DISCLAIMER: The charactes from Disney's film The Lion King and The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride are not my property. They are products of the Walt Disney company I claim copyright on all other characters and this fanfiction.

Forward:

Definitions Courtesy of Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online

Usurp

1 a: to seize and hold (as office, place, or powers) in possession by force or without right usurp a throne b: to take or make use of without right usurped the rights to her life story2: to take the place of by or as if by force

Treason

1 : the betrayal of a trust : treachery 2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

Betray

1: to lead astray; especially : seduce2: to deliver to an enemy by treachery3: to fail or desert especially in time of need betrayed his family4 a: to reveal unintentionally betray one's true feelings b: show, indicate c: to disclose in violation of confidence betray a secret

Terror

1: a state of intense fear2 a: one that inspires fear : scourge b: a frightening aspect the terrors of invasion c: a cause of anxiety : worry d: an appalling person or thing; especially : brat3: reign of terror4: violent or destructive acts (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands insurrection and revolutionary terror

What would you do to protect your home? What extremes would you go to in order to gain acceptance?

What wouldn't you do to be counted amongst your heros?

From the night he became king, Sarabi suspected foul play. Since she had met Taka, first seen those green eyes that did not reflect the light of the sun as Mufasa's had, she hadn't trusted him. All trust had vanished when he allowed the hyenas free reign, however, and she had to struggle to keep an eye on the monstrously numbered clan between bouts of black depression.

Her pride, though broken and in a similar pit of despair, depended on her. As of yet, the lion formerly known as Taka hadn't taken a different queen, so her pride sisters and their cubs still revered her as their regent. But fear and malice ruled now, glaring down mercilessly at everything from the once majestic Pride Rock to field mice.

Somehow Sarabi knew tyranny would come crashing down on them. It was plain for all of them to see, even the young innocents knew it. Scar's gaze was as harsh and scrutinizing as the sun's glare, and like the sun during the dry season, it sucked the life right out of them. They knew the glow of peace and happiness was trickling out of their lands, and any hope for a happy future with it.

Nothing, however, could prepare them for the blood bath that would take place in the Pride Lands.

It all began with a flick of his wrist. Sarabi watched, horrified, thunderstruck and speechless, as Nala's sibling fell to the cave floor. Snarling her fury she charged into the den, and scooped Mheetu up before Scar could reach out for him again. But it was too late. The keening wail that came from behind her, and the smell of a fresh carcass, told her such.

That did not mean she had to give up. Urgently she carried the body to a far corner of the den, and laid it there, following it to the stone ground. Nuzzling it persistently, she harshly whispered all of the prayers to evoke the gods' good will she knew. Tears started to burn in her eyes, surprising her as she tried to stop the blood from pouring out of the young cub's neck. But Sarabi had made a terrible mistake. While trying to wake Mheetu from eternal slumber, she heard a shriek, followed by Scar's deadly jaws snapping shut, and her heart fell into the burning pit of her stomach.

"NO!" she bellowed, shoving herself away from the cub she knew she could not save. But Aiehu help her, she would not let any more of Mufasa's nieces and nephews die at Scar's claws. Cuffing the lion who had taken the throne, she snatched the remaining two cubs away from him, snarling all the while.

"Shenzi!" he snarled, his eyes turning malicious. "Banzai! Take the cubs away from her! NOW!"

Without giving her chance to brace herself, one of the hyenas(judging from the sickening smell, it was the least intelligent of Scar's goons) cracked it's skull into her's, sending her sprawling to the floor. The cubs went flying, the one she'd held in her jaws sailing and crashing into the den wall next to Scar. He caught it in his paws with a dull slap, and as the female hyena Scar called 'Shenzi' took care of the male cub, Scar viciously tore into the female.

"Scar, why are you doing this?!" she gasped. One of his henchmen rounded on her, his teeth flashing yellow and dripping. He lifted a hind leg and urinated on her flank, and with an outraged cry, Sarabi scrambled out from under the stream. She pushed to her feet, and backed away from the horrific spectacle, glaring at Scar in dismay and shock. "They are your niece and nephew, Scar!! What on earth has gotten into you?!"

"The times of royal niceties are over with, Sarabi," Scar snarled, his maw dripping with blood. He licked rogue droplets off of his whiskers, and his mouth curled up in a truly psychotic grin. "It's time for change. It's time to bring back my father's ways."

Sarabi was truly chilled by those words. There was something completely nightmarish about him now, and a voice in her mind screamed for her to flee. She should gather what lionesses and cubs could make it and run while she had the chance. While she and the others still had the strength and will.

