Hah, told you it wouldn't take as long!

"Nafisa!" Joka called once more, though in a quieter tone.

His breathing grew quick. He took another small, unsure glance at Rafiki's body. The old mandrill was still breathing. Good thing, too. Of course, he didn't sound as though he was in as much pain as Nafisa sounded like she was in.

But really, Rafiki had a basement? Joka had no idea! What could Rafiki have been keeping down there that was possibly more strange-looking than what he kept on the top?

Joka climbed down from the Baobob Tree, putting one ear to the thick bark in hopes of hearing something sound off again once he touched the ground.

Then, to his surprise, he did,

"Oh, can you even begin to realize how long I've waited for this, girly?" Vorker's voice sneered.

Wordless sobbing answered this question.

"Nafisa..." Joka murmured under his breath.

"YES!" Vorker snarled, as if putting force down on something. Nafisa let out a shriek of pain. "How many YEARS?"
"No," Nafisa spoke up, her voice shaking in a mixture of fear and weakness. "You shouldn't have ever came back. My father..." Her words trailed off.

"Your father...?" Vorker said in a teasing voice. "Where's your father now? Huh? If I didn't know any better, I'd say I have won!"

"You can kill me." Nafisa hissed, her voice sounding as though she had just stopped crying. "Even after my death, where ever I go, you'll never mentally win in my eyes."

"No?" Vorker cackled evilly, making Joka's teeth bare angrily. "Well, if I can't kill you, I suppose a tad bit more torture will have to suffice, wont it?"
"No.." Joka muttered, and he circled the tree only once to find the entrance: A flap-like part of the bark was cut, much like a door. And Joka pushed it forward to gaze inside...right after bracing himself for what he was about to see.

It was pretty colorful, actually, though Nafisa's blood was splattered all over the floor. And Erevu lay still and limp, out cold just like Rafiki, and his stomach was slashed open. He did breath, though it was very faint, and he looked like he was in a great deal of pain. Vorker had Nafisa pinned against the wall, and the pale-furred lioness had her back against it as well, crying lightly, though she tried her hardest to look fearless. Joka gaped at all the wounds she carried. She looked worse than before! She had a large slash across her muzzle with blood constantly dripping from it, and she whimpered everytime she opened her mouth to speak.

"Ugly bits of taka like yourself don't deserve to live." Vorker sneered, his muzzle an inch from Nafisa's neck. The pale-furred lioness was trembling from her wounds, though fear was present in her icy-blue eyes.

Joka growled. "Leave her be!"
"What?" Vorker swung his head around to snarl at the prince. "Well...it appears he has found us. Would you look at that, my dear female!" He backed off of Nafisa, letting the injured lioness limply drop to the floor with a thud, then padding over to Joka, "I...knew you would."

Joka gasped at the sight of Nafisa, fighting the urge to run over and help her to her paws, but he knew that trying to get past Vorker was a bad idea.

"Let her go." He ordered sharply, standing taller.

"In return for what, princey? Your happiness? I don't think so!" Vorker turned his back on the young male.

"No..." Joka shuffled his paws uneasily. "...me."
"Joka, no!" Nafisa managed to cry, attempting several times to rise back up onto all fours.

"You?" Vorker seemed to slither back up to loom over Joka, his big frame making a large shadow. "With that, no prince to take his place over the Pride Lands...what a clever boy you are...the only way such things could be prevented is if those dim-witted parents of yours decided to try for another son." He chuckled. "But..they'll be long dead before they can even do that, and even so...the Pride Lands do not concern me like they do Gyasi. I'm aiming for more...what's the word...success?"

"Someone else ended up taking over that pride," Joka hissed. "you don't seem at all very successful yourself due to that!"

"Shut up!" Vorker snarled, raising a enormous paw that came slamming back into Joka's face. Nafisa screamed once more.

"Don't worry, little girl." Vorker growled. "There's no way I'm letting your boyfriend here die. He needs to suffer the injuries I gave him beforehand."
"Ugh..." Joka lay sprawled on the floor, though he staggered to his paws to glare into Voker's eyes with pure hatred written across his face.

"Now," Vorker circled him, his claws clicking as he walked, though Joka could do absolutely nothing after the shock from the slap. "how will I handle this one?" He smirked.

"No idea!" A sickeningly familiar voice exclaimed from the entrance. "Though I do know how I'm going to handle you!"
"Dad?"

Gyasi bust through, Dakima soon coming to his side with wide emerald-green eyes.

"You aren't a traitor, Dakima," Gyasi glanced down at his daughter, something close to a smile crossing over his face. "he is."
"Gyasi!" Vorker snarled, stepping away from Joka to face the leader.

"That's Lord Gyasi to you!" Gyasi growled, stepping forward.

"Joka, come here," Maisha came slipping in, running over to help Nafisa to her paws.

