Kopa's Revenge

[ZeeStitch]

I suppose this is canon...?
Anyway my TLK AU climax; Kiara vs Kopa.

Kopa - Me
Kiara - Partner

If anyone else wants in just tell me who you're playing when you post, kay?

* * * * * * *

A maniacal cackle echoed from the chest of the black maned lion in the center of Priderock. He lacked the cowardice of his father which might have proved to be his downfall. The fire that burned around him - a result of his own doing, not nature's- was hot but the lion didn't move. This was HIS kingdom and he was going to watch it be cleansed of Simba. His blue-green gems narrowed as he watched the animals run.

He flexed his extended claws, ebony and shining in the crackle of the fire. Nuka'd left him with his mate and children a while before. It was up to him now to bring destruction and death to the pridelands and he'd done it. He'd done it well.

All the torment of his childhood, surviving on his own, scheming against Simba, had now come to fruition, was not ready to pop and smoke. It was tender, done, the only thing now was to make sure everyone was dead.

He'd seen his mother flea. He'd get her eventually. Ears slipped back on his black and red mane, the lion blinked a few times before turning over his shoulder. No one was there. He could have sworn-? No. No one was there.

He enjoyed watching his former homeland burn to the ground. Now he just had to make sure no one got the drop on him.

For how fun would the slaughter be if he wasn't there to enjoy it?

[Angel]

(ooc: You know what, Stitch? Since I'm doing you a favour by RPing in one of your AUs, I think maybe you'll owe me a thread set in one of mine once this is done... )

Her eyes stung as Kiara struggled to see through the smoke that seemed to have risen to envelope Pride Rock in its grip even in the short time she'd been seeing her family to safety, and the fires were licking around her, invoking a natural desire to flee. It all reminded her far too much of her first hunt, when she'd been surrounded by fire and only Kovu's intervention had saved her from a painful death, and the new queen wished with all her might that this would just be a nightmare spawned from that memory, nothing that could hurt her.

But she knew all too well that it was real. Her father slaughtered, the Pridelands burning all around her... she'd lost track of Kovu in the fire and didn't know where he was, and she had to stop this disaster that was ravaging the land before there was nothing left to rule.

A disaster which, as she'd only belatedly learnt, was called her half-brother.

There. A glimpse of black and red through the flickering flames that couldn't be anyone else but him - any sane animal would have fled this inferno. Kiara ducked out of the male's line of sight and quickly called back to mind the hunting lessons Kovu had given her. Feel the earth under your paws, so it doesn't shift and make noise. With a little skill - and a lot more luck, she had to add ruefully - she'd be able to take down her enemy before he even knew she was there.

She crept forward one step, then two, mimicing the techniques Kovu had taught close to flawlessly. And then she sprung, bursting forth through the flames, forepaws outstretched to tackle her halfsibling and wrestle him to the ground.

[ZeeStitch]

A violent snarl ripped from her brother’s mouth as Kopa turned just in time to see but not in time to dodge Kiara’s outstretched attack towards him. In a move that would so mimic his father and her father, Kopa hit the ground, cheek first, slamming against the hard surface of priderock. A roar-like growl shot from his throat, a noise of surprise and anger. He whipped his head to the side with a violent, sharp faced grin, twisted and curled up his maw. Despite the compromising position he found himself in, what with Kiara attempting to kill him and all, the male’s voice was soothing, sharp and ice cold but still delicate and smooth, a cup of tea laced with arsenic.

“Well done, my dear half-sister, you got the drop on me,” he said with a chuckle caught in his throat, “Might I give you a head start? A couple of nips and bites before I throw you to the vultures and let you join your father in whatever fresh hell he’s burning in?”

(I would love too ;D And sorry it's so short, until I know what position he's actually in I can't exactly reply too much)

[Angel]

(ooc: Well, if you wouldn't mind playing Cadpig for something from my dalmatians AU... if you PM me, we can discuss details)

Kiara felt a slight thrill race through her in the wake of her successful attack. She'd done it! Kopa was pinned beneath her paws! A momentary victory, at best, but still, she'd actually done it!

The male's words, however, cut into her moment of self-congratulation, and Kiara turned to stare down at her half-brother, not letting up the pressure she was exherting to keep him pinned in the slightest. "Why are you doing this?" she demanded, ignoring his words for the moment. "What can you possibly hope to gain by burning this land?" Neither of them could rule a land of ashes and charred remains, and Kopa had to know that just as well as she did. Even if his fires didn't consume the both of them right here, no animals would live on a land so thoroughly purged of all life. Whichever one of them proved the victor would be the absolute ruler of... nothing.

