The Lost Ones

(Setting: the marketplace just before sunset.)

(Merchants are gathering their wares to take home for the night. Farouk, a fruit merchant, is almost tripped up by a little boy.)

Farouk: Why you...

Waheed: (innocently) Sorry, mister.

Farouk: Out of my way, boy. The entire city must be indoors by nightfall!

Waheed: (stealing apples while Farouk’s back is turned, takes a bite of one) Why’s that, mister? (slips some apples and a bunch of bananas down his shirt)

Farouk: Orders from the palace. Last night another child disappeared.

Waheed: (eats an apple) Disappeared? How?

Farouk: Poof! Like that! Into thin air! Now if only you would do the same!

Waheed: (picks up an orange and puts it in his vest) Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be leaving now, sir. (runs away, but runs into Aladdin, spilling fruit everywhere) Hey, why don’t you watch where you’re going?

Aladdin: Watch where *I’m* going?

Abu: Yeah!

Aladdin: Look, street rat, you oughta be more careful.

Waheed: (picking up fruit) The name’s Waheed, and I had the right of way, mister.

Aladdin: No, I meant careful about -

Waheed: (sarcastically) Oh, the disappearances? Kids vanishing, poof? Not scared.

Farouk: (off screen) Hey! You little thief!

Waheed: Farouk. I’m not scared of him either.

Aladdin: Ah, the case of the stolen fruit.

Abu: Uh huh.

Waheed: Hey, I know it’s wrong to steal. I don’t need any lectures. I’m not going to be a street rat forever, you know. Someday...

Waheed and Aladdin: ... I’m gonna make something of myself.

Waheed: How’d you know that? (Aladdin is completely still, as if hypnotized) Mister? Mister?

(The camera rotates around Aladdin, and then everyone is gone except Aladdin. He is suddenly standing in an alley next to a well. A little boy runs into the alley; he doesn’t seem to see Aladdin.)

Amal: Hurry up, slowpoke! (Aladdin turns around) I’ve seen sand worms move faster than you, Aladdin!

(A younger Aladdin runs into the alley, panting.)

Young Aladdin: I don’t think we should have stolen that.

Amal: (jumps up onto a wall; mocks Aladdin) I don’t think you should have stolen that... (pulls out a sack of coins) Like you’ve never stolen anything before.

Young Aladdin: (jumps up on the wall with him) I only steal food! To eat!

Amal: Oh, big difference. Listen, I’m not gonna be a street rat forever, like you. (pushes young Aladdin off the wall) Someday, I’m gonna make something of myself.

Young Aladdin: I won’t be a street rat forever. But I’m not going to make something of myself by doing bad things, Amal.

(Amal is gone.)

Young Aladdin: Amal? (sees a shadow go around the corner) Amal! (runs after the shadow) Amal? (sees a dark figure jump into the well) Amal! (looks down the well; there’s nothing there)

Aladdin: (watching his younger self) Amal. Amal!

(Genie snaps his fingers in front of Aladdin’s face, and everything returns to normal, and Aladdin is in the marketplace again.)

Genie: (to Abu) Feed him anything sugary? You know it makes him...weird.

Abu: Nuh uh.

Aladdin: Huh? (shakes his head) Whoa, I just had the strangest -

Genie: Al, who’s Amal?

Aladdin: My best friend. When we were kids. Until he disappeared.

Abu: Huh?

Aladdin: One second Amal was right there. And then I turned my back... and he was gone. I chased after a shadow - of something. But it disappeared, too. I never found Amal. Never found out what happened. Hey! Hey, I was talking to a kid! Where’d he go?

Genie: About yea high (pulls out a tape measurer) packing this much fruit? (turns into Carmen Miranda) He ran off... (back to normal) after making Farouk slip on a banana.

Abu: Yeah. (makes a sound like someone slipping on a banana)

Aladdin: Genie...the children. The disappearances. It’s happening again.

(Setting: Agrabah, that night.)

(Aladdin, Abu, and Iago are flying over the city on Carpet.)

Iago: I knew it. I knew I should have migrated with the other birds this year. But no! I’m here in Agrabah for monster-hunting season with you bozos!

