Mentioned it in a few comments lately and people were interested in reading it so, I dug it up (no way I last posted this two years ago???) Basically my answer to "Why doesn't Zazu remember Scar knocked him out? Why does Scar have Zazu locked up?" etc etc. I wrote the bulk of this two years ago and have only mildly edited it since so there's some things in there I don't necessarily stand by anymore, like the idea that Scar planted the hyenas in the Pridelands to separate Simba from Mufasa, for example. It's been pointed out to me that that's more likely just Scar being an opportunist, but hey if I made that leap then maybe Zazu did too. Also TW for brief minor Lion Guard character mentions

The comment where I mentioned this got like 70+ upvotes so I better see the same kinda numbers here!!! (/s, I know none of you read)

 Pride Rock had never frightened him as much as it did in that moment. It had always been huge and intimidating, and he could still remember how small it had made him feel when he had first seen it, flying over the hill with his mother. But for most of his life it had been comforting, a symbol of hope and community; his home, and the home of his closest friends. He had slept on the floor of the lions’ den without so much as a second thought for his safety.

 But today it was different. The overcast clouds made the stones bleak and unwelcoming, the rocks and ledges which would be crawling with lions and cubs and plant-life were deserted, the peak and tip of Pride Rock were parted in a way that made it look like the head of some ancient stone whale, with the cave the deep passageway to its belly. And it was to this belly that Zazu swooped down towards, as was his duty.

 In the old days, this was the place where all the lions had slept, and when the new King had taken over, even the hyenas were invited in. But it was quickly apparent that it was far too small for both groups, so in a show of fairness, Scar had decreed that only the King was to sleep inside the cave, and that everyone else must sleep outside together. In retrospect, getting the cave to himself had probably been his plan the entire time.

 So now when the little bird landed at the bottom of the mouth large enough to swallow an elephant, the cave was dark, empty, and quiet, save for the steady clack-ing of bone coming from the back. With a deep sigh, he hopped forward.

 Where Mufasa had once slept with his wife and child, King Scar reclined lazily by himself, lying on his side and idly passing the ribcage of a baboon from paw to paw. A large troop had been unfortunate enough to be passing through the borders of the Pridelands, and it had been too good of an opportunity to miss out on, infants and all.

 Scar had never been, and would never be large, but a few years of having the first pick of every meal had filled him out rather substantially. His fur was matted and dry, like the other lions and hyenas, but his mane had grown in volume, and he was the only carnivore on Pride Rock to not be showing their ribs. He had once been sly and quick, but that had been when Mufasa was King; now that there was no longer a need, Scar had grown lazy, and more childish and petulant every day.

 “What do you want?”

 The lazy drawl came from the shadows. This was the time of day when Zazu would flutter down into the cave, give the same news about plants dying, rivers drying up, and more and more animals leaving the Pridelands every day, and Scar would do the same nothing about each of them. But there was no Morning Report today, and not only because there was nothing worth reporting in the Pridelands anymore. Today he had a greater purpose than he had ever had.

 With his legs shaking, he took another step into the cave. Zazu would never have believed himself capable of something like this, and he knew it could very well spell his end. But he had to: for his King. He was close enough now to see those piercing green eyes leering at him, impatient and angry.

 “Well? Spit it out.”

 “Why did you hit me?”

 Scar’s eyes narrowed, clearly confused and more than a little irritated.

 He doesn’t remember, how dare he not remember?

 The lion reclined and went back to his toy ribcage, rambling on for the sake of hearing himself talk. “What on earth are you talking about? I have done no such thing. You’ve been out in the sun too long Zazu, clearly you need to- “

 “I was going for help, and you hit me.”

 Scar’s eyes snapped up to meet his, widening in sudden realisation. Zazu met his gaze, unflinching.

 I know.  

 Scar’s eyes relaxed again and he tried to play coy, but Zazu knew it was a formality: they both knew.

 “Zazu, you still relive that day? Mufasa had jumped into the stampede, I told you to go for help, and you were about to, but you crashed into the wall. If you hadn’t panicked, if you had kept your head, perhaps they might still- “

 “No.” Zazu cut him off, and a frown crossed Scar’s face. No one dared to interrupt him.

