Part Three: ABSOLUTION



Osaka, G-Force Command.

"This is impossible! Impossible!!" Miname shrieked. "Every attempt to recreate my father's experiments has failed. Either I'm doing something wrong, or the conditions in which the original tests were conducted have been altered somehow."

"I can assure you, conditions have certainly changed since the H-Man first appeared," Iwa spoke. "The levels of background radiation alone must be drastically different now. Lower than in nineteen fifty nine I would assume."

"Also, we know the original creatures were formed by the testing of hydrogen bombs," Tominaga added. "Iwa tells me the energy which created this new monster was vastly different."

"And the equipment which tapped into that energy has all been destroyed, I know," said Miname. "So what am I supposed to do now, gentlemen?"

The General rose from his seat, considering the situation. "We are indeed forced to work without Sato's Radion generators, but there may be a way to duplicate the conditions of the original tests more closely."

"You have a greater stake in this than I, General. What's your idea?"

"Increase the background radiation, then bombard the test subject again."

"Sounds good, but Japan would not be my first choice to find the necessary fissionable material."

"Hei, I can think of only one source at G-Force's disposal," Iwa paused then, seeming to regret the suggestion before having finished it. "Before I was called to serve as chief advisor to the anti-kaiju vanguard, my predecessor, Commander Nakano, was overseeing the cleanup of a battle between Godzilla and the mutant squid Gezorah. That operation yielded some incredible material salvaged from the scene."

"General, please, cut to the chase," said Tominaga, watching the frustration on Miname's face.

"Nakano managed to secure a number of deposits of frozen blood. Godzilla's blood."



*



Tanaka's place.

"Mrs. Bradley, we have been trying to contact you since the incident with the alien controllers. You could not be found," Tanaka said calmly. "Were it not for the weapon you now hold, I would say that it is very good to see you!"

"Don't placate me, soldier. I am old but not easily fooled," Anna spoke through clenched teeth. "I watched your squad kidnap my son!"

"That is true. The Kartanans held us in thrall, and we were powerless to do anything but obey them. The Starman saved us from that fate, as he attempted to save Kenji and Kyoko as well."

"What do you mean 'attempted'? I swear I will kill you if you don't tell me where they are!!"

Shiro loosed a weary sigh. He was gravely injured, in no condition to defend himself even from the demands of a gun wielding old woman. Mikki too seemed content merely to observe the drama. He could expect no aid from the dog, whose first loyalty was to the clan Bradley.

"Anna, the Starman was summoned back to the world of his masters. He left Kenji and Kyoko a device he claimed would return them to your side, but Godzilla was still in a fighting mood, and attacked. I managed to save Mikki, but I don't know if your son and his wife escaped the monster's power blasts," The soldier clasped his injured hands before him as if in prayer. "Kenji and Kyoko disappeared from that battle, Mrs. Bradley. I swear to you, I don't know where they are."

Anna shuddered, collapsing into a chair. Shiro flinched, half expecting the pistol she held to go off. She forced away her tears, and demanded; "How do I know what you say is true?"

"Why don't you ask Mikki?"

Anna's eyes widened, realizing the man was right. The strange little canine could somehow understand and respond to her. She had not been surprised when she found the dog near the scene of the fire at G-Command, nor when it led her to Tanaka's home. Holding the pistol steadily at the soldier, Anna looked at the dog and spoke. "Mikki, is this man telling me the truth?"

The terrier looked deeply into Anna's eyes, absorbing the meaning of her words. Then she turned to Shiro, and joined him. Mikki curled into the soldier's lap and gave two sharp yaps.

"Oh, God," Anna sobbed, turning her gaze from Tanaka as she placed her husband's old service revolver upon the low table. "What has happened to my son?"



*

Ogasawara. "Buddha's belly," Sato swore. "Where the hell did that come from?!" Atop the rise that overlooks the shattered valley, Sato gazed upon a strange tableau; The area was sheathed in bubbling lava, the landscape blackened and burned, and from the center of the now molten meadow, there arose a gigantic stone temple.

