Disney's Aladdin:

If Only In My Dreams

By Jill D. Weber

Part 2 of 2

 (Disclaimer: All characters are owned by the Disney Corporation and used without permission.)

"Is there anyway to be sure that this is what is happening?" Jasmine asked. She slipped her arm through Aladdin's. "And is there any way to stop it?"

Genie frowned and scratched his head. "There used to be gems called Dreamstones," he said worriedly. "They were used to stop Dream Raiders in the past, but it's been twelve thousand years since I've seen one, and I have no idea where to look."

"In Jafar's lab," Iago said.

Everybody looked at him. Iago shrugged. "He was a collector, what can I say."

"And what did he collect this device for?" the Sultan asked coldly.

Iago shrugged.

"So, how does this thing work?" Aladdin asked.

"If I remember correctly..." Genie stopped himself in mid-sentence. "Maybe we shouldn't rely on my memory."

"What choice to we have?" Aladdin said.

"Maybe Jafar had an instruction manual?" Genie said hopefully.

"Let's go look," Jasmine said.

There were books and scrolls piled up on every flat surface of Jafar's lab. At least the ones that weren't covered with beakers of noxious liquids or talismans or bones or...

"It'll take us hours to wade through this," Iago griped. "Why's this joint always such a mess?"

Genie waved his hand in the air like a school kid. "Ooo! Ooo! I know! Ask me! Ask me! What is, because every time we have a magical emergency we come through here like a hurricane with PMS and never clean up afterward! Now I'll take 'Myths on Video' for 200, Alex!"

Iago made a face at him. "Can't you come up with an explanation that doesn't involve us having to accept responsibility for our own actions?"

Aladdin gave a bark of laughter. "We probably should take better care of this place, it has been useful. So, where is this Dreamstone?" he asked Iago.

Iago shrugged and molted. "Beats me."

Abu picked up a handy scroll and looked ready to comply.

"That was a figure of speech, Abu," Aladdin reproved mildly, patting the monkey on his head and taking the scroll away. He looked at the clutter and sighed. "Well, let's get to work."

"So, what do you remember about the Dreamstone, Genie?" Jasmine asked. As she spoke, she finished leafing through a book and placed it on a shelf. She wasn't sure how to catalog magical books, so she was just going alphabetically by title.

"Well, as I recall, the Dream Channel is created by a Dream Raider using a Dreamstone to suck the victim's dreams out of his head. The Dream Defender uses another Dreamstone to deflect the first Dreamstone and close the Dream..."

"Yeah, yeah," interrupted Iago. "We get the message about the dream stuff, you don't have to use the word fifty times per sentence."

Genie frowned at him. "Hey, if you don't want to be on the Dream Team you can leave."

"No I can't," grumped Iago. "The nightmares won't stop. Otherwise I'd cut outta here and visit Thundra the Rain Bird."

"Go on a dream date with your dream girl?" Genie couldn't resist.

"Alllll, make him ST- O- OP," Iago whined.

"Genie, this isn't the time to tease Iago," Aladdin said quietly.

But Genie couldn't resist one last dig. "You're right, until we stop the raids, we're all in the same dream boat."

Aladdin rolled his eyes (but smiled). Iago let out a squawk and tore around the room in a rage.

The parrot plowed into Carpet, bounced out, hit Abu, who let out a shriek and jumped onto Aladdin's back. Aladdin staggered forward and collided with Jasmine. They tumbled against a bookcase, which swung open and smacked Genie in the face. Startled, Genie shot off a bolt of magic over the kids' heads, then it ricocheted off a silvery chest, slashed back over Aladdin and Jasmine's heads and scorched Iago's tail feathers.

"YES!" the cold, grey voice exalted. He saw an opportunity to speed up the process. So, with the great effort it took to send a spell from where he was to where they were, he put three things in motion.

The silver Chest started teetering precariously.

"Yow! Watch where you point that finger!" Iago scolded as he plummeted to the floor. Carpet heroically save him from going 'smoosh', but Iago only grunted at him.

"Sorry," Genie said sheepishly and white wooly hair sprang out around his head, then curly horns sprang out from his temples.

"Are you all right?" Aladdin asked Jasmine as they untangled themselves.

"I think so," Jasmine said as she pushed up from the floor. "And you?"

"I'm okay," Aladdin replied. He scrambled to his feet and offered her his hand. She took it with a smile and allowed him to help her to her feet.

They held hands for a few moments longer than they really needed to and looked deeply into each other's eyes. Iago had just opened his mouth to say something snide when Carpet whipped out from under him.

