Part 2
Shindo rolled on the cold, cement floor. The first sound he heard when he regained consciousness was his own groaning. The flash of light had left him feeling like he had been zapped by a taser. His retinas still stung.
A man watched him. He was leaning against the wall with his arms folded. The light shining through the small window behind him silhouetted his lean frame.
Shindo blinked in disbelief. The man's face was as familiar as an image in the mirror. He pointed at the man and then at himself. His lips stammered. He tried to form words but couldn't.
"Interesting," his cellmate said. "I had the same reaction when the Spacemen threw you in here. I imagine your name is the same as mine, Shindo Yamaguchi. Like me, you're a secret service agent. Your boss is Goro Yamashita. Your partner is Yomo…"
"Kuta," Shindo finished. This stranger was just like him, in fact it was him, a Shindo of a parallel Earth. He got up, dusted off his clothes, and shook the other Shindo's hand. "It's about time I met a man of my own caliber!"
"Likewise," The parallel-world Shindo smiled. "We need to get to work. The Spacemen will interrogate you soon. I know the layout of this place better than you. If we switch clothes, they will take me."
"And you can escape and get help while I keep them preoccupied here."
"Exactly!"
They started swapping clothes.
"Fill me in on the score," Shindo asked his double. "Who are these Spacemen?"
"They're apes from the Third Planet from the Black Hole."
"That's a mouthful!"
"That's the official name as provided by Interpol. These creatures disguise themselves to look human, but after they're injured their bodies morph back into their true form."
"What do the Spacemen want?"
"Originally they wanted to conquer Earth so their people could colonize our planet before theirs was sucked into a black hole. Well, now their home world has been destroyed by the black hole and they're trying everything in their power to retrieve it. The fact you're here tells me their experiments have enjoyed some success. Did you learn anything of what those experiments are? I've been stuck in this cell."
Shindo shook his head. "They tried to destroy a temporal sensor in my world. I don't see why they care if we detect what they're doing in your universe, unless mine has something they want."
"You know they do," the other Shindo answered. "Think about it. Both of our worlds have Godzilla, you and me, our friends. It follows the Spacemen exist in both worlds. They might be looking for help from their brothers in your universe."
"Enough about the Spacemen." Shindo exchanged shoes with his new parallel-world partner. "Let's talk about the girl. Who is she?"
"Her name is Katsura Mafune."
"Mafune? Daughter of Shinzo Mafune?"
The other Shindo nodded.
"The Mafune of my world had no children. But then this Katsura hit me with some sort of ray from her eyes. What is she really?"
"She's human." Shindo's double started unbuttoning his shirt. "At least I would like to think so. She had been electrocuted while helping her father with an experiment. The Spacemen turned her into a cyborg. They claimed it was necessary to save her life."
"You sound skeptical."
"The Spacemen aren't altruists. They implanted Mechagodzilla's control, primary CPU, whatever you want to call it, into her body. They wanted Mechagodzilla to interface with her brain to improve his processing speed."
"This must have happened when they were trying to conquer Earth."
"That's right. A marine biologist named Ichinose fell in love with her. He tried to rescue Katsura from the Spacemen but ended up as a prisoner. It was down in the control room he learned the awful truth of what they did to her."
They exchanged shirts.
"So what happened?"
"Murakoshi, Ichinose's friend, led an Interpol raid on the house. He found the two of them downstairs with her father...
Ichinose released the rope from around the dead Spaceman's throat—the very same rope the Spacemen had used to bind him. Finally, there was no one left to keep Katsura from him! He got up, ready to say "let's get out of here!" Instead his breath caught in his throat. He froze right where he stood. Katsura stood protectively before Dr. Mafune with a weapon aimed at him!
"You can't do it!" Ichinose said. "You wouldn't shoot me!"
Katsura shook her head. "You're wrong. I'm not alive. I may look like a girl but I'm not. I'm a cyborg!" She tightened her grip on the trigger.
Murakoshi—timely as always—burst on the scene and fired first. Katsura gripped her arm and fell. Mafune stepped toward his daughter, gasping her name. "Freeze!" Murakoshi shouted at the turncoat scientist. "Ichinose, are you all right?"
Ichinose knelt beside Katsura and took her into his arms.
The alien commander, Mugal, arrived at the top of the steps and called Mafune. Dr. Mafune ran up to him and when he came within reach, Mugal grabbed him and used him as a shield. Shots fired off. Mafune took a hit. He kicked against Death in the midst of the crossfire. Mugal dropped Mafune and bolted up the stairs. Murakoshi chased after him.
Mafune lifted his face off the floor. His glasses slipped from his face. He reached out to his daughter. "K-Katsura!"
"Father!" Human horror flashed across Katsura's face. Her father's spirit departed. His body lay still upon the floor.
"Katsura!" Ichinose squeezed her tight. He knew he was right. The aliens hadn't stolen her humanity.
Katsura looked at him and suddenly came alive in his embrace as if she just recognized him.
Ichinose rested his cheek on her forehead. "Oh, I don't care if you're a cyborg! Katsura, I'll still love you! None of this is your fault."
Katsura wriggled in his arms grasping his collar. He protectively held her while she struggled to break the alien's brainwashing. Then she relaxed and sat up. Ichinose looked into her tired, wet eyes and could see he had her back! She regained control of herself.
