ThunderCats/Lion King Crossover
Summary: A little something I came up with. Instead of Lion-O becoming king, after his father's death, he gave the throne to Tygra, who isn't doing such a good job as king. In his rule, Tygra looked to Mumm-Ra for assistance, and now, although Tygra sits on the throne, Mumm-Ra rules over Thundera with the lizards. After years of this rule, Cheetara left Thundera and found Lion-O out in the middle of a jungle, who everyone believes is dead because he has been gone for so long.
Lion-O smiled as he and Cheetara walked through the home he had made in the jungle.
"Isn't this a great place?" He asked her as he hopped up on a fallen tree and started walking on it.
"It is beautiful…" Cheetara said, looking around at all the nature surrounding them. Tall, beautiful trees stood everywhere, with vines growing off all of the branches. Nearby, a tall waterfall poured into a large lake filled with the bluest water she had seen in a long time. She turned back to Lion-O, "But I don't understand something," Lion-O looked at her curiously, "You've been alive all this time… Why didn't you come back to Thundera?"
"Well…" Lion-O began awkwardly, rubbing his neck as he jumped off of the fallen tree, "I just needed to… get out on my own." He jumped into a nearby hammock he had made for his bed, "Live my own life." He smiled at her, "And I did, and it's great!"
"We've really needed you at home." Cheetara said, coming up beside the hammock.
Lion-O scoffed, "No one needs me…"
"Yes, we do." Cheetara said firmly, "You're the king!"
"Cheetara, we've been through this," Lion-O said, "I'm not the king." He leaned back in his hammock, shifting uncomfortably, "Tygra is." Cheetara came closer, resting her hand on the hammock as she looked at him seriously.
"Lion-O, he let the Mumm-Ra and his lizards take over Thundera." She said.
"What?" Lion-O said, more in shock than wondering why.
"Everything's destroyed." Cheetara continued, "There's no food, no water. Lion-O, if you don't do something soon, everyone will starve!" Lion-O turned over in his hammock, his back to her.
"I can't go back." He said, hopping out of the hammock.
"Why?" Cheetara asked.
"You wouldn't understand." Lion-O said, looking over his shoulder at her as he started to walk away.
"What wouldn't I understand?" Cheetara demanded.
"No, no, no. It doesn't matter." Lion-O said, turning to face her, "Hakuna Matata."
"What?" Cheetara's face scrunched up into one of confusion.
"Hakuna Matata." Lion-O said, repeating the language he had learned from the locals around the jungle, "It's something I learned out here. Look, sometimes, bad things happen—"
"Lion-O!"
"—And there's nothing you can do about it!" He continued as if she hadn't spoken, "So why worry?" He turned around and started to walk away again, but Cheetara followed him.
"Because it's your responsibility!" She said. Lion-O stopped walking and turned around to face her again.
"Well, what about you?" He asked, "You left!"
"I left to find help!" Cheetara said, "And I found you." She walked up to him, her eyes pleading with him, "Don't you understand? You're our only hope." Lion-O looked away from her.
"Sorry." He said. Cheetara looked him up and down once, and then stepped back.
"What's happened to you?" She asked with narrowed eyes, "You're not the Lion-O I remember."
"You're right." Lion-O said, meeting her eyes again, "I'm not. Now are you satisfied?"
"No. Just disappointed." Cheetara replied, crossing her arms.
"You know, you're starting to sound like my father." Lion-O said, turning around and walking away again. This time, Cheetara didn't attempt to follow him.
"Good." She said to his back, "At least one of us does." Lion-O stopped walking, his eyes flashing. He whirled back to her angrily.
"Listen!" He growled, coming over to her, "You think you can just show up and tell me how to live my life?! You don't even know what I've been through!"
"I would if you'd just tell me!" Cheetara said.
"Forget it!" Lion-O growled, storming off away from her.
"Fine!" Cheetara growled, she turned around and started storming off in the other direction.
Lion-O walked through branches and bushes and vines and trees until he finally came to a small clearing that had tall grass growing everywhere. He started pacing through the tall grass, muttering angrily to himself as he did.
"She's wrong… I can't go back… What would it prove anyway? …It won't change anything… You can't change the past." He paused in his pacing, he looked up at the stars, seeing how they glittered in the night. His heart beat painfully when he remembered once, when he was younger, his father had taken him out of his bed so he could see a meteor shower. Now, his father was gone, and there was nothing he could do to bring him back. His sadness overcoming him, he shouted up at the sky, "You said you'd always be there for me!" He looked up at the stars sadly, "…But you're not." He looked down at the ground "It's because of me… It's my fault…" He took in a shaky breath as a lump grew in his throat, "It's my… fault…" He choked back any oncoming tears, refusing to let them fall.
