Chapter Five
"I'm not sure I like this."
The official looked to his comrade with a stern glance on his face. "The Secretary General himself called this meeting and he expects the top UN, UNGCC, and DFE officials to be there, even if it is about that Segeusa woman. It doesn't really matter if we don't like it."
With that, the two men left hallway and passed through the large double doors. They then went into a large conference room where many of their fellow paper pushers sat alongside high ranking officials and military men and all got into their seats. Now, in UNGCC's world headquarters they all looked to the center of the o-table, the same large o-shaped table where they had first met to make a council of Monster War so long ago, where Miki looked around at the people around her. She stood there with a smiling Kyle Martin (those that knew of their little spat saw that they had made up) at her side.
Miki looked around at the G-Force and UNGCC officials there and felt butterflies in her stomach. Kyle however, was confident in her plan and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed back and smiled at him. Having rehearsed her speech several times before Kyle, she knew she was ready and both she and Kyle knew it. Miki knew the plan would work; the first thing she had done on getting off the medication was to telepathically ask the Elias and they had given her their full support. She knew that she'd done the right thing in flying back home and calling this meeting.
Miki saw those that sat there, looking at her and finally knew that it was time to speak. "Hello everybody, I am very glad that you were able to come, so is my good friend, Kyle Martin. He and I are here to present our plan for how to win the Monster Wars." At that, some of the people at the round table visibly laughed or merely rolled their eyes; other, however, actually paid attention. Hoping that those who would listen to her were the majority, Miss Segeusa continued. "As we all know, the world as we know it poised to be forever destroyed by King Ghidorah, the most dangerous monster that ever lived. We have done everything to fight him but 'neither man nor his machines are able to stop this creature.'
"Thinking to stand against him with more than men, we have recruited monsters to our cause such as Yetrigar and Tuol; some monsters have even graciously volunteered their might, such as Lupis and Nessie. Yet despite their courage, their strength has not nearly been enough and they've beaten down time and again. In fact, not a few of them paid the ultimate price. As those monsters died, some of us have gone so far as to ask if there was one monster out there strong enough to defeat King Ghidorah and save us. That was when I noticed something."
With an audible hum, Miki activated a holographic projection map next to her in the middle of the o-table. With that, a semi-transparent three dimensional ten foot wide rotating holographic globe materialized above all their heads above the table and dots appeared all across it. In fact, as the holo-globe moved around dot after dot appeared everywhere across the entire face of the earth, across every country, every hamlet, every mountain and every field. "If you look closely, you'll see that all these gold dots correspond to the places King Ghidorah has attacked; Las Vegas, Shanghai, Melbourne, and countless others that have been destroyed. There hasn't been a place on Earth that's he's spared."
Miki punched a series of keys and the gold dots faded away. After a hum, another series of dots appeared and like before, they appeared across the seven continents; this time dots were in black. "If you look at these dots you will see that they also appear everywhere. These dots represent where Godzilla has been sighted ever since he left Japan at the start of the Monster Wars. And you will also see that when we combine these two maps…" On Miki's command both gold and black dots appeared. "…that they are interconnected." Indeed, nearly all the gold and black dots overlapped until it seemed a mass of one color.
"We see that they always go to the same place, almost never at the same time though. Even though they have only managed to battle relatively few times, we can see that everywhere King Ghidorah has been, Godzilla has gone. He has hunted the three-headed monster all over the world and seeks to kill him, whatever the cost."
Commander Aso frowned. "We know all that. What's your point?"
"This. As the months pass and as the casualties mount, I've kept thinking of a way to end this war. We've recruited monsters so why not bring to our side the mightiest monster of them all? Why not ally ourselves with their King? This isn't the first time that I've suggested this, the first was at the start of the Monster Wars, but that fist time my proposal was denied. Now, more than a hundred million dead and almost a year later, I say that we have nothing left to lose by trying. If Godzilla wants to fight King Ghidorah then why not let him?"
While some people let the idea sink in, the old men sitting there alongside Aso and Goodhue and Hayashida looked at each other and shook their heads or sighed or more. It was with that that Kyle Martin moved in to put his two cents in. Miki had been wise in choosing him because not only was he famous as a kaijuologist but he was also noted for his firm anti-Godzilla stance; his just being there supporting the plan served as a counterpoint to the commonly held image of Miki being a "monster coddler." The reporter's grandson spoke.
