"No!" Was all Nala could muster saying upon hearing the news. She took a quick backward glance at Kiara to make sure she was still asleep. "He's OK." She told Sarabi, who even now remained dignified. "He's Simba, remember when we thought he was crushed in the stampede, he was fine."
"This is different, Nala." Sarabi genially told her. "I'm sorry but he fell a long way."
"No." Nala said again. It was tearing her apart inside, just as she knew it must be doing to Sarabi. Tears began to form in her eyes. "No." She said for the third time, this time defiantly. "If we don't find the body don't count him out. He's tough and he's… he's… Simba." She shook the tears from her eyes.
"With all due respect Ma'am, May I say something?" Came a voice from above, Zazu had been unusually quiet until now. She nodded. "Even if he survived such a fall, he'd be forced by the currents into hostile territory, assuming he doesn't drown in the process. He'd be forced far beyond the boundaries of the Pridelands, where he'd no doubt meet all sorts of horrible, bloodthirsty monsters, all too willing to tear him apart."
"Thank you, Zazu. That will be all." Nala snarled. She began bounding off of Priderock.
"Nala, please." Sarabi followed her. "Just listen to reason."
"Where are you going?" Zazu asked in a more panicked manner.
"To find Simba." She started to sprint off into the night.
"Murderer." Simba snarled at his uncle. Fires danced all around them, Priderock barely recognisable as the battle cries of lion's and hyena's echoed through the night.
"Simba, Simba, please. Have mercy, I beg you." Scar pleaded, making himself look as unthreatening as possible."
"You don't deserve to live." Simba told him, advancing ever closer to the terrified tyrant.
"Simba." He began breathing heavily, whether it was from the smoke or from fear Simba didn't know, nor did he care. "I am family. It's the hyenas who are the real enemy. It was their fault, it was their idea." Simba wanted to call him out as a liar, to say the hyenas had no intelligence or ambition for such things but this time the words struck him. When had Scar outright lied? Not once did he say he never had anything to do with Mufasa's death. Every accusation Scar had thrown at him had been painfully true. So was this one so unlikely? Obviously Scar was still a monster but maybe the hyenas weren't just his mindless followers? He turned to Scar but his uncle had vanished, as had Priderock and the great fire, instead he was in the elephant graveyard and instead of Scar standing in front of him it was Nala and Zazu.
"Simba? You OK?" Nala asked.
"Huh, I'm fine." He replied, only now registering that he and Nala were cubs again.
"No, you are not fine." Zazu told him, waggling his feathers in the shape of a finger, how does he do that? Simba asked himself. "It is all the more reason we should get out of here."
"Look banana beak is scared." Simba told Nala, who gave a quick giggle.
"It's Mr. Banana beak to you, fuzzy, and right now we are all in very real danger." Zazu began glancing left and right anxiously. Simba suddenly remembered what happened next and spun towards the massive skull next to them.
"He's right, run!" He said to Nala but she just raised her eyebrows.
"What's got into you?" Nala asked. "You two wusses can run back to Priderock if you want but I'm gonna check this out." She walked up to the skull.
"No, get away from it." Simba told her but she just laughed at his reaction, only to have three other voices echo the laughter. Before the hyenas even showed themselves Simba ran, ran so hard his legs ached. It was a fear that he'd never quite felt since, the first time any other had wished him harm. But all too soon he and Nala ran into a dead end, the dead end. He struggled to climb up to the highest ledge where light was entering the cavern but it was to no avail.
"Here kitty, kitty, kitty." Banzai snarled as the trio slowly advanced holding devil like grins. Simba attempted a roar but they simply burst into hysterics.
"That was it? HA, do it again." Shenzi taunted. So Simba roared again but again the trio laughed. This wasn't what was supposed to happen.
"DAD!" Simba yelled as loudly as he could but nobody came. "DAD!" He tried again.
"Daddy isn't coming." Shenzi told him. "Tell 'em why Ed." Ed laughed and muttered something.
"That's right." Banzai nodded. "You're our second course of lion meat today, kid."
