AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, this Spotlight's a special one. A while back, a friend of ours, PaxRomaDacia, pitched this very Spotlight idea to us, and we were more than happy to let him write it, so credit for this one goes to him. I'd like to thank him so much for this, it's a very interesting and unique Spotlight that also helps set the seeds for a few things to come.

DISCLAIMER: I own absolutely none of the properties you will see here. All rights go to their respective owners.


Infinity Verse Spotlight

Gigan: Vanguard of Doom


In the deep reaches of space in the Milky Way galaxy, there lies a moon void of all life orbiting a dead world with many other celestial objects of its kind. The moon itself is only half full, the other half appearing to be blown apart by some sort of astronomical disaster. Orbiting the moon, a graveyard of alien ships floats like driftwood above water, the wreckage brushing across the thin atmosphere just barely piercing the dead rock. An armada of destruction would have been fitting to describe the mass size and scale of the saucer-shaped spacecraft. But now the name fits a more literal term with its final resting place being an unknown solar system that only shrouds an ocean of debris of some alien species. Whatever life that existed is now gone.

There was more than the wreckage of ships existing, however. For on the surface of the dead half-destroyed moon lies a large, dark figure resting in rock and dust. A large crater surrounded the object in question, one formed from an impact of massive force that left its mark like a scar among flesh. Perhaps here lied the final victim of this tragic display of war and the fate of all such things in the act: Pure destruction for the sake of destruction. A final means of an end fulfilled until broken beyond repair.

Such a thing was proven wrong when the figure awakened.

What one would mistake as a ship from the distance would be more than wrong. For this dark object rose from the ground and revealed its form: A creature of massive proportions commonly classified as Kaiju. The creature began to lift itself with its massive metallic arms, the act of simply rising from slumber creating quakes across the surface of the crater as the being stood upright. The creature had been asleep for some time. Long enough to know that it had been too long and had to assess the environment around it.

The beast was no ordinary Kaiju. An animal or alien alike could not stand out as it did. For its appearance alone rose questions to what it truly was, and truth be told, an answer would be hard to describe.

Design wise, the beast's first look is more of a war machine than of a living being, its dark blue skin being joined together with wire-like structures along its thin, streamlined body to form the appearance of flesh, with long hooks that curved slightly like blades as its hands, and smaller hooks for its feet. Along its belly, the beast had inside a large circular saw capable of cutting through the sturdiest of metals, a long tail with metal spikes running down it, three large, red sails that were fin-like in appearance, and on its head was a red visor. A single cybernetic eye that scanned its surroundings.

One would not see this beast as a Kaiju, but as a weapon to be used for war, and war it was used for many times in its lifetime. The avian features were barely noticeable. Only a beak and its body structure gave the indication that the cybernetic creature was, in fact, alive. Something that never occurred to the beast itself until now.

"Gigan!"

The beast jolted suddenly, raising its head above to see the sight of a floating graveyard above. Its red visor's blurred vision, static, and fuzz blinded it briefly as a voice addressed the creature and began speaking as if it had a whole conversation already. Images of various ships in battle and flashes of plasma and explosions filled the screen that provided an image of a heated battle.

"Destroy the…The order…We have been ambushed…There are too many…Damn you beast! Why can…Gigan, respond! Gigan, I order you…"

Suddenly the voice stopped, and its vision cleared to allow the creature to see the wreckage more clearly. Gigan…that was its name. A name that struck fear into the galaxy when uttered or brought up by its superiors when barked at. Gigan did not care for such things. It was a beast that carried out whatever task it had, followed them to perfection, and used its power by whatever means necessary to accomplish its tasks. Tasks that it no longer had.

Being a cyborg, the experience it had were recordings of its previous mission. Its brain was modified with implants that allowed the beast to have the processing power of a supercomputer to increase its intelligence and capabilities in battlefield scenarios while allowing itself to store video-like memories with the purpose of playing them back for others to learn from the cyborg. Such implants had the effect of creating an improvised form of flashbacks that acted almost like a movie, playing parts of the memory in a damaged form, most likely due to injuries sustained before or during Gigan's crash on the moon.

Gigan was now aware that it had lost its recent memories of the last battle it had been, suspecting that the graveyard above was what remains of its former masters before an ambush sealed their fate. Typically, when Gigan would be defeated and downed in combat, it would be retrieved by masters to be re-purposed and repaired for whatever future encounters to follow.

This time…this time, there was no master.