If somebody had been watching the Magic Carpet's backwash, they would have seen it catch Iago, then abruptly change direction and throw him into a bookcase. The observer would have also seen a scroll snatch at Iago as he landed.

However, all eyes were on Carpet as he swooped over the lovers' heads, the made a hairpin turn and plowed into them at full speed, knocking them back into the lab.

"Carp...!" Aladdin started angrily.

Just then, the silvery chest stopped teetering and crashed down, pinning Carpet.

"Carpet! Are you all right?" cried Jasmine.

"Carpet's been squishified!" wailed Genie, who clapped his hands to his head in horror.

Iago made a rude noise from bookcase where he was entangled in scrolls. "He's a rug, he can't get hurt by stuff falling on him." He paused. "Can you?" he asked Carpet.

Carpet indicated 'no'.

"We would have been," Aladdin said, looking at the large, heavy chest. "Thanks, Carpet."

Carpet made a little bow, then made an obvious effort to pull himself out from under the chest.

"Thanks, Carpet, you're an angel," Jasmine added. "Let's get this thing off of you."

Even working together, Jasmine and Aladdin couldn't move the chest from Carpet. They couldn't even lift it high enough for the Magic Carpet to slip out from under.

"This would have really hurt," Jasmine said when they stopped. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "Whew!"

"If we could have felt anything afterward," grunted Aladdin. He leaned against the wall, panting from exertion.

He wiped his sweaty hands on his vest. "I'm curious. That thing's so heavy, I don't see how it could have fallen by itself."

Jasmine frowned at him. "You think whoever is tampering with our dreams...?"

"NO! Cancel that thought. Bad thought! Bad Thought!"

"I'm afraid that it's all my fault, Princess!" Genie confessed with a hang dog expression. The dangling dog slipped loose from the noose, gave Genie a goose on his caboose, then vamoosed. Genie's face reappeared in a puff of blue smoke and he picked up the chest one handed.

Carpet swooped out, and circled around Genie like an affectionate cat.

"Show off," snorted Aladdin. The street rat straightened up, crossed his arms and gave Genie a sideways look that was equal parts good and bad humor.

Genie grinned. "If you got it, flaunt it!" he said, balancing the heavy chest on his left pinky.

Aladdin made a face at him.

Iago tried to flap away from the bookcase, but found himself inexplicably entangled in the scrolls. It was as if somebody had tied him up. "Hey, how about giving me a hand?"

Two large blue hands appeared and (you got it) started to applaud.

"Oh, how *very* original," snarled Iago.

Jasmine giggled, then came over and started to extricate him. Then she stopped.

"Well, get on with it!" bellowed Iago.

"This is the scroll about the Dream Stone," Jasmine said. "According to this, the stone is in..." She pulled the scroll free of Iago, sending the parrot spinning into the wall. "Sorry, Iago. The stone is in that chest!" she exclaimed, pointing to the silvery chest. Then she showed them the scroll.

A Genie blue owl swooped over, adjusted his spectacles and looked at the illustration labeled 'Chest of the Dreamstone.' Then he looked at the chest. "Looks like it," he said.

Aladdin examined the chest. "There's no writing on the chest," he said. "Are you sure it's the right one?"

Genie poofed into his 'Star Trek science officer' persona, complete with two heads (which are better than one) and blue science uniform (original Star Trek). He whipped out a tricorder and pointed it at the chest.

The tricorder said, in a very loud voice. "Hey! Couch Rutabaga! Didn't I warn you about getting reality and fantasy mixed up?"

"Hey! Box-boy!" Iago snarled. "One, you're talking to a Genie, who is in and of himself a confusion of reality and fantasy. Two, nobody insults my friends but ME!!" the irate parrot drop kicked the tricorder into the wall, where it cracked open and disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving nothing behind but a voided warrantee.

"Nice kick, bird man!" Genie said, giving him high five.

"Hey, I got to protect my schtick, y'know?" Iago said with what passed him for modesty.

"Enough of this foolishness! Open the CHEST!" howled the cold, grey voice.

"You want me to X-ray it?" Genie asked. The blue lug held up a pair of X-ray specs.

"I don't think so," Aladdin said. "Maybe we should just open it and look."

"Finally!"

"Oh, no!" Jasmine said, holding up her hands. "First we read the instructions."

"Party Pooper!"

"Easy," the scarlet parrot joined the robin's egg blue owl. "See," Iago pointed to the list of instructions. "We open the chest, form a circle, focus all our thoughts on the Dreamstone and zorch whoever is attacking Al."

