Chapter 3

The past few months had been crazy since we had run into that Winter guy. In that time, we had run into beings that even I thought were only myths. Aliens from another world and these guys were anything but friendly. They claimed that they came in peace, but their motive was to take over our world and make us their slaves. We were able to destroy them, but something about all that still left me feeling on edge. Thankfully, this trip we were taking was helping to take my mind off all that. Though Nick didn't believe we were going to find anything, we were on our way to Scotland to investigate a new sighting of the Loch Ness monster. I wasn't sure if I believed, I mean, I was a kaiju hybrid, I had seen and been around creatures that humans either thought were only myths, or didn't know existed at all. So, I wasn't sure what to believe. Maybe there was a creature in the loch, maybe there wasn't. But I was in a position where I couldn't say whether I believed or not.

We met up with another doctor by the name of Trevor who claimed that the creature had attacked their facility. The tone of his voice hinted that Nick was skeptical, though Trevor seemed oblivious to his sarcasm. We took a look around the town but the public seemed to be unaffected by the attack. Maybe they were used to occurrences like this. At one point, Trevor suggested we survey the area of the lake surrounding the facility. Nick, Randy and I were in one sub while Trevor, Elsie and Monique were in the other. We had only been under the water for a few minutes when the three of us, Nick, Randy and I, saw something swim past our sub. We couldn't clearly see what it was, not with all the muck and silt that was in the water. But whatever it was, it didn't waste any time trying to destroy the sub and kill us. We were able to get out of the sub just as the window began to crack, but we still barely made it before Randy drowned. Thankfully, he was okay, but the monster wasn't done with us. It tried to attack us, and the others at the facility, thank the stars my son made it and was able to drive the creature off. I was happy that everyone was okay, but something in me was so scared that it wasn't just my son that could've been hurt, but that part of me was scared that something could've happened to Nick too.

I don't know what that part was telling me, but it was something I hadn't felt in a while. But when we went back inside, Trevor was not happy with our little escapade and Nick confessed that he hadn't believed in the monster before. But what surprised me was Trevor's demand that Nessie be destroyed. Nick, Elsie, and I tried to reason with him, but he just wouldn't listen. This didn't sit well with Nick, nor with me. I couldn't explain it, but I somehow felt a connection to Nessie, like I understood what she was feeling, though I couldn't place what it exactly it was. When we finally returned to the facility, Randy was able to find out what it was that caused Nessie to lash out at the humans. Trevor had stolen her baby and she was trying to get her back. Now I understood why it was I felt such a connection to Nessie, I had been in her place before, I knew what it felt like to be frightened for your child, to be so desperate to find them. Nessie wasn't the monster, it was Trevor.

When Trevor demanded to know why we had not yet gotten rid of Nessie, Nick asked me to call Godzilla, but I could see in his eyes, he had another plan when he asked Trevor if it was possible for my voice to be broadcasted. When we were alone, instead of broadcasting my voice calling my son, Randy broadcasted baby Nessie's voice calling her mother. The plan worked, a little too well. Because as soon as she showed, up Nessie smashed her way in and would have killed us if my son hadn't held her back. But we still had a problem, the lab was filled with water and neither Nick nor Randy could breathe underwater like I could. Thank the stars we were able to pry the doors open and we could escape. We thought we had Trevor cornered in his secret room, but he escaped through a tunnel hauling Baby Nessie in a cage behind him. But he didn't get far because Nessie got to him and Godzilla was able to release Baby Nessie and return her to her mother. Finally, the mystery was solved and the ordeal was over. Finally, we could all breathe a little easier. And Nick was able to admit to Elsie that he had been wrong about the Loch Ness Monster being a myth.

In the weeks following our trip to Loch Ness, my son and I grew increasingly uneasy about something, though we couldn't exactly explain what it was. I didn't tell Nick about it because I didn't want him to think that I was losing my mind. But tonight, Godzilla was out hunting for food far from the harbor. I rode in the sub with as we tried to keep up with my son. And our fears were realized when we found Godzilla with fishing net in his mouth and a boat attached to that net. We tried to use NIGEL, imitating Nick's voice, to call him off, but NIGEL malfunctioned and Nick and I had to surface and call him off. I sawm home with Godzilla and got him to bed for the rest of the night. I met up with the others later in the morning when they finally made it back. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but the atmosphere around the room felt heavier and angrier than anything I had felt before. Nick was agitated, so was I, everyone was.

"Did something happen to NIGEL?" Mendel asked when we mentioned that our mission had gone south.

"Forget that tinker toy." Randy snapped. "Something almost happened to us."

"Assez!" Monique said stepping up. "The incident was not Craven's mistake, it was mine. I should have eliminated Godzilla long ago."

Suddenly we were all having at each other.

"If you so much as even look at my son funny…" I growled at Monique.

As if on que, Elsie showed up trying to bring humor to the tense atmosphere. Nick demanded to know what she had been up to with all her time away, but Elsie was giving any answers. When she left, Nick found our sensors picking up the same signals as from the aliens' ship. When we went to check it out, the situation got weirder and weirder every passing second. First, even with their clearances, they wouldn't let Nick and Mendel pass. And we finally found the source of the signal, my uneasiness was confirmed. The source of the aliens' signal was their ship, the one we had all agreed was left better off forgotten, it was here, in human possession. And what's worse, the only reason they found it was because Elsie told them where to look and things only got worse when she compared this situation to how Nick had asked her to trust him about Godzilla. Tempers continued to flare until Elsie said she quit and we were escorted out by Major Hicks's soldiers.

Back at headquarters, things seemed to cool down, though they were still tense. And it only got worse again when that doctor, Stafflin, I think it was, showed up again. I'm not sure what it was about him but every time he showed up, things only went from bad to worse. There was definitely a dark energy about him. I couldn't place it, but that energy felt the same as the dark energy that I felt from the aliens.

Stafflin appealed to our duties as HEAT, but Monique turned against us, threatening my son and leaving the team. Randy and Mendel left too, leaving only me and Nick.

"What about you?" Nick asked turning to me.

"You're the only human I trust, Nick." I answered him. "Where you go, I go." I said putting my hand on his shoulder.

The look in his eyes didn't match his reaction to my answer, but the smile he offered me told me he was glad for my loyalty.

"Now I know where Godzilla gets his loyalty from." Nick said placing his hand on mine.

A short time later, we were on a plane for Africa. At the moment, I was starting to doubt if I would ever be able to trust any other humans other than Nick. After seeing how fast Elsie, Monique, Randy and Mendel turned against us, it only told me how quick humans were to betray others. That's what I had always thought, until I met Nick. Even after everything I told him about me and what I had done, he had retained a loyalty to me and my son. The least I could do for him was give him my loyalty in return. He wasn't my mate, but he was deserving of my loyalty as if he were. After everything he had done for me and Godzilla, it was the very least I could give him. I did want to go back to the island my mate and I had called home, but staying with Nick made me realize that I could make my home anywhere I could go. I had learned so much of what it was like to live from them both, from my mate and from Nick.

And in that moment, I realized how it was I really felt about Nick. I loved him, but I already had a mate, and though he was dead, I couldn't turn away from him. And yet, what I had grown to feel for Nick was nothing short of what I felt for my mate. Was it wrong to feel something like that for more than one male?