Welcome back fellow Godzilla trash! I would like to announce that I've now seen the film 4 times and have been listening to the soundtrack non stop since the movie came out!

Thank you 3000 for all the support! Nothing makes me happier than seeing a new fav, follow, and/or review!

Enjoy!

Connections

…

Amara pumped her legs faster and faster. Which direction was the boat? Was she even going the right way?

Her vision was clouded with blue. There was no other choice, she had to surface. She arched her body upwards until her head broke the surface. Uninterrupted water spanned for miles. Nothing! There was nothing. No land, no boat, no Dr. Park.

She twisted her body around, scanning the area behind her. Mid turn, movement caught her eye sending a jolt of fear down her spine.

No, it was the boat!

Flinging her arms into a paddle, she spit the mouthpiece out and began to scream for the doctor's attention. Her mind and lips refused to form coherent words and instead choosing to shriek until Dr. Park sprung into action, bringing the boat closer.

What felt like an eternity later she finally made it to the boat. Dr. Park's words were nearly inaudible over Amara's panicked screams. She reached up and grabbed at Dr. Park's arm before the woman could properly get a grip on her hand.

"Amara, calm down! Amara!"

Not paying the doctors words any heed, she continued to grab at anything she could get a grip on and aiming her flippers at the rungs of the ladder.

"We have to leave!" Amara finally screeched out.

He could be right under them. Ready to strike, ready to eat her alive. No one would know her fate, lost forever in the belly of a monster.

She fell into the boat in a wet heap. Dr. Park's hands were on her in an instant, most likely checking for injuries. There was no time for that! She pushed the woman's hands off her.

"What's going on?" Dr. Park asked as she attempted to grab at Amara's flailing limbs.

Amara pulled her arm out of the doctor's grasp and yanked off her flippers. If Dr. Park wasn't going to get them out of here, then she would. She got onto her feet and sprung up the stairs to the steering wheel.

She pointed the boat towards the nearest part of land and floored it. They had to get out of the water.

Dr. Park appeared at her side. "Amara can you please tell me what's going on?" Her voice was raised over the wind that whipped at her pony tail.

Not looking the woman in the eye, Amara answered, "He's here."

Dr. Park opened her mouth, then closed it when a look of realization crossed her face. "You don't mean—"

"Godzilla!"

The doctors mouth hung agape. "Are—are you sure?"

"Yes! He looked right at me!"

Without another word, Dr. Park disappeared from Amara's side. She craned her neck back to see where the woman had gone.

Dr. Park stood in front of the sonar, the image on the screen flashing to life. The doctor's fingers froze above the controls when a mass of orange took up half the black screen.

He was close. Too close. Were these her final moments?

Would it be painful?

Salt water splashed her eyes. They burned as her vision blurred. The island was close though. Close enough to make out the green foliage of the trees. Why wouldn't this boat go any faster?

"Amara, slow down a bit."

Slow down? Slow down? Was this woman crazy? This was Godzilla, the titan that destroyed two cities!

"Why would I slow down? He's coming!"

"No, he's not. He's hardly moved." Dr. Park was back at her side, a stern look on her face. How could she be so calm?

"I don't care!"

"Amara! He's not attacking, now slow down the boat before you crash into that island."

Dr. Park reached in front of Amara's body and pulled the lever into neutral. The engine noise quieted, and the wind became a soft breeze once again. Amara looked the doctor in the eyes.

Dr. Park was crazy. That was the only explanation. Surely, if she had been the one in the water, she wouldn't be so calm. No one this close to a monster should be so…so unaffected.

"Amara, breathe."

A shallow breath escaped her nose while Dr. Park asked her a question.

Instead of answering, Amara scanned the coast of the island. It wasn't that far now. Maybe she could swim?

"Amara!" Dr. Park's raised voice drew back her attention. "Now tell me exactly what you saw," she repeated.

Amara's grip tightened on the steering wheel. "He was swimming…with the whales."

Dr. Park eyes widened, but not in surprise. "That's it?"

Amara nodded.

"Was he…doing anything else?"

She shook her head.

