Author's Note: Hi, all! Sorry it took me a couple of months to get this one finished, but I wanted to make sure I got it done by the end of March as something of a present to celebrate the impending release of Godzilla vs. Kong! I'm gonna be seeing it on March 31st, since that's its opening day here in the U.S., and I'm super-excited to see what it's got in store for us! So, with that in mind, please refrain from posting any spoilers for the movie in the reviews, just to be fair to anyone else who hasn't seen it yet.

In the meantime, I've also had some time to plan out where I'm gonna be going with this story and the rest of this Godzillaverse from here, and it should be pretty awesome! (More on that at the end.)

Shoutouts to edboy4926, shinghidorah, minerbuilder12, Krulla Chief, Miss Queen B, lilpurplebird, Tboneslim, and GuardianDragon98 for reviewing Chapter 2; you guys are awesome!

One point from the first couple of chapters that I just wanted to address in case anybody else is wondering about it, since it came up in the reviews for last chapter: the "Cold Times" are the Kaijus' name for the Ice Age, as I figured that their having their own names for various major events in Earth's history would make sense. As a bit of additional bonus information, the two previous cataclysms that Goji mentions during his present-day scene back in Chapter 1 are also nicknames for real mass extinction events: "the Devastation" is the Cretaceous or "K/T" mass extinction, when a meteor hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs, and "the Great Dying" is the Permian mass extinction, when more than 90% of life on Earth died out.

Lastly, before we start, I just wanted to add in a little bonus thing: for this chapter, as I was writing these scenes, I actually thought of some theme music that I think works pretty well for them. So, with that in mind, if you guys would like to listen to the songs I've got in mind for these ones, here they are! For the flashback fight scene, the background music would be "Opening + Godzilla vs. the Undersea Battleship" from the Godzilla: Final Wars soundtrack, while for the present-day scene, the background music would be "Rise of Ghidorah" and "Old Rivals" from the Godzilla: KOTM soundtrack. All three of those songs are available on YouTube; I might actually make a "background music" playlist for this story on there and post the link to it on my author page at some point, if anyone would be interested in that.

So, without further ado, let's get into this chapter!

Chapter 3: The Golden One

They had wandered the galaxy for countless millennia. Their life had begun on a world much like Earth, where they had been left as an egg to hatch and grow. They had hatched without any parent to care for them, but that had not been too much of an obstacle for them; their kind could pass some basic memories and information to their unborn children telepathically, giving the newborn hatchlings all the knowledge that they would need to survive on their own.

In their case, they had not hatched alone: their parent had left two eggs on the same world, producing two nearly-identical siblings. The two of them had grown up side-by-side, outcompeting all the native predators as they grew and ultimately establishing their dominance over that entire world.

Unfortunately, their kind were solitary for a reason: a full-grown adult of their species required a very large territory to sustain themselves, and two adults could not stand to live on the same planet for any length of time unless reproduction was possible between them. So when the time came, they had faced their sibling in a territorial battle for control of their home planet… and they had lost. Defeated despite their best efforts, they had been forced to leave the planet of their birth and flee into the stars in search of a new home.

They had visited many planets over the eons since then, each one different. Some were lush and beautiful, some barren and desolate. Some had been inhabited by sentient beings, and some had not. But they all had one thing in common: all of those worlds had suffered at the hands of their temporary occupant, some more than others. In particular, after a horrible experience that had befallen them when they were still young, any world that had been inhabited by an intelligent civilization was utterly decimated, reduced to a lifeless cinder by their wrath.

This was in the nature of their species: they inflicted chaos, death and destruction everywhere they went. But in this one's case, their destruction was inspired not just by the natural behavior of an apex predator, but by a genuinely malicious mind spurred into action by memories of hatred and pain. They would not stop until every possible threat to them was destroyed, and the entire cosmos was under their claws.

But then they had happened upon one fairly-unremarkable world, a blue-green world covered in life… and their crusade had been brought to a crashing halt. Not by choice, but due to the actions of a quartet of the larger creatures who inhabited this planet, who had banded together to oppose their campaign of destruction, and – to their shock – had stopped them dead in their tracks.

The faces of those four enemies were forever engraved in their minds, rivaled only by the hatred that they felt for their sibling and for the captors who had long ago enslaved them. The psychic moth, the arrogant fire-wing, the eternally-stubborn spike-shell… and their deadliest enemy, the one they referred to as the Lizard King.

Individually, none of those four had what it took to defeat them on their own, but together they were able to repel the would-be conqueror's attacks time after time. Even after their enemy finally managed to kill one of the four defenders and drove another of them to give up the fight, the Lizard King and his little Queen refused to abandon their cause and fought all the harder to avenge their losses.

Over thousands of years, they clashed time and time again, neither side giving way. No matter how many times the invader was driven back, they would always return once they had regained their strength; the desire to conquer and destroy this planet had grown into an obsession, its fire fueled by their own frustrated rage. But there was method in their apparent madness; they were sure that, with enough time, they would be able to figure out a way to destroy this planet's last two defenders and finish things once and for all.

Through all of that, they had certainly never considered the possibility that they might actually lose this war that they had been waging. After all, they had conquered hundreds of planets over the course of their lifetime, and they had defeated plenty of other giant and powerful creatures in the process. Surely this world, and these creatures, couldn't be that different.

Could they?

Thousands of years ago…

The frozen wasteland echoed with the characteristic sounds of a bitter Antarctic winter. The howling, icy wind that billowed across the ice carried a surging blizzard of snow, turning the world white and covering the night sky with a thick, dark blanket of clouds. The world was cast into shadow, veiled in a haze of concealing white and gray.

