A/N: Before proceeding, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the song "Welcome to the Forty Thieves" from "Aladdin and the King of Thieves."

---

79. The Guild of Thieves

AGRABAH, THE SEVEN DESERTS

The brawny man kept to the back streets of the city. He didn't want to risk being seen, not just yet. His face wasn't well known in Agrabah, but all the same, there was a small chance that someone could recognize him. He didn't want to be recognized until exactly the right moment.

There was another boon to working in the back streets: that was often where the ruffians did their business, those who did crime for pleasure and those who did crime in order to survive. This man counted himself among the former, but to meet his purposes, any would do.

He crossed paths with a few innocents: people taking shortcuts, people with homes in the outer districts, people who merely wandered. At last, he found what he was looking for: a peasant trying to hold closed a baggy vest stuffed with goods. A few gold coins rolled out of the stash. A thief, the man assumed, and not a very good one.

The man strode toward the thief, seizing him by the front of the vest with his right hand; the thief was more than a head shorter than and only half as muscular as the man, so lifting his feet right off the ground was an easy feat. The thief squealed as all the loot – gems and jewelry of all sorts – spilled out of his clothing.

"Tell me," the man growled. "Where can I find the hideout of the Agrabanian Guild of Thieves?"

"I know nothing!" the thief squeaked.

"Maybe this will jog your memory." The man brandished his left fist; it bore a deadly accessory, a bronze trinket fitted over the knuckles so that three razor-sharp claws extended from the back of the hand. The man pressed the bronze blades close to the thief's throat, just enough to scratch the skin. "Where is the Guild of Thieves?"

"STOP!" the thief squealed. "ONE HUNDRED PACES DOWN THIS ALLEY, TWO RIGHT TURNS, FIFTY PACES FORWARD, ONE LEFT, TURN ONTO THE MAIN STREET AND YOU'RE THERE!"

"Very good." The man dropped his victim, who bolted, leaving his plunder behind, at that point caring only that his neck was intact. Satisfied, the man continued his journey.

---

"So…do you mind explaining it to me…one more time?" Sadira asked with a sheepish grin as she stood before Aladdin and Jasmine in the throne room. The royal couple was dressed differently than she was used to seeing them: Aladdin bore a simple garment of white, sandals beneath, and Jasmine had traded in her teal garb for a dark garment that covered her hair and most of her body, leaving only her face and hands visible.

"Of course," Jasmine said. "Everyone of our faith must make the Hajj sometime in our life."

"So I'll have to go eventually," Sadira said with a nod. "Don't worry. I'll get around to it."

"It happens during the month of Dhu al-Hijjah," Jasmine went on. "We have to dress simply to remember that deep down, there's no difference between rich and poor, between royals and commoners. We're all people. It's an especially important thing to remember for us." Jasmine smiled. "Seeing how our family's made up of a little of both sides. But really, in our hearts, there are no sides."

"So," Sadira asked, "are you expecting any dangerous adventures along the way? Daring swordfights? Heroic rescues?"

"Actually," Aladdin told her, "we have to leave our weapons behind."

"What?" Sadira replied. "Well, good thing you've got a magic carpet, then – "

"Carpet too," Aladdin insisted. "If we don't make the journey on foot like everyone else, that's like saying we're better than everybody else making it. And it takes the meaning out of the journey."

"So what if you get into trouble?" Sadira asked, genuinely concerned.

"I think we'll manage," Aladdin said with a wink.

"We always do," Jasmine agreed.

"Sorry for bugging you about this," Sadira sighed. "I grew up on my own since I was pretty little, so nobody ever really taught me all the details about things like this."

"It's all right," Jasmine reassured her. "Anyway, I want to thank you again for staying here to look after things while we're gone. It's good to know that somebody will be here in case…well…"

"In case the usual happens?" Sadira teased. "Hostile takeovers, angry sorcerers, Ifrits on the loose?"

"Hopefully, you should have more of a quiet time," Aladdin replied.

"Hey, I can take care of it," Sadira promised. "Besides, I'll have the Sultan, Genie, Abu, and Carpet to help me out. Just let them try to hurt this city while I'm in the palace."

"Glad to hear it," Aladdin said. "Well…I guess this is it."

"We'll be back," Jasmine promised, though her face betrayed that she was still worried.

"I GOT this!" Sadira insisted. "Now hurry up, so you don't miss the date!"

---

After the Sultan, Genie, Sadira, and palace staff and inhabitants made goodbyes to the prince and princess, and the duo had set out on foot, Sadira found herself in the throne room, admiring its walls, its ceiling, the throne itself. She became aware of a second presence floating its way into the room, and she addressed him: "Y'know, Genie, there was a time I used magic and hypnotism to get into this room. Who would've known I could get here just by being nice?"

"Ummm…" Genie wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Relax," Sadira said, aware of what he was thinking. "I'm not looking for a takeover."

"Good," Genie sighed. "The LAST thing we need is another tyrant on the throne."

"I'm just here to keep a lookout," Sadira stated. "Though it is kinda nice to live a little closer to friends for the time being."

The Sultan entered, clearing his throat loudly. "Er, Sadira? Is there anything I can have the staff get you to make your stay more comfortable?"

"Hmm…" Sadira thought it over, then sent a wink to Genie. "How about a reclining couch, a bowl of grapes, and your strongest, most handsome guards with fans?"

