Author's Note: Once again, I apologize for the unusually extended delay of this chapter, there's still more of this story to go. But I should mention now that it didn't chiefly have anything to do with school or braces this time (Though those certainly don't help). The reason this took so long was because I'm finally covering a tremendously controversial topic of the Lion King fandom here, and I held off on writing it for a bit since I wanted to approach this in just the right way so that I don't inadvertently set off a fan war of some kind.

Even then, I was also incredibly stressed about doing this chapter since I somewhat fear(ed) for what the response would be. This single chapter alone went through nine major rewrites and revisions before I could decide which approach would be the most appropriate, and even then I don't think I covered this as well as I could have. But with that said, I still hope you enjoy, and please review!

Chapter XXXI

With that, Pumbaa returned his attention to the laptop's screen and cleared the search bar in preparation for the next subject matter he was to show off. He cleared his throat. "So uh, what's say we look at some other people's art now?" He suggested. A brief moment of silence came to pass before Simba ended up being the first one to respond.

"As long as it stays like that, Pumbaa... show us what you've got." He said with a hint of enthusiasm in his voice.

Needless to say, Pumbaa obliged and typed something in, hitting 'search' when he finished. The results were more numerous than they had ever been. This time instead of searching for one of them specifically, there was art appearing for all of them at once. Things depicting Simba, Nala, Kiara, Kovu, among others too made themselves known. Nala in particular gasped at the quality of some of them.

"And you're sure you aren't going to pull some kind of stunt this time, Pumbaa?" Kovu asked suspiciously. The warthog shook his head.

"Don't worry, I know how hard you guys took that. I don't want to see it any more than you do, really."

"Which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for Timon!" Vitani called out, which got a few laughs from the others around her.

With that, they all took their opportunity to gaze upon the new art. A lot of it wasn't quite as real looking or detailed as the previous works they'd seen, but nonetheless they were generally impressed. Many of them consisted of Kiara and Kovu's cubs, Simba and Nala together, Simba with Kiara as a cub, among other things. And this time, they had nothing to fear in terms of what was to come.

At least, not in the same way as before.

After a few minutes, they came across a drawing that showed up on the screen of what looked like Kiara looking down on a flower with butterflies flying away from it. At first it seemed harmless enough, but then Pumbaa sighed as he covered his eyes with his right arm. This did not go unnoticed by the others.

"What? What is it, Pumbaa?" Kiara asked curiously. The warthog groaned.

"Guys... I was afraid this sort of thing would show up." He said. Simba cocked his head. "Why? Is it with that picture right there?"

"What? It looks harmless enough, I guess." Kopa added, seeing as there wasn't much to the drawing he could see worth being offended over. But then Pumbaa took another deep breath.

"This is where the reading comes in." He mumbled. Nala opened her mouth to say something out of intrigue, but then Pumbaa said this before she could:

"The name of the drawing is 'Kiara Annoys Everyone'."

Instantly, a wave of realization came upon them as they each softly gasped in sudden awareness, and not for the better. All of a sudden, what was happening in the drawing made all the more sense. Kovu cringed.

"So then that's what I think it is, isn't it?" He asked reluctantly, now looking away from the screen. "They're another one of those people who hate her, aren't they?"

Pumbaa replied, "Well it does say this in the description..."

And from there he read off what the image's text below read: Kiara's a bitch to draw, lemme tell ya. And butterflies must hate her. Kiara always annoyed me. Her design is a perfect mix of Simba and Nala, but her personality... Meh.

A moment of silence lingered within the den of Pride Rock for a bit until Kovu absolutely shattered it. "Oh yeah, great. Real freaking nice there!" He said in a very clearly annoyed tone with anger slowly rising within him. "Perfect, right when I thought we were past this, it has to come back and bite us in the tail again, doesn't it?!"

Pumbaa shrugged. "That's what this site does, I guess." He muttered just loud enough for them to hear.

Simba sighed as his ears drooped slightly. "I didn't want to believe you when you said there were things like this about her." The lion said to his son-in-law. Kovu replied, "You think I want to, Simba?"

Kovu was about to say something else out of anger for what he just heard in the image's description, but then Kiara cleared her throat, interrupting him. "You know... j-just don't worry about it, guys. I don't really care if they say things like that anymore."

