Princess Fantasy D X-2
A/N: I have never been inspired enough to write stories about any fanart before, until I saw the work of deviantart artist Skirtzzz, specifically her Final Fantasy Disney Dressphere series. With her blessing, this will be another part of a series of final scene rewrites, using the powers of the dresspheres to possibly change the script, or failing that, make the scene worthy of a Final Fantasy series. Replicating the feel for such an incredible franchise will be a challenge, but I swear I'll do my best!
If you haven't seen any of the movies or their endings, this could be a little spoilerific, but if you have or don't mind, hang on for the ride!
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.
The Bengali Beast
Even from the perspective of a little kitten, the situation seemed about as hopeless as it could get.
The kingdom was in the hands of a megalomaniac, the being of magic that had got them all into this problem was also in the hands of said megalomaniac, both the Sultan and his daughter were in shackles, and the one person that could've possibly gotten them all out of this mess had literally been blown to the ends of the earth. And to top it all off, he had been turned from the big strapping beast of a tiger he once was to this runt of a tiger kitten.
Rajah irritably pawed at the bars of the birdcage that Jafar had ignominously thrown him in when he took over the palace. Said birdcage now stood in a corner of the mutated throne room. From his little perch, he could see everything that was happening.
The evil vizier-turned-Sultan/sorcerer Jafar was lounging on a new throne shaped like a cobra's head, holding his signature snake staff in hand. Chains attached to said staff kept Rajah's mistress Princess Jasmine shackled to him, her face a picture of despair in her red slave girl outfit. The blue form of the Genie looked equally forlorn as he slumped at the other side of the throne.
Jafar's insidious magic had turned Jasmine's father, the real Sultan Hamed, into a life-sized marionette puppet, suspended from a wooden frame that hung in mid-air. Currently, Jafar's pet and sidekick, the loudmouthed red parrot Iago, was antagonizing him by stuffing crackers into his mouth, like the Sultan constantly did to him before.
"Puppet ruler want a cracker?" jeered Iago as he crammed more crackers into the Sultan's mouth, helpless as he was to resist. " Here's your cracker! Shove 'em all down your throat! Here, have lots of crackers!"
"Stop it!" cried Jasmine at her father's plight. "Jafar, leave him alone!" she pleaded to a chuckling Jafar.
Although clearly taking delight at the situation, the tall, thin man nonetheless gestured for Iago to stop. With a snort, the parrot shoved the remaining crackers into Hamed's mouth and flew away.
Idly, Jafar tugged on his staff, pulling the chained Jasmine closer to him with an apple in her hands. "It pains me to see you reduced to this, Jasmine," he said patronizingly, taking a bite of the apple and spraying bits everywhere. Jasmine disgustedly wiped a fleck off her cheek.
The man didn't even bother apologizing, preoccupied as he was staring at her none too innocently. "A beautiful desert bloom such as yourself should be on the arm of the most powerful man in the world." With a tug, her chains glowed with light and morphed into a crown of solid gold, floating in the palm of his hand.
Jasmine's eyes widened when she saw it. Up in his cage, Rajah hissed furiously at the traitorous vizier.
"What do you say, my dear?" he inquired, the look in his eyes more predatory than anything else. "Why, with you as my queen…"
While Jasmine was slowly reeling back at his words, her hand closed around a glass goblet of wine on a nearby table. Without a second thought, she brought it up and flung the red liquid into his face. "Never!"
"Gah!" groaned Jafar as the alcohol stung his eyes. He bared his teeth at the impudence and raised his fist. "I'll teach you some respect!" Jasmine stumbled back in fright and fell backwards, knocking over a vase in the process.
The idea of physically disciplining the insolent girl chased itself around Jafar's mind for a moment, before something else came to mind. "No…" he murmured, a slow grin spreading over his face. "Genie…"
The blue being hunched over on the throne steps flinched as his name was called.
"I have decided to make my final wish," said Jafar, picking up the Genie's lamp. "I wish… for Princess Jasmine to fall desperately in love with me…"
Under her copper skin, Jasmine all but blanched.
For his part, the Genie's expression looked like a normal man that was asked to spin straw into gold. "Uh, Master…" he spoke up in an odd tone, with his face changing shape slightly, "with the wishes, there are a few addendas… some quid pro quo…"
"Don't talk back to me, you big blue lout!" snarled Jafar, storming up to him and yanking on his goatee. "You will do what I order you to do, slave!"
Rajah could see clearly Jasmine's dismayed expression, but suddenly her eyes widened like she had seen something. Rajah turned to look, and saw, to his utmost surprise, Aladdin, his monkey Abu and the flying Magic Carpet creep in through a window.
"Jafar?" suddenly crooned Jasmine in a very sultry tone, causing both Jafar and Genie to turn, wide-eyed, towards the princess. Her eyes were smoldering sinfully as she reached down, picked up the gold circlet, and placed it on her head. "I never realized how… incredibly handsome you are."
Genie's jaw dropped open to his waist.
Jafar's stunned expression lasted only for a moment, before he slowly grinned. "That's better," he said, tugging on Genie's beard so that his jaw flipped up like a shade, before placing the lamp back on the throne and stalking towards Jasmine. "Now, pussycat, tell me more about… myself."
