Chapter 10

Shenzi and Kiava returned to Skeleton Canyon and Zuri seemed extremely relieved at the sight of Kiava's safe return. She was looking at Shenzi with a rather suspicious glare but otherwise didn't say anything to the matriarch. Instead she had simply ran up close to Kiava, excited to tell him what she had been doing whilst he had been away with their newest ally. Whilst Kiava had been off doing goodness knows what Asante's mother she spent her time hunting in the wastes, without any backup but Buzz sitting atop her neck. Buzz had spent he ordeal whispering instructions and giving directions and it had taken some adjustment; she hadn't thought Buzz to be much of a hunter. But either because of him or in spite of him, she had nevertheless brought down a small ibex that had wandered into the Shadowlands and scalded itself on one of the many geysers that littered the shadowlands. The burn had caused the unfortunate creature to limp along, blind in pain, and it had been no match for her. When she had told Kiava this, she left out the fact that she had nearly been burnt herself more than once during the hunt. She had avoided it at the last moment by recalling the rhymes and rhythms that Banzai had (begrudgingly so) taught her and Kiava. That that little geographic feature was one that even pups learned to navigate and Zuri was a quick study.

"Kiava! Take a look at this!" She declared presented her kill to Kiava with enthusiasm. Kiava looked appropriately impressed.

"You hunted this by yourself?" He asked her.

"Nearly myself." She said, filling him in on the details. Kiava grinned. It had been a while since they had had proper meat and he started to salivate before he even took a bite. Zuri was back on her haunches, watching, just pleased to share with him.

"We should probably share this without new friends." Kiava said, nodding to some of the hyenas, but waiting for Zuri's permission before offering something that wasn't his. She rolled her eyes.

"I suppose so." She said with some reluctance. Kiava extended the offer to Asante and to Shenzi, who were equally ravenous. Zuri seemed content with that, for the time being. She wasn't sure she liked the idea of hunting for other hyenas she didn't even know, but the matriarch and her daughter, she would allow.

"Much obliged." Asante thanked her with a grin.

"What have you been doing?" Zuri asked him. Kiava didn't waste a moment. He filled her in on everything he had learned from the red Serpent, with a speed that made Shenzi frown.

"I thought I impressed on you the importance of keeping some things quite." Shenzi said, disapprovingly. Kiava glanced at her.

"I don't keep secrets from Zuri." He said flatly. And that was that. From a short distance away, Buzz watched the two lion cubs, as they talked together, animatedly. He recognised the behaviour: huntresses tended to let the King take the first bite. It was a way of showing respect, and the affection Zuri had for Kiava was plain to everyone see. More amusing was Asante's reaction to the revelation they had subsided on insects had been one of absolute horror, and it amused him that they had finally found an act of savagery so profound it needed the disused consciences of hyenas, stiff from lack of use. Subjecting cubs to a diet of insects seemed to be the worse moral outrage Asante could conceive of. The bond the two lion cubs shared was plain as day to just about anyone with eyes, even some of the hyenas couldn't help but see it. Not that the two lions had any idea of what it likely meant for the future. But he could see it and so could anyone with anything but air between their eyes.

Buzz moved away, trying to find a secluded spot to rest. The hyenas knew now that he wasn't a snack but that didn't mean he was overly keen on sleeping next to them. They were useful, but they still gave him the creeps and they utterly stank. This thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the matriarch, who seemed to have left the cubs together. He cursed. He thought she would remain with her daughter. She was joined by her mate too. He reached for one of his javelins, if only for the reassurance they provided, but he had left them behind. He licked his lips nervously.

"Can I help you or your mate, Shenzi?" he asked, cautiously. "I thought you were done sneaking off for secret meetings?" He said. Shenzi glared at him, looking annoyed. Banzai blinked, glanced at her mother.

"Secret meetings? You spoke with him? Today?" He asked, looking shocked. Shenzi glared at him, and shook her head for him to be quiet, but Buzz smirked; his suspicions confirmed.

