Return of the Destroyer

Chapter Two: The Guardian of Earth, and the Crystal Clone.

Near Earth: The Week after Junior and Angurius met.

As the red planet of Mars seemed to drift by slowly, Mothra could sense that she would arrive back on Earth very soon. Had it really been 5 years since she left the Earth? The journey to stop the meteor fated to strike Earth was relatively uneventful, even with several strange glowing spores sticking to her fluffy body as she cleared the atmosphere. It remained uneventful, until she had flown right next a Black Hole, which nearly sucked her in. It was right about then that she witnessed the spores fly into the singularity, and much to her horror, some of Godzilla's blood that had stuck on to her from the battle which had involved her and Battra teaming up against him.

Oh Battra.

It was not in Mothra's heart to be truly hateful. She never wanted Battra dead, only for him to stop his vengeful crusade against humanity. She remembered battling him, begging him to cease, and above all else coming to the gut realization that he may have to be put down because he was so hateful of humanity. It was only with Godzilla's arrival that he finally realized that his abhorrence was starting to destroy who he used to be. He was a Guardian of Earth, who was sworn to protect it and its inhabitants no matter what. Battra had become so consumed with defending the Earth, he believed that its biggest danger was the very beings living on it.

And so, after his passing, Mothra took up his mantle, and vowed to never give into the same hatred he had.

However, because she had to leave Earth in order to finish his mission, she knew that it might remain relatively undefended, if not for humans taking charge in her absence. She trusted them to work to defend themselves from any threat, especially because she figured their petty squabbles over things like "land," and "religion" would be small in the scheme of living in a world with Kaiju. Especially with Godzilla, a creature that had not been born evil or even was that bad, but much like Battra was consumed with an animosity for humanity. With Godzilla though, he had been made into the creature he was by humanity's desire for destruction and power, and thus his hatred…..may have been justified. She wondered about Godzilla, and what had happened in the time she had left Earth. She wondered if a Kaiju like him was truly capable of moving on from the past, and putting his power to a better use.

Regardless, as soon as she had witnessed the singularity suck in the spores and blood, she could sense that something was being created. Something that was filled with anger. Something possibly evil. So, she had sent the Shobijin, or Cosmos as the humans knew them, to warn humanity of the possible threat headed to Earth. She herself sometimes wondered what the world would look like when she got back, or even if she had been correct in the creature's intentions.

Mothra was overjoyed to see a familiar blue planet appear in her sight, and thus she began to feel a little better than she had been a while ago. Diverting the meteor had taken much of her power in order to move it because of its sheer size, and because of that, she knew that her power would most likely not recover for a long time. It also didn't help she was using part of her power to keep her child safe. She had discovered the egg within her around three years ago, right before she encountered the meteor. It had been gestating for some time now, but it was no mystery on where the egg had come from. Divine Moths were capable of asexual reproduction, and judging from how the egg was formed, her child had been created around two years before she encountered the meteor. The egg should not have remained in her body for so long, but with her willpower alone, she had kept it so that once she got to Earth, it would be much safer for her child.

As soon as she could feel the outer layer of the atmosphere, Mothra adjusted her wings, and made sure to divert some of her power to prevent her entrance from burning her. As she cleared pass the invisible shield around the Earth, she slowed down, and began to flap at a more relaxed state. The next order of business was to find a place to lay her egg, and to make sure that humans would not find it. While she believed that humans were not inherently evil, she was smart enough to know that some humans would never learn from their mistakes (namely the ones who had taken the Shobijin in the first place to keep as…pets to put it lightly), and that they would most likely go after her egg. Infant Island? Nope, humans knew where it was. Perhaps Birth Island? Mothra sincerely doubted that a volcanic wasteland would be a good place for her egg. Then, she suddenly saw another unfamiliar island, one that had a lake in the center and was surround by jungle growth and trees with rocky cliffs and caves. Sandy beaches outlined part of the island, but other than that, it looked like it would be a good place to settle.

Motrha gently glided down closer to the island, until she found a cave just big enough for her to fit into, and a good place for her egg. Using some wing lighting to make the entrance a little bigger, she let herself glide gently down into the cave, and then as soon as she landed, began the process of laying her egg. It was much easier than she expected, but she still felt drained after it was said and done. Mothra gently flew upwards and got on top of the egg, resting her head against it, and covering the rest with her enormous wings. She could hear life within the egg, so she began to scan the egg to find out about it. It would hatch within the next few days as opposed to the next few years due to residing in her body for so long. The larvae had almost fully grown, and was identified as a male. He would not be the last Divine Moth in the world, and he would not have to worry about acquiring a mate to have an egg, because even the males of her species could lay eggs if needed. He definitely would get all of her memories once she passed, along with the memories of her ancestors, and all of their powers. Battra had directly passed some of his powers to her, so her child would get them as well once he fully changed into an adult Divine Moth. All that was left now was to name him, but she knew there was only one choice for him.