But the night was not entirely dark. In one area, on a huge flat glacier that led down to a large, open bay, the darkness was lit up by brilliant flashes of light: pulses of brilliant azure light and gouts of cobalt flame, interspersed with crackling bolts and arcs of golden lightning. The storm seemed to be focused around this point, rotating around it in a vortex of biting wind and swirling snow. But the storm's fury barely had any effect on the three monsters who were dueling at its heart; their own powers were far too great for that. All their attention was focused on each other.

This battle had played out a dozen times before, on many different battlegrounds all over the world. But somehow, someway, the three combatants knew that this time would be different. None of them had any intention of fleeing; this time, there would be no retreat and no surrender, no mercy offered and no quarter given.

Win or lose, this war would end tonight.

Lightning cracked again, lighting up the sky and illuminating the dark, towering form of one of the combatants. The King stumbled backwards as another bolt of golden electricity hit him in the chest, roaring angrily as the plates on his back clattered together. He slammed his tail down into the glacier with all his strength, sending a shockwave rippling through the ice and throwing his opponent off-balance for a moment, giving him the time he needed to catch his breath.

A hundred yards away, his opponent staggered as the ice under their feet heaved, but a flare of their wings enabled them to keep their balance. Their sheer size helped with that: they were enormous, nearly half again as tall as he was, although they didn't mass much more than he did. Their trio of long, serpentine necks coiled and shifted, six glowing red eyes locked on him, and a trio of cackling roars echoed over the roaring wind.

This was the King's nemesis, the enemy of all life and the Destroyer of Worlds. They had many names, supposedly given to them on a dozen different worlds that they had visited in the past, but he preferred to keep it simple.

Their true name was Ghidorah... but he referred to them as the Golden One.

The two Kaijus had already been fighting for several hours, and both of them were battered and weary. The King's vision was blurry due to a wound on his forehead that was dripping blood into his left eye, while his left arm hung at his side thanks to a deep gash on his left shoulder. His opponent wasn't much better off: their left wing was badly torn, keeping them temporarily grounded, and their left neck was leaking black blood from a ring of puncture marks left by the King's teeth. Both of them were slowly healing, but neither of them were anywhere close to recovered yet.

"Come on, little King," the Golden One's middle head taunted, his teeth bared in a cruel smirk. "You can do better than that, can't you?" His brothers, the right and left heads, locked their eyes on the King, a golden glow rising up both of their necks as their mouths began to crackle with energy.

The King snarled, his own glow flaring up as blue light coursed up along his back-plates. "With pleasure," he spat, his eyes flashing from orange to blue. His mouth also started glowing as he felt the familiar heat welling up in his chest and rising up his back; he reared back slightly and unleashed his fire-breath with a roar, the concentrated blast aimed straight for his enemy's chest.

"Nice try," the middle head laughed. "Now!" His brothers fired simultaneously, their own blasts of golden lightning streaking towards the King and swirling together into a single concentrated beam in midair. The blasts collided midway between them with a thunderclap, shattering the ice beneath the collision point. They each threw everything they had into the blast, blue fire and gold lightning crackling back and forth as they struggled to overpower each other.

The King dug in his heels, his eyes flashing brighter as he pushed harder, but the colliding beams remained deadlocked. Damn it…! His eyes suddenly widened in alarm as he realized his mistake: only two of the Golden One's heads had committed to the attack, not all three. And now, with him temporarily locked in place by the beam-clash, the middle head's neck and mouth also began to glow, as he charged up a third blast of lightning.

"Got you," the middle head hissed, his smirk widening and his eyes flashing as he lined up and aimed directly at the King's head.

The King's mind raced as he tried to think of a way out… but a moment later, he felt a reassuring surge of warmth in the back of his mind, and he grinned inwardly as he forced an additional surge of power into his blast. At the same moment, the dark clouds above and behind the Golden One burst asunder with a flash of blue light, and the Queen dove down towards the fight with a piercing trill. She was injured too, several holes burned into her glowing wings and one of her forelegs hanging limp, but defiance still blazed in her bright blue eyes.

The middle head saw her coming, of course. His neck twisted as he swung around to face the diving Queen, and he fired his growing blast of lightning up at her instead. She flared out her wings to cancel out her momentum and flung herself to one side, narrowly avoiding a direct hit, but the beam still struck her right wing. She cried out in pain as a searing burst of electricity flooded her body, before losing control of her flight and spinning to the ground. Luckily she was able to flare out her wings before hitting the ice, and a powerful downward flap turned what would have been a debilitating crash into merely a hard landing, but she was still stunned by the impact.

Mosura! The King's eyes widened in fear and anger, before he growled as his burning blue gaze flicked back over to the Golden One.

The middle head laughed, his eyes sparkling malevolently. "Nice try, little bug," he drawled, before leaning down and taking deliberate aim at the Queen's fallen form as he started to charge another blast. She was picking herself up, shaking her head to clear her vision, which made her an easy target.

The King felt a searing rush of fury welling up in his chest, and he howled around the beam that was still erupting from his jaws. Instinctively, he swung his head downwards, dragging his beam of fire – and the opposing beams of lightning – down and out of alignment. The beam-lock was broken, and both blasts slammed into the surface of the glacier midway between the two combatants, setting off a colossal explosion that blasted both monsters clear off their feet.

A geyser of superheated steam and water blasted skyward as the combined explosion of the King's fire-breath and the Golden One's lightning carved deep into the heart of the glacier. The entire glacier shook from the force of the explosion, and both the King and his nemesis were knocked sprawling to the ground. The Golden One was knocked flat on their back, a startled squawking cry escaping their left head's mouth as the other two heads screeched in rage, while the King slammed down on his side with enough force to knock the wind out of him.