"Oh…" the Sultan stammered. "Well – well, I suppose I could – "

"Kidding!" Sadira laughed. "I'm kidding! I'm good! Just keep doing Sultan stuff. I'll stay out of your hair." She thought it over. "Actually, do you have a library in here? I kinda wanna see if there's anything I can read in order to keep up work on my magic."

"Oh, of course!" The Sultan turned to call down the hall: "Razoul!"

"Yes, Sultan!" Razoul rushed to bow before the Sultan.

"Would you escort Sadira to our library to show her where she can find reading material?" the Sultan asked.

"Yes," Razoul replied.

"Thanks, Razoul," Sadira said, falling in step beside the guard as he made his way to the library.

"I still don't trust you, witch," Razoul hissed once the two were out of earshot.

"Well, then, I'm just going to have to prove you can," Sadira resolved, crossing her arms.

---

In the back of the dive that housed the Guild of Thieves, Abis Mal, Mechanicles, Haroud, and Amin Damoola huddled around a table. A small bronze clockwork beetle, just below knee height, scuttled around them, occasionally branching out to explore other parts of the room.

"So far," Mechanicles reported, rolling out a checklist – most of which was crossed off – "the majority of our team efforts have been successful."

"I'll say," Amin chuckled, picking up a pile of gold coins from the table – only a part of what they'd amassed since beginning work together.

"Leading us," Mechanicles went on, "to the eternal question, one asked every time we reconvene at this less than pleasant establishment – "

"So what are we doing next?" Abis Mal asked.

"HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT ME!" Mechanicles snapped, leaning directly toward Abis Mal, staring him down. "I WAS GETTING THERE!"

"Well, fine, Mr. Bossypants!" Abis Mal replied, folding his arms.

Mechanicles settled back down. "As I was saying: what is to be our next move?"

"Well, I hear the Land of the Black Sands has some serious loot – " Abis Mal began.

"NO," Amin snarled, beginning to shudder at the thought.

"Might I suggest a return to Getzistan?" Haroud voiced.

"But we aaaaaaalways do Getzistan!" Abis Mal whined.

"And for good reason!" Mechanicles snapped. "It's one of the most lucrative kingdoms in all of the Seven Deserts! Our only worry is if they've wised up to our attack pattern, in which case, I have come up with a few new mechanical designs." He spread out several sheets of parchment over the table, each of which held a schematic for a clockwork insect or arachnid. "Behold! The agile tarantula! The stalwart beetle! The airborne dragonfly!"

"Well, that's good ENOUGH, if a little boring," Amin sighed.

"See?" Abis Mal snapped. "He thinks it's a boring idea too."

"I was thinking of the legends that told of the plant monster that inhabited the oasis garden far beyond the Agrabanian walls," Amin mused. "The garden that died this very year, leaving blackened vines, trees without leaves…and more than likely plunder of VERY good value."

"Well," Mechanicles said plainly, "that just has 'bad idea' written all over it."

Suddenly, the clockwork beetle was upset, scampering back to the table as quickly as it could and clambering up onto it, its metal legs entangling with the papers before it flipped over onto its back and flailed wildly.

"SCOOTER!" Mechanicles scolded. "WHAT do you think you are doing?" He flipped the beetle back over onto its feet. "How many times have I told you NOT to mess with Daddy's meticulously planned checklists?" He stared down the beetle for a while before breaking into a grin. "Oh, you know I can't stay mad at you, you adorable little scamp!"

"Ooooookaaaaayyyyy…" Amin said, staring in confusion at the display.

"Perhaps," Haroud suggested, "that newcomer is what triggered that response in the machine – er, that is to say, Scooter."

All four turned to look at the man who'd entered the room: tall, muscular, bald, scowling at his surroundings disparagingly.

Abis Mal reacted immediately. "HEY!" he screamed, pointing at the newcomer. "THAT'S SA'LUK OF THE FORTY THIEVES! THAT'S HIM, I TELL YOU!"

All eyes suddenly locked onto the newcomer, and every other thief in the room, from the amateur to the talented, began to whisper to those around about whether or not the truth had been spoken. The newcomer, however, made his way to the table at the back of the room.

"I think you made him mad…" Amin squeaked before diving to hide under the table.

Sa'luk looked over the four at the table. Well, the three at the table, and the one under it. All of them looked thoroughly unimpressive in his eyes. He turned his attention to Abis Mal. "So you recognize me," he said.

"Yeah," Abis Mal said, "but you're supposed to be dead! Right? Or did you have some kinda run-in with a…with a nec…necro…dead-people-come-alive-guy?"

"Necromancer, sir," Haroud supplied.

"Yeah!" Abis Mal cried. "One of those!"

"I was indeed dead," Sa'luk said with a grin. "And now I'm not. But this isn't a work of any old necromancer. I'm here because of forces bigger than what you can imagine. And I'm here with a mission."

He turned his back on the table, figuring he could ignore the four – none of whom looked strong, all of whom were shorter than him, and who struck him as an idiot, a kiss-up, a coward, and the sort of mentally unsound person who cuddles mechanical beetles. Sa'luk instead looked out to the rest of the room, stepping atop a small table to make his announcement.

"Yes, I was with the Forty Thieves!" he announced. "And yes…I have returned from the dead, though how I did it concerns NONE of you. I am looking to rebuild what I have lost. As you know, the Forty Thieves are no more, thanks to that coward Cassim, father of the prince!"

At that statement, a loud "BOOOOOO!" sounded from the crowd.

"What I need," Sa'luk said, "is a small, elite team of which I can take the helm. Those who join me will have a chance to gain untold riches! Now, I want you all to tell me…who are the best thieves in this Guild?"

