Takes place after the series finale and divergences away from movie canon. Cause the whole thing about the series being a prequel to the movies, meaning that King Julien up and abandons his people and all the character development he went through the whole series is all for nothing? Yeah, I think that's dumb and we're not gonna do that.

...

"We're all gonna die!"

The fossa came. They weren't supposed to but they came just the same, crashing the lemur's party, just as hungry for blood and lemur meat as ever. And there was no one there to stop them.

Clover was gone, having left the previous night with Sage Moondancer to rule The Mountain Lemur Kingdom together as newly married husband and wife.

Everyone though that they would be safe, Mary Ann having promised to keep her fellow fossa away from King Julien's kingdom.

But there they were and it was all King Julien could do but watch helplessly as his subjects desperately fled for their lives. He couldn't move, his feet having rooted themselves to the rock he had just been dancing on moments ago. His people's cries and Maurice's frantic voice were muffled in his ears. He couldn't breathe, his vision started to cloud and the world began to spun. His heart was beating so fast that he was sure it was going to explode.

Clover wasn't coming to the rescue. Mary Ann clearly wasn't keeping her kind away. The kingdom had lost all lines of defense, leaving King Julien and his subjects at the mercy of the fossa.

Willie was right, they were all going to die.

A few did, carried off to never be seen again.

But the rest survived.

Like some kind of angel from above, a strange animal came out of nowhere and scared away the fossa. He called himself, Alex The Lion, saying that he and his friends had washed up onto Madagascar the night before. Overcome with gratitude and seeing this as an opportunity to keep themselves safe, King Julien and most of the other lemurs welcomed Alex and his friends with open arms, dubbing them with the affectionate nickname 'The New York Giants' on account of their large sizes and that they said they came from a faraway land called 'New York'. There were those like Maurice who were wary, saying that Alex gave him in his own words 'the heebie jeebies'. Then there was Hector, who point blank said that Alex looked like a bigger version of a fossa (through with weird hair) and was probably a carnivore as well that was sure to try and eat them. All these concerns were brushed aside.

Of course the wary few were proved right when complications came up. Bites on the butts complications. After Alex attacked one of his own friends, King Julien banished him from the kingdom to go live among his fellow predators. After some soul searching, daring rescues and the power of friendship, the New Yorkers were able to save each other, the bonds between friends made stronger and it seemed that everything would be alright after all.

There was a grand celebration, with most everyone in the kingdom plus the New Yorkers attending. They were all gathered under a clear blue sky, the sun's rays warming them on a lovely sandy beach seated around a long driftwood table. Hung above the head of the table was a big banner made out of large palm leaves and multi-colored flowers that spelled out the words.

Thank You Freaks

There was a great abundance of food for all, even for Alex. Turns out he liked fish even more then steak. So much so that he ordered a bunch to go.

"To go? Why would you need them to go?" King Julien asked.

"Uh, cause I need something to eat on the trip back to New York, duh." was Alex's response.

In a flash, Julien took a swig of sea water, spit it all over Maurice, then yelled, "What!?"

"He needs food while we're traveling back to New York. What's so hard to understand about that?" Gloria asked.

"You-you mean, you're leaving us?" Julien's stomach dropped.

"Uh, yes?" Alex said before quickly realizing that wasn't a good answer, seeing the pained expressions start to appear on the lemur's faces, especially Julien's.

"You leave. You-You just can't!" Julien jumped up onto the table, marched over to Alex to grab his cheeks and got right into the lion's face, saying on the edge of panic, "If this is about the whole banishment thing, please understand it was nothing personal! You were all crazy and hungry and wanting to eat us and…."

"Dude, I'm not mad about that!" Alex said, pulling Juliens paws away. "I totally understand, big hungry predator wanting to eat your face off, I would have banished me too. We're just ready to go back to New York, that's all. Nothing personal."