Kovu eyed her intently now, as did Simba and all of the others. "Y-you're not?" Nala asked her daughter. Kiara nodded.

"Even though I still hate what they say about me, I don't care... You guys are the only ones I really need to like me anyway."

She said this while her gaze fell upon them all one by one, ending with Kovu where her red eyes stared into his emerald green ones. She smiled, as did he.

"As long as you all love me, that's all I think matters."

After a pause, Kovu replied to her in a clearly loving tone, "That's a smart way to look at it, Kiara. We do love you, me especially. You're smart, you're brave, kind, compassionate, caring..."

He leaned into her and whispered into her ear as he finished, "And you've gotta be the sexiest lioness in all of Africa."

She laughed to herself before she said back to him, "See, that's exactly why I don't care what those people say. As long as I've got you, that's all I need."

"And we're here for you, Kiara." Nala said to her daughter in a very loving way. Then Kiara ardently nuzzled Kovu in repayment for his comfort, and he returned it. They had a genuinely tender moment together there as the others watched happily and listened to their purrs of affection. Then momentarily, they separated their heads and returned their attention to the screen as Pumbaa scrolled away from the image. A moment of silence lingered before Simba cleared his throat.

"So... what else is there, Pumbaa?" He asked curiously. The warthog shrugged.

"That depends, Simba. Who do you want to look at art for next?"

Simba opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by Nala. "As long as you stick with the clean art, Pumbaa, I don't think it matters just who we see it for.

Pumbaa was about to say something in response, but then unexpectedly, they all heard a hefty sigh come from Kopa that echoed around the den. Upon hearing this, several of them turned to face him where they saw the prince bowing his head slightly with a rather depressed look on his face.

"Yeah, go ahead." He said sadly. Upon hearing his tone, Vitani raised an eyebrow and gave her mate a concerned look.

"Kopa, what's wrong?" She asked earnestly. Kopa ignored her at first.

"What is it?" Simba asked now, standing up to face his son. Kopa exhaled deeply again before he looked up to the king and replied, "Well... you know what, dad? I noticed something. Why does this fan base have to be so..."

It took him a moment to find the right word to use. "... Ignorant of me?"

"Huh?" Kiara was the first one to say, now growing worried for her brother and his saddened tone. Kopa went on, "I mean think about it. Out of all the fanfics we read, only two of them even mentioned me, plus one of them sucked ass besides that Middle Earth place."

He paused as he looked upon the screen containing the art results. He pointed his paw at it. "And look there. Not a single one of those pictures has me anywhere in it. Timon and Pumbaa say the movies don't have me, the fanfics almost don't care about me..."

He looked over to the warthog. "And Pumbaa, there's something I've gotta know here. Why did you say I'm some kind of 'hot topic' around the Internet if I'm barely even around what we've seen?"

The sympathetic looks Kopa was getting right then said it all. It appeared as though Kopa was in fact feeling rather excluded from the fandom as a whole, and now that they each thought about it, there was indeed a noticeably lacking amount of material for him. Vitani placed a paw around the back of his neck and onto his shoulder.

Here, Kiara turned to Pumbaa. "Hey Pumbaa", she started. "You know, he has a point. Now that I think about it, what did you mean when you said that? There's barely been a thing about him besides those two fanfics."

Kovu added here, "With all he's been through, you'd think he'd be the most talked about one out of all of us."

Vitani said, "Yeah come on Pumbaa, why don't you show us what there is about him?"

The lion turned to Vitani and gave her a smile. "Thanks, Vitani." He said earnestly, his depressing tone receding. Vitani smirked tenderly at him.

Nala asked, "Yes, I want to see what they can do with him too." Nala said supportively to the warthog.

Pumbaa felt a great deal of embarrassment come upon him as his cheeks burned red upon hearing Nala's request. He raised his hoof. "Uh, Nala? I don't think that would be such a good idea with what your fans are capable of." He said awkwardly. Kovu then spoke up in an odd tone,

"Yes Pumbaa, we get it. We know they like to see me and Simba going at it, we know half of them hate Kiara, we know they can give idiotic reviews about those movies off of us. I think we can handle whatever it is they do with Kopa."

