Here's chapter twenty seven and please review. Reminder that I don't own Lion King, Disney does.
I'd like to thank Teddi8347, thatcoyotegirlwolf, BlackLouie, Fluffy Hug, balto90, A Guest, Asaf, CSIMentalistTLK lover, AMBER, Aggregate Dragon, LionFlower, thatstubbornlioness, and gary2000 for reviewing.
Kiara had reached the rest of the Pride at the Waterhole. Her wounds had healed nicely and she knew she would be able to fight.
Simba was at the head.
''Scar's Pride is heading this way with the hyenas. We have to fight with every single thing we have!'' Simba roared over the storm. ''Scar killed Nala and this is our chance to avenge her!''
His voice was drowned by the roars of approval from the Pride.
''They're here!'' Zazu called swooping in.
''Let's move now!'' Simba ordered and they began heading towards the battle ground by the gorge. Kiara looked at the Pride and her father with fear in her eyes. Simba had lost it. The look in his eyes was mad. He would kill every single one of them.
"Kiara!" Haru and Tanabi were at her side. "Let's go! Where's Kopa?"
"I don't know," Kiara said as they moved forward. "I ran out of the den."
"What if he fights with Nuka's Pride?" Tanabi asked.
"No," Kiara said, shaking her head. "He wouldn't!"
Meanwhile Kopa was a little way off from the battle field pacing back and forth. How could he choose? He remembered Simba telling him about his own experiences and remembered realizing how alike the two of them were. And Simba had accepted him back no matter what he had done.
But Scar. He had fathered him for his entire life until everything he knew was ripped away.
"Mom," Kopa whispered. "I need you. You would know what to do. Please Mom, show me your there for me." He squeezed his eyes shut holding back tears until he felt a warm wind in the growing storm go past him.
"Kopa," Nala's voice went through his ears.
"Mom," Kopa murmured looking around. He could feel Nala's presence by him.
"This is your final battle Kopa." Nala whispered. "You must choose for once and for all. The fate of the battle will depend on you."
"How can I choose?" Kopa stammered out.
"What made you go back for your sister? How about your talk with your father? What did you realize?'' Nala's voice came again.
''That we're family,'' Kopa whispered. It was the first time that he had ever said it. They were a family.
"That's all you have to know. Make me proud my son." Nala's voice whispered one more time before Kopa felt her presence gently slip away.
Kopa looked around once more before charging towards the battle ground to help his father.
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Meanwhile both Pride's had assembled on two sides. Nuka and Zira were at the front with the rest of the Pride flanking them.
"It's over Simba!'' Nuka roared. ''I have thought of nothing else for years!''
''Boy does she need a hobby.'' Timon muttered from where he was perched on Pumbaa's back beside Kiara.
''Last chance!'' Simba growled. ''Go home!''
''We are home!'' Nuka chuckled then faced his Pride. ''Attack!"
Scar's Pride and the hyenas roared and began advancing towards Simba's Pride. They met in the middle where a dangerous battle began.
Kiara was fighting off hyenas with Danyssa, Jasiri and Divya. She chased some hyenas to the edge of the gorge where they fell into the raging water.
Suddenly, Kiara felt someone pouncing on her and taking her down. From the flash of dark brown fur she knew it was Eisha.
"Time to show her what I can do!'' Kiara thought and struck Eisha incredibly hard against the side of her face causing her to fall on the ground.
Shanti ran over to them and stepped in front of Eisha as Kiara tried to advance on her.
"Touch my daughter again and it will be the last thing you do!" Shanti growled at Kiara and began to advance on her while Eisha was still recovering.
''Poor Kiara!'' Shanti taunted. ''You don't have your mother to protect you anymore!'' Kiara roared at her in anger and was about to pounce when a flash of two bodies went in front of her.
Kiara looked again to see that Tama and Shinda had Shanti down and Eisha sprung up to her paws to help her mother.
Kiara growled and pounced on Eisha and both of them began battling while Tama and Shinda took care of Shanti.
''I won't let you win this Kiara!'' Eisha hissed. ''You won every single thing when we were little but not anymore!''
''Why are you doing this?'' Kiara asked. "What have I ever done to you?" She gave Eisha another blow against the side of her face and Eisha swiped at her legs.
"Your father killed my father!" Eisha shrieked more rage coming to her face.
"That was between our fathers!" Kiara growled. "This is between us!"
"You were always the perfect one Kiara!" Eisha snarled. "You got everything you wanted! You were Scar's favorite but when your true father came you just acted like Scar was nothing to you! Scar loved you but you threw that away like he was nothing and let your father kill him!"
