Author's note: Just to leave a short disclaimer that this chapter features some violence that I did not describe in detail, but it might be upsetting to some, so consider yourselves warned. I hope you still enjoy the chapter overall and continue reading my story even though things start getting a bit more intense from here (but it will retain a hopeful and empowering message in the long run).


CHAPTER FIVE: DESPERATE MEASURES

Kovu and Vitani stood silent as Scar walked around them, examining them. It reminded Kovu of Zira and it gave him the creeps. Kovu's face showed no emotion, but inside he was ready to jump out of his own skin. Vitani didn't feel much better either. There was something about Scar that made them feel like he could see right through them. But whether he really saw through or no, they knew that breaking the facade certainly wouldn't help.

"So if I understood clearly," Scar began. "They've got Damu and you can take us to their shelter. How come you turned against them so quickly?"

"We felt it was the right thing to do," Kovu responded.

"Then why did you join them in the first place?"

"We had no choice."

"Or you couldn't look out for yourselves?" Scar asked mockingly.

"It's better to move in prides. You have food, you have shelter, everything. Especially in a place like the Pride Lands," Vitani interrupted.

"My dear, I'm talking to Kovu right now," Scar cut her off with a more harsh tone in his voice. "Did I ask you anything?"

"No," she replied.

"Then speak only when you're spoken to."

Vitani nodded surprisingly obediently, suppressing the boiling rage inside of her.

"Good girl," Scar smiled, adding fuel to the fire inside of Vitani, and turned his face back to Kovu. "Weren't you supposed to be a king, little Kovu?"

"I had no such ambitions. Besides, after mother died, I had no choice but to obey."

"Oh, is that so? So Simba told you all to join him or die?" Scar asked almost rhetorically.

"Yes," Kovu replied.

Scar let out a short chuckle. "But that's so unlikely. Isn't Simba the savior type?"

"Not the Simba that I met," Kovu shook his head.

"Hm...I'm sorry but I just fail to understand why you all joined him. There were plenty of you, you could have just killed him."

"They were stronger. Getting in the pride was a safer way. I would become a king anyway, so why the trouble?"

"Indeed, indeed," Scar nodded, half-smiling, still with a lack of trust. "Speaking of kings, you know there's no chance for you of becoming a king of this pride?"

Kovu nodded. "I understand that."

"And since you turned your back on them so easily as soon as a stronger pride took over, why should I trust you?"

"There's no reason for you to trust me. But keep this in mind: Simba never meant a thing to me. You, however, I was raised to follow. Even though you weren't there," Kovu ended on a slightly harsher note and Scar felt it.

"Are you accusing me of something?" Scar said as his green eyes took on a menacing shade.

"Oh no, nothing," Kovu said as if correcting himself.

"Warithi," Scar called out to a lion standing right behind Kovu.

Kovu felt a very sudden and hard smack on his face and a second later he was lying on the ground, his snout pulsating from the pain, with Warithi's front paw pinning his head down against the ground. Vitani roared and wanted to rush to his aid, but two lionesses stood in front of her, growling at her.

"Just to make myself clear," Scar began as he got his face closer to Kovu's. "Any act of defiance from either of you and not only will I kick you out, but I will send you back in pieces. Understood?"

Kovu nodded and Vitani stood still again, as much as she wanted to slaughter each and every one of them.

"Does that mean we're in?" Kovu asked while carefully getting up after Warithi removed his paw from Kovu's chest.

"Yes," Scar responded and continued with a smile reappearing on his face. "After all, in a way, you are my children too."

Kovu and Vitani looked at Scar and thought about how they got lucky not to be raised by him, as bad as it was with Zira.

"Take them in and keep an eye on them," Scar said to the two lionesses surrounding Vitani, which now split to cover both Vitani and Kovu. Together, Kovu and Vitani had a chance against them and every inch of them wanted to run away, back to the safety of their pride. However, that wasn't what they were there for and so they got in the cave with the lionesses following right behind, wondering what the next day or two had in store for them.

...

Back in Simba's pride, once more, Imani and Gana woke up earlier to go hunting. It was a beautiful day in the Pride Lands, seeming as if none of the trouble happened.

Even though the two lionesses still felt tense about the situation in general, the beautiful morning brought them a small sense of ease and they took it slow while hunting. With the situation they were in, it wouldn't be useful to rush for the prey anyway. One slip and their cover would be blown.

This is, however, made them wander off farther than they intended. As careful as they were not to get close to the Pride Rock, they didn't count on another lion straying too far from his pride just as well...

...

Simba was kneeling down in the grass, looking at Pride Rock. So close, yet so far. He hoped to be able to see something going on up there, but it was way too far to see anything clearly. Simba feared for Kovu and Vitani, as much as he knew that he had to let the situation flow. He also feared that, if the pride lost more members, what would it make him? And if they lose Kovu, what would it make him in the eyes of his daughter?

