Götterdämmerung

"... And again, I apologize you had to miss out on my little speech, and for that unfortunate incident involving Kiuma..."

"No problem sir! Just glad to be doing our duty," the Graymane orated, inducing quite a few sighs with her fellow guardsmen who were getting pretty tired of her over-zealous behavior.

"Now now, there's no reason to start lying; you know that's just not true. Most of you'd rather be having the night off, getting some sleep," Vincent yawned, "That is to say, I sure could use some sleep by now... isn't that right, comrade?"

"Spot on, sir!" one of the other, less responsible hyenas replied grinningly, greatly annoying the Graymane that was supposed to be commanding her. At least, Vincent considered, they had stopped posing annoying questions about what had happened to Kiuma, which allowed Vincent to stop the apologizing for what some had come to consider an excessive use of force against the hyena in question, and come to business.

"Hehe, right... but eh... I've got to be square with you guys, I didn't actually come here to apologize, or look at your exemplary work. I actually came to check on our captives here..."

"The one called Nala, to be more precise," Tiko added from Vincent's shoulder, "She's the pride's queen. We heard she was one of the survivors..."

"And that pretentious poultry is...?" one of the more suspicious guards frowned.

"Ah yes, sorry, I should have introduced him. He's Tiko, my new Legal Advisor," Vincent quickly replied, "You can speak to him as you would to me..."

"Right... What do you need the lioness for?"

"Not that it concerns you... but we considered she'd be the one in charge of the lionesses," Tiko replied.

"Whatever... Alright lions, you heard the bird, which one of you is Nala?"

"Who's asking?" Kani growled defiantly.

"The Hyena-in-Chief," Vincent replied laconic, stepping from behind the guards, into the lioness' sight.

"You!?" one of the larger lions suddenly exclaimed as if she had seen a ghost.

"Eh... yeah, me. Do I know you?"

"Don't you remember me? It's me, 'the Princes'..." the lioness replied, both disappointed but also somehow what relieved.

"Sorry lady, you must be mistaking me for somebody else," Vincent mumbled, feeling a bit awkward.

"So your not Mikhail the hyena?"

"Wait... you're saying you knew him? You knew my dad?" Vincent frowned.

"Yeah…I knew him. 't Was a long time ago... You look a lot like him."

"Yeah, I know... hmmm... this is awkward... what did you say your name was again?"

"I am Nala," the lioness replied as she lift up her head, obviously proud, "Queen of all Pridelands."

"Well, maybe not all Pridelands," a hyena noted ironically, inducing quite some laughs with his colleagues. For the sake of courtesy, however, Vincent chose to ignore that remark and not laugh along.

"Ah, so you are Queen Nala. Let me introduce myself: Vincent, hyena Head of Government. And he's Tiko..."

"I am honored to meet you, ma'am," Tiko bowed.

"What, The Tiko? Zazu's nephew?" Nala asked in surprise.

"The same..."

"Well well... Zazu never told me of your new employer... but he did mention firm convictions weren't really your style..." Nala smiled.

"What can I say, hyenas need legal advice too..."

"Indeed we do. I am sorry to be so blunt, your majesty," Vincent interrupted overly polite, "but I am quite tired and would like to get this over with; I can imagine we'll have more time to chat up tomorrow. And seeing as you apparently knew my father, we'll have a lot to talk about too... But first things first: I'm releasing one of you."

"What?" almost all animals gathered in the cave shouted out as one.

"You heard me, I'm letting one of the lions go."

"Eh... all right... might I ask why?" Nala inquired.

"Well, it's quite simple really: I want to send a massage to your King. The only way we'll get out of this mess without everyone ending up in that Royal Tomb of yours is if we negotiate, and I need someone to convey that message too him. As I sign of goodwill, I decided that one of your lionesses could carry out that task, granting her her freedom while she does."

As a sign of goodwill, and because I'm not too happy to send one of my own clanmates to his or her death.

"I don't see what there is to negotiate... you killed our friends and family, you stole our land! Again!" Nala replied annoyed and combative.

"Look, miss, I understand you must feel a bit bitter over all what has happened, but it's not like you've always treated us with a velvet glove either, all right?" Vincent sighed, quickly letting go of his politeness in the face of a lack of cooperation, "Now, you can either face facts and let me send someone to negotiate so we can try and get out of this mess with minimal brutality, or you can just sit here with your stiff upper lip 'till your mate comes over to 'liberate' you and we are forced to butcher the whole lot of you."

"Oh yeah, you're his son all right…" the queen mumbled. She didn't seem impressed, nor did her fellow lionesses. Tiko quickly noticed they'd rather stay proud and stubborn than to face facts and go for a more pragmatic approach. Unless...

"Your highness, I know this must all feel rather insulting, humiliating even; if I had been in your stead, I wouldn't be anxious to make dealings either. But there are still a whole lot of cubs up there, in the main den, maybe it'd be best if you focused on their best interests..." the green hornbill silently suggested. Nala seemed rather insulted at that remark (which sounded more like a threat), and Kani could be heard muttering all sorts of profanities in the background. But even though Nala was appalled by Tiko's suggestion, she feared he was right nonetheless; she had no choice but to agree with Vincents proposal, for the cubs' sake.

"All right, you win... I have no choice... you want me to head over to Simba and break the news to him?" Nala whispered eventually, and it was pretty obvious she didn't feel all to well in having to do so.

"You? Spirits, no! My goodwill only goes so far, you know..." Vincent grinned, "Besides, you look too mangled, I need someone in good shape. Just pick one of your lionesses to do the job in your stead. And do make sure you make the right pick; sending back a warmonger won't get you anywhere, save in the Royal Tomb."

Well, that ruled out Kani, Nala argued as she felt very annoyed at the arrogant tone Vincent was taking. But there was one lioness who fitted the profile almost perfectly: Anana. She was pretty much the antithesis of a warmonger. Besides, getting her away from here would be for her own good: if she stayed to endure Kani's insults a while longer, she'd probably break down completely (if such hadn't already been the case).

"All right, release Anana, she's nice enough..." Nala suggested. Kani suddenly broke out in laughter.

"What, you can't be serious? You're letting her, of all lionesses, the traitor, go?" she chuckled cynically.

"You've got a problem with that, Kani?"

"Hey, the quicker I'm rid of her, the better! I'm just afraid that if she meets Simba, she won't exactly be talking for all of us... only for the ones of us that tend to befriend scruffy scavengers. But I can imagine you won't mind that, now will you, my dearest queen?" Kani sneered, reffing to Nala just having admitted she knew Vincent's father. Nala, however, chose to ignore Kani from here on, turning back to Vincent.

"She's the young lioness in the corner of the cave, over there..."

"Ah... I take it your friend over there doesn't like her, is that why she's been put apart?" Vincent asked as he looked at the lioness in the corner of the cave.

"Pretty much. Will you release her now?"

"Sure. What did you say her name was, Anana? Right, Anana, I'm letting you go free, are you okay with that?"

Anana just nodded, although she didn't seem at all convinced: she was still upset because of her argument with the rest of her pride (mostly Kani). Vincent didn't seem too enthusiast about her reaction, but as he was tired and thus decided to hasten things up a bit.

"All right, works fine for me. Shatani, take that lioness back there with us!"

Immediately, Shatani and a handful of her Graymanes appeared in the cave to escort Vincent and Anana out. Whilst Anana was lead out, Kani managed to insult her one last time as her way of saying goodbye. Meanwhile, Vincent nodded one last time at Nala.

"Right. Thanks for your cooperation, highness. I'll get back to you for more talking as soon as my duties permit it. Goodnight."

"Your highness," Tiko also saluted just before leaving. Nala limited her response to a brief nod, still surprised to see Zazu's nephew here, especially around his new 'friends'.
The group escorting Anana quickly hurried out of the cave, down to the plaza and finally onto the open Pridelands. Standing just outside of Priderock, Vincent ordered his company to halt and turned to Anana. Seeing her sit in the dry grasses, he couldn't help but notice she looked a bit like Vitani; she had the same outlandish characteristics of a different fur and a way sleeker built than the rather bulky Pridelanders.

"Alright, this is far enough... How are you, Anana?"

"I've been better," she whispered for the second time that day.

"Well, look at it from the bright side, at least you're out. Now, as I said I need you to transfer a message to Simba. You know where he is now, and how to get there?"

"Yes, he's at the northern den, with prince Kovu..."

"Excellent!" Tiko continued in Vincent's stead, "Now try remembering this, Vincent needs you to tell Simba the following, word for word:
Through a chain of unfortunate but seemingly inevitable events, it has come to be that the Clan has taken control over Priderock and all lands surrounding it. Unfortunately, a great deal of lives, both lion and hyena, were lost during this takeover. Lion survivors remain, however, and they are being held captive by the Clan, receiving a fair and decent treatment. They have not been harmed in any way, although most suffer from various battle-related injuries. Among these survivors are Nala, Queen of all Pridelands, and all of the Pride's most junior members. Although our claims on these lands as well as our cause is just, the Clan is willing and even pleading, to start civilized negotiations on a fair and equal basis, to avoid further needles loss of life. Through these negotiations, we, the Clan, are hoping to reach a fair and balanced conclusion concerning the ongoing territorial and legal disputes between our two Clans/Prides, once and for all eliminating the threat of new violent clashes over these issues, allowing our two Clans/Prides to co-exist on a peaceful but most of all equal basis... you got that?"

"The essence of it," Anana coolly replied.

"And what might the essence be?" Vincent asked yawningly.

"Because of reasons that don't concern us, you stumbled into a war and took Priderock almost by accident. You didn't want a war, and you didn't want Priderock, but now that you've got it, you're not planning on giving it (along with some hostages you made along the way) back until Simba coughs up a exuberant amount of land and recognizes you and your clan as equals, in stead of treating you like vermin that is best exterminated," Anana thoroughly summarized.

"Clever girl!" Vincent grinned satisfied, and a bit surprised too: it seemed this timid lioness had some linguistic skill in her after all, "Nala obviously handed me the right material in sending you... now, for the practical issues... Shetani, where do you suggest we stage the meeting for these negotiations?"

"There's a dried-up river separating our part of the Pridelands from theirs, I say we do it there. It also minimizes the threat of an ambush, as the whole dried riverbed is apparently infertile and thus empty; any unwelcome newcomer is thus clearly visible, especially if we pick the widest part of that dried-up river..." Shetani suggested, as she had in, contrast with Vincent, a very thorough knowledge of the surroundings.

"You mean the Golden River?" Anana asked.

"If that is what you mean by the dried-up river north of here: yes, the Golden River."

"All right, sounds good enough. Tell Simba I'll meet him at the widest part of the Golden River, at next sundown (that ought to give me some time to sleep). Also tell him to only bring as much company as is required for a negotiation..."

"You know he'll just bring the whole pride," Tiko noted.

"There's no harm in asking. Besides, So will I... Anyway, next sundown, at the widest part of the Golden River, you got that, Anana?" Vincent concluded.

"Pretty much..."

"All right, then you're off!"

"So… I can go now?"

"Yes... or no, wait," Vincent suddenly hesitated, "Do you know a lioness called Vitani?"

"Sure, everyone does; she's Kovu's sis, after all..." Anana replied, confused at the sudden change in Vincent's tone and look in his eyes.

"Right, right, I knew that... eh... if you meet her, and make sure you do, tell her I said hi. Or no, wait, tell her I eh... tell her I kinda miss her. Would you do that for me?"

"Okay... no problem," Anana grumbled hesitatingly, feeling a bit awkward because of the sudden shift in Vincent's behavior, "I'll tell her Vincent misses her. Anything else?"

"No, that'll be all. All right, you're free to go now. But do hurry."

"Okay then... bye, I guess..." Anana mumbled as she started hesitatingly walking north, looking back after every step to make sure the hyenas weren't coming after her (you never knew). But they didn't, they just headed back for Priderock. Last thing she heard was Shetani mentioning she'd position some sentry's (who knew Anana was coming, of course) at the Golden River to make sure Simba wouldn't retaliate by carrying out a surprise attack. In doing so, she unintentionally mirrored Kovu's actions, who had done just the same in sending Vitani and Enyi to guard the new border.


"Bah, leave me alone..."

"But ma'am..."

"No, bugger off! I'm sleeping..."

"No your not, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me. Now would you please get up? This is really important."

"So is my sleep..." Vitani muttered as she slowly stood up, blinking with her eyes because of rising sun. From the look of her face, it wasn't hard to tell her mood had reached a new low now that Enyi had waked her up, for some reason.
Vitani yawned ostentatious as to show exactly how tired she was after the worst sleep she had had in years, then she stretched in a manner that is common to all cats, great and small.

"Now, what's up? And it'd better be either good news or very serious news..."

"We've coma across a visitor crossing the border," Enyi replied. Vitani just stared at her for a few seconds as if she were expecting something more.

"... and? Come on Enyi, I haven't got all day here..."

"It's a lioness, one of our lionesses to be exact. Says she came all the way from Priderock..."

"Yippee... She came all the way from Priderock as in 'I am a survivor from the slaughter that supposedly took place at Priderock' or as in 'false alarm, there are no hyenas at Priderock and it was all just a nasty dream'?" Vitani yawned cynically, "And it'd better be the second one..."

"Sorry ma'am, she said the hyenas sent her. They have a message for Simba."

"Like hell they do," Vitani grumbled, "She's telling Simba squat. I bet Kovu hasn't even bothered to tell our good King his ancestral home has been overrun by his arch-enemies... Can you imagine the look on his face when that lioness of yours just walks up to him and casually mentions a hyena is probably sleeping in his very cave as we speak? And then imagine his paw on our faces when he finds out we've been hiding it from him!"

"Don't worry ma'am, my lionesses are keeping our visitor on a short leash until you have had the time to thoroughly explain the situation to her..."

"Ah, so you want me to explain the situation to her? Gee, how considerate of you..." Vitani frowned sarcastically. Much to Vitani's surprise, Enyi returned the favor with equal irony.

"My pleasure ma'am, always glad to be of service!"

"You know, Enyi, you should watch out with that newfound sense of humor of yours, it doesn't become you..."

"I'll go get the lioness, ma'am..."

She may have taken a liking to humor, but for all else she is still an apathetic bore... And she still refrains from using names. Who the hell is that lioness the hyenas sent anyway? I bet Enyi didn't even ask her name!

After a few moments, which Vitani put to good use to perform a much needed emergency-wash, Enyi reappeared, accompanied by another lioness much younger than her. From the looks of it, she was an outlander too. Vitani recognized her pretty quickly: it was Anana, the youngest of the Outlanders.

"Here she is..."

"Okay, I'll take it from here, Enyi," Vitani yawned, "Good morning to you, Anana!"

It was pretty obvious to Anana Vitani didn't really meant what she said, and that she had very little patience.

"Vitani," she briefly saluted.

"I'll cut to the chase here, if you don't mind," Vitani commenced hastily, "We already know the hyenas attacked Priderock yesterday. Don't ask how we know, that's pretty irrelevant, at least to you. But even though we have some basic knowledge on what happened at Priderock, we still lack most of the details. So I suggest you start by telling us the more important details of what actually happened yesterday, right?"

Anana, however, seemed to have some doubts about that.

"Eh, wouldn't it be best if I did that when we've gotten the whole pride together, especially Simba? I'm mean, not that I wouldn't want to tell you guys..."

"Yeah, about that," Vitani suddenly interrupted, "I forgot to add that when I said 'we know about what happened yesterday' I didn't exactly mean the whole pride but rather... a limited group including me, Enyi, Kovu and very few others..."

"Huh?" Anana replied a bit confused, "But why..."

"Look, I'll be frank with you: we'd have preferred it if we would have been able to bring Simba the news at a time that was... most suiting for that kind of an announcement... I mean, it would be rather blunt to just walk up to him blabbing 'Hey, sire, Nice day isn't it? Gee, sure was bad luck that some hyenas just took over your ancestral home, eh?'. You do agree with me on this, I hope?"

"Yeah... probably," Anana mumbled a bit wary; she was getting the feeling there was more to it than that.

"Furthermore, there are a few more things we have to sort out before alarming the king because... well... eh... that hyena attack didn't exactly occur spontaneous, you know..."

"Wait a minute, you don't mean that..."

"I mean to say that Kovu had planned to, after a minor incident involving some hyenas, do some dealings with the hyenas behind Simba's back," Vitani reluctantly admitted, "If Simba found that out, he wouldn't exactly be amused, I reckon, especially not if word got out that those dealings indirectly caused the hyena attack..."

"What?" Anana gasped in shock.

"I mean, it's less sever than it sounds. It's just that when I was over there negotiating (by the way, Simba thought I was away to be spying, another thing we'd like to keep under wraps), some hyenas chose to topple their leader and blame it on me, a lion, thus setting the hyena clan on a path to war... and to Priderock..."

"You mean to say you are the cause of the hyena attack?"

"No, not at all! I mean, if any other lion had been sent to talk with them, it would have turned out pretty much the same way..." Vitani mumbled in her own defense, "But it is true that if Kovu hadn't sent anyone over there to cut some deals, the hyena attack wouldn't have occurred as it has now..."

"But it probably would have occurred eventually," Enyi quickly added.

"Sounds like a whole lot of excuses to me," Anana grumbled, "You're going through a great deal of trouble to save your own skin here... and you expect me to lie for you too? For the Kings' sake, we just lost half our pride, Vitani! And if it turns out you had anything to do with that..."

