Notes: And we're back! Shoutouts to GuardianDragon98, edboy4926, Mew1157, MarioMan90276554, RainBowRoad29071, ARandomPerson23, and Miss Queen B for reviewing; I really appreciate it, and I love hearing you guys' thoughts on my work! :)

As this chapter's title would suggest, the music for this chapter (particularly the first two scenes and the last scene) is "A Mass Awakening" from the Godzilla KOTM soundtrack.

Also, a mild TW for a bit of body horror/gore in the first two scenes, just so you guys are prepared for that. Nothing too bad, but it gets a little rough.

Now, without further ado, let's get into this! I've been excited for this chapter for quite a while, so I'm eager to see what you guys think of it.

Chapter 5: A Mass Awakening

Gulf of Mexico

Titanus Gojira

The King had been caught completely off-guard. He hadn't been concerned about the humans' fire-stinger when it first hit the water: their normal weapons didn't do any serious damage to him, and even their powerful exploding radiation-pebbles couldn't really hurt him, particularly since he could absorb the radiation from those blasts. But this was different.

When the stinger detonated, a blinding flash of cold green light rippled outward, accompanied by a massive shockwave that flung both the King and the Golden One through the water, ripping them away from each other. Curiously, this explosion didn't have any of the usual radiation that their more powerful weapons generated, which made it harder for them to withstand the blast.

Dazed and disoriented by the shockwave, the King forced himself to a halt and kept his attention fixed on his enemy, using their energy as a focus point to help him maintain his bearings. Snarling, he sucked in a deep inhale of water, letting it wash over his gills as he prepared to rush back at the Golden One…

But nothing happened. The water swirled over his gills, but he didn't get anything from it. It was as if the ocean around him had turned stagnant in an instant, robbed of all its life-giving oxygen.

The King gasped and choked, shaking his head back and forth as he tried to force more oxygen over his gills, but it still didn't work. He could barely breathe, and the effect felt like it was getting worse with each passing second. The water around him was now bubbling violently, its color shifting from blue-green to a sickly red for as far as he could see.

This was unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. Normally, his kind never had any trouble breathing, whatever environment they found themselves in. In the water, they could use their gills; out of it, they could switch to their lungs without any trouble. This dual system was what had enabled them to survive in almost every conceivable habitat. Normally, he never had any trouble breathing in water, but whatever weapon the humans had just used was making it impossible for him to breathe using his gills.

Using his gills…

The King's eyes widened in realization and he started swimming upwards, doing his best to ignore a strange tingling sensation that was quickly spreading over his entire body. Of course! If this water wasn't breathable for the moment, that was fine: he could just swim up to the surface and switch over to his lungs. He'd have to hold his breath while he finished dealing with the Golden One underwater, but that was fine. All he needed to do was –

And then, suddenly, the tingling sensation that had been enveloping him melted into an explosion of horrific, searing agony.

The King roared in pain and spun in the water, thrashing wildly as he tried to throw off whatever was attacking him, but to no avail. Was it the Golden One? No, he could still dimly sense them: they were a few hundred yards away, also thrashing about but rising slowly towards the surface. Then what's attacking me?!

Suddenly, he realized that the water around him was turning a darker shade of red… and then he recognized a familiar taste in his mouth.

Blood. His blood.

What…? The King looked down at himself, and his eyes widened in shock and horror. His body… his skin was melting. He could see it happening, the scales dissolving away at a thousand points all over his body to expose the raw red flesh and muscle underneath, spilling blood into the water. It was as if the bubbling seawater around him had turned into some kind of acid. He could see the same thing happening to other animals all around him, distant schools of fish suffocating as they lost their oxygen and then dissolving as the acid took effect. His regeneration was fighting the process, his damaged flesh already trying to patch itself back together, but the acid's damage was spreading faster than he could heal it.

As soon as the horrified realization properly sank in, the King howled in agony and dove, plunging towards the seafloor as fast as he could. He forgot about the Golden One, about Rodan, about the humans, about everything except survival. Rising to the surface to breathe wasn't an option anymore, as while he would be able to breathe up there, that would do nothing to counteract the acid. He could already tell that his size and his regenerative abilities were the only things keeping him alive right now, and he couldn't swim fast enough normally to outrun the effects of the poison.

His only chance was to reach the underwater tunnel entrance that he'd used to get here: the acceleration of the tunnels could get him out of the area in a matter of seconds, to an area with clean water and no poison. If he could do that, he would be safe. But the tunnel entrance was still thousands of feet below him, and the acid was everywhere.

The King gritted his teeth and forced himself to swim faster, faster, FASTER, as more of his hide melted and dissolved, the wounds slowly growing and expanding. Another wordless cry of pain spilled out through his teeth, and he forced all the power that he had left into his tail and limbs, pouring on more speed and trailing a river of blood in his wake.

He could feel himself weakening, his regeneration unable to keep up with the acid's effects, but he was so close! He could see the ocean floor beneath him, could make out the faint outline of the tunnel entrance up ahead. His damaged muscles screamed with the effort, but he refused to relent.

The tunnel entrance yawned ahead of him. His body felt like it was on fire, and his muscles were on the verge of giving out, but he forced himself to make one final push. For an instant, the image of his Queen flashed across his mind, and he felt the reassuring warmth and love of their connection piercing through the fog of pain. His eyes flashed, rage overcoming the pain and fatigue for a few precious seconds, and he bellowed out his defiance as he dove towards the rift.

Mosura–!

And then he plunged into the tunnel, and everything went black.

Isla de Mara

Titanus Ghidorah

The boiling, dark-red ocean erupted as the Golden One broke the surface, their wings flaring out and cracking the air with each flap. Their left neck hung limp and ended in a ragged stump, but the other two heads were still fully functional and were able to steer their body through the air.

Both Ichi and Ni were, for once, genuinely shaken. They had been minutes, perhaps seconds, away from suffering another defeat at the hands of their nemesis, and this time they would not merely have been trapped beneath the ice. The Lizard King had already ripped off one of their heads, and if he'd managed to sever the other two then they would have been left completely at his mercy. The strange explosion of green fire that had blasted them apart had come as a complete surprise, but neither of them was questioning it.

Both heads had screeched in anguish when their entire body had abruptly been enveloped in a shroud of pain, but fortunately their tightly-knit scales had been able to at least partially resist the effects of the suddenly-acidic seawater. It hadn't been perfect – a few hundred small wounds across their body and wings were now dripping black blood as they flew, and the stump of San's severed neck was bleeding more heavily now as the acid ate away at the exposed flesh – but they were still alive, and mostly unharmed.

"What…" Ni panted as they rose up, his usually-aggressive voice quieter than usual and laced with pain, "the hell… was that?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Ichi admitted, gritting his own teeth against the pain and weariness that ran through their body as he kept flapping their wings to gain a bit more altitude. "Some sort of explosive weapon, I think. Perhaps the humans were trying to aid the Lizard King in finishing us off."

"Well, if that's what they were trying to do, it sounds like they fucked it up pretty bad," Ni snarked as he glanced down towards the ocean. "Hear that?"

Ichi was silent for a moment as he too listened, tilting his head down towards the water as he steered their body into a large circle over the growing patch of blood-red sea. Then he smirked darkly and let a soft chuckle escape his mouth, as he heard the muffled but unmistakable sound of the Lizard King's distant voice howling in pain. "Well, well," he murmured. "How unfortunate for him."

