Nothing belongs to me; Disney has the rights for everything. I'm not getting any money for writing this story.

I'm a little unsure about how this chapter turned out, so any criticism is welcome.

FAMILY BUSINESS

Chapter 5

"What took you so long? We're in a hurry," Aspasia said once Pamphilos got back. She grabbed the machine parts he had brought and started examining them critically.

Pamphilos crossed his hands behind his back. "I went to see Mechanikles," he announced.

His aunt froze and dropped a large gear, almost smashing her toes in the process. "What?" she asked. "I thought you said -"

"Well, I met Aladdin so I decided to give it a try," Pamphilos said. He was feeling annoyed and he couldn't even tell why. Perhaps it was because he had ended up doing like his aunt had wanted all along.

He was surprised when Aspasia suddenly caught him in her arms and gave a quick peck on his cheek. "Thank you," she said. Pamphilos stiffened but didn't try to push her away.

"How was he?" his aunt asked as she let go. She picked up the gears again.

"He was fine. It looked like they haven't been mistreating him and he hasn't been given a sentence yet," Pamphilos replied.

A relieved smile spread on Aspasia's face but Pamphilos didn't return it. Instead, he took the machine parts from her hands and walked over to the bug they had been building.

"We better hurry," he said flatly.

They worked through the next two days, slowly but surely putting together a mechanical butterfly. Pamphilos and Aspasia didn't exchange many words during their work. Aspasia tried to start a conversation a few times but was faced with short answers and cold silences. Eventually she gave up and accepted that Pamphilos didn't want to talk to her.

When they got the machine done, the day had already turned into night. Simonides advised everyone to get a few hours of sleep before they tried their stunt. They were all tired and mistakes had to be avoided at all costs.

Aspasia couldn't sleep. Within a few hours they would leave for Agrabah and save her brother. The original plan had been to do it at night, but they had realised that they wouldn't be ready until dawn. Aspasia hadn't wanted to wait an extra day, so they had decided to take a risk. Everything had to go perfectly. She glanced to her side where Simonides was sleeping. He looked so calm.

She was sure she wouldn't be able to get any sleep so she decided to check up on the machine for the last time. She got up as quietly as she could and crept inside the dark workshop.

Everything looked so strange in the dark. The familiar shapes she had learnt to know during daytime felt threatening. What was worse was the knowledge that if they failed, the workshop would remain this way; uninhabited and cold.

Suddenly, she froze when she saw the shape of another person near the butterfly. Her breath got caught in her throat and she covered her mouth to keep herself from coughing. She recognised that dark silhouette!

It was Metrophanes.

Her heart felt like it was about to burst out of her chest and the only thing she could hear was its quick pounding. She wanted to run to him, catch him in her arms and never let go, but she found herself unable to move. She could only watch as Metrophanes stood by the butterfly and examined it with his gaze. Then he turned to look right at her.

"What is it?"

The young voice that spoke did not belong to Metrophanes. Aspasia let out a sigh she had been holding and swallowed. It was only Pamphilos. She felt her knees shake but she was determined not to show it.

"Nothing," she replied.

"That's not true. Something is wrong," Pamphilos said. Aspasia realised that she hadn't been able to control her voice after all.

"You look a lot like your father," she admitted then. She felt foolish all of sudden. It had been dark, yes, but she shouldn't have been ridiculed that easily.

"So I've been told."

Aspasia couldn't see her nephew's face but she could hear the irritation in his tone. This was not a time to talk about him abandoning everything his father and uncle stood for, so she let it be.

"What are you doing here?" she asked instead.

Pamphilos shrugged. "The same as you, I think."

"Couldn't sleep?"

"No. I kept thinking about how, in a few hours, I'm going to betray people who trust me."

Aspasia didn't reply. They had argued about that and she had nothing else to say. She could understand that Pamphilos was angry with the situation, but his attitude was disrespectful. Things didn't always go as one wanted and sometimes you had to do things you didn't like. A mature person would have simply accepted that.

They stood in silence until Simonides came. He gave them a look that showed exactly what he thought about sulking and pointed at the butterfly.

"So, it's finished?" he asked.

