Disclaimer: I do not own Godzilla or Pacific Rim.

Chapter 12 – Destroyer of Worlds

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AN: I've actually added some theme music for this chapter: it's "The Last Stand", by Two Steps From Hell. Turn it on when you get to the line beginning with the words, "Raleigh looked up just in time to see a flight of jets passing overhead…" to coordinate the music with the best part of the chapter.

I've been waiting to write this chapter in particular for a VERY long time. By the time you finish reading it, you'll definitely know why.

Enjoy! :)

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"In the year 1999, in the seventh month, from the sky will come a great King of Terror…" – Nostradamus, The Prophecies, Century 10, Quatrain 72

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Two hours after the end of the battle in Hong Kong

Ryushi Nuclear Power Plant

Near Osaka, Japan

Ken Hatashi, a supervisor at the Ryushi power plant, exited the facility and headed through the parking lot, towards his car. He was trying to ignore the chatter of two of his fellow workers, Mason and Ando. They were currently discussing the subject of the recent Kaiju attacks.

Ken stifled a groan. For the fourth time this week, no less. He took a deep breath, looking up at the night sky and listening to the sound of crashing waves coming from a hundred yards or so away. He couldn't see the water, because a dense fog had rolled in from the bay, but just the sound helped him to relax after the stressful day of work.

"…I'm telling you, it's true!" Ando argued. "I heard about it a few hours ago from my cousin; he's in the PPDC, stationed at the Tokyo Shatterdome."

"I don't care what you heard, man, there's no way that's true," Mason interrupted. The American college student, who was spending a semester in Osaka as part of his studying for a future career in physics, ran a hand through his tousled blonde hair. "If four Kaiju had attacked Hong Kong, everyone would know by now. It's not possible to keep something like that secret."

"It isn't a secret anymore!" Ando protested. "It's already all over the news; you'd know something about it if you watched it more often!"

Mason sighed. "How many times do I have to tell you? I don't watch the local news because I can barely understand Japanese! How am I supposed to pay attention to the news anchors if I don't know what they're saying, huh?"

Ken was no longer paying attention to them; he was distracted by an unusual sound. It was a deep-toned rumbling, accompanied by a series of increasingly loud thuds.

"Oh, stop trying to come up with excuses!" Ando retorted. "You know as well as I do that you have no excuse to not know that–"

"Shut up!" Ken snapped, instantly silencing the two other workers. He turned to them, his eyes wide. "Listen!"

Ando and Mason stopped talking, their own eyes widening in shock as they heard the sound. The ground under their feet began vibrating with each impact, causing them to stagger slightly as it kept getting worse.

"What is that?" Ando asked.

Before any of them could say anything else, the sounds grew to a crescendo, and a massive, dark gray, reptilian foot appeared out of the fog overhead and slammed down into the middle of the parking lot, barely ten meters from where they were standing. The shockwave unleashed by the footstep knocked all three men to the ground. As if the sheer size of the foot wasn't enough of a clue, a tremendous roar echoed from within the fog, the sound deafening.

"It's Godzilla!" Mason screamed in terror.

A moment later, the foot rose again, stepped easily over the three men, and carried on walking, not giving them a second thought.

Ken, Ando, and Mason propped themselves up, looking at each other in shock and terror. As they sat there on the concrete, none of them having any idea what to do, they heard a series of crashes from behind them – the sounds of the reactor complex being smashed to pieces – followed by the blaring siren of an alarm, indicating that the reactor's core had been breached.

Godzilla had returned to Japan's shores…

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PPDC Shatterdome

Hong Kong

Raleigh and Mako walked into the Shatterdome's mess hall, pushed by a crowd of cheering personnel. They were greeted by thunderous applause.

"Raleigh!" Herc called, walking through the crowd. He grinned as he shook hands with Mako. "My kid would never admit it, but he's grateful. We both are." Turning, he offered his hand to Raleigh.

After a moment, Raleigh shook his hand, nodding in respect. Glancing around the room, his eyes fell on Chuck. They exchanged nods, smiling faintly. They might not be friends, but they could respect each other now.

"Mr. Becket! Miss Mori!" Pentecost's voice rang out above the crowd as he strode up to them. He smiled. "In all of my years of fighting, I've never seen anything like that. Well done." He met Mako's eyes. "I'm proud of you. Proud of us all." Turning, he glanced around, his smile fading. "But, as harsh as it sounds, there is no time to celebrate. We lost two crews, but we have no time to grieve." He paused for a long moment, then pointed to the huge digital clock on one wall, counting off the time between Kaiju attacks. "Reset that clock," he ordered.

As Pentecost turned back to face them, Raleigh noticed, with a start, that a trickle of blood had leaked from his nostrils. Mako had noticed too; she looked at Pentecost and brushed under her nose with one hand, indicating the nosebleed. Pentecost, frowning, reached up and touched his nose; his fingers came away bloody. Hastily removing a handkerchief from his pocket, he held it to his nose and started walking away.

