Author's Notes:

Well, I must say that I have been very pleasantly surprised with the level of feedback this story has recieved in just two days! 4 reviews in 2 days...I was expecting to be waiting for weeks for that sort of feedback!

And since I am so happy, Chapter 2 has been finished much faster than I anticipated, and I have decided to drop my review request, and simply trust that you readers will review when you have something to say from now on. Please don't break that trust.

While I'm on this, I might as well answer a few of those 4 reviews. A couple of people were quick to point out that Simba seemed slightly OOC...that is a deliberate move, and the way Simba is hesitant to save the rogue will have significance later in the story. To help clear things up for now, I've given a few hints in this chapter as to why Simba is reluctant to help the rogue.
You also mentioned that you doubt Simba would still be trying to use Mufasa for guidance. i respond with a simple, but true, saying: "People do not change overnight." This is true for Simba as well. He is trying to become more independant in his rule, and less reliant on what Mufasa would have done, but he still looks for guidance from his late father every now and again...it is just who he is.

And another quick note before I move on to the chapter, I have several people that I need to thank. Without them, this story would not be even close to what it is now:
-Hunter Lord: My best friend, who is not part of this site, and rarely seen in internet circles these days. He was responsible for some plot points in this story turning out the way they do.
-Aquaman52: This one IS on the site, and has written some of the most brilliant fan fiction I have ever seen. He is responsible for encouraging me to completely revise the plotline of this story, and making it far better than it was originally going to be.
-Delta: like Hunter Lord, not really seen on the internet forums all that often, but has been instrumental in helping me fine-tune some plot points, particularly the very distant ending to this story.
-JimmyRocket: Has written a few Bolt fan fictions here, and has also helped in small, but no less important ways.

So, a big thank you to all four of those guys, and with that, let's get this chapter underway!


Chapter 2

Rescue

Now that Simba had made his choice, his indecision was replaced by action, as he turned to his majordomo. "Zazu! Head back to Pride Rock, tell the rest of the pride what is happening, and get three lionesses to track us down! Then go get Rafiki and tell him to wait at Pride Rock! Chances are we'll be bringing back an injured rogue who'll need attention as soon as possible!"

Zazu hovered in front of Simba, seemingly deliberating whether to argue the point of Simba going after a rogue, but finally sighed. "Right away, sire!" The hornbill bobbed his head in a mid-air bow, before turning and zipping off, heading straight for Pride Rock.

With that taken care of, Simba turned and, with a nod to Kovu, sprang off, leaping through the tall grass as fast as his legs could take him, heading straight for where he had last seen the rogue, Kovu right behind him. Although the choice had been made, and Simba was going to see it through now that he made it, doubt about his choice crept into his mind. Saving the rogue was most certainly the noble thing to do, but Simba could not help but feel that, in regards to the rest of his pride, he was making a bad choice. Rogues were not a very common occurrence in the Pridelands, but Simba had previous experience with them, and it had not been pleasant, either...

"Thank you, Simba," Kovu's voice cut Simba's thoughts off, causing him to look sideways at the younger lion as they ran. "I know rogues don't have the best reputation, and that you're well within your right to leave him to die, but...I just don't believe in abandoning a fellow lion in trouble, even if he's not from our pride."

Simba sighed. "I still don't like this, Kovu," he said flatly. "Rogues are not good news. Their time alone makes them self-centred, and they tend not to respect the laws of other prides."

Kovu frowned. "I never said he had to stay with us, Simba," he replied, seemingly amused by the king's oversight. "We just rescue him from the hyenas, help him if he's injured, then if you still don't trust him, send him on his way."

Simba mentally scolded himself for the oversight. Of course he could send the rogue away, what was he thinking? He decided that his assumption had been based on the way Kovu had worded his plea to save the rogue...acceptance into the pride was the next step along after saving this rogue, and that was definitely something Simba was struggling to come to grips with. He may have allows the Outlanders to come back into his pride after Zira's death, but one of the big reasons he had allowed that was because Kiara had insisted, and that most of the Outlanders were Pridelanders that had been exiled after Scar's death. But this rogue, this rogue had no connection to the Pridelands, no past here. And those kind of rogues were the ones Simba had real difficulty trusting, for they were the ones that had betrayed his trust in the past.