Gigan had awoken on its own volition. Not in a laboratory to be examined by scientists, not in a factory in the middle of having new parts welded into its body, not even in the middle of a battle against its various foes. It had awoken by itself on a dead rock. Vast and empty with no master or enemy in sight. Only it was here, and it made Gigan silent in thought.

Thought. Gigan was thinking for itself. It did not have data transmitted by a control mechanism as it always did. Only its own mind dominated the beast now. Not some overlord it was used to hearing. Gigan looked back down to the moon's surface and began to shake the dust and rocks off its body until none remained, its full body blending in the background of the dark surface, before taking its first step forward.

Gigan took another step forward, slowly walking to regain its sense of balance, and quickly adapted to the low gravity of the moon, thanks to its upgrades in withstanding gravitational changes of its body, before it began to run to the upward slope of the crater. The moment it felt the slope inclining, Gigan leaped high and easily glided upward out the crater and landed on its feet outside its latest grave.

It sensed something strange when it leaped out. Gigan was not sure what it was. It suspected a malfunction in a core system or injury within. Whatever it was, Gigan did not perceive it that way, and it even seemed beneficial. There was no logical explanation for it. It needed an explanation of the sensation, but there was none that its calculating brain could logically explain. Only that it was beneficial and should be ignored as it did not threaten it for now.

Thinking what to do now made the free Kaiju realize something: Without a master to control Gigan, what was it to do now? For as long and vast as its memories were, Gigan could not remember any previous functions it had carried out that did not involve war. Whenever it tried to think, it only had distorted images and indecipherable sounds of any memory that extended further than its most recent one. The crash it endured may have damaged its memory core further than the cyborg realized.

Without any warning, another memory stirred the moment Gigan stopped looking for one, and an older one played with the beast facing off against a more familiar foe: Godzilla. It saw moments of itself in an older form not nearly as modified as it was now, its hooks shorter and actual flesh shown in green and gold scales and not nearly as terrifying to behold as it is now.

Angry roars screamed from Godzilla, ones that began to echo in Gigan's memory as it saw itself swoop down and cut open his foe's shoulders with its abdominal buzz saw, blood spraying from another Kaiju, Anguirus, that ran into the same weapon. It then saw itself aiding another Kaiju it knew as King Ghidorah that acted as Gigan's ally for the fight. Then it saw itself losing, Godzilla beating the Kaiju to the ground, and retreating to leave its ally for dead when it knew Godzilla would win this battle. Gigan wondered briefly if it fled because of orders or fear for losing its life before the memory stopped and left the cyborg disorientated once more.

Gigan was sure the damage to its memory core was more severe than it thought. The flashbacks becoming more frequent could pose an issue to its now newly formed independence. How could it stop these lucid memories from haunting it, reliving all its past failures as some sort of curse? Was there even a point in being free if it is doomed to roam as if Hell itself was punishing it? Did Kaiju even have a Hell to begin with or any conception of religion?

The cyborg paused in thought…Was it having an existential crisis?

The cyborg thought this whole situation was ridiculous. Perhaps it was better to be enslaved. To not have these thoughts of self-worth. It made life easier for the giant Kaiju. But Gigan had nowhere to go. No one to fall back on. No master to claim it. It had to live on its own.

Gigan looked above once more at the wreckage of its former masters, the graveyard fleet that was a sign of another failure, and leaped up once more and began to fly towards its destination. The damage to its anti-gravitational generator was minimal, thankfully, so space flight is still possible. The need to breathe air also not needed due to having its lungs replaced with life support systems made to increase the odds of survival.

Right now, what mattered first was survival in this vast galaxy, and the cyborg needed something to repair the damage sustained. Salvaging intact metals from the ships would be the best course of action since the ship alloys made up a lot of Gigan's cybernetic armor. Plugging up the holes and wounds would have to do for now.

It did not take long to arrive at the wreckage, and Gigan began combing through the capital ships first to tear out the outer sheets of metal and graft them on his body. Small, four-legged drones crawled out of slots opened from Gigan's back and began the process of self-repair. The drone system was the latest upgrade provided to it by its former masters. The idea being that Gigan would be able to campaign in long-term conflicts, and having to retreat for repairs became unnecessary unless the cybernetic beast sustained major damage to core systems such as its memory core.