"But that's the whole point," Vitani interrupted, sounding quite annoyed by now because of Anana's lack of cooperation, "I didn't have anything to do with it! But we just don't want Simba to be getting the wrong ideas here..."

"Sorry, Vitani. I mean, I like you, your a good friend, but you can't just ask of me to lie to our King for you, that's wrong of you."

"But..." Vitani wanted to reply, when she was suddenly cut short by Enyi.

"Anana, you do realize that your attitude could get Kovu in a lot of trouble?" she asked, taking a very serious tone, almost threatening.

"Oh... right, he wanted to cut a deal with the hyenas," Anana remembered, "Yeah, but..."

"So you say you are willing jeopardize your own King's position?" Enyi snapped.

"But Kovu isn't a k..."

"Anana, are you an Outlander? Well, are you? Answer me!" Enyi suddenly growled.

"Yes, I am!" Anana replied, startled at Enyi's sudden outburst.

"And who is our King, Anana? Who is the King of the Outlanders?"

"Well... eh... it's Kovu..."

"Who is your King, Anana? Tell me, who is your King?" Enyi relentlessly continued, as if she hadn't even heard Anana's first answer.

"Kovu!"

"Who is your king?"

"Kovu's my king!"

"And do you want to betray your king, Anana? Do you want to betray the King of the Outlanders?"

"No, I don't!" the young lioness shouted back, sounding both scared and outraged at the same time.

"Are you a traitor, Anana?" Enyi growlingly asked. Without knowing it, she had stuck a chord with that remark: it instantly brought Anana back to the cave at the Priderock where she had, during her detention, had to endure an endless stream of insults, suggestions and accusations of her being a traitor. Failing to differentiate between what had happened in the cave and the present situation, Anana found herself wanting nothing more than to dismiss those false rumors of her being a traitor of any sort.

"No! I am no traitor! Don't you dare calling me that!" she shouted.

"Well then, are you loyal to your king, are you loyal to Kovu?"

"Yes! I am not a traitor," the young lioness firmly stated.

"If you want to serve your king then, if you want to serve Kovu, you'll have to do as we say. Remember, we're all doing this for our king; for Kovu, King of the Outlanders; it's his skin we're saving here. We couldn't care less about our own reputation. Got it?"

"All right... I think I understand now..."

Behind Anana's back, Vitani signaled Enyi she was quite impressed by her performance; thumbs up! After that little round of convincing, it wasn't hard to persuade Anana she had to tell whatever it was she had to say to Vitani, Enyi and Kovu first, in stead of walking right to Simba, as she had previously envisioned.

"Okay, now that we've got that over with... now, about that info we needed... first of all, how many of us actually survived the battle? What happened to the survivors?"

"We've been beat up pretty bad: only me, the queen and about five others remain. Except for me, all other survivors were badly injured..."

"Ah, some good new at last! Nala's still alive! And what about the others? I don't suppose anyone is missing?"

"No, I'm sorry," Anana whispered, "We're the only ones left: Nala had gotten the chance to identify all the deceased before they were taking to the Royal Tomb... All others are gone, no doubt about it."

"That is bad..." Vitani sighed, "And I suppose all survivors were detained? You wouldn't happen to know what the enemy… well… eh… man, the thought of it alone makes my stomach turn… what… what happened to the cubs?"

"Oh, darn, I forgot, right!" Anana suddenly exclaimed, "There's some good news too: they spared all cubs, each single one of them! They're all fine!"

"What? That's unbelievable! Great! Phew," Vitani sighed, clearly relieved, "That's something at least... I mean, you were the only Outlander near Priderock anyway, so now that you're here, at least I know all my friends are safe... Still, glad to hear the Queen and the cubs are okay; we might still be able to resolve this as long as they're around. I don't even want to imagine how Simba (or Kiara, for that matter) would react if we told him Nala was gone... Now, one more thing. About the hyenas..."

"Oh right, I almost forgot!" Anana suddenly interrupted, "There was this big-shot hyena asking about you..."

"Really? Who?"

"I think his name was Vincent..."

"Really? So he made it to Priderock?" Vitani eagerly questioned.

"Yeah, that's the least you can say..."

"How do you mean?"

"He didn't exactly make a quiet entrance... As soon as he appeared, the hyena clan seemed to fall apart in two groups... And one of those groups got it really bad..."

Anana could still feel her stomach turn when she remembered what had happened to that poor hyena called Kiuma that had tried helping her. She still couldn't believe someone as nice as her could have done something so bad to deserve the fate to have befallen on her.

"That figures; Vincent was the hyena that got toppled in the coup I told you about, the starting of this war was supposedly about him. He was probably taking care of the idiots that started this whole mess. Good riddance..." Vitani noted coldly.

"I suppose..." Anana mumbled, not at all convinced of Vitani's outlook on things.

"Anyway… Vincent was okay?"

"Okay's a pretty modest way of putting it: from what I heard and saw, he was pretty much in charge, him and that corpulent green hornbill of his. Being the de-facto ruler of a clan that controls the Priderock ranks pretty high on the 'okay'-scale."

Now that Anana mentioned it, Vitani indeed remembered Tiko as having a rather full figure when compared to Zazu, for example. She always figured it had been his feathers, though.

"That's good to hear. With him in charge, we might still get out of this without more fighting..."

Or so I hope...

"If you say so," Anana frowned, again not at all convinced: from what she'd seen of him, that Vincent-guy wasn't exactly scared of a little violence. And that had only been against his own kind… Then again, she still remembered the almost naïve look in his eyes when he had taken her separately to give her his little message for Vitani. That reminded her…

"Anyaway… He also wanted me to tell me that eh... he wanted you to know he… eh... he misses you... kinda... I didn't really get it..."

"Oh, now isn't that sweet?" Enyi grinned deviously, finding that corny remark utmost amusing, to Vitani's annoyance.

"I liked her a lot better when she never smiled..." Vitani muttered to no-one in particular, "Okay... that's good... that's nice of him... eh... anyway..."

Vitani was obviously embarrassed, but pleased at the same time: after having hit Vincent in the face because of the incident at the river, she wasn't too sure he still… well… liked her. But she was now sure he obviously did.
Why that mattered to Vitani, seeing as her and Vincent were now part of two warring factions, she didn't really know. She just didn't like the idea of Vincent hating her, even though chances were they'd never see each other again, save for the possibility of encountering each other on the battlefield (something she desperately hoped to avoid).
And quite frankly, she missed him too: she had after all pretty much enjoyed every moment with him, especially the cuddling at sunset whilst munching rotten fruit. It had all seemed so surreal, ideal even... the eternal enemies at peace, if but for a day… But that was all over now: she was back in the day to day reality of constant feuding between Pridelanders, hyenas, Outlanders and pretty much everyone else that happened to venture in between hem. But that was how things were, nothing to do about that. She'd just try making the best of it all.

"Now... hmmm… actually, that's all I needed to know... I guess I'll hear the rest once Kovu questions you; he's better at all this secrecy-stuff. We should get going; no time to waste. Enyi, keep a lookout here, " Vitani quickly concluded, "Make sure no-one passes the river unseen..."

"Why, you're expecting company? Your spotty admirer, maybe?" Enyi chuckled.

"Geez, turn dull again already..." Vitani mumbled as she and Anana started walking away from the still giggling Enyi.


Sometimes when you get up in the morning, all the world seems to smile at you.
The most beautiful of sunrises to the east, slowly creeping over the scarce but majestic savannah vegetation.
A lone bird uttering it's song of love, even though no-one is listening.
A gentle breeze, rustling the tall grass.
The lioness you cherish most of all things in the world lying at your side, her soft paws lovingly wrapped around you.
Sometimes, when you get up in the morning, you experience the best moments of an entire lifetime, and best of all: you realize it.
The worst moment in your entire lifetime usually follows right after that, when you remember that yesterday's sorrows have not magically vanished overnight. When you realize last night wasn't just a bad dream, but reality. When you notice your sister appearing on the horizon, and your loved one does so too.

"Kovu…"

"Hmmm?"

"Kovu!"

"Huh? What? Something wrong?" Kovu mumbled, his eyes still covered under a veil of sleepiness. Kiara didn't seem patient enough to wait for it to spontaneously disappear, however.

"Kovu! Will you get up already? Look, there's Vitani! Did you know she made it back already? No?" Kiara frowned suspicious, "For being worried about her so much for such a long time you sure seem to not care too much…"

"What? Vitani where? She's back already? Gee, what a joyful surprise," Kovu yawned not entirely convincing. It was way too early in the morning to start lying convincingly, certainly to Kiara.

"You're a poor liar, Kovu," she smiled.

"Tell that to your dad," Kovu mumbled, "Bah… where's that Vitani?"

"She's right there..."

"Right here, wee brother."

"Huh? Oh, there you are… I'd prefer if you didn't just come barging in here. Some lions are still oblivious to your return, you know."

"I think he's referring to me," Kiara guessed, "And why exactly is it a bad thing that I become aware of Vitani's reappearance?"

"A very long story. And it's to early for long stories," Kovu suggested.

"Come on now, Kovu, seriously now, what is going on? Where did Vitani come from all of a sudden, and why shouldn't I know?" Kiara asked again, now without a humorous tone to her velvet voice.

"Can't it wait 'till we tell Simba and he beats the crap out of me because of it?" Kovu grumbled ironically.

"Kovu!"

"All right, all right…How should I put this…" Kovu considered, "What's the last thing I told you that Simba shouldn't know?"

"You don't mean about… Taka?" Kiara asked a bit wary: she was still upset about the reactions she had got from Kovu in their first conversation about that rather touchy issue.

"No, no, not that… although we should get back on that sometime somehow… No, I was talking about our other little conspiracy, the one you hadn't informed daddy about yet… or so I hope," Kovu sneered, though it hadn't exactly been his intention to sound nasty in any way. It just popped out. Shallow end of the gene pool, probably. Vitani didn't fail to notice, and gasped as she heard the barely concealed reproach. That's not how she remembered Kovu and Kiara. Then again, a lot had changed in the fewest of days.

"Sorry… that… that was uncalled for…" Kovu apologized a soon as he realized what he had said. Kiara seemed to expect more apologies than that, though.

"Oh no, please, don't apologize," she sneered right back, "After all, I am just the one who's always followed you in what you do, who's always believed you and loved you, even if all others had abandoned and rejected you. I should be the one apologizing!"

From the tears to appear in Kiara's eyes, it wasn't hard to tell that saying what she had just said had hurt her more than it had hurt Kovu. And that knowledge, in turn, proved extremely hurtful for Kovu, who was for a moment stunned and unable to say anything.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" he stuttered as he tried moving closer to Kiara, "I just…"

For obvious reasons, that didn't suffice for Kiara, who had in fact been the principal victim of Kovu's ever deteriorating mood since that one futile but fatal hunting incident days ago.

"I think it'd be best if you just left…" she sobbed as she gently blocked his attempt to considerately embrace her, "You just go ahead and conspire some more, I don't even want to know about it anymore…"

"But…"

"Kovu, I think the lady needs some time alone…" Vitani whispered. Kovu reluctantly agreed, acknowledging that solving his 'conspiracy'-problem was arguably the first step to what seemed to become his relational problem. Or how one problem created another, after which both began to intertwine. What a mess.

"Thanks a lot…" Kovu grumbled in a rather hostile manner at his sister as they had gotten out of Kiara's hearing distance, "Just when things start looking up a bit, you show up again!"

"Hey, cool it!" Vitani growled back, "Take your personal problems out on someone else! I can't even count how many times I've had to put my life on the line these last few days, all to try and make up for your little plan that went haywire."

"Oh yeah, blame Kovu! Why not!" Kovu sighed, annoyed at Vitani, angry at the whole situation, and a bit desperate as well for obvious reasons, "Just blame me for trying to make the best of a rotten situation… But don't ever dare blame those responsible for the rotten situation!"

"Please, Kovu, stop it: this discussion is going nowhere. I know what you mean, and I know you're right. But face it: whether we like it or not, we too are at the base of all the current mess, and we'll have to sort it out, 'cause no-one else will. Now please, try leaving your personal problems behind you for one second and follow me, all right?" Vitani responded.

"Sort out this mess! Now there's a good one! The only thing I've come up with so far is politely asking the hyenas to return Priderock free of charge, or just come clean with Simba altogether and have my head bashed to a pulp. Neither seems appealing."

"The solution will probably be something in between those two, even though I for one think you deserve a good trashing. But my priority now is problem-solving, and you're the one to be doing most the work. And to help you with that, I've brought a friend of ours who's come all the way from Priderock."

"What?" Kovu frowned, "You mean a scout?"

"No, I mean someone who survived the battle to have taken place around Priderock, who was subsequently captured and then released by the hyenas as their way of saying 'let us negotiate'," Vitani smiled amused, "And that wasn't sarcasm, by the way. Meet Anana."

"Sire," Anana greeted, suddenly appearing from behind some bushes. Although Kovu had been more or less expecting a sudden appearance, it once again induced a short roar of fright.

"Aahrgh! Dammit, didn't I tell you and your friends to stop doing that? Do you want me to die of hearth-failure? All right… easy now… eh… So she's the… the eh… negotiator?"

Anana nodded as Kovu tried recognizing her. After a couple of seconds, he finally noticed.

"Hey, but you're an Outlander, aren't you? I recognize you! You're that wee lass that took of for Priderock to learn how to hunt properly… Anana, isn't it?"

"That's me, sire."

"Always great to see a familiar face, of course… Hmmm… Good thing you made it out alive. I mean, not that I wouldn't want the others to get out alive too, mind you. But the more Outlanders the merrier, of course. Now… the polite thing to do would be to ask you how you are. But I think you wouldn't mind if we cut straight to business, am I right?"

"Whatever is fine by you, my liege," Anana bowed submissively.

"Now now, no need to get formal 'round me," Kovu frowned, "You're among equals here, don't treat me like I'm a king just yet. Now, could you please tell me what the hell happened out there, to the details, 'cause all the info I've got so far is sketchy at best."

As ordered, Anana started giving a thorough summary of what had exactly happened during what would become known as the Second Battle of Priderock. During her report, she also mentioned who exactly had (of the lion pride) survived and who hadn't, getting a clear sign of relief from Kovu when she noted both Nala and the cubs had made it out: their survival had more or les been the conditio sine qua non for Simba's cooperation (or so Kovu hoped). During her version of the facts, Anana was quick to leave out any mention of her part in the battle, though, keeping in mind what hateful reactions it had produced before. Kovu nor Vitani failed to notice.

"And exactly what part did you play in all of that?"

"I eh… I stood right in the front-line, I guess…"

"Hmmm… You're quite lucky to have made it out pretty much unhurt," Kovu noted. Indeed, the only scratches on Anana's body where those she had gotten from the struggle with Kani and her accomplices. Kovu didn't bother to inquire further into the matter, though, as he wasn't really bothered too much.

"Good enough for me. Vitani told me you were released as a negotiator? So… what's there to negotiate about?"

Anana quickly summed up the hyenas' proposal the way Tiko had stated it, mentioning it had been Tiko's exact words, which Vitani found rather amusing, after which she translated all the buzzwords into her version of the proposition, which was in turn pretty amusing to Kovu.

"Haha, vermin that is best exterminated! I should remember that one," Kovu giggled, "But seriously… those claims are, of course, unacceptable given the current climate… Letting the hyenas exist will be hard enough on Simba as it is, let alone give them some of the Pridelands and treat them as equals… still, at least the hyenas are willing to talk in stead of continue their aggression, that's a start. But one problem remains: Simba. If we inform him on the current situation, he'll do two things: break all four of my paws and exile me, after which he'll round up all of what remains of our Pride to try and retake Priderock by force…"

"I doubt it," Vitani replied, to Kovu's surprise.

"Huh?"

"I mean, the retaking Priderock by force part: as long as the hyenas have his Nala, he'll not try anything; after all, Simba isn't exactly cold-blooded. But I am pretty sure you get beat up any way this turns out, though,"

"Thanks a lot," Kovu mumbled, "Still… we can't rule out he'll try using force. And I can't blame him; if only it wouldn't have been suicide to face the hyenas while they hold the high ground, even I would have considered a counterattack an option. I'm not really too fond of those mongrels myself…"

Kovu unintentionally cast a glare at Vitani, who then looked away slightly ashamed: she had to admit it, she had grown fond of one of those 'mongrels', and considered his well being one of her priorities.

"Then again, we have to face it: they beat us; we were too occupied with ourselves, allowing them to come out here and thoroughly trash us. The result is we'll never be able to beat them by use of force alone, and the logical consequence of that is that we have no choice but talk. And we can't expect to get Priderock back for just a pad on the shoulder and a friendly 'thank you'; we're going to have to cave in, give the hyenas something in return for their withdrawl. But, unlike me, Simba will never accept that."

"You're a lot better at summing up our problems than you are at solving them," Vitani yawned, as she had pretty much heard all that before.

'Maybe, but you're the one who's better at creating them', Kovu had wanted to reply, but he realized he had already offended way too much of his close friends and relatives, so he kept his mouth shut.

"Either way, you'll have to inform Simba sooner or later. And preferably sooner, because did I already mention the hyenas want to start talking this very evening, right about at the spot where I met Vitani this morning?" Anana suddenly mentioned. As she did, both Vitani and Kovu uttered an enormous sigh.

