This update took WAAAAY longer than I thought it would. But I'm pretty proud of it. Lots of serious stuff happens, and at the end I gave Kovu some time to do some reflecting because it felt appropriate at this point in the story and I know how much you guys like reading his messed-up thoughts… Enjoy!
"Don't give up!"
Suki's words echoed in the queen's mind.
"Don't give up! Don't give-"
A pair of tough-looking elderly lionesses snored together by the entrance of the cave. Highlights from the sun emphasized every scar and every wrinkle, but at the same time the golden rays accentuated the unburdened expressions of peace on their faces.
Kiara enviously watched them, her chin resting on her crossed paws.
She'd been a princess, doted upon by an entire pride and coddled by a mother and a father who'd both loved her unconditionally. Even after Kovu had vanished, she'd never seen a hardship worth mentioning that was even close to anything the two elderly lionesses had experienced. She knew she had no room to complain…
To feel sorry for myself.
She was so sick of Chaka, and she missed her children more than anyone could ever understand. There was also a dull ache in her chest that constantly reminded her of Kovu's absence- she'd tried to not let the ache bother her, but at that moment the discomfort made her eyes mist.
"Don't give up!"
Besides Suki's, there was another very little voice at the back of her mind, which eerily reminded her of Nala. It told her to stop feeling sorry for herself. To not lie down and give up.
Start fighting again.
"Kiara?"
The honey-furred lioness looked up when she heard the soft voice. "Hmm?"
Suki's brow furrowed. "I hope I'm not disturbing you. Am I?"
Kiara shook her head. She sat up and tried to stretch away the foulness from her mood. "It's okay, Suki. Right now I wouldn't mind a bit of company."
For a moment, the worried-faced lioness avoided her gaze.
"Oh." Kiara grimaced. She didn't need the lioness to speak a work to know what she wanted. "Chaka?"
Suki nodded.
Kiara wanted to dig her way out the back of Pride Rock and run away from home. Just the idea of talking to Chaka made her stomach hurt.
"He wishes to be civil… well, that's what he told me," Suki explained, skepticism lacing her soft voice.
Kiara couldn't help but snort. "He'll have to open his ears first."
Suki shifted her weight while she looked down at her paws for a moment. She then looked over at Isabis and Neo, who were wrestling a few lengths away. Neo was champing on his sister's ear while Isabis pawed at the young lion's belly.
"We should find someplace safe for your cubs, Suki. There is no need for them to see what war is like."
Suki must have been thinking the same thing. "Where would they go?"
"Tswane would know where to hide them."
Both lionesses looked up.
Chaka had entered the den and was walking across the rocky floor.
"Can… Can he really keep them safe?" Suki asked, a wrinkle between her eyes.
"Something can be arranged." The big lion glanced over his shoulder to make sure the two elderly lionesses were moving along, however stiffly. When he faced forward again, he cleared his throat. "Kiara, I wish to speak with you. In private." He gave Suki a pointed look.
With a nod at first, Suki briefly leaned into Kiara's ear. "I wish you luck." The young mother then crossed over to her cubs and led them from the cave. She looked over her shoulder once, nodding to the grim-faced brother and sister, before following after her rambunctious children.
Kiara could faintly hear their giggles and squeals. As the volume of the cheerful sounds decreased, the tension in the cave became increasingly obvious. Unwilling to start the conversation, she waited for Chaka to open his big mouth.
It surprised her when the first words out of his mouth were the beginnings of an apology.
Unintentionally, she took a step backwards. "What?" She thought she'd misheard him.
"I… I said… Well… I just hope you can forgive me, Kiara," Chaka continued awkwardly. "I've really been unfair to you."
Staring at him in disbelief, she wanted to ask if he was trying to trick her. Then she noticed the spark of sincerity in his eyes, and the fur along her neck prickled as that sincerity intensified. It was so different from the anger and the disgust that had lingered and strengthened since the moment he'd learned to Simba's death. She found it startling.
"After our mother died… and I've just let my temper get away from me… forgotten my manners… I've hurt you-"
She thought it was too painful to watch him struggle to get his point across. "Why are you sorry now?" she cut him off. "What changed your mind?"