He expected the majority of the thieves to stand up and claim "I AM!" The rest, he hypothesized, would all point out roughly the same people, though these numbers would be few. It was the ones who got the votes of the others whom he would take.

However, what happened next shocked him almost more than when Discord had trotted him out into Mirage's sanctum in Morbus. Every arm raised and pointed, either respectfully or resentfully, at the table in the back. Sa'luk turned to see Abis Mal, Amin Damoola, Haroud Hazi Bin, and Mechanicles smirking devilishly at him.

"Do you think I am a JOKE?" he roared.

"But they've robbed the entire city of Inabadway blind!" a voice piped up.

"And dipped into the royal coffers of Quirkistan!" another added.

"The finest cows of Odiferous!" said another.

And another: "Every betting pool at the Nest Egg in Getzistan!"

And another: "They even recovered the shards of the Destiny Stone!"

"Which turned out to be little more than a glorified set of paperweights," Mechanicles broke in.

"With all due respect," Haroud said, approaching Sa'luk, "our team has pulled off many a successful heist. Of course, we would GLADLY welcome any member of the Forty Thieves into our ranks! Barring Cassim, of course."

"I had a feeling you were a kiss-up," Sa'luk hissed. "All the same…" He looked toward the table, where Abis Mal attempted to wave at him in a friendly manner, Mechanicles clutched Scooter protectively as though worried Sa'luk had ill intent for the mechanized beetle, and Amin just shrugged and gave a braggadocious grin.

"I suppose," Sa'luk resolved, "for want of anyone better…you'll do."

"YES!" Abis Mal squealed. "We got an actual member of the Forty Thieves!"

"This should improve our success rate circa forty percent," Mechanicles mused. "PROVIDED HE TOES THE LINE."

"Were I you…" Sa'luk jumped down off the table, landing hard, and brandished the bronze blades on his knuckles, advancing toward Mechanicles. "I would not claim to be the one to decide where the line is."

"Note," Mechanicles spat, "TAKEN."

Haroud rejoined the group, and Sa'luk resolved, "You four will be my elite force. And the five of us shall rebuild the legacy lost by the Forty Thieves. Now. If I may know your names…?"

"I am Abis Mal, scourge of the Seven Deserts!" Abis Mal introduced.

Haroud bowed. "Haroud Hazi Bin."

"Amin Damoola," Amin introduced. "And DON'T call me Butterfingers. I don't care WHAT anyone's told you!"

"And I?" Mechanicles stood to full height. "I am Mechanicles, the greatest of the great Greek thinkers! My intelligence dwarfs that of this entire room combined!"

After hearing the names of his new cohorts, Sa'luk wondered once again if this was some sort of joke.

"We're actually with one of the Forty Thieves!" Abis Mal gushed. He leapt up onto the table, reaching out to shake Sa'luk's right hand violently with both of his, and sang out, "Congratulations, you!"

"You've joined our crew!" Amin added.

"And I think that we can all agree," Haroud crooned.

"We've got the finest brains!" Mechanicles boasted.

"And we can bring the PAIN!" Abis Mal insisted, pumping his fists.

Then all four lined up in front of the table, putting right hands out to Sa'luk and singing in unison, "WELCOME TO THE GUILD OF THIEVES!"

Sa'luk rolled his eyes, as he'd heard this song and dance before – the exact same one, actually – back among the Forty. But he knew there was no stopping them now.

"Four twisted-minded men!" Mechanicles announced.

"Who'll be your best friends!" Amin insisted with an honest smile.

"There's nothing up our baggy sleeves…" Abis Mal began, before tugging at the edge of Mechanicles' chiton: "Or lack thereof!"

"Our spoils, we're willing to share," Haroud said, offering several gold pieces.

"Why don't you have a chair?" Amin asked, shoving a chair at Sa'luk so that he found himself stumbling down into a sitting position on it as the four thieves paraded around him.

And as they did, Mechanicles, Abis Mal, Amin, and Haroud harmonized, "WELCOME TO THE GUILD OF THIEVES!"

"We appreciate liars and cheats!" Haroud belted.

"With prim hair and with perfect teeth," Mechanicles added, at which point Abis Mal lifted his hat, ran his hand through his thinning hair, and pouted.

"But we always aim to please!" Amin chimed in.

Abis Mal leapt back up on the table, singing out, "Watch out for one another! These guys are like my brothers!"

"Joy," Sa'luk hissed under his breath. "Just what I need: RELATIVES."

"Plan details of every scam!" Mechanicles boasted, holding up several of his best sketches.

"If that don't work, we're on the lam!" Amin amended, knocking down the papers, causing Mechanicles to grit his teeth as he dropped to his knees to pick them all up and put them back in order.

"Taking whatever we please!" Abis Mal sang with a grin, snatching a bowl of grapes off a nearby table and popping three into his mouth.

"And if you want to rob," Haroud told Sa'luk plainly, "you're perfect for this job."

"WELCOME TO THE GUILD OF THIEVES!" the four chorused.

"Together, we're the perfect team!" Amin insisted, putting an arm around Haroud and Mechanicles each. Mechanicles promptly picked up Amin's wrist and threw his arm off of him, dusting off his shoulder.

"Lar…lars…stealing stuff is in our genes!" Abis Mal continued.

"Care to join our little dream?" Haroud asked beguilingly.

Amin and Abis Mal locked arms, harmonizing, "Live a life of leisure!"