On the monitor, Mechagodzilla was pounding Godzilla with his energy beams. Even though Interpol routed the aliens, the real threat still reigned supreme.
"Either way, it doesn't matter," Katsura said. "The cyborg's controller operates off my mind. I don't think I can stop it. As long as I'm alive Mechagodzilla cannot be defeated!"
"No!" Ichinose grabbed her as tight as he could, closing his eyes. "I won't let you go!" He wanted to just press her within himself so he could keep her safe. Ichinose felt her arm embrace his neck then slip away. A gun went off. Her body jolted. "Katsura!" Ichinose cried. He released her. She smiled at him in victory as though she had saved him. Katsura's strength left her. She slumped in his arm.
"Katsura?" She did not respond. Ichinose took her limp form and buried his face in her hair. His body shook from grief.
"She shot herself," Shindo said, "destroying the Mechagodzilla controller inside her body. As far as anyone could tell, Katsura died. But Ichinose was not about to give up...
Ichinose sought Professor Miyajima's help. Miyajima had also been the aliens' prisoner. Under gunpoint they forced him to repair Mechagodzilla. He was the foremost authority on their technology.
"The good news," Professor Miyajima said after examining Katsura, "is that the Spacemen implanted a backup cybernetic organ. So in event of death, the backup extracts fluids from the body to provide oxygen for the brain." He tapped out his pipe. "The only threat right now is dehydration."
Ichinose stood from his seat. "She is alive."
"Dormant, but not dead."
Ichinose was worried. "Doctor, do you believe she is human?"
"Define human." Miyajima rested his elbow on a filing cabinet. "Is the soul in the head or in the heart? Her vitals are artificial. As for the brain and nervous system the Spacemen left those intact. Are you concerned on whether or not we're doing the right thing?"
"Tell me where you stand. Do you accept she is human or are you like everyone else?"
Miyajima put his hand on the young man's shoulder. "If there is any chance the real Katsura Mafune still lives in that body, then we must do our best to revive her."
Ichinose measured his words and accepted them, tentatively. "Can you help her?"
"Her vital organs are cybernetic. It's just a matter of repairing them. Judging by the wear, I'd say the Spacemen had revived her before. Now it's up to us to be just as successful. I think we can."
"They failed." Shindo leaned against the wall. They were done switching clothes. "The professor worked with a team of surgeons for twelve hours. For Ichinose it was eternity times twelve. After all was said and done, the best Miyajima could do was bring her to a state equivalent to a coma...
Ichinose felt a pulse under his finger tips from Katsura's wrist. Tepid warmth. Shallow breath.
"I believe the problem is this." The professor held up a device he had extracted from her abdomen. It had a hole burned into it by a laser beam.
"What is it?" Ichinose asked.
"A central processor. I recognize the circuitry. What I have here is a piece of Mechagodzilla's brain. It looks like what the Spacemen were trying to do was synch her organic brain to upgrade Mechagodzilla's. After all, technology has yet to outperform the processing power of the living mind. I left it out because I didn't think it would be of any use. But it looks like her cybernetic organs have been calibrated to function fully only when this is operational. I'm sorry."
"Sorry? Put it back."
"No." Miyajima placed the processor within a tray.
"You said you can't revive her without it!"
"I know what I said, Ichinose. I'm not repairing that processor. There's no telling what control it will exert over her. I know these Spacemen. My daughter and I had been their prisoner. They've threatened to kill her to force me to work for them, and then they broke their promise!" Miyajima took a breath. "Trust me. They wouldn't put all this hardware inside Katsura without a failsafe means of controlling her."
"She has a right to live!"
"It's a choice between her and the rest of the world."
"The Spacemen are gone!"
"Are they? We thought that once and they came back."
One of the doctors asked, "Shall we take her off life support?"
"Yes." Miyajima checked his watch. "Record her time of death at 11:32 pm."
One of the staff wrote down the time on a sheet of paper and clipped it with a number of other papers.
Ichinose knelt down beside the operating table and stroked Katsura's cheek with the back of his hand. He would always love her, but he was not going to let love ruin him. He forbade the tears to flow. Instead she would forever live in his memories. He vowed they should never go dim.
However, he was unaware that the Professor had been watching him. Suddenly Miyajima crumbled the sheet recording the time of her death, chucked it in a metal wastebasket, and ordered his team to put back on their gloves and surgical masks.
Professor Miyajima reinstalled the repaired Mechagodzilla processor and threw a series of switches. "That's it. She's on her own." Katsura's chest heaved. She took a long, deep gulp of air, and then exhaled. Miyajima's instruments showed a sudden spike in her cybernetic vital signs, which settled down to a normal, human metabolic rate.
Slowly, in that eerie mechanical fashion, her eyelids parted. Her glassy-eyed stare roamed about the room and then focused on Professor Miyajima. Warmth returned to her expression. "Father?" She spoke in a halting tone.
Miyajima smiled. "Someone is here to see you." He motioned Ichinose to come forward. She didn't seem to recognize him.
"Don't you remember me?" Ichinose asked.
She looked back up at Miyajima for support.
The professor asked Ichinose to be patient and leave the room. Around 3 am Katsura was sitting up and quite talkative. Ichinose could hear her from where he was sitting in the hall. It was difficult to imagine she was anything other than an ordinary young woman.