Leo.

She really liked that name. She always had. With that out of the way, Mothra began to let sleep take her, and fell into a slumber that would last for three days, with the hope that there would no longer be need for fighting, and that the world would be at peace.

Her nightmares told a different story.

She saw a terrible device detonate with humans and Kaiju alike beginning to gasp for air.

She saw a dark violet liquid consume plant life and animals, reducing them to nothing.

She saw a forest on fire, with only barren land remaining in the aftermath.

She saw the ocean begin to boil and turn crimson red, causing the extinction of sea life.

She saw the very meteor she stopped gain a metallic sheen, followed by an arm with a curved blade bursting out of it.

She saw a three-headed beast roaring in triumph as it drained the land of life.

And then she saw…. light. Nothing but pure light.

And then she heard a voice, a voice that made her tremble in fear.

"I see you…."

It was almost taunting her, which added to her terror as she saw a distinct shape begin to form in the light. A claw began to reach out to her, and then….

She snapped awake, finding herself still trembling and still in the dark cave sitting on her egg. All she could find herself saying was, "What have I borne witness to?"

The Unnamed Island: Three days after Mothra's return.

"Hey! Look out behind you!"

Angurius quickly dodged the Kamacuras that had flown at him with its sharp bladed arm outstretched, causing the green bug to cash into a pile of boulders, some of which fell and crushed it underneath. Kamacurai tended to be as stupid as they were numerous, more often dying either because they were stupid enough to go after something that could kill them easily, or they would blunder their way into the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case, the wrong place was a small clearing next to the rocky cliffs that separated the land and the sea, and the wrong time was the fact it had tried to interrupt a sparring match between Junior and Angurius. These matches weren't malicious at all, and were in fact to help the two Kaiju keep their skills up. Junior would use his atomic ray during their matches, but always made sure that it wouldn't harm Angurius seriously, whereas the dinosaur would show off some of his own abilities to the young King of the Monsters, like the ability to roll into a spiked ball of destruction. As Angurius turned around to face down Junior, he decided that today would be the day he would win a match.

"Thanks for the warning buddy, but tell me, can you prepare for this?" Angurius warned Junior as he began to charge towards him. As Junior swiped his tail to knock him off his feet, the spiked dinosaur leaped forward and then curled up into a ball, slamming into Junior head on. Or that is what would've happened had Junior not charged up an atomic ray and blasted the spiked ball with enough force to send Angurius flying into a cliff wall, causing rocks to rain down on him. Angurius uncurled slowly, knowing he had lost once again. He sighed and got back up to face his friend.

"And that's another win for me. Sorry Angurius," Junior told the spiked dinosaur sympathetically as he went to sit next to him.

"Hey it's okay Junior. I've never been much of a winner anyway. Lost every fight I've been in whether it was with one of my siblings or against a rival during mating season."

"Huh. So, why do you keep on fighting, even if you know you are going to lose?"

Junior watched as the spiked dinosaur seemed to be taken aback by what Junior said. He was silent for a long time before he simply answered, "Well, it might not look like it to you Junior, but…. I was born a runt. My father…...always saw me as nothing, just because I wasn't as strong as or as big as my siblings. I always had to struggle to survive amongst them, and well, look at me now. I always fight, even if I know I am going to lose, because well…. I can always hear my father telling me that I'm nothing, and that I would have been better off dead."

Junior was speechless and thought before he replied, "…What a bastard. So, do you always fight because you want to prove your father wrong?"

"Honestly? Yeah I definitely want to prove that asshole wrong, but I also want to be like my hero, Baragon the Bold."

"Baragon the Bold?"

"Wait. You mean to tell me that you've never heard of the Guardians of Earth?!" exclaimed Angurius, "Didn't your old man tell you about them?"

"No. He never liked bringing up the past that much. Who are the Guardians of Earth?"

Before Angurius could talk Junior's ear off all about the Guardians of Earth, both Kaiju suddenly fell backwards as the cliff wall they were sitting against suddenly crumbled, revealing to both Kaiju a cavern within.

