Chapter 1: Saving the Broken

I do not own the Lion King 2 or any of its content. All rights belong to Disney. I don't own the cover image either.

Enjoy the story!

Granite chipped apart as weight suddenly came crashing down on its brittle exteriors in the gorge. Tiny bits of quartz splintered off along with dust as the world was then shattered into chaos. Airborne dust mingled with fur as two lionesses descended swiftly down the ravine. One, a milkweed lioness with a darker, dorsal stripe running down her forehead, fell freely down the slopes with no signs of stopping. The other, a younger, honey-furred lioness, extended her claws to try and grasp onto the stone to slow her fall.

From up above, several lions gazed in horror at the two's descent. One even, a daring lion with mane of vermillion and pelt of orange, jumped in and grasped onto the walls to assist them. He called out one's name, presumably the one with the honey coloring, for she looked like him and might be related.

The lionesses both kept tumbling down the sides of the ravine. The younger female's efforts by trying to grip onto a ridge in the stone and use her back legs to slow her descent had finally paid off. Her speed gradually came to a stop and her body finally halted right before going over the vertical edge, from which the older female was currently holding onto. Pebbles and dust were pushed off by the younger lioness's back legs and fell freely downward. The rocky substances descended past the lionesses head as it pressed closer to the wall, as if it would aid her body in getting out of the situation she had placed herself in.

All of a sudden, a enormous cracking sound echoed off the rock walls. A dam of logs had been constructed just some ways to the right of the lionesses, and over time a large amount of water had gathered behind it. But as of now, the oddly constructed wall of tree trunks and branches was no longer capable of holding all that liquid back for much longer. Already in some places, later had begun to gush over in small streams over the wood, threatening to grow bigger every second. Since now a lioness dangled over the ravine, she now was faced against both gravity and the soon-to-happen flood in just a moment.

The younger female, now firmly standing down on the ledge above, perked up at the older's small gasps of tiredness and fear. Her head appeared over the ledge, just as the law of force came true once more. Water pushed itself over the top of the dam and came streaming down faster than a cheetah. Seconds passed, and many of the logs broke apart from the dam and followed along in the rapids. The older lioness's eyes turned down and widened at the realization of the other danger she was now in. Her head turned back up and she lifted her paw up more to grasp the bumps in the wall. Just then, the younger's head came visible from on the ledge and her paw draped over the side, reached out towards the older's.

"Zira. Give me your paw," the younger said.

The older lioness's eyes grew wide in shock at first, but narrowed in rage as she took a swipe at the younger's paw with her claws extended out. This action, however, did not leave out the consequences. Instantly, the other paw's hold on the rock began to wane under the added weight, causing the lioness to scrape down the wall a bit more. The younger's determination, however, was not deterred by the added pressure in the situation.

"Zira. C'mon," she called out again. Mica and granite chips fell down from the claw marks in the rock as the lioness kept sliding down. Her crimson eyes changed from rage to fear.

"I'll help you," the younger cried out.

The older's eyes shut for a brief moment as she took the second to think over herself. The tiredness in her muscles was beginning to overpower any strengths she had that was keeping her held up. It wouldn't be long till either her strength or the rock under her paws gave way. Her only option aside from falling a drowning to her doom in the flood below was to grab the younger lioness's paw outstretched to her.

Still, the lioness was Simba's daughter, Kiara. The first and only daughter of her sworn enemy. To allow herself to grasp onto her enemy's paw like that would shame her, shame the entire cause she still held on for.

Why should she even? She had nothing now. Her mate was long dead. Her children, her daughter and son had both betrayed her. Her eldest and last loyal child had been killed in the now-flooding dam below a day before, killed by Simba. Her army had deserted her, defected to the enemy's side. Turned from her loyal followers to her now most hated traitors.