He looked a bit guilty. "Honestly? …I came to the realization that I need you more than I thought. So, I'm sorry."
She commended him, she supposed, on his honesty, but she knew it would be a lie if she didn't admit that this answer bothered her. Though he hadn't said a word otherwise, she knew his behavior suggested his focus had been on nothing but retribution. Chaka certainly had spent very little of his time forming bonds with his pridemates since rejoining the pride. His family had just gone on living in his peripheral vision. Now he needed her?
Watching her, he was waiting for her reaction.
For some reason, she was reminded then of Asuma, eagerly waiting for a sign of approval or even just a mere hint of acknowledgement.
"Well?"
She glanced down at the ground. A prouder lion wouldn't think twice to spit on his apology and tell him to leap off a cliff.
But there was no time for that.
"Kiara?"
At her name, she met Chaka's gaze and held it. "If you want help," she began, speaking slowly, "then you need to actually listen to me, Chaka."
A grin appeared on his face. "All ears, sister," he said. His small grin then melted quickly into a grimace.
It was obvious that Chaka's bad habit was to favor his own opinion and discard all others. For a long moment, she wondered if he wanted her to start talking right then. What would she even say? She bit her lip. This was a change. When her mouth opened, she was unsure of what would come out.
Then Chaka made a face when he blurted, "I want to know why you choose to talk rather than to settle things with claws and teeth. Why?"
She frowned. He's back to criticizing me aga-
His eyes widened at the surely unpleasant expression on her face. "Wait, wait, before you argue with me, let me try to rephrase that… How about… When faced with several options, how do you reason out your decisions?"
Her ears flicked when she narrowed her eyes in thought. "Any decision? Or specifically why I'd avoid spilling blood."
"Yeah, any. This isn't about blood."
Her eyes widened. "Well... I… er…"
"It's just that you're always so calm, and I'm not at all."
"Well… Chaka…"
"Did you learn it? Intuition? Please tell me."
"I…"
What do I say?
"Was it something you learned from our father?"
What do I tell him?
Chaka looked down at the dark, shadowy rock. He cleared his throat before he said soberly, "Simba… all this time I've heard he was brave, compassionate, and had one of the strongest senses of duty this pride had ever seen-"
"You've placed him on a pedestal, Chaka," she stopped him. She had to keep him as calm as possible. "He was just as perfect as anyone of us."
The big lion sat down and blinked as if he was confused.
"The lion that I knew," she tried to explain, "was all those things that you said, but he also had some demons he wanted to hide from the rest of us. We all have them… But we must overlook them and dig down deep inside ourselves to beat them in our own time."
They sat staring at each other for several moments. Chaka seemed just as surprised by her words as she was. He sat there with, a slight, thoughtful frown on his muzzle.
Is this what he wanted? Has he just really come looking for an insight through me to our father's wisdom? Because I have something that he doesn't? I know Father's absence pains him... Or maybe he's really having second thoughts? Or is he simply so desperate now that he'll listen to anyone?
"I've seen... what hatred can do first-hand," she began again, thinking of Zira's fall into raging waters from the side of a cliff. "It's terrible. It'll consume you. Our father could have decided to let it destroy him, too-"
"But our father didn't allow that... If you ignore what that murderer said about him..."
"Fine, you want the truth? If your father hadn't had such an issue with trust and forgiveness, then none of this would have happened..."
Kiara clenched her jaw. Kovu's words played in her head- etched there since he'd yelled them in that desperate voice of his.
"...But I guess it doesn't matter either way."
Reluctantly, Kiara nodded in agreement. She said quietly, "You're like Daddy because you've both lost a father. But you can't let this hatred consume you."
"Bad things happen," Chaka said, reminding her of something their father would have said, "but you can't turn your back on the world and leave it at that."
Chaka deflated all at once with a loud sigh, his face pinched.
"I haven't exactly been living by my own beliefs for some time."
