Author's note: Shoutout to the lovely Anika/RoxasXNamine 24 for being such a loyal reader! I'm not going anywhere - love ya sweetie! xoxo 333

Despite the tough attitude he'd been putting on up to now, Kovu was understandably shocked and frightened at the king's appearance.

He gasped and staggered backwards towards Kiara, who looked just as surprised to see her father.

"Daddy?!" she gasped anxiously.

Simba's gaze snapped down to his daughter, with a look in his eyes that told the princess all she needed to know: she was in deep, deep trouble.

Before he could open his mouth and start yelling at her, though, Zira leapt in front of the two cubs.

"GRRRROOOWWRRR..."

Panicked, Kiara darted to hide behind Simba's forepaw. Kovu arched his back, feeling a little braver now that his mother was standing above him.

Simba and Zira stared each other down for a few moments, their teeth bared and their eyes flashing.

"Zira," Simba snarled curtly.

"Simba," the Outsider lioness hissed back, her jaws parted in a mocking grin. She got down, ready to strike, then noticed that the king wasn't alone: three other lionesses were with him, and one of them happened to be his queen.

"Nala," Zira acknowledged the younger lioness with deep disdain.

"Zira," Nala responded, her blue eyes narrowed and her lip curled in disgust. "What do you think you're doing on our Pridelands?"

"YOUR PRIDELANDS?!" Zira let out a roar of outrage, about to lunge, but Simba quickly jumped in front of his queen to defend her.

"These lands," Zira proclaimed, claws unsheathed and panting slightly from bridled rage, "belong to Scar."

"I banished you from the Pridelands," Simba shot back, rounding on Zira and stepping closer threateningly. "Or don't you remember? Now you and your young cub...GET. OUT."

Kovu looked from Simba to Zira, bewildered, but seeing the unperturbed smirk on his mother's face, he followed suit. Kiara watched with bated breath as he narrowed his eyes defiantly up at Simba and flexed his claws.

"Oh! Haven't you met my son, Kovu?" the Outsider lioness purred nonchalantly, circling her son and keeping her ruby eyes fixed on Simba. "He was hand-chosen by Scar, to follow in his pawprints...and become king," she explained with a smug smile.

Simba's glare turned briefly from Zira to Kovu, his teeth bared and a growl rumbling from his throat.

Kovu stared up at Simba, his green eyes hard as stones and his jaw set determinedly, like he was facing down an enemy.

Wow...From her hiding place behind Simba, Kiara's heart skipped a beat at the sheer nerve the cub displayed, even in front of her powerful father. The other lionesses in the pride weren't so convinced, though.

"That little shrimp a king?!" guffawed a teenage lioness named Aisha, one of Nala's trainees. "As if!"

"Kovu was the last born," Zira went on, loping around her son like a weary martyr, "before you exiled us to the Outlands, where we have little food...and less water."

"You know the penalty for returning to the Pridelands, Zira!" Simba roared, losing patience with the Outsider queen.

"But the child does not!" Zira snarled back. "However...if you need your 'pound of flesh', as it were..."

Zira smirked deviously, nudging Kovu closer to Simba. "...here."

Kiara gasped, looking worriedly from her father to Kovu. She could hardly believe what she was seeing happen.

Despite the danger his mother had put him in, though, Kovu still looked more angry than terrified, glaring defiantly up at the king. Simba could see it in his eyes - he really did take after Scar. The same snarl curling his lips, the same cold, spiteful gleam in his green eyes...part of his black tuft of hair even fell over his right eye, where his predecessor's trademark scar had been. The resemblance to his father's murderer made Simba's paw twitch, and it was everything he could do to hold himself back from traumatizing this misguided young cub any further than his despicable mother already had.

"Take him and get out," Simba commanded Zira, turning away from the two of them in disgust. "We're finished here."

Kiara flinched, scrambling away as Zira stepped closer menacingly. "Oh, no, Simba...we have barely begun."

She glowered down at Kiara, who shivered as the Outsider queen let out a sinister, mocking laugh.

Kiara's ears flattened, and she tried to go towards Kovu, but his demeanor had totally changed.

"I told you I didn't need your help," he hissed at her, his fur standing on end.

The princess let out a choked gasp as he turned coldly away, and before she could say another word, Zira had picked him up by his scruff and was glaring threateningly down at her.

Fear gripped Kiara's heart, but to her relief, Simba grabbed her by her own scruff, lifting her out of harm's way.

The two parents gave each other black looks for a moment, then both turned and padded back to their own territories.

Kiara took a last, sad look at Kovu, the lion cub who had turned out not to be much of a friend at all...and the one who had stolen her heart, in spite of it all.

"...Bye, Kovu," she whispered, in such a soft voice that her father couldn't hear her.

Kovu didn't even spare her a glance, his ears flat and his dark fur standing on end as Zira carried him away, the two of them disappearing behind a rocky ledge.