"Please understand, you guys have been great and this place is amazing but...I think I speak for us all when I say that we've had enough adventure for a while. A good long while. Now we just want to go home." Marty added, trying to be as gentle as he could.

"No, no, no, no, no." Julien held his head.

"Hey, you okay?" Melman asked in concern.

"No I'm not! You're leaving us! And when the fossa figure out you're gone..." Memories of the fossa attack a few days prior came flooding back. Julien's body began to tremble.

"We're all gonna die!" Willie proclaimed and that got all the other lemurs screaming and running around in a panic. Mort fell to the sand, big fat tears streaming down his cheeks as he cried out to the sky. Maurice curled up in his seat and started blabbering gibberish as he held himself, rocking back and forth. Julien stood where he was, hyperventilating. Lemurs who weren't running around in circles kneeled down and shouted up at the sky or lay down in the sand, curling in on themselves to cry.

Marty, Alex, Melmen, Gloria and the chimps stayed in their seats, looking helplessly at each other, uncertainty freezing them in place.

A sharp whistle pierced through the air, catching some animal's attentions, stopping to look towards the source. It was Skipper, one of the funny looking black and white birds that called themselves penguins.

"We can't leave, the decision's already been made for us." He declared from on top the table.

"What no, you're not gonna guilt trip us too?" Alex whined.

"What? No, I mean we literally cannot get off this island. At least not on the boat." Skipper looked towards the large shipping boat that he and his companions had hijacked to make their ill-fated trip to Antarctica. "It's out of fuel." He said matter of fact like.

Skipper's words pulling King Julien out of his haze, helping him to start breathing normal and peeking his interest in the conversation.

"And you're telling us this now?" Melmen asked incredulously.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Gloria added.

"You all would have figured it out soon enough." Skipper said like it was the most mundane thing, shrugging his shoulders.

"So what, you were just gonna let us get on the boat and look like a bunch of idiots when it didn't start? Why would you do that?" Alex demanded, getting up right in Skipper's face.

"Cause it would have been really funny?"

Alex stood frozen except for the occasional eye twitch as King Julien scooted in and asked, "So uh, let me get this straight. You're saying that you can't leave the island?"

"That is correct. We have no mode of working transportation. We're stuck here." Kowalski confirmed.

A wide grin spread across King Julien's face and then he proceeded to hug each of the penguins (with mixed reactions) before running around, announcing to his subjects,

"The freak's boat is broken!"

"They can't leave!"

"We're saved!"

This slowly but surely caused the rest of the lemurs to pause and process this new information and after it all sank in, they too joined their king in running and jumping around in joy.

"We're all gonna live!" Willie shouted from a triumphant stance on the table.

While all this was happening, Alex, Marty, Melmen, and Gloria were processing it all too, frozen as they realized what this new development meant for them as all around lemurs were hugging and crying and skipping and shouting for joy.

"The New York Giants are staying forever!" King Julien happily declared while he and Maurice hugged, blissfully oblivious to the larger animals shocked and pained expressions.

"Forever?" Alex said in a daze.

Forever stranded on Madagascar.

"Yes, forever, here with us!" Julien jumped on Alex to give him a big hug around the neck.

Forever stuck with a bunch of animals that were more then happy that they would never see their beloved home ever again.

"Forever." Marty said.

"Yes, I just said that." Julien's smile lessened, noticing their somber expressions. "Hey, hey come on now, it won't be so bad. We'll take care of you guys, just as you'll take care of us. You all are gonna be hooked for life, given the real hero's treatment for the rest of your days, I promise."

No response.

Julien sighed. "Look, you want to know what this kingdom is like with no protection? The worse! Hiding away and keeping quiet, with no parties or anything fun and loud in hopes of maybe not attracting fossa and even then, so many of us dying anyways. My people deserve better then that. You get that, right?" Julien patted Alex's cheek and looked at him expectantly.

Alex let out a sad sigh and said, defeated, "Fine, whatever. Like you said, we're stuck here anyways. Might as well be useful."

