Meaning and Purpose [Closed to Julie_Skywalker]

[Carl]

"Let him declare war," Vitani hissed, "I don't care who he is, we can beat him. I don't care if what he says is true or not. Besides, as I've pointed out before, Kovu isn't the true ruler. Simba's heir comes before Scar's, and Kiara is still alive. The throne isn't rightfully his."

She shrugged and kicked a pebble, her mind working around this situation. Then she looked up and glanced from one male to the other as it occurred to her that this was the perfect chance to prove to Kovu that Baya could be trusted. If Mrithi did attack, and he helped them fight him off, surely Kovu would have to drop his petty grudge?

"If he does attack, banded together we'll be unstoppable. It doesn't matter what he does. Baya or I alone could kill him if we need to, and I'm sure our pridesisters and my dear brother are capable of taking out any backup he might bring. It won't be much of an issue," she said confidently. And she believed it, every word.

After all, she and Baya were only driven to near death by one another. No one else had such power over them. And her fighters alone, N'gora, Sauda, Dekeledi and Masozi, were all nearly equal to Baya in strength. He surpassed them each time he fought one, but they always dealt significant damage to him before their defeat. And the Pridelanders Kovu had weren't the wusses she often made them out to be. After all, she'd fought them. Some of them were very powerful, and she was confident that working together, even if Mrithi had an army, they would be able to take him out.

"I'm not afraid of him, and I'm surprised if either of you are."

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"Are you?" she barked, "I doubt that." With that, she turned and began trotting back towards the graveyard they called home to speak with the others of their pride about this. She knew by now that Baya wouldn't disobey her... or at least she was fairly certain he wouldn't. She didn't care how annoyed he was, truth be told, she wasn't all that interested in battling anymore, she'd worked out most of her pent up aggression and was satisfied with a certain level of mischief. Of course, she wouldn't stop fighting him, he basically lived for it and she couldn't deny that there was something enticing about it.

She sighed and moved on at a brisk pace, knowing that he was following her. She glanced back at him, her head bouncing from the movement enough to flop her tuft into her eyes and out again. She tried to blow it out of the way, but gave up after a moment and spoke as she'd intended to do when she'd turned her head back in the first place.

"I think we need to keep a heightened watch out for a while. We've had two rogue lions, both related to us, apparently, weasel into our lands this day. It seems like something we need to keep a look out on account of. If any more of our relations start coming back, we'll have a really nasty family reunion on our hands. And I just hate the food at those things," she said almost casually.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"We will work with my brother, plan patrols with him, and coordinate when who is where," Vitani said firmly, "For now we need to let the others know, and make sure there are no signs of any other intruders. We also have to find out where that idjit's eyes and ears in the Pridelands are; he knows too much to have just heard rumors from the herds or something of that nature. Someone has been sneaking off and telling him things."

She stopped briefly as she glanced in the direction of Pride Rock, "And it has to be someone from Kovu's pride. We would know if it was anyone from ours."

She started moving again, making way towards the graveyard.

---

"We need to relocate to Pride Rock for a little while," she said loudly from atop a skull to their little pride.

"What? Why?" Sauda asked sourly.

"We encountered several violent rogue lions today," she started, "The first is a relation of Baya, and is potentially dangerous. He seems to derive enjoyment from harassing females, so be on the look out. The other claimed to be Zira's firstborn son, and said he has come here to take the throne from Kovu; I know not all of you are very fond Kovu, but HE is the one Zira chose, and he is the one who is the mate of Simba's heir. As much as I hate to admit it, by rights, Kovu does have a strong claim to the throne. This rogue may not even be telling the truth, for all we know, though he does resemble Kovu and I. He declared war on Kovu's pride and ours, and as such, we must work together to defeat him if he dares to return.

We don't know if he has any followers. Or if he does, how many, or of what condition. It could be that he is alone, or that he is accompanied by a few weak or elderly lions. Or it could be that he has many strong and youthful followers. We don't know. What we do know is that he knows an awful lot about the goings on in the Pridelands. He knows too much to have heard it from a herd's rumor, or from a random bird. Someone from one of our prides, most likely Kovu's, is giving this lion information, and we need to find out who, and put a stop to it. Additionally, we must coordinate patrols with my brother, and talk defense and strategy for the upcoming days. It will be much simpler if we are closer to Kovu."

As she had spoken, N'gora had risen to all four paws, and at the conclusion of Vitani's speech, she snarled.

