Chapter 7: Apex

Madison was still sleeping and resting to heal the wounds from the fight. She had received some scratches, but the physical pain was not nearly as strong as the emotional pain. She was dreaming about her past.

She stood in a room that was more than familiar to her. It was the house they had in San Francisco and it wasn't just any day, it was the day of Andrew's birthday. Just like then, she was sitting at the table, but she wasn't the little girl here, she was the 15 year old Titan, many years after everything that happened here. She couldn't really do anything, just watch as the evening went on, it was beautiful in a way. She saw Emma bringing in the cake, Andrew all excited and Mark sitting next to him at the table with a happy smile. Maddie was like absent, all these people, was just in her memories, she thought to herself. Neither Andrew nor Emma were still alive and Mark had left his old life behind, he seemed to be able to start over, but for a long time Madison had had this thought of being with Emma and Andrew again, she hadn't told Mark about it.

It wasn't until Godzilla took her to Skull Island that she got rid of that thought, especially after she actually saw Emma again and knew what life would be like after that. She had made peace with that, questions popped up now and then, as they always do.

Emma set the cake on the table and Mark told Andrew to blow out the candles. Madison still sat frozen but now stared into the flames from the candles. In it she saw a shape that slowly took over her entire field of vision, she was back in Boston, at the very end of the fight against Ghidorah, she was in the Osprey, alone. She looked as Ghidorah turned into a gigantic flame, from which Godzilla rose, in his burning form, Madison had never seen anything like it. It was as bright as the sun and also as hot, the vibrations coming from it rattled throughout the machine. But at the same time, all Maddie could think about was how Emma had driven away, right into it to save Maddie's life. "It's not fair!" She screamed. "Come back, Mom!" Madison howled, but then the first pulse of Godzilla went and it went farther than then, hitting the Osprey, Maddie squinted her eyes. Now everything had gone dark.

The ability to control her dreams had perhaps now backfired, although she was aware of everything that was happening around her, she could feel it in a real way, but neither could she do anything about her action in it nor influence it from other characters, so she could only stand there and let it all wash over her, so far this had only happened twice, a few days ago at school where she was sleeping and one night, although she couldn't remember the whole thing exactly, after she was back from the island. Words could not describe exactly how it was for Maddie now, it almost felt like she had died, she was quite sure that this was not the case, or at least she hoped it was, still it was very cold, as one would imagine death. And many often gave death a kind of face, many myths have their gods and figures that are responsible for death and the soul afterwards. Be it the Grim Reaper you saw on Halloween, or Thanatos from the Greek myths. But her death had not only a face and had been real at one point, but now he ruled over this dark realm. Whether it was her imagination or real, she could not tell.

From above, she saw golden wings descending and slowly gaining more mass and manifesting. She lay on the ground, paralyzed, unable to do anything, powerless. This was the feeling she hated and feared the most.

With a heavy thud, her image of death landed right at her feet, Ghidorah. The three heads looked at her, inspecting her body. A being older than anything else in the world, so strong that it overcame the means of normal mortality. It would live on in the nightmares of so many beings, of all the worlds it had been to, so many planets it had seen. But all this knowledge and hatred was focused only on her. Unlike all the other beings he had seen, from tiny insects to gigantic monsters, they all had something in common, they feared him, out of pure instinct, and none managed to escape his claws. Ghidorah was aware of the pain and suffering he caused, but with the powers he had, he felt neither guilt nor pity and enjoyed it. But Madison, in spite of fear, not only resisted but ridiculed him, he lived and hunted for thousands of years and then it is a child, a baby compared to him, who escapes and survives.

He felt the need for revenge. He stood on all four bent his body, down to her and let his necks climb up her legs like snakes, Madison could do nothing but watch. The three-headed dragon's forked tongues kept sticking out of its mouth to scan its surroundings. The middle head went all the way forward to her and stared directly into her eyes. The other two necks snaked around her, the right one licked her neck briefly, it was cold and slimy, she was shivering, she was scared. He knew that very well, the middle head grinned at her, he enjoyed the terror he caused. Then the right one bit into her neck, the left one into her shoulder. She wanted to scream, but couldn't, the pain was still there, but she didn't wake up. Now she would die, she thought to herself, she felt how her strength slowly disappeared, as if her will to fight on would disappear.