"Reset that clock!" he called again as he left.

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Hannibal Chau's headquarters

The Bone Slums, Hong Kong

Hannibal Chau and some of his men were gathered around a large table with a map of Hong Kong on it, discussing their impending mission to salvage the remains of the Kaiju.

"We're going to harvest the skin, the talons, and the wings," Hannibal stated. "The Germans are gonna go nuts for that stuff." Leaning forward and resting one hand on the table, he pointed to a particular spot on the map. "This is where the Kaiju fell; that's where we'll concentrate our efforts."

"We'll get it, boss," the bearded man who'd greeted their visitors earlier chimed in.

Hannibal nodded. "Right." He turned and walked back towards the concealed entrance to the shop, pressing the button to open the wall. To his surprise, Newt, Miyuki and Ozaki were standing on the other side, waiting for him in the shop. None of them looked happy.

"Hey!" Newt snapped. "Okay, guess who's back, you one-eyed bitch?!" He glared furiously at Hannibal, which would have been a lot more intimidating if he hadn't been scrawny and soaked to the bone from the rain. "You owe me a Kaiju brain!"

Hannibal raised an eyebrow. "You all made it? I'm impressed." He chuckled. "You've got balls, kid, I'll give you that. Since there's a Kaiju corpse lying a couple of miles from here, I'll get you your brain. It's not like I'd be needing it for anything; like I said, that part of the Kaiju doesn't sell."

Ozaki's phone suddenly rang; he plucked it from his pocket and answered it. "This is Ozaki."

"Ranger Ozaki?" Gottlieb's voice called into the Ranger's ear. "I need you to return to the Shatterdome immediately; we're in the final stages of readying Silver Dragon for redeployment, and I'm going to need your help to make sure it's correctly calibrated to you."

"Well, I'd be happy to help, Dr. Gottlieb, but I'm a little busy at the moment," Ozaki explained. "I'm with Dr. Otonashi and Dr. Geiszler; we're with Hannibal Chau, on our way to get a Kaiju brain for Dr. Geiszler's Drift experiment."

Gottlieb sighed. "All right, listen. Marshall Pentecost told me that we need you, and Miss Otonashi, as soon as possible. Newton is to stay with Chau and complete the mission; he can handle it himself, now that you have access to a Kaiju brain. Tell this Chau character that the Marshall expects all three of you back, unharmed, or there will be consequences. He should listen to you then; he doesn't want trouble with the PPDC. But I need you two here now, so hurry!" The call ended.

Ozaki turned to face the others, his eyes narrowed. "That was the Shatterdome. They need the two of us back there as soon as possible." He nodded to Miyuki, then focused back on Hannibal, his gaze hard. "I expect you to make sure nothing happens to him," he continued, indicating Newt with one hand. "If he doesn't make it back to the Shatterdome unharmed once the mission's over, Marshall Pentecost has guaranteed that you will be held personally responsible."

Hannibal waved his hand, his tone remaining casual. "All right, all right, I get it! Don't worry, I'll make sure the kid gets back to the Shatterdome safe and sound."

Ozaki nodded coolly and turned to Newt. "Are you okay with this?" he asked.

Newt considered for a long moment, but eventually nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I get it; I need to get that Kaiju brain, and you need to get Kiryu up and running again." He grinned nervously. "As I read online once, we all have our roles to play."

Ozaki clapped him reassuringly on the shoulder. "Good. Don't worry, you'll do fine." Pivoting to face Miyuki, he held out a hand towards the door of the shop. "We should get moving."

Miyuki shook hands with Newt, murmuring, "Good luck," under her breath, and then headed for the door. Ozaki did likewise. The shop door closed behind them, and they were gone.

Newt, now alone, faced Hannibal, summoning up all of his courage. The trembling of his hands, something he had been afflicted with ever since they'd been fleeing from the Kaiju several hours earlier, finally faded.

"Right, then," he said. "Let's get started."

Hannibal nodded. "Unfortunately, all the destruction the Kaiju caused cut off the routes for my equipment to get out here. It'll take a day to get everything ready; but by tomorrow night, we'll be ready to head out and start salvaging. In the meantime, you're welcome to look at the Kaiju stuff I've got here in the lab."

Newt nodded eagerly, grinning. "Sounds good. Let's get to it!"

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Twelve hours later

Lab for Project G-Force

PPDC Shatterdome

Hong Kong

Pentecost walked down the corridor to the lab, his mind whirling. The events of the last twenty-four hours would have left most people exhausted, but the Marshall was still as professional and calm as ever. Considering how hectic his life had been since the end of the battle, that was quite an accomplishment.