"Okay," groaned Junior as he got back up, "That was probably my doing."

"Oh really? Well it was my big fat body that hit the wall, so you're not entirely to blame" chuckled Angurius as he righted himself from lying on his back. "Well at any rate, the Guardians of Earth were- and what the hell is that?"

As Junior heard the words of his friend, he glanced around the cavern and then saw…the thing. It was a large object shaped like an oval with a distinct light yellow and light blue coloration with speckles of white dots, lying right there amongst the cool dark rocks. It was…. perhaps the most beautiful egg Junior and Anguirus had ever seen, barring their own eggs from which they had been hatched. Had the wall not crumbled, the only source of light would've been the opening near the celling of the cavern, which was big enough to allow a flying Kaiju inside. Both stared in awe at egg, before Junior whispered, "Look at the size of that thing. What kind of Kaiju would lay that?"

"For starters, definitely not the Kamacurai. We've seen plenty of their eggs. This…... is something else entirely."

Then suddenly, a loud crack took both Junior and Angurius by surprise.

"WAIT A MINUTE," exclaimed Junior, "It's starting to hatch."

The two kaiju held their breath as they watched the shell of the egg start to develop tiny jagged lines. Junior had never seen an egg hatch before in his life, so for him, it would be something that he had a once in a lifetime chance of seeing. Angurius on the other hand had witnessed plenty of eggs hatching before, so there was familiarity in seeing this miracle. The egg continued to crack as hard pieces of the shell fell off, revealing a thin membrane underneath. Something began to push against the membrane as it fought for freedom, with Junior in complete awe of what he was seeing. Then, a tiny mouth poked through the membrane, and just like that, tore through the rest of the egg like paper.

There before Godzilla and Angurius's eyes, laid a dark brown larva. Its body was segmented, with its head starting off big and getting smaller as it went down to its tail, which was capped off with a wicked looking sharp stinger for self-defense. The larva's mandibles were opening and closing, taking in the fresh air. Its tiny little legs helped support its body as it turned around and rose up to see the King of the Monsters and the spiked dinosaur, with its tiny jade green compound eyes taking in their appearances. It began to hack and cough, and then out of its mouth came a silk shot which stuck to the ground, almost hitting Angurius. The larva studied the both of them, and then much to their surprise, began to speak.

"Who…. are…. you?" the larva slurred. Having just hatched, he was very confused, and while he could think clearly, he was having difficulty talking due to his long gestation period. The two other monsters looked at each other, before Junior took the charge.

"Hey," he spoke softly and quietly to the larva, "My name is Godzilla Junior, but you can call me Junior. This other guy is my friend and battle partner Angurius. We live on this island together, but we didn't know about you until now. Do you have a name?"

The larva spoke once again, but this time much more clearly, "My…name is…. Leo." He began to crawl slowly towards the other two Kaiju, feeling like he could trust them. Leo was especially fascinated with Junior, both from his unique appearance and because of how kind he seemed to be. Junior and Angurius moved outside of the cavern, letting more light shine on the larva.

"Leo huh? So, do you have any parents, or has your egg been here a long time," Angurius asked curiously.

"I have a mom," the larva replied as he crawled even closer to the two, letting his head stick out of the cavern, "but I don't know where she is. Can you help me find her?"

Angurius pulled Junior closer to him, and whispered, one thing, "Junior. I think we have ourselves a young Divine Moth here."

"Wait a minute, my dad talked about them before. He battled two of them years ago when he went off on his crusade to punish humans. I don't remember their names though, but you don't think…."

"That this is their child? No, my grandfather always told me that Divine Moths had no need for mates. So that means this kid's mom is around here somewhere, and it might be best to get on her good side. After all, as the old saying goes, if you piss off a Divine Moth you will find yourself offed."

"Point taken," Junior responded before raising his voice once again to talk to Leo, "Alright Leo, so he and I will help you find your mom. If I had to guess, she seems to have left sometime this morning, so all we need to do is..."

