Chapter 10: A Reluctant Reunion

Jasmine, Iago, Abu, and Carpet had been spun several times through the rapidly closing portal, and thrown into what looked to be the space of a temple in the middle of another desert. None of them knew where they were going or would end up, but following Lati through the portal had been the only option for the moment.

Iago ended up in a very similar position to what he'd been in the valley - on his stomach and unable to move. He was quick to point out the similarity. "Man, I can't believe we're like this again. Thrown off course after trying to get an artifact from Mozenrath and ending up flat on our faces."

Jasmine groaned as she lay on her back, staring up at the night sky. But the area around them felt familiar somehow. "Wait a minute...this place."

Abu, who had landed nearby, looked over at the princess with confusion. "Huh?"

"I recognize it. Aladdin and I have been somewhere like this before. An underground temple hidden between sand dunes. It was back when all of you guys turned human from the cursed tome Nefir stole."

"Wait...THAT time?!" Iago perked up, sitting upright from the ground. "Outside of Getzistan?"

"We're obviously not on the outskirts of Getzistan, Iago. This isn't the exact same place, just similar. And we're not facing off against Nefir this time." Jasmine was referring to the time when Nefir and his goons had tried to steal an ancient tome from Jafar's old lair. The effort ended up with Genie accidentally speaking a forbidden spell turning Iago, Abu, Carpet, and Rajah into humans. Part of the temporary spell had been fun with the non-humans exploring what it was like to be human for a little while, but the terms of that change had been harrowing enough that it sent Aladdin and Jasmine scrambling to find a way to change the group back. They had ended up in trouble along the way. Aladdin had been tricked by Nefir and his goons to get an ancient stone from a temperamental, powerful magic being named Sufyan, whose domain lie in a temple hidden among sand dunes like the one Jasmine and the group found themselves before now.

But why would they be in a place like this? she thought. And where was Aladdin now? They were only mere moments behind him when the portal opened, but anything could have happened. That worried her.

"Aladdin? Aladdin!" Jasmine called. No response, and it didn't seem like Aladdin was anywhere in the area where they'd landed.

"Maybe he went ahead in the temple?" Iago said with a shrug. "Or whoever's controlling his body at the moment. Not that he's in any condition to be temple hopping."

"Then we'd better find him before anything else can happen." Jasmine saw Carpet fly in front of her, ready to take on passengers. Iago, Abu, and Jasmine all climbed aboard. They flew into the hidden path partially covered by the sand dune, revealing the entrance to the temple. Jasmine had a sense of deja vu, though on that particular adventure, she'd had to use a hidden entrance since Nefir and the other imps were blocking the temple's front path. Though the design of the temple on the outside door was similar, the inside was completely different in arrangement. It had been majestic at one point, but the columns and pathway were worn out.

"This might have traps along the path just like the last one did," Jasmine warned. "Just be careful, Carpet. Fly slowly. We don't want to be caught off guard, and we don't want to miss any path that Aladdin might've been on."

Carpet was happy to follow instructions, giving a short salute with one of his knobs to show he understood.

A distant rumble beyond them made Abu flinch, rushing over quickly to where Jasmine sat on Carpet.

"Uh, I'm with the monkey. What the heck was that sound?" Iago said, swallowing hard against the lump in his throat.

The rumble sounded again. Carpet approached a branching path in the temple, stopped just before the fork. Jasmine listened to see where it could have come from. She wasn't sure if she should tell Carpet to go towards the sound or away from it. What would Aladdin do in this situation normally?

"I think we might want to go in the direction away from the rumble bumble," Iago said, clearly voicing his opinion of what they should do.

But Jasmine had another idea. "This temple might not be what we think it is. If Aladdin's ahead of us, whether or not he's being controlled by Lati, it may be that the sound we hear is him trying to go further in. And if he's activating any tricks or puzzles, those sounds might be it. We should follow it to be sure."

Abu screeched low, voicing his own concern of running into something dangerous but also saying that Jasmine might be right. He seemed conflicted.

"I know you guys are worried, but we can't afford to waste time," Jasmine said with a sigh. She looked down at Carpet. "I'll let you decide which way to go, Carpet. And if I'm wrong, I'll take the blame. But I really think we should go where the sounds are."

Carpet hesitated only a moment, clearly thinking over the opinions of his friends. It was only a moment more before he took the path that Jasmine suggested, flying quickly through the turns of the path. They arrived just as the final rumble sounded, coming up on a series of columns that had moved to open a pathway ahead.

And in the center of the cleared path was Aladdin, though his back was turned to them.

"Aladdin! Wait a minute!" Jasmine called.

Startled, Aladdin turned. The Princess was instantly able to tell by the shock, then annoyed look on Aladdin's face that he wasn't her husband at all. It startled them all as Aladdin used his hand to make a wall of the same green magic appeared, causing Abu and Iago to yelp and recoil. But Jasmine realized that the magic wasn't aimed to attack or hurt them. Just to keep them away.

