All right, let's go to the palace! Thanks for reviewing, StarHeart Specials (I've seen it – it was the musical, though, which I haven't seen), Bloodylilcorpse, Gage the Hedgehog (you make a fair point...I'll think about writing it), SilverWriter0927 (*right answer buzzer*), xandra19 (your bet is right, cash in any time), Bubhh (I may do that, but I've got so many ideas right now) and the guest reviewers (true, but I blame Chris for not letting the winners of the challenge be the ones who actually did it right...also, while Duncan was at his worst that season, I don't think it's fair to blame him for Noah's demise, because it was really more Alejandro). Oh, and I forgot...

Disclaimer: I don't own any TD characters, or the movie "Aladdin". I do, however, own this piece of writing.

Prince Justin left the palace earlier than he'd planned. He was insulted by Princess Gwen's cool politeness, for one thing. After a few minutes, his unbelievable looks had stopped affecting her. And then there was one more thing that happened that was the last straw.

"I cannot believe she's allowed those reptiles!" Justin muttered under his breath. "I certainly would have had them put out of their misery by now." He took his leave with Sultan Cody, and then left the palace, very early that morning.

Cody was at a loss. He knew Gwen didn't want to get married, but it was important. He may be the Sultan, but he was ill – he only had a month to live – two months at the most. He'd grown up with the knowledge that he was going to die young, ill from birth. He would never had taken the throne if not for his parents passing away a few years back. And only a man was allowed to rule the kingdom. Gwen was his only direct relative – his sister. She would be queen, of course, but she had to get married, and she needed to do it before he died, so she and her new husband could take over for him.

However, he approached his sister's bedroom. "Gwen?" he knocked. "Can I come in?"

"Is Prince Justin with you?" the girl inside answered.

"Um, no, he just left." Cody answered.

"Okay."

Cody pushed open the door, to find Gwen feeding her pet lizards, Angus and Vampyra. "What went wrong this time?" he asked, a note of annoyance creeping into his voice.

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Vampyra just bit the tip of his finger. I offered to help clean and bandage it, even though it was no big deal. But honestly, he acted as if she'd ripped his arm off and then he stormed out. So, he's left?" She smiled. "I doubt he'd be interested in anyone else long enough to be a good Sultan, anyway."

Cody sighed at her tone. "Gwen, you need to stop rejecting every suitor. You know the law, and you know that it needs to be soon."

"Why can't you change the law?" Gwen pleaded. "You're the Sultan! You should be able to pass a law so women can rule."

Cody heaved another sigh. "Gwen, that's not the only reason. I want to pass that law. But we're the last two in our line. We need a descendant, and with this illness...well, I can't become a father." This was true. Cody had never married, partly because he was born with a defect that left him sterile, and partly because he was so young.

Gwen sighed, too. "I know, I know. But why does it have to be a prince? If I could just go outside the palace walls, maybe in disguise or something, so I could meet someone who might actually like me for me. Then I could marry him – he wouldn't even know until I told him that he would be marrying into royalty."

"I know, Gwen." Cody said sympathetically. "I'm sorry this is the way it has to be, but you're not the first. This is just the responsibilities and rules of being a princess."

"Well, I never asked to become a princess." his sister muttered, suddenly moody.

Cody was starting to lose patience with her, which was rare. He tried to keep his voice level as he said "You liked Prince Trent, didn't you? Why did you reject him?"

"He was nice." Gwen admitted. "The best so far. But he was a bit...possessive. I got the feeling that he'd never let go of me if we got married. I mean, I think he was trying to give me space, but he couldn't stand half an hour away from me. We were connecting until I realized that."

Cody knew that Trent had acted a bit too possessive, as if Gwen wanting to be away from him for an hour was a sign that she was going to reject him. But he'd liked the guy too, and as much as he hated to admit it, there weren't any other princes who he'd really wanted to accept as his brother-in-law – he would have allowed them, but only because he was desperate.

Eventually, he decided to leave his sister to her own devices and logged onto his online battle game. Sure, he may be the ruler of a land, but he was still a teenager, and online, no one had to know he was a Sultan, or dying.

But after only five minutes, there was a knock on his door. "Damnit!" Cody cursed as one of his virtual castles was destroyed. "Come in!"

As the tall figure entered, Cody smiled. The royal vizier may have made him feel smaller and more sickly than ever, but he could be trusted with anything. "Alejandro! I wanted to speak to you, actually. About Gwen."

"What is the problem, sire?" Alejandro said in his most respectful tone.

"It's this suitor thing." Cody explained. "I don't want to force Gwen to choose someone she doesn't entirely feel comfortable with, but she's turned down so many already. It has to be a prince, and none of them are suitable for her. There needs to be something I can do, but I can't think of anything."

That was a really tough one for Alejandro. Gwen herself was tough to understand. Thing was, Alejandro had the skill of being able to wrap everyone around his little finger, especially women (Heather was an exception). But not Gwen. She was always perfectly polite to him, and occasionally seemed like she was drawn in, but it wasn't like that. He could never get her to do anything just by talking to her. Sure, he was a skilled hypnotist, but Gwen seemed to sense when he wanted to control her and made excuses to stay away from him whenever he sought her out. Heather had already told him that she suspected Gwen would give him the sack when she took the throne – and she would be turned out too, since the only reason she was allowed was by extension. And sure, Heather herself could have tried to help influence Gwen with her knowledge of sorcery, but after all their conflicts, she couldn't even get close enough to Gwen to get what she needed for that.

But Alejandro didn't say a word about this to Cody. "That is very problematic, I agree. I don't have a complete answer for that yet, but I will. I just need one thing." He put his hypnotic eyes to work as he asked for the gold band Cody wore on his ring finger. It was an royal family heirloom, but it was important. The Sands of Time wouldn't work without it.

Cody had no idea that he was being controlled himself as he handed the ring over. Alejandro gave him careful instructions about when he would come back to complete consciousness and what he would think happened to the ring, and then left.

When Cody came to, he blinked. What had just happened? He turned back to his computer, and then scowled. How had everything he'd built become demolished so fast? He typed to one of his opponents: How did you do that so quickly?

You've been gone twenty minutes, bro. his friend HighIQsNeverLove typed back.

Twenty minutes? What?

You can guess which TD character that was, since I used his label. And for the record, yes, I know he has a girlfriend now, but this is kind of a reference to how he acted asexual before RR came up.