Rajah cringed as Jasmine started to flatter him in a breathy voice that she'd never used before. Genie stared in sheer disbelief, before he noticed movement behind him, and he turned to see Aladdin drop from the window and down a long curtain to the floor, before hiding behind a wall.
"Al! Al, little buddy, you're –" he started to say.
"Shhh!" hissed Aladdin. Genie clamped his mouth shut, and then zipped it closed for good measure. He darted over to Aladdin and tried to say something, but the zip obviously prevented that.
"Al," he whispered once he unzipped his mouth again, "I can't help you; I work for Señor Psychopath now." He turned his head into Jafar's and back for emphasis. "What're you gonna do?"
"Hey, I'm a street rat, remember?" Aladdin replied, zipping Genie's mouth shut again. "I'll improvise."
With Genie watching nervously and Abu and Carpet creeping along the wall, Aladdin darted out, swiftly and silently clambering over and around the piles of treasure towards the throne, where the Genie's lamp rested. Jasmine, keeping up her act, wound her arms around Jafar's neck, beckoning Aladdin closer behind his back.
As Aladdin crossed the throne room, however, he failed to notice Iago lounging on a gold perch sticking out of one of the piles of gold. The macaw looked up from his bowl of fruit to see the thief creeping along the wall, and he gasped. "JAF…mmph!" Before he could raise the alarm, Abu dropped down behind him and wrapped his furry arms around his beak.
Only partially aware of the skirmish behind him, Aladdin made his way to the throne and crouched behind it, out of Jafar's line of sight if he happened to turn around. Jafar was completely absorbed in Jasmine's act, drawing closer to her with every moment, and although she was probably mortified on the inside, she did not let it show for a moment.
Aladdin's fingers slowly reached over the throne, towards the lamp, ignoring the muffled scuffle between the two animals growing more and more frantic. His fingers were just inches away from the lamp's spout…
The silence was split by the fight knocking Iago's fruit bowl off the perch, to land with a clatter on the floor. Jafar whirled around to see what it was, but in a last ditch attempt to keep his attention, Jasmine grabbed his robes, pulled him back around to face her, and planted a kiss right on his old lips.
Aladdin gave a muffled gasp. Iago and Abu stared in abject horror for a second, before both of them recoiled in disgust. "Yecchh!"
Mercifully, the kiss ended in after a few seconds. Although still smiling, Jasmine was trying to squash her feelings of revulsion, while the oblivious Jafar had a satisfied smirk on his face.
"That was…" his voice suddenly trailed off and his eyes gained a spark of suspicion, before widening in horror.
In the reflection of Jasmine's tiara, he had spotted Aladdin. Jasmine was gripped with dread when she saw the look in his eyes.
"YOU!" he snarled, whirling around to catch Aladdin red-handed, his fingers nearly touching the lamp. Desperately, Aladdin lunged for it, but a blast of magic from Jafar's cobra cane sent him flying back into a pile of treasure. "How many times do I have to kill you, boy?!"
Jasmine immediately grabbed for his staff, but Jafar easily overpowered her and tossed her aside. But that gave Aladdin enough time to recover and attack Jafar, both struggling with his staff. "Get the lamp!" he shouted back at Jasmine.
"No!" shouted Jafar when he saw the princess scramble to her feet and dash for the throne. Shoving Aladdin away, he sent a spell bolt streaking at her, catching her just as she got hold of the lamp. "Ah, ah, Princess! Your time is up!"
Aladdin leapt at him and knocked him flat on his back, but looked back in horror to see Jasmine go flying, trapped inside a giant conjured hourglass. As it landed on the ground with Jasmine stuck in the bottom chamber, sand began pouring from the full top bulb onto her.
"Ooh, nice shot, Jafa…" Iago didn't have time to gloat before Abu bashed him over the head with the empty bowl. As the concussed bird collapsed, the monkey darted for the discarded lamp.
"Don't toy with me!" snarled Jafar, pushing Aladdin off him and grabbing for his staff again. Abu was only inches from the lamp before the sorcerer's next curse struck him dead-on, transforming him into a wind-up toy monkey clattering about on the floor.
"Abu!" Aladdin exclaimed in shock.
Carpet flew in next, grabbing the lamp off the ground, but it couldn't evade Jafar's next blast either. Almost instantly, it had unravelled into a pile of purple thread and gold tassels, even as the lamp kept skittering across the floor.
Jafar cackled as Aladdin made a break for the lamp. "Things are unravelling fast now, boy! Get the point?!"
Out of thin air, a line of razor-sharp scimitars dropped down to bury themselves in the ground, cutting the thief off from his prize. As he tried to reach through the fence, Jafar just started to casually stroll over to pick up the lamp.
Aladdin decided then if he couldn't reach the lamp, he'd just have to keep it away from Jafar. Yanking one of the swords free, he pitched it at the lamp. Jafar snatched his fingers away before they got severed, as the lamp was knocked away again across the floor.
