Previously:
"I have some things I want to tell you," Aladdin told him. The seal on his forehead shined brighter.
"Ahh?" Judar said, but then suddenly, his head was filled with images he had never seen before. Images of the Organization attacking a village. The people, powerless against such a strong force, pleaded for them to stop. "Wha… What…? This is..." A man and woman he couldn't remember, yet felt strangely familiar were slaughtered when they tried to protect their baby. A veiled member of the Organization reached for him. "… Stop it…" he said with wide eyes. "Stop it!" he screamed, holding his head.
"Judar!!" Banker said when he fell to the ground, landing in front of Aladdin. Aladdin's forehead continued to shine brightly.
"Hey, Ala—" Faith started to say, when Hope placed a hand on her shoulder and held a finger to her lips.
"I get the feeling we shouldn't disturb him," Hope said.
"Yeah… I kinda do too, but… What are we supposed to do now?" Faith asked her. "Aladdin is clearly taking care of that other magi, but Alibaba was eaten by that thing!"
"Aladdin wouldn't have stopped us if Alibaba's life was in danger, and he said this was something only Alibaba could do…" Hope said thoughtfully. She couldn't see where this was going yet. "Let's trust Aladdin. He seems to know something we don't."
Chapter 61: Smile
"Where is this…?" Alibaba wondered, standing in the dark.
"This is the place inside the black Djinn, Alibaba," he heard Aladdin's voice explain.
"… Aladdin!?"
"Your friend should be here, too."
Alibaba turned his head to look and saw that he was right. Cassim was standing only a few feet away from him. He looked just as he did before he became the Dark Djinn.
"… Cassim?" Alibaba said.
"That's the form… his rukh has taken on..."
—∞—
Aladdin stood before Judar with his eyes closed, concentrating on guiding Alibaba.
"Damn!!" Judar cursed as he picked himself up off the ground, holding his head with one hand and his wand in the other. "Bastard… What did you do to me!?" Hope and Faith stepped between them, glaring at Judar.
—∞—
"Alibaba, we'll make some time for you!!" Aladdin told him. "So hurry, save him from the darkness!!"
"…!!" Alibaba said, furrowing his brow. "Cassim…!!" He stared at his old friend. For a moment, he was lost about what he should say or do. But then he set his face with determination. "Cassim… one more time… I want to talk things out with you..."
"Alibaba, don't come over. I have nothing to say to you," Cassim replied.
"Cassim!!" Alibaba said urgently, grabbing his arm.
"Don't come over. You should've realized already!" Cassim said, pulling his arm free from Alibaba's grip.
"…!?" Alibaba gasped.
"I hate you most of all!!" Cassim told him, glaring angrily.
"!?" Alibaba exclaimed, beyond shocked.
"It's not like it started just now..." Cassim's rukh said, transforming itself. "I've always… ever since we were young!!" It took his appearance as a child.
"Wha… What…!?"
"That time," little Cassim said, showing him scene of when they used to play together in the slum. "That time," Cassim was older, the same age he was when he robbed the palace treasury, showing scenes of that incident. "And that time!" He was his true age again, showing scenes of him convincing Alibaba to join the Fog troupe. "I've always…! Wanted to push you into the abyss of despair!! But no matter what I did, your radiance did not disappear!!"
"..." Alibaba stared at him, shocked.
"Damn it! Are we that different!? I'm the only one shrouded in darkness," Cassim said with despair as his skin became veiny and black like coal, just like the first stage of the Dark Djinn transformation.
"Cassi..."
"Am I the only one… fated to be born as human scum!?" Cassim asked angrily.
"… Cassim…" Alibaba said, too shocked, hurt, and pained to see him like that to react.
—∞—
Aladdin blocked another ice spear attack from Judar with his borg, while Hope sliced them into harmless ice cubes with her claws, and Faith stood behind both of them, firing more rounds of her piercing attack at Judar's new borg.
"Damn strength magic!!" he cursed as he dodged and quickly mended the cracks from one that scraped him. The eight-pointed seal on Aladdin's forehead was as bright as ever.
'This power… is a power that allows people to hear the rukh's will,' Aladdin thought. 'It is also known as the power of prophecy.'
