"How could you let her get away?" Scar demands with a mighty, earth-quivering roar. "She was a mere lizard!"

Janja gulps noticeably and Dalia barely suppresses one of her own. The very earth underneath their paws shakes with the fiery lion's anger, and Dalia swears she sees the lava lake bubbling with each word. The lioness and hyena returned back to Scar's Lair near the same time. One of them dreaded the conversation with Scar, the other looked forward to it.

"Little lioness." Scar looks down at Dalia. "I trusted that catching a mere lizard would be an easy enough task for you."

Dalia takes a step back. "Scar, I had every intention of capturing the spy." She gives a look to Janja. She would need to word this carefully. "However, Janja gave me orders to stay back. I simply thought that since he answers directly to you, I would listen to him.

Scar's face contorts with irritation. "Little lioness, who is your leader? Me or Janja?"

"You, Scar."

"Then who should you obey? Me or Janja?" His tone is sickly-sweet and smooth like honey. But Dalia knows better.

"You, Scar," she repeats. This time, she adds a submissive duck of the head at the end. She gnaws at the insides of her cheek, her head still tilted towards the ground. She hates every single moment of this. Whether it be him calling her his little lioness or the fact that she is submitting to a dead lion, it's an all-around humiliating experience.

The fiery lion turns to glare at the hyena standing beside Janja. "And you. How dare you override my commands?"

Janja gulps once more. "Well, you see, I- uh... um..." he mumbles underneath his breath for a few beats, trying to find a decent excuse. When none comes to him, he ducks his head submissively. "Sorry, Scar. But I would've caught the spy if it weren't for that boulder. It just came out of nowhere!"

The red skink scoffs from behind Janja. "Even if it weren't for that boulder, you would've still lost sight of the chameleon. You were too busy picking fights with us skinks." She narrows her eyes at the much bigger hyena. "I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, Janja, but you better figure it out. This superiority complex of yours was endearing at first. Now, it's simply detrimental to our objectives."

Janja growls. "What's that supposed to mean?"

A blue, male skink takes a step forward. "She means you're trying to compensate for your own weakness by throwing yourself into situations where you're simply not needed. You trample others trying to help you just to prove you're strong and brave and wise. Like she said, it was cute at first. Maybe even admirable. Now, it's plain annoying."

"Yeah, we're on the same team," another skink adds, "Yet, somehow, you seem to keep forgetting!"

Scar lets out a growl. "Janja, I too have noticed this rather annoying character of yours. It's becoming absolutely infuriating," he growls. "My little lioness had the perfect opportunity to prove herself to me, and you snatched it away from her."

Again, Dalia chews at her cheek at the sound of the nickname. An uncomfortable shiver rides up the length of her spine.

Janja looks at his paws, and for a split second, Dalia actually pities him.

"Just get out of my sight. All of you!" Scar snarls.


The group returns to Kilio Valley, Imba and Dalia bringing up the rear. Imba and Dalia exchange slight smiles, both of them thinking of the little spy Kion has successfully employed. With the little flaw in their plan taken care of, there's not much stopping them now. Dalia looks over at Janja and notices that he still looks down trot from the harsh tongue-lashing he received.

"I'm guessing your meeting with Scar wasn't exactly a success?" Reirei's voice breaks the silence, the amusement behind it palpable.

Janja growls at her. "Shut it, Reirei."

Imba nods from her spot in the sky. "Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for the yapping today, Reirei."

From behind the eagle, Mzingo clears his throat before Reirei can snap-back with a snarky comment. He perches on a nearby branch. "Just thought I'd inform you of the recent change in events. Turns out, the Lion Guard has sent a chameleon about this size," he gestures with his wings, "to spy on us. So do be on the lookout for that."

The jackal matriarch gives a small, amused snort before turning tail to whisper something to Goigoi. Janja watches through narrowed eyes as Goigoi throws his head back in a cackle.

"We shall retire for the night and reconvene at dawn," Mzingo continues. He turns to look at the rest of his parliament. "All in favor of reciting our parliamentary anthem before retiring for the evening?"

"Aye!" the vultures chime in.

"Imba, what do you make of the idea?" Mzingo questions, turning to look at her. Imba flashes him an odd look and a shrug of the shoulders. "Don't be such a spoil-sport, Imba. My parliament decided earlier that since you're the only other bird around here, you could be an honorary member of the Vulture Parliament. If you so choose, that is."