"As finished as it can be with no expert around," Aspasia sighed. "Let's take it out. The day will dawn in a few hours. We don't have much time."

Agrabah was basking in the light of the early sun. Brilliant orange, yellow and red spread as far as eye could see. The coolness of the night hadn't quite withdrawn yet and it was one of those rare moments when it was neither too hot nor too cold.

The city was still quiet. Its inhabitants were just getting up and some still lingered between dream and reality. The streets that were usually buzzing with life were deserted and lonely; even the poor and homeless had found a place to hide for the night.

In that light Agrabah looked like the most beautiful place in the world. From above Pamphilos could see every street and building and he felt sad for that there was no time to marvel at the designs.

"Where are the dungeons?" his aunt asked. Wind was playing with her hair and it was dancing around her face, getting tangled and messy.

"Over there," Pamphilos said and tore his thoughts from the city. There was no time for that now.

Aspasia steered the butterfly to that direction. Pamphilos considered it a miracle that nobody had noticed them yet. The machine was making a horrible noise and was a far cry from the more dignified designs of his uncle. It would be only a matter of time before everyone realised what they were up to.

They flew to the buildings where the dungeons were. He hoped he had remembered where exactly his uncle's cell was. Their plan was to get as close as possible, break a part of the wall and get Mechanikles out as soon as possible. It had to be done with the butterfly in the air. Aspasia said it was to save time, but Pamphilos suspected she wasn't sure she could get the machine back up if they landed.

Simonides, being the strongest and most agile of them, climbed down with the help of a rope. He started to crush them with a hammer. The sound made Pamphilos wince. That wouldn't go unnoticed.

"Watch it! I just got this floor polished!" was the angry reaction from inside, but thankfully Simonides' skills at ignoring his brother-in-law hadn't grown rusty over the years. He got his work done, kicked the last stones in and peered inside.

"Come on!" he said and threw a rope inside.

That was when the door was smashed open and two guards rushed into the cell, alarmed by the noise. Pamphilos couldn't see it from his position, but he could hear the confusion. For a second he thought they were going to fail, but Aspasia took the butterfly higher as soon as she was sure Simonides and Mechanikles were hanging onto their ropes.

With Simonides' assistance, it didn't take long before Mechanikles was on board. He looked at the mechanical butterfly with a critical expression. "This is definitely not one of my creations. Who built it?" he asked. He turned his eyes to Pamphilos.

The young man shrugged. "We did," he said and pointed to Aspasia.

"Figures," Mechanikles muttered.

Aspasia frowned at him. "We didn't really have the time to do better," she said.

"You could have at least picked matching metal plates! This wing is red and that is black!"

"We've got company," the Simonides informed them. Mechanikles, Aspasia and Pamphilos turned to look in the direction Simonides was pointing at. Indeed, there was Aladdin on his magic carpet.

Mechanikles looked at Aspasia. "Quick! How do you activate the weapons?" he asked.

"I didn't include any!" the woman shouted back.

Her brother stared at her in shock for a few seconds before almost exploding to her face. "What? What kind of idiot builds a mighty battle insect and forgets to add the offensive system?"

"I didn't forget! I didn't want anyone to get hurt," Aspasia threw back. Mechanikles resisted the urge to pull his hair and tell her that she was the biggest fool he had ever met in his life.

"You're too soft for your own good," he muttered instead and leaned over to take a closer look at the controls. "How fast does this go?"

Meanwhile, Aladdin had caught up with them and was hovering a few metres away. His eyes widened in shock when he recognised Pamphilos.

"Pamphilos? What are you doing here?" he asked.

Pamphilos flashed an embarrassed smile at him. "I'm sorry. He's family. I had no choice. I'm sure you'll understand one day." He waved sadly at the man who could have been his friend.

That was when Mechanikles and Aspasia figured out how to properly control the butterfly. The insect picked up its speed and dashed away before Aladdin even had the time to reply.

He sighed to himself and decided that going after the villains was not what he wanted to do first thing in the morning. He told Carpet take him to the dungeons to see the damage.

