Chapter 4: Jia

It was quiet, very quiet, no sound came from any corner of the room, her room.

But this was normal for her, she had never heard words in her life, neither Jia ever clearly spoke a word.
The adult Avati had taught her sign language and taken her in. She had never met her parents, unfortunately they had been killed by an attack of the skull devils shortly after her birth. But the king of the island had taken pity on her, he took her under his protection and from this a parental relationship developed, like father and daughter, she trusted him and he trusted her. When the storm came, when the one of the many summoned the skull devils to attack, his only goal was to protect the village and her. The fight lasted for days, he had killed many of them, but after a time the very big one came crawling out of the ground, and indeed her father was able to drive him away, but badly wounded, he had to retreat.
Only a few months later, another king came to them, who stood above all others, and with him came a girl, she was different from other people she had seen so far, similar to Jia, she had made an alliance with a king, but instead of a daughter, she had taken a place at his side, as a kind of queen, but from her origin she was one of the Avati as the seer had always said.

One of them had even lived with them and was assigned to protect the girl, but on a trip they had made, he had given his life to save the girl's life. Jia was at first suspicious of her, she had distanced herself in the time she was there, anyway the other children in the village had not played much with her, not least because they were jealous that the king had taken her as a daughter. But once she saw the girl, her name she never found out.

She was nice, she didn't seem to mean any harm to her village and so was not the king above the kings, he just wanted to take care of her. In the last few days that Jia saw her, the girl had become stronger and stronger, she had even protected another child from an attack by the big mouth deaths and defeated the shadow that haunted the island.

Now she had somehow hoped that the girl would come back to restore order. Her father had fallen ill and evil Avati were using her bond for their own purposes.

Jia could not sleep, she was afraid of the bad people and only one person she could trust, but he was also unable to help her.

She sat on her bed with her legs resting against her, it was still raining outside. Through the window she saw leaves swinging from the trees, but she couldn't hear the rustling of the wind in the leaves, the patter of raindrops on the glass, or the phone call Dr. Andrews was having in front of her.

Dr. Ilene Andrews was in charge of Outpost 49 of Monarch, which was stationed on Skull Island and was also the most recent of them, just two weeks after Madison disappeared by Godzilla in late 2019, it was established. A few months have now passed since then it had become June and Andrews had adopted Jia.
Jia was the first to visit the outpost, she had no family or friends to stop her.

Andrews sympathized with her and took her in, but it was clear to most others around her that despite how hard she tried to be a good mother to Jia, she wasn't quite mature enough or really capable of it yet. Still, it had helped Monarch understand and study Kong better, since in Jia's presence, he let Andrews get to him more easily.
This information was kept secret for the time being, so many employees with security clearance lower than Level 6, the second highest security clearance, did not know about it. Not even Mark Russell, who had only recently been given a high position in Monarch and was told that he might get a chance to run it, was informed.
Kong was in bad shape after being given time to heal and they wanted to avoid any possible imbalance with another Titan who might want to take over the island, perhaps upsetting the ecosystem. Very badly wounded by the fight with the Skull Crawlers and as Jia could tell them later, with Megaguirus.

This one had had its claws into quite a few games, not the least of which had been responsible for much of the communication interruptions during Ghidorah's attack, but later also for the disappearance of several ships and Rodan's unconsciousness, which had recovered at the same time as Kong.

Jia stared at Andrews, they had sent a distress signal, but now no one could help them and the two were on their own. Jia followed Andrews' lips closely and carefully in order to read them.

"I get what we have to do, but don't you think dragging a kid into this is a little much?" A pause followed, led by Andrew's sigh. "I understand, but you have to promise me we'll be safe doing this? Fine Andrew out."

"No luck with her, as I should have guessed." Said a man standing by the door, he had a Japanese accent. Andrews turned quickly and sighed again, this time in a more offensive tone. "It's just you Ren." "Dr. Andrews, you sound tense, why don't you get some rest?" "You would like that so much, but no thanks, if I have to watch Jia and my request to send her away before this, surgery, is not heard, I can't rest."

"I get it Dr. Andrews, you want to protect your adopted daughter, but Jia also plays her crucial part in that, and unfortunately you have to understand our partner already." "I understand, Mr. Serizawa." Ren walked up to her, his expression may have been calm, but you couldn't let him see that, angry he certainly was.