What kept her alive was a memory. A vow she had made to herself. That she would help others and repay her debt for the events of that time. It helped her find reason again in the chaos that was her thoughts. Instead of remembering the dark moments, she thought of those that gave her strength, where she found strength and power within her like no other.

Bit by bit she regained control of herself, feeling life come into her hands and feet, then arms and legs, then she pushed her arms to the side, the dragon's necks holding her body in a stranglehold just enough to keep it from completely cutting off her air. There was some resistance as she pushed, bit by bit as Ghidorah continued to bite into her, it wasn't bleeding, it was only a dream after all, the pain was there though.

Carefully she found hold of the left and right necks with her two hands and waited just a moment. The middle head looked directly at her, only a few inches separated its mouth full of sharp teeth from her face, it stuck its tongue out of its mouth and hissed at her as she looked into its eyes, she remembered. Madison was back in full control.

From her hands she released a pulse that was very painful for Ghidorah, it lit up briefly in a bluish tone and went through Ghidorah's whole body, quickly he backed away and cried out, Madison had expected this and pushed with her feet against his chest and threw him further back.

The monster roared and hissed angrily, she felt one of the two tails graze her leg, the spiky end scratching her lightly. Madison began to get up, turning to the side, bracing herself with her arms off the ground, sitting up, every movement labored and dragged, as if sucked out of energy. When she finally stood up, her legs were shaking, she breathed deeply in and out, behind her she heard a roar and hissing, she turned around, her surroundings had changed again. She was standing in Boston, at Fenway park Stadium, Ghidorah was now huge, it was the moment he had spotted her and now wanted to kill her. Over and over, days, nights and months after, she went through the whole thing, in her thoughts, in her nightmares, it had stuck with her forever, every time she thought of it her heart started to race and she sometimes couldn't calm down for hours. She knew there was no chance she would survive, she shouldn't have let him get away, he would have just finished her off, maybe seconds later and Ghidorah would have reduced her to ashes, in fact from that moment on she was finished with her life, ready to maybe see Andrew again or simply cease to exist, It had become indifferent to her, all that mattered was to get more time for the people out there, it was all up to her, she knew it and resisted King Ghidorah, this ancient rival of Godzilla and only she a little girl stood in his way and should have died, but that did not happen, Maddie had survived.

Was it fate? Was it the arrogance of Ghidorah that made her survive? Was it her faith in the world? Was it her willingness to sacrifice herself for others to pay for the mess her family had made? Was she destined for more or just lucky?

King Ghidorah stared at her, he was huge, every step and movement was like a mountain shifting, even though the sight of it felt normal to Maddie by now, it was terrifying.

"What is it? Do something!" The dragon just growled and looked up away from her, it confused Madison a little, then she looked directly above her, the rain was still pelting, but lights were forming above, many different colors, bluish in tone. Wings manifested from the clouds, it brought some joy and hope to Madison. "Mohtra..." She reached her hand up, it came down slowly, like a guardian angel.

Then she picked up speed and swooped down on Ghidorah, wings glowing stronger and stronger, Mothras held her claws forward and stabbed him in the chest, right into the dragon's heart. He roared and hissed around, giggling could be heard, it was not exactly describable, it sounded like out of this world.

Mothra's wings began to glow brighter and brighter and with a great beat she sparked a light brighter than the sun that surrounded everything around Madison, she closed her eyes and held her hands in front of her face as Ghidorah's and Mothra's shouts continued to be heard.

As the light dimmed, Madison realized how fast she was actually breathing, fearing what she might see, so she kept her eyes closed for how long she didn't know, it could have been, 5 minutes or 1 hour, time was washed away.

Only when she heard a soft coo, with a gentle breeze hitting her, did she calm down and slowly open her eyes. The surroundings seemed familiar, then Maddie realized she was in her old house a year ago, part of the Yunnan outpost in China. It was been afternoon, through the air flew some glowing insects, butterflies that lit up in a blue.

With her feet on the edge, she stood in front of the large window that faced the rain forest and the temple within, but it was open, like a balcony, and on the pathway in front of her was the full-grown Mothra, slightly smaller than she could remember. Her bright and soft turquoise-blue from her wing illuminated the surroundings around her, the old queen came closer.

With her hands she reached forward and touched a kind of fur that Mothra wore around her body, it was very soft and fluffy, Madison stroked it several times, it made her pulse drop a little and took the tension off her.