"Wow, this is awesome." Nala said. "Simba, you're king. Tell them to back off." Simba wanted to ask why Nala would think that his father's death was 'awesome', that he wasn't ready to be king after all, that they wouldn't listen to him even if he were king but before he could Banzai had pinned him to the wall.
"ah, dinner. Goodnight your majesty." He said before his jaws closed in.
Simba darted awake, covered in sweat. The cold rock face he was on immediately began to cool him down. It took him a moment to remember where he was. Hyena den. Shuddering slightly he glanced down from his ledge after catching a sniff of meat. Banzai was tucking into a zebra corpse.
"Ah, breakfast." He said licking his libs before noticing Simba. "Good morning your majesty." He called up. "The clan found this last night after we all went to sleep, I'm telling you zebra is such a rare treat around here. You may be some kinda good luck charm." He said licking the blood of his lips. He looked at the zebra as the blood began oozing down its fur. "Hey." He called up at Simba. "What's black, white and red all over?" Simba rolled his eyes.
"A bleeding zebra?"
"Yep." Banzai answered and burst into laughter. "Heard that one before huh?"
"Sure." Simba said not wanting to upset his 'host' by pointing out how obvious the joke was.
"Oh, er." Banzai was looking from his meal to Simba. "Do you want some, if you're hungry?"
"Err, yeah." Simba said just noticing how hungry he actually was. After a quick spot check he jumped near Banzai and cautiously began to feed. The tension between the two was thick and got worse when Simba remembered his dream. "So, er, did your sick friend get any of this?" Simba asked.
"Oh, yeah." Banzai nodded happily. "Not as much as I'd like but still glad he ate something before we leave."
"That's good." Simba nodded before taking another bite.
"Yeah." Banzai said. "Yeah." A brief silence followed. "Hey, erm, how's your leg?" Banzai asked.
"Oh, right. It seems fine now, just needed some rest I think." Simba shook his back leg, which seemed normal again.
"That's good." Banzai nodded before taking another bite.
"Yeah." Simba said. "Yeah."
"Glad to see you two getting along." Shenzi called emerging from a small cave from the side. "This isn't awkward at all." She muttered under her breath.
"Oh did you want this?" Simba asked moving away from the meal.
"Nah, I've already had some. But I'm glad you know your place." She smirked.
"Hey, I was just being polite." Simba said. "You're not in charge of me."
"I am around here." She still held that smug look which was now reflected on Banzai. Simba suddenly realised something had just happened that he'd never heard of before. A hyena had turned down food.
"Hey why did you just…" He tried to ask without offending them. "I mean I've never heard of…. It's just that I thought… If there isn't much to eat around here, that you'd eat until you just couldn't… eat… anymore."
"You saying we're greedy?" Banzai asked.
"What? No." Simba exclaimed.
"I'd looove to eat some more." Shenzi told him. "But if I eat until I burst they'd be a lot of hungry mouths around here. We have to work as a unit to survive out here, can't have one part of us weaker than another. We are one." She added at the end. "Come on I want leave as soon as you're both ready, so move it."
It was only a few hours after sunrise when the unlikely trio left the hyena den. Aminah had been placed in charge when Shenzi left. Shenzi assured Banzai she was trustworthy. "It'll be fine, truth be told, I've been looking to her as my successor after I'm gone. This'll be a good test for her." Simba was waiting for the pair just ahead but as they turned to leave a scramble of paws was heard from behind.
"Ed, no." Banzai said to their friend. Ed had run up after them, not wanting to be separated from his two best friends.
"Ed, you've gotta stay here, man." Shenzi told him but the hyena shook his head. He was pale and scruffy, or at least more pale and scruffy. It was clear he could barely stand let alone walk all the way to the Pridelands.
"We're gonna get help, for you. But you can't come with. Sorry, but you'd slow us down." Banzai told him. Ed was staring at them intently. "When we get back and you're all better then we can run around chasing Wildebeest all day, I promise." And with that Ed sat down and gave his friends an affectionate lick.
"Hey, easy there." Shenzi told him. "I don't like you that much."
"You guys coming?" Simba called from ahead.
"Just a sec." Shenzi replied. "You take care of yourself, Ed. Do everything Aminah tells you and drink a lot of water." Ed nodded. "We'll be back before you know it."
