After being told that they may both stay in King Julien's kingdom and King Julien himself had left the scene, Zora and the older Julien were approached by none other than Ted and Dorothy, who invited them over for breakfast at their house. The older Julien and Zora were both surprised by this sudden show of hospitality to say the least but still, it did pique their interests and it wasn't like they had anything else planned. So they accepted the invitation and soon, all four lemurs were in Ted and Dorothy's home, with Ted preparing the food while everyone sat around the kitchen table, Dorothy sitting on one side while their guests sat on the other. There wasn't much conversation at first, mainly just bits and pieces like "You want any juice?" and "How do you like your mangos cut up?" A few awkward words sprinkled here and there among Ted slicing through fresh fruit and the sweet smells released, all drifting up and mixing into the air of awkwardness that hung over them all.

"Sooo, uh, heh heh." Ted said, awkward and nervous as he set down everyone's food on the table before he himself took a seat next to his wife. "I'm sure you're both wondering why in the world did we invited you here."

"Yes, we are." The older Julien said curtly while scowling at his hosts.

"Jules! Manners!" Zora scolded him through clenched teeth. This first surprised Julien, then also annoyed him and he opened his mouth to protest. But then closed it, crossed his arms and pouted instead. Zora turned back to their hosts and said warily, "But yes, we are curious about that."

"Yeah, we-we figured." Dorothy said, awkward and nervous like her husband and also like him, unnerved by the harsh amber gaze of her former king. "Well, Ted and I, we've been talking and we wanna know if...you two haven't found a place to live yet, have you?"

"No, there hasn't really been any time for that." Zora told her, slowly and as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Yeah, we-we figured." Dorothy said. Then, a thought came to her and she asked, curious, "Wait, so did you stay last night then?"

"King Julien let us stay in his home while he stayed at the hospital." Zora explained.

"Oh, well, that was nice of him." Dorothy, pleasantly surprised. Then, realizing that the conversation was getting off track, got it back on by saying nervously, "A-anywho, if things don't go well for Clover and you don't wanna stay with King Julien, then...you're both welcome to stay with us, if you wish."

"What!?" The older Julien incredulously exclaimed as he and Zora stared in shock at their hosts.

"It would only be temporary!" Ted was quick to anxiously explain. "I'm sure you two would rather have your own love nest and King Julien would certainly put you on the list for one if you ask but unfortunately, there's still plenty of other lemurs waiting for their own new homes to be built already ahead of you. So, it would be a bit before your's was gotten around to." He slowed and calmed down as he went to an apologetic tone by the end.

"Hold it, back up." Julien held up his paw in a stopping motion, then put it back down. "What do you mean by 'still plenty'? Just how many lemurs are we talking here? And also, why the sudden high demand for new houses?" He asked critically.

Ted and Dorothy gave each other puzzled looks, then Dorothy said, slowly and as if it was the most obvious thing, "Cause most everyone's old ones were destroyed by all the robots and fires."

"What do you mean, robots and fires!?" Julien snapped, standing up and slamming his palms down on the table, rattling it, the kitchen ware and his host's nerves. "Just what the fuck happened here!? And more importantly, is it gonna happen again!?"

"No! No, that whole mess is over and done, honest! Well, at least the King Julien having Timo build all kinds of contraptions to try and protect the kingdom and things going horribly wrong part anyways." Ted was quick to anxiously explain, then slowed down to uncomfortably admit. Then, he leaned on his elbow and shielded the side of his mouth with his paw as he said in a low gossipy tone, "Honestly, between you and me, I'm not sure KJ's ever gonna ask Timo to build anything for him ever again after all that." Then, Ted became confused and asked, "Wait a minute, why are you going on like you're just hearing about this?"

"Cause we are just hearing about it, you moron!" Julien snapped.

"Protect the kingdom...does that have anything to do with Clover leaving you all for dead!? Yeah, I heard her yesterday!" Zora critically piped in, referring to Clover reminding Campion of her mistake as part of her argument against him the previous day.

"She didn't mean to! It was an accident! A horrible, stupid accident! She thought that we would be safe, we all did! But we were wrong! We were all so wrong!" Dorothy argued her rueful defense, shaking her head in shame. Then, she processed the rest of her guest's words and said in disbelief, "Sweet cheese and crackers, you really don't know what happened, do you?"

"No, we don't." Zora snapped.

