The Lion King: Legacies

Book III – Storm

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,

And God fulfils himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."

The Passing of Arthur

Alfred Tennyson

Chapter 1

The world was full of chaos. Within the pits at the bottom of the Outlands most Within the fighting pits of Mortread surveyed the remains of the arena with a contemptuous air of dissatisfaction. His fellow Shai'tan's tail swished in frustration of his own. There was blood in the air from the riot that had swept through his domain in the wake of the latest debacle. He was concealing his emotions more effectively than Rish'ut though. The older larger beast looked furious. His mood was black and his expression was dark and twisted. A pair of wilddogs practically flinched away at his presence.

"I suppose it could have been worse…" Mortread said at last. Rish'ut gave a bark of laughter. Even Mortread wasn't a gifted enough of a liar to make that sound believable.

"Is that supposed to console me?" He snarled. "It could have been worse, yes, but it could have been far better! For instance, one of those brats could have killed the other and ridded me of their interference. Instead, we have this." He said. Mortread's gaze narrowed.

"I don't know what you expected to happen. You took a child and ordered him to kill another cub. One he had formed an attachment to. Sentimentality is what drives the lesser animals. What was the intended outcome?" He said.

"Not this. I expected his misery, not his defiance. I had his sister. He should have killed him. He should have showed those imbeciles in the caves below that there can be no quarter, no appeasement and certainly nothing so sentimental as emotional attachments in my pits." He seethed. The pits had been engineered to put of fear of the Dark One into the hearts of his slaves and minions both. Designed to stamp out the very defiance that the two cubs had just displayed to prominently to his entire assembled forces. It should not have been possible for it to have triggered such defiance. Not in a mere child.

"The Emperor will have to be told."

"Is that a threat, Mortread?" Rish'ut asked him, snarling.

"It's an observation of the inevitable. Neither of us are going to come out of this looking good, you realise." He said. "Do you know where the Emperor is at the moment?" Mortread asked him. Rish'ut shook himself. No. As a matter of fact he did not. A fact that always made him ever so slightly nervous. Not as nervous as it ought to make the Imperium's enemies, but nervous all the same.

"I don't make it my business to pry into our master's affairs." He said, instead. "You shouldn't either. Curiosity is an unhealthy habit. It can get you killed."

"Not as often as being blind."

"Then I suspect you know far more about his… activities then I do." Rish'ut said. "That meddling Orangutan, Marsade, left us with more than enough Gateways opened around the Imperium. There are few of them, but there are enough. The Emperor comes and goes as he pleases, and we are fortunate that he chose to spend this day at the heart of the Imperium… I gather there has been… a disturbance there." He admitted. Mortread blinked at that, Rish'ut took the moment to enjoy knowing something that his fellow Shai'tan didn't.

"A disturbance? Elaborate." He said, quickly.

"I will when I know more. Reports are confused… But there has been some devastation. Asamode's enclave has been destroyed. And the apostate Shaman has gone missing."

"Missing?"

"We don't know anything for certain. His enclave was destroyed. It doesn't look like there were any survivors." He admitted.

"He's a Shaman! What could have…" He paused. "The other Shaman. What was his name? Rafiki?"

"I don't know. I don't particularly want to." Rish'ut said. He sniffed the air. "We have enough problems here. I want these wilddogs back and organised before dusk." He ordered.

"Let me out!" Sara's voice rang out in the darkness. She kept crying out in pain but didn't relent, and didn't stop as continued to throw herself against her imprisonment in frantic panic. She had to get to Inti. Had to get to her brother. She had seen him wounded, back in the fighting pits. He had defied the Shai'tan, there was no telling what they would do to him. She banged upon the stone walls of her prison, trying to shift the boulder that sealed her in, without the faintest notion of what she would do if she succeeded. The knuckles of her paws were bruised and bleeding, her claws roughened by the constant grating. It was even broken at the tip in one place. A small trickle of blood leaked down her side where Rish'ut has stabbed her earlier, but she scarcely noticed the lancing pain it caused. Her thoughts were consumed with one thought and one thought only. Her brother. To her surprise, the side of the cell was ripped open and a wilddog stuck his head in. Sara gasped in surprise and fell back as the wilddog grinned, showing its usual array of pointy teeth.