"Don't call me that, the name is dead to me and hopefully soon the one who had given it my notoriety at Monarch." He raised his fist at Andrews, but held back.

"A slip Ren, nothing more, you are not like the others and soon you will, prove that." Ren bowed slightly from Andrews and turned away from her, no more words were spoken between them. On his way out he briefly looked over at Jia, he knew she could read lips, he added a few vague hand signals.

"Sorry Kid, unfortunately it's not going to be any other way without you or him, would have liked at least you to be out of it too, but unfortunately we can't do without you."

He said, she didn't answer him and turned her gaze away from him, she didn't understand much of what he said, only that she didn't like it. He approached her, reached into his jacket pocket and handed her something, a lollipop from his pocket. "Take this." Andrews said nothing as she didn't want to enter into anything with Ren. Jia turned to him and looked at it. "It's not poisonous, I promise." Slowly, she took it from his hand, and even though they only calmed down for a moment, his hand was very cold, matching his personality. Intimidated, she didn't open the lollipop right away, but crossed her arms in front of him.

Ren sighed in annoyance and shrugged his shoulder until a small tremor shook the room, followed by a very loud and deep roar. "Well Kid, you'll have to wait a minute for that one."

Ren Serizawa grinned at this and looked out the window.

Next morning, a few kilometers from Skull Island

Madison had woken up a few minutes ago and stretched a little, sleeping in the helicopter was not quite comfortable but at least she had found a little more sleep than usual. Mark and the others were also long on their feet, he had just come out of the cockpit, Madison was sitting in the back row to his left. About 16 people, Ilene, Maddie, the pilots and him included were on board. He had spent the last evening making sure the soldiers weren't making any stupid jokes in front of his daughter, thankfully they were all leaning pretty quietly.

Accompanying them were 3 more, normal combat helicopters, just for safety. Skull Island was still very dangerous despite the outpost and the Titan that lived around it.
Kong had become interesting to Monarch, especially in his relation to the other Titans. He hardly cared about the hierarchy of the others, he wasn't really part of it and was only confined to his little island and as long as the others left him alone, he also left the others alone and that even though Kong had the potential to fight with Godzilla and become Alpha.

Mark turned to Madison. "Hey, how are you Maddie, sleep well?" "Yeah a little, at least no nightmares, that was good for now." He nodded, somehow he had to agree with her too, one thing he had always feared was that Madison might not quite be able to cope with things from Boston and he didn't want his daughter to have nightmares, he knew about her insomnia the nights after, even if there wasn't much he could do about it.

Something he had to partially thank Godzilla for. The events with him had been an ordeal for Mark, but it had helped Madison find some peace, even when she had locked herself away.

"Wasn't there once a storm that surrounded Skull Island, can't remember the last time one was there." "Actually there was," Ilene replied to Madison, "but since Ghidorah had partially changed the atmosphere, the storm disappeared and now released the island. However, life hasn't changed much there."

Maddie crossed her arms and just nodded, she was a little wary of Ilene, Mark knew that, but let Ilene deal with it calmly. "I'm going to go back to the front." "Good, do that Mark, I wanted to ask Maddie a few more questions before we land." "Uh-huh." Madison could already guess what those questions were, she had gone over them with them before shortly after they arrived.

Ilene sat down next to Maddie with the high-tech tablet, she also wanted to use the whole thing to get to know her better. "I know you don't really like the questions, but now we have a little more time to do it. Can you remember one thing about the temple on Skull Island, or where it was?"

Maddie shook her head. "After we went through the bone field with Godzilla, the gases there made me a little tired and I fell asleep later. Except it's on a certain corner of the island. The temple itself, it looked like Mothra's, inside there were crystals on the corners, but that's all I can say." "Crystals, interesting." Chen made a note of it all.

"Do you think these crystals had any effect on the light phenomena that sometimes surround you." "I do not know exactly, could be. I assumed they stored the powers and I had to receive them, there was also this dream before where I met Mothra..." Madison rubbed her arm and thought, Chen looked at her for a while, shook her head briefly and noted that again.

"Well, your powers are from Titanus Mosura. Some sort of succession that had to be fulfilled by the absence of Titanus Mosura, makes sense, only why a human, wouldn't you say a Titan would be better suited for that?" Asked Ilene, trying to be nice, but Madison still seemed a bit agitated by the question and gave her a venomous look.