Godzilla was still at large, for one thing. After the battle in Hong Kong, the First Kaiju had made a beeline for Japan, where he'd promptly attacked and destroyed a nuclear power plant near Osaka. The coastal wall, as Pentecost had expected, had barely even slowed him down. Fortunately, Godzilla had absorbed most of the radiation, but there was still some environmental damage in the area.

Luckily, instead of continuing his attack, Godzilla had turned around and headed back out to sea after destroying the power plant. The First Kaiju had disappeared, with his last recorded course heading straight out into the Pacific. Pentecost had no idea how Godzilla had managed to evade their sensors, but the Kaiju had dropped completely off the radar, and they couldn't seem to locate him.

In the meantime, Pentecost had turned his attention to other matters; namely, the Breach.

Gottlieb was feverishly performing equations on the board when Pentecost entered. That was to be expected, of course; he usually was. What was surprising was that Miki Saegusa was seated in a chair nearby, leaning against the wall as she watched Gottlieb working.

"Miss Saegusa?" Pentecost asked in surprise. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you still be in the medical bay?"

Miki nodded. "Probably," she admitted. "But I knew you were going to say something important, so I wanted to be here."

Working with a psychic, Pentecost reflected, sometimes had its disadvantages. For one thing, it was very difficult to keep secrets.

"Very well, then. But I want you back in the medical bay as soon as we're done here; you need to rest. Now, first of all; how is Dr. Karkov doing?" he asked Gottlieb.

"He'll be fine," the older scientist said, turning to face Pentecost and leaning on his cane. "He's exhausted; that's what the doctors told me. For some reason, he's been under an immense physical strain, and it's left him severely weakened. He just needs sleep and rest, and he's getting both of those at the moment. They've told me that he should be up and recovered within a couple of days." It seemed as if he wanted to say more, but he restrained himself.

Pentecost nodded. "Good. Now, how are your calculations progressing? Do you have some idea of how we could close the Breach yet?"

Gottlieb smiled. "Indeed I do, sir." He indicated the equations he'd been writing down on the chalkboard, then activated a holographic projector on a nearby computer. The computer projected a glowing image of what looked vaguely like an hourglass; a blue line at the top of the image, and a red line at the bottom, connected by a funnel-like orange shape, narrower in the middle than it was at either end.

"This is a cross-section diagram of the Breach," Gottlieb explained, pointing to the image. "Here," he said, pointing to the blue line, "is our universe, and here…" he pointed to the red line "…is theirs. Now, the orange funnel represents the Breach, the actual portal, connecting these two dimensions." He pointed to the middle of the funnel. "This is what we call the Throat, a passage through the Breach, between the other side and our world. That's what the Kaiju always follow, to stay in the center of the portal and make it through safely. By studying the Breach in the past, analyzing the energy signature it gives off, we know that its power source is atomic in nature. Which makes sense, considering the ungodly amount of power that would be needed to rip open a portal in the space-time continuum of this size, and keep it open for this long."

"What's the point of this, Dr. Gottlieb?" Pentecost interrupted. "Our time is limited."

"Yes, yes, I know, sir. Just give me a minute, please," Gottlieb replied. He typed a swift command into the projector, causing it to generate a small sphere of yellow light on the screen, above the blue line. "Now, since the war began, as we know, the number and size of the Breach Kaiju in each attack has increased exponentially. My theory is that, as this has occurred, the Breach has stabilized, opening larger each time so that the Kaiju could pass through more easily. This means that the next time it opens, it will remain so for a considerable amount of time after it has opened, without closing. That will provide us with an opportunity." Picking up a stylus from a nearby table, he tapped it against the projection, connecting it to the dot of yellow light. "If we can get a device of similar atomic nature – a nuclear warhead, in short – into the Breach during that window of time…" With a flick of the stylus, he dropped the dot of light into the orange funnel that represented the Breach. The dot fell until it was about halfway through, then flared into a burst of red light that expanded rapidly outward, shredding the orange funnel. With a final flicker of light, the funnel collapsed inward and vanished, dissolving completely.

"My god," Pentecost murmured.

Gottlieb smiled in satisfaction. "The device's detonation will destabilize the Breach from within and collapse its structure. From there, the portal will tear itself apart and implode."

"A highly effective strategy," Miki commented. "Except for one thing; how do we get the bomb into the Breach?"

"I've considered that," Gottlieb admitted, his enthusiasm fading, "and there's only one way. Every missile or bomb we've ever launched at the Breach has simply ricocheted off and detonated without doing any damage to the portal. The only way to ensure that the device gets into the portal is to do the same thing that the Kaiju have done. Something big enough to make it through the portal has to carry the bomb into the Breach."

"Something." Pentecost's eyes narrowed in realization. "Meaning, a Jaeger."

Gottlieb sighed. "Yes, sir. That's exactly what I'm saying. Only a Jaeger can get into the Breach, with a bomb attached to it, and detonate the device within the portal."

"Which means," Miki finished, "that it's a one-way trip. The Jaeger carrying the bomb isn't coming back."