When the Professor called Ichinose back in, he restrained the young man by the arm at the door. "She doesn't recall anything from the time you were a prisoner, which means she isn't aware that her father is dead. I'm not sure if she's repressing what happened or if it's the processor. I must be honest. I can't help feeling I made the same mistake when I repaired Mechagodzilla."
Ichinose leaned close to the Professor's ear. He spoke with his anger tightly reigned. "You believed in her once. And I need you to continue believing with me. I can't take any more doubts."
"If I have to choose what's best for either you or her…"
"If you want what's best for me, choose her."
Their eyes locked in a silent battle of wills. Professor Miyajima relented. "All right. Say nothing about her father until I say she's ready."
Miyajima released Ichinose.
"Ichinose!" Katsura called with her hands held out for him. "It's about time I see a familiar face. Maybe you can tell…" She watched the Professor. After Miyajima stepped out she finished her sentence. "Maybe you can tell me why I'm here."
They clasped hands. Her warm palm gripped possessively. It reassured Ichinose she wanted him.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"How am I supposed to feel? They won't let me talk to my father." She pulled him closer. "Why don't you get me a phone? There's a jack above the baseboard right down there." She turned his attention with her gaze toward the jack in the wall.
Her conspiratorial tone concerned Ichinose. Was it embedded programming kicking in, trying to con him into helping her contact someone she shouldn't? He had to admit that despite how much he cared for her, he really hadn't gotten to know her well. As it goes, love races ahead of reason.
"I don't know if they would want me to do that." He grinned nervously.
"They have no right to hold me here." Then her mouth opened wide as though a horrible thought came to her. That haunted look he knew so well returned. "Did they find out who my father was working for?"
There was a crash in the other room.
"Professor?" Ichinose called.
He received no answer. Ichinose kissed Katsura and stood to leave. She clutched his hand tighter. That made his heart melt all over again. Her hand holding him back and with her expression asking him to stay. He kissed her once more. "I'll be right back."
Ichinose stepped into the next room and found Miyajima on the floor, unconscious, and two mysterious figures. "Who are you?"
Mogga fired his laser. The beam blasted Ichinose against the wall. His body slid down to the floor. Goras smiled in satisfaction. He flicked his chin toward the operating room. "Get her."
"Once Katsura was back in their hands," the parallel world Shindo concluded, "Goras and his cohorts rebuilt Mechagodzilla."
"Are Katsura and Mechagodzilla mentally linked?"
"In a way. Why?"
"Ichinose was right about Katsura. Mechagodzilla said he wants to be loved by the people of my world. Now where would he get any notion of what love is?"
The lock unbolted and the cell door opened, closing their conversation. Mogga stepped within the doorframe and pointed to the right set of clothes, but the wrong Shindo. "You, come with me."
#
For the people of the fishing community on Manazura Island, the rising morning sun brought a shock when they saw not one, but two Godzillas up in the forested hills. An evacuation effort commenced. At the same time, the spectacle brought a crowd to the shore of the mainland across the narrow channel. The military was hard pressed to roll in their tanks and deploy troops when the prime defensive positions were already occupied by onlookers with cameras.
Yomo received a call from his boss, Yamashita, over his cell. He assured Yamashita that everything was under control. Or rather this new Godzilla had everything under control. "Please don't ask me to explain. We're only doing what he asks."
He then grimaced and held the phone away from his ear. Yamshita's voice was bellowing from the receiver. "Miki, can you talk to him?"
Miki took Yomo's cell and did her best to calm Yamashita down. "This new Godzilla wants to talk to us. What's he doing now? Trying to keep our Godzilla amused. What do I mean by 'our' Godzilla? Exactly that. There's ours and then there's this other one that came from…I'm not sure where. He appeared out of a bright, swirling light like the other monsters.
"I can tell you this much, I glimpsed images in his mind and he comes from a world just like ours, except the time period looks like the 1970s. So we should designate the new one as the 'Showa Godzilla' and ours as the 'Heisei Godzilla' to distinguish between the two."
Yamashita liked the idea and asked what the Godzillas were doing.
"Our Godzilla is checking out the Showa one. He's confused. What's puzzling him is that he instinctively knows he's looking at his double but his double doesn't resemble him physically. Instead of three rows of large fins, the new one has two small ones flanking a large one. His tail is shorter. His girth is leaner, and his face is sort of pugnacious. Cross a puppy with a lizard's and you get the picture. You can see that? Sorry, I didn't know you were at Army HQ." Miki glanced across the channel toward the olive-colored tents staked among the dock warehouses.
"Where are Yomo and I? The Mafune estate has a three-story tower. We're sitting on the roof. No! We're fine. Sayoko? She's in the house. We found a control room in the cellar. She's trying to figure out the technology. We haven't found Shindo. We're hoping he's all right. What's that? Oh no! OK. You gotta go. I understand. Bye."
Miki closed up the phone and handed it back to Yomo. "Great!"
"What's wrong?" Yomo asked.
"General Aso from G-Force has arrived. I bet he's ready to burst a blood vessel now that there are two Godzillas. If he starts a shooting war we're going to lose a powerful friend." She nodded toward the Showa Godzilla.
#
It didn't take long until Mogga came a second time, this time with several guards. They yanked Shindo out of the cell and down the hall. Mogga's clothes and hair looked ruffled as if he had been in a fight.