"Yeah, but-" He tried to warn sincerely. But Simba was the one to cut him off this time. He said, "Don't worry about it, Pumbaa, the worst is behind us. You're not Timon, you'll tell us if there's something we wouldn't want to see."

Pumbaa was about to say something else now, but ultimately just let out a hefty sigh of annoyance. What he wanted to say was that although there was no longer any more dirty art to see, there were still drawings and posts out there that could set any of them off at any second in different ways. He rolled his eyes.

"All right, if you want." He slowly and reluctantly said. With that, he typed something into the laptop's search bar once more and he tapped 'search' with his hoof. Although they couldn't read human writing, most of them could see that Pumbaa typed in something more than just Kopa's name. All of the lions and lionesses surrounding the computer leaned in ever closer to intently see what was to come, especially Vitani.

But the instant the page loaded again, however, everyone gasped at the top of their lungs. Only this time it was not out of horror for the perverted material, but of genuinely unsettling shock. In front of them, Pumbaa had looked up a depiction of what looked like Zira holding cub Kopa's dead, bloody and drooping body within her sharp jaws. She looked incredibly proud of it, and there was no mistaking it, Kopa was definitely dead in the image.

A long, horrific moment of silence lingered within the den of Pride Rock for a moment before Simba was the first one to say,

"Well... this is new."

"That brings back memories." Kopa said in a disgusted and sarcastic tone.

"What the hell? That's just disturbing." Nala added. "Zira didn't kill Kopa like that! She threw him over a cliff and into a river."

"But they didn't show that in the movies." Kiara reminded her mother as she stopped cringing from the image. "At least, if what Timon and Pumbaa said are anything to go by."

Upon hearing these words, here Pumbaa stood up. The warthog sighed heavily before he at last turned around, faced Kopa in the eye and reluctantly uttered,

"Kopa... there's something I've gotta tell you."

The lion raised an eyebrow before he said, "Let me guess, there's more art like that, isn't there?"

Pumbaa paused for a second before he answered, "Well, there's that... and... what I really meant by being a hot topic around the Internet was... No one can really get your story straight."

The prince cocked his head before he started to ask, "Why? Zira thr-"

"Remember when I said those movies didn't include you?" Pumbaa interrupted. He didn't wait for Kopa to answer. "Well a lot of fans don't even know you exist because of that."

The lion gave him an incredibly blank stare for ten straight seconds before he said, "Uh... come again?"

"A lot of fans debate whether or not you're even real."

Another moment of speechlessness came to pass before, unexpectedly, Vitani began to burst out laughing in a hysterical way. In between breaths she managed to say, "Aha, all right, good one, Pumbaa! See that's what Timon didn't have- an actual sense of humor!"

The warthog gave her a bit of a sad look before she saw him again, and then her laughter began to die down. She became still when she caught on to his serious look.

"You're... you're not kidding, are you?"

"That can't be!" Nala said loudly with doubt glowing in her voice. "How can they say he doesn't exist? He's right here for Christ's sakes!"

The warthog looked over to her. "Boy, this is gonna take me a while to explain."

And with that, Pumbaa went back over to the laptop and sat back down. He scrolled downwards through the page which revealed a few more pictures of Zira preparing to kill Kopa, Simba sadly looking upon Kopa's dead body, among other depressing and occasionally graphic things. Soon he stopped and read what appeared to be a description for one of the images of Kopa as a cub.

Unlike the other hidden lions, Kopa did NOT appear in the comics, only in a series of six children's books. Kopa is actually the son of Simba and Nala. I'm not really sure how Kiara ended up coming into play, but Kopa was first... makes you wonder...

"Okay, now I'm officially confused." The real prince said in exasperation. "What do you mean children's books, what the hell are books?"

Pumbaa answered, "They're like pictures mixed with words to tell a story, but the pictures don't move like in movies. And apparently they're the only reason that anyone knows about you."

"D-do they show what Zira did to him?" Simba reluctantly asked his friend, half out of curiosity and half out of fear. Pumbaa shook his head.

"No, no they don't." He answered.

"So then how can they draw those messed up pictures of Zira killing him?" Kiara questioned firmly. "You said those movies left out his entire story, yet those... books... whatever they're called, they don't say what happened to him?"

Pumbaa sighed. "Well see... it's... they..."

