(A/N: I'm super super sorry for not updating for nearly a year! I've been super busy as well as dealing with personal issues plus writer's block, and that's not a fun combination. But I hope you enjoy this chapter, and HAPPY 2016!)

SIMBA'S POV

I took Kiara out with me each day during the morning patrols because she was "bored to death" in that cave without Kopa to play with. She, ironically enough, did not spare a thought for Kopa's level of boredom, because he was not even allowed to leave the cave.

Anyway, I was taking Kiara out this one morning, and something seemed…off in the air. My mother, Sarabi, had recently announced her pregnancy to the pride, but didn't reveal who the father was. We accepted it and moved on—I mean, Mufasa, my father, had died quite a while ago…

Sarabi was going to be perfectly safe. That visit to Rafiki's, she told us, had happened a month ago, and she was due any day now. Rafiki had stationed himself in the cave, because Sarabi was a bit on the older side, and he wanted to make sure that she was going to be "absolutely fine." Nomalanga and Fatima, the older lionesses of the pride, were with her as well.

Nala's job was to keep all cubs away from Sarabi's resting area. My job? Well, kingly duties as well as entertaining my daughter. I usually took Kiara around the borders, just as Mufasa did with me, but I omitted the "light touching the borders" part. Look where that got me.

The water hole was the ideal place for Kiara to play, with all the other grazing animals around and with its location being far away from the Outlands. Hopefully, with Zira's re-broken leg, she'd be able to lay low for another couple of months. In that time, Kopa would be free of his punishment (which I approved of whole-heartedly) and the siblings would be playing together again and I could do my kingly duties without checking behind my back every two seconds to see if Kiara was following me.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I totally jinxed that last thought. I was taking her out just like any other day, when I looked behind me, thinking it was oddly quiet, and she was missing.

Again.

I growled in frustration. The first couple times she did this, she turned out to be purposefully hiding from me.

"Zazu? Zazu!" I hollered.

The little bird came swooping down out of nowhere. "Yes, Sire?"

"Would you mind scouting around for Kiara? The little bugger has run off again. And make sure you check every nook and cranny! Report back to the cave when you've found her or have any news of her!" I snapped.

Zazu gulped and flew off. I groaned in frustration and began the nice, tedious process of worrying and sniffing every inch of the ground.

KIARA'S POV

Daddy was boring. Every morning he took me on the same route, with the same commentary ("Don't ever go in those shadowy lands, Kiara." "This watering hole is for the antelope only, so you can't go there. You'll scare all of them off, and the circle of life will be unbalanced." "I know you're bored, darling, but you simply can't run off on your own." "Do you want me to tell your mother?") and so on.

So I run away and try to play by myself for a bit, until Zazu or Daddy finds me. But today, I ran toward the "dark shadowy lands." I'd met Nuka and Kovu and Vitani there before, with Kopa, and they were much more interesting than Daddy.

But guess what? I did run into them, quite literally.

"Ow!" a dark bundle of fur rolled toward my face, and I jumped back, but not nearly fast enough to avoid getting crushed on my nose.

"Hey!" I snapped, my tail flexing irritably. "Watch where you're go—Kovu?!"

The bundle of dark fur rolled out into a lion cub. "Kiara!" he smiled, showing tiny canines.

"Kovu, are Nuka and Vitani with you?"

"Yeah! Nuka! Vitani! Look who's here!" he exclaimed excitedly, bounding towards his older siblings. We soon engaged in a fierce game of hunt-the-mouse (the mouse being Nuka's scraggly mane), each of us taking turns trying to pounce on his head. Poor Nuka had no idea what we were doing.

VITANI'S POV (Yes, she has her own POV now)

After doing what Mother calls "frolicking into doom," Nuka, Kovu, Kiara, and I all flopped down on the grass, I seemingly exhausted.

"Well," I panted, looking at Kiara. "I—heard—that one of—the lionesses—in your—pride—is pregnant—is that right?" I let out a huge exhale every other word, just to emphasize the panting. Both Kovu and Kiara fell for it, but Nuka knew exactly what I was doing.

"Oh, that would be my grandmommy, Sarabi. She's due real soon," Kiara chirped. The little idiot.

"Oh, who's the father?" I asked, seemingly curious.

