Chapter 5: We Are One
It all happened so fast. First, Zira was alive, then Kopa turned out to be his brother Kopa, and now Kovu was Afia's brother. Under normal circumstances, Kion might've felt a bit overwhelmed. However, the King remained focused on one thing and one thing only, saving Kopa. Kion stared at the entrance to a vast jungle stretched out before him.
"Hevi Kabisa." Kion muttered while getting into a more defensive stance. Behind Kion stood the King's Guard, Rani, his parents, Kovu, Kiara, Imani, Baliyo, Gael, Mungo, Rune, and many other animals Kion mustered from across his Kingdom. Their battalion wasn't as large as the Army assembled for the Northern Crusade but still remained a force to be reckoned with.
"Is this it then?" Vitani snarled at her mother, who remained pinned beneath Beshte. Zira growled defiantly but nodded.
"The Kivuli Jungle." Makini trembled while looking at it.
"Anga, Ono, see anything?" Rani asked, taking a defensive stance like her mate.
The two birds flew over Kivuli but did so cautiously. The atmosphere reminded too much of the Northern Kingdom under Radcliffe. Anga tried to peer through the thick foliage but only saw darkness.
"Nothing, it's like an abyss in there."
"Come on, let's get back with the others." Ono guided her back to the others.
"You can't see anything?" Bunga muttered, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"I can't hear anything either." Azaad added.
Rune nodded with a disconcerted expression.
"He's right. Jungles aren't this quiet."
Despite all of this, Kion, his family, and Vitani weren't deterred.
"Let's go, stick together, and keep an eye out for each other. We're not leaving anyone behind." Kion growled. The King's words calmed much of their anxiety, and with that, he entered the jungle first.
Kivuli's interior didn't disappoint. The vines and flora looked almost demonic as if they were a sea of serpents and camouflaged animals ready to attack. Imani kept close to Kiara and Kovu, though more out of motherly protection than fear.
Kiara was still getting used to this lioness she'd never met being Kovu's real mother, that was to say nothing of Kovu himself. Still, their mission kept all three focused.
Baliyo, however, couldn't help but smile a little as he saw more life in his mother-in-law than he'd seen in years.
"Look at her. It's like she's a whole nother lioness now." He said to Rani.
"I don't blame her. I've felt glimpses of the agony she went through when Radcliffe tried to, well, and when I thought Mshindi got Saka."
"I still can't believe your mate's sister's mate turned out to be the long-lost brother of my mate. You just can't make stuff like that up." Baliyo almost chuckled. However, the jungle's unsettling presence kept him from doing so.
As they walked, each animal heard what almost sounded like soft whispered in every direction, but seemingly nowhere. The sense that someone or something was watching them became unbearable to some of the guardians.
Simba and Nala, however, didn't even notice. Rani carefully approached Kion, who was directly in front of his parents, with Kiara close by.
"Are you guys ok?" Rani asked, not having seen such hardened expressions on them since Radcliffe.
"...He's alive, Rani, our boy." Nala fought back tears while gritting her fangs.
"He wasn't even that far from us when Zira attacked him...We could've stopped it. We could've protected him. I told Kopa I'd always be there for him, but I wasn't." Simba let slip a single tear and only stayed upright when Kiara and Kion came to his aid.
Rani wished she had words to ease her in-laws, but the truth was, she understood to an extent. The helpless feeling she still experienced thinking about her parent's death, or when she thought Saka was taken. If Mshindi succeeded... Rani shivered, not even wanting to think about that.
"This is our chance to get him back!" Kiara growled.
Nearby, Vitani struggled to keep in her emotions. All those years doing her mother's bidding, holding in resentment towards her, and projecting hatred onto Kiara for being there while Kopa wasn't.
"Hmp, even after all these years, you still act like a cub." Vitani narrowed her eyes and turned to Zira while Beshte shoved her forward.
"What did you saw?" Vitani growled.
"You still think you love him, just like you did back then."
"Watch it." Beshte huffed.