The two heads listened intently for a long minute, waiting to see if their enemy was going to come back up. But, to their surprise, he didn't. There was a final echoing roar, filled with agony… and then the Lizard King's voice trailed off into silence.

Ni blinked, tilting his head back and forth. "Wait…" he muttered. "Did he just…?"

Ichi's eyes widened in surprise, before his smirk widened in an expression of cruel delight. "I believe so, yes," he drawled, triumph and satisfaction filling his voice. "I cannot sense his presence anymore. It seems that our dear nemesis has just met his end."

Ni stared down at the water with wide eyes for a long moment, not entirely able to believe that their enemy was really gone. Then he threw his head back and howled with laughter, his voice ringing out over the ocean. "Serves you right!" he called down at the water with a mocking cackle. "Spent all those millennia protecting those worthless humans from us, and they end up killing you! How pathetic is that?!"

Ichi, for his part, was more reserved, as he genuinely felt taken aback by this turn of events. They had fought the Lizard King so many times that he hadn't been entirely sure if the bastard could die; he seemed to have as many lives as that damn Bug Queen. But there was no denying that their enemy had disappeared, and if those screams that they'd heard prior to his going silent were any indication, there was a good chance that he might actually have died.

But they hadn't killed him. Ghidorah was not the one who had brought their nemesis down; it seemed that a human weapon had done that, the same one that had inflicted some damage on them as well. And if the humans were capable of building weapons that could take down a creature as powerful as the Lizard King, then they were indeed just as much of a threat as he had feared.

We need to start the purge immediately, he decided, his telepathic voice drawing Ni's attention away from his derisive tirade. If that was a human weapon, then they have indeed become a serious threat to creatures like us… potentially just as great a threat as the Exif were.

That name stopped Ni's laughter completely: his eyes widened, and his breath momentarily caught in his throat as he turned to regard his brother. You… you really think these humans could become like the Exif? he questioned. Those aircraft we saw aren't nearly as advanced as theirs were.

No, but any civilization that can bring down a creature like the Lizard King could potentially do the same to us, Ichi replied. The humans may not be as advanced as the Exif were – at least, not yet – but if they have advanced this much while we were buried in the ice, they could easily reach that level before long if we do not stop them.

Ni nodded slowly. Yeah, you're not wrong, he conceded. All right, then. Let's heal up, bring San back, and get to purging.

Agreed. Ichi reasserted a more direct control over their wings, and Ghidorah soared back towards the fire-wing's island. The energy radiating from the erupting volcano there would be more than enough for them to heal and recharge. It didn't take long for them to get there: they swooped in and landed atop the volcano, before settling down into the boiling, fiery cauldron of the fire-wing's former nest. The searing heat of the lava would have been deadly to a lesser creature, and even to some lesser Kaiju, but Ghidorah's scales could withstand the heat of atmospheric reentry, so the interior of a volcano wasn't more than they could handle. The radiation welling up from beneath the earth was absorbed into their body on contact, accelerating their regeneration and enabling them to heal much faster. Their smaller wounds quickly closed up and disappeared, new scales growing until their hide was restored to its usual gleaming perfection. Energy poured back into them, until they were finally back to full strength, just as powerful as they had been prior to their imprisonment in the ice.

As they basked in the heat and let the healing energy continue flowing into them, however, a worrisome thought began to form in Ichi's mind. The Lizard King might be gone, but if the humans had weapons that could take him down, that made them a threat. Even without Ghidorah's Kaiju enemies, the humans had now proven themselves to be a legitimate adversary, and it could potentially be dangerous for Ghidorah to try and purge the entire planet on their own.

But… did they really have to do it on their own? Once, a long time ago, they'd had allies who had joined them in purging worlds… although those purges had been on behalf of the civilization that had once enslaved them. They had parted ways with those allies long before coming to Earth, as their species was solitary by nature and they'd had no interest in traveling with companions.

But under the current circumstances, when they were up against a civilization capable of creating Kaiju-killing weapons, recruiting allies to help them seemed like a good solution to that problem. If there was one thing that the Exif had taught them all those years ago, it was this: never do a dangerous task yourself, when you can use others to do it for you.

Ichi was drawn out of his thoughts by a pained hiss from Ni, a moment before he too felt a rush of pain lance through the left side of their body, signifying that they had absorbed enough energy to trigger the regeneration of their severed head. Sure enough, the stump of San's neck wasn't bleeding anymore, and the severing wound was bulging and rippling as it began to grow.

"Finally," Ni growled. "Took you long enough."

The stump of San's neck burst outwards, flesh and bone spearing quickly out as his head began to regrow. The whole thing was covered by a translucent, slimy membrane, insulating the raw flesh so it could grow more quickly; as the head grew enough to begin stretching the membrane, Ichi reached over and clamped his jaws onto the membrane before ripping it off so the new head and neck could finish growing.

For some reason, the new head's tongue grew back first, flicking about like a worm as the bones of the skull grew out around it, welding together into an upper and lower jaw. Flesh grew next, muscles and tendons wrapping themselves over the bones and molding into the proper shape. A new pair of blood-red eyes grew in the empty sockets, as golden scales grew to cover the exposed flesh and a new set of horns sprouted into place. In just a few seconds, San was fully regrown, blinking a few times to let his vision adjust. "Okay, I'm back!" he gasped as his mouth and throat finished reforming. "Ah, man, that sucked!"

"No shit," Ni deadpanned, rolling his eyes. So, now that we're back at 100%... what do we do now? How should we start the purge?

Ichi smiled as the ideas that he had been turning over in his head finally crystallized. I think I have an idea for that, brothers, he spoke up, drawing both of their attention. Let us take a cue from our former masters' methods. They used intermediaries to carry out their purges when an enemy posed a threat to them, as disposable cannon fodder: we can do the same.

San frowned. What do you mean? he inquired.

Yeah, for once, I'm with him, Ni agreed. What scheme are you cookin' up now?

Simple enough, Ichi explained. There are plenty of other creatures like us on this planet, although it seems that almost all of them are currently in hibernation. I suggest, therefore, that we wake some of them up, and have them aid us in carrying out the purge.

Ni snorted. And you think they'd do that willingly? When this planet dies, so will they. They're not gonna destroy themselves just 'cause we tell them to.

Always missing the obvious, brother, Ichi remarked dryly, ignoring Ni's irritated hiss. Think for a moment. The only Kaiju on this planet that have posed a genuine threat to us are the Lizard King and his Little Queen. He is dead, she is either dead or sleeping, and no other creatures on this world are a match for us. Combined with our telepathy, an Alpha call should be more than sufficient to round up some cannon fodder for us, and their compliance will not be a factor. They will be forced to obey us, whether they want to or not.

Both Ni and San's eyes widened in surprise, as neither of them had ever considered that idea before. I mean… that would make things easier, San thought contemplatively.

It would, yeah, Ni mused, a grin spreading slowly across his face at the thought of the carnage that they could unleash by doing something like this. Sounds good to me.

Excellent. Ichi's smirk widened and he nodded decisively. Then let's get on with it. Now is as good a time as any.

Ghidorah's wings flared out, and all three heads tilted back and stretched up. Three sets of dagger-filled mouths opened, and the three brothers screamed at the heavens at the top of their lungs, putting all of their telepathic power behind the Alpha call.

Their cry circled the globe, radiating outwards and washing over the Earth. Three voices howled out as one, sending a single message that only other Kaiju could properly understand.

