Auithors Noital: It appears I have drawn a small amount of criticism for the ending line of the previous chapter, which I am given to understand has become some kind of irritating acronym-based meme. For those of you who found this distasteful, please rest assured it was completely unintentional. I don't keep up with what it is the young people are doing nowadays.

We will now return to the previously scheduled, increasingly convoluted story.

Rafiki gave himself a grave look. "Have any ideas?"

His older self, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, twisted his mouth irritably. "If I did, I would have said them," he snapped.

The younger Rafiki put his hands up defensively. "Very well, just checking."

The two baboons sat a while, each considering the situation from different angles. Of course, these events were hard on everyone involved, but both Rafikis felt the weight of the responsibility which rested on them. As the shaman, they were the one (or ones, as it were) who were supposed to provide the solution. But this was a far cry from a broken leg or difficult pregnancy. Time being ripped apart by a psychopathic being beyond physical form is not a situation most healers are taught to deal with.

After some time, Rafiki-1 opened his eyes and creakily assumed a standing position. His younger self, who shall henceforth be known in the narration as Rafiki-2, looked at him expectantly.

Rafiki-1 sighed. "Here's what I've been considering. Wazimu told me all about itself, how it started to have control over the elements. The only problem is that its abilities developed very slowly. It will be years from now before it has the ability to travel through time, as far as we know."

Rafiki-2 made a pained face. "And if we wait that long, the Wazimu in the other time could well kill dozens, and quite possibly go on to a completely different time period still."

"If we wait that long," said Rafiki-1 morosely, "I'll die of old age."

"So wait are you saying?" the younger baboon asked. "That, hilarious as it is to watch Scar yell at himself, the path we're going down isn't going to work?"

Rafiki-1 leaned back and stared in the sky. He then said, slowly, "You know, maybe it isn't. I'm saying that there's no way for us to follow the first Wazimu back to the future. But maybe..." he trailed off.

Rafiki-2 scowled. "Hey, you senile old coot!" he yelled grumpily. "Finish your sentences!"

Rafiki-1 blinked slowly. "Tell me," he said quietly. "Of all the people who have been, um, doubled, have any of the younger versions been killed?"

Rafiki-2 gave it some thought. "Mercifully, I don't think anyone has died yet," he answered after running through everyone in his head.

The older shaman nodded slowly. "I thought so. In that case, I have an idea... but it's not pretty."

Rafiki-2 didn't allow his older counterpart to voice his proposal, as he had already worked it out from context. "You don't mean... we kill Scar, and hope that solves the problem?" he asked, face paling.

Rafiki-1 shrugged. "I told you it wasn't pretty."

The younger shaman spluttered. "That's an understatement! For one thing, we don't even know if it will work!"

Rafiki-1 slowly raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting we conduct a test?"

Rafiki-2 stood in angry silence for a moments, and then sat down heavily, breathing deeply in an attempt to calm himself.

After a long, tense pause, the younger baboon asked softly "Is there no other way?"

"I honestly don't think so," came the answer. "Otherwise, I wouldn't even have mentioned it."

"Then... a test is in order. Otherwise we're either wasting our best asset, or releasing it from what little control we have over it. And either way, we'd also be ending an innocent life for no reason."

Rafiki-1 gave his companion a quizzical look. "Did you just refer to Scar as 'innocent'?"

Rafiki-2 scoffed. "Of course not. I was talking about the other one."

Rafiki-1 nodded. "Oh, right. I forgotten about him."

"I imagine many do."

"So, how do we go about this?" asked the elder Rafiki. "Is there any way to test the theory without loss of life?"

Rafiki-2 stroked his beard. "Maybe we cut something off the younger self, like hair?"

Rafiki-1 rolled his eyes. "We can't cut that out. It'll grow right back."

"You know what I'm trying to say! Maybe a notch out of the ear or something. A small change that would stay on the body."

"Right... but who do we do it on? I mean, it could have unintended effects... who knows what could happen."

Rafiki-2 nodded in agreement. "Besides which, you're getting pretty fragile. There's a chance that it could give you a wound your old body couldn't take."

Rafiki-1 gave a self-righteous glare. "I'll let that one slide. Besides, I'm less worried about the physical effects. This is confusing stuff we're dealing with. If we affect someone's body like this, it could potentially have terrible implications for their mind."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if suddenly all your memories of having a complete ear were forcibly changed, that might shake your mental foundations a little. Or at least, it might if you were someone who relied very heavily on their mind."

"So what we need is someone who we have both versions of, that has a strong body but not much in the thinking department."

The two baboons rubbed their chins and both came to the same conclusion.

"...And then Zira says to me, 'Vitani, attack!', but I look her straight in the eye and say 'To hell with you and your rules!' and the rest of the Outlanders rally behind me. And that's how I brought peace to the kingdom."

"Um, that's good and all," said Sarafina uncertainly, "but it seems like Kovu and Kiara did most of that."

Vitani rolled her eyes. "Well, yes, they laid the foundation. But these things are group efforts. Without me, who knows how long things could have dragged on for."

"Right..." replied Sarafina. "What happened to Zira, anyway?"

Vitani gave an awkward scowl. "Well, after I stood up to her she attacked by herself and ended up rolling off a cliff."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It wasn't a great moment for anyone..." said Vitani quietly.

"Was it hard, losing your mother like that?"

Vitani considered her answer. "To be honest, everything moved so fast after that fight, I never really gave it much thought. Although, now I think about it, I guess the fact I didn't give it much thought is just an indication that I'm kinda glad to see the back of her." Her face darkened. "She wasn't the best of parents."

"It's hard to believe Zira became so ruthless..."

"And insane. Don't forget insane. I certainly can't."

"And... insane, yes," added Sarafina somewhat reluctantly. "I mean, I've known her since she joined the pride and she always seemed so shy."

Vitani shrugged cynically. "Love makes you do crazy things, I suppose. Really, really crazy things. Dangerously crazy things."

The two lionesses sat in silence for a while and watched Simba playfully bat his past self into a rock while Sarabi looked on laughing softly to herself.

"I do miss Nuka, though," Vitani said after a while. "Funny thing. I found him almost impossible to stand, and yet, I really missed him when he was gone."

"Sometimes that happens," said Sarafina. "Sometimes, you don't appreciate what you have, until..."

"Until it's buried under an avalanche of logs?"

"... You have a very morbid view of the world."

"Most of my childhood was spent planning someone's death. What exactly do you expect?"

"Fair point..."

At that moment, the duo looked up to see the two Rafikis approaching, with a sullen looking Scar following slowly behind them. Gradually, and naturally, everyone gathered around the baboons, as their grave countenances gave the impression that they had something important to discuss.

"We've been considering things," announced Rafiki-1, "and we have come to the conclusion that, as things stand, we cannot follow Wazimu to wher- uh, when he's taken the others."

A shiver of disappointment ran through the ragtag crowd. Taka's emotions were a mix of relief and increased worry for Zira. Scar remained impassive. Wazimu giggled.

"However," Rafiki-2 said darkly, "we may have a way to combat Wazimu from here."

The two shamans, for that is indeed the plural of the word shaman, approached the younger Simba and leaned over him.

"How would you like," one asked, "to further the cause of Science?"