Disclaimer: I do not own the Lion King

Yawning, I stretched and settled down into the grasses. It was a hazy afternoon in the plains. Luckily, after Simba's elephant graveyard adventure, things were quiet. I'm still not completely convinced that Scar was innocent of that, I thought to myself as I watched the animals graze in the plains before me. I remembered how every time I tried to convince him to give up, he would get very angry.

He's plotting something. I've told Mufasa, but I'm not sure if he believes me. I sighed. Ahadi, what would you do? I've failed you. I couldn't stop Scar from becoming what he is. What you feared he would become.

Scar's face loomed in my mind. The looks he would give me, the comments, the times that he would brush against me, all pointed to the thing that I was dreading. The one thing that I couldn't face. His voice constantly echoed through my ears, and our conversations would play in my mind over and over again.

"My dear, dear Kioni. Why must you always run from me?" Scar asked silkily as he slunk closer.

"You're avoiding the truth of the matter," I replied through clenched teeth.

"No," Scar replied softly, his eyes boring into me. "You are."

I laid my head down in the grass, wrapping my paws around my head to try to get rid of Scar's sneering face, imprinted in my mind.

I wanted to be free of him.

The ground shook slightly, and I opened my eyes. The shaking grew louder, and I leaped to my feet. A stampede? I wondered, as I began trotting to where the source was. My eyes widened, and I gasped as I saw the scene before me.

"The wildebeest!" I started flying across the grass, heading towards the gorge. "If anyone was caught in that..."

It took me a while to navigate across the rocks, precious seconds ticking by. I heard a familiar roar, and I determinedly made my way towards it. I burst out onto the landing just in time to see Mufasa go flying out into the stampede. His face was shocked, and his eyes betrayed fear. "MUFASA!" I screamed in terror as I raced to the edge, prepared to leap after him.

I never saw Scar until that moment.

He threw himself in front of me, knocking me back away from the edge. Before I could get up he was on me, pinning me down. "It's too dangerous," he said, his eyes wide. I've seen this look before. He gave it to me a thousand times as he wove his intricate lies and fantasies.

"What did you do?" I growled at him, tears pouring out of my eyes.

"Nothing!" Scar protested. "I heard Simba in the gorge, and the stampede-"

"Simba!" I gasped, my heart close to breaking. I struggled against the weight of Scar. "Let me go! The stampede is past! I have to see if he's alright!"

Panic flickered in Scar's eyes, and he held me down harder. "No!" he snarled, his paw heavy on my throat. "Go back. Tell the other lionesses. Simba is dead, and so is Mufasa."

I closed my eyes, trying to block the words from my mind. Mufasa. He was as good as my brother. Simba. My little nephew. Dead. "No! They can't be dead!" My eyes flew open. "You're lying! You have to be! It's another one of your lies!" Scar didn't say anything as my struggles grew weaker. "It has to be," I whimpered as I began to stop. Tears streamed down my face as I closed my eyes. "I'll never be free of them," I whispered, more to myself than to Scar.

There was silence for a moment, before Scar heaved himself off of me. I opened my eyes to look at him. Was he really responsible for the deaths of Mufasa and Simba?

"Go back," he murmured, turning away. "I'll go check on them. I don't think that you'll want to see this."

I nodded dumbly, and began to climb out of the gorge. I padded back to Pride Rock, my head whirling and in shock. Guilt played heavily in my heart. Could I have gotten there sooner? If I had just gotten there sooner, then I could have saved Mufasa.

A sneaking suspicion entered my mind. Scar was there. Why didn't he save Mufasa? Mufasa could have lived! And Simba. Why was he in the gorge in the first place? Conveniently at the same time that the wildebeest stampeded? Why did the wildebeest stampede in the first place?

So many questions. Too little answers. No one to listen to my thoughts except for me. Sarabi will be devastated, I thought with another bolt of sadness. I felt my heart sag with the weight of everything as I padded up the path into Pride Rock. Sarabi greeted me. "Kioni, have you seen Simba? I thought he would be with Nala, but she's here. Is he with Mufasa?"

I felt tears pricking at my eyes again. I swallowed. "Sarabi..."

She climbed to her feet, alarmed. "What happened?"

I closed my eyes, not wanting to see her reaction. "Sarabi... Simba and Mufasa are dead."

All of the lionesses and I were gathered around Scar, who sat on a rock, addressing us all. I was next to Sarabi, comforting her as best as I could, along with a couple others and Zazu. Sarabi's head was bent in extreme pain. I caught sight of Nala rubbing against her mother's paw, crying, looking shocked. My heart gave a painful wrench.

Scar was playing the perfect part of the sorrowful brother and uncle. "For me, it is a deep, personal loss," he told us all, looking solemn as if to prove it. "So it is with a heavy heart that I assume the throne." I closed my eyes for a brief moment. No. No. This isn't happening. My heart gave another painful wrench.

Scar's voice began to take on a new fervor. "Yet, out of the ashes of this tragedy, we shall rise to greet the dawning of a new era..." The echoing laugh of hyenas seemed to vibrate all around us, as their shadows, larger than life, were cast against the rocks. Everyone began backing away in fear as hyenas began to emerge, their eyes gleaming. Horrified, I looked up at Scar. "...In which lion and hyena come together, in a great and glorious future!" Scar began to ascend Pride Rock while hyenas began to appear in full force.

The world shattered for me. He did it. He actually did it. Tears trickled down my face anew as the hyenas' laugh echoed hollowly in my ears. Ahadi, I failed you...

In that instance, my heart gave another painful wrench, this time shattering into a thousand little fragments...

A/N

Third chapter. It was very sad for me to write, especially since I was listening to the song King of Pride Rock from the soundtrack... :P

There are a lot of timeskips, I know, but this was supposed to be just a short story.

Thank you to all of my reviewers! I'm glad that you like it :)

Please review!

~Eva Sirico~