Off in the distance from the corner of Gigan's visor, it noticed one of the capital ships had begun moving and suddenly stopped. Zooming in with magnifying vision, Gigan could make out the details of claws grappling the top of the wrecked ship. Sight was more crucial than sound in space, so Gigan ceased its repairs and decided to fly cautiously around the wreckage, slowly making its way around and used larger ships to camouflage. When it got a better view from the other side, Gigan glided and hid behind another floating piece of wreckage and saw the monstrous intruder.

A large bat creature, colored red like blood with a dragon-like body held onto the wreckage, using its large, black wings like arms to hold on and not lose balance, positioning itself on an open hole. Gigan saw its head burrowed in the ship, digging through metal like dirt and tearing parts off the ship until poking its head out to reveal its horrific visage. Static and flashes struck Gigan once more, briefly showing the cyborg visions of the same creature flying through space and devouring various animals and sentients alike on another world, along with moments of Gigan engaging the creature in combat before coming back to the present.

Gigan recognized the space beast as Bagorah, the giant space bat made infamous for its ravenous hunger for all life forms. It had fought the space bat on occasion whenever he was interfering with an objective given by one of its former masters, intruding on his territory and beating him back into an unknown part of space so that Gigan could conquer worlds around it. Bagorah was a Kaiju known to be uncontrollable due to his feral nature, having a voracious appetite that claimed the lives of billions or even trillions to satiate the hunger of the beast.

Bagorah was occupied with tearing apart the ships for the real prize: Crew members of the destroyed fleet. Any sentient humanoids in this graveyard were mostly either floating bodies or stuck in the ships, and instinct was telling the space bat that food was bound to be around these destroyed fleets, for no one would take the bodies themselves. Dead or alive, it did not matter. Everything was food to the starving predator. Twitching its large ears, Bagorah cocked its head and let out a deafening screech.

SSSKKWWEEEEEEEE!

Bagorah used high-frequency sound waves as echolocation to locate any more potential prey nearby. It paired well with its hypersensitive hearing that had earlier heard the slight groans of metal behind. It detected Gigan instantly, sensing the cyborg's presence. It turned its head toward its cover and released its grip on the wreck. Bagorah, wings expanded full length, flew quickly towards Gigan's cover, and in a matter of milliseconds, unleased another sound wave far more powerful to blast away the hunk of metal and make Gigan crash behind another ruined shipwreck.

Underestimating how sensitive Bagorah's hearing was a mistake many have made. A mistake that was responsible for most to become the space bat's dinner. Gigan, however, was not some morsel, and quickly dodged another sound wave before it blew apart more wreckage. Blast after blast, Bagorah never let up its pursuit of Gigan as it chased the Kaiju as it dodged the shipwrecks while the space bat simply blasted them away and dodged larger pieces. Gigan knew hiding was pointless. Once Bagorah knew prey was nearby, running or fighting were the only choices left, and the sudden aggression threw the cyborg off guard.

Bagorah was a creature of surprise attacks, using his superior speed to catch prey off guard and overwhelm more durable opponents with pure aggression to break through defenses and tear at soft parts. Gigan knew it was a beast not to be underestimated, for despite being a Kaiju of pure instinct, there was a primal cunning that made Bagorah the survivor that it is now. However, a beast is all Bagorah was. It was no war machine like Gigan, who was formulating a plan.

Quickly rotating until it was upside down, Gigan flew in reverse towards Bagorah, gliding underneath the space bat, before using its buzzsaw to slice open his torso. Bagorah screeched in pain as he crashed into floating debris in front while Gigan flew forward to Bagorah and began a ranged offensive, unleashing a powerful laser blast from his visor like a shotgun spray, pelting the space bat and also blowing up the wreckage it collided into. Laser burns covered Bagorah's back, which enraged the beast as he spread its wings and flew towards Gigan once more.

Taking advantage of the space bat's rage, Gigan dodged Bagorah's charge and, with one swift motion, swiped its hook arm at Bagorah's arm, slicing the thin flesh of the wing that threw Bagorah's flight off and sprayed red blood across space. Bagorah screeched in pain once more, landing nearby a large shipwreck to lick its wound while Gigan roared at the space bat, letting out a loud electronic chirp that was far deeper than a mere bird. One that sounded like metal scratching a hard surface. Bagorah screeched back, flexed its wing to test its wound, and flew away from Gigan until it was no longer in sight.

