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"Wait... he... Nuka.. what?"

Vitani's gaze switched back to the princess, who had a dawning look of confusion, but also hopefulness. She realized that if the princess had been absentee from the events this morning and learning from a secondary party, then she probably also wouldn't have known about her actions this morning. She hoped that lioness from earlier would keep her mouth shut, she didn't want anyone knowing about her presence or actions, well, aside from her lionesses here, who had all sworn to secrecy. Still given what the princess had said and considering she was all alone by herself, and how easy it was to nab her when she was in her mopey state, it made sense that she was not yet made aware of the other goings-on of today.

Well, the princess had done a fair share of admittance, why not let the full thing out now that it slipped from her mouth?

"Nuka's been taken to your healer... monkey... guy. He's still alive, but pretty beat up."

As much as she disliked Pridelanders, they did deserve to know. Considering how close they appeared to be towards her brother and how horrified they were at his fall, she did feel like they deserved to know. She may have missed out on that curtesy, though she wasn't that insensitive to let that issue repeat itself. Though she would never admit it, hearing the princess gasp, cover her mouth with her paws as her eyes began growing glassy with tears of relief, she did feel a small sense of accomplishment and joy towards it. Secretly she thought her younger self with be proud of her.

A few seconds passed before the princess dropped her paws and shook, trying to recompose herself. She quickly lifted her paw to brush her eyes and sighed deeply before addressing her.

"Thank you."

Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "Huh?"

"Just... thank you. It means a lot to me." She shuddered as she inhaled deeply again. "Just-"

"Don't." Her voice was stern and it caused her to flinch. "I get it just.. don't."

Gratitude was nice, but it was a waste of time. Words were useless if they were used too much. Breaths better spent on replenishing energy to worn, trained limbs. Plus kind words wouldn't sway her from getting out of this any easier. She frowned at how brave the princess was, so easily standing up in the face of death and managing to ease the situation. There wasn't any signs of fear inside her, seemed much more relaxed now, as if she hadn't been threatened a minute ago.

Even her pridemates had loosened up on their stances and beginning to relax, which was irking enough, but also was posing a problem for what should be an interrogation. Even Kasi and Tazama, who had been assigned to guard her from behind and hinder if she tried to make an escape, were easing up on their preparedness for a possible mad dash. Though the princess didn't seem to wanting to get away, better safe than sorry.

"Right," she muttered, a bit of awkwardness on her form as she averted her eyes. Vitani didn't known why, but she felt a bit ashamed at causing the reaction. Still, on the other paw, the princess was on her feet again and Vitani's eyes quickly darted around towards the flank guards. Kasi and Tazama had drawn up a bit, but still were more then covering either side of her and were focused firmly on her. "So... a-any other questions," the princess finally asked after what was a painful few moments.

"I've got one," Tazama asked, beating Vitani to the punch. Her most perceptive member was far enough from her original position that she was standing beside the princes, face-to-face. The grey, aqua-eyed lioness seemed hesitant in her demeanor, especially now that she had the princess' full attention, but swiftly bit down on it. "About Nuka..." her eyes darted quickly to Vitani's to check for a reaction. She had none, none visually at least.

"Yes?" The voice was friendly and encouraging enough in tone, but there was still an edge of defensiveness to it.

"Is... was..," she stammered a bit, trying to devise her question. "Did Nuka ever tell anything about us? About our home? Or... stuff?"

Vitani was inwardly glaring towards her, asking a question she should've been asking as the head of this operation. However, she did feel a small stab of guilt towards her and recognized that it was a very important question that she was genuinely curious about. She couldn't lie that she was a bit disappointed when the princess shook her head slightly.

"No, not really. And if he did, it was probably with my... my grandma." The word was spoken with a sorrowful tone and her eyes averted towards the ground. "N-Nuka would get... agitated if he was asked about his past. There were some things he was able to talk about, like Scar, but he wasn't really comfortable with talking about anything else and honestly I didn't think it would be a good idea to ask anyways." She sighed again and looked up. "In regards to what was going on recently," her tone grew serious and a bit judgmental, "None of us had any idea what was going on, though there were some suspicions with the events within the last few days."