"Perhaps what's most tragic is that you thought he'd ever love someone like you. Perfect Simba's perfect little prince ending up with someone like you. You're just like me, Vitani, no matter how much you deny it. Lions like Simba, Kiara, Nala, and the others will only ever see us as monsters. Kopa might've used you for fun, but in the end, he'd never take you as a ma-"
Zira howled in pain after Vitani clawed her across the face, leaving a scar over her right eye. This drew everyone's attention, and they saw Zira holding her face in agony.
"There, now you look like Scar. I'm not sorry I wasn't his daughter. I am sorry I was related to that monster you called Radcliffe. The worst part is, you took Kopa away from his family for Radcliffe, but he's worth more than your little monster ever was."
Zira lunged at Vitani, only for Beshte to slam her into the jungle floor.
Vitani joined Kovu and the others, her brother placing a paw on her shoulder.
"Are you ok?"
Vitani nodded.
"Yes."
"Hold on. I see someone!" Anga and Ono flew over to a patch of foliage, followed quickly by Fuli and Azaad.
"It's ok. We're not going to hurt you." Fuli assured the frightened okapi she and her mate saw inside.
Kion and Rani made their way over with Makini, who gently looked over the animals. The okapi looked paler and scrawnier than they should've been.
"Please, go away! They'll find us!"
"Who?"
"Jehanamu and his minions!"
Kion that name made the expedition go silent.
"Listen to us. I'm Queen Rani, and this is my mate, King Kion. We're here to rescue a lion named Kopa, who Jehanamu took. Have you seen him?"
"Please, they'll find us!"
"We can handle Jehanamu. We can free you from his evil." Kion tried to assure them, but the animals continued trembling.
"No one can stop him! He's kept a shadow over this jungle for hundreds of years! He's evil incarnate!"
Nala forced her way towards the okapi mother and stared at her so that the frightened animal understood without any words.
"Where is he?"
Twenty minutes later, they approached the jungle center. With each step, Kion felt the whispers grow quieter, and an unnatural fiery heat surround them.
A horrible chant filled the ears of the expedition, who carefully closed ranks until they saw them. Mshindi and his shadow predators chanted around what looked like a fire, but Kion saw no flames or smoke.
"Yes! Yes!" The shadowy aura around Zira grew thicker, and she forced herself free.
"No!" Beshte tried to grab her, but Zira raced to the other shadow predators first.
"Damn it! Come on!" Kion led the animals in a charge before they saw him and stopped. Kopa hung above the unseen flames from a series of vines, still breathing but barely conscious with strange black markings painted all over his fur.
Nala and Simba froze in place. Both lions so overcome by emotion when they saw Kopa in front of them. Even after so many years, they knew him. They knew it was their son.
"Welcome. So clad you could join us." Mshindi laughed while taking up a position between them and Kopa with Zira and several shadow tigers close behind.
"Give us Kopa or die!" Nala snarled.
"Die!? Ha ha ha ha ha! That's adorable." The new voice unsettled all those who hadn't heard it before. It sounded beyond corrupted, but almost as if multiple voices spoke at once.
"Ahhhh!" Makini stumbled backward as pale as a ghost. Kion looked up in the branch directly over his brother and saw him, or rather, he saw something. The figure was pitch black with fiery red fangs, eyes, and claws. If Kion had to guess, whatever this thing was, it might've been born a mandril, but now, it was something else. The figure looked demonic, deformed, unnatural, just evil. There was no other way to put it.
"Jehanamu." Kion muttered.
"Welcome, King Kion. I've long awaited this meeting. You proved quite the nuisance, killing my best apprentice, stripping me of the Dark Roar. But alas, I will soon correct this, and all of you will be honored guests to this wonderous occasion."
Runa and Mungo looked back in horror to see more shadow predators emerging from the foliage behind them.
"You did this! You took our son and orchestrated the deaths of Queen Anada and King Sahashi!" Simba roared, his fury steadily growing.
Jehanamu laughed and licked his red fangs.