(A woman screams.)

Aladdin: Carpet! Down there! Quick!

(Carpet turns around.)

Iago: Oh, yeah, let’s get as close as we can. I wanna see monster drool.

(A woman and a baby she is holding are both crying.)

Woman: It tried to take my little Hamed!

Iago: I know he’s gonna say (with Aladdin’s voice) “There it goes! Come on!” and we’ll go racing after it.

(A shadow goes around a corner.)

Aladdin: There it goes! Come on! (they fly after it)

Iago: Did I call that one, or what?

(They come to a dead end.)

Aladdin: (gasps) It’s gone! But where? It’s a dead end!

Iago: Do you have to call it a dead end? How about a cul de sac? It’s so much nicer.

(There is a growling sound behind them.)

Iago: Eee! It’s trapped us!

Aladdin: (pulls out Genie’s lamp and rubs it) Genie! Help us!

Genie: (comes out of the guitar in the form of a grunge rocker, holding a guitar) Thank you! (plays a chord) Good night!

(They all jump on Genie and cover his mouth. He changes back to normal.)

Genie: Uh, what’s goin’ on?

Aladdin: Shh! (points at the shadow; they all creep towards the corner) Shh. (signals a count of three with his hand, and he and Genie jump around the corner) Ha!

Genie: Yah!

Waheed: Aaaahhhh!

Iago and Abu: Aaaahhh!

Genie: Daaaaahhhh!

Aladdin: (closes Genie’s mouth) Waheed! What are you doing out here?

Waheed: I... I - I saw something...weird.

Aladdin: Yeah, we saw it too. Stay close.

Waheed: Anything you say.

Aladdin: Alright, Genie, we’re gonna - (Genie’s face is frozen) What’s wrong?

(There is a growling noise.)

Waheed: Yaahh!

(A gargoyle-like monster crawls down the side of the building towards them. Aladdin picks up Waheed and sets him on Carpet.)

Aladdin: Carpet, take Waheed! Go! (Carpet flies away)

Iago: How about me?

Aladdin: So you’re the thing that took Amal!

(The thing roars in their faces.)

Genie: (fanning his face) Whoo! Ever try a breath mint?

(The thing claws at Aladdin, who does a back flip out of the way.)

Genie: Look out!

Iago: Yaaaahh! (the monster claws at Iago, knocking him into a wall) Ouch. (he falls into a barrel, and looks out through a knothole) Ah, I should be safe in here.

(Aladdin pulls a piece of wood off of a building, and hits the monster with it. The monster is okay, but the wood breaks in half.)

Aladdin: I’m in trouble.

(The monster roars. Up on top of a building, Abu pushes off a piece of stone, which hits the monster in the head. It roars and comes after Abu. Abu runs away, and the thing can’t follow because Genie, as a fisherman, has caught its leg with a fishing rod.)

Genie: Ya-hoo! It’s a big ‘un!

(He tries to pull it down, but it roars, jumps to another building, pulls Genie up with the fishing line and slams his head into the building.)

Genie: (falling to the ground) Ow. (dizzily) The fish are really biting today. Okay, I’m gonna end this right here, right now!

(Genie zaps the monster. The blast bounces off its hand and hits Iago in the barrel.)

Iago: Yaah!

Genie: Ah, see. It’s got thick skin. I did not know that.

(It growls from the top of the building.)

Aladdin: What’s it doing?

Genie: Beats me.

(It crawls around the corner, walking on the walls, and ducks behind a bridge. Aladdin runs after it.)

Aladdin: It’s gone!

Iago: Good!

(Setting: above Agrabah.)

(Waheed is flying away on Carpet.)

Waheed: Carpet. Carpet. Carpet! I think maybe we’re far enough away now.

(Carpet stops. A black round portal opens behind him, and a monster’s hand reaches out.)

(Setting: an alley in Agrabah.)

Genie: What was that thing?

Aladdin: I don’t know.

Abu: I don’t know.

Iago: That was a first-class, bona fide, legitimate argument in favor of migrating!

(Carpet flies around the corner, and circles Aladdin.)

