Chapter Eight

"Mozenrath!" they all gasped, completely taken by surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Jasmine inquired, giving him a look of pure hatred.

"Oh, I just had to be here in person to see Agrabah's greatest hero make his biggest conquest of all time: taking over the city and doing away with all you fools," Mozenrath coolly said, walking casually toward them.

"You'll never win!" Jasmine yelled, standing firm on her ground.

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong, Princess," Mozenrath sneered. "That's where you're wrong."

Meanwhile, Aladdin could hear voices in the hallway off the throne room, and he thought they sounded awfully familiar. Grabbing the sultan by the collar, he gruffly pulled the old man with him toward the area where the voices were coming from. To his complete surprise, he saw all his former friends standing there with Mozenrath.

"I don't know how you got out," he began, his voice coming out between clenched teeth, "but now I know all along who you were siding with! Mozenrath of all people! How could you defy me like this? How dare you betray me by joining sides with Mozenrath!"

Aladdin practically threw the sultan to the ground as he released him and charged toward Mozenrath. Aladdin held out his right arm, releasing red rays of light from his fingers, aiming right for Mozenrath's face.

"I'll get you once and for all!" Aladdin yelled at the top of his lungs at Mozenrath.

Mozenrath didn't expect Aladdin to attack him, so he was caught off-guard this whole time. "Aladdin," Mozenrath began, "they never were working for me, you foolish boy! You are the one working for me now! I cast the spell on you; I have the power over you now, so I must insist that you relent...or else."

"What are you babbling about?!" Aladdin cried in Mozenrath's ear, practically deafening him. "I work for NO ONE but myself! You always were a pathetic liar, Mozenrath, and now I will destroy you and all of these others fools who betrayed me to join forces with you!"

Mozenrath, in an act of pure self-defense, shot rays of his blue-black magic from his gauntlet at Aladdin, but Aladdin, being as nimble and quick as he was, ducked out of the way and raised both his arms over his head. In one fast motion, he brought both of them down at the same time and sent a huge blast of red magic toward Mozenrath. It was too late for the sorcorer to react. The blast hit him right in the chest, pushing him into the wall and knocking him out cold.

Aladdin walked over to Mozenrath to examine his handy work, but as he looked at the now helpless form of Mozenrath before him, the expression on his face softened for the first time in a while. Aladdin closed his eyes and kept them that way for a long time, as all his friends watched him, wondering what would happen next. When he finally opened them, to their amazement, instead of the black that had once filled his entire eyes, there were his soft brown irises and dark pupils gazing back at them.

Aladdin felt like he hadn't slept in days; he felt like all the energy had somehow escaped from his body. Falling over on to the floor, he caught himself before his head hit the surface. Sitting there, he shook his head and finally found his voice. "Guys?" he asked weakly.

"Aladdin?" Jasmine asked, hope filling her tone. "Are you okay?"

Taking a slow and somewhat uneasy step forward, the princess moved closer to him.

"Well, to be honest," he began, "no, I'm not okay..."

Those words didn't sound good to her. Was he still under the spell?

"But," he continued, "are you all okay?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jasmine smiled, "Yes, Aladdin, we're okay now...now that you're back."

Aladdin remembered everything he had done while under the spell and didn't know what to say. "I'm so sorry," was all he finally managed to utter.

"Aw, don't worry about it, Al," Genie replied. "You were under that wacko-wizard's influence. How could you have known any better?"

At the mention of Mozenrath, Aladdin turned and faced the young sorceror. "I don't understand..." he mumbled. "If that spell was supposed to turn me against all my friends, why did it turn me against Mozenrath? He was never my friend, and besides, Mozenrath claimed he was in control of me, and yet, I still managed to stop him. How?"

"There are some things," Genie said in a very sincere tone, "that magic cannot change. Yes, Mozenrath used that terrible spell to control you by cursing you, but somehow, deep within yourself, you have your own power, a power that's not magic. It's a power called love, and no matter how much Mozenrath's magical spell could make you hate us, you would always hate your enemies more than your friends. He could never see that, though."

Jasmine smiled and hugged Aladdin. "If there's one thing I know about you, Aladdin," she spoke, looking directly into his eyes, "it's that you have more love in you than probably anyone else I've ever met."

"Not to interrupt this mushy moment, but what are we gonna do with Wizard Boy over here?" asked Iago, perching himself on Aladdin's shoulder.

"I've got the perfect place for him," Genie said. With a snap of his fingers, Mozenrath disappeared.

"Where did you put him?" Aladdin couldn't help but to ask.

"Oh, he's just cooling off on a lovely over-sized island called Antartica," smirked Genie. "Now, it's time was your welcome-back group hug, Al!" he exclaimed in an over-excited tone.

Genie scooped everyone up with his big arms and squeezed them tightly. After a few rather long seconds, Iago finally yelled, "Okay, ya big, blue lug! Let go!"

Everyone laughed at Iago's remark as he returned to Aladdin shoulder. "You're not gonna squeeze me, too, are ya?" Iago whispered to Aladdin, referring to the events from the night before.

"No, Iago," Aladdin replied. "Hey, no hard feelings, right?"

For Iago, showing how happy he really was to have Aladdin back was hard. "Well, I guess so... It's, um, good to have ya back, Al."

"It's good to be back," Aladdin remarked.

"You're all back from wherever you were within," Jasmine smiled, bringing her face close to his. "And within me, here's what I have to say about that."

With that, she kissed him, as Iago turned away in disgust.

"Yep, things are back to normal," Genie told Carpet and Abu. "Well, as normal as they can get around here."

The rest of the day passed in peace, and as Genie had said, things were about as normal as they could be when one is in Agrabah and friends with a zany Genie. Aladdin wouldn't have it any other way.

~The End~