Chapter Sixteen
All over the world, every man, woman, and child was cheering at the greatest moment in human history took place before their very eyes. It was absolute pandemonium across the globe as people danced and sang and cheered but there was one place where there was no dancing and singing and cheering. Oddly enough it was where people would expect the celebrations to be greatest; it was the human front lines of what most everyone thought was the final battle of the Monster Wars. Though the soldiers and their officers at first had been cheering along with everyone for Godzilla's victory, the cries of the officers quickly faded.
The plan supposedly called for Godzilla to destroy Ghidorah and if he should fall for the human armies to avenge him. In reality it called for Godzilla and Ghidorah to kill each other and if one were to survive to kill him, whoever it might be. Aso and Goodhue had been told the lie to get Miki Segeusa to help; she had agreed to ask the King of the Monsters only after they assured her that they would never hurt him. She had believed Aso and never even bothered to mind scan him. Aso had restricted the truth of the matter only to the COs, however, knowing that if too many people knew that the "background noise" would be enough to tip the psychic off. That was why while the enlisted men cheered, honestly and sincerely cheered to thank Godzilla for what he had done, their officers did not.
They couldn't do it. They knew they had their orders, these leaders of men knew they were expected to lead their soldiers and try to kill the saurian. They knew they were expected to kill the saurian that had just saved their lives at nearly the cost of his own, the saurian that had saved the world. The Commanding Officers knew what their orders were but as they silently looked at Godzilla, they just couldn't do it. Yet although they couldn't do it, Kyle would.
The Champion of the Great Tyrannosaur had won, he had done the impossible! Yet for now, his feelings were tempered with caution; he had to find Miki. Hurting all over, Godzilla walked on aching feet towards where he had last seen her, watching his step all the while. Too tired to keep it raised like it normally was, his tail dragged as his gnarled black head craned this way and that looking for his innocent. Ignoring the sound of his feet crunching rubble like gravel, he locked on to the psychic sound of Segeusa's mind and walked towards there, though with a sense of worry as it was panicked mind.
Homing in on her mind, he quickened his pace and made the ground tremble; he ultimately found her on the remains of a broken street with broken, flattened buildings at her sides. Godzilla found her there… with the human. Looming some three-hundred feet over them, they were enveloped in his shadow yet they paid no attention to him at all, hadn't even heard him coming, and were instead focused on each other. In fact, from his point of view, it looked as if they were fighting. A person on the ground, however, would have had a much better understanding of what was going on.
"Kyle, are you crazy! You can't do this!"
He struggled to wrest the bazooka from her grip. "You don't understand! He'll just kill again after this, I have to kill him while I have the chance!"
Miki proved a formidable foe with how she used telekinesis to amplify her strength but it wasn't enough because Kyle managed to throw her on the ground where she landed with a thud and a grunt. Knowing that that would grab Godzilla's attention whom he had seen out the corner of his eye, he whipped around to face the beast filled with hate. "That's right you ugly freak, you want me, you got me!"
Segeusa tried to get up and stop him but he looked back to point the bazooka back at her, shouting, "Stay out of this Miki or you'll taste Toxin yourself! This is between me and the lizard and one way or another we settle this tonight!"
The King of the Monsters saw what Kyle had done and was filled with tremendous anger; how dare the human strike Miki! He understood of the insect's words well enough and threw his head back to roar as he knew that it would end tonight.
Kyle Martin craned back to see the colossal thirty story saurian's reaction through the bazooka's telescopic sight. He saw and spat, though he was still torn up inside by what he had to do. "Yeah, you're smart enough to know what I'm saying lizard and you remember how my germ Toxin hit you like the Ebola virus. It would've killed you if Miki hadn't made me give you a cure. Not this time freak, this time it ends!"
Godzilla looked down at the arrogant insect—the microbe!—with its pretensions of significance and knew that if were ever to kill another human it would be this one! He would strike Miki, he would seek to kill him and who knows what else; for that he raised his foot to crush the maggot beneath his heel because this time it would end.
All other thoughts replaced by suicidal acceptance and angry tears coming from him, Kyle looked up at the foot being hoisted over him. He screamed, "So you're going to kill me to? Then do it! I won't be able to get out of the way but I'll still be able to hit you with my poison. Kill me like you killed my brother and God knows how many others hero. Do it then… Do it! Put us both out of our misery! Do it now so we can both die!"
