Disclaimer: There are depictions of blood and injury in this chapter. If you know these topic matters may be upsetting to you, kindly hit the back arrow.


"One reason," Janja growls, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you right here, right now."

Dalia stares up at him with wide eyes. "Janja," she says, wincing as she feels his claws beginning to actually prick into her flesh. "Let me go, and I'll explain everything. I swear."

Dalia knows, that if it comes down to it, she would be capable of fighting Janja off. She's fought tougher opponents than Janja and came out victorious, so she doubts that this is something she cannot do. However, she doesn't want it to come down to that. She feels like she had finally begun getting through to Janja, and she didn't want all her hard work to go to waste.

Janja digs his claws deeper, more threateningly, into her flesh. "I was just beginning to trust you," Janja says, scoffing. "I'm such an idiot. I shoulda known that you were a spy — that you were up to nothing good. I shoulda just trusted my gut about you lions," he spats, his voice dripping with disgust, "You're all the same, aren't you?"

"Janja, listen to me," Dalia croaks, "You may think that Scar's helping you, but in the long run, he'll only bring you to your destruction. I can promise you that from experience. Come back with me, to the Pridelands. Kion will find a place for you. We can finally put an end to the Prideland-Outland dispute. Just think about it — a world of peace for you and your clan. Doesn't that sound nice?"

Janja's eyes bear conflict, and Dalia knows he's at the tipping point. She just needs to push a little harder...

But before she can say anything more, Janja is suddenly growling. He's digging his claws deeper, and Dalia realizes that if she wants to escape with her head still attached to her shoulders, she needs to act quickly. In one not-so-fluid motion, her hindlegs work to buck him off of her. In hindsight, this is not the best plan, but at the moment, it's the only option that comes to mind.

She finally gives a mighty thrust of her hindlegs upwards, her sharp claws slashing the backs of his legs.

And when she looks, Dalia realizes that she did succeed in bucking him off of her (and he landed a few feet away awkwardly). But his claws had further caught onto her flesh during the struggle — deepening her wound. Dalia gasps as she regains her breath. To her dismay, she realizes his claws did some damage because there's a warm dampness matting her fur and running down her throat.

She immediately flips over so that she is standing on four limbs again, and she stares at Janja warily through the corner of her eye. She's pleased to see that he is also bleeding from this encounter, though the location of his injury isn't nearly as alarming as the location of hers.

"Janja," she tries again, and she's horrified with how raspy her voice sounds, "I'm sorry for deceiving you and tricking you, but you can turn your life around now. It's not too late—"

"Just... stop," Janja grits out. When he turns his face up to stare at her, the conflict in his eyes is gone. Instead replaced with resolution. "I've made up my mind." Hope soars through lioness' veins, only to crash when Janja continues, "You, along with Jasiri, saved my life back at the hot-spot. I'm repaying the favor now. I'll even go wake up Imba so she can get away before any of the others realize that she's a spy too."

"But after this," he continues, his eyes sharpening, "me and you are even. My debt will be repeated. If I ever catch you again lurking around here, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Dalia furrows her brow. "But... don't you want peace? Just come with me, and you can have the life you've always wanted."

Janja growls. "Just get out of here before I change my mind. Am I clear?"

Dawn is steadily rising in the distance, setting a slight orange-red hue to the sky.

Her throat tightens, and the place where he cut her neck suddenly aches. The trickle of blood oozing from her neck is now a steady stream. "Crystal," she grunts, her voice sounding slightly garbled.

...

Dalia is forcing herself forward, every step clouding her already foggy mind even further. After another dizzying step, she looks down at her two front paws and sees six rather than two. Sighing, she tilts her head forward and squints against the morning sun. Priderock is now visible, though barely.

Dalia tries to swallows the saliva gathering in her open mouth, but all she tastes is the sharp tang of copper. She knows that the wound Janja gave her wasn't enough to do any serious damage, but she also knows that she's losing an alarming amount of blood. She internally wonders if Janja unknowingly opened a vein or artery, because she's never actually seen this much blood coming from an injury in her life.

It's quite disturbing, honestly. Not to mention embarrassing. She's embarrassed that she allowed Janja to hurt her like this. To wound her in such a manner. Anyone who would happen to take a glance at her at this moment would think that she lost a fight, and she partially did in a way. And Dalia never loses. Especially not to creatures like Janja. But, to his credit, she was surprised when he let her go.

After Janja let her go, Dalia has been forcing herself to walk to Priderock. There, that strange 'Mjuzi' and his apprentice could heal her.

