Short, but I was zoning out and decided to make the fight in a different chapter.

Chapter 9: Is that a crush I see?!

Magus was sitting in a room that the Fog troupe let him rest in. He was contemplating the strange boy from earlier, finding it strangely comforting with all the black rukh that was around him, but not the boy itself.

He reminded Magus of someone, he wasn't sure of who, but whoever it was ignited cold fury inside of him whenever he tried to remember. The flashbacks he has been having lately have gotten worse ever since he saw that teenager.

He flinched as pain reached his forehead, making him clutch his head as he gasped, bending over as his body shook. Screaming entered his mind, flashes of people he's seen in his dreams passes, an elder man that looks like Solomon was standing in front of the group, a woman with a devious smile faced him with her own group.

War.

"BIG BROTHER!" a boy, looking similar to the man with red hair yelled, running towards him. The man looked up from his glaring at the traitors to his brother, Umar, only for his eyes to widen as the traitorous woman herself appeared behind him. It was as if time itself slowed down for him, watching as his dear brother looked behind him towards the woman, fear making its way up his face as he tried to run faster, only serving to make the woman grin in sadistic pleasure. He had no time to yell out for the boy to move, struggling to get up with missing limbs, for next thing he knew, a giant hole appeared in the middle of the boy's chest. A red eye widened in horror.

Loss.

Tears ran down the beings face, holding his last living brother in his arm, watching as the life left his panicked eyes. He ignored the war around him as he brought Umars body close. His brothers were gone, his closes of friends betrayed him, his leader had sacrifice his mind, his people were cornered as the black rukh spread and destroyed everything, and Astoroth was no where to be seen.

The Corruption.

"ARRRRRRRRRRBBBBBBBBBBBBA!" He howled as the rukh around him started to turn black, his warm magic starting to corrupt and seethe in murderous rage. He spotted her, fighting the man he decided to follow, spouting some nonsense-

He gasped, disoriented as he opened his eyes, not remembering when he had closed them. Everything was blurry and seemed unfamiliar. His hands dug into his skull, drawing blood, and at some point had curled up and fallen to the floor. "...!? W-Where...am...I...?" his breathing was quick, red eyes flickering from place to place, searching for something that he did not find. "...A...Astaroth...?" he called out in a whisper, pupils constricting into slits and returning to normal constantly. "...Where-?...S-" he started, images of faces that brought mixed emotions assaulting his mind. "Solomon? Sheba? Ugo? Astaroth? Setta? Ithnan? Wahid? Falan...?" he said, getting up on his knees and clutching his aching head, he shook it as a wave of confusion crashed into him. "No...Wait...I-I'm not...This doesn't feel like Alma Torran..." He muttered. Magus' eyes found the still covered form of his staff, he stared, feeling his body start to crawl towards it as if it was calling him. His hand reached out, metal claws brushing against the cover as more events played in his mind.

"Asura, This is the first time you have ever been out of your home, right?" Solomon asked the Finalist. To which he gained a nod, just making Solomon grin widen. "There are so many things you're going to like! Just wait until you see our base! Ugo made it."

"S-Solomon," Ugo stuttered, a blush of embarrassment dusted his cheeks. "I-It's not that I-Impressive.." he muttered when Asura turned to look at him.

He grasped the cover, giving a slight pull-

"Hm? Oh! Who's this, a new member?" A male with ash wheat hair asked Solomon, observing the now fairly looking human Finalist. Asura did not want anyone outside of the group he had met to see what his people truly looked like, so he used his newly acquired staff to focus his magic on his appearance, It would give them an advantage in surprise if he only had a few features of his original form out.

"Mhm! This is Asura, He's the leader of the finalist." Solomon said, introducing him before looking at Asura. "Asura, This is Ithnan."

Ithnan smiled at Asura, a hand held out in greeting, "Nice to see that finalist are willing to help." He blinked when he noticed Asura's confusion towards his outstretched hand. Ithnan chuckled, feeling that he was going to get along with Asura just fine. "You're suppose to shake it," Asura stared at him. "It's a greeting."

Magus watched as it fell away, revealing a blood red staff that looked more like a double sided ax.

"Hi, I'm, like, Fala and this big disgusting brute eating behind me is, like, Wahid." Fala, a busty woman with orange hair in several loops, introduced herself and Wahid, a giant man with Albino hair and an eye-patch, behind her.

Said man spluttered at being called a brute, "I am not disgusting and I'm not a brute!" he defended himself. He turned towards Asura with a huff, intending to defend himself further, but notice that the red head was staring at his piercing. He moved it slightly, watching as Asura followed it with his eyes in wonder. "...I don't think he heard a thing we said." he stated dryly as both magicians watched the finalist follow the ring.

