Author's Note: I would like to give credit to the user called Asante, and I wish to thank them for giving me permission to use their story here.

Chapter XIV

The warthog clicked around some more, looked at a few fanfic possibilities, and suddenly perked up. Getting the attention of the others, Simba asked him, "What? What is it, Pumbaa?"

Pumbaa smiled as he looked back to the others, replying happily, "I think I know what you guys could hear next. It's called The Lion King III: The Lost Prince. It looks like it's about-"

Kopa cut him off suddenly. "Hold on, back up there, Pumbaa. What do you mean Lion King III? Shouldn't we start with one and two first?"

Vitani nodded. "Yeah, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me either. What about the other two?"

Glancing back at the screen, Pumbaa turned around and sighed, before replying, "Oh... right, maybe Timon and I should've explained that first."

Simba asked, "What? What is it?"

The warthog explained. "See, the humans… er the same ones who made the art kind of made movies off of you guys too. They're sort of like, eh... moving pictures. They tell almost everything that you've gone through."

Vitani rolled her eyes. "Oh great, so they're not only perverts, pedophiles and incest lovers, but they're stalkers too." She said irritated.

Nala then asked the warthog, "Well how much do they tell?" Pumbaa could tell there was some concern in her voice, clearly worried that the supposed films would tell more than she would've wanted. Pumbaa answered as best as he could, "Well the first one starts with Simba being born, and ends with Kopa being born."

Simba's eyes widened. "Wait, so they actually show everything in between that? Everything?!"

Pumbaa shook his head. "Well... not everything. But uh, it does kind of show you and Nala in the jungle the day she found you. You know, the night you two had s-"

Simba blushed and cut him off abruptly by saying, "Okay, that'll do, Pumbaa... that'll do."

"Wait, they showed that?!" Nala exclaimed. Pumbaa winced back a bit before replying, "Don't worry, Nala, it cut away before you two could get busy." Nala sighed in relief.

"Uh mom… what's he talking about?" Kopa asked humorously, sounding as though he was ironically amused by this. Simba and Nala suddenly blushed vibrantly, realizing that Kopa was figuring out the truth. For all those years, the king and queen had been able to keep it a total secret that the two of them had made love that night in the jungle. Now it appeared as though they could keep that secret no longer unless they acted fast.

With her cheeks burning embarrassingly, Nala said, "I-it's nothing, Kopa. We… we just fell in love, that's all."

Kiara smirked slyly at her mother, catching onto the trembling tone of her voice. "Ohh, I think I see what's going on here, mother."

Nala glanced uncomfortably at Simba before she suddenly barked at her daughter, "And that's all we did that night!"

Kiara snickered, followed by Kovu resisting the urge to laugh too, realizing the same thing Kiara did. "Sure, mother… sure." She said sarcastically.

The warthog shrugged. He continued, "Now the second movie they made starts with Kiara being born, and ends with her getting married with Kovu."

Kiara and Kovu blushed. The lion said to him, "So… it really tells about… all of that? Anyone who wants to see my years of abuse and neglect can just watch it with no problem?"

Pumbaa stammered, "Well… not exactly. It does skip ahead a bit, it doesn't show that, Kovu."

Kovu sighed deeply, with Kiara placing a paw on his shoulder for comfort. Suddenly, Kopa spoke up. "So wait a second here… you're saying that the first one ends with me being born… and yet the second one starts with Kiara being born?"

Pumbaa gave him an awkward look as he continued. "Well aren't they gonna show what happened to me? I almost died! If that's where they start it, I'm literally the reason everything in the second one happened the way they did! And hell, who even knows if they got that right?"

Pumbaa looked a bit dumbfounded as he tried to think of what to say. Not yet did he want Kopa to know how many of his fans debate his very existence, nor did he want to tell about just how much of their lives that the films had skipped over. Nevertheless, he replied as friendly as he could,

"L-look, Kopa, can we get to the fanfic, please? It starts with Kiara and Kovu getting together, that's all you need to know." Kopa gave him a flat look before glancing over to Vitani, and then to Kiara. They had similar looks on their faces. Finally, he shrugged.

"Alright, go ahead, Pumbaa." He said. The warthog sighed in relief to himself has he turned around to the laptop, and read aloud the text upon it.

Prologue

The sky turned scarlet off towards the east. All over the Pride Lands animals roused themselves beneath the disappearing stars and made their way towards the enormous kopje known as Pride Rock. The sun crested the horizon and rose slowly into the sky, following the same track as the procession of zebras, giraffes, antelope, and elephants. It was well into the late morning when the kingdom's entire populace finished gathering beneath Simba's throne. Out of sight of the kingdom, the lions oversaw the wedding of Simba's daughter, Princess Kiara, to the Outsider Kovu, once the distrusted stepson of Scar and now Kiara's beloved prince consort. The marriage completed, Simba and his wife Nala led their daughter and new son-in-law to the throne and presented the heirs to the kingdom. A celebratory roar erupted from the throat of every lion.

