Me: Guess who's back?

DISCLAIMERS: Don't own what's not my own.

The OtherSide

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

"Demons Within"

"Is anyone there?!"

The sky was red by its blood or the blood of the planet, he couldn't tell. The stench of death was heavy in the air, overshadowed only by the acrid scent of brimstone. Buildings destroyed by the demonic forces leant heavily on supports too far gone to support their full weight and so many crumbled at the slightest movement within them, not that there was much movement to be found in this dead city. He had seen the statues, the frozen faces of people young and old screaming in sheer terror as the spirits of the dead and gone clawed upon them, dragging themselves upwards just as they were frozen to the bedrock like their living prey.

"Morisato…! Takuya…! Blackfire…! Please…someone, anyone… answer me!"

Nothing but the echoing cackles of the ravens were the response to Eiji's desperate cries. Screaming in frustration, he tore a piece of rubble and threw it into the flock that continued to follow him in this hell. Screeching angrily, the four-eyed horde of demonic ravens took to the sky, flying towards where once a glorious ocean was to be found now replaced by seas of molten rock and sulphourus smoke.

Beyond that sea of fire and death, past floating piece of rubble, sat the one true island in the bay where a large tower of glass and steel once stood in a glorious, if admittedly odd, T-shaped glory where two of Jump City's greatest group of heroes resided. Separately, they were rarely spoken as in the recent months they've begun to assume a common name between them.

The Teen Titans.

But that was no longer the case if he was the only one left save, perhaps, for the one responsible for this unimaginable level of destruction and death. Even the Crystal Incursion, for all its evils, took decades to degrade the earth to a point where billions of life forms were reduced to barely a handful, most coming from the same species at that. That earth had a chance in a trillion.

This one had lost any it had the instant He came here.

Demon, Devil, it didn't matter at all to Eiji Kusanagi as his eyes burned to match the red intensity of the creature's skin, glaring at His monstrous form across the sea of flames where He used a once proud and grand tower as His new throne. There was nothing left in this world for Eiji. He could run but really, run where? This was Hell on Earth, like there was anyplace safe from the Devil.

No.

Hell though this was, Eiji had been given something no mortal being had ever been able to truly have in this known universe. He might live and die on this day, perhaps even be forever burned in the deep pits of Hell given form on the middle plane but it was opportunity nonetheless. He may have been foolish to think this, he might have lost all sense of rationality in the conceiving of this plan but Eiji could honestly say he had no life left in him to continue in this existence. Damned he might become, he would not let this one chance go.

He stood before the sea of molten rock; fists clenched tight, claws drawing blood from soft, human palms, with orange colored eyes burning a shining red. He took several steps back, a bloodied hand drawing up to the K-Zector adorning his wrist and activating it with a scream, "Execute! Kaiju Spirit Evolution!" He ran forward even as the cocoon of light surrounded him and dove into the burning stone.

--

In a world once plagued with monsters, all of monstrous proportions and strength, there was not but one king but three, all of the same family but not directly related by blood. The first perished leaving not but bones and a forgotten soul, the second died so that the third might live only for it to have been sealed away not more than a century after the beginning of its reign. During those years, the souls of all three Kings never truly walked in the same plane of existence at the same moment. True, the Second came about thanks to the action of the Third and, in turn, rescued it but was lost in the ether soon after. There had been once, a King made from the body of the Third, the power of the Second, and the rage-driven soul of the First but, like all creatures of the paranormal circumstance, its life was brief though its message was heard loud and clear.

Never before had all three souls been united in a single form against a shared foe. No one could answer just Eiji had been thinking, activating the forbidden powers of the BioMerge in this ravaged world, not even the boy in question. Whatever the case was, the Kusanagi had done something no one, not even his father, had ever managed to accomplish. It was not unknown that, to use the strength of the Kings, one had merely to anger them enough against that which one saw fit to destroy but even in the madness of rage, all Three could find reason. Thus far, no being, human or otherwise, had ever truly given the Monster King a reason, a purpose.

Until now.

This fight was not a last-stand battle to the creature forever known as Godzilla. This was not a battle for territory, guarded or gained, nor was this a fight over dominance, which had the right to rule as King, as Alpha. This was something that went beyond instinct, beyond primal urges dating to the dawn of life.

Eiji Kusanagi had taken the pain, the grief, the complete and utter hatred that all three Gojirans shared in their lifetimes and gave to them a form bound by red-tinted flesh, with four hellish eyes that held an evil hatred born of the ether and not by a life filled with naught but pain. He took their pains and gave them a cause for it, he took their grief and gave it a shape, and he took their hatred and gave it a focus. More than that, Eiji gave to them but a single name.

TRIGON.

--

He who was perhaps second only to the Fallen Star sat in silent contemplation that stretched for eternity for those of mortal lifespans but was in fact an eye's blink for an immortal such as him. He raised a hand to the clouded skies, shining red despite the darkness shrouding his new made kingdom, and made a great tear into the sky, revealing the untouched stars of the universe lying unsuspecting of the danger they were in.

"Go forth and conquer," spoke the demon lord as his wraiths composed of the fires from his domain in Hell flew upwards. "One by one, worlds shall fall until every being in this entire dimension bows down to worship Trigon the Terrible."