"And then you panicked, and he looked at you?" Dr. Park asked, tilting her head.

"Yeah."

"Did he do anything else?"

The loud noise and the intensity of the shockwave invaded her mind like a shotgun going off beside her ear.

"He made a pulse in the water. It pushed me back."

Dr. Parks brows furrowed. "Did it hurt you?"

"No, I just felt really overwhelmed, then I started swimming back to the boat."

Dr. Park merely nodded with a far away look in her eyes. She sat down at the table and began to jot down notes in her journal.

The black sonar screen was still half covered in orange. The titan was still there, lurking under the surface. As Dr. Park said, it was still in the same spot. No closer or further than it had been.

The news mentioned Godzilla dropped off the radar near Florida a few days ago. Monarch stated it only happened when he traveled through one of the so called hollow earth tunnels. It always took them days to relocate the titan again since the tunnels seemed to go anywhere. The previous time they lost him was two weeks ago when he disappeared from the Artic and was sighted next in the Indian Ocean.

They were just off the coat of Las Angeles, California, one of the most prevalent spots for Blue whale sightings. If only that was all she saw, but no, he was here too.

Did that mean there was a tunnel under North America?

"You're going to think I'm crazy, but I want to stay here and study him."

Amara must have made a face because the doctor quickly added to her statement. "I can drop you off at the island first, of course."

She didn't have to study him, there were already hundreds, if not thousands of scientists studying him. Besides, it was illegal to even be this close to the titan.

"You can't be serious. We're supposed to report him to the authorities and get as far away as possible."

"No, we can't tell anyone. The military would be all over the area and I don't want them disturbing the whales, or Godzilla for that matter."

How could she not want to notify the police? They were only 60 miles out from the coast of a state that's already been devastated by this particular creature. The population of California alone had almost halved between the destruction of San Francisco and people simply moving further inland.

"Why aren't you afraid?"

"You said it yourself, he's just swimming, right? With the whales?"

"Yes, they were circling him."

It was obvious what Dr. Park was trying to do. Trying to convince her that this predator wasn't a treat to them or anyone else around. Just because he wasn't on the hunt, didn't mean he couldn't turn at any moment.

"He's not displaying any signs of aggression or territorial behaviour."

"You can't be serious. He's the apex predator of apex predators!" Amara said throwing her hands up. "If you approached a lion laying in the sun, it would attack you none the less."

"I'm starting to agree with the Monarch scientists that he's not a predator at all."

Didn't they just talk about this? For a scientist, she was acting very irrationally.

"He is not a peacekeeper, he is an animal that has risen to the top of the food chain and kills anything that threatens that spot."

The MUTO's were said to be an exception to that. If what Monarch said was true, their spores were attached to another of Godzilla's deceased species and speculated to be specially adapted to fighting Godzilla's kind.

"This is our chance to prove that for ourselves."

"We can't publish a paper on Godzilla, we'd get arrested for illegally researching him."

"We won't publish it on Godzilla, rather how the whales act around him. I'll have to go into the water to see it for myself, but if the whales are indeed swimming with him it could further prove that he is not a threat. Not now, not ever."

Amara's eyes once again found their way to the monitor. The orange mass was moving ever so slowly on it, like a cloud drifting across the sky.

Any fear Dr. Park may have had was completely gone. At this point she was more like the crocodile hunter, dangling a deadly snake from her bare hands and telling her what a beautiful and misunderstood creature it was.

And there was something to be respected from that.

Monarch was dead set on proving how beneficial the titans were to the planet. Article after article claiming that they are restoring habitats and kickstarting life in their wake due to their unique radiation. The research was all brand new and was raising more speculation than awareness.

Amara's eyes traveled from the island ahead to the water behind them.

Was it possible that it was actually true? Maybe the whales did have something to do with the symbiotic relationship that the titans were claimed to have with the planet. Did Godzilla not only have a connection to the earth, but the animals as well?

"Alright."

Dr. Park's face lit up with a smile. "And here I was sure you were going to call me crazy."

"Don't worry, I'm still thinking it."