And now Simba's decision seemed so much better, now that he could see that the rogue was not necessarily going to have to stay with the pride, and cause trouble. With a smile towards Kovu, their pace increased slightly as the tall grass started to thin out, beginning to give way to the barren Outlands. They were getting close, but Simba could see the worry etched on Kovu's face, and knew exactly what the young lion was thinking. They were almost there, but was it already too late? Could the hyenas have already taken him down? Simba decided that it really did not matter. If the rogue was alive, they would save him. If not...then Simba could deal with the hyenas without any distractions.

But even as that thought crossed his mind, both Simba and Kovu were brought to a simultaneous halt by a loud roar that broke the silence of the grasslands. The roar was definitely leonine in origin, and was full of pain, fear...and defiance. It was also accompanied by the frenzied barking and baying of multiple hyenas. Simba and Kovu shared a glance, Kovu's eyes wide.

The hyenas had finally caught their prey...the rogue was being attacked!

"Hurry!" Kovu sprang off even as he spoke the one desperate word, racing towards a large dust cloud forming some distance in front of them, Simba blinking himself out of a stupor and following behind. As he tried to catch up with Kovu, he could not help but wonder at something. Was Kovu's desperation to save the rogue nothing more than what he had already said...or was there some other, ulterior motive Simba did not know about? Had Kovu possibly recognised the rogue, or was there something else about Kovu's mysterious past in the Outlands Simba did not know about that was fuelling Kovu's current desperation to save this unknown lion?

These doubts were erased from Simba's mind - though not discarded entirely - as he finally caught up with Kovu, who had stopped again, and saw the ambush close up for the first time. What the king saw left him astounded and revolted at the same time. It was indeed six hyenas that had ambushed the rogue, but at present only three were still trying to bring him down. Two of the hyenas lay scattered in the dirt, still alive but out cold, while a third one was limping away, whimpering with pain caused by deep gash in his right hip, and obviously not willing to risk more personal injury over this lion.

But the three that were still fighting had all the advantages, and seemed to have victory in their grasp. they had managed to force the rogue lion to the ground by viciously attacking one of his forelegs, which Simba could barely see through the thick coating of blood covering the limb. The shock of the situation seemed to have finally struck the rogue, who was only sporadically fighting. He was barely conscious, and in seconds, he would fade, and the hyenas would be able to go for the throat, literally, without anything to stop them...

...except himself and Kovu.

Deciding that distracting the hyenas was the best course of action, Simba made the three remaining hyenas very aware of his presence by sucking in a deep breath, and unleashing a deafening, raging roar, the message within the sound very clear; you have stepped into my territory, and now you will pay the price!

The hyenas immediately turned from their semi-conscious prey, three sets of eyes locking with Simba's angry gaze, which only grew angrier as he saw the faces of these scavengers, and recognised them. Inwardly sighing, and wondering why these creatures never learned, both Simba and Kovu raced forward, Kovu slightly ahead, entering the fray...a fray the hyenas suddenly realised they no longer had the advantage in.

But before any of the three hyenas could react, Kovu was on top of them. He tackled two of them directly, knocking them clean off the injured rogue, before unleashing a vicious kick with his hind legs, catching the one he missed in their soft underbelly just before they leapt on him.

From there, Simba took over, as Kovu went to check on the rogue, now that the stranger was free from the hyenas. Unsheathing his claws, the king of the Pridelands quickly proved that the best fighter don't always have to be the strongest. His lean form ran circles around the three hyenas, slowly herding them into a small, tighter group, lashing out whenever one of them tried to make an escape. The fear in the hyena trio's eyes became more and more distinct as Simba slowly rounded them up...then pounced.

In a furious series of moves, Simba attacked the hyenas, moving faster than the hyenas could follow. They attempted to scatter in a blind panic, but Simba quickly dragged them back in, using his claws only when necessarry, before finally forcing all three onto their backs, side-by-side, before pinning them all underneath his paws, at which point all three of the beasts starting talking simultaneously...or at least two did, Simba was not sure if the third one was even capable of speech.

"Ow, ow, ow! Hey, take it easy..."

"...Come on! What's your problem?!"

"...Claws! Claws! Hurting, ow!"

"...We're not really that far into your land..."

"Silence!" Simba's commanding boom shut the hyenas up instantly...only to have them speak up again a moment later.

"Wow, you really sounded a lot like your father there!"

"Yup, definitely Mufasa's son!"

"I said silence!" Simba repeated, with even more force than before, finally succeeding in shutting the hyenas up for long enough to get his own words in. "Well, well, well...if it isn't my three favourite hyenas." He then looked at each one in turn. "Shenzi...Banzai...Ed...what are you doing here?" His tone initially sounded kind, but the threatening ring to it left no doubt as to who was in charge of the situation.

