A/N: Got this posted just a little bit ahead of plans. Not a bad thing either given my recent track record. Some answers to the main antagonist, though I'd be remiss if I revealed too much either. Some of Aja's past, though again not nearly everything.
A few hints of what is to come as well.
Not much else to add at the moment, except that I'm estimating the next chapter to be up by around the 5th to the 8th of September.
Simba looked at Scar, then to the lioness. He'd never seen a lion, or lioness for that matter reach such an advanced age. If she was who she seemed to be, then she would have had to have seen many things. over her life. Just as he was wondering what events she was aware of, Scar speaking drew his attention.
"Yes. You are quite right. I would have been nothing short of a compete imbecile to not realize it now. Fortunately, I'm anything but that." he said with mock displeasure. "I've heard much of you...Mohatu told me a fair bit..and I can't help but wonder precisely how you managed to survive. so long..your years outside the pridelands...could not have always been easy. Then...we have him." Scar gestured to Kituko, who had taken the chance to slip back. Now it seemed he was deeply involved in conversation with Rafiki. "I'm curious on what you are to him. His mate seems unlikely...adoptive parent makes the most sense...though I wonder-"
It hit Simba suddenly. Something so obvious, it was amazing to him that his uncle was so close, yet so far from the truth. Normally it was he who explained things, not Simba himself. This, thought the king, would be something to rub in his face. Later of course.
"He...he is your son." Aja paused, a slight smirk. Scar looked a bit peeved, which Simba took as encouragement. "At least, it looks like it to me. Both of you do look a lot alike...it makes sense when I actually think about it."
'You thinking...now that is a terrifying prospect we must all dread.' Thought Scar. None the less, he was still surprised that Simba of all lions managed to deduce this before he could. "I must be going senile or something...now that you've so kindly pointed that out nephew, I can see the resemblance."
"And judging from the look on his face-" Scar motioned to Kituko, who had stopped speaking to Rafiki upon hearing Simba. "I'd be inclined to say that that observation has merit. So. Is that the case?"
Aja nodded. "That it is. I actually expected you to guess it right first. What can I say though, sometimes I love surprises." She smirked at his brief scowl.
Kituko picked up, almost where she'd left off. "You noticed that something was off...I could see that one easily. Something about my appearance seemed strange...yet familiar all the same. For good reason. Your pride...the soulless told me this one. Told me that you had adopted in a couple of half breeds...part lion, part leopard. They were the one's that he talked...that he often ranted about the most. Their father too." he grimaced, momentarily thinking back on all that Vazio had said. Words he didn't want to think of.
"Seems he is talkative when he thinks that the one he is speaking to can't do anything to him. Or is unwilling. I know what it is like to be like that...I was like him not long ago. "Scar hissed bitterly.
Turning to him with a hint of surprise in his expression Simba replied, "No...you were never like that. You did terrible things...a lot of. awful actions...hurt many of us. But nothing that could put you on this guy's level. I know that my father wronged you, and you took the wrong path...but this Vazio character...seems like he choose to be that way...that he wanted to become a monster...or at least likes what he is now."
Scar snorted. "How touching." his features relaxed. "While I appreciate your defense of my character...it is hardly the forefront of any of this."
With a sigh and a nod Aja affirmed her agreement. "Indeed. My son...Kituko here is more or less what you might have guess. Before I delve too much, let me explain something about myself. I don't get along well with other lions. It made me an outcast in the pride. Yes I was a princess." she made quotation marks in the air with the claws on both feet, mocking the word. "But that didn't automatically make everyone like and respect me. I never felt like I belonged when I was around my own. Too many beings in one spot bothered me. Were it not for the numbers they live in, I might have settled with hyenas instead."
A single laugh escaped her. "But I couldn't. My brother and I had a falling out, and that was the final straw. I began phasing myself out of normal, day by day activities. When the time was right, I simply left. I went south, then east. It was near a jungle that I met him. Not that bastard Jaguar...no...it was this one's father...the closest thing I ever had to a mate."
