Disclaimer: Aladdin is the property of D*sney, and I claim nothing but my own silly ideas.

Chapter 3

When we meet again…

The day of Mozenrath's liberation dawned clear and bright across the desert sky. Jasmine observed this as a good sign for the day's proceedings and had even gone so far as to tell Aladdin she might be able to return that very evening on Carpet if things went well.

Not that Hasim would allow such 'foolishness,' regardless of the outcome.

Her earliest memories of the old vulture all included the words "No" and "Do try to behave," usually in that order. He was a small, hunched man well known for his shrewd practicality and Jasmine's father relied heavily on the man's logical faculties for his decision-making in regards to Agrabah's finances. While she knew in her heart that she would rather see this man at her father's side than Jafar, there were a number of things about him that unsettled her deeply.

The thought of spending a day and a half with the vizier was almost too much to bear for the young princess. Her father had picked him as an impartial mediator to smooth over certain 'disagreements' and 'unpleasantries' between herself and the twisted wizard. The fact that she had wanted to scratch both men's eyes out on separate occasions didn't bode well for peace talks.

It was going to be an interesting day.

The Princess' entourage met on the cobblestone path outside the palace stable a short time after the sun began its relentless trek across the clear skies. Jasmine arrived uneasy after an uncomfortable breakfast with her father. Apparently the Sultan had not foreseen this particular outcome when he first decided to move forward with peace talks. Jasmine was both warmed and ashamed that her father's ability to lead his people was so strongly wrapped up in his desire to keep her safe.

Rasoul and four royal guardsmen were already engaged in various tasks when she made her way out of the palace gates. The smells of Agrabah quickly assaulted her nose and Jasmine had to remind herself that gagging was defiantly not regal behavior. She endeavored to maintain her composure while quickly passing the piles of discarded 'fertilizer' to join fevered activity of the guards. Rasoul was busy loading his person with every manner of dangerous object the princess could imagine while the others sharpened, scraped, saddled and, she noticed with a smile, even slumbered.

"Ah, attention men! Make way for the princess!" The Captain rasped out after noticing her arrival. She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, hoping that it would bring an end to the cacophonous ruckus that ensued as the men tried to both jump to attention and bow respectfully in the same instant.

Jasmine moved past them to sling the loops of her shoulder bag over the saddle horn of a larger male camel that Rasoul had probably meant for himself. She allowed herself a small smile at his expense when he realized the overly decorated monstrosity by the door was the only beast left for his use.

"Princess Jasmine, surely you would prefer…" he began with an exaggerated shrug of his sizeable shoulders.

"The stronger, more agile creature? Why yes I would Rasoul, thank you for your understanding." A number of hissing laughs came from Fazal's direction.

The large man's face continued to twitch in suppressed rage as he stormed off to intimidate one of the lower ranking men into giving up a less colorful mount. She almost laughed aloud.

"Causing trouble already, I see." Came the airy voice of the Vizier from the doorway.

Jasmine choked when she noticed Hasim's appearance. He emerged from the darkened stable shrouded in all the finery his position could afford him. The colors of the royal family were draped over his scrawny form in so many layers; she might have mistaken his rotund shadow for that of her father. He coughed lightly at her own choice of clothing.

"Surely your Highness has something more appropriate for meeting with foreign rulers." He stated in a drawn out tone that put her teeth on edge.

"It matches," She replied dryly, and Jasmine held up the unornamented sleeve of her modest robe to illustrate her point. Hasim continued in his usual, bland tone.

"I assure you I meant no insult upon the royal taste, but your Highness is a very beautiful woman and your current garb simply does not display your assets to their fullest advantage." This statement was accompanied by a few hand gestures that made Jasmine more nauseous than the lingering smell of feces.

She felt her face heat up and tried to find somewhere to look that wasn't occupied by the surprised and even, she noticed with a sinking sensation, confirming looks of her guards.

Jasmine's vanity was a rather sizable blemish on her mostly virtuous character. She lowered her head to take in the flattering, but highly unrevealing outfit she had chosen and decided to let the insult go by unanswered. There was no way, in this dimension or any other, that she was going to let that sorcerer see more than the bare minimum of her exposed flesh. She remembered all too well the approving looks he had given in regards to her regular apparel.

