Chapter 1
The rolling waves of the sea hummed a soft, rhythmic lullaby as they sprawled and ended against the beach, each one incapable of ever reaching past their sandy prison and extending into the inland forest. The sun shined down in its usual one o'clock perch and the green of the wild vegetation grew even wilder and greener as it encircled the perimeter of the island. In the center were enormous rock formations, with precipitous sides, jags and edges unassailable to even the best rock-climbers. Large deformed mountains and valleys, created from cooled volcanic rock after a super volcano had erupted and devastated the island some tens of thousands of years before. From far away, the island could be taken as a paradisiacal snapshot of euphoric Eden; an undisclosed, secluded retreat banally harped and displayed in tourists' guides or as an image found on the cover of postcards with the words "WELCOME" written in an arch.
To the relief of the local inhabitants, which consisted solely of seagulls and finches, the island was uncharted and completely undisturbed, which if you asked them, I'm sure they would agree that the landmass would in no way benefit with the construction of a mall or a five star hotel. In this picturesque solitary location, far away from anyone or anything, could be found Miki Saegusa complaisantly walking along the beach barefooted.
The soft pillows of sand tickled her toes and she couldn't resist the urge of kicking her feet up every so often to watch the grains fly into the cloudless sky. The wind caressed her face and hair, gingerly and slowly, as it wasn't blowing all that fast and she breathed it in rejuvenatively. Her hair was black and straight, ending just below her shoulders. Underneath her chocolate brown eyes, dark bags began to form from the recent sleepless nights, while her face showed signs of crow's feet and her once plump cheeks were slightly narrower and sunken. But despite her berated and exasperated appearance she still exuded her trademark youthful vitality and cheerfulness, always wearing a smile, and preserving her recalcitrant optimism, but not to a fault, never allowing it to blind her to the realism of her world, her job, and the people involved in it. This was a break long overdue, and one that she hoped would prove uneventful. She stopped and gazed out at the ocean and wished she could live here forever. The world outside this paradise was so cold and harsh many times over and any quirks or anomalous peculiarities were quickly snuffed out, prodded and quashed by intolerant bigots. It's to this affect that she felt so lonely most of the time. Sure she had her students at the research center, helping them harness, cope and live with their extra-sensory abilities, the faculty their had become her surrogate parents and the students, her siblings, and its one of the few places she could truly express herself and not be afraid of anyone else's scrutiny. Her occasional contracting from the Japanese Self-Defense force kept her perpetually busy as she is consulted for her expertise in the recently created ESP Tactics Division and how their progress could be used in Research & Development for the, hopeful, inevitable eradication of Godzilla or any similar punitive threat.
Regardless of her positions, and what she had accomplished in a short amount of time, she knew deep down that she was different, a freak, someone who would always be displaced in society because of incomprehension. She continued walking trying to put her miseries and worries deep down into the cellar of her mind or at least reserve them until she had to return to "real" life. She had known someone, a while ago. Someone who did understand, who did know what its like to run, to run away and pray nobody ever catches up. To look at their reflection and do something about the scar in the mirror and although he was always impatient, vitriolic and moody, he was nice to have around when you needed clear, no bullshit answers to any question, and she felt comfortable around him, safe, but most importantly: normal. She stopped again, placed a hand on her shoulder and looked down at the sand, thinking, praying, and wondering what ever happened to him.
Then the ocean started to churn.
She turned to look, gushing water plumed and bubbled violently, madness seemed to take hold of it, and it grew intensively, vaporous clouds escaped wherever possible making searing noises, as if someone doused a campfire with water. Flashes of blinding blue light forced Miki to squint and shield her eyes. Then from the depths, a large dark mass arose, revealing itself, taller than the cascading water around it. It raised its head and unfolded its arms from across its chest. It blinked its eyes lucidly; scanning its surroundings, then it puffed out its chest and roared territorially. Miki could see him plainly, recognizing the familiar sound; his rugged charcoal reptilian skin had more scars and burn marks than before. He must've been swimming through lava streams, she theorized, so that's how he did it, that's how he avoided detection. She smiled at his ingenuity, but the smile quickly disappeared as she began to take in the full sight of him. He was thinner than before, muscle had replaced the fat deposits in his body, giving him more agility and greater definition, his spines were no longer white and curved but rather serrated, gray and sharp, shaped like forked lightning bolts. His face was hollow and menacing, more so than before, the snout was narrower and when ever he growled it revealed a double row of teeth. His eyes were still black but something inside Miki told her that this was not the same Godzilla she remembered after SpaceGodzilla's destruction. Something had happened after that fight that caused Godzilla to completely vanish for 5 years and now it decided to reappear again, unanticipated, without her ever been able to discern his presence. Even stranger was that it chose to finally reveal itself at the same time that she was on Birth Island. Why now? Did he follow me? Why so long and why couldn't he at least communicate with me, even once. Her head was a garbled mess of questions, while her face was a mixture of apprehension and bitterness. She breathed slowly, calmed herself, and began to concentrate, reaching out and knocking on the door to Godzilla's mind, trying to understand what happened to him and maybe, more importantly, what happened to the both them during those last 5 years.