Mozenrath stood there; the wilted Persephone's Dawn clenched in his flushed and unblemished hand. Eden looked up and made the immediate comparison of the sorcerer to a cover boy of a romance paperback in her mind. At least until her eyes ventured below his navel.

"Ew!" she yelled. "Get some pants on! This is supposed to be a kid's show!" Mozenrath glanced at himself, a smile of perverse amusement on his face, and then, kneeling, held out a hand. The fabric of Dhandi's skirt rustled as a copy flowed from it, ripped off and wrapped itself around the young man's waist.

"Nice trick," Eden observed.

"Wanna see another one?" Mozenrath asked, mischievously. With a motion of his nimble fingers, dark blue and pink smoke surrounded Dhandi's body and, before Eden could make a grab at her, the body vanished and reappeared in Mozenrath's arms. The sorcerer looked at the child and, moving her arm aside, pulled out the gauntlet from her sash. He smiled triumphantly at the sight of his precious.

"You said she would not be harmed," Eden seethed.

"Yeah," Mozenrath cradled Dhandi in his arms, "but I also said she was expendable."

Eden appeared to be on the edge of tears. The sorcerer grinned unsympathetically.

"Don't be so sad, Eden. I've got good news. I've decided to adopt."

Eden glared poisonously at him. "Leave her alone-"

"But I just can't, you know," Mozenrath cut her off. "I've grown so attached to her over time, but guess what? You're gonna help me take care of her. After all, she wished it."

The green-skinned djinn had an expression of fright and anger on her face.

"'Oh, Eden, I would, but I wish you could stay forever,'" the sorcerer mocked the girl's inflection, down to the frightened gasp at the end of the sentence. "It's so cute and so clever of her to wish for immortality that way. Now I'm curious. If she'd lived, would she have been stuck as a child for the rest of her life or would she be a brittle old hag when she realizes the horrors of immortality?"

Suddenly, Dhandi's eyes opened and the child wrapped her arms around the sorcerer's neck tightly. Only Mozenrath appeared aghast.

"OOOOOOH!" Dhandi squealed. "YOU'VE MADE ME A HAPPY GIRL!" The girl grabbed the gauntlet and pulled it over Mozenrath's head. The sorcerer yelled angrily, struggling in the oversize gauntlet as Genie morphed out of his Dhandi disguise.

"Took care of brat boy," Genie brushed his hands together. He turned to Eden and a concerned look appeared on his face. "How's Dhandi? Is she okay?"

"She still has a pulse," Eden said, grabbing the bag and pointing her bottle, "but she's still unconscious. We need to get her out of here."

"No one's leaving!" Mozenrath yelled as he ripped the gauntlet off his head, revealing a very heated expression. He pressed his hand on the graveyard soil and, with a few well chosen words, mamluks rose from the ground and stood, awaiting the sorcerer's order.

"Get me my gauntlet."

With that, the undead legion began to lurch towards the djinns, very much in the manner of B-movie zombies.

"So you want to take them," Genie asked, casually, "or shall I?"

"I'm gonna try to revive Dhandi," Eden replied as she zipped into the bottle. "Hold them off the best you can!"

The bag at his red slippers, Genie turned to the swarm of mamluks and grinned. "Let's get it on."

With that, the sky blue djinn morphed into a credible Bruce Lee, down to a pageboy hair cut and a yellow tracksuit, and the sounds of battle cries and "HIYA!"s filled the ominous air of the cemetery.

From inside the bottle, a room of comfortably curved, cushioned pink walls and plump cushions and pillows of every know color and some unheard of, its tenant gently shook her master's small body.

"Come on," Eden whispered desperately to Dhandi's lifeless body, "come on, don't leave me."

No reply came from the girl's lips. Fighting back tears, Eden tilted her master's chin up and, pressing her lips against hers, blew air into the girl's body. The djinn withdrew her lips, magic lingering on Dhandi's lips.

Suddenly, the child coughed.

"Dhandi!" Eden hugged her as the girl slowly sat up.

"Eden," Dhandi asked, quietly, "Amir was the bad guy, wasn't he?"

An uneasy pause occurred between the two as Eden regarded her young charge.

"Dhandi," she finally said, "he tricked us all."

Dhandi looked around the bottle, in awe.

"You're in my bottle," Eden said quickly. "To keep you safe."