"Scar killed my mother!'' Kiara roared. "I will never forgive for that!"
"Your mother didn't deserve to live!" Eisha growled. This set Kiara off. Red blinded her vision with rage. She let out an ear splitting roar that even Eisha stopped and stared at her in shock.
''Eisha!'' Came Shanti's fearful voice. Tama and Shinda were struggling to keep her down while Kiara pinned Eisha down. She looked down at her with rage blinding her and raised her paw to kill her when a new voice cried out.
"No!" Danyssa and Kovu ran up to her. "Kiara don't kill her!"
"She deserves to die!" Kiara snarled.
"Kiara!" Kovu grabbed her and held her back while Danyssa kept Eisha down.
"Kovu let go!" Kiara growled trying to get out of his strong hold.
"Kiara listen to me," Kovu said. "If you kill her you will never be able to live with the guilt!"
"He's right Kiara," Danyssa said. "Kiara, you are the sweetest and kindest lioness I have ever known. Don't let this destroy you. "
Kiara realized that they were right. She would never be able to live with the guilt if she killed Eisha. Besides, she wasn't a murderer.
"But you're right about one thing." Kovu snarled. "She has to die." He advanced on Eisha whose eyes went wide with shock.
"No!" Shanti broke free of Tama and Shinda and ran to Eisha's defence. "None of you will touch her! I will die to keep her safe!"
"Shanti don't!" Zarana ran into the scene. "We can't lose any more fighters than we already have!"
"Zarana!" Shanti growled.
"She isn't even your own daughter!" Zarana shrieked then her eyes went wide.
"What!?" Eisha cried. "Mom what is she talking about!" By now even Tama and Shinda had stopped fighting and Danyssa let Eisha up. All of them momentarily forgot about the battle and stared at Shanti and Eisha.
"Mom, what is she talking about?" Eisha asked. "I am your daughter, aren't I?"
Shanti was silent.
"Just tell her the truth Shanti." Zarana.
"No.'' Shanti said quietly. "I'm not your mother.''
"What are you talking about?" Eisha asked, her eyes growing wide.
"Your are Scar's daughter but not mine.'' Shanti sighed. "Your mother was my younger half- sister. We had the same mother but not the same father. After my father died when I was a young cub, my mother took in a new mate and had another cub. The cub was your mother, Ashika. I was jealous of her since we were young because she was better than me in every way. She was more beautiful, a better hunter, had better qualities and had both of her parents with her. When Scar mated with her, I lost it.''
''You killed her.'' Eisha whispered.
"I told Scar than Ashika didn't want to take care of his cub and I said that I was willing to take the cub in. But I also told him to make sure that Ashika didn't find out that I told him that. So that was why everyone thought he mated with me. It was easy because Ashika took after our mother and wanted to be alone and secluded during her pregnancy. I pretended to be too so no one could see that I wasn't pregnant. Ashika wasn't really part of Scar's Pride. She wanted to be with the rebel Pride but the only reason she stayed with Scar's Pride was because of me. She was loyal to me. I can only assume that Scar mated with her was because she was healthy and attractive. But I heard from the hyenas that Ashika was blackmailed into mating with Scar because Scar threatened to kill me. I figured that it was probably true because Ashika was selfless. One day after you were born I killed her out of jealousy. When Scar found out, he was willing to give me forgiveness as long as I raised you up and I did. At first, you were only supposed to be someone that would keep me alive but as time passed I grew attached to you more than I was supposed to.'' Shanti said with guilt written over her face.
Eisha stared at Shanti in pure horror while the others except Zarana were staring at her in shock.
Kovu was the first to recover. "Well let's get back to business and kill these two!"
"Kovu no!" Kiara pulled him back.
"What?" Kovu and Eisha both asked at the same time.
"I know what it's like to realize something like that. That you've been lied to for your whole life." Kiara murmured turning back to Eisha. "You can change Eisha. You can right your wrong. It's not too late."
Eisha's eyes filled with tears as she stared at Shanti. "You lied to me all these years. You killed my innocent mother out of jealousy! I was an orphan all these years!"
"Eisha I still love you." Shanti said trying to embrace her but Eisha pulled back.
"You killed my mother!" Eisha roared. "I will never forgive you!" Then she turned back to Kiara.
"Kiara, I am so sorry." Eisha said, lowering her head. "For everything."
Kiara smiled. "It's alright. I know what this feels like."
Tama smiled at the group. "I'm glad that this is settled but right now we have a fight to win!"
Everyone from Simba's Pride and Eisha nodded and rejoined the battle.