"Why you…" Jafar turned to go after it, but had to duck as another flying sword nearly brained him. Knocking a third aside with his staff, he turned to where Aladdin was pulling out swords and hurling them at Jafar as fast as he could.
"You think you can cut me down to size?" Jafar sneered. His staff whirled like a propellor, shattering several swords and sending others flying everywhere. Rajah yowled as one of the blades, knocked aside with deadly force, struck the leg of his cage and up-ended it with a crash.
"You'll have to be sharper than that!" continued the sorcerer, freezing four blades in mid-air in front of his face. With a gesture of his staff, he flipped them over, and sent them hurtling back towards Aladdin. With reflexes honed from a lifetime on the streets, Aladdin yanked out the remaining two scimitars, one in each hand, and parried the flying blades, sparks flying from the clashing metal.
"For I'm just getting warmed up!" Jafar finished, breathing out. A wave of flame blew from his lips, wrapping around Aladdin and surrounding him in a ring of fire.
Aladdin's hands clenched around his weapons. "Are you afraid to fight me yourself, you cowardly snake?" he yelled.
"A snake, am I?" Like an ifrit from legend, Jafar stepped through the flames as they failed to even touch him, eyes glittering at the challenge. "Perhaps you'd like to see how sssssssnake-like I can be!"
Aladdin gaped as Jafar suddenly extended a reptilian forked tongue, then his eyes turned red with slitted pupils, and finally his entire body exploded into the flared hood, fanged mouth and long thick body of a monstrous, oversized cobra. Aladdin quickly found himself in the middle of the reptile's coils as the ring of flame turned into Jafar's long tail surrounding him.
Groaning, Rajah lifted his head. The fall to the ground had stunned him for a moment, but as his vision straightened itself, the feline's eyes widened when he saw, just outside the dented bars of his cage, the Genie's lamp from where it had slid during the fight!
The tiger cub didn't waste any time squeezing through the bars and pouncing on the lamp. As he dragged it away behind a pillar, the blue form of Genie suddenly materialized next to him.
"You did it, fluffy, you did it!" he exclaimed (quietly, so that Jafar wouldn't notice). "One big saucer of milk for you tonight! Now, one wish from you and we are out of this mess!"
Rajah mewled and growled at him, only for Genie to look at him in confusion. "I'm sorry, what?" Rajah repeated the same sequence of sounds, but Genie still shook his head, rummaging around his back before coming up empy. "I knew I should've packed my Cat-Arabic dictionary…" he groaned.
In an instant, Rajah found himself wearing an odd helmet with blinking lights that nearly buried him beneath it, which was linked to a similar helmet on Genie's head by wires. "Alright then, kitty, growl away."
Once again, Rajah let out the same series of growls. This time, Genie nodded. "You wish to think and speak like a human? Well, why didn't you say so?"
Two bolts of light flashed from Genie's hands into Rajah's body, who shuddered as the light melded into his body. A few seconds later, he opened his mouth, but instead of mewls, a child's boyish voice came out. "Finally, I can talk!" The cub paused and opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Speaking feels funny," he commented. "I don't know how humans enjoy it."
"Well, that's great, but enough of the talky-talky!" Genie hissed. "Now that I can understand you, I need to know your second wish! Hurry before we're notice–"
"GENIE!" suddenly came a deafening hiss, and both of them looked up to see cobra-Jafar glaring angrily at him, even as his tail swatted Aladdin aside. "Trying to go behind my back, ssslave?"
"Uh-oh," mumbled Genie.
"The hairballs will be worth getting rid of that little pesssst!" Hood flared out, Jafar dove for Genie and Rajah, mouth open in a wide, fang-lined cackle. Jasmine gave a muffled scream behind the glass, now nearly waist-deep in the sand pile
"He's coming! He's coming!" panicked Genie. "Hurry, furball, I need your wish! Wish for a meteor, wish for a mongoose, wish for a snakeskin purse, but just wish something!"
"I…" Rajah didn't even have time to phrase his wish before the reptile was upon them. An inch from being swallowed, he shouted out the first thing that came to mind.
"I wish that I and Jasmine were strong enough to defeat Jafar!"
A giant plume of blue smoke erupted on impact as the pillar collapsed into a cloud of dust.
"For Pete's sake, you overgrown furball!" coughed Genie, stumbling out of the cloud and waving smoke out of his eyes. "You were supposed to wish for Jafar to be gone, not… that!"
"Well, excuse me for not being able to think that fast," growled a new voice, similar to the tiger's first voice, but aged into a rumbling bass. "But if you ask me, this was the better choice…"
A huge shape prowled out of the cloud. "… because now I get to tear Jafar apart with my bare claws."
No longer a puny kitten, Rajah was now the fully grown tiger he once was, but looking more extraordinary than ever. The only thing tiger-like about his colors now were his black stripes and white belly, as every bit of orange fur was now replaced with dawn-golds, lavenders and every shade of leaf-green, sky-blue and ultramarine in between, blending seamlessly into each other. He looked like a beast of legend that had pulled itself from the sky and landscape of a faraway forest.
The tiger's claws were extended and his tail was twitching, but within his golden eyes was the spark of something more than just predatory animal instinct… something resembling human intelligence and cunning.
