Disney's Aladdin:
The Bride of Mozenrath
By Jill Weber
Part 4 of 4
Characters (c) by Walt Disney Corp.


Mozenrath materialized on the booby-trapped dune. He looked across the 
border at Aladdin and Saleen and smiled icily. "Congratulations, Street 
Rat," he sneered. "I thought you would push the deadline, but it took 
you less than a day to find someone suitable... assuming she IS 
suitable."

Aladdin spread his hands. "You blackmailed me into this because I'm 
good," he reminded Mozenrath blandly. "You won't find a more powerful, 
more beautiful, more magical female than Saleen." He was laying it on 
with a trowel. Saleen looked at him with sudden suspicion, but before 
she could speak, Aladdin looked around. "Where's Jasmine?" he asked.

Mozenrath gestured and Jasmine appeared, handcuffed to a Mamluk. "She's 
here, but I want to examine my potential bride first." He gestured to 
the back of the dune he was standing on. "Wait down there," he ordered 
gruffly. Jasmine pulled the Mamluk out of sight and Mozenrath gestured 
for Aladdin and Saleen to come closer.

"Saleen," Aladdin said with a grandiose bow. "This is Mozenrath, Lord 
of the Land of the Black Sands. Mozenrath, this is Saleen, Daughter of 
the Water, Belle of the Swell."

Mozenrath eyed Saleen sardonically. "Charmed, I'm sure," he said, 
bowing pretentiously.

Saleen eyed him warily. This wasn't the kind of reception she had been 
expecting. She turned her suspicious look on Aladdin, and got an 
encouraging smile in return. She turned back to Mozenrath. "My 
pleasure," she said guardedly.

Genie smoked out of the earring and stuck it in his pocket. "Iago, you 
and Abu go left, Rug Man and I will go left." He blinked. "Um."

Iago gritted his teeth. "You go left, we'll go right!"

"Gotcha!" Genie said. He and Carpet started to sneak off.

"Hey!" Iago objected. "How come *I* get stuck with the monkey!"
Genie sighed. "Because each group should have one member who can TALK!" 
he hissed. "Now shut up and get moving!" He and Carpet were out of 
sight before Iago thought to ask why Genie didn't take the monkey 
instead of the Carpet.

Iago picked up Abu and flapped off with him rather than walk on the 
icky Black Sand. Carpet also elected to fly. Genie was the only one who 
ignored the gunk underfoot, so he was the one who triggered the Mamluk 
ambush. Neither he nor Carpet noticed the movements under the sand. 
Their attention was fixed on their target.

Genie scowled. "Mozenwretch is trying to fool us," he growled to 
Carpet. Carpet turned his hem towards Genie and tilted it inquiringly. 
"Note that the 'Mamluk' has both hands bound, yet 'Princess Jasmine' 
only has a cuff on one hand. Plus Mamluk jaws aren't usually so 
thoroughly sewn together," Genie pointed out. Carpet looked, then 
clenched his tassels and took up a boxing pose. Genie shook his head. 
"Leave this to me," he said grimly. 
The 'Mamluk' and 'Princess' Jasmine started back when the air in front 
of them suddenly filled with sky blue smoke. A blonde woman in a pink 
sheath skirt, frilly white blouse, pink high heels and carrying a huge 
pink purse appeared in front of then. 'She' preened 'her' hair, then 
minced closer.

"'Scuse me, Genie-kay here," 'she' said in a credible Joan Rivers 
impersonation. (Not that either of the two 'she' addressed recognized 
it as such.) 'She' turned to 'Princess Jasmine'. "Have you tried our 
latest sunscreen, hon?" 'She' reached into 'her' purse and whipped out 
a large banana cream and super glue pie, which 'she' slammed into 
'Princess Jasmine's' face.
Then she minced over to the 'Mamluk'. "Hon, we have GOT to do something 
with that complexion!" 'She' whipped an atomizer out of her capacious 
purse and sprayed a light lavender mist into the 'Mamluk's' face, then 
at 'Princess Jasmine'.

When the mist cleared, Jasmine was the one with both hands chained and 
the Mamluk was futilely trying to pull the pie off its face. Genie 
smoked back into his usual form. "You BOTH look better that way." To 
the Mamluk, he added. "Leave it on, it suits your complexion."

"Thanks, Genie," Jasmine sighed. She rubbed her sore mouth. Then she 
held up her chained hands. Iago flew over with Abu, who made short work 
of the Jasmine's handcuffs. "Thanks, guys, I thought... Look out!"

The warning was too late. Mamluks started coming from every direction 
except straight up. One seized Jasmine from behind, pinning her arms. A 
quartet emerged from underground and started a four-way tug of war with 
Carpet. Considerably more than four jumped Genie and started dragging 
him underground. Iago and Abu grappled with the Mamluk holding Jasmine, 
for all the good they did; it may as well have grabbed them.

