Previously:

Meanwhile, the Chief and his slaves had simply walked around the trap door and were continuing to move forward down the path without even bothering to check and see if the two of them were still alive.

"Morgiana, how did you know where the trap door was?" the Chief asked.

"Because the smell of death was emanating from there."

"Oooh~ Well, even thought those two did a good job up until then, I knew that I could count on you guys more than them!" the Chief said with a smile, ruffling Morgiana's hair. "Shame we lost them both, though. We could have used an extra incase there are more traps up ahead!" Aladdin stirred on Goltas' shoulder. "Oh, you're awake?"

"…?" Aladdin opened his eyes and blinked. Where were Alibaba and Faith…?

Chapter 14: Sabotage

"Oh! So I fainted and you picked me up, did you? Um… S—B—B… Boss? Or sir?" Aladdin asked as they walked along through the tunnel.

"Boss! I'm the head of Qishan, Jamil. My job is to insure the city is safe for all of its citizens… So, in short, I save people!" The Chief explained with a brilliant shit-eating grin. "Considering my position, I couldn't very well ignore you when you needed my help, could I? As for your friends, I sent them ahead. No need to worry, though, I personally made sure that they were absolutely safe!"

"I… I see." Aladdin said.

"Anyway, we can look for them later." Said Jamil brightly. "For now, let's find the exit to this place."

"…" Aladdin glanced at Morgiana. He recognized her as the girl they had tried to help the other day. He wondered what she was doing there… Did she get caught again? The chains on the shackles around her ankles and the ankles of the big guy next to her clinked and clanked as they walked.

"Are you concerned with these two? They're my slaves." Jamil said with a smile. "The big guy is Goltas. He came from a nomadic tribe from the north… Even if he gets hurt, he doesn't make a sound, but he's extremely reliable. The small girl is Morgiana. She hails from the 'Continent of Darkness', where the descendants of a hunting tribe once dwelled! She's got a great sense of smell and fairly sturdy body. They were both super expensive, but really worth it!" he finished with a laugh.

"Oh…" Aladdin said quietly.

"Oh! How about you let me see your slave?" Jamil suggested. "You know, the big guy in the flute? I tried before, but your friends insisted I didn't…"

"Ugo-kun… isn't my slave, but my friend."

"I see!" Jamil said with a big smile. "Well, more importantly, we should continue down this dungeon… since we're close to the end…" he said, deciding to change the subject. "We managed to find the right path while you were asleep, so let's find the treasure together!"

" 'Kay… But, sir? Are Alibaba-kun and Faith… really going to meet us there?" Aladdin asked.

"Sure they are!" Jamil answered brightly with another smile.

"…" Aladdin stared up at the Chief, and narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't like this man. And he didn't trust him.

"Oh my…" Jamil said when they reached the next room at the end of the tunnel. "There are three entrances here, aren't there…? So does this mean the dragon has three esophagi?" That peon had said everything would be in the dragon's tail... 'What should I do…' the Chief wondered. 'The translation he gave us was right up to this point… Should I look for the correct path? Should I use Morgiana? Hm, I'm likely to need her nose to sniff out any corpses that could spell trouble later… And if I use Goltas, even if he finds something, he won't be able to tell me, since he can't talk.' It was quite the dilemma. 'Hmm… Ugh, no matter who I go with, it's useless… I guess there's no choice but to do this myself! If I take Goltas with me, he can deal with the traps ahead.' he decided darkly. "Everyone! I have deemed the path ahead of us as dangerous! Hence, as the leader, I'll go scout out the safest path! Women and children wait here for us!" he declared brightly. "So, take good care of him, Morgiana." He ordered as he passed her, lowering his voice so the magi wouldn't hear.

"Oh, I see, so that translation you gave earlier was bogus?" said Faith as she and Alibaba walked through the tunnel leading off from the pit of spikes that they had fallen in.

"Yeah, the real translation is… 'to reach the truth, you must struggle along the innards of the dragon first'." Alibaba explained. Ironically enough, it was only after they fell into the blade trap… that he understood the full meaning of the phrase 'the dragon's fangs'.

"Ohh!" Faith exclaimed as they reached the end of the tunnel. Alibaba's eyes widened slightly in awe. They were now in a great, wide and expansive chamber, and before them was a huge, ancient stone door that was framed by a pair of splendid columns and at least two stories tall. Engraved upon the door was a seal in the form of an eight-pointed star. "Now there's something you don't see everyday…"

"This door must lead to the 'truth'…!" Alibaba said excitedly.

"Yeah, this thing just screams 'special'… Let's go poke it with a stick!" she said with a grin.

"Hey, wait!! Shouldn't we do something about Aladdin first!? He's still with the others…" Alibaba reminded her, sweat-dropping.

"Ah! That's right!!" Faith exclaimed. How could she have forgotten that? "We'd better go get him, then! I don't want to leave him with that psycho any longer than we have to…"

"But how are we going to get back? Crawl up out of that trap…?" He asked dubiously. One misstep, and they could end up skewered…

"What? No!" Faith said with a frown, looking at him as though the answer should have been obvious. "Why go back, when we can go forward?" She said, pointing to a staircase located in one of the far corners that he had somehow managed to miss.

"How did you…?"

"One of the advantages of being lazy is that you develop a special talent for spotting the easy way out of difficult situations." She replied with a smirk.

So they carefully made their way up the stairs, wary of setting off any traps that might be lying in wait for them. Eventually they reached a higher level that opened up to a balcony with a stone railing. And they could hear someone talking on the level below them. They stuck their heads out though openings in the balcony to see what was going on.

