Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Square Enix and Disney.

Herutsu no Oukoku

Chapter 9: Agraba

Kairi gentle fanned herself as she waited for Naminé to return for some kind of cover for her head. The hot sun beat down on her and she wished she has at least found a patch of shade in which to wait for Naminé or that she had been smart and not taken her hoodie off on the gummi ship. Every now and then she glanced down at the pink gem in her hand, hoping for some kind of glimmer.

It all started back on the gummi ship when Sora and Donald started to argue over who should drive. It escalated out of control, to say the least, and they ended up crashing in a world covered in desert. They also ended up separated, which could be a good thing since it got Kairi and Axel away from each other and it got Sora and Donald away from each other. The only bad thing was that they also lost the gummi ship.

Kairi sighed and looked around, hoping to see the bright white of Namine's dress or the bright yellow of her hair. In a place such as one like where they were, Namine would be very easy to spot. Everyone that lived there that Kairi had seen had dark hair and skin.

She soon spotted Namine hurrying over to her carrying some kind of pale blue colored fabric. She was already wearing a off-white cover for her head and Kairi noticed that the fabric was long enough to cover most of the other girl's arms as well.

"Here," Namine said, handing Kairi the garment once she reached her. "Put this one. It's not as heavy as it looks."

Kairi unfolded the fabric and found that all she had to do was slip the thing on over her head and then pull up the hood. She did so and soon she and Namine were walking around the market in search of the boys. They didn't think it would be too hard to find Sora, who was wearing bright red, or Axel, who had bright red hair, or even Demyx, since he had blonde hair which wasn't really normal for the world they were in. Both girls knew it would be even easier to spot Donald and Goofy, since they were, technically, a duck and a dog who wore clothes and could talk.

"Where do you think they are?" Kairi asked.

"They could be nearby or they could be far away." Namine said, not having any idea of where they could be. "Lets hope that they're somewhere nearby and that the gummi ship isn't in pieces."

Kairi nodded. "Yeah."

They walked in silence for a while, avoiding people who were rushing by, and then Kairi tripped and fell, landing beside a pile of crates. She groaned as she got up. Naminé rushed over to her and helped her up, careful not to knock anything over. The last thing they needed was for them to cause trouble.

"Are you okay?" Namine asked worriedly.

Kairi brushed off her pants and nodded. "I'm fine. A little bruised, maybe. Now lets go. I want to find the guys and get out of here."

Not for the first time, Axel cursed the fact that he joined Sora and Kairi on their journey to the worlds. It wasn't so much that he hated being with them, it was more along the lines of being stuck with six other people in an extremely cramped space. Not to mention, half of everyone didn't get along with someone and they'd either spend the time arguing or pointedly ignoring each other. Or in Donald and Sora's case, fighting over who was the better pilot.

The last one, resulted in him being stuck in the middle of the desert with the one person who did not do well at all in the desert. Demyx.

"How you doin', kid?" Axel asked, glancing over at the blond. He would never admit that he was actually concerned.

Demyx didn't glance up and just nodded. He was exhausted and the heat was beginning to get to him. He wiped away the sweat from his forehead and then let his hand fall back to his side.

"Just a little further." Axel said, more to himself than to Demyx. He needed something to distract him from the heat and the endless expanse of sand, and talking was working. "We've just got a little bit further to walk."

Without warning, Demyx's legs buckled and he fell into the sand, unconscious. Axel cursed loudly and went back to the blond. He kneeled down beside him and tried to shake him back into consciousness.

"Kid! Hey, Demyx! Get up!" He yelled, aggravated. "Oh come on, I am not lugging your ass across the desert!"

Demyx didn't so much as twitch.

Axel cursed and walked a few steps away before he started ranting about people who couldn't handle a little bit of heat. He kicked around the sand a bit, exhausting himself to the point that he could barely hold himself up, let alone Demyx. As he sat down beside Demyx's unconscious form, he wished he had thought to at least know how to perform a water spell to cool down.

Sora was not having a good day. First, Donald wouldn't even let him try to pilot the gummy ship, even though Goofy thought it was a good idea and that it could be beneficial. Then they fought over the steering wheel, which, in hindsight, wasn't the greatest idea, considering how they crashed and got separated shortly afterward.

