I was going down, down, drawn into the blackness of the ocean. Something called to me down there, something interesting, something…dreadful. I wanted to turn around, to flee, but my curiousity urged me on against the better of my instinct. Around me was pure, undiluted blackness that sent a chill down my spine – this blackness was something more sinister than the lonely, sun-forgotten realm of the deep that I would sometimes visit. Even if there was to be a sun to exist down here, its light would die in this suffocating, life-stealing gloom.

I would have turned around right there and then – this place was death's place – but a pinprick of light suddenly pierced through the darkness. It was quite nothing like the light I was used to – the beam was of green darker than the flames I breathe out from my jaws, a sickly colour that did not seem to belong here. The light did not illuminate; it ate the darkness but revealed nothing in return. There was nothing natural about this phenomena and my instinct went into frenzy, for a voice had suddenly spoken, its source indiscernible as if it had come from the green light itself.

What words it did spoke was beyond me – the voice was faint to my ears even if I had strained all my listening capability towards it. I was already retreating from the uncomfortable presence when I saw dark silhouettes from the darkness beyond; shapes that I vaguely recognized but of which I could draw no comfort from. They came answering the summons of the green light, chanting in unison, though their words were also alien to me. I was held there by morbid curiousity to know these new visitors; I got more than I bargained for.

Poking into the green, swallowing light was the hideous head of the Big Enemy that I had fought in my first ever battle. It came for me with its flower-like mouth blooming open, revealing the fleshy red interiors, and caught me in its slimy grasp.

XxXxXx

I wake with a start, half-expecting my head to be covered in the saliva of the First Big Enemy, only to find myself completely dry and safe in my underwater cave. The nightmare has been recurring to me ever since the darkness begins haunting Father's lair, though never with this much vividness to it. I exhale softly, relieved to be freed from the horrible dream, and lay my head back upon my arms outstretched before me. Though unsettled, I find myself interested in today's nightmare – it has never progressed beyond me finding the darkness and retreating immediately upon discovering it. The sickly green light is a new thing, as well as the appearances of the Big Enemies. And the voice, of course; the voice of the green light speaks with the same indefinable language as that which I have heard when the darkness took the Big Bat a few days before…

Recognition suddenly sparks in my mind; memories that resurface from the back of my mind bring to me the answer of the revolting darkness that has been intriguing me for so long.

Ever since the darkness appears, I have the strangest sense of familiarity to it, and now I know why; I have felt it before – months before, actually – and the previous time, it has led me down to the darkest depth of the ocean. I have found there a strange, unearthly thing, even stranger than the two flipper-limbed snakes which had guarded it. It roughly resembled the humans' floating metal leaf though it was far bigger, far older and far more unpleasant to my eyesight…and instead of floating, this thing resided unmoving on the floor far from the surface of the water, hence myself terming it the Sunken Leaf. From it, that same darkness I feel enveloping my father's lair, emanated from it though it had been much stronger, much more intense as if a tiny fraction of it has escaped the Sunken Leaf and is haunting Father's place instead.

…Well, has haunted, actually. After the day that I fought the bat, Father and his white carrier have seemingly split up – I saw the floating leaf left for somewhere unknown without sensing Father's presence in it. Tracking Father, I have been led back home and found that the darkness that so revolts me is no longer there. Though puzzled by it, I am in no way going to complain about the change. At least, I do not have to worry that Father is inside a building stagnant with the sense of unease like before. However, now that I recall exactly why the darkness seems familiar, my unease is made anew; when I discovered the Sunken Leaf before, I have not been alone.

Father has been there, too.

He and his Pack has travelled, in an unfamiliar Unlife, right down to where the Sunken Leaf was and vanquished the dark waves that had me on edge, into nothingness. I have not felt the emanation ever since until recently. It concerns me that, having known what the source of my uneasiness is, I cannot track it as easily as I did the Sunken Leaf –my senses detect the dark presences only fleetingly, each appearance occurring at different locations and with various intensities. Consumed by a sudden worry, I heave myself into the entrance pool I have been lying beside, following the twists and turns of the underwater tunnel until I emerge into the open water of the bay. Father dominates my thoughts for I recall the dark-wrapped flippered snakes which have guarded the Sunken Leaf the last time – the darkness has gone from Father's place, but what if the Big Snakes should be there too?