“That will not work on me again. I have flown through thunderstorms, fire, locust swarms, rockslides, stampedes. I may panic, but I never crash. I always get help.”

 Scar was seething, enraged, but unable to do anything about it. “What are you implying Zazu? I don’t think I have to remind you of the punishment for treason…”

 “Treason!” Zazu laughed joylessly. “You planned the whole thing, didn’t you? The stampede was no happy accident where you saw an opportunity and pounced, was it? It all went perfectly according to your plans!”

 Zazu could see Scar calm down, the wheels in his brain turning and spinning to look for an escape route. For whatever else his faults, Scar was smart, the smartest creature in all the Pridelands. But if anyone came close, it was Zazu. They would both need to tread carefully.

 “Explain to me then, Zazu, what you think it is, that you know?”

 Zazu paused for a moment, looking down to his side, his brain working to gather all the stray pieces and fit them together.

 “The three hyenas that attacked the children and I in the Graveyard are your three chief lackeys now, the ones eating directly out of your paw. I suppose that was your first attempt, wasn’t it? You knew Mufasa was showing Simba the kingdom that day, and you knew he would be warned against the Graveyard. You sent those hyenas so Mufasa would be separated from him, so you could tell him to go there. That’s why he was so desperate to escape my watch and prove his bravery to Nala, and there you had your goons waiting to dispose of them. But he got in the way of that one, didn’t he? You wanted to move one step up in the line of succession, but why not go straight to the top? Why not get rid of them both in one swoop?”

 “This is all lies!” Scar shot up from his throne, eyes small and teeth bared. “Conjecture! Treason! You have no proof of any of this! How dare you make such filthy accusations. I am your King!” His shoulders rippled as he prowled down the rock and circled Zazu like a waiting vulture. Zazu turned with the big lion so that neither dropped their stare. Fly away, his instincts screamed at him. You fool! Fly. Away.

 “But you were no match for him. You knew it, I knew it, he knew it, though he would never think such a thing. The shallow end of the gene-pool indeed. So you had to be smarter about how you did it. I watched you leave with Simba that day, Mufasa trusted you to look after him. You abandoned him in that gorge where you had your hyenas chase the wildebeest. Yes, I know it was them, no other predator but the lionesses could cause a stampede that size, and we both know they were nowhere nearby. But who was? Who was so close to the gorge that they knew Simba was down there? Who was so close that they could run to Mufasa to warn him? Without actually bothering to try and rescue Simba himself?”

 The longer Zazu talked the more Scar slowed down, and eventually he came to a full stop, standing between Zazu and the cave mouth that opened up into the sky. “Mufasa has always been stronger than me, braver. There was nothing I could do.”

 “Oh, but there was. I don’t know what exactly you did: whether the hooves killed him, or he managed to climb part of the way out and fell, perhaps you even gave him a push.” Scar twitched.

 “I don’t know what you did to the poor child, and I can only hope that it was quick, but I do know that you will pay for this. I will personally see to it that you are hunted through the kingdoms like a rat.”

 Scar lifted his head, staring down at Zazu with bitter-cold eyes, his voice low. “…How long have you known?”

 “Well, I must admit I wasn’t sure…” Zazu allowed himself a malicious smirk. “Until now.”

 For a moment it seemed as though Scar would explode. His eyes bulged, his claws gouged the solid rock floor, his lip curled like a snake, his nostrils flared, and the hairs on his mane stood on end…And then he exhaled, and began to laugh.

 Zazu watched with an incredulous expression. Certainly not the reaction he had been anticipating. Truly, he has gone mad.

 Scar cackled and shook as he strolled back over to the rock-bed, where he collapsed and sighed, then looked up at Zazu with frightening glee.

 “Oh well done Zazu, well done! I was beginning to think nobody would ever figure it out. At least by now I had expected a few of the hyenas to open those disgusting mouths of theirs; it’s a good thing the lionesses hate them so much they can hardly speak to them, or else the game would be up! Yes, Zazu, I did it. I had my brother killed, saw to it personally, and ensured that that spoiled brat of his was eaten.”