Choking and coughing as he tried to get his breath back, the King dragged himself closer to where the Queen had hit the ground. Fortunately, she had already rolled back to her feet, and was staring wide-eyed at the site of the explosion.

"Mosura!" the King panted, his eyes wide and concerned as he looked over to her. "Are you all right?"

Yes, I'm okay, the Queen replied through their connection, sending a quick smile his way before turning her attention back towards their enemy. Look! Over there!

The King frowned for a moment, briefly confused as to why she had spoken telepathically instead of verbally, but then he got it. If she was using their connection when they were right next to each other, that meant she wanted to tell him something without their enemy hearing her. Glancing back over towards the Golden One, his eyes widened a little more when he realized what she was indicating: the deep hole that their combined blast had gouged into the glacier was getting bigger. Deep cracks were spiderwebbing outwards from the perimeter of the hole, and he could feel a deep rumbling in the ice beneath him.

The glacier's weakening, the Queen murmured urgently. Now's our chance! With no hesitation, she scrambled in front of the King, her wings flaring out like a protective wall.

The Golden One hauled themselves to their feet, all three heads growling and muttering curses as they rose back to their full height. Their wounds were still healing, but they were recovering more quickly than the King and Queen, which wasn't a good sign.

"That is enough!" the middle head snapped, his eyes flashing as he glared down at the battered pair. "I am sick and tired of you two getting in our way!"

"Damn right," the right head agreed with a venomous hiss as he bared his fangs. "This shit ends right now."

Despite the threat facing them, the emotions that were filtering through from the Queen's mind were reassuring for the King. Instead of being worried, she was calm and calculating, poised to strike. Goji, listen to me very carefully, she murmured through their connection. Close your eyes, right now, and look through mine instead. I can see; I'll guide you.

The King frowned in confusion for about half a second, until he realized what she had in mind and grinned. Gladly, he sent back as his eyes closed.

The Queen's mandibles flared as she let out a soft laugh, bringing a confused expression to all three of the Golden One's faces. "You want to end this now?" she demanded, an uncharacteristically-fierce grin widening on her face as her eyes flashed. "That's fine with us!" With no further hesitation, she leapt upwards into the air, flung out her wings, and let out a piercing screech as her bioluminescent glow shifted from blue to white. In the same moment, a luminous pulse of force rippled outwards from her, slamming into the Golden One with enough force to rock them back on their heels, accompanied by a searing flash of brilliant light. All three heads shrieked in pain as all six eyes were dazzled by the blinding rays.

Even more importantly, as the Queen's pulse slammed down on the already-weakened glacier, it finished what the combined blast from earlier had started. The deep cracks widened and split open, and the ice all around the Golden One's feet buckled and splintered. As they stumbled backwards, away from the blinding light, one of their taloned feet slid down into one of the widening cracks, and they toppled as the ice caved in beneath them.

Normally, the Golden One would have been able to escape by taking to the air, but with one of their wings still in the process of healing and all three heads blinded and disoriented by the Queen's light, they had no way of doing so. They slid down into the widening rift, screeching in rage and clawing at the ice to try and slow themselves down. The right head was roaring and cursing at the top of his lungs, while the left head was mostly just crying out in pain and trying to clear his vision. The middle head was trying to reassert control over their wings and take to the air, but the brilliant white void that had momentarily consumed his entire field of vision and the stabbing pain in his eyes were hampering his efforts.

The King, however, had no such problems. While his own eyes would have been just as dazzled by that pulse of light, they were tightly closed at the moment; instead, his mind was linked to the Queen's via their connection, allowing him to see through her eyes – which were unaffected by the pulse – and giving him a full view of the area in front of him.

Goji! The Queen directed both of their gazes up towards the icy mountain that loomed on one side of the glacier, almost directly above the widening crack where the Golden One had fallen. Aim at the mountain!

The King's smile widened as he realized what she had in mind. On it! His plates lit up with another surge of blue light, and he let out a roar as he craned his neck and unleashed his fire-breath with everything he had left. The blast shot under the hovering Queen, arced up and over the cracks in the ice and the struggling form of the Golden One, and slammed into the side of the mountain. The King swung his head back and forth, allowing his beam to carve through layers of ice and rock, until finally it burned deep enough and the entire face of the mountain collapsed. A massive avalanche thundered down the slope and onto the glacier… and poured straight into the rift, where their enemy was still trying to escape.

"No! No! NO!" All three heads seemed to realize what was about to happen a moment before the avalanche hit them, but there was nothing they could do. Thousands of tons of snow, ice, and shattered rock crashed down on the Golden One, driving them deeper into the crevice and completely engulfing them. Within seconds, they had disappeared from view, and a massive cloud of snow and steam billowed up into the air, covering the entire glacier and enveloping the King and the Queen in a shroud of icy fog.

A few seconds later, the King hauled himself to his feet, finally opening his eyes and blinking repeatedly as his vision returned to normal. The Queen landed lightly on his back, her limbs hooking onto his spines to keep herself balanced, and they both gazed warily into the swirling cloud of snow and steam as it slowly dissipated. Neither of them could really bring themselves to believe that the battle was over; it seemed all too likely for their enemy to return at any moment. They had battled the three-headed monster far too many times to assume the best.

Finally, however, the cloud faded entirely, and they both felt an enormous weight lift off their shoulders. The Golden One was gone from sight, vanished as if they had never existed; the avalanche had filled the rift in the ice completely, and had buried all trace of the three-headed Kaiju. The only sign that remained of what had just happened was a slight depression in the snow.