The hair on the back of Tazama's neck bristled, though other then that she remained calm. She nodded and walked backwards, about halfway, to her original post. Sensing some of the tension spiking, Vitani went to take back control of the conversation, but was bested again, this time by Imara.

"How was Nuka while he was in your pride?" Red eyes met her blue-grey ones and the atmosphere eased back down a bit.

"Nuka... he's been doing great." She hesitated, but perhaps that was because of recent memories. "He started off as a babysitter in the pride." There were two small snicker from beside and in front of her. The princess rolled her eyes, though mirthfully, and continued. "He then moved up to being one of the guard in the pride. He's been doing a great job and me and the rest of the pride really enjoy having him there. He did and still occasionally does still have some bad moment, some lingering trauma and insecurities, but he's overall well liked and loved in the pride."

"Lingering trauma?" Imara repeated, letting a tinge of concern leak into her voice. Vitani's brain debated, one half thinking of scolding her for showing vulnerability with emotion, but the other half understood where she was coming from and overrode it. Imara was the strongest lioness in the group, a stone-faced warrior with great strength, but inwardly she could be rather soft. She sometimes asked how the others were doing, usually when Zira was not around. She had a fierce loyalty to he pridemates and was usually more forgiving in behavior when it came to talking about more personal issues.

Kiara bit her lip and her eyes averted, but then went back up to focus on her. There was a bit more of that judgement in her gaze and she nodded. "Mm hmm." And that was it for that question. No more words needed, the point was silently made.

"What about Kovu? How was he being treated in the pride?" Vitani almost wanted to smirk, but pushed back the facial muscles down. She suspected Kasi might have a bit of a crush on Kovu, seeing as they were frequent sparring partners and running buddies. She might've heard a rumor or two that mother was considering pairing the two together after everything, but no direct confirmation of that. Aside from that, she was at least grateful her group was asking germane questions.

"He was treated alright, as far as I saw. We made sure he'd get some food from the hunts. Third night my dad allowed him to sleep inside the den with the rest of us. Me and my friends tried to include him in our activities, Nuka especially..." The answer seemed to satisfy Kasi and she stepped back with a nod. "Any other questions?"

There was silence. Vitani's eyes scanned over her pride sisters, who either had neutral or contemplative expressions. Vitani herself couldn't really think of any other questions that hadn't already been asked, and now was beginning to think towards ending it here and heading out.

"Am-" The princess's voice caught her attention. In a tentative voice, she asked, "Am I allowed to ask a question here?"

"Well, I mean, you just did." Shabaha's quip sent a snicker from the princess and a smile of acknowledgement from her sister, though shot Vitani a quick look to check if she had overstepped any bounds.

Vitani shrugged at her and then addressed the princess again in a firm, but otherwise neutral voice. "Shoot."

"Okay, so... um, w-what happens now?"

An eyebrow raised in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Just..." Her front paws quietly paced in place as she struggled to piece together her question. Kasi and Tazama perked up a bit at this movement, as they should, though they did also look a bit confused. "Well, look at it this way. Kovu probably is going to stay with my pride, and I highly doubt he's going to go through with whatever was initially planned." Her voice was unsure and fearful, as it seemed like reality was finally breaking through under all the casual, relaxed demeanor. "Nuka, if what you say is true, is alive and at least safe, so there's that. Then there's the matter of you all being here, and the issue of... Zira still out there..."

The last bit trailed off awkwardly and nervously. It seemed like the princess had finally recognized the dire severity of the situation she was in and Vitani suddenly remembered her previous conversation with her mother. Kovu still did have until sunset to return with proof of Simba's demise, though the princess' words were truthful. Kovu most likely wasn't going to go through with it, and with that Zira's next plan of action was full-on invasion. War between the Pridelanders and the Outsiders, and the role of succession now lay upon her shoulders.