Was she really going to do this just like that? Godzilla was at best unpredictable, and at worst, violent. If he were to try anything or even react suddenly, they would be dead. But dear sweet biologist, Mi Sun Park, deemed the titan worthy of her affection despite any consequences it may have, be that death or jail.

Amara gave the woman a sideways glance. "I hope you know I'm not going anywhere near him again."

Dr. Park nodded, already heading back to her journal, most likely to jot down more notes. "I think we should start by analyzing his calls. They are remarkably similar to the whales, so I'm curious to see if they can actually communicate."

"You want me to put out the hydrophones, then?" Amara got up from the steering wheel. Despite the calmness of her voice, her legs shook.

"Yes please," The doctor replied with a quick smile before going back to her notes.

Amara took out the underwater microphones from their designated box. All she had to do was go to the edge of the boat and throw them over.

Leaning over the railing, however, was now quite intimidating. Ignoring the image of massive teeth under the surface, she instead glanced over at the sonar for possibly the hundredth time.

He was still where he was supposed to be, far away from them.

She tossed the equipment over the edge, not daring to look into the water as she did.

Why was she doing this again?

…

"I can't believe it," Dr. Park said for the tenth time in a row.

They sat side by side at the table where they now had a laptop set up recording the underwater sounds. They both wore headphones, listening closely to the noise from below.

Sure enough, the whales song was clear as day. Low moans and beats like a drum, an unmistakable sound unique to the blue whale. Clicks and squeals indicated the dolphins were also nearby, playful as ever. Then, something deeper, and louder. Strikingly similar to the whales, yet completely different. Even when the sound was a higher pitch, it rumbled from somewhere deep within the beast.

"Is he mimicking the whales?" Amara asked, finally voicing the question on her mind.

"I have no doubt that he's leaned their language. He's far from perfect from what I can hear, but the whales seem perfectly able to understand and respond to him." The look of wonder never left the woman's eyes.

Godzilla was the last of his species as far as anyone could tell. Did he seek out the whales for companionship in his long, isolated life?

It was easy to assume that like most predators—which he was no matter what Dr. Park said—he was a solitary hunter, content to be on his own. But after witnessing this, maybe that was wrong. Maybe his species were pack animals and highly social in nature.

The thought of more than one Godzilla was enough to make her skin crawl.

Dr. Park took off her headphones and stood. "I'm going in."

She's doing what now?

"Come again?"

"The water, Amara," Dr. Park enunciated slowly, "I'm going in."

"Are you sure that's not being the tiniest bit irrational?" Amara looked on in disbelief as the doctor gathered her scuba gear.

"Seek not to fear, but to understand."

That was easier said than done. Fear was an instinct. It is the reason life could evolve from its most basic form. The only thing that could conquer fear was intelligence. The ability to rationalise what one was afraid of and why. Because of that, one could overcome their fear of the unnecessary and begin to learn from it, to understand it.

But it was very rational to fear Godzilla.

He wasn't a harmless spider that crawled into someone's home. He wasn't a honey bee on a nearby flower. He was a force of nature. He was a living mountain someone built her home on, he was an iceberg that could sink a ship. He was a bomb that leveled cities.

Dr. Park finished zipping up her suit and slung the oxygen tank over her shoulder. She pressed a button on her full-face mask and the walkie talkie on the table came to life.

"Testing, testing."

The wind picked up and Amara brushed her dark hair behind her ear and grabbed the device off the table. "Loud and clear."

Dr. Park gave a thumbs up. "Don't wait up!"

Without a trace of hesitation, the fearless biologist dove into the dark water. With a flash of her yellow flippers, she disappeared completely beneath the surface.

The boat was suddenly quiet. Eerily quiet. Amara sat back in front of the sonar and clipped the walkie talkie on a beltloop of her utility pants. The monitor now displayed another small dot heading out towards the mass.

Would he roar at her too?

Minutes ticked away like hours. The small blip on the screen was half way there now, Godzilla being about a mile away from the boat. What would the Dr. Park do when she saw him? Would she freeze in fear, or would she continue towards him unfazed?