"But I thought everyone knew about our troubles by now! How in lands sakes have you two haven't!?" Ted asked with great confusion. For according to multiple sources (including of course Xixi), word of The Lemur Kingdom's misfortunes had spread to just about every corner of the island as the hottest jungle gossip.

"Because we haven't been on this island! We've been on our island for the past month! So, no, we don't know what happened! So I'm gonna ask again, what happened!?" Julien demanded, with Zora too glaring at their hosts.

Ted and Dorothy gave each other uneasy looks, then turned back to their guests, with Ted telling them, "Okay, okay, you both deserve to know. Eat up and get comfy cause it's a bit of a long story."

And so, Dorothy solemnly began the terrible tale.

"Well, it all began not that long after you two got together, dontcha know. When Clover received a letter from Sage, saying that he had important news for her. Well, Clover figured that he was gonna ask her to marry him and got all excited about being his queen and gaining control of his 'super cool army' and all their weapons and having all that power and..." Bitterness drenched Dorothy's words by the end, along with mocking as well. Then, she saw her guest's confused and uncomfortable reactions and became aware of how she sounded. Embarrassed, she composed herself and continued on, though her discomfort was clear to all. "So that meant she wasn't going to be living here anymore. And when King Julien told all of us this, saying outright that she was abandoning us, we panicked."

"But why would he say that? Clover must have reassured him that she was going to train someone to take her place?" Zora inquired, confused and confident that was the case. But then, she saw her host's uneasy expressions that they exchanged with each other and asked with less confidence, "She did tell him that, right?"

Dorothy and Ted lingered on each other for a moment more before facing their guests and Dorothy said solemnly, "No, she didn't tell him that. She didn't tell the rest of us anything before rushing off to meet Sage. It was King Julien who reassured us that we would be alright, that he would train us himself to defend ourselves. That we did it against Koto and...the rest of the mountain lemurs, we could do it again." She stumbled and became even more uncomfortable speaking about The War of The Beasts, hoping that she wasn't offending Zora.

"King Julien? Training you all to fight? Seriously!?" Was Zora's bewildered and critical comment.

"Of all the hair brained...do we even need to ask how that went!?" The older Julien snapped, confident that he already knew the outcome.

"Well, uh...here comes the really hair brained part." Ted said sheepishly. "After a day of...not so great training, the fossa showed up. But everyone thought that they were fake because of Mary Ann and...and because I said that I had a surprise for everyone and everyone figured that was the fossa were the surprise, that I made fake ones for training but I didn't! The fossa were real but nobody knew that but they managed to trick and trap the fossa in a net fore figuring out that they were real! But then, the fossa broke free and we were all so scared that-that we froze and the fossa were gonna kill us but then, Mary Ann and Horst showed up and Mary Ann chased the other fossa away and…!" Ted gained speed as he went until he was frantically telling the tale until he suddenly stopped. He had a brief thoughtful pause while he also caught his breath. And then he continued at a slower pace. At first. "But then, King Julien thought...we all thought that we had proven that we could defend ourselves cause yes, some of us did trap the fossa but the fossa broke free and if weren't for Mary Ann…! She was the real hero but we were so focused on ourselves and what we had done right but not on what we had done wrong or her and then Sage proposed to Clover and then it was all about the wedding and love and nobody thought about Mary Ann or kingdom security until it was too late and...oh dear gods, we were so stupid!" Ted finished his rueful lament, propping his elbows on the table and holding his head in his hands.

"No shit, Sherlock!" Now it was Zora's turn to snap, beating the older Julien to it. To stand up and slam her paws down on the table, to rattle that, the kitchen ware and the nerves of her hosts, making them practically jump out of their skins. "Are you seriously telling me that no one saw any flaws with that logic!? Not even Clover!? And when you say that no one thought of Mary Ann or anything to do with everyone's safety, that includes Clover!?"

To which Ted and Dorothy each gave uneasy nods in response.

"I don't believe this! She really didn't…?! She didn't even access your 'training', to make sure that you could actually defend yourselves!? Or check on Mary Ann!? Maybe figure out why the fossa were attacking you all when Mary Ann is supposed to...unless they...rebelled against her..." Zora's scathing assessment petered out as realization dawned on her, her last few words coming out as stunned horror.

"Yes, they did." Ted said solemnly. "According to Horst, they heard about Clover leaving and they were tired of listening to Mary Ann so, they struck. But we thought...we thought that Mary Ann had everything under control, that we wouldn't have to worry them again but we were wrong! Oh so wrong! During Clover and Sage's wedding reception, after they left, the fossa came back and we all panicked again but this time...this time the fossa were able to...to...oh dear gods..." Ted couldn't finish his woeful response, covering his mouth with his trembling paw and looking away, squeezing his eyes shut as his mind replayed that terrible night.