"There go our chances for prolonged procrastination…"

"If it goes on like this for much longer, I'm afraid I'll just forget how good news ever sounded," Kovu mumbled, "Right… guess that leaves us with little choice, now does it?"

"So you're going to look for Simba?" Anana wondered.

"Quite frankly, I would have preferred if you and Vitani did. But I have to amid, that would be rather rude of me. So what if we all went to Simba together? Sounds good?" Kovu grinned, deliberately and grossly enthusiast.

"Eh… No… What if you went to see Simba, and we just hid, for a while?"

"Nice try, sis, but Anana, for one, will have to come because her message is, in fact, intended for Simba. And you have to come because I order you as brother and King. Now get going," Kovu smiled deviously.

"But you're no king…"

"Yes he is! He's Kovu, King of the Outlanders," Anana stated firmly, to Kovu's satisfaction. She hadn't forgotten her little conversation with Enyi. Vitani only muttered 'Damn Enyi', though it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear.

"You heard the lady. Come on, big sister, time to, at best, let ourselves get beaten until the very brink of endurable pain."

So, as reluctant as reluctant gets, the trio set off towards the general direction of the Outlander's main den, where Simba would usually hang out most of the time he spent with his newfound subjects. Vitani had the urge to turn around and walk in the other direction quite a few times, but Kovu always made sure she stayed on the right path; he wasn't about to confront Simba all by himself (because chances were that Anana would be spared of most blame, which was only fitting, of course, as she hadn't been the one lying to Simba).
Halfway to the den however, a lone lioness appeared. It was one of the three Pridelanders that had taken residence among the Outlanders as a means of keeping tabs on them. She seemed a bit upset.

"Sir Kovu? The King has requested your presence. If you would follow me, please?"

"Eh… and might I inquire as to…" Kovu tried asking, but the lioness cut him short.

"The King has very little patience, sir, I believe he is quite upset with you. I implore that we not linger."

"Uh-oh…" Vitani mumbled at Kovu, who had by now already turned pale behind his fur. It was pretty obvious, wasn't it: Simba had somehow found out what happened on his own. It would have been bad enough if it Kovu would have personally given him the news, but now that Simba had found out without Kovu telling him in person, things were looking pretty disastrous for Kovu. And yet the day had started of so well…

"This is bad, real bad…" Kovu whispered at Vitani, "Do you think I would make it out alive if I just made a run for it now?"

"Not likely. You'll have to bite the bullet."

"By that, you of course mean we…"

"Please, don't remind me…"

With their mood now dangerously close to point-zero, Kovu, Vitani and Anana kept following he other lioness. Everyone had a bad feeling concerning what was about to happen, and that was only fitting.
As they suddenly reached a clearing, it appeared things were even worse than Kovu or Vitani had imagined: not only did they meet Simba at the clearing, but pretty much the whole Outlander-pride was gathered there, sitting in a semicircle. The Pridelander to have been guiding Kovu and Vitani quickly took post along her pridemates, right next to Simba.
From the looks on pretty much all of the Outlanders' faces, it wasn't hard to tell their gathering had been everything but spontaneous, I'd even dare say it was rather compulsive. Nonetheless, the current setting proved ideal for a genuine inquisition directed at Kovu, Vitani and Anana, in that order. Even Kovu, who was pretty adept at pretending to not-care-the-least couldn't help but swallow in awe and terror. And Simba's grim stare didn't exactly help either.
Kovu's panicking eyes sought and quickly found Kiara, at the edge of the group. She looked both saddened and ashamed at the given situation, but as soon as she noticed Kovu was looking at her, she signed 'I didn't have anything to do with this, I swear!'. Kovu wasn't too inclined to believe her. Meanwhile, Vitani looked around for a sign of Rafiki and Kiruhu, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"I presume you know what this is about?" Simba suddenly asked with his calm yet powerful and charismatic voice. Kovu felt like shriveling to the size of a mere ant. Talking about awkward…

"Eh… yeah… spot-on presumption…"

"Nice to see Vitani has returned as well, by the way…"

Vitani just grinned silly and deemed it an absolute must not to say anything unless asked.

"I suppose her scouting duty is over then…"

No-one could really tell whether that had been ironic or serious, but Kovu and Vitani presumed it had been a classical case of suppressed-rage-sarcasm; Simba was covering up his suppressed rage with a fake smile, a critical tone and hard-hitting sarcasm.
A long silence, long in relative terms, ensued. And as much as he'd have hoped to postpone the verbal clash that was about to follow, Kovu considered this particular wait even worse than what was to follow. He decided he'd just try and get it all over with quickly.

"Sire… what is this all about?" he uttered barely audible, feeling as if his throat had been pressed shut.

"I was hoping you'd tell me… after all, you've been the one to be occupied with all sorts of dealings and hedgings behind my back," Simba replied without the faintest hint of emotion, "Or did you think I wouldn't notice? I'm warning you, don't take me for a fool, Kovu…"

"Then what is it you want of me?"

"The truth. I've been hearing all sorts of things, shocking facts… but I have to separate fact from fiction, for both our sakes. I'm eager to hear your version of the story…"

"I wouldn't know where to start," Kovu admitted. He had already come to face the fact he'd have to confess everything to Simba now; any further delay would probably just complicate things further. Still, he'd have tried avoiding it if he could.

"Why don't you start by telling me how it came to be that you sent Vitani up north for what you called a scouting mission, and make your way down from there…" Simba suggested. Kovu remained unable to read anything in the king's facial expressions, so could only he guess what the king's mood was.

"Well… let's just say she didn't exactly gone scouting… you see, the night before, there had been this little incident…" Kovu started explaining carefully. After having mentioned the so called 'hunting incident' and his decision to send Vitani to the Wastelands to try and appease the hyenas, Kovu paused for a second, allowing Simba to absorb the new information. He was by now more or less expecting the first reproaches, but Simba remained surprisingly calm. He just asked one or two questions to clarify some misconceptions, and then just asked Kovu to continue.

"Of course, it didn't stop there. Please, continue," he ordered. Just like that. No shouting, no fighting, no lecture. Just 'please continue'. Kovu didn't like it one bit, tasted too much like a deep breath before the plunge. Still, he obeyed and continued his explanation: Vitani (unwillingly) getting involved in a plot, sending out Enyi to go find her and in the end seeing them both return with Rafiki and the cheetah. Then, in what probably wasn't his best choice of words that day, Kovu concluded: "That's when things got bad…"

No response from Simba. He just sat there, looking cool as ever (while in fact, his heartbeat had elevated to dangerous levels as he started getting some pretty bad feelings about what Kovu was telling him).

"That's when things got bad indeed," the king uttered barely audible as his throat had gone dry, only barely being able to keep up his act, "I need you tell me everything…"

"Yes… Hmmm… I don't quite know how to say this… Lets take a step backwards first: remember when I said Vitani became the scapegoat for that assassination-attempt on one of the hyena-leaders by his subjects?"

Simba nodded, seemingly calm. The only thing to betray his anxiousness were his claws, scratching inches deep into the dirt.

"Well, the fun didn't exactly stop there…"

Kovu told of how the hyenas had vowed revenge, after which they had gone after the Priderock. He then tried his best to recount everything Anana had told him of the battle that had followed, up to the point where Anana had been detained. He mentions Anana's name quite a few times, trying to engage her into the conversation as well, but Simba wasn't bothered for anything but Kovu. Much to Kovu's surprise, each and everyone had remained stoic during his version of the facts, even Kiara and Simba (even though it would have only been natural if they had reacted somehow emotional to the loss of most of their friends, as well as their home). Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Kovu had mentioned, prior to describing the Battle of Priderock, that Nala was alive and well, which was of course the primary concern for Simba and Kiara.

"And… that's about it… I don't know what you've been hearing, but this is the whole truth (or as close as it gets to it anyway)," Kovu concluded hesitatingly. The awkward silence returned. Kovu looked at Kiara. He could see tears welling up in her eyes, but still she remained static; she wasn't moving or talking before Simba had said so. Suddenly, Simba spoke again, barely restraining his obvious anger.

"How does it feel being lied to, Kovu?" the king grumbled in the most menacing manner. Kovu shrugged instantly, as he didn't even get what that question was all about. But Simba was quick to clarify it.

"You don't know? Well, this is what it feels like. You wondered what I had been hearing? I'll tell you: nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just became aware you were up to something; even a fool could have noticed that. But I didn't have a clue what it was about. But then I just pretended I did, and you were eager enough to cough up the details, fearing someone had been ratting you out with a story that placed all the blame on you. I suppose I should be thanking you, for your own stupidity that is," Simba explained, still calm, but his tone just oozed with anger, contempt and indignation.
Meanwhile, Kovu whished he could have one way or another turned invisible, as the whole pride's piercing eyes were directed at him in his moment of shame. Not that he hadn't been there before, of course.

"Unbelievable…" Simba suddenly sighed, "After all I've done for you, after having taken you into my pride, after having granted you your own dominion… And you still manage to betray me in ways I didn't even deem possible…"

He had a point there, Kovu couldn't really argue with that. Still, he felt like he should at least say something.

"But…"

"Silence!" Simba roared angrily as he started menacingly prowling around Kovu, "That you even dare opening your mouth in my presence! I mean… Aargh, this is simply unbelievable! First you lie to me, right in my face, time and time again… and then you, of all lions, try cutting a deal with the enemy!"

"Well, someone had to," Kovu snapped back, letting pride and his unwillingness to just sit there compliantly get the best of his common sense. This, of course, enraged Simba even further.

"What did you say?"

"I said someone had to…"

"Unbelievable, simply unbelievable!" Simba shouted, "You're actually defending what you did? You're actually trying to say that your actions, actions that just lost us half our pride, our ancestral home, our queen and our younglings to those bloodthirsty scavengers, were justified?"

"My actions lost us half our pride?" Kovu grumbled rhetorically.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Simba asked as he halted in front of Kovu, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"From the looks of it, you already know what I mean…" Kovu sneered, "And you know I'm right too…"

"Kovu, don't…" Vitani, who was still sitting next to her brother, whispered in warning, as she could already guess where her brother was going at: in stead of trying to minimize his conflict with Sima, he was going to pull it wide open, bringing the past into he mix as well, the dark and always best forgotten past. And all that because of his newfound pride, the one that had caused a still lingering conflict with Simba about Kovu's parents, and the revised image of them that Kovu had started to advocate.
And as much as Kovu had wanted to avoid an argument with Simba (as was happening now), he deemed finding out the truth (his truth) about his parents, Taka and Zira, and then spreading the word (if possible even rehabilitating their image) just as important. Vitani considered that a noble goal, of course, it were her parents too after all, but she was just having doubts whether this was the right time to bring it up. Her attempt to shut Kovu up was brutaly cut short by Simba, however.

"Don't interrupt us!" he growled at Vitani, "Your turn will come soon enough; don't think you're getting off any easier… you're even worse than your brother; at least he didn't engage with those skulking mongrels. But you… you still reek of hyena…"

Vitani just glared angrily, smart enough not to answer Simba's provocations. Yet. After one last stare of contempt, Simba turned back to Kovu..

"And you were saying?"

"Please, Simba, you asked me not to treat you as a fool, so don't play dumb," Kovu frowned, "You know damn well it's not my attempted negotiation with them that set the hyenas on the path to Priderock. Don't blame the final drop for the flood."

For the attentive listener, it was pretty clear what Kovu meant by that, and Simba didn't miss the hint either, as could be derived from the enraged glare he cast at Kovu.

"Don't you dare…" Simba grumbled menacingly.

"Come on, dad, we both know well enough who is to blame for what happened yesterday…"

"Don't you dare say it…"

"… it's you."

"Oh, this is good, so I am to blame?" Simba frowned angrily, creeping intimidating close to Kovu.

"You and Mufasa…" Kovu uttered. Suddenly, with an incredible roar of rage, Simba struck out with both his forepaws, hitting Kovu's head so hard he was thrown back, landing in the dirt head first. All the pride gasped in shock, while Vitani and Kiara immediately rushed to Kovu's aid. Meanwhile, Simba just looked down on Kovu with contempt, breathing heavily.

"If you ever dare insulting my father again…"

But Kovu, who declined any help from Kiara and Vitani, didn't seem impressed, even though bloody drool dripped down from his chin. He even mustered a deformed grin.

"Now, did that make you feel better?" Kovu hissed, trying to get up, "Your words couldn't quite cut it anymore? But I've still got plenty of words left, no beating is going to shut me up, dad. You want to know who is to blame for the hyenas attacking us? It's those of us that have always tried their best to exterminate them, to treat them as vermin that is best eradicated, those of us that always try our best to maim and kill them when we come across them, those of that keep 'em confined to living on lands of which we know cannot support them. It's those of us that, day by day, fuel their hatred and nurture their thirst for vengeance, and yet expect them never to raise a paw against us. Those of us that react in shock and dismay when they are treated themselves as they treat the hyenas."

"You're a despicable waste of breath," Simba replied in indignation, "How dare you even call yourself a lion, picking the side of that kind of, as you put it yourself, vermin that is best eradicated?"

"You are as ignorant as you are hard hitting," Kovu sneered, whipping blood from his chin and dirt from his manes, "I do not pick sides for them, I wouldn't even shed a tear if they were to disappear overnight. But I understand them though, I understand why they do what they do, and I can't blame them for it. They're not any less reasonable then we are, and will react as we would. So unless we want them storming Priderock every now and then, we have to stop handing them reasons to do so. If you want to make and live in peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. Taka saw that…"

"Ah, so the truth finally comes floating on the surface," Simba laughed ostentatiously, "So I was right, you are planning to thread in your parents' pawprints."

"And why would that be a bad thing? At least he saw this coming! Taka saw this coming more than a decade from now, he knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later. Why do you think he even bothered including the hyenas in his kingdom during his reign? The Kings know he didn't have to; his hyena accomplices could be counted on the fingers of one paw, yet he opened up his realm for their entire clan. And he didn't need them to enforce his rule either: for all the lionesses knew, he was a legitimate king after all; why would they oppose a legitimate king? He did it for the good of his own pride, that's why, to spare us from tragedies the likes of which happened yesterday!"

"Oh right, Scar's reign was one of peace, love, happiness and sunshine!" Simba replied cynically (which was against his nature, by the way), "Pity he turned our lands into a wasteland and almost starved our Pride, though, that was probably one of his lesser accomplishments…"

"Please, now you're blaming a drought on him as well?" Kovu smiled grimly, "Look up, Simba! Look at that beautiful sky above us! You see any clouds there? No? Gee that's funny, I could have sworn the raining season should have at least started one month ago. I guess we've got a drought on our paws here! But I don't see Taka around here to have caused it, now isn't that peculiar?"

"That might be, but the fact is Priderock has been lost to hyenas, that's reason enough for a drought," Simba mumbled in his defense, not entirely convinced of that explanation himself. Kovu had a point.

"Yeah, but I don't recall them being there one month ago. Face it, dad, droughts just happen from time to time, whether we like it or not, Taka's got nothing to do with that…"

"Not that it matters now, with so little mouths to feed," Anana suddenly whispered. Talking 'bout a cold and unexpected remark.

"Who the hell is she anyway?"

"The hyenas sent her to negotiate…"

"Did they now? Then I'll guess we'll talk later," Simba told Anana, "But don't think I'm through with you yet, Kovu. Quite frankly, I couldn't imagine how you could ever further aggravate things: you've been dealing with our enemy, caused an attack on Priderock, openly sympathized with Scar, a power-hungry and treacherous traitor to his pride, usurper, tyrant and murderer…"

"You make it sound as if all Taka wanted was to inflict harm upon our pride, whilst he just wanted to shield it from even greater harm, like we experienced yesterday. That took some sacrifices, yes, but as they say: you can't bake an omelet without breaking the eggs…"

"… but it's amazing how many eggs he broke without ever baking one decent omelet. And if you ever compare my father, the greatest king of our time, to an egg again, you'll live to regret you've ever been born. That aside, you've also lied to me on numerous occasions. If Zazu were alive to hear it, he would have agreed with me that each of those facts on themselves would legally be enough to get you banished…"

Simba suddenly paused, as to let his rage slip away a bit, taking a deep breath. What he was going to say next, he would say with enormous reluctance.

"But we're a pride at war, and I'll have to be frank with you: now's when I need you the most. That's why I'm giving you another chance, the last one in a long line of disappointments… I'm willing to forgive you, maybe even try and reason with you about your father, once this is all over. If you stick by me."

"Stick by you? Total submission?" Kovu wondered.

"No. I don't require you yield or bow, just that you support me in our pride's darkest moments, for both our sakes. Can you do that?"

"I could… but not for the prospect of a pardon, for I believe I did nothing that needs pardoning. But I will do all within my power to assure our pride's well-being. If that requires me to stand by you, I will gladly do so…"

That answer was of course utterly inadequate for what Simba was concerned, but given the present crisis and Simba's recent return to a state of relative calm, the king deemed it best not to push their conflict any further just yet.

"All right then. Now… our negotiator. So you were present at Priderock during the battle?"

