Notes: And we're back!

Shoutouts to GuardianDragon98, edboy4926, Miss Queen B, bunchofbugs, and jaeden1112 for reviewing; you guys are awesome. :)

Music for this chapter is as follows! For the flashback scene: "Black Blade," by Two Steps From Hell. For the present-day scenes: "Rodan," from the Godzilla KOTM soundtrack, and "Category 5," from the Pacific Rim soundtrack.

I've also made a playlist on YouTube with all the songs that I've been using as my personal "theme music" for this story so far! I'll post that link on my profile, so you guys can check it out if you'd like: I'll be adding more songs to it with each new chapter as I finish them.

Now, then: let's get this chapter underway!

Chapter 4: Fire and Thunder

From the beginning, his life had been filled with challenges. Born in a nest inside a boiling volcano, he had been forced to grow up fast, according to the lifestyle of his kind. Luckily, he and his sister were very close growing up, sharing everything with each other. When they finally reached young adulthood and left their parents' nest, they even staked out a new territory together, hunting and fighting side-by-side as they grew older and stronger. But nothing lasts forever; eventually, he and his sister became too large to share the same volcano, and they were forced to split up and find their own separate homes.

Over time, however, he made other friends: a friendly spike-shell, a kind-hearted Great-Moth, and a proud but protective sea-dragon. The four of them were merely acquaintances at first, until they were brought together by a common enemy... the three-headed one, the terror from beyond the sky, which sought to gain dominion over their entire world. But the four of them refused to submit: they stood together and fought as one to defend their home, forcing the monster from the stars to retreat before their combined might. That first battle cemented a bond between the four of them, forging a pact of friendship that should have lasted forever.

For many years, they lived and fought together, repelling the Enemy's invasions time and time again. They all grew closer, becoming a rather unconventional "family" of sorts, and worked together to keep their world safe and peaceful.

But again, sadly, nothing lasts forever. And on one dark and terrible night... everything went wrong.

Thousands of years ago…

Thunder boomed, lightning flashed, and rain poured down as the storm continued to hammer the tropical island. Parts of the forest were burning, but the rain was already in the process of snuffing out those flames. Luckily there were no humans living in the area, but any who had been here would have fled long ago. For echoing out over the sounds of nature's wrath were the roars and cries of clashing monsters, as three gigantic creatures battled amid the wind and rain.

Rodan banked hard to the left and winced as a bolt of golden lightning arced past him, barely missing one of his wings. He continued dodging and weaving through the sky, narrowly avoiding several more blasts as he swooped low over the surface of the island. The wind of his passing flattened a hundred trees in seconds, cutting a swathe through the forest below. Damn it, damn it, damn it! he thought to himself, his mind racing as he flared out his wings and veered to one side, just in time to evade a pair of lightning blasts that slammed into a nearby mountain instead.

This fight had been going badly right from the start. Unlike his past experiences with the enemy that was currently pursuing him, this time his strongest allies, the King and the Queen, had been absent when their nemesis had arrived, forcing him and his partner to fight alone. While Rodan and his partner had been holding their own at the beginning of the fight, their enemy had quickly turned the tables and gained the upper hand.

"Come on!" a voice yelled from behind him, ringing out over the background noise of the thunder. "Stop running and face us, you little coward!" The Golden One's right head laughed wildly and unleashed another burst of lightning, this one sizzling past Rodan's head and nearly scoring a hit.

Rodan snarled and accelerated, hating that he was running but not having any better options. One-on-one, he was no match for the Golden One in a straight-up fight; his best chance was to keep one step ahead of them. Unfortunately, they'd managed to get above him, hemming him in against the ground and preventing him from gaining a height advantage. In a straight line, he could fly faster than they could, but that wasn't an option right now since he had to keep swerving and diving to avoid their deadly beams. The pouring rain wasn't helping either, as while the water evaporated on contact with his superheated scales, it meant that he was constantly producing clouds of steam which made it harder for him to see clearly.

Putting on an additional burst of speed, Rodan suddenly flared his wings out and slammed them down, propelling himself straight up in the air with a thunderclap that scattered the surrounding rain. He was aiming for the dense clouds above them, as he might be able to lose the Golden One in there and buy himself some extra time. If he could keep them busy for long enough, the King and Queen should be able to reach them and add their strength to the fight.

This time, however, luck was not on his side. By flying straight up in the air, Rodan had abandoned the cover of the island's mountains and forests, and this time the Golden One did not miss. The right and left heads' beams crackled past on either side of him, cutting off his escape routes… and then the central head's blast hit him square in the back.

Screeching in pain, Rodan flung out his wings and tried to slow himself down as he was sent spinning towards the ground, his muscles struggling to respond as the electricity crackled through them. He almost managed to regain his balance and peel out of his uncontrolled dive, until the Golden One sideswiped him, both of their spiked tails cracking like whips and smashing into his left wing. Bones splintered with an agonizing snap, and Rodan howled in pain as he lost control entirely and tumbled to the ground. At the last second, he managed to flare out his wings enough to avoid a head-on impact, turning it into a sliding crash instead, but he was still sent tumbling head-over-heels through the island's forest, bringing down hundreds of trees before he finally skidded to a halt.

Coughing and wheezing as he tried to get his breath back, Rodan forced his battered body into motion, rolling over and pushing himself back up. His left wing was definitely broken: it wasn't working properly and just hung limply at his side, and it sent bolts of pain through his body every time he tried to move it.

"Damn it…" he hissed, before a triumphant trio of cackles drew his attention back to his enemy. The Golden One descended slowly to the ground opposite him, flapping their massive wings several times to slow down before landing with an impact that shook the earth. All three heads were grinning, savoring the moment. Rodan scrambled to his feet and flared out his uninjured wing with a shrieking cry of defiance, but a quickly-charged electric bolt from the right head forced him to hop awkwardly backwards as it hit the ground at his feet. Stumbling and nearly falling, he braced himself with his good wing, glaring at his monstrous enemy.

"You've put up a valiant effort, little fire-wing," the middle head called out, his usual condescending smirk firmly in place. "But you never really had a chance against us. Without your Lizard King and his little Queen backing you up, you're nothing special." His smirk widened, and the other two heads' mouths began to crackle with electricity as they charged up another pair of beams. "Now, then… let's finish you off before –"

That was when a high-pitched, honking roar cut through the storm, immediately followed by a rumbling noise that had nothing to do with the thunder overhead. All three pairs of the Golden One's eyes widened in alarm, just before a massive, rounded object – like a mountain-sized boulder covered in pointed spikes – bounced directly over Rodan's head and hit them squarely in the chest. The colossal impact knocked the Golden One flat on their back, splintering the scales on their chest and stomach; all three heads were left coughing and hacking, the wind temporarily knocked out of them. Rodan distinctly heard the right head roaring something along the lines of "That goddamn cheap-shotting son of a…!"