[ZeeStitch]

A ripple of his father's anger poured through the lion's golden fur as an ugly snarl ripped across his muzzle. White canines showed themselves as the lion lifted up, not struggling quite yet. He had words to speak, poison to spew to the daughter of the father he once knew. His aqua eyes flowed with hatred and anger and a bit of jealousy. "What do I have to GAIN!? GAIN?!" He sneered, eyes almost shut they were so narrow.

"What YOU were just handed, Kiara," he spat, "What you were just given all for the sake of avoiding a scandal!" He roared loudly, placing his back legs on her lower chest, trying to shove her off of him, still speaking all the while. The arrogant lion was on a tirade and there would be no stopping him.

"I was to be the King! I was to be loved and protected!" It would have sounded like whining except for the howl in his throat. "All because your father didn't want to be embarrassed I was cast out! Thrown to the vultures! NOW who's vulture food? This land WILL be mine as soon as I purge it of all of the wickedness placed here by your father!"

[Angel]

"If you keep this up there won't be any land left!" Kiara growled down at the male beneath her paws, The more he talked, the more the new queen was honestly starting to loath him - quite a feat for the lioness who hadn't even been able to fully hate Zira. "You'll be the king of a charred wasteland. The pride has fled. The herds have fled. What will be left for you to rule over?" She couldn't comprehend how her half-sibling could think that this would get him what he wanted. She and the pridesisters could start afresh elsewhere, but Kopa would be left with nothing to rule - if he wasn't consumed by his own flames.

His was an act of insanity.

One thing she wasn't going to do, however, was argue the rights to the throne. She knew the position of queen was hers by rights - she'd heard the tale often enough to know that Kopa's father should never have been king at all, negating his claim - and she similarly knew that the male wouldn't listen to any argument to that effect, not while he was blinded by his desire for revenge. She couldn't keep him pinned here forever, though, or the fires he'd started would consume them both.

[ZeeStitch]

The hatred in her half brother's eyes blazed as bright as they could, eyes narrowed. With deadly, cat-like swiftness, the male manged to at least push himself a little ways out from under her, lifting his thick paw and swiping at her eye. It wasn't really to hurt her, just to get her off of him. Teeth flashed as he continued to speak, to lecture, to let her know the way his life had gone. "While we fight, dear sister, let's play a little game," he hissed.

"I tell you something about me, you tell me something about your pretty perfect little childhood," he purred, trying to slither his ribcage beneath her, "For example, hear this: Once your father cast me into the bowels of hell, I wandered for days until I reached the desert. Just a poor little lion cub lost in the desert. I almost died. Killed a few merekats to survive. Annoying little creatures but they fill you up right quick when you're starving. At least starving in your belly, not just in your heart, you know."

His eyes flashed again as the memories came flooding back. "It's a shame really, I spent most of those days sobbing for my mummy and daddy. Time I should have been spending training to kill him. And you. And mother when I get a chance. Throwing me out like that, her own flesh and blood! Naughty." He let out a roar and tried another shove.

"Make the fight fair, Kiara," he purred, "Or we'll both burn. Tick, tock, Kiara. Tick Tock."

[Angel]

Kopa's move worked. Raising a forepaw to protect her amber orb, Kiara unwittingly let up the force she was exerting to keep her half-sibling pinned, allowing him the freedom to throw her off as he pleased. The queen hardly noticed, however, her attention taken up by the male's words. "You're insane!" she finally blurted what she'd been thinking ever since she'd seen the carnage his fires were wreaking. "You're reducing the land you want to rule to nothing but ashes, and while that happens you want to play games?"

She had an idea what he was up to, of course. Kiara wasn't as naieve as she was frequently accused of being; she could see that Kopa's 'game' was nothing more than an attempt to get her to feel sorry for him, maybe trick her into holding back for a crucial moment so that he could get the upper hand, and she was dismayed to realise that his tactic was already beginning to work. And she knew she couldn't afford that; to allow herself to feel sympathy for him would be to invite certain death, because she had no doubt Kopa would take advantage of any hesitation on her part.

And so he did. Kiara's momentary distraction, along with the weakening of her grip on the male, proved costly as he shoved her off him. The lioness staggered back a step, and then let out a roar of pain as her hind paw found the flames which suddenly seemed to be closing in on them. An intrinsic fear of fire threatened to choke her, and for a moment, Kiara was sure they would both die here, victims of Kopa's madness.

And then her resolve kicked in, forcing the fear down, although the animalistic terror still lingered. She had to win here, even if in the end, they both perished, as much as she dreaded that thought. For the sake of her mother; for Kovu, if he was still alive; for the sake of the whole pride, she had to beat him.