After a thorough inquiry concerning the details of what had happened at Priderock (even though Kovu had already told him everything there was to know), paying special interest to what had happened to Nala and the cubs, Simba also wanted a detailed report on the time Anana had spent in captivity. She was wise enough to cut out any details concerning herself, though. Finally, Simba brought up the proposed negotiations, though he didn't seem that enthusiast about it. Anana sticked to the hyenas' formal proposal.

"Unacceptable and impossible," Simba immediately declined, "The only thing they can hope for is that I spare their lives, after which they pack up and disappear from our lands again."

"I take it that is your first counter-proposal?" Kovu wondered.

"Counter-proposal? It's my only proposal. They taka it or leave it."

"I could have guessed diplomacy isn't your strong point…"

"What now?" Simba sighed at Kovu's remark, "What on earth is wrong with that?"

"Well, first of all, if it is 'take it or leave it', they'll leave it, and nothing happens…"

"Not exactly. They take it and leave what belongs to us, or they leave it and we take what belongs to us."

"Very bad idea. For one, they have hostages. If we as much as wave our paw in their general direction, they'll kill the hostages. Or is it okay with you if Nala…"

"Absolutely not!" Simba gasped, "We can't do anything to endanger Nala!"

"Well, then I'm afraid you'll have to negotiate; offer and counter-offer."

"But you can't expect me to…"

"Yes, I do expect you to. And so do the hyenas. In fact, they've already arranged for a meeting. Tonight. You'd have heard that if you'd have let Anana finish, in stead of interrupting her."

"Out of the question! Who do they think they are to invite me to talk? It should be the other way 'round. And that is if I were planning to talk in the first place," Simba replied, but his reply invoked an ostentatious yawn from Kovu's part.

"This is pointless. I'm going to meet the hyenas, whether you like it or not. Feel free to come along, though," Kovu yawned, after which he suddenly got up and started walking south. Simba wasn't at all pleased with that, as one could have guessed.

"What do you think you're doing? Get back here! Don't you turn your back on me!" he shouted, "I do not allow you to deal with those scavengers again! Get back here! I command you!"

But Kovu did not halt. In response, the three Pridelanders present at the gathering rushed towards Kovu and took post right in front of him, denying him passage. He noticed one of them limped.

"The King orders you to get back!" the most zealous of the lionesses growled at Kovu.

"Your king, perhaps…" Kovo replied laconic.

"Let my king pass!" Anana suddenly shouted, to pretty much everyone's surprise. At the mention of the words 'my king', Vitani could almost see lightning bolts flash from Simba's eyes towards Anana. What blasphemy, calling Kovu a king!

"He is no king," the Pridelander in front of Kovu noted as soon as Anana had taken post next to her king. But then, the most peculiar thing happened: another one of the Outlanders spoke out.

"She said 'let our king pass'," the lioness shouted, after which she got up and walked over to Kovu. Both Simba and the Pridelanders stared at her with a mixture of shock, dismay and anger. But then, another Outlander got up and walked up to Kovu. And another. And another. Pretty soon, all the Outlanders stood gathered 'round Kovu and the tree Pridelanders, their backs turned at a petrified Simba who seemed to be shaking with anger.
Kovu grinned, satisfied, almost literally feeling the aura of power and legitimacy the lionesses around him created. He cast a superior smile at the three Pridelanders still sitting in front of him, who were by now feeling extremely uncomfortable. Facing them up-close, he suddenly noticed that one of the Pridelanders, notably the one with the bad limp, seemed to have a somehow deformed lower lip. A limp and a deformed lower lip, now where had he heard that before…

"I recognize you…" Kovu suddenly remembered, "You're the lass that got mangled by those hyenas, all them days ago. You and your friends were the one not to cause, but at least kick of this whole mess… I always wondered why an Outlander would ever bother to waste her time chasing after hyenas… but then again, I guess you guys weren't Outlanders… Now, before you find yourself at the base of even more bloodshed yet again, could you please move? Now!"

The tree Pridelanders, scared finding themselves surrounded by at least he triple amount of Outlanders, immediately backed away in the direction of Simba. Kovu turned around and briefly looked at Simba, then at the still present but obviously shaken Kiara.

"Are you coming, Kiara?" he asked in hautein voice. But Kiara, hardly even recognizing her Kovu, shook her head, her eyes filled with sadness and fear. This wasn't the Kovu she knew anymore.

"I'm staying with my father…" she uttered barely audible and with broken voice.

Him I recognize at least…

Kovu just shrugged. Not that he didn't care, it was just he had no idea what to do else. After having cast a last glance at Simba, he took of to the south again, followed in his wake by his pride, by the Outlanders.


As Vitani saw her brother and her pride leave, she suddenly realized that in stead of just watching them, she should be joining them; she was the only Outlander left around Simba and his clique. But before she got a chance to join her brother, she found her path blocked by Simba, who towered out above her. She slowly looked up, hesitatingly and even frightened. Before her sat a lion who was abandoned, desperate, angry and twice her size (as a figure of speech). He crept closer to her. Vitani had wanted to run, but found herself paralyzed. His heavy breathing echoed through her ears, his powerful musk penetrated her nose. As his head moved closer, Vitani didn't even dare to breathe, let alone move.
The eyes that glanced at her were filled with hate and contempt. Simba slowly moves his head towards Vitani's neck. For a moment there, she considered the option of squealing desperately. But Simba only snuffed, briefly recognizing the scent that was still present on Vitani. He then backed of with a scornful grimace.

"Repulsive…" he frowned, "Now get of my sight, hyena."

That one she hadn't heard before. First careful, but than faster and faster as the three Pridelanders left on the scene looked at her ever more menacing, Vitani took off, leaving behind Simba, Kiara and the three Pridelanders. Simba looked at Vitani as she raced away towards Kovu, then turned around with a long and deep sigh and stared at the ground in front of him, locked in silence. The three Pridelanders seemed a bit lost without further directives from their King.

"My liege?" one of them asked hesitatingly. But Simba didn't even bother to look up.

"What are you still doing here?" he uttered, his otherwise clear, powerful and charismatic voice now weak and void, "Follow prince Kovu… And leave me in peace…"

Shocked because of the state of their king, the Pridelanders lingered for a few seconds, until Simba reminded them again he'd prefer to be left alone. They hesitatingly took off. Simba stayed behind, still staring at the ground. Kiara suddenly noticed little dark specks appearing in the dirt below him. Was her dad, the King of Lions, crying? She carefully moved closer, one step at a time, afraid to upset him even more.

"Daddy?"

Simba slowly lift up his head, which seemed to have taken him great effort. He looked at his daughter with reddish, swollen eyes and a face that spoke of helplessness and despair. The authority he had radiated just moments ago had all but vanished.
Kiara had never seen her father like this, except maybe for the time his mother had passed away after a long and painful struggle against a disease even someone as strong as her could defeat, months ago.
Not knowing what else she could do, she hesitatingly moved closer to her father and put her paws around him. Simba responded by in turn wrapping his paws around her, firmly pressing Kiara to him, holding his muzzle to her neck, now letting his tears run freely.

"Oh dad…" Kiara sighed with a voice of sorrow, as she too now felt tears welling up in her eyes and tightened her embrace.
Somehow, their intimacy stressed their current loneliness, seemingly being abandonned by their pride (both morally and physically). And for what seemed like an eternity, none said a word, both lions just wept silently, holding each other in an attempt to find comfort. Eventually though, in a voice that still had a distinct taste of tears and sorrow, Simba spoke up, which again cost him great effort, hesitating, stuttering and at times sounding incoherent.

"Why, Kiara? For the Kings' sake, why?"

"It's okay, it's okay…" Kiara tried whispering, hindered by the fact she was still weeping, whilst carefully stroking Simba's thick manes. Her fathers chin felt heavy as he rested it upon her shoulder.

"I did everything I could… always… I always tried doing the right thing. I ruled the pride as best I could…"

"You're the best King a pride could ever hope for, dad…"

"I've always tried being just, being kind… I've always shown mercy, even when I shouldn't have. I've always been forgiving… damn it!" Simba sobbed, "I've even forgiven the offspring of the lion to have killed my father, even after they tried to kill me…"

"No-one could have ever asked for more…"

"And all of it I did for you and our pride…

"You've been the best father a daughter could ask for, and even beyond the best king a pride could even dream of…" Kiara whispered

"And yet… it is my pride that is being held hostage as we speak, my home to have been overrun by savages… my… my Nala…"

Before having the chance to finish his sentence, Simba broke out in tears again, and Kiara with him. She had tried not thinking about it too much, but she had to face it: her mom was gone, held captive by relentless killers, her life only hanging by the thinnest of threads. Chances were Kiara'd never see her again, and there was nothing she could do about it, she stood utterly powerless. One would cry for a lot less.

"And now… Kovu has…it's just…"

Simba couldn't even bring himself to finish his sentence, and Kiara felt too upset to reply; Kovu's sudden turnover had hit her hard too, even though she had gotten way more indications than Simba (her increasingly numerous fights with Kovu for one) concerning the recent changes to have taken place within Kovu's mind.
The more Kiara thought about it, the more she started to pity her father: he had indeed done nothing to deserve this; if there were ever one king who had always acted as he considered just, even though he had wanted to do just the opposite, who had always put himself aside for his pride, who had always striven to do the right thing, who had always shown forgiveness (even towards the worst of his enemies, Taka, who had slain Simba's own father). What happened to Simba today was uncalled for, unjust, unfair!

Life's not fair, is it?

After an eternity of sobbing under the scorching sun, both Simba and Kiara seemed to have regained their calm somehow what, which made them realize that they were still alone, and that life had just run its course even as they wept. In other words, whatever problems they had had before remained at large and needed to be confronted regardless of their mindset.

"Thanks, Kiara… I needed that…" Simba smiled with a certain sad undertone as he got up again.

"No problem, dad," Kiara smiled back, "I needed it jut as bad. It's good to know you're still the father I knew… and the father I've grown to love… but what happens now?"

"That, I am afraid, is not ours to decide…" Simba sighed, as he snuffed, "But then again… I don't think it ever was. What happens now, only the Kings of Old know…"

"Nah, I think even they have lost track of what's happening here…"

"Yeah, probably," Simba grinned hesitatingly, "We'll just have to take it as it comes along from now on… all my life I have done what I could, now I presume it is time for me to suffer what I must."

"You're not the one to deserve any such suffering…"

"I sure hope not… but I'm starting to fear the worst," Simba frowned, "But I try taking comfort in the knowledge that, in the end, the Circle of Life always restores itself…"

"The Circle of Life…" Kiara sighed, "I thought I knew what it was all about one day, but now… I don't know what to believe… You remember what that one lioness told about what had happened on our Priderock, all those dead, all that suffering? Where did that fit into the Circle?"

"I don't know… quite frankly, I'm as lost as you are. But hush, don't tell the lionesses!" Simba grinned, "But now… let's go look for prince Kovu…"

"You want to go look for Kovu?" Kiara wondered, "Even after what happened back here?"

"We can't just leave him by himself, can we? Our entire pride is with him. Besides, if he's planning to go talk to those scavengers, we'd better make sure he doesn't do anything stupid…"

"So you're going to try and talk to them after all?"

"As I said, I have little choice… anything to get your mother back with us safe and sound, and all other captives as well…I guess Kovu was right, in a way…"

"Dad…" Kiara suddenly asked, a bit wary and hesitating, "Could you… not be too hard on Kovu… please?"

Even though Kovu had shocked them all, Kiara's love for him still ran deep; it had survived one war, and if Kiara could help it, I'd survive the next just as well.

"That's easier said than done… but again, I have little choice," Simba shrugged with disappointment, "I need Kovu, now more than ever. And besides… What kind of king would I be if I just ignored the wishes of my princes?"

"Thanks, dad. You're…"

"Hush, my darling, save the praise for later. Lets first get back to Kovu and see what he's up to. Where did he say those hyenas were meeting him? Down south?"

Kiara cast a fond smile at Simba, and he smiled back with equal warmth. No matter what hardship awaited them, they could be assured of one thing: their mutual bond, which had suffered since the events of the Reunion, would prove strong enough to stand anything to come, and even come out stronger. And nothing, absolutely nothing, seemed to be able to get in the way of that.

"Come on then, let's go."

And so, father and daughter set out for their walk south, towards the Golden River, strolling side by side, close together, Kiara proud to be Simba's daughter, and Simba glad to be Kiara's father.
Needing neither further words nor plans, they made their journey in silence, contemplating on the past and possible future events.
I'd still take them some time to get to the Golden River (especially the widest part of it), even though they kept a steady pace. Along the way, they came across one of the three Pridelanders that still stood by Simba; the lioness had lingered behind just in case Simba were still coming and needed a guide. Knowing his way around his own kingdom, Simba obviously didn't need a guide, but he was thankful nonetheless for the company the lioness provided.
After a walk which took them a few hours, they met with the other two Pridelanders at a small watering-hole, where the party paused for a drink. On a small hill in front of them, which was covered in relatively lush trees for that time of year, Simba spotted the rest of the pride, or rather Kovu's pride.
Why oh why did Kovu have to choose a hilltop to rest upon, Simba considered: now Simba would be looked down upon all the way up the hill if he wanted to joint Kovu; how humiliating. But he cared less about that now than he would have before, as his previous confrontation with Kovu had proven to be a real and hard lesson in humility for the king. Besides, the small ensemble he had gathered around him (Kiara and the three Pridelanders) at least gave Simba a certain regal aura. Still, it wouldn't do his prestige much good, 'crawling back' to Kovu.
But what mattered it: on that hilltop sat no longer his pride, but Kovu's; they had already openly rejected him, how could they ever humiliate him any further? After taking that into consideration, while having a drink at the watering hole, Simba reluctantly walked up the hilltop towards Kovu. Looking at Kovu, Simba found it hard to tell whether the dark-maned lion was somehow what remorseful of his behavior earlier, or still proud of it.

"So you decided to come anyway?" was all Kovu smiled when Simba had waked up the hilltop to come sit next to him.

"Yeah. If anything is to happen, I might as well have a say in it..."

"Even if that means talking with the hyenas? Well, glad to see you've turned around a bit..."

"Talking with the hyenas? I doubt one can go as far as to cal that talking," Simba frowned, "They'll probably have nothing to say; a whole lot of nothing to say."

"Well, at least you're willing to talk; that counts for something, I guess... By the way, they haven't showed up yet..."

"I noticed. Hey, they said nightfall, not late-afternoon," Simba noted, "That aside, are you sure they wanted to meet us here?"

"If not, I've put some scouts along the border: they'll alert us if need be. Try not to worry too much."

"Not worrying sounds kind of hollow if you've just lost pretty much your entire pride, land and most of all your Chosen Mate," Simba snapped.

"Touché," Kovu yawned, trying his best not to let his sympathy show too much, "Anyhow, I'm taking a quick nap; there are more than enough lionesses to wake me up if and when necessary... I suggest you do the same, until our spotty friends get here."

"I'm not taking suggestions from you just yet. I'm staying up…"

"As you please, myliege…" Kovu replied.
The way Simba and Kovu looked at each other, their tone, their choice of words… tensions were high, and it showed. Maybe that's why Kovu wanted to take a quick nap, to avoid yet another standoff with 'his' king. 't Was either that, or his lack of sleep he still hadn't gotten rid of.
Either way, Kovu kept his word and sat down under the nearest tree for a nap. But before closing his eyes, he quickly cast a glance at Kiara, who was still sitting at the foot of the hill, near the watering hole, along with the three Pridelanders. It was obvious Kiara knew her lover was staring, but it seemed she purposely ignored him. The reason for that was of course just as obvious: although Kiara still loved Kovu with all her heart, she couldn't bring herself to face him just yet, not after his run-in with Simba; she wouldn't be forced to have to choose between her father and her love ever again, certainly not now, in the pride's hour of need. This didn't go unnoticed to Kovu, whose only regret so far had been that his verbal assault on Simba had somehow alienated Kiara. This saddened him, of course, but he took comfort in the presumption that, once this whole hyena-mess was over, most of the problems between him and Kiara would be too. That view was rather optimistic, even naïve, to say the least, but at least it came to show there was still more to Kovu than cold and calculated pragmatism, and bitter revisionism.
With a gloomy mood because of the lack of Kiara at his side, Kovu closed his eyes to try and daze off. As one could expect in the given situation, Kovu did not fall fast asleep but in stead entered a state of half-conscious slumber in which past, present and future all seemed to intermingle. It didn't even take half a touch to wake him.

"Huh? What?"

Before Kovu sat an agitated Vitani, her blue eyes vivid as ever.

"They're here!" she exclaimed, nearly loud enough to be shouting. For a moment there, Kovu considered asking who was where, but he wasn't really in the mood for those kind of self-evident question. Considering Vitani had spent all her time ever since her arrival anxiously looking at the southern horizon waiting for that one scavenger she had apparently befriended, it was not hard to guess she had meant the hyenas had arrived on the opposite shore. With a ostentatious yawn, showing off his impressive set of fangs, Kovu got up, stretched his paws and turned his look towards the Golden River.

