This story was intended to take place in any continuity except the Heisei one.

How's it Going to End?

And down in the first row,
Of an old picture show
The old man is asleep, as the credits start to roll

And I want to know the same thing
We all want to know
How's it going to end?

-Tom Waits

There was a crystalline object circling the Sun, approximately half the distance between Earth and Mars. It was both small enough and fast enough that human-made sensors couldn't detect it—if, indeed, humanity cared all that much about what was going on in space anyways. Monsters existed—titans, the Old Gods, whatever you wanted to call them—and you didn't need a telescope to see them. No, all you had to do, more often than not, was look outside your window whenever the ground began to shake.

This suited the entity buried in the heart of those crystals perfectly fine. His power dwarfed that of any creature on Earth—of that he was unshakably certain—but the longer you could go without being a target, the easier it generally was to accomplish your goals.

The entity had many plans for this planet, and all of them hinged on one particular being—one massive, radioactive, so-called "protector" of the planet—being eliminated. Many had tried this before; none had succeeded. The three-headed dragon, the cybernetic chicken, that idiot race who so religiously coveted "Organizer G1," they had all attacked head-on, with no understanding of finesse. Careful proxy-work, patient analysis, a commitment to getting things right before any action was taken: whether out of arrogance or a blinding belief that no one creature could go undefeated for so long, the only way to attack Earth and the most powerful thing on its surface always seemed to be brute force. If brute force got you anywhere in the universe, it would have been overrun by lumbering simpletons with nary a thought in their head eons ago.

The entity knew it was powerful, of course it was. But above all else, it was smart; and a smart opponent was something this "Godzilla" had clearly never faced before. Not from Ghidorah, not from Gigan—not even from the hairless apes and their mechanical toys, always reaching upwards, forever revolting in the face of their own insignificance.

That had been the entity's belief until a mere solar cycle ago. Now, now there was another. Something stirred under the waters of Earth's largest ocean, and even from his vantage point between the orbits of Earth and Mars, the entity could sense this new creature's power.

A challenger, and a strong one at that. Even Godzilla might be outclassed by this new being, whatever it was.

That would simply not do.

To be sure—to remove all doubt—the entity reached forward through space until his mind connected with one of the hairless apes. He always, on some level, hated doing this. He didn't hate or revile these apes, because to do so was to admit they even registered on your radar. The problem was that, even with his great power, a bleed was always possible. What he might drag back into the depths of space might be more than what he left with. Telepaths had to work hard to ignore the connections that bound everyone in existence, and that energy could be put to far more fruitful ends.

But the entity needed to know. He needed to see, as close to first-hand as possible, whether his plans were now in jeopardy.

The connection was made. He peaked through the eyes of one of the apes as though he was squinting through a great fog. Only see what needed to be see; don't linger any longer. Don't consume this mind lest he absorb the life of an ape that would very soon be wiped from the universe.

The ape was a researcher of some kind, near a landmass in what the hairless apes called the "Pacific Ocean." She and another ape were testing the waters for any sign of the creature the entity had detected. She was speaking in the language of a different country; another ape was replying in the same language, with a different accent. The apes were increasingly cooperating, and that too put pressure on the entity's plans.

"The toxicity is not great," the ape the entity was staring out said, "but the fish samples we've been pulling in…something else has to be going on. Something several times worse than chemical dumping, I am sure of it."

"Look," one of the other apes said. "You an' I both know when something's staring us right in the face. All the tell-tale signs of massive, catastrophic oxygen loss, the complete dead-zone another hundred-or-so miles from here, the fact the water just hasn't looked quite right since we got out here. I've got a list the length of my arm—I can keep going."

"Whatever you are wishing to say, do not say it. We are not to make those decisions."

"Secrets get people killed, Suki."

"Man's hubris is far more often the culprit."