"No…" whispered Miki. She raced between them with arms stretched out between them and shouted, "NOOO!"
Both Kyle and Godzilla felt bitter hatred fill them but as they felt the hatred everything seemed to disappear around them. When it vanished, both found themselves somewhere else and what they both saw were things that neither would ever forget.
Kyle Martin was confused and disoriented as he saw a place of blackness. When his vision cleared, he saw it was the jet black broken caldera of a volcano beneath an overcast night sky. The desolation was horrible, it was like the end of the world but people were there as there was a satellite broadcaster. Indeed the scene changed to one of soldiers underneath their tent, going about their duties as a jeep rolled past them. But near that tent was a large truck that had been converted into a research station; on looking at his instruments, a soldier went to man whom Kyle recognized as Hayashida and said, "Professor, Godzilla has been sighted."
But as a gnarled, colossal black head slowly rose up over the mountain top amidst thunder, it wasn't what Kyle expected. The people there watched a head, then shoulders, and a body rise up it was seen that their keeper was sick and sad. Weary of own wretched existence, he had no reason left to live and death would be little more than a relief because except for misery, he would have nothing left to lose. Sick and guilty for what he had done, the saurian reached the rim of the volcano; he looked down at the searing lava deep below and then looked to the dish that constantly played its message.
By now Martin knew what this was. It was Oshima Island off the coast of Japan near Tokyo and the year was 1985 when Godzilla returned to wreak his vengeance. It was there that he was defeated only by the narrowest of margins. It was by luring him to a volcano with bird calls but he somehow knew that that wasn't the case and for that saw what others could not. He heard the ever so faint cries of an astrally projected child Miki echo around him even as he heard the bird calls. They were trying to trigger some kind of "conditioned response" to trick him into falling into the volcano.
The King of the Monsters grimly looked at all this. He knew full well what those worthless mammals were trying to do and he couldn't believe they were actually doing something so stupid. Part of him wanted to strike down the inferior race just to teach it that, make it suffer for all it had done and-! No… with that, the saurian walked forwards, throwing up great clouds of black dust. He walked to the very brink of the drop, disregarding Segeusa's words and soon enough the ground fell beneath him and landed with a bone jarring thud on flat feet. In the narrow, black, rocky chimney, he looked down and saw the lake of fire beneath him.
In the few days that he had had with the child, he had learned that hatred was wrong. Even if the sinners among the humans were to be punished they could not be struck down at the price of the innocent. That was the line that had always separated him from King Ghidorah and he had crossed it that day. He looked up out of the chimney at the humans at the edge and roared for them to do it. With that, bombs were detonated across the volcano and explosions raged; causing rock walls to crumble and bleed lava, the whole volcano erupted. Like the fire if Hell, and the burning ash, the searing gases, and the lava, all raged around him, causing torture unseen save for Dante. Pain, agony, suffering, as he was thrown down to the lava to be cast out and damned by the humans, to be sentenced to perpetual torment.
In a place that was not a place and in a time that was not a time, Kyle felt all this and fell to the ground screaming. Writhing in agony, he felt the torture of being burned alive for what seemed an eternity, and then he felt an even greater pain. He opened his eyes and saw miniscule… things smaller than insects in front before him. He saw one group under attack by another group of things; seeing the first group had no chance against the other, larger, group he rushed to the smaller one's aid. He protected them and was mortally injured by the other things yet he knew, he just knew, the things would help him in the hour of his need. They came to him as he lay on the ground… and they walked away from him. It was in the hour of his need, when he needed them the most and they abandoned him… they betrayed him!
That was when he saw the little things turn into little demons and then swarm all over him like maggots even as they stabbed and bit all over. In revulsion, he shook them off but when he looked up, he saw the house he grew up in destroyed along with the cemetery where his parents were buried, his school, his neighborhood, and more. They were gone and in their place were the little demons desecrating his home, spitting on it and worse. Not knowing what possessed him, Kyle felt a rage beyond anything he knew and screamed and attacked the little demons again. This time he began smashing their ant hills and stomping them beneath his feet but that was when he saw one of the tiny monsters standing to protect him.