A short but brief encounter relieved Gigan. The last thing it needed was a conflict with Bagorah. Despite the fierce nature of the space bat, it was still an animal, and animals vicious as that had to be fended off by displaying a show of strength. Gigan knew this was not Bagorah's territory. Scavenging for dead bodies in the middle of nowhere was not like the ravenous beast at all. His former masters took great care in plotting their course to avoid the other cosmic Kaiju and were experts in such matters.

Gigan returned to salvage and repairing its body, but could not help but think of why Bagorah was so far from its usual territory.


Space was such a strange but beautiful thing. An imperfect vacuum of various stars and planets spread across galaxies of interstellar dust blown by solar wind, with strange anomalies of black holes and aftermaths of rubble made of asteroids and planetoids as the ruins of the galaxy formed anew for whatever cosmic purpose. One of these many phenomena that form the identity of this galaxy and many others caught the awe and majesty of the otherwise unimpressed Gigan: Clouds of particles and atoms called Nebulae.

Gigan was not new to space travel. For as long as it could remember, it was traveling mostly in space, only ever to worlds to accomplish the tasks its masters would tell it to do and move on to the next, usually involving the destruction of said worlds. Now, however, Gigan was free to think of whatever it wanted of its surroundings and could not help but be enthralled by the sight of the Nebulae before it.

It was much like a field of clouds in vibrant colors. Something out of dreams that many sentients experience for the first time. Many nebulae had various colors, but the ones here seemed like a rainbow of ecstasy. Bright green with wavy lines that flowed like a river, flat browns like murky water, purple that sprayed across in streams of glory, it was all varied in shapes and sizes that seemed so strange yet so natural. No records of such a nebula exist in Gigan's memory banks, but it cared not for it, for it was fascinated by the display as it flew into the clouds.

Gigan had decided to follow the last charted course his former masters had plotted. The route he had downloaded as orders from them led to the nebulae before it, and out of those memories, he had remembered the former name of his master and her master race: Vorticia and the Vortaak.

The Vortaak were insignificant to Gigan, the more it thought of them. How he had come to service to such pathetic creatures, he'd never know, and the mere thought of its former life humiliated it. The thought of replaying the memory of Vorticia barking orders at Gigan and calling him a no-good beast did not resonate well with it after experiencing more flashbacks to its past. Being in this field of nebula clouds calmed Gigan and cleared its mind. It gave the cyborg a peace it had not known since its time as a war machine and even eased the flashbacks it experienced of its masters.

Gigan no longer wished to serve a master, that much was clear. It did not take long to come to that conclusion when experiencing the newfound beauty and freedom it had. A life free of destruction was surprisingly the most appealing aspect of all. Despite being built for war, Gigan had a new lease on life, and it was to no longer fight in some pointless war where it would die and be remade to fight again. It had awakened a desire of independence deep inside that it wished to never let go and brought about more strange sensations of being within.

What were these feelings it had? It was made to be a machine of war. One to fight and die for whatever was required. Where did such feelings possibly emerge from? Gigan scoured every part of its memory for answers yet all it was provided with was more flashbacks of alien masters abusing and reusing its body, more defeats against hated foes, and victories with burning worlds and suffering of others. The more it thought, the more pain it remembered, and it gave up trying to find the answer to its feelings. Whatever flashback it experienced, it had to simply deal with it.

Returning to its previous thoughts, it dwelled on the coordinates of the new world its former masters had planned to travel to. It pondered on that the planet itself, from what little information it had, seemed unremarkable. Located at the edge of the galaxy, it was a rather barren and lifeless world with a past forgotten as whatever life used to exist seems to have vanished. Gigan thought it was strange for sentients to be fearful of lifeless rock. Foolish even.

As Gigan traversed the seemingly never-ending clouds of the Nebulae, it saw moving shapes ahead and slowed its flight to a cautious speed should it need to enter combat. The sight before Gigan became clear when it passed one more cloud, and the closest thing that could be felt was awe and majesty.

Giant masses of what could be described as space jellyfish roamed across the Nebulae. Together in unison, they floated among space and displayed bright lights to illuminate their bodies like flashing signals. Drifting endlessly in the void, Gigan carefully navigated around their umbrella-like bodies and avoided their long tentacles, less it desired to be ensnared in such eldritch beauty. The jellyfish populated the void like flowers in a meadow, blooming their radiance and showing unseen beauty that no one could see. All except for Gigan, who lowered its guard when it realized they were docile.

