A/N: Disclaimer here. I OWN NOTHING.

Alright, this is me trying to keep this short and ultimately failing. There was too much to put here!

So, yeah, wordy epilogue, and the end of this story. Please enjoy, and review!

Epilogue: Aladdin

Carpet drifted around the piles of treasure for the umpteenth time in…well, he couldn't even remember how long. He considered going to ask Genie [they could sort of talk through the confines of the lamp]. Then he thought better. Something told him he didn't really want to know. Even for an immortal, the wait for at least one certified 'Diamond in the Rough' was starting to become excruciating. There had been a few tremors coming from the front of the Cave, but other than that, nothing to really get excited over. Flattening himself on the ground, he lay down next to one of the piles of treasure. Given that he was already somewhat used to rumbling interruptions, Carpet didn't think too much of it when the faint roars of the desert spirit echoed down the Cave. However, he did notice something was up when the quiet footsteps began to make it's way over through the mountains of treasure. And over him.

"ABU! Don't. Touch. Anything. We have to find that lamp."

They were looking for Genie?

Perhaps because he subconsciously figured that it would not be a good idea for these people to suddenly have their footing slipped out from under them, Carpet remained still. Once they had both moved further down the chamber, Carpet got up to 'look' at them a little better. Disappearing down the row was a young man, clad in simple, worn clothes, and following close behind him, was a small monkey. Surely it couldn't hurt if he got a closer look, could it?

Easily lifting off the ground, he slipped up close behind the monkey, watching carefully as the little primate seemed to sense that all was not well. By the time it had turned, he was flat on the floor again.

This is…fun.

Lifting up again, Carpet followed the monkey for a few more steps before it flipped around again. By which he was rolled up next to a nearby pile of treasure. This time, however, the chimp seemed a tad bit uneasy, and quickly hurried to catch up to the human, who by now was pretty far ahead.

"Abu, will you knock it off?" Was his response to the urgent chattering. Carpet watched as the monkey's expressions turned from fear, to huffiness as he realized that he had been ignored.

Later on, Carpet would have been slightly embarrassed by what happened next, although, in his defense, when one was cooped up in a cave for 10,000 years with barely any interaction from anything else [save a jinni trapped in a lamp and a desert spirit that had barely any interest in him], they would be slightly mischievous as well.

Unrolling himself, Carpet deftly tip-tasseled over to the pair, jumping into the air just as Abu turned around, courtesy of a small tug to his tail. Given that he was directly over the primate's head, the creature was utterly baffled when he felt a tap on his other side. If he had been human, Carpet would have laughed as he saw the monkey take up a bizarre fighting stance. Carefully reaching down, he plucked the fez directly off Abu's head.

By that time, it was obvious that the teasing was starting to get to the chimp, and he hunkered down, arms crossed, clearly frustrated. Carpet, enjoying his little game, tried the tactic again. Albeit, he wasn't quite counting on Abu to all but have a heart attack when he did lay eyes on the decorated, bipedal rug extending a tassel. When the monkey let out an ear-piercing shriek, the rug too panicked, suddenly realizing exactly what sort of mess he had just gotten himself into. Partially tripping the small mammal in the progress, he dove behind a nearby treasure pile, peeking his 'head' out at the impromptu demonstration of physics as Abu flew headlong into the young human's back. And, while the monkey did not weigh a thing if you were simply picking him up, a highly concentrated amount of force to one spot had the tendency to flatten anyone. Being, it was hardly a surprise when they tumbled a few times before the man came to rest on his stomach, with the chimp jumping frantically on top of him, forcing him to look in Carpet's direction.

Uh, oh…I think I'm in trouble…

For what seemed like a very long moment, all were silent. Then the human spoke up, a note of awe in his voice.

"A magic carpet."

That was a good thing, or so he hoped. Still, he ducked mostly out of sight again as he raised his hand to gesture.

"C'mon, c'mon out. I'm not gonna hurt you."

It was a good thing to hear, yet a little unnerving. How did the human know? Edging out, Carpet pointed to himself in a 'who, me?' gesture, and, noticing that he had dropped the monkey's fez in the chaos, picked it up. After dusting it off, he flew over, kneeling down to hand it back. Abu, instead of taking it, screeched angrily at the rug before clambering up onto the human's shoulder.

"Calm down, Abu, he's not gonna bite. Thanks." The last was directed at Carpet, as he removed the fez and handed it back to the suspicious little monkey. With his beloved fez safely back on his head, Abu proceeded to chew Carpet out, for his trick, going on to stealing his fez, and a few other things that got lost in the babble. The rug recoiled as if it had been a slap to the face, if he had one. Guess…he'd just wait to follow them out when they found Genie. He wasn't wanted here.

"Hey, wait a minute, don't go!"