Jafar drew his snake head out of the cloud to glare hatefully at the technicolor tiger. "Sssstrong enough to beat me, you say? I'd like to see you try!" Fangs bared, he whipped his head down, but in a burst of speed, Rajah leapt high into the air, avoided the gnashing teeth, and raked his claws along the side of Jafar's hood.
"Aaargh!" howled the giant cobra, writhing in pain. Rajah landed deftly on the ground and darted across the courtroom, avoiding Jafar's thrashing tail, past a rapidly recovering Aladdin, and towards the hourglass. Only Jasmine's hand was sticking out of the pile of sand at this point, and it was only a matter of time before she got smothered.
"Hold on, Jasmine!" rumbled Rajah. "Rajah Roar!" Planting his paws, he sucked in a deep breath and let loose with a deafening roar that shook dust from the ceiling and caused the nearby piles of gold to collapse. Under the punishing pressure of the sound, the glass shuddered, vibrated, cracked, and finally imploded in a shower of glass. The sand spilled out in a small torrent, pulling Jasmine along with it.
Gasping for air, Jasmine pulled herself to her feet, brushing off glass and sand from her outfit… then suddenly paused and took a closer look at what she was wearing. Aladdin darted over, his expression one of relief… which changed to one of confusion when he too saw her new outfit.
"Jasmine… where did those clothes come from?"
"I… I'm not sure…" said Jasmine, staring down at her clothes. She was thankfully longer wearing her red slave outfit, but instead was wearing a bodice-like tunic laced up in the front with violet thread, voluminous, detached, full-arm sleeves linked by a collar of shoulder straps, a leg-hugging, full-length skirt bound by crossing bands of green cloth, and a purple-strapped headband fitted with a circular jewel. The entire ensemble was colored in pale greens, lavenders, and dark purples, making her look more radiant than ever.
"That would be my doing," said Rajah, padding up to her. "Jasmine, it is good to see you free."
"R-Rajah?" stammered Jasmine, staring at her pet in shock. "How… how are you able to talk?"
"I made two wishes on the Genie's lamp, for me to be able to think and speak like a human, and for you and I to become strong enough to defeat Jafar," answered Rajah. "That man's insanity cannot be allowed to destroy our home."
"Speaking of wishes…" Aladdin spoke up, "where is the lamp?"
"Heh, heh, heh," Jafar's chuckling caught their attention. "Looking for thisssss?" As the three of them looked up at the giant snake, he flicked out his forked tongue, and everyone's eyes widened in dismay to see the lamp hanging from the tongue by its handle.
"Oh, that's just great," muttered Aladdin.
"You pathetic fools!" snarled Jafar. "Even with all your ssso-called power, you cannot hope to defeat the strongest sorcerer in the world!"
"How about we test that?" answered Rajah. "Jasmine, I cannot face Jafar by myself. I need your help and your guidance. My wish was for the both of us to gain the power to defeat him, so will you walk alongside me?"
"You don't even need to ask," replied Jasmine easily, hopping onto Rajah's back. "Let's get this guy out of our kingdom once and for all!"
Rajah gave a titanic roar and lunged into battle. Jafar stabbed down at him with two large fangs, but the tiger leapt out of the way and landed on the snake's coils. Jasmine closed her eyes, as a pulse of magic ran through her fingertips and into Rajah, transmitting her instructions into him.
"Rajah Razor!" he snarled, raising one forepaw and extending six shimmering claws, which he drove down into Jafar's scaly hide. The snake reared up in a pained shriek.
"You dare… gah!" his words were cut off in another screech as Aladdin slashed at his body. He made to whip his tail at the thief, but another swipe from Rajah's claws made his swing go wide, and Aladdin managed to roll under its attack. The giant snake whipped his head between his two targets, trying to decide which one to attack first.
Finally his eyes locked on Aladdin and he lashed out. Aladdin barely avoided one snap of Jafar's jaws, but the second almost took his head off and he went sprawling across the floor.
"Should've known you'd take the easy way out, coward!" said Rajah. "Rajah…"
"Rajah, jump now!" Jasmine suddenly yelled, looking behind her. Involuntarily, Rajah leapt off and away, moments before Jafar's remaining coils flexed and constricted in on the space he was standing.
"Almost had me there," snorted the tiger as he began his descent, and sensing Jasmine's next instruction. "But not quite! Rajah Inferno!" All four of his paws alit with blue fire, and when he made contact, raked a metre-long burning gouge into Jafar's neck.
Once again, Jafar howled in agony. "You annoying pest!" Even as Rajah leapt down to the ground, red smoke started to billow from the wound, rising higher and higher in a pluming tower. Then, it all blew away to reveal, to everyone's horror, a second giant snake head growing alongside the first.
"Hahaha!" both heads cackled with Jafar's own voice. "Have you already forgotten about my powers as a sorcerer?" Both heads whipped down again, cratering the ground where they landed and nearly crushing both Rajah and Aladdin. The former landed lightly on his feet a short distance away, but Aladdin ended up landing so hard one of his swords flew out of his hands.
