AN: Cats do have tear ducts, but they don't cry to express emotion. Consider this artistic license.
The Pridelands-Day
Kiara led Kovu, Kion, Rani, and Kopa on a march toward the clearing near the Nyembamba River where so many dark deeds had occurred of late. That was still a long way away which gave Kiara time to think. So much depended on Ono. Why had Dhaifu singled him out? The more Kiara thought about it, the more it seemed obvious that Ono, whose sight had once been as keen as Anga's and whose mind was still the sharpest in either the Pridelands or the Tree of Llife must have been, the first to realize that only Dhaifu could have made the tooth marks on her father's throat. Anga had said that she thought the gash coul have only been made by crocodile teeth at first glance, and that Fuli, the only predator in the group besides Anga herself to get a good look at them, had agreed. Dhaifu…or Kopa…Kiara's older brother who had been raised by the albino crocodile was certainly not free from suspicion himself…must have disfigured the wound further while the Lion Guard was unconscious. They all agreed that Ono had taken the longest look—and he was the only member of the Guard not to return. Kiara shuddered as she thought about what could have happened to him.
She looked over to Kion. Ono was his friend, so what was he going through. The tight lines of worry were firmly etched in her brother's face. Rani noticed Kion's tenseness too.
"It will be all right," the Queen of the Tree of Life said to her mate, "We'll find Ono."
"You sound confident," Kion said feeling a bit reassured at his mate's certainty.
"Well, if Dhaifu's behind all this, he can't very well kill Ono. That would be like admitting his guilt. And if Vitani and Kovu are responsible, Ono is safer from them with Dhaifu than he is in the Pridelands."
Kion's lines of worry faded, and he allowed himself a smile. Ono would be all right after all, they'd know who killed his father, this mess would be over, and they could all return home safe and sound to the Tree of Life. The pain in Kion's scar eased. It wasn't gone by any means, but it was bearable now.
Kion looked at Rani, his eyes smiling. "I love you, you know."
"I love you too, Kion."
They stopped walking and nuzzled one another.
"Come on, Ono is waiting for us," Kion said resuming his pace.
"Kion!" Anga's voice came from above.
All five lions looked up to see the eagle flying toward them rapidly.
"Dhaifu's in the Pridelands! He's looking for Ono!"
All the lions felt their hearts sink. Kiara dared to hope that maybe this was good news after all.
"Did Ono escape?"
Anga shook her head, "No, he says Vitani took him…"
Kion felt a sharp stabbing pain in his scar.
"…and now he can't find them."
Kion jerked his head away from his friends and family and loosed a powerful roar.
Dhaifu was waiting for Anga and the five lions and the near a watering hole when Kopa shouted, "Dad!" and raced toward him. Kiara and Kovu instinctually took a few steps back. Rani looked at Kion who cautiously walked toward the crocodile.
"Queen Rani and King Kion, greetings. I'm sorry we could not meet under better circumstances."
"Do you know where Ono is?" Kion asked, letting his friend's safety take on more importance than who was responsible for killing his father.
"Unfortunately, Vitani ambushed me at the border between the Pridelands and Swamplands and took your friend captive. He was the last of your friends still unconscious from the button spiders' venom. I tried to follow them, but…,"Dhaifu paused and said apologetically, "I fear that I am not the best tracker on land."
"Do you know where she was headed?" Kion asked urgently.
"Unfortunately, I don't know her destination as she was running in a zigzag pattern, but when I my best estimate was in the direction of the Ndefu River,"
"That's Makuu's territory," Kion said. He looked to Kovu, "Why would your sister go there?"
"I don't have any idea," Kovu said. "Makuu has been keeping quiet recently."
"He used to give my Guard trouble, but we reached an understanding with him before I left for the Tree of Life," Kion said.
"He hasn't given Daddy any trouble since before the war with Scar's ghost," Kiara said.
"He's been Simba's loyal subject the entire time Vitani and I have been here," Kovu added. "Her guard hasn't had that many dealings with him."
Kion doubted that Makuu had any involvement in Vitani's actions, but he may have seen where she was headed if she had indeed passed through his territory.
"Anga," Kion said, "Keep searching for Vitani. The rest of us will pay Makuu a visit."
Anga nodded and flew off to the north while Kion started off towards the Ndefu River. He was two strides away when Rani called out to her mate, "Kion!"
The King Consort of the Tree of life paused for his Queen.