Meanwhile, Simba and the others had fought of as many hyenas as they could and Simba was making his way towards Nuka and Zira who were watching the battle eagerly.
Zira and Akila made their way to him giving Nuka defense before Simba could get to him. Chumvi came to his side and a two on two battle began.
Simba and Zira went face to face, ready to tear each other apart. Zira tore at Simba's mane and he slashed Zira's leg causing her to roar in pain.
"No!" Nuka cried. He began making his way towards them but a huge weight slammed into him and he fell to the ground.
Nuka looked up to see Kopa.
"Kopa!" Nuka roared angrily.
"Fight me Nuka!" Kopa hissed. "And let's see who wins. The son of Zira or the son of Nala!"
Nuka growled and lunged at him as the two of them began to battle. Nuka ripped and clawed at Kopa with everything he had. He wouldn't let Nala's family take anything else from him!
Meanwhile, Tanabi was knocking off as many hyenas as he could with Haru. He chased some hyenas into the gorge and when he turned back to help Haru he saw a lioness that he hadn't seen for years.
It was Kana.
"Mom!?" Tanabi gasped.
"Hello son." Kana said coolly. "Shocking that you remember me. After all, you did forget the lioness that raised you up."
"Mom," Tanabi said. "I did the right thing. I chose the right side. And I didn't forget you either. I thought about you every day since you left."
"You chose Simba!" Kana hissed.
"No!" Tanabi said. "I chose myself! I'm not like Scar! I'm different and I chose that!"
Kana just shook her head and Tanabi looked into her eyes, hoping to see at least a little warmth and love from like she had shown when he had been young.
But there wasn't any.
"Mom please." Tanabi said. "Choose the right side before it's too late."
"I already have," Kana growled. "The only one confused here is you."
"No!" Tanabi hissed. "Choose before it's too late." He ran off to help Haru who had a pile of hyenas on him.
Meanwhile Kopa finally managed to take Nuka down. Nuka roared at him in anger.
"Nuka!" Kopa growled. "Give it up! There' no uses in fighting anymore! Choose the right side and you will get forgiveness for what you have done!"
"Never!" Nuka hissed. "I'm not a traitor like you!" Kopa sighed, realizing that it was too late for Nuka.
"You always used to say that I was too soft." Kopa said. "But I'm not." Without a warning, he slashed Nuka's throat, killing him.
"NOOOOO!" Zira roared in anger and grief as she saw her son being taken down. She forgot about Simba as red blinded her vision with rage as Kopa stepped off Nuka's dead body.
"YOU BASTARD SON OF NALA!" Zira roared with all her might and charged towards Kopa.
"Kopa!" Both Simba and Kiara headed towards Kopa to help but Zira got to him first and knocked him down taking a hard swipe at his neck. Kopa went still and fell to the ground.
"No! Kopa!" Kiara screamed as she realized her brother was dead. Simba stopped in shock and stared at his son's body in horror. The entire battle stopped and everyone stared at Kopa's body.
"I failed again." Simba thought, disbelief choking him to the point where he couldn't breathe.
Anger burned up in him and he roared in anger at Zira and charged towards her at full force with the rest of his Pride behind him. All of the Pridelander lions surrounded Zira and in a few moments, she was dead.
The hyenas began running away seeing that most of their Pride was dead. Those that were remaining from Scar's Pride followed. Shanti and Zarana's bodies were on the ground lifeless. Kana was nowhere to be seen and Akila was on the ground with blood seeping out of him. His eyes were closed. The Pridelander lions had won the battle.
But none of that mattered to Kiara. Her brother was gone.
Everyone was still as Simba and Kiara approached Kopa's body.
"Kopa," Kiara bent down and nudged him, silently praying to Nala to keep Kopa alive.
"Kopa," Simba whispered. "Get up. Son we need you. We are a family." He began to tremble when there was no response.
Kiara squeezed her eyes shut as no reaction came out of Kopa's body. Tears began flowing down her eyes and then she suddenly heard a cough.
It was from Kopa.
Kopa's body shook with a few coughs before he slowly opened his eyes.
"Yeah Dad I know." Kopa wheezed out with a grin. "We are a family."
Kiara let out a tearful laugh of joy and embraced her brother along with the rest of the Pride.
"I didn't hear your breathing. It was so shallow that I thought you were dead!" Simba said helping him up.
Kopa smiled and embraced his father before Simba turned back to the rest of the Pride.
"Let's go home," Simba smiled. "All of us." He smiled at Eisha who returned it.
Everyone's hearts were at peace as they made their way back home.
Hope you enjoyed and please review. The next chapter will probably be the last one.