He sighed and turned to the prince. "Listen, the books show Kopa and the movies don't... the fans try to think of how the books fit in, and Zira killing you is their way of doing that."

"So really it's just by pure luck that they got it right then?" Kovu asked in a confusing tone. The warthog looked over to him and replied, "Yeah, not exactly. They don't say anything about why he isn't in the second movie they made, so there's kind of... uh... other ideas too. Everybody says something different."

"Dammit, what else do they say?" Simba asked with uncertainty. To this, Pumbaa turned back around and scrolled further down the same page. Eventualy he stopped, took a deep breath, and read this aloud:

Kopa, I know that Disney killed you but you are alive!

"Uh... what?" Vitani questioned in an odd tone. "They think he's dead and yet... also think he's alive too? Huh?"

"That's not all." Pumbaa answered the lioness. "Here's more."

And then he read this off to an image of Kopa: I love concepts like this! TLK 2 totally should've been like this. Would've made for a much better storyline.

"Yeah, because that isn't inaccurate or insulting at all!" Simba said loudly. "So they're saying that Kopa would've been better than Kiara, huh?"

Kovu smacked his paw against his face and turned to Kiara, keeping his paw over his eyes. "Geeze... they just can't let you have a break, can they?"

Kiara shook her head. "I'm not going to let it get to me." She said as calmly as she could. "It doesn't matter what they say."

No sooner than she said this, however, Pumbaa started to read this: Lion King 2 should've been like this instead of Kiara. Yeah, she can be REALLY annoying.

"Oh God, would they just stop saying crap like that?!" Kovu shouted. "We get it, they hate my mate for reasons that somehow make Scar, Zira and the hyenas look sane. You don't have to keep cramming that down our-"

Pumbaa cut him off. "Yeah Kovu, I'd get ready for a lot of people comparing her to Kopa from here on out."

And here, he pulled up an image consisting of Kopa and Kiara as cubs sitting across from one another in the Pride Lands. Kiara appeared playful as always while Kopa looked serious and rather annoyed. And in a thought bubble from Kopa, it just read 'Idiot.'.

Pumbaa told them all what this was, and immediately Nala was the first one to say something. "Okay, I think I've had enough of that now, Pumbaa. What else do they do with Kopa?"

Everyone could tell that reluctance was glowing within her voice, sounding almost as though she had had enough of seeing her son on the Internet like this already. But still, Pumbaa scrolled back upwards through the page this time and he stopped upon one that struck them all as particularly depressing. It was an image of Vitani as a cub bawling in sorrow over Kopa's death, and then Kopa's spirit as a cub trying to comfort her as she cried. He appeared as transparent, yellow, and glowing like the ghost he was in the picture.

When the real Kopa saw this, for the longest time he just sat there with his mouth hanging open in shock as far as his jaw muscles would allow, and his own breathing almost seemed to slow down. He cringed and gasped before he stood up, leaned into the screen, and then shouted loud enough to echo to the outside,

"So they really think I'm dead?!"

Vitani's eyes widened upon seeing the image, observing just how deeply anguished and scarred she looked in it as Kopa's spirit hugged her from behind. The drawing really was incredibly hard to look at. Then her expression turned to that of sadness at such a depressing thought and she shut her eyes.

"God dammit..." Was the only thing she had managed to utter.

"Wow, this is just..." Simba tried to add in shock. "That's sad."

"It's depressing is what it is." Nala replied to her mate. "Look at that, Vitani looks absolutely heartbroken there."

"And did they really have to have your ghost in there too, Kopa?" Kiara asked. "I mean it's sad enough seeing Vitani like that, but then... just..."

"I can't believe this." Kopa said madly and disbelievingly as he placed his paw on his forehead. "The whole freaking fan base thinks I'm dead! If I'm dead, how the hell am I sitting here right now then?! Answer me that!"

Pumbaa looked at him for a few moments before he reluctantly cleared his throat and said, "Uh Kopa? Maybe I should tell you that there's some good news and some bad news to this."

"What's the good news?" Nala asked curiously, wanting to know further about the material for her son. The warthog replied, "Well the good news is... not everyone thinks Kopa died."

Nala sighed in relief. "Well at least some of them know how it happened then." She said to Kopa, just managing to crack a smile.

