II: Dreams That Haunt
Heat blistered Miki's face as flames wreathed around her like a maelstrom from hell. The air seemed baked dry, a Mercurean desert contaminated with the poison of humanity's ill-willed creation. Her body seemed to burn but her nerves seemed so confused by what was happening that the pain dwindled into a dull sting. Miki gazed down at her hazy hands and felt her reptilian fingers clasp around one another—half-melted pieces of flesh holding onto the dim memory of a life amidst tropical trees. She looked forward through the gray smoke and flashes of light. Fractured images of a broken dinosaur's body lay wasted in the debris of human industry.
Little One! You mustn't die! She felt a scream release from her radioactive maw but it merely seemed to echo behind the sound of annoying human artillery.
Miki leaned forward in an attempt to see through the smoke, but fell victim to a terrible pain in her body. An eruption of fire and magmatic flesh burst from her chest like a volcanic blast ripping out her insides. Distorted flashes of orange and white blinded her vision as she felt strength slip from beneath her. Down she went, each meter she fell seemed to move more slowly than the last. Miki's body slunk against the ground in a molten hulk. As her vision faded, sounds around her began to grow. She could hear artillery fire, the fizzling of her remaining carapace, and the distant hum of something in flight.
Miki… A female voice distantly called out.
Instantly, Miki opened her eyes and found herself bathed in perspiration in the bed of her tiny Kanagawa apartment. Dim street lights filtered into her bedroom but all in all the walls were faintly lit. She wiped the sweat from her brow while flipping her coverings away, gaining her bearings for just a moment. The dream was so vivid; it had been a recurring nightmare ever since Godzilla had passed.
"Miki."
Miki jumped at the sound of her name by the same female voice she had heard in the dream. She leapt to her feet, nearly tripping over her slippers on the floor.
"Who's there? What do you want?" She squinted, attempting to pinpoint any silhouettes in the room but there were none.
"We want to help you. We felt your pain." Another more timid voice muttered in the dark
Miki grunted while reaching over to turn on the lamp next to her bed. A dim amber light switched on beneath a bright pink shade embroidered with a fashionable geisha.
As soon as the light penetrated the room, the opaque form of a moth hovered above her bed—a rather large moth, at least the size of her forearm. Miki rubbed her eyes in an attempt to distinguish whether or not what she was witnessing was apart of the dream, but it was real. The wing designs were of a light peach color intertwined with yellows, reds and oranges. In fact, some of the symbols closely related to the symbols on Mothra's wings.
"Cosmos? Is that you?" Miki barely muttered while watching the moth slowly descend onto the bed next to her. She backed away and recoiled, still feeling a bit jumpy from the nightmare she had just experienced.
The dim light of her lamp revealed the forms of two tiny women. Unlike the Cosmos, however, they were adorned with differing colors and outfits. The well-postured woman sitting toward the front of the moth seemed to sport a red dress with gloves and various jewels. The one behind her grasping onto her shoulders wore a blue dress graced with feathers and jewels. Nothing like the Cosmos, other than the fact that they were small.
"You needn't fear us, Miki Saegusa." The fairy sitting in the front said confidently.
"We are the Elias of Mothra." The blue fairy spoke whimsically with a smile.
"Elias…of Mothra? Mothra's not here…she's in space." Miki responded with a dumbfounded expression on her face.
"My name is Moll, and this is my sister Lora—and this is our steed, Fairy Mothra. We are aware of your dealings with our kin." Moll's red dress fluttered in the wind as she climbed off from Fairy Mothra. Her heels pressed creases into the bedding like tiny needles as she helped her sister climb down.
Miki's eyes grew when she put the puzzle pieces together and realized that these fairies were related to the Cosmos in some way. Even though she reveled in that understanding, she acknowledged that she understood only a piece of the big picture.
"How are we related you ask?" Lora giggled, while adjusting her braided hair, "we are cousin fairies. The Cosmos were created as a fail-safe if we were to fail in our mission in keeping the natural order of things in balance."