"Shut your racket! There's been enough excitement for one day – your blasted brother nearly caused a riot!" The wilddog spat, and she recoiled in fear, anticipating a blow or scratch. But instead, the wilddog simply spat in disgust and withdrew. Sara felt her previous vigour leave her. She didn't dare continue to claw at the stone. Instead, she simply curled into a heap and began sobbing. She hadn't cried like that before. Her brother had always been there. Now she felt completely alone.

She didn't know how long she stayed there like that in that state, but she was jarred from her misery and grief by the sounds of the boulder of her cell door being dragged aside once more. It was the wilddog guard, returned again, carrying with it a familiar bundle of fur and flesh. With a shove, Koron stumbled into the cavern and slid to the ground with a grunt. The lion cub was conscious but it was clear that the wilddogs had taken their time dragging him back to his gaol, and his body was covered by an assortment of bruises and cuts on his body that had been absent even after his fight with Inti.

"Koron!" She gasped, and rushed to his side as the door was sealed shut again. Koron groaned.

"Ugh… My head…" He moaned. His vision was blurry and he shook his head to no avail to clear it.

"What happened? Where is Inti?" Sara gasped, almost grabbing at him.

"I think he's alive for now." Koron managed to say as he pulled himself to his feet and swayed slightly. "Are you alright? The Shai'tan had you, dangling over the pits." He asked her, sounding concerned. He had lost sight of her after the other animals had surged at their tormentors and everything had falling into chaos and confusion.

"Me? I am fine. Tell me what happened! What happened when I was dragged clear? Is Inti okay? What happened between you and my brother?" Sara demanded, through gritted teeth. Her anger was flaring up again within her. Though it rarely showed it she shared Inti's temper, and right now she was angry and frightened. Koron massaged a particularly deep laceration on his thigh. It wasn't his only injury.

"He beat me. The son of a wilddog actually beat me. But he couldn't finish it. He didn't have the guts, and he pulled away. The fool." he said, shaking his head. He couldn't understand it. Sara recoiled at his words and then surprised the both of them by slashing at his face in outrage. He shouted in pain as she slapped him, hard – claws extended and all, drawing blood. The scratches were light and didn't bleed let alone scar, but the pain was real and made Koron gasp in pain, clutching a paw to his cheek.

"What was that for?!" He grunted. Sara was seething with anger.

"How could you!" She didn't have the words. "You ungrateful piece of dung!" She almost roared at him. "He spared your life! He wouldn't kill you, even to save me! Doesn't that mean anything to you? Of course, it doesn't. That doesn't fit into your cynical world, does it? You are a selfish, narcissistic creature who only cares about his next meal! You needed your arm twisting to get you to even look at the animals you were preparing to fight! How can you be so ungrateful?" She hissed at him.

"Excuse me?" Koron's hackles were raised. "What's your problem?" Koron snapped, his own temper flaring. "I have been nothing but accommodating since you arrived!" He snapped.

"You've done nothing but insult us since we arrived! You shared the same living space as the two of for over a moon, fought the same battles, been through the same terrifying things! And just like that in an instant, you were willing to throw all that away and kill him on the word of one of those monsters!" She told him. Koron flinched and at least had the decency to look ashamed.

"Weren't you watching? I didn't have a choice! He was going to kill you!" He protested.

