In a recent thread around here, I made reference to a few early, and very much cringey attempts of mine to write my own The Lion King III. I got a request or two to share, and I figured, "Eh. Why not? It's not like I care about it anymore anyway".

I'll be uploading what I managed to write in parts. It's not a lot, trust me. I'll post the next two or three parts over the next couple days if anyone's interested in seeing more. I'll also be willing to answer any questions about the narrative; it's been five years, but I remember it pretty well.

Far warning, though...it's pretty terrible now that I look back on it. I think the only thing that's held up is the title.

The Lion King III: Best of Both Worlds

Prologue: Exactly What it Sounds Like

Greenwood Community Cemetary, Greenwood, California. May 8, 2013

The funeral had officially concluded about 15 minutes ago. Most of the attendees had already left the cemetery, but a few were gathering to chat, or take a walk around the grounds, stuff like that. But one person still remained standing next to Benjamin Thompson's grave. It was his older brother, Daniel. He was about 13-years old, with dark brown hair, chocolate-colored eyes, and glasses. For a long time he just stayed crouching beside the tombstone, not saying a word.
Benjamin's death had taken a toll on the whole Thompson family. Even Daniel's cousin Wilson couldn't find a bright side anywhere. Benjamin was only 9-years old, it seemed impossible to think that anyone could be killed by cancer at that age. But that's exactly what happened.
But out of the whole family, Daniel had been hit the hardest with grief. Benjamin had been more than just his little brother. He had been his best friend. Whenever he felt alone in life (which had been happening pretty frequently for some reason since the Second Grade), Benjamin was always there to comfort him. Some of Daniel's greatest ideas had been inspired by Benjamin's equally great mind. They were a rare case among brothers. When they found out about Benjamin's cancer, Daniel had worked himself to the bone trying to figure out a way to save his little brother. But he just couldn't do it. He just couldn't save him. He didn't even have any leads on a cure by the time Benjamin died.
And now, sitting beside the grave of his closest friend in life, Daniel felt more alone than ever before.
"What do I do now, Benjy?" He whispered. He started to feel tears streaming from his eyes.
"Danny!" His mother's voice rang out across the meadow. He knew it was time to go. He got up, took one last look at his brother's grave, then started to walk back to the car. His father and mother were already beside the Dodge Grand Caravan, looking just as grieved as he was.
As he walked on, he heard the voice of Felix Prescott behind him, quiet and reproachful. As he almost always was towards Daniel.
"Yeah, go on home ya' little reject," Felix whispered.
Daniel felt lucky that his parents were only fifty feet away. He would've slugged Felix in the face if they weren't there. He just gave Felix a killer stare, turned away, and headed on towards the car.
He was so lost in his grief that he didn't notice the light drizzle that began to fall.

~ ~ ~

Pridelands-Outlands Border, Tanzania. September 28, 2015

So this is where it all ends, Simba thought to himself. He was drenched with rain, making it hard for him to see, but he could make out Zira’s snarling form pacing back and forth in front of him.
It was amazing, really, how peace could devolve into chaos in such a short span of time. Just a few days ago, the Pridelands had been relatively peaceful. And then Kovu showed up. And it all changed.

[scene unfinished; basically a recap of the ending of The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride]