"You gave me your powers, made me stronger, but I still don't feel anything strong enough, I couldn't help him." Memories and thoughts flickered up in her, just as Godzilla communicated with her, so did Mothra. They were images to her memories of Madison growing up and of Mothra completing one of her life cycles.

"You keep growing..." said Madison. That was the message she took from it. "You may be right about that, even though I have these powers, I still have to grow and learn. But how? We have to stop Kong, we can't let them get away with this."

Mothra stood back up and turned, trudging toward the edge of the rise where she found the house. Something in Madison told her to follow. She jumped down from the balcony, wasn't very high maybe a meter, and walked over to Mothra, the landscape in front of them had changed, the jungle was still around where they stood, but the area below where the temple was, different, there was a large cave entrance, strange rock was on the sides. It was an entrance into the Hollow Earth, the place looked familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on where exactly it was.

"Maybe there is something there that could help us..." she thought to herself.

Slowly Madison woke up from her dream, carefully and with caution she opened her eyes, the room around her was covered in a light orange light, it came from a lamp that was still burning in the corner, next to it a steady beeping sound seemed to help her wake up a bit, especially to get a sense of direction again, she felt so limp, her joints hurt, certain places on her skin burned slightly or felt strange, she had received wounds, would not be the first and not the last, after all, she had already survived the bite of a Deathjackal.

The thought of it reminded her again of the island and what had happened there, it wasn't just what she had survived, the direct attack of a Titan counted as well. She held her hand up in front of her, made a fist and closed it again, yes she was still alive, something not many could claim who had gotten into that situation. Kong had many lives on his conscience, but most of the time it came from people who provoked him, made him act out of spite. This was different, he wanted to kill her, he had attacked her first, there was something evil in his eyes, Madison had a premonition but didn't want to voice the thought. It would explain everything though, the destroyed village, the memories of Gorosaurus, the attacks of Kong, what Belvera said "It was just a test."

The lives of people were only a test for these people. Who were they anyway? It had to be Jonah's organization, but something was different about them, especially since Belvera had taken over, since Jonah was sitting in an Australian prison and would stew there for the rest of his life. Some anger rose up in her again, but then she felt the room shake slightly, followed by an all too familiar hum. It made her heart shoot up, her first thought was to get up. In a flash she sprang to her feet, her shoulder extremely sore, she groaned in pain, but powered through. On her right arm she could feel something pulling, it was the knife garden that was connected to her, she tore it off, the device went off, would probably alert someone, but it didn't matter now, she had to get out of there now. She got up from the bed, just wearing a hospital gown, actually that didn't really matter now, only a short flash followed by thunder drew her attention briefly outside, there was a small window at the front of the room, it was pattering loudly against it, she couldn't really see far, it would be good to look at something more. She looked around the room, just by the door opposite was her clothes on a few hooks, also a yellow raincoat.

She limped forward, but limped a bit, her leg hurt a lot, must be from landing on the mountain, maybe she needed to practice on it some more in the future. Without hesitation, she took the raincoat and threw it over her, looked at it, it fit her quite well, a little tight on the arms, but otherwise okay. She was the hood over and opened the door peeked out, just to see if outside someone was watching for her, but seemed not to be the case. Except for three chairs next to the door, where she would have expected Mark or something to be, but apparently there just seemed to be something going on, it wasn't hard to guess what it was.

Nevertheless, she did not lose the chance, someone could still come when they heard the signal from the pulse machine, besides, any doctor would say that she should still stay in bed and be under no condition to do this, which she admitted was, the joints and muscles hurt as said, that was because she had almost torn them, by the extreme force she had released in her panic and anger.
This happened once in a lesson with Dr. Cutter, in fact a human being is capable of exerting more force than he actually could, only that could tear the muscles, that's why the body limited that automatically, otherwise they would travel. That's why normal people could sometimes lift someone's helicopter.

Madison however could reach into that strength with her powers at will, but besides that her body had hardened from it and strengthened even further, the genes that made it all possible reactivated from the contact with Mothra in the temple and the ritual on the island, still besides that the contact with Godzilla had also contributed to it. It made her think again, maybe there were more people out there who could gain these powers in theory, but apparently she was the lucky one to get it, maybe the probability of emerging naturally was low. But as she had learned, remnants of it are still present in making and she herself was still growing, the full potential would perhaps look different.

