Pride Rock
"So, your sister is alive?" Nala asked Kion, daring to let hope dawn on her heart after so much evil had befallen their family of late.
"Yes, and she is fine, but Kovu and Vitani are injured. In fact, Kovu could barely stand when I left," Kion turned from his mother to face the Lion Guard, "Which is why we need to get to them as soon as possible." As Kion said this, he noticed Rani holding her head down out of the corner of his eye. He walked over to her.
"What is it, moyo wangu?"
Rani knew that she was partly responsible for what had befallen her mate's family. In the earliest days of this crisis, she had prevented him from taking rash action, but after one account from the ever trustworthy Dhaifu about how he had eaten Kovu and Vitani's father—she persuaded Kion that while Kovu had not set out to kill Simba, Simba had defended Dhaifu, and the murder of Ono and Vitani's Lion Guard was all an elaborate cover up on Kovu's part for his accidental murder.
Still hanging her head low, she said, "I advised you to banish them." Choking up she said, "If not for me, you'd still have the Roar!"
"Or I would have lost it a lot sooner, doing Great Kings know what damage in the process," Kion said, trying desperately to let her know that the failure was his alone. Rani looked up.
"You have always been the voice of reason between the two of us, Rani. It's just that knowing someone heart to heart defeats reason. That's how Kiara and Kovu know each other and," he paused, nuzzling her cheek, "How you and I know each other. We can't see what lies between them, nor they between us—only the effects of these loves."
Rani returned Kion's nuzzle. "I guess the head misses things the heart doesn't," thinking of herself and Kiara in the recent matter.
"Your judgment is the best of any lion I have ever known. I still say that, even when we were both wrong," Kion said, letting Rani nuzzle into his mane with her head beneath his chin.
Rani sniffled, but then snapped back to her senses, pulling herself away from Kion and putting that excellent judgment to work.
"Go to Kiara and Kovu with the Lion Guard and Azad." She commanded her consort as Queen regnant of the Tree of Life and closest ally of the Pridelands. "I will tell Kopa that you have gone to speak with Rafiki and Mwanafunzi. You're obviously shaken so he will believe that."
"I do not deserve you," he smiled.
"I know," she said. "Now hurry! Kiara and the others need you!"
Kion jumped to the mouth of the cave, "C'mon guys! You heard our Queen!" The entire Lion Guard rushed out.
Rani had her own smile as she watched them go, but then a small voice broke into her thoughts.
"Auntie Wani?" Little Uru asked, "Is Unca Kopa a bad wion?"
Rani did not know Kopa's heart so she could only say, "I don't know. I hope not, but he is definitely listening to a very bad crocodile."
Pridelands Savanah
Kovu kept struggling to stand and failing.
"Kovu, stop!" Kiara said. "You pushed yourself when it mattered—to protect me—now Kion is on our side. We should wait here until help arrives."
"And leave ourselves open targets?" Her mate grunted in frustration, knowing strength would not return to his lungs or legs for some time yet.
"You forget, mpendwa, I am still loved by half the animals here, even if you are not. As for those who don't love me, I'm not exactly hated either. Neither of us will be after Kion's revelation." She looked to Vitani, "You can give up the Roar of the Elders voluntarily," trying as much to convince Vitani that she wasn't a failure as she was to convince Kovu that Kion would be headed, "But you don't have it taken unless you have used it for evil. They'll listen to him and see who was in the right."
Kovu smiled, still worried, but happy that his mate had been acting and thinking every bit like a queen since this mess had begun. His own journey to being ready to rule had been a little more rocky, but if putting the one he loved ahead of his own survival was a test, he'd clearly passed. He'd have done the same thing for Mohatu and Uru, or Vitani, or any of his family...or even for his subjects even, though the emotional connection wasn't as strong. He knew Kiara would do the same, and that it was only chance that he had been the one protecting her this time. Perhaps they were both ready to rule.
"I love you so much, Kiara," Kovu said.
She walked over and nuzzled his cheek.
"And I you."
Kovu could finally move his neck comfortably, and he and Kiara both closed their eyes as they nuzzled, with her rubbing the tip of her nose in his mane.
Vitani looked at the two love birds for a second as they enjoyed their well-earned rest and then scanned their surroundings. Someone had to. Then she saw it coming from the direction of a river in the distance to her right.
"Kiara!" She exclaimed.
Kiara jerked her head up and saw the cause of Vitani's alarm—a small army of crocodiles marching toward them with Kopa at their head.
This was not good at all. Either Kion had been unable to convince Kopa, or their eldest sibling had not cared and was just as responsible as Dhaifu.
"I should have known that your royal ancestors would try to prevent my rise by taking Kion's Roar," the Golden Prince said.
"Kopa, the Great Kings of the past..." Kiara began.
"Are arbitrary hypocrites! Just look at our granduncle and his father!"
Kiara and Kovu were aware of the tyrannical reigns of Scar and Ahadi.
"Those were our worst kings," Kiara said, "They're not the ones we look to."
"No," Kopa mocked, "You look to Simba who banished half his own pride."
Kovu tensed at the mention of at the mention of his family's exile.
"Kiara got Simba to admit he was wrong and welcome us back."
Kopa shook his head. "Kovu, you have less right to speak than anyone after trying to conceal your accidental murder. You tried to get one of my father's. Unfortunately for you, you got the wrong one."
"Dhaifu murdered Simba!" Kovu said, feeling his blood boil.
"Why? Simba was about to give him amnesty. You held a grudge against my father since the time his River Patrol ate yours as a trespasser."
"I never even knew that until Kiara told me after you banished her!" Kovu retorted angrily.