[ZeeStitch]

"Ha, I take that as a compliment," Kopa purred, "It runs in the family you see. My family anyway." His black rimmed ears flicked forward. The grin on his maw was insane and Scar-like as it curled up his golden muzzle. He lifted his head and paced his heavy paws around Kiara, not trying to attack, just surveying her as if she was prey. He would let her hear his tale. She needed to hear it. She had to hear how close she came to his fate, how Nala and Simba would have tossed her out even if she just looked like Scar.

"It's not quite a game as more of a lecture," he purred, as if the whole world wasn't burning around him. He'd told the lioness he was cleansing the earth of the pridelands but he wasn't even sure that was the cause any longer. With his slaughter of Banzai, Shenzi and Ed, that meddlesome meerkat Timon and his former father, Kopa's mission was near its completion. Kovu had gotten away but he had no true argument with him. Vitani, strong as ever, had bested him enough to warn Nala and the the rest of the pride to get out while they could. Pumbaa had helped the cubs, Fuadi, Baka, Shani and Chaka escape without so much as a hair destroyed.

Kopa's victory was the slaughter of all of those he'd tracked down who'd murdered the father he'd never gotten the chance to know. Shame really. If the young lion had met Zira they probably would have been fast friends. But that was all in the past. Now his present: killing his sister.

He'd pawed at Kiara when she was a newborn. "What's that Mom?" he'd asked, innocently.

"That, Kopa, is your new baby sister.
But its so small! And its got spots like a leopard!
"She'll get bigger Kopa, just you wait and see."

"But I didn't GET to see, did I?!" He'd started yelling, flashing his fangs, "I didn't get to see that little cub grow up! I didn't get to see my sister become the lioness she is today! ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!"

[Angel]

Right now, Kopa wasn't making too much sense to Kiara, and she wasn't about to give him the chance to start. "So because you didn't get to watch me grow up, you're going to kill me instead?" Kiara returned, seizing the moment as her brother potentially paused, momentary as that pause might be, before responding to make her move, ducking out from under his paws and darting past him, limbs carrying her further up Pride Rock until she reached the precipice. Safe - at least for the immediate moment, from the encroaching flames.

At the summit, she turned, facing back the way she'd come as she waited for Kopa to inevitably come up after her, and the new queen steeled herself for the fight. Just like Zira before him, and Scar before her, Kiara was sure there was no saving Kopa from himself by now, and this time she wasn't naieve enough to try.

This time, the lives of everyone she cared about hinged on which one of them killed the other. The thought caused a pit of nausea to settle in Kiara's gut.

'I'd hate to be responsible for the death of a family member' Scar had said tauntingly to her father (or so the story went), and those words seemed to echo through her mind now, as she waited with trepidation for the fight to begin that would end up making her either a murderer... or just dead.

[ZeeStitch]

Ears flicked upwards as the male turned his head towards the regale girl before him. Standing above him and above the engulfing flames, the poetic lion was reminded of a vision in his head, a proper angel above him as he burned in hell. NO. He was not going to burn unless he took the golden cub with him. He snarled, showing his barbaric side for a bit before getting nipped by the flames. His eyes darted back and forth as if in a panic, yet his insanity made him remain calm. He cackled as he lept towards Kiara, towards the precipice. His claws, thick and black clutched the rock as he attempted to pull himself up.

He failed.

He hit the ground with a thud and stared daggers up at Kiara. "Well, well, well, Daddy's little girl has some fight left in her," Kopa sneered, "You know what you look like to me Kiara? You look lost. You look like without Daddy or Mummy or Kovu you won't be able to stand on your four paws. And isn't that sad? Don't you find that sad?"

[Angel]

"That's not true!" The denial was immediate, instinctive, and not necessarily accurate, for Kiara wavered for a long moment afterwards. Were her half-brother's words more accurate than he could know? She had been told, ever since she and Kovu had led the Pridelander/Outlander war to a peaceful resolution, that she had the makings of a great queen, but if Kiara had never questioned them openly, then... well, suffice it to say that she'd had her private doubts. Despite what Kopa had said, she could stand on her own paws on her own... but not with the weight of the kingdom on her shoulders as well. She wasn't ready to be queen, and this uncertainty played clearly across her face.

"I'm not helpless," she protested, sounding almost childishly defensive. Kovu - and Vitani, from time to time - had been teaching her skills of hunting and fighting, so indeed, this much was true. Still, Kopa had reawoken a hundred private doubts about her fitness to be queen, and it was anyone's guess whether these doubts might tip the battle into his favour at a crucial moment.

(ooc: Just wondering, Stitch, why Kopa's trying to climb up the face of Pride Rock when there's a pathway that leads up to the top anyway? (Which, incidentally, is the way Kiara took))