Chapter 12 – The Hidden Scars

It started to rain. As the cold waves of water went down his sides and dripped from his mane, Kovu shivered. But it wasn't at all because he was wet.

The lion has had many nightmares in his life. Some of them really terrifying ones, that would make him wake up with a groan of fear and a beating heart. Only that lately his nightmares weren't only bad dreams or gruesome visions inside his mind. Lately his nightmares were becoming reality.

And this was one of the most frightening ones. Scar had died when Kovu was still a small cub, so he couldn't really say that he knew him. The stories he'd heard differed from each other depending on who told him. Zira portrayed her deceased mate as a perfect figure, an example of power, and that was also why she admired him. Others, however, especially the Pridelanders, spoke of their former ruler as if he was a fiend and a tyrant, or even, as the cubs would sometimes put it being scared to death of someone they never even saw, a devil-lion and evil incarnate.

But that was not why Kovu feared his stepfather. The main cause for that was that he always felt that Scar was a part of him somehow. A very dark part of him, hidden somewhere in the corner of his soul.

This is why he knew that the lion that stood in front of him was Scar, and that he could recognize him. Because everybody in the Pridelands knew how that old demon from the past looked like with his black mane and dark fur that were almost a sign of his hellish decency, so unique for anyone else from his family. Not even mentioning his namesake, the old scar on his eye, strangely similar to the one Kovu still carried after his mother's rageful outburst…

In the short moment when his stepfather stood before him laughing delicately, Kovu did not see any signs of death in him. Scar did not look old or young, his body did not emit hellfire… only the green glow of the geyser reflecting from his handsome, shiny jet-black mane and the eyes that had the same poisonous shine in them, also disturbingly familiar… When he started to speak, the voice Kovu had never heard before contained some strange, haughty strength in it that made the young lion even more petrified with awe.

-"Well, isn't this a happy reunion! I'm so touched I truly don't know what to say… And I can see that so are you, Kovu."

Scar examined his stepson with a seemingly kind glare and after noticing his continuing speechlessness, he went on.

–"You have grown a lot throughout the years. One can notice that your mother has trained you well at the first sight. Good- at least she kept her promise. What's wrong with you, boy? Stop acting like the cub you've once been! This is your father speaking to you!"

Seeing Scar charge at him suddenly with a raised voice, Kovu sprung to his feet and adopted a combat position. That made the ghost smile again as if after making a successful joke.

-"Good! That's more like it!"

By now Kovu had gotten used to the presence of this dark specter and his mockeries were starting to irritate him. So he decided to finally express his thoughts.

-"You're not my father!" – he corrected him.

-"Heh-heh, well not in the full sense of the word, no. But then again, to some extent, in a very special way, I am. Don't tell me that you don't think the same, heh-heh… I was the king of the Pridelands and you're my successor, Kovu. I deliberately chose you to follow in my pawprints."

-"I never wanted to be chosen to be your heir!"

-"Of course not, but that doesn't matter. It wasn't your decision."

Kovu sighed and hung his head. It was just like he'd always feared… Like he wasn't in control of his own life, only fulfilling what had been previously written in his inevitable fate.

-"Well, why did you choose me, then?" – he was asking the questions he'd always wanted to ask, one by one. Only that the answers he got were what he already knew…

-"Simple. I didn't have an heir of my own and when Zira appeared I thought that I might as well take her offspring in by means of adoption. And among your siblings, Nuka was far too weak while Vitani was a girl, so naturally my vote stayed with you. I must say that I'm still quite happy with the decision I made. Even though your present state still leaves much to be desired…"

-"I'm not going to change anything in my life for you!" – Kovu growled.

-"Oh, I'm afraid that too is independent from the choices you make."

Kovu couldn't stand Scar looking him straight in the eyes. He turned his head as his stepfather spoke, almost as if he was able to shake his words away from his head…

-"You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in fulfilling your destiny…"

-"I will not follow your dark ways, Scar! You are evil, everyone knows that!"

The ghost became somewhat more serious. Still gazing straight at the young lion without a single blink, he sat down on the ground, far calmer than his interlocutor.

