Disclaimer: I definitely do not own Aladdin. However, I do own Jala, Adwin, and Sorrah. Haillie is a creation of Halo.At.Heart/DisturbedAvocado. (that has an underscore in it, it just won't show up.) Sorrah is based off of another friend of mine who is also on fanfiction. Jala, however, is completely my own creation as is Adwin. The Sultana is sort-of my character and sort-of not: after all, all I did was change his, er, her gender.

Chapter 7

A Secret Love

(Jala, genie of the lamp)

I sighed.

It was actually quite uncomfortable and boring inside the tiny, golden lamp that I had been tied to. It was a tugging bond, and I could not stray too far from either the lamp nor my master. Sadly, I thought of Haillie, alone in her room and talking to people in the air that did not even exist. Suddenly, I felt very, very lucky compared to my hot-pink and eccentric sister.

The door to Jafar's chambers creaked open, and I jumped. The tall man swept in and only glanced in my direction, as I had floated out of the lamp, before collapsing into a chair and putting his head into his hands. "What, got rejected by a girl?" I said sarcastically. Jafar looked up and glared at the wall. "Be quiet, Jala," he said in a deadly voice. I was not one to heed warnings, but this one was not a warning. It was a threat.

Iago, Jafar's pet parrot, circled me in the air curiously. "Be quiet, Jala," he echoed. "Iago, come back here," said Jafar. "Iago, come back here," the colorful parrot mimicked. However, he came back to perch on his master's arm. Master. The word haunted me, endlessly reminding me of the three wishes that Jafar had yet to make me grant. As much as I did not want to grant a wish of somebody like Jafar, it was my nature and I was beginning to feel slightly nauseous.

"Please," I whispered.

Jafar half turned in his chair, though still not looking directly at me. "Please, just ask for one wish." Jafar sighed and turned all the way to look at me. His brown eyes seemed to scrutinize my face. "Jala, tell me," he said suddenly. "How did you become a genie?" The question startled me so much that I was taken aback and at a temporary loss for words. "What?" I asked blankly. Jafar seemed slightly irritated now. "I said, how did you become a genie? You might call me mute and stupid, but you are most definitely deaf."

I felt an unnecessary pang at his words, though I knew that he was just playing my own game right back at me.

The story of how I had become a genie was much more complex than most. I had been human, once, so I knew how it felt to be in one's shoes. Jafar was waiting for my explanation, not really suspecting that I planned to answer him, I knew. I sighed. "It is a long story. Do you have time to hear it all?" Jafar's face twisted into an expression that I had never seen before: a smile. Though it was terrifying, it was a happy smile none the less.

"I am here to listen," he replied calmly. With that, I started into my story, one that I had not relived for many, many years.

………………………………..

I had been a young girl of seventeen. Haillie and I had actually been sisters as humans. It was a rare case to have a sibling as a genie, but as in our case, it was possible. We had been the daughters of a poor sheep herder on the edge of Agrabah, so long, long ago. Our mother, I remembered had died when I was very little. It hurt still, very, very much, to think of her.

My father was always away, out in the fields. He never had very much time for me and Haillie, so we tended to look after ourselves. One day, when we were up in the highlands in spring when the blueberries sprung out in the bushes, Haillie and I were separated. The ripest blueberries were in a special meadow that I had kept a secret from everybody, but now I felt guilty for hiding it from her, my closest friend.

By the time that I had noticed she was missing, it was already sunset. "Haillie!" I called her name repeatedly into the darkening forest, but there was never a reply. I started to worry, more about Haillie, but still a good portion was for myself. Wolves came out into the mountains at night, and I was sure that they would like nothing better than to taste a tender morsel like me or Haillie…especially when we were separated.

Suddenly, I whirled on a sound in the meadow.

At the edge of the trees, surrounding me, were many, many glowing yellow and green eyes. Wolves! There was a pack of them. They crept, slunk silently out of the trees and surrounded me. By then, I was too terrified to scream. I had nothing to protect myself with, not even a stick. There were nine of them. The pack leader, a huge, muscular black male that seemed to swallow up the night, snarled. His mate, an auburn and white slender female, howled into the night air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

At that, they pounced.

I couldn't deny that it was painful, so painful when one bit into my arm. I felt a warm, sticky substance flowing down my limb, and heard a sickening crunch as one of them broke my leg. As everything started to turn black, I saw a shape in front of me. Something that looked like a woman. The only thing on my mind then was survival, so the first words that left my mouth were, "Please, I wish to live…"

Right then, I didn't know that it was a genie, but my wish was granted. The genie made me live the only way that it knew how: it turned me into another genie. Apparently, it was the first thing that had come to her mind.

And that was how I came to become immortal.

………………………….

At the end, Jafar stayed quiet for a very long time.