Beauty among the stars was a rarity in the galaxy, for it was but an empty void that held nothing but apathy to all that traverse them. Yet here it was shown otherwise. That life can flourish even under the most dire conditions and, in a strange way, Gigan felt moved by the presence of these creatures. All Gigan could remember was the wreckage of star fleets and bodies of those that cannot survive in the vacuum of space…this would be a pleasant memory worth looking back on.

Gigan's visor began to break up in static once more and knew this was yet another flashback, but it did not flail in panic. Feeling at ease in the field of jellyfish, it allowed the memory to play back.

Gigan saw it was underwater in its memory, its point of view appearing that it was swimming towards the surface of the water to rise for air. As soon as it rose, Gigan saw that it was looking at a lush landscape of jungle. Birds could be heard singing and chirping in the air, waves crashed by the coast that Gigan approached, casually swimming towards land to rise from the water before walking its way towards the beach-

SKKKWWWEEEEEEEEEE!

Gigan felt a large mass collide into it, shaking the cyborg out of its memory and grappled with Bagorah once more. The giant bat had not had enough, it seemed, ambushing Gigan when its defenses were lowered, and Gigan was ready to tear into Bagorah's flesh once more. But before it could activate its buzzsaw, Bagorah slipped past Gigan and screeched through space to never look back on its previous prey. Such odd behavior for an apex predator of the cosmos to flee in terror from Gigan.

Or so the cyborg thought.


Everything felt wrong to Gigan as it approached its destination, just passing the red sun of the world Gigan was soon to arrive on. The planet was far from its sun, and even farther than any charted course in the galaxy, the void seemingly growing darker as Gigan neared the dead world.

Korghan…That was the name of this world. Memories of the conversations between the Vortaak queen and her closest subordinates recalled to Gigan. They spoke of this world's name once and dared not mention it again when they talked of their plans. Legends vary among alien cultures on what they believe the planet to truly be. Some say it is a haven for demons to roam and create their own living Hell for the dark masters they serve. Others say it was once a world lush with life that had abandoned the planet to populate other worlds. Even ones without spiritual beliefs form their own conclusions that the planet was once lush with life until a mass extinction event wiped out all life, and the planet had not recovered since.

Whatever the case may be, all of these stories led to the common belief that Korghan was a planet that should not be spoken of. The mere mention of its name was enough to raise the eyebrows of the highest authorities in the galaxy. Unspoken rules were settled to never speak of such a world, and those that did were labeled as fools or ignored, worse if they continued prying for details.

The Vortaak, as fearful of the planet as all sentient beings were, had concluded that there was a strange force emanating from the planet that they were interested in. Stories of great evil in all cultures correlated with the legend of Korghan, the forbidden world of the void that should forever be lost, with the high possibility that an ancient civilization had once ruled that world and left behind lost technology that was waiting to be uncovered. Something that motivated the Vortaak to arrange an expedition to the world when they had recently acquired the coordinates to this fabled planet, though they were not guaranteed to be accurate on the star maps.

Gigan alone had proved the location held true as it passed a ring of asteroids, black rocks that floated like the debris of the fleet that was the closest it remembered of being home. It did not know why, but Gigan felt at unease of being around this world as it descended into its atmosphere, feeling as if it were about to enter somewhere it should not belong. Gigan had hoped to make a new home on this planet, but it already felt it should leave and considered doing so if not for the fact that Gigan had nowhere else to go. Yet how could that stop what was considered one of the greatest war machines of the galaxy? Gigan, the feared vanguard of invaders, for the first time, felt the fear that it had brought upon others while approaching the planet.

Despite it all, Gigan pushed on and while fearful of the planet. It also felt an allure to the darkness emanating from the world as if it were calling to Gigan, compelling it to keep going. These feelings only intensified as Gigan passed through the grey clouds to see the surface of the planet more clearly, or as clearly as it could since the unnatural darkness of the world past the clouds seemed to blend together all too well.

The surface was a dark and rocky land, and spread across it were mountains shaped like jagged spires and pointed cliffs, much like twisted maws of teeth with the flat wastelands being the gaping mouth. The clouds are always stormy and thunderous, yet it never rains on the surface, as much of the ground had dried up and cracked, ready to collapse under immense drought. The wind pierces through the air like razors scratching flesh, almost as if it were cutting you when you passed by, and all that could be felt was a coldness that not even the coldest of winters could match. Endless wastes stretched on and on, seemingly never-ending with no oceans or greenery in sight. Only black land could be seen…until Gigan spotted a strange formation in the distance.