But with each step, it feels like she's both hot and cold at the same time. Sweating and shivering. Her mind's in a constant spin, her thoughts are sluggish and slow, and her limbs feel like they're a thousand pounds.

She's about half-way in her journey to Priderock when her eyelids start feeling awfully heavy. She stops walking, sitting down to regain clarity. Her vision is blackening at the ends, and her breath coming in shallowly.

The last thing she remembers before blacking out is hearing an awfully familiar eagle's screech from overhead.


Kion is biting back a yawn as he waits for the rest of his Guard to show up for dawn patrol.

The rest of the members were probably in the Lion Guard's Lair (which also served as Rafiki's new Training Area for Makini), preparing for the day. There was a time where Kion would join them in the Lair, and they'd hang out before beginning their dawn patrol.

But they recently amped up security measures in light of recent attacks, and it seems as if Kion's life is slowly becoming one full of war. He's exhausted. Beyond exhausted, really, fighting a battle that seems to have no end. He couldn't sleep last night, bouts of paranoia and hopelessness striking him throughout the late hours of the evening and early hours of the morning.

The pressure of protecting everyone from, while at the same time keeping everyone oblivious about, Scar's return sometimes feels like a herculean task. His young shoulders sag with undue age, and the dark eye-bags underneath his eyes are forming darker by the day.

"What's taking them so long?" Kion wonders aloud, almost grumpily.

In recent days, Kion has been feeling a sort of resentment towards his Guard. He knows he's not upset with the members of the Lion Guard, but rather the responsibilities that come with being their leader. He was only a cub when he was given this burden, and now he's not sure how happy he is doing it. He loves helping other Pridelanders, of course. But he doesn't love the other aspects of his job.

He's about to start fetching his Guard, when suddenly a shrill eagle screech sounds from overhead.

A few seconds later, a familiar blue-feathered eagle dives down to perch eye-level with Kion. Imba's eyes are watery with worry, and her breath coming in shaky.

"You need to help her," Imba says quickly. "Dalia, I mean."

Kion stares at her stunned for a moment. "Why, what's going on?" he questions after a few seconds, "What happened?"

"She's hurt," Imba says, "Hurt really, really, bad. Bleeding... and oh my—" she pauses as she collects her breath — "I just found her, and she's passed out but still alive."

Kion feels tension return to his face, deep lines forming between his brows. His face goes pale at the thought of Dalia injured like that.

The young prince thinks back to his rather hostile conversation with Tombie, Dalia's friend. The red-furred hyena had been downright furious with Kion for allowing Dalia to spy for the Lion Guard. Kion hadn't known what to say at that moment, and he definitely won't know what to tell Tombie when he finds out that his best friend is apparently very badly injured.

"Let me go get Beshte," Kion says, turning so that he can go fetch the hippo from the Lair, "He'll carry her to Rafiki, and I know Rafiki will take good care of her."

Imba eyes him warily. "I hope you're right."


Muffled voices flit through Dalia's aching head.

"I think she's waking up... Lemme just..."

"Bunga, stop poking her nose!"

"Makini, how's that any different from what you're doing? You're the one jabbing her neck with... grass? What... what're you doing anyway?"

"First of all, it's moss. Second of all, I'm stopping the bleeding until Rafiki arrives, you silly honey-badger. And didn't I say to stop poking her?"

Dalia's eyes peel open to someone gently dabbing her neck what feels like... damp moss? And then another someone is poking her nose rather irritatingly.

Immediately her eyes snap open fully and almost wildly. She sees the very alarmed faces of various creatures, all of whom's faces are slightly blurring together as blood rushes to her head. She pushes aside the hand that's dabbing her neck with the moss, and looks around. It looks like she's in a very fuzzy, blurry cave? There's a bunch of multi-colored blobs standing beside her.

"See," says a blurry-looking, blue blob, "Poking her did work."

A yellow blob next to him sighs sharply. "Just... sit down, Bunga," the yellow blob says, her voice distinctly female.

"I'm just glad she's okay," states very matter-of-factly a small, gray figure with wings.

"Yeah," says a large purple-ish mass with a kind-sounding voice, "That was scary. I'm just glad I was able to carry her back in time."

Dalia's head hurts as she strains her eyes to make out what's going on. "Wha..." Dalia garbles, "Where..?"

As her vision begins to clear, a female, young mandrill with blurred features moves the moss in her hand closer to her. "Hey, you're alright now," she says soothingly,

The voice sounds very familiar.

"Makini?" Dalia says stupidly, once her vision cleared fully. Her head is still ringing, but it was tolerable.