"But…how did the genie know that you wanted to live forever?" I paused. "Because she was my sister." Jafar's eyes widened. "Haillie? But how did she…?" I sighed. "That is a question that will never be answered. Haillie was already slightly delirious from that situation, and her enslavement to Jasmine just made it worse. Please, just make your first wish," I begged Jafar.

The Grand Vizier, a thin man, mused, curling his black mustache around his forefinger. It was a habit that I noticed he could not break. "But…I do not know what to wish for," he began. I sighed. "Anything. Something simple, please, I just want to grant a wish. As long as you still have one wish left, I am forever your slave." Jafar did not smile this time, he smirked. "That sounded almost romantic."

I glared at him. "If you think that I could ever love somebody like you, then I'm afraid that you're horribly mistaken." Jafar shrugged. "Just a thought." It might have been just a thought, but it made me infuriated, and I shrank back into the lamp.

……………………….

That night, I was awakened by a noise that only a genie could make.

"Jala?"

I knew that voice anywhere: it was Haillie! I gladly rose out of the lamp. Sure enough, my hot pink sister glittered in Jafar's chambers. "How did you get away?" I asked. Haillie smiled secretively. "No time for that. There's somebody that I would like you to meet." "Who?" I asked, wanting Haillie just to be up front. Haillie smiled that annoying smile again. "Not here, outside." "What about Jafar?" I asked nervously. "I don't think that you'll have to worry about him," said Haillie impatiently, gesturing to the bed. With a start, I realized that it was empty.

Now, Haillie had me hooked. I couldn't just deny her when she led me out of the room by her wrist. I was surprised, (and delighted), when I left behind my lamp with ease.

My sister led me through winding corridors and side alleys inside the palace. I marveled at its size, having never been out of Jafar's room except for the wet dungeons. It was glorious, full of gold and paintings and jewels and elaborate sofas that lined the hallways with tasseled pillows that I bet felt like clouds to sit upon.

At last, we appeared out in fresh night air in a certain eastern courtyard. In the middle, with his back turned to me, was somebody who was unmistakably inhumane. "Haillie," I whispered slowly. "Don't tell me that's another…?" Haillie smiled again, and this time it was toothy, just as the blue guy turned around. He bowed low to me. "Genie, at your service." He had a small black ponytail, but I instantly liked him. He turned out to be easy to get along with, but was a horrible flirt when it came to Haillie.

"Darling, you are so beautiful," he cooed, cupping her chin. Haillie slapped away his hand and continued her conversation with an invisible person. I stared incredulously at the genie who liked my sister. Though I was secretly glad that somebody besides myself and Jasmine could love her, this was uncalled for! He only winked at me. "I will never be disappointed or feel rejected when she is around," he whispered. Ok, now, that was just plain cheesy.

We climbed up onto the battlements made of hardened adobe clay and painted white with peeling plaster that still needed to be fixed, using overgrown ivy. We sat on top of the battlements with me in the middle, Haillie on the right side of me and the new Genie on my left side. Apparently, he'd brought popcorn. Something interesting was about to happen, and they just wouldn't tell me what. I shrugged. While I waited, might as well grab some popcorn.

It was just then, lounging on the battlements with my two genie friends, when I heard it.

It might have been able to shatter glass, but I wouldn't know. From far away, I heard somebody singing a horribly familiar song: A Whole New World. Then, in the distance of the horizon, I saw a carpet coming in, the same purple one that had apparently bore Aladdin and Jasmine so long before. Except…oh my eyes, they burned. It had the oddest pairing on it: none other than my master the Grand Vizier and the Sultana of Agrabah.

As I watched, horrified and transfixed by the show, the Sultana slipped and tipped over, her "world" trailing into a scream. "Curse you, Jafar!" I was able to catch. Genie stifled a chuckle next to me. Then he reached over my lap and batted his eyelashes at Haillie. "Since they didn't work out, maybe we will? I'm really warming up to you," he cooed. Haillie took one look and slapped him. A little too hard. The Genie fell off of the battlement without a scream and landed with a large, dramatic dust cloud. "Oops. Sorry!" Haillie called. She really didn't know her own strength.

Well, back on the scene on the horizon, Jafar had yelled back to the falling shape in the sky that was the Sultana, "Well, you were too fat!" "Well you were too skinny!" said the Sultana, sounding fainter by the minute. Then with another dust cloud, the Sultana of Agrabah landed without dignity on the dirt floor of her people. Jafar, as I watched, overbalanced and also fell off.

Oh, love is blind. Love is blind. It was especially blind when I felt a pang in my chest that felt regrettably familiar as a human emotion.

Yes. And it's name sounded something like jealousy.

A/N: It was extra long, so I better get reviews, guys!