Rebounding backwards and crashing to the ground in front of Rodan, the "boulder" promptly unrolled itself and rose to its feet, its back shielded by an armored shell covered in sharp, pointed spikes. Four powerful legs ending in clawed feet dug into the ground, as a long, muscular tail waved back and forth, ending in a lethal-looking club of bone that was also adorned with several protruding spikes. Glowing green eyes flashed in the darkness of the storm, set below a crest of spikes and above a powerful beaked snout that was tipped by a single upward-curving horn.

Rodan exhaled heavily. "Anguirus," he sighed in relief. "The hell took you so long?"

"Hey, I got bitch-slapped into a mountain; what's your excuse?" Anguirus quipped, flashing a grin over his shoulder. As always, Rodan felt a momentary surge of warmth in his heart that had nothing to do with his own fire; all it took was that carefree, easygoing smile from his partner, and suddenly his usual pessimism melted away. Even right now, despite the danger that they were in, that smile still made him feel a little better.

Honestly, he was pretty sure the spike-shelled Kaiju was some kind of a miracle. No matter how hard things got, no matter how bleak the situation was, Anguirus could always be counted on to find the positives, and he would never give up no matter what.

There's no way I deserve him.

"Oh, come on, they didn't hit you that hard," Rodan snorted as he clambered back up, shaking himself off and wincing at the pain from his wing.

Anguirus laughed briefly, before his attitude became noticeably more tense as he turned back to face the Golden One, who was in the process of picking themselves up. "This isn't going well," he muttered. "We might wanna start thinking about getting out of here. Can you still fly?"

"That's an understatement," Rodan snarked. He tried to spread out his injured wing, but winced again as another jolt of pain shot through him. "I don't know," he admitted. "I think my wing's broken; I won't be able to fly very far like this."

Anguirus sighed. "Well, that sucks. Guess we've just gotta hope Goji and Mosura get back here soon, then." His eyes narrowed and he let out another honking roar as Ghidorah hauled themselves back to their feet.

"You know, it's almost impressive," the middle head growled, his usual composure having been broken by Anguirus's sucker-punch attack. "Even on your own, you two are proving to be just as irritating as when we're dealing with all four of you."

"To hell with all of this crap," the right head spat, his eyes blazing with hatred as he glowered at Anguirus. "I say we put an end to them both right now."

The left head appeared to be a little more nervous than his brothers, but he also looked annoyed by the resistance that Anguirus and Rodan had displayed. Even without the King and Queen to help them, they had been able to hold off the Golden One for the better part of an hour. Unfortunately, with Rodan grounded and injured, the tag-team strategy that they'd been employing so far wasn't going to work anymore.

"Stay behind me," Anguirus ordered Rodan in a low voice. "I'll take 'em up-close; you watch my back. And make as much noise as you can while you're doin' that; if Goji and Mosura are anywhere near here by now, we want them to know exactly where we are." He shot another brief glance back at his partner, his usual cheerful grin resurfacing for a moment. "Got it?"

Rodan's eyes widened and he felt a growing rush of dread at the prospect of Anguirus fighting the Golden One alone… but under the current circumstances, it seemed to be their only choice. He certainly wasn't going to be able to do much against Ghidorah like this. "…Okay," he conceded reluctantly. "Just… be careful."

Anguirus's grin widened for a moment. "Hey, relax," he reassured Rodan. "It's me we're talking about. I'm the king of careful." Swinging back around, he glared defiantly at the Golden One, his eyes burning green. "C'mon, then, you bastards!" he barked. "I'm not scared of you!"

The middle head chuckled darkly, his eyes glittering with malice. "Oh, we'll see about that," he intoned. "But fearful or not, your fate will be the same."

Both Kaijus sprang into motion at the same moment, as a deafening clap of thunder and a brilliant bolt of lightning split the darkened sky. Ghidorah thundered forwards, leading with a swipe of one wing, but Anguirus ducked under it and put all his weight into a shoulder-charge that knocked the Golden One back on their heels. Spinning around to intercept a strike from the right head, he smacked it aside with a swing of his own head, then lunged up, opening his mouth as wide as possible, and clamped his jaws down on the right head's neck, just below the head.

The right head screeched in pain; while Anguirus might not have the mouth of a predator, like Rodan or the King, his jaws were certainly still powerful enough to do some serious damage. The hard "beak" at the front of his jaws crunched deep into Ghidorah's scales, and he hung on like a bulldog, shaking his head back and forth as he tried to make the damage worse.

"Ni!" the left head cried out, his eyes widening in alarm. He reared back and struck, trying to grab Anguirus by the base of his tail so he could pull the spike-shell away from his brother, but Anguirus reacted faster. Leaning forwards, he swung his tail up high into the air just as the left head lunged in, and then brought it crashing down with all of his strength. The solid, bony club at the end landed two staggering blows, one with each swing: the upward strike stunned the left head for a moment and knocked out several of his teeth, before the downward strike cracked his skull and almost caved in the top of his head, smashing him down into the dirt. He was knocked completely senseless by the force of the impact, slumping limply and letting out soft gurgling sounds.

Both of Ghidorah's other heads shrieked as they felt the impacts through their telepathic bond, the right head in pain and the middle one in fury. The right head was squirming frantically as he tried to escape, bursts of lightning spraying wildly from his jaws, but Anguirus was grappling that neck with his front legs to keep him pinned down, the spike-shell's beaked mouth digging deeper into the Golden One's hide and drawing trickles of black blood.

Rodan felt a surge of hope in that moment: he honestly hadn't believed that they could win, but it seemed like his partner was actually launching a successful attack! He prepared to let out a piercing cry of his own, as another signal in case the King and Queen were getting closer… but then his eyes widened in horror and his signal call came out instead as a desperate screech of "Anguirus, behind you!"

Unfortunately, the warning came too late. While his brothers had been hasty in their attacks and had been unsuccessful, Ghidorah's middle head had been biding his time and waiting patiently for their attacks to force an opening in Anguirus's nearly-impenetrable defenses. And now that Anguirus's deadly tail was occupied in dealing with the left head, and the spike-shell was fully preoccupied by struggling to keep control of the right head, his neck was vulnerable.

In an instant, the middle head struck down and his jaws clamped onto the side of Anguirus's neck, one of the few points on the spike-shell's body that weren't shielded by his natural armor. Ghidorah's fangs sank into the tough hide; Anguirus snarled in pain, but refused to relinquish his death-grip on the right head's neck. Unfortunately, this left him open to an additional attack, as Ghidorah swung one of their legs up and latched onto Anguirus's tail with one grasping foot. Their claws dug in, seizing his tail in a vice-grap and preventing him from using it effectively.

As Anguirus struggled desperately to free himself, Ghidorah's wings flared out and started flapping, slowly lifting both Kaijus off the ground. The left head and neck still hung limp, although he was starting to regain consciousness, and the right head was still struggling to free himself from Anguirus's death-grip, but the middle head was still in control of the Golden One's body and was able to keep them on course.

