Chapter 37: War

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Zero days until detonation.

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Destiny lies in front of them. Kiryu, the oxygen destroyer, all of it. However, many things also stand in their way.

First, the last remaining jaegers. In order for humanity's forces to enter and contribute to the battle they must be destroyed. Next is Gigan. His whereabouts are unknown but Godzilla thinks that he is inside of the fortress waiting for them to arrive or he is guarding the oxygen destroyer. In order for any of the kaiju to fight Kiryu they must eliminate Gigan. Lastly, and most importantly, is time. They only have until sunset to kill Kiryu and disable the oxygen destroyer. If they fail, then the world is doomed. Not to mention how none of the kaiju know where Kiryu is or where he even will be on the battlefield. Will he be inside the fortress commanding his troops? Will he flee the battlefield and try to regroup his forces? Or will he roam the battlefield and hunt down each kaiju one by one?

Battra is convinced that he is going to be doing that latter. This is Kiryu's final stand and he is going to give his all to ensure that he wins. Even if that means he dies in the process. His mission is to eliminate all life on Earth and he will do everything in his power to complete it.

Even though the odds are against the group, there is one thing that they do have and that is the layout of the fortress and how to attack it. The first close up images have been captured and many things have been discovered about the mayan fortress.

The jaegers are controlled via a short range tower erected less than half a mile from the base. If this tower falls then the jaegers will shut down. The oxygen destroyer has been mounted on top of the fortress on a metal baseplate. It's eerie purple glow is easily visible from the ground below. The number of jaegers has also been figured out. Wayfield confirms that there are twenty of them inside the perimeter of the fortress. After all the intelligence gathering was completed, they had six hours to stop Kiryu.

Only six hours until the end of the world.

"Here is the plan. I hope all of you listen carefully because one mistake and that is it. We have no redo's. This is the final battle and we can't afford to mess up, especially since most of humanity's military is here helping us. Wayfield, your jaegers are by far the most valuable pieces of hardware here. Make sure your pilots understand that they are not fighting for their lives, but for the lives of everyone on Earth. Me and you are going to push towards the fortress drawing the attention from the oxygen destroyer and everyone else. Understand?" Godzilla asks.

"Yes."

"Good. Rodan. Your objective is to fly towards the tower and destroy it. Use any means necessary to stop the transmission of the signal. Once it is destroyed your next task is to assist Mothra with defending Battra. Mothra and Battra, your objectives are simple. You concentrate on defusing the bomb and Mothra, you are going to defend him from any attackers. If he falls, we are doomed. Defend him with your life, and I mean that."

Mothra nervously looks around. Battra shifts his gaze to her.

"I understand Goji."

"Wait," asks Wayfield, "What do we do about Kiryu or Gigan? Do we just run if they show up?"

"No. The only way we can assure that this whole situation does not get repeated is if both of them are killed. Especially Kiryu. He has taken countless lives from us. We must fight to ensure that those lives were not in vain. I will not stop until victory is certain."

Godzilla pushes the center of his exo suit's chest armor. It tightens up around his body in response. The support structures attach themselves to his dorsal plates. Two long scissor-like blades extend from his arms. A light blue edge streaks up the edge of both of his swords. Small flames ripple within the light.

"Who approved the plasma edge on these? Whoever it was this will come in handy. Now, let's get moving! We have a world to save!"

Godzilla stepped forward and let out a mighty roar. Just after he lowered his head he began to charge forward at full speed. Rodan took off into the sky with a screech, embers trailing behind him. Battra and Mothra took flight and flew over Godzilla. Wayfield and his jaegers run after Godzilla. Seconds later jets start to fly over everyone. Helicopters land on the ground and begin to deploy troops and artillery. All of them led by the rapid pulsing of Godzilla's dorsal plates.

Seconds later, inside the mayan fortress.

"Master, they have arrived." Gigan says with a hint of happiness in his voice.

"Good."

Jaegers begin to pour from the surrounding jungle. Dozens of them spring out and charge towards the crusaders. Godzilla, unwavered by the jaegers streaking after him, continues his sprint until he spots jaegers coming towards him from the front. He stops and gets in his fighting stance. The jaegers in front of him activate their swords and let out a mechanical roar. However, something is off. Godzilla turns his head for a brief second to see jaegers coming in from behind the invading force. Wayfield shouted something and activated his swords but Godzilla already knew.