It was clear that this was the next step they would be taking and it seemed like the princess had enough common sense to recognize the stakes and likelihood of future events. Personally, Vitani didn't mind the idea of taking on leadership within the pride. She had previously been set towards acting as Kovu's second-in-command and was comfortable with leading and managing issues within the pride, so it wouldn't be too much further of a leap for her to assume control over her pride once her mother stepped down.

But there in lay the issue. Her mother was extremely controlling and stubborn when it came to pride matters. She had been willing enough to allow Kovu the notion that once he stepped up as king the pride would be under his command, but realistically Kovu would probably just be the face of the pride with their mother pulling all the strings and making all the decisions in the background like she always had been. Chances are that issue wouldn't change even with Vitani now holding onto the reigns of succession.

There also was the problem of the Outlands and the conflict with the Pridelanders. Even with how they survived over the years, they knew that the land couldn't sustain them. Several pride mates had died over the years, from hunger, sickness, the elements, or some combination of the three. Though they had many survival tricks up their sleeves, truthfully one of their best tactics was sneaking in a stealing food and supplies from the Pridelands, an extremely difficult and risky move. Realistically they couldn't stay for much longer, days perhaps, but something like a season was completely out of the question. It would be so easy for them to move on over to the paradisiacal land just across the border and make themselves at home with fewer worries.

And now there lay the third issue. This land was off limits to them. They were exiles, unable to set foot in this land without there being dire repercussions. Exiled for some inane reason that mother didn't like going into too much detail about and whose descriptions of why sometimes seemed a bit suspicious. Still, this was something Vitani felt strongly about, and angry towards those responsible for it. No matter the reason, she and the others had been forced to live in a barren, disgusting land and the ones responsible for it lived right adjacent to them in a lush, plentiful land, almost mockingly beside them. It irked her to no hand and she was extremely angry towards the Pridelanders. For years she had built up this idea of posh, snobby, insensitive lions, who mercilessly and even gleefully punished those who even slightly disagreed with them, who greedily hoarded all the best food and land for themselves and would furiously kick out any one who was remotely different. It made Vitani almost nauseous with resentment towards this idea of these ruthlessly cruel and selfish lions who had unfairly cast out a pride with their cubs to live in such a terrible place.

And then there was this Pridelander. The princess of all the land, the daughter of the ruthless tyrant who had exiled him. The supposedly spoiled, rude, prissy, uncaring, vain, golden child of the king, such was her imaginings of her. This lioness.... was nothing like she had expected. Sure she still got a bit of a privileged vibe off of her, what with her immaculate golden coat, completely healthy build, and a bit of a stubborn streak, but honestly this princess felt... normal. Like if she wasn't who she was, perhaps instead an Outsider or rogue, Vitani would've definitely tried to be friends with her. This lioness was witty, brave, charismatic, confident, and well-spoken. Sure there was a bit of aggression and stubbornness about her, but Vitani couldn't really complain there. It was an immense issue though, considering the amount of time she had spent imagining this spoiled, irritable brat of a royal and being served with this otherwise interesting and tolerable lioness. It honestly felt like a slap to the face with how agreeable and even respectable this princess was acting, and it did bring up a disturbing and an almost nauseating thought.

If the princess was like this, how wrong were her other notions about how the Pridelanders are?

Vitani could feel her resolve melting by the minute. She knew her loyalty belonged to her pride. She knew her pride's safety and survival took precedence over everything else. She knew that they could no longer stay in the Outlands and needed to get out. That all she knew, that all remained the same. However her resentment towards and notion towards taking revenge on the the ones responsible for this was wavering. She began to feel what Kovu must've felt, feeling that he could no go on with this plan. And it filled her with dread. She wanted so badly to be able to forget this feeling, to forget this current image of the princess before her and desperately go back to the image she had had in her mind for years. She so desperately wanted to feel hate towards her, towards all Pridelanders, towards what they had done to her and her pride. She wanted to feel the urge to have them all burn before her, have all that was precious ripped from them, for them to fearfully and painfully understand all she had felt over the years.