It was a few hours into their walk and nobody had said anything. Simba had to admit that Shenzi had been right. There was no way that he could have found his way out of here himself. The caverns and cave networks they had to use were long and winding, very easy to get lost in. There were a couple of instances where they'd had to hide from other creatures, once from a Rhino and twice from other hyenas. Without the help from his two companions he'd have found himself in a few scrapes or worse.
"So" Shenzi began, clearly not used to walking silence. "How did you end up washed down the river, your highness?"
"Yeah." Banzai pressed him. "How'd the big strong king end up down here with us?"
Simba sighed. "It was a stupid mistake, I went to help…" His train of thought stopped on young lion who, his mother thought, was the son of Scar. "You guys were close with Scar, right?" Shenzi shook her head in disgust while Banzai spat on the ground.
"We thought we were." Banzai said. "But he just used us. Why you asking?"
"Well, I thought maybe you would know if he had any cubs." Simba explained, worried he'd touched a nerve. The two hyenas exchanged looks. "Only because my mother seems to think it was Scar's son who threw me into the river." After a moments delay they both burst into laughter.
"Nuka?" Shenzi spluttered at him. "You were beaten by that runt?"
"So he is Scar's son?" Simba jumped on the fact that they seemed to know him.
"Sure." Shenzi nodded still struggling to keep a straight face. "Oh God, I thought you were supposed to be tough."
"Yeah, you really did need us." Banzai told him gleefully. "That lion couldn't beat up a Meerkat."
"Hey, I just got really unlucky." Simba told them. "It's not like it beat me up and threw off the chasm."
"Whoa, you fell off the chasm?" Banzai asked. "How'd you survive?"
"I just fell in the water." Simba explained.
"Water isn't soft, not when you fall that far." Shenzi said with a raised brow.
"Look it doesn't matter. I just want to know how did Scar have a cub?" Simba asked
"Well," Banzai grinned. "When a boy lion like Scar and girl lion like Zira find themselves getting certain urges…" The pair started laughing again.
"eugg, I didn't need to hear about that part, I mean how did I not know about this? When did it happen?"
"Nuka was born about three seasons before you came back to challenge Scar, then Vitani only a few days before you came." Shenzi explained.
"There are two of them?" Simba asked horrified.
"Vitani was waay too young know anything about Scar." Banzai explained. "Even Nuka was just a little guy."
"Zira…" Simba muttered.
"Excuse me?" Shenzi asked.
"Zira will corrupt them. If she's still leading the Outlanders then they'll grow up mad and filled with rage and hate." Simba explained.
"Cool." Shenzi said dully.
"Don't you two get it?" Simba asked urgently. "When they grow up they will seek revenge for their father, they'll be a danger to the Pridelands and everyone in it." The two hyenas just rolled their eyes.
"Look, what happens in the Pridelands doesn't bother us, you lions can kill each other all you want, as long as you don't give my clan anymore trouble than we've already got." Shenzi told him. "Anyway, I don't know about the girl but Nuka is a joke. When he fully grows up he'll be even weaker than Scar."
"Oh I don't know, Shenzi." Banzai sniggered. "He took down the king all by himself." The two once again burst into laughter.
"Aren't we supposed to be keeping quiet?" Simba asked wishing they'd stop laughing at him. As he spoke a dark figure appeared on the path ahead. Its silhouette was ape like, hunched over but still on two legs not four. In its arm it raised a stick with a small flame at the end. The dashes of light occasionally illuminating its face, a face with a series of scars etched onto its face. It was a baboon, much like Rafiki but unlike Rafiki its mane was jet black and the bright colours on the face had faded in much darker blues and reds, the most obvious change however was the facial expression. Rafiki always had an expression of kindness, crazy sometimes but kind. This baboon held a look of deep pain and rage. Then it screamed, a horrible shrill scream of a being consumed by hatred.
"Oh, boy." Banzai said.
A/N OK there we go and please review. What I try to avoid in these sorts of stories are the two extremes of heroes and villains working together. Either A) they become friends immediately or B) they randomly beat each other up.