I'm not about to lie, this is kind of a set-up chapter. But, I thought it was worth writing, just to build up to the action, and look at the characters a little more.

And I've said it once, and I'll say it until everybody is sick of hearing it (many people are already). Scar is the best Disney villain ever! That's why his Nobody is here in my story.

Scar: "You flatter me. DarthKingdom does not own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else at all."

Chapter 75: The Night Before

Rafiki returned to Pride Rock about an hour and a half later with a furry surprise.

When he got back, Nehrut had been hanging upside-down from a tree by his tail.

"What are you doing?" Bariss asked, looking up at him curiously.

"Monkeying around." He answered simply. "Join me?"

"That has got to be your worst joke yet." She said, smiling. "But sure, why not?"

He held out his hand, still hanging upside down. She took hold of it, and he pulled her up. She balanced herself easily on the branch, and he followed her up, and hung by one hand from the branch right above it. "I love this place!"

Yuffie was working on her combat skills in her new lion form. Gripping one point of her shuriken in her tail, and holding some throwing knives with her teeth, she was trying to hit a scorch mark that Axel had put on the side of a rock. He was there too, trying to get used to holding one chakram with his bushy tail and the other in his teeth.

It had been tough going, at first. Yuffie had nearly impaled Timon with a knife on her first shot. And Axel had almost roasted Pumbaa immediately afterword. But they were adjusting well, and after they had finally managed to completely shatter the rock, they agreed that they were ready to fight if necessary.

Simba, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey were discussing, 'Royal Stuff' as Sora had put it.

He, Riku and Kairi were sitting at the very edge of Pride Rock, watching the setting sun as they so often had back home (minus the fur and tails). They saw the lionesses below them meandering about. Sora noticed a mother grooming one of her infant cubs.

She took it into her paws and licked (or kissed, in the human sense) the top of her head affectionately.

He liked the look of that, Sora decided. He smiled to himself. He turned his head slightly and looked at Kairi. He found that she was looking down at the mother and the cub too, with just as much affection. Sensing his gaze on her, she turned her head to smile at him. She leaned toward him and licked him on his cheek. Sora regretted that it couldn't be a normal kiss. He decided that that would be the first thing he'd do back on the ship.

"Some day." She whispered into his ear. Sora's smile was huge.

Over on Kairi's other side, Riku rolled his eyes.

Then Rafiki came back, holding Kovu by the scruff of his neck. The unexpected appearance of Scar's heir caused a bit of a stir. The lionesses all looked suspiciously at him and Rafiki as they passed by them.

But the mandrill ignored the looks, and carried him up to the overlook part of the rock. Simba walked forward to meet them. He looked curiously at Kovu, with his eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Rafiki? What's going on here, exactly?" He asked, as the others gathered around him.

The old mandrill chuckled. "This, Sire, is the new member of our pride."

"I left the Outlanders." Kovu explained, looking extremely nervous. His voice shook so much that he had a hard time getting the words out. "Scar. He's back, somehow. He's going to attack."

"Scar?" Simba had a mixed look of confusion and anger on his face. "How?"

"Ohhh..." Bariss said. "It must be Xarcs... right."

"So he's got a Nobody now?" Sora asked. He looked at Donald and Goofy. "He just won't stay down, will he?"

"Villains are stubborn like that." Riku said. "They're always finding some way to come back. I mean, Xehanort came back like, what? Three times?"

"Good point."

"He's brought Heartless with him." Kovu continued. "A lot of them."

"Our specialty." Axel said.

"And so you just decided to leave?" Timon looked up at Kovu, with his eyes narrow. "Yeah right! Is anyone actually buying this guy!?"

"Timon..." Nehrut said.

"I mean does he actually think-"

"Timon."

"That we are stupid enough-"

"Timon."

"To believe that he just decided to-"

Rafiki finally hit the meerkat on the top of the head with his staff. He chuckled, as Timon rubbed the top of his head. "Listen to what the telepath says, Timon."

"He's telling the truth."

"Oh..." He looked at Kovu, embarrassed. "Sorry about that kid, welcome aboard!"

"Can you please put me down, now?" Kovu muttered. Rafiki complied, dropping the cub on his backside directly in front of Simba. The lion monarch looked down at the cub for a few moments, thinking hard. Then, he looked at Nehrut.

"You're sure he isn't lying?"

