I don't own the Lion King

The next morning, Kiara's eyes fluttered open as she found herself inside a warm den and a familiar face looking down at her. She smiled when her blurred vision cleared and saw Kovu smiling down at her. "Good morning sleepy head," he greeted her with a smile and then a nuzzle.

"Hey," she weakly greeted him as she ran a golden paw over her head. She stood up on her paws with Kovu's support, for she was a little weak to the legs. "What happened? All I remember was fighting Scar last night and that's it."

"Well," Kovu began, "you bumped your head on a rock and that seemed to knock the wind out of you. Your parents came and we took you to the den. Simba stayed in the jungle with Scar for a while until he came back last night with some news," he took a deep breath before continuing. "Scar, he...uh, killed himself last night."

Kiara eyes grew wide at this news. She never thought that a lion like Scar would ever think of doing such an action. "And my father?"

"He was unharmed," Kovu told her. He took another deep breath but Kiara noticed that it shook in the process, "if only my mother wasn't corrupted by him imagine how happy she would have been for me right now."

Kiara shook her head. "It's not your fault that you're this way," she stated as she gave him a nuzzle. "You're just one-of-a-kind."

Kovu smiled through her words. So are you, my precious golden jewel he thought as the two let out a soft purr.

"Awh," a voice came through the den, "getting smoochy much?" Kiara and Kovu broke away from their moment as they turned their heads and saw Khairi standing at the opening of the cave.

Kiara stifled a smile and rolled her eyes. "It's not like you don't nuzzle Vitani all the time," she shot back.

Khairi thought of another throwback but none came to his mind. "Hmm," he shrugged, "touche princess but at least I'm warming her up to it."

Behind Khairi, her father shadowed over him. "Good morning guys," he said to the teenager lions, "can you two please wait for Kiara outside, I would like to have a little word with her."

Kovu nodded as he gave Kiara a lick on the cheek and him and Khairi walked out of the cave. Once they were gone, Simba walked over to his daughter and beamed towards her.

At first, Kiara hung her head. "Look daddy," she began, "I did what I did because I couldn't let him take Zuri away from me. Sure she is my friend but when I found out that she was a cousin...she became family."

"What you did was brave," Simba told her, "your mother and I were worried to death about you but after seeing you try to fight with Scar was too much for me to handle. For a moment, I thought that he was going to kill you."

Kiara smiled at her father when he spoke about her bravery but her expression turned to sadness when she thought of Scar's suicide. "Kovu told me what had happened to him. Why would he do that?"

Simba let out a sigh. "I don't know," he said, "it just became too much for him. He was also very lonely and realized that through this actions from the past had affected him in the future."

Kiara looked away from her father and shook her head. "It still gave him no right to take Zuri away like that. Is she and Nuka doing alright?"

"They are fine," Simba assured her, "but this isn't what I wanted to talk to you about. We can forget about the past and move on. We have a stronger pride, now the Out Landers joined us and that we are on good term with the hyenas."

"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked him.

Simba gave her a smile. "There's an audience out there, waiting for you and Kovu to step out and present yourselves as the future king and queen."

Kiara gasped. Her mouth suddenly tilted into a wide smile as her eyes beamed towards her father. "Right now?!" she asked.

"Right now," Simba told her, "the lionesses are waiting for you two to step out. Your mother and I will follow you to the ledge of Pride Rock where all the animals will see you."

A shadow suddenly appeared into the cave. Both father and daughter looked and they saw Nala and Kovu standing there, expecting them to walk out. Simba stood by Nala as Kiara stood by her faithful mate. Then the old king and queen followed by the new generation walked out of the cave.

Every lion and lioness of the pride stood there and bowed their heads to the ground as the old and the future kings and queens passed by them. As the four of them stood on the ledge of Pride Rock, the African animals looked up and cheered for them. Kiara was the first to let out a mighty roar as Kovu followed along with Simba and Kiara. Suddenly, the rest of the pride roared at the presentation of their future king and queen.

A new generation had been born.

The End

Hey everyone! I just want to say thank you to all of you that reviewed this story and had been following it until the very end. It means so much to me and I had as much fun writing this as well as reading your reviews and suggestions. Thanks so much again :D