This concerned Kiara. Chaka seemed like he was on the edge of something drastic, maybe even the decision to forgive Kovu for his role in their father's death, but none of that would matter if his quick, hot temper got in the way. It was like he was two creatures, and there was no rationalizing with Chaka when he was in a full fit. So, she had to ask: "You're calm now, but what about when you see him?"
"I was furious when we were pulled apart," Chaka admitted. "I didn't want to hear his excuses... You know exactly how I'll be when I meet him again." He made a face. "Why'd you ask me that?"
"Because I'm afraid you'll slip under all that rage again... and never return."
His silence left her nerves frayed. It continued as he started to pace. Just listening and watching him as he'd spoken, Kiara knew Chaka would surely spiral out of control if he succeeded in killing Kovu. He'd no longer have anyone to physically direct his anger to... but I don't see that as a good thing. Kovu will be gone, but the wound will still be raw.
When she couldn't allow him to brood any longer, she said his name. "Tell me what you're thinking."
"I just can't understand..." Chaka said under his breath. His mane swished as he shook his head and kept pacing. "I just..."
Kiara looked down at her paws as Chaka fell silent again. It would take more than a singular moment for her brother to change his mindset. He'd come one step closer, she thought, but the end of his journey was still far off in the distance.
"Can I have time alone? Please, Kiara?"
She looked up and nodded, standing up. Kiara sidestepped around him and headed for the mouth of the den, glad to be released, but hesitant to leave him to his thoughts. At the mouth, she paused and looked over her shoulder.
"I do what I feel is right."
Chaka stopped pacing, raising a brow. "Excuse me?"
"When I make a decision," she explained, "I try to do what I feel is the right thing, regardless if I'm scared or sad or feeling selfish. But, you have to believe in yourself."
He didn't say anything. His eyes dropped to the ground in thought.
If he resumed pacing, she didn't see it.
When they'd proposed Tanga's hunt to Kovu, the aging rogue had grinned at the idea and readily approved. They were to move out at dawn, and from the site of the hunt, which Asuma had suggested they hold at dark, they were to depart and head straight to the Pride Lands for battle. Kovu planned to strike within three days.
That night, Natin tossed and turned. He couldn't seem to silence his mind long enough to catch some sleep, not thinking of anything in particular, but plagued by a sort of static on the edges of his mind that frazzled his senses and made his stomach feel like he'd eaten a funky piece of meat.
Is there a point to rolling around here? Already it'll take me hours to get all this sand out of my fur!
With a soft growl, he stood up and shook out his mane. When he looked over through the small dissipating cloud of dust, he saw Asuma. By the way the younger lion was frowning and jerking his paws in his sleep, Natin expected him to be cranky in the morning.
Natin snorted.
Since he's always so cheerful and bright-eyed and all...
Shaking his head, he turned from Asuma and lifted his paw to step past Tanga. But when he looked down and over, her spot was empty. He frowned. At first he wondered if she'd gone somewhere else to sleep. Maybe closer to her father. As he walked along, however, sweeping his gaze over the scraggly bodies of the other snoozing lionesses, he didn't find her. When he went back to her usual spot, the ground was still warm. He picked up her trail and followed it until he found her just out of sight from the rest of the group. She was just sitting very still, her nose pointed up to the night sky. He watched for a few moments to see if she would notice him before he walked up behind her, making as much noise as he could.
"Nightmares keeping you up so late?"
Tanga jumped sharply at his voice. When she turned to him, she had one of her brows cocked. "What?"
He wondered what she had been so focused on when he remarked, "Those nightmares... you told me about them when we met in the King's Graveyard. Still having them?"
She shook her head and shrugged. "Not really... but all this... I just needed some time alone. I do admit I've had a nightmare or two, but I don't think these ones have anything to do with my vigils in the graveyard."
"Oh... well, I suppose then." Natin also wondered then if she wasn't the only one having a problem with nightmares.
She made a face. "So I thought I'd come here and look at the stars... or something." She shrugged again. "I thought they'd comfort me."
"Have they?"
Her deep, airy sigh seemed to sum up the entirety of the feelings he thought were running through her head. "Not really. Do they comfort you, Natin?"