Rasoul was looking ready to kill someone. His poor men were getting a hard time from him and had no idea what to do. The angry flush on the Captain's face told Aladdin that the wisest thing to do would have been fleeing, but, as was the case with most heroes, self-protection wasn't one of his better qualities.

"You! I don't have time for your heroics now, boy. The prisoner has escaped!" Rasoul growled when he saw Aladdin.

"I know. I just saw them," Aladdin said.

"And you didn't try to stop them?" Rasoul asked.

"I didn't have the time. They were too fast," Aladdin replied. That, and he wasn't sure if catching Pamphilos would have been such a good idea. It hurt to think about that he had trusted such a traitor and he didn't know what to think of that. He didn't usually make such mistakes with people.

"Oh, sure," Rasoul said. Then he pointed at the cell where Mechanikles had been. "They also destroyed part of the wall."

Aladdin stepped into the cell to take a look. "This is a cell?" he had to ask. Apart from a heap of rubble below what had used to be a window, the room didn't look like any of the cells he had seen in his life. Everything from the floor to the ceiling was spotless. He could even see his reflection in the chains. In fact, the cell was cleaner than his guestroom in the palace.

Suddenly, the Sultan and Jasmine appeared out of nowhere. The Sultan walked into the empty cell and looked around in amazement. "Rasoul, what is the meaning of this?" he inquired.

"Well, you see, Your Highness," the Captain of the guards started, desperately trying to come up with an excuse for why they had let a dangerous maniac escape.

"This is marvellous work! I had to admit I had my doubts, but you clearly took my words to your heart. I have never seen a cell so clean in my life!" the Sultan praised. Rasoul blinked once and then straightened his back.

"But of course, Your Highness. Your word is my law," he said with a grin. Aladdin shot him a glare, but didn't reveal the lie.

"And that is why I want every other cell to look exactly like that," the Sultan continued.

Rasoul's pleased expression turned to shock. "But, Your Highness -!"

"No, I won't hear it. I'm so proud of you. Make sure that everything is spotless the next time I come down here." With that the old ruler left. Rasoul growled to himself and walked away.

Jasmine looked at Aladdin with a puzzled expression. "What's going on? Where is Mechanikles?" she asked.

"He escaped," Aladdin said with a sigh. "It was Pamphilos. He and two other people helped him get away." He couldn't meet Jasmine's eyes and kept glaring angrily somewhere between her knee and shin.

"Why would he do that?" Jasmine asked, stepping closer and lifting Aladdin's head so that she could look at him.

"Turns out they were related," Aladdin said. "He even had the nerve to say that I'd understand him."

"And you're sure you won't?"

"Get real, Jasmine! Even if I had living relatives, they wouldn't get themselves thrown to jail!"

"They aren't following us," Simonides observed.

"Of course they aren't. That boy is the only even half-competent person in that city and he never bothers with going after anyone," Mechanikles said.

Aspasia let Pamphilos take over the controls and turned to her brother. "I was so worried! I thought I wouldn't see you again!" she said and buried him with a hug. Then she pulled back abruptly. "Ugh, you stink."

"You think I don't know that? I just spent half a week in a filthy dungeon!" Mechanikles snapped.

Simonides looked doubtful. "It can't be that. I saw the place and it was the cleanest cell I've ever seen. You're just a pig," he said.

Mechanikles decided to ignore that comment and kept glaring into the horizon. He was surprised that his idiotic relatives had actually pulled off their stunt and that they had been willing to do so. Not that he couldn't have escaped on his own, but it was sort of nice to realise that someone had wanted to help him.

"Where did you get the parts for this?" he asked. He was sure there hadn't been enough extra parts around his workshop for this kind of invention.

Aspasia chuckled lightly. "Well, we sort of took everything else apart…"

"You did what!"

The shock was so intense that he almost fell off the butterfly. Once he recovered from that he wondered briefly if it would have been a good idea to jump.

"It was the only thing we could do to save you in time!" Aspasia said desperately, but Mechanikles barely heard it. His beautiful inventions! Months, in some cases years of work destroyed by two idiots who obviously had no idea what they were doing!

"How could you do that?" he asked.