Pentecost nodded slowly. It made sense; there had to be a reason why all previous attacks on the Breach had failed.

"We need to set up a plan," he replied. "If we're going to have any chance of succeeding in this mission, we'll need G-Force fully ready. How soon will Striker Eureka, Gipsy Danger and Silver Dragon be ready for combat?"

"According to Dr. Yuhara, Kiryu will be ready for combat within twenty-four hours," Miki informed him. "All of its systems are ready; they just need to finish the reprogramming process so that it won't go berserk again. As for Gipsy and Striker, their repairs are going well; they'll be fully operational by tomorrow."

"Considering that, according to my calculations, the next attack will have five Kaiju, we will need to launch this attack as soon as possible," Gottlieb said grimly.

Pentecost nodded grimly. "Continue your work, Doctor. Let me know as soon as you get any more results." Turning, he exited the room, heading back towards his quarters.

As soon as Pentecost arrived back in his room, he felt the familiar tingling at his nose. Touching it, he exhaled slowly as he saw the blood on his fingertips again. Hurrying over, he bent over the sink and washed his face, making sure to remove all traces of the nosebleed. As he did so, the door of his office opened, then closed. Footsteps approached.

"How sick are you?" a voice said quietly from behind him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Smiling faintly, Pentecost turned to face Raleigh. "What's to tell?" he asked quietly. "You know, the Mark I's… we scraped those bad boys together in fourteen months. And the last thing we were thinking about was radiation shielding." He sighed. "I ran nearly a dozen missions. I stayed off the medical radar for a while, but the last time I dropped, it was in Tokyo." His gaze grew distant, remembering. "I finished the fight solo, but for three hours, I burned."

Pentecost's gaze regained its normal intensity, his eyes meeting Raleigh's again. "They warned me that if I ever stepped foot into a Jaeger again, the toll would be too much." He paused for a few seconds, then continued, "You and I are the only two pilots that have ever run solo combat. That's why I brought you here. Because you are the only one who can do this. And after what you and Mako accomplished tonight, I don't doubt my intuition."

"So… what are we going to do, sir?" Raleigh asked after a long moment of silence. "Do we have a plan? We can't go after Godzilla with only three Jaegers."

"You're right," Pentecost replied. "Which is why we're not going after him. As of now, we have a new top priority; closing that damn Breach. And we now have a strategy for how to do it." He smiled. "We're going to Sheppard two thousand-four-hundred-pound thermonuclear warheads onto Striker Eureka's back, detonating the equivalent of 1.2 million tons of TNT within the Breach itself. And Gipsy will be running defense for it."

Raleigh's eyes widened. "Just the two of us? Sir, with all due respect, if there are Kaiju sent out down there, and there are as many as there were last time, two Jaegers aren't going to be remotely enough, even if they're Gipsy and Striker." He paused, realizing something. "Wait, isn't Kiryu coming with us?"

"Silver Dragon," Pentecost replied, "will not be going on the mission."

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About twenty minutes later

Lab for Project G-Force

"What?!" Ozaki cried incredulously. "Marshall, you can't ground Kiryu from this mission! She's one of the best Jaegers in the entire PPDC, and you'll need her for backup if the Kaiju show up!"

Pentecost sighed, rubbing his eyes as he glanced around the room, looking at Ozaki, Raleigh, Mako, Gottlieb, Miki and Miyuki in turn. "Mr. Ozaki, I would like nothing better than for Silver Dragon to accompany us, but there's a very clear reason why she can't."

"And what would that reason be?" Ozaki demanded. He and Miyuki had finally arrived back from their visit to Hannibal Chau's headquarters about an hour earlier, and they'd been stunned to hear about everything they had missed.

"Because she doesn't have a complete crew," Pentecost said simply. "Mr. Kazama is still in the medical bay, recovering from the concussion he sustained during the battle in Tokyo. He's in no condition to pilot a Jaeger. If he tries it right now, the strain could kill him. And there is no one else who's capable of piloting Silver Dragon; its systems are far too complex, and the onboard computer system is completely different from a normal Jaeger. It took you and Kazama three months to get used to piloting it. I'm sorry, Ozaki, but we simply don't have any other options."

An accented voice from the doorway interrupted him.

"Yes, we do."

All eyes turned to the doorway, where Jacob Karkov was leaning against the frame. The scientist still looked tired, but at least he no longer looked like death warmed over, as he had after the battle in Hong Kong a few hours earlier.

"Dr. Karkov, you should be in the medical bay," Pentecost said.

