Chapter X: Pure Form
:Antarcica, the crater:
"Jesus." Was all Mike could say.
Jessica shook her head in disbelief.
The crater was filled with dark green vines, broad, glossy-leafed plants and gorgeous, pink blossoms.
These were tropical plants, there was no way they could grow in Antarctica in the middle of a glacier. There was just no way!
"How, how could this've happened?" Mike stammered.
Reaching down, Jessica ran a finger gently down one of the leafs, as if it were all a dream, and touching it would bring back reality. "It has to do with the blue stuff. I know it does."
"Shit, you don't think it's doing the exact same thing with Aaron, do you? You don't think it's turning him into some kind of plant, do you?"
She couldn't help smile, even despite the seriousness of the situation. "No. The Tsunagara touched it too, and that hasn't turned into some giant plant."
"Watch, it'll just be a matter of time." Mike muttered with a shudder. "I think we'd better not touch the stuff if we find any of it."
She silently agreed with him as she raised a layer of the thick leaves and vines.
A small spot of the blue substance shimmered in the tiny beam of sunlight that hit it. Pulling out a small jar from a pocket, Jessica unscrewed the lid, using it to help her scoop up some of the gunk into the jar which she quickly resealed and deposited into her arctic coat.
Had the blue stuff really grown these tropical plants, adapting them to the freezing cold? Was it possible? No, it wasn't, and yet here it was. Whatever it was, was definitely alien.
Aaron, wherever you are, please, please be ok!

:Upstate NY, facility:
Ikeda smiled at the doctor as he relayed the message.
"It's strange, despite its size, I guess the Tsunagara didn't put up much of a fight. Godzilla toasted it before the Tsunagara could do him any real harm."
He nodded, and the doctor moved away, returning to his duties.
-So, Little One, you are truly mine now.- Ikeda touched the beasts muzzle, feeling the beasts confusion and anger towards him inside his mind.
The American scientist struggled still, swearing at him in the colorful language many Americans liked to use. It didn't matter though. Nothing mattered now, nothing...
Bright waves of pain suddenly slammed through his body. Ikeda collapsed, struggling to breathe as the pain forced the breath from his lungs.
All around him, he could hear voices, worried, some shouting. None of it made sense though, it was all gibberish as the pain continued to wreck his focus.
Then, above it all, rose a mournful cry that actually made him want to weep.

Aaron saw Ikeda collapse, moaning in pain. For a slight second, he was confused, concerned, but quickly recovered by grinning. "There, like that, you bastard? It's all worth it now, huh?"
One of the scientists nearby shot him a warning glance. Aaron just grinned back even more.
He could feel the sudden rush of pain swarm inside his mind, his entire body, but thanks to that Jappo-nutcase' telepathy blockers, it didn't quite have the same effect on him.
But what the hell is it?
Even Tsui, his new nickname for the baby Tsunagara, seemed to be trapped in the intense waves of pain, his neck stretched out and up as if he were choking, his scales suddenly glistening as the parasite/virus organism shimmered and hummed, flowing in and out of the spaces between scales. The effect made Tsui look like a giant, beached Leviathan. It was beautiful, but very, very horrifying to watch.
"What the hell is going on?" Aaron shouted.
No one paid him any attention.
"Yo! Turncoat!" He shouted to a scientist who suddenly stood up from Ikeda's side.
The man turned, looked irritated at Aaron.
"What's wrong with them? Why are they..."
Tsui opened his small mouth, a moan, sadder and louder than Aaron had ever heard him make yet, escape from the depths of his monstrous size. He suddenly found himself with tears in his eyes, the pain magnifying until he too was moaning in pain.
So much for Ikeda's blockers, he thought as the sudden familiarity of blackness swept over him.

It was more than a host. More than a symbiot even. It was home, it was a part of it's very own being now. More than just symbiots, they could touch each other, reach out to others, turning the many into one. But not a one like a hive. More of a one like a perfect machine, many pieces, each different, all unique, but making up the one, the whole.
Lately, it could feel its reach expanding, the distances in-between great, but continuously expanding each time the electric tingle of a new live cell touched it.
It had touched something unnatural of late though. A part of it actually died, simply ceased to function, to exist. What was this thing that could destroy with a touch of its own energy? What? What being could it have possibly encountered that had this ability? It, until now, was completely indestructible.
Its current host was dying, almost dead. The beings touch had been enough to shock it, rendering the host unable to fight back. But now the thing was gone, and its host was dying. It couldn't die, couldn't let the host die.
It flowed from every corner it hid in, every crevice, even from the unbearable heat that tried to consume it. In a strange, shimmering pool of blue, it collected beneath the burning, unconscious host.
In a sudden, last effort at survival, it rose like a wall around the host, reaching towards the sun, shimmering and glistening in the pure heat, the pure energy that radiated from the small, yellow-white star. Collapsing onto the host, it smothered the flames with its own body, form, reaching into the live cells of the host that hadn't been utterly destroyed by the flames.
As if it were the most simple thing in the universe, it began to rewrite the genetic material in each cell, forming them into new ones, more adaptable to what it needed. The newly rewritten cells shuddered, electric energy suddenly streaking acrossed their membranes. One of them expanded, pinching at the middle until the umbilical snapped, leaving two cells in place. As if on cue, thousands of other newly mutated cells began to pinch, to copy themselves. In an instant, there were millions where before there had been only thousands.
And resting inside the very cells themselves, it found a new meaning to life. It no longer needed a home, a shell. It was now a free entity.
It was now its own master.

The tropical, alien landscape rose up from the darkness. Aaron recognized it, and was instantly calmed. If he was here, he assumed that Tsui would be too, meaning that the creature was now free from Ikeda's awful mind control.
At least there is no pain here, Aaron thought with a smile.
-Mother!- Tsui cried from below in the forest, his small, dinosaur-like head poking out from the trees.
"Don't worry, it's all right, Tsui." He called down. "I told you before, I'll help you get back to your mom."
"His 'mother' no longer exists." A heavily accented voice behind him spoke.
Aaron whirled around in the air. "Ikeda."
Ikeda was grinning, his eyes narrowed to nothing more than dark slits. He slowly held up one hand. The blue substance that Aaron had seen him pull out from Tsui's scales again covered his hand. The blue stuff appeared to be alive, shifting and rolling along Ikeda's hand. "It's the perfect organism. A parasite, invading and living off another organism. And, a virus, capable of replicating, and rewriting. Beautiful."
Tsui released a small growl at the sight of Ikeda. Aaron agreed with the Tsunagara. "What do you mean the Tsunagara doesn't exist? What have you done to her?"
Chuckling, Ikeda ran a finger from his other hand acrossed the blue stuff. "I actually had nothing to do with the Tsunagara's destruction. Gojira nearly killed it, and the parasite/virus merely rewrote whatever living cells were left to allow it to survive."
-Mother!- Tsui came closer, his head almost grazing Aaron's leg. -Where's mother?-
"Gojira?" Aaron whispered. "Godzilla?" To kill the Tsunagara, he would have to be in the U.S., and the only one that I know of who would be able to pull those kind of strings...
"You goddamned bastard!" Aaron hollered, grabbing the front of Ikeda's suit with two fists.
Ikeda smiled, and disappeared.
-It's a pure organism. Its existence, down to its form is so pure, so magnificent.- The accent voice was all around him, inside of him. -The power... Not from control, but from creating.-
"What have you done? Bastard, what horror have you just unleashed?!"
-Genesis.-