It was a trap.

Kiryu knew Godzilla would blindly charge forward so he set his soldiers deep into the jungles and underground. When they detected Godzilla marching they emerged. But one thing Godzilla knew that Kiryu didn't was that he was prepared for something like this.

Godzilla thrust his blades forward and impaled a jaeger right in the neck. He twisted and it's rectangular head tumbled to the dirt ground below. He ducked and a sword whizzed by his head. Godzilla twisted his body and swung out one of his feet. It made contact with the jaeger and it crashed to the ground. Wayfield stepped forward and stomped on its head. Wayfield chuckled and activated his plasma cannon and fired several rounds into the approaching walls of jaegers. Three fell to the ground and were trampled by the others.

"I think there are a lot more than twenty don't you agree!?" Wayfield shouts as he punches a jaeger right in it's chest.

"Now isn't the best time to talk Wayfield!" Godzilla responds while tearing an arm right off an attacker. Wayfield responds by grabbing the back of that jaeger's head and stabbing his sword right through it's chest.

In between blows the duo can't help but watch as their less experienced comrades get cut down. Wayfield watches as one of his men gets sliced in half and then has the head of his jaeger trampled on. Godzilla watches as a white jaeger to his left gets blown apart by cannon fire and then has its own head crushed. Soon the attacking force gets reduced from a couple dozen to only Godzilla and Wayfield. The bodies of fallen jaegers begin to pile up around them. Slowly but surely, they begin to stand on top of them to gain a height advantage. Within just a few minutes they start to form a small hill that they stand on. Jaegers that try to ascend the hill only come falling back down in pieces. The blue beam of Godzilla's atomic breath carves up the approaching enemies. Wayfield's almost infinite supply of plasma cannon shots pepper everything in sight. All the while missiles and airstrikes from humanity's own weapons of war assist in the carnage.

While this is happening, Battra and Mothra land on top of the fortress near the oxygen destroyer. As they land next to the bomb they find it is smaller than expected. Easily able to fit into Godzilla's hand. It's purple haze brightly illuminating their faces. Battra steps towards the canister and opens a rectangular panel on the stand it rests on. Various tubes and wires spill from the opening. Mothra notices something coming near them and takes off to see. She spots a jaeger climbing up the pyramid towards them. She dives down and latches onto it's head. She twists her body sharply and jolts upwards and it's head comes clean off. She discards the severed head and flies back up to Battra. She lands and watches as he fidgets with the wires and tubing. She sees him pull a small holo pad from inside the stand and starts to type on it. She hears another jaeger trying to climb the pyramid so she flies back down and repeats what she did to the last one. She flies back up to see Battra swear to himself.

"What's wrong?"

"I am having trouble bypassing Kiryu's firewall. It's going to take maybe an hour or so before I can even access the files inside of it."

"Then get working! Do everything you can to stop that bomb Battra!"

Battra turns back towards his work. Just as he does he pushes a button on his holo pad and the timer drops.

Mothra watches with her own eyes as the timer drops from 5 hours, 15 minutes and 36 seconds to 1 hour, 12 minutes and 14 seconds.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

Mothra shakes Battra and stares into his emotionless eyes. He shoves her right off of him.

"I pushed the wrong button! I'm sorry I am new to this I-"

"NEW TO THIS!?"

"I haven't defused many bombs Mothra I have only bui-"

"SO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DEFUSE THIS THING!?

"I'VE NEVER DEFUSED A BOMB THAT CAN END THE WORLD IF I MESS UP MOTHRA! GIVE ME A MINUTE!"

"WE WON'T HAVE ANY MINUTES LEFT IF YOU MESS UP AGAIN!"

Battra shoves her away from him and he goes back to fidgeting with the holo pad and the wires. However he stops when he hears a familiar jet roar next to him. He looks up and sees Gigan's looming figure land next to him with a metal thud. His talons causing the roof to crack.

"Did you think you could stop us?"

Gigan slashes with his scythe. Battra narrowly dodges the swipe. He screeches and fires bolts of lightning at Gigan but he just absorbs them. He jumps into the air but Gigan fires his heat vision at him and he flies backwards into a stone pillar. He crashes through and lies amidst the rubble. He watches through blurry vision as Mothra tries to fight him but he simply grabs her with his tail and slams her into the ground.