"We speak now to all the creatures of this world. Your King is dead, and you answer to us now. Rise up and join us, hunt with us, and do as we command.

Destroy the humans, those insects who think themselves to be our betters. Hunt them down, crush them, consume them. Obliterate all traces of their vile presence from this world.

We are Ghidorah, the Golden Demise, the One Who Is Many. We are your King now.

And all those who stand against us will perish."

Arizona

Titanus Scylla

Although her appearance was terrifying to lesser creatures such as humans, she was actually very kind at heart and had once been quite a social creature. The females of her species typically lived in groups, inhabiting shallow coastal waters and raising their young communally, so although she had never known which adult female had laid her egg, she had grown up surrounded by dozens of mothers and hundreds of siblings. Even after a terrible disaster had struck her ancestral nesting grounds and many of her kind had lost their lives, she had never been alone, thanks to her connection with the other survivors and with the kind Queen Mosura, who had become one of her closest friends.

But when the Cold Times had come and the world had changed dramatically, her kind had been forced to adapt. They had no problem with cold temperatures – their males spent most of their time in the icy depths of the deep ocean, and all of their species were entirely comfortable in cold climates – but the growing ice caps had caused a massive drop in sea levels, which had left many of their ancestral breeding grounds dry and useless for developing eggs (as their eggs had to be laid in water). Most of her fellow survivors had traveled down to the Underworld, where the underground seas were unaffected by the changing surface climate, but she had decided not to go with them. Her best friend lived up here, and she didn't plan on leaving the surface unless she had no other choice.

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to remain in her ancestral territory, as there wasn't any water there anymore. Deciding to find someplace safer to hibernate, she had left the ocean and traveled inland, until she found a large underground oil field. Such a place would be distasteful to most other Kaiju, but it didn't bother her, so she had torn up the ground and submerged herself in the oil, allowing herself to sink beneath the surface. No enemies or predators would find her here, as there was no radiation present and most Kaiju would never dig around in oil since it tasted disgusting.

Once she was completely submerged, she had tucked her limbs in close and slipped into a hibernation trance. In that state, she didn't need to worry about breathing or eating, although she would need to replenish her energy once she woke up depending on how long she slept for. Millennia passed without her noticing, as she slept on undisturbed, safely hidden away beneath the desert.

And then she heard the call.

It stabbed into her brain, sending painful shocks coursing up and down her limbs. She let out a chattering hiss of pain as she was wrenched back into consciousness, her tentacles practically tying themselves into knots as she tried to drive the pain out of her head. She jerked back and forth, sending ripples out through the oil and into the earth around her.

Finally, she could take it no longer: her limbs unfolded and she reached up, easily punching through the thin layer of rock and earth that had accumulated over her sleeping place during the last few thousand years. Her six long, segmented legs, each tipped with a sharp, pointed claw, curved through the air and slammed back down into the ground on either side of her body, anchoring her. With an almighty flex, she pulled herself up out of the ground, rising to her full height and using her tentacles to wipe the tar away from her eyes as a cascade of black, bubbling oil poured off her exoskeleton.

Scylla winced as the Alpha call drove itself into her mind again, before focusing on her surroundings. She couldn't see any other Kaiju anywhere, but she could still hear the Alpha call ringing in her ears. It wasn't the King or the Queen, she knew that: she could recognize their voices anywhere, and in any case neither of them would ever order her to do something like this. This was the voice of the Golden One, the Destroyer, and feeling their call like this was utterly horrifying. She felt like their mind was pressing down on hers, as if they had their foot on her back and were crushing her into the dirt. She let out a series of pained clicks and hisses, rubbing at her head with a few of her tentacles as she tried to fight off the Alpha command, but their will was too strong.

How could this be? The Golden One was gone, buried beneath the ice of the southern continent and sealed away forever. How could they be back? And… was the King really dead? The thought of that sent a chill through her guts that felt even colder than the liquid nitrogen that her kind could spray from their mouths as a defense mechanism. If he was gone… did that mean Mosura was gone too? And without them, how could anyone stand up to the Golden One now?

Wincing again as another bolt of pain lanced through her mind, Scylla looked down and noticed something odd. It appeared as if a group of humans had set up some sort of settlement near her sleeping place, and many of their small buildings had been knocked over by the turmoil of her emergence. She could see a few humans among the remaining buildings nearby, gazing up at her, and as she looked down at them she felt the Alpha call's compulsion kicking in, urging her to violence.

Normally, Scylla didn't harm humans. Mosura cared about them, which took them off her usual list of prey items, and they were too small to make for a decent meal anyway. But under the current circumstances, she could already tell that only pain would come from resisting the Alpha command… and, unfortunately, there was nothing she could do to overpower it.

"I'm sorry, little ones," Scylla murmured sadly as she advanced on the nearby humans, her tentacles slowly reaching down to pluck them from the ground and deposit them into her waiting beak. "Please forgive me."

Germany

Titanus Methuselah

He was old. Unfathomably old, by human standards. His kind, the mountain-shells, were among the oldest and longest-lived of all Kaiju, and he was old even by his kind's standards. He had lived a long and fruitful life; he had spent much of it with his mate Kamoebas, a beautiful female whose shell was covered in flowering trees and lush vegetation, and they had sired many offspring together.

When the Cold Times had come, Kamoebas had suggested that they travel down to the Underworld as part of the Great Migration that had taken place back then. Many of their kind had done the same, but Methuselah had chosen to stay behind. He had been born on the surface, and he preferred it to the Underworld: if he was going to hibernate anywhere, it was going to be up here, not down there.

As the world continued to cool, however, he had suggested that his dear Kammie descend to the Underworld with the rest of their kind, promising to find her when the Cold Times passed and they woke up. She preferred to sleep in warmer environments, so he had reasoned that she would be more comfortable hibernating down there. She had done so, albeit reluctantly, and he had found a secure place to sleep on the surface: a wide expanse of forest with numerous real mountains that he could use to help conceal his presence, in case any hostile Kaiju came through the area while he was sleeping. Nestling himself down, he had burrowed into the earth until only his armored shell was still visible, coated in its usual outer layer of earth and vegetation.

The plants that his kind cultivated on their shells served two purposes: they were often used for decoration, with some mountain-shells taking great pride in cultivating many kinds of plants on their backs, but they were also useful for camouflage when they were sleeping or hibernating, helping them to blend into their surroundings and avoid predators. This had helped to keep him safe as he slept, ensuring that no enemies could take advantage of his vulnerable state. Sure enough, he was left in peace as he dreamed away the centuries, and no one disturbed him.

Until the Alpha call speared into his mind, and he was forced out of his slumber as the shrieking cry of a devil tore through the peaceful silence of the hibernation trance.

"Agh, my head…" Methuselah groaned as he shifted and slowly pushed himself up out of the ground. He had clearly been asleep for a long time, as the earth had fully covered his head and limbs, and great chunks of earth and rock tumbled away as he rose up on all four legs. He snorted and shook his head slowly back and forth, his curved horns shedding dust and dirt with each motion. He might be old, but he still possessed just as much power coursing through his muscles as he always had.

Unfortunately, age did come with its drawbacks, even among Kaiju: he was stiff and sore from having been stuck in one position for so long, and his joints cracked audibly as he stretched himself out. A deep rumble echoed in his chest as he opened his glowing white eyes and winced in the bright sunlight. The temperature felt much warmer than it had been when he'd gone to sleep, so that was something, at least.

