The Final Battle
Kovu and Kiara hurried back to Pride Rock and finally, they saw it. "Halali," Kiara said tearfully. "This is our home." Halali looked at the majestic form of the ancient landmark and couldn't say anything but: "Wow." Kiara smiled. "And today, you will finally meet your big brother."
She glanced at Kovu, a little worried, but she forgot about her worries as soon as she looked back at Pride Rock. "Come on, let's go," she laughed and started to run. "Whoah," Kovu giggled. "Haven't seen your Mum so excited in a while."
When they reached Pride Rock, they saw other lionesses in a row outside it. "Kiara!" "Kovu!" Everyone rushed to greet them. "Who is this little fellow?" Kizuka asked and smiled to Halali, making him blush and hide behind his mother. "This is Halali," Kiara giggled. "He's just a little shy." "Where have you been all this time?" Vitani asked. "So many months without telling us a word?!" "Well, we'll explain it later, sis," Kovu grinned uncomfortably.
"First, I want to see Kim, where is he?" Kiara asked thrilled and looked around her searching her son. The lionesses looked at each other and some backed up so they wouldn't have to tell her. "Well?" Kiara asked. "I...I don't think you want to see him right now." Kiara laughed a little. "Of course I do, I've been away for so long, where is he?"
"Brother."
Everyone looked up at the cave. Kim was sitting there, looking straight at Halali, there was no doubt of it. Some lionesses shivered as they saw their rude king and Halali hid himself behind Kiara again.
But Kiara felt joy burst inside her. She ran towards her son. "Kim! Oh, I've missed you so much, Ki--"
She didn't have time to say any more before Scar slapped her right on the face with all his might. Kiara flew through the air and fell to the ground unconcious. "You...So you are Simba's daughter," he growled between his teeth.
"Kiara!" Kovu gasped and ran to help her. But before he reached her, Scar knocked him to the ground, too. "K-Kim...?" Kovu coughed. "And YOU, hand-chosen by ME. How could I be such a fool to trust you?! The minute you saw a Pridelander, you turned your back to your own pride." "K-Kim, w-what...what are you tal-talking about...?!"
Kovu looked at his son and gasped. It wasn't Kim. It was Scar. There were a few minor differences but it was him, Kovu knew it better than anyone. "N-no...I-it can't be you...Y-you're, y-you're dead!" Scar chuckled. "Never speak bad of the dead, Kovu. They just might come back!" He held his paws on Kovu's throat, ready to rip the traitor apart, when he remembered something else.
"No," he smiled. "I won't kill you just yet. I'll do it in a slow and painful way - I'm going to let you watch how I tear my dear little brother to small pieces." "NO!!!" Kiara screamed. "No! You can't do it!" Scar looked at her down his nose, then turned to Halali. Until this moment, the lionesses had been afraid and stayed out of his way, but now they all gathered around Halali to protect him. Somehow they knew he was their only hope. Kovu tried to get up, but Scar only needed to slap him a little an he fell to the ground in pain again. "If-if you h-harm him, I s-swear..." "What do you swear, dear Kovu? You were a fool. You could be the king now, you could have all the power in the Pride Lands if you just would have followed us. But you chose the other path...And now, it's going to turn against you." Scar smiled a little pitifully, then turned to the lionesses again.
"There's no use of trying to protect him, I've already come this far, you can't stop me," he grinned. "Maybe not we, but KIM can," a voice suddenly said from behind everyone. Everyone turned to look, and yes - it was Shani. More courageous than ever. Scar chuckled. "Kim won't be able to do anything about this, either. He took a chance that he cannot take back." "I know he can!" Shani yelled first at Scar, then to Kim. "Kimwondo, come out! I know you can beat him! I know you're still there! I love you, Kim! I love you! If you love me, you can fight him!"
First there seemed to be no reaction. Scar laughed and stepped down. "I told you, it's no use. You'll just have to learn to live with it."