"Yes, just as I took your boy again. Just like I'll take your grandchildren once you and all around you are dead. All life exists to serve me, all life exists to die, so I can feed on it."
He was Radcliffe's master, to be sure. No wonder the tyrant ended up with such a warped personality. Kion thought. However, the King had had enough.
Not waiting another moment, he and Vitani unleashed the Roar of the Elders, or at least they tried to. As the lions inhaled, they coughed on invisible smoke.
"Trying to use Askari's power on me. How adorable, but like him, you lack the the willingness to unlock its true potential."
Jehanamu leaped onto Kopa, and Kion's family felt their hearts' race.
"What are you doing!?" Kiara roared.
"Your brother was always so stubborn. Never willing to submit. But I don't need his soul, only his body. I had the perfect apprentice, and now, I'll have him back!" Jehanamu laughed while pressing his hand against Kopa's forehead.
Those in the expedition watched in unending terror as Kopa's body convulsed, the symbols set ablaze, and soon his eyes with them. A black shadow emerged from the fires beneath Kopa and surrounded him.
"Stop!" Nala forced herself forward but stopped when she saw Kopa free himself and hit the ground, a horribly satisfied expression on his face.
"Ahhh, I knew you'd never forsake me, master, even as I dwelled in the fiery inferno."
Kion shook, his face turning pale. For the voice that came from Kopa's mouth wasn't his own.
"Kopa!" Kiara muttered, Kovu placing his paw in front of her. He, Vitani, and everyone else who'd gone on the Northern Crusade mirrored Kion's expression, Ono in particular.
"My boy!" Zira almost teared up.
"Radcliffe!" Rani backed up beside Kion. She, too, would never forget that voice, that horrible voice.
"What have you done!?" Simba roared, now on the verge of tears.
"Kopa is gone, long live Radcliffe! Long live the Dark Roar!" Jehanamu laughed.
Radcliffe narrowed his eyes at Kion.
"Revenge is mine!" Radcliffe arched his head back and roared. The ground shook, tremors creating a new fissure with lava surging up.
"Look out!" Kion tried to get his warriors back, but Radcliffe leaped forward, slamming him backward.
"Kion!" Rani tried to reach her mate, but Mshindi reached her first, nearly biting the Queen's front leg.
"I'm afraid I can't let you interfere! You were my only failure, a failure that brought judgment upon me! Now, I get to correct that mistake!" The tiger snarled.
Rani narrowed her eyes as the fiery passion inside her soon dwarfed the lava brought up by Radcliffe. Despite being surrounded, Kion's expedition quickly counter-attacked and began a fierce melee, trying desperately to keep the shadows back.
"Twende kiboko!" Beshte smashed his way through a pair of tigers, attempting to clear a path towards Kion.
"Come on! Huwizee!" Fuli and Aaaz raced through the breech with Anga and Ono above them.
"Zuka Zama!" Bunga jumped into any predators missed by Fuli and the others. But despite their valiant efforts, they remained unable to reach their leader, who now ferociously battled Radcliffe.
Kion snarled with pure hatred as he fought back Radcliffe's sheer strength with his own. Parrying paw blows and struggling to exchange bites. However, Radcliffe's skills seemed roughly the same as their last battle, whereas Kion had improved.
Dodging another blow, Kion slammed his paw across Radcliffe's face and knocked him back, ready to go in for a bite.
"Kion, no!" Kiara screamed. She, Kovu, and Imani beat back a tiger and four jaguars when Kiara saw the fight.
"Kopa!"
Kion's mouth dropped as he only just realized that in fighting Radcliffe, he was fighting Kopa too.
"No! No!"
Radcliffe smiled in the same way he had in life.
"You really shouldn't hold back on Kopa's account, Kion. I'm afraid your brother is gone. Just as weak as when I knew him. His body is mine now. His life is mine! Just like yours is!"
Radcliffe lunged back at Kion and resumed their melee. However, this time, Kion was practically paralyzed as he looked at his brother but heard Radcliffe's voice.