Greenish yellow light shone everywhere from the neon tubes on the ceiling, similar to a hospital, where the walls were metal, with tubes on one of them. She felt vibrations again, followed by a loud rumble from the right, that's where she needed to be. She was still quite unsure where she actually was, but she was getting a premonition of what it might be. She was able to put a little weight on her leg after a few steps, but she was making good progress, even if she was limping a bit. It felt like forever with the pain as she walked down the hallway, but it was doable, she just needed a little break and braced herself against the wall. What's going on here, why wasn't anyone here?

The ground swayed a little, confirming their suspicions, they were on a ship. That means either everyone was on deck or somewhere else, maybe on the bridge, maybe in quarters now that it was night, or maybe they had been scared away.

Maddie hobbled a little further through the corridor, the ground felt so cold against her feet, since she had not put on any shoes in her hurry, but slowly she noticed how the ground became a little wetter. Then she stood at a junction where there was a small puddle in which she stood. On the right was a corridor further on, on the left was a stiff door, with a small window. Various sounds came from out there, rain, thunder and a loud roar. Carefully she climbed the stairs and opened the door, above her was another shelter, vehicles were standing around, now she got a good picture of the whole thing, it was a ship, an aircraft carrier, but not an ordinary one. It was the Monarch Titan Transport, a custom built ship that served little for combat, more for securing and transporting Titans, should one be injured, taken elsewhere or dead.

And at the moment it was carrying a wounded king. Maddie couldn't see him clearly, rain gathered at the top of the shelter and flowed down as a small waterfall, light from spotlights broke through it, a large figure lay in front and moved. Slowly she walked forward, the pain in her leg lessened the closer she got, it was like she was feeling better. The water splashed down on her hood, drops landed on her face, she blinked a few times, wiped her face, up to her knee she had become completely wet by now, her attention was now on him though.

There he was, belly down on the deck of the van, his feet and tail hanging off the deck, a collar or something similar around his neck, huge chains on his wrists, he kept pulling himself up, but they were specifically designed to hold him back. Godzilla was angry and needed to be calmed down. The collar was actually there to put tranquilizers in him, but at the moment the effect of the stuff seemed to be wearing off, he was too excited, he had felt her waking up, probably the nightmare before and the pain.

He was straining at the chains, trying to break free, but they were designed for just that purpose, but Madison didn't think it was just that, he was weakened, she saw all the wounds on his body, especially the one that went across his neck almost into his back, it looked bad, especially glowing as Godzilla wanted to show his dominance, brought on by fear and anger, not for himself but also for Madison. To protect was instinctively innate, whether it was the natural balance of the earth or a creature that was close to him.

Carefully she approached, the chains were just holding him back, if he had been at full strength he would have easily torn the chains to pieces along with the ship. But he was weakened, breathing was heavy, wounds and scratches were scattered over his body, it was worse than she could remember. Even though the ship shook under his movements, she was not afraid, nor did she feel threatened. Much like when he arrived in Boston she could feel everything, the rain on her skin, his rumble, the roar, the movements and vibrations, she smiled as she had then, now she was close to him, his clawed hands were to her left and right and his gaze fixed on her. His breathing was still heavy and he was gasping, but the loud audible heartbeat slowed down, his eyes were looking attentively at the surroundings around Madison, many thoughts and emotions were flowing through his head, Maddie saw that he was thinking, he was unsettled about the situation, understandable of course.

Madison extended her left arm upward with her palm facing forward, a sign that he should come down. Slowly Godzilla lay down, his arms carefully pulled down by the chains, his head pushed a few centimeters in front of Madison, he could feel her position exactly and carefully pushed himself against her hand. It was like Naser stone, cold and damp on the outside, but there was still the inner warmth of Godzilla, albeit fading. He was still trembling with excitement.

Madison stroked him across the muzzle, she too was shaking, inside her too her thoughts just went so wild and emotions flowed over her like the rain on them. "I-I-It's okay, I'm here." She said. Maddie tried not to cry, she wanted to hold it in but couldn't. As she closed her eyes, tears flowed down her cheeks.

She compounded in her mind with Godzilla, not as intense as she could do in a dream, yet she could feel everything, and so could he. Pain from their bodies, emotions, thoughts, all the sensations the other fins into each other.