To avoid staring blankly at her, he quickly looked up at the sky. Her question had caught him off guard... and he realized then how he hadn't thought about the Great Kings and the lore of the stars most likely since his mother's death. The vast emptiness of the night sky seemed to echo the feeling he was carrying in his own chest.
"Sometimes," he lied.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tanga's shoulders sank and she made a face. "Maybe it's just another thing I'm not meant to get."
He closed his eyes and grimaced.
He didn't know what to say to her anymore.
She was miserable and he felt he was the only one really looking out for her. And that was just barely.
His words burst from his mouth. "If you don't want to, you don't have to do anything tomorrow."
"Wait- what did you say?"
He couldn't even meet her eye. "Asuma and I will do it alone. Quickly. Decisively. We'll tell you when to run... and then we'll meet you someplace."
"Do you think I'm backing out, or that I'll screw with your plans?'
His eyes widened. "No, that's not what I mean... It's..."
"What then?"
He felt like her sharp gaze was draining his energy. He sighed. "It's just that I don't want to put you through... that. It has to be done, but you-"
"Natin, I really wish you wouldn't talk like that," Tanga said. She turned her face away from him. "I wish you could forgive him. That's all it is. Neither you nor Asuma realize that."
"F-forgiveness?" His voice made the word into a curse, but he couldn't help it.
Tanga nodded. "Yeah, forgiveness."
He snorted rudely.
Her face snapped back to him and she was glaring hard.
Frowning, he said, "Who are you... to tell me that I have to forgive."
She bristled. "Excuse me?"
He snarled softly. "I don't know if you've forgiven Kovu yet for trying to kill your brother, but I can guess that you can't forgive yourself for what Asuma had to go through, believing that Simba was dead because your grandfather went looking for him when he was lost. You think that if you hadn't bullied him into coming with us he could have been spared so much pain. Him and I heard the truth straight from Zazu, but Asuma's initial guilt is still your fault. I didn't understand at first what you were gonna say, when you slipped up, and nearly told me that night in the graveyard..."
She stared at him, wide-eyed with her mouth agape.
"But you know what?" he continued, "I'm just as responsible for Asuma's troubles as you, if not more. That's how I guessed. I was the one who taunted you two into hunting with me. Asuma was only trying to prove us wrong. Had I known what I was doing, I would have been kinder. But the only difference between me and you is that I have never admitted any of that to myself until now."
At first he thought the look in her eye was embarrassment or maybe shock...
"Calling me a hypocrite doesn't advance your point, Natin," she told him sharply.
Instead it was anger.
Natin grimaced, his eyes narrowed. A deep crease formed between his eyes. "Look, we can't afford to let Kovu live," he told her, his voice level. "He got Simba killed, and he murdered my mother- his own sister! Your aunt! I saw it in his eyes when he found me that he wanted to kill me, too. I have no idea why he let me live... he just won't be given the same strange sympathy he gave me. I won't forgive myself if I don't act soon. We don't have the luxury of choice."
"How..."
Tanga was speechless for several long moments, gazing confusedly at Natin's harsh expression. He knew she was seeing him in a new light.
His guess was confirmed when she took a couple steps away from him.
"But h-he's my fath-"
"No. Just stop. You must stop living in this fantasy, Lewa!" he pleaded. He had to look away for a moment, avoiding her eyes, which bore into him, causing him pain. "You're too innocent for your own good," he went on, no less calmly, "and y'just can't believe everything y'hear! Your mother, Chaka, Nala, Kovu, Asuma, me- we've all lied to you, right to your face. Do you understand?"
I want her to know the truth! He knew how much it hurt her to hear all of that, and he hoped she could see he was acting, so he thought, in her best interest. However, from one reluctant glance at the disgusted look on her face, he winced inwardly. And if she didn't understand his message now... he hoped she would sooner rather than later.
But...
What he suddenly found himself wrestling with was the part of her that he admired the most: did Tanga have to trade in her innocence just like that? He thought she was cheating herself by neglecting to look at the whole picture, but so what if she chose to see the good in every creature? Someone needed to!
These days she's the only one on that track of thought.