It was the brightest spot on the planet, glowing white like a beacon in the dark ocean of rock, attracting the cybernetic beast as it flew further towards the light. Gigan could not rid the feeling of dread in itself, only intensifying as it flew towards the light, clinging to the hope that this world was more than just a dead wasteland and thought to itself that if this light was false, then it was time to muster up the courage to leave. It should have left now. It knew it should leave before this feeling gets worse, but Gigan needed to see more. To know more despite every instinct telling it to flee.

Suddenly, the bright lights started to get closer, splitting off into various spots as it neared Gigan. A light show of erratic patterns that moved in synchronization, giving Gigan the illusion that it was getting closer to the beacon. It was wrong, for it was not Gigan gaining speed, but the lights themselves. Gigan barely had time to react as the lights slammed into it, bursting on its body into crystalline explosions that blew back the beast and damaged its antigravity flight. It felt intense radiation seeping into its skin as it descended further down in a fall.

Gigan crashed onto the surface of the planet head first, an impact crater forming around the black rock that greeted the cybernetic beast with only more pain. It was not the first time Gigan had a crash landing, but the landing felt more painful than what hit the beast when it fell from higher skies and harder ground before. Static buzzed across its visor again, not from the flashbacks, but of damage to its sight. It could barely see a crack across the side of its red gaze before falling unconscious.


Gigan awoke to the sight of blue around it, floating in vast emptiness of the somber but soothing color. It felt at peace, oddly enough. It could not remember a time where it ever felt such serenity.

Bubbles floated out of its mouth, yet it did not feel the water crushing its lungs. It felt natural to breathe here.

It looked above the blue to see schools of fish swarming around above, swimming in motions like ballet.

Gigan felt the need to swim and did so.

There was no hesitation in its movements.

Gigan swam higher to the surface, passing the fish as they parted away from it as it saw the sun's light beaming down on it.

It was so close. It had to see it. It needed to see it…


Gigan was jolted awake at the sound of the ground cracking underneath it, activating its flight in near moments to leap up before crystal spires could impale it underneath as they burst up high.

Landing on its two feet, damaged but standing, Gigan saw the culprit of his crash before him: Space Godzilla. An old foe born from another, Gigan had met the cosmic clone numerous times in past conflicts, all of them ending with Gigan fleeing from it. Space Godzilla was no simple creature like most Kaiju. He had his own intentions and schemes for what he wanted to do in this galaxy. An independent agent of destruction to further his own sadistic gain.

Gigan knew this would be its most challenging fight yet, for it had no help from its masters or other Kaiju. Space Godzilla had rooted itself deeply in this world. The crystals he had created had grown to substantial heights and spread across the wasteland like wildfire to create a crystal kingdom of towers and spires. In the center of the fortress, Gigan could see two large crystal spheres, but something was off with them, for they were each a different color than the blank white crystals Space Godzilla produced.

Gigan did not have time to dwell on such curiosities, however, for Space Godzilla let out a roar that could make stars shatter from the sound of its screeching noise.

SKREEEUNNKKK!

The twisted parody of the King of Monsters raised its arms, jerking them high to raise more crystal spikes beneath Gigan, who leaped up in the air once more. Gigan tried to maintain flight but began to descend no matter how hard it tried to stay in the air. The impact of the crash must have damaged its anti-flight capabilities, and at most, Gigan could only glide and float in mid-air before having to land. It still had agility and mobility on its side, unlike Space Godzilla, but the cosmic clone had range on his side and did not need to close in for a kill to defeat opponents.

Gigan knew he had to get close to Space Godzilla. There was no running from this fight, and it could not avoid attacks forever without exhaustion. A war of attrition was in favor of Space Godzilla. It needed to end this quickly and without hesitation. Using its anti-gravity flight, it propelled itself forward, narrowly dodging the crystal spikes below it and straightened its body forward, with the intent to slice Space Godzilla's head with its buzzsaw.

Space Godzilla anticipated the move and leaped upward, narrowly dodging the strike, and levitated in the air to turn around and blast Gigan in the back with his energy beam, damaging Gigan's sails and tearing a hole in one of them. Gigan lost control and crashed once more to the ground, cracking through the rocky ground to leave a trail behind it of Gigan's impact. Space Godzilla raised crystal spikes below Gigan once more, intending to finish the cyborg off while it was down.

Lifting itself up with its hooks, Gigan propelled itself forward and flipped away from the spikes, but not without getting punctured by one near its chest. Landing upright, Gigan began to sprint to the side as Space Godzilla fired its red beam once more, trailing the speedy cyborg as it was barely managing to avoid the deadly beam.

