After Zira and her lionesses left Kion and Vitani alone(ostensibly to go hunting), the latter ran off. "Come on, follow me!" she called and Kion chased her to the rock ceiling of the Outsiders' cave, which she was able to climb within seconds, having grown up here. Trying to follow her as best as he could, Kion managed to drag himself up to the top fairly quickly, at which point Vitani took off again, to the edge.

"Whoa, slow down, what are you doing-?" Kion said, running after her, until Vitani suddenly ducked, causing her to trip over her, roll onto the rocks and then off the cliff onto the dusty ground a few meters below. "Ow!" he said, trying to get up on his shaking limbs. "That wasn't funny, Vitani!"

"Wasn't meant to be!" the little cub exclaimed and ran back down from the cliff, to where Kion was. "I just wanted to see how good your skills were."

Kion gave her a confused look. "My skills? What have my skills got to do with anything?"

Vitani raised an eyebrow. "How am I supposed to get to know you if I can't tell how you fight?" Once more, without any warning, she tackled him and tried to pin him down. Instinctively, Kion shoved the little lioness off of him, causing Vitani to slam into the ground hard and lose her breath.

"I'm sorry!" Kion immediately shouted, and tried to help her up, but Vitani only slapped him for it. "That... was... awesome!" she gasped. "Don't apologise!"

Kion frowned. "You're okay with this? I shouldn't have used my full strength."

"Why not?" Vitani frowned, genuinely curious.

"Because you got hurt." Kion said, concerned. However, the lioness cub didn't seem to be bothered at all, merely asking: "So?"

Kion didn't know what to reply.

"I get hurt all the time, that's how I learn new things." Vitani explained.

"That's no way to learn!" Kion scowled, not liking this. "I mean, what happens if something goes wrong, and you get really hurt?"

Vitani shrugged. "That must mean you're really good." Seeing that Kion was not convinced, however, she pressed on, eager to make him see it her way. "Besides, the more we fight, the more we learn how to be careful. That's what mother says! So, it all works out."

"I guess..." Kion said. It was a strange pride, that was sure. Their feral nature was at odds with everything his father had taught him, but he couldn't deny liking them more and more for it. He knew these were lions who'd let him be whatever he wanted to be, simply because he was one of them.

Having discovered the presence of a rogue lion pride living in the Outlands from Rafiki, the Lion Guard stormed into the canyons to find their leader, quickly running into Jasiri, who was completely furious.

"Lion Guard? What are you doing here?!" she snapped, surprising the Guard with the venom in her tone.

"We're... looking for Kion." Fuli said, not sure why Jasiri was so upset at them. "We think he might be in trouble, do you know where he is?"

Jasiri laughed bitterly. "Yes... he's joined Zira and her family."

"Zira?!" the Lion Guard all spurted out in unison. "Hapana!" Ono shouted in shock. "Rafiki was right!"

"You know Zira?" Jasiri asked, before swatting herself on the head. "Well, of course you do! And so did Kion, didn't he?! Was he even going to try to give us back our watering hole?!"

"Relax, Jasiri. We only heard about her now!" Beshte explained calmly.

"And Kion wouldn't want to be any part of her family!" Fuli insisted.

Jasiri wasn't convinced. "That's what I would've thought as well... until I saw him with them. They must be trying to pull him over to their side, to Scar's side, and it's working!" she said, now with despair in her voice.

"Not if the Lion Guard has anything to say about it!" Bunga decided.

Hiding behind a bush, Kion and Vitani peeked through the branches to see Kovu playing a game of whack-a-mole with his grumpy, muttering older brother.

"Alright..." Vitani said and without noticing, rested her paw on Kion's back. "Let's pretend Nuka's a predator... if we can. And Kovu's the prey. We work together. I'll hold down Nuka for you, and you have to get Kovu."

"Wait... we haven't even told them what we're gonna do!" Kion protested.

Vitani chuckled. "Do you tell your prey you're gonna eat them? If Kovu gives you trouble, just bite him. Always worked for me! Alright... go!" Moving fast and making little noise with her soft paws, Vitani was able to circle around Kovu and Nuka without either of them noticing and hide behind a gnarled tree. From there, she winked at Kion and lunged at Nuka with her claws extended, grabbing onto his head with a grin on her face. As Nuka flailed around, screaming, Kovu merely laughed until Kion knocked him down.

Zira's son wasn't just hers by name though, and quickly grabbed onto Kion's neck, pulling him down as well. The two wrestled in the dust for control. "Get off of me!" Kovu yelled at him and punched him in the face, reminding the lion prince that this pride has no concept of games. He could be the better lion, as he always tried to be in the Pride Lands... but he wasn't in the Pride Lands and this was a different pride with different laws... surely it didn't hurt to fight back, just for once?

And so Kion mimicked Vitani's movement and rammed into Kovu again and then pushed his paw underneath Kovu's chin with the claws extended. The brown cub gargled slightly and raised his paws in surrender. Kion smirked victoriously.

Suddenly, a harsh female voice burst the bubble. "WHAT is happening here?" Zira's group had returned. As if electrified, Kion instantly jumped away from Kovu and tried to explain his actions: "We got into a fight! It was my fault-"

"-YOUR FAULT?!" Zira screamed. "YOUR FAULT?! YOU... WON!" Suddenly, her voice took on a much quieter, almost motherly tone as she glared at Kovu, who shrunk into a terrified, brown ball of fur. "And you, my little prince... you lost. How? LOOK AT ME!"

Kovu's head jittered upwards. "I-... he... he got me by surprise, that's all."

"Got you by surprise!" Zira mocked him and turned her head towards one of her lionesses. "You! Take him and beat that weakness out of him in whatever way you like. I want him ready for a challenge tonight!"

Kovu gulped as he left with the lioness, to what Kion hoped was fair training. His view was then blocked by Zira, who looked at him with a terrifyingly fond expression. "You've got some strength in you, haven't you? What do you think, Vitani?"
Vitani walked towards them. "Oh, he's a natural. Once you get past all the Pridelander in him, he'd be a good fighter."

"I'm not here to be a good fighter!" Kion said firmly. "I've already been here long enough. It's time I go back to my Guard."

Zira's eyes widened. "You'll meet them again sooner than you think, dear. They're on their way here, and they've brought the hyena. Seems like they don't respect the decision you made tonight."

Kion's face turned fierce. "I'll make them accept it."

Author's Note: Just wanted to say that I personally LOVED "Lions Of The Outlands"(easily the best episode so far). If I had to nitpick, they underused Vitani and the whole racing subplot was completely pointless, but still... they mostly exceeded all of my expectations with it. What did you guys think of it(and my chapter, obviously)?

*Faith - All of that is definitely coming...

*FanficFan920 - Can you be more specific? Also, Kiara will definitely appear at some point, as I plan to adapt the second film for this.

*CandyCane21 - Here you go! Thanks for the kind words!

*TLKGuard - A little bit, maybe, but compared with other Lion Guard episodes, it was amazing. I think they did the best they could, plot-wise.

*Guest - We shall see, won't we...?

*Gracekim1 - It's the kind of new development I'd like to see in the series... but then again, this isn't serialised television.

*Guest - :D