The King took a slow step forward, part of him still tense. The Queen's hold on his plates tightened a bit, and they both watched that part of the glacier intently for a long moment, waiting for any sign that their enemy was trying to come back up. But after a full five minutes of this, nothing moved or surfaced. Even the storm around them was finally starting to die down: the dark clouds overhead were beginning to part and fade, allowing flickers of the star-filled night sky overhead to shine through. There could be no denying it: if the Golden One was still alive, they were buried deep beneath countless tons of ice, with no hope of escape.

Finally, the King allowed himself to relax. "Did…" he managed to get out. "Did… we really do it?" Did we really just win?

The Queen clung to his back, fighting a wave of exhaustion that had finally set in as the adrenaline of the battle began to wear off. "Yes," she whispered softly, resting her head lightly on his shoulder. "Yes… I think we did."

The King's eyes widened and his expression softened, as he turned his head slowly to meet her eyes. He couldn't believe it; they had been fighting this war for so long that part of him hadn't believed it could ever actually end, much less that they would actually win. That hope had faded, at least in part, on the day when they'd lost their two closest friends to that monster, one to death and the other to despair. But it had really happened: the Golden One was gone, and they were both still here.

They had won. The Golden One was gone, and the world was safe at last.

Joy, wild and untamed, rushed through both of their minds in that moment, and the Queen nuzzled into him, rubbing her cheek against his as they both closed their eyes and a torrent of emotions began rushing back and forth between their minds. Love for each other, lingering grief for all that they had lost since the Enemy had first appeared, overwhelming relief that it was all over at last… for a long moment, they both forgot about everything else, thinking only of each other and of the wonder of that moment.

Finally, they came back to awareness of the world around them. Turning back to face the depression in the ice, the Queen frowned. "I can still feel them," she murmured softly. "It's very faint, but there's no mistaking it: they're still alive down there." She looked back up into the King's eyes. "If this ice ever melts, they might be able to escape."

The King's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the spot where the Golden One had disappeared. "If they do ever get out of there," he growled, "we'll be ready for them. And if that does happen, then we'll finish what we started, and we'll put them down for good."

The Queen nodded in agreement. "All the same…" She shivered. "I hope they never do. And if they ever do get out… then we'll have to be ready."

"We will be." The King nodded firmly as he regarded the icy grave one more time. "I guarantee it."

Most creatures, even most Kaijus, would have been killed if they had suffered such a fate. Either they would have been crushed outright by the avalanche, or they would have frozen to death and/or suffocated as the ice re-solidified around them, freezing them in place and entombing them for all eternity.

The Golden One, however, was not most Kaijus. They could survive in the depths of space without much trouble, and their unique physiology allowed them to recover from all manner of wounds, so being crushed and buried under a few hundred feet of ice wasn't enough to kill them.

What they could not manage to do, however, was to escape from the icy tomb that had suddenly become their prison; there was far too much ice bearing down on them for even their strength to have any hope of dislodging it. The only thing they could do in that moment was to go into an emergency survival mode: their body shut down almost completely, and they slipped into a state of suspended animation, the same type of hibernation trance that allowed them to survive in deep space for long periods of time. In this state, they could last for thousands of years without needing any sort of sustenance; they didn't need food, water, or energy, although they would certainly need all three of those things when they eventually awakened. But in the meantime, kept safe from the outside world by their unique abilities, they were entirely confident that they would be able to survive until their environment changed and they could find a way to escape.

And sure enough, after many thousands of years had passed, the Golden One's surroundings did change. Something new touched their senses: the sensation of many small minds, somewhere nearby. They still couldn't rouse themselves from their torpor, but they noticed the small minds nearby, and their own minds were stimulated in response. But despite those strange presences, there was still far too much weight bearing down on them for them to have any chance of escaping, so they had sunk back into their torpor and continued waiting for an opportunity.

But then, on one dark and stormy night… their situation changed entirely.

Now…

The first thing that they felt was a soft and subtle vibration, pulsing through the ice around them. It wasn't enough to rouse them fully, but it was enough to begin pulling them out of their torpid state, making them a little more conscious and a little more aware of their surroundings.

The next vibration, however, wasn't subtle at all. A burst of intense heat, accompanied by jarring waves of force, thundered through the glacier, shocking them awake. The ice around them began cracking and breaking asunder, until the whole thing finally collapsed.

They had been standing more or less upright when they'd been buried in snow and ice, so they'd been immobilized in that position. But after so long in hibernation, there was no strength in their muscles, so when the ice around them collapsed, they dropped forward, crashing into the rubble.

Ichi twitched, lifting his head wearily as his eyes drifted open. Part of him just wanted to sleep forever, but he shook his head and tried to snap out of it. What just happened? He reached out through the mental link that he shared with his brothers, but their minds were both as dazed and muddled as his was. His vision was still blurred and indistinct, and he could see nothing but swirling white snow and the distant orange glow of flames.

Then, however, something strange happened. A strange, pulsing voice reached his ears, echoing through the air and even reverberating in the ice beneath them. It sounded vaguely similar to the voice of the hated Lizard King, but also different.

"Awaken," the voice whispered. "Awaken. Awaken." Something about its tones helped to spark Ichi's mind back to full consciousness; the ringing in his ears and the fogginess in his head faded away, and he snorted in surprise as his vision cleared. He sensed his brothers' surprise and confusion as the same thing happened to them.