The boat the apes were standing on rocked to its side, then to the other, then forward. The apes were knocked off their feet and the other one, the one the entity wasn't looking through, cracked his head open on the side of the boat. The entity saw the ape reach out and begin to call the other ape's name, but a red claw cut through her field of vision and severed her arm. Pain radiated out from the planet's surface and hit the space between Earth and Mars, the pain you could only feel if you were an ape who only a universal second ago had discovered fire and the ability to communicate. The entity instinctively consumed the apes mind and felt a flood of memories of family of school have to be accepted into G-Force have to show parents that having a daughter was not the worst thing to happen to them have to stop Godzilla have to know how to survive when something worse comes what could be worse Ghidorah Gigan Orga space things coming from space the fish the fish are dead because of Serizawa tried to warn us because the myths were true because the oxygen destroyer oxygen destroyer the things man can create, we are helpless in the face of our own ambitions.

Oxygen destroyer.

The entity hated consuming other minds, of feeling his own mind invaded, but sometimes…sometimes it yielded information.

An oxygen destroyer, an ape-made creation. And it was powerful enough to destroy Godzilla, it seemed.

Going to the planet's surface would be risky, so a less-risky alternative was chosen. There weren't any other apes in the area, but he didn't need another ape. His mind reached through space to find that of a giant sea creature—it called itself "Ebirah"—and this time, the entity didn't hesitate to consume the monsters mind get food find hiding spot can't be seen can't be spotted alone forgotten vulnerable easy target can't win never win always the victim hope Godzilla keeps his promise please let Godzilla keep his promise please protect me I'll behave I swear.

The connection was nearly severed, but the husk of Ebirah remained in the entity's control. Down into the water it plunged, swimming in a direction that the entity now intuitively knew ought to be avoided until Godzilla investigated. Deeper and deeper Ebirah swam; that same intuition now tugged on the entity, telling him to go back.

He would not.

There was a pain, and looking at Ebirah's claw the entity could see his shell begin to dissolve. Then the dissolution quickened, and soon the claw was completely severed from the rest of Ebirah's body. The entity extended his mind and felt it. The power, it was here. It was all around him. It was consuming Ebirah's shell just as he had consumed Ebirah's mind.

A pulse of thought, strong enough that if Godzilla was in the area, he most surely would have felt it too. A necessary risk; the entity wasn't sure how else to make his presence known, his demands known.

The pulse spelled out to whatever entity could hear it:

Earth's Moon, if you can. You are being watched.

Briefly, the entity considered fighting back against this "oxygen destroyer" long enough for Ebirah to get away—but only briefly. It didn't matter, the creature's mind being long-gone now. He left what was left of Ebirah to his fate.

And then he waited.

Nothing emerged from Earth's atmosphere. The Moon remained as lifeless as ever.

The entity left his orbit and headed for the Moon anyways. He hid behind it, away from any prying sensors on Earth's surface. And he waited some more.

Nothing came.

He reached out with his mind and briefly touched that of a news reporter. There was nothing being said about a new creature; nothing about a monster leaving Earth's atmosphere. They hadn't even issued a report on the dead-zone not that far from where Ebirah had perished, and now the entity knew it was because the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications had told him to keep quiet.

But there was nothing in the ape's mind to suggest he was hiding anything important anyways.

This…this would not do.

He needed to go to the surface. Surely the hairless apes and their many governments would know of him then. Surely Godzilla would be made aware of his existence. Surely this was little different than Ghidorah's thick-headed invasion. Surely the lack of a response from this "oxygen destroyer" was little more than a sign that the new beast couldn't leave Earth's atmosphere, a sign of weakness if there ever was one.

Surely none of that matter. He was not Ghidorah; he was just being paranoid. And Godzilla? Godzilla would fall regardless. He still had the element of surprise—what he didn't have was information on this new creature, beyond the fact that it was powerful.

No, there was no other way.

The crystalline object sped for Earth, ripped open the atmosphere with a scream and fire, and in less time than it took for the sonic boom to register on any atmospheric reconnaissance device, the entity plunged himself into the middle of the dead-zone. He expanded his mind and pulsed out into the waters:

I have come. You disappoint me.

