Author's note: Hello, everyone! Just wanted to let you know that this story will be 15 chapters (including the prologue and the epilogue) with one chapter being posted (most probably) every two weeks. Make sure to leave some comments on what you liked, what you didn't like, what I need to improve upon etc. Every praise and every criticism will mean a lot to me because I'm planning to dedicate myself to my original story next. Thank you in advance and hope you enjoy this.

PROLOGUE

The night was quiet in the Outlands. At first seemingly unsuspecting and peaceful, but with a layer of dread as an old lion stood on the dusty hill, looking down at the cave in the middle of a wasteland, surrounded by thick clouds of dust. The presence of the old lion was shadowed, but his eyes seemed to have a sinister glow that looked like it would doom anything it glances upon. That the mind behind those eyes will destroy everything it seeks to destroy. And the destruction was beginning on that very night, in that very moment, with one seemingly small event that would start a chaotic chain.

The lion looked up. The sky may have been bright with shining stars, but this place was so dirty that the stars couldn't even be seen. The lion was old, but his senses still served him well. He remembered how he would go stargazing with his family when he was young and never really saw anything special about it. He only thought of it as foolish. A true ruler would have to focus on the ground he was standing on instead of getting lost in something he couldn't reach. However, after he had several near-death experiences and played with life a lot, not only did that make him tougher, but also made him appreciate those little moments in life. His senses sharpened in the process. He might have been old, but he was one of the most dangerous lions around, especially for his age. But his clock was ticking and he knew it. Soon enough his near-death experiences would be a lot more serious.

He glanced down at the hyenas entering the cave. It seemed like a relatively stable unit by hyenas' standards. Maybe that's just how it works when the leader gets older, which explains his success with his pride later in life. Experience builds success. And he could see the same applied for his former ally. A former ally who turned on him. A traitor who was about to pay. One might wonder why the lion was bothering. He had a stable life as the leader of his pride. But as the years starting getting to him, he kept spending sleepless nights thinking about unfinished business in the past and reliving the feelings of shame and lost honor. In his new pride, no one knew anything about his past. He was a mystery to everyone, even his mate didn't know every bit of how the story went. All that because he wanted to achieve a status, far away from the Pride Lands. But now, as one of his last wishes in life, he decided to face his past head on. If Simba could do it, he could do it as well. And it was starting that night.

"Attack." The old lion ordered the younger one that was standing behind him.

"Yes, master Scar."

...

Shenzi dragged herself out of the cave just to stretch a little bit. Her joints didn't serve her quite as well as they used to. But she was fine with that. She was still a survivor. What was important for her was to stay alive. She couldn't care less about the food chain. Still, she used to be the most capable of her unit, bringing the most prey home. Even though the prey never really was much. Mostly mouses, meerkats, or just leftovers from an already dead animal. But she could always pride herself on that one story from her younger days. The story when she, along with the entire pack of hyenas almost had a lion for dinner.

That was the day that she decided to leave the Pride Lands forever. She hated that place and a very thought of it made her sick to her stomach. The lions were tough as nails, even the weaker and cowardly ones like Scar. Well, at least she learned a lesson from Scar. Never lean on anyone. It was funny to her when she thought about her naivety back in those days. Scar seemed just like someone who would step over others just to make it out in one piece. And even if she may have not finished Scar off, she put all of her strength in every bite and scratch that she gave him, thrilled by the panic in his eyes and his rabid movements. The great, always clever and cunning Scar had to rely on his bare survival instincts. In the end, wit and cleverness made no difference. It all came down to survival. During the first few seconds, he tried to hold them all off, but the hyenas wouldn't let it go. At some point, however, something woke up inside of him. His eyes were usually the kind you don't forget that easily, but it was like they got a new layer of savagery in that moment as he started kicking all of the hungry, furious and desperate hyenas away and running faster than ever. Away into the unknown, disappearing from a land that he was a king of moments ago. Shenzi ran away the day after, but in the opposite direction. She knew that wherever Scar was, she didn't want to see him again. Out of fear. Out of hate too, but mostly out of fear. There was something about Scar that was otherworldly and that made him terrifying even in state of vulnerability. And she didn't want to encounter that glance again. Sometimes it still haunted her.

Shenzi caught herself pondering on where he might be now, but chased those thoughts away. Wherever he was, she didn't want to know and so she continued walking. The dust clouds were thick, but she got used to dirt in her life. "Be satisfied with what you've got" was sort of a motto for her. Her eyes were adjusting a little slower now than before, since her sight got progressively more blurry with age. Still, for a moment there, she could swear she saw the haunting green glow of Scar's eyes that was still present in her dreams to this day, gazing at her from the depth of a small gorge lying ahead. For a second, she stood, paralyzed by the all too familiar green glow that she might or might not have seen in that exact moment. Looking closer she could notice the silhouette of a lion not that far away from her. Just as suddenly as he appeared, the lion swiftly turned around and disappeared behind the corner of the cliff's bottom.