"We didn't have time to -"

"There is always time! The Sultan who rules that place is a weak idiot! There have been only a handful of death sentences after they got rid of his vizier! I had nothing to worry about!" Mechanikles snapped. He turned away from everyone else, being unable to look at them at the moment.

"I didn't know that!" Aspasia protested.

Mechanikles was too angry to reply. He clutched the metalwork of the butterfly so hard that his fingers almost started bleeding. He didn't even notice the pain. To think that his beautiful creations had been torn apart for something like this! It was infuriating and it hurt.

"I'm sorry," his sister offered.

"Save your apologies, they mean nothing to me! My work was my life!" he snapped, not turning to look at her. "You know how much I treasure my inventions and you still destroyed them? Were you insane?" he asked then.

"But I -"

"She was worried about you."

Surprisingly, the latter comment didn't come from Simonides but Pamphilos. Everyone turned to look at the young man in surprise. His expression was hard as stone, his shoulders tense and the disgusted look in his eyes betrayed his feelings openly.

"We just risked everything to save you and you don't even find it within you to thank us. I was against this stupid idea in the first place, but nobody listened to me. I just don't see why anyone would care enough to save someone as worthless as you," he said.

"Pamphilos! Don't speak to your uncle like that!" Aspasia snapped in shock. He turned to glare at her.

"Why not? He's not the intellectual hero I was expecting to see when I came here. He only uses his inventions for evil, he obviously doesn't care about any of us and hasn't given me one reason to respect him!"

"Listen, boy, you have no idea what you're talking about!" Mechanikles said. He would not listen to someone ridicule him like that. Especially someone who was much younger than him and inferior in every way.

Pamphilos shrugged and licked his lips, gathering his courage. "Then enlighten me. Why do you try to kill Aladdin or take over Agrabah?" he asked.

"For power, you young fool!"

"Oh, that is certainly such an important goal!"

"Pamphilos, be silent when talking about things you don't understand," Simonides said sternly, finally taking part in the argument.

"You can't be defending him!" Pamphilos snapped in surprise, pointing at his uncle. Mechanikles wasn't happy either. He didn't need Simonides to help him.

"Kingdoms have been taken over for much pettier reasons before. I don't see the problem," the soldier said. "I appreciate the effort to spread civilization among these barbarians. Still, I have no toleration for the treatment I and my wife are getting. The minute we get back, we pack and leave back home."

"But -" Aspasia objected, but wasn't let to finish this time either.

"Don't argue with me. I let you have your way and save your brother. Now we're doing as I say," Simonides said.

The rest of the journey took place in relative silence. The horrible noise coming from within the butterfly made it impossible for anyone to concentrate on their thoughts and only helped to make everyone angrier with each other.

The minute the machine landed, Mechanikles hopped off and ran to take a look at his workshop. The sight was what he had feared, but it did nothing to reduce the shock of seeing his lifework in ruins.

Cogs, gears and unidentifiable pieces of metal were lying everywhere. It was impossible to say where each part was from or even what their function had been. Some parts had been ruined beyond repair, such as a few wings he realised belonged to one of his earlier escape dragonflies. Aspasia and Pamphilos had taken apart everything in their search for the parts they needed.

Feeling strangely empty and too tired to rage, he collapsed on the floor and leaned against a beetle whose insides had been stolen. He felt like identifying with the machine for a moment, for he certainly felt like his heart had been just ripped out of his chest.

It would take weeks before he got everything organized and much, much longer before he had even half of his inventions back in working order. Replacing the damaged parts and re-building everything was such a huge task that he didn't even want to think about it yet.

A sudden buzz brought him back to reality. He turned around and found himself staring right into the mechanical eyes of another beetle. The difference was that this one was working.

"Scooter! The vandals spared you!" he realised with a sudden stab of joy. At least he would have help in re-building everything.

He got up and pointed at the workshop. "Look what they did to your brothers and sisters! Everything is in ruins!" he told the beetle.

Scooter, as usual, gave no response but its presence was enough to make Mechanikles feel a little better. He patted the machine's head with almost fatherly love and smiled for the first time in days.

