Author's Note: I didn't put this disclaimer up on the original first page because I figured it was implied, but I think I'd better add this to the story anyway. All the Aladdin characters, locales, and such associated with the movie/series belong to their respective creators/copyright owners. The story itself and original characters are mine, as per usual. I'm just wanting to tell a fun, crazy, maybe slightly hair-raising story. Thanks for the reviews/comments so far, any and all are appreciated. :)
I noticed that the story section dividers I had in my original text aren't showing up as I upload it to this site, so I'm going to go back and add them manually because that might make it easier for people to read. Sorry about that. ^^;
Chapter 8: Stealing Fear
Aladdin motioned Warek to follow him through the shrubs, but he couldn't help but feel he was going in circles. No matter where he walked, he had a sense of deja vu, like the trees were the same, just switched in different positions.
"We should've been at the lake by now," Aladdin said, groaning as he studied the trees. "This path is leading us nowhere. Everything's all changed around from the last time we were here."
"I wouldn't doubt this is the demon's work, m'boy. We don't know what trickery we're up against." Warek said. Aladdin didn't turn to face him, but knew he was close by.
"Stay close, Warek. If you're right, then he's gotta be around here somewhere. It won't be good if we get separated."
Warek didn't answer, and Aladdin knew something was very wrong. He only had enough time with the slight turn of his head to see the flash of the knife as it raised to swipe at his back. He threw himself out of the way, rolling on the ground, before getting himself upright again a distance away as the merchant approached him.
"Warek, what are you doing? I'm not the demon!"
Warek took another several swipes with his dagger toward Aladdin. Aladdin evaded quickly, darting backward and nearly tripping over his own feet at one point. Warek wasn't waiting. For a merchant, he was unbelievably quick on his feet and posed a challenge. The dagger reflected the moonlight, making it seem like it glowed in the dark as Aladdin scrambled back.
"Warek, stop - snap out of it!" Aladdin said, holding up his hands as he stepped back. He really didn't want to hurt the merchant, but it wasn't as if Aladdin were armed. And the merchant really didn't want to hurt him, did he?
"Does it look like I'm in a trance to you, m'boy?" The usually placid, somewhat fearful merchant had a sinister expression, but as Aladdin looked closer, the merchant had no moon shapes in his eyes. It was really him, at least as far as his intent and form would allow.
But while the betrayal would have gutted any other person, Aladdin caught something else about the merchant that seemed off. He heard it as loud as if it were a coin dropping in an otherwise empty room.
The odd tone of Warek's voice near the end. He'd heard it before when Jafar attacked him at the palace. Something about this was definitely off, and some part of Aladdin thought the figure before him wasn't Warek at all. Who was it then?
Before Aladdin had more time to think about it, Warek lunged with his dagger. Aladdin grabbed the merchant's arm and pushed back. The two struggled in the moonlight, and Aladdin was able to knock the merchant's dagger out of his hand with a hard shove against the bark of a nearby tree. Warek yelped, but while the dagger was lost momentarily, the merchant recovered by slamming his fist into Aladdin's stomach, sending Aladdin staggering back with a grunt. Aladdin lost his footing and collapsed, rolling down a steep incline of sand and trees into the darkness.
Aladdin's back slammed hard into the base of a tree at the end of the incline, leaving him stunned. As the haze cleared from his head, he realized he needed to plan
Warek shook his head, shaking off the attack Aladdin made against him. He grinned slightly as he recovered the dagger, and turned to where he'd seen Aladdin fall where the moon's light didn't touch. Warek looked at his reflection in the dagger, which revealed Jatika's wicked grin.
"You can't run and hide forever, Aladdin. I said it before. Tonight, I summon your death."
Jasmine barely evaded the place where one of the scorpion beast's stingers stabbed into the sands before her. She yelped, staggering back and nearly losing her footing, but Carpet caught and steadied her.
"Genie, we need a plan!" she cried out.
"Kinda busy here, Princess!" Genie said in a tight voice. He was trying to keep the beast from clipping him, at the same time trying to keep the other stinger from impaling him. He did a series of dances in evading the attacks. "One potato, two potato, three potato, four..." His magic accidentally went off, transforming him into a rolling mass of potatoes that managed to roll out of the scorpion beast's clutches.
Genie figured any means of evasion was better than none.
Jasmine continued dancing around the scorpions tail as it stabbed in several places, but her mind formed a plan when Carpet offered her a ride. "I think I know how to get this beast on its back, Carpet. Let's move."
But as she boarded Carpet and started evading the creatures pinchers by flying under the beast legs. It nearly made the beast tip over, as Jasmine had planned, but it recovered quicker than she expected. She saw Genie evade one of the stinging tails, but he wasn't aware of the pincher going straight for him.
