"Father!" Kion stumbled towards Simba, his front leg still burning with pain from where Ushari had bitten him in the spirit realm. He scrambled across the shattered stone floor and piles of rubble, staying as far away as possible from the oppressive heat of the lava pools, but before he made it even halfway there a sudden blast of wind threw him back against the stone steps of the chamber's central ziggurat.

"Yeah, I don't think so," said Janja, placing his paw on Simba's neck. "The other two were a bit too slippery for us, Ushari, but we got the bargaining chip you wanted. And Jasiri as well I suppose, though I don't see why anyone would want her." Jasiri seemed to struggle in response, but the two giggling hyenas pushed her down once more.

"That's right," hissed Ushari, still scorched and dangling from Scar's claws. "You tried to hide it well, master Scar, but it was still obvious how you truly felt about your boy. Now release me, if you wish for him to remain alive!"

But Scar said nothing, as he stared directly at Simba's prone form and the blood that was slowly pooling from his torn and open belly. "…what have you done?"

Ushari followed his gaze to Simba, and slowly his dangling stopped until he hung very still indeed. "Ah," he said. "My, ah, lieutenant might have been a little rough, but I'm sure it's nothing we cannot fix…"

"Fix it," Scar said, emptily. "How? Do you have some kind of healing power which I do not know about?"

Kion stared at the two of them in horror, his heart pounding faster and faster as he was gripped by a terror that was not caused by any poison, real or imaginary. He knew just as well as Scar what such a wound meant: He had been dreading the sight of such an injury ever since his father had told him to go on ahead. And, though it was but a secondary, distant horror, he knew that look in Scar's eyes. Just like the dreaded Zimwi that Fuli had joked about, he recognized it despite never having seen it, though in truth the stories told of Scar were far more terrible than that of any mere monster.

"No," Ushari admitted, "but there is… another way. I know the secret, to eternal life…"

"Eternal life," Scar repeated. "You're talking about the same kind of half-life Zira has. You mean for me to lower my boy into the lava along with the crimson fruit, and bind his essence to me through our shared connection." He gritted his teeth, and Ushari squirmed in agony as his grip intensified. "Do you know what that kind of life is like? Zira and I are bound together, so I know better than anyone: She can never touch me, no matter how close she comes – can never again touch another living thing. She cannot eat, she cannot sleep. At night, she hovers close to me, waiting a silent eternity for the day to come, and then when it does everything is still the same as before!"

"Still better… than nothing…"

"And when I die? What then, snake? How many years do you think I have left until I am able to remember him no longer? Where is your wonderful fix then?" Slowly, all the colour seemed to fade from Ushari's crimson scales, for all that that was physically impossible.

All of a sudden a hurricane of wind blew forth from Janja's direction, and Scar had to twist around and roar back at him to repel the attack. At the same time stalagmites rose up from the earth to impale him, and he only barely managed to leap back to avoid them. Ushari managed to shake himself free in the confusion, though he could do little more than writhe on the ground and gasp painfully.

Janja stepped forward, his two shadows flanking him. "Listen here, lion. I don't give a crap whether you or Ushari becomes king of the Pridelands or whatever, but right now you're in the Outlands and that means you answer to me. You don't want your nephew back? That's fine. But if you ignore me again, I'll kill you."

Oh Janja, Kion sighed. You never were bright enough to live.

Scar bared his teeth in a rictus grin, and Janja faltered, for once in his life seeming to question the wisdom of what he was doing. After hesitating one more second, he took a hasty step backwards, nearly bumping into his giggling comrades in his haste to get away.

"Listen," said Ushari. He flinched as Scar's gaze bored into him. "There is still… a chance. There is another, final secret, one that could give you unlimited power. Enough, perhaps, to save your nephew from death. Swear to let me complete my plans without interference, and I shall reveal it to you."

Scar looked at him blankly, his expression impossible to read. "And why would you believe any promise of mine? After all, I am the traitor king."

Ushari seemed to shake his head, though it was hard to tell it apart from the swaying of his body. "No… I know you better than you do, master. If being honourable was the only way to save your boy, then, you would choose to be honourable. Of course, you would have to leave me Prince Kion, as insurance."

"I see," said Scar. "How very sensible."

Kion stared at the old lion in horror, not liking that icy gleam in his eyes one bit. "Granduncle, you can't seriously be thinking about this. They killed my dad!"

"Be silent, boy." Scar started pacing around, circling the small patch of ground beneath the stone ziggurat that was still far enough removed from the bubbling pools of lava to be safe. "This secret of yours, Ushari – you called it the final secret, implying that knowing it would solve whatever mysteries remain."

"That's right," said Ushari. "Unlimited power, like I said. But decide quickly: Your nephew's life is fading."

"Gut wounds take long to die from," Scar said, still pacing. Ushari's eyes tracked the old lion nervously as he walked. "The greatest part of any secret is the existence of the secret itself," Scar said slowly. "As such I conclude that there is something I could do inside this room which would gain me unlimited power, which is sufficiently obvious for you to realize but which my own bias prevents me from seeing." He stopped near the foot of the ziggurat, staring up at the crimson smoke that still billowed upwards from the brazier at the top. "Tell me, boy – what mysteries would you say are currently unsolved?"

