New Angles

Return To The Pridelands pt. 7

~Episode twenty: Return To The Pridelands~

~Part Seven~

(AU; no Lion Guard competition; continued)

"What were you thinking, Vitani?!" Kion thundered, standing in a prowl beneath Pride Rock for when her tense eyes turned his way. "It's bad enough you've tried to interfere with our rescues.. but this is going too far!!"

"Too Far?!" Vitani echoed, as the two guards gathered side by side to watch. "If you'd have just let me handle it we would've been fine."

"I don't believe this.." Kion snarled. "Even after you've put lives in danger, you still try to justify yourself."

"It doesn't need justification if it's true." Vitani shot back.

"But it's not YOUR JOB!!" Kion quaked. "First you try to tell us how to do our job, then you try ordering MY team? And then you try to do it yourself?!"

"Look, we were doing just fine protecting the Pridelands before you and your friends came back." Vitani accused, prowling toward Kion with a boldness that just added fuel to the fire.

Kion growled asserting his fierce authority by lifting his head to her which only made her step back, but not back down.

"What's going on?" Kovu asked, as he and Kiara wandered down from Pride Rock, ending up next to the two Guards.

"You were told to back off!!" Kion asserted, with a boiling growl. "And all you've done is make things worse! And what's even worse is that you put members of my team in danger.. JUST SO YOU COULD BE A HERO THAT YOU'RE NOT!!!"

"Kion!!" Kiara gasped.

"Well, what does that make you, MUFASA?" Vitani countered. "All high and mighty because of that Roar that makes you so special? Or do you think so highly of yourself because you took down Scar."

"Vitani!" Kovu hissed.

"YOU CAN PUT YOUR OWN LIVES AT RISK.. BUT NOT MEMBERS OF THE REAL LION GUARD!!!" Kion thundered, his prowl deepening, and the hairs his neck standing on end with his unsheathing claws.

"Oh, so YOU CAN ONLY CARRY THE GLORY OF YOUR ROLE JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE IT?!" Vitani questioned, the two growing increasingly close to one another in more a of a battle-ready prowl than an assertive one. "WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO WHEN YOU FINALLY COME OUT OF THE SHADOW OF YOUR PRECIOUS GRANDFATHER?!"

And Kion's words couldn't not satisfy what his paws soon achieved..

Pouncing on Vitani, she caught him at the shoulders and threw him off her; stalking each other in a back and forth circle. With bared teeth, Kion impulsively shot toward her and lunged right for her neck, locking his jaws onto her with any strength he had to give.

Vitani pulled back, even reaching her paws up to bat Kion's head to hopefully make him let go. But when one paw unsheathed its claws, the mark it left across his nose finally did make him.

Flaring amber eyes searched out his target and when he lunged, he was already met with Vitani, who landed him on his back where she could snarl at him. Raising a paw, she landed another paw across his face. And he scratched blindly up at her, successfully making her back away.

Now each sporting wounds oozing with crimson the two lions seemed to pause a moment. But Kion seemed to get his second wind before Vitani, because his blitz forced her to act and after a fight between paws and claws, one lion hit the ground.. and it wasn't Kion.