Carpet turned back towards the two. The human spoke again.

"Maybe you can help us."

Perhaps it was the fact that they, or at least the human, were not actively trying to drive him off, or the very idea that he could be useful, for the first time in a long time, but either way, the excited rug sprung into the air at the sound of those words. Swirling around the man's frame, he came to a halt in front of them both.

"See, we're trying to find this lamp…"

That was the problem? He could definitely help them with that, he knew very well were Genie was in the Cave. Gesturing for them to follow, Carpet zoomed off toward the other door that lead out of the room.

"I think he knows where it is." The human told the monkey as he followed close behind.

Of course I do! Hurry up!

Deeper within the cave, Carpet lead the two mortals out the large, cavernous chamber, pointing up at the distant high-rise in the rock, a spire that a single ray of light fell on. Even from here, he could see the faint glimmer of gold. The human wasted no time, clambering down to the set of stones that went over the pool of water to the rock.

"Wait here." He whispered to the monkey, before dropping down on the first stone, and carefully leaping to the next. An absent thought that flickered though Carpet's mind was that it would have been a really bad time to find out if the pool had a monster or two guarding Genie's lamp. Granted, he had never been attacked by anything, but then again, he wasn't 'the diamond in the rough'. Another wayward thought the rug had was, if all went well, how great it would be to get out, into the air, again. His mind rolled over the last few moments he had spent outside of the Cave.

"Look, Rugman, I won't get mad at all if you want to stay out here. I mean, you're a magic carpet. Spending what could be a few millennia down in a dark cave doesn't quite strike me as something you'd be into." Despite the fact that he had on his usual grin, Carpet could tell that Genie as well was not looking forward to this long sojourn in his lamp. The rug was one of the few that could sort of pick up on that. Not that he could blame him, being cooped up for one space for days, weeks, sometimes centuries on end, was not pleasant. Especially for an immortal. Which was why, in his own special way, he was insisting that he would come.

And Genie, being the usual self-sacrificing entity that he was, that his wishes sometimes required him to be, was trying to talk him out of it.

"Alright, really, you don't have to come with me. I'll be fine. You…probably have places to go, things to do. Don't let me hold you back."

Carpet's head shook vigorously. Genie bit back a grateful smile, clearly not about to let the fellow immortal see that he was touched by the gesture. The desert stretched out endlessly around them, as Carpet flew Genie's lamp to the Cave of Wonders. While they had easily poofed away from the village, the jinni had cut the teleportation short a few miles away for his attempted persuasion. Still, the rug would not be swayed into leaving.

Ergo, he was still there when the desert spirit, the whirling form of sand that resembled a tiger's head, rose out of the hillside in front of them. Trying very hard not to cower, Carpet hung on to the golden lamp. Genie, on the other hand, did a remarkable job of keeping his composure. The majority of the exchange between the two was lost in the heat of the rug's fright, but he still jumped a mile when those orb-like eyes suddenly saw him.

"And what of this one?"

Genie looked back, his manacles glinting in the glowing light from both the eyes and the depths of the Cave.

Something immediately became clear to Carpet. He and Genie, while they were both immortals, had a lot of things that were different. As one clear point was, he was free to do what he wished, go where he pleased, and be all he could be. The blue jinni had none of those luxuries, hardly anything of a free will when it came to the more careful, coldly calculating masters. He was forced to serve, no matter what the price, or the weight it left on his own conscience.

If he could go through all of that, and still be as optimistic as he was, Carpet could stand being shut away in the Cave for who-knows-how-long.

And with that, he quietly reached down and picked up the lamp, hovering a little closer to the Cave's maw, and making his decision clear.

He wondered if Genie knew what was going on right now. Granted, his kind was nigh omniscient, but could he tell what was happening outside of his lamp? Carpet made a mental note to try to 'ask'. Suddenly, he noticed a distinct lack of fuzzy primate sitting next to him. Flipping around as he tried to seek the creature out, Carpet immediately found him, and almost as quickly nearly had a heart attack. Abu was walking slowly, almost zombie-like, over to a statue holding a giant ruby in its hands. Given the mesmerized look on his face, it was altogether too clear as to what he was about to do. And, as Carpet knew very well, the Cave had very rigid rules as to what happened to people that touched things they weren't supposed to. Zipping forward, the rug's tassels secured a firm hold on the monkey trying desperately not to let him touch the jewel.

But, if there was one thing to be said about Abu, it was his determination. After a few minutes of one-sided tug of war, Carpet lost his grip, and the primate's hands snatched the ruby from its perch.

Almost immediately, the Cave reacted.

"INFEDELS! YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE FORBIDDEN TREASURE! YOU SHALL NEVER AGAIN SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!"