And just as he began to feel something gnawing on the edges of the crystals he had cocooned himself in, out of the ocean he went, heading straight for a small island not that far from the dead-zone. He flew slowly, leaving as much of a condensation trail as he could. Let anyone else follow him that thought themselves brave enough. Not even Godzilla mattered.

All that mattered was this "oxygen destroyer" and whether it was intelligent or not to understand a message.

The entity reached the island and, slowly, the crystals began to retract. The entity revealed itself to the world for the first time, to nary a monster or a hairless ape in attendance. He looked remarkably like Godzilla—a fact that even he couldn't begin to understand—save for the massive crystals on his shoulders and the grown atop his head. Just as his feet touched the ground, the rain began. Lightning provided enough illumination that any creature of any type of eyesight could see the monster from the depths of space. But all the entity cared about was the "oxygen destroyer."

The rain fell heavier. The entity waited and waited.

And then, flying just below the cloud-line, he spotted a massive shape. The rain poured down heavier and heavier; the wind nearly stripped the trees of their leaves. And just a few feet away from the entity, the flying shape landed. Backlit by lightning, it unfurled its massive wings and reared back it's horned head. A floral pattern on its chest pulsed as if energy was about to shoot out from it at any second.

The entity stared out at his opponent and knew that this was the power he had sensed. The "oxygen destroyer" that the hairless apes had discussed.

It didn't look like a human made creature. It looked like what they would call a demon.

The entity roared:

I called. You did not answer.

No answer. Just rain pelting the armoured skin of both creatures.

The entity roared again:

Well?

Now, finally, the other creature—this thing born from the oxygen destroyer—reared back and let out a roar of its own.

We/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/hate/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we/we

Do/do/do/do/do/do/do/do/do/destroy/do/do/do/do/do/do/do/destroy/hate/do/do/do

Not/not/annihilate/not/not/not/hate/destroy/hate/annihilate/not/not/not/not/not/not/not/hate/not/not/not

Care/care/care/care/hate/hate/hate/hate/destroy/destroy/destroy/destroy/annihilate/annihilate/annihilate/help/destroy/kill/destroy/annihilate/pain/care/

Just as the creature's roar dissipated, it reared its head back again and unleashed a purple beam directly at the entity's chest. The entity quickly pulled up a photonic shield and split the beam into a hundred different directions, but he could feel the force behind it. The entity called up crystals from underneath the island's surface, and as soon as they reached their full height, he directed beams of green electricity at the new creature. The entity roared again and reached out with his gravity tornado—a devastating telekinetic attack—and managed to ensnare the other creature. It resisted, and for a moment the entity thought it might be strong enough to break free, but it relented—as all things eventually do in the face of the entity's power—and found itself being launched head-first into a near-by hill. Some of the crystals the entity called up from the Earth rocketed towards the creature; the rest of the mountain exploded and collapsed around it as they connected.

The entity began to hover and let out another roar.

So you choose to fight? Is that it?

The rest of the mountain exploded in crackling, purple energy. The other creature took to the skies and let out a screaming roar that contained no thoughts, no semblance of mind whatsoever. It only radiated hate and a thirst for destruction.

Then the creature charged.

Claws tore into flesh, a pincer-tipped tail dug into muscle, and that horn—whatever it was made of—glowed red, baked the area in heat, created a funnel cloud of steam as it evaporated any rain that came near. The entity felt that horn slice through his chest, and a pain like never before ripped through his body.

The entity's shoulder crystals glowed and, as he extended his fist, a wave of telekinetic energy shot through his fingertips. The other creature was knocked off its feet and, just as it was about to hit the ground on its back, the entity unleashed his corona beam; it arced under the creature and blasted him in the back, then circled around again and connected with its face. Another corona blast was charged up, fired, and split into four separate beams: one for the face, one for the floral pattern on this creature's chest, and one each for the wings. The beams arced into the air, they arced back down towards their target, and just as they were about to hit…

…the creature dissolved into a gaseous cloud. The beams blew right through it, succeeding only is dissipating it throughout the island.

