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// Nobody: Pride Lands 
// Story: Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After dealing with the dangers of Halloween Town, and stopping Oogie Boogie once more, the group returned to their ship and took off once more, though this time Sombra focused on the heart fragments she had acquired, as all seven of the light pieces of Vanitas' heart had been obtained, despite not knowing where the rest of him was located. As she added the last one to the container the fragments swirled around each other before coming to a stop, as a single half of a heart, which was interesting to see and it made her take note of what had happened, just in case she found any other heart fragments. She was also happy with the fact that she had been able to convince Aqua, Ventus, and Terra not to strike down the pieces of Vanitas' heart, even though he had wronged them greatly under Xehanort's orders, and knew that she needed to talk with them again, to make sure they stayed their hands. She remained in the lab for some time, making sure the fragment was safe and sound, that it wasn't about to disappear or something, before noticing that something was going on with the heart that belonged to the Seeker, whatever resonance had been going on previously was now over.

The interesting thing about it was that she was sure that the heart felt lighter, like whatever the Seeker had done caused a change in his heart, which made her curious as to what might happen to it in the future, and if she should try to commune with it at some point, to see if he might speak to her.

She worked with the hearts for a time, taking notes on them and what was going on with them, before Sora informed the rest of the group that he was entering the last Space Gate, because Sombra was of the opinion that there wasn't much more for them to explore and that this might be the last time they did this. Sure enough he flew the ship into the opening and they discovered that the area Sora had to clear out this time around seemed to be more like the tunnels cutting through one of the mountains, only the stone was made out of yellow smoke of some kind. Like before Sora focused on flying around and dealing damage to his enemies, while the ship collected the gummi materials and added them to the systems that would use them to improve the ship or the Teeny Ships that were with them, demonstrating his skills to them once more. The Heartless gummi turned out to be one with drills for hands, or weapons, but this time around Sora blasted it into oblivion, which was followed by Sombra claiming the freed heart as their ship continued through the path that the World wanted them to open before reaching the next world.

The end of the path brought them outside to one of the spinning gun Heartless ships, the more imposing ones, and Sora just blew it up without delay, opening the way for him to bring the ship to a stop near the next world, which appeared to be one of the more wild ones, before he and the rest of the main group warped down to it's surface.

What was interesting was that the area they had appeared in seemed to be either a wasteland or a gorge, though that was when they noticed their new forms, as each of them had been transformed upon warping down to this world, where Sora found that he was a brown lion cub, a fact that brought a smile to his face. Donald was a tropical bird that had his colors as well and he found that he had to carry his staff in his talons, while Goofy was a tortoise and his shield was on the top of his shell, though he didn't seem annoyed at all, rather he seemed to be enjoying his new form already. Radiant discovered that she was a zebra, of all things, and that she, like Sora, had to use her Keyblade with her mouth, which was going to take some getting used to, while Fluttershy and Seras were a pair of bats that were about the same size as Donald, while their weapons seemed to form sharp covers over their talons. Sombra found that she was a lot like Sora, only she seemed to be a lioness, her body darker due to her natural body color, and possibly due to her power over Darkness, though she did smile for a few seconds, as it felt nice to be back on four legs, despite how used she was to using two legs these days.

In the next moment they found that there were a large number of hyenas around them, like they had been warped down into enemy territory for the first time, where three of them leapt down to where Sombra and the others were standing and started to walk around them.

"Well well, what do we have here? Lunch!" one of the hyenas remarked, where Sombra noticed something important, they were hungry, either because of the area they were in or because their hunting grounds were lacking animals for them to hunt, hence the remark the hyena had made.

Sombra, sensing that the hyenas were going to come and attempt to eat them alive, pressed her paws against the ground and a circle of energy wrapped around where she and her friends were standing, which could expand into a barrier if the hyenas made a move on them. As the three hyenas approached, however, there was a mighty roar that tore through part of the area and it caused every hyena in the area to pause, before one mentioned 'Scar' and that he was upset, but instead of staying here they departed for another area, leaving the group to regain themselves. Once Sombra was sure that they were gone she dismissed her magic before turning towards Sora, where she showed him how to move with his new body, while the others focused on making sure they got used to their new forms, and that meant using their weapons in whatever way they could. Sombra found that when she used her weapon she could summon it into blades on her front legs, but if she wanted to use her scythe it would form at the end of her tail, causing her to think of interesting ways to use this discovery against whatever enemies they might find in this world.

As they worked on mastering their new forms, even though Sombra and Radiant were able to adapt easily, they heard the sound of someone being attacked by something and moved out into the gorge, where they found an adult lioness under attack by what appeared to be a pair of blue skinned dinosaur Heartless that looked like they might be partly made of bone for some reason. With that in mind Sombra went with 'Living Bone', it was the only thing that made sense to her, though as the lioness rushed off both she and Sora rushed into battle, quite literally since their animal bodies were faster than what she was expecting, plus they could even jump higher as well. As they engaged the Heartless they discovered that their power was far stronger than before as well, as both of them knocked their foes into the air with a single attack and opened the way for the others to release ranged attacks at them, blasting both Living Bones into the side of the rock wall that was nearby before crashing into them again. It was an interesting turn of events, like the bestial nature of this world was allowing them to draw upon more of their inner power, without sacrificing anything in the process, and when both Heartless fell Sombra was able to catch both hearts before they disappeared, adding them to her collection.