Jehanamu continued to laugh sadistically before hearing jaws snap below him. Vitani and Simba both furiously attacked two tigers and jaguars between them and Jehanamu.
"Get rid of Radcliffe's spirit, and we'll let you live!" Vitani snarled.
Jehanamu almost laughed until he jumped to another tree branch after Nala literally hurled one of his jaguars through the air at him.
Jehanamu watched Simba with growing interest, particularly when the Lion King's fangs buried themselves into the neck of a shadow tiger, causing the predator to convulse.
Jehanamu snapped his fingers, and before Vitani could begin scaling the tree, she felt someone slam into her.
"You won't take my son from me!" Zira snarled, trying desperately to kill Vitani.
"Foul witch!" Nala slammed into Zira and forced her off Vitani before the shadow lioness retreated.
Jehanamu leaped down onto the dying tiger with an unsettling smile.
"You won't last. But your body may still serve me."
"Master, please, save me." The tiger pleaded.
"No." Jehanamu laughed as he buried his claws into the tiger's head.
"Ahhhh!"
Simba heard cries of burning pain and looked over to see the tiger's body violently contorting while a shadowy aura surrounded it.
"Ahhhh, I knew I was right to trust you Jehanamu." Simba felt his throat dry up when he heard the voice.
"Ahhh, Simba. So good to see my favorite nephew again. Perhaps it is fitting. Our family reunited for the rebirth of my son."
Simba panted heavily as he lowered his stance.
"Now, now, Simba. You wouldn't kill your own uncle-" Simba didn't give Scar the chance to finish before crashing into him.
Jehanamu scaled another tree, savoring the battles and the suffering it brought, particularly as Radcliffe unleashed the dark roar again.
"Ahhhh, yes, there it is. Pain, suffering, and soon, death. Death for everyone, but me-"
The figure felt a pair of powerful jaws bury themselves into his leg before dragging him down.
Vitani snarled as she shook Jehanamu in her mouth and hurled him into a tree. The lioness didn't wait another moment and charged right for him, slamming a tiger that tried to come between her and Jehanamu aside.
However, Jehanamu scaled the tree, still grinning as Vitani pursued, nearly reaching him before he vanished into thin air.
"What? Ahhh!" Vitani howled in pain, feeling a burning sensation around her legs as Jehanamu appeared below her, his claws burying themselves into Vitani's back legs. The lioness got down and tried to bite him, but just like before, Jehanamu vanished, now appearing on a tree branch.
"You possess the roar but aren't of royal blood. How interesting. Perhaps I could use you with Radcliffe to spawn more apprentices."
Vitani made it halfway up the tree before Jehanamu slashed at her, fire surging out and forcing the lioness back.
Nearby, Rani and Mshindi continued their claw. The Queen snarled in pain as the tiger's claws raked across her side.
"You scream more than your mother did." Mshindi laughed, his jaws narrowly missing her snout. Despite the tiger's attempts to make Rani fight recklessly, she maintained focused. Channeling her rage like a weapon before slamming her paw up in an uppercut. The blow forced Mshindi's head up just enough for Rani to come in low and snap her jaws around his throat.
"Grauuu!" The tiger furiously tried to force Rani off him, using every bit of enhanced strength the shadows gave him. But Rani wouldn't give in, her fangs pressing deeper and deeper into Mshindi's neck until she slammed him into the ground and panted.
The monster who killed her parents, who destroyed Afia's family, now lay dead before her. However, Rani felt no satisfaction, no sense of joy or accomplishment. Instead, she raced to Baliyo's side as he and Gael tried to reach Kion.
However, the King felt himself throw backward by Radcliffe. A series of deep wounds marring his body while the lion panted.
"You're much less fun. Come now, what's the point of victory if you can't savor the sense of accomplishment? Fight me as you did in the North!" Radcliffe snarled.
Kion forced himself up with the help of Simba.
"Dad, what do I do? I can't fight him without hurting Kopa."
