Chapter 09 - Chaotic

Nefir gingerly moved a loose tile out of place to enter the Palace. Things were as expected that Agrabah morning.

"Looks like our secret entrance hasn't been discovered after all," Nefir said, rubbing his hands together. At first he was smiling, but then he quickly grew irritated, looking at two of his five companions. "I told you before that going through the front door to the Palace served no purpose."

Even when one of them pointed out that their entrance previously created a good distraction, Nefir simply smacked him on the back of the head.

"Do not argue with me. And stay quiet! Do you want them to hear us?" Nefir said in a loud whisper. "We need to make our way to the sorcerer's lair. The tome is likely still there, but we'll have to navigate the Genie blocking our way to it."

Around a nearby corner, Nefir overheard Aladdin speaking to Jasmine. "It's the best option we have. The Palace Treasure Room is the best place for the tome to be right now. Nefir and the others won't suspect that. They'll think it's in Jafar's lair with Genie. He doesn't need it right now."

Nefir's grin widened as he waited for the Prince and Princess to pass their hiding place before emerging. "So, they changed the hiding place while expecting us, did they? Well with that tidbit of information, let us move to the Treasure room."

His peers saluted him before they all flew in the direction of the room containing the tome. Nefir had an idea of where the Treasure room was from previous treks in the Palace.

He just had to avoid whatever traps there were between. And if that meant putting his "partners" in between him and the tome...better that than to leave empty handed.

Aladdin waited a beat, daring a glance in the direction from where he passed the place he knew Nefir and his lot were hiding. He'd discovered the loose tile by accident, slightly ajar from the last set of hands that placed it, likely the mistake of one of Nefir's crew when they'd managed to escape the Palace the first time.

"What happens now?" Jasmine asked, standing beside where Aladdin hid at the end of the hall.

"We wait for Abu and Carpet to do their parts. From their hiding places, they'll trigger the traps in and around the Treasure Room. Iago and Rajah are on standby just in case Nefir and the others decide to change their mind at the last minute and go to Jafar's old lair. We're trying to prevent them from disturbing Genie while he's working to find a cure."

"And we go in whatever direction they end up?" Jasmine asked.

"Yep. Lucky that they fell for it outright."

Jasmine nodded. "I'll go wherever you need me."

He winked at her. "Thanks, Princess."

Her brow furrowed as she thought of something. "How did you know when they would be here? Did they mention timing at the Thieves' Den last night?"

Aladdin shook his head. "I know Nefir's motivations from previous history with him. He doesn't like too early in the morning, and he'd never attempt an afternoon or late evening burglary these days. Mid-morning seemed like the right time. Good thing we set up things last night to prep. If we waited, we wouldn't have been ready."

He heard a series of squeals echoing down the hall.

"That's them?" Jasmine asked.

"Seems like it worked. Let's go." Aladdin ran in the direction of the yelps, squeals and screams. All undeniably from Nefir's crew of imps. But not from Nefir himself, Aladdin thought.

Jasmine and Aladdin arrived in time to see three imps trapped in the small cages that they'd designed as part of the elaborate trap. Abu and Rajah helped build and set those up rather handily. But Aladdin knew something was wrong from the moment they encountered Carpet. Before the prince could think to ask, Carpet signed with his hands.

"We have a problem. Some of the traps didn't go off the way they should have, even though we practiced before."

Aladdin thought as much. "Where's Abu?"

Carpet looked over his shoulder towards the treasure room before answering. "He's trying to lure Nefir and the few still free into what traps are left."

Jasmine groaned. "He isn't a monkey anymore; he can't just slip in and out without them noticing. Especially with a bigger body."

"Not his intention, Jasmine," Aladdin shook his head quickly. "He wants them to know he's there to lure them. But I told him - and the rest of the 'not usually human' parts of our group - that they should do everything not to let them discover their true identity. Which means there were more backfires than there should have been. Let's go help him."