—∞—
"Alibaba… those things you've just heard are the voices of his rukh," Aladdin said. "The voices of rukh do not lie… but because of that! The reality may hurt you!"
"…!!" Alibaba was hurt by Cassim's words and the glare he was giving him. But he clenched his fists and stood his ground.
"But if it's you… It can definitely be done!! Because you're a person who'll bet everything to save others, a brave person… You're… my candidate to be king!" Alibaba stood tall in the face of the darkness.
"… Cassim, why do you say such things…!?" Alibaba asked.
"You'll never understand," Cassim sneered. "The difference between us is too big."
" 'Difference'…!?" Alibaba asked.
"That's right. From that time we lived together in the slums, we have been completely different!!" Cassim insisted. "Even after the death of your mother… you were the only one who led a legitimate life…! Why are we so different!? Even though the place we were brought up in is the same…!! Just when I was thinking about this… I suddenly learned you were royalty… 'Just as I thought'. I understood at that moment. Within you flows the blood of that kindhearted mother and royalty… And within myself… flows the blood of that damn father who isn't worthy of anything! Isn't this too unfair!!!?" he yelled. "A person's fate is already decided before birth!! That's why I decided…! If that is 'fate'..." The black rukh increased around him, rushing past Alibaba.
"…!!?" Alibaba exclaimed.
"Then I'll take revenge against 'fate' with these hands!" Cassim declared. The black rukh flowing around him formed several sharp tentacles.
"!!" Alibaba gasped as they attacked. "Urgh!?" Alibaba winced when three of them stabbed him. "!?" 'What is this…!? Flowing directly into my head…!'
"You were always the only one who lived in radiance!!" he heard Cassim's voice echo as he watched scenes of himself as a kid getting along with Mariam and her helping out. "Always." Child Alibaba was leading a group of tourists to earn money to support the three of them. "Always." Young Alibaba was studying to be a prince at the palace. "Always!!" More tentacles stabbed Alibaba.
"..." Alibaba gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. "… Wrong..." White rukh gathered around him, growing in size and concentrating around his fist. Alibaba punched Cassim. "You're wrong!!!" Alibaba yelled as Cassim glared up at him, holding his face. "I'm not such a noble person!! When I was doing those things… I never thought about the royal blood! I was just striving to survive every day!! I had miserable days, too… I also did dirty things before… For a countless number of times, I felt that I was pathetic… Don't just…" The white rukh swelled around him, casting light into the darkness, overwhelming Cassim's black rukh. "Assume things and force them upon me!!!"
"!!" Cassim gritted his teeth.
—∞—
Judar's attacks were becoming even fiercer. Hope launched herself at him while Aladdin and Faith dodged. They were getting harder to block. This time he moved back enough to keep her from shattering his borg, but was still close enough for her to bat it around with the tips of her fingers like a balloon that was just barely out of reach. It pushed him back so that his attack missed by a wide margin, but there was no damage done to Judar himself. She was getting tired. She needed a breather. Her rib was burning. After she landed, the Djinn equip disappeared.
"!?" she gasped, staring at her hands as if they had betrayed her. Hope didn't understand it. She may be getting tired, but she definitely still had some magoi left.
"Haha!" Judar laughed and fired another volley of ice spears at her. Hope tried to dodge, but she wasn't fast enough.
" 'Iidfae!!" Faith shouted, and hit Hope directly to propel her out of harm's way. Hope got the wind knocked out of her from the not so gentle nudge, but it was better than being skewered. Judar turned his attention back to Faith. Before he could attack again, Aladdin hit him with Solomon's Wisdom again.
"Ugh!!" Judar grunted, shielding his face with his arms as he dodged. "Don't show me.. anymore of these weird things!!!" he yelled, throwing a big ball of some type of magical energy they couldn't identify. Aladdin's borg buzzed and crackled with energy when the attack hit him. The twins's eyes widened in alarm when it cracked and broke open. Aladdin was sent flying.
"Aladdin!!" they cried. Faith immediately placed herself protectively in front of him with her wand raised, and Hope hurried over to check on him.
"I'm... alright..!" Aladdin told them. "Ali… Alibaba…!!"
"He sure is taking his sweet time!!" Faith complained.