"Just hear me out, sir," Karkov said earnestly. He took a deep breath, clearly trying to steady himself, and then continued. "When I was abducted, a few days ago, I was subjected to an… experiment, for lack of a better word. The people who had kidnapped Miss Saegusa and myself were attempting to use her psychic powers to take control over Godzilla, to use him as a weapon in a similar fashion to how the PPDC pilots control their Jaegers. They also planned to use me as her 'copilot', linking both of our minds to Godzilla to reduce the neural load of Drifting with him." He looked around at their disbelieving faces. "Fortunately, your rescue mission allowed us to escape before they could complete the process, but not before they had injected some kind of green liquid into my brain. This substance was some kind of serum, containing a highly concentrated variation of Godzilla's DNA. And…" He broke off for a moment, clearly conflicted, but drove on. "It changed me. Ever since then, I've been stronger, faster… different. I'm not the same person I was before."

Meeting Raleigh's eyes, Karkov continued, relentlessly, "Do you remember, Mr. Becket, when Godzilla was facing you after you'd just killed Leatherback? How, instead of attacking you, he turned away, and helped you deal with the other two Kaiju?"

Raleigh's eyes widened in shock. "How… how did you know that?"

"I know that," Karkov said, "because I was the reason why he did that instead of ripping Gipsy apart – which, I assure you, he would have done without hesitation. I connected to his mind, linked myself to him, and managed to guide him to focus his anger on the Breach Kaiju, not on you."

"He's not lying, sir," Gottlieb said quietly. "I know it sounds impossible, but there's no way he's making this up. I saw him, in the LOCCENT, during the attack. He was definitely doing something; it looked like he was trying to lift a mountain, except that he was sprawled on the floor. All of the strain was mental; the same as a Jaeger pilot in combat. And his eyes…" He paused.

"What about his eyes?" Miki asked, taking a step forward.

"They changed," Gottlieb muttered. "They were glowing orange; bright orange." He looked up, locking eyes with Pentecost. "The same color as Godzilla's."

There was a long moment of stunned silence. Then Karkov spoke up again. "Look, what matters right now is what I can do to help, not how I can do it. And what I can do is this; I can link to Godzilla's mind. And since Kiryu was constructed using the first Godzilla's DNA, and – as its rampage in Tokyo proved – it still has the same mind as the first Godzilla…" He smiled faintly. "Then I should be able to Drift with it without any problems."

"Unless you're not Drift-compatible with each other," Raleigh pointed out, looking from Karkov to Ozaki and back again.

Ozaki stepped forward; to their surprise, he was smiling. "I think I'll be the judge of that," he said with a grin. "And, judging by what I've seen of Dr. Karkov's personality so far, and the lengths he's been willing to go through for everyone else…" He looked over to Pentecost. "I think we'll get along just fine."

Pentecost had no idea how to respond to this situation. On one level, obviously, what Karkov and Gottlieb were saying sounded completely insane. On the other, it would explain why Karkov had seemed different ever since he'd been rescued… and why Godzilla hadn't attacked Gipsy Danger, and had actually helped them against the Breach Kaiju.

And then, just when it seemed like the situation couldn't get any more complicated, the alarms overhead started blaring.

Another Kaiju incursion had just been detected.

Simultaneously, at least half of the people in the room cursed.

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Pentecost stormed into the LOCCENT, with the rest of the group right behind him. Tendo, Herc and Chuck were already there; Tendo was seated at the main console, activating the instruments and bringing up the holographic display.

"Mr. Choi, what's going on?" Pentecost demanded.

"We've got movement in the Breach," Tendo replied briskly. "Something big."

"How many contacts?" Raleigh asked, his eyes wide in fear. If Gottlieb was right, and there were five Kaiju this time… they couldn't stop that many at once. He wasn't sure if anything could.

"Hang on a second," Tendo muttered under his breath. "Analyzing…" He paused, leaning back in surprise.

"How many are there?" Gottlieb asked. "Four? Five?"

Tendo glanced back at them, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "No, actually." He turned to face Pentecost. "Just one."

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It was time.

Its masters, the beings who were still so blinded by their arrogance that they believed they controlled it, required its aid once again.

Another of their attacks had failed; four of the weak-willed creatures that served them had fallen to their mechanical enemies. The masters were furious.

Furious enough to set it loose upon the world of the young, weak creatures again.

Go, their command echoed through its mind. Go forth and destroy. Give them pain.

Give them… fear.

It could do that. And it had found no difficulty in complying.

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The Breach flared with light and sound, blue energy bolts crackling over its outline. A moment later, it opened, an upwelling of dark, murky water pouring forth into the Pacific.

And then a high-pitched, screeching roar rang out, a moment before something truly gigantic rose out of the Breach, accelerating towards the surface.

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In the LOCCENT…

"What category?" Pentecost asked, his eyes fixed on the screen.

"Just a second, sir… analyzing size and energy output…" Tendo trailed off, and his eyes widened in shock as he looked at the results. "No way…" he breathed.

"What?" Ozaki asked.

Instead of replying, Tendo tapped a key, activating the designation next to the red blip that represented the Kaiju. A moment later, the result came up on the main screen.

Kaiju Detected

Category: 5

Designation: Zero

There was a moment of dead silence in the LOCCENT.