"Sorry, that was just for the record." Ilene smiled a little embarrassed.
"That's all right, I thought about that too. But apparently I couldn't choose that. Supposedly there's a part of the people who used to live with the Titans inside me, maybe triggered by stuff, and now that they're wandering around again, another one of those is needed."

"And that's what...your mother...who was dead...told you in a dream?" Unfortunately, Chen really had to ask that and go by protocol, since that data would have to be used. This part was always the most implausible, especially since it was hard to prove that there was such a thing as this dream world Maddie was talking about.

"Yes I know the whole thing sounds stupid, but I can't do anything about it either, Godzilla is following us behind right now, whether you believe the things that happened to me or not, at least I have proof of that."

Madison stood up and wanted to go into the cockpit, she was annoyed and excited, not least because she could already feel that they were getting closer to the island. "I'm sorry, Maddie, please forgive me," Ilene begs her.

An audible sigh came from Maddie. "It's okay, could we maybe do the whole thing later when I'm a little more relaxed?" "Alright, one more question though." "Go ahead." "How are you Maddie?"

Ilene smiled at that, a little more genuinely than usual, trying to make a nice impression on Madison, especially in front of Mark. "Quite well, thank you." Even if the answer came a bit cool from her, it already made Ilene a lot more satisfied, maybe she would have to approach things differently with Maddie, she wanted to be on good terms with her and become friends with her, she had already considered asking Miki about it, as much connected as the two of them seemed to be.

Madison passed a soldier and they nodded to each other as a friendly gesture, she was still very sleepy and had to yawn once again. "How does it look, are we almost there?" "Yes just a few more miles." Told her Mark, who was going through the mission log and snapped at her in surprise. Madison stretched straight and cracked her neck, Mark could even hear it. "Are you all right Maddie? You're certainly a little tense coming back here."

"A little bit, yes. I'm worried about what might have happened there. The last time what the village was in danger and Megaguirus was on the way to throw off the balance to what we all fought, tied up with rather unpleasant memories."

Madison closed her eyes and took one deep breath and had to think back, she saw Aaron Brooks give his life in front of her to protect her without him maybe some things would look different.

Mark grabbed her shoulder to comfort her a bit, he already knew what she was thinking about again and for himself he hoped Maddie wouldn't have to go through something like that again today, but he couldn't get more than hopeful, the signs looked different.

"It's ok Maddie it wasn't your fault. if you need help I'm here for you, you can talk to me about anything." "Thanks dad."

"We're here." Said the pilot, Madison and Mark turned outside to the cockpit, they were greeted by sunshine shining through a valley, an entrance to an island where there was a river. Dense vegetation was over the steep mountains and platos that dotted the island, the area they were flying over looked very much like Halongbay in Vietnam. Madison recognized it, just as they flew over a steep mountain rise that separated the brackish water area from the inland.

Across the mountain on the other side was a large lake. It was the same one Madison had visited recently after arriving here, just like then Skear buffalo were on the shore grazing the vegetation.

"This is the same place I've been here before." Mark turned his gaze to Madison, she was completely focused on the island in front of her. "Is that the..." "Yeah that was the lake where a Skull Crawler attacked me, doesn't seem to be any around today." Madison looked around where the pilot was flying to, it was a very similar route to the one she and Godzilla took back then, in the ground she could even make out the prints Godzilla left behind, even if they were overgrown by now.

They flew over a parched forest until finally the mountain with the hand drawn in blood appeared, but this time it was different. The blood was fresher, only a day or so ago Kong must have put his hand there. And yet you could still see the scratches that Godzilla left here well, grooves were still present on the rock, there the blood had not come in.

"We're on the right track." Madison said and took a deep breath, now continuing once through the valley on the left. "Let's hope whatever titan did this to Kong has maybe retreated by now." Said Mark. "I don't know Dad, something's not right here, a new Titan probably would have noticed us as soon as his territory was invaded, especially recently after the takeover or the battle. " "You're right about that..."

Mark stroked his beard, Madison was indeed right about that, maybe they were running straight into a trap or were already being followed or watched by a Titan. He turned to the pilot. "Put everyone else in the squadron on alert and let Foster know, we may need some help." The pilot nodded and gave a message to all pilots, just then they flew on into the valley and regrouped.