"Oh, so that was why you did it? To save me? You weren't slightly influenced by the fear that Inti might make the same choice? You were the one who attacked first and even then, when it came to it, he couldn't bring himself to kill you. But you! You'd have done it in heartbeat." Sara said. And now she was beginning to cry. Koron looked tormented. Even when injured, exhausted, starved, or frightened he had rarely seen the young lion cub so anguished. Inti had fought nearly twice as much as her – as had Koron, but never before had she vented such emotion at once. Cautiously he stretched out a paw, to her.

"Sara…" She flinched away from his touch as if it were poison.

"Don't come near me. I hate you." She hissed; her eyes filled with anger. For some reason, that hurt. The accusation sent anger, pain, loss, and shame through Koron's body. He physically recoiled. "You horrible cub. I want nothing to do with you." She told him, and Koron took a step back at the insult. Then he growled.

"No! You know what? No! You don't get to judge me! Not until you've been here as long as I have! You might have been snatched from your family, but I watched mine die in front me! I've spent Kings and Spirits know how many days and nights under a rock living like a blasted termite, being something the Shai'tan can use to flex their power to their lackey, and I did it alone!" He retorted. "Don't talk to me about being selfish! At least you have your brother!"

"I would be alone too if you had your way. Inti wouldn't do it, but you? But you took the coward's way out." Sara said. She was crying now, tears streaming down her face, illuminated by the dim light. Koron threw down his paws in frustration, and curled up on the ground.

"Do you think that I wanted to kill him? Do you think I enjoyed it? I hated every minute of it, I hate being made to hurt other people." He spat. "But I had to because if I didn't you, or I, would have been killed on the spot! Don't lecture me on betrayal and cowardice! Not when you'd have done the same! Maybe Inti had the strength to do what I couldn't, but you look me in the eye now, and tell me that if Rish'ut offered to spare Inti's life you wouldn't do the same for him. The Shai'tan will make monsters of us all before the end. It's the only life we have left, but I will damned before I let the Shai'tan take it from me!" Koron snapped. They glared at each other in silence for a while, both Koron and Sara panting as they did so. Anger had strained their words, but now they were exhausted. As her fury cooled Sara began to feel light headed. She sank to the ground. She felt her throat seize and for a moment she felt her sobs from earlier rise in her and threaten to overwhelm her. She turned away.

"Sorry. I am sorry." She eventually said.

"What for?" Koron asked after a moment.

"I shouldn't have said that. You're not a coward. Or any of those other things. I didn't mean them." She said. Koron remained silent.

"I know. It's okay. And I'm sorry about Inti. I hope he's okay." He told her. This time she didn't pull away from his touch. She just started to cry.

"What will they do with him?" She asked him, quietly.

"I don't know." They stewed in silence for a little while. "But I heard Rish'ut order him be thrown into the cell of the Oracle." Koron said at last. "He is going to want to make Inti pay for what happened today." He said. Fairly or not, somebody was going to get the blame.

"The Oracle? Aren't they…"

"The screams we sometimes here? Yeah." He said, softly. They had heard of the oracle. Some creature or beast the Shai'tan would torture when things were going poorly for the Imperium that had invaded the Pridelands. Sara was quiet for a moment. Then she stood up and made her way to the edge of cell.

"Please. Kings above…" She whispered. "Judai… Mohatu… Ahadi… Mufasa… Simba… Kovu." She muttered. "Judai… Mohatu… Ahadi… Mufasa… Simba… Kovu." She said again. Koron closed his eyes. He presumed they were the names of the Pridelands Kings, but he didn't believe they were listening. If they were, he scarce could believe they would be where they were in the first place. He had decided a long time ago that if spirits or gods or celestial rulers did exist in the heavens, then they had a personal grudge against him for some reason. Why waste their breath? But, as he heard Sara repeating the names again behind him, he knew why. It was the only thing left she could do. It was something that the Shai'tan couldn't steal or destroy and for that he was thankful. Her hope. And of course, in truly typical fashion, it was another thing he didn't have.