Imba rolls her eyes from beside them. She hops off the branch she was perched on and flies to the opposite corner of Kilio Valley. "Whatever. I've put up with your We Are The Vultures and 'all in favor of blah blah blah' all day. Sing, dance, chant — I'm too tired to care. Do whatever it is that'll make you happy, and leave me out of it." She nestles into her makeshift nest. "And do it quietly. I already have enough of a headache as it is."

As Imba starts drifting off to sleep and the vultures start quietly reciting their anthem, Reirei approaches Janja and Dalia again. The jackal has a brow cocked and a smirk on her face. Both Dalia and Janja frown. Whatever it is Reirei's come to bother them about, Dalia decides it won't be pleasant.

"What do you want?" Janja barks.

Dalia narrows her eyes as well. "Yeah. I'm not exactly in the mood for the nagging."

Reirei's smirk only grows. "Relax, relax." She glances at Janja. "I just wanted to share some thoughts I had in the back of my mind." Janja gives a small grunt for her to continue. "I was just wondering; if the two of you continue to slack when it comes to the effort you're putting into this army, Scar's not going to be happy." She pauses to take in Janja's irritated expression. "Maybe he'd even put us jackals in charge."

"What're you trying to say?" Janja asks tiredly.

"I'm just saying, you might want to be on your toes. I don't know how the two of you were raised, but we jackals have no tolerance for slackers."

The lioness unsheaths her claws and digs them into the ground. She peers behind the jackal and spots one of her children in a rather... uncomfortable position. "Hey, Reirei?" she tilts her head to the right, "I think your kid's got his head stuck in a pothole."

The jackal turns around to see that one of her children is in fact stuck in a pothole. She gives a snarl of annoyance, and Janja lets out a chuckle.

Dalia smirks. "Maybe worry about those little gremlins you've got running around — maybe even try to get Mr. Deadbeat over there to help out," she gestures to Goigoi, "then come talk to us about potential leadership positions. 'Kay?"

Reirei snarls once more before turning tail and stomping away.

As the jackal walks away, Janja gives a laugh. "That was pretty awesome," he says with a chuckle.

"Thanks," Dalia replies proudly, a grin spreading across her face. She cocks a brow as she notices Janja starting to walk in the other direction. "Hey, uh, are we on good terms after what happened back there? In the volcano, I mean."

Janja turns to glare at her. "Just because you said something snarky to Reirei doesn't mean we're all buddy-buddy now." Once again, he turns around and starts walking away from her.

"Where're you going?"

With a turn of the heel, he turns to his hyena crew. He doesn't answer her right away, instead barking out orders to the other hyena. "C'mon, boys. We've got a waterfall to block."

They sit up immediately, ready, and attentive.

The lioness scowls. "Why would you go now?" she asks. "The Lion Guard already knows you're coming. It's just going to be a waste of time and energy."

Janja shoots her a glare. "I can do whatever I want." He turns to his crew once more. "I said, come on."

"You're being foolish, Janja," Dalia calls after him, watching as the hyena starts to leave Kilio Valley.

Janja doesn't even pause in his step. He continued walking away from her, and into the Pridelands.


No more than an hour later, Janja and his hyenas return to Kilio Valley with their tails drooping and eyes cast the ground. Dalia doesn't even need to ask to know that they lost. Imba, still half-asleep in her nest, opens one eye to peek at the fallen group before settling back to sleep.

Before she could utter a word, Janja turned around and shot her a glare. "Look, I already know what you're going to say. You're gonna sit there and say I told you so and I was right," he spats with venom behind his words, "And frankly, I don't wanna hear it."

Dalia snorts in amusement. "I didn't even say anything, yet you managed to convey everything I would've said."

Janja growls at her. "You're insufferable," he snarls. He watches as Cheezi and Chungu start retreating to their own nests, both hyenas utterly exhausted. "You just don't get it, do you? Everything comes easy for you. Guess that's what comes with being a lion," he says with a scoff.

To this, the lioness feels her fur bristle. "You don't know me, Janja, so quit acting like you do."

"I might not know you, but I know your kind. I know how lions operate." He glowers at her. "And that is exactly why I didn't want another lion in our army. My entire life, I've been pushed around and told what to do. Yet with lions, everything's different."

He walks grits his teeth. "Everything always comes easy for you lions. You command respect and authority. Whenever any of you lions want something done, all you gotta do is open that ugly muzzle of yours and start ordering. And everyone listens to you, 'cause you've got them all wrapped around your little paw. That's how it works in the Pridelands, and that's how it's working here in Scar's Army."

"That's not true," says Dalia, though her voice sounds slightly uncertain.

"How would you know?" he snaps. "You've done nothing to earn any kind of favor with Scar. Nothing other than being a lion, of course," he says with a grumble.