"There were lemurs that didn't make it." Dorothy solemnly finished for him, her words weighted down by sorrow and her own eyes starting to get misty.

Zora and the older Julien were both taken aback by just how saddened their hosts had become and Zora felt a pang of sympathy as she imagined that the couple must had lost someone dear to them that day.

"None of us saw Mary Ann that night or any of the other times that the fossa have attacked since then. Nobody know's what's happened to her. The general consensus round here is that she either betrayed us lemurs so she could keep being queen or that she was deposed and...and killed by the other fossa." Dorothy continued to say solemnly, stumbling on the last few words, once more feeling a sharp pang in her heart at the thought of Mary Ann being torn apart by her own people.

"They're hunting lemurs again…!" Zora said with stunned horror as the gravity of it all truly hit her, her eyes widening with terror as she helplessly stared at her hosts. "They're hunting lemurs again…!" were the only words she could speak as it all hit her like a tidal wave, pulling her down, surrounding and smothering her with it's crushing, consuming weight.

Julien too stared at his hosts with wide eyes filled with terror, the gravity of it all hitting him like boulders down a mountain side, slamming into and pinning him under it's crushing weight, it's razor sharp edges pressing down and cutting deep into his heart. He started to breathe heavier and said, his words drenched with dread, "She's dead...Mary Ann's dead!"

This pulled Ted and Dorothy out of their somber memories, now looking at their guests with concern, with Ted saying gently,

"We don't know that for sure..."

"Are you kidding me?!" Julien snapped, causing his hosts to wince back. "Fossa don't forgive, especially not lemur loving traitors who screw them out of their favorite food! So even if Mary Ann had wanted to betray you guys, it wouldn't have mattered! Her people wouldn't have accepted her back and they wouldn't have just let her leave and risk her warning all of you either! Face it, they killed her! She's dead! She's gone!...She's gone...she's gone..." His critical comment petered out, his voice lowering to barely above a stunned, terrified whisper, "She's gone and now there's no one holding the fossa back."

Julien then looked over to Zora and saw that she was looking back at him, saw her own feelings of fear and helplessness within her gaze and a fresh wave of panic gripped Julien's heart, squeezing it ever tighter and piercing through with it's razor sharp claws, the blood pouring out in his frantic words as he turned back to his hosts and beseeched them,

"Please tell me you finally got a working security system! Tell me that something or someone is guarding the kingdom right now! Tell me that you're not all sitting ducks here! You can't be! My nephew wouldn't be arguing for Zora and I to stay here if you were! So tell me that something is protecting you! Tell me that someone will be protecting Zora and the baby! Please! Please tell me that they'll be safe!"

Ted and Dorothy didn't answer right away but instead silently stared back at the older Julien, so taken aback they were by his passionate plea. By the hope and fear in his softened gaze which matched that of Zora, who was also looking to them and waiting with bated breath for their answer. Then after a moment or two, Dorothy was able to recover from her shock enough to say with cautious optimism,

"Yes, yes there is someone protecting us now. And if you ask me, he's been doing a pretty job so far."

And just like that, both Julien and Zora let out shaky relieved breathes, both feeling the pressure wrapped around their hearts being lifted while the tension from their bodies seemingly melted before Ted and Dorothy's eyes. Then, the couple embraced and Julien said with breathless relief as he nuzzled his head against Zora's chest,

"Oh thank Frank!"

While Zora nuzzled her chin against the top of his head. And kept it there a moment later as she looked back to her hosts and asked, happy and impatient,

"Well, who is it?"

Ted and Dorothy exchanged nervous looks, then Ted tentatively said, "Uh, well...th-that's a good question! Um...Zora, do you ….remember Dr. S?", and gave a fake nervous smile.

This caused Julien and Zora to pull apart and look at their hosts with wary confusion and Zora said,

"Yes, I remember him. He's the mad snake doctor who loves to treat his patients like lab rats. What does he have to do…?" And then, she understand and started to slowly shake her head and said with stunned disbelief, "No..."

"Yes..." Ted timidly told her, steeling himself for the backlash.

"He can't be…!" Julien said, he too in disbelief.

"He is." Dorothy said meekly, she too bracing herself.