He saw the female thing and it spoke to him; she protected him and gave him comfort. At that, Kyle knelt to the ground and cupped the little thing in his hand; she would care for him in this strange world even when nobody else would. Then the little thing turned to Miki and Martin saw Godzilla holding her and it was then that he understood. The little demons were humankind even as the group that King of the Monsters saved and was betrayed by was the Lagos Garrison. Made to feel all the beast's pain, the sting of betrayal, the shame of being hunted, the pain of losing his home, and the agony of being completely alone, Kyle felt sick inside. He realized that this was how the saurian looked at humankind and he began shaking.
And then he understood and he heard the words his grandfather once wrote about the monster.
Nature has a way, sometimes, of reminding man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up the horrible offsprings of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in of a hurricane, a typhoon, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences. For now Godzilla, that strangely innocent and tragic monster, has gone to Earth. Whether he returns or not… or is never again seen by human eyes, the things he has taught us, remain.
Godzilla looked around and it was then that he was shocked to see something he hadn't seen in a long time. It was a green forest, a hot, humid, steaming jungle on a tiny island—little more than a rock sticking out of the surf—somewhere in the Pacific. (A human would have looked to a map and have said that it was between islands he or she would call Kwajilin and Liat.) Godzilla saw all this and saw a clearing filled with crushed blood stained foliage and… he saw himself! The King of the Monsters saw himself as he once was when he had just awakened weak and emaciated from the sleep of ages. Thus there was the dieing Godzillasaurus, sprawled on the ferns and grass covered in burns and open wounds. His breath rasped in his chest and he felt the blood trickle down from his mouth.
Seeing his younger self, Godzilla burned with hatred as he knew what would happen next. Clad in their khaki uniforms and holding their rifles, the humans came from the jungle, the human "friends" whom he had given everything to protect and they went there to mock him. Invisible to these shadows of the past, the King of the Monsters saw them surround his younger self with their "guns" and "flags" and treachery. After he nearly died to save them, they came to betray him! But was it so? Godzilla learned it was not so because the most terrible thing that could happen to him did. In a way that he had never even managed with Miki, he understood.
"ATTENTION!" The human in command left the circle of soldiers and went towards him before turning around to face those he led. "We deeply regret that we must leave our savior behind, we pray that he will never hold it against us in his heart."
The chief human turned to face Godzillasaurus and looked him straight in the eye. Trembling and barely able to keep a voice that shouted courage over the sound of bombs and bullets for so long, he said, "Please forgive us… but we are helpless! There is nothing that we can do."
At this Godzilla saw the humans standing around his younger self and understood what was happening. These were men who had gone to Hell and back, who had suffered things no human being should ever suffer. They had not cried when they had seen their friends die, not when they heard their parents die, not when they heard that they had failed their country and that all their sacrifices had been for nothing… and they cried now.
Tears coming from a battle wearied face, their leader, Shindo, looked to Godzilla and said, "We can't carry you, we cannot take you to safety…We hope your wounds heal quickly and that you will recover full health. We the Lagos Garrison of the Japanese Army will never forget how you saved our lives! Never…"
One human went up to his leader and bowed. "The boat's leaving. Shall we present arms?"
Shindo nodded. With that boots snapped together and the Major saluted him. The cry was sounded. "Present arms!" As one, all they whose lives Godzillasaurus had saved raised their flags and presented arms to honor the one who had saved them all.
Godzilla heard and understood; he saw the humans walk away of how they would march home with honor… and he still remembered what he had heard. "We will never forget how you saved our lives." They had not betrayed him… they…
Godzilla roared at this and the world began to dissolve around him. He couldn't believe it, humans were evil; they had to be! Humans were evil and they deserved whatever punishment meted to them! Or did they? That was when the world began to solidify around Godzilla and he saw a far grimmer scene. Everything seemed to turn black and white. He saw pain and suffering everywhere as something cruel and evil had passed through. It was a Necropolis and a wasteland of desolation. It was a scene of despair that only King Ghidorah could have wrought forth. But then he heard a voice which Kyle Martin had known for a long time.
"This is Tokyo, once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of man's imagination. Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this moment still prevails and could, at any moment, lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could have told of what they saw. Now… there were only a few."
