dead. Apparently, he absorbed JUST ENOUGH mystic energy to create a strong enough protection field to allow him to JUST BARELY survive (the fact that Iago's mystic scan indicated he was dead [though Mozenrath didn't know about Iago scanning him] meant that it was an EVEN closer call than Mozenrath thought). With intense concentration, Mozenrath cast a healing spell on himself. By the time Mozenrath fully healed, which took about an hour, he was too exhausted from maintaining the healing spell to even stand up straight.
After Mozenrath caught his breath enough to regain his strength, he decided to reopen the space/time portal (fortunately, he had the presence of mind to hold on the necessary ingredients for the time travel spell) and stop himself from killing Cassim and his wife. Long story short, he not only suceeded but he did it with such ease as to indicate that he was four times more powerful than when he started out on this quest (which was twice as powerful as the alternate Iago Mozenrath tangled with). After a few quick tests, Mozenrath found out, to his delight that his new power WAS increased fourfold but he quickly kicked himself mentally and said "I could have settled the score with that parrot with this increased power. Oh well, spilled milk and all that stuff."
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After preventing himself from killing Cassim and his wife, Mozenrath decided to try altering the past in another way. After all, any reality when the blasted parrot was as evil as and more powerful than him was one that he didn't want to visit again. Though he was powerful enough to probably beat THAT Iago now, the parrot was crazy enough that Mozenrath didn't want to chance that he had ways of dealing with opponents more powerful than himself. Suddenly, Mozenrath had a thought; Jasmine. That blasted queen was Aladdin's personal glue, the love of his life. Kill Jasmine BEFORE she and Aladdin even met and kill Jafar BEFORE he could call Aladdin's attention to the Cave of Wonders and Aladdin would, forevermore, be nothing more than a mere street rat. Even if Aladdin DID interfere with his plans at first, he would be almost completely on his own, with no Genie or magic carpet to help him. As a bonus, Mozenrath could kill Iago as pay back for what the parrot did (or will do or whatever) to him as a result of his FIRST effort to change the past.
With the time travel spell ingredients and his even stronger magic, Mozenrath created a portal to take him to the Agrahbah Royal palace fifteen years in the past which he hurriedly stepped through.
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When he arrived in the Royal Palace fifteen years in the past, Mozenrath quickly ensnared the attacking royal guards in an incredibly strong mystic energy net and turned the on-rushing Rajah to stone. After that, Mozenrath crushed Jasmine and Jafar into paste with two different sets of energy bonds. When Iago tried to flee, Mozenrath nailed him with a flawlessly aimed fireball which reduced him to a few ounces of smoldering ash. Stepping back through the portal, Mozenrath said to himself "With no Genie and magic carpet to help him, Aladdin is probably long dead by now if he's tried to face the villains he did in MY reality."
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To his surprise, Mozenrath found that the Seven Deserts don't look THAT much different than before he started trying to change the past. In fact, he looked at a caravan being robbed and, to his horror, he heard a familar voice call out "You plunder every caravan that comes your way and you thought you could get away with it? You thought I wouldn't find out?" with an echo that had the gang of thieves looking around in terror as a black blur came up behind two of said thieves and slammed their heads together before pushing them hard into the side of one of the wagons.
Three more thieves pulled out their swords and charged at where the blur took down two of their comrades, but that same blur dashed up to the three over and over again and delivered four very quick and very hard punches to each, which put those three out for the count along with the other two.
The last five thieves looked frantically around, only to have a piece of strong rope snake off from one of the thieves' horses and wrap around those five continuously. Only when all ten thieves have been soundly defeated did the source of the blur appear in full sight. A tall, reasonably-muscled figure dressed all in black, including mask, turban, cape and robes calmly said "You can go on through. These ten cutthroats have learned the hard way not to mess he who knows what villainy lurks in the souls of sentients."
A quick mystic scan indicated that this was unmistakably Cassim and even revealed what happened. Since Aladdin and Jasmine were never married (considering Mozenrath killed Jasmine before Aladdin and Jasmine even met, though Cassim didn't know that), they never received the oracle as a wedding present and the Forty Thieves never crashed the wedding. Because of that, Aladdin never found out about his father being the King of Thieves. Because of THAT, Cassim continued to journey the world in search of the Hand of Midas until, eight years ago, Cassim stumbled on to a temple of mystic monks who, eventually, not only reformed him, but also taught him limited telekinesis, somewhat increased strength and speed and, of course, the power to cloud men's minds. For the past two years, Cassim been operating as a mysterious vigilante (in fact, a vigilante SO mysterious he didn't even have a alias) in atonement for his criminal past.
"Oh well, he's STILL not going to be as troublesome as that blasted parrot was with all that magic power" Mozenrath thought to himself as he fired a mystic bolt at Cassim, though the former thief's increased speed was enough to dodge the blast. However, Mozenrath half-anticipated this and made the blast designed to follow Cassim no matter where he went. Cassim kept dodging the blast and moving toward Mozenrath, using his limited telekinesis to wrap Mozenrath's cape around his neck until he got close enough so that, the next time he dodged, the blast would, instead, hit Mozenrath.
Cassim lifted the evil sorcerer after he fell down and glared at him. Mozenrath spat at Cassim and said "You think I'm going to be as scared of you as a bunch of third-rate thieves were? I'm a sorcerer. In fact, I'm the most powerful sorcerer in the world. I'm not going to be cowed into submission by some two-denara vigilante capable of semi-impressive stage trickery?" as he let loose a blinding flash of mystic light and then levitated Cassim while he was blinded. Mozenrath kept spinning Cassim around and around in mid-air while continously zapping him with low-level mystic bolts just to make the vigilante suffer.