Magus screwed his eyes shut patches of scenes played. Some where of this Asura meeting and hanging out with people-

"Asura! Shiba! Ugo! Look!" Solomon yelled excitedly as they landed in another village. The mentioned people only sighed as they watched their leader 'communicate' with the new race.

"...Sometimes.." Asura started, gaining the other two's attention, "I wonder if Solomon is actually really stupid, and if it's someone else writing those speeches he gives." he commented, shiba snorted while Ugo chuckled.

"Yeah, but we know he's not, otherwise how else would he have gathered so many people?" Ugo questioned.

"Maybe he annoyed them?" Asura suggested dryly, before shrugging and walking over to their leader- who was scarring the natives again- and called back over his shoulder. "You should keep a firmer leash on your husband, Shiba." he cracked a grin at the choking noise.

Others about Asura and Astaroth together-

"It's like a big family, isn't it?" Astaroth said, sitting next to Asura as they watched everyone party. Astaroth wrapped an arm around the others waist, pulling him against his body, and chuckled at Solomon's and Shiba's antics.

"Hn," Asura agreed, laying his head on the gorgons shoulder. "It is hard to believe that it has already been a few years since I have joined." he commented, he smiled at everyone present, "I'm glad I did. We're all in this, together until the end."

And lastly the battle.

Asura stared out in disbelief at what he was seeing, red eyes looking over Ithnan, Falan, and Wahid's forms as they stood with Arba against them. "...Why?" was all he was able to ask, he felt Astoroth's hand squeeze his own.

Falan just glared, "You wouldn't understand."

Asura grit his teeth, "No. I don't understand why you betrayed the man who freed us!"

"Ngh...W...Whats...H-Happening...?" he grunted, curling around the staff on the floor.

It wasn't until later that the flashes finally stopped, Magus had decided to lay in bed until Masrur came and got him for the results in the negotiation. The latter of the two was worried when he saw the state Magus was in, he wanted to question what happened but could see that the elder finalist didn't want to talk about it, so Masrur let it go.

For now.

The two walked down the hallway towards the room Alibaba and the rest were currently in, they decided to just pick up the prince since it was on their way. As they walked, they ran into Jafar who had also decided to go get Alibaba, it was silent as they walked, Jafar taking glances at the staff in Magus' hand, having never seen it out of it's covers before. Masrur just stayed close to him, his rukh fluttering about in worry as he watched Magus' from the corner of his eye.

Magus himself was thinking he was going insane, the hallways would change from their dingy run down state, to white pristine walls with high ceilings and an air of nobility. His hand twitched, and his ears caught the phantom voices of people he knew were not there, and his mind had somehow lost the information about who Masrur and Jafar were, making him panic for a brief second and wonder were the hell Solomon and everyone else was, before he remembered who he was.

"Sin said that we're going to announce the outcome of today's negotiation's to the members of the 'Fog Troupe'." Jafar said, breaking the illusions that Magus was seeing, making everyone's attention go to the albino and prince.

Alibaba looked nervous about that, but stood up and started to follow the three adults out to where the meeting was being held. Magus had motioned for his siblings to stay near him, both because he was still slightly miffed that Aladdin had taken the chance of Magus being distracted by the strange teenager to join Sinbad's cause, and because he was going to use them as anchors for his mind to stay in one place.

"Mama?" Aladdin asked, making Magus look down at the chibi. "Are you alright? Your rukh is acting strange..." he trailed off, his brows furrowing in worry. Magus just gave a strained smiled, noticing that the twins and Morgiana had also started to stare at him with worry, before lifting Aladdin close to him with his free arm.

"I'm...Fine..." He mumbled, slightly nuzzling his nose into Aladdin and sniffing his scent. "I'm just...Tired is all." he said softly, taking comfort in having Aladdin and his siblings with him, thankful since his mind seemed to be on track with reality. "Just fine." He reassured himself as they arrived in a giant gathering like room. Alibaba was pulled from them by Jafar and pushed up to the front.

"Please step forward, leader." Jafar said, Magus could tell that the man still didn't like Sinbads choice in joining the group.

Magus had tuned out after that, keeping an ear open just in case Sinbad tried to rope in Aladdin and his siblings into his schemes even more, he didn't care about what happened in the palace, he could easily get Morgiana back to their homeland with the rukh if he wished. These people didn't really affect Aladdin or the twins much, and if they kept doing this then Sinbad will have more opportunity's in trying to weasel his way into Aladdin's heart.

Just then, Magus spotted a large amount of rukh, and a chill went down his spine. He tensed, his eyes sharpening as he let Aladdin down and pushed the siblings behind him, this brought the attention of Masrur and Jafar.