It was King Ghidorah, nobody else would be so cruel! That was when he saw a human, his human and Miki's teacher but as a young man, bleeding and dieing as he was buried. "My name is Steve Martin, I'm a foreign correspondent for United World News. I was heading for an assignment in Cairo when I stopped by in Tokyo for a social call. But it turned out to be a visit to the living Hell of another world."
When Godzilla saw that Hell he saw, people crying and dieing and suffering. "Emergency hospitals were overflowing with the maimed and the dead. For the living, the horror of last night was over. The only thought left was the paralyzing fear that it could happen again today, or tomorrow. Anyone who had survived without serious injury was helping to repair the mass of human wreckage."
That was when Godzilla saw an innocent little child that seemed to perfectly healthy but who was in fact dieing. At first he thought that it was King Ghidorah and his Taint but when he saw the humans treating the child for radiation, he knew it wasn't the demon. Japan, when an injured Martin was a half dead man, and rife with radiation… It was he who had done that…
Sick and guilty, the King of the Monsters looked at people without arms, without legs, crying for their loved ones and screaming in pain. People burned to death or covered in bandages were there, some dieing in their own filth. Innocent humans, even children, were dieing and it was his fault. Trembling inside, Godzilla heard the voice, "For some of the victims there was hope, for others there would be no tomorrow."
That was when he saw the destruction he caused with the eyes of those who had suffered it. He saw a weeping mother look up a demon and clutched the dead bodies of her children saying, "Don't worry, we'll be with you father soon." He saw a burned, trembling, baby wailing as it clutched its mother's breast. He saw a blood soaked old man moan in the rubble, a steel beam pinning down his crushed legs. Innocent people suffering by cause of a destroyer… just as his mate and pack had been. Was this then all the humans saw in Godzilla? Was this what he had become!
With that, it all stopped. The visions were ended and both Kyle and Godzilla were back in the broken streets of Manhattan. For a time, the both of them just mutely stood there and stared at one another with empty eyes, dead to the world. No sound was made save by Miki who was on her hands and knees between them. Trembling in exhaustion, she could barely stand but stand she did and looked between the two of them as they both finally understood… as did she. All their lives, the Elias had known that the Monster Wars would one day come and had prepared for that day. For that day, they had taught Miki Segeusa, the chosen one who was to save the world and this was how it was to be done because although King Ghidorah was indeed defeated once and for all this was to be the final test for which she had prepared for all her life.
She looked to one and then the other and said, "Now the both of you know. Now you know what I've been trying to tell you for so long. I love the both of you but the things the both of you have done have broken my heart—and those of so many others—for too long. Over the course of the Monster Wars, I saw you both change for the better and for a while I thought it meant that I could change the both of you but I was wrong. It's up to you to change yourselves and you must change or else the war between men and monsters will just start over again. Both of you once stood with heroes but you both abandoned justice for vengeance when someone you loved died."
Steadying herself, Miki craned her head upwards and looked to the towering King of the Monsters. "Godzilla listen to me, you're a warrior, a fighter, and because of that you've seen death many times. Tell me then, did Gigantis's death keep you from avenging her?"
The monster's feet crashed to the ground and he roared. NO!
Miki's face was grave and haunting and filled with infinite sadness. "Now that you have avenged her, now that you have your revenge, has it brought her back? Did Ghidorah's death change anything?"
Stunned, the monster made no move as he listened to the human's question. The answer? No…
"So King Ghidorah's death didn't change anything," said the psychic. "Those deaths changed nothing. Did your own?"
Godzilla still remembered the pain and agony when he was "killed" by the oxygen destroyer and how the same bitterness and hatred that had been there afterward was there after. Did even his own change anything? …no…
With that, Miki Segeusa whipped around to face Kyle and she had the same piercing look in her eyes. She looked at him and asked, "Kyle Martin, listen to me. You have been on the front lines of war for too many years and you've seen the destruction and suffering that both sides can cause. You've seen people die like Godzilla has so tell me, did your brother's death keep you from doing everything you deemed necessary to safeguard the innocent?"
With indignation, he yelled, "NO!"
