The Lion Guard: The Great Pride Lands War

Assassinating Simba

Year: 1999

It is now March of 1999, and the war that was expected to go on for just a few months was now going on for over a year. The Lion Guard has been growing bigger and stronger, while the ARO and it's allies have been growing weaker. Over the course of 6 months, the ARO had lost almost all of the gains it had made throughout the war, and at the cost of many lives and resources.

As for Commander McCoy, the war was also taking a huge toll on him. The stress was starting to age him, his hair was turning gray, he became thinner, he rarely shaved anymore, and he got a lot of wrinkles all over his face. Almost everyone had come to believe that the war was unwinnable, the army was left with only 1,800 men, as the rest had either been killed or had deserted.

What made it all much worse, was that rumors were beginning to go around among the soldiers stating that France and the U.S were thinking about withdrawing from the war entirely. Commander McCoy soon found out that these rumors were true. People in France and the U.S who were mostly relatives of the soldiers were petitioning for their governments to bring the soldiers home.

It was a complete disaster, so Commander McCoy begged any one of his top men for any plans. Thankfully, one U.S general did come up with a rather unusual plan, his name was General Samuel Wallace. His plan was not about capturing territory, but instead it was about assassinating King Simba. Wallace explained that the whole thing was like a game of chess, if the king was taken out it wouldn't matter what pieces were left on the board, the game was lost.

Commander McCoy loved that plan, and he placed General Wallace in charge of the plan. Everyone else thought the plan was very unorthodox, and they debated if it was even gonna work, but General Wallace argued that it was much better then losing more men in battle, and that if the plan was done just right, the casualties would be minimal. The plan was then laid out to everyone.

One soldier would sneak up Pride Rock with a musket while another soldier would leave a getaway horse not too far away behind some trees. Then when the time is right, the first soldier would shoot Simba, throw the gun away, and run to the getaway horse, which would bring both soldiers back to the Out Lands. General Wallace hand picked two men from the ARO army of whom he thought were right for the job. The two men he picked were Billy and his friend Jim.

They snuck into the Pride Lands and went to Pride Rock. When Jim left Billy to go set up the getaway horse, Billy took note of his surroundings to try and find the best entrance to the rock. It didn't look too good, as there were a lot of animals there celebrating some kind of festival. It was the Pride Lander's annual Kumbuka Celebration. It commemorated the day Simba returned to the Pride Lands and defeated Scar. Billy saw King Simba at the top of Pride Rock, and he knew he had to move fast.

He snuck himself up Pride Rock and hid in the den. There he loaded his musket, and he started to slowly walk up to Simba. Since the muskets were not long ranged, Billy had to get up really closely, and once he was finally close enough... Billy shot Simba point-blank in the back.

[Billy about to take the shot]

Simba fell to the ground unconscious and everyone gasped. Nala, Kiara, and Kion looked back and saw Billy standing there with the musket. Billy quickly threw the musket to the ground and jumped off of Pride Rock, the fall really hurt his ankle, but he just kept running to where Jim and the horse were waiting for him.

Nala and Kiara went to Simba's aid while Kion and the Lion Guard ran after Billy. Billy was almost there when suddenly a huge tree fell right over him, crushing his back. He began to panic while gasping for air, and the Lion Guard quickly caught up with him. They took the tree off of Billy and started fighting him. Billy didn't have his musket, so he took out a dagger and stabbed Kion, Fuli, and Beshte, in the legs 3 times each.

After that, Billy leaped onto the horse behind Jim, and they both set off back to the Out Lands. "Hapana! They got away!" Said Ono. "Yeah, they did. But come on, let's get back to Pride Rock and check on my dad." Said Kion.

When the Lion Guard got back to Pride Rock, things were not going well at all. Timon and Pumbaa were outside of the den crying, and inside Rafiki was treating Simba's wound. Rafiki wanted to try and get the bullet out, but it was lodged in Simba's spine, and he didn't want to cause any more damage. "Dad, are you okay?" Asked Kion. Simba just let out a moan. "Your father is very weak, Kion. It could take him a while to heal." Said Nala.

[Simba being treated inside the den]

Back at the ARO base, everyone was ecstatic to hear that the plan was a success. All they had to do now was to wait for Simba to die, once that happens, the already exhausted Pride Lands will be left with no form of leadership, and so they would have no other choice but to surrender. Simba didn't die, but he was still greatly injured from the shot, he was unable to walk, and he barely even had enough strength to speak.

For the ARO, this felt like a turning point in the war. Many now thought the Pride Lands' defeat was now inevitable, and so France and the U.S held back on withdrawing from the war. For Billy's bravery and consistent performance against the Lion Guard, he got promoted to an officer, with his very own cavalry regiment.

Billy was quite nervous about the whole thing, he was good at following orders, but he wasn't so sure how great he would be at giving them. But still, Billy was willing to give it his best shot. As the hours would pass, Simba would slowly get a bit better, but not back to how he was before. But that wouldn't even matter, as Commander McCoy and his marshals would start planning another attack, which they guaranteed would end the war, once and for all.