There was nothing for her to hold on to besides this cliff above the raging torrent of fluid below her. It would take only one release and she would fall. Fall, leaving behind everything that was, or had been, above her. The icy waters would sweep her away. The darkness would consume, she would feel no more. When she would wake up again, hopefully she would be reunited with her mate once more. It would be swift and painless and she doubted anyone would miss her.

Still, why was that infernal lioness still holding out her paw to her?

Her arm muscles, the granite wall and gravity didn't give her the time to think. Her claws scraped down the side, sending her body swaying with nothing underneath to hold it up. Her eyes shut tightly in concentration. If she was to fall at this second or any of the seconds that followed, she refused to show fear in front of her enemy, or to even see the shock that would appear on her face as she descended with nothing to stop her. Her time was up, the last of her strength gave way to fatigue. She could grasp on no longer. Her head turned up as she prepared to fall. Her paws started to lift up to as gravity took hold of her.

Red eyes flashed open as a paw was forcibly rammed onto hers back onto the rough stone. Her eyes focused and saw a golden paw with lighter toe fur holding onto hers while an arm extended back up to the top of the ledge and then lioness holding her up still. She stared up at the sudden and strange act she had been pulled into. Her entire body felt numb, yet her other arm subconsciously lifted back up and grasped the side of the wall. Claws extended on their own will and pressed down on a sturdy ridge left untouched by her claw marks before. The flood below her grew farther and farther away as she was lifted higher and higher till her paw hit the top the ledge. She pulled herself up, nearly collapsing onto it.

Her heart echoed on her brain with each beat. Her mind was set only to hear and feel her surroundings. The deep thumb in her chest seemed to lift her chest out more with each breath. Her lungs ached from the quick intakes of air to soothe her aching and tired limbs. Fatigue and dizziness threatened her head and body, but she pushed it away with her alert mind as strongly as she could now.

From beside her, her ears pricked up of the sound of another painting lioness. Her eyes turned and stared numbly at the honey-furred female beside her. After a moment, a pair of eyes matching her own looked up and stared right back at hers. Seconds passed between them, just staring, no sound except for their own labored breaths, beating hearts and, of course, the rushing waters below them.

Finally, she broke the quietness.

"Why?" Her voice was raspy and almost inaudible, though it grew louder and echoed in their minds. "Why did you save me?" Eyes rivaling her color held shock for just a brief second before melting into an emotion that she couldn't begin to understand or describe. Her confusion only grew larger when a small smile made it onto the younger's face.

"I did it because you were in trouble. You were dangling off the side of the cliff, I wanted to save you," she replied. It was a simple response, but it didn't clear up any of the answers she still had in her mind.

"I don't care how you did it. I'm asking why you did it," she asked. The numbness faded away and her eyes narrowed in fury at allowing herself to be so weak to allow herself to be saved by the daughter of her sworn enemy. "Don't you hate me at all? Didn't your daddy ever tell you that Outlanders are dangerous? Didn't he ever tell you that you can never trust us Outsiders? Didn't he ever tell you the reason why we were exiled in the first place? Did he!?"

Fur was on end and her stance was intimidating to say in the least. Anger shown throughout her face and eyes were narrowed with fury. It wasn't hard to imagine why her name could be translated easily into the word 'hate', for that was what one would get a sense of from seeing her. An aura of pure hatred permeated around her. Yet the other lioness remained surprisingly calm. Her form was stilled, yet not ridged as you would expect at this point from the display of fury directed at her. Her expression was silent, yet if you stared into her eyes you would see that deep within their depths you could find sympathy, even sadness if you looked hard enough.

Finally, she spoke, like the calm before the storm. "Zira. I have heard stories about you. I know about all the things you've done. To the pride. To my parents. Even what you tried to do to me. I know you've done some pretty awful things in the past."

Zira's form grew less tense. In the older lionesses mind, she could remember it. She could remember the time she had nearly succeeded in ending the infant princess's life before her exile into the Outlands.

Kiara continued, "But then I realized why you did them."

