Chapter 122: Forgiveness

The news surrounded the Pride Lands….Kovu had betrayed them.

While Nala and Kiara looked after the unconscious Simba with the other lionesses, Ventus and Kairi kept an eye out for Sora, just in case the rumour of Kovu betraying them was wrong. Brian was on the communicator with Riku, with two party members missing, they needed to find a pin point to search for Sora and Hikari. "Any sign?" Brian asked, anxious to find his friends.

"Nothing." Riku sighed. "I've heard nothing from them. There's nothing in the Pride Lands and the Outlands just destroys the signal. I can't even tell if Snake is out there or not." From the tone of his voice, it sounded like Riku was starting to worry. "Maybe I should come down."

"Stay up there, Riku." Brian told him. "If either Kairi or Ventus goes missing next then you'll be our only keybearer left."

"You still shouldn't be going in the Outlands on your own." Riku told him sternly.

"I'm not going alone." Brian told him. "Kairi's coming with me."

"Briannnn." Riku groaned. "Just give up."

"This has nothing to do with hooking up with her." Brian made clear, hearing a huff on the other line before continuing. "Since Kairi can't get infected, she can go into the Outlands just as long as an infected person, as long as she has the badge. Besides, she's determined to find Sora."

"What about Ventus?" He asked, the sounds of yells could be heard from the communicator, the sounds of Steve playing up to Donald and Goofy. Riku could only sigh at the mayhem on the gummi. "What's he doing?"

"He's sticking around the Pride Lands in case Sora or Hikari make an appearance." Brian said.

Riku only huffed. "You and Kairi on your own? You better not be planning something." He spoke with annoyance.

"Will you stop being suspicious with me for five seconds and listen?" Brian only growled into the communicator, trying not to panic the lionesses around him as he talked.

Kairi looked out in the distance; a worried expression was across her face. She couldn't help but worry about her friends. "Guys…" She spoke. "Be safe." She could only sigh as she looked back. Ventus was still focused on seeing any signs of Hikari and Sora while Simba was being to wake, Nala and Kiara asking about the attack. She could see that Brian was still reporting to Riku, though it looks like the lion cub had fallen into another agreement with her friend again. Sometimes, she did wonder what Brian says to Riku when it's just them two, knowing that Brian would freely talk to Riku about his reports but changes the subject when either she or Sora asks about them.

"Sora…" Kairi sighed in despair. She should have gone with him but he had Simba with him, who is there to say that she would be just as lost as Sora is now if she had followed after him.

Ventus looked around before looking back at Kairi, seeing that she was looking at her paws in sorrow. "Don't worry." Ventus comforted her. "We'll find them."

"Yeah…" Kairi seemed out of it, driven in her own thoughts.

Ventus could only sigh; he wasn't sure what other way he could help out. He really wished he could go out to the Outlands as well to help search for Sora and Hikari. He looked up again, only to catch the sight of brown fur in the distance, approaching Pride Rock. He blinked in confusion as he said out loud, "Kovu?"

Simba only roared in anger as he stood up, watching Kovu come towards Pride Rock nervously. "So he returns..." Simba growled.

"Kovu!" Kiara went to dash towards Kovu, only for Simba to roar again, cutting his daughter off from reaching the Outlander.

The roar had caught Brian's attention, hanging up on Riku for the time being to see what was going on. As he joined the others, he noticed that as Kovu got closer, he seemed to have suffered a clash to his left eye, leaving a flesh scar. Surely if he had ambushed them, Kovu wouldn't have been given any injuries.

Kovu came to a halt, looking up at Simba. He had a feeling that he would have a sore greeting. "Simba-" He began to speak.

"Why have you come back?" Simba demanded.

"Simba…I had nothing to do with the-" Kovu tried to explain.

"You don't belong here!" The King cut him off.

"Simba! Please! I beg for your forgiveness. I wouldn't have been able to escape those things if it wasn't for—"

"Enough of your excuses!" Simba roared.

"Wait!" Ventus jumped in, only to receive a glare from Simba. The keybearer simply annoyed it. "Who helped you?" Ventus asked the scarred lion.

"Hikari." Kovu answered. "She helped me up."

"Hikari?" Kairi, Brian and Ventus jumped to the name, she must have been nearby when the ambush happened.