"Thanks Madison, you learned a lot." "Had a good teacher, after all." Mark sighed, because yes, he had somewhat unwillingly included Madison in his syllabus shortly after her return from Skull Island. Before that, she had been secretly watching him lecture for some time. He wasn't happy about it himself, but at least it made Madison happy, besides, it wouldn't hurt if she knew at least a little more about the Titans now that she had practically taken a role with them.

"If a Titan sees us as an intruder, it will first assess what we are and then make its next move and then either see us as food or challenge us."
Madison sighed a little nervously, she might have to intervene should that happen, but she didn't know how much she could really do, calming Godzilla, her friend and partner, was one thing, a stranger Titan she had little history with and who saw her as an enemy to begin with, was another. "I hope Godzilla comes after us soon, he can help us." She grabbed her shoulder with her arm and felt a little cold, she had goosebumps.

"Don't worry Maddie, it won't be so bad, I-" Just then they flew over a mountain and the sight before them took his breath away. Madison looked at him first and then turned over what was in front of them. She felt a sharp pain eating at her stomach, briefly wobbling on her feet, and if it weren't for Mark, she probably would have fallen.

They were at the place where the Iwi village was, or at least it used to be. A black field, everywhere was ash and charred wood, plumes of smoke rising it must have been a massive fire, the destruction was massive. Even the Wanderer, the ship that once housed the Temple of Iwis, was removed from the bottom of the ground and now lay scattered across the valley. It must have been torn out with force.

Madison began to cry, tears streaming from her eyes. "I should have...I should have protected them..." She sobbed out, feeling the pain in her stomach grow heavier. Mark hugged his daughter and tried to calm her down, she buried her face against his chest and continued to cry, he gently stroked her head.

Ilene looked over at them and then out a window of the Osprey, taking photos and pictures with the tablet. At least one thing was good, she couldn't see any bodies, so the Iwis must have gotten away before the disaster.

"We're about to land at the outpost, get ready." Said the pilot, just then a radio message came in from one of the rear helicopters.

"Mayday, mayday an object has appeared behind us, mayday." A loud roar followed. It sounded angry, like a prehistoric rumble from ancient times. The Osprey made a sharp turn around and tried to dodge, Madison and Mark were thrown quite a bit, but held on tightly to whatever they could grab.

The Osprey gained a few feet and swept over what had once been the Wandere's spot. Madison looked through the glass of the cockpit, a helicopter flew just past them, but they didn't hear any crashing yet, which was good.

On the field now stood a Titan. It was just under 100 meters high, and stood quite upright, it had resemblance to ancient representations of dinosaurs. It had green gray ish color all over, the underside was yellowish and red at the throat, skin with pronounced scaly bumps, a row of triangular plates running down it's back, strong legs, fairly but muscular short arms with three fingers, and a big head.

It snapped and roared at the helicopters, but they were only mock attacks, as a kind of warning to any intruder. Quite narrowly missed a helicopter again and growled angrily, hitting the ground with its tail and letting out another mighty roar against the sky.

"Ilene do you have anything on the Titan?!" Shouted Mark to her, she took a good look at the creature and looked at her display to see if anything was marked in the area. "No that one must have appeared very recently."

Madison looked at it and noticed that it had bite wounds on its head that were quite fresh. It was trying to defend itself, not the territory, the head always turned away as soon as it snapped.

"Open the door. We need to show we're not a threat." Madison looked at Mark, having to think for a moment, and looked back out at the Titan, turning back to Madison and squinting his eyes. "Damn it." He cursed. "Tell the other helicopters not to fire under any circumstances and get us closer." "Are you insane?" "Just do it." He said in a stern tone.

The pilot cursed loudly and steered the helicopter toward the Titan, meanwhile Madison got ready to open the door. Mark held her by the arm in case. "Ready?" She asked him, everyone around them was already tense, he nodded at her. "All right on three. One, two," she yelled, "three."

Immediately she was greeted by a deafening noise from the rotor blades and the wind sweeping around her ears. She squinted her eyes slightly, trying to get used to the extreme wind first. The helicopter had already come close to the Titans, roaring again behind one of the retreating helicopters as attention turned to the Osprey.

Snarling, it growled at the small, but still strange intruder. Madison looked into the creature's eyes, anger surrounded it, but also alarm. With deliberation, she closed her eyes and concentrated. Her hair lit up in a light blue light and so did her eyes, with her right hand she reached outside, to the Titan.

