Reno (C) Me

All characters (C) Disney

 I do not lay any claim to these characters besides my own.

NOTE: This is my view of Scar's family tree and involvement with Zira. I've changed one line of dialogue from the movie to fit this. I don't want to hear about this-and-that concerning the family tree. Thank you! Also this is not my best fanfic, and was done within half an hour. It's not good, and I would appreciate no criticism towards this story 'cause I already know it needs serious improvement!

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"Scar, look at your darling boy." Zira presented Scar the cub, the cub that he fathered, his first cub. Scar looked down at the cub. He was dark-furred and cute. But Scar didn't care about cute. He cared about having a son to carry on his legacy. However, it seemed that he did not care at all about the cub.

"Yes, he is..." said Scar. He watched as Zira leaned her head down and licked the cub's fur.

"Nuka..." she said. "Nuka shall be his name." She raised her head and stared deeply into his eyes, looking for a response. "Do you agree?"

"Yes, yes very well. His name shall be Nuka." Scar almost spat the name in disgust. However, he kept himself composed as to not show Zira that he truly did not like the cub. As he turned and left her inside the den, he growled at himself.

Why did he hate the cub?

Simple: he hated Zira. Zira was definitely not his ideal choice of a mate, no less a favorite female. She was his Queen, and yet he hated her. So why did he choose her?

Sarabi. He wanted to make Sarabi jealous. Scar did a very good job of convincing himself that Sarabi had undying feelings of love for him, but her love and being Mufasa's queen overshadowed her feelings for him. So in his head, Scar thought that if he made another lioness his queen, then she would get jealous, and submit herself to him.

But it never happened. Now he only kept Zira as his queen because he needed to keep all the lionesses as happy as he could try. He didn't need them start an uprising against him. But how he hated Zira! He thought she was crazy, fanatical even. She gave him all of her love that, to Scar, it seemed as though she was built on nothing else. She only loved him, but she had nothing else defining her.

And now he had a cub with her... He should've been proud that he did have a cub. When Mufasa was in charge, Scar could not get close to Sarabi, much less any of the females when they were in heat. Mufasa was the head lion in charge, and therefore he had the privilege. Scar was more or less a guest in the pride - Mufasa felt bad for his brother, and allowed him to stay within his pride, but did not want Scar getting himself involved with the females.

This cub... Scar knew that the cub, his cub, this cub, would never amount to anything.  He would never be a head lion. He would never have his own pride. Scar knew. He needed another heir. An heir who would not disappoint him...

****

"This is your son." Sarafina's long pink tongue ran over the dull gray body of a young cub. Scar stared down at the cub, but instead of being disgusted and loathing, he smiled with pride. Yes! This was the heir he was looking for! This cub... he knew would amount to something. "His name is Reno."

Scar tried making advances on Sarabi, but she still refused him. Sarafina, he knew, was blood-related to Sarabi, with them being half-sisters, and so he took the next option. He did not love Sarafina, but compared to Zira, he could gladly make her his queen without another thought.

"He's beautiful," whispered Scar as he leaned down to get a closer look. The cub yawned, and rolled around in Sarafina's grip.

"Oh Scar..." Scar raised his head and saw Zira standing at the mouth of the den, her eyes staring down at the cub in disgust. Nuka was nowhere in sight, presumably hanging about with the lionesses. "A cub..."

Sensing danger in this encounter, Scar left Sarafina and his newborn cub behind, and led Zira out of the den. "Zira, you know I love you," he lied. "But our son... he's imperfect."

"Im...perfect?" Zira had a panicking look in her eye. Imperfect? Scar's son? She needed to please him! She needed to produce him a perfect heir.

Scar nodded. "I'm afraid our son is... a disappointment."

"Oh Scar! Shall we have another cub?" Zira was literally shoving her face against his. "We'll have another one! He'll be perfect! He'll be a good son!"

However Scar stopped her. "No! No more cubs!"

"Oh... o-of course Scar!"

"Zira..." His paw reached down and took Zira's chin. "I love you... but I cannot love our son."

"Then I shall not either!"

Scar smiled and gave her a kiss on the nose, a kiss of which he so despised, but needed to do in order to continue the act. Zira smiled, and trotted off, presumably to go bully her imperfect son now.

****

Keeping true to her word, Zira did not give Nuka the love he starved for. She needed to make Scar happy, and in her mind, abusing Nuka made Scar happy. So she did. Though in secret, she still felt some speck of love for her failure of a son.

For years she continued to abuse Nuka. When Tama, one of the female lionesses who grew up alongside Nala, died of an infection, she gave custody of her cub Vitani over to Zira in hopes that Zira would protect her. Zira promised her such, and she showered Vitani with the love she did not give to Nuka. After all, Vitani was not, in Scar's words, 'imperfect'.

Then Kovu came into the picture. Orphaned by the edge of the Outland territory, Zira took it as a sign from Scar when she found him. He was it! He was the perfect son Scar wanted! Though she did not lie to young Kovu that he wasn't the son of Scar, she kept Scar alive within Kovu. Again, Nuka starved for the affection he needed from his mother, which she instead gave to Vitani and Kovu.

Only with Nuka's death did she give him a hint of the love she once had for him.

Logs toppled onto him, and Nuka was crushed underneath their unrelenting weight. Zira removed some of the logs off of her son, and was taken aback by the sight of him. "Nuka..."

"I-I'm sorry mother... I tried..."

"Ssh." Reaching out with a paw meant for love, not hate, Zira cradled his head in her paws.

"Well... I finally got your attention didn't I?"

The love she once felt for her cub returned in the smile on Zira's face.

"Didn't I..?" Life faded from Nuka, and his body slumped in Zira's grasp.

"Scar... watch over our poor Nuka..." whispered Zira as she stared sadly down at Nuka, her imperfect son.