Then he went and got himself wrapped up in some mess in a new world and was probably interfering with the World Order that Donald was always talking about. He wasn't even sure how he got roped into helping Aladdin, who was having some problems that involved a genie, a princess, and a crazy guy out for world domination. Oh, and there was a parrot involved too.

Sora didn't like parrots that much, ever since a rather weird incident with his friend Selphie's pet bird. Never mind that it was a macaw and not a parrot. They looked too much alike. But that's a different story.

So there he was, traipsing through some weird cave with the Aladdin guy and a monkey with a purple hat. He didn't know where any of his friends were or even if they were okay. He didn't even know if they would ever get off of the world, since the gummy ship was pretty much destroyed in the crash. He hoped one of the others would be able to find pieces to fix it. It would help if they were able to actually find what was left of the gummy ship too.

"Hey Aladdin, how did the Jafar guy get a hold of Genie's lamp?" Sora asked as they walked through one of the many treasure rooms. "And why does Genie have to do what this guy says? If he's so evil, then why can't Genie just not listen to him?"

"Iago took the lamp from me when I was distracted." Aladdin explained. He muttered something that sounded like, "Stupid bird" under his breath. "And Genie has to do what he says because he has the lamp. Arrg!" He stops in his tracks as he growls in frustration. "What are we going to do, Sora? He's got the lamp, which means he has Genie and can order him to kill us or lock us up or something? What have we got that can stop a Genie! This is suicide!"

Abu chattered in agreement as he climbed up to rest on Aladdin's shoulder.

"We have this." Sora said proudly, holding out his hand to easily summon the keyblade. "And we're smart. We can think of a way to beat Jafar at his own game, I bet."

Aladdin looked skeptical, but didn't say anything.

'I wish Kairi was here.' Sora thought. 'I bet she would know what to do. Namine and Axel would too.' He paused and took the moment to go back over what he just thought. 'Wait, that might be just what I need.' He took the next few minutes to think things out and figure out exactly what his plan would be.

"Sora! Watch out!" Aladdin's sudden yell broke Sora out of his thoughts and right back into reality.

Sora quickly summoned his keyblade as a group of Shadow heartless came out of hiding and surrounded them. "Go on ahead!" He yelled to Aladdin. "I'll take care of these and then follow." When Aladdin didn't move he slashed at the nearest heartless and shouted, "Go!"

Aladdin hesitated a moment longer and then took off running down the treasure room to where they suspected Jafar was hiding with Princess Jasmine and Genie.

Sora quickly took care of the Shadow heartless and tried to follow Aladdin, but was stopped by one of the fire breathing Large Body heartless. His hissed one of Riku's favorite curse words under his breath as he rolled out of the way of a fireball. He ducked behind a large block and tried to figure out how he could get behind the heartless or at least get passed it so he could catch up with Aladdin. He glanced around the stone to locate the heartless and found it only a few feet away and coming closer. Without much thinking, Sora jumped up onto the block and then jumped over the heartless, landing behind it. Before it could turn around, Sora raked his keyblade down it's back and it fell to the ground before fading away and allowing a heart to float up to the ceiling, where it too disappeared.

Sora frowned. That was the first time he noticed a heart floating out of a heartless. He made a mental note to see if that happened with all the heartless. Then he turned and ran in the direction that Aladdin took.

For a while all he could hear was the sound of his bright yellow sneakers hitting the ground as he ran, but soon he could hear fighting in one of the chambers ahead. When he got into the chamber he only had to fight through a small group of heartless, no doubt summoned up by Jafar, before he could get to Aladdin's side and help him evade attacks from Genie. As quickly as he could, he told Aladdin his plan to see what he thought of it. Aladdin agreed.

While Aladdin continued to avoid attacks from Genie, who had been ordered by Jafar to get rid of the raven-haired guy, Sora took off after Jafar with one goal in mind: to get the lamp back from him. With a little help from Abu, who secretly rode on Sora's back and waiting until the right moment to jump out and grab the lamp from Jafar's hand, Sora got the lamp and was able to call off Genie's attacks, if only momentarily.

"Genie, can I make a wish?" Sora asked as he ran over to join Aladdin. He knew he had to get as far away from Jafar as he could, otherwise the corrupt advisor would be able to easily get the lamp back.

"Go right ahead, kiddo." Genie said, relieved that he didn't have to attack his friend any more. "Tell me what you need!"

"Genie, I wish my friends Kairi, Axel, Namine, and Demyx were here." Sora said.