"Where's Genie?" the girl asked, covering her ears, the sounds of cries and bodies landing from outside pounding very loudly in her eardrums.

"He's outside, fighting him." Eden grabbed Dhandi's shoulder. "Listen, we have to go. He'll be after you if we don't."

"Why?" The answer came when Eden pointed to the gauntlet nestled in the girl's sash. Suddenly, an uninterrupted scream pierced their ears. Suddenly, Dhandi got up and began to jump up.

Eden stared at her. "Babe, what is it?"

"We gotta get out there and help him out!" Dhandi replied. "He might need some."

"Dhandi! The guy who's out there is Mozenrath!"

Dhandi stopped jumping. "Who?"

"Mozenrath...he is a very powerful sorcerer and he's one of Aladdin's worse enemies," Eden explained, apprehensively. "If he doesn't show mercy to a genie, what are the chances he'll show it to a little girl?"

Dhandi took Eden's hand and clasped them. "Eden, you told me not to be scared and not to let bullies mess with me. Please."

Dhandi then let loose her puppy-dog pout. Shaking her head, Eden frowned, but then outreached her hand towards the end of the stopper.

"Stay by me," Eden turned to her charge, "and we'll show him what we can do". A look of hope appeared on Dhandi's face as she grabbed Eden's hand.

Piles of mamluk parts were strewn across the graveyard like causalities of a great battle and all that stood were Genie as Bruce Lee and Mozenrath who stood there smugly, reminded that genies couldn't kill.

"You have threatened my beloved and her master for the last time," Genie said, voice out of sync as the bottle behind his leg made a popping sound. "Prepare to be karate-chopped." Genie then struck an impressive stance that would make a ten year-old gape in awe.

Mozenrath rolled his eyes as he held out his hand and the earth began to shake. Genie's legs began to wobble and droop like Silly Putty. As he dragged them back up, a terror emerged upon his face and his jaw dropped. The familiar crystal was propped right behind the sorcerer.

"It's-it's-it's-" Genie stammered, frightened.

"Ix," Xerxes hissed as he came from behind the crystal and rested on his master's shoulder.

"About time you show up," Mozenrath said to his familiar, "I like an audience. IX-TA-ow!"

The sorcerer was cut short by a small rock in flight and, swiftly turning, found Dhandi, a few feet away and armed with a tiny fistful of rocks. However, his focus fell upon the gauntlet, tucked in her sash. Smiling predatorily, he made a motion with a hand and then a pile of mamluk parts began to crawl towards Dhandi's legs. The girl turned green, watching the rotting arms and legs piece together until they were whole. The rocks in her shivering hands clicked together, waiting to be thrown but denied.

Suddenly, an ululating battle cry was heard and a chakram zoomed through the air, knocking down the mamluks that were making their way toward the child. It stopped, caught by Eden in bronze armor.

"You go, my warrior princess!" Genie cheered.

"Enough with the interruption," grumbled the very agitated Mozenrath. "IX-TA-hmm!" Before he could say the final syllable, Genie zapped a big gray strip of duct tape over his lips. As the sorcerer struggled with the very sticky tape, the mamluks continued their swarming. They leapt at the djinns and the child, Eden and Genie delivering punches and karate kicks.

"Hey!" Suddenly, something tugged at Dhandi's sash. She turned and there was the eel with the gauntlet in its toothy jaws. The eel snickered as he began to swim away, but, as if reaching out to pluck a tomato, the girl dropped her rocks and grabbed the familiar by the neck. The eel squirmed and writhed in the girl's grip.

"Give it back!" Dhandi told Xerxes, gripping at the gauntlet's fingers.

"No!" Xerxes gurgled. "Stupid boy."

Whether retaliation at that comment or just a move ahead, Dhandi squeezed a little hard and, as the eel's eyes bugged out and its face turned blue, the gauntlet dropped out of his jaws. Throwing the gasping eel aside, the girl picked up the gauntlet and looked down the sloping crevasse below.

Suddenly, a mamluk backed into her roughly and the child tumbled down the slope, screaming.

"Dhandi!" Eden yelled as mamluks continued to pile on her and Genie like undead quarterbacks.

