Aladdin was exhausted. He, Jasmine, and the gang had just gotten back from their latest adventure: tracking the jewel thief who stole the Sultan's prize diamond getting it back. He was just sitting down to relax, but he was feeling quite odd.
The feeling was akin to that surreal sensation between asleep and awake. For some reason he was suddenly quite existentially confused.
He turned to Jasmine, who was just about to head off to her room for the night. "Jasmine?" he asked.
"Yes, Aladdin?"
"Why don't we share a room?" He almost felt embarrassed to even suggest it.
She seemed to get offended at the suggestion. "What sort of girl do you think I am? I do love you, but I'm not the sort of person that just jumps into bed with someone before marriage!"
"But that's just it: we are married! Right? I'm pretty sure I remember getting married, at any rate." As he said that, he saw Jasmine's indignation fade, only to be replaced with a look that mirrored the confusion he was feeling.
"Um, now that you mention it, yes, I do remember getting married. Why did I forget? Why did we?"
"Well, it has been a long time since the wedding, but that doesn't seem like a good reason."
"A long time?" Jasmine was, if anything, more confused. "Yes I suppose it has been. How long would you say we've been married? Or even, how long since we met?"
"You know, I'm not sure. Years."
Jasmine, somehow, was becoming both more sure, and more confused. "It feels like decades. But that doesn't make sense. None of us are any older. Not even Abu or Iago, neither of which should have that long of a lifespan."
"Maybe we should talk to Genie about this? It almost has to be magic, right?" Aladdin felt uneasy about this suggestion, even as he made it.
"I don't know. I mean, he would have had to have noticed something like this. If he hasn't mentioned it, maybe we shouldn't either." Jasmine shared Aladdin's nervousness.
"No. I mean, you're right, he would have had to have noticed, but we have to confront him about it."
"Confront him? Do you think he's the one responsible?" As she asked this, Aladdin realized that that was exactly what he thought. What was it the Genie had said? Phenomenal Cosmic Power.
It was only a moment before they were both standing in front of the Genie. Aladdin spoke up, "Genie... How long has it been since I freed you?"
The Genie's face showed some quick emotions. For a moment, Aladdin though the Genie would try to deceive him, but the Genie just sighed and said, "I knew this day would eventually come. I actually expected it a long time ago. Are you sure you want to hear this? There's no going back."
Aladdin and Jasmine looked at each other, then turned to the Genie and said together, "Tell us."
"Aladdin, you freed me from my prison more than six hundred years ago."
At first, Aladdin didn't register what the Genie said. His words just didn't make any sense. But then the realization came over him. "S-six hundred years?!"
"Yes."
"What? But, how? Why?"
"How? Well for a being like me, it wasn't even hard. I know I've let you think my power has lessened since my freeing, but that's just been to keep you all from relying on me. The why, however, is more complicated." Aladdin had never seen the Genie like this. Normally, he was, well, kind of goofy. But seeing the Genie act so seriously, and a bit arrogant, really drove home to him the scale of the difference between a human and what was essentially a deity.
"Okay, then, explain it to us." Bless Jasmine. Aladdin could always count on her to keep them on track.
"I had just spent ten thousand years in solitary isolation. When I am let out to serve a new master, rather than some power hungry maniac or selfish jerk, my new master becomes my first ever friend. The first human I had ever cared about. And then he freed me. You can't really comprehend what it's like to be a higher being, but I can see all of time laid out before me. And so it was clear to me that in just a few short decades you would be dead. And I couldn't let that happen.
Only, if I just made you immortal, you would be miserable. Everyone you care about, except for me, would die. So I took Agrabah, and I hid it in a pocket dimension. Wait, you won't know what that is. Well, it doesn't matter. What's important is that Agrabah, and everything and everyone you know are caught in a kind of stasis. You don't grow, or change. You can't leave. That's why it's just been you, me, and our friends going on adventures and enjoying life for so long."
This all made Aladdin feel kind of light-headed, so he sat down. Finally, he asked, "So why did you make me and Jasmine forget we were married?"
The Genie just shrugged. "That's just a side effect of the stasis. If you can't grow or change, then your relationship can't change, either. Good news, though. Now that you've figured it all out, the spell should have been weakened enough to let you keep that knowledge."
Jasmine spoke up, "Does that mean we'll die?"
Genie smiled at her. "Do you think I'd let that happen? After all this time, I'm nearly as fond of you as I am of Al, here. But this knowledge is going to make eternity a lot more difficult for the two of you. Human minds just aren't built to handle that kind of thing. My advice is to try not to think about it much. Just live in the present, and don't let the weight of your experiences drag you down. And don't tell any of the others unless you want to burden them. Some of the villagers have figured it out, but none of the big name players are aware yet."
The Genie left them to think about things together. They talked about it, about all the adventures that they had been through that were suddenly much more real to them. Finally, Jasmine says, "I think the Genie's advice was sound. We won't grow old, so the physical reminders of the passing of time won't exist. Let's just try to ignore it."
Aladdin nods and they both decide to turn in for the night. As Aladdin is turning to head toward his room, Jasmine grabs him by the arm and drags him back to hers instead.
AN: I got the idea from this youtube video: /watch?v=ZX_SMzhbDqc&index=14&list=PL5CC44F2C10A8415C
