"Aladdin!" Jasmine cried. Abu and Iago yelped as they saw Aladdin fall into the gaping hole. Carpet lunged to approach the hole in the ground, but Faran grabbed the edges of his knobs, preventing him from flying down to catch Aladdin.
But none of them expected the ground to start shaking violently, and as all observed the sudden ruckus coming from the pit, they saw a large creature emerge from it.
"Whoo-hoo! Ride-em, cowboy! We've taken this bucking bronco out of the city and right into your neighborhood - for your viewing pleasure!"
The familiar voice was none other than Genie, who rode a saddle on the back of the large creature that had once burrowed through Agrabah. He wore a large cowboy hat, complete with outfit and spurred boots. Sitting behind him on the large, serpent beast was Aladdin, holding on as tight as he could to the reins behind Genie.
"How you faring there, kiddo?" Genie said with a grin, turning his head back toward Aladdin. "Good thing I was in the neighborhood to catch you. That was a long way underground."
"I wanna know how you managed to ride this thing out of the city," Aladdin yelped as the beast rippled its back.
"Well, let's just say it takes a ton of practice, with many not-so-calm camels. You don't wanna know," Genie said, before turning his attention to where the U-serpents stared in wonder on the sands below.
"Now, you see those snake like creatures down there," Genie said, seemingly taking to the large, scary looking creature he rode. "Those are your dads."
"Da-da-s-s?" The creature hissed. Aladdin raised his eyebrows in disbelief. The big creature that had been running through Agrabah's streets was nothing other than a baby serpent.
"Yep, I think you better follow them back home, don't you think? They say it's way past your bedtime," Genie followed.
"Da-da-s-s!" The creature bellowed again.
"Flee! Flee!" Faran yelped, as the overgrown baby serpent, who was far bigger than any of the U-serpents combined, barreled toward them. Jasmine, Carpet, Abu and Iago scrambled out of the way, while Aladdin and Genie made a hasty retreat from its back, leaving the creature to slither through the sand dunes after the fleeing U-serpents into the desert night.
"You haven't s-seen the last of us, fools-s!" Ajan called, but his voice disappeared into a distant echo far away.
"Well, that takes care of that. Finally!" Genie said, sinking to the ground in exhaustion.
Jasmine embraced Aladdin briefly as the group stared into the distance. "Are you okay, Aladdin? You're...definitely you, right?"
"I think I have one way of proving that," Aladdin said, cupping Jasmine's face in one hand as he leaned in to kiss her.
"Well now, I'm certainly glad that we won't have to end up raising taxes on the citizens after all, especially since the U-serpents turned over all their earnings from damaging the city the past several week. You all have done marvelous work defending the city, as expected." Sultan praised Aladdin, Genie, Jasmine and the others as they stood in the throne room the next morning. The city had most of its repairs done through much of the night, though it would take several more days to get back to normal. Funds left behind by the fleeing U-serpents were enough to pay the workers overtime to rebuild the city.
"There's still somethin' I don't get. You mean you were you the whole time before the snakes broke that hourglass?" Iago asked while perched on Aladdin's shoulder.
Aladdin shrugged, smiling a little. "No one said you were the only one who could do voice imitations, Iago. Besides, I had to do something to throw them off."
"Okay, okay, you can have your prize, but you could've given us a little warning first?"
Abu screeched a few times, and Iago rolled his eyes.
"It wasn't that obvious, okay monkey? Don't act like you knew! You were shaking too!"
"Too bad I wasn't around to see it." Genie said, nudging Aladdin at his side as they both watched Abu and Iago arguing between each other, with Carpet trying to get between them to break up the fight. Jasmine stood on the other side of Aladdin, gently wrapping his injured arm.
"I didn't even know it was him - that's how convincing it was," Jasmine said. "But I guess Aladdin wouldn't have had to go through all that trouble if I hadn't said all those things."
"Jasmine, it wasn't your fault," Aladdin defended. "But...you could kinda give me some slack to explain things first once in a while."
"And you could actually tell Jasmine your plans for a change ahead of time before you go running off for trouble," Genie pointed out, transforming into a scolding grandmother with a blonde curly wig.
Jasmine raised a brow, half-smiling. "Yes, that would help too."
"But it was his idea!" Aladdin groaned.
"Yeah, but I did warn you kiddo."
"Warn him about what?" Jasmine said, folding her arms across her chest and marching towards Genie.
Genie transformed into his normal form, holding his arms up in defense as Jasmine cornered him in a lecture that Aladdin could only scarcely hear as he stood beside the Sultan.
"Oh my, I suppose everyone is in such fighting moods today," Sultan said, frowning in disapproval.
"Yeah," Aladdin said, looking between where Iago and Abu were fighting in one area of the throne room while Genie fended off Jasmine's arguments in another. "Probably better to stay out of it, Sultan. Those guys are scary when they get mad."
The End
Author's Note: I hope all of you had as much fun reading Aladdin and the Slithering Serpents as I did writing it. This may not be the last time I revisit the Aladdin universe with the U-Serpent villains, but as I have the time to write more fanfics, I'll let you guys know. Thanks again for reading and feel free to post comments and feedback.