Methuselah didn't get much time to focus on the changes in his surroundings, however, as the Alpha call's effects dug deeper into his mind in that moment, drawing a hoarse bellow of pain from him. He took a slow step forward, shaking his head and trying to drive out the effects of the Golden One's cry, but to no avail. It felt like the Enemy's talons had clamped down around his brain, forcing him into motion like a puppet. He would resist as much as he could, and hopefully he could find a way to break free of their control eventually, but it wasn't going to be easy.

Slowly, Methuselah's head turned, his gaze focusing on what appeared to be one of the humans' cities in the distance, visible over the nearby hills. "Fine," he muttered under his breath. "Have it your way, you bastard. But once I get out of this, I vow that you will pay dearly for what you have done."

With another deep, rumbling growl echoing in his throat, he set his sights on the human city, and began to walk.

Brazil

Titanus Behemoth

He had remained awake longer than most other Kaiju during the Cold Times. His species, the tusk-sloths, had evolved more recently than many other types of Kaiju, and they had fared perfectly well in the cooling climate while many of the older species had retreated to the Underworld or gone into hibernation. But over time, as more and more Kaiju departed the surface, many of his kind had gone to sleep or down to the Underworld as well, planning to wait until the world warmed up and other Kaiju began waking up again.

Behemoth had stayed awake longer than most; he didn't mind sleeping, but he had a few friends who had chosen not to hibernate, and he had visited them whenever he could, until he'd finally chosen to join the other Kaiju in hibernation to wait until the world became more interesting again. Traveling to his favorite resting place, a huge cave in the jungle, he had made his way deep into it until he'd found a great cavern that was more than big enough to comfortably accommodate him. Once there, he had settled down to rest, curling up on a huge bed of soft moss and slipping peacefully into a hibernation trance.

Thousands of years passed without his notice. Slumbering peacefully in his underground sanctuary, he paid no mind to his surroundings, ignoring the occasional presence of humans who came to the cave to watch him. They never bothered him, and their presence was easy enough to ignore, so he didn't feel threatened enough to rouse himself from the trance.

The Alpha call that echoed down through the cave, however, was impossible to ignore. Behemoth groaned in his sleep, rubbing his head with one front paw, as the Golden One's voice drilled its way into his mind like a claw, slashing at his thoughts and battering through his defenses.

"Ugh… the hell, man?" he mumbled as he slowly came back to consciousness, shaking his head and doing his best to ignore the throbbing pain. His long, curved tusks scraped through the layer of plants on the floor of the cave as he moved; his legs were folded under him, his chin resting on his front paws. He rubbed his head again, running the long claws on his paw through his fur to try and soothe his growing headache.

As he tried to sit up, he was confused when he bumped into something. At first he thought it was the roof of the cave, but that didn't make sense; the whole reason why he'd chosen this cave for his hibernation was because it was big enough for him to stand up comfortably, even on two legs. As he rubbed his eyes with his front paws and blinked several times to clear his vision, he realized that there was something above him which hadn't been there when he had gone to sleep: a strange, translucent dome, glowing with a soft blue light.

What…? Behemoth frowned, not sure what he was looking at, and pushed up against the glowing dome again. It flexed slightly with his movement, and he felt a strange, electric tingling on his back, causing his fur to stand on end for a moment.

Now that his vision had adjusted, he could see his surroundings more clearly. A series of small buildings had been constructed around the strange dome, and he could also see a strange, rounded structure attached to the ceiling of the cave above him. He could also make out the small forms of humans darting around among the buildings, and he tilted his head quizzically. The heck're they doin'? What's this thing supposed to be?

As he pushed against the dome again, struggling to break free, his curiosity turned into annoyance. "All right," he muttered. "Enough a' this crap, man." Scowling, he ducked his head and then swung it up as hard as he could with a roar of effort. The sharp, pointed tips of his tusks punctured the dome where his simple pushing had failed, and the whole thing burst asunder and dissolved with a flash of light and an explosion of sparks that rained down around him. A series of bright lights snapped on all around him in the same moment, beams of light shining down on him from a variety of different angles.

"Whoa…" Behemoth's eyes widened as he brought one paw up to shield his eyes. He rose up to his full height, resting on the knuckles of his front paws: his species typically walked that way to keep their long claws from getting dull. "What's with all the lights, man?" he groaned, shaking his head back and forth. "You guys are really killin' my buzz right now!"

A chorus of loud popping sounds echoed through the cave, and Behemoth blinked as he looked down at the cave floor. Dozens of humans had gathered among the buildings around him, and seemed to be firing at him with some sort of flashing projectile weapons. Of course, their weapons weren't doing any damage to him, but it was still mildly annoying, and the Alpha command in his head prompted him into action. One backhanded sweep of his front paw smashed through the low-lying structures and scattered the attacking humans, crushing most of them outright and sending the rest flying.

Frowning, Behemoth turned towards the entrance of the cave, but suddenly he heard a roaring sound from behind him and felt a surge of intense, painful heat on his back. "Ow!" he yelled, swinging around to see a concentrated jet of roiling blue-white fire pouring down from the ceiling of the cave towards him. "Seriously, what the hell?!" He lifted one arm to shield his face as he looked for the source; luckily, it didn't take him long to spot the point where the fire was pouring from the ceiling. Roaring, he surged forwards and swung his tusks up into the cave ceiling, aiming for the source of the flames.

That single massive blow did the trick: his tusks smashed through the rock, sending huge chunks of stone tumbling to the floor of the cave as a massive fireball went off right in his face. He stumbled back, momentarily stunned, as the explosion rang out through the cave. Most of the plants on the cave floor were now smoldering, and more loose rocks were cascading down from the ceiling.

Oh, man… I better get outta here! Behemoth swung back around towards the cave entrance and started moving, taking a moment to pat out the flames that had been crackling over his fur before they could take hold. Shifting into a loping run, he barreled towards the cave entrance and left his former sleeping chamber behind him.

The humans had apparently constructed some kind of barrier across the cave entrance, but it barely even slowed Behemoth down; he just lowered his shoulder and crashed straight through it, tusks swinging to help clear himself a path. Bursting out into the open, he staggered to a halt and looked around, taking in his surroundings and taking a few deep breaths. Being outside immediately helped; he could already feel himself relaxing, now that he was out in the open and surrounded by the wide, peaceful expanse of the jungle.

Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to stay that way for long, as the Golden One's Alpha command kicked in again, spurring him onward. He could see a distant human city on the horizon, and the command ordered him to head for it. He didn't really want to, as he had nothing against the humans and didn't like the idea of hurting them, but the call drove him on regardless.

Damn it… Behemoth sighed heavily. I can already tell this day's gonna suck, man.

New Jersey

Titanus Jinshin-Mushi

Her name was Barb.

Her kind all had names, although they usually didn't bother introducing themselves to anyone outside of their species, since most Kaiju only saw them as enemies or threats so interspecies friendships weren't exactly common. She knew many of her fellow parasites' names, of course; she'd had to become well-acquainted with many of them, as she held a high-ranking position among their kind. Among the Jinshin-Mushi, her authority was second only to that of their Alpha, Mother Prime, and that position came with certain responsibilities, although she didn't always enjoy them.