"They don't know who he is?" Jasmine said, running after Aladdin.

"If they didn't before, they might guess when we get there. But I'm not gonna tell them," Aladdin said.

Aladdin, Jasmine and Carpet arrived just in time to see three of Nefir's imp companions, all held in various cages and traps, while Nefir and one companion remained free. Nefir's focus was on the tome that was held in the center of the treasure room. Aladdin realized that none of the imps had been lured by the treasure in the room, which meant some traps were missed.

Abu was busy throwing various gemstones at them, missing on purpose while simultaneously trying to trigger a trap to catch the imp that chased him around.

"Will you keep that silly little street rat busy?!" Nefir snapped as a gem sailed over his head. "I'm trying to decipher the puzzle that will free this tome for my perusal! I wasn't expecting to have competition stealing things in the Royal Treasure room."

"He's actually with me, Nefir," Aladdin snapped. "But I"m guessing you couldn't tell a street rat from royalty anyway."

Nefir whirled around, anger creasing his features. "YOU! How did you know I was here?!"

Aladdin shrugged. "Lucky guess. You guys were making quite the racket though."

Jasmine ducked as a gem sailed just past her ear, thrown by one of the imps towards Abu. Abu was trading some pretty quick returns of attack, particularly as a human ducking behind a particularly high mound of treasure. Abu and the imp were trading blows similar to food fight against each other, except with precious stones from the treasure mounds. There was a real possibility someone could get hurt with as heavy as the stones were.

Nefir's expression turned from one of annoyance to glee. "Well it seems that you're a little too late to stop me from taking one of your precious treasures."

Abu was quick to answer. "Not so fast. Aladdin, head down!"

Aladdin ducked his head as a rather large ruby stone went sailing over his head, right into the face of the only imp companion of Nefir's that was still free. The imp spun backward in midair, slamming into a nearby wall as a cage dropped down from above over him. Carpet had been the one to assist in the trap that hadn't gone off the way it should have. But at least now they were only down to one enemy uncaptured.

Nefir looked in awe. "A strange thief and a flying kid." His face twisted into a grin as he turned to look at Aladdin. "Friends of yours, I take it?"

"They are." The prince was short with his words as he folded his arms across his chest.

"I take it that they may be of the fur and feather variety?" Nefir didn't phrase the question as one in honest inquiry. It was as if he'd suspected the humans he'd never seen before to be Aladdin's usual friends. But neither Jasmine nor Abu had any response as the two of them joined Aladdin at his side, in a standoff against Nefir. Carpet floated a fair distance away, observing the encounter carefully and readying to act if needed.

Aladdin shook his head. "Who said anything about fur and feathers? And anyway, you're outnumbered by me and my friends. Your companions can't help you right now."

"Who said anything about needing help, when I can just take what I want?" Nefir took the tome from its pedestal, but Aladdin could tell that the imp was not easily fooled. Nefir's eyes widened, at first in shock as he held the tome in his hands, then hardened into anger. "This is a FAKE! You tricked us! How would you even know what we were planning unless...Oh. You were at the Thieves Den last night after all, street rat. I should have known!"

Nefir showed no hesitation as he threw the fake tome at the group. It wasn't nearly as heavy as the real one that Genie still had, but Aladdin, Jasmine and Abu all had to evade it as the imp threw it with enough magic force to be able to hurt. Aladdin recovered quickly, but Jasmine slipped out of one of her slippers while trying to dodge it, falling in the opposite direction as Aladdin. Aladdin started to go for her, but Abu was quicker.

"I've got you, Princess!" Abu caught her before she could hurt herself, using his body to take the full blow of the fall. He had the wind knocked out of him for a moment, but both Abu and Jasmine ended up okay.

"That was close. Thanks Abu." Jasmine realized her mistake as soon as she said his name. The former monkey visibly flinched, while Aladdin's expression turned to one of surprise.