Tanga whispered then, "That doesn't make it right."
Natin continued to refuse her gaze.
"You should know just how wrong it is to kill, Natin" she went on.
"The world will be better without him in it."
"You'll go down with him if you do this."
"Your father-"
"No," she snapped, "not just my father. Asuma, too."
He clenched his teeth. "Well what can you expect from any of us? We're just trying to find a solution. Our elders weren't doing a whole heck of a lot-"
"So you concoct an elaborate, insane plan to take care of things?"
He frowned and snorted rudely. "As I recall, you were the one who suggested the elaborate, crazy plan."
Her lip curled. "I didn't think you'd buy it!"
He balked. "What?" he coughed in surprise. "You were setting us up to fail? Weren't you? Tanga... didn't you realize how dang-"
"That's not the point! You two ate it up! Why? Why not just get it over with already? Why have you hesitated so much? Why?"
He fidgeted.
Her eyes widened when he couldn't give her an answer. "Natin..."
He braced himself.
"I think you're... afraid. Are you? Please tell me."
Natin squirmed under her hard gaze, opening his mouth a few times. Sure he was afraid! You've had ample opportunity, and instead you just sat back. You'd always held out hope that Chaka would just show up one day and take Kovu out. Because of that, you're no better than Asuma, and Chaka never came to the rescue... and now you're here, questioning yourself like this... it's so dangerous, and yes, I'm afraid to fail... but you can't let her see that.
"Please?" Tanga begged.
He forced himself to look at her when he insisted, "Imagine what the lion you call 'Father' is capable of. If some strange lion was threatening your family, wouldn't you go into battle to defend them?"
"Of course I would, but-"
"You don't know him anymore... like you think you ever did," he told her brusquely. "He's... changed. Taken on a new form..."
She looked so bewildered, unable to let it go. Despite what her father had done, he thought she was refusing to believe there was only the one possibility, only the one scenario.
Sure enough, she suggested meekly, "Will he listen if we talk to him?"
Natin felt his face softened a little as he met her eyes again. Slowly, he shook his head. "I've lived with him for years. I don't think so, Lewa. He won't listen to you."
"But..."
Again, he shook his head. "My mother's dead because she tried to talk to him. He's deaf to reason. He just as monstrous on the inside as he is on the outside now. And if you think that you'll be any different... For your own safety... Just don't. You can't risk your own life to save him, and you can't expose us."
Her face was pinched and her voice cracked when she said, "Anything is worth the risk if the alternative is murder."
"Tanga, he would end me me once and for all if he knew what my true intentions had been from the beginning. He'd also wanna kill Asuma, and he would do it right this time... and I wouldn't put it past him to do you in as well. Or at least he'd have those lionesses do it for him."
"But it's still murder..."
Tears dampened her face. After a moment, she closed her eyes to hide them from him, her face contorting into a grimace.
Sighing, Natin instinctively moved closer. He'd half-expected her to cringe away. To his relief, Tanga instantly plunged her face into his thick mane. She cried quietly, shuddering every so often.
She sniffed. "I can't even ask you to run away with me, Natin," she croaked.
Several times, he opened his mouth to say something else in hopes of comforting her, to show her that his mind wasn't completely that of a killer's, but his words ran away from him faster than a herd of gazelle. His body ached. After a while, the pause was becoming so utterly unbearable, he was tempted to just get up and walk away from her. He had never sought to hurt her, but he couldn't have her compromising his mission and his promise to himself, to Simba, to his mother, and to Asuma. As much as he hated to admit it, they had priority over Tanga.
"Lewa, please don't try to talk to him," he rasped. "Promise me."
She was quiet just long enough to make him very uncomfortable.
"Okay, Tanga?"
"Okay," she repeated.
He growled quietly at her stubbornness. He didn't believe her. "Think of it this way: the lives of your pride in exchange for Kovu. Neither Kovu nor Chaka are going to stop until the one of them is dead, regardless of who has to sacrifice their life for either party's cause. Both groups are gonna be entirely wiped out. That's exactly why we came here. To stop them. It's part of a greater good."