"Simba?"

Simba turned his head around in surprise, almost getting up, when he saw Nala.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

Simba got up, knowing there was no way for him to be seen from way over there at the Pride Rock.

"I don't know, honestly," he responded as he got up.

He looked lost, but Nala, however, looked sort of playful. She smiled at him, like she knew something he didn't.

"Come," she said. "I have a surprise for you."

Simba smiled too and played along. It was good to relax every once in a while. "Do you, now? What kind?"

"Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise," she answered. "Come on."

She turned around and began walking with Simba following. As they got back into the thicket and to the cave, Simba heard a familiar nasal voice coming from the inside. He turned to Nala.

"No," he said with a surprised, but joyous look on his face. The way someone says it when they get a present they weren't hoping for.

"Oh, yes," Nala nodded her head, smiling back at him.

Simba ran inside with the energy of a kid finally seeing a parent after a period of separation. In a way, it really wasn't much different from that at all.

"Timon?!" Simba yelled out the moment he got in, before even seeing Timon.

The meerkat energetically jumped out of the crowd of lionesses. "Simba!"

Timon ran jumping from one lioness to another and finally throwing himself around Simba's neck.

"Hey, what about me?" Pumbaa's voice was heard as he tried to get through the crowd.

"Pumbaa!" Simba shouted euphorically.

Pumbaa finally got through and the three old friends finally embraced each other again, just like in the old days.

"What are you guys doing here?" Simba asked as they separated to talk.

"You mean you're not happy to see us?" Timon complained, moving away a little.

"No, no, far from that, but it's not safe here."

"Simba," Timon got slightly more serious. "We've heard it all. News travel fast around here and we had to make sure you're alright."

"You thought we would just stand where we are if we heard you're in trouble?! Not today, son!" said Pumbaa.

"Not ever!" added Timon chivalrously, deepening his voice.

Simba shook his head. "You guys."

"So what's the plan?" Timon asked, ready for action.

"The plan is you get back in the jungle until this whole mess is over," Simba responded.

"Aw, c'mon!" Pumbaa protested. "We might be older but we've still got it!"

"Plus, I've still got those hula distraction skills inside of me," Timon proudly added.

"Guys, I'm serious..." Simba began.

"No," Timon interrupted, waving his arms. "Not another word."

"There is no way to persuade you, huh?" Simba sighed.

"Nope!" Timon and Pumbaa replied at the same time.

"Fine then, but don't think I'm letting this go."

"Oh, you don't have to, but we certainly are," responded Timon. "What's the plan?"

"Well, you might have noticed that Kovu and Vitani aren't here right now."

"Oh yeah, what happened to them?" Pumbaa asked.

"We sent them to Scar so we can get him on a false trail. There's too many of them. The only chance we have if we want to fight them off is split them up. At the very least, it might buy us some time," Simba explained. "We don't know how much he will trust them, but they are all hope we have."

"Anything else?"

"We're holding one of Scar's sons hostage. Although he doesn't seem to be worth much. He's bitter and probably never got much love from his father."

"Great! More daddy issues!" Timon yelled while throwing his arms around in frustration. "Is that a thing with you lions?!"

Simba laughed. "I suppose it is."

Out of the blue, Gana popped up at the entrance, pushing everyone in front of her, panting loudly and looking as if death was chasing her.

"What happened?" Nala asked, first to break the bewildered expression from her face.

"They have one of us. They took Imani," Gana said as her tears steadily began to flow.

"What? How?!" Timon yelled and proceeded to whisper to Pumbaa. "Who is Imani?"

"I don't know," Pumbaa whispered back.

Gana looked as if she was about to collapse on the spot from panicking. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." she kept repeating.

Kiara approached her. "Hey! Gana, look at me!"

As Gana proceeded to panic, Kiara did what she didn't want to do, but knew was absolutely necessary; she smacked Gana across her face. Gana finally stood still.

"Listen to me!" Kiara yelled and continued in a more calming manner, as nervous as she felt herself. "You didn't want that to happen, but it did. There's no use in crying and blaming yourself, we have no time for that now. Tell us what happened."

After a short silence, Gana began talking quietly, her eyes blank. "We went out hunting, the way we usually do. But we were careful not to be seen and careful not to get too close to the Pride Rock. We didn't count on someone else being around. There was another lion, he attacked us from behind. I heard her scream out my name. I turned around and saw a one-eyed lion reaching me and smacking my head with his paw, making me hit my head against the rock. I don't remember much beyond that. Only fragments. But I know she was fighting, protecting me. At some point, I woke up and neither of them was there anymore."

"One-eyed lion," Nala remarked. "That's the one whose eye Zazu clawed out."