Aladdin: Carpet? What? Where’s Waheed? No, not again.

(Setting: Aladdin’s hovel.)

Aladdin: Waheed’s gone, and it’s all my fault.

Genie: Oh, Al, it’s not.

Aladdin: It is! I let it happen, just like I let it happen to Amal.

Genie: (turns into a hockey player) Al, I’m gonna smack you upside the head! Hard! (changes back) Snap out of it, buddy! You’re not doing yourself any good like this. We’re going to find Waheed, okay? (grabs Aladdin’s head and makes him nod) And who knows? Maybe we’ll even find Amal!

Aladdin: If he’s even alive. Who knows why this thing steals kids. Okay, Genie, what’s the plan?

Genie: Glad you asked. We know the monster only takes kids, so, step one: ... (grabs Iago)

Iago: Hey!

Genie: We get a decoy. And dress him in swaddling clothes. (Iago is dressed as a baby; Genie holds a baby bottle)

Iago: No. No, no, no, no. Don’t listen to him. It’s really a stupid idea. No, no.

Genie: Ah, ah, ah, ah! Baby-wabie needs his bottle-wattle!

Iago: No decoy! Monster will eat decoy!

(Genie zaps Iago, and he starts to cry like a baby.)

Genie: Much better. (stuffs the bottle in his beak) Where was I? Right! Step two: the monster shows up and takes Iago.

Aladdin: (gasps) Genie! Iago’s gone!

Genie: Perfect! Now we’ll track him! (turns into Q from the James Bond movies) The bottle Iago’s carrying sports a Lankershim 5200 homing beacon. (hold up a small device, which is beeping) We’ll be able to follow him wherever he goes.

Aladdin: And wherever we find Iago, we find the missing kids!

Genie: Check. You steer, I’ll track. (they all jump on Carpet; Genie turns into an Englishman in a fox hunting outfit and blows a horn, and zaps Abu, turning him into a bloodhound; Abu barks) Tallyho! (they fly away) We’re getting a strong signal. We’re gaining on him...He should be just below us.

Aladdin: I don’t see anything.

Genie: (looking at the tracker) Hey, now he’s way over here!

Aladdin: That’s clear across town!

Genie: What gives? I want to know how he does that!

Aladdin: I see him!

(A shadow goes around a corner.)

Iago: Help!

(They see the bottle lying on the ground.)

Aladdin: Iago.

(They see Iago stuck in a crack in a wall. Genie pulls him out.)

Genie: Uh!

(There is the sound of running footsteps. Aladdin turns around to see Waheed running away, and runs after him.)

Iago: (pulls off his disguise) No! Wait! Al! It’s not what you think!

(Aladdin follows him to the place in his flashback. Waheed is leaning against the well.)

Aladdin: The old well. Where Amal disappeared. Waheed! Ah, you’re all right! (runs up and hugs him) Come on, let’s get you out of here. (Waheed pushes him back) Uh!

Waheed: I’m not going anywhere.

Aladdin: What do you mean?

Waheed: Nobody stole me. I went with the monster because I wanted to.

Aladdin: What? Why?

Waheed: Power. (his eyes are yellow, and his hand is starting to turn into a claw) I can do all kinds of neat things. I joined the kinship of the El Katib! (picks up Aladdin and throws him, then jumps towards Aladdin and rips off his shirt) I’m not a lowly street rat anymore. I’m finally making something of myself. And the best part is, the El Katib are immortal. I’m going to live forever!

Aladdin: If this is what’s happened to you, then - then Amal -

(The monster is standing behind Aladdin, and roars. It grabs him by the vest and looks into his eyes.)

Aladdin: Amal?

Amal: (sighs) Yes. Amal. I, too, have finally made something of myself, Aladdin.

(The others fly towards them on Carpet.)

Genie: It’s got Al!

Aladdin: Genie, no! It’s Amal! (Amal throws him down) Ooh!

Genie: Told you we’d find him, buddy!

(Waheed and Amal jump into the well; Genie turns into an Olympic diver and dives after them. Amal creates a portal, and he and Waheed go inside right before Genie hits the bottom of the well.)