As Mozenrath gloated over his outmatched enemy, Cassim levitated a small stone behind the evil sorcerer and nailed him from behind at 150 miles per hour, causing Mozenrath just enough pain to cause him to let Cassim go. Before Mozenrath could fully shake off the impact of the five-pound rock hitting him at 150 miles per hour, Cassim nailed the sorcerer with a continued barrage of lefts and rights until Mozenrath finally fell unconscious. Cassim dragged the defeated Mozenrath up to his horse, placed the villainous wizard horizonally on the back of said horse and rode off.
Mozenrath, however, quickly came to and teleported himself to safety thinking to himself that he underestimated Cassim because he always figured that the only reason Cassim kept beating him was because Mozenrath didn't have any powers since he lost his glove eleven years earlier. Now, however, he could see where Aladdin picked up his knack for upset victories. Even though Mozenrath was technically the more powerful of the two opponents, Cassim made good use of what powers he DID have. Mozenrath travelled back to stop himself from killing Jasmine, Jafar and Iago, though, unlike when he stopped himself from Cassim and his wife, this was an evenly matched fight until the five-minutes-smarter Mozenrath drained the energy from his past self and made himself twice as powerful as before. With that out of the way, Mozenrath returned to the present.
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Mozenrath grumbled about how his two efforts to alter the past resulted in more formidable opposition than what he was trying to eliminate. When he tried taking Aladdin out of the picture entirely, he indirectly created a villain more fearsome than himself and, when he tried killing Jasmine and Jafar before they even met Aladdin, he created a more formidable version of a familiar foe. But what about if he were to travel back to Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding? He could take both Aladdin and Cassim out of the picture permanently in one fell swoop. After all, he was now ten years more experienced than he was then and 32 times more powerful than when he was wearing his magic gauntlet. Yes, with the extra power and experience, he could EASILY emerge the victor. He could also capture Genie and murder all of Aladdin's friends to ensure they DON'T come seeking revenge later on. With that, Mozenrath decided to use his time travel spell one last time, this time going back only ten years.
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Mozenrath cackled "Well, this is it. Aladdin and Jasmine are just going into their vows and Cassim is waiting outside. All it would take would be a quick all-out burst of mystic energy to create the perfect disaster, one that, with the exception of Genie, nobody in there will be able to survive.". With that, Mozenrath quickly conjured up a giant cyclone, a massive earthquake and a towering flood. The sinister wizard watched with sadistic glee as the cyclone, flood and quake combination engulfed all of Agrahbah and Genie, the sole survivor, flew out and spotted Mozenrath. The sinister wizard glared at his magical blue attacker with a look of near-pity as he conjured up a reinforced bottle and cork that sealed up Genie and shrank to a size that Mozenrath could easily carry in the palm of his hand. With that Mozenrath stepped through the portal with his magical blue captive.
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Mozenrath emerged with a triumphant look in his eyes until he saw what happened to his citadel. It now looked too .... wholesome for his tastes. There was no sinister looking lab, no torture devices, nothing that looked evil. He walked around the citadel cautiously, keeping Genie under wraps the whole time. However, A familar looking skeletal arm comes forward, pulling Genie out of Mozenrath's pockets and releasing him. "I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to get away with genie-napping. It just wouldn't be right." an eeriely-familiar voice replied in a surprisingly goody-goody tone.
Mozenrath turned around to see ..... himself. Only this Mozenrath was dressed in light blue robes and a white cape and turban and still had the skeletal right arm. Genie zapped anti-magic restraints around the Mozenrath who kidnapped him and the Mozenrath who FREED Genie explained "Apparantly, Genie THOUGHT he saw me ten years ago in Agrahbah the day all of his friends died. All of his friends, of course, except Eden and her charge, who Genie left a summons and clue for. I gathered this from what Eden told me when she captured me and subjected me to all sorts of something she called aversion therapy. I didn't do what she accused me of, but, considering my past record I can understand where she would make that honest mistake. Eden couldn't kill me, being a genie, so she decided on the next best thing, which she felt was fitting for the guy who she thought kidnapped her boyfriend and murdered so many of her boyfriend's friends. Ironic, I actually got what I deserved for the one thing I was accused of that I was actually innocent of. Anyway, though I wasn't killed by the aversion therapy, my evil impulses WERE. Just in case, however, Eden keeps me locked away in my citadel permanently, providing me with enough food, clothing and water to keep me alive, but very few luxuries."
Though the restraints kept him from using PERSONAL magic, Mozenrath was able to reach into one of his pockets and pull out a set of exploding ball bearings that unleashed enough flashes and smoke for the villainous mystic to pick the lock on his chains (a trick he learned from being without actual magic for eleven years. However, he knew this was a delaying tatic at best so he used this opportunity to slip through the portal and stop himself from killing Aladdin and the others, siphoning the enegy from his past self in the process.
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In the end, Mozenrath decided after those three efforts to leave the past as is. After all, he preferred Cassim as a non-powered adventurer-for-hire than as a mysterious vigilante with mystic skills and at least he wasn't a mentally mutilated version of himself. Besides, he was sixteen times more powerful now than when he started, so the vile archmage's efforts to rewrite history weren't a TOTAL loss. Yes, it was a good learning experience and he got lots of extra power from the deal. He would leave it at that.
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As aforementioned, all the characters mentioned in this story are copyrighted by Disney. Because of that and some Shadow references, I wrote this story PURELY for entertainment purposes. I also apologize profusely to anybody who might have been peeved about my treatment of the Iago of the first alternate reality. In addition to Aladdin, I'm a HUGE Darkwing DUck fan, so I couldn't resist slipping some Negaduckisms into that Iago during the dungeon scene. Again I profusely apologize to anybody who didn't like the story.