"Yeah, that's kind of where the bad news comes in."

From then on, a long moment of speechlessness lingered throughout the den of Pride Rock. If what they had seen before wasn't severe enough to be called bad news, it wasn't until then that a wave of realization hit them that they had only seen the start of this whole thing.

"Do I even want to ask what that is?" Kopa asked slowly. Pumbaa sighed before he answered,

"Some of them think you never happened at all."

Instantly Kopa perked up and grew an absolutely flabbergasted look on his face, gasping simultaneously. Vitani did just about the same.

"They... they what?" Vitani managed to utter through her horrified expression. Pumbaa just gave her a sad look as he sat back down in front of the laptop's screen and began to carefully type something new with his hooves.

"What they hell do you mean they think he never happened?" Simba demanded angrily. A few seconds passed before, sadly, Pumbaa read this off from what appeared to be a comment chain of some sort concerning Kopa:

I hate to bad mouth something a lot of people clearly have put thought into but I think its a little dumb when taken seriously. As a short story or fanfiction its fine but when people say its what actually happened in the series...no. They made a book series, then when they wanted to do the sequel they wanted to do a Romeo and Juliet kind of story so Kopa wouldn't exactly work out for it.

"Uh... what?" The real Kopa said blankly with no discernible expression at all on his face now.

"They think he's dumb?! Dumb?!" Nala unexpectedly shouted out of anger. Simba smacked his face with his paw so hard, it hurt.

"Great, it's like what they said about Kiara all over again with these people." He muttered under his breath.

"How can they say he didn't exist, he's right here!" Vitani growled looking over to the lion. "Pumbaa, about those movies, didn't you say the first one ended with him being born?"

Pumbaa placed his hoof upon his forehead at the mention of this, cringing as he did so. Vitani raised an eyebrow at this. "Let me guess, it has something to do with that, doesn't it?"

He nodded. "Yeah, maybe you guys should see this, then."

With that upon the laptop screen he pulled up a new image, this time one they had never seen before: On the left side of it was the cub seen at the end of the first film, and on the right was Kiara as an infant from the second. They could see that Kopa's side was crossed out and covered in text about something.

"What is that, Pumbaa?" Kovu asked with concern in his voice. The warthog replied to him, "Well, these are actually two pictures from those movies."

He pointed to the left side. "This one here is what Kopa looked like at the end of the first..."

Then he pointed to the right. "... and here's what Kiara looked liked at the start of the second."

Simba squinted at the images intently, trying desperately to recall how both of his children looked on the days of their presentations. His eyes widened.

"Hey... that does look a lot like how they appeared on those days." He said, genuinely admiring the accuracy of them both.

"Why is Kopa crossed out like that?" Nala asked upon seeing the image. Then Vitani said back to her,

"I think the better question would be, do you even want to know at this point?"

Nala opened her mouth to say something back to her daughter-in-law, but then Pumbaa read off the text on Kopa's side aloud before she could.

Kopa is not real! It is a genderless cub named fluffy. I believe that fluffy is a girl. On the Simba's Pride trailer it is fluffy, or Kiara! I believe the Six New Adventures books is based on fanfiction.

"Okay that's it, now I'm pissed." Kiara said flatly, glaring at the side with Kopa crossed out. "That's not me! The one on the left is clearly Kopa!"

"They really think Kiara was the one in both of them?" Nala asked with a confused tone clear in her voice. "No she isn't, I've had two cubs! Not just one!"

"Look at those two, they're completely different! There is no way they could think the one on the left is even a girl!" Vitani added. "How can they possibly say that they're the same?!"

"And what the hell is a Simba's Pride trailer?" Simba questioned. "What about my pride? What is that?"

Pumbaa looked at his friend and replied, "Oh uh, Simba's Pride is what they called the second movie, Simba. The one that tells Kiara's side of the story."

"Didn't you say it was just called The Lion King II?" Kiara questioned, having never heard of this title before. The warthog shook his head. "No no, the whole thing is called The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. It's just a subtitle."

"Sub... title?" Kovu repeated awkwardly, the word sounding totally foreign to him. "The hell is that?"

He shook his head again. "Don't worry about it, Kovu. It's not important, let's stick with the pictures here."