"It's him," Miki whispered.

Raleigh froze, staring in disbelief at the screen. His eyes bulged in horror.

Zero was back. The Kaiju that had killed his brother, Yancy, had returned.

"What heading?" Pentecost asked.

Regaining at least some of his composure, Tendo hastily calculated the Kaiju's projected route. "Let's see, based on his current course, he should be heading…" He stiffened, then glanced back over his shoulder. "Here, sir. He's making a beeline for Hong Kong."

"Being sent to finish the job after the other ones failed," Pentecost surmised. "Get Gipsy and Striker ready for combat! We have time; it'll take him at least an hour to get here."

The beeping sound of an alert from the screen drew Tendo's attention back to the red blip, and he stared incredulously at the results. "That's not possible!" he said incredulously.

"What is it?" Karkov inquired.

"Turns out we don't have time after all," Tendo said grimly. "I don't know how he's doing it, but that Kaiju is moving at almost the speed of sound, and he's still gaining speed!"

"What?!" Karkov, Miki, Gottlieb, Herc, Mako, and Raleigh all exclaimed in unison.

"That's impossible!" Gottlieb snapped. "Literally impossible! It isn't physically possible to move that fast through water!"

"Well, he is moving that fast!" Tendo replied. "And he's still speeding up; he's almost up to Mach 2 now!"

"What?!" Gottlieb gasped.

"Mr. Choi, how much time do we have until he gets here?!" Pentecost demanded.

Tendo looked up at Pentecost, with a vaguely stunned expression on his face. "Minutes, sir."

Pentecost looked absolutely horrified for a moment, but then he snapped back to himself. "Everyone, get to battle stations now!" he roared. "Scramble all fighters to intercept the Kaiju and try to slow it down!"

As the LOCCENT erupted in frantic activity around them, Raleigh looked to Mako. "Let's go!" he called, starting towards the door.

"We'll never be able to get out there in time!" Herc interrupted him. "At the rate the bloody thing's moving, you'd be lucky if you had your suits on by the time he gets here!"

"He's still speeding up, sir!" Tendo reported. "Approaching Mach 3!"

"This is not possible!" Gottlieb yelled, standing beside Tendo and glaring at the screen, where the blip representing the Kaiju was rapidly approaching Hong Kong. "Nothing can move that fast in water, but our satellites can still track it, and it's definitely moving that fast! So how can it possibly be moving at that kind of speed?! Unless…" He cut off abruptly in midsentence, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open.

"Uh, Doc?" Raleigh asked. "Unless what?"

"Unless," Gottlieb murmured, "it's not in the water." He turned to Tendo. "Can you show me the elevation of that object? Where it is relative to sea level?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Tendo replied. He tapped more controls, and a few seconds later another designator popped up next to the red blip.

Elevation: +10,000 feet

Gottlieb stared at the screen, aghast. Turning, he grasped Pentecost's shoulder, his tone urgent. "Sir, look at this. I was right; it's not possible for that Kaiju to be moving this fast in water. But it's not moving through the water; it's more than ten thousand feet above sea level."

"What are you saying, Dr. Gottlieb?" Pentecost asked.

Gottlieb looked Pentecost straight in the eye, his expression grim. "What I'm saying, Marshall, is that I know why Zero has always been so difficult to fight, so hard to track down. I know why it seems so stealthy, and how the Jaegers never see it coming until it's too late, especially since, up until now, it's only attacked at night."

All eyes were now focused on Gottlieb, who turned, looking at each of them in turn, and finally spoke.

"This Kaiju can fly."

Then new alarms started to blare; this time, proximity alerts.

Tendo called out over the PA system, the shock and fear in his voice clearly audible despite his professional attitude. "Warning; Kaiju inbound, ETA five minutes! I repeat, ETA five minutes!"

"Come on!" Karkov called, a random instinct driving him to dart out the door and down the hallway outside, leading to the observation balcony. Miki, Gottlieb, Raleigh, Mako and Ozaki followed him; Pentecost, Tendo and the Hansens remained behind in the LOCCENT.

As they emerged onto the observation balcony, accompanied by dozens of other Shatterdome personnel, Karkov immediately heard the blaring sirens, their sound echoing out over the harbor. If they hadn't known what was coming, he might actually have enjoyed the view. It was a beautiful morning in Hong Kong; there were clouds overhead, but they were mingled with patches of blue sky.

None of the people on the balcony knew what to expect, but they wanted to be able to see the creature that was coming at them.

Raleigh, in particular, had a reason for being there; he wanted to see the monster that had killed his brother in the flesh. His hands curled into fists, and he gritted his teeth as he looked up at the sky, waiting.

They did not have to wait long.

.

In the LOCCENT, Tendo frowned in puzzlement, examining the readings from his instruments. "Hmmm… that's odd."