Rodan had started rushing forwards, moving as quickly as he could, but with his broken wing slowing him down, he wasn't fast enough to keep Ghidorah from taking to the air. Driving the pain down, he forced both of his own wings out and started desperately flapping, ignoring the agony that seared through his injured wing with each beat. His flight was slow and painful, but he managed to rise off the ground and began chasing them up towards the swirling clouds overhead. Lightning crackled around him, but he ignored it, focused entirely on Ghidorah and Anguirus.

Anguirus, for his part, was latched on for dear life and refusing to let go. The middle head had been forced to let go of his neck and focus on flying, while the right head was now choking and desperately trying to throw him off. The left head was waking up, the damage to his skull slowly repairing itself, but he still wasn't at 100% yet.

"Hey!" Rodan screeched, flapping his wings harder as he chased up after the struggling pair. "Put him down, right now!"

The middle head, even through the immense strain that he was clearly experiencing, still managed a harsh chuckle as his glowing red eyes shone down at Rodan through the darkness. "Quite a poor choice of words, little spitfire," he commented, his cruel smirk growing wider. "But if you say so..."

Before Rodan had any chance of overtaking them, Ghidorah lifted their other foot and slammed it down on the back of Anguirus's neck with all of their strength, wrapping that foot's talons around Anguirus's neck. His spikes punctured the bottom of their foot, but they didn't care.

The strike also wrenched Anguirus's neck painfully into an unnatural position, tearing his beaked mouth free of the right head's neck. A deep gash had been opened in the side of the right neck, with black blood spilling out, but it wasn't deep enough to disable or sever that head. The neck twisted free of Anguirus's front paws as well, so that now he was only being held aloft by Ghidorah's feet, with their grips on his neck and his tail.

Rodan realized what was about to happen a moment before it did. "No," he breathed, his eyes widening in horror, but he was too far away to stop it.

Ghidorah opened their claws, and Anguirus fell. And as he fell, rolling over and plummeting towards the ground, all three heads unleashed a combined blast of lightning that struck his softer, less-armored belly, crackling over his body and searing into his flesh as it propelled him downwards, trailing an echoing howl of pain.

Rodan barely even realized that he too was screaming; it didn't really register in his mind. All he was aware of was that he'd instinctively shifted into a dive, plunging through the sky after Anguirus in a desperate attempt to catch him, to slow his fall, to do something, before he could hit the ground. But he was too far away, and the injured wing made him too slow, and the ground was coming up too fast…

And he was too late.

Anguirus slammed into the ground with the force of a bomb, generating a thunderous explosion of dust and shattered rock. A rippling shockwave blasted outwards in all directions, sweeping across the entire island, as fissures opened up in the earth itself.

Rodan barely managed to pull up in time to avoid crashing headfirst into the ground himself. As soon as he saw Anguirus hit the ground, however, his thoughts had shifted from overpowering terror to pure, unthinking rage. Suddenly, his broken wing, and the other wounds that he'd taken so far, felt like nothing. A searing, burning heat filled his entire body, and he shrieked out a challenge as he slammed his wings down and propelled himself back up towards Ghidorah.

But the Golden One was ready for him, and the right and left heads had now been given the moments they'd needed to recover, at least in part, from the damage that Anguirus had inflicted on them. Once again, all three necks lit up with their baleful golden glow, and lightning blasted from all three mouths. And with no time to dodge or deflect the attack, he took all three beams directly in the chest.

The world turned gold, and then white, as every nerve and muscle in Rodan's body erupted simultaneously with a crackling electric agony. His beak hung open in a silent scream, the sound now just echoing in his own head. He was barely even aware of himself as he seized up, plummeted limply back to earth, and crashed into the ground.

When he feebly regained consciousness, he found himself lying flat on his back, near the edge of the crater that Anguirus's impact had smashed into the island. Overhead, the Golden One was descending leisurely towards their broken bodies, now supremely confident in their victory.

"Well, now," the middle head purred. "It seems that we're finally done here. To be quite honest, I'm surprised that you two weaklings managed to last as long as you did against us without your precious King and Queen protecting you. But perhaps you may be able to take solace in the fact that you shall die together." He shrugged, chuckling softly. "Or perhaps not. It doesn't concern us either way."

Electricity began crackling in Ghidorah's right and left mouths again as they prepared to deal the finishing blow. "And on that note… farewell," the middle head declared, as he began charging up his own blast.

And then, suddenly, the darkened sky above them burst asunder with a brilliant flash of light. All three of Ghidorah's heads screeched in pain as they were blinded and dazzled by the searing glare, their charging blasts forgotten. A moment later, they shrieked in renewed pain as a sizzling beam of blue-white fire hit them squarely in the chest, burning into their scales and knocking them backwards through the air. A pair of furious cries – a deep, thunderous roar and a high-pitched trill – cut through the thunder, as the blazing blue light hurled back the darkness of the storm.

That was when Rodan's vision finally faded to black, his head slumping back against the ground as he lost consciousness.

Rodan was awakened by the sensation of a gentle warmth flowing through his body, as if he was lowering himself slowly into a warm pool of lava. His eyes flickered open for a moment, but all he saw was a soft blue light before they drifted closed again. For a moment he couldn't remember where he was or what had happened, so he slumped back to the ground and sighed in relief as he felt the pain fading away, his injuries slowly mending themselves as his body began to heal.

"It's okay, Rodan," the Queen's voice murmured as a gentle shower of glowing particles rained down over his body again. "Just let yourself rest, all right? I'm healing you, but it's going to take a few minutes before you'll be fully recovered." She was crouching next to him, holding her wings out over his fallen form as she let a gentle cloud of healing scales rain down onto him. Her voice was unusually shaky, and it sounded like she was trying to keep herself from crying.

Rodan frowned, still dazed but feeling better with each passing second as the fuzziness in his head slowly melted away. "What… what's wrong?" he murmured, still trying to remember how he'd ended up in this position. "What happened? And… Gojira… Anguirus? Where are they?"

"They…" The Queen trailed off for a moment, a brief, choking sob echoing in his ears as she tried to compose herself. "Rodan… there wasn't anything we could do. I tried, but he… he didn't…" She sobbed quietly again, her wings trembling as she let a final shower of healing particles drift down onto him. "I… I'm so sorry…"

And then Rodan remembered where he was and what had happened, and all of his confusion and dizziness vanished in that single moment of horrified realization. Ignoring the Queen's plea of "Wait, no, you're not fully healed yet!" as she tried to keep him still, he rolled over and looked up… and his heart froze in his chest.

The King was crouching in the nearby crater, down on one knee and digging his claws into the earth. His spines were dark, their usual blue glow almost completely absent, and his eyes were tightly shut, with visible tears leaking from them.

But Rodan's attention was focused entirely on what lay next to him: the crumpled, motionless body of Anguirus.

"No…" he breathed, his voice trembling even as he began dragging himself towards the body. No, no, no, no… Scrambling to his partner's side, he started pushing at Anguirus's chest and side, trying to roll him back and forth to wake him up. "Anguirus? Anguirus! C'mon, buddy, wake up!" His voice cracked, his body shaking as he desperately shook the body more forcefully. "Seriously, this isn't funny! Wake up!"