But she watched as something happened. Aladdin suddenly recoiled, his back slamming into a wall behind him, really hard for impact. So much that Jasmine wondered if he'd hurt himself from the effort. Then she heard him speak. Though Aladdin wasn't looking up at her as he barely remained standing, she could hear the familiar voice, though he sounded tired and hurt.

"Stop. They're...my friends. If you're really trying to help me...don't you dare hurt them."

Almost as quickly, he seemed to recover, but Jasmine could tell that Aladdin wasn't in control anymore, and his steady, even guilty, look upon all of them said that the situation had shifted. Almost as quickly as Aladdin's hand had created the magic wall, he waved it again to make the barrier disappear. Iago and Abu both slumped on Carpet in relief. Jasmine remained steady on Carpet, waiting for the situation to shift again as her gaze never left Aladdin's, who silently stared back.

Aladdin didn't take any steps to close the distance between them, but his voice spoke again, formal. "You weren't supposed to be here. Please, you all have to leave right now."

"I'm not going anywhere." Jasmine stepped off Carpet quickly. Abu followed her, leaping from Carpet's surface to the sandy ground below alongside the Princess. "I take it that I'm talking to Lati? Because I know you're not him."

Lati sighed. "So you figured out I'm still in his body. Please Princess, if you care at all for your husband..."

Jasmine cut her off abruptly. "I do care about my husband. Which is why I'm only going to ask you this one time - where are we and why are we here? And what are you planning to do?"

Iago winced. "Yep, Jasmine's angry. Don't get between a princess and her prince. Guess this Lati will figure that out, magic user or not."

Carpet hesitated, watching as both Jasmine and Abu waited for Lati to answer. To all of their surprise, Lati seemed to deflate, shoulders slumping.

"Suppose I owe you that much, considering. I meant what I said earlier, I'm sorry about all of this. I only meant to help save Aladdin's life, but now I'm trapped in his body. I'm seeking the help of the guardian of this temple to separate our spirits for good. To grant me back the body that I lost."

"And who exactly is this spirit?" Jasmine asked.

Lati flinched. "I don't know him myself, but Aladdin does. His name is Sufyan. I used a detector spell - the same as my brother - to find the next best powerful entity who could remove the cursed magic that I'm under. Sufyan was the second best choice, compared to Mozenrath."

"Uh, I coulda told ya that Mozenrath was not a good choice for anything," Iago snapped. "You outta know that if you even overheard a little bit of the problems we had with him."

Abu folded his arms across his chest, nodding quickly. "Yeah."

"Aladdin sought Sufyan's help before; he told me what happened when we reunited the last time we were in a temple like this. Why didn't you ask for his help before Mozenrath?" Jasmine asked.

"I wanted to seek other options. Couldn't tell my brother Komal that. He wouldn't hear of anything past his intentions, and I was too busy trying to heal Aladdin's wounds at the time.," Lati admitted.

"Wounds?" Jasmine noticed then that Aladdin's head wound looked a lot better than it once did. She could see a part of his browline with dried blood, but it looked on its way to healing. The thing that caught her attention, which Abu noticed and screeched in alarm, was the thick red scar across Aladdin's chest. None of them had noticed it until then. Jasmine gasped. While it was well on its way to being healed, she could only imagine how bad it had been before.

"Hey, Abu was right! Al really did have a bad chest wound," Iago pointed out.

"Aladdin has had this since he was in the valley. It was the most serious of his wounds and the one that I masked. Also had the most trouble with healing," Lati said. "Yes, your monkey was right. He was able to see it when my magic faltered."

"Which led to Abu's fight with Aladdin back then," Jasmine said. She looked down towards Abu, who looked so worried that her heart broke for the monkey. Her anger rose palpably as well. "Where's Aladdin now?" she asked as she turned back to Lati.

"Aladdin's hearing every word of this discussion. You probably can't hear him, but I can."

Jasmine's hands balled into fists at her sides. "Then why aren't you letting him say all this to me?"

Lati looked both hurt and conflicted. "Please, I'm not keeping Aladdin from speaking to you. That's not how this works. I'm not doing what my brother...no, I'm responsible for this as much as Komal because I agreed to it. I only wanted to save Aladdin. Please, you have to believe that. I didn't want things to be this way."

Jasmine felt her anger subside, but only a little. "That didn't answer my question."

"It takes much effort and energy to shift forms," Lati said after a long moment. "I told Aladdin a moment ago the same thing that I'll tell you. To get through this temple, you'll need my magic to unlock its puzzles to get to Sufyan. Aladdin can't wield magic when I'm inactive. The only ones capable of wielding magic were my brother and me. We were both in Aladdin's body before Komal was extracted. That's the only reason why I'm in control right now - saving Aladdin's strength and using my magic to get us through this place. The sooner that we reach Sufyan, the sooner that Aladdin can have his body back. We would have done it with Mozenrath, but..." She hesitated.

"Mozenrath tricked you?" Jasmine guessed.