But she couldn't. She couldn't muster up the hate for this lioness, and in that moment realized she probably couldn't do the same for the rest.

"I-" And for the first time in her life, Vitani, the unwavering, fiercest and most loyal lioness of all the Outsiders, was unsure about her role and choice. "I don't know."

Whew, another long one. Probably could've split some of it for a future picture... meh. Just decided to get all this out, since school takes priority and I need to keep by brain focused on that.

Hope you liked Vitani's inner struggle, since it will be a big part in future installments. Also hope you like the redesigns of Tazama and Kasi. Tazama has the most markings, with ear rims and her teardrop markings now replaced with dots on her cheeks and not her nose, as well as a darkened nose. I decided to keep her original eye color, since it is a color I would associate with sharp vision, and I greyed her coat a lot down. As for Kasi, they got the least amount of changes. Sure I did alter her coat color a tad, changed her eye color and got rid of what markings she did have, but aside from that she had the least amount of changes. I did try to include everyone of Vitani's Guard here, but I ran out of space. Sorry Imara.

Also, talk about development. I did try to give each of the ladies a bit of a glimpse into what their personalities are like; Shabaha is the crazy goofball, Imara is inwardly a mom friend, Tazama is perceptive in more then one way other than her keen sight, and Kasi has a bit of a crush on Vitani's brother, but is also a loyal friend. And Vitani, whoo, can you feel her uneasiness as she begins to question reality against what she's been taught and lead to believe all her life? Yikes, at least it didn't take two deaths for her to come to her senses like it did with Kovu, although I do believe in the original it was one which helped her along.

One last thing, I'd like to give credit to StarWolff-Nyota for letting me reference their TLK Colors chart when it came to to adjusting the Outsiders' colors. Much appreciated pal, really helped me out.

Kiara, Vitani © The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Imara, Shabaha, Kasi, Tazama © The Lion Guard © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Art © Vtoony

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"Wait... he... Nuka.. what?"

Vitani's gaze switched back to the princess, who had a dawning look of confusion, but also hopefulness. She realized that if the princess had been absentee from the events this morning and learning from a secondary party, then she probably also wouldn't have known about her actions this morning. She hoped that lioness from earlier would keep her mouth shut, she didn't want anyone knowing about her presence or actions, well, aside from her lionesses here, who had all sworn to secrecy. Still given what the princess had said and considering she was all alone by herself, and how easy it was to nab her when she was in her mopey state, it made sense that she was not yet made aware of the other goings-on of today.

Well, the princess had done a fair share of admittance, why not let the full thing out now that it slipped from her mouth?

"Nuka's been taken to your healer... monkey... guy. He's still alive, but pretty beat up."

As much as she disliked Pridelanders, they did deserve to know. Considering how close they appeared to be towards her brother and how horrified they were at his fall, she did feel like they deserved to know. She may have missed out on that curtesy, though she wasn't that insensitive to let that issue repeat itself. Though she would never admit it, hearing the princess gasp, cover her mouth with her paws as her eyes began growing glassy with tears of relief, she did feel a small sense of accomplishment and joy towards it. Secretly she thought her younger self with be proud of her.

A few seconds passed before the princess dropped her paws and shook, trying to recompose herself. She quickly lifted her paw to brush her eyes and sighed deeply before addressing her.

"Thank you."

Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "Huh?"

"Just... thank you. It means a lot to me." She shuddered as she inhaled deeply again. "Just-"

"Don't." Her voice was stern and it caused her to flinch. "I get it just.. don't."

Gratitude was nice, but it was a waste of time. Words were useless if they were used too much. Breaths better spent on replenishing energy to worn, trained limbs. Plus kind words wouldn't sway her from getting out of this any easier. She frowned at how brave the princess was, so easily standing up in the face of death and managing to ease the situation. There wasn't any signs of fear inside her, seemed much more relaxed now, as if she hadn't been threatened a minute ago.