Looking around, she realizes that isn't just Makini in front of her. Spread out in front of her stands the members of the Lion Guard (minus Kion), Makini, and Imba perched nearby. They all share looks of worry and alarm, though Bunga showed the least of it among them.

Imba rushes forward, her blue eyes watery. "You-you're so insufferable," she babbles almost incoherently, "Do you know how scared I was? Finding you like that?"

Dalia attempts to apologize, but now that the initial grogginess is gone, the pain is back in full force and her throat is far too raw to manage words.

Makini shoots her a sharp glance. "No talking," she chides Dalia. "At least, not until Rafiki gets here."

As if on cue, the vines that guard the entrance of the cave begin rustling, and Dalia turns her head (only for Makini to rebuke her) to see Rafiki briskly walking in. He's quickly followed by Kion, whose face shines with worry.

Rafiki brushes past the rest of the creatures in the cave, and without speaking, he tilts her chin up to inspect the wound. His withered fingers feel soothing against her very sore neck. He tilts her chin to the left, then to the right. Then back to the left.

"Hmm..." he murmurs under his breath. "I see..." He tilts her chin upright once more. "Yes, yes..."

"So?" comes Kion's nervous voice. "Will she be okay?"

Rafiki doesn't answer him right away. Instead, he removes his hands from her gently and rocks back the balls of his feet. "She is a very lucky lioness," he finally says, brushing his hands off against his chest. "Very, very lucky, indeed." He reaches for his bakora, which was being previously held by Makini. "Whoever did this to Dalia did not manage to cut her deep enough to damage anything important. While the location is certainly alarming, I suspect the wound shall be scabbing over by tonight."

His words bearing good news seem to shock everyone. Particularly Imba.

"Then why was there so much blood?" she demands, her voice still fearful.

"That is where this she gets particularly lucky," Rafiki continues, his eyes twinkling, "It seems as if a minor vein close to the surface of her skin has been punctured. So, naturally, there was a lot of blood — but the wound itself was rather shallow. And luckily, my very competent apprentice —" he gestures towards Makini "— has managed to stop the bleeding."

Makini is practically blushing at the praise. "I have a good teacher," she says shyly.

"However, I want to monitor her and make sure she doesn't reopen her wound once it scabs over," Rafiki states, threading his fingers through his wispy, white beard. "Neck and throat injuries are always fickle. So, she must stay here for a few nights."

Dalia's certain that if she could talk without feeling like she just swallowed a cactus, she'd be protesting. She doesn't like the thought of being injured, but she hates the idea of being confined in one place even more.

Makini, who must've caught Dalia's deflated expression, reached a hand over to pat her comfortingly. "Don't worry, Dalia," she says, "I'll stay here with you. It'll be kinda like a sleepover!"

Kion, who was keeping his distance and allowed Rafiki to inspect her wound, takes a few steps forward. He weaves through the small crowd, his honey-brown eyes fixed on the lioness currently resting. Dalia can see past the worry shining in the amber depths of his eyes, and she can see pure, unadulterated anger. She can only imagine that the 'leader-of-the-Lion-Guard' and 'defender-of-all' part of him is demanding retribution, angry that someone who was working to help him got hurt on his watch.

"Dalia," he says gently, approaching her. "I need you to tell me who did this to you."

The lioness thought back to Janja. The way he was wavery, and just on the precipe of turning side. The way he was so close to turning his life around, and fell just a little short. He just needs a little more pushing, and she hopes that this will be a turning point for him. And if Kion goes and attacks Scar's Army in retribution for Janja hurting her, all the progress Janja has made in regards to his moral standing will have been for nothing.

"Tell me who did this to you," he repeats, a little more sternly this time. "I'll set things right."

Dalia, suddenly very thankful for her raw throat, just shakes her head before laying it back down. She hopes he can understand what her lack of response is saying:

Leave it alone. Let me handle this. This is a fickle matter.

But taking one look at his face — the bewilderment and confusion that's practically written all over his expression — she can tell that he doesn't.


A/N: Thoughts? I know this chapter felt a little short, but don't worry — there'll be some Dalia/Kion moments in the next chapter to make up for it. I really, really miss writing their interactions together, so I know I'll have a lot of fun in writing it. So, we're nearing the end of Season 2. I think I've only got about 3-5 more chapters until I start on "The Final Battle." One of those chapters will be an "Interlude" kind of chapter that showcases little snippets of Dalia's life with the Pridelanders between Season 2 and Season 3. I like to imagine that there's about a year or so between S2 and S3 canonically, so that's what I'm going to have for this fic.

As always, any criticism/suggestion/feedback is always happily welcomed!