The penguins were fine, just happy to be together and anywhere that wasn't Antarctica. The chimps too were content just being together wherever, neither having any strong feelings towards their former home. They could all make the whole stranded on a tropical island situation work. It was Marty, Melmen, Alex, and Gloria that King Julien had to win over and he thought one way to do that was show them how much fun the kingdom could be, including a relaxing time in the jacuzzi….which they couldn't fit in, even just one of them by themselves. The chimps and the penguins were small enough but the rest were too big. Turns out they were also too wide for the water slides and too heavy for the trampolines, Marty breaking one upon just standing on it.

"You don't have much stuff built for larger animals, do you?" Marty asked unimpressed, surrounded by the trampoline frame with the leaf used as the bouncy bit underneath his hoofs.

"Uh, no, no we do not." Maurice said, to which King Julien quickly added,

"But we can! We can make you bigger trampolines and water slides and your own private giant jacuzzi!"

"Seriously?" Gloira said, not loving the lemur king's method of trying to make her and her friends feel better.

"Yes, we can handle the tramps and slides, while Timo can whip up the jacuzzi!"

"Who's Timo?" Melmen asked.

"Only our local royal science wizard who makes cool stuff for us all the time. A jacuzzi will be a breeze. Come on, Maurice, let's go get him right now." King Julien signaled for his friend to follow.

"Your majesty, I'm not sure..." Maurice started to say.

"Come on, Momo!" Julien grabbed Maurice's paw and dragged him away.

When they gotten a good distance was when Maurice tried again.

"King Julien, I don't think the New York Giants want a giant jacuzzi."

"They will when they see the one Timo builds them."

"I think they'd rather he build them a boat." Maurice grumbled without much thought but then he paused and really started to mull over his words, King Julien doing the same.

Timo had built plenty of fantastic inventions in the past. Fighting robots, sound mixing machines, even inter dimensional portals. A boat or a plane or something along those lines would be a walk in the park for him.

"You're right, he could build them a boat or whatever, then they truly would be happy because they could go home but..." The implications were sinking in for Julien.

"But if they go home, then…." Maurice and Julien looked at each other, knowing what that would mean for them and the rest of the kingdom.

"I….I don't want to keep them here forever but we still need someone to protect us but deceiving and keeping them against their will here would be wrong but without them, we'd be left defenseless again and more of us will die and…and I don't know. I don't know what to do here!" Maurice shouted, panicking.

Julien paced around and thought and thought and thought some more until finally, a light bulb went off in his brain.

"I got it!" He shouted, getting into Maurice's face, wide grin upon his own.

"You do?"

"Yes! Come on, Momo! Let's go to Timo's! I'll explain on the way!" Julien once again grabbed Maurice's paw and dragged him off.

…

King Julien stood atop the high rock with Maurice and Timo by his side, his subjects plus the New Yorkers gathered below. Timo and Julien were most excited, a shine in their eyes and wide smiles on their faces. Maurice wore his own small smile.

Gloria, Marty, Melmen, and Alex were still downtrodden, Alex being especially miserable, only half listening as the king began to speak.

"Peoples, I have gathered you all here today for a most important matter. Freaks, for all your service to us, I have a most special present for you."

"We don't want a giant jacuzzi, Julien!" Gloria shouted his way.

"It's even better then a jacuzzi, I promise. But first, I have to say a few things." Julien turned his focus to his subjects. "As you know, we lemurs and the freaks each want different things. We want someone to keep the fossa from mauling and eating us, while the freaks wish to go home."

"You've already won, Julien. We're staying, not that we have any choice in the manner." Alex said bitterly, grumbling the last bit.

"Let me finish!" Julien held up a finger, then continued, "As I was saying, I have come up with an ingenious plan so that everybody gets what they want. Timo." He indicated Timo.

"That's the science wizard guy?" Melmen asked.

"Yes, this is Timo."

"Hi." Timo said, waving.