Jasmine squirmed and struggled to no avail. "Let me go!" she cried. She 
was astonished when the Mamluk obeyed. Jasmine yelled at the other 
Mamluks. "Let them go! Back off!" The Mamluks released Carpet and Genie 
and backed away, looking to Jasmine for further orders. "You can stop 
now, guys," Jasmine told Iago and Abu, who were still battering away at 
their chosen victim.

Iago looked around, blinking. "Wow, how'd you do that?" he asked. Abu 
jumped off the Mamluk and clambered onto Jasmine's shoulder. The 
capuchin monkey looked around in awe.

"I'm not sure," Jasmine said. Then she rubbed the bridge of her nose. 
"Wait a minute."

"A minute it is," Genie said, whipping out a very small hourglass. "So, 
what's with all the Mamluks?" he asked when the minute glass ran out.

"Mozenrath had them following my orders..." Jasmine started.

"Whoa! You talked Mozenwretch into giving YOU power over his pet 
shambling half dead?" Genie whistled. "You ARE good, Princess-woman!"

"He thought I was under his love potion, and he wanted me to act as his 
cleaning lady," Jasmine said dryly.
"You sure fooled Dr.Franken-brat, Princess!" Iago said, admiringly.

"Don't be silly, Mozenrath is too good at fooling himself. But how did 
you lure him out here?"

"We brought him a prospective bride," Genie told her.

Concern appeared on her face. "He intends to use that love potion on 
his bride. You didn't bring Sadira..."

"Nope, Saleen," Genie said.

"Saleen?" Jasmine gasped.

"Saleen," Genie confirmed. He poofed himself into a hefty soprano 
wearing Viking costume. "I think it's time to end this little party!"
Jasmine, Abu and Iago hop onto Carpet and sail off, Genie flying behind 
them on a sky blue, pudgy Pegasus.



Saleen's alarm was growing. This was NOT going how she pictured it. 
Mozenrath didn't seem interested in her at all, yet he obviously 
expected Aladdin to bring him a female magic user. Instead he was 
approaching Aladdin, who was backing away with very evident alarm.

"Now, AL, old buddy," Mozenrath purred. "You wouldn't DREAM of trying 
to save you're precious little princess by palming a ringer off on me, 
would you?"

Aladdin held his hands up in a placating manner. "MOZE, buddy! Would 
*I* do something like that to you?" He smiled unctuously and 
unconvincingly.

"In a Gomorrah minute, you little sneak thief! Especially when you have 
that pet Genie of yours to help you!"

Saleen, putting her hands on her hips. "I am NOT a genie!"

Mozenrath snorted. "Right, I'm supposed to believe that and waste a 
perfectly good love potion on that FREAK?!" he challenged Aladdin.

"Freak!" shrieked Saleen, starting to get very annoyed.

"Freak!" confirmed Mozenrath. He waved his hand and black sand blew off 
a familiar crystal.

"A crystal of IX!" shrieked Saleen. "You wretched little..."Mozenrath 
didn't notice that the last part of the tirade had been directed at 
Aladdin. "Ix-tal-AR!" he bellowed. A bright beam of light shot out, it 
swept over Aladdin without pausing, then stopped on Saleen.

"You wretched, sand-eating, land lubbers!" Saleen shrieked at both 
males as she was hauled into the Crystal.

Mozenrath turned to Aladdin, sneering. "Think you can fool me, you 
sniveling little thief? Now I have your princess AND your genie!"

"Wrong, you BRUTE!" was Jasmine's caustic reply from behind him.

Mozenrath whirled into Jasmine's right cross. When he could focus his 
eyes again, he saw Jasmine standing above him, hands on hips, mayhem in 
her eyes. Carpet floated just behind her, radiating fury. Genie-as-
Brunhilda wore a yellow wig, sat astride a blue Pegasus and had a black 
expression on his face that made Mozenrath glad that genies could not 
kill.

"That's for the 'little princess', Little Boy," Jasmine snapped. She 
moved back a few paces in anticipation of Mozenrath's retaliation.

Mozenrath leapt to his feet and blasted at Jasmine. Genie placed a 
reflective barrier between Mozenrath's blast and the princess, forcing 
Mozenrath to dodge his own magic. Snarling, he clenched his right fist. 
A blue black glow emanated from his gauntlet as he prepared another 
attack. "YOU!" he sputtered, too angry to even come up with an adequate 
insult.

"Us," Genie-Brunhilda said blandly. He steered his steed over to the 
Crystal of Ix. "Funny, I never saw a jewel wearing a woman before, I 
thought it was supposed to be the other way around!" He threw back his 
head and let out a high 'C' that was sharp enough to cause everyone to 
wince. Nothing else happened. "Let me try that with the Boom Box," he 
said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a metallic box 
covered with fine metal mesh.