She tried to make contact with him, as she had with Godzilla before, but she had never done so with another Titan, but at least she could try.
Titans usually communicated with each other using calls that were heard on a different level than humans, Madison could interpret some of them, sense if it was coming from aggression or fear. But through their interactions and the Iwis' ritual, she was able to make direct psychic contact where they could share memories and feelings, just as they had.

Perhaps the cries for help Madison had heard yesterday were those of the Iwis.

40 meters separated the helicopter and the giant, everyone was tense and Mark hoped that Madison's idea would work, she just had to. She let her energy flow through her arm and concentrated on what was in front of her, in her mind's eye she could see exactly the shape of the Titan. Slowly he noticed that the intruder could shine, his aggression diminished and turned to curiosity.

It saw the small creature around which a blue light surrounded and quickly realized already that it was an alpha, the second at the side of the king, she tried to make contact with it, it accepted the invitation. Madison and the Titan share memories and their feelings, as she did with Godzilla.

A name popped into her head, she opened her eyes and spoke it. "Gorosaurus, her name is Gorosaurus."

Gorosaurus calmed down and let a soft growl come from his throat, a sign of submission in Madison's presence. "What happened here?" Asked Madison, she spoke it out loud, she was still in the connection with the Titan, Gorosaurus needed a moment to understand what she wanted, she stood there as if hypnotized, in connection with Madison she could barely move as they were in her thoughts, but then shared the memories of last night.

Madison saw images as Gorosaurus saw an explosion from a distance, it was the field they were on, yellow lightning had formed, memories were choppy, but a short fight Madison could see, a bite to the head then Gorosaurus flew.

"Thank you," Madison smiled at Gorosaurus, the light around her disappearing she closed the door again. "She'll leave us alone, but we shouldn't tax our presence any further, let's fly to the outpost." Said Maddie and sat down on the ground for a moment, taking a deep breath while the Osprey carefully moved away from Gorosaurus again, who turned her attention to the ground, she searched for possible remains.

"Madison are you okay?" Mark asked, taking his daughter by the hand and helping her back up. "Yes I'm fine. Gorosaurus didn't do this here, she's just looking for a new home and leftovers, something else did this, she was attacked by it, but the memories are blury, I couldn't figure out more." "That's already more than we needed, well done Madison."

Mark proudly patted Madison on the shoulder, she smiled in satisfaction even as she wished she had found out more. "We're on approach, get ready to land." Said the pilot. The outpost was not far from the village, just past the mountain where the Wanderer once was.

It seemed to be still intact, though a bit empty, no one was there, the pilot tried several times to ask for permission to land, but no one answered. Cautiously they landed on the airfield, two helicopters still in the air patronized for reconnaissance.

Madison looked behind her as the gate to the Osprey opened and didn't hesitate to run forward, out into the fresh air. "Maddie wait!" Mark called after her, but he could hardly hold her.

She stood outside in the square, below her was the hard concrete of the landing site, she looked around, walls surrounded the outpost, it was quite large, there was a small housing complex even on the other side from where she stood, about 200 meters away from her.

Just then the soldiers moved out and walked past her, weapons pointed forward securing the perimeter, Mark and Ilene came out as well. "Madison, why did you just run out?" "I wanted out, sorry, still a little wound up." She said. Mark rolled his eyes a little. "Better you stay with us Maddie, we don't know exactly what happened here yet." Said Ilene, trying to make a friendly impression. Madison crossed her arms and averted her eyes, she didn't want to hear anything from Ilene.

Slightly confused, Ilene looked at Mark, not sure what to do now. He shrugged his shoulder, not quite sure either. "Um yeah right, Ilene is right, we better wait until the perimeter is secured." "If you say so." Madison pushed some gravel aside in front of her feet, meanwhile Chen showed Mark a par of things she had collected on her display. "I'm just worried about your safety." Said Ilene, Madison looked at her, a little confused. "Sure you are, after I just got Gorosaurus off our backs." Ileen smiled a little sheepishly, wanting to move the conversation along a bit. "How did you find out his name?"

"First, Goro is a she. Second, the name appeared to me when we were in connections, probably formed when I saw the Titan, as if I had always known it. Maybe we were looking for him together in the connection. "

"Hmm." Ilene noted on her display. "And she attacked the village?" Madison shook her head and turned away from Ilene, staring off into space in some direction.