Simba didn't have the answer and stared back at his possessed son as Scar strolled up beside Radcliffe.
"Stop playing around, Radcliffe. Kill him already."
"You worry too much, father. We should enjoy this, our return from the flames. Victory."
"Indeed!" Scar and Radcliffe raced back at their opponents.
Simba and Scar collided, biting and clawing each other without mercy as Kion hesitated and felt Radcliffe pin him down. The tyrant lion's eyes raged in a blazing fire as he readied himself for the kill. Yet, just before he could deliver the blow, his body convulsed, and the flames extinguished for a moment.
"Kion, kill him, please." Kopa pleaded, immense pain filling his voice.
"Kopa! You are still in there!"
"Kion, it's too late. Please, end my suffering. I'm never going to see my family again. But I'm glad I had you as the family I chose." Kopa's eyes filled with tears before setting back ablaze.
"Graww!" Radcliffe snarled.
Kion's eyes narrowed, and with his immense strength, he threw Radcliffe off him.
"Gaaah! Just die! Join that wretched lion Saka!"
"Saka." Kion said, looking up through the foliage.
"You can still save your brother Kion. Show Radcliffe what I never could. The Roar's true power." Saka's voice filled Kion with a burning passion. He took a deep breath, no longer feeling the smoke.
Radcliffe's eyes widened slightly in fear when he saw this.
"I will save my brother!"
Kion and Radcliffe arched their heads back and unleashed the roar just like they had in their previous duel. The ground shook and broke apart near Radcliffe, but the tyrant's face filled with fear again when he saw the figure of another lion form over Kion as it had the last time their roar's clashed.
"No!" Radcliffe yelped.
Saka's figure roared with Kion, pushing back Radcliffe's roar before reaching the lion himself.
"What is he doing!? No!" Scar tried to reach Kion, but Simba stopped him, slamming the shadow of his uncle into the ground and delivering a killing blow to the neck.
"No! No! I won't return to the flames! No! AhhhH!" Kion's roar enveloped Radcliffe until the flames died and shadows vanished.
Kopa and Kion both wobbled, exhausted and disoriented.
"Kopa." Kion reached out for his brother despite his vision growing blurry.
"Gaaah! Get him!" Jehanamu snarled.
Several tigers and jaguars ran for Kion but instantly regretted this decision.
"Zuka Zama!" Bunga leaped into the nearest tiger's face, mauling him as the rest of the King's Guard joined by Simba, Rani, Baliyo, and Gael surrounded Kion.
Kopa, however, wasn't so fortunate. He stumbled for a moment until another lion slammed him into the ground.
Zira hyperventilated as she pinned a barely conscious Kopa down with a distraught expression.
"Bring back my son! Bring him back now!" Zira howled, but Kopa remained silent.
"Graauwww!" Zira opened her jaws and came in to kill him.
"Graww!" The shadow lioness felt herself hurled backward. When she looked up, Zira saw Nala standing over Kopa with the same expression she'd given her years ago. Nala didn't speak. She merely bore her fangs and stood guard over her son.
Despite this, Zira charged. With Radcliffe and Scar both gone, she had nothing left. The two lionesses clashed, but it didn't prove to be anything other than slaughter. Nala unleashed everything on Zira she would've years ago.
The Queen's claws buried themselves deep into Zira's flesh again and again before she pinned her to the jungle floor, fangs buried in flesh.
Kopa's vision slowly returned, but he remained disoriented, unaware of where he was or what went on around him. All he felt was pain, horrible pain.
"Kopa." He heard a soft voice, a tender loving voice he still remembered even after years of torment. The lion slowly looked up and saw a tear-filled face, one he thought he'd never see again.
"Mmmother." Kopa choked, barely able to speak.
Nala lost herself to tears and raw emotion as she pressed her face against Kopa's and began licking him.
"It's alright. It's alright. I've got you." Nala sobbed.
Jehanamu slashed across the back of Vitani's legs and then vanished again. The lioness snarling in pain and frustration.