"Sounds easy enough," Aladdin said brashly, fumbling with the latch.

YES!"

"NO! Not without a few precautions," Jasmine made a chopping motion with her hands.

"Precautions?" Aladdin said. "What do you mean?"

"Why? The Dreamstone is harmless, unless someone is using it against you," Iago said.

"We don't know for sure that the Dreamstone is in there," Jasmine pointed out. "I have a very bad feeling about this. Things just fell into place too neatly."

"NO!" His plan would work so much better if the chest was opened in Jafar's lab. The miasma of malevolent magic that pervaded the place would give him such a boost!

The first precaution was taking the chest out of Jafar's lab. ("This place gives me the creeps," Jasmine said. Nobody argued with her on this point.). The Sultan had one of the smaller treasure rooms cleared out to be used in the experiment. The Sultan insisted on staying. "If my daughter is going to be at any risk, then I am going to be here."

Rasoul posted heavily armed guards outside the door to keep anyone from wandering in by accident, but he insisted on being inside. "My duty is to protect the Sultan and the Princess. I cannot do that from the wrong side of a locked door."

"*I'll* be here," Aladdin said.

"My point exactly." Rasoul scowled at Aladdin.

Aladdin scowled back and his fists clenched, but before he could utter any more fightin' words, Jasmine lightly, but firmly, placed her hand over his mouth. She also gave Rasoul a warning look that he wisely heeded.

Jasmine moved her hand from Aladdin's mouth and clasped his fists gently. Aladdin, seeing Rasoul back down, relaxed and allowed his hands to unclench.

"Next precaution," Jasmine said. "Everybody put on cold weather gear."

This did garner a few objections. "We're in the middle of a heat wave!" Iago ranted. He paced on the table ripping out bunches of feathers. "In the middle of the desert! You want us all to get heat prostration?"

"No," Jasmine said, poking Iago in the beak. "But too many of the dreams had that cold and cutting wind. It has GOT to mean something."

The third precaution was to arm themselves. Jasmine, who was dressed in black leather armor, had a whip strapped to her slender waist and a sword strapped to her back. The Sultan, who was dressed in brown leather armor, had two swords strapped to his hips.

Rasoul, dressed in the winter uniform (which looked suspiciously like the summer uniform, except with long sleeves), had his usual sword. Iago and Abu could barely move under the weight of all the blades they were carrying.

Genie had on his 'Rambo' outfit and was carrying what he alternately called a 'Gatling Gun' or 'Old Betsy'. He also had six or eight arms. Aladdin had on blue wool pants, a red parka and carried no weapons.

"Are you sure?" Jasmine asked.

Aladdin shrugged. "I'm going to be opening the chest. I won't have any hands free to use a weapon, anyway."

"What if something jumps at you?" Iago queried querulously.

"I'll dodge," Aladdin said simply. Carpet flew up to him and clutched his shoulders protectively. Aladdin smiled fondly and patted him. "And jump onto Carpet," he added.

The fourth precaution involved a lot of ropes, chains and long nails that Genie called pitons.

"You into bondage as well as black leather?" Iago asked Jasmine.

Carpet smacked him into a wall. Jasmine frowned, then decided that if the usually sweet tempered Magic Carpet had decided that Iago needing smacking, then he probably did. She answered: "The second common thread is that every dream had Aladdin being pulled into or over or under or through something very UNpleasant

"Which means we take precautions against our Wonderkind being hoovered away!" Genie said. He poofed his outfit into lederhosen and a feathered cap.

(This was another case of almost understanding what Genie was getting at. Jasmine could see the point of the mountain climbing gear, but why Genie had turned himself into a marionette was beyond her.)

She looked at her father and Rasoul, who were rigging up a web of ropes. Rasoul was pounding pitons into the marble walls while the Sultan strung the ropes.

Genie ensured everything's security by liberal doses of something he called 'super glue.'

"Ready?" Jasmine asked.

"Uno momento!" Genie cried. He waved a wand with a star on its tip and everybody, including Rasoul, was wearing a leather harness with jingling metal rings. Another wave produced some gentleman that Genie addressed as 'Sir Ed', who gave a brief lecture on how to use mountain gear. Then Sir Ed was poofed back to the Himalayas.

Everyone was soon hitched to the webbing, even Iago.

"Why do I let myself get roped into these things?" the parrot moaned.

"Because it's better to be where you can see what's going on, then to have what's going on sneak up on you!" the Sultan said.

Iago scratched his head. "That almost made sense... but not quite."

Genie poofed back into his usual form and placed the chest in the center of the room. He poofed again and was dressed in his 'construction worker' outfit.

