Aladdin's arm turns into gold, like Zero's and whacks the Duke clear across his face. The Duke is sent flying back.

"Master, get clear!" Aladdin calls out as David runs to his family's side, outside the circle of ghosts.

The Thin White Duke bares his fangs, bloodied by the blow, as he prepares to toss a handful of magic darts. He flings them, but Aladdin sprouts a pair of Zero's wings and blocks the darts.

The Duke absorbed Zero's powers as well--he spins several strands of glassy web, and winds them around Aladdin. Aladdin is dragged down, and dragged across the floor by the hungry, enraged Duke. As the Duke looms over Aladdin like a black widow spider, Aladdin generates a ball of lightning and conducts it down the webbing. The Duke is electrocuted, and begins to burn. Rather than let go, the Duke suddenly ignites.

David and Iman look on in terror. Lexie simple clinged to her mom.

Aladdin broke free of his bonds and looked at the burning Duke. But the Duke wasn't dead--he transformed into Earthling--on fire!! He hurls a spiral of flames at Aladdin opens the floor beneath him in pool of quicksand. The Genie sinks beneath, as the surface turns into glass.

The Duke bellows out, "Come out!!" In Earthling fashion, he shakes the floor, the room quaking, the stones splitting open.

The circle of ghosts prevent the chaos from spreading further, protecting the humans outside.

Underneath the Duke, the floor explodes as Aladdin tunneled below, swimming the underground river of quicksand. The genie emerges--a metal giant, marked 'Tin Machine VI'. The goliath scooped up the Duke and lifted him high. The machine began to bend the Duke in half, as he cried out in agony.

"Surrender, Duke," Aladdin called from inside, "I can't kill you, but Ziggy help me if you ever try to hurt anyone else, the body or the family, ever again...!!"

The Duke tried what he did to Tin Machine at the TVC15 station--send a bolt of lightning to obliterate the machine.

Except the machine was not grounded. Rocket boosters made the machine hover over the ground.

The Duke's threshhold for pain was exceeded, "I...SURRENDER!!" Aladdin dropped the Duke onto the ground, the sorceror-vampire writhing. Aladdin shifted back to normal shape, and drew a Bowie knife. All the genie had to do was join his blood with the Duke's to take his power, and everything would be restored. Aladdin took the Duke's limp arm and started to make a slice into his palm...

The Duke's palm turned into a dog's paw and it swiped Aladdin's knife out of his hand. The Duke's hound-like jaws then locked into the startled Aladdin's neck.

"You are SO gullible!" the Duke muttered as he began to sink his teeth into Aladdin's jugular. But instead of blood, the Duke tasted...

"ACK!! What is that awful green fluid!!" the Duke spat out the alcohol-tasting liquid out of his mouth in disgust.

Aladdin had turned into Baby Grace Blue, "It's what Grace had been pumped full with after she had been killed, "Aladdin said in Jareth's voice. You didn't get near her vein--her body tissues are saturated with it. Without my magic, she wouldn't even live."

Enraged, the Duke also transformed into another Outside character--the Artist Minotaur! The Duke charged Aladdin and gored him with his razor sharp horns. Aladdin's stitched-up inner organs began to spill out, as he flew over the Duke's head and landed on the floor behind him.

In a desperate attempt to save himself, Aladdin's organs turn to wire, as he assumes the form of Boz, another dead man transformed. He quickly retracts the wire into himself, but the Duke-as-minotaur tries to rip him apart once again with his horns.

"David," Iman says, "we have to do something! They're going to kill each other!"

"But what?" David asks.

Iman points to the Duke's throne.

Back inside the circle, Aladdin-as-Boz is getting beaten badly. Aladdin takes a risk--he turns back into Grace, curls his/her fist and throws a fistful of moondust into the Duke's bull-eyes. The dust stings and burns and the bull howls in pain.

Aladdin is exhausted--the Duke is showing signs of tiring as well. The minotaur charges again, but blinded, he runs into the wall of ghosts...

Aladdin shifts again, "Ricochet!" Not the Let's Dance-persona--he casts a spell to send to minotaur bouncing around the ring like a pinball. The blond genie dodges the bouncing bull as spins around the room.

Iman and David open the lid of the throne, and pull out a mummified form.

By accident, the flying minotaur slams into Aladdin and the two roll around the floor, into the edge of the circle closest to the throne. The Duke landed on top--Aladdin was knocked unconscious.

Confident in his victory, the Duke pinned Aladdin's hands over his head as he stradled his lithe body, "Stupid, stupid little Ziggy clone!" The Duke panted heavily, "Your blood...will taste even sweeter...now that I've beaten the pulp out of you.."

A hand peaked in between the legs of the ghosts legs and grabbed Aladdin's hand. Sharp, bony fingernails punctured Aladdin's tender skin and dug into his palm.

"What is this???" The Duke gasped, as he tried to pound away the mummy's hand. Under the Duke's fist, the mummy turned into dust and blew away.

Aladdin's red eyes flew open and he smiled up at the Duke, fangs bared, "NOW we're even!"

The Duke gasped, "Blaylock? NO!!" The Duke tries to bite into Aladdin's neck again, but Aladdin's blood won't flow. The now mummified genie turns into a cloud of dust and drifts out and under the Duke. Aladdin rematerializes, "We're too evenly matched. Give up. The master is free and writing and singing again. You've nothing to gain."

The Duke wearily charges Aladdin, feebly pounding his bony chest, "I'll kill you, I'll kill you..."

Aladdin shook his head, "You can't kill me. You can cut me, disembowl me, shoot me, but I will never die. Ziggy is not dead--he lives in us."

The Duke, in despair, collapses in Aladdin's arms, "I'll kill you..."

Aladdin: "You're not even listening, you stubborn ass. OK, if you're so stubborn, go ahead. Bite me."

The Duke snapped up: "What??"

Aladdin: "You heard me. Drink me."

The Duke couldn't believe his ears, but..."I knew...you would realize...you cannot win against me. Acknowleging...your defeat..is very mature of you..." Aladdin pulled the Duke up to his neck as...

David, "Aladdin Sane, what the hell are you doing???"

Aladdin winks. The Duke sinks his teeth into Aladdin's jugular, but Aladdin grabs the Duke's bloody hand into his. An equal, two-way transfer of power begins, as the two forms melt into each other. A bright light fills the room and blinds the Bowie family, until, in the middle of the room...

To be continue...

Don't understand me, just love me