"I'll be the first to admit, to deliberately fight alongside the King of the Monsters is a seeming hypocrisy for the men and women of the United Nations Godzilla 'Countermeasures' Center but we have no choice. In the course of the Monster Wars, Miki has repeatedly said that however much suffering our old enemy might cause, the suffering that King Ghidorah causes is a hundred times worse. While her words might be an exaggeration—though not by much now with how much more powerful Ghidorah has become with DT—these are desperate times and they demand equally desperate measures. We have no choice if we want Earth to survive.
"Godzilla has the power to face Ghidorah, if anybody should know that it's us, and we've seen for ourselves that Godzilla will do anything to kill his arch-enemy. According to the Elias, the King of the Monsters was born to defeat the King of Terror and we see that Godzilla, a great evil, wishes to destroy a greater evil that wants to kill us both. Since the enemy of our enemy is our friend, the only logical course of action is for us to team up with Godzilla… especially with how he, if not stopped, will destroy our planet along with Ghidorah."
On hearing that, Miki felt a chill go down her spine. As was common amongst most psychics, she refrained from arbitrarily using her powers out of respect for the privacy of others and so had accepted Kyle's claim of being on his best behavior. Now she had the sinking feeling that it wasn't as it appeared to be.
However, the men and woman sitting at the table felt their curiosity piqued and sat at attention at the kaijuologist's appraisal of the situation. Kyle noticed that and knew he was on a role. "You have the idea. In all their battles we've seen, the two of them have come up even every time. In filming their first battle, Miki saw them beat each other to within an each of their lives and she was frankly shocked that either of the two monsters survived. Godzilla has always had the power to face Ghidorah." With that, the young scientist smiled. "Now with what the DT has done, he just doesn't have the power to beat Ghidorah.
Kyle looked to the men of G-Force and slowly turned around to face all of them. They all smiled at this and he smiled back. "This strategy might not have worked between Kong and Godzilla but it just might work between the two monsters we face. We trick our old enemy to go and fight and then when he needs us to win, we conveniently fall back, leaving him all alone. We have them go and kill each other, and all we have to do is stand back and finish off the one weakened survivor. Who knows, we might not even have to do that if our two dupes do the work for us… Ghidorah vs. Godzilla, if we are lucky then both will die!"
People there eagerly began discussing the idea and latched onto an idea that was genius in its simplicity. Kyle saw this and felt a surge of joy on this; however, Miki, saw this and felt a surge of revulsion on this. She hadn't come for this, she hadn't told Kyle of her plan for this! She saw the ghouls talking all around her, plotting Godzilla's death even as he was going to risk his life to save them and felt her stomach turn. She saw this and shouted, "NO!"
The people in the conference room looked at her in shock. So angry that tears almost streamed from her face, she said, "You can't do this! Do you have any idea of what you're saying? Godzilla is the only thing that can save us and you're figuring out how to kill him? This… this is crazy and don't you think that I'm someone blind to the truth. From the moment I was brought into G-Force, I was looked down on as naïve little girl, a monster coddler." She then shot a withering glance to everyone there… and to Kyle. As venom dripped from her lips, they literally felt her psychic rage; it was an anger that washed over them like scalding water and it burned.
"Yes, even without my powers I always knew what you, all of you, said and thought about me. I'm not over simplifying, if anything you're over complicating. Yes, I do know the destruction that Godzilla causes, better than any of you could ever imagine but I also know what you're guilty of as well. You say that Godzilla is so very bad but if we're so very good then why have we never given him a chance? I've been inside his mind and have seen his memories; he's not the evil mindless raging freak that you've demonized him as. All he's ever wanted is a chance and that was all he ever looked for on Skull Island or Lagos or Odo and beyond but you couldn't care less. All you cared about was killing him. Don't you see what this means? A destroys B, B destroys A, and it just keeps going until both sides are dead. If you were truly as righteous as you think you are then wouldn't you be trying to rise above this hate?"
With all pretense of holding back her feelings gone and her face twisted into a grimace of rage, she pointed to them in cold fury. "You hypocrites are all so busy accusing Godzilla of evil that you fail to see your own, you fail to realize that we have nobody but ourselves to blame. Our attacks made Godzilla hate us, therefore if there's anyone to blame for the destruction that Godzilla causes, its you."
The speechless men and women stood there in mute shock and you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Nobody moved, nobody even breathed, they just sat there. Almost frightened by her words and the anger that they physically felt from Segeusa, they just sat there, sweating coldly and shifting uncomfortably. On seeing this, Segeusa looked at them almost hatefully from the corner of her eyes and said, "Now come'on. We have work to do. As I was saying about this plan…"
Looking down with a worried look upon his face, the Emperor of Mu said, "How much longer will it be until the son of Manda regains full health?"