"Counting EVERY PIECE of treasure!" Mechanicles said, unrolling a long scroll covered in numerical figures as he pulled a rope that caused a curtain to rise from the back wall.

Sa'luk gasped as he took in the sight. Golden statues, bejeweled artifacts, gemstones the size of eyeballs, heaps of coins…a veritable trove lay beyond that curtain. Breaking the momentum of the musical number, Sa'luk asked, "Did you collect all of that?"

"This is only a minor fraction of what we've collected, I'll have you know," Mechanicles said, pointing to the last figure on the scroll: a very high number. "And if a SINGLE PIECE gets lost in transport, there will be Tartarus to pay for ALL of you!"

Sa'luk grinned, standing up. "NOW you have my interest."

Mechanicles, Abis Mal, Amin, and Haroud lined up before him, executing a precise set of synchronized choreography without breaking the line as they sang the last lines: "As the newest member of our little gang, you'll be punished harshly if you leave! If you can snatch and sneak, then we can reach the peak! We'll bring in endless loot that we'll forever keep! And we'll be greater than you ever could believe! Wel-wel-welcome to the! Wel-wel-welcome to the GUILD…OF…THIIIIIIEEEEVES!"

They executed a quick two-step, and then Sa'luk supposed they were supposed to twirl in unison, but as Mechanicles and Haroud went clockwise, Amin and Abis Mal went counterclockwise, and all four ended up crashing into each other and hitting the ground.

"GAAAAAH!" Mechanicles screeched. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT DEVIATING FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHY? I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN! YOU IDIOTS COULDN'T PULL OFF A FINALE IF YOUR LIVES DEPENDED ON IT! Let's just hope the NEW member has more experience with the performing arts and the PRECISION they require."

"Believe me…" Sa'luk said. "Among the Forty, song and dance were not unusual. Though I'm hoping we can keep it to a minimum compared to actual business."

"Oh, don't you worry your bald head about that," Abis Mal said slyly as the four thieves struggled back to standing positions; Abis Mal found himself greatly liking the idea of having someone completely bald, with no hair to be jealous of, on the team. He even entertained a momentary fantasy about Sa'luk being jealous of his hair before continuing, "We were just in the middle of planning our GREATEST HEIST OF THEM ALL!"

"And what would that be?" Sa'luk asked.

"We are still finalizing the minutiae," Mechanicles informed him.

"We have absolutely no idea what we're doing," Amin translated.

Sa'luk's palm became acquainted with his forehead.

"B-b-but we're working on it!" Amin said quickly.

"We were evaluating potential locations to target," Mechanicles explained. "Items of value worth taking note of."

"The problem is…well…basically, we've been all over the Seven Deserts," Abis Mal admitted. "At least, the safe parts."

"We have committed multiple thefts in nearly every nation," Haroud clarified. "Eliminating the plans that would amount to little more than suicide missions, we are left with very few pickings."

"Perhaps on THIS world," Sa'luk said, and it seemed to dawn on him why he was there, in that room with those four…the knowledge he could bring. "I think you need to think bigger."

"What, you want us to steal an elephant?" Abis Mal replied, confused.

"No, you idiot!" Mechanicles swatted Abis Mal on the back of the head with a rolled-up scroll. "He's saying to look outside the Seven Deserts into other nations!"

"Not just other nations," Sa'luk announced. "Gather round, new friends. I have something to tell you that I think you'll find more than interesting."

He leaned in over the table; the others gathered around it, leaning toward him.

Sa'luk spoke in hushed tones: "I was revived by an ancient being of chaos, who presented me to an audience of ancient beings, as well as three others. This being of chaos, he referred to my fellows as Aziz, Ayam…and of course, I knew of the infamous Nasira. The audience contained strange creatures, but I recognized the face of Mirage, the incarnation of evil as told in all the stories. We were brought out of the Netherworld into Mirage's world, which is not on this earth. It was a strange realm, called Morbus. The creatures that released us from death seemed to think of us as playthings. We were released back into our native realm on the terms that we 'do what we do best' and 'create disorder and chaos.' A small price to pay, for me…barely even a price at all. I never intended to simply slide into civilian society, after all."

"If I may interrupt this thrilling tale," Haroud said plainly, "what became of the other three?"

"They went their separate ways," Sa'luk said, "and I haven't heard from them since. Most likely, they're planning their own agendas in the shadows. Now, this is the part that is relevant to you. These ancient beings implied, as they spoke to us, that they were toying with countless others on countless worlds. Places far from this world, far from this realm of existence!"

"I'm not so sure I believe this," Amin groaned. "Other worlds. There's only this world, and that's it!"

"Well, there is the Netherworld, to be sure," Haroud pointed out, "and if the stories of Mirage are true, she exists far outside the Seven Deserts. As I've heard it told, she lives in a domain in the stars."

"Which is exactly where I found myself before I was sent here!" Sa'luk hissed. "If we have truly plundered all we can here, then there are hundreds, maybe thousands of other worlds to loot, waiting for us to discover them!"

"One detail of your story still bothers me," Mechanicles replied. "This 'being of chaos.' Describe it. And do not leave out a single detail."

"That would be difficult to do," Sa'luk answered, thinking back. "He took the form of a dragon, but with a head like a horse, and every limb of a different animal. They called him 'Discord.'"

Mechanicles gasped so loudly that every other thief in the entire room turned to look at him; Abis Mal clamped a hand over Mechanicles' mouth, sensing a bout of screaming coming on, and hissed, "Don't blow this to everybody in the room!"