"It's not like he went for a stroll through the park!" Hope said. Aladdin looked at the Dark Djinn.
—∞—
"To converse with the rukh means that you'll have to converse using your rukh, too..." Aladdin told Alibaba. "In other words, a collision of spirits!! You must win, Alibaba!!!"
Cassim and Alibaba charged at each other, white rukh clashing against black. So far they were evenly matched.
"I… don't want to lose to you!!" Cassim said.
"Don't joke around with me!! Whether it's winning or losing, there's no need for something like that!!" Alibaba yelled. "There's no need for something like that between us!!"
"That time when you said, 'I'm no different from them!!!' It made me really happy..." Cassim admitted. "But just one beautiful sentence isn't enough… How can all humans be the same? Everyone is born individually. Capability, appearance, personality, race, blood, lineage, and social status… to people like me who have nothing, the people at the top always look so dazzling… and to those dazzling people, we can, from a corner of the slums, look up, and only look up at them… until we die, cursing our fate of having nothing in life. All of these were obvious. You, too, could also see it when you were young, couldn't you?"
"..." Alibaba stared at him with wide eyes.
"I just wanted to prove… that we can change this kind of fate… that everyone is the same," Cassim said. "Regardless off who it is… that even scum like me… can become… someone completely different, someone sublime… someone to look up to!!" Behind him rose an image of him as Alibaba with long hair, dressed like a royal and holding a scepter.
'Me…!?' Alibaba thought, beyond shocked.
"Isn't that right!?" Cassim said, piercing him with a sword made of black rukh the moment his guard was down.
"…!!" Alibaba cried. He stood there, impaled on the sword of black rukh. But then some of his own rukh began to travel up it.
"!?" Cassim said. 'What is this? Flowing into my head...' tears filled his eyes and rolled down his face. "!?" 'From Alibaba…!!?' he thought, startled. He looked up to see that Alibaba himself was crying.
'How frustrating… how pitiful...' Alibaba thought as he cried. 'I didn't even realize… that Cassim was feeling like that… No, actually, I may have already realized it. But afraid that he will point it out, about us being 'different', I have been running away from that fact… It may be that everyone is 'different'… but I feel that that is… sad. But… if that's true… what can I do to let everyone live happily...'
'… This guy...' Cassim thought, staring at him. '… Had started to think about it… This 'difference'… and what to do to change it...' Cassim looked up. ' 'Sad', huh… I wonder if everything will be better if I accept that fact… no matter how many times I reach my hand out… We are two completely different people. And we can never be the same. Accepting the difference… we could have lived in different places… and dedicated ourselves to our own lives… just living our lives to the fullest is enough.' He stopped to imagine what that could have been like, him living in the slums, working hard, starting his own family. Alibaba in the palace, becoming a good king they could look up to. How happy they could have been. Cassim's own tears streamed down his face. "But yet, all I wanted was to stand on the same level as you…!'
—∞—
Outside the Dark Djinn, a few white rukh escaped, then more started to come out. Aladdin noticed.
'Did Alibaba succeed!?' he wondered as he continued to dodge Judar's attacks with the twins.
"Hey! Are you okay!?" Hope asked Faith, while trying to get her Djinn Equip back.
"Surprisingly, yeah! I don't know why, but… using 'magic' seems to be easier on me than using my psychic powers..." Faith replied, excited but puzzled.
"!!" they both said when white rukh suddenly came pouring out of the Dark Djinn.
"What's happening!?" a soldier asked.
—∞—
"The 'Djinn' is crumbling," Cassim said.
"!?" Alibaba said when his friend started to lose his form. "Cassim!?"
"Looks like only I will disappear with the Djinn… Don't worry, you can still return alive!" Cassim told him calmly.
"…!? What are you saying!? I came here to save you!" Alibaba said anxiously.
"..." Cassim looked at his hand. He looked back at Alibaba. "Just that thought alone is… already enough. To those people who were dragged into this… I'm sorry. I can't compensate for anything… Well, it's the same with you. This is the end..."
"Cassim…!"
"..." Cassim scratched the back of his head. "It's the last moment yet I can't think of anything to say… If only we could have talked things out properly before..." He looked like he was trying not to cry.