~ ~ ~

She couldn't remember her name. She remembered a battle, the roars of lions around her, a river, hitting her head on something hard…
And hatred. She remembered feeling intense hate toward someone. Intense, raging, murderous hatred.
But for crying out loud, why couldn't she remember her stinkin' name?
Suddenly, she remembered. "Zira," she said aloud. Of course. Zira. That was her name. Now she remembered.
Then, very slowly, she started to remember the history behind that name. Scar's unjust death, her own exile, her plan to reclaim the Pridelands…
Simba. He'd been the cause of all this. He'd corrupted Kovu with his lies and ruined everything. And then his daughter had turned her whole pride against her. Zira's life had been filled with misery ever since that wretched usurper came into Scar's kingdom.
Slowly, that feeling of hate came creeping back into her mind.
Painfully, (she was hurt somewhat by her fall into the river) Zira got up and looked around. The river had carried her out of the Pridelands, but she wasn't exactly sure of where she was. Instead of the steep walls of the gorge, she was now surrounded by a gentle slope. On one side was the lush, green environment of the Pridelands, and on the other was the barren, dry wasteland that she knew was the Outlands. Zira could see that it was around early morning, so she assumed she'd been knocked about for a good couple of hours.
Zira turned back to look at the land she had unsuccessfully tried to claim. In the distance, just in front of the rising sun, she could see Pride Rock; that all-too familiar rock formation smack in the middle of the Pridelands.
As she looked, she thought she could see Simba, Nala, Kovu, and that little brat Kiara standing on the edge of Pride Rock. She couldn't make out what they were doing there, but it seemed pretty important, given the fact that just about everyone in the kingdom happened to be crowded around the thing.
Upon seeing Simba again, Zira almost immediately launched into one of those vengeance-vow things that villains always seem to do. She knew Simba would never hear her, but she felt she had to say something anyway.
"This isn't over yet, Simba! You're not safe by a long shot! I will be back! And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be praying for a quick death!!!" And with that, she turned her back on the Pride Lands, and headed off. She immediately began plotting her next move. What she really wanted was to strike back that very night.
Yes, she thought to herself. I'll sneak over to Pride Rock in the middle of the night, and then just casually slit Simba and Nala's throats. There. Done. Then the kingdom will be all–
Then she stopped as she realized that that idea would not work in the slightest. Someone would surely notice her. And even if she did manage to kill the King and Queen, she would never make it out. There were about twenty lions and lionesses (excluding cubs) living at Pride Rock, even more now with the former Outlanders. They'd surely catch her, Kiara would end up taking the throne, and Zira would be put on trial. The sentence would most likely be death. Death or prison for life. Zira doubted that she would be exiled all over again. The Pride Landers weren't known for making the same mistakes twice.
As she continued her way out of the Pride Lands, it slowly dawned on Zira that she couldn't defeat Simba all by herself. It was a feat that even Scar, for all his greatness and power, could not do. If Zira was going to take the Pride Lands, she was going to need some help.
It's got to be someone I can trust. Someone reliable, capable, and above all, easily intimidated into doing my will. Now who could I find...
And suddenly, with a sly grin steadily forming on her face, she knew the perfect animals who could help her.