The head that was facing Rajah grinned, before swinging around and darting for Aladdin again, as the second head reared up for a larger attack. Jasmine gasped when she saw the snake head about to swallow Aladdin up in one gulp.
"Aladdin!" she cried.
"Don't worry, Jasmine," answered Rajah. "Rajah Guard!" The tiger's blue fur shimmered with white light for a moment, before a similar shimmering effect surrounded Aladdin in a translucent dome. Jafar's attacking head clashed against the dome, which shuddered violently, but failed to break through.
Jafar hissed in aggravation and brought his second head down like a hammer, fangs bared. This time, when they made contact, the barrier only held up for a few moments before it shattered, but that was more than enough time for Aladdin to sidestep the strike, the head striking the ground beside him and the fangs digging into the stone.
Gritting his teeth in exertion, Aladdin stabbed one of his blades into the soft flesh beneath Jafar's eye. As Jafar writhed in pain, trying to retract his fangs, Aladdin dashed towards his open mouth, where the snake's long tongue was whipping around, the lamp swinging from it.
"I got it! I got it!" Aladdin shouted, poised to cut the snake's tongue off to get the lamp with his remaining sword. But seconds before he struck, Jafar managed to wrench his teeth free and retracted his tongue just in time. Aladdin just saw the lamp flick out of reach, before Jafar's swinging head caught him square in the chest.
The thief was knocked head over heels, his scimitar flying from his hand. Jafar was about to snap at him again, but he suddenly winced at a sharp pain in his tail. One head flicked around, but Jasmine and Rajah were nowhere to be seen.
"What?" he hissed, turning his other head around, both heads darting back and forth. "Where did you go?"
As Aladdin staggered to his feet for another time, he suddenly felt what seemed like a shadow dart past him, and Rajah's low voice speak out of thin air, "It's called Rajah Prowl. Just listen; Jasmine has a plan to possibly defeat Jafar."
Jasmine's voice appeared next. "If we could get Jafar out onto the balcony, Rajah has something that might send him toppling over the edge. Because we need to be in position to take him by surprise, we need you to lure him there."
"But what about the lamp?" Aladdin hissed under his breath, hoping Rajah's hearing was sharp enough to hear him without warning Jafar.
Rajah's reply was grim. "It'll be easier to take it from a body than right now. Besides, I don't recall Jafar saying he was immortal."
Aladdin was silent for just a second longer, before nodding resolutely. "Just give me a second to set everything up."
"Done." With that, Aladdin felt Rajah's presence dart off, before he bellowed, "Rajah Dash!" and he saw his stripy form briefly reappear, before it blurred off in a burst of speed. A second later, Jafar's two heads shrieked in succession as bloody gashes appeared on both hoods.
"Curse you, insect!" howled both heads in unison. "Stand still so I can squash you!"
As Aladdin retrieved his sword and started setting everything up, Rajah ran circles around Jafar, needle-like teeth snapping at his haunches and Jasmine holding on for dear life. Jafar's attacks never made contact, but as Rajah's magical boost slowly wore off, the gap between attacking and dodging was shrinking fast.
"Come on, Rajah," called Jasmine. "We just need more time!"
"I'm not through yet!" growled back the tiger, though his voice was slightly leaden with fatigue.
"Oh, is kitty cat finding it hard to breathe?" sneered Jafar. "How about I help it along?" Both heads leaned down and exhaled fitfully, breathing out plumes of cloying red smoke that surrounded the whole of his lower body. Jasmine broke out in a fit of coughing the moment she breathed in the sickening chemical, and Rajah huffed and snorted, sneezing as the smoke got in his nose.
Jafar head grinned as his heads honed in on the sound of coughing and the distortion of the smoke. His heavy tail whipped through the cloud and struck both tiger and rider square in the side, sending both of them flying out of the cloud and rolling along the ground.
Jasmine groaned and lifted her head. "R…Rajah… Are you… okay?" Even as the tiger growled an affirmative, Jafar slithered towards them, teeth glinting in a predatory grin.
"Hey, Jafar!" yelled Aladdin, and Jafar swiveled one head to eye the thief that was standing right in the middle of the courtroom in plain view, shaking his sword at him. "I'm the one you really want, and I'm right here!"
"Are you that impatient to be food, boy?" snarled the head that was looking at him. "I'll be with you in a moment!"
"You can take all the time you want, but you'll have to face the facts eventually!" Aladdin taunted. "If you couldn't defeat me during that big fight just now, you'll never beat me, ever!"
Now both heads were turned and glaring angrily at the thief. "Why you insolent…" Jafar's eyes were beginning to glaze over with rage. "One more word out of you and I'll–"
"You'll what? Cast some more useless spells at me that won't even hit?" jeered Aladdin. "Some all-powerful sorcerer you are! You had all the time in the world before, but I'm still standing here in one piece! I thought turning into a snake was supposed to make you faster, not slower! Or is that just your old age talking?"
"Rrrraaarrggh!" finally exploded Jafar. "Fine! If you want to die so bad, then I'll fix that mistake right now!" Whipping around, he surged for Aladdin, who immediately turned tail and sprinted for the balcony.