"I hope you have a good plan." Genie warned, before zapping a portal in mid-air that would summon the four teens from wherever they were. "Four friends, coming right up!"

From the middle of the marketplace came Namine and Kairi, who both landed on top of Sora and knocked him over, causing the lamp to go flying from his hands. Aladdin and Abu hurried to retrieve it while Sora and the girls got to their feet just in time for Axel and Demyx to tumble through the portal. Fortunately, Demyx was at least semi-conscious by then even though Axel was carrying him on his back.

"… the hell?" Axel asked, looking around the chamber in confusion. "Someone explain to me how we were just in the desert and now we're underground in some kind of cave? Am I hallucinating?"

"Magic lamp, Genie, I'll explain everything later." Sora promised. "Right now we've got a crazy person trying to kill us and he keeps getting the lamp and making new wishes to try and kill us. He's used two so far, so he's got one more shot and it good be even worse."

"Genie's have to do whatever the holder of the lamp tells them, right?" Namine asked, already trying to form a plan.

"Yeah, that's right." Aladdin said, wrestling with a colorful parrot for the lamp. "Gimme the lamp, Iago! Let go!"

Iago pecked at Aladdin's fingers until the dark-haired male was forced to let go and then he flew, with the lamp, over to Jafar.

"Excellent work, Iago." Jafar complimented.

Just the sound of his voice made Kairi shiver in fear and disgust. To her he felt corrupted with a dark power.

"Hey Kairi, you suppose a Genie's the strongest person in the entire world?" Namine asked her blue eyes focused solely on Jafar.

Kairi looked surprised. "Well, I guess, but what's that got to do with anything?"

Namine shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud." She looked over to the redhead and gave her a meaningful look, trying to gesture with her hands what her idea was.

Axel, Sora, and Aladdin all looked shocked that Namine was saying such a thing out loud, especially in the presence of Jafar. What she was saying could give the evil man an idea for his next wish.

Before they knew it, Jafar had already taken in their words, thought it over, and then made his final wish: "My next and final wish, I wish to be an all-powerful genie!" Jafar shouted, admidst cries of despair from Aladdin and Sora.

Genie closed his eyes and looked away as he zapped his genie-magic at Jafar and granted the evil man's final wish. As the whole cavern started to rumble and a strange wind began to blow, Kairi noticed a pitch black lamp appear on the floor and she ran forward to grab it before anyone else could notice it.

"Hey Jafar, you want to know the one downside to being a genie!" She yelled fiercely over the winds.

Jafar, now a bright red, very intimidating looking genie, looked down at the girl, not really seeing her as a threat. Then he noticed what she was holding and he began to panic. "NO!" He roared, making the chamber rumble even more.

"Yes." Kairi said calmly. "Into your lamp, Jafar!" She commanded.

Jafar screeched and yelled and did everything in his power to get out of the lamp's hold, but in the end it was a futile effort. The magic of the lamp overpowered him and sucked him right into its hold to remain there until someone would unleash him, which, hopefully, wouldn't be for a long, long time.

Namine walked over to Kairi and smiled. "So you did catch on. I knew you would."

Kairi smiled. "I knew there had to be some reason that you said that. Then I remembered reading something once about genies having to obey whoever holds their lamp. From there it wasn't too hard to put the pieces together." She turned around to face the others, who were all looking surprised that they were able to get rid of Jafar that easily. "Anyone know what we can do with this?" She asked, holding up the lamp.

Genie took on a thoughtful look as he floated over to Kairi and plucked the lamp from her hand. "I think the best place for this would be…" He pretended to get ready to throw it as far as he possibly could and then stopped and made a copy of himself to start digging into the ground. "Deep, deep in the ground!"

Aladdin laughed. "In that case, lets put it in the unused palace dungeons. It'll be really protected there."

Genie stopped digging and nodded. "Great idea Al! Lets go do that right now. Go get Princess Jasmine."

Aladdin looked over to where his princess once was and gasped when he didn't see her. "Jasmine!" He yelled, running over to the upraised stone. "She's gone." He said after stopping in front of it.

Genie floated nearby, feeling sorry for his friend. "Just say the word, Al. Just one wish and I can get her back here."

"But it's my last wish." Aladdin said despairingly. "And I promised you I'd free you with my last wish."

