Disclaimer: You know the drill by now.

A/N: Guys, please review! I mean, my cousins are away again and I'm updating quite quickly. So is it so hard to drop me a pleasant surprise? Even if you didn't like it, tell me what's wrong with it, alright?

Jala has been a little cranky lately, but she does has all reason to be, what with Jafar's atrocious attitude toward her! Don't worry, she'll start acting quite normally again soon. Thanks for the tip-off, though!

Chapter 16

A Hole in the Soul

(Jala)

"YOU WHAT?"

I had just calmed down and was planning to apologize to Jafar that night, and then Haillie told me that she had granted a wish to Jasmine. I was most likely never going to see Jafar again, and hang my neck in the deal too, because I couldn't follow him and he could no longer make more wishes. Haillie was quite sane now, thanks to the wish. Soon, I would be the one lapsing into insanity.

Of course, I was happy with my sister for her newly found sanity, but I was unbelievably incredulous for the wish she had granted to Jasmine. She really had no choice, but as I could not vent my anger on Jasmine yet, poor Haillie was the object of my ranting.

Haillie sighed. She was still quite strange, but at least now she talked sensibly for longer than five minutes a year. Don't get me wrong, I had always loved my sister, but I loved the sane version of her considerably more, as it at least knew who I was at all times. Now, my pink sister rolled her eyes at the ceiling and stuck out her tongue. "Haillie, don't do that." "Why?" "It's annoying." "Oh, be quiet. You're only jealous because you can't do it."

I shook my head. I suppose that I will always be the sensible one. "By the way. One thing that I'm curious about: how did you turn into a genie? Pray tell me before I go to strangle Jasmine," I said conversationally. Haillie looked at me oddly. "Out of all stories, that's the one that you want me to tell you?" "Yes. I've waited this long, haven't I?" She shrugged, pretending to be casual about the whole matter.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Genie's the one that turned me into a jinn." I widened my eyes unwillingly. "Genie?" "Yes, who else?" "Genie. ALADDIN'S Genie? The blue dude? The one that we know?" "Yes, how many genies do we know?" she replied impatiently, very matter-of-fact. "Well, we know several. There was Fran-" "Oh, never mind. Do you want the story or not?" retorted my sister. I abruptly fell silent.

Haillie smiled toothily. "Alright, that's better. Now, when we were human, Genie used to belong to me. I never told anybody, not even you, that I had him. When we were separated in the woods, Genie found me when I was lost. The same pack of wolves that attacked you, ironically, also attacked me. Rather, I sent them after you," she admitted sheepishly. "What?" I gasped. "Well, you see, I really didn't want to be jinn without you," she admitted guiltily.

At another time, I would have been extremely angry and hurt. My own sister had tried to kill me! But I was grateful for it, because if she hadn't, we wouldn't be talking at this moment. "Go on," I said patiently. Haillie looked surprised at my reaction, but obliged. "Well, Genie saved me like I did to you, and turned me into a jinn like him. We used to be good friends with him, when we were both new to the jinn life. Don't you remember?"

Now, I did. I realized why Genie had seemed to familiar when I knew almost for certain that I had never met him before. When me and Haillie were lost and sad, Genie had been our best friend for a long time, until we each went our separate ways. They were old, rusting memories from centuries ago, but I still remembered. A puff of green smoke wafted down my cheek.

Haillie rolled her eyes. "Let's not get teary now. I think that you're due to shoot Jasmine." I smiled weakly. "Well, you were a good sister, I suppose, because I'm out to kill the princess." "Literally, I hope. She still owes me for delaying her wish that long," I heard Haillie mutter as I drifted out of the room.

………………

"Jasmine?" I said as sweetly as I could, knocking on her door. Sorrah opened it, looking slightly apprehensive on seeing that it was me. "Oh, hello Jala. Jasmine's inside." It didn't escape my notice that she didn't ask me to come in, but I did so anyways. The rooms were dark and seemed oppressive, as all of the window blinds were drawn. "She's reading," Sorrah whispered, pointing to Jasmine's private quarters.

I nodded my thanks, and my lamp clanked noisily on the carpet, though muffled, after me as I nervously proceeded toward the door. I pushed it open, and it creaked on un-oiled hinges. Jasmine was curled up on her bed, reading a book. However, her eyes did not move, and her thin, pretty features were drawn with worry. "She better be worried," I thought grimly, advancing.

She looked up with a start and slammed her volume shut. "Jala!" she said sweetly. It didn't fool me: her eyes were not cheerful, but even grimmer than my own. I sat on the bed. "Alright, I'm going to get straight to the point." Jasmine looked terrified by now. "Where's my master, and what have you done to him?" Jasmine coughed. "Do you really think we would harm Jafar in any way?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "Point taken."

Jasmine shifted her position on the bed slightly to look me straight in the face.

"Jafar was sent far, far away by Haillie's wish. To where exactly, I'm not sure, but Haillie says that he is across the ocean in America." I gulped, and my eyes widened. There was no possible way that I could follow him to America. Americans were not very magical people. They thought that mermaids and genies and such were merely myths: I would be a monster there.

I collapsed onto Jasmine's unmade sheets. "Bring him back," I whispered in a deadly voice. Jasmine shook her head helplessly at me. "I can't. You know as well as I that Haillie's last wish for me is very important." I pretended to not have heard her. "Bring. Jafar. Back." Jasmine shook her head again, and did not reply. "Use Haillie's last wish! Jasmine, I'm going to die if you don't bring him back!" I wailed desperately.

It was not like me to be like this. In the past few weeks, I had been oddly disoriented. I didn't mean my heart would break if I never saw Jafar again, that was still too sappy for a jinn of my type. I meant that I would literally lapse into lunatics, like Haillie had, if my last two wishes were not spent. Of course, I could take another person as my master, but that would just make my condition worse.

Wordlessly, I glared at Jasmine as she read for the rest of the afternoon. Jasmine did not get a word done out of her book, which satisfied me more than necessary.

That night, I went back to Jafar's rooms to sleep in my little gold lamp, as I had become accustomed to these past few weeks. Haillie was there, sitting on the bed as if waiting for me. In her pink eyes, I read what I knew was understanding for my obvious distress. Haillie had been the only one who was always on the exact same page as I was. I was glad that nothing had changed that.

"I know how you feel, Jala. Too much," she sighed. Then she began speaking with one of her imaginary comrades, just like the Haillie I had nursed in the past seventeen years. I smiled at the touch of familiarity, exactly what I needed when all my thoughts were on getting Jafar back. A sudden idea came to me.

"Haillie, could you…" "No," was the flat reply. "But, please! You could go after him! I could not, your powers are greater than mine, and I am bound to Agrabah and my lamp. I can't even follow my own master without his consent, which he has not given me. But Jasmine could let you go after him and bring him back!" I cried. Haillie glared silently at the wall. "He's a threat to Agrabah." "Haillie, I love him!"

"That's only one more reason to not bring him back," she replied softly.

I shrunk back into my lamp, angry at the world, Haillie, Jasmine, but most of all, myself.

A/N: Again, please review. The next chapter should be filled with action, so check for it often!