And then, the mandrill hit him in the head. "Simba! This cub was chased by Heartless!"

"Neglected to mention that." Simba looked at Kovu again. Still, it took him a moment to reply. "Alright. You can stay here with us. But don't cause any trouble or I'll have to change my mind."

Kovu smiled gratefully, and bowed to Simba, practically shaking with relief. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Now." Simba said, putting a paw on Kovu's shoulder, and steering him into the inner cavern of Pride Rock, the rest of the group followed after them. "Tell us what 'Xarcs' is up to."

A few hours later, the sky had darkened, and the full, silver moon, accompanied with thousands of stars, were the only light for miles.

Simba and Nala lay on a slightly elevated rock in the center of the cavern. The other lionesses were sleeping soundly around them, and the off-worlders were scattered around them as well. Kiara was on the far side of the cavern, and Kovu wasn't far from her side. Nehrut had entered into a Corporis Quiesco meditation near the entrance to the cavern.

His mind scanned everything within miles. And now that he was actively looking for it, he felt the mind of Xarcs.

The Nobody was several miles away, surrounded by his minions. His mind was cold, and calculating like all Nobodies, but with echoes of malice from his former life. He felt his lionesses and hyenas prowling around in his vicinity. The blowhard was probably entertaining them with stories of his 'magnificent return to life' or some such.

He felt Zira, a raging thunderstorm of hatred and betrayal. Her anger at Simba, Sora, and now Kovu was as black as the night. It wouldn't surprise him if she soon became a Heartless and Nobody herself.

But for now, he turned his attention away from the enemy to the other occupants of the room. He focused first on Bariss. Her dreams were peaceful, unlike the last time he had scanned her dreams. And he was glad for this, she deserved a good night's sleep, among many other things.

He peeked quickly into her dreams, and was surprised to see Bariss and himself standing together (both of them were human, of course). He didn't know the place exactly but there sure was a whole lot of snow. And finally, he realized that it was Christmas Town, in the same general area where they had...

His eyes mentally widened when he saw the dream version of himself wrap his arms around dream Bariss's waist. He looked at her for a second, before lowering his face to hers. He watched, and their faces were exactly one centimeter apart when suddenly he mentally heard a loud roar.

He was sucked out of Bariss's dream as if from a vacuum. Silently cursing whoever it was that was having the nightmare, he was pushed into a different dream.

It was a deep gorge, with nearly vertical cliff walls. Simba knew this place better than he cared to admit. Far below him were several thousand wild stampeding wildabeests. They were jet black, and had glowing red eyes almost like that of a Heartless. The whole gorge was bathed in an eerie red light.

It was as hellish a scene as Simba had ever known. And he looked down on it from the side of one of the cliffs. The horror of it all was only enhanced by what he saw next.

Kiara, his only child, was hanging for her life on the side of the cliff, her claws lodged into the rock face.

"Dad!" She cried, tears leaking from her eyes. "Dad! Help me!"

"Kiara!" He shouted back, in terror. He stretched out his paw as far as he could over the edge for her to grab.

That was when he heard horribly familiar laughter coming from behind him, and slightly higher. He looked back for a moment, and wished he hadn't. Standing on a rock higher up, was Scar. He was enveloped in shadow, but his silhouette was easily recognizable against the blood red moon behind him.

His uncle began to walk toward him, still laughing wildly.

Simba's eyes widened in a mixture of fear and surprise. "No!" He turned his attention fully back to his daughter, and began to climb down. "Kiara! Hold on!"

Kiara stretched out her paw, trying desperately to reach her fathers, lest she fall into the gorge into the stampede. Just like the grandfather she never knew.

Their paws were just close enough for their claws to scratch against each other. "Just a little farther!"

"Got you!"

Simba suddenly felt a searing pain over his paw that was holding the side of the rock. He looked back briefly to see Scar, his claws imbedded in the top of Simba's paw. He smiled toothily, and his eyes looked to be glowing. "Trust me..."

"Dad!" Kiara began to slide down the rock face, her claws not strong enough to support her any longer. She went down a full ten feet, before she finally lost her grip on the side and fell all the way down, and disappeared into the wildabeest stampede.

"NO!" He felt his heart break in two. Snarling, he turned around to look at the murderer, who was now laughing like mad. "Scar!"