Mechanicles nodded slowly. When Abis Mal removed his hand, Mechanicles hissed, "The draconequus! The one that stole the Eye of Gazeem from us…a portal to the Netherworld! That's how he found you there and brought you back!"

"You mean that thing with all the different parts?" Amin asked, shivering slightly as he remembered their only encounter with Discord.

"I'm far more inclined to believe this story of yours now," Mechanicles said. "And, as a matter of fact, I have heard tell of other worlds before. Dismissed as rumors and tall tales, of course, but after what you've just said, perhaps they're worth revisiting. For example, a rather persistent folktale that somewhere over the great ocean, there is a portal leading directly from this realm to another."

"Then we must find this portal!" Sa'luk growled. "We will do whatever it takes!"

"IF such a portal exists," Mechanicles retorted, "it is highly unlikely that we can find its whereabouts simply by traveling every inch of every ocean until we stumble into it. The only way to approach such an undertaking is to know its exact location from the very start!"

"Someone must have written it down!" Sa'luk insisted. "If you claim to be so intelligent, think! Who would know where it is?"

"Hmm…" Mechanicles didn't have to think for long. "Yes, they WOULD know, wouldn't they…they're regular connoisseurs of the magical at this point…frankly, wouldn't be surprised if they had actually been through it and come back…"

"WHO?" Sa'luk banged both fists on the table, attracting slight attention. "WHO KNOWS?"

"If anyone were to have recorded its whereabouts," Mechanicles stated, "it would be the Agrabanian royals. Aladdin and Jasmine – " He said the names as if they were curse words " – and their little band of unkempt thorns in my side."

"Then we shall raid the palace for information," Sa'luk decided.

"Well, if you're going to attempt to invade the royal stronghold," Mechanicles said, laying out his schematics of the various clockwork insects, "you're going to need the proper vehicle, equipped for battle. I just so happen to have various prototype designs of such vehicles. Tell me: which of them seems the most brilliant to you?"

"None of them," Sa'luk spat, gathering all but one of them – the dragonfly – into his hands and crumpling them into a ball before tearing said ball in half.

"I – WHAT – YOU – YOU JUST – " Mechanicles sputtered. "YOU JUST DESTROYED HOURS OF PAINSTAKING WORK!"

"Hours wasted," Sa'luk insisted, throwing the papers to the ground. "No mere insect is going to get us inside the palace walls." His eyes turned to the dragonfly. "If I may suggest." He picked up the last parchment, tearing away all but the label of "DRAGONFLY." Then he tore it yet again, leaving only part of the word, and showed the scrap to his fellows.

"Ohhhhh," Abis Mal, Amin, and Haroud said in awe.

"Well, I suppose if you want to go the overly clichéd route," Mechanicles sighed, "I'll see what I can do."

---

Atop the roof of one of the palace towers, Genie reclined in a lawn chair he'd conjured for himself, looking over the sands of the desert with a pair of blue binoculars, the same shade as his own essence, that he'd also conjured from thin air. "Ahhhh, another beautiful day in Agrabah," he commented to himself. "Partly cloudy, with what looks like rain moving in from the southwest. Other than that, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and WHAT IN THE NAME OF ZEUS, ODIN, AND RA IS THAT?"

Genie nearly dropped the binoculars in horror. Winging its way toward the palace was a gigantic bronze-colored dragon, large enough to knock down one of the towers if it so desired.

In a flash, Genie was no longer atop the tower, and the lawn chair and binoculars had disappeared as well. He stood before the palace gates, and at his will, red strobe lights and alarm bells appeared everywhere in the palace that a guard was stationed, all of them activating at once in a cacophony of noise. "RED ALERT!" Genie bellowed, his voice emanating from speakers attached to the red strobes. "I REPEAT: RED ALERT! WE HAVE A CODE ANGRY-DRAGON-APPROACHING-THE-PALACE! REPEAT! A CODE ANGRY-DRAGON-APPROACHING-THE-PALACE! ALL UNITS TO BATTLE STATIONS! ALL UNITS TO BATTLE STATIONS!"

"YOU HEAR THAT?" Razoul barked to a nearby troop. "The palace is under attack! GET TO BATTLE STATIONS!"

All over the palace grounds, guards rushed to attention, mobilizing in front of the gates to see the dragon. It was now impossible to miss, having crossed over the city borders, casting a large shadow on the streets below it. And at that distance, Genie had a clearer look at the dragon's hide, and he began to wonder if he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing, or if he was just hallucinating that the great beast was actually made of metal.

A thought crossed his mind; a usual suspect. He dismissed it. "Naaaaaaah," Genie thought out loud. "If it were Mechanicles, it would look more like some kind of insect!"

And yet Genie was wrong. Sa'luk had persuaded Mechanicles to construct an altogether different sort of creature than he was used to. Inside the head of the great dragon, Sa'luk, Abis Mal, and Mechanicles looked out the windows set into the dragon's eyes, watching as the behemoth reached the palace and turning their attentions to the various control levers set around the cockpit that angled the dragon's direction.

Abis Mal let out a high-pitched giggle. "This is gonna be great!"

"Will you take this seriously?" Mechanicles barked. "We need to be heading approximately three degrees more to the east!"

"Got it!" Abis Mal cranked a nearby lever.

"No, no, NO!" Mechanicles shrieked. "Now we're going FOUR degrees more east! Take us back one degree west!"

"I trust you two to take us inside the palace walls," Sa'luk stated. "Remember the plan we spoke of!"