When Aladdin sensed Jafar had fully committed to the charge, he made his move. He leapt onto a large gem positioned on the ground in front of him, and used it to skate towards the entrance to the balcony. Flipping his sword around in his hand, he jammed it into the ground and used it as a pivot, swinging around and shooting off sharply to the right.
"What the –" Jafar was caught off guard by the sudden change in direction and crashed through the too-small opening to the balcony, breaking out into open air. Frantically, he bunched up his coils to try and arrest his momentum, and prevent himself from toppling off the balcony entirely.
Aladdin rolled off the gemstone and landed deftly on his feet. "Now, Jasmine!"
By now, Jasmine and Rajah had recovered and were back on their feet, facing the balcony. "All right, Rajah!" Jasmine said sharply to her pet, one hand on her collar. "It's time for this tiger to take his prey by its tail!"
Rajah's blue-tone fur was coruscating so much it looked like he was made of lightning. His eyes were bright as he bellowed his final attack.
"Rajah Savagery!"
As Jasmine's order synchronized with his being, he bolted for the flailing Jafar, paws leaving smoking footprints in the stone floor. As he ran, his form shimmered, blurred, and suddenly split into nine different tiger-shaped silhouettes, all charging at the transformed sorcerer with a combined roar.
Before Jafar knew it, they were on him, leaping all over his body and biting, clawing and tearing at every bit of snake flesh they could reach. He tried vainly to defend himself, but his two heads could barely keep up with nine different points of attack, and biting at a silhouette only resulted in a painful feedback jolt into his skull as his target dissolved into a million blue sparks, only to reform a moment later elsewhere to continue its attack. With every injury the tigers landed on him, Jafar's body was forced farther and farther out over the balcony to avoid them.
Finally, with a roar that sounded like a entire sky-full of thunder, all the silhouettes converged, melded back into one beast again, and the reformed Rajah rammed into Jafar's trunk like a literal bolt of lightning. The giant reptile gave one last screech as his form finally overbalanced and toppled over the balcony, falling out of sight.
Aladdin rounded the corner just in time to see Jafar's body fall off the side of the palace out of view. Although exhausted, he still thrust both hands into the air. "Yes!"
"Aladdin!" Jasmine cried, running up to him and leaping into his arms. "We did it!"
"Yeah… yeah, I guess we did," Aladdin said sheepishly, before looking at Rajah padding up to them. "But if you ask me, the big guy here deserves the credit."
Rajah was about to say something, when Genie appeared next to him. "Hallelujah, Rajah, big fella! You did it! So what do you want as a reward? Smoked salmon? Cod in lemon sauce? Snapper? Halibut? Shark fin soup?" Multiple platters appeared in his hands, each loaded with the dish in question.
"Not now, Genie," answered Rajah, the magical being vanishing the plates in surprise. "We're not finished yet. Until we get the lamp back from Jafar's body and wish this whole mess back to normal, we don't have time for relaxing."
"I suppose you're right, Rajah," Aladdin conceded, "but I wouldn't worry too much. Like you said, Jafar never wished to be immortal, and even if he was, he can't stand up to you and Jasmine. I mean, comparing him to someone given even more power by the Genie; the only way he could be on top is if he was the Genie!"
Rajah opened his mouth to comment on that, when a malicious cackling reached their ears. Everyone spun around in horror, to see Jafar shooting up on a platform of crackling red magic from wherever he fell, his snake staff in one hand and Genie's lamp in the other. He looked in a state of disarray with his robes and turban tattered and askew, but the evil grin was still as malevolent as ever.
"How very inspiring, street rat!" he crowed. "I could not have come up with a better idea myself!"
Jasmine gasped. "No!" Rajah snarled and lunged for the treacherous man, but a wave of his cobra staff generated a rush of desert wind that blew him off to one side.
"Slave!" he barked, raising the lamp. "I make my third wish! I wish to be… an all-powerful GENIE!"
Genie cringed, but had no choice. "I can't watch," he groaned, as he aimed his finger at Jafar and fired.
The bolt of magic struck Jafar in an instant, and almost immediately he began to change, dropping the gold lamp to the balcony in the process. With bolts of energy crackling over his body, his skin turned blood-red, all his robes and adornments vanished, and he grew larger, and larger, and larger still, until he towered above the palace, rising to the sky on a lower body made of an otherworldly tornado. "Yessss…" he rumbled in an echoing, unholy tone, reveling in his new form, "the power… the absolute POWER!"
"What have you done?!" shouted a panicked Jasmine at Aladdin. "Do you know what he is capable of now as a genie?!"
Aladdin was kicking himself for saying such a stupid thing when he heard Jasmine's question… and the ridiculously obvious answer made him blink in realization. He looked around for what should be around somewhere… and grinned when he saw it. "Actually… yes, I do."
Above their heads, Jafar was whipping the sky into a frenzy as he watched the stars move themselves to his whims and actions. "The universe is mine to command… to CONTROL!" he laughed maniacally, drunk with the feeling of the power to reshape reality.