 Zazu had been expecting that ever since he pieced the event together, but it still crushed him all the same. Part of him had desperately hoped that Simba had perished in the stampede, a far more instant way to go than whatever those monsters would do to a cub, but the lack of a body had always nagged at the back of his mind. The thought of bright, energetic, troublesome little Simba being…It was like receiving the news all over again.

 “My brother was a brute, a tyrant, imposing whatever will he pleased onto the plebians that bowed to him, upholding the barbaric and asinine laws of our forefathers. Simba was no better: a spoiled, entitled brat who thought the world was owed to him. He would have grown up to be even worse: I did the Kingdom a kindness in that regard, though I don’t suppose you will see it that way.”

 Zazu was still in shock, so could not dignify Scar’s insults to his old masters with a response. Scar saw the opportunity and continued.

 “The question is Zazu…Now that you know, what exactly is it, that you are going to do about it?”

 Zazu snapped out of his trance, and redirected his energy back into an angry glance at Scar. This was the part of the confrontation he had rehearsed the most.

 “Well, the first order of business of course, is to get rid of you. Once I spread the word of what you did, the Kingdoms will be lining up to be the ones to take you down. Would you rather Sokwe the gorilla king snapped your neck? Or Aminifu the elephant broke your back? I’m sure Basi and Pua would offer to drown you were there any water around. Of course, you have your hyenas, but do you really think they can stand up to the combined might of our allied prides, the apes, the elephants? Then once we have you and those beasts out, the Pridelands can at last be restored. Sarabi will rule until we find a suitable heir to train, and we can wash our hands of you forever.”

 Scar listened to the threats on his life with nary a flick of his whisker, and he lazily shrugged at the end of Zazu’s speech.

 “With what King? Say what you will about me Zazu, but I am legitimate, royal blood, and a male. I know I’m not exactly a…prime specimen, but do you really think a passing rouge would take Sarabi seriously if you instate her on the throne? My hyenas and I are the only thing keeping the pride safe from those brutes that wander the wilds, but of course you haven’t thought far enough to realise that. And you think the herds would follow a lioness? Sarabi has killed the parents and children of half the savannah, they fear her more than they ever feared the hyenas. Everything the Pridelands stands for would be lost, doubly so if you stick a cub from another pride on the throne, how could the common folk trust a stranger?”

 Zazu shook his head, realising he hadn’t in fact thought the plan through very well at all, everything Scar was saying was true. The lion went back to fiddling with the baboon ribcage.

 “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. The only thing important is getting rid of you. Everything else we can worry about later, when you are gone.” He paused, and looked Scar straight in the eyes, thinking back to their childhood when they had been friends with each other, often enjoying each other’s company and comparable wit when Mufasa had been off with Sarabi. How had it all gone this wrong?

 “If you leave now, go far away and never come back, you might still have a chance.”

 “Hah! No.” Scar was quick to fire back, and tossed the ribcage onto the floor, where it sat up perfectly against the wall.

 “Understand this Zazu, if you fly away on your little recruitment mission: I will have every one of the pride killed. Sarabi, Nala, all of them. The hyenas outnumber them ten to one, and will do what I ask at the drop of a hair.” Scar stood up and walked down from the rock again, back to circling.

 Fly. Zazu’s instincts were screaming at him; the dumb, voiceless, terrified bird that had to be constantly on the lookout for snakes and hawks was begging him to flee from the presence of a cat. Fly, you idiot!

 But he didn’t.

 “You wouldn’t.” Zazu said, not really believing himself. “Without them, you have nothing left to be King of.”

 “Then so be it.” Scar circled him. “Either your precious allies will take my throne from me or I will destroy it where I sit. Makes no difference to me either way, does it?”

 Zazu shifted on his feet. Fly. Fly!

 “I’ll tell them to flee. They can fight their way through your horde easily enough, the neighbouring kingdoms will take us in.”

 “Hah, you’re probably right. They could push through my first line of defence easily enough. But you know lions, we’re very fast, but not for very long. Hyenas can run for hours without tiring, and lest you forget they are very, very many.”

 Scar again stopped his circling in between Zazu and the mouth of the cave. Zazu gulped, too late realising how foolish it had been to come here in the first place.