"It will be some time before that happens your highness," said the kaijuologist. They were walking along a long catwalk that ringed the large room. Coiled in the center of the room was the coiled colossal body of Quetzalcoatl; coming from it were tubes & needles and walking all around it were scientists & veterinarians trying to heal him. At that the scientist and the king went and walked to the nearest staircase to go down to the actual 'operating room.'
Adjusting the tie of the western business suit he often wore when out of Mu, the Emperor asked, "Can you at least say how long it will take for Quetzalcoatl to recover? If he will recover…"
The two men reached the bottom of the stairwell and walked towards the monster in question. "Don't worry your highness. He's a strong monster and he'll make it back from the wounds he received in the Washington battle… He proved he's strong enough when he fought his way back to full health after that thrashing Godzilla gave him and Tuol back in Africa."
Now in front of the feathered serpent, the Emperor stretched to his full height and brushed his hand across the emerald green and ruby red scales of the snake. "It has been some three-thousand years since we Muvians last saw the son of Manda and we've all missed him. Manda himself most of all, of course. It's somewhat ironic, Quetzalcoatl wakes up after three thousand years only to almost be killed the very next day. First by Godzilla and then King Ghidorah…" In a fit of anger, the Emperor slammed his fist to a table and broke it with his superhuman strength. "By the Great Dragon himself how I hate that demon!"
Looking with one raised eyebrow to the pile of kindling, the kaijuologist sighed. "You're not the only one your majesty. My team and I have come to feel a bond with all the kaiju that we've had to patch up, Yetrigar, Mechanstein, Uchihikra, and the rest. The trio's dead now, however but the Elias have been here trying to get Mothra back on her feet and she's begun walking, or flying, again. They say that their using their powers to revive Battra, premature though it may be; with the Dorat Swarm going crazy on the US and Canada, we'll be needing the two of them just to make it out. As for Tuol, that old Indian priest and his grandson have been giving us ideas on how to fix him." The monster doctor left it at that; he had no desire to elaborate on the genetically altered Muvian snake-men and the like that had turned his laboratory into a sorcerer's den, using potions and incense to heal their master.
"But there is one thing that I do not understand," said the Emperor of Mu. "It's that the United Nations and those that serve it spend more time fighting Godzilla than Ghidorah. Though I've no love for the 'King of the Monsters' with what he's done to Quetzalcoatl, the beast is still a son of the Great Dragon and is the only thing strong to defeat the three-headed monster whom the Great Dragon has disowned. You'd think that we'd be begging him to save us."
"That needn't be the case, your highness." The kaiju vet smiled and, after checking the snake monster's vitals, said, "From what I've heard, the Secretary General has given the green light on Segeusa's plan. Both the Security Council and the General Assembly overwhelmingly approve and we're getting clearance from the Danish government for Greenland to be the battleground."
The Emperor of Mu was elated on hearing that. "That's wonderful! If anybody can defeat King Ghidorah, it has to be Godzilla. However, there is one thing."
Worried, the kaijuologist asked, "What one thing sir?"
"If you surface worlders have hunted and hated him for so long, will he even consider fighting alongside you?"
That was question that one little psychic asked herself.
Her meeting with top G-Force officials was bumpy, to say the least, and many a temper was lost in presenting it. Although UNGCC and G-Force officials ultimately agreed to it—albeit because they wanted to live—and Aso himself had promised not to harm Godzilla after the assault on King Ghidorah, Miki was still worried. It wasn't so much about the latest fight between Kyle and herself and it wasn't so much about Aso keeping his word; though a hard man, he was also an honest man. Miki was worried if Godzilla would stand by their side at all.
She had to find a way to get the second party on board; the plan required both humans and Godzilla working together. One was ready, though perhaps not too enthusiastic, but there was still the question of the other who professed as great a hatred for his enemies as they for him. Even as she was astrally projecting herself to find him, she knew it wasn't going to be easy and not just because of her rusty powers.
Miki finally found him sleeping at the bottom of one of Norway's countless mountain ringed inlets, or fiords. That was because after the monster had looked through his mind, he'd begun swimming south from the Artic and stopped in Scandinavia to eat of its rich fish stocks. However, much to the relief of local fishermen that feared for their catches—and their lives—, he'd gotten lucky and managed to find an oodako there. With hunger satiated, he was alone there and yet while lying at the bottom of a glacier gouged harbor in the darkness that he was met by one other.
"Godzilla, can you hear me?"
On psychically hearing that, the King of the Monsters, he lifted his head from the sediment and moved it through the cold dark water; he opened his mind's eyes and saw Miki there in front of him. From both their perspectives, they were both alone and suspended in a state of blackness for such was the realm of the mind. Looking at her in front of him in the blackness, Godzilla felt some kind of mild happiness. It had been a time since they had spoken; she was worried that she no longer cared for him.