"She wouldn't tell anyone," Kiara mumbled, suddenly uncomfortable. "But I overheard my mommy and her the other night, and my mommy said she'd been dreaming about a dark cub with green eyes with a scar over his eye. And then my grandmommy said that the cub was fathered by Scar!"

Nuka and I glanced at each other, eyes wide. Once Mother found out about this, she'd be furious. Beyond furious. Inescapably maniacally horrendously terrifyingly—I think you get my point—just as angry as anger can go.

"S-Scar's cub? Sarabi is carrying Scar's cub?!" Kovu exclaimed.

Kiara slapped her tail over his mouth. "Sh!" she snapped. "Just go and tell the whole desert that, will ya?"

"Sorry," he muttered, looking abashed. Geez, for a little cub, she was pretty sassy.

"Oh," I said suddenly, preparing to report back to Mother. "Oh, the heat!" I swooned and fell right onto Nuka's paws.

"Bring us home," I hissed at his bent head.

"Oh, it's so hot!" I continued complaining. Nuka, the idiot that he is, took a full five seconds to process what I was trying to do and then jumped, jostling my skull.

"Oh, I have to get her home! Bye Kiara!" he shrieked and grabbed me by the scruff and waited for Kovu to follow.

We ran home to tell Mother the news.

ZIRA'S POV

I saw red. Not for the first time, obviously, but this was a different shade of red. Kind of like magenta. How could Scar just betray me like that? After all I did for him…he just ups and mates with a much older, much uglier lioness?

Who does that?!

Obviously, Sarabi would have to be killed, and the cub too. Only I and Kovu could take over the Pride Lands. Kovu was the rightful heir to the throne, and I the rightful Queen.

"It's time to put this plan in motion," I snickered, vision tinged with red.

SARABI'S POV

I felt like I was being suffocated. Honestly. And drowned. But they're the same thing, so never mind.

Anyway, I was not allowed to leave the cave. King's orders. I was due any day now, so it was understandable—but I needed some alone time. Three lionesses guarding the entrance to the cave, day and night. My meals were brought to me. Two lionesses accompanied me to the water hole and to do my business. I felt trapped.

That is, until one day, a rogue lion appeared in the pride. He was proving to be a threat, so Simba ordered all members of the pride—including me—to go and assemble before him.

In other words, he was letting me out of the cave for a meeting.

Me.

Alone time.

Yes!

I understood that Simba, my only son, was a bit overprotective of his mother—me—especially after what happened with Mufasa, but honestly—I could take care of myself.

Eh, or so I thought.

It happened so fast I don't even remember much.

I shot out of the cave in my pregnant glory, belly swinging, tail flinging, me huffing, as I stole away for some me time, even if it was only for five minutes.

The older lionesses—my generation lionesses—sprang after me immediately, but I was faster, spurred on by pure exhilaration.

Before I knew it, I'd raced to the border, and planned to run back—just a regular patrolling jog route—when a scruffy, skinny, orange blur landed in front of me.

"Hello, Sarabi," the orange blur purred. The orange blur turned out to be Zira, red eyes staring at my bulging belly.

"Zira," I nodded curtly, hoping to step around her with dignified grace and be on my way, but she obviously had other plans.

Obviously.

She clucked her tongue and three other lionesses surrounded me, appearing out of the grass, circling me.

"What's this, Zira?" I asked breezily. "An escort back to Pride Rock? How kind of you."

"Ah, no, honey," she purred back silkily. "Simply an escort…to hell! Girls!" and the three other lionesses sprang, and the last thing I was conscious of was the sensation of dizziness and the color black around me.

SIMBA'S POV

Not counting Rafiki and the cubs, there were three members of the pride missing. At the time, I thought nothing of this, nor did I make the connection—they were probably just hunting or something and missed my call. I had a rogue to deal with right now.

The rogue was quite a handsome one, at that—he was golden, had a fluffy, impressively grown mane, and a deep baritone voice that had even my mate—MY MATE, NALA!—swooning a bit.

And I listened to his story—Nudara, his name was—said he had just been pushed out of his former pride and left alone to start a new one when he ran into ours. His story was just like any other young lion's story—usually, at the age of three, they were pushed out to try and form their own pride.

However, I was willing to suspect Nudara of laziness or some other ulterior motive because of an odd twinkle in his amber eyes.

"Unfortunately, Nudara, I cannot accept you into my pride—" I began, after some time pretending to consider his request, when Nomalanga barreled into me.