"So Hikari was part of your ambush as well?" Simba didn't seem pleased, turning his attention towards Ventus, Kairi and Brian.

"What? No!" Brian defended. "We had nothing to do with this!"

"Daddy, please….listen to him!" Kiara begged. "He might know where Sora is-"

"Silence!" Simba shouted back at Kiara before looking back at Kovu. "When you first came here, you asked for judgement and I pass it now." The lionesses began to growl viciously as they began to move in on Kovu. "Exile!"

"No!" Kiara shook her head in disbelief.

Within seconds, the lionesses began to drive out Kovu. Kairi shook her head at this, despite the fact that he might be responsible for Sora's disappearance; he didn't even get to defend himself. "Simba! Stop this! You didn't even give him a chance."

"Father! Please…" Kiara stepped next to Kairi. "Reconsider."

Simba ignored Kairi's words as he spoke. "You will not go anywhere without an escort for now on."

Kiara shook her head. "What? No-"

Simba sharply turned around. "He used you to get to me."

"No!" Kiara denied. "He loves me…for me!"

"Because you are my daughter!" Simba raised his voice. "You will not leave Pride Rock. You will stay where I can keep an eye on you…away from him."

"You don't know him." Kiara argued.

"I know that he's following in Scar's paw prints!" Simba turned away from his daughter, watching Kovu leave the Pride Lands. "And I must follow my father's."

"You will never be Mufasa!" Kiara shouted at him before treating into the cavern, leaving Simba speechless.

Kairi frowned sadly at the scene. Not only was she upset about the situation and worried about Simba's relationship with his daughter from his choice, the whole scenario reminded her of her foster father when she had returned to the Islands with Sora and Riku. She remembered how her father had banned her from hanging around with Sora or Riku, thinking that they were the main reason she had been in danger in the first place. The Princess of Heart stepped forward, seeing Simba watch the scenery sternly. "Simba, you can change this." She said.

"Kovu is the enemy, Kairi!" Simba sharply turned to her, glaring at her. "He's the main reason that Sora is missing in the first place or did you forget that part?" He reminder her.

"Simba, you don't know that—" Kairi tried to interjected.

"One more word and you will be exiled as well!" Simba growled at the princess, teeth snaring at her.

Simba's intimidating behaviour may have frightened her slightly but they needed to find Sora and Hikari and get the item. With that in thought, the pinkish lioness cub spoke, "You focus on the light in your world but light is only half of what a world is, being afraid of the dark will only make you fall quicker."

"Are you saying I'll become a Heartless for protecting my family? My kingdom?" Simba raged.

"I'm saying that though Kovu was brought up within the dark, his heart is light. I know that he's innocent." Kairi stepped forward. "You're too caught up with your fear of Scar to realise that!"

"Get out!" Simba roared. The Lion King had enough; the lionesses were ready to comply if she didn't move. He watched as he saw the cub look at him in disappointment, he only returned the expression. "What would Sora say?" He said. "You're siding with the one that had gotten him lost in the first place." He snared.

"He would say the same things that I've said." With those words, Kairi made her way, limping her way out of the Pride Lands after Kovu's trail.

"Kairi! Wait!" Brian quickly halted her. He looked back at Ventus, seeing that the blonde cub was going to stay behind, before running to her side. "Exiled or not. You're still not going to the Outlands on your own." Brian told her. He was gladded to see Kairi's smile at the gesture.

"If you leave, you will be exiled too." Simba told him.

Brian only huffed at the Lion King. "Your giant rock gave me nightmares anyway." He simply said before the two cubs headed towards the Outlands. In personal thought, he couldn't be more than glad to be away from the place.

BOWBOWBOW

Screeches of the death flew above in the setting sky, their calls for hunger echoing down into the darken gorge. There was no sign of life or light within the gorge, not since the known stampede that had killed Simba's father. Signs of the Unbirth was shown everywhere as their dark blue shadows just made the gorge even darker, it was near impossible to see with the little light there was, the minute night appeared, anyone down there would be left in the dark.

Hikari groaned loudly, rubbing the crown of her head she slowly came back to consciousness, only to see the dark shadows around her. "Where am I?" She muttered, close to not making sense at all. From what she remembered, she was close to a trail on her brother in the Outlands when she heard some battling going on, when she had reached the scene, she had found Kovu knocked out. As soon as she had helped Kovu up and asked what was going on, she quickly went to Sora's aid. And now she was at the bottom of a gorge with a pulsing headache with night about to fall. "Sora? Sora!" She weakly called out, attempting to stand up, only to find that the Keyblade Master was unconscious on top of her. She used what strength she had to get the infected keybearer off of her before turning to check on him.

