Okay, I'm adding new chapters far faster than I expected. But I don't think you will complain about it. Chances are they will slow down soon (or maybe not... my mind isn't being predictable lately). I'll finally reveal exactly why Djinn hates Genie. Aren't you glad? And it is hard to balance Genie's fun personality with a serious issue. Hope you like it.
It was an odd request, but not an unbelievable one. Jasmine asked for her husband, Abu, Genie, and Carpet to come to her room without catching the attention of her father or the guards. She said she had something important, but didn't want to alarm anyone yet until they could discuss it. This statement drew some concern from the group, yet they still trusted her judgment enough to do as she asked.
When they entered the chamber, Abu was the first to react as he spotted the crimson parrot. He began screeching excitedly, leapt off Aladdin's shoulder, and ran over to where he was finishing off the last of the grapes. Iago put his wings up defensively.
"Calm down, I've had a long day and the last thing I need is to get a fresh infestation of fleas from you,' he complained tiredly.
"Iago, what are you doing here? Is my father okay?" asked Aladdin, concerned about what might cause the bird to arrive at the palace at night in such a condition of obvious exhaustion.
"Well, other than the fact he's on his way here, he's not hurt or anything. But he is in trouble," explained the parrot. "Actually, I'm willing to bet we're all going to end up on the carving block soon. And I'm blaming him." He pointed directly at a rather surprised Genie. "I don't know why, but he caused it."
"Come on, Iago, none of us have left Agrabah in months. I think you're going to have to explain a little more about what's going on," remarked Aladdin. "Especially how it is Genie's fault."
"I know. Generally trouble follows you around, but you need to trust me on this. This time, they don't seem to care about Agrabah or you," described the parrot. "But let's back up a little. This all started at a tavern in the middle of nowhere. To get out of paying, we were playing the 'traveling storyteller' routine. There was this kid…"
Abu chattered scoldingly at the bird. Instead of getting angry at being interrupted, he actually looked guilty.
"I know what happened last time I was telling stories to children. But I didn't embellish the truth as much this time. On the other hand, I think this time ended up worse than us and two kids almost getting eaten by giant scorpions." Iago shifted uncomfortably. "And I was telling about how Aladdin met Jasmine, got the lamp, and beat Jafar. Half the population of Agrabah knows this story anyway and I didn't think that it could cause any problems. After the story, the kid left. Her father owned the tavern and sent her to her room. But… something happened. Cassim and I got out fast, but the whole place ends up in a fiery explosion. It wasn't from natural causes."
"Fire and lightning tends to be the destructive weapons of choice for magical beings," acknowledged Genie. "Probably because taxes and IRS audits aren't flashy enough."
"How do you know it was caused by magic?" asked Jasmine.
"Because I saw him. After frying everyone, he showed up in all his impressively powerful insanity," screeched the parrot. "He's got the evil laugh down to an art form and has more magic than anyone I've ever seen. He is an evil killer and I know evil. I worked for Jafar in the past after all."
"Was it a sorcerer? An ifrit?" asked Aladdin.
Iago shook his head, "Worse. A genie."
No one spoke for a moment. They just stared at the tired bird, unable to believe what they just heard. Aladdin and Jasmine exchanged worried looks.
Genie gave a nervous chuckle, "Um… I don't know if you got hit in the head, but that's impossible. If he was a genie, he'd have to follow the rules. And the rules say a genie can't kill anyone."
"I know that, but I don't think this guy read the rule book. It gets worse. He ends up grabbing Cassim and going all 'snake staff mind control' on him. He also started talking about how he used the little girl from the tavern to wish for his freedom, full power, and no rules. Probably not in that order, but that's not the point. He's an all-powerful genie with no rules. And he hypnotized Cassim into his little helper."
"Why didn't you try to stop him?" asked Aladdin, sounding angry.
"Because I'm not suicidal. I know you're worried about him, but how in the world was I going to stop him?" he shouted back. "I'd get killed and that wouldn't help anyone. You wouldn't even know anything was wrong yet. But if I listen to what's going on and actually find out something useful, I can actually be helpful by telling someone who could do something. Like I said, he didn't hurt Cassim. Just turned him into a puppet and sent him on his way." He sighed and finished in a slightly quieter voice, "He doesn't even realize he's being used. Cassim just thinks he decided to ride here. I took a short-cut. When he finishes with what he was told to do, he'll just go back to normal. Hypnosis isn't dangerous to whoever you use it on as long as you don't tell them to do something deadly."
