A/N: Well, here we are, one chapter left until the finale. It's been a wild ride so far. Now that this will be done, I will have time to focus on my other stories, including Woodbury, TWD drabbles (I intend on doing every minor and major character possible, do please check it out), my si inserts (5 are at least being continued), my reincarnation fics. Mostly: TWD, crossovers, DRRR fics, at least two CG fics, and DC fics.
College break is almost here and that means more time for fics! Yay! Also, my carpal tunnel is gone, just replaced by cubital tunnel, which does not affect my fingers as much or as badly. Hopefully it won't return in the summertime though. :/
Now we go back to Aladdin and Kida/Alibaba. What will happen now? I presume if you've watched Madoka, you know what will happen.
"Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Chapter 11 You're my only friend
Aladdin stared at the bedroom wall, thinking about what had happened at Kougyoku's funeral. At least Dunya-san was still alive, although he hadn't really spoken to her for a while since this had all happened and they had found Kougyoku-san's body on the side of the road. More than anyone, Sinbad had been devastated, wondering what exactly he had done wrong for the young girl to take her own life like this. Dunya spent most of the ceremony busy glaring specifically at Sinbad, Aladdin noticed, and refused to let him touch the body.
Perhaps, in a sense, Dunya herself was psychic and knew that whatever happened to her friend, that it was not natural, and so sensed that Sinbad was the cause of her friend's suffering. She would both be right and not right.
For some reason, Aladdin's mother seemed to sense that her son knew something, so she tried to gently shake him and ask. However, she didn't expect him to bat her hand away, leaning over the grave and crying hysterically to bring Kougyoku back. It hadn't worked, of course, and the smiling, gentle young woman who had always been by his side remained dead in the coffin. They had at first thought that she had died of drugs, but then concluded that it was a suicide, when they could not reason as to how she had died without any traces on her body.
The media's official report was that she had smothered herself to death with carbon monoxide or some other type of poison, then lain down on the side of the road and died. However, that failed to acknowledge the obvious hole: where would the car be for her to do something like that to herself in?
Aladdin knew that it was just a coverup of the truth, similar to the way that Kassim died and no one noticed.
But he noticed!
But he cared!
Why didn't anyone else?
Meanwhile, Alibaba glared at Judar, who for some reason, had decided to pay him a visit in his room.
He swallowed a peach whole while dancing with another one on his back.
"I figured it out, finally. You sure are enigmatic, right? That whole thing of yours, it's all about time travel and usin' yer sword for that purpose. It's all about protecting Aladdin, isn't it? You're protecting him from me?" He taunted.
Alibaba nodded, just glaring at him.
"I see that's why he's so powerful, hm? You've extended his lifespan throughout dozens of different worlds, different versions of himself. It's no wonder he doesn't collapse under the weight of so much power. The thing is, when you started this, you didn't intend to make him so strong, did ya? It just sort of...happened. The actions caused just made him more and more powerful."
"If that's what you choose to believe." Alibaba said scathingly.
"In some ways, you've made him the most powerful magi and then also the most powerful djinn. You know he will have no choice but to agree to binding a wish with me. After all, it's just you and one person can't endure everything on their own, right?" He taunted again.
Alibaba fixed him with a cold stare. "That's none of your business."
As Aladdin sat in his room, suddenly a familiar presence made itself known to him.
It was the last one he wanted to see, ever.
"Why are you here?" He said between sobs. The animal had lied to him for so long, pretended to be his friend, and now it dared to come back here?
"I can read your thoughts like an open book, kid and you really shouldn't be blaming me. I don't understand why you're so worked up about Kougyoku Ren dying, though. She's just a person. There are millions more like her in the world. Why care?"
Aladdin tensed, tightening his fists, looking to strike Judar.
"Hold up, kid. I want to tell ya something."
"I don't care what you have to say." Aladdin whispered, hiding his face in his hands.
"You will once you hear this. The thing is, I'm not exactly a human, as you may have noticed, or may not have, you aren't that bright. Anyway, we exist for the sole purpose of preventing fate from ultimately controlling people. The world will eventually be destroyed if humanity keeps going down the path it's going down, so we were searching for a reason, no, a way to stop the world from coming to its end. And then we found that magi-or metal vessel users, rather those of a teen age, were of the perfect material for our cause. Who else has such dire emotions? When they died, they would become a djinn and let loose more energy that could be used to stop the world from falling toward fate. We determine our own destiny, and yours as well. We will ultimately control this world once this whole thing is done. We go to other places and do the same things as well. Through it, we have saved tons of lives. Your planet is being destroyed by global warming, right? What's the loss of a few hundred, thousand people, in comparison to losing an entire race?"
Aladdin couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So we're all just puppets for you then, Judar? You don't care about us!"
