Author's Note: Hello fellow readers and writers.

To answer the questions of some reviewers, Godzilla will not be appearing as a direct character in the FF – this one is mainly about Moana and Kong.

As another side note, I have made an addition to Chapter 16 when Moana saw the visions of the creatures in the black abyss. It is brief, but important.


"Is all of that real, Maui?"

The ape sitting cross legged on the ground next to the underground lake nodded with an expression that understood her shock at more of these creatures existing. Believe me, I was shocked too when I saw them.

Moana stared back out at the lake, internally shivering remembering the sight of those huge teeth lunging at her, consuming her, tearing her apart, her body to become nothing more than calories for a predatory creature. Had it been a real thing and not a vision … she could only imagine it playing out.

At least I feel better from the madness thing Kakalina was on about. Besides that, though, everything that happened in there just … just did not make sense to her. Just a flurry of images and visions, all seemingly bent on scaring her off this island. At least that worked.

She sat down on the ground, sighing heavily. "So, you've been stuck here for ages. And you tried to help these islanders?" Again, the gigantic creature before her nodded. "And you fought Gowa before, that's obvious. Did she hurt you?"

He nodded and moved apart the hair on his chest with his fingers. Moana looked and saw a row of scars of what looked like had once been deep wounds. No doubt being from when she had seen Gowa jump on him in the vision out under the lake. She looked up at her friend's face and saw avert her eyes momentarily, accompanied with an ashamed expression – one that only a mighty warrior, one who had long been undefeated and vanquishing of all who came before him had suddenly, without warning, without even prior understanding of what it meant, been cast down and defeated. He had been a force not to be challenged, but was now no more than a scarred survivor of a battle, one that had shattered not only the aura of invincibility, but his own belief in his ability, his own consciousness that he was a warrior.

Before yes, but now … Moana could see that her demigod friend, gigantic creature or not, saw himself as a failure. He had tried to save both defenceless creatures and humans and failed.

Not all of them though.

He had been the one who had pulled her out of the lake after nearly drowning from her vision. She did not know how long she had been passed out for – and asking Maui about it was going to result in another headache of gestures and games that she was really not in the mood for. But, regardless, he had still saved her. And to her, he was still Maui. He was still the demigod, the one who had helped restore the heart, who had stolen fire from down below, stretched the days by lassoing the sun to bring them fun, and countless other feats that humans could never hope to understand.

And me …?

Moana heaved another sigh. "Well, at least you're still alive, and able to do something," she commented, looking down at the ground with a defeated expression.

The ape moved over to her and made a noise, his way of asking: "What's wrong?"

The young chieftain looked up at him. "Maui, I'm a failure. I failed to save the people on this island, if there were any, and my own people and I led them to their deaths. And you're stuck as a … a … big, hairy … thing!" she threw her arms up in the air and let them fall beside her. "I can't go on."

She buried her face in her hands, clawing at it hard with her fingers. Grandma didn't say it, but I knew she was thinking that I was foolish for coming here. It's because of me. Gods, I'm so stupid.

The ape looked down at the tiny human before him. Here before him was this chieftain, this woman, once a symbol, no, a living embodiment of hope and prosperity, of life itself. The one who he had once travelled far across the oceans, battled the creatures of Lalotai, fought Te Ka, restored the heart of Te Fiti, discovered and helped in prospering a new island and make everyone there happy, knowing that when he had left the island was be in good hands. Here she was … lost, defeated, devoid of any hope.

How had she fallen so far?

No!

Moana felt something large approach her and she yelped loudly when a pair of thick fingers grabbed her and lifted her up from the ground. Looking up, she saw the ape looking at her, its expression concentrated, cross, stern. Angry even. Her heart raced; her expression petrified. Had she pissed him off somehow? Was he going to crush her between his fingers, squeezing the life out of her body until she was nothing but a bloody mess in his hands? She was, after all, like a toy doll to him, he could do anything he wanted to her if he pleased and she would not be able to do anything to stop him.

He let out a grunt and pointed at her. "W-what?" she stammered.

Exhaling, he dunked his hand in the water and then proceeded to draw something in the dirt. Moana watched as her gigantic hairy friend drew another ?. She glanced at it, then back at the ape. He set her down and pointed at her with another long, thick finger, then at the mark on the ground.

Moana sighed. "Maui, what do you mean?" she asked him, the fear being quickly replaced with annoyance at his returning to this game of charades.

Again, he pointed at the two, though this time at the mark first, then at Moana. She looked at it, mind racing to figure out what it was he was trying to say to her.

"What … am I?" she wondered, pointing at herself. "Who am I?" she corrected herself.

The ape nodded. "Well … what do you mean?" Irritated and confused.

He pointed again at the two. A sigh. "Well, I'm … Moana," she told him. "What, did you forget my name?"