 Fly!

 “You’re a very smart bird Zazu, I assume you know that. But this heroic plan of yours has a key failing.”

 Go!

 “Which is?”

 “The assumption that I would let you leave this cave alive.”

 Now!

 But Scar was faster, he always had been. And Mufasa was not here to save him now.

 Before he was more than a few feet in the air, Zazu felt a lean paw crash down on him, a claw digging into his wing and others wrapping around his head and neck. He fell with a crash, the air knocked out of him by the hard stone floor.

 “Ow! Stop! Please!” He begged, but to def ears. He cried and yelled as he was dragged roughly along the ground, wincing as stray pieces of rock and stone jagged into his skin and gravel flew into his eyes.

 With his teeth, Scar lifted the ribcage from the ground, then slid Zazu forcefully against a corner of the wall. Too stunned to fly away and escape, Zazu barely noticed as the ribcage landed on top of him, spine to his head. Scar pushed a rock up against the open end, blocking his only way out.

 Scar chuckled again as he brought his head low, his eyes terrifyingly wide, looking in at his new prisoner through the bones.

 “Ah Zazu Zazu Zazu, for someone so smart you really are incredibly stupid, aren’t you? Your plan would have worked perfectly; you could have flown off and assembled an army and beaten me thoroughly, had you not come in here and told me all about it first.” Scar went back up to the rock bed, standing tall on top of it.

 “But you wanted to feel powerful, was that it? To feel big? ‘The little bird who took down the lion’, something like that? You just had to do this yourself, didn’t you? I suppose you haven’t told Sarabi yet, or I wouldn’t still be standing here. Had you only the sense to keep your beak shut, for once in your life you might actually have done something useful.”

 Scar had him pegged, and Zazu cursed his foolish notions of heroism. Rather than let his enemy see it, he looked out defiantly. “If you kill me, she’ll kill you.”

 “Then the hyenas will kill her, the lionesses will kill the hyenas, then more hyenas will kill the lionesses. But no Zazu, I’m not going to kill you. We…were friends once, and for that you may remain alive.”  Out of everything, Zazu had been expecting that the least.

 “But only to make you watch how much I will make your pride suffer, how they react when I tell them you’re a criminal. They will know you as a traitor to your precious crown, plotting behind my back to have me overthrown. Which isn’t strictly a lie now, is it? You will be kept in here, safe from all harm, but forbidden to talk to lion or hyena, and under constant supervision. My supervision.”

 Scar walked over to his new bird-cage, and stuck his claws through the gaps. Zazu had to dodge to avoid them.

 “And know this, Zazu. If I catch you talking to any of the lionesses, or sending messages through a loose-lipped hyena, or your little spy network, if I get so much as a suspicion of you communicating with anyone else? I will kill, all of them, starting with Nala, and make you watch. Is that clear?”

  Zazu knew he had been beaten. He sighed. “…Yes.”

 “Yes, what?”

 “Yes…sire.”

 The last shred of dignity he had left him.

 Satisfied, Scar lifted his paw from the cage, and turned towards the cave entrance. “Things are about to get a lot worse for your friends out there Zazu, and you’re to blame; think about that while you get acquainted with your new surroundings. It’s a shame, you could have been of use to me, had you only some sense. I wonder if one of the vultures will accept extra scraps in exchange for their services…?”

 “Scar?” Zazu called after him. The King stopped, and turned around, expression completely blank.

 Zazu knew he had lost. Any hope they had of taking down Scar’s regime had rested on him, and now it was gone. Because of his foolishness. He had pictured Mufasa being proud of him, standing up for himself for once without his lion friend there to hide behind. But now all he could picture was his old friend with a look of pity. Pity was so much worse than disappointment; for someone to be disappointed in you, they had to have believed in you first.

“Was it all worth it?”

 Scar turned his head away from him, and stood in silence for a few moments.

 “Yes.”

 As the lion went out onto the rock and roared for what was left of his subjects to assemble, Zazu sank down onto the ground, tucked his head into his wing so that the open sky would not see his shame, and let himself be swallowed by the darkness.