"Ow," Steve said, waking up to a pounding head and, surprisingly, no broken bones. His training must have put him in good stead to fall and not get seriously hurt. Of course, fall or not, he was now in the dark, in a cave that had collapsed. He had no idea how big it was or how much air was in here...

It might have been better if he'd stayed unconscious.

He wasn't exactly in the best of positions. He'd escaped jail, and now he was trapped in a different kind of prison. Not to mention the horror of being stuck with his sister until they died. "Mary?" he asked, scrunching his eyes into the darkness, looking for shapes.

"Yeah, I'm here," she answered pretty quickly. "You were out longer than me, I was trying to find my way around. I think this place is huge." Her voice sounded further away than Steve anticipated.

His eyes began to adjust to the darkness. It wasn't pitch black though it was close to it, but there was still something that allowed him to see vague shapes and he was pretty sure he could pinpoint his sister. Of course, it could be his imagination or his head wound making him see things.

He took stock of the situation. "You bring anything useful with you?"

"Not useful enough," she commented back. Both knowing the only really useful thing right now would be a ladder or a torch. He patted his pockets and shirt. Nothing. Though, he still had the lamp.

The lamp.

Maybe it still had something in it. Lamps like that had oil, maybe he could light it and see a little better in here. He fumbled around for it and brought it to his lap. It was probably even more battered now. He tried to find a way into it, rubbing over it to get to the lid.

It began to heat up in his hand, a spark came from the spout and then smoke began to emerge from it. Steve put the lamp down and moved out of the way with a 'whoa'. The smoke grew, moving higher until it reached a good six feet and then it morphed into the shape of a man.

"Oh that feels so good!" The man said, head bobbing from side to side as his bones cracked into place. Arms swinging at his sides to loosen the limbs up.

Steve pushed himself up against a wall beside Mary. Also, he could see the man. There was light in the cavern now, how did that happen?

"Ten thousand years is a long time, brah." The man continued like nothing was out of the ordinary and he looked over at Steve, who gaped.

A man appeared out of a lamp.

A man appeared out of a lamp.

More sorcery? Well, he had already seen a woman come out of a ring, so maybe it wasn't so crazy after all.

"Oh, hey, you have my family ring!" The man said, ignoring Steve's discomfort and picking up the ring from where it was a few feet away on the ground. He handed it to Steve. "If you don't mind, could you give it a little rub for me? Thanks," he said.

Steve did as he was asked while thinking he must have hit his head harder than he thought.

The woman from the Ring appeared in another batch of smoke. Earlier she had seemed resigned to helping Victor and rather bored with her lot in life. Now, she beamed a smile at the other man. "Cousin!"

"Kono!" he said back in the same happy voice and they hugged. "Haven't seen you in a few millennia, how are you?"

"Can't complain. Well I could. Got found by some real ass. Wait, he's not here is he? He was looking for you."

"Is it him? He doesn't look like an ass," the man said pointing over at Steve.

"Oh, no, not him. This is Steve. He's the one who got into the cave."

"Ah, so he's my new master then, cool. He's got more muscle than the last one. Either that or I'm not working out enough."

"What 'master'? Who are you?" Steve finally was able to speak. If he was hallucinating, it was at least some entertainment before he suffocated in the cave. Mary was still quite shaken by the turn of events as well, so it helped ground Steve into his shifting reality of sorcery. But Mary was getting preoccupied with the rest of the contents of the room - the spilled out treasures that still littered the cave floor.

"Where are my manners, I'm sorry," the man held his hand out; shaking Steve's then pulling him to his feet. "My name's Chin. I'm the genie of the lamp. This is Kono, my cousin. She's the spirit of the ring."

"A spirit. And a genie." Steve said pointing between each of them.

"Yes," Chin said. "And since you came down here and brought me out of the lamp that makes you my new master and now you've got three wishes coming your way, buddy."