"Rodan!" the King's deep voice growled. The Alpha tones of that call cut through the haze of shock and desperation in Rodan's head, snapping him back to clarity; he felt a sick, twisting sensation in his gut, and his heart sank as the reality of the situation slowly set in.

"Anguirus…?" he whispered. He tentatively reached out, brushing his claws against the spike-shelled Kaiju's face, but there was no response. He strained his senses as much as he could, leaning in and resting his head on Anguirus's chest for a moment, but there was nothing: no sounds of breathing or of a heartbeat, no energy radiating from the body.

Still. Cold. Lifeless.

Gone.

Rodan stared at his companion's lifeless face for a full, unrelenting minute, without moving or blinking. Then he threw his head back and howled into the sky, shrieking at the top of his lungs as his whole body ignited in a hellish blaze of orange fire. His voice rang out into the night: a scream of utter, heartbreaking loss, shot through with despair and rage. The cry carried for miles, echoing again and again through the cold night air.

As Rodan's scream finally died down, the fire-wing's flames evaporated as well, and he collapsed forwards onto Anguirus's body, wrapping his wings around the fallen spike-shell and hugging him close. Hot, angry tears leaked from his eyes and promptly evaporated in the searing heat that his body was generating, reduced to wisps of quickly-dissipating steam. His cry of pain and sorrow trailed off into a series of quiet, racking sobs, his body shaking as he buried his head against Anguirus's chest.

Rodan honestly had no idea how long he lay there, slumped over his partner's body and lost in an all-consuming fog of grief and pain. Finally, however, he slowly came back to himself… and, slowly but surely, his pain shifted and transformed into a slowly-growing anger. His head slowly lifted back up, the yellow light in his eyes growing darker as his gaze slowly locked on the King and Queen, who were now standing together and watching him from a few paces away.

"You did this," he hissed, his voice low and cold.

The Queen inhaled sharply and looked like she'd just been punched in the face, while the King's eyes flashed with indignation and a deep growl rumbled in his throat. "What the hell are you talking about?!" he snapped. "Have you completely lost your mind? We didn't do this!"

"You might as well have!" Rodan spat, his eyes suddenly blazing. "You two ran off on your little couple's vacation and left us here to fight that monster all by ourselves, and now Anguirus is dead!" His voice cracked on that last word, but the rage in his eyes never flickered as his gaze shifted over to the Queen. "And why the hell didn't you save him?" he demanded. "You saved me! You could have saved him instead, but you just left him to die!"

The Queen flinched, her expression pained and conflicted, but the King's eyes flashed with anger. "Watch your mouth!" he ordered, taking a step forwards and placing himself between Rodan and his mate. "It wasn't her fault, and you know it! There was nothing she could have done for him." His eyes flicked down to Anguirus's motionless form, and his posture sagged slightly: it was clear that the loss of their friend was just as devastating to him as it was to the others. "There was nothing any of us could have done."

In that moment, however, Rodan didn't even notice, and he couldn't have cared less. "Bullshit," he spat, his eyes blazing as his flames flared up more intensely. "You're always the ones saying how important it is for us to stick together and help each other, but when we really needed you – when he needed you…" He felt another shock of pain twisting in his gut, but he refused to look down at the body again, and bit out his next words with an almost-visceral effort. "You. Weren't. Here." He laughed, a harsh and bitter cawing sound that was almost like the rasping squawk of a crow. "Not that I'm surprised. You two have been putting each other ahead of everyone else for thousands of years; why should he and I be any different?"

The King's eyes blazed, a deep growl rumbled in his throat, and he almost took another step forward, but the Queen flared out a wing to block his path. "Rodan…" she murmured, her voice filled with pain and regret as she met his gaze. "I'm sorry. If I could have saved him too, I would have. I promise you." She looked down. "But… I only had enough time to save one of you, and he–"

"Then you should have saved him!" Rodan hissed, an additional surge of rage and pain almost choking him. The Queen flinched back as if his words had been a slap, and the King snarled under his breath as he moved closer to her protectively.

Rodan couldn't take it anymore. The anger in the King's eyes, the guilt and sadness in the Queen's, the grief radiating from all three of them, the sight of the Kaiju that he cared about more than anyone else in the world lying dead at his feet… all of it was suffocating him.

"I'm done," he declared flatly. "I'm done with all of this. The fighting, the Golden One, this whole damn war… I'm done. You two can get yourselves killed on your own time; I won't be a part of it anymore." Swinging around, he flared out his wings in preparation for takeoff, before sending one last parting shot over his shoulder as he indicated Anguirus's body with a swipe of one wing. "And you'd better make sure he gets a proper burial. Considering that you two just let him die, that's the least you can do for him now."

Without waiting to hear anything they might have to say in response to that, he took a few quick, bounding hops and leapt into the air, his now fully-healed wings catching the air and propelling him aloft. Soaring quickly away from the island, he rapidly accelerated as he raced out over the ocean, producing a sonic boom as he reached top speed.

But however far and however fast he flew, he already knew that there was no escape from the grief and pain that were tearing his heart to pieces.

After parting ways with the King and Queen, the grieving fire-wing flew far and wide across the world, trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and the site of his closest comrade's death. He avoided all signs of the Golden One as well, not wanting to risk facing that monster in battle again now that he no longer had anyone else to help him. He kept mostly to the empty, barren wastelands, the most expansive deserts and the most inhospitable mountains, trying to stay away from other Kaiju as much as he could. The hostile ones saw him as a threat, and most of the ones who were friendly just reminded him of everything that he had lost, so he preferred to be alone.

Over time, however, he grew tired of wandering. The planet's climate was changing, gradually growing colder with each passing year, and many of the other Kaiju began going into hibernation or retreating down to the Underworld as a result. For a creature like him, who preferred hot and tropical weather, this spreading chill was quite unpleasant for him, and he wasn't interested in moving down to the Underworld since there weren't any open skies down there. So instead of seeking out lonely places where he could lose himself, he began searching for someplace where he could go into hibernation, a secluded hiding place where he could sleep without being threatened or disturbed.

Finally, after spending quite some time wandering the barren places of the world, he found a new place to call home: a burning volcano, located on a small island surrounded by warm, tropical waters. This seemed like a suitable home for him: no other Kaiju lived on the island or in the waters surrounding it, but it was the perfect spot for a fire-wing to nest. A small village of humans dwelled upon it, but they were of no concern to him… not anymore, at least.

Landing atop the volcano, he tore away the rocks at the top of the cone, widening the opening enough for him to climb inside. Wrapping his wings around himself like a protective cocoon, he sank slowly into the bubbling lava inside, his glowing yellow eyes closing as his head disappeared beneath the pool of molten rock. Allowing himself to sink deeper into the caldera of the volcano, he settled in and let his body relax as he slipped into a hibernation trance. In this state, a Kaiju could sleep for thousands of years without suffering any ill effects, which meant that he would not need to awaken again for several millennia.

After everything that he had been through, that was fine with him.