-"Define evil" – he demanded.

Kovu had great difficulties in thinking of an answer for a few long moments. Indeed, now he himself experienced that the stories of Scar's conniving mind were not false…

-"You were always selfish and reckless in getting what you wanted! Just like my mother was!" – he screamed his accusations with a voice filled with long-hidden despair.

-"Wrong" – Scar answered unaffected. – "I wasn't like her. It was her who became just like me, actually."

-"You were corrupted! You assassinated your own brother, that you can't deny!"

No, he didn't deny it. In fact, that even made him smile slightly.

-"Yes, I did kill Mufasa. And not only him, to be frank. I've killed a lot of animals in my life. Haven't you?"

Kovu was simply outraged by the way he said those words. Without any guilt, without feeling even the slightest regret. In fact, that made him a bit… curious. How could someone be robbed of a conscience? How was that even possible?

-"Who made you like this?" – Kovu asked. He sought something with this question, something that he'd been wondering about before… Because what he felt was not exactly disgust for the dead lion that stood before him, but rather… compassion. Or, at least, the will to understand him.

Scar laughter again. Right now he didn't need to hide his secrets anymore. Right now he didn't need to hide anyone's secrets.

-"It was my mother. Heh, you have no idea how the expression of your face makes you look right now… Yes, hardly anyone knows about it, but the devil-lion, as I am sometimes called, actually had a pretty good teacher. Ah, queen Uru, that mysterious character from the history of the Pridelands! I bet you haven't heard much about her yourself, but let me just say this- whatever you will hear about her, don't believe it. She was a master in acting, in keeping everyone fooled about the flawlessness of her acts, including her mate the king. But all she ever did was play with their ignorance. And she taught me everything she knew… How to disobey, how to fight for what's rightfully mine, how to lie and how to destroy the ones who hated me, paying them back with a far greater hate, even though they themselves remained blinded in oblivion until their very doom. She was seemingly always right by king Ahadi's side, but really she considered much of his decisions to be foolish. Especially about making Mufasa the successor for the throne. She considered her betrothal nothing but a sad necessity, so naturally she didn't see anything wrong in living her own, hidden life behind his back, not exactly always staying faithful to her king, if you get my point, heh-heh… Hardly anyone would ever get invited into that secret world of hers, but I, as her beloved son, always had full access to what she really thought. It's such a shame that she died before she could see me ascend the throne. You can be sure that she would be among my strongest supporters."

Kovu listened with distaste, but also with a lot of understanding. Truly, Scar's darkness had to come from somewhere… But queen Uru? Simba's grandmother? He was quite surprised to hear those thing his stepfather told about her, especially about her unfaithfulness… Kovu had always heard that Scar and Mufasa did not look in the smallest bit similar, but did those words really mean that… Scar was not the son of king Ahadi? Was that one of the dark secrets hidden just beneath the pretty picture of the Pridelands?

Right now Kovu imagined Uru and Scar, or Taka, as he was still called back in those days, much like his mother and himself- sitting somewhere alone, training together, the female pouring her dastardly teachings into her cub's ear… And as he gazed within the fumes of the geyser, that was what he saw. A vision from years long passed, something that no-one was conscious of until now…

-"The dark legacy continues for generations, Kovu" – Scar continued his discourse. – "And it will go on far after you are dead. It is inevitable. It is your destiny."

The young lion did not answer. He just wondered about how he would act to fulfill it.

-"I know you are unsure. In fact, this is why I came. You need to know what exactly is to be done." – he approached his stepson so close that Kovu would be able to feel the warmth of his body only if there was any warmth at all. Instead, he listened to what Scar whispered into his ear gazing at the dance of the fumes, not exactly knowing if he still had a will of his own. – "I know you do not trust me, but what I will say now may change your point of view. I do not care if you took Simba's daughter as you mate anymore. Hell, in these circumstances even your heritage to the throne of the Pridelands is a secondary case. What I want you to do, Kovu, is to survive. Yes, that's it! What good is the fact that I made you my successor if death will prevent you from even having a chance of taking the throne at all? Simba is not your main obstacle. The hyenas are your main obstacle, and the way I see it if you do not act quickly they'll go over you like a stampede, killing you, your sister, your mate and everything foolish enough to stand in their way! Believe me, they had done things like that before. This was the only way that they could ever survive."