As has been said before, the story would have ended with Dhandi plunging to her death at the bottom of that ravine the Grecian cemetery overlooked, but those who expecting that will be disappointed as once again good reflexes or luck had the girl clinging to a massive root protruding from the face of the ravine. The gauntlet in her teeth, Dhandi reached her tiny hands towards the ledge.

"Don't look down, don't look down," she chanted to herself. Against her own advice however, she glanced down and her body began to shiver. Her legs dangled in the air, abysmal darkness below that seemed ready to swallow them. Groaning with exertion, she pulled herself up, when somebody grabbed her by her shirt collar. She swung her focus from the ravine to the pallid and slender face of Mozenrath who held her above his head with one hand. The sorcerer's mouth was twitching and a rectangle strip of sore, pink skin surrounding his ample lips was present.

"Drop it," he snarled quietly. Dhandi stared nervously at the young man, who remarkably managed to resemble an irate jackal. "Drop it!"

Hearing him bark that command, Dhandi opened her mouth, but before it could drop into Mozenrath's free hand, she swung her leg, hitting the sorcerer squarely in his jaw. His grip released, Dhandi scrambled to the gauntlet on the ground, grabbed it and scurried along the narrowing ledge at speed likened to that of a frightened squirrel. It wasn't long until she ran out of space to run as she found that she had to cling against the face of the ravine on tiptoes. She stared up, realizing that she couldn't climb that high to the ledge above where she heard battle sounds.

"Nowhere to go." Dhandi turned her head around towards Mozenrath, leaning against the slope. His angered expression had turned into a very slick smirk. "And you were doing so well, Rabbit."

Dhandi shivered at the end of that sentence as he extended a hand. "You give me the gauntlet and I promise I won't hurt you...badly."

The girl looked at him, not reassured, but let out a yelp as the soil beneath her toes crumbled slowly. Mozenrath snorted impatiently, his own grip slipping. "I seriously doubt you'll get such a generous offer from the jagged rocks below. Come on. Give it to me."

Dhandi gazed at the sorcerer. Sweat was rolling down his brow and his lithe and narrow legs shivered, though a great deal were covered by Brittany blue cloth. She knew it. He was exhausted by his magicking from before. She then glanced at the gauntlet.

"You cause so much trouble, you know that," she said to the gauntlet. She looked at Mozenrath, his hand still outstretched. She then stretched her own hand out. The sorcerer had a look of fevered anticipation, about to reunite with a beloved, but then his eyes widen with pure petrifying terror.

She dropped the gauntlet.

Mozenrath gaped at Dhandi, dumbstruck. The girl, realizing what she had done and that she had nowhere to run when he would recover, let out a scream as the soil beneath her gave way. She shut her eyes, praying Eden would hear her and soften her fall or even sprout wings and fly away, back to home. But she didn't fall. In fact, somebody caught her by her shirt.

Unfortunately, when she looked up, she found that somebody was Mozenrath, struggling as he dug his hand into the soil and began to climb up the slope. Thoughts raced through Dhandi's head. Why did he save her when moments ago he had threatened her and she had dropped his gauntlet?

Her mouth formed the word "Amir". The sorcerer glared at her, black eyes devoid of warmth.

"Don't think I'm merciful," Mozenrath said harshly, throwing her maliciously to the ground as they finally reached the ledge and climbed over to the more stable ground. "I just want to kill you myself."

Before Dhandi could reply, Mozenrath kicked her in the stomach.

"Do you realize how painful it has been for me?" he snarled as the girl grabbed her stomach. "To go through what I have for this, just to have some snot-nosed kid take it away?"

Not hearing a reply, he grabbed Dhandi by the hair and dragged her across the ground. The girl writhed in pain, trying to hold back tears.

"Not to mention how boring it gets, listening to your problems and your stupid hero worship." He slammed Dhandi against the face of the slope. The girl let out a moan along with a stream of tears running down her chin.

"The worst part," Mozenrath hissed as he pulled the battered Dhandi towards his face, "Amir really liked you." His tone quivered from exhaustion. "You, an undeserving, weak child who wasted the powers of a genie when she could have been great."

"Not...true," Dhandi panted as her bruises upon her face and body stung from her sweat. "I...am...strong...Amir-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Mozenrath screamed, slamming the child down on the ground and wrapped his ashen hands around her neck. She rasped as the enraged sorcerer squeezed tighter, hair wild like asps emerging from a hole and face maroon with wrath. Her arms flailing, Dhandi's hand spread. Strength flowed to it, abandoning all other muscles in her body. Her vision growing hazy, she swore she saw a light.