"But what does the genie want?" asked Jasmine. "What does he want with Cassim?"
"As far as I can tell, he is using him to sneak him into Agrabah. He's really ticked off and is after someone in particular. The person who apparently earned the fury of that orangish-yellow psycho is our very own Genie."
He finished by pointing towards the blue magical entity again. Genie's face shifted to one of shock and surprise before gaining a hint of angry realization.
"Orangish-yellow? He's the genie of a necklace? Really, deep and creepy voice? Zero sense of morality or empathy for other beings?" questioned Genie.
"Sounds like him," Iago nodded. "And he really seems to hate you."
"You know him?" Aladdin asked, look at his friend.
He sighed, "Yeah, I know Djinn. It's kind of a long story." The blue magical being created a floating, green armchair and sat down. "About four or five masters before I met you, there was this rather smart man who wasn't all that bad. First, he had found a genie of the amethyst ring and used up two of his wishes. With his third wish, since he couldn't just wish for more wishes, he wished for two more genies. I think the guy's name was Ali, but that isn't the point. He ended up getting my lamp and Djinn's necklace. It was interesting to see another genie at first. It wasn't often you end up with two genie's in the same place and we don't exactly have a monthly newsletter to keep in touch with. But… we couldn't see eye to eye. At all."
He pointed his finger and created two plastic toys. One looked like a genie and the other looked like just a regular person. They had hinged limbs, allowing their arms to move along the joints. They floated in front of him as he spoke.
"You see, if you spend thousands of years alternating between granting the same basic wishes for wealth, power, and destruction for greedy humans and being trapped in small spaces, you tend to end up doing one of two things. You look on the bright side, enjoying the small things and hoping your next master will be better. Or you can hate every minute of it and trying to share the misery," he described. "Of course, this lends to different styles of wish granting. The nicest genies will follow the spirit of the wish. Even if the master's phrasing isn't perfect or they're in the middle of drowning and can't actually say it, we can try to make it work anyway." The toy genie waved his hands and the toy human cheered. "Others will go by the letter of the wish. Actually, most of us will do that every now and then to prevent a wish from being as bad as it could be or just to annoy someone. Basically, whatever is actually said is what is granted. This usually ends up with a master being more careful in the future and thinking about what they say." This time the toy genie waved his hands and the human toy scratched his head. "Finally, a few genies look for loopholes and exceptions in order to twist a wish to cause the most suffering possible." The genie toy waved his hands and laughed cruelly while the human toy began crying. Both pieces of plastic vanished after that, leaving Genie to frown slightly. "Djinn was like that."
"How can he use someone's wish to hurt them?" asked Jasmine. "If they don't wish for something bad, nothing bad can happen to them. Right?"
Genie shook his head, "It isn't hard to hurt someone with an innocent wish. Especially if you're particularly creative and have centuries to practice. Let's say this boy wishes to meet a nice girl. He doesn't wish for her to fall in love or anything. He just wants to meet a nice girl. I would probably end up getting the kid some flowers, chocolate, and set him where a sweet, single girl goes to fetch water every day. Someone else might just poof him to the closest girl, regardless of age or if she's married. Djinn would drop him in the middle of the room where the daughter of a very protective and violent mercenary lives and would arrange it so that the nice boy would likely be attacked and killed by the father. Jafar might have been inventive on the subject of revenge, but Djinn's had thousands of years to find ways to bend the rules and arrange his masters' deaths or suffering."
"Terrific," mumbled Iago, sounding vaguely like he was about to fall asleep. "So why does he hate you?"
"He hates pretty much everyone. He would always talk about how unfair it was that beings as powerful as genies to be bound to serve others, powerless mortals no less. According to him, genie should rule the world with our phenomenal cosmic power and enslave humanity to obey our wishes. Huge ego on that guy," Genie commented, his head swelling like a balloon until it exploded with an audible 'pop'. Waving his hands frantically through the empty air where his face used to be, he eventually zapped it back into place. He grinned sheepishly, "Sorry. Anyway, he tried to ruin our master's life with each wish he granted. And when I wouldn't do the same, he got a little mad at me."
"A 'little' mad? He's furious," snapped the parrot. "He's crazy."