Her memories of that heated gaze were interrupted when she realized what Hasim was truly saying underneath his critical comments.

He wanted her to look good, for Mozenrath. Her temper flared.

"I am EN-GAGED! There is no way I'm riding out into the middle of nowhere and putting myself on display for that murderous, egocentric LUNATIC so that you can live happily ever after with your trade agreements."

Hasim 'tsked' softly at her. "Temper, temper child. I am fully aware of your current arrangements with young Aladdin. I only meant to suggest that it would be unwise to alienate any potential suitors in case certain things… fall through."

He let that sink in for a moment before continuing.

"I have been lead to believe that this Sorcerer is young and extremely powerful. Any small advantage on our side must be utilized if these proceedings are to go smoothly."

There was a general hum of agreement from the men behind her, and she turned quickly to see all but Rasoul nodding thoughtfully. The Captain, for all of his dislike of Aladdin, had turned white as a sheet at the implications of Hasim's statement. The princess was suddenly very curious as to what sorts of impressions Rasoul had of magic and sorcerers after his dealings with Jafar. Or maybe Mozenrath had just proven to be a bit much for Old Rasoul the last time they'd traveled to Dagger Rock.

"Well, speak and he shall appear." Hasim announced with annoyance.

She turned to see Aladdin and Genie float down from the sky on their usual woven means of transportation. She quickly made a large show of bouncing over to her fiancé and giving him an overly amorous greeting that he was all too happy to reciprocate. The uncomfortable display prompted the guards' quick return to their work and Hasim's retreat into the safety of the stables with an exaggerated sniff.

"You didn't think I'd let you ride into mortal peril without saying goodbye, did you?" She smiled at him and took note of the envy in his eyes. Something inside her nearly purred with self-satisfaction with the knowledge that he was jealous. Aladdin loved peril.

"Of course not." She said softly, and perhaps a bit smugly.

"Plus Genie said you still needed some things."

The blue jinn in question abruptly pulled up in honking vehicle clad in a short brown suit. Too short, in Jasmine's opinion.

"Delivery for one Princess Jasmine." He said with flair and produced a box in a flash of blue and magenta smoke.

Aladdin removed the lid and slid his hands through the contents. The first item produced was a delicate head shawl. She frowned at further negative commentary against her fashion sense.

"It's magical. Genie says that it will keep Mozenrath from being able to manipulate your thoughts." Jasmine ran her fingers over the soft fabric and was touched that the jinn had taken the time to create such a lovely item for her protection. She turned to smile at him.

"Thank you Genie."

"Hey, no problem princess. Always a good idea to keep a clear head." In the next moment he demonstrated this point rather literally.

She lowered her head so that Aladdin could drape the material over her hair, which he did with care not to pull the long strands.

The next item he produced was nothing more than a thin metal bangle.

"This will help us find you if things should take a turn for the worst." She nodded, and slipped the cool gold over her left wrist.

The last item from the box turned out to be a small silver hand mirror. Aladdin held this up for her inspection and looked deep into the princess' eyes.

"This will allow you to contact me. I have the other one here." He produced a matching mirror from his belt before stowing it safely away again. "I know everyone else agrees that things will go better if Genie and I keep out, but if you need me, I'll come. All you have to do is call my name and I'll find you, no matter where you are."

He said this with fervor, and Jasmine felt a pinch of guilt at making him worry, especially when she was almost looking forward to the trip. Aladdin leaned in to touch his forehead to hers for a moment before pulling back to relay some instructions to Carpet.

Genie took this opportunity to produce the one magical item she had no desire to carry. The scepter was tightly wrapped in black silk that shielded her from its serpentine gaze. She and Genie had spent more than four hours looking through the royal treasury to find just the right stones to replace the eyes that Aladdin had smashed out to save her from a lifetime as 'Mrs. Jafar.' The jinn had mentioned that the stones had to be able to absorb magical energy in order for their espionage to work.