"Whoa, wishes?" Mary asked, incredulous but her face broke out into a beaming smile ready to take advantage of the situation.

"Three wishes. And no wishing for more wishes. You get three, that's the deal," Chin answered her.

"Then what do you do?" Mary turned to Kono.

"I'm not as powerful, but I can find things, move around the place, stuff like that. Nothing big or flashy. I leave that to my cousin," she knocked Chin's shoulder.

"I must be having some kind of nervous breakdown," Steve wiped both hands down his face. "Sorcery is one thing, but this? This is a whole different kettle of fish. This morning I was bored on guard duty, then I tried to help someone, got my ass thrown in jail, broke out with a guy who promised me treasure, then got stuck down here with you guys."

"I know it seems strange," Kono began. "But you were chosen for this. The ring and the lamp always find their way to someone who deserves to possess them. Even if we get a bit battered along the way. I don't know how yet, but you're probably going to do something great, boss. Mark my words."

"That sounds a lot like prophesy," Steve hedged.

"Just hope," she said, patting his shoulder. "But we are really here, no hallucinations, no dreams."

"And you're going to grant us three wishes? Anything we want?" He asked of Chin.

"Well, strictly speaking this is for you, not your sister," Chin inclined his head towards Mary who folded her arms with a 'humph', "We have a few rules as well, I mean, who doesn't?" He held out a hand and counted off on his fingers, "One, I can't kill anybody, so don't ask. Two, I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone else. Three, I can't bring people back from the dead. Tried it once, the result wasn't pretty. Other than that? Sure, go ahead."

"Uh-huh. Look, I've got bigger problems right now, like getting out of this place. I'm not wasting wishes on just anything. That's if you can even do them, I've not seen much beyond smoke and mirrors so far. This could all be one big charlatan act."

"I can get us out," Kono shrugged.

"You can-" Steve cut himself off. "Why didn't you say that before?"

"No one asked. But if you need out of the cave, I'm your girl. I did say I could move stuff. This is my area of expertise." She relaxed her shoulders and closed her eyes. "Hold hands," she asked of Steve and Mary who complied quickly.

Steve was barely aware of how Kono was doing it, but they all lifted into the air with ease. He felt like nothing could shock him anymore and was beginning to go with the flow. He enjoyed this. Something inside of him felt like flying was easy and fun and he wanted to experience more of it. Before he knew it, they'd reached the top of the cave and it blasted apart. He shielded his face but no pieces hit them as they came out the top.

Kono didn't stop there. She kept going, keeping them flying through the air. There was a rush of the wind against them but no resistance from the air. The view across the land was exquisite as they sped forward, cutting the time that it had taken Steve and Mary to walk to the cave into a mere fraction as he could see the city in the distance.

But Kono veered off and headed to the edge of the distant desert. She dropped them down by the side of a pool of water. They were hidden from view, even though there was no one else here to even look for them.

"I gotta say, that was pretty damn good," Steve said, looking around him. His day was getting stranger. Mind you, he had no idea how long he'd been unconscious in the cave; it was probably not the same day anymore. The sun seemed awfully high in the sky. If he had to guess he'd say it was morning.

"Thanks, boss," Kono nodded with a pleased smirk.

"So about these three wishes," he turned to Chin. "I can have anything?"

"Pretty much, so long as it's within the rules," Chin leaned against a tree.

"I don't know what I want," Steve said. "I mean, I want my sister to be okay, I'd like to be happy, I'd like a family again, I want the kingdom to be safe but I don't know about how it works with wishes. What would you wish for?"

"Wow, no one's ever actually asked me before," Chin said, face more serious than Steve had seen. "Well, I guess…" he glanced at Kono, who bit her lip, like she knew his answer. "No, forget it."

"What? Tell me," Steve asked.

"Freedom," Chin answered, reaching out for Kono's hand.

"You're a prisoner? In the lamp?" Mary asked, gesturing to the offending object as Steve held it up, looking at it clearly for the first time.