"Maisha!" Joka ran over and huddled next to his sister and girlfriend with a worried and rather blurred gaze.

Tears streamed down Nafisa's cheeks as she pushed her head into Joka's mane.

"I'm so sorry, Joka." She whispered shakily.

"Don't be." Joka murmured. "If anyone here should be sorry, it's me."
Before Nafisa could reply, another snarl erupted from in front of them.

"I've waited for this moment for so long, 'Gys." Vorker sneered.

"With great anticapation." Gyasi growled, stepping nose to nose with the evil traitor.

"Erevu...is it?" Another familiar voice whispered from the other side of the room.

"Cheja!" Maisha gasped.

"What?" Vorker swung his head around to glare at the younger lions. "Son..." He smirked, backing off from Gyasi to stalk over to his offspring. "...come to finally help me, have you?"
Cheja swallowed hard under the narrowed eyes of Joka and Maisha. "...No," He finally muttered. "I'd rather die, father."
"What?" Vorker bared his teeth.

"I've learned to live under the steady and pleasant ruling of Lord Gyasi." Cheja said, dipping his head to the lion who nodded his approval just past Vorker's shoulder.

"You fool..." Vorker growled, suddenly opening his mouth into an angry roar. He did not close his mouth, however, he grabbed Cheja by the throat and slammed him down against the floor. Blood immediately came gushing from Cheja's neck, though thank the Great Kings not his throat.

"CHEJA!" Maisha screamed.

Cheja gasped as Vorker's jaws closed around his throat. He was choking.

"Get off of the boy and settle this with me instead! I'm the one you have a bone to pick with." Gyasi pointed out sharply, his claws sliding out.

"He is a traitor!" Vorker snapped.

"No! You are!" Gyasi charged forward, lunging into the evil lion.

However, Vorker did not release his grip on Cheja's neck, and the three of them went slamming into the wall. That was when Vorker let go.

Cheja came sliding down, a small trail of blood going on after him. He hit the floor with a tiny thud and opened his eyes only to a half, gazing up at Maisha is which she guessed was an apologetic manner.

"No..." Maisha murmured, trotting over to crouch down by him. "..Cheja, please don't..."
"Look what you have done, Gyasi," Vorker sneered. "another one down."
"He isn't dead yet!" Maisha said feircely, glaring up at him.

"Soon to be, is he not?" Vorker padded over and rested a paw on Cheja's face.

"Get off of him." Joka growled. He himself charged forward to shove the male off his sister's friend.

Gyasi, from behind, pounced upon Vorker and forced him out of the basement to the Baobob Tree, into daylight once more.

Joka gasped and jumped back, out of their way. He lifted his head to look at Maisha and muttered, "How's Erevu?"
"Dad.." Nafisa limped over to nudge her father's seemingly lifeless body. "..he's still alive, Joka."

"Good." Joka sighed. "Come on, we've got to at least get him and Cheja up to the top again. We might be able to treat Rafiki there too."

"I think that we can manage a few stray rogues, Kovu," Vitani said teasingly, watching as injured enemy soldiers painfully staggered to their paws and limped off the battlefield. "these aren't going to be able to give us trouble, even if they tried." She smirked. "Not for a while, anyway."
"Good show, Kovu," Nala muttered, stepping to the King's side. "besides the one we almost finished out with the Outsiders, and not to mention the one with Scar's army of hyenas, this was one of the best battles I've ever been in."

"Hm," Kovu chuckled. "thank you, Nala. Let's just hope something like this doesn't happen for a while." He lifted his head higher, a more serious expression on his face, and he glanced around the Pride Lands unsurely. "Joka, Maisha and Dakima have not come back yet." He frowned. "I wonder what happened to them."
Kiara gasped. "We need to send out another search party!"
Vitani as well gaped at her half-brother. "Kovu, Erevu was out there, and Nafisa too!"
"Hold on a moment, ladies." Kovu nodded to each of them. "I must go and walk around to see who is fit enough for scouting the territory for them. Who knows where they might be?"

"Do you give up, Vorker?" Gyasi had the evil traitor pinned down by the shoulder, glaring down at him feircely.

"Never!" Vorker snarled. "Just don't do another meaningless killing."
"Oh," Gyasi blinked and lowered his head to whisper into Vorker's ear. "but I think I will. The world'd be a better place if someone like you was no longer living in it."
"What?" Vorker stared up at him with something like fear in his eyes.
With a growly sigh, Gyasi quickly flipped the male onto his back and gave a swift yet powerful bite to the throat. Vorker faded into nothing but a dead corpse at that very instant.

He was gone.

Well, hurray for Vorker's demise! I wonder what everyone'll think of Gyasi now that he killed the enemy for them. O.o Find out next time :D Seriously, it'll all be over soon...