But Scar was slowly changing before his eyes, still cackling. He was becoming larger, more muscular, his teeth were larger, and they were yellow. The whites of his eyes were turning orange. His paw now totally obscured Simba's.

Xarcs lowered his head, and looked Simba directly in the face. He smiled, displaying all of his sharp, yellow teeth. And then he spoke, in a low voice, "Long live the king."

He tossed Simba from the edge, tumbling into the gorge. (1)

"Simba wake up!"

Nehrut was now sitting right in front of Simba, shouting into his dreaming mind. Almost immediately after he did this, the King's head bolted up. He was breathing heavily, and still had a far-off look in his eyes.

"If you don't mind me saying, Simba, that was one of the worst nightmares I've ever seen." He said sympathetically. "And I've seen really horrible nightmares, trust me."

Like that one Riku had where Maleficent was doing the tango with Jafar.

"Thanks for waking me up, then." He said. He rubbed the bridge of his nose in a surprisingly human gesture. "This doesn't bode well."

"Don't read too much into it, Simba." Nehrut said. "You'd be surprised at just how few dreams are actually prophetic. What you saw was the manifestation of your worst fears. You're a father who's concerned for the safety of his daughter, and you're a king who's concerned for his kingdom. And you saw it in that environment because you still remember what happened to Mufasa."

Simba blinked. "Have you ever considered being a psychologist?"

"I've been asked that question so many times that; Yes. Yes I have." He shrugged. "But I can't help you get rid of the fear, Simba. I can only help you accept it."

"That sounds alright from where I'm standing. Thanks."

From a little farther away, Goofy peaked out of one eye. Anyone who knew him would have been surprised to see a tear there.

He understood exactly what Simba was going through.

He knew all too well what it was like to be a concerned father.(2)

Miles away, in the Outlands, Xarcs smiled wickedly.

"The seeds of fear have been sown." He said to himself, laughing low in his throat.

He stretched out, scratching his claws across the rock in front of him. He seemed almost to enjoy making that loud, obnoxious, ear-grating noise. Zira approached him, wondering why he seemed unnaturally happy.

Xarcs caught on to her stray thought, and explained it without any prompting. He got to his feet and began to walk around the area. "My relation to my dear, dear nephew bore unexpected fruit, my dear. His fear and doubt will be his undoing come tomorrow."

He leapt easily to the top of the rock, which now bore his claw marks, and looked out in the direction of the Pride Lands.

"Tomorrow, we reclaim the throne."

Zira joined him on the rock, and looked out across the desert with him. She was clearly still seething with her son Kovu's betrayal.

"He should have continued the throne." She growled.

"Calm down, my dear." Xarcs said. "Kovu is unimportant now. And even on the off-chance that he made it back to Simba and the others, he will be of no use to them, and he'll suffer their fate."

"Yes..." She agreed.

"In the meantime, make sure that the hyenas and the lionesses understand what needs to be done. We wouldn't want any mistakes now, would we?"

"At once." She bowed to him, and leapt off the rock. She passed Shanzi, Banzai, and Ed on her way to the major termite mound from before. She paid the hyenas no mind as she passed them.

The three walked up to Xarcs's rock and stopped behind it. The Nobody's back was to them.

"Yo, Sca-" Shenzi caught herself. "I mean Xarcs. Can we just do this already, we're getting really bored over here waiting like this."

Xarcs cast a brief glance backwards in their direction. He then turned back to gaze out across the parched landscape, his lips curved once more into a smile. "Very well. You know your task."

The three flunkies cheered in excitement, until they heard a threatening growl. They froze in place and looked back up at the lion Nobody. He still wasn't looking at them.

"But remember..." He warned, slipping off the rock to its other side. "If you fail me again, the consequences will be quite unpleasant."

The next thing they heard was a loud roar, and the rock was blown to pieces as if hit by a wrecking ball. The hyenas were showered with its debris, and whimpered as the rock fragments struck them.

Xarcs stood on the other end of the destroyed rock, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Now go!"

Not wanting another demonstration of what would happen if they screwed up, the three hyenas bolted from the area toward the Pride Lands, their goal the only thing in mind.

Et viola! I really like how the next chapter came out, so hopefully, it'll be worth the wait.

1) The original version of this scene in Lion King 1 gave me nightmares. A wonderfully chilling scene, and Scar's line just made it perfect.

2) I think you know what I mean by that…

Please review!