Madison sensed it, Godzilla was not quite up to it, apart from the wounds after the fight of course. He was sick, something in him was like a poison that flowed through him and slowly took away his strength, what exactly it was and where it came from, none of them could say. Godzilla shared with them the emotions and thought in images and sensations, memories like humans had.

He had felt the whole thing for some time, but didn't want to worry Madison and she wondered why, he had an answer and shared it with her again. Every night she had spent in the dream Madison had always mentioned how she was not happy with her current situation, at school and trying to find normalcy. For this reason, he kept quiet about it at first and ignored it for some time, until now, when he had lost.

Madison opened her eyes again and looked up into his eyes, the rain almost made it look like he was crying. Maddie hugged him, he was still shaking. "It's okay, I'm here." She said over and over as she pressed herself against him. "I'm sorry. I should have helped more, kept fighting, but I wasn't strong enough I failed again, despite all I was given." Godzilla made a sound, deep from within, it sounded sad and worried. "But I will be there now, we will find a way to make you well again, I owe you that."

Godzilla slowly calmed down, his breathing returned to normal, the loud pounding of his heart became a little quieter and he returned to a calmer and more relaxed state, he had become tired. So was Madison. She rested her head with her left side against him and said softly "It's okay, I'll be here on the ship, rest, sleep. We, I'll take care of you, you'll be fine."

She also slowly got more and more tired, she let go of him and leaned with her back against Godzilla and slowly let herself fall down on the cold and wet concrete floor, she was shivering from the cold, but after only a few minutes she had fallen asleep and didn't even notice how someone picked her up and carried her away.

Next morning - Monarch Titan transport ship

In fact, Maddie woke up normally, no more dreams or nightmares coming up, probably she had just been far too exhausted for that. The first thing that greeted her was the beeping of the heart machine again as she slowly opened her eyes and realized she was back in the same ward, but this time lit up by the rays of the late morning sun.

She heard two people talking, the voices she recognized immediately. Somewhat reassured, she slowly sat up with the large cushion behind her. Ilene Chen and Mark were just sitting at a table across from hers on the left, discussing something about a map and how to proceed now. The two didn't even notice Maddie waking up, she stayed still for now and let a few things go through her mind, she raised her arms over the blanket and looked at her fingers, small scratches were still on them. "Maybe I should still practice on that."

The jumping on the mountain had caused it, before that she had never tried it, even if she had the suspicion that it could work, a shockwave had once managed to knock Megaguirus out of action and back, that concentrated under her feet with a controlled discharge, that could perhaps lead her to eye level with a Titan, like Kong for example. If she were still growing in strength, perhaps learning a tactic or technique would be a good idea, perhaps that's what Mothra meant.

Ilene just took a sip from her coffee cup and saw Madison awake and almost choked, which got Mark's attention and he turned around.
"Morning Maddie!" He immediately got up and walked over to her and sat back down on an armchair next to her.
"Are you alright, how are you feeling?"
"Still a little tired, muscles and stuff are a little tight and a bit cold."
"I'll bring you a blanket in a minute. We found you in the rain yesterday, with Godzilla." Madison crossed her arms, she thought he was going to start scolding her again, he went to a box and brought her a slightly thinner second blanket and gave it to her.

"You were almost catching a cold out there, but I'm glad you calmed him down, we had our problems with that." Madison took the blanket and wrapped herself in him.
"How is he doing now?"
"His vitals have stabilized a bit since we brought him on the ship." Ilene said and stood up.

"He was still unconscious then, about where you woke up, he was awake again too, confused by the unfamiliar surroundings." Madison just nodded at her. Ilene handed her a tablet, "I'll go get your breakfast, Ilene will explain something else to you in the meantime."

Mark walked out wondering why not he explained it to her, maybe it wasn't that important but the display showed a few graphs of Godzilla, data and values etc.

Ilene thought it might be better to gain Maddie's trust, still Mark and her wanted to keep the secret of their relationship, now was not a good time to barge in with it.

Maddie read through it all a bit, "is that what I think it is?"