"Not that I'd want to now." Kopa said madly. "Look at this, some of them think I'm dead, others think I was never born..."

"If he was never born, then who the hell did I give birth to before Kiara?!" Nala shouted with a hint of sarcasm, still unable to believe that people would ever think such a thing about her son.

Then Vitani suddenly blurted out, "And who the hell did I mate with in the Water Hole, too? They're saying no one was there when that happened, huh? Just a bunch of thin air I went at it with, is that right?"

Kovu just cringed when she said this. Blankly he said to her, "Why do you insist on talking about things I can never unsee, Vitani? Do you just want that to stay with me for the rest of my life and make my eyes bleed every day?"

Vitani smirked. "Well, if it teaches you never to walk in on us again..." She started.

Kovu just smacked his paw against his face in annoyance.

Pumbaa sighed. He could tell easily by the expressions on Simba, Nala and Kiara's faces that they were all very dissatisfied with how Kopa was apparently being handled on the Internet. Whether he was thinking out loud or not, he accidentally uttered to them all,

"And that's still not all, either."

Immediately all of the others let out cries of anger and groans of annoyance when they heard this, which prompted Kovu to say unenthusiastically, "Oh great, what's next? They're gonna say I was the cub there or that Mufasa came back as one or some crap like that?"

"No, but... I don't know if what they do say is much better." Pumbaa said back to him through the annoyed shouts. Kovu cringed in regretful anticipation for what he was about to say. The groaning died down before he said, "Sometimes it's the total opposite. Some people think Kopa was real... but then take it too far."

"What do you mean?" The real Kopa asked nervously. To this he replied, "Some people think that you're amazing and that Kiara is terrible... because she isn't you."

"WHAT?!" Simba and Kovu both screamed in unison so abruptly, it made all of the others jump in shock before they could even react to Pumbaa's words. Simba growled, stood up and took a step over to Pumbaa, practically towering over him in intimidation. "What... the hell... do you mean?" He asked through gritted teeth. Anxiously, Pumbaa leaned back over the keyboard and typed in something new as Simba still growled at the screen past Pumbaa. He clicked around on a few places before he got to another comment chain. One of the posts read as follows:

I will never get over the fact that they replaced Kopa with that whiny little bitch.

Followed by:

I feel like if they'd used Kopa instead, it'd feel like they'd just tried a little harder, Kiara could have been a really awesome character. Instead she kinda turned out a little annoying (Or a lot, in most peoples' opinion apparently)!

"Oh Jesus, here we go again!" Kovu shouted in an incredibly exasperated tone. "Could they just shut the hell up about hating her like that!"

"So not only do they think she's annoying when she's not, but they think she should've been Kopa too?!" Nala added angrily. "Why?! I gave birth to both of them, why does it matter?"

"And hell, they were just following what really happened for crying out loud!" Vitani said. "If Kopa were in that second movie that would've been against how it was with us!"

Pumbaa muttered under his breath, "Not that that's stopped them before, though."

Kiara just sighed in an annoyed tone, as now she was very determined to keep her composure and not to let the hatred of herself get to her. She knew she had to be strong throughout this. The same could not be said, however, for Kovu.

"Jeeze, and I thought that one review was out of control with this stuff! Not only are they saying Kiara sucks, but now they're saying Kopa would've made her movie better?!"

"That's not even all of it." Pumbaa said as best as he could as he went through more comments.

I don't even know that much about him, but I think worse than Kiara you can't be!

Then he read this:

No matter what we want to believe, Kiara is the ONLY cub they have in the movies... which blows really...

And then:

I liked his personality more than Kiara's in the books he's in. Kiara is just too naive, ditzy and whiny, and it really annoys me.

Kiara huffed a deep sigh of building irritation within her. "Not going to let it get to me..." She said to herself in an unsure tone.

As Pumbaa read more of these off, he could very easily tell that the expressions on everyone's faces were growing increasingly angry and fuming. In particular, Simba looked like he was about to absolutely explode again like he did before. In fact, one could have argued right then that he looked even worse than the last time he did. Kopa just had a look of utter disgust on his face hearing his own sister being despised once more while he himself was all of the sudden being praised to no end.

"Well then... Sure didn't see this coming." He muttered to himself.