Kovu wondered about how Scar and Zira knew these things. It seemed that the dead had sort of a wider spectrum for the things that happened on earth… Well, if that was true, he decided to take the risk. After all, everything he'd heard about the hyenas was true, and he didn't really have an idea of his own.

-"I'm listening" – he said finally, even though it was hard for him to admit it.

-"Oh, but you know the answer already" – Scar spoke with a note of strong confidence. – "Follow my path, and everything will become clear to you."

Kovu flinched internally to the very thought that he could ever listen to that advice.

-"No…" – he mumbled powerlessly.

-"Yes. You know there is no other way. The hyenas are stupid and plain beasts, and they will need to be punished for that eventually, but for a crafty mind they are also easy to manipulate. Of course, their insatiate appetite will require an appropriate sacrifice…"

-"No!"

-"… and this is where we come back to the case of my nephew. Alas, he was never really gifted with much intelligence, what I'm sure you already know yourself. And furthermore, I can assure you that his future decisions will only prove that. So I suppose that way it will be much easier for you to do what is needed and… remove him…"

-"No, Scar! I can't… do that."

-"And why not? Kovu, mark my words- soon you will see that the truth is you must do that! For the sake of not only yourself, but the whole kingdom! But fear not- when the right time comes, you'll know what to do."

Kovu still continued to turn his head. And to think that not so long ago he thought that his life at Pride Rock was going to be peaceful and quiet…

-"There is always another way. Always."

-"Puh!" – Scar snorted with disregard, turning around as if he wanted to leave, offended by his stepson's stubbornness. – "Alright, do as you wish. Go find yourself another advisor, let him tell you what to do. Just don't call my name when you'll be mauled to death by a pack of slobbering hyenas…"

These words gave Kovu an idea. Or rather they made him remember an old question he'd been carrying inside his heart for years, not exactly having anyone whom he could ask…

-"Yeah, maybe I will ask someone else."

Scar halted, raising his brow curiously.

-"Hmm? And who might that be?"

The young lion bit his lip. There was still one thing that he always wanted to know- a thing typical for anyone who's always had but one real parent…

-"Scar…" – he started awkwardly. – "I'm sure you know a lot and there's something I wanted to ask… I-I never found the courage to mention this in front of my mother… uh, I suppose you understand why since you were her mate… But I always wanted to know this. Can you tell me… who was my real father?"

Ridiculing Kovu's desperation, Scar laughed from the top of his voice. But when he looked at him again, his face did not bear the expression of mockery. It was rather… compassion.

-"You have no idea how the exact same question had been puzzling me for some time in my own life years ago… But that's not important now. Neither for me nor for you. Your father's dead, he had died before you were even born, before Zira came to the Pridelands carrying you and your sister in her belly. Or at least that's what she'd told me. I didn't know him and never wanted to. That's all I can tell you."

-"I'll find out, eventually. You know that."

-"Yes, I do. You'll do just as I myself had done, and it will also be the first step you'll take following my way. And only seeing that still makes me confident about you, my boy."

After saying that Scar left, disappearing behind the cloud of fumes. He'd brought many answers to his stepson… but also twice as many questions. Kovu didn't have time to think about it at the moment. The storm still hasn't ended. Right now, he needed to get back to Pride Rock.

AN: The two finally meet! And, of course, Scar would very much want Kovu to do just as he desires, but is that going to work since even his own mother had failed to do it? Well, he obviously has enough brains to know that he won't achieve anything only by shouting at his stepson... He wants to make him believe that Simba has to be dealt with, but Kovu is pretty strong in his resistance agains the fate of copying Scar's crimes. And in order to find a way out of this hard situation, he will look for...

Yeees. Have you ever wondered who is Kovu's real dad? Well, so did he. But is he going to find him? And what more dark hidden facts is he going to descover besides the fact that Uru was in fact no friendly granny of Simba?

There's more, I promise, so R&R people! XD