She had been asleep for a long time. She wasn't entirely sure just how long it had been, as time became difficult to measure during hibernation. The last thing she remembered was a war, between her species and that of the King. After the defeat of the Golden One, he and his allies had launched a campaign of extermination against her species, determined to eradicate the potential threat that they posed to his rule. The war had raged for centuries, with both sides suffering losses, but their species was losing ground and being pushed back by the grand alliance that had been formed to bring them down.

With their numbers growing smaller every year, Mother Prime had decided to send her daughter into hiding as some extra insurance, to make sure that their species would be able to carry on even if the war was lost. As Mother Prime's heir and the next leader of the Jinshin-Mushi, Barb's survival had been of paramount importance, so she had been sent into hiding with a few other parasites to guard and protect her. All of them had been killed over the years, though, leaving her alone.

Hoping to avoid drawing any attention to herself, she had found a safe hiding place along the coast, burrowed underground, and dug out a sleeping chamber for herself. She concealed it as much as she could, before going into a hibernation trance. In that state, her radiation signature would drop almost to nothing, which should hopefully prevent any other Kaiju from detecting her location. And sure enough, it worked: in her sleep, she was left undisturbed, with no other Kaiju detecting her presence or attempting to harm her.

In her sleep, she had been left unsure of whether any other Jinshin-Mushi remained alive. She had contacted two younger members of her species a few years earlier, shifting from her usual trance to a lighter doze while she communicated with them using a series of soft, long-range calls. They had both been immature when she had begun speaking with them, still growing into their adult forms within their respective cocoons, but she had guided them through the process and taught them what they should do once they had finished growing. Once she had taught them as much as she could, she sank deeper into her trance, assuming that they would seek her out and awaken her once they were done growing.

Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead, she was awoken by something very different: a harsh, ringing Alpha call, spiking into her mind and shocking her awake. Her eyes flashed and she shook her head, scratching at the side of her head with one claw.

"The hell?" she muttered, wincing as the call's effects continued to sink in. Who was doing that? The lizard King? No, the call was claiming that he was dead, so it couldn't be him, and in any case his Alpha call didn't work on her kind since they often preyed on his species. This was something else: the power and the malicious intent behind it were entirely different from anything that she'd heard from the King or his species before. The revelation that it was the Golden One had shocked her, as she knew full well that the three-headed Kaiju had been defeated and buried in the ice long before the war between her kind and the King had even begun.

She could partially resist the effects of the call, at least to a certain extent; her species were a type of Alpha Kaiju as well, so a normal Alpha command would have no effect on her. But this call had something else layered on top of it, a mental probe that had sunk into her mind and spreading its influence through her consciousness, forcing her into motion despite her best efforts to resist it.

Reaching up, she began clawing at the ceiling of her sleeping chamber, digging through the earth and rock until the ceiling began collapsing around her and the chamber caved in. Tearing her way up through the ground, she broke the surface and let out a clattering cry that echoed loudly around her, before hauling herself up onto solid ground and looking around her with a puzzled frown.

When she had dug her sleeping chamber and gone to rest here, this area had been covered by a mixture of forest and open grassland. Now, however, the landscape had been transformed beyond recognition: dozens of artificial structures that she recognized as human nests were scattered all over the place. A particularly large one had been directly over her sleeping chamber, and about half of it had collapsed when she had dug her way out.

Shrugging, Barb turned her attention to her surroundings. So the Golden One wanted her to kill the humans? Fine with me. She couldn't care less about those tiny creatures, and it would give her something to do while she tried to figure out how to free herself from the influence of this annoying Alpha call.

Smirking, she advanced towards the nearest human buildings, and began to hunt.

Skull Island

Titanus Kong

The island was peaceful and quiet. The sky overhead was clear and blue, in stark contrast to the ever-present ring of gray storm-clouds that hung on the horizon in all directions, forming a ring that helped to keep the island isolated from the rest of the world. Despite the distant storm, the island itself wasn't experiencing any wind or rain at all: a soft breeze rustled through the treetops, carrying the sounds of distant animal calls, but that was all.

Kong sat alone on a mountain ridge, the highest point on the island, and gazed out over his territory. From here, he could see all of it: the many ridges and valleys, covered in a patchwork of jungles and open grassland, and laced through in places by the gleaming silver lines of rivers, all of which eventually led out to the sea. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the rock wall behind him, allowing the sun's rays to warm his fur.

He had spent his entire life on this island, growing stronger and more experienced with each passing season. By now, he knew every inch of it, as naturally as the back of his hand. All the creatures that lived on this island were known to him, whether they were prey, enemies, or allies. He had once been small enough that he had been forced to worry about predators, to fear the threat of other, larger creatures, but that was no longer the case. He was fully-grown now, just as large as his parents had been before their deaths. As a result, none of the other creatures that lived on the island were capable of posing a serious threat to him any longer.

The only inhabitants that did still count as a threat were his ancient enemies: the Crawlers, the Deep-Dwellers, the Eaters of the Dead. They still appeared on the surface from time to time, although they were not nearly as numerous as they had once been, but he was much bigger and stronger now than he had been just a few decades earlier, and he could easily handle any Crawlers that appeared these days. But he knew full well that it was not a good idea to be overly confident in battle. The sets of old white scars that ran down his chest and across the ribs on his left flank served as a permanent reminder of that, prompting him to think back to the battle when the Crawlers' Alpha, Ramarak, had nearly killed him because Kong's own overconfidence had left him vulnerable.

Thinking of the Crawlers spurred him into motion, prompting him to check on his domain and see if any possible threats might be presenting themselves. Taking a break from his rest, he pushed himself upright with a grunt of effort and slid down the ridge, dropping quietly into the valley below. He spent the rest of the day wandering around the island, patrolling his territory and searching for any warning signs of the enemies that lurked below. Luckily, nothing was present – there were no sounds or scents emanating from any of the vents that led down to the caverns beneath the island, and he didn't sense any vibrations in the stone beneath his feet that would indicate any ascending Crawlers. That helped him to relax a bit, but he still felt strangely on edge, as if there was some other threat present that he couldn't see or sense.

Wondering if perhaps something was amiss with the humans, he checked on them as well. First he visited the Iwi, the Old Humans, who still lived in their village behind the great stone wall that they had built long ago to protect them with help from his ancestors; then he passed by the domain of the New Humans, who had come from across the ocean much more recently and lived in a secured area that they had carved out on the island's coast, near the mouth of one of the rivers. He didn't really trust the New Humans, as the first batch of them to visit the island had attacked him twice and had actually managed to injure him in the process, but the Iwi seemed to trust these ones, and the Iwi had actually lived on this island for far longer than he had (as they had first come there thousands of years earlier, along with his ancestors), so he trusted their judgment in such matters.

Unable to find any threats, or any explanation for why he had been feeling uneasy, he made his way back up to the ridge and sat atop it again, leaning back against the cliffs and watching as the sun sank low on the horizon, beginning to disappear behind the clouds to the west. The moon was also visible now, and he gazed up at it as he waited for night to fall. Perhaps there would be a display of the dazzling, multicolored sky-lights tonight: he always loved watching those.

It was as he lay there, watching the sky and waiting for sleep to come, that he heard the call.

It did not come from the island, from any of the animals on or below it. It echoed across the ocean, coming from somewhere far to the east. The voice did not belong to any creature that he had ever heard, but he had heard calls like this one occasionally in the past: they came from creatures who did not live on his island, but in other lands across the ocean. When he had been young, he had not heard the calls very often, but in recent years they had been more frequent. Once, he had heard one of the others nearby, just a few hundred miles from his island, but it had not tried to contact him directly and it had not wanted anything from him, so he hadn't really cared.