Gigan could not afford to stop moving. It made him a sitting target for Space Godzilla if he stood still, but so far, its attempts to get close were in vain. Space Godzilla had learned from past fights what would happen if Gigan went in close and knew to keep it away. Space Godzilla stopped its beam attack and began a new tactic. He raised his arms again, both by his sides, and rose two giant crystal towers close by him, a large red crystal in the top of them. All Space Godzilla did was point ahead of Gigan's path, and out from the red crystal tip came a lighting strike that Gigan narrowly avoided.

The towers began to shoot crystals from the sides, pointed needle-like projectiles launching at Gigan at rapid speeds. Gigan sidestepped away from the needle crystals and deflected the few he could not dodge with his hook arms, slashing them apart before they got too close and fired back at Space Godzilla with his laser beam. Space Godzilla simply deflected the laser away from him, waving his hand at the beam as it hit a nearby mountain instead and blew a hole right through it.

More needle crystals launched at Gigan, this time ahead of the cyborg, who fired a laser shotgun blast in front to blast the crystals apart while losing no momentum. Making a sharp turn left, Gigan began its frontal assault again and fired its laser once more. Space Godzilla deflected the beam as he commanded his towers to launch another lighting strike at Gigan, who, in turn, ducked down and launched itself forward with its anti-gravity to propel forward.

Space Godzilla raised his arms in front, creating a crystal wall that rose to block Gigan's path, growing taller than either Kaiju and forcing Gigan to leap up in the air to just barely glide above the crystal wall. Before Space Godzilla could command his towers to zap Gigan above him, expecting the cyborg to close in, it instead launched the grappling hooks under its arms to coil around each of the red crystal tops and, with enough force and speed, managed to tear them off the towers, causing them to crumble around Space Godzilla.

Gigan slid down on the ground feet first, sliding across the wasteland with the red crystals in its hooks, and spun its body like a twister, causing the unstable crystals that were about to unleash their power to be flung towards Space Godzilla before it retracted its grappling hooks. Space Godzilla did not expect such a reckless move from Gigan, and before he could respond, the red crystals collided with him, exploded in red bursts and knocked the cosmic clone away from his spot.

Seeing its opportunity, Gigan ran towards Space Godzilla and leaped forward once more in the air, gliding towards its target and activated its buzzsaw to slash at its foe. Space Godzilla levitated back up from the ground and waved its hands forward at Gigan as if he was trying to block a wall. Gigan suddenly felt its speed diminish, and by the time Gigan got close enough to see Space Godzilla's face mere inches away, it was stuck in midair and perfectly still at the monster's mercy.

A sense of glee overtook Space Godzilla to see one of his arch-enemies trapped in its telekinesis, almost mocking the cyborg for being so close yet so far to strike a blow with its blades. Gigan did not take it lightly, however, and opened its metal beak, launching a blast of fire from within that engulfed Space Godzilla's head, which made the cosmic lizard drop the cyborg and step back in pain. Once the fire diminished, Space Godzilla looked down to see Gigan raise its left hook up, knocking the lizard up in the jaw and giving enough time for Gigan to begin a flurry of strikes with his hook blades. Every slash and jab at Space Godzilla cut open his flesh little by little, each more painful than the last as his blood sprayed across the landscape. Too many strikes like this could make Space Godzilla bleed out. Despite his regeneration, he could not heal fast enough if Gigan kept its assault.

Space Godzilla slid its prehensile to the side, coiling around Gigan's leg to trip it down, and dragged the cyborg across the ground and away from the cosmic lizard. Not wishing to be pushed away from Space Godzilla again, Gigan slashed down at its coiled leg, cutting open a wound on the tail, which let go to recoil from the pain. Space Godzilla let out a pained screech, flinging the tail back and slamming it down behind him before seeing Gigan stand up within a short distance from him.

Gigan pointed its arms slightly above its target, launching its grappling hooks to have them coil around Space Godzilla's shoulder crystals. They tightly wrapped around them and it began reeling them in to drag Space Godzilla towards it. The lizard roared loudly at the attack, almost angry in a way, and attempted to step back away without losing balance. It only prompted Gigan to use its flamethrower again, blasting flame at Space Godzilla to burn him once more. But the cosmic lizard fired back with his red beam, easily going through the fire and hitting Gigan inside the mouth and caused the flamethrower inside Gigan to explode.