"I'm sure if you weren't listening in just now you'd already know. You can tunnel around and see whatever you want and nobody's the wiser. Didn't Mufasa used to have an underground network of meerkats?" She asked him. She was glaring at him accusingly. He had anticipated something was going to happen sooner or later. He would have preferred it to be later. He didn't like his odds.

"It was gophers." Buzz said automatically, whilst looking around for a quick exit. Then he frowned. "Not that I'd known anything about that." He said.

"Well that's dung." Shenzi declared. "There is more to you than that. I know it. I can smell it. How'd a meerkat like you survive for so long?" She asked him, growling. Banzai growled.

"Shenzi promised not to hurt you, or any of Kiava's friends, but I don't always listen to her. I'm rebellious like that. It's one of my quirks." He said.

"You have a suspicious mind." Buzz told her, darkly.

"Yeah. That's why I'm the matriarch. Talk. I can always let Banzai pick his teeth with you and make a grovelling apology to the young King before you've passed his digestive track. Who are you? I want to know where you have been all of these months, since the Shai'tan killed everything in Pride Rock." She said, quietly. Buzz glared at the matriarch.

"What are you talking about?" He asked. Shenzi shrugged. "Don't play games with me, meerkat. I knew something about you seemed familiar. It wasn't something I ate like you tried to wish away. The speed at which you cottoned on to Kiava's plan, back when it came to crush Amun uncanny. And I know I've seen you before. It's been bothering me… You've used your digging skills against the Shai'tan's forces before and against hyenas, am I right? Not to mention that you immediately found your way through these tunnels, almost as if you have been here before. There is something familiar about you, and it's not the stench. You hide it under all those old wounds and scars, but after watching you fight alongside that Lion, you seemed right at home. And I can think of only one meerkat in the history of these lands who has ever fought alongside a King. Buzz isn't your real name, is it?" Shenzi said. Buzz looked away.

"Shenzi..." He said, but what he intended to say was unclear.

"Admit it. You're hiding something. I want to know why." She said. Buzz glared at her then sighed.

"I hate hyenas..." He muttered, in exasperation. Shenzi's eyes widened. The she laughed.

"I knew I recognised you!" She said. Banzai looked at her in surprise.

"You know him? A meerkat?!" He asked in surprise. "How do you know a meerkat?" Shenzi was only laughing.

"You don't recognise him? He proposed to me once! How ya doing Timon?" She asked him. The old Meerkat, with hundred scars and old wounds glared at her. Buzz sighed.

"Please, don't remind me." Timon said. The matriarch glared at him.

"Why did you change your name? That strikjes me as as suspicious thing to do, especially as you travel with him now." She said, eyes narrowing. He jerked her head, and another pair of hyenas moved towards him, threateningly.

"None of your business." He said. And as Shenzi stared at him. Scowling. Then growled and relented. With a jerk she called off her minions. He wasn't a threat to her, or to Kiava. That much was clear. He certainly wasn't going to spy for the Imperium any time soon.

"Fine. Keep your secrets from me. But at the very least, tell Him. Or-"

"Or what? Why does it matter to you?" Timon asked angrily. Shenzi growled.

"Simply put, Timon I don't trust anyone who hides their name and themselves from their own allies. It makes me think they have something to hide. That they saw or did something they would rather others didn't know, and that is seldom a good thing, is it? Tell him who you are, or I will. And then who will he trust?" And with that, She stalked away, and her daughter with her. Timon crawled to his feet, feeling shaken. He shook his head.