But this one, whatever Kaiju was behind this call, did want something. They wanted him to come to them. To hunt together, to track down the humans and destroy them.

And in the aftermath of that thunderous, ringing call, he heard responses beginning to echo in the distance. Many of them, a dozen or more.

Kong's eyes narrowed and he felt a brief flicker of pain, a strange pressure in his mind, as if the call was somehow trying to force him to do what it wanted. But he was able to resist it; the call had merely washed over him, not really affecting him, and he shrugged off the compulsion without much effort. The strange effects of the call still left him puzzled for a moment, until he realized what it meant: the Caller had to be an Alpha Kaiju.

He had learned about the difference between Alpha Kaiju and other Kaiju when he was young, from his parents. Alphas, from what he remembered, could sometimes exert their will over other Kaiju, forcing them to submit in battle or to follow their orders. He had only done that a couple of times in the past, but there was something different about this one: it seemed specifically designed to override another Kaiju's free will, forcing them to carry out the Caller's orders even if they did not wish to do so.

This was troubling. For most of his life, conditions on the island had been calm and unchanging. Despite the ever-present threat of the Crawlers, things had still been peaceful for the most part. The rains came and went, the animals of the island were born and grew old, and he and his companions went on as always. But now things had changed, and he didn't like it. Change was not something he enjoyed.

Kong scowled, rising to his feet and glaring off into the distance towards the source of the distant call. He had no idea who this Alpha Kaiju was, but he would not serve them, and he had no intention of doing what they wanted. This island, and the humans who lived upon it – all of the humans, both Old and New – were under his protection.

Then he heard other calls, coming from much closer, and his eyes widened in alarm as he turned and looked out over the island. His companions, the other Kaiju who inhabited the island, were on the move. Unlike him, they were not Alphas, and they were not immune to the stranger's call. They were moving towards the humans' territory, driven into action by the stranger's will and unable to stop themselves.

Kong's scowl deepened, and he felt a surge of fury in his heart. How dare this stranger try to control his friends?! Instinctively, he threw back his head and bellowed at the top of his lungs, sending out his own opposing Alpha call as he pounded on his chest with both fists. The deep, bestial roar echoed across the entire island, sweeping over his comrades and washing away the stranger's influence, snapping the other surface Kaiju of Skull Island back to themselves.

Kong had only been able to do that because his companions were close enough to him, and because they had already sworn their loyalty to him as their Alpha, but it had worked, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he heard their calls returning to normal. He had been legitimately worried for a moment that he was going to have to fight his own comrades to snap them out of it, and he was happy that it had not been necessary.

Then, however, he sensed something else… not a sound that he heard in his ears, but the sensation of shifting movement in the stone underfoot, coming from far below him in the caverns beneath the island. His scowl returned in an instant, his hands clenching into fists once more as the movement grew more forceful, and he reached up for a moment to touch the old scars on his chest and side.

He and his companions were not the only giant creatures on the Island of Bones who had heard the distant Alpha call. The Crawlers had heard it too, and some of them were awakening and heading towards the surface. Many of them, more than he had sensed in a long time.

The time of peace was over.

Snarling, Kong leapt off the ridge and plunged down into the valley again, letting out another booming roar to his comrades as he did so. This time, it was not merely an attempt to free them from the stranger's control; this one was a summoning, a call to arms.

The Prince of Bones was going to war.

Gulf of Mexico

Titanus Rodan

The distant, muffled echoes of the fight between Ghidorah and the King had pulled Rodan out of his unconscious state, bringing him slowly back to consciousness. He'd been mildly annoyed by the fact that the King had only seen fit to show up after he'd gotten his ass kicked, but since it sounded like Ghidorah was getting the same sort of treatment that they'd given him, he wasn't going to complain. He listened dimly as the battle raged on in the distance, with the Golden One seemingly at a severe disadvantage, until suddenly he heard the distant thunderclap of a powerful underwater explosion…

And then the King's triumphant roars were suddenly replaced by a series of tortured, agonized howls, before trailing off altogether.

Those agonized cries shocked Rodan fully awake. Shaking his head, he swung his wings through the water and forced himself back to the surface, bursting up out of the ocean with an explosion of foam and steam as his flames reignited. He forced his wings to keep beating, doing his best to gain some altitude, and banked into a turn as he tried to get his bearings back.

What had he just heard? It had unmistakably been the voice of his former friend screaming out in pain, but Rodan had never heard that kind of tone from the King, not once in all the time that they had known each other. For all intents and purposes, it had almost sounded like a death-scream, the final howl of a tortured body being overwhelmed by pain and fear.

But could that really be possible? Rodan had fought alongside the King in countless battles before they had parted ways, many of them against the Golden One, and while he'd never been very close to the other Kaiju, he had to admit that the King had always seemed to be nearly indestructible. And for most of that fight, from what he'd been hearing, his former friend had held the upper hand over Ghidorah. So how could things have changed so quickly?

Determined to find out what had happened, Rodan soared quickly towards the location where he'd heard the screams. When he reached the site, his eyes widened in alarm and his blood ran cold as he circled over a large patch of ocean that had changed from its normal blue-green to a dark red in color. Countless gas bubbles were popping on the surface, and among them he could make out the lifeless bodies of schools of fish and marine mammals, most of which seemed to be decaying and rotting even as he watched. He shuddered, something about the grisly sight sending icy chills through his guts. His instincts all told him that he was looking at something wrong, something that should not exist.

As he was circling over the patch of blood-red sea, Rodan suddenly jerked violently in the air as Ghidorah's Alpha call swept over him, thundering in his ears. He screeched in pain, clawing at his ears for a moment before forcing his wings back into motion to keep himself airborne. For all his speed and power, he was not an Alpha Kaiju, and the dominating tones in the Golden One's distant shriek bore down on him with just as much crushing force as an Alpha roar from the King would have. A moment later, his pained hiss took on a more urgent note as he felt a bolt of mental power lance into his mind alongside the vocal tones, trying to overwhelm his mind and force him into compliance.

But unlike all the other Kaijus who could hear the Golden One's call, Rodan was not affected by the accompanying telepathic attack. This wasn't due to anything special about him personally: it was, instead, the lingering effect of a gift from the Queen, back during the days when he and Anguirus had fought alongside the Royal Couple against Ghidorah. Once she had discovered that Ghidorah had access to psychic attacks as well as physical ones, she had taken steps to help protect them from those attacks. As two Alpha Kaijus with a powerful psychic bond, she and the King were both completely immune to Ghidorah's psychic abilities, but since Anguirus and Rodan didn't have those protections, she had used her own telepathic powers to implant a mental "shield" or "barrier" in their minds, enabling them both to resist any attempts by Ghidorah to seize control of their minds.

As a result, thanks to that mental shield, Rodan was able to resist the telepathic portion of Ghidorah's Alpha call. While the vocal portion still affected him, battering at his will to continue fighting, he was able to fight it off and focused back on their nearby presence. From the sound of it, they had flown in the direction of his volcano, and if they were still wounded after fighting with the King, he might have a chance.

Banking into a turn and leaving the lifeless patch of ocean behind him, Rodan sped off towards his island home.