"Timo here is going to use his big smarty pants brain of his to build a brand new security system for the kingdom and when he is done with that." King Julien looked directly at the New Yorkers. "He will then go on to help you freaks build a way off Madagascar and back to your beloved New York. So, what do you think? Much better then a jacuzzi, right?"

"Wait, you're saying this guy can not only build to protect ya'll but also something that can take me and my friends across the ocean, half way across the world, all the way back to New York City?" Marty was skeptical to say the least and he wasn't the only one.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying! This way, me and my peeps will be safe and all you freaks get to go home! Everybody wins!"

"Well, If there's way for everybody to be happy, then I say we go for it. I'm game!" Ted said, raising a paw, excited by this new idea. Others joined him, voicing their approval.

"I promise to keep you guys safe." King Julien said before climbing down to meet Alex and offer him a paw, "And I promise to get you guys home."

"….Thank you."

They shook paws.

Alex didn't believe for a second that Timo could really build them a way back to New York but he figured he'd least let the little guy try. If nothing else, he preferred the lemur's new attitude, better then celebrating the fact that he and his friends were stuck there for the rest of their lives.

Meanwhile, King Julien was over the moon. After all, Timo was smart, how hard could it be to pull the plan off?

….

Smoke climbed up into the sky, coloring it various shades of grey.

Desperate cries and coughing fits rang out, every so often a great, metal roar joining in.

Roaring flames clung to trees and huts, cracking, whittling them down to blackened husks.

A young lemur tugged on his king's arm.

"Mister King Julien, everything's on fire." Todd said once again, trying his best to control the tremor in his little voice.

King Julien didn't respond, continuing to stare ahead wide eyed, watching the chaos surrounding them.

The outline of the newest model of Mega Gecko could be seen through the smoke, glowing red eyes peering through the haze, once again letting out an earth scattering roar and with it, a fresh round of flames, which swarmed a nearby tree.

Cough Cough "Mister King Julien, everything's on fire. Shouldn't you do something?"

"I'm on fire!" King Julien could hear Willie's voice screaming close by.

"Stop, drop, and roll Willie! Stop, drop, and roll!" Came Dorothy's frantic one.

The gecko set another tree ablaze but not before the chimp named Mason leaped from it and landed atop the giant metal beast, which didn't take kindly to having a passenger. It narrowed it's red eyes, let out another ear spiting roar and spun around in circles trying to shake the primate off, who managed to cling on with one hand while fiddling around the controls with the other. For what was probably only a few seconds but felt much longer, face flapping in the breeze, arm muscles tested to the limit, once satisfied with his part, Mason then let go, allowing himself to be flung off the killer contraption, landing roughly near Todd and Julien.

This managed to snap Julien out of his haze as he looked down at the brave primate spalled out on the ground before them.

"Are you okay, mister?" Todd asked.

Mason was able to pick himself up and stand just fine. "I'm fine but you two may want to get back." Mason told them before rushing off.

"Wait! What do you….?" Todd didn't finish asking his question before he got his answer.

The gecko exploded, going down in one final blaze. Julien and Todd briefly watched the spectacle until bits and pieces of Mega Gecko starting flying in their direction. Julien then gave out a yelp before grabbing Todd and dashing away, screaming and dodging flying bits of shrapnel as he carried the young lemur to safety.

Turns out Mason blew up the Mega Gecko with dynamite provided by the penguins, fighting fire with fire being the bird's logic.

Okay, so the use the Mega Gecko to scare away fossa and other enemies plan didn't work out but surely the next one would, right?

Right?

….

"Do something, Timo!"

"I'm trying!" Timo said as he frantically pushed numerous buttons to the remote control for his latest creation, a robot security guard lemur, which was at that moment flying ever higher into the sky with several lemurs clinging unto it for dear life while Timo, King Julien and others watch helplessly on the ground.

"Try harder!" King Julien shouted into his ear.