"…." Alibaba had tears in his eyes. "Ca…!"
"… Hey… Alibaba..." Cassim said, turning away from him.
"…!?" Alibaba said.
"Are we..."
"What're you saying Cassim!?" Alibaba asked, trying to run after him as he grew farther and farther away. He couldn't hear him.
"Sorry! There's no time left to put it in words!!" Cassim said, sending part of his rukh back to him. Alibaba's eyes widened when it hit him.
"!? What's going on…!?" he asked as Cassim's memories flowed through him.
When Cassim's rukh when through him, Alibaba experienced everything Cassim felt. Those days he lived, all the sadness and despair he felt, and things that Alibaba never knew, too. The day, when Cassim's hateful father returned to the slums… He was driven to kill him. And the death of his last kin, his sister…
"Bastards..." Zaynab said, cradling another child.
"Are we fated to have nothing in our lives after all…!?" Hassan asked with despair, holding his dead mother.
"It's not that you own nothing, but it was the royals that took everything away from you, isn't it?" said a stranger who came walking up to them. "Not only in this country. The entire world orbits around the fact that the higher class exploits the lower class… Yes! This is the detestable 'fate'. What do you think? If you have the will to start a revolution, let us provide you with the weapons you need." said the veiled person from the organization who would later provide them with weapons and recruit followers for them.
'Damn it!! I knew nothing at all!!' Alibaba thought with tears in his eyes. 'Cassim's memories… they're full of hardships… But what are these warm and gentle memories that surround me. Like a dazzling light…?'
Cassim's father lay on the ground, bleeding out from the fatal wound Cassim gave him.
"Cassim… You're just like me, human scum..." his father said as his last words. Cassim immediately ran to the nearest source of water and tried to wash the blood off his hands, crying the whole time.
'Even if that's true...' Cassim thought, heading back home to Alibaba and Mariam. Alibaba welcomed him back home with a smile.
"Hey, should I help, too?" Alibaba asked Cassim, not long after that.
"It's none of your business," Cassim told him. He was about to do something illegal. He paused in putting on his shoes. "… Hey… Alibaba… are we..."
"Ah!!" Alibaba gasped. "You idiot!!!" he yelled at Cassim. "Why did you ask this kind of question again!!? Isn't it obvious!?" He ran after Cassim. Cassim looked back at him. "We're..." He reached out for him. "Friends!" He hugged Cassim, but his rukh lost its shape and scattered.
—∞—
"Whoa!!" Faith exclaimed. The Dark Djinn exploded with white rukh.
"Tch, the white rukh... They're overwhelming the black rukh…!!" Banker said.
"What's going on…!? I can't concentrate my powers…!?" Judar said, suddenly feeling weak. Aladdin took the opportunity to use Solomon's Wisdom on him again.
"!!" Banker exclaimed. "This is bad!!" He quickly raised his staff and instructed the black rukh to shield Judar from the white. It wrapped around the magi, allowing Banker to carry him with it. "We'll meet again, Magi! Young ladies!" Aladdin and Hope stared up at him with frowns on their faces as they watched him fly away with Judar.
"Uh… shouldn't we do something about that?" Faith asked.
"Like what? We have no idea what we're doing. We were lucky to get out of that alive!" Hope said.
"Oh, Sis. Ever the optimist," Faith said, shaking her head with a small smile. They looked back at where the Dark Djinn had been to find that Alibaba had been returned to them, along with what was left of Cassim. His body looked like dried charcoal. Tears were streaming down Alibaba's face, and he was crying so hard that his nose was dripping.
"Welcome back… Alibaba," Aladdin said, starting to cry too. The twins were feeling the urge to cry too, looking at them, but instead, Hope held Aladdin, and Faith gently placed a hand on Alibaba's shoulder. They both started crying harder. Alibaba clung to Cassim, and Aladdin clutched his flute and held onto Hope. The white rukh flowing up into the sky took the shapes of people.
"Damn… Why do we have to face these kinds of things?!" a little boy asked, crying over his mother's body. She had been murdered in the chaos. The knife was still in her. The little boy grabbed the knife. "I'll kill!!" he yelled furiously. "Every one of you!!" But then the rukh of a woman came down and embraced him. Tears formed in his eyes. "!?" he said, surprised. "What…!?" Why did he feel as though…? "… Mama…?"