Sora may have been unconscious by his fur and his infected area only flashed rapidly, his face written in pain. "His virus..." She muttered as she checked the balance badge hidden under his fur. She could only curse when she found that the balance badge was broken. Sora was vulnerable here and if she doesn't get him any medical attention, she will be too. But first, she needed help. "The communicator!" She thought as she turned her device back on, having turned it off before so that the others wouldn't stop her from her search. "Communication Open. This is Hikari! Can anyone here me?" She spoke as he tried to turn the device on.

She only heard the sound of silent.

"Come on... Can anyone hear-" She tried to mess with the ear device, only to watch it fall out of her ear, breaking on impact to the ground. She gritted her teeth from frustration. "That only made things better." Hikari spoke with sarcasm as she looked back at Sora. She walked over to the white lion cub and with her strength; she managed to get the unconscious Sora onto her back. She looked up; she could see that it was nearly pitch black. "How can I travel in the dark?" She said in disbelief. She was starting to wish that Riku would appear out of nowhere and save them, at least he can see in the dark.

"Hikari…"

"Huh?" The snow leopard looked around in the darkness. She could have sworn that she had heard something. She stepped toward, trying to keep Sora on top of her as she called out. "Help! Help!" She called out, her voice echoed in the darkness. Her sight had disappeared from her completely now, the darkness clouded her. "HHEEEEELLLLPPPP!" She yelled from the top of her lungs, only to hear her voice echo in the darkness once more. She stepped toward once more, carefully placing her paw on the ground to feel where she was. The echoed calls for help helped her guest where about the walls were, so she continued to call for help as she made her way with Sora. Hopefully, someone will find them.

BOWBOWBOW

The two red coloured cobs had managed to find the excused lion, asking him for his side of the story. After telling them the whole ordeal with Zira's plan to kill Simba by using Kiara to get in the Pride Lands and become the new King, Kovu explained that he couldn't go along with the plan because he had fallen for Kiara and had found out the truth about Scar. He explained that Zira had appeared with rock covered Endless Lion, belonging to a crocodile called Snake and ambushed them; he was quickly knocked out when Hikari had found him. It wasn't till they heard Sora's yells of pain did he saw Hikari disappear. Brian did question Kovu on one and two occasions but apart from that, the two could tell that the young lion was telling the truth, he had a change of heart and found his light in the dark.

As they began their search in the night, Kovu had explained that he had heard the yells coming from near the old gorge, knowing that Hikari had headed that direction. The two decided to look around the area before heading to the gorge, to make sure that they didn't miss Sora or Hikari by mistake. Kairi continued looking around for any sign of Sora or Hikari along with Kovu. She looked back to see that Brian was looking back at Pride Rock, his sight focused on it. "Brian..." She stepped forward. She remembered that Brian mentioned nightmares when leaving Pride Rock. She wanted to see what was wrong with him.

"Is that Kiara?" Brian narrowed his eyes, looking out in the distance.

"What?" Kovu didn't waste time to turn around to see what Brian was looking at. They both looked to see a sad looking lioness heading in the direction of the burnt ash lands, near where they were ambushed in the first place. "Kiara.." Kovu whispered, knowing it was her.

Brian only chuckled. "Go." He told him.

Kovu turned to him in disbelief. "What about Sora and Hikari?"

Kairi quickly stepped in, smiling as she said. "We'll follow behind. Go to her."

Kovu continued to look at the two in disbelief before smiling gratefully at them. "Thanks guys." He smiled as he quickly ran down the hill, heading into the ash lands.

Kairi and Brian watched Kovu run to find his lover with joy, happy to see that the two was together. The two soon followed as said into the ashy lands, seeing that the ground was covered in ash while the area was clear, the stars shone brightly above them. Kairi looked back at her friend next to her, watching the lion cub look down every now and again. "Brian, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Brian quickly answered.

The Princess of Heart wasn't convinced. "Come on, Brian. I know something is up."

"Really now?" Brian stretched out in a disbelieving tone. "What make you thinks that?"