"Magus?" Masrur questioned, also going on alert, knowing that if Magus was tensing up something was going to happen.

"Big brother?" Runic asked as he and Rumal closed in on their siblings. Magus' behavior now had everyone's attention, wondering why the finalist seemed to be acting like this.

Their only answer was Magus snapping his gaze towards the sky visible by a hole in the ceiling. Everyone followed, and there, in the moon light with a smile and confident stance, was the teenager Magus had encountered earlier.

"HEY! SINBAD!" The teen shouted, making the king gulp and Magus to glare at the king. He knew this had something to do with him.

"Of course it's the womanizers fault." Magus deadpaned.

"EH?! HOW THE HELL IS THIS MY FAULT?!" Sinbad demanded, honestly starting to think that the finalist had something against him.

"He just called out your name," Magus stated as the teenager jumped down from his flying carpet, "Seems pretty friendly towards you as well." he muttered towards the end, watching as the boy greeted Sinbad with a smile on his face.

"Hey, stupid king!" the teen said, already getting a point in Magus' approval for calling Sinbad stupid. "What are you doing here?" he didn't seem to mind that Sinbad was seemingly glaring at him. "Nh?" He hummed, coming to a stop a few feet away.

"Judal," Sinbad said, his eyes never straying from the teenager. "Were you sent under Ahbmad's order? Or did the kou empire send you?"

"...Huh?" Judal said, staring at Sinbad like he was an idiot. Then his face beamed into a smile again, "No no! It's nothing like that!" he stated cheerily as he waved his hand in the air, "To tel you the truth, those things don't matter to me at all!" he giggled.

Sinbad didn't seem amused. "What do you plan on doing with this country?!" he asked, making Judal shrug his shoulders.

"Who knows. I don't have a single bit of interest about all those things about economy that the ole man talks about..." he sighed out, scratching the back of his head as if he was bored out of his mind already. "Sinbad, you should know right? What I truly like-" he started, his voice starting to turn a bit sadistic as he talked.

Magus felt something jolt in his memory.

"Is war!"

The image of a woman, with red-brown hair, an elegant staff in hand, and a crazed look in her eyes replaced Judal for a second. Magus' body froze as his pupils slitted, before Judal's frame came back.

"-They awesome!?" Magus heard Judal say, snapping him back to reality again.

"...Ja'far?" Magus heard Aladdin say, making him turn his eyes towards the chibi. "Do you know him?"

Magus snorted, "Of course he does, don't you see how their talking?" Magus mumbled.

"He is Judal, and he has a long history of accumulated hatred with us." Ja'far answered, ignoring Magus comment, "What's more, Aladdin, he the same as you, a 'magi'." He informed, making Aladdin's eye's widen.

"'Magi'!?" Aladdin gasped, turning his attention back t the still talking teenager. Only to see that the teen turned around and met eyes with Aladdin. Both of them stilled, starring at one another, before Judal turned his head back at Sinbad and pointed at Aladdin.

"...Who's this guy? Hey, Sinbad, the rukh around this guy is weird. Who is he exactly?" he questioned, causing the king to he nervous.

Magus was glaring at the king, daring him to say something stupid and causing Aladdin to get hurt.

"...He's a the same as you, a 'Magi'." He stated, making Judals eyes go wide in disbelief, turning on his heel and taking a closer look at Aladdin.

"THIS CHIBI IS A MAGI?! NO WAY!" he yelled, glaring down at Aladdin, not noticing the glare Magus was sending him as he shifted into a slight stance. "Magi are suppose to be amazing beings! When rukh was sent out to change the world, they're considered the strongest magic users with the largest amount of magoi in the creation of the world! That's magi!" He ranted he stated, then pointed at Aladdin as he looked over his shoulder at Sinbad. "How can you expect me to accept the fact that he's a magi?!"

"you responded to him." Sinbad simply pointed out. Judal went silent on that, his eyes narrowing at Sinbad before looking back at Aladdin with a smile.

Magus tensed, that smile was fake.

"Hello, chibi!" He said happily, doing a small salute, "I'm Judal, you are?"

"I..." Aladdin started, a little nervous about meeting someone with black rukh that wasn't his mother. He glanced up at Magus quickly, before looking back at the teenager. "I'm Aladdin..."

"So you're Aladdin. As fellow 'Magi' let's get along well from now on!" Judal declared, his hand extending outwards towards Aladdin. The latter magi slowly coming out from behind Magus to take the others hand. Just as Aladdin came close to touching the others hand, Judal quickly curled up his fist and thrust it forward, intent on hitting Aladdin's eye. His fist was caught just short of Aladdin's face by a different hand wrapped around his wrist.