Lati winced, nodding slowly. "If I or Komal had remained in Aladdin's body for much longer, Aladdin's spirit would have been erased. Three souls cannot occupy a body at once, especially souls who aren't truly dead but under a curse like my brother and I. It's why Aladdin kept getting sick - headaches, falling and reopening the wound on his head when Siva found him before you all reunited." She watched Jasmine a moment longer, but the Princess waited for her to continue. Abu, Iago, and Carpet remained in stunned, worried silence. "Mozenrath agreed to separate Komal from Aladdin's body. And he was going to separate me from Aladdin as well. It would have killed your husband, which is what Mozenrath wanted. Aladdin learned this too."

Jasmine gasped at that, first in fear, then her anger boiled over. "Mozenrath planned this?!"

"We didn't know. We would have never agreed to it if we did." Lati spoke quickly. "I made the decision to flee using my magic. Aladdin was upset when I took hold because I did so against his will, but I did it to help us escape. In the end, Mozenrath used his magic and the artifact Komal and I stole to take hold of my brother's consciousness. Komal was bent on doing whatever he needed to capture Aladdin again, even harm us. That's why I had to flee and keep control." Jasmine saw Lati ball Aladdin's hands into fists at his sides, looking away from her. "I'm sorry Princess Jasmine, and friends of Aladdin. I didn't mean any of this to happen."

"Wow." Abu said softly.

"That's a lot of drama," Iago agreed.

Carpet shifted with an equal amount of discomfort.

"At least we're past that part of things," Jasmine said. She met Lati's/Aladdin's gaze. "Please, I want to speak to him. Is that possible?"

Lati hesitated a moment. "He wants to speak to you too. But we can't linger long. Aladdin's body can only handle so much shifting between me and him, along with his still healing wounds. We don't know how deep this temple goes or what Sufyan has planned. But it's the least I can do after everything my brother and I put you all through. Give me a moment."

Lati allowed Aladdin's eyes to close, his body relaxed. The shift happened quickly and uncomfortably, as Aladdin grunted, falling to his knees. He was able to catch himself before he faceplanted onto the sandy floor, but that didn't stop Jasmine and Abu from running to his side as Aladdin caught his breath, kneeling on the sands.

"Aladdin, are you okay?"

Aladdin looked up at her. "Managing as best I can, Princess." She responded by throwing her arms around him. He returned the gesture with a tight embrace of her as well, kissing her cheek. Abu hugged Aladdin around his neck.

When they pulled apart, Aladdin winced, clearly still not feeling great from the wounds he had. "Lati told me everything - basically filled in all the gaps with my memory. It was...a lot."

"From what she told me, I could tell." Jasmine said. "What happens now?"

"Basically what she said. We find Sufyan. Though I'm not exactly thrilled to be seeing him again, given what happened last time."

"Ya mind tellin' us what happened last time, 'cause I'm not exactly familiar with it." Iago said as he and Carpet flew closer to where Aladdin and Jasmine knelt on the sands. Abu was at Aladdin's side, though he seemed just as confused as Iago was. Carpet as well.

"That's right, you guys weren't with Jasmine and me in the last temple." Aladdin looked between his friends, wincing slightly. "I remember telling her, but...no, I did tell you guys about Sufyan. He was the one I got the stone from when Nefir put me under that headache spell. That was the catch for me entering the temple to get it in the first place."

"That stone you used to destroy the tome?" Iago asked. "Talk about magic blackmail."

"Yeah, yeah," Abu agreed.

Aladdin sighed. "Nefir wanted to use the stone to enhance the tome's power, but Sufyan was the one who taught me how to trick the imps into doing the opposite. Though not without having me jump through a number of hoops to do it. Sufyan doesn't like being asked questions. And there were times that I didn't know if he wanted to help me or kill me."

"You think he might feel the same way this time around?" Jasmine asked, concerned.

"Who knows? But he told me last time that it would be better if we didn't see each other again." Aladdin shook his head. "Not exactly my preference either, but if he can help Lati return to her body and make sure mine stays intact, then I trust that over anything Mozenrath plans. I asked Lati if there was any way that Genie could help, but she said Genie would take too much time to find an appropriate spell to separate us. But since Genie's probably in trouble now, we can't exactly get to him."

"Trouble how? He was the one helpin' us escape that Komal guy?" Iago winced when he realized Lati could still hear them. "I mean, he's Mozenrath's lackey now, for the time being. That much we heard."

"Oh no!" Abu said. Carpet seemed equally worried, moving nervously from side to side.

"Genie probably can't fight them, as long as Mozenrath has that artifact," Aladdin pointed out. "That's the reason Mozenrath wanted that thing in the first place - to use it in his lab against Genie. Lati explained it to me on the way through this place. It's the thing that's controlling Komal. I didn't know either. Didn't know anything."

"You weren't exactly in control of your body to know anything, Aladdin. Don't blame yourself," Jasmine said.

"Hard not to, considering." Aladdin said solemnly. But he met Jasmine's gaze with a determined look that she was all too familiar with. "Let's keep going. The sooner we get to Sufyan, the more likely we'll have a fighting chance."