"I hate hyenas..." He muttered again

The meerkat that they can come to know as Buzz didn't take long to come to a decision on the matter. Shenzi wasn't one to make idle threats and Timon knew it. So eventually Kiava, Zuri, and the rest were gathered around one of the warmer spurts of hot steam in the den, and most of them were staring at Buzz in various states of surprise and shock. Only Asante didn't seem especially bothered. She'd been enjoying the afternoon with Zuri and Kiava before her mother had returned, unexpectedly. Shenzi was glaring at him with a triumphant expression, but precisely why she looked so cheerful was a mystery to Timon. Ookai and Bruce were there, and Ookai was experimenting with a fruit of some description impaled on a piece of ivory and was toasting the fruit over the boiling steam. Quite where he had found a fruit tree of all things was a mystery to him. In spite of his nonchalance, he wasn't looking at his prize. He was staring intently at Timon as he spoke, pausing only to read the expressions of the other lions and hyenas. Timon explained what Shenzi had discovered, and forced from him, and watched him with narrow eyes as Timon revealed his name to the group.

"I don't get it." Asante said as she swallowed a piece of meat. "You're not really Buzz, you're some guy called Timon? Why'd you call yourself Buzz then?" She asked, looking surprised. Timon glanced between Asante and her mother, and brooded for a moment before answering.

"When I first met Sarafina, I recognised her. Nala had introduced us, and she was one of the first to comprehend that Simba wasn't keeping Pumba and I around as a snack for later." He said lightly. Kiava blinked and decided he was probably joking. "When I met her again, I could tell she was hiding out there as much as I was, and I didn't want to make things difficult. I called myself as Buzz." He glared at Shenzi. "You could say he was one of our folk heroes. He was famed for surviving when he had no business doing it. For a little while." He said.

"Does Sarafina know!?" Kiava asked excitedly. "Who you really are?" Timon sighed.

"She figured it out a way back. We'd only met a few times before she disappeared without a trace. Nala was devastated when that happened, nobody ever saw her again. I certainly didn't expect to find her there. I didn't know her well at all." He said. Same as you and me." He said, nodding to Kiava, who reddened, looking embarrassed. He ought to have recognised his grandfather's old friend, even if he had changed so much since then he scarcely seemed to be the same person. "By then though, I'd gotten used to going by it. In a way I preferred it. Made it easier to pretend there had never been a meerkat called Timon." He said. "Cause being Timon… Kinda sucked." He said.

"Right. Sorry. Still confused." Asante said. "So, you changed your name. I get that. But what's with the big shock?" She asked, looking between the meerkat and the lion cubs.

"Because Timon is probably the most famous meerkat in the Pridelands. He and Pumba were the two who found the missing Prince Simba, and raised him in the jungles. Then when he returned to overthrow Scar, they came with him, and stayed at Simba's side throughout his life. None of what happened would have happened with him." Zuri said. Asante stared at him, looking sceptical.

"Seriously?" She asked. Shenzi groaned.

"Asante, believe me. I know how crazy it sounds, but it's true. In those final days when it was all falling apart under Scar, Simba really was aided by meerkats and warthogs and mandrils. It's well known that Simba had all sorts of friends among the other animals. That's probably where his Son, Kion, picked up the habit and created his menagerie of a Lion Guard." Shenzi muttered. Timon snorted at the notion that Kion needed any help in that regard.

"Wow." Ookai said, looking at Timon in surprise. "I had a good feeling about you, but I never would have suspected." He said. Kiava couldn't remember Ookai expressing a good feeling about Timon when they had met and Zuri had stumbled into one of his traps, but Timon seemed to appreciate the vote of confidence nevertheless.

"How'd did you escape?" Kiava asked. Timon exhaled so loudly he made Bruce jump, and he made a noise for the first time. He had remained silent so far.