Gigan turns and walks to gets up and flares his wings. Small jolts of lightning begin to ripple down his body and hit the ground. His eyes begin to turn purple but before he can fire his prism beams Gigan fires a beam of his heat vision right into Battra's face. He cries out in pain and collapses to the ground. He quickly throws one of his wings over his face and tries to heal his eyes. Gigan picks him up by the neck and starts to strangle him. Battra tries to wrap his pincer around Gigan's neck but he simply stabs his abdomen with one of his scythes.

"One thing you never learned Battra was when to quit. I'll force you to."

Just before Gigan can slice upwards and end Battra once and for all he hears a screech and a slice down his back. Gigan roars in pain and drops Battra. Mothra latches onto him and tries to haul him over the edge. Gigan spins around and kicks Mothra right in the thorax. She tries to drop Gigan but she can't get herself free. Gigan activates his thrusters and tries to fly off but Mothra dives down and slams him into the side of the pyramid. Gigan feels his thrusters grind against the rough stone of the pyramid. Gigan kicks her again and she lets go of him. The two of them crash into the side of the pyramid and tumble down. Chunks of stone crash over them as they fall. Mothra lands with a heavy thud along with several tons of rock. Gigan jumps off and lands right in front of her with his thrusters. Mothra saw this and was barely able to escape the swing of his scythe. She flies backwards dodging every swing. Gigan steps back and fires his heat vision at her. Just before the beam can hit her she manages to throw her wings in front of her and she redirects the beam right back at him. Gigan dodges the redirected blast of energy.

"I will enjoy gutting you like a fish once I get through with you. But what to do about your eggs...maybe after I squash you I might eat them!

Mothra screeches and flies upwards. She banks and dives down on top of Gigan. She slashes at the back of his neck but his tail grabs her and throws her into the side of the pyramid. Rocks tumble down on top of her as she lays still. Her vision distorts for a few seconds. This is it, I'm done for. She thought. Just as she closes her eyes and accepts her fate she hears something land and then Gigan roaring in pain. She opens her eyes and spots a fuzzy figure standing behind Gigan. Two holes blown right through his chest.

It was Battra.

Smoke sizzles out of Gigan's wounds as he turns to Battra. He flares his wings and takes off into the sky. He dives right back down and stabs his front legs into Gigan's shoulders. Gigan roars and tries to grab him with his tail but Battra latches onto the end of it with his pincer and cuts it clean off. The severed length hits the jungle floor with a soft thud. Mothra climbs out of her crevice and jumps onto Gigan. Angered, he blindly fires his heat vision but all it does is give Mothra a new target. Once he stops his beam Mothra shoves both of her front legs into Gigan's visor. She feels glass, metal, flesh, then more metal, then the warm jungle air. Her legs went right through his head. Gigan, unable to see and now losing blood, panics. He extends his thrusters and fires them full blast. He shoots higher and higher into the air until Battra slices them clean off.

"Quick! Jump!" Battra hollers to his sister who still has her legs in Gigan's head.

Mothra and Battra leap off of Gigan as he plummets to the Earth. He falls and falls and falls and-

Splat. He lands on the extended blade of a fallen jaeger. He lets out a screech that ends with a gurgle. Mothra and Battra land next to him. The blade pierced right through the top of his chest. Blood coated the blade. Both of his legs are bent in weird shapes and his neck is broken. Gigan turns his gaze to who he thinks is Battra. Weakly, he tries to speak.

"Battra...I...I'm...I'm s...sorry…"

"Gigan, I know not what lies after death, but I know there will be nothing good for you waiting there. But that can change. Tell us how to stop the bomb."

Mothra slowly tries to move her wings over to help heal Gigan but Battra stops her. Gigan coughs and blood oozes out of his mouth. His chest heaves. Sparks shoot out of his legs and neck.

"You...can't...st-stop...the...bomb...nothing...can...stop...it...it...is...is…"

Battra moves over to Gigan's head. He places his front legs on him.

"It is what Gigan! Tell us! Gigan!"

"It...is...inevitable..."