Genie: Ow. (gets up) Alley-oop! Oops! (the portal starts to close, but Genie grabs it and opens it again; he turns into a carnival announcer) Step right up! See the amazing, living, shadow-painting doorway to who- knows-where!

(The others look down the well.)

Aladdin: So that’s how it got clear across town! It moves through shadows!

Iago: Shadows? It’s the Shadow Walkers! The El Katib! (flies down to the bottom of the well)

Aladdin: The El Katib. That’s what Waheed was talking about. (the others fly down on Carpet)

Iago: I’ve heard about these El Katib guys. They come out once every seven years, and only during a full moon.

Genie: (turns into an astronomer with a telescope, and starts doing calculations on the side of the well) Which, according to my calculations, sets in, hoo hoo hoo, 8 minutes, 30 seconds.

Iago: Hey! If we just wait out here, they’ll just go away, see? For another seven whole years!

Aladdin: Come on, we don’t have much time.

Iago: Al, what are we doin’? The kid made his choice. He wants to be a jerk.

Aladdin: No! Amal may be too far gone, but Waheed’s not a monster - yet. There’s still hope for him and the other children. (steps into the portal)

Abu: Yeah!

Iago: Hey, it was worth a try.

(The others follow him.)

(Setting: inside the portal. There is mist everywhere, and no ground.)

Iago: Nice place. It could use a little flooring!

Genie: Just don’t look down, or you’re a goner. I’ve seen it happen in cartoons.

Aladdin: Shh! Listen!

(There is the sound of children crying.)

Genie: (makes his ear huge) Sounds like...kids!

Aladdin: It’s coming from over here! (points)

(Genie opens a portal where Aladdin pointed.)

(Setting: some ruins, through Genie’s portal.)

(The crying sound is louder; Aladdin jumps out of the other side of the portal. There are some children behind glowing bars.)

Aladdin: It’s the kids! The lost ones! They’re all gonna be El Katib! Just like Waheed.

Boy: Help! Let us out!

(Another boy starts crying.)

(The others come out of the portal.)

Genie: Amal’s been a busy boy, uh, El Katib.

Aladdin: Genie, this happened to Amal, too. He didn’t start it; someone else is behind this!

(There is the sound of clapping. Mirage is sitting on a throne in the ruins.)

Mirage: Impressive, Aladdin. Impressive. And you figured this out all by yourself, too!

Aladdin: Mirage. Mirage, set those children free!

Iago: Ho! That’ll work!

Mirage: Very well, Aladdin. (zaps the bars holding the children)

Aladdin: Carpet, get ‘em outta here, quick!

(Carpet carries the children away.)

Mirage: Bah! Take them! Those brats are useless crybabies not fit to be El Katib. (Amal stands next to her) You see, every seven years brings new blood into the kinship. The promise of power and immortality entices them.

(More El Katib begin to crawl out of the ruins; Iago squawks.)

Mirage: Those with the seeds of true evil within them are perfect additions to the legion.

Genie: Psst! Al!

Aladdin: I see them!

Mirage: (purrs, stroking Amal’s head) Amal was an exceptionally fine specimen, (Waheed approaches her) and I have high hopes for young Waheed.

Aladdin: You’re not keeping him, Mirage.

Mirage: Ha ha ha ha ha. Wrong. (a portal opens behind Mirage) Say your goodbyes, Aladdin. Waheed really must be going.

Waheed: What? Where am I going?

Mirage: Into the shadow realm, my little minion. Quickly, now, for when the full moon sets, the portal will close.

Waheed: No, I don’t - I don’t wanna go! I’ve got things to do here!

Mirage: (teeth gritted) No, you’ll enter the realm now.

Aladdin: What’s wrong, Mirage? Did you fail to mention that with power and immortality comes eternal servitude? That the El Katib can only walk the earth for three nights every seven years?

Waheed: You’re lying!

Aladdin: If you don’t believe me, just ask my old friend Amal.

(Amal turns away from Waheed.)

Waheed: (to Mirage) You never said anything about that!

Mirage: Never mind that now, the portal’s closing.

Waheed: Good! Let it! I’m not going!

Mirage: You’ll do what I say, minion!