"No, I could see it. She had crawled out of one of the cave entrances when she chased a Skull Crawler behind. She was at a distance from the village when there was a big explosion." Madison got a slight tremor came over her, in front of her eye she saw the memories, she saw Gorosaurus raising her head with the prey still in her mouth, first there were many yellow lightning bolts hit, then there was an explosion followed by a loud roar. "Then there was a fight, she couldn't remember it very well, just barely she had escaped. From that she carried the injuries on her head. Whatever that was, it's still out there." "Then we'd better make sure we get out of here as soon as possible."

As they talked Madison looked to a gate of metal bars, it was left open, beyond it was the green of the jungle that surrounded them. Something caught her eyes though, she could have sworn she saw a little girl walk by the side. Briefly she shook herself and blinked, was she already fantasizing?

A soldier approached the three. "Sir, Mam, we have secured the area, no sign of Dr. Andrews or anyone else, we would need your help decrypting data on the computer, it was slightly damaged and need permission scanning Dr. Chen and Dr. Russell."

Mark sighed, "Okay good we're coming Madison you stay with the Osprey." "Will do." Said Maddie, with a smile on her face. She looked behind Mark and Ilene until they were out of sight. Then she immediately ran toward the gate, she had to know what it was, maybe some of the Iwis were still alive. It took only a short sprint over the concrete and gravel floor of the base, then she was already in front of the cold metal goods of the gate. Lightly she pushed the right one, which was already slightly open, to the side. In front of her was an earth road where the vehicles entered the jungle. From the entrance it went down with a somewhat steep slope, and 20 meters ahead was already the turn deeper into the thicket.

Madison turned to the right side of the wall seen by her, that's where the girl ran past. A print of shoes confirmed her assumption, she ran along the wall and looked around for more prints, she saw one going into the jungle, she pushed further forward until she was not quite 30 meters away from the base, behind her the metal still shone through a bit, the base seemed to be slightly higher from where she was standing, maybe 10 meters or so.

In front of her, however, were stone ruins, they must be quite old, but they had Iwi drawings, cautiously she approached them, the yellow light broke through the canopy of the forest and shone through them, it felt so cozy here.

Madison was so fascinated that she didn't see the girl in front of her at the beginning, she was slightly startled, she was sitting with her back to her on a stone holding something in her hand that she was working with.

On her left side was a small chalkboard and chalks attached to a keychain. Apart from that, she had to be one of the Iwi, she wore typical Iwi clothes, albeit mixed with ordinary clothes, probably from the outpost. A pale shirt, wrapped with a red scarf, a chain around her neck, a rather simple braided pigtail on her head, black light trousers made of cloth and a white pair of modern shoes.

"Hello?" Madison wanted to address her directly, maybe she could tell her what happened here. But no answer came from her, not even a reaction. Madison tried again. "Hello, don't you understand." Again nothing, the girl just kept humming contentedly, weaving something in her hand. Madison slowly walked to her left and stood in front of her, the girl sat right in front of a small stone gate of the ruin.

Madison curiously observed what she had in her hand, it was some kind of doll, it looked like a small gorilla, Kong was her natural conclusion. "Is that a doll of Kong?" Madison asked, but the girl still hadn't noticed her, so she must be deaf she thought, because in a forest on this island, full of driven, then she would jump up immediately at the slightest danger. Which in turn made Maddie wonder, maybe there were other Iwis around keeping an eye on the two. As she looked around, now the girl finally spotted Madison and gave a loud audible snap open, she was startled briefly and almost fell backwards off her rock she was sitting on.

Maddie snapped forward to her and grabbed her by the arm before she could hurt herself in any way, the Kong doll falling to the floor. "I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you." She said right to her face, maybe she could read lips. "Are you okay?" Even if she hadn't hurt herself badly, at least she had gotten a little shock and was breathing pretty fast, but she nodded. "Whew" Madison sighed and picked up the Kong doll from the floor and handed it to her, smiling kindly.

The girl immediately took it and clutched it a little, still a little startled by the stranger in front of her. Madison tried once to see if she could read lips, maybe she could find a way to find out more what had happened here, she knelt down at eye level with the girl. "My name is Madison, what's yours?" The little girl looked at Madison with interest, tilting her head to the side, she looked familiar.

She took her chalkboard, which she had tied to her side, and a piece of chalk from a pocket in her pants and drew on it briefly, Maddie watching curiously. The girl wrote the name "Jia" in block letters.