As it turned out, he was wrong. By the time he got close enough to the island to see Ghidorah perched atop his volcano, Rodan could tell that whatever damage they had sustained during their fight with the King had already healed. They looked even stronger than they had been when he'd fought them earlier, their entire body crackling with power as they crouched in the boiling cauldron of fire and lava. All three pairs of eyes locked onto him as he approached, smoldering red, and all three mouths curved into cruel grins.

"Well, look who it is," the middle head called out. "What, no tears for your fallen Lizard King?" He laughed softly as he saw the look on Rodan's face, a mix of alarm and anger. "Oh, yes, I'm afraid he's gone. My condolences, even though I know you two weren't particularly close."

"Shut up," Rodan snapped as he came in for a landing, touching down on the slope of the volcano and digging his talons into the rock as he flared his wings out in an attempt at an intimidation display. "You're lying! Why should I trust anything you bastards say?!"

The right and left heads snickered, and the middle head's smirk grew wider. "In most cases, you'd have a point there," he quipped. "But in this case, there's no reason for us to lie when the truth is so much sweeter." His eyes narrowed. "Your King has fallen, fire-wing… just as your spike-shelled lover once did."

Rodan's yellow eyes widened, a surge of fury blazing in them, but the middle head's amused smile remained unchanged. "If you wish to join them," he continued casually, "feel free to attack us now. Perhaps we'll even make it quick." All three of Ghidorah's necks began glowing from within, a luminous golden pulse crackling up and down their lengths as a warning that they could easily release a combined blast of lightning at any moment.

Rodan tensed, preparing to try and dive out of the way, but he could already tell that he had made a very big mistake by coming here. If the King really was dead, that meant he was completely alone; he had no idea if the Queen was even still alive, let alone awake, and on his own he was no match for the Golden One. When he'd fought them earlier that day, he had been at full strength while they had seemingly been weaker than usual, and he'd still lost. Now, he was still battered and weary from that fight, while Ghidorah was fully healed and stronger than ever. If he tried to fight them now, he would lose. While he didn't want to admit it, that was an absolute certainty.

"So, you have a choice, fire-wing," Ghidorah's middle head went on nonchalantly, completely ignoring Rodan's inner turmoil and growing panic. "You can attack us again, like you did earlier today, in which case we will kill you." He paused deliberately, his eyes locking onto Rodan's. "Or…"

Rodan had been tensed up to launch himself into the air, planning to try and flee as fast as his wings could carry him, but his eyes widened at that and his wings sank slightly. "'Or…'?" he repeated slowly.

"Uh-huh," the right head put in, his grin widening. "Or… you can work for us."

Rodan's eyes widened further, and he felt a sick lurching sensation in his stomach. "You… you want me to work for you?" he questioned.

"Yep!" the left head spoke up, smiling cheerfully, an expression that was very much at odds with the menacing smirks on his brothers' faces. "See, we've got a lot of work to do: we wanna get rid of the humans, before they can invent weapons that could hurt us. And Ichi had this cool idea of getting some of this planet's Kaiju to help us with that, so –"

"That's enough, San," the middle head cut his brother off curtly, ignoring the left head's slightly-disappointed frown: if he hadn't known better, Rodan would've sworn that the left head was pouting as he nodded and pulled back.

"My brother is a little too enthusiastic," the middle head continued offhandedly, "but he has summarized the situation nicely. With your Lizard King gone, our aim now is to destroy those little swarming mammals who have constructed an elaborate civilization on this planet: humans, as you call them. Based on the responses to that call, I believe we have successfully recruited a few other Kaiju already to aid us in that task. You seem to be resistant to our telepathy, which is unfortunate, but you could still be helpful to us if you are willing to cooperate."

"And if not," the right head finished, "I'd be happy to tear you apart right here and now." He grinned savagely, running his forked tongue over his teeth. "So if you'd rather go with that option, just say so."

"Easy, Ni," the middle head admonished his brother, shaking his head with an amused snort before focusing back on Rodan. "Well, fire-wing? Death, or service. Which do you choose?"

For a long moment, Rodan didn't say anything, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what to do. Running wasn't an option: in his current condition, he might be able to outrun the Golden One, but he wasn't willing to bet his life on that. Attacking them, as much as he wanted to do so, would be a death sentence under the current circumstances.

Which meant that, as much as he hated it… if he wanted to live, he really only had one choice.

Logic won out over emotion, and Rodan nodded slowly, lowering his eyes to the slope in front of him. "Fine," he muttered. "I'll help you."

The middle head chuckled softly, his voice filled with a cruel amusement. "I'm sorry, what was that?" he inquired. "Could you say that again? I may have misheard you."

"Yeah," the right head seconded with a sneer. "And show some respect, this time."

Rodan almost choked on hatred and bile, but he forced it back down. "Yes," he gritted out. "I'll help you." Hating himself more with every passing second, he slowly lowered himself into a crouch, fanning out his wings and bowing his head in the same gesture of submission that he used to assume to signal his loyalty to the King and Queen. "My King."

All three pairs of red eyes blazed with triumph and sadistic glee. "Excellent," the middle head purred, not bothering to conceal his amusement. "Now, then..." He tilted his head back, gazing off into the distance as his smile widened and his brothers' eyes flashed with eagerness and bloodlust. "Let us begin."

Yunnan Rainforest, China

Titanus Mosura

The Queen had remained aware of events elsewhere in the world even during her transformation process, albeit subconsciously, due to the psychic link that she maintained with her King even when she was asleep inside her cocoon. While she wasn't conscious during the process, she could still feel what the King felt and see glimpses of what he was seeing, although she couldn't fully process it while she was still in her trance.

She had felt a chill of horror when she had witnessed the Golden One's return: even in her sleep, she knew full well what their escape from their icy prison would mean for the entire world. Her mind had followed her King as he had pursued them across the world, and she had felt a trace of worry pulse through her subconscious when they had heard the distant sounds of Rodan's battle with Ghidorah; while Rodan had made it very clear that he no longer had any interest in maintaining any kind of friendship with either of them, she couldn't help but feel concern for his safety, as they had once been part of the same "family" until Anguirus's death had torn the group apart. And her King's second battle with the Golden One had gotten her heart racing, as she shared in his triumph and exultation as he managed to gain the upper hand against their enemy and seemed to be just moments away from finishing them off for good.

But then the searing explosion of green light filled the King's field of vision, and the Queen gasped so violently that her body actually twitched and jerked inside her cocoon, causing the entire structure to shiver. Considering how securely she had attached the cocoon to the rock wall behind it, that was an impressive feat.

The Queen was horrified when she felt the agony and terror filtering through the connection as the King dove desperately for the seafloor, fighting to escape even as his flesh and scales began to melt away in a thousand places. One final surge of pain, accompanied by a desperate mental cry of Mosura–!, and then the connection faded to black.

If the Queen had been fully developed, she would have ripped her way out of the cocoon immediately, but she was still only partially-transformed, and she would be of no use to her King like this. So she focused back on herself and doubled down on her efforts, accelerating the process as much as she could, hurrying towards her second birth with as much speed as she could muster.

Finally, several hours later, the transformation was complete. The Queen carefully flexed her limbs, one by one, checking to make sure they were functioning properly. She didn't have the time for an hour-long checkup like the one she'd carried out when she was in her egg, but she forced herself to double-check every part of her body to make sure everything was in order and that her transformation was fully complete. Once she had checked everything, she sent a luminous pulse rippling up and down her body, testing out her bioluminescence. The cocoon pulsed in response, sending a wave of blue-green light shining out through the waterfall, along with a flickering wave of energy that momentarily calmed the driving rainstorm outside.

