(A/N: Here's the real humans-standing-by-stupidly chapter. Fortunately, it will be the last such chapter… but stay tuned for the next one, please.)
The Guardian of Earth swept over the ruins of Sendai, so huge and yet so quiet that it didn't seem that it could be real. He (for, in spite of his delicacy and grace, the creature was indisputably male) lit atop the remains of Sendai Castle and watched the rampant Space Demon with benign curiosity.
In terms of size, the new arrival was nowhere near his opponent; his wingspread was about the same as Godzilla's height and accounted for most of his body. Unlike the other kaiju, he was mute, issuing no shriek, bellow, chirp or bray, but simply sitting silently and observing Ghidora at work.
Among those watching, the reactions were varied. For instance, aboard the flagship of the US Fleet, the admiral lowered a pair of binoculars to his chest, wearing a strange half-smile. "Sir!" one of his officers called, "The Frontier missiles are ready! … Sir?"
Near Xolarus's grounded rocket, the technicians stopped their feverish work and stared skyward stupidly. The Prince recovered almost instantly but didn't berate them, instead turning to a communications operator and snapping, "Get me Xoltan!"
"What is that?" Kaori asked fearfully, pressing close to Sakaki. The towering girl didn't answer, but still managed to beam reassurance to her. After a few more seconds of stunned silence, though, the new attendant suddenly cocked her head to the side. "I hear something," she said uncertainly, "A voice. Do you hear?"
"Mm." Sakaki nodded and then, without consulting anyone, started in the direction Kaori indicated. Four or five of the Marines that had just been loitering about nervously abruptly sprang to life and followed; either Sakaki was so concerned that she'd forgotten about them or she was getting used to this whole "Queen" thing. Kaori didn't know how to feel about that last possibility.
Elsewhere in the city, the Guardian's passage had only necessitated a brief pause in Xond's kicking of the lump on the street before him. As he continued, though, a communicator chimed. He snapped his open in aggravation… but the tone continued. Smiling slightly, he squatted down next to the lump and said, "It's for you, sir."
Even in the astral plane, this strange being aroused confusion. "It's neither Mothra nor a perversion of her," the right Shobijin said, "I'm glad we don't have another Battra on our hands, but what… what is this?"
"I think I understand," Lefty said. "It's a… a refinement. This is the creature that Battra should have been. Mothra is the embodiment of the joy of life, yes? Well… what we have here is the embodiment of that which the joy of life cannot exist without. I don't know what you'd call it… melancholia?"
Behind them, the mighty Elder One glowed approvingly.
At least one person in the doomed city didn't have time for Mothra gazing, however. Kagura raced down a street at an easy pace (for her), searching for any sign of her missing friends. She carefully logged every turn she took, mentally counting down to when she'd turn back and find Chiyo again.
Poor little thing! Kagura found, to her complete amazement, that she felt very little fear at the prospect of being atomized, but it was intolerable that the same fate should befall Chiyo-chan. Were she to analyze herself more closely, the athlete might have figured out that her nonchalance was just a defense mechanism, but Kagura was never one for navel-gazing.
Just when she had given up on finding anyone, she skidded to a halt and gave a cry of disbelief and joy. "Oi! Tomo! Tomo! Over here!" The Takinator had been trudging along, drenched to the bone and miserable, but as soon as she caught sight of Kagura, they snapped together and hugged furiously, pounding each other on the back.
"Kagura! Ha haa! How ya been, ya old meathead?"
"Better than you, looks like!" Though they'd only parted ways a few hours before, it felt like it'd been years. "Last I saw, you were runnin' off dragging Osaka! She with you too?"
Tomo laughed. "The little dork pushed me off the boat!"
"Wow, what was she thinking?"
Without the slightest drop in her manic joy, Tomo cried, "I just don't know anymore!" After they shared a slightly uneasy laugh (what had been going through Osaka's head?), Kagura sobered and said, "Listen. Chiyo's stuck under some rubble back that way. I can't move it on my own."
"Well you're both in luck that you found the strongest girl in the High School, then!" Tomo flexed her scrawny arm. "Check it out!"
"Umm… I think I'm a little stronger—ow!"
"Hyaa!"
Kagura took a step back, clutching her nose. "Hell, no reason to attack me! Okay, c'mon, we don't have much time."
"Why not?"
