Previously:

"… Sorry, but we're going to need you a third time, Ugo-kun!!" Aladdin said anxiously, blowing into the flute. Once again, Ugo emerged to aid them in battle with Aladdin riding on his shoulders, blowing continuously into the flute. The slime king swiped Ugo and Aladdin with a blade, but Ugo ducked swiftly and countered with a powerful right hook that obliterated the top left of the slime king's torso.

"Oh-hoho…!! Kick his ass, Ugo-kun!!!" Faith cheered excitedly. She hoped Aladdin could keep it up.

"Sweet!!" Alibaba exclaimed. "From here, we totally got this win in the bag!"

"You doing okay, Aladdin!?" Faith called. He still looked pretty exhausted, even though bananas were a great source of potassium.

"I'm fine… We're going to get to the treasure, I promise you!!" Aladdin said determinedly. "Even if it means using… our trump card!" He was still feeling really weak and hungry, but the banana had helped a little. He blew into the flute again, harder than ever before, and a mysterious glowing energy began to gather around Ugo's hands.

Chapter 12: Aladdin's True Identity

'Huh? What are those things?' Faith wondered as she watched the glowing energy swirl around the Ugo's hands. There were flickering flecks of light floating in the air, gathering around Aladdin and the Djinn. She had never seen this happen before. 'They look kind of like luminous two-winged butterflies… or stylized birds made of light…' The flapping little wings of light were absorbed by the Djinn, and then a red light formed around Ugo's hands. The Djinn sprang forward, raising his hands high as he charged fearlessly toward the slime king. Reaching his target, Ugo clasped his hands together and brought them crashing down on the slime king, unleashing all the built up energy around his hands with such an incredibly immense force that the slime king was instantly obliterated in a blinding explosion of heat and light. Alibaba and Faith had to shield their faces and brace themselves against a blast of hot air, and by the time they lowered their arms, it was already over. Ugo had returned to his flute, and all that was left of the slime king was a huge, deep, smoldering crater. The two teens stared at the scene of the aftermath in amazement.

"… Damn." Faith said, stunned. "That was… freakin' A, man!!" She had no idea Ugo could do that!

"Yeah… That was awesome…" Alibaba agreed, peering over the edge of the crater. "He even cracked a huge hole in the ground. Even that slimy freak instantly turned to ash! How come you didn't tell me you had a bad ass move like that?" he asked excitedly. "If your timing was a little later, we would've been dead. And you were beating them back with your bare hands!" he said excitedly, glancing back and forth between Aladdin and Faith. "Dude, with the three of us together, there's no dungeon that we can't handle!"

"Hehe… Ugo-kun's strong, isn't he?" Aladdin said quietly with a weak smile and small laugh.

"Hey, are you all right?" Faith asked, frowning with concern.

"Yeah, you look pale…" said Alibaba as they both hurried over to check on him.

"Really? I guess I used too much power there… It's fine, though. If I eat a whole lot and rest a long time, I'll be okay!" Aladdin said as cheerfully as he could manage, in an attempt to reassure them. He didn't want his friends to worry.

"You sure?" Faith asked. She had never seen him this looking bad off before.

"I'm sure!" Aladdin said with a weak smile. And then Faith's stomach growled ferociously, echoing throughout the cavern.

"… Uh, now that you mention it… I guess I could use a little food an rest myself…" she said, sweat-dropping, as she placed a hand over her hungry stomach. Now that her adrenaline was no longer pumping, she felt like she needed a nap.

"I-I have an idea!" said Alibaba suddenly, removing the bundles he had strapped to his back. Inside one was a copious amount of food. Faith and Aladdin's eyes lit up at the sight, and the three of them decided to stop and have a lunch break to give Aladdin some time to recover his strength.

"If you want, there's still more!" Alibaba told Aladdin after they had been eating for a while, ready to dish him another serving for him.

"No, I'm fine, thanks…" Aladdin replied, stuffed.

"I won't say 'no' to another bite!" said Faith.

"You know," Alibaba said, annoyed that she was bossing him around again, "if you keep this up, you're gonna get fa—"

"German suplex!!" Faith shouted angrily as she grabbed Alibaba and bent over backwards, slamming him into the ground.