"Well, when we transported Godzilla onto the ship, we immediately rehearsed and scanned him more closely, we've never really been this close to him before."
"I see, what did you find out?"
"Well, I don't want to alarm you, but Godzilla he's-" "Sick?"
"Yeah. I figured you'd know. You felt it with him yesterday didn't you?"
Maddie nodded. "Me and him, we can connect in dreams but also in thoughts and feel what other feels, see what other sees. Can describe it better actually, but yesterday I had noticed that something was not quite right in him and he was weaker than usual."
"Exactly, I wanted to discuss that with you briefly. We were analyzing the samples all night, that's why there was no one there to watch you when you went out."
"Hey at least I calmed Godzilla down, he still could have capsized the ship if he wanted to."
Ilene nodded to her with a slight but concerned smile.

"What's going on with Godzilla right now, is in him are remnants of nuclear energy when Serizawa set off the bomb to revive him. His body got a strong energy boost from that, so strong that it was almost overloaded. Because of the abrupt increase in energy from the bomb, his body now needs more and is now draining his strength."
"Ah, so similar to when you gain weight, your body also needs more and more calories to keep going."

"Exactly, however, the artificially produced energy of the bomb was not very good for him either, even if it helped him at first. It now flows through him like a poison, his body regenerates, but that also draws energy out of him. I guess he was hoping he could overpower Kong with a quick rush, which also cost him energy. "
"Any idea how we can heal him?" Maddie asked, though Dr. Chen could only shake his head.
"We were actually hoping you might be able to get us a little closer to that, but well... We're working on it. Looking for possible drugs, but hardly any will work on him or will we be able to make enough.
"You have plenty of sedatives, though." Ilene shrugged.
"For Titans, we have highly enriched dosages in rough quantities, but we're also just designed to keep them calm, we haven't really had anything like medicine yet."
"How long does he have?"
Chen gripped her chin. "We're still unsure, it might not kill him completely, but weaken him for a long time. It could take years, much like his healing process."

The healing process of Godzilla was not completely understood, but depending on the type of wounds, it could take from a day to a year. Madison remembered back a little and things she had read. When Godzilla's first back plates were completely shattered by the Muto Prime, it took him almost over a year to re-grow them, they were partially bone and connected to the back. When he died on Isla de Mara by the Oxygen Destroyer for a short time, he had never been closer to death and woke up hours later, with his teeth just hanging on to life. Then he came to his old shelter and recovered, but that might have taken a year or two, with the natural energy.

But that gave Maddie an idea.

"Ilene?" "Y-Yeah?" Chen was surprised that Maddie addressed her by her first name. "What would you think if I told you I might have an idea?"

At first Ilene sighed, hopeful though, after all they were completely out of ideas here.
"Where you revived Godzilla, it was said that the process of natural radiation There would heal him?"
"Exactly. Wait, how do you know that?"
"I went to a couple of Dad's seminars and snuck into the archives." Ilene blinked briefly out of surprise, Madison continued.
"With a lot of animals, when they get sick, even humans, they adjust their diet to live when they're healthy."
"I follow you, yes?"
"Maybe Godzilla needs something like that. The naturally occurring radiation like you had found in Godzilla's cave. Up until now he'd been getting a lot of the energy in him from the remnants of the bomb, that would be like practically running on fast food all the time."
"And now it's clogged his arteries, so to speak..."

"Right." "Hmm." "What Hmm?" "I'm thinking, you seem to be on to something..."

Even though it was not exactly the same with Godzilla, the tests showed something similar to radiation sickness, but in creatures that normally lived on radiation, there were very different rules, even though the symptoms were similar. Fatigue and reduced healing process, from a normally excellent immune system. That it came from the bomb Serizawa detonated was clear, and that it originally helped him as well.
During testing, a soldier asked why they couldn't just set off another bomb, which was rather silly and typical.
Dr. Tilly, one of the scientists of the ship said maybe Godzilla would become dependent on the nuclear energy of the humans, because a new dose would help him, but would also burn the energy again faster, as Madison already thought with the calorie example.
Practically speaking, it was really his diet and even if there were different rules in terms of radiation in the Titans, they followed the same or similar principles as all other creatures in the course of evolution, certain patterns, specializations, adaptations and so on.

"The only question is where we can get at natural occurrences. Godzilla's cave collapsed and was completely wiped out in the ignition, there's nothing left to get."