"I think...I've almost...got it!" Timo pushed one last button. Then the remote control started to violently vibrate in his hands and a loud, emergency alarm blasted out, causing everyone near it to cover their ears against the head splitting noise.

"Uh oh." Timo said, very certain what that meant, back to frantically pushing buttons again.

"What do you mean, uh oh!?" Maurice shouted.

High up in the air, the robot security guard lemur said in it's calculated, electric voice, "Initiating self destruct sequence in tee minus…."

"We gotta jump!" Tammy declared.

"Are you nuts?! The fall will kill us!" Ted pointed out, the concerned crowd below looking like the tiniest mites from his perspective.

"I'll take my chances! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Tammy yelled, letting go and surrendering to gravity.

"Ten, Nine..."

The other lemurs let go as well, until it was only Ted holding on.

"Seven, Six…."

He took one last look at the world below, closed his eyes and let go.

"Three, Two, One."

Kaboom.

The impact of the explosion sped up the lemur's decent as they all fell down, down, down, air rushing through their fur, eyes stinging as they saw the world come ever so closer with each passing second.

Oh mercy, why had he jumped? Ted thought to himself. He was just trading in one death for another, his broken body sure to paint a grisly picture with the jungle floor as it's canvas.

"For the last time, I did not order a giant inflatable stunt bag." The crocodile ambassador tried to once again tell the rat as both of them stood next to said giant inflatable stunt bag outside the crocodile ambassador's hut.

"But it says right here that you did." The rat pointed to a piece of paper attached to a clipboard.

"Well, I didn't and I'm not paying for it and that's final!" The crocodile ambassador tried to cross his arms but settled for simply resting them on his chest instead, turning up his nose.

Then they heard distant screaming and as they looked around for the source, the screaming got louder and louder until Tammy, Ted, and several other lemurs landed square onto the stunt bag, the collective force and weight causing the bag to slowly start to deflate. It sounded like a long, drawn out fart.

"You deflate it, you buy it." The rat said, to the crocodile ambassador shouted out in frustration.

…

A brand new wall surrounded the kingdom. It stood tall and thick, pillars cut from the strongest trees that could be found topped with sharp spikes and bared wire. The lone door was made of thick steel, bolted shut with multiple locks, controlled by a keypad combination lock on either side.

"I don't know about this, your majesty. Walls haven't exactly worked out too well for us in the past." Maurice pointed out as he and King Julien stood before the structure. He was of course referring to the last two walls built around the kingdom, the first that had worked too well keeping everyone in and the second that had done jack squat keeping anyone out.

"Oh Maurice, haven't you ever heard the expression 'third times the charm'? Besides, I got a good feeling about this one." King Julien said to him.

"That's what you said about all the other plans." Maurice grumbled.

By that point, it had been two weeks since King Julien had promised that Timo would help the New Yorkers get home after he had build something new to protect the lemurs. The royal scientist had built many inventions to try and do just that but all had failed miserably, ending in chaos, destruction and a big fat mess to clean up afterwards.

King Julien ignored that last comment. He did however continue to admire his latest and greatest plan to keep his subjects safe.

"This will work. I know it." Julien said with conviction.

Maurice sighed, then said. "I hope so."

Julien put an arm around his friend, who returned the gesture in kind.

"It's gotta work. It's just gotta." Julien kept that thought to himself.

The rest of that day and the whole night went by no trace of fossa. By the following afternoon, King Julien was feeling pretty confident that the fossa had walked by, taken one look at the formidable structure and had decided to admit defeat. Yep, he was feeling pretty good as he once again marveled at it all, the result of a marvelous plan that had made come from his ingenious mind.

And then came the noises.

Chainsaw like noises

Coming from the outer side of the wall.

Which was violently shaking.

And then who should come gnawing from the outside in but the king of the rats himself, King Joey, having chewed a hole all the way through. He was soon followed by several more rats poking their heads through from their own self made holes in the wall's sides.