"Zazu clawed someone's eye out?!" Timon asked in disbelief.

In the meantime, Gana started to cry again, but at least she no longer looked like her heart would fail her.

"Come here," Kiara muttered, warmly nuzzling her head against Imani's, comforting her. "It's not your fault."

...

Kovu frantically raised his head up to check his surroundings after noticing he fell asleep. This time there was a lioness guarding him, and a lion that pinned him down the night before, Warithi. They were eyeing him carefully and Kovu stood in place. He couldn't do anything stupid at this point. At least he was safe enough to sleep, that ice was broken. Or maybe it was because Vitani managed to stay awake somehow. Even though this first time went well, Kovu knew he would probably be scared to fall asleep the next night too.

He tried to take a look at the cave to see if Scar was near, but noticing only a bunch of unfamiliar lions that made Pride Rock, a place he called home, seem so strange; like it was a whole different place, far from home. Scar was nowhere to be found. That put him at ease because he didn't have to face him first thing in the morning, but also terrified him because of the unclarity of the situation.

"Now what?" Vitani broke the silence.

Warithi smirked. "You will find out soon enough."

As if predicting what was about to happen, Kovu stared at the corner of the entrance to the cave, only to see it reveal Scar as he got in moments later.

"Everybody, come down," Scar spoke. "Take care of them."

Warithi's mocking smile reminded Kovu of himself when he was still being manipulated. He looked at Warithi and saw everything he could have become had he not fallen in love with Kiara. As he thought of this, shivers ran down his spine. His mind distanced itself from the thought soon, though, and he was going out of the cave and down the Pride Rock followed by two lionesses, adjusting his eyes to the bright sunlight.

As they got to the bottom of Pride Rock, Kovu saw a small group of lionesses standing there with one lying injured in the middle with a crimson red wound on her side, blood spreading itself like a blooming flower in the green grass. Her breaths were shallow and so loud that Kovu could hear them before he even got there.

"Make some room for the two of them!" Scar ordered the lionesses and they opened an entrance for Kovu and Vitani, leading them to a bleeding lioness. Now that they were closer, Kovu could see that the lioness looked familiar.

"Imani?!" exclaimed Vitani.

Kovu recognized his pride's lioness, but hid his intensity well. Imani was among the older ones in the pride and probably the oldest of the Outlanders, taking care of Vitani and Kovu sometimes instead of Zira when they were cubs. Scar wouldn't remember her, though. He only remembered Zira when he promised her a safe entrance into the Pride Lands, but it made no difference to him whether she was a Pridelander or an Outlander. They were with Simba and therefore, they were all enemies to him.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kovu asked even though the answer was painfully obvious.

"Kill her, of course," Scar replied while mercilessly gazing at them, not blinking once. "You bite her neck, Vitani will hold her down."

Kovu wanted to gulp, but he ended up just nodding.

"Go on, then," Scar said as if challenging him.

Kovu and Vitani walked slowly towards Imani, not knowing what their next move would be. Vitani pressed her down as soon as she got to her. Kovu knew it wasn't smart to hesitate too much, so he lowered his head down to Imani's.

"It's okay," Imani whispered in a hardly audible volume. "We can't let this fail."

"I'm sorry," Kovu quietly responded, careful not to be heard. He wanted to thank her, wanted to tell her so much more than this, but he couldn't if he was to remain alive.

Over the years, while Zira was still raising him, Kovu knew the exact spot to bite another animal and kill it immediately. Disgusted by himself, Kovu opened his jaws and bit into it, piercing right through. Imani trembled for a few seconds, then stopped.

Vitani carefully slid her paw down on the ground again as Kovu turned around to face Scar, blood dripping down his muzzle. Scar approached Kovu with a blank expression while Kovu stood in spot. The entire pride seemed intense, but surprised at the same time. Warithi's eyes were as wide as if this was the last thing he expected to happen. Moments ago, he looked more than ready to execute both Kovu and Vitani with great pleasure, but now he felt like his whole world turned upside down.

Kovu didn't look away from Scar's eyes as Scar approached him. Scar's gaze felt like being stabbed through the chest, but Kovu refused to lose this one. He killed not to mess up and his act disgusted him. There was no turning back now. He was going to do this the proper way or no way.

Once Scar and Kovu were finally face to face with one another, Scar broke his cold expression, smiled and put his paw around Kovu's back, embracing him.

"Welcome back," Scar whispered in Kovu's ear.

Kovu felt his heart sinking and his feelings of guilt form a dark cloud in his head, but he had to put on a show for Scar. He did it. He and Vitani infiltrated themselves successfully, but with a price to pay. Now they were going to pull this off until the very end. For the first time in a long time, Kovu managed to cut off the torturous darkness in his mind. For the first time in a long time, Kovu felt determined.