In the lower levels, Inti flinched away from the unknown voice that had called out to him. He didn't know what to expect. It moved in the dark, but his eyes hadn't adjusted yet. He felt exposed and vulnerable.

"Who is there?" He asked, sounding more fearful than he had wanted to.

"Hmm. Well? Don't be shy. Why don't you tell me your name?" She asked. It was a lioness. An adult lioness. And a rather old one at that. Inti shuddered as she gave a grin that was decidedly more reptilian than feline. He massaged his head carefully. He was covered in bruises and cuts. Some of them were from Koron, from the fighting pits. Others had been a later addition. He winced in pain and tried not to move too quickly. There was little he could do against a fully grown lioness anyway. He supposed he ought to have been relieved to see another of his kind, but something about her temperament brought him little comfort.

"Inti. My name is Inti." He said after a moment. He tried to blink away the tears that had formed, half from the despair and half from the pain. He didn't know what he'd been thinking up there. But he had no doubt that the Shai'tan were going to make him pay for them. The oracle's smile vanished.

"Are you hurt?" The Oracle asked, in a voice that was a strange mix of concern and curiosity. Her words were kind, but there was an edge to them. Almost as if they were out of practice when it came offering words of comfort or putting a cub to ease. Inti shut his eyes, blinking away the pain.

"Yes." he said honestly. "I'm hurt. I am beaten, bruised, and broken in a dozen different places, and I don't know how long I have until the Shai'tan decide to kill me." Inti admitted, almost surprising himself without how candidly he said it. Though to say he didn't sound scared would be untrue. There was a crack in his voice that betrayed his fear and his pain. But more than anything, he was exhausted. He wanted to sleep, and for some reason, this strange lioness kept talking to him. The Oracle winced as she noticed his injuries for the first time.

"Don't ignore the pain." She suggested. "Let yourself feel it. It hurts now, but later you will be able to endure more later if you know that you can survive this. It hurts, but it makes you stronger." She told him. Inti looked up at her.

"You have an awful bedside manner; do you know that? Feel it? I feel as though my bones are on fire!" He protested. The Oracle nodded in agreement.

"Yes. Trust me. Pain is an unpleasant, but efficient teacher. You're tensing to try to hide from it. Just breath. In and out." She told him. Inti screwed his eyes shut as the pain washed over him, and gradually, he brought his breathing under control. He sighed.

"How did you know that would work?" he asked her, to which she only smiled.

"I taught me cubs it. A long time ago. It made them powerful." She said fondly. Then she paused.

"That doesn't answer why are you here? What on earth could you have done that Rish'ut would condemn you for? You're one of Rish'ut's fighters, aren't you?" She asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Inti shrugged.

"I did nearly cause a riot…" He said. The Oracle raised an eyebrow, but he was quite serious.

"Excuse me? You did what?" She asked.

"The Shai'tan made me fight a death match. They told me to choose between killing a friend and watching my sister die. I fought the fight, but refused to go through with it. It gave a few of the other prisoners the courage to strike out against the Shai'tan." Inti explained. The Oracle snorted. She seemed genuinely amused to picture it. They didn't often fight to the death but when they did it would have been quite a spectacle.

"Ah. You were inspiring rebellion. He's losing his touch. Time was he held two dozen creatures captive just at the flame of his eyes. If he now resorts to torturing a cub to maintain order in his little dominion then he really is slipping. I daresay his master will not be best pleased at all. Of course, he's likely to take hat out on you." She said. Inti looked confused.

"His master?" He asked.

"The Emperor." She hissed, and again, a fire returned to her eyes, one that made Inti step away cautiously. There was hatred here, in this lioness's eye. Hatred and pain. The Oracle looked away.

"The Emperor decreed that I be allowed contact with no one. I haven't spoken to a civilized soul in almost two years…" She said, her voice sounding hallow.