"Yes? Just how were you planning to look for me?" a voice from behind asked. Now what Junior and Angurius had failed to notice beforehand was that Mothra was hovering right behind them. Yes, it was true that she had left Leo in the cavern that morning, but she made sure stay around the area, glancing in occasionally to make sure he was still safe in his egg. Initially, she wanted to try to forget the horrific nightmare she had, mostly by deciding to study the landscape of the island, and seeing if there were any dangers to Leo. When she had heard the loud crash near the cavern, she immediately flew towards the commotion and to defend her son. It was right about then that Mothra almost had a panic attack when she saw a familiar body shape, one that she had battled years ago in Japan. She was slowly regaining full use of her powers, but she knew that if she had tried to take on Godzilla then and there, he most likely would be able to kill her this time. No, she would have to go to a silent approach, and strike swiftly. She had hovered downwards until she was just right above the ground. Mothra herself had a weapon that she never used in her battle with Godzilla, but would make very good use of now. Out of her abdomen emerged a long, black, sharp, stinger with venom dripping out of it, which would be potent enough to knock Godzilla on his feet, allowing her time to escape with Leo. As for his friend whom she had noticed when she got to the ground, she would cross that bridge when she came to it. Godzilla was the more dangerous of the two, and thus he would take priority.

She flew closer, muttering to herself, "If you so much as get near him I'll…." and then stopped shortly when she got a closer look at "Godzilla." While it was true that the stranger had a striking resemblance to Godzilla, he also looked much different. He had green scales as opposed to charcoal grey, and his dorsal plates were grey in color with a blue tinge, as opposed to the white and gray coloration that Godzilla had. What really surprised Mothra, was that this one seemed to be…. almost calm, lacking the vengeful rage that Godzilla was well known for. She noticed then that he was talking to Leo, along with his friend, and they were treating him kindly. Mothra retracted her stinger, and decided to fly a little closer to make herself known to the two Kaiju. When she heard them talking to Leo about looking for her, it was right about then that she spoke to the two Kaiju. As they whipped around to see her, Leo rose up and looked at her in surprise.

"M-m-m-mom?"

"Yes Leo. I am your mother," Mothra softly spoke to the larva, "I see you've made some new friends, although I don't quite know who they are. Would you like to introduce yourselves?"

Junior looked at the Divine Moth, before he answered, "I am Godzilla Junior, the son of Godzilla, and the King of the Monsters. Answer me this, were you one of the Divine Moths who battled him years ago?"

"So, it's his son," Mothra told herself. He was definitely not like his father at all, which gave her some relief. But in order to build trust with Junior, she decided to be honest about what had happened years ago, "…. Yes, I was one of the Divine Moths who had battled him many years ago. I am Mothra. The other Divine Moth was my brother Battra, who gave his life to stop your father. I'm assuming that your father was much different by the time he started raising you…. If that was the case, then I am glad he was able to find the inner peace that he desperately needed. I wish to speak with him once again, do you know where he is?"

"I'm sorry Mothra, but he died a long time ago, against a battle with…" Junior couldn't finish his sentence before he began to tremble at the memory of…. It. He had lied to himself multiple times that he was over what had happened, but the truth was he still had nightmares of It. He had seen It kill his father over and over again in his dreams, and even It go after Angurius, with Junior being unable to defend them. Mothra could see his visible distress, and decided not to push the issue any further. Junior eventually calmed down, knowing Mothra hadn't meant to make him relive that day, but still stayed silent. Eventually, Angurius decided to break the awkward silence, whereas Leo crawled fully out of the cave, and began to explore his home with awe in his eyes.

"Uh hey Mothra is it? I am called Angurius, and I live on this island with Junior. So, you really are a Divine Moth huh? My grandfather always told about them y'know. He was around the time of the very first one, Gigamoth or something like that? She was considered to be a Guardian of Earth."

"You know of the Guardians of Earth? I thought I was the only one. I have a genetic memory that I inherit from my family whenever one of them passes away. I remember living as Gigamoth. I remember seeing the Guardians like Baragon the Bold."

"No way! You know what he was actually like?! Tell me!"

Junior then spoke up, "Uh, am I the only one who still doesn't know about the Guardians? Would any of you like to tell me about them?"

Mothra was grateful that Junior seemed to be cheering up again, and so she and Angurius sat him down and told him of the Guardians of Earth, while Leo still continued exploring his home. Mothra could feel in her heart that her wish had been answered, and that she would have a good ally in Godzilla Junior, along with Angurius. Her only regret was that she never got to see how much his father had changed, and whether or not he had truly moved on from the past.

The Moon: Two Days after Mothra met Junior and Angurius.

