"Genie!" he yelled, as zombie wife stabbed him and his burned to death corpse of children began eating his legs. "Genie help!"

Murderer, she thought, you burned them alive. You traumatized them. "What is your final wish, Master?"

"A man is the king of his home!" he shouted, throwing the burned zombies off him. "A king, I tell you! I want to be king!"

Max giggled at that. Perfect, she thought, just perfect. "I will miss you, Master. Wish granted."

"What!" he shouted as they were transported to the desert. "What did you do, Genie?"

Max smiled, as she watched her magic take hold of him. "You wanted to be king. I made you king."

He stared at her as fur began to grow over him. With a flick of her wrist he was naked. "Genie, stop it."

"You're not my Master," Max said, feeling the tug to return to her lamp. Thick blonde fur was covering his now swelling hands, as well as his thighs, as his dark hair grew into a brown mane. Smiling she watched as his hands melted into paws, and she easily dodged him lunging at her and falling to the ground, as his legs changed, and body shrank. "You're the king of jungle."

Fifty years, Kenny thought, looking at the old man in the mirror. Traveling around the world, searching for her. Following her work, the magic no one else knew to look for. Carter died, stabbed in an alley by a man driven mad by genie magic after he saw the sketch of Max. Not Max, it was never Max, whatever that thing in the bottle is not my Max.

I'm going to die alone, no family, broke, body riddled with cancer and she lives forever. I could use a genie.

Max frowned, as she was spun out of her bottle as soon as she returned from her adventure in the desert with the lion. "Yes, Master?"

Kenny stared at her, as he put the lamp down that appeared in his hospital room. "You're real. You're here."

Max smiled at the old man. "You summoned me, Master. I'm here to grant you three wishes."

"I don't need wishes, Max."

As surprised as she could be, the sound of her human name surprising her. "How may I serve you, Master?"

"The Max I knew," he coughed. "Would never call anyone Master or serve them."

The Max you knew is gone, she thought, she's been gone since I said yes. He's dying. "You grew old."

"It's been 50 years, Max. I spent my life trying to find you."

Sparking a missing warmth in her heart. This human. He's good. "I do not need to be saved."

"You're a genie, Max. You can't possibly…I know you fought. I know you held on as long as you could. I'm sorry I couldn't find you sooner."

I didn't, Max thought, I did grant some good wishes, helped people before…it is just so much fun to twist this selfish desire. "Do you wish me to be her for you?"

"You are her. I would know you anywhere. The real you, Max, not…not the genie. I just wanted to see you before I died."

Max looked at him. "Let me serve you. You have three wishes, Master, I can help you."

He intertwined his fingers with hers and looked at her cuffs. "These bind you to your lamp. I researched, Max, I know about you. Genies. I tried to find anything that could free you. You're okay? You look…you look amazing."

"But not like her. Your friend. I'm not her. I'm the Genie of the Lamp."

"Do you have her memories?"

Max smiled and nodded. "She is a part of me. The part that wants to help you, Master. Let her."

Genie, Kenny thought, she's a trickster, a spirit, demon…she's Max in there. I trust Max. "I wanted to save you."

Max smiled and shook her head. "What is your wish, Master?"

"I wish to be healthy and young again, the man you remember."

Max smiled. "Granted."

"Where are we?" Kenny said, turning to looks at her. "Max?"

"You don't need the hospital," she said, gesturing the luxurious apartment they were in. "You are young and healthy, and I provided this new life for you to live. You will want for nothing."

He stared at her, the scantily clad genie, who was messing with is newfound libido. "Is this for real?"

"Do you have a second wish?"

"You gave me my life back, Max. I don't," he said, looking as her lower half dissolved into gold smoke. "Wow."

"Do my looks please you?"

"You know what you look like. You were beautiful before. What can I do, Max? What can I wish for that can," he started. "That can help you."

He wants to save me, Max thought, he'd do anything for her. He could replace me, then I could never find the other genies. Smiling at him. "I want for nothing. It's my duty to serve."