Nefir laughed. "Of course that would be Abu. And judging from the colors that child's wearing, I would suppose that's Carpet. So your Genie was able to work the spell after all. Tell me, how's that working out for them? All fun and games so far with their adventures in humanity? Too bad it won't last, especially with the fate awaiting them."

Abu visibly paled as he stood with Jasmine. Aladdin was far more quick to respond, speaking through his teeth. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, your Genie didn't tell you? I suspect he doesn't know the origins of that tome, not like I or my crew respectively. We've done our due research several kingdoms over. It would be really easy to figure out if you knew the origins of it, but your Genie's a bit too scatterbrained for that. Unless he's keeping it a secret from you, which is something you'll have to work out between yourselves."

Even Jasmine and Abu could tell Aladdin was on edge from his tone. On edge, and a little uncertain. "Don't talk about Genie like that."

"I could easily tell you what you want to know, you know?" Nefir said, taunting the prince further while rubbing his hands together. "It's going to cost you, though."

"You're not exactly in a position to negotiate anything right now," Aladdin followed. For that, the prince was confident and the shift in Nefir's expression revealed the imp knew that he was outnumbered. "I could let you and your friends go if you know a way to change my friends back to normal. Or the Sultan can throw all of you in the Palace Dungeons without a second thought, considering you've tried to steal from the Palace twice now."

The other imps, who were still in various states of recovery from being ensnared in their respective traps, all collectively groaned. But Aladdin could tell something shifted in the room with energy considering the sneer Nefir gave him. Carpet picked up on it too.

"Are you sure that you are in a position to negotiate, your highness?" Nefir taunted. "You forget what me and my men are experts in doing. With the right tools, we can build things. We can also take things apart."

Abu was the first to recognize what was about to happen before the others did, especially with the way Nefir emphasized his words. "Oh no, I didn't check..." There was no point in masking their identities at that point, as Abu turned to Carpet. "Carpet, rear cage! I forgot to check if he had any tools like the others!"

Carpet was quick, but not fast enough for the imp to deconstruct the cage that imprisoned him. The imp was one of the first to fall into his trap, and was waiting for the right moment to act. Carpet collided with the imp, the two in a physical struggle as Carpet tried to take the mallet and chisel out of the imps hands. Aladdin's attention turned only a moment, but it was long enough for Nefir to approach him in an attack, grabbing a fistful of Aladdin's hair and yanking it hard enough for Aladdin to yelp.

Abu noticed that Nefir had also grabbed a jeweled dagger from a nearby treasure mound and was preparing to attack with it. "Aladdin!"

Aladdin heeded the warning, dodging the blade as it slashed at him, but not before the fistful of hair that Nefir had been holding was cut by the blade. Nefir was stunned by how much of Aladdin's cut hair he held in his hands, which was enough for the prince to knock the blade from the imp's hand.

During this, Jasmine had gone to help Carpet, who had been kicked in the stomach by the imp he had fought. She wasn't fast enough to stop the imp from freeing his companion in another cage, but she was fast enough to kick the imp and send his tools flying in opposite directions on the floor, lost to immediate view. The freed imp decided to mimic the same attack Nefir had on Aladdin, grabbing the end of her bound hair and pulling as hard as he could. Jasmine cried out, but it was more in annoyance than anything else.

"Get off of me!" The princess had lost one shoe, but still wore the other. She managed to remove the remaining shoe from her foot and swing it at the imp like he was an overgrown fly. It connected several times with the imp's face, making him release her hair, but she didn't stop hitting him after that.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. OW!" The imp squealed, but Jasmine didn't give him a chance to recover as she continued to use her shoe as a weapon in the same way that a slightly floppy fish would work.

Carpet managed to recover from the blow to his stomach, but he was more annoyed than hurt as he went after the imp responsible, who was trying to search for his lost tools. The two continued in a fierce scuffle that had them rolling around in mid-air.

Aladdin continued his fight with Nefir, at one point on the ground after Nefir had landed some hard blows to his legs. Abu tried to help, but Nefir took the moment to grab a fist full of coins and throw them in Abu's face.