Walking towards his across the blackness, she placed her hand on the prostrate monster's face. "You know that I could never do that." Though, Miki silently thought to herself, she was more than willing to lie to him about that Telepathy Transmitter still on him. "I've come to ask you for help."
Godzilla was unsure. What kind of help?
Miki wrung her hands and looked to the black space beneath her feet. "Godzilla, you know that both you and the humans are fighting King Ghidorah and that both of us have been unable to win. The world is dying and unless we find a way to stop him now, all life will be destroyed. He is enemy to both of us and there's only one choice left: we must join forces and work together."
At that, Miki felt a surge of rage from the King of the Monsters on hearing that. Fight alongside humans? That was unthinkable!
"No!" cried Miki. "It can work. Don't you remember my grandfather and Major Shindo? You've fought alongside humans once before-"
And they betrayed him! Yes, he had fought for the mammals, even risked his life for them, and for what? After his sacrifice, when he'd needed them the most they had abandoned him to his fate. If he were to fight alongside the humans again, what would happen? Another betrayal, that's what would happen! There he is fighting King Ghidorah and then the humans leave him to be killed.
Miki felt some guilt on hearing that because she knew that that was exactly what the men of G-Force had had hoped. However, while she kept those thoughts to herself, Godzilla could still sense some feelings of discomfort emanating from her. At that, he let her know that he felt remorse at whatever he may have caused her now and anything before.
"You're still sorry for what you did in New Orleans?"
He was.
Miki smiled. "Its ok Godzilla, I've forgiven you, any wrongs you might have caused was undone with the lives you saved that day." She then grew pensive and looked away before casting deep soulful eyes towards him. "But then that's not the real problem, the question isn't can I forgive you but can you forgive for yourself?"
The King of the Monsters wasn't sure he liked where this was going but she continued. "You've carried a heavy burden for many years and its killing you. It won't kill you right away because you're strong but every ounce of bitterness and poison you take into yourself, either towards yourself or others, will make the burden that much heavier until one day you won't be able to bear it any longer. That's because if all you keep in your heart is hate then you won't have any more room left for love."
Miki looked into Godzilla's eyes and pleaded. "The humans have all said you're an evil thing that should be destroyed; I know they're wrong but if you keep following a path of hate then you'll prove them right. You were born to be a hero, a protector, but all the anger you've held inside is turning you into something you're not. In telling his stories, Kyle's grandfather called you the King of the Monsters; be a king not some petty bully. Do what's right… it's what Gigantis would have wanted."
Godzilla narrowed his reptilian gaze at her. From the moment they met on Odo, she had always known how to make him tick and this was no exception. However he had never dreamed that the self righteous human would invoke his mate's name against him! Yet he also had a suspicious feeling that Gigantis herself would have used similar words… and that she would have used them in the same way. Did he hate the humans for what they'd done to him? Yes he did. Did he hate himself for what he did to one human? Yes he did.
The question that went through the King of the Monster's mind was did he have more hate for the human race than he did love for Miki. The thought ran through him and he even considered doing what the humans wanted to do him, that was to let the humans and King Ghidorah fight and hope they destroy each other, let Creation be rid of them both.
On hearing those words within her mind, Miki gasped and prayed to God that they were not true. But… if Godzilla did that… if he did that… then what few innocents among the humans would pay the price. The innocent like his beloved Miki whom he had to protect. If the humans asked for his help against King Ghidorah then they would have it.
Segeusa gasped. "You'll going to help us?" Godzilla turned his mammoth head straight at the tiny mammal; yes, he would. At that she felt a surge of joy and utter vindication, as if all the hopes she had ever had were proven, of faith rewarded! Trying to fight back the tears of joy, she smiled and wrapped her arms as best he could around Godzilla colossal head. "Thank you, oh thank you! I knew that this day would come that you would turn around and work with us."
Really, what made her think it would be that simple?
Miki looked at his in confusion. "But you're going to help us, aren't you? … I mean you said that you would fight alongside us…"
Godzilla looked with a withering, judgmental gaze towards her and made his intentions clearly known. Yes, he would stand alongside the humans and fight at their side as an ally… this time. True, in fighting one evil, he had let himself be distracted from another, lesser, evil but once that which was enemy to them both was dealt with, the proper order of things could resume. The war between him and the mammals would end for now but there would be others
Hearing this, Miki Segeusa felt her heat break and she hung her head. "I understand," she said. "If that's the way its going to be then so be it." At that moment her tears of joy turned to tears of sorrow. "So be it."