He kept getting closer to the lionesses and Halali, he was almost in the middle of them, when he suddenly backed up. He roared and seemed to struggle against something. The lionesses didn't waste time, one of them grabbed Halali in her mouth and they ran further away from Scar.
"You...can't..do...this...to...me...Kim..." Scar growled angrily as he fought to keep Kim inside him. But this time, Kim would beat someone stronger than him. He never beat Maliki, not on his own, at least, but this time he would fight. He would fight for Shani.
"I - LOVE - YOU - SHANIIII!!!!!" he shouted with all his might and now everyone saw him plunging Scar out of his body, like a black shadow, leaving a new lion in his place. Everyone gasped. It was Kim. The REAL Kim. He had a black, beautiful mane, a golden fur like his mother's and big, red eyes.
Shani looked at him and a loving smile rose upon her face. THIS was the Kim she loved. "KIM!" she yelled with joy. "S-Shani! I-I really did it!" Kim said in an amazed, but beautiful voice that was his own again. "Shani, I did it!" "But not for long," Scar groaned and jumped on Kim. "Kim, look out!" Shani shouted, but too late.
Scar leaped on Kim and pushed him against the ground. "You thought you could mess with me, did you?! I promised I would make you a king, do you remember?!" "Yeah, you promised, alright. But I haven't been a king one day, it was you and only you! And you are NOT a good king!" "I'm the BEST king they ever had!" "No, you're the worst one could imagine. And now you're gonna pay for what you did to Mali, grandpa, Mum, Dad, Shani, grandma, me and everyone else!!!"
Kim somehow got the strength to throw Scar off him and got ready to attack him, but Scar was faster than he expected and got away before Kim could grab him. He ran up Pride Rock, to the top and Kim followed him. "Kim, be careful!" Shani shouted after him. "Don't worry, I will!" Kim saw dark clouds forming to the sky, like an omen, he thought.
He reached Scar at the top, thinking he had gotten him into a trap, but this was part of Scar's plan. "You can't escape this time!" Kim shouted angrily. "So young, so foolish..." Scar laughed. "I'm not trying to escape. This is where I wanted YOU, not the other way. You see, Kim, I need you. And you need me, that's the hard truth." "I don't need you, I never did, you just tried to convince me to believe it, Kim growled. "No, Kimwondo. What about your brother? I did it for you AND me."
Kim felt himself filling with rage. He jumped on Scar and nearly choked him. "SHUT UP! YOU'RE LYING! YOU'VE BEEN LYING ALL THE TIME!" Scar just smiled. "Oh, Kim. It's all your own fault." "What do you mean?!" "It wasn't my idea to kill Maliki, it was YOUR own idea. Otherwise I never would have gotten inside you." He chuckled evilly. "That's a lie! I never wanted to kill him!" "Look back, Kim. Look back at that time. Remember your dream? Remember?! You said you hated him. You said you wanted to get back at him. AND I FELT IT THE WAY YOU DID."
Kim was ready to refuse to believe again, then he remembered. He remembered how the only thing in his mind at the night they returned from the elephant graveyard, was to KILL Maliki. He had been so filled with anger and rage, that he just wanted ti get rid of him for good. To KILL him.
When he was memorizing this, he didn't watch out for himself and suddenly Scar rolled him to the edge of Pride Rock. "You foolish Pridelander!" he hissed. "You are the only thing on my way now. And up here, there's no-one to help you. Now..." he chuckled,
"...prepare to meet the Great Kings of the past."
Kim felt helpless and didn't know what to do. Suddenly, it hit him like a lightning. He looked at Scar and saw what had been the keyword all the time:
Anger.
He smiled to himself, he knew what to do now. "Before you kill me, I want to say two things." Scar lifted his paw to strike him to death, then suddenly stopped for this strange interruption. The brat was spoiling his victory! He looked madly at Kim.
"WHAT?!" "It's my last wish, can you at least be that noble?" Kim smiled carefree. Scar wanted to get this overwith, Kim was the only thing stopping him on his way to power and he wanted to win this time.