"I don't think he got really mad until he told me that I shouldn't be so… how did he put it?" he wondered, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "I think it was 'pathetically optimistic and disgustingly helpful.' He felt that all humans, and mortals in general, were cowardly, useless, inferior beings unworthy of our power. According to him, we would never gain the mortals' respect if they didn't fear our power. Djinn wanted every mortal creature to suffer and treat him like a ruler. But mostly suffer. He went on to say that anyone who actually thought that humans were better than that or actually tried to help their lives was dooming us further to an eternity of servitude. He liked to hear himself talk, I think." Genie grinned slightly, "I disagreed with every word he spoke. And told him so. Even after as many jerks I've ran into, I refused to think he could be right. I told him he was wrong and that I'll be the happier genie in the end. And I said he couldn't rule the world anyway since no one would ever give him the chance. I also added that he sounded as pathetic as one of those greedy mortals he was complaining about." His expression shifted to a frown, "He didn't take it well. He ranted a little about how I was a fool, blah blah blah, and finished by saying I would regret ever standing in his way. I was kind of deflecting the worst effects of Djinn's wishes for Ali too. Mostly, I really annoyed him and couldn't wait until he ended up back in his necklace and gone."
"Sounds like a real humanitarian," grumbled Iago. "And now he's back for revenge against you and probably anyone around you. Then, he'll go on with his world domination plans."
"And we'll have to stop him," Aladdin asserted. "We won't let him get away with everything he's already done and what he wants to do next."
Abu chattered and nodded, adding his agreement to the young man's assertion that they would face the aggressive and unlimited power of Djinn. Carpet nodded his 'head' as well before raising his tassels and throwing a few mock punches at the air. Jasmine stepped closer to her husband, her expression stubbornly determined. The red parrot gave the entire group an expression of "are you completely insane and why would you even consider this idea?", but didn't speak a word of argument. Possibly he was too tired and knew that arguing would be useless anyway. If they decided to face something, nothing would change their mind.
Genie made the armchair vanish and changed into a large, blue buzzer. He produced a harsh alarm sound before quickly switching to the appearance of a game show host in a suit.
"I'm sorry, but that's the wrong answer. But thanks for playing and we have some wonderful consolation prizes for you," he explained, a cheesy game show host smile plastered on his features. "The correct answer would be I'll stop him. Not we."
"What?" asked a stunned Aladdin.
Genie vanished the suit and the giant grin. He looked a little uncomfortable with his earlier statement, but trying to act confident. He was still smiling slightly at his friend.
"I'll go, take care of Djinn, and even get Cassim out of his mind control. No reason to get everyone involved in this since he's only worrying about me. You guys can go on the vacation and I'll catch up afterwards. It'll probably be better to do that."
None of them spoke for a few minutes. They were just staring at the blue being in disbelief. The idea of one of them facing a threat alone seemed impossible. No matter what the monster was or how well-planned the evil scheme might be, they could always find a way to succeed together. They would never let one of them face danger without help, regardless of what Iago might claim.
"How in the world are you going to beat him alone? You couldn't even beat Jafar by yourself," screeched the parrot finally. "And he was bound to a lamp and had to obey the rules. Not to mention he hadn't been a genie for centuries and lacked too much experience. If I didn't come back and knock the lamp into the boiling lake of lava and death, then Aladdin would have been eventually fried in that lava and everyone else would be dead too. And you couldn't do a thing about it… oh."
The smile vanished completely now. Genie sighed heavily, but refused to look at them. It suddenly made sense why he wouldn't want their help. To become free, he lost some of his power. These diminished capabilities became obvious when he fought against the evil vizier-turned-genie. He'd been stuffed inside an orb, unable to help anyone else from being captured or, in Aladdin's case, nearly beheaded until Iago released him. And he ended up being knocked aside in the rematch without much effort by Jafar. He knew exactly how powerful Djinn was and how uneven a match-up they were; Genie once possessed that same capabilities minus the "no rules" thing. He also knew that if he couldn't beat the genie if they fought, he wouldn't be able to prevent Djinn from harming his friends if they were present. Every other opponent they'd faced together, no matter their abilities, always had a limit or restriction on their power. An all-powerful genie unbound by the rules would not. And Genie knew this better than anyone.
And if their difference in magical potential was not enough, Genie still had to follow the rules. He couldn't make someone fall in love. He couldn't bring back the dead. And he couldn't kill anyone. Djinn could do all three. If it came to a fight, Genie might try to stop or trap him, but Djinn would go further. And in a fight involving all of them, the first casualties would be the non-magical allies. It wouldn't even be the indirect methods Jafar was limited to, either. The orangish-yellow genie could simply destroy them, either because it would hurt Genie or simply because of his hatred for mortals.