He felt her nod.
After a moment, she said. "I understand."
His eyes widened. "You understand?"
Why do I feel uncertain?
She nodded again. "It's for the greater good, you say, but do you really mean it, Natin?"
When she pulled away from him, he had no choice but to look her in the face, and he was determined to not divert his gaze again. He wasn't going to falter, no matter what she said. "What do you mean?" he asked, frowning again.
"Well, have you ever killed anyone before?"
"No, I have not."
"Then this is an awfully big burden to take on just for 'the greater good'. Like I said... you'll go down with him. All of you."
Again, he didn't know how to respond. Of course my motives are a little bit selfish, but I'll never say it out loud, he thought.
"You deserve better, y'know..." She seemed to search his face, her eyes bright and lovely in the moonlight, but within a few heartbeats her eyes went dull again.
Great Kings... She's trying to help me!
She let out a sigh and turned from him, standing up. "I wish I could fully understand what you're doing, Natin, but somehow... even if you told me... I'd only feel like I was having some big trick played on me." She started to leave.
Impulsively, he stood up to block her way. "Tanga, wait a mom-"
"Move!"
He flinched when she bared her teeth at him, her misty green eyes flashing with fury, her nose shining with dampness. But he refused to move aside. He urged, "Don't talk to Asuma about this, either. Un-der-stand?"
"Sure, whatever," she muttered, refusing to meet his gaze.
Tiredly, he allowed her to push past him.
"Where are you going?"
"Away from you. Don't worry, I'll be there for the execution."
Wide-eyed, he watched her run off. He wasn't stupid enough to follow. It's best you leave her alone for now. He also was beginning to wonder if he had underestimated her. Maybe she'd never been as innocent as he'd thought.
Maybe she's the only one seeing the whole picture.
He growled.
He beat his paws on the ground and swatted at a clump of grass, which exploded into a cloud of pollen and plant scraps. "Stupidstupidstupid!" He then stood there panting, his teeth gritted. A throaty growl of frustration escaped him as he turned his eyes up to the dark sky.
Little pin pricks of stars peered down on him, like the disapproving eyes of a mother lioness who'd stumbled upon her naughty cub. He was reminded of his own mother's maternal glare at that moment. He curled a lip, but flinched inwardly.
"What?" he muttered. "Do you expect anything less out of me? He's killed my mother and he'll kill our pride. It has to be done... There's no way around it..." He trailed off, a crease forming between his eyes.
"And it's all on me to do it..."
"Dad?"
Kovu jerked from his thoughts and blinking, shook his head. He had no idea how long Asuma had been standing next to him.
"I asked you a question," Asuma said, frowning a little with his brows arched. "You heard it, didn't you?"
Kovu made a guilty face and shook his head. "What did you say?"
When Asuma asked again if he'd seen Natin, Kovu raised a brow.
"No, not since last night. Why?"
The young, blue-eyed lion sat down and shrugged. "He's not here."
The pride was slowly gathering up stragglers who were taking their sweet, easy time waking up. Kovu half-heartedly glanced around for his truant nephew. It wasn't unusual for Natin to disappear on the desolate land of the savannah for large parts of a day, and it was less than surprising that he should be missing at that moment.
Kovu turned back to Asuma. "He'll show before we leave," he assured his son, and gave him a small smile. "Have you eaten? The lionesses should find you something small."
"Dad, no," Asuma replied with a small chuckle, returning Kovu's smile, "don't worry about me. I'm not a cub anymore."
"I know, but..."
When Kovu looked at his son, it was hard to imagine him as anything but the young juvenile he'd left behind- both bright-eyed and quietly intelligent, as well as moody and self-deprecating. He'd abandoned that young, complex lion. Asuma still had an aura of youthful innocence despite his insistence that he not be treated like a child... but Kovu sensed there was something more, brewing just beneath the surface.
Kovu best of all knew how to hide one's true self.
"Father?"
Kovu was snapped from his thoughts and shook his head once again to clear his mind.
Asuma had a brow raised. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm alright." A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he met Asuma's eye. "Just happy you're here."