Banzai was the first to respond. "Wow, Shenzi, Simba still remembers us, even after all these years!"

"Yes, Banzai, you three are hard to forget," Simba deadpanned, before his voice grew once more ferocious. "Although you don't help me forget you when you keep breaking the laws I set down every other week!" He emphasised his words by pushing down on the three hyenas with his paws, but only enough to make them uncomfortable.

"Hey, come on!" Banzai continued, finding it seemingly impossible to let Simba have the last word. "Is it our fault that your lands have the best food for miles around? We have a pack we've gotta feed too, right guys?" Both Shenzi and Ed nodded, before Shenzi stepped in.

"Besides, this rogue came into our lands, first. We were just going to catch him and take him back, seriously!"

Simba turned his gaze to focus exclusively on Shenzi, the only female of this trio. Simba also had a sneaking suspicion that she was also the leader of this small pack of hyenas that had taken up residence in the Outlands. "Really?" Simba asked, scepticism lacing his voice. "That's it? There was absolutely nothing else?"

"Well, we were going to - " Shenzi elbowed Banzai sharply to shut him up, but the damage had already been done as the blabbermouth hyena desperately tried to take back his words. "...uh, we were going to go straight back home, yeah, that's it! Nothing else at all!" He offered Simba a sheepish grin.

"Right," Simba grinned, not at all convinced.

"Please, Simba..." Shenzi paused, seeming to struggle to find the right words. "...what are you going to do? You..." she paled considerably as Simba's smile widened. "...You wouldn't...would you?"

Simba somehow resisted the overwhelming urge to laugh at Shenzi's panic. It was obvious what the hyena was thinking, but Simba had no intention of executing them. The hyenas might be a pain in his backside, but he was not that cold. "No, Shenzi...no executions today." All three hyenas heaved a massive, collective sigh of relief, but Simba was not quite done. "However, you are to leave the Pridelands...immediately. you are to take your friends with you, an if I ever see any hyena in my land again, the consequences will be much more severe. Do I make myself clear?"

Both Shenzi and Banzai were quick to respond.

"Oh, yes, great king..."

"...perfectly clear..."

"...you'll never see us here again!"

"Good," Simba said, finally satisfied that the hyenas were sufficiently scared, and would not betray his trust again. He finally removed his paws from the hyenas, freeing them to get back up. Shenzi and Ed went to collect their fallen brothers, but Banzai went straight for the unconscious form of the rogue, which Kovu was now watching over.

"Stop!" Simba's booming command caused all three hyenas to stop dead in their tracks, but Simba's attention was fixed solely on Banzai. "You are to leave the lion with me!"

All three hyenas reacted to that statement simultaneously. Shenzi and Banzai both started complaining, while Ed simply nodded stupidly at everything the other two said, whilst putting on a pouting, begging expression.

"Oh, come on, Simba...!"

"...He's just a rogue, you won't miss him..."

"...we worked so hard to get this guy..."

"...please, come on..."

"Enough!" Simba said forcefully, stopping the protests. Part of him was considering leaving the rogue to the hyenas, at least that part of him which remembered what happened the last time he'd let a rogue into the Pridelands, which turned out to be his first major mistake as king, and nearly turned the whole pride against him...

But the other part of him realised that Kovu was right...no matter what he - or anyone else, for that matter - felt towards rogues, it was only right that they at least give him a chance to tell his story, explain how he became a loner, and then either send him on his way, or let him stay for a short time, to see if he was willing to work as part of the pride.

With that thought, his decision, constantly coming under self-doubt, was once again finalised, and he turned back to the hyena trio he had such fond memories of. "Remember, you three, your pack has broken the laws we agreed to when you came back here. I am well within my right to take the rogue from you. he has wandered into my lands, and as such, is my responsibility!" Simba jerked his head in a dismissive motion. "Now take your friends and get out of my sight, before I change my mind about letting you go."

The hyenas moved quickly to obey, hearing no sign of a joke in Simba's voice. The three hyenas scrambled to grab their two unconscious friends, before half-dragging, half-carrying them away, stealing constant glances back at Simba and Kovu every now and again, their pace increasing slightly each time their eyes met Simba's hard glare.

When the five hyenas finally disappeared into the Outlands, Simba finally heaved a heavy sigh. He hated the hyenas, he had never, in his entire life, had a good experience that related to them. Simba normally did not hold grudges or prejudices, but his experience with hyenas did not give him a good impression of them. The thing he hated most was that they never seemed to learn their lesson. Simba knew that, no matter what he had just said and done then, the hyenas would be poaching in the Pridelands again within a couple of weeks, and he would have to come down and scare them off, again. It was tedious, and only sought to annoy the king these days. but it was part of his duty to his pride, and he did it willingly...he just wished that they would grow some brains and learn their lesson, then both his life, and theirs, would be so much easier.