"Problems?" Shindo said.
Mogga growled, sounding like an infuriated gorilla.
The guards escorted Shindo to the living room where Katsura waited with her hands behind her back. Mogga stopped him by a chair. Hanging over it was his jacket with a laser beam hole burned through the back.
"Leave us," she said to the guards. After they left she nodded toward the chair. "You may take your jacket."
Shindo picked it up and slipped his finger through the burn hole. An uneasy twitter coursed through him when the thought sank in that he was now wearing the clothes of a dead man. He gently folded his jacket over his arm in a personal moment of silence for the other Shindo, and then squared it away to focus on business. "Mind if I sit?"
Katsura slipped out a silver blaster.
"I see this is going to be formal." He sat anyway. "I usually can gauge what a person is thinking by their facial expressions. But you have one of the most impenetrable masks. I must say I have met my match."
Her jaw tightened. "I had this argument with the Shindo of my world. Don't bother trying to convince me that I am just as much a human being as anyone else."
"Neither am I going to let you convince me the robot in the silo is more charming than you."
Her posture loosened. Shindo thought he caused a reaction. Nothing melts a woman's front like flattery.
"My superiors have only one question," she said. Her manner turned frosty again. "Keep strictly to the point. What do your people in the parallel Earth know about our work?"
"Nothing. Is that close enough to the point?"
"Shindo Yamaguchi," she raised her sights for his head, "our commander wants you dead, but he's too busy to remember you're here. Provoke me and I'll remind him."
"Then who wants information from me?"
"His lieutenant, Mogga, and me."
"And you, too? All right. Since you put it that way. We're aware something is disrupting the boundaries of time and space. That's all. I'm assuming that's your doing."
"Have your people been in contact with anyone from this Earth?"
"You said one question." Shindo settled back in his sit and crossed his legs.
"The first one was Mogga's. This is mine."
"And who should we have met?"
Katsura maintained a stony front.
"I see. In that case, no one—that I know of." Shindo laced his fingers together. "Anything more, or have I outlasted my usefulness?"
He watched the trigger. His insides jittered.
Her finger didn't move.
He rolled fresh saliva through his dry mouth and glanced up at her face. This time he did get a reaction. It was one of satisfaction. She evidently had read correctly she had made him nervous.
"You will be escorted back to your room," she said, lowering the gun.
"Let's talk more about you instead. No, wait! You don't want to talk about you." Shindo shifted into a more comfortable position in the chair. "So let's talk about Mechagodzilla. He confided something with me I doubt he has told anyone else. He said he wants the people of my Earth to love him as a hero. Now where would a machine get the idea it needs to be loved?"
The level of tension in the room became electric. Shindo had never before been stared at so coldly and so piercingly. Katsura brushed past him and left the room. Moments later the guards returned and took him back up to his makeshift cell.
#
The Showa Godzilla realized his presence in this universe was causing quite a stir. He motioned to the Heisei Godzilla to wait a moment then leaned toward Miki, inviting her to use her telepathy to get acquainted.
"Good!" Miki rubbed her hands together. "He's ready to talk."
"He's ready to talk," Yomo relayed over the wireless to Yamashita. "I say again, he's ready to talk." The Army had sent over a launch with some food, bottled water, and the wireless set so Miki and Yomo could stay in touch with their chief Yamashita and General Aso from G-Force.
Miki synched her thoughts with the funny, pugnacious looking giant. His mind was well ordered. No ego to bruise. Honest, yet not naïve, and tough enough to take a straight question.
"Where are you from?" she asked.
His answer was to the point: A parallel Earth. It looks like yours. Same seas. Same land. Same sky. Life different. Some life exists back home that doesn't exist here.
"Life" was his word for both animals and humans. Miki passed this on to Yomo, and he repeated it to Yamashita.
"Why are you so," Miki tried to think of an appropriate way to put it.
Godzilla supplied the words: Why am I kind to you?
He now searched her mind. She could sense him filing through her mental vocabulary. When he found the closest words he telepathically highlighted them. Miki snickered.
"What is it?" Yomo asked.
"He said he's been through a conversion experience."
Now Yomo laughed.
Godzilla grunted at them to get serious. He filled in the details with his memories. When Mothra was a caterpillar, she tried to persuade him and Rodan to save the Earth from another creature that had fallen from the stars. He and Rodan refused. They weren't threatened. Mankind was. The caterpillar trundled off to face the demon from space on her own. The demon nearly pulverized her with its energy beams, until Godzilla and Rodan interceded. Somehow letting her die would be like letting one of their own die. The number of animals of their size was few, unlike the old days long ago.
Because saving Mothra saved mankind, mankind had stopped attacking him. He continued protecting man. He showed Miki many monsters he had fought. His heroics for reasons unknown to him had expanded his mental faculties and allowed him to perform astounding physical feats.
"What were you like before your, um, conversion experience?"
Miki expected this Godzilla to have been born among human beings like Baby Godzilla of her world. Instead she discovered images of trains being smashed, cars crushed, and people fleeing. Cities were set ablaze. A face pulled up from the hot flames. Its features were of the savage monster she had known all her life! Godzilla's roar exploded in her mind.
