I don't own any canon characters.
"Kiara, I need to talk to you," Kovu said, approaching the cave entrance.
"Kiara, I don't want you talking with him," Simba said sternly. Seeing the expressions on the faces of the two younger lions, he continued in a softer tone, "I want to talk with him." He then left the cave. Kovu gave Kiara a look, and followed.
As Kovu followed Simba down Pride Rock, he looked around in confusion. For some reason, though he couldn't understand why, everything seemed familiar, even more so than it had just the day before. "why," he muttered, "I've never been here before, but..."
"Is there something wrong Kovu," Simba asked, looking at him.
"What," Kovu asked, coming back to reality, "oh, no, I was just wondering why this place seems so familiar."
"Maybe it's because you visited once, when you were a cub," Simba said.
"I-I did," Kovu asked, surprised, "but I can't have..."
"You visited as a cub," Simba said, "you probably don't remember, because you were here for such a short time."
Kovu wanted to argue with Simba, but thinking back, he couldn't make sense of his earlier memories. Unable to think of anything else to say, he asked, "how?"
"You'd wandered into the Pridelands," Simba replied, "when Zira came to retrieve you, I'm afraid I lost my temper a little, and said a few things I maybe shouldn't have said." He waited a moment, then went on, "Zira offered you as a pound of flesh."
Kovu was confused. On one side, he'd got all that Zira had taught him about the Pridelanders, and Simba especially, while on the other, this same lion that he'd been taught to hate was being so apparently open with him. "What happened then," he asked.
"Then Zira sent Nuka and Vitani to retrieve you," Simba replied, "well, kidnap you back."
That sounded about right, come to think of it, Kovu thought. "I, I was told you exiled u-, the Outlanders," he said.
"That I did," Simba said, giving Kovu an odd look, "were you ever told why I exiled the Outlanders?"
Kovu thought for a minute, then said, "I was told it was because you were evil, but doesn't even an evil king need a reason to do something?"
"I'd guess Zira told you then," Simba said, inquiringly.
"Yes, she did," Kovu said.
"The reason I exiled the Outlanders, Zira and her supporters, was because they tried to kill me," Simba explained, "they hated me because I'd beaten Scar."
"I-I was told you murdered Scar," Kovu said, eager, now, to know the other side of the story he'd only ever heard from one side.
Simba gave Kovu another strange look, then said, "I gave him a chance, several chances in fact, to step down, and he didn't take them." He seemed to think for a moment, then added, "I didn't kill him either, the hyenas did."
"Kiara told me, you said there was a darkness in Scar," Kovu said.
"Yes, there was a darkness in him," Simba said, his tone flat and controlled.
Kovu glanced over, and was a little shocked to see the king looking angry. "Did, did scar do something bad?"
It seemed that, for a moment, Simba would fly into a rage, but he didn't. After a few minutes, the king replied, "yes he did, he murdered his own brother, my father."
Kovu was taken aback at the information. If the information was true, then Simba was Scar's nephew, and family. Did Zira know this, did she know what she had asked of him? She probably did actually, but she obviously didn't care.
Of course, it could all be a lie, Kovu considered, but then again, Simba didn't seem like the type to lie, and even if he was, this was surely too natural to be a lie. "I-I'm sorry," he said, "I was never told, that."
"I hadn't expected you were," Simba said, his voice both stern and sad, "and nor do you have any need to apologise."
In the silence that followed, another thought occurred to Kovu. If Scar had killed Mufasa, then it was the former's death that was vengeance, not himself killing Simba, and the king hadn't actually killed Scar either. What would the king's reaction be if he admitted to Zira's plan...
"You said hyenas killed Scar," Kovu said, "what, what happened to them?"
"Most of them died in the fire that burned off the Pridelands," Simba replied, "the rest, for what they did to the Pridelands, I forced them back to the Elephant Graveyard." He paused a moment, thinking, then continued, "for what they did to Scar, Zira... ...I turned a blind eye to what Zira did." His voice showed a little remorse now, a little guilt, "I shouldn't have done it, I know now, but I was younger then, and I had only a little experience at ruling." His voice dropped to a mutter, "some things should never be allowed to happen."
"But, I don't get something," Kovu said, "if the hyenas killed Scar, why were they in the Pridelands in the first place."
"I wondered that myself," Simba replied, "many times, and I never got a satisfactory answer." He stopped, then seemed to think a moment. "As to why they killed him," he went on, "the final time I faced Scar, he tried to talk his way out, he even talked of the hyenas being the enemy." The king had a grim expression as he recounted the events of so long ago, "then he flicked hot coals into my face, and attacked me while I was blind. He didn't quite beat me though, and in the end, he went over the cliff."
"And the hyenas..." Kovu asked.
"Ah, yes," Simba said, "I don't know how they found out about they betrayal, and I didn't know they were at the bottom of the cliff, either."
Everything was starting to fall into place in Kovu's mind. Scar had killed this, Mufasa, and tried, but failed, to kill Simba. Scar had then let the hyenas into the Pridelands, and had ruined them. Eventually, Simba had come back to challenge Scar, and had won. In the process though, Scar had betrayed the hyenas, and had then found himself at their mercy, and he'd just betrayed them... "I, I..." he started to say, but felt unsure of how to go on.
"Yes Kovu," Simba asked.
"Zira wants you dead," Kovu finally managed to say.
"I've known that for a long time Kovu," Simba said, stopping, and turning to face the younger lion, "why bring it up now?"
Kovu shut his eyes and took a deep breath before replying, "Zira plans, planned, for me to kill you." Half to himself, he added, "you were right."
"What," Simba exclaimed, then his voice dropped down to a hiss, "what did you just say?"
"The fire, the rescue, it was all a setup," Kovu replied, almost quivering. Though he couldn't actually see Simba, he didn't need to, to sense the anger pouring off the king. "It was a setup, so that I could get in and kill you," he replied, his own voice almost a whisper, "only, only I can't do it anymore."