"But he...has King Julien gone mad?!" Zora snapped. "It's bad enough that he trusts that psycho to be your doctor but this!? Why would he...what is he thinking!?"

"That's what I would like to know!" Julien furiously demanded, his amber glare now blazing over the thought of his nephew's latest instance of reckless stupidity. For he knew of the snake doctor's infamous reputation from jungle gossip and Zora's stories from her brief time living in his nephew's kingdom.

"Now, now I know it sounds a little crazy..." Ted tried to be reassuring while failing to hide his own anxiety.

"A little crazy? A little crazy?! My nephew has done stupid shit before but this!? He's reached a whole new level trusting that psycho!" Julien furiously argued.

"That 'psycho' has been saving our lives!" Dorothy argued back.

"What!?" Both Julien and Zora shouted incredulously.

"It's true!" Ted said with great conviction. "The whole reason King Julien hired Dr. S in the first place was cause Dr. S saved him and Nurse Phantom from a fossa! And that made King Julien figure that if Dr. S could protect them, then he could protect the rest of us as well and he has! Over and over again! And I know it's hard to believe but Dr. S really is taking his new job very seriously! Way more then he does being a doctor! He's even been training with Clover so he can do an even better job of protecting us then he already has!"

"But...he's...seriously? He's..." Words escaped a stupefied Julien while Zora said with both exasperation and bewilderment,

"I don't believe this. I don't believe this! Why would he suddenly...and now Clover finally decides to train someone!?"

To which Dorothy scowled and angrily argued with great conviction, "Yes and she feels terrible for taking so long! Like Ted said, she was caught in the moment like the rest of us and thought everything would be fine! She didn't even know that anything had gone wrong until after the whole robot fiasco was already over! And ever since she has, she's done nothing but own up to her mistakes and is trying to atone for them, which includes training Dr. S! And also agreeing to that if he ever can't keep us safe, then she'll come back here to resume her old job so that she can!"

"...Was this Clover's idea or someone else's?" Was Zora's critical question.

"Someone else's but she's been agreeable with the whole thing!" Dorothy said in defense.

"Maybe the reason she's been so agreeable is so that you and everyone else won't see her as the bitch who doesn't give a flying fuck about any of you!" Zora snapped.

Both Dorothy and Ted breathed in sharp gasps with their eyes going wide like four small suns and Ted covering his mouth with his paws. Then, Dorothy's wide stare turned into a tight glare and she said with a snarl,

"What did you say?"

"I'm saying that bitch only cares about being a queen and having all the power and that she didn't bother to ensure your safety on purpose because she doesn't care if you all live or die!" Was Zora's scathing retort.

"I can't believe...That little…! Julien had gone from shocked to furious, ready to agree with his lover but was interrupted by Dorothy, who snapped,

"That's not true! We literally just told you that she was caught in the moment like everybody else by…!"

"And I'm telling you that I don't believe for one moment that Clover could be that stupid!" Zora snapped back.

"We were that stupid!"

"Oh, I can believe that with you and most everybody else but not Clover! Not when it comes to warfare! She is a warrior! She would never slip up in such a stupid manner with something that important!"

"She could if love was making her stupid!"

"Love!? Wait, what!?" Zora said with exasperated confusion.

"Yes! Love! Everyone here was so wrapped up in Clover and Sage's love that everything else was just shoved aside to where we all didn't even think to be afraid of the fossa attacking again! Us! Lemurs not afraid of fossa attacking! Cause love us that dumb and I believe that's what happened to Clover too! That she was so wrapped up with being in love that it made her dumb and made her not think about it!" Dorothy argued passionately.

After a stunned moment of both herself and Julien staring at Dorothy as if she had just suggested that all the fossa ready wanted was to be friends with the lemurs, Zora snapped,

"Are you fucking kidding me!? You're seriously expecting us to believe that pack of bull!?"

"It's not a pack of...bologna!" Dorothy snapped back.

"Oh yes it is and we're not buying it!" Julien furiously proclaimed.

"Why not!? If I can be so distracted by somebody else's love, then why not Clover, the one actually in love!?" Dorothy demanded to know.

"Cause this is Clover!" Julien furiously argued back. "You know, Clover? Always crazy paranoid about everything Clover? Always thinking of a thousand ways that everything can go wrong Clover? Always coming up with outlandish solutions for every fucking scenario Clover?! That kind of paranoia doesn't just magically go away all cause she's got the hots for air headed man candy!"