Zira's posture relaxed more, but from out of confusion. Her eyes were stilled narrowed as she spoke. "Oh. And what might that be?" Kiara's response was silent at first and her voice was almost inaudible.

"I know you did them because you were hurting."

Legs almost gave away in shock and quivered under the weight of the statement. Finally, Zira sat down when her back legs nearly broke down under the sudden pressure. Her mind was frantically searching for an answer for the statement and her eyes were opened completely in mind-numbing shock.

"I think I understand you better now. I realized you were hurting, and that hurting lead way to hate when nothing else seemed to be the answer for the pain you felt. While I grew up, blissfully warm and surrounded by those who loved me, you were out in the Outlands, surrounded by pain and suffering. It must have been so horrible for you."

A moment passed, silence came between them. Suddenly, the fur on Zira's back stuck straight up again and a growl escaped her throat as her fury was renewed once more.

"I don't need your pity, princess! I'm the one who tried to destroy everything you knew and loved. I'm the one who tried to send my son to infiltrate and obliterate everything from under all of your noses! I tried to hurt you and your stupid, merciless parents for taking away everything I knew and loved! Don't you hate me for that?!"

A whisker could drop and be heard at this point. There was no noise at all, as if they were in a soundproof bubble. The calls from the others above could no be heard, nor the slowly dwindling rage of water down below. It was all quiet. Kiara's head dipped down and her eyes closed.

"Hakuna Matata," she said quietly.

"What?"

"Hakuna Matata. It's something I learned from my parents. It means 'you put your past behind you'." Her head then turned up and her eyes seemed to be casting a light over Zira. The hope and sympathy in her eyes was shocking to behold.

"I know you did all these horrible things in the past Zira. But I now know that you did them all because you were hurting and there was no one to comfort you at the time. You felt lonely with no one to sympathize with. When you were exiled, you felt you were being punished for no reason over your suffering and loss.

"I know you spent all this time, coming up with this plan so that you could finally be free of all the pain you felt, the pain you felt over your loss. And now, I can tell you feel sorry now for all you did. Even I can see that you wanted to be free of the hurting you felt for so long. And so I... I can't really hate you, knowing that."

The light, the invisible surge of energy, faded from Kiara's eyes, yet something glinted in the shadow of the rock. A tiny flash of light reflected off a shiny surface, appeared in Kiara's sight, descending down an intricate surface before swiftly falling down straight and landing with a tiny click on the rock beside Zira's paw. The reflective matter was soon absorbed up in a crack in the rock, but then another shiny drop descended beside it. Then another, right where the original had been.

A blur of peach fur stepped forward and grasped onto Zira in a firm embrace. A blurry veil covered Zira's eyes as they widened for just a brief second before shutting tightly and squeezed out more drops of the reflective fluid that soon joined in on the streams that fell on her face. Kiara's front legs held on tighter once a storm of shivers from the now sobbing lioness came forward.

All the pain and hurt, everything she had held back for all those years, broke forward from the invisible dam built around her heart. Breaking like the log dam that had broken just minutes before. After all these years, she finally found the ease and salvation for all the suffering she endured. Scar was gone, the last lion she had ever thought could feel and understand the pain she had, but now another lion had taken his place. A lioness who could feel and sympathize for her, even without feeling the same agony and hurt ever before in her life.

Finally, her heart let go of everything it had held on for all the past years. Finally, now the healing could start.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; Only love can do that" -Martin Luther King Jr.

Consider yourselves lucky, I almost added the "Let it Go" song at the end there. I would like to give inspiration credit from the beautifully done "Don't You Hate Me" comics done by Medli45 on devianart. I hope you enjoyed this, I think it turned out better than I originally thought. I think the real reason why Zira never grabbed on was because like Scar, she couldn't let go of her hate until it was too late. I really wish something like this would have happened though.

Please leave a review and tell me how I did. Your opinions are loved and cherished. Sincerely, v.t,7