On the moon, a stranger sat on the edge of a crater, glancing down at the blue planet and his final destination. He had finally reached the Earth again after so long. And yet, he was having doubts about his self-appointed mission. Last time he had tried to complete it, he had almost died in the attempt, and utterly failed to kill his father. While he had not died and been simply reduced to spores floating through the vastness of outer space, it had taken him quite a while to pull himself together again by absorbing the radiation from a dying star. He decided to make some alternations to his physical form this time, namely making sure his arms weren't so scrawny and atrophied, and making sure they were in similar volume to the rest of his body. It wouldn't hurt to use hand to hand combat this time. And speaking of hand to hand combat, he had made sure to train and develop new techniques, because he was sure by now his father, or rather an unwilling donor of his DNA, would have remembered his attacks and would find ways to compensate for his own lack of techniques like the Corona Beam, Telekinesis, Telepathic attacks, or even Geokinesis. The final thing on his mind was his name, or rather choosing a name that felt was better than what the humans called him. He always hated the name, "SpaceGodzilla," and it had taken him a good while before he came up with a name he liked.

Neozilla is what he would call himself now. Or just "Neo" for short.

In essence, he made a conscious decision to try and distance himself from the name "Godzilla," since he couldn't have been more different from the being who bore that name. Neo was very much prepared for his rematch with his father, but there was something that was still nagging him in his mind. He couldn't figure it out at all, no matter how much soul-searching he had done. Why did he have a feeling that there was something wrong on Earth?

"I'm not gonna lose my nerves now," he had said to himself multiple times, but if he had to be honest with himself, he always did lose his nerves. Today was different, for he would leave the moon for Earth, and complete his mission. As he began to charge his energies to transform into his flying mode, Neo suddenly heard a voice in his head, one that was somehow familiar, and yet unfamiliar at the same time.

"You seem to be troubled Neo. What ails you so much? Is it the fact that you seem to lack purpose, or rather that you don't know what you'll do after your mission is complete?"

"Who are you?! Reveal yourself right now, or I will terminate you," Neo growled as he quickly began to glance around to see where the voice came from. He saw nothing for miles, aside from a small human spacecraft, and a flag sticking out of the ground.

"Or maybe you are sure of what you want to do, but you don't think that it will go the way you are expecting," the voice tauntingly replied, "perhaps you need guidance, to which I can offer you some."

Neo thought for a minute, and then asked, "What guidance would you offer me?"

"Join me, and I will help you complete your mission to, oh what is the word, eliminate your father. All you have to do is say yes, and do whatever I ask when I want it done. That is all, so are you interested?"

"Keep your charity, this is my mission, and I don't need your help to complete it," spat Neo as his left arm began to glow and transform into a long blade made out of crystal, "Now leave, or I will make sure you never can utter another word again!"

"Very well, I shall take my leave. I can assure you of one thing, you will regret this encounter in the future, and you will not find what you are looking for."

Neo felt the voice leave and soon enough, he was alone again, trying to figure out what the voice meant by the last thing it said to him. Was his father not on Earth anymore? Was his mission for nothing? And how would he regret turning down something that he felt was untrustworthy? Neo ultimately elected to put this away in the back of his mind, and thus he was able to transform into his flying form once again. Neo began tracking for a familiar radiation signal, and once he zeroed in to where the signal was, he became confident that his father would never know what hit him.

If only Neo knew what he would find once he reached the earth.

Author's Note: So here is the next part of Rebirth of the King, and this time I made sure to shorten my paragraphs. This took me a long time to do, which really surprised me. But hey, the chapter is done, so I can finally move onto the next chapter. I do apologize for the lack of action scenes, but I do promise they will be arriving very soon. Anyways, here is the current voice cast, with one that has a special place in my heart even though he is no longer with us, and I can say from here on out, it will be constantly updated as new characters are introduced.

Johnny Yong Bosch as Godzilla Jr.

Dan Southworth as Neozilla/SpaceGodzilla.

Sumalee Montano as Mothra.

Matthew Mercer as Anguirus.

Yuri Lowenthal as Mothra Leo.

Fred Tatasciore as Destoroyah.

Willem Dafoe (middle), Dave Wittenberg (left), and Kevin Michael Richardson (right) as the Emissary.

Tony Jay as ?

So, Mothra and Junior may have gotten off to an awkward start, but they are getting along much better than she did with her father. SpaceGodzilla on the other hand still has daddy issues and still wants to kill his dad, to which he doesn't know that he died years ago. Next chapter, Neo returns to Earth, but how will he react to battling four monsters he has never seen before? And what will happen when Junior and Neo are forced to confront a nightmare from the past? Will they team up? Or will their squabbles result in their destruction? And just who is the mysterious voice who is talking to everyone? Find out next time on Rebirth of the King.

PS: What are your thoughts on Mothra's nightmare?

Bye for now.