"You cannot kill what cannot die. No matter how hard you strike, you cannot hit shadows!" Jehanamu snapped his claws and prepared more fire.
Vitani, however, wouldn't give in. Mustering the same strength as Kion, she breathed in despite the smoke.
"Even shadows flee from the light!" Vitani roared, breaking through the jungle's darkness and exposing Jehanamu. The demonic figure's flames now came back and engulfed him.
"Ahhhh!" Jehanamu thrashed about, no longer able to control the fire-magic around him. Instead, he collapsed to the jungle floor, where he turned to ash.
Almost instantly, the tigers and jaguars all convulsed, their shadowy auras vanishing and their bodies shriveling up until they became aged, scrawny, and withered.
Sunlight finally broke through the canopy, and when it reached the predators, they blew apart into dust.
"What the?!" Baliyo muttered.
"That's why you don't mess with necromancy." Makini said, looking over the ash that was Jehanamu.
Kopa slowly found his way to his paws with Nala's help. The scarred lion's senses slowly returned and allowed him to see three more lions in front of him.
"Son." Kopa and Simba's eyes met as they stood directly in front of each other.
Tears swelled across Simba's face, and he nudged his head against Kopa.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." The King sobbed.
"Kopa." Kiara similarly choked as she forced her way in and nuzzled Kopa.
"Kiara." Kopa muttered.
The scarred lion looked back at Kion, who now approached with Rani's help.
The young King's smiled but with no less emotion than his parents or sister.
"Kion." Kopa's eyes swelled with tears when his little brother joined in. Nala, Simba, Kiara, and Kion, all embracing their lost brother and son, now returned.
"I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry." Fuli told herself before Anga shook her head, feeling tears fill her eyes like everyone else, even those who only knew Kion as their devoted King.
"That's beautiful." Imani said as she brought Kovu in close. Rani, however, nudged Vitani closer.
As Kopa's family moved, he saw Vitani in front of him, tears swelling her face as she faced him.
"Kopa, I-"
Kopa cut Vitani off as he surged forward and embraced her. His tongue sliding across Vitani's face.
Several months later, Kion, Rani, their three cubs, and the King's Guard arrived at the border of the Southern Pride Lands.
"Now remember to be on your best behavior." Rani said sternly to Anada as the lioness cub looked around at the savanna.
"Don't worry, mom. I'll keep a close eye on her. Practice for when I lead the Night Pride one day. Watch yourself Anada, Saka taught me some new moves yesterday!" Sahashi said proudly.
"I'm sorry if I ever acted like that." Saka sighed as Kion chuckled.
"Come on." Kion led their party to a large rock formation where several lions and lionesses rested. Among them, they saw none other than Simba and Nala.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" The three cubs rushed to meet them.
"Ahh, there you are, just in time!" Simba said.
Kion and Rani understood what he meant when they saw Kovu and Kiara arrive with Mufasa, Imani, and their newest cub, a girl named Sarabi.
"Where are they!? Where are they!?" Sarabi shouted.
"Shhh!" Nala said with a deep smile before emphasizing further into the rock formation.
Nearby they saw Kopa standing over Vitani as she looked at a pair of cubs in her lap. Kopa lowered his head to nuzzle his mate as a tear of love escaped her eye.
Kion, Rani, Kovu, Kiara, Simba, and Nala stood beside Kopa as he looked down at his new cubs.
"So, the King and Queen of the Southern Pride Lands have a prince and princess now." Kiara said as she lowered her snout to the cubs.
"Did you decide on names?" Kion asked.
Vitani nodded before nuzzling Kopa.
"Yes, Simba and Nala."
There they stood, Simba and Nala with their family together again. Kopa returned, and now with cubs of his own. All of them one.
The End
Author's note
And thus, it ends. It has been fun, but unless I can think of something else story wise, I really think I might be done with Lion Guard fics
That being said, if someone wants to toss an idea my way I'll be happy to consider it, but as of now, I feel like there's little more I can do
So until next time,
Please review, comment, suggest or ask(VIA PM)