Waheed: Nobody tells me what to do, and I am not your minion!

Mirage: Fine, stay. When the moon sets, you die.

Waheed: What? (looks at the moon setting)

Mirage: Oh, I failed to mention that too! (hitting the back of her hand) Bad Mirage! Bad, bad Mirage! Ha ha ha ha. All part of being El Katib. Everything has a catch.

Waheed: (crying) I - I don’t want to be El Katib anymore! I don’t want to!

Aladdin: Mirage! Take me instead!

Iago and Abu: Huh?

Mirage: What?

Aladdin: Return Waheed to normal. Take me in his place. Even trade. Him for me.

Iago: That’s it. He’s lost it.

Aladdin: Come on, Mirage, you know you’d rather have me.

Mirage: You’re too pure of heart to ever be El Katib, Aladdin. Ooh, but I’ll relish having you, my greatest enemy, as my personal manservant. Ha ha ha ha ha! (zaps Waheed back to normal)

Waheed: (rubbing his head) Oh.... (looks at his hand) What?

Mirage: Enter, Aladdin. There’s work to be done in the shadow realm.

(Aladdin starts to walk towards the portal.)

Waheed: (Carpet is holding him back) Aladdin, don’t!

(Aladdin enters the portal.)

Mirage: Ha ha ha ha ha! The uncorruptible Aladdin has joined the forces of evil!

Aladdin: (pokes his head out of the portal) Just a couple of quick addendums!

Mirage: Huh?

Aladdin: (jumps out of the portal) 1 - I get my own parking space. Otherwise the whole deal’s off!

Mirage: (turns her head to see another Aladdin and Waheed running away) Wha...?

(The Aladdin standing next to Mirage changes into Genie in a puff of smoke.)

Genie: 2 - You’re so cute! (kisses Mirage) Mmm-wah! (pulls out a toy mouse) Here, have a cat toy.

Mirage: Tricked! (hits Genie back into a wall)

Genie: 3 - Good backhand. (squeaks the mouse)

Mirage: El Katib, arise! Stop them!

(The El Katib hiding in the ruins run after Aladdin and Waheed, and more appear out of portals in front of them, roaring. They run off in another direction, but Aladdin runs into Amal, who picks him up in his hand.)

Waheed: Let him go! (Amal pushes him out of the way) Uh!

Mirage: Yes! Now, destroy him! Squeeze him! Crush his spine!

(Amal starts to squeeze Aladdin, but then stops, and looks at him sadly.)

Mirage: What are you waiting for? Do it!

Amal: No. He was my friend.

Mirage: No?! (is surrounded by green lightning, Amal puts Aladdin down) Eeee! (Mirage stops and calms down)

(The moon is setting, and the portal has almost closed.)

Mirage: Then die, Amal. Die. Farewell! (evil laughter, then disappears)

(The moon sets and the portal closes. The other El Katib slowly disappear. Amal’s arm begins to glow as if he is vanishing, too.)

Amal: Goodbye, Aladdin.

Aladdin: Amal! (everyone looks sad, then Aladdin looks up at Amal again) What?

(Instead of disappearing, Amal’s arm has become human again.)

Aladdin: You’re all right!

(Abu jumps up and down, chattering happily.)

Aladdin: But why? How?

Amal: I...don’t know.

Genie: I do! He wouldn’t kill ya, Al! Smart move. We like him. Which means he doesn’t have what it takes to be El Katib!

Amal: I’ve...lost my seed of evil.

Waheed: (jabs Aladdin with his elbow) No seed of evil here!

(Mirage’s eyes appear in the sky above them, and she hisses at them. The eyes fade away.)

(Setting: at the gates of Agrabah.)

(Aladdin hugs Amal, who is wearing a robe.)

Amal: Thank you, Aladdin. With every good deed I seem to regain more of... of my humanity.

Aladdin: Please stay, Amal. You could do good here.

Amal: Agrabah has you. There are other places where I could be of more help.

Aladdin: Take care, Amal. (shakes Amal’s human right hand) You make something of yourself.

(Amal messes up Waheed’s hair, then walks out into the desert.)