If no one had seen the fire-wing take up residence in that volcano, he might have slept there for countless millennia until all traces of his presence were forgotten. But his arrival on the island, and his occupancy of the volcano, had been seen, by the humans living on the shores below the great mountain. They renamed the volcano, calling it the Demon's Nest after the great burning monster that now dwelled within it, and told fearful stories to their children of what might happen if that monster ever awakened.

Those humans never did anything that might disturb the demon's slumber, of course… but thousands of years later, other humans began to arrive. And one particular group of them knew full well what was sleeping in the volcano. They set up an observation station atop the volcano, designed to study and monitor the sleeping demon without awakening him, which functioned as they'd planned for many years. The humans believed that they had the situation under control.

Until one day, an artificially-generated Alpha Kaiju call echoed over the speakers of the humans' containment facility... and the demon within the mountain began to stir.

Now…

"Awaken."

The distant voice filtered through Rodan's sleeping mind, bringing him slowly back to awareness. His wings twitched, his claws clenched and flexed, and his eyes shifted beneath their lids as his dreams faded away.

"Awaken," the voice repeated. While normally he would have ignored it, something about it, a deeper quality that went beyond mere sound, sent a surge of adrenaline down his spine, sparking him into consciousness.

Groaning softly, he reached up and rubbed his head with the claws on his left wing. "All right, all right, I'm awake," he muttered under his breath. He dipped his head under the surface of the lava again, trying to use the bubbling heat to soothe his growing headache. It worked for a moment, but then another echoing call pulsed through the rock around him, followed by another and another, each one sending another jolt through his mind.

"Awaken. Awaken. Awaken."

"All right, already!" Rodan snapped, letting out a piercing screech to express his annoyance. "I'm awake! You can shut up now!" Being awakened rather abruptly and painfully hadn't done much for his mood.

As he looked up, searching for the source of the voice, he blinked curiously and frowned as he tilted his head to one side. For some reason, the top of the volcano wasn't open anymore, as it had been when he'd taken up residence here and gone into hibernation: instead, it was somehow closed up now, blocking out the daylight and leaving him in darkness except for the deep orange glow of the lava. It almost looked like some kind of lid had been placed over the opening of the cone, like how humans built roofs on the wood or stone nests that they lived in.

"Weird…" Rodan muttered, shaking his head back and forth to clear his head, before shrugging it off. Eh, doesn't really matter where it came from. All that matters is that if I'm gonna get out of here, that thing needs to go. Reaching up with one wing, he pushed lightly against the lid, trying to lift it up, but it was firmly lodged in place. All right, then… His gleaming yellow eyes narrowed, and he clenched the claws on his wings into makeshift fists and began slamming them upwards into the lid.

Fortunately, while the lid seemed to be made of metal, it wasn't too durable. A few solid blows caused it to bend upwards, the metal buckling and giving way, until it was on the verge of failing. The lava around his body was churning more and more violently as his movements and the growing heat from his body stirred it up.

"One more oughtta do it…" Rodan murmured to himself. He grinned, winding up, and smashed another rising blow up into the lid with his full strength behind it. This time, the lid gave way and exploded upwards, accompanied by a massive plume of fire and ash as the heat and pressure that had been rapidly building up were suddenly unleashed. The entire top of the volcano burst open, unleashing a shockwave that rippled outwards in all directions.

There we go! Yawning, Rodan reached up and grasped the edge of the crater with one set of wing-claws, digging them into the rock. The other wing followed suit, and he pulled, hauling himself slowly up out of the volcano and into the daylight. His wings unfolded as he climbed up onto the top of the mountain, stretching his limbs out to loosen up his muscles after his long sleep. Throwing back his head and flinging out his wings, he greeted the sun with a loud, echoing roar.

As he took in his surroundings, he frowned when he saw no sign of any other Kaiju in the area. The voice that had woken him up had certainly sounded like another Kaiju, but there didn't seem to be anyone else around. The only signs of life on the island came from the human village down near the water, which seemed to have gotten significantly bigger while he'd been asleep.

So where the hell was that voice coming from, and who was it? Rodan wondered, before shrugging it off. Eh, doesn't really matter, I guess. If whoever it was wants to talk to me now that I'm awake, they obviously know where to find me. Standing up to his full height, he stretched out his wings and legs one at a time, loosening up his muscles after all the time he'd spent sleeping in the volcano. He could tell that he had been hibernating for quite a long time, thousands of years at least, as the gnawing hunger in his belly indicated that he needed food. Fortunately, the radiation emanating from the volcano beneath him had been more than sufficient to keep his energy levels well-supplied during his long sleep, but radiation didn't completely fill a Kaiju's stomach, and he would need physical food as well.

"Well, might as well go find something… maybe a whale or two, something like that," Rodan murmured to himself. As he stretched out his neck and yawned, however, a strange sound in the distance drew his attention, and he noticed something unusual nearby: a large flying creature of some kind, flying slowly towards the island. He tensed up for a moment when he saw the creature's sleek black wings, briefly mistaking it for a male Jinshin-Mushi, before he realized that no, this was something different. There were no long, trailing limbs extending from this creature's underside, and its wings were rigid and inflexible, not flapping at all. Maybe it was some kind of glider? He knew of a couple of species that could do that – the Nozuki, the flying serpents that lived down in the Underworld, and a type of large lizard Kaiju which used a membrane stretched between their front and hind legs to glide on the wind – but this thing didn't look anything like those creatures did.

This strange flyer also appeared to be accompanied by a dozen or so smaller flying creatures that soared around it, perhaps juveniles of the same species. Several of those smaller flyers suddenly accelerated forwards, flying directly towards Rodan. He watched their approach with some interest, particularly when what looked like several small projectiles popped out of their wings and shot towards him as the small flyers abruptly veered off course and banked away from him. Weird… what the hell are –? Rodan's curious thoughts were abruptly cut off as the strange projectiles hit him in the chest and stomach… and exploded. Like some kind of explosive stinger, they burst into fireballs that exploded violently against his torso, rocking him back on his heels.

They didn't do much damage, of course: Rodan's armored scales could withstand the heat of molten lava with no difficulties whatsoever. But they did sting a bit, and that – as well as the sheer annoyance of being attacked by such small creatures in the first place – pissed him off. His eyes narrowed and focused on the larger flyer, as the smaller ones that had attacked him flew back towards it and a few others soared in to launch their own attack.

Now this was starting to make sense to him. Maybe this larger flyer was the creature that had awakened him? Perhaps it had come here to challenge him, wanting to drive him out of this place so it could feed on the radiation from his volcano? And the smaller flyers, perhaps its young, were fighting on their parent's behalf?

If so, this creature was an idiot. Although it was still some distance away, he could easily tell that it was significantly smaller than he was, and yet it had still chosen to challenge him. That was something he wasn't inclined to forgive.

