The Lion Guard Season 4 Part Two: Divided and United

Episode 3: Memories

Vitani paced back to the Lion Guard lair and laid down so she could clear her mind. She gazed upon the cave paintings of the many stories of the pridelands, including the ones depicting the story of her and Kopa, which were now more visible. She thought back to her cubhood days, before Zira's intense training fully took over. She was still headstrong however she had the child-like innocence that allowed her to enjoy life, despite the conditions she lived in. Especially since she hung out with Kopa.

Vitani felt a sense of regret wash over her as she remembered how she treated kopa back at the cavern. 'Maybe I was a bit too harsh with him' she thought to herself. 'I mean he just wanted to help' . Vitani saw a shadow loom over at the entrance of the lair and stood up to see who it was.

She quickly got a glimpse of Kopa's reddish-brown mane and approached the entrance. However when she got there she already saw Kopa walking away with his head down.

There was a part of Vitani that wanted to run over to Kopa and tell him that he was sorry, but the only problem was that she was afraid that her apology would come off as rude, and would trigger another set of problems for her to deal with. So instead she took one last glace at Kopa and went back to the Lair, she would probably have to stay the night there anyways so she might as well get comfortable.

Once again, Kion, Bunga, and Fuli didn't make much progress in finding their way back home, instead they were even more lost in the Jungle than they were a week before. That was partially due to Bunga, and Kion to a certain degree, acting childish resulting in them distracting themselves from actually making progress in their journey back to society.

And the one who had to put up with all of this was Fuli. She could put up with Bunga being an idiot, however Kion on the other hand was a different story. She understood he was trying not to have a breakdown from the amount of regret he was holding in, but even with that in mind, Fuli still felt the need to push him and Bunga down a cliff.

"Hey Fuli, have you ever noticed that you can't talk while breathing through your nose?" Bunga said.

Fuli rolled her eyes and did her best not to throw Bunga into the river. "Oh really Bunga wait............."

As expected, dark grey clouds flew over the three teenagers, which meant that they had to find shelter soon, and Fuli would prefer it sooner rather than later.

But to make matters much worse, they could see Lightning flashing off in the distance, and the clouds were so dark that they would be able to black out the sun easily. As such, the trio quickly began to search around, desperately trying to find any form of shelter they could use. Bunga climbed up one of the tall Jungle trees and managed to quickly find a small den that they could stay in.

The rain began to pour upon the land, and the three made a break for the den. To no one's surprise, Fuli was the first one into the den, with Kion and Bunga catching up with her out of breath.

"Fuli.....I don't think......the rain is......is that bad!" Bunga said as he tried to catch his breath.

"Says you!" She retorted.

"C'mon Fuli it's not like it's Acid." Kion responded as he shook the water off his golden fur coat.

"Shut up and go to sleep!" She said.

Bunga and Kion just shrugged and fell asleep in the den to the sound of rain.

Her eyes opened.

And she swam for the surface, eager to get out of the cold, wet water below her. With a gasp, she resurfaced, paddling as best she could to keep herself afloat.

She saw lightning. And storm clouds up above, and thunder and rain.

And she paddled for the closest land, fighting the current with all her strength.

And when she felt like she'd drown, she felt a familiar pair of paws grab her by the shoulders and haul her onto the shore.

She sat there for a moment. Wet, panicking on the inside, adrenaline amounts slowly returning to normal, and face-down on the wet mud of the river bank.

She felt warmth on her back. The rain stopped hitting her. A warm body covered in wet, but soft fur was on top of her.

She lay there for a whole minute. Unmoving, except for deep, heavy breathing.

Her eyes opened again. She looked up and saw Azaad's face, lying atop her, eyes closed, arms tightly squeezing her body.

She realized that something didn't feel right. Something was off. But something was right, something was familiar.

She tried to summon an old memory, one the darkness in her mind would never let her think of.

She thought of her friends. The Lion Guard and her. All hugging like a big, happy family.

And she thought of that for almost a minute straight before she realized what happened.

The darkness was gone! There was nothing lurking at the back of her mind, nothing to control her every emotion and every action. Just her and her happy memories of her happy life.

She stood up and hugged Azaad. She nuzzled him and licked him and held him so tight he was choking. And she laughed a happy, brilliant laugh, and smiled brighter than the sun, so bright the storm clouds receded, and embraced Azaad for a few more moments.

"I knew you were still in there somewhere," said Azaad, returning Fuli's smile.

Fuli's emerald green eyes jolted open, as she woke up from her dream, or rather a recent memory. She looked outside of the den and looked to see that it was still raining. She just sat there staring out of the entrance, letting the soothing sound of the rain pouring let her think to herself.

A small tear drop creased the side of her face as she remembered Azaad, the one who actively tried to save her when she was trapped in darkness. She admired his loyalty, and despite his headstrong attitude, she could easily get past that since he risked his own life for her.

The thought of Azaad put a smile on her face. Never in her life had she felt these feelings with anyone else. There was something unique about Azaad that couldn't leave her mind, and instead drew her close to him. Even before they had started their romantic partnership, she felt a sense of joy she couldn't describe when he would visit the Tree of Life. Sure those times he claimed that he just wanted to run in some new locations, but nonetheless she was happy to see him.

"Couldn't sleep?" Fuli turned around and saw Kion sit down next to her.

"Nope," Fuli casually responded.

"What happened, bad dream?"

Fuli shook her head. "Not exactly, more like a memory."

"You miss him, don't you?"

Fuli smiled. "That obvious huh?"

Kion nodded. "Well, with us being gone for who knows how long, it makes sense to have dreams about him at this point."

Fuli smirked at Kion. "You were already dreaming about Rani the first night!"

Kion blushed. "WHAT, No I wasn't"

Fuli laughed. "You talk in your sleep, its not exactly a secret that you miss her."

"Alright fine, well *yawns* i'm going to head back to sleep, good night." Kion stood up and began to walk to his part of the den, leaving Fuli alone to think to herself.

Sorrry for not updating, last week was crazy since I was DESPERATLY trying to avoid spoilers for No Way Home since it got an early release in Europe. Along with that my family was preparing for christmas since well......were mexican, we make the most of every chance we have to gather as a family. Along with that I have been working on another project with the working title being "The orphaned" and you guys should have the first look of it here soon.