"Now haven't I heard that about a dozen times?"
Kovu chuckled lightly. "Well, you'll hear it a dozen more times before the end, so get used to it."
Asuma was smiling, but when his son's gaze suddenly drifted away, the grin dropped from his darkening face.
"Kovu, we're ready to move," he heard Sauda report.
Kovu felt his body tense in the presence of the dark-furred lioness. "My son says that Natin is missing. Is he back?"
Nodding, the lioness then motioned with her snout to the right, and sure enough, his nephew was sitting near Tanga. "Yeah, yeah, the kid's over there," she grumbled. "Can we go now?"
"Perhaps my father and I haven't finished our conversation," Asuma spoke up, giving Sauda a hard look.
The lioness snorted rudely, clearly much to Asuma's displeasure.
Kovu thought he heard a soft growl.
"Sauda, catch Asuma breakfast while you wait patiently," Kovu told her before she could lift her sharp tongue. He dismissed her with a curt nod.
Despite the eye roll she gave him when he flashed her a bit of teeth, she skittered away quietly enough.
His faced heated up, however, when he heard her mutter something under her breath. He glared at the lioness's back.
Asuma cleared his throat to catch his father's attention. "You didn't have to do that for me," he said. There was something different about the young lion's tone.
Kovu perked his ears when he saw his son was frowning while the end of his red-brown tail flickered back and forth. "Why not eat? Besides, it'll keep her busy," he insisted.
"No, that's not..." Asuma replied stiffly, "I mean... sending her away before she could say something rude to me? I didn't need you to step in like that."
"But-"
"And I wouldn't let them talk to me that way," Asuma then remarked. "Why not make her apologize, Father?"
Even if I'd had the energy, it would be stupid to waste it on disciplining that infuriating lioness.
Kovu shrugged. "I know when to pick my battles, that's all," he replied.
"Well," Asuma began, standing to leave, "should there really be a need to be picky about any battles?"
His eyes widened. Watching the young lion turn away, Kovu wasn't sure what to make of what his son had just said.
"And Father?"
If a bit reluctantly, Kovu replied. "Yes?"
His son's back was still to him. "I hope you don't mind me asking... but... where will they go after they've helped us win the battle? You haven't said."
"Well," Kovu began, "I did promise them a home in the Pride Lands."
Asuma was shaking his head. He finally looked over his shoulder at Kovu. "You can't trust someone who has an insatiable appetite. You were trained as an assassin. I keep wondering why you haven't returned to Pride Rock and taken Chaka out. We don't need these rogues to win."
He opened his mouth as his face heated even more with embarrassment and anger, but his retort was caught in his constricted throat.
At times, as he remembered, Asuma had always possessed a knack for insightfulness, but now it felt like he'd crossed a huge line. His son was outright questioning his plans and motives. If Asuma had been any lion beside his son, even Natin, Kovu knew the young lion would be beneath his claws begging to deliver an apology.
Though... you wouldn't wait for an explanation when you bothered to point out my dependence on the lionesses... and I thought I was the one who cared much less to discipline Sauda...
Curiously, he watched Asuma walk over to Natin and Tanga, thinking about how, when he'd gone to reunite with his cubs, he'd instead met a couple of strangers. He knew they were his children, but he still expected to wake up from the nightmare. Asuma and Tanga, now full-grown, were prepared to stand at his side in a battle, virtually no questions asked. They were no longer so little and naive, and he wasn't sure how to deal with these near-strangers who insisted on being treated like adults.
He wondered just how well they knew their father. Who talked to them when I didn't come home? What were they told? Did they say I was dead? Do they believe I was responsible for Simba's death? Do they know who Simba's true murderer is? Has Natin told them? These questions had been gnawing at him since the moment Natin had said he had brought them with him from the Pride Lands. After his return, his nephew had only reported on what he knew of Kiara and Chaka's recent plans, and nothing more. He had given Kovu little insight into what his children knew as the "truth", and he'd been too afraid to ask about it. It was just one more regret now...
Most of all I regret running out of the den when Kiara and Vitani told them about my past. They've never heard my side of the story.