"Sheer dumb luck, mostly. Not really anything I did. It's not a particularly heroic story. The Shai'tan murdered Simba, and then came for the rest of us." He told Shenzi. It was indeed a short story. "But I'm no threat to the Shai'tan; I can dig underground and I'm small." He said. "Pumba and I stayed behind to help cover your escape and the Shai'tan made quick work of Pumba. He was killed nearly instantly. I was thrown clear and by the time I regained consciousness Pride Rock was ashes. I thought everyone else was dead, didn't know if anyone had escaped, so I ran away. At first, I was going to try to get to the Night Pride to try and find someone, anyone who had made it. But it became pretty clear they were dead and gone too. So, I went back home. To the jungle paradise Pumba and Simba and I lived in. And found Sarafina living there." He said. "I made those traps for the Shai'tan, and had every intention of living out the rest of my life there with Saffy. Finding her there was a surprise. And a comfort. I told her what had happened to her children and grandchildren, and I wasn't the only one who wanted to fade away. There didn't seem much else to do, with Simba and Pumba and Bunga dead." He said, grimly. Zuri looked at him sadly, then at the hyena's visible confusion, explained.

"That's his Son. He was a honey badger. He used to be in Kion's Lion Guard." Zuri said. Asante nodded slowly as if any part of that made the faintest bit of sense.

"Why'd didn't you tell me who you were?" Kiava asked him, softly. "I thought that everyone was dead."

"I didn't see the point. You didn't recognise me." Timon retorted. "I can't have mattered that much to you." His expression softened. "But why should you have? You can't have met me more than a few times." He said after a moment. "I introduced myself as Buzz because that's who I'd started thinking of myself as, and I didn't especially want to go back to being Timon." He said. "Now you know. Call me Timon, or call me Buzz. I don't much care." He said, glaring at Shenzi. "I don't see why you have to pick at old wounds."

"I told you. I don't like secrets." Shenzi said, though she seemed satisfied by Timon's explanation. Kiava looked intensely troubled by Timon's words though, a mixture of guilt and discomfort.

"Well, I've never heard of you." Ookai said, clapping his hands. "So if you call yourself Buzz or Timon, I don't much care either. You've been a help so far, you're a friend of Kiava's family and you're a Pridelander. That's good enough for me. Sometimes the past deserves to stay there." He said, looking at Shenzi with disapproval. Kiava wanted to agree, but then the past has a disturbing habit of remerging after it had lingered for too long. For better or worse.

"Why'd you come along then?" Asante asked, looking between Shenzi and Timon. "With Kiava I mean. If you were hiding out with this Sarafina person?" Timon looked at Kiava before replying.

"Believe it or not, girl, I started to believe in miracles." He said. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to get something to eat." He got up and left. Banzai watched him go and scratched his head in visible confusion.

"So. That happened." He said, looking perturbed. Or possibly constipated. "Explains his attitude. I've seen it before you know. In old hyenas, caught between sleeping and constantly rushing into the next fight. Never seen it in a meerkat though." He admitted.

"How many meerkats have you ever met?" Zuri asked him, looking irritable for the first time, and then looking after Timon with worry. "Should I go after him?" She asked. Kiava watched him leave, and shook his head.

"No. Leave him. I still can't believe he's really Timon. The Timon. Timon without Pumba. I've never thought of them as being separate before." He muttered. "I don't think he has either. I really am lucky he's here with me…" He said. He sighed. He looked at Shenzi. "Is your history going to be a problem?" He asked her. Shenzi looked offended.

"I'm making an alliance with the Prince of the Pridelands. You think I can't play nice with a decrepit old meerkat?" She asked him. Kiava didn't look away and wasn't about to accept that as an answer until she sighed dramatically and nodded her head. "I won't start anything if he doesn't. And my clan won't either if they know what's good for them. That good for you?" She asked him. Kiava nodded. It would have to do.

Kiava awoke floating in the grey of the twilight realm, and breathed a sigh of relief when he recognised his surroundings. For a moment he thought he was dreaming. The twilight realm was unnerving but they it did not disturb his nights the way the nightmares of the past did.

"You're doing well." He heard a voice behind him. Kiava turned, and saw Taka standing there. The Unlike his visions of the jungle or the Pridelands, the Shadowlands didn't look that different when reflected in the dismal light of the twilight realm. The biggest difference was the sun, which – when it was visible – was a sickly wounded red. The dusty ground was the same colour of ash grey it was in the waking world.