Dragging his mind back to the real reason he had fought his favourite hyena trio off, Simba turned back to where he had last seen the rogue. Exactly as he had expected, Kovu was standing guard over the still, lifeless form. The rogue lay so still that Simba initially wondered if they had been too late, and failed to save the strange lion. But a moment later, the king saw the stranger's side rise and fall fractionally, confirming that the rogue was alive, but unconscious...and in bad shape.

Simba approached, looking to Kovu, his gaze silently asking. Kovu's sad, pained expression gave the silent answer. They may have saved the rogue for the moment, but he was in very bad shape...if he did not get some sort of help soon, he would most likely die.

Despite the silent conversation between the two lions, Simba wanted to see this rogue up close for himself, and so continued to approach, until he sat down by Kovu's side, looking down at the unconscious figure before them. But it was difficult for Simba to get a proper idea of what the rogue should have looked like. The rogue's fur was so filthy with dirt, mud and other grime that everything was a muddy shade of brown...it was simply impossible to tell what colouring this rogue possessed underneath the filthy exterior. What was obvious was that this rogue had not been living very well recently. His mane was matted and tangled, and whilst strong muscles bulged under the filthy fur, a hint of his ribcage showed as well under the lean figure. He was a strong lion, as all rogues had to be, but he was also malnourished, which would not be helping his current condition in any way.

And then there were his injuries. The rogue's muzzle and torso were lined with countless cuts and bruises, not all of them recent. A particularly nasty-looking cut across the rogue's forehead, stretching from his right eyebrow up into the left side of his mane, was already in the early stages of healing, but was sure to leave a scar behind. At first Simba thought another animal might of caused it, but he noticed the edges of the wound were too ragged, too random to have been caused by a tooth or claw, he had sustained that injury in a fall of some kind, that much was obvious.

But, the worst damage by far lay in the rogue's left foreleg, the same leg the hyenas had focused on to bring him down. The leg had been viciously clawed and mauled, and was now barely recognisable. Several cuts were very deep, probably cutting into the muscle of his leg, and the whole limb was stained crimson with blood. If was this series of wounds that were killing him, and Simba could see that it would take all of Rafiki's skill to save this rogue. And even then, there was a good chance that the rogue would lose the full use of his leg. If that happened, then this critically injured lion laying before him had little hope in the world. With a gimpy leg, the rogue would no longer be able to hunt with any effectiveness, nor would he be able to run from any danger. In short, unless a miracle occurred, this lion would be relying on others for the rest of his life.

"Do...do you think he'll make it?" Kovu's voice was barely audible, and full of genuine concern. Despite the fact that he did not even know this rogue - at least as far as Simba knew - Kovu was desperate for this lion to live.

Simba sighed. Even though he had no soft spot in his heart for rogues, seeing this lion in such an unstable, vulnerable state did pull at his heart...deep down, he really wanted this rogue to live, too. "I hope so, Kovu. He's in a very bad way...but Rafiki's never let us down yet, at least as far as I'm aware, anyway." He looked down at the rogue once more, trying to guess whether he was stable enough to move, before turning back to Kovu. "Do you think we can move him? We have to get him back to Pride Rock as fast as possible, and that means moving him as far as we can before Zazu gets back."

Kovu nodded, standing to starting heaving the rogue up so they could carry him. "I can't tell, but we have to risk it," he answered honestly. "Every second he goes without help is a second closer to death. At the very least, that leg needs to be tended to, and fast."

Simba nodded, but remained silent as the two of them spent a few awkward moments heaving the rogue up so they could carry him. Eventually they settled on draping one of the rogue's paws over their shoulders, so they were half-carrying, half-dragging him, before turning and slowly making their way back south-west, towards the distant shape of Pride Rock...and the silhouette of Zazu hurrying towards them.

And as they made their way towards the majordomo, and the assistance he had summoned, Simba could not help but think of just how much this day had changed his way of life already. What had started as a simple rescue mission was fast spiralling out of control. Because with the rogue's leg so badly injured, Simba knew that, if the rogue were to survive for any length of time, he would have to stay with his pride for some time yet.

And Simba was not sure whether that was going to be a good or bad thing...all he knew, somehow, was that the Pridelands would never be the same again.