Zazu had seen a great many deal of things in his short life: savage monsters, psychopathic lions and torturous monkeys to name but a few. However, merciless massacre wasn't on his list—and he never expected it to be.

The Pride Lands were his home. They always had been, and they always would be—no matter whether he was welcome there or not. King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi—no matter how much they stressed that he was banished from the kingdom—would never be able to take away that.

It pained him—broke his heart—to see that his home had been destroyed.

Or at least it seemed like it had been destroyed.

The very first thing he noticed—on his routine trip to try and scavenge something to eat for dinner—was that there were hundreds upon hundreds of bodies on the ground. Of many different animals. Birds, lionesses, wildebeest; you name it.

They were all strewn across the ground like pathetic scraps of dirt that nobody wanted. It looked horrible. It smelled horrible. Hell, it even tasted horrible. Zazu could have sworn he could practically taste the death in his mouth—if such a thing were possible. It was the most awful spectacle he had ever witnesses in his life.

"Oh, my…"

Zazu couldn't believe what he was seeing. Every single life in the Pride Lands—every single thing—had been destroyed.

Killed in an instant, by… Well, Zazu just didn't know. He had no idea as to what kind of culprit—what monster —could cause such a thing. It was a massacre. A bloody massacre that could serve no real purpose.

Unless the purpose was that of just being psychotic.

Zazu stood there, transfixed, perched on top of the tree branch just beside the waterhole. He turned his head in order to stare down at the water.

Half of it had turned red, tainted with blood. He could see the body of a cub lying just over the water's edge, gore spilling from his brain where a fatal strike had met its mark.

It made him sick.

And all the while—all the time he was viewing this destruction—he couldn't help but think of Simba and Nala.

He hoped they were okay.

"You know, I think that we should hold off on going into the jungle for a while," Haiba said as he, Simba and Nala traipsed across the Pride Lands. "Too many bad things happen around there."

"Bad things can happen here too, you know," Nala reminded him. "There could practically have been an entire massacre, for all I—"

"Nala!"

Nala's head shot up at the sound of her mother screaming her name. "Mom?"

Sarafina sprinted towards her daughter. Parts of her fur were matted with deep patches of blood. She looked terrified, and Nala could tell. Something was very, very wrong.

"Nala!" She collapsed to the ground in front of her daughter, panting with a sickening mixture of both fear and exhaustion.

"You're alive…"

Simba and Haiba shot each other unsure glances, and shrugged at each other, unsure what to make of this.

"Mom…" Nala was just as confused as they were. "What's going on?"

Tears streamed down Sarafina's cheeks. "They've killed them! They're all dead! They've killed everyone in the Pride Lands!" she sobbed, sadness leaking out of her with each word she screamed.

Simba, Nala and Haiba all froze. Time seemed to stop. Those thirteen words were enough to shake the three cubs right to the bone. It was impossible. The death of everyone in the Pride Lands was just ridiculous. It couldn't be true. It just couldn't be. She was lying—or this was just some kind of sick joke.

"What do you mean?" Simba asked, taking a step towards the horrified Sarafina. She was inconsolable.

"What do you think I mean, you idiot?" Sarafina snapped, her eyes raw from crying. "Everyone's dead! Your damn mother and father killed everyone! They've destroyed the only place I've ever b een ab le to call home!" She pointed an accusing claw at Simba. "This is all your fault. Do you hear me? It's all your fault! You little runt!"

Simba could only stare at Sarafina, horrified beyond belief.

"Hey, Zorry!" Pori's voice sounded distant to Zazu. "I've been looking for you! I was beginning to get worried that you were eaten by a hyena or something!" She perched herself on the branch right next to her. "Why are you looking so glum?"

Zazu didn't say anything. He was shaking with terror. The most he could manage to was to merely gesture with a wing to the destruction in front of them both.

Pori's eyes widened at the sight of the devastation splayed out across the Pride Lands. The sheer volume of the dead bodies was enough to make her sick to the stomach. How could anyone do such an awful thing?

"It's… awful," Zazu said, struggling to make out the words. His legs felt so weak and frail. He could barely open his beak to form a sentence. "Everyone… has just… died. The whole kingdom…" It was too much death for his mind to comprehend. This was worse than when that horrific entity known as Death had taken over...

Pori's gaze hardened. "Who did this, Zazu?" she asked.

Zazu just stared at her, astounded. "You used my name," he said.

"Of course I did, stupid," she snapped. "Now who did this? I know that you know."

Zazu couldn't believe what he was hearing. How was she speaking like this? Had the disaster overloaded his brain? Was he just imagining this? "Pori… if I had any idea as to who—"

"It's much worse than I thought," Pori said, shaking her head.

"Wait, Pori, I don't quite understand—"

"Well, of course you wouldn't understand," Pori interrupted, much to Zazu's amazement. "You're not exactly the type of bird who sticks his beak in places he's not supposed to. Not like me, of course. No—I'm much different."

It was then that Zazu came to the conclusion that Pori wasn't exactly the hornbill she was claiming to be when he'd first met her. "Pori… who are you?"

"Who do you think I am?" she retorted. "My name is Pori. It's not like I changed it or anything."

"Then why did you act so… unintelligent before?" he asked, still straining to understand how she had completely flipped her personality.

"It's my cover," she explained. "I've been working for the Parasitic Oppression Group for almost two years now."

"POG?" Zazu asked in bemusement. "I've never heard of such an organisation."

"You're not supposed to," Pori explained. "It's secretive. But I've been working undercover—ever since I met you—to investigate this parasite that I believe has been residing in the Pride Lands for almost an entire year."

"An entire year?" Zazu said in disbelief. "So you've just been… fooling me this whole time just so you could investigate a 'parasite'? I don't even know what such an outlandish thing is supposed to mean!"

"Could you be any more ridiculous?" Pori asked. "Zazu, surely you've heard of a parasite, haven't you?"

"I suppose," Zazu replied. "I hear that they're infectious."

"Exactly!" Pori exclaimed. "That's what the Parasitic Oppression Group is against, you know! Stopping parasites from spreading. Why do you think the Kulaani illness isn't ravaging the entire savannah right now? That was us. We're good at cleaning stuff up."

"You could have just told me," Zazu said, folding his wings, feeling rather betrayed by Pori. "I could have helped you."

"Sorry, but I like to keep things private," Pori said. "And I couldn't risk you blowing my cover."

"Blowing your cover?" Zazu exclaimed. "I would never betray one of my own friends! Why, even the King—"

"The King is the very animal I believe that the parasite has infested itself in," Pori explained to him. "The Queen, too— probably. And I'm too late to stop it from killing this entire kingdom."

"So this… this parasite is responsible for this horrible display of death and destruction before us, then?" Zazu presumed, gesturing with a wing to the dead corpses on the ground. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yes," Pori said. "And I need your help to stop it. Before…" She trailed off.

"Before what?" Zazu asked, afraid of the answer.

"Before it kills the entire world."