Dalia stands up, sliding her claws into the ground. She doesn't know why his words are making her so angry, but they are.

"Why do you care then, huh? Why do you care so much about some dead lion if you can't stand us lions? What difference is it to you what some dead guy thinks about you? Do you really think he even cares about you? No!"

Dalia's words leave an uncomfortable stillness in the air, and Janja's silent for a long time. They both are. But the glare they are interchanging speaks as loud as any shouting match.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Janja scoffs.

"Typical lion," he hisses. "You guys always find some way to point the claw back on us. You wanna know why I care so much about what Scar thinks of me? Because he gives me a purpose. Scar's the only lion outta all of ya'll who was willing to treat us hyenas as equals."

"That doesn't make any sense," Dalia retorts with a roll of the eyes. "You just said that you think the only reason Scar favors me is because I'm a lion. How's that equal?"

"I was referring to before you and Chirpy over there decided to rear your ugly heads," he snaps. "Before my time, too, for that matter. You see, the Golden Years for us hyenas was when Scar was still king of the Pridelands. He allowed us to hunt as much as we wanted, roam the Pridelands for as long as we wanted, and finally be in charge."

Dalia snorts. "We all know how well that turned out."

"That's only 'cause Simba showed up and messed everything up. We had a good thing going. For once, the lions were going through what we had to put up with before Scar helped us out." He looks down at his paws. "I used to know a trio hyenas who used to work with Scar and ended up betraying him. One of 'em was a little messed up in the head, but they were pretty decent hyenas."

"What're you getting at with this?" she asks tiredly.

His eyes flash. "If you quit interrupting me, maybe I'd be able to tell you," he growls.

"Like I was saying, they were pretty decent hyenas. Even took me and my buddies under their wing. Showed us the ropes. One day, we were talking. They told me that their biggest and only regret was betraying Scar. Because after Simba took charge, everything went back to how it used to be for us. We even tried abiding by the Circle of Life nonsense for a little bit. That didn't stop the Pridelanders from sneering at us and looking down at us. Didn't stop 'em from driving us out of the Pridelands every time we entered, even though we meant no harm."

Dalia feels her eyes widen in surprise.

"And eventually, we got tired of playing by their rules. We listened to what Simba asked us to do, and that got us nowhere. So why bother? By the time Kion was born, we were at odds with the Pridelands again. And that's how it worked for a little bit. We would fight with the Pridelanders and be driven back. Over and over again. Then Scar returned with the promise of a new life for me. For all of us."

The lioness looks down guiltily. She learned long ago that there are two sides to every situation, nothing's ever just black and white. But this confession surprised her. It surprised her more than it should've.

"And everything was working out for a little bit. Things were finally looking up for me and my boys." He hardens his gaze into a glare. "That is until you showed up. Everything was going fine until you entered the mix. Now, you're trying to take my spot in this Army. You're trying to butt in at the last moment and take everything I've been working for, and it's unfair."

"You're delusional," Dalia says evenly, though what Janja accused her of wasn't too far from the truth. "I'm not trying to take anything from you." Lie. "And I'm certainly not trying to take your spot, either." Another lie. "I just also happen to be at odds with the Lion Guard. Can you fault me for that?"

The hyena eyes her. "But what I don't understand is why. Why do you do all this? Why go to this length to bicker with the Guard? That part doesn't make sense to me. You know how the members of Simba's Pride live. You could be living like a Queen as long as you work with Kion and join their Pride. We hyenas at least have a reason behind it all. You don't."

Dalia sighs. He's smarter than he looks, she realizes. She shouldn't have underestimated him. "What're you trying to ask, Janja? Quit beating around the bush, and just ask me. What do you want to know?"

"I wanna know why you hate the Lion Guard. And the Pridelanders, for that matter."

She meets his gaze head-on. "I think the Lion Guard is really... really hypocritical."

And of all the lies she told today, her last statement was truthful.


Author's Note:

I hope you've all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! I really wanted to post this chapter yesterday, but unfortunately didn't get the chance. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Though there wasn't any Kion/Dalia interaction, I wanted Janja and Dalia to interact in this chapter. Speaking of Janja, I hope that his hate is a little more understandable now.

The way I imagined it, after the battle of Priderock when Scar was defeated, the hyenas that betrayed Scar tried listening to Simba. But due to the way other Pridelanders still felt about them after Scar's reign, the hyenas felt like they were still being treated the same, regardless of whether or not they obeyed the Circle of Life. So why obey it if nothing changes? And Janja, being raised in this kind of environment, naturally felt resentful.

I know that this isn't exactly canon, but it's how I pictured it.