Within a moon's changing, she suspected, their hope would be lost. She had to act now, else–

"I wouldn't consider running if I were you, my queen," Scar said, his voice low. Her blood stopped moving when her heart came to a complete halt. Eyes round with indignance and fear, she rounded on him, the piss and her friend's woeful cries forgotten. There was something in his gaze that made her feel like the rodent in the serpent's shadow, and with that her heart came thumping back to life.

Stroking the dead cub in his paws, he nodded slowly. "You heard me. I've made my choice. You and I shall rule, as it was meant to be. But if you do not heed my command and deny me the heirs I so rightly deserve..." His glare became black, demonic, and the lionesses in the cave gasped. "I'm afraid I'll have to kill you along with the rest of the cubs."

Sarabi held her ground, unable to move, but on the inside she was enraged that she had become Scar's prey. Unable to stop herself, she began to shake her head, feeling like she was close to retching. Her soul cried out in outrage and terror, her whole body shook from nerves and barely contained violence. Oh, how she'd have loved to cuff him until he was black and gray. But something inside of her, something smaller than a dust particle but undeniably there, privately thrilled at the thought of having a mate again.

Pinning her ears against her head when the fresh wound ached once more, she tried to force off all thoughts of her beloveds. It was no use. A tear slipped out from a closed lid, and she tried without success to hide it from his notice. Scar made an unsympathetic sound in his throat, and she flinched when there was a sickening crack. He tossed one of the cub's halves to his slathering hyenas, who fought over the scrap. Sarafina howled and wept, but her brother would not even give her a glance.

"Think on my offer for now, my queen," he said, sighing lazily. Sarabi stared at him, mouth agape. "But I will have you. By the end of the moon's cycle, you will feel the pang of hunger for a mate. The pang only I can soothe. For if you try to flee my lands..." His dogs giggled and laughed ferociously. "They will take care of you, and your sisters. For, you see...I only need one lioness to repopulate Pride Rock."

"You sick piece of antello–"

"Ah ah ah," he interjected. "Not another word. You wouldn't want me to pick one of the cubs, now, would you? I've been thinking about that, actually. I'm making plans, you see. Should you not agree to be my mate, and none of the other lionesses...I shall have to wait until Nala is in season, and she will be queen."

"Brother!" Sarafina gasped in outrage, other emotions besides grief emerging once more. "You are her uncle! How dare you try to force yourself on my only child!"

"Oh, but I am the king, dearest sister," he sneered, baring his teeth. Sighing in boredom, he waved a paw at them, as if swatting a fly. "Now off with you. I want to enjoy my meal in peace." When the lionesses stood their ground, he whipped round to glare at them, and growled low in his throat. "Shenzi, be a good girl and show them out."

"With pleasure."

Something was definitely wrong with her mom, Nala decided. Sarafina hadn't uttered more than three sentences since she'd returned, reeking of blood and tears, three days after Uncle Scar had taken over. Granted, Nala hadn't been much of a talker those days either, but she began to grow concerned for her mother when she refused to even respond when Sarabi called her for a hunt.

"Auntie Sarabi," she called when Simba's mother returned. Glancing at her mother, who was deep day number two of her nap, she decided it was safe to go to Sarabi for a while to question her. The stockier lioness slowed her pace till Nala caught up, but did not pause as she headed to Pride Rock. Nala noticed then that her adoptive aunt had a gazelle leg in her jaws, and her mouth watered involuntarily. "Ooh, Aunt Sarabi, who's the snack for?"

"Not you, I'm afraid," Sarabi sighed bitterly. She glanced back towards where Sarafina was still sleeping, her gaze turning cold for a moment. "If Sarafina had been there to help, you two would have a share." Nala drew up short, and Sarabi sighed again when she glanced back at the cub. "I'm sorry, dear heart...I am very troubled as of late, and your mother losing her cubs is no helping matter."

"What happened to them, Sarabi?" Nala asked after chewing on her lip for some time. "Mom won't tell me. I'm scared...she's been sleeping for a while. She only wakes up if a hyena comes near our den or to get a drink."

"I'm sorry, Nala," Sarabi said quietly. "If I could tell you about them, I would...but that is something your mother must tell you the first time. As for her long sleep? If she does not wake within the next sunrise, I will fetch Rafiki, but you must give her time." Nala saw tears threatening to trickle down Sarabi's cheeks, and her heart squeezed tight with sympathy. "We all must wait, I am afraid. Until a new ray lights these lands, I'm afraid..."

"Afraid? Afraid of what, Sarabi?" Nala pressed, her voice dropping to a hush. But without warning the considerably older lioness stopped and pushed Nala onto her back. "Unh–Sarabi, what'd you do that f–"

"Hush, child," she hissed. "Turn back now. Go to your mother. There are far too many hungry hyenas here."