Bright, orange-yellow, and round, like the sun. But there was no sun in that graveyard, only the morose gray clouds.

Then came an explosion and a rumbling. The sounds of rocks plummeting around them filled Dhandi's ears. She felt the grip loosened around her neck as the ground gave way and the pair fell.

Fabric flickered in the air as they tumbled against the face of the ravine. Dhandi closed her eyes.

"Please stop," she said to herself. She felt so tired. How could she stop in mid-air? These thoughts came to a halt as something bumped into her path and a new set of thoughts arose. Was it rocks? No, this was soft. Maybe she died on the way down, but then why did she still feel so sore?

"Is she gonna wake up?"

"I don't know. Gosh, look at those bruises. How can he even do that to her?"

Groaning, Dhandi stirred and, looking up, smiled at Eden and Genie. The djinns beamed broadly and tearfully back as the bandaged girl laid on a large cushion, on the floor of Eden's comfortable bottle.

"Dhandi!" Eden, hovering above the girl, swooped down and hugged her gingerly yet joyously. "You scared us! You were falling and Genie caught you and- oh, you're alive!"

"Eden," Dhandi tried sitting up, but met with a twinge in her body, "is he still, well, is he..."

Eden looked at Genie.

"Kid, he fell from a very high cliff," Genie said, uneasily. "I couldn't find him or even any teeny trace of him."

Dhandi feel silent for a moment. She stared at the purplish bruises on her legs and arms. She was lucky up to this point. Every person she had ever met didn't seem capable of violence. Asfour and his gang wouldn't do this to her, even if they wanted to and those funny men didn't even put a scratch on her, even when they put her cage and took Eden from her that one time. The look Mozenrath had on his face when she dropped his gauntlet was like the one she had when her dad didn't wake up that day. It seemed like his whole life revolved around that thing of brown leather.

That's what it must be like when you give your body to that gauntlet, she thought. It's just so sad.

Then she shrugged. No, why should I worry about someone who tried to kill me? He lied to me and I...I liked him. No, I liked liked him. I wanted to be with him and he just used me.

Her shoulders drooped. But he even said that he liked me. No, it was just...I'm confused now.

"Dhandi?" Dhandi looked up at Eden. "We're going home."

"Home," the child repeated with a small smile. Eden cradled Dhandi in her arms and, holding Genie's big blue hand, smoked out of the bottle. Once vacated, the interior of the bottle began to quiver, in the shaking grip of its tenant's master. They were going home.

"Master!" The eel hovered over the rubble at the bottom of the ravine. Mamluks tumbled down the slope as Xerxes pointed his fin towards the piles. "Dig!"

Moaning and groaning of undead exertion echoed in the cavernous gorge as mamluks tossed aside boulders and rocks. Xerxes sniffed about, looking for any trace of his master. His bulbous eyes bugged out further as a nearby pile emitted a groan and shook.

"Dig there!" he instructed the mamluks. The undead servants swarmed over to that pile and began throwing rocks aside. As a layer of rock was thrown aside, a quivering body of pale skin and blue cloth laid there, curled into a ball. Xerxes swam in for a closer look.

"Master?" Mozenrath shot a glare at his familiar. His ashen face was scratched, a massive dark blue bruise was throbbing at the upper corner of his brow, and his lips cut and a stream of blood was flowing from them and several other places on his face. In spite of this, he was smiling very dangerously.

"Master?" Xerxes repeated, curious. The sorcerer held up the gauntlet in one hand. He then held up his right hand and slid the gauntlet on. He held his gloved hand close to his chest and then his right arm began to quiver violently. The sounds of flesh being torn off emerged from the gauntlet. Mozenrath's face contorted in agony, despite all attempts to hide it.

Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped.

Xerxes watched as Mozenrath peeled a corner of the gauntlet off, exposing pure bleached bones. The sorcerer's lips twitched and then he let out a chuckle. That chuckle became a laugh and soon the hysterical laughter could not be contained with him and it spilled out into the ravine like blood in a fresh, deep cut.

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. I just write about them.

A/N: No, this isn't the last chapter, but getting very, very, very close.