Pairings subject to radical change, probably not announced until the chapter that they are introduced in. Characters limited by chapters. Warnings subject to change per chapter, rating may raise, but I will add a warning if it does. No language warning.

Warnings: Character death, mention of blood, vaguely detailed injuries.

Characters: Uru, Scar, Mufasa, OCs.

Other: Rapid POV switch.

Disney:Owns The Lion King and any recognizable characters

~oOo~oOo~oOo~

Simba: But going back mean's I'll have to face my past.

Rafiki:...-whack-

Simba: Oww, jeez! What was that for?

Rafiki: It doesn't matter! It's in the past!

Simba: Yeah, but it still hearts!

Rafiki: Aww, yes, the past can hurt...but the way I see it, you can either run from it, or -swings stick- learn from it. Now what are you going to do?

Simba: First, I'm gonna take your stick.

~oOo~oOo~oOo~

It was a carefully crafted plan, based on a long-ago accident, which the rest of them though was just that – a accident. Unpreventable without prior knowledge. Scar had always been the paranoid type, and it led him to wonder, who would benefit the most from the death of the Queen.

Not Ahadi. He would be severely demoted, from King to former Consort. Taken care of by the lionesses, protected by the Pride, but certainly not King. He was strong-willed and often irritated by Uru's refusal to listen to him, but he loved her. He would never actively attempt to harm the lioness who's royal birth gave him a position within the Pride.

Utamu wasn't old enough to be away from her mentor, and certainly not one like Chozi. Besides, she had never shown any want to be Queen, aside from her cub-hood days, when every cub said they wanted to rule the Pride. She loved her mother, and even with Uru out of the way, she would have had to kill her two older brothers for the crown, something sweet Utamu would never do.

Themba was another choice. His mother's brother was in line for the throne until her three cubs were born. It would be simple for him to kill three young lions after disposing of the Queen. After Uru's death, Themba had been nothing but a loving uncle, guiding Mufasa and Taka as they made their way through life. He was as loyal as any lioness, and he loved his Pride, King or no.

Mufasa, however, was a different story. Scar had disliked his brother since cub-hood, when Ahadi made sure Taka knew he was second-best, and Uru could only do so much without making Mufasa feel inferior. He was a excellent suspect for Uru's murderer, he gained the throne, and his freedom. He would no longer be pulled between his parents, forced to choose between two mates. He could do as he liked. And no matter what Taka did after Uru died, Mufasa acted like a perfect, loving brother.

Nothing could make the young Prince more suspicious.

~oOo~

"Get down!" Taka was knocked off his paws as the Queen slammed into him. They ended up in a tangle of legs and tails, not a good thing in the middle of a herd of buffalo. Uru braced in front of her teenage son and the tiny cub at his paws.

One of the buffalo skidded to the side as Uru roared, but another nearly ran into Taka. Uru grabbed the cub, and scrambled through the herd, toward the side of the gorge. As Taka tried to follow her, he found himself more successful than she at dodging the herd. His was smaller than she, and quicker, but it also made him more vulnerable to glancing kicks.

As the Queen fought to stay on her paws, knocked off balance by the shoulder of a particularly big bull, Taka crouched over the cub, ready to allow himself to be killed to save it. Glancing at his mother, Taka's heart nearly stopped at the sight of blood welling along her dark fur. Uru didn't seem to notice however, she was already lurching up, bracing herself against the ground and rolling to her paws.

Uru subtly favored her side as she snatched the cub up, lunging into a run to prevent herself from being trampled. After a moment, as Taka's pawsteps matched his mother's, he realized she had been slowly edging them toward the canyon wall. She cut sharply across the herd, beginning to become desperate as her lungs strained, ending up in a tangle of limbs as she mis-judged a cow's speed and was knocked head-over-heels to the ground.

"Mum!" Taka dodged through the herd to her side, scrambling around buffalo as he fought to reach his mother, where he found Aheri lying limply on the ground next to her. Uru, still off her paws, shoved the cub at him, in the room between the spooked buffalo.

"Take him and go! Make for the wall!" Taka didn't hesitate, trusting his mother, he grabbed the cub, and darted back into the herd, ducking a leaping buffalo just before it struck him. As he ran, he cast short glances up to the wall. There, just ahead of him, was a tiny ledge. Barely big enough for him to catch a pawhold on, but, maybe, just big enough for Aheri.

It was too close, and the herd too many for him to continue easing toward the wall. With one leap, he sprang to the back of s surprised buffalo, and aimed for the wall. Only one paw caught the ledge, but his claws were enough to keep him from falling back into the deadly storm of hooves. Taka dropped his cousin on the ledge, and used his back feet to propel himself to a running start on the ground, aware that he could only stay there as long as his claws kept their already sliding grasp.

As he ran, his lungs demanded air, legs burned with every stride, his mind raced for any way out of the deathtrap that the usually placid gorge had become. There had to be a way out, there was always a way out. This canyon ended in a sheer drop, or perhaps the river, if he was very lucky. The herd was too spooked to be stopped, and even if it wasn't, the buffalo at the front were, by now, running for the same reason he was. They didn't want to be trampled.