Even her pridemates had loosened up on their stances and beginning to relax, which was irking enough, but also was posing a problem for what should be an interrogation. Even Kasi and Tazama, who had been assigned to guard her from behind and hinder if she tried to make an escape, were easing up on their preparedness for a possible mad dash. Though the princess didn't seem to wanting to get away, better safe than sorry.

"Right," she muttered, a bit of awkwardness on her form as she averted her eyes. Vitani didn't known why, but she felt a bit ashamed at causing the reaction. Still, on the other paw, the princess was on her feet again and Vitani's eyes quickly darted around towards the flank guards. Kasi and Tazama had drawn up a bit, but still were more then covering either side of her and were focused firmly on her. "So... a-any other questions," the princess finally asked after what was a painful few moments.

"I've got one," Tazama asked, beating Vitani to the punch. Her most perceptive member was far enough from her original position that she was standing beside the princes, face-to-face. The grey, aqua-eyed lioness seemed hesitant in her demeanor, especially now that she had the princess' full attention, but swiftly bit down on it. "About Nuka..." her eyes darted quickly to Vitani's to check for a reaction. She had none, none visually at least.

"Yes?" The voice was friendly and encouraging enough in tone, but there was still an edge of defensiveness to it.

"Is... was..," she stammered a bit, trying to devise her question. "Did Nuka ever tell anything about us? About our home? Or... stuff?"

Vitani was inwardly glaring towards her, asking a question she should've been asking as the head of this operation. However, she did feel a small stab of guilt towards her and recognized that it was a very important question that she was genuinely curious about. She couldn't lie that she was a bit disappointed when the princess shook her head slightly.

"No, not really. And if he did, it was probably with my... my grandma." The word was spoken with a sorrowful tone and her eyes averted towards the ground. "N-Nuka would get... agitated if he was asked about his past. There were some things he was able to talk about, like Scar, but he wasn't really comfortable with talking about anything else and honestly I didn't think it would be a good idea to ask anyways." She sighed again and looked up. "In regards to what was going on recently," her tone grew serious and a bit judgmental, "None of us had any idea what was going on, though there were some suspicions with the events within the last few days."

The hair on the back of Tazama's neck bristled, though other then that she remained calm. She nodded and walked backwards, about halfway, to her original post. Sensing some of the tension spiking, Vitani went to take back control of the conversation, but was bested again, this time by Imara.

"How was Nuka while he was in your pride?" Red eyes met her blue-grey ones and the atmosphere eased back down a bit.

"Nuka... he's been doing great." She hesitated, but perhaps that was because of recent memories. "He started off as a babysitter in the pride." There were two small snicker from beside and in front of her. The princess rolled her eyes, though mirthfully, and continued. "He then moved up to being one of the guard in the pride. He's been doing a great job and me and the rest of the pride really enjoy having him there. He did and still occasionally does still have some bad moment, some lingering trauma and insecurities, but he's overall well liked and loved in the pride."

"Lingering trauma?" Imara repeated, letting a tinge of concern leak into her voice. Vitani's brain debated, one half thinking of scolding her for showing vulnerability with emotion, but the other half understood where she was coming from and overrode it. Imara was the strongest lioness in the group, a stone-faced warrior with great strength, but inwardly she could be rather soft. She sometimes asked how the others were doing, usually when Zira was not around. She had a fierce loyalty to he pridemates and was usually more forgiving in behavior when it came to talking about more personal issues.

Kiara bit her lip and her eyes averted, but then went back up to focus on her. There was a bit more of that judgement in her gaze and she nodded. "Mm hmm." And that was it for that question. No more words needed, the point was silently made.

"What about Kovu? How was he being treated in the pride?" Vitani almost wanted to smirk, but pushed back the facial muscles down. She suspected Kasi might have a bit of a crush on Kovu, seeing as they were frequent sparring partners and running buddies. She might've heard a rumor or two that mother was considering pairing the two together after everything, but no direct confirmation of that. Aside from that, she was at least grateful her group was asking germane questions.