The entity quickly took to the air, surveyed his surroundings. There wasn't any means of gaining a visual, not with the rain and the rolling fog already on the island. But he could sense the power hadn't vanished—hadn't even diminished. If anything, it now felt as though the power encompassed the entire island. Either he was blind…

There was a screech and then a jabbing pain in his arm. A red crustacean creature, who roared with the same roar as the bigger one that had just disappeared, had appeared out of thin air and dug its mandibles into the entity's arm. Another one followed suit, then another, then ten more, then twenty. Below him were two larger, quadrupedal creatures, each about a third the size of the demonic looking one he'd just battled. Their head frills crackled with purple energy and, simultaneously, they unleashed their searing purple beams into the entity's face and chest. He tumbled backwards, and just as he was about to hit the ground, the smaller creatures dissipated into a cloud yet again. Mere seconds later, he heard the demonic roar of the larger creature, then felt its clawed hands slam into his face.

The lightning storm cast shadows over this creature's face. All the entity could see were its glowing yellow eyes and the jagged teeth of its mouth.

As the creature delivered another clawed punch to the entity's face, he pulled back his own arm and dug his fist into the floral pattern on the creature's chest. That was enough to stun the creature; the entity followed up by pushing his head forward. The crown and a wave of telekinetic energy struck the creature's skull, and as it reared backwards the entity followed with another telekinetic punch.

His shoulder's pulsed with energy. There'd be no splitting the corona beam this time.

The entity roared and unleashed his beam directly at the creature's head. The creature roared, too, and seconds later he was firing his purple beam as well.

The beams met, they locked, they were—the entity realized—evenly matched.

And then the floral pattern on the creature's chest began to open.

The entity only had a few seconds to react—was, in fact, caught between a rock and a hard place. He closed his mouth and cut off his corona beam and tried to bring up his photonic shield, hoping that it would be durable enough to withstand both attacks, whatever this new one promised to be. But he wasn't quick enough: the purple beam slammed into his chest and rocked him sideways; his concentration broken, he wasn't able to pull up his shield fully when the chest beam collided with his shoulder crystal and pulverized it. The entity roared in pain and fell backwards; blood and power leaked out of the wound on his shoulder.

He cared little for the blood.

The creature roared again, another unintelligible roar. The entity tried to reach out with his mind, tried to find something within this creature that he could latch onto. He searched and searched and could only find hate/hate/hate/destruction/hate/destruction/annihilation/help/hate/hate/hate.

Unbelievable. Cosmically ridiculous. This creature was nearly mindless—had no concepts in it more complex than hate and destruction and fear. This planet was about to be terrorized by something no more sophisticated, something no more capable of planning and strategic thought, than a bacterium. And it had felled him! It had felled him and it didn't even understand why!

No, wait, a small speck of something other than hate in there, very small but speaking loudly enough to be heard over the roar of every other mind in this creature's body. No more complex than the other thoughts, but it was there, the entity could feel it.

He reached out again, quickly, before the creature delivered a killing blow.

He felt hate/hate/hate/hate/hate/pain/help/whoarewe?/pain/help/whoarewe?/stop/stopthis/canyouhelp?/canyouhelp?/youspeak/youspeak/speakhelp/speakhelp/pain/pain/help

Yes, very small, but a spark of something else. But what good were those voices? All they did was slow the creature's punches; all they did—and the entity could sense this now—was hold the monster back from directly charging him, from gleefully ripping him apart. A small spark…but they didn't turn it into a thinking creature, they just turned it into a conflicted one.

So he'd still be destroyed by a mindless, worthless, thoughtless, brute.

Was that fear he was feeling? Disgust? Both?

The creature lumbered forward, fighting against that spark. And as its head frills crackled with purple energy, the entity clenched its fists, tried to search its mind for a way to regain its power quickly…

The creature roared again…

…and then was knocked off its feet by a blue beam.

The entity watched his opponent fly into the jungle and erupt in a massive explosion. Quickly, he got to his feet. And as he turned towards the bay, where that beam had come from, he let out the beginnings of a roar.