Now, one must forgive the young Prince. Having never hunted here before, mostly due to a lack of prey most of the year, he was unaware of a nook in the wall of the canyon, just big enough for one lion, or, perhaps, two scared yearlings, to squeeze into. He would have continued right past it, loosing his only chance at life, but his mother, who was old and wise, and, in her youth, had once had such need as this, knew.

She knocked him off his paws, again, and sent them rolling into the wall. Some of the buffalo were mere feet from the wall, and Uru only had a moment. She tucked her precious son into the protective niche, and lept backward to prevent herself from being trampled. It would only last a moment, and she knew that there was no where else to go, unless she wanted to leap off the cliff. She lunged straight up.

Her son's wail echoing in her ears, she dug her claws into the cliff, and hung on, desperately hanging onto the vertical surface as the thunder of hooves rang out below her. She slid two paw-lengths for every one she claws up, hanging desperately from what paw-hold she could find, creating one with her claws when none was available.

In the end, she knew when she tried it she couldn't stay there. Uru was one of the largest lionesses in the Pride, and had never been the best in trees. Her claws slid, and slid, and, eventually, she had nothing left to hang onto.

She landed hard, tumbling under the hooves of the herd. A sickening snap told her of her fate before she could even try to stand, and as she began to force herself to three paws, her eyes focused in on her son, "Taka, stay where you are!"

Her son froze, unwilling to directly disobey the Queen, lessons learned as a cub saving his life. The last thing the Queen saw, before her vision went to shockingly brilliant white, and fading slowly to black, was his horrified gaze, locked on her.

Ahadi's eyes.

~oOo~

"Halsara, I didn't know! I'm so sorry," his brother's voice penetrated the fog that had enveloped, as his mother was trampled under the hooves of the endless herd. Tears dripping from his eyes, he sat up, the thick dust trapping him and his mother in a small, never ending world.

"Aheri! Tau! Aheri!" the lioness voice was hoarse, distant, but in the next moment, she was at his side. Taka didn't understand, how could she be so far away, and so near. He staggered, and slowly slid to the ground, as she stared, disbelief coloring every line of her face.

"Halsara?" Mufasa trotted toward the form in the dust, finding his aunt standing and staring at a lump on the ground. He padded closer, paw-steps slowing as he realized what had happened. His brother was sitting, weaving from side to side unsteadily, tears streaming from wide eyes, which were locked on the body of their mother. Mufasa's blood ran cold as the realization of what he had done hit him.

Queen Uru lay lifelessly on the ground, blood staining her fur, one leg lying at an awkward angle, her ribs a bloody mess, her tail broken, blood pooling on the ground... Mufasa turned away before he could see the damage to her head. In the sudden silence, his brother's desperate attempts to hold back broken sobs echoed through the canyon, bringing the impossible sight before him to life.

"This is all my fault," Mufasa received no answer. Neither the son who had watched his mother die, nor the mother who still sought her cubs were in any condition to comfort him. Swallowing back the urge to run as far away as his paws could take him, Mufasa forced out the only question that mattered right now, "Taka, did you see Aheri or Tau in the stampede?"

For a endless moment, his brother didn't answer, breathing sharpening. Mufasa began to fear that he had caused more death than the tragedy before him, and cubs, at that. When he spoke, it was in a dull, hoarse, horror filled whisper, "Down the canyon. I left Aheri on a ledge... Tau...he was already gone."

Halsara stepped around the dead Queen, and trotted back up the canyon, looking for any sign of her cubs. Mufasa slowly approached his brother, pressing into his fur, trying not to look at the lioness that Taka couldn't look away from. "Scar? Brother? Taka, come on... we have to tell the Pride. We have to let them know that... oh Taka, I'm so sorry. If I could take it back..."

Taka dodged backward, staring wide-eyed at his younger brother, "What do you mean? How did this happen?"

"I...I was practicing my stalk down by the south river...a pair of hyenas came up and I chased them off... into the herd, Taka-" his brother jerked away from him, looking young and vulnerable, and so very betrayed that Mufasa's heart broke.

"You did this?" he looked toward the once beautiful lioness on the ground, almost unrecognizable under the blood and damage, and then back at his brother. "You killed her?"

"I didn't mean-" Taka backed away from his brother, casting a glance toward their mother, and then at Mufasa. "Taka. Brother, please... it was an accident. I never meant for this to happen... you have to believe me!"

"This is your fault! You did this! It's always your fault!" Mufasa thought, for a instant, that his brother would attack him, his brother crouched in a defensive pose, snarling, claws digging into the ground. In that moment, he didn't know if he would defend himself if Scar choose to lunge for his neck. Instead, Scar turned on his heels, quickly vanishing into the slowly settling dust.

"Taka!" Mufasa didn't follow him. He sat beside the broken body of his mother, and wept bitterly, tears streaming down his face to land against his fur. When his sobs were dried out, the only sound in the canyon was the call of a lioness searching for two lost cubs.

And when the calls turned to mourning, Mufasa buried his head in his paws, cold shock dimming the world.

~oOo~oOo~oOo~

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