Fortunately, as I approach the white building that is Father's Lair, I sense no companies of any Big Enemies whatsoever – though neither did I feel Father's presence here. He must have been off to somewhere else while I have fallen asleep from the journey's exhaustion. However, I am now not overtly anxious of his safety that I see no evidence of the flippered snakes anywhere nearby. Though most of the time he will be either in his lair or aboard his white carrier, he is not always there, strictly speaking. Sometimes, he went far to the edge of my perception, deep in the city, where I am not too willing to follow. Nor do I have the need to when his safety is rarely threatened so deep in his kind's domain…though of course there are exceptions to it.

Like when the rats showed up, of course.

I snort disdainfully at the thought of those nasty, foul rodents that had crawled underneath the city once. A bunch of tiresome lot, they are, and sneaky as squids when I try to track them through the city streets. But my fire has burnt them all right in their very home so I don't suppose I should be afraid of one suddenly appearing out there and maul my father. My anxiety is reassured at the notion even if he is beyond my sight – though I can still sense his faint presence, being far away from me – but when dusk settles over the sky, I find myself being brought back to fidgeting because I have again felt the darkness…along with some 'voices' that I recognize from past experiences.

The darkness does not return to haunt Father's place, though; instead, what my senses are now detecting is merely a tendril originating from a location that I have yet to know. Never have I felt it this strongly, faraway though it is. That it does not seem to concentrate where I sense Father is of little reassurance, now that my agitation is reignited. I swim to the surface and roar out my call of alarm, hoping that there will be a member of two of Father's pack left in there who will hear my warning. I wait for a moment and two but when only silence meet me, I raise my voice again, and again but each time my roar echoes into the atmosphere I am met only with distant noises of the city and the quiet lapping of the waves against the shore. And with every passing second, I feel the darkness intensifying – and wherever it is, the 'voices' I have heard before are led there and each one carries the taint of the mysterious darkness with them.

Yet, my father…he is not going where the dark 'voices' are gathering. His presence is faint to my perception but I know he has not left the land and cross the ocean, where my other worry is coming from. My protective instinct is screaming for my body to move, to act against the threats and conscience leads me on – to my father. For even as there is darkness congregating far to the South, I have a feeling that he will need me soon, especially when my strained senses perceive a new darkness emerging exactly where I feel he is.

I power myself through the water as fast as I can, driven by mounting anxiety while the small dark spot in my perception grows rapidly. All of my thoughts and efforts are poured into reaching Father as fast as I can, using the ocean's depth to lend me speed rather than swimming at the surface. Yet my speed, for once, does not seem to be as impressive as I remember with Father being so uncomfortably close to it. With every moment, I have the ugliest expectation of Father's warm presence vanishing, swallowed by the menacing darkness. Distance becomes a hazy matter for me in my blind rush to him – even the nightfall is barely noticeable. When the darkness's growth halts, it is of no relief whatsoever to me not only because Father is still close to it, the spot is now emitting darkness even more intense than that which has previously wrapped itself around Father's lair. Worse, it is no longer a stationary blackness; it is moving, as does my Father.

The darkness is chasing him!

The shore comes into my sight, a flat dark-grey land unlike the golden sandy stretch around Father's lair. Floating metal leaves dot the water edge, as grey as the ground itself, but even my usual reluctance of appearing before the humans – especially when I notice these sort of metal leaves are the ones that are capable of attacking me with their fiery stings – does not dissuade me from rushing straight ahead. From underwater, I have glimpsed the unmistakable outline of a Big Enemy trampling around the place, one whose stain of the darkness is so potent that it seems to ripple the very air with its dark radiation. It comes to crouch upon the ground, like…like…myself…when I have pinned down my enemy and is about to give it my finishing blow. Except that it is no enemy that its opened mouth is ready to swallow. In that instant, nothing else is in my mind but anxiety for my father's life, which is about to be ended between those ripping teeth.

No! Father!

I call for him reflexively and the Big Enemy stalls, surprised at my unexpected appearance. There is no strategy in my mind right now as I make a leap for it, driven by the need to keep it away from Father. My powerful legs kick my whole body into a second bound and I suddenly find myself barrelling into the Big Enemy's body. Both of us tumble down in a cloud of debris as our combined weights crush the building we happen to land upon. Hard, metallic plates meet my headbutting with a solid clunk instead of yielding flesh, and the first seed of doubt is planted in me at the contact.