"He was treated alright, as far as I saw. We made sure he'd get some food from the hunts. Third night my dad allowed him to sleep inside the den with the rest of us. Me and my friends tried to include him in our activities, Nuka especially..." The answer seemed to satisfy Kasi and she stepped back with a nod. "Any other questions?"

There was silence. Vitani's eyes scanned over her pride sisters, who either had neutral or contemplative expressions. Vitani herself couldn't really think of any other questions that hadn't already been asked, and now was beginning to think towards ending it here and heading out.

"Am-" The princess's voice caught her attention. In a tentative voice, she asked, "Am I allowed to ask a question here?"

"Well, I mean, you just did." Shabaha's quip sent a snicker from the princess and a smile of acknowledgement from her sister, though shot Vitani a quick look to check if she had overstepped any bounds.

Vitani shrugged at her and then addressed the princess again in a firm, but otherwise neutral voice. "Shoot."

"Okay, so... um, w-what happens now?"

An eyebrow raised in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Just..." Her front paws quietly paced in place as she struggled to piece together her question. Kasi and Tazama perked up a bit at this movement, as they should, though they did also look a bit confused. "Well, look at it this way. Kovu probably is going to stay with my pride, and I highly doubt he's going to go through with whatever was initially planned." Her voice was unsure and fearful, as it seemed like reality was finally breaking through under all the casual, relaxed demeanor. "Nuka, if what you say is true, is alive and at least safe, so there's that. Then there's the matter of you all being here, and the issue of... Zira still out there..."

The last bit trailed off awkwardly and nervously. It seemed like the princess had finally recognized the dire severity of the situation she was in and Vitani suddenly remembered her previous conversation with her mother. Kovu still did have until sunset to return with proof of Simba's demise, though the princess' words were truthful. Kovu most likely wasn't going to go through with it, and with that Zira's next plan of action was full-on invasion. War between the Pridelanders and the Outsiders, and the role of succession now lay upon her shoulders.

It was clear that this was the next step they would be taking and it seemed like the princess had enough common sense to recognize the stakes and likelihood of future events. Personally, Vitani didn't mind the idea of taking on leadership within the pride. She had previously been set towards acting as Kovu's second-in-command and was comfortable with leading and managing issues within the pride, so it wouldn't be too much further of a leap for her to assume control over her pride once her mother stepped down.

But there in lay the issue. Her mother was extremely controlling and stubborn when it came to pride matters. She had been willing enough to allow Kovu the notion that once he stepped up as king the pride would be under his command, but realistically Kovu would probably just be the face of the pride with their mother pulling all the strings and making all the decisions in the background like she always had been. Chances are that issue wouldn't change even with Vitani now holding onto the reigns of succession.

There also was the problem of the Outlands and the conflict with the Pridelanders. Even with how they survived over the years, they knew that the land couldn't sustain them. Several pride mates had died over the years, from hunger, sickness, the elements, or some combination of the three. Though they had many survival tricks up their sleeves, truthfully one of their best tactics was sneaking in a stealing food and supplies from the Pridelands, an extremely difficult and risky move. Realistically they couldn't stay for much longer, days perhaps, but something like a season was completely out of the question. It would be so easy for them to move on over to the paradisiacal land just across the border and make themselves at home with fewer worries.

And now there lay the third issue. This land was off limits to them. They were exiles, unable to set foot in this land without there being dire repercussions. Exiled for some inane reason that mother didn't like going into too much detail about and whose descriptions of why sometimes seemed a bit suspicious. Still, this was something Vitani felt strongly about, and angry towards those responsible for it. No matter the reason, she and the others had been forced to live in a barren, disgusting land and the ones responsible for it lived right adjacent to them in a lush, plentiful land, almost mockingly beside them. It irked her to no hand and she was extremely angry towards the Pridelanders. For years she had built up this idea of posh, snobby, insensitive lions, who mercilessly and even gleefully punished those who even slightly disagreed with them, who greedily hoarded all the best food and land for themselves and would furiously kick out any one who was remotely different. It made Vitani almost nauseous with resentment towards this idea of these ruthlessly cruel and selfish lions who had unfairly cast out a pride with their cubs to live in such a terrible place.