"And I say it can!" Ted passionately argued. "Cause love is that powerful! Powerful enough so that things that used to matter so much suddenly don't matter at all! You of all lemurs know that!"

"Excuse me!?" Julien said with exasperated confusion.

"You tried to steal the throne from King Julien for seasons but then, you fell in love with Zora and suddenly all that scheming and back stabbing didn't matter anymore! Cause love made you think differently and if it can do that to you, then why can't it have done the same thing to Clover?"

"How dare you...you...you…!" Julien struggled to find the words to express his fury.

"How dare you compare my Jules to that power hungry bitch!" Zora expressed it for him and for herself, standing up and slamming her paws down on the table once more, with Ted recoiling from her anger.

"Clover isn't power hungry and she ain't a...that terrible word!" Dorothy snapped.

"Oh yes she is and I am tired of listening to you defending her! I'm done!" Zora furiously proclaimed, taking her paws off the table to stand up straight, looking down at her hosts with a scathing glare. Then, she turned to Julien and said to him, "Let's go, Jules!" Then started towards the door.

Julien hesitated, wanting to farther berate his hosts, lingering in his chair for a moment more as he shot fiery hot daggers at them. Then, he stood up, followed his lover's lead and threw one last scorching scowl in his host's direction before slamming the door shut behind him.

…..

After seeing Clover and company off, King Julien, Maurice and Dr. S went off in search of Zora and the older Julien. They soon found the couple at a watering hole, by themselves away from the handful of other lemurs gathered there as well. They were sitting on the bank, pressed by against each other as they both stared across the pool, barely hearing the surrounding chatter of lemurs trying to enjoy it's refreshing water in spite of their unwanted guests. For their fear and anger was now simmering below the surface as their thoughts swirled within their minds like a million leaves caught in a tropical storm. They certainly felt like leaves, caught in the middle of a whirlwind situation of which they had no control of nor any clue of it's course.

The contemplating couple were so deep in their own dark thoughts that they didn't notice King Julien, Maurice or Dr. S approaching until King Julien gave them a nervous and awkward greeting.

"Uh, hi?"

This startled the pair, causing both of them to quickly and anxiously get up and turn towards the sudden sound of his majesty's voice. And that's when they saw King Julien and his companions standing before them.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you guys! I was just...wanting to see what you two were up to, that's all." King Julien gave an anxious apology which slowed down to awkwardness.

To which the older Julien scowled and snarled in response, "Well, we just found out that your kingdom isn't as safe as we thought!", his sharp words causing his nephew confusion and unease. "That the fossa are a threat again and the only line of defense this place has is him!" The older Julien snapped, looking from his nephew to Dr. S, who recoiled from his smothering glare. He looked away only to find Zora giving him her own evil eye as well.

"Found out? Wait, you mean, you two didn't know about Dr. S before!?" Maurice asked with confusion and concern.

"No cause we've been in Feartopia!" The older Julien explained, then turned to snap at King Julien, "We thought that Mary Ann was still keeping the other fossa away but we just found out that she's not cause she's dead!"

This took King Julien aback for a moment, then he tried to argue, "Nobody knows that for sure! She could be…!

"Don't you start on that too! Mary Ann's dead, the fossa are hunting lemurs again and the only thing standing between them and us is him!" Was the older Julien's scathing retort, his last word drenched with extra venom as he stretched out an arm to point out Dr. S, who winced in response. "All because that bitch Clover left you all for dead!"

Shocked gasps rippled through the small crowd that had gathered closer so they could better hear the conversation between uncle and nephew. Heads turned towards King Julien and company, all three of whom also gasped and stared in wide eyed shock and horror at the older Julien. Then, King Julien was the first to get over his shock enough to furrow his burrow and say with a dangerously low snarl,

"Take. That. Back!"

"No! Zora and the baby's lives are at risk because that bitch couldn't be bothered to do her job one more fucking time!" The older Julien furiously argued.

"Stop calling her that! Clover is not that and it was an accident! A horrible mistake she made because love was making her stupid!" King Julien furiously argued back.

"Don't you give me that bullshit excuse! You may be a bunch of morons but Clover knows better! She knew exactly what she was doing!"

"No she didn't!"

"Yes she did!"

"No she didn't!"

"Yes she did!" A new voice suddenly snapped.

This caught everyone off guard, causing eyes to look this way and that and the older Julien to demand, "What the...who said that!?"