All over the city, friends, families, and love ones were reunited as the rukh of the dead descended upon the living. There wasn't a dry eye anywhere to be found in the streets.
"Uu..." a big tough man cried.
"What's this…?" asked another man, also crying.
"Haa," A woman laughed with tears streaming down her face.
"The roots of hatred and sorrow are gradually being removed..." Banker observed bitterly from a distance. "Tch… it was a perfect country as a container to hold this much amount of darkness." He smirked. "Well, forget it. The only things destroyed were a new recruit and a Household Vessel. The main dark Metal Vessel is right here." He held it in his hand. "I can always find more." The wind blew up his veil, revealing a different, perfectly symmetrical face compared to the one he had as 'Markkio', which had a goatee instead of a mustache. "One with a lot of hatred… since those are easier to control!"
"Banker, sorry, but this is it for you," a voice said from behind him.
"!?" Banker gasped, spinning around just in time to see a muscular leg aiming a powerful kick at his face. It was Masrur, and electricity was arcing over his skin. He hit Banker hard enough to make his borg warp and crackle with electricity and send him flying from the roof.
"Household Vessel, Bararaq Kauza," Masrur said, buzzing and crackling with energy.
"Arghhhhhhhhhhh!?" Banker screamed as he hurtled through the air. Ja'far was waiting for him.
"Household Vessel, Bararaq Sei," Ja'far said, attacking with his usual rope darts that had become imbued with lightning, forming two great serpents that bit Banker's borg.
"Urghh!?" Namker grunted, straining to keep his borg up, but it cracked in a matter of minutes.
"Kuh… Could it be…?!" Banker said as he soared backwards through the air. He was over the harbor now. Huge flashes of lightning appeared in the sky, all striking near the same place. "Damn… Why would a person… like you exist in this world!?" Sinbad stood at the center of the strikes with his sword raised, wearing a full Djinn Equip that gave him scaly arms and legs and a tail. He looked part dragon. "The High King of the Seven Seas, Sinbad!!!"
"Bararaq Saiqa!" Sinbad shouted, unleashing a massive lightning attack on Banker that shined like a beacon and could be seen all the way at the palace. The powerful attack faded away, and Sinbad undid his Djinn Equip. He staggered a little.
"Are you alright!? Sin!" Ja'far asked, rushing over to help him stay upright.
"I'm fine," Sinbad said. It was just his wounds from the ice spears. "Their presence has been erased completely. There's no one left to cause uproar in this country anymore… It's already okay. But I really hope you could have returned these to me earlier," he told the SML brothers.
"Hehehe..." they laughed a bit sheepishly.
"As expected from Boss… Your skills are marvelous..." S Nando said.
"Anyway, everything would have been much easier if you hadn't gotten your Metal Vessels stolen in the first place!" Ja'far said, grabbing his king by the front of his robes.
"Ohh, I'm reflecting on my mistakes," Sinbad said. "It hurts."
"And could you return this to those scary girls for us?" L Nando asked, holding up the twins's tote, which contained all their missing belongings. "That's okay, right Nii-chan?"
"Yeah, sure. Most of those strange items are worthless to us anyway," S Nando said. "Just don't tell them where you got it from." Ja-far accepted the tote.
"Brother… we've become penniless again," M Nando said.
"It's alright. Even if we had held onto those treasures and Metal Vessels, it's useless, you see?" S Nando said. "Because currently, we can't leave this country..."
"..." Sinbad said. Two small objects fell from the sky. They hit the ground and bounced, rolling to the king's feet. The twins would've said they looked like a creepy version of babushka dolls.
"Sin..." Ja'far said, his expression becoming more serious.
"Yeah..." Sinbad said, furrowing his brow. "I won't say that our fights against them have ended here..." They stared at the dolls that had once been Markkio and his veiled companion before they combined.
—∞—
"Oh, it has disappeared," said one member of the Organization.
"Yes, it disappeared," said another.
"One of our Metal Vessels..." said a third. The circle of dark magicians murmured among each other, with the reclaimed Judar at the center.
"Wasn't it too early to perfect the 'Djinn' transformation in that country yet?"