Their wings were still held in place by the ice, albeit weakly, so Ichi stretched out their tails first, the spiked tips giving off a rattling sound as they waved back and forth. Ni's head rose past him, his brother shaking his head and snorting as he reared up out of the pit. San did the same off to his left, blinking sleepily and tilting his head back and forth as he took in their changed surroundings. All three of them swayed back and forth, deep growls and hisses rumbling in their throats as the storm began whipping back up around them.

Ichi's eyes narrowed, and he took a deep, slow breath, savoring the icy, tingling burn as the cold air whistled down his throat. Normally he communicated with his brothers telepathically, saving vocal communication for contact with others, but in this case it felt necessary. His voice was hoarse and rattling, serving as additional proof of just how long they had been asleep, but the notes of cold, crisp satisfaction in it were crystal-clear.

"Finally," he rasped, before stretching up and throwing his head back with a triumphant howl that rang out through the gathering storm. "FINALLY!"

Damn right! Ni concurred telepathically, his brother snorting in satisfaction as he stretched himself out and heaved upwards, yanking their right wing up out of the ice and shaking the frost off of the thin membrane. I can't fuckin' believe we got stuck under all that crap.

No kidding, San muttered, somehow managing to give the impression of chattering teeth even through their mental link, as he leaned down and wrenched their left wing free as well. I'm pretty sure I've felt warmer in space than I do right now!

Oh, quit your bitching, Ni growled sourly. Why am I not surprised that the first thing you do when we finally wake up is start complaining?

"Both of you, shut up!" Ichi ordered curtly, speaking out loud to add emphasis. He was about to continue, when a chorus of soft popping sounds reached all three heads' ears: they looked down at the rim of the ice crater, and Ichi frowned as he saw a group of small bipedal creatures gathered around its edge, looking up at them and apparently firing at them with some sort of small projectile weapons. The hell are those? he questioned.

"I think they're some of those little sentients that the little bug Queen likes so much?" San thought out loud as he leaned down closer and peered curiously at the small bipeds, completely ignoring the futile shower of tiny projectiles ricocheting off his scales. "Humans, or something like that?" He nudged one of the little mammals lightly with his nose, knocking it off its feet. "They build cities, if I remember right." He swayed his head back and forth a little, grinning as the humans stumbled back. "Awww, they're all scared. That's cute."

Ni's eyes narrowed as he glanced over to Ichi. If they've gotten more advanced weaponry, that might be a problem, he commented.

I concur, Ichi agreed coolly. We may need to purge them sooner rather than later. Realizing that San was still totally preoccupied with the humans on the ground, he rolled his eyes and leaned down, headbutting his brother and shoving him back into line. "Focus!" he hissed.

"Can we get rid of this lot already?" Ni growled, glaring down at the humans as more of their little projectiles bounced off his head. "We've barely been awake for two minutes, and they're already annoying me."

"Agreed." Ichi snorted and lifted his head up, beginning to charge a blast of lightning deep in his throat as Ni did the same. San?

San let out an exaggerated sigh, rearing back along with his brothers and charging a blast of his own. Fiiine, he groaned. Have it your way.

And with that, all three heads unleashed the electric blast they had been charging up, completely obliterating the group of humans that had gathered below them. Flesh, bone and cloth disintegrated within seconds, leaving only blackened, twisted scraps behind.

Ichi nodded in satisfaction, shaking his head as he lifted his gaze back up. Much better. He and Ni both turned, scanning the horizon for any signs of other Kaijus nearby. Fortunately there was no sign of the Lizard King or his Little Queen, but if they were anywhere nearby, they would undoubtedly have sensed Ghidorah's awakening and would be on their way shortly.

What does it matter? Ni questioned. They're not gonna get lucky like that again; we can take 'em.

Ichi snorted. I know it's hard for you, dear brother, but at least try to think. He cut off Ni's impending angry snarl with a commanding hiss. There is a reason why we lost that last fight. The same reason why we have continually failed to finish our work on this worthless planet: We keep underestimating our enemies. The last time we did that, it nearly cost us our lives. He shot a red-eyed glare at his brother. And I do not intend to let that happen again. Are we agreed?

Ni was still angry, but he was smart enough to know when he'd lost an argument. We are, he conceded, lowering his head slightly in deference to his brother. In that case, we'd better get outta here before they sense us and come looking. I dunno about you, but I don't think we're in top form right now, and I'd like to get some rest and some food before we do anything – "oh, for FUCK's sake, San!" This last verbal outburst was directed at their brother, who had leaned down to the area of blackened ice where the humans had been and was licking the ground and the humans' charred remains with his forked tongue, as if trying to find some edible remnants among the debris.

Ichi scowled and leaned down, snarling at his brother. "Snap out of it!" he ordered, speaking both with his voice and his mind.

San flinched back, sighing and nodding reluctantly. "All right, all right!" he whined. "I'm just really hungry, okay? We haven't eaten anything since before that last fight."

"We all feed the same stomach," Ichi cut him off with a snort as he turned his attention to the surrounding area. "If Ni and I can wait to eat, so can you." He raised an eyebrow ridge as he caught sight of something interesting: a small metal vessel, resembling some sort of aircraft, sitting on the ice a short distance away. A second one, identical in design, was slowly rising up and away from the area, held aloft by a pair of whirling propellers. The latter also seemed to be the source of the strange voice that had awakened them, as he could still hear the strange, repeating call of "Awaken" echoing down from it.

Aircraft? San's eyes widened, his hunger forgotten for a moment. Whoa… that's crazy.

Looks like it, Ni murmured contemplatively. Shit… those humans really have progressed a lot since we went to sleep.

It appears so, Ichi intoned, his eyes narrowing. If their technology has advanced much more than this, they could be a real threat. We need to start the purge as quickly as possible. Walking on all fours, he started their body moving forward, lumbering across the ice towards the landed aircraft.