Another outcast from the Pride Lands? She wouldn't be surprised. They probably still feel just as privileged and above everyone else. But it reminded her so much of Scar. She knew it wasn't the safest, let alone the smartest thing to do, but she had to see it for herself, so she carefully walked to the corner where she last saw the silhouette disappear, trying hard not to make a single sound. The tension was flowing through her body as she tried to blend in with the sounds of the night. When she finally got to the corner, she just saw an empty path. After a few seconds of careful staring, she decided to shrug it off and begin walking back, a little faster this time. However, her walk began to slow down soon enough when it started to seem like there was nothing around again.

Halfway back to the cave, the cliffs were getting lower. She didn't give them much thought since predators rarely come around here and suddenly, something about her size lifelessly dropped to the ground from up there right in front of her, making a loud thumping noise. As old as she was, she jumped and starting running in the opposite direction, but this time something else jumped from a cliff. It was a lioness. An old lioness, she noticed by the way she faltered, but obviously a very strong and capable lioness by the way she didn't let herself slide away. Shenzi tried to run in the direction she was first going towards when a dark-maned lion jumped at her, pinning her down against the rocky path. She was terrified, but the fact that it wasn't Scar put her at some ease when she came face to face with the lion. This lion was way bigger and obviously more capable, but he didn't have that something Scar had that made him so terrifying. If it had to end like this, she just wanted to get it over with. It was fine by her to end this way, having lived quite a life. But the lion didn't do anything. Just held her down. Then, she heard an all too familiar voice pierce the silence like a fang through the flesh. A voice she's been expecting. A voice that she could still hear sometimes just as clearly in her head. And when she heard it, she knew her biggest fear just came true and that she may not go away so easily.

"Oh my, my, my, if it isn't an old friend of mine," the voice said.

The big lion turned her on her side and pressed her head down on the floor. There, she saw Scar standing right in front of her. As soon as she saw his demonic smile on top of a disturbingly deformed body with many traces of old wounds, she knew her death wasn't going to be so easy. But she tried to make it out of the trouble by laughing it off, like in the old days, hating how she retreated back in her old weaker self the moment she saw him.

"Hey, Scar!" she said as she let out a nervous chuckle. "What's up with you?"

"Just decided to pay a little visit to my former homeland. Family trips, you know," Scar said while absent-mindedly looking at his claws.

"Well, you kinda got off the trail. Pride Rock is in that direction." She tried to move her head to gesticulate, but the big lion pressed her head down harder. "Okay, okay."

"Oh, I know exactly where Pride Rock is. I just wanted to pay my dearest old friend a little visit." he said as he continuously moved his face closer to hers. "After all, it's been a long, long time."

"Yeah, look, I'm really sorry, but can you come back tomorrow? We will have more room."

Scar let out a chuckle. "You're so funny when you try to cling on to every last straw to survive. Well, I can't say I don't understand. After that one night, hoo. You know, I've always wondered, which part of me tasted the best?"

"Scar..." Shenzi let out a scared plead.

"Uh-uh-uuh, I want to hear you say it. What was it?" Scar continued with a playful tone and finished it on a menacing note.

Shenzi gulped. "The leg."

"The leg. Perfect," Scar said with a sadistic smile as his glance shifted from her face to her leg. "Then we start with the leg."

"No, hey Scar, please, we were friends."

Scar cut her off, not really giving any attention to her words. "You know what's going to happen next? We will drag you to your unit and make you watch as I rip their necks off, just like we did with the one we threw in front of you, I suppose it was your kid or something."

"Nusura," Shenzi let out a terrified whisper.

"Ah, what a lovely name. Shame that his mother wasn't a bit smarter when she was younger," Scar said and began taking Shenzi on a slow and painful road to her death.

...

"Great job, everyone," Scar said to his pride. "Get some rest now. Tomorrow we go further."

Now in a bit clearer area, the pride scattered around, each one taking their own place under the stars, never knowing what Scar's been taught about them. It was a thing he shared only with Warithi, his son. Scar lied down a bit more slowly, but with persistence and unwillingness to be a slave to his wounds. He turned himself on his back, quietly groaning, but eventually making himself comfortable.

"Father?" Scar heard Warithi behind him.

"Yes?" Scar said, continuing to look at the stars.

"Was I good enough?"

"I'm proud of you, son. Now go get some rest. Big days await."

"Yes, father," Warithi replied and moved away to lie down on the grass.

Scar continued to look up. At times it almost seemed like Mufasa truly was up there, glancing at him in disappointment, maybe even disgust. But after a long, exhausting, and finally, eventful day, he drifted off sooner than usual. He decided not to think about it. It wasn't the right time for that.