"Two years!" He gasped. "That awful!" At least he had Sara and Koron for company. Even if Koron had just tried to kill him. The lioness shrugged, and stepped forward. By the tiny light they had, Inti could see over a hundred lines dotted her form. They were thick. Jagged, where skin and muscle had been torn. Bone and ligament. Each limb seemed set at a slightly awkward position, as if the bone had broken and been reset, but just slightly out of place. The same was true with the tips of her paws, and a huge great line was sliced across her left eye, from her brow to her jaw. Inti looked on with a mixture of horror, shock, pity and disgust.

"Do I frighten you, cub?" She asked. And now Inti could see her he was repulsed. She was hideous. The disfigurement was horrifying to behold.

"How…" He began to ask…

"How did I survive these attacks? That's a good question…" She said.

"You look as though you should have died." Inti said, as he looked at them. The Oracle grinned.

"Several times… But I am very difficult to kill, and they honestly weren't trying. Unfortunately for me, their Shaman, Marsade is a very skilled healer. I thought Rafiki was a pain to deal with, but that infernal orangutan kept me alive even when what I suffered should have killed me. And even if I had died he would have just dragged me back. I've seen him do… things… that shouldn't be possible. But I'm not a walking corpse yet, despite all appearances to the contrary. I still have breath in my lungs…" The Oracle said. Inti looked her up and down, aghast, and tried not to betray his revulsion, the lioness saw his expression and gave a laugh. "I disgust you, don't I?" She asked him Inti was too ashamed to even deny it. He tried to protest but she waved it away without a second thought. "I don't blame you. I was never a beautiful lioness. Sarafina she was the beautiful one and Sarabi was pretty in her own way. If you like that sort of thing. But my lover never loved me for my looks though." She whispered. Inti stared at her.

"Who are you?" He asked her, cautiously. The Oracle grinned.

"I'll tell you if you can guess…" She said. Inti shook his head.

"I am not in the mood for games." He replied. "You're the one they call the Oracle, aren't you? You're supposed to know the future." He said. She began to chuckle. Oracle. Oracle indeed.

"That is a very cruel joke. I only ever foretold one particular future: I foresaw how the Shai'tan might destroy the Pridelands. The Pridelands were vulnerable you see. They'd only recently been reforged back together after the civil war. Between the Pridelanders and the Outsiders. That kind of distrust transcends generations. Despite what Simba and his get might have preached, that sort of bad blood doesn't fade away after a few warm words and nice speeches, and I knew it. And so did anyone with the faintest lick of sense. The Shai'tan though, they didn't know these lands. Didn't know its history. Didn't know its problems. Couldn't have. What did they know Ahadi? Of Scar? Or the Usurper?"

"You told them. About Scar, and the Outlanders. You must have been… You were a Pridelander." Inti realised, staring at her in shock. It made sense. The Shai'tan had come in night. Remained quiet and still. Attacked in secret until the Pridelands fractured under the weight of their own fear and paranoia, and butchered the survivors. The lioness stared at Inti, and nodded slowly, her eyes weren't gleaming anymore. They were dull and faded, and she looked away, as if unable to meet his eye. It would have been a strange sight, had anyone been there to see it. This ancient and scarred lioness, unable to look at a young cub.

"I was hurt. A long time ago. When they found me. Half drowned." She said after a while. "Their Shaman was able to heal me. I was half delirious and ranting and raving. I didn't know what I was saying at first, but they were happy to listen. Then they pushed for more. They asked me about the Pridelands. About my children. I demanded to be allowed to leave but by then I was already their prisoner. They nursed me to health only to break my legs and leave me in a pool of my own blood and muck for weeks or months. Just enough time to start to heal again. Then they did it all over again. Eventually I began to tell them things. Secrets. About the Pridelands." She said. Inti nodded.

"Sabini was thought the murders were the result of Outlanders. That's what they wanted us to think." He said. The Oracle laughed.