"You're takin' it the wrong way, kid. You guys keep and raise some animals as pets, and then others you hunt down and kill for fun, like deer. Others, you exterminate completely like ants. You wipe out thousands of them with poison simply because they get in your way? Is that not the definition of self-centered? You guys routinely kill and wipe out life and even eat it or do it for fun. We do this because we have to. There's no fun in it. It's a symbiotic relationship, I guess, although it's sort of inaccurate, seeing as you guys are more intelligent than a cow or a chicken. Lemme show ya what I mean."
He put his ear to Aladdin's forehead and Aladdin fell backwards, seeing visions of all the crimes Judar had committed, all the people he had tricked into serving him and then betrayed. All of it felt like hell to Aladdin's ears and mind, and he couldn't take it.
"Ya know, if yer gonna blame me and shout insults like that in your head, lemme tell ya that I have nothing to be sorry for. It's you guys who make the wishes and who overuse these powers that're given who're to blame for the way things are. If we never came here, you guys would be dead long before this. Tell me when you're ready to die to preserve fate, okay Aladdin? I'll have fun watching you turn into a djinn."
Then he left, leaving a sobbing aladdin alone.
Yamuraiha glanced at Sheba, who was busy drinking herself to death.
"You mustn't blame yourself. I blame myself too, for not seeing that Kougyoku-san was feeling such things." Yamuraiha said.
Sheba coughed. "It's not just me who is suffering, my son is, too and I see that and I cannot help him."
Yamuraiha patted her on the shoulder. "It's okay, you will all be okay. This isn't exactly easier on the staff or the students, either. Mustasim-san blames herself for not noticing her friend's depression or talking to her about it. Everyone feels bad."
"I can't help him." She sobbed. "I know that I can't, and it eats away at me."
"He can handle himself now, right? He's maturing. You just have to help him when he's ready."
Sheba nodded, as if comprehending the teacher's words. "I hope you're right."
Outside, there were giant dark djinns forming, getting ready to attack the world. The world saw it as a giant hurricane of some kind and asked for everyone to hide in special places until it was over.
Before that, however, Aladdin visited his only friend now, Alibaba.
Alibaba was waiting for him when he turned up at his house.
"Alibaba-kun, about these dark djinns...the ones you warned Hakuryuu-san about...is it really impossible to defeat them?"
The second he saw his gaze, he flinched and lowered his head, ashamed that he had even asked the question.
"Not true, he didn't know everything." He said icily, but Aladdin got the feeling there was more to it than this.
"I'm not sure I can believe you." He said, faltering.
Alibaba looked at him before he suddenly did something uncharacteristic. He put his hands on his shoulders and shook him, tears coming out of his eyes. "The truth is, Aladdin, I've known you for a long time! I've gone through different dimensions, times just to help you not become one of those djinns! To help all of you, but I failed every time! So I don't want you to die! Please stay with your family."
Aladdin reluctantly listened to him and went with his family.
Meanwhile, both Alibaba and Morgiana did their best to fight the dark djinns, however they proved too powerful for either of them, knocking them backward. Morgiana faded back into Alibaba's sword as he cursed his fate.
Aladdin noticed Judar and went out to talk with him.
"Didn't think you'd ever wanna talk to me again, kid." He said, swishing his tail and eating yet another peach.
"The truth is...I need to know. Can Alibaba-kun beat all of those dark djinns alone?"
Judar shifted his gaze, playing with another peach in his hands. "I don't think so, kid. He's just one person. Go see it yourself if you want, but know that he's not the type to give up. He can just, you know, rewind time again and start over. I don't think he's lost his hope. But, as long as that kid has hope, there's no escaping his inevitable transformation into a djinn, just like everyone else, kid."
Aladdin's fists tightened.
Aladdin was going outside when a red-head stopped him; his mother. She did not look happy. Her hands on her hips, she appraised her naughty son before speaking sternly. "Where do you think you're going, Aladdin? It's dangerous out there. You need to stay in here."
Aladdin sighed. "I need to go out there! There's something that I can help someone with! I can resolve all of this!"
"You're just a child, you can't do anything!" Sheba pressed. "Aladdin, listen to reason."
"Please, trust in me." He said, tugging on her sleeve.
She recognized that he had grown up and reluctantly gave in, letting him go.
She wondered if that was the last time she would ever see him and cursed herself for letting him go alone.
Alibaba lay there on the ground, wounded. He noticed that he had almost no power left and that his metal vessel was starting to turn dark. He could tell that Morgiana's powers were at their limit, too. It had been a good fifty or so cycles, he supposed, but he had no choice but to give in to his fate.
"I guess this is it, huh?" He muttered.
A hand grasped his.
He looked up, startled. It was Aladdin.
"Aladdin, but I said-"
"Never mind what you said. It's all going to be over."
"Don't do what I think you're going to..." He said, but Aladdin just smiled.
"Sorry, Alibaba-kun, but I'm the only one who can do it."