Then Madison remembered her dream with Mothra, the great entrance.
"Maybe if we can find an entrance into the Hollow Earth." Ilene raised an eyebrow.
"Also something you picked up from Mark's class?"
"Something like that. We don't know that much about it except that it's a more natural habitat of the Titans other than previously assumed they just burrowed into the earth or in the depths of the ocean."
"They do and can, but more to "hibernate" so to speak since they still prefer the surface for some reason."
"Oh that's right."
Maddie felt she was much more relaxed than usual next to Ilene, actually talking about Titans she was so fascinated and connected with, before that she had rarely had the opportunity. Despite everything, there was always a small hope in her that she could work with Monarch in the future. With Monarch, not for Monarch, she emphasized in her thoughts.

"Maybe it's competition? There could be a lot of things down there, if that's where the Skull Crawlers came from, who knows what else was there." Suggested Maddie.
"I can imagine, or they don't see any difference between the two, it's all one world for, they can just wander through there, in and out at will. For Godzilla, the whole planet is his territory, the Hollow Earth would maybe count as part of that. "

Maddie nodded and smiled. An honest smile from Maddie to her she had never gotten from her, otherwise always a cold shoulder or she was ignored by her.

"I'm sorry." Somewhat confused by this, Chen asked, "What are you sorry for?"
"For being so cold when we landed at the outpost and pushing you away. That could have been the last time we saw each other."

Ilene gave a slight smile and shook her head. "You don't have to apologize for that, you were upset by what you saw." "Still, who knows how things would have turned out." "Maybe. Maybe we would have crashed and burned on the ground or maybe we could have just kept flying. Instead of thinking what could have been, we need to focus now on looking forward and learning from what happened and figuring out how to move forward."

"Maybe some thinking could help." Said Madison. "But not on an empty stomach." Mark came in, carrying a tray of breakfast.
He walked past Chen, while Madison sat up he put the food in front of her.
"Did you guys discuss everything?"
"You could say that, Maddie learned a lot from you."
"Oh did she?" Mark raised an eyebrow and Madison stopped as she went to pick up a fork. "Um..." "It's okay, you have breakfast for once, me and Ilene are on the bridge, after you are finished then come join us, clothes are in the closet next to you."

"Did something happen?" It seemed a little strange that Mark left right away now that she was awake.
"Situation briefing, Godzilla is awake too, now we have to figure out where to take him here." "I have an idea," Ilene said and winked at Madison as she got up, the two of them walked out and Ilene gave her another quick wave.

Maddie devoted herself to her breakfast: scrambled eggs and toast with coffee. Yummy.

After she finished eating she got dressed. It was standard Monarch gear again, black pants with pockets and a Monarch symbol on the side, shirt was plain white, then looked around further, she had a choice between a hoodie and a jacket. She decided on the hoodie, much more comfortable she hadn't planned on going out in the rain or anything. Shoes were quite ordinary, though she almost considered going barefoot, no where did the thought come to her.

She made her way to the bridge, passing a few people along the way, soldiers, engineers. None of them really greeted her and were more busy with their work while she buried her hands in her fanny pack. Just before the bridge was a turnoff, she went back out to the deck, since it was sort of on the way, she figured it wouldn't be so bad to stop by and see Godzilla.

Immediately after opening greeted by the cool and slightly salty sea air, as the sound of the sea was heard louder than yesterday at night when raining, the sky was clear, only here and there white clouds that broke through the blue sky.
It was very busy upstairs, certainly a few dozen people who just worked on thing and watched that everything was maintained.

Apparently there was also just another test or something done on Godzilla, she saw three people walking towards him with protective gear and big suitcases. He just lay there contentedly sunning himself and watching the people in front of him, much like he watched the iwi back in the valley.

As if it wasn't unusual, she marched over to Godzilla, almost directly behind the three people. Madison actually wondered why no one stopped her, but probably she was the only child on the ship, so maybe everyone was already told who she was, if the whole monarch didn't already know.

When she got to Godzilla, he let out a soft rumble, opening and closing his mouth slightly. Madison smiled and touched him on the muzzle again. "Good morning, how are you?"

Some scratches and wounds were still visible, but in fact they were somewhat healed, at least that calmed her a little for now.

