You got me bona fide, certified, you got a genie for your chare d'affaires

[mywillisthine]

When Cyrus awoke, he woke with a start. His heart was pumping as he knew there was something he desperately had to remember but his brain was taking too long to catch up.

First, he had to remember where he was. He didn’t feel sick so he wasn’t in Jafar’s cage anymore and wasn’t that a relief. The silver had done a number on his body, making him feel extremely weak at all times. No, he’d escaped by using the wishbone and he’d jumped off a floating island into an ocean a long way below. It was no wonder his whole body hurt and he couldn’t focus. If he hadn’t been a genie, chances are very good he would have been dead. But he was remarkably dry and warm to be waking up after falling into a large body of water so he groaned and opened his eyes.

His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he realized he was back in the familiar surroundings of his bottle. After some masters, the brass lanterns and satin pillows had been a welcome retreat but now it scared him to his very core. He knew the Red Queen had his bottle and if he was here, it meant Alice had made all her wishes. That caused a dueling pain his heart, as it meant she’d broken her promise to never use her wishes...but he knew Jafar had been doing everything in his power to make her wish so what horror could he have put her through to make her use her last two wishes? The idea that he could have caused Alice that kind of pain was excruciating. Again, someone he loved hurting because of him. Would it never end? He could only hope she was still alive.

Finally, the pain gave way to the need to attempt to find out what was going on. Thankfully, his bottle was on it’s side so he could peer out the grate on the bottom. He stood up and climbed over the scattered pillows and trinkets to get to the grate and looked out. He didn’t really know what he was expecting but the world he found outside was not it. Instead of a throne room or sorcerer's lair, he was outside in some sort of town made out of stone, glass and metal, with the tallest buildings he’d ever seen. There were carts moving without animals, signs were moving and flashing and people speaking to themselves as they walked by. It was unlike anywhere Cyrus had ever been in his decades of living and he didn’t like it. Not that everything was strange, but the last time he’d woken up in his bottle in a strange world, he’d been in an entirely different realm from where he’d started. If he wasn’t in Wonderland, then he was farther from Alice then when he’d been Jafar’s prisoner.

Cyrus kicked the side of his bottle in frustration. He thought he was doing the right thing, escaping Jafar’s prison to get to Alice but it had all been for naught. Instead he was trapped in a new realm in his bottle until a new master found him. Not even the thought that at least his new master wasn’t Jafar or the Red Queen was any consolation.