And then a blue beam struck him in the chest too, and sent him rocketing backwards. He hit the ground his as he heard a new, echoing roar.

He knew that roar. On a deep, instinctual level, he knew exactly who that roar belonged to.

He tried to get up, but another blue beam knocked him onto his back again. Another one exploded the ground next to him and sent the entity tumbling into a crater. A fourth and final beam hit a hill next to the crater, was intended to burry the entity alive. But the entity had leapt into the air and drew on all his strength to fly directly towards his new opponent, the being he'd been plotting and planning around for years.

The entity landed and faced Godzilla. He roared.

Stop! We should fight it together!

Godzilla growled.

I'll kill you both. It doesn't matter to me.

You do not know what it is capable of!

I know this is my planet, and neither of you are welcome on it.

It will kill you.

It'll try, and if it does, then it's got the rest of the Kingdom to deal with.

The entity paused. He'd expected…he'd expected reason. Surely Godzilla of all creatures…

Behind him, the creature reformatted and rose with a demonic roar.

The entity turned back to Godzilla and roared.

IDIOT! If you want a fight, you will HAVE a fight!

The entity reached out his mind and found that spark in the creature, the little bit that was keeping the rest from unleashing pure destruction at every waking moment. He reached out and found help/pain/whoarewe?/help/help.

And he consumed it.

Gone was the spark; now this creature was absolutely, completely, totally a single minded, destructive, malicious abomination.

And now Godzilla would have to face its wrath.

The entity took to the skies as Godzilla shifted his attention to the creature. The entity roared.

Suffer your consequences, cretin!

But Godzilla didn't even deign to respond. He just stared forward at the creature, who roared, screamed thrashed like it was being pulled apart from the inside. A massive purple beam leapt from its mouth into the sky, evaporating the clouds and turning the night sky a sickly purple. Then it charged at Godzilla...and Godzilla stood his ground, making nary a gesture towards the being that had just scolded him for his shortsightedness.

The entity roared again and then turned his back, just as bodies collided and the ground trembled.

The entity flew—first, low along the waterline, where he buzzed the hairless apes that were rallying around the island. A number of jets were destroyed in his wake. Let them perish alongside Godzilla. Let them all share the grave they'd dug for themselves. And when he was passed the hairless apes and their toys, he shot upwards, up into the atmosphere. Crystals surrounded him like a cocoon again, and in little time the entity was back between Earth and Mars, observing, resting, repairing, hating…

No, not hating. Hating was beneath him. Besides, if that creature didn't know what it was, it wasn't reasonable to expect Godzilla to. He should have seen the threat, but perhaps he was expecting too much of Godzilla.

Perhaps…

Perhaps this was all for the best. Yes, Godzilla knew of him now. Yes, Godzilla treated him as a threat—he was now a target. And yet, there was something down there that could easily occupy Godzilla's time. And there was something down there that could wipe the planet clean of life—messily, yes, far more messily than the entity would've intended himself—but a clean-slate, nonetheless.

The plan would have to be changed, but who knows, perhaps this was a better plan. Perhaps that mindless brute, without even knowing it, would serve the entity's ambitions better than even the entity could have anticipated.

From within his crystalline cocoon, the entity reached his mind out to the hairless apes that had surrounded the island. He stared through various sets of eyes, observing the battle from every angle he could find. He relaxed, the anger from before having dissipated.

Things would work out for the best.

Besides, he wanted to see how the battle would end.

Fin

Hey all, hope you enjoyed the story! Or, if nothing else, it wasn't super confusing and didn't make you feel like you'd wasted half an hour of your time.

Like I said, I tried to slot this story into just about any continuity except the Heisei era (because, y'know, SpaceGodzilla was dead by that point). I mean, the Gigan and Orga references probably strain its compatibility with the Monsterverse, but meh. I also tried to avoid having SpaceGodzilla call himself that because, in my mind, that's probably not the name he goes by. Didn't really wanna come up with a whole new name for him though, so hopefully "the entity" was all right (see also: my point about the story hopefully not being confusing).

And uh, yeah, that's about it.

See ya.