"We're going to make it better," he decided. He would make new designs, two times better and deadlier than the old ones. That would show everyone not to mess with him. It would also be a good idea to lock the machines so that they would kill everyone (except him, of course) who tried to take them apart.

Yes, that was a brilliant idea! It would stop Aladdin from defeating him the next time around.

"Come, Scooter!" he ordered his pet and ran to his desk. He was about to throw everything on it on the floor, but froze in the middle of he movement. His eyes fell on a rough and unorganized blueprint that was most definitely not one of his.

"How amateurish," he muttered to himself. The design belonged to the butterfly that was the reason all his precious inventions were rubble. Yet he couldn't bring himself to throw it away. After a moment of hesitation he let it remain there and decided to postpone his future plans for the time being.

When he started to observe the situation from a logical point of view, he realised that he had been rather rude. It wasn't something that would have normally bothered him, but this was his family this time. The only people in the world who would have come to his aid.

He pondered it in thought. Losing allies was never a strategically wise outcome. Maybe he was feeling a little sorry, too. Not enough to apologize or to forgive what had been done to his inventions, but enough to admit that he could have acted in a different way.

It was too late for that, though. To accomplish that he would have to admit that he had been wrong and he knew he was never going to do that. To himself, perhaps, but not to anyone else.

"Well, it is of no importance, is it, Scooter?" he asked the beetle. There was no reply which left him alone with his thoughts. He pondered what he should do. One thing he wanted was to have his family leave as soon as possible, so that he could start fixing things in peace. However, for some reason he felt a little bad about letting them go like that, without saying a word to them ever again. He decided he was a bit curious about how they were doing, so he went to change into a clean tunic and stepped outside.

Out of three, only one face looked up when he arrived. Everyone was packing and Simonides was folding the tents. It was all too clear to Mechanikles that he wasn't welcome.

"It's going to take long before you're back at home," he remarked.

"Too bad because we aren't staying here," Simonides said in the middle of his work.

Mechanikles pointed to the butterfly that stood abandoned down the hill. "You could take that and fly it home."

"Too dangerous. It's falling apart already," Pamphilos said. Mechanikles didn't find that surprising. He hadn't seen a machine so badly constructed in years.

"I could fix it," he muttered.

That stopped everyone. Their baffled stare was making Mechanikles uncomfortable, so he simply shrugged and continued, "I don't need it, so if you don't take it, it's going to get trashed anyway."

Aspasia grabbed Simonides' arm and looked up to him. "We would be back with the children so much faster! Can we stay until he has fixed it?" she asked.

Her husband didn't look convinced. "Why would you do that?" he asked.

"Take it as a thank you or a departure present, whichever you like," Mechanikles said.

"So, you're saying you're sorry?"

"Don't press it or I'll change my mind!"

In the end it was decided that his relatives would stay for a few days longer. Pamphilos wasn't looking too happy about the idea, but he was given no choice in the matter.

Repairing the butterfly and improving the parts that had been badly constructed wasn't too difficult. It took a while before they found suitable parts from the destroyed inventions, but it looked like the work would be finished in a couple of days.

Aspasia was watching as her brother worked. As long as she didn't babble all the time, Mechanikles didn't mind too much. Only a few times he had had to resist the urge of telling her to leave.

"Thank you," she said. "I didn't think you'd even speak to me again after we destroyed everything."

"You spared Scooter," Mechanikles pointed out.

"The beetle has a name? How… eh, cute," Aspasia said. She thought about it for a while. "Have you ever considered getting a live companion?"

"What? A dog?"

"Well, I was thinking more along the lines of someone human," Aspasia said.

Mechanikles snorted. "You already made a mess of my workshop. The last thing I need is someone else doing that," he said.

"You know, when we have the butterfly, we can come visiting more often," Aspasia pondered.

"Now wait, I don't think that is such a -"

"Next time, we could bring the children, too…"

The End

In case someone is wondering about it, the plot point with the power struggle in Ikanos was left open on purpose. It was impossible to solve during this fic, but I wanted to put it there to make sure that if I ever want to write a sequel (unlikely), I can have a plot that is somehow related to this fic.