A shudder ran through his liquid form, and he began to flow slowly down the slope. Although he yearned for his lost humanity, he had begun to appreciate the power this new body possessed. The journey from Nihon was a quick and effortless glide. Standing now at the edge of the magma, Sato wondered if this crossing would be the same.

Flames rose about him as he slipped into the lava. Without true nerve endings to signal pain, Sato could still somehow sense the damage to his form. Strange vapors streamed as he contacted the molten earth, and he knew that he was slowly losing mass. Perhaps here, he thought, he could simply melt away from his accursed existence, from the scorn of his father's spirit, and his own unconquerable shame. But the Temple, looming closer, seemed to override such thoughts, to replace them with a kind of compulsion. A need to know that transcended mere curiosity. Sato could almost sense the structure, as if it were calling to him, and he flowed toward it.

Within the immense building, all was silent. Sato felt as if in crossing its threshold he had crossed into another world. His consciousness seemed to shift then, and he became aware of activity around him. He jumped in surprise as a figure passed before him, then another. Soon, a throng filled the large open space, crowds of strangely costumed people milling all about him. The odd folk seemed unaware of his inhuman presence as he watched them come and go. Then, from somewhere among the vast crowds, someone called his name. One of the figures approached him, growing more distinct. Sato gasped as he realized, the man now smiling before him was his father.

"Sato, my son, I have found you," Kirino was young and healthy, much as Sato remembered him before the cancer. Yet there was a subtle difference as well, an aura of peace Sato had never before seen, until now.

"I know your true feelings, father. Your disappointment and disgust have plagued me since you died."

"Not mine, Sato San. Your own," Kirino replied. "Only now, in this place, am I able to commune with you, though I have watched in anguish as you tormented yourself since my death," the spirit reached for Sato, and grasped his liquid hand. "I could never hate you."

"I neglected you, father, I let my research consume me to the exclusion of all else. I revived the monster Dogorah, and I let you die alone. It is a horror I have wrought! A horror!! Look at me. Look at the freak that I've become! Is this the face of the son you love, or that of a monster?!"

"And what of my face? Did your love for me cease as I lay in my hospital bed, disfigured by the disease that I too had brought upon myself? I love you as I always have, Maki Sato. And always will."

Sato's liquid form seemed to crumble, and he fell to his knees before Kirino. "I came here to die, father. I cannot go on as the creature I have become."

"You must forgive yourself, Sato, and I ask you to forgive me as well."

"Father, there is nothing you have done that..."

"But there is. I too was a man consumed with his work, your mother Midori was the one who suffered then. Do you never think of her, Sato? That is my fault. I cast her aside long before you had ever truly known her. I never forgave myself for that, the cancer which consumed me a reflection of the guilt which had poisoned my spirit for so very long. I beg you now, do not make the same mistake."

"My mother?" Kirino's words had reached something within the tormented once-man, and he saw in his father a reflection of himself. "Father, I..."

From the depths of the temple came a deafening roar. A howl of monstrous, bestial rage that shook the ancient walls and sent ripples coursing through the magma. Even the ghostly crowds stopped as the King of the Monsters stepped from the shadows and into the great open hall. The creature growled as it scanned the now scattering mob, strange energies flaring in its eyes as its gaze focused, and settled directly upon Sato.

"You must leave here," Kirino spoke with conviction. "Godzilla will surely kill you, and it is not your time to join me. Not yet."

The saurian roared again, treading closer. Sato stood before the beast, torn between his father's words and the desire to end his own inhuman existence. He knew the choice had been made the day he completed Kirino's research, and unleashed the Radion Wave upon the Earth.

"Forgive yourself, Sato! Do not die here before you have truly begun to live!"

"I do, father, and you as well, but perhaps this was meant to be. Perhaps I was given this power as a means to finally stop Godzilla. The Radion force that changed me repelled the beast once before. Maybe now I can use that force to kill the monster."

"Sato, the bridge which brought me here is fading," said Kirino. The crowds that had filled the ancient temple were gone, and he too was slipping away. "I urge you again to run from this place, before it is too late!" Kirino vanished, reaching out to touch his son for the final time. The Atomfire sparked along Godzilla's spine as he closed upon the mutant. His decision made, Maki Sato stood his ground, and prayed...