Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: From One To Another

A few days later, the girls began to wake up back at the palace. Shia was the first to awaken. Unfortunately, since she was also hurt, she was forbidden to heal the others. She did ask what had happened, but due to an agreement between Jasmine Spike and Aladdin; she had to wait for the others. Unfortunately, the pain stitched across all three’s faces gave her a pretty good idea of what happened.

Twilight and Dash woke up second and third. The former pressed Aladdin for details but came up with nothing. The latter immediately tried to get up and fly around, but shut up after receiving a quick hug from Spike for being alright; and an order to stay put for the time being.

AJ woke up alongside Pinkie, who woke up completely healed, but decided to stay in bed so Rarity wouldn't be alone. She couldn't explain it, but she felt… sad, for some reason. Almost as if she had lost a loved one.

Rarity was the last to wake up, a full three days after Shia did. But that point, Dash had almost gone stir crazy, and Twilight had almost began interrogating the three secret keepers.

Soon after Shia brought Rarity up to speed the door to the hospital wing opened, revealing Spike and the other two. “Oh good, you’re finally awake.”

“Yeah, it’s about time,” Dash groaned as she furiously scratched her bandages.

Rarity quickly began restyling her bed head. “Please, Rachelle, in order to properly recover one needs plenty of sleep.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you please tell us what happened now?” Twilight was nearing her bursting point.

“Yeah!” Pinkie cheered. “What’s with all the frowny faces. We couldn't have lost that badly.”

Aladdin shook his head sadly. “No… we lost pretty badly.”

“Why? What happened. Sure we’re all banged up, but I’m sure you torched the hell outta that thing! Right? I’m pretty sure seeing me knocked out sent you into Dragon Rage mode, huh?” she said smugly.

Spike’s sorrowful expression caused her own to smug one to disappear. “Hey… you--”

Twilight jumped up and made her way over to the group. She noticed that Aladdin and Jasmine hadn't said anything on the matter and were actively avoiding all of their gazes. “Tell us what happened.”

Spike immediately explained everything that happened after they were knocked out. About how he unleashed the mother of all flame towers on the Darkside. About how it didn't work. He even told them about how he learned that Darksides are darkness and fire resistant.

Spike clenched his fist. For the last few days Spike had been silently beating himself up over that fact. “If I knew, I wouldn't have used darkfire. I’d have used ClearFire or even my regular fire. In fact, Pinkamena should've been the one to step out. You guys got hurt because I wanted to be reckless and let loose!”

Twilight grabbed his clenched hand, she didn't even flinch when her skin came into contact with the heat of his own. His body always did heat up when he was stressed or angry. “It’s alright Spike. Weren't you the one who scolded me not to get upset about not knowing things?”

“Yea… but If I know then Genie wouldn't have--”

Aladdin decided to speak up. “Spike, you know that isn't why he did it.”

“It’s still a part of it!” Spike stormed out of the room past the couple. Dash immediately rushed out of bed after him. She was past the door before anyone could stop her.

Pinkie jumped up beside Twilight. “Wait, what happened to Genie?!”

Aladdin glanced at his wife before turning back to the girls, “You should come see for yourself.”

The Sultan and his wife led them far on the other side of the palace until the came to a room on the far edge, near a dead end with a single window. Aladdin pointed at the window. “Before we go inside. Look out there.”

The group gathered at the window and gazed out on the set of fireworks still playing in the sky, three days later. Now the fireworks were playing games, chasing each other back and forth. Making shapes and even spelling out jokes. The entire town was filled with joy, completely oblivious to the somber feeling inside the palace.

“It’s amazing!” Pinkie gushed.

Aladdin opened the door. Inside was a completely empty room sans one bed, and one hunched over man sitting on the edge of it.  He wore a familiar garb consisting of no shirt and puffy blue pants with curly shoes. However the rest of him was strikingly unfamiliar. He looked up at the group standing and staring at him.

“Glad you like it.”

“Aladdin, who’s this?”

The man gave a sad smile. “What? You didn't tell them yet, Al?”

“I felt like you should do the honors.”

Instantly, the pieces fell together for Twilight. Cautiously, she stepped into the room. “Genie?”

Hearing this the man hung his head lower than it already was until his eyes were no longer visible.