Gigan takes one last heave, and then exhales. His chest never rises again. His head hangs limply to his side. The last remaining life within Gigan's metal shell leaves. He died not in the arms of friends or his comrades, he died alone, impaled, blind, with two of his mortal enemies standing over him. Battra, although he never once liked Gigan in his entire life, shed a tear, for he knew just how tragic his life was. He was manipulated, tortured, and had his entire life destroyed. He was promised freedom only to become a tool for two different people. Only death was able to free his shackles.

Battra stepped away from his body and sobbed. Mothra wrapped her wing around him and comforted him. The two sat together for a while, knowing that nothing could be done about the ticking of the bomb.

Godzilla and Wayfield had been killing jaegers now for almost an hour and they began to feel the strain. An occasional jaeger would get through the wall of fire and land a blow on Godzilla or Wayfield. Because of Godzilla being cured of the muto virus and also from being powered up on radiation, he is able to heal himself but Wayfield can't. Every blow he takes is one he has to deal with. Eventually humanity ran out of things to shoot at the jaegers.

"WHY IS RODAN TAKING SO FUCKING LONG TO DISABLE THAT STUPID TOWER!?" Wayfield shouted as he fired a plasma cannon shot into the head of a jaeger.

"I DON'T KNOW! MAYBE HE HAS HIS OWN JAEGERS TO DEAL WITH!" Godzilla shouted back.

The duo, although getting tired, were pushing forward still. Slowly but surely they would take steps towards the fortress. However that changed when a jaeger somehow got through and latched onto Godzilla's exo suit. It grabbed his dorsal plate armor and began to pull it off. Distracted, Godzilla tried to wrestle it free but it didn't budge. More jaegers latched on and started to pry it off. Godzilla did all he could to keep them at bay. However something caught his eye. A red spot was flying faster and faster towards him. It was Rodan. He had returned from his mission! But why were the jaegers still active?

"Godzilla! I have some bad news!"

"I'm kinda busy at the moment! Can you get these guys off of me!?"

Rodan flew down and latched onto the jaeger pulling at his armor. He shot upwards and ripped it's torso right off. He landed back down and began to breathe fire. The jaegers scattered like rats.

"Alright. What is it?"

"I destroyed the tower but the jaegers are still active. I think Kiryu must have made them autonomous so I tried to kill as many as I could but there are so many of them. I killed about 40 of them before I realized that it's useless so I came looking for you."

Wayfield looks over and in a panicked voice asks, "Well what are we going to do?"

"I have a plan. I think Rodan knows what one I am talking about."

Rodan turns his head and a smile begins to sprawl upon his face. He laughs.

"What plan? What are you talking about?" Wayfield panics.

"I'm going to detonate a nuclear bomb. That should clear the path to the fortress. Don't worry it's a tactical nuke so it's not going to level everything."

"Are you mad?"

"No. I'm perfectly sane. Just pretty angry."

Godzilla pulls the chest of his armor right off and places it right on the ground. He pushes a kaiju-sized button on the back of it and twists a lever. Lights begin to flash on the back of the panel.

"Get behind me! Don't move!"

Godzilla pulled off the rest of his armor and cast it aside. Wayfield ran behind him and hugged him. Rodan went behind him and wrapped his wings around Wayfield's back. However a thought came across his mind. With only two seconds left on the detonator, he lept off of Wayfield and placed himself on top of the bomb.

"WAIT NO! WHAT ARE YOU DO-"

Before Godzilla could pull Rodan off of the bomb it went off. Wayfield held himself as still as possible as the shockwave shot past him. The Earth below them was thrown up and began to fly backwards. A blinding white light blanketed everything. Rodan's body was thrown off of the bomb and he slammed into a hillside. Godzilla stood firmly because he knew that if he moved that Wayfield would be vaporized. Once the rush of wind stopped and the light faded, Godzilla rushed over to Rodan's body. The jungle floor below now scorched black. The small mushroom cloud rose over the landscape. Wayfield looked over towards the fortress and saw how it had taken some damage from the shockwave. The purple glow of the oxygen destroyer is gone. But he didn't have time to worry about that anymore. He ran over to Godzilla who was kneeling over Rodan's body. His normal red color was black with burns. His leathery-hard outer scales were scorched.

"Rodan! Rodan why would you do that! You idiot! Oh my god if you are dead I don't know what I'm going to do, wake up Rodan! Wake up!"

"I did it for a reason."