~ ~ ~

"Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah?! Well, listen up, Reirei! Next time we catch you stealing our food, we're gonna'…um, we're gonna'…well, we're gonna' do something to you!" Shenzi cried angrily.
"Yeah! And it's gonna' hurt, too!" Banzai yelled.
A little ways off, the pack of jackals just laughed at the two hyenas. Then they took the zebra carcass (which Shenzi and Banzai had spent hours trying to smuggle out of the Pridelands) in their mouths, turned away, and headed off.
Shenzi growled. "We gotta' stop believing those guys when they say they're just 'lost' or 'passing through' or some lame excuse like that."
"Yeah. I mean, how many times can you possibly get lost in this exact same spot?" Banzai replied. The two then turned around, and started walking back toward their den.
After Scar's defeat, the hyenas knew that Simba would punish them for their assisting Scar, regardless of the fact that they had ended up turning on him. In the mass exodus that had followed this realization, Shenzi, Banzai, and another hyena named Ed had gotten separated from the main group. Ed was killed shortly thereafter in a rather unfortunate (and disturbingly amusing) accident, leaving Shenzi and Banzai all alone. They finally managed to find a small cave near the far border of the Outlands, and they had been living there ever since.
"How come us hyenas always seem to be at the bottom of the Circle of Life?" Banzai wondered aloud. "I mean, nothing ever goes right for us."
"Tell me about it," Shenzi replied. "I mean, first we get exiled from the Pride Lands for something nobody can even remember, then we get duped into an assassination attempt–two, actually–trying to get a lifetime, all-you-can-eat buffet, and then Ed gets horribly killed right in front of us."
"Yeah, getting eaten by a whangdoodle ain't exactly the best way to go," Banzai said sadly.
They stopped about five feet from their den. It was a little, ten-by-ten cave in the side of a small outcropping of rock. It wasn't much, but it was all they had.
"Y'know," Shenzi said. "Everything would be a lot better of those lions weren't on top. If it weren't for them, we'd be runnin' the joint!"
"Man, I hate lions!" Banzai replied.
"So pushy…"
"And hairy…"
"And stinky…"
"And, man, are they…"
"UUUUUUGLY!" They both shouted in unison. After a bit of a pause, they must have decided this rather funny, because they started shrieking in hysterics.
"I'm going to give you five seconds to take that back," said an ominous, female voice from inside the cave. Both hyenas jumped back in terror, stuttering like crazy.
Finally, Shenzi worked up the nerve to speak. "W-w-who are you?" She stammered nervously.
"Oh, come now, Shenzi. You really don't remember me?" The hyenas were suddenly aware of a dark shape in the cave moving toward them. The thing stepped into the light, and–
"Ring any bells?" Zira asked with a tinge of theatrical flair.[
"Zira?" Shenzi said. "Whew. We were worried it might've been, uh, somebody else." She gave a nervous laugh, and then muttered, "Of course, Scar was a little nicer the last time this happened."
"So," Banzai said. "Nice to see ya' again, long time no see. How's it been going out there in the Outlands? Last I heard, you were gonna' try taking over the Pride Lands again. How did that go?"
"Oh, just dandy," Zira growled sarcastically. "The whole thing went just smoothly. Kovu betrayed me, Nuka died, and now my entire pride has left me to join…to join Simba." Her voice turned into a kind of hiss when she said the name "Simba".
The two hyenas stared for a moment. "That doesn't sound very 'dandy' to me," Shenzi said.
"Of course it's not dandy!" Zira yelled. "I was being sarcastic, you fools! How can everything be fine when my entire pride–Vitani and Kovu included–have betrayed me. Betrayed Scar?!"
She paused to catch her breath, then started to pace in frustration. "I had it all planned out. It would've worked beautifully, simply beautifully! If Kovu had done his job like the brainwa–I mean, the obedient son I thought he was, Simba would've been hanged by now or something. But of course, there had to be something I didn't count on! Do you know what that was? Well, do you?!" By now, the lioness had come up into the two hyenas faces. And if you've seen Zira yelling about an inch from your nose, you'll know that it's not exactly a joyride.
"Uhhh…" Shenzi said.
"An attractive princess. That's what did it. That wretched Kiara and her cursed attractiveness! That, plus her being a very good speaker, have led to this disaster!" Zira stepped back, sat down, and took a deep breath.
Then she started chuckling. In a somewhat disturbing way, I might add. "Of course," she said softly. "We always do get second chances, now don't we?"
"Huh?" The hyenas said.
"Don't think for a moment that I've given up. Zira may be knocked down, maybe, but never defeated."
"You're gonna' try again?" Banzai asked nervously.
"We, Banzai, my friend. We are going to try again. As a matter of fact, that's why I came here–to see if you'd accept a little…invitation to help me out here." Zira said.
Shenzi tried to figure out what to say. In truth, the hyenas wanted nothing to do with Zira's insane schemes of vengeance. All they wanted to do was get as far away from Simba, the Pride Lands, the whole shabang, and find a fresh start in some other kingdom.
They also knew that if Zira ever found out what really happened to Scar, Shenzi and Banzai would end up getting a good, long, painful look at their insides without the use of an X-Ray. And that was something they never wanted to experience (nor does anyone else).
But Shenzi didn't want to admit this openly, so she simply said:
"Well, I, uh…I mean, we'd like to help ya', but, you know, we kind of have…"
"Oh, come on, now" Zira said. She reached out with her paw, and slowly rubbed it under each hyenas chin with her index claw extended. She slid the backside of the claw along, first under Shenzi's chin, then Banzai's, causing both to cringe a little.
"You'd really be doing me a service. You never know…there might even be something in it for you two as well." Her voice was calm, quiet, sweet, seductive even…but there was a hidden, unspoken "or else" threat buried in her voice that the poor hyenas instantly recognized.
Eventually, Shenzi's fear of dissection got the better of her, and she simply said, "Okay. We'll do it."
Zira smirked. "That's fine," she said, still using her singsong voice. She pulled her paw back. "Now, if you don't mind, I think it's time we left the Outlands to find a more secure hideout. We've got some planning to do."
And now she smiled, showing off those demonic teeth of hers.