As they approached the stationary craft, however, something tore into all six of their sensitive ears, and all three of them recoiled in shock and pain. The low murmur of the strange voice had suddenly melted and swelled into a deafening, clanging whine, slicing at Ghidorah's minds like a set of razor-edged claws.

"My ears!" San shrieked, whipping his head back and forth. "Make it stop!" Ni howled a series of thoroughly unprintable curses as he did the same.

Ichi, meanwhile, was gritting his teeth and trying to fight off the pain. His eyes fell on the other aircraft, the one that was rising up and away towards the clouds, and he immediately recognized that the agonizing din was coming from that craft. "There!" he snapped. "It's coming from up there!"

Ni and San heard him; despite the pain lancing through their minds, all three heads reared back, the golden glow flowing up their necks again as they prepared another electric blast, ready to annihilate the aircraft and cut off that irritating voice. But just as they were about to strike, the voice suddenly fell silent, and the pain in their heads vanished completely.

What…? Ichi blinked, the golden glow in his mouth dissipating as he relaxed and released the energy that he'd been charging up. "What just happened?"

"No idea," Ni replied with their equivalent of a shrug, a rippling motion that flowed along the length of his neck.

"San?" Ichi glanced over at their left head: San was still shaking his head and groaning a little, so Ichi leaned down and grabbed one of his brother's horns in his mouth, yanking his head up to the same level as theirs. "San! Are you all right?"

San winced and frowned at his brother reproachfully, but sighed and nodded. "Yeah… yeah, I'm good. Head hurts a bit after that, but I'm okay."

"Excellent." Ichi nodded, before turning his attention back to the humans' aircraft. He considered pursuing the flying one, but it had already disappeared into the storm, so he focused his attention back on the grounded one. "Now, then. Let's have a look at this, shall we?"

Walking forward until they were standing over the downed aircraft, Ghidorah leaned over and began examining it, each of them nudging it lightly with their snouts and ignoring – or, in Ni's case, chuckling at – the panicked cries of the humans inside the damaged craft as it was knocked and jolted back and forth. This did indeed seem to be a form of powered air transport, not as advanced as the vehicles of some civilizations that they had seen in the past, but far beyond anything that these little bipeds had been capable of building prior to their hibernation.

We'd better hurry up the damn purge, Ni growled. This thing's no danger to us, but if they've got more advanced or more powerful craft than this, they could turn into a real threat pretty quick.

And if they continue progressing at this rate, that possibility will likely become a certainty before long, Ichi remarked. I concur. We should leave here immediately and begin surveying the planet, so we can determine how far they have spread and which areas we should target first. He gave a pointed glance to his brother. But we will hold off on attacking them further until we know what we're dealing with and are prepared to counter their capabilities. His eyes narrowed. And the same goes for the Lizard King and his Little Queen, if they still live. I will not put us in danger by going into battle against them unprepared again.

Yeah, yeah, I know, Ni groused. Gotta have every little thing planned out down to the second, right?

Correct. Ichi smirked. One of the many reasons why I am our leader, and you are not.

Okay, you know what? Ni bristled, scowling over at his brother. Fuck off, Ichi. I'm seriously not in the mood for any of your self-indulgent shit right now, so how about you –

Uh, guys? San's mental voice cut in, drawing both of their attention over to him. He had stopped examining the aircraft and was staring out towards the horizon, his eyes wider than normal. Do… you guys sense that? Or is it just me?

Ichi and Ni exchanged glances, then frowned and turned to follow San's gaze. Although their brother could be absentminded and overly-curious at times, there was no denying that his senses were even sharper than either of theirs. It was all part of the system of checks and balances that kept the three of them in harmony: each head had his own strengths and weaknesses, making it so that none of them could thrive without the other two. That was how their kind worked: it might be annoying sometimes, but it could also be quite useful.

And sure enough, as the brothers gazed out over the ice-covered waters of the bay, all three of them could feel what San had sensed: there was something coming. The water beneath the ice was swirling, a faint rushing sound reaching their sensitive ears, and a moment later a familiar blue glow came into view, filtering up through the ice sheet from the water beneath. A large patch of ice near the shoreline in front of them began to glow, the blue light slowly intensifying and getting brighter as its source rose closer to the surface.

Ghidorah shifted uneasily, each of their heads flexing and twisting in a different angle as they took a few steps back from the water's edge.

Uh… San's mental voice was a little nervous. Guys, is that…?

Yup. Ni snarled lowly. Who the hell else would it be?

Ichi sighed heavily and rolled his eyes, just as the ice sheet exploded upwards with an all-too-familiar flash of blue light. Of course. Of course it's him.

The King snarled as he rushed through the water towards the shore, accelerating beneath the ice sheet as he swam into the bay. He had really been hoping that his danger-sense had been wrong and that whatever the strange voice-mimic had been up to wasn't actually going to cause any trouble, but based on what he'd been hearing and sensing from up ahead of him for the last few minutes, that obviously hadn't been the case. Sure enough, his instincts had been right: his ancient enemy had finally escaped, and this time his Queen wasn't with him to help.

Still, the King had never backed down from a challenge in the past, and he wasn't about to start now. He'd fought the Golden One plenty of times in the past, and he knew he could hold his own against them even without Mosura's help. And even if he couldn't defeat them alone, thanks to the fact that he knew Mosura was in the process of transforming right now, he should at least be able to keep their enemy busy until she could emerge from her cocoon and come to his aid.