Rodan opened his eyes and Godzilla noticed how they glowed a fiery orange and red. Cracks in his burnt scales began to glow orange and red. Godzilla stood up and stepped back. Rodan slowly moved from the crater he formed. Black specks fell from his back. Rodan looked down and closed his wings around his head. Wayfield peered from behind Godzilla as Rodan began to transform.

Rodan began to breathe fire at his feet. The flames began to rise higher and higher until they covered his body entirely. Then, Rodan took off into the sky. Black chunks of scales slid off of his wings. He landed as hard as he could within the flames and the fire spread out across the ground and standing amongst the flames, with his wings outstretched, was Rodan.

Fire Rodan.

His wings were now thinner and a bright red color that faded to orange the further out from his body you look. His head is thinner with red scales. His eyes are a flaming orange and yellow. His talons are red in color but darker than the rest of his body. Everytime he moves a small trail of burning embers trails behind him. Godzilla watches with his mouth open in shock.

"How did you...how...wh-"

"Isn't this great! It's like I'm a phoenix being reborn! I feel so much lighter and I look so much better! I can't wait to fight Kiryu because I feel so much stronger too! He is not going to know what hit him!"

"How did you know that the nuke was going to do this to you?"

"I didn't."

"You didn't know!? You could have died! Then what would we do?!"

"I knew what I was doing, kinda. I saw how the nuke made Battra stronger and I saw how it made you ripped out of your mind so I thought to myself, "Damn, I want a power up. Why don't I try this?" and so I did. I saw my opportunity and I took it. But look at the rewards! I haven't felt this good in a long time! If only my family was here to see me now!"

"So wait, you're telling me that if we just nuke one of you fools that it makes you more powerful? Why can't that happen to the mutos? We nuked the shit out of them when they began to come out in droves but they didn't change a bit but one tiny bomb makes you come out like this?" Wayfield asks.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because the mutos feed on radiation so they can't really use it to do much. But we also feed on it so I don't really know for sure. What I do know for sure is that we need to get moving. If you can't tell, the jaegers have stopped coming. I also can't see the purple glow of the bomb."

Rodan takes off into the sky and Godzilla notices how significantly more embers trail behind him. He can also be spotted way easier in the sky. Wayfield brushes the ash off of his shoulders and follows Godzilla towards the fortress. Just as they pass the shattered walls they spot two familiar glowing objects flying towards them. Mothra and Battra land in front of Godzilla. A dismal look on both of their faces.

"Did you defuse the bomb?"

Silence.

"I said, is the bomb defused?"

"I can't defuse it. There is no stopping it. I tried defusing it and it didn't work and then after we killed Gigan he told us that it is inevitable. I'm sorry Godzilla but there is nothing I can do." Battra mutters.

Godzilla feels his heart drop. All this work, all this fighting and death to get here just to be told it's all for nothing. He sits down and feels a wave of sadness swell over him. His life, his mate's life, his kid's life, and the life of everyone else on this planet is doomed to the bomb. He puts his head in his hands.

"I wonder what it's like to lose. To have everything you have done to crumble at your feet. It must truly be a devastating thing."

Everyone turns to face the voice. They look up and see Kiryu himself standing on top of a chunk of stone. In his left hand lies the purple glow of the oxygen destroyer, and in the other is a large cube of metal. A slow rippling effect spreads across the surface of the cube.

"I'm so glad that everyone decided to come here to be personally killed by me. I am honored. It brings me great pleasure to know that all of you have zero chance of stopping me, and when I combine myself with this cube...there will be no way you can stop what is happening. Face it Godzilla…"

Godzilla stands up. His dorsal plates pulsing blue.

"You are doomed."

Kiryu moves the pulsing cube to his chest and presses it to him. The effect is almost instantaneously. The nanomachines quickly spread across Kiryu's body and transformed him. Consuming his body and turning him into something he has dreamed off ever since he was created.

The perfect killing machine.

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Author's note: Sorry this took so long to get out. This took a lot of work and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Part 4 of the final battle will come out soon and believe me, this is something you don't want to miss. Stay tuned my friends.

Random: I want to commission someone to draw the cover art for this story and the previous one but I want to put a lot of kaiju on it and have it look a certain way but I don't know who is willing to draw two very complicated and detailed pieces of art for a reasonable price. If only I could draw!