Finally, the dot closed in on the mass. The only discernible movement on the monitor were the oval shapes of the whales appearing and disappearing from around beast. Minutes passed with no change.

Then, the Doctor swam closer.

And closer.

She was right there with him and the whales!

Amara raised the walkie talkie to her mouth, the speak button's location eluding her, despite using it countless times before.

"Dr—Dr. Park?"

Silence.

She tried again. This time after a moment, a buzz filled the air.

"Amara…he's beautiful." The Doctor's voice was quiet. "I've never…"

Beautiful? She was staring death in the face and calling it beautiful? Were they seeing the same Godzilla?

It was unfair that Dr. Park could get so close without him reacting to her at all. Maybe if Godzilla hadn't roared at her, she could have gotten over her fear too. She could have let the shock pass and just watch the creature swim in peace like Dr. Park could.

Dr. Park's speck joined the whales, contently swimming around the titan. Was it because of her fearlessness that she was a world-renowned marine biologist?

On the top of the monitor a small digital clock read one thirty. Amara pressed the button on the walkie talkie. "It's been almost an hour, you should probably come back now and at least get a new tank."

"Ah, thanks for reminding me. I'm on my way," Dr. Park replied, the disappointment heavy in her voice.

It was only a few minutes before Dr. Park surfaced near the boat. Amara assisted her out of the water and taking off her tank.

When Dr. Park took off her mask, she beamed at Amara, her porcelain skin nearly glowing. It was only a matter of time before she was about to go on a novel length rant on how amazing Godzilla was and then manage to convince her to go back in and give him a chance.

Too bad for her, that was not going to happen.

…

Dr. Park helped secure Amara's scuba mask before readjusting her own.

Sure enough, after praising the titan all through their lunch break, the Doctor did it again.

"Now, "Dr. Park's voice sounded through the mask speaker, "What are we going to do differently this time?"

"Don't get scared because he's not going to eat me."

"Precisely. The only thing I can think of is that he reacted to your fear. So, no fear, no reaction."

Amara nodded, the lump in her throat preventing any sort of confident answer.

Apparently satisfied, Dr. Park jumped back into the water as if it were a second home to her. She looked up at Amara expectantly.

No fear. No fear, no reaction. Dr. Park said that he completely ignored her presence until she swam up next to his head and he spared her a single glance. Of course, she had been elated. Crazy woman.

Amara climbed down the railing, gripping the rungs as someone would grip their last thread of life. Dr. Park held out her hand for Amara to grab, and only then did she dare let go of the ladder.

Under the water it was even brighter and clearer than before. The sun was bright and high in the sky, visible even from under the waves.

Schools of fish swam nearby, their scales catching the light as they moved. Even the dolphins could be seen further away. The blackness of the depths below was much deeper now, making the ocean waters more beautiful than menacing. Dr. Park's presence, no doubt, also having a profound effect on her nerves.

Then, in the distance, the black mass materialized out of the blue. Already he was much clearer the distance. Dr. Park's hand pulling her closer to the creature. And then stopped.

No longer was he lazily floating with the current. He was still. He was…looking at them.

"Don't be afraid, Amara."

Was it just her, or did the doctor not sound as confident as before?

A humming pulse rippled through the water accompanied by a flash of blue emanating from his dorsal plates. And then another, like a heart beat. The whales fled.

She was afraid. Very afraid.

"I think he hates me."

Dr. Park could swim up to his face and he hardly acknowledged her presence. Then she got in the water and he immediately got pissed off? How was that fair?

"Let's just start swimming back very slowly."

The doctor pulled at her hand as she started to paddle backwards. Amara neither helped nor resisted.

Was it actually her fear that triggered him? How could one human's emotions cause such a negative reaction from a titan? To him, humans were insignificant, tiny and powerless. Not even the military's strongest weapon could truly kill him.

Maybe she was invading his personal space? Bombarding his heightened senses with her terror? Was Dr. Park worthy of being in his presence and she was not?

From the distance it seemed impossible, but there was no doubt that he was staring directly at her. Not Dr. Park, her.

Pain, sharp and hot seared through her skull. She brought her hand up to her forehead, only to come into contact with her mask instead.