Ah, the Golden River… Neither a river, nor made of gold, the Golden River derived it's name from the fact it used to be a wide river, but had now degenerated to a yellowish (some would say golden) stretch of desert that sliced through the Pridelands, as no single drop of water had flown trough the Golden River for decades. Between one riverbank and the other lay nothing but hot, golden sand. What had once started out as a vivid and fertile river had one day, during the years of Twilight, turned into a river of death, a lethal stream seemingly breathing poisonous fumes. Now, the stream was gone, but death remained: no single plant would ever grow in the Golden River's bed, as it was still drenched in the poison that had once befouled the waters above. A strip of barren wasteland in the middle of the lush Pridelands. Perfect for a meeting: there were no places to hide an ambushing party in these dead sands.
Kovu extended his vision to the other riverbank. On it, he quickly perceived a few dozen of brown and yellowish figures with the most irregular spot-patterns. It made them blend in well with their surroundings, and made thus them hard to see. Kovu didn't consider that a bad thing; for what he was concerned, the less hyena he saw, the better: he didn't really consider their kind eye-candy.
The better part of their clan seemed to have gathered, anticipating that the lions too would have been out in force. The lions had indeed done pretty much the same.

"Well what do you know, they actually came. And they didn't storm us yet… maybe they actually are out to negotiate," Kovu mumbled, when he suddenly thought about Simba: the king had made his way on the hilltop too, and his retinue (including Kiara) had followed whilst Kovu had been asleep. They sat separated from the Outlanders. Kovu signaled Enyi.

"Enyi, could you please ask the king to get over here? We don't want the hyenas to think we don't get along, now do we? We have to look like one big, happy family."

Enyi nodded compliantly and strode towards Simba. Even from a distance, it wasn't hard to tell Simba became pretty annoyed when he heard Kovu, through Enyi, was telling him what to do. But because he could only agree with the assessment Kovu had made, he complied, be it reluctantly. Ostentatiously slow, Simba walked over to Kovu, followed in his wake by the three Pridelanders and Kiara (who still refused to acknowledge Kovu, by the way).

"Anything else you desire?" Simba asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, how 'bout a smile and a pat on the back every now and then?"

"A pat in the face is what you're going to get if you keep this up," Simba grumbled. As him and Kovu were staring at the other bank of the river, it suddenly struck them: they had no idea whatsoever where to go from here. The same seemed to apply to the hyenas: how on earth do you start peace talks with your worst enemy?

"Well this is awkward…" Kovu noted as he cast a quick glance at the by now setting sun, "We could sit here like this 'till midnight…"

"I don't see the prisoners anywhere…" Simba mumbled, "I think they…"

"Keep 'em out of sight as to prevent arousing us? Absolutely," Kovu interrupted, knowing more than well that hadn't been what Simba had wanted to say. The problem of inertia remained, however.

"Any suggestions? Damn, where is that damn baboon with all his wacky advice when you need him for a change…"

"You mean Rafiki?" Simba replied with a faint smile, "He's down there, by the watering hole. Appeared while you were asleep. I've already talked to him, bringing him up to speed. He didn't seem all that surprised though…"

"Well, isn't it nice being kept up-to-date," Kovu mumbled as he turned to look at the watering-hole. Indeed: there were Rafiki and that odd, short tailed cheetah of his, having a drink. Kovu quickly summoned Enyi to go get Rafiki. Enyi, however, who was pretty tired of playing Kovu's private messenger, in turn delegated that order to one of the other Outlanders. Nothing like a chain of command to get those pesky little tasks done without having to lift a paw.
Rafiki, still using the cheetah as his own personal transport, made haste to join Kovu and Simba. One could tell from the fog in his eyes that the ape was still blind as a bat.

"Still no improvement in the field of vision?"

"To the contrary, I haven't ever been able to see things clearer!"

"Eh… you're blind. How on earth could you see things clearer when you can't even see them in the first place?" Kovu wondered, a bit absent.

"Haha, me blind!" Rafiki suddenly laughed, "I know what you are, you blind lion, but what am I?"

"Hmmm, this is starting to have a very distinct taste of pointlessness to it," Kovu frowned, "But at least this complete nonsense proves it is indeed you. Now, try making that insanity of yours useful and come up with a suggestion as to what to do about this stalemate; how do we start the talks with the hyenas?"

"A good start would be to turn your head," Rafiki suggested grinningly, and who was Kovu to ignore such hint? Both hopeful and indifferent at the same time, Kovu casually turned around to look at the other side of the Golden River. Nothing peculiar there, apart from the overwhelming amount of hyenas. His gaze moved to the golden river itself. Lot's of sand there, obviously, but also a lone figure that seemed to be making his way down to the center of the wide, dried-out river, where he halted and sat down. The hyena's most prominent fearure were probably his thick manes, and the green hornbill that sat on his shoulder. How peculiar. More peculiar was how the blind Rafiki had figured that out…

"Ah, a negotiator! They probably want us to send someone down there too. Sounds easy enough."

"Smart thing to meet in the middle of the river; that way, no reinforcements from either side could reach the enemy negotiator before his own kind could," Simba considered, "But still no sign of the prisoners though…"

"One step at a time," Kovu replied, obviously less concerned about the prisoners, "We'll get them back sooner or later. Let's just start by sending someone in to start negotiating the terms of their return."

"I think it's a bit late for that," Kiruhu the cheetah chuckled as he pointed towards the Golden River, "Look!"

One lioness was already making her way down, into the sands of Golden River, awaiting neither orders nor instructions.

"Aw, for the love of… Vitani!" Kovu shouted, both embarrassed and agitated, "Get back here this instant!"

"I think she's not listening," Simba grinned, perceiving the current situation as embracing for Kovu, and thus hilarious for himself, "But hey, what better way to talk to a hyena than sending in your own?"

Kovu found that remark not at all amusing, especially when he considered that the last time Vitani had been sent out to negotiate something, it had resulted in one of the bloodiest wars of the decade… Besides, what use was it to send out a negotiator who is not aware of the terms on which she is to be negotiating?

"Let's just hope she does more than just make out with that hyena of hers…" Enyi, who had been at Kovu's side almost all evening, suddenly noted.

"Enyi, next time you say something, try not making us throw up while you do, all right? Could you manage that, just for once?" Kovu sighed. Enyi's assessment hadn't been too far off, though.


"Vincent!"

"Hi, Vitani…"

"Miss Vitani,"

"Good seeing you too, Tiko."

Now what? Both Vincent and Vitani had been anxious to meet each other again, but now that they had actually met, they seemed to have forgotten what is was they wanted to say.

"Eh… Tiko? Could you… kinda… leave me and Vitani alone for a second?" Vincent suddenly asked after a long silence.

"Huh?" Tiko wondered, "Oh, sure. Just call for me when you need me again…"

"No, this place has got pretty poor acoustic properties, you won't hear me from back there. I'll just waive when I need you to come over here again, all right?"

"Fine by me. I'll eh… I'll just leave you alone for now, then…" the green hornbill mumbled, after which he took for the skies. Now Vincent and Vitani sat alone, with no-one around who could hear them. Still, their conversation felt anything but private, as they had the eyes of both their clans and prides staring at them from their respective riverbanks.

"We should probably be careful what we do; everyone's watching… we don't want to upset anybody…"

"Vincent, I couldn't care less," Vitani grinned, "The worst we could do is set a good example for the rest of them."

"Hehe, yeah, true," Vincent smiled, feeling genuinely good for the first time in days, "Spirits, it's good to have you back, Vitani!"

"It is, isn't it?"

"I mean, going back to the clan made me realize how much I actually enjoyed myself whilst you were around… and how much I missed you when you weren't."

"I heard," Vitani smiled, "That was real sweet of you, by the way, that message you gave Anana. I appreciated it. And I missed you too."

"You did? Really?" Vincent wondered, "I mean, you looked kind of upset when you smacked me in the face the other day – which was the right thing of you to do, by the way; I was behaving awful – so I was afraid you'd…"

"Fear not, as long as you stay yourself, you're the best company a lioness could wish for. It's just that you scared me back there, 's all. But I'm sorry I hit you."

"Don't be, I deserved it."

"What was it that got into you back there anyway?" Vitani asked.

"I don't know," Vincent sighed, seemingly a bit upset, "It's just… sometimes, when I have to take care of my clan it just feels like someone else takes over… But then when I'm around you… you're the only one around whom I feel like I can really be myself, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I get what you mean… Glad to have you back."

"If only it could last…"

"Hey, come on now, why the sad face? We're together again, aren't we?" Viatni asked when she noticed how Vincent was staring at the ground with a gloomy look. He looked up.

"That's just it… We're together again, but for how long? In front of me sits your pride, in front of you sits my clan; when this is all over, we'll just return to our respective clan and pride. You'll be just a lioness, me just a hyena. And in the given situation, where both our clans and prides have suffered so much at the paws of each other, I couldn't imagine how we would ever meet again without invoking their wrath… Maybe you were right, maybe we should have turned back at that river crossing to leave all this behind…"

"Well, it's too late for that now, so lets just make the best of it. Besides, what do you think we are here for in the first place?" Vitani smiled, tender and understandingly, "We're going to solve this, you and me, we'll sort this mess out, all right?"

"I guess so…"

"Come on, put some more spirit into it!" Vitani encouraged him. Vincent was still staring at the ground, though. She suddenly licked his muzzle, from his chin up to his nose. Now he did look up at her, clearly in a better mood than moments before.

"We can do this!" she reassured him.

"All right then, let's give it our best. Knowing that I'll at least won't have to face you on the field of battle makes me feel like we're halfway there already anyhow…"


"Did she just…?"

"Un-believe-able…" Kovu sighed, "Man, why can't I have any normal relatives for a change?"

"Yuk, gross!"

Simba just stared in utter disgust, the thought of it alone made his blood boil.
There sat no lioness, but the most degenerate life form imaginable. To betray the Circle of Life, her heritage and her pride so, it was just… Simba couldn't even find words for it. His precious Nala was being held hostage by those abominations, and Vitani just… it was simply beyond belief. If she'd have been within the range of his paws, he would have probably stuck Vitani down where she sat. But for now, Simba tried staying calm, tried his best not to storm down towards Vitani and give her what became her for her most foul betrayal.

"What's the big deal, 't is not like they haven't done that before…" Kiruhu, who was still carrying Rafiki on his back, suddenly yawned. All the lions around him started looking at him with a mix of anger and disgust; quite scary, actually.

"We really, really didn't want to know that," Kovu mumbled.

"I'm sorry, young price Kovu, my apprentice still hasn't quite yet learned when to keep his yaws shut," Rafki quickly replied.

"What, so now he's been promoted form a fuzzy form of transportation to an apprentice?" Kovu wondered.

"Indeed he has…"

"I have?"

"What did I tell you about keeping your yaws shut?" Rafiki grumbled, "Being blind is the first step towards being dead, and it would be a crime of me to just let my wisdom die with me… Fast-thinker here is smart enough to at least get the gist of it all, I reckon."

"Oh yes, wouldn't it be a crime to let all that infinite wisdom of yours go to waste…" Kovu chuckled, "Your body might be blind, but your ego hasn't ever felt better."

"Young prince Kovu, … Cram it."

"Kovu, look, they're doing something again!" Enyi reminded.

"Is it something gross again? 'Cause if it is, I ain't looking…"

"No, the hyena is just waving at his pride (or what's it called, clan?). There's that green bird again."

Kovu could see the green bird soaring down to Vitani and her hyena, after which they seemed to have a small conversation. Then, th bird flew up again, towards the other hyenas. Now what was that all about?

"You think they reached an agreement already?"

"On what? The number of times they're gonna…"

"For the Kings' sake, Enyi, shut up! Would you please shut up!" Kovu roared, after which he took a deep breath and turned his gaze to the hyenas again, "I think the agreement might be pretty important… Look, the hyenas are on the move, or at least some of them…"

"Look, a lion!" Kiruhu suddenly shouted.

"Well if it isn't captain obvious…" Kovu wanted too mumble, when he too suddenly noticed Kiruhu was talking about a lion among the hyenas, not about the lions surrounding himself.
There appeared a lioness among the hyena-clan! And another one, and another… Kovu counted a total of six, and each one of them seemed to be carrying something in between their jaws; small, fuzzy golden bundles. It were the survivors from Priderock, and five of them were each carrying a cub with them. Finally, some good news! It was hard to distinguish the lionesses at such distance, but Kovu was pretty sure Nala was walking up front. Simba hadn't failed to notice either, as he now anxiously sat at the edge of the riverbank, almost unable to stand any more waiting for Nala now that he'd seen her.

"Nala!"

The lioness in front of the five others, surrounded by hyenas, lift up her head. Because of the cub she was carrying, she was unable to respond, but it was pretty obvious she had heard him.

"I can't stand too see her surrounded by those mongrels anymore…" Simba mumbled, "I've got to go get her!"

"Wow, easy there, patience, dad," Kou replied soothingly, "Let's just wait and see, I'm sure she'll be coming our way. No need for us to go get her…"

"Good thing for them they've got my Nala, or I would have already let 'em have it…"

Meanwhile, all the lionesses, surrounded by a vast escort of hyenas, had already started hopping into the sands of Golden River (which took quite some effort as all lionesses were hurt one way or another) . It was by now pretty obvious they were about to be released.

"Now would you?" Kovu wondered, a bit wary of Simba's aggressive tone, "But now that they seem willing to just return your Nala free of charge, you are of course les inclined to eh… let 'em have it?"

Simba muttered a response, but Kovu didn't quite get it. He considered the fact Simba didn't seem all too appeased by the release of his queen and pride rather disturbing; if even that didn't improve his mood, the negotiations could prove to be rather… unrewarding…
A small voice in the back of Kovu's head told him he might want to prepare for the possibility of Simba choosing not to talk but to in stead 'let 'em have it'. He ignored the voice for now, however, and turned his attention to the prisoners down in the sands of the Golden River.
They had already advanced halfway, halting when they reached Vitani and her hyena. The guards surrounding the prisoners seemed to be gathering around the hyena Vitani had been talking to, whilst the lionesses themselves advanced further towards the riverbank upon which their pride sat gathered.
Nala, however, lingered around Vitani. She even put the cub in her mounth in the sand so she could to seemingly exchange a couple of words with Vitani's hyena, after which she seemed to give him, how shocking, a pat on the back. Kovu couldn't help but smile when he saw the look on Simba's face caused by Nala's little gesture. After her little chat with the hyena, Nala picked her cub up again and headed for her pride.
As soon as the last lioness had made it to Simba's riverbank, the hyenas who were now surrounding Vitani left again, probably to give her and her spotty friend some minimal privacy (minimal because they were still the center of attention, for pretty much all could see them). Kovu focused his attention on the lionesses to have returned, however, particularly Nala. First thing she did was turn her cub over to another lioness, after which she turned to Kiara and Simba. Kiara was of course overjoyed at the return of her mother and greeted her likewise. Needles to say tears flowed abundantly. Simba too was ecstatic at the return of Nala, though he still seemed a bit upset. And after the first few minutes of crying tears of joy, asking whether everyone was okay and recounting of how horrible Nala's experiences around Priderock must have been, Simba suddenly popped his blunt question.

"Say, Nala, I was wondering, what were you doing with that hyena just now?"

"Huh, what?"

"It's just… I saw you pause to talk to hyena, when you came over here…"

"I just stopped to say 'thanks'," Nala casually replied, which seemed to bother Simba for some reason Nala didn't quite grasp.

"Ah… I didn't know you started going around thanking hyenas…"

"I'm afraid I don't quite get what you mean, Simba…"

"Well, I mean, don't you think it's pretty strange to go around thanking those scruffy bastards after they butchered our pride? Seems pretty strange to me," Simba sneered.

"Hey, calm down, I just got back from captivity and you're already…"

"Nala, what was it you said to that hyena and why?" Simba suddenly asked in loud voice, shocking Nala, Kiara and all lionesses around him.

"What's it to you?"

"Nala, we've got enough trouble as it is without you getting friendly with the likes of them, now tell me what you said!"

"All right, all right, don't yell at me!" Nala hissed, "I just told him 'thanks for letting us go', after which he replied 'told you I'm not a bad guy, consider this a favor'. Then I patted him on the back and said 'you're a good kid, better hyena than your father was'. There, satisfied?"

"Better hyena than his father? I never knew you knew any hyenas…" Simba muttered, slightly disappointed and upset.

"Simba, during Scars reign we all got into contact with hyenas, like it or not, even me. Now can we please leave that behind us?"

No wonder the hyenas beat us, all of my lionesses (even my dear Nala!) seem to have befriended one…

As the argument between Simba and Nala withered down and the sun was in it's final stages of setting, Kovu suddenly remembered Viatani was still down in the Golden River with her hyena. He took a quick look. They were just talking a bit whilst sitting down.
Nothing gross this time around, no licking each others muzzle; nothing worse than touching each others paw every now and then. Although it was of course nice that the prisoners had all suddenly been released, it didn't really look like they were trying to negotiate a way out of the current stalemate which would endure as long as the lions hadn't gotten Priderock back. Maybe Kovu ought to bring that to everyone's attention before night fell.

"Eh, my king, my queen… I hate to interrupt you but could we… resume trying to get Priderock back from the hyenas, for I am afraid the talks my sister is holding now are less than productive. Maybe send someone over there with specific directives?" Kovu asked carefully. It was obvious who Kovu had in mind to go bargain for Priderock: himself; he'd love going through life as the lion that restored peace and order to the Pridelands. And it would also give him the much needed prestige to give him that extra edge over Simba now that they weren't exactly on friendly terms anymore. Simba, however, seemed to have a radically different plan.

"For once, I have to agree with you: it's time someone told those scavengers who's boss, in stead of your hyena-loving sister."

