In the jungle below the mountainous region of Skull Island Nova runs through brush as gigantic winged creatures stalk her from above the trees. As soon as Nova reaches the clearing she is halted by one of the creatures, jumping down from the tree and onto the ground in front of her. Nova falls backwards and tries to scoot away, but another one of the creatures blocks her path. Fearful that she may be eaten she picks up a twig, and tries her to best to frighten the creatures with it as if it were a weapon. The creatures snapped and snarled at her as she hid in the hollow part of a tree. But this action only made the winged creatures furious. They began the mossy wood of the tree trying to wrap their sharp beaks around Nova's body. Nova kneeled down, covering her ears until she heard a thunderous roar, neither of which belonged to the winged creatures. Nova peeked out of the hole of the tree as the creatures were distracted. Before her eyes she saw one of the creatures get swooped up by a giant hairy hand, which Nova thought looked like Maurice's. Then with an echoing thud, the creature that was swooped up fell back down, this time without a head. The other creature began screeching as the hand the giant hand reached down for it. Once it was caught in the hand's grasp Nova saw this as her opportunity to escape. She squeezed through the hole and ran into the clearing, but as soon as she reached the cliff she was knocked backwards by a much larger flying creature, which looked just like the others, flying upwards into the sky.

"ROOOOAAAARRR!!!"

Nova, while laying helpless on the grass, looked back at where she came and saw the giant ape that the hairy hand belonged to. The giant ape beat it's chest repeatedly, keeping it's gaze on the flying creature swooping down on him. The giant ape reached for the creature's talons, swinging it the rocks of the mountain next to them. The flying creature screeched in the ape's face, trying to wrap it's razor sharp teeth around it's attackers fur, but the ape, looking somewhat unamused, smashed the creature's head into the rocks as hard as he could. The ape let the creature go as it stumbled around dizzily before attacking again. The ape grabbed the creature's long neck and rolled across the ground. The creature kept snapping it's beak as the ape bashed it's head multiple times with his large fists. Seemingly the flying creature started to feel weak after taking so many heavy punches. The ape stood up again, beating his chest, letting the creature know who's territory it was on. The creature backed away quickly and flew into the sky as the giant ape picked up Nova to take her to safety.

In a nearby swamp, Caesar, Zira and Maurice wade through the murky waters to get to safe a safer part of the island. Unbeknownst to them though, hiding behind the dead trees were Ursus and Aldo, thinking of a way to keep the three from reaching the camp.

"I don't remember passing a swamp Caesar. Are you sure this is the right direction?" asked Maurice, trying to walk as Zira and Caesar hold him up.

"Would you rather have gone in the direction that large beast went?" Caesar stated.

"I see your point." nodded Maurice.

"Anyways," started Caesar "we should try to get out of this swamp as fast as we can. I'd hate to find out what lives in this swamp."

"It's just too bad we lost the horses." sighed Zira.

"The horses that YOU lost!" Caesar reminded.

"Caesar! Not here!" ordered Maurice.

"I'm sorry." Caesar apologized before stopping in the middle of the swampy waters.

"Why have we stopped?" asked Maurice.

"Listen." whispered Caesar, leaning towards the quiet sound of water coming from his right.

"I don't hear anything." whispered Maurice, copying Caesar's actions.

"We must hurry." commanded Caesar, pulling Maurice through the greenish muddy waters.

"Caesar! Caesar stop!" protested Maurice.

"We have to hurry!" shouted Caesar, before being dragged under the water.

"Caesar!" screamed both Maurice and Zira.

With all her might, Zira pulled Maurice to land then dived back into the water to save Caesar. The water underneath was cloudy, hard to see through. Zira could put her own hand in front of her eyes, yet she still couldn't see it under this water. Zira swam as hard as she could until she felt something sharp dig into her leg. She screamed in terror, bubbles shooting from her mouth and nose as she was pulled down into the murky depths. But she managed to break out of the sharp grip by kicking the her attacker in the eye. She swam up, reaching the surface, but the beast that she had escaped from followed her as well. Zira froze in terror as the beast opened it's long mouth and tried wrapping around Zira once again.

"AAAAHHHHH!!!"

Above the beast Zira saw Caesar jumping on it's head, stabbing it with a sharp tooth-like object. After two or three stabs the beast cried in pain and sank into the water, leaving Zira and Caesar to swim to land.

"Thank you." said Zira.

"You're welcome." huffed Caesar, tiredly.

"You didn't need to do that."

"You are one of us. It's my duty."

That night, outside of the swamp Caesar, Maurice and Zira made camp. As they sat by the fire Caesar and Zira reminisced about everything they've been through thus far while Maurice slept in the grass underneath a tall tree.

"I'm sorry." said Caesar "I'm sorry for what I said earlier."

"It's okay." replied Zira "I'm sorry too."

"For what?" asked Caesar.

"For losing the horses. For tagging along. It seems everything that has happened happened because of me."

"No." whispered Caesar "It's not your fault. If anyone is to blame it is me. I'm the one who wanted to come to this island. I'm the one who agreed to bring you along and put you in harm's way..."

"Stop." Zira interrupted "Stop saying that. You did what you could to honor your father."

"How can I honor him if I can't even be half the leader he was?"

Caesar stood up from the ground and walked to the tree Maurice lay under.

"How can I be like my father when I'm not even capable of protecting my closest friends?"

"Because you aren't your father." answered Zira, walking to the tree as well "You are his son."

"But the other apes, they count on me to keep his name living on."

"Then maybe you should stop trying to be your father. I'm sure he would have wanted that."

"I don't know if I can."

"You can. For starters you could start going by the name given to you by your mother."

Caesar pondered a moment. How could he possibly drop his father's name for his own? His father meant something to him and the other apes. But he also knew that his father wasn't just a name. He was an ape like himself. And so he made his decision.

"It's Cornelius." he said proudly "My name is Cornelius."

In the ape's campsite, Maximus and Zaius walk about as the other apes work as hard as they can on the Caesar memorial.

"I trust everything is going according to plan?" asked Maximus.

"Yes, it is." answered Zaius.

"Good." smiled Maximus "I'm not sure how much longer I could live under the rule of the 'great and mighty' Caesar."

"I only wonder how we'll convince the rest to denounce Caesar." questioned Zaius.

"I've already convinced a few of the elder orangutans and a few of the gorillas to do so." spoke Maximus "The rest will follow soon when they realize their leader has abandoned them."

"I hope you are right." said Zaius.