"Because I'm your friend." Kairi told him, making the cub halt. "And we have been through so much to tell when something is on your mind." She approached the infected cub, walking to his side as she sat behind him, seeing his sad expression froze on his face. "You mentioned that the Pride Lands gave you nightmares. What did you mean?"

Brian looked back at Kairi, only to meet her concerned, worried look, making the teen sighed as he sat on the ashy ground. "Memories are painful." He said.

"What happened?" She asked him.

There was a moment of silent; the Aversion Endless looked up at the stars as he started to speak. "Before we left for this place, Nikolai had appeared. I found out that Aiddie was his sister and that he had intrusted me to take care of her…only to lose her in the darkness." He began explaining, setting his sight back to earth. "I also remembered something important about this world. This world isn't just any other world. This is the world that my father died at…at Pride Rock."

Kairi couldn't believe what she was hearing. Hearing so much hardship had been caused to him in only a few days. "Brian…"

"I guess…ever since coming to this world, I'm been feeling like a disappointment, especially when I couldn't stop Hikari and help find her with Sora." He didn't want to mention that it was her and Sora's closeness was the reason he couldn't stop Hikari in the first place, mainly because he was in the state of mind to blame himself. "There are so many people that I have let down. My father, Aiddie, Nikolai, my brothers, Angel, Hikari, Max, evens you guys…" Brian sighed as he looked to the ground, helpless. "If I knew who I saw, if I knew my destiny then I could help."

"Your destiny?" Kairi questioned.

Brian nodded. "There something I have to do to realise my abilities of the Keyblade. My father's keyblade. But I have no clue to what I have to do." He growled in frustration as he continued. "If my father didn't let the Colonel go then-he'd be here." He sighed sadly at the end of his comment, keeping his sight to the ground.

"Maybe he had a reason." Kairi pointed it out.

"Kairi, the Colonel was responsible for killing his friend. He spent all that time training for his revenge, only to let him go!" Brian explained, the conversation beginning to bug him.

"What I mean is, maybe your father realised at that point, that if his friend was alive, they wouldn't want them to fight for revenge. That if he did take out the Colonel that day, it wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't have brought his friend back." Kairi explained to him, placing the Endless in his thoughts. "Your father must have cared for his friend."

Brian nodded. "He did." He spoke.

"If I was fall, I would properly haunt Sora and Riku to make sure they don't do anything stupid." She chuckled slightly, the image of a cartoonish ghost popped into their head, brightening up the mood. "I worry about them two sometimes. Riku fell into the darkness trying to save me last time. With Sora's virus, I'm not sure what would happen to him. I have to protect him." She spoke with determination.

"Then I will protect you." Brian spoke, looking back at her. "To keep you safe, from harm and danger—"

"Wait Brian." She recognised Brian's expression; she knew she had to stop him. "Maybe I'm not your destiny." She told him.

"It would make sense though." Brian quickly replied. "A Princess of Heart. With Sora attacking you every now and again, it only makes since—"

"Destiny plays in funny ways, Brian." Kairi told him. "To discover such an oath will only be revealed to yourself, no aid of another. Your emotion to uncover it."

"Meaning that my fate doesn't involve you…" Brian sighed away, he had developed a small crush on Kairi, he admits that. It was still hard to hear the rejection from her. The very words hurt his heart to the core, yet he felt relieved at the same time.

"Brian. I'm sorry-" Kairi tried to apologise.

"It's okay, Kairi. I'm fine." He smiled before looking around. "I just want to know my part in this world."

"Guys!"

The two cubs look back up, watching Kiara and Kovu approach them with haste. "We're heading back!" Kiara told them.

"To Pride Rock?" Brian questioned before looking back at Kovu. "Don't you remember the exile? It happened only a few hours ago?"

"If we don't go back, Zira and Simba will battle to the death. We need to make them realise the truth." Kovu explained. "I can show you the gorge but after that, me and Kiara have to head back."

Brian nodded as he understood the situation, looking back at Kairi. "You ready?"

"Let's go." She said, ready for the struggle ahead.

A/N: Another chapter. My lessons have started again so I'm gonna try to get the Pride Lands finished before I am needed to focus on my coursework. Lucky, I have prevented to buy games so that I focus on the fanfic instead: D. Hope to update again soon.

Kingdommad