"I did!" The voice proclaimed and it's owner stepped out of the stunned crowd. It was a lady lemur, about middle aged, with short gray-brown fur speckled with white and silver. Her light gray face was tightened into a scowl while her light blue eyes glared ice cold daggers aimed at both uncle and nephew as she came towards them.

"I can't believe I'm actually fucking agreeing with you, of all lemurs, but I am! Cause you're right! The fossa killed Mary Ann because Clover stabbed her, stabbed all of us in the back! Though, I gotta warn ya, good luck getting him to admit it!" She told the older Julien with sharp bitterness and thrust out an arm to point out King Julien. "According to him, his precious Clover can do no wrong!"

"Hey! I just said that Clover made a horrible mistake but that was an accident! A horrible stupid accident! She didn't mean to hurt anyone!" King Julien earnestly argued in defense.

"Oh, she didn't mean to, huh? It was an accident, right? She's so sorry, right?! Ha!" The lady said with blatantly bitter sarcasm which became sincere bitterness by the end. She then turned to the older Julien and Zora. "Ya see what we've had to deal with?! The same excuses day in and day out defending her, our feelings be damned! Oh, and speaking of, you wanna know the real reason why he wants both of you to stay here so badly!?" Neither Zora nor the older Julien responded right away, for they were too taken aback by the sudden ranting of this random lemur.

Who didn't wait for a response but went on to say, "I'll tell ya why! To please Clover! Yeah! So that maybe she won't have to deal with more angry subjects! Which she's probably gonna have to anyways but that's okay! She can just call on her good buddy, King Julien! He'll be more than happy to help, by any means! And if that means that we have to fight a mountain lemur uprising in under to get her kingdom back, then so be it!" She proclaimed with manic fury drenched in bitter mocking, spreading out an arm to point out her fellow citizens behind her.

Gasps rang out and heads turned towards King Julien and company once more, seeing that the trio was taken aback as well. Only this time, it was Maurice who got over his shock first to say,

"What!? No! No, they wouldn't do that! King Julien and Clover wouldn't do that to you for anything!" He earnestly argued, turning from the lady to the crowd.

"It's true!" King Julien also earnestly argued to his people. "If Clover's peoples do rebel and she and Sage get kicked out of their kingdom, I'm sure they'd come here and ask for a place to stay but Clover wouldn't demand that we fight a war and I wouldn't either!"

"Like hell you wouldn't! You'd do anything to help your beloved Clover!" The lady snapped.

"Of course I would help her! I'd invite her and Sage to live here! Not risk your lives by dragging you all into a war and even if I wanted to, Clover wouldn't! She wouldn't want any of you to get hurt and neither do I! I love you guys!" King Julien continued his earnest argument.

"Love us? You love us?! You sure have a fucking funny way of showing it! Going on and on about how Clover cares about us when she's the bitch who left us all to die!" Was the lady's furious retort.

Shocked gasps filled the air once more as memories of Horst describing Clover with the same derogatory term came flooding back to the forefront of most everyone's minds, along with King Julien's reaction. People had expected history to repeat itself between nephew and uncle before both were so suddenly interrupted. Now they wondered just what his majesty's reaction would be towards this new offender and looked expectantly to their king.

Whose amber eyes went wide like two small suns before then narrowing into a scorching glare, a threatening inferno sparked within as King Julien said with a dangerously low snarl,

"Take. That. Back!"

"Or what? You'll hit me too!? Go ahead! It'll be nothing compared to what you and that bitch have already done!" The lady snapped, bitter sorrow lacing her furious words. By that point, her eyes had grown misty and she took a shaky breath before narrowing them into a bitterly cold scowl and saying with a snarl, "Lemurs are dead because of her! Or have you already forgotten all about them!?"

King Julien's breath caught in his throat and the blaze in his gaze was stomped out. For he knew that she was referring to those unfortunate lemurs caught by the fossa during Clover and Sage's wedding reception, carried off to never be seen again.

"Have you ever wondered who they were? Their hopes? Their dreams? Their names!?" The lady pressed on.

And King Julien realized with growing horror that he not only didn't know their hopes and dreams but that he didn't know anything about his fallen people. Not even their names! Why didn't he know their names!? Why had he never asked around to find out who they were? They must have living friends and family, why didn't he try to find them? Those living loved ones, they deserved condolences! They deserved apologizes! For while love may have made everyone in the kingdom stupid, so had his stupid training! It made his people overly confident, which made everyone let their guards down! Which made it that much easier for love to make everyone stupid which got his poor peoples killed! He shared the blame for their deaths, the least he could do was apologize and offer compassion to their loved ones left behind!