"What is it, Rani?"
"We still don't know if we can trust Dhaifu. We should split up. Some of us should keep an eye on him here while the rest see go to see if Ono and Vitani are with Makuu."
"I'm not leaving Kovu and Dhaifu alone together," Kion said. "Kovu is coming with me."
"I'll stay with my dad," Kopa said.
"No, you won't," Dhaifu said. All five lions looked at the crocodile. "Of the five of you, Kopa is the only one who cares about me, and, out of everyone in this kingdom or my own, Kopa is the only one I have a personal stake in. We can't be in the same place if we are each going to be guarantors of the other's good behavior and safety."
Kiara looked to Kopa, then to Dhaifu, then back to Kion. "He has a point. If he hurts either me or Rani, you'll know you can't trust him. He won't risk that."
Kovu stiffened. "I don't like the idea of leaving you alone with him," he said to Kiara.
"Don't worry about me, Kovu. Just try to be helpful with brothers."
Kiara licked Kovu's cheek, and he returned the gesture, then the three males departed.
Kion raced toward the Ndefu river hoping to find some sign of Ono, almost racing pushing Kovu and Kopa to exert themselves to keep up. Soon enough the river came into view.
"Slow down, Kion, we're here," Kovu said.
Finally, the youngest of the three males slowed as Kovu sighed and Kopa caught his breath.
"Keep your eyes peeled for any sign of Ono or Vitani," Kion said as he began scouring the grass on the riverside and sniffing for either of the two's scent to find their trails.
Kovu and Kopa followed suit.
"Kion, I'm not that familiar with Ono or Vitani's scent," Kopa said.
"That's okay. I know Ono's and Kovu knows Vitani's. Just follow us."
Kopa noticed his father's smell around the same time that Kion 'noticed Ono's.
"Ono was…" Kion looked just about four adult lions' body lengths further up the river and two more from the bank further inland to see what he dreaded most…
"Ono!"
He raced toward his friend's body. There was a single bloody toothmark through Ono's chest, unmistakably made by a crocodile tooth.
Kion growled at Kopa.
"Your father did this!"
That his father would kill outside of the hunt was unacceptable to Kopa, who quickly sought an alternative explanation.
"Why would Dad leave such an obvious trace of his crime in the very spot he told us to search?"
As much as Kovu hated to admit it, Kopa had a point. Dhaifu was smarter than this.
"No," Kovu said aloud. "He has to be behind this, but why would he…"
"What's going on here?" A deep voice asked.
The three lions turned to see that Makuu had just surfaced in the river.
Kion and Kovu were thinking the same thing: could Makuu have done this?
"Do you know anything about what happened to Ono, Makuu?" Kovu demanded gruffly while Kion stared at his onetime enemy-turned-ally.
"Ono? I just…"Makuu stopped speaking to take in the sight of the body, "…just got here myself…" the crocodile said nervously, intimidated by the prospect of Kion's Roar. There was a look of inevitable dread etched on the reptile's face as memories of the former prince's use of the roar replayed themselves in his mind.
Kion and Kovu both took this as obvious dread as a confession of guilt.
"You dare attack a member of the Lion Guard?" Kion shouted.
Fearing punishment and accepting blame were two very different things, as the two lions quickly discovered. Makuu may have feared the Roar, but he had too much pride to accept the blame for something he didn't do.
"Go ahead and blast me if you want—I know there's no avoiding it—but before you roar at me, Kion, you should know I didn't hurt your friend. I've been further up river all day until just a few minutes ago."
Kion felt a sharp pain in his scar as he tried to weigh Makuu's words against what he saw. His refusal to accept blame in the face of certain peril spoke of honesty in this matter from Kovu's perspective. It almost did to Kion as well, at least until Kovu spoke.
"I think we should hear him out before we do anything. Remember, he had nothing to do with Simba or Vitani's Guard getting killed. How many different animals does Dhaifu have to frame?"
"Dhaifu?" Makuu said, recognizing the name.
Frame? Kion thought? Yes, Dhaifu could have framed Kovu for killing his father, and he could have framed Makuu for killing Ono, but there was one animal he could not have framed. It took the Roar to destroy Vitani's guard and only two specific lions could have done that.
"He didn't frame Vitani," Kion said. "Only her Roar could have destroyed her guard, the Roar I gave her."
"We only have Kopa's word for that…"Kovu started.