Eventually, Pumbaa ceased to read any more comments since a lot of them generally said the same thing- If they weren't saying Kopa was non-canon, they were saying how great he was while demonizing Kiara in many of the same ways she had seen and heard about herself before. Pumbaa sighed as he looked behind him and heftily said,

"I think you understand now... Kopa's uh... really all over the place when it comes to your fans."

Silence lingered for a while more as he observed everyone's enraged and infuriated looks at what they had just heard. Kiara was by far the most calm looking one, but even then she still appeared extremely uncomfortable about everything as she squirmed around in her spot next to Kovu. Simba was fuming and seething with anger at the screen as he peered down at it, still directly behind Pumbaa.

"...Hey... remember when I said I felt left out from everything?" Kopa started in an uneven tone. All eyes came to rest upon him.

"I think I'd rather have it stay like that now." He said quietly.

"God dammit..." Simba said through gritted teeth as he bowed his head in anger. He covered his eyes with his paw, which prevented anyone from seeing just how burningly mad they appeared to be right then. "So they think he's dead, then they think he was never born... then they think he's great and Kiara's an idiot again..."

"Wow, when you said Kopa's all over the place, you sure weren't kidding, Pumbaa." Kiara said uncomfortably as he cleared away the page containing the additional hate for her.

"Kopa?" Nala asked her son, giving him a sympathetic look. The real prince simply stood up and bowed his head in shame, blushing out of control now. Vitani gave him a worried look.

"Are you all right?..." She started. But then the lion said to his mate, "Yeah, just peachy." He replied sarcastically. "I... I just don't know about these people anymore, Vitani. First they think I actually died, then they say I'm not real, now this."

They could tell that anxiety and uneasiness rose within his voice. And then in perhaps the most unwise thing he would utter for that entire day, Kovu cleared his throat and said to his brother-in-law, "Hey Kopa? Don't take offense to this... but it just hit me. If you're really this popular, I'm kind of surprised there wasn't more smut about you a while back."

Vitani cocked her head at her brother and managed to break a sarcastic smirk. "So you mean you want there to be more, Kovu?"

It took him a moment to comprehend what Vitani just said before he gasped. "N-no! That's not what I meant! I didn't say... mean... it wasn't-!"

He blushed vibrantly as he said this and could feel his cheeks burning with embarrassment. Vitani chuckled to herself when she saw this. "Yeah, sure." She replied sarcastically.

Kovu took a deep breath and groaned loudly, rubbing his eyes with his paw. "God dammit, walked right into that one." he muttered to himself.

Then Vitani stood up and returned her attention to her mate, giving him a very comforting look. He took little notice of it.

"Don't worry about any of that, Kopa." She said as best as she could. "So what if they think you're dead?... or whatever the hell else it is they say about you. You're here and alive, and that's all we need."

Kopa glanced over to her. "Yeah... I guess." He said in a bit of a depressed tone making it clear he didn't fully take her words in. But then from here, he began to speak in a way that made it very clear that he was incredibly upset about his wildly mixed and varied treatment around the Internet. Everyone stood up and faced him as they listened.

"You know, I never should've asked to see what there was about me. How am I so argued about like that? Everyone here knows what happened to me, why can't they? And where the hell do people get off on saying I'm so much beter than Kiara like that? I mean geeze, it's just like that morning all over again here. It just feels wrong, guys. It's just uncomfortable."

Hearing her brother's saddened words like this, Kiara couldn't help but give him a distressed look for what he must've been feeling. It always pained her to see anyone at all in anguish such as this, let alone her own brother. Then as she thought about everything she had seen and heard about him, suddenly, it hit her. This was almost exactly the same situation as what happened with herself the morning she found out about the hate for herself. She perked up when she realized this. As the lioness looked upon Kopa's depressed form and listened to his saddened tone, she remembered how sincerely he had cared for her in her time of need days before. If Kopa was distressed now like she was then, the lioness realized that now was the perfect time to return the favor for her brother. She smiled now.

Kiara walked away from her spot and went across the den to where Kopa sat, all others noticing and watching. Giving the most optomistic look that she could, the lioness placed a paw on her brother's back, making him look up suddenly. She said,

"Kopa... to hell with what those people say."

The lion perked up when she said this, as he remembered that he once said the very same thing to the lioness about the hate towards her. He listened intently as she spoke.