"Well over a decade ago. Not long after I'd left this place behind me, I was found myself wondering across a desert. I'd never been in a place like that, and with the folly of youth...I thought that I'd be capable of crossing it. I was so naive...so arrogant. To myself I thought I could do it in a single day. That day turned to two...then to three. On the morning of the fourth I was hungry and nearly mad with thirst. So many times I thought I'd saw a jungle or pool of water. All mirages...More than once I had to spit away sand and dust. I was on the verge of total collapse when I saw what seemed to be another oasis ahead. The sand was turning to clay and I kept spotting more and more plant life. By that point I'd convinced myself that none of it was real, that I was destined to die in that place."
Her expression seemed distant. Like she had traveled back and reliving that time all over again. "Finally I could take it no longer, and collapsed face first into a patch of grass. That was when I met him. It scared me a lot more than it did him. Right as I looked up was face to face with him. He was a leopard, with a coat every bit as dark as my own...and light hazel colored eyes. I was shocked, and snarled at him as I tried to find my feet. Funny, he was barely more than half my size...and I was the one terrified out of my mind."
"That ended in failure...myself falling back to the ground. It was humiliating. Yet he meant no harm. He even insisted on helping me. He'd caught a small antelope. It wasn't much, even with him insisting that I take most. Crazy fool even apologized about not being able to find something better." a warm expression covered her face. Before vanishing. "He was annoying...insufferably so. Being alone for so long probably drove him mad. At first I didn't think I felt a thing for him. I planned to continue my travels...only...I felt as if something was holding me back."
"There was something between us. I think it started as a mutual affection...before becoming something more. Love...doesn't seem right...but it was something like it. Unspoken yet known all the same." Aja glanced at the other lions. First to Simba, then Scar. "Are you sure you want to hear the rest, since it should be obvious...we do have other important things to talk about."
"Sure. It's interesting if nothing else, and maybe some of it could help us somehow."
"You might as well...we've listened to what I can only guess is a large portion of the tale. No point in not finishing the story, since you've gone so far already."
Said Simba and Scar, respectively.
"As you both wish. Like I was saying...there came a point that I came into season. That made things more awkward...but we got through it well. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Nor did it the next time, or the time after. We both had good self control I think, and seemed to each find convenient excuses to avoid the other. On the seventh month we'd resided together...a monsoon hit. Like nothing I, or either of you have likely seen in the pridelands."
Simba gave a knowing look. If the jungle she'd stayed in had been anything like where he lived until adulthood, then he knew very well what she meant.
"Everything was flooding, all the low lying areas filled with muddy water halfway up to the shoulder. As he told me...the rains were some of the heaviest he'd ever seen...which meant something since he'd lived in the same area since he was a cub. Fortune favored us...our den was far enough above the flood waters that we remained dry. The lightening...and thunder though...they were a problem. All my life I'd been terrified of storms...that one had me closer to him than ever before...fate...seemed as if it were hellbent on us...and angry that we'd thwarted it so long. Probably why it sent that damn storm...it lasted for nearly eight days...and on the seventh I went into season nearly a week sooner than I expected. One thing led to another...and I'm sure you know what happened with that."
Then she allowed herself another smile, eyes flitting briefly to Kituko. "My pregnancy was no shock to him. I on the other paw, was entirely gobsmacked, I had absolutely no idea that lions could actually produce offspring with another species. He said that he knew...that he had seen it a few times in the past. He was nervous...not really of being a father...rather of the cubs themselves. Our species...that is where I learned another thing...that while we could cross...our offspring were just as often as not impotent. Unable to sire or birth cubs of their own in many cases...though not always...as anything there is always the exception to that rule." A single knowing glance to Kituko.
"Hybrid cubs...while they can be as strong as either parent...and healthier as well...they seem to have a higher risk of problems initially. Blindness...lack of hearing...even stillbirth is far more likely to happen. From what he said...they can even develop bizarre quirks of the mind...never should they be cast out because of it or ostracized...no. They can be gifted in many ways and are no different than a full blooded member of either of their parent species. Always respect them like they were one of your own...because in a sense, they are that and so much more."
She stopped talking, taking several deep breaths. Kituko moved to her side, expression serious but still calm. "Enough mother. You need to save your strength. I think that it might be for the best if you and I remain close to this Graveyard. We've had contacts here before, so we should be safe enough here. Though...it will be a matter of time before he realizes what we've done. You've put yourself at risk, more than is needed."