"Genie, look out!" But she was too late as it closed around Genie's waist. He struggled against it at first, but used his magic to shrink to where he slipped through the beasts clasp, dropping to the sands.
When he materialized to his normal size, Jasmine saw Genie stagger a bit. He managed to get under the beast where Jasmine was, and that confused the scorpion long enough to give them time to talk, but Jasmine saw that Genie was struggling to keep his eyes open.
"I'm suddenly feelin' like I wanna catch a few winks," Genie said, slightly wavering.
Jasmine was able to put the pieces together quickly. "Wait, if it pinched you the way it did Aladdin, that means..."
Genie's body swerved, his speech becoming staggered. "Yeah, I figured. The magic...puts people...and magic beings...to sleep. Goodnight..." Genie's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he flopped to the sands, transforming into a nightshirt and cap.
"Genie!" Jasmine rushed to his side and struggled to shake him awake, but to no avail. At the same time, the impatient beast seemed to notice Genie and Jasmine had flew under its legs, and started pinching trying to grasp Jasmine. Jasmine rolled out of the way in time, boarding Carpet again and flying out from under the creature toward the lake of the oasis. Jasmine looked over her shoulder as the beast came barreling after her.
"I have another idea, Carpet, follow my lead. We're going straight for him on my count."
Carpet's knobs rose, as if he thought that was a bad idea.
"Trust me." Jasmine took a deep breath, even as the scorpion beast took the bait, marching furiously toward them. She gripped Carpet's edge tight in her hands.
"One...two...three...GO!" Carpet lurched forward, and they caught the scorpion beast aback as they were able to evade the clips of its pinchers, but Jasmine saw the beast using its tails to stab down as they reached the center of its back.
"Now Carpet!" Jasmine cried, and Carpet swerved, just in time to where the beast's tails stabbed its own back.
The beast cried out, then started to shrink in size to where it separated into two smaller scorpions in a wave of magic, before the two scorpions then melted into sand, disappearing with a stir of the breeze.
As Carpet landed. Jasmine stepped off, recovering her breath. "We did it, they're gone for good." But then she looked over her shoulder at Genie, who still lay motionless on the sands just beyond the lake. She rushed over to his side, with Carpet following not far behind.
"Genie, please, you have to wake up." She shook him by the shoulders, but his body was limp.
"Is there anything you can think of that we can wake him with?" Jasmine asked. Carpet shrugged, but looked remorseful as his knobs hung low. Then Jasmine's eyes widened at another realization in her mind. If Genie was in this deep of a sleep, then Aladdin had to be...
Aladdin, where are you?
Jatika's plan was going along better than he anticipated as he crafted a ball of magic that extracted Aladdin's fear smoothly. The fear, drawn toward Jatika, danced in the air in colorful waves that were similar to the extraction Jatika performed before on Aladdin and the tiger when he'd attacked them as Jafar.
Aladdin seemed to struggle against the extraction, even while in sleep, but the imp knew how futile that was. The battle between them in Aladdin's nightmare wasn't on the Prince of Agrabah's side, and he was just getting started.
But Jatika realized that the battle the scorpions had waged with Genie, Jasmine, and their magic carpet had come to an end prematurely. He hated the abrupt change, but he saw no hinderance in leaving Aladdin's fear extraction to finish itself. The imp would use his newfound powers to put Agrabah under a progressive sleeping spell while he went to deal with the Princess personally.
The other good thing was that the Genie was now a part of the extraction process, and thus having his own nightmare. At least Jatika's sand scorpion beasts had been good for that much. The imp could feel his power growing ten times more.
"The only thing that means," Jatika said aloud, addressing Aladdin, "is that I wouldn't have to kill you, now that I could easily feed on the fear from the Genie. That would sustain me for a while, given his power. But why stop the process?" The imp grinned while leaving the hovering ball of power over Aladdin's form to finish his work for him. "At least you can find comfort in that you'll never wake again, Aladdin. Not to see your kingdom put under sleep, nor your friends destroyed."
Jatika checked once more over Aladdin's sleeping form, before turning and sending another ball of magic into the sky. The ball drifted a bit, then shot straight toward Agrabah.
"What's takin' 'em so long?" Iago said, marching in a circle on the balcony leading out from Jasmine's room. Rajah was on the balcony, resting his head between his paws, looking over the Agrabah skyline with concern. Abu pet the tiger on the head, as if to comfort Rajah from being too lonely without either Jasmine or Aladdin being there. Though he wasn't too far from being lonely himself.
But they all gave a start when they saw, on the outskirts of the city, a glowing orb of light, about as large as the crowns atop the palace's pillars.
