Aladdin And The Lord Of The Black Sands

(A/N: There will be two chapters put up today since this one is so short. Enjoy this rare treat. I only ever put up two once in a blue moon if one is short. Reviews are appreciated.)

Chapter 8: The Theft Discovered, A Powerful Foe Awakened

Mozenrath entered the city and made his way to the Citadel still in pain. He stormed up the steps towards his library. Xerxes followed silently, sensing he was not in the mood to be spoken to. He burst into his study first, saying, "That's it, I'm not playing nice anymore! Agrabah will be mine Xerxes! Understand!" Xerxes nodded, looked ahead, then gasped freezing. Inquisitive as to his familiar's reaction, Mozenrath looked ahead. He too gasped on seeing.

"Master, Midas hand gone!" Xerxes exclaimed. Mozenrath was staring in wide eyed disbelief. Who would dare to…? "Master?" Xerxes asked, interrupting Mozenrath's thoughts.

Mozenrath pursed his lips then said, "Why Xerxes, I do believe we've been robbed by intruders."

"Robbed! Oh no!" Xerxes said.

"Hush Xerxes, they won't get away with it. They don't know who they're dealing with. My power far exceeds whoever dared to come in here," Mozenrath said with a smirk as he left the study and started up to the library. "We'll find them and get it back, won't we."

"Get it back," Xerxes repeated with a laugh. Mozenrath chuckled with him as they walked into the library and towards a shelf.

Suddenly, though, Mozenrath's breath caught in his throat. "Impossible," he hoarsely said.

"Huh?" Xerxes asked.

"No!" Mozenrath cried as he ran to the table with the once secret drawer now open. "It can't be!"

"What?" Xerxes asked.

"It's gone! The philosopher's stone is gone!" Mozenrath exclaimed, for once getting nervous. He gasped. After a moment of shock he whirled to the tallest shelf and floated up. "Khartoum, he's gone!" Mozenrath cried out in disbelief. "How would the thieves even know…?"

"Oracle?" Xerxes asked.

"The oracle? The sand witch transported it back to the palace. It couldn't have… Wait, palace thieves?" Mozenrath guessed. "Oh of all the things to go wrong today!" He waved his gauntlet summoning a magic image. Mozenrath watched as the thieves and Abis-Mal infiltrated his Citadel and dared to take his things. "Our little friend who first had the hand…" Mozenrath said. He sighed adding, "Why must people always make things more difficult than they have to be? Oh well, no matter. Come Xerxes, it's time to pay a visit. We have to stop the fools before they reawaken Khartoum. I'm the only one that's allowed to. I overthrew Destane, I can overthrow Khartoum. No one's taking that from me." With a flip of his cape he left the room with Xerxes.

Meanwhile the forty thieves re-entered the abandoned house in Agrabah. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, I can't wait to call this guy!" Abis-Mal excitedly said.

"We must be careful. That sorcerer was powerful enough to overthrow his master whom Jafar even feared, but he was tricked by this Khartoum and almost defeated himself remember?" the charmer said.

"Where is the oracle?" the triplets asked.

"Oracle?" Abis-Mal said as if he'd just snapped out of it. "Oh yeah." He went to the charmer's bag and took it out. "Why do you want it?"

"They don't, I do," the swordsman replied as he seized it then let it float.

"Ask and I shall answer," the oracle said as she appeared.

"You said Khartoum was powerful. How can we bind him so that he can't turn on us?" the swordsman asked.

"A wise question," she replied. "The philosopher's stone has no limit as a whole, but break it in half and give one part to the book keeping the other for yourselves. You can keep him at bay in that way and he will do your bidding if it so pleases him, for split in two it is weaker, and if the one half is destroyed, the stone remains weak, enough so to be beaten. But be warned, Mozenrath now knows what you have taken from him. He is not happy. Use these words to split it." With that she said the words.

"Then we must move swiftly. If he is coming here, he is walking right into our trap," the charmer excitedly said.

"You will deal with Aladdin before his brother more likely than not, for he is already here," the oracle warned. With that she faded back into the staff.

"Quickly, let us break the stone then awaken Khartoum. We shall tell him of Aladdin and Mozenrath then leave their fates in his capable hands," the swordsman said.

"When we're rid of Aladdin we can decide whether to keep the stone or destroy it along with Khartoum, but he must not get it," the charmer agreed.

"Let's do this then," Abis-Mal said. The swordsman slammed the jewel on a hard surface.

"It's awakening!" the Asian warned.

The swordsman scowled at the book. Suddenly its voice came through in a panic. "Fool, what are you doing!" Khartoum demanded awakened by the oracle's nearby power.

"We're making sure you don't turn on us like you did Mozenrath," the charmer shot as the swordsman uttered the magic words. Somehow, with some strange force, the philosopher's stone split.

"No!" Khartoum cried out. The swordsman tossed half to the charmer who promptly placed the jewel into the book. From the book sprang a tall thin man. "Fools, what have you done! My power is half of what it should be!" Khartoum yelled.

"He even looks and sounds like Jafar," Abis-Mal said.

"Jafar? How do you know of him and of Mozenrath?" Khartoum asked. The thieves looked at each other, then filled the man in on all they knew.

The man had listened in shock to the stories told. Finally he said, "So the street rat who beat Jafar and that power hungry sorcerer brat of the Black Sand are brothers? How intriguing.

"Will you help us?" Abis-Mal asked.

Khartoum answered, "Oh gladly. Just leave it all to me." The thieves nodded in agreement.