I let go of it – just like that, for a great confusion suddenly sweeps over me. I cannot quite tell what it is exactly. I come quickly to my feet, trying to fight my reluctance, only to discover that I am actually unwilling to fight this Big Enemy or bring any harm to it. It is not fear, no, because I have fought many enemies, but this one seems to hold a power that I cannot quite explain, just as I do not exactly know why I have protected Father all these years despite my perfect capability to kill him. I strain my eyes towards the billowing dust cloud, watching as if hypnotized, as the Big Enemy pushes itself up and stands before me, for once fully revealing its appearance to me.

This Big Enemy…it is not me. Its eyes are aglow with an unsettling green radiance that strikes my heart with unexplained fear. Its hide is paler than mine and bits of metal seem to be as much part of its body as warm flesh-and-blood; in fact, much of its head and an entire arm are metal-based. Its appearances are not reflection of mine, but still I can sense kinship with this…creature, even under its confusing mixture of organic and metal limbs. It carries many scents upon its body, some not quite agreeable to my nostrils, yet underneath all that there is one particular scent that reminds me of the time of my hatchlinghood. It was the same scent that I have sniffed coming from Father in my earlier days, one that has made me put him down instead of making an easy meal out of him.

-Stop this madness!

My limbs lock themselves upon hearing the voice that comes out from between that maw. It does not have my timbre but the intonation holds an echo to my roar; a voice that I vaguely remember hearing to when I was still in the egg.

Who…who are you…?

I ask, overwhelmed by confusion from the sudden flooding of memories into my mind. It holds too much half-forgotten secrets that I can scarcely do anything but to stand there and wonder its identity.

-Have you been so lost that you forget who you're talking to?!

But –

-Silence! You are forgetting your place, CHILD!

Its voice holds a power over me that I cannot disobey. It commands my submission in its anger, a creature of such authority that I instinctively quail under its gaze. In that instant, I knew with undeniable certainty why I have felt that subconscious familiarity with this creature, why its voice invokes my respect in its presence. My claws and teeth cannot harm it because I will not have even existed without it. I owe my very flesh and blood to it.

"Godzilla, ATTACK!"

I have completely forgotten the reason I am here in the confusion but his command has brought my attention back to him. Father is not alone; his sun-headed friend is with him, stuck together in a strange yellow land-carrier that has been overturned before my arrival. I bring myself down to his level, for once feeling a true reluctance to obey his words. Does he not see that my supposed enemy is not at all someone that I should fight, just as I am not supposed to hurt Father?

Father, I…I can't. Its – her blood is sacred.

I glance back towards her, who stands watching over us with obvious distaste that makes me all the more nervous. Her displeasure is unwelcomed but so is Father's disapproval of my hesitance. I give him my gentlest growl, hoping that I will be understood for the disobedience. Confusion shadows his friend's countenance but upon Father's face, I can see only such disappointment that my heart shrivels at the sight.

"What's wrong?" I hear the sun-headed one ask.

"I am only his adopted father, remember?" His voice comes out almost like a growl, but even then I cannot find a strong enough will to obey his command. "Looks like he just dumped me for his birth mother!"

Mother….yes; that is the word. I lift my eyes towards her and force myself to face her dislike at our interactions. I have not 'dumped' him but neither do I want to kill one who has laid my egg. I stand between them, feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness as their warring desires tug my instinct in different directions.

-You have been with these vermin for too long, child. Their disgusting softness has tainted you.

She growl deep with disdain, her judging eyes boring deep into mine. The green in her eyes remind me of the intense darkness that has put me on edge whenever I feel it. I dislike the darkness she has enveloped herself with and question myself why she even tolerates the very thing that disgusts me. Yet for all that, I still crave her companionship; for the longest while, I have thought myself to be the last of my kind to walk the Earth. To find myself standing before another, and my own mother, no less, relief fills me in the knowledge that I am not as alone as I have previously thought.