"What is that thing?" Iago said, squinting his eyes as he looked upon the light that hovered in midair. It stayed on the outskirts, hovering in air, but then seemed to divide itself into three other pieces - each the same size as the original. Two of the pieces spread out, as if to measure just the size of the city, while the other two shot through the sky, past the palace's pillars beyond where either of them could see.
"Is it just me, or does it look like those light thingamajigs are surrounding the city?" Iago asked wearily.
"I dunno," Abu answered. Rajah looked just as confused, purring in low tones.
"I think we might wanna warn the Sultan, just in case this gets bad." Iago flew ahead of them into the interior of the palace, Abu and Rajah following close behind.
It was when they were able to exit Jasmine's chamber that they heard the yells of startled guards from down the corridor. Abu screeched as he saw several guards rushing toward them. "Bad, bad!" The monkey pointed behind the fleeing guards.
Iago's eyes widened as he saw what the guards were running from - a fast moving cloud of darkness, weaving in a mist-like dance, cascading and swerving through the hallway. The smoke was fast, getting thicker and rushing faster with each sweep.
"Protect the Sultan!" Razoul called. Rajah, Iago, and Abu were already ahead of him, but Iago lingered behind long enough to fly level with Razoul's pace.
"Ya mind telling me what exactly we're running from?" Iago gestured behind him.
"I do not know, bird, but I know that it took out a bunch of my men with just one swoop. We have to get to the Sultan to get him out of the palace. That smoke is toxic."
"Toxic?" Iago looked behind him again as he flew ahead. Two of the guards were slower than the smoke. Just as the smoke billowed around them, Iago saw them fall. One of the men even reached out his hand beyond the cloud, before it slumped to the floor, swallowed by the smoke rushing forward.
"Okay, that's enough warning for me. RUUUUN!" Iago pumped his wings faster, speeding up. Abu gripped Rajah's fur as he rode on the tiger's back. Rajah had an easier time turning corners than the guards did, pushing off the walls, his muscles rippling along his back.
It wasn't long before two more guards in Razoul's company were caught by the smoke and brought to their knees before collapsing to the palace floor.
Even Abu noticed Razoul's fear as the head of the guard looked over his shoulder at his fallen men. But not long enough to slow his pace running away.
It wasn't long before the Sultan came out of a nearby room in the palace, just ahead of where Abu, Iago, Rajah and Razoul were running.
The Sultan's eyes widened as he saw them rushing toward him. "I daresay, what's all the fuss...whoa!"
Razoul didn't take the time to explain as he scooped the Sultan in his arms and ran as fast as he could towards the exit of the palace.
The Sultan's eyes widened as he saw the smoke rushing from behind them. It whipped like sand whipping through a sandstorm. It seemed to hesitate, gather, and then spread in a billowing push toward them.
Iago pumped his wings faster than he'd ever done in his life, until they reached the Palace courtyard.
Rajah, Abu, Iago, Razoul and the Sultan stopped long enough to see smoke tumbling from the windows and balconies like water from a fountain.
"I've never seen such a grand display," The Sultan said, struggling to catch his breath.
"Uh, less time marveling, more time moving!" Iago complained. "At least after I catch a breath."
Abu whimpered, slumping into Rajah's soft downy fur. But while Rajah's fur was soft, the tiger's stance was not. A low menacing growl escaped from the tiger's body as he watched the smoke gathering around the palace in swirls. It seemed to have stopped its advance toward them, but it hovered around the palace in a misty shell.
"So, has it stopped chasin' us?" Iago asked.
"It seems it has for now," Razoul said. "We can't go back in there for any of the men that have fallen in that haze. Lest we would put ourselves into the same slumber."
"You mean we're the only ones who made it out?"
The Sultan's shoulders slumped. "It seems so, Iago. What happened?"
"From what I've seen, your majesty," Razoul said. "It was a ball of light that suddenly situated itself on the outside of the palace. It exploded into the smoke you're seeing now. It seems to have a will of its own, grabbing and wrapping whatever it can reach and varying in speed. Every man of mine it covered - they succumbed to something of a sleeping illness."
"That's one weird way to kill insomnia," Iago muttered, but when Abu scolded him in a series of screeches, Iago shrugged. "I never said it was my choice for a sleep aid. I'd prefer somethin' a little less, uh, dramatic! And while we're at it, less traumatic!"
Sultan's brow furrowed. "But whose foul trickery is this?"
"I told ya before, and I'm sayin' it again, it's Jafar! " Iago shouted. "This is not the night I was hopin' for. It's a nightmare!"
Razoul caught the reflection of something in his sword, which caused him to turn to his side. He saw another orb of light that seemed to flicker a distance away, in the same pulse it had just before it'd exploded.
Razoul stiffened, and he turned to the group in a shout. "Quickly! You must get out of the city! It's going to...!"
Then the orb exploded in a mix of light and swirling darkness.