Miki's eyes shot open. Her chest was sore from her heart's pounding. She blinked, looking around. The sun was bright. The grounds quiet. Warily she looked up. In his heart, at his very core, the Showa Godzilla was no different than their Godzilla. He had no remorse about what he had done, which in a sense made him seem as if he really hadn't changed so much than he found a more convenient way to live. But then, Miki had to remind herself she wouldn't think any worse of a boy who decided to stop crushing ants and kept them in an ant farm.
Considering that General Aso was headquartered across the channel, she discussed with Yomo if it would be a good idea to relay what the Showa Godzilla had shown her.
"We should," Yomo said. "Our superiors are expecting a thorough report."
"The general may never trust the Showa Godzilla if Aso knows his past."
"That responsibility is not on our shoulders."
Godzilla resented being ignored, and since his Showa double took more interest in the human female, he lost interest in them both. He waded through the trees to the ridge overlooking the channel. Evacuees crowded both coasts on either side of the narrow straight. The tiny figures cowered. Their cries of terror reached his ears in soft murmurs. Godzilla let out a long throaty roar. Like insects, they scurried in search of shelter. Godzilla snorted in satisfaction.
Two frigates and a destroyer reinforced the ground troops. The sight of the ships riled him. He bared his teeth at them.
A squadron of F-15's soared overhead. Godzilla's fin plates flared causing panic to erupt among the people on both sides of the channel.
The Showa Godzilla turned from Miki, seeing the Godzilla of this world brewing up for a fight.
In a warehouse-turned-command center, G-Force commander General Aso peered through his binoculars at the drama unfolding on Manazura Island. "Wait until both Godzaillas are on the cliff."
His subordinates relayed his orders.
Godzilla was about to blast the ships with his heat ray when his jaws were suddenly grabbed. He spun around, wide eyed and shocked to find his Showa double was muzzling him!
"Fire!" Aso growled.
Naval gunfire thundered from the channel. Plumes of smoke billowed from the guns as white hot shells darted at the cliff. The maser tanks lashed the Godzillas with their blue energy beams and the fighter's launched ASM's.
Miki and Yomo couldn't watch. Mankind was attacking the Showa Godzilla unprovoked.
Yet the Showa Godzilla persevered under the pelting and grabbed his double's jaws before he could unleash his lethal atomic beam.
The Heisei Godzilla wrenched his jaws free, infuriated that his double tried to muzzle him. A warning hiss spat from his mouth.
With time critical, Showa Godzilla barreled into him, knocking over, and then dragged him away from the line of fire by the tail.
The guns stopped, and the human cries of terror turned to whoops of relief, which turned into laughter as they watched one Godzilla drag the other kicking and screaming from harm's way.
Miki couldn't help feeling bad for her Godzilla. He had been humiliated. The kinder Godzilla might have stopped a fight, but the way he handled it might have made things worse.
#
Katsura was in the control room in the basement performing the systems check on the instruments that monitored the performance of Mechagodzilla's functions. Mechagodzilla watched her via video link and spoke to her often. He also had monitors that permitted him to see what was happening in the parallel Earth.
"You are fortunate to be a cyborg," he told her. "Emotions give life so much color. But sometimes those colors can be grim. Right now I am so perplexed. So perplexed."
"Why are you perplexed?" she asked as she worked.
"There are two Godzillas. Will Hammer and Anvil be able to kill both of them? One, sure! Two?" Up on the overhead monitor, Mechagodzilla shook his head in dismay, looking at the other screen. "And I can't switch places with two Godzillas! Even if I could, thousands of people will see it."
"What does it matter? You won't be staying on Earth."
Mechagodzilla chuckled derisively. "Goras and Mogga are selfish. They won't mention me to their parallel-world brothers. Which means when a ship comes to pick them up, it won't have the cargo capacity to take me along.
"But that's OK," he raised a metallic finger for emphasis. "I have a plan." He confided in her his notion to win the hearts of the people of the other Earth through heroic action. "And you, Katsura, can speak for me. Mothra has her Twin Fairies. I have you. What do you think?"
She didn't say. Katsura was too preoccupied with what Shindo had said to her. "What makes you think you have emotions?"
"What?" Mechagodzilla's head swiveled from the other screen to stare down on her from the monitor. "Listen to the inflections in my voice. Look on your instruments and watch the power levels fluctuate with my moods." He paused and tilted his head thoughtfully. "Ah, are you questioning the fact that I am a person and you are not? Be honest."
Katsura frowned at him over the link. "Why are you certain I am not?"
"Oh," Mechagodzilla purred. "You've been talking to one of the Shindos again. I hear one was shot trying to escape. You should shoot the other. Having prisoners is fun, but you can't do much with them. Goras is right. We shouldn't keep any. Besides, they trouble you."
"They don't bother me."
"Men can't accept you for who you are because you are too beautiful. They want a woman not a cyborg."
"You think you're an expert on humans?"
"I watch TV! Now, Katsura, you asked me why I am certain you are not a person. That's not the point. Let's say that somewhere inside you the flesh and blood Katsura Mafune still exists. What would happen if you were to let her take control? She would not be able to love a man the way he would want to be loved. She could not bear children. When the shock hits her that she cannot be a part of human society she will first self destruct emotionally then destroy herself physically. She will destroy you to escape her unhappiness. I don't want that to happen. I am your friend." Mechagodzilla's face drew close on the monitor. "I want you to stay just as you are."