"So what if those people hate me because I'm not you? Who cares if they think you're dead or was never born? It doesn't matter."

As everyone else listened intently at Kiara's words, Kopa's expression lightened slightly. He and everyone else suddenly realized what she was doing now as their eyes widened in understanding.

"As long as your family knows you're here, it's okay. Remember what you said to me that morning we saw the hate about myself? You're a great lion if you can say what you did there. As far as I'm concerned, the Internet doesn't matter. Whether those people love you or hate you, they won't change a thing. As long as you're here, you'll have us... Me, father, mother... Vitani."

She said that last part while looking over to her sister-in-law for a moment, who promptly gave her a warm smile for what she was now doing. Kiara returned her attention to her brother.

"Nothing they say is going to make anyone love you any less, Kopa."

She brought herself in closer to him and placed her other paw under his chin, raising his face up so he could look at her directly. "When Zira threw you over that cliff, you managed to survive. You lived out all on your own for all those years when I never even knew you existed. When you came back, you were able to risk everything just so you could see us again... you're a strong person, Kopa. If you can survive all of that and defy everything mother and father expected, I think you'd be able to get past what some idiots on a laptop say about you. Especially when they aren't true."

Kopa took a moment to take in Kiara's words as his face lightened ever further. Silence lingered as he pondered many things before he eventually looked up and met with his sister's loving gaze. He nodded.

"T-thanks, Kiara." He said sincerely. "That means a lot... but what about what they said about you? They think I'm so much better than you are when I'm not."

Kiara simply scoffed in a playful way. "Ah, forget about them. Thanks to you and Kovu I learned to put that behind me a while ago... and besides, why would I listen to a fan base that thinks Kovu and my father going at it is a thing?"

This managed to get a few laughs from the others around her before she continued.

"Anyway, now I'm saying you can put all this behind you too. You know... think of it as my way of saying thanks for telling me what you did that morning."

Kopa smiled sincerely at the lioness now, sharing the loving gaze she was giving him at that moment. Kiara now put both of her paws on her brother's back and brought him in closer, where they embrced each other warmly and hugged sincerely. Kopa placed his head on Kiara's shoulder where his soft, brown mane rubbed up against her head while he put both of his paws on her back and shut his eyes. Kopa licked her cheek which made her giggle softly.

"Thank you, Kiara." He said earnestly. "That helps a lot, actually... You know? I really couldn't have asked for a better sister than you."

"And I couldn't have asked for a better brother than you." She said back to him. Then unexpectedly, Vitani came in and rested her head on the back of Kopa's neck, gently purring as she did so. Her left paw came to rest on his back right next to where Kiara's paws were. Kopa embraced the two lionesses lovingly.

Although the incredibly varied results about himself still lingered in his mind, Kopa was indeed consolated a great deal by the words of his sister. Just as he had cared for her, she was there to care for him in return. All anxiety and worry about the Internet's words about him seemed to receed from his conscience. Thanks to his sister and his mate, it was indeed behind him.

"And besides, who's gonna listen to a bunch of people who can't even get your freaking eyes right?" Kiara said softly to her brother in a humorous tone. Kopa opened his eyes and looked at her. "They made them green in a lot of those pictures, I mean what the hell, right? They're supposed to be red."

When Pumbaa heard this, he shut his eyes and cringed. "Yeah, Kiara... speaking of eye colors..."

Author's Note: You can probably guess where this is going now.

In all honesty, these Kopa/Kiara debates really infuriate me to no end. Everyone just seems to like Kopa over Kiara (More often than not just hating her) for little to no reason at all. Personally I love them both, but good lord, the debates I've seen just become so judgmental towards Kiara it's not even funny. I'll never understand what Kopa did to make him so great to the point where people treat him like he's God while acting like his sister is the antichrist. It's horrible and disgusting in my opinion.

When Kopa and Kiara comforted one another in this chapter, I did that to symbolize the equality between the two that I can only wish they were held in regard to. Neither one of them are better than the other, so I wanted to show that equality between the two is entirely possible. (That and I thought it'd be a good callback to Chapter XII).

Anyway, regardless of what your point of view on Kopa is, I still hope you enjoyed the chapter, sorry about the extended delay, and please review!