"… There's something you should know…" Morgiana said lowly, talking to Aladdin as she stood with her back to him. "I'll tell you this, just so you understand… Do not belittle the leader, or else you'll end up like your friends."

"Wha? What's that?" Aladdin asked, looking a bit taken aback.

"Your friends, that boy and that girl… they… The leader left them in a trap…"

"…" Aladdin stared at her in disbelief, horrified. No way… Then, Alibaba and Faith were…?

"So your friends are…" Morgiana continued, biting her lip. "Your friends are…" Aladdin looked up as some fragments of stone dust fell from above. "They've been left to die!!" Morgiana confessed, lowering her head as she furrowed her brow with guilt and shame for having done so.

"…" Alibaba and Faith stared down at Aladdin from the balcony overhead, perfectly alive and well. Aladdin stared up at them, stunned.

"… Your friends… are now dead…" Morgiana informed him with regret, still completely unaware of what was going on behind her.

"Huh? But, um… really?" Aladdin asked, sweat-dropping, as he glanced between her and his friends. Alibaba seemed a little nervous and sweaty, and Faith looked kind of pale… but other than that they seemed totally fine.

"They didn't know their place, so the leader abandoned them there on a whim…!" Morgiana continued. "You're the same… if you don't watch out and learn your place… You'll diffh!" She was started when something was thrown over her head. It was the blanket Aladdin had been sitting on. "!?" She gasped as she whipped her head around. "Huh!? He's gone!" she cried in alarm.

"I don't think so, onee-san!" Aladdin called down to her.

"Ah…!?!" She gasped when she looked up and saw him floating in the air on his magic turban with his two supposedly dead friends.

"Sorry about this, but we need to get going…! Hopefully we'll meet again… so I can cut those invisible chains… and, together, we can travel to that place of the beautiful sun!!" he said earnestly.

"I already told you…" Morgiana said darkly, digging her heel into the brick floor.

CRACK.

"What the life of a slave is…"

CRRAACK.

"But you still act ignorant…!!"

CRRAAACK.

"Whoa now…!!" Alibaba cried out in surprise and alarm when the floor shattered completely as she leaped forward.

"Oh shit!!" Faith exclaimed as Morgiana shot up the wall, digging her heels into the wall with so force much that the wall buckled and cracked beneath her feet as she ran straight at them. This girl was like Jet Li on steroids!!

"Hiiiiii!!" Alibaba squealed nervously as Morgiana closed in on them. "Go higher, Aladdin!!"

"Wait!!!" Morgiana roared fiercely, reaching for them with a desperate leap.

"Yeah right!!!" Faith retorted, pulling back the corner of the magic turban just enough to prevent her from grabbing it.

"Dammit!" Morgiana cursed in frustration when her fist clenched only air, sweating nervously as she thought about having to tell her twisted master about their escape.

"Waaah!! Faith!! Alibaba-kun!! You're still alive!! How did you do it! Uh… you're kind of bleeding, Alibaba-kun…" Aladdin cried excitedly as they ran, whacking his friends in the side to make sure they were real.

"Ahaha… Yeah, that really hurts, so don't touch me, mkay?" Alibaba replied a bit nervously, still a bit pale from the shock of Morgiana's insane blitz.

"Yeah, I'm a little too tired to stay nice if you keep that up, 'cause I'm still kind of sore from the fall…" Faith added, sweat-dropping. Using her psychic powers was exhausting.

"Fall…?" Aladdin asked.

"I'll explain everything later!" said Alibaba. "C'mon! We found something awesome!" And with that Alibaba and Faith lead Aladdin back to the impressively humongous door that they had discovered earlier.

"!!?" Aladdin gasped when he saw it. "What's this door!?" He asked excitedly. It was huge!

"We found it by following a secret passageway after falling through a trap." Faith explained.

"I think this is the door to the 'truth', but it doesn't look like there's any way to open it." Alibaba added.

"Yeah, there aren't any knobs on the door, so there's no way we can grip it… Maybe it's a push door?" said Faith, stepping forward to give it a try. "Ungh… Unnngh…!!" she grunted, pushing with all her might. The door refused to budge.

"Yeah, I don't think that's it…" Alibaba said, sweat-dropping. 'The mark on the door… isn't it similar to the one on Aladdin's flute?' he thought looking at it again.

"… I know what to do." Aladdin said abruptly.

"Eh?" Faith said, pausing in her efforts to force it open. "Really!?"

"Sweet!" Alibaba said excitedly.

"It's the same as when Ugo-kun and I were in the Room of Fortitude… The door there was the same as this… I remember what I had to do to open it back then…" Aladdin said as he walked up and placed his hands on the door. "Let's see… I think the words were… umm…'

'Ah… It's those little birds of light again…!' Faith and Alibaba thought as the flittering lights began to gather around Aladdin's hands as he concentrated.

"Oopeen… Sesame…!!" Aladdin commanded the great doors.

'Wha-Wait, seriously…!?!?' Faith thought, watching in amazement as the huge door split in two and swung wide open with a huge gust of wind and dust.

"Whoa!!" Alibaba exclaimed, staring in awe. "The door's opening on its own…!?!?"

"Uh, duh! It's a magic door, ya know!" said Faith with a roll of her eyes. What else did he think was going to happen? Although, it might've been cool if it had exploded or something…

'Awesome… This is just awesome… This is it… I can feel the 'treasure box' from here…!!' Alibaba thought excitedly, way too psyched to be bothered by her sarcasm. 'Finally, I'll have my own mountain of riches!! Gold, diamonds, emeralds!! They're all waiting for me…!! I'm coming, my beautiful, beautiful treasures!!" he thought with sparkling eyes.