#
After some effort, Miki raised General Aso over the wireless. The General intimidated her, but she was too furious to be cowed. Ordering him as though he were a dimwitted subordinate, she forbade him from opening fire without her say so. Yet, the General was unmoved. He spoke in an even tone.
"Your report states this other Godzilla ravaged cities on his parallel Earth."
"You're cherry picking what you want to hear, General."
"You say he acts by choice. What's to stop him from switching from being a protector to a destroyer? Did someone teach him how to be civilized?"
"Listen, we're stuck with him. You want to give him a good reason to team up against us with our Godzilla? Keep shooting! Saegusa out."
Miki thrust the headset back to Yomo.
Showa Godzilla brushed the shell fragments out of his craggy gray scales. The noonday sun was distressfully hot. Mammals shouldn't be exposed to direct sunlight for long. Godzilla shielded Miki and Yomo with his shadow.
Surprised by his conscientiousness, the two humans thanked him.
Heisei Godzilla eyed them indignantly.
"You wouldn't feel so left out if just step over here," Miki called out to him.
He narrowed his gaze at her. A hiss slithered in his throat.
The gentler Godzilla grunted for her attention. She synched back up with him telepathically. He told her why he came. Aliens from his Earth wanted to contact their parallel kin in her world. A rescue ship might come, but an invasion fleet would be more likely. The aliens had a guardian: Mechagodzilla.
Because she was a crewmember aboard the Mechagodzilla built by the United Nations, Miki wasn't frightened until Godzilla showed her from his memories the walking arsenal he had fought. Missiles in the fingers, missiles in the toes, lasers in the eyes, mouth, and chest—she shuddered at the fire power.
Mechagodzilla is stronger than me, Godzilla said in thought. I need you to help me convince my double to help. You can show him what I have seen.
"That's a tall order," Miki commented. "Do you think we can do it?"
Showa Godzilla stepped aside, expecting her to make an attempt. She took a deep breath and then closed her eyes tight, concentrating hard to puncture into Heisei Godzilla's consciousness.
His mind tightened like a flexed muscle, and then relaxed. She gave him images of the rolling sea, sun-kissed beaches, lush jungles, the places he called home, and then showed him the ashes that would be left behind in the wake of this incoming threat, this space titanium-plated machine bristling with rockets and laser cannons.
Showa Godzilla concurred with a grunt.
Heisei Godzilla sensed their concern. A moment passed. He thumped the ground with his tail and tossed his head toward the sea.
"Let's go eat!" Miki interpreted the gesture. "I don't understand."
Showa Godzilla did. This was a choice. Which species was more important: mankind or theirs? The answer came effortlessly.
He turned to follow the bestial Godzilla into the sea.
"Wait!" Miki pleaded. "When are these aliens coming?"
It was no use. Showa Godzilla closed his mind off from her.
Yet Miki could sense that he wasn't abandoning mankind. He had a plan. However, she could see one flaw. Like people, Showa Godzilla didn't know himself as well as he thought.
#
Katsura paced the living room.
"Let's say the flesh and blood Katsura took control she would destroy you," Mechagodzilla had said. "I want you to stay as you are."
Stay as you are…stay as what? She was a cyborg. Could she change that? No!
Mechagodzilla liked her for who she is, but she didn't like herself. She was confused, empty and lonely. Was that what he wanted her to be—confused, empty and lonely?
She went to her father's den and stood in the doorway, as she had done so often, and stared at his empty desk. He had spent many hours here, the room felt like it still held a bit of his essence, but when she tried to reach out to it, she realized the room was just a room and she was only responding to the echo of her memories.
Yet she came back yearning for something she didn't have a name for. She just knew it by its absence.
Katsura threw on her overcoat, left the house and wandered to the Pacific side of Manazura Island. The coast ended abruptly in a cliff. Down below, the breakers crashed against the rocks. The wind stirred her lustrous hair. She wrapped her arms around herself, wishing someone who cared for her would be holding her instead.
There was one person she remembered who loved her. He would hold her if he were here. He would tell her everything was all right.
Katsura fought hard to hold it in. The throat muscles stretched and strained. Her lip quivered. Finally, she just blurted it out.
"Ichinose, I miss! I miss you so much!" Katsura bowed her head. "Please," she said softly to whoever would listen, "don't let me be alone anymore."
A sea beast burst from the depths like a reptilian Poseidon. His wet orange and black scales shimmered. He looked like a relative of the spinosaurid dinosaurs. He had the crocodile-like snout, expansive dorsal fin, and three-fingered hands. His head sported an extra fin like the crest on a Roman helmet. He peered over the ledge of the cliff face with ease.
Katsura's mouth opened into a wide smile. "Titanosaurus!" She wiped off her cheek. "You shouldn't be out here in broad daylight. What if someone sees you? Huh?" She spoke to him in a soothing purr, rubbing the tip of his snout.
He snorted in satisfaction. In his simple understanding, so long as they were alive all was well. All the same she was happy to see him because he was happy to see her.
Gently he nudged her, nearly tipping her off her feet.
"Now! Now!" She mocked a scolding tone, patting his snout. "I can't play with you anymore. You're too big."
Titanosaurus folded his head crest fin in dismay.
The truth of the matter was that she was too burdened by her troubles to be a decent companion. Titanosaurus sense it. He settled his chin on the cliff and gazed at her dolefully out of empathy. He puffed out his breath as though the weight of the world were on his shoulders, too.