They had eventually decided to use the ruby earrings Jafar himself had conjured for her the night he seized power. She shuddered at the memory as she took the hated item from Genie's hands.

"Now remember, Mozenrath has to be the only one that touches this bad boy. Don't want to wind up getting a front row seat to the daily lives of one of those lot by accident." He threw a pointed look in direction of Rasoul's men.

"I'll be careful with it Genie." Jasmine promised.

He placed a heavy hand on her shoulder and gave her a sad smile.

"Just remember to take care of yourself as well Princess. Don't let his boyish features fool you." She flushed at his tone. "That Kid's more twisted up inside than you can possibly imagine."

Jasmine agreed whole-heartedly.

If time passed within the Crystal of Ix, the sorcerer didn't notice. Mozenrath couldn't even fathom how he would have measured its passing in his current state. His body was trapped within the skin-tight shield he had cast before his absorption into the colossal stone. The spell was currently protecting the majority of his life force from being squeezed out like juice through a strainer, but it was also preventing even the smallest of movements as it battled against the drain of the surrounding rock. He occupied his mind by attempting to calculate how long the shield would hold, but without the ability to judge the passage of time, his predictions had become increasingly morbid.

He might have been better able to bear his current situation if everything wasn't so… grey. His field of vision was an even slate of dinginess that barraged his eyeballs and set a terrible throbbing in his left temple. Darkness he was accustomed to, even the overwhelming bright of the desert sun was better than the constant presence of this mediocre nothingness. Mozenrath wondered if he should check the fabric of his spell again…

But his sense of self-preservation decided it was a bad idea. The last inspection had shown more than a few key magical components breaking down and he was positive that if he obsessed about his impending doom he would be a raving lunatic by the time he was released. And it was the knowledge his impending rescue that had kept him sane thus far.

Mozenrath knew that he would be released from the crystal, just as he knew the name of his rescuer. The wizard fervently prayed that jealousy ate the filthy little beggar alive when Aladdin's meal ticket decided that she couldn't live with the guilt of killing another living being.

The princess might have surprised him that day, but there was one thing that the sorcerer believed he knew about her beyond a shadow of a doubt. That was her overwhelming need to be virtuous. Unlike Aladdin, who had probably faced off against enough opponents to recognize the value of a "greater good" mentality, Mozenrath could see naivety written all over the girl's face even as he'd fallen under the crystal's overwhelming power.

He could envision her sniffling away on her divan, bellowing dramatically about the unfairness of it all as she pawed away at whatever simpering creatures her father provided as pets. How Mozenrath wished he could smile as he contemplated the image of her conveying her guilt to dear Aladdin over how she had been responsible for his imprisonment. He could hear the gentle tones of her voice as she pleaded with her beloved to help her release the poor, misguided wizard from an early grave. A ghost of a thought rose up from the depths of his nightmares.

Not as early as you'd think…

The sorcerer tried everything he could think of to keep from falling into that depressingly bleak line of thought. His focused his inner eye on the image of Aladdin's princess, and considered her as an alternative to mental anguish.

She was young and beautiful, but that was common enough, even amongst the sorcerer's limited and mostly half-dead acquaintance. Truthfully, Mozenrath did not find himself particularly drawn to the soft curves of her feminine form, nor the graceful beauty of her face. No, it was the fiery temper in those eyes that had pulled him in and held his interest long enough for her to land a rather forceful blow with the toes he had once been willing to consider 'dainty'. What should have been an unflattering look of fury had transformed the girl into something he could be interested in. Very interested in.

At least until she had gone off shouting painfully predictable hero-jargon.

All in all, Mozenrath determined the Princess to be an unfathomable collection of contradictions, like most women. But the combinations had turned out to be surprisingly fascinating. He was captivated by the challenge she presented. A malicious fantasy played across the grey of his imprisonment, of him stealing the girl away from her low-class consort before destroying them both. The idea had merit.

The sorcerer would continue to believe that she was coming, and that he would have the opportunity to seek out his revenge against her and Aladdin; because to give up hope would be to despair in his death. Somewhere deep inside him, Mozenrath felt disturbed that he had allowed his thoughts to so closely mirror those of Aladdin during his period of magical detainment, even if it was only in the privacy of his own mind.