What he didn't mention about his plan to face Djinn alone, the one that everyone had realized anyway, was the fact it might protect the others from harm, another genie would likely be one of the few beings with enough pure magic to destroy a freed genie by direct force. It was possible to destroy a genie by destroying the object they were bound to, like a lamp, but once freed… someone would need to find another way. They would need either an overwhelming magical force or a way to drain away all their magic. And Djinn probably could and would do that if he truly hated Genie that much.
Essentially, their friend was trying to volunteer for a suicide mission so they wouldn't get hurt.
"We're helping," Aladdin stated firmly, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "We have time to plan for his arrival. He's expecting to catch us by surprise, so we'll prepare a trap of our own. If it works, we won't have to even fight Djinn directly. But we're doing this together.
The blue being was silent for a moment before giving the young man a grateful smile and nodding.
"So, you want me to create an exact replica of the city out here?" asked Sadira. "You do realize I've never tried this before and I don't think it'll be exactly easy."
"I know, but we need to keep Cassim out of the real city in case this goes wrong," Jasmine explained. They were in the middle of the desert with no signs of life in any direction. They needed plenty of room for this idea. "And you should be able to escape quickly if anything happens. We really appreciate this. We could have asked Genie to create it, but…"
"You don't want to distract him or have him try something overenthusiastically strange. I understand. I have met him, remember? And if Djinn ends up being as bad as what you told me…" The young Sand Witch smiled, "I'm happy to help. Besides, I need the practice. And you know Aladdin also told me to get you out of here if this doesn't work."
"Even though I told him I wanted to stay and help," she muttered. "I guess we'll just have to hope everything goes according to plan."
Sadira nodded in agreement with the princess. Though she began life as a street rat like a certain young man, she didn't fall in love with royalty. Instead, she once had a crush on Aladdin after he rescued her. But she also learned he was in love with Jasmine and Sadira knew she could never compete with a princess. At least, until she discovered the lost palace of the Sand Witches that lay buried beneath the city. She taught herself the spells left there and proceeded to use the sand-based magic to try and winning him over. The girl once saw Princess Jasmine as competition for the young man's affection, but they eventually discovered they made better friends than enemies. In time, Sadira's crush passed and she became one of Jasmine's closest female friends.
Though she was the only living Sand Witch, her abilities were limited. She was entirely self-taught, using scrolls to learn the secrets to this magic and hoping each spell didn't have unexpected consequences. A few tricks she'd perfected included forming solid objects out of sand and traveling over great distances quickly by using the sand. The idea of recreating Agrabah out of the grainy particles wasn't beyond the girl's capability. At least, in theory.
Taking a deep breath, Sadira raised her hands above her head with her palms face-up. Sand rose up, obeying her silent commands, and began to form solid walls. The golden particles hardened and compacted together as she mentally imagined the individual buildings of the city she grew up in. She sculpted out doorways and windows, giving her creation detail and greater realism. Next, she spread her arms out with her palms down. The individual particles, left over from carving out the interior of the structures, began racing together to form smaller objects. Stalls of food, large vases, and even ropes stretching between rooftops appeared. Finally, she pulled her hands together and raised them once more, her palms still face down. A replica of the palace rose up, finishing the familiar features of Agrabah. The only differences immediately obvious were the lack of people and the fact everything was the golden color of sand.
"That's the best I can do," she gasped, her hands dropping to her sides.
Jasmine went over and gave her friend a hug, "It's wonderful, Sadira. Thank you."
"I don't know how long anyone will be fooled by it. Everything is still… sandy," she pointed out.
"Iago's job is to keep Cassim distracted. All we need to do is keep him tricked long enough to keep him from rubbing the necklace. If we can do that, we should be all right."
He wasn't a happy parrot. He might have finally got a chance to rest and recover from his trip across the desert, but his wings were still sore. Traveling that distance wasn't easy on a small bird. By his best guess, Cassim should arrive around two days after he did. That gave him a couple of days to relax until he learned what the plan to stop Djinn would end up being. Specifically, he was concerned about his role. Iago had hoped that he would be finished with his "hero role" in this particular adventure. Instead, he was flying out to meet Cassim and to carefully direct him towards their Agrabah copy. Not only did the former King of Thieves have orders to kill anyone who interfered, but it would also place him dangerously close to where Djinn hid in the necklace.
He spotted a traveler, leading his horse along the trade route, and the bird quickly descended. With as much casualness as he could fake, he landed on the man's shoulder.
"Hey, Cassim," greeted Iago. "Glad I could catch up with you."