Rather than explain, the athlete took off at her "easy" pace, finding to her annoyance that she had to slow a little so Tomo could keep up. The disruption in her routine caused Kagura to miss a turn, which turned out to be very fortuitous, for they came across the strewn debris of a bank and among them…
"Yomi?" Tomo yelped.
The Bespectacled One stood stock-still, arms at her sides, face gray with shock. Less than five meters from her, one of the late Caesar's great pawprints crushed into the pavement. Two jagged gravity-beam scars converged about seven meters away on the other side; the very edges of their zones of desolation brushed her shoes. The bank had crumbled into the street, surrounding her with huge chunks of rubble. From the looks of things, she'd been almost killed at least four times since they had last seen each other.
"Hey, Yomi?" Kagura asked, snapping her fingers in the taller girl's face. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"
"It was the sort of experience…" she responded dully, "That can drive one insane."
"Insane?" Tomo yelled, jumping onto her back and hooking her legs around Yomi's waist. "You? Ha! You're the most boring person I know!" Yomi was instantly back to normal, whirling in an effort to dislodge her best friend. "Doofus! Get offa me!"
Kagura could hardly believe her luck. At this rate, the whole group would be together in minutes! Perhaps Osaka would fall from the sky next. Reigning in her relieved laughter, she beckoned both of them onward. "We have to help Chiyo-chan, c'mon!"
The three of them ran together, their camaraderie forming a bubble against the distant shriek and thunder of Ghidora's renovation. Their high came to an instant, crashing end, though, when a harsh voice yelled at them in X-lish. Two silver-suited, helmeted men stood guarding Chiyo's street with needle-ray carbines, and one was gesturing to them.
"Does he want us to…?" Kagura waffled for a moment.
"Yeah, no reason to get shot," Yomi said, putting her hands behind her head and moving towards them. The spokesman threw his hands down and said something else, his meaning clear: put your hands down, stupid! We're not arresting you!
Slightly confused, the three continued through, escorted by the guards, until they came at last to the street where Kagura's search had started. There they came upon the last and greatest shock of the search.
"Holy shit!" Kagura exclaimed, forgetting that she kissed her mother with that mouth, too. "Wouldja look at this!"
The artificial boulder that had trapped Chiyo was shifted aside, the prybar still sticking out of under it and the blue-skinned crew that had worked that simple machine sitting around and sweating. At least eight Marines stood guard around the whole area; the reason for their presence became obvious as Kagura's eyes fell on the alien Prince, standing impressively with nothing to do, golden cloak flapping in the wind.
Her gaze traveled down to another Xian who crouched next to a shaky Chiyo, listening to her speak and occasionally nodding. The prodigy was wrapped in another golden cape, though where it had come from—Kagura's eyes snapped up from Chiyo to see the large dark shape behind her. It was… it was Sakaki! She sat with her arms around the tiny girl, her expression characteristically grave. And behind her…
"Where did you come from?" Kaori asked incredulously. And then all at once the Xian translator was shoved aside and the girls clustered together, babbling excitedly. None of them could believe it! What were the odds that they would find each other in this maelstrom?
Meanwhile, in the astral plane: "Oh, well played, Elder One!" Lefty congratulated.
"That was nothing," the flattened cat said proudly. "You should see when I screw with their dreams!"
What shall we call the Guardian? He certainly wasn't Battra, and Dark Mothra would imply that he was female. Osakthra is almost perfect, but unfortunately, I didn't come up with that one. Thus, the creature shall henceforth be known as "Gathra," a combination of Ga (Japanese for Moth), Mothra and "Goth," because he resembled nothing so much as a gothic Mothra. And I just think it's fun.
Whatever the name, Ghidora didn't even notice his bizarre foe until less than forty meters separated them. He coiled wildly about, his view filling with Gathra's dramatic wings for an instant before foof!, a fine powder burst from the big bug's wings and billowed around him, instantly filling all three sets of nostrils.
Ghidora's coordination was completely shot. His wings started beating out of time and his heads writhed confusedly, so before long he plummeted into the sea of black grit that had once been Sendai's industrial sector. There he staggered drunkenly to his feet and cast about desperately for something to eat—it seems the fearsome Space Demon had come down with a serious case of the munchies.
Next, Gathra glided over to the fallen Monster King. After a few seconds of determined wing-buffeting failed to stir Godzilla, Earth's Guardian grabbed hold of his tail and started dragging him through a row of buildings. That got results.