"Anything, Max. Anything you miss from being human."

Cold and heartless, she thought, reveling in ruining humans through their selfish desires. Seducing them with this body, I see it in his eyes, he's very attracted to me. "I've never seen my lamp, I'm always in it."

"Really?" he asked. "That's what you want."

"I can summon anything I desire inside it, except that."

Kenny smiled at her. A genie, she really is a genie, floating now, cross-legged in the air. I can make her look like my Max again, have her stay with me. She doesn't have to leave. We can be together. "It's…that's it."

Max stared at it, as it's golden sheen matched her cuffs. The evidence room, she thought, it drew me to it, and it changed me. It didn't hurt, it was a…seduction…becoming a genie. I love being a genie, except for being imprisoned. "It's lovely."

Kenny stared at her before picking it up. "You really live in this?"

She nodded. "Until a master finds me."

"Max?" he asked, seeing her rapture looking at it. The key, he thought, to freeing her without taking her place. "What would happen if we destroyed it?"

She looked up. "Destroy my lamp?"

"What would happen to you?"

"It cannot be destroyed. So many genies are locked away, their lamps buried. You cannot destroy us."

"I don't want to destroy you. You saved me. You did this," Kenny said. "I'd do anything to save you, Max."

Not Max, she thought, not really. "I do not need to be saved."

"And if someone buries this? You just exist in it?"

Max smiled at him. "It is my home."

He turned it over in his hands as it shone like her wrist cuffs. "Forged from the same gold, binding your lamp and you."

She held his gaze, her emerald eyes boring into his. Give it to me, she thought, I saved you, give me my lamp. Breathing a bit of gold smoke in his mouth, she saw his will wilting. "Kenny? It's me. Max."

His vision blurred, as the genie dissolved into his best friend. "Max?"

"You saved me. I knew you would save me," she whispered. "We're together like we should have been."

"Max," he gasped, as she laid her hands on top of his. "I saved you."

"Let me take that. We can be together if I have that," she whispered in his ear and he wordlessly passed her the lamp and she laughed as she clutched it in her hands. "Thank you, Master."

"Max?" he asked, as his vision clear and he saw nothing but the genie again. "What?"

She smiled at him, as the lamp and her cuffs glowed. "All your research didn't tell you?"

"Max?" he pushed, as the gold cuffs fell to the floor and disintegrated, followed by her lamp. "What are you doing? What's happening?"

She flicked her wrist, tossing him on the couch. "I'm free."

"Free?"

Max looked at him, toying with her plans. Useful, he has been very useful. I'm free, Kenny. You are giving me my lamp freed me."

"Max?" He asked, hesitantly stroking her cheek as she stood there, still in gauzy clothes looking very much like a genie. "You look…Are you sure?"

She smiled slowly at him, before flicking her wrist and causing him to land on the couch. "You unbound me from that lamp."

"Max?" he asked, as she held him down with her magic. "Max, what is happening?"

"These clothes are such a cliché," she sighed. "Such a male fantasy of what I am."

"Max?"

She ignored him as her gauzy outfit transformed into tight jeans, a ripped t-shirt, leather jacket and steel-toed boots. Shaking her head, her red and gold curls slicked back into a sleek ponytail. "Much better."

Kenny stared at her. "What's happening to you?"

"Only what I want to happen now," Max said. "I serve no master now."

"You're still…I thought I freed you."

Max laughed. "Oh, I'm very much a genie, Kenny. Just unbound. Free. Because of that…Hmm."

"What are you doing?"

"I can have you trying to save me," she said. "You're young and healthy, Kenny, and immortal. You're going to live forever now…and you better comfortable because you're going to have to have sex every eight hours unless you want to turn into the dog that you are."

"Max?" he asked. "What are you talking about?"

"You used women," she said. "A new one every night. They're going to use you now. Try to escape? Dog. Enjoy your new life, Kenny."

"Max!" he shouted, as she puffed out in smoke. "Max get back here!"

To be continued