Eden coughed as the ash flew up into her face. She had been digging through the charred remains within Mozenrath's bathroom for over a half hour, finding no success so far.
"Bzzzzz, Blue Boy to Lean Green," the walkie-talkie buzzed, "Come in."
Eden picked it up. "Lean Green to Blue Boy, did you find anything yet?"
"There are references to Osirus all over, but…did Dhandi say anything else?"
Eden thought for a moment. "She said something about drinking something salty a-and she smelled like anointing oils and wines. Heck, she and Mozy were swimming in a whole freaking tub of that stuff!"
A brief pause occurred until the walkie-talkie buzzed once again. "Lean Green, I found something!"
Eden's eyes widen. "Really? What is it? Tell me!"
"It says 'Spiritual Transference'," Genie read over his walkie-talkie. "Hmm, funny. It seems that he's repeating himself. Not a good sign."
"What?"
"He tried the same thing with Al, though it was a bit more in the vein of Franken-rath. Mozenrath tried to do a body switch because he was dying, but he ended up sharing with Al- Babe, are you all right?"
Eden stood there, jaw dropped and on the verge of tears. "I-I failed her."
"What?" Genie poured out of Eden's walkie-talkie, concerned. Eden turned toward the Genie of the Lamp, eyes furious and tinted with sorrow.
"My-my baby's dead and that freak stole her from me!" Her fist crushed the walkie-talkie.
"Geniessssss," Xerxes hissed as he hovered by the door, spotting the pair. Eden shot a fiery red glare at the hovering eel and roared, transforming into a massive green dragon, spewing fire.
"MOOOOOOOOZEEEEENRAAAAAAAAAAAATH!" Xerxes stared at the furious green beast, eyes bulging and stomach gurgling. The Eden-dragon reared her head, hurling a fireball at the petrified eel.
"Hold up for a moment," Genie suddenly reached over and pulled Xerxes away by the throat from the fireball's path. Xerxes babbled incoherently, still terrified of the dragon that was thrashing about in the bathroom.
"Smokey," Genie frowned at the squirming eel in his hand, "you can't argue with a woman, for you are flammable and taste good with ketchup." He looked up at Eden, still distressed and breathing fire.
"She's gonna be like that for a while. Why don't we go somewhere…more private?"
With a puff of blue smoke, Genie and the eel reappeared in a dark room. When the light flashed on, Xerxes was tied to a chair with a beam of light from a lamp glaring at him.
"Now that we're alone," Genie said, dressed up like a detective ala Sam Spade and flipping a quarter, "spill it, tube-sock."
Xerxes gurgled, bewildered.
"Stop beatin' around da bush," Genie smacked the eel upside the head. "We knows your boss was with dis kid." Genie flipped a black and white picture of Dhandi and Eden playing baseball out. "What was he doin' with da kid?!"
"Boy," Xerxes gasped, eyeing the picture. "Master with boy."
Genie smacked Xerxes once more. "WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT A BOY HERE! WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THIS KID, DHANDI!"
"Master did spell with b-D-Dhandi," the eel coughed. "Dhandi has spirit of Master."
"YES, WE KNOW THAT! WHERE IS HER SPIRIT? IN MASTER'S BODY?!"
"Dhandi spirit…still in Dhandi."
----
"Okay," Dhandi said, sitting beside Amir upon a sand dune in the daylight, "I'm ready." Amir paced behind her, in a manner that she had seen Father Habya binGud done in lectures.
"The first thing we'll be doing," Amir said, "is a mage light."
"What's a mage light?" Dhandi asked, looking up.
"It's like a torch, only it's lit by a person's spirit. It's also an indicator of the mage's aura. Every witch's or wizard's aura has a different color and it's evident by the color of their light."
"Wow. So how do I…light up?"
"Everyone has the potential for magic, but rarely get in touch with it either because they don't want to or they don't know how," Amir smiled. "You can do it by focusing on the deepest part of your being, the very atoms of your soul."
Dhandi bit her lip. "I'll try."
"No. Do or do not. There is no try." That in mind, Dhandi turned her focus upon her hands. She closed her eyes and thought very deeply.
It was dark.
Then something glowed. It was an iridescent blue spark, swimming in the darkness. Sparks of cool reds and yellows joined it. They swirled together and multiplied, different sparks of purples, blues, green and oranges spinning. Her head grew light as the colors swirled and joined, kaleidoscope patterns forming. They rapidly changed until…
It was light. Pure white light.
"Open your eyes, but slowly," Amir's voice echoed in her head.
Dhandi's eyes flickered opened, a bright orange haze glowing. When her eyes opened all the way, euphoria washed over her as she stared at the small hovering ball of orange fire.
"Amir! I did it!"
The boy smiled. "You certainly did and it's beautiful."
Dhandi removed her hands from beneath the mage light. The light hovered up towards her face, inquisitively. The girl giggled as it lit up her face with its glow. Amir placed his hand upon her shoulder.
"You have to wake up now."
"Wha-"
----
Groaning, Dhandi opened her eyes. She stretched out as she yawned. She slid off the pillows, her eyes scanning the hovel for that familiar smiling face.
"Eden?" There was no reply.
Dhandi saw the bottleneck, poking out from a pile of pillows. Eden would sometimes hide her bottle before she went to bed, just in case. The girl crawled over towards the bottle and removed its stopper.