His ears perked up slightly when he heard a voice, a very aged, strangely happy voice behind him. He looked in the direction it was coming from with a raised eyebrow and saw, in the trees, a monkey was singing, "Asante sana, squash banana, we we nugu, mi mi apana!" again and again. Lion-O frowned, the song quickly becoming annoying. He moved away from it, and the voice died off as he kept going. What he didn't know was that the monkey who had been singing was still following him with a smile on his old, baboon face.
He walked to a small stream that flowed through the grassy clearing. He sat down by the bank of it, releasing a heavy sigh as he looked at the water. The water flowed very slowly, and seemed to be completely still as he looked at it. A rock was thrown into the stream, disturbing the stillness and sending ripples throughout the stream. He looked up and saw the monkey from before hanging on a branch, moving about happily as he sang his song again, "Asante sana, squash banana, we we nugu, mi mi apana!" He hung onto a branch as he flipped himself in the air with a laugh.
"Come on, will you cut it out?" Lion-O asked irately as he got up, walking away from the stream. The monkey jumped down from the branch, grabbing a stick as he landed.
"Can't cut it out!" He said, his voice slightly accented, "It'll grow right back!" He laughed happily as he followed Lion-O.
"Creepy little monkey…" Lion-O muttered, he looked at the baboon as he walked beside him, "Will you stop following me?" The monkey did not stop following him, so Lion-O stopped walking so he could face this strange baboon, "Who are you?"
The baboon came in front of him, getting directly in front of Lion-O's face and said, "De question is: Who are you?" Lion-O opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, shut his mouth, and looked away from the monkey with a sullen expression.
"I thought I knew." He said, "Now I'm not so sure."
"Well, I know who you are!" The baboon said, he grabbed Lion-O's ear and pulled him down to his height, "Shh, come here. It's a secret." Lion-O looked at the baboon curiously, wondering what he would say. In a whisper that steadily got louder, the baboon sang, "Asante sana, squash banana, we we nugu, mi mi apana!" Lion-O pulled away from the baboon with a scowl as he walked around, laughing.
He growled in frustration, "Enough already! What's that supposed to mean, anyway?"
"It means you are a baboon," He said, gesturing to Lion-O, then to himself, "And I'm not." He laughed happily again and Lion-O looked at him oddly.
"I think you're a little confused." Lion-O said, turning and walking away.
"Wrong!" He was stopped when the baboon appeared in front of him, poking his nose with his finger, "I'm not de one who's confused. You don't even know who you are!" Lion-O swatted the monkey's hand away and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, and I suppose you know." Lion-O said sarcastically as he started walking away from the monkey.
"Sure do. You're Claudus's boy!" Lion-O stopped dead in his tracks at his words, amazed that he knew that. He turned around and looked back at the monkey, who grinned and said, "Bye." Before running off through the clearing.
"Hey, wait!" Lion-O ran after him. He had a hard time keeping up. For an old monkey, he sure is fast! Lion-O thought as he ran across a log that acted as a bridge over the stream in the clearing, which wasn't as small as he originally thought it was as he came to the other side. He went up a hill to find the baboon sitting on a rock, meditating. Panting, Lion-O came up beside where he was sitting and asked, "You knew my father?"
"Correction: I know your father." The baboon said. Lion-O looked down sadly at the memory of his father's death.
"I hate to be the one to tell you this…" He began, not seeing how the baboon peeked one eye open at him, "But… he died… a long time ago."
"Nope! Wrong again!" The monkey jumped off the rock with a laugh, heading to the end of the clearing that led to more jungle, "He's alive!" Lion-O gaped at the old monkey, "And I'll show him to you. You follow old Rafiki, he knows de way! Come on!" He jumped into the jungle, and Lion-O went to the edge of it. This part of the jungle was incredibly thick, and he wasn't entirely sure how he'd get through it. He looked through an opening and hesitantly went through. He had a little trouble getting through the thick underbrush. Once he had managed to get through to a clear pathway, he looked up and saw the monkey standing on a tree branch, gesturing him to follow him with a smile, "Don't dawdle. Hurry up!" He jumped away onto another branch.
"Hey! Whoa— Wait, wait!" Lion-O called after him.
"Come on!" Rafiki said, gesturing for him to keep going, "Come on!" Lion-O did so, running through the jungle as quickly as he could to keep up with the monkey who was constantly swinging from one branch to another.
"Would you slow down?" Lion-O called to him as he kept running. Rafiki didn't seem to hear him as he began singing his song again and laughing. Lion-O had trouble following him by sight because it was so dark, so he tried to follow him by sound. He let out a grunt as he tripped over an unseen tree branch and quickly scrambled up to follow the silhouette of the monkey that swung through the trees, his laughter ringing out in the darkness. When he got caught in a mess of vines, he quickly tore through them so he could follow Rafiki. When he got through, however, he could no longer hear his laughter, and he couldn't see him swinging through the trees. Yet he continued to run, blindly, through the jungle, in the hopes that he would see his father again.
