"Do you even care about nonhumans at all--"

"Of course I fucking do. I'm not the one who was thinking of strikebreaking because he didn't want to admit that his dad is a terrible fucking person--"

"Whatever gets done, does it have to get done officially." 

"...No."

"Because — this might be a stupid idea but — if someone, not necessarily even Ben, worded their wish carefully enough, I bet you could do this with magic, and you don't have to have your name tied to it at all." 

"We could wish the genies free."

"But they're dangerous."

"Not if you worded the wish carefully enough-- they can only do magic if everyone affected thinks it's an improvement on the status quo-- and then the most magically powerful beings in the world like you--"

"How does that help the fairies and dwarves?"

"Wish them free too? I've never heard of that not being possible but I might have just not heard of it —" 

"I mean, genies can mind control us into thinking they were never slaves, but that has other downsides."

"--Can't they just buy them?"

"What?"

"Genie wishes are valuable and genies hate slavery. The genies could just buy the slaves and set them free."

"And your name doesn't have to be anywhere near it, and everyone's a little grumbly but there's nothing to actually object to." 

"Hey, Chen, want to go on a trip to Agrabah?"

"I would love to go on a trip to Agrabah." 

Being a king sucks in a lot of ways but it sure makes travel arrangements easy!

It really does! 

The Agrabah desert is beautiful, in a stark sort of way; he'd mostly seen pictures of cities. 

Getting into the Cave of Wonders is easy. Apparently whatever a diamond in the rough is, Ben is one.

They find the lamp. Ben makes the wish with the wording Kaleva suggested. They get out.

And as they're about to leave, Ben trips and falls facefirst into a pile of gold and it turns into lava.

— no — 

He pulls Ben — Ben's body — think about that later get them out now — up and runs. 

The lava seems less invested in killing him personally!

It also radiates weirdly little heat. Possibly because it is magic lava.

Guess what he is not paying attention to right now. 

Once they're outside he drops to the ground and — please please Ben please no — checks for a pulse. 

Ben does not have a pulse, and the burns on his face are nasty. 

no no no no NO Ben please ben no I — 

he collects Ben, Ben's body, no, and — doesn't stand up just yet, he'll have to at some point but right now he's —