"Eden?" she whispered into the bottle. No reply still. Making a face, Dhandi shook the bottle gently. Still no sign of the green-skinned djinn.
"Dhandi!" The girl jumped at the sound of Babkak calling her. Climbing up the stairs, Babkak appeared in the room, breathless. "Dhan…(huff)…di, (huff)…where (huff) were you…yesterday (huff) afternoon? (huff) Nice outfit, (huff) like your lady's."
Dhandi looked at herself and smirked. Last night, Eden loaned her an outfit, because her usual dress still reeked of overpowering oils.
"Well, where were you?" the squat boy repeated.
"I…was doing something else," Dhandi answered.
"Doing something else? But you missed our algebra lesson and you know he's gonna give you a test over all that stuff-"
"Well, maybe I wanted to do it, but couldn't."
"Well, what were you doing then? Father binGud has to know-"
"Like he had to know that I was fighting Asfour all by myself, that my friend chickened out on me!"
Babkak stared at Dhandi, dumbstruck. He had never heard her talk so harshly towards him. As did Dhandi, at a loss for words.
"Dhandi," Babkak asked softly, "are you okay?"
"I…I'm not sure," Dhandi answered, still baffled. "I just need some time to myself, I guess." The girl began walking towards the stairwell, walking right past Babkak.
"Dhandi-" Babkak grabbed her shoulder, but Dhandi turned and jerked his hand off angrily.
"I need some time to myself!" Furious, Dhandi ran down the stairwell and into the streets, barely avoiding a cart of watermelons coming down the road. Dust kicked up as she ran, the sands of the street slowly becoming littered with shells with every step. She stopped in her tracks a few minutes later. The sounds of sea birds and waves beating against the shore were familiar to her.
She was at the pier.
Of course, it being still very early, there weren't many people. It didn't really matter. She wanted some time alone. Maybe go comb the beach. That was how she found Eden, she recalled. Dhandi sat down at the edge of the pier, legs dangling over the low tide.
She squinted, the glare of the sun upon the water blinding her. Dhandi sighed.
First, Eden, and now, Babkak, she thought. Babkak, I was too mean to him. What's wrong with me?
She stared at her hands. They seem to glow with the morning light.
That glow. Something familiar about it, though…not entirely real. Dhandi chuckled to herself. As if she could do magic like Eden.
Then she blinked. The moment her eyes opened again, they dilated as a fiery ball of orange light hovered in front of her.
"No…way."
"Yeah…way," a voice in the back of her head chortled. Dhandi quickly turned her head around. No one behind her.
"Uh, over here." Dhandi jerked her head around, the voice chuckling. "All right, I'll stop messing with you, Dhandi."
"A-Amir?" the girl gasped, surprised. "But-how could you…you're…not real."
"Oh? Then how do you explain that mage light in front of you?" Dhandi opened her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. She glanced at the mage light that glowed rather dimly now.
"How did I do it? I could only do it…in my dreams." It dawned on her. Not really certain what "it" was, Dhandi asked Amir: "You and that man…then you guys are both real?"
"Oh dear Allah, we have a genius on our hands here," Amir said, sarcastically. "What was your first clue, prodigy kid?"
"I just wanted to make sure," Dhandi frowned. "You don't have to be all jerky about it. Anyway, that guy's running around my head. I don't know what he's doing or gonna do."
"That's why I'm teaching you. You're important to me." Dhandi smiled, cheeks turning bright pink. The mage light mirrored it.
However, a thought occurred to her.
"That old man…he did something to me. That-that spell, it's probably why you two are here!"
"Perhaps," Amir said. "If you want to make sure, you could go back to that place-"
"I'm gonna talk to Eden about that first," Dhandi said, standing up. She didn't really want to head back to that place. "She might know something like that. She's pretty smart."
"Can I meet Eden?" Amir asked.
"Maybe," Dhandi stretched her arms. She felt rather sore and tired. "Though it might be kinda hard, considering you only exist in my head."
"I'll think of something. In the meantime, want to learn something else?"
----
Eden shrank back down to her curvaceous form. The bathroom was now caked with even more ash from her rampage. Still, she felt numb.
"My baby," she simpered, "she's gone and I let her-" In a puff of smoke, Genie appeared right next to her. He has a look of enlightenment and concern upon his face.
"Okay, after an hour of persuasion and many slaps to the head, the worm talked," he held up the rather discombobulated Xerxes, "and we got some good news and bad news."
Eden looked up, a spark of hope in her mind. "Yes?"
"Good news, Dhandi's soul is still in her body," Genie announced, still gripping Xerxes in one hand, "The tube sock has informed me that the spell was only half-done."
"So what's the bad news?" Eden asked, her spirits lifted. Dhandi she knew was still alive, but something inside her head suggested it wasn't that simple.
"My stock is down 10 percent," Genie said, flipping through a newspaper, "and Mozenrath's spirit now inhabits Dhandi's body as well."
Author's note: Wow, some weird stuff going on. Please review if you have some suggestions on how I can fix it. I've been wondering about characterizations. Am I being faithful? Also, special thanks go to the people of Aladdin Central's Messageboard who helped me out.
Disclaimer: I do not own Mozenrath, Dhandi, Eden, Genie, or Xerxes.