"Will you be alright, Aunty?" Nala whispered when she rolled onto her feet. She crouched down low in the tall grasses, having to crane her neck to see Sarabi turn to Pride Rock with a grim expression.

"I can fend for myself for now, Nala," she said, her voice flat. "But you must go back to your mother. You are her only light now. She is counting on you."

"Yes, Aunt Sarabi," Nala said, bowing her head respectfully. Then, she turned tail, and ran.

The rains came and went swiftly, and as the clouds made a dramatic exit, Sarabi came into season. But she was not alone. Many other cubs had fallen into Scar's clutches, and with heavy hearts they began to hear the lonely howling in their ears, one none of them spoke of but they all knew they heard. When Scar would prowl by, though they were loathe to admit it, to themselves mostly, their pulses would race and thoughts of cubs with green eyes would catch in their minds.

Eventually, some went willingly to him. Those with the weakest wills, seeking out comfort they felt only a male could offer, they would go to their king, and the hyenas would ferociously guard his position. At a wide, almost ridiculous distance, of course, but the lionesses would walk past and keep on going when that musky stench hit their nostrils.

But some were positively terrified to go to Scar. They would come to Sarabi and the elder lionesses, their hearts in their throats as they begged for their blessing to leave Pride Rock. Sarabi was most mournful of all to tell them they could not leave, and slightly betrayed that they would even ask. Their only chance of survival depended on each other. The less of them there were, the higher Scar's chances of isolating them from one another.

At last only two cubs were left from Simba's generation. It terrified Sarabi to think Scar might force himself on the children years before even their first kills. Night and day she had the cubs and their mothers under close watch by her most fearsome lionesses.

Her days were filled with numb fear and a violence she could not unleash, and her dreams were filled with nightmarish images of a great red beast being thrown into a mass of black and green flames. She would wake with a fright and leave wherever she'd fallen prey to fatigue, reminding herself not to sleep there again.

When she wasn't trying to revive Sarafina's fighting spirit, she would find herself wandering to the very top of Pride Rock. Though it was growing easier to think on him, it still hurt her breast terribly to think of Mufasa, sitting here with his father, with her, and with their son. Now, she knew, when she sat so very close to the sky, her Muffy and Simba were sitting together, looking down on her from the stars.

On one such night she could no longer bear thoughts of them dead, she went to the top of the rise, hoping to stir up memories of the two living, smiling and happy. It was easy, she thought, easier than she hoped it would be to remember them this way. Smiling through her tears to herself, she hardly noticed the presence behind her until the young lioness cleared her throat.

When she turned, familiarity smoothed the fur standing on end along her spine. Zira, she recalled at last, smiled at her timidly, and bowed her head. Sighing in exasperation, Sarabi twitched her tail to show her impatience.

"Well, come to sit beside me, if that is what you wish," she said gruffly, more so than she'd wanted to be. Young Zira flinched, but closed the gap between them quickly. Instead of sitting, she respectfully laid down on her side. Though she was a commoner during Mufasa's time, now that Scar had taken her in as a hunter, she fully and completely respected the rules of etiquette. But beyond her politeness Sarabi sensed something. "What's on your mind? I can smell, you know."

"Your maje–er...Sarabi," she began, wincing before correcting herself. Until Sarabi made her decision, or until he made it for her, she had forced Zira to address her by her full name. Taking in a shaky breath, she catapulted into her next sentence. "King Scar told me to come fetch you. He says he won't wait anymore. If you don't come to him, he'll do something...'quite drastic.'" Looking up with guilt in her red-brown eyes, Sarabi felt the cub's fear and sorrow as if it were her own. In a sense, it was, but the cub truly had no idea what Scar's threat meant. "I-I'm sorry. I thought he was going to hurt me." Zira's head moved slightly as she swallowed, hard. "The hyenas separated me and my aunty, and I...I hadn't seen her in a couple of days. He said if I didn't tell you, he would hurt her, and then he'd hurt me even more." With a dry sob, she screwed her eyes shut, and Sarabi barely had any warning before the cub leaned against her foreleg. "I didn't know what to do! I was so afraid, and she was...she was screaming."

"Do you mean...you saw them...?"

"Y-yes," she whispered, in a terrified hush. "I got past the hyenas. He was on top of her...Aunty Sarabi...please, tell him to stop hurting everyone." She looked up imploringly at her, eyes bright with tears and hope. "He'll listen to you. I know he will. I've seen it before."

"My dear, I'm afraid I might not be able to prevent what's happening to Ikase," Sarabi sighed bitterly. "I cannot tell you how sorry I am." Biting her lip to swallow the roar of anguish and fury that ripped at her throat, she turned her eyes skyward. But the clouds, though they no longer gave rain, blocked her sight of the clouds. Sarabi closed her eyes and stood. Mufasa...forgive me, beloved.