Screech box, was more like it, the others decided as Genie tried again. 
Abu, Iago, Saleen and the humans to tried to block their ears. Carpet 
shuddered violently, sank to the sand and tried to bury himself. The 
Crystal of Ix shivered, then splintered into a thousand and one 
fragments.

Carpet darted out of the sand to protect Jasmine, Abu and Iago. Genie 
turned himself into a transparent, blue wall with a golden lamp 
embossed on it and threw himself between Aladdin and a really close 
shave. Mozenrath had to protect himself with cape and magic.

Mozenrath turned on Genie and Aladdin, pulling his gauntleted hand back 
to throw black, burning death. "You tricked me!" he bellowed. 

"Duh!" Aladdin said, sticking out his tongue.

Before Mozenrath could fire, Carpet and company plowed into him from 
behind. Abu pulled Mozenrath's turban over his eyes. Jasmine swept 
Aladdin off the sand and Genie grabbed onto Carpet's rear hem. Genie's 
costume disappeared and his legs became a rocket. Blue smoke and red 
sparks flew out from the rocket as Genie boosted Carpet up and out of 
Mozenrath's range.

"Next stop, AGRABAH!" Genie chortled. "Please keep your hands and feet 
inside the Magic Carpet at all times, and no smoking please!" (The blue 
smoke disappeared; leaving only red sparks drifting behind)

Saleen jumped gracefully from the shattered crystal, changing back to 
her normal mode of dress as she did so. "You arrogant, idiotic, dry 
land TOAD!" she shrieked. "How DARE you treat me like that?"

Mozenrath left off snarling after the departing heroes to snarl at this 
annoying female. "I'M idiotic?" he asked. "YOU'RE the one whose friends 
abandoned you to MY tender mercies, you little would-be witch!"

"Would-be WITCH! I am an ELEMENTAL!" Saleen shrilled. "And THEY aren't 
MY friends. They're just pests. All I want is another pet and that 
Aladdin is MINE as soon as he kills his faithless princess!" she 
blurted out. But as soon as she said that, she realized that Aladdin 
must have been lying. Mozenrath's words confirmed her suspicions.

"Kill Princess Jasmine?" he laughed. "Not even if she HAD been 
unfaithful! He's too tenderhearted. Besides, he KNEW she was under my 
spell..." he too stopped when he remembered how Jasmine had fooled him. 
"Idiot female," he muttered.

Saleen's eyes narrowed. "Really?" she snarled.

Mozenrath looked at her in sudden speculation. An elemental could prove 
very useful to him. Maybe Aladdin had tricked HIMSELF this time. "Not 
YOU, the princess," he said, trying to sound conciliatory. "You and I 
obviously have a lot in common, why don't you come to my place so we 
can discuss how to get revenge on our common enemies?"

The alliance lasted until Mozenrath slipped some love potion into 
Saleen's wine. She drank it, then informed him that love potions didn't 
work on elementals.

"But if you're so BOUND and DETERMINED to have a wife..." she cooed, 
advancing on him with an ominous smile.

***

The Sultan hugged his daughter like he never intended to let her out of 
his arms again. Then he turned around and gave Aladdin an equally warm 
welcome. "My boy, you've done it again!" he beamed, slapping him on the 
back. "I certainly glad THAT'S all over with!"

Iago made a wry face. "For now, anyway," he squawked. "I doubt that 
either Mozenrath or Saleen will forgive and forget this little fiasco."

Aladdin shrugged and draped an arm around Jasmine's shoulders. "So? 
It's not like our situation is any worse. They were both after our 
hides before this." He kissed Jasmine's cheek, then continued before 
Abu or Iago could make editorial comments. "And YOU are in even less 
danger than before. This time, it was Jasmine and I who conned them. 
They may forget about you entirely... for a while."

Iago fanned his wings furiously, but before he could speak, he was 
again forestalled. (Twice in one scene, this is noteworthy.) This time, 
it was Genie's entrance that cut him off. "Oh, Princess-woman, I have 
retrieved your belongings, but..." he hesitated.

Jasmine smiled ruefully. "I know, EVERYTHING is going to need a 
thorough cleaning." She remembered the outfits the Mamluks were 
wearing. "Except for what needs to be burned."

Genie shook his head. "No, everything is quite clean, it's just..." He 
shook his head again, for once at a loss for words (another notable 
occurrence). "You'd better come see for yourself."

They trooped up to Jasmine's room and stopped, aghast, just inside the 
doorway. Iago fluttered around the room, but refused to land on 
anything. Abu took one peek and then hid under Aladdin's vest. Aladdin 
tightened his grip on Jasmine's waist. Appalled, she leaned against his 
shoulder and looked around.

"It's... it's..." Jasmine sputtered.