The ape shook its head and again pointed at the mark and her, jabbing the finger at her more forcefully.

"Yes, I know. I'm Moana!" she snapped back at him irritably. The ape nodded in amusement at her understanding and again repeated the same gestures. "I'm …" she trailed off.

Moana. She had heard it before, not the simple way of identification that those who knew her. No. This was … something that she had uttered before, several times in fact, though they had been far between. Yet … yet, she knew what it meant. She looked up at the ape again, gingerly pointing at herself. Me?

It nodded. Yes.

Yes. Yes, that was it. She knew what he was getting at. She was Moana. She was the chieftain, the voyager, the one who sailed across the seas with the demi-god, Maui and travelled into the depths of Lalotai itself. She had seen and fought Te Ka. She had restored the heart of Te Fiti, led her people to a new island and made a new society for them.

I am everything I learned and more, since then and now. She looked up at the ape and, as if seeing the realisation on her face, he pointed at her and then flexed his hairy arms. You are strong.

She had overcome it all. She had overcome her father's stubbornness to revert people back to their old voyaging ways; she had been tested and almost left for dead, left wondering and hopeless, before and even now on this island. Even when all of the creatures had attacked, she had tried to carry on with what people survived and head to this cave. Heck, her fiery spirit had wavered when she had tried to fight this ape before now. She had failed, given up, comer back and failed again. Stepped once, falling, then stepped again. Why?

She was strong. She was the chieftain, the voyager, the saviour.

She was Moana.

As if to accentuate her new feelings, she rose to her feet, her pose determined, her mind clear of impurity and set on one thing: getting home, saving anyone else along the way were she and Maui to make it. If not, then she could at least stop people from coming here.

"Maui, we need to get out of here. I'm going back to the beach," she told him authoritatively.

He nodded, but then held up his finger. Wait. He then drew something in the ground next to him. It was larger than before, too big for Moana to make out. He picked up her and showed her. It was a crudely drawn image of what looked like a boat and some wavy lines.

"Boats." Moana muttered, then mentally hit herself. Damn. Would they still be usable? Hopefully, but if not, then … then what?

"Maui, if there are no boats there, can you make one from wood?" she asked him.

The gigantic ape gave a small shrug with an expression of maybe. He had never tried to make a boat completely out of scratch before, even when he was a demigod. His magic hook had always enabled him to travel by shapeshifting, and if not then he was able to use a boat someone else had made (his memory briefly reminded him of when had first met Moana and almost abandoned her on his island).

"Don't worry, we can figure it out," the chieftain said. "But we better get going. It's time we left."

With a nod, he placed Moana on his shoulder and, lowering himself onto all fours, began to move back through the cave and into the open area with the small stream and the opening high above them. The ape looked up, pondering, eyes searching the walls to the way outside. He grunted at Moana and motioned for her to hold onto him tightly. She quickly realised what he was doing, and she grabbed hold of the coarse hair on his head, shutting her eyes, waiting for the jump.

The air moved. She cried out quietly, clutching tighter onto his hair, praying she would not lose her grip. The body rocked, the wind whistled in her ears, the world was rushing past her; though she could not see it, she felt it. Grunts. Rock crumbling. Another grunt. She felt her legs knock against the skin. Another grunt. She pushed deeper, fearing her hands were going to slip free and she would fall and splat on the ground – probably into nothing if she was high enough.

Light. Faint light, but it was still there nonetheless. She felt it against her eyelids. The movement stopped. A grunt came from her ape friend. Moana opened them up.

The world was stretched out before her like a map. Though they were one of the low mountains in the centre of the island – the larger ones stood tall and proud behind them – she could see far out to the distant beaches, seemingly only a short distance away (If only Moana thought), yet had been miles given the traversing she had done. Large clumps of jungle forest were visible, green patches that had been jammed next to small hills and then rocky areas almost at random. Rivers snaked through the landscape, some going through jungles, past lakes, into canyons and, from one of the larger ones she could see, disappeared underground. To her left, she saw nothing but more jungle, stretching on to a line of cliffs not far away. Her right view was blocked by one of the wider and taller mountains. Not far below, she saw the lake, the one where everything had happened last night. The memories, broken, unconnected, distant, gave her some recollection of what happened. The fight between Gowa and Kong, screams, pandemonium amongst the other survivors, rage and … and …

Moana looked down at her hands. Though they were clean now, the memory of the traces of blood still lingered on her palms, the recollection that she had …

Her ape friend grunted to her and pointed out ahead of them, far ahead of them to be exact. She looked and saw, just faintly, a familiar large clearing or two. Her heart leapt.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "Maui, that's where we need to go!"

With a nod, her friend motioned for her to hold on, which she did, and he began to slowly climb down the rocky face of the mountain. The first steps on their journey back to its beginning, preparing for its end.