Until he asked, he had to go by the faith that either they knew nothing about his role in Simba's death... or that his behavior in the face of Simba's death wasn't as much as a sin in their eyes, as the rest of their family made it out to be. But which is it...? Given that they'd been told at all, he could then only begin to assume that at the very least taking out Chaka was going to be justified. Chaka had dethroned them as far as Kovu was concerned.
It was just... their behavior was too guarded. Given Asuma's reaction to Simba's death, and his anger at his grandfather's killer, Kovu was greatly stunned that he was breathing and had had several, reasonably civil conversations with said lion. That led him to cling to the hope Asuma still didn't know what had really happened to Simba. By contrast, he was even more confused by Tanga's dedication to Kovu and her seemingly quick betrayal of her mother and Chaka. He'd never imagined his sweet, playful daughter would actively put herself in a situation where violence was even an option.
I'm missing something... Either their downplaying everything that has happened in my absence... or it is something else entirely...
But what had been stopping him from acting all that time?
He knew it was one thing that he shouldn't want to meet Chaka on a battlefield without an army, but Asuma reminded him that he had been trained specifically for ambush attacks.
If Ihad wanted to... I would have already... right?
So why was he kidding himself anymore?
When he had sent Natin home, the last thing he had been fearful about was that the young lion would betray him. Instead, he knew, deep down, he'd been fearful that Natin would stick to the plan and return to fetch him. He had prayed that Natin would be captured in their homelands or decide that he liked that life better. He was betting on Natin to give up the fight. He'd been prepared to lead the lionesses around on an endless journey. It would be nearly impossible for them to find the Pride Lands on their own. Instead, Natin had returned, and with even more incentive for Kovu to go into battle with Chaka: to reclaim the throne that was rightfully Asuma and Tanga's.
At that moment Kovu wondered angrily if Natin was trying to punish him for Vitani's death, to push him as far as he could. He knew Vitani had told her son about everything his uncle had done- using Kiara to get to Simba in the beginning, killing Zira, leading Simba to his death, trying to kill Asuma, and hiding all of it from the family.
Little-to-nothing was stopping Natin from telling his children all of that. It would take very little more for Natin to use them against their own father.
To finally break him.
Kovu had already given Natin the same murderous skills he had learned from Zira, and the young lion had excelled. If he had been in his right mind, Kovu should have considered more carefully the option of sending Natin to off Chaka, just as the lionesses had wished.
But he hadn't.
He'd often wondered on sleepless nights why he'd allowed Natin to live at all. Why he'd taken the cub of the sister he'd had murdered out of spite under his wing-
"All the kids are accounted for and fed. Can we go now?"
Kovu shifted his focus from the abyss and eyed Sauda, taking in her gaped grin and scruffy complexion. "Yes, tell them we can go now," he replied coolly.
With little acknowledgement, the lioness turned and jogged off to tell her pridesisters the good news. They were all thrilled for the big hunt, even if they were to be excluded for the first half while his children worked. He knew they'd press hard to get to the big herds Natin had described as quickly as possible, especially when they knew it was one move closer to stepping into the Pride Lands.
Kovu sighed and stood up.
"You can't trust someone who has an insatiable appetite. You were trained as an assassin. I keep wondering why you haven't returned to Pride Rock and taken Chaka out. We don't need these rogues to win."
As he moved away from the rag-tag pride to lead them along, Asuma's observation began to echo in his mind.
"We don't need these rogues..."
He was tired of the lionesses.
He was tired of exile.
He was tired of Natin.
And he was done with not doing anything about it.
Well, this is the longest chapter thus far ('Departure' coming in a close 2nd.) I have no idea how long it will take for me to write the next one, just warning you guys now—I have to make my mind up on a major plot point, so you'll have to please bear with me.
This time last year, the section with Tanga and Natin had already been drafted, though it went under heavy construction to get to you guys since the story I had then is nothing like it is now. Also, this story has nearly been on for a year! (I promise I won't take 2 to finish it. It's just turned into a MUCH bigger project than I thought it would.)
Blame the characters, they're practically sentient now. XD