Her cocoon was sturdier than her egg, as the interweaving matrix of silk had hardened once the transformation had begun, changing it from a silken bag into a durable casing. But it wasn't more than she could handle, and all it took was one forceful push of a clawed foreleg for its surface to bend outwards and rupture. Several bright lights shone through the curtain of falling water, reflecting onto her face; she drew back a little, shielding her newly-formed eyes with one foreleg while reaching out through the water with the other. She could tell that those lights seemed to be coming from some sort of human machines, so she released a concentrated pulse of energy from her forelimb, and the lights blinked out with a few small bursts of sparks, leaving her own bioluminescent glow as the only light illuminating the small valley.

Much better. The Queen nodded in satisfaction, before she dug her claws into the cocoon and pulled them downwards, slicing it wide open and allowing her to pull herself out. Her limbs stretched out: not the many short, hooked claws of her larval form, but four long, powerful legs designed to support the weight of her larger adult body, and a pair of smaller forelimbs tucked up against her chest. Those forelimbs stretched out as she stepped through the waterfall, letting the cool water wash away the lingering slime and fluids that had filled her cocoon during the transformation.

That was when she sensed something odd, and her attention was drawn down to the ground below the waterfall. She had sensed that the humans who had been observing her earlier had set up some sort of makeshift village or camp beneath the falls, but now that she was watching them more closely, she realized that their attitudes were entirely different than those of the humans who had tried to trap and attack her when she had first hatched. She could sense some fear from these humans, but it was overshadowed by feelings of awe and amazement, even reverence. Those emotions were the strongest in two humans who stood out in front of the rest, as if they were the leaders of this group. One, an older man with dark skin and crystal lenses over his eyes, stared at her with what she recognized as a wide, awestruck smile, and nothing but joy in his heart. The other…

The Queen's eyes widened. The other was a young woman, older than the girl Madison had been but younger than Madison's mother. Her long, dark hair was tied into a braid, and her eyes were wide and filled with emotion as she gazed up at her. But it wasn't the woman's physical appearance that she recognized: it was the flickering psychic aura radiating from her, slightly unfamiliar after all these years but unmistakable.

This woman was one of her Singers.

Amazement and joy surged within the Queen's heart. They were still alive! Her Singers, her priestesses, the humans who were closer to her than any other being save her King… they still lived! She had been worried that their line might have ended at some point since she had gone into hibernation, but now she knew that she had been wrong, and she could not have been more delighted. Even her concern over her King's well-being was lifted for a moment, as she gazed down at the young Singer with a soft and warm smile.

It's okay, little one, she projected telepathically. I'm here now. Everything's going to be okay. She saw the awestruck smile on the Singer's face grow wider, and knew that she understood.

As the Queen spoke, her wings unfolded slowly, flaring out to their full spread as a wave of blue light flowed out through them. Finally, a pair of glowing orange eyespots, identical to the eyes of her King, flared to life on her wingtips. Her forelimbs flared out, and she let out a piercing, ringing trill that echoed throughout the valley, a signal to all who heard it that she had returned.

The Queen had heard the Golden One's Alpha call, and it hadn't taken much effort for her to figure out what they intended to do. She briefly considered sending out an Alpha call of her own to try and counteract Ghidorah's, but even if she was able to free the others, she would be alerting Ghidorah to her exact location in the process… and on her own, she was no match for them. If she was going to free everyone, and keep them that way, she would need her King.

And luckily, when she reached into the back of her mind, she could still feel their connection: it was faint and flickering now, barely present, but it still existed. Which meant that whatever condition her King was in right now, he was still alive. But that didn't matter. If she could get to him, hopefully she could heal him, and together they could bring down the Golden One and free the other Kaiju from their control. Right now, she just needed to find him.

My child, she projected again, looking down at the Singer – Ling, she sensed, detecting the woman's name as their minds brushed against each other again – with a reassuring smile. I must go; I need to find my King, and help him. But I will return, I promise you.

Ling nodded slowly. I… I understand, she sent back, her mental voice a little tentative but growing more sure with each word, as she adjusted to their mental connection. You should seek out my sister, Ilene: she may be able to help. If anyone knows where the King is now, she and her comrades will. The Queen felt a second mental connection form as Ling reached out, leading off into the distance like a visible thread of blue light. She and I are connected. Follow that, and you should find her.

The Queen nodded understandingly. Of course. Thank you, little one. You will see me again when this crisis is over: I promise you that.

Fluttering her wings as she stepped out of the waterfall to shake off the water, the Queen crouched slightly and then leapt into the air, her wings flapping steadily as she rose into the night sky. Slowly gaining altitude, she circled the spot of her rebirth once, and then soared off into the night, following the faint trail that should lead her to Ling's sister.

Hang on, Goji, the Queen thought to herself as she sped towards her first destination. I'm on my way.

Notes: And there we go! That was easily the most POVs that I'm gonna have for any chapter in this story, but I felt like it would make sense to do it that way for this, so hopefully it worked okay. XD

For anyone who was wondering: yes, all of the other Titans from canon did also wake up in this 'verse, but we didn't get any screentime for any of the others in the movie, so for this chapter I just focused on the four who did show up in the film: Scylla, Methuselah, Behemoth, and the Queen MUTO (aka Barb), plus Kong, who did get a passage in the KOTM novelization explaining how he responded to Ghidorah's Alpha call. We will definitely see at least some of the other Monsterverse Titans from KOTM and Godzilla Dominion in future stories, though: I already have ideas for how to incorporate Kraken/Na Kika, Mokele-Mbembe, Amhuluk, Tiamat, and some others, as well as a few more Kaiju from the classic Japanese films. So don't worry, there'll be plenty more monster action in the future.

Just so you guys know, a few of the scenes in this chapter included references to some stuff that will be expanded on more in later stories. Just as a couple of examples, some hints that I made for the backstories of Ghidorah, Scylla, Methuselah, and Barb will be explored a lot more in the upcoming sidestories that I've got planned dealing with each of those characters. For Kong, I'm also planning on introducing a couple of other Kaiju on Skull Island when I eventually bring him into the main storyline, which will be the "friends/companions" that I mentioned in his section of this chapter.

Also, just as a random note: I've been trying to come up with voices for the various Kaiju in this 'verse, and while I'm not sure on most of them yet, I do have a couple picked out already. First off, Behemoth would be played by Tommy Chong, the actor who plays Leo on That '70s Show. So if you've seen some clips of that character, that's the voice that I've got in my head when I'm writing/reading Behemoth's lines. XD For the others, I know I want Scylla to have a soft and gentle voice that can also be menacing when she gets angry, maybe something like Scarlett Johansson's performance as Kaa in the live-action Jungle Book movie; Methuselah would have an older-sounding voice with a thick accent, either German or Russian, so any suggestions for potential voice actors there would be welcome; and for Gojira, I'm picturing the voice of Kratos from the God of War video games, as that kind of deep, gravelly voice seems perfect for him. I'm not sure about the rest yet.

Next time, Ghidorah begins their campaign of destruction in earnest, with Rodan along for the ride; the Queen gets to work on tracking down her fallen King; and we get a flashback of the Royal Couple's perspective on the night of Anguirus's death.

Stay tuned!