"That wasn't exactly…"

Kovu didn't even have time to finish his sentence, for Simba already sat at the edge of the Golden River. He looked back to address his pride.

"So far, the hyenas have refrained from using force during this meeting, so I will say this: I shall not be the first one to lift the paw against the hyenas," Simba orated, just before hopping into the Golden Sands and strolling towards a surprised Vitani.
It had only taken mere seconds for Simba to go from proposing someone walked over to the hyenas and actually doing it himself.
Kovu was pretty much caught by surprise, and still had his mouth opened to finish the sentence he started before Simba had announced he would try holding peaceful peace talks. First thing he did after closing his mouth again was assessing the current situation: when the prisoners had been released, peace had still seemed a possibility. But now that Simba had decided to take it upon himself to lead the peace talks, Kove became less and less sure things would work out fine. What to do if things suddenly escalated?
With both the lion pride and hyena clan gathered, any spark could light of an enormous clash, and Kovu wasn't too sure whether the pride would come out victorious if that clash were to come. Even if they would somehow win, their victory would be Pyrrhic at best. Then again, in the event of hyenas suddenly pouring into the Golden River, he would have little choice but to fight, for in a fight of lion versus hyena, Kovu would automatically become a participant, having to defend all those dear to him, like Kiara. Her well-being remained a top-priority, even if she momentarily chose not to acknowledge him, and if a fight with the hyenas was needed to safeguard that, so be it.
Unless… suddenly, a grim but plausible scenario played of before Kovu's eyes. He felt ashamed by only thinking about it… but then again… one has to prepare for the inevitable… maybe he ought to make some limited preparations, just in case…

"Enyi?" he whispered.

"Sir?"

"Who is your king? Tell me, Enyi, who is your king?"

"Eh… you are, sire?"

"Indeed. And that goes for all Outlanders, I am their king, right? Me, not Simba."

"Well… yeah, you are…" Enyi replied with certain confusion. What was this all about all of a sudden?

"Well then if you value the word of your king, I need you to do the following," Kovu whispered still, his voice now cold, determined and calculated, "I need you to tell all Outlanders this…"

Enyi gasped quite a few times as she received her new directives, for they were both cold and grim.

"In those words?" she uttered, "I need to tell all our fellow Outlanders those exact words?"

"Yes, those exact words, and be sure to mention they have the obligation to obey them, no matter how hard they might sound and no matter how hard it will be to follow them, for not doing so could well mean our demise, our complete annihilation," Kovu replied with a grim stare.

"And the Pridelanders? What do I tell them?"

"You tell them nothing, for we cannot trust them. We can only count on ourselves. If, however, the Pridelanders value their lives and existence, most of them will prove wise enough to conform with us Outlanders, especially the wounded ex-prisoners, who will have little choice in the matter. Now, when you are done informing our sisters, I want you and some of your most trusted lionesses to go over to Kiara and…"


"Uh-oh…"

"What, 'uh-oh'?"

"That huge lion with his impressive set of brown manes is coming our way…"

"What?" Vitani gasped as she looked around. Indeed, there he was: Simba, slowly striding towards her. At least he came alone, that could only mean he wasn't out to pick a fight. Still, the thought of having Simba around her didn't really appeal to Vitani, as their last meeting had been rather… unpleasant… scary… creepy. Oh well, at least now, Vincent was with her (though she doubted he could ever prove any good against a lion as powerful as Simba). But Simba's appearance did mean Vitani and Vincent would be unable to work out a solution for the present standoff by themselves, though..

"Is he good news or bad news?"

"Neither… he's the King…"

"Ah…" Vincent mumbled, as he signaled his fellow hyenas he needed no help just yet: the sudden descent of Simba into the Golden River had nearly provoked a hyena counterattack (which was set to occur if Vincent's life ever came in any danger). But that didn't seem to be the case just yet. It came to prove how twitchy everyone was, however.
From both sides of the river, dozens of eyes watched anxiously as Simba slowly made his way towards Vitani and Vincent. Everyone hoped no-one would at this point do anything stupid… would their hope prove idle?
With ponderous tread Simba closed in, and Vitani moved back a bit, now sitting next to Vincent in stead of standing in front of him. The hyena and lioness now awfully stared at the king, as he graciously sat down before them.

"Vitani," he quietly nodded with certain reservation. Vitani just returned the nod, but didn't really feel anything for a verbal response: no matter how you turned it, Simba's mere appearance remained mightily impressive and even intimidating.

"And I take it you speak for your kind?"

"Good guess," Vincent replied, feeling very uncomfortable and puny around Simba, "And you are…?"

"I am the King of all Pridelands," Simba replied with certain disdain, "I rule over these lands…"

"Well, that ought to be enough 'meet 'n greet'…" Vitani noted, hoping to skip past all those formalities. Her remark, however, did not exactly bring forth the reaction she was hoping for, as Simba apparently considered Vitani's remark an insult.

"Do not interrupt me. In fact, do everyone a favor and only speak when spoken to…"

"Hey, hey, easy there, it doesn't hurt being polite…" Vincent mumbled, still a bit wary because of Simba's sheer size.

"I need no lecture in politeness from your kind, hyena," Simba sneered.
Although he obviously took some offence at that remark, Vincent argued that he'd have to stand taking a few sneers; if that was what it took to ensure peace, so be it. His and Vitani's loved ones were more than worth having to stand that minor inconvenience.
Vitani, however, who wasn't too fond of authority ever since the Reunion, and who had little love for Simba ever since their last (scary) encounter, wasn't just going to let that insult slip.

"If that's what you came down here for, I suggest you leave again," she hissed, "We're here to put a stop to the horrible effects those kinds of remarks have always fueled… not perpetuate this pointless war by never-ceasing insults as you seem to be trying now, my king."

"I dare you to take such tone to me again…"

"Come on now, that's no way to talk to a lady…"

"Stay out of this!" Simba snapped at the hyena, "You should be grateful to still be around after what you did to my pride, and my home!"

"Oh yeah, great way to be thanking him for letting Nala and all other prisoners go free of charge…"

"Thanking him?" Simba shouted in indignation, "I should be thanking him? After his kin butchered my pride and stole my Pridelands, my Priderock? Their release of the prisoners was just a conditio sine qua non for the hyena-clan's mere survival; now I might consider sparing them. But thanking them? Over my dead body."

"Un-fucking-believable!" Vitani suddenly cried out, "What kind of blockhead are you? Spare them? For the Kings' sake, it are the hyenas who are sparing us! Look around you, we're in a war, and we're losing badly; it's about time you start acting in concordance with that one simple fact. It is not up to you to spare anyone, can't you get that through your thick skull? You are a king without land and without a pride!"

Those remarks already got the lioness some pretty nasty glares from Simba, but now that she was on a roll, she wouldn't be put off by some gloomy stare.

"I mean, my mom used to tell me some pretty painful stories about Musafa's hardheadedness… but your unfounded pride and mindless stubbornness makes his pale in comp…"

Maybe it was the still lingering heat that hung over Golden River, maybe it was the unexpected feeling of hunger, maybe it was his relative lack of sleep that day, maybe it was the fact he couldn't stand any bad word about Mufasa, but probably it were just his nerves finally snapping after an endless day of shocks, fear, disobedience and the trauma of losing and then being reunited with Nala.
Regardless of the causes, Simba did something he nor anyone else had thought possible in the given context, and worst of all was he did it not at all voluntarily: it felt as if someone else were occupying his body, a takeover by his own pride, hate and common annoyance over level-headedness.

"Don't you dare befoul the name of my father again!" Simba thundered, in the midst of Vitani's sentence, and already his front-paws had swung up to hammer down on Vitani in an unfortunate and untimely outburst of impulsive violence.


"My princes, my queen."

"Oh, hi, Enyi," Kiara replied a bit off-guard. Enyi could still see her trying to blink away a single tear. Meanwhile, without Kiara or Nala noticing, Enyi's lionesses discretely took post around them; as always they acted flawless.

"You look upset, is there something wrong?" Enyi continued, "And how is my queen?"

"We were just going over old-times," Nala replied a bit avoiding, "About how she was as a kid, you know, the kind of things I thought about when I was deprived of my daughter…"

"…and about what happened to mom just now, on Priderock, of course," Kiara quickly added, "I was just upset because I was afraid I'd never see my mom again, and now that she's here I cried out of pure relief."

"I can imagine. You're lucky to still have each other," Enyi noted as she turned to Nala for some more small talk, "Pardon me for saying so, ma'am, but you look rather…"

"Beat-up? Mangled? You have no idea! I'm still hurting all over; that fight at Priderock took it's toll. I don't think I could stand another one, not for some months at least. Unless my leg-wound gets any better soon, my fighting days are over…"

"Let's just hope…" Enyi had wanted too reply, when she was suddenly startled by Simba's booming roar echoing behind her.
As if it were synchronized, she and all other lionesses turned their heads towards the origin of the sound. Enyi spotted Simba in the Golden River just in time to see his paws come down on Vitani, one on her head, one on her shoulder.
Enyi gasped as Vitani crashed down in the hot sands, she felt her mouth go dry, and her heart seemed to skip a beat. But she hadn't seen the worst of it yet. For the blink of an eye, it looked as if Simba was going to leave it at that, doubting whether he should stay put or just get away from Vitani. In any case, he wasn't going to hit Vitani again; he hadn't even wanted to hit her in the first place. But the hyena alongside Vitani didn't know that, and after his initial shock and paralysis, his head lunged at Simba and he caught one of the lion's forepaws between his bone-crushing yaws, in an attempt to protect Vitani from further harm.
The king cried out in agony as he felt his bones being grinded into splinters, and mauled his opponent with his free paw on instinct. His paw hit the hyena's chest with the force of a sledgehammer. Enyi imagined hearing the sound of the hyena's ribcage being crushed all the way to where she was sitting and turned pale behind her tanned fur: this was what Kovu had been talking about, no doubt. Although she should have acted immediately to comply with the rest of her orders, something seemed to force her to stay and stare at the fight unfolding in the Golden River just that tiny bit longer, as if mesmerized by its violent cruelty.

As the hyena still held Simba's paw (and the only way he seemed to be willing to let go was if the paw came off), Simba snapped at the enemy's broad neck and buried his fang inches above the shoulder, somehow hindered by the hyena's thick manes. But before Simba got the chance to finish him off, Vitani had gotten back on her paws. Still a bit stunned, she sprung up and launched herself at Simba in a desperate attempt to free Vincent. Her force and weight, however, made Simba fall over, and as he still held Vincent's neck tight in between his yaws, the hyena turned 'round as well, neck first.
Seeing as he felt Vitani was more of a threat than the hyena, Simba tossed Vincent aside as soon as he had come to a halt, as if he were but a mere gazelle. The hyena rolled over once and then came to a stop on his side, his head tilted outward, completely motionless.

Meanwhile, the world around them hadn't just paused to look at the fight unfold, however, and both the lion pride and hyena clan had sprung into action.

As soon as Enyi had seen the hyena take a bite at Simba's paw, the orders she had just distributed among her fellow Outlanders at Kovu's request immediately came to mind.

"I need you to tell all Outlanders this… tell them that they will not move, not even as much as raise a paw unless they are told so by me. Unless I tell them otherwise, they will stay here, no matter what happens or what anyone else tells them. They will listen at my commands and my commands alone, regardless of any circumstances, whether they seem plausible at this time or not. If they do that, and just that, they will live to see the next sunrise. If not, they are already dead. No matter who or what it is they would be able to save by ignoring this directive (with strong emphasis on the who), those things are futile when compared to what they would stand to lose: our pride and family, our legacy and even our very existence…"

Now she realized what Kovu had exactly meant: if Simba's descent into the Golden River could somehow endanger his life, the Outlanders were barred from intervening; they would not come to his aid, in spite of his dreadful cries of pain and desperate calls for help.
But it didn't just stop there, for Enyi had also received a set of personal guidelines: she was to protect Kiara, the love and life partner of Kovu, from any danger whatsoever, but especially from herself. Enyi had been told to keep Kiara at this side of the Golden River no matter what. If possible, she should also prevent other Pridelanders from endangering their own lives, but Kiara's safety was her top-priority.


Kovu almost felt his pupils widening when Simba hit his sister, and he imagined hearing his claws burry themselves in the dry savannah-floor when he saw the hyena attacking.
No exit. How much as he had hoped for it not to have happened, it had. The red button had been pushed, the bombers launched with no return.
But even now, there was still one lion who stood between the lion-pride and it's apparent fate. That lion was Kovu himself; he still had the power to change destiny. But to do that, he'd have to do the unthinkable, the unspeakable even. If there had been any food in his stomach, he'd have regurgitated it at the mere thought of what he was about to do, of what he was about to do onto Kiara and all other remaining Pridelanders, especially Simba. But his staunch determination to save his pride (the Outlanders) and as much Pridelanders as possible left him with no other choice.

"Outlanders, lions, stay put!" Kovu roared as he turned his back to the Golden River and faced his pride, "I order you not to interfere!"

All lion eyes turned away from the fight, towards Kovu.
What did he say? Most Outlanders quickly remembered the strange orders they had received only moments before, and they were quick to place those in the right context; the current context. And whether it be because they too realized the dilemma Kovu was facing and voluntarily sided with him on the subject, or because they blindly followed the orders of him whom they had come to consider their de facto king, the Outlanders obeyed. None moved, although each and every single one of them braced just in case Kovu would still decide to order the charge.
But in stark contrast to the Outlanders who were able to interpret Kovu's command and obeyed it, stood the Pridelanders, to whom Kovu's call for inertia sounded nothing less than surreal, and thus the first thing they did was stare at Kovu in utter disbelief. The first lioness to vocalize that feeling was Kiara.

"Kovu?" she cried, hovering somewhere in between despair and disbelief. Kovu didn't respond however; how could he ever explain to the love of his life he just ordered her father to be abandoned, pretty much signing his death-sentence. He couldn't even stand to look her in the eyes. But in looking away, he told Kiara all she needed to know.
As Kiara's throat went dry and tears began welling up in her eyes, she cast a quick glance at the other side of the Golden river. She could see the hyenas pouring down into the dried-up riverbed, poised to strike at Simba.

The hyena clan had reacted considerably more predictable to the events that had unfolded in the sands of the Golden River than the lion pride had. This was of course somehow what a result of the purge to have taken place prior too the meeting with the lions; there was no internal division comparable to the Pridelander-Outlander rivalry within the lion pride. Not anymore, that is.
Anyway, their reaction to the unfolding events had been, as stated, perfectly by the book: any lions observing them had, the moment Vincent had engaged Simba, seen a first wave of hyenas, headed by a strangely grey-maned female, storm down their riverbank, towards the fight in the middle of the Golden River. After them, more hyenas followed, probably the less watchful ones. Not before long, almost all hyenas had made their way down into the golden river, save for a small contingent of wounded that were still recovering from the Battle of Priderock (but had insisted to come along to the 'negotiation', in stead of stay behind with the pups at an undisclosed location).
But in spite of the hyenas quick response, they were unable to get to their leader on time.

After Simba had tossed aside the hyena, he had turned his attention to Vitani. Thanks to the tunnel-vision he had by now developed, he was pretty much oblivious to the fact that a genuine wave of hyenas was coming his way: he only focused on Vitani, who was putting up quite the fight. One should of course expect no less of her: she had been trained from infancy to fight not hyenas, cheetahs or leopards, but other lions, and she had gathered a lot of experience at the Battle of the Reunion. Plus, she was extremely agile, young and in better condition than the aging Sima. But she would soon find out all those qualities would not be enough, for she faced no ordinary lioness, but Simba, the Lion King.
Apart from being much stronger and heavier built because he was a lion and not a lioness, Simba too possessed an incredible amount of lion versus lion combat-experience: he had fought and defeated Scar, he had fought his way out of an ambush involving the entire Outlander pride and he had also faced Zira, Vitani's mother and tutor. And although Simba was older than Vitani, his short-term condition was vastly superior to hers: the lioness still felt the effects of her exhausting journey she had been on with Vincent.
In short: she was no match for Simba (even though one of his fore-paws was so mangled by Vincent's bite it was a miracle it hadn't come of yet).
After he created some distance in between them by kicking Vitani in the abdomen with his back-paws, Simba viciously lashed out with his paw that still worked. As Vitani had taken a serious blow when she had been hit in the stomach, she was unable to shield her face from the next hit. She yelled in agony as Simba's claws penetrated deep into her flesh. Then, in a sudden upwards sweep, his claw moved up, ripping through the tissue above Vitani's left eye-socket. As the pain became unbearable, all turned black before Vitani's eyes, and she imagined she had fainted. She was wrong, however, as she lost consciousness moments later, when Simba, having to make up for his useless left-paw, knocked Vitani out with a violent head-but. Vitani's now limp body flew backwards, leaving behind her a trail of falling blood drops in the air as her severely bleeding head fell down.
As Simba bowed towards the frail Vitani who lay in the tussled, red and brownish discolored sands, he doubted whether he should strike at her defenseless and feeble body yet again to finish her. In suppressing his instincts and adrenaline rush, however, he decided not to: he had never been a killer, and wasn't planning on starting now. He'd spare the rebellious lioness.
But then, suddenly, as he still stood bent over Vitani, he was once again jumped at, albeit with limited success this time. It was the hyena: he had somehow managed to get up again! But Vincent's attempt at stopping Simba, whom he presumed had been on the verge of killing Vitani, was more of a symbolic act aimed at distracting Simba until anyone else were to show up than an actual effort to disable Simba: even now, as he tried snapping at Simba, the hyena coughed up entire pints of blood out of his rib-punctured lung. Aware of the pathetic state his foe was in, Simba wasted little time at finishing him: one well-aimed punch at the hyena's throat shattered his windpipe. With smothered, spastic gulps, Vincent collapsed, able to take in air nor cough up blood. Left as is, his death would be a slow and terrible one, Simba considered, and although he was facing a hated enemy, it was also a living creature that deserved no such suffering. But Simba's attempt at ending the hyena's suffering was brutally cut short, for Shetani and her company had just arrived on the scene… too late.