The two kings locked eyes and then Joey said with eyes pleading and shame in his tone, "We're sorry."

Before King Julien could ponder just what he meant by that, King Joey and the rest of the rats suddenly yelped and came through their holes to land roughly inside the kingdom grounds, like they had been shoved.

And then fossa appeared in their places, making their way through and soon standing before the stunned lemur king.

"Missed us?" One fossa said to Julien, flashing her long pointy teeth.

To which Julien responded by yelling out, "Fossa!", bolting away towards the village, the fossa hot on his heels.

"The fossa got inside! Everybody run" Julien cried out as he made his way through his kingdom, calling out as loud as he could for all to hear.

Well, he didn't have to tell his subjects twice to start screaming and running for their lives. All the lemurs were soon dashing this way and that, dodging fangs and claws, trying their best not to die that day.

The New Yorkers were soon doing their best to fend the fossa off. The larger ones kicking, biting, clawing, head butting their opponents. While the chimps were throwing various projectiles, fruits and rocks and their own 'home made' ones at the vicious predators. While the penguins were sliding between the lemur carving carnivores to make them slam into each other.

Rico (one of the penguins) pulled a stick of dynamite and match out of his gullet, lit the dynamite up, then threw it into a cluster of fossa, who turned tail and managed to get far enough away not be blown up but still thrown back by the impact.

Trees were knocked over by the impact as well, which set off a domino effect that set one tree after another tumbling down, until the train of destruction got to the wall. A single tree landed on top of the same part of wall that the rats and fossa had come through. That proved too much for the already weakened section of the structure, soon crumbling down under the added weight, throwing up a cloud of dust and wood chips that rained down and settled about the ground.

The combined efforts of the New Yorkers soon sent the fossa running, whining and whimpering as they climbed over the fallen tree and through the one big hole in the wall and back into the jungle.

King Julien made his way over to the spot where he had been admiring his latest plan minutes before.

King Joey and the rats approached him with hesitation, Joey saying to him, "We're so sorry, King Julien. The fossa threatened to eat us if we didn't do as they asked."

King Julien didn't give a reply, instead turning back to look past the rats, back towards his kingdom.

Dust and wood chips continued to rain down and the haze hanging in the air stung at King Julien's eyes but that didn't stop him from gazing upon the latest destruction that had befallen his subjects. Through the haze he could see fallen trees littering the clearing, several laying on top of huts, pinning the structures under their massive weight and splintering them to pieces. Tree huts that had been flung out onto the ground, mangled and broken, unrecognizable from their previous state. Wood, dust, the projectiles used by the chimps and various personal items scattered upon the jungle floor. Lemurs limping about holding injured limps and injured loved ones, crying out in angst.

And King Julien took it all in, the weight of the all pain and suffering surrounding him crushing his heart just as the trees crushing the homes of his people.

"King Julien, a-are you alright?" King Joey asked, poking him to try and get a response, to which he didn't get one. Julien continued to stare in silent misery, ignoring his fellow king in the uncomfortable silence.

"King Julien, are you alright?" Maurice came rushing over to stand beside his friend.

"King Julien!" Mort shouted, rushing over and grabbing King Julien's ankles, who was numb to the mouse lemur's touch.

"Sure, whatever." King Julien said, mind a million miles away.

"All day." Hector joined them, glaring at the wall. "We spent an entire day building this thing and it took the fossa two seconds to break in."

"Sorry." King Joey told him.

"Two seconds. All that work and for what? A whole lot of nothing that's what!" Hector looked back at the village and glared even more. "Nothing except for yet another mess that we have to clean up!"

"We could help clean up. It's the least we could do." Joey offered.

"Hector..." Maurice started to say.

"That's all these cockamamie schemes amount to, isn't it?" Hector turned to Maurice, Julien, and Mort. "Just one big fat mess after another that we have to deal with even as our bodies are broken and our homes destroyed? Well, I say no more! I know how to stop this madness once and for all!"