He took out something he called a 'jack hammer' and rat-a-tatted the chest to the floor. "Okay, I think that should do it. Hopefully, nothing untoward will happen, we find the dream stone, and put a stop to the dream raids."

"Then let's get to it," Aladdin said. He went to the chest and knelt beside it. If the cold, grey voice had been attached to breath, it would have been held.

"It's locked," Aladdin reported.

"I have a skeleton key!" Genie said, snapping his fingers. There was a *poof* and a foot tall skeleton wearing a top hat and carrying a cane appeared. It tap danced across the floor to the chest. It grinned at Aladdin and doffed his hat. Aladdin expected the skeleton to produce a key, but it just opened its mouth.

"A," sang the skeleton.

Aladdin looked at Genie.

"Key of D-K?" Genie asked, ducking his head back in embarrassment.

"Sounded more like key of off," Iago said snidely. "As in 'Gee, Genie is off..."

"See here," said the Sultan. He stopped as the involuntary pun hit his ear.

"C sharp or we'll B flat!" Jasmine interjected.

Her father rolled his eyes at her.

Meanwhile the skeleton had danced across the floor and was serenading Rasoul with a shrill rendition of Dem Bones.

Aladdin, ignoring all the silliness with the ease of long practice, picked the lock. "The latch is... stuck!" As he spoke he pulled at the stubborn latch and suddenly it gave way.

The wind was cold and cutting, not to mention strong enough to blow away everything that wasn't nailed down. The skeleton made a desperate grab and caught hold of one of the ropes.

The wind blew around the room three times, then split in two. One half pinned the others to the wall. The other half seized Aladdin. He was swept off his feet and only the multitude of ropes kept him from being pulled into the chest.

"Close the chest!" several people, a genie and a parrot called at once.

"Like, DUH," muttered Aladdin. He grabbed the Chest and pulled himself closer so he would have the leverage to slam in shut. Then he looked inside.

The wind died, allowing the others to peel themselves off the wall. They quickly unraveled themselves from the ropes.

"Good work, Hero Boy!" Genie said. He looked at Aladdin and his next words froze in his mouth.

The chest was still open.

The chest was emitting an eerie silver light that gave Aladdin's skin a sickly gray cast.

Genie spat out a mouthful of ice letters, which shattered when they hit the floor, and reached out his hand. "Al?" he said tentatively. The silver glow intensified, and Genie got a nasty shock.

Aladdin laughed. Or at least, a laugh came from Aladdin's mouth.

"Sorry, the Street Rat isn't in at the moment. Please leave a message at the sound of the coffin nail being driven in and he'll get back to you in a few dozen incarnations!"

Genie withdrew a step. "This is bad."

"Who are you? And what have you done to Aladdin?" Jasmine demanded.

Aladdin's head turned in her direction. His warm brown eyes had changed into soulless silver orbs and the skin of his face was stretched so tightly he seemed even more skeletal than the dancing skeleton.

The aforementioned dancing skeleton hid behind some curtains. Abu and Iago leaped onto Carpet, who curled his hem in front of them protectively. Jasmine grabbed her sword.

Aladdin's face grinned at Jasmine and she stepped back.

"What's the matter, darling?" purred the cold, gray voice coming from Aladdin's mouth. "Don't you recognize your beloved betrothed?"

"Im A'Ghul!" gasped Jasmine.

"The lord of the undead!" gasped the Sultan.

"Yes, the Lord of the Zombies, Duke of Death, and the very one that dolt Aladdin banished to the Netherworld... twice. No, three times!"

"Actually, it was four times," Jasmine pointed out.

"Oh, that's right. I'd almost forgotten. Thanks for reminding me," the Undead Wight smirked.

"Wait a minnit!" complained Genie, moving between Jasmine and the awful wight. "How did you open a Dream Channel?!"

"There was no Dream Channel, Dolt!" sneered A'Ghul. "I faked the indications so you would think there was a Dream Channel. Then I gimmicked the Dream Stone Scroll so you would think that the Chest of Cold and Cutting Wind contained the Dream Stone."

"When instead it contained a portal to the Netherworld! Which explains the cold and cutting wind. Because when a portal to the Netherworld is opened, the denser air of our universe is sucked in to the Netherworld" growled Genie.

Iago scratched his head and looked at Abu. "I didn't follow all that, did you?"

Genie tossed him a manuscript. "Here, read the script." Then he poofed into an overall clad redneck and said to A'Ghul. "Enough of this stuff! Give us back our wonder boy and go away. We don't want your kind around here!"