"Oww!!? What was that for, you bi…" Alibaba started to demand incredulously with tears in his eyes while holding his aching head as he looked up to face Faith, only to find her face inches apart from his.

"Want another?" She asked sharply with a dangerous look in her eye, looming ominously over him. Alibaba bit his lip.

"… No, ma'am." He answered in a small voice.

"… I'm just gonna take a lil nap…" Aladdin said, hoping Alibaba would still be in one piece when he woke up.

"That's cool, go right ahead!" said Faith, while Alibaba flinched.

'He's… He's gonna leave me all alone with this witch…!?' he thought nervously. In some ways she was the most dangerous thing in this dungeon! But Aladdin evidently really needed that nap, because the kid was dead asleep the moment his eyes closed.

"… I think I'll get some shut-eye too." Faith said after a moment, deciding to curl up next to Aladdin and regain some HP.

"…" Alibaba stared at the two of them while they slept, sweat-dropping. Well, he was kind of relieved Faith had decided to drop off too, but now he couldn't make a single noise without being worried about waking a sleeping dragon… 'Say, Aladdin… am I… pushing you too much?' he wondered worriedly as he watched his little friend sleep. 'I thought things were going pretty well… but that monster attack is giving me second thoughts…" Alibaba glanced around nervously and spotted what appeared to be the opening of a small cave.

Alibaba did his best to carefully move Aladdin and Faith into the shelter of the small cave without waking them; Aladdin because he needed his rest, and Faith because he didn't want to have to deal with her if she woke up. Then he set up camp. There wasn't any glowing moss in the little cave, so he lit a couple of lanterns, put up a tarp to shield them from the water dripping down from the ceiling, and covered Aladdin with an empty sack for a blanket. Faith could just deal as far as he was concerned.

'It should be fine for us to hang out in this cave for awhile…' Alibaba thought. 'After all, there's only one entrance. And if I stand guard, we might be safer.' He glanced back at the others. Aladdin's breathing seemed a little labored. 'His flute sure is troublesome… Does it take that much strength to use it?' He wondered, picking up the flute. 'I still have a lot of strength… maybe I can try blowing into it…' Alibaba started sweating nervously as he stared at the flute before finally working up the courage to give it a try. He took a deep breath, and blew. Nothing happened. Not even a single note. 'Heh…? There's no sound from this thing…' Alibaba thought, confused. 'But why does it come out when Aladdin blows into it?' "Hm?" he said a loud when he noticed something was engraved on the was an eight-pointed star carved into the flute, and around it was a circle of some kind of strange characters or text. 'What's this mark?' he wondered. 'It looks like writing, but what language? Can Aladdin read it? I wonder… just who is this kid…? And why is he out here without his parents?' Alibaba took his eyes off the flute for a moment to glance back at the boy. 'Come to think of it… I don't know anything about him, do I?' he realized. 'We've met so suddenly, and I don't think I've really said much about myself either. Not that I talk about my own parents and ambitions… I'm not really the sort of person to blabber on about myself. But… he was still wiling to help me out for no apparent reason. I guess… It wouldn't hurt to tell him a little… Right, I guess we'll have a little chat once he gets up… about everything and anything.' Alibaba decided as he began to nod off as well. 'Since its impossible to go dungeon-diving alone…'

"!" Alibaba awoke with a start. He glanced around, wondering how long he had been asleep. Aladdin and Faith looked like they were still out cold.

TMP. TMP. TMP. TMP.