"No, it couldn't be helped."
"It was unexpected that another magi would appear..."
"It was the magi who was hidden in the Sacred Palace."
"He has attained the 'Wisdom of Solomon'..."
"And together, with his immature candidates to be king, they changed our 'flow'."
"Furthermore, that magi and 'kings'… and that 'first-class singularity' man have combined forces..."
"What a hindrance..."
"Indeed, it is a hindrance..."
"To put it simply, it's just Solomon's usual arrogant interference, isn't it?" said a veiled woman.
"Similar situations have happened countless times throughout the previous centuries as well," said another.
"This time too, we'll just have to keep fighting without giving in," said a third.
"Yes," agreed the rows and rows of other members of the Organization who were seated behind them. "That's right."
"We'll forever continue to bring darkness to the world," the three women said, clasping their hands together.
"We'll all endeavor to comply to Father, who created us, as the true people of the community," the rest of them said.
"As Al-Thamen's 'agenda'," they all concluded together, standing up in rows surrounding the eight-pointed seal in the floor.
—∞—
The palace guards and soldiers all sat in a daze on the ground, exhausted and wounded from their fight. Judar's ice spears littered the courtyard.
"… It has finally ended..." one of them said.
"We managed to protect..." said another.
"Our country against that monster..." said a third.
"I couldn't protect anything," Alibaba said, making Faith frown.
"Prince Alibaba..." one of the soldiers said.
"Everyone died…! And I couldn't do anything at all. They surely still had things they wanted to do..." Alibaba said, crying while he still held onto Cassim's body. He was trembling. "And this guy, too… In the end, I still couldn't save him…!!"
"Thank you, Hope," Aladdin said, wiping his eyes. He pulled away from her to go to Alibaba. "Alibaba… whether you saved him or not… let's ask him personally!"
"…!?" Alibaba said. Aladdin smiled and raised his arms.
"Let me tell you, just because people have died… doesn't mean that they have disappeared completely," Aladdin said. 'Wisdom of Solomon!!' he thought. Once again, the seal on his forehead shined, and there was a blindingly bright light.
"!?" Alibaba said. Shapes were emerging from the light. "What is it this time!? Something…" they looked like people. "Someone…!?"
"No…!?" one soldier said. "This time..."
"There's much more compared to before…!?"
"Ah! Look, here they come! Alibaba!" Aladdin said. "Look, Hope! Faith!"
"…!?" Alibaba shielded his eyes. "!!?" he gasped when he saw what the light had become. His parents were standing before him. "Mother…!? Fath… Balbadd's late king…!!?"
"..." They stared at him with kind expressions on their faces.
"Eh… That's..." Alibaba said, getting flustered. "Why…!!?"
"They were rukhs from their corporeal bodies before… but now they're part of the great almighty 'flow'," Aladdin explained.
"… The rukh's… 'flow'…?" Alibaba asked.
"It isn't that these people disappear after their deaths. It's just that they return to the great almighty rukh. That is, being connected to everything… enveloping the world. The flow never stops. It'll endlessly protect and be the ally of us, the living..." Aladdin said. He placed his hand on Alibaba's other shoulder. "That's why, although a person's death is a tragic thing… it's not a farewell. Every action you take, every path you walk in life, they'll always be watching. They'll always be protecting you."
"…!!" Alibaba was speechless. He stared up at his parents in wonder.
"Okay, everyone go now!" Aladdin urged the rest of the rukh. "To the side of those people you've cherished!" Hope and Faith watched as a whole host of shining people flew through the air, searching out their loved ones. The soldiers and guards were overjoyed to receive their reunions. Barkak and his men were in tears meeting their loved ones and friends again. Rashid Saluja appeared before his two older sons with a frown on his face. Sabhmad bowed, while Ahbmad looked away, feeling as though he had been scolded for his actions. Hassan and Zaynab cried tears of joy when they were reunited with their loved ones who had died during the epidemic in the slums. A small hand reached out to Alibaba. He looked up and saw that it belonged to a young girl with dreadlocks and a very familiar face.
'Mariam!?' Alibaba thought, surprised. She left his side to run over to her big brother, who was standing a short distance away. Cassim smiled at Alibaba.