"Pink," Aladdin supplied.

"PINK!" Iago squalled. He flapped over and landed on Jasmine's 
shoulder. "IT'S NOT JUST *PINK*, IT IS PAINFULLY, POINTEDLY, 
PROMINENTLY, PEEVISHLY, PENETRATINGLY, PERILOUSLY, POISONOUSLY, 
PESTIFEROUSLY, PROFANELY, PRETERNATURALLY, PATHOLOGICALLY, 
PRESUMPTUOUSLY, PERFIDIOUSLY, POSITIVELY, PALPABLY..."

"Pink," Aladdin broke in, bemused. Practically everything in the room, 
except the walls and floor, was now pink: the furniture, the bedding, 
the rugs, the clothing, the knickknacks, the jewelry, even the mirror 
was painted with non-reflecting coat of pink.

The Sultan shook his head in perplexity. "Until walking in on THIS, I'd 
have said there's no PUTRID shade of pink." He looked at Genie. "Genie, 
what did you do?" he asked plaintively.

Pouting, Genie peregrinated around the room, adding a welcome touch of 
sky blue to the color scheme. "Hey, everything was like this BEFORE I 
repossessed it from Perpetrator Lad." He popped into a patron of the 
arts persona, complete with top hat and morning coat. He peered down 
through his monocle and proclaimed: "I believe the precise term for 
this perturbing pigment is 'puke pink'."

Aladdin closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose as if the 
prolonged exposure to the potent pinkness pained them. "Mozenrath 
couldn't possibly have planned on pinking everything," he said. "It 
must have been painted without his permission."

"Oh, how very PERCEPTIVE of you!" shrieked Iago.

"Enough with the 'P's already!" Jasmine growled, grabbing Iago by the 
beak. To the others, she said: "No, Mozenrath's not the decorator type. 
So how did my things get dyed... pink?"

Genie flashed into a deerstalker cap, an Inverness cape, and blew some 
soap bubbles out of the meerschaum pipe that was clenched in his mouth. 
"A very good question, my dear Watson!" He puffed on his pipe, 
producing more bubbles. "I think we should investigate the current 
goings on at Chez Perversity."

He pointed the stem of his pipe at Jasmine's mirror; a stream of blue 
sparks fought the Pepto-Bismol pink coating. The blue sparks won and 
the mirror cleared. First it showed a reflection of the perniciously 
pink room, then it shimmered and showed the Citadel.

Everything of Mozenrath's had been turned varying shades of pink, 
including the floors, ceilings and walls. The now salmon-skinned 
Mamluks were plodding around in lacy puce uniforms. Even Mozenrath's 
clothes had been transmuted into a skintight silk outfit of every shade 
of pink imaginable, and many that weren't.

Mozenrath had his elbows on a fuchsia tablecloth covered with magenta 
bunnies. His head resting on his hands as though he had a very BAD 
headache. In the background, the watchers could hear Saleen singing off 
color songs about the joys of pink.

"Xerxes?" Mozenrath said. Xerxes, wearing a frilly pink baby bonnet 
swam up to him.

"Master?" the wonder slug asked pitifully.

Mozenrath gave Xerxes a weary look. "If I *EVER* even mention the 
possibility of even THINKING about getting married, I want you to bite 
me."

"Hard!" Xerxes agreed.


By then Genie was laughing too hard to keep the picture in focus. 
"Well, we won't be hearing from THEM for a while!" he sniggered.

Iago sighed. "But when we do..."

Aladdin shrugged. "Like I said before, Mozenrath can't hate me any more 
than he does." He grinned at the mirror. "But maybe he'll think twice 
before he goes in for kidnapping again. Come on, guys, I haven't had 
anything to eat since yesterday and I'm starving."

Jasmine hugged him. "Good idea and, while we eat, I think it's time 
that WE took the initiative."

Everyone looked at her expectantly and Jasmine gave him or her a bright 
smile. "Well, as long as the Mamluks obey my orders, I think we should 
use that to make Mozenrath's life even more miserable than it is now." 
Her smile turned into a malicious grin. "Especially if we can do it in 
a way that will make it look like Saleen's responsible." She paused for 
a moment. "Come to think of it, we should also do something nasty to 
Saleen and make it look like Mozenrath's work. After all, if they're 
fighting each other, then they are NOT attacking US!"

Aladdin laughed. "I like your thinking, " he said, hugging her."

In fact, I like you, too, my Princess." Then he kissed her, with her 
willing cooperation.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" clamored Iago. "Do we always have to end 
things with a kiss!?!"

Genie picked him up by his tail feathers and held him so they were nose 
to beak. "We COULD end this by bleaching your red feathers pink," he 
threatened blandly.

Iago gagged and rolled his eyes. "Oy, vey. Awright, then, end it with a 
kiss!"


XXXX  KISS! XXX