The Lion King III: The Lost Prince

The real Simba nodded approvingly. "So far so good." He said. Next to him, Nala smiled warmly to Simba, remembering how well the day she remembered so fondly was being described. Kiara rested her head on Kovu's mane, also regaining fond memories of the happiest day of her life. Kovu nuzzled Kiara for a moment as Pumbaa continued reading.

Chapter 1

As always, it was a warm and clear day. Kiara bounded through a grassy trail that wound alongside the Zuberi River.

"Is that what they call it?" Nala commented. Simba shrugged.

"We never had a name for the river before. Usually we just called it the river." Pumbaa shot him a look, signaling him to keep quiet so he could read. The king obliged.

Kovu followed close behind, his paws landing in his wife's footprints. Kovu glanced anxiously at the water, remembering with a chill that his mother and older brother had died at a dam in this very same river not too far downstream. Not far behind the lions were Timon and Pumbaa, the loyal aides of King Simba. The meerkat rode atop the warthog's head, using Pumbaa's tusks as handles.

"Here we are," Kiara said over her shoulder, stopping near some bushes beside a large rock mound. Kovu watched as Kiara cleared the mouth of a cave by brushing aside the branches with her paw.

"Go on," she said, motioning for Kovu to go in first.

"Oh my God, are we really about to do what I think we are?" Kiara asked suddenly, sounding rather concerned. Pumbaa shook his head. "Don't worry, Kiara, this doesn't have any of that."

Kiara leaned into Kovu and whispered into his ear, "The last time he said 'don't worry' to me, I got my face stuck up against his ass in a pond." Kovu shuddered.

"I still have nightmares about what I saw under there!" She added. The lioness subconsciously preyed that Pumbaa hadn't heard her just then.

Kovu looked quizzically up at the upper frame of the cave entrance, questioning its integrity. A pebble tumbled out of place as if on cue. A glance at Kiara's smiling face made Kovu's worry disappear and he entered the cave. Inside, a shaft of light shone down through a small hole in the ceiling, revealing the cave's interior. Kovu marveled at the artwork scratched into the stone wall of the cave. Lines swirled about the wall, branching off from each other to create the image of a tree.

"What is this place?" Kovu asked.

Kiara came up beside him. "This is our family tree," she replied. Using a claw, she pointed to a set of lines that split off of separate branches near the top and joined together. "Those are our branches."

Timon and Pumbaa observed from the cave entrance. "Genealogy," Timon sighed. "You know, I tried out that ancestry research stuff. Turns out my uncle's roommate's cousin grew apricots for a living. Whoopty do."

"I think it's cool," Pumbaa asserted. "According to my genealogy, I'm related to Jane Austen and Louis XIV."

"… Do I even want to ask?" Vitani commented. Pumbaa shook his head. The less you know, the better he thought to himself.

Timon turned to the warthog incredulously.

"What?"

Kovu stared at the line Kiara had indicated as his. It seemed fresher than the other branches, probably added not very long ago. Tracing his line backwards, he found its source in a branch he realized must have been his mother Zira. Two other lines branched off alongside his, which must have been for his brother Nuka and sister Vitani. Kovu's attention then returned to the line that indicated his wife, which branched off the joined lines of her parents, Simba and Nala. Following the lines further down, he found the line of his stepfather, Simba's uncle Scar.

"So, we're sure you and Scar aren't related?" Timon asked Kovu. The dark lion glanced down at the meerkat and nodded.

"Like I've said before, he wasn't really my father," Kovu confirmed. "Does it matter at this point?"

"Uh, yeah!" Timon replied adamantly.

The real Kovu gave Pumbaa a confused look. "Do… do people really think that?"

The warthog gave Kovu an awkward look as he replied, "Kovu… you don't know the half of it."

Simba suddenly spoke up. "Hey wait! Kovu told me that Nuka said Scar wasn't the father! Didn't the movie show that?"

Pumbaa replied, "Well it did, but… let's just say that it didn't exactly convince some fans." Kovu gave Kiara a strange look, as did she. The fans really thought that they were related? Kovu muttered to himself,

"I'll be mad about that later."

Turning aside to the readers, Timon declared, "Parents, we do not condone incest here at Disney. Please stop sending the angry letters."

