Author's Note: Hi all, another new Aladdin story in the making, this time a followup to my story "Fear Itself" and blending elements of a previous story I wrote called "Aladdin and the Poison Mystic". It would probably make more sense to read those stories for background before attempting this one.
I had an idea to blend Jatika, a villanous imp who feeds on fear, in with the realm I established in the "Poison Mystic" story because they both deal with the measure of nightmares and fears, and I wanted to see how far I could take the concept. Given that Aladdin and his friends beat Jatika's efforts against them (slight spoiler warning, but not really :P) - it made sense to me to write a story where Jatika tries to enact revenge on the gang by taking over where Grenden left off in his realm. If this doesn't make sense now, it will in the story.
Summary: Aladdin and the gang thought they'd seen the last of Jatika after he was thrown from the Moonstone Oasis, but Jatika has found a way back to Agrabah and swears revenge. Finding the underground realm of Lamrai, where a poison mystic named Grenden once dwelled, Jatika finds a way to make the powers latent in the realm emerge again, giving rise to a large army of shadowbeasts that threaten to consume the nightmares of those in Agrabah, and feed upon their greatest fears.
Can Aladdin and the others stop Jatika from leveling the city into a realm of nightmares?
All Aladdin characters and locations from the Disney franchise belong to their respective creators/copyright holders. All self-created characters and locales belong to me, as well as the story itself - I just wanted to have a bit of fun telling it.
Jatika, Ruler of the Shadow Beasts
Prologue: Revenge is a Dish Best Served in Shadow
Jatika couldn't count how many days it'd taken him to travel by foot to Agrabah. It wasn't a pleasant experience for his first time setting foot in the city since enacting revenge against the now official Prince of Agrabah. It'd been some time before, more than a few years. But a few years to Jatika might as well have been the day before with how fresh his ire was.
He ground his long, sharp teeth together as he scurried along the evening streets of the marketplace, careful to not let any soldiers or citizens see him. Normally, he wouldn't care who would see him, considering it was likely to make them run away in fear, especially at night. His short stature might not be intimidating, but his razor like teeth, dark sockets for eyes, scaly skin and long hooked nose made him look intimidating enough. He was an odd looking imp. Fear he could feed on to make his power grow, but he wanted to maximize any possibility of scaring those around so he could feed as much as he could. More feeding, more power for him to manipulate.
A few Agrabah guards passed where he hid, and the imp smiled to himself. Perfect opportunity. No one else was around.
Ah yes, the imp thought while grinning, prepare yourselves, pretties. I am in need of your fear, and I've come to collect.
He drew in a breath and gave the loudest roar that he could manage, mimicking an angry beast. The guards were so startled they didn't know what hit them. Jatika felt their fear drawing into his essence, streams of light absorbing into his own flesh. He'd managed to use a spell that allowed him to be his own vessel of magic from now on, as opposed to the time when Prince Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, and the others who'd confronted him at the Moonstone Oasis.
Back then, he'd had external vessels to keep and manipulate his power, but Aladdin and his Genie had destroyed them both, disabling him from using even his most basic of abilities, and banishing him out of the realm of Agrabah and the Moonstone Oasis. Jatika recalled the memory with so much fury, he didn't realize that he was draining the guards too much, and they passed out in the middle of the street.
The imp sighed. "Well, I don't want to waste my newfound power reserve on creating nightmares for them. I suppose I'll have to find another source of power for the time being. If only I didn't have to resort to using short term scare tactics to get my fix of fear." He folded his arms across his tiny chest while scowling. There had to be another way for him to gain more power and get revenge on Agrabah. At the very least, if he couldn't make the all the kingdoms across the vast desert bend to his will, he might as well take Agrabah for himself somehow (it was a nice city - it was part of the reason he'd wanted to create a sleeping kingdom out of it once.) He glanced up at the Agrabah skyline, having a partial view of the Palace from where he stood, but shook his head. Even as he remembered Aladdin challenging him to directly fight his battles, Jatika realized marching into the palace and demanding submission would be a foolish thing to do. It would get him banished in a heartbeat by the Genie.
Then something caught his eye. At the end of an alleyway in the marketplace, he saw a place in the city that led to an underground route. Jatika wasn't sure where it led to, but he was willing to retreat to a place where he could better collect his thoughts and work out a plan of revenge.
At first, Jatika descended into the underground, and followed some winding paths through the darkness, but then he came upon a strange door that stood in the middle of the pathway. He stopped before it, looking up and admiring its intricate patterns. But there was something else that Jatika noticed - it had no knob by which to open it. It was a magic door.
"Very nice," the imp said with a small smirk. "I wonder what realm this leads to. Whomever the keeper had very exquisite tastes." Jatika placed his hands on the door. He sensed a very old magic inside it, and it made his tiny body shiver with delight.
"I could open this. Only takes a simple spell, and while old, I can still manipulate it." He chanted a few words, and the door opened into swirling tendrils of darkness. He stepped through, unfazed and unafraid as he disappeared into it and the door shut behind him.
When he emerged after a time, he realized he was in a large underground palace, drapes decorating the rooms in a lavish display. Jatika wondered if it'd belonged to a king. He didn't sense anything at first, but it wasn't long before he realized he was surrounded by a group of snarling, dark misted beasts with sharp fangs.
He gasped. Not out of fear, but out of recognition. These were shadow beasts, made of the same stuff nightmares could create. Jatika noticed that none of the beasts were advancing to attack him, they just studied the imp with curious looks, some of them baring their fangs.
"I suppose if you pretties aren't going to attack me, would you like to take me to your leader?"
Jatika didn't expect the several growled responses from the beasts themselves. He understood them well enough, though.
"No master, you say? Destroyed, you also say? By whom?"
The beasts led him into another room, to a strange altar with an orb sitting atop it in a setting glass. Jatika knew what this kind of vessel was - it was like a recorder - a keeper of events that happened to the last master of the realm. Jatika could probably see what happened to the leader who once led all these shadow beasts and what led up to their demise. He placed his hands on the orb, and the flood of visions filled his mind.
The former master of this place was called Grenden, a poison mystic. A former prince cast aside by his family. He destroyed them all. And interestingly enough, it had been Aladdin and his friends that led to Grenden's destruction after Grenden had tried to enact his own measure of revenge against Aladdin.
When the last images of Grenden's existence played through, Jatika turned back to some of the beasts that stood with him.
"I suppose that all of you seek vengeance against the Prince of Agrabah and his friends for keeping you banished down here after destroying your leader, yes?"
Several howls met his response. Jatika grinned widely, as a plan formed in his mind. "Well then, pretties, it looks like we have something in common."
To the imp, revenge had never tasted this sweet.