"Not so fast, Jafar! Aren't you forgetting something?" shouted Aladdin from far below him, watching as Jafar paused and looked down at him. "You wanted to be a Genie? You got it!"
Out of nowhere, gold shackles appeared on Jafar's wrists, and the stars started to realign themselves, as if all his new power was suddenly out of his reach. "What?!" he gasped.
"And everything that goes with it!" Aladdin finished, holding up a lamp made of black iron, from which Jafar's new body was emanating from. All at once, the tornado that was holding the new Genie aloft reversed direction, turning into a vortex that dragged him down into his new home/prison.
"No!" he howled. "NOOOOO!"
In the midst of the commotion, Iago regained consciousness and saw what was happening to his master. "I'm getting out of here!" he squawked, taking off. "I'm no genie, I'm not going… aaawwk!" Unfortunately for him, he flew right past the descending Jafar, who grabbed onto his tail feathers in a desperate attempt to escape. But all he succeeded succeeded in doing was dragging his minion down with him.
"Phenomenal cosmic powers…" Aladdin said the words Genie had told him all those days ago, watching as both genie and bird vanished into the depths of the black lamp.
"… itty bitty living space."
"Al, you little genius, you!" crowed Genie, ruffling the young man's hair in excitement. "I can't believe I forgot that would happen!"
"Honestly, Genie," Aladdin shrugged sheepishly, "I almost did too."
Around them, with their instigator defeated, all of Jafar's curses began to lift. The wind-up toy poofed back into a flesh-and-blood Abu, and the pile of thread weaved itself back into Carpet. Sultan Hamed was back in his Sultan's robe and no longer hung from floating strings, and the entire palace soon reappeared in its place before the city of Agrabah.
When everything had finally died down, Aladdin glanced down at the lamp, where the sounds of Jafar and Iago squabbling could be heard. Genie looked down at it as well, and shared a knowing glance with Aladdin. "Allow me," he said, taking it from Aladdin.
Walking to the edge of the balcony, he grew to three times his normal size, put on a cloth cap and drew back his hand. "Ten thousand years in the Cave of Wonders ought to chill him out!" he shouted, winding up for a truly tremendous throw… before using his finger to flick the black lamp into the desert and over the horizon in a stream of magical sparkles.
Aladdin and Jasmine watched the lamp disappear from view, before noticing that they had involuntarily joined hands. Aladdin took a deep breath, preparing to face the music. "Jasmine," he said to her, "I'm sorry I lied to you about being a prince."
Jasmine's face was equally melancholy. "I know why you did."
Genie's face was teary as he watched the exchange. Aladdin closed his eyes, knowing that as a penniless beggar, he would never be allowed to stay. "Well, I guess… this… is goodbye…"
The princess angrily swiped away her own tears. "Oh, that stupid law! This isn't fair!" She looked deeply into his eyes. "I love you."
The magical blue being dried his eyes. "Hey, Al, no problem; you still got one wish left!" he spoke up. "Just say the word, and you're a prince again!"
"But Genie, what about your freedom?" asked Aladdin, not believing that Genie would give up his dream for his own.
"Hey, it's only an eternity of servitude," shrugged the Genie. "This is love." He shrank back down to their level, and gestured to Jasmine. "Al, you're not going to another girl like her in a million years. Believe me, I've looked."
"Well then, it's a good thing I've still got one wish left too," suddenly said Rajah, pushing the lamp up to them with his paws, "and you know I'd do anything for Jasmine." He placed a paw on the lamp. "Genie, for my third wish, I wish Aladdin was a pr–"
"Wait, Rajah," Aladdin interjected, stepping towards the sentient tiger. "I know you mean well, but I can't let you do this." At Rajah's confused look, he explained. "I love Jasmine with all my heart, but I'm me. My past as a street rat is part of who I am. If I become a prince, then I won't be worthy of Jasmine's love, because I would just be pretending to be something I'm not, something other than the man she loves."
He glanced back at Jasmine. "Don't you think so?"
Jasmine nodded quietly. "I do."
Witnessing the exchange, Genie sniffled, taking the form of a middle-aged female clutching a box of conjured tissues. "Oh, that's so beautiful…" (s)he murmured, "Never… in all my years… have I ever, ever, had a master as selfless as you!" (S)he rather wetly blew his/her nose.
Rajah's feline smile was beatific. "Jasmine is lucky to love a man like you, and for you to love her back. Then allow my final wish to ensure that the bond the two of you share will never sever."
"Whoa, hold on there, kitty," Genie interrupted, poofing behind the tiger. "I don't know if you got the memo, but making people fall in love? That's one of the "almosts" on a Genie's magic. 'Fraid I can't help you there."
Rajah blinked, but didn't lose his smile. "Then it's a good thing there's nothing stopping you from keeping people in love, right?" He looked down at the lamp still under his paw. "I wish that the love Aladdin and Jasmine share shall never be broken through any means, lawful, emotional or magical."
"… shall never be broken through any means, lawful, emotional or magical…" muttered Genie, now dressed in a strange black suit and writing something down in a notebook. Slipping on a pair of strange heart-shaped glasses, he reread his notes, grinning. "Don't see any exploitable loopholes; as your attorney, I can say that your wish shall net you the perfect outcome!"