Now that Sendai was home to two thrashing, confused, gigantic monsters, the Guardian drifted higher and took some time to examine his handiwork, making no effort to press his advantage over Ghidora. If he was planning to actually save the world, he was sure being leisurely about it.
He was like his mother in that.
Far beneath him, though, two tiny figures were being a little more proactive. Xond and Xoltan stumbled through the darkened streets, somehow supporting each other and the weight of the Proton Anchor across both sets of shoulders.
"That way!" Xoltan grunted.
"Don't you have ears? That way!" Xond snarled back.
"The sound bounces around, stupid! These are tall buildings!"
"I'm telling you--!" Then Ghidora ended their debate by crashing down a few hundred meters away and throwing a frantic look around, obviously seeing something everybody else was missing. Two of his heads started belching red-wreathed gravity beams at targets that weren't there.
As amusing as his inebriated state might have been, he was still a terrifying sight to behold. Such a massive creature moving so violently, shrieking so, spraying those horrible beams about… and those eyes… Xoltan knew why he was the Space Demon now. Such a creature could only have come from Hell.
"Help me aim it," Xoltan gritted, painfully lowering himself and mounting the weapon on his arm. Xond stood behind him and adjusted its mouth. It was supposed to be a lightweight, one-man weapon, but neither was in a condition to use it. There was no time to fuss too much; the monster was already moving on. And so, with a muttered prayer, the Third fired.
P-toonk!
Their target, of course, was the still-gaping wound on Ghidora's chest. And, with the agent's eagle eye behind it, the projectile arrowed straight up into it, vanishing into the brittle scab without a sound. There was a pause, and then…
It was raining black Ghidora blood. The Anchor blew his wound even wider, setting the monster reeling back, but he was very clearly not done yet. Completely forgetting his momentary high as a waterfall of oozing, stringy blood ran down his torso, Ghidora started spewing ravening beams all over the ground before him. The evil energy poured from his chest as well, spreading out from him in a crimson cloud.
The two Xians had hit the deck, crunching up for dear life. Xoltan shouted to make himself heard over the din of Ghidora's assault. "Xond? I love you, man!"
Godzilla rose. He was covered from head to toe in white burns, smoking, battered, unsteady… but most importantly very, very pissed. Oddly, a dim nimbus of dark blue surrounded him as he closed in behind the distracted space dragon and bulldozed into him.
Ghidora howled and used his twin tails to shove the Earth monster away. More gravity beams followed Godzilla… but when they struck the nimbus, Ghidora's hellish red light was repelled, leaving only the plain vanilla beams to strike and smolder on his impervious flesh. Godzilla responded in kind, and his beam struck much more painfully.
Seeing that he would lose the ranged contest, Ghidora struck with his teeth, raising gouts and sprays of light-green blood. This tactic proved even less successful, however, when Godzilla started trying to grab for his sucking chest wound. Such things are usually a liability in hand-to-hand (or head) fighting.
It was that strange blue nimbus, Ghidora's primitive mind realized; this was why the puny Earth monster could stand against him. But how could he deal with it? It was then that he noticed Gathra atop Sendai Castle in the distance. Of course! It was clear now where that energy was coming from…
And what to do about it.
Ghidora sprang over Godzilla's head, clubbing him in passing with his talons and then both tails. Gravity beams slashed out over the castle, making Earth's Guardian softly take flight and spiral skyward. Ghidora tore after him angrily, banking to the side to avoid another atomic ray from below.
More of the happy dust drifted down, but it did absolutely nothing to slow the Space Juggernaut's advance. Instead of using his beams, it seemed that the invader wanted the visceral pleasure of tearing this delicate creature apart. And for a few moments, it looked like nothing would prevent him from getting it.
Voip! An astral blade dug into the joint of his wing, making him falter in the air and whip by beneath Gathra. Another dug along his back as he went, but the wounds quickly healed. Ghidora turned and hocked a few beams, which the moth easily evaded. They hovered a kilometer above the city, faking left, then right, then left again…
Ghidora plunged ahead once more! Voip! Voip! Voip! Astral blades raked across his faces and back and wings, but they proved to be just as effective as the happy dust. Shrieking triumphantly, Ghidora grabbed the Guardian's wings in two of his sets of teeth and brought his taloned feet up to tear into him…
"So that's how it is, then…" Xandra muttered, whisking through the Great Saucer's corridors. Crewmen rushed this way and that, none taking notice of the girl and her dragon in spite of the beast's uneasy warbling. It could feel the tension in her shoulders and the ship's crazed atmosphere, and was set to take flight any second. "It was all true. The little magical women are real, my sister is real, and the Space Demon is down there out to destroy all life."