'Dripping water?' Alibaba wondered when he heard more sounds. 'Oh crap!!! No… It's following a pattern…" he decided he'd better investigate. Alibaba removed his jacket to cover the lantern and carefully followed the sound, crawling back through to the small opening of the cave. '!?' he gasped internally when he saw the source. It had been the sound of three people walking: two slaves, and a nobleman that Alibaba was able to recognize on sight. 'I… That guy… he's the evil boss of our town…!!!' Alibaba thought, startled. 'People have died trying to go diving…!!! Yet a snob like him just waltzes in!? How on earth was he able to do it!?' Alibaba broke out in a cold sweat as he remembered how his old boss had warned him this man had been planning to make him his slave. '…No…' he thought, gritting his teeth, as he retreated to the back of the cave. 'We should be fine here. Thank God he didn't notice us. With Aladdin unable to move right now, it's really hard to run away…!' Alibaba uncovered the lantern so he could check on Aladdin. 'Good… He's looking a lot better…' He thought, relieved to see that Aladdin's breathing was nice and even and some color had returned to his face.

"Mmn… one more scoop of vanilla…" Faith mumbled in her sleep with a dreamy smile. Alibaba sweat-dropped. She looked so carefree over there that it was kind of pissing him off a little…

'Anyway… Once Aladdin is back in the game, we'll teach that guy a lesson!' he thought determinedly, just as a shadow fell over him from behind. "!!" Alibaba gasped, and spun around so fast in his attempt to see who or what had snuck up on him that he fell over. "Whoah!!!" he cried out in surprise and alarm as he stared up the shadow looming over him. "Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha… Eh?" he said, calming down a little once he realized he could see her face in the light of the lamp. It was that girl, the slave Aladdin had freed earlier… "Why are you here!?" he asked, taken aback.

"Why are you being so loud…!?" Faith demanded moodily as she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Is the dungeon on fire…? Is the slime…" She trailed off when she opened her eyes and saw the girl from earlier standing there, staring silently at them. Okay… "Um… Hello?" She said, venturing a small wave.

JANGLE~

"Oh, so you're there…" they heard a male voice remark. Alibaba and Faith looked over and saw the Chief and another slave (a big hulk of a man wearing a plain metal mask) climbing through the entrance to their little cave. "Thanks for the hard work." The chief finished with a smirk.

'Hmm…? Who's this joker?' Faith wondered with a frown. 'Why is that girl with him? Did she get caught again?'

"CRAAAAAAP!!! He found us!!!" Alibaba screamed in his mind, rearing back in fear. 'This girl… She works for the boss!? What do I do!? We're totally caught!' he thought, starting to panic. 'Should we run!? He's probably diving for treasure just like us!! And if that's the case, he's here to get in our way!!' Cold swear dripped down the side of his face as he glanced between Faith and Aladdin and the boss and his slaves. 'Do we run or what!? Aladdin can't move, and there's three of them too! We can't fight and carry Aladdin at the same time, can we!?' He could tell from the look on her face that Faith had no idea how screwed they were. 'What do I do!?' he screamed internally as Faith opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey, y—!?" she started casually, when Alibaba suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth to silence her before she could say anything the evil boss might find rude or offensive. A vein throbbed on her forehead, and she was extremely tempted to bite the offending hand as Alibaba stepped in to take some preventative measures.

"Ahh~ Sir!" he said brightly with a sickeningly ingratiating smile. "We're saved!! You're the Chief, aren't you!? We're from the city too… but we got lost in this dungeon while playing! Worse yet, our lil bro's got a fever…!" he rattled away anxiously. 'These guys look really dangerous… and we can't run or hide.' Thought Alibaba. 'So the best thing to do is to try to make nice with them until we get out of here…!'

"…" Faith could tell by the look on the others' faces that they weren't buying his story for a minute. I mean, siblings? Come on, they didn't look a thing alike! And who 'accidentally' wanders into a place with a such famous reputation for being a death trap? 'But these guys do seem kind of dangerous…' She thought, eyeing the human hulk in the mask.

"W-Well, let's go…" Alibaba said nervously, starting to get to his feet. The Chief and his slaves swept straight past him and Faith without so much as a side glance. Their eyes were fixed on Aladdin. "!?" Alibaba said, surprised. 'They completely ignored us!'

'They totally blanked us…!' Faith thought with a scoff, a little offended.

"I've been waiting for you, magi…" the Chief said, kneeling respectfully before the sleeping Aladdin. "For ten lone years. And now, you're here before me…"

'Magi… What's that…?' Faith and Alibaba wondered. Why was this guy talking like he knew Aladdin?