This was enough to pull King Julien out of his mental fog, perking him right up. "You do?" He asked Hector, kicking Mort off to the side, sending the mouse lemur sliding across the ground several feet before coming to a stop face down in the dirt.

"Yes, I do."

Maurice didn't have a good feeling about this.

"Well, don't keep it to yourself, man! Tell me! Come on, tell me!" Julien grabbed Hector by the shoulders and shook him.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you! Get off of me!" Hector grabbed Julien's paws and pulled them away. "It's quite simple really."

Julien, Maurice and Mort leaned close with bated breath. More lemurs and the New Yorkers had shown up by this point and they too waited for his answer.

Hector pronounced each word slowly and carefully. "Bring. Clover. Back."

…

"E-excuse me?" King Julien was sure he had heard wrong.

"Bring. Clover. Back." Hector repeated.

"I..I'm sorry. My, my ears, must be messed up by the explosion. Cause what I'm hearing you say is 'bring Clover back', which-which can't be right." Julien didn't want to believe that he had heard right.

"Your ears ain't messed up, that's actually what I'm saying."

"You can't be serious..." Maurice said.

"I am serious! Look around you!" Hector turned to look at the village, spreading his arms out to indicate all the destruction before them. "None of this would have happened if Clover had just stayed where she belongs!"

"She belongs with Sage!" Julien shouted back.

"No, she belongs here, protecting us! Then we wouldn't have to be risking our lives with a bunch of stupid schemes all so a bunch of ingrates can go home!"

"Ingrates?" Alex asked.

"Yes!" Hector turned on him. "After all we did for you, welcoming you into our home (well okay, I didn't but most everyone else did). Welcoming you back even after you wanted to eat us! You lot were ready to get on your boat and leave for your precious New York, leaving us to deal with the fossa once they figured out you were gone. You were gonna leave us to die, just like Clover!"

Alex had wanted to argue against that statement but upon seeing the first horrified, then darkening look come over King Julien's face, he instead decided that the best course of action would be to keep his mouth shut.

"Take. That. Back." King Julien's voice was dangerously low, eyes blazing, fists trembling at his sides.

"Why? Cause it's the truth?"

"I said. Take. That. Back." Julien's voice increased in volume.

"Nope, not doing that." Hector crossed his arms and shook his head.

"I said take it back!" Julien lunged forward, grabbing Hector by the shoulders and started to violently shake him. "Take it back right now!"

"No!"

"Stop it, Julien!" Maurice managed to get between the two lemurs and pulled them apart, keeping them at arm's length.

Julien pointed a finger at Hector. "So help me, Hector, if you don't take it back right now, I'll..."

"You'll what? Destroy my house? Too late, one of the fires beat you to it! Break my arm? Just healed from being thrown around by one of Timo's robots but sure, why not the other one? Make me build another wall? Sure, can't wait to see how long that one lasts before the fossa break it too! Make my life a living hell? You already have! And not just mine but all of us!" Hector looked at his fellow lemurs gathered around, which had grown to quite the large crowd. "We've been living a nightmare because you care more about a bunch of animals that you just met and a traitor who left us all for dead!"

"Clover isn't a traitor and she didn't leave you all for dead and I love you guys! That's why I've been racking my brains trying to find a way to protect you!"

"Yeah, sure, making us deal with a bunch of killer robots and useless walls that haven't done jack squat at keeping the fossa away but can surely crush you to death or send you flying half way across the island or set your hut on fire or crush it with a tree." Hector looked briefly over at the penguins, Rico being unable to met his eyes, before turning back once more to Julien. "All so that the ingrates can go home and Clover can keep her blockhead of a husband and be queen with her big, tough army and her precious weapons. Oh yeah, I can feel the love." All of this being said sarcastically of course, with the last sentence being especially bitter, some like Maurice practically being able to feel the deep resentment that shrouded the words.