"I don't know who this guy thinks he is, but NUKA was Zira's firstborn. Not HIM," she growled.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"Come on ladies and gents, let's get moving. You... thing," Vitani said, gesturing with her paw as she tried to figure out how to address the mongoose, "You... can't come. Stay somewhere else. I doubt my brother's pride will like you either, especially with all the ahem, 'controversial' things coming out of your mouth."

With that, she took the lead, making her way back to the Pridelands, her little pride following along behind her.

"And Shuja, don't encourage him please, his rantings are surely madness," she barked without looking back.

It was darkening quite a bit as they drew nearer to Pride Rock, and they didn't go unnoticed by the pride. Some of the lionesses came out to greet them, quizzical expressions etched into their faces. Nala headed them, the others were all nameless as far as Vitani was concerned, and Kiara was nowhere to be seen. She grinned deviously as she imagined the little queen was probably off being naughty with her brother, but then her face turned to disgust as she pictured them being romantic in any way. She shook her head and let her face resume a neutral nonchalance as her group and Nala's came to a meeting point.

"Vitani," Nala said in a pleasant tone lined with a bit of surprise and confusion, "Back so soon?"

"Considering the circumstances that I'm sure my brother has filled you all in about, we thought it best to coordinate our efforts with yours. The most efficient way of doing that is for us to move in here for a while. I'm sure you all won't mind? There's only two who didn't live here before, and one is just a cub."

"But the other is a demon who came back from the dead after Kovu had us execute him for his violence!" a pridesister cried out.

Knowing Baya would want to come back with some clever retort, Vitani stuck up a paw in front of him to silence him before he spoke and responded herself trying to keep a civil tone.

"He is not so violent as you might think. He's not going to slaughter you all in your sleep, and he is here to aid my brother, as are the rest of us. We are following Simba's ideal of forgiveness and we are choosing to disregard my brother's... slip-ups," she said as calmly as she could muster, but her words carried an edge of firmness and dissonance.

"I'm sure he'll welcome you all for as long as this crisis lasts, or as long as you want to stay," Nala said, also with firmness in her tone to quiet any other outcries. She was no longer the queen, but the pridesisters still respected her for what she once was, and they quieted as the former queen escorted the former Outlander and her little pride up into Pride Rock.

[Baya]

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[Carl]

"We're only here to fortify our forces until this situation with Mrithi is over," Vitani said nastily, "You won't have to deal with any of us outsiders anymore when he's gone. We don't like being here anymore than you like it." She wanted to go ahead and mention the fact that she knew one of Kovu's underlings was a spy, but if he knew that's why they were really here, things would only get worse. Baya would just have to deal with playing "nice" on the surface until they'd completed their mission.

Her little 'pride' nodded agreement. They were all disgusted with Kovu's behavior, all except Sauda, who saw a chance to potentially drive a wedge between Vitani and Baya and maybe win him over for herself. She would never harm Vitani or turn on her in battle, not only did Sauda respect her leader, but she knew also that she would perish should a fight break out between them. She would follow Vitani to the grave. But that didn't mean she had to pass up an opportunity to nudge the future of a relationship of Vitani's, especially if she could use manipulating the Pridelanders to help her. Then it would look like she had nothing to do with it.

After saying her bit, Vitani had wanted to stalk off and go talk to Baya, but she had to be around Kovu's pride to locate the spy, so she strolled leisurely into the den. Nala was taken aback as the face Vitani made, in combination with the way she moved, reminded the former queen of Scar. She found it somewhat worrisome, but chose to disregard it for now. After all, Vitani was related to Scar, but she was not him. As Dikeledi, Masozi, and N'gora followed her, Sauda slipped off to go closer to Baya. N'gora had her nose wrinkled in disgust as she walked past Kovu. In her time away from him and the events lately, she had seen no point in continuing to play nice as she had for a while before.

"You're just like Scar," she hissed at him as she walked by, "Zira would be proud."

Meanwhile, Sauda had stopped outside the den Baya and Shuja had gone into. She grinned deviously before turning a somewhat forlorn expression towards him.

"Can you believe the way she talks? As if her words are all of ours. How she crawls into the den with her brother, after all he's done? If I didn't know any better, I might think she was soft like them." All of this was said from the mouth of the den, as she intended to keep walking and sleep nearby. It was too risky for her to go in there with him at this stage. He was too angry, and too violent, and while she'd love to fight him again, she knew she would meet her demise that way and she wasn't ready to go out yet.

[Baya]

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