"What's it doing now?" Herc asked, leaning in so that he could see the screen.

"That's the weird part," Tendo said. "Now it's slowing down. This thing doesn't make any sense. It was moving at three times the speed of sound a few seconds ago, and now it's only moving at a couple hundred miles an hour." He blinked. "It's slowing down even more now, actually. No more than about fifty miles an hour."

"I think I know why," Herc said grimly. "It doesn't want to overshoot the city; flying that fast, it'd be halfway to Africa by the time it could stop if it started slowing down right here."

"And that means it slowed down deliberately," Pentecost said quietly.

Herc nodded. "This bastard's smart."

"It's approaching the city now," Tendo reported. "It's already dropped to about one thousand feet elevation, and it's cruising at about fifty miles per hour. We should be able to see it soon."

"Are the jets scrambled?" Pentecost asked.

"Yes, sir, as of two minutes ago," Tendo answered. "They should intercept the target before it reaches the city."

Though, honestly, I don't know how much good they'll do, he thought.

.

Raleigh looked up just in time to see a flight of jets passing overhead, heading out over the harbor. They were quickly joined by dozens of other aircraft, hastily scrambled from Hong Kong's Air Force bases.

As the first jets approached the clouds, he heard a sudden crack, like a lightning strike, and a bolt of golden energy shot from the cloud, striking one of the jets.

The plane exploded in midair, engulfed in a fireball.

As if that had been a warning shot, a barrage of golden energy beams promptly streaked down out of the clouds, so many that it seemed like a lightning storm had just broken out. The crisscrossing beams shot across the sky, hitting each plane, one after another, until every last one of them had been blasted from the sky.

A demented cackle, like the laugh of a hyena, echoed over the bay. It was followed by a high-pitched, screeching roar.

Hearing the familiar roar, Raleigh took a step backwards in fear, his mind inevitably flashing images of that battle in Alaska. But he managed to shake off the fear, replacing it with rage.

"Come on, you bastard," he growled. "Come on!"

And then the clouds parted, and they saw it.

Some of the people on the balcony screamed in terror; others simply stood motionless, stunned and frozen with fear and amazement.

Raleigh's own eyes widened in shock and awe, as did those of his companions.

"So this is what you look like, Zero," he muttered.

The Kaiju that was slowly flying towards the city was utterly unlike anything Raleigh had ever seen before. The first difference from the normal Breach Kaiju was its color. While the Breach Kaiju were usually some shade of brown, gray or black, this one's body was completely covered in gleaming golden scales. The scales reflected the sunlight, blazing gold, as if the creature's entire body radiated power.

The creature had a pair of huge, batlike wings where arms would normally have been. Its wings were vaguely similar in design to those of Otachi; the difference was that this Kaiju's wingspan was about twice as wide as Otachi's. It also had two large, muscular legs with clawed feet, and two long, powerful tails. A row of spikes ran down the backs of its tails, culminating in a pair of massive spines; one at the tip of each tail.

Perhaps the oddest thing about this creature, though, was that it had three heads, each one set on the end of a long, serpentine neck. The heads themselves were similar in design to those of traditional Asian depictions of dragons, with long snouts and multiple rows of razor-sharp, dagger-like teeth. The backs of the creature's necks also had rows of short spikes running down them, and each of its heads was adorned with half a dozen horns (three on each side of its head), pointing backwards and forming a crownlike structure.

Now it made sense. The way this creature could have been so fast and stealthy in Alaska now made sense; it had attacked them from above, using that advantage to inflict maximum damage while remaining hidden from view, taking off whenever it had the chance to catch them by surprise. The fact that its "arms" had seemed oddly bent was now also clear; instead of arms, he'd been seeing the creature's left and right heads and necks. In the darkness of that storm, he'd mistaken them for hands and arms, and had also missed seeing the golden scales due to the dark and the rain.

To the horror of the watching humans, this Kaiju was simply enormous; it would have towered over even Godzilla if it were standing upright on land.

As it approached the harbor, the creature roared again, the screech echoing over the city. Another cackle followed, and then Zero's left head swung downward. Its mouth opened, and it spat out a golden energy beam, which shot down to ground level and struck a Coast Guard frigate in the harbor. The small vessel exploded instantly, a fireball ripping it apart.

Cackling manically, Zero flared its wings and swooped down over the harbor, spitting jagged bolts of light.

This time was different than the other attacks that Zero had launched. The time for subtlety, for attacking from the shadows or the darkness of night, was over.

This was a rampage.

Beams of golden power crackled to the ground, decimating the waterfront. Boats, cargo cranes, buildings… everything in Zero's path was obliterated.

A huge container ship caught Zero's attention, and the Kaiju fired at it, riddling the ship with energy bolts. Three blasts slashed through the vessel simultaneously, and the entire ship blew apart like a volcano.

Zero continued to fly, passing over the docks and into the city itself, leaving a trail of destruction behind it. Thousands of civilians fled for their lives as death rained down all around them.

