Disclaimer: I do not own Aladdin. From here on, half of the story credit goes to DisturbedGuacomole at ALL times.

A/N: I'm trying to update faster, I really am!

Chapter 14

Persuasions and Rare Wishes

(Laddie)

Something wasn't right.

I was the first to sense it. The very atmosphere inside the castle was disturbed, humid. Somehow, it was different. Jasmine felt it too, I could tell by the constant twitching of her cute nose. "Something's up," we finally said at the same moment that afternoon. The feeling of foreboding was growing. I tensed myself for something out of the ordinary, anything at all.

Our wanders through the castle brought us to Jafar's room. I shrugged, figuring that we should probably go in. Jala must have been lonely, sitting in her lamp all day and what with the limited conversations she and the Grand Vizier had these days. I pushed open the door, greeted by the smell of mothballs. Jafar wasn't there, but his genie was, so me and Jasmine sat down on the rug.

"Oh, it's you," said Jala as she floated out of the lamp. Her voice was a little too cheery, and it made her seem even more glum.

"Jala, is everything alright?" asked Jasmine, looking worried. "Of course! Everything's perfectly fine," said Jala, too quickly. She gave what I thought was a disdainful sniff. "Except for the fact that this room hasn't been cleaned in half a decade, everything's just hunky-dory." I shifted uncomfortably on the floor. "Something's not right. Have you been keeping a close eye on Jafar lately?" I asked, uneasy.

The green jinn looked surprised. "Well, I kind-of live with him." "Yes, but is he always doing his duty, nothing out of the ordinary?" emphasized Jasmine. Jala looked perplexed. Then her face cleared. "Oh, you think he's trying to take over Agrabah again, do you? You really don't trust him! Well, if you don't trust him, then you don't trust me, and you're wasting your time!" With that, she melted back into her lamp.

Jasmine sighed and stood. "A lot of good that did." I got up too. "Jafar's up to something." "I know, I feel it too. But there's no proof at all. It might just be that we don't trust him like everybody else chose to, and are slower to forgive wrongs." I shook my head stubbornly. "It's not that. C'mon, Jasmine. Let's go find the genies and Sorrah."

…………………

"Alright. So, you want us to believe that Jafar's gone back to being all 'muahahahahaha', and he's going to betray us all in a matter of days," said Genie a few minutes later, lazily waving his blue arms in the air. I nodded earnestly. "Well, when you put it that way…" said Jasmine slowly. I glared at her. I had long nursed a grudge against Jafar for trying to marry her, and I wasn't going to lose the prospect that I now had a new reason to hate him.

"Aladdin, we're perfectly aware that you've nursed a grudge against him for a long time, so maybe this is just your imagination," said Sorrah skeptically. Alright, so maybe my grudge wasn't a secret anymore.

Haillie had a vacant expression on her face, like she always did. Her pale pink eyes gazed wistfully at the high domed ceiling of my room. Jala had not said anything at all, only floated above her lamp with her arms stubbornly crossed, refusing to say a word against or for her master. I could understand what she must have been thinking: longing to kill Jafar, and yet also to take his side.

I sighed. "Well, don't bother to grovel when I tell you, 'I told you so'."

"Maybe I won't grovel for that, but a poncho would be nice," admitted Genie. I sighed again. Jasmine looked hopelessly small as she sat cross-legged on the ground, giving a look to the genies and her handmaiden that I couldn't read. Something in her brown eyes was different. I didn't think she was used to her ideas being rejected. (I was.) Genie and Jala stayed to talk as Haillie and Sorrah followed me and Jasmine out to her quarters.

In her room, Sorrah was ordered away almost immediately. She scampered into her adjoined quarters in the next room. I heard the sound of clinking, and guessed she was probably preparing tea for us. "Jasmine?" she called, handing her a silver comb. Jasmine took it with a soft thank you, and pulled it slowly through her long, black hair. "Here, let me do it," I said gently, and took it from her.

"Aladdin, I don't want to face Jafar again," she said quietly, breaking the sound of the silver comb swooshing through her tresses. I pursed my lips and didn't say anything. I didn't want to deal with an evil Jafar again either. It was much easier to believe that he had turned good and banished his old ways. And yet, the nagging feeling at the tip of my heart told me that was too much to hope for. Yet.

She didn't expect a reply from me, though I knew she wanted one. Instead, I tied her hair up for her, and she turned around to look at me, her head cocked to the side like she used to do when we were alone and she could relax from the fake mask of royal princess. "I have an idea," she said briskly. It was quiet, enough so that Sorrah could not here, and I didn't like it when she used that tone of voice.

"Jasmine…" I said uncertainly as she bounced off of the bed, her bare feet pacing busily back and forth on her carpet.

She muttered quickly under her breath. "…not sure if it'll work…long time…consent…" I tried to make sense of it all, probably wearing the expression of somebody that had just been clubbed over the head by their best friend. When Jasmine went into these stages, the only solution was to watch and wait until she was willing to give you a brief explanation. I had learned this the hard way.

"Haillie!" she finally called, emerging from her reverie. For a full long, five minutes, nothing happened. Then, just as I was about to think Haillie had died, she came out of her lamp, looking dazed and not really sure where she was. With a frightening jolt in my stomach, I realized that her condition was getting worse by the day. Jasmine seemed to realize it too, for she faltered.

"I need to talk to you. What do you think about Jafar? Really?" Haillie had a slow, goofy smile spread across her face. "You could always make a wish." Her voice was persuasive. I could see through her, knowing that for her own selfish reasons, she desperately wanted to grant anything, anything at all that Jasmine threw at her. It would give back her sanity, for one, and if it didn't, Haillie no longer had anything to lose.

Jasmine sighed. "I thought I might try that." Haillie's faced brightened up. She folded her arms in the way that Genie used to, and smiled a toothy smile. "Wish away! Ommmm…" Even this display seemed more sane than her usual remarks.

The Princess gulped, and took a visible deep breath. She seemed to think about her wish carefully. What could she wish for that could help us, and hopefully get rid of Jafar without killing him? She also knew very well that making a wish was using up another one of the precious wishes left for us to use. Jala had two left, and so did Haillie. They were precious things, considering that Genie no longer could grant wishes to me.

Finally, she seemed to make her decision. I tensed up, knowing that the words that left her mouth next would determine many important things to come. My body was frozen in place. I lacked the ability to move a single muscle as Jasmine's lips parted…and her wish flew out of them.

"I wish for Jafar to be sent far, far away. So far away that he can never return to Agrabah."

Gladly, her jinn consented and clapped her hands, and Jafar was gone from Agrabah forever.

A/N: So what do you think? Drop a review!