"Jia, a beautiful name." She smiled and Jia smiled back at her, the situation relaxing. Maddie pointed to the doll Jia had made earlier. "Is that Kong?" Jia picked up her doll and tried to tell her something in sign language, but Madison interrupted her, "I'm afraid I don't understand." She tried to speak it clearly with her lips. Jia understood and just nodded as a quick reply and took her chalkboard again and wiped away the previous word and wrote a new one on it "Father." Was now written on it.

"Kong is your father?" Jia nodded with a smile, Madison was slightly puzzled but at least she had some kind of relationship with Godzilla, in contrast Jia's fatherly relationship with Kong was more normal. "I have a friend who is like your father, maybe I can introduce him to you later. " Jia looked at Madison a little confused and tilted her head to the side again to inspect her more closely and so did Madison, Jia had to be about 10 years or so maybe, Maddie herself had also been at Monarch very young already, only where were the people to look after her, Skull Island was no park walk.

"Are you with the Iwi's?" Madison asked albeit a bit directly, but she needed to know, maybe they were around. Jia nodded, though only slightly and very restrained, a bit sad, quite obvious why, Madison carefully reached for Jia's hand to comfort her, she herself was still a bit taken by it, she had made her alliance with Godzilla here, gained her powers and overcome herself. The village had been an important part of it, the Iwis had helped her, healed her. If it had not been for her, who knows where Madison would be today.

Jia looked up at Madison and even though her eyes watered slightly she smiled. "I'm sorry Jia, I wish I could have done something." Again the feeling of guilt plagued her, of guilt that she had done nothing, like when she had woken Ghidorah up, she had reacted too late not realizing in time what her mother was actually doing and had to watch many people suffer. She closed her eyes, gripped her head with her hands, directed her gaze against the floor and took a deep breath, speaking to herself. "Pull yourself together Madison, pull yourself together." Jia could see that Madison was also very sad and now tried to give her some comfort as well, standing up and giving her a hug.

At first surprised by the guests, Madison gave in and hugged them too, she could understand all too well what was going on with her right now, it had been almost a year since Maddie was in a similar situation as Jia, neither of them had it easy right now.

Jia let go of Madison and gave her a moment to get back on her feet and sat back down on the stone where she had been sitting before and picked up her tablet again. "Jia, were there any survivors?" An immediate answer came from her in the form of an eager nod. "Where are they?" Some hope sprang up in Madison again, maybe there were still a few they could save, rebuilding the village might be impossible for them should they not all have made it. Jia scribbled and wrote something on the board, trying to write a little smaller, Madison walked over to her right and looked over her shoulder.

Then on the board were the words "Village broken, tribe alive, fled to temples and caves everywhere. " "Thank God." Said Madison, her mood wavered again and, she was relieved there were still surviving, scattered all over the island probably and taken from their home, but still alive, which reminded her of something again.

"Are you all alone now?" She asked Jia, who gave a rather anxious impression at the question, Jia was scared, she didn't want Madison to ask this question, they had only been waiting for that and Jia had tried to delay it as long as possible.

"No, but it's nice that you two got yourselfs aquinted already." Said a familiar female voice behind Madison.

Castel Bravo Meeting Room A8-9

Miki and Rick were just in one of the briefing rooms going over the few pieces of data from Skull Island's outpost to help from here, Abby was sitting at the long table while the adults were just at a display in front of the wall.

"Did you find anything Miki?" "No, just the signal again from the day before yesterday but nothing on radar, no unusual activity among the Titans, well except Godzilla."

"I still say they were probably overrun by something there, probably one of those slimeball skull crawlers." "I'm more guessing it was just them getting disturbed by a storm and sending out another signal for someone to check for them."

"You're looking at this very positively Miki." Said Rick a bit sarcastically and went to the table to write something down and looked for something between the papers, Abby just played around with her fingers and looked a bit depressed. "Hey punk rock what's wrong?" At first Abby ignored Rick and just rolled her eyes, but Miki pecked him in the side with a pen and gave him an evil look. "What?" "Rick, sometimes you should put your jokes aside."

"It's okay Miki, he doesn't mean any harm." Abby said and handed him a paper, it was what he was looking for. "Hey, I'm sorry, I have a daughter too, she's a little older but I know what makes teens that age tick." "Maybe, but instead of playing the cool uncle sometimes you just have to be there for her." Miki threw again in front of him, whereupon he fell a little silent and the mood became a little weird. Abby giggled a little, very quietly though, she looked out to the entrance seen from her left, around her were only glass walls, the shalosias were up and on the right side was the large display where the two Monarch scientists were working.