"It's all a part of being a genie. I've got all the power you could imagine, but I'm bound to that thing, and to granting people's wishes while never getting any of my own."

"Were you always a genie?" Steve asked, thinking he already might know the answer.

"No, before I was just a man," Chin came closer and sat beside Steve on a rock. "But I was accused of something I didn't do, and I opted for this punishment rather than death, hoping I might prove my innocence and be set free. Kono stood by me, and was punished alongside. Only thing was, by the time I came out of the lamp for the first time, the people who punished me and those who remembered me, or the allegations against me, were all long gone."

"Did you do.. whatever it was?" Steve asked, wanting to look Chin in his eyes as he answered.

"No," Chin answered, resolute, and Steve believed him. He always thought he was a good judge of character. He may have made a mistake in trusting Victor, but he'd known right from the start that Victor was no good and had been prepared for the worst. He'd been proven right there, too.

"So what would it take - to get you your freedom?" Steve asked. He'd just been accused of something he didn't do in kidnapping the Prince, so he felt a certain empathy towards the genie. He could only imagine how much worse it must have been for Chin. The man deserved better.

"My only way out is if my master wishes me free. Not exactly a popular wish."

"Then I'll do it. I'll set you free. You've been punished long enough, even if you were guilty and I know a few things about the law after all. So once I've had my first two wishes, I'll use the third to give you both your freedom."

"You'd really do that for me? For us?"

"I promise," Steve held his hand out and Chin shook it, smile growing as he allowed himself to believe in Steve.

"What did I tell you? He's going to do something great," Kono cheered on from nearby.

"So what are you going to go for? What is it you want the most?" Chin asked, raring to get going.

Steve thought. He glanced at Mary and shrugged unsure.

"What's the first thing that pops into your head?" Kono asked, encouraging him.

The first thing he thought about?

Danno.

He frowned.

The first thing he thought about was the prince. But what did that mean? Was it because he was a soldier and he wanted peace for the kingdom that the prince was being groomed to rule? Was it because his prince had been the reason he'd even found the genie in the first place, setting the chain of events in motion?

Or was it more. Was it the reason his heartbeat sped up and he blushed in front of Mary and he felt drawn to the man he was secretly thinking of as his Danno? A name that Steve was allowed to call him, that other people in the kingdom couldn't. That they didn't even know about. Like a secret that only the prince and Steve shared.

"Well, there's this guy…" Steve began and saw Mary begin to smile as she shook her head at him good-naturedly.

"Hold up," Chin said. "I can't make anybody fall in love, remember?"

"I know, and I wouldn't want to have that happen. It wouldn't be real. And I didn't exactly say it was 'love'…"

"The way you're blushing, I'd say it was," Mary commented out of the side of her mouth.

Kono smirked. "Who is the guy?"

"He's the prince. Of the kingdom we're from, I mean. I met him yesterday for the first time and we talked and-… But he's in the middle of trying to find a new suitor. It's a sought after union. He's handsome and respected, and the kingdom is flourishing. Princes and princesses have been flocking from miles around."

Kono dug her elbow into Chin and grinned at him. He seemed to catch on, sitting straighter and assessing Steve.

"What? What did I say?" Steve asked.

"If he's got to marry a prince, then we can give him a prince. A prince for the ages! Rich, handsome, intelligent, strong, fun… emphasis on the rich," Chin wagged his eyebrows.

Steve's lips slowly curled up. He could combine so many things into one wish. If he was made a prince, he'd have the wealth to live comfortably, to repay the prince for paying off his father's debts. He'd be able to support the kingdom in his own way and provide for those who needed more. And he'd stand a fair chance with Prince Daniel; a thought that tugged on his insides and he knew denying that he'd been attracted to him since he laid eyes on him in the marketplace was pointless now.

He embraced it.

"Chin, I wish for you to make me a prince."