One beam from Zero sliced completely through a large office building, at least sixty stories tall. The upper half of the building toppled, smashing into another skyscraper before crashing to the street.

"My God," Mako whispered in horror.

Now flying only a few hundred feet above the city, Zero continued its assault, shattering buildings and streets in its wake. The Kaiju let out a cackling roar, as if it found the carnage and destruction hysterically funny.

Miki winced, rubbing at her temples. Karkov and Raleigh noticed, turning to face her.

Karkov placed a hand on her shoulder, looking at her with a concerned expression. "Are you all right?"

"I…" Miki closed her eyes. "I can feel him." She nodded in the direction of the rampaging monster, then opened her eyes. "I can feel his mind."

"You can?" Raleigh asked in surprise.

"Yes." Miki flinched subconsciously. "This one's… different from the others. Not just on a physical level; mentally, as well."

"Different mentally?" Gottlieb inquired curiously. "How, exactly?"

Miki placed one hand on the side of her head, clearly reaching out with her mind. "The other Breach Kaiju think more like machines. They're weapons, so that's all their minds are devoted to. They're fairly intelligent, but their thoughts aren't nearly as complex as human thoughts." She took a step forward, looking towards Zero. "But he isn't like them. I don't even think he was created like the other Breach Kaiju. He's at least as intelligent as Godzilla; but he's not like Godzilla, either."

Raleigh raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Miki shivered. "His mind… it's filled with darkness, anger, and hate. All he wants is to kill, slaughter, and destroy. Unlike the other Breach Kaiju, he knows exactly what he's doing. And he loves it."

Raleigh felt a chill run up his spine. "What do we do?" he muttered.

"There's nothing we can do," Karkov said softly. "In their current condition, Gipsy and Striker wouldn't last ten seconds against that thing."

Raleigh glared at the Russian scientist for a few seconds, but there was no denying that Karkov was right. Gipsy and Striker still weren't fully repaired yet, and sending them into battle against Zero right now would be a suicide mission.

So they watched, for an agonizing length of time, while Zero circled over Hong Kong, bringing death and destruction wherever it passed. It was probably only somewhere between twenty and thirty minutes, but to the group on the observation balcony, it seemed like an eternity.

Then, quite suddenly, Zero seemed to lose interest in the carnage. It circled once more over downtown Hong Kong, its huge wings fanning the smoke created by the countless fires it had left in its wake. With a final cackling roar, it banked, turned and simply flew off, back over the harbor and out to sea. It flapped its great wings slowly, strangely beautiful despite all of the destruction it had unleashed, and rose into the sky.

"It needs an official name," Karkov said, a faraway tone in his voice. "Zero isn't really an appropriate designation for something like that."

"What do you call something like that?" Gottlieb breathed.

Mako blinked as she watched the creature depart. A childhood memory was coming back to her.

"There was an old story my mother told me as a little girl," she murmured softly. "It was about a three-headed dragon; the guardian of the afterlife, ensuring that no souls could escape and return to the world of the living."

"What was its name?" Raleigh asked.

Mako exhaled slowly, her eyes still focused on the shape of Zero as it vanished into the clouds, returning to the Breach.

"The Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Dragon," she replied.

"King Ghidorah."

.

AN: And here we are again. Well, it's official; Zero, the mystery Category 5, is King Ghidorah! Kudos to everyone who guessed correctly! To me, this seemed like the best choice; Ghidorah is arguably one of the most famous Kaiju villains of the entire Godzilla franchise, not to mention that he's basically Godzilla's arch-nemesis, so I figured he deserved nothing less than a truly epic role. So, I decided to make him the ultimate weapon of the Precursors. Although, as Miki describes in this chapter, he's not actually under their control, although they think he is; he just does what they tell him to because he gets to destroy things in the process, and that's what he lives for. His nickname isn't "the Destroyer of Worlds" for nothing, after all! :)

Shoutouts to Dragonkeeper10, SupernalGodzilla, The-real-dragon-rider, Kung-fu Blaziken, Perfect Carnage, Mister. Enigma, Wyvernsaurus, zero saber, mechagigan2004, Hercules8, Warlord of the Wind, kwak73, Nathaniel B, MoarCrossovers and Antex-The Legendary Zoroark for reviewing! I really appreciate it!

And thanks to everyone who's read this story for 197 reviews and over 19,000 views!

Finally, for a milestone that I, personally, want to thank you all for; as of the release of this chapter, King of the Monsters has become the most-reviewed Godzilla and Pacific Rim crossover story on this website! This means a lot to me; I never thought I would write a story that would get this much feedback and this many readers, and I'm extremely grateful to all of you for reading my story. :)

As always, I tremendously appreciate comments and feedback on my work, so if anyone has a question or comment regarding this chapter or the story as a whole, please review! (No hate, please).

See you all next time!