Genie shrugged halfheartedly. "What's another couple thousand years to a genie." He lied. "Go on, Al." He gently handed Aladdin his lamp.

Aladdin took the lamp and looked at it for a moment, unsure if he should really make the wish or not. The world travelers gathered all together to make sure everyone was alright and then they looked back over at Aladdin and Genie, wondering what choice the raven-haired male would make.

"I wish… for your freedom, Genie!"

In a blaze of cosmic light that had everyone shielding their eyes, Genie was freed from the lamp forever.

"Hey," Kairi nudged Sora's shoulder. "we should get going. I don't think there's much we can do here. Not now." Unexplainably, her heart ached at the thought of the princess being missing. She could imagine a young woman with long black hair trapped in an unknown land, confused about what was going on and where she was at. The feeling welled up in her chest and she found herself shaking so much that she had to lean against Sora for support.

"Are you okay?" He asked her, concerned.

"The last thing we need is for someone else to pass out." Axel said crossly. He was still being forced to carry Demyx, who was too tired to even stand up on his own.

"I said I was sorry." Demyx murmured sadly. "I wish I wasn't so weak."

No one really knew what to say to Demyx to make him feel better, so they stayed quiet. That was when one of them finally realized that their group was awfully small, almost like two people were missing from it.

"Sora, where are Donald and Goofy?" Kairi asked slowly, looking around in case they were just hiding in the shadows or something.

Sora's mind blanked as he looked around as well. Then he realized the exact wording of his wish and turned to face the others with a sheepish expression. "Oops. I guess I kind of forgot."

"Not to worry, Sora and friends!" Genie said energetically. He and Aladdin had heard the tale end of their conversation and decided to help them out. "I can find them easily."

"Really?" Sora asked, his expression brightening. "That'd be great, Genie! Thanks!"

In a matter of minutes, they were in town following Genie, who was holding some strange beeping machine that strongly reminded Kairi of a metal detector. The thing began beeping faster and dragged Genie down the street, making the others run to catch up. Poor Axel was about ready to pass out from the strain of carrying Demyx in the heat. Finally they caught up to Donald and Goofy, who were asking townspeople if they had seen any unusual people.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled, attracting their attention.

"Sora!" The two yelled in unison, before they ran over and joined them. Goofy hugged Sora, which made the brunet laugh and hug him back. Donald crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Sora while tapping one foot on the ground.

When Goofy and Sora's hugging session was over, he squawked, "Where have you been?! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Sora forgot to wish you guys to the cave to fight the evil guy." Kairi teased, nudging Sora's shoulder. "It's a good thing I noticed you guys weren't with us."

"Yeah…" Sora scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry 'bout that, guys. I wasn't thinking."

Donald scowled, but Goofy remained optimistic, having already forgiven Sora for forgetting. He didn't expect Sora to remember everything in the heat of a battle, although he couldn't say that he wasn't disappointed.

"It's alright, Sora. Besides, we were able to find the rest of the pieces to the gummi ship and rebuild it. It's a little unstable, but that's okay." Goofy said.

"Speak for yourself." Donald mumbled, but didn't make any move to yell at Sora or the others. He just fell silent for once and continued to sulk.

"I'll remember next time, Donald. I promise." Sora said, meaning it. Then he turned around to face Aladdin and Genie, who were being thanked by Kairi and Namine. "Guys, if there's anything we can do, we'll do it."

"Al, I may not be able to magically bring Jasmine back, but I could travel with them and help look." Genie suggested, knowing that the loss of Jasmine was affecting his friend more than he was letting on.

"We could do that." Kairi said, giving Aladdin a smile. "She must be really special to you."

Aladdin blushed and avoided the question by diving into goodbyes.

Soon, the world travelers were boarding the gummi ship with a miniature Genie sitting on Sora's shoulders. He shouted a loud goodbye to Aladdin as the doors closed and the gummi ship took off into the air to the next world.

End Chapter

Okay, after a 2 month hiatus, which was much longer than what I intended, I have finally gotten back on track with writing this! Yay! I'm actually having alot of fun with this. I suppose it helps that I keep acting scenes out by myself and thinking of cute scenes I could type out. And I've settled on how many chapters this one will be; 13. The 13th chapter will be the last and it'll probably be really long.

Hope you all liked this chapter! And I'm sorry for the long wait. I promise you won't have to wait that long again.