He turned, making to storm out. He nearly stumbled over Scooter, who was running around the cockpit frenetically. Angered, Sa'luk kicked Scooter to the side, where he clanged against a wall, before storming out of the cockpit and through a door arch that led to the passageway down the dragon's throat.

This hallway eventually led him down to the stomach, a cavernous room where Amin and Haroud were working the levers that controlled the dragon's wings, keeping the dragon aloft. Sa'luk passed by them, passing by the main boiler that propelled the beast as well, and headed toward the tail.

Inside the palace library, Sadira could hear the sounds of rushing footsteps, and she thought she heard Genie yelling, but she assumed he was having a histrionic spell over something trivial. The library walls had been built thickly, to provide as much quiet as possible for the reader, and so it was that Sadira remained on the library couch, oblivious to the metal dragon's landing, poring over a scroll that detailed some of the theories and practices behind earth-based magic. Apparently, sand was only the beginning.

The dragon touched ground in the palace courtyard, and the full force of the royal guards ran to meet it. They were led not by Razoul, who actually kept a close second, but by Genie, who had transformed so he wore silver armor and carried a long lance. Genie thrust the lance at the dragon's chest; it bounced off the beast's metal hide.

"ATTACK IT WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!" Razoul yelled, taking the lead. "I'LL SEE THIS BEAST'S HEAD MOUNTED OVER THE THRONE!"

Up in the cockpit, Abis Mal leaned over to Mechanicles. "Sooooo…which one of these levers controls the fire breath, again?"

"I know I'm going to regret this," Mechanicles groaned, "but it's that one." He pointed to a rather large lever set in the side wall. "The one time letting you attack wantonly will actually ACHIEVE something."

"YAY!" Abis Mal ran to the lever, yanking it.

The dragon's jaws opened; a blast of fire streamed forth, igniting the ground before the guards, who turned and ran before they could become engulfed.

"HAHAHAHAAAAA!" Abis Mal crowed. "BURN, BABY! WHO'S GOT THE FIREPOWER? I'VE GOT THE FIREPOWER! …Huh? WHAT?"

A legitimate blizzard had begun to blow, snow whipping about in the cold wind. The flames were dying down within the cold. Through the snow, Mechanicles and Abis Mal could see the blizzard's source: Genie, now dressed in drag in a glimmering blue gown, topped off with a white-blonde braid. "Let it go!" Genie sang in an effeminate voice. "Let it gooooo! I am one with the wind and skyyyyy!"

"THAT…CURSED…GENIE!" Abis Mal spat. "I HATE HIM! I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM!"

"The feeling is mutual," Mechanicles said before steering the dragon's head to swing low to the ground and snap its jaws at Genie, trying to clamp him between them.

"YIPE!" Genie bolted from the snapping bronze teeth. The guards then rushed at the dragon again, attempting to cut its head off, only to find their blades useless.

As the skirmish continued at the dragon's head, the spiked tail of the metal beast smashed through one of the palace walls, one strategically chosen. When the tail obliterated the library's outer wall, erupting into the room with an explosion of dust and rubble, Sadira was finally alerted to the fact that there was something rather serious going on outside. She leapt off the couch, balling her hands into fists and taking a fighting stance against the intruder.

In the rearmost room of the dragon's inner mechanisms, Sa'luk opened a hatch, dropping out of the tail onto the ground outside the library. He then proceeded to charge into the room that had been forcibly opened for him.

"Stop RIGHT THERE!" Sadira barked.

Sa'luk barreled toward her, striking her with the back of his hand. She thought she would be ready; she found herself on a collision course with the ground as Sa'luk moved past her to get to what he wanted.

A great map of the Seven Deserts was attached to the wall; Sa'luk ripped it down and rolled it up. He presumed the area around it was also filled with atlases, and so he grabbed every scroll in the vicinity, stuffing them all under his right arm.

The bronze dragon continued to knock down every soldier that approached it, and many of the troops just gave up and ran away screaming, to Razoul's malcontent. Genie watched as the dragon kept up its rampage, lashing out with claws and breathing yet more fire onto the lawn. "Hmm," Genie mused. "Maybe he just needs to play with someone his own size."

Genie knelt down on all fours and began to metamorphosize, taking on the form of a spiny, scaly dragon the same size as Mechanicles' construct. "I AM FIRE," he rasped. "I AM DEATH!"

In this new body, Genie lunged forward to tackle the bronze dragon. He locked claws with it, jolting the contraption.

In the cockpit, Abis Mal and Mechanicles slipped off their feet and landed hard on their backs in synchrony while Scooter flew up into the air.

Sa'luk finished gathering what he believed to be relevant material and turned around to find Sadira standing between him and the exit, stance widened, arms spread. "Don't make me use this," she snarled, reaching for her belt, where she kept a bag of sand that she made a habit of carrying in case of attack.

Sa'luk was faster than she. In a moment, he was beside her, wrapping his right arm around her body and pinning her forearms to her side, the triple bronze blades at her neck. "One more move," he hissed, "and I slash your throat." He only took a moment to rethink his statement. "Actually, I should just do that ANYWAY."

"SA'LUK!" Amin's voice screeched from the hole in the library wall. Sa'luk turned to see the hindquarters of the shaken dragon; Amin leaned out the tail hatch to yell at him. "Hurry up! We're in over our heads!"