A deep growl rumbling in his chest, the King dove slightly as he approached the shoreline, and then rushed upwards to ram into the ice sheet. It was thin enough that one impact smashed right through it, shattering the ice and knocking it aside. The King rose up through the gaping hole, heaving huge slabs of ice aside and letting them crash down harmlessly as he hauled himself up out of the water and onto the shore of the ice-encrusted bay.

"You," he spat, his eyes flashing with rage as he rose up to his full height and shot a withering glare at the Golden One. "Didn't I kill you already?"

"Didn't take," Ghidorah's right head snarled back, grinning maliciously as his red eyes met the King's. "Wanna try it again, asshole?"

"Now, now, brother, mind your manners," the middle head chided his brother with a chuckle and a shake of his head. Turning back to face the King, he smirked. "I take it you're here to pick up where we left off, little King? Fine by us, I suppose. Although I notice your little Queen isn't with you this time." His smirk widened. "Why is that? A lovers' spat, perhaps?"

"Shut up," the King snapped, his voice flat as his glowing orange eyes blazed with hatred. His mouth curled in a scowl, baring his teeth. "I've gotten stronger while you've been on ice. I won't need her help to kill you this time."

"Is that so?" The middle head's smile shifted into a cold glare as Ghidorah took a step back, their necks stretching up and their massive wings flaring out as much as possible to make them look even bigger. "Come and prove it, then."

The King didn't hesitate. Instead, he reared back slightly, took a deep breath as he tensed his muscles, and let out a thunderous roar. Ghidorah did the same, all three mouths shrieking their challenge, and they both charged simultaneously.

A visible shockwave expanded outwards as the two Kaijus collided, hundreds of thousands of tons slamming together with an impact that shook the icy ground beneath them as they spun around, grappling with each other and trading rapid close-range blows. The King weathered every impact and struck back, catching the right head with an uppercut as he lunged in to strike and grabbing him by the throat while he was disoriented. Yanking the head in close, he bit down on the neck and shook it back and forth, savoring the snarl of pain that burst from the dragon's mouth, before the middle head's teeth latched onto his right shoulder and he had to let go. Gripping the right neck with both hands, he swung it downwards like a club and slammed the right head into the ice with enough force to knock him senseless for a moment, before he rounded on the middle head.

The middle head had enough time to send out one burst of electricity as he bit down into the King's shoulder, provoking a pained snarl from the King as the lightning crackled painfully down his arm, before the King's free arm swung around and his fist smashed into the side of Ghidorah's head. The middle head was knocked away with a hiss of pain; the King raised his arms above his head, clenching both fists to slam them down, but was caught off-guard as all three heads suddenly snapped up towards him and unleashed a point-blank triple blast of lightning. The explosion of power went off right in the King's face, momentarily stunning him and knocking him off his feet. He crashed heavily to the ground, but immediately rolled over and roared angrily as he scrambled back to his feet.

This time the Golden One was ready; they'd taken a quick hop-step back out of arm's reach, and a quick burst of lightning flashed from the right head's mouth and arced towards the King just as he regained his footing. Raising one arm in time to shield his face, the King snarled in pain as the lightning hit his forearm instead, sending shocks of pain racing down it; he staggered back a couple of steps, but stayed on his feet, slamming his tail down into the ice to brace himself.

That did it. Against an enemy like this, there was no point in holding back.

The King's eyes narrowed, flashing from orange to blue, as the spines on his tail started glowing. The glow swiftly coursed up along his spine until it reached the back of his neck, and he felt that familiar heat welling up inside his mighty chest. He inhaled deeply, rocking back on his heels to brace himself further, and swung his head forward as he opened his jaws and unleashed his fire-breath in a torrent of deep blue flame.

This time, however, his enemy was ready again. Ghidorah yanked their heads to the sides with surprising speed and dexterity, and the beam thundered past between their necks. The King's eyes widened in shock; he was about to swing his head straight down so the beam would hit them in the torso, but all three of their heads spat lightning a moment later and their combined blast hit him squarely in the chest. Roaring in pain as the force of the impact knocked him backwards, the King toppled and his beam went wide, cleaving through a nearby human-built structure and into part of the glacier's surface with a powerful explosion.

Damn it–! The King lost his footing and crashed to the ground, the lightning still blasting into his chest and pushing him back across the glacier. He snarled, clawing at the ice and trying to slow himself down, but he couldn't regain his footing. What the hell were they trying to...

And then the ice suddenly dropped out from under him, and the King had just enough time to think, Oh, son of a bitch, before the lightning abruptly cut off and his voice rose in a bellow of "SHIT!" as he tumbled over the edge of the huge, steaming crater that had formerly been the Golden One's tomb and went crashing down into the mass of icy rubble at the bottom.

"HA!" Ni cackled as the Lizard King tumbled into the same crater that they had just escaped from. "Let's see how you like it, asshole!"

Ichi allowed himself an amused chuckle – he wasn't the type to overly indulge in displays of emotion – before his attention was drawn by some small movements on the ground below them. It seemed that the human occupants of the crashed flying machine were making a run for it, fleeing across the ice away from them. Two of them were still quite near their feet, close enough that he could reach down and grab one if he wanted to.

Actually, thinking about it… while San's over-the-top hunger might be irritating at times, he did have a point that it had been quite a while since they'd eaten anything, and Ichi was feeling a little hungry himself. So, while he was loath to admit that his absentminded brother had the right idea in a situation…

It was the work of a moment: his head darted down, striking like a taut cord being released, and he plucked one of the humans off the ice with a quick and effortless snap, taking a chunk of ice along with it. Crushing and swallowing the unfortunate human in a single bite, he shook his head and snorted as the snow tickled the back of his throat, letting most of the shattered chunk of ice fall to the ground. Not really worth it.