"Sire! Simba—sire, sir! You need to come straightaway! There's something you have to see! Your mother—she—" Nomalanga practically bawled as I righted her, and her tears fell into my mane.

"What—alright, Nala, you handle this," I instructed my mate. "Zazu, come with me." Nudara looked on uncomprehendingly as I raced back with Nomalanga to the borders of the Outlands.

When we arrived, Zira was already standing there, her snout triumphantly stained with my mother's blood and in the mouth of one of her assistants, the unborn lion cub.

"Zira! What—have—you—done!" I practically groaned, bending over my mother's body and lashing my tail out.

"Oh, you don't know?" she grinned, revealing her red canines, "I've just gotten rid of Scar's spawn for you! Isn't that what you wanted?"

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!" I roared, and yelled for Zazu to get Rafiki immediately while I tended to Zira—as in, kicked her blundering arse out and never let it back in.

Rafiki soon showed up, bumbling and humming, while I kind of sat on my haunches and watched it all through a dream. I was vaguely aware of Nala showing up behind me, her gasp, and her sending a party of lionesses after Zira and her three assailants. Nomalanga buried the unborn cub right at the border and stuck a bone in the soil to mark the place.

? ? ?

The first thing that brought me back was Kopa's voice.

"Dad—dad? Dad, wake up! Come on—we gotta go home," he sobbed, and I realized that I had sat down in front of my dead mother, her belly torn open, her blood still pooling onto the earth, and despite Rafiki's best efforts—she was gone.

"You—you go along home, son," my voice was dry and cracked from disuse, and speaking was so painful I figured I must have let loose more than five roars since that morning. No wonder Kopa looked terrified of me. "I'll just stay here for a bit."

"No—Mom wants you home, Dad," Kopa whimpered. "Come on, Dad. We—we can come visit Grandma another time, okay? Ra-rafiki can bury her—he—he knows the drill," he cried as he pulled my tail back, pulled my mane, and generally tried to push me away from Sarabi.

Even as a young lion cub, he knew that it wasn't good for me to stare at my dead mother and sit vigilantly—if not for him, I might have sat there until I turned to bones.

After what felt like a hundred years, I took one last look at my mother. "Goodbye, mom—and I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you—and I'm sorry, I was such a horrible son—I never meant to leave you with Scar…but I hope you're with your cub, and with Dad, and you're in a happy place…and…I—I love you, mom."

Kopa sobbed again, stammering out, "Bye—Grandma, I—I love you," and quickly raced back to Pride Rock, not even daring to look back, while I trudged back slowly.

And it was then that what Zira said earlier registered in my mind—Scar's spawn.

ZIRA'S POV

"No, it's perfect!" I agreed, nursing my slightly injured paw. "Simba will never expect another attack so soon. He'll think we're going to lay low for a while, like we did last time—but that's not going to happen, is it, girls?" I snickered, and my faithful three assailants laughed along with me.

SIMBA'S POV

Nala hadn't told me anything was wrong—to be honest, I think she was as out of it as I was. She was shaken by Sarabi's death, almost as much—if not more—than I was, perhaps because she had spent so much time with my mother while I was…er…away.

But I was plenty out of it, too, and I hadn't been paying attention about where my cubs were—oh, and I was so stupid, I can't believe I let it happen, right after my mother, too…

But I was out on patrol, absentmindedly, while Zazu was at my shoulder as always, chittering on about what was happening that day, while I pretended to listen.

I wasn't focusing until Zazu literally planted himself on my face, flat, and yelled, "SIRE! WHAT IS THERE UP AHEAD!" and I realized he'd been asking me the same question for the past half an hour, and I bounded toward the mystery object.

As I got closer, I realized it was not an object—it was a body, lying spread-eagled on a flat rock, just about roasting in the hot sun. There was blood lying around it, and I had to stop for a minute, compose myself, and ask, "Zazu, please fly ahead and tell me that's just a gazelle. Or an antelope. Not one of the rare species in my land. Please."

Zazu, obedient as ever, flew up ahead and came back, quite in worse condition than before. "No, Sire, it's not a gazelle…or an antelope…but…"

"But what?" I muttered, not daring to look any further.

There was no response.

"Zazu, but what?"

"ZAZU, AS YOUR KING, I COMMAND THAT YOU ANSWER ME AT ONCE! BUT WHAT?!" I hollered.

"Sire, I'm so sorry. It's Kopa."