"Okay, then," he growled as another wave of exploding stingers detonated against his hide. Snapping at one of the smaller flyers as it shot past him, he fixed his gaze on the larger one, which suddenly banked into a turn away from him. "You want a fight? You've got one." Snarling, he stepped up to the edge of the crater, flared out his wings, and leapt into the air. His wings caught the wind for the first time in millennia, and he accelerated as he swept down the slope of the mountain. Already he could feel the wind rushing behind him like a bow wave, sweeping over the human village and razing it to the ground. He felt a little bad about that for a moment, as back in the old days he'd tried to avoid doing that kind of damage to human cities since the Queen would always get mad at him for it, but he shook his head and focused back on the business at hand.

Nobody challenges me for my turf and gets away with it.

Bursting up through the low-hanging layer of clouds with a challenging roar, Rodan quickly zeroed in on the strange, dark flyer. Possibly having realized the foolishness of its challenge, it was fleeing across the top of the clouds, its smaller attendants flying in formation around it. As he accelerated after them, however, the smaller flyers looped back and accelerated back towards him, as if trying to intercept him.

Rodan snorted. Good luck with that. Another volley of explosive stingers leapt forth from the smaller flyers, but he ignored the minor stings of their impacts and waited for the right moment. He angled himself slightly upwards, so that he would pass just above the small flyers, and as soon as some of them were beneath him, he drew his wings up and clapped them together as hard as he could, with so much force that it released another shockwave and slapped three of the small flyers right out of the sky. The force also propelled him straight up, gaining a thousand feet or more in seconds; from that higher vantage point, he angled himself and dove back towards them, screaming down like an eagle targeting a flock of sparrows. Snatching one of the little flyers with each taloned foot, he crushed them both with a single, effortless squeeze, snapping his beak at one of them even as it blew apart and exploded.

That dive had brought him a little too close to the ocean; one of his wingtips brushed the water, sending up a burst of seaspray, but he ignored it as he closed in on one of the remaining small flyers. Several of the others fired more of their stinging projectiles at him again, but he ignored them, focused on this particular individual. His beak gaped open, snapping at its tail, until suddenly its head burst open and a smaller object shot up and out into the open air. Instinctively, he snapped at that instead, catching and swallowing it in an instant. He didn't get much out of it, as it was so small that he hadn't even really tasted it, but he was fairly sure it had been… a human? Were these flyers somehow being ridden by humans? He'd certainly never heard of anything like that before.

"Weirder and weirder," he muttered, shaking his head and continuing the chase. He took a snap at another of the small flyers as it came near his head, but it nimbly rolled to one side and out of reach. That, however, gave him an idea, and his beak curved in a grin. Nice trick, he thought to himself with some amusement.

My turn.

Spinning in the air, Rodan duplicated the agile barrel-roll that the small flyer had employed, his wings sweeping through the air and leaving trails of flame behind them as if he was trying to drill a hole in the sky. The remaining small flyers were caught completely off-guard; his wings swatted each and every one of them like bugs, smashing them to pieces and sending them all tumbling towards the sea below. By the time he'd finished making about half a dozen spins, all of them were gone.

"And that's the end of that!" Rodan called out with a laugh as he pulled out of his roll, driving his wings down and sending up clouds of steam as they dipped into the ocean. He hissed in pain at the sensation of water enveloping his wings – being immersed in water was usually painful for him as it quenched his flames, which was why he usually opted for a dust or sand bath instead when he needed to clean himself up – but shook it off and focused back on his last opponent, the large flyer. Presumably having noticed the loss of its attendants/offspring, it was currently accelerating directly into an approaching stormfront, probably trying to lose him in the clouds.

"Nice try!" Accelerating back to top speed as he rose up and away from the water, Rodan raced after his fleeing challenger, his eyes narrowing as he prepared for the final strike. He had no intention of letting this creature escape; he was going to finish this quickly and decisively, so he wouldn't have to worry about this thing trying to challenge him or raid his territory again in the future.

The dark flyer was barreling straight into the storm, so he went in after it, weaving through the thickening clouds and matching its every move. He drew closer and closer, closing the gap a little more with each wingbeat. His talons reached out, ready to seize his enemy and complete the kill…

And then Rodan froze. His head snapped up, the dark flyer forgotten in an instant, as he stared wide-eyed into the swirling dark clouds in front of him. He hadn't realized it before now – it hadn't even occurred to him as a possibility – but now he was close enough that he could see the shape at the heart of this storm, its outline illuminated by the constant arcs and flashes of lightning around it.

Enormous, batlike wings, significantly wider than his own impressive wingspan.

Two long, lashing tails.

Three heads at the end of long, serpentine necks.

And three pairs of glowing red eyes, now fixing on him and the dark flyer as a trio of all-too-familiar cackles echoed out over the rumble of the storm.

Impossible, impossible, impossible, was all Rodan could think in that frozen moment. It couldn't be them. It couldn't be. They had been defeated by the King and Queen some time after he'd parted ways with them, buried beneath the ice of the frozen southern continent and sealed away forever.

And yet… somehow… there they were, right in front of him.

The Golden One.

Ghidorah.

Right in front of him.

Coming straight at him.

Rodan's brain finally caught up to reality, and he let out a strangled screech as he flung out his wings to slow down his forward momentum, veering off to the side and forgetting all about the dark flyer. His former challenger dove towards the sea below, barely avoiding the Golden One's waving tails before it vanished into the darkness of the storm.

"Well, well, well!" the Golden One's middle head called out, a distinct note of amusement in his voice. "Look what we have here! If it isn't the Lizard King's former bodyguard." All three heads chuckled. "It's been a while! How have you been?"

Rodan's fear suddenly faded away, replaced by a surge of blazing, white-hot rage. He hadn't seen Ghidorah in the flesh since that last battle, the day Anguirus had died. He'd tried to put all of that behind him, forcing himself not to care about it anymore. But now… he couldn't do that anymore. While realistically he knew he should probably just turn tail and run right now, some part of his mind wouldn't let him.

"Go to hell," he snarled, his eyes flashing as he and the Golden One circled each other at the heart of the storm. "I'm not crippled this time."

"No, indeed you're not," the middle head admitted, his brothers snickering as he grinned. "Let's fix that, shall we?" With a clap of their wings, they rushed forward, all three heads letting out a chorus of cackling roars.

Rodan forced down his fear, letting his hatred overwhelm and replace it. His flames flared up, and he swept in to meet his enemy with a piercing, defiant shriek.

Wings flared back, talons raked forwards, and the two winged Kaiju crashed together in midair with the force of a tidal wave, throwing out a shockwave that rippled outwards in all directions and producing a thunderclap that briefly drowned out all of the background rumbling.

Both Kaiju's roars and snarls echoed through the storm as they locked claws and began tumbling down through the clouds, writhing and twisting back and forth, biting and clawing at each other. Rodan took a solid hit from one of Ghidorah's sweeping wings that knocked him backwards, but he dove right back in and slammed down feet-first onto their exposed torso, raking his talons down their chest and stomach, drawing blood from half a dozen deep cuts.

"You seriously think you stand a chance against us?!" the right head spat as his brothers both struck out at Rodan. "You couldn't even put up a halfway-decent fight when you had your buddy helping you; the hell d'you think you can do by yourself?!"