"It's so beautiful..." Hope said, smiling softly at the touching scenes.
"For real..." Faith agreed, wiping away the tears threatening to form in her eyes.
" 'Magi' is really... amazing," Sinbad said as he walked through the streets with Ja'far and Masrur, bearing witness to the miracle the whole city was experiencing.
"Hey, do you really think… that you didn't manage to save them?" Aladdin asked Alibaba. Mariam grinned and waved at them, while Cassim continued to smile kindly.
"They look pretty happy to me," Faith said with a smile.
"Yes," Hope agreed.
"Your friend's and this country's darkness is already gone," Aladdin told Alibaba. Aladdin raised his arms again and everyone in the rukh gave their farewells in their own way and departed peacefully, rejoining the great flow with smiles on their faces.
"Aladdin!! Alibaba-san!!" Morgiana called, running towards them. Sinbad was right behind her, leaning on Ja'Far, followed by Masrur. "Hope-san!! Faith-san!!"
"Morg!" Aladdin said, spreading his arms wide. Morgiana was so happy, she tackled all four of them together. Hope teared up a little bit from the impact it made on her rib.
"I hate to break this up," Sinbad said, getting their attention. "But we have a major problem. A huge fleet of ships from the Kou Empire has been spotted offshore!"
"Eh!?" Hope and Alibaba said, startled.
"Man, your boyfriend must really want you back," Faith teased Hope.
"This is so not the time!" Hope snapped at her.
"Is this true!?" Alibaba asked.
"Yes. We heard about it from those Nando brothers, and we confirmed it for ourselves before coming here," Ja'far replied.
"How'd they get here so fast?" Faith asked.
"They must have already had their fleet on the way here," Hope said, holding her chin.
"Yes, we believe so," Sinbad agreed. "In order to take advantage of the uprising and force this country into total submission."
"If that's the case, the uprising has already been suppressed!" Alibaba said.
"Even so, it's not as if there's a new government in place yet," Ja'far said. "If they insist Balbadd is currently without a government, it'd be hard to contest." Alibaba furrowed his brow and gritted his teeth in frustration. Was it all going to be for nothing?
"Alibaba, you must leave this country as soon as possible," Sinbad advised him. "Because the first thing the Kou are likely to do is take the royal family into custody."
"Eh?" Alibaba said.
"And this time around, they'll either assume full control and turn Balbadd into a puppet regime, or as a warning, they'll execute you as symbols of its tyrannical rule until now."
"No way… So are you saying that I should run away?" Alibaba asked. "Abandon this country!?"
"That's right," Sinbad answered. Alibaba gritted his teeth again.
"I can't do a thing like that!!" Alibaba said.
"You can't help them if you're dead, dude," Faith chimed in.
"I made a promise!! To Cassim!! To everyone who died!!" Alibaba argued. "That I'd turn Balbadd into a good country… I'm not running away anymore!" He drew his broken knife. "If I have to run away! I'll fight instead!" Faith was just about to knock some sense into Alibaba, when Sinbad beat her to it. He hit Alibaba on the back of his neck, knocking him out. Sinbad caught him before he fell. His dropped knife clattered on the ground.
"!!" the soldiers and palace guards gasped.
"Forgive me, Alibaba," Sinbad said. "I did this for you and for the sake of this country. We'll be taking the third prince back to Sindria. Are there any arguments?" The guards and soldiers all exchanged uneasy glances. They had all heard the full conversation about how Alibaba might die if he stayed.
"None," Barkak said, speaking up for all of them. "Please take care of the prince!"
"Yes!" Sinbad agreed. Masrur picked Alibaba up. "What about you four?" Sinbad asked Aladdin, Hope, Faith, and Morgiana. "You can't stay here either, right?" he asked the twins. "Since you're wanted."
"Yeah, we weren't planning to stick around long enough to get caught," Faith said. "Hope?"
"We definitely can't stay here," Hope agreed. "Aladdin?"
"Yeah, I'll go with you and Alibaba," he told them.
"I will go as well!" Morgiana said.
"It's settled then," Sinbad said. "Ja'far, Masrur, make sure they get there safely."
"Yes," Ja'far answered dutifully, while Masrur nodded.