He flipped the notebook around and pointed it at Aladdin and Jasmine, and a stream of pink magic flew out of it to surround the two of them. In that instant, the two of them felt more drawn together than ever before, like nothing short of a heavenly decree could tear their love apart.
Rajah settled down, looking pleased with himself. "Well, that should take care of that," he said. "No offense to the Sultan, but he's going to have to make a new law if he wants to make his daughter happy."
"Honestly, Rajah, do you really think so little of me?" spoke up the Sultan as he trotted past the tiger to look at the couple, who had not let go of each other. "As far as I'm concerned, this young man here has proved his worth for you several times over. It's just that law that's the problem."
"Father?" said Jasmine, her heart filling with hope.
Hamed chuckled. "Well, am I Sultan or am I Sultan?" He raised his hand officially. "From this day forth, the princess shall marry whomever she deems worthy."
A smile bright enough to light up the night sky emerged on Jasmine's face, and instantly leapt into Aladdin's arms. "Him!" she cried as he spun her around in joy. "I choose… I choose you, Aladdin."
Aladdin gave a mild laugh. "Call me, 'Al'."
The two of them leaned in to kiss, but Aladdin quickly stopped himself. "Hold it," he said, picking up Genie's lamp. "I still have a promise to keep." As Jasmine smiled in response, he held the lamp aloft, facing a Genie who couldn't keep the disbelieving look off his face.
"Please don't let this be a dream… please don't let this be a dream…" he kept saying to himself.
Aladdin put that to rest. "Genie, I wish for your freedom."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the lamp glowed brightly, floated from Aladdin's hands and emitted a plume of shimmering blue smoke that swirled around Genie like a miniature tornado. The blue being twitched and shuddered as the magic surged around and through him, his body sparking with pink and blue flickers of light.
Finally in a burst of energy, all the light vanished from around him, and the gold shackles around Genie's wrists broke off and vanished. The lamp ceased to glow and clattered to the ground, as an incredulous Genie picked it up.
"I… I'm free…" he mumbled numbly. "I'm free."
Still in shock, he placed the lamp back in Aladdin's hands. "Quick, quick, wish for something outrageous. Say… 'I want the Nile.' Wish for the Nile; try that!"
"Uh… I wish for the Nile," Aladdin repeated.
"NO WAY!" Genie bellowed in Aladdin's face, before laughing hysterically, literally bouncing off the walls in excitement. "Oh, does that feel good! I'm free! I'm free at last!" He grabbed a suitcase out of nowhere and started stuffing things into it. "I'm hitting the road! I'm off to see the world! I'm…"
He paused mid-sentence when he looked down, and saw Aladdin's wistful expression, and the consequence of him leaving finally registered.
"Genie, I'm…" Aladdin cleared his throat, which had choked up all of a sudden. "I'm going to miss you."
"Me too, Al," Genie said, threatening to tear up again. "No matter what anybody says, you'll always be a prince to me."
"And me too," Jasmine added, walking up to Genie with Rajah at her side. "Thank you so much, Genie. I know it's been hard, but I'm so glad everything worked out in the end."
"Indeed," Rajah said. "We've certainly never had a friend like you."
Jasmine laughed, ruffling Rajah's head affectionately, but just then, both princess and tiger started to glow with a soft green light, their skin changing to a smooth green sheen. Both of them looked confusedly at each other as the glow grew bright enough to blind everyone watching.
Before anyone could panic, that glow suddenly faded away in a burst of green leaves, leaving Jasmine clad in her regular blue tube top and puffy blue pants, and Rajah back in his regular orange colours. The only thing different now, was that Rajah was holding a strange card in his mouth.
"What… was that?" Jasmine asked, taking the card from her pet's mouth and looking at it.
Rajah blinked, then replied, "I don't know, but something tells me that if we need that wish's magic again, we'll have it."
Aladdin drew closer to them, looking at the card himself and petting Rajah on the head. "And that sounds just fine by me." He and Jasmine shared a quiet smile, glad that everything was now over.
"Oh, come here, everyone! Group hug!" Genie burst out with a huge grin, stretching out his arms and pulling everyone, even the Sultan, Abu and Carpet into a huge embrace. After saying his goodbyes one more time, a holiday-bound Genie rocketed into the sunlit sky to enjoy his new freedom, with the new couple and all their friends watching him go.
Well, here's another chapter ready for everyone! Hope you enjoy it!
Once again, I hope this chapter passes muster. I'm really sorry for the wait; working out how everything went was a little tricky, especially the ending. I might go over it again if I think of something new.
Skirtzzz, thank you so much for waiting again! I know it's been a long time, but I really hope you enjoy this installment!
Find Jasmine's trainer costume (both of them!), created by the talented DeviantArtist Skirtzzz here (scrap all the spaces)!:
skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Trainer – Jasmine – 290980547
skirtzzz . deviantart dotcom / art / Trainer – Jasmine – Redux – 343236999
Review and Critique please; I'd really like to know someone's reading this! But please, no flaming!
Next Chapter: The Cursed Cosplayer