"Shut – the fuck – up already!" Rodan roared back, slashing furiously at Ghidorah with the claws on his feet and the ones on his wings, training arcs of flame and smoke as he whirled and spun. Unfortunately, not all of his abilities worked very well against the Golden One, as the torrential rainstorms that were produced by their electric aura also tended to quench his flames.

Unfortunately, while Rodan's anger was helping him to put everything he had into this fight, it was also making him sloppy, and Ghidorah was quick to take advantage of that. A solid blow to his back from their spiked tails knocked him off-balance, and they struck again before he could react: the right and left heads reared back and struck forward with lightning speed, each of their jaws clamping onto one of his wings and yanking them outwards, stretching them out fully so he couldn't flap them and gain any momentum to break free. Their teeth punched through Rodan's armored scales, and he cried out in pain as he felt a sudden surge of energy being drained out of him, some of his own radiation being siphoned out of his body and flowing back down the length of Ghidorah's necks.

"Thank you for the energy boost," the middle head commented, his face hovering in front of Rodan's with that same damn smirk once again fixed on it. "Considering our currently-weakened state, that will be quite helpful. But for now…" His smirk widened as he glanced over Rodan's shoulder. "I believe this is where you get off."

And with that, the middle head reared back, a pulse of golden light running up through his neck, and blasted Rodan squarely in the chest with a concentrated bolt of lightning. A searing burst of pain rushed through Rodan's body, and his wings seized up for a crucial moment. In that moment, Ghidorah released their grip on him and kicked him in the stomach with both feet, launching him down and away from them. He plummeted downwards for several hundred feet, and then his entire body was enveloped in an explosion of cold, stinging pain as he plunged into the ocean.

And then slowly, gently, everything around him went black.

Rodan's last thought before he slipped into unconsciousness was: I should've just stayed in the damn volcano.

Ichi nodded in satisfaction as the fire-wing tumbled downwards and crashed into the sea, sending up a massive explosion of water and steam. Excellent, he thought to himself. Even if he lives through that, he won't trouble us again for a while, and the energy we drained from him should help to sustain us until we can find a more significant power source.

Maybe that volcano that he was sleeping in? San suggested, nodding off in the direction that the fire-wing had come from. It feels like it's erupting: there should be plenty of energy coming from that, right?

Yeah, you're not wrong, Ni admitted. Their victory over the fire-wing had definitely helped him to relax a bit, as he'd been feeling quite annoyed after their earlier struggle with the Lizard King. We should get moving, then. The Lizard King's probably gonna figure out where we are eventually.

Just a moment, brothers, Ichi spoke up, reasserting his primary control over their shared body for a moment as he directed their attention off in the opposite direction from the volcanic island where the fire-wing had been hibernating. Before we go there, I think we should dispose of that little irritant first.

The object in question was the large human aircraft that the fire-wing had been pursuing, which appeared to be the same one that had helped the Lizard King by attacking them on the frozen continent. It was now a short distance away from them, cruising slowly over the water.

That vessel has already aided two of our enemies, Ichi continued, which makes it an enemy and a threat in its own right. Therefore, I suggest that we eliminate it now, while it has no other allies present. Then we can feed and recover our strength without needing to worry about any further interruptions.

Fair enough, Ni growled. He hadn't forgotten their encounter with this strange craft earlier that day, and he had no intention of letting it get away with arranging a second attack on them. Let's blast that damn thing out of the sky and be done with it, then.

San groaned softly, but conceded. Okay, fine, he replied reluctantly. Let's just hurry, okay? Even with the radiation that we drained from the fire-wing, I'm seriously getting hungry.

Trust us, we know, Ni snarked, rolling his eyes. You're always hungry.

Enough. Taking command and overriding his brothers' bickering, Ichi flared out their wings and altered their course, soaring away from the area where the fire-wing had crashed and heading across the water towards the human craft. The humans onboard clearly saw them coming, as the craft banked into a turn and began to flee across the water, but it had no chance of escape and Ghidorah's powerful wingbeats carried them closer with each passing second.

Ichi visualized the next couple of seconds in his mind as they closed in on the fleeing aircraft. There was no need to bother with using their lightning here; they would simply catch the human craft in their talons and tear it to pieces, or perhaps they would knock it out of the sky and into the water with a single blow. Either way, it would be a quick and easy kill, and then they could go back to the fire-wing's volcano and replenish their energy before starting their purge of the rest of the planet.

Ghidorah let out a chorus of cackling roars as they swept in for the kill, skimming low over the water as they bore down on their target. Their talons spread wide, ready to strike.

And then, faster than any of the three brothers could react, the water to their left suddenly exploded as the Lizard King erupted from the depths with a thunderous roar, his entire body launching out of the water. "Got you!" he bellowed, his eyes blazing with a savage delight.

Even with three independent brains, Ghidorah only had enough time for a single thought – Oh, shit – before the King slammed into them and both Kaijus went crashing down into the water.

The King hadn't wasted any time in chasing after the Golden One. They were weak enough after their time in the ice that they'd chosen to run from him rather than staying and fighting, which meant that if he could catch up to them before they could find a source of radiation and recover their full strength, he might be able to take them down for good. If they had flown all the way back up into the void beyond the sky, as they had often done in the past when a battle didn't go their way, he would not have been able to follow them, but luckily it seemed that solar energy alone would not be sufficient to recharge them this time, which meant that they would need to land somewhere. And if he could stay close enough on their trail, as soon as they came to ground, he would be able to catch them and finish things.

As the King had been traversing the underwater tunnels that he used to speed up his travels around the planet, he had felt a surge of annoyance when he felt the strange voice-mimicking Alpha call echoing through the deeps again. But this time, that annoyance had quickly been replaced by surprise when he'd heard the distant voice of another awakened Kaiju… and not just any Kaiju, but Rodan. His feelings regarding the fire-wing were mixed, to say the least: they had been friends once, although they'd never really been close, but that had changed after Anguirus had died. Rodan had placed a large portion of the blame for their comrade's death on the King and Queen for not being present when the Golden One had targeted them, and had then abandoned their former friendship altogether and forced them to continue fighting the Golden One on their own. That event had severed the bonds of friendship that had connected them, and the King honestly hadn't been interested in trying to fix things between them after that. The Queen had tried once, after the Golden One had been defeated and sealed away beneath the ice, but even then Rodan had made it clear in no uncertain terms that he wasn't interested in seeing either of them again, so she too had given up.

However, while the King might not care too much about Rodan anymore, the sounds of his former friend battling with the Golden One – and losing, by the sound of it – had sent an additional surge of anger rushing through his body, and he'd increased his speed. Having used the underwater tunnels which connected to the Underworld to speed up his travel from the southern ocean to here, he had raced to the scene, bursting up out of the hole in the sea floor just as the battle concluded. Unfortunately, he quickly realized that Rodan had been defeated, but he could sense that the fire-wing was still alive and not seriously injured, so he focused his attention on the Golden One. They appeared to be chasing after the large human-piloted metal flyer that had come to his aid on the frozen continent, and they were so distracted by the chase that they were paying very little attention to anything else, which gave him the perfect opportunity.