Realizing all those hyenas were headed towards her father, Kiara turned back to Kovu, more desperate than ever.

"Kovu, what is this? Do something!"

But Kovu just bowed his head in silence for a second, after which he lift it back up an finally looked Kiara in the eyes. That was a face she hadn't seen anyone make ever before: Kovu's eyes were cold as stone yet gleaming with tears, his stare utterly desperate yet determined. Kiara needed no further explanation, and neither did any of the other Pridelanders: Kovu had betrayed and abandoned their king.

"No! Dad!" Kiara screamed just before running towards the Golden River in a poorly conceived and desperate attempt to safe her father. But before she had even taken two steps, Enyi's weight already pressed her to the ground. All lions around them watched in shock as their princes was being pinned down by two Outlanders. Despite her screams and struggling, none came to free Kiara from the protection against herself she was experiencing.
Now that it became clear the Outlanders weren't planning on providing Simba with any help, the Pridelanders didn't waste any more time and collectively tried surging forward. The three Pridelanders that had been stationed with the Outlanders and thus hadn't taken part in the Battle of Priderock were the first to rush forward, and despite some decent attempts, the Outlanders were unable to stop them.
The former prisoners, however, were not able to break through the Outlandish cordon surrounding them, mostly because of the bad shape they were in after having been wounded at Priderock.

One lioness, however, proved determined enough to reach the Golden River. As with most Pridelanders, Kovu didn't know her name or even recognized her. Al he could see was that it was a young lioness that rushed towards the Golden River, a young, limping lioness with the most elegant figure, despite several fresh wounds that covered her body, and a bitterly determined stare. Incredibly fast despite her wounds, the lioness slipped past Kovu before he even realized she was there, and jumped off the riverbank into the Golden River.

"My king!" was all Kovu could hear her yell as she was about to make her way towards Simba. It seemed no-one would be able to stop her from reaching Simba – and a certain doom; noble and courageous… but a certain death nonetheless. Suddenly, however, one of the Outlanders broke the ranks and started pursuing the runaway Pridelander. Kovu immediately recognized her lean, typically Outlandish appearance: Anana.
Halfway to where the fight in which Simba was involved in was taking place, Anana caught up with the other lioness. With one swoop, she knocked away the other lioness' back-paws, causing her to trip and come to a sliding stop in the sand. Before the lioness got the chance to get up again, Anana already had her paws on the lioness' back, pushing her onto the ground. And even though the lioness struggled and yelled to be released, Anana did not yield, but in stead kept the Pridelander firmly pressed to the ground.

"Aah! Let me go! Get of me, I've got too…"

"No! It's no use, I'm not letting you throw your life away in vain!"

"You!" the lioness gasped in anger as she recognized the other lioness' voice, "How dare you, backstabbing rat! Does your treason know no boundaries? Let me go, I have to help my king!"

But as she was yelling at Anana, it became apparent the lioness was starting to realize she was going nowhere. No-one would be saving her king. The mere thought of it made her voice turn from enraged to filled with sorrow.

"Let me go, I have to help my king! Let me help him… why doesn't anyone help him…" she wailed desperately, as her gleaming eyes stared at the still struggling Simba "No! My king… Simba…"

As Nala was the only one to immediately recognize both lionesses, both the bold Pridelander and the Outlander that tried keeping her from harm, only she could actually realize the absurdity of the situation to the fullest, for the runaway Pridelanders was no other than Kani. The same Kani that had viciously terrorized Anana for hours on end had just been saved the very lioness she had insulted so. And the most awkward part was she didn't want to be saved at all. And meanwhile, all Outlanders around Nala still stood idle as Simba fought for his life…

"Oh my poor Simba… this is madness!" Nala cried out in tears, "Kovu, please, I'm begging you, help him! Help your king!"

But Kovu didn't even do as much as turn around to respond to the desperate queen's plea; he had already declined one request from Kiara, why not decline this one as well?
The queen had had a point though: this whole situation was indeed utter madness, his own inertia most of all. Kovu was perfectly aware of the seemingly cruel and cowardly nature of what his actions (or non-actions); how else could one describe what Kovu was doing? What other words could fit him as he sat there, silently staring at the tragedy taking place right under his very eyes?
For that was what Kovu did: he just stared at the events unfolding.
He stared as Simba hit Vitani's hyena on the throat.
He stared when the other hyenas reached Simba and immediately engaged him, the first wave counting no less than ten adversaries. Six years ago, at the first Battle of Priderock, he might have just been able to deal with that kind of opposition. But Simba had aged since then, and the hyenas he had defeated six years earlier were radically different from those he was facing now, trained and disciplined as they were. Simba fought valiantly and ruthlessly, but it was of no use: more hyenas reached him with each passing second, among them a one eyed hyena that Kovu somehow seemed to recognize, though he couldn't tell from when or where.
By the time the three Pridelanders that had broken loose from the pride made it to the fight, Simba had already been surrounded, and the lionesses couldn't even breach the outer pack of opponents. Pretty soon, they too were engulfed in enemies.
Kovu found it hard to tell exactly how much enemies Simba was able to slay: he hit and bit a lot of foes, but never seemed to have enough time to focus on one particular hyena. His kills could probably be counted on the toes of one (perhaps two) paws, for the barrage of bites he was subjected to quickly brought the mighty king down: in mere moments, he disappeared below a mass of enemies. Kovu respectfully bowed his head, fearing the worst. Then, suddenly, he heard the most awful of roars, one that sent a shiver through Kovu's entire body. He looked up again, just in time to see Simba rise up out of the flood of opponents once again.

"Kovu!" the king roared. For a split second, both lions seemed to be looking each other right in the eyes. Staring at Simba's blood-stained face, Kovu imagined he saw signs of acceptance: as the king looked at his most likely successor, he finally realized that no help was coming, no charge of Outlanders would save him, and no Kings of Old would descent from the heavens to come to his aid; they'd probably only be waiting for him to join them any time now.
And as Kovu saw that Simba had accepted his course of action, he could only pray that the king understood it as well. He hoped Simba realized just why Kovu could not come to his aid, and even barred others from trying.

It had not been an easy decision to make, far from it, make no mistake about it: standing and waiting while his king got butchered had not been easier on Kovu than it had been on anyone else. The only difference with other lions (save for a few extremely bright and pragmatic lionesses) had been that Kovu knew why he did what it was he did; he did it out of pure necessity. Cold and calculated necessity.
Of course, Kovu's one true desire at the time hadn't differentiated that much from that of the lionesses around him: he too had wanted nothing more than to storm down in one last heroic charge to safeguard his king. But he realized that would have been foolish, despite all it's heroism.
True, a dedicated lion-charge might have momentarily saved Simba. But then what? Their entire pride would become embroiled in a slaughter without precedent, another clash with the same hyenas that had only days before scored a historic victory over the lions. The ensuing battle would have been one they could not have won. And even if, by some slim chance, the lions would have defeated the enemy, too few lions would have been left to claim victory. Was that what Kovu wanted, yet another bloodbath to claim the lives of so many fine lionesses, a bloodbath that would destroy their pride, even in victory? No. He couldn't let that pass, ever. He was not about to sacrifice the pride simply because it would be the honorable thing to do, even though doing what was honorable would have been so much easier to do, and so much more easier to accept for his pride. Indeed, sometimes it takes a lion more courage to be a coward than it would take him to become a hero.
That knowledge did little to soothe Kovu's enormous feeling of guilt, though, for choosing not to give in to the urge for heroism had also meant sacrificing Simba. One could state Simba's downfall had been the king's own doing and his own fault, but he to claim such thing would have been wrong, for Simba befell no blame for what Kovu was concerned. Simba had always been a just and merciful king, and he had always done what was right in his eyes and based on his knowledge. His minor shortcomings, like his sporadic impulsiveness, did nothing to change that. Even his harsh stance for what concerned the hyenas could not really be blamed upon him: that had only been the logical consequence of his course of life and thus lay beyond his will. In effect, Simba was just another victim of the tragedy called war. And the thought of voluntarily leaving Simba to die made Kovu sick to his stomach.

As she realized her life partner could not possibly be saved anymore, Nala inevitably burst out in tears (not unlike most other lionesses, even Outlanders, who bowed their heads and wept in silence as Simba's fate became sealed), but not before venting her thoughts about Kovu one last time.

"Kovu, you monster! You left Simba to die, you heartless bastard! You couldn't care less, you let all this pass just so you could call yourself a king!"

Kovu slowly turned his eyes away from the battlefield, towards Nala, not knowing whether he should burst out in anger or in tears. It became anger.

"My sister is out there!" he shouted at the still heartbroken Nala, whilst ostentatiously pointing at the fight behind him, "How dare you even consider I would just leave her to her fate? I wouldn't even give that as much as a thought, even if it would make me the lord and master over all the plains of Africa. What I do here, I do for you, all of you! I do this for our pride! Don't you think I too feel grief at what is happening to our poor king?"

For the first time in days, he was able to pronounce the words 'our king' without a distinct ironic taste to it whilst referring to Simba.

"But as much as my sister and Simba's fate troubles me, I have no choice but to accept it. If they are what it takes to save all of you, our pride, than so be it! Such is a choice no-one should ever be forced to make… but I was, and I have chosen my path. You may scold me all you like for making the decision I made, I deserve no better, but don't you dare even suggest I did this for personal gain, or for the mere title of 'king'!"


How strange a thing that, even though their coming had been aimed at saving him, none of the hyenas seemed to care for Vincent as soon as they reached the scene: they immediately went after Simba, who stood over their leader's body, poised to deliver a finishing bite.
As Vincent lay suffocating on the ground, losing parts of consciousness at rapid pace, it didn't take him long to realize his hours were numbered, regardless of his clanmates' intervention.
Realizing you will never again be able to look upon the stunning grace of an African sunrise, the simple joy of a young pup messing around or the soothing smile on a loved one's face is not at all agreeable, nor is bleeding to death and choking at the same time. But for all the things he stood to lose forever, there was still one joy Vincent could live before darkness were to take him.
With the little strength he had left in his broken and mangled body, he slowly dragged himself towards where Simba had just been standing. Meanwhile, the fight with the lion king raged on relentlessly, with fellow hyenas crashing down in the sand all around Vincent. A few of them never got up again. As he got closer to his target, Vincent felt the pain in his chest and throat intensifying beyond what he had thought tolerable, whilst most other sensory perceptions started whittling down and even disappearing altogether. His vision blurred rapidly, and even his memory started to fade, forgetting all that was happening around him. There was only one thought left that still dominated his mind and actions.

Almost… just give me those few second to get that bit further…

Then, finally, after what had seemed to be an endless ordeal (but was in fact jut traversing no more than two meters), he made it: by extending is right left paw, Vincent's toe-tips touched one of the unconscious Vitani's stretched-out paws. In that one last touch lay all the courage and comfort Vincent needed to let go… and so he did.


After and endless stream of bites and scratches, Simba finally disappeared out of sigh, collapsing because of pain, blood-loss and who knows what else. Kovu lost sight of him as he collapsed and seemed to become covered in hyenas. This was the end for the lion king. About simultaneously with their king, two of the Pridelanders to have come to his aid were defeated as well; one had her neck broken between hyena-jaws, the other her entire forepaw torn off, after which she quickly succumbed because of her massive bleeding. The third one, however, seeing as how her king was gone, her allies killed and no help was coming, was able to, in a desperate rush, break through the hyena lines. As soon as she had broken free, getting severely wounded whilst she did, she tried sprinting towards the riverbank upon which sat Kovu and his pride. This was something the black-maned lion had not been expecting: if the lioness made it back to his riverbank, they'd have to engage the handful of hyenas that were pursuing her, and the battle he had so desperately been avoiding would still take place. But this time around, the hyenas themselves solved the problem, and by that I did not mean the hunted down the lioness: from somewhere within the mass of hyenas, a single order resounded.

"No, stop this! No further!"

And just before the hyenas reached Anana and Kani, who still lay in the sand, Anana still holding Kani, they hesitatingly slowed, and eventually came to a stop, looking back at their clan.

"This has gone on for way too long, all of you back off!"

The hyenas seemed somehow what confused, and apart from the hyenas that had been pursuing the surviving Pridelander (who had by now already made it up the riverbank again), no-one really backed off as ordered. That is, not until one particular hyena, the one with the strange, grayish manes, who was by now covered in scratch-marks from her prominent role in taking down the Lion King, repeated that order.

"You heard our matriarch, back-off! Take twenty paces in the direction of the southern riverbank and regroup. This fight is over…"

Now with considerably more confidence (and more specific directives), the hyenas started moving back, regrouping into some sort of formation, dragging along the wounded that could no longer stand on their own paws. What remained were the dead, who only now became clearly visible. At the center of the battlefield lay Simba's enormous body, surrounded by four hyena carcasses. Towards the lions side of the Golden River lay the two Pridelanders to have fallen, along with three more hyenas. And finally, a bit more towards where the clan sat, lay the two figures that seemed out of place: an Outlander and a hyena, their paws seemingly extended at one another, the toes of their left forepaws just touching. Both the pride and the clan silently watched the blood-stained scene for a moment.
Seeing their king, their Simba, actually laying down in the now brownish discolored sands, the surviving Pridelanders could no longer escape the hard truth: the king was no more. Even the Outlanders seemed affected by the current state of their former ruler, and quite a few looked away in tears. On the other side, feelings were no different: the hyenas too had lost one of their most prominent leaders, and he too now lay dead in the sands of the Golden River. In spite of that, the hyenas remained calm enough to back up their cohort even further, until all of them once again sat on their respective riverbank. That made one thing clear: they had understood Kovu's intentions. And even though they had not hesitated to spring to their leader's aid when he had been in danger, now that he was dead and now that they had seen what Kovu had gone through to distance himself from the fight that had caused his demise, their current actions gave a clear message: what just happened was a mistake, a terrible and tragic mistake, but for the sake of both our clans, let us not repeat it.
Kovu was more than willing to see to that, but first things first: his pride had just lost their king, and it would be monstrous not to allow the lionesses to mourn his passing. The hyenas withdrawal from the Golden River was more than helpful in the matter, giving the lions a chance to reach their leader without risking too much provocation.
Kovu walked over to Kiara and Nala.

"My queen, my princess… please, follow me…"

The stare he got from Kiara surpassed all other things to have hurt Kovu in his lifetime: it was cold and full of hatred, and no attempt was made to hide her utter despise for Kovu. He was quick to realize why she looked at him like that, but that knowledge made his one true love's hateful stare no easier to bare. Kiara looked at him not as her beloved Kovu anymore, but she looked at him as the lion who had stood by and did nothing as her father had been slaughtered. Kovu would from now on have to learn and live with that; yet another sacrifice he had to make for the pride's continued existence. That being said, it was no surprise the lionesses were reluctant to follow.

"We're going to see the king…" Kovu sighed to convince them. It worked, but in stead of following Kovu, both lionesses independently started walking towards where Simba lay, not even granting Kovu as much as a stare. That hurt. But he'd have to learn and live with it.
With a discrete gesture, Kovu ordered Enyi to follow him as he too started walking towards the center of Golden River, where Simba still lay. The rst of the lionesses he ordered to stay put. On their way down, the four lions passed Kani and Anana, the grimly frowning Anana still on top of the weeping Kani.

"It's over, there's no need for you to keep her pressed down like that. Come on, get up, both of you…" Kovu grumbled, "Lets go see the king…"

Looking at each other with saddened yet suspicious eyes, both lionesses hesitatingly got up and followed Kovu as he walked towards the fallen Simba. Nala and Kiara had already sat down next to their partner and father, carefully stroking and embracing the huge lion, whilst letting their tears run freely.
Kani, who had always seen her king as some sort of demigod, was equally moved and shuffled closer to Simba as well, and both Nala and Kiara allowed her to come sit alongside them, seeing in Kani the representative for all the pride.
As all three lionesses knelt at their deceased king, the red sun that had been bathing the entire seen in a ghastly reddish light, finally set, and with it ended the last day of King Simba's reign, a reign that would be remembered for generations to come, and strangely enough not only by the lion pride. Simba's years would over time become a concept onto themselves, but until that time, the lionesses were left with nothing than their grief.
It goes without saying, however, that Kovu and Anana were allowed nowhere near the body of the deceased king by the other lionesses; Kiara and Nala felt resentment against Kovu, and Kani couldn't stand the mere presence of Anana (ignoring the fact it had been Anana to save her life).
Then again, Kovu hadn't really come down into the Golden River to mourn Simba (though he would most certainly do so at a latter time), but had in stead come to check on that other lion who lay down there: Vitani, his sister. He cautiously moved closer to where she lay, followed by Enyi and Anana in his wake.
All three of them were ecstatic when they saw Vitani's chest was still gently moving up and down; she was still breathing! That of course didn't mean Vitani was perfectly all right, however, as the area around her left eye had been completely devastated by Simba's claws. But that was only of secondary importance; what mattered was that Vitani lived, for now. And even though she had lost quite some blood, she'd probably make it anyhow, that is if she were to receive adequate care from her pride. Her brother would certainly see to that.
Careful not to hurt her, Kovu gently stroked Vitani across her forehead. She groaned gently at the feel of his touch.