With that unsettling thought swirling around his head, the young magician decided to begin reciting the names, ingredients and proper procedure for all the spells he could pull from memory. He began with the letter A.

The crystal released him four hundred and seventy-three cantations later, just as he had begun recalling the proper hand gestures for Trans-Dimensional Teleportation.

Mozenrath's first thought when he landed on the hard gravel of the canyon floor was that he infinitely preferred gravity to the sucking pressure of the crystal. His second thought was interrupted by the squelching splat of Xerxes' fishy body connecting with his throbbing head. Between that and the glaring brightness of the afternoon sun, the sorcerer let out a long stream of curses as his head pulsed with the beating of his heart.

There was the sound of a male throat being cleared somewhere in the glare that surrounded him, but Mozenrath had no intention of opening his eyes again to try and locate the individual.

So the princess left you to die after all…

He was oddly disappointed at the thought.

The male voice spoke up from somewhere to his left, "Captain, please escort his Lordship to the camp so that he might be made comfortable."

Mozenrath's eyes shot open at that. After another line of grumbled obscenities, his vision slowly cleared to reveal an elderly stranger clad in what could only be described as the most ostentatious clothing he'd ever seen. And he'd been Destane's apprentice for nearly ten years. Behind this harsh faced man was the familiar one he'd been expecting since the last time he'd seen daylight.

Hatred and fascination warred within him as he decided that he had not recalled her beauty as accurately as he'd thought. Even in her dust covered robe and hijab, the Princess of Agrabah was an intriguing sight. Though the ugly scowl on her face wasn't doing much for her at the moment.

He used the hard surface of the crystal behind him to push against with his good hand as he clambered up to standing. Xerxes unconscious weight settled against his shoulders as the Lord of Black Sand assumed his full height.

A gorilla of a man that he recalled all to well moved towards him, most likely with the intent of "escorting" him to the camp. But Mozenrath wasn't having any of that. He lifted the gauntlet with the intent of sending the man flying into the cavern wall, but was surprised when the object did not respond. His shocked gaze locked with that of the equally confounded Princess and he knew that she had come to the same realization as him. The crystal had drained the glove's power. He was completely defenseless. Mozenrath felt a trickle of very real panic.

.

.

.

The princess recognized that Mozenrath's would-be show of strength had come across as a weak defensive gesture to those that had not seen his magic at work. Rasoul was all too happy to slap the sorcerer's hand aside and attempt to pick up his slender frame by the waist. She was moved by the look of fear on the young man's face.

"Rasoul don-" Jasmine's command was cut short as the wizard resisted and the side of the gauntlet forcefully connected with the crystal. The ancient relic abruptly began re-absorbing it's power from the giant magical magnet and Rasoul found himself desperately trying to hold on to the smaller man as his body was thrown aside by the tide of magical backlash. Mozenrath's face twisted in fury when the dust settled. She eyed the ominous glow of his magical hand with trepidation. His voice was uncharacteristically rough as he spoke.

"My, my Princess. And here I was thinking that our reunion would be full of starlight and romantic poetry." His eyes glinted with malice, "Oh well. Business as usual then." He raised the gauntlet high in a sweeping gesture before she moved directly into his line of fire.

"Lord Mozenrath," she began with a graceful bow borne from years of etiquette training, "I have come on behalf of my father, The Most Generous Sultan of Agrabah, who seeks an alliance with your kingdom that we might move forward together into more profitable ventures."

Whatever spell had been on his lips, died a sudden death as Mozenrath's great intelligence failed him. Jasmine restrained herself from making a quip about the way his mouth was gaping open and continued in a rehearsed tone.

"I stand before you as my father's humble servant, to ask for your for-" she faltered here and allowed herself a few cleansing breaths before standing up straight to look him in the eyes.