After swimming along the bottom until he was beneath his target, the King accelerated and charged up towards the surface, gaining speed with each passing second as he angled to intercept the Golden One just before they could overtake the human flyer. With a triumphant roar of "Got you!", he breached the surface and slammed into the Golden One with a full-body tackle, savoring the startled squawks and cries that escaped from all three of their mouths in the moment before he smashed them down into the water.

This was an opportunity that had almost never happened before. The only other time he'd had a chance like this had been during one of his first battles with the Golden One, when he and Rodan had been able to tackle them off a cliff into the ocean. As soon as they'd hit the water and submerged, the battle had shifted dramatically in his favor: while the Golden One's enormous wings were quite useful in flight, they also made it very hard for them to swim effectively. He had almost managed to overpower them then, but the Golden One had unleashed an enormous blast of lightning that had thrown him off long enough for them to get back into the air and make their escape.

But the King had never forgotten that incident. As powerful as the Golden One was, they had a weakness: they were designed for flying and walking, not for swimming. Just like Rodan or his Queen's winged form, Ghidorah would be at a significant disadvantage if they were forced to fight in the water. By contrast, the ocean was the King's element, where he was at his strongest. Right now, the Golden One was off-balance, unprepared, and trapped in the King's domain.

And he was going to make them pay dearly for that mistake.

The Golden One had clearly realized their predicament as well, as they were frantically struggling and trying to squirm out of his grasp so they could take to the air again. All of their usual skill and power seemed to be forgotten: the middle head was furiously struggling to maintain control, while the other two heads were rapidly descending into panic mode as they thrashed about in a desperate attempt to escape.

"I don't think so!" the King snarled as he grappled with his nemesis, rolling and twisting as he repeatedly dunked each of their heads underwater to disorient them. "I've got you now, and you're not – going – anywhere!" With that last word, he clamped his jaws onto the middle neck and swung that head forcefully down into the water again as it reared up, gasping for air, before driving a series of punches into Ghidorah's chest and stomach to force them a little deeper.

The Golden One fought with everything they had to try and break free, but all their efforts were failing and the King had control of the battle now. He landed a pair of solid hits to the right and middle heads, before lunging forward and biting down on the left neck as hard as he could. He felt his teeth pierce Ghidorah's scales, and growled with a predatory satisfaction as they sank in deeper. Seizing the left neck below the biting point with one hand, he clamped down with all his strength and pulled as hard as he could, twisting his head back and forth as he tried to crush the vertebrae in the neck and pop them free.

The left head was shrieking in pain and terror, his cries audible even through the water. "No!" he screamed, his voice muffled as he squirmed desperately in the King's jaws. "No, please, no, don't –" His voice was abruptly cut off with a sickening crunch as the King's teeth crushed his spine, and with a final twisting rip, the King tore the Golden One's left head and neck clean off, leaving a ragged stump behind.

Both of Ghidorah's other two heads howled in agony, the sound muffled by the water. Black, oily blood poured from the stump and from the severed neck; the King resisted the urge to gag as the disgusting taste of the Golden One's blood filled his mouth. Normally he didn't mind tasting blood, but the three-headed Kaiju's blood tasted like tar and rot, sending a disgusting flavor over his tongue.

Shaking the severed head and neck back and forth as it stopped twitching, the King lifted his head out of the water for a moment and tossed it away, roaring in triumph as it fell into the sea and sank beneath the surface. He'd burn that head later: right now, he needed to sever the other two heads before the Golden One could manage to get free of his grasp. While they could keep moving and fighting as long as they still had at least one head left, they would be completely helpless if they lost all three. Until the heads grew back – which they could, in time – they would be at his mercy, and he would be able to finish them off once and for all.

Despite his triumph, the King forced himself to remain as calculating and strategic as possible in that moment, the rest of his plan playing itself out in his mind. Bite off the other two heads. Drag the body to land before any of them can grow back, and burn the whole thing to ashes. Then do the same thing to the severed heads, so there'll be nothing left for them to regenerate from. And then this whole thing will be over.

For the first time since he'd sensed the strange mimic-voice near the Golden One's sleeping place, he felt a surge of genuine excitement rush through him. He was actually winning! Clearly all of the power and experience that he'd gained over the last few millennia had not gone to waste: even without his Queen or their allies backing him up, he'd finally managed to overpower the Golden One on his own, and now he had a perfect chance to finish them once and for all.

As he prepared to continue his attack, the King heard a high-pitched whine approaching, and he briefly glanced over his shoulder in time to see a single human fire-stinger plummeting towards them out of the cloud-filled sky. He couldn't sense any radiation coming from it, so he ignored it and swung back around, plunging beneath the surface and falling upon the Golden One again. Both of their remaining heads frantically struck out at him, but he caught each of them by the throat with one hand, using all of his strength to drive them deeper. "Next… you," he growled, his voice echoing oddly through the water as he opened his jaws and prepared to bite down on the right head's neck.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a splash as the human fire-stinger hit the water just a few yards away, but he paid it no mind. He could tell that it wasn't one of their exploding radiation-filled pebbles, so it wasn't like it could have enough power to actually hurt him…

And then the stinger exploded in a flash of blinding light, the world turned green, and everything was pain.

Note: And there we go!

First off, just in case anybody's wondering: regarding the opening scene, no, that's not the last we will see of that flashback or of Anguirus. I intentionally left certain details out, since this chapter's version of that scene was specifically from Rodan's POV and there are certain things he doesn't know about what happened back then. I'll be covering the Royal Couple's POV of those events in a later chapter, to tie up those loose ends.

For my take on Anguirus's physical appearance, I did my best to incorporate elements of a few different designs for him to create a realistic "MonsterVerse" version of the character. I took some visual aspects from the Godzilla Singular Point version of him, as well as the version from Godzilla: Final Wars (which is also where I got the idea of his rolling up in a ball and launching himself into an enemy from). However, the versions that I took the most inspiration from were "Godzilla Neo – Anguirus" by KaijuSamurai and "Legendary Anguirus" by Pyrus-Leonidas, both of which are on DeviantArt. Links to those are below: just add in the dots. :D

deviantart-dot-com/kaijusamurai/art/Godzilla-Neo-ANGUIRUS-96948901

deviantart-dot-com/pyrus-leonidas/art/Legendary-Anguirus-759472911

Also, by the way, for anybody who might be wondering about the nature of Rodan & Anguirus's relationship in this 'verse (i.e. whether they were platonic or romantic), I deliberately left it open to interpretation for the moment because I honestly haven't decided how I'm gonna play it yet, but I will say that Rodan's reaction to Anguirus's death was that extreme for that reason.

Oh, and just in case anybody wasn't 100% sure, "the Underworld" is the Kaiju's name for the Hollow Earth in this 'verse.

Next time, the second fight between Goji and Ghidorah concludes; Ghidorah devises a new master plan to carry out their conquest of Earth; and the Queen emerges from her cocoon. Stay tuned!