Having caught her breath, Aja gave a sharp look to him. "It was one that needed to be taken. We all know my time is coming, sooner than later. So does he. Meaning that he knows he won't be able to use me forever. If he hasn't yet, he will soon be searching for other things that are close to you. A person that can be held in much the same way I have been. Do you really think her safe? That eventually he will not figure something out? Because we know that he has a meticulous eye for such detail."
"But we are the only one's who even know of her existence. I am the only living one left with the slightest idea on where she is at." Kituko ground his teeth together, mulling over his mother's words. "You are correct though...you going missing and my betraying his secrets will throw him off for a while. Long enough that someone could warn her of the danger. Though I suspect...I suspect that her companion might have told her things...only neither of them know how close to the fire they are to falling."
Simba cleared his throat. "Okay...I am lost now. What exactly are you talking about...or...who are you talking about?"
Feeling a tapping on his shoulder, the king spun around. "Rafiki..." he said in a subdued tone, one that clashed strongly with his body language. "Almost forgot you were here...do you know what or who this is about?" He also wondered why the mandrill waited so long to say anything, before deciding that the question wasn't worth asking.
"Ah...yes. Old Rafiki knows more den he can really tell. About dat lioness that left with da one you exiled a few moons ago. Dere was more to here den what you might tink. "
"I'm surprised he did." mumbled the lioness to another, who quickly scoffed.
"And why wouldn't he? What I did was dumb, I know. Badly thought out too. Didn't mean that I was wrong, for not wanting him as king. I was told he was nothing but an usurper-"
"You never cease to amaze me with some of the things you say. He might be a bit of a fool, letting that monster stay. Letting Scar live was one thing, I just cannot believe Simba didn't exile that traitor the second he confessed...you know Scar murdered Mufasa, just to be king. And I'll take Simba any day over that mad lion."
She bared her teeth slightly at the light furred female. "Scar wasn't as bad as you like to make him out to be. I know what he did now, but I did not then. If I'd known would have never listened to that lying witch so carelessly. Zira really had a lot of nerve to do that...she isn't who I thought she was."
"Shida. I raised you to know better than that. Both of them...nothing good could ever come from them-" she was cut off abruptly by a different lioness. One not yet through adolescence.
"Do you really mean that?" Both sets of eyes turned to the newcomer. "Shwari. Is Nuka bad...you always seem to like him. So...is he someone not to trust?"
"I...you..." the question caught Shwari off guard. "...no...I would say not. I'm not sure he's all there at times...but he is a very upstanding young lion...strong morals from what I've seen." Forgetting herself, she went further. "Had Simba not came back...I think Nuka could have actually made a fine king." Then her eyes narrowed. "Or at least, better than his tyrant father."
"I thought you said nothing good could come from either of them...my sibling here though...looks like she pointed out a little flaw in your logic." Shida smiled wryly.
"...I did...didn't I?" said the younger sister innocently. "So you think Nuka is good, despite everything else?"
Shida cut back in. "And that you might have actually been wrong...swallow your pride mother...it won't kill you."
Shwari hissed softly. "Very ironic hearing that from you. I admit it, I might have been wrong on that."
"So then if you were wrong on that...maybe you are wrong about Scar. Maybe he really is changing for the better...maybe there is hope, even for a tyrant like him." Shaka smiled.
Shida's mother looked at her with a look of shock. Or muted horror. Then very slowly, she actually nodded her head. "...that...that is possible. And could be the case...I'm never going to let my guard down around him...or trust him...but holding to a grudge like this could kill me. Or worse...turn me into something more terrible than Zira." Now it was her turn to smile. "Shaka...I know you aren't my daughter...but you are blood to Shida. That makes you family...and while I might not know you as well as I should, I did know your mother. And I honestly think she would be proud of you now."
Moments later the two sisters went off in search of prey. Welcome in the pridelands they were, but most of the pride was uneasy with them around.
"Got to say runt, you actually helped with that. Showed her a thing or two. Guess you are finally catching up to my brilliance."
Shaka laughed. "If you say so. I might have, or maybe I was all along and you kept overlooking it."she was thinking on something else. Her siblings rude behavior towards most anyone was off putting at times. "...you really should be a little nicer to your mom than that. She means well."
The elder groaned dramatically. "So you say. Far as I'm concerned, you both can bite me."
Seeing her sister bare her teeth playfully made Shida roll her eyes. "Not literally, moron."