"Listen Mozenrath, I will not ask for your forgiveness," She stated with purpose, as her eyes cut to Hasim for a brief moment, "But our previous conflicts are our own and do not belong the political arena. There are many benefits to an Alliance between Agrebah and the Land of Black Sand that were previously impossible due to the stubbornness of your former master. I have been instructed to release you and provide this information for your consideration."

His brain kicked into reboot and the sorcerer blinked slowly before smiling slyly at her.

"Poetry it is, my dear." He lowered the gauntlet gently and sauntered, there was no other way to describe how he walked, closer to her. Her heart sped up as she met his challenging gaze head on, Jasmine told herself it was from fear and not anticipation of any kind.

"I would love to hear more of your propositions," he said while adjusting the fit of his glove in a barely veiled threat, "I believe someone mentioned a camp near by?"

Jasmine felt her face heat up in the uncomfortable silence that followed.

The Vizier took this opportunity to reassert control of the situation and introduced himself with a far more flexible show of supplication than Jasmine could have managed.

"Lord Mozenrath, I am Hasim, Chief Advisor to His Royal Majesty the Sultan." Jasmine rolled her eyes and Mozenrath took note of it.

"I apologize for the Captain's over-zealous behavior my lord. I only wished to see you comfortable and rested before attempting to talk business. Surely a months repose in such an undesirable condition has left you feeling quite unwell."

Jasmine watched as several thoughts played across the sorcerer's face and his gauntleted hand shook with some intense emotion. She was suddenly feeling far more afraid of him than she had been a moment ago when he'd actually attempted to blow her face off. Mozenrath calmed himself and his eyes became distant and unfocused.

"A month... gone."

Jasmine could see the weariness express itself in the sorcerer's thin form. His voice seemed unbearably soft to her ears, like forced intimacy between them. She allowed herself to give in to the desire to snap at him, just to push the possible implications of his statement away.

"A lenient punishment for kidnapping and attempted murder." Jasmine was surprised at how guilty she felt, in spite of her anger.

He was suddenly very focused on her as he threw back, "All time is relative Princess. You can not possibly judge its value to anyone but yourself!"

His gaze burned with accusation.

"A wise observation, my lord." Hasim once again diffused the tension between them with his mild statement. Jasmine had never been more grateful for the impersonal tone in his voice.

"Shall we retire to the tents? It would seem that your... um," Hasim expressed some uncharacteristic confusion while gesturing to the creature draped around the sorcerer's shoulders. Mozenrath sighed heavily and decided to help him out.

"Eel. Xerxes is an eel." He stated this in a way that communicated just how many times he had been forced to relay that information.

"Yes, of course. Your eel seems to require some attention." Hasim finished as if he had known all along, and turned to walk back to the tents.

Jasmine watched with a small amount of fascination as Mozenrath drew the creature's length down from his shoulders and examined him thoughtfully.

"He will recover shortly. I am not concerned." He said to no one in particular.

But contrary to this statement, the sorcerer was very gentle as he slowly wound Xerxes unconscious body around his right arm to keep from jostling the small animal as he carried him.

"If you would lead the way Princess…" Mozenrath included this statement with a malicious look that said he would enjoy walking behind her very much indeed.

Jasmine huffed loudly in frustration and stomped off to the camp in the most masculine manner she could manage, the chuckling Sorcerer following close behind.

And one again the Crystal of Ix stood alone in the silence, with nothing but the unconscious heap of Rasoul for company.

A/N- I'm back! This was the most challenging chapter thus far. I spent a lot of time debating how I wanted to portray Moze's inner monologue, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I think that, while Jasmine is full of frustration, Mozenrath is filled with despair. Both of them are fighting against some pretty huge obstacles (societal convention and death respectively) but neither is getting anywhere simply by being angry. Moze is a little bit ahead of Jaz in that he seems able to let go of the inevitable a bit more and focus on getting the things that he wants while he still has time, where as she's still ignoring the problem.

On the lighter side, I am completely enjoying tormenting Rasoul. Don't know why, I just am. Next chapter will involve a lot of dialogue and both our main characters getting schooled. Should be fun! As always I love to hear from you guys. Ta Ta for now!

Kudos for those of you that found Jafar's line!