He turned in surprise at the bird's arrival before answering, "I'm glad that you could join me. Did you finish your little money-making scheme?"
"Yeah, but it wasn't as profitable as I hoped," the parrot shrugged, hiding a wince as the motion bothered his sore muscles. "So I followed you. It'll be nice to see everyone again." He took a deep breath before continuing into dangerous territory, "You know, I don't think you should be heading this way."
"Why not?" the man asked calmly, apparently unaware his hand was moving towards his sword in a threatening manner.
Hurrying to ensure that Cassim didn't proceed with the 'killing of anyone who gets in the way' instructions, he explained, "I know a short-cut. When you can fly, you spot alternate paths no one ever uses. If you follow me, you'll get to see Aladdin sooner."
For a moment, neither of them moved. Iago quietly promised that if he managed not to get killed by his friend, he would never use the monkey for his own, selfish, money-making desires again. Slowly, the former King of Thieves nodded and released the sword. He never seemed to notice that he almost drew his weapon on the bird. The red parrot breathed a sigh of relief and promptly forgot his promise for better behavior.
"Very well, I'll try your short-cut. It must be well-hidden if I never found it over the years," he smiled. "The Forty Thieves traveled all across this desert over the years."
"It is," he assured. "Don't worry, Cassim. This'll save you plenty of time. This short-cut will be the best thing to happen to you all day."
Taking flight once again, Iago proceeded to lead him away from the trade route and towards the arranged location. It would mean leading him through a small gap in a cliff, adding creditability to the whole "short-cut" story. If they weren't careful, Cassim would realize that the location he was heading for wasn't the real Agrabah and might react badly. As in "summon the psycho genie" react badly. Thus, the crimson parrot intended to keep his mind completely occupied.
"Speaking of the Forty Thieves, you have to explain how you ended up in charge of them," he called back to the man. "You don't seem like the sort who would want to boss around Sa'luk and his buddies."
Chuckling, Cassim replied, "It is an interesting tale. It truly began when I first heard stories of the Hand of Midas…"
The bird grinned as he began the long story, knowing he would be too caught up in the past to notice the directions they would travel. Even after all this time and the fact he surrendered it voluntarily, he would talk passionately about that particular treasure if he was allowed to. A lifelong obsession is hard to get over.
He glanced back at the seemingly harmless necklace around the former King of Thieves' neck. The thought of that orangish-yellow genie emerging once more gave him the creeps. It also gave him an unfamiliar sense of… well, righteous fury. Iago didn't often feel strongly about something that wasn't related to treasure. He wasn't the one in the group who would get angry about some mistreated poor soul and their suffering. He was never the one to get worked up over the evils of the world. He was the self-centered, greedy bird who was dragged into those problems by his more "noble" friends. But even he had limits on what his selfishness and grey morality could ignore. Hypnotizing his friend was definitely pushing those limits to the extreme, but Djinn had already crossed the line before he even bothered Cassim.
He killed that young girl, Nada, after he convinced her to free him. What's worse, he even admitted it without remorse. The phenomenal cosmic powered being didn't care about the child. Iago didn't even know her that much, but even he could tell that she was the sort of person who wouldn't hurt a fly. She was no threat to the genie, but he killed her and who knows how many others with that fire. While the bird would steal and lie in order to gain what he wanted, his conscience wouldn't let him cause that kind of damage to innocent people. He might have even been slightly bothered by the idea back in the days where he worked with Jafar. But Djinn simply slaughtered them. And he was laughing the entire time. This entire thing screamed "wrong" to the deepest levels of his mind and the tiny voice of his conscience answered.
If the plan didn't work, Djinn would be able to go on to cause equal harm to other innocent people. Most of him would react to that possibility by trying to fly to some remote (and hopefully tropical) location and remaining away from the destruction. The small voice of conscience, however, was teaming up with that sense of fury at the "wrongness" of Djinn's action and they said that if the plan didn't work, Iago would have to find a Plan B that would work because neither one would let him rest until that creep paid for crossing the line.
"I sound like a stupid hero," he muttered, being carefully not to distract Cassim from his story. "I must be coming down with something."
I wanted to have a longer chapter, but here is an ideal stopping point. Though Iago is a greedy, self-centered, often cowardly bird, there is evidence at various points he has an actual conscience that will force him to occasionally do something dangerous because it is right. He isn't usually happy about it, but he has done it in the past.
Reviews are appreciated and desired. Please give me your feedback.