Gigan roared in pain, its organs and circuits burning inside from the internal blast as it blasted smoke from its mouth, the cooling systems just kicking in to douse the flames should its hidden weapon be destroyed. Despite such pain, Gigan stood firm, staggering slightly but continued to drag Space Godzilla closer as it activated its buzzsaw.

Space Godzilla blasted his beam at Gigan's body belly up, blasting away its body more, destroying the deadly close-range weapon. Gigan again roared in pain, a fainter roar as its visor showed several damage reports. The blast had damaged much of its internal systems, the feeling of its insides being vaporized being greater than any feeling it felt before as Space Godzilla blasted its beam over and over the closer he got to Gigan. Sparks flew from its body, explosions shortly afterward, more roars of pain followed, but Gigan never released Space Godzilla from its grip. It did not have another chance like this. If Gigan released him now, Space Godzilla would finish it off.

Thoughts of fear and sadness crossed Gigan as it pulled Space Godzilla towards it within arm's reach. It wondered what could have been if there was no other Kaiju here. Would Gigan have ever found peace? Is there really a chance to start a new life away from masters? Was there ever really any hope for Gigan to live a true life without conflict, or was it dammed to be a fighter forever when all it wanted, what it had always wanted, was simply peace?

Gigan realized now what its visons were. They were memories…The memories of a past life. The life it had once lived. It remembered this world more clearly now, for it saw what it once was like how it saw itself: Peaceful and serene. The pull Korghan had now made sense to Gigan. As twisted as it was, it was Gigan's home. And much like the cyborg, it was scarred and violated beyond recognition.

Gigan knew what it had to do.

With all the strength it could muster, Gigan yanked off its grappling hooks from Space Godzilla's shoulders, shocking the space monster from the sudden self-inflicted violence, and jabbed its hook blades deep into the same crystals it had grabbed. Space Godzilla screeched out a loud roar of pain, one greater than anything he had ever felt, and started to power up its crystal shoulders, its energy electrocuting Gigan in the hopes that it would deter the cyborg to value its own life and break away.

Gigan only pressed harder, screeching in a roar that pierced the skies and even made Space Godzilla cringe at its sound before realized a great fear: Gigan had no intent to live. All the energy in his shoulders started to go out of control. Without Gigan to let go, the power in Space Godzilla could not be controlled. It felt overloaded with its own power, and the Kaiju exploded in bursts of crystal shards and flames.

The last moments of Gigan's life flashed to a final vision of seeing the sight of an island surrounded by an ocean.


The aftermath of the battle had left its mark on Korghan. Another scar on the planet fresh from combat lingered long enough to attract the attention of an alien armada. One of insects that descended to the planet with the intent to investigate the world that the leader of the fleet had heard so much about.

Upon reaching the surface of the barren world, the leader of the fleet could not help but feel cold inside, almost frozen in an unknown fear whatever it may be. It was not something that Dregg would ever admit to and kept to himself. He had steeled himself, however, when he came upon the remains of Gigan, its parts scattered across the ground and only its head intact from what Dregg saw of the gigantic cyborg.

Dregg simply grinned widely as he ordered his troops to secure the area, keeping an eye on the crystal fortress in the distance, knowing full well who it belonged to, and yet they were not greeted with hostility. Dregg knew it would take a while to gather all that was left of Gigan, but knew it was worth it. Claiming Gigan made Dregg's goals to conquer the galaxy one step closer. After a good memory wipe and repair, Gigan would be good as new. Although plans to improve his previous design were already thought of, there was nothing wrong with making a good Kaiju stronger.

From all this chaos, a dark being had watched all that had transpired with delight and joy. Its plans had been falling in place ever since it made its home on this strange world, and unlike most who came here, it fed off the darkness of the planet as much as it fed off him. Knowing full well what all that had happened would mean for the future, the being simply laughed to itself and knew soon, evil would rise once more, and he would oversee it all.

Within the Crystal fortress of Space Godzilla, the cosmic Kaiju laid in slumber, barely alive from its fight against Gigan. He could not believe how close to death he was and was lucky to be alive. The perks of Space Godzilla's regeneration had given the creature a second chance, but also weakened him severely and had made him enter a state of hibernation. Incased within his crystal fortress like a cocoon to heal and awaken stronger than ever...and now he shared his power with the two other crystals he had tried so hard to defend and preserve.

And when Space Godzilla awoke from its slumber…he would not be alone.