Ni snorted in amusement and took a lazy snap at some of the falling pieces of ice, while San frowned in disappointment. "Awww, c'mon, no fair!" he complained, before turning and leaning down towards the rest of the nearby humans. "Okay, then; let's just catch a few of them and get outta here before he comes back – Ow!" This last startled cry came as something slammed into the top of his head and exploded.

A second explosion went off right in Ichi's face, and he recoiled with an exclamation of "What the hell?!"

Incoming! Ni warned, and the three brothers swung around to face a group of incoming shadows that were diving out of the dark clouds: a large, fast-moving shape with sleek, stiff black wings, attended by half a dozen smaller shapes flying just below it. At first they mistook it for some kind of flying Kaiju, but after a moment it became clear that these new arrivals were actually more artificial aircraft, of a different design to the propeller-driven ones.

Clearly, Ichi mused, the humans had indeed become much more advanced than he would have expected. His musings were abruptly cut off, though, when the approaching aircraft launched another salvo of fiery projectiles.

Oh crap! San, for once, thought quickly, and swung Ghidorah's left wing up to shield their heads and necks from the new attack as the next volley struck home, exploding all over their body with a series of concentrated thunderclaps and surprisingly powerful explosions. A sweep of their wings deflected several of the projectiles, which hit the ice around them instead, but another volley came hurtling towards them a moment later.

A deep, rumbling growl reached the brothers' ears, and they turned just in time to see the Lizard King clambering back up out of the pit in the ice. His eyes were blazing with rage, and any damage that they might have inflicted on him so far had already healed. Clearly he hadn't just been bragging: he had gotten stronger since the last time they'd fought, while they were still low on energy and recovering from their long hibernation. Not a good situation to be in, all things considered.

Normally I hate to say it, Ni muttered inwardly, but I think we might wanna get the hell out of here and finish getting back to a hundred percent before we tangle with this asshole again.

For once, I'm with him, San agreed a little nervously. Ichi?

Reluctantly, Ichi nodded. I believe you're right, he agreed. Raising his voice, he turned towards the Lizard King. "My apologies, little King!" he called. "We'll have to finish this another day. But I assure you, we will meet again very soon… and you will not be so fortunate next time!" With that, he lowered their body into a crouch and flared out their great wings.

The King's eyes widened in a mixture of realization and anger. "Don't you dare!" he snarled, already charging towards them, but he wasn't quite fast enough. Ghidorah leapt into the air before he could reach them; their wings cracked the air with a thunderclap as they caught a powerful gust of icy wind, and they soared up and away into the dark and stormy sky.

As the King's furious roar of "You fucking cowards, get back here!" echoed behind them, the Golden One rose higher into the air and soared north over the ocean, leaving the frozen continent behind them as they headed towards the warmer parts of this planet. They needed to find sustenance and regain their strength before they could risk fighting him again; Ichi's calculating intellect, Ni's battle-hunger and San's curiosity were all working in unison, trying to remember which parts of this planet might have an energy source powerful enough to replenish their reserves. Luckily, this planet did have numerous options for that sort of thing, so it shouldn't be too hard to find what they needed.

And once we have done that, Ichi reassured his brothers, we will finally complete our mission here. The Lizard King and his Little Queen, wherever she is, will die; the humans will be purged before they can become a threat to us; and we will finally be rid of this damnable planet.

Once and for all.

Note: And there we are! Hopefully everybody enjoyed my characterization of Ghidorah; I took quite a while to settle on a dialogue style for each of the heads/"brothers," but hopefully they turned out okay! I based each of their characterizations on the director's canon explanations for them: Ichi is the calculating leader who spends most of his time keeping the other two on track, Ni is aggressive and battle-hungry, and San (aka Kevin) is very curious and seems a bit more "innocent" and less focused than the other two. I also deliberately tried to keep switching back and forth between their using vocal and mental communication, to try and show that due to the telepathic link between the heads, they're equally comfortable using either of those methods.

Also, just for clarification, regarding my pronoun usage for Ghidorah in this chapter: I refer to Ghidorah collectively as "them," but I refer to each of their individual heads (Ichi, Ni, and San) as "him." Just in case that wasn't clear. :)

So, as I mentioned at the beginning, these are my current plans for the rest of this story and the future of this 'verse:

– Through the Eyes of Titans will cover the rest of KOTM; I'm currently planning for it to have nine chapters in total, so we've got six more to go.

– After that, I have three other "main-series" stories planned to cover the five-year gap between KOTM and GvK. The title of the second story will be In the Hearts of Titans, while I haven't settled on titles for the third and fourth ones yet, but they should all be pretty fun.

– During that time, I'm also gonna be doing a few "sidestory" one-shots focused on some of the secondary Kaijus in the MonsterVerse (Rodan, Behemoth, Methuselah, Scylla, etc.)…

– …and also a few "prequel" stories dealing with the backstories of some of the more major Kaijus in this 'verse. I've got four planned so far: there'll be one for Gojira (titled The King's Companions), one for Mosura (titled The Lives of the Goddess), one for Ghidorah (titled Sympathy for the Devil), and one for Kong (titled The Prince of Bones).

– And lastly (in my current plan, although I may end up doing at least a couple more stories after that depending on how things go from here), I'll be doing a fifth "main-series" story to cover the events of GvK.

So, yeah! Hope you guys have enjoyed what I've written so far, because we're gonna have a lot more to come in the future! :)

Next time, the King continues his pursuit of Ghidorah as they search for an energy source that they can use to restore their full power, and the Fire Demon is awakened and promptly joins the fray. Stay tuned!