"Don't listen to him! I know you love us, my king!" Mort said, once again grabbing Julien by the ankle, Julien in a desperate enough spot to allow him to stay there for the time being.

"See, Mort gets it!"

"King Julien, I know you care deeply about us but..." Maurice started to talk but then Julien interrupted him with a tight side hug.

"Maurice too!"

Julien looked out to his other subjects, sure to find another ally among them. "You guys surely don't agree with Hector, right? You know I love you guys, right? Ted, you know I love ya, right?"

Ted rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke with great hesitation, avoiding his king's pleading eyes, "Well I uh...that is to say..."

King Julien's face fell as he looked around at his subjects either avoiding his gaze like Ted or glaring daggers at him, like Pancho.

"Hector's right!" Pancho let himself be known, pointing towards Julien. "If you really cared about us, then you would march on over to the Mountain Lemur Kingdom and say to Clover that we're dying over here and demand that she come home!" He looked around at his friends and neighbors and pumped a fist into the air, "Bring her back! Bring her back!"

One by one, more and more lemurs joined in, pumping their fists and stomping their feet until soon all of them except Julien, Maurice, and Mort were chanting as one.

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

"Peoples please, reconsider..." Julien let go of Maurice.

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

"There has to be another way. I...I'll find one, I promise I will! Just please…."

"Bring her back!"

"Can you all just…?"

"Bring her back!"

"Stop chanting for one second and listen to me?!" Julien cried out in frustration, patience wearing thin.

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

"Bring her back!"

Julien shut his eyes and held his head, trying to block them out but their chanting pounded on his brain. Maurice and Mort looked around helplessly, not knowing what to say or do to defuse the situation. After some moments, Julien let his arms fall and shouted,

"SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!"

Loud enough so all present, from the front of the crowd to all the way in the back, heard him. The sheer force and volume enough to cause Maurice and Mort to step back in shock and nearby birds to scatter off into the air.

No one uttered a word as King Julien took some seconds to huff and puff and try to catch his breath, looking around manically as he did so. Then he continued to say,

"Clover. Isn't. Coming. Back! Not now, not ever! End of discussion and that's an order!", looking directly at Hector at the last few words, who took a moment before giving his response with more quiet, beaten down anger.

"Fine, here's another idea then. Let's send the freaks home, lay down, and wait for the fossa to eat us. That good enough for ya?"

King Julien didn't respond. Hector turned and walked away, crowd parting ways to let him through. Giving their king some final looks ranging from outwardly hostile glares to sad kicked puppy eyes, most of the other lemurs then left as well.

King Julien started walking towards the hole in the wall.

"Your Majesty..." Maurice started to follow him.

"I wish to be alone." Julien interrupted, stopping Maurice in his tracks.

"King Julien..." Mort too started to trail him.

"That includes you too, Mort!" Julien snapped at him, looking over his shoulder. Upon seeing the hurt look on Mort's face, Julien's softened and so did his tone, "Please, please just leave me alone."

After Julien climbed over the fallen tree and disappeared to the other side of the wall, King Joey hesitantly approached Maurice, fiddling with crown in his paws, and asked, "Uh, Maurice? Can we help you guys clean up?"

"Sure Joey, sure."

Next was the penguins.

"Kaboom. Kaboom." Rico said sadly, bowing and shaking his head in shame.

"What Rico's saying is that he's sorry for knocking over your trees and crushing your huts and breaking your wall...even more." Private translated, rubbing the back of his neck and unable to meet Maurice's eyes, same for Skipper and Kowalski.

"If you're really sorry, then please go help clean up the village." Maurice said while rubbing his eyes, to which the penguins saluted and waddled off to do just that.

"Maurice, we..." Alex started to say before Maurice held up a paw to stop him.

"Just, please, go help clean up. Please." Maurice said with finality. Alex and his friends got the hint.

Then the only ones left were Maurice and Mort. There were no words, just two friends looking at each other with matching misty eyes before embracing.