And then the lady said with bitter sorrow, "Well, I can tell you all that and more about one! Her name was Kate and she was my daughter!"

And in that moment, King Julien felt his heart stop. Frozen not only by her words but also her eyes, both so ice cold while at the same time flooded with agonizing pain. Which became more evident as the beginnings of tears started to appear while her face twisted with an expression of rage and lost.

"My baby is dead because of your beloved Clover!" She said, low and raspy at first, as if being choked by her own misery, before finding her voice to snap.

To which King Julien responded with earnest ruefulness, "It's my fault, too! If it weren't for my stupid training…!"

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" The lady snapped, causing King Julien to wince back. "You have no idea what it's like listening to you defend her! It's like...her betrayal and Kate's death left a knife stuck in my heart and you just keep twisting it and twisting it and twisting it with your 'she's didn't mean to' this and 'she's so sorry' that!" She held a fist over her heart while making twisting motions to emphasis her anguished scathing retort. "Making it bleed all the more because you don't care about anyone or anything but your Clover and your never ending quest to make her love you back!"

"W-what!?" King Julien shouted, greatly confused.

"What? You thought that we were too stupid to notice? Newsflash, we did! We all know that you are madly in love with Clover!"

"What!? No I'm not! I don't love Clover! I mean, I do love her but not in that way! I love her like I love you guys! As my friends! As my family! I love Clover as my family! As my really violent sister friend! You-you guys know that, right?" King Julien said, incredulous and frantic as he looked around at his people, slowly down as he desperately searched for someone to back him up. But besides the lady, all his other people avoided his eyes while looking very uncomfortable. Even his uncle, Zora and Dr. S were the same way. But then, King Julien's gaze landed on Maurice, who returned it with an uneasy expression. At this, King Julien quickly kneeled down and placed his paws on his friend's shoulders.

"Momo! You know that I love Clover as a friend, right? Just as a friend, right?" King Julien asked of him, desperate while also certain that his friend would give him the answer that he wanted, that he needed. "...Momo?" He asked with less certainly when Maurice hesitated to give that answer.

"King Julien, I...I..." Maurice was lost for words, desperately searching for something to say while dreading the thought of saying anything at all.

Meanwhile, dread spread even farther through out King Julien's heart, which he tried to hide but didn't fully succeed as he asked once more, pleading with both voice and eyes, "Momo?"

Maurice knew that he had to say something, anything but before he could, the lady spoke once more.

"Ya see?! Everyone knows! And that's the real reason why you want Clover to leave Sage! So she'll come running to you and that's why you keep choosing her over us! To make that happen! Why, instead of dragging that she demon back here to make her protect us, make her pay for her crimes, you instead pull a bullshit story out of your ass about a 'sign from Frank' to justify hiring him!" The lady said with scathing conviction, briefly switching to mocking air quotes before going back to her sincerely irate tone and pointing an accusing at Dr. S, who winced at the attention. "Who you had always known as the psycho who loves to treat your subjects like toys that he can cut open and stitch back together and bring back as unholy abominations! All without giving a flying fuck about us so long as he had someone to play his sick games with! You didn't know that he would actually give a shit and protect us! You had no idea but you hired him anyways, putting our lives on the line all so that you wouldn't have to fuck up your chances of wooing your beloved Clover!" Then, she stopped to huff and puff, catching her breath as she waited for King Julien's response while continuing to glare ice cold daggers aimed his throat, her last sliver of patience ready to snap like an icicle off a roof if he dared to deny his crimes one more time.

But the only response King Julien gave was the sound of his own breathing, which had grown heavier as well but unlike the lady, felt that he couldn't get enough air no matter how hard he tried. And as he felt his head getting lighter, he grabbed it and felt his nails digging into his scalp just as he could feel her words wrapping themselves around his heart like vines, squeezing ever tighter while digging their razor sharp thorns in ever deeper.

Maurice watched his friend with mounting grave concern before scowling and turning to snap at the lady, "King Julien doesn't want Clover to leave Sage because he's in love with her! He wants her to leave Sage because Sage has been an inconsiderate ass! And he didn't lie about the sign! Dr. S did protect him and Nurse Phantom and King Julien did interpret that as a sign from Frank that Dr. S could protect everybody else!" Maurice then turned to the crowd and his tone softened as he continued to earnestly argue, "Cause yes, King Julien was being stupid and stubborn and selfish at the time but he was still thinking of you! Still trying so hard to find a way to keep you all safe! He just wanted a solution that didn't hurt anyone and he thought that Dr. S was that solution and he has!"