"Hush, it's okay… don't push yourself…" Kovu whispered. As was to be expected of her, Vitani paid little attention to what her brother said and hesitatingly opened her eyes. When she recognized Kovu, she tried getting up, which took her great effort. Kovu was quick to step in and support her side with his strong paws as she tried sitting upright.

"Easy now, easy now… don't hurt yourself…"

"Kovu, is that you?" Vitani uttered exhausted, "I… I can't see you that well… It's… aah! My eye! It hurts!"

"Calm down, I said calm down!" Kovu grumbled as he tried keeping Vitani from reaching up with her paw towards her wounded eye, "Night has fallen, your eyes probably have to adjust... and you've got a nasty wound to the head. No, don't touch it! Wait, here let me just…"

Whilst still keeping his holding his sister tight, Kovu moved his head closer to hers and started licking clean Vitani's wound. She of course squealed in pain as he did, but Kovu's muscular paws prevented her from backing away. But as he was licking her wound clean with his rough tongue, Kovu suddenly felt his emotions welling up, and got a sudden urge to hug his sister whom he had presumed dead.

"Oh Vitani… thank the Spirit's your still okay!" Kovu mewled quietly as he pressed his head tightly at his sister's neck.

"Aw!"

"I'm sorry! Did I do something wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I'ts nothing – but don't hug me so tight… I'm still hurting all over…and my eye…"

"I'm sure it'll be all right," Kovu lied, "It's just got some blood in it now. Once we've cleaned that out, you'll using it again in no time."

Kovu licked Vitani's wound again.

"It' good to see your okay; you've been living way too dangerous – I don't think I could stand almost losing you again."

In stead of using words, Vitani chose to thank her brother for his concern with an embrace. The fact that her brother had not come to her help when she had been fighting for her life didn't even spring to her mind, probably because she didn't know what had happened after she had lost consciousness yet. But she quickly found out: as he head rested in Kovu's shoulder, she got was able to look at the scene behind him. She saw Simba, the mourning lionesses and all the dead hyenas. She abruptly backed away from Kovu.

"Kovu… what has happened here?" she gasped as she looked at all the carcasses, and the lion pride sitting on their riverbank. She slowly turned around. First thing she saw was the clan, sitting on the other riverbank. And then, a lot closer to where she sat, right next to her even, she noticed a messy pile of spotted fur.

"But that is…" Vitani uttered in dismay, "Oh no… no… that can't be…"

"I'm sorry, Vitani… he was already gone before we even got here."

"Oh no… no, please no…" Vitani wailed as she hesitatingly tried to touch the paw that Vincent had tried extending at her. Only being able to see out of one eye, she found it difficult to estimate just how close the dead hyena lay.
His paw still felt warm. She moved closer and sat down right in front of him. She gently stroked first his paws, then his neck and eventually his manes, somehow hoping he would suddenly let loose a single groan. But she knew that wasn't happening; Vincent wasn't breathing, he wasn't moving, his eyes were shut and his otherwise yellowish fangs were colored red because of his own blood.

"No… please, no…" Vitani still wept, even in the full knowledge Vincent was gone. She carefully took his head between her forepaws and preeded her nose onto the manes on the top of his head, between his ears.

"This is all my fault…" Vitani sobbed heartbroken.

"Don't blame yourself…"

"But it is my fault! I provoked Simba, he attacked because of me. And Vincent died coming to my aid…"

"No, it's not your fault; this was all bound to happen anyway. This had been bound to happen for years. You just had the bad luck of being at the wrong place on the wrong time," Kovu replied, putting on of his paws on Vitani's shoulders, gently rubbing hence and forth, "We all had the misfortune of being at the wrong place on the wrong time, even Simba…"

As Kovu pronounced those words, he could suddenly see one of the hyenas that had been sitting atom the riverbank coming their way, slowly and carefully. She looked quite big, for a hyena, and had a strange, greenish bird on her shoulder.
Seeing as she came alone, Kovu remained calm, and he signaled at the pride to do the same. The hyena to approach them looked a bit like the one Vitani was mourning over, except for her longer manes and her unusual grey eyes, gleaming in the pale moonlight. Save for Vitani, she was the first mammal Kovu had ever come across to have bluish eyes. She halted at a respectable distance.

"You can come closer if you want to," Kovu mumbled at her, "We won't bite. Seriously, we won't."

That being said, the hyena moved closer, still careful though. As she did, Kovu noticed her eyes too were gleaming with tears. It made her more or less look like Vitani, Kovu considered.
After a first hesitation, which was removed when Vitani nodded at the newcomer, the blue-eyed hyena also sat down next to the dead body, equally mournful as Vitani was. Meanwhile, the green bird hopped on the ground and moved closer to Kovu. Kovu considered having seen the green hornbill somewhere before.

"Have we met?"

"No, I'm afraid we haven't, though I'm pretty sure I know who you are… Kovu, right? Son of…"

"Son of Taka and Zira, yeah. King of the Outlanders," Kovu grumbled a bit annoyed, "And how come I recognize you but can't tell who you are?"

"I'm Tiko, Zazu's nephew. You probably knew him. We sort of looked alike, except for the obvious difference in color…"

That, and you look a bit more plump…

"Ah… that's odd… and you work for her?" Kovu frowned, "Isn't that a bit unusual for Zazu's nephew, working for hyenas?"

"I get that question a lot, and no, I don't consider 'working' for them any weirder than 'working' for lions. And it's not really working, they just tolerate me and I give them some advice if necessary. As matter of fact, I had been assigned by Rafiki to try and help him out," Tiko explained, pointing at Vincent's body.

"Sorry to hear that…"

"Thanks… I didn't really know him that well yet… but we got along pretty good… until further notice, I'm helping out his sister."

"So they're related? I figured as much…," Kovu frowned, "So that's his sister, I presume?"

"Indeed, his sister. Shenya, Matriarch of the Clan."

"That's me…" Shenya suddenly sniveled as she looked up from Vincent's body, still stroking his back with one of her paws, "Some matriarch I make…"

"So you're the one who's calling the shots in all this?" Kovu wondered, "Shouldn't you have some protection with you?"

"You went to immense troubles to prevent your pride from clashing with her clan, so much even we could tell from looking at you. I doubt you'd let that all be in vain now by attacking her," Tiko noted coolly.

"Touché. Well… I guess, seeing as you're the hyena in charge I should be congratulating you and your clan with a historic victory," Kovu spoke at Shenya not at all without cynicism.

Shenya looked up from the remains of her dead brother to stare at Kovu with eyes devoid of all hope.

"You call this a victory?" she snickered, "My brother is dead, your king is dead, my clan has been decimated, and so has your pride. And for what? All because we wanted stupid vengeance, all that for that blood-drenched rock? This is no victory… this is… it's just insane!"

"Finally something we can agree on…" Kovu smiled in sorrow, "It is insane, isn't it?"

As Kovu had been speaking, Rafiki and Kiruhu had discretely crept closer, having noticed the arrival of the hyena matriarch after Rafiki had just briefly paid his respects to Simba. But as he still considered the living a priority over the dead, he had postponed his mourning to go check out what it was that Kovu and the hyena exactly had to say. Kovu suddenly spotted Rafiki.

"Ah, the baboon… or was it mandrill? Bah, that doesn't really matter, now does it... I have been expecting you..." Kovu grumbled, "You know, Rafiki, I think I finally figured it out. Just now. I think I finally figured out the Circle of Life. Are you all listening? Rafiki, hyena? Sis? You want to know? I figured out just what the Circle of life is all about…
On first glance, it is simple: each of us, all things to live and breathe, all of us, we live only by the death of others, but when our time comes, we too give life to something else in our demise. When we die, we become the grass that feeds the zebra, and the Zebra is what feeds us. But the Circle goes much further than that: it also encompasses the never-ceasing alternations that make up our lives. Life and death, day and night, rains and drought… they are all exteriorizations of that same ongoing Circle. This, we can not hope to fight for it holds the very essence of life…"

Rafiki was impressed. Kovu was the first one to have reached such a thorough understanding of the Circle of Life with so little education in the matter. But To Rafiki's surprise, there was more.

"… as such, it seems almost impossible to grasp why one would ever want to try and betray the Circle, how can one betray the essence of life, as my parents supposedly did? The answer is simple: one cannot.
It can never have been my parents intention to betray the Circle of Life. But what was it then they supposedly betrayed? To know that, one must first realize something else: much like water in a river in which one swims, the Circle of Life surrounds us all, in all we do, at any time. But water drenches our fur and gets stuck to it, and it's weight slows and even drags us down, making the life-giver that is water also a menace. So is it with the Circle of life: because we are always surrounded by it, the Circle too gets stuck too our fur, and it too slows us down. Because of our constant exposure to it, we have started internalizing and applying the Circle's principals onto things that need not at all follow it's logic, thus creating corrupted processes that seem a part of the Circle, but are really nothing but our own inventions, our own flawed models. The Circle of Life becomes an excuse, unintentionally, to explain and support our self-invented theories."

This part Rafiki already liked a whole lot less. What was it young Kovu was getting at, what was it he thought to have discovered? It didn't sound like anything good. To Shenya, however, who had only briefly heard of the Circle of Life and previously saw it as nothing but a distant lion-contraption, Kovu's explanation felt enlightening: someone finally bothered to explain the Circle to a hyena, down to it's very finesse. Meanwhile, Kovu carried on, seemingly only having eye for his own thoughts and theories, forgetting about the grieving world around him.

"It are these corrupted theories that use the Circle as a shield we often mistake as being the essence of the Circle, even when they are perverted and flawed. This is why my parents tried combating the Circle: they saw only our own flawed models and theories that used the Circle as a mere excuse. And these flawed, corrupted theories are very persistent, two of them most of all: the first one being that a king always has to be followed by his son in order to keep the Circle going; whilst this has absolutely nothing to do with the Circle of Life, which by definition stands above such futilities as succession within a simple pride of lions. The second persistent theory which hided behind the Circle is the ongoing, never-ending duality between lions and hyenas. Is it not right, hyena, that you have always been taught, from infancy, to consider us lions your enemy?"

Shenya nodded. Kovu was right.

"Well, the same goes for us. We are raised to hate your kind, it is as if we have to fight you. And when we stop to ask why it is we fight continuously, all we are told is it's because of the Circle of Life, and we cannot ignore the Circle, we have to live by the paths it sets… but whatever does that mean?"

"It means hyenas are no part of the Circle," Rafiki coldly noted, "How can you do anything else than detest that which is no part of the Circle?"

What nonsense was it that Kovu was making up, Rafiki silently thought.

"They are not? Strange... Are they not born as we are, don't they live as we do and, eventually, don't they die as well? And if they die, do they too eventually not become the grass that feeds our prey? Well, don't they? Because if they do, why on earth would they too not be part of the Circle, because you say so, maybe? I think what you and I say has very little influence over the Circle... No, my friend, hyenas too are part of the Circle."

"I thought you understood what the Circle was about, but apparently I was wrong…" Rafiki muttered, annoyed at Kovu's defiance, "How dare you even doubt the most basic of knowledge? Hyenas are no part of the Circle."

"I could sit here and argue," Kovu smiled defiantly, "But I could also tell you why you are so reluctant to accept the fact hyenas are a part of the Circle. It is because you are afraid to face the consequences. Because if they are a part of the Circle, the only way to explain our rivalry whilst blaming it on the Circle is if our rivalry were to follow it's rules. Have you ever tried that, Rafiki, actually putting the lion-hyena rivalry in the Circle's context?"

"This is preposterous!" Rafiki sighed, "Our king lays dead in the sands and you are lifting his killers up into the Circle of Life!"

"No, you are preposterous to still defend this perverse theory that has already claimed so many lives!" Kovu sneered, "Now, since you seem unable to do so, I shall explain the consequences of your theory when you actually apply the Circle's logic to it.
If our rivalry with the hyenas is a part of the Circle, it follows by the Circle's rules... and is thus first and foremost alternating... this means, in our context, that the supremacy over Priderock and the lands to surround it does not belong to one of our races, but in stead alternates. It may take generations, but when a Lion King sits atop Priderock, it is only a matter of time before he is replaced by a Hyena Queen. Lion and hyena will then switch, not unlike day and night follow each other in sucession, and with it male and female supremacy will alternate as well. If this whole mess we are in now is indeed caused by the Circle, than we can stop arguing: Priderock belongs to the hyenas from now on... well, how does that sound, hyena?"

"I'd rather see my brother and all my fallen sisters by my side than sit atop that stupid piece of rock..."

"I can imagine. But wait, there is more: if we fight each other because of the Circle, our fight will be as a circle; it has no beginning, no end and no pauze in between. It just goes on endlessly without end. Hyena, you may today sit atop Priderock, but know this: even now, the next cycle in the Circle is already being prepared. Look behind me, where our once mighty king now lays dead: at his side sits my partner, Kiara, daughter of king Simba and only heir to Priderock.
She will become the mother to my children, the heirs to the both the Outlands and the Pridelands. Kiara has lost her father and Priderock to you hyenas, and the cubs that she will one day give birth to will be raised by her to have but one desire: take back Priderock from the hated enemy. If we lions are to lose Priderock today and you become the new rulers of the Pridelands, know that somewhere in the wilderness to the north a new king will one day be born, and his only goal in life will drive you hyenas away from the Rock. Me and you may not live to see it, but if our rivalry is indeed a part of the Circle, it will one day happen that lions will take back the Pridelands, driving the hyenas into the wilderness again. And so, the cycle will start all over again, and our descendants shall know nothing but hate and bloodshed from here 'till eternity..."

"But that is... pointless!" Shenya shouted, "That is just cruel, pointless madness."

"It is, isn't it? I think my father saw that too... but the only one who would know would off course be Rafiki here," Kocu nodded, "Well, Rafiki, was that what drove my father to break the Circle, among with so many other reasons? Did he realize the pointlessness of it all?"

Kovu had more or less expected an aggressive outburst, or a flood of insults aimed at Kovu's father Taka. But none of that; the mandrill just looked away. For the first time Kovu could remember, the ape seemed to have nothing to say.

"Some tales..." Rafiki ultimately responded, "Some tales are best left untold, for history is complex enough as it is..."

"We'll see about that," Kovu frowned, "You obviously have a lot to tell me, when the time comes... but that matters not, for the time being..."

He turned back to Shenya.

"What matters now is me and you. You now know what would happen if we were to continue our rivalry that has torn these lands apart since the times of Ahadi, what would happen if we kept cultivating our hatred as if it were a part of the Circle..."

"It would take a madman to still keep up this madness in knowing what you told me," Shenya sighed, looking Kovu directly in the eyes. Again, Kovu couldn't help but think of Vitani when he saw Shenya's mesmerizing gray eyes.

"Then it is time we broke this corrupted abomination that is our mutual rivalry based solely on the Circle," Kovu concluded, "Are you prepared to do this?"

"I'd be prepared to do anything to stop all this bloodshed... your pride and my clan deserve better than this. And I'm sure this is what Vincent would have wanted..."

"Alas, I wish I could say the same about Simba..." Kovu considered, a bit down, "My father, Taka might have known what we too know now, known about the pointlessness of keeping up our rivalry, but for all else he wasn't ever half the king Simba was; Simba was a wise, understanding, compassionate, merciful and just king, was always good at heart... But even if this is not what he wanted while he lived, I'm sure he'd have understood."

"If he was truly the king you say he was, I'm sure he would... But now... where do we go now, from here, to break this vicious circle, not of life, but of hate?"

"Well, let me put it this way: we, the leaders of the Clan and the Pride, have agreed to end our hate here and now. This is farther than anyone has ever come, for not even my father Taka achieved this: the peace he forged between us had been forced rather than agreed on, and thus had no chance to stand long," Kovu argued.

"That onto itself is already historic," Shenya smiled for the first time that day, "The road to eliminating the hate between us will be long and hard... too many of us have suffered at the paws of the other's side. For each three steps we take towards final peace, we'll have to go back two steps... And that is only if we are not beset by an unexpected twist of fate..."

"But at least we now know both sides want it to end," Vitani suddenly whispered, engaging in the conversation for the first time, "At least now there is hope. I can imagine your brother would be proud of you..."

Vitani's remark once again brought tears to Shenya's eyes. The mangled lioness slowly moved over to the sobbing hyena. Carefully and perfectly predictable (as to avoid any misunderstanding), she put her paw on the matriarchs shoulder. Looking into each other's bluish eyes, they momentarily recognized themselves. A long, tight hug. A symbol of hope for all lions and hyenas to see, even though some found the thought alone repulsing.
Mutual hate was still the predominant feeling among both races, and it would continue to be for generations. But at least now, there was something else as well: hope.