I arrived at the location of the hyenas and jackals. I knew kion wasn't too far behind so I hid myself and waited for the right time to intervene if necessary. No sooner did I hide myself kion showed up. I watched the guard struggle with the hyenas and jackals. Seeing them being beaten so bad made my blood boil. Growling I knew it was time.

Fuli was struggling to get out from under a jackal and hyena that had her pinned when a dark gray blur shot into the air. Craning her head she saw the form of the princess's boyfriend let out a roar before landing. She felt the weight leave her body.

I charged forward ramming the jackal and hyena off of Fuli before walking up to kion's side. Said lion and friends looked in my direction when they heard me yell. Janja was shocked and frozen at the sight of me. "What the heck is that thing Janja?" one of his henchmen said obviously scared of me. Janja couldn't speak as he watched me stand up to my full height. Snarling I grabbed him by the neck and brought him to my eye level.

The guard watched in both horror and fascination as I spoke in a bone chilling tone. "These lands don't belong to you, your clan, or the jackals. If I see, hear, or smell you in the pride lands again, I will gut you like a human would do to an animal after he's killed it. Understand?" Janja cowered in fear at me. "Who are you?" he stammered. I held him closer until he could feel my breath on his fur. "For you, the devil himself. Now run and never return. Tell your boss that these lands are defended not just by the lion guard." I said before dropping him. He and his lackeys turned tail and ran. As soon as he was out of sight I started laughing.

Kion and the others were confused. One minute I'm cold and ruthless, the next I'm cheerful. I look at their bewildered faces. "What?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "Hevi kabisa." kion said. 'Ah crap. There goes my chance to protect Kiara.' I thought. I had intended to scare the living crap out of Janja and not the guard. "That was unbungalievable. How'd you do that." Bunga said. My eyebrows shot up. "i just changed my tone and pitch of my voice. Call it a scare tactic."i saw Fuli smirk and chuckle. "I like him already." she said. I mentally grinned thinking 'oh really? Guess I'll mess with her.' I chuckled. "Sorry Fuli, but I'm already taken." the reaction from her was priceless. She blushed a deep red spluttering out words. Bunga burst out laughing. "relax Fuli. I knew what you meant." I said calming myself. "Ha ha." Fuli said sarcastically.

"So let me get this straight you were a human when my sister found you." Kion said. He, and I were in the guard's lair with the other members of the guard. "Yeah, but she was scared. I'm lucky she didn't gouge my eyes out." I said jokingly. I was pretty sure she would have too had I not spoken to her right away. "You wound me Clay." I heard a familiar voice. Turning to the entrance we saw kiara with vitani behind her. I gave a sympathetic smile to her. Losing both her brothers were probably hard for her. "You have sincerest sympathies ms. Vitani." I said. The glare she gave me was alright by me. Kiara had given me one when I tried to talk to her about kovu's death, but what came next hit me hard. "How would you know about loss?!" she yelled. Kion saw kiara flinch at vitani's words. "Vitani that was uncalled for." she said angrily before glancing at me. Kion noticed that I was staring at the ground shaking tears brimming in my eyes. I ran out of the lair droplets flying as I did so.

"What a wuss." vitani muttered before turning to face the guard only to be greeted by a paw with extended claws. The force of the strike sent vitani a few feet away onto the ground. Kion and the guard turned to see who's paw that did the deed. To their shock it was Kiara. "Kiara why...?" kion began "HOW DARE YOU ASK HIM THAT!" kiara yelled walking up to vitani whom was getting up. Kiara placed a paw on her head slamming it onto the cold rock floor. "YOU THINK WE HAD IT BAD? I LOST MY MATE. YOU LOST BOTH YOUR BROTHERS. CLAY HAS LOST MUCH MORE THAN YOU AND I, VITANI!" she calmed herself just enough to start crying. Finally letting vitani up kiara walked to the lair's entrance as it began to rain. "What do you mean by that sis?" kion asked as he, a badly bruised Vitani and the guard walked up to her.

[call out your name; attack on titan ost plays]

tears fell from my face as I sat down underneath the promontory of pride rock. All I did was tell her I was sympathetic to her and she had to open that old wound. I cried where I was. Unknown to me someone was watching.

"He's lost a lot of friends and family over the years." kiara said looking up into the stormy sky. "so?" vitani said a little bit of blood trailing down her chin. "the biggest emotional blow he had was when he was 15 and 16." kiara said, her voice almost breaking completely "What happened?" Fuli asked worried about me. "He lost 6 family members in a period of 8 months." Everyone went wide eye. "Hevi kabisa." kion said. "You said it kion." Bunga said

"You alright clay?" a voice asked. Jumping, I turned to see nala with a concerned look on her face. "Vitani opened a old wound of mine. One that can't fully heal." I said. Getting the notion that it was an emotional wound, nala sat down beside me and placed a paw on my back. I continued to sob. Nala knew what wound I was referring to.

"Hearing him tell me that made me realize that I wasn't alone and that someone shared my pain." kiara said before smiling. "He also told me something that eased my pain deeply."

I leaned into nala's side no longer sobbing, but my tears were still flowing.

"What was it sis?" kion asked. "As long as we remember the good times we had with those whom we've lost, they're never truly gone." the guard smiled at the words. Vitani felt guilty at what she did to her sister in law's boyfriend after hearing that. "Do you think... he'll forgive me?" She asked. "If I were him I wouldn't. we'll have to see." kiara said walking back to the den as the rain let up.

"Come on. It's going to be dark soon. Why don't you come into the den to dry off and sleep. I'll explain to simba why you're sleeping with the rest of the pride." nala said before climbing the rocks to the den. I nodded before following.

[call out your name; ends]

A/N:the part with me threatening janja is to pay homage to the movie VENOM which came out in october last year.