She looked at him eye to eye and asked "During the course of the Monster Wars you almost did kill Godzilla with your Toxin. If not for Kong protecting him and my pleas you would have let him die. You were close enough to know the answer so would have Godzilla's death brought back your brother; would it have changed anything?"
He looked at her and wearily said, "No."
With eyes that burned into his soul, she asked, "Would my own death have kept you from getting your precious revenge?"
He covered his face and with a voice barely more than whimper, he said, "…no…"
Miki looked to one and then the other and said to them in loud voice, "Don't either of you two get it? We were only able to beat King Ghidorah by working together but if the war between our kinds starts again, if we give in to hate, it'll just keep going until we destroy each other. You know what that means? That'll mean that Ghidorah wins."
Her voice choked up. "You know that that's not the only path, I've seen into your hearts and know it. Both of you understand, both of you let yourselves be driven by thoughts of vengeance and it caused nothing but a cycle of further vengeance. Both of you know the truth. Death isn't the answer, life is. Hate isn't the answer, love is. Then I say both of you; break the cycle, let him go…"
With that, a harsh, judgmental look came across her face, a look of condemnation. "Let each other go because if you don't… then both of you are no better than Ghidorah. Is that what you want?"
The both of them heard her and understood. Kyle Martin heard… and he fell to his knees and silently began to cry. As for Godzilla, did he understand? If he was asked, his tears would answer for him.
Malice and cruelty and wickedness… that was where the path of hatred had brought them, such hate that they was no better than Ghidorah. Both of Kyle and Godzilla knew that and the both of them felt it break their hearts. With that, the scalier one among them turned around to weakly trod the broken streets and head towards the sea. Absorbed in such remorseful thoughts, he was walking past the shattered skyscrapers of what had once been the financial district when he felt several explosions strike his side. Looking past the towers mown down to less than one hundred feet, Godzilla didn't understand; Ghidorah was dead who had done that to him. With that unobstructed view, he first looked to his smoking side and then right and left, up and down… down.
He looked down and saw the humans swarming around their weapons preparing them to fire yet again and it was not only they, but many other humans were aiming their weapons. They, the humans would betray him after he gave everything to save them? They would turn on him! Baring his fangs in anger and hatred, he let his spines flare red and let yellow electricity arc from spine to spine. He roared and a red glow and a red ionized gas came from his mouth; the humans were no different that before! He would make the human scum suffer!
All through the human camp, men and women fearfully aimed their weapons at their enemy. While the first shot may have been an unintentional one fired in panic, now that their mortal enemy showed his true colors, the humans knew he was no different than before! Even after they risked their lives to save him, he would turn on them? The fighting men and women there aimed their assault rifles and tank turrets and howitzer barrels and rocket launchers to attack. Godzilla was a freak, a monster that deserved die, wasn't he!
Both sides aimed their wrath at each other, each side unwilling to accept the existence of the other and instead choosing to fight until the other was destroyed. Or were they?
In the underground UN Base, Commander Aso looked to the images of this broadcast onto the main screen and he and Goodhue turned to face each other. For the first time in his life, the monster hunter didn't know what to do; part of him wanted to let Godzilla go but part of him did not. He looked to the floor and then up and behind him to Secretary General Santos. The king of the world looked down at him to smile and nod; with that, though it was one of the most difficult choices he would ever have to make, Aso knew what to do.
Commander Aso, punched the override codes for the communication systems on the keyboard in front of him then brought the microphone at his station to his lips. "This is Aso, I repeat, this is Aso, Supreme Commander of all Earth forces engaged against King Ghidorah or any other monster that is part of the Monster Wars."
The UN forces held their weapons tight and heard their leader's voice over the headsets in their helmets. "To all forces in the New York City theater of war, stand down. Lower your weapons and let Godzilla go."
As for the monster he saw the humans… who had struck in fear and ignorance, not malice and hatred. He on the other hand would have lashed out with loathing in his heart but no more. He closed his mouth and his spines ceased to glow because for from that day onwards, he would kill no more. As for the humans, they saw the monster… who had only reacted in self defense and with what he had done just now had done more than perhaps they would have. Obeying their orders, every last soldier there lowered his or her weapon for if there was to be more killing, it would not begin with them. Neither would attack the other and both let the other go.