"Stop!" Rafiki held out his hand, and Lion-O skidded to a stop so he wouldn't crash into him. Rafiki put a finger to his lips and softly shushed him before heading over to some tall grass and parting it with his stick and his hand. He looked back at Lion-O and whispered, "Look down dere." Lion-O, heart pounding, carefully stepped forward. He hesitated when he came to the parted grass and looked down at Rafiki, who only smiled and urged him on with his stick. Lion-O walked down the path before him and was surprised when he came to a small marsh. He looked down into the water, as Rafiki had told him, and saw his reflection in the still water. He sighed, mentally berating himself for believing the words of a deranged baboon, but mostly for getting his hopes up, believing that his father was actually alive.
"That's not my father." He said to Rafiki when he came up beside him, "It's just my reflection."
"No." Rafiki said, putting his arm around Lion-O's shoulders, "Look harder." He reached down and touched the water, causing it to ripple. Lion-O did as Rafiki told him, and squinted his eyes as his reflection changed with the rippling water. And for a second, one heart-stopping, mind-blowing second, he saw his father's face in the water, looking back at him, "You see?" Lion-O looked back at Rafiki, who had seen his expression, "He lives in you."
Lion-O heard the sound of rolling thunder in the distance, and looked up to the sky as he saw the clouds suddenly moving, taking a strange shape.
"Lion-O…"
Lion-O's eyes widened when he heard his name. He jumped up, away from the marsh and onto the land on the other side, looking up at the sky.
"Father?" He asked quietly, wondering if it was just his imagination that he heard his father's voice calling his name. His eyes went wide as he saw the clouds take the shape of his father's form, standing tall and proud.
"Lion-O, you have forgotten me." Claudus's voice came through the clouds.
"No! How could I?" Lion-O said to his father's ghost.
"You have forgotten who you are, and so, forgotten me." Claudus said to him, "Look inside yourself, Lion-O. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life."
"How can I go back?" Lion-O asked him as the wind began to pick up, though he didn't notice, "I'm not who I used to be."
"Remember who you are." Claudus said, "You are my son, and the one, true king." Lion-O's eyes filled with tears as he saw his father's complete form in the clouds, looking as if he was only standing in front of him. "Remember who you are…" Lion-O's eyes widened with horror as he saw the clouds covering up his father and being blown away by the wind.
"No!" He shouted, running after the disappearing clouds, "Please! Don't leave me!"
"Remember…"
"Father!" Lion-O ran faster as he tried to keep his father in sight.
"Remember…"
Lion-O, exhausted, could run no more as he came up to a hill, watching as his father was blown away, "Don't leave me…"
"Remember…" Claudus's voice faded into the night, and Lion-O could no longer see the clouds that had taken his form. He stared up at the starry sky, willing, hoping, for them to return, but they did not. He only watched as the clouds blew further and further away, until they disappeared into the darkness of night.
"What was dat?" Rafiki asked with a laugh as he came up to Lion-O. He looked up at the sky, "De weader— Pbbbwah!—very peculiar." He looked at Lion-O with a grin as he kept looking up at the sky, "Don't you t'ink?"
"Yeah…" Lion-O said, "Looks like the winds are changing."
"Ahh," Rafiki sighed, putting his hand to his hairy chin, "Change is good." Lion-O looked at him with a mirthless smile.
"Yeah, but it's not easy." He said, his smile fell, "I know what I have to do, but… going back means that I have to face my past." He cast his gaze to the grassy floor beneath him, "I've been running from it for so long…" Rafiki lifted up his staff and conked Lion-O on the head with it. "Ow!" Lion-O put his hand to the spot he had hit, "Geez! What was that for?"
"It doesn't matter!" Rafiki said with a grin, "It's in de past!" He chuckled.
"Yeah, but it still hurts." Lion-O said, taking his hand away from the forming bump and looking at it, checking to see that there was no blood from the hit.
"Oh, yes," Rafiki said, coming up beside Lion-O and putting his arm around his shoulders, "De past can hurt. But de way I see it, you can either run from it," He stepped back, putting both hands on his staff, "Or, learn from it." He swung his staff, trying to hit Lion-O again, but he ducked down, avoiding it. "Ah! You see?!" He smiled at Lion-O, "So, what are you going to do?"
"First," Lion-O began with a sly grin, placing one hand on Rafiki's staff, "I'm gonna take your stick." He pulled the staff out of Rafiki's hands and threw it away from him.
"No, no, no, no, no! Not de stick!" Rafiki ran after his staff and picked it up, he looked back to see Lion-O running through the field, "Hey! Where are you going?!"
"I'm going back!" Lion-O called over his shoulder. Rafiki grinned widely.
"Good!" He shouted at Lion-O's back, "Go on! Get out of here!" He laughed loudly, whooping joyfully as he held his stick up to the sky as a few stars shot across the sky, watching as Lion-O ran towards his destiny.
A little fun thingy I thought of. I hope you liked it!