"And the aftermath that my Guard saw. They know the effects of the Roar when they see it."
Kopa's eyes were glued to the exchange between Kion and Kovu. When he turned them to the rive again, Makuu was gone.
"Guys, he got away."
Kovu simply said, "Let him go. He's not the one we want."
"Not the only one anyway," Kion said. They had to find Vitani.
The three males walked the long grassy path back to the watering hole where they had left the two queens with the albino crocodile. The trek was long and Kion had a good deal to think about. As the former leader of the Lion Guard the safety of the Pridelands was once his responsibility. When he had given that role to Vitani, he had thought he had made a good decision, but he could not help remembering the way she had challenged him. He had given her the roar, and because of his gift, her Lion Guard was dead. Kion shivered as an unpleasant tingle invaded his body and his scar ached once again. His gift had been her weapon, as surely as if he had killed her Guard himself. And now, because they were gone and his own Guard incapacitated, there was no one to protect Ono. The death of his friend was also own his head. After all, he had chosen Ono for his Guard in the first place and chosen Vitani as his successor. No matter how Kion looked at this, part of the blame was his own. He hung his head low and felt a sharp pain in his scar as his body convulsed again.
"Kion, are you ok?" Kovu asked.
Kion felt bile rise in him when his brother-in-law asked this. His friend was dead as the long term consequence of decisions he had made, and the guilty party was the sister of the one who just asked.
"Of course not," Kion said. "Your sister killed my friend." Kion felt shame when he said that, because he could just as well be saying, "I killed my friend." Vitani and Ono had both been his choices after all.
"Kion, Ono was killed by a crocodile…"
"But how did he get in that position?" Kion interrupted Kovu. "It was because my choice of a successor killed her own guard, and my own were at Pride Rock and he was alone." And I'm the one who made it inevitable.
"Kion," Kovu interrupted. "He wasn't alone. Dhaifu was with him."
Kion shook his head ferociously, his scar aching with each swish. "One old crocodile and one paralyzed egret are no match for the Roar when four healthy lionesses weren't!"
"Kion, Ono wasn't killed by the Roar…"
"No, just Vitani's guard."
Kovu had to admit that they were on shakier ground there, but he could still not see his sister harming lionesses she'd known since cubhood. Something else had to be going on.
"Don't forget, my Guard saw her aftermath and they know the Roar." I gave it to her.
"But we don't know why she used the Roar or what she…" Kovu stopped speaking as his sister stepped into view. "…Vitani?" he said, startled.
Kion turned to see his successor approach.
"Kovu? Kion?" She said distantly, as if half-asleep. Kovu could tell that there was a glossy dazed look in her eyes.
"What did you to your guard and to Ono?" Kion demanded.
"Ono…" she said in a daze, "What happened to hi…my Guard?!" She suddenly became alert as adrenaline pumped through her. "I've done a terrible thing," she gasped.
"You used your Roar on your own Lion Guard, just like Scar did. I saw it!" Kopa said.
"Kopa!" Kovu said, trying to silence the elder of his brothers-in-law.
"No, Kovu. He's right," Vitani said fighting back tears, "I killed them."
Any lingering doubts Kion had about Vitani were resolved with her confession.
"I chose you!" Kion shouted at her.
"I know," she said, closing her eyes. "I've failed you."
"You didn't fail," Kion said. "You broke your oath. You betrayed what it means to lead the Lion Guard."
"Kion, we don't know why she…"
"Kovu!" She said to her brother, "The 'why' doesn't matter. What matters is my guard is dead because of me. Kion, take my roar back."
She lay on the bends of her legs and hung her head even lower than Kion had a moment before, and the mark of the Lion Guard disappeared from her foreleg.
"You admit it?" Kion said.
"It is my fault. I admit that."
Kion prepared to summon a roar of his own—not powerful enough to harm her, but to send her flying to the other side of the Pridelands.
Seeing Kion prepare to do this, Kovu stepped between his brother-in-law and his sister, and both of Zira's children were sent flying.
Kion stood panting unable to think. His mistake was corrected now, but it was too late to save Ono.
"Well, now you know," Kopa said.
"Know what?" Kion was confused.
"Who killed our father. Vitani was probably acting on Kovu's orders and,"
"Kopa, I don't want to hear it!" Kion said. He didn't feel like analyzing anything now. So Kovu was guilty—he had a more pressing matter. "How am I going to tell Kiara?"