Both sides walked away and as they did so, one man saw this and he couldn't understand. "I don't get it," said Kyle. "We humans… created Godzilla…and ever since, we've tried to destroy him. But then why! Why is it that after everything we've done to him, he came back to protect us?"
Miki Segeusa looked at the King of the Monsters as he walked through in between the skyscrapers; she watched from the streets where she wearily stood; she then looked to the man she loved. As the darkened night sky turned to light, as the cold of the late February night turned to warmth, she saw he was trembling and confused inside and so she put her hand on his shoulder to reassure him; she did so and he stopped shaking. "It's because deep down inside Godzilla, there was always a hero, and it was a hero that was shone through in those that gave their all in the Monster Wars. If Godzilla came, it's because he lives inside each one of us."
She and Kyle stayed in each other's arms for a time before she slipped from his grasp and walked a bit away. She still remembered that night, a year ago, that she dreamt that the Elias came before her and had told her that she was the chosen one, the one brought forth to save the world. Now Miki knew that she was the chosen one and as the one, since the world was saved and the peace was won, there was only one thing left to do. With that she stretched out her arm and held out her hand; closing her eyes, she concentrated.
As for Godzilla, he was walking past the debris of the Manhattan's Financial District towards Battery Park. Yet it was as his foot touched cold water that something happened; a strange, tiny, broken, metallic device imbedded in the back of his neck began to shake and shake as psychic energies worked around it. It was the ESP amplifier of Project Telepathy, the other Project T, that had been fired there. It shook and shook until it fell and tumbled out and with that, Godzilla gave a slight roar. He turned around to face Miki, his friend, his only friend who after everything he had done, had never stopped loving him. He turned around to face her tiny frame so far, far away to nod and then… he smiled. Segeusa saw this and smiled too. She turned around to look at Kyle who hugged her close to him and she hugged him back.
The Monster Wars were finally over but whether they watched it from their television at home or as soldiers on the front lines or on a mammoth screen in a UN Bunker, there was still one thing that bothered people, all people everywhere. While they were all indeed grateful to Godzilla for what he had done for them, they all asked themselves something. One group of people asking themselves this mystery question was the crew of Land MOGUERA.
Dwarfed by the colossal bulk of their ruined war machine, Glen, Fuji, and Captain Tomas Santos stood on their mighty tank and saw Godzilla go into Upper New York Bay. Glen paced the distance of the twisted, broken vehicle and knew they weren't going to pilot it for a long time. As he pondered that, he wondered about something. Jumping down from where he was, he landed several feet down to the metal plane his commanding officer was, balancing the while. He walked towards the captain and said, "Captain, I wanna ask you something."
Not turning around to look at him, the Secretary General's son kept his eyes focused on the King of the Monsters. "Yeah Glen, what is it?"
"It's just that… I mean, I know this is going to sound crazy but… do you, do you really think Godzilla knew he was saving us?"
Captain Santos turned around but before he could get one word in he was cut off by a voice he did not hear and could not be heard by anyone. What he heard was this.
YES YOUNG ONES. MY SON, DRACO PALADIN, KNEW THAT IN DOING BATTLE AGAINST DRACO CEREBRUS, THAT HE WOULD SAVE ALL YOUR LIVES; IN THE END, THAT REASON ABOVE ALL OTHERS WAS WHY HE FOUGHT. I AM KNOWN BY MANY NAMES, DRACO DEUS, THE GREAT DRAGON, THE GREAT TYRANNOSAUR, THE PRIME SAURIAN, LEVIATHAN, THE FATHER OF WYRMS, THE OLD SNAKE AND MORE. I SPEAK TO YOU BY MY POWER TO ANSWER THAT WHICH SO MANY OF YOU ASK: GODZILLA WAS FIGHTING TO SAVE YOU. HE FOUGHT FOR THAT AND FOR MIKI SEGEUSA, THE ONLY HUMAN THAT EVER LOVED HIM. TO YOU THEN MIKI, THANK YOU. SO PLEASE, OH INHABITERS OF THIS WORLD, IN GOD'S NAME, SHOULD EARTH LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER CENTURY, PLEASE REMEMBER WHAT GODZILLA DID FOR YOU AND FOR THIS PLANET YOU LIVE ON.