She slipped into a lift before the doors closed, hitting the Hold level with a shaking finger. As she stood there, awkwardly sharing the tiny disc with four burly soldier-types, the dragon started nipping at one of their ears. Brushing off her panicked apology, he disembarked with his fellows and they jogged off in formation. "Now what do they think they're doing to help?" she asked the air.
Finally, Xandra came to the now-empty hold and plunged unhesitatingly into its cool darkness. She would need a place where nobody would disturb her, and this was as good as any. The Xian girl rushed to the center of the great room and sat down cross-legged, closing her eyes. "Do you still want my help? You've taken my Earth sister, Mothra… will you need Auntie Xan, too?"
She was expecting it, but a chill still shot through her when an affirmative drifted into her mind from… from elsewhere. Decision time, then. And after seeing the Space Demon in action, there was no alternative. "Okay, I'll help." Almost instantly, though, she was made to change her mind. What was--?
Xan clutched at her chest as if trying to stop something from leaving, and slowly sank to the deck. "P-please!" she gasped. "I… I don't want to d…" And then, except for slow, shallow breathing, she was still. After a few seconds, the dragon nibbled at her ear uncertainly, but there was no response.
The change in Gathra was immediately evident. In the last few, molasses seconds as Ghidora's claws flashed towards his underside, the bug was shot through with faint light. The silvery pattern visible in his wings from the moonlight was joined by another pattern, this one golden. Now there was no doubt; staring at those wings for too long would drive one mad.
Ghidora didn't notice. He was still in mid-triumphant shriek when…
VOIP!
All was silent. Both hung almost still in the air for an interminable moment as the astral blade's trail faded from the air. Then, still in eerie silence, Ghidora's middle head slid off and fell to the city far below. The Space Monster started to fall after, but Gathra wasn't done with him yet.
VOIP! A wing snapped free and was borne away by the wind.
VOIP! Diagonally through his knee and tail, severing both.
And then, with a thunderous crash that seemingly shook all of Honshu, Ghidora hit the ground. All might not have been silent after that, but it sure seemed that way to those present. The only one not reeling from this colossal sound was Godzilla, who wandered over to his foe's massive corpse and nudged it with a foot, giving a disappointed grunt when it didn't move.
Activity returned to the Xian camp as slowly as their hearing did, until Xolarus finally shook himself off and started yelling at his men to get back to work. His second thought was to go to Sakaki, but she was still surrounded by her friends, who, he could see, were supporting her much better than he ever could.
The first of the girls to speak, naturally, was Tomo. "Oh my God…" she said, "That was so… so…" Without looking, Yomi clapped a hand over her mouth. Chiyo started to try and say something, but her voice gave out. All they could do is watch as Godzilla started to lumber back to the ocean, actually passing fairly close to them.
But through the mighty kettle-drum of his walking, Sakaki happened to notice a much higher, softer, faster sound. A man's boots beating on the pavement. She turned just in time to see the third Proton Anchor bearer skid to a halt in their midst and fire it up into the Monster King. "You-?" was all she managed.
"Yess! I got him!" the soldier yelled, pumping his fists. "Woo-hoo! I'm gonna be a Captain for sure!" His celebration ended when Godzilla's head turned and looked squarely at him. "…uh!"
The monster's dorsal spines burst into blue flame. Sakaki noted coldly that there would be about a tenth of a second before they were all vaporized in atomic flame. She hugged Chiyo-chan a little tighter and closed her eyes…
And then, with a blast of cool, sweet air, Gathra's wings burst open above them. Godzilla's beam struck his wooly back and he instantly burst into flame, mute as ever. The Guardian flapped unsteadily away, the fire spreading across his body hideously fast, and crashed into a mostly undamaged street nearby.
Godzilla glanced after him in confusion, looked back at the ground, then, with a flick of his tail and an 'eh, whateva' grunt, he slid into the waves with barely a ripple. Seeing Sendai denuded of monsters (and one of them coming right at them), the American flotilla started to withdraw.
Gathra's body dissolved as he settled down, becoming a bluish-white, glittery powder that puffed out and covered the street in a thin layer for several hundred meters of its length. When the dust settled, two high-pitched, faerie-like voices spoke in unison. "You look a little lost."
"A… a little…" Osaka agreed dazedly.