"Disney? What's a Disney?" Nala asked the warthog with curiosity. Kopa added, "Is that some sort of food?"

Pumbaa was at first shocked that they didn't know what Disney was, but then he remembered: They were lions. He replied, "Uh, They're the ones who made those movies off of you."

Vitani muttered, "Fitting name for a bunch of stalkers."

"Didn't they plan on making Scar Kovu's dad in the first draft of the script?" Pumbaa recalled.

"Yeah, way to be subtle about it, Pumbaa." Kovu said sarcastically, still unable to comprehend that the belief was legit.

Timon quickly grabbed Pumbaa's snout and forced it closed. "We never talk about that!" Timon hissed. Kiara and Kovu did not notice Timon and Pumbaa breaking the fourth wall.

"Who made this?" Kovu asked, referring to the family tree.

"Rafiki," Kiara replied. "These are the lines of my grandparents," she said, gesturing to the four lines that wound below Simba and Nala. "These two are my father's parents, Mufasa and Sarabi. And these are the lines of my mother's parents, Sarafina and Leo…"

"Leo?" Nala said curiously. Simba muttered to her assuringly, "Hey, at least no one's saying Scar was the father or anything."

Kovu was momentarily distressed by the mention of Simba's father. It was Kovu's own stepfather who murdered Mufasa and Kovu knew, even now, that this relation troubled Simba, though the king was trying very hard to form a friendship with Kovu despite his ties to Scar. Hoping to get his thoughts off this troubling history, Kovu focused on Kiara's other grandparents. He'd met Sarabi and Sarafina at Pride Rock but this was the first he'd heard of Nala's father.

"Leo?"

"He's a lion who lives in Rogue Haven," Kiara replied.

"Rogue Haven?"

"Yes. All the males in our family live out there, except for the king and his heir. Even Scar lived out there for a while. My mother used to take me to Rogue Haven to visit my grandfather when I was young and sometimes they come and visit us here at Pride Rock."

"Well that's an… interesting explanation." Simba commented. "But don't we usually just allow the males here, as long as they don't challenge the king?"

Nala nodded. "That was your father's law." She said, turning her attention back to the story.

"You mean your father doesn't banish the other males?"

Kiara shook her head. Kovu sighed. "Scar did."

Kiara nodded. "I know. You see this line next to my mother's. This was her younger brother."

The real Nala thought to herself, They just love these made up characters, don't they?

"I didn't know your mother had a brother," Kovu admitted.

"He was driven from the Pride Lands during Scar's reign."

Kovu nodded. "I see. Where is Rogue Haven?"

"Not too far. It's on the border of the Pride Lands in the direction where the sun rises each morning." Kovu shrugged.

"I'll have to check that place out sometime."

Absentmindedly, he lifted his paw and stroked the branch for his wife on the family tree.

Vitani abruptly cut in and said jokingly, "Yeah, as long as that's the only thing he strokes here, I'm fine with it." Kovu shot his sister a dirty look before taking a deep breath.

As he did so, some dirt fell from the wall to reveal a hidden line beside her branch.

"What's that?" he asked. Kiara moved closer to the tree. "I don't know. I've never seen that before."

"It comes off of Simba and Nala's branches like yours," Kovu observed. Then, his eyes widened. "Oh…"

"That can't be right," Kiara replied, not noticing the distressed expression on Kovu's face. "According to this, I have a sibling. But I don't have any brothers or sisters."

Kiara gave Kopa an awkward glance. "Okay then…"

"Actually," Pumbaa began before Timon could cover Pumbaa's mouth a second time.

"Oh crap. Simba's going to kill us!" the meerkat mumbled.

Simba rested peacefully outside the entrance to the lions' den, his paws propped beneath his chin. Not yet fully recovered from the injuries he sustained in the battle with Zira, he savored this brief moment of rest before he would be called back to his kingly duties.

"Father," Kiara called.

Simba opened an eye and watched his daughter's hurried approach.

"Well that didn't take long, did it?" the real Kiara snickered.

Kovu trailed behind with a distressed look on his face.

"Kiara," Kovu protested, "he's resting. Let's not bother him right now."

Timon and Pumbaa huddled behind a rock. "Wow, things are about to get really messy," Timon whispered. "Way to go Pumbaa!" he snapped angrily at the warthog.

"Sorry," Pumbaa said guiltily. "What am I sorry for again?"

Pumbaa heard Simba and Nala snicker when he read that part, which made him grunt in an annoyed fashion.

"I can't believe how accurate he is here." He heard Simba whisper.

Simba lifted his head and yawned. Kovu stopped in his tracks at the sight of the king's inadvertently bared teeth. Although he once believed himself capable of taking on the king, Kovu had begun to notice the difference in their size more acutely since he became Simba's son-in-law. Simba stood and stretched his limbs.