Aladdin staggered back in surprise, while Judal blinked in surprise at the fist tightening around his wrist. The teen followed the arm up to the finalist he had seen earlier today, two pairs of red eyes met gazes, one in curious wonder and the other a glare.

"...AH!" Judal gasped out as he pointed at Magus with his other hand, "IT'S YOU~!" He yelled in glee. Making others wonder at the sudden change in personality the teen was doing. Judal didn't care of the gazes on him, instead he stepped closer to the taller teenager in front of him as he observed the black and white rukh fluttering around the redhead. "How interesting~! I've wanted to see you again since I saw you outside of the palace gates!"

Magus just frowned down at Judal, "...Is that so?" he questioned, using his free hand to usher Aladdin away from himself and towards his siblings. "Why would you want to do that?"

Judal scoffed, stepping even closer so their bodies practically touched, "You feel different!" he declared, staring into Magus sharp eyes. "No, not just feel different, you are different! You're a finalist, yet you have a djinn, and everyone knows that a finalist doesn't have enough magoi to be able to use them! Then the rukh! Ooooh your rukh is different as well~! Both of them love you!" he said excitedly as Magus started to lean back a bit, not sure what to make of the teenager that had a disturbing look in his eyes. "You have a wand (The staff)!?" Judal is practically leaning on him now as he saw the staff gripped in Magus' hand, "A finalist that can use magic!" his head just under Magus' chin. "And you...you don't feel human." he finished with an awed whisper.

"Really?" He questioned, his anger starting to seep away as his curiosity took hold of him. He admitted that he was slightly curious about the teenager that could manipulate black rukh like he could, then there was his scent. He smelt Judal's natural jasmine and spice scent, but then there was another on him, a scent that made his blood boil with hate. His eye's slit again for a moment, memories becoming confused as to who he was again, before he blinked it away. Judal nodded up at him excitedly, Magus not noticing that Judal had wrapped his arms around his waist and rested his chin on the finalist's chest. Magus tilted his head to the side a bit, "...Then what do I feel like?"

Judal pursed his lips in thought, "Like me, a Magi, but not at the same time." he said, glancing at Sinbad who had his full attention on the two before looking back up at Magus. Judal then grinned, "hmm...You feel more like a Djinn."

That just made Magus raise his brows in shock.

"Judal," Sinbad called out, catching their attention. "What do you mean Magus feel's like a Magi, but more over a Djinn?" he questioned, his eye's taking some sort of gleam at this information.

Judal just stared at the king, as if just now remembering where he was, before looking back up at Magus. "So, your name is Magus?" he said, tightening his hold around Magus as the latter of the two finally notice how Judal was practically draping himself on him. "You know, that's just another word for magi, right~?"

Magus didn't respond as he stared at the teen that was snuggling up to him. He heard a low growl from Masrur and the twins, causing him to glance over at them and noticed they were glowering at Judal.

"And it's just as I said, stupid king, he kinda feels like a magi, but he mostly feels like a Djinn." Judal said as he looked over towards a confused Aladdin. "I think Magus is more of a magi then the slow chibi anyway." he commented as he pointed towards the blue haired boy. A thought occurred to the oracle, making a teasing face towards Sinbad as he continued to point at Aladdin. "Neh, Sinbad, don't tell me you've decided to abandon me to work with that guy?" he questioned, "Magus I understand, I mean, can't you just feel all that untapped magoi?! But this slow guy...?"

Sinbad started to look panicked, he didn't want Judal to do anything to either Magus or Aladdin. "T-They have nothing to do with that! We just happened to meet each other in this country is all."

"..." Judal stared at Sinbad, finally deciding to let go of Magus but keep the finalist in sight. "Then that's fine, but~" he started with a smile, before it melted into a serious look as he rounded on Aladdin- who was flanked by Alibaba and his siblings- and pointed. "Hey, chibi, if you are really a 'Magi', you should have a candidate to be king by your side right? There should be at least be one or two come on, chibi! Call out your candidates!" He challenged. "Magus is one of them right? So where's the other one?" Aladdin just stared at him in confusion, making Judal raise a brow in annoyance. "Hey, are you ignoring me?" he questioned with a huff, before putting his hands on his hips and closed his eyes. "Whatever, I'll just find him by myself then..." he then opened his eyes again.

Magus was intrigued at the amount of rukh gathering around Judal's eyes, observing as the teen landed his eyes on Alibaba and started to walk towards the blond.

"Ive~ found~ you!" Judal sang as he pointed at the prince.

Magus felt like something life changing was going to happen, and he wasn't sure if he's like it.