*Author's Note*
Spoiler Warning: This chapter refers to events in "The Lion King and the Jungle Emperor", as this story skips a few chapters and changes a few situations. Also, FYI: Tojo is from a comic titled The Orphan Birds, in which Simba becomes the "mother" of a handful of baby birds. He later drafts Tojo as the "father". Tama is also a comic character; hers is Trouble in Paradise, and she shown to be a friend of Nala, but finds Simba rather annoying. Mheetu was originally scripted as Nala's brother, but was cut before the final film. Kula and Chumvi book characters from the series Six New Adventures.
Nala growled under her breath as she passed the hyenas. How could her father – even if he wasn't recognized as such – let these creatures live among them? They had killed her brother, and she would never forgive them for it. And now she had lost Simba, too. She thought back to the last time she had spoken to him. The evening they had returned from the Elephant Graveyard. She had attacked him, blaming him for Mheetu's death. Now she'd give anything to take those harsh words back.
"Nala, you okay?"
The pale lioness cub looked up to see Tojo standing there with his birdie children – his and Simba's. Nala shook her head. "I just miss Simba so much. Did you talk to the others?"
Tojo nodded. "They'll all be there, Nala. It's time for action."
A golden cub looked left and right before she jumped down into a small circle of boulders. The other four cubs all looked at her hopefully.
"All clear," said Tama, shaking her bangs out of her eyes. She sighed and went to sit by Tojo. "No sign of my brother Prince Brat. Okay, Nala. Tell us why we're here."
The pale cub stood and took a deep breath. "We all know what Scar said when my brother died. And then, after Simba and Mufasa's death, he invites Mheetu's murders into our home. Our mothers are forced to hunt for them and we can no longer play without wondering if we will become a snack. And now Scar has said that we can only practice hunting, not self-defense. You know why: he's afraid that one day we will be strong enough to overthrow him."
"Can you get to point?" asked Kula. "We're going to miss dinner."
"I get where she's going with this," said Tojo's brother, Chumvi. "We have to learn how to fight, whether the new King likes it or not. And when we're strong enough, we can take Scar down and throw these slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers out of our Pride Lands."
Nala nodded.
"So, like a secret defense club?" asked Tama. "Do we get a secret name and paw-shake, too?"
The pale cub chose to ignore her friend's sarcasm. "A name would be good," she said. "Something we can abbreviate so no one, Nuka most of all, knows what we're talking about."
"How about the Survival Association?" suggested Chumvi. "That's what it's all about, right? We could call it S.A. for short."
Tojo crowded his birds to his side, and then looked up with fire in his blue eyes. He growled softly. "Yeah, S.A. is good – but let it stand for Simba's Army. That's who we should be fighting for. I was out at the gorge myself the next morning, you know. There was hyena stench everywhere at the top. I bet they spooked the wildebeests and started the stampede, which means they killed Simba and Mufasa, even if it was indirectly."
Nala started to growl. She knew that even if Tojo wasn't recognized as Simba's brother or Mufasa's son, he had been close to both. And the idea that the hyenas might have been responsible for her best friend's death as well as her brother's made her claws dig into the earth. Oh, if only I were full grown… "Yeah, Simba's Army. I like the sound of that." Nala held out her paw and looked the other four cubs in the eye. "Who's with me?"
First Tojo, then Chumvi, then Kula and Tama placed their paws one by one on hers.
"Simba's Army," they whispered together, not knowing Simba was alive and well not a few miles away.