A/N: Fun fact. The lion extra at the end of last chapter was named "Madita", meaning "mother of lions", after the lead lioness in a documentary starring none other than... Jeremy Irons! Yes, that's right, there exists a lion documentary featuring a Zira-esque badass mother lioness which is narrated by Scar. Naturally, I watched the crap out of it. The full video is available on youtube: You'll find it if you just type in "The Last Lions".

By the way, you might have noticed that this story features quite a few different 'sides', rather than just being team good vs team evil. Sure, you have Kion and the Lion Guard as the de facto good guys, but then there is also conflict with the King in that Ono reports to Simba, while Simba in turn is in conflict with Nala for going behind her back, while Scar created his own team in the Outlands until Shenzi betrayed him and joined up with her son to fight Jasiri, whose clan is in conflict with Janja due to personal reasons but who also dislikes the Lion Kings, and in turn...

It makes for a much more interesting story than just good vs evil, I think. And it'll only get more convoluted from here on out :p

Anyway, on to the chapter! Please read, review and enjoy!

Ushari groaned as he pushed the rocks away from him with a raw exertion of will, thankful once again for the fact that he had found a way to get by in life without limbs. He stared up, dazedly, still reeling from his fight inside the hyena's hideout, and found himself gazing at an active volcano. Raging red liquid raced down the mountainside with each quake of the earth, while a plume of black smoke rose up ever further as it choked the very sky. Of his opponent there was no sign.

"Well," said Ushari. "This is wonderful."

Sometimes, Ushari questioned the decisions that had led him to this point. Specifically, he found himself questioning the ones that had led to him trying vainly to outpace a raging volcano, or at least get to higher ground away from the cascading streams of molten rock. He could have easily chosen to remain in the lush Pridelands, living out a quiet life except for the occasional haranguing from the Lion Guard, instead of slithering though this endless wasteland of ash and dust.

But then, when fate or the spirits or whatever it was gave him the opportunity to master the elements, save his species and restore his fallen kingdom… well, that could hardly be called a choice at all.

He stopped at the sound of voices, and slithered up behind the nearest rocky outcrop to listen in.

"I can't go any longer, Janja. I'm tired, and my legs hurt!"

It was the voice of a hyena, the straggler of a by now familiar pack. The leader growled back irritably, perhaps to mask his own pain and fear. "We're all tired and hurt, Cheezi, but that volcano isn't exactly gonna slow down for us, now is it?" Janja was nursing his scorched paws from on top of the largest of the hyenas, who was carrying him without complaint.

"Leave him," said Shenzi. The hyena matriarch was being carried by one of her giggling idiots – Ushari had never managed to tell them apart. Even now, it was still strange to see such a powerful and dangerous creature look so weak. "If they can't keep up any longer, then they're of no more use to us."

"They're my clan, mother! You wouldn't understand it. You never did."

The hyena in question was dragging two clearly broken paws behind it, its tongue lulling so far out of its mouth that Ushari thought he would bite it off by accident any second now. Looking at that sad and miserable creature, he thought he could rather understand Shenzi's point of view.

"It is just as well," Ushari said as he slid down from his perch atop the rocks, to the surprise of the hyenas below. "We are running out of time, Shenzi. We'll have to take care of things here and now."

Shenzi turned her head to regard him with half-lidded eyes. "Ushari. Where is your quarry?"

"Escaped," Ushari said with more than a hint of venom. "Something which would never have happened if you had stuck to the plan and helped me instead of running off to play with that lion cub."

Shenzi shrugged from on top of her mount. "I came here to get my son, and so that's what I did. It's not my problem if you can't even deal with a single manic honey badger."

Ushari hissed, but did not argue the point. The element of surprise was the only thing that had given their fledgling group an advantage over their opponents: If it came to a straight up fight between them and the Pridelanders, then there was no way they could ever win. And now, with a living witness on the run, they had less time than ever.

"Hey, snake!" Janja was craning his neck to look at Ushari. "I don't know who you are or what the crap you've got to do with any of this, but that's my mum you're talking to. She's the leader of the Outlands, so you better show some respect or – ack!" His mount had dropped him to the ground at a signal from Shenzi. Janja shot the hyena a reproachful glare, but received only a hollow, empty cackle in reply.

Shenzi was lowered more gently, though she still winced as she was laid upon the ground. The burns on her body were severe, far more so than Janja's scorched paws, but even without them she would not have had long to live. Ushari did not know what was ailing her exactly, but it did not matter: In the end there existed only one disease, and it got everyone eventually.

She looked at him with cold, unflinching eyes. "Can you do it?"