Perhaps, Mother, but they have cared for me ever since –

The rest of my sentence is lost into a shocked growl; I have not realized the tendril of darkness that is reaching for me from above until I feel its 'coldness' wrapping about me like the death-coils of a snake. However, it is not my breath that it squeezes out from me but the spirit to fight – the darkness carries with it a voice which I have heard being spoken from the green light in my nightmares, though now the words are no longer incomprehensible to me. It calls to me with demands for my obedience and to question nothing in return…

…Like a slave.

Like fire, my sudden rage is awoken at such insolent demand. The predator in me despises the notion of surrender even more than it hates intruders in my territories. I lash out instinctively in defiance to the voice and the darkness that accompanies it. Though there are no enemies from which my claws can draw blood from, still the intangible darkness withdraws from the burn of my battle-rage like a Big Enemy would when facing me in my bloodlust.

-Do not fight it!

I cannot help my eyes from meeting her hard gaze in my perplexity upon hearing her words, my wrath dissipating quickly under the weight of my curiousity. Why should I not oppose the darkness when everything in my nature rebels against its oppressing presence?

But, Mother…!

However, there are scarcely enough time for me to feel confused for even as I speak, a second wave of darkness falls upon me. There is no gentleness to it as the dark tendril forces its way into my mind. I try to fight but the door is pried open, laying bare my thoughts to its dark musing. There was pain and horror, but of what I do not know, only recognizing the instinct in me screaming at the dark presence that is spreading through my panicked thoughts. The argument I have for Mother freezes on my tongue and is swallowed back, to disappear along with any residual reluctance I may still have. Words and images whose natures my mind cannot fully grasp fill my thoughts, yet it is of little concern as long as I understand the desires pertained within them – because only those matter to my fate, who live to serve the power behind the voice.

Right now, my master speaks of carnage and shed blood of the two humans before me.

"Godzilla!" He calls again, that one whom I have named as my father, and revulsion stabs through me when I look down towards him.

I cannot understand it. Why have I protected these humans, these wretched creatures before? How hideous, how disgusting they are! Those pale, naked skins, that too-flat faces, their weak limbs… Mother is right; they are nothing more than pestilence, deserving of nothing but destruction.

-Death to these vermin!

I echo her roar with one of my own. My master has commanded their deaths and so, dead they will be. I see their faces and the helpless fear which shapes them. I revel in the sight; revel in the knowledge of their powerlessness against what is to come.

Yet, they still run. Whatever hope they think there is, they are clinging to it tightly enough to give them the courage to do so. Of course, it is merely a vain hope, an illusion – I smell their pungent fear even when they have scurried away into hiding.

Yes, run away, little humans. When I catch you, your deaths will be all the better.

They are near, I can sense it. Somewhere in these nooks and crannies of this place, they shiver in waiting for me to be gone. Well, I will be once I have their bodies between my teeth and drink their sweet blood…

"Hey, over here! Over here!"

So, getting tired of hiding, it seems?

He is not even good at running, though; and he is noisy too. I see him fleeing away from me and hear the echoes of his voice as he disappears around the corner of a building, perhaps in hope of losing me. I follow after him lazily, not the least afraid that I should lose him with the rackets he is making out of himself –

…Wait. That…does not seem like a human…

No, it isn't. But I do recognize it as one of his Unlife, the annoying yellow stalker. The human's voice yells out from it in continuous stream although I am no longer in the mood of enduring its taunting calls. I crush it underfoot with one simple stomp that I do not bother to back with any real strength.

There is a sharp, mechanical hiss behind me, and I manage to glimpse only of Mother's blue-fired stingers blasting apart two floating leaves at the water's edge. They sink upon impact, gone to be buried underwater once the flame has taken them. The smell of burnt metal and oil fills the air, smoke climbing up from whatever fire that still lingers on the parts of the metal leaves that is still untouched by the surrounding water.

They still live, I point with a jerk of my muzzle towards the white foam trail from a quickly receding metal leaf-carrier.

It does not matter. They have learnt their lesson to not interfere, she growls with satisfaction. I watch them go uneasily but make no move to chase after them. Only the foolish ones would return and challenge us after being close to be killed before.

Come, my child. There are still many tasks to be done, she calls after me gently but her tone is dripping with familiar expectation of bloodlust. I feel myself tensing with excitement, for the pleasure of hunting has always been something that I look forward to.

Together, both Mother and I step slip silently into the water, eager to heed our master's silent call and immerse ourselves in the ecstasy of the next hunt.