“...no.”

~~~

“He what!?” Dash yelled. Going after him, the two entered into the gym; and after Spike calmed a bit he began explaining what happened.

“He sacrificed the last of his magic.”

“I… is he…?”

“No. I know it’s not my fault. But I can’t help but imagine what would have happened if Genie didn't do what he did. Or rather, what I let him to do.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

“To answer your question, Genie is human now, but worse than that, he’s a shell,” he said, switching topics.

“What do you mean?”

“Technically, to be a Genie of the Lamp, one must have a lamp. What do you call one who doesn't have one?”

“I don’t know… a free genie?”

“There is no such thing. Jasmine has been curious about this. Never once has she heard of a genie without a lamp of some sort.”

“Well couldn't it just be that there aren't any? Why can’t he be the first?!”

“It’s not impossible. But only if he’s a pure genie.”

Twilight stood infront of the odd man. What was odd was the fact that he looked normal in every sense of the word. He had light dark skin. He had a bald head with a long tuft of hair tied at the top. He had a rather impressive build to him, sporting quite a bit of muscle but not overly so. What’s more was that he had four fingers just like everyone else. He was completely human.

“What’s a pure genie?” she asked.

“A pure genie is a genie with unknown origins. It is said that they are servants of Allah himself that are punished with servitude,” the man answered. “When they are released, they return to him.

“So ahm guess you’re not pure?” AJ surmised.

The man nodded. “I, like Jafar was a human who wanted to be a genie. Genies like us are given a set amount of wish granting magic from the genie who turned us in order to make us into one. Whenever we use the magic, it’s absorbed back into the lamp for repeated use.”

“Magic recycling? That’s amazing!”

Spike looked Dash in the eye. “But what happens when that genie has no lamp to store and recycle the energy?”

Dash’s eyes widened at the realization. “They run out…”

Spike nodded grimly. “Normally, a genie has centuries of years worth of Magic; for large scale or rapid fire wish granting. However, Genie is a very active magic user, very active. Most likely he was so caught up with his freedom that he only remembered this fact sometime ago. Genie became conservative with his magic. Aladdin didn't notice it, being around him all the time caused him to not pay as much attention to it. But Jasmine, she noticed it. She predicted that he was losing his magic, probably told Twilight about it too. Although, even she did not predict the full extent of it.”

“I began aging again.”

There was a sharp gasp from Jasmine and Rarity. Twilight sadly nodded in understanding. She had learned from her Masters that incredible amounts of magic tended to seep deeper into the body and slow down the aging process. It stood to reason that someone as powerful as Genie would not age and all, and only begin aging once again when that magic disappeared.

“I noticed that my hair was growing, and that I had to put forth more and more effort into the spells I cast. The bigger ones would become nearly impossible to cast at one point. I nearly began to panic until I remembered what was happening.”

Shia began to tear up as she felt the emotion in the man’s voice grow stronger. AJ calmly sat a hand on her shoulder.

“I sat down one day, and concentrated. I noticed that I was quickly running out of magic. I had less than a 10th of what I once had. That caused me to panic more, but I stopped when I realize that I was only using more magic. So I began looking for another lamp with a Genie that could restore my powers.”

Aladdin shot forward and grabbed the formoe genie by the shoulders. “Why didnt you tell us! I would've gone with you! I would've looked so you could save your magic. I would've have scoured this entire world… if you had just asked us,” he trailed off, tears in his eyes.

Genie did not react he still hung his head low, and continued his explanation, “This was around the time Jasmine had found out about her next pregnancy. You guys were just so excited, there was no way I was going to sour it up. Not to mention the heartless that began popping back up recently.”

“The heartless could have waited! Genie, you are my best friend. Nothing in this world would have kept me from helping you.”

“Your family--”

“I only have because of you! This place, because of you! My wife, my children, my happiness… my life. I only have any of it… because I found you that day. The day when Abu and I were tricked into the lion’s mouth Cave of Wonders by Jafar. We were stuck… buried under ten tons of sand and rock. I found you, and my life changed.” Aladdin hung his head, averting his gaze from the man’s still unaffected one

Shia and Rarity were openly crying at this point. Even Twilight and Jasmine struggled to hold back their emotions. Memories blazed in Twilight’s mind. A time when she gave a similar speech to Spike played out, and that only made her eyes wetter.

“Remember when we took down the den of thieves? Remember when you helped me reunite with my father? I always come to you for advice and you helped me without a second thought. Why couldn't you have come to me for the one problem that you had?”

There was no reply.

Aladdin lifted his head back up, anger filled he now tear dripping eyes. “Genie! Answer me!”

For the first time he lifted his head. However there was no light in his eyes, no joy or playfulness. They were a cold blue, and they stared right into Aladdins own brown ones.

“That’s just not who I am anymore.”