Katsura laughed, a first in what seemed like a lifetime.
"All right. Listen. The Spacemen will be leaving soon. Then it will be just you and me!"
Titanosaurus straightened up and trumpeted his approval.
"Easy now! We don't want to get the Spacemen out here do we? They'll make you do bad things again. After they're gone, I'll think of some new games we can play. Sound good?"
Titanosaurus bobbed his head.
"It was wonderful of you to come back." She lay across the tip of his snout. "I only wish we could go back to the time before the Spacemen came, before my father became obsessed with his work."
#
The search for food took a new twist for Showa Godzilla. Now at a hundred meters tall, he needed to hunt deeper into the bowels of the ocean for food large enough to eat.
There was no light at these depths. The canyon walls and the sea were two shades of black. The water pressed against him like a cold jelly. He had to hunt by touch rather than by sight.
The soft sediment became prickly against the soles of his feet.
Bones—a sure sign he entered his prey's lair.
A sudden shift in the water pushed against him. From that he guessed how far his prey retreated and then stalked deeper into the murky canyon.
He felt a second shift in the current, a strong one. He was close.
Godzilla flashed his fins illuminating the canyon walls. The light revealed an enormous Kraken. It was twice Godzilla's size and its tentacles had ten times the reach of his arms. Its ropey limbs seized him around the neck and ankle and yanked him within the embrace of its eight sessile arms. He pushed away, straining with all his might to stay out of the Kraken's snapping beak. One snap and the water would turn warm with his bloody entrails.
From his ambush point, Heisei Godzilla fired his blue flame, striking the squid monster from the flank. The Kraken writhed in agony yet it didn't loosen its grip. To the contrary, its tentacles constricted. Air bubbles spewed from Showa Godzilla's mouth.
He pierced his claws into the soft flesh behind the hardened disks of its eyes. The Kraken's convulsions whipped up a cloud of sediment. As a last ditch effort to escape, the giant squid squirted ink into the water. Its bitter taste seeped into Godzilla's mouth.
Heisei Godzilla closed in to help, but his aid wasn't needed. Showa Godzilla, up to his elbows in filmy, squid flesh, sank his clawed hands into the Kraken's head, grabbed its brain and pulled. The Kraken shuddered fitfully then slowly sank to the sea floor.
Showa Godzilla proved his worth as a hunter. Heisei Godzilla no longer resented him for knocking him on the ground and dragging him while getting shot at. It was worth enduring a hundred insults if it meant keeping one fine hunter in the fold, and since Showa Godzilla annoyed him only once, all was forgiven.
On an uncharted island Baby Godzilla padded down the hot shore, his belly grumbling. The tide washed across his ankles as he waited expectantly.
The Godzillas surfaced from the Pacific dragging a squid the likes of which Baby had never seen. He regarded in awe the bone-crushing beak and its ropey tentacles which could choke the life out of living fossils like the Godzillas with ease. Now it was lunch.
The three kaiju feasted. Its greasy flesh tasted sweet to their pallets.
Fully gorged, they succumbed to torpor upon the warm sands and didn't wake until the breeze turned cool. Heisei Godzilla assumed dominance, roaring for his parallel-world partner and Baby to get up. They would follow the current south where food was abundant and human presence minimal.
Showa Godzilla, without noticing the effect of the fine meal and fellowship, assented with a grunt. Racial memories whispered to him seductively. Your group may number only three, it said, but it's enough to live the life of your ancestors.
His higher nature struggled to regain control. You forget, it said, Mechagodzilla is coming!
Showa Godzilla had difficulty understanding why this was important.
They are evil, his conscience explained.
Baby Godzilla sensed Showa Godzilla's struggle. His underdeveloped telepathic skills picked up fuzzy images from Showa Godzilla's mind of monsters raining fire and death upon human civilization. His eyes glowed red in fear for the humans that had nurtured him at birth.
Heisei Godzilla returned to the shore, glaring at the other two for loafing around. The sun had passed its zenith. The shadows drew longer. It was time to go. But since Baby was distressed he waited, which put Showa Godzilla in an awkward situation. He captured the Heisei one's attention but he was uncertain how to bring home the urgency in returning to Manazura Island when he himself yearned to reclaim his heritage, but like any hero, he made up his mind to find a way.
Meanwhile, miles away, on Manazura Island, Miki stood among the tall, dry grass on the cliff's edge facing the Pacific where Navy ships sailed on patrol. Scanning with her binoculars, she could not see so much as a ripple. Would the Godzillas come back? If they did, whose nature would dominate?
She continued to scan the sea, slowly, carefully.
Nothing.
#
The news media had picked up on Miki's reports and broadcasted them throughout the afternoon, compounding the number of curiosity seekers. People were further emboldened when the cameras caught the "Good" Godzilla dragging away the "Destructive" one from General Aso's guns.
As the daylight hours waned, tension built on the docks. People didn't need Miki's psychic ability to figure out the risk. They feared the Good Godzilla would revert back to a destructive monster, like a pet turning feral in the wild.
Neither did they forget the foretelling of an impending alien invasion. Will the Godzillas come back to save them, or help destroy them?
Miki was nearly asleep when her ESP sensed their presence out at sea. She searched their hearts and found no aggression. Somehow Showa Godzilla did it! He convinced Heisei Godzilla to join him!