"You think so? I still don't know what I am doing." Kiava admitted.

"You defeated Amun. I wanted to check you were okay. To take another's life is no simple thing." Taka warned him. "I wasn't sure I should be the one to talk to you about this, but I don't think any of the others would understand. How do you feel?" He asked him. Kiava looked at him.

"I… I don't know. I thought it would feel worse, somehow. When I imagined what it would feel like. I thought it would either feel… I don't know, triumphant. Or ashamed." He said. Taka nodded. Both were reasonable reactions.

"How do you feel?" He asked him, cautiously.

"I would do it again." Kiava told him. "I'm not a kid. I know I'm not going to defeat the Shai'tan by talking about our problems. I wasn't taking revenge, but I know this isn't going to end whilst the Shai'tan survive. They'd do the same to us." He said. Taka nodded slowly. He was watching him. Was this a test?

"Is that bad?" Kiava asked. "That I don't feel bad about killing him? I feel like I should at least feel something. Even if I had no choice." He asked him. Taka looked at the young lion. He reminded him of Mufasa. Serious. Thoughtful. Almost philosophical, though he doubted he could spell it.

"No." He told him. "You've had to learn to deal with the deaths of your family and friends. Nobody would expect you to grieve your enemies." He said. Kiava nodded in relief. "If you'd enjoyed it?" Taka continued. "If you'd hunted down Amun's family and killed them because he did the same to you first? That would be another matter." He warned him. "And there will be times when that doesn't seem quite so farfetched. Times when that would feel right. You didn't murder Amun, you defeated him." He was looking at Kiava carefully. "And you know that. Instinctively. That's why you don't feel the way you think you might ought to. You don't need me to tell you that. Amun's death doesn't trouble you." He said.

"No." Kiava admitted. He thought about talking to Taka about Timon, and his revelation, but Taka wasn't likely to be of much help in that manner. He would have to handle that on his own, at some other point. There was however, a third issue weighing on him, and had been for a while. It's Shenzi." He said.

"What about her?" Taka asked, sounding concerned.

"She seems… not what I expected. She wants to help her clan. She cares for her daughter."

"Did you expect her not to? Hyenas aren't so different to lions, in my experience. For better or worse." Taka told him.

"Then why did it take the destruction of everything for us to care about each other? If the Shai'tan hadn't come to the Pridelands, wouldn't we be vicious enemies? If this works… if we really can be friends… doesn't that mean there was never anything stopping us? All those generations wasted… Could Asante and I have been friends anyway?" He asked.

"Ah." Taka said. "I see." He sat himself down next to the lion cub. "Do you know why hyenas and lions hate each other so much?" He asked him.

"Not really."

"Nor do I." Taka admitted.

"I… Huh?" Kiava blinked. He didn't know himself, but surely the Great Kings of the Past knew. All that knowledge and ancient wisdom and they didn't know? His expression must have shown on his face, because Taka corrected himself quickly.

"Well, those hyenas specifically hate lions because they are descended from hyenas who warred with and were killed by my brother and father's generation. And those lions hated those hyenas because before that, they did the same." He sounded tired. "The thing about feuds, Kiava, is that after a certain point the reason they are there, is because they were already there when we arrived. Shenzi doesn't hate lions for the same reasons her grandmother did. She hates them for an entirely new set of reasons. But I don't know who the first was. I'm sure if you asked Shenzi she'd dig out an answer, but I'm sure if you asked their enemy, they'd be able to tell you exactly why that slight was justified. What you did, was brave Kiava. Not many are willing to buy peace with justice. People of all stripes tend to want both. Especially because it doesn't even always work." He looked at him seriously.

"But now we're on the same side." Kiava said. He trailed off. "What if we win?" He asked him. "If we defeat the Shai'tan, drive out the Imperium… Will we go back the old ways?"

"That's not up to me. Or even just you." Taka told him. He reached out a comforting paw, and touched his shoulder. "One step at a time, Kiava. One win at a time.