As if the booming voice was not terrifying enough, the stature that held the ruby began to melt into sand. From the small rock outcropping, Carpet could also see the flames that sprung from Genie's pedestal. For a few seconds of panic, he thought the being had gone up in it. Then he saw the human jump away from the flames, something gold hidden in his belt. Despite the fact that he was bowled into the air by speeding Abu, Carpet was relieved, and then panicking all over again when he saw the man take a dive for the lava that the pool had become. Throwing all of his speed into his flight, he zipped up under the human, catching him before he and the lamp could hit the lava. Looping back around, he swooped down so that his passenger could grab Abu before he became monkey flambé. After which he swore he would never go near lava again if he could help it.

Still, it seemed as though the universe had abruptly decided that then was the time all the waiting and cave-dwelling would come to a stop. The lava suddenly rose up into a wave that threatened to burn them all alive, and Carpet made a quick beeline for the door. He raced through the cave halls, and out into the treasure room, silently rejoicing as the whole lot was turned to melted gold. If he ever had to lay eyes on another speck of the stuff, it would be too soon. However, what he had not counted on was the Cave's determination. Shown quite clearly when a pair of fire-hands reached up from the inferno below to try to nab them. It was like his worst nightmare come to reality. As he weaved his way to the exit of the Cave, he wished he could be like Genie at the moment, blissfully unaware that any of this was happening.

Just as it looked as though they were going to be home-free, a sudden weight slammed into Carpet's back end, sending his three passengers flying and him down to the floor below. Pinned as he was, he could only get a limited view of what was going on above. That wasn't to say he didn't notice it when the small body started to take a 10-point dive for the floor. Squirming furiously, Carpet slipped out from under the rock he had been stuck under, flying up just in time to catch both human and monkey from what would have been a messy catastrophe. Somewhere above them all, the Cave let out a final roar before its entrance collapsed into the sand.

Meanwhile, the localized apocalypse had not gone unnoticed by the occupant of the lamp that everyone was fighting over. Even from inside the prison, Genie easily heard the booming voice of the Cave, so close it might as well have been in his ear.

"INFEDELS! YOU HAVE TOUCHED THE FORBIDDEN TREASURE! YOU SHALL NEVER AGAIN SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!"

After which it suddenly felt as though his lamp had been thrown from a very high cliff, pressing the shell-shocked jinni into the back wall as he struggled to figure out just what was going on, and why the temperature suddenly was cranked up a few hundred degrees. An abrupt change in direction both brought the heat back down, and sent him into the other side of the lamp.

Alright, Genie was a relatively easy-going person, but that did not mean that this wasn't unnerving in the least. Peeking out a bit through the spout, he immediately laid eyes on what looked like a human figure, sitting atop a very familiar rug. Another thing that came to his attention was the boiling pit of lava that they were steadily winging their way back to.

Why are we going near the lava? WHY ARE WE GOING NEAR THE LAVA?

His viewing session was cut short when Carpet suddenly swerved again, all but throwing him to the back of the lamp. The extreme heat came back for a few minutes before fading away. Hopefully, this did not mean that he, or anyone outside, was dead.

Judging by the extremely loud rushing and bubbling noise reverberating through the metal, they weren't anywhere near dead, at least, not yet. After a few minutes of rocking and swerving that made Genie wonder if they weren't on some kind of a messed-up roller coaster ride, he suddenly came to a very quick stop, ramming him back to the front. As he was trying to sort out which way was up and which was down, the sound outside suddenly became muffled, then loud. And then, more prying-himself-out-of-the-walls-of-the-lamp, although this time Genie had the sense that this wasn't Carpet's crazy driving. Suddenly, all the motion outside abruptly stopped, the noise dying down to a near-deafening quiet. Genie inched warily over to the spout again, faintly worrying that whatever master that had been brave/boneheaded enough to come down here died in the…whatever that was.

Peering out again, he was startled by the fact that there was nothing to see, just darkness. No kid, no lava, not even Carpet.

For what seemed like a long, long time, he was left in silence, wondering if he was truly alone this time, or if the universe was playing a very cruel trick on him.

Then, as though someone had turned the sound back on, he heard voices. Faint, muffled voices. They grew slightly louder, and then the next thing he knew, a faint rubbing went through the lamp.

And, well, he definitely was a little too enthusiastic with his entrance.

I'm...actually pretty happy with this. I was originally going to make it just Carpet, but then again, this is the master, and the way out, that they've both been waiting well over a millenia for. And I thought it would be interesting to put his POV into this.

And, now that I actually put it out, I have to look back at the whole 'Friend Like Me' sequence and think, 'Wow, someone's glad they didn't die.'.

Bookworm Gal: I'll think about it. Definitely. But it might take awhile for me to get everything down given that school's picking up. This was pretty much a combination of stubborness and very vivid inspiration.