"Alright," he groaned. "What?!"
Kim smiled again. "I know what's your strategy." "What are you talking about?" "You said it yourself, if I wouldn't have hated Maliki so badly, you would've never gotten inside me. HATE was your strategy." "Get to the point, I want to kill you already," Scar sounded bored. "But," Kim continued. "You also sai you needed me. So, I figured out--" "What's your point?!" "...that if I die, you have nowhere to live."
Scar froze. "It's true, isn't it?" Kim grinned. "If I die, you don't have a body to live in. I die, you die."
There was something strange in Kim's look and Scar felt nervous. He chuckled nervously. "Eh, look, Kim, I'm sorry for this, I'm sure we can work this out..." He was ready to get off Kim, but suddenly Kim grabbed him and held him there. "The second thing I wanted to say..." he smiled a little sadly, then lifted his head and roared: "I LOVE YOU SHANI!"
Scar's and Shani's screams of horror mixed together, as Kim closed his eyes, grabbed Scar tight and rolled himself of the edge, pulling Scar with him.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Only a few seconds and it was over.
"This is not over, I am the one true king..." Scar's voice still echoed in the wind, finally fading away.
Kim's body lay moveless on the hard rocks. The lionesses gasped in terror. Shani ran to him and nuzzled him.
"Kim? A-are you okay, Kim? It's me, Shani!" But she didn't get a reply. "Kim? Kim, this isn't funny, get up! It's not nice to lie, Kim! GET UP!!!"
She nuzzled him, licked him, pushed him, even bit him to get him up, but he didn't move. Kim was dead.
"Kim..." Shani's jaw trembled, she collapsed to the ground crying her heart out. It had started to rain. It felt lie heaven itself was crying for anohter loss.
Kiara and Kovu rushed to her side, trying to wake their son, but it was no use. Kiara bowed her head and cried too, then finally lifted her head up again and let out a mighty roar.
Kovu joined her and when the rest of the pride found out what had happened, they all joined with them.
After this had stopped, Kovu slowly turned around and padded towards the lionesses. They gave him way, until he was standing in front of Halali. The little cub was still shaking after all this and when he saw his father crying too, he burst into tears. Kovu nuzzled him lovingly and they mourned together. Finally Kiara joined them and licked her son gently. Halali looked at her. She tried to smile, but it was hard. "It's time," she whispered. "T-time for what?" Halali sniffed. Kiara lifted her head up at Pride Rock and repeated the words her father once passed to her: "A king's time rises and falls like the sun. One day I won't be here, and you will have to continue the circle of life." She smiled to herself. She always thought as a cub she didn't need to listen to these things. Now she could understand it all.
She looked at Halali and whispered: "Halali, you are now the future king." Halali's eyes widened and he looked scared at the mighty Pride Rock. "I...I can't...I-I don't know how..." "Don't worry, we will help you, all of us," Kovu said gently. "Now all you need to do is to claim your kingdom."
Kovu and everyone else looked at Pride Rock with silent respect. Kim looked unsure. He turned to Kiara and whispered something to her. Kiara chuckled: "By climbing up Pride Rock."
Halali glanced at her and everyone else. They were all waiting. He slowly started to pad up Pride Rock and the lionesses followed him with their looks. He climbed up the huge cliff, thinking to himself all the time. What would this mean to him? What did kings do? What if he would disappoint everyone?
He was now at the top. He looked down and saw everyone watching him. He looked up and saw a sky of millions of stars. They were each different, some were big, some were smal, but there was one star he could swear he had never seen before. It was one of the brightest and the mos beautiful of all to him. Suddenly he felt something warm inside him, like the star was talking to him.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. A brother's word."
He smiled and looked at the star, then looked down ar the waiting pride and let out the best roar a cub of his size can. The others joined him, to hail the new king of Pride Rock.
The circle was complete.
THE END
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