Often one could forget that Abby was still one of the staff and scientists working in Monarch, even if she put that on the back burner a bit to take care of Monarch's children. Abby had never seen her in such a work fervor when it came to this office stuff, otherwise Miki was always very calm. Perhaps because Madison was participating in the mission made her so, nevertheless she noticed when someone needed an ear to listen to her.

So Rick went back to the display to check for more data Miki sat down next to Abby and grabbed her shoulder, she felt the leather of her jacket immediately, it had gotten slightly chilly down at the base. "What's up, since yesterday you've been so depressed all the time?" Abby sighed, thinking again of what she had done yesterday and unsure if she should tell Miki. "Don't worry, I have full confidence in Madison, her father and Chen are with her and she has proven she can already take care of not only herself but others." "Why did you let her go so easily?" Miki had her smile on her face again.

"Madison had to do it, she has so much potential and even though I tried to take care of her as best I could, at some point she has to use it. Maybe one day she will take over my job if I don't work at Monarch anymore. But there is so much more to her and I see that, in both of you." Miki held Abby's hand, who gave a brief smile, but what was actually on her mind was still not completely gone.

"Miki, have you ever loved someone but you don't know if they love you back?" Miki smiled. "It's because of Madison, isn't it?" "No! I-I...yes." Abby couldn't keep it a secret from her subconsciously she had asked the question to somehow get it across. "So, what happened yesterday, how did Maddie react?" "I-I, kissed Madison."

Rick turned to the two and was a little surprised but didn't make a big deal out of it, he had a gay son so the situation was nothing new to him. He putted his notes aside and watched the conversation.

"And what did Madison say?" "That she's not sure and needs to think about it first." "And how do you feel about that?" "I-I don't know, I'm afraid that now she hates me or loathes me for it, maybe she won't even want to talk to me after this."

"If I could just drop my coin in the dollar machine there." Rick raised his hand and tried to join in the conversation, Miki nodded in agreement. "If there's one thing I know about Madison it's that she respects everyone and always tries to be open to people and especially people she likes and you're one of them, how this turns out we'll see but if she and the Big G get along I'm sure you will too."

Miki was quite surprised how the otherwise childish or joking Rick was so serious and honest all of a sudden, he was rarely like that, even in the moments of crisis he somehow tried to be in a good mood, even if he didn't always manage to pull everyone in with it.
But the months Madison spent at Castel Bravo, shortly after her mother died, he had tried to help her, to make her laugh, he had been there through it all, helping Mark find his daughter and watching Madison fight in Boston as her mother sacrificed herself for the others.

"Thanks Rick." Said Abby, and gave a short sob, though very much in a relieved tone now that the guilt and doubt was off her shoulder. At least that was now set aside for a time as another problem arose.

Suddenly the lights turned off, it was pitch black, the whole complex in which the three were suddenly had a power failure. Abby shrieked briefly, but Rick tried to calm her down as Miki hugged her, "Don't worry, the emergency power will be back on in a minute."

But when Rick could already hear the panic of the people from outside, he also heard how a loud hiss went through the room, something entered through the air, he could neither smell nor see anything. Then the red light of the emergency power came on again and suddenly they saw smoke coming through the corridor into the room, it came from the right and had already covered everything, the offices on the left side were still visible as people ran out. "Oh Godzilla in heaven, Miki, Abby we have to get out of here!" The three were already running out the door, maybe it was on fire. Just as he tore open the door to send Abby and Miki through, he was overrun by a dark-clad special forces unit and knocked down with what looked like an electric baton, he fell to the floor in front of the door to the back of the room, Miki and Abby took a step backwards, Miki standing in front of her charge.

All of a sudden more special forces stormed into the room, they had no markings, were wearing helmets and were masked, wearing night vision goggles that glowed red. All of them had some kind of baton in their hand or attached to their side as they just held a weapon where a yellowish light came, they were under this yellow stream all the time.

A man entered the room, he was dressed normally, had only a black cloth cloak and took off his masking that went up to his nose. He eyed the two of them, Abby was somewhat hidden behind Miki, who in turn gave a serious and angry look and stared him down.

Ren gave a slight smile, "We got what we wanted, take them."