A'Ghul laughed again.

"Geez, Al's gonna have a sore throat when he gets back," Iago muttered.

"Sorry, but 'Al's' not coming back," sneered A'Ghul. "There's no way to get him back until I go back to the Netherworld-- intentionally and of my own free will. And I can assure you, that will never happen!"

He turned to Jasmine. "Now, about that interrupted wedding of ours..."

"Release Aladdin or I'll..." Jasmine flourished her sword.

"Or you'll what? Kill me?" mocked A'Ghul. "You can't."

"Oh, yes, she can," Iago the Wizard Wazir's former familiar pointed out. "As long as you are wearing a mortal body, you can be killed."

"But only at the cost of destroying the mortal body I'm wearing and dooming his spirit to an eternity of wandering." He jeered at Jasmine. "You can't fool me, I know you'll never do that to your precious street rat!"

Rasoul's laugh was as unnerving as A'Ghul's. "But I've been waiting years for this!" He raised his sword and charged at A'Ghul/Aladdin.

A'Ghul had been spying on the palace and its inhabitants since his first meeting with Aladdin. He knew of the long-standing hostility between Aladdin and Rasoul. The way they had just been behaving indicated that they still hated each other.

A'Ghul had no doubt that Rasoul would take advantage of the situation to kill his enemy. It's exactly what he would have done under the circumstances. There was only one thing for the lord of the undead to do: ABANDON STREET RAT!

A'Ghul turned back to the chest and dove in, forcing Aladdin's spirit back into his body. Then he turned to watch. Seeing Aladdin murdered wasn't what he had intended, but it would do. Especially since he would be able to capture the Street Rat's spirit to torment for the rest of eternity.

Rasoul slammed the chest shut on his way past it.

Aladdin looked around in bewilderment. He saw Rasoul bearing down on him and tried to dodge. But his muscles were stiff from having been under the Undead Lord's spell and he tumbled to the ground. He scrambled to his hands and knees in an effort to gain his feet, but ran out of time before his muscles had thawed sufficiently to obey him.

Rasoul smashed Aladdin to the floor with one foot, then raised his scimitar over his head and brought it down in a vicious arc. Aladdin flinched. The blade clanged off the marble floor inches from Aladdin's head.

"Aladdin!" everybody (but Rasoul) with linguistic abilities cried.

"I... I'm all right," Aladdin said queasily.

Rasoul offered him his hand and Aladdin was too shaken to refuse it. The muscle-bound guard hauled the slender street rat to his feet and held on until Aladdin could stand on his own.

Trapped again, all A'Ghul could do was stare at the not-dead street rat and grind his teeth. "Missed it by that much!" he swore, holding up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart. There was nothing to do now but begin to work on his next plot.

"Aladdin!" Jasmine cried. She was the first to hug him, but not the last and Aladdin was almost knocked off his feet again.

"Al, buddy! Are you hurt?" Genie said. The big blue lug poofed into a doctor's outfit and poofed Carpet into a floating examination table and gave Aladdin a quick once over.

While Genie was doing so, the Sultan unlocked the door and sent for the Royal Physician. Then he coaxed the quivering skeleton out from behind the curtains and charged it with making sure that nobody accidentally opened the chest again. The skeleton took courage from his commission and began to march around on the lid of the chest, brandishing his cane like a sword.

"I don't think I'm hurt," Aladdin said when finally Genie, then the Royal Physician finished checking him. "Just a little stiff." He tried a laugh, decided it was too unsteady and broke it off.

"I hate getting sucked into the Netherworld. It's too cold for this desert dweller," he said, sitting up on Carpet and rubbing his arms. Genie poofed the Magic Carpet back to his usual form.

"Good work, Rasoul," the Sultan congratulated his Captain of the Guard. "I'm glad you decided to risk not killing Aladdin."

"There would have been no point, Your Highness, A'Ghul was long gone before I reached him," Rasoul said blandly. "I could see by Aladdin's eyes that the Street Rat was back in his body. That's why I shut the chest."

Aladdin's jaw dropped and his dark brown eyes bugged. Then he blushed furiously and leaped to his feet. He shook his fist under the nose of the much larger man (giving himself more than a passing resemblance to a furious Abu) and bawled. "You KNEW it was me, you son of a flea-bitten jackal!??"

Rasoul folded his arms and looked DOWN on the sputtering youth. "Yes," he said calmly.

"Then why did you swing at me!?" howled Aladdin. "You almost gave me a HEART ATTACK!!"

Rasoul leered down at his bete noire and replied: "I can dream, can't I?"

The End!