"The Great Kings do love their little ironies. I spent years of trying to destroy that unity, and then when it finally died, it brought with it the end of everything I held dear." She said. Inti looked up at her, wondering if she was sobbing. She wasn't. But her face was contorted with emotion. Twisted, like someone having tasted something sour. Grief. Guilt. Self-loathing and despair. But no tears.

Inti gasped. "It was all you!" He whispered. "You betrayed the Pridelands." he said. The Oracle roared.

"No! Yes… I didn't mean to! But I couldn't… I didn't… " She shook her head. "I would never have. But you have no idea. No idea what it was like. Two years of agony… How much could you have taken? Two years of agony without even the strength to take your own life!" She said, and now she was screaming in rage, and Inti felt scared, worried that now she would attack him. But she didn't. Instead, she clawed at the ground. "Yes. I betrayed them in the end… And the pain stopped. I was left to rot here. Back in the Outlands. Buried alive, like a termite."

"Vitani always said that it was uncanny how the Shai'tan knew exactly how to break the Pridelands. They hurt us before we even knew they were there. Inti muttered. The Oracles eyes widened – then narrowed to slits. Her clawed paw shot out and almost seized Inti by the throat, trapping him to the ground. Inti gasped in shocked, and tried to pull away, but she pulled her fist tight.

"What did you just say?!" She whispered.

"Let go of me!"

"Vitani?"

"She Kiava's aunt!"

"You know Vitani and Kovu's Son?" She growled at him. "How do you know them? Where the hell are you really from?" She shouted, her face pressed close to his, heedless of the discomfort and pain she was causing him via his injuries.

"Please! Put me down!" Inti gasped, and Zira's eyes widened, and dropped the cub. She retreated to the darkness of the cave as he wheezed for breath.

"You really are insane!" he asked.

"How do you know Vitani?" She asked. Inti's eyes narrowed.

"Why should I tell you a thing? You'll just snap again!" He asked.

"Please…Inti." She said again, now sounding vulnerable. "I apologise. Are you hurt?" She asked him. Inti shook his head. One minute, she was a broken, vulnerable, tortured, disfigured soul, the next she was a violent, unstable, sadistic wreck! It was maddening! But the pain in her voice made him relent.

"Kiava's my friend. We survived the burning of Pride Rock. My mother and I, my sister, our friends. And Vitani. And Vitani rescued Kiava, King Kovu's cub." Inti explained as best he could. The Oracle remained motionless.

"I was so sure they were lying. That it was just another twisted, cruel trick of theirs. You're telling me that some of you survived the fall of Pride Rock? How did you end up here? Is she still alive? Is Kovu?" She asked. Inti stared at her.

"Do you know Vitani somehow?" he asked. The Oracle hesitated.

"I knew her mother. A long time ago. But you say she survived? And Kovu's Son did as well?" She asked intently. Inti slowly nodded.

"Where are they now?" She asked. Inti thought, wondering if this was some trick of the Shai'tan to wring the knowledge from him.

"King Kovu died buying us time to escape. We made it out for a while. They must have found out that Kiava survived because they sent packs of wilddogs after us. That's how my sister and I ended up here. They had orders to hunt down cubs." Inti told her. The Oracle's face became unreadable. Then slowly she laughed. And laughed. And Laughed. Not a cruel, crazed laugh, but a genuine laugh of pleasure and joy.

"Ha! Emperor! You've failed! All your murders, all that death and it has bought you nothing!" She shouted in jubilation. It echoed around the caves, as she roared with laughter. Somehow it was more disturbing that her screaming. It made sense though. Why Rish'ut had wanted to know everything he could about Kovu's family. The family she had never met. But it was true. They were alive. Inti stared at her.

"Are you alright?" He asked her concerned. The oracle only grinned.