"What's on your minds?"

"Kovu and I just visited the family tree," Kiara said. Simba's face looked stricken.

"Kiara," Kovu said more forcefully. "This is not the right time…"

"We found a branch that I've never seen before."

Simba lowered his gaze to the ground. "I'm sorry, Simba," Kovu said. "I didn't mean for her to find out. I didn't even know about this family tree until we got there…"

Kiara glanced at Kovu warily. "Kovu, do you know what's going on?"

"Kiara," Simba said in a shuddering voice, regaining his daughter's attention.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Kiara demanded. "Is the family tree accurate? Do I have a sibling?"

Simba took an unsteady breath. "Yes, you did have a sibling," he confirmed.

As soon as the warthog read that out, Kopa shuddered, which earned him a few sympathetic looks. They knew now how this story was going to be.

Kiara sat down heavily.

"Did?"

"You had an older brother."

Kiara shook her head. "Why didn't you tell me? How could you keep something like this from…"

"Kiara," Nala cautioned, exiting the den.

"Nice of you to show up so quick." Kovu said sarcastically to Nala. The lioness groaned.

Kiara turned to her mother and saw tears in the queen's eyes. Looking back at her father, Kiara finally saw the tears trickling down his cheeks as well. "

I'm sorry you found out like this," Simba said, his voice quivering slightly.

"Your mother and I thought it would be better for you. You wouldn't have missed someone you didn't remember?"

While Pumbaa went on, the others fell deathly silent. Before, they were fully ready to make fun of this story all the way through, prepared to point out how the story of Kopa didn't go this way. But now hearing how vividly the author had chosen to describe it, they all abandoned this mindset.

Kopa rested his head upon Vitani, who gave him a sad look as he did. They knew this was going to get personal real soon.

Watching the king being overcome with grief he'd suppressed nearly all of Kiara's life, the princess moved closer to Simba and nuzzled him beneath his chin. The king tenderly returned her affection.

"Come," he instructed, leading Kiara away from Pride Rock.

Kovu and Nala did not follow. What could either of them do?

"Uhh, how about give my daughter some emotional support?" Nala commented. "I was there when she really found out about this, what the hell?"

Simba and Kiara returned to the Zuberi River, and the king led the princess to a cliff a few miles down from the dam where Zira and Nuka met their deaths. The king looked over the edge into the churning water below.

"What was his name?" Kiara asked.

"His name was Kopa," the king sighed.

"Kopa," Kiara whispered, letting the name settle on her tongue for the first time.

"This accursed river has taken so many lives," he said softly.

"You mean Zira and Nuka," Kiara ventured. Simba nodded. "And…" Kiara began. "Kopa?"

Simba sighed deeply. "Do you know why I banished Zira and her followers to the Outlands?" Kiara nodded.

"They supported Scar…" Simba shook his head.

"That wasn't the real reason.

"Well it was a part of it." Simba whispered.

"You don't remember because you were still so small when it happened.

"Try not even born!" Kiara said suddenly.

"After Scar's death, I tried to appeal to Zira. But nothing I could say would placate her. She wanted vengeance for her mate's death. And she took it…"

After that, Kiara rested her head on Kovu's mane, holding back the urge to cry again. Everything that Kopa had gone through beforehand was always a sensitive thing for her to talk about, not just for her, but for everyone else around her.

Kiara felt her eyes fill with tears.

"She lured Kopa here and…"

"No," Kiara wept. Simba looked away.

"I was too late. She threw him from this cliff - and just laughed, screaming Scar's name over and over. I struck her to the ground and still she would not stop laughing. I was ready to kill her but her cubs – Nuka, Vitani, and even little Kovu. They intercepted me and begged me not to hurt their mother."

Simba's mouth fell open with shock. "That's exactly how it happened…" He whispered to himself, amazed at the apparent accuracy of this. Nala rubbed her head against his neck lovingly, as many horrific and undesired memories began to come back for the both of them.

"Even though Kovu wasn't born yet." Nala corrected. Simba gave her an embarrassed look. "R-right, yeah I knew that." He lied.

Simba raised his streaming eyes to the heavens. Kiara pressed herself to Simba. She could almost feel his agony like the tremors of an earthquake.

"So I banished her – and every lioness who showed sympathy for her."

Simba looked down at Kiara. "The rest of the story you know."

Three lives, Kiara thought. Not two. Three…

"I know you think I was too overprotective of you – but now you know why. I just couldn't lose you the way I lost your brother."