He bobbed his head. "Yess. The circumstances are not ideal, but we have all the elements we need." The lava rushing down the mountainside below them would provide the fire, which in a less pressing situation he would have almost called poetic. In truth he doubted the flames were actually necessary, but when it came to replicating divine rituals of unknown power he was not about to leave anything out.

Janja narrowed his eyes, for once passing up the opportunity to complain about his rough treatment or lack of respect. "What's going on? Did you two set all of this up? What are you planning?"

The hyena was less stupid than he looked, Ushari decided. He said nothing as he distended his jaw, and with painful slowness began to regurgitate the stolen red fruit which he had swallowed. The oversized gourd had been troubling his movements all day, but getting it all the way there without limbs would have been impossible otherwise. The rest of the preparation would have to be done by the hyenas. With his newfound powers, perhaps one day he would manage enough control to get by with no help at all.

Some of the hyenas looked a bit sickly at the sight of the red gunk. He ignored them.

"I named you my heir," Shenzi told Janja, "because I thought that as my son, perhaps you'd be more worthy than the others. That you'd be able to lead our kind to be more than… what the lions always made us out to be." She shook her head. "I don't know if I was acting out of sheer stubbornness or just spite."

Janja gave her a wary look. "Mother?"

"Scar led me into the lair of the Lion Guard once," she said, her eyes distant. "I remember treating it like it was all one big adventure, laughing it up at their expense. I thought it was so funny, sticking it to those crusty old Lion Kings like that. And so, when Scar proposed a dangerous mission to scout out the afterlife, I didn't dare tell him no." She gestured towards the giggling hyena who had carried her. "I gave up your father without even thinking twice about it. Damaged his brain and made him just like my brother. I dunno if that's irony or if those spirit kings saw it as a way to get back at me. I guess the end result is the same, either way."

Janja swallowed thickly. "Mum, I don't care any about that stuff. I barely knew dad even before you took him with you when you went away." He was looking at her with desperation in his eyes, begging her to understand.

"Maybe that lion cub was right," she whispered, ignoring him. "Maybe I threw it all away for nothing. Maybe I really am just like the others: Just another cackling hyena, laughing it up and treating life like a joke until it's too late to start taking it seriously..."

The largest of the hyenas finished kneading the red gourd into a paste. Ushari had barely paid attention to it, and he really should have. His mental discipline was slowly improving, but it was still difficult to treat his own experiences as just another part of the world around him. He supposed there was a part of him that did not really want to, that preferred to live and lash out on instinct as all animals do…

Shenzi eyed the red paste with a sense of finality. "Is it ready?"

"Yes," hissed Ushari. "We'll use the lava to produce the same element as was used by Zira, just in case." When he overheard Scar telling that story, he had realized the implications straight away: The process that fuelled the makings of a god. Not so much the fire itself, but rather, the purpose behind the act.

Shenzi crawled closer to the nearest ridge, half dragging herself and half nudged along by the two mad hyenas that followed her wherever she went. She gazed into the burning red river that had formed at the foot of their rocky outcrop. Her eyes gleamed red with its baleful light.

"This will give you the power you need," she said at last. "The power to unite the Outlands and defeat the Lion Kings. And then, once all of that is over, perhaps I'll finally be able to say that Ahadi was wrong about us. That we're more than just a pack of giggling, mangy scavengers. That he was wrong to slaughter us by the hundreds and make us live in this desolate, forsaken wasteland."

"You're not listening," said Janja. His voice quavered. "You never listen. I don't want to rule anything! I only agreed to lead the clan with Jasiri because I wanted to prove – to prove that you were right about me." He swallowed. "And I left, because there was no longer any point in staying…"

Ushari reached out with his mind and broke off the ground on which the red paste rested, before carefully nudging the newly formed plateau into the lava below. The scorching heat instantly ignited the fruit, bathing the area in crimson fumes. The rock itself remained in the middle of the stream, floating on the current like a lonely island shrouded in a red mist.

"You'll prove it to me now," she said. "With this, you'll become something no hyena's ever been: Their equal." She turned to look at him with eyes that were no longer half-lidded. "All living things die, Janja, but this way I'll always be there to guide you. That's what you always wanted, isn't it?"

Janja nodded, just once.

She turned and leaped onto the island, the flames consuming her almost instantly. Her dying screams were accompanied by the manic giggling of the two hyenas who had followed her all this time, as well as the cries of her son who rushed to the edge as if to leap in after her. The boy flinched away from the wall of sweltering heat, and by the time the crimson fumes enveloped him he had already collapsed.

When the foul smoke drifted over to Ushari, it was by far the worst thing he had ever smelled.