"The meteorite that crashed into the ocean a few years back unearthed the dormant Mothra egg, therefore signaling the Cosmos that they needed to rise from their dormancy as well." Moll followed right where Lora left off, but neither of them spoke in unison.
Miki tried to wrap her mind around the story the Elias told. She paced over to the window and gazed out across the city, hoping that maybe the added light would make her mind function. Whenever she saw her reflection in the glass she thought she could see Godzilla's face, but then dismissed it as telepathic echoes from her dream.
"So you both are saying that the Cosmos and Mothra were never meant to wake when they did?"
"That's correct. Before we could do anything someone had taken both the Cosmos and Mothra's egg, therefore both myself and my sisters decided to remain in silence. We could not alert the world to a second Mothra. We foresaw chaos." Moll eloquently explained, the warmth in her eyes calming Miki's distraught emotions.
"Sisters? You have another sister?" Miki muttered, perplexed that there were three fairies.
"Yes, her name is Belvera!" Lora exclaimed.
"But we won't speak any more of her, she has chosen a different path." Moll cut Lora's excitement in two with her somewhat cold interjection. Deep down she knew there wasn't anymore time to explain their family.
"Right." Lora lowered her eyes.
"We are here to help you, Miki. We know what troubles you."
"You do?" Miki seemed a bit perplexed.
"Yes. You still struggle with Godzilla's passing. It was tragic to say the least, and we are aware of the weapon mankind is re-building to rid the world of Godzilla's offspring." Moll folded her arms and shook her head disdainfully which gave Miki the indication that the Elias also disapprove of MechaGodzilla's creation.
"So you know of Mechagodzilla also," Miki chuckled a bit, remembering how angry she had been when finding out about the project, "unfortunately I have no way of stopping the project."
Lora smiled and leaned against Fairy Mothra casually, as if the entire situation was completely manageable.
"We don't want you to stop the project. We want you to take part in it." She explained effervescently.
"What!?"
"Through taking part in it you'll be able to ensure that Godzilla is not killed. He is more important to this world alive than dead." Moll stated almost prophetically, indicating that the future could invite more foul creatures into the world. "He also has every right to live and thrive in this world as any other being, despite being created by humanity. Humans must realize that if they want to play God they need to respect the life they create and face the consequences of said created life."
"I agree, but what if they don't? What if people continue to destroy life as we know it?" Miki asked, almost hesitant to know the answer.
Moll and Lora peered at each other uneasily for a moment. Miki could tell that neither of them wanted to say what they were going to say.
"Then the Earth will wage war against mankind." Lora mumbled.
"Not only the Earth—but Mothra as well," Moll initiated, "we do not want that to happen, but Mothra cannot keep protecting life that continually destroys. Mothra's role would be to stop protecting the world, and if provoked… take matters into her own hands. And believe me, Mothra is a far greater threat if angered than Godzilla could ever hope to be."
Miki felt a lump in her throat rise at the thought of Mothra also waging war on humans. But at the same time she could understand the bigger picture. Humanity was foolish enough to create life, and now they wanted to take the life they created. How would that be fair, especially to a creature who had no choice in its creation? Miki could not think of a way to respond to the Elias' subtle warning.
"Don't fret, Miki. It is people like you that helps us keep faith in mankind." Lora smiled, the glimmer in her eye inspiring the Psychic.
"It also helps Mothra keep faith. Miki this isn't an easy task, but we know you have the power to make sure the Little One isn't destroyed. Strive to do your best, dear child." A smile also formed on Moll's face, but less elaborately than Lora's.
The two fairies inched back toward their steed and laid hands upon her. In a brilliant flash of light, the diminutive fey faded into the shadow of Miki's bedroom.
Call out to us if you should ever need our guidance. A unison telepathic voice echoed in the back of Miki's mind.
Miki wiped her bangs away from her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She felt a terrible feeling mounting in the pit of her stomach like a simmering kettle and knew that preventing the United Nations from eliminating the Little One would be more difficult than she previously realized.