Abu stumbled back, losing his balance and falling into a nearby mound of coins, which covered over and around him like sands in the middle of a desert. That made a few sets of tools reveal itself from where Abu had stolen them from the other imps. Nefir took the opportunity to grab them and free his remaining companions.

Nefir whistled loudly. "Retreat! Everyone retreat!"

All of the imps left the treasure room in a hurried flurry of wings and varied conditions, leaving Aladdin and his friends trying to recover from the rush of everything that happened. Jasmine was still standing and she saw Aladdin lying on his side on the floor. She rushed to him, though he'd already started to recover by the time she reached him.

"Aladdin, are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "A little winded, but still in one piece." He was very aware of Jasmine's expression then, her mouth dropping open. "What? What's wrong?"

She winced. "I know this isn't something to be worried about right now, but...your hair."

Aladdin hadn't thought about how much of his hair Nefir had cut with the blade. Not that anyone could blame him from the chaotic fight they just emerged from. As he ran his hand along the shorter strands, his eyes widened a moment. But then his expression settled into a frown. "Didn't think Nefir had it in him to try to kill me. He usually says he doesn't like spilling blood, but he's keen on watching others do it from a distance. Better he cut my hair than my neck. It'll grow back."

The two of them turned their attention to Abu, who was still under a mound of coins with a dizzy expression in his eyes. "When I said that I wanted to be buried with treasure at some point, this wasn't what I had in mind."

Jasmine smiled as she helped Abu on one side while Aladdin helped pull him to his feet on the other. "Now you know it's probably not a good idea, in general. Are you okay, Abu?"

"Good, I guess. We were so close to catching all of them. Missed opportunity. Still no clue on how to reverse the spell either."

Aladdin sighed. "Sorry Abu. We definitely need a different approach. Might've been easier if Genie were here."

Jasmine looked around quickly. "Wait, where's Carpet?"

"He's not here?" Aladdin said, following her gaze.

Abu winced. "Think he might've went after the imps. Wouldn't be surprised since all of them can fly."

Aladdin looked between Jasmine and Abu, motioning them to follow him. "Come on. We've gotta stop him. Carpet can't take all of those imps alone and I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

They all raced out of the Palace Treasure Room towards the hallway.

Iago was only slightly startled to see Aladdin, Jasmine and Abu emerge in the hallway at that point, but then again, it wasn't an unwelcome sight since he'd seen all of the imps making their way to the exit of the Palace.

"Whew, I was about to ask if you guys chased the imps out. Good job, by the way."

Abu frowned. "Not a a good job. We didn't learn anything from them about a cure AND they gave us the slip."

Rajah walked up to them, having followed Iago in the direction from which they came. "I would guess Carpet following them wasn't intended either? We couldn't catch up in time to stop him and ask."

Jasmine shook her head. "No, we need to go after him. Wait, why are you guys here? I thought you were supposed to be with Genie."

Iago frowned, his expression annoyed as he scratched the underside of his red beard. "We came to find you 'cause Genie sounded like he was havin' a meltdown in Jafar's lair. Tried to ask what was going on, but he wouldn't tell us. We think he found somethin' really big about the whole spell thing. Seems pretty definitive too. I don't get the secrecy - it's not like any of us have that side-effect thing yet. Unless you count my stomach bein' in knots with perpetual anxiety."

Aladdin met Jasmine's glance at the moment she looked at him. "Princess, can you go with Iago and Rajah to check in on Genie? He might not talk to them, but pretty sure he'll talk to you. If he has anything on a cure or what the time table is for this spell, we need more answers than questions. Abu and I will go after Carpet and bring him back."

Jasmine looked between Aladdin and Abu a long moment before she answered. "Sure. Be careful, you two. Hurry back as soon as you can."

Aladdin nodded to her, before turning to Abu. "You ready?"

Abu grinned. "Been ready. Let's move."