Didn't he have anything better to do than to scare her? He should swim away, not them. If he didn't like her presence, that was his problem, not hers. He didn't know anything about her so who was he to judge?

The beast's mouth opened and a roar that was both a screech and an impossibly deep rumble overwhelmed her senses. Louder than a jet engine and more forceful than a tidal wave. It made the speakers in her ear mask crackle and her ears ring.

By the time she regained her senses, he was gone.

Not knowing his location did nothing to ease her terror. He could be anywhere, behind or even…below. Following their intertwined hands, Amara found Dr. Park's frightened face. She was fiddling with her mask and her lips were moving. It was no use. Godzilla's roar was loud enough to blow out the speakers.

This time it was Amara who pulled the doctor back towards the boat. They had no time to spare, he could come out of nowhere and eat them whole.

They climbed back onto the boat and flopped onto the deck.

Amara sat up and pulled off her mask and threw it onto the floor. Dr. Park still lay there, her heavy breathing visible she pulled off her mask too.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into that!" Amara forcefully shrugged off the oxygen tank.

She'd nearly been killed twice that day because of Dr. Park trying to push her out of her comfort zone.

"I swear Amara, I didn't think he would such a profound reaction to you. I'm so sorry." Dr. Park said as she too, sat up.

Amara's head still pounded to the pace of her heart. "Yeah well, screw marine life. I'm done with water forever. He can stay down there, and I can stay up here. I never want to see a titan again, not him or any others. You think he's so smart, when he acts no different than any other animal on this planet!"

Dr. Park remained calm. "We are also an animal on this planet, don't forget. Just now when we were afraid, we went back to our most basic instincts as well."

This time, Dr. Park's soothing tone had no effect or her. This whole trip had been one big mistake. She should have gone to the mountains to study bears instead. But no, she came here. Right into Godzilla's territory.

"That's it. I'm calling the coast guard. I'm not staying here another minute with that thing under the water." Amara waved her hand at the doctor as she stomped up the stairs.

"Amara, I know that was a frightening experience, but I've never seen you angry before, it's not like you."

"We've only known each other for two weeks, Dr. Park," Amara ground out.

Dr. Park was right though. Anger wasn't an emotion she made a habit of feeling. At least, not like this. But after two near death experiences, it was perfectly justified.

Amara sat down in front of the steering wheel ready to put it into gear. Was Dr. Park not going to say anything? Normally she would be there in an instant to talk her out of it.

She turned around to find Dr. Park standing in front of the sonar screen. She was just staring at it, unmoving. Her body blocked the monitor, so Amara couldn't see what it displayed.

She got up, now acutely aware of how quiet it was. "Dr. Park?"

A flash of glowing light from the side of the boat drew her attention away from the doctor and towards the railing.

What…was that?

She opened her mouth to accommodate shallow pants. As if her legs were possessed by an unknown force, she took slow steps towards the edge of the boat.

"Amara, don't." Dr. Park's voice was quiet.

Still she took another step, and another. She placed her hand on the railing. Her knuckles turned white as she slowly bent over to look.

Another flash of pale blue. The light from below outlined a dark shape directly under the boat, perfectly still. Her eyes focused under the surface.

A face.

She stilled. Not even a breath escaped her lips.

Godzilla stared straight at her from under the water. His eyes somewhere between brown and amber. His nostrils were flared, nearly breaking the surface. The sun lit up his dark scales, making every feature of his face visible to the naked eye. Another pulse of blue flashed from his body directly below.

His eyes narrowed, and he flexed his jaw to expose more pointed teeth. The expression on his face clear as day. Never had she seen an animal make such an obvious expression. Frustration.

Her headache throbbed as a loud whale like moan broke the surface. It started low and increased in both pitch and volume until she was forced to cover her ears.

His face vanished from below the boat. The current changed direction and became violent. Luminescent spikes broke the surface, then a massive tail, and then nothing remained but the splash of water that drenched her and the boat.

He was gone, again.

Amara fell back into the boat in a heap. There was only one thing to be understood about this creature. It was that he was meant to be feared.

...