"Sure, you didn't." Kopa's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Lions are all obsessed with vengeance." Kopa's voice then unexpectedly turned soft. "Thank the Swamplands' Great Kings that even though I was born a lion, my heart is crocodile." He faced his army. "The time has come."
The crocs began encircling the three lions.
It was then that something unexpected happened. A lion followed by an eagle, a honey badger, a hippo, and two cheetahs appeared in the distance, rapidly approaching from the direction of Pride Rock.
"Kiara!" Kion called out, causing his sister to look up and feel hope surge in her heart.
Kopa and the crocodiles at the front of the circle turned to face the Lion Guard.
"I didn't want to fight you, Brother," Kopa said.
Kion did not want to fight Kopa either but knew his brother had to be stopped.
As the Lion Guard picked up speed the crocodiles from the front of the circle began sprinting toward them. Kion felt terror try to paralyze him. The Roar was gone. That had been his key to victory so many times in the past. Without it, how could he protect his friends and save his sister? Beshte couldn't outrun the crocodiles, Kiara was surrounded, and Kovu and Vitani both injured. Still, Kion had to keep fighting or it would all have been for nothing. Could he win though? Paralysis was setting in. No! Kion couldn't give up. He loosed a roar of frustration.
To everyone's surprise, it sent the advancing crocodiles flying. Kion then felt something like a warm paw gently touch his upper foreleg. The Mark of the Guard had returned!
In a fraction of a second Kion realized that though he had been able to thwart the same way of thinking that led his granduncle astray, he had been given the chance to alter course, and it was the love he had been given by both constant friends and temporary enemies that kept him from wallowing self-pity as Scar had and completing his transformation into a monster.
"This is impossible!" Kopa shouted as the remaining crocodiles began looking at each other. "You lost the Roar!"
Kion looked ahead and shouted to Vitani, "Vitani, roar at the crocs behind you!"
"But I don't have the Roar," she began.
"Neither did I." She couldn't argue with that.
Facing the crocodiles behind her she loosed a roar, slowly turning to the crocs on either side, sending them flying.
Kion looked at his successor with pride as the Mark of the Guard returned to her. They had won!
Kopa looked frantically at Vitani, then at Kion and his Guard. They were closing in from both sides. He couldn't flee without leading them to his father, whom they would kill. The weight of the world crashed down on Kopa's back forcing him roar out the word "No!"
His enemies stopped, eying him cautiously. For all that the reprieve had given him time, it was not enough to do anything meaningful. Everything had come to naught.
"Evil can't win," Kopa said in a choked voice, barely above a whisper, however Kiara heard him, realizing clearly for the first time that Kopa, misguided as he was, truly believed he was doing the right thing.
"Evil?" She repeated. "Your dad is the evil one! He killed our father and tried to blame my mate!"
"And our friend!" Kion added, not wanting Ono to be forgotten.
How could Kion, the one sibling he trusted, have gone over so quickly to Kovu's side, Kopa wondered?
"So, my good for nothing old dad killed the king and the bird? Now you're visit makes sense," A familiar voice said.
Everyone turned in the direction of the river to see Makuu slowly walking toward them, followed by his float.
"Makuu?" Kion asked, "What are you doing here?"
"My float saw Swamplands crocs in our river. We came to see what was going on."
"You said, 'My dad.'" Kiara said, confused.
"Yeah, the 'Albino Terror.' He fathered me when his brother sent him as a diplomat to Scar. Scar ordered my uncle Pua to let his guest mate with his sister."
"Liar!" Kopa said, refusing to believe this. "Dhaifu hated Scar! They would never get along! I know him," he said desperately. "He raised me! He's my father, not yours!"
"He may have raised you, but you don't know him." Makuu said. "He and Scar may not have been real friends, but they had a system of mutual favors. One time he got Scar to sick his Guard on his own fat useless brother Shahamu, and another time Scar got him to eat the mate of a pregnant lioness he was attracted to" he looked at Kovu and Vitani, "Those two's real dad."
"No," Kopa couldn't believe this. His father was not a villain! "He was with Shahamu! He tried to protect him! He—"
"—bragged to my uncle's float about how he pulled it off," Makuu continued. "When Dad had to go back to the Swamplands, he wanted to take me with him, without my mom. Thank the River Uncle Pua said no. I was too scared to want to go with that psycho. His last words to me were, 'You are too weak to ever contend for the throne of the Swamplands, anyway. You should be the one named Dhaifu. But one way or another I will raise a king and be the power behind the throne! Good riddance, you waste of my blood!"
Kopa couldn't believe this, but the pieces were finally falling into place for everyone else.
"Looks like he got what he wanted," Makuu said, looking at Kopa.
"Of course, he wants me to be king...he loves me," Kopa said, fighting to believe that.
"He used you, bro. Just like he wanted to use me."
"He's not evil!" Kopa screamed, tears spilling.
"Kopa," Kovu wheezed, finally getting his brother-in-law's attention. Pouring as much compassion into his words as he could summon, Kovu said, "Maybe he does love you, but he still used you. My mom was the same way."
Once again Kovu had reached out to his brother-in-law, seeing in him a lion raised just as he was, and—for the first time—Kopa didn't fight back.
Kopa looked to Kovu, pleadingly.
"Promise you won't kill him but let me talk to him."
"I'm not the ruler here," Kovu said. "I'm just married to her."
Kopa looked at his sister. Despite his best efforts, his eyes continued to water.
Kiara slowly walked to her older brother, placing her front right paw over his.
He stopped crying when she smiled at him.
"We won't harm him, but we may have to banish him. But I promise you, Kopa you will be able to speak with him first."
For the first time, all three children of Simba were united.
AN: Only one more chapter to go. "Dhaifu" means "weak" in Swahili.