"Excuse me?" Came a female voice from the side, it was one of the three people in white protective suits, she had a mouth mask on, she had shoulder length black hair. "I guess you'll be Madison?" "Yes."
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Maigo Tilly." The two shook hands, Dr. Tilly's plastic glove feeling strange.
"Did you get instructions to come here?"
"No, I was just on my way to the bridge, I just wanted to check in on him," Madison leaned against Godzilla, "what are you guys doing right now?"
"We're just taking data again, good thing you're here, you can calm Godzilla up for a minute." Madison raised an eyebrow.
"Are you going to hurt him?" "A little bit might hurt, we need to take blood samples and the easiest way to get them is from the gill slits on the neck, they are very sensitive though. "
"Okay then, you guys go ahead I'll try to keep him quiet." Dr. Tilly nodded and continued to the back, Madison turned to Godzilla.

"Okay big guy, take it easy, it may prick for a minute. " She gently stroked his lower chin, making sure he had his attention only on him. Then came a slight grumble from him, followed by Dr. Tilly shouting "Alright, all done!". Madison smiled and gave him a few more taps goodbye. "I have to leave for a minute, I'll be back soon." She said and headed back to the dugout, noting that there were stairs straight up to the bridge.

When she finally got upstairs, Mark and Ilene were talking with the captain, seems like they were almost done.
"Do you think these attackers were part of Jonah's old group?"
"Well, we're not sure, but it's an educated guess."
"They were." Madison interrupted Mark, he turned to her. "There you are. How do you know that?"
"Belvera had attacked me, they took an Iwi girl hostage, remember." "Oh yeah you told us, guess we almost forgot that after everything that happened." Whispered Mark.

"Tell me Madison, what was the girl's name again?" "Jia." Ilene nodded and just scrolled around on a display what was at the table. "Did she look like this?" A picture of Jia and Dr. Andrews came up, one that Ilene could secure from the outpost. "Exactly. She was deaf, we could still communicate, she said Kong was her father." "Her father..."

"That explains a lot, damn it." Mark cursed softly.
"So you think Jonah's group that was left has Kong under their control?" Said the captain. "At the very least, I wouldn't be surprised if they forced him to do certain things with the girl's help?"

"But this group actually wanted to advocate for the liberation of the Titans and this whole back to nature thing, why would they do something like that?"
"Well Captain, it seems they are not entirely happy with it. A few months ago Jonah used a device similar to the ORCA. He wanted to use it to get the Titans to flatten cities and take more territory, which he thought would speed up his process." Mark remembered that all to well given Jonah was almost about to shoot him then an there.

"Belvera said the village was just a test run, they probably got Kong to destroy it."
"That would still be an extreme task even with Orca, give Kong's connection to the village." Ilene had studied a bit into Kongs behavior from present and past, what always came up was his sense to protect the village given they might have been there his whole life, maybe the reason he survived even.

"I have this idea." Said Madison. But was interrupted by a loud beeping in the room. "Someone's contacting at us... video transmission from an Osprey?" Said the radio operator, everyone was a bit confused and on edge, they had this feeling what it might be. "Patch them in." Shouted the captain.

First came a symbol, there were three red semicircles lined up so that it looked like an A with the name "Apex" underneath.

"Apex...what does that mean?" Madison wondered, she had never heard of any organization like that.

Someone appeared on the screen, a woman of Asian descent, with black hair and a purple jacket.

"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen." "Belvera." Madison felt anger rising slightly inside her again.

"I just wanted to contact you guys to negotiate a little bit." "Negotiate about what?" Mark asked, he was a bit tense, the whole thing felt like de ja vu again. Belvera smiled and looked down at her leather gloves, pretending to pay little attention to them.

"Nothing big, just the lives of two of your employees and children, as well as the entire city of Hong Kong."
"What?" Madison shouted. Belvera grinned and switched over to footage. Suddenly Madison felt sick to her stomach again, there were Abby, Miki, Dr Andrews and Jia all stuck in one room, trapped. She almost fell down but Mark caught her and helped her stand.

"We took the liberty of taking a few prisoners. As insurance, if the destruction of Hong Kong shouldn't already be enough to do that."
"What do you want for it." Mark got right down to business.
"A small sum of one billion and you to hand over Alan Jonah to us."
"Out of the question!" Shouted Madison, Mark held her back by the arm. "Madison calm down."

"Belvera why are you doing this?"
"You should know, sister." She answered to Ilene.

Chapter 7 done and ready, sorry that it took so long, had some problems irl and such that kept me back a bit. I need some rest now, though grammar errors will be corrected soon.