Lightning arced in the sky as the portal towards the stars closed with the clenching of the devil's fists. He smiled in satisfaction only to suddenly scream more in rage than in pain from the stream of nuclear flame bursting forth from the sea of lava surrounding him. All four eyes narrowed in a rage, Trigon stood from his throne and stared with something akin to confusion at the creature that was making way towards him through the molten rock.

It was a creature rather like those long extinct in the millennia since their reign but different. This was no mere beast and Trigon, arrogant as he was from his place in the hierarchy of Hell, would forever be made the fool for believing this despite what his instincts were telling him of this beast, this monster making way towards him.

Eyes burning in their white intensity, Godzilla roared in shared fury with a trinity of voices, before launching forth another beam of power at the demon lord, knocking him back down onto his throne. Not slowing in the slightest, Godzilla continued its march forward, pressing Trigon further into what was once Titans' Tower until the structure collapsed from the pressure and the devil was slammed into the molten sea. Stepping up onto the island, nostrils flaring, Godzilla stood where once Trigon sat and roared its dominance over the demon lord, who rose slowly from the lava, burning in a demonic rage.

"I have no recollection of such a creature as yourself, vermin… but rest assured your agony will be legendary, even in Hell!" Beams of demonic light shot forth from Trigon's eyes, slamming into Godzilla and pushing the monster king but a mere half step before the enraged beast charged forward, ignorant of all physical pain. The demon lord paused in his attack, stunned that such a mortal creature had power of mind and body to withstand against him. For but a moment he assumed this monstrosity was made of the same ether as himself.

No, this was a creature made of flesh and mortal blood like his fool of a daughter. The creature, whatever it was, resisted magic. Met the blackest of enchantments head-on with its own power, fierce as the sea in the midst of a hurricane. Not a demon, but Trigon could see the raw fury in those nightmarish eyes, the kind of rage that guaranteed one of them wouldn't be walking away from this fight.

"So be it."

Demonic hellfire met mundane nuclear flame, colliding in an explosion of smoke and ether in midair and sending both combatants nearly off their feet. Snarling fangs gleamed before shooting fast through the open space and bit down upon crimson flesh. Spines of silver hue began to crackle with shining radioactive light, the same energies that burned deep in Godzilla's throat and now burned onto Trigon's flesh.

The demon lord howled and, with a mighty burst of pain driven strength, hurled the monster across the bay to land on the ruined shore. The beast pressed its upper body up with muscular arms, growling deeply. It stood slowly to its feet, licking the blood from its fangs, as its final enemy came charging upon it. Blue fire burst forth from Godzilla's mouth, turning demon blood into steam, and colliding against Trigon's torso, nearly pushing the demon lord off his feet but, like his adversary, the red-skinned devil tried to push back against the assault.

Unlike Godzilla, Trigon's rage did not have a cause and so it was of little surprise when the monster's fire began to burn the demon lord's skin. Screaming in a blind rage, Trigon ducked under the nuclear fire and attempted to pile drive into Godzilla's torso only to receive a strike from the creature's tail that nearly tore off his head. Trigon stood slowly, rubbing his mouth with the back of one hand and spitting out a glob of blood with the remains of a tusk.

The two beings, both kings in their own rights and commanding powers beyond mortal conception or control stood facing one another on fields they unwittingly represented. Behind the demon Trigon stood a sea of molten rock lit aflame from the fires of Hell a true testament to its infernal horrors. Behind the monster king Godzilla stood what remained of a once glorious city now nothing but ruins where nothing truly alive could hope to exist past this day of Armageddon. Both of them were forces of terrible power and destruction but both were of opposite end of the spectrum. Yes one was made of the ether and another of flesh and blood but only one of them stood for something more than senseless destruction.

That one stood for something that the demon lord Trigon could never in all his existence truly begin to understand for while most demons could learn of it and even embrace the knowledge, a being such as Trigon would rather give his life than to be made aware of its existence. Even in the depths of his madness, drowning beneath the minds of all three Kings, Eiji Kusanagi still fought with everything he had because he stood for that something.

For the family he found and lost, for the lives of his friends new and old, and for the love that he shared… Eiji Kusanagi would guarantee that Trigon would pay for every crime, every death, and every ounce of agony the demonlord inflicted on this earth.

In spades.

However, between the two monolithic figures' silence, there came a voice, nay a multitude of voices that spoke not as one but as a unity shared between friends, between family. These words, so simple and plain sounding to most who heard them, would merely be brushed aside but to someone drowning in a sea of rage and despair, it was the life raft that would bring them home.

"Titans GO!"

To Be Continued...

A/N Inspiration: An age ago, don't truly recall when, I read of a rejected story idea of Godzilla combating against the Devil. Obviously, it never flied but the idea was rather interesting in its own right. Actually, it was a friend of mine, whom I like to call Chrome, who inspired the idea as, originally, I was going to have the Riders appear in the Teen Titans (animated) world like the reflection "M-Base" but I didn't know what point in the series to admit them. Chrome suggested Trigon as a good point and I remembered the rejected "Godzilla vs. the Devil" and viola! "Demons Within".

Next Reflection...

"No Need for Romancing!"