Guilt. Destroy, frighten, terrorize. Pity. Destroy, frighten, terrorize. Pain. Destroy, frighten, terrorize.

Buzz and his small clan went through the daily routine Shenzi had set up for them. Since meeting Scar, the matriarch of most of the clans in the graveyard had forced them through drills, day after day after day, until Buzz was sure he would go mad. Nothing, however, not all of the drills or speeches he'd ever experienced, could compare him for the kinship he felt with Scar's pride.

Though he'd never told them, he knew what it was like to be forced to obey and submit after a devastating tragedy. He and his clan all knew. And they all bore a bitter hatred for Banzai and his get, those who had caused them so much grief, brought plight and suffering to all of them.

Still, it was a stable way of life until Buzz found another place for them. Unlike the lionesses, he knew he and his clan could one day leave the Pride Lands in search of larger territory. They often said amongst themselves Scar hadn't anticipated the true size of his hyena army. And to them, the green eyed narcissist was one big joke.

The lionesses he forced himself upon, however, were not. It was Buzz who saw the queen come to him, begrudgingly. On that day, and the four days that followed, he tried not to stare and watch the horrific treatment Sarabi went through. By the time she managed to slink off to her sisters, he knew she would bear the fruit of their strange, violent union, and shuddered to think what Scar would turn them into once they were born.

On the night after Sarabi escaped, Buzz found he could hardly look at his brothers. In their eyes were echoes of the horrors they'd witnessed, and he could hardly face them at the moment. Juno noticed his attempts at departure first and cut him off. The considerably smaller hyena eyed him suspiciously, concern on his muzzle.

"Where are you headed, Buzz?" he asked after a while. Buzz sighed bitterly, but did not answer. Juno shrugged, and kept pace when he let Buzz pass. "When will you be back?"

"By sunrise, Mr. Nose," Buzz snapped. Juno laughed in shock and mild fear and skittered away. "Make sure no one goes for a midnight snack, and keep them from teasing the lionesses." He turned away from his brother to hide the disturbed shiver that laced his back. "They might have sighed in bliss, but they are far from paradise."

After a few long minutes, he began to lose himself in the beauty of his current territory. Granted, from what he'd heard, it's beauty was slowly fading, but Buzz knew to appreciate something before it left. When the wind whistled, harsh and fast, through the tall blades of grass and over his short fur, he could have sworn the lost souls were howling to him. The planes were vast, and had he not engraved Pride Rock's shape into his memory, he might have lost himself amongst the hills and the underbrush.

"HEY!! Get away from here you slobbering brute!"

"OI!" Buzz barked sharply, dodging being hit in the skull with a rock the size of his paw. He leapt away, glaring about for his attacker as his hackles bladed on his spine. "Wotcher! I'm just walking!"

"Well you've no right to walk here! Now get back to groveling at 'his majesty's' paws!" Another rock sailed at him from nowhere, striking him in the shoulder. Buzz yelped and leapt away again, then crouched low in the grass. Growling softly, he waited for another rock to fly past, and burst out into laughter when something yanked his tail without warning. "Hee hee hee, you getting tired yet, pup?"

"Bloody hell where the--YIIIEEEEH!!...what are you?!"

"What does it matter to you?! You and your kind have invaded the lands that were once so beautiful, the lands I called home!" Buzz jumped and skittered out onto an open patch of dust when what felt like a bone struck his thigh with all the force of an angry water buffalo mother. "I have seen many generatiosn of kings and queens ascent that rise, and I will make you all rue the day Scar did!"

"I've no beef with you...whatever you are," Buzz spluttered, coughing through the cloud of dust he was coughing up. "And as for Scar...he's no friend of mine. I am here with my clan until we find greener fields. You just happen to live in our temporary home."

"How do I know you are not one of Scar's ears? There have been many before you, and I trust none of them. Why are you so different?"

"Because Scar is a fool and I despise the way he treats those poor girls," Buzz rasped, suddenly overcome with emotion. The need to reach out to this strange being was overpowering, and he felt his breath hitching in anticipation. "I would never stoop to the lows I saw him wallowing in when the sun was still high. You've got to believe me, mate, after what I've seen, I can never look at that poor excuse for breath again."

"Hmmmmm. Perhaps I can trust you. But first...I have to test you."

A sharp crack resonated in Buzz's ears as the world tilted beneath his paws. Before blackness descended on him he felt an intense pain in his skull, and a grizzled paw with long toes drew itself away, holding what appeared to be a stick as long as he was frome nose to tail. His eyes fluttered briefly before there was nothing, but not before he heard the cheeky devil laugh.

"That is, if a dog can pass my tests. Eee hee he he heee!!"