Sadira took advantage of the distraction. She slipped downward out of Sa'luk's grasp and bolted for the doorway, running out into the hall. She didn't want to risk trying any more moves on Sa'luk at close range; she knew she was lucky to have gotten away with her life. At the same time, she wasn't about to let him and the giant machine she saw win the day. Her course was for the throne room.

As Genie and the bronze dragon wrestled, Genie got a good look into the eyes – the windows – of the dragon. When he saw the cockpit, and Abis Mal and Mechanicles scurrying about inside it, trying to hastily work the controls while barely keeping their balance, he gasped. "MECHANICLES!"

"I think he might be onto us," Abis Mal stated.

That earned him a smack on the back of the head from Mechanicles. The dragon's head turned, and Genie no longer had view into the beast's inner workings.

Sa'luk charged into the cockpit, maps in hand. "WE HAVE WHAT WE CAME FOR!" he bellowed. "NOW GO!"

"Executing escape plan alpha!" Mechanicles announced. He reached up, pulling a lever on the ceiling. The dragon reared up.

A shrill whistle sounded in the belly chamber. Haroud and Amin, returning to their posts at the wings, aimed the wings for a course directly upward.

Giving one last breath of fire as a farewell, the dragon took off into the air, beginning to wing its way away from the palace. Genie watched it, wondering why Mechanicles and Abis Mal would just leave.

From the throne room balcony, Sadira also watched the dragon fly up into the air. Having seen Amin and the tail hatch, she suspected it wasn't an organic creature, though she didn't know much more about it than that, and certainly hadn't recognized the man who attacked her – though she had thought she recognized the man who'd distracted her attacker as the thief known throughout town as "Butterfingers," as improbable as it seemed. Whatever the case, Sadira knew the hallmarks of brewing evil when she saw them. That was why Carpet hovered near her.

"Ready?" she asked Carpet.

Carpet beckoned with a tassel.

Sadira leapt aboard Carpet, and as the dragon continued its course to the horizon, she began to follow.

Genie, seeing Sadira take off on Carpet from the balcony, let out a high-pitched screech and transformed back into his usual body before zooming to catch up with her. "SADIRA!" he cried as he finally made pace with Carpet. "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing what I promised I'd do!" Sadira answered. "I'm taking care of this!"

"That's not any ordinary dragon!" Genie warned her. "Abis Mal and Mechanicles are running it!"

"Yeah," Sadira said, somehow not surprised. "And they're not alone. There are at least two other guys in that thing. Don't worry. I can handle them."

"I'm coming with you!"

"Genie, no!" Sadira begged. "With me gone, somebody needs to stay back at the palace in case something ELSE like this happens! You really think the Sultan and Razoul could handle something like this if we were gone? Also, I promised Aladdin I'd feed Abu while he was gone, and it looks like I'm gonna miss dinner."

"You can't possibly think you can handle that dragon and everyone in it on your own!" Genie moaned.

"I handled it when you set a giant mechanical dragon on me, didn't I?" Sadira retorted. "And this time, I'm not going to be chained to anything."

"The entire royal guard couldn't stop it!"

"And there was a time they couldn't stop me either!"

"…Point," Genie admitted.

"You go back and take care of the palace," Sadira demanded. "I'm going to catch up to those thieves and figure out what they wanted with all those maps they took."

"They took MAPS?"

"GENIE! Are you leaving or not?"

"Sorry!" Genie did an about-face, rocketing back toward the palace. As he soared away, Sadira heard him yell, "GOOD LUUUUUUUUUCK!"

"Thanks," she muttered under her breath, smiling slightly, "but I don't need luck." She looked up to the horizon. The dragon was quite a way ahead of Carpet and gaining in speed. "It's gotta land sometime," Sadira told Carpet. "Think we can make it?"

Carpet responded by flying ever so slightly faster.

---

Inside the cockpit, Sa'luk spread out the maps over the floor. "Look!" he said, stabbing a marked point on the ocean with his finger. "There!"

"We are rather occupied at the moment," Mechanicles grunted, rushing from lever to lever to keep the dragon on course. Abis Mal, on the other hand, completely dropped everything he was doing to look at the maps, forcing Mechanicles to rush to Abis Mal's assigned controls to pick up the slack. "SCOOTER!" Mechanicles barked. "MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL!"

The beetle flipped onto its back and flailed its legs.

Abis Mal knelt over where Sa'luk had unrolled another map, pointing to the same spot on it. "It's marked several times," Sa'luk said. "I'll wager in the prince and princess' own hand. 'Portal.' They knew all along!"

"But it's in the middle of the ocean!" Abis Mal whined. "We'll never be able to swim that far!"

"That is why we are in a FLYING machine, you idiot." Sa'luk rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah!" Abis Mal realized.

"COORDINATES!" Mechanicles barked.

Sa'luk stood, looking out one of the eye-windows at the position of the sun. "Turn slightly to the east," he commanded.

---

After a considerable amount of time had passed, the bronze dragon made it out over open ocean, blue waters lapping below. A ways behind it, a certain flying carpet ridden by one particular witch still followed.

"So," Abis Mal said. "This portal. How are we gonna know it when we find it?"

"We already have," Sa'luk said with a grin, pointing out the window.

Sa'luk, Mechanicles, and Abis Mal turned their gazes out the windows to the sight before them. The very air shimmered; a border of light traced out a massive archway, large enough to admit the largest invented seacraft – and certainly a bronze dragon – over the ocean, as though it were an intangible door. There was a slight film covering the arch, marking a clear separation between the world of the Seven Deserts and the world beyond.