"No thanks to King Julien! And do you honestly think that sending away the freaks so that our only protection would be a snake with no experience protecting anything, who we had only known as a psychopath who never cared if we lived or died, all to prove his majesty's point, wasn't hurting anyone!?" Was the lady's critical question.

Maurice gave a gasp, for he knew that she was referring to Dr. S's first time defending the kingdom. After King Julien sent the New York freaks away from the village to see how Dr. S did protecting everyone by himself. After the fossa showed up with no Dr. S in sight. After said fossa cornered lemurs at the medical hut and were just about to have King Julien as their first bite of breakfast, did Dr. S finally swoop in to save the day. The reason why he hadn't done it right away was because he had been out hunting. For the previous weeks had left the snake doctor quite famished and he didn't want hunger to drive him to the point of killing lemurs. So he had gone out to grab a quick bite to eat, figuring that the fossa wouldn't show up during that brief period of time. Both Dr. S and King Julien were truly remorseful for their mistakes. But they were still mistakes that had almost gotten lemurs killed.

Dr. S knew this as well and looked away in shame. Meanwhile, Maurice was taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered to argue with passionate conviction,

"Yes, King Julien made a terrible decision, I'm not gonna deny that! But ever since then, he's been trying so hard to atone it, for all his mistakes! That's why even after being proven right about Dr. S, he still asked all of you if you really felt safe with him guarding the kingdom! Even if it meant bringing Clover back! King Julien gave you that choice cause he wants to do better by you, to listen more and be more considerate of your feelings! That's why he didn't just decide yesterday that his uncle and Zora have to stay here, no ifs, ands or buts! Again, he gave you that choice, even if it meant not being able to help Clover! Cause King Julien knows that your voices deserve to be heard! That they matter! You matter! Cause he loves you!"

"A choice? A choice!? We never had a choice! If we said no to his uncle and Zora living here, then the mountain lemurs would absolutely rebel and we'd all be dragged into that mess! While saying yes has at least given us a small chance that they won't! And as for Dr. S verses Clover, that was a choice between the guy who had just saved our lives verses the bitch who left us to die!" The lady snapped.

"Stop calling her that!" Maurice snapped back.

"No! Clover is a self centered bitch, just like King Julien is a self centered bastard! He talks a big game about loving us but it's all an act! To fool you, Mort, Nurse Phantom and anyone else who'll listen to his bull! He's...he's just like his uncle!" The lady furiously proclaimed, turning to face the older Julien, making him very uncomfortable to be put on the spot. Meanwhile, the lady looked between uncle and nephew as she went on to say, "Both of you don't care about anything but yourselves and what you want and it doesn't matter who you screw over to get it!"

"That's not true!"

"Yes it is!"

As their quarrel continued, Dr. S kept watching it unfold along with most everyone else. That was, until his gaze briefly passed over King Julien. Then he looked again.

"Mister King Julien, are you alright?" Dr. S asked with concern. For King Julien's breathing had become heavier still as his trembling paws still gripped his head as a thousand thoughts and emotions thrashed about within. All while his horror stricken eyes stared down at the ground while his ears rang with all too familiar panic stricken screams mixed with upbeat party music playing in the background.

"Mister King Julien? Mister King Julien!" Dr. S gave out a panicked cry, poking King Julien with his tail but receiving no response. Meanwhile, everyone else had heard him and turned towards snake doctor and king, including the lady and Maurice, the latter's blazing gaze stomped out upon seeing his friend's ever increasing distress.

"King Julien!" Maurice cried out, rushing to stand before his friend and grabbing his arms.

This brought King Julien's rapid breathing to a halt and he finally looked up. And for a moment, his misty dumbstruck eyes stared back into his friend's warm worried gaze.

"King Julien..." Maurice said with gentle sadness.

Then everything once more hit King Julien like a tidal wave, causing him to lank and stumble back away from Maurice, giving his friend a rueful expression before then bolting.

"King Julien!" Maurice cried out but King Julien kept running without looking back, across the clearing and towards the surrounding jungle. Others called out to him as well but one was able to make herself known above the others, all to furiously scream at him one more time.

"Oh, you're running away now, huh? Fine! Go ahead and run! You can't escape the truth!"

And those words rang in King Julien's ears long after he was gone.