Kion started, realizing that he was being spoken to. Looking back on all his trials, where had he felt the most confusion? He was sure he had remarked on it at the time, but now it was difficult to remember. "Spirits," he said at last. "I still don't really get why some animals get to live on as spirits, like Zira, but others such as Zazu don't. I mean, yeah, it's a matter of enlightenment and connections, but that doesn't explain why Mufasa is so weak and yet Ahadi is so ridiculously strong." He looked at his father, who was lying so close and yet so far away, and wondered if perhaps their connection would be strong enough to last through eternity. But then, it had always been easier for him to sense Scar than Simba…

"Ahadi was both King and Captain," Ushari said irritably, though the fear was plain to hear in his voice. "His lifetime was filled with nothing but war: Of course he was strong! That has nothing to do with this."

"Indeed," said Scar. "It was plain to see his hate for the hyenas that slew my mother, as well as the deep well of self loathing which fuelled his will thereafter. Still, the sheer difference in power does seem… strange." Scar turned to look at the faint golden presence that still hovered at the foot of the ziggurat where Kion had pulled it out. "The king and the land are one," Scar said. "My father told me so once, as the two of us lay beneath the stars, though at the time I had no idea what he actually meant by it. The connection which the king shares with all his subjects… united in their power. We are the same."

"Fine," Ushari hissed. "You're right; Ahadi gains his power from his connection to those of his subjects who still revere him as a god. But that does not help you with your current problem one bit. So I suggest you agree to my demands before it is too late!"

But Scar was still staring into the golden light as though mesmerized. "Then there is just one final question," he said. "If Ahadi claims all his power from his subjects because they blindly revere him, yet Mufasa cannot even speak to Simba because he has forgotten him – then who is it that remembers all of Ahadi's malice so clearly, and whose undying hatred still ties him to this world?" He reached out with one trembling claw, and parted the golden halo as if it were his own fur, revealing a sallow lion with a black mane underneath. "Or to put it more succinctly: Why does the villain look so much like me?"

"Attack him," Ushari shrieked, "attack with everything you have!"

Janja and his hyenas all roared at once while Ushari's shriek turned into a hiss that sent all the rubble in the chamber hurtling towards Scar even as the ground opened up beneath him and scorching volcanic fumes enveloped his body. The whole structure shook as Scar was buried underneath a tide of fire, stone and wind, and it was all Kion could do to use the distraction to limp in the direction of his father.

"Kion," Jasiri groaned as he approached. "Is Scar…"

"He'll be okay," said Kion. It defied all logic, but he had seen the look in Scar's eyes, and there was not one part of him that doubted that the old lion would emerge from that fussilade entirely unscathed. "Are you all right? Where are the others?"

"I'll manage," said Jasiri, still groaning as she pushed herself to a sitting position. "Fuli and Ono managed to escape, but I'm sure they're still around somewhere." She hesitated. "Your father…"

Kion stared hard at the gaping wound along Simba's belly, which had been exactly as bad as he feared. After a moment's hesitation he pushed his father onto his back, hoping that it would stem the flow of blood and keep his intestines from falling out. Though for all he knew, it would only make things worse.

"I couldn't stop him," she whispered. "I'm sorry, Kion. You were right: We should've just killed Janja and Shenzi when we had the chance. I never should have stopped you – if I hadn't been so arrogant…"

"It's not your fault," he said. Or even if it was, what did it matter? His father would still die, and his sister would become queen. There would be a period of mourning, and then a coronation… and after a while, people would stop talking about him and move on with their lives. But his father would still be dead.

He reached out with a paw and brushed his father's mane out of his face, making him seem just a bit more regal as he lay there. As he sat there and listened to his father's pained moans, Kion thought he finally understood his granduncle's quest to escape death: "We're all dying. All of us, all the time – but it does not have to be that way." His grief had been mixed with anger before, but this time any tears he might have shed were evaporated by a burning hatred that was slowly searing itself into his soul – so softly and gently that he scarcely might have noticed, if he had not been taught to listen to his own self.

From out of the ruins and the devastation, through the smoke and the rubble and the volcanic fumes that had spread all around them, a golden lion rose up to face down his opponents. It was Scar.

"He's not invulnerable," Ushari called out to Janja, his voice choking on the fumes and his own fear. "He has to actively defend against our attacks. All we have to do is prevent him from noticing just one."

A golden beam of light speared downwards, incinerating one of Janja's hyenas and throwing up a cloud of dust as it scorched the ground around it. When the dust settled and Kion's vision cleared, Janja and his last remaining hyena were huddled behind a stone fortification while Scar had landed in front of Ushari and was now dangling the snake from his claws once more.

"Don't just hang there," Janja shouted. "Use your powers!"

"I can't," Ushari hissed. "He's using the connection between us to suppress my abilities. You have to distract him somehow: Attack him, enter the spirit realm, do something!"

"Ushari," said Scar, and everyone in the room froze. "Since you seem to like spirits so much, I shall offer you the same deal you made my nephew: An eternity to spend with me, bound together in hatred, just as I did for my dear father." He held the squirming snake out above a pool of lava, which seemed to bubble in anticipation. "After all, it has been a while since I offered Zira a new chew toy."

"Granduncle," Kion called out. "Don't!"

The bubbles burst as something seemed to crawl out off the abyss, molten talons rising up to catch their prey even as Scar dropped the screaming snake into the demon's open arms. Ushari screamed as the flames enveloped him, and kept screaming even as the talons dragged him under and his body evaporated into nothingness, until only a faint wisp remained to circle Scar's brow.

"Never again will you be alone, my love."