Once she was sure that the coast was clear she and the others walked over to where the lioness was waiting, who seemed to be surprised by what had just happened, which was understandable given that she wasn't used to Heartless and had likely discovered that her teeth and claws did nothing to the enemies that were in her lands.

"Thank you... you really saved my hide there." the lioness said, as she figured that it would be best to tell her saviors that she was thankful for what they had done, even though this was the first time she had seen the group in question, but she knew they couldn't be bad since they had saved her life.

"We're just glad you're safe." Sora replied, where he made sure to introduce all of them to the lioness, who told them that her name was Nala, though he did note that she was interested in him and Sombra, no doubt since they were different from the rest of the lions and lionesses that called this world home, "Tell us, did you see anymore of those creatures, which we call the Heartless, around here?"

"Is that what they're called? 'Heartless'? I'm not sure if there are more of them out there, as I usually don't hunt outside the Pride Lands." Nala answered, which told the group where they were, giving them a name to assign to this world, while doing nothing that would suggest that they weren't from the surrounding area, before she sighed as she realized that they were thinking of exploring the Pride Lands, "Look, things are too dangerous now... Scar and the hyenas have made things far too unbearable for everyone, as there's no food left and they've driven off all of the prey... at the rate things are going we're going to starve. Though after that display, you might be just what we need."

"Out of curiosity, whose this 'Scar'?" Sombra inquired, though based on how the hyenas had reacted she had to guess that Scar was a leader of some kind, an ineffective one that was damning the land he was likely ruling over, and Nala was likely searching for a way to get rid of him while restoring balance to the land.

"Our current King... he took over when our last King, Mufasa, died." Nala replied, where Sombra got the feeling that she liked the previous ruler far more than the one that was currently ruling over the Pride Lands, while the others understood what she was asking of them, she wanted them to dispose of Scar.

Sombra and the others glanced at each other for a moment, as they knew knocking rulers off their thrones was a bad idea, since they were supposed to be preserving the order of the worlds, but at the same time Sombra felt a familiar power that was somewhere in this world, someone they had worked with in the past. With that in mind she was sure she knew who was missing from the equation, to which she told the others that it would be best to escort Nala to an area she called 'Pride Rock', as there was no telling how many more Heartless were scattered throughout this world. Sora was curious if the rest of the lions and lionesses would be willing to nominate him as King if they took down Scar, but he told everyone that he would turn it down, he wasn't actually interested in such titles, he was just curious as to what might happen if they actually took Scar down. With that in mind the group turned towards Nala and told her to lead the way to Pride Rock, as all of them would deal with any Heartless that decided to attack, even though Sombra knew Pete was here, she could feel his signature, which explained why there were even Heartless in this world.

As they departed from the gorge the group crushed some Soldiers and Shadows that showed up as well, before heading out into what Nala said was the savannah, which was definitely dying, before crushing more of the Heartless as some Nocturnes joined the party. While they did that Sombra noticed the large mountain that was off in the distance, with a single peak and a ledge that was likely where a leader gave orders to everyone else, or just talked to their subjects, which she suspected was Pride Rock, given that it was the only thing like that in the surrounding area. There were a large number of Heartless in the area, which wasn't a surprise since Pete seemed to draw Heartless out of the various worlds he went to, but that was next to nothing to the group as they tore through the dark beings and Sombra captured the hearts. Nala continued to remain at a safe distance while her new friends dealt with all of the enemies that had appeared in the Pride Lands, finding that they were definitely the best option for them right now, and once all of the Heartless were taken care of she lead them into Pride Rock, so they could see what was going on.

When they arrived at the edge of Pride Rock the group found that the lionesses were sleeping right now, or resting, and that someone was approaching, a mandrill with a staff that Nala said was called 'Rafiki', their shaman, who stopped and stared at the group for a few seconds, causing the lionesses to raises their heads before lowering them as he shook his head.

"You might be able to help us take down Scar, but you don't have the right qualities to be King." Rafiki said, focusing on Sora for a moment, which was fair since he was still inexperienced in certain aspects in life, causing the boy turned lion cub to bow his head for a moment, because it lined up with his own thoughts, before he turned towards Sombra, "It is a shame that you weren't born a lion... you would have made a great King, as you have the right qualities."

"No, this is for the best... I know I would make a terrible ruler... probably be worse than Scar." Sombra replied, because while she knew what Santa Claus had said during their visit to his workshop, that she was between the Nice and Naughty Lists, it was hard to forget her past as the dreaded King Sombra, a tyrant who deserved everything he got, and she knew that such a position wasn't for her, "Better it go to someone else who truly deserves it."

"And yet that is why you would have made a good King, had you been born a lion. You know how a true ruler should act, and not let the power go to your head." Rafiki stated, showing them that he saw more than the others had thought, he could see what Santa Claus had seen, that Sombra was a changed individual and that the experiences she had been through, with all of the good she had gone recently, served as the right qualities in Rafiki's eyes.

With that information in paw, to use the terms of this world, the group departed from Pride Rock, though as they did so they could see an arrogant lion walking out of the main den, causing them to get out before anyone else showed up, though as Sombra asked if there were any other candidates for the position of King Nala mentioned Simba, causing her to smile as they set off, as it was time to find an old friend and set this world's wrong right.