And then there was this Pridelander. The princess of all the land, the daughter of the ruthless tyrant who had exiled him. The supposedly spoiled, rude, prissy, uncaring, vain, golden child of the king, such was her imaginings of her. This lioness.... was nothing like she had expected. Sure she still got a bit of a privileged vibe off of her, what with her immaculate golden coat, completely healthy build, and a bit of a stubborn streak, but honestly this princess felt... normal. Like if she wasn't who she was, perhaps instead an Outsider or rogue, Vitani would've definitely tried to be friends with her. This lioness was witty, brave, charismatic, confident, and well-spoken. Sure there was a bit of aggression and stubbornness about her, but Vitani couldn't really complain there. It was an immense issue though, considering the amount of time she had spent imagining this spoiled, irritable brat of a royal and being served with this otherwise interesting and tolerable lioness. It honestly felt like a slap to the face with how agreeable and even respectable this princess was acting, and it did bring up a disturbing and an almost nauseating thought.

If the princess was like this, how wrong were her other notions about how the Pridelanders are?

Vitani could feel her resolve melting by the minute. She knew her loyalty belonged to her pride. She knew her pride's safety and survival took precedence over everything else. She knew that they could no longer stay in the Outlands and needed to get out. That all she knew, that all remained the same. However her resentment towards and notion towards taking revenge on the the ones responsible for this was wavering. She began to feel what Kovu must've felt, feeling that he could no go on with this plan. And it filled her with dread. She wanted so badly to be able to forget this feeling, to forget this current image of the princess before her and desperately go back to the image she had had in her mind for years. She so desperately wanted to feel hate towards her, towards all Pridelanders, towards what they had done to her and her pride. She wanted to feel the urge to have them all burn before her, have all that was precious ripped from them, for them to fearfully and painfully understand all she had felt over the years.

But she couldn't. She couldn't muster up the hate for this lioness, and in that moment realized she probably couldn't do the same for the rest.

"I-" And for the first time in her life, Vitani, the unwavering, fiercest and most loyal lioness of all the Outsiders, was unsure about her role and choice. "I don't know."

Whew, another long one. Probably could've split some of it for a future picture... meh. Just decided to get all this out, since school takes priority and I need to keep by brain focused on that.

Hope you liked Vitani's inner struggle, since it will be a big part in future installments. Also hope you like the redesigns of Tazama and Kasi. Tazama has the most markings, with ear rims and her teardrop markings now replaced with dots on her cheeks and not her nose, as well as a darkened nose. I decided to keep her original eye color, since it is a color I would associate with sharp vision, and I greyed her coat a lot down. As for Kasi, they got the least amount of changes. Sure I did alter her coat color a tad, changed her eye color and got rid of what markings she did have, but aside from that she had the least amount of changes. I did try to include everyone of Vitani's Guard here, but I ran out of space. Sorry Imara.

Also, talk about development. I did try to give each of the ladies a bit of a glimpse into what their personalities are like; Shabaha is the crazy goofball, Imara is inwardly a mom friend, Tazama is perceptive in more then one way other than her keen sight, and Kasi has a bit of a crush on Vitani's brother, but is also a loyal friend. And Vitani, whoo, can you feel her uneasiness as she begins to question reality against what she's been taught and lead to believe all her life? Yikes, at least it didn't take two deaths for her to come to her senses like it did with Kovu, although I do believe in the original it was one which helped her along.

One last thing, I'd like to give credit to StarWolff-Nyota for letting me reference their TLK Colors chart when it came to to adjusting the Outsiders' colors. Much appreciated pal, really helped me out.

Kiara, Vitani © The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Imara, Shabaha, Kasi, Tazama © The Lion Guard © Walt Disney Animation Studios
Art © Vtoony