"It's true," Sa'luk marveled. "Other worlds…worlds that do not know our might, what we can do…"

"Are you sure it's not an illusion?" Mechanicles asked skeptically.

"It's no illusion," Sa'luk told him.

"Other worlds…" Mechanicles said softly.

"SHINY!" Abis Mal squealed.

"FULL SPEED AHEAD!" Mechanicles bellowed. He reached up, grabbing a speaker that was connected to a tube in the ceiling. "APPROACHING INTERDIMENSIONAL PORTAL! CONTACT WITH PORTAL IN THIRTY SECONDS!"

The announcement funneled its way down to the belly room of the dragon, and Haroud and Amin took the news with smiles.

Indeed, it took around thirty seconds for the dragon to reach and collide with the shining arch, passing through the film of light.

From behind, Sadira observed in amazement. "Carpet?" she asked. "Can you get me a good view of the side of that arch?"

Carpet veered sharply to the side. Sadira looked to the horizon. Looking around the arch, it appeared the dragon had completely disappeared – it hadn't come out the other side over the ocean. "Other side?" Sadira suggested.

Carpet veered again. Again, no dragon. "Now back to where we were," Sadira ordered.

Carpet moved so they were approaching the portal directly, and Sadira could definitely see the tail end of the dragon. "Okay," she muttered, "that's freaky." It dawned on her right away. She'd seen portals to other realms before, albeit smaller ones that led to small dimensions – in particular, one she had once conjured that led into a landscape comprised of her fantasies. That portal, and probably the empty realm it led to, had been dissolved fairly quickly. This one appeared far more permanent. Still, it was a portal, and Sadira was sure of it.

"They're in some kind of other world now," she said out loud. "And we all know they cause enough trouble on THIS one! Carpet, full speed ahead!"

As the portal grew ever closer at an alarmingly rapid rate, Sadira felt her heart beating faster, but she swallowed her fear down as she passed through the veil of light into the unknown.

---

THE SEAS OF OLYMPIC GREECE

Through the eye-windows of the dragon, Mechanicles, Abis Mal, and Sa'luk could see more ocean still stretching before them…and at the end of it, a green coastline. "WE DID IT!" Abis Mal squealed. "WE MADE IT! Get ready, you…you OTHER WORLD! THE GUILD OF THIEVES HAS ARRIVED!"

"Charting a course for the landmass ahead," Mechanicles stated.

"I would advise you not to land," Sa'luk said, "until we've found someplace as ripe for the picking as Agrabah."

"In that case," Mechanicles said – a slight edge creeping into his voice as he began to resent being ordered around so – "charting a course for the nearest largely populated city on the landmass ahead."

"BEST ROAD TRIP EVER!" Abis Mal yelled.

---

Over blue seas, over small towns with stone streets, over brilliant green fields, the dragon winged its way, causing those below to point up at it in fear and cry out. None, however, made a fuss over Carpet and Sadira, who kept on chasing the dragon.

And when the dragon began to descend, Sadira muttered, "Gotcha."

---

Chapter 79:

· This interlude is happening for three reasons. One: to give you a break from 616th, because even though it's basically going to be like a whole new realm due to the time differences and the new fiction I'm drawing from instead of just Marvel, I still wanted to shake things up a bit. Two: to build up a ship that's going to be slightly relevant later; I wanted to get the baggage of it out of the way before touching the Deserts or Greece with the Mane Six again. Three: because ever since "Hercules and the Arabian Knight," I KNOW the fanbase has wanted Mechanicles to interact with the characters of HTAS, so I'm giving you that.

· This is basically going to be "Hercules and the Arabian Knight: Revenge of the Side Characters." There are certain reasons I can't touch Hercules and Meg right now (given the cliffhanger I left them on), and I wanted to work with the side characters more anyway.

· The Hajj is a pillar of Islam stating that one must during one's life make a journey to Mecca. I have often thought that the very concept of talking about this in the Aladdinverse context would be cool, and it allowed me a way to get Al and Jas to move out of the spotlight for a bit. I tried my best to handle it with tact and apologize if I got anything wrong about the details.

· Amin's resistance to plundering the Black Sands is a reference to "Vocal Hero," where his failure lands him in servitude to Mozenrath. Fun fact: he's never seen again after that ep, so actually, the most logical conclusion is that Moz probably killed him. Obviously I did not go that route because I wanted to work with him. In this canon, he served out a while under Moz before breaking away.

· Scooter is Mechanicles' canon familiar. If the term "familiar" applies. Maybe more like "pet"?

· I'm not exactly sure how well known the Forty Thieves were in the Seven Deserts as a whole. I'm just kinda running with the concept that Sa'luk is at least a little famous.

· Yep, the song is "Welcome to the Forty Thieves." I literally had Sa'luk sit through his new group doing his old group's song.

· Where are Nasira, Aziz, and Aghoul? Trust me, they've got plans of their own they're working on. But they're not relevant now.

· Genie's transformations are references to Elsa from "Frozen" and Smaug from "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." Which is gonna get awkward when both of those works of fiction turn out to be worlds that exist in this universe, but there's no way to escape that.

· The portal between the Deserts and Greece is entirely my imagination. "Hercules and the Arabian Knight," of course, implies there isn't one, but you already know that's not the case here. It's occurred to me that Al and Herc do all their long-distance transport by flight (on Carpet and Pegasus) and Jafar and Hades teleport where they want to go, so the portal didn't need to be on land. Over the sea, it's where people won't accidentally stumble into it while walking.