"The best I have been in two years. Now tell me more! Tell me everything about yourself, and how you came to be here. Since the Shai'tan have decided to put you in here with the monster below, we had best make good use of it. You mentioned a sister?" She said. Inti nodded, and told this Oracle everything he knew. Koron had shown little to no interest in their previous lives, but this new cell mate of his was attentive and curious. He told her everything. How the Pridelands had broken, how the Shai'tan had attacked them, how they had escaped across the great desert and been pursued. A strange look of confusion came over her when he told her how they had fled to the Night Pride, in the hopes of meeting up with King Kion, but she didn't interrupt. Eventually, he told her how he had been captured. What he had experienced. The fighting in the pits.

"You survived all of that?" She asked. Inti shrugged.

"I wasn't going to roll over and die." He told her. She laughed at that, nodding in approval.

"You'd have made a good Outsider." She said after a moment, and Inti didn't know what to think of that. Eventually, he sighed.

"What do you think will happen now?" He asked her. The Oracle watched him carefully. His pain was duller and now, but she had no time to sweeten their predicament.

"I imagine the Shai'tan will let you sweat a little in here first. then I expect Rish'ut, or possibly that other one, Mortread, will come down here to deal with us." She said after a while. Inti shuddered. He hated being reminded that this was such a temporary reprieve.

"What do you mean us?" He asked her. She shrugged.

"Rish'ut likes his mind games and if he's in the mood, then I imagine he will come at me first, in full view of you. To let you know of what is to come. Thank you for that." She said and Inti winced guiltily, but she rolled her eyes. "No. Don't let it distress you. He was itching to start again at some point anyway and unless Marsade is poking around here somewhere, he'll have to show considerably more restraint than he has before." She told him. The cave that she inhabited was solely for a purpose of torturing prisoners. Shai'tan were not going to let a little thing like youth stop them in their murderous rage. At least, Rish'ut wouldn't. Inti gulped.

"Oh. Okay." He said, trying to remain calm. But he was shaking. His mouth watered, as nausea coiled in his stomach. He tried not to look at the huge amount of scars and injuries that riddled the Oracle's form. Right down to the tear in her ear. "Umm. Alright. I don't think… umm… Okay." he said. He felt the panic rising in him again, and his thoughts were a jumbled mess. "I think… I think I would prefer to try and escape now, if it's all the same to you." he said, and made his way over to the entrance.

"Don't bother. Unless you have Marsade's staff, that entrance needs a pack of wilddogs or four fully grown lionesses to move. Trust me. You're not getting out of this one. And for what it's worth I am sorry." She said. Inti gazed at the entrance fearfully.

"Will they kill me?" He asked, sounding frightened now for the first time. The oracle sighed. She didn't answer him. That alone was an answer.

Zira knew that any decent lioness would have found some words of comfort for the quailing cub shove into her cell with her, but she was not a decent lioness. It was all she could manage to offer her belated words of apology. She didn't regret her words to him though, about enduring the pain. Finding the strength from it. She had said as much to Kovu many times, and with it Kovu had become a mighty and powerful Prince. And by all accounts a mighty and powerful King as well. It hadn't been enough. But he had been strong. She owed the young cub, Inti that much at least. She was beyond grateful for the words he had spoken and the news he had given her. Vitani. Kiava. They were alive. The last of her bloodline was alive. And somewhere in the Pridelands. She didn't know what to think of that. It elated her and terrified her in equal measure. It was a shame that young Inti was as unlikely to see them again as she was.

AN: [August 23]

Well everyone, here you go; the first Chapter of the Rewrite. The Entire Book is written, and will be updated a chapter every day or so. As always, this is the Remastered Version, to bring it inline with the Canon. Many Reviews remain for the previous version however, so be careful reading them as although the broad story is the same, not all events happen in the same order as v1.0, so exercise caution. If you want to help contribute to burying those reviews, please leave a new review, even if you've only just found it. I always love to hear what people think.

Also, thank you to whoever created the TV Tropes page, and thank you to everyone who has contributed to it!

As always, whoever you are out there, may you be happy, healthy and wise.