Maniacal laughter – it was that female again. Who was she? Why was she doing this? He backed away from her.

"Wait… huh?" Kopa said suddenly, breaking the mood he had before. Everyone gave the laptop screen a dumbfounded look.

"So what happened?" Kovu asked eagerly.

"Does it seriously cut off right there?" Kiara added.

All he could see of her were those wild eyes! Blood trickled from her injured ear. She lifted a blurred claw and swiped at him. He moved away – then he was falling! The world vanished! Chaka jerked awake, inadvertently kicking the older lion sleeping next to him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Did we just start a completely different story here?" Simba protested, caught completely off guard by the sudden change.

Pumbaa looked back to him before replying, "I'm just reading what it says, Simba."

"It just completely changed! What the hell?" Kiara said, sounding extremely annoyed. "I was just starting to get into it!"

Kopa gave his sister an agreeing look before nodding. "She's right. Why did it just cut off?"

Pumbaa sighed. "Look guys, Timon and I have read this, and I promise you that it goes somewhere. Just trust me."

Simba gave the warthog a strange look before saying, "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Chaka?" Mheetu gasped, turning to his younger companion.

"Oh, I think I get it now." Said Vitani. "There's two things going on at once, isn't there?" Pumbaa nodded.

The lioness mumbled to herself, Would've been nice if they could've just mentioned that.

Chaka glanced around their small hollow, reassuring himself of his whereabouts. He looked at Mheetu, concern in the older male's eyes.

"Sorry,"

Chaka mumbled sheepishly. "That dream again?" Mheetu said.

"Yeah." Chaka rose from the ground and stretched. It was still nighttime outside the cave "I'm gonna get a drink."

"All right," Mheetu replied, lowering his head. Chaka left the den and walked to the edge of the river outside their cave. He leaned down and licked up a few mouthfuls of water, which soothed his burning throat. He sat and let the breeze cool his tense back. As the last dregs of the nightmare cleared away, Chaka stared at his reflection in the river, aqua-colored eyes returning his stare. The stars were full and bright. Chaka looked up and had the feeling that there was something he was supposed to remember about the stars. He struggled to recall what he was supposed to remember

Pumbaa took a deep breath after so much reading, taking a moment to relax his throat. Then, standing up and turning around, he asked them all, "Well, what'd you think?"

All of the stares he was getting were different. Simba and Nala looked somewhat mortified, having to now relive some extremely painful memories about the tragedy of their son, and how it was being told in the story. Kiara and Kovu looked saddened for the same reason, though with her strength, Kiara managed to hold back her tears. Never had she truly experienced what Kopa had been through, and now it appeared as though she was going to get a taste of what it could've been like.

As for Kopa and Vitani themselves, they looked not so much sad or mortified as much as they were intrigued, and appeared as though they deeply desired to see what comes next. Even though the memory and experience of what had truly happened was painful and sensitive for them, they were open to the fanfic nonetheless.

"I like it so far." Kopa said, breaking the brief silence. Vitani nodded. "They're doing a good job at describing everything… even though the end of it sort of threw me off."

Kiara and Kovu both nodded. "Yeah, the descriptions are very good." Said Kovu. Kiara agreed. "It sounds like it's going to get emotional here."

Pumbaa nodded. "I've read this all the way through Kiara, and let me tell you… you don't know the half of it. This is only chapter one."

Simba spoke up. "Although it's… bringing back some horrible memories right now… I can't bring myself to dislike it."

"Yet." Nala slyly added, earning her a glance from her mate.

Kovu said now, "I don't know about those movies you mentioned earlier, Pumbaa… but this sure sounds like it could be one of them."

"They called them The Lion King, right?" Simba asked. Pumbaa nodded. "That's why they called this one The Lion King III. There's already two of them… that are about you, anyway."

The Lion King… huh, that has a nice ring to it. Simba thought.

Suddenly, Nala perked up. She looked at Pumbaa and unexpectedly barked out, "Hey, wait a second!" He looked upon her with confusion, curious as to why she burst out like that so suddenly. The lioness asked, "Pumbaa, remember when you said they showed us in the jungle? And they cut away from us just before we…?"

Pumbaa nodded awkwardly, afraid of where this was going. She said, "Well if they did… how the hell did you know we had sex that night!?"

It took Nala a second to realize the secret she had just accidentally let out.

Author's Note: Just for future reference, I am not done covering this fanfic yet. The rest of it will be covered in the next chapter, because I don't want every chapter here to get too long. With that said, I wish to give credit to the author Asante, and I highly recommend reading the full story of The Lion King III: The Lost Prince. It's a damn near brilliant piece of work, and that's why I chose to feature it here.