She jumped up on her feet and waved at them from the edge of the cliff as they came ashore. Like a jubilant child, she followed after them as they strode to the abandoned Mafune residence. The ground rumbled under their footfalls.
Yomo waited at the foot of the tower with the wireless.
"Yamashita wants to know the verdict." He held the headset out to her.
She put it on and spoke into the mike. "This is Saegusa."
She jumped when she heard her voice boom from loudspeakers on the mainland. It was as if the whole world was holding its breath for her words.
"Well?" Yamashita's voice crackled over the headset. His voice also boomed from the speakers for the benefit of the crowd. "Are they on our side?"
"What do you think?" She replied, turning toward the two behemoths standing vigil at the far end of the estate—the pugnacious hero and the engine of destruction—neither making a threatening move. "Yes, they are on our side. I repeat: They are on our side!"
Cheers erupted from the docks, along the coast, and on the hilltops. Showa Godzilla fanned the flames of admiration by taking a bow. Unfamiliar with this sense of goodwill, Heisei Godzilla fidgeted. Yet he clearly enjoyed the warmth.
The only one who was not celebrating was a certain alien war machine that watched from one of his screens in his silo. Mechagodzilla seethed in jealousy. They were getting the love he wanted.
#
Katsura returned to the house and sat up in her father's bedroom and paged through the family photo album by the fading light of the day. The next page contained photos of Titanosaurus. In one photo, Mafune held a tape measure in one hand while he steadied the dinosaur's head with the other. Titanosaurus was barely a meter tall when Mafune found him while doing research on the Bonin Islands.
Another photo showed Katsura with her arms wrapped tight around Titanosaurus's neck, smiling big for the camera. Katsura broke a small grin at her impish expression in the photo. She could still hear her mother scolding her. "Don't choke him!" she said. Katsura was five years old when that picture was taken. She and Titanosaurus were like playmates when she was a girl.
Few pictures were taken after her mother died. Katsura took one of Mafune when she was seventeen. They had gone into seclusion by then. His hair was gray and unkempt. He was pouring fluid into a beaker. She remembered telling him he looked like Einstein only ten times smarter! Goras yanked her aside by the arm. "Don't bother Dr. Mafune. You're a cyborg now. Let that sink in."
Inside the back cover was a newspaper clipping with Ichinose's picture. It was his obituary. In part it read: "Ichinose-san survived a peculiar gun shot wound and went missing shortly after his recovery. After a two year search, the family of Akira Ichinose acknowledges his passing."
A tear dripped onto the picture.
"Crying, Katsura?"
Her heart skipped a beat. Her eyes went wide. She gasped. "Father!"
Dr. Shinzo Mafune sat down on the end of the bed. Katsura winced at the sound of the bedsprings crunching under his weight. His pleased expression started to look hurt. "Aren't you happy to see me?"
Warily she nodded. "Yes, Father." She shook her head and dropped her face into her lap. "What's happening to me? I just don't understand! I'm going out of my mind!"
"What? Oh, nonsense!" Mafune got down on one knee and lifted her chin. "You're not crazy." He studiously straightened his glasses. "Take it from one who would know!"
Katsura's lips formed a trembling smile. The scientific community had called him insane.
"That's it! That's what I want to see." Dr. Mafune looked at her soberly. "It's been a long time since I have seen you smile."
"Father, what's the point? I'm not anymore real than you-"
Shinzo stood up sharply. "Who says you're not real?"
"Father, I've been killed and brought back to life, I even killed myself and still someone was able to bring me back! Only broken dolls can be made like new, not dead people."
"Do you love me?"
"Well, yes!" She paused. Suddenly she understood what he was getting at. "Father! It's not that simple! How am I to know my feelings are real? Look what they-"
"They!" Mafune paced. "Don't let them tell you who and what you are. They're not even human themselves!" Mafune stood facing the sunset. "The black hole has consumed their planet. Leaderless. And still they think they're on a mission! If anyone has lost contact with reality it's them."
He turned from the window. "Besides they didn't steal your humanity. That had already been done." Dr. Mafune scowled in anger, anger toward himself. "Parental love is a child's cornerstone."
After his colleagues threw him out off the university, Dr. Mafune obsessed in his research. Katsura never doubted he loved her, but like her mother, kept out of the way, expecting nothing from him. The work took precedence over family.
Dr. Mafune took her hands and stood her up. "Katsura, you are my daughter. Always have been. Always will be. No one has the power to change that."
Katsura cast her doubts away and grabbed hold of him.
He embraced her.
She buried her cheek in his and squeezed him tight, soaking in his warmth.
"It is time for you to leave this house," Dr. Mafune said. "There is nothing here for you anymore."
Katsura sensed by his tone that he had fulfilled his purpose. "Stay, father. Please stay."
He continued to hold her. She closed her eyes. She found at last what she had been looking for, what she needed so badly. Her father's love.
Katsura opened her eyes and found herself standing alone. It was dark outside. How late it was, she had no idea, but she felt renewed as though she had awoken from a deep sleep.
No, it was more than renewal. For the